"Since you say you wanna rumble in the jungle, the jungle go f***ing rumble then" - Papoose

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The last line of the 6 foot 7 freestyle always makes me think of Xin, that's why the build is named the way it was. So the last patch hit Xin's ult pretty hard. Reducing everything on it, but this build should be able to work around it to show how strong Xin still is. Xin Zhao is one of the stronger champions in the game. But all of a sudden champions like Irelia, Renekton and Jarvan IV are considered the best in a lane. Xin Zhao isn't useless, he has just changed. Instead of trying to stick with the older days of lane dominance Xin has migrated to the jungle and has become one of the strongest and safest junglers in the game. With that out of the way it goes without saying that this build is for jungle Xin in-case you didn't pick that up in the title.

Pros
Self sustaining after level 1
Squishy slayer
Strong counter-jungler
Can jungle with many different routes
Extremely strong ganks
Great synergy with red buff
Enough armor pen to deal "true damage" early on
Alot of high burst damage
Can take over a game if fed

Cons
Not the fastest jungler
Not the safest jungler
Not much hp (later game)
No real escape mechanism

My Picks:

These spells should seem pretty self explanatory, but I will explain the reasoning behind them.

I mainly choose Ghost because it is all around one of the best skills in the game regardless of how you play. In jungle I use it mainly for target I might have to chase down when ganking. All around it can be used as a strong offensive skill and defensive skill, but in general it is great for ganking.

I take smite next because it is the only spell you should run for jungling. I know alot of people jungle without smite, and I myself used to. It may seem like an empty slot but that smite could be the difference between stealing a buff, taking Dragon or stealing Baron. There is simply no safe way to jungle with Exhaust or Ignite. Sure it might be nice to run it late game, but if your early game gets slaughtered because that WW keeps coming in and smiting blue you will regret taking the slow.

Other Picks:

These are some other spells you can run instead of running Ghost, but I strongly recommend not swapping out Smite for any of these.

Exhaust is a great spell for singling out specific targets that you might want to either evade or take out. This spell works better than Ghost if you plan on playing a bit more offensively. It will help take down a target faster, as long as you can get to him/her in time. I find this spell to be more offensive then defensive mainly because if this is your last ditch effort at getting away you are already too close to the enemy to begin with. Not saying it wont work, but it only last for so long.

Ignite is one of my favorite spells in the game. It is great for taking down physical dps champions such as WW and Olaf who thrive on lifesteal and healing. It is also great for last hitting opponents. However this spell is completely offensive with no defensive qualities to it. If you plan on taking it to the enemy champion feel free to do so, but you need to be prepared on having no escape mechanism.

Flash is a spell I used to run on jungle Xin every game. It is quick, it catches enemies by surprise, it can go over walls and its cooldown is reasonable. This spell is superb for ganking and decent in running away. However I consider this a bit of an oddity on Xin Zhao. running two close in abilities might seem like a stellar idea, but flash gives no added benefit other than a quick dash. If you can get it over a wall sure that's fine, but if you are slowed while flashing you will still be slow.

CV is one of the more interesting spells you can run on Xin. I myself can count on my hands how many times I have used this spell on Xin. For me I took into consideration the enemy team composition, and based running this spell solely on how strong of a jungler the enemy team had. I used this spell on jungle Gangplank and Jungle Olaf because both of their teams had weak gap closers (I.E. No abilities to get there faster). It is superb for counter-jungling and protecting your own jungle. However I strongly advise not using this spell if the enemy team has a strong jungler, or you plan on not counter jungling. This is a spell in jungling used for special times, but if you use it right it can pay off HUGE

Tireless Warrior
Xin Zhao is healed for 30 points for every 3 attacks that he lands. This amount increases by 5 every 2 levels.

This is the main reason why Xin is such a viable jungler. He can sustain himself without having to run a vamp scepter.


Three Talon Strike
Xin Zhao prepares to unleash a fearsome combo, causing his next 3 standard attacks to deal his attack damage + 15 / 30 / 45 / 60 / 75 to enemy targets, with the final attack knocking his opponent into the air.

This skill is great for dealing damage and interrupting any champion. This is the main reason why you are a ganking God.

Battle Cry
Passive: Increases Xin Zhao's attack speed by 20 / 25 / 30 / 35 / 40%.

Active: Xin Zhao unleashes a battle cry, increasing his attack speed by double the passive amount for 5 seconds, and causing his standard attacks to reduce all other ability cooldowns by 1 second.

Cooldown 24 / 22 / 20 / 18 / 16 seconds | Cost 35 mana | Range 20

This is your main tool for jungling. You rip through a bunch of jungle creeps while lowering all cooldowns, epic in other words.

Audacious Charge
Xin Zhao charges an enemy unit, dealing 70 / 110 / 150 / 190 / 230 (+40% of ability power) damage to all nearby enemies and slowing them by 20 / 25 / 30 / 35 / 40% for 1.7 seconds.

Cooldown 16 / 15 / 14 / 13 / 12 seconds | Cost 70 mana | Range 650

In my view this is the bread and butter of Xin Zhao. The damage on it is pretty good, but the slow is the main thing. To hit them with a 40% slow and then follow up with a Frozen Mallet hit is your greatest strength. The ability to keep them slowed and dish out a ton of damage is what Xin can do extremely well.

Crescent Sweep
Xin Zhao unleashes a fierce spear sweep on targets around him, dealing 125 / 225 / 325 + 15% of their current health in physical damage. He gains bonus armor and magic resist per champion hit 5/8/11.

Cost 100 mana | Range 20

This is a good teamfight ult. It is an initiator, not a finisher.

In teamfights it is important to maximize the damage output on Xin. So there is a specific way all Xin's should use there skills.


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The reason you start with AC is pretty obvious, slow first so they wont get away. The ult takes away a decent chunk of hp and gives you an armor and magic resist buff. The TTS is for the popup, and the Battle Cry will refresh all cooldowns per hit. This is why you do it in this order, so you can get TTS up and firing.

These are the runes I use. You can use general dps runes but I prefer these based on the way I play.

x9 Greater Mark of Desolation I take these marks of desolation for armor penetration. As I stated earlier if a champion doesn't get armor and you have over 30-40 armor pen you are basically dealing true damage.

x9 Greater Seal of Health I like flat HP quints in general, but since we are aiming for high armor pen we substitute the quints for flat HP seals.

x9 Greater Glyph of Magic Resist These are probably the best choice for any physical dps champion. No other options seems nearly as good as flat magic resist.

x3 Greater Quintessence of Desolation These are the heavy hitters. We use these to drive home the brutal armor penetration. This lets you start out with 25 armor pen right at level 1, that's just sick.

This build below is more of a late game build. Go ahead and sell Wriggles and farm up a bloodthirster for heavy damage. I get a phantom dancer if the enemy team has alot of squishies, no armor and high damage. It is great against taking out support champs such as Soraka or Sona who have great ults. Criting for over 700 a hit will kill support champs very quickly.

Since you are jungling as Xin this item is generally a must. You can go bloodrazor but I don't think you should be hitting the champs with an abundance of HP. You need to be squishy slaying, high burst high reward.

These boots are the best in the game. Zerks are nice but lets face it, they are not worth the money; especially considering your Battle Cry. The overall reduction of CC will help you get to your target quicker and could save your life if you get hit with alot of CC

This is at the core of the build. Lots of slow = more hits and more damage. If there is one thing Xin can do well it is dish out alot of damage quickly. If you can't go bonkers on kills then you will rack up the assists.

If the enemy team generally has armor then this item is superb. With your already absurdly high starting amount of 25 armor pen this weapon will rip through enemies quickly. The borderline true damage with this item is what makes Xin so deadly, plus the added attack speed is a nice add on.

I haven't had a game in a while where I didn't get Guardian Angel. If you get fed enough this investment could save you from donating 500 gold to an enemy champion. In a sense it is one of the best defensive items in the game. A second life in Lol could be the difference between winning and losing a game.

This item is just brutal. I haven't gotten this item very often because I don't usually need this item. Not saying it's overkill, it is just that my games never last long enough for me to get this. However the games I did get this it was pretty hard overkill.

Not much I can say about this except that if you are on fire and don't need armor pen and want to eviscerate an entire team this is for you.

A fully fed Bloodthirster is 100 attack damage, putting this item on Xin is like eggs and bacon, it's all good. I don't usually get to get this item mainly because of Wriggles, but late game it is better to sell Wriggles and farm up on this bad boy.

Early Game

This is the most important phase of Xin Zhao's game. If you get fed early then the rest of the game should be a breeze, but in order to get fed you MUSTgank often and help your team out. Start out with a Cloth Armor and 5 Health Potion. I level up Q first incase I get ganked or a fight erupts. I start at blue buff, however if you can't get a friendly leash I suggest starting at golems. After blue buff I go to wolves, before I kill the last small wolf I throw on an hp pot. After that I got kill the wraiths and use 2 more hp pots, by now you should be down to 1 hp pot. Attack red buff and use your hp pot. Smite will be up by now so you should be ok. If you have enough HP I would suggest ganking. I usually have around 300-500 HP to spare from a starting 600+, so ganks work now while red buff is on. If nobody wants a gank it's up to you to take initiative, get in position and you will be surprised how quick they are to get prepared to gank. A gank should give you enough gold to return and get a Madred's Razors. Continue to jungle and gank often. Once you get enough to buy Mercury's Treads get it.

Mid Game

By now you should have Merc treads and Wriggle's Lantern. You should start pushing mid now and jungle less. Once you have more gold get a Dagger and a Ruby Crystal. Hopefully you have picked up more kills, and if this is the case get a BF sword to start that BC. Hopefully you guys have won a team fight by now, even if you don't finish off a Black Cleaver, and after that get a Phage.

Late Game

At this point in the game you should be considering/doing Baron and taking down inhibs. Polish off that Frozen Mallet and build into a Guardian Angel. If the game goes long enough buy that Infinity Edge to completely wipe them out. If it goes any later then an hour trade in Wriggles for the daunted Bloodthirster to deal the finishing blow.

I hope you guys enjoy this build and have similar success to me. Please comment on this build so I can get some feed back.

Thanks!

KobeVI.