Xin Zhao, The Seneschal of Top Lane

Xin Zhao: The Seneschal of Demacia

Xin, as for a few other top lane champions, are being overlooked as "viable top laners". Sure Xin may have a hard time going against ranged champions (and some gap closers such as Lee Sin etc.) but as long as you use him against certain champs, he's extremely powerful.

A few champs Xin Zhao is good against

Darius, the Hand of Noxus

Yes I know what some of you may think: Darius is impossible to fight in the top lane. My answer to you is no, no he is not. Darius may be very powerful, and to give him the credit he deserves, he is indeed. Xin can fight him well if he starts on the right foot, meaning starting with a bit more armor.

Xin's Passive is Challenge, challenge reduces target's armor by 15% for 3 Seconds, Darius may have Hemorrhage, which is a bleed effect for 5 seconds, stacking up to 5 times, but your initial burst combined with your other abilities will make short work of darius along with your summoner spells.

 

Malphite, the Shard of the Monolith:

Malphite can be considered broken right now, his ultimate with some of his other abilities, can make quick work of most squishy champions. However, he doesn’t have his ultimate at level 1. So you have a chance in the beginning to shut him down before he gets beefy, if you need the help though from him, have your mid lane roam and/or a jungler’s help. You have armor reduction against the rock, but you shouldn't be overly aggressive.

Shen, the Eye of Twilight

2 words to help fight this guy. BE CAREFUL. His taunt against you is kind of broken because you deal so much less damage, even with your passive. You WILL want help from your jungler to stop him from getting ahead; you have to be quick to react if he uses his ultimate, and make sure to let your team know when it is up or down. He is banned quite often because the global ultimate is devastating, hopefully you won’t fight him, but if you do, be careful.

 

The next Section is for Champion's you should try to avoid by picking someone else in general.

Counterpicks

Lee Sin, the Blind Monk

lee sin isn't blind to see how squishy Xin is. Lee sin will poke you for days, and get out of a bad situation faster than you can chase him. He can slow your attack speed to make your DPS overall lower, and give himself life steal and spell vamp to gain what he loses from you, if you try to run, he has a skill shot Q, and if he hits you with it, he can activate it again to zoom up you, dealing damage to you based on how much hp you don’t have, it can be dodged, but it’s hard to do so.

 

Irelia, the Will of the Blades

She's a maybe, but more than likely you will die fighting her, if she's not that good, you might have a chance, but most Irelia players know how to fight Xin. She has a stun if casted correctly, True Damage, and a life stealing ult. It's hard to tell if you can fight her. 9 times out of 10 though, I wouldn't fight her.

 

Jayce, the Defender of Tomorrow

Don't do it. Just don't. Jayce is interchangeable between ranged and melee, he hits you like lee sin does as melee, if he gets close enough. As ranged, he has a skill shot that if it passes through his acceleration gate, knocks you down harder. If he's given even 1 kill by you, your lane is probably overall lost. Xin is a bad pick against Jayce.

 

 

Now some of you may play blind pick, and not draft and ranked. So you may not be ABLE to see who you are doing to fight. You fight someone like Darius or Shen or those guys; you will still do fine, although, if you pick someone your bad against, then what I recommend you do is:

1. Swap Positions: If the jungler can actually play that champion as a top laner, then ask for a position swap depending on who THEY are. Xin's jungle potential is really taking off because his ganking ability is so great along with the ability to counter jungle. Most jungle champs can’t handle Xin because of his burst. If they (the person you swap with) have CC, then it makes for a better gank, when you go in with your initial burst plus your top lane's CC, then it should be enough to secure a kill.

 

2. Play it safe until help arrives: if you are truly having a big problem against the opposing top laner, and you can't swap with your jungler, then just play safe and farm. Don't be too aggressive and hand then kills, stay back, farm on tower if it comes to that, and hopefully the jungler comes and helps.

 

3. Roam: if push comes to shove and you lose lane, then what you can do is assist other lanes, if there's nothing you can do for top, try your best to keep it pushed and roam. Help your AP carry or AD Carry get fed; they can help you fight the Opposing top. After all it is a TEAM game.

Fed or not, you’re going to roam regardless and help your other lanes, and he's really good at pushing and helping take map objectives. If you had a bad start, then spend your mid game farming it’s your best bet, to have any hope of making it to the late game, and actually having damage.

 

Builds:
Making a build to benefit you in lane will depend of course who you’re fighting, heavy damage dealers (Darius, Lee Sin, Jayce) you will want to start with early game armor, so they can't hurt you as bad. If you’re losing lane kind of bad to these guys and your behind on farm, I would build a Madred's Razors for the additional magic damage to minion so you clear faster. Once you catch up in farm, do try to roam.

AP solo tops (Vladimir, Elise, and Kennen) you want to build MR while still giving yourself damage, so in their case I would recommend rushing a wit's end. If you’re not doing too badly against them, consider rushing Merc Treads, just for the MR and tenacity.

Now if you’re facing straight tanks (Malphite, Shen etc.) then you will want to rush as much damage as you can. Brutalizer into Black Cleaver in those situations normally works, but if they do quite a bit to you, you’re better off building Vampiric Scepter, they don't do enough damage to kill you before you kill them, unless they are given a lot of kills in the beginning.

Late Game:
Xin's late game will consist of him, in team fights, getting to the fed carry, whichever one is more fed, while knowing everyone that is a threat with your ultimate. If they have a very CC oriented game, pick up a banshee's veil if you’re kind of tanky, or a quicksilver sash to break from the CC. You will not, repeat, will NOT initiate the team fights, your tank will. If you initiate, you will be focused, and since Xin is kind of squishy, he will melt, and your team will lose a lot of damage without you.

I hope my guide on Xin shows that even he can go up top and do well instead of always in the jungle!