5/20/17

• Holy sweet tits, an update!
• Items Updated, explanations added.
  

5/5/17

• Updated for Patch 7.9
• Items Changed
• New Explanations!
  

5/4/17

• Started a Build Path subsection in Items
• Added "Pros and Cons" section
• Added "Dueling Potential and Dealing with Invades" section to "Why Xayah Jungle?" Section

5/1/17

• Changed Mastery Section
• Added some Self-Plugging
• Feathers are Purple

4/30/17

• Added "Clear Pathing" section

4/29/17

• Added Items section!

4/28/17

• Added "Snowball Potential" to the list of reasons.
• Added Runes and Mastery section

4/25/17

• Guide Started!

Hey guys, ItsJustSub here bringing another Marksman Jungle guide, with my last being a
Twitch Jungle guide.

Personally, I'd like to think of my self as a sort of Marksman Jungle enthusiast, so that being said I am very dedicated to making these types of guides as well-written and tested as possible as I move along the guide. In the first installment of this guide I shall be writing the section on "Why Xayah Jungle" and add the rest later. If you're reading this at that point of the guide, hang on, the rest of it is coming! If you like the guide, hit that upvote and let me know how it's working out for you!

Also, some shameless self plugging. I just started a SubReddit for off-meta/Marksmen junglers, feel free to subscribe and post!

I also have a YouTube channel where I'm most likely going to be uploading full gameplays, with no commentary (Until I get better equipment) for Xayah and Twitch Jungle in lower elo-ranked. Will also upload anything I'm streaming there as well! Feel free to smack that sub button or just pass it by, either way!

The first new champions to enter the rift in 2017 are the Vastayan couple, Xayah and Rakan, a Marksman/Support duo released at the same time with bits of their kits coordinating with each other as well as some cringy-yet-adorable dialogue between them.

Xayah is a marksman with a deadly kit that completely revolves around her Passive, Clean Cuts.

Clean Cuts activates after Xayah casts a spell, giving her a stock of 3 Feathers that get used upon auto-attacking. These Feathers penetrate her targets, going to her max attack range, dealing full damage to the first target and half damage to any targets behind the first before resting in the ground for 6 seconds. These Feathers can then be used for the next ability which we will now talk about.

Bladecaller is Xayah's E. Upon being cast, Xayah recalls all of her Feathers, dealing damage to all enemies they pass through and snaring them if 3 or more Feathers pass, while reducing the damage by 10% for every Feather after the first that passes through the same target. It gets a 60% Bonus Attack Damage scaling, with base damages of 50/60/70/80/90 at each respective level. It also has an interesting scaling that isn't very explained in the tool tip where is also gets damage based on half of your Critical Strike Chance, multiplied by the Bonus Attack Damage scaling of the ability. This ability is the reason why Jungle Xayah is actually amazing. It makes her clear speed insanely fast after getting just your Phage or Caulfield's Warhammer, leaving more time to gank lanes or invade. Maxing Bladecaller is key for the insane burst potential, and overall usefulness of the ability.

Double Daggers is her Q, this ability throws down 2 Feathers, dealing [40/60/80/100/120 + 50% Bonus Attack Damage] in a line. The Feathers from this ability have the same properties as her Passive, dealing full damage to the first target, dropping down to 50% to every subsequent target. Maxing this ability second can ensure you get as many Feathers as possible out into the battlefield, adding about 4 (with higher Cooldown Reduction) to your Bladecaller stacks. Will go over the implications of this ability for ganking in a further section.

Deadly Plumage is Xayah's W, this ability increases her Attack Speed by [30%/35%/40%/45%/50%] and makes her attacks fling smaller feathers (not to be confused with Feathers) dealing 20% damage and increasing her Movement Speed by 30% when she strikes a Champion.
The ability behave similar to Ashe's Ranger's Focus, dealing an extra instance of Physical Damage, while not applying on-hit effects, making Black Cleaver a possible option, but maybe not making it viable again, yet. Testing is still pending. The major thing about this ability is the Movement Speed and the extra Physical Damage application. You'll mostly be using it to position yourself in fights to get the most damage from Bladecaller.

Featherstorm is Xayah's Ultimate Ability. She leaps into the air, becoming untargetable for 1.5 seconds, before throwing down 5 Feathers in a cone that deal [100/150/200 + 100% Bonus Attack Damage]. This attack is good for removing targeted effects mid-flight, escaping and just bursting enemies down with your Bladecaller. It can be used to cancel your Double Daggers animation, leaving 7 Feathers on the ground, almost instantly.

Why Xayah Jungle, though?

Clear Speed

10/10
Her clear speed is insane! She clears almost as fast as old Malzahar did, making her have one of the highest clear speed in the game, meaning she can gank more, and invade more.

Invading

7/10
She wins in most 1v1 situations just because of the burst from her Bladecaller, and get used to hearing that because Bladecaller is the most important part of her kit. Her clears are relatively healthy and will have more health than most other Junglers in the game, meaning in most cases you can go from Red Buff, clear Raptors, clear Wolves with Smite, then invade the enemy jungle, most likely fight them at their Red, kill them, clear their camps, take your blue, back and overall make them have a bad time. You die easily if it's a Champion with high sustain or can get your positioning off from your Feathers. Most cases you should win.

Snowball Potential

8/10
This section previously had a section regarding the ability for the high armor penetration of Black Cleaver being able to snowball your game by being a supportive champion in the early game. However, the recent nerf to Black Cleaver made it not as effective for Xayah. Now, we're going full crit or full damage. Like most Critical champions, Xayah has an OKAY early game. Farming up and getting your core build will push you into the mid game to be pretty strong. Your team fight gets pretty great, to be honest. You do a ton of AoE damage with your Runaan's Hurricane, your Feathers getting crits, Statikk Shiv zapping. Then your Bladecaller raking in the damage. She can snowball off of a Zeal now, its insane.

Dueling Potential and Dealing with invades

10/10
Honestly, just because of her ability to forever kite with Double Daggers and Bladecaller snares, it's very hard to think of jungle champions that can really counter her. She's pretty strong against most junglers solely because of her ability to keep someone snared for a very long time. She can get free damage off, and usually trade unfairly with her Deadly Plumage and Bladecaller kiting.

She's strong against most champions that can't keep up with her damage. She doesn't lose very many match ups and the only issues would be any high-mobility champions that deal tons of damage such as Elise, Xin Zhao, Shaco, Warwick or Hecarim, to name a few. A lot of champions I thought would be an issue can be handled by simply timing your abilities, and careful dodging such as Master Yi, Lee Sin and Vi. She can straight up dodge Cease and Desist and Resonating Strike with her Featherstorm, nullifying a large portion of those champion's damage.
To Be Continued...

These are actually the same runes I use for Twitch, I like it better since with the build path I use its easy to build into Magic Resistance if needed, making it slightly less necessary to use it in runes, in my opinion. Taking the extra attack speed also makes her W, Deadly Plumage do more damage in the early game, helping with clears and dropping damage during ganks. There's really no other reasons, she benefits from attack speed, not as much as other Crit Strike carries who use mostly just Auto-Attacks for their damage output.

Thunderlord's Decree

100% Crit

Xayah is...an interesting Champion. She feels very versatile and with that, the possibilities for her items are flexible. She can do anything from being a straight glass cannon, to being an off-tank bruiser that helps the team rather than solo-carrying. I like to play her as a sort of aggressive marksman, building items to help with dueling as well as providing a sort of pseudo utility for team fighting. I'll be going over the item choices and my preferences.

Core Items

• Skirmisher's Sabre - Warrior: Dear Lord, this item increases your damage by so much. It gives 10 percent Cooldown Reduction, 60 AD. Shout out to darkeisbein for suggesting this item. Completely changes Xayah's damage in the early game and makes her insanely strong!
• Runaan's Hurricane: This item is core now that it's been buffed to deal 40% Attack Damage on every bolt. This is amazing now because when your Feathers are passing through enemies, they deal 50% damage. If the enemies are stacked up, it's very likely to assume a bolt will hit a target also being hit by a Feather. This will deal 90% damage to enemies hit with both. As well as having the opportunity to Crit on both instances of damage, the damage gets insane! Feathers crit for 100% Attack Damage, while the bolts would crit for 80% Attack Damage. You completely destroy team fights, it applies your Deadly Plumage, it's just an amazing item.
  
• Essence Reaver: Gives 30% Cooldown Reduction after building Runaan's Hurricane, combined with your Warrior Enchantment you have 40% CDR, 50% Crit and 130 AD. That's crazy stats on only a Jungle item and 2 items.

Situational Items

Some of these are self explanatory, anything that I feel needs a better explanation will get a better explanation.

• Blade of the Ruined King: Standard AD Item.
• Bloodthirster: It gives you an insane amount of lifesteal. That's about it. It's better than Blade of the Ruined King if you are building critical chance because it makes your crit damage much higher, as well as healing you for a lot more.
• Infinity Edge: Gives you a huge boost to your damage output, making you get more value from your W, making your Featherstorm and Bladecaller combo damage skyrocket. Also, it's just a staple item for most Marksman Champions.
• Maw of Malmortius: Gives you some tasty Magic Resist while allowing you to survive burst from AP Assassins, then you get AD, lifesteal and spell vamp. Making your sustain go up because you are now healing an additional 10% from your auto-attacks and healing for the damage from your Bladecaller.
• Sterak's Gage: Gives you some tanky stats while allowing you to survive burst.
• Dead Man's Plate: Allows you to position even easier at the start of a fight, and makes getting picks easier. Usually grabbed as a 4th item unless you're going to obsessively gank in the early game.
• Phantom Dancer: This item is great for any squishy that is anticipating dueling, it gives you decent damage reduction of 12%, it works well with Ninja Tabi and it gives you that tasty Critical Strike chance and attack speed which makes your total damage from Deadly Plumage go up, as well as increasing your damage for Bladecaller.
• Statikk Shiv: Gives you some pretty high burst for team fights, giving you high AoE damage and making your damage even more mixed. Will also instantly proc Thunderlord's Decree if you combine it with your Deadly Plumage.
  
  

  Build Path

  
  
  

  100% Critical Chance

  
  
  Zeal > Stalker's Blade > Boots > B. F. Sword > Runaan's Hurricane/ Statikk Shiv > Infinity Edge > Bloodthirster > Statikk Shiv/ Runaan's Hurricane > sell Stalker's Blade > Essence Reaver > sell Boots > Guardian Angel
  
  [Reasonings coming soon!]

Blue Side Start

Your clear on Blue side is very efficient because Red buff helps you clear faster because of the burn on your primary target and the health regeneration you receive from it. Making it easy to do a full clear when you start this side. You don't start hurting for mana until you've cleared Blue, and at that point it doesn't matter. Your clears are much more healthy if you start red because you're able to kite easier and with your regen you're going to have an easy time.

Your clear path is Red > Chickens (Smite) > Wolves > Blue (Smite) > Gank > Gromp
After you buy your Zeal your clear speed will be very fast because of the insane damage from your Bladecaller.
Play Video

Red Side Start

Admittedly, Red side clearing is a bit wonky. Your clear path is going to be Blue>Wolves>Raptors>Gank>Red>Gank

The reasoning behind trying to gank before getting Red Buff is because you're level 3, and top lane is right next to you. Going in for a cheeky gank is pretty likely from this spot, just make sure you ward your Red. If your top lane has CC of any kind, this is usually a guaranteed kill. Then you can rotate over to your Red, clear it and carry on. If you have 1200g, go back and get your Zeal, if not then you can buy your Stalker's Blade to give you more regen in the jungle and help with your clears. In the clip below, I'm looking to see if they've invaded or are waiting for me, then I notice top is fighting and move up to secure the kill, then return to my red.
Play Video

SPACESPACE

Pros -Insane Clear speed -Very Strong at nearly all stages of the game -Can duel most champions easily -Has the potential to hard carry -Can split push insanely fast

SPACESPACE

Cons -Out-dueled by assassins -Loses early to enemy junglers with more sustain -Farming Jungler -Higher Skill Ceiling -Positioning around Feathers can be difficult