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Xin Zhao Build Guide by

If you ain't Xinnin', you ain't Winnin' [5.21]

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12 Comments League of Legends Build Guide Author BlasiuS

Xin Zhao Build Guide By Updated on

Guide Discussion (12) More Xin Zhao Guides

Spells:

Flash

Smite

Items

Opening

Core Damage

Armor Options

Magic Resist Options

Boots Options

Misc. Items

Example Full Build

Situational Items

Ability Order

Xin Zhao Passive Ability

Threats & Synergies

Threats

Synergies

Extreme Major Even Minor Tiny

Show All

None Low Ok Strong Ideal

Extreme Threats

Ideal Synergies

Elise

Extreme

Elise is one of the few who can out-duel you, but if you have skirmishers and you catch her by surprise you can kill her or force a flash. She will destroy you in counter-ganks so be careful of ganking early-game.

Synergies

Ideal Strong Ok Low None

Introduction

Hi, Platinum jungler here, and I love playing dive champs. And can dive with the best of them.

Auto-attack junglers were relatively not that great in season 4. , while great for auto-attackers, punished strong early-game gankers like by forcing him to choose between ganking and farming.

In season 5, there are new jungle item upgrades, and enchantments. In particular, the synergizes very well with auto-attackers like Xin Zhao. In addition, the enchantment functions similar to the old feral flare, without requiring extensive farming in order to get it.

These new changes improve 's jungling abilities, and now he's much better as a jungler! HUZZAH!

Patch-changes

v5.21

None

Previous Patches

v5.20

None

v5.19

None

v5.18

Relevant changes:

Stalker's Blade - Devourer
BONUS MAGIC DAMAGE PER STACK 1 ⇒ 0.67
SATED DEVOURER DAMAGE ON-HIT 60 ⇒ 50
Stalker's Blade - Warrior - ATTACK DAMAGE 40 ⇒ 45

Devourer got nerfed and Warrior got buffed. Does this mean Warrior is better on Xin now?

Nope.

The synergy between Phantom Hit and + still make Devourer the best enchantment for Xin.

v5.17

None

v5.16

Relevant Changes:

Warmog's Armor
COST 2500 gold ⇒ 2750 gold
BASE HEALTH REGEN 0% ⇒ 200%
REMOVED - LIFEBLOOD No longer passively gains 1% of your max health (tripled if you haven't taken damage within 8 seconds) as health regeneration
NEW - THE STRONGEST MUSCLE UNIQUE Passive - Warmog's Heart: Restores 3% of maximum health per second if damage hasn't been taken within 8 seconds. You only have Warmog's Heart if you have at least 3000 maximum health.
Null-Magic Mantle - TOTAL COST 500 gold ⇒ 450 gold
Negatron Cloak - TOTAL COST 850 ⇒ 800
Spectre's Cowl - MAGIC RESIST 35 ⇒ 40
Spirit Visage
TOTAL COST 2750 gold ⇒ 2700 gold
MAGIC RESIST 55 ⇒ 60
BASE HEALTH REGEN 100% ⇒ 150%
Aegis of the Legion
TOTAL COST 1900 gold ⇒ 1600 gold
BUILD PATH Null-Magic Mantle + Crystalline Bracer + 550 gold
BASE HEALTH REGEN 0% ⇒ 100%
MAGIC RESIST AURA 20 to all nearby units ⇒ 15 to all nearby units
HEALTH REGEN AURA 75% health regen to all nearby units ⇒ 0
Locket of the Iron Solari
TOTAL COST 2800 gold ⇒ 2750 gold
BASE HEALTH REGEN 0% ⇒ 100%
MAGIC RESIST AURA 20 to all nearby units ⇒ 15 to all nearby units
HEALTH REGEN AURA 75% health regen to all nearby units ⇒ 0
SHIELD AMOUNT 60~230 (50 + 10 per champion level) ⇒ 90~345 (75 + 15 per champion level)
SHIELD DURATION5 seconds ⇒ 2 seconds
Glacial Shroud
TOTAL COST 950 gold ⇒ 900 gold
THAT’S HOW ITEMS WORK Iceborn Gauntlet and Zeke’s Harbinger are also 50 gold cheaper
Warden's Mail - TOTAL COST 1050 gold ⇒ 1100 gold
Frozen Heart
TOTAL COST 2450 gold ⇒ 2600 gold
ARMOR 100 ⇒ 90
Thornmail
TOTAL COST 2100 gold ⇒ 2300 gold
REFLECT DAMAGE 30% of the attack ⇒ 15% of the attack
NEWREFLECT RATIO Additionally deals .25 of your bonus armor as damage to the target
Randuin's Omen
TOTAL COST 2850 gold ⇒ 2700 gold
HEALTH 500 ⇒ 400
ARMOR 70 ⇒ 60
SLOW DURATION 2 (+0.5% bonus armor + 0.5% bonus magic resist) seconds ⇒ 4 seconds
NEWCRITICAL BLOCK Reduces incoming critical strike damage by 10%

Wow a lot of item changes! Most of the item changes are on items that Xin Zhao will usually get at some point.

So what's the breakdown on the items?

[*] is a fringe buy, and is mostly bought on Xin if you just want one item to cover mixed damage. Its health regen was buffed but it was made more expensive. Xin wants it for the flat health gain, not the regen, so now it's now less attractive for him, so I recommend not getting it.
[*] / - these items were adjusted a bit so that they weren't universally good. Locket is now harder to use, and neither item gives any health regen. But they still give a MR aura and health, which are the main reasons why Xin wants them. I still recommend this as a 2nd MR item after .
[*] - armor and health nerfed, but the slow duration was changed. It now always does 4 seconds. That means it's a buff if you build less than 400 bonus armor/ad, and a nerf otherwise. For most champs, this is a buff. Finally, it now doesn't reduce attack-speed, it reduces crit damage. This makes it more specialized, basically only being good against marksmen and melee ADCs that build crit ( Yauso/). Because of these changes, I think the armor + health option is a bit more open for Xin. If you want more damage, I think is a great option. If the enemy ADC is fed though, or their team has multiple ADCs, then you should still get the Omen.

v5.15

None

v5.14

Relevant Changes:

Hunter's Machete - MANA REGENERATION 3 mana per second while in combat with monsters ⇒ 4 mana per second while in combat with monsters

Small change, and doesn't really affect Xin Zhao. You're still not going to be able to use that much while fighting monster camps.

v5.13

Relevant Changes:

Battle Cry - Ratio: 0.7 ability power ⇒ 0.5 ability power
Enchantment - Devourer
STARTING ON HIT MAGIC DAMAGE 25 ⇒ 30
LARGE MONSTERS 1 stack per kill ⇒ 1 stack per takedown (kill or assist)
EPIC MONSTERS 1 stack per kill ⇒ 5 stacks per takedown
CHAMPIONS 2 stacks per takedown ⇒ 1 stack per takedown
RIFT SCUTTLER 1 stack per kill ⇒ 2 stacks per takedown
NEW - GHOST DOG While stacking your Devourer, you are accompanied by a Ghost Dog who will grow with stacks
NEWWE'RE GONNA COMBINE - At 30 stacks, Ghost Dog merges with the wielder and the Devourer transforms into...
Sated Devourer
REMOVED - HUNGER Takedowns no longer grow Devourer's damage
NEW - PHANTOM HIT Every other basic attack triggers on-hits twice

A huge change for Xin Zhao, and an insignificant change for Xin Zhao.

Xin has always wanted the Devourer enchantment, but now it synergizes even more with on-hit effects. Applying ALL on-hit effects (including those from other items!) every other hit means that the on-hit effects are 50% stronger! This is powerful enough to change Xin's build around. The guide has been updated to reflect the new build.

v5.12

Relevant Changes:

Swiftness
Swapped positions with Enchanted Armor (Now Tier 1)
1 mastery point ⇒ 2 mastery points
10% slow resistance ⇒ 7.5/15% slow resistance

The defensive tree underwent some changes here, but most of them were further down the tree. However moved to tier 1, and it's worth getting, so the recommended mastery setup has been changed.

v5.11

None

v5.10

Relevant Changes:

Blade of the Ruined King/ Bilgewater Cutlass - Cast Range 450 ⇒ 550

Not a huge change, but free extra 100 range on the Blade/cutlass active is a nice buff.

v5.9

None

v5.8

None

v5.7

None

v5.6

None

v5.5

Relevant Changes:

W - Battle Cry - Base Heal 26/32/38/44/50 ⇒ 30/35/40/45/50
E - Audacious Cry - 70/105/140/175/210 magic damage ⇒ 70/110/150/190/230 magic damage
Jungle Camps -
GROMP ATTACK DAMAGE 90 ⇒ 83
LARGE RAPTOR DAMAGE 55 ⇒ 45
SMALL RAPTOR DAMAGE 20 ⇒ 16
New Skin - Special Agent Xin Zhao

Quite a few changes here! First of all, straight up ability buffs to E and W. W now heals an extra 4 health during the early and mid-game. Pretty big for sustain. In addition, the gromp and raptor damages were lowered, so Xin Zhao can easily have a full health clear in the jungle.

The buffs to his E means that he will be slightly stronger mid-game when he maxes out E. It's only 20 extra damage, but it IS strictly better.

Xin Zhao now easily has one of the highest-health clears of any jungler. Abuse it by going for a fast level 3 gank.

v5.4

Relevant changes:

None

v5.3

Relevant changes:

GREATER YELLOW TRINKET - Yellow trinket's upgrade now stores up to 2 charges.

Definitely level up your yellow trinket any time after level 9 if you have 250g to spare. Having an extra almost-sightstone on the jungler is huge for map control. Highly recommended.

v5.2

Relevant Changes:

ALL TIER 2 JUNGLE ITEMS 350 gold ⇒ 450 gold

This change affected a lot of junglers' early game. However, is a strong-sustain jungler, so he can still clear the jungle with high-health easily. You can use this to your advantage.

Many junglers started by doing 3 camps and then going back, so they could buy their T2 jungle item ASAP. They also had enough money for 2-3 potions. The 2-3 potions is no longer buyable after 3 camps, so if the enemy jungler backs after 3 camps, they can afford the T2 jungle item and nothing else.

So after the first back, you can invade the enemy jungler depending on who it is. Jungler's with weak sustain early game will be extremely weak clearing the jungle after their first back. Alternatively, if they don't back after 3 camps, they will be vulnerable in their jungle with low hp.

This was a nerf to low-sustain junglers, but Xin is unaffected, so now you have an early-game advantage vs. these junglers.

v5.1

Relevant changes:

Tier 2 & Tier 3 jungle items: BONUS GOLD ON MONSTER KILL 20 bonus gold ⇒ 30 bonus gold
Item Exchanges: Unenchanted jungle items can be exchanged with another unenchanted jungle item for free! Jungle item enchants can't be exchanged.

Some sweet jungle buffs in patch 5.1! The jungle upgrades now give an additional 10 bonus gold per large monster kill. Because of this, it's now recommended to back as soon as you finish your 3rd camp, to get that extra gold as soon as possible.

The exchange is a nice buff to junglers as well. What this means is that you can buy a jungle upgrade, then wait until you have enough money for your enchantment, and switch at that time.

v4.21

Relevant changes:

Skirmisher's Sabre Basic attacks against a Challenged target deal 17-51 (based on level) true damage on hit⇒ 60-162 (based on level) true damage over 3 seconds
Skirmisher's Sabre - Devourer On-hit Magic Damage 40 ⇒ 25

Xin, along with all other on-hit junglers, took a pretty big hit with these changes. In particular, Xin's best jungle item, got hit with a double-nerf, and so it not only deals less damage late-game, but starts with 15 less stacks so it takes longer to get going. But this is not bad. isn't bad now, it just went from monstrously overpowered to merely great.

Xin is an on-hit jungler, and so this still remains the best item for him. Ranger's was a secondary option before for faster clear, but now it no longer has reduced cooldown, and so it is not even a good subtitute anymore, since Xin has no sustain issues with clearing the jungle.

Summoner Spells

Always take flash on Xin Zhao. It is by far the best summoner spell for him. It's playmaking ability exceeds any other summoner. It gives Xin an escape where he otherwise has none. It will let you get kills and finish off ganks that you wouldn't normally be able to. It is the best mobility summoner spell for , period.

This shouldn't even need to be said, but for the sake of completeness I have included it here.

ALWAYS TAKE SMITE ON JUNGLERS, NEVER DON'T TAKE SMITE ON JUNGLERS.

Masteries

Offense - 21

Most of these are self-explanatory. Xin has high early-game damage, and so 21 points in offense increases his gank potential and helps him clear the jungle faster. Xin is an AD-based auto-attack champ, so all AD masteries will help his damage:

In addition, all %-damage increase masteries will help Xin's damage as well:

Lastly, the armor penetration from increases the damage of all of Xin's abilities and auto-attacks.

These are all essential masteries for increasing Xin Zhao's damage. This leaves 3 points to play with. I put the remaining points as follows:

Sorcery - Once late-game is reached, CDR becomes important for Xin Zhao, so that he can repeatedly cast Audacious Charge as often as possible.
Butcher - This gives 30-40 extra damage per camp, and so gives a good return for only 1 point.
Dangerous Game - The last point I put in here, to give Xin a slightly better chance of surviving a dive should he get a kill

No , since Xin generally won't build enough crit to make it worthwhile. No , because Xin's main damage items give him on-hit damage, not additional AD. is only useful for early-game laning, junglers do not kill enough units to make this mastery worthwhile.

Defense - 9

Almost every non-tank jungler gets more from putting 9 points in Defense compared to putting them anywhere else, with the possible exception of who benefits greatly from putting all 30 points in offense.

Essential Defense masteries:

Swiftness - good for slows, if the enemy team does not have slows put these 2 points in Recovery and Block .
Tough Skin - the new season 5 jungle hurts, and so this mastery will save you a lot of damage on your first few clears.
Veteran Scars / Juggernaut - huge benefit per point, nothing else comes close. Juggernaut gives 60-90+ health by late-game.

The last point goes in either , , or . I put it in block, but it's really a matter of preference.

Runes

Marks

9x flat Attack Damage. Attack Speed runes are not recommended, because Xin already gets +40% attack speed starting at level 1 from . +14% attack speed from marks seems helpful, but going from +40% to +54% just isn't as useful.

Seals

Thanks to Xin's insane sustain in the jungle, you can easily go for scaling health seals. These are superior to flat health seals starting at level 7. Most junglers take armor to reduce monster damage, but Xin doesn't need them thanks to the sustain from his

Glyphs

Not much magic damage in the jungle, so scaling magic resist glyphs are the best choice here. The 3 scaling CDR glyphs give 5% CDR at level 18. This combines with the points in to help you cap your CDR in the late-game, where it matters the most.

Quintessences

Flat AD quints help the most offensively in both the jungle and against champions.

Items

General Itemization

has the kit of an assassin. He can dash to a target and slow them with , then pummel them with auto-attacks using , , and . If anyone tries to interfere, he can use to knock them away and get tanky enough to finish off his target. However, all of Xin's damage comes at melee or near-melee range. Because of this, the only way can live through a teamfight long enough to contribute to it is to build tanky. That means he mainly needs a large amount of Armor, Magic Resist, and Max Health. The more he has, the longer he can survive. Unlike many assassins, has no way to escape once he enters a fight.

Because of all of this, Xin must build at least some tank items in order to be effective!

However, Xin can deal a large amount of damage through auto-attacks, and so anything that will help his auto-attacks is a good buy offensively.

Offense

With the advent of the new Enchantment - Devourer, on-hit effects are 50% better starting round mid-game (whenever you get 30 stacks on devourer).

was already a great item on Xin; I had previously placed / slightly higher due to it being cheaper.

No more. The %-health proccing 50% more gives Xin insane damage and health regen. It's now a must-have. The power spike with Enchantment - Devourer and cannot be ignored.

Always get this every game on Xin. You may want to just get early on for sustain, and then wait until you have Sated Devourer before you finish the BotRK.

Xin is a dive champ jungler, so is the best jungler item for him. He has plenty of cc with and , is not particularly good at counter-jungling, and has no sustain problems in the jungle, so the other jungle items are inferior.

As an auto-attack-based jungler, The Devourer enchantment is the best on Xin Zhao. Warrior also has great stats for Xin, but the Devourer enchantment scales far better into late game. The Warrior enchantment is better on AD Casters like . Devourer is better for aa-based junglers like Xin.

Defense

Armor Options

offers a large of chunk of both health and armor, and the passive and active help immensely with diving a carry. If you can charge in, use , and then use , you can easily swing a teamfight in your team's favor. The passive makes it stronger to dive the enemy AD Carry.

should be bought if you want to spam as much as possible, and if the enemy team has multiple auto-attackers.

Magic Resist Options

is a great support item. It offers health, magic resist, and cooldown reduction, all good stats for . The active and passive are both also very useful for teamfights.

is similar to Locket in that it gives health, magic resist, and cooldown reduction. The passive is also good considering the heal from .

Generally is the better choice on Xin due to the group benefits it provides.

Boot Options

Great option if you get ahead early and want to keep ganking lanes. Partly depends on if you get an early lead, and also depends on how gankable your lanes are.

If you are dealing with a CC-heavy team, or if they have some particularly nasty cc like Puncturing Taunt or , you will probably need to get these boots.

If you notice the enemy AD Carry getting fed before you are ready to upgrade your boots, or if the enemy team has multiple auto-attack champs, or even if the enemy team is mostly AD, then get .

Situational Items

For the late-game AD Carry, especially a strong-scaling one like or . If you want to dive the AD Carry after 30 minutes, you will need this item or you'll just get blown up that much faster.

is a great alternative to , if you want more damage, or if you don't feel you need the crit damage reduction from the Omen. Build up to 100 stacks, then the enemy for guaranteed +100 damage and an additional slow.

vs.

Since rework it is a bit closer which of these is better for . I believe in most cases, is superior, however depending on enemy team comp you will sometimes want to get .

Xin Zhao can't reliably stack Black Cleaver on more than one target. His only AOE ability is Crescent Sweep, which, being an ultimate, is on a high-cooldown.
Xin Zhao thrives on diving carries, and the extra 10 armor penetration from Youmuu's Ghostblade is better against carries
Xin Zhao has low bonus-AD ratios, and is a very auto-attack heavy champion, and so the +15% crit chance from Youmuu's Ghostblade gives superior damage than the +10 AD from Black Cleaver
Xin Zhao, being an auto-attack champion, benefits extremely well from the active of Youmuu's Ghostblade.
Having a Sated Devourer does make Black Cleaver stronger by being able to apply stacks more quickly
Black Cleaver is better if you need some extra damage reduction, since it gives +400 health
Black Cleaver gives +20% CDR, compared to Youmuu's Ghostblade's 10%

Overall I like better for damage, and better for utility. If there's multiple bruisers on the enemy team, I think will offer more teamfight damage, and will help Xin survive a bit longer. But for diving carries, offers better damage.

However, let's be clear here: both of these are inferior to , and so this option should only even be considered if you have both and completed.

Skill Sequence

first for the sustain and DPS for the first camp. It's very useful with the Gift of the Heavy Hands passive that you get from Krug.

The first camp gives you level 2, which should be , so that you can quickly clear both buffs as efficiently as possible.

At level 3, take so that you can gank a lane.

After that, max as soon as possible. The reason you max Audacious Charge is because it reduces the cooldown and increases the slow each level. This helps ganks tremendously, as by level 9 it slows by 45%. Also with some CDR and landing all 3 hits from , your cooldown gets reduced to 5 seconds.

is maxed second to increase your mid-game damage.

is maxed 3rd. It works great as a one-point wonder due to providing both on-hit heal and an on-demand attack-speed boost. Just one point is all you need to be able to clear the jungle with high-health.

Jungle Route Opening

The best start for is Krug, for a few reasons:

The smite buff for Krug is the Gift of Heavy Hands, which stuns targets on every 5th attack, and also on the 1st attack to a new target. This buff synergizes very well with Battle Cry, which Xin Zhao takes 1st. This makes the Krug camp easy with just your AD Carry + Support providing a leash
The Brambleback is easier at level 2 with the Heavy Hands buff than at level 1 with no buff. So you clear the Brambleback with higher health.
Starting Krug means that you don't need your mid-laner to help leash, and the Krug camp is closer to the side lane than the red buff, so the leasher(s) can more easily get to lane and not miss any minion experience (which is crucial for laners).

Always smite Krug as soon as it appears! This gives you the Heavy Hands buff immediately, and also starts the cooldown on your Smite sooner, so that it will be ready for when you clear your 2nd buff.

After clearing red, you have some options:

Quick level 2 gank. If a lane is pushed up, they almost always will not have put down their ward/trinket yet. Free kill since Xin Zhao's level 2 all-in is one of the strongest in the game, and on top of that you have red buff.
If there is no gank opportunity, you can just continue jungling. You can go either to blue buff or do raptors.

You can do 3 camps and back for your fast T2 jungle item, or you can look for gank opportunites. For most low-sustain junglers, they will go back after their 3rd camp. And if they don't, they will be at very low health so if you are against of these junglers, you can gank at level 3 without fear of counter-ganks.

Also if you want to farm the whole jungle before backing, you can do that as well, although I don't recommend this as you will miss out on extra gold from your T2 jungle item.

Ganking

#1 rule of ganking with - always try to walk up to the enemy and hit them first. That way, if they try to escape using an ability or , you can to them and finish them off. Only open a gank with if you absolutely must get to your target as soon as possible, or if there is no way that you will be able to reach your target without using it.

Once you reach your target, use and for maximum DPS. If you are level 6+, use just after for maximum burst damage. Depending on the champ and situation, you may need to in order to get the kill. If you can get a kill by using , do it.

After level 6, if you are able to get behind an opponent, open with , as it will knock the opponent back towards your tower, allowing you to more easily get the kill.

Jungle Tips

Whenever possible, save your smite for the Razorback camp, since you can use its buff to clear wards
If you are about to fight, try and smite Gromp for the Gift of the Toadstool buff
If you don't have blue buff, try and conserve your Audacious Charge since it is the most mana-expensive of your abilities.
If you bought Skirmisher's Sabre, make sure to buy 1-2 wards every time you go back to base, so that you can ward the enemy jungle. Warding the enemy jungle lets you see when they are trying to take a camp so you can invade them and get a kill.

Gameplay Tips

Three Talon Strike is an auto-reset. That means if you use it right after an auto-attack, you auto-attack with it again. Always use Three Talon Strike immediately after an auto-attack
Crescent Sweep knocks back opponents, but not too far; they are still within range of Audacious Charge. So if you are able to get next to an opponent, you can Crescent Sweep -> Audacious Charge -> auto -> Three Talon Strike -> Battle Cry for maximum burst.
Crescent Sweep does 15% current health bonus damage, so it does more damage the fuller your opponents' health is. Because of this, always try to initiate a teamfight with Crescent Sweep if you are able, it deals a lot of damage and gives you a lot of armor and magic resist if you are able to hit multiple champions.
Audacious Charge slows in a small AOE around the target (radius of 112.5 units). If the enemy is just outside range of your Audacious Charge, but are near a minion or monster, you can Audacious Charge to the minion/monster and still slow the enemy.

Teamfights

Xin Zhao can be played one of two ways in teamfights:

Assassin - when a carry gets too close, Audacious Charge -> Crescent Sweep to initiate, isolate the target, and knock everyone else back. If you can hit 3+ champs, this is a great initiate. This is quite hard to do in the higher levels as for the most part carries will not wander within 600 range of Xin Zhao, so really only tanks will be within range. Still, you can counter-initiate if everyone jumps on someone, and if you flank the side of the enemy team you can Audacious Charge to the AD/AP Carry pretty easily
Bodyguard - if you are behind and/or have built mostly tanky, Xin Zhao has enough cc that he can prevent someone from diving one of your carries. Stay near your strongest carry, if someone dives, knock them away with Crescent Sweep. If they keep trying to dive, Audacious Charge to slow them down, and Three Talon Strike to knock them up. Between these 3 abilities, you should be able to keep someone off of your carry.