Honor of Kings continues to get updated with new or reworked features, and with its recent global release, they are rolling out more updates to keep things fresh for both newbies and veterans. One of the recent patches changed up Xiang Yu a bit, so here is a quick guide on how you can play as him!
Complete Xiang Yu Guide
Xiang Yu is a tank hero who is typically played in the top lane. With the recent rework of his second skill, he now becomes a slightly more formidable solo laner who can be quite annoying to play against. Before we get into more details, let’s quickly go over his entire kit first.
Xiang Yu’s Skills
Passive Skill – Resolute Will
- Resolute Will causes Xiang Yu’s basic attacks to deal bonus physical damage equal to 6% of his max health. This specific bonus applies to enemy heroes only.
- This bonus changes depending on his target. For example, creeps will only take 400 bonus damage, while towers will receive 400 bonus damage + 6% of his max health.
- Extra effect: Whenever Xiang Yu’s health drops below 30%, he will gain a few seconds worth of damage reduction. This effect has a 90 second cooldown.
Skill 1 – Fearless Charge
- Fearless Charge will make Xiang Yu dash forward and knock back any enemies within range, dealing damage along the way.
- At the end of his charge, he will also launch nearby enemies into the air and deal an additional burst of physical damage to them. (Same damage as the initial charge)
Skill 2 – No Retreat
- No Retreat gives Xiang Yu bonus movement speed that will diminish over two seconds. Despite the ability’s name, this is actually pretty useful for retreating if you need to.
- In addition to the previous effect, his next two basic attacks will also have a longer range and will be a guaranteed critical hit with slightly reduced damage. The following basic attacks also have different special effects.
- First basic attack: Horizontal sweeping attack that will heal 200 HP (+8% of his missing health).
- Second basic attack: Vertical slash that deals bonus physical damage.
- Returning players should note that this is a completely reworked ability and that it no longer has the same function as its previous version.
Skill 3 – Hegemon’s Slash
- Hegemon’s Slash will cause Xiang Yu to charge up a massive wave of energy that deals physical damage. The amount of damage it deals scales up the lower his current HP is.
- While channeling, Xiang Yu will be temporarily invincible, meaning he cannot die as he is casting this ability.
- Enemies hit by the inner zone of this ability’s telegraph will be briefly stunned.
A Few Tips
Tip #1. Abuse No Retreat Often
No Retreat is essentially a free heal and harassing tool that you can use right off the bat. Take it at level 1 and start spamming it whenever you take chip damage from the opposing laner.
This is especially useful if you are facing a long range hero, as they will obviously try to poke you at every opportunity. During the early game, you will want to focus on using it for last hits as well, because this hero does not truly shine until the later stages.
Tip #2. Use Hegemon’s Slash For Setting Up
A common misconception about his ultimate, Hegemon’s Slash, is that you must be at a low HP to use it. This is true if your focus is on damage, but as a tank / top laner, your main role is to set up teamfights.
Instead of trying to lower your health before a fight, focus on hitting the stun instead. Use your flash to reposition the ultimate’s direction while channeling and catch your enemies off guard with a surprise AOE stun or simply charge in with your first skill.
Again, it should be emphasized that you should not bait yourself into having low health just to maximize your ultimate’s damage. Unless you have a solid plan to burst the enemies alongside your team, you will just end up giving your squad a handicap.
Tip #3. Split Push When Possible
Xiang Yu during the mid to late game stages has some really good split pushing potential due to his surprisingly fast clear times for both waves and jungle camps.
Because of this, you can apply tons of pressure to the enemy whenever you see an unoccupied lane. Coupled with your somewhat mobile abilities (charge and bonus movement speed), you can quickly rotate whenever a teamfight is starting elsewhere.
Equipment
- Boots of Resistance
- Axe of Torment
- Frostscar’s Embrace
- Ominous Premonition
- Eye of the Phoenix
- Cuirass of Savagery
If you want to focus more on rotating and ganking, you can substitute some of these items with something like Guardian – Howl for bonus movement speed. Tankiness could also be improved with Overlord’s Platemail or Longnight Guardian, depending on the enemy team’s composition.
Arcana
- Fate 10x
- Harmony 5x
- Hunt 5x
- Eagle Eye 10x
Again, for a more gank/rotation-focused setup, you can substitute Eagle Eye with Void for better cooldown reduction and more survivability. Reverberation works in that spot too, but you will have lower max health if you choose that alternative instead.
Other than that, replace Eagle Eye with any other tank or health focused options if you feel that you are a little too squishy during the early to mid game phase.
In Conclusion
That is pretty much everything you need to know in order to play as Xiang Yu, who will likely have a more substantial rework soon (as evidenced by the Chinese version of the game). Basically, you are an initiator with a one time big time stunning ability that can determine the outcome of an entire teamfight.
While you’re here, if you are looking for a more aggressive hero that leans more towards the assassin role, check out our complete Luna guide for Honor of Kings to start branching out to the jungle!
