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Zac Build Guide by

[SEASON 13] Zac Top

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6 Comments League of Legends Build Guide Author Dumlethiccari

Zac Build Guide By Updated on

Guide Discussion (6) More Zac Guides

Runes: for lane

1 2

Resolve

Grasp of the Undying

Demolish

Second Wind

Revitalize

Precision

Legend: Tenacity

Last Stand

Bonus:

+8 ability haste
+9 Adaptive (5.4 AD or 9 AP)
+15-140 HP (lvls 1-18)

Spells:

Flash

Ignite

Items

start

rush against ad lane

rush against ap lane

usually this

situational

mythics ranked in order

Champion Build Guide

Table of contents

• Introduction
• About top zac
• Matchups
• Runes / Spells
• How to play
- Abilities
- Items / Build
- Laning
- After lane
• Good to know

Introduction

Hi, I go by the name Dumletikkari in EUW. I've played zac top/mid for a few thousand games now and have peaked 740LP. When I was learning lane zac I never came across a good and in-depth lane zac guide so I made this for the beginner zac top players. Take everything with a grain of salt and feel free to ask questions and give feedback. This is just my way and preferences to play this pick even though everything might not be mathematically correct.

About top zac

Not a popular pick because it's cringe and boring, but if you like playing it, it can be a very strong and consistent pick. Very few undoable matchups and it's rly hard to turbo int with because of the sustain, cc and passive. Always easy to get kills from ganks. Zac scales rly well into midgame, but is mostly strong because of good items at the moment. Zac fits into almost every teamcomp and gets totally countered (in teamfights) by only a few champions.

Matchups

This list is solely based on how hard I personally wanna dodge if the enemy picks them against me on lane.
Keep in mind: Some of them (, , , , , etc.) will still **** on you and/or counter you (, ...)in late game even if you win the lane.

Feel free to Ignore this part, but when I was stuck in gold playing zac top i was craving for more detailed tips for each champion

Tanks aren't that hard since they don't have enough damage to kill you if you play early safely.

Squishy champions are easy to oneshot with your combo if you buy even a little AP () or have and use and Ult (but only if you havent been poked to death 5 times so just survive to 6)

Bruisers with cc and/or dashes are a pain in the *** and the reason why mid might be more fun for you. Play safe, wait for the jungler or that they get bored and try to dive.

If you didn't ban her for some reason, just max W and don't get killed or poked too much during early levels. When you get some levels on your W it will be easier to trade and with you should even be able to out-trade and sustain her. If she wastes W you can jump on her. If she ults just jump away. Try to bait her W by holding Q or Eing when she's on dash animation. The reason why I ban her is because she outscales after first item and is a bit broken on mid/late, not because Zac loses lane to her.

Try to dodge his abilities, then trade with Q and W. Trading with E after he has used his Q is dangerous because E has a really long cooldown when you're not maxing it so he can abuse that. Just jump away when he ults (if 1v1). Kinda easy to bait trap under tower because you can predict his Q animations which are long aswell so he takes aggro easily.

Every akali player plays so differently, but just keep an eye on her energy levels and don't take unnecessary dmg. Akali can feel kinda hard bcs of her ult mobility and bigger range on poke and when you try to trade back she just goes invisible or dodges Q/E. Just rush or and you should be good.

Hard because it's hard to win trades because of his longer range, cc and sustain. Post lvl 6 is hard because his ult is good aswell. Winnable, because Darius struggles to dive and poke Zac under turret - his passive bleeds for a long time so you can trap him under turret and he instantly takes aggro.

Such a low pickrate so I haven't been able to learn the matchup probably, but Illaoi has strong early and can bully you too hard under turret. If he ults just jump away without wasting your ult and try again later. Overall he is kinda weak later on so I wouldn't dodge. Try roaming. He's really weak to ganks pre 6.

His kit is crazy. Don't stay in his Q range and just try to hit Q and outsustain. If he ults just ult him and run away. If you don't have a lead you won't win him in his ult.

Don't die to his Q early. Freeze under tower as usual. He can't pick up Qs so you win all trades after lvl 4. Don't fight his ult except under turret.

Absolute coinflip fiesta every time. Every Singed is different. His kit counters Zac's but overall Singed isn't that broken on lane.

Perma play under turret, try to bait him to take damage under turret. He can cancel your CC abilities. Don't fight him when he takes reduced damage with his E. If you see him ult you can try to time your ult to cancel it because Zac's ult has 0.25sec cast time and can't be cancelled.

You have better sustain so try to make her low hp. Gwen is so ap heavy that she's not hard to oneshot with some ap and W max. Dodge ults bcs she will oneshot you too.

Just freeze. She can't dive or poke you under turret with her 0 range. Punish if she misses E or can't stack her passive. Don't waste dmg on her W. If she freezes just make her stack passive with minions.

Hit Q and trade. You're stronger on melee form. He's rly squishy without so you can oneshot with little ap or sunfire.

Kled is hard is because he can dive you with his Mount so easily and can pick ignite every time. I don't know how to win him.

He's weak without his W so trade with W and Q. Hold E to escape from his passive. Try to bait his ult without losing yours, because he's useless without it.

Whatever u do just don't let him kill you early and snowball. His damage before you finish sunfire is insane.

You don't win any trades or all ins before 6 if they aren't rly dumb. Easy to gank tho.

He can't freeze so you can just farm under tower. Wait until he wastes jump and then trade or trap him under tower. Your passive will save you from his ult but he will oneshot the bloblets. Try to abuse and trade his weak early.

Her only sustain is her W so just keep perma trading with grasp and W. Before you all in with ult make sure her E isn't up. When she gets mythic it's over, don't fight her if you don't have a significant lead.

He's squishy with low sustain so trade as much as possible while taking as few dmg as possible. Post lvl 6 you should win at the latest. He outscales zac hard. Try to avoid his true damage passive.

Zac should win tanks with W+grasp spam bcs they have no oneshot power and usually way worse sustain.

Shen's QWE kit is stronger than other tanks' but you scale better so punish his mistakes and lane absence. Trade when he doesn't have shield and don't waste Q on his W block.

Some ap and they will get oneshot. Max W or E depending on how you feel. If you don't build any ap E max won't kill them. It's all about hitting your Q.

His early is way weaker than zac's, only becomes annoying later on. W+gasp spam. He can't cancel E if you Q first. Punish him every time he uses abilities or you'll get behind bcs he has low cooldowns.

Just keep poking bcs you sustain better. He can't come up to you or the wave if he wants to get his hp back.

Gnars are confident close to transforming so jump on them when they turn into the soyboy again. Gnar's jump has massive cooldown so putting levels to E to reduce the cooldown is not a bad idea.

Don't waste Q on his E. After W is lvl 2 or 3 your auto W deals more than his auto W if you get the blob. Jax has to ult at the start of the fight so try to bait it.

Make her push and then freeze. Your early is stronger but don't let her abuse lethal tempo.

Don't int before 6.

Perma trade when he doesn't have shield bcs he has no sustain apart from his grasp. Don't bother using E at all if he doesnt waste his W.

She has low sustain before lifesteal so just perma trade and hit Q when u see her dashing at you so you can grab her back when she tries to disengage. Oneshot before she oneshots you.

His shield has long cooldown so he's easy to kill without it. Has low sustain aswell.

Keep spamming your abilities every time they're up and kill his shield. Stop his knocks with Q and E. Just poke until he's low and all in when he has no shield. Really really easy early he is just a scaling monster. Don't be afraid of being low hp, you can't let him bully you under turret and take free plates. Know your waves.

Hope that RNG gods are on your side and he doesn't crit 9 times in row.

Don't waste E cos he'll trap you. If you don't snowball before 6 he will 1v9.

His early trading power on Zac is insane. Just try to abuse their mistakes. Best opportunity to kill him is after 6 but before first item.

If you can't freeze idk what to do.

Stay out of range and hit Q.

Trade when he doesn't have shield. Don't let him sustain with W. He will oneshot you and ur passive with ult.

Should be really easy lane for zac. Higher sustain, higher poke, more cc, etc. Just spam abilities and knock him to his clone. If you let your Q hang on him you can see him when he goes invisible.

Make him push and perma freeze, then you can spam abilities on him and let the jungler farm him.

Spells / Runes

Spells

I don't use because:

1. In lane ignite gives strong early kill power. Zac's strong sustain and safeness under turret with passive allows you to stay on lane for a lot longer than usual. So for me, TP in lane is not needed.
2. Later in the game Zac has to hover adc and be the one making the plays and engages. Teleporting into the fight after it has already started makes Zac's biggest strengths useless.
3. Split pushing with ap tank's nonexistent dmg on turrets is useless even with . Most top champions outscale Zac anyways after a couple of items.

Runes

I'll update the runes when I have time.

Conqueror

- Why conqueror?
• gives you up to 54 AP which is good with zac's ap scaling
• the entire tree is useful
• Always a good option
- Good vs melee enemy comps but works just fine vs rangeds too, it goes to 12 stacks during your combo anyways so Ult and W spam on rangeds still benefit from it
- W cooldown is 5 seconds, 4 if you collect the blob, conqueror stacks last 5 seconds
- You can Abuse Last stand by engaging when you're low and dealing 11% more damage, healing from conqueror and ult combo will keep you alive

Triumph

Legend: Tenacity

Last Stand

For slow ap scaling

sustain
good aswell

Grasp of the undying and
Aftershock

- The best rune tree for Zac. and are all insanely useful.
- is very good for melee matchups where you dont have to be afraid, for example:
Bad:
Good:
- Spam together with W
- keeps active
- is a safe pick on any matchup, good in teamfights and alright at poking
- Against enemies who poke a lot and are good

Demolish

Revitalize

Second Wind

For slow ap scaling

Electrocute

- Good in mid and vs some squishy champs in top
- Use with caution, you're really squishy yourself
- Really efficient poking and oneshotting
- You need to build ap for it to be good later, but Zac's ap scalings are **** now

Sudden impact

Eyeball Collection

Ultimate Hunter

Huge amounts of ap and massive damage

How to play

Abilities

Includes good info for experienced Zac enjoyers as well.

- Even though you should never max Q, it's still just as good and important as the other abilities. I don't recommend engaging at all (in lane) before first hitting Q
- Q → () AA and you can jump on them for free as they can't dodge or cancel your E followed by R, this is the best zac combo there is and you should try to use it in every fight for example to cc chain the enemy adc. They can dodge E but not flash auto.
- Keep in mind that it often has the longest cd because you don't put levels on it
- Q gives vision so sometimes it's better to let it stay instead of knocking invisibility champions so your teammates can target them

- Max this vs melee champs you can't oneshot using E.
- Try to use it every time they come in range to auto you or a minion (good with )
- W → Q → E and you get another W after collecting the blobs
- It's useful to know where the blobs will fly, it's not random. If an enemy champion is near (1000 range) the blobs will fall between you two a little to the side zac is facing at. So if you are out of the range and face away from the enemy while using W to minions, the blobs will drop behind you to be safely picked up to heal
- Maxing W deals more damage than E. Not just long auto attack fights, W deals more damage in a fast combo aswell which is the reason why "oneshotting" bruisers is possible aswell

- If you need to have a small E cooldown (vs for example), put levels on it. If you max W, E will have a 24 second cooldown
- Maxing E is a very good option aswell, since it gives range, reduces the cooldown and the damage is not bad either.
- The basic damage rule is: E max for oneshotting/burst, W for more damage
- With 3lvl E you can jump from behind a wall to chain someone under turret
- With 4lvl E you can jump from out of vision to chain a melee under turret (lvl 5 for ranged)

- Increases healing from blobs
- Increases range for collecting blobs.
- Always use R before Flashing instead of Flash ulting, because it reduces the time enemies have to react to it

Note for newbies: you don't have to spam all your abilities during the first second; if you hit your Q you can wait around for your jungler to come closer and then auto. Same with E and R - Let them take a step or two before bouncing them back under turret. Every second is crucial when they are taking turret damage. Some champions you can't do that with like or because they will use their E to cancel the rest of the CC.

Items/Build

Bad item imo. Too long cooldown so you can't use it with every ult. The amount of healing is really sad.

Does everything better than and is cheaper. Buy when behind. Buy when someone else goes . Buy against karthus ziggs etc.

I don't like it because the fight needs to be really long for it to actually do anything. You will still get oneshot. It has really low damage and forces you to build tank items to be actually good. It's a strong item, just really expensive and there are better options.

You can't stack it effectively in fights with Zac so just don't even bother.

The best undoubted king of all mythics. Gonna get nerfed in 13.17 ill update later maybe.

Buy this every single game and don't sell it before you really need the space.

Always rush against ad top. If fed ap jungle gets fed is enough and then mythic.

Don't build ap items it's waste of gold if not +5k ahead. Don't build ap items it's waste of gold if not +5k ahead. Don't build ap items it's waste of gold if not +5k ahead. Don't build ap items it's waste of gold if not +5k ahead. Don't build ap items it's waste of gold if not +5k ahead. Don't build ap items it's waste of gold if not +5k ahead.

Every time there is ap in enemy team u should build this.

Only build this when enemy has no antiheal or a lot of true damage.

Worse option than the other two.

You need a lot of armor for the passive to deal damage and sometimes the antiheal can be hard to proc aswell. Not that good in assasin item meta.

Strong situational item.

When you can't proc antiheal with

Always viable and really good on Zac every time.

Only when you really need the tenacity.

Only when you really really need the passive.

Good against slowing champs like and and with (helps to dodge his abilities aswell).

Only when you're miles ahead and want the damage.

Laning

Levels 1-2
- Don't immediately level any ability, because if you invade or stack for enemy invade E is good. If you go late invade with jungler or in other 2v2 situations Q is good. If you need to give a good leash and start farming properly W is good.
- If jungler starts bot side you can sit in mid bush and try to quickly E enemy mid laner, if you don't waste time you won't lose minions and they often flash or lose a lot of HP.
- DO NOT PUSH. Zac's early is really weak vs everyone so only last hit the minions. You need to make the enemy minion wave stronger so it starts pushing towards your turret. In big majority of the games the enemy just accepts that I'm not taking the prio, but if they don't. Bait them to auto you or throw an ability on you. Anything to make even that 1 minion difference.
- Just sit back and chill, spam your 7lvl token. 7 minions don't matter if that's how you stay safe until it's safe for you to leave the turret.

Levels 3-5
- When you're about to hit level 3 junglers pathing top should be about to step on top lane. At this point the wave should be somewhere under your turret. Don't just let the 3 waves and cannon crash so the enemy can just fall back and recall for free. Tank the minions a little if needed so the enemy stays and can't recall. If he does then he loses minions.
- If you know the enemy has warded the bush and even if he hasn't you can make a stupid engage and use everything included on the enemy. You should get any champ to below 300hp for the jungler to finish and save you from your passive. Works stupidly often in every elo.
- There is a different playstyle against every champion as implied in "Matchups", but still against every champion I sit under turret and farm. Maybe it's because I am an insecure nerd but I enjoy farming under turret while being poked. And it seems to work.(For me. I don't mind being dominant in mid, but in top it's risky bcs most top and jg champs have cc to cancel E so you're very vulnerable in the long lane)
- No need to spam recall if your passive is up since ure safe under turret.

Levels 6+
- Now you should be thinking about ways to kill the enemy because even if everything goes wrong R and passive should probably save you.
- When your W is at least lvl 3 you should be able to start spamming it with vs most champions. For example or can't outpoke you when W is being maxed
- Every mathup is different but every single champion dies if you make the turret hit them enough times
- Pretend to back off and recall but go behind a wall or hide in a bush/alcove and jump on them when they go for plates
• When only 3 ranged minions and 1 melee minion is left, let go of your E and land on the ranged minions.
• Ranged minions die and you can Q on the last melee minion.
• Enemy takes turret aggro and you R + , they die.
- They will expect it after a time or two but you're an omega cringe cheeser and do that 10 times in row.
- Finishing sunfire is huge if you're not behind and even if u are
- Q flash auto E R them under turret

I'm pretty confident my turret gets an assist on way over half of my solo kills in top.

After laning
- Just don't split push and afk in side lane, ur team needs you. Dont take cs from carries. Be a cc machine 3000 gold behind and still dealing the most damage.
- If the enemies have hullbreaker split pushers, someone else has to take care of them on sidelane or then you need play so aggressive as 5 that they lose the other side of the map.
- Trust your Q Flash Auto E W R W W W W W W damage and don't be a *****. Playing safe on zac does not work (except if ur team can 4v5 even without u).
- Even tho the gold difference compared to junglers might not be that huge, the level difference often is. Lane is stronger than jungle :) fight me

Good to know

- Some champions are better at oneshotting your passive than others so you can't always trust it. You shouldn't just die next to a volibear bcs he will oneshot your passive. Camille most likely cant.
- Don't be afraid to roam especially vs counter matchups. Max E vs Sett or Darius and jump on enemy Viktor in mid when they freeze in top and jungler isn't there to help you.
- Champions like and will ruin your life so don't even try to jump on them, focus on other enemies or use Q flash AA E R on them.
- Take a look into Q interaction with low hp minions and monster, easy to secure cannons with it under turret
- Wait out proc before using health potion, because that way you get more hp back bcs of the missing health thingy on it. Not a lot, but small things add up.