Zack
Infographic (April 2023)
Character Notes & Recommendations
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Summon Board Passive selections:
Shiva choose 3 / 5 / 7
Ramuh choose 3 / 5 / 7
Odin choose 3 / 4 / 7
Bahamut choose 3 / 4 / 6
Usuals:
Ifrit, Brothers 4 / 5 / 7
Leviathan, Pandemonium, Alexander, Diabolos 4 / 5 / 6
For more details and help with summons, check Summon Hub!
Sphere Recommendations
NOTE: The sphere letters below are hyperlinked to our Sphere Hub which lists all available spheres sorted by effect!A Spheres: BRV DMG or ATK to make him hit even harder. Since he ignores DEF, BRV DMG will help fight reductions more.
B Sphere: Snow, Gladio or Basch's are all good.
How-to-Play Notes
These notes are thanks to the work of Renki#4255, who proactively wrote these notes, allowing Cel to edit & add them here.Open with Zack's EX to get his shield up or his BT finisher if it's time to start tanking hits like a champ.
Tl;dr: Zack’s LD enables Zack to buff the party’s defenses making him a decent choice as a tank for aoe fights on top of his strong single target tanking capabilities. His single target tanking does rely on lock so any enemies lock immune will hurt his viability as he gains considerable damage when being targeted or vs an ALL attack. Most important things for Zack are to maintain Lock and his overhead, Embrace Your Dreams. Zack's FR revolves around his own turn as allies aren't raising the FR Bonus much and only Zack gets the HP DMG & Limit from his FR effect. It makes a great FR Echo though!
Chain Slash (S1) will trigger twice when Zack is targeted and grants Zack turn rate up and inflicts Lock on all targets.
Rush Assault (S2) ignores defense and grants Zack a stat boost and HP regen and extends his own buffs by 2 turns. It can also trigger 1 iteration of Chain Slash against enemies targeting him.
Apocalypse (EX) inflicts lock on all targets and gives Zack a BRV barrier that absorbs BRV damage until broken.
Meteor Shots (LD) heals the party based on damage dealt, grants a free ability use, inflicts Lock, and grants a +1 to his Embrace Your Dreams overhead and extends its duration to 12 turns. Embrace Your Dreams gains stacks after taking BRV or HP damage (including 0's reduced by his barrier) up to 5 stacks. This grants Zack stat boosts to damage and grants the party HP regen and reduces HP and BRV damage taken.
Zack's free skill use is likely best on Rush Assault.
The Price of Freedom (BT) allows Zack to redirect AoE HP damage toward himself while also being unable to die from normal HP attakcs. He also provides the party with Aura versions of his BRV Barrier (his shield buff, but not as taking up a buff slot) along with other offensive auras.
BT phase: S1 -> LD -> S2 -> EX -> S2 -> FR
Scorcher Blaze (FR) is focused heavily on Zack as his Force Time aura only affects him and his FR bonuses center around Zack for biggest gains:
Acting member heals HP: +40%
Anyone can handle this condition and HP regen counts, however then we see...
BRV DMG reduced/absorbed by buff: 20%
This is nice for when you can't prevent enemies from acting
Zack attacks an enemy targeting him: 40%
This is a Zack only condition meaning he's the only one who can get 80% on turn in an aggressive team/if he uses BT phase.
Also note, he offers 5 HP attacks as part of his enhanced FR ability which makes for a great Echo attack at the end of Force Time!