League of Legends news » Zac, the Secret Weapon, Revealed

Zac, the League’s hexchem-fueled Secret Weapon is about to hit the Fields of Justice. Playing this gelatinous champion means striking a balance between health-cost abilities and a unique regeneration mechanic. Here’s your first look at what this blob’s amorphous abilities bring to the table.

 

Abilities

• Cell Division (Passive): When any of Zac’s abilities hit an enemy, a piece of him falls to the ground. Zac can pick up fallen pieces to recover health. When Zac dies he splits into four blobs. These fragments will attempt to reform over a short duration. If any survive, Zac revives with a percentage of his maximum health based on the number of remaining blobs.
• Stretching Strike: Zac throws a two-handed punch that deals damage and slows targets in a line.
• Unstable Matter: Zac’s body explodes outward, dealing flat damage to surrounding enemies. Enemies struck also take damage based on their maximum health.
• Elastic Slingshot: Zac is immobilized as he charges up a dash toward the target location. The range of Elastic Slingshot increases up to a cap as Zac charges the ability. Zac then fires himself towards the target location, damaging and stunning all nearby enemies upon landing.
• Let’s Bounce: Zac bounces into the air, immediately knocking up, slowing and damaging nearby enemies. Once airborne, he bounces three times, dealing damage with each impact.

 

Gameplay

Zac’s AoE damage and self-healing skills provide him with a lot of flexibility on the battlefield. His high level of sustainability makes him an ideal choice whether you’re tearing through the jungle or trading hits in top lane.

In the jungle: Zac’s combination of area damage and healing makes him a natural jungler. If you’re partial to early game aggression, starting with an early lizard buff and spending your second skill point in Elastic Slingshot can open early gank opportunities. Since Zac’s abilities have no mana cost, you might also consider donating an early golem buff to your AP carry. Once the action starts ramping up, you can make use of Elastic Slingshot’s massive range to create sneaky gank opportunities by circumventing popular ward locations.

Top-lane: Zac’s skillset also makes him excel in top lane. His AoE presence allows you to quickly clear waves from your turrets in high-pressure situations or shove the lane when you’re on the offensive. The healing mechanic on Cell Division also helps win exchanges with your lane opponent, allowing you to bully enemies back to base and create opportunities for counter-jungling or ganks. While you’re roaming, the mobility afforded by Elastic Slingshot can help you get the drop on an unsuspecting enemy or escape from sticky situations by hopping over terrain.

Team Fights: As the game progresses, Zac’s extreme mobility and strong crowd control make him a tremendous asset in team fights. With some patience and setup, you can use a fully channeled Elastic Slingshot to deploy Let’s Bounce from huge distances. Once you’re in the thick of it, the additional bounces from your ultimate let you pressure fragile, high-value targets, disrupting enemy positioning as you draw fire off less durable allies. Since every bounce of your ultimate yields healing chunks, you’ll also have the sustainability you need to keep up the attack. If the opposing team making aggressive moves, you can opt to use the knock-up and slow from Let’s Bounce defensively, creating valuable space for the rest of your team to safely disengage. Whether you’re initiating or counter-initiating, Zac has ample crowd control to keep your team out of trouble.

 

Lore

Zac is the product of a Zaun experiment to manufacture a hexchem-engineered supersoldier – the Zaun Amorphous Combatant. Combining brute strength with limitless flexibility, he is a versatile juggernaut: a creative fighter who bounces over obstacles and pounds his foes into submission. Though he was created inside a weapons laboratory, Zac was rescued and adopted by two loving parents who raised him to be a kind and friendly child. As the years passed, he grew up to be a fierce hero, sworn to protect the ordinary, everyday people of Zaun.

Long ago, two Zaun scientists developed an organic substance that could withstand extreme conditions, spontaneously alter its biological structure, and generate tremendous amounts of kinetic force. As the scientists, husband and wife, watched the prototype grow from a spoon-sized droplet to a small blob, they noticed that their creation would respond to their presence. It sprung forward when they called and bounced when they sang. The couple began to see more than an experiment; they saw a small child, filled with affection and joy.

After testing the prototype one evening, the scientists placed the blob back in its cage. It slouched and shuddered in the corner, inconsolably sad. At that moment, the couple realized that their beloved creation wished for a free life outside the lab. They were struck by their conscience and could not allow the prototype to be used as a weapon. The husband and wife fled with the young blob, replacing its weapon designation – Zaun Amorphous Combatant – with a proper name: Zac. In a quiet neighborhood far from the cities of Zaun, the scientists raised Zac as their own child.

Zac was always different from the other children. None had his powers of strength and flexibility, so the couple taught him to tell right from wrong and to use his gifts responsibly. Thanks to the care and affection of his loving parents, Zac lived a peaceful, happy childhood.

That childhood ended when the Zaun laboratory finally found Zac. Unable to replicate the formula used to create the amorphous prototype, the laboratory’s staff never stopped searching for the scientists and their experiment. When they tracked down the family, they threatened to tear it apart. The staff abducted Zac’s parents and demanded that the couple assist in his capture and return. Seized by the fear of losing his freedom and his parents, Zac unleashed every ounce of his raw energy and mass for the very first time. He subdued his parents’ captors, sent the laboratory’s workers fleeing, and brought his loved ones home. From then on, Zac vowed to defend all ordinary lives threatened by extraordinary treachery and wickedness. Originally built to destroy, he now protects the innocent and the helpless.

“Even if you don’t have a spine, you still have to stand up for yourself.” -- Zac