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"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Strategy is highly subjective and may become outdated without any notice.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.


Champion Spotlight[]

Recommended Items[]

Summoner's Rift
Starting Doran's Blade item Health Potion item Warding Totem item
Early Serrated Dirk item Sheen item Boots of Speed item
Essential Mercury's Treads item Trinity Force item Youmuu's Ghostblade item
Offensive Death's Dance item Maw of Malmortius item Blade of the Ruined King item
Defensive Dead Man's Plate item Spirit Visage item Randuin's Omen item
Consumables Health Potion item Control Ward item Elixir of Wrath item
Summoner's Rift (Jungler)
Starting Hunter's Machete item Refillable Potion item3 Warding Totem item
Early Skirmisher's Sabre item Caulfield's Warhammer item Boots of Speed item
Essential Skirmisher's Sabre (Warrior) item Mercury's Treads item Trinity Force item
Offensive Sterak's Gage item Youmuu's Ghostblade item Guinsoo's Rageblade item
Defensive Dead Man's Plate item Spirit Visage item Guardian Angel item
Consumables Health Potion item Control Ward item Elixir of Wrath item
Twisted Treeline
Starting Boots of Speed item Doran's Blade item Health Potion item2
Essential Mercury's Treads item The Black Cleaver item Serrated Dirk item
Offensive Blade of the Ruined King item Youmuu's Ghostblade item Trinity Force item
Defensive Spirit Visage item Sunfire Cape item Randuin's Omen item
Consumables Health Potion item Elixir of Wrath item
Twisted Treeline (Jungler)
Starting Hunter's Machete item Hunter's Talisman item Health Potion item3
Essential Stalker's Blade (Warrior) item Berserker's Greaves item
Offensive Youmuu's Ghostblade item Blade of the Ruined King item The Black Cleaver item
Defensive Maw of Malmortius item Dead Man's Plate item Spirit Visage item
Consumables Health Potion item Elixir of Wrath item
Howling Abyss
Starting Boots of Speed item Caulfield's Warhammer item
Essential Mercury's Treads item Serrated Dirk item The Black Cleaver item
Offensive Trinity Force item Youmuu's Ghostblade item Blade of the Ruined King item
Defensive Frozen Mallet item Sunfire Cape item Frozen Heart item
Consumables Oracle's Extract item Health Potion item Elixir of Wrath item

Tips[]

Playing As Xin Zhao Xin Zhao
  • Xin Zhao Xin Zhao is a great initiator to combat. Lead the front to start a fight and use your ultimate ultimate to do the most damage possible.
  • Try to position yourself so your ultimate's ultimate's Airborne icon knockback is most effective.
Playing Against Xin Zhao Xin Zhao
  • Xin Zhao Xin Zhao is a powerful initiator with both his charge charge and ultimate ultimate dealing damage to all units around him. Try having your team stay spread out until he's used his ultimate ultimate.
  • Xin Zhao Xin Zhao relies heavily on his Three Talon Strike Three Talon Strike for damage and cooldown resets, so preventing him from finishing his combo will have a dramatic effect.

Tricks[]

Ability Usage
  • Determination Determination heals Xin Zhao 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 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 Audacious Charge is great for taking down turrets and minion waves, whilst also being extremely effective while jungling.
  • Audacious Charge 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 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 Banshee's Veil, you will want to auto-attack them at least once before using Crescent Guard Crescent Guard in order to apply the Challenge Challenge debuff so that they aren't knocked away from you.
  • Try using Crescent Guard Crescent Guard where it will hit the most enemy champions.
  • Xin Zhao Xin Zhao is a great initiator. Lunge at a target with Audacious Charge Audacious Charge and use Crescent Guard 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 Crescent Guard as this will cause them to be Challenged Challenged, separating them from their teammates.
  • Xin Zhao Xin Zhao is a formidable ambush ganker. Three Talon Strike Three Talon Strike makes it very hard to immediately escape from him and deals high initial damage, and Audacious Charge Audacious Charge makes it so that even targets with escapes can be chased effectively.
  • Audacious Charge Audacious Charge slows the enemy enough to be able to land your Three Talon Strike Three Talon Strike with almost complete success if they have no blink or dash ability, guaranteeing the knock up.
  • Xin Zhao Xin Zhao is a good jungler with Determination's Determination's passive effect and a great ganker with Audacious Charge Audacious Charge and Three Talon Strike 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 Ghost and Flash Flash (or abilities such as Arcane Shift Arcane Shift or Rocket Jump 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 Audacious Charge to ensure your kill.
    • Crescent Guard 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 Challenged before you do so.
  • Audacious Charge 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 Flash, this can allow Xin Zhao 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 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 Challenged first before using Crescent Guard Crescent Guard as otherwise it will have no effect on them.
  • Audacious Charge Audacious Charge and Three Talon Strike 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 Xin Zhao. However, if building AP, Xin Zhao's heal lets him sustain from tower attacks even without minions around him.
  • Xin Zhao Xin Zhao has good sustain with Determination 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 Xin Zhao than it is for other melee champions.
  • Xin Zhao Xin Zhao can effectively punish an enemy's wasteful ability usage with Audacious Charge Audacious Charge. If the enemy uses their dash or damage spell to farm minions, using Audacious Charge 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 Three Talon Strike on minions, saving the third. When an enemy goes to last hit minions, use Audacious Charge Audacious Charge and perform an autoattack to knock the enemy upwards. This allows Xin Zhao Xin Zhao to get in some free damage.
  • Audacious Charge Audacious Charge can be used to break or at least trigger shields to get their duration running.
  • Xin Zhao Xin Zhao pushes relatively quickly due to the autoattack reset and extra damage from Three Talon Strike Three Talon Strike and the AoE damage from Audacious Charge Audacious Charge and Wind Becomes Lightning Wind Becomes Lightning. This can be used to quickly push minion waves to the enemy tower, and then open up opportunities for Xin Zhao Xin Zhao to roam to mid or bot.
  • Xin Zhao Xin Zhao has a slightly faster turning and autoattack animation than many champions, so using Flash 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 Xin Zhao has good sustain with Determination 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 Blue Sentinel will ensure Xin Zhao Xin Zhao is near full health and mana for a Level 3 gank if necessary. Starting with and clearing Red Brambleback Red Brambleback will instead give Xin Zhao's 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 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 Recall and get the other half of your jungle item rather than continue farming, so that Xin Zhao 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 Xin Zhao can save Audacious Charge Audacious Charge for when the enemy uses an escape ability or Flash Flash, since they would have to get past Xin Zhao 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 Xin Zhao in a position where the enemy can more easily get past him.
Mastery Usage
Item Usage
Countering
  • Xin Zhao Xin Zhao is very vulnerable to kiting when his Audacious Charge Audacious Charge is on cooldown.
  • Try to CC Xin Zhao 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 Xin Zhao mainly deals physical damage.
  • When engaging Xin Zhao Xin Zhao, Try to split with your allies to reduce the damage he will do with Crescent Guard Crescent Guard.
  • Frozen Heart Frozen Heart is a great counter to Xin Zhao Xin Zhao, since it reduces damage through armor,and reduces his attack speed, which is central to his damage output.
    • Thornmail Thornmail is a great alternative, as the grievous wounds will lower the amount he heals.
  • Avoid stacking health without armor as Crescent Guard 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 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 Xin Zhao if he uses Audacious Charge 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 Xin Zhao's damage. Xin Zhao Xin Zhao has relatively low mana costs and low cooldowns, which he can use to break/trigger your shield duration.
  • Xin Zhao 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 Xin Zhao into overextending.
  • Pushing the waves toward his turret will force Xin Zhao Xin Zhao to farm under it, giving you an opportunity to roam.
  • Xin Zhao Xin Zhao has very safe clears, but does not have very fast clears. Use junglers that can farm faster than Xin Zhao Xin Zhao to gain an advantage. Counterjungling Xin Zhao Xin Zhao is dangerous since he has high early game damage and clears the jungle at near full health.
  • Many a Xin Zhao Xin Zhao will start Red Brambleback Red Brambleback for the extra damage and extra slow for that Level 3 gank. Stealing his Crest of Insight Crest of Insight will not overly inconvenience him but it will benefit you.
  • Xin Zhao 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 warding the common entrances to your lanes. Doing so will at least ensure you have ample warning when Xin Zhao Xin Zhao comes to gank.

References[]

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