How to win lane as Graves against Zac · 30.77% win rate over 13 Emerald+ games · Updated 2026-07-27
| Stage | Favoured | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Level 1 | Zac | Zac wins Level 1 — you have one ability and only one Quickdraw charge, and even a clumsy blob can soak your point-blank shells and trade back while you're stuck in his face to deal damage. |
| Level 2 | Even / skill | Roughly even at 2 — you get a second ability but no Smoke Screen yet, and he can't sling-engage you for a free pick, so neither side fully commits. |
| Level 3 | Graves | Your one stage: at 3 your Quickdraw weave-in, point-blank shell burst, and Smoke Screen blind let you win a short melee trade before he reaches blob sustain. |
| Levels 4-5 | Even / skill | Skill window 4-5 — your stacked Quickdraw armor wins an extended fight, but he heals your shell damage off his passive cells, so it comes down to catching him with E down. |
| Level 6 | Zac | Zac owns 6 — his R flings and re-bounces you so your kiting is worthless, and his blob regen out-lasts your Collateral Damage burst. |
| First item | Zac | First-item Zac out-sustains your Eclipse spike — passive blobs heal through your shell DPS faster than you can reload your two-round magazine. |
| Two+ items | Zac | He out-scales hard at 2+ items — your melee-range burst bounces off his HP and he becomes a multi-engage frontline tank you can't kill or kite. |
Zac is squishy and clumsy at Level 1, but with one ability and no second Quickdraw charge you concede that first window anyway. Your real shot is the Level 2-3 spike: dash in with Quickdraw, dump a point-blank shell spread, then drop Smoke Screen directly on him so his return autos and Q poke miss while you reload your two shells — that makes the trade one-sided. The danger is his E sling: if it's up, never hug your own side wall, because he'll launch in from off-screen, knock you up, and burst you with a jungler on top. Bait that engage out and the lane stays survivable.
The full Graves vs Zac report continues with the mid-game plan, the late-game and teamfight plan, every power spike to play around, and the win conditions for both sides — plus cooldown tracking and the live enemy-jungle tracker inside the app.
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Playing the other side? Zac vs Graves guide →
All Graves top lane matchups →