This is a build for jungling! I've figured out how to easily jungle Xin without smite.

The new threes map has a lot of emphasis on the early game. The alters unlock at 2 minutes and give a substantial buff. This allows players to force engagements as early as the 2 minute mark.

The lack of wards on the map puts further emphasis on being a strong duelist. The jungler is responsible for ganking the two lanes and thwarting enemy jungler's ganks. Xin is exceptionally good at this because of his excellent dueling capability and early game power. He is an absolute bully early on capable of winning duels against any rival.

No other map rewards early PVP victory as much as this new 3v3 map.

This puts huge emphasis on playing early game champions, such as Xin Zhao over champions that scale better late game.

Additionally, the new it Blade of the Ruined King is an absolute Godsend for Xin.

The item scales exceptionally well with attack speed, inherent tankiness, and auto attack modifiers which Xin boasts all of.

This gives Xin a leg up on all other junglers in my opinion.

The Blade of the Ruined King's greatest strength is that it has excellent synergy with both attack speed and attack damage/ modified auto attacks.

The item deals a flat amount of damage per auto attack based on the enemy's current health (4% before MR) in magic damage and heals Xin half that amount. This is huge since Xin get a very large amount of free AS from his Battle Cry ability. It also helps counter one of the strongest ways to counter an assassin, which is to just build health. Building health against this item will only make this item more valuable to Xin as he steals even more hp per attack.

The item also provides a good portion of attack damage and life steal. These provide Xin with extra survivability and damage dealing capability, especially while using Three Talon Strike.

The third thing is the active. One of Xin's greatest weaknesses is that he has very limited range and only one closing ability. This especially becomes an issue in team fights where his focus target will often get support and survive his initial burst.

The active on this item will not only deal a heavy amount of damage at range and heal Xin a portion of that damage, but it will also STEAL 30% of the targets movement speed. This means Xin will not only slow down the target but speed himself up, making it really easy to catch his target.

All this self healing is also great for Xin because he boasts a good amount of CC to interrupt his opponents and he gains a substantial amount of tankiness from his ult to make each hp count for more.

As an added perk, upon purchasing the Blade of the Ruined King Xin will be able to solo every mob on the map, including Vilemaw. This allows him to subtly solo the creature while his teammates remain in lane, lack of wards on the map makes this a very easy thing to do. You'll have to pop a potion and put points into battle cry first to solo vilemaw.

For Xin I chose a 19/11/0 page.

I took the typical physical damage oriented offense masteries with jungle focused defense masteries.

This setup allows Xin to jungle at level 1 without potions allowing him to stack powerful static stats early on.

I rush all 3 skills on Xin early on starting with Three Talon Strike at level 1 if there is team fight and starting with Battle Cry if not.
Three Talon Strike is the strongest level 1 choice to win level 1 skirmishes but Battle Cry will keep Xin completely full hp to level 2 if you do the 2 non-golem camps first.

If I got three talon strike level 1, I grab battle cry at level 2 to have more hp regen unless I see a ganking possibility. I prefer to gank at level 3 with a full kit.

At level 3 I take Audacious Charge to complete my early game kit. I heal off minions to full and gank, often leading to a first blood.

I max Battle Cry first to get maximum benefit off Blade of the Ruined King and to self heal amazingly. This one trick is very very helpful because it will make you extremely hard to take down. I've been focused by entire teams and survived and beaten solo laners with half their health because of this trick.

I do this unless there is are multiple assassin's mages on the other team. If they have a burst heavy team, three talon strike will be the stronger choice.

I max Three Talon Strike second and Audacious Charge last.

Take your ult at 6,11,16 (as always).

For Runes, I take a pretty standard setup.

I take flat AD marks and quints, armor seals, and MR glyphs.

I take these to make me very fierce in the early game. No one wants to come to my half of the jungle with this much early AD and if they make that mistake, they won't do it again...

Take all flat runes, so much of the game's outcome is determined pre-level 6 that you'll want to be as strong as possible for it...

I start Xin with Boots and Doran's Blade since Xin is such a strong jungler, he doesn't need to take potions. He can have full life without them allowing you to have a stat advantage instead.

On my first return, I'll often pick up a potion or two to use during pvp combat.

I also will rush Berserker's Greaves early on. These will boost mobility and attack speed for a low price.

I next begin to rush Blade of the Ruined King begining with a Pickaxe > Bilgewater Cutlass > Blade of the Ruined King

After the Blade is constructed I begin to counter build the enemy team. If they are heavy on one damage type I'll rush the corresponding 700g defensive item. If they are pretty well balanced, I'll use the build order listed above.

Randuin's Omen is excellent for Xin because it gives him the armor he needs, but it also gives him a second ranged slow to keep his focus target from escaping while he also debuffs his opponents attack speed. The AoE slow combos well with his AoE knock back as it will take those enemies longer to re-engage their targets.

Wit's End is an excellent item choice for Xin because it gives 2 parts offense and 2 parts defense. The defensive parts are that it allows for more Battle Cry/ Blade of the Ruined King/life steal procs for self healing and gives MR stacks. The offensive parts are that it provides additional damage per hit and more attacks/sec.

The Hexdrinker/Maw is great for Xin because it helps mitigate the one thing that is a real threat to him. A big burst of damage.

Make sure when you are in a 3s match you consider who you are playing against.

This build is great against sustained damage champions such as bruisers, tanks, and auto attackers.

But against a team with multiple assassins and or mages make sure you build some bonus defenses early.

There are 3 good items to do this with:

Heart of Gold Negatron Cloak Chain Vest. I prefer to build resistances over flat hp because it will make the hp you have and steal more valuable point per point, but against true damage and hybrid teams, HP is the best way to go.

Don't forget the AD carry's old friend Quicksilver Sash. You'll be reliant on auto attacks and life stealing, two mechanics that have a lot of debuff counters.

You'll really ruin good ol' Teemo's day if you wipe clean his debuffs.

It's good against ignite so you can heal and its of course great against suppresions as well.

Look at the enemy team comp at the begining and make a judgement call to decide which will be strongest, Wit's End Hexdrinker and Quicksilver Sash and build the strongest two, building the strongest first.

Here is a direct, unedited screenshot of my recent matches.

5 games played with Xin, 5 consecutive wins, using this build!

It's hard to argue with results like those!

The LEVEL 1 INVASION!!!

The level 1 game play is one of my favorite and least favorite parts of the game (depending on the champ I'm playing!). But for Xin, level 1 is a good time!

Here is an excellent invasion route to use. Very often the enemy team will set up in the bush near the speed boost.

Usually this team will be set up to fend off an invasion from that speed boost side and very often not be paying attention to their back side. This allows your team to slip in from behind. The curve of the wall at this spot means they won't see you coming until you are right on top of them.

If they aren't in that bush then very often you'll be able to gank their jungler as he tries to cap the alter at 2 minutes.

This second photo displays basically what the jungler is responsible for and some good ganking routes.

Route 1: This is to take out a weaker jungler. Very often people won't setup their jungler to sustain well, or will run a weak jungler, or will fail a gank, take damage and then go back to jungling. Sniping them off from you huntin' blind bush is easy if this happens. But you won't want to go in unless they are easy pickins because they'll be getting help from their solos.

Route 2 and 3: These are good ways to gank the lanes. Make sure you know where their jungler is else it's going to get you into trouble if you get caught back there.

An easy and effective play.

In this play you use the alter as your tool to setup a gank. You fake pressuring the alter to bring the bottom laner up. Before you do the top laner sneaks down into your huntin' blind and waits for him. Your bottom laner seals the deal by cutting off retreat for an easy 3 on 1 kill while his teammates chase the play being to far behind to do anything.

When you do this play, don't Audacious Charge on to the target unless it's about to die. If you have a Bilgewater Cutlass or a Blade of the Ruined King use the active instead. This will allow you to keep the charge if the enemy uses Flash or similar blink mechanic to try and get past you to his teammates, but the active will give you the assist if he doesn't, insure the kill and you'll have you CDs for the next victim.

You now know everything you need to in order to PWN 3v3 with Xin.

If this guide helped or inspired you, make sure to +1 and +rep.

Right now the guide is pretty basic. If it gets some love, I'll make sure to add some pictures and BBC coding.

Enjoy!