Hi all, it's my first guide on mobafire, and I was planning to make it for quite a while now.

First of all, I would like to explain that the skill sequence and the item purchases are very... VERY situational, I'll explain everything in detail, just stay with me couple minutes :)

Second, I know that a lot of people will disagree with my runes and skill sequence, but just give it a try, it pays up pretty well :)

Also I would ask you to state your opinions on things you dissagree with, it will really help me to improve this guide and also my own game style.

spaceeee

Pros & Cons 10/03/12
Masteries 10/03/12
Skill Sequence and Game Strategy(Early Game) 12/03/12
Summoner Spells
Colorize the Boring Masses of Text
Team Work
Item Purchases
Game Strategy(Mid and Late Game)
Jungling Section
Runes

*Done
*In Process
*Planning

Pros
Why should you like him?

• Extreme early damage.
• Good survivability on early game(if played right).
• Great initiator.
• An awesome disable that will save you and your team-mates countless times(and will probably get you a kill).
• Good passive, can sustain a lane for much longer.
• A skill that will reduce other skills cool downs.
• Multi-target ultimate.

Cons
What to be aware of?

• A little squishy in comparison to other initiators.
• Have slight mana issues in mid game(when spamming skills).
• Can get you killed
• No built-in escape mechanism.
• Can make you over confident, which can eventually kill you.
• His dance is pretty wierd. :S

Masteries are pretty streight forward, max the damage and get 9 points into defence, to get extra early game survivability.


An alternative may be investing those 9 points into the attack tree, to get full 30 in attack.
Personaly I would put those points in to get to the , another 3 points in and last point in .

Havoc is no need to explain... Damage, damage, damage!
Demolitionist will get those turrets down in a blink of the eye.

Now you would ask why am I investing precious points in... magic penetration while going for an AD?!
It's simple, Audacious Charge is dealing magic damage, and it's our bread and butter since the early game. So some extra damage, is pretty cool.

About the skills, it's very situational(as I allready said).
Our goal is to maximise Audacious Charge first for some really good reasons:

• It's our initiating skill, without it - we lose purpose.
• It has an extremly nice burst damage that will smash 10-25% of a squishy targets max hp on early game.
• It has a slow - very important that our targets won't run on us :)
• It's a mini crowd control.
• Great thing for ambush from a bush :)

So as you can see, it's our bread and butter. A lot of people like to start with Three Talon Strike, but even with the dagger and attack speed runes, the attack speed is too low and the extra 15 damage is not that significant :(

So I start with Audacious Charge, and then I take Battle Cry.
You just have to love it's passive! It gives you 20% attack speed, it's more than the daggers bonus! You just saved your self 420 gold! The active is even more awesome, it doubles the passive bonus for 5 seconds and makes your auto attacks to reduce all the other cooldowns by 1 second. That's pretty insane, your Audacious Charge will be ready in no time.

Level 3:
I still take Audacious Charge instead of taking Three Talon Strike. At this point a lot of people start arguing with me, why didn't I take Three Talon Strike and its awesome dissable.
Now I don't have a clear answer here. It just seem to work much better for me. I guess it's because the true fights start on lvl 4, when my HP is much better and I can even turret dive. Until then I just throw that skill point in Audacious Charge for better slow, 40 extra damage and 1 second less cooldown. I don't lose my effectiveness and same time it holds me back from doing bad decisions.

Level 4:
Action! Now we put our hands on Three Talon Strike, with enough attack speed and pretty good damage.
If your lane partner is a ranged - you're probably dominating the lane. Or at least holding it on the middle, between the sides. The first option is better, because it means you have a little headstart on your enemies with the exp income and probably your farm is better.
Now it's a wise thing to back off, because lets admit it, turret diving isn't so pleasant after all. Ping your partner to go back to the middle of the lane and just stand there. Wait for their minions to come. When their minions approaching hit them couple times, so the enemy players will get closer. Mark the target that have the smallest HP pool, if they stay on distance, back off a little more and just stand there, like you're AFK(Away From Keyboard). Ranged players probably going to try and "poke" you with auto attacks. That's perfect because our Audacious Charge have 650 range, when the highest range champion is , with exactly 650 range attack.

Time to shine! The perfect sequence to activate the skills is:
-> ->
But I saw a lot of people mess it up for some reason, so the best choice for newbies is:
-> ->
Simple Q > W > E + Click :)

About a second later the target is in the air, taking damage from you and your lane parter all this time, probably he's dead but if not, he'll probably flash away.
Now remmeber that you have your Battle Cry still active for about 3 seconds. Use it to reduce the other cooldowns. Hit the nearest champion, hit few minions. Now you're ready to jump on the first target again, but this time he probably won't escape. You can even risk to turret dive if yor HP is over 60% and you have flash ready to flee.
-> ->

And you got a kill :)

This is probably what going to happen, if you play it right. It takes time to get used to this style of game, it took me about 4-5 games to get the feel of it, and about a week to fully master it.

Level 5:
Another point in Audacious Charge, 30% slow, 150 damage and 14 seconds cooldown.
They run slower, you jump faster and hit harder. :)

Level 6:
It's time for ultimate! :)
Crescent Sweep is the true blessing of Xin Zhao!
I'll explain my over-excitment:

• It's multi-target.
• The 15% of current health pool damage, is insane when used wise!
• It gives you Magic Resist and Armor 25 + 7/10/13 per enemy champion hit(for 6 seconds)!

Now lets combine this knowledge with our situation:
Our usual combination of
-> ->
(Q > W > E + Click)
on the squishy enemy. While you toss him to the air, his melee comrade is probably rushing to help - great opportunity to use our ultimate...

!!!SLASH!!!

*The battlefield right now:*

The Main target:
I can assure you he's under 35% health, if your lane partner wasn't snoozing and also did damage on the target the target is dead. Squishy champions like , , tend not to survive, though they all have nice escape mechanisms...

The Melee Comrade:
Assuming the melee comrade had around 1100 health, now he have 829((1100-125)-(1100-125)*0.85), and all this is without of any auto-attacks on this guy :)

You:
Your health supposed to be over 75%(assuming you got few hits from the target and the minions).
Now lets pay attention to our armor. Your runes provide you 12.69( Greater Seal of Armor*9) armor and then add Xins passive armor(champion stats): 16.2(+3.7 per level)...
It all sums up pretty well into 51.09 armor. It's nice, though we all seen better :)
BUT!
Don't forget our ultimate that hit 2 enemy champions right now! The ultimate bonus is 39(25 + 7*2) armor and magic resist.
Lets do the math:
51.09 armor from runes and passive PLUS 39 from our ultimate EQUALS 90.09 Armor on level 6!

Also our Battle Cry active still have around 3 seconds to work and our Three Talon Strike and Audacious Charge have about 5 and 7 seconds cooldown respectively.

Lane Partner:
Oh we really forgot this guy... He's doing great, with allmost non-touched HP bar :)

*The possible scenarios:*

You switch your auto-attacks upon the melee:
1) He will probably flee from the 2 vs 1 fight. If he doesn't - he's dead. And your main target left there with no HP waiting for you to turret dive and make a double kill :)

2) He flees, and you still don't want to turret dive. Hit minions until your active Battle Cry ends. Restore a bit of health with your passive and lifesteal. Mark your partner the melee(I'll explain later why). Turret dive for the first target, kill him and get away from the turret fire. All this time your partner should fire at the melee(!), because wasting DPS on a 100% dead target is just... A waste of DPS...

Now your health is really down and turret diving for the second champion isn't really an option... Most people go streight to base, but there's another option. You can check the other champ for greediness.

Back down into the bush that is on YOUR part of the lane, wait for cooldowns and ask not to touch the minions. Wait for the enemy champ to get closer. If he does, be patient and you'll instinctively know what to do probably you will get a kill. If he doesn't bite the bait of exp - go back to base... It's a waste of time :)

It's the first base return I mentioned till now, but it's not the first one at all. I'll elaborate on the base returns in the Item Purchases section.

I'll go through the summoner spells I do recommend to use and may be later I'll epxlain why not to use the others.


FlashSince Xin Zhao doesn't really have an escape mechanism, this spell is nearly a MUST for him.


GhostIf you don't like taking flash, you can surely switch it with ghost it's even better for chasing enemies, but a little harder to use for escape.


IgniteGood spell, personaly I understood the power of this spell, after playing Malzahar. If you're sick and tired of champs that get away with 100-200 hp, the spell is just for you.


ExhaustMy favourite. In my opinion ignite starts to be less effective after late mid game. While exhaust is shutting down enemy AD carries all game long, just for the needed amount of time to get them focused.


HealHeal is really great for people who are just getting used to Xin Zhao. It's a great spell to keep him alive few more seconds, which will be enough to strike with Three Talon Strike and turn the tides on the opponent. Or just turn away and run... Because no body likes feeders :)

I will add sections and details if you guys show any interest in this guide.
Actually I'm going to do that anyway, but it's nice to have feedback, so don't be shy :)
I would really like to discuss that way of playing Xin Zhao with other players, so please comment your thoughts on this.

And don't forget to skim over the "To Do List", because most of the things you think are not included in the guide - probably planned for later(soon) :)