This is a work in progress. I am testing out different ways to build AP Xin Zhao to find what suits him best. With the new season underway, some big changes to masteries will develop and items may, but probably won't, change. Thank you for reading this, and please enjoy the guide.

Hello and welcome to my AP Xin Zhao guide! Though AP Xin may not be as amazing as AD Xin, it is still a viable and fun way to play him. Note that this guide shows how to play him top lane, but he is still well and alive in the jungle (Just grab Smite). Feel free to comment and tell me what I could do differently/improve upon (With any suggestions I put in, I will give credit to the commenter). And before you downvote the guide, please remember that this is still being worked on, and feedback is the best possible thing for me. But in the meanwhile, take a look at this AP Xin Zhao guide!

Pros + Gap Closer + Knock-Up + Strong Burster + Great Self Healing + Utility with Ultimate + Very Strong Basic Attacks

Cons - Gank Vulnerable Pre-Level 6 - Easily Kited and CC'd - No Good Escape - Item Dependent - Vulnerable in Team Fights - Ultimate Does Not Scale Off AP

The masteries that I have picked out focus mainly on the offensive tree. AP Xin Zhao makes very good use of many of the masteries, such as Summoner's Wrath , Fury , and Spellsword . Spellsword is a very good fit for Xin Zhao due to the fact that we are building AP and Xin Zhao's attacks are mainly basic attacks. And the final mastery in this tree is Executioner , which gives our attacks that extra oomph when we fight low health targets.

• Greater Mark of Attack Speed: Previously I had Greater Mark of Ability Power shown here, but I got feedback from people and realized that these attack speed marks would be much greater. Another thing you may want to get, but I don't recommend over these, are greater mark of hybrid penetration, to get through their armor and magic resistance.
  
• Greater Seal of Armor: Gives you armor against any physical damage dealt to you. Effective when going against an Attack Damage top laner.
  
• Greater Glyph of Magic Resist: Gives you magic resist against any magic damage dealt to you. Effective when going against an Ability Power top laner
  
• Greater Quintessence of Ability Power: You may be asking, "If I am getting Greater Mark of Attack Speed, why don't i just get Greater Quintessence of Attack Speed too?" I have a simple answer, and it's the fact that you don't want to overwhelm yourself on attack speed and have no early game Ability Power. Getting more attack speed will likely cause you to cap your 2.50 attack speed in-game too fast, and you may have some wasted items.
  
• It is important to note that even though a champion may be building AD, they can still deal magic damage. For example, Garen's Demacian Justice or Darius's Hemorrhage. Vice versa for AP champions as well, though I don't believe there are any AP champions who do physical damage.

Flash: For those sticky situations when you got way too low on health or the enemy jungler came to gank you, this handy-dandy spell gets you out of their in an instant.

Ignite: This is one hell of a spell when you are dueling someone. It eats away at their health with true damage, and boy does that hurt them. If you can't finish an enemy with an ability or auto-attack, put this miracle worker on them.

Exhaust: This is a spell that can be used in place of ignite, or even flash if you are feeling good about you lane. This is most effective against ADC champs as it lowers there damage output and movement speed.

Basic attacks and Audacious Charge challenge Xin Zhao's target, reducing their armor by 15% for 3 seconds. Only one target can be affected by Challenge at any time.

Challenge is Xin Zhao's passive, it is a very useful passive for AD Xin but not so much for AP Xin. It will help us get past some armor because we are still auto-attacking them, but its main function for us will be for team fights when you want to get one person alone. Your ultimate does this to a challenged target.

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ACTIVE: Xin Zhao's next 3 basic attacks deal bonus physical damage and reduce his other abilities' cooldowns by 1 second each. The third strike also knocks the target into the air for 1 second.

Three Talon Strike is Xin's Q ability. Even though this scales off AD, we use this for its cooldown reduction. For the three attacks that he hits, every other ability's cooldown is reduced by one. So effectively, your ability's timers go down 3 seconds, which is AWESOME.

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PASSIVE: Xin Zhao heals himself on every third basic attack. ACTIVE: Xin Zhao increases his attack speed for 5 seconds.

Battle Cry is Xin's W ability. This is going to be your best friend as AP Xin for both the passive and the active. His heal scales at 70% of your AP, which is huge. And then the added bonus of your active gives you increased attack speed, allowing even MORE healing. In late game, this ability lets you solo turrets.

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ACTIVE: Xin Zhao charges at an enemy, dealing magic damage to all enemies within 112.5 range and slowing them for 2 seconds.

Audacious Charge is Xin's E ability. This is are awesome gap closer that scales off of AP at 60%. This is another amazing ability we can put to use very well. Note that, unlike some other champion's abilities, you can only jump to enemies, and not allies. This is the reason Xin Zhao has no escapes, unfortunately.

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ACTIVE: Xin Zhao unleashes a sweep around him, knocking enemies back and dealing physical damage equal to a base amount plus 15% of their current health. Xin Zhao gains bonus armor and magic resistance for each champion struck, lasting for 6 seconds. Crescent Sweep will not knock back the enemy currently affected by Challenge.

Crescent Sweep is Xin's R ability, aka ultimate. To our sadness, this scales off AD and AD only at 100% of your bonus AD (excluding the 15% of target's current health). BUT, we can get items such as Hextech Gunblade that have both AP and AD to put some damage into that ultimate of ours. Our main usage of this is to push away enemies from our challenger so we can finish them off undisturbed. And additionally, we get bonus armor and magic resist based on how many champions we hit with this ultimate, which makes dueling every the more easier.

Great item on AP Xin, allows you to attack faster, translating to more healing. You can also get Sorcerer's Shoes in place of this if they build up magic resist.

This is non-negotiable. Nashor's Tooth gives you Ability Power, Attack Speed, Cooldown Reduction, and bonus AP damage on auto-attack hits. If you are ahead of your opponent at the moment, then Nashor's Tooth will give you a humongous bonus to your damage output. Always rush this.

Your next big damage item. Much like Fizz, your auto-attacks quickly precede your abilities. At this point, you start chunking away your enemy's health. Late game, squishies beware.

Increases your AP by a ton, giving you much need bonuses in your Battle Cry and Audacious Charge, you will always want to get this item.

Attack Damage and Ability Power, Life Steal and Spell Vamp. An active that damages enemies based upon AP scaling and slows them. A passive that reduces this active's cooldowns by 3 for every basic attack you do. This is another amazing item on Xin Zhao, and you may want to get an early Bilgewater Cutlass. I always grab this item, because our AP build still benefits from that Attack Damage and Life Steal.

Your final is completely up to you and is usually situational, but if you are winning the game without any problems, Guinsoo's Rageblade is an amazing item on Xin Zhao. If you've never heard of AP Xin Zhao before, then you might think this is a weird choice. But look at its stats. You get Attack Damage and Ability Power, and bonus attack speed as you continuously hit an enemy. And the big bonus to this item is its passive that increases your attack speed, Life Steal and Spell Vamp.

As AP Xin Zhao, you will want to go straight to their carry, make sure your Challenge is on them, and use your Crescent Sweep to push the enemy team away so that your team can destroy that carry. When I talk about the carry, in the early game it is anybody who is doing the most damage, and late game it is always the ADC. Constantly using your combo will almost always put your abilities back up for use, and your attack speed is nothing to be trifled with. Another great thing you can put AP Xin Zhao to use with is split-pushing. Yes, split-pushing I say! late game AP Xin Zhao can literally solo towers, with no help whatsoever, so use this to your advantage. BE CAUTIOUS, always pay attention to how much health you are losing and gaining, and pay attention to your mini-map. You don't want more than one person ganking you, because you will be left vulnerable.

I hope you enjoyed my AP Xin Zhao guide! I am giving a shotout to JhoiJhoi for giving an awesome guide on formatting and Siv HD for the inspiration from his AP Xin Zhao video! And please, comment on what you think of this, tell me what I need to add/improve, and most importantly, DESTROY YOUR ENEMY AND HEAL YOURSELF TO VICTORY!

Siv HD AP Xin Zhao :




Thanks for Suggesting!
Flowstylex suggested Greater Mark of Attack Speed!