Welcome to the League of Legends Champion Spotlight, featuring Zac, the Secret Weapon.
Zac is a slippery melee disruptive tank who excels in the jungle, or in a solo lane.
As a health based caster, Zac expends a portion of his current health to cast abilities.
His kit allows him to dive head-first into a fight to lock down priority targets while soaking up damage for his teammates.
To counter Zac’s health costs, let’s take a look at his death-defying passive: Cell Division.
Each time Zac hits an enemy with an ability, a chunk of himself flies off from his body.
He can reabsorb these bloblets to regain a percentage of his max health.
Enemy champions can also step on them to crush them.
Cell Division also causes Zac to break into four bloblets upon death.
If any of them survive by the time he recombines, he will revive with a percentage of his max health, depending on how much damage the bloblets have taken.
Stretching Strike punches all enemies in a target direction, dealing damage and slowing everyone affected.
Players looking for damage in lane, or extra slow should max it first.
Unstable matter causes Zac’s body to erupt, dealing damage to all nearby enemies based on a percentage of their maximum health.
This ability is on a notably low cooldown and allows Zac to constantly benefit from Cell Division while fighting.
Elastic Slingshot allows Zac to launch himself to a target location after charging in the direction of your cursor.
The landing impact damages and knocks enemies back a short distance.
Although this can be a long-range jump, a quick cast at short range is great for spell interrupts and damage.
Let’s Bounce! is Zac’s ultimate.
When activated he hops four times, damaging, knocking up, and slowing enemies he lands on, while he receives an accelerating speed boost.
Damaging a single enemy on multiple bounces has diminishing returns, and enemies can only be knocked up once.
Even if he’s stunned or rooted, Zac will keep bouncing.
When playing Zac in the top lane, he should be careful not to overextend to pick up bloblets from Cell Division.
Here Riven dashes in and punishes him for being out of position.
Stretching Strike and Elastic Slingshot are great escape tools. Here Zac slows Riven just enough to leap out of range.
When starting in the jungle, Unstable Matter is Zac’s greatest asset.
This allows him to clear wolves quickly, while the sustain from Cell Division prevents him from needing to use his Health Potions.
When looking to gank from the jungle, charge Elastic Slingshot from the brush or fog of war.
Here Zac flings himself straight onto Orianna and follows up with Stretching Strike for the slow and kill.
Cell Division is a really good baiting tool.
Because Zac’s abilities cost a percentage of his current health, while the bloblets heal for a percentage of his maximum health, he’s able to survive by spamming his abilities.
This buys enough time to give Ryze the kill on Amumu.
Elastic Slingshot’s long range opens up some unique gank paths.
Here are a few examples of ways you can surprise an enemy by leaping over large sections of terrain.
While Cell Division is off cooldown, Zac has a little more leeway to dive past turrets and play aggressively.
After a successful gank onto Miss Fortune, two of Zac’s bloblets land at a safe distance, and he’s able to survive a normally fatal turret dive.
With all his abilities combined, Zac is incredibly persistent and almost impossible to escape from.
He slows Lux with Stretching Strike, which allows him to hit Elastic Slingshot despite being rooted.
He follows up with Stretching Strike, and then hits Let’s Bounce!
The knockup and slow help his teammates catch up and he finally takes her down despite Lux’s suite of crowd control and shields.
In a teamfight, Zac’s primary focus should be on disruption.
He spots Skarner and Xin Zhao coming in from the side, slows them down with Stretching Strike and then hits Let's Bounce!
The knockup and slow prevents them from following up on Cassiopeia and Zac’s team takes 3 kills for nothing.
Zac can also play a damage role in teamfights.
He charges Elastic Slingshot from out of sight. Stretching Strike into Let’s Bounce! takes down two.
Then he turns back for Jax. Stretching Strike and Unstable Matter take him down and Zac gets a triple kill in a three versus five.
When building Zac, focus on a mix of damage and durability.
Try Magic Penetration Marks, Armor Seals, Magic Resist Glyphs, and Ability Power Quintessences.
For Masteries, try 9/21/0 focusing on Magic Penetration in offense, and general durability in defense. On screen here is an example jungling page.
Flash, Smite, and Exhaust are great choices when playing Zac. These quickly allow him to quickly reposition and disable enemy threats.
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