I am an ADC main in the BR server, who mains Xayah and Kai'Sa. I also play Zeri, Jinx, Aphelios, Sivir, Miss Fortune and Samira. Occasionally a Kindred adc player.

I have been playing Xayah since early season 10 when I started maining ADC (I was a jungle main season 9 when I started playing League). I am currently have over 330k points on her, my highest mastery champion.

She is my favorite ADC and I want to share with you how I play her to find success in my games. This guide can be useful for new people wanting to pick her up or veterans seeking new builds & ideas on the champion.

ABILITY RUNDOWN

PROS & CONS

RUNES

ITEMIZATION

MATCHUPS

SYNERGIES

HOW TO ADC

MICRO GUIDE

MACRO GUIDE

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Clean Cuts

After using an ability, Xayah's next basic attacks will hit all targets along their path with reduced damage. At her maximum attack range, a Feather will be left in the ground. Xayah can store up to 5 empowered attacks. Lover's Leap: If either Xayah or Rakan is recalling, the other may move nearby and activate their own recall to join them. Both reach base at the time of which the initiator's recall ends.

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Double Daggers

ACTIVE: Xayah throws two damaging daggers that also drop 2 Feathers she can recall. Targets hit after the first take less damage.

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Deadly Plumage

Xayah creates a storm of blades that increase her Attack Speed and damage while also granting her Move Speed if she attacks a champion. If Rakan is nearby, he will also gain Deadly Plumage.

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Bladecaller

Xayah calls back all her dropped Feathers dealing damage and rooting enemies. Feathers deal more damage based on her crit chance. Minions take 50% damage. Enemies take 100−55% damage from a feather (depending on feathers hit) going to a maximum of 9 feathers and capped at 55% damage. Enemies struck by at least 3 Feathers are rooted.

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Featherstorm

Xayah leaps into the air, becoming briefly untargetable but still able to move. After a short delay, she unleashes a volley of feather-blades forward in a cone, dealing damage to all enemies struck and leaving a line of 5 Feathers at the end of Featherstorm's maximum range, which she can recall.

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Pros +Marksman with AoE CC +Good scaling +Fun to play +High damage +Strong teamfighter +Good self peel +Good against melees +Great wave clear

Cons -Easy to counter -Easily abused when out-ranged -Does better if team has set up -There are better late game ADCs -Support dependent -Can be niche pick depending on meta -CC is harder to land the higher elo you go -Simple kit, but easy to mess up

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Xayah is an absolute monster when her team has good engage or reliable CC thanks to her AoE root. She excels against melees and champions on a similar range as hers and she is excellent at turning enemy engages into her favor. This also means she is harder to play against teams who out-range her and play for poke. She tends to be more team reliant than other adcs because of her kit revolving around her E and enemies coming to her.

Xayah has a flexible build. She can go for a poke/burst playstyle or a DPS playstyle, although I personally think the DPS style fits her kit better. Even though she has good poke with Q, she is still rather short ranged and can be easily abused.

Xayah is easily countered by mobility and displacement interactions. Because her kit is so reliable on her E, champions that are too fast or that have a lot of dashes can be really difficult for her to deal with. In such cases you have to rely on your W as the rest of your kit won't be of much help.

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In this section I will be going into the best runes and Keystones for Xayah. At the end of this section there will be images of the setup I usually run for each keystone, but don't take them as a hard rule - adpt your build to each game! Not to mention you can use different runes on your secondary tree.

Lethal Tempo is overall the best and most consistent choice among its peers. LT 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.

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.

Hail of Blades is a decent choice if you plan to play more aggressively and snowball lane. It allows you to quickly set up 3 feathers and catch the enemy off guard. It is also very useful when you do not have a support or team that can set up a root for you. More of an early game rune and I personally still prefer Lethal Tempo if I am against a melee team.

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 feathers hit an enemy champion through minions, or by just autoing champions. You can especially exploit this against melee champions as you are a ranged champion, as long as you don't get engaged on. Use the mana regen passive combined with your passive to steadly keep your mana going throughout laning phase. If you use too many abilities and don't proc the rune passive very often you will eventually run out of mana though.

Take Legend: Bloodline for sustain. You will not build lifesteal in most of your games so it always has its value. You can also go Legend: Alacrity. It feels very good if you don't build AS items early on 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, Coup de Grace for the rest of the games. Last Stand does not fit Xayah's playstyle.

In the Domination tree I usually take Taste of Blood for some extra sustain, you can consistently proc it if your Q or passive hit the enemies.

Eyeball Collection is the best option among its peers. Ghost Poro can be taken too but it takes longer to stack, and Zombie Ward is bad because your support will usually be the one to take down wards.

My favorite part of the Domination tree is taking Ultimate Hunter or Treasure Hunter. I advise you to get Ultimate Hunter if the enemy team has a lot of burst or CC you need to dodge, like Lux R, Ezreal R, Katarina R, Malphite R, etc. Also really good for making plays. Ingenious Hunter is good if you are going to buy items that have cooldown, such as Galeforce, Immortal Shieldbow, Guardian Angel. Treasure Hunter is good if you have an aggressive support to snowball your early-mid game.

When I take the inspiration tree, I am expecting to have a rough early game. To compensate that, I take Magical Footwear. Free boots make a huge difference when you are behind, it is a very gold efficient rune.

Take Biscuit Delivery for more lane sustain. It gives you manaand HP. It will be very good in hard lanes where you need sustain.

You can take Cosmic Insight if you would rather have it over the other runes. It gives you ability haste on your summoners and on any items that have cooldown, so it is nice to pair it with Ingenious Hunter or for games where you will be needing your items/summs often for safety.

In the Sorcery tree we are usually looking into more damage and some utility. You can Manaflow Band if you chose to take Triumph in the Precision tree. You can also take Nullifying Orb against heavy burst magical damage.

Take Transcendence if you want more ability haste and teamfighting power, Absolute Focus is okay if you are into a good matchup where you can easily harass enemy.

Take Gathering Storm if you are looking for late game scaling, Scorch if you want to focus on poking and harassing an easy matchup.

Hail of Blades Setups - Snowball

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Lethal Tempo Setups

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There are two main build styles I keep in mind for Xayah Xayah: a DPS playstyle or a Burst playstyle.

The DPS-focused build offers reliable damage in all stages of the game, strong mid-late game, good teamfighting and helps you deal with tougher champions to kill. Basically a hypercarry build. However, Xayah as a whole does best into teams that come close to her and this build will maximize her potential in these situations, but won't be as good otherwise.

The Burst-focused Build is when you are playing more around getting picks and going against squishy champions. Early on you don't have a lot of sustained damage and instead have better burst and trades. Good for snowballing.

How to choose my Mythic?

Kraken Slayer is always good if you want damage because it is the best mythic for DPS and a big early game spike. Xayah is a very safe ADC so you don't get as punished for prioritizing the damage rather than survivability, if you are playing alright. Kraken is almost a must-buy if you are against armor stackers. Best fit for DPS build.

Galeforce has great synergy with Xayah: it helps her gap close, gives her mobility, repositioning and burst. Great as a standard, needed if enemy has high range or mobility. Combos really well with E when enemies try to get behind you. Best fit for Burst build.

Shieldbow is very situational and not really a good pick. Only good if you are into unavoidable burst damage or very hard to dodge combos, because for Xayah you are better off with Galeforce's mobility and using your Featherstorm to negate enemies trying to assassinate you. If you are afraid of AP burst then Maw of Malmortius is better than shieldbow.

Boots?

You always go Berserker's Greaves because AS is important for Xayah and other boots are not worth it. Especially important if will not build attack speed item as your second. The only exception is if you are going lethality, then you can take Ionian Boots of Lucidity.

2nd Item Options

Infinity Edge is a good item spike if you are unable to consistently hit your abilities and auto your enemies. However, I think Navori Quickblades synergizes with Xayah way more.

Navori Quickblades is the best 2nd item for Xayah in my opinion. It gives you reduced cooldown on your abilities and increased damage. It is specially good against melees and in taking baron/drake as you can stack a lot of feathers and deal massive damage while kiting. It has also held a consistently higher winrate over IE in recent patches.

3rd-4th Item Options

Phantom Dancer has great synergy with Xayah because its passive adds up with her Deadly Plumage super well, and attack speed is really good to get feathers on the ground faster. With Kraken Slayer and Navori Quickblades you get a pretty nasty combo that highly increases your DPS. It lacks upfront damage but it is better for extended fights and kiting melees.

Essence Reaver has accompanied Xayah for a long time. It's a good item if you want a bit more damage and it has decent gold efficiency. It combos well with Galeforce burst. It is also a good pair with Navori Quickblades if you think you'll need mana regeneration.

Rapid Firecannon has always been a decent choice, situationally. Xayah has low range for an ADC and this item can compensate for that a litle bit. It combos really well with Galeforce! And if you activate Deadly Plumage before autoing someone while energized you can use the extra movement speed from W to help you catch up and run them down.

The Collector is very situational and can be bad if not chosen wisely. Only take it if enemy won't build armor and if you are snowballing lane. It has synergy with Bladecaller but it only works if you are going with a burst playstyle, like building Galeforce and Hail of Blades with an aggressive support like Pyke.

Situational Items (3rd-4th-5th)

Lord Dominik's Regards is important if enemy team has armor and HP stackers. Xayah has no hybrid damage so she kinda needs this if enemy builds armor or if your team has another AD damage dealer.

Mortal Reminder is the perfect combination of armor penetration and anti-heal, but if the enemy also stacks HP you should still consider taking LDR instead. Mortal Reminder is Perfect for dealing with champions like Dr. Mundo, Irelia, Aatrox, Rhaast, Fiora and Maokai. However, if your support is already building anti-heal you will not need this and it will be best to go for LDR.

Bloodthirster will give you an extra layer of defense in the late game, both from the shield and the lifesteal. I have been taking this against sticky assassins and poke team comps, the shield is a life saver.

Guardian Angel is great if you are the carry and dying could mean you lose the game. However, I advise against building this if you have poor positioning or if you die a lot throughout the game.

If enemy team has heavy AP damage, especially burst AP champions, Maw of Malmortius is your best friend. Pair it with Bloodthirster to have more chance of surviving those pesky mages.

Only buy Mercurial Scimitar if enemy has a Mordekaiser, Malzahar or any other hard CC (and you didn't take Cleanse, and your Featherstorm can't save you)

My Main Builds

Of course I change a thing or two depending on game, matchup and my mood. You should do the same! Be adaptable! But I usually default to these in my games and the first example is the one I enjoy the most and sometimes I play it just because I want rather than because it is the best. You will naturally gravitate towards the build you have the most fun with or the one that suits your playstyle the best.




If I want to focus on doing damage this is perfect. You play as a hypercarry backline who is very good at punishing divers and thrives in longer fights. In my opinion this build extracts the most potential out of Xayah.




If you are into a bad matchup where autoing enemies and catching them with your E is harder this can be a good build. Galeforce and RFC gives you a nice safety layer with the extra range and it allows you to catch enemies a bit more easily with your higher range, but it is build overall unless you get fed.

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In this section I will go into Xayah's matchups - how the enemy wins, and how she wins. First I go into bot lane marksmen matchups, and at the end of the section I go into how Xayah can deal with other classes. 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!

I have been thinking about including bot lane mages as well but let me know what you think about that, I personally don't see many mages that are not supports so I don't know if I should include them.

Champions are in alphabetical order.

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In champion select you have to take into account not only the enemy bot laner, but also the entire enemy team. Here I will give you a brief explanation on how to play against other classes when you eventually leave bot lane!

Note I will be saying "good/bad/even" matchups but I am not referring to them in lane specifically. I am talking about how well Xayah can do into them - how well she can survive them and how easy it is to kill them.

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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.

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Sometimes even in high elo games you will find supports that are not exactly considered meta, or that are only being played by koreans with some crazy build. This section will help you figure out what to expect of those champions' classes in your lane.

This is also useful so that you can know whether you should pick Xayah or not based on her synergy with the current team comp.

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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!

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1. Don't use abilities on minions that are half health.

Reason being: you can't last hit all of them at once. If you have to use abilities to thin the wave, your Q and autos will be enough. Low elo players (myself included) tend to be bad at csing because we are impatient. But look at any high elo player farming - they spare their abilities, use auto attacks when minions have high hp and wait patiently to last hit and get all the cs. If they can't auto, they use their abilities to last hit. If your Q is not enough and there are many low health minions, you can use your W for the attack speed steroid but do keep in mind you cannot trade with the enemy afterwards.

2. Practice farming under tower

It is simpler than it looks.

If melee minion is full health it takes 2 tower shots + 1 auto attack to kill them.

If caster minion is full health it takes 1 tower shot, and 2 autos if you are very low level, 1 auto if you ar higher level or with items. If you have to farm under tower pre level 5 auto minion once, let it take tower shot and then last hit.

"But wait, my minions already dealt damage to enemy minions!"

You will have to practice a bit. Ideally if you see the tower shot will kill the minion you have to auto or use abilities so that you can leave it low enough to last it, and that is something that takes some getting used to

3. Farming safely

Sometimes enemies will harass you when you go for cs. This can be deadly at times, so always pay attention to enemy and adc movements to see if they are going to harass you. If you think they are you can use your Q to farm the most dangerous minions since its range is higher than your auto range. This is also why being patient with your ability usage is crucial.

4. Farming mid-late game

As an ADC it is important to farm consistently. Around the time where the first tower falls you ideally want to go to the mid lane and farm there while your team is not doing anything important.

If your mid laner wants to stay mid, farm side lanes (top or bot) then rotate with team to mid. If your tower is down, make sure the entrances to your jungle are warded. If you have no vision you have to stay closer to your tower.

If there is nothing to farm, or nothing to do, or it is too risky to walk up to minions, farm jungle camps your jungler is not going to take. Please don't take camps they are clearly moving towards to farm as they may tilt and throw your game. If they are moving to farm bottom jungle, farm top jungle and vice-versa.

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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 have their usages and a way to accomplish: fast pushing, slow pushing and freezing.

1. Fast push

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

Fast pushing is easy - you auto attack frequently and use your abilities.

Ideally you want to fast push when you want to quickly crash your wave on the enemy tower to recall, fall back and/or make the enemy laner lose cs.

Fast pushing has the disadvantage that it can actually create a freeze (which I will get into) if you don't push fast enough or at the wrong times, which makes you lose cs instead. When trying to push the wave too fast you may end up losing a lot of minions as well especially if you lack attack speed.

2. Slow push

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

You can create a slow push by keeping the enemy minion wave smaller than yours, but not killing them too quickly. You can achieve this by killing caster minions since they deal more damage, and last hitting melee minions. If the enemy allows this to happen you will have bought enough time to stack 2 minion waves. Once that is done you usually want to fast push to crash them or wait for another wave to stack and then crash.

Slow pushing has a few advantages.

You can use it to set up tower dives since it gives you more time to position for the dive. Your minions will also aggro enemy champions once they hit you and you are close to your minions.

You can use it to trade. If the enemy trades with you and your wave is bigger, the minions will deal a huge chunk of damage in the trade. In early levels this is especially important!

It is hard for the enemy to freeze a massive wave especially if you have the pushing power to kill the enemy minions and crash the wave.

You can zone the enemy away from cs when you have a bigger wave to back you up.

The main disadvantage is when you are away from your push. If the wave is slow pushing into the enemy tower and you cannot get close to it, your minions will kill the enemy minions too fast and deny you xp and gold. Likewise, enemies can use the advantages of slow push against you.

3. Freeze

A freeze is when the wave is stuck and doesn't push to either one side or the other.

Freezing is the hardest to get the hang of because it depends on the position the wave clashes and how healthy minions are. In laning phase ideally you 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.

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 caster minions (since they deal more damage they will kill your wave faster and cause the freeze to break). If the wave is becoming a slow push into enemy tower, 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 freeze you will possibly lose an entire wave of gold and xp.

Freezing allows you to zone the enemy away from cs, set up for ganks 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.


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.



As you can see freezing is the one that requires the most 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!

Golden tip #1: Free Freezes

If the enemy fast pushes to recall, watch to see if their wave is going to crash. If you or your support can hold 3-5 minions and the enemy recalls you will naturally create a freeze on your side and you can safely recall as you will only lose about 2-3 minions at most while the enemy will lose an entire wave. If you do it correctly the wave will not crash on your tower. Abuse this to get level leads especially in lower elo!!! If you just pay attention you will see enemies often giving you free opportunities to freeze.

Golden tip #2: Freezing after losing turret

This goes beyond laning phase. If your team is playing the neutral game and there are no objectives to contest, seek to keep a freeze on your side of the map once your tower is down. This is especially good if you are behind and needing to catch up on cs and xp. Many people just fast push at this point, but it is not always the best choice as if you have a frozen wave deep into your territory the enemy team will either
1: lose a ton of cs and xp
2: go there to stop the freeze (which puts them in perfect spot to get collapsed on)

Golden tip #3: Cheater recall

A cheater recall is basically when you create an early slow push with a cannon wave, crash it and instantly recall. This allows you to get an item advantage in early levels as the enemy will have to stay to farm under tower and then crash their wave on your tower. If they don't do this they will have to take a bad recall... and while they are forced to choose the lesser evil, you can seek to punish them using your item lead.
To have a cheater recall you need to get lane prio (ideally you want jungler to start top or leashless) and let the wave slow push into enemy tower in a way the third minion wave will crash and you can recall. You need a cannon wave to crash because this will give you more time to get back to lane and not lose cs & xp.

Golden tip #4: Instant level advantage

For this you need your jungler to start top/leashless and the enemy bot lane to leash.
Sit in the bush closest to the enemy tower, and when minions arrive, exit the bush and hold the wave there until your minions catch up.
What happens is that because the wave did not meet in the middle, your minions will focus on an enemy minion and kill it faster. So when enemy laners return, they will lose a melee and thus lose their level 2 spike. Get your level 2 earlier and pressure them!

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It is common knowledge that Summoner's Rift is a very perilous place to the average adc player. Nowadays you can get one shot by the worst 0/10 Yasuo and 0/20 Irelia. Even the enemy enchanter support can solo kill you.

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 summs, 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 - like for instance, maybe you just can't play against Twitch with any champion because he always wins regardless of what you do and you tilt so much.

It's important to be real 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 R and E 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. If you were a m7 high elo Irelia player you could probably 1v3 or even 1v5, but you are not playing Irelia - you are playing Xayah. Players who often main other roles fail to respect their champion's limits when they play off-role.

Recognize the biggest threats

This is both champions as a whole and specific champion abilities. Malphite may not be a a huge threat himself, but his R 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 tha 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.

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. As I have already said in this guide: either play around getting picks or waiting for enemy engage on you.

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

If you play around enemy engaging on you, stay back to avoid enemy 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 enemy threats (usually assassins 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 & 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.

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Here we will be going in-depth on how to use Xayah's abilities optimally. Xayah has a simple kit, but high learning curve. To play her well you need to 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 oponent 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 all her abilities optimally. This is FINE - take your time, practice, and have fun first and foremost. You don't need to play perfectly,League of Legends is stressful enough as it is without you worrying all the time about how to play your champion "correctly".

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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 used you didn't auto between abilities, you will have lost 1 feather. Equally, if you already have 5 feathers stacked and uses 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.

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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 more safely and to poke the enemy adc, especially if they have about the same range as you. If you are looking to poke or pressure low health enemies use Q+E to chunk them harder. You may even be able to 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 until 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 or zone them off a specific area.

5. Ideally you will want to Q + auto to thin the enemy minion wave, instead of using your W.

6. 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.

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This is her most reliable form of Dps if you build crit, so NEVER use it in 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 ) as long as you don't look for a fight 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 gap close long range champions when paired with Rapid Firecannon and Galeforce 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. W has great synergy with Lethal Tempo and Navori Quickblades so when you consider whether you take LT or not, think about whether you can make use of your W to its fullest or not.

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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 must only use it if more than 2 feathers hit the enemy. Q+E is only worth it for poking or when you are building lethality, in any other situation using your E when less than 3 feathers will land is a waste.

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.

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

On its own, Featherstorm is okay. It has good damage especially if you build lethality, but the real reason it is a threatening ult is because of your E. When paired with Bladecaller, it has the potential to deal tons of damage, if all your feather 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. The enemy is trying to run away, and you ult to try and 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.

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Xayah doesn't have many flashy mechanics and what makes her mechanically challenging is positioning her well in order to use her Bladecaller, but I figured it would be good to have a section to summarize some of her most important mechanics.

I made a video demonstrating some combos but I have also written everything down for reference!

Play Video

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Xayah is a close combat adc as she has 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 small 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.

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

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 mispositions. 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 river and trybush.

When playing with Rakan you can position more aggressively to bait the enemy into attacking you, for Rakan to follow up with his extended E range and W. Just make sure you and him are on the same page before doing this, or you might get yourself killed. This also works best with other low range bot lanes... You shouldn't do this against a high range and cc bot lane like Caitlyn/Lux.

If you are playing Lethality Xayah, specially with Aery, you will want to poke the enemy with your Q as much as possible to stack your tear and gain a health advantage in lane. Pushing lane with Q will be much stronger as well. Once the enemy is low on health you can all in or even snipe them.

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.

Bad Matchups

In passive or hard lanes your main priority should be getting into the late game as quickly as possible. 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 lead. Most of the time you should focus on wave management, and prioritizing getting every wave to increase your 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.
Never rotate to dragon if your wave has not fully crashed into the enemy tower, and don't over commit to a fight. Don't rotate without lane prio. Early drakes are not a big 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.

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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.

Leads Matter

If you are ahead, focus on farming, getting towers and pushing your lead. 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. Play safe when R is on CD.

If you are behind, also 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 low elo players throw their lead because 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.

Income is crucial

To get the most out of the mid game as an adc, just 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, farm jungle or side lane. Sharing xp with 2+ people will do nothing to set yourself further ahead. If your team dies - it happens. They shouldn't be there. They should be pressuring side lanes to force the enemy into rotating. 3 people mid is often enough to hold the tower. If the enemy doesn't rotate to stop your side lane pressure, they will lose gold, xp and probably towers as well, while you will get far more gold than your teammates in mid. Mute teammates to not get tilted. If both teams aram mid, you will just be stalling the game and not making progress, while relying on coinflip fights to win the game.

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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 - farm waves, get gold and get strong 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 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. Play around your R and Flash cooldowns to safely contest objectives. 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 want to be the 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. Focus on having good positioning to keep yourself alive. Your priority is to stay alive to carry your team. Don't wander around on your own.

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That's all I have for now. Thank you for taking interest in my guide! I hope it was helpful or interesting to read, at the very least.

If you have any suggestions or feedback, feel free to let me know. I will keep updating this guide!

Last updated: patch 13.1B
Last changes: Updated for new patch. Updated items, runes, synergies and matchups.

Planned updates: Adding synergies. Minor adjustments

Good Luck & Have Fun playing Xayah!

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