I often play Xin as jungle but also as the laner.

Jungle
I have checked up many routes and points in jungle, and now have found a good way which I play.

lane
Being aggressive with Xin Zhao is a very easy thing to get use to , but you should understand that you can kill very easily, the main thing not to escape.... But one against the big congestion of strong enemies, I suggest not to stay put in one location.

Some changes have happened since this but the basic abilities are the same. Xin's ultimate has been nerfed to 15% instead of 20%, the battle cry passive isn't lost while on cooldown, and his basic attack damage has been increased. Play Video

Pros:
Distance closer
Knock up
Group slow
Natural heal
Unstoppable when feed
Extremely fast
Lanes well with stunner
Cons:
Picked on by ranged
A bit slow without items
Vulnerable to cc
No escape mechanism (except speed)

Many people prefer to start with a Doran's item and I do recommend it personally.


Every pair of boots has its benefits, but attack speed is Xin's mojo. You want lots of it. Starting off with a dagger helps you heal faster with your passive and get your three talon strike in quickly for early ganks.


If you think you need more attack speed before saving up for a BF sword, consider getting a zeal here. This will late build into your Phantom Dancer or Trinity Force, and it also gives you some nice early movement speed boosts. I recommend continuing straight to the Black Cleaver, however.


Any melee wants a nice damage increase... But what about Xin's attack speed? The solution is to go for Black Cleaver. The armor reduction is really helpful in increasing your damage, plus it has a B.F. Sword. Need I say more? This is a better choice with the recent patch than the Bloodthirster, because you are getting more early attack speed and you already have some natural healing occurring with your passive.


If you feel you have to return to your base too frequently to heal up, and that your passive just isn't enough, consider purchasing a Vampiric Scepter here. This will later build into your Bloodthirster, but gives you some early lifesteal. I rarely feel that I need this item, but with the damage you will be dealing at this point, you'll be healed nicely from just the sceptre alone.


This is a great item for any physcial dps champion. However, in this build it is ESSENTIAL. I used to get this item immediately after boots, but its just not quite as effective without having some damage behind it. The biggest benefit to this item is the increased movement speed... The best increase in the game! You are going to be flying in and out of the jungle, all over the place, and you want the movement speed to match. Plus, it gives critical strike increases as well as (you guessed it) attack speed! Need I say more?


This seems like a great fit for Xin when facing a physical team. It gives you very high armor, as well as health. Good so far, right? The passive means when you are getting heckled, it can slow the enemy's movement speed and attack speed. This could help you run away, but it could also be a huge advantage in a 1 v 1 fight against another physical carry.

The active of this item makes my mouth water for a game on Twisted Treeline... It slows all movement and attack speed of nearby enemies by 35%. This, in combination with your audacious charge, can DESTROY a team. Charge into a group of enemies, pop your ult. If your team is any good whatsoever, you should be able to pick everyone off as they try to scurry away and can't attack quickly at all. I will definitely be testing this item the next time I find myself needing armor, and I'll update this to reflect my thoughts.


By this time, you will have a ton of movement speed and all the tools in place to destroy your enemies. Now its time to start stacking the damage. Bloodthirster can wait until this late in the game because you have some natural life game with your passive. With all your attack speed, that will heal you faster than you might expect. Still, lifesteal is always a great thing and this item is essential to being that nasty physical carrier that you will end up being.


At this point, you are ready for the icing on the cake. The 250% critical strikes are nice, plus the pure damage will make you unstoppable. With all your items you can run everywhere with ease, chasing down the enemy and bending them to your will.

By far the best item in the game for a jungler. Free ward every 3 minutes, 20% chance to deal loads of extra damage to creeps, and 18% lifesteal. This item allows for an earlier safer dragon kill.

I have changed my route since the new jungle has come out. I feel this path for me is the best to optimize time and get ganks.


Put one point into Three Talon Strike.
1. Wraiths: Use Three Talon Strike on the blue wraith first. Let your auto attacks heal you for any damage on the little wraiths.


2. Elder Lizard Red Buff: Start with Three Talon Strike here on the big lizard. After the second use of Three Talon Strike you should be close to being able to Smite him and clean up the camp.


You should be level 2 now, level up Battle Cry

3. Double Golems: Kill the little golem first saving the large one for the heal buff at the end. You shouldn't have a shortage of health but if you do not have a full set of runes you might be a little low here.

4.Wraiths: Start with the blue wraith first again using Three Talon Strike to open and then Battle Cry once it goes on cooldown. You will be level 3 in the middle of this fight, level up Battle Cry again.

5. Wolves: Start with the big wolf but only use Three Talon Strike once here. The little wolves do little damage and this camp will heal you up for the next camp at Ancient Golem.

6. Ancient Golem Blue Buff: Your Smite will be coming off cooldown during this fight. At the start of the fight it should be around 13-15 seconds. Do the fight the same way you did the Elder Lizard fight.

You will be level 4 after this fight, level up Audacious Charge. You have blue buff, red buff, and almost full health, if you are lucky enough one of the lanes you are near is ready for a gank, go unleash hell! Remember to be aggressive and gank to get kills.

Play Video
+ Ward often
+ Gank/help solo lanes
+ Hold lanes while teammates heal/shop
+ Always keep your enemies guessing where you will pop out.
+ Maintain your level and farm and deny other team theirs.
+ Control Dragon/Baron and lead your team as a General

Simply put you are the anti-hero to the enemy team. You should be seen often and terrorizing them often. If your mid lane died to a gank and didn't have a ward up, put a ward up and apologize for not having one there. This is your team, earn their respect and they will follow you to victory. On a side note, if you are not jungling you should help your jungler by placing wards and protecting yourself at the same time.

I have the usually use Greater Mark of Desolation. The choice to pick armor penetration is a no brainer. Leaving your opponent with no armor is like dealing true damage. For quintessences I run Greater Quintessence of Strength, I used to use armor penetration, but with the introduction of new masteries these are much better early game. Also Xin lacks AD, so you are killing two birds with one stone. Next up I use Greater Seal of Resilience, and Greater Glyph of Shielding to compensate Xin's squishyness at early to mid game. There are other options if you don't like the ones I chose.

Other options
- Greater Quintessence of Fortitude the extra health helps early game and can save you from the extra damage from ignite.
- Greater Quintessence of Swiftness Xin lacks mobility if he hasn't bought boots so this is a viable pick.
- Greater Mark of Alacrity its meh... but its better than attack damage per level, and critical damage.
- Greater Seal of Alacrity I don't really like using attack speed yellows, but its better than nothing.
- Greater Glyph of Replenishment Xin isn't really mana hungry, but there are times when you spam all your skills to get kills.
- Greater Glyph of Focus cool down reduction will let you spam your skills more (you really shouldn't but you sometimes will).

Masteries

Offense Tree
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Summoner's Wrath- After the patch I've been using Exhaust and Ghost more and more so, it's pure stupidity to not get this mastery. It buffs both spells substantially for only one point.

Brute Force- I like this version of it better than the 1 crit chance. The 3 damage just benefits the most for you out of any of the other tier one masteries

Alacrity- 4% attack speed is nothing major for 4 points, but it is better than Sorcery.

Deadliness- Great mastery, took me awhile to see how good it was, but wow, the damage it gives is just amazing.

Lethality- Goes really well with Deadliness.

Weapon Expertise- I thought love was only true in fairy tales..., Now I'm a believer, Not a trace Of doubt in my mind, I'm in love I'm a believer..., All I have to say.

Havoc- T.T What have they done to you old friend... Either way 3 points for 1.5% damage is a toss up.

Vampirism- Mmmmm... Lifesteal *drools*, combined with passive its almost impossible to push you out of lane.

Sunder- Looks like the enemy is better off going into battle naked. Nothing changed about from the old masteries except it takes more points to reach it.

Executioner- 6% damage when enemy is below 40%, sign me up. Only thing I don't like about it is that it only works when enemy is below 40% health. The other top tier masteries work at all levels of health so unfair.


Utility Tree


Good Hands- Didn't change at all. Still can change the tide of a game.

Improved Recall- 1 sec off recall isn't that noticeable, but it might just be enough in a clutch moment. You can take improved flash over this if you like. Well, if you take flash that is.

Swiftness- Got nerfed, but I still like it. The movement speed really helps for sticking onto you opponent.

Scout- Does this mean the wards you put down, or everyone on your team? Either way it is not the best mastery, so you can toss a point into Runic Affinity instead if you like.

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Of course there are other paths you can take that work well. These masteries are the best for Xin, in my opinion. The offensive tree got some major buffs so it is a lot better for Xin as of right now. Going down defensive tree would probably be the second most effective. The utility tree is more catered towards mages and support so it isn't as useful, but still viable. If there are any paths you used that you found effective, then leave a comment and I'll test it out.

Its the best summoner spell for tanky dps champion. With Summoner's Wrath it makes you hurt alot. Along with masteries, and runes the enemy will have no armor left. You can use it to slow enemies in chases, and as an escape mechanism. Using it on an enemy AD carry shuts them down for the entire fight, and makes them easy pickings. Also if your low on health with one enemy chasing you, this spell can make all the difference. Ex. you can knock them up, toss this spell on them, and you almost always get a free kill.


There are just some situations where you need to get past terrain, or get a huge distance between you and your enemy. Flash is perfect in these type of situations. It can get you in range of your charge. It has so many uses that any champion could use this. Even after the range nerf Flash is still a great summoner spell.


Ghost is only good if you get a head start from your opponent otherwise you just get cc'd and eaten. It covers more distance than flash, but its over time, so it's not as effective while tower diving. But it doesn't allow you to go over terrain so be careful when you are in a corner like the dragon lair, and baron lair. After the new mastery changes I feel like it does an amazing job at escaping and chasing with 35% movespeed. If someone tosses Exhaust on you you can activate ghost and negate the slow. Plus it last longer than exhaust.


Viable Summoner Spells

Teleport
Is viable if you are solo laning. It gives you great map control. Turret getting killed? teleport there in an instant. away from team fight? Teleport to a nearby unit. Make sure you take Flash or Ghost so replace Exhaust with this.
Ignite
Is really good at early levels for getting first blood, or shutting down Dr. Mundo, and Swain. If there is an enemy low on health toss this on them and get a free kill. Replace Exhaust with this if you want.
Cleanse
Not one of my favorites, but it serves its purposes. CC reduction is awesome, but its cool down is less than ideal for a defensive summoner spell.
Smite
Smite is absolutely a must if you go jungling on Xin. He can not jungle without it. It makes his jungling speed decent, and is great for stealing dragon and baron. However never get this if you are laning.
Any spells not discuss in this section are absolutely useless on Xin.