This is my Playstyle and my opinion on how to play Zac. There is always room for improvment and you can ofc can decide on how to play the Game. Its just my view on how to get the Most out of this Champ.

1. Introduction 2. Abilities 3. Why should you play this Champion? 4. Team Composition (Synergies / Counters) 5. Runes 6. Summoner Spells 7. Items 8. Pathing on Zac 9. Clearing on Zac 10. Jungle Matchups 11. Ganking with Zac 12. Late Game Zac 13. Tipps I have for you 14. Conclusion

Whadup. I am a german Jungle who plays on EUW. I starting playing League in late Season 7. This is the same season i started playing Zac. Ever since I´m a Zac Main. To get a more detailled look i started playing him in Patch 7.9 when he got reworked. Besides Zac i also play Sejuani and Nunu & Willump. So i also have good experience with engage tanks. I love playing him because he has such a unique kit. Good Ganking paired with great teamfighting and good opportunities to steal dragons/barons.

In my opinion you can be a gamechanger with him, which not all tanks can give you. When you know how to use him you can nearly win every matchup, so i think its the perfect champ in the Jungle.

Cell Division Passiv Each time Zac hits an enemy with an ability, he sheds a chunk of himself that can be reabsorbed to restore 4% of his maximum health. Upon taking fatal damage, Zac splits into 4 chunks that attempt to recombine. If any of these chunks remain after 8 / 7 / 6 / 5 / 4 seconds, he will revive with 10-50% health depending on the health of the surviving chunks. Each chunk has 12% of Zac's maximum health, and 50% of his armor and magic resistance. This ability has a static cooldown and is unaffected by cooldown reduction. The revival speed is increased every 4 levels.

Stretching Strikes Q Zac stretches his left arm in the target direction, dealing 40 / 55 / 70 / 85 / 100 (+30% of ability power) (+2.5% of Zac's maximum health) magic damage and slowing the first enemy hit by 40% for 0.5 seconds, as well as attaching it to the target for 2 seconds. While his arm is attached, his next basic attack is replaced by a second Stretching Strike, gaining 125 bonus attack range and dealing the same magic damage and slow. If both Stretching Strikes affect two different targets, he flings them against each other, dealing the initial magic damage around the point of collision and applying the slow again. Range: 550 Cooldown: 13 / 11.5 / 10 / 8.5 / 7

Unstable Matter W Zac's body erupts, dealing magic damage equal to 25 / 40 / 55 / 70 / 85 plus 4 / 4.5 / 5 / 5.5 / 6% (+2% per 100 ability power) of their maximum Health to all nearby enemies (max 200 damage against minions and monsters). Picking up a chunklet reduces Unstable Matter's cooldown by one second. Hitting a jungle monster allows Zac to walk through them. Range: 350 Cooldown: 5

Elastic Slingshot E Zac faces the cursor and begins charging for up to 1 second. Upon reactivating the ability, he launches himself towards the target location, dealing 60 / 110 / 160 / 210 / 260 (+90% of ability power) magic damage to all enemies hit and knocking them back for 0.5-1 second(s), based on how long Zac charged Elastic Slingshot. Zac creates extra chunks for each additional champion he hits with this ability. Can be cancelled by moving or after 0.9 / 1 / 1.1 / 1.2 / 1.3 seconds of channeling, refunding 50% of the health cost and halving the cooldown. Range: 1200 / 1350 / 1500 / 1650 / 1800 Cooldown: 24 / 21 / 18 / 15 / 12

Let´s Bounce! R Passive: Increases Cell Division's healing from chunks by 1 / 2 / 3% of Zac's maximum health. Active: Zac bounces 4 times, knocking back and dealing 140 / 210 / 280 (+40% of ability power) magic damage to enemies he hits. While bouncing, Zac gains 20% - 50% bonus movement speed and can cast Unstable Matter. Enemies hit by Let's Bounce! are slowed by 20% for 1 second after being knocked back. Enemies hit by multiple bounces take 50% less damage for every bounce beyond the first and are not displaced more than once. Range: 300 Cooldown: 130 / 115 / 100

PROS -very tanky, pretty much undying -AoE CC -you can dive pretty easily -with passiv you can trade 1v1 without dying in right spots -you can peel -gank from where ever you want

CONS -Early you are pretty useless -you cant fight 1v1 or 2v2 early -you have to be pretty careful of being invaded -no e -> no mobility -your toplaner need to know how your passiv works -> TP on passiv -if you miss your spells you are useless

Synergies

Team Composition are not tricky on Zac. You can play with what ever you want. But the best case is that u just have a team with some AoE aswell. Champions that want to teamfight like Azir. When u hit a good E into the backline of the enemy team Azir just can follow up and shuffle these to kill them all.

Another good example is Galio. Again, when u are in the backline, Galio just can follow up with his ult and hit the backline aswell. Therefore compositions like protect the ADC are pretty much useless.

Other examples are Yasuo or Orianna. When u hit a good E Yasuo can just ult and kill them or Orianna hits her Ult first und you just follow up. Same with Malphite. Literally anything that has good teamfight.

Now we move on from teamfighting. Other Champs that are pretty broken with Zac are Yuumi and Soraka. You can just relax in the enemy team without dying. So u can just tank anything and still CC them while your team is doing the rest.

And ofc all champs that can follow up after good CC from you. Like Maokai or Aatrox.

Counters

You have a simple Counter. When champs can deny your e.
Your biggest Threats are Vayne, Poppy, Gragas and Thresh.

Vayne in general is a big threat for you. With her E she just cancels your jump. She is aids to jump on because of her invisibility. And with her E she kills you in like 5-6 aa´s. Super Aids. Just ban her tbh.

Poppy will displace you. Its really annoying. Just dodge when u have her XD

Thresh can deny your E with his E. How ironic. If its a good thresh you cant gank him. Depends on the player pretty much.

Gragas is super Aids. His Dash will 100% deny your e. Be carefull and dont jump on him. He cant kill you but he can make u useless.

Aftershock is just perfect for Zac. You can just be in the enemy team without dying. It makes you super tanky. With Aftershock it is nearly impossible to burst you. While you are tanking the whole team, your team can just clean up everything. With the bonus damage that scales with your HP, Aftershock will also do a ton of damage.

Font of Life is such a great rune for him. While you CC everyone you can also heal your carries. You just make sure that your team is alive by healing and peeling them. It is also quite good for skirmishing.

Conditioning is really the only usefull rune on the second row. It will make him super tanky. It will increase your AD and MR by 5% which is pretty huge.

Font of Life is such a great rune for him. While you CC everyone you can also heal your carries. You just make sure that your team is alive by healing and peeling them. It is also quite good for skirmishing.

Revitalize is perfect with Zac aswell. It scales super hard with his passiv. You will be picking up a ton of Blops from your Passiv. This can reach from 200-400 Blops a game. So when you add it all up in the end, it will be a ton of healing you got from this rune.

Magical Footwear is basically a free kill @ 12 minutes because its worth 300 Gold. You dont need shoes in early because you want to chill and scale anyway. Also their are better boots than the normal ones. Second you profit in two ways. Perfect rune while playing the game slow.

Cosmic Insight is just CDR. You can use your abilities more often, which uncludes even Flash. With that you can engage more often and use your W in teamfights more often, which means more healing.

You basically have 3 options in my opinion. Before i will explain each ways. I want to say that i only recommend the first one. Way 2 and 3 you can use for fun in my opinion, but not for tryharding.

Way 1

Chilling Smite and Flash
Just take these honestly. Flash gives you great opportunities for wannabe outplays. Q Flash Q -> E -> R. Easy Combo. Great Gapcloser too. Just Flash Ult behind your opponent and you throw them like u want. And u take smite because this is a jungle Guide. Lol. You take blue smite because you will not 1v1 many people.

Way 2

Challenging Smite and Ignite
Like i said. Would not recommend this thb. But with your E you have good mobility. So if u wanna be a hard bully early on you should take ignite and prob build liandrys later on. Not really my playstyle but in some matchups, where the enemy really wants to scale, it works quite well. Only tested that in normals. Do it at your own risk. When u already takin ignite, it means u wanna fight. So it can happen that u will do some 1v1´s. So u might aswell take Redsmite. (Blue smite is fine aswell for the slow).

Way 3

Chilling Smite and Heal
Would not recommend this aswell. But like i said. Good mobilty with your E. You should only play this when u really trust your teammates. With heal you pretty much there to peel a carry. So u might aswell go tank with this. You take blue smite because you will not 1v1 many people.

Standard Items

Enchantment: Cinderhulk is pretty much the only Jungle Item you can take. Jungle Items are super gold efficient. Cinderhulk will make you super tanky and give u a free Sunfire Aegis passiv. There are basically no other options, unless you trolling.

Mercury's Treads is usually your way to go. All CC is reduced by 30%. Its perfect when u engage. While you are in the enemy team you want to move because you want to hit everyone with your ult. Mercs will help u with the moving part. I only would buys Ninja Tabi if the enemy team is heavy AD and have 2 ADC´s for Example or something like a Yasuo. Just look at the enemy team and decide whick shoes to u want to buys. lol

Second Item

Spirit Visage is the perfect Item for Zac in my opinion. You get CDR, MR and Health. Everything you need. But the best thing is the passiv. It Increases all healing, regeneration and drain effects on yourself by 30%. That means that your blops will heal 30%. Also your heal support will heal you more.

Randuin's Omen is a Items which is perfect for Zac aswell. It gives you 70 Armor and 400 Health. With the passiv that reduces Crit Damage you are the perfect tank against Caitlyn, Vayne and other ADC´s. Also when you are already in the backline of the enemy team you can use the Activ of this item and slow everyone. Therefore you have even more CC. This means your team will kill the enemies more easily.

Thornmail is build when your Ninja Tabi arent enough. It gives you Armor and Health. Its perfect against full AD teams. Another thing is the Passiv. With your Passiv you can give the opponents Grievous Wounds which will reduce healing. Its perfect against Champions like Aatrox or Soraka. You can also only build Bramble Vest which has the same passiv and finish it later on.

Dead Man's Plate is build when you think that you need more mobility to engange. I personally build it that often. I only prefer this to Thornmail when the enemies dont have any healing. But with this meta and some some runes the enemies will always have healing. You can build this as a 4th Item when the enemies are full AD. More a thing that will happen in Bronze/Silver. The higher you climb, the less you will buy DMP tbh.

Third Item

Warmog's Armor is my favorite Item or Zac. It is important because of the HP it gives and the passiv. The Blops will scale with HP, which means that you will get more healing. You can also disengage and be back to full HP after like 20 seconds. Really good when you are getting poked by champions like Ezreal. You can stay back and heal again. A must have.

Optional Items

Adaptive Helm is the perfect Item when you play against a team with AP Burst. Taking magic damage from a spell or effect reduces all subsequent magic damage taken from that spell or effect by 20% for 4 seconds, which means that u wont die to champs like Veigar. Also a perfect item when you are playing against a full/heavy AP team. The CDR and Health is really nice aswell.

Locket of the Iron Solari is mostly the 6th item imo. It gives you Armor and MR, which u will need in nearly every game. With the Active you can shield your whole team and protect/peel you carries even more.

Knight's Vow is basically the same like Locket of the Iron Solari, just that you especially want to protect one carry like your adc. The item is cheap, gives good stats and you take damage your carry would get. Perfect for peeling.

Zhonya's Hourglass is a Item you take when u think that your team needs more AP Damage. Its a very situational Item and should only take it when you are really sure. You can jump in and Zhonyas and live. Its really depending on the game. You could do that when u want to go Full AP. When your team is full AD is would recommend Liandry's Torment.

Banshee's Veil is basically the same like Zhonya's Hourglass just that you get MR instead of Armor. Its just the same. But when u want MR buy Banshee's Veil, when you want Armor buy Zhonya's Hourglass. Would not recommend this either.

Liandry's Torment is an Item that you cant build when you are really far ahead and you want to carry. The burn is great for killing ADC´s. The Health is nice aswell. Only buy this when you are REALLY far ahead. When you are not ahead only buy this when you are in a Full AD Team.

This is the path that i take every game.

Blue Buff into Gromp into Wolves into Raptors where you Smite the Raptors .
You start Blue Buff because it has negativ MR and your W will deal a ton of damage.

After that it is very situational. Because you are pretty much full HP after clearing Raptors you can look for a gank mid. When there is no opportunity you will go on clearing the Red Buff .

Then you have Double Buffs. It will be around 3:15 so you will move to the Rift Scuttler . Because you have saved Smite you will probably get it. Because you are full life you will probably win a 2v2 with your Midlaner. Just look out who has Prio.

Then you will look a gank again. Now for Mid or Bot/Top. At this time you are most likely to do a gank. If you cant gank do Krugs and Reset/Backport.

-Use your E Elastic Slingshot. You can travel great distance
-Spam your W Unstable Matter. When you pick up you Blops it will reduce the CD
-you also can clear minion waves, look if your laner needs you to push the wave, get to know wave manegment. It is important as a Jungler minion

The only really hard matchup you will have is from players who know how to invade. You arent strong pre6 so u have to be careful.

You have to be careful about champions like Olaf, Kha'Zix, Graves, Udyr and many more.

The best matchups you will have are champions that really fall off like Lee Sin and Elise or Champion that scale, but dont outscale you like Hecarim.

Good matchups are against tanks like Sejuani or Nunu & Willump. Its just better jungler wins and who can better gank and engage.

Non Jungle Matchups that are really hard for you are Champions that can deny your E Elastic Slingshot like Poppy or just can dash away from your E Elastic Slingshot like LeBlanc. Watchout if they have their dash.

Ganking is one of Zac´s strengths. You literally gank from whereever you want with your E Elastic Slingshot, go to postions where you know, that there is no vision. They wont see it coming.

When you dont have any minions near you to use your second Q Stretching Strikes you can Flash and attack a second champion. After that you can just R Let's Bounce!.

Just try to hit your E Elastic Slingshot.

-you just have to find good opportunities to engage with your E Elastic Slingshot
-try to hit as many people as possible with your R Let's Bounce!
-you need to know when to engage or when to peel your carries. It is just an experience think. After some time you will know what to do.

-when you hit you first Q Stretching Strikes and dont have a second target try to use a Control Ward or Oracle Lens and try to discover a Ward you can AA -when you hit your first Q Stretching Strikes you can use your E Elastic Slingshot and then use your second Q Stretching Strikes -dont use SKT1 Zac !!, enemies will see your E Elastic Slingshot easily and probably dodge it.

I think Zac is pretty good in this Meta and is a S Tier Jungler imo. What a time to be alive. But to be fr, i would recommed you to play Zac. He fits in nearly every teamcomp and is Tank who can solo carry game. He is great for dou´ing with a Carry. In my opinion he is very fun to play. I hope you will try him out. I only main him because he is the only champ i can playing without losing my fun.

Thanks to everyone who read it till the end. I had a lot of fun writing this whole guide. I appreciate everyone who read this. I hope this guide helped you understand Zac more.

If you have any question feel free to add me and ask me questions.

If you want to add me you can add my 2nd Account (EUW): Flying Uwe

Thanks for reading and good luck in your ranked games :).