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Hi, I have been interested in Xayah ever since she was released. League Of Legends piqued my interest in Season 3, and by Season 4, I started taking my baby steps into League. Xayah is my 2nd most played champion, falling behind Lux. Even if I am a support main, I play marksman as my secondary role, or when I get fed up with the ADCs I have to support. This is my first ever guide, so critique in the comments would be really helpful. I wanted to make this guide to share my love for her, even if she's not the best ADC in this patch. This guide will focus on summoners in bronze and silver so I don't recommend it if you're higher or lower than said ranks, but then again, you might learn a thing or two if you're from another rank. Which in that case, thanks for sparing a bit of your time! :D

Hey ;) STRENGTHS - Good Burst Damage - Hard To Shut Down - Good Kiting Potential - Good Survivability With Ult - Reliable CC - Great Waveclear

Hows your day going? WEAKNESSES - Expensive Early Items - Hard To Catch Up When Behind - Hard To Hunt Down Enemies - Hard To Play In Patch 9.10 - Hard To Master Feather Curving - Why hello there fellow reader

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For her keystones, I recommend Press the Attack because once you have gotten all 3 stacks of Clean Cuts off, all subsequent attacks and the burst damage from your Bladecaller will hurt much more. But of course, depending on your playstyle, you could take Lethal Tempo if you feel you're having trouble getting your feathers off, or Fleet Footwork if you want more sustain in lane, and kiting potential.

For your Xayah's minor runes, Triumph and Overheal are both viable options. Take Overheal if you have Fleet Footwork, Legend: Bloodline, or if your support has a healing ability, then take Triumph if otherwise. I personally don't see a reason for Xayah to take Presence of Mind.

Xayah can take Legend: Alacrity if you don't want to sacrifice your keystone for Lethal Tempo. Take Legend: Bloodline if you won't build lifesteal mid game or at all. Kiting and positioning is one of Xayah's essentials, so if you're facing a hard CC team, taking Legend: Tenacity might be a viable option, but I personally like taking Mercurial Scimitar instead of sacrificing a rune slot.

Out of the three Combat minor runes, I personally only take Coup de Grace for the amazing feeling of that execution with Bladecaller. Xayah would've probably died before even being able to use Last Stand properly. Xayah could use Cut Down against really beefy enemies like Braum and Cho'Gath.
My my, you're finding all of these hidden texts easily

Xayah can go three ways with her secondary branch, these being Sorcery, Domination, or Inspiration. When choosing Sorcery, I heavily suggest Gathering Storm since this lets Xayah match the scaling of a lot of other ADCs and gets her out of the red. Manaflow Band helps Xayah with her early game mana problems. I personally almost never run out of mana when I use it. Transcendence is useful if you feel your Bladecaller's cooldown takes too long during fights. Most of Xayah's items don't have CDR so I recommend this too. I find Nullifying Orb useful against burst mages like Lux and Neeko, or against AP assassins like Katarina and Ahri. Celerity has good synergy with your Deadly Plumage and Phantom Dancer if you ever decide to build it.
...How many times have you exposed these writings?

Inspiration is an option for Xayah if you need lane sustain. When I use this branch, I like taking Magical Footwear for the extra movement speed because Xayah needs it IMO. It also lets you focus on buying your Infinity Edge, the only disadvantage here would be the late Berserker's Greaves, since you need attack speed for Clean Cuts. Of course, since we're (hopefully) using this branch for lane sustain, Biscuit Delivery is very ideal. It lets you stay in lane for the CS, hence letting you buy your expensive early items. Take Perfect Timing if you plan on building Guardian Angel.
Hope youre having a good day :D

Domination is a viable option for Xayah if you're confident. Cheap Shot is an amazing option for her due to her constant roots. Take Ultimate Hunter if you feel you'll be needing your Featherstorm a lot more often, mostly against assassins that can all-in you. Now for any of the three runes on the Tracking branch, you may use any of them. It really depends on HOW you want to get the stacks. Take Eyeball Collection if you want to focus on kill participation, Zombie Ward if you'll be using Sweeping Lens against a champion with invisible traps, and Ghost Poro if you'll be warding alot, and their support did not buy a Sweeping Lens.

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Xayah's early game is her weakest. Focus on farm as much as you can, and let your support set up the kills for you. Only take risks if you KNOW you'll get out alive. Before flashing in for the kill, think. Are their summoners up? How much mana do they have? Are their abilities on cooldown? Where's their jungler? Am I open to ganks if I go in? Can they hide behind their minions? These are a few questions you can ask yourself before going for the greedy kill. You can ask your jungler to camp your lane and give you some kills. Early leads for Xayah mean a lot, as she will be super hard to shut down if you get that much ahead. If you DO get an early lead, don't throw it away. After some time in the early game, start learning what your opponents are building and decide what items you'll buy to counter that.

For example, you see the enemy Lucian buying a Recurve Bow and a Vampiric Scepter? They have a Vladimir and he's ahead? The Soraka has Forbidden Idol? In this situation, Lucian will be most likely trying to build a blade of the ruin king first, while Soraka is trying to build Ardent Censer or Mikael's Blessing. It would be best if you tried to build the very cheap Executioner's Calling early, then turn it into Mortal Reminder late game. Even simple game knowledge as that could put you ahead by a mile.

As Xayah, playing your opponents will give you a great advantage in the late game, which is what she needs. She needs to reach her late game stats faster than any of her enemies, she can't fall behind that far, or it's going to be close to impossible to catchup.

Now there will be a BIG difference when laning with Rakan. When in this situation, be aggressive. When Rakan's Grand Entrance and Battle Dance are up, this is the best time to engage, even better if he has Fey Feathers active. Remember, the most important part of this dynamic duo is communication. If one of you has no mana, wait. If one of you has no summoner spells for a risky engage, wait. Otherwise, early game with Rakan will be absolute fun.

No matter who your support is, note that you'll be spamming Double Daggers a lot since your early game basic attack, by itself, does jack diddly. Make sure you make
your enemy laners know who's boss by making them taste Bladecaller's wrath. Once they realize your Bladecaller's potential, they will, if not stupid, most likely be very scared of your feathers. After asserting your dominance, get close to the enemy minions face with Clean Cuts, and hit them. This places your feather very far behind their minion wave, hence making the enemy laners scared of passing this feather "wall" you've just put down. This denies them lots of CS and EXP.

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Xayah's mid game is where you start seeing her potential. At this point, you should already have your Infinity Edge. If you still don't have it yet, farm fast, and farm hard. It will be hard to catchup as Xayah if you get behind, even if their lead isn't as far. If you do have your Infinity Edge, focus on building your other crit items, and push towers as much as you can. She is an objective-taking beast, especially if you have Rakan by your side. Even if you are ahead by mid game, don't solo push lanes as you will die quickly if you're caught alone. Stay by your team, and participate in most of the team kills. The same advice will always go, don't. get. too. greedy. It's going to screw you up bad if you throw your lead by being greedy. Depending on your team's set of wards, make sure to think about it and change your Stealth Ward into an Oracle Lens or Farsight Alteration. Warding with a Stealth Ward should be your support's job at this point.

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Xayah's late game is where all the cards are laid before her. If you did well in early and mid game, you are going to be almost impossible to shut down. On the other hand, if you did bad, it's going to be close to impossible to catchup. Take note, close to impossible, so don't give up just yet. Keep farming, but don't farm so hard to the point you left your team to die in a fight. Late game is where Xayah becomes a structure's worst nightmare. You'll be taking out towers and inhibitors like crazy... that is if you survive. Let your team protect you while pushing a tower, and don't chase down kills when pushing. Always finish off the objective. In late game, you become even more prone to CC because most likely you will be the focus of the enemy team if they're smart and don't want their base to get destroyed. Watch out for all-in assassins like Zed, Ahri, and Pantheon. At this point, you should be building your end game items like Bloodthirster or Guardian Angel. If you have your full build, start constantly buying Elixir of Wrath.

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INSTA ROOT COMBO
If you've ever heard of the Q+AA+E insta root combo, then you probably know that it was also nerfed. Although it was nerfed, you can still do it, just a bit slower than before. This time, do it like this; instead of going Q+AA+E, you go Q directly to W+AA+E for a faster root against your enemy. When you activate W right after Q, it lets you throw out a feather just a bit faster. Once you see your three feathers get behind your enemy, spam. that. Bladecaller.
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FULL FIGHT COMBO
When you engage in a fight that you know will last a while, you should use the Full Fight Combo. This is how it works; Start out with Double Daggers, and throw out a single feather. After the one feather comes out, activate Deadly Plumage and throw out 2-3 feathers. Finally, use Featherstorm and quickly pull in with Bladecaller. Remember, you have to do the entire combo in 6 seconds or it won't do the intended burst damage, as the feathers will start despawning. If you think you can let out more feathers during Deadly Plumage, do so to increase Bladecaller's potential damage.
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In this section, we'll be talking about something I call, "Feather Curving". Now, everytime your about to use Bladecaller, imagine an invisible line from your feathers to you. This is the flight path the feather will be taking to arrive to you. Now, where does the made-up term "Feather Curving" come into this? "Feather Curving" is the homing ability that the feathers have when being recalled by Bladecaller. While the feathers are flying to you, you can quickly reposition to change the flight path. For example, you use your Featherstorm against an Ezreal, and you cast your Bladecaller once you get back to the ground. He simultaneously casts Arcane Shift to the side to dodge it. You can quickly calculate the flight path the feather is on, and Flash to where ever you need to get off the damage. Even if this section seems unnecessary, it might come in handy one day in a ranked game, who knows?

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