Overview
A champion that could have been a main character in The Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Xin Zhao is a jungler who loves to take fights, especially when it comes to taking duels. With early game power that translates into some late game utility, he’s a great pick for players who wish to establish tempo early and often. Click here for the latest data on his best builds, including Runes, Items, Summoner Spells, and more.
Keys to Remember About Xin Zhao
He's an early game power house, so you should be looking to either gank, contest neutral objectives, or invade the enemy jungler. Do not play passively or you will get outscaled!
Late game, you can mitigate a lot of damage with your ult if you back out of enemy range -- do not overcommit at this point in the game unless you can still easily one-shot enemy squishies.
Strengths
Because he has mobility and CC in his base kit to go along with strong early game stats and power, he’s one of the best junglers for taking early skirmishes. This means you want to force the issue with him even when you know the enemy jungler is nearby as you’ll usually be stronger -- Scuttle Crabs and neutral objectives should be easy for you to control. Ganking is easy thanks to Audacious Charge [E] allowing you to immediately jump onto an opponent, with Three Talong Strike [Q] being able to knock them up as a follow up. This power translates into mid game, which means you should have control over the major early objectives.
Weaknesses
He doesn’t scale well into end game because he’s lacking when it comes to tankiness, though Crescent Guard [R] gives him some great damage mitigation, especially against opponents who don’t know to stand within his circle if they want to deal damage. That said, the window of invulnerability is small, and once his ult is down, he’s just another melee damage dealer that lacks the damage late game to consistently one-shot his targets unless he’s far ahead. This means if he struggles early, then it’s going to be a long and difficult game without much to look forward to.
Game Plan
Early Game: You will be strong early and then you will slowly get weaker relative to the lobby, so be sure to maximize your time here by looking for as many ganks and objectives as possible. You do not want to passively farm with him!
Mid Game: Continue to build your advantage from early game -- at this point you should be trying to secure Drakes and Rift Heralds whenever they’re up.
Late Game: If you have follow-up damage on dives, you can act as bait to help your teammates secure kills. Otherwise you’ll want to peel back, especially if your R is down, to help peel for your carries.