League of Legends: Xerath (Old and New)

Remember in my last (coughFirstcough) post, I said I started out League playing Xerath? Yeah, those were good times.

To understand the nostalgia, you have to know about old Xerath.

See, old Xerath was bullshit. Like actually bullshit. Normally, he was a standard mage, with his Q being a relatively quick to cast skillshot with a set range, and his stun instead being a targeted spell (That did more damage than was strictly necessary),  that you had to follow up with to stun, mind you, it was a 1.5 second stun, and any veteran league player can tell you what your chances of survival next to a mage where after getting stunned. Back then, mages regularly hit a thousand AP.

That's right. 1000. Seems pretty high, doesn't it? That's because it is.

His ult was split into his current W and ult. It was a barrage-fire ability with three casts of what is is now his W, minus the slow.

This all doesn't sound so bad, right? Though it does bring up the question, if Xerath's current W was derived from his old ult, what was his old W?

The answer? Locus of power.

Now, it's like a lot of powerful ranged ults nowadays that the caster needs to root themselves in order to use it. This was like that. Unlike those ults though, this had a built in movement speed buff when it ended, so if an assassin jumped your ass, you could get the fuck out of dodge in a hurry.

Now, Locus had two purposes, the first was to increase the range of Xerath's abilities - so much so that his q reached his current max range. That's right. He would be able to cast a max-range Q with no charge time. Sound's pretty dumb, right? It gets better. Locus of Power gave Xerath free magic penetration, up to 40%. That's right. 40% magic pen, just for pressing a button. Get a void staff, which back then also gave 40%, and you'd have 64% magic penetration. Get sorcerer's shoes, and a haunting guise after that, and you'd be chunking tanks for a quarter of their health.

Now, this wouldn't be so bad if you could blow him up super easily. I mean, look at Kog'Maw. He shreds entire teams in seconds, but get on him and he's toast.

Now see, Xerath is tanky too! His passive, Ascended Form, turned 15% of his ability power into armor.

That's right, 15%. Remember how I said it was easy for mages to hit 1000 AP? That mean that Xerath had 150 armor from just his passive. That's not counting the 50 armor from Zhonya's , and his base armor.
That's a nice ult Zed. To bad it does jack shit.

So yeah, old Xerath was dumb.

Now, we move onto current Xerath.
His kit got a total overhaul. It still has the same siege mage theme, but now it doesn't also do everything else.

So he gave up free armor, built-in magic pen, and a speed boost. So what did he get in return? Well, he got things that fit more in line with his theme.

Let's explore.

Ascended Form was replaced with Mana Surge. Now, instead of free armor, periodically, his autoattacks restore mana. And it's a fair amount too, doubled if he hits a champion. His point and click spell is replaced with a skillshot, but now it doesn't need a followup spell to stun. His ult becomes a single-shot, and is transferred to his W, and a slow is added.
Locus of power was overhauled into Rite of the Arcane, or as I like to call it, Artillery Mode.

Now instead of having to combo two skills, Xerath's Q can be charged for more range, and he can still move while charging. His new has a massively empowered slow -and does extra damage- if you hit something with the middle, and is good for helping you land Qs, and even better when used after his stun, as you are guaranteed to land the center. Oh, and he can still bully his lane opponents pretty hard with poke that can go right through minions,

Some downsides to new Xerath:

He has higher mana costs, his Q costing 120 mana at max rank
His new stun is fairly easy to dodge, and Xerath's only hard CC

He can be easily punished when he comes in to restore his mana with autoattacks and when he tries to last hit, if you're good at dodging the stun.

His Q is massively telegraphed if you want maximum range.

His ult leaves him pretty much helpless against close range attacks.
If you get on him, he's probably dead if you don't get instantly peeled.

Overall, if you like mages, and like poking at your enemy with no real fear of retaliation, you might like Xerath. Though I do recommend rushing a Lost Chapter, and seeing if your jungler will let you have blue buff, that way you don't have to rely on your passive to deal with your exorbitant mana costs. Late game, you'll be a long-range terror, but I strongly reccomend a Morellonomicon. Run the Meditation mastery for even more mana regen.

As for build, I recommend running Deathfire Touch, as it makes the Qs you do land burn for a bit, and buiding a Liandri's, for even more burn damage. Morellonomicon is a must, otherwise you'll quickly run out of mana late game, and the CD is a huge boon. Zhonya's if you feel like you are getting focused. I personally don't recommend Abyssal, as Xerath doesn't really benefit from it's passive much. If they do end up swapping Banshee's and Abyssal's stats, Banshee's would make an excellent anti-mage item choice.
Void staff is good, especially since Xerath no longer has built in magic penetration. Rabadon's is an obvious must if you want to be doing any kind of damage, and Ryali's is a niche item if you find your quarry escaping before you can finish them off.
Oh, and if you find yo

Welp, that's all I got for Xerath.

This is Shattered Omega, signing off!