This is my first guide, and it's too one of my favorite melee bruisers, Xin Zhao. I play him as a laner since he has one of the best early games and partnered with someone with a CC or a strong support he's able to easily pull out First blood or zone hard.

I reccomend duo laning as with a partner is were xin shines. he is infact a strong jungler or solo, but i feel he's better placed in the lane and with a partner.

This build includes the recent xin buffs

You will see this build alot different from your many "full dps" or "tanky disrupter" xin builds. If you want an all out phys carry, xin can do it, but he just melts to fast as everyone who plays league has the mindset of "OMG MELT XIN!!" in every teamfight.

Tanky disrupter Xin quickly falls off mid-late and is pretty much useless late game. if you wanna build full tank/Cooldown reduction, play blitz FFS

Pros

[*] Insane early game damage

[*] Melts your focus target

[*] Still beefy and tough to take down

[*] Powerful ganker

Cons

[*] Will still melt if you are focused really hard by a whole team effort. (but who doesnt)

[*] your not very tanky till mid game

[*] Trades abit of disruption for more damage (with the lack of massed attack speed items)

Armor pen marks and Quints are of course essenital to any form of Phys DPS. i see no other alternative except maybe attack speed if your lacking the Armor pen runes and want to jump right into xin.

health per level yellows help with abit of his hp problem since you will be building dps items at the start and everyone loves hp amiright. by max level you pretty much get a free health crystal.

Magic Resist blues help with the resists you wont be building much into, magic also tends to be the main dps source when focused in almost all situations.

Good spells.

Ghost - i hope i dont have to explain this one

Exhaust - better ganks makes me a happy xin. good for shutting down your primary target even more as well.

Teleport - i don't know why i don't see this spell more in Summoners rift. if used correctly you can even assist gank a extended lane. or get back to a push early game if you met a early demise.

Ignite- Extra damage for your ganks, and helps take out your focus target in team fights.

Cleanse- this spell works well if you know how to use it, xin is normally focused in fights, so its handy.

Flash- its good on everyone, no need to explain.

If summoner spell is not listed above its not worth using.

Grab all 3 skills by level 3, no questions asked, all are amazing and synergize well.

Afterwards, prioritize 3 talon over the others (grab ult when you can of course). your focus with this build is to make everyone **** them selves with your absurd borderline op early damage and gank potential.

after 3 talon, max Battle Cry. xin loves him some attack speed.

then finish audacious charge. i kept this at lvl 1 cause it serves its purpose fully at lvl 1. you closed the gap, you slowed them long enough for 3 talon. leveling it more just increases the slow percentage but not the duration, so hardly a difference in most cases. not including your phage or mallet should be doing the slowing anyway.

the CD goes down as well, but its never fast enough even at rank 5 to charge a gank target twice (it shouldnt be needed a 2nd time anyway) and group fights you should be dashing onto the squishy and staying on them. most group fights dont last long enough for a 2nd charge to be much use as well.

The damage increase it not worth your time either, scales with ap so it never scales with your build. and any MR hurts it to.

Dorans Blade > Shield in the lane. your passive and the 3% life steal is plenty of sustainability in the lane. the 10 damage is actually a large increase early game due to fast attack speed and adding a larger damage value to your 3-talons which is already devestating early game laning.

Merc Treads- Xin is always a focus target due to how scary he is, the CC reduction and MR really help this.

early Brutilizer and phage - rushing these 2 after ur boots adds devastating results. 15 more Armor pen with your runes and masterys pretty much put you at true damage potential for the first 10sh levels. the phage procs enough with your fast attack speed to also make your ganks scary.

Giants belt or BF sword- depending how your doing (normally very well with me) should decide on what you get next. giants if doing decent. and BF if doing really well. either will make you better in some way. sword making your burst on thier squishy you should be focusing much more devastating. the belt should sustain you longer in fights. either will make a large impact.

Frozen Mallet- you should have this done b4 anymore damage items are built. the hp boost is very much needed, and the slow makes you a dps/disrupter that no one can shake off.

Black Cleaver- More armor pen and attack speed? yes plz.

Prefrence from here- if they are magic and cc heavy, go right for banshees next. if not, go more dps with a Blood thirster. whichever u get is fine, or both. you can finish your brutalizer to a ghost blade when ever you want. the early armor pen was its real purpose. if the game lasts long enough, invest into a madreds bloodrazor for scary dps. or a guardians if you need more beef.

you'll be spending most of your early game in a lane so here's some tricks to utilize your abilities to it's fullest.

You should be duo laning so pick a target to harass together with. the enemy will always want to stay in exp range so try to find times when they are to close to the creep or you to charge in and smash him with 3 talons.

last hitting is important, you should never auto-attack continuesly and push your lane. it makes killing your enemy much harder, and xin is all about early game kills.

Brush is your friend, nothing makes me **** myself more then a xin charging out of no were and raping half my life in 2 seconds. having your partner in thier makes this a pretty much guranteed kill. you'll have your enemy zoned in no time if they don't want to mess with you.

Unless your clearly outmatched, you and a partner can actually turn around jungle ganks and kill the jungler with your massive early game damage and knock up, i cant count how many times me and my lane mate see thier half health enemy run at us while the enemy jungler runs at us from behind. only to turn around, smash the jungler and then pick up that other guy who thought this gank would work.

Only use your charge for gap closing at max distance. if he's close enough to 3 talon without it, do it. after the knock up ends, then use charge to slow his escape afterwards, alos doing this will let you charge him if he desides to flash.

Your ult should be used anychance you can in a fight. even if its 1v1 2v2 or 5v5. the damage is insane when opened with and the armor and magic resist you get from it helps you surive longer too. charging in and opening with your ult during a coordinated gank will pretty much secure a kill as well.

Use Battle cry when farming alone if your ult is on CD. you'll pretty much have your ult back after using it in no time at all.

With your build nearing its max, you should be pretty damn tanky, high damage output with disruption to boot. your ult in team fights should make up for your lack of resists. but even a failed ult can still put you up thier in terms of tank.

If you played this buid right, your enemys you were laning with should be crying on the forums about you right about now, in my opinion there's no better lane partner to thrash the enemy team then Xin.