Thoughts about Zac and his rework from the midseason tank update
So recently I got reminded of Zac´s mini rework from the midseason tank update (see link above). And I wanted to share my opinion about my favourite slimy boy.
In my opinion Zac´s rework wasn´t that good even though it achieved its goals.
Goals for the rework were as following:
- His kit shouldn´t encourage him to activate all his abilities in a single burst for maximum damage, instead of spreading them out to disrupt the enemy team
- After intiation there is little variance or mastery in his combat (only sitting on target spamming q and w)
- Shift some of his reliable damage in additional forms of CC
- Expand on his "blob man" fantasy
- Stretching strike doesn´t explore good enough on the stretching punch fantasy and has a similar output as his w (aoe damage when you´re right next to someone)
- Let´s Bounce! should feel different to Wukong´s ult (not be just a more chaotic version of it) and should also be a potential teamfight-defining ultimate
See the post linked below for more and more accurate details: https://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/developer-corner/vLEjALxZ-mid-season-tanks-update-zac
I agree with some of these points:
- His kit shouldn´t encourage him to activate all of his abilities at once.
- He should have some variance and mastery in his combat pattern.
- As primarily being a tank he should have more cc and less reliable damage (however his offbuilds like full ap or ap bruise shouldn´t have been killed).
- Stretching strike should explore the idea of a stretching punch better.
What I disagree with:
- His old ult felt already different than Wukong´s ult even if it didn´t look like that on paper and it had indeed the potential to define teamfights.
- Generally, I disagree with the sticky thematic they used when they reworked Zac.
What are my problems with this reworked Zac ?
Visuals:
His new Q looks weird. If you watch the Q preview in the client you can see that Zac grabs Viktor and then his arm returns back to normal while Zac is tethered to Viktor in a weird way. Same happens when he autoattacks Twitch, but since the animation of him punching his targets together starts right after he grabbed Twitch it´s harder to notice.
His Q just looks so weird and ugly and out of place. Something you would rather expect from an early access game.
Gameplay:
-
His Q feels unsatisfying sometimes and even his ult sometimes feels like that.
It feels unsatisfying to use his Q in a 1vs1 situation in which you can´t let two targets collide with each other. Of when enemies stand too far away from each other and you have to leave the green indicator to still use the second part of your q and your opponents just fly a little bit towards each other but don´t collide.
His ult feels unsatisfying because it is too much team reliant instead of his old ult. You can do a perfect ult and it means nothing if your team doesn´t follow up. And again it´s not really useful in 1vs1 situations. With his old ult you were able to at least disengage (knock back while you wre able to move around) in a 1vs1 situation with it, nowadays you just do a little bit of damage to the enemy and if you aren´t near an allied towers or champions you are still in trouble of getting killed, because you jumped away with them.
-
His Q still doesn´t deliver on the stretching punch idea. Ironically it achieves the opposite.
On one hand because of how you cancel your Q if you leave the green indicator and go to far away from it (also when both enemies don´t collide cause you left the indicator). On the other hand do I imagine a powerful punch full of momentum. I would think of how Monkey D Luffy from One Piece would swing his arm back to punch his enemy with full power.
It rather feels like he is just grabbing near enemies and punching them together.
-
His Q doesn´t let you show some mastery.
You simply use the skillshort part on a minion, if you know it isn´t safe that you hit your target with it, and then autoattack you target. Which has almost the same impact as when you do it otherwise. And during teamfights players are standing close to each other so that landing the skillshot part isn´t too hard. You could actually make it two autoattacks with extended range and from a skill/mastery standpoint it wouldn´t make much of a difference.
-
The combination of his e and his ult makes him stronger in organized play than in solo q. It´s just that he has a higher range to engage from which makes it also unexpectedly (if you don´t have sight everywhere) and his strong ult which both combined pose a danger for the enemy carries. However it doesn´t bother me that he is stronger in organized play than solo q but it´s still worth to mention since there are players who are bothered by it especially because his old ult was fine and didn´t make him strong in pro play while weak in solo q.
Theme:
What I dislike the most about his rework is how they changed his theme from being bouncy to being sticky. I loved old Zac for what he was: a bouncy and energetic character. His rework makes him feel less bouncy and energetic but more clunky and sticky.
What could be done?
-
Revert his ult. It had an already teamfight-defining potential and it felt very different to Wukong´s ult even though it looks otherwise on paper. With Zac´s old ult you were able to be more creative with it, especiall since you were able to change your position with it to knock back your opponent from a different angle while you just want to knock them up with Wukong´s ult. Alone his animations made it feel unique.
His reworked ult is as much straight forward as Wukong´s ult now with less creativity than before (no ulting your enemies into your Nunu´s ult isn´t really creative since that´s how you should use it).
-
Rework his Q.
Make it feel more bouncy and energetic while giving him some variance to his combat pattern and allowing some room for skill/mastery.
An idea for a possible new Q:
Q(Stretching Strike): Zac swings his right arm back and after a brief delay he swings it forwards knocking back opponents he hits with his fist. After his arm reach maximum length he increases the size of his fist and after another brief delay swings it back to him knocking opponents to him.
It´s basically a skillshot which consists of two parts. The first part knocks back enemies. Then the skillshot changes its shape and knocks enemies to Zac. It has counterplay in it, allows some variance in his combat pattern and has room for skill/mastery. It also explore the stretching punch idea while it feels bouncy.
-
Give him his scalings back on his abilities.
He shouldn´t do extreme damage if he is building tank but he should be able to build full ap or ap bruise like he used to.
However I just wanted to give some thoughts about Zac and hope that some still remember and think about League´s slimy boy.
