Xin Zhao - Warrior or Devourer

ArcadianIV·Jan 19, 2015·1 votes·2,314 views

Hey All!

I just picked up Xin and want to use him in the jungle. I was curious as to what everyone thought was the optimal jungle item on him, following the nerfs to Devourer. Is Devourer still the way to go? Or is Warrior the better choice now?

I understand that Devourer could help him scale better into late game, but do you feel that Xin's purpose is to be an early game beast and create a lot of pressure? Just want to open it up for discussion and see what has been working for others!

Also, what are his best secondary dmg items? TF? BOTRK? One of the brut items?

Cheers!

16 Comments

Tis a nice dayJan 19, 20151 votes

If my lanes are doing fine and I just want to farm, Devourer. If they need ganks 24/7, Warrior.

ArcadianIVJan 19, 20151 votes

[{quoted}](name=Tis a nice day,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=6i2NK11X,comment-id=0000,timestamp=2015-01-19T18:04:01.763+0000)

If my lanes are doing fine and I just want to farm, Devourer. If they need ganks 24/7, Warrior.

Yeah that's what I was thinking. Do you notice a big jump in power late game if you have Devourer (decently farmed) as opposed to Warrior?

SlackerboyTCJan 19, 20151 votes

{quoted}

Yeah that's what I was thinking. Do you notice a big jump in power late game if you have Devourer (decently farmed) as opposed to Warrior?

Yea devourer is strong as hell

ArcadianIVJan 19, 20151 votes

I guess it may be worth it, even after the nerfs. What smite upgrade do you take?

ArcadianIVJan 19, 20151 votes

Bump

SlackerboyTCJan 19, 20151 votes

I usually pick chilling smite because cc is pretty much the strongest thing you can use on someone in a gank.

Blue Collar BearJan 19, 20151 votes

If you want an early dominance build, I would take arpen marks, Warrior, and an early Brutalizer to be turned into a Black Cleaver. That would be a total of 3k gold in game, giving 32 arpen on top of his passive armor shred. You would wreck anyone early, and you will still be able to delete squishies later on.

However, Devourer helps him quickly CC targets and do tons of on-hit damage. I would only build this if you intended on taking hybrid pen and a Wit's End. Otherwise, I believe that the first build will be superior.

You should take Chilling Smite early to get the easy knock up on your opponent. EWQ, smite, and you have either a guaranteed kill or flash burn.

ArcadianIVJan 19, 20151 votes

Thanks for the advice! Never thought about using hybrid pen on him before.

Blue Collar BearJan 19, 20151 votes

Hybrid pen only works so long as you take Devourer and Wit's End, just like the arpen build I explained. It works, because any ranged champion does not have scaling magic resistance outside of runes and masteries. Therefore, the penetration and resistance reduction is that much more valuable, because your main target (the carry) is not going to build resistances until their final item. Most AP carries, even, won't build resistances until later on. You could even take mpen glyphs and quintessences. I'd like to make note that these two items are incredibly awkward. It is easy to fall behind and not have as much of an early impact, because you are spending 4k and not 3k with the Warrior / Brutalizer combo.

However, your early sustain and clear is going to suffer early if you don't take attack speed masteries and runes. It won't matter much outside of the first clear.

EDIT:

Sorry for the big ball of awkward that is this paragraph. I'm too lazy to go back and clean up my thoughts.

ArcadianIVJan 20, 20151 votes

No apologies needed, was a good read and opened up some new avenues of thought for me! Will try out both builds tonight.

Blue Collar BearJan 20, 20151 votes

I feel like trying out Xin Zhao in lane with a similar build now. .-.;

DorkunedAurasJan 19, 20151 votes

As someone who's mained Xin in the S5 jungle ever since they destroyed WW, I rock the chilling smite + devourer. My typical build with him varies based on the game, but I don't usually have more than 1 damage item outside of the jungle item, so I want the devourer in order to scale into the late game. Warrior kinda drops off a bit past early compared to devourer dps, and early ganks will get you loads of stacks on it. Get a triforce and some tanky items on top of that and start killing squishies.

ArcadianIVJan 19, 20151 votes

Sounds good, can't wait to try it. Was thinking going two dmg items and the rest tank if I went Devourer. Do you feel TF is the best secondary item? Have you tried BOTRK or Yomuus?

DorkunedAurasJan 20, 20151 votes

I've tried all three, and I vary based on the game. Triforce is my general "I'm getting really ahead, I should build some scary and make them cry" and I typically won't just get tri if I'm really getting fed. I go bork if I need the sustain, active, or tank shreddiness for their comp. I don't go youmuu's that often, but I do that when I need the W+youmuu's combo to burst someone down. Tri is my first choice typically, but just choose based on the game. I almost never go for just flat tank, unless our team is uber squishy.

ArcadianIVJan 20, 20151 votes

Thanks for all of the advice. Do you ever take him Top?

DorkunedAurasJan 20, 20151 votes

To be honest, since Warwick got nerfed to hell, and My favorite champ, rammus, no longer is a super viable jungler, Xin has been almost my only jungle pick. I've gotten a bit sick of him, so I don't play him any more than I get forced to nowadays (and this is coming from an S4 jungle main).