Xin Zhao Jungle Build Guides, Runes, Items, and Abilities

Xin Zhao is a fighter jungler. He has one of the best early games in terms of clearing the jungle camps, he has great 1 vs 1 potential vs the enemy jungler and has strong early game ganks that you can utilize to snowball your lanes. He does fall off a bit when you get to the late game because of how easy it is to kite vs Xin Zhao and he doesn't have a lot of ways to get to the backline of the enemies. This is why you need to try and get an early advantage to snowball your lead.

1. Pros

• Great ganking potential
• Great damage
• Great duel kit
• Great snowballing
• Great sustain jungler
• Fun to play

As you see there is a lot of good things about Xin, all you need to know is the champion concept which is early Lead.

2. Cons

• Weak vs peeling comp
• Hard to play vs hard cc

As a guy who played Xin for years with a successful win rate it is hard to find Cons about him, they may be alot of cons but all of them can be covered with your play style and experience on a champ!

Farming combo is E > W > Q due to Q passive always use W before Q on Farming , Drakes and Herald.

Ganking and Fighting Combo on Early Game is E>Q>W , you do W after Q Combo to make sure you hit it perfectly.

Ganking and Fighting Combo on Late Game is E > R > Q > W or W > E > R > Q.

Determination heals Xin Zhao every three attacks, allowing him to sustain himself in lane for a while by autoattacking minion waves and turrets. Doing so for extended periods however will push your lane, so watch out for gank attempts.

Three Talon Strike resets the auto attack timer, so getting one basic attack off, then using the ability will yield a greater DPS.

The attack speed granted by Audacious Charge is great for taking down turrets and minion waves, whilst also being extremely effective while jungling.

Audacious Charge does magic damage and slows enemies surrounding the target; you can use that to your advantage by charging a nearby enemy in order to slow another just outside its range. This ability will also pop Banshee's Veil item (or similar spell shields) on any of the affected targets which is extremely useful if your team has an incoming area of effect disable.

Try using Crescent Guard where it will hit the most enemy champions.

Xin Zhao is a great initiator. Lunge at a target with Audacious Charge and use Crescent Guard to do the most damage possible.

Xin Zhao is a formidable ambush ganker. Three Talon Strike makes it very hard to immediately escape from him and deals high initial damage, and Audacious Charge makes it so that even targets with escapes can be chased effectively.

Audacious Charge can be used to escape ganks on some occasions by targeting a minion or a champion along your escape route. Combined with Flash, this can allow Xin Zhao to escape most unfavorable fights. Use it on an enemy across a wall for a clean escape (e.g.: throw ward across small golems wall, then dash to golems, when they flash in or come around, flash is still available for use)

Crescent Guard can be used to knock enemies away from you when trying to escape.

Crescent Guard can also push enemies towards your team, or split them away.

Wind Becomes Lightning can be used for slow enemies and securing the kills.

When attempting a retreat, ensure that your pursuer has not been Challenged first before using Crescent Guard as otherwise it will have no effect on them.

Xin Zhao can effectively punish an enemy's wasteful ability usage with Audacious Charge. If the enemy uses their dash or damage spell to farm minions, using Audacious Charge on the enemy will usually lead to a favorable trade.

A good combo for trading is to use the first two procs of Three Talon Strike on minions, saving the third. When an enemy goes to last hit minions, use Audacious Charge and perform an autoattack to knock the enemy upwards. This allows Xin Zhao to get in some free damage.

• E + Q + AA + AA + AA + W + AA: To trade pre-6 E onto your target, then Q. AA three times, then W and AA again.
• E + AA + W + AA + Q + AA + AA + AA: For max damage on objectives use E followed by AA W AA. Q and then AA some more.
• W + FLASH: You can extend your W range by quickly Flashing after casting.
• AA + Q + AA + AA + AA + E + AA + W +AA: When already in melee range, AA then Q and AA some more. Use E to follow your target, then AA W AA.
• E + AA + Q + AA + AA + AA + W + AA + R + AA: For your standard full combo E to your target, then AA and use Q. AA some more before using W, then AA R AA.
• E + AA + R + AA: To isolate a target E onto them, AA then use R and AA again.
• R + FLASH + E + Q + AA + AA + AA + W + AA: Knock an enemy back into your team by using R and quickly Flashing behind them. E to gap close, then Q and AA three times before using W and AAing again.

First, you do Red > Blue > Gromp, during that try to watch your top so if you could, for next step you can make a gank top, otherwise go for mid, if you couldn't gank mid aswell you keep farming by Doing Wolves > Raptors > Scuttle. You can also go for enemy raptors if you could. Please don't forget that, you don't want to recall when there is still opportunities for gank or farm but getting items make things easier.

For red side, first you clear blue side, then you can gank mid or bot, which is possible and most secure because we can't risk our early time, so if you couldn't gank you go for Red, after red you can actually gank top or even mid, if you had a ward in enemy jungle and you track him, you may invade aswell, or just like image you do raptors. PLEASE don't forget that, you don't want to recall when there is still opportunities for gank or farm but getting items make things easier.

1. Gank

Start by choosing the right path, you try to appear behind your enemy that you can use Q first and walk trough them and with doing that you keep your E for the moment that they use Flash, but not always, just go on a lane use E > Q and if enemy flashed before your last Q depends on their position you can insta flash too or simply let them go, flash still worth.

Ganking on mid game is easier and we are playing Xin Zhao, he got easy mechanics aswell so there is nothing to discuss simply just wait when your bot start a fight or get ganks and just go in.

2. Farm

First thing, is about kiting, for those who don't know what kiting mean, i would say the moves and steps that we do while farming or fighting or simply attacking anything, is what i personally call kiting. a right kiting for killing the Krugs will still keep you full hp! if you do a camp and you lose much hp or even time, kiting can improve it and save you more time on clearing camps and yeah keep you more safe from invades, as it's a Xin Zhao guide i can't go further about kiting, if you have no idea about kiting for start, do sidestep after each 3 basic attack around your target or move for getting closer to your next camp.

About camps, for early solo camps, that means Blue & Red Buff and Gromp are most easier camps for On Hit junglers like Xin, thats why my current path is Red > Blue Gromp > Gank and after that i get jungle item to do Krugs > Raptors > Wolves.

3. Ward

Like i said, vision control is important part for any jungler, for start get Oracle Lens at the start of the game, specially if you have Zombie Ward, next step is always have a active Control Ward in map you can right places for wards in Images part, also dewarding should become an addict for you! Invade

I can say that ganking is always easier object for Xin Zhao, but if you mind for an invade, you have to consider that you can 1v1 enemy jungler or not, beside that, if you get in enemy jungle his team may follow and pick you in jungle, so an early invade is recommended, for a successful invade you have to your Smite up aswell, so if enemy is clearing camp you can stole it. actully, outjungling your opponent is enough for get a lead on him.

4. Objectives

Xin is really great on doing objectives, specially getting turrets after a successful gank. Whilemean doing drakes and herald is so easy in season 10 for most of junglers including Xin Zhao aswell, you can solo drake when you are lvl 4 at drake spawn time, but you need to do both Drakes and Herald safely since everyone aware of importance of drakes. you may want to fight for Ocean & Mountain drakes as they fit Xin zhao, brings us more sustain.

5. Dive

Diving as Xin Zhao is not recommended at all, you can't handle turrets shot on early game, if you are going to dive top or bot, always let your Toplaner or Support move on first, or you just can share the Dive time with your teammates.

6. Kills

Most of Junglers asking alot, should i give kills to others? should i let kill for Adc? should i take the kills? at first step, you must focus on clearing target despite who is gonna to take the kill, and thats mean you are not there for taking a kill for yourself, you are there for taking a kill, but simply, i prefer to increase my KDA Specially on Xin, more kills mean more bully and one step closer to carrying game, if i already have a great lead, i may let some kills for my teammates, but notice that on doing this so enemy may escape, don't greed for letting kills to others.

1. Early Game

Almost for many junglers specially Xin early game is an important part, Xin has strong early ganks With his E & Q its possible to make early ganks. for Early game follow my jungle path, you start Red Buff then you can look for an early gank , but if you do Red > Blue > Gromp at the moment, you get a quick 3 and then you can make a secure gank mostly on top, for that just ask your toplaner to don't push.

You just want to make sure that you don't waste your time, in another word you must know how to do a secure gank, it needs timing, gank path, ability using!, simply timing is about enemy position, like you don't wanna come for a gank when they are under their turret or they are looking for a recall! i know it may sounds funny, what im trying to say is dont force impossible ganks. now i told you this, dont forgot about enemy jungler aswell, they may counter gank you!

If you see you can't gank top or bot you can go for ganking mid , invade or waiting for Rift Scuttler then going for mid, or Raptors and then Recalling to base for getting items. getting items specially if you had a successful gank before that give you a lead on farming, ganking, invading and fighting their jungler.

I can say that, after you completed jungle path its all on you know, you are free and you are the one who decide what to do, you have to analyze lines and their champs and choose bestwhere to gank, i always ask myself, if i gank bot they can get lead? or they gonna still lose? but you know, you never gank for your laner! you gank for yourself.. so thats why you have to use any opportunity and that's the diff between a good jungler and a bad one. i mean, you are playing Xin, farming while your bot is getting gank is not the right decision, for that you need to work on tracking enemy jungler and be ready to counter him.

Even on early, sometimes you can help push line and get turret plates specially on top, but care for enemy jungle and mid specially when toplaner enemy got his teleport up, same goes for botlane and mid, what im trying to say is don't stay in a line for long time as it makes some opportunity for enemys, keep them in doubt. notice if you are pushing alone you have to make wave for you teammate.

2. Mid Game and Late Game

The thing is that you don't make mistakes, any mistakes with Xin is a Death for you, you have to be smart, for me mid game is since minute 15 till 25-30 where Xin can Shine , in my games this time, is team fighting times, if you got lead you can carry, if not you have to get lead now to be usefull at least in lategame, for that you have to looking for picks. the main reason that Xin isn't popular that much is because players think Xin is Squishy, they pick him get into a fight and insta death, i know, Xin concept is to get that early lead for you and your team that you don't need to think about the hard fights at all, but if even 30% of your games with Xin goes long enough or even for mid game fights there is how you fight as a Xin Zhao!

At first, about targeting i have to say that you have to always go for someone that you are sure you can kill him but that's not the only thing that a Xin can do, there is alot of things that is possible Only for Xin Zhao.

The best style is: Wait for fight start, then while your team is fighting with enemy team, there is no huge peeling for enemy carries, then go in and join fight by targeting and clearing them look at the video below.

You can engage and start a fight aswell, since you can block incoming damages from enemies, once again choose a target and go on, you will be fine if team follows.

Xin Zhao is a very easy and beginner-friendly champion to play. He has a lot of damage early game where you can try to get some early ganks off to get an advantage so if you like that sort of playstyle then you will enjoy playing Xin Zhao

Thanks for Reading! If you want to gain more in-depth knowledge about LOL, check out many helpful articles here!

Good luck to you! – Cheng