Xayah was the first champion in League of Legends that I felt was made for me. Xayah has access to extremely quick attacks, a decently easy way to Crowd Control (CC) enemy champions and an ultimate ability (R) that helps you both escape enemies by becoming invulnerable; her ultimate can be used as a tool to help set up her E, Bladecaller, which will root enemy champions if 3 feathers pass through them.
Xayah’s only downfall is her movement speed and inability to escape fights without using Flash or her ultimate. Otherwise, Xayah is a well-rounded Marksman and I would recommend trying her out in ARAM.
QUICK RUNDOWN:
SUMMONER SPELLS: Flash & Heal
RUNES: Fleet Footwork, Triumph, Alacrity, Coup de Grace // Eyeball Collection & Taste of Blood
ABILITY POWER UP: E, W, Q
FIRST BUY: Caulfield’s Warhammer, Boots
BUILD ORDER: Essence Reaver, Berserker’s Boots, Rapid Firecannon, Infinity Edge, Phantom Dancer, Bloodthirster
COMBOS: Xayah should always initiate with their W, especially once they have built Essence Reaver and have put some points in it. W can be followed by a Q to lay some extra feathers on the ground. Auto-attack as many feathers as you can before you pull back on your E to root.
SUMMONER SPELLS FOR XAYAH IN ARAM
FLASH
Xayah has a lack of mobility in comparison to fellow marksmen like Jinx, Caitlyn, or even Jhin. Xayah players must often rely on their Flash to get in or out of battles, especially in moments where enemy champions are low on health.
As players get more comfortable with Xayah, they will be able to hit their W, Flash into Battle, smash their Q and if necessary they can finish off an enemy with an E, rooting them and helping their team finish them off!
HEAL
Heal is a bit of a staple when playing marksmen. Again, Heal will help provide a little speed boost to ensure that you’re able to get away from dangerous situations, especially when you’re low on health.
RUNE RECOMMENDATIONS FOR XAYAH IN ARAM
The most beneficial way to play Xayah is to build her Precision – Domination. Players can choose to build her Precision – Sorcery, though because of her need for attack speed and life steal, Precision – Domination seems to always out beat Precision- Sorcery.
Although players will want to stick to a Precision – Domination builds, there are a few different choices players can make depending on their preference on how they want to play Xayah.
Xayah players can use similar runes as Vayne, Miss Fortune, Kindred, Tristana, Sivir, Ashe, Varus, Caitlyn, and Jhin.
The following are the two builds I would recommend when playing Xayah:
RUNES PLAYERS CAN USE FOR SUSTAIN (HEALTH/LIFE STEAL AND MOVEMENT SPEED)
PRECISION – PRIMARY TREE
FLEET FOOTWORK
Become Energized by using basic attacks or moving. When fully Energized, 100, Xayah’s next basic attack will restore between 3 to 60 (+30% bonus AD) health, based on the player’s level.
Players will also receive a 20% movement speed buff for 1 second.
Since Xayah is a ranged champion, she will only receive 20% of this healing when attacking minions.
Xayah players should try to stay back when in ARAM, as players will have a hard time escaping enemy champions if they are jumped on. If Xayah players take any damage, they should pull back briefly while healing off of minions until it is safe to jump back into battle.
Fleet Footwork falls off a bit in the late-game, but players can definitely benefit from having it still, especially as you build attack speed.
Fleet Footwork is a big reason why I do not build any life steal on Xayah, unless necessary, so I can focus on Critical Strike Chance or Attack Speed instead. Fleet Footwork also makes Xayah’s movement speed issue much more bearable, making kiting enemy champions a bit easier.
TRIUMPH
Triumph is one of the most powerful runes that players can take while playing ARAM, especially if your team gets a number of kills in a row.
Players will receive 6% of missing health as well as 10 Gold every time they participate in a champion takedown. Players will experience a 1-second delay before they get their health from securing a takedown.
ALACRITY
Alacrity provides players with 3% (+ 1.5% per Legend stack) bonus Attack Speed, up to 18% when players have 10 stacks.
Alacrity is a sneaky Rune that I didn’t realize was a staple with Xayah at first. Securing enough kills to receive the 18% Attack Speed can be game-changing, especially if players haven’t died and thus do not have a way to access the shop.
Alacrity won’t help carry you throughout the whole game, but it will make sure that you get a few extra feathers out onto the field before your enemy gets a chance to burst you down.
COUP DE GRACE
The fourth Rune is definitely a personal choice, but I always like to choose Coup de Grace because it gives you 8% more damage to enemy champions below 40% health.
My reason for choosing Coup de Grace primarily has to do with the fact that I don’t find myself very low on health with Xayah unless I’m getting wrecked anyways. Not to mention, chances are you’re going to hit your E when champions are under 40% health, so having that extra damage can help secure a kill.
DOMINATION – SECONDARY TREE (SUSTAIN ALTERNATIVE)
TASTE OF BLOOD
Taste of Blood provides players with 18-35 (+20% bonus AD) health on enemy hits every 15 seconds. While players will not benefit from healing when smacking minions, players shouldn’t need the extra health due to Fleet Footwork and Triumph.
Taste of Blood can be especially useful when players are against another Marksman or when trying to help shred down a tank.
EYEBALL COLLECTION
I’ll be honest, the main reason I take Eyeball Collection is that I don’t think any other Runes are very useful when playing Xayah in ARAM.
Put simply, many players choose Ravenous Bite as their second rune in the Domination tree and while having extra healing can be useful, having 18 Attack Damage after 10 enemy takedowns is much more beneficial in my opinion.
Eyeball Collection, similar to Alacrity is extremely beneficial when it comes to early-game, especially if you and your teammates have sealed some kills. Eyeball Collection makes it so players don’t have to die before they give enemies a spanking, which is always a great thing to experience.
ALTERNATE RUNES FOR XAYAH
If players don’t think they need Life Steal or Movement Speed they can trade out Fleet Footwork with Lethal Tempo. Lethal Tempo provides players with 40 to 110% attack speed (based on level) after 1.5 seconds of damaging.
Lethal Tempo will ignore the attack speed cap for 3 seconds and can be extended to 6 seconds if a champion is hit again. Lethal Tempo has a 6-second cooldown after losing the status effect.
It can be obvious why players choose Lethal Tempo on Xayah, however, not having the extra movement speed from Fleet Footwork can make certain situations a lot more stressful.
If you do choose to use Lethal Tempo, I would recommend also choosing Ravenous Bite, instead of Eyeball Collection to balance out the health you would have received from Fleet Footwork.
SKILL LEVEL UP RECOMMENDATIONS & TIPS ON HOW TO PLAY XAYAH IN ARAM
When playing Xayah it is crucial that players always stick to the Meta E, W, Q skill up order. Unlike many other champions, there is no real reason players would want to powerup their abilities in any other way.
The following are Xayah’s abilities, when to use them and why they must be skilled up in the suggested order:
BLADECALLER (E)
Xayah pulls back all Feathers that have been placed on the field, dealing physical damage to all enemies they pass through. Bladecaller’s damage is increased by 0% to 50% based on the player’s Critical Strike Chance.
If 3 Feathers pass through an enemy champion, they will be rooted for 1.25 seconds. Each Feather deals 100%-10% damage (based on the amount of Feather’s that pass through a champion).
The base damage of Feathers goes as follows: 55 / 65 / 75 / 85 / 95 (+ 60% bonus AD) and the cooldown will be 12 / 11 / 10 / 9 / 8. Though Bladecaller’s damage will increase and its cooldown will decrease based on how many points are put into it, Bladecaller’s cost will always be 40 Mana.
Before hitting E, make sure you have a number of Feathers on the floor and that you are positioned in a location that will draw the Feathers into enemy champions. I know it might seem stupid to have to say, look at where the Feathers are going, but in clutch situations, players may find themselves failing to root enemy champions.
Note: Minions will take 50% less damage from Bladecaller, but it is still worth it to use your E to get the gold from Minions.
DEADLY PLUMAGE (W)
Xayah gains 35 / 40 / 45 / 50 / 55% Attack Speed for 4 seconds. Xayah’s Basic attacks will also strike for 20% more damage.
Xayah must strike an enemy champion to gain 30% Movement Speed, so having weapons like Rapid Firecannon becomes extremely useful. Begin your combo by hitting W, if you can hit a champion on the first hit, enjoy 30% Movement Speed. If players cannot reach enemy champions, it’s still a good idea to use Deadly Plumage to help farm minions quickly or take down enemy turrets.
There can be some benefit to levelling up Deadly Plumage first, especially because powering it up will increase the Attack Speed and drop the mana cost 60 / 55 / 50 / 45 / 40 and cooldown speed 20 / 19 / 18 / 17 / 16. As much as I love upgrading Deadly Plumage for it’s cheaper cost, shorter cooldown and faster attack speed, it’s not nearly as effective as putting points in your E first.
Although I would never recommend putting points in your W first, I will say that putting points in it first can reduce the need for an early-game Essence Reaver.
DOUBLE DAGGERS (Q)
I don’t know why, but for some reason, a lot of us get trapped into believing that Xayah’s Q, Double Daggers, is worth powering up early. While Double Daggers has a good amount of range, it only causes 45 / 65 / 85 / 105 / 125 (+ 50% bonus AD) and any targets after the first will only take 50% damage. Due to the reduction of damage, the following is the minimum damage enemies will receive upon powerup: 22.5 / 32.5 / 42.5 / 52.5 / 62.5 (+ 25% bonus AD).
Double Daggers can be useful for sealing last hits on enemy champions, the only issue is that Double Daggers only drops two Feathers on the ground, requiring players to use at least one auto-attack if they hope to root the enemy with Bladecaller. Even if players don’t have 3 Feathers, pulling on Bladecaller will still do more damage than Double Dagger.
Double Daggers does not receive mana reduction, however, the cooldown will reduce by 1 second for each point, becoming a minimum of 6 seconds.
FEATHERSTORM (R)
It can be tempting to initiate with Xayah’s R, Featherstorm, but I recommend only using Featherstorm in a team battle where someone else has initiated. The goal of using Featherstorm is to both avoid damage as well as secure as many roots as you can.
Simply put, there’s no way to ensure secured roots when Xayah initiates with Featherstorm, so hold off your trigger happy finger for a moment and let your teammates help you out.
GEAR BUILDS FOR XAYAH IN ARAM
ESSENCE REAVER
Xayah has a bit of an issue with mana, especially as players are especially aggressive with her. I would discourage you from using Clarity, especially because Heal gives you some extra movement speed and the only other option that may be worth it is bringing Mana Flow in your runes.
Essence Reaver provides players with 70 AD, 20% cooldown reduction and 25% Critical Strike Chance. Basic attacks will also refund 1.5% of missing mana on-hit and works especially well with extra Attack Speed.
Essence Reaver makes managing mana incredibly easy, so if want to spam your abilities and root enemies like it’s your job buy this Essence Reaver! Critical Strike Chance also never hurts!
BERSERKER’S BOOTS
I don’t think I have to explain this… Attack Speed Boots for an Attack Speed Queen. You can thank me later for my brevity.
RAPID FIRECANNON
Pairing up extremely well with Fleet Footwork, Rapid Firecannon provides players with a 35% bonus range (+150 range maximum) when players are Energized. Energized attacks will also deal 120 magic damage.
Rapid Firecannon provides players with 30% Attack Speed, +25% Critical Strike Chance, and +5% Movement Speed.
I personally build it as my second item when I have difficulty reaching enemy champions. If I’m not having difficulty and just want more damage I build Infinity Edge next, so you have a little wiggle room here for when to build Rapid FIrecannon.
INFINITY EDGE
Infinity Edge is the best item Xayah players can build simply due to the fact that it provides players with 80 Attack Damage and +25% Critical Strike Chance. Infinity Edge also has a unique passive that provides players with+25% Critical Strike Damage icon critical damage.
If players don’t feel like they need Essence Reaver or mana in the early-game, I would recommend building Infinity Edge instead. Start buy building a B.F.F. Sword instead of Caulfield’s Warhammer.
PHANTOM DANCER
Depending on how long your game runs, you’re probably not going to need to build Phantom Dancer. Phantom Dancer provides players with 30% Attack Speed, 25% Critical Strike Chance and 5% Movement Speed.
Phantom Dancer also comes with two unique passives, being Spectral Waltz (Basic attacking a champion grants Ghost ghosting and 7% bonus movement speed for 2 seconds.) and Lifeline (If you would take damage that would reduce maximum health below 30%, you first gain a Hybrid resistances icon shield that absorbs 240 − 600 (based on level) damage decaying over 2 seconds). Lifeline has a 90-second cooldown.
Phantom Dancer and Blood Thirster are fairly interchangeable, though each gives a different set of stats. If you’re standing still while smacking enemy champions, chances are you’re going to want Blood Thirster over Phantom Dancer.
BLOODTHIRSTER
Bloodthirster is one of the only Life Steal items I would build on Xayah. Bloodthirster provides players with 80 Attack Damage and 20% Life Steal.
Bloodthirster can also overheal you by converting excess health into a 50 − 350 (based on level) “shield.” Bloodthirster’s shield will decay when out-of-combat for 25 seconds.
I used to use Blade of the Ruined King, but since Xayah relies heavily on Critical Strike Chance, building items with the most damage tends to be more useful.
The only other Life Steal item I would consider is Mercurial Scimitar if the enemy team is primarily Magic Damage dealers.
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