League of Legends - Xin Zhao Champion Strategy and Item Build Guide

Xin Zhao

Basic Information

Champion Stats

Lore

Skills

Icon	Description
	Determination INNATE: Every third attack deals 20/40/60/80% (at levels 1/6/11/16) of total AD as bonus damage. Every third attack heals Xin Zhao
	Three Talon Strike (Cost: 30 Mana, Cooldown: 9/8/7/6/5, Bonus Physical Damage: 15/20/25/30/35 [+40% AD])ACTIVE: For the next 5 seconds, Xin Zhao’s next 3 basic attacks each deal bonus physical damage and reduce his other ability cooldowns by 1 second each. The third basic attack knocks up the target for 1 second.Three Talon Strike resets Xin Zhao’s basic attack timer.
	Wind Becomes Lightning Xin Zhao performs two swift strikes over a 0.6-0.4 second period (based on bonus attack speed), the first dealing 30 / 40 / 50 / 60 / 70 (+ 30% AD) physical damage to all enemies in an arc and the second dealing 40 / 75 / 110 / 145 / 180 (+ 85% AD) damage and slowing all enemies in a line by 50% for 1.5 seconds.Each strike deals 50% damage against minions, benefits from 33.3% of Xin Zhao’s lifesteal, will stack and apply Determination, and the duration on his other abilities is paused during the effect.
	Audacious Charge Xin Zhao charges and challenges an enemy. The charge deals 50 / 75 / 100 / 125 / 150 (+60% of ability power) magic damage to all nearby enemies and slows them for 25 / 30 / 35 / 40 / 45% for 0.5 seconds.Casting Audacious Charge grants Xin Zhao 40 / 45 / 50 / 55 / 60% attack speed for 5 seconds.
	Crescent Guard Passive: The last enemy champion targeted by Xin Zhao’s basic attacks or Audacious Charge is Challenged for 3 seconds. ACTIVE: Xin Zhao sweeps around him (Effect Radius: 188), dealing 75 / 150 / 225 (+ 100% bonus AD) (+ 15% of target’s current health) physical damage to enemies hit, capped at 600 (+ 100% bonus AD) against monsters. Non-Challenged enemies are also knocked back and stunned for 0.75 seconds.For the next 3 seconds Xin Zhao has Awareness, negating all damage received from enemies 450-units away from him. Basic attacks and other spell casts extend the duration by 0.3 seconds, but the remaining duration cannot exceed 3 seconds.

Strategy

Top Lane

• Manage Xin Zhao’s health with Determination (Passive). Every third strike heals him for a certain amount, which he needs during the laning phase.
• Xin Zhao thrives when he is the one who starts skirmishes. Hit your opposing laner with (W) Wind Becomes Lightning to slow them down and leave them open to your (Q) Three Talon Strike. Afterwards, once you have (E) Audacious Charge, you can now engage heavily and catch your enemy laner off-guard.
• Remember to hit enemies with (W) Wind Becomes Lightning. This is Xin Zhao’s main damaging skill that has good range and damage.
• If you’re planning for a kill, using his (E) Audacious Charge first allows him to close the gap between him and his enemies, as well as increase his Attack Speed. Quickly use (Q) Three Talon Strike right after to deal additional damage in quick succession and knock the target up with the third auto attack.
• It’s important to use his (Q) Three Talon Strike last as it reduces his other abilities’ cooldown and knocks his opponents up.
• You can use your (R) Crescent Guard to knock certain enemies towards your teammates. Keep in mind that attacking an enemy before casting your ult will result in a challenge thus preventing the knockback.
• (R) Crescent Guard also makes Xin Zhao block incoming damage from enemies who are outside his area. Take advantage of this during team fights.

Jungle

• Always be efficient as much as possible when jungling. For example, think of your jungling path in advance and quickly clear jungle monsters. This way, you can determine which lane is in need of ganking.
• Xin Zhao’s Determination (passive) allows him to gain health after his third basic attack. This is key when jungling since it not only allows you to sustain yourself in the jungle but it also allows you to quickly clear jungle monsters.
• Xin Zhao is a fantastic jungler as he can close gaps with (E) Audacious Charge, and can knock his opponents after with his (Q) Three Talon Strike allowing his allies to join the fray or even pursue the enemy champion.
• When performing ganks, it’s essential that you use your (E) Audacious Charge wisely as this is your only skill that allows you to close the gap between your enemies. Once you’ve hit a target with the (E) Audacious Charge +(Q) Three Talon Strike combo, hit him with (W) Wind Becomes Lightning to further slow the target or land the decisive blow.

Runes & Masteries

COMING SOON

Summoner Spells

Top Lane		Jungle
Teleport	Flash	Smite	Flash

Item Builds

Top Lane

Starter Items
Doran’s Shield	Health Potion

Core Items

Core Items
Mercury’s Treads	Dead Man’s Plate	Blade of the Ruined King

Mercury’s Treads – Mercury’s Treads decreases the duration of crowd controls which Xin Zhao can greatly benefit from. Even with (E) Audacious Charge, Xin Zhao can easily be kited with hard crowd controls.

Dead Man’s Plate – Dead Man’s Plate is your main defensive item as it gives off a pretty good amount of health and armor. Moreover, the passive also helps you catch unsuspecting enemies with the movement speed increase at full stacks, as well as sticking to them until they are dead.

Blade of the Ruined King – Blade of the Ruined King active makes you a great duelist. Xin Zhao excels at 1v1’s and Blade of the Ruined King greatly improves that aspect of Xin Zhao. Moreover, this item gives great Attack Speed, Attack Damage and lifesteal to further increase his damage output, especially against champions who stack health items.

Full Item Build

Full Item Build
Mercury’s Treads	Dead Man’s Plate	Sterak’s Gage
Trinity Force	Blade of the Ruined King	Spirit Visage

Sterak’s Gage – Sterak’s Gage increases your base attack damage and bonus health, as well as giving you more survivability with the passive that gives him a shield when his health reaches below a certain threshold.

Trinity Force – Trinity Force adds a lot of offensive and defensive stats for Xin Zhao. First, the rage passive allows him to be very agile when hitting enemy minions and champions. Secondly, the additional Attack Speed allows him to finish executing (Q) Three Talon Strike faster, knocking up enemies. Lastly, Spellblade also complements Xin Zhao’s abilities, enhancing his damage output even more after he casts any one of his skills before attacking.

Spirit Visage – Spirit Visage increases the effectiveness of all your heals, including Determination (passive) and other life steal items. Moreover, it also gives you extra health, cooldown reduction, and magic resistance.

Situational Items

Situational Items
Youmuu’s Ghostblade	The Bloodthirster	Infinity Edge

Youmuu’s Ghostblade – Youmuu’s Ghostblade can also be considered on Xin Zhao if you want to be more slippery in catching enemy champions or escaping from them. The lethality stat is also another great addition as it gives him more offensive capabilities in the mid-late game.

The Bloodthirster – The Bloodthirster is another situational buy if you want to have more lifesteal and sustain to go along with your Determination (passive). Moreover, its Attack Damage boost greatly increases Xin Zhao’s damage output, while its shield from over-heals allows him to tank damage.

Infinity Edge – This item makes your attacks very strong at the expense of some items like Trinity Force or Righteous Glory that has other stats and abilities that can help in team fights and overall scaling. Infinity Edge provides good Attack Damage stats, and more importantly, high Critical Strike chances.

Jungle

Starter Items
Hunter’s Machete	Refillable Potion	Warding Totem

Core Items

Core Items
Stalker’s Blade – Warrior	Mercury’s Treads	Blade of the Ruined King
Dead Man’s Plate

Stalker’s Blade: Warrior – Stalker’s Blade is the perfect jungle item for Xin Zhao as it gives him attack damage and cooldown reduction. Alternatively, you can opt for the Bloodrazor jungle upgrade – it provides good bonus Attack Speed, allowing Xin Zhao to bring the pain with a faster (Q) Three Talon Strike.

Furthermore, you can use Skirmisher’s Sabre to further increase Xin Zhao’s dueling power. Its smite skill lowers an enemy’s damage output for a short duration.

Full Item Build

Full Item Build
Blade of the Ruined King	Stalker’s Blade – Warrior	Mercury’s Treads
Spirit Visage	Trinity Force	Dead Man’s Plate

Situational Items

Situational Items
Youmuu’s Ghostblade	Righteous Glory	Zz’rot Portal

Righteous Glory – Righteous Glory is a great initiation tool for Xin Zhao as the active on this item grants him and his nearby allies increased movement while slowing the enemy team at the end of the duration. Moreover, Righteous Glory gives good armor, health and cooldown reduction, effectively allowing Xin Zhao to tank damage and use his skills often.

Zz’Rot Portal – First off, this item gives a lot of armor and magic resistance, making Xin Zhao that much more tanky during team fights. Secondly, its active skills allows you to split push lanes. Moreover, this item is used to pressure enemy lanes and cause a potential upset from the confusion.

Playing Against

• Xin Zhao is pretty powerful duelist early game, thanks to his Determination (passive). It’s better to avoid exchanging hits with him early on in the laning phase. Conversely, you can opt to coordinate with your jungler to take him down.
• As Xin Zhao primarily lies on his auto attacks, choosing heroes with great CC and heroes that attack him from a distance is better than facing him head on.
• Take note when Xin Zhao starts to engage. For instance, he begins his initiates with (E) Audacious Charge, targeting the closest squishy champion. Afterwards, he empowers his auto attacks with (Q) Three Talon Strike in conjunction with (R) Crescent Guard to effectively isolate his target. Next, he casts (W) Wind Becomes Lightning to further deal damage to his target. Finally, he wallops his target with his auto attacks until he kills him or her.
• Be wary of ganging up on Xin Zhao as not only can he knock back everyone around him when he does his (R) Crescent Guard, but he also blocks any ranged attacks outside his area.

Hard Counter

• Jax –  Jax prevents Xin Zhao’s harass as he has  Counter Strike that allows him cause all incoming attacks to miss. This is a perfect counter for your (E) Audacious Charge + (Q) Three Talon Strike combo as it renders your attack speed bonus useless.
• Teemo – Teemo can effectively kite Xin Zhao with his  Move Quick. Xin Zhao is also an auto-attack dependent champion, and Teemo can greatly mitigate his damage output with Blinding Dart. Moreover, Teemo’s Noxious Traps is a good deterrent against a ganking Xin Zhao.
• Rammus – Rammus is every basic attackers’ worst nightmare because his kit counters almost all auto-attack dependent champions. He has a built-in thormail with Defensive Ball Curl. Furthermore, he also has a taunt that can direct Xin Zhao damage to Rammus in team fights.

Strategy Video

COMING SOON

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