Xin Zhao Build Guide

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Xin Zhao, The Seneschal of Bromacia!

written by FaidedWrath

Xin Zhao Build

Table of Contents

  • Introduction

    Hello, im FaidedWrath. I mastered Xin 'caus he is one heck of an OP champ. I played him for about 200 matches and use an old guide which i changed a bit to my own playstyle. I made this guide just for you too at least try this great champ, and to get some comments on my further guidemaking. Yes this is my first guide, dont go too though on me. Please comment and rate.

    ps. Work is in progress, i still want to add an laning, laneparters and a summoner spell section.

  • Changelog

    Luckly, there hasn't been changes in both the items i use and xin abilitys

  • Abilities

    [spell=Tireless Warrior]
    Some extra lane stay if you can get your ass to the enemy minions and makes you a little tougher to kill one on one. Not the best passive, not the worst.

    Three Talon Strike
    Ahhh your personal paintrain. It'll not only do a lot of extra damage. You'll also get a knockup on the 3rd strike, that, and it resets your auto attack timer. Bear this in mind if you're going jungle Xin. I'm stacking AS hard becaus I want to get people in the air ASAP.

    Battle Cry
    Attack speed on the passive, active is dubble the passive + a 1 sec CDR on each hit for 5 seconds. This guide will get us a nice 2.5 attacks per second. Which means a 12.5 second CDR on all our abilities, this means we can knock up and charge 2 people in a team fight and our ult will be on around 45 seconds afterwards. The passive part will stay on even after the effect expires, so we can still kill faster than the speed of sound.

    Audacious Charge
    our gapcloser/pokestick/I'm going to towerdive your ass off in a minute skill. It's a click on charge that does AoE damage and a small slow that will be enough to prevent the enemy from running away from our knockup. It's a bit mana inefficient, so don't use it too much.

    Crescent Sweep
    A low cooldown ult which grants us MR and armor on each enemy champ hit and does percentage physical damage. It's a nice initiate skill after your charge. Always take care that you hit at least 3 champs so that you'll get a nice bonus. Believe me, you'll melt in a team fight without it. The enemies don't tend to like 10-0-5 Xin Zhao's

  • Masteries + Runes



    On red we take the normal AD runes, Greater Mark of Desolation. Just to make those early kills easier.

    Yellow is either for Greater Seal of Vitality or Greater Seal of Evasion, that's all up to you. I take Greater Seal of Vitality, because I like health a lot more than a small chance to dodge an attack.

    Blue is Greater Glyph of Focus. The 5% cdr in early game will make last hitting with Three Talon Strike a lot easier.

    We spend our 3 Quint slots on Greater Quintessence of Fortitude, i also see some potential in Greater Quintessence of Desolation, but this will make you weaker and easier to kill.


    For red we take Greater Mark of Alacrity. That's for surviving a lvl 1 ancient golem with our passive, tireless warrior.

    Yellow is Greater Seal of Resilience. Just for some survivability.

    Blue is again Greater Glyph of Focus. Same reason as the lane Xin, you'll need it to kill a golem quick.

    Our Quints are again for Greater Quintessence of Fortitude. This will add to our suvivability to kill the golem.


    I take the 0-21-9 build for those early on tower dives and the extra attack speed. The early lvling is also a bigger pleasure.

    For jungling I take the 20-0-10. This gives increased buff duration for the ganks and some faster leveling.

  • Skilling Order

    Skilling really depends on your play style. You can either go for an easy laning and max your charge first for the harassment or you could go for the kills with three talon strike, with one(1) point in charge. I use the kill way, because a well played Xin is the best assassin you could wish for.

    For jungle counts the same, there is only one difference. You take Battle Cry before your Charge for the CDR.

  • Summoner Spells

    Spells that i use
    Ignite For that little extra true damage for either the ganks or the towerdives.
    Flash For a quick getaway/gapcloser for the charge. This will also help greatly with not dieing due to turret fire when diving.
    Smite You'll need it for jungling, nuff said.

    Orther good spells
    Ghost Same as for flash, but on a shorter cd and doesn't teleport but speeds you up.
    Exhaust Makes carrysquating ever easier.
    Cleanse For those nasty CC's that prevents you from diving or using your ult in a teamfight
    Teleport Good for going to you lane quickly after recalling.
    Heal Well, it's just another way to live thoughout a fight, but i usualty dont take it 'cause ill live anyway, and if i die, 200 HP won't save you anyway.
    [spell=Rally] Ever seen a full minion push have an extra 35 AD? no? then you should try it once, its fun :D... not much used on anything els, so you could better get another spell.

    Are you serious?!
    Clarity Why?.. just why?
    [spell=Fortify] Let you tank take it.
    Clairvoyance Thats a nice good spell... for that support to your left.
    Revive THIS IS THE BEST SUMMONER SPELL IN THE GAME!!!! Niels gtfo out of my guide...

  • Build

    Now for the part that most people go for in a guide, your items. As I've said before I use an attack speed build for Xin. This is because he has 3 skills that benefit from a high AS, his passive procs more, with 2.5 attacks per second, he gains 75 HP for each blow for approximately every 1.2 seconds. His active Battle Cry gives you 12.5 seconds CDR on every skill, not including the skills themsselves. Three talon strike has a faster knock up with AS.

    Enough explaination for today. Lets start the fun.

    We start with a Dagger and a Health Potion. This is because your passive heals more with attack speed than the 3% lifesteal from Doran's Blade.

    Next recall you try to buy Boots of Speed and a Recurve Bow for more attack speed. If you've killed already you could go for Berserker's Greaves and a Dagger and Recurve Bow.

    Up next, assuming you've got 2 kills already (easily possible) and ganked mid. Get Sword of the Divine and start working on your Youmuu's Ghostblade starting with an Avarice Blade.

    Next mid game will start you'll be the proud owner of around 5 kills and assist and you lane will be pushed already. Work on that nice little item called Randuin's Omen for some nice extra survivabillity and some soft CC against types like Ashe, Yi or AD TF. Then go for The Black Cleaver

    Most games will end here. You either protected the carry in such a way that hes so fed that he aced the enemies in 4 seconds or you and your team failed to do right and you got killed too much by focus. If it's still going, go for Infinity Edge and a The Bloodthirster and slaughter them all. That will usualy does the trick.

    So to recap.

    Berserker's Greaves
    Sword of the Divine
    Youmuu's Ghostblade

    Mid game items
    Randuin's Omen
    The Black Cleaver

    Why won't this game end!
    Infinity Edge
    The Bloodthirster

  • Jungling. (build and path)

    Well then, it's time for the jungle path. Jungle Xin isn't used much because for his weakness and slow clearing time. I usualy dont say that im jungle Xin, but gank Xin. This is because of the fact that you can gank pretty good. This parts include some items you would probably dislike and you could also go for orther items. It's your game, not mine.

    We start with an Elixir of Agility (strangly, there isn't a link to it) and either 6 Health Potion or an Elixer of Agility, 4 Health Potion and a ward. I will start with explaining the no-enemy-junglepath. You take the Elixer because of the increased attack speed and crit for ganking. Yes you heard it right, ull be ganking in less then 6 minutes in game. Go do the golem and ask for a pull. You can go without, but it's not adviced. Learn Battle Cry. Then do wolfs, dubble golem (learn Audacious Charge) and wraights. choke you pots at blue golem and dubble golem. Right before Lizard, choke a hp pot, wait untill its on half, then charge in and kill it. You can now do 2 things. Either the lane which is closest is pushed and you gank, or recall and buy Madred's Razors, then gank. Now the attention part. Watch all the lanes, see if you can gank, and ask your team if they need someone to watch their lanes. Keep you buffs up at all time and never invade the enemy jungle and take 2 camps.

    The counter jungle path is mostly the same, for one exeption. Run straight towards there Lizard camp and put the ward so that you can see both the entrence to the Lizard and the Whaights. If you see the enemy jungler doing the Whaights, run towards their lizard camp (take care that he doesn't see you), sit in the bush and both smite his Lizard and gank the enemy jungler. That will screw up his day.

    Now the build. You already know the start items, so ill keep it short.

    [item=Madred's Bloodrazor]
    Berserker's Greaves

    Mid Game
    Youmuu's Ghostblade
    Randuin's Omen

    Late Game
    The Bloodthirster
    The Black Cleaver

  • Laning

    Now that you know what to build, lets go to the laning. I play fairly agressive in lane, but i get kills form my playstyle so i don't realy care.

    First things first. The famous FB or First Blood. As Xin you don't really need it, but it's always nice to have. Most player will stand at their turrets until the minions are in the lane, so you can either do 2 things.

    1. follow your minions and start last hitting, let you partner sit in the brush on your side. Wait for the moment you reach level 2, quickly learn your charge and pick the squishy one. If you got flash, use you flash to get near them. 9 out of 10 times this will get you the kill if you lanepartner is DPS or caster orientated.
    2.If you are with an support like soraka or janna in the lane. Wait for level 4, push your lane. Then turretdive on the squishy. Make absolutly sure that the squishy is on half health. Charge, ignite, Three Talon Strike, then flash out behind the turret. The support will keep you alive and you got a high enough base armor to survive it.You can also use this when commiting normaly

    Then the basic things. Last hit the minions, earn a heckload of gold, become stronger. If you are fighting aginst like an Lux / Anivia combination, try to charge/Three talon strike them to get them low, then back off. This will prevent you from dieing due to harashment. One basic rule of Xin is: you're an assasin/fighter. Abuse it as much as you can by poking, then backing off. You will die if you get initiated on.

    Commiting as Xin isn't that hard as long as you can use you combinations right. Charge in, ult, then activate Three Talon Strike, knock up your target, then activate Battle Cry for the CDR. Sometimes it can be hard knockone somebody up with just the slow on lower levels. If you want to knock up for a kill, activate Three Talon Strike, hit a minion once, charge, hit the enemy champ twice and knock him up. If he has no flash, it's guarenteed to succes.

Do you have your own
Build Guide?

Submitted by FaidedWrath

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