Xin Zhao is a tanky DPS style champion similar to Olaf. He has great ganking abilities with his slow and knock-up from Three Talon Strike. Xin Zhao has an incredible laning presence and is very proficient in 1v1 battles and in team fights.
This Xin Zhao guide aims to be a basic and simple introduction on basic strategy that should be adopted when playing Xin Zhao, it is recommended for people just starting to use Xin Zhao.
This Xin Zhao guide aims to be a basic and simple introduction on basic strategy that should be adopted when playing Xin Zhao, it is recommended for people just starting to use Xin Zhao.
Xin Zhao Abilities
Tireless Warrior (Passive) Xin Zhao's passive essentially gives him free life-steal. It is great at keeping you alive early game but relies on tonnes of attack speed to be a factor late game. This effect also triggers on towers, allowing you to push towers while recovering health. -
Three Talon Strike The primary utility of this skill comes from the knock-up effect it provides, it also adds some decent damage, but it is spread over 3 attacks. The damage boost is negligible until late game when you have sufficient attack speed. -
Battle Cry Xin Zhao passively gains attack speed from this skill, which can also be activated to double the attack speed bonus, this allows xin zhao to eat through towers. However, its main use comes from its ability to reduce Xin Zhao's cooldowns by a whole second every attack, this is another Xin Zhao ability that gets better with attack speed. -
Audacious Charge An amazing ability that allows Xin Zhao to close the gap between him and his enemies while slowing them in the process. This is a very effective ganking ability and combined with Three Talon Strike gives him decent crowd control abilities. -
Crescent Sweep (Ultimate) Xin Zhao's ultimate makes him a great initiator when built tanky or a 2nd initiate behind the tank. Your goal with Xin Zhao's ultimate is to hit as many enemies as possible early in a team fight to maximise your damage and defensive bonus. This ultimate will also increase your armor and magic resistance allowing you to survive the fight.
Ability Order
Ultimate > Audacious Charge > Battle Cry > Three Talon Strike
Audacious Charge works well when maxed first as it provides a powerful slow which allows you to get all 3 hits in to activate Three Talon Strike and gives your lane partner plenty of time to hurt the enemy as well, it also gives you abit more burst damage to harass with early on. Battle Cry is maxed 2nd to allow you to hold off on attack speed items. While Three Talon Strike is maxed last as it is used mostly for its knock-up utility.
Runes
Rune Book for Xin Zhao
Yellow (Seals) - Armor
Blue (Glyphs) - Magic Resistance
Purple (Quintessences) - Attack Speed // Armor Penetration // Movement Speed
Getting a mixture of armor penetration (Marks) and attack speed (Quints) is very effective on Xin Zhao as it gives him solid penetration while also boosting his early game attack speed which is a vital stat for him. Armor on Seals is preferred to give you some early defenses while also allowing you to jungle. Finally Glyphs are best run as magic resistance to boost your defenses against casters. If you don't have attack speed quintessences available you can run armor penetration instead, you can also run movement speed if you find Xin Zhao slow.
Summoner Spells
Best Summoner Spells:
-Exhaust
-Ghost
Xin Zhao works great with Exhaust and Ghost. Exhaust is great in 1v1 situations and can help Xin Zhao drop the enemy carry in a team fight. Ghost also works really well enabling Xin Zhao to get in and out of battles while also making a great ganking skill when combined with the slowing effect of Audacious Charge ensuring nobody escapes from Xin Zhao.
Other Good Summoner Spells:
-Ignite
-Flash
-Smite
Xin Zhao has a few other summoner spell options. Ignite can be taken to replace Exhaust and can allow you to pick up some early game kills and allow you to transition strongly into mid-late game while also being a great counter to healing based teams. Flash is a must have if you know you are the main form of initiation on your team and should replace Ghost, this allows you to Audacious Charge in, pop your ultimate and Flash away once you get focused to get away (and then possibly returning to pick off low health enemies). Smite is another option if you decide to jungle with Xin Zhao but is not covered in this guide.
-Exhaust
-Ghost
Xin Zhao works great with Exhaust and Ghost. Exhaust is great in 1v1 situations and can help Xin Zhao drop the enemy carry in a team fight. Ghost also works really well enabling Xin Zhao to get in and out of battles while also making a great ganking skill when combined with the slowing effect of Audacious Charge ensuring nobody escapes from Xin Zhao.
Other Good Summoner Spells:
-Ignite
-Flash
-Smite
Xin Zhao has a few other summoner spell options. Ignite can be taken to replace Exhaust and can allow you to pick up some early game kills and allow you to transition strongly into mid-late game while also being a great counter to healing based teams. Flash is a must have if you know you are the main form of initiation on your team and should replace Ghost, this allows you to Audacious Charge in, pop your ultimate and Flash away once you get focused to get away (and then possibly returning to pick off low health enemies). Smite is another option if you decide to jungle with Xin Zhao but is not covered in this guide.
Masteries
From the offense tree you want to grab improved exhaust, critical strike, attack speed and some armor penetration.
While also dropping 6 points into the defensive tree to boost both your defenses.
Finally you want to move down the utility tree picking up improved Ghost, reduced death timer, improved experience, mana regeneration and extra buff duration.
Item Build
Final Item Build:
-Mercury's Treads
-Youmuu's Ghostblade
-Sword Of The Divine
-Frozen Mallet
-Banshee's Veil
-Randuin's Omen
Steps/Reasoning:
-You can start with either Boots & 3 Health Potions if you can play aggressively in your lane. Or Cloth Armor & 5 Health Potions for a defensive lane focusing on sustainability.
-From here you want to build Mercury's Treads and a Youmuu's Ghostblade as your first core items.
-Now your items will be entirely game dependent due to Xin Zhao's multiple build paths, your best bet is to grab a Phage and then build defensive for the impeding teamfights. Items such as Banshee's Veil and Randuin's Omen are strong choices.
-As you need more offensive items consider Sword of the Divine for a massive attack speed boost. While also finishing your Frozen Mallet, giving you strong slowing powers and a health boost.
Alternatives:
-Black Cleaver (If you need more damage output)
-Force of Nature(For magical heavy teams)
-Madred's Bloodrazor (A strong attack speed boost while also boosting your damage output)
-Wit's End (Solid attack speed increase with magic resistance)
-Atma's Impaler (A great item to boost your damage as all your defensive items contain health)
General Xin Zhao Tips
- Sometimes as Xin Zhao a well-time suicide with your ultimate will benefit the team. If you are likely to die it is often worth getting your ultimate off on as many enemies as possible.
- Xin Zhao can be built very differently each game, see what your team needs and build accordingly. Sometimes it will be pure damage, sometimes off-tank with and sometimes you will need to build to solely initiate with your ultimate.
- Don't forget to activate Battle Cry before you fight, it will help to refresh your cooldowns, allowing you to cast Three Talon Strike and Audacious Charge several times. It also gives you a nice attack speed bonus.
Early Game Tips (1-6)
- Bush camping as Xin Zhao is extremely effective, use Audacious Charge on any enemy that comes to close.
- If you need HP and the enemy cannot or is not harassing you, focus on getting lots of auto-attacks in without getting hurt as you will recover HP every 3 attacks.
- Audacious Charge and Three Talon Strike can net Xin Zhao lots of early game kills with your laning partner's help.
- Early it very hard to get a knock-up using Three Talon Strike on your enemy due to your low attack speed and the small slow on Audacious Charge. To counter this activate Three Talon Strike and use one or two attacks on minions before charging to the enemy.
Mid Game Tips (7-12)
- Start jungling and collecting the neutral buffs, then start ganking and pushing lanes appropriately.
- You are a very strong tower destroyer at this stage of the game with your Battle Cry active and the health regeneration from your passive every 3 hits.
- Your damage is not amazing at this point of the game, but your slow from Audacious Charge and knock-up from Three Talon Strike give Xin Zhao amazing team utility.
- Be careful when using your ultimate to initiate on the enemy team, you are unlikely to be tanky enough yet. So use it in 2v2 and 3v3 situations mostly. In full team fights, initiate only after the tank.
Late Game Tips (13-18)
- If you are building as the team initiator its time to start jumping in with Audacious Charge and your ultimate.
- If your team doesn't have a jungler it should be your job to control the jungle, grab the various buffs and be aware of the dragon's status.
- Your main team fight goal should involve targeting the enemy carry and activating your ultimate to hit as many enemies as possible. Your ultimate is best used early as it deals damage based on their current health. Using it early will also boost your survivability from the start of the fight.
- You can use Battle Cry on minion waves in between fights to bring your ultimate back from cooldown.
