by Mana

[4.3] Xayah Guide - Xayah, the feather is mightier than a sword

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Patch 4.3
October 17, 2023 14:40
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Xayah, the feather is mightier than a sword

A short guide to Xayah, the Rebel, an ADC with a unique playstyle due to her passiv and an "Out of Jail" card ultimate. If you master her special style you will be able to hard carry a lot of games.

Pros

  • great waveclear and tower pushing
  • hypercarry lategame
  • great security mechanism with your ultimate.
  • ADC with CC =POGGERS
  • great teamfighting in which you can secure areas by spreading your feathers and denying passage

Cons

  • short range (525)
  • kinda weak earlygame (still has a decent lvl 1 all in with her 2nd ability)
  • immobile ADC
  • you have to always keep track of your feathers and position with your attacks to spread them the most efficient way => very position relient
  • has big problems against poke lanes

Xayah Build

Best Build Guide for Xayah

Starting Items
Long Sword
Core Items
Essence Reaver
Gluttonous Greaves
Navori Quickblades
Infinity Edge
Lethal Xayah
Manamune
Gluttonous Greaves
Youmuu's Ghostblade
Edge of Night
Serylda's Grudge
Serpent's Fang
Crit Full Example
Essence Reaver
Gluttonous Greaves
Navori Quickblades
Infinity Edge
Mortal Reminder
Bloodthirster
vs 3 tanks+heal
Navori Quickblades
Gluttonous Greaves
Infinity Edge
Blade of the Ruined King
Mortal Reminder
Black Cleaver

Item Build Description

Additional information on the items

Standard Build (crit Xayah):

You wanna start the game with a [longsword] and get at least a Caulfield's WarhammerCaulfield's Warhammer after your first back. You want to finish Essence ReaverEssence Reaver as soon as possible, because this item is a huge powerspike for you. The passive 'Essence Flare' works with all your feathers quite well + it adds 25 AH which will bring your skills up a lot faster (especially important here is your ultimate, since it is a damn good survival tool).

The 2nd big spike is when you finish Navori QuickbladesNavori Quickblades and you complete the 50% crit chance. This will enable you already a good ammount of CDR on all of your skills for longer teamfights and give you options to secure areas (more feathers layed out) and gives you more uses of your Deadly PlumageDeadly Plumage .

To round up the main build finish Infinity EdgeInfinity Edge , because at 75% you get a lot out of the 30% extra crit dmg.

After those 3 main items grab a Last WhisperLast Whisper against tanks, lots of people will use Lord Dominik's RegardsLord Dominik's Regards as upgrade here, but i think Mortal ReminderMortal Reminder is a better choice to round up the build with a BloodthirsterBloodthirster for more sustain.


Here are some thought's on items which are options for Xayah.


BloodthirsterBloodthirster aka BT
Crit chance, lifesteal and passive that gives you a shield to prevent burst damage? BT is quite a solid choice for the last item you can pick up due to its good stats.

Blade of the Ruined KingBlade of the Ruined King aka BorK
Another great lifesteal item, which adds AS and %current hp based damage. You also slow the enemy after 3 hits on top of it.. good item, but i rather go for BloodthirsterBloodthirster due to the added crit chance of that item. Against a lot of bruisers or tanks who just stack Hp BorK is probablly the better choice.

Black CleaverBlack Cleaver
When the enemy team has 3 tanks armor penetration from the  [last whipser] passive of the other armor pen items wont be enough to quickly kill them, get Cleaver and BorK. Your build would look like: ER/IE, Navoris, LDR, BorK, Cleaver. ER makes you not run out of Mana while IE provides more damage compared to ER.

Mortal ReminderMortal Reminder
Personally, this is my go to armor pen item on Xayah. Gives more AD than the other 2 options, and since I often grab BT i hit 100% crit chance anyway. Grievious Wounds is just a nice extra here.

Lord Dominik's RegardsLord Dominik's Regards aka LDR
If you don't have already 100% crit chance with the other 4 items (+boots) then you get LDR. Otherwise it is good in the option i mentioned with Black CleaverBlack Cleaver if you play against a lot of tanks and you want to deal a good amount of damage to them.

Serylda's GrudgeSerylda's Grudge
Mostly used in the Lethality build. The slow and ability haste are great, but in solo q you encounter too many player who never heard of grievious wounds, when they play against [aatrox], SorakaSoraka , Dr. MundoDr. Mundo or SonaSona which makes the game just harder than it has to be.

Death's DanceDeath's Dance
Armor, AD and the great bleed and heal passive? Good defensive item when the enemy has a lot of constant dps and you need to survive and also prevents you from getting bursted, but for that PD is the better choice.

Phantom DancerPhantom Dancer
Lifeline makes this item good to survival against heavy burst. The crit and attack speed work excelent with your kit. If you try to avoid burst, this is your usual go to item.

Maw of MalmortiusMaw of Malmortius
Another lifeline item.. but compared to Phantom DancerPhantom Dancer it is worse due to only shielding from AP damage. If the enemy has an APC and AP midlaner you should prioritize this over PD. The added vamp is really great since also your feather AOE will heal you.

Wit's EndWit's End
Kinda same explenation as Death's DanceDeath's Dance . If the enemy has a lot of magic damage over time Wit's EndWit's End will outshine Maw of MalmortiusMaw of Malmortius .

Statikk ShivStatikk Shiv
First of the Kircheis ShardKircheis Shard items.. being honestly, I don't like this one on XayahXayah . She already has a great speed to clear minion waves out, so i feel the chain lightning from Statikk ShivStatikk Shiv is a waste of money, but this is my personal opinion.

Rapid FirecannonRapid Firecannon
I feel like this is the best Kircheis ShardKircheis Shard item for xayah. The extra range will always give you one free auto attack. If you activate Deadly PlumageDeadly Plumage before your AA hits an enemy you will get the speed buff from the ability, which then makes you able to just run down the enemy for a free kill.

StormrazorStormrazor
This works kinda same as Rapid FirecannonRapid Firecannon , but the only problem is that you still have the short range (525) and that makes it harder to proc the slow from StormrazorStormrazor effective on squishy targets to run them down. The buffs from 3.1 were nice, but yea still not the best item for XayahXayah

Runaan's HurricaneRunaan's Hurricane
Same as Statikk ShivStatikk Shiv . The added AOE is kinda waste of money, except when you go for an on hit heavy build with Blade of the Ruined KingBlade of the Ruined King and Wit's EndWit's End which work great with this.

Solari ChargebladeSolari Chargeblade
Fun item on a caster ADC like Xayah. Definitly recommendable and a nice replacement if you dont like Navoris

Edge of NightEdge of Night
If you need to dodge a 2nd crucial skill (example enemy runs a MalphiteMalphite and a ZedZed dodge Death MarkDeath Mark with FeatherstormFeatherstorm and Edge of NightEdge of Night can negate Unstoppable ForceUnstoppable Force

Serpent's FangSerpent's Fang
Great item if you are up against ShenShen or KarmaKarma , else don't bother on a crit build. Still a good item for Lethality builds.

Protobelt EnchantProtobelt Enchant
This! 90% of the games you want to go for this boot enchant. It works get to reposition yourself for a root with BladecallerBladecaller , and also another safety tool since XayahXayah is an still an immobile ADC.

Quicksilver EnchantQuicksilver Enchant
Heavy CC? No problem.

[stasis enchant]
You rarely want to go stasis, since quicksilver and protobelt are way better for you. Only go for this if you really need to avoid some burst or buy some extra seconds.




Lethality Poke build

The itemisation is way more narrow than the crit build.

Your first buy in the game is a Sapphire CrystalSapphire Crystal and on your first back a Serrated DirkSerrated Dirk .

You will then rush the complete Youmuu's GhostbladeYoumuu's Ghostblade and build Tear of the GoddessTear of the Goddess and a Caulfield's WarhammerCaulfield's Warhammer . Don't finish ManamuneManamune before you have at least 580 stacks on Tear of the GoddessTear of the Goddess . Remember to constantly stack up the Tear with casts of your skill when you regenerate HP in the base. 

During the stacking you can already prepare or buy your Edge of NightEdge of Night .

The build has a lot more AH than the crit build, why you more often have your ultimate to keep yourself save from a lot of dangerous enemy abilities.

After Edge of NightEdge of Night just finish the build up with either Serylda's GrudgeSerylda's Grudge (prefered due to the ability haste) or Mortal ReminderMortal Reminder  (if the enemy has a lot of heal like Dr. MundoDr. Mundo , SorakaSoraka , SonaSona or YuumiYuumi ) and a Duskblade of DraktharrDuskblade of Draktharr .


IMPORTANT NOTE: Lethality is a poke build, which means the order in which you max skills out is [xayah:1] > BladecallerBladecaller > Deadly PlumageDeadly Plumage

Xayah Runes

Best Runes for Xayah

Keystone
Lethal Tempo
Lethal Tempo
Domination
Gathering Storm
Gathering Storm
Resolve
Conditioning
Conditioning
Inspiration
Hunter Genius
Hunter Genius

This set is typical for the normal ADC crit build varriant.


Keystone:

Lethal TempoLethal Tempo will be your go to 99% of the time. Best keystone cause of stacking up quick attackspeed.

Fleet FootworkFleet Footwork is a nice alternative if you want the susstain, but generally Lethal TempoLethal Tempo is the best rune choice you can have.




Domination:

Gathering StormGathering Storm is my usual go to. XayahXayah is a scaling champ for lategame, and this rune delivers free stats (at 6 min mark you gain additional 12 ad which equals a [longsword] which is worth 500 gold, the later the game goes the more value this rune grants)

Alternativly you can pick Hunter VampirismHunter Vampirism for the extra vamp or Giant SlayerGiant Slayer vs a lot of tanks.




Resolve:

ConditioningConditioning follows the same rules as Gathering StormGathering Storm and is an really good scaling rune for XayahXayah .

Other good options you might favor are Hunter TitanHunter Titan for some tenacity if the enemy has a lot of CCs, Adaptive CarapaceAdaptive Carapace or Nullifying OrbNullifying Orb as generally good.




Inspiration:

Hunter GeniusHunter Genius is the best rune here and actually the only viable choice. You are very vunerable when [xayah:ult] is on cooldown, and this will help you to get more often.

One good alternative might be Nimbus CloakNimbus Cloak for some extra movementspeed after using a summoner.

Keystone
Summon Aery
Summon Aery
Domination
Scorch
Scorch
Resolve
Conditioning
Conditioning
Inspiration
Manaflow Band
Manaflow Band

Thats for lethality build. This build also change the order in which you max skills.

If you use this build max Double DaggersDouble Daggers as soon as possible, 2nd skill to max out is your BladecallerBladecaller and last Deadly PlumageDeadly Plumage .


The only change for Lethality compared to normal ADC Xayah is the keystone,inspration rune and playstyle.

You use Summon AerySummon Aery for the poke damage with your Double DaggersDouble Daggers . Aery will always apply when you hit a feather with Double DaggersDouble Daggers or Clean CutsClean Cuts . This is a must have and cant be exchanged.


Domination:

ScorchScorch is the best choice and cut down your opponents quickly for an easy kill.


Inspiration:

Manaflow BandManaflow Band because you will run quicker oom with that setup + extra damage on MuramanaMuramana .


Skill Order

How to distribute skill points

Clean Cuts
Clean Cuts - Passive
Double Daggers
Double Daggers
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
Deadly Plumage
Deadly Plumage
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
Bladecaller
Bladecaller
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
Featherstorm
Featherstorm
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15

Summoner Spells

When to take which summoners

Flash
Flash on the D key
Exhaust
The best choice as 2nd summoner. The slow helps you to position better for your root
Heal
If your support wont switch of exhaust take heal. Speedbuff + some hp regain
Barrier
If your support has exhaust and you dont care to take heal and help him.
Ghost
Sometimes useful for kiting and running down enemies.

Combos

Learn how to maximize the champions potential

Double Daggers
1st
Auto Attack
AA
Bladecaller
3rd

Since the page bugs: Double DaggersDouble Daggers + AA + BladecallerBladecaller

Basic fast root combo

Double Daggers
1st
Featherstorm
Ult
Bladecaller
3rd

Double DaggersDouble Daggers + FeatherstormFeatherstorm + BladecallerBladecaller

Using your first skill before the ultimate will cancel its cast animation and throw out 3 feathers in a line for a root.

Auto Attack
AA
Deadly Plumage
2nd

AA + Deadly PlumageDeadly Plumage

Use your 2nd Skill before the feather from your auto attack connects so you get the movement speed bonus, this will enable you to run down enemies.

Auto Attack
AA
Deadly Plumage
2nd
Auto Attack
AA
Double Daggers
1st
Bladecaller
3rd

AA + Deadly PlumageDeadly Plumage + aa + Double DaggersDouble Daggers + BladecallerBladecaller

Same as last. Before your AA hits you have to use your 2nd skill to get the movementspeed bonus, then you lane a auto with your passive and throw out two more feathers for a fast root.

Featherstorm
Ult
Flash
Flash
Bladecaller
3rd

FeatherstormFeatherstorm + [flash] + [xayah:3]
Flash while in the air to set up enemies.

Protobelt Enchant
Bladecaller
3rd

Protobelt EnchantProtobelt Enchant / [flash] + [xayah:3]

Set up enemies for a quick root.

Xayah Matchups & Counters

Detailed information on how to play matchups and counters

Jinx
Easy
Jinx
Zed
Easy
Zed
Miss Fortune
Medium
Miss Fortune
Ashe
Medium
Ashe
Jhin
Medium
Jhin
Draven
Hard
Draven
Tristana
Hard
Tristana
Varus
Hard
Varus
Caitlyn
Hard
Caitlyn
Kai'sa
Skill
Kai'sa
Ezreal
Skill
Ezreal
Lucian
Skill
Lucian
Vayne
Skill
Vayne
Samira
Skill
Samira

Another immobile hypercarry yeay.. in my experiance i had no real problems with Jinx so far but if shes ahead she can be a problem specially since her Rocket Launcher outranges you.

Xayah

Understanding your sup

Engager:

RakanRakan definitly your best partner. Your Deadly PlumageDeadly Plumage also buffs him and his Battle DanceBattle Dance gives you  a bigger shield. Technically you can do a lvl 1 cheese, by hiding in the enemy bush where he jumps in and you use your Deadly PlumageDeadly Plumage and either kill an enemy or poke him really low so he has to retreat and burn a summoner spell like [flash]


NautilusNautilus , ThreshThresh , PykePyke and BlitzcrankBlitzcrank are catchers. Personal favorite is definitly Thresh, because he got great engage and peel with his [thresh:2] and FlayFlay . You can easy follow him up due to his lantern. On the other hand i feel that Nautilus from this champs is better for team fights, to disrupt as many as possible with Depth ChargeDepth Charge . Pyke is great for snowballing and securing kills with his ult. Overall everyone of these are great to set up chain cc.


AlistarAlistar , AmumuAmumu , GalioGalio , PantheonPantheon , LeonaLeona and ShenShen are engager. You profit heavy from a lvl 2 all-in with them since they either unlock chain cc, like Leona, Alistar, Galio with you or just enough kill threat (empowered Shield VaultShield Vault + Comet SpearComet Spear , Shadow DashShadow Dash + Twilight AssaultTwilight Assault or Spirit's RefugeSpirit's Refuge to shield u from the enemy aa). Special mention also to Shen since he is also a guardian with his ult and 2nd skill which gives him a ton of peel.


Enchanter:

JannaJanna , SorakaSoraka , LuluLulu , YuumiYuumi , SonaSona , KarmaKarma and NamiNami belong to the enchanter class. They are great to enable your scaling and peel, but overall you are better off with the engagers since those engages lead mostly to a save root with BladecallerBladecaller , with some wasted enemy summoner or even a kill. Prob best of the enchanters for you are Karma and Nami.


Guardians:

BraumBraum and technically ShenShen but i dont repeat what i wrote about him at the engager. Guarians are great against poke lanes are hard matchups to secure you not getting stomped. You can freely trade when Braum blocks the projectiles and with his ult he offers some decent peel. Stacking up his stun with you to ensure roots is easy as well.


Cursed supports you dislike to lane with:

BrandBrand , TeemoTeemo , sometimes LuxLux , SennaSenna and definitly MalphiteMalphite .. are all basically trolled to pair with you. Most of these aren't really supports. Senna is better paired with any APC and Lux has more of a poke playstyle, while Xayah prefers all-ins and extended fights to spread her feathers. Special mention to Malphite.. i hope anyone who picks him into support is happy trolling and spend his time in hell.

Xayah

How to ... [every stage]

WIP

Laning Phase:

Your laning phase depends a lot on the support you have as Xayah. If your support can engage or catch an enemy out of position you can easily secure kills and snowball the game with this gold lead. Be aware if you play against a pokelane (Lethality Varus + Karma f.e.) to not take too much damage before you and your support hit lvl 2/3 to prevent an all-in. Keep the pressure always up, but keep your eyes on the map to not get caught out of position by the enemy jungle.

If you play with an poke support try to harrass the enemies as much as often. Try to force them back to the base and make them lose a lot of minion gold. Take plates to further your lead. Communicate for possible dives with your jungler (if you poke them low and get a big minion wave you can dive and kill the enemy duo lane).

If you play with a sustain support, watch for their cooldowns, take agressive trades and heal up. Careful if the enemies have an strong all-in (Leona + Tristana f.e.). Farm up your items and scale safely. Enchaner supports have good scaling for the lategame.

No matter what, play it save against agressive early lanes till they make a mistake. A lot in WR and LoL (PC) depends on abusing the mistakes of the enemy and recognizing them, so if you do, you are ahead of lanebullies and outscale them later.




Mid game:

The Mid-game usually starts when the first towers have fallen, and often you with Xayah take one of the first towers, due to her pushing power from Deadly PlumageDeadly Plumage and her insanely good wave clear from Clean CutsClean Cuts . After that proceed to take the T1 midlane tower to break open the map and communicate with your midlaner to take a sidelane. This way you can quickly push out the waves and join fights for objectives (dragon, herald #2, baron). Due to having Navori QuickbladesNavori Quickblades as second item your damage in team fights will skyrocket with all those feathers you can place on the ground to secure small areas (jungle paths? dragon/baron pit). You also have a 100% uptime on Deadly PlumageDeadly Plumage




Late game:

Late-game officially starts at 20 minutes with the spawn of the Elder Drake. You usually close out most matches at this time already, but yea in lower elo they might go on a bit longer.. With Xayah you usually take out enemies really quick and can one-shot most squishy enemies, but also be careful, even if you deal insane amounts of damage, you are just an ADC and get killed fast if get caught out of position. Make sure you always have a safety measure ([flash] , [xayah:ult] , [exhaust] , [stasis enchant] or Quicksilver EnchantQuicksilver Enchant ) when participating in fights and position around your team mates. Even if the team ain't great, they can soak up enemy key abilities to make sure you don't die.

Xayah

List of ults to negate.

WIP: Here will be a list of ultimate abilties you can negate if you time FeatherstormFeatherstorm correctly, and some more or less obvious indicators.


Zed
When Zed ults you you will see that 3 shadows will appear and move on top of you. if you ult in the same moment they connect with each other you won't get any ult dmg.


Camillie
As Camille jumps up you will have to ult, else you will be trapped in her ult.

Malphite
He will shoot towards you. Best here is to always have the finger close to your ult.

Vex and other projectiles
Jump up shortly before they connect to you, else you will get hit.

Nautilus
Keep track of the eruptions on the ground. When they get close just ult and you are fine.

Yone
As soon as his mark on the ground is fully charged he will ult and knock you up => ult as soon as you see the mark on the ground

Pyke
Similar to Yone. Ult as soon as you see the mark, or else you get executed


-



Xayah

Abbreviation and other

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1mxHR2Sm_L5z0FbNrFoC100ALumQ0WA1uubmugaNC2gY/edit

recently provided by the WR community


Here is also a a cool guide by the reddit user kaRIM-GOudy who has a lot of cool tips to add in his reddit post about which i didn't speak

https://www.reddit.com/r/wildrift/comments/1047cfl/xayah_guide_that_i_use_and_it_is_effective/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3

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