Xayah ARAM Build and Guide

Updated for patch 26.22. Ability details come from Riot’s official game data for this patch; ARAM balance numbers come from the League of Legends Wiki’s champion data.

A Xayah ARAM build is a crit build with a small ARAM buff behind it: Xayah deals 105% damage and has 103% attack speed on the Howling Abyss, with damage taken unchanged. The real reason she works there is Bladecaller. ARAM has one lane with five enemies per team, which gives Bladecaller more chances to pull Feathers through several champions.

I picked the items on this page off what they actually do in patch 26.22, not off a win-rate table.

How is Xayah changed in ARAM?

Two small buffs and no nerf. Xayah deals 105% damage and attacks at 103% speed in ARAM, while damage taken stays at 100%.

To be fair, 100% is just the Rift number, so she’s no squishier here than usual. The 5% is the one you’ll notice, since it sits on every dagger, Feather and auto for the whole game. The 3% attack speed you won’t feel in a single trade. Honestly, neither number is why you pick her. The map is.

Why does Xayah fit the Howling Abyss?

Her whole kit is about dropping Feathers and pulling them back through people, and the Howling Abyss keeps people standing in a line.

• Clean Cuts: after using an ability, her next basic attacks hit all targets along their path and leave a Feather. In one lane with five bodies, those autos go through a lot of people.
• Double Daggers: two damaging daggers that also drop Feathers she can recall, on a cooldown that runs from 10 seconds at rank one down to 8 at rank five.
• Deadly Plumage: a storm of blades that raises her attack speed and damage, plus move speed if she attacks a champion.
• Bladecaller: calls back every dropped Feather, dealing damage and rooting enemies. Cooldown 12 to 8 seconds. This is the reason to play her here.
• Featherstorm: she leaps into the air, untargetable, and throws a fan of daggers that drop more Feathers. Cooldown is 140/120/100 seconds.

So where does she fall short? Her attack range is 525, and the catch is she has no dash anywhere in her kit, so Featherstorm is her only answer to a hard engage (140 seconds at rank one is a long wait). She also runs on mana, and since nobody recalls on this map (there is no recall to begin with), a Double Daggers thrown at nothing is a real cost, at least early on.

What should a Xayah ARAM build focus on?

Crit, attack speed, and getting Bladecaller back sooner. Clean Cuts turns her basic attacks into Feather droppers, and with Navori Flickerblade every attack also knocks time off her basic abilities.

Why Navori Flickerblade over any other crit item? Because Double Daggers, Deadly Plumage and Bladecaller are all basic abilities, so every attack during Clean Cuts shaves 15% off whatever cooldown is left on them. In practice, that’s the whole Xayah loop: cast something, auto, then E when the Feathers are under people. Infinity Edge is what makes those autos actually hurt once the root lands.

Fiendhunter Bolts gets the third slot because Featherstorm’s 140 second cooldown (at rank one, anyway) is the longest in her kit, and Night Vigil’s 30 Ultimate Ability Haste works on exactly that. Opening Barrage triggers after your ultimate, and Featherstorm drops Feathers of its own, so the empowered attacks can go into a fresh Feather line.

How do you play Xayah on the Howling Abyss?

• Ability first, then attack. Clean Cuts only triggers after you use an ability, so a Double Daggers cast is what turns your basic attacks into Feather droppers.
• Line your Feathers through the group. Q drops Feathers, the empowered attacks drop more along their path, and Bladecaller pulls all of them back at once.
• Keep Featherstorm for the engage. You’re untargetable during the leap, and the fan of daggers drops Feathers too, so R into E on a stacked team is the escape and the damage in one go.
• Walk through relics on the way up. Health relics restore health and there’s no going back to base to heal, so path through them on the way back to the fight.

How do shopping and Mark change the plan?

ARAM has no recall. Your only chances to buy come at the fountain, once when the game begins and again after every respawn. So know what you’re buying before you die, not while the shop timer is ticking (Infinity Edge costs 3500 gold, against 1100 for Berserker’s Greaves and 2650 for Navori Flickerblade, so those are cheaper to complete first). Between deaths, health relics on the map restore health, because you can’t go back to base to heal.

The mode’s own summoner spell is Mark. It hurls a snowball, and a hit lets you dash to whoever it struck. For Xayah, that’s a follow-up tool, not an opener. Why? Snowballing onto a full-health bruiser puts a 525-range marksman with no dash in melee, and Featherstorm is the only way out. Use it on someone already rooted by Bladecaller, or on a target your team is chasing. Make that call in the lobby, because summoner spells lock in before the game loads and can’t be changed for the rest of the match.

Is Xayah good in ARAM?

Yes, when your team fights as a group and the enemy has to come at you in a line. The 105% damage is a nice bonus, but the games you win on her come from E timing. Hold it. Wait until Feathers sit under several champions so the damage and root hit all of them, because if you spam it on one target she’s a 525-range auto attacker with a long ultimate cooldown.

What kills her is anyone who can get through the Feather line while Featherstorm is down, and teams smart enough not to stack. The Summoner’s Rift side of that question is in the Xayah counters guide. Skins are a different story. The Xayah skins page lists every one of her skins, and every item above has full stats and history in our item database, so you can check every cost on this page yourself. And if you’re not sure marksman is your thing, the guide to LoL roles runs through what each position does.

Put simply, a Xayah ARAM build comes down to crit items and patience. Navori Flickerblade shortens Bladecaller, and you don’t press E until the Feather line runs through more than one champion.

FAQ

Is Xayah buffed in ARAM?

Slightly. She has 103% attack speed and deals 105% damage in ARAM, with damage taken at 100%, according to the League of Legends Wiki’s ARAM data.

What items does Xayah build in ARAM?

Crit items: Infinity Edge, Navori Flickerblade and Fiendhunter Bolts, with Berserker’s Greaves as boots.

Does Xayah’s ultimate make her untargetable?

Yes. Featherstorm leaps into the air, becoming untargetable, and throws a fan of daggers that drop Feathers. Its cooldown is 140/120/100 seconds.

How does Bladecaller work on the Howling Abyss?

The same as on the Rift. It calls back all of Xayah’s dropped Feathers, dealing damage and rooting enemies. ARAM’s single lane keeps all five enemies in the same place, which is where a multi-Feather Bladecaller pays off.

Is this build based on win rates?

No. This guide is editorial, built from what items and abilities actually do in patch 26.22. We don’t use win-rate data.