User blog comment:AlistarBull/What is the Best Xin Zhao Build?/@comment-24792363-20140630192745

looking at the stats and gold efficiencies of all of the jungling items, I'd have to say that the lantern is the best item hands down.

Golem is more costly than buying merc treads and relying on other items for health/CDR (spirit visage, black cleaver), and given the small amounts of AD and CDR on the Lizard and considering that xin Zhao is a burst-oriented AA damage dealer, the lizard only helps in avoiding near escapes from enemies close to death, which is not xin Zhao's main line of offense. the attack speed and AD from the lantern are better early-mid game for even a tank xin Zhao because he still has to get kills to snowball efficiently, and the attack speed lends more to that than a small true damage tic as it allows him to execute his cc much more quickly. not to mention that once you do get to a feral flare, it's the only jungling item that scales and does not fall off the entire game. regardless of one's general build this should be the first item for any xin