How to play Xin Zhao — Wild Rift guide, combos & tips
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How to play Xin Zhao — Wild Rift guide, combos & tips
Xin Zhao, Demacia's Seneschal, is a Fighter who wins fights before the enemy team can react. His kit revolves around basic-attack resets and a guaranteed knock-up, dealing mostly physical damage — only Audacious Charge hits for magic — so in Wild Rift he's built around jumping a single target, chaining empowered autos, and forcing a decisive skirmish rather than trading damage over time. Most often played in the jungle, he rewards players who like fast, all-in fights and clean combo execution over long, patient lane play.
Strengths
- Explosive early skirmisher: Three Talon Strike's bonus damage plus a guaranteed knock-up on the third hit wins most early 1v1s and dives.
- Efficient jungle clears — Q's extra damage and the cooldown refund on every empowered hit let him clear camps and reach lanes faster than many junglers.
- Crescent Guard is a genuine safety net, not just an engage tool: it blocks incoming damage from enemies at range while locking one priority target down, so he can peel for a teammate just as well as he can dive one.
- Low difficulty, high payoff — the combo is short and the reward is immediate, so newer players can pick him up fast and still feel effective.
Weaknesses
- His entire damage pattern hinges on landing all three empowered autos; sustain or healing that outraces the burst (a low-health Warwick topping back up, for example) undoes the whole trade.
- No hard gap-closer beyond Audacious Charge's base range, so very mobile targets can simply hop or dash away before he lands the engage.
- Squishy before Trinity Force and Serylda's Grudge come online — a missed or interrupted all-in early can leave him exposed with no follow-up tool.
- His jungle pathing and combo pattern are easy to read once opponents know them, making him a common target for counter-ganks and invades.
Combos
- Q (activate) → AA → AA → AA — Turn on Three Talon Strike and land three basic attacks in a row; the third knocks the target up and each hit shaves a second off your other cooldowns.
- E → Q → AA x3 → W — Dash in with Audacious Charge for the slow and attack-speed buff, pop Q, chain the empowered autos, then finish with Wind Becomes Lightning to keep the target slowed and mark them Challenged.
- W → E (on the Challenged target) — Hit the farthest enemy with Wind Becomes Lightning first; the Challenge it applies extends Audacious Charge's cast range so you can dash onto backline targets you normally couldn't reach.
- R → E → AA — Open with Crescent Guard to knock back everyone except your Challenged target while blocking damage from enemies at range, then dash the isolated target with Audacious Charge and finish with autos.
Skill order: Q > W > E
Early game
Clear efficiently using Q's bonus damage and cooldown refund, then start looking for ganks as soon as you hit level 3 — the guaranteed knock-up turns close races into free kills. Path toward lanes that pushed or that lack hard CC, dash in with E, chain your empowered autos, and disengage if the third hit doesn't land or kill; Xin Zhao loses extended trades before his items come online. Avoid over-committing before level 5 against lanes with strong disengage or sustain, since there's no follow-up tool if the burst gets neutralized.
Mid & late game — teamfighting
From mid-game on, your job is to find the single most important target — an exposed carry or key pick — rather than soak damage in the frontline. Tag that target with Wind Becomes Lightning or a basic attack to Challenge them, then use Audacious Charge's boosted range to flank and burst them down while your team follows up. Crescent Guard is flexible: use it offensively to scatter the rest of the enemy team off your target, or defensively to block ranged damage and buy time when your own team gets caught out. Positioning matters more than raw stats here — Xin Zhao wants to dive past the frontline, not fight through it.
Pro tips
- Weave basic attacks deliberately during clears and trades so Determination and Q line up — the extra damage and self-heal add up fast over a game.
- Don't save Wind Becomes Lightning for damage alone — using it early in a fight to Challenge a target unlocks Audacious Charge's extended range for your real engage.
- Treat Crescent Guard as a defensive cooldown as often as an offensive one; blocking a volley of ranged damage for your team can swing a fight as much as the knockback does.