vs Xin Zhao
ExtremeDifficulty
Press the Attack
Extended trades, 1v1 dominance
Summoner Spells
Vaultable Skills
Starting Items
Standard Build
Situational Items
7-5
12-8
11
120-100
The 3 Q's from Xin reduce his w and e cd by 1 second each.
What To Do
- -This is another difficult matchup. S16 officially encourages a new AP Xin playstyle that makes the Xin matchup very uninteractive once Xin gets his first item, which is usually the reworked Shiv or Dusk and Dawn. Most Xins you will face are going to go AP, but the bruiser or crit Xin builds are equally tough due to Xin's decked out 1v1'ing kit.
- -The laning phase is going to be determined by how confidently and effectively you can dodge his W, which has 1000 range (basically the same range as our Q) and a 0.5 second cast time. His W will be his main way to poke you from range, and once you become low enough, he can follow it up with a 1100 range E dash to combo you with his Q. He can also just dash onto you and combo you with his W, Q, and Hail of Blades.
- -In general, you want to save you E for his E engage. Just pay attention to whether his Q is active when he E's on you (it has an audible cue and Xin's spear will be glowing), since he can cancel your E with Q3. If it is active, Xin is likely going for an E + Q3 combo, so wait until after he knocks you up to E away. After he uses all his abilities like this, go in for a big counter-trade, since he has no way to get back onto you. You will have just under 10 seconds until he gets his W and E back and its back to the W dodging game.
- -Otherwise, during lane try to land Q on him first before going for short auto trades. His passive gives him a ton of sustain, so you will need to maintain pressure on him or else he will heal back all your hard work. You can win lane if you play confidently and dodge his Ws. If he ever gets ahead of you, he will become unkillable 1v1. At that point, look to survive the laning phase and play for scale and mid-game, where Xin will be weaker than you as long as he is not super ahead.
- -DPS build is recommended if you are confident you can dodge Q's and consistently out-trade him. Otherwise, lethality works just as well to be useful in the mid to late game.
Level-by-Level
You have the advantage lvl 1 because you can E his E. Look for a quinn cheese and zone him from the wave lvl 1 if possible. Do not let him proc his Hail of Blades on you, because it will hurt alot.
He will level W next, so dodge those to minimize chip damage. He does not have his knockup yet, so continue to play aggressively, zoning him from wave exp, and performing a slowpush. If he is low enough under tower, you may be able to dive or call your jg to come help dive if they are pathing top.
He will now have access to his Q. If he Q's, pay attention to when he uses his two empowered Q auto, because he will try to W you right after the second one to look for a W E Q3 trade and proc his hail of blades on you before you have a chance to E. Dodge this W every time like your life depends on it, and you will be okay. If he misses his W, use your Q and auto him, as he will not be able to E onto you when nearsighted. Again, save E for his E.
Xin's R is not as scary as the other offensive tools he has in his kit. He will either use it when he all-ins you for extra damage or for disengaging from ganks. The main goal here is still to avoid his Ws so he cannot poke you and dash from 1000 units away with a stacked Q3.
