I've been playing Xin Xhao for a while, but I never seemed to succeed with him late, or even mid game. So I decided to try something new; rather than doing the standard 21/9 and armour pen+atk damage page xin, I followed my D1 friend's build. With this build, I succeeded and hit P1 fairly easily, and I'm going to head into Diamond soon.

So far, the first day of using his build went fairly well

ALSO ANOTHER REMINDER, NEVER EVER, EVER PLAY SUPPORT.

I use the standard jungling runes because atk speed marks allow for quick jungling, and the movement speed quints are always helpful in ganks. Especially for a melee character like Xin.

I used to go 19/11 or 21/9 for maximum early game dueling and damage potential, but I find that falls off if you fail with ganks and doesn't scale very well with Spirit of the Lizard Elder.

I prefer the movement speed, tankiness, and increased buff duration.

Usually, you'll want Mobility Boots to gank better. Jungling is ALL about ganking, if you're not ganking and securing objectives, you're doing something wrong.

Then, Spirit of the Elder Lizard is practically the only damage you'll need. For the rest of the game, you'll focus on tankiness depending on how many AP/AD the enemy team has.

As for tankiness, I usually get Locket of the Iron Solari , Randuin's Omen , and Warmog's Armor .
I also usually build a Stark's, because it's an awesome item. As you can see, you will require two Kindlegem to build a locket and stark's, but make sure not to buy them both at once because the passives do not stack.

Or if you're actually carrying, then you might a damage item like the Black Cleaver to carry harder.

Typically, q at L1 is best for jungling. Then nab w after for the sustain, then max E for ganks and clearing creep camps easier.

You're jungling, smite and flash are the only options. You could replace flash with ignite or exhaust, but then you'd have no escape and feed like a scrub.

Xin Xhao's ultimate can be used for many things.

You can use it to shove an enemy away to save allies, interrupt any channeled ultimate, or simply use it for damage. In an ideal situation, you should latch on to an enemy carry, then use your ultimate to disorient the enemy and stop them from peeling you away.

But why use this build over the typical Xin Xhao build?

Xin Xhao has problems scaling past early game, with tankiness/CDR, and mana regeneration. Using this build will slightly slow down your jungle and weaken your early game by a little bit, but in return you get a more sustainable and better scaling jungler.

Also, you can be a hipster and buy TWO RED BALLS.

Two of them. Make sure to actually use your randuins/locket every teamfight!