Table of Contents

  • Intro
  • Intro to Zac
  • Why and When to Play Zac
  • Pros and Cons
  • Runes
    • Rune Pages
    • Keystones
    • Runes in Depth
  • Abilities
  • Skill Order
  • Combos
  • Builds
  • Items
  • Pathing and Clears
  • Jungle Matchup Difficulty
  • Early Game
  • Mid Game to Late Game
  • Gank Angles
  • Champion Interactions
  • Tips and Tricks
  • Patch Remarks
  • External Resources
  • Conclusion

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Fundamentals of Zac - A Patch 12.4 Guide

"I'm not as squishy as I look"

crackadon

January 1st, 1 ⸱ 34 min read





Best Overall Runes

Spells

Skill Priority

E

W

Q

Best Overall Build

Intro

Hey there, I'm Crackadon (https://na.op.gg/summoners/na/crackadon?userName=crackadon) and I've been playing League of Legends on the NA server since season 3. My peak was Grandmaster 672 lp in Season 11 and I ended Grandmaster 671 lp in Season 11. I love playing Zac and I consider myself a Zac main/connoisseur. I hope that through this in-depth guide I can teach you the ins and outs of Zac so you can play him at a high level in your games too. Let's get right into it!

Intro to Zac

Zac is a tank with long range engage capabilities as well as a whole lot of crowd control. In exchange for 1 v 1 capabilities, he's a menace to deal with in teamfights. His ganking possibilities are endless and his ability to completely lock down one unit is unmatched. When fed, Zac can even act as an assassin to squishies despite building the same old tank items. Zac is very fun to play and when used correctly you can really dictate how the game goes. If Ornn is the paladin, knight, mage, tank, bruiser, assassin, DPS, cleric, priest, support, engage champion, then Zac is the paladin, knight, mage, tank, bruiser, assassin, DPS, cleric, priest, support, engage +1 champion.

Why and When to Play Zac

Why play Zac? This champ is super fun with his ability to neglect a lot of terrain with his jumps. You can fly out of nowhere and completely one shot carries like you're Nocturne. Your ultimate ability lets you completely disrupt the enemy team while you look like a bouncing basketball. He's the ultimate ganking jungler and long range engager in the game.

When to Play Zac? Zac has an extremely weak early game alongside terrible 1 v 1 abilities. Because of this, you may want to avoid playing Zac if the enemy team has picked certain champions that are extremely good at dueling or invades which will be discussed later on in the "Jungle Matchup Difficulty" and "Champion Interactions" sections. However, once you level up and get a few points into your

Elastic Slingshot
, you'll be able to fly in from multiple screens away no problem.

Pros and Cons

Pros:

  • Long range engage
  • Tanky with lots of sustain
  • Easy ganks
  • Many gank opportunities
  • Lots of crowd control
  • Can one shot squishies when ahead
  • Scales with levels
  • Really strong mid game
  • Easy, efficient, and pretty fast clear

Cons:

  • Bad at 1 v 1s
  • Can be easily invaded
  • Can be denied as a champion when certain other champions are in the game
  • Very long cooldowns without ability haste
  • You look like silly putty

Runes

  • Aftershock 1
  • Aftershock 2
  • Conqueror

Rune Pages

Aftershock 1

This page is usually what you want to run in most scenarios. You're tanky with aftershock and have tenacity to deal with crowd control when running precision secondary.

Aftershock 2

You can take this page over Aftershock 1 if the enemy team has minimal crowd control and the tenacity is unnecessary. In this case, you'll be able to greed having extra damage or more vision control alongside increased movement speed for positioning.

Conqueror

This page is generally much more niche as you take this if you want to have more damage and healing in exchange for less tankiness. This page can also be better against lower burst damage teams with more melee or tank champions.

Note: you always want to take the ability haste rune on Zac. The armor rune can be interchangeable with the magic resistance rune if the enemy team has a lot of magic damage. However, if you don't take the armor rune you increase the chances of being executed on your first clear starting blue with the faster method (which will be further discussed in the Pathing and Clears section)



Keystones



Aftershock
- this is generally the keystone you want to take as it makes you extremely tanky when you make your engages. It gives you access to the resolve tree which lets you take many beneficial runes. Aftershock is also a good band-aid for failed engages, you can use your
Let's Bounce!
and bounce out with the higher resistances.



Conqueror
- this keystone is useful when you want to do more damage and the enemy team doesn't have strong burst damage capabilities. It is also useful when the enemy team has many melee or tank champions.



Runes in Depth

Resolve Tree



Font of Life
- Zac is a crowd control bot which means this rune is easily procced. This gives your team free healing when you gank and in teamfights. The alternative to this is
Demolish
which I find less useful in most scenarios as you are not a laner.



Conditioning
- this rune gives you more armor and magic resistance after 12 minutes and increases these stats by a percentage which you will be building for throughout the game. The other runes in this row
Second Wind
and
Bone Plating
are not very useful as you're not in lane.
Bone Plating
is also not very useful as you're not looking to duel the enemy jungler and get an upper hand.



Revitalize
- this rune is insanely strong as you do a lot of healing with your passive. The alternative to this is
Unflinching
which will be useful if the enemy team has a lot of crowd control; however,
Unflinching
is not as useful if you're able to run
Legend: Tenacity
.

Precision Tree



Triumph
- this is the only useful rune of the row. Triumph is good for keeping you alive in teamfights for an extra second so you can pick up some blobs for HP.



Legend: Tenacity
- again, this is the only useful rune of the row. Having free tenacity from runes is really helpful as you can build the much needed
Ionian Boots of Lucidity
without worrying about needing
Mercury's Treads
for tenacity.



Last Stand
- as a tank you'll definitely be losing HP in fights so with this rune you'll be able to gain some damage as well. Currently, this rune is also better than
Coup de Grace
in terms of damage and consistency.

Domination Tree



Cheap Shot
- Zac has a lot of crowd control so you can easily proc the damage from this rune. Cheap shot also has a relatively low cooldown and when you get more cooldown reduction for your abilities, you'll be able to proc it 2 or 3 times in a fight. Alternatively, you can take
Sudden Impact
for magic penetration after you use your
Elastic Slingshot
.



Zombie Ward
- this rune is very strong as it gives your team a lot of vision when clearing out enemy vision. This rune would also be more consistent in slower games compared to
Eyeball Collection
which requires kill participation. You'll be looking to either take
Cheap Shot
or
Zombie Ward
, based on preference, if you're going the domination tree secondary.



Relentless Hunter
- this rune lets you get into positions and angles faster so you can engage before the opportunity is lost. You don't really want to take
Treasure Hunter
because you already have enough healing without it.

Note: sorcery and inspiration trees aren't very beneficial in my opinion. If you want to try it I suggest

Transcendence
and
Nimbus Cloak
or
Gathering Storm
for sorcery and
Future's Market
and
Cosmic Insight
for inspiration.

Abilities

Passive - Cell Division

Zac gets bigger as he gains HP, at the same time, he’ll get smaller the more missing HP he has. Whenever Zac hits an enemy with an ability, he’ll drop at least one blob (depending on the ability) that he can walk over to pick up to recover a percentage of his maximum HP. However, enemies can also walk over these blobs to destroy them. The amount of maximum HP he restores scales with how many points is in his ultimate ability. When Zac takes fatal damage, he’ll split into 4 blobs which each have 12% of his maximum HP, converging towards the location of Zac’s death. If the blobs are able to make it back to the location within a set time, Zac revives with 50% HP. However, any damage he takes while he's reviving as blobs will reduce this amount (e.g. if 1 blob dies, he only revives with 38% HP) Note: Zac’s ability uses percent current health costs, that means the lower HP he is, the less health his abilities costs while he still restores the same amount of maximum HP from his blobs.

Q - Stretching Strikes

Zac throws out his arm as a skillshot and tags onto the first enemy hit and slows them. He also creates a tether between himself and the target that can be broken out of when either himself or the target walks out of a certain range. For his next auto attack, Zac gets extra range and can apply the same slow. If Zac autos a target different than his initial target, he will pull the two together. If the two targets were close together, Zac will slam the two together, knocking them up. If the two targets were far apart, Zac will pull both of them slightly closer to one another, knocking them up. Further tips on how to use this ability to the fullest will be explained later in the guide. Note: Zac cannot move while using this ability so it leaves him vulnerable.

W - Unstable Matter

Zac’s body explodes to deal damage to all enemies around him. Every time he picks up a blob, he also reduces the cooldown of this ability by 1 second. Note: when Zac uses this ability on monsters it gives them ghosting for 5 seconds, this means they ignore unit collision.

E - Elastic Slingshot

Zac charges up within a cone shaped area and launches himself to the target location and knocks up all nearby enemies when he lands. If this ability was charged for at least 1 second, the knock up and stun lasts 1 second; if it was charged for less than a second, the knock up and stun lasts 0.5 seconds. If Zac cancels the ability channel on his own, this ability refunds 50% of the cooldown and 50% of the health cost. Note: this ability can be interrupted by several abilities which be further explained later on.

R - Let's Bounce!

Zac bounces once and then bounces 3 more times. He gains increasing move speed over the duration of his bounces. The first time he bounces on an enemy he knocks them up and away from himself and also slows them. Multiple bounces on the same enemy will do 50% damage beyond the first. Points in this ability will increase the maximum HP restored from his passive blobs.

Skill Order

    Zac

    1
    1
    1
    1
    2
    2
    2
    2
    3
    3
    3
    3
    4
    4
    4
    4
    5
    5
    5
    5
    6
    6
    6
    6
    7
    7
    7
    7
    8
    8
    8
    8
    9
    9
    9
    9
    10
    10
    10
    10
    11
    11
    11
    11
    12
    12
    12
    12
    13
    13
    13
    13
    14
    14
    14
    14
    15
    15
    15
    15
    16
    16
    16
    16
    17
    17
    17
    17
    18
    18
    18
    18

    You want to max your

    Elastic Slingshot
    first as it lowers its cooldown by a large amount as well as increase the range you can gank from. Next is your
    Unstable Matter
    , this will increase your damage output to help you with your clear and fighting power. Finally, is your
    Stretching Strikes
    , this ability is maxed last as leveling it only lowers its cooldown and increases its damage which is relatively the least useful compared to maxing your W and your E.

    Note: you take Q instead of E at level 2 because it has a lower cooldown than your E which will aid you greatly in clearing your camps. Your Q will also drop you two passive blobs when the two parts of the ability is used on two separate targets which will give you more healing and reduce your W cooldown faster.

    Combos

    These are some of the basic combos that you can do with Zac. I'll discuss more advanced tricks in the "Tips and Tricks" section.

    E > W > Q > Auto > R > W when possible

    This is the most basic full combo you can do with Zac. You land onto your target and use

    Unstable Matter
    immediately. Use your
    Stretching Strikes
    right after to hit your knocked up target and auto a different target to knock them both up again. Then use your
    Let's Bounce!
    for your final knock up and use
    Unstable Matter
    when possible for more damage. Each bounce of your
    Let's Bounce!
    onto an enemy champion will drop a blob that you can pick up to use your
    Unstable Matter
    more. If you’re afraid that you will be unable to chain stun your target if you
    Unstable Matter
    between your
    Elastic Slingshot
    and
    Stretching Strikes
    , simply use it after you finish your
    Stretching Strikes
    + Auto instead.

    

    Q > Auto > E > R > W when possible

    This is what you can do when you’re already close to the target. You can

    Stretching Strikes
    the enemy champion and auto a different target to get the knock-up. Then you can quick tap
    Elastic Slingshot
    instead of charging it to immediately chain another knock-up. Finally, you can finish it up with your
    Let's Bounce!
    and
    Unstable Matter
    whenever it’s up.

    Note:

    Elastic Slingshot
    and
    Let's Bounce!
    will knock enemies away from your position. Use this to your advantage to push enemies closer to your allies when you can!

    Builds

    • Standard

    This is a very standard build and items you'll end up a going a majority of the time. Building like this will be solid in 9 out of 10 games. However, Zac is quite flexible with his items so I'll be further discussing the alternatives to smite items, mythics, and legendaries below. This extra information will give you some ideas on how to optimize your build in different games.

    Items

    Smite Item

    

    Hailblade
    - this is usually the smite item you want. It allows you to stick to enemies after you land on them or help you catch up to them. The slow lets you chase down enemies and hit your
    Stretching Strikes
    more easily as well.

    

    Emberknife
    - you usually want this smite item when you're running the conqueror rune page to enhance your dueling and damaging capabilities. Red smite is generally stronger than blue smite but I still prefer blue smite on Zac most of the time.

    

    Boots

    

    Ionian Boots of Lucidity
    - these are the best boots in the game for Zac by far. They're cheap and give you the much needed ability haste you want. Ability haste lets your
    Elastic Slingshot
    be up for as many opportunities as possible and increases your damage as your
    Unstable Matter
    will be off cooldown more as well.

    

    Plated Steelcaps
    - you have the choice to opt for these boots if you feel like they have a lot of auto attack damage. However, you'll see a significant larger downtime on your
    Elastic Slingshot
    and lower damage capabilities.

    

    Mercury's Treads
    - I find these boots extremely redundant as you would already be running
    Legend: Tenacity
    a majority of the time.
    Spirit Visage
    is also a core item you'll be looking to build most of the time so the magic resist from these boots are also not very necessary.

    

    Dark Seal and Mejais

    

    Dark Seal
    - this item is really good when you have extra money first back or when you know you'll be able to stack it. Zac is a ganking jungler and with successful ganks comes extra stacks. The extra AP gives Zac the one shot potential for squishies while still being extremely tanky from core items. Note: I build this item most games on Zac unless I am significantly behind that game.

    

    Mejai's Soulstealer
    - you can upgrade to this item from
    Dark Seal
    when you're at 10 stacks, very close to 10 stacks, or know you'll be taking over the game. This is a great item to go when you know you'll be staying alive to take advantage of the cheap AP.

    

    Mythics

    

    Frostfire Gauntlet
    - this is the mythic item you want to go in most games. It gives you everything you want all in one item: HP, resistances, and ability haste. The auto attack slows from the Snowbind effect helps you chase down enemies and land your
    Stretching Strikes
    more easily. The mythic passive is also very nice in that it gives you much desired HP.

    

    Sunfire Aegis
    - this is the other mythic item you can go. It gives you more damage and resistances in exchange for a 400g higher cost. I still prefer
    Frostfire Gauntlet
    over
    Sunfire Aegis
    for several reasons. First,
    Sunfire Aegis
    costs more at the approximate price of a
    Dark Seal
    which you could have bought alongside the other mythic without falling behind on other core items. Second, the mythic passive is not very useful, the tenacity and slow resist is redundant with
    Legend: Tenacity
    and gives half as much HP as the
    Frostfire Gauntlet
    mythic passive. Finally, you're unable to maximally utilize the Flametouch passive as Zac doesn't auto a lot and you'll need max Immolate stacks to be able to use this. Note: the mythic item choice is still based on preference and the difference isn't that large.

    

    Legendaries

    

    Thornmail
    - this is a great armor item on Zac considering how much healing is in the game right now. The early
    Bramble Vest
    into
    Spirit Visage
    and then
    Thornmail
    gives you a good build path with healing reduction. Zac also has an easy time of immobilizing enemy champions to apply grievous wounds.

    

    Spirit Visage
    - this is the best magic resistance option for Zac in the game. Zac does a lot of healing in teamfights by picking up his blobs and
    Spirit Visage
    greatly enhances this healing and therefore his sustain.

    

    Demonic Embrace
    - this is the best AP item Zac can buy. You get more AP based on how much HP you have and it gives you a
    Liandry's Anguish
    -like burn effect.

    

    Warmog's Armor
    - this is a good HP item you can consider buying later in the game. It lets you look for engages and whether they fail or succeed, look for another engage again later within a short timeframe with full HP again.

    

    Randuin's Omen
    - this is an item you can build alongside
    Thornmail
    when the enemy team has a lot of physical damage or as a substitute for
    Thornmail
    when the enemy team has no healing. It gives ability haste and also an active effect that can reduce enemy critical strike damage and attack damage. Note: if you don't need
    Thornmail
    you won't need
    Bramble Vest
    as well. You could consider building
    Warden's Mail
    towards
    Randuin's Omen
    instead.

    

    Force of Nature
    - this is an item you can build alongside
    Spirit Visage
    when the enemy team has a lot of magic damage. This item gives much more magic resistance than
    Spirit Visage
    alongside magic damage reduction so you may consider going this item first if you are worried about a lot of consistent magic damage.

    

    Dead Man's Plate
    - this is an item that tanks usually build allowing to get them on to their targets more easily. Zac, however, has his
    Elastic Slingshot
    so this item isn't as useful on him. You can still build this item for armor if you think
    Thornmail
    and
    Randuin's Omen
    are unnecessary.

    

    Gargoyle Stoneplate
    - I generally choose to build this item as my very last item. It offers no HP and is quite expensive for just resistances and ability haste. It's active effect for a shield gets stronger the more HP you have so it makes it a stronger candidate when you have more items.

    

    Abyssal Mask
    - this is a niche item that you can build for magic resistance when your team is heavily magic damage dependent. This item gives you more magic resistance in teamfights while lowering the magic resistance of the enemies around you.

    

    Anathema's Chains
    - this is a niche item you can build if you know they only have one champion that heavily deals physical or magical damage on their team. For example, if the enemy team is all magic damage except for the ADC who does physical damage, you could consider buying
    Anathema's Chains
    and marking the ADC so you can fully build magic resistance without investing more into armor. This item is most efficient in both cost and damage prevention when used in this way.

    

    Knight's Vow
    - this is an item you can build when you're low on money after your
    Spirit Visage
    and
    Bramble Vest
    core. It gives you decent HP with ability haste and reduces some damage on the ally you mark in teamfights.

    Pathing and Clears

    You always want to path towards the lane you're looking to gank. Below are some of the standard clear paths you'll be looking for from the perspective of blue side (the same paths apply to red side except the lanes you'll be pathing towards would be swapped):

    Starting Blue

    Blue > Gromp > Wolves > Raptors > Red > Krugs > Scuttle/Gank

    This clear looks extremely simple at first glance because its just a full clear. However, that would be a very incorrect judgement. When properly done on Zac, this is one of the hardest clears I myself have ever done as a jungle main. I will talk about the two ways you can do this clear. Your decision to choose which method will be based on your confidence and skill.

    Method 1: This will be the much easier method which doesn’t maximize your clear time. You can start with a leash on your blue buff and you’ll just do a full clear all the way to krugs. You can then look to do scuttle or look for a gank.

    Method 2: This is the much more difficult method which when done properly can allow you to finish krugs by 3:05 with 2 smites or 3:10-3:15 with a smite up. This method will allow you to contest scuttle with an enemy jungler if you are able to because you’ll be there early. I will further discuss this method with a video I’ve attached below with an example of this clear.

    The following is a video by Engage showing this clear on an older patch (patch 12.3), the clear has not changed and is still the exact same as then. You can start leashless but a leash will increase the margin of error you can work with. You’ll look to do blue first and then drag it over towards gromp so that you can double camp it when its up. When gromp spawns, smite it to start the double camp. Upon smiting gromp, immediately use a refillable health potion and focus your auto attacks on the gromp until its dead. Then you can drag a very low HP blue towards wolves. Use your

    Stretching Strikes
    on the wolves to start the camp and then auto your blue buff to pull both camps together. Kill the blue buff first and finish off your wolves while dragging them towards mid lane to get to your raptors faster. Use
    Elastic Slingshot
    onto the raptors and use your
    Unstable Matter
    but not your
    Stretching Strikes
    . Pull the raptors towards red and use
    Stretching Strikes
    on the red buff, then use your auto on the big raptor to pull them closer. Start double camping red and raptors until raptors are dead. Continue finishing up your red while pulling it closer to your krugs, save your
    Stretching Strikes
    and
    Elastic Slingshot
    . Use
    Elastic Slingshot
    onto your krugs and smite the big one and finish up this camp. Look to take scuttle or look for a gank after your full clear. Note: if you don’t instantly change targets and start autoing the gromp after smiting it AS WELL AS using your refillable potion, you will get executed doing this clear leashless.

    

    Starting Red

    Red > Krugs > Raptors > Wolves > Blue > Gromp > Scuttle/Gank

    Starting red is much easier than starting blue if you’re new to Zac or you’re just not confident in doing the fast clear starting blue. This clear is easier to do as well as being faster than method 1 starting blue clear. Start with a leash (ideally) on your red and finish it. You can also start leashless but you’ll need to smite red instead of krugs. Then do krugs (smite it), then raptors, and then wolves. When you get to blue, you can do both blue and gromp together. Start your blue buff first and then kite it towards gromp. Use your

    Stretching Strikes
    on the gromp and then auto the blue to bring them together to double camp. After that you can look to do scuttle or gank.

    The following is a video by Phylaris showing this clear on an older patch, the clear has not changed and is still the exact same as then. Phylaris smites his red because he is leashless, however, if you are getting a leash you can smite your krugs instead. He also does his wolves and blue together. But as he explains, this is difficult to do when you are on red side and so choosing not to do this won’t affect your clear too badly.

    

    Other Pathing

    There are other pathings that you can do as well that are less ideal but help you in uncertain scenarios. Here a few of them: Wolves > Blue > Gromp > Raptors > Red > Krugs > Scuttle/Gank

    This is similar to a blue start clear but a little slower. You might choose to do this if you’re afraid of the enemy jungler invading your blue immediately after taking their red. This allows you to hit level 2 first while still being healthy and then start to do the blue + gromp double camp. If they do invade, at least you are level 2 with high HP and you’ll be able to leave and just clear the rest of your camps on the bot side of the map. You can then do raptors and red together, and then krugs. After that you can look for scuttle or a gank.

    

    Raptors > Red > Krugs > Look Gank Bot > Wolves > Blue > Gromp > Scuttle/Gank

    This is a clear similar to starting red but much slower. You might choose to do this clear if you’re looking to start leashless and still be able to path towards top. This also gives you the opportunity to look for a gank bot at level 3 if an opportunity arises. If there isn’t, you can look to go back up to do wolves and then blue + gromp double camp. Generally this clear is far from ideal and undesired.

    

    Jungle Matchup Difficulty

    Below are some of the champions that, in my personal opinion and experience, would fall under these difficulty categories. They're rated based on their ability to invade you early game, fight you early game, and just generally make your game much more difficult to play. Click on the drop down menus for additional notes that I've added for some of the champions on this list. This list is not concrete for all scenarios. Some of the problems that Zac can encounter will be further discussed in the other sections below. Note: just because some of these champions may be picked doesn't make it so Zac is unplayable. In my opinion, unless Zac's

    Elastic Slingshot
    can be easily cancelled all the time or by multiple members of the enemy team, Zac will always bring strong team fight and engage value to the team.

    • Easy
    • Medium
    • Hard

    Early Game

    Early game as Zac is extremely simple: you want level 4 as fast as possible. The easiest way to do this is just farming your entire jungle. The reason you want level 4 is so you can have two points in

    Elastic Slingshot
    . When you only have one point in
    Elastic Slingshot
    , you are unable to gank lanes from fog of war as the range is too short, only with two points can you start ganking from bushes.

    As Zac, you are extremely vulnerable to early game invades so you want to pay attention to the type of champion they're playing. Ask yourself, are they able to look for an invade? When can they invade? Will I be able to finish my camp if they invade here? Be cautious of where the enemy jungle is starting early game and what they might want to do to take advantage of your weak early game. If you need to give up camps early or even scuttle crabs, that's fine. It's better that you're not giving the enemy any kind of extra leads early as you're just going to carry later in the game anyways.

    Once you're level 4, start looking for ganks from bushes and fog of war. Generally you want to look for ganks on laners that are immobile; so no flashes or dashes. Ideally you want to back when there's nothing else for you to do on the map and you have at least 950 g for

    Ionian Boots of Lucidity
    because that's your first big power spike. After you're back on the map, look for more ganks and farm for level 5, so you can have three points in
    Elastic Slingshot
    , for even more range for gank angles.

    Mid Game to Late Game

    Mid game doesn't change much for Zac. You're looking to farm camps and level up to 9 so you can have the maximum range for your jump. You want to focus on ganking more than map objectives unless your team is free to help you as you take objectives very slowly. When you gank a lane and burn a flash, you can easily come back from a different angle and gank the flashless laner again. In team fights, you want to go for immobile carries or any sort of pick. If this isn't possible, you can just look to stall the carries at the back of a front to back fight so your team might have a 4 v 3 advantage at the front end of the fight. Overall, you're looking for picks with your

    Elastic Slingshot
    and initiating fights for your team all from fog of war.

    Gank Angles

    Zac can gank from many different angles and the different ways he can gank only increases with the amount points in his

    Elastic Slingshot
    . Get creative with how you gank! Here are a few examples of the different ways you can gank to get you to start thinking (these are some examples when you're level 9):

    Champion Interactions

    It's really important that Zac is able to use his

    Elastic Slingshot
    without having it cancelled before he lands on his target.
    Elastic Slingshot
    is considered a dash and so there are a number of way it can be cancelled. Below are a list of champions and their abilities that can commonly cancel
    Elastic Slingshot
    from my personal experience:

    

    Ahri
    can use her
    Charm
    to charm you out of your jump

    

    Alistar
    can use his
    Pulverize
    or
    Headbutt
    to either knock-up or knock you away from your jump

    

    Amumu
    can use his
    Bandage Toss
    or <

    

    Darius
    can use
    Apprehend
    to pull you out of your jump

    

    Gragas
    can use
    Body Slam
    to knock you out of your jump

    

    Janna
    can use
    Howling Gale
    or
    Monsoon
    to knock-up or knock you away from your jump

    

    Jayce
    can use
    Thundering Blow / Acceleration Gate
    to knock you out of your jump

    

    Jinx
    can use
    Flame Chompers!
    to pull you out of your jump and root you if you go over them

    

    Kayn
    when transformed to Darkin: Rhaast can use
    Blade's Reach
    to knock you up out of your jump

    

    Lee Sin
    can use
    Dragon's Rage
    to kick you out of your jump

    

    Lulu
    can use
    Wild Growth
    to knock you up out of your jump

    

    Maokai
    can use
    Bramble Smash
    to knock you out of your jump

    

    Mordekaiser
    can use
    Death's Grasp
    to pull you out of your jump

    

    Nami
    can use
    Tidal Wave
    to knock you up out of your jump

    

    Nautilus
    can use
    Dredge Line
    to pull you out of your jump

    

    Poppy
    can use
    Steadfast Presence
    to cancel your jump

    

    Rakan
    can use
    Grand Entrance
    to knock you up out of your jump

    

    Rammus
    can use
    Powerball
    to knock you out of your jump

    

    Rek'Sai
    can use
    Burrow / Un-burrow
    to knock you up out of your jump

    

    Riven
    can use third recast
    Broken Wings
    to knock you up out of your jump

    

    Sejuani
    can use
    Arctic Assault
    to knock you out of your jump

    

    Seraphine
    can use
    Encore
    to charm you out of your jump

    

    Sett
    can use
    The Show Stopper
    to throw you out of your jump

    

    Sion
    can use
    Decimating Smash
    to knock you up out of your jump

    

    Syndra
    can use
    Scatter the Weak
    to push you out of your jump

    

    Thresh
    can use
    Death Sentence
    and
    Flay
    to pull and flay you out of your jump

    

    Tristana
    can use
    Buster Shot
    to knock you away out of your jump

    

    Vayne
    can use
    Condemn
    to knock you away out of your jump

    

    Veigar
    can use
    Event Horizon
    to stun you out of your jump

    

    Vex
    can use
    Personal Space
    when her passive
    Doom 'n Gloom
    is stacked to fear you out of your jump

    

    Vi
    can use
    Vault Breaker
    to knock you out of your jump

    

    Wukong
    can use
    Cyclone
    to knock you up out of your jump

    

    Yasuo
    can use
    Steel Tempest
    at 2 stacks to knock you up out of your jump

    

    Yone
    can use
    Mortal Steel
    at 2 stacks to knock you up out of your jump

    Note: abilities that are point and click are very hard to use to cancel Zac's jump. Many of these are timing dependent.

    Tips and Tricks

    Here are some tips and tricks as well as some more advanced mechanics that you can do with Zac!

    After using your

    Stretching Strikes
    and hitting a target, your following auto to make the knock-up happen can be anything that can be autoed. This could include wards, towers, pets, minions, monsters, plants, and more.

    Your

    Elastic Slingshot
    range is so long that you can jump over dragon/baron pit and do a drive-by smite steal for the objective while still being in the air.

    You may notice after using your

    Stretching Strikes
    on a target and running a certain range away from your target will cause
    Stretching Strikes
    to end. However, you can use
    Stretching Strikes
    on a target and
    Flash
    to the range of another target to auto, even if it is out of range, to have the knock-up effect.

    Don’t be afraid to turret dive! The enemy tower only gives you a free unmoving target for you to auto after landing your

    Elastic Slingshot
    and using your
    Stretching Strikes
    for a chain crowd control.

    You don’t always have to use your

    Stretching Strikes
    on the enemy champion! If you’re afraid they could dodge it, you could use
    Stretching Strikes
    on a minion/monster instead and then use your point and click auto to guarantee the knock-up/knock-back effect before proceeding with the close range combo.

    When an enemy champion is hitting your turret, it could be the primetime for you to get an easy solo kill. Use your full combo while clearing out the minions underneath the turret, your solo kill will quickly become a 2 v 1 with your turret greatly aiding you in damage while you permanently crowd control chain the enemy champion.

    Patch Remarks

    This section will be used to discuss the current patch and how I think it will impact Zac in the jungle. I will try to update this as often as I can. The current patch is: Patch 12.4

    Notable jungle champions from this patch are Amumu, Dr. Mundo, Qiyana, Nunu, and Rumble.

    Amumu received a buff to his

    Tantrum
    physical damage reduction which should help with his tankiness and make his clears more healthy. However, this buff isn’t very huge and Amumu is an easy matchup for Zac so nothing much will change.

    Dr. Mundo is normally a top laner but can also be played in the jungle. He received a cooldown nerf to his

    Maximum Dosage
    as well as a scaling base AD nerf. These changes mainly affect his late game sustain and a bit of his damage. These changes aren’t enough to warrant a return of Dr. Mundo to the jungle.

    Qiyana received a slight nerf to her

    Royal Privilege
    passive damage. However, because this nerf is on the bonus AD calculation, her early clear won’t really be affected. She will be weaker than before later into the game by a bit. The matchup shouldn’t change at all between Zac and Qiyana.

    Nunu lost some base HP later into the game and his

    Consume
    was nerfed to heal less off of champions. This means he will have less sustain in fights or duels in the jungle. This should benefit Zac more if he ever counters Nunu in river but the matchup shouldn’t be affected much. 

    Rumble got a huge buff to his base armor. This can make his clear more healthy as well as increase his early dueling power when auto attacks are involved. This may prompt a slight increase to Rumbles in the jungle but the matchup should not be affected. 

    

    Other notable champion changes are Veigar.

    Veigar has been dominant in the mid lane recently but he’s receiving base armor nerfs and

    Event Horizon
    cooldown nerfs. Veigar
    Event Horizon
    can interrupt your
    Elastic Slingshot
    and stun you so it’s nice that his
    Event Horizon
    has a longer cooldown early such that you could gank once, then come back and regank with your
    Elastic Slingshot
    before his
    Event Horizon
    could be back up. 

    

    No notable item changes this patch.

    External Resources

    Here are some other guides or videos that I may find helpful regarding how to play Zac and would be worthwhile to take a look at as well. I will update this list when I can.

    This is a video by YouTuber LoL Dobby who looks at new strategies and how high elo players play certain champions. This is a very good video with good examples of some of the things I discuss in this guide alongside how a really good Zac player in Korea plays this champion.

    Conclusion

    Thanks for checking out my guide! Zac isn’t a difficult champion to play but he’s certainly difficult to master. Although he’s still a jungler, you might find difficulty playing him at the beginning due to how different he might feel from other champions. His lack of dueling potential and early game susceptibility is compensated by his insane ganks and strong mid to late game. Hope you were able to learn a lot about Zac and his in-game capabilities. Now it's time to bring this knowledge out onto the rift and make some players rage in all chat!

    

    ZacJungleLeague-Of-Legends
    AUTHOR
    crackadon

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