Pros / Cons

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Smite: A must have since you're jungling. Helps clear buffs WAY easier/faster and gives you the much needed baron/dragon control.

Flash: One of the most versatile summoner spells in the game. Flash allows you to chase, escape, kill, and engage.

Ghost: I feel Flash is superior over Ghost personally but it is still a great spell. You can stick to a target like glue because you simply outrun them and you can escape most situations fairly easy.

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You're going to want to max Audacious Charge first because of the cooldown reduction, damage increase, and slow % increase. Start to max Three Talon Strike next mainly for the great single target damage it provides and max Battle Cry last. Always take your ulti at levels 6,11,16.

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Challenge (Passive): I actually overlooked this passive when I first started playing Xin. But after awhile I soon realized that it is actually really strong. Three Talon Strike, Audacious Charge, and your auto's will reduce whoever you're attacking armor by 15%. This is really strong when ganking and is also what makes Xin Zhao a great duelist. In teamfights try to focus one of the carries to reduce their armor, allowing your team to do way more damage. (If they're AD ofcourse)


Three Talon Strike (Q): One of Xin Zhao's strongest abilities. This ability will decimate most champions early game allowing you to duel most people. The knock-up is also extremely useful when ganking or dueling someone. You also do some nice single target damage to jungle camps too. Another great thing about this skill is that it reduces all your other cooldowns by one second each time it proc's. Late game, you'll have enough CDR combined with the passive of this skill to constantly have all your abilities up extremely fast.



Battle Cry (W): This ability is what makes Xin such a great jungler. The attack speed is great for clearing buffs and the passive is what will keep you sustained without chugging Health Potions. This ability also is really powerful when dueling somebody too.



Audacious Charge (E): Xin's bread and butter skill. Audacious Charge is a AoE slow and damaging ability which is super effective when ganking and clearing waves. It is also extremely hard to escape the wrath of Xin because of the short cooldown.



Crescent Sweep (R): Xin's ultimate. There is many different uses for this ultimate and this skill can often make or break a Xin player. Crescent Sweep can be used offensively or defensively and is great for engaging. Read the tips/tricks to learn more.

Early Game!

Xin Zhao is really strong early game. He has great nuke potential and has great ganking potential. You alone can half health whoever you're ganking and if your teammate follows up, it should be a kill or cause them the Flash. You want to gank often but make sure to keep up in farm. As for counter jungling, I don't do it often unless I am facing a really passive jungler who cant duel very well. Pretty much the extent of my counter jungling is just taking their wraiths.

Mid Game!

When mid game comes around, you're going to be pretty tanky. You also have great skirmish/fighting potential. You should be contesting dragon at all times and try to snag it in if you can. Don't be afraid to push down towers either. I like to help either my mid or bot laner to take their towers. (Remember kids, objectives win games) Make sure to keep farming your jungle so you don' fall behind in CS. Try to participate in skirmishes if possible.

Late Game!

Xin Zhao lacks damage come late game, you're mainly just a tanky disrupting S.O.B. At this point in time lane phase is 100% over. You want to push out lanes and constantly go for objectives with your team. (Towers, Dragon, Baron) Stick with your team as much as possible, don't go AFK farming top lane. Try to catch anyone out of position, like that Teemo split pushing top lane. (Make sure it isn't a bait though.)

How to Teamfight!

Teamfighting with Xin Zhao is easy. What you want to do is attempt to engage using the methods we talked about earlier and basically just stick to the enemy AD/AP carry like glue. Most of the time I'll constantly be using Audacious Charge + Three Talon Strike on the carry. Your cooldowns should be low enough to spam both these skills over and over again. Make sure not to isolate yourself too hard.

Sometimes you can't just dive the carries and sometimes you'll get engaged on. In that case try to peel for your carries. Slow and knock-up anyone trying to get to them ( Irelia, Udyr, Singed) and you can even ult them away if 100% needed.