[2.6a] Xayah Guide - Effective Xayah
Effective Xayah
Pros
- Relatively easy laning stage
- Normal attacks can deal damage to more than one target
- Low CD skills
- Synergistic kit
- In built escape mechanism
Cons
- Positioning dependent
- Lack of easy CC
Xayah Build
Best Build Guide for Xayah
Item Build Description
Additional information on the items
Xayah's kit is awkward because the feathers lasts the time needed for E to reset. Getting Navori allows you to reduce CD on E and Q by 15% on crit, while providing 25% crit chance. In playtime this usually means you get enough time to recall at least 6-8 feathers. This is crucial and allows for more flexibility in positioning to land the CC on E, so it is the first item you need to get. Some guides tell you that you need Essence Reaver but as you might notice, Xayah is NOT bottlenecked on mana, so reaver is a waste of a slot.
Next, due to Xayah's range, she finds it difficult to kite champions. While she can peel herself away from the fight, she needs her ult to do so. To do this, she needs some sort of soft CC. Serylda's Grudge is perfect because it provides a 30% slow while providing armor penetration, which means she can take part in taking dragon earlier, scaling into late game etc.
The rest of the items are rather standard, Solari for that sustained damage, BotRK for dealing with tanks.
I opt for the Infinity Edge at the end to give the extra burst of Crit because her feathers can crit while piercing through units
Xayah Runes
Best Runes for Xayah
Skill Order
How to distribute skill points
Summoner Spells
When to take which summoners
Combos
Learn how to maximize the champions potential
This clears a full wave safely behind creep lines.
Escape combo, peel away while rooting the target.
Skill Build
R > Q > E > W
Most people max E because they need a larger window for landing the CC. In reality, this improvement is marginal and leads to a rather conservative mid game, while sacrificing damage output. Maxing Q allows for more feathers to be in the field, which plays well with the Navari Quickblade. Maxing Q also doubles the base damage from Q, while maxing E only gives 30% more base damage.
Rushing Navari Quickblade means by the time you hit level 6, you will be able to consistently recall at least 6 feathers at a timing and damage that you only get from level 11 before. This is because the item allows you to reset 15% of the CD on crit, with 25% crit. Assuming you attack once every second, When you start with Q and shoot all 3 of your feathers, you have a good chance of crit once, so you can Q and feathers again. By the time you want to trigger E, you should have 6-8 feathers at your disposal. This is a far cry from other builds where you only have max 5 at any time except with ult, making it alot easier to land the CC.
Body
My goto ADC are Jhin, Ezreal and Xayah. To me, Jhin excels at range and power, Ezreal on scaling and mobility, and Xayah on AOE and safety.
Xayah is safe because she's a great pick into most comps, and her kit scales well into all stages of the game. However, she does have glaring disadvantages that requires a different set of equipment compared to most other ADCs.
Regardless, with the right items and skill build you should find Xayah is easiest to play with the least pressure on positioning.
Analysis
While her skill set scales quite well, the CD timing is very awkward because by default her feather expires in the same timing as her E, which means most of the time you have a very short window to trigger E to root the opponent even if you're in the wrong position. This is especially apparent in the early-mid game. This also means that most of the time without your ult you cant pull back more than 5 feathers, so your damage may be rather limited.
Next is her short range and lack of other CC, compared to champs like Ashe, who has slows on attacks, skills and a stun. This is a problem because it means she cannot kite effectively as an ADC, so she has less flexibility in positioning.
This are two of her main weaknesses that you must be aware when playing her. Most guides don't address this at all, but here in this guide we will switch our item and skill build to play her effectively.
Item Build
As mentioned before, Navari Quickblade is crucial, and because Xayah is balanced around her feathers, which can pierce AND trigger on hit effects, she can delay IE and go for important utility items. Next she can go for solari or Serylda's Grudge, depending on whether she needs more damage or more kiting.
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