Welcome to the Xin Zhao, the Seneschal of Demacia, Sneak Peek Champion Spotlight, presented by Riot Games
Xin Zhao can be played as a tank or melee DPS, but the build I chose for this spotlight is a jungle tank build. First let’s demonstrate his various abilities.
His first spell is Three Talon Strike. You get a buff, causing your next 3 attacks will deal bonus damage. The third attack will knock your opponent into the air, disabling him for a short time.
Second is Battle Cry, giving you attack speed passively, and a bonus when activated. While Battle Cry is in its active state, every attack he makes lowers the cooldowns on his other abilities
by one second. Battle Cry has great synergy with his first skill, since you can quickly refresh the cooldown and use the attack speed to knock up your opponent faster.
Next Xin Zhao can cast Audacious Charge, which quickly dashes to an enemy, dealing damage and briefly slowing movement to the target and nearby enemies.
Xin Zhao’s ultimate is Crescent Sweep. It’s a simple low-cooldown ultimate that deals heavy damage in an area around him,
hitting for a percentage of each target’s current health plus a base amount. Additionally, Xin Zhao gains armor and magic resist for a short time.
His passive is Tireless Warrior, which heals Xin Zhao on every third attack he makes.
My rune page has attack speed marks, which empower his first two skills, and standard tank runes: dodge seals, flat magic resist glyphs, and flat health quintessences.
My masteries follow 9/21/0: Improved Smite and physical damage talents in offense, with standard jungling masteries in defense.
I take Smite and Flash as summoner spells, which allows me to jungle and escape or initiate fights easier.
Start out jungling at the Golem, with Three Talon Strike, an Elixir of Agility, and 5 health potions.
Finish the Wolf camp just below, learning Battle Cry.
Afterwards, you’ll have Smite up in time to finish the Lizard camp at around 3 minutes 40 seconds – less than 2 minutes to acquire both buffs and start ganking.
I learn Audacious Charge, which allows me to quickly close the distance to gank.
Immediately after acquiring both buffs, gank mid or bottom. With both champions at bottom significantly pushed up,
I’m able to easily close behind Rammus. Notice that I save Audacious Charge for his inevitable escape attempt.
I head to gank mid afterwards. I probably could have killed Dr. Mundo, but I make the mistake of Flashing while still exhausted.
Instead, I could have waited for it to time out and just Flashed into the brush to kill him.
I dive Malzahar at top with my teammate, Alistar. Here’s an incredibly important trick to use with Xin Zhao: Audacious Charge slows in an area around the target you choose.
I’m not in range of Malzahar, but the Purple Caster Minion is. The slow allows me to land Three Talon Strike, which lets Alistar catch up as well.
Later in the game I head to gank Malzahar in mid. Notice that I run to cut him off, as opposed to following him like Nasus.
If you can, always chase an enemy through multiple paths. As Malzahar Flashes away from Nasus, I’m already in range to kill him.
I head to kill Dragon with my team. While our opponents gank us, I know that I can kill it quickly with Smite. Also Dragon is worth about 2 champion kills in gold and experience,
so if you can spare the time, make the effort to finish it off. From there, I simply choose the weakest targets first: Dr. Mundo, Morgana, Rammus, then Malphite with Audacious Charge again.
We start a large fight near mid lane. Crescent Sweep and Three Talon Strike evaporate Morgana and Dr. Mundo.
After disabling Rammus with Three Talon Strike, I retreat away from Malphite with Flash.
I notice that both Malzahar and Annie are running out of mana, so I dive back in knowing I need to help get the kill, but also that Malzahar has no chance of killing me.
Nasus and I attempt to gank Morgana and Dr. Mundo in their jungle. However, we make the grave mistake of sticking around way too long.
The rest of our team is nowhere nearby while our enemies pile on top of us to save their friends. When fighting in enemy territory, you need to know when to retreat.
We get ganked while attempting to kill Baron Nashor. I use Audacious Charge to slow him for my team, and wait to use Crescent Sweep until I can hit at least two targets.
I help keep Malzahar disabled with Three Talon Strike.
As we chase our opponents across the map, I Flash to use Randuin’s Omen, letting us catch up to Malphite a little easier.
Malphite initiates on us, but I don’t take the bait. I wait for Morgana to enter the picture, jump on her with Audacious Charge, Crescent Sweep,
and finish the deal with Three Talon Strike. Turning on Battle Cry, I head for Dr. Mundo, and keep him slowed with Audacious Charge.
As Rammus tries to get away, I keep him pinned with Three Talon Strike, and then Charge as soon as it’s ready.
Thanks for tuning into the Xin Zhao Champion Spotlight. Pick him up today, and head to the arena!