Guide to playing lethality Xayah in League of Legends season 12

Xayah is currently one of the most popular ADCs in League of Legends. Her pick-rate in both the solo queue and professional level has been quite high and is also acting as a good counter to a lot of meta picks in season 12.

This massive boost to Xayah's popularity came into being after people started building lethality items on her. It has been observed that her damage and ability to poke in lane is enhanced quite a lot with this newfound build.

In this article, a detailed guide has been presented that focuses towards all the essential aspects required to make this lethality Xayah successful.

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Detailed rune path, item builds and gameplay tips for lethality Xayah in League of Legends season 12

Xayah is a marksman champion like Jinx and Caitlyn. However, she probably has the most issues when it comes to sustainability in the laning phase.

Previously, when players used to build crit into Xayah, her late game scaling was extremely scary to comprehend. The issue was that she also got bullied early in the game, which made going into the latter stages almost futile.

This new lethality build helps players to ensure that Xayah is using her Q ability to deal poke damage in the laning phase. This poke prevents her enemies from going aggressive as they now struggle to remain healthy in the lane.

Apart from that, there is always the fear of Xayah pulling her feathers back and rooting a champion under the tower. It could end up in her getting an easy kill. It is well known at this point that rushing into a Xayah is suicidal, especially if she is level 3 or above.

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Rune path

Rune path for Xayah (Image via League of Legends)

The rune path includes:

• Primary Rune (Sorcery): Summon Aery, Manaflow Band, Absolute Focus, Gathering Storm
• Secondary Rune (Inspiration): Biscuit Delivery, Cosmic Insight

The idea with this rune path in League of Legends is to provide players with an option for both late-game as well as the early stages. Summon Aery and Absolute Focus help the whole idea of enhancing the poke damage that comes from Xayah's Q.

Gathering storm provides Xayah with the late-game scaling, even though players can use Scorch if they want to further enhance poke. Finally, Manaflow Band scales well with Manamune, which is an integral component of this build.

In the secondary rune slot, Biscuit Delivery is a no-brainer as it enhances Xayah's sustainability in the lane by a lot. Cosmic Insight helps to increase summoner spell haste and provides item haste.

Overall, the entire rune path caters towards an all-round presence for her across an entire match.

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Item build

Eclipse and Manamune are the key items to make this build work (Image via League of Legends)

It must be quite obvious by now that this build for Xayah in League of Legends is being pushed towards lethality. Thus, all her items will be catered towards the same. At the same time, ability haste is also an important aspect as the lesser cooldown she has, the more she will be able to dominate her enemies.

Thus, the item build for her is as follows:

• Eclipse
• Manamune
• Serylda's Grudge
• Collector
• Maw of Malmortius
• Ionian Boots of Lucidity

In this build, Eclipse should always be the first item, followed by Manamune.That is the bread and butter of this entire tactic. Serylda's Grudge is good against tanks, but Collector can be built early to punish squishy champions.

Finally, Maw of Malmortius is fantastic and scales well with this build and also provides Xayah with the necessary magic resistance.

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Gameplay tips

Leveling up Q or E should always be prioritized in this build (Image via League of Legends)

When it comes to gameplay, players should try maxing out either Q or E in the laning phase. It is entirely upon the player as maxing E allows the option to pull back feathers more often while doing the same for Q allows them to throw more feathers.

The first option is good in case the lane is very tough and farming creeps is becoming a problem. However, the second option helps to enhance poke even further.

The R ability should be leveled up whenever possible, while W should always be the final ability to be maxed out. The whole idea of this build is to continue throwing feathers using the Q ability and try aiming them at the enemy champions to reduce their health bars and make them bleed as much as possible.

Xayah does not have an issue farming as her wave clear is massive. However, players should try to position the feathers in a way where it not only clears the wave, but is also able to root enemy champion when pulled back.

Farming is mandatory and League of Legends players should try to make the most of their time gathering gold and building their primary items namely Eclipse and Manamune.

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