I am a Master Xin Zhao mid laner who has over 1 Million mastery on Xin across multiple accounts. I currently have two accounts in Master tier right now. My current peak is around 250LP Master on Xin Zhao lane. I also stream everyday at https://www.twitch.tv/22automail around 18:00 UK time

This Xin Zhao mid guide was designed for you to learn about Xin Zhao's items and learn when and why to build them. Please Look at the notes for all tabs in order to understand why I have chosen said items/runes.

Due to the explanations for the 'Complimenting Items' section being long. I copied the information in a section below for ease of access.

I'm going to break down each item and explain why I like it and when you should buy it.




Riftmaker:

Riftmaker on Xin compliments his sustain greatly, increasing his passive healing drastically as well as increasing his W, E and R damage due to the AP. The other stats it provides is perfect for Xin as he thirsts for CDR, HP and Riftmakers passive being amping damage, similar to shojin works well along side it. The omnivamp on Riftmaker goes without saying its extremely strong on Xin.

Riftmaker works when enemy team cannot OS (one shot) you and they arent stacking healing cut.

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Deaths Dance:

Deaths dance on Xin is hyper broken because any damage taken from the enemy is stored into a bleed, but if he ults and walks out of range of the enemy who dealt damage to him, the bleed is also blocked. Pretty obvious choice why its so strong.

Deaths Dance is good vs AD and/or high range (as long as theyre not full AP)

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Immortal Shieldbow:

Shieldbow on Xin is another slept on item, this item is primarily for snowballing and not often built as it gives you little defensives aside from the shield. Crit on Xin is great as it increases his W damage and because hes an all-in type of character the shield helps a lot when fighting enemies.

Immortal Shieldbow is good when you want to snowball and you're ultra ahead.

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Sterak's Gage:

I've been building Sterak's a lot lately due to the increased in CC I've been playing against. Since Fiddle support is meta as of this guide I've been building it third along with mercs in order to stack tenacity. But this item is great on Xin as it gives him HP + AD and both compliment Xin greatly. HP is great as it increases his passive healing and AD is obvious why its good. With this item you want to follow it up with more HP items to begin stacking HP as opposed to building raw damage after.

Sterak's Gage is good when you want to stack tenacity and/or you want to be tankier.

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Overlord's Bloodmail:

Bloodmail is good for one of your final items on Xin Zhao as it gives you damage equal to a % of your max HP. Not much to say about it, its great with Shojin and Rav as they provide sustain for you to sit at a low HP while outputting damage.

Overlord's Bloodmail is good as one of your last items, if not your last and can provide a lot of AD if you can sustain.

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Maw of Malmortius:

Self explanatory, strong anti AP Item. When the item procs it gives you 10% omnivamp which is crazy good on Xin Zhao.

Maw of Malmortius is good when you're vs heavy AP or you're against an obnoxious AP mid paired with an AP jungle

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Sundered Sky:

Contrary to popular belief I don't buy this item often but the item is a fine item and can provide good sustain and damage for Xin Zhao. Its not that the item is bad its that with this playstyle there are better items for him. The item provides Xin with everything he wants and helps in skirmishes/teamfights with multiple people. It can also provide good damage in duels.

Sundered Sky is good when you want more immediate tankiness when you engage and more sustain in fights. You'll be surprised how long you last with this item (pause). Reason why I don't buy it often is I believe there are better items. But still good.

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Black Cleaver:

Black Cleaver is a great armour shredding item, I like it honestly even if there are no tanks in the game but since you're playing mid you most likely will never need it or your top laner might already buy it. He can proc the cleaver very fast and shredding a % of the enemies armour even if its a little bit will help a lot in duels. The movespeed on the item is incredible for kiting, engaging and sticking onto enemies. The item is overall a great item on Xin and can provide insane value.

Black Cleaver is good when you need/want to shred armour on enemies and you want a good damage item with manoeuvrability.

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Trinity Force:

Trinity Force: Trinity Force is arguably the best Item on Xin Zhao in top lane, yes it goes against my "Xin doesnt need attack speed" but in top lane his build is slightly different. Nonetheless Xin Zhao mid does not particularly need this item as its super expensive and we're not going an attack speed build we're focussing on CDR and ability damage. The item is extremely good on Xin Zhao and between you and me, you could honestly in replace shojin or rav for Trinity Force if you enjoy the flow of this item. Its one of my favourite items on him for sure but I'm not building it a lot as I play him mid now (I used to play top)

Trinity Force is good when you want a more well-rounded build with attack speed, AD, HP etc, and the sheen proc is incredible on him along with the movespeed on autoing. It's a beast item. I'd try it if I were you.

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Eclipse:

Eclipse is saved for last because I think this item on Xin is honestly not great unless you're against HP stackers and you're the primary engage as it provides a nice shield but Xin Zhao, especially with this playstyle wants HP and the raw AD isnt great for him.

Eclipse is good when you want the extra survivability when you engage and/or you're against high HP enemies

These items are primarily complimenting the tankier core build


I'm going to break down each item and explain why I like it and when you should buy it.

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Frozen Heart:

Frozen Heart is great vs heavy AD team that like to auto attack, not much else to say. Xin is in their face a lot so you'll constantly give them the attack speed slow. Also the mana is a nice QoL for Xin

Frozen Heart is good to buy vs heavy AD Auto attackers

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Iceborn Gauntlet:

Iceborn Gauntlet on xin is not built often by me, but should I be against heavy AD and I'm going a tankier build this item will compliment me greatly. Sheen proc is great, Health is great, CDR is great and slow is great.

Iceborn Gauntlet should be bought when you're going a tankier build vs AD that you want to glue onto.

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Randuin's Omen:

Counters Crit auto attackers and provides a nice slow on the active, good for sticking onto AD enemies.

Randuin's Omen should be bought to counter crit AD auto attackers

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Jak'Sho:

Jak'Sho is great on Xin and one of my most commonly built tankier items. It works well even when you're not building tank and as its the norm for enemies to have mixed damage its a good one off tank item to provide that little extra tankiness.

Jak'Sho should be bought later in the game and because you want a tankier end game item to help vs the mixed damage.

These items are primarily complimenting the tankier core build


I'm going to break down each item and explain why I like it and when you should buy it.

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Spirit Visage:

Spirit Visage is good when you have healers/shielders on your team and they are heavy AP, this works great with Xin Zhao as his passive is healing so he gains insane benefit from this along with revitalise rune. Item provides good healing, good HP/MR and little bit of CDR. All around decent item for a tankier build vs AP.

Spirit Visage should be built vs heavy AP and ideally with another healing/shielding source on your team.

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Force of Nature:

Force of Nature is a good MR item for manoeuvrability, I rarely build this as I believe Spirit Visage is just better, but for situations where you need that movespeed to be useful this item can come in clutch. It provides good HP, MR and Movespeed but it lacks in CDR.

Force of Nature should be built when you NEED the movespeed and you're into heavy AP.

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Hollow Radiance:

Hollow Radiance provides insane waveclear and good HP and decent MR and CDR. This item can replace titanic or rav hydra in the buildpath should you require it. It can match midlaners wave clear nicely. This item should not be bought first however, ideally second but Bami can be built first if you desire.

Hollow Radiance is bought when you're against high amount of AP and you want to substitute a hydra for this item. Rare occurrence but can have insane value as the resistance + waveclear is a super counter to most mages mid.

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Jak'Sho:

Jak'Sho is great on Xin and one of my most commonly built tankier items. It works well even when you're not building tank and as its the norm for enemies to have mixed damage its a good one off tank item to provide that little extra tankiness.

Jak'Sho should be bought later in the game and because you want a tankier end game item to help vs the mixed damage.

Xin Zhao, at least for Lane Xin Zhao DOES NOT need to auto attack. By this I mean his damage does not come from his Autos, his autos are designed to reduce the cooldowns of his W. Xin does not need to buy attack speed, nor does he need the attack speed rune in the Yellow tree.

Jungle Xin is a different style of Xin so what you do there is different to here.

This guide is following what has worked for me for a while and I wanted to share it with you guys. Like I said before, this guide is not a "copy paste" guide where you can just copy exactly what I've written. Thinking for yourself will be necessary as his build path can change every single game. But I hope you enjoy the guide and make sure to read all the notes on each tab along with the Item chapters just above this.

I also stream Xin mid everyday @ https://www.twitch.tv/22automail

p.s Imperial Xin Zhao is his best skin