He was not teased, he was not hyped up for weeks, he just showed up on release day already capable of 1v5ing a lobby that had no idea what hit it.
Every era of League has a champion the whole server bans on reflex without checking the matchup first. Xin Zhao earned that reputation before players even had a name for what he was doing to them, in the very same patch he was born in.
Formerly OP
Old Release Xin Zhao
He was not teased, he was not hyped up for weeks, he just showed up on release day already capable of 1v5ing a lobby that had no idea what hit it.
Every era of League has a champion the whole server bans on reflex without checking the matchup first. Xin Zhao earned that reputation before players even had a name for what he was doing to them, in the very same patch he was born in.
You see him press one button and get tankier before the fight has even started, no positioning required, no assist needed, no target necessary. You see him melt half your health bar with an ultimate that cost him nothing to spam, on a cooldown so short it was back before your team's next dragon attempt. You see him keep swinging through the whole fight because every third hit topped him back up for free, no items and no support required. That was Xin Zhao within days of his release, a champion so self sufficient that he did not need a good matchup, a good team, or even good aim to win a fight, and the forums were calling for nerfs before his first full patch cycle was over.
When, And For How Long
Xin Zhao was released on July 13, 2010, in Patch V1.0.0.96, the same patch that kicked off Season 1 itself. His passive, Tireless Warrior, healed him on every third basic attack with no strings attached. His ultimate, Crescent Sweep, sat on a flat 75 second cooldown at every single rank, hit every nearby enemy for damage scaled off their current health, and handed him a guaranteed 25 bonus armor and magic resist the instant he pressed the button, whether it actually landed on anyone or not. A duelist who sustained himself for free, got tankier for free, and could drop a health-percent AoE nuke on a cooldown shorter than most laning phases was capable of turning a bad engage into a 1v5, and once he hit level 6, sharing the screen with him was already a losing proposition for whoever was on the other side of it.
Riot let that version run for two full years before finally addressing it. Patch V1.0.0.143, released July 19, 2012, is the patch that actually ended it, and it did not do it gently.
The Old Kit
This is the kit as it launched and stayed live for two years, not the reshuffled version Patch V1.0.0.143 replaced it with. Four of the five icons below are the actual pre-rework ability art pulled from the historical record. Tireless Warrior's original passive icon is not preserved anywhere, so that one shows the modern icon standing in for it.
Passive: Tireless Warrior
Every third basic attack healed him for a solid chunk of his own damage, no strings attached. No item investment, no ability rotation, no support required, just free sustain for being aggressive. It meant a bad trade rarely stayed bad for long, because he was topping himself off the entire time he was fighting.
Q: Three Talon Strike
Empowered his next three basic attacks, with the third one knocking the target into the air for just long enough to guarantee whatever came next. The cooldown was a flat ten seconds at every single rank from the moment he hit level one, no ramp up required to keep the knockup coming back on a short leash.
W: Battle Cry
A permanent passive bonus to his attack speed that never turned off, on top of an active that made every basic attack he landed shave time off the cooldowns of his other abilities for its duration. Pop Battle Cry and just keep swinging, and Three Talon Strike and Audacious Charge were both coming back faster than either was ever designed to.
E: Audacious Charge
A dash straight at a target that dealt damage and slowed everyone caught nearby, not just the target he charged. It hit softer than it would after a couple of years of buffs, but it was already his gank tool, his engage, and his peel rolled into a single button.
R: Crescent Sweep
An AoE sweep centered on himself that hit every nearby enemy for damage scaled off how much health they currently had, and granted him a guaranteed 25 bonus armor and magic resist the moment he cast it, whether it actually connected with anyone or not. There was no forced knockback yet. He did not need one. What made it terrifying was the cooldown: a flat 75 seconds at every single rank, meaning a fight-ending AoE nuke that most ultimates in the game would envy was back in less time than it took some junglers to clear their own camps twice.
Why It Was OP
None of Xin Zhao's individual numbers were the most broken thing on the patch notes. What made him miserable to face was that his kit solved every problem a bruiser normally has to choose between, all at once, on the very first patch he was playable.
He got tankier just by pressing a button. Crescent Sweep's flat bonus resistances did not care whether it landed on one enemy or none at all. Most ultimates in League ask a champion to actually hit something to get value out of them. His just asked him to press R.
His ultimate was barely an ultimate at all. A flat 75 second cooldown at every rank meant his supposed win condition came back more often than most champions' basic abilities on a long cooldown, let alone their ultimates. It was up again before the next dragon spawned.
He paid for his own cooldowns. While Battle Cry's attack speed buff was active, his basic attacks knocked time off his other abilities. A duelist who was already swinging his weapon for free healing was also refilling Three Talon Strike and Audacious Charge just by doing what he was already doing.
Nobody had an answer yet. This was Season 1. Itemization against a self sufficient bruiser who did not need mana, kills, or a support to function was thin on the ground, and a champion this complete on release day simply outpaced what the rest of the young roster could punish.
The Fall
Riot let this version run for two full years before finally addressing it, and Patch V1.0.0.143 on July 19, 2012 did not nerf him so much as demolish and rebuild him. Tireless Warrior's healing was stripped out entirely and replaced with Challenge, a comparatively tame armor shred on hit. Crescent Sweep lost its guaranteed flat resistances and its absurd flat 75 second cooldown, gaining a real per-rank cooldown up to 100 seconds and a forced knockback on everyone it caught in exchange. Battle Cry lost its permanent attack speed and its basic-attacks-pay-for-cooldowns trick and became a straightforward healing button instead. Three Talon Strike and Audacious Charge both received numbers tuning on top of the overhaul. It was less a nerf patch than a full demolition, and it is the patch that actually ended the version of Xin Zhao capable of casually 1v5ing a lobby on release day numbers.
Where He Stands Now
The kit Patch V1.0.0.143 built went on to have its own long life, carrying Xin Zhao through a reputation as one of Season 3's most hated duelists and staying live in gradually weakened form until Riot replaced it outright in Patch 7.19 in September 2017. Modern Xin Zhao is a different champion again. His ultimate marks a target with Challenge rather than granting free stats, and Wind Becomes Lightning gives him a ranged double strike instead of an attack speed buff. He is a competent jungle and top lane pick who can still snowball a lane, but nothing about him rewards simply pressing a button anymore. These days the only thing keeping his name in balance discussions is the occasional off meta AP build surfacing in the current patch, a strange little afterlife for a champion the server used to ban before the patch notes had even finished loading.
A Blast From The Past
No amount of prose does the era justice quite like footage from it. Here is HotShotGG, the player most associated with old Xin Zhao's rise, closing out a game with a pentakill on him back when 480p counted as a good stream.
Enjoy all 10 pixels.
Nominate The Next One
This series has already dug up old Twisted Fate, old Nidalee, and old Evelynn, and Xin Zhao's one-patch demolition has us thinking about the opposite kind of fall next, old Master Yi or old Tryndamere, two champions who never got a single reckoning patch and just had their identity ground down slowly, one balance pass at a time. Who do you want to see next? Drop your nominations in the comments below.
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