Hello and welcome to this guide!

I'm Snorkil, a 22 year old streamer for FNATIC
I've been challenger since season 4, and peaked rank 13 in season 8, rank 1 in season 9 and so far challenger in season 10.

I'm a part of the Fnatic Network,this means that i have a personal discount code for SHOP.FNATIC.COM, giving you a 10% discount when you use the code "STYLLEE" during checkout!

I Appreciate your time reading through this guide, if you have any questions, make sure you follow my twitch channel and ask them while im live, so i can give you the answer you are looking for!

Be sure to check out my SOCIALS

Determination (Passive): Every third attack deals bonus damage and heals Xin Zhao. Play Video

Three Talon Strike (Q): Xin Zhao's next 3 standard attacks deal increased damage with the third attack knocking an opponent into the air. Play Video
Wind Becomes Lightning (W): Xin Zhao slashes in front of himself with his spear, then thrusts it forward, slowing affected enemies. Play Video

Audacious Charge (E): Xin Zhao charges to an enemy, dealing damage to all enemies in the area and slowing them briefly. Play Video
Crescent Guard (R):

Xin Zhao deals damage to nearby enemies based on their current Health and knocks non-challenged targets back. Xin Zhao is impervious to damage dealt by champions outside of the circle created. Play Video

Pros + Strong early game + High DMG output + Playmaker + Good gangs + Early spike Xin Zhao is a really strong early game jungler as he can lvl 2 gang which makes him deadly early game and you can easy get a snowballing going on for either yourself or your laners. He has a decent mid game aswell but falls off when you get into the lategame, so you gotta make sure that you get a good early game and end the game in the mid-game.

Cons - Scales bad into the lategame - Needs a good early game - Needs to snowball - Squishy If you dont Snowball early as Xin Zhao you are going to have a hard time. You need to get a good earlygame off so you can snowball through the game and get a good lead going, you can get kited easy if you dont have your items and can't nuke your targets.

GOOD MATCHUPS

Skarner

Twitch

Nasus

Gragas

Rengar

Hecarim

Shyvana

Camille

Taliyah

Nidalee

Fiddlesticks

Lee Sin

DECENT MATCHUPS

Kha'Zix

Udyr

Elise

Master Yi

Ivern

Sejuani


BAD MATCHUPS

Jax

Rammus

Shaco

Playing Xin Zhao your main goal is to get an early lead and close the game as fast as possible!
That means you have to do a lot in the early game and you can't really spend your time farming the jungle.
Try to get some early ganks off, can even go for lvl 2 cheese gank
Lvl 2 cheese gank is where you start red buff and then go to whatever lane is easiest to gank or what lane you feel like ganking.
You can also go for an early invade. Take red buff and then move straight into enemy jungle if you are stronger than him early, take his camps and if he comes then you can just fight him, but you must take in mind that enemy team can help their jungler first before your team can, so make sure you have pressure on lanes and ping them to help you, and if they can't do that, then dont go for a play like that.

A standard jungle route is Red - Golems - Blue buff which get's you an early lvl 3 and then you can either go for a gank, invade or continue to farm 1 more camp, and then go for scuttle. In most cases you should try to go for a gank here or an invade, as you want to get a lead as fast as possible.

When you get to the midgame you wan't to either go for zoning the enemy team off or try to do some 'insec' plays, that means you jump in and try to knock the enemy teams carries into your team with your Ultimate Crescent Guard
You should really try to end the game here, if you make it to over 30 mins the game will in most cases be out of your hand to carry.

If you get to the lategame you just need to follow your team around and keep using your Ult + CC to zone enemies away from your carries so they can carry the game, you are supposed to be a more supportive champion in the lategame compared to the early game.

MERCURY'S TREADS Mercury's Treads is great if enemy team is CC or AP heavy

PLATED STEELCAPS Plated Steelcaps is perfect if enemy team is AD heavy!

DEATH'S DANCE Pretty good item for sustain

THE BLACK CLEAVER Black Cleaver is really good for Xin Zhao as it gives him all the stats that he possible could want!

GOREDRINKER Goredrinker is the mythic item to go for

STERAK'S GAGE Getting a bit more tanky aswell as getting some damage is really great

GUARDIAN ANGEL An extra life is always good, good for zoning and creating pressure also! Can always pick up this item throughout the game

PHANTOM DANCER If you are fighting a lot 1v1 etc. Phantom Dancer can be a really good item for you after Black Cleaver

RANDUIN'S OMEN If you need to get a bit more armor and tankyness Randuin's Omen is the choice!

MAW OF MALMORTIUS If enemy team is AP heavy and you want an early item against their AP dmg, get Maw of Malmortius

ADAPTIVE HELM Adaptive Helm is really good if the have a lot of dot dmg Cassiopeia, Teemoetc.

In general it's pretty good to start on your Red buff and look for a cheasy lvl 2 gang, most people don't really think about it, and you can get a good early lead from that

Combos:

E-Q - auto till knockup and then use W to 100% hit

E-Q-W to slowhim instant and then follow up by auto attacks

E-Q-W-R

When you are ahead as Xin Zhao you should try to maintain your lead by getting Rift Herald , it's really easy to take as Xin Zhao and it won't take you that long. Getting Rift Herald makes you get 1-2 turrets in most cases which is a lot of gold for you + your team, aswell as creating more pressure on the map.
You can also solo drakes quite early on, and you should usually controll the rivers as you can 1v1 most champions

Thx alot for reading through my guide and getting down here!

Xin Zhao is a really great early game jungler and he's straight foward to play, he doesen't really require any hard mechanics etc.

I would appreciate if you would drop a like if you enjoyed this guide, as it would help me a lot, and you can always check out my stream if you want to see some high elo gameplay or if you got any questions about anything ( i can answer most of the league related ones ;) )

Overall i think Xin Zhao is a jungler every 1 should be able to play, you can almsot always pick him in soloq, and he fits to any teamcomp and any playstyle. Pick this guy up if you want some freelo i would say! :)