1. Ability RundownA summary of Xayah’s abilities

2. Pros & ConsChampion strengths & weaknesses

3. Summoner SpellsBest summoner spells

PRECISION

Lethal Tempo is overall the best and most consistent choice among its peers. It allows Xayah to gain a boost to her attack speed, allowing her to set up her feathers, DPS and make her W more effective. The range increase you get is helpful in kiting and chasing enemies. However, Fleet Footwork can be picked if you feel like you are going to get bullied in lane and will need the extra sustain. The movement speed is also nice on her. Otherwise, not the best choice.

Triumph is good once you learn how to manage your mana properly. You will get a lot of value from it in teamfight and lane skirmishes in the form of extra survivability and a little bit of gold.
Presence of Mind is a solid choice if you need mana sustain, especially if you have Navori Quickblades and a durable enemy team. In lane you can proc the passive mana regen when your Clean Cuts feathers hit an enemy champion through minions. This is very exploitable against melee supports especially! Use this trick to steadily keep your mana going throughout the laning phase.

Take Legend: Bloodline if you need more sustain and HP in your game. You will not build lifesteal in most of your games so it always has its value, but I find it a weaker rune.
Legend: Alacrity feels really good and it spares you from building AS items, but it lacks the late game sustain. If you don't get red buff, you may have to recall after a fight and end up losing tempo because of it.

Go Cut Down or Coup de Grace depending on your needs. Cut down against beefy teams and tank supports, Coup de Grace for the rest of the games. Last Stand does not fit Xayah's playstyle.




Rune Page Example

DOMINATION

I very rarely pick the domination tree as my primary tree. Hail of Blades is a decent choice if you plan to play more aggressively and snowball lane, but it is an early game rune and overall Lethal Tempo feels better for most games. Hail of Blade’s utility comes from the fact that it allows you to quickly set up 3 feathers and catch the enemy off guard, meaning you rely less on your support landing CC to perform a burst combo.

Taste of Blood is an option if you want extra sustain, you can consistently proc it by poking enemies with Clean Cuts and Double Daggers. Cheap Shot is not really that good.

Eyeball Collection is the best option among its peers. Ghost Poro sounds good in theory, but it is weak and takes longer to stack, and Zombie Ward is bad because your support will usually be the one to take down wards - meaning you would take forever to stack it.

My favorite part about the Domination tree! I advise you to get Ultimate Hunter if you want your Featherstorm on a lower cooldown - really good if the enemy team has a lot of burst or CC you need to dodge, like Katarina R or Malphite R. It is also a really good rune for making plays and my personal favorite.
Ingenious Hunter is good if you are going to buy items that have cooldown, such as Essence Reaver, Immortal Shieldbow, or Guardian Angel.
Treasure Hunter is good if you have an aggressive support to snowball your early-mid game.




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INSPIRATION

First thing I have to said is that builds are very adaptable, especially when it comes to late game items. Some items work really well in some games, then poorly in others. There’s also the player variable – Yes! You, the player, will naturally gravitate towards a specific playstyle or feel you play better by going certain items in a specific order. I will show you the meta build, some personal setups and I’ll go through some items and how they interact with the champion, but at the end of the day this is just a baseline. Once you’re comfortable with the champion, I urge you to experiment and have fun with your items!

PS: currently experimenting with Terminus to see if it can fit in the build anywhere.

Stormrazor plus Phantom Dancer is an underrated combo in terms of speed. When you combine them with Deadly Plumage you become really good at kiting and chasing. The overall damage potential might be a bit lower in the early game since you have no Kraken Slayer and PD only comes third, but it is still a good build when you need speed – either because the enemy is too sticky or your own team is too fast with little CC. Go Navori Quickblades always. Rapid Firecannon is viable in some games. Last items are situational!

If you want to focus on doing damage per second, this setup is perfect. You play as a hypercarry in the backline who is very good at punishing divers and thrives in longer fights. Good build if you need to handle tanks and melt single targets.

Good for situations when you are into a team comp where autoing enemies and catching them with your Bladecaller is harder. Stormrazor gives you a small boost in movement speed which can be helpful in chasing or kiting. Infinity Edge is better than Navori Quickblades here in my opinion because in complicated matchups (usually high range ones) you will often not really be able to auto attack a lot, and will need more burst instead. However, Navori will be better if you are into melee assassins. Rapid Firecannon gives you a nice layer of safety with the extra range and it allows you to catch enemies a bit more easily with your higher range. Overall this build is more unforgiving when you misuse your abilities, but can be good into champions like Caitlyn or Xerath.

This section will cover the most basic things to perform well as an ADC - how to farm, wave management and tips on how to survive as a squishy glass cannon. Of course there will be a focus on Xayah but the tips here can help you with pretty much any other marksman.

Everything I am going to share I have picked up over time both from personal observations and from getting tips from high elo players!

1. FarmingTips for steady income

2. Wave ManagementTypes, how to’s, pros & cons

3. ADC Survival GuideSurvival guide to Summoner’s Rift

I feel it is difficult to explain wave management in text format so I will try to keep this short and simple as possible for your convenience.

There are three main types of wave management and each one has their uses and a way to accomplish: Fast Pushing, Slow Pushing and Freezing.

This is usually what low elo players do constantly, especially newer players. This is when you quickly kill all minions, which results in a thin wave that crashes under the enemy tower.

Slow pushing is when you create a big minion wave that slowly pushes to the enemy tower.

A freeze is when the wave is stuck and doesn't push to either one side or the other. It is a great defensive move and can be very bad for the enemy.

In laning phase, you ideally want the freeze to happen just outside of your own tower range so that it can be beneficial to you. Having a freeze happen in enemy territory is extremely dangerous for you and puts the enemy in a safe position.

Freezing requires a lot of practice and attention, so if you are still new to this, just start by trying to avoid freezes from happening and learning fast push & slow push. Once that's more settled on your mind try to practice creating and keeping freezes!

HOW TO FREEZE Freezing is the hardest to get the hang of because it depends on the position the wave clashes and how healthy minions are. To freeze the wave outside of your tower range you need to have around 3 or 4 healthy minions on the area of the closest bush to your tower. To keep the freeze you want to last hit minions, but if you see the freeze is turning into a slow push (into your tower) you will have to thin the wave by killing excess caster minions. If the wave is becoming a slow push into enemy territory, just let it happen so that you can keep denying enemy gold and xp. The enemy will stop this from happening if they auto the wave. To freeze the wave in the middle of the lane you need only to keep an equal amount of minions on both sides. A freeze in enemy territory usually hapens when you try to fast push, but your wave clashes with the upcoming minion wave just outside enemy tower range. This type of freeze is good for the enemy as it leaves you vulnerable, and if you recall during such a freeze you will possibly lose an entire wave of gold and xp.

WHEN TO FREEZE Maintain a freeze in your territory if you want to hold a more defensive position in lane, which you might want if you have Flash down, if enemy jungler is nearby, or if the enemy has a very aggressive engage lane, like Leona + Tristana. A freeze in the middle of the lane is very good if you have an engage or hook support, like Rakan or Blitzcrank, as it gives them the most space to find all-in opportunities. A freeze in enemy territory is very dangerous and is best avoided if enemy can somehow engage on you or gank you.

BREAKING A FREEZE To break a freeze in middle or enemy territory you need to get close and fast push. If that's too dangerous, ask your jungler for help. If the enemy fights it's a 3v2 in a best case scenario. To break the freeze close to your tower you can just let the enemy wave stack and crash or you can thin it and begin a slow push towards the enemy tower.

ADVANTAGES Freezing allows you to zone the enemy away from cs, set up for ganks (if done in your territory) and keep you protected from ganks. If you manage to freeze the wave in the middle of the lane you give more room for your support to engage or catch the enemy from the bushes or the alcove. Keep in mind the enemy support could do the same.

DISADVANTAGES A poorly positioned freeze makes you very vulnerable to ganks, engages, and can make you lose a ton of CS and XP. Freezing defensively can also make ganking difficult for your jungler (if there are too many minions) and it can make it harder for you to rotate to river skirmishes. In other words, defensive freezes sometimes mean you hold less lane priority.

It is common knowledge that Summoner's Rift is a very perilous place to the average ADC player. If you are not careful, no matter how fed you are you can still get solo killed by 0/10 Yasuo OTP player. Even the enemy enchanter support can solo kill you under the right circumstances (I’m not joking).

This is why this section of the guide exists. Hopefully you will be able to last longer following some of these tips!




KNOW YOUR LIMITS

You can only do so much when you have no summoner spells, when you have had a stressful day at work/school and you can't move your fingers because it’s too chilly outside. On top of that you could be playing against your personal counter - maybe you just can't play against Vayne with any champion because she tilts the hell out of you and you end up losing the game regardless of what you do.

It's important to be realistic and understand your limits as a player - whether you are against a champion you cannot stand, how much BS you can take before tilting and running it down, how many buttons you can press at once to survive a teamfight, how aware you are of your cooldowns. Play safe/cool when you know you are at a personal disadvantage.




KNOW YOUR CHAMPION’S LIMITS

I have repeatedly mentioned in this guide how you should play safe when your Featherstorm and Bladecaller are on cooldown as Xayah. You can only do so much without them - so pay attention to your champion's limits. Don't go to a teamfight or position aggressively when you don't have the tools to defend yourself.

You can be 10/1 and still lose to the average assassin player if your self peel is down and you are surrounded by 3 enemies.



RECOGNIZE BIGGEST THREATS

This is both champions as a whole and specific champion abilities. Malphite may not be a huge threat himself, but his Unstoppable Force is, so you want to be ready to react accordingly when his R is up. If you know you can't outplay a Zed then track him on the map and keep your distance. On champion select, instead of waiting for the game to start, stop and think about what abilities in the game can kill you and plan how you can avoid getting hit by them.

Example...

The enemy team is: Malphite top, Yasuo mid, Warwick jungle, Ezreal and Soraka in the bot lane.

STEP 1: LIST WHAT CAN KILL YOU IN A SKIRMISH

Malphite’s R + Yasuo’s R combo


Yasuo Steel Tempest (Q) + Last Breath (R)


Ezreal combo + R (trueshot barrage)


Soraka’s Equinox (E)


Warwick’s Infinite Duress (R)

STEP 2: LIST HOW YOU CAN SURVIVE THESE THREATS

Bring Exhaust for Warwick and Yasuo.
Bring Heal to not die from Ezreal combo.
Use Flash to dodge Warwick R, Yasuo Q, Ezreal R, Malphite R.
Build Immortal Shieldbow if you think you can't use Flash in time to dodge abilities (this goes back to knowing your limitations).
Time your Featherstorm to avoid all the listed abilities that can kill you.
Use your Bladecaller well to kite Yasuo and Warwick.
Build] Quicksilver Sash to cleanse Warwick R (not the best option since it won't be very useful against the rest of the team).

STEP 3: ADAPT TO YOUR GAME

Maybe Warwick and Ezreal are not fed but Yasuo is. What do you do? Well then your priority should be holding your Featherstorm, Exhaust and Flash to dodge Malphite R and Yasuo Q+R. You can also avoid being in the same lane as Yasuo and keep an extra eye out for him during teamfights. Maybe build a Mortal Reminder for Soraka and Warwick.

Go into the game with a game plan on how you will survive each and every threat.

POSITION WELL IN TEAMFIGHTS

Xayah is a backline carry which means you should be positioning fairly back in teamfights. You don't want to be the one going into fog of war to ward, or the frontliner, or the backline diver. Play the game around getting picks or waiting for the enemy team to engage on you.

If you play around getting picks, stay out of sight and just behind your support or team’s main engager so that you can quickly follow up their catch.

If you play around the enemy team engaging on you, stay back to avoid the initial engage and use your self peel tools to protect yourself from enemy divers/assassins. If there are none, you still want to avoid enemy engage and focus on killing the closest target to you or the enemy carry if they are mispositioned.




POSITION WELL ON THE MAP

Stay away from highest threat enemy champions if you are alone (usually the assassin or fed bruisers, but it can also be mages or enemy AD carry). Don't sit alone in lane and avoid pushing too far into enemy territory without vision. Be in position to rotate to baron/drake skirmishes.




USE BLUE WARDS, VISION PLANTS AND CONTROL WARDS

ADCs have to ward too. Be mindful of your wards since you don't have many - every time you want to stick to one side of the map, use vision control to make sure you are not getting flanked. Getting flanked is especially bad on Xayah since she often relies on positioning to deal damage!




GOOD RECALL TIMING AND GREEDING

If you are sitting on a lot of gold and your team is not around, recall. You are usually a key member of the team to take objectives so it's important you are there for your team when they need you - sometimes staying to push one extra wave or take a few jungle camps will cost you a baron because you had a late recall. Sometimes you will die for being too greedy!

Try to have your recall aligned with your support's in the early game. Recall when you have a lot of gold, when you need full mana/hp and when the enemy gives you an opening to do so (when you are not getting pressured/ when they are not looking to make plays on the map). Good recall timing is extremely important so that you don't fall behind and so you are not alone/mispositioned.

Here we will be going in-depth on how to optimize Xayah's damage through her abilities. Xayah’s kit is simple to understand, but it’s also deceptively easy to misuse. To play her well you need to pay attention to how you use your abilities and always be aware of your cooldowns and positioning.

Do keep in mind that sometimes the optimal is not always feasible - meaning that to score kills or outplay your opponent you may need to go against what is “optimal” for her Passive usage for example.

And especially players new to Xayah or who are not very advanced in their mechanics will struggle to use her abilities well all the time. This is FINE - take your time, practice, and have fun first and foremost. You don't need to play perfectly in order to have fun.

Each time you use an ability, you will get 3 out of 5 feathers ready to be set up, which means that for optimal usage you want to be auto attacking between abilities.

If you use Double Daggers, auto attack before using Deadly Plumage or Bladecaller. You will then get 5 feathers stacked, which means that to get as many feathers on the ground as you can, you will have to auto 3 times before using an ability again.

If you instead Q+W+aa, because you did not auto between abilities, you will have lost 1 feather. Likewise, if you already have 5 feathers stacked and use an ability, you will lose 3 extra feathers.

This is not optimal for every situation, but in teamfights you want to have as many feathers on the ground as possible.

Picking Xayah into cc heavy teams will further enable you as you will not need to root for cc chain, using it instead to deal more burst damage.

This ability can be used in a multitude of ways.


1. Its range is longer than your autos, so you can Q to farm minions safely and to poke the enemy ADC, especially if they have about the same range as you. If you want to poke low HP enemies use Q+E to chunk them harder. You can even score a few kills like that.

2. Your Double Daggers feathers will deal more damage to the first enemy they hit, or in other words, if it doesn't go through the minion wave.

3. In 1x1, especially against mobile champions, you will want to hold on to your Q until you see a good opportunity to root - usually after they have used their dash.

4. Double Daggers immediately sets up feathers for you, which means that it can be used to catch enemies off guard when you start your trades with Deadly Plumage.

5. You can Q to set up feathers on the ground, and when the enemy approaches you can catch them off guard by using aa+E on them. You can also use your Q and autos to zone the enemy off your wave and make them lose cs.

This is her most reliable form of DPS if you build crit, so avoid using it on the minion wave unless you want to hard shove and recall or take towers. It has a long cooldown and costs a lot of mana at level 1. Hold this ability to take favorable trades and all-ins.


1. You can use it to more quickly take objectives (turrets, drake , baron ), but avoid fights while it's on cooldown.

2. Start trades with W to out-DPS the enemy ADC. You can take this ability level 1 if you have Rakan or another strong level 1 support to force early trades and gain level 2 priority, but in most cases you will want to take this at level 3.

3. Use Deadly Plumage to kite away from bruisers and tanks looking to get on top of you.

4. You can also use this ability to chase, and use it to close the gap between you and long range champions when paired with Rapid Firecannon, as it gives movement speed.


Having more attack speed makes this ability more efficient, as you will be able to auto more times and more quickly set up feathers. It is really strong in the early game so use it sparingly.

This is the ability that will require the most patience of you and one of the biggest things separating a good Xayah from a bad Xayah. Her entire kit is based around this ability, so using it optimally is crucial to having success with this champion.

When using Bladecaller for damage, ideally you want to have as many feathers on the ground as possible and position accordingly. You should start trades with Deadly Plumage and autos, use Double Daggers, auto a few more times if possible and E to root/kill them.

To use E effectively you should only use it if more than 2 feathers hit the enemy. Q+E is only worth it for poking or killing low HP targets.

In situations where you need to lock down your enemy, you can use Q+aa+E to hold them and then burst them with Deadly Plumage. In most situations you will be tempted to do this, but always make sure to see if you really need the root or if you will need the Bladecaller damage to finish them off later.

TIPS TO MASTER THIS ABILITY


1. Always be very patient in teamfights with your E. Most of the time you will not need a 3 feathers root, and will end up missing having your E if you have to use your Featherstorm defensively or when you have a lot of feathers on the ground.

2. In early laning phase, be mindful of using your E to farm. You will have more lane pressure by using your feathers to zone the enemy, using E to catch them off guard or follow up your support's engage. In the late game, when your E is on a lower cooldown, you can freely use it to shove waves and group with your team.

3. When your Bladecaller is down, it is often best to play more careful because you will not have part of your damage and your peel.

4. E requires you to position well, but even then enemies can dash away or Flash. You can E+ Flash to quickly reposition in such cases.

5. Also keep in mind that the closer you are to your enemies, the easier it is for you to root them and deal more damage.

This is the ability most people use wrong after her E.

On its own, Featherstorm is okay. It deals decent damage, but the real reason why it is a threatening Ultimate is because of your E. When paired with Bladecaller, it has the potential to deal tons of damage, if all your feathers hit. In most cases though, you will want to use it as a defensive tool because you get untargetability while casting it.

To make full use of your ultimate you need to have your E up. Both when using it offensively and defensively, you ideally want to not have used your E just before R. This is where many new Xayah players fail to turn the fight around for their team.

Another common mistake many new Xayah players make is using your Featherstorm aggressively at the wrong times. Say, for example, the enemy is trying to run away and you ult to try to quickly catch them. Then either you don't hit your 3 feathers because they were too far from you, or they Flash away, turn on you, or you just don't do enough damage to kill them.



TIPS FOR THIS ABILITY


1. Keep in mind that every time you lose your ult, you are very vulnerable. It is ideal to play safe until your R is up at all stages of the game. Taking Ultimate Hunter will significantly help you lower the cooldown of your R.

2. If you get caught in a tight space, such as the jungle, you can R to try to avoid the enemy engage, and zone them from following you.

3. You can use Featherstorm to finish off low HP enemies in lane, if they have already used their Flash or dash.

4. You can also use your R aggressively in lane if you have a support that can lock down enemies for a long time, such as a Leona, Rell, Rakan or Galio.



In a teamfight, look to use your Featherstorm to dodge important damage or the enemy engage. Examples of this could be Malphite R, Miss Fortune R, Lux R, Katarina R, Maokai R, Fizz R, Yone R, Rell W+R. After dodging the damage/engage, use your autos and abilities to set up more feathers, and use E to deal a huge chunk of damage.

You can also use R when your team is first to engage, or when the enemy uses their dangerous abilities on a teammate instead of you. You can either kill them while they try to kill your teammates, or peel for your teammates by using E to give them time to run away.

Xayah is a close combat ADC - she has a shorter range and benefits from enemies being close to her thanks to how her E works. She also has high dps on her W and burst damage on E, which makes her an All-in and Trade ADC. She has a bit of poke on her Q, but it's mostly important during laning phase, and it's not really as strong as other ADCs in that department.

She does amazingly well with teams that have the same playstyle as her - teams that either want to all-in or fight in skirmishes. She can also make picks in the jungle with the help of her teammates.

The most reliable way to get a lead from level one is to push for level 1 first, poke the enemy ADC with your Bladecaller whenever possible and watch out for good trades with your support. If it is too risky to push level one, just concede prio and wait for level 3 to play more aggressively.

WHEN PLAYING INTO GOOD MATCHUPS

If you have an aggressive support in the early game, you will want to position more aggressively and be ready to make picks whenever the enemy positions poorly. With engage or hook supports you will want to stand close to them, usually parallel to their positioning in order to match their aggression and respond in time. Keep your wave frozen in the middle of the lane to give room for your support to engage, but let the wave push into you if you don't have vision in the river and bushes.

If you score a kill in the early game do your best to maintain your lead. Don't get overconfident. Play around your strengths and don't throw your lead. Use your R defensively especially in the early game because you will be very vulnerable without it.

WHEN PLAYING INTO BAD MATCHUPS

In Hard or Passive lanes your main priority should be farming and scaling. Focus on farming and don't force plays if you don't have a lead or if the enemy lane has more kill pressure than you. Try not to die as to not give the enemy a bigger lead. Most of the time you should focus on wave management, focusing on macro gameplay and prioritizing keeping a steady gold and xp income.

In a passive lane, dragon rotations can be very risky, and it is often here where players will mess up their lanes.

Avoid rotating to dragon if your wave has not fully crashed into the enemy tower, and don't over commit to a fight. Don't thoughtlessly rotate without lane prio. Early drakes are not that big of a deal, by the mid game you can focus more on helping your teammates with dragons as you will either have destroyed the enemy tower or lost yours.

Mid game generally starts when the first tower falls. It is at this point where you have to be especially careful if your lane is going even, as the enemy mid or top laners will try to make plays on your lane. Your team will also start requiring your help to get drake, herald or baron.

PLAYING OFF YOUR LEADS


If you are ahead, focus on pressuring the enemy, farming, getting towers and pushing your lead further. Ping your jungler or mid to make plays bot and get yourself further ahead. Once you take bot tower, start rotating with your support to take more towers/objectives and make picks around the map to put yourself further ahead and put enemy solo laners behind.

By "making picks" I mean: you can ambush a lonely enemy or the enemy happens to misposition and your team can collapse without inting. Don't get overconfident as the enemy solo laners might be stronger than the bot laners and still kill you.

IF YOU ARE BEHIND…

If you are behind, it is especially important focus on farming and avoid making rotations unless it is absolutely necessary.

Before making any plays or rotating you will want to shove any lane you are farming, be it bot, mid or top. It is at this stage of the game where many players throw their lead - they stop farming and rotate to every single jungle skirmish.

A good rule of thumb for choosing when to rotate with your team or not is: is there something worth fighting for, and what do I lose for this play?

If your team can get something out of a skirmish, like drake, baron, or tower, then you can look to shove the wave into enemy territory and rotate. If your team is outnumbered, you probably shouldn't go as it is a losing fight. Pay attention at all times to see if enemies are missing - if they are, assume they are rotating or coming for you.

KEEPING A STEADY GOLD INCOME


To get the most out of the mid game as an ADC, solo farm whenever you don't have to be with your team. If you think your team will get caught, spam ping them off, or farm as quickly as possible for good rotation or to allow a disengage. And don't share farm with solo laners and jungler.

At this point in the game you should start seeing yourself rising to power, but keep in mind that unless you are absolutely stomping the game, you are still not at your strongest point. Your focus is to stay ahead and keep the enemy chunked with good rotations and good fights. If you are behind, your priority is to get strong enough to be useful to your team.

Also avoid ARAMing mid. If either your team or the enemy team ARAMs but no real fights are breaking out, farm jungle or side lane. Sharing xp with 2+ people will do nothing to set yourself further ahead.

This is where you should already have your core items. Most of the time you will keep the same playstyle as in the mid game - pressuring enemies if you are ahead, farming waves, getting gold and getting stronger to contest objectives or force plays. At this stage it is very important that you do not die, as spawn timers will skyrocket and your team will be at a great disadvantage if outnumbered and without your damage.

This also means making picks is more valuable as you get more time to take Baron and towers! When the enemy has a number disadvantage, always look to see if you and your team can take something for free.

You should have plenty of time and pushing power to always be there for your team, but PLAY SAFE when Featherstorm and Flash are down.

Also look to always be on the same side of the map as the objectives your teams want to contest - Don't split push bot if baron is up, don't be top when soul is about to spawn. Let the top laners be on the opposite side of the map, as they usually run Teleport.

This is the point of the game where you are usually the main carry. You will deal the most damage to towers and monsters, and in teamfights you should also do a lot of damage as long as you are positioning and building properly.

Your priority is to stay alive to carry your team. Don't wander around on your own.

In this section I will go into Xayah's synergies - her best and worst supports, as well as team synergies and overall class synergy. First I go into overall synergy with support types (enchanter, hook, engage, mage), then I go into each one of the usual supports, then lastly I go into class synergy for analyzing team comps and dealing with the occasional troll/off meta support.

If you have questions about a specific champion that is not included here just let me know in the comments and I'll see what I can do!

Champions are in alphabetical order.

SUPPORT SYNERGIES IN A NUTSHELL