Now that Xin appears to be a half-decent champion, how would you build him? Discuss potential items here. I, myself, have a few questions for the more advanced Xin players because quite frankly, I have no clue how he should be built with his new stats. Should he be played as a tank that initiates team battles, or should he be played as a DPS? Is HoG still a viable early game item despite the nerf, or should it be bought later on?

What do you mean... "half decent"

he's at least half okay.

Stack boots

I build him tanky DPS still and find it works well. I have flat armor pen marks and quints, and that along with his passive means I don't need any arm pen items. The only pure DMG item I get is a BT, and I've tried to build a Tri-Force, but haven't had a game long enough yet to finish it.

The only problem I have with Xin in his early game is that he just lacks the enough AS to use his EQQQ combo, the opponent will almost always walk away with my third strike in wait. You can use your W to increase your AS, but it will leave you with half pool of mana. That's why I think wits end or trinity is good on him.

i build ninja tabi/mercs > (dorans maybe) phage > hexdrinker > maw/triforce then build tanky

I grab:

Beserker G
Infinity edge
Phantom Dancer
Blood thirstir
Black cleaver
Blood thirstir

Lots of damage life steal and totally owns anyone, Passive armor pen + -45 armor
GG

I saw Saintvicious go boots, averice blade & brutallizer, HoG, Frozen Mallet, Maw, and Randuins. I tried this out and it went extremely well. I had an insane amount of DPS and was very durable.