Hello, and welcome to my guide on your favorite Chinese killer! I'm going to talk about plenty of things to make your gameplay as Xin Zhao way better.

Masteries are very flexible. Either you improve your early game tankyness and utility or your damage output. Both ways are viable although I prefer the offensive way because it makes your laning stronger. But you can decide to go more defensive as well, no problem at all.

When playing Xin-Zhao as a off-tank its important to remember that you are not the main damage source. you will be getting more assists and need to make sure you get those carries attention. The carries is something Xin has a easy time getting to and disabling. Use this as your method to help your team. Get more attention on you and less on ashe whos criting 500 every second. Keep your carries alive and you will have a great functioning team.

Skills and spells

Exhaust:
Is very good if your against someone who have alot of damage, when attacking use your exhaust after your slow from audacious charge is gone.

Ignite:
Ignite is very good to get first blood, remember first use your ignite when your target is fleeing. Remember that ignite reduces healing done too your target so if you are against dr. mundo, swain or vlademir etc. use it on them so their healing abillities are reduced.

Three Talon Strike:
Is the ultimate damage ability, it scales with more than 100% damage, and then the third attack knocks airborne. Pop it first then Battle cry will take the cooldown down and you can maybe use one more time.

Battle Cry:
Passive: gives you attack speed.
Active: Double up the attack speed and every attack reduces other cooldowns by 1 second pop first in battle then you can use your attacks again fast.

Audacious Charge:
Your jump, slow and damage attack. A very important thing to know/remember is that Audacious Charge slows in a little AOE so if you are hunting someone down and minions are close use it on the nearest minion then it slows the champion also and you can hunt them down and kill them.

Crescent Sweep:
Damage alot in AOE, the more hp your enimies have the more it damages, so use it first in the fight, also it grants you extra armor and magic resistance.

If you find yourself hurting for cash...

Providing that your lane partner can hold things down for a minute or so, head back to the summoner platform to use whatever money you do have and while heading back to your lane start from the opposite side of the map and walk down (or up) through the jungle and rip things apart.

This will do a few things, the enemy team will report you mia - effectively making the others paranoid, you'll also be able to gather up some buffs and gold, just before you get back to your lane head up (or down) the river to gank your enemies.

As well, if you find that there is a lane in need of some "cleaning up" due to an enormous amount of creeps headed towards your base then you could head there and simply charge in Audacious Charge and Crescent Sweep to wipe them out.

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.

Take your A/Q first. It is the skill that lets you hit as hard as you do and knockup is awesome. I see people taking Audacious Charge from time to time and believe me- it's absolute ****. It deals no damage, the slow is negligible and it just leaves you in a vulnerable position for the opponents to take advantage of the biggest weak point of Xin- no escape mechanism. :(
The leveling from there is pretty straightforward- you want charge next (yeah, I know, ironic) to harass and massively damage sloppy opponents that get careless. Then one Battle Cry to get your CD's off every time (plus, it's almost a free dagger without activation on level 1- sign me up). After you have all of those three skills, the most important skill is Crescent Sweep, then Three Talon Strike, then Battle Cry and max out Charge last.

You have two possible skill combos. R-A-Z is one of them when you get to initiate by just walking (stunned/snared opponent, stupid opponents) and you just keep your E up for two situations: damage opponents for the last chunk of health when blinded, or, of course, start the other skill combo when they try to run:
E-R-A-Z. Yeah, it's pretty similar, but I used to make the mistake of initiating every single fight with Audacious Charge- now I try and hope to keep it to chase them when they try to run.
When fighting against the lizard or dragon, only activate your Battle Cry only when you know you'll have killed it when the actives duration runs out. Don't use your ultimate, unless if you're halfway through it and need to go help out your mates.