Champion Guide

Zac Guide

By LoLSuggest

Jungle

Zac is an engage tank who deals damage: Elastic Slingshot starts fights and picks from long range, he brings lots of crowd control, and his healing makes him one of the best champions for long, extended teamfights. He's a weak early duelist, so our guide puts a lot of weight on safe jungle pathing.

Recommended Setup

Our recommended Zac build

Our recommended runes, summoner spells and items. Compare build win rates on the stats page.

Items

Starting Items

Core Items

Situational Items

The page for burst-heavy comps is Aftershock with Font of Life, Conditioning and Revitalize, plus Triumph and Last Stand; a Conqueror page and an Aftershock page with Cheap Shot and Treasure Hunter are alternatives. Take Flash with Mosstomper Smite — we recommend Flash in essentially every game, with Ignite or Exhaust only for experienced players. On your first base buy Ionian Boots of Lucidity and Dark Seal for ganking, or Bami's Cinder for faster clears. The standard full build is Sunfire Aegis, Ionian Boots of Lucidity, Mejai's Soulstealer, Unending Despair, Spirit Visage and Jak'Sho. Against heavy AP, add Abyssal Mask or Hollow Radiance; against heavy AD, Plated Steelcaps, Randuin's Omen, Thornmail and Protoplasm Harness. A support-style build uses Bandlepipes and Knight's Vow.

Runes

Primary Tree

Secondary Tree

Summoner Spells

Strengths

Excellent engage with lots of crowd control.
A tank that still deals damage, with flexible AP-tank builds.
Huge healing for long teamfights, and he scales with game knowledge and macro.

Weaknesses

Can be punished early by strong junglers like Nidalee, Graves, Kindred or Xin Zhao.
A weak early 1v1 duelist.
Knock-ups and knock-backs from champions like Janna, Poppy or Lulu shut down his engage.

Laning Phase

Your first goal is a clear that the enemy jungler can't disrupt: read their team, then path to avoid invades — off-meta starts like Wolves or Raptors help. Ideally take a leash on a buff and path efficiently without backtracking, for example Red, Krugs, Raptors, then Wolves, Gromp, Blue to reach level 4. With two points in Elastic Slingshot your ganks become potent; keep punishing lanes that have burned Flash.

Mid & Late Game

Use your lead to look for picks and start skirmishes, but don't dive too deep or onto fed carries who can dodge your E. Keep clearing camps. Late game, play around your team's vision, arrive at objectives before they spawn and look for picks on the enemy mid, support or ADC — only dive the backline if your team can handle their frontline.

Key Tips

Q then Flash and an auto can knock up two enemies at once.
R plus Flash is a strong way to reach the backline.
Be careful diving champions like Vayne with percent-health damage if your engage gets interrupted.

Matchups