[Champion] Xin Zhao

57 Corvette

Canada5941 Posts

July 25 2011 13:31 GMT

Season 4 updates incoming

Xin Zhao, The Seneschal of Demacia
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(Also known as Win Nhao, The Pubstomper)

Xin Zhao is a tanky melee DPS that can dish out a lot of damage and bring some great crowd control to the battle. He has a slow, as well as a knockup that co-ordinates with your auto attacks. He can lane or Jungle. I will go over my jungle Xin first, and then Lane Xin afterwards.

Skills

Passive. Challenge - Xin Zhao challenges his target with his basic attacks and Audacious Charge, reducing its armor by 15% for 3 seconds. Only one target can be challenged at a given time.

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This passive in combination with your ultimate helps you isolate your target and beat them down quickly before the opponents can save them. The armour reduction is there to help you take them out quicker, although against low armour carries, 15% isn't an extremely noticeable amount.

Q.Three Talon Strike - Xin Zhao's next 3 basic attacks deal bonus physical damage and reduce his other abilities' cooldowns by 1 second each. The final strike also knocks the target into the air.
Cost: 30 Mana
Cooldown: 9 / 8 / 7 / 6 / 5 seconds
Bonus Damage: 15 / 30 / 45 / 60 / 75 (+ 20% AD)

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This is what makes people hate facing Xin Zhao. The knockup from this spell comes very quickly once you get decent attack speed (since it modifies your auto attacks instead of having its own attacks). Can be used to stop channeling abilities and is what makes your ganks deadly. In the 2012 rework, the cooldown reduction from W was moved to this skill, but can only reduce the other skills' cooldowns by three each time. Activating this right after battle cry will not only let you attack faster sooner after, but once your W is maxed, the cooldown on both skills will end up around the same assuming you use one after another. If you want to gank at level 2 from a jungler's perspective, open with this skill.

W. Battle Cry - (Passive): Xin Zhao heals himself on every third basic attack.
(Active): Xin Zhao unleashes a battle cry, increasing his attack speed for 5 seconds.
Cost: 40 mana
Cooldown: 16 / 15 / 14 / 13 / 12 seconds
Heal: 26 / 32 / 38 / 44 / 50 (+ 70% AP)
Attack Speed: 40% / 50% / 60% / 70% / 80%

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The attack speed brings you up 40% at level one, which is very important for clearing the jungle and getting your TTS off quickly. I start off with this skill in the jungle, the sustain and increased attack speed makes Xin extremely strong in the early levels. In combination with the Hunter's Machete, attack speed is even more effective. This skill is better to open when planning for level 3 or 4 ganks after taking both red and blue crests. Do note that in the case of a level 1 fight, this ability will not help you in invades/counterinvades. Do not level this skill before knowing if an invade will occur.

E. Audacious Charge - Xin Zhao charges and challenges an enemy, damaging and slowing enemies for 2 seconds within a small range.
Cost: 60 mana
Cooldown: 13 / 12 / 11 / 10 / 9 seconds
Damage: 70 / 110 / 150 / 190 / 230 (+ 60% AP)
Slow:25% / 30% / 35% / 40% / 45%

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Ew, a skill that scales with AP on an AD champion. This is your initiation skill. It is a basic charge that slows a small area around your target. This should be your lead spell when ganking, and should be the first spell used in teamfights. Can make chasing easy, while also helping teammates escape (charge the opponent to slow). When combined with your ultimate and passive, this can be used for some interesting initation. You can charge to a target behind who you want to kill, and then immediately ult to send the intended target back into your team. As it was in season 2, this should be the first skill you max for the increased slow percentage and the lower cooldown.

R. Crescent Sweep - Xin Zhao unleashes a sweep around him that damages enemies in range equal to a base amount plus 15% of their current health, knocking them back. Xin Zhao gains bonus armor and magic resistance for 6 seconds for each champion hit.
Crescent Sweep does not knockback a challenged target.
Cost: 100 mana
Cooldown: 100 / 90 / 80 seconds
Base Damage: 125 / 225 / 325 (+ 100% bonus AD)
Extra Armor & Magic Resistance:15 / 20 / 25 per champion hit

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While this is not the greatest ultimate in the league, it can do some nasty damage at the start of a teamfight. You want to use this spell early to get the most extra damage out of the +15% health bonus. The armour and magic resist also help you survive in the middle of the fight (since thats where you should be using this skill). Try to hit as many opponents as possible with this skill. The cooldown is fairly short, so don't be afraid to use it to knock away chasers or save an ally. Remember that this will knock away all but the one target that is affected by your passive.

Jungle Xin

Runes & Masteries
Runes:

9x Greater Mark of Attack Speed OR 9x Grater Mark of Attack Damage OR 9x Greater Mark of Armour Penetration

9x Greater Seal of Armour

9x Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist OR 9x Greater Glyph of Cooldown Reduction

3x Greater Quintessence of Attack Speed OR 3x Greater Quintessence of Attack Damage OR 3x Greater Quintessence of Movespeed

Xin has a lot of flexibility on his rune page, fit the runes you pick into the items you decide to build (Eg. Get some Arpen if you use attack speed runes, etc). I personally swap between Aspeed/armour/CDR and Armour penetration/Armour/MR per lvl/MS depending on the opponent team.

Masteries:

Xin is also very flexible in masteries due to his great sustain and high early-game damage. You want most of your points in the offense and defence tree, opting for one or two in utility for improved recall or improved flash (if you take it). I use a 14/15/1 page. I go for attack speed, Arpen, AD/lvl and % increased damage in offense, Standard jungle defence masteries and tenacity, and then improved flash in utility. I also take reduced turret damage in the defence tree to allow dive ganks from behind to be slightly less dangerous.

Here is what your mastery page could look like at level 30.
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Summoner Spells

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Smite is standard for all junglers, Xin is no exception. As for your second spell, Flash or Exaust depending on the opponent team. Exaust if you are going extremely agro, Flash if you are not (although A Demacian never retreats).

Other summoner Spells:

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Ignite - I could see using this against sustain heavy teams, but this is a pure offense spell and if you charge in to an unwinnable fight, you are screwed.

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Ghost - Extremely viable as an alternative to Flash/Exaust, but I almost never use it purely due to personal preference.

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Heal - No...

Barrier - Might work against extremely low skill opponents or teams that are extremely high burst (Leblanc + Akali + Lee jungle or soemthing), but otherwise don't consider it.

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Revive - No.

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Cleanse - I've never really tried cleanse on Xin, although If I was in a spot where CC was trouble, I'd just build merc treads and go flash.

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Clairity - This spell should not exist outside of ARAM games.

Items

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+ 5x OR + 2x [image loading]

Open with Hunter's Machete and some health potions. You could also open a longsword and potions if you plan on being agressive and ganking very early.

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OR OR [image loading]

For boots, Ninja Tabi are fairly standard for junglers due to the Tenacity gained from the defence tree masteries and/or the Spirit of the Ancient Golem. If you feel an extreme need for extra Tenacity or Magic resist, Merc treads are also good. Beserkers Greaves should only be bought if you are carrying your team from the jungle.

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Your first major item should be one of the Spirit items. If you are going for a mainly damage build, the Spirit of the Elder Lizard will boost you damage and give a DoT that can deal true damage. For a more tanky Xin, build the Spirit of the Ancient Golem for Tenacity, regen and health.

At this point you want to judge your situation and decide whether you want to go tanky bruiser and initiate fights or be an assassin and build high damage high risk.

For tanky Xin, the following items should be considered:

Spirit Visage: For magic resist and increased healing from your W.
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Randuins Omen: For facing off against teams with multiple auto attackers.
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Maw of Malmortius OR Wits End: For a combonation of magic resistance and offensive capabilities.
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Locket of the Iron Solari: If your support doesn't build aegis/Locket, it is up to you to get it.
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Iceborn Gauntlet: While the effect is lessened for melee champions, this makes engaging and singling out targets easy.
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For assassin Xin, the following items should be considered:

Black Cleaver: Reduces armour of the target allowing you to do more damage.
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Blade of the Ruined King: Has a great active for chasing and gives you all the stats you need (Lifesteal, Aspeed..)
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Statik Shiv: Lets you do a little more AoE damage.
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Frozen Mallet: Makes it extremely hard for targets to run from you after you have tagged them.
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Wits End: A small amount of MR and a bunch of attack speed.
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Skill Order
W,Q, E, E, E, R, and then R > E > Q > W.
The 40% attack speed in the jungle is critical for clearing the first camps in a reasonable time. Get your E when you are ganking, and start maxing it by level 9. Now that Q has a lot of bonus damage on it, it is extremely beneficial to max it second. While maxing W for extra attack speed may seem smart, it only gives you attack speed when active rather than half and half, and the sustain from one level in the skill is more than enough for the early/mid game.

Jungle Route

Xin can either do the standard red-blue-gank route, which gets him level 3 around 2:30ish, or the level 2 gank red route, which takes red and then starts ganking right away. Xin isn't extremely blue-reliant assuming you don't use your E on the jungle camps and can start donating blue buffs at the second spawn.

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Lane Xin Zhao

I am working on revamping this section, please be patient.

Runes & Masteries
Runes:
Armour Penetration marks
Flat armour seals
Magic Resist (Flat or Scaling) Glyphs
Flat AD Quints

Masteries:
21/X/X
Take 21 in the offense tree, then stick the 9 wherever you want.
Here is what your mastery page could look like at level 30.
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Summoner Spells
Flash and Exaust are what I take on lane Xin.
Flash makes juking and escaping in general easier. Exaust allows you to chase easier, and slow down the opponent AD carries during teamfights.

Ghost can be swaped in replacing flash, as well as Ignite for Exaust. It is up to your preferences.

Items
Open with Cloth armour + 5 Health potions
Wriggles is your first item
Merc Treads or Ninja Tabi depending on opponents
BF sword item (Usually Bloodthirster or Black Cleaver) if you are dominating, otherwise Phage
Wit's End
(Finish your Fmallet here if you didn't get a BF item)
Situational Tanky, Maw, Randuins, Atmogs, FoN, whatever else you feel is good for the situation

If you need to get tanky earlier in the game (Opponents are snowballing or farming much harder), skip the damage and go right for tanky items.

Skill Order
E,Q,W,W,W,R and then R>W>Q>E.
You want E and Q for level 2 agression, but W is still the best skill to max first in my opinion.

Gameplay:
Earlygame:
Under construction

Midgame:
Under construction

Lategame:
Under construction

(Last Updated: August 6th)

Kaniol

Poland5551 Posts

July 25 2011 13:39 GMT

Is this jungle path faster than standard blue with cloth+5hp?

57 Corvette

Canada5941 Posts

July 25 2011 13:43 GMT

Well, the standard blue route ends at level 4 (Not sure of the timing on this, 4 mins or around there?), and you are on low hitpoints so you need to go back to base before ganking.
This jungle route ends at level 6 at around 7ish mins, and nearly at full health, allowing for ganking right away. It is also safer, as the only time you are really low on hitpoints is after the first wraith/wolves camp.

You can use the Blue route, I just prefer the level 6 route.

Two_DoWn

United States13684 Posts

July 25 2011 14:04 GMT

I was under the assumption that the general consensus for xin was E>W>Q like Bob does. Q has a flat cd, so all you are getting there is bonus damage. You buy damage anyway, so there is no point spending money to compound something you are already buying. On the other hand, by getting E you get damage you arent going to itemize, and W will help you out in jungle and lane a lot more that Q will.

Juicyfruit

Canada5484 Posts

July 25 2011 14:08 GMT

I more or less disagree with having both black cleaver and last whisper, especially one after another.

57 Corvette

Canada5941 Posts

July 25 2011 14:11 GMT

Yeah, now that I actually think about it, the carries that you should be targeting aren't going to have much armour in the first place, so stacking Apen is probably not needed.
Any reccomendatons on an item to replace LW?

Two_DoWn

United States13684 Posts

July 25 2011 14:15 GMT

Wits end is better than LW IMO. And a BV is ALWAYS a better mr item than FON. ALWAYS.

Id also drop the cleaver and pick up triforce. Bits of it (phage, ect) can make you very tanky. Your build is WAY squisheir than it needs to be in order to get the job done.

You also need to make mention of the fact that mercs are the better choice against teams with hard cc. Melee DPS need some form of tenacity. And that endgame it is often a good choice to sell wriggles and pick up a BT.

Juicyfruit

Canada5484 Posts

July 25 2011 14:15 GMT

I honestly would just go with Smash's Jarvan guide for items. There's honestly no reason why Atmogs wouldn't be good, and it MUCH harder for damage dealers to start catching up to you if you have a fully charged warmogs.

Mogwai

United States13274 Posts

July 25 2011 14:18 GMT

oh boy... I'll comment on this later tonight... there are a lot of things I disagree pretty strongly with here.

gtrsrs

United States9109 Posts

July 25 2011 14:20 GMT

#10

On July 25 2011 23:15 Two_DoWn wrote:
Wits end is better than LW IMO. And a BV is ALWAYS a better mr item than FON. ALWAYS.

well no
on melee champs FoN is usually a better pick. the movespeed is crucial for closing gaps and chasing, it offers more MR, and the spellshield is usually trivial on a champ that has to be in your face to do damage

on xin it's debatable, as he gets mucho resistances from his ult so HP is more effective, but to say that Banshee's is always better than FoN is a severe misunderstanding of how the items work

Two_DoWn

United States13684 Posts

July 25 2011 14:25 GMT

#11

If you are only getting one MR item, as is this build, I am a STRONG believer that BV is a better buy. ESPECIALLY on melee dps. Spellblock is op. Its as simple as that. If you keep that bubble up for a fight, you cut a HUGE part someone's initial burst. And especially on Xin, who gets free resistances as you said, health is much better. And if its movespeed you want, grab a zeal.

Its as simple as the carry who stays alive deals more damage. FON helps you heal if you happen to survive. BV keeps you alive.

Juicyfruit

Canada5484 Posts

July 25 2011 14:34 GMT

#12

I doubt good teams will let a tanky DPS engage with their bubble still on; for tanky DPS the bubble makes almost no difference since what's going to kill you is the cumulative focus of a team.

Only for ranged DPS/casters is the bubble really worth its money

spinesheath

Germany8679 Posts

July 25 2011 14:37 GMT

#13

On Xin I would go QSS + Giant's Belt over Banshee's any day. Cheaper, more HP, more MR and you can actually decide when to use it.

Two_DoWn

United States13684 Posts

July 25 2011 14:41 GMT

#14

That works too. I just have an irrational hatred of resistance items that dont have health. Plus spellblock is op.

gtrsrs

United States9109 Posts

July 25 2011 15:04 GMT

#15

spellblock would be OP if it properly interacted with more spells
as it stands banshee is a good item on ranged champs and a niche item on melee champs

it doesn't work with karthus' wall (i.e. you are still slowed and the bubble is not popped)
kogmaw's slow will pop your veil and still slow you [same with MF's? i don't remember]
TF and noc can pop for free with their ults and still have their full effect
anivia can still stun you if you block the first hit of her Q [citation needed, i'm not 100% on that one]
and more than half the champs that you would be jumping on have a throwaway poke that will pop veil for 45 seconds (volley, mystic shot, morde's volley, duskbringer, wildcards, akali's E, tantrum, etc etc etc)

plus it's been nerfed endlessly from one patch to another. it's dumb to just relinquish FoN as a "helps you heal if you survive" item. the MR advantage is significant as well as the MS and the 0.35%/second isn't a laughably small number. but in the instance of xin, i agree with spine's heath, quicksilver is a better item especially in tandem with warmogs

57 Corvette

Canada5941 Posts

July 25 2011 15:07 GMT

#16

Edit: Nvm

Slayer91

Ireland23335 Posts

July 25 2011 15:59 GMT

#17

On July 25 2011 23:15 Two_DoWn wrote:
And a BV is ALWAYS a better mr item than FON. ALWAYS.

.

What?
You should rarely be getting BV on melee champions that don't rely on something like nunu ult or galio ult. If you want health and magic resist get giants belt+negatron and build them into some crazy op item like warmogs+fon, or just QSS.

I almost always go fast warmogs on xin btw. Definitely need the survivability. Sometimes getting wits end or atmas is arguable, since they provide a LOT of damage and tankiness.

rwrzr

United States1980 Posts

July 25 2011 16:10 GMT

#18

I'm fairly partial to double negatrons

Sponkz

Denmark4564 Posts

July 25 2011 16:13 GMT

#19

Nobody going youmoo's on him anymore?

Two_DoWn

United States13684 Posts

July 25 2011 16:15 GMT

#20

I look at BV one way. The point of getting MR is to block spell damage. The best way to block spell damage is to not get effected by a spell. Will it occasionally get popped by something that doesnt do a lot of damage? Yes. But most spells that dont do a lot of damage tend to have a fairly large amount of CC involved.

I dont like FON because in order for it to be effective, you need to live for a while after a teamfight so the regen can do its job. However, most of the time this is meaningless late game because you either A- won the fight and can now push and get shit done before you have to back because the enemy team has spawned, or B- Lost the fight and are now dead. A BV on the other hand is useful IN the fight, not after it.

Am I saying never get an FON? No, I get it on a lot of champs. But only after I have either a ton of health or a BV already.

Maybe I should have said ALMOST ALWAYS a worse choice than a BV. If you need MR in order to live, I believe BV is a better choice. If you are gonna live anyway and just want to limit the damage you take, knock yourself out with a FON.

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