Xayah hasn’t been a meta ADC pick for a long time in League of Legends. Her regular build offers good strengths, but they’re often not enough for you to actually carry games in solo queue.
And that’s why I recommend playing lethality Xayah instead.
Lethality Xayah has great poking damage and can even counter tanks. The lethality items make it easy for you to deal damage because your abilities also get empowered as much as your auto-attacks.
Playing lethality Xayah is always fun and I recommend it to everyone.
But if you’ve never done so, please read until the end of the post to get familiar with how you should build and play lethality Xayah in League of Legends.
That said, let’s begin!
Does Lethality Work on Xayah in LoL?
At the beginning of season 12, lethality Xayah was the hottest pick amongst the ADCs in the bot lane. That was the era with no damage reduction changes and one-shots all around.
Back then, lethality Xayah used to dominate League of Legends because she could melt anyone in just a few seconds. Her damage was unbelievably high, so it was really easy to win games with her and climb in solo queue.
Nowadays that’s still true, although it’s a bit more difficult to achieve it. Even with all the lethality in the world, Xayah can’t really one-shot tanks anymore.
And you need to work twice as hard to carry games with this build.
However, lethality works very well on Xayah. It significantly boosts the damage on her Q – Double Daggers and specifically her E – Bladecaller.
Pulling back your feathers with lethality Xayah can sometimes one-shot an enemy champion, especially if they’re around 50% HP.
Technically speaking, lethality improves each of Xayah’s damaging abilities. This is because all of her damage is physical, so she benefits from the flat armor penetration bonus.
And so, building lethality can give you an edge with Xayah, especially against heavy melee and tanky champions.
It’s always tough for ADCs to kite melee champions, so the lethality playstyle allows you to go for quick in and out fights rather than prolonged ones.
If you’re going to try lethality Xayah in your games, these are the runes and items to go for!
Read Also: Lethality Miss Fortune Build Guide
Lethality Xayah – Runes
- Summon Aery
- Manaflow Band
- Absolute Focus
- Gathering Storm
- Presence of Mind
- Legend: Alacrity
Summon Aery
Summon Aery is one of the best poking runes in League of Legends. It’s perfect for early game aggression on damaging champions as well as helpful for increasing shielding and healing on support champions.
In the case of Xayah, Summon Aery will help you trade better during the laning phase by dealing extra damage when you hit an enemy with an ability.
This damage is adaptive (which means physical for Xayah) and it scales with her AD. So, there’s no reason not to play with this keystone.
Manaflow Band
Manaflow Band is the perfect rune for having a steady mana flow throughout the game.
First of all, this rune increases your maximum mana by 250. For this, you need to strike an enemy champion with an ability each time the rune is off cooldown (25 mana per hit).
Once you stack it, Manaflow Band will grant you increased mana regeneration permanently which is great!
Read Also: Lethality Caitlyn Build Guide
Absolute Focus
Absolute Focus is an underutilized rune in League of Legends. But it can definitely boost your damage on lethality Xayah if you know what it actually does.
So, Absolute Focus gives you bonus AD that increases with your level if you stay above 70% HP.
This simply means that if you kite well, dodge attacks, and fight in a smart way, you’re always going to have bonus attack damage from this rune!
Gathering Storm
Gathering Storm is a late game insurance rune. How so?
Well, Gathering Storm also increases your AD but it does it every 10 minutes until the end of the game, regardless of all other factors.
And so, even if you fail during the early game and the enemy is fed, you’re going to stay relevant and able to carry thanks to Gathering Storm.
Presence of Mind
Presence of Mind is another mana rune that fits well in the whole lethality Xayah build.
You see, when you damage an enemy champion, Presence of Mind increases your mana regeneration for 4 seconds. On top of that, with each champion takedown you get, the rune also restores 15% of your mana.
So, Presence of Mind is the perfect rune for managing your mana during combat in League of Legends.
Legend: Alacrity
And you go for Legend: Alacrity simply because of its bonus attack speed. Since we’re focusing here on lethality items, anything that gives you more attack speed is welcomed too.
Legend: Alacrity permanently increases your attack speed based on your Legend stacks. These stacks can be collected during the early game by slaying minions, monsters, and enemy champions.
Read Also: Top 15 Best Off-Meta ADCs
Lethality Xayah – Items
- Ionian Boots of Lucidity
- Eclipse
- Manamune / Muramana
- Serylda’s Grudge
- Axiom Arc
- Edge of Night
Ionian Boots of Lucidity
With this lethality build, Xayah’s playstyle depends on using her abilities well to deal damage. So having them available as often as possible is really the key.
Ionian Boots of Lucidity will give you 20 ability haste for a very cheap price. They’re the perfect boots for the early game, so make sure you get them fast.
Eclipse
Eclipse is the overall best lethality mythic item for Xayah. It works great in most situations, offering both damage and survivability.
What Eclipse does is that it allows you to deal bonus physical damage to enemies based on their maximum HP. But it also grants a shield after two consecutive attacks, so it helps you stay alive longer in team fights.
Besides that, the item offers damage, lifesteal, and, of course, lethality. However, with each legendary item you get, Eclipse grants you bonus armor penetration too.
Read Also: Lethality Sivir Build Guide
Manamune / Muramana
Once you have boots and Eclipse, it’s about time to complete your Manamune too. Ideally, you want to have Manamune completed as soon as possible, but it’s okay to prioritize Eclipse and boots over it.
With Manamune in your inventory, you’ll have increased AD based on your maximum mana. When the item is fully stacked, you actually get a lot of bonus AD, so it’s a great way to pump your damage up.
And, of course, the bonus mana is super useful too.
Serylda’s Grudge
Serylda’s Grudge is one of the best anti-tank items in League of Legends. It grants 30% armor penetration on top of the bonus attack damage and ability haste.
But what’s really great about Serylda’s Grudge is that also slows down your enemies when you hit them with an ability.
This can help you kite much better because Xayah’s feather can easily apply slow effects to multiple targets at once.
Axiom Arc
Axiom Arc isn’t a core item for lethality Xayah but it does help her a lot.
What Axiom Arc offers is a reduced cooldown on Xayah’s ultimate ability – Featherstorm, especially during a team fight.
With each champion takedown, the item reduces the ulti even further, allowing you to sometimes use your R twice in the same team fight.
Axiom Arc also grants AD and lethality, so it’s a good item overall.
Edge of Night
Edge of Night is the last item I want to recommend to you in this build. It’s a great addition to your inventory in the late game, especially against champions with lots of CC.
Edge Night grants a magic shield that blocks the next enemy’s ability. This includes basic abilities like Annie’s Q to Lux’s R.
The good thing about Edge of Night is that it doesn’t break on AoE abilities such as Morgana’s W. And for squishy champions like Xayah or Jinx, it’s perfect!
Read Also: Lethality Zeri One-Shot Build Guide
Situational Items
When it comes to situational items, you have a few different ones to try out on lethality Xayah.
First of all, Duskblade of Draktharr can boost your damage as well as give you invisibility during a team fight. And The Collector can help you secure more champion takedowns throughout the game.
On the other hand, Serpent’s Fang allows you to counter shields in LoL. And Guardian Angel is one of the best defensive items for ADCs overall.
Conclusion
That’s the whole lethality Xayah build in League of Legends!
As you can see, the build is neatly structured to give you as much direct damage as possible while keeping you safe at the back line of your team. It’s a great playstyle to learn Xayah with, so I recommend it to everyone!
And if you’re an ADC main, my lethality Varus and lethality Draven builds can help you out too!