Xin Zhao Remastered and Rebuilt

Xin Zhao was originally an overpowered champion. Then he was a little over powered, then he was never played at all. I am here to happily say that he is once again a viable champion in League of Legends.

Xin Zhao (Jungle) changes:

Faster Attack Speed initially + per level - Great for jungling, ganking, and as a utility for his Three Talon Strikes.

New Passive: Challenge: An enemy champion is considered "challenged" if Xin has attacked them on used Audacious Charge on them. A Challenged for has -15% armor.

Three Talon Strikes: Lowers cooldown of other abilities, now cooldown reduces per level, and the damage scaling has increased to 1.2 from 1.0. This is good to cast abilities faster and you can use audacious charge and three talon strikes more quickly. This is great when ganking because this means you can keep your target CC'ed for longer.

Battle Cry: Xin;s former passive has moved to his Battle Cry, regenerating life every three hits which is great for jungling because he can sustain in the jungle with little help. You may not even need health pots after the first clear. The Active on Battle Cry increases his attack speed. Not much changed on this front besides the health regen which was just moved from his passive, though it no longer reduces the cooldown on his other abilities.

Audacious Charge: Pretty much everything got better with this ability. The range was reduced by 50 (which is nearly nothing so don't worry about that) Aside from that the damage, cooldown, slow amount, and slow duration were all increased so this ability got a lot better.

Crescent Sweep: Here is where things get fun. Not only does Crescent Sweet increase Xin's armor and magic resist depending on how many targets he hits, but he also does aoe dmg that does 15% of the target's current health and then some. All targets except a challenged target are thrown back away from Xin. Since Challenged targets are never thrown back, it is good ability to clear a path to an enemy champion that you want to focus, you can either focus a carry with the Crescent Sweet, or focus a target behind the target champion to throw the target champions into your team for a quick kill.

These are the changes done to Xin. The way he builds is pretty much the same. When I jungle with him, depending on routes or how things start. I like to go Mercury Treads, Vamp Sceptor Wit's End, Phage to start the game off. After that I really don't know where to go from there without seeing the enemy team composition. Also Ghostblade can be substituted for Wit's End but I like Wit's a hair better. Possible late game items include: Wriggles's Lantern, Frozen Mallet, Guardian Angel, Randuin's Omen, Black Cleaver, Sunfire Cape, Banshee's Veil or Blood Thirster.

There is my update on Xin, hope you guys got something out of it.

Jackson

Small Objectives, Greed, and Patience

Hey Guys,

I thought I would talk about taking small objectives, and to be patient and retreat. Let me give you a scenario that I have seen on too many occasions.

Your team makes a push mid for an enemy turret. You kill two of the enemy champions and take down the first turret. Instead of retreating, you push again, not at full health and take a second turret. You now need to go back and heal and buy items. Meanwhile the enemy team has respawned and are moving to take Baron. You now have two choices, either fight them with low health versus their full health team, or go back and heal, buy items and then let them get baron or be late to the engagement.

I have seen this scenario many times and it often leads to the enemy team coming back.

I know it sounds obvious but here is the correct scenario:

You group middle lane for the tower push. You pick up two kills and the first turret. You then retreat, heal and buy items. You then clear your jungle, ward, get dragon, shove lanes back out, etc. Then regroup again for another engagement. Here you took the small victory, you didn't risk your lead and you are back facing the enemy team again but with a larger lead.

I know that you and I both want to get the game over as fast as possible because we are all impatient people. That is one of the biggest problems. But I bet that you would rather have a longer game and get a win than a shorter game with a loss. Take your time, secure your objectives and retreat. Greed and Impatience will lose a game every time.

Vision Control

Hey guys I am super tired but I thought I would give a quick run down of vision when you are the team's jungler. Lets be real here, if you are clearing a camp you don't need to watch yourself, obviously you want to start it the right way but for the rest of the time you have an opportunity to watch the map. The best counter jungling you can do is to spot an enemy gank and prevent it. This can be done by being there, waiting for the enemy jungler for a counter-gank or to simply ping the enemy jungler or call it out to your team.

As a Jungler and usually the Support will do this too, you need to have the awareness, you need to know timers especially as well as make calls because you are going to be the most mobile champion on your team and you are going to have the most awareness because you will be spying on the minimap

But you can't see the map without vision. If you can't see the enemy jungler's movement "Your gonna have a bad time." Same goes for any other movement of the enemy team. Kills are 300g, wards cost 75g, if a ward stops a kill, you denied the enemy team 225g effectively. The opposite also applies for kills because of ward coverage.

A lot of junglers will have trouble ganking because the enemy sees you a mile away because of wards. Yeah that can be frustrating, however my solution to this is to either buy an oracle, or buy pink wards, but this can turn into a pink ward battle in which both teams get screwed over, thought not always a bad thing. I like oracles, now you may have a debate in your head about how expensive oracles is and that you may lose it because of a death. You may also want to spend that money on an item that will make you stronger, but if you cant gank, you cant use your items.

My rule of thumb on oracles: IF AHEAD: Buy oracles. IF BEHIND: DON'T Buy oracles. If you are losing and need to play catch-up you probably died or are making not a lot of money, therefore spending 400g on an item that could be removed is not the best idea. The best idea is to play it safe, gank when a ward disappears and play smart and catch back up.

Think about when you are playing a laning champion say top lane. Ever been up there with no ward coverage? It is a scary thing. I am constantly nervous of being ganked and not knowing what is going on. This is extremely psychological. That is what you are doing to the enemy team. If the enemy team over extends with no ward coverage, it is an easy gank and kill. This makes the enemy team have to play passively which makes them play your game instead of the other way around. If they are always on the defensive you are able to secure objectives and move hidden in fog of war for a gank.

Often times as a jungler if you clear the bottom river you can solo dragon by yourself if you have decent ward coverage to cover you if the enemy team shifts down that direction or if their jungler wanders that direction. If they cannot see dragon or see you move toward dragon, the enemy team has no idea that you are doing this.

Typically I won't buy two oracles in a row because that is very costly unless the first oracles lasted 10+ minutes. Two oracles early on can severely damage your build while transitioning into the mid-late game.

Who to Jungle?

Hey I thought I would talk about which junglers are better than others (situational). I have scoured the internet for different opinions on this and I seem to like this one the best:

Tier 1 – Lee Sin, Dr. Mundo, Udyr, Nocturne, Trundle, Jarvan IV, Maokai, Nautilus, Skarner, Alistar, Riven, Olaf, Shyvana, Shen, Malphite, Amumu, Cho`Gath

Tier 2 – Warwick, Shaco, Hecarim, Jax, Gangplank, Darius, Master Yi, Sejuani, Volibear, Rammus, Fiddlesticks, Xin Zhao, Wukong, Nunu, Tryndamere

Tier 3 – Kayle, Gragas, Twitch, Galio, Fizz, Renekton, Pantheon, Rumble, Fiora, Singed, Twisted Fate, Janna, Blitzcrank, Kennen, Taric, Sion, Ezreal, Soraka, Karthus, Cassiopeia, Lulu, Ziggs, Leona, Heimerdinger, Brand, Yorick, Eve, Mordekaiser

Tier 4 – Caitlyn, Corki, Veigar, Poppy, Karma, Nasus, Irelia, Malzahar, Draven, Sivir, Akali

Tier 5 – Viktor, Graves, Varus, Orianna, Garen, Ahri, Talon, Annie, Urgot, Kog Maw, Ashe, Sona

I stole this Tier List off if reignofgaming.net. I agree with this list for the most part but I want to break it down a little further. I want to break down which junglers in the first (and part of the second) tiers are better than others, and who you are going to want in certain circumstances. Keep in mind that I am only going to discuss jungling champions that are (in my opinion) viable in ranked play. 

The List - Lee Sin, Dr. Mundo, Udyr, Nocturne, Trundle, Jarvan IV, Maokai, Nautilus, Skarner, Alistar, Riven, Olaf, Shyvana, Shen, Malphite, Amumu, Cho`Gath, Warwick, Shaco, Hecarim, Jax,  Rammus, Xin Zhao.

Basically you are going to want to base your jungle choice on the champions on your team versus the champions on their team. For example, if you have a that has a ton of damage output but not much CC, then you are going to want to pick someone like Amumu, Malphite, Jarvan IV, or Cho'Gath. The reverse is also possible, where your team could have a lot of CC but not a lot of damage output.

Another thing to look at in your team comp is what champions synergize better together than others. If you have an Urgot on your team, think about picking up Nocturne. Urgot can ultimate to swap positions with and enemy champion in the bottom lane and Nocturne can ultimate into the lane for the gank. These two champions synergize extremely well together. (Sona support works well here too for the adding CC during ganks). This is not to say that this is the only situation to pick Nocturne. Any team composition that has a lot of single target CC will work well with a Nocturne.

The List - Lee Sin, Dr. Mundo, Udyr, Nocturne, Trundle, Jarvan IV, Maokai, Nautilus, Skarner, Alistar, Riven, Olaf, Shyvana, Shen, Malphite, Amumu, Cho`Gath, Warwick, Shaco, Hecarim, Jax,  Rammus, Xin Zhao.

Lets knock a few more easy quick ones of the list. 

Rammus is not the jungler he used to be. Sure he can sustain in the jungle all day and farm but what good does that do your team? I have noticed that halfway through this season, in ranked play specifically, people decided that warding was a good thing (go figure...). Rammus cannot sneak up on people like he used to be able to do. Though a lot of people are counting him out completely, I don't want to just yet. I think Skarner is the new Rammus, so I would always play Skarner over Rammus, but Rammus could do the same type of things. Both champions use CC to gank their opponents and getting up close. In team fights, Rammus is going to roll into an enemy, CC them and start the fight on that enemy, in team fights, Skarner is going to flash, Shuryla, etc. into an enemy champion and drag them backwards. Both champions require speed to initiate on one target. The difference here is that Skarner drags them back into safety (for him) where as Rammus is forward, alone with the team running to catch up. Rammus has his uses, but Skarner has the same uses, but better.

Both of these champions are great for single target take downs and so if you have a sniper team, these champions might help you snag those kills. 

Warwick is also a jungle sniper because his ultimate is useful for focusing one enemy champion down and turning the fight into a 5v4 quickly.

I don't like Shaco at all. Sure he is a great ganker early on. Sure he does medium-high damage during ganks. Sure he is annoying as hell and reduces your team's aggression in half. But Shaco is still squishy, he still is vulnerable when he is alone, and he is always able to be seen by the orange puff of smoke or by good ward coverage. He also hits a brick wall late game and cannot do that amount of damage, CC, support that any other jungle would be able to do in a team fight. A good team can shut down Shaco early and make him useless for late game.

The List - Lee Sin, Dr. Mundo, Udyr, Nocturne, Trundle, Jarvan IV, Maokai, Nautilus, Skarner, Alistar, Riven, Olaf, Shyvana, Shen, Malphite, Amumu, Cho`Gath, Warwick, Shaco, Hecarim, Jax,  Rammus, Xin Zhao.

I think that Shyvana and Dr. Mundo are pretty much the same person, at least early game. Both of them have an aoe that does damage, good at chasing champions down, fast movement speed, and decent counter jungling. I recommend these picks if the enemy has a slow/weak jungler, i.e. mumu, nautilus, maokai. The three junglers I just named all start blue buff in the jungle (almost always) and clear that side slow and walk slowing to their red side of the jungle. This gives a large window open to counter jungle and take the red side before you clear your side. 

The List - Lee Sin, Dr. Mundo, Udyr, Nocturne, Trundle, Jarvan IV, Maokai, Nautilus, Skarner, Alistar, Riven, Olaf, Shyvana, Shen, Malphite, Amumu, Cho`Gath, Warwick, Shaco, Hecarim, Jax,  Rammus, Xin Zhao.

I have been playing a lot of Trundle recently. He has his own catagory of jungler. If Anivia was also a jungler, she would be in the same catagory. I called it the Splitter-Catagory. Obviously the reason is that he has an ability that can 'split' then enemy team. Do not underestimate how powerful this kind of champion can be. The biggest thing you have to make sure you do when you have one of these champions on your team is to make sure you fight on terrain where you can split the team in half, this primarily includes chokes. Engage the enemy team, pillar of filth in the middle of their team, take out half of the enemies and then afterwards take objectives (i.e. baron, dragon, towers, etc.) or take out the remainder of their team.


The List - Lee Sin, Dr. Mundo, Udyr, Nocturne, Trundle, Jarvan IV, Maokai, Nautilus, Skarner, Alistar, Riven, Olaf, Shyvana, Shen, Malphite, Amumu, Cho`Gath, Warwick, Shaco, Hecarim, Jax,  Rammus, Xin Zhao.

The Gankers:

Maokai, Nautilus, Alistar, Jax, Xin Zhao, Riven, Shen, Hecarim. Thes champions all excel at quick devastating ganks. Maokai roots the enemy down and keeps them there while your team deals the damage, Nautilus can pull, stun, and slow. Alistar can headbutt and pop up, Jax can jump to the target and stun them, and xin can jump to the target and pop them up. Riven can dash-stun, and Shen can dash-taunt. Shen is also the ultimate counter-ganker. Hecarim can charge with high movement speed and knock back enemies. These guys are all the heavy gankers. They can close the distance between themselves at the target and do a lot of damage/CC for team mates to take the kills.


However Nautilus, Maokai, and Alistar all also belong in the CC group (along with Cho'Gath and Amumu). This group is for champions who do a lot of crowd control, i.e. stuns, slows, snares, etc. This is particular important in team fights. You know these guys and what they can do, but basically they hold the enemy team in place to take them out.


The List - Lee Sin, Dr. Mundo, Udyr, Nocturne, Trundle, Jarvan IV, Maokai, Nautilus, Skarner, Alistar, Riven, Olaf, Shyvana, Shen, Malphite, Amumu, Cho`Gath, Warwick, Shaco, Hecarim, Jax,  Rammus, Xin Zhao.


I don't really know how to categorize the rest of these champions.


Lee Sin and Udyr. Your probably wondering why Lee Sin isn't in the Gankers catagory seeing as he can dash. Well I think him and Udyr need their own catagory of...


The Mobiles:


Lee sin can dash all around a battlefield and slow or knockback some (or all) of the enemies while doing a decent amount of damage. Udyr moves very quickly and is very tanky. He does AOE magic damage and can stun a lot of champions by focusing them one at a time with bear stance. These guys stop the kiting and move around the field of battle with speed and damage. I think these two junglers are extremely powerful and are in the top five junglers group. 


These two junglers are also very flexible so they can be used in many different situations and with different team compositions. 


This basically sums up my analysis of the Junglers for right now. Feel free to comment with questions or commments and I will try to answer your questions.


Enjoy,


Jacksonecac

Jungling with Shen

    This is my first use of a blog and I thought that I would talk about my last game I had with Jungle Shen. If you have a team that has sufficient damage output i.e. you aren't all tanky champions without much dps, Shen is an extremely viable jungler. I would go so far as to say he is one of the strongest in the game. I was reading a Jungler guide the other day that put Shen in a third tier for jungling champions and I laughed out loud.

   An absolutely mediocre Shen could sit in his jungle all day and do nothing until a gank happened. He could then ultimate the focused ally and turn the fight onto the enemy. This is a great way to bait out a tower dive on a ally and pick up some easy kills.

That is the bare minimum that Shen has to do to help his team out. Before we dive into his actual ganks instead of counter ganks, lets look at teamfights. Obviously the goal of team fights is to kill the enemy champions, specifically their carries. Carry champions are going to be the ones that are doing the most amount of damage and usually it ends up like this. The AD (Attack Damage Carry) is the hard carry which means he is doing the most amount of damage. The second carry would be the AP Mid (Ability power Carry). Now since both teams have this you need to balance killing their carries while protecting yours. Shen is great at disrupting and protection. Not only can Shen Ultimate a friendly carry to protect them. However Shen's Taunt can easily pull the aggression of enemy bruisers (enemy jungler, top lane) from attacking your carries, and make them focus on you.

Keep in my team fights usually last at most a minute, but most are decided within the first few seconds. That means that if the enemy bruisers are focused on you for 2 seconds at the start of the fight, and your carries have full reign to unleash their arsenal of damage, it is going to go well for you. While their bruisers are tied up playing with you (by the way you arent taking much damage because of Shen's shield and his tankiness), Your team's top bruiser and carries are taking out their carries, thus winning the team fight.

This assumes that the early game went well. Well assuming your team can ward and has decent map awareness, they should do pretty well, there isn't much you can do to help this besides warding the map (which you need to do as a jungler) and also to call enemy ganks that are incoming (you are in the jungle auto attacking, you shouldn't even need to look at your champion to do this correctly). Therefore they shouldn't get ganked too badly. Shen is great at ganking for your team. He can immediately taunt someone with his slide, allowing your team mates to put the damage on and more CC (crowd control, stuns slows, silenced etc.).

This allows your team to get ahead for the mid-late game.

You know all this already.

I start blue buff and either gank top or bottom immediately at lvl 2 or I do a full clear of my jungle and then gank. After the gank you should have enough or be close enough to getting a heart of gold on the way back. The blue buff is going to let you regen energy faster so that you can get shields and vorpal blades off more often.

Lets talk build. Shen starts boots pots for early ganking, he should do fine in the jungle with a shield and life regen from his q. After that heart of gold is usually what you want to get more gold for the rest of the game. After that I like to get a recurve bow and to get mercury treads and start to work on randuins and aegis of the legion, I finish wit's end in there somewhere. (wit's is great because it adds more magic damage and it also makes Shen's Ki strike activate more often.)

After that all you really need to do is stay tanky, counter their damage with resistences and get down and dirty with the enemy team.

Feel free to comment with questions or to spark a discussion on builds, routes, playstyles etc.