Xin Zhao has become a somewhat surprisingly popular pick amongst professional junglers at the League of Legends World Championship 2021. Coming out of seemingly nowhere, Xin Zhao has managed to creep his way into the limelight, becoming one of the most highly contested champions so far. Today, we'll take a look at what makes Xin Zhao outshine others in the role and check out how some of the pros like to play him.
**Abilities**
Determination is Xin Zhao's passive. He gains stacks of Determination for every Wind Becomes Lightning or basic attack he lands. After gaining two stacks, his next basic attack or Wind Becomes Lightning strike will heal him and deal damage to his target.
For his Q, Three Talon Strike, Xin Zhao empowers his next three basic attacks, each dealing bonus damage and reducing the cooldown of his other abilities. The third strike will also knock the target airborne.
Wind Becomes Lightning is Xin's W. Xin Zhao slashes his spear in an arc, damaging all enemies hit, before thrusting it forwards. Any enemies struck by the thrust are slowed and are considered 'challenged'. We'll touch on that in the next ability.
Audacious Charge allows Xin Zhao to dash to his target, dealing damage in an area and slowing any enemy hit. Xin also gains bonus attack speed upon casting Audacious Charge. Audacious Charge's range is dramatically increased against challenged targets.
Crescent Guard is Xin Zhao's ultimate. Sweeping his spear around him, Xin Zhao damages and knocks back all non-challenged enemies and stunning them for a short duration. He also creates an area around himself, becoming invulnerable to enemies outside of the area.
**Skill Max Order**
Wind Becomes Lightning should be prioritised first. The damage increase and cooldown reduction makes it the most worthwhile skill to max first, to aid with not only jungle clearing but also ganking and skirmishing in the early to mid game.
Audacious Charge is maxed second. The AoE damage and attack speed provided are too valuable to leave for later than this. Having such a long ranged dash when targeting a challenged target, while also having a slow attached to it, makes Audacious Charge a very strong ability.
This means that Three Talon Strike is left to last. With a somewhat lacking damage scaling and relatively small cooldown reduction per level, the ability just doesn't offer enough to consider maxing out any sooner.
As always, points should be placed into Crescent Guard at levels six, 11, and 16.
**Runes**
Conqueror is the only keystone rune that our pros have been using on Xin Zhao, so it's safe to say that's his best option. Triumph is also a popular choice, being taken in almost every match, with some diversity from there onwards.
Legend: Tenacity seems to be the go-to choice against heavy crowd control centric team compositions, whereas Legend: Alacrity is popular when the opposing team has less lockdown options. Last Stand and Coup De Grace are interchangeable depending on personal preference. One other thing that is consistent is the secondary runes taken – Inspiration with Cosmic Insight and Magical Footwear are picked every game.
**Item Build**
If you've been playing League of Legends as of late, you'll know that a large majority of the champions have been favouring a specific bruiser build, combining the powerful passives from Sterak's Gage with the mythic item Goredrinker. Xin Zhao is one of those champions who benefits greatly from this build. Let's take a look at how Fnatic's jungler Gabriël "Bwipo" Rau played Xin Zhao in his most recent game against Hanwa Life Esports at the 2021 World Championship.
He starts off by purchasing his jungle item, Emberknife, along with a refillable potion. A few minutes later, Bwipo recalls and purchases a Pickaxe. This will be soon completed into an Ironspike Whip, the first component for his mythic item, Goredrinker. He grabs a Phage, and after that, a Kindlegem, and after obtaining all of the components, Bwipo can finally finish his Goredrinker. The passive and active effects granted by Goredrinker will grant him more damage and sustain in team fights.
The opposing team comp is heavily reliant on crowd control, so he grabs a pair of Mercury's Treads and, realising that the majority of the incoming damage is AD, Bwipo decides to skip Sterak's Gage for now and opts for a Randuin's Omen. Randuin's grants the Rock Solid passive, reducing incoming damage from basic attacks. With Hanwha's team being very basic attack focused, this is a great item to deal with their team. The active effect, Humility, will allow Bwipo to slow all nearby enemies for a huge amount while also reducing their attack and critical strike damage.
Once he is done with Randuin's Omen, Bwipo begins to focus on his next core item, Sterak's Gage. Upon reaching 30 percent health, Sterak's Gage grants a shield based on your base AD. A few recalls and component purchases later, he has his core combo of Goredrinker and Sterak's Gage. This item power spike is incredibly strong and difficult to deal with for the enemies.
He follows up by purchasing a Stopwatch which is generally good for the Stasis active, allowing him to survive for a little bit longer. This would have been built into a Guardian Angel for the revive passive granted upon taking lethal damage, making sure he would have been harder to get rid of in team fights.
**Early Game**
Xin Zhao has a relatively quick early jungle clear, and is also one of the strongest early game junglers in terms of ganking and skirmishing power. The best way to play Xin is to clear your jungle camps and attempt to make an early gank when you see an opportunity to force a flash or get a kill.
Xin has the ability to outright kill the opposing jungle in a 1v1 situation, so don't be afraid to contest for a scuttle crab, but beware of the surrounding lanes – you could quickly find yourself outnumbered and killed.
**Team Fights**
Xin Zhao can be quite disruptive in a team fight. He has the ability to knock around the entire enemy team and stop them from damaging him with Crescent Guard. He also can close the distance on and get onto his chosen target if he can challenge mark them. This being the case, Xin Zhao can be played as either a peeler, a pseudo-assassin, or a general bruiser.
How you choose to team fight depends on the state of the game and the team comps. If you can easily get onto one of the opposing carries, and are strong enough to kill them quickly, then following a challenged mark to them and casting Crescent Guard to knock their team away could be a good way to seal the deal in a deciding team fight. While this is possible, you'll generally be acting as a frontline barrier, stopping your opponents from getting on top of your carries and keeping the opponents focused on you rather than them.
