Very good build, I don't tend to post very often but this was very well made. You can add icons to stuff like spells, ability names and runes by putting and between an item name, in case you didn't know. Tanky Xin Zhao is really the way to go, as in higher levels of play people are just going to facemelt you if you try to glass cannon. Solid choices for all the builds. Good job.

pretty nice guide! Also, love your title! +1 from me!

I'm not sure if you're inexperienced or simply have never played a tank. Firstly my build is clearly not a tank build, rather an off-tank. Secondly there is no reason not to jungle even as a tank, look at Amumu for example.

Some people find Lantern helps during laning and the lifesteal really comes in handy (and it's cheap to complete early on, though it can be replaced with bloodthirster later). I personally never buy Lantern any more as I don't feel the need for excessive lifesteal and other items tend to replace it - if I really find the need for lifesteal and can afford it as my 6th item I'll tend to just get a bloodthirster. Another good thing about Lantern for people who decide to use it, is map control, the free wards give your team a real advantage early game.

I see you are still building glass-cannon Xin. You should play a little more, get a little more experienced, then try off-tank Xin. I guarantee provided you play by usual good standards (last hitting, defensive play, etc), after just a handful of games you'd want to change that downvote to an upvote - or at the very least adjust your old build.

Hope this answers your question etc.

sry but y u need to jungle if u a tank? cus it seem that u r buildin a tank build. n that last build u have wriggle... why?

Went 18/4/11 my first game, thanks for the guide.

Sorry for the late reply, but thanks for the upvotes guys. @Hamduden, thanks for the suggestions, I'll try out 0/9/21 Xin and see how I do.

I'm considering adding a reviews/comments section with other peoples' ways of playing Xin that I think are also good, so it'd be cool if others chimed in too :)

Good guide :D

Your item builds are actually perfect imo. Just the way I use to own with Xin, and the optional items are spot on. Also the Ability Sequence - absolutely the best way.


Some of the things I don't like are the Masteries and Summoner Spells. But that's only because I'm much of a Utility-kind-of-guy ;) .. 0/9/21 with Flash/Ghost is imo the way to go. I also skip the ArmP runes and get AttSpeed. Works great for me.

Another thing is the building order. I prefer to build the items a bit differently. I like gettin HoG very early (more gold), perhaps a Philo stone (even more gold), and then getting Yoyo+BC asap.
Then you'll have insane damage, therefore I build Randuins/Banshees right after (sometimes I build them in between the damage items - depends on the enemy team). Trinity I save for last item (perhaps I build an earlier Phage for the slow).

Just my way. But of course you'll get +1 since almost everything is awesome. Good job!

Signed up just to vote this up. Great build, i like that you actually put some effort into it.

my 2c, if you're up vs mostly squishies and dont need as much defense, maybe swap out randuins and banshees for aegis and an offensive item, bloodthirster maybe?

I use the gaurdsman bob guide on mobafire, this is a very similar guide so I know it will do well. The mercs, ghostblade, lantern and trinity force are definitely core but you could consider ending with bloodrazors and wit's end. Gives you some defensive, attack speed/damage and tons of magic damage on hit which basically shreds everyone to pieces.

I'm glad others are having success with this build :) Thanks for the picture. If anyone else has some match history pics from using my build, once a few are posted I'll add them all to the bottom of my build so other users can see how successful it is :)

The picture isn't coming up so click this to see my matches :)

Both ^^