Unpopular Opinion: These Xin Zhao buffs aren't as scary as we are giving them credit for.

Xin Zhao Battle Cry (W) [NEW EFFECT] Passive heal now also has a .3 bonus AD ratio. [NEW EFFECT] Passive now also includes " and critically strikes his target for 60/70/80/90/100% additional damage."] Audacious Charge (E) cooldown lowered to 12 seconds at all ranks from 14/13/12/11/10

I've taken the liberty of listing the changes so you don't have to open the link unless you want verification.

Now then, I know this will not be received well, and that's okay. I think that people are taking these changes, reading them once, and saying "WTF is this!?!?!?!"

But let's stop for a second and really consider what these changes are doing.

Battle Cry (W) "[New Effect] Passive heal now also has a .3 [(30%)] bonus AD ratio"

Now, let's analyze this for a second. It is 100% a buff. No argument there whatsoever. But how significant is it is the question. Now, what needs to be ensured is that this is understood as a buff to the HEAL, not a damage buff. The other thing is that this is a buff that gives a ratio of the BONUS AD, not TOTAL. So, let's assume we have a level 18 full build Xin Zhao who follows the current highest win rate build. I do this for argument sake because build paths are weird sometimes. We've all seen the full AD Nami mains. The highest win rate build for Xin Zhao currently gives no bonus AD for him whatsoever via runes. Attack speed marks, quints, and glyphs, and armor yellows. No bonuses can be gained from masteries either; only overall damage dealt boosts. Okay, so at this point, that 30% bonus AD ratio = 0 bonus health gained. Now, let's factor in the most common build path, which is sated devourer via skirmisher's sabre, guinsoo's rageblade, merc treads, dead man's plate, spirit visage, and trinity force. Add in the AD you get from a fully stacked rageblade (30 AD base + 3 AD per stack x 8 total stacks = 24 AD from fully stacked + 30 AD base = 54 total AD possible) along with the AD from your trinity force (25 AD), and you get a total of 55 bonus AD when unstacked and 79 bonus AD when fully stacked. So, let's take 30% of that amount (.3 x 55 and .3 x 79), which give us 16.5 bonus health on the heal when unstacked and 23.7 bonus health on the heal when fully stacked. So, with these changes and the current build path for runes, masteries, and items, Xin gains less than 25 bonus health from his heal at the absolute maximum per heal. Is that significant? Maybe, but very often fights do not come down to what is often referred to as "League of 10 HP." Very often, fights are blow outs or very one-sided. In long drawn out fights, this will allow Xin to possibly survive longer and do his job (dive carries and try to kill them) better. If this does end up being significant, this will makes Executioner's and Mortal Reminder (and Morellonomicon) a more critical buy against him, reducing his heal to 40% of that (.4 x 16.5 and .4 x 23.7), which makes him heal only 6.6 and 9.48 health for unstacked and stacked respectively.

The second addition to the (W) [NEW EFFECT] Passive now also includes " and critically strikes his target for 60/70/80/90/100% additional damage."]

I can see the horror on the your virtual faces right now. Clearly a buff. 100%, no discussion. What I would consider the more significant buff of the two. Obviously, this synergies well with his current attack speed and devourer build path. This also has nice synergy with is Q. This gives Xin better damage when the 3rd (2nd for sated) auto hits, but that's all it gives. Keep in mind that Xin, as we have seen, doesn't build any raw attack damage currently (by highest win rate percentage). The maximum possible attack damage he can gain is 79 at a fully stacked Guinsoo's. Factor that into his damage at level 18 (a base of 114 with the 79 added would be 193 AD), a fully leveled 3rd (2nd if sated) W will hit for 193 + 193 x 1.0 = 386 damage before resistances. Keeping in mind that Xin will reduce the armor of his target by 15% due to his passive, this can potentially offer a nice buff in damage, if he can trigger the 3rd auto (2nd if he is sated). This is the only change I can even remotely see as being a problem, but even then, I don't think it will be that horrible due to reasons that will be listed below. I have to form the discussion this way because all these changes work together and must be considered as such.

That seems to be the thing about Xin with these buffs: Xin MUST trigger the third auto (2nd for sated) for any of this to even matter. The Xin player is being rewarded for doing this correctly, but gains nothing and loses out on the heal and bonus damage for failing.

The only change to the (E) Audacious Charge (E) cooldown lowered to 12 seconds at all ranks from 14/13/12/11/10

I don't fully understand why the word "lowered" is used because it's not lowered, it's changed; there is a difference. Sure the cooldown is lowered to 12 for rank 1 and 2, which is a reduction, but it's the same as it is currently at rank 3 and actually higher at rank 4 and 5. This is a buff to Xin's early game but a nerf to his mid/late game, based on when the Xin maxes his (E), which currently is first max according to the highest win percentage. This is most likely due to offering a stronger slow (25%/30%/35%/40%/45%) along with a lower cooldown (currently) for the opportunity to gap close more often. As many players can testify, 2 seconds can be an eternity in an intense game of League. This (the gap closing aspect) is a key point I'll bring up later. Xin Zhao's current win rate tends to rise as the game's length increases, which can potentially indicate that his early game is not where he shines brightest. This is supportable and refutable; Xin has a good early game due to his clears, sustain in the jungle, and decent ganks early game. However, Xin also has a decent late game due to having a sated devourer and the on hit heal he has coupled with a Guinsoo's. What is happening in this change is a shift of the champion's power from the late game to the early game, giving him more mobility to use early and less to use late game. This is balanced by the late game nature of the first (W) change with his heal and the synergy it offers with sated devourer and his current build path.

Here's the thing though: the problem that Xin Zhao has always had remains. Xin Zhao is very easily kited when his dash (E) is on cooldown, which is now more often late game. Without flash (or ghost, I haven't forgotten about you), he is unable to gap close whatsoever if his charge is down. Two of the three changes are buffs that only matter if Xin can trigger his autos, which is something a carry wouldn't want to happen anyway. There is more reason now to want to kite Xin than there was before. He now has a slightly stronger heal and more damage if he can get to and actual stick to carries. But he has to be able to stick, which won't be that easy since he now has a longer cooldown on his (E) late game. And that's the thing, if his cooldown had remained as low as it was before the change, this would be broken, primarily because he can lower it by three seconds with his Q's (assuming all 3 [2 for sated] hit). This had the potential to put his gap closer at a 7 second cooldown, before CDR is factored in (after it would be 4.2 seconds at 40% CDR). Now, his gap closer can only go to 9 seconds, again CDR not factored in yet (after it would be 5.4 at 40% CDR). Assuming whoever Xin (E)'s gets away (dashes, flashes, support/tank/self peels, etc.) before he triggers a Q hit, he has to wait 12 seconds (before CDR, 7.2 seconds after at 40%) now before he can catch up again, as opposed to 10 (before CDR, 6 seconds after at 40%) before. Even at max CDR, he still has to wait over a second to do anything if a carry escapes from him.

So overall, these changes are clearly rewards to Xin for sticking and continually auto-ing, but he has to make a tradeoff with how often he can actually get to someone. Is this an even trade-off? I'm not sure. I do think it has the potential make Xin more damage-focused later in the game, but it hasn't done anything to change what he is actually weak at: sticking to people. It's done nothing more, IMO, than accentuating his strengths and make his weakness that much more profound. Profound enough? That is the part that can be debated. Is he going to be broken? Maybe, but unlikely. I do think he will be a more solid pick against highly immobile carries or teams with low peel, but he will suffer heavily against teams with mobile carries or high peel.

Will any of this alter his build path? Odds are high that it may encourage a lot more variability. I could see more people trying to take advantage of the encouragement to build raw AD, but I question as to what items would be wise to build. Xin has always benefited from AS more than AD (because of his ratios), so only time will tell as to whether or not this will change.

Tl;dr -> Overall, I think it's worth noting that the buffs to his strengths are met with a decent nerf to his weakness. I think it will at the very least force teams to focus on peeling him much more often and force the Xin player to focus on when and how he engages.

Let me know your thoughts! Thanks for reading!