Why don't more people play Zac?
He's so fun to play :O! Just played him for the first time in customs, who knew bouncing and catapulting everywhere could be so fun :D
Any tips on how to build him?? Defensive/Offensive :O
57 Comments
DevilishMetal6 votesHe's a hard tank. Build as such :3
Fat Bastard GOD3 votesI've played quite a bit of Zac, and the reason I stopped by playing was because of tank melters, and squishies being so tanky. I generally build him full tank, focusing on peeling away threats to my carries, and initiating fights. Since Mundo nerfs, juggernaut nerfs, and abusive item nerfs, I think he will yet again he my go-to jungler/tank.
How do I build him? • Cinderhulk • Randuin's • Locket • Boots (Merc's/Ninja/Swifties) • Sunfire/Deadman's • Visage/Banshees
Generally I build the items listed above, but build accordingly. You can build Rylai's if you are snowballing (which tends to happen to me ALOT) for insane CC. Randuins/Locket/Cinderhulk are fantastic buys on him as well.
For AP Zac, you'll probably want to max out on magic pen, and HP. You'll want to hit like a truck when you lane your combo, so this build suffices. • Zhonya's (this is CORE) • Rylai's • Sorc's • Liandrie's • Abyssal • Rabadon's/Void staff
Any questions?
SrirachaLimes1 votesI play lots of Zac. Imo I prefer runic echoes over cinderhulk (unless I'm doing poorly). I agree with randuins, but that kind of depends on how the AA champs on the enemy team are doing (and how many of them there are!). Boots are good. I always get Deadman's over sunfire. I don't think sunfire + cinderhulk passives stack, and I just prefer the speed from deadman's. But it's pretty much preference at that point. I'd also always get spirit visage over banshee's, and preferably as early as possible. Is there a scenario where you'd get banshee's over visage? Doesn't seem like it to me.
I wouldn't get locket, though. Why do you recommend that? I'd much prefer something like Warmogs (more health ... I get big :)) or Zz'rot portal (more MS, armor/MR, and pushing power).
Fat Bastard GOD1 votesAhh yes. I mentioned "build accordingly", and I also completely forgot that Sunfire/Cinderhulk damage passives don't stack XD If they have a big fat ugly ADC, Randuin's can do a lot of work. The active also gives a long slow. I only get Banshee's over Visage if their APC is super fed, or you don't want to risk getting caught by some pull like Blitzcrank. Honestly it's situational. Visage over Banshee's 90% of the time. The reason I reccomend Locket is because it helps a lot in teamfights. The AoE shielding can reduce AoE damage for your team (which is generally magic damage). It also increases your teammates MR by an amount which helps. Overall Zac is a team fighter, so getting items to slow the enemy down from chewing down your team is what I prefer. Which means Locket/Randuins.
Warmongers is situational in my opinion. If you are buying pure resistances (Thornmail, Zzrot, etc) than its fantastic for that. Honestly though, I find flat HP useless unless you are stacking a lot of flat resistance. Warmongers can be good for phattys like Tahm/champs who benefit from stacking wads of HP.
Zzrot, is alright. Zac isn't exactly a split pusher, but you can pressure lanes and force fights with your initiation, so it wouldn't be a bad choice. Situational in my opinion, but I like it. If the enemy relies on magic damage to clear waves like Ryze, Mordekaiser, etc, than Banner of Command can stop them from clearing and can force someone with AD to stop the pseudo super minion. Banner also gives some decent stats for Zac.
Bouncemaster Zac3 votesDid someone say Zac?! There's many ways to play the blobbu; he works pretty much anywhere but ADC. He can also be anywhere from full tank to mostly-tank-with-some-damage to an engage burst ap. If you'll spend a moment with me here I can cover it all :V
First off, my favorite and his "best": Full-tank in the jungle. You have crazy sustain and fast clears, and strong ganks at pretty much all levels. Standard full build is something like 
This build pushes you around 250 of both resistances with over 5k hp factoring in Strength of the Ages. You've also got amazing pick with E and outstanding teamfight with every part of your kit; high continuous aoe damage and sustain. You'll max E for the dank 1700 range ganks and the cooldown on the ability, and usually W second for the %hp damage. His Q is undertuned when compared to the rest of his kit and is almost always maxed last, in every role and build. If you want damage get Runic Ekko, Abyssal and Liandry's. Liandry's is great on an otherwise full-tank build if you have tanks you need to burn through.
Top lane you'll sub out cinderhulk for sunfire, but otherwise the build is the same. Max order is roughly the same too, although if you really need to far from far back (hello Darius) max Q and farm at max range.
Mid lane AP is the same as any melee AP engager. Max either your poke or engage and build as much raw burst as you can.
And then there's support. Again, max either your e or q, absolutely go Face of the Mountain. Aside from Face and Sightstone, he builds like normal tank Zac, but you'll almost always be using your slingshot to peel, not engage.
All in all, he's lots of gooey fun and more people should play him.
FurretHasAGlock2 votesYea. try cinderhulk then either 5 warmogs, or 2 warmogs, rylai's, liandry's ,and visage.
Asyde2 votesI giggle for any 
players that pick him into 
Like honestly, Poppy counters just about everything you do, makes your ganks impossible and the overall games miserable. You're bounce is such a long dash animation that it's impossible for poppy not to see it coming and hit W, canceling out most of your potential.
I actually feel bad :/
Meep Man2 votes
Is my typical build for him these days. If you need more armor, you can trade Mercury's for Ninja and Liandry's for Sunfire.
Im personally surprised too. Zac has more self-healing than Mundo overall and has a revive passive. He has one of the lowest average deaths per game stats in all of League of Legends as well and he isn't exactly weak offensively as well. Normally people with good offenses and defenses usually are immobile, yet he is far from it.
SrirachaLimes1 votesNice build, although I would make 1 change:
Throw out Zhonya's for Sunfire/Deadman's (I prefer Deadman's). Gives more health, +5 armor, and (generally speaking) it's better for your team if you take as much damage as possible. You should already have enough good damage from liandrie's and runic echoes.
Sire Hippington2 votesZac, like most tanks, has quite great magical base damage, so cdr and magic-pen are quite strong on him for offense. his AP ratios are also high enough to make it an option if you feel like going really agressive. Zac also is one of the champs with the highest selfheal in the game, so spirit visage and the runic armor masterie are extremely good on him.
I'd recomand useing cdr runes, something like 20-30% at 18, and magic pen reds. Thx to the flat cd-reduction on W, you can cast it nearly every time you pick up your passive at max cdr.
For boots, unless you face a very onsided comp that allows for really effective use of merks or ninjas, i'd recomand either 
or if you go for ful cdr runes, 
.
At top, i would always go for an early 
for cheap cdr and then directly get vs magic damage, or 
vs a physical damage lane opponent.
As Jungler, take cinderhulk and when 
and , order depends on situation.
And always take the warding jungle item, on any jungler, unless you want to built a sightstone. If used correctly, vision is just so much stronger than those smite effects.
Also, don't forget to swap your trinket into a 
once you got the warding jungle item, or reach the end of the laneingphase as toplaner.
His gank/engage potential with E is massive - but only as long as you don't sit on a ward while you charge it. Always remember that the red trinkets not only detect wards but also disable them, so you don't always need to clear the ward, often it's betterto just deactivate it so you can charge your asap E without getting noticed..
All other items should be rather situational, though i'd really recomand atleast one penetration item.
Options for other items:
Agressive: 
, though i rarly take an pure agressive item, and if it usually is only voidstaff, but i had quite good games with an ap heavy built aswell, you can become a bounceing assasins, takeing down imobile carries like ashe or jinx in one combo whil it's hard to peel vs you as the ult will knock away anyone who tries to help. Longranged cc can mean you jump in, get cced and instantly explode instead though, so it really depends on the oppsing team.
Semi-Agressive: 
I'd always built atleast one off those, and most of the time a either a second one or voidstaff on top. You just gain soooo much more damage from those items, especially the pen ones, while not giving up that much tankiness
Defensive: 
, SV and sunfire(randuins for jungle) are core, Warmongs is good for alrround tankiness, thornmail vs heavy ad comps, Locket vs heavy ap comps, Zz'rot for splitpush, Banshies if you have trouble finding an engage vs someone like janna who can easily knock you out of your E, and also tog et as tanky as possible vs magic damage.
For masteries, Grasp of the undying is quite great at top, strength of ages is great in the jungle and also agood option top. If you face more squishy opponents and/or plan on a more agressive built, thunderlords can add some nice burst.
For skill-order: I like to get a secod point in W early on for fast clears in the jungle or better csing in lane, as lvl 1 W deals a bit little damage to reliable get the cs with it. In Jungle, W-Q-E-W and from there max E, wether you max Q or W second depends on your opponents. Vs tank heavy setups, maxing W second gives you alot dps, but maxing Q gives as much if not even more damage vs squishys while bringing a better slow. At top, start Q for easy harras, then two into W for CSing followed by E, or E eariler if you fear a gank or already dominate enough to think about an all-in. You usually max Q for harras and waveclear, though maxing W vs some melees like renekton or shyvana can work aswell, as it offers more dps and they usually will be in it's range. You always want to max E second, as it's very important outside of lane. Vs ranged opponents, you can even max it first so you can into their face more often, and from outside of their vision. Ma~~~~xing it First also gives the most burst, though thx to the high cd it won't ad as much dps as the other skills.
Chicken Sailor2 votesAP jungle Zac is so fun. Super cheesy but if you miss your E you're usually dead (unless ult is up). But if you snowball early by maxing E and ganking from the fog of war you can one shot just about anyone that isn't a tank after you get runic echoes. I build something like this:
Obviously swap out the AP for tankier things if you fall behind. Take thunderlord's for the early ganks.
Paladin 0f Life1 votesAs top or jung? But health and AP.
Brascus1 votesAnywhere really, what's his main strengths?
LostSoul6661 votesAnywhere really, what's his main strengths?
I've heard that building runic echoes and just going straight tank after is one of the best things you can do. I've never played him so i don't really know much though.
Paladin 0f Life1 votes^that yes. But as a top laner his sustain is great if played right. He was made for jungle though. His ganks are great and he is such a fun champ. Hes ftp atm so practice with him.
My Waifu Vanilla1 votesHis biggest strength is having the longest range engage (outside of Sion ult) with his E. However, Zac gets kited to oblivion if he makes a mistake and misses E/R so he usually relies on his teammates to keep people still for him to do his thing (Ori/Yas comps or just a double tank hard engage comp with Ali support or Malph and crew top lane).
He does a large amount of damage for a tank, but really only gets away with it because his CC is limited and has no real defensive steroid (Naut W, Malph Passive, Rammus W, etc.).
Echoes might not be ideal after all the nerfs unless you are ahead, but Cinderhulk is still fine on him and Rylai's has always been fairly core since you apply it well with W/R. Outside of that you can buy whatever items your team needs. Zz'Rot is still a good item to buy for mixed resists and SV works well with your passive. I PERSONALLY like Randuin's over DMP on him due to you not AA'ing that much and the MS going to waste since your engage usually relies on you coming from fog of war and not directly running at them.
charcharmunro1 votesHis main strengths are that he has very few weaknesses. But he's... Not really the best at any one thing. He has decent CC on his E and his ult, but his E is either heavily telegraphed or only used for surprise ganks and his ult is... Well, it's an ult, can't spam it too much. His sustained damage is pretty good, he can duel most tanks and help finish off straggling squishies... He's a pretty safe pick, though, I'd say?
ZT Xperimentor1 votesDefensive is usually the best mixed with cooldown reduction, but if you want to go offensive then magic penetration. His auto-attack speed is rather low and his ability power scalings are pathetic, but he has decent base stats. He's my turn-to when I jungle, though I've seen a few people play him top & mid. And like braum, one of the few optimistic characters in the game! I find playing him like amumu or chogath is most effective, if the enemy underestimates you, you'll probably beat them with merely surprise and cc management. Hope it works out for you [slayer-pantheon-thumbs]
crippler381 votesare you saying shaco's not optimistic?!
clowns are always happy!
also
chimes~
ZT Xperimentor1 votesI can't speak chimes, sorry bard. I totally forgot about shaco though, he's always happy . . . happier to stab someone! XD
BadmoonBC1 votesHe's extremely good. One of the most underrated champs in the game. Build full tank. Cinder hulk, etc etc
Tempura King1 votesTry playing him in jg, you'll thank me later.
Ralanr1 votesI just played him for the first time yesterday. Considering buying him.
warpenguin5551 votesNo clue. he's been really strong for a while and its starting show even more now. Hes a pretty good champ right now
Paladin 0f Life1 votesHe costs 6300 ip and he fluxs in the metas so thats why u dont see him as much.
Emperor Time1 votesPlay Zac in jungle it's his best role. You build runic echo's into what ever tank/damage items you need. If you are ahead you can build liandri's/abyssal or if you are kind of even/ behind you build him tank. What tank items you build depends on enemy team. Max his e first and w second, because his e gets more damage and range the higher levels it gets. His q is only there for the long range slow. You can do some pretty interesting gank paths with him at level 4/5, like ganking from your raptor camp
Boulderox1 voteslove him to death, but people don't find him that fun to play/ not flashy, but idk how or why people say that.
top lane zac cheese... start 
s and rush so you can have your w after 2 blobs.
Kahl Drogo981 votesI would recommend playing him jg. max e for the ganks, I usually go full tank, and as far as how I play zac, I have 2 baron steals and 2 drag steals on my jg zac record (only been playing jg for a week or so) for steals, I e in and then smite, they will never see it coming (unless they have wards of course)
Strawberrycocoa1 votesIt's been awhile since I played Zac so my suggestions may be outdated, but I always liked to build him tank with a splash of AP and good CDR.
are all good items on him, although SFC is a waste of money if you use the cinderhulk enchantment on your Jungle item and Liandries may not be a good idea if you're having trouble staying in the thick of the fight, since it's most useful with spamming his AOE skill to keep constant burn on people.
Mickey Donnerudo1 votesI'd say he's not popular because for a while he had a really, really poor win rate and he hasn't been seen in pro play at all since then.
1374341 votesThis is a huge factor. He was in a difficult spot in the meta for so long that many people just naturally assume he is weak or underpowered. I admit I think that too when I have a Zac on my team (I never play him), but then remember all the times enemy Zacs just destroyed me come late-mid game.
My Waifu Vanilla1 votesHe's outclassed by a lot of tanks and has a very snowball reliant playstyle (does not do particularly well from behind). He is also usually not the GREATEST in 1 tank teamcomps since he doesn't offer as much CC as other tanks or have any defensive steroids to work with.
Honestly for these reasons is why I PERSONALLY enjoy playing Tank Ekko more because he has the same flaws and play pattern as Shrek, but is a tad bit more versatile. They both rely on getting into the middle of the enemy team and being completely obnoxious, but both rely on already being in a winning position from snowballing to stay relavent.
Zac also goes well with Orianna or Yasuo wombo combo teams, but both of these champions are not in good positions right now so that could also contribute to lack of play (and just not being Rammus/Malphite levels of AD countering since Zac can't do much to triple threat comps unless all 3 take your slingshot to the face).
WoonStruck1 votesZac IS fun, the issue is the current meta.
Mobility makes his engage FAR weaker. Basically all of the current ADCs don't have to worry about Zac at all.
The Deckowner1 votesi am too poor to buy the pink chroma pack for zac, and without that zac is no fun.
Kgp1 votesrunic echoes into tank items!
Ruy1 votesSHHH, don't draw attention into him or he will get nerfed :(
We know what happened the last time Zac got nerfed. 
Sad days.
Ageless Nocturne1 votesMagic pent quints and reds health yellows magi resist blues
Grasp of the undying masteries
Rush either or depending on the enemy laner
then build in this order
In the jungle, get runic echos then then full tank with swiftness boots
In lane max q/e/w in jungle max e/q/w.
SrirachaLimes1 votesI remember the first time I played Zac. I also made a comment in the boards about him lol. Really great champion, and his "E" ability is one of the most fun abilities to use in the game. Should definitely max it first, followed by W.
Anyway, I recommend (as others) building him tank. But try to get if you made a successful gank or 2. It's really good early - mid game damage and gives you a nice speed buff. I also recommend getting the jungling item for wards. You don't really need the slow (you already have 2 knockups and a slow) or damage reduction, and the wards are great for more vision (especially for when you need to hop over drag pit to steal). If you're not going runic echoes, get , but I wouldn't recommend getting it immediately. Maybe after your first or second item. Not all that necessary.
If you're facing lots of AP, go ahead and build after you get some health. I usually make my first item to buy a (unless they are 4/5 AD and their 1 AP isn't doing well). Great for that cool down reduction, health, MR, but the 20% increased healing is awesome with your blobs. Makes you really hard to kill and helps you sustain, so I build it even if they are 3/5 AD. Most of the time, however, I don't end up building abyssal (I've been facing lots of AD teams lately ...). Boots are entirely dependent on the situation. Default is 
for me, unless they have a fed 
or multiple AA based champs ( then I get 
). But that's standard tank stuff not really related specifically to Zac. Haven't had to build for a while now, though.
That's pretty much it. From there, it's just what you'd normally build on tanks. Warmogs, deadman's, whatever is necessary.
Troll for Trump1 votes
(Tier 2 boots) and last item varies:
blkKalameet1 votesplay him support like my friend does, take 
and steal all my kills.....
theArtifacts1 votesI almost strictly play Amu and Zac jungle these days. Particularly when there is a Yasuo on my team.
CORE: 
and either 
or
OPTIONS:
Boots I typically upgrade last since he's already great at escaping.. but I either go with Merc Treads or Swiftness.. with the Orange buff to help your allies get to you faster.
Mhihnj1 votesZac is a very good tank and has decent burst when jungling due to to runic echoes. Also he has some of the best ganks in the game, but his passive is useless unless you have a good and coordinated team because to be honest, My top laner usually wastes his teleport when i am dying right in front of a turret
Sahn Uzal1 votes / You can consider Runic for the same reason other tanks get it
This is just amazing on him
/ / / / Boots.
/ / I personally prefer randuins. And DO NOT GET +
S I T U A T I O N A L
Please don't go full AP Zac, everytime a minizac is created he cries....
Pandemic Punch1 votesI play him but I don't talk about it. I like him being secret op
Satrap1 votesHi, Recently I bought Zac and it just is attracting. There are, however, a few downsides to him that I cannot understand. Firstly, Zac is a tank and his defining ability seems to be his E (Elastic Slingshot). Being a tank means that he is the initiator. Thus, he does the E and every thing and the fight ends in his favor. Done deal ok? Well, that is just the most simple situation! What if Zac is backing away to join his team who are behind and then reinitiate? Well, the E is locked so he has to turn first and then E. Or, maybe the enemy team includes high mobility champs. To my understanding, having E locked to the direction Zac is facing and then a long CD just renders him less effective as an initiator. I do notice the high difficulty bar but this seems a bit outrageous for such an elegantly designed champ. It just undermines him. I wonder if his E could be unlocked from the direction he is already facing. Secondly, his R is supposed to bounce enemy champs and distort them. Also, considering the overall design, he is an AOE champ right? So, what is it with such an small AOE that also comes with very small damage? I mean, it is not like that all enemy champs stick so closely together that comes within such small AOE. Thirdly, we have all seen how the camera zooms out for Jhin's R. Why cannot it be the same for Zac's E too? You see, at high levels, his E goes beyond the scope shown on the screen so one cannot see and thus click the far edges of the E unless disabling camera lock (y). However, if you do that, the E is locked to the direction that Zac is facing and you are not looking at him so what a distorting situation it becomes! I think it does not add to the difficulty but to the Zac becoming less and less effective. I believe that such considerations could make Zac much more fun to play with. Thank you for considering this Riot
SuperLuigiLXIV1 votesOne of the best things about Zac is how fliexible he is (HAR DEE HAR HAR).
As a top laner, I main Zac because of how much fun he is, but also he can adapt to situations.
-Enemy top laner is a ranged champion, juggernaut, wants short trades, or flat outdamages you? You max Q first for poke and kite power. In particular, Zac's Q outranges Graves and Quinn's autoattacks, and since it's a skillshot you can nail Quinn through the blind since you know she wants to follow it up with an auto.
-Enemy top laner is a fellow tank who wants extended trades with you, like Malphite? Max W first instead and focus all your efforts into going for your bloblets and popping W and Q on cooldown. You'll grind them down.
Love it.
It's hard to play Zac if he gets behind, but the tradeoff is that he can be REALLY oppressive if he gets ahead, and he's got multiple options to pick from when playing to make getting ahead easier. It's almost impossible to ward against jungle Zac if he snowballs early, and top lane Zac TP plays are some of the scariest in the game because he's got a LOT of CC and a huge threat radius. Zac's my favorite answer to Kalista for this. Can't bunny-hop without autos, and my engage range is MASSIVE :D
But the biggest reason why Zac isn't played much is simply because he's an A rank at everything, and tends to get overlooked for tanks that are S rank at one thing and B rank at everything else. Malphite's better at initiation. Nautilus is better at locking down a target. Rammus is better at crushing AD champs, Mundo is better at walling magic damage. Trundle anti-tanks better. Tahm Kench saves carries better, and Maokai protects his whole team better in fights. Shen shows up to teamfights better. The list goes on and on, and Zac is almost always second-tier at any given tank "job" compared to other tanks.
But he is ALWAYS second-tier, where other tanks are first-tier at their own thing and third-tier at most other things. That lets Zac adapt better to situations and makes it harder to just play around him, in my opinion :3
I play Sion and Poppy for Similar reasons. Sion's usually my go-to against super CC heavy comps, since his initiation can trample right over that kind of team, and Poppy's better than Zac at peeling and dueling if the situation calls for it (Zac is better at initation and disruption though).
As for how to build him, I recommend basically going full tank, except for getting Liandry's Torment. That one item, along with Sunfire Cape, provides all the damage you need from your purchases. Just remember, Zac does have a bit of burst as long as you land your E, but your main job is to grind. Steady damage over the course of a team battle is your forte.
I had a HUGE game last night as Zac where I snowballed off a top lane Jax who didn't know when to stop trying to all-in, followed by fifteen minutes of hilarity as we forced teamfight after teamfight in mid lane. FOUR of the enemy champs were melee, and the fifth was Kalista, and on my team, we also had four melee along with Sivir. Every teamfight, I basically jumped directly onto or behind the Kalista and ulted her back into my team, and then the fight devolved into a clown fiesta since everyone was melee. But that situation is ideal for Zac. End result? 40k damage done to champs in 30 minutes :D
Saianna1 votesI dislike his Stretching Strike [Q] and Unstable Matter [W]
both feel weak and useless.. Just to make more green goo on ground to heal..
(I like his E alot tho)
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