Welcome to Ultimate Zhin Guide. This guide is made especially for ranked mode by one of the best Zhin players of season 2,3,4. It will show you everything that you need to know about Zhin.

Who am I?
My in-game nickname is: ZhinnieThePooh. There is a high chance you saw me before during high elo streamers' matches. I'm a scientist in real life so I wanted to do the science of Zhin! I will try to share my all Zhin information that i gathered since beta. My goal of making this guide is causing more players to play as Zhin and play him much better. If you are ready, let's go fellas.

• Zhin's Lore
  
• General Information About Zhin
  
• Summary
  
• Are There Any Way to Counter Zhin?
  
• Ability Overview(Legendaries included) & Basic Gameplay
  
• All Cards for Zhin
  
• Optimum Loadouts for Zhin
  
• When to Pick Zhin?
  
• Where to Pick Zhin?
  
• Most Challenging Zhin Matchups(AOE Damage)
  
• Most Challenging Zhin Matchups(Direct Damage)
  
• Most Challenging Zhin Matchups(Flank)
  
• Most Challenging Zhin Matchups(Frontline)
  
• Advanced Gameplay(Useful Combat Tactics)
  
• Defensive/Offansive Items
  
• Utility/Healing Items
  
• Mastery Progression
  
• Zhin Cosmetics (Costumes and Weapons)
  
• Zhin Cosmetics (Emotes and MVP Poses)
  
• Changelog
  
• Official Trivia
  
• Zhin Memes
  
• References
  
• Last Words

Robbed of his noble lineage, Zhin ruthlessly carved out his own throne atop the criminal underworld. By the time he was a man, he'd won the loyalty of enough thieves, assassins, and corrupt bureaucrats to build his own shadowy empire: the Thousand Hands Guild.

Anyone scheming against him has a tendency to vanish in the middle of the night, while those who confront him directly meet their doom at the end of his wicked flaming sword. He refuses to pick a side in the war, as there's more profit to be made playing them against each other.

In Game Title(which unlocks when your Zhin mastery level reachs to 30): The Tyrant
Class: Flank
Affiliation: Neutral
Group: Thousand Hands Guild
Race: Human
Release Date: June 14th, 2017
Release Version:0.52
Cost: 60.000 or 300
Voice lines: Click Here to Check[paladins.gamepedia.com]
Voice Actor: Feodor Chin

In Game Statistics:
Base Health: 2000
Movement Speed: 390(23.7 Units/s)
Attack Range with No Dmg Falloff: 90 Units
Damage Per Second with Main Attack: 750

Zhin is a flank champion that excels at dueling his opponents at close range. He attacks with his Inferno Blade, which flings burning oil which deals 400 + 400 damage light swings and a final swing with 700 damage at his foes every 2 seconds. His Counter and Billow skills are built to outplay opponents and punish their mistakes. Whirl's short cooldown allows it to be used in a defensive and offensive manner. Zhin's ultimate skill, Spite, renders both the target and himself completely immobile for a short duration, making it a risky but powerful tool for taking out important targets. Zhin does, however, suffer from limited mobility and has a lackluster performance when fighting at distance when compared to most other flankers. He also has a low damage potential, a high amount of downtime between abilities, and low sustainability. Zhin can be effective in lower level play, but struggles in more competitive settings due to his downsides. It can be really annoying to encounter a Zhin in low elo because of general low game sense. Actually it's really easy to counter Zhin. Zhin has one of the lowest winrates in current meta.

Hard crowd control abilities and AOE(area of effect) damage can easily shut down him. Usually it's not a good idea to try 1v1 against him unless you are playing as a frontline champion.
It's extremely hard to win a versus against an intermediate or professional tier Zhin player. If you pick a champion who has hard cc abilities (like Damba and Furia) Zhin's gonna use his Q-Billow ability to dodge your stunning attempts. If your cc ability is projectile based, Zhin can use his RMB-Counter Stance ability and easily dodge your projectile(For example: Damba's stunning snake projectile, Khan's F-Commander's Grab). Also Zhin can prevent getting hit by almost every ultimate ability in the game by using his Q-Billow. This means you can't stun Zhin by using Furia's Q-Pyre Strike or Inara's ultimate ability. But what can a Zhin do if his Q-Billow ability is on cooldown?
Thats not a problem for high tier Zhin players. He's gonna use his RMB-Counter or F-Whirl ability to dodge skill shots/projectiles and area based abilities(For Example: Furia's Pyre Strike).


Seriously Zhin is not overpowered in the current meta. I can even say he's a B tier flanker for now. You can kill a Zhin (even if he's god tier) with your team especially if you have at least 1 AOE champion. Use a hard cc ability and make some basic attacks on him so he will use his Q-Billow and maybe RMB-Counter abilities. When his most important abilites are on cooldown, finish him off as fast as you can. Don't forget, Zhin has only 2k hp (without "infamy" card) and can't stay alive so long when his abilites are on cooldown. Also crippling him causes to block his Q-Billow and F-Whirl abilities. Zhin is very similar to League of Legends champion Master Yi because of his kit and game play. So Zhin counter tips are same with Master Yi counter tips.

Zhin swings his sword and throws burning oil to his foes every 2 seconds by 2 light 1 heavy shots.
First 2 shots have a big hitbox and each of them deal 400 damage. The third shot has a smaller hitbox and it deals 700 area damage to all enemies it hits until it lands on a shield/obstacle. Also this piercing effect gives Zhin a really good sustain chance with right items.
So Zhin's default main attack dps(damage per second) is : 750.
There is a legendary called yomi which improves the third shot's damage by 150 so Zhin deals up to 1650 damage every 2 seconds with it.
Zhin's main attck dps with yomi is: 825.
This damage is pretty bad for 1v1 or smart enemies who are spreading to prevent getting hit by Zhin's piercing shot.
There are damage and flanker champions such as Androxus, Koga, Skye, Sha Lin, Viktor , Vivian, Lian with much higher damage overlay than Zhin.

An automatic revolver which deals 550 damage(825 damage on headshots) every 0.5 second.
This means he has 1100 dps.
He can reach up to 1650 dps if he lands full headshot.

Has a delay both in the beginning and end of the ability. This means Zhin can't instantly use other abilities. Big disadvantage in high elo. Enemy dps can destroy you during these delay times. Take this into account if you want to main Zhin.
Zhin switches to defensive stance for 1.5 seconds which makes him counter "the first enemy attack" in front of Zhin(has an angle of 180*). Zhin's front is immune to everything for 0.4 seconds after countering an attack. Zhin's back side is still vulnerable for any kind of damage or negative status effect during counter stance.
This ability is pretty balanced, if Zhin saves it for an enemy ult, he can waste most ultimate abilities in the game. Why not op? Because it's only dealing 600 damage back to enemy unlike Androxus' reversal which absorbs %75 of the damage he takes and
sends it back. This ability has a 7 second cooldown. Also Zhin can heal himself for 500 hp(Perfect Block card) + decrease it's cd for %75(Viciousness card) BUT someone has to shoot into his counter and Zhin has to land his counter projectile to an enemy for activating these effects.


Has a 0.5 sec delay on use(you can think it like spell casting time in rpg games), grants you +%10 bonus movement speed and "etheral" effect which makes you immune to everything for 2 seconds. Zhin can't attack or use any abilities during billow. Also it makes Zhin an easy target after 2 secs because billow can't be cancelled early by re-casting. Enemies wait for 2 seconds, aim on Zhin then take him down. This ability has a 15 second cooldown. You can reduce its cooldown up to %70 after killing blows with the "Fan The Flames" card.
If you pick "Smolder" legendary, you can heal yourself %30 of your maximum hp over the duration of billow(2 seconds).

Deals 400 AOE dmg to enemies 50 units in front of Zhin. Useful tool to move behind a wall when Zhin has low hp. Pretty bad for dealing damage unless it's not a 1v1. Enemy team/dps can easily kill you if you are dashing into them in diamond and above because Zhin is vulnerable to everything(expect knockbacks) during whirl.This ability has a 7 second cooldown.
Fun fact: If you make a whirl loadout you can use it multiple times in a row because it resets the cooldown if you hit 3 enemies in a row. Also no cooldown if you hit 2 enemies with chronos 3. This is only possible to do in low elo.

Zhin launches forward after a short delay on use, stuns an enemy champion for 1.5 seconds and
deals 400x5=2000 damage over 1.5 seconds. If Zhin fails
to hit an enemy champion, he will gain %30 ult charge instantly. You can use this as a dashing ability to get to highgrounds or any other direction. Zhin has cc immunity while he's dealing damage to target champion but enemy champion doesn't have cc immunity.
I have more than 600 hours on Zhin and my ult got cancelled because of my teammates hundred times. If an ally grover, jenos or makoa applies cc on the enemy champ, the ult gets cancelled instantly and counts as if it ended(grants no ult charge to zhin, %0).
Do not forget both Zhin and target champion are vulnerable to damage, this means both Zhin and the target enemy champion can be easily killed by their enemies.
Also Guillotine legendary is makes Spite deal %100 of enemy's maximum hp as damage over 1.5 seconds(%20 of enemy's maximum hp x5 = %100 of enemy's maximum hp). This is a useless legendary unless you are fighting an enemy tank 1v1.
You can't run into enemy team and ult one of their tanks because enemy dps could kill you before you complete your ultimate. Plus if the enemy healer heals Zhin's target, target will stay alive and both Zhin and his target champion get pushed the opposite directions.


Guillotine(Default Talent):
Spite(Zhin's ultimate) deals %20 of its target's maximum hp with each hit. It deals %100 of target's maximum hp over 1.5 seconds.

TIP: If you pick this legendary I suggest you to buy "Morale Boost" item because you want to use your ultimate effectively and as much as you can. Guillotine is the best choice against teams which contains 2 or more frontline champions.

Yomi(Unlocks at Mastery Level 2):
Zhin's heavy hit(third hit) with Inferno Blade deals an additional 150 damage.
700 +150 --> 850 damage. This legendary naturally increases your ultimate charge rate by %10-%15 because of your weapon shots deal more damage.

TIP: This is the best legendary for dealing more damage. You can kill enemies faster with Yomi. I always prefer this when enemy team doesn't have multiple frontline champions.

Smolder(Unlocks at Mastery Level 8):
Heals Zhin for %15 of his maximum hp per second during the Billow ability(2 seconds).
It heals %15 + %15 --> total of Zhin's maximum hp by %30 at total.

TIP: The only trash legendary of Zhin. Honestly i never pick this one because you lose oppurtinities such as one shot killing enemies with your ultimate and dealing more damage with your heavy swing(third hit). Also it got nerfed 2 patches in a row. It heals only for 600 hp(based on Zhin's default maximum hp) over 2 seconds. Take this into account, this healing can't be reduced by Cauterize effect because of Billow's "Ethereal" effect.

ARMOR/WEAPON

Malice

Increase your Reload Speed by %10/20/30/40/50.

Infamy

Increase your maximum Health by 50/100/150/200/250.

Heartless

Increase your Movement Speed by %6/12/16/24/32 for 4s after getting an Elimination.

Dragon Oil

Increase your maximum Ammo by 1/2/3/4/5.

COUNTER

Viciousness

Reduce the Cooldown of Counter by %15/30/45/60/75 after successfully hitting an enemy with Counter.

Tip: Works fine with the "Perfect Block" card and "Chronos" item. Try to use both of them if you want to add one of them to your deck.

Perfect Block

Heal for 100/200/300/400/500 after successfully Countering an attack.

Tip: Works fine with the "Viciousness" card. Try to use both of them if you want to add them if you want to add one of them to your deck.

Master Stance

Reduce the Cooldown of Whirl by 1/2/3/4/5s after successfully hitting an enemy with Counter.

Tip:You could have only 0.5-2 seconds cooldown on your whirl after using Counter. Useful for both aggresive and defensive plays.

Footwork

Increase your Movement Speed by %10/20/30/40/50 for 3s after activating Counter.

Tip: Pretty good for retreating by using your Counter ability. You can also use it to move faster while flanking. Also it's a good idea to use Billow ability after Counter to benefit the extra movement speed which recieved from this card.

BILLOW

Embers

Regenerate 2 Ammo every 0.5s for 0.5/1/1.5/2/2.5s after activating Billow.

Tip: Not really useful card because it's possible to insta-reload by using Billow, anyway you can add this to your Billow loadouts if you want.

Fan The Flames

Reduce the Cooldown of Billow by %14/28/42/56/70 after getting an Elimination.

Tip: Best and most popular card for Zhin. It provides a high risk high reward so you can spam your billow after killing blows. Don't forget to last hit enemies, otherwise it won't work. "Killing Blow" is different than "Elimanition". Has a synergy with "Up in Smoke" card and "Nimble" item.

Hideout

Reduce the Cooldown of Whirl by 1/2/3/4/5s after using Billow.

Tip: This card is key of the double whirl art. You can use whirl then billow and your whirl is ready to use again.

Up in Smoke

Increase your Movement Speed by %11/22/33/44/55 while Billow is active.

Tip:One of the best cards for Zhin. This provides you a faster movement speed during Billow so you can travel for longer distances to keep yourself safe. Due to Billow nerf, now u have to have this card with enough of points in your loadout. Has a synergy with "Fan The Flames" card and "Nimble" item.

WHIRL

Blade Dancer

Increase the travel distance of Whirl by %8/16/24/32/40

Tip: Pretty good for increasing your chance to hit the enemies by Whirl. It's also good for dashing a longer distance both on the ground and mid air. The only card which provides you both mobility and offense. Has a synergy with: "Wildfire", "Hideout" and "Master Stance" cards.

Fuel for The Fire

Increase Movement Speed by %5/10/15/20/25 for 2s after using Whirl.

Tip: A trash card unless your loadout is full focused on Whirl because it provides a little movement speed bonus for a few time. It could be still useful with the "Wildfire", "Hideout", "Master Stance" cards and "Chronos" item because they allow you to use the Whirl more often.

Kindling

Generate 1/2/3/4/5 Ammo after activating Whirl.

Tip: A good offensive card, you can make some weapon attacks to enemy then use whirl and you still have a max magazine. Also you can insta-reload by using whirl but this card can be still useful in some scenarios. Has a synergy with: "Wildfire" card.

Wildfire

Reduce the Cooldown of Whirl by 0.5/1/1.5/2/2.5s for each enemy it hits.

Tip: One of the best cards for Zhin. Sadly it needs lots of loadout points for an effective usage. You can make your own Whirl loadout by focusing on this card or you can take my Whirl Spamming loadout. Has a synergy with "Kindling", "Fuel for The Fire", "Blade Dancer" cards and "Chronos" item.

WARNING: All of these loadouts are made on my personnal experiences and opinions. Each loadout depends on game style and personnality. You can find your own optimum loadout by playing and trying new ones.

Old School:
I have "Up in Smoke" and "Fan the Flames" cards in almost all of my decks because they work great together and they offer you a more rewarding and a safe way to play.
This is my first Zhin loadout, the funny thing is i'm still using it on high elo. Actually it's a really good loadout especially on the maps with highground which gives you bonus momentum to your whirl. You can travel much more distance on air by "Blade Dancer" card. Also "Kindling" card instantly fills 3 ammo(this means 2 light 1 heavy swings) when you use whirl abilitiy. It's a very useful card especially for the whirl focused loadouts. It still works fine in my loadout because i can make 3 normal shots at enemy then use whirl and still have max ammo. I added "Embers" because it goes well with my other 2 billow cards on my deck. It keeps giving me ammo every time i use billow.

Speedy Gonzoles(also known as: "Fast as fu*k boii":
As you can see i have my 2 favourite cards on this one too. They make you travel much more distance during billow and reach to a safe place. You can also use your counter stance for more effective retreats because now it gives %30 movement speed bonus. That bonus persist for 3 seconds after you use your counter stance. This means you still have the bonus for 1.5 seconds after it peacefully ends(without getting hit). You can activate counter stance before using billow so you can have a movement speed bonus up to %100(Base Billow bonus-->%30, 5 points of "Up in Smoke"-->%40, 3 points of "Footwork"-->%30). Finally "Heartless" card gives you %20 bonus movement speed for 4 seconds which has a stacking effect on killing multiple enemies before the effect ends. It is Zhin's most "high risk high reward" card.

Perfect Sword:
This is my best loadout against multiple enemy frontlines or hitscan champions. You can just go to the objective with your team and spam on them. You can also use the "corner peaking" tactic to harass enemies on long distance. High reload speed from the "Malice" card allows you to do both of these. 2 billow cards for more survivability and some more movement speed for both aggressive/defensive play styles.

2 Whirl in a row:
As the title says: you can use whirl 2 times in a row. "Hideout" card reduces whirl's cooldown by 5 seconds(it has 7 seconds cooldown). Actually this is a mobile/defensive loadout. You can use whirl + billow + whirl to travel a huge distance. It's really good especially for retreating from a teamfight or something else.

Retaliation:
Zhin's Retaliation legendary got removed from the game in patch 2.01(Fire and Ice). 2 years later after that, "Viciousness" card got a rework in Tigron's Tale patch and almost replaced the Retaliation's position. You can have a really short cooldown on counterstance with this card if your counter projectile hits an enemy. Counter Stance loadouts gained a huge popularity among Zhin players after that rework. I don't suggest this loadout to use in high elo ranked(above diamond) because %90 of the enemy players won't shoot your counter stance so you waste 10 points of your loadout(both "Viciousness" and "Perfect Block" cards). "Perfect Block" card makes you heal(up to 500 hp) after someone shoots into your counter stance. It's a really useful card in duels and against enemies who didn't buy cauterize.
Also i added "Fan the Flames" card because Zhin's more important ability billow has a huge cooldown of 15 seconds without it. Actually it's not really powerful when you add it to your loadout without its twin card "Up in Smoke". Try to use these in your all loadouts because it gives you a great survivability and mobility advantage.

Whirl Spamming:
Don't try this in competitive mode, you need a dramatically stupid enemy team to benefit from this loadout. First of all "Wildfire" is the key to this loadout. It reduces whirl's loadout by 2.5 seconds which each enemy it hits. If you hit 3 enemies by 1 whirl "Wildfire" reduce its cooldown by 7.5 seconds(whirl's cooldown is 7 seconds) so it resets the cooldown. Hitting even 2 enemies is enough with 5 points of "Wildfire" + Chronos 3 item. It still has no cooldown. You can spam into large groups of enemies with this loadout. Pretty cancer and poweful loadout in lower level of plays. Enemy players can easily counter this by spreading on high elo. "Blade Dancer" increases the distance travelled by whirl up to %40(+20 units). This increases the chance that you can hit multiple enemies in a row. You should be careful about environmental hazards to prevent dying by falling into them. Look the way which you want to use your whirl before you use it. "Fuel for the Fire" gives Zhin up to %25 bonus movement speed for 2 seconds on whirl's use. This card works pretty well with "Wİldfire". It gives you stacking movement speed bonus each time you use your whirl before 2 seconds end.

You Should Pick Zhin Under These Conditions: ✔

• Enemy team hasn't got multiple crowd control abilities(especially ultimates).
  
• Map is small/medium sized(explained in "Where to Pick Zhin?" section).
  
• There is not more than one Zhin counter pick in the enemy team
  
• Enemy team has multiple champions who have high rate of fire such as Viktor, Skye, Ruckus. This is a nice oppurtinity for activating your Counter.
  
• Enemy team hasn't got any hitscan such as Strix, Kinessa, Lian...
  
• Enemy team has multiple support champions.
  
• Enemy team has multiple tanks(Except Inara, Khan, Raum, Torvald).

You Shouldn't Pick Zhin Under These Conditions: ❌

• Enemy team has lots of crowd control abilities(especially ultimates).
  
• Map is big/large sized(explained in "Where to Pick Zhin?" section).
  
• There are 1+ Zhin counter picks in enemy team.
  
• Enemy team has got at least a hitscan such as Strix, Kinessa, Lian...
  
• Enemy team has multiple counter tanks which ruin your gameplay such as Inara, Khan, Raum, Torvald.
  
• Multiple flying enemies such as Androxus, Drogoz, Evie, Imani, Willo in enemy team
  
• No pocket support in your team such as Corvus, Jenos, Furia , Io.

Small Maps:


In my opinion Frog Isle is the worst map for Zhin. This map has only open areas. There are not any buildings(expect the base) in here. Honestly i never pick Zhin on this map. I lost more than half of my games on Frog Isle when I was playing as Zhin. Almost all champions can be a great threat for you if they stay as a group. Also you are completely vulnerable to flying enemies, AOE damage and crowd control effects. It's pretty hard to contest the objective if enemies have long ranged champions. There is only 1 flank route; if enemy team holds it, basically you can't do anything. You can just try to snipe by using the Corner Peaking tactic.


In my opinion Jaguar Falls is the best map for Zhin. There are not any big open areas and there are lots of buildings and obstacles to flank without falling into danger. There are few highgrounds all over the map, 2 around the capture point. These are the smallest highgrounds in Paladins. It doesn't matter for you, enemies won't threaten you by attacking to you from there. Billow, Counter, Whirl so any kind of loadouts could work extremely good in here. Your abilities are enough to perform great, your loadouts make it much better and easier.


Zhin is an optimum pick in Stone Keep. There are 2 flank routes inside the buildings and a bonus route which requires champions with flying ability such as Evie, Maeve, Androxus etc. Sadly you can't use that bonus route but map is generally good for you. If your team is able to dominate the tall highground building which is near the capture point you can destroy enemies easily.


Zhin is an optimum pick in Brightmarsh. There is a highground above the capture point but it's not really a problem. You can climb there by using your ultimate but it's not necessary at all. You can still attack enemies without climbing there. That highground is small and dangerous. Enemies won't threaten you by attacking you from there. Also there are 2 flank routes and one of them has highground which allows you to reach enemy' highround by using your whirl. You can easily flank in there without any problems. Champions with AOE damage are popular in here so get ready to buy Blast Shields. Probably enemy team could counter pick you with Androxus, Bomb King, Cassie, Dragoz, Willo, Koga etc. It's ok if you know how to play against them.


Zhin is an optimum pick in Ascension Peak. There are only few highgrounds in this map and you can reach to all of them by simply walking(no need for vertical mobility). You can easily flank enemy team, you can break their backbone by killing their support/damage while they are trying to capture the point then get away safely.

Medium Maps:


Pick Zhin or not, it depends on your preference. Serpent Beach has lots of highgrounds which gives a huge advantage to more mobile champions such as Androxus, Koga, Maeve, Evie, Dragoz, Willo etc. A good Zhin can perform well here compared to his playstyle. Not highly recommended to pick Zhin. Enemy team could counter pick you by Androxus, Bomb King, Cassie, Dragoz, Willo, Koga etc.


Pick Zhin or not, it depends on your preference. A Zhin's performance on Frozen Guard depends on the playstyle. You can perform good if you are able to flank enemy team, especially the snipers. There are not any great threats for you but snipers can harass you hard around the highgrounds near bases. Double Whirl loadout is my favourite one on here.


Zhin is an optimum pick in Splitstone Quarry. One of the best maps for Zhin. There are lots of highgrounds(especially around the capture point) and you can move extremely quick by using your Whirl. You can also use your ultimate to kill enemies by pushing them into Drilling Mechanism(Wall Spikes) or Flowing Lava. You can see them on left and right of the capture point.


Zhin is an optimum pick in Warder's Gate. Great map for all flankers but especially for Zhin. You can travel very long distance by using whirl on the Anti-Gravity Crystals which exist on both sides of the map. Playing against snipers might be a problem, depends on their skill and your flanking skill. You can also use your ultimate to push enemies off the map. I recommend mobile loadouts here.


Pick Zhin or not, it depends on your preference. Shattered Desert has a quite big open area around the capture point so if enemy team is playing good, your job could be really hard. All of them could attack to you if you try to flank any of them. Also it's a bit hard to push the payload in the end if you don't have good frontline in your team. Loadout depends on you.

Large Maps:


Pick Zhin or not, it depends on your preference. Ice Mines is a decent map for Zhin. There are only 2 flank routes around the capture point but both of them are suitable for you. Also you can use the momentum of Whirl to jump over the capture point and reach to enemy' side. A good Zhin can be really effective here with the correct loadout. I usually pick the Double Whirl or Perfect Sword loadouts.



Don't pick Zhin on Fish Market. This map has too many open areas that are too dangerous for Zhin. Snipers and other long ranged damage champions can easily kill you before you reach them. I don't recommend to pick Zhin here but if you pick him anyway you can use a high mobility loadout such as Double Whirl or Speedy Gonzoles.


Don't pick Zhin on Timber Mill. This map is one of the worst maps for Zhin. There are lots of open areas that are too dangerous for you. Also you might have hard time against more mobile champions than you such as Androxus, Koga, Maeve, Evie, Drogoz, Willo etc. These champions can easily travel from one highground to other one. Your ultimate gives you a bit vertical mobility but it takes long to charge it again. Anyway you can use our "Eagle Jump of The Shadows" tactic in here to travel extreme distances in few seconds.


Zhin is an optimum pick in Bazaar. Quite good map for Zhin. Yeah there are long halls all over the map but you there are obstacles which help you to cover. You can flank your enemies easily and reach to the long ranged damage champions easily.

WORK IN PROGRESS

WORK IN PROGRESS

Champions of Damage

Cassie
• Cassie is an easy to play Champion. Her kit is simple so there are not so many things to say about her. Her weapon attacks deal a lot more damage than yours per second other than her better burst damage potential.. Try not to encounter her 1v1.

• Get ready after firing your light swings, she could try to dodge your heavy swing by Dodge Roll. You can still hit her with it if you guess the way that she will roll. Be careful about her Exaction legendary. It increases Cassie's first weapon shot's damage by %30 after Dodge Roll. You must save your Counter for it. Otherwise she can kill you much faster.

• Try to avoid getting hit by Blast Shot(especially if she has cards for it) by using your abilities. It can heal Cassie(Drain Life card), generate ammo(Kinetics card), reduce its cooldown for each enemy it hit(Blast Shower card). It applies a small knockback(pushes enemies for 20 units), still be careful about environmental hazards to not die by getting pushed into them. She can also increase the effectiveness of knockback up to 1250 by Megaton card.

• Try to avoid getting hit by Disengage(especially if she has cards for it) by using your abilities. It can heal Cassie on hit(Sky Warden card) and can reduce the cooldown of Dodge Roll if Cassie lands the first weapon shot after using Disengage(Excitement card). It applies a strong knockback(1200) so be careful about environmental hazards to not die by getting pushed into them. She can also increase the effectiveness of its knockback up to %40 by Raze card.

• Stay with your teammates during her ultimate so enemies can't catch you alone by the benefit of her wall hack. Also Billow makes you "ethereal" which gives you chance to avoid getting seen for 2 seconds by enemies during her ultimate ability.

Lian
• She has potential to one shot kill you in less than 1.5 seconds(especially if she picked the Eminence legendary). Basically you can't win a versus against a good Lian if you can't achieve to block her most dangerous ability: Presence . Wait for her to use that ability and use your Counter.

• Most high elo Lian players could use their Grace(dashing ability) to dodge your heavy swing so get ready to aim on her Grace's target location after you shoot your light swings. Also they could do the same trick for your Counter's projectile.

• You can waste(totally absorb) Lian's ultimate by using your Counter plus deal 600 damage to her. You can save yourself by using Billow but by doing that, you gave her an oppurtinity to land her ultimate on one of your nearby teammates. Because of that, using Billow instead of Counter is not really wisely.

Sha Lin
• You should master the "Track of the Cursed Oil" tactic and see the direction which he leaps to and land your weapon shots on him while he is invisible. If you fail to land your first light swing, you can try to hit him with your Whirl so you can spot him in his new location.

• You can use Billow to waste his entire Rapid Shot ability or try to deal damage to him by using your Counter before the Billow. Using Billow is usually a better choice because it's much safer and keeps the advantage on your side.

• You can use Counter to block his Crippling Arrow but it's really hard to do that. The safer and easier way is saving your Counter for his next attack after it. Cripple effect shut downs your both Billow and Whirl abilities which makes you completely vulnerable. You are dead by %100 chance when you get hit by Crippling Arrow if your Counter is on cooldown so it's good to save your Counter for that crippled duration.

• It's not a good idea to chase Sha Lin during his ultimate because he becomes invisible, moves quickly and attacks faster. I suggest you to retreat by using your Billow or Whirl to take yourself to a safe place

• Optimum items against a Sha Lin are: Haven and Resilience, sometimes Illuminte if it's hard for you to hit him while he is invisible.

Vivian
• She definitely not the biggest counter for Zhin. Anyway she is still a threat with high damage potential(especially if she does full headshots). It's really hard to kill a Vivian 1v1 because of her sustain(can be recieved from cards and Life Rip item) and shield. Try to flank her and cooparate with your teammates to shut down the "Walking Turret".

• Most Vivian players always keep shooting until they run out of ammo so you can freely use your Counter while she's attacking you for dealing 600 damage to her. Because of that, it's usually a great idea to use Counter focused loadouts against her.

• You can always deal damage to her(yeah even when her shield is on) by aiming on her foot/legs or back.

• Don't forget to destroy Sensor Drone as fast as possible by using your light swings or Whirl. That drone reveals you and the other teammates in its range. There are Sensor Drone focused loadouts exist which provide life steal and healing for each enemy revealed by it to Vivian.

Champions of Damage

Bomb King
• You can destroy his weapon projectiles and Poppy Bomb by using your Whirl or light swings if they stick to any surfaces(except champions and shields). This is an useful counter play in situtations in which Bomb King is spamming his Sticky Bombs behind a wall by using its AOE(area of effect) damage.

• He can still deal damage to you while your Counter is active by throwing Sticky Bombs on your back side. Be aware of that.

• Using Counter cleans all the Sticky Bombs from you. I know it sounds like a bug but it is working!

• You can use your Counter to clean especially 2 or more bombs sticked on you.

• You can dodge Poppy Bomb, Grumpy Bomb and King Bomb(his ultimate) by using your Counter or Billow. It's a great way to waste his ultimate by running into him then using Counter. He will immediately stop rolling after smashing on your Counter. It can still deal damage to allies around you. EDIT: it seems like this was a bug and they removed this effect. Now Bomb King one shot kills you when you try to stop his ultimate with your Counter.

• Optimum items against a Bomb King are: Blast Shields and Resilience(due to his kit) and sometimes Cauterize(due to some healing cards in his loadout).

Drogoz
• Honestly Drogoz is not a big threat for you if you are an experienced Zhin player. He is bulky, has a bigger hit box than most non-frontline champions and it's easy to hit him in mid air if his Thrust is on cooldown His only mobile abilities are Thrust and Booster. You can even land your ultimate on him in mid air if you are sure he can't use Thrust to dodge it.

• You can use your Counter to dodge his Fire Spit, it's increasing the damage Drogoz deals by %30 with weapon attacks to champions who got hit by it. He can also make it explode early by shooting into it in mid air making it deal up to 900 AOE damage.

• His most dangerous ability(expect ult) is obviously Salvo. He can fire up to 6 rockets in a row which each of them dealing 250 damage. You can dodge 2-3 rockets with your Counter but the perfect way is using Billow or ultimate on him if you realize he is going to use Salvo. He can't deal any damage to you if you use Billow but he can harm your teammates so you can hit him with your ultimate to cancel Salvo. It's gets cancelled and goes into cooldown if Drogoz gets stunned during it.

• Drogoz has one of the best ultimates in the game, Dragon Punch. He starts flying for 4 seconds on use and deals %100 of maximum hp as damage to his target. Usually enemy Drogoz could try to kill your frontline teammates because they are easier targets and have higher hp. Anyway it's good to get ready if he tries to one shot kill you by it. As you know Drogoz is always flying forwards, if you use Counter by aiming on him he can't kill you. He will just be stuck behind your Counter, this means you can waste 1.5 seconds of his ultimate duration. You can also use Billow to be completely immune to his ultimate.

• You can request your team to pick a champion with Cripple effect to take him down much easier.

• Optimum items against Drogoz are: Blast Shields(Haven if he picked the Fusillade legendary) and sometimes Resilience. Resilience reduces the effectiveness of Fire Spit, which knockbacks you.

Willo
Willo is one of the hardest matchups for any Zhin player. You should practice hard and know how to play against her perfectly. Her weapon attack dps is slightly lower than yours without the Blastflower legendary. If you can land all your swings, you can kill her even in 1v1.

• Dead Zone makes Willo a very dangerous opponent because it prevents all enemies from being healed in it and enemies can't get healing for 1 second after leaving the Dead Zone. It has a small AOE 100 damage on initial hit. Willo can increase its damage to 500 with the Nightshade legendary. Try to get out of it as fast as you can by using your Whirl or Billow.

• Seedling deals massive damage(it's like an ultimate) if you get hit by all seeds of it. First one deals 400 damage and spawns 4 more seeds each of them deals 400 damage too. This means: 5x400=2000 AOE damage! She can deal up to 5x720=3600 AOE damage with the Scorn legendary. The good thing is you can avoid getting hit by any of them by using your Billow. Plus you can dodge the 4 seeds which get spawned after the first one's explosion with your Counter. All 4 of them are exploding at the same time. That's why you can dodge them all with your Counter. It's always good to save your Counter for this. Willo has the Sprouts card which reduces the cooldown of Seedling by up to 2.5 seconds by every enemy it hits.

• Flutter gives her a great advantage to quickly retreat to a safer location or catch her enemies. She has the Spritely card which gives her up to %25 damage reduction for 3 seconds after using Flutter. This makes her a much harder opponent. The best choice is crippling her at low hp to prevent her from using Flutter.

• Willo starts flying freely for 10 seconds after channeling for 1.6 seconds. Willo is immune to crowd control(your ultimate) during it but you can try to kill her while she is still channeling it. The only thing you can do is retreating into a building to stay alive. Unlike Drogoz' Booster, Willo's ultimate gives her a great mobility and chance to keep her distance with you. You can't land even 1 swing on her during Fae Flight if she knows how to play against you. She could probably stay out of your weapon attack distance. Just retreat into a building and wait for her ultimate to end, you can kill her if she follows you or you can keep attacking other enemies from your building.

Champions of Flank

Androxus
• Try to fight him in narrow areas like the inside of buildings or small halls. Otherwise he could use his Nether Step to fly during the fight and make it much harder for you.
Save your Counter for his Reversal, you can even spam some weapon shots into it (if there are not any of your teammates in Androxus' sight) so he wants to hit you with Reversal's projectile. Make sure your Counter is ready to block it. In this way, you waste Androxus' most important ability and deal 600 damage back to him.Also you can land your ultimate on him easily when his Reversal is active. He stands still during it and this makes him an easy target for you ultimate. Don't worry, Reversal can't block your ultimate!

• You can deal free 400 damage by using Whirl during Reversal, it allows you to pass through him and deal damage.

• Don't save Whirl as a finishing-off tool against Androxus because he has Defiance(has no cooldown, also has a damage of 520 which deals 120 more damage than your Whirl), he can finish you off first. Try to keep your range to avoid getting hit by his Defiance.

• You can wait before you shoot the heavy swing(third hit) if he starts dashing into air with Nether Step. Aim on his target location(you can see which direction he is dashing) or wait for him to waste all his 3 dashes in a row. Low elo Androxus players usually waste their entire Nether Step by spamming 3 dashes in a row randomly unlike high elo Androxus players who use [Dash + Air Drift + Few Weapon Shots] 3 times during Nether Step. Your only 2 chances are retreating or trying to hit him with your weapon shots against a good Androxus if he starts dashing and shooting to you. You have almost no chance in an open area which allows him to dash freely.

• Finally you can waste 1 tick of his ultimate by using your Counter and you can avoid rest of his ultimate by using Billow.

Buck
• It's extremly hard to win a 1v1 against Buck in early game because of his sustain(self healing) and slow effects. Mathematically you can't win against him if he lands all of his weapon shots in early game.

• Try to avoid encountering him alone and try to kill him with the help of your teammates.

• You can easily kill him 1v1 after you buy Cauterize 3 item.

• It's always good to apply hard crowd control effect to an enemy flanker especially when he has both mobility and sustain like Buck!

• You can waste his Net Shot by using your Counter to avoid minor damage and powerful slow effect.

• Try to use Whirl + Billow to get away for a regroup with your team when he uses his ultimate.

• Optimum items against Buck are: Cauterize, Haven and Resilience.

Evie
• A good Evie player could dodge your heavy swing(third hit) by using her Blink. Use your Billow or Counter to avoid the 2 shots when she uses Blink.

• Also you need to practice hard on hitting moving targets to land your weapon shots an enemy Evie. You can stop attacking after your first 2 light swings and Whirl. She could probably use her Blink to dodge your heavy swing so you should spam on her first location(if she picked the wormhle legendary) or get ready to use your ultimate on there.

• It's a good tactic to make a 3 seconds countdown in your mind after Evie uses Ice Block, use your ultimate into it in last 0.5 second. Evie has only 1800 hp so you can one shot kill her with your ultimate.

• There is no chance to stay alive if Evie lands her ultimate on your head. Be careful about her Blink and Soar abilities(both of them have a sound which warns your team) when you think her ultimate is ready. If you see an Evie who is flying to the you just use Whirl in the opposite direction. Using Billow might work too.

Optimum items against an Evie are: Blast Shields and Resilience(reduces the effectiveness of her ultimate's slow)

Koga
• Koga has high mobility due to his passive(wall climb), Shadow Step/Skewer and Agility abilities.
You can easily take down a Koga if someone applies any hard crowd control effects such as Stun, Fear or Cripple on him.

• A good Koga could dodge your heavy swing by Shadow Step so it's really hard to deal with a good Koga player. Heavy swing is almost %50 of your total weapon damage!

• You can avoid getting hit by Skewer by using Whirl to another direction. You can also use Billow too if you are sure that Koga has no ultimate.

• Billow is the best counter play against his ultimate. Also Whirl is a good way to save yourself from his ultimate. Never use your Counter if you get caught in Koga's ultimate, it can't be cancelled early so that could be a commiting a suicide. Make sure you always have Billow or Whirl while fighting with a Koga who has a %100 charged ultimate.

• You can use your Counter and deal 600 damage to him while he is attacking you with his weapon attacks.

Moji
• Moji has a great damage output at close range. Most champions can't beat her in 1v1. Try to avoid that.

• Billow cleans Moji's weapon marks.

• Don't shoot Moji if her Magic Barrier is on. Trying to deal damage to Moji during Magic Barrier casues attacker get a magic mark(Moji instantly deals 1000 damage if she makes it explode by shooting to marked target)There is a card which gets triggered and increase her movement speed up to %50 if she gets shot during it.

• Don't use your ultimate on her if you are not sure that both of her abilities(Scamper and Magic Barrier) are on cooldown. She can easily waste your ultimate by using one of these abilities.

• Moji shoots a magical projectile after a short delay on (ultimate) use so you can counter getting hit by that projectile by using your Counter or Billow abilities.

• Moji is vulnerable during her ultimate, if she uses ultimate on one of your teammates, focus on her to kill her as fast as possible.

Optimum items against Moji are: Haven/Blast Shields and Resilience(reduces the duration of polymorph effect of her ultimate).

Champions of Frontline
Atlas
• Don't try to kill Atlas in 1v1 unless you have a pocket healer behind you like Corvus/Jenos or Life Rip item. He can easily refill his hp by using Second Chance ability. It heals to the maximum hp that he had in last 4 seconds. That amount can't be reduced by cauterize or any other status effect.

• Setback is Atlas' most dangerous and offensive ability. It sets your hp back to lowest amount that you had in last 4 seconds. He can waste your support's healing by using this ability. He can even hit multiple enemies with it if he picks the Deja Vu legendary. You can use Billow or Counter to avoid it but try to use Counter so you can waste his Setback and protect your teammates from getting hit by it.

• Statis Field is a barrier(not a shield) and it has no hp. It lasts seconds and absorb all the damage. Your weapon shots and Counter's projectile can't pass through it but you can use Whirl or Spite to deal damage to enemies who are hiding behind it. The best choice is retreating or going to the other side of it to keep attacking enemies, choose one of them after considering your situation.

• Try to finish off Atlas if someone applies Cripple effect to him because it prevents Atlas from using Seond Chance ability. This means he can't fill his hp by using it during the crowd control effect's duration.

• Atlas can cause you to lose your connection to the game by using his ultimate: Exile. I don't mean losing your connection to servers, if he hits you with one of the charges you instantly become Banished(same with the Ethereal effect) so you can't move, attack, can't use any abilities, can't take damage or get healing. Basically you can't interact with other players(allies or enemies) in your match until its duration ends. The good news is you can dodge it by using your Billow and absorb it by using Counter. The bad news is he has 3 charges of it so he can still hit you with it. You can hide behind a wall to prevent getting hit by it or just buy Resilience item. It dramatically reduces the duration of Banishing effect. Finally i highly recommend to use your Billow or Counter after Banishing effect expires because multiple enemies will probably start attacking you as it expires.

Inara
• Fighting with her is not your job. Your damage overall is too low to take her down especially during her Earthen Guard ability. Anyway you can focus on her after Earthen Guard expires to help your team killing her. Inara has a great damage reduction during it(+she has some damage reduction cards and a legendary that grants her CC immunity and extra damage reduction) and gets more healing from her teammates. Your ultimate passes through the Inara if she has that CC immunity during Earthen Guard. Also Inara's Warder's Field and Impasse abilities benefit from Earthen Guard's damage reduction. Never forget to check what legendary she picked. It's a small but a really important detail. Actually it's important to do that for all champions and matches.

• Warder's Field slows nearby enemies by %60, it has 1500 hp and lasts for 6 seconds. It counts as a deployable. Try to finish it off as fast as you can if you are helping your team with attacking her. There is a card which gives damage reduction to Inara while she is standing in its area. It's a popular card among Inara players(especially in higher level of play). Check enemy Inara's loadout to see it yourself. Warder's Field can even cripple you if enemy Inara picks the Treacherous Ground legendary. Be really careful about not getting caught by it.

• Impasse has 5000 hp and lasts for 5 seconds. It's a huge wall for both defensive and offensive scenarios which counts as a deployable. Inara can block your escape way by using her Impasse ability. Try to avoid Inara as much as you can, she can easily trap you with her teammates and then kill you easily. Be careful around Inara, she is a big threat and has a great potential to outplay you by using Impasse or other abilities.

• Inara's ultimate ability is a projectile which has a delay on use and stuns all nearby enemies for 2 seconds on contact and deals 500 damage to them. It can even pierce shields so it goes through all shields(except Atlas' Statis Field). Inara has cc immunity on use until she fire the projectile so you can't land your ultimate on her during it. You can dodge it by Billow or use Counter to avoid getting hit by it. You can stop the projectile and protect your teammates by rushing into Inara's face and using Counter. Projectile will immeditely stop and explode(still can stun your teammates if any of them are near you).

• Haven, Bulldozer and Resilince are good items against Inara.

Champions of Frontline
Khan
• Khan is a dangerous opponent due to his useful defensive abilities. He has a shield, sustain and multiple crowd control abilities which make him a threat for you and your team. Try to coordinate with your teammates(probably an off tank or damage champion) to take him down.

• Bulwark is a shield which has 4250 hp and protects Khan's frontal side(180 degrees). This means you can flank to deal damage to him even when his shield is active.

• Battle Shout makes Khan immune to damage for 1.2 seconds, heals him and nearby allies for 1000 hp. You can reduce that healing by hitting him with your weapon shots if you have the Cauterize item. Be careful when you use your ultimate on him because he takes no damage from it in that duration. Try to use your ultimate on him if you are sure that Battle Shout is on cooldown.

• Commander's Grab makes Khan run to a direction, grab the first enemy on contact then throw them behind Khan, deals 600 damage and stuns them for 1 second(Duration of the stun can be increased to 2.2 seconds by the Vortex Grip legendary). Khan could pass through you if you use your Billow to dodge it. As i always suggest, using Counter is a better choice because you can stop it, absorb the damage and stun effect.

• Overpower, Khan's ultimate ability grants him cc immunity and makes him drag an enemy champion and hold them for 5 seconds, deals 200 damage to them over the duration and deals 700 damage after Khan throws its target to somewhere. Most Khan players throw their ultimate target off the map or enviromental hazards, you can use whirl to the opposite direction to counter it. You could probably come back to ground because of your Whirl's momentum.
Khan have to aim on the enemy champion to drag them to him so you can waste his ultimate by using your Billow or Counter abilities.

Raum
• It's impossible to kill Raum in 1v1 especially in early game due to his Soul Armor. It reduces the damage that Raum takes and makes him immune to Cauterize effect. Raum keeps gathering Soul Armor by dealing damage to enemy champions so basically you can't kill him 1v1. Cordinate with your teammates to kill him from distance, he can't deal high damage on long range so he can't refill his Soul Armor quickly. Don't use your ultimate on him if he has any soul armor, your ultimate will deal damage to his armor instead of to his base hp. Also when you pick Guillotine legendary, it will remove the soul armor instead of dealing damage to his base hp. You can still one shot kill him with Guillotine legendary if you land your ultimate on him when he hasn't got any soul armor.

• Ignition ability makes his main weapon charge up instantly and fires at maximum speed, i suggest you to get away from him as fast as you can. He could fill his Soul Armor by dealing high damage to you if you stay near to him.

• Juggernaut ability makes Raum start running for 4 seconds, dealing 600 damage to enemies on contact and knocking them up. Raum can hit the same enemy multiple times with one use of it. Using your Counter doesn't work against it, he still deals damage to you. Use your Whirl or Billow to dodge it.

• Cataclysm, Raum's ultimate deals 999 AOE damage to enemies and stuns them for 1.2 seconds. It goes through walls, destroys shields and deployable walls(Inara's Impasse). Raum has CC immunity during it. Use your Billow/Whirl to dodge it or aim on the ground and activate your Counter ability to prevent getting hit by it.

AA+ AA+ AA+ Whirl
Spite(ultimate) into air + Whirl
(can pass through walls)
(can easily kill invisible enemies)

Defensive Items:

Illuminate
This item increases the range that you can see invisible enemies up to 45 units. Illuminate is useful against team compositions which contain at least 1 champ who is able to be invisible. It's in "Meh" catagory because there are only 4 invisible champions in paladins and 2 of them are hitscan and the others are trash in current meta. This item is a good choice against Strix, Sha Lin, Skye or Seris but you won't probably need it. As you know Zhin has huge hitboxes on his projectiles. If you are able to hit the invisible enemy champion 1 time, you can keep hitting her/him by tracking the damage indicator(the numbers appear on enemy when you deal damage to them). Just aim and shoot on the last place where you saw them. That's what i call "Curse of the Tracking Oil". You don't really need this item as Zhin to kill invisible enemies.

Resilience
Resilience is reducing the effectiveness and duration of crowd control by %25/50/75 so it's pretty good against any kind of crowd control effects. There are 31 champions who have crowd control abilities(ultimates and legendaries included). Of course you can dodge enemy stunning projectiles like Khan's Stun or Damba's Spitting Cobra by using counter stance or billow but it's not always possible to do that because of cooldowns and getting attacked by multiple enemies. Shortly Resilience is a good item on most champions(especially on non-tank ones) against teams with hard crowd control.
Bonus tip: You can reduce the effect of Maeve's, Moji's and Pip's ultimate by buying resilince

Guardian
Increases the hp of the shields you generate. Zhin doesn't generate any shield so this item is useless for Zhin.


Haven
Basic armor, reduces the damage taken up to %18. You have only 2000 hp(maximum 2250 with the "Infamy" Card) so buying armor is always a great choice! You can tank up to 2360 damage and even 2655 damage with the 5 points of "Infamy" card. This is worth to buy in a lot of matches.

Offensive Items:
Bulldozer
This item increases the damage you deal by %20/40/60 to deployables, pets, illusions, with your weapon attacks. Zhin is not a damage champion but you can play him as a damage because of the "Malice" card. Actually "Bulldozer" has a synergy with Zhin because your heavy swing(third hit) is passing through these deployables such as: Barik's turrets, Imani's dragon, Inara's warden field, Ying's illusions, Io's Pet etc. This means you can deal high damage to multiple enemies/deployables with your heavy swing. I recommend it to buy if enemy team has multiple champions who have deployables or a champion with a deployable focused loadout such as turret barik loadouts. This item depends on the matchup, highly recommended against multiple deployables.

Wrecker
This item increases the damage you deal by %25/50/75 to shields with your weapon attacks. Wrecker is not really necessary for all players in your team. If one or two players(damage champion prefered) buy it, that's enough. You can buy more wrecker and even as a Zhin under extreme conditions such as an enemy Torvald + Fernando combo to destroy their shields much faster. Also you can almost always buy "Wrecker" against a Torvald because your heavy swing(third hit) passes through Torvald's own shield and gift shields. As you know Zhin's heavy swing keeps moving until it hits a shield or wall. Torvald's shield/shields are an exception. You can keep hitting multiple enemies by dealing damage to Torvald shield with your heavy swing. This item depends on the matchup, highly recommended against Torvald.

Deft Hands
Basically worst offensive item for Zhin. It increases your reload speed by %20/40/60. Of course, you can waste less time by reloading but Zhin has already "Malice" card and it can provide up to +%50 reload speed. Also Zhin has insta-ammunition filling cards such as "Kindling" and "Embers". Zhin has a base reload time of 1.5 second and you don't really need to waste an item slot on buying "Deft Hands". Not recommended, try to avoid it.

Lethality
This is the core offensive item for Zhin. It's recommended for skilled Zhin players. It increases your movement speed by %20/40/60 and jump height by %60/120/180 for 3.5 seconds after getting a score. You don't have to stack Billow cards in your loadout for successful escapes after kills anymore. Just buy this item and it could be enough. If you gonna get many kills then max this item first. Jump height is great as well due to Whirl's momentum. Even if your Billow is on cooldown, just jump and use Whirl. You would dash a great distance thanks to this item.

Utility Items:
Master Riding
This item increases your mount speed up to %45. Actually very useful item on all maps(especially on the bigger ones) but if you buy it you lose your chance to buy a direct-combat item. I mean it doesn't effect your combat capabilities. You can be much more effective if you buy another item instead of this if you are not playing on a big map or feeding hard. You can arrive to objective before the enemy team and you can go back to battle ground much faster after you die. Depends on the map and preference. Also it lets you flank easier by making you reach enemy backline faster in the beginning of rounds.

Morale Boost
This item increases your ultimate charge rate up to %30. You should buy this if you picked the "Guillotine" legendary to benefit from it a lot more. Otherwise Morale Boost is one of the worst items that you can buy as Zhin. Your ultimate is almost trash and no need to spam it to enemies unless you are using it as a dash ability instead of dealing damage. You can dash more and get to the highground by buying this. Anyway i don't recommend it generally.

Nimble
One of the best items for Zhin and other flankers. It makes you move faster so you can be more effective on both aggressive and defensive sides. It's even better on Zhin because you can travel more distance with billow + nimble. You can buy this item every match if you have a free item slot.

Chronos
Best utility item for Zhin. It reduces the cooldown of your all abilities(except the ultimate). Billow-15 seconds->10.5 seconds, Whirl- 7 seconds->5 seconds, Counter Stance-7 seconds->5 seconds. Let's accept Zhin has mid-long cooldowns generally. It's a quite good item for Zhin(especially with the cooldown reduction loadouts).

Healing Items:
Rejuvenate
It's an item which increases the healing received from allies up to %30. It's also known us: "The Counter of Cauterize Effect". Cauterize reduces the amount of healing you take up to %90 and Rejuvenate increases the amount of healing you take by %10/20/30 so you can still receive %60(instead of %90) reduced healing after get hit if you have Rejuvenate 3. This item's other benefit is getting healed faster by your support champion so he/she can fill your maximum hp in 1-2 seconds and you go back to combat. I strongly recommend this item to buy if you have a support duo. Otherwise you could probably waste your credits when buying this for a random support player in your team.

Veteran
This item increases your maximum hp by %5.5/11/16.5 so it's good for tanking more damage. I suggest to buy this item if you want to survive more. Don't forget the fact that it increases your base hp so infamy card doesn't effect this item.

Kill to Heal
This item fills up 200/400/600 hp instantly after you get an elimination. It says: "Kill to Heal" but in fact you get the same healing from assists too. Take this into account while choosing a healing item as Zhin. This item helps you stay alive after assasinating an enemy(usually dps/sup). You can also prevent Cauterize from reducing the healing you get from it on long ranged(sniper third hit kills) scores by using Billow after you shoot your heavy swing. Got heavily nerfed. Still might be useful while playing with Smolder talent.

Life Rip
It makes you to get healing by %10/20/30 from your weapon shots that hit your enemies. As a Zhin it gives you 40/80/120 hp from each light swing(first 2 shots). It's a decent amount of healing but the point of buying this is the heavy swing(third shot). As you know it pierces and has a nearly unlimited range. You can recieve 70/140/210 hp(85/170/255 hp with Yomi legendary) from each enemy you hit with it. This means you can heal yourself up to 5 x 210 = 1050 hp with each heavy swing. You have almost no chance of hitting 5 enemies in a row but it's still good. Hitting 3 enemies in a row gives you the same healing as "Kill to Heal 3". Because of these, my healing item preference is usually "Life Rip" and sometimes "Rejuvenate" if i'm playing with my duo. I wanted to explain why "Life Rip" works fine with Zhin because i saw lots of players flaming me cause of it. I know Zhin is a flanker but you can get much more healing from "Life Rip" than "Kill to Heal" especially against +2 tank teams.

Character Model

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Weapon


Weapon: Default Inferno Blade
Rarity: Common
Availability: Standard
Release Date: June 14, 2017
Cost: Free(by unlocking the champion)
Voicelines: CLICK HERE[paladins.gamepedia.com]


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Weapon


Weapon: Nomad Inferno Blade
Rarity: Uncommon
Availability: Standard
Release Date: June 14, 2017
Cost: 40.000 / 200 / Deal of the Day
Voicelines: CLICK HERE[paladins.gamepedia.com]


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Weapon


Weapon: Ebon Star Phazeblade
Rarity: Epic
Availability: Exclusive
Release Date: December 18, 2017
Cost: Galaxy Chest or Deal of the Day
Voicelines: CLICK HERE[paladins.gamepedia.com]


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Weapon:

Weapon: Demon Slayer's Vengeance
Rarity: Epic
Availability: Exclusive
Release Date: March 28, 2018
Cost: Ascension Peak Chest or Deal of the Day
Voicelines: CLICK HERE[paladins.gamepedia.com]


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Weapon:

Weapon: Omega Ripper
Rarity: Epic
Availability: Exclusive
Release Date: March 27, 2019
Cost: 800 / Robotic Chest / Omega Zhin Bundle(no longer avilable) for 400 / Deal of the Day
Voicelines: CLICK HERE[paladins.gamepedia.com]


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Weapon:

Weapon: Conqueror's War Song
Rarity: Epic
Availability: Limited
Release Date: September 7, 2017
Cost: VIP Pack(no longer avilable)
Voicelines: CLICK HERE[paladins.gamepedia.com]


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Weapon:

Rarity: Epic
Availability: Exclusive
Release Date: October 28, 2020
Cost: Arcane Pacts Battle Pass level 50(at once)
Voicelines: CLICK HERE[paladins.gamepedia.com]


Character Model

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Weapon:

Rarity: Epic
Availability: Limited
Release Date: October 28, 2020
Cost: Arcane Pacts Battle Pass level 120(at once)
Voicelines: CLICK HERE[paladins.gamepedia.com]


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Weapon:

Rarity: Legendary
Availability: Exclusive
Release Date: July 21, 2021
Cost: gen:LOCK120 Crossover Pass lvl 24
Voicelines: CLICK HERE[paladins.fandom.com]




Rarity: Epic
Availability: Exclusive
Cost: Necromancer's Chest or Deal of the Day


Rarity: Legendary
Avilability: Mastery
Cost: Rewarded at Champion Mastery level 50.

Character Model:CLICK HERE TO DISPLAY[static.wikia.nocookie.net]
Rarity: Common
Avilability: Standard
Cost: Free(unlocks by buying the champion)

Character Model:CLICK HERE TO DISPLAY[static.wikia.nocookie.net]
Rarity: Epic
Avilability: Exclusive
Cost: Gold Chest / Flair Chest / Deal of the Day

Character Model:CLICK HERE TO DISPLAY[static.wikia.nocookie.net]
Rarity: Epic
Avilability: Exclusive
Cost: Gold Chest / Flair Chest / Robotic Chest / Deal of the Day

Character Model: CLICK HERE TO DISPLAY[static.wikia.nocookie.net]
Rarity: Legendary
Avilability: Exclusive
Cost: Battle Pass 2 level 17(no longer available)

Character Model: CLICK HERE TO DISPLAY[static.wikia.nocookie.net]
Rarity: Rare
Avilability: Exclusive
Cost: Battlesuit Battlepass level 23(no longer available)

Character Model:
CLICK HERE TO DISPLAY[static.wikia.nocookie.net]
Rarity: Epic
Avilability: Exclusive
Cost: Game On Event Pass Level 20 Paid Reward - Event Pass Level(no longer available)



Character Model:

Rarity: Common
Avilability: Standard
Cost: Free(unlocks by buying the champion)

Character Model:

Rarity: Rare
Avilability: Exclusive
Cost: Gold Chest / Flair Chest / Deal of the Day

Character Model:

Rarity: Rare
Avilability: Exclusive
Cost: End Times Event Collect 140

Character Model:

Rarity: Epic
Avilability: Exclusive
Cost: Ascension Peak Chest / Deal of the Day

Character Model:

Rarity: Rare
Avilability: Exclusive
Cost: gen:LOCK Crossover Pass Level 25 Paid Reward

Cards:

Fan the Flames: New: Reduce the Cooldown of Billow by {14|14}% after getting an Elimination. Old: Reduce the Cooldown of Billow by %20 after getting an Elimination.

Heartless: New: Increase your Movement Speed by {6|6}% for 4s after getting an Elimination. Old: Increase your Movement Speed by %10 for 4s after getting an Elimination.

Fixed an issue where Zhin’s Counter ability could counter the reveal pulses from Yagorath’s Primal Vision ability.

Talents:

Guillotine:
Reduced Damage 25% ➞ 20%
Removed Ultimate charge rate increase.

Abilities:
-Billow: Bonus Movement Speed %30 ⭢ %10

Cards:

Up in Smoke: Increased Movement Speed 8% ⭢ 11%

Talents:

Guillotine: Removed damage immunity
Smolder: Reduced heal per second 25% ⭢ 15%

Talents:
Yomi: Removed extended range and piercing effect.
Smolder: Reduced Healing per second 33% ⭢ 25%

Abilities:
-Inferno Blade: Your heavy hit with Inferno Blade now Pierces enemies and has an extended range
-Billow: Increased duration 1.5s ⭢ 2s

Cards:

Embers: Now Regenerates 2 Ammo every 0.5s for 0.5/1/1.5/2/2.5s after activating Billow

Up in Smoke: Decreased Movement Speed 10% ⭢ 8%

Fuel for the Fire:
OLD: Gain 5/10/15/20/25% Lifesteal for 2s after using Whirl
NEW: Increase Movement Speed by {5|5}% for 2s after using Whirl

Viciousness:
OLD: Generate {2|2} Ammo after successfully Countering an attack
NEW: Reduce the Cooldown of Counter by {15|15}% after successfully hitting an enemy with Counter

Malice: Increased Reload Speed 5/10/15/20/25% ⭢ 10/20/30/40/50%


Abilities:

-Whirl: Increased momentum carry after Whirl ends.


Abilities:

-Billow:
• Duration 2.5s → 1.5s
• Movement speed bonus increased 20% → 30%
• Inhand Lockout time after ability end reduced

Talents:
Smolder: Healing per second 20% → 33%

Cards:

Hideout: Now on activation reduces the cooldown of whirl by 1/2/3/4/5s


Abilities:
-Counter:
• Counter no longer deals melee strike upon receiving a hit while active
• Counter now fires a Inferno Blade projectile at the player’s crosshair location upon receiving a hit
• Counter damage increased 560 → 600

-Spite: Spite range slightly increased

Talents:
• Retaliation removed
• Smolder now unlocked at Champion Mastery Level 8

Cards:
• Successful hits with Master Stance counter reduces the cooldown of Whirl by {1|1}s
• Viciousness ammo gain increased{1|1} → {2|2}
• Perfect Block heal increased {50|50} -> {100|100} health

-Inferno Blade: Reduced initial and secondary hit damage 450 → 400

Cards:

Hideout: Increase the duration of Billow by {0.5|0.5}s ➡ {0.4|0.4}s.

Footwork:
OLD: Increase your Movement Speed by {10|10}% during Counter.
NEW: Activating Counter increases your Movement Speed by {10|10}% for 3s.


Cards:

Dragon Oil: Lowered ammo increase from 2 per level to 1.

Embers:
• No longer generates ammo over time.
• Activating Billow generates {scale=1|1} Ammo.

Kindling:
• No longer generates ammo over time.
• Activating Whirl generates {scale=1|1} Ammo.

Viciousness: Lowered ammo restored from 2 per level to 1.


Reworded the description of Spite to make it more clear.


Abilities:

-Counter:
• Counter attack damage reduced from 700 to 560.
• Duration reduced from 2s to 1.5s

-Billow: Duration reduced from 2.5s to 2s.

Cards

Blade Dancer:
• Increase the distance of Whirl by {5|5}%.
• Maximum rank distance reduced from 60% to 50%.

Embers:
• Reworked.
• Activating Billow generates 1 Ammo every .5s for {.5|.5}s.

Fan the Flames:
• Kills reduce the cooldown of Billow by {10|10}%.
• Rescaled so that maximum rank Cooldown Reduction is still 100%.

Kindling:
• Activating Whirl generates 1 Ammo every .5s for {.5|.5}s.

Perfect Block:
• Successfully Countering an attack will Heal you for {25|25} health.
• Maximum rank Healing reduced from 400 to 200.

Legendary Cards:

Smolder:
• Heal for {36|2}% of your maximum Health over the duration of Billow.
• Healing reduced by 33%.

Yomi:
• New.
• Your heavy hit passes through enemies, deals {127.5|7.5} more damage, and has no range limit.


Abilities:

-Inferno Blade: Projectile Speed increased from 240 to 300 for the first two hits.

-Billow: Cooldown Increased from 12s to 15s.

Legendary Cards:

Guillotine: Now grants Damage Immunity during Spite.


Abilities:

-Counter: Improved the visual feedback of when this ability is used.


Abilities:

-Counter: Fixed a bug where Zhin would not enter combat if he absorbed a hit with Counter but did not hit an opponent.


Abilities:

-Counter: Fixed a bug that caused a longer than intended lockout after countering an attack


-Counter: Damage over Time damage ticks can no longer be Countered.


Abilities:

-Counter: Fixed being able to counter Drogoz's Combustible damage over time.


Abilities:

-Inferno Blade: Fixed his inhand projectiles not simulating properly on other clients.

-Counter: Now blocks projectiles while swinging the counter attack even when not equipped with the Retaliation legendary.

-Billow:
• Reduced the Pre hit of Billow from 0.2s to 0s.
• You may now jump while in Billow.


Zhin has been added to the game.

General

• Zhin's kill taunt against Ying "I haven't forgotten about you." implies Zhin may be the "Bandit King" that imprisoned Ying, as mentioned in her bio.
  
  
• Zhin appears in Koga's card Raw Talent.
  He also appears in the lore cinematic Koga's Revenge.
  
  
  
• He has another appearance in Lian's teaser trailer.
  
  
• He also appears in Yagorath's teaser trailer.
  
  
• As well as the cinematic No One Escapes the Law.
  
  
• Zhin's weapon appears in the Battlegrounds trailer.
  
  
• Zhin appears in the Cutesy Zhin, Dark Gaze, Trailblazer avatars.
  
  
• Zhin also appears as part of a design featured on various pieces of Paladins merchandise.
  
  
• Zhin's emote "Kindle" could be a reference to the bonfires from the Dark Souls series.
  
  
• The line "Let the Bodies hit the floor!". This is a reference to the song "Bodies" by Drowning Pool.
  
  
• One of his jokes "Appear weak when you are strong and strong when you are weak, which for you is always." is a reference to Sun Tzu's The Art of War.
  
  
• Zhin's kill taunt against Ying "I haven't forgotten about you." () implies Zhin may be the "bandit king" that imprisoned Ying, as mentioned in her bio.
  
  
• The moon is present in the background of Zhin's splash art, though oddly isn't shattered. This was later revealed to be an error here, as the moon shattered a long long time ago.
  
  
• Based on a dev statement revealing Viktor to be around 5'9 or 175cm tall, it was discovered that Zhin would be around 6'1 or 186cm tall.
  
  
• Zhin and Koga's base footstep sounds originated from a cat's stomach being rubbed.

Champion Skins

• Nomad A nomad is a person without a fixed home, often wandering from place to place. This can be a referance to Zhin's state of mind such as the Genji's Nomad skin from Overwatch.
  
  
• Ebon StarThis skin is heavily based on Star Wars. As expected, it has many references to the series.
  -This skin shares its theme with Dune Crawler Cassie, Galactic Scion Lian, Mercenary Strix, and Dark Lord Torvald.
  
  
• Demon SlayerSoul Eater Jenos is present in this skin's splash art.
  
  
• Conqueror The line "It's too dangerous to go alone." is a reference to a line spoken in the original Legend of Zelda.
  
  
• Omega The line "With great power comes great processing capabilities." is a reference to a phrase often assosiated with Spider-Man.
  -The line "My android sensors are tingling." is also likely a reference to Spider-Man.
  -This skin shares its theme with Omega Sha Lin, Omega Terminus, Omega Dredge, Omega Vivian, Omega Koga, Omega Makoa, and Omega Imani.
  
  
• Underkeeper / Forest Stalker
  The line "A whole new world, new beings, new feelings! So much to be unfurled!" () may be a reference to the song A Whole New World.
  -The line "Though the road may wander in this unknown place, it will lead me, to you, and we shall TOGETHER, learn new ways to experience pain!" () may be a reference to the song Go The Distance.
  -The Underkeeper skin appears in the Dark Gaze avatar.
  -The Underkeerp skin also appears in the Crit Fail spray.
  -The Forest Stalker skin appears in the Trailblazer avatar.
  -These skins share their theme with Firebrand Tyra, Frostbrand Tyra, Student of Magic Vivian, Novice Vivian, Honey King Bomb King, and Polar Bear Bomb King.
  
  
• Kazu
  This skin is part of the third set of crossover content alongside the rest of the gen:LOCK Crossover Pass following Grover and Team Fortress 2 Barik.
  -This is the only skin to speak completely in another language, in this case, Japanese.
  -As expected, this skin contains numerous references to gen:LOCK,
  Many lines mention or reference various aspects of the gen:LOCK Program, such as Holons.
  The lines "Shall we upgrade the Robo Shogun?" () and "Thanks for the Robo Shogun." () both reference Kazu's Holon specifically. The latter line also references how Cammie is responsible for the designs of the later Holons in the series.
  The line "I'll tell you what I said to my superiors in Japan before they busted me down: I don't fight simply because someone told me to." () references a line spoken by Kazu in Episode 3 of the series.
  The line "If I were 10 years old, I would jump in excitement." () references a line spoken by Kazu in Episode 7.
  Many lines also mention The Union, the main antagonistic group of the series.
  -Kazu appears in the Chibi Kazu avatar alongside his Holon, with the latter also appearing in the Shogun spray. The Grappler spray is also themed after him.
  -This skin shares its theme with Chase Viktor, Yasamin Lex, Cammie Maeve, and Valentina Kinessa.
  
  
• In older versions of Paladins, there used to be a number of additional recolors of default champions. For Zhin, these recolors included the Warlord skin.
  
  
• Having been present in the mobile game 'Paladins Strike', Zhin received unique skins exclusive to Strike. These skins include Ice Lord Zhin and Ronin Zhin.
  
  Removed Talents:
  
  
  RETALIATION(Default Talent)
  • After Countering an attack you remain in your Counter stance and Counter Attack deals 10% more damage.
  
  
  
  
  

• Official Paladins Wiki helped me a lot (especially with stats like base movement speed of Zhin) so i copy pasted some stuff from there. It is the most useful source for any kind of Paladins guides.
  
• Official Paladins Wiki[paladins.gamepedia.com]
  
• Thanks to youtuber Frost Fangs for the branding image which you can see on Summary section. I used his thumbnail.
  
• None of the memes in the "Zhin Memes" section were made by me(except the Zhin "Nerf" and weeb clown ones). You can see the names of their creators in the images.
  
• The last and most important source are my personnal experiences and screenshots which i took in-game.

Special thanks to youtuber Frost Fangs for his Zhin thumbnail. You can check and subscribe to his channel, he is creating pretty well content!
Special thanks to my dear Box friend for fixing the grammar mistakes in my guide!
Special thanks to my ex for her help while recording the videos.

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