Zac vs Locke Counter Pick

Zac wins this matchup comfortably: 60.3% across 727 recorded games on patch 16.13.1, rated Easy. The main factor is how well he holds up against a short-range duellist. Locke finishes engagements with Ashen Pursuit, which teleports him and then dashes him onto his next target, and he follows up with Purgatory, capable of executing champions who are already damaged. Both abilities depend on Zac being low on health, yet very little in Zac’s kit pushes him that way.

• Health: 685 at level 1 and 2,538 at level 18, compared with Locke’s 655 and 2,508. Cell Division blobs add further recovery without taking an item slot.
• Resource: Zac runs on health instead of mana, so a drawn-out fight never leaves him without casts. Soul Ignition hurts Locke and feeds Zac’s attack speed and move speed in return.
• Defences: Locke deals physical damage, which 33 armour scaling up to 112.9 blunts well. Zac’s own armour ceiling of 103.4 is the lower figure of the two, so he is not the one falling behind on that front.

The game plan follows from this. Unstable Matter is based on a percentage of maximum health, so Locke’s resistance purchases do little to reduce it. Stretching Strikes that pulls a second enemy into range keeps both targets inside the explosion. Silver Stake deserves respect as the real counter, because its on-hit magic damage increases with the target’s missing health. Zac’s difficulty rating of 8, against Locke’s 5, is the true cost of this win rate, and it assumes you can land clean slingshot angles rather than relying on generous ones.