User blog comment:TheTobarMethod/Why Xin Zhao isnt as OP as you think ;)/@comment-209.161.170.138-20121026204932/@comment-76.212.11.187-20121027215657

Xin has a strong AS steroid, but his base AS is low, which if you do the math because AS is calculated multiplicatively, is how Riot makes it so his AS steroid isn't OP.

His passive 15% armor reduction isn't that much at lvl 1. In fact that is shit lvl 1, just like Kayle's passive. That's why you don't see people rush a Last Whisper first. % armor reduction scales with the game automatically, so it makes sense that it doesn't change with lvls. At lvl 1, average bruiser top has around 30 armor. With Xin's passive, that 30 armor turns to 26. 4 armor pen is a freaking shitty ass passive at level 1. Early game, that's nothing compared to Amumu or Fiddlestick's passive, which do a whopping 10-20 flat magic resist reduction, which basically means if your spell says it does 100 damage, it does 90 damage. Xin's spells on the other hand, if it says it does 100 damage, it probably does around 70-80.

Another thing, Xin's ult only gives 25 mr and armor per champion, totaling up to 125 if you somehow hit the entire team, is only at lvl 16 and on. If that's all the resistances Xin get's, Xin will implode. If Xin initiates with just those stats, the mage will of course blow him up in self defence, and the ADC will in turn finish him off immediately. Now if Xin get's more resists, thereby decreasing his damage significantly because he's pretty item dependent, now he's more of a threat as an initiator, but his damage is probably lower or on par with someone like Lee sin or rengar, with equal tankiness.