Welcome summoners to my Xin Zhao build! Xin is very fun and easy to play, and i have been doing many games with him. The mighty warrior has become one of my favorite champions and is in my opinion one of the best ad carrys in the game because of his high damage and skills that let him quickly anhilate targets. Let me show you how to play him.

Learning how to play Xin Zhao takes no learning at all this is how you kill someone: press all the buttons. Also i suggest listening to "be a man" while playing Xin Zhao it will greatly improve you.

-Pros
Passive allows him to lane well/jungle well
beast gap closer
hes as easy as press all the buttons to win
unstopable when fed

-Cons
squishy early game
often focused
needs lots of kills to be good late game
Very easy to kill steal from

Ghost and Exhaust are perfect for xin zhao, ghost is good for getting away from enemies or chasing them down. Exhaust helps you lessen the damage deal from carrys so you can decimate them. If you dont like these items lets see what other choices are viable.


Flash: if your one for quick get away over a wall or getting over a wall to kill someon, this is your type of skill.

Teleport: could work for tank zhao or maybe a xin who always goes back because he cant play it safe.

Heal: You can take this, but please dont its a crutch for someone like xin. Remember your a man, men done use whimpy heals.

Ignite: you could take it, but xin need exhaust so he can get close and do damage.

Revive: this is an excellant skill for troll zhao, combined with teleport you could get a double kill on yourself.

As xin zhao you need to have a balance of damage and survivability if you want to dominate your enemys.

Doran's Shield: Excelant starting item, gives health,armor, and hp regen. This item along with your passive will allow you to stay in lane for a very long time.

Berserker's Greaves: Xin zhao needs attack speed, so these are definatly an item to get. However if you are being cc'ed alot you could get mercury treads although these are not suggested as more as is good for xin zhao.

Mercury Treads: If you getting stomped by cc these are a great buy dont hesitate to get them.

Frozen Mallet: this gives ad,health, and a slow for your auto attacks. With this item you should be able to stay in fights longer and still deal a very large amount of damage.

Black Cleaver: This item gives as and ad, both are perfect for xin zhao. Also when people see xin zhao in the loading screen they start stacking armor in game, the black cleaver passive allows you to make short work of there armor. This item goes great with your armpen runes.

Maw of Malmortius: gret item for xin zhao, this item makes him an unstoppable force, even more so at low hp.



Bloodthirster: Giving xin zhao ad and life steal this is the item that will finish your build, i get this later because late game everyone deals more damage, unless your evelyn. So the lifesteal will give your more survivability.

Zeke's Herald: Great item for xin. It gives cooldowns,life steal, sttack speed, and health. This is a good item. Get this instead of the maw of malmortius if they dont have alot of magic damage.

Youmuu's Ghostblade: This item gives armor penetration, crittical chance, damage, cooldowns, and a beast active. Perfect Xin item
Wit's End: Attack speed, bonus damage, and a good amount of magic resist. Great early game item sell late game for a Maw if magic damage is a problem.

Optional items:
Madred's Bloodrazor: Get this items if your against enemys with quite a bit of health, because this items passive of dealing 4% of there health as damage will allow you to burn them down. Plus armor,damage and as are all good fo xin zhao.

Last Whisper: If the black cleaver and armpen marks are not taking care of those armor autostakcers, this item will. The damage and 40 armpen are all great for xin zhao.

Atma's Impaler turns that warmogs and frozen mallet into something like 70 damage, plus armor and crits are good.
Defensive items:

Randuin's Omen: Giving you health, hp regen, and armor this item will definatly help if you need more survivability. Also the passive slow and cd reduction will help xin zhao out alot. Its active is very good against fed ad carrys so if your being destroyed pick one up.

Force of Nature: Get this item if your being constantly killed by heavy ap characters. Its magic resist,hp regen, and movment speed boost are all very good against casters and other heavy ap characters.

Thornmail: Great against auto attackers,its armor and passive will make short work of that fed tryndamere focusing you.

Warmog's Armor: This item is great for jungling xin, but on lane xin i dont believe it to be best, because lane xin is more of a carry.

This item is generally a item most junglers get. I however feel it sets you back because it is expensive and doesnt scale to far into the game. However if you want to grab a basic madreds early and sell it fast be my guest.

Play Video










Note: this isnt my video, thanks to MassiveAls for letting me use this!

Xin Zhao is strong for the whole game, but he is best played with a high cc champ like Amumu, Blitz, and i have done several games with a Sion as well. Also in team fights you job is to go straight to the high damage dealer and kill them then work on the other threats. Just because your a bruiser who kills people fast you are not invincible always be with your team unless ganking a solo target.

If you have no option and your insta locking yorick wants to mid, you might have to solo top. Now i dont suggest solo top for xin zhao at all because he is out classed by almost every bruiser or solo top these days. If you must though follow these rules and know how to counter these targets.

Rule 1: Play smart. As xin your gonna get crush and ganked and crush some more if your flying around at solo top. Be smart grab your cloth armor and hp pots and passivly farm until your jungler comes for a gank.

Rule 2: Build to counter. If your top opponet is ad build armor. If its ap build some magic resist you dont even have to build it into anything just get some so your not pub stomped. I know this sounds stupidly simple but so many times I see our solo top not building to counter and they get completely pwned.

Rule 3: Dont push. DONT PUSH. Dont do it, I know its hard not to because your xin and you want to kick some butt but just passivly farm. Keep minions mid wave.

Rule 4: WARD. Simple enough but it is forgotten alot. If your dont ward you get ganked and killed and your whole team reports your for feeding it sucks just ward.

Rule 5: Jungle men gank tips. If your jungler decides to gank dont initiate for him. Let him do his thing then charge and knock up if you dont a good laner will see your aggresiveness and back off. Also dont scream for a gank let the jungler do his thing it will make him so much happier and he wont hate you.


Countering common solo tops:

Irelia: Shes very annoying and very common. Build ninja tabai early on and dont waste your harras on her she can heal it back. Build some early armor and rush a wrigglers for sustain from all the harras youll be getting and you can resist some of her damage. Also if your jungler ganks give it all and try to kill her, push her out of lane, or make her burn a spell.

Yorick: We all hate this guy he counters everybody. But hes like irelia build armor but get merc treads instead of tabai because of his annoying slow. Also rush a wrigglers for more sustain from his constant harrs and let him push, because its hard enough to gank yorick so let him come to your turret.

Lee Sin: Build armor for this man, merc treads as well. Also stay behind minions so he cant land his q. Also you can beat him pre six if your smart about it. If you think you have him push hard kill his minions let him q you then just pwn him because he wont have any minions to jump to. Hes easy to beat if your smart about also dont underestimate his burst potential he can kill you fast once hes six.

Nasus: This guy is easy to beat if you know what your doing. Build a bit of armor but mainly just harras him and force him out of farm dont let him get farm. If you destroy him early game and bring the fight to him because if he cant farm he will become useless.

Riven: I hate this girl, but she is a common solo top. Build armor and ninja tabai against her and difinatly get a wrigglers. If you over extend your dead so watch your positioning. She can stun and dash its hard to beat her but play smart and dont let her get close.

Shen: Hes annoying and can take and deal a ton of damage. Build merc treads and some magic resist, also watch for his taunt youll know if hes about to taunt if he walks to you just step to the side and dodge it. He can sustain forever so dont waste your harras on him.

Renekton: This guys early game damage is insane and can crush any foe. The key to beating renekton is position armor and harras. He can sustain alot but once he q's jump in and beat his ***. Build armor and youll be fine.

Olaf: THis guy is annoying his sustain and harras are great. You can beat him though just hurt him hard early game and get some armor youll be fine but dont commit to a fight or youll die. Just hit him hard level 2 once your combo is ready and ruin his level gain.

Rumble: He is a hardcore lane bully that can pwn you. He will beat you early game and if hes good hell never over heat. Once he uses his flame spitter to farm or whatever jump in and damage him. Buy merc treads and some magic resist and youll be set. Just dont over extend he will make you pay.

Vladimir: He has crazy harras and sustian but the right timing and items will take him out. Build merc treads and get some early magic resist, hurt him early game but once hes 5 and up he will beat you every time. Play smart and hit him hard early game.

Xin is very easy to play, but he does have some combos that insure maximum damage and effectivness.

Combo 1: Audacious Charge+ Three Talon Strike+ Crescent Sweep+ Battle Cry
This is a very good intiation/pwn some noobs combo. Alot of damage in a short amount of time. DO battle cry last so that if they run you can get in some auto attacks in to refresh your charge and knock up.

Combo 2: Three talon+ Battle Cry

Basic dueling combo, keeps your damage up during a drawn out fight.

Combo 3: Three Talon Strike+ Audacious Charge+ Crescent Sweep+ Battle Cry

This is the suprise im farming, LIES IM ATTACKING. Active your q attack a minion twice then jump at the enemy and knock em up with your last attack. It is suprising and has strong cc.

Combo 4: Audacious Charge+ Crescent Sweep

This is your intiation combo, ONLY DO THIS IF YOUR TANKY. If you go assassin xin zhao dont do this unless you like to die.

Build one: Off tank laning build for xin zhao. Note either take a black cleaver for more damage and are snowballing hard or a zekes herald if your not dominating but still need a attack speed boost.

Build two: Carry/assassin jungle for xin zhao.

Build three: Lane assassin/carry build for xin zhao.

Build four: Jungle off tank build for xin. Note that you either take an atmas or MoM depending on your needs.

Like all bruisers you want to farm quite a bit but Xin isnt as dependant on farming other champions he needs those early game kills. For farming however you should farm for at least the first 10 minutes picking up kills when you can. With xin zhao you have to know when and when not to be agressive, attack when there is an opening, but not when you will take a massive amount of damage.

Xin Zhao is a very good jungler thanks to his passive, Challenge. For my jungle route i usually take Cloth Armor and 5 Health Potion or a Vampiric Scepter.I go to golums, taking one point in Three Talon Strike. Then I move to wraiths and Smite the big one, after this i clear the wolf camp taking a point in Audacious Charge. Next i head to blue buff smiting it when its low and then i look at the lanes to see where i can gank, if no lanes are ready for a gank i go to red buff then i go to mid or top and try and pick up a kill. Xin Zhao can take dragon at about level 6-7 as long as he has a wrigglers lantern and berserker greaves, but if your not sure if u can handle it ask a couple of your team mates to help you out.

Xin zhao isnt the best jungler in lol and there are other junglers, lets take a look at them.



Udyr: This guy will screw you up in a 1v1, he can stun shield and everything else that xin doenst like. So with this guy dont invade his jungle, and play it safe. Also in team fights focus him(unless he has lots of tank items), also try to shut him out early game with lots of focus and organized jungle ganks, as once he gets his mercury treads, wrigglers lantern, and Wit's End, its over he can dominate your team with ease.


Warwick: Probably one of the most sustained junglers in the game, he never really has to leave jungle. His ganks arnt to scary until level 6 so up until then you should have to worry. But if u find him in the jungle decide for youself if you want to engage. As warwick can really draw out fights thanks to all his healing, and team mates might come to save him after a bit.

Nunu & Willump: His threat towards you isnt that he will kill your if he finds you, but that he will take all your camps before your done with blue. The best way to counter this is either take a couple of wards with you or have your support do it, and keep a jungle guard until your done with blue.

Trundle: This guys counter jungling is great, he doesnt steal your camps he hits you in the face with his club and steals your ad so you can fight him. So watch out for him. The best way to deal with trundle ward, and gank him early on, as he starts at blue you can have your team run to him and gank him.

Tryndamere: Generally xin zhao will beat Tryndamere unless he is fed. But he is often low health in his jungle because of his passive Battle Fury. to make his jungle go fastest he cant heal himself so he deals more damage. Use this to your advantage and once youve cleared blue, wolves, and wraiths go into his jungle and own him!

Olaf: this is a scary guy , but nothing xin cant handle. Like Tryndamere he stays low health during his jungle. Unlike Tryndamere he will rape you at low health(unless your fed) as when at low health he gets more attck speed, with his ult he cant be knocked up, and his Tough It Out and Reckless Swing are made for 1v1ing. Take caution and know when to engage him.

Shaco: This troll will appear out of no where at one of your bushes with 4 boxes and a clone. Take extreme care with a shaco jungle, he can gank at level 2 easily. The best way to deal with him is play it safe and ward, shaco tends to drop off late game if his early game isnt full of kills. Remember this and shut him down with oracles and wards!

Nocturne: Being a snowball champion, nocturne relies on kills to have a good game, so dont feed or he will destroy you. His jungle is pretty quick thanks to Umbra Blades. Have your team do organized ganks on him, and once he is level 6 he can jump to you at anytime. Remember this and remind your team not to over extend!

Be the man in the back and then jump on the enemy heavy damage dealer ult then take them down before moving to other targets. If the other team starts to focus you, leave the battle but return when the enemy stops chasing. Also a fed Xin is quite good at tower diving thanks to his Audacious Charge and Three Talon Strike If a low health enemy is underneath their turret just them knock em up and they are dead.