Hey what's up Mobafire, welcome to my first guide (ever) for my favorite champion in LoL, Xin Zhao! I've been playing Xin Zhao as a jungle/tanky dps for quite some time now and I feel it really fits well into the current meta, as well as giving the player an enjoying/satisfying jungle experience.

Xin Zhao is a fairly straight forward champion, who is very easy to understand yet very hard to master. The purpose of this guide is to help out players by showing them just how Xin jungles and exactly how he works. So by all means, enjoy!

The runes for Xin Zhao are pretty similar to most junglers:

Attack Speed Reds
Armor Yellows
MR/per level Blues
Armor Pen Quints

Note that you can also take Armor Pen Reds as well, it will slow down your jungling but will give you greater end game damage.

Xin's masteries are a pretty standard 21/0/9, you can change it a little however if you wish.

21 in Offense: I go 21 in offense so I can do significant damage throughout the game as well as increasing my jungling speed. Really not much else to it then that.

9 in Utility: For the increased experience as well as the increased buff duration on neutral buffs.

Standard jungler summoner spells.

Smite for jungling/stealing.

Flash (or Ghost if you like) for mobility/escapes.

Jungling with Xin Zhao is very easy and conveniently summed up in this stonewall video:

Play Video

Core

Wriggle's - To speed up jungling, help ward the map, and to keep you sustained.
Mercury's Treads - For the tenacity, MR, and to just make you harder to kill. The only other substitute would be Ninja Tabi, but only if the enemy team has little/no CC and mainly (like 4/5) physical damage dealers.
Phage - For the slow/increased health.
Zeal - Increased attack speed and movement speed so you can finish off your enemies faster.

Late Game Items

Phantom Dancer - More movement speed to help you get to your target, and increased attack speed to keep up your DPS.
Frozen Mallet - Increased health to help survive burst and a built in slow to prevent squishy carries from running away.
Atma's Impaler OR Wit's End (Note only 1 is needed) - Either one of these tanky DPS items to counter the enemies main form of damage (Atma's for physical and Wit's for magic.)
Bloodthirster OR Black Cleaver (Note only 1 is needed) - A final dps item to round off your inventory. I think both of these items are great and whichever one you choose is really just personal preference.

As Xin Zhao your skill priority is R>E>W>Q, with the exception of your first few levels where you need certain skills to jungle accordingly.

Crescent Sweep, although not very good, takes priority over the other spells.

Next up is Audacious Charge. This is maxed next because the slow is vital to your ganking/engaging skill.

Third is Battle Cry. This is your awesome steroid that you use to get your other spells off CD and to increase your overall DPS. Make sure you use this after your other spells are on CD.

Last is Three Talon Strike. This skill is a one point wonder, because the only thing you get from leveling it up is increased damage (very little at that.)

Xin Zhao is a very potent tanky DPS/jungler that shines in normal play as well as ranked (I can't speak for twisted treeline as I don't play that.) I hope you all enjoy my build and enjoy playing Xin Zhao to his fullest extent.

Thanks a lot for reading my guide, make sure to rate/comment!