Currently a Diamond player that has mained Xayah since her release. Currently top 50 as Xayah. I sometimes stream on twitch.tv/TheGronne. I have helped revolutionize a lot of her builds throughout the years, and I am an active member on r/XayahMains. If you want to contact me, you can chat when I stream, or you can ask me anything on the Xayah Mains Discord which you can join on r/XayahMains.

If you're against champions that have an ability that, if hit, will instantly lose you laning phase, buy Galeforce.

If your opponents' team has a lot of tankiness, buy Kraken Slayer.

Otherwise Shieldbow should always be bought. And remember to change Runepage if you're gonna buy Shieldbow!

First of all, games usually snowball out of control in the current meta. And by the time Lethal Tempo gains its value of Hail of blades, the game often already been decided.

Many adcs are currently going Hail of Blades, like Kai'sa, Tristana, Kalista and more.
There is no way to win a 2v2 in early game against users who use Hail of Blades, unless you use it yourself.

Starting W, you can instantly auto attack 3 times, and it gives you so much early pressure, which Xayah is desperate for. Try to go for short trades in lvl 1 - 3

Since Riot changed Essence Reaver, it doesn't really fit Xayah anymore.

Now, with the Presence of Mind change, if you line up your passive feather so that if you attack a minion, the feather passes through an enemy champion that stands behind it, you will gain more Mana Regen, which helps you sustain in lane.

This is ESSENTIAL to playing Xayah with the new items. Mastering hitting your feathers through minions onto champions will give you such a strong laning phase, able to use Q somewhat often, while still gaining quite a lot of mana back from passive.

As explained in the notes, you want to analyze the opponent's team in champion select and to see what Mythic Item you'll buy. If you come to the conclusion that Shieldbow is the one to buy, then there isn't much need to go Bloodline anymore, especially after the nerf. And Alacrity makes it so when you get Navori Quickblades and have 100% crit, you have perma W up!

Another thing to remember, is how almost everyone will have 60% healing reduction every game. This means that, if you go bloodline, you will lose 60% of that 9% bonus life steal. Which means if you go bloodline, you'll have 3.6% extra lifesteal, instead of 18% attack speed, which is not worth it.

Ability Rundown

• Passive:

  When Xayah uses an ability, her next 3 auto attacks will send out feathers that pierce its target and lands behind the attacked target.
  This can be used to get your feathers behind your opponent to land your E. But one thing many people don't realize, is that you can use these feathers to either poke the enemy adc by attacking a minion and making it hit the adc that stands behind it, or you can use it to hit the enemy once, which will trigger your Lethal Tempo and your Presence of Mind, which will help you regain some mana, and to help you push the wave with your Lethal Tempo.
  

• Q:

  Xayah's Q sends out 2 feathers to a target location. This is good for landing a quick root, since you can Q - Auto Attacks - E which will snare the opponent. This is called a quickroot. However, if you're chasing someone, using W - AA - Q - E will make you able to chase and also root your target.
  Q can also be used to poke during laning phase, since Presence of Mind will make you regain some of the mana, it's more forgiving to use it as a poke tool.
  

• W:

  Xayah gains more attack speed and attack damage, along with gaining movement speed whenever she auto attacks a champion. This is strong when kiting, when chasing, and when fighting.
  Xayah's W is a key ability in her kit. Using her W correctly is necessary to be able to do well on her. Try to use your W when you're in the middle of your auto attack animation, as then you know you'll trigger it, assuring you that you don't accidentally waste it before fighting.
  

• E:

  Xayah pulls back all of her feathers on the ground, dealing damage to everything they pass through. If 3 or more feathers pass through a champion, it roots them.
  This ability scales with crit. That's why it is so important to get as close to 100% crit as possible. With 100% crit, your E will do +50% damage!
  Keep track of your feathers. That's the only way to make sure you can land your root! Saving your E until you have as many feathers on the ground as possible, as it can literally one-shot people! If you're being chased, you can Q - AA - E on the enemy to escape.
  Also, E + Flash is insanely strong to outplay your opponent.
  

• R:

  Xayah becomes invincible and sends out 5 feathers, dealing damage.
  Xayah's ult has a very long cooldown, so using it correctly is very important. Use it to either dodge burst, or if your team has cc'd a lot of enemies, you can use it aggressively to land a big root!
  

Xayah in laning phase is very dependant on her support. However, if you have a strong cc support, you can completely take over the laning phase. All ins are Xayah's shtick, so having a Nautilus or Leona will make everything much easier.

Try to use your passive to poke the enemy adc. This will trigger Lethal Tempo, letting you push faster, which means you can gain control of the lane. This will also let you regen some of your mana back after using Q, because of Presence of Mind.

If you're against a high range adc like Caitlyn, try to sit back and scale. If your support catches them, great! Now you might win a fight! If not, don't try to do anything, as you'll just be punished.

Try to contest Dragon as much as possible. If you coordinate with your jungler, you can use your E on Dragon, in lvl 7-10, tell your jungler to smite on 1k hp. If you time it correctly, the enemy can't react fast enough to the huge burst from your E and your jungler's smite.

Teamfights are amazing for Xayah. If she can sit back in fights and get all of her feathers out, she will thrive.

If you have flash, you can 1v1 almost anybody as long as they're not too tanky. Your E + Flash is extremely strong, and can help you land more than 10 feathers.

You're a hyper carry. You'll deal insane damage, but DON'T DIE. You are your team's primary damage!!!

One thing you can do is bait out some key abilities from your opponents, like Sejuani R. As soon as they jump you, you can use your R, and you've esssentialy wasted their cooldowns, along with allowing your team to engage. But be careful! If you fail, you'll die!

I always want to get the best build possible, so I always try out new things, and see how it feels. This is a list of builds that I am currently trying out:

Currently theorizing a build going Hail of Blades, building Kraken Slayer -> Stormrazor -> IE.
Still needs testing though. However it has potential against non-mobility adcs