About this guide

Hello there and welcome to my Xin Zhao Tanky DPS guide.

This is my first guide and the reason I'm making yet another Xin Zhao guide might be beyond some of you. It just so happens although some guides posted here are very complete and possess tons of useless (or just irrelevant) information, which makes it kinda hard to read them.

In this guide I'll try to summarize in each section what I believe is important to know about playing Xin "the right way".
"What do you mean, the right way?" Well, most of the guides set up Xin to be an all out DPS, when in fact, from personal experience, he should be played as a Tanky DPS.

And although some guides do cover that, I thought I'd contribute with my personal experience and opinions regarding this awesome champion.


About Xin Zhao

Why is Xin Zhao a great champion and what makes me spend my time making a guide for him?
Xin is not only a great champion early game and awesome to pair up with in lane, but also, if well played, an extreme hard to kill killing machine.

Tireless Warrior (passive):
Xin Zhao will passively regenerate 30 health every 3 hit, the amount increases by 5 every 2 level.

Three Talon Strike:
it is a attack combo which will cause the next 3 auto hits to do more damage, and the third attack will cause the target to be knocked into the air.

damage done: 15/30/45/60/75 ofcourse + the normal dmg of xin zhao
Cooldown: 12/11/10/9/8 sec

Battle Cry:
it will increase your attack speed passively but can be used in special occasions to dobbel the amount (the passive wont be up while the ability is on cooldown).

Attack speed: 15/20/25/30/35% attack speed
Cooldown: 24/22/20/18/16 sec

Audacious Charge:
Xin Zhao will Charge and enemy, all enemies around the chosen target will be damaged for a curtain amount and be slowed.

Damage: 70/110/150/190/230
Slow: 20/25/30/35/40 %slowed.
Cooldown: 18/16/14/12/10 sec

Crescent Sweep:
Xin Zhao sweeps his spear around him, dealing damage to all nearby enemies, a base amount of damage +20% damage based on their current health and will grant him some armor and magic resistance for a short time.

% damage: 20%.
bonus damage: 125/250/375 bonus damage.
resistances: 30/40/50 armor and magic resistance.
Cooldown: 75 sec

Exhaust : armor,magic resist reduction thx to your masterypoint and easy to chase/run
Ghost : Helps to rush to your turret when enemies are bashing it, good to chase/escape ganks


NOTE : Ok, so thanks to these spells here are some handy strategies :


AGAINST A SINGLE ENEMY :

Start the attack with rightclicking (autoattack) follow up with TALON STRIKE,once
the cooldown starts running turn on BATTLECRY and use EXHAUST, keep hitting him
untill exhaust wears off, at this point he will probably allready be running away.
try to autoattack untill he allmost leaves your autoattackrange, then use TALON STRIKE
again, if he should surive, u use AUDICAUS CHARGE just when he leaves your
autoattack range.

AGAINST MULTIPLE OPPONENTS :

Wait for them to get close to eachother, then out of nowhere swoop in with
AUDICAUS CHARGE followed Immediatly by your ultimate, this will raise your
armor and magicresistance, plus it will damage them all quite a bit.
follow up with TALON STRIKE on the weakest target. Then use BATTLECRY immediatly
to refresh your cooldowns quicker. Should the weak enemy not die by your first
assault try to chase him down with your GHOST while using EXHAUST on the one that
can slow, stun,or the one that does the most damage. Try to gain on the weak one
kill him and go into brush to try and escape while GHOST is still active. OR if
the other two are too weak to beat u , go back after u killed the weak one and kill
the second weakest one, and finally the third if possible.
If the weakest one DOES die by your first attack, go for the second weakest one
immediatly, trying to use TALON STRIKE on the highest DPS one to cut his damage output
When in doubt, use GHOST to get away.activate BATTLECRY whenever to reduce cooldowns
and burst kill the second weakest one (hopefully) with some luck u can do several
TALON STRIKES, AUDICAUS CHARGES. Most of the time u will be able to kill 2 if not
all 3 of your opponents. Remember to keep AUDICAUS CHARGE for the right moment.

GOING SOLO TOP LANE :

Push the enemy minions all the way to their turret, then start to jungle bot, untill
the enemy is about to reach your turret, go back to toplane, push them back.
then when u reach their turret, again go jungle, top this time. Keep this up untill
u outgrow them, then let the hunt begin. getting ganks, keep your lane safe, and
jungle when possible. Keep an eye on botlane while u do all this as well, if u push
the enemy back to their turret have a quick look to see if the bot lane is still
in your favor. If it isn't, try to go around the bot enemies back, for a gank.
never lose sight of your lane, in case the enemy goes SS.

Early game
Early game Xin Zhao with runes and a Blade can already deal a high amount of damage. Get to your lane as fast as possible and hide on the brush. If enemy is squishy and facechecks then attack them and chase after them to try and get FB. Don't tower dive them because you will give them a First Blood and then the world ends. If enemy is careful and doesn't facecheck then just lane and farm up. You can start to be aggresive at level 2. If enemy is derp and walks in range of your charge there are not too many minons then notify your lane partner and charge in and use your Q spell strraight away. Most of the time they will start to run, but if they fight back then thats even better because they will have no chance to run. Once you anal them up in the air they will probaby be down to 2 or 3 bars, let your team mate whack them once or twice and then ignite on them. If the other enemy hits you or your team mate low and you realise you can't really run then just fight back. You might be able to take him down with you or atleast you partner will.

Once you kill them once or twice they usually will be smart enough to stand out of your range, you can then stand behind THEIR minions to deny EXP as they will be be too scared to walk close to you.

Don't over extend, only do so if they are super derps and you keep killing them. If you're planning to do this then ward the brush that leads to the jungle to avoid being ganked.

If you're soloing laning 2 then dont be too aggressive. Wait for them to over extend and attack the squishy near by your tower, only chase if you will definitely be getting the kill (if they're down to 2 bars and you have your ignite and ghost) because you won't have a partner to support you.

Only go back to shop if you died or have enough money for boots or a Black Cleaver, otherwise I like stay in lane to get my EXP and kill them more.

Once you hit Level 6, smart people will probably stay away from you because your ulti hits 1/3 of their HP and one combo will kill them.

Suggestion:
If you're getting owned pretty hard and not farming up at all, i do not recommend you to build a black cleaver first. Get your boots Grab another Doran's Blade because it is cheap and gives you more survivability and damage at the same time.

Taking Mid?
When i'm pissed off and want to kill i usually take mid because they're all squishy ****s and i can kill them easily. I love laning against a Karthus the most because his skill shot is easily dodged and when i manage to get my charge on them i tend to face**** them with my combo.