Guide Details x Introduction x Socials Essentials x Runes x Summoner Spells x Itemization x Gameplay

End x Conclusion x Update Log

Introduction

Heyy, I am Erknaite! I am Grandmaster, peaked 599 LP playing exclusively Zac with 63% winrate reaching Rank 4 Zac EUW. I have been playing League since Season 8, I have 4 million points on Zac and I strive to be the best Zac OTP in the world.

I made this guide due to a lack of updated guides on Season 13 and a big amount of requests from people wanting to learn Zac.

In this guide I will explain runes and item builds. However I won't go in depth with how to play Zac mechanically because he is not that mechanically demanding to begin with.

Season 14 Split 1 Peak

Socials
Twitch - I am striving to be a successful Twitch Streamer. Be sure to follow, my purpose is to make it educational and entretaining.

Twitter - Where I discuss about league, post memes and other stuff.

Youtube - This is going to be my channel where I will upload selected gameplay, work in progress currently.

Discord - My server where you can ask me any Zac related questions and talk with other members.

Aftershock

Aftershock provides you safety when you engage in providing you bonus Armor and Magic Resist when immobilizing enemies with Stretching Strikes, Elastic Slingshot or Let's Bounce!. Legend: Haste is important this season because of the lack of ability haste in the game. It stacks pretty quickly by clearing camps and getting takedowns. Triumph provides you with a heal on takedown which can help you live a lot of scenarios that you wouldn't make out alive otherwise, the gold is a nice bonus. Conqueror Conqueror is the best rune for Zac when the enemy team is quite tanky and has very little burst damage and excels in sustained damage as it provides you Ability Power when hitting abilities, and 8% healing based on your damage dealt. Enemy Team Example: Top: Ornn | Jungle: Hecarim | Mid: Sylas | ADC: Jinx | Support: Leona The only downside of this rune is that you lack the tankiness when engaging but shouldn't be an issue when picked in the right scenario.

FLASH Flash is Zac’s most important tool to guarantee game winning engages with your Stretching Strikes after landing Elastic Slingshot. Can also be used for Let's Bounce! + Flash combo to surprise enemies.

SMITEI think it's kinda self explanatory why you go Smite on jungle.

The Erknaite Build Template

I came up with this build template that anyone can use for Zac in their games with the objective of being simple, straightforward and successful.

It was made with the intention to balance all the stats you need against each type of team compositions with maximum efficiency. Item order can vary depending on your needs throughout the game, you don't have to follow the image restrictly, it's just a way to guide you.







Early Core Items

Mosstomper Seedling Mosstomper Seedling provides shield and tenacity. It's a good pet vs teams with burst and/or CC. You don't need to buy Health Potion because Zac's clear is healthy enough and it's better to save that tiny bit of gold for your early spikes.

Dark Seal Dark Seal is the best item in the early game for Zac as it provides you free 55 AP when you reach 10 stacks which is fairly easy to do on a Tank like Zac that has very low deaths. You may ask, why is 55 AP that good on him? Zac has one of the highest AP ratios in the game specially on his Unstable Matter which has a 3% max HP per 100 AP ratio. You only sell the item when you buy your 6th item.

Fated Ashes Fated Ashes is a really strong component early game that provides you AP and a massive amount of clear speed.

Ionian Boots of Lucidity Ionian Boots of Lucidity are a must to rush after Liandry's Torment your first item as Zac scales exponentially with ability haste. more Haste = more Abilities = more Blobs = more Abilities = more Blobs ... which increases your damage and sustain significantly.

Armor Items

Randuin’s Omen Randuin's Omen is very effective vs Crit champions like ADCs and some Melee champions such as Yasuo, Yone and Tryndamere.

Thornmail Thornmail is very good vs Heavy Healing auto attack based champions and draintank items such as Blade of the Ruined King.

Knight's Vow Knight's Vow has similar stats to Iceborn Gauntlet but it's way cheaper, it's a good alternative when you need to enable a carry on your team as it provides them damage reduction and the damage they deal to enemies is converted as healing to you.

Unending Despair Unending Despair is a good option if the other Armor items above are suboptimal. It provides you with great sustain especially after the buffs to its passive cooldown.

Magic Resist Items

Spirit Visage Spirit Visage is arguably one of the best items in the game for Zac as it provides you healing amplification which makes you almost invincible at Lvl 16 when your passive Cell Division spikes and your blobs start healing for 8% of your Max Health.

Abyssal Mask Abyssal Mask is extremely cheap and gives you up to 100 Magic Resist and 20% Magic Resist shred. Consider buying it if your team has a lot of magic damage which will result in the enemy team stacking magic resist.

Force of Nature Force of Nature provides you with a ton of magic resist and a decent amount of movement speed. Consider buying this against comps with heavy damage over time champions such as Brand, Cassiopeia and Azir

Health and AP Items

Liandry's Torment Liandry's Torment is a really good as a 1st item rush on Zac. Its burn helps with clear a lot and provides you with great damage early game.

Warmog's Armor Warmog's Armor is an amazing option if the enemy team has a lot of percent penetration which would make Jak'Sho, The Protean a much weaker option

Riftmaker Riftmaker is a good alternative AP option for Zac in long fights against tankier targets as it provides you with 10% damage amp and 10% omnivamp [100% effect in AoE] when fully stacked and it converts your bonus HP into AP.

Cosmic Drive Cosmic Drive is the best AP option when the enemy team is mostly squishy and can kite you easily as it provides you a lot of movement speed and ability haste.

Morellonomicon Consider buying Morellonomicon if the enemy team has non-auto attack based heavy healing such as Soraka, Vladimir and Aatrox.

Mejai's Soulstealer Mejai's Soulstealer is the cheapest AP option you can get, although risky, it has a very big reward giving you up to 145 AP at 25 stacks for only 1250 gold (considering you already have Dark Seal).

Void Staff Consider Void Staff as replacement on your AP slot if the enemy team is going to stack a lot of Magic Resist against you.

The Rabadon's Deathcap of the Tanks

Jak'sho, the Protean Jak'Sho, The Protean is insane on Zac as it provides health and a lot of Armor and Magic Resist with its 30% resistances amplification! It's the equivalent of Rabadon's Deathcap for Tanks.

Zac Gameplay Guides

This is the best condensed guide with Tips and Tricks showing gameplay from the best Zac OTP in Korea

The items are outdated in the video but the gameplay is the most important part!

Play Video

I also recommend to watch this video that goes through how to play Zac macro wise.

Play Video

Thanks for Reading!
I hope this guide could help you learn Zac's builds, runes and gameplay (watch the video very important!!!!).

If you have any more questions, contact me on Discord or Twitter, all socials are linked in the beginning of the guide.
Make sure to follow me on Twitch as I will be streaming my journey to Challenger in the beginning of the Season and limit testing during Preseason!!

Update Log

Patch 14.11 Runes chapter: - Updated Secondary Runes and Rune Shards Itemization chapter: - Updated The Erknaite Template - Minor Changes

Patch 14.10 Runes chapter: - Updated Rune Shards Itemization chapter: - Updated The Erknaite Template - Liandry's Torment build is back - Re-added Unending Despair - Added Fated Ashes - Removed Kaenic Rookern and Bami's Cinder

Patch 14.5 Itemization chapter: - Updated The Erknaite Template - Sunfire Aegis buffs

Patch 14.3 Runes chapter: - Updated Aftershock and Conqueror runepages Itemization chapter: - Updated The Erknaite Template - Removed Iceborn Gauntlet and Unending Despair - Added Force of Nature

Patch 14.1 Season 14 just dropped, a lot has changed so make sure to read everything again