Please verify that you are not a bot to cast your vote.
Not Updated For Current Season
This guide has not yet been updated for the current season. Please keep this in mind while reading. You can see the most recently updated guides on the browse guides page
Dodge, this has to be one of the most annoying mathups, she's going to harass you to death over and over, try and kill her level 2, but I would probably just dodge.
Lux
Minute you hit level 2 this is first blood almost 99.9% of the time.
Yasuo
In the hands of a Yasuo one trick this lane can be hard, in the hands of anyone else you can win.
Katarina
Can be annoying depending on the Kat player, but you win this most of the time, she can't match your early game damage.
Brand
He can become annoying but just go on him the first 3 levels and try and avoid his poke.
Karthus
He's garbage against you and can do nothing to you, free win.
Ahri
Fairly even, you have the advantage early levels.
Karma
Be very aggro early levels, as the lane goes on she just pokes you down and it gets really annoying.
Ziggs
You dumpster this scrub, play very aggro once you hit level 2.
Akali
She has high mobility, really annoying harass, and her shroud is complete bulls***. Essentially, when her shroud is down, try and engage, but this is another example of trying to look for roams as much as possible.
Annie
Don't fight her when she has stun at 6, and you're pretty much golden.
Azir
I'm going to put this as even, but it can be major depending on the Azir player, his range can be a pain in your ass, and his ult is good at disengaging and putting space between you. This is a skill matchup for the most part.
Diana
Nothing really to note, can go either way, but you should win.
Ekko
I hate this champion, I would put him as extreme, but early levels you have the advantage and if you get a lead you should be good if you don't do anything to stupid.
Ezreal
Annoying mobility and harass, if he uses his E go in on him.
Fizz
Fizz can be really annoying, his jump allows a lot of ability to outplay you. If he misses his E (Jump) or misses his ult, go in on him.
Kassadin
You're a power house early and Kass is a little B**** early.
Anivia
Another champion I hate, a lot of range and harass, she counters most of what you do, try and kill her level 2 or 3, after that look to roam a lot.
LeBlanc
A lot of mobility, but she's fairly easy to burst down.
Orianna
Annoying, but winnable, try to stay on the opposite side of her ball.
Quinn
Pokes you down, easy for her to disengage you and then just go back to harassing you.
Pantheon
This is mostly about playing around Pantheons empowered abilities, when they're down play aggressive, when they're up wait for him to waste them on the wave or miss you.
Vel'Koz
Dodge this matchup, he dumpsters you, every ability just destroys everything you're attempting to do. range and poke are just to high. In theory if you're good at dodging most of his abilities then you can beat him.
Twisted Fate
He can't deal with your early game damage.
Zed
About even, skill matchup.
Zyra
Really annoying poke and harass, another example of trying to be aggressive early levels.
Viktor
Skill matchup.
Veigar
You dumpster him as long as you don't get stunned.
Mordekaiser
You have an advantage pre 6, as long as you avoid most of his Q's, but he starts to win once he gets 6, even if he's behind so don't play carelessly.
Morgana
Her shield + stun can make it difficult to stick to her, so engage when they're down.
Heimerdinger
Not really much to stay, try and take down his little turrets and go in on him, you only really need to get rid of one turret and when he tries to stop you go in on him, play really aggressive pre 6.
Xerath
Fairly easy to dodge, when he can't handle you once you engage on him.
Sylas
You win maybe the first 3 levels, but he eventually just starts smacking you regardless of whether you got a lead or not, you really have to absolutely stomp him and freeze hard and keep him from farm if you have a lead, slow push and look to snowball the rest of the game and lanes.
Malphite
AP Malphite dumpsters you, again like other champions you have strength early, try and use it, but once he gets 6 it gets really hard especially with his W giving him free armor and his passive shield.
Malzahar
Easy, another play aggro matchup. Poke down his shield with your W then engage on him.
Syndra
Really annoying, she can push you away quite a lot, and her ult melts you. Play aggressive early, try and snowball, if not roam a lot.
Aurelion Sol
You counter's Sol's main weakness, you get in close and he does almost no damage, easy win.
Swain
He can be a little annoying, but this is farily simple mathup, don't fight him when he ults.
Riven
I'm going to say even, but only if it's a good Riven, most Riven's you win the matchup.
Samira
If she goes mid, she is so squishy you just obliterate her.
Galio
Not to much to say, fight him when his taunts down.
Neeko
To much cc, range, damage, play safe and try to roam.
Pyke
You out damage and out sustain pyke at every level.
Yone
Not much to say, skill match up, but generally you win.
Qiyana
Can be a deadly match up, shes really broken, if she uses anything and doesn't get you, engage on her.
Talon
His Q can be annoying but if you engage on him he losses, and normally has to ult.
Seraphine
Haven't had this matchup to put to much here, but it seems to be that your early power is to much, but she does have annoying harass.
Ryze
He's really annoying, especially with Phase, you basically want to get him at level 2 and just keep stomping him.
Zoe
I'm going to put Zoe as Minor but she can be under "even" because of her mobility and damage, but honestly she's so squishy early you should be able to get first blood and then snowball.
Soraka
She keeps you alive, to the point where you can be practically unkillable. very tilting for the other team.
Taric
His CC + Ult are a Xin Zhaos wet dream.
Yorick
This one might seem a bit strange, but actually Yorick is a great split pusher & a good team fighter, he's really great to have on your team, if he's splitting and so are you they have to divide so much to stop the two of you, if you're in a team fight together, I mean good lord I feel bad for the other team.
Lulu
Buffs everything you do.
Leona
Her CC and tankiness are very valuable especially in team fights and or in getting picks.
Shen
Shen is very helpful when you get in a bind with his ult, he's really good and helping you win fights, get picks or helping you split.
Amumu
Is tanky and has good CC.
Malphite
A good ult + your follow up can win a game.
Synergies
IdealStrongOkLowNone
Soraka
She keeps you alive, to the point where you can be practically unkillable. very tilting for the other team.
Taric
His CC + Ult are a Xin Zhaos wet dream.
Yorick
This one might seem a bit strange, but actually Yorick is a great split pusher & a good team fighter, he's really great to have on your team, if he's splitting and so are you they have to divide so much to stop the two of you, if you're in a team fight together, I mean good lord I feel bad for the other team.
Lulu
Buffs everything you do.
Leona
Her CC and tankiness are very valuable especially in team fights and or in getting picks.
Shen
Shen is very helpful when you get in a bind with his ult, he's really good and helping you win fights, get picks or helping you split.
About Me!
Hello my name is Kalaaver on Mobafire and my IGN is Ramesses II! I'm a very experimental player, my favortie part of league is theory crafting builds. What's great is basically season 11 is a giant reset, and it's perfect for someone like me! Anywho, I was playing Xin Zhao mid in ranked in season 10 with great success, I would say he will be even stronger in the new season, so far the orginal build is still very good, but I'm working on some other builds that I will add later! I hope you enjoy my build/guide!
Champion Introduction
Abilities
Items
Xin Zhao - Mid God Melee, Assassin, AD DPS God
Lane Style: Aggresive Roam Strength: Insanely OP Speciality: Delete HP bars. Why Zin Mid? So from my experience, most mid laners can't handle Xin's early game damage,they're very squishy and Xin's level 2 is a first blood most of the time, from that point it's very easy to snowball with lethality items. With Xin's E being a good gap closer and him having absurd damage with his Q especially with lethality he's really hard to deal with for most mid laners pre 6. Even if you're facing a strong level 6 champion it might already be to late and you've already stomped the lane, he's that strong. Even if you don't stomp early, and perhaps you're being harassed, you have very good built in sustain, and one roam or gank can get you ahead and rolling.
Pros & Cons
Pros
→ Insane early game damage. → Easy to snowball. → Counters most mid laners. → Good Sustain. → High Burst and DPS. → Fairly easy to learn.
Cons
→ Easy to gank. → Can fall off. → Weak to heavy CC. → Fairly Squishy. → Struggles against high range poke. → Lower mobility then other assassins.
Runes
DOMINATION
You're going to take Hail of Blades every game, it is the best rune on him because it synergizes with Determination and Three Talon Strike and it's going to allow you to burst down enemies really really quickly. Other runes just won't work as good for what you will be building, Press the Attack just isn't as good as Hail of Blades and Conqueror isn't as bursty as we want. You will be surpised by how strong Hail of Blades really is, I've tried other runes and nothing really compares.
So Eyeball Collection is simply there to help with you snowballing and give some more AD as you might need to build some lower AD defnsive items if need be .
Okay so this last one might seem a bit strange, I know there are people reading this guide going, why arent going going Relentless Hunter as it would be better for roaming? So though I agree that Relentless Hunter is very good for roaming or even good for trying to rush to a fight to help your team/team mates, but I have found that Ultimate Hunter ends up being better in the long run as your ult is much needed later into the game, especially when you go in on a teamfight, having your ult on a lower CD allowing it to be up more allows you to win fights you might not otherwise win. You can still roam and snowball without Relentless Hunter it's just not as fast :)
Items
DUSKBLADE
VS
ECLIPSE
You will go Duskblade most of the time, the new Duskblade of Draktharr is perfect for our assassin Xin, as it now grants invisibility after a kill, so as soon as you nuke an HP bar it's hard to focus you especially in a team fight, and with your sustain even if you were fairly low, the invis gives you time to engage and or dis-engage and heal back.
Eclipse is good for tankier comps, you're going to be fighting for a lot longer against tanky champs so Duskblade of Draktharr dosen't serve us as much purpose. Thing to note build this if they have at least two or three DEDICATED tanks.
Lethality
Lethality is going to be your bread and butter, and I'm sorry for Crit lovers, Lethality from a damage perspective is better. Lethality synergizes with so much of your kit and makes your burst damage extremely high, crit is still good just not as good in my experience.
GUARDIAN ANGEL Guardian Angel is core, you will need it, especially late game. You're a melee champ that's fairly squishy, even though you have good sustain you may kill a champ or two and then get bursted down, that's where GA comes in and possibly wins you a game. Other items like Sterak's Gage just aren't as good or worth it, especially in a late game barn burner.
YOUMUU'S GHOSTBLADE
Ghostblade is defintely another core item, the amount of lethality + the movement speed it gives you is to much to pass on. It really helps with roaming or chasing down a kill. Youmuu's Ghostblade is the item I used to rush in season 10, there are still times you're going to want to rush it over your mythic, if you're in a match up you struggle with rush ghostblade, you will want to be roaming a lot and may need to bonus movement speed if your jungler ganks you, and its also 200 gold cheaper then your mythic.
Berserker's Greaves
Now this is another item that might seem strange, and some may wonder why you wouldn't grab more value from defensive options like Plated Steelcaps or Mercury's Treads, though sometimes those can be solid options, more often then not the value you get from Berserker's Greaves is higher, the reason being that you actually get more from having more attack speed, as the only source of attack speed after Hail of Blades and your E Audacious Charge are down is Blade of the Ruined King. Now it's more valuable to #1 be able to still have some DPS after those are down, and #2 to proc our passive Determination as much as possible.
LANE PHASE - PHASE ONE: BECOMING GODLY
When you're in lane the minute you're level 2, you should be looking to enage, when playing Xin mid, you out damage most champions in the game level 2. E-Q on them then ignite and most champs will be dead, make sure not to push hard early, you don't want to push them to turret, this makes it hard to get your early cheese kill, and makes you susceptible to a gank. If you're playing against a hard match up or the enemy laner is playing vary passive, try and slow push, and roam bot, these can be very easy kills and make you snowball very hard. You can roam top if it looks free but more often then not it's easiter to get kills bot. BE VERY AWARE OF THE MAP! You're mid, you can easily help your jungler kill the enemy jungler, this happens quite a lot. Their jungler might be in river fighting over scuttle or he might be invading your jungler, either way pay attention, if any of this happens from level 1- 5 even if your enemy laner comes to help you're the stronger champion.
MID GAME - PHASE TWO: DEMIGOD
At this point in the game one of two things should be happening based on what's happned, if you're behind or haven't gotten fed, you mostly want to look for picks and split, with this build you melt towers, and you don't want to team fight if you're behind. If you're fed and have reached demigod status then you're well on your way to becoming a cosmic god. What you want to be doing if you're ahead is getting every possible objective or contesting it, you melt objectives, you also want to be in the team fights if you're fed, as your team will most likely need you. If your team has a weaker comp then the enemy, then you can split, if they come to fight you, most of the time you can easily 2v1.
LATE GAME - PHASE THREE: COSMIC GOD
Late game, this is where most assume you fall off a bit, but with my build you're actually way stronger then you think, you will be dealing pretty crazy damage to tanks, and you just completely delete squishys, you can become a bit of a 1v9 machine, if you have a decent comp, if you do not, split and destroy anyone who dares try and stop you. You want to try and prioritize elder drag over baron if possible, this is an easy way for you to try and end as Xin.
THANK YOU!
Thank you for checking out my guide on Xin Zhao! Have fun desroying solo que! I will be adding more to this guide in the future, such as, more critical builds + explanations, more item explanations and a skills section! Hope you enjoyed, and have fun on the rift!
You must be logged in to comment. Please login or register.