Xin Zhao is a AD melee assassin who's main job is to dive into the enemy team, split them apart with Crescent Sweep, and then lock down the enemy carry. Normally. After seeing Siv HD's video about AP Xin Zhao, I was inspired to try it out, and was greatly surprised with my amazing results. In this build, I will teach you the ways of AP XIN ZHAO. Now why would anyone want to play Xin Zhao AP? Because of THIS and most importantly THIS . Both Audacious Charge and Battle Cry scale off of AP. Audacious Charge will help you chunk your opponents in fights. Battle Cry will keep you sustained unless you get CC locked. Also, your Three Talon Strike resets the cooldowns of your other skills by 1 each strike, letting you continuously chain your Audacious Charge and Battle Cry. In a 1v1, AP XIN ZHAO WILL NEVER LOSE!!!

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I take Attack Speed Marks, Armor Seals, Flat AP Glyphs, and Flat AP Quints.

The attack speed helps me to proc my heal more often. The AP quints and glyphs helps me heal more and deal more damage. The armor just helps my overall survivability.

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"But as an AP carry, wouldn't you want magic pen marks to do more magic damage?"

Maybe. Depending on what role you are trying to play, magic pen may or may not be useful. A little bit of magic pen will help your Audacious Charge and Malady deal more damage. For more of a dueler AP Xin, magic pen would work. But overall, I find the attack speed to be more beneficial.

21-9 masteries. Similar to my rune choice, I take Fury for attack speed instead of Arcane Knowledge for magic pen, and 2% extra damage from Havoc isn't really a game changer. The points in defense help my early game sustain, when AP Xin is the weakest and most prone to harass.


magic pen oriented masteries.

Standard Summoner Spells:

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I take Ignite and Flash. Ignite helps deal more damage and flash helps me escape ganks and chase.

__	Okay Summoner Spells:

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Exhaust and Ghost are also good choices. Exhaust can help lock down an enemy and give you an easy knock up and kill. Ghost is another mobility spell that could come in handy if you aren't trying to wall hop.

______ Split Push Like A BOSS:

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For maximum split pushing power, Teleport will come in handy. By teleporting to a minion wave on a pushed lane, you can take down an enemy turret before they even know you're there. Unfortunately, Surge has been removed in Season 3, so you can no longer reach the 2.5 attack speed threshold with my build, but that doesn't make AP Xin any less viable.

In mid lane, you are most likely going to be up against a ranged caster. Because of this, you wont be able to do anything to them unless you can dash up to them quickly and scare them away. For this reason, I take Audacious Charge at level one.

At level two, you want to put even more pressure unto your lane opponent. AP Xin needs a strong early game advantage and needs to be able to farm in order to do anything late game. By taking Three Talon Strike second will give you HUGE early game burst. One E-Q combo will take most squishy mid laners down to 100-200 health. This will allow you to zone your frightened opponent and free farm your lane without opposition.

At level three, I take Battle Cry, letting me heal for a solid 50 health every 3 auto attacks. By using this passive correctly, you will be able to sustain yourself in lane against most harass.

Maxing Audacious Charge first gives me good early game burst damage. Maxing Battle Cry next will help you sustain like a monster, healing you back to full health soon after taking damage. Three Talon Strike is only necessary for it's CC and cooldown reset, so I max it last. Like most ultimates, I take Crescent Sweep at level 6, 11, and 16. It is mostly for utility, but it's damage is pretty good, even without any AD.

__	Starting items:

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Boots will help you gap close and stick with your lane opponent when they try running from you. Three health potions will help you soak up harass before you reach level 3 and get your Battle Cry.


Next stop back, I buy a Fiendish Codex and also finish my Berserker's Greaves. The Berserker's give me more attack speed, allowing me to maximize my Battle Cry heals. The codex also gives me some AP, mana regen, and cdr, helping me do more damage and spam more.

__	Mid Game Items:

My first 2 major items are a Nashor's Tooth and a Malady. Wait, what are these things? Why the heck would anyone buy these terrible items (besides teemo)? First of all, AP Xin's strong point is his insane healing power. With the huge amount of attack speed these relatively cheap items provide, you'll be able to make use of this power very early on in the game. Also, both items give AP. Malady has a great on-hit passive that makes your spear pokes a little more painful. In Season 3, Malady also deals an extra 10% of your AP with each auto attack. This combined with your Spellsword mastery will alow you to deal a whopping 15% of you max AP with each auto attack, making your weak spear pokes actually deal some big damage. Nashor's Tooth gives 20% cdr and a small amount of mana regen which lets you spam more often without huge mana problems. With just these 2 items, you'll already be at 1.5 attack speed and will be healing for over 100 health every 3 auto attacks.

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For more pushing power/damage, I buy a Sheen. This lets me do more auto attack damage after each skill. Together with your Q and W, turrets will literally disappear right before your eyes.

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Upgrade your boots with the Enchantment: Furor. It because AP Xin ends up auto attacking a lot, the extra movespeed boost when dealing single target damage will help you stick with your targets and prevent some kiting issues you may end up having. Other possible enchantments include Enchantment: Captain, to help your minions push faster, and Enchantment: Distortion, if you want to be teleporting more.

__	Late Game Items:

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Rabadon's Deathcap, Zhonya's Hourglass, and Lich Bane finish up your build. The deathcap gives you a massive amount of AP which will help your damage and sustain. Zhonya's gives you a large amount of AP and a passive that can help you stall for your cooldowns. Also, the armor from the zhonya's helps you tank turrets better. Depending on what you are trying to do, getting a deathcap first will let you duel better, while buying a zhonya's first will let you solo turrets better. Finally, a lich bane upgrades your weak little sheen into a monstrous turret crumbling tool.

__	Alternative Items:

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Abyssal Mask would be a good anti-mage item. Guardian Angel can also help you survive better and the revive will help you do clean up work. If you are being kited, a Rylai's Crystal Scepter will solve that problem. Rod of Ages is also a good sustain item if you're dying to fast. If you want more attack speed, a Guinsoo's Rageblade will help you with that and let you hit harder with your auto attacks. Hextech Gunblade is another item you can use if you want more damage.

-> -> -> -> -> ->

Do you really need any more explanation?

After buying a Malady:

1. Walk up to dragon.
2. Activate Battle Cry
3. Activate Three Talon Strike
4. Watch dragon disappear while your health stays full.

NOTE: His attack speed debuff is somewhat annoying, but you should still have enough attack speed to out heal his dps.

After buying a Sheen:

1. Walk up to the turret.
2. Activate Battle Cry
3. Activate Three Talon Strike
4. Watch the turret disappear while your health stays (nearly) full.

NOTE: You will take some damage when walking up to the turret, so having some minions on your side to help you tank the initial damage will help.

After buying a Zhonya's:

1. Walk up to baron.
2. Activate Battle Cry
3. Activate Three Talon Strike
4. Watch baron die while your health stays full.

NOTE: Watch out for his knock ups. If you aren't attacking him, your health is going down.

THIS IS A WORK IN PROGRESS. Don't take my word for anything I say here. I'm mostly just theory-crafting here. Any actual feedback on the correctness of these projected match ups would be appreciated.

EASY:

These are the champions with low cc and/or with bad escapes. Against these, all you need to do is out lane them a little and jump onto them whenever you're ready for another kill.

Medium:

These are the champions with medium cc, good sustain, and/or decent burst. You need to be careful not to let them get ahead of you, or they will be able to shut you down. Against them, you'll need an early gank, or play very aggresively in order to shut them down before they can start doing serious damage to you and your team. But know your boundaries, if you jump onto them and misjudge their damage, you will find yourself screwed.

HARD:

These are the champions with strong harass, strong burst, and/or strong cc. You need to know how to dodge their harass in order to stay in lane, or find a way to snowball on them early. If you can get a couple ganks early on to the end of laning phase and prevent them from getting stronger than you, you will be able to deal with them. But if you allow them to farm or get kills, you will surely lose.



Specific champion analysis will be added later. If I missed any match-ups you would like to see, please tell me in the comments. If any of these match ups are wrong, leave a comment about it and I'll change it.

PROS:

Great sustain
Can solo anything and everything
Great disrupter

CONS:

Has a weak early game
Gold reliant
Prone to hard CC

AP Xin Zhao has rediculous sustain and because of it, he can solo turrets with ease and live through almost all 1v1 situations. Have fun breaking the meta and good luck crushing squishy mid laners. Don't forget to comment and vote.