When you play as Xin Zhao at some points in the game you are faced with certain game changing decisions, some of them being the following:

1) Start of the game, "Should i counterjungle?", the answer in most cases is NO, that is because even though Xin has a good jungle clear he is still clearing relativly slowly, if you want to harass the enemy jungler your best choice is to predict his ganks and try and countergank him, in that case if everything goes smoothly your team will almost certainly get 1-2 kills and you will walk out unscathed.

2) 7-9 minutes of the game, "Should i take solo Dragon ?", that is dependant first on how fast the enemy jungler is with his camps, if he is very fast like Shyvana i would not recommend it as you will probably fall behind in levels and gold, instead you should just ward the dragon so you can stop her from taking it. Secondly, does your team need any help with ganks? if your team is in a bad spot and your lanes are pushed try to help them instead of taking dragon, if you relief some of their stress and put them on the lead then they themself will help you take a dragon together in more safety.

3) 10 minutes in the game, "Should i take Herald?", after the 2017 mid-season changes the answer is a definitive YES, first you must try and make a successful gank on Top or Mid and then ask your Midder and/or Topper to help you take Herald (after the waves are pushed so your laners don't lose farm in the meanwhile), whoever takes the Herald can fast recall to base if needed so preferably the one with the lowest Health/Mana

4) 20 minuted in the game, "Should i attempt a 20 minute Baron with my teamates?", now this is a tricky one, even though i have done it countless times and it works in a lot of them i would not entierly suggest it, first of all in order for it to work you need to be sure that the enemy team has not spotted you and on top of that you really want only 3 people of your team to come (including you) as the other 2 push in order to not raise suspicion, you need to be swift, have at least 1 tank with you and be mindfull that if you fail and the Baron gets stolen or you all 3 die to enemies then you will be in a very tough spot, because of a failed call like that i have lost games and in turn if the call suceeds i have won games so be very mindfull when you make such a call.

5) 30 minutes in the game, "Should i split as Xin Zhao?", that is also entirely dependant on how the game has played you but in most games at that point of the game i either help team set fights or i just farm in my jungle and some pushed lanes as i don't want to get ganked by the enemy team or give them a chance to engage my team while i am away, try to skirmish for gold and push as much as you can without it being too risky or without vision.

6) 35+ minutes in the game, "Should i get Elder Dragon?", that objective should and will never go uncontested, you need to carefully place wards and play back and forth with the enemy team until you can snatch the chance after a teamfight to take him and in some cases even Baron too.

Determination (Passive): is pretty much his old W passive, it provides very good sustain in jungle and some extra DPS.

Three Talon Strike (Q): A medium burst ability that also lowers your other skills cooldowns and knocks up the enemy, overall a great skill and with a 40% CDR build you can use it every 3 seconds and consantly lower the CD of your other skills.

Wind Becomes Lightning (w): A good damage, high utility skill that can be spammed with a 40% CDR build and a full leveled Q, it provides enough slow and range to catch people and also improves clearing speed greatly and thus is leveled up first.

Audacious Charge (E): This skill in the past was maxed first instead of 3rd but after the changes its advised to be maxed last. A lot people had the misconception that this skill was maxed first because of the "Burst" it gave to Xin Zhao during the engage but that is not true, the reason this skill in the past was maxed first is because the higher its level was the cooldown dropped, enabling Xin to catch his enemies in an easier fashion, after the changes the cooldown became "12 second at all levels" so its not worth maxing anymore, even the extra Attack Speed doesn't justify leveling it first or second.

Crescent Guard (R): This particular skill has a variety of uses in comparison to how simplistic it is, it can be used rarely as a final blow, some other times as a tool to save your team from an enemy engage, stun the enemy during a gank and knock him towards your team in order to guarantee a kill, knock a Rengar/Jax/Renekton/Lee Sin/Shyvana etc. that attempts you kill you or someone of your team, and lastly the most famous use of them all, to flank the enemy team and engage their carry or midder while using your ulti to knock everyone back while you burst their squishy down in seconds while they pray to somehow save him and not die to your team. This skill can be very crucial on whether you will survive a teamfight or not since it provides a fairly long time of (mediocre) invincibility.

Cooldowns:
Generally Xin Zhao has relativly low cooldowns on all his spells and with the help of his "Q" Three Talon Strike they get reduced even more, in a normal build its not something to be to wary of but just keep in mind the cooldown of your ulti and mostly your "E" Audacious Charge as it is your main gap-closer. In a 40% CDR Build however as those listed above you should keep in mind that if played and kept in track properly the combo of low 40% CDR, the skill's low CD and the "Q" Three Talon Strike can assist you in spamming your "W" Wind Becomes Lightning

Mana Needs:
Xin Zhao has very low mana needs with his most expensive skill being his Ultimate Crescent Guard with 100 mana and then his "E" Audacious Charge with 60 mana, generally his is not hurting on mana at all except sometimes on late game with a 40% CDR Build where you spam all your spells over and over as mentioned, in which case having a blue buff on you is advised.

After the 7.19 changes though Xin Zhao had a shift in gameplay and with his new "W" Wind Becomes Lightning the raw stats of Trinity Force are just too good to pass up on Xin Zhao making it a go-to item in most cases since his "W" benefits from both the attack speed the CDR and the attack damage.

Spirit Visage Is another item that is use almost always as it benefits Xin Zhao greatly by providing not only Health + Magic Resist and 10% CDR for a very low price but also 25% (30% with patch 7.9) buff to all heals, making is an outstanding combo with Blade of the Ruined King and Guinsoo's Rageblade or Death's Dance (which again will see a lot of play with patch 7.9 as it receives a fair bit of buffs).

Skirmisher's Sabre - Bloodrazor is reccomended since after the changes in his "W" he has enough slows to catch up to target and thus that extra dps and survivability + vision gives bigger of an advantage.

The boots that i was picking in most cases were Mercury's Treads as they provided me with a good amount of Tenacity ,which is a stat very important for Xin Zhao (normaly), as a stunned Xin Zhao is a dead Xin Zhao (most of the time), BUT because if they can't damage you, you can't die anyway i choose Ninja Tabi as they have currently too much value to pass up, you get 30 Armor and 10% less damage from all basic attacks plus the Movespeed (obviously) for only 1100 gold so unless they get nerfed or Mages and AP Champions take the spotlight i would suggest buying Ninja Tabi in 90% of the games. So Ninja Tabi in combination with Spirit Visage is in most cases everything you need to completly brush off any attacks from AD and AP champions, they are the 2 more hated deffensive items in the game ATM (justifiably I must say) and with the healing and DPS of Xin Zhao you will make people rage to oblivion while they hit their keyboards crying on how "OP" your champion is (Yes it has happened in a lot of cases with a lot of people raging and calling me an abuser with a noob "Right-Click Only" champ [even in D3+], but i ain't even mad, it feels great).

Also a very popular item that appearsis a lot of my builds is The Black Cleaver for the reason thats its value and pricetag are out of this world, even after the 7.9 nerfs its still an outstanding item, not only do you get Damage,Health, 20% freaking CDR and Penetration but you can also easily stick to your targets with it with the Movespeed that it provides, which is very important as i mentioned before thats Xin's main disadvantage is that he can't stick to his targets and thats why such items are very important. The Black Cleaver is an expensive item that works greatly on Xin Zhao but only during late game, during earlygame, you don't need the Health provided much as you are ganking every now and then but mostly making a lead on farm, because it has relatively low damage your clear will be slower, the 20% CDR is indeed fantastic but again mainly for the late game, early in the game your skills have moderate Cooldowns anyway and you don't spam them often so its not something you care much about anyway, the On-Hit Movementspeed gain effect again its not so usefull early because you just run around the map and the only things you hit are jungle mobs that you are farming, in ganks that movespeed won't be a tremendous bonus in the start as people die relativly easily anyway so they have no ability to try and escape, the reason you need that buff is for late game fights to stick on your targets, and lastly the (%)[Percent] Armor Penetration it provides early in the game is borderline useless because none
actually has high enough Armor for it to benefit from. (%)[Percent] Armor Penetration is a totally different thing from Lethality and for it to be good/usefull the enemy has to have a moderate or high amount of Armor, making (%)[Percent] Armor Penetration extremly weak early in the game and in the starting stages of the midgame.

Guinsoo's Rageblade is an optional item which provides a lot of stats and value for a hefty price but when utilized right it can provide you with those crazy 1v3 and 1v4 fights in which Xin Zhao shines, it can provide with a lot of Sustain and Damage but if needed it can alweays be replaces by various other items, some being Hextech Gunblade for more healing, Titanic Hydra for more sustain and damage-on-hit, Death's Dance for a considerable amount of extra burst and sustain + a lot of healing, Dead Man's Plate / Randuin's Omen for extra armor and health if needed, or even Mercurial Scimitar for when the enemy team has a crazy amount of CC or similar effects which you want to avoid in order to not get popped or stunlocked in a fight or before a fight.

Since the rework Xin Zhao became very Ability Damage oriented and less Basic Attack reliant,yet even though his builds now are focused more towards the Enchantment: Warrior build path he still needs some sttack speed that he lacks. With the recent Rune changes that is fixed.

For that reason i suggest this Precision/Domination rune settup in order to boost your Attackspeed greately:

Precision path for starters provides for 18% Attack Speed.

Lethal Tempo: After a short time you can greatly boost your Attack Speed and has a very short cooldown.
Legend: Alacrity: As long as you farm/gank properly it gives a substantial boost of 18% extra Attack Speed.
Coup de Grace: Gives a little boost in order to burst the carries much like the old masteries.
Cheap Shot: Works perfectly as long as you can land your (W) Wind Becomes Lightning or (E) Audacious Charge or if you've built Blade of the Ruined King, providing stable extra True Damage.
Relentless Hunter: Provides utility in order to travel faster saving time between ganks and jungle camps.
Triumph: On a team fight, a gank with multiple participants and 1v2/3/4/5 can provide substantial sustain, but even in the case of normal early game ganks it can replenish some HP in order for you to not need to go B and proceed instead to clear the rest of the camps.



A good alternative is the Pecision/Sorcery path that provides a generous amount of AD and CD on your Ulti:

Gathering Storm: It gives quite a bit of AD overall since most game last 30+ minutes and it helps with most of your abilities.
The Ultimate Hat: With a total of 15% less CD on your ulti in combination with 40% CDR through your build and the help from your Q it's easy for you to use it in order to fight extremely often.


An other option is the Precision/Resolve path in order to use a more tanky and team oriented build:

Press the Attack: The debuff it gives on the target can proc with all sources of damage and thus it is a substantial advantage for a team oriented playstyle.
Font of Life: Through this during a fight as long as you land your (W) Wind Becomes Lightning and partially your (E) Audacious Charge or if built Blade of the Ruined King you can apply another debuff to heal you and your allies during a fight.
Second Wind: It's a usefull option that provides some more survivability in order to help you tank a fight or go back to clearing camps after a gank.