Build 1: DPS/Off-tank
Build 2: Jungler
Build 3: Non-triforce off-tank
Build 4: Tanky

So, I've seen a few good Xin builds here, and a whole lot of extremely bad ones, figured rather than just moaning about bad guides its about time I wrote one of my own. I'm no pro Xin player, but I do play fairly well and when in doubt I use pure math to work out which items work out best with champions, so this isn't just some randomly put together build.

Basics aside, there are 4 builds here, and even those 4 can be altered in many ways, you should not limit yourself by building a single way each game, your build vastly depends on the make up of both the enemy team, and the other 4 players on your team. I've listed what each build is for in the section above, and I'll go into each in more detail later in the build. Xin is not a glass cannon, so you won't find an all-offensive build here, building Xin glass cannon is stupid, if you want to do that, play Tryndamere, Yi, or a similar champion.

Notice I skipped straight to masteries rather than covering runes first? That's because I've used different runes for the different builds, so I'll cover those in the sections for each build.

I go for 21/8/1 here rather than 21/0/9 or 21/9/0.

In the offensive tree I go for 3/3 crit, 1/3 AP (in the jungling build I take 1/1 smite instead of 1/3 AP for obvious reasons). Next up I only get 1/4 CDR, this because 4/4 only gives 3% CDR, and CDR on Xin is overrated, it helps his W come off cooldown quicker, but for everything else, it's AS + W that make the real difference - for this reason I do take the 4/4 in AS. 3/3 Arpen is an obvious choice on any AD champion, Xin in particular since it really helps his ultimate, I don't get the Mpen mastery here as it only helps our E, and not very much at that. I then get 2/2 minion damage, simply because it helps with lane control and last hitting early game, plus helps us get buffs/dragon/etc just that little bit quicker. The rest is pretty standard and if you need to know why I took it, feel free to comment and ask.

In defensive masteries I go for 2/3 strength of spirit, this helps just a little with laning throughout the game, and although it doesn't make a huge difference, in general it helps us more than dodge here. In the tanky build I take dodge instead though. I always get 3/3 armor and 3/3 MR, as they really help.

In utility I put a single point in ghost, since I take this in all my builds. It really helps Xin with chasing early game. For the jungle build, rather than going 21/8/1 I go 21/0/9 for the extended buff duration and quicker levels, this helps you keep up with the solo lanes if you jungle quick.

This is another one that's pretty much (in fact, exactly) the same across all 4 of the builds I list here.

I max E first. Why? The increased slow, reduced cooldown, and real nice early game damage is great for several things, AOE last hitting - if 3+ minions are low you can grab them all rather than missing them, using your E. You can harass with this, since it's your only ability with any range (though doing this can be dangerous if you're solo without a partner to back you up), and it can be what allows you to get early kills.

I get a second point in Q just for a little bit extra damage, then go about maxing W next, as the lowered cooldown means getting all your other skills off cooldown more often in fights, the passive attack speed massively increases your overall damage, and the active is just win.

Finally I max Q, and if it wasn't already obvious, or you're a new player, always get your ultimate every time you can (levels 6, 11 and 16)

Here I go for ignite and ghost, simply for the additional damage and chasing ability. Now you can chase down your enemies, and rather than tower-diving early game where you'll be shredded by a couple of tower hits, you can throw ignite on them and watch them escape, only to drop to your ignite.

Obviously in the jungle build, one of our spells has to be substituted with smite for quicker jungling, and securing both your buffs, and those of the enemy jungler (stealing buffs is awesome :D) - so which spell do we sacrifice? Well, sacrificing ghost means most enemies can easily escape from us until late game when we have at least one slowing item (e.g. triforce, randuins, frozen mallet) - so it's better to sacrifice ignite, as a jungler you'll be ganking lots anyway so you'll rarely be in 1v1 fights where the extra damage from ignite is necessary.

Exhaust is another option as opposed to ignite, but once you hit late game you won't need it anyway, so I prefer ignite to get some extra early kills and get fed quicker. If you decide to take exhaust, remember to take the Improved Exhaust mastery instead of 1/3 AP. It'll really add to the usefulness of the spell.

Build Order:

x5 -> -> -> -> -> -> -> -> -> -> ->

Final Build:

Ghostblade is a must on Xin in my opinion. A lot of people underrate it, and those people generally are the ones who forget to use it's active. It's active + your W in a teamfight = insane damage and attack speed, plus you get your Q and E off cooldown faster.

Merc Treads help you deal with cc since you're quite vulnerable with no real escape mechanism. If you're against squishies who have no real cc then you can always go for berserker greaves for the extra AS.

Triforce is a great item on off-tanks. Phage and zeal really help Xin deal more damage and stop the enemy escaping, and although Xin isn't the ideal candidate for sheen proc, it still adds to your dps a bit if you learn to time your skills right (E -> auto-attack x3 -> R -> auto attack > Ghostblade + Randuin actives > Q > auto attack x3 -> W, is an example. The reason for some auto attacks and actives in between is because of the invisible 2 second cooldown on triforce proc). The AP on triforce really does little at all, like an extra 6 damage on your E vs 100MR, but everything else is useful for you, the mana adds to your health regen in lane if you're still in lane at this stage due to your strength of spirit, and the health gives you a little extra survivability. The slow = ultimate win.

Randuin's is another great item on off-tanks, Xin in particular. The slow can substitute for the triforce slow (albeit on a cooldown) if you happen to build it first, the 75 armor really adds to your tankyness, the health helps here too. The 5% CDR doesn't do much but it takes a couple seconds off your W and R so it's still good, and the chance to slow from warden's mail is really useful, reduces the damage you take and makes chasing easier.

If I need to explain why Banshees is such a great item on most champions, tanky ones in particular, then you're probably fairly new to League of Legends. For the benefit of those newer players I'll explain it anyway. The MR/HP/Mana are nice little buffs, but what's really great about banshees is its spell-blocking capability. Every 45 seconds it'll block one spell cast on you. For example, you come out of a teamfight, banshees comes off cooldown, your shield is back up, Karthus ults, rather than dying, it just pops your banshees shield and you live to fight another day.

For my last item I take Black Cleaver. If you're finding you're having to B a lot from lack of life-steal, then you can take Bloodthirster instead, but I find Black Cleaver preferable in most cases as the extra 45 effective Arpen really makes a huge difference in terms of your DPS, and really helps once your enemies start getting fairly bulky late game.

The above build order isn't a must, and you can change the build order depending on how the game's going. E.g. if you're against squishy champs, not getting focused much etc, then maybe rush the triforce before even bothering to pick up the chain vest or negatron cloak - or if you're constantly getting focused, rush randuins and banshees before finishing triforce.

Runes:

1x Greater Quint of Desolation (+3.33 Arpen)
2x Greater Quint of Alacrity (+6.8% AS)
9x Greater Mark of Desolation (+14.94 Arpen)
9x Greater Glyph of Warding (+13.41 MR)
9x Greater Seal of Alacrity (+6.84% AS)

Totals: +18 Arpen, +13% AS, +13.41 MR

Why these runes? Armor penetration runes are obvious. The reason I go for two quints of alacrity is that in this build we lack attack speed early/mid game (except ghostblade active) so an extra 6.8% here helps more than 6.6 Arpen, I also get seals of alacrity for another 6.8%, giving us 13% total attack speed, which really helps early game. I also get flat magic resist runes as these massively help against cc and AP early game, late game you will have banshees anyway so scaling MR runes don't help you as much as flat ones.

Build Order:

x5 -> -> -> -> -> -> -> -> -> ->

Final Build:

To save people having to read through the first build if it's not the one they're interested in/intend to use, I'll copy-paste the sections for each item that stayed the same in this build and builds 3 and 4. Hope you guys don't mind, skip the sections you don't want to read if you've read the previous build. I'll also add in the other items that aren't in the first build though, so don't skip past those sections unless you don't need to know why I use those items.

Here once again we take Cloth Armor and 5 Health Potions at the start, I find this helps great both in lane, but even more in jungle, so even if you start with a different item when playing Xin in lane, definitely go with the cloth armor + 5 pots here. The extra armor really helps with early jungling, and the potions mean you don't have to B after every creep camp.

Rather than starting to build ghostblade right away, I build the cloth armor into Madred's Razors (unlike the other build where we keep it until we build randuins), the proc really helps when jungling. This also builds into lantern or bloodrazor, two great items for Xin. I personally prefer to build lantern though as the free wards are really useful for map control.

Merc Treads help you deal with cc since you're quite vulnerable with no real escape mechanism. If you're against squishies who have no real cc then you can always go for berserker greaves for the extra AS.

Wriggle's Lantern is a great item for Xin. The AD, armor and lifesteal all really help him and add to his survivability in the jungle and in teamfights. Lifesteal also allows him to heal up on jungle creeps right after a teamfight, meaning he can B less often. The free wards mean you can always have a ward up in at least one place on the map, this gives your team more map control and can be the decider in who has the upper hand in teamfights.

Ghostblade is a must on Xin in my opinion. A lot of people underrate it, and those people generally are the ones who forget to use it's active. It's active + your W in a teamfight = insane damage and attack speed, plus you get your Q and E off cooldown faster.

Triforce is a great item on off-tanks. Phage and zeal really help Xin deal more damage and stop the enemy escaping, and although Xin isn't the ideal candidate for sheen proc, it still adds to your dps a bit if you learn to time your skills right (E -> auto-attack x3 -> R -> auto attack > Ghostblade + Randuin actives > Q > auto attack x3 -> W, is an example. The reason for some auto attacks and actives in between is because of the invisible 2 second cooldown on triforce proc). The AP on triforce really does little at all, like an extra 6 damage on your E vs 100MR, but everything else is useful for you, the mana adds to your health regen in lane if you're still in lane at this stage due to your strength of spirit, and the health gives you a little extra survivability. The slow = ultimate win.

Randuin's is another great item on off-tanks, Xin in particular. The slow can substitute for the triforce slow (albeit on a cooldown) if you happen to build it first, the 75 armor really adds to your tankyness, the health helps here too. The 5% CDR doesn't do much but it takes a couple seconds off your W and R so it's still good, and the chance to slow from warden's mail is really useful, reduces the damage you take and makes chasing easier.

If I need to explain why Banshees is such a great item on most champions, tanky ones in particular, then you're probably fairly new to League of Legends. For the benefit of those newer players I'll explain it anyway. The MR/HP/Mana are nice little buffs, but what's really great about banshees is its spell-blocking capability. Every 45 seconds it'll block one spell cast on you. For example, you come out of a teamfight, banshees comes off cooldown, your shield is back up, Karthus ults, rather than dying, it just pops your banshees shield and you live to fight another day.

Runes:

3x Greater Quint of Alacrity (+10.2% AS)
9x Greater Mark of Desolation (+14.94 Arpen)
9x Greater Glyph of Shielding (+24.3 MR at level 18)
9x Greater Seal of Resilience (+12.69 Armor)

Totals: +14 Arpen, +10% AS, +12.69 Armor, +24.3 MR at level 18

For jungling here flat armor runes can really help with the first few levels of jungling. It's possible to get dodge runes here but they are unreliable, and relying on chance to whether or not you survive vs a buff early on can be game-breaking. I choose armor because it gives you a quick reliable start to jungling, and adds a slight bonus to your tanking abilities lategame. Since I take armor rather than attack speed here as in the first build, I get all attack speed quints, to make early game a little easier - this also helps with jungling, as more attack speed = more damage, but also you set your passive off more so you have more survivability. Flat magic resist doesn't help as much here as it does in a laning build, as we won't get much harassment early game when we're the ones dishing out ganks, and we're mostly MIA in the jungle. However, magic resist is nice, so instead of flat magic resist, I buy the scaling runes here to give us a nice late game survivability bonus. The armor pen is standard, and doesn't really need to be explained here - if it does, read up to build 1.

Jungling Routes:

Here are a couple of possible jungling routes you can take with Xin. Practice with all of them and use the one you feel most comfortable with. Finding the "fastest route" doesn't help if you have trouble pulling it off and end up doing it slower than other routes.

1) Golems -> Wraiths -> Wolves -> Blue -> B -> Red -> Gank
2) Blue -> Wolves -> Wraiths -> Golems -> B -> Red -> Gank

You what? Yes, I made a couple of simple builds for people who're not big fans of triforce, since I know not everyone likes the sheen proc, and some simply find it too expensive. Until recently when I started using triforce myself, this build was my core build with Xin pretty much.

Build Order:

x5 -> -> -> -> -> -> -> ->

Final Build:

Ghostblade is a must on Xin in my opinion. A lot of people underrate it, and those people generally are the ones who forget to use it's active. It's active + your W in a teamfight = insane damage and attack speed, plus you get your Q and E off cooldown faster.

Merc Treads help you deal with cc since you're quite vulnerable with no real escape mechanism. If you're against squishies who have no real cc then you can always go for berserker greaves for the extra AS.

Wriggle's Lantern is bought here for a different reason than in the previous jungler build. It's cheap, adds some early game damage and survivability, but best of all, the lifesteal and free wards really help Xin out, particularly early/mid game. Free wards = map control, and lifesteal means less need to B so often.

Randuin's is another great item on off-tanks, Xin in particular. The slow can substitute for the triforce slow (albeit on a cooldown) if you happen to build it first, the 75 armor really adds to your tankyness, the health helps here too. The 5% CDR doesn't do much but it takes a couple seconds off your W and R so it's still good, and the chance to slow from warden's mail is really useful, reduces the damage you take and makes chasing easier.

If I need to explain why Banshees is such a great item on most champions, tanky ones in particular, then you're probably fairly new to League of Legends. For the benefit of those newer players I'll explain it anyway. The MR/HP/Mana are nice little buffs, but what's really great about banshees is its spell-blocking capability. Every 45 seconds it'll block one spell cast on you. For example, you come out of a teamfight, banshees comes off cooldown, your shield is back up, Karthus ults, rather than dying, it just pops your banshees shield and you live to fight another day.

Frozen mallet gives us a whopping 700HP along with a guaranteed 40% slow from melee attacks, making escape from you near impossible, plus adding to your survivability substantially. Some people prefer this to triforce, it doesn't give you as much pure dps, but it is cheaper, the slow is more reliable, and the extra health means it gives you a bit more survivability.

Runes:

3x Greater Quint of Alacrity (+10.2% AS)
9x Greater Mark of Desolation (+14.94 Arpen)
9x Greater Glyph of Warding (+13.41 MR)
9x Greater Seal of Evasion (+6.75% Dodge)

Totals: +14 Arpen, +10% AS, +6.75% Dodge, +13.41 MR

To make the added HP from frozen mallet, banshees and randuins more effective, I go for dodge runes here, the 6.75% dodge chance isn't a lot, but it can really help against physical carries, and helps that HP go a little further. Because I put yellows into dodge here I buy 3 AS quints rather than two, giving us that early game AS bonus we need. I then buy Arpen reds and MR blues for the same reasons as given in the previous 2 builds.

Build Order:

x5 -> -> -> -> -> -> ->

Final Build:

The only change here to build 3 is the replacement for Frozen Mallet with Guardian Angel. This makes you bulkier vs both AP and AD, and also gives you a free revive every few minutes. However if you're facing an AP heavy team, get Force of Nature instead, AD heavy, get Thornmail, Frozen Heart or Sunfire Cape. Since everything else is the same I won't even bother with the copy paste this time, just read up to build 3 under the build order for why you buy each item :)

Oh, also, you can replace Merc Treads with Ninja Tabi if you're facing a purely AD/AD heavy team, as the extra dodge stacks with your runes and can save you taking a lot of damage.

Runes:

3x Greater Quint of Alacrity (+10.2% AS)
9x Greater Mark of Desolation (+14.94 Arpen)
9x Greater Glyph of Warding (+13.41 MR)
9x Greater Seal of Evasion (+6.75% Dodge)

Totals: +14 Arpen, +10% AS, +6.75% Dodge, +13.41 MR

Here I buy the same runes as the 3rd build, the difference though is that dodge here is simply for added tankiness, and the added 2 mastery points in the dodge masteries mean we have an extra 1%, not that helpful, but it reduces damage nonetheless. You can choose to replace flat MR runes with scaling ones if you value late game more, but either will work very well - I personally choose flat because we'll have banshees and all the MR we need late game, and we can get FoN vs an AP heavy team if we need more.

Offensive:

Sword of the Divine

Tons of attack speed and a nice boost to armor pen from the active make this a great item for Xin, particularly in combination with your Ghostblade. However, if you're buying this I'd recommend buying it instead of Trinity Force, and if that's the case, you have to weigh up the pros and cons of each item and decide which would be better that game. Also, awesome vs Jax, no more dodging.

Madred's Bloodrazor

I personally love this item on Xin, but due to it's price I rarely get it except sometimes late game as my 6th item. What you can do though if you don't build Trinity Force, is buy a Recurve Bow after you finish your Ghostblade, for extra attack speed when you don't have the active up, then upgrade it to Bloodrazor late game. This actually gives you a fair bit more dps than Trinity Force does (in fact, even Ghostblade + Recurve Bow is more dps than Triforce) but it doesn't give you any hp, mana, or the really awesome slow that makes Triforce/Frozen Mallet good options for Xin.

The Bloodthirster

Another great dps item. Your best bet with Bloodthirster is to replace Lantern with it if you went for one of the Lantern builds rather than one using Trinity Force. You can also use it in build No.1 in place of Black Cleaver if you find you need some lifesteal. Losing out on the Arpen from cleaver sucks, but sometimes you need that lifesteal to avoid having to B.

Stark's Fervor

I don't tend to buy this on Xin, but if you have at least 3 AD champions on your team and none of them have Stark's, you could pick this up instead of Lantern, or after your Phage if you go for Trinity Force. The extra AS and lifesteal will help you and your team-mates out a lot.

Last Whisper

Facing a team of tanks? GG 350 Armor is now only 210, not even counting your Arpen runes or the +15 Arpen from Ghostblade. Really awesome item VS tanky teams, but this is completely useless against squishies in my opinion, so don't buy it unless the enemy team has 3+ tanks or 2 tanks and at least one off-tank.

Atma's Impaler

This is a hybrid item as it gives you some extra armor, but also gives you extra AD and Crit Chance. If you have 2.9k+ HP as you should late game, you get a nice +58 AD from Atma's.

Defensive:

Sunfire Cape

Awesome item vs AD teams, particularly squishy ones, as the AOE damage will help out in team fights a lot. The +45 armor and +450 health are a significant buff when facing physical attacks, so this is a great choice, and honestly I think I should be using it more often personally.

Frozen Heart

Another item that works great vs AD. This one gives you more armor, but mana rather than health. However the real advantage of this item is the passive. All enemies in the nearby area have 20% reduced attack speed, so if no-one else on your team has this, and you're facing AD, get it! It'll make a huge difference in team fights. The 20% cooldown reduction is also nice as it means you get your W and R a lot quicker.

Thornmail

If you're getting focused a lot by AD, or your team already has a frozen heart and you want a bit of extra armor, this is the perfect item. One of the cool things about Thornmail is it returns 30% of all physical damage, this is the damage before your armor is applied, so if for example you have 61% damage reduction with 157 armor as in the first build, someone has 300 attack damage, they will only be doing 117 damage to you with each hit, and they'll be taking 90 damage with each hit on you too. So you only have to be hitting 27 to be doing as much damage as them, not counting the fact that you have more HP than them. Plus, for obvious reasons, you'll be dealing more than 27.

Quicksilver Sash

If you're being CC'd to the ground you can buy Quicksilver Sash to help deal with that. Other than the cleanse active it doesn't have much useful about it, the 56 MR is nice but nothing spectacular, so if you're not facing a heavy CC team, don't get a sash.

Force of Nature

The best MR item in the game, this'll really help you deal with AP heavy teams. Along with this there's a huge bonus of 8% movespeed. This doesn't sound much, but if you have Trinity Force and this, plus your boots, you'll outrun nearly any other champion, even without having Boots 3.

Farming/Last Hitting

Xin Zhao is a great last hitter, get used to timing his last hits in early/mid/late game and you'll easily be one of the most farmed champions on your team. Also, remember that you do have an AOE skill, your E. If multiple minions are low health, make the most of your E to make sure you don't miss any. You can also use E to catch minions that are a little further off if you can't get there in time, just try not to spam it as it's quite a mana-hungry skill.

Warding/Map Control

If you use on of my builds that includes Lantern then make the most of it. You get a free ward every 3 minutes, so ward regularly. If in doubt a general rule to follow = Early game ward dragon, late game ward baron. If other team-mates are also warding you can ward bushes, buffs, etc, use your imagination and some common sense.

Map awareness is very important. Xin is a great ganker, and whether you're laning or jungling you should spend a fair amount of time roaming around. Always keep an eye on what's going on, this is general strategy that applies to all champions, but in particular on a ganker like Xin you should be warding and making sure you know where everyone is at all times, respond to pings, call ss/re, ping for attention where necessary. As above, use common sense.

One more thing you can do to aid with map control is make sure you get buffs/dragon/baron at the right times. See the whole enemy team is pushing bottom? Quickly grab baron and rush down to meet them head on, they won't be winning that team fight. Xin is a great dragon killer, particularly if you're the team's jungler, but watch out as they may have warded it, if you have extra cash you can always buy one of the more expensive wards and use it to destroy theirs, then go back to dragon a minute or two later just before your ward runs out. Red buff is great on Xin, as the slow along with your other slowing items = guaranteed no escape, and blue buff allows you to spam your skills a little more, plus reducing your cooldowns on W and R.

Combat

When engaging into combat with an enemy champion, it's important you use your skills in the right order. If you're going 1v1, the correct order is nearly always E -> R -> Q -> W. Remember to make room for auto attacks for Trinity Force procs if you're using it. If you're already in melee range you can avoid using E to initiate, and save it for if/when they try to run, or for extra Trinity Force procs.

When facing multiple enemies you might want to save your R. Although it does a % of enemy champions' current HP, if you're not getting focused, using it might be a waste, as the extra armor and MR it gives you (which really is a lot if you're fighting 3-5 enemy champions) will make the difference between you living or dying.

Team Fights

If your team has a tank, as it hopefully should, then don't be the initiator except in small 1-3 man fights. Wait until the tank has initiated, now you can jump in with your usual skill order, just remember what I said before about making sure you time your ultimate right. Spam your Q at every opportunity, ideally on their AD or AP carry, to lower their damage to your team. Always use W every time it is up, and go crazy with auto-attacks during it's duration to ensure your other skills come off cooldown quicker.

If your team lacks a tank (Unlucky, this is a sticky situation for Xin) then I recommend taking Build 4 to ensure you have some extra survivability. Why? Because you have the nasty job of being the initiator and taking all the initial focus. So, jump in on their carry, make sure you use your R now as you WILL be focused, and make sure your team jumps in right away, as you will survive no trouble for the first 6 seconds while your ult is up, but after that if you're being focused they'll tear through you. If necessary, pop your randuins + ghost and leave the team fight to heal up.

So, there you have it. I probably have carpal tunnel after typing all that, so I do hope it helps some of you out. Please do not go glass cannon Xin, it really isn't the way to go. There are many great Xin builds on here, so I can understand that many people will not want to use mine, but please, if you do use another build, don't go down the Phantom Dancer all-out glass cannon route. Seriously. You'll see why if you try both my build and the top rated glass cannon build.

Not sure what else to put in this summary. This is my first released build, so if there's anything you feel is missing, please say. Constructive criticism is most welcome, so please post even if you dislike my build - though try to include reasons. "Your build sucks" is not constructive criticism, but "I don't like your build because [insert reason]. I'd prefer to swap [item] with [item]" is.

Also, if you noticed the jump from Ghostblade to boots 2 in my builds, that's because I find it really depends on the game to whether I buy boots 1 before completing Ghostblade or not. In most cases I do, but I think people can use common sense about when to get boots, so I didn't feel it was necessary.

Any questions/comments etc should be posted here. If you feel there's something I should add to this build/guide, just say and I'll try get around to it. Remember to up vote! :)