Xin Zhao Build Guide by roarrgasm

Intro

I have been playing Xin Zhao for a long time and I thought I would make a guide for him. This is the way I play him and I will try to cover as much material as I can. This is my first guide so I'm not completely sure what I am doing. I am just figuring things out as I go. I recommend reading the whole guide and figuring out the way I play while using this build before actually trying it. Please let me know if you think I should make any changes or if I should add anything. So... here's my guide, hope you like it!

Why Tanky DPS?

Have you ever played a game where you see Master Yi with a Phantom Dancer, Infinity Edge, The Bloodthirster, or some other DPS items? He has do defence, so as soon as he enters the team fight, what does everyone do? FOCUS YI!!!! Man he's so squishy I can two shot him muahahaha! This is the same kind of thing that happens with Xin Zhao if you build glass cannon. You do a whole ton of damage and it can be great if you surprise a lonely champion in the jungle, but because you are melee with no defensive items, everyone will focus you in team fights and all of your DPS items will be worthless.

Pros/Cons

Runes

First of all, as you can see, I mostly use flat runes. Generally, I will try to stay away from per level runes as much as I can because they make such little difference when it comes to late game. Here is a scenario that I made up to tell you what I am talking about. Lets say you are playing AP Kennen and you have Greater Quintessence of Scaling Ability Power. You are level 18 and you have like 500 AP. With the quintessence, you get 23 AP so you end up with 523 AP. Great, except when you are level 1, you get 1.5 AP. Not a very nice early game...

Now lets say you have Greater Quintessence of Ability Power. Level one you get 15 AP, level 18 you get 15 AP. Late game you have 515 AP instead of 523. So what. Throughout all of the early levels, you had a bonus 15 AP. That is some major burst right there compared to that Morgana who had to spend her money to buy a Doran's Ring so she could get her 15 AP.

This is the same kind of thing with the runes I picked for my xin guide, so what I am trying to say is you want a strong early game. Late game, that extra 23 AP compared to the 15 AP is peanuts. PEANUTS! Besides, Xin Zhao falls off late game so why don't we give him some extra stuff in the places where he shines.



greater mark of desolationgreater quintessence of desolation
armor pen on xin is always a good thing because of Three Talon Strike. These plus The Black Cleaver should be enough to take down anyone stacking armor against you. Other than these, you don't really need anything else that will boost your attack




You should get this unless you are bot or mid lane, in which case, you should get Greater Glyph of Magic Resist. I will tell you why. Greater Glyph of Magic Resist is stronger than Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist until you hit level 10. That is about how long the laning phase is. If you are top lane, chances are that you will be against another tanky DPS champion like Irelia or Riven. You won't really need the magic resist for the first 10 levels because you won't be in team fights and pushing lanes with your team yet. If you are bot lane, though, you will be against 2 champions, and one of them will most likely be doing magic damage to you, so you will need the MR throughout the laning phase.




No matter what lane you are in or if you are jungling, this should benefit you greatly. In top lane, you will most likely be against someone doing physical damage to you. In bot lane, same thing. In the jungle, monsters do physical damage too. If you are going mid, these probably wont help all that much against their AP carry, but this guide isn't for going mid, so just don't do it, ok?

Masteries

Laning Masteries

Masteries

1/1

3/4

4/4

1/1

1/3

1/1

3/2

3/3

3/1

1/4

1/3

3/4

4/3

1/2

Pretty standard masteries. I don't think their should be anything unusual or surprising here. I don't max Deadliness and put a point in Lethality because this isn't a crit Xin Zhao build so why get crit damage, right?

Jungle Masteries

Masteries

3/4

1/2

4/4

1/1

3/2

3/3

1/1

1/1

2/3

1/1

4/1

1/3

2/2

1/1

2/1

Now this is the part that some people might disagree with. Why do you put points in all three trees? Why don't you max out any trees? There is kind of a complicated explanation for this and I will try to cover as much as I can. First of all, I get Summoner's Resolve as the only thing in the defense tree because of the 10 extra gold every time I use Smite. This is an off tank build so you would think that I should get some more points in the defense tree. Yes, defense is important but I feel like I need the other trees more. Almost everything I put in the utility tree significantly helps my jungle. Ward sight range (because of my wriggle's), movement speed (so I can gank fast), increased duration of buffs (I will be carrying buffs for the whole first portion of the game), etc. As for the offence tree, I need attack speed to activate Challenge and 3% lifesteal for the early levels in the jungle. Because of these things, I feel like there is no room for me to do anything in the defense tree.

Summoner Spells

Good/OK Spells

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- This spell is good for any champion; you can blink over walls and blink to chase after enemies. It is just a great summoner spell

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- I like to use exhaust because if there is an AD carry on the opposite team, I can shut them down. I never seem to have a problem taking down AP carries, but AD carries just seem to be a bit more difficult. Also, if my Audacious Charge is on cool-down, I can just pop exhaust and catch up to my enemies. It really combines well with my other abilities. Audacious Charge- Exhaust-knock up-dead

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- Also a nice spell, but I just don't feel like i need it as much as Flash or Exhaust. When you are in a fight, you depend on AD, and you need to slow them so that you can get as many hits on them as possible. If you use Exhaust, they will get slowed and you will do more physical damage from that than you will if you just used Ignite on them

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- I take this every time I jungle. Great spell for stealing buffs, baron, dragon, and with the mastery, you get gold every time you use it. Basically a must have for junglers

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- You can replace this with Flash, but for me personally, I don't like this spell as much because you can't go through walls with it. It is completely up to you though

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- Because this got buffed, I feel like one person on the team should always have this. Usually the AD carry. In most cases it shouldn't be you, but if nobody else has it and the team is kinda squishy, it can help

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Not As Good Spells

Revive

Karthus

Clarity

Cleanse

Clairvoyance

Teleport

Surge

Promote

Skills

Tireless Warrior - This passive makes you a fantastic jungler and gives you a whole bunch of sustain in lane. It also works against structures. Late game, though, it isn't as effective.

Three Talon Strike - Perfect for disabling one of their carries for a second or chasing down enemies to let your team catch up. Sure the damage boost is cool and all but the knock up is what makes this skill a good skill. It also works nicely with Audacious Charge, slow - knock up - dead.

Battle Cry - Good skill as well but it scales so very poorly. The cool down reduction is so nice, though, so use this as much as you can when ever you are killing anything. Oh no, my Crescent Sweep is on cool down! No problem, I can just use Battle Cry and everything will be ok in no time!

Audacious Charge - Personally, I think this is what makes Xin Xin. He is a point and click champion but believe it or not, there are actually situations where you will need to be smart and think quickly to decide when and where to use this skill. This is a great chasing ability and the slow is so amazing. If you combine this with Frozen Mallet, nobody will ever be able to escape the clutches of your pointy spear.

Crescent Sweep - This is not the greatest ult in the world, but thanks to Battle Cry and attack speed items like The Black Cleaver, the cool down is immensely short. It will be your initiating skill every time you enter a team fight (after jumping in to the battle with Audacious Charge, of course)

Ability Sequence
1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18

> > >

Audacious Charge

Three Talon Strike

Battle Cry

Battle Cry

Audacious Charge

Battle Cry

Battle Cry

Items

Items are situational. Remember that this will not always be the items that you will be buying. This is only a general idea of what you should be building in an ideal situation where the enemy team isn't heavy on ability power, attack damage, tankiness, ect

- No matter what lane you go in, this will give you amazing sustain. The 3% lifesteal from both this and Vampirism will help you so much. I used to start with a Long Sword so I could build into my Madred's Razors faster, but if you get a Doran's Blade instead, you will be able to be more agressive so you can farm more and maybe even kill some scrubs. With a Long Sword you have to play a lot more passively. Thus, not getting as many minions, kills or assists

- Why do I get this instead of Berserker's Greaves? Because you will get enough attack speed from and The Black Cleaver and you need tankiness. Berserker's Greaves just aren't needed. Without them, you still do massive dps and Mercury's Treads will just help so much more because it will help you push longer and take more cc. Another good pick if you are facing a heavy dps team would be Ninja Tabi.

- Well you are an AD jungler, so of course, it's a great choice. Free wards and life steal. What more could you ask for? "But roarrgasm (my username), why would you chose to use this in lane? I thought only junglers are allowed to buy this," said anonymous guy #1. Well because if you are in top lane and you are like, OMG I have no wards and I'm pushing too much! I don't want to go back to base and lose xp! Wriggle's Lantern fixes that problem. You won't believe how many times I have saved myself from ganks by using my wiggly wards. "But roarrgasm, what about the 20% chance to kill creeps in one hit? Isn't it kind of wasted?" said anonymous guy #2. No, I don't know about you, but there are times where I am hardly last hitting and it gets a little frustrating. That passive can come in handy. Also, you don't have to be in your lane all the time. If I have my lane pushed, I will quickly go into my jungle and pick up a couple creeps and get back to lane.

- This item will give you enough health to start to become a tanky champion. If you get The Black Cleaver first, sure you will do lots of damage, but you will die very easily. If you get this item first, you will be able to survive while not doing as much damage as you would with The Black Cleaver, but it's worth it

- This is your main source of damage. You should be building towards this in almost every game. Without it, you are not a big threat when you get to mid/late game. Basically a must have for xin

- This item gives you over 1000 health after you kill a whole bunch of minions? YES PLEASE, I WILL TANK ALL OF YOU! If you decide not to get this or Frozen Mallet, though, don't get Atma's Impaler either

- Because of Warmog's Armor, you should have almost 3000 health. 2 percent of your health will be added to your attack damage once you have this bad boy. That's 60 extra attack damage just from the passive! Also, if you thought you were tanky enough without this item, think again, it gives you 45 armor too! And... 18 percent crit chance. BONUS!

- There is not much magic resist yet and this is a tanky build so I believe it is time to get some. At this point in the game getting this would be a good idea in a lot of cases, but if you are really dominating, you can get an offensive item or if the other team has no ability power, you could get something like a Thornmail

- I used to end off with a Madred's Bloodrazor until I realized how amazingly effective this item can be. It gives health that will help give you even more damage for your Atma's Impaler. It is also a great item for this build because up until now, you don't really have all that much armor. The armor from this will be all you need for the rest of the game. At this time in the game, there will also be a lot of team fights going on so the active is absolutely fantastic. You can get this item even earlier if the enemy team has lots of AD or if the enemy team's AD carry is fed.

Other Items

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S T A R T I N G I T E M S

- A great item, like Doran's Blade, but I just feel like I can't really kill anyone or do much damage with it. You will still get some nice health from Doran's Blade and the attack damage and lifesteal is simply better than the armor and health regen. If you are expecting to play more safely in your lane and not expecting to kill the enemy or harass them (like if you are facing an Irelia), a Doran's Shield could be a perfectly decent choice

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- Boots and three health pots is also great if you want to make sure you can survive in your lane. If you don't like the idea of getting doran's items, this can be a great choice because it builds into what ever boots you decide to get. _____________________________________

S T A R T I N G I T E M S

D E F E N S I V E

- Gives some nice health, which would also go nicely with Atma's Impaler. Also great if you feel like you need a slow. I get this often instead of Warmog's Armor when i jungle because you are ganking constantly and Frozen Mallet will just enhance the fact that they will never escape your wrath! I get a Phage quite early in the game because of the 25% chance that you will slow. Not too great but very affordable - Great item against teams with lots of AD. You can get this instead of Randuin's Omen, it is really up to you.

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- A fantastic magic resist item. Gives you a bunch of health regeneration too so if you like this more than Banshee's Veil, get it. - Will also give magic resist, plus you do magic damage. Nice item for not too much cash. I get this in my jungle build instead of Randuin's Omen but at this point in the game, it is really a "you decide" kind of moment. It all depends on who you are up against and who is on your team. _______________ ________________________ _____ _________ _______________

D E F E N S I V E

O F F E N S I V E

- Gives you lots of crit chance, movement speed, and attack speed. I just feel the attack speed isn't necessary because we already have The Black Cleaver and other than that, you should focus more on defensive items. Although it is does make a good item when combined with Infinity Edge because of the extra crit chance. - Very good item, but if it isn't combined with Phantom Dancer or some other crit chance item, it just isn't worth it. If you are getting this item, I would recommend that you get Phantom Dancer as well. This would be for more of a glass cannon build - This item gives you a little bit of everything, but the mana and AP is kind of wasted but the nice passive that Sheen gives makes up for it. It's pretty expensive, though, just like Madred's Bloodrazor so rushing it in a game where you aren't doing all that great wouldn't be a good idea.

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- The only item you could really replace this with is The Black Cleaver. It's an ok item if you like the active, but it just won't give as much damage as The Black Cleaver will. So since it won't give you as much damage, and it is supposed to be your main source of damage, It isn't as necessary - A nice item that could replace banshee's veil if you are super fed and not dying very easily because you are just ripping everyone's health to shreds anyways. It puts the nice extra umph on to the AD part of the build. - With this item, it will be so much easier to take down that Cho'Gath with 5000 health. It is so very expensive, though, so don't ever get this early in the game or it will slow down your build a ton.

O F F E N S I V E

Jungling

Jungling is a big part of the game. Now that the new masteries are in place and some minions give you health, almost anyone can jungle. It is especially good with Xin Zhao. You can take out your whole half of the jungle right from level one while not even getting below 80% hp. I like to start my jungle with a Vampiric Scepter instead of Cloth Armor and five health pots because what's the point of wasting money on health pots when you can go through the jungle with almost full health anyways, right? This is the route I take:

Little Golems

Three Talon Strike

Smite

Wraiths

Three Talon Strike

Three Talon Strike

Wolves

Battle Cry

Audacious Charge

Three Talon Strike

Battle Cry

Smite

Blue Buff

Battle Cry

Three Talon Strike

Smite

First Gank

Audacious Charge

Red Buff

Smite

Second Gank

Dragon

Wriggle's Lantern

Flash

Smite

Farming

Stay safe; don't die trying to get minions. If you are getting super harassed, it doesn't matter, do not throw your life away to get minions. Don't EVER over extend early game. EVER. If it costs you some gold, it's ok. Try to get your jungler or mid to gank for you, it will help you farm a lot. Just keep playing safe until mid game. If there is nothing happening during mid/late game, either farm in the jungle or take out waves of minions, you always need to be farming something because you want to get your Giant's Belt as early in the game as you can.

Tips and Tricks

1) When you use Three Talon Strike, it resets your auto attack so if you want to do a double hit, just use it as soon as you finish an auto attack. This helps a lot in early levels because you don't have very much attack speed and it is very effective when jungling too.

2) If you are going for a gank, don't use Audacious Charge first. Wait until your enemy starts to retreat, then use it to catch up to them.

3) Use Audacious Charge to your advantage when escaping. Try to run to a wave of minions and charge to them. You can also use it through walls while in the jungle, but only if you can see the minion on the other side. You can try to get your ally to get in sight range of the minion on the other side of a wall and you will be able to charge right through the wall to the minion.

4) Audacious Charge will hit not only your target, but anyone who is near your target, too. When you are chasing someone and they are just slightly out of range, and there is another enemy champion beside your target who IS in range, hit them and the AOE effect will hit your target too, slowing them and making it easier for you to kill.

5) While Battle Cry is active, all of your auto attacks will lower the cool downs of every one of your abilities. Use this to your advantage. When Crescent Sweep is on cool down and you are farming a wave of minions, always activate Battle Cry when you can. This can lower the cool down of your ult to less than 30 seconds.

6) When you activate Crescent Sweep, you get armor and magic resist according to how many champions you hit with it. Therefore, when you enter a team fight, you want to try to get right in the center of their whole team so you can hit as many champs as possible. And damaging their whole team with one attack is always a good thing, right?

Early Game (Laning)

Start off with a Doran's Blade. Try to lane with someone who has a stun or lots of good harass unless you are going solo top. If you are, you should also consider getting Doran's Shield depending on who you are up against. Last hit as many minions as you can but don't over extend and don't take too much damage. You want to be safe. If you decide to kill the enemy, make sure you will be able to get out alive, because there is no point in killing them while they kill you as well. If you get low on health just keep hitting minions and letting your life steal and Challengeheal you up. The worst thing to do is feed at this point in the game. Never be greedy. If you get a kill, consider it a bonus and keep playing safe while last hitting.

Mid Game (Laning)

By this time, team fights should start to happen and in a good game, you should have Wriggle's Lantern and Giant's Belt finished. If you don't have Giant's Belt by now, it's ok, just keep killing stuff and getting gold. I prefer to stay in my lane until the first enemy turret is down. This is when you have to carry your carries until they can carry you. They should be on their way to getting some good core items, but until then, you gotta carry them. Help your team when necessary, never over extend, and always be killing something. Either in the jungle or minion waves or enemy champions.

Late Game (Laning/Jungling)

If you haven't won yet, you should have The Black Cleaver or Frozen Mallet done and working on Warmog's Armor or Atma's Impaler. Stay with your team, go where your team goes and kill minions whenever you can. This is when your carries take over and get loads of kills and take down a bunch of turrets, but you still have to do your job. Protect them and deal some nice damage. Although you have a lot of defensive items and can take a lot of beating, you don't enter team fights first. You are an off tank, that means you wait for your tank and you take the second most damage (tank is #1). When your tank enters first, you wait maybe 1 second for all of them to use their spells, and then you come in and clean up. Audacious Charge at the squishiest champ, use Crescent Sweep right away then keep using Three Talon Strike, Battle Cry, and Audacious Charge to kill all the low hp targets. If one of the enemies manages to get away with a tiny bit of hp left while there is still a fight going on, don't chase unless you are sure you can get the kill and your team doesn't need you. I wouldn't recommend backdooring either because you are too valuable to not be in a team fight. You need to be there every fight. Push towers with your team and kill stuff til you win

Summary

Change Log

17/02/2012
-build created
22/02/2012
-read guide on how to make a guide and found out how to do coding so I made links for all my items (http://www.mobafire.com/league-of-legends/build/making-a-guide-101506)
17/03/2012
-changed last item from bloodthirster to banshees veil and made jungle xin zhao masteries/build/skill order
7/04/2012
-added runes and masteries sections and changed warmogs armor too frozen mallet on my jungle build and changed the frozen mallet and madred's bloodrazor explanations. Added more to the skills section
13/04/2012
-swaped greater glyph of alacrity to greater glyph of shielding. changed madred's bloodrazor to wit's end for my jungle build. Changed runes explanations.
19/04/2012
-changed madred's bloodrazors to wriggles lanter in laning build and changed starting item to doran's blade. added more to the skills section. Changed some of the early/mid/late game sections. changed item explantions of madred's bloodrazors, frozen mallet, wriggle's lantern, wit's end, doran's shield, doran's blade.
06/05/2012
-taken madreds bloodrazor out of the build and replaced it with randuins omen
07/06/2012
-made other items section look nicer