Xin Zhao was extremely strong in the jungle position during Seasons 8-9 due to his superior champion quality in the early levels. During Seasons 8-9, contesting the Scuttle Crab was crucial, and Xin Zhao’s champion power was maximized.
However, everything has changed in League of Legends Season 11, where Xin Zhao finds himself in a very “dire” situation. According to statistics from LeagueofGraphs, the pick rate and win rate of the Demacian General are both at extremely low levels.
So what is the main reason causing Xin Zhao to be so poor? The answer likely lies in the meta of League of Legends shifting towards a “power farm” playstyle in the jungle position. In Season 11, camps will restore health and mana to champions when defeated. You can fully farm all 6 jungle camps to optimize the amount of resources received without needing to gank too early in Season 11.
At that point, Xin Zhao’s champion power is not utilized because there are no skirmishes happening too early. Therefore, the “power farm” meta of Season 11 proves to be completely unsuitable for Xin Zhao.
Playing Xin Zhao is like betting on needing to secure many kills in the early game to win. Otherwise, Xin Zhao’s utility in the later stages of the game will drop significantly. According to statistics from LeagueofGraphs, Xin Zhao’s win rate peaks at the 20-minute mark of the game. After that, the number drops sharply.
The nature of Xin Zhao’s skill set is to dive into opponents to take down targets as quickly as possible. Therefore, once Xin Zhao does not have a good start and lacks damage, this champion contributes very little to the overall team play. This causes players to gradually overlook Xin Zhao in favor of stronger, more versatile characters or at least those that are more useful to the team.
If you need strong damage output and good scaling, champions like Graves, Nidalee, Taliyah… are extremely reasonable choices. In cases where your team lacks crowd control or needs a tank, champions like Sejuani, Amumu… are all better than Xin Zhao.
In summary, Xin Zhao is currently one of the biggest victims of the League of Legends Season 11 meta. The rise of the “power farm” playstyle has rendered Xin Zhao’s early gank approach obsolete. Perhaps this champion needs a round of adjustments or buffs from Riot Games to have a slightly better scaling capability. Otherwise, Xin Zhao will be stuck with his overly monotonous playstyle for a considerable time to come.