This guide trys to focus on what Zin Zhao does best and leaves out trying to compensate for his weaknesses. Zin Zhao can be a great jungler and there is nothing wrong with playin him that way. He is deadly coming from the jungle and initiating a gank on any lane. Particularly I like using him on the bottom lane with a heavy damage carry. With all the CC and chasing power Zin Zhao has he can sure up kills for those type champions. You will even get quite a few yourself!

Runes try to sure up a little defense for early game battles to insure your lane is the one that gets to snowball. Red Armor Pen Marks, Mix of Scaling and Flat Magic resist glyphs and Armor Seals, to go along with Armor Pen Quints. This set up should offer solid early game strength and decent late game scaling with a few scaling runes added in. I like to use Armor Pen on the bottom lane to take advantage of Zin's passive armor shred and early armor pen item. Most bottom lane champions aren't going to be boasting too much armor so it will increase your damage a lot.

Our Masteries are going to focus on helping us survive our Initiation while still increasing our already stacked armor pen. In offensive Masteries the Fury is a solid choice on Zin Zhao normally but for us the Sorcery is better used to lower the downtime of our Audacious Charge and Three Talon Strike to help keep those ganks going!

Over in the Defensive Masteries we are mainly focusing on things that increase our early game survivability to help us snowball our lane! Late game scaling shouldn't be a huge issue when you out level and out earn the other team! Tenacious and Relentless are also important to help you stay on your target and not get peeled off.

Skill sequence is pretty basic. Max Three Talon Strike asap and then focus on Audacious Charge. Take 1 point in Battle Cry early for a little lane sustain and it helps ganking early game as well till you get some Attack Speed items. Of course like most champions max your ult out when ever you can.

Flash is pretty much mandatory on most champions anymore. It's not any different for Zin Zhao. I like to get Ignite for my second ability to shut down life steal and health regen tanks/bruisers. It makes a huge difference when you see a beefy Mundo latched on you. Not to mention Ignite is excellent for early game kills.

A few other options that are decent on Zin are Ghost and Teleport. Ghost to assist your already overpowered chase and Teleport for map control. I still prefer to stick with ignite.

The main goal with Zin is to have enough defense/survivability to initiate and survive long enough to secure the kill for you or your Carry you lane with. Late game you probably won't survive unless you are able to scatter and decimate the opposing team with Cresent Sweep. Always focus your attacks on the most dangerous opponent on the other team. The real key to this build is having a good early game with your lane partner. Either you feed them kills or you end up getting the last hits. Either way the game will snowball in your favor. Just make sure you lane with a heavy hitter and not some chump support or tank. You need to lane with a carry!