How to Play the New Xin Zhao in LoL
Xin Zhao is a prominent Jungler in League of Legends and has been dominating Solo Queue for some time now. He is a fantastic Jungler as he has a good mix of ganking and duelling tools, which makes him a perfect pick for anyone who wants to climb in LoL. He is also pretty simple to play, which is ideal for players who might not be mechanically gifted.
The Seneschal of Demacia was first released in 2010, which makes him one of the oldest champions in the game, as he was released back in Season 1- way before many players had even heard of League of Legends.
Here at Mobalytics, we try out best to stay up to date with the latest champion changes and provide information on how to play every champion when they are released or reworked, so in today’s article, we will be bringing you a beginner’s guide to playing Xin Zhao in LoL.
If you want to learn how to play any other champion in LoL, make sure you head over to our Mobalytics Champion Pages.
Xin Zhao Ability Breakdown
Xin Zhao’s Passive is Determination
Every third attack deals bonus damage and heals Xin Zhao.
Xin Zhao’s Q is Three Talon Strike
Xin Zhao’s next 3 standard attacks deal increased damage, with the third attack knocking an opponent into the air.
Xin Zhao’s W is Wind Becomes Lightning
Xin Zhao slashes in front of himself with his spear, then thrusts it forward, slowing affected enemies and marking them.
Xin Zhao’s E is Audacious Charge
Xin Zhao charges to an enemy, gaining increased AS and dealing damage and slowing to all enemies in the area. His E range is increased if the target is marked.
Xin Zhao’s Ultimate is Crescent Guard
Xin Zhao challenges an enemy he damaged recently. Xin Zhao deals damage to nearby enemies and knocks non-challenged targets back, preventing damage dealt by champions outside of the Ultimate radius.
Best Xin Zhao Runes and Build
Learning what each champion does is one thing, but learning how to build them is another. This is currently the best build and Rune setup for Xin Zhao. It maximizes his damage output while making him somewhat tanky. This is key for Xin Zhao, and getting full build on him will make you a huge threat to any enemy. You can get this Xin Zhao build and the Rune Page imported directly into your client by downloading the Mobalytics App.
Balance Farming and Fighting
Xin Zhao has a very fast clear speed and can take camps quickly and quite healthily. But you don’t want to be just farming when playing Xin Zhao. Xin is a strong ganker, so you need to be looking to find a balance between farming and ganking your allies. A good rule of thumb is to keep an eye on the mini map at all times and gank your allies when the enemy is overextended.
You need to be clearing your camps and taking them whenever they’re up, and while they’re down and refreshing, you need to be looking to gank your allies and get objectives. You must not ignore your camps in the later stages of the early game, as you still need your Smite stacks.
Focus those Objectives
When your jungle camps are down and there are no gankable lanes, you should try to take objectives around the map. The Grubs are really important for every team, so I would prioritise taking those first. You can get these alone quite early on in the game, so don’t be afraid to try your luck and take them. If you’re not in a position to take them, you could gank top or mid, and then rotate to it afterwards with their help, but this isn’t always necessary.
You should gank your allies in the bottom lane, or get priority in this lane and try to take the Dragon. Dragons are also very important for Junglers as this provides buffs for your whole team. Depending on the enemy Jungler, you might be able to fight them for the Dragon if you’re not in a position to take it alone. Make sure it is warded at all times, and take the bot side scuttle whenever it’s up so you keep it warded.
Gank often
Xin Zhao is a very strong ganker, so you’ll want to be looking for ganking opportunities whenever possible. You should look to gank your allies that have a lot of CC tools, as this makes it easier for you to gank them, as they can lock the enemy down.
Another thing to look out for is enemies that are pushing your allies under their tower as they’re overextended, which provides you with more time to chase the enemy down, which increases the chances of killing your opponents.
Make sure you also switch to a Sweeping Lens early on as it will help you spot wards and deny vision. Oh, and don’t forget Control Wards!
However, like we said earlier, you need to find a balance between ganking and farming. You shouldn’t just be ganking, otherwise you’ll fall behind in XP and Gold, regardless if you get kills or not.
Xin Zhao Jungle Route
Here is the best current Jungle route for Xin Zhao in the current Season of LoL. You’ll want to take this at level 1 if you’re the blue team. Just flip this around if you are starting as the red team. Alternatively, check out Xin Zhao’s Jungle route on Xin Zhao’s Champion Page.
Xin Zhao Synergy
We will now discuss 4 champions that work well with Xin Zhao. When the two of them are played together, you will heavily increase your chances of winning games and getting kills.
There are a lot of other champions that work well with Xin Zhao that haven’t made our list, but as long as your allies have CC tools, strong follow-up and all-in, and champions that can engage, then the two of them can be good together.
Nautilus
Nautilus provides a lot of CC tools and is really tanky. In the laning phase, he can use his Q to start the fight, and post 6 he can lock the enemy down with his Ultimate.
How to play Nautilus
- Guide
- Counters
- Combos
Renekton
Renekton is a strong duelist who is also very strong in the early game. He also has a CC tool with his W, so as long as Renekton isn’t constantly pushing, the two of them can snowball through Top.
How to play Renekton
- Guide
- Counters
- Combos
Twisted Fate
Twisted Fate has great gank set-up with his Yellow Card, which can help Xin Zhao close the gap and kill the enemy. Post 6, the two of them can gank the side lanes together and overwhelm the enemy too. TF can also assist Xin Zhao if he is fighting the enemy Jungler alone.
How to play Twisted Fate
- Guide
- Counters
- Combos
Ahri
Ahri has good follow-up and all-in potential. Her Charm is a good tool at CCing the enemy laner, so she can set him up to gank her. Ahri is also a strong roamer so she can team up with Xin to gank other lanes.
How to play Ahri
- Guide
- Counters
- Combos
In Conclusion
That about sums up our article on how to play the new Xin Zhao. It is nice to see Riot updating champions who have been in the game for 10+ years as many of them are pretty outdated when you compare them to some newer champions like Smolder, Aurora or Yunara.
Level up your gameplay by checking outMobalytics’ Champion Pages for tips and tricks to help you climb.
