Xin Zhao, the Seneshcal of Demacia

Hey guys, Today I'm going to speak about the champion Xin Zhao. Xin Zhao is a great carry, fight initiator and ganker. He has many abilities to gank and kill, that's why he's so great assassin. As always you can view the video guide on xin zhao with music, but if you'd prefer have the full information, you're better to read it here. Picture is worth 1k words. but sometimes, pictures can't tell what words mean.



Introduction to the build:

Introduction
runes:
9x Greater mark of Desolation (+15 armor penetration)
9x Greater seal of Resilience (+12.7 armor)
9x Greater glyph of Warding (+13.7 magic resist)
3x Greater Quitessence of Desolation (+10 armor penetration)

Masteries: 8-22-0
3crit 1ap
4attack speed

3magic resit 3 armor
4dodge
1nimbleness 3damagereduce
4life
3attackspeed
1damage reduce

I want to build Xin more like a tank first. Since he cans jump in and uses his ultimate for max damage, he's a good initiator. Most of the time, he's going to eats all the stuns and disables and AOE damage, therefore the need for tank stuff.

Summoner Spells: Ignite & Teleport

Every one can use what ever spells they want, they're all good. It all depends on what use you want to make of. I suggest ignite for kills since most the time you can carry with Xin, I suggest teleport for tower pushing, Xin has a lot of attack speed and can kill a tower rapidly. Ghost or flash are also really good.

Items:
start: dagger + health potion
early: berseker's greaves + dagger + x health potions
Core: Berseker's greaves, The black Cleaver
Usefull items: Randiun's Omen, Stark's fervor, guardian angel, banshee's veil, phantom dancer, tiamat, infinity edge.


Skills: e q w e q r q q e q r e e w w r w w

I'm still confused on what's the best, maxing audacious charge or three talon strike. Three talon strike is more damage to a single target, but audacious charge is better for a multi target. It depends on if you need to gank or to farm. Always max your ultimate and keep battle cry at 1 as long as possible because the more bigger boost is at lvl 1.

Gameplay:
1. Early game and first blood
2. Mid game and farm
3. Late game, initiate and carry

1. Early game and first blood.

If you aim to get first blood with Xin zhao, you need to pick audacious charge first. Ambush in the brush and when some one get close, hit him once then charge, use ignite, attack him and hope you have a great teammate to kill him. It shouldn't be that hard with armor penetration marks. Note: don't waste all your mana and skills to get firs tblood if you don't have exactly what's required to make it (armor penetration is obviously required). Xin Zhao can solo with ease since he has life regen every 3 hit, some times it is worth the risk to last hit even if your enemy could harras you. Of course, it is better to last hit when your opponent's spells are on cool down. If your solo, make sure to always stop creeps right before your tower. This way, you can creeps in peace and you're still protected. If its dual lane, you're probably going to push it, unless they have 2 ranged. On 2 ranged champions, stand right before tower and last hit as much as you can, on melee, try to set up kills before you start pushing waves. I.e.: Get back, get your stuff and set up for a gank. Then go and last hit.

2. Mid game and Farm.

I suggest you to use teleport, it's the most useful for mid game, when taking tower is important and effective. You might want to use your ultimate to initiate fight and kill 1 or 2. Your team should push at that point, you should be teleporting top or bottom to get a tower if you can, otherwise, just run and farm. Keep teleport for when you need to push. If people are still in their lane, mid game it's time for you to gank or to farm. If you're the carry, farm. If you're the initiator/gank, gank and aim for teamfights. Get defensive items like randuin's omen and Force of nature and force them to teamfight baron. Even better case, if they are pushing you I.e. top, you should teleport bottom and finish 1 tower. If your team can't handle it, of course go and help them. Its easy, if you don't carry you need to fight them. Get ready and force them to dragon fight you or baron. If you carry, hold the line and farm it carefully. Also, as I show in my video, if you're sure that their team isn't walking together, you could go and check for an easy gank in their jungle.

3. Late game, Initiate and Carry.

Unless there is no others melee, late game you shouldn't be tanking really. You want to initiate fights with your ultimate, back off a bit, and re fight. If you can make it out, it's again time to go and push tower with teleport. At late game, Xin is very fast. A tower is about a matter of seconds. If you're lucky and can get people alone, don't hesitate to kill them, that's why wards exist. With a pink, you might want to 2 man baron. It's not a problem as Xin.  With teleport, you can also defend. If lane is pushed, go farm it, Xin can farm really quick. Make sure to have a few defensive items as well as some dps items depending on what your position in your team is.

Conclusion

Finally, Xin Zhao is an overall good fighter, he can Initiate, farm tank and/or carry a team. If you want to make a huge difference in your team, this is the kind of champion you want to play.

Garen, Might of Demacia

Hey guys,
 
Today's league of legend champion's guide is about Garen, the Tanky DPS. Garen is a very powerful melee fighter, tank, chaser.




Introduction

Runes:
9x Greater mark of Desolation (+15 armor penetration)
9x Greater Seal of Resilience (+12.7 armor)
9x Greater glyph of Warding (+13.4 magic resist)
3x Greater quitessence of Desolation (+10 armor penetration)

Masteries:
8-22-0
critical strike
cooldown reduction

magic resist, armor
dodge
improve dodge, damage reduce
life
attack speed
reduce damage

Summoner Spells
For me, its always hard to make a choice depending on what will be the most useful to me and my team as spells. I suggest for most case picking flash and ignite. I secure many kills with those 2 spells which gives me great advantage early game. Ghost and exhaust are also great, but just not as good as flash and ignite.

Items:
Start: boots, 3 health potion (obviously what makes Garen so good is his mobility with judgment, don't waste it. Pick boots and potions.
early game: The brutalizer is more than a most number 1 is absolutely necessary if you went defensive mastery, after, boots of swiftness.
Mid game: Youmuu's ghostblade, Boots of swiftness.
note: It is really hard to say what you really need here. sunfire cap, G angel, stack's of fervor are all good items, but its up to you.
late game: Guardian angel, force of nature, bloodthirster, the black cleaver, phantom dancer or stacks of fervor are all choice you can go.

Here are some final build you can make.

Final vs attack damage: boots of swiftness guardian angel last whisper sunfire cap bloodthirster thornmail

final vs attack power: Mercury's treads youmuu's ghostblade force of nature guardian angel the black cleaver phantom dancer

Final regular: boots of swiftness youmuu's ghostblade sunfire cap bloodthirster guardian angel phantom dancer

Skils:

It's not so easy to chose the right skill with Garen since he has many build. A few guideline you can chose from:
If your getting harass put 1 or 2 point in courage early on and try to fill them.
If your able to harass pick decisive strike. If not try to set up kills with flash ignite and judgment. Normal game, you can go lvl 1 decisive strike, lvl 2-3 judgment, lvl 4 courage, etc.

Gameplay:
1. Early game and firstblood
2. mid game and gank
3. late game and tank, dps

1. Early game and firstblood

Garen can farm easily early game even more with defensive mastery. Use decisive strike to last hit and judgment when your opponents push too much. Get 1 skill in courage early on to have more defence. If your teammate have a slow(i.e.: exhaust), you can set up for an easy first blood. it could be from bush lvl 1 or direct at lvl 2. level 2 you use both decisive strike and judgment which make the kill a lot easier.
at level 1: you start ambushing in the bush. when an enemy come close you start judgment and ignite, if your opponent has boots, your teammate must slow while you judgment. By now, your opponent should be dead. judgment + ignite + nuke + slow + dps = dead squishy.
At level 2: It's easier, but it requires more action. if you can start close to the opponent its better... decisive strike + ignite + judgment + slow + nuke and/or dps.
Note: nuke always refer to your teammate damage skill.
Note2: if your opponent juke you when you spin, don't hesitate to flash on him and keep fighting.
I have no real idea when is the very best moment to go shop with Garen, it does depend either or not you got first blood. I suggest you to back if you have enough for brutalizer (1350) or boots of swiftness and sword (1060).

2. Middle game and gank

Once you have the brutalizer and boots of swiftness your're good to go. Either you keep your lane or you start ganking. You have a lot of regen every 7th second. I suggest you to farm 1 or 2 waves, back and heal. Wait for next wave, farm, push and wait again. It's safe and secure. If you want to gank, you should have flash ready. Rare will be the moment where you'll be able to reach the opponent without seeing him back off. Either your teammates stun, slow or disable it or you flash. If you can, its always better to use decisive strike first to get a good silence going. Once silence is over, you could ignite to reduce healing and regeneration, after, use judgment to follow him and ultimate it for kill.


3. Late game and tank, DPS

Ganren, in my opinion, is a very good late game. With only a few items, he can still be very useful to his team. he's not such a very good initiator, but he can tank a lot of damage and do some at the same time. If you can use judgment to hit a few people at the same time it's always the best. Decisive strike is your best asset in team fight, you have to silence the key players, those that can easily disable your team or make a lot of damage (i.e.: any ap carry). You must silence the one or those that need to cast something asap. One of the best idea i have is Xin Zhao. If you can silence him before he casts ultimate, fight will change to your favor rapidly. After you disabled it, try to keep focusing it this way he can't kill all your team, don't be shy to use your ultimate earlier, not only to kill. It should encourage your team to focus.

Conclusion

Garen, is a very good all round tank and dps. What ever the situation, you can use it. In almost any match up, I can pick Garen and be sure that he will be useful.