Aight guys, it's Crystal Star Miner and this is the second legit guide I am publishing on Mobafire (First one is my Shaco Juke Master Guide). My summoner name is mastervblade, and I am a level 30 player on the North American server. I mainly jungle for my teams and I have the most success with Xin Zhao. No matter what situation or what team comp you have, Xin Zhao is a champion that can help improve or win any match in the Rift. He is one of the strongest and most effective junglers currently in Season 5 and I am here to help you learn how to be a great attack speed jungle Xin Zhao. Enjoy! :)

+ Extremely powerful early game.
+ Effective ganks.
+ Has built in heal into his basic attacks.
+ Extremely high damage output without having to build many damage items.
+ Can defeat basically any champion in a 1v1 duel.
+ Great ult for teamfights.

- Does not have a built in escape.
- Seems easy to play but very difficult to master.
- Does not have lots of CC.
- Ganking the enemy is necessary for success (he cannot just sit back and farm like Udyr.)

Flash: THE best all around summoner spell for any champion in league. It can give escapes, engages, teamfight advantages and amazing jukes for you to be able to pull of your A-game plays. Definetely take this on Xin Zhao due to him not having a built in escape.
Smite: I honestly should not be putting this on here, anybody who plays league needs to know to TAKE SMITE IF YOU ARE A JUNGLER. IT IS CRITICAL. IT IS THE ONLY WAY YOU CAN GET YOUR JUNGLE ITEM AND BUFFS.

Challenge:
Basic attacks and Audacious Charge challenge Xin Zhao's target, reducing its armor by 15% for 3 seconds (max one target at any time).
Some people argue that this is a bad passive because it does not seem OP, but when fighting tanks such as Rammus or Shen, this armor shred is the key to victory.

Three Talon Strike COST: 30 MANA COOLDOWN: 9 / 8 / 7 / 6 / 5
ACTIVE: Xin Zhao's next 3 basic attacks deal bonus physical damage, and reduce his other abilities' cooldowns by 1 second each. The third strike also knocks the target into the air for 1 second.
BONUS PHYSICAL DAMAGE: 15 / 30 / 45 / 60 / 75 (+ 20% AD)
TOTAL BONUS DAMAGE: 45 / 90 / 135 / 180 / 225 (+ 60% AD)
Your main and massive burst damage. Press W before you use this so that the three basic attacks are much faster and make your burst insane.

Battle Cry COST: 40 MANA COOLDOWN: 16 / 15 / 14 / 13 / 12
PASSIVE: Xin Zhao heals himself on every third basic attack.
HEAL: 30 / 35 / 40 / 45 / 50 (+ 70% AP)
ACTIVE: Xin Zhao increases his attack speed for 5 seconds.
ATTACK SPEED: 40 / 50 / 60 / 70 / 80%
This is what keeps Xin Zhao alive in fights and early in the jungle. This allows him to speed his attacks up and also allows him to heal himself to keep jungling early on.

Audacious Charge RANGE: 600 COST: 60 MANA COOLDOWN: 14 / 13 / 12 / 11 / 10
ACTIVE: Xin Zhao charges at an enemy, dealing magic damage to all enemies within 112.5 range and Slow icon slowing them for 2 seconds.
MAGIC DAMAGE: 70 / 110 / 150 / 190 / 230 (+ 60% AP)
SLOW: 25 / 30 / 35 / 40 / 50
Your engage and ganking ability. Unfortunately it has a long cooldown so don't use it unless you absolutely have to to initiate a gank. A great attack to catch up and slow enemies.

Crescent Sweep RANGE: 187.5 COST: 100 MANA COOLDOWN: 120 / 110 / 100
ACTIVE: Xin Zhao unleashes a sweep around him, Airborne icon knocking non-Challenge.png Challenged enemies back and dealing physical damage equal to a base amount plus 15% of their current health (capped at 600 against monsters).
TOTAL PHYSICAL DAMAGE: 75 / 175 / 275 (+ 100% bonus AD) (+ 15% of enemies' current health)
Xin Zhao gains bonus armor and magic resistance for each champion struck, lasting for 6 seconds.
ARMOR AND MAGIC RESIST PER CHAMPION HIT: 15 / 20 / 25
This is one of the best teamfight ults in the game. It allows Xin Zhao and his team to knock the other team back and eliminate any main threats before winning the fight. It can also be used as a desperate escape tool and after engaging with E it can do quite a bit of damage during a gank.

Here is a basic explanation of the items that make Xin Zhao so successful.

Yommu's Ghostblade: This item offers CDR which is great for Xin's long cooldowns, damage, crit strike, but most importantly, armor pen and it's active. It's active gives you movement speed to be able to get into a gank without blowing your E (which is your chasing tool).

Ninja Tabi; Homeguard: These items give you armor to block some AD from ADCs and the homeguard allows you to get back into the jungle quickly.

Locket of the Iron Solari: A great item that offers CDR, Magic resist, and health. It also gives shields to your allies, which is suuper useful to get the upper hand in teamfights.

Mercurial Scepter: A great item that gives you some burst damage and magic resist for those pesky af mages like veigar that stun you and drop hellishly powerful bombs on you.

Guardian Angel: Oh **** you killed me. nahhhhh you didn't b <3 ;).

Skirmisher's Sabre; Devourer: I saved this item for last because it is the MOST IMPORTANT ITEM so I will be going in depth about how to use it. First of all, let's start with this. BUY THIS ITEM FIRST. This way you can immediately start stacking this item. Each large monster and champion you kill gives a stacks of bonus magic per each basic attack. This way, the enemy does nto realize how much burst damage you do. Next: the jungle item is super useful for it's smite. The smite makes champions due less damage to you and also does true damage to them per second. This allows you to 1v1 any champion with no problem. In fact, with full build, you should be able to take their whole team. ;). Finally, this item offers attack speed. Now most champions do not work with this, but Xin Zhao's Q synergizes amazigly with this. Overall, it's a great item.

Early Game: If you are Xin Zhao I highly recommend starting on the Krugs or Toad. This depends on which side you are on. It is preferable to go to Toad and ask for a leash from you top or bot laner. After that, preferably clear the wolf camp and then Young Skuds (scuttle crab). Go back and smite blue for the buff. Then go red side and farm until level 3. At 3 ganking bot or mid is preferable because top lane is usually just chillin and poking. Bot lane is the lane to go for an easy kill because the ADC and support will be low level and probably half health. This will give your ADCa chance to farm and get ahead while you get some kills and some gold. Ganking mid is also important early before going back in order to keep your mid lane safe.

Mid Game: This stage of the game is very basic but very complicated. It is basic because what you should be doing is FARMING THE JUNGLE to stack your Skirmisher's Sabre, Devourer. Then you should be ganking and FARMING CHAMPIONS because your items give you a massive power boost and you should be able to take on many of the enemy teams champions. This part of the game is also complicated because at this point the enemy team is aware of your powerful and ganks have to be coordinated very well to be pulled off with a kill or having the enemy champion retreat. If you mess up your mid game you will fall behind late game so make sure to NOT WASTE ANY TIME. If you are waiting to gank and it is taking too long for the enemy to over-extend, then forget the gank and just go back to jungling. Getting the dragon early on will give your team a huge advantage which will help in a teamfight. The final key to mid game is to PLACE LOTS OF WARDS TO KEEP CONTROL.

Late Game: By this time you should have almost if not full build and your main goal is to push and kill enemy champions. Your immense power allows you to split-push very effectively, and even if the enemy team sends a few champions after you then you will still over-power them. Make sure to NOT GROUP UP MID. This is a noob strategy which is immediately undermined when a smart enemy decides to backdoor into your base. Make sure to always have somebody closer to base or split-pushing so your map pressure is distributed. The only reason you should be going into the jungle is to get certain buffs that help you alot such as Red buff (slows enemies when your E is down), Krugs (natural stun on attacks), or Toad (poison armor). Ult in teamfights to get extra armor and give your team the upper hand to kill major threats such as APC's and ADC's. Finally, make sure to GET BARON TO END THE GAME.

1. If you go back at lvl 2 or lvl 3 and get full health you can take the dragon super early!!! All your teammates will love you.

2. Activating Q and W while in the bushes before ganking allows your Three Talon Strike (Q) to attack faster and makes your burst damage much higher.

3. If you are in EXTREMELY desperate situation and you have no chance of escape, just press R and the Crescent Sweep will knock away all the people chasing you.

4. Early game START WITH W FOR MAX SUSTAIN in the jungle.

5. The most useful buffs for Xin Zhao early on are Blue and Toad.

6. The most useful buff for Xin Zhao mid game is Raptors to ensure that no-one is stealing his jungle.

7. Late Game the most useful buffs are Red and Krugs.

Good places to drop some wards:

EVERYWHERE

I hope you enjoyed this guide and learned how to play Attack Speed Xin Zhao Jungle! Please comment what you liked or what changes you would like to be made and please LIKE IT UP :). Thanks :)