u/SenKiya

Edit: opgg link to my account https://op.gg/fr/lol/summoners/na/Mamerz-XZhao

Hello, I've seen a bunch of people saying that Xin top is dead and I was asked on league DM to give my thoughts and insights as to why I go certain builds with certain items. I will only explain three specific builds that I usually go. This doesn't mean that they are the only builds playable. But all three of them separately (meaning i was only spamming one build at a time to test efficacity) were able to bring me to GM. Important to note that those three builds are not the most played builds, nor are the meta, but are the build i feel the most confident being able to 1v9 in lower elos, or to be competitive in high elo.

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1:Titanic Crit

Runes

Grasp scaling

Lethal Tempo aggro

Build order

Dring start -> Titanic -> LDR/MR -> IE -> Tanky items (DD, Randuins, Kaenic) Tanky Boots of choice

Spells order to max : W-Q-E (Q max because of crit scaling)

This build is a solo carry build. this is for when you need to do everything on your team, this means splitpushing, winning 1v1, assassinate enemy carry/support. frontline tank, need to do both high dps and high burst. This is a final boss build. Extremely good in low elo and against low CC comp. Only issue is that you need to play accordingly to the power spike that you get. This build is not made to win lvl 1, it's not made to win lvl 6. Power spikes are at 2 items and 3 items. Titanic Hydra is the first core item of this build because of both AA reset, and wave clear. LDR/MR second is for armor pen and crit. The reason why LDR/MR are better than BC is because of instant armor pen and the crit. Crit is very good on Xin because it scales with both Q and W(not much on w). When you crit on a Q, it crits both the damage from the spell and the attack. The rest of the build is self explanatory.

When to choose between LT and Grasp? LT is vs tanks with little to no dmg agaisnt you. Grasp is vs harder champs, notably Renekton.

Important thing to do with this build : standard combo is E-AA-Q1-Titanic-W-Q3, this is the combo with the lowest amount of downtime between attacks and spells and the highest DPS.

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2: Dusk & Dawn PTA

Runes

One of many, PTA is important and a must have Keystone, the rest is customizable

Build order

Dring -> Dusk&Dawn -> Kraken -> LDR/MR -> DD ->Bork/MagicResist

Spells order to max : W-E-Q (High AS means quick Kraken proc)

This build is for stronger early game and for those who prefer higher attack speed builds. This build is all reliant on how D&D interacts with on-hit. I won't explain it much because this is a known build for Shyvana. Only thing to note here: The powerspike is at two items, but with Dusk&Dawn, you can play battle of attrition against the enemy laner. This build has less survivability than the build above, but is extremely strong at two items and can easily snowball.

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3:Full AP

Runes

Kite/Chase runes, less dmg, but stronger if you can micro well

Very aggro early, good vs low mobility champs and need instant one shot.

Build

Dring (early Dark Seal)->Protobelt ->Gunblade ->LichBane ->Rabadon ->Mejai if ahead/Zhonya if cannot afford Mejai.

Spells order to max : E-W-Q (E max instead of W since mana changes on W. Easier to activate Stormraider, Impossible to dodge the E dmg by dashing or flashing, but vulnerable when doing so)

This is my current favorite build (Phaserush/Stormraider runes). Is a difficult build to pull off as it has little to no dps, very low dmg from attacks, it is heavily reliant on the first item. Protobelt is one of the most efficient items to buy. Very good build order, good stats. very good active. This item is core on any ap builds. There's a reason why it's bought even on ranged mages now. Early game is all about stacking Manaflowband(mana costs are too high on this champ at the moment). It's rare to win the level 1-2-3. Depends on the matchup. Weaker ranged champs are easily abusable because of easy to activate Stormraider. After getting a few ap components, you can statcheck most champs. E-W is enough to activate Stormraider on champs that don't build HP. The amount of damage that can be done with this build is insane. Good sustain outside of fights and during fights. This build order maximizes the amount of burst you can get. You get good utility from protobelt and gunblade to either chase champs or slow to escape.

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I've probably missed a bunch of things to explain, so please ask questions if you got any. It's better for me to answer specific questions than trying to explain every single playable matchups

Electrocute as keystone, the rest is depending on your pref, but you need a mana regen secondary rune

Protobelt-lichbane-rabadon as core, lucidity boots are a must here, last two items can be more ap or some hybrid things.

tons of dmg upfront, very good lvl 3 dmg burst, can easily one shot if you snowball, dark seal into mejai very good to catch people like an assassin. Very oppressive in lane when snowballing because you can stay in lane forever healing.

E-aa-W as very basic combo vs ppl with escape/disengage like quinn, gragas, kennen

E-aa-Q-W vs champs that are not mobile

All the powerbudget on this build is around healing/big hybrid burst from W, E and R

This is pretty much the build i used during my GM climb for AP xin in S15, but it is now way stronger than before. Some improvements are possible, but this will be my way of playing for the next few weeks until i get bored of the build and find something else to experiment with.