Xin Zhao/Strategy

		"Some things must remain buried." Strategy is highly subjective and may become outdated without any notice. Because of this, the League of Legends Wiki has decided to retire strategy pages and would recommend using other platforms (such as YouTube) to find guides. For more information visit this thread. This page continues to exist for archive purposes.

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Tips

Playing As Xin Zhao

• Xin Zhao is a great initiator to combat. Lead the front to start a fight and use your ultimate to do the most damage possible.
• Try to position yourself so your ultimate's knockback is most effective.

Playing Against Xin Zhao

• Xin Zhao is a powerful initiator with both his charge and ultimate dealing damage to all units around him. Try having your team stay spread out until he's used his ultimate.
• Xin Zhao relies heavily on his Three Talon Strike for damage and cooldown resets, so preventing him from finishing his combo will have a dramatic effect.

Tricks

Ability Usage

• 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 (or similar spell shields) on any of the affected targets which is extremely useful if your team has an incoming area of effect disable.
  • Bear in mind that if you use this tactic to jump to a priority target with Banshee's Veil, you will want to auto-attack them at least once before using Crescent Guard in order to apply the Challenge debuff so that they aren't knocked away from you.
• 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.
  • To further increase the effectiveness of the initiation, try and aim your attacks specifically at a high value target such as the opposing carry before using Crescent Guard as this will cause them to be Challenged, separating them from their teammates.
• 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 slows the enemy enough to be able to land your Three Talon Strike with almost complete success if they have no blink or dash ability, guaranteeing the knock up.
• Xin Zhao is a good jungler with Determination's passive effect and a great ganker with Audacious Charge and Three Talon Strike after finishing his jungle route.
  • The best time to gank is when the enemy champion has recently used all their escape summoner spells such as Ghost and Flash (or abilities such as Arcane Shift or Rocket Jump).
  • It is best not to use all your crowd control at once, time each of your crowd control abilities with your ally allowing an easy kill when your enemy gets out of melee range you can then Audacious Charge to ensure your kill.
  • Crescent Guard can assist in ganks by knocking enemies back towards your allies, but be sure that you are both in front of them and do not currently have your target Challenged before you do so.
    • Using Audacious Charge on a minion near the target enemy champion will prevent them from being Challenged, so that using Crescent Guard will knock them back.
• 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.
  • 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.
• Audacious Charge and  Three Talon Strike can kill a tower very quickly in late game, as long as there are enough minions around to keep it from targeting  Xin Zhao. However, if building AP, Xin Zhao's heal lets him sustain from tower attacks even without minions around him.
• Xin Zhao has good sustain with Determination. This leads to a relatively safer laning phase than other melee champions. Going for a last hit on a minion at the expense of taking an autoattack is generally more acceptable on Xin Zhao than it is for other melee champions.
• 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.
• Audacious Charge can be used to break or at least trigger shields to get their duration running.
• Xin Zhao pushes relatively quickly due to the autoattack reset and extra damage from Three Talon Strike and the AoE damage from Audacious Charge and  Wind Becomes Lightning. This can be used to quickly push minion waves to the enemy tower, and then open up opportunities for Xin Zhao to roam to mid or bot.
• Xin Zhao has a slightly faster turning and autoattack animation than many champions, so using Flash to reposition behind an enemy during an all-out exchange can net you a slight advantage in damage output, which can mean the difference between a kill and a death.
• Xin Zhao has good sustain with Determination. He can do his first clear of the jungle camps at near full health without the use of potions. Thus, he can save his potions for use in the event that his jungle is invaded.
• Starting with and clearing Blue Sentinel will ensure Xin Zhao is near full health and mana for a Level 3 gank if necessary. Starting with and clearing Red Brambleback will instead give Xin Zhao's first gank extra damage and an extra slow at the expense of being low on mana. Getting double buffs will give the best of both worlds, at the expense of longer clear times due to the distance between the two.
• It is generally advisable to gank at Level 3 with Xin Zhao to apply pressure on the lanes and help your teammates or yourself snowball. Mid lane or top lane are both decently gankable at Level 3, since those lanes are often played with champions that snowball quite heavily. Bot lane champions will usually be playing it safe, but can also be ganked if the enemy champions overextend. The goal of such a gank is to get a kill. At the very least it will definitely burn Summoner Spells, but ganking for that sole purpose is inefficient.
• If there are no gank opportunities at Level 3, then it is generally better to Recall and get the other half of your jungle item rather than continue farming, so that Xin Zhao doesn't fall behind in experience.
• Make it a habit of ganking from behind the enemy rather than from the side. Doing so ensures that Xin Zhao can save Audacious Charge for when the enemy uses an escape ability or Flash, since they would have to get past Xin Zhao to get back to the safety of their turret. Ganking from the side gives the enemy too much warning, and puts Xin Zhao in a position where the enemy can more easily get past him.

Mastery Usage

Item Usage

• Xin Zhao is a natural fighter with a strong reliance on autoattacks and an excellent attack speed steroid; consequently, items that grant attack damage, such as The Bloodthirster, work well with him. Despite having a large attack speed steroid it is generally accepted that Blade of the Ruined King is a better item for him than a Bloodthirster because he is highly auto attack dependent.
• Attack speed items like Phantom Dancer allow Xin Zhao to heal from Determination's passive more often, increasing his survivability, and triggers Three Talon Strike's knock-up more quickly.
  • If you're in need of some Magic Resistance, Wit's End is a very good item for him.
• Items that offer attack damage and attack speed together are excellent choices for Xin Zhao.
  • The Black Cleaver's passive armor reduction along with Challenge can grant Xin Zhao massive armor shredding power against squishy targets along with high cooldown reduction.
  • Trinity Force is an especially useful item to Xin Zhao. The attack damage of the item increases his overall DPS, and he benefits well from the attack speed, movement speed and Phage procs. His high base attack damage mean he can also proc Sheen for massive damage.
• For jungle item enchantment, Xin Zhao can get either Warrior or Bloodrazor based on what his team needs. If he needs to be a stronger early game champion because his team comp scales better into the late game, Warrior is usually the better item. If the enemy team has a lot of high health champions he should get Bloodrazor.
• Spirit Visage is essential on a bruiser Xin Zhao build due to the healing on Determination.
• Frozen Mallet is an excellent health item for Xin Zhao, and the slow is extremely helpful in preventing your target from kiting you.
• Cooldown reduction and attack speed items are doubly effective on Xin Zhao due to the flat CDR on Three Talon Strike. This means that items like Zeal synergize well with him.
• Ravenous Hydra is a great item to increase survivability, as the damage and life steal can be enough to keep Xin Zhao alive during heated fights, especially if there are enough minions around for him to feed on.
• AP Xin Zhao can work due to the AP ratio on Determination. With sufficient AP, Xin Zhao can heal himself for tons of HP on every third autoattack. Nashor's Tooth works well with this build due to providing on-hit magic damage that also has synergy with Determination.  Guinsoo's Rageblade is also effective, due to its' passive increasing the frequency of  Determination procs.
  • Audacious Charge also scales with AP, allowing Xin Zhao to deal good burst, especially if he buys Lich Bane.
  • By going AP, Xin Zhao has excellent sustain and can often 1v1 even towers by late-game. But since he is melee, Xin Zhao may still have to build some tanky items, such as Randuin's Omen or Rod of Ages.

Countering

• Xin Zhao is very vulnerable to kiting when his Audacious Charge is on cooldown.
• Try to CC Xin Zhao when he is attacking you or your ally, The crowd control effect can turn the tide of the battle to your allies' favor.
• Build armor items to mitigate his damage as Xin Zhao mainly deals physical damage.
• When engaging Xin Zhao, Try to split with your allies to reduce the damage he will do with  Crescent Guard.
  • Keep in mind, while Challenged you can not get knocked back from Crescent Guard. This makes him less effective 1v1 after he used Three Talon Strike
• Frozen Heart is a great counter to Xin Zhao, since it reduces damage through armor,and reduces his attack speed, which is central to his damage output.
  • Thornmail is a great alternative, as the grievous wounds will lower the amount he heals.
• Avoid stacking health without armor as Crescent Guard deals physical damage based on a percent of your current health.
• Stay with your allies when fighting Xin Zhao, he can only knock up one target at a time.
• Xin Zhao is a melee champion. Harassing him with long range spells/autoattacks when he goes to last hit minions will ensure that he has to pay the price for getting farm.
• Punishing Xin Zhao if he uses Audacious Charge to farm minions will generally result in a favorable trade. He has just used a large part of his damage on minions instead of you, and thus has reduced trading damage.
• Don't rely heavily on your shield to mitigate Xin Zhao's damage. Xin Zhao has relatively low mana costs and low cooldowns, which he can use to break/trigger your shield duration.
• Xin Zhao pushes relatively quickly and thus opens himself up to ganks from your jungler. Ping for help and play passively in order to lure Xin Zhao into overextending.
• Pushing the waves toward his turret will force Xin Zhao to farm under it, giving you an opportunity to roam.
• Xin Zhao has very safe clears, but does not have very fast clears. Use junglers that can farm faster than Xin Zhao to gain an advantage. Counterjungling Xin Zhao is dangerous since he has high early game damage and clears the jungle at near full health.
• Many a Xin Zhao will start Red Brambleback for the extra damage and extra slow for that Level 3 gank. Stealing his Crest of Insight will not overly inconvenience him but it will benefit you.
• Xin Zhao will generally gank at Level 2 or 3. Your midlaner and toplaner should be careful not to overextend during this period.
• Make a habit of warding the common entrances to your lanes. Doing so will at least ensure you have ample warning when Xin Zhao comes to gank.