Hey guys. First of all, this will be a small, to-the-point kind of build.
I won't go very deep into details, and i write this to help players who, like me, are struggling to get out of gold or silver. If you're higher than this, then this build might not seem very interesting to you. This being said, a little bit about me.

Nothing much to say, really. I'm a casual Gold player. I peaked gold 1 in season 8, failing 3 times at my best of 5 series to go plat 5. Two victories and three defeats every time.

I have many things to learn about league and i don't pretend to have the absolute knowledge about Xin Zhao. But i have had more games with Xin Zhao than I can count.
I know this champion very well and i know some tips that can really be helpful to players who, like me, try to escape the hell of Gold Elo.

I hope you enjoy this build and that i can help you with the information it contains.

There's no need to say that Xin is one of the best duelers in the game (early).
You can beat any champion in a 1v1 at LVL's 1 to 3 in the jungle. Except maybe jax, but that depends on his E.

If you snowball early, you can become unstoppable and get the objectives so fast that the enemy team won't be able to react.

In this elo, i think this is very important. You cannot just rely on your teammates and wait for them to carry every games until you become Plat.
You have to carry all your games, as much as possible.
Xin can do this if played correctly.

Not only will you get loads of kills, but you can make the other players tilt hard and this is very important as well. If they tilt, they start making mistakes, and you use that.

The only "Con" in my opinion is that if you fall behind early game, it is really hard to come back if you get no help from your team.

I Will not go into some deep guide about Xin Zhao's abilities and passives.
He's a pretty simple champ and if you want to climb, you should know him anyway.

You main combo when you engage is: E > AA > Q (to reset auto) then you W when the target is bumped.

This combo can vary. If your target is locked down and you are sure you can land your W safely, you go for: W > E > Q, so that your Q resets your CD's and you can land another W in the fight.

Now, one of the biggest tricks with this build (and I've not seen many people do this) is that with Titanic Hydra, you can reset a second auto attack. And it works with your Q's bump. So When you have built Hydra:

Use E+Q at the same time to close the gap > AA > AA followed by hydra to reset > W.

(You can also try to reset your first auto with Q instead of casting Q with your E, but it's a little bit more tricky. There's more chances for your target to escape if you do that)

I know this is not quite clear when written here. But basically, with this trick you need only 2 Auto attacks to proc your bump. And this is really huge because it helps you combo much faster and you can nuke a carry before you use your ult to go away safely, if there's any danger.

1) Solo invading 1st buff:
In this Elo (Silver - Gold), when you solo queue... people don't really play together.
Sometimes they do, and it's great! But most of the time... they just play for themselves.
And you can use that as a jungler.
For example: Toplane players will 85% of the time go to their turret first thing in the game. This is a big mistake, but i see A LOT of players doing that.
They should protect the buff on their side from invade. But as they don't do it... i just walk to the toplane-side enemy buff and start by stealing it. I use smite to regen some hp and clear it faster, then you have a free LVL 2 gank on toplane.

Here's a video to illustrate this:

Play Video

Which leads us to my second tip: ganking top at lvl2.



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2) Ganking top at LVL2 (As Xin Zhao):

If you had a safe start and you can come top with the red buff at lvl2, it is a good way to take your opponent by surprise.
The gank will be so early in the game that, most of the time, they won't expect it.
Try to come from behind the enemy, so that you block his way to safety. Most important thing here: don't use E too soon, because they will probably use Flash. Just walk to them, hit them and restet AA with Q. Usually, that's when they will flah away. Because they are scared by your bump. When they have flashed, you can E on them to close the gap and finish the job.

Check this video for a better example:
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Play Video
In this video, I am level 3 already. But the trick is pretty much the same, you just don't have W.
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Most of the time you get at least the flash from toplane. Or a kill with a bit of luck.

With this small trick, you start your game with a kill / assist and a chance of staring the game with 3 Buff monsters kills if your team helps you protecting your side.

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I might add more tricks when i have the time :-)

I will end this build by saying just a few things. For people Who want to climb but just don't manage for some reason.

1) Check a lot of builds. Watch videos on youtube on how to improve as a jungler.
Never think you know everything. you can always learn from others.

2) Learn about macro playing if you don't know what it is.

3) Try not to tilt. Just mute annoying players. Don't even answer to them if they
flame/blame or whatever. Just press the mute button, don't tell them that you
muted them, and carry on. Focus on your game and stop blaming others.
Take breaks if you tilt. Play some other game, or go on another account and do
some funny builds with champions you don't play a lot... i don't know. But you
have to have a relaxed mind to be able to give your best.