Xerath Build Guide by GrandmasterD

Chapter 1

I am GrandmasterD and my speciality lies in AP casters; whom I play in the mid lane of course. I had played a lot of AP casters but Xerath was something new to me and I was intrigued. I started maining Xerath since he was released and I think I've become quite good with him. I've played over 250 ranked games with Xerath, having a 60% win ratio and a 4.8 KDA. Final words before we go on: if people know they play against me; they ban Xerath!






I - An Introduction to Xerath
II - Preparing for Battle
III - Itemizing and Basic Builds
IV - Xerath Throughout the Game
V - Wrapping Up






Welcome to my second guide on MobaFire, a guide about Xerath, The Magus Ascendant. Xerath is my favorite AP caster for mid lane; he deals exceptional amount of damage from a huge range and he perfectly captures the feeling of uncontrollable power! Also, Xerath's power to snowball makes him a great pick for solo queue ranked play. However, many are very reluctant to play him because he does requires a good amount of skill. Just like my first guide, this guide will be very in-depth and it will cover anything from start to finish. Now forget anything you know about magic as Xerath is about to show you some real magic!

Yours Sincerely,
GrandmasterD







Let us start off with a good old pros/cons list. Just like any other champion, Xerath has his strengths and shortcomings. His basic strength should be noted: Xerath has range, huge range! The only champion who really outranges him is Kog'Maw with his Living Artillery. Additionally, his great damage/mana cost ratios give him great laning power. Xerath has, in my opinion, only two major flaws: He has no escape spell, just a single-target stun. This makes him vulnerable to multiple enemies and to jungler ganks, making warding even more crucial. His second flaw is that Xerath has a really low mana pool; he simply does not have enough mana, especially in late-game. Other than that I simply love Xerath; mainly because of his long range burst, which is kind of ridiculous.

Pros + Extremely long range harass. + Fairly low mana costs. + Low cooldowns, an Elixir of Brilliance is all you will need on cooldown reduction. + His ultimate, Arcane Barrage, is one of the best damage dealers in the game! + His harassment has no trouble with enemy minions. + He can obliterate enemies from a 1000 range! + He looks extremely badass!

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Xerath

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Cons - Hard to master, since his main damage spells are skillshots and he requires smartcasting. - Positioning can make him or break him. - He has little to defend himself if tanky enemies such as Olaf get in close range. - He pretty much relies on his stun to deal damage, which is a skillshot. - Constant harass early-game gets him out of mana pretty quickly. - His taunt is extremely awesome but too long to fit as a title for this guide.

Below I have listed each of Xerath's abilities including some pros/tips about the ability. I did this so you will know what I am talking about throughout the entire guide. My personal opinion is that Xerath has an amazing skillset but only if used right. Luckily, you have come to the right place.

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Ascended Form

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Ascended Form (Innate): Xerath receives 15% of his ability power as bonus armor. Free armour, yes! Becomes very useful against physical damage dealers once you've acquired your Rod of Ages

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Arcanopulse (Q): Fires a long-range beam of energy in a line, dealing magic damage to all targets hit. Amazing Range. Low cooldown. Does not deal less damage for each subsequent target hit, unlike Piltover Peacemaker and Trueshot Barrage.

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Locus of Power

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Locus of Power (W): Xerath anchors himself to the ground he is standing on for up to 8 seconds, increasing the range of all his spells and granting him bonus magic penetration. Upon disabling this ability, Xerath gains 35% movement speed for 2 seconds. He can deactivate the ability at any time after 0.5 seconds of casting it. Increases the range of Arcanopulse, Mage Chains and Arcane Barrage by a whopping 400! Almost a free Void Staff. No Cost Ability.

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Mage Chains

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Mage Chains (E): Deals magic damage to an enemy and marks them with Unstable Magic for 3 seconds. The next spell Xerath strikes this enemy with in these 3 seconds will stun them for 1.5 seconds. No skillshot. Can be procced by both Arcanopulse and Arcane Barrage. Lasts fairly long.

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Arcane Barrage (R): Calls down a blast of arcane energy, dealing magic damage to all enemies in an area. May be cast another two times, with no cost, within the next 12 seconds before going on cooldown. Insane damage! Low cooldown for an ultimate. Fairly large area of effect. All three barrages are easily hit when combined with Mage Chains.

Although the skill sequence may seem very straightforward on Xerath; there are some thing you should know. In fact, Xerath has two skill sequences really. Hence, you should know which one to use and when you should use it. Regardless of who you are facing; you should always max out Arcanopulse first. It is your bread and butter ability with a ridiculously great damage/mana cost ratio. Maxing it out reduces the cool down and increases the damage. Arcanopulse gives great poke plus farming capability; I'm not willing to argue about maxing it first. What to max out next depends entirely on your lane opponent.



This is the basic sequence I use about 90% of the games I play with Xerath. The main reason for this sequence is damage. Maxing out Mage Chains makes you deal more damage than when you would've maxed out Locus Of Power. A nice side effect of this sequence is that Mage Chains get on a shorter cool down so you will be able to stun more often; which is very convenient.



There are some cases, however, when maxing out Locus Of Power is the better way to go. This does not happen often, but there are lane opponents against whom this is much more convenient. There are two main reasons why you would use this sequence. First, the enemy is stacking magic resist heavily. Yes, when facing champions like Ryze or Galio you will probably experience this. If the enemy stacks magic resist, you will need the magic penetration from Locus Of Power in order to deal consistent damage. Second, you need long range harass more often. When facing champions who have a huge lane presence (e.g. LeBlanc and Kassadin), you might feel that you should stay at a distance and farm/harass from there. In that case you will max out Locus Of Power in order to decrease the cool down on the spell. Recapping, max out Locus Of Power second if you need long-range harass more often or when the enemy is stacking magic resist.








Well if you are going to play a new champion you probably want to know which summoner spells you should take and which you should avoid. Below I have listed all the summoner spells I consider viable on Xerath. All the others should not be chosen for obvious reasons. If those reasons are not clear to you, do not be afraid to ask.









One cannot head over to the fields of justice without a proper mastery setup. This section decribes the mastery setup I take on Xerath and, more important, why I go with this setup. From playing games with Xerath on my smurf on the NA server, I realised how important masteries actually are on Xerath. The mastery setup I use on Xerath is actually a basic 21/0/9 mage setup; focussed entirely on dealing damage.

Offence Tree

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Tier I: Grab Summoner's Wrath and Brute Force to boost your summoner spell and for early harass and easier last-hitting. You could also exchange the point in Summoner's Wrath for an extra point in Mental Force ; you should do this if you don't take Ghost, Ignite, Exhaust or Surge of course. You could also consider taking points in Butcher for last-hitting but this won't aid you in harassing.

Tier II: Well here we just go for four points in Sorcery since that is really the only useful mastery on Xerath here. You could spend a point in Demolitionist but keep in mind that this is NOT true damage, so it isn't a great mastery.

Tier III: We get three points in Havoc just to increase our overall damage and to advance to the next tier. Also, we take the point in Arcane Knowledge which is a very great mastery and stacks with the percentual penetration of Void Staff and Locus Of Power.

Tier IV: Continue down the tree by taking four points in Blast . There are other options here, but they make no sense for a mage; at least not on Xerath.

Tier V: Four points in Archmage for obvious reasons. Even though the armour penetration from Sunder could be useful for harassment, it just isn't worth not taking Archmage .

Tier VI: The final point in this tree goes to...... Executioner !! Great mastery on Xerath, makes your burst do extra damage. Also, it stacks nicely with Havoc .

Utility Tree

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Tier I: In the first tier, a lot of decisions have to be made. My setup is to take Summoner's Insight since Flash is very vital to Xerath's survival as Xerath has no natural escape mechanism. I also take three points in Expanded Mind to increase Xerath's low mana pool; it comes in very handy througout the game. Also, I get the Improved Recall mastery since it is quite useful as faster recall means faster in lane and it might even save your life!

Tier II: This tier contains mana regeneration which is very strong on Xerath so let's go for it. I used to go for Swiftness but I feel that Xerath doesn't need it at all as he has a high base movement speed and Meditation really boosts his early-game. Swiftness is also viable so if you want that; you should exchange Meditation and Improved Recall for this.

Tier III: Our last point must be spend wisely so why not increase the duration of the red and blue buff on Xerath? The blue buff is a precious resource and gives you enormous presence in the game as it provides cool down reduction and huge mana regeneration. Greed and Transmutation aren't worth spending just one point on.








Now I will discuss the rune setup I use on Xerath. The rune setup is fairly straightforward and focuses mainly on damage output. It provides Xerath with a damage boost that will allow him to pose a threat even with a few items.

Below I will first explain the basic rune setup I use on Xerath. After that I will discuss possible viable replacements for each rune; this should come in handy when counterbuilding or when you want to change anything to the standard setup.





















Excellent, it's time for some full builds I use on Xerath. You won't be noticing a lot of defensive items since I'm not a big fan of those on mages since it isn't exactly going to save them from certain death, at least in my opinion. However this is still a guide, not an instruction booklet so see whatever floats your boat.


The first build is the build I mostly use on Xerath and it combines a high damage early- and mid-game with a quite tanky late-game. I do realise I get the Rod of Ages quite late but there is a simple explanation for that. Getting Rod of Ages early grants you a ton of sustain and tankiness but not really a lot of damage. Therefore I go with triple Doran's Ring and then a Rabadon's Deathcap to seal the deal. However, as soon as you are getting other items, thus selling your Doran's Rings, you slowly will experience mana issues when you're not in possession of the Blue Buff. Getting a Rod of Ages after Rabadon's Deathcap ensures you won't have any mana problems for the entire game and we already have our damage potential so it will be no problem. I advice to skip the Rod of Ages after the 30-minute mark since you won't have time to stack it then; a Banshee's Veil, Lich Bane or Frozen Heart would be suitable replacements by then.

The second build is a build I use sometimes when I'm really on fire. It ensures maximum damage through the course of the entire game but you will experience mana problems as soon you've sold your second Doran's Ring. The Lich Bane should largely solve the mana issues though. I've replaced the Abyssal Mask by a Rylai's Crystal Scepter in this build just to gain some health; the slow is just a nice bonus. A Banshee's Veil is also a very useful item in this build.

Well, whenever you feel the need to build more like a sustained mage as opposed to a burst mage (against Veigar maybe); rushing Rod of Ages is probably your thing. I can only say that it works on Xerath but that it is not ideal.




































Xerath's laning phase is very strong, because he outranges most enemies in the mid lane. Therefore, in the early-game you should try to harass your opponent with Arcanopulse. Only use it when you will hit your enemy, don't use it needlessly as spamming it will get you out of mana very quickly. Also, try to keep your mana above 40-50% because you will need a lot of mana if you want to pull off your combo at level six.

During all stages of the laning phase, keep Locus of Power on cool down; make sure the enemy is constantly at low health as this will increase your presence tremendously. If you think you are ready for the kill try to get your combo off as following:
Do keep in mind that Arcanopulse and Arcane Barrage can be cast at the same time! This means that, while casting Arcane Barrage, you can also cast Arcanopulse. This results in the fact that, if you are fast, you can cast 3x Arcane Barrage + 1x Arcanopulse within the 1.5 second stun duration of Mage Chains.


When you reach about level 9-11 you might want to gank other lanes. Xerath is a great ganked if the lane isn't warded properly of course. Below I've pictured a map that shows the route you should take to gank a specific lane and the approximate area you can gank with it (click on it for an enlarged version):

When ganking, you should be able to pull of your kill combo mentioned previously, preferably from the brush. It doesn't matter if you initiate or follow up; however if someone else with a stun can initiate (e.g. Taric, Amumu, Leona, etc.) you don't have to stun yourself. This can be very useful if you aren't within range (no I'm not kidding, it happens). Never gank when you have no vision! Getting caught out of position usually results into your death; mostly without taking someone to the grave with you.

In mid-game you can farm entire minion waves with 2x Arcanopulse; this results in pushing of course; but there is no problem if you ward your lane properly. Pushing your enemy to the tower grants you enormous presence, free harass and ganking opportunities. Do not be afraid to push in mid-game.








Teamfights can be a tricky part of the game with Xerath, especially if your team does not have the advantage. As said in the cons: "positioning can make him or break him.". Yes, good positioning is of the essence and it separates the good Xerath's from the useless Xerath's (yes you thought I was going to quote Morello here, huh?). Xerath's role is that of artillery: stand back, let your tanks protect you and nuke them down!

You can either use your basic combo or simply throw out Arcane Barrage and Arcanopulse if your team manages to keep them into place. Always stick with your team in so you are never out of position, this gives assassins like Twisted Fate and Pantheon no chance of getting you.

One mistake people tend to make with Xerath is that they stay too long in Locus Of Power because they think it is the only way to deal damage or they think that they should stay at a distance at all costs. Xerath can just move with the group and do damage at close range, however you should only do this once you've dropped the hammer!








Another important aspect of being a mid laner is warding. A lot of mid laners tend to buy little to no wards because they think the support and jungler got it. This is a huge mistake and you should buy wards, especially if the jungler and/or support tend to buy not so much wards. Below is a map of the mid lane and surroundings on where I've marked the most important warding spots:

When you ward properly, you will be able to snipe some enemy squishies. This is the best feeling you can get with Xerath, and it can even be game changing! In the nearby future I will post some screenshots that show the best sniping positions.








"If you know your enemy and you know yourself you need not fear the results of a hundred battles." as has been said by Sun Tzu. By now, you should know yourself (i.e. Xerath); however we need to know something about the enemies you are about to face. Each opponent is also marked with a difficulty ranging from Easy to Nightmare. If there is an enemy out there who is isn't listed here but you want them listed, please leave a comment.















"I sense we are not alone, it is not just me and that annoying enemy caster. Someone is watching me!" Paranoid? Nah, it is the enemy jungler. Oh yes, (s)he is indeed watching you. Therefore it might be wise to take a look at this page and learn something about the different junglers out there.

Note that I've put recommended summoner spells against every jungler; it is up to you if you value their jungler more than their mid laner. It really depends on the matchup which summoner spell is worth more.















For those who did not read the entire guide and for those who like to read it again to refresh their minds I have added below a list with tips and tricks. Just a basic list with combo's, helpful tips and crafty tricks, use these to your advantage!

• Do not get caught! Xerath has a hard time if he gets caught, especially by multiple enemies.
• Squishy targets who have no items that make them a bit more tanky (i.e. a Catalyst The Protector, a Giant's Belt or a Negatron Cloak) can usually be destroyed from 100% health with the combo: Locus of Power -> Mage Chains -> -> -> -> .
• You clear minion waves really fast by Locus Of Power -> -> . Note: deactivate Locus Of Power after the first Arcanopulse.
• Get some Sight Wards to ward the map around the mid-lane. Vision grants Xerath kills; just like real artillery!
• At least once in a game, use '/taunt' because it is freaking epic!
• DO NOT GET CAUGHT!

Thanks for reading my Xerath guide; I really appreciate it. I know it is a lot of text and it takes a lot of time but I think it is worth the trouble. I hope it will bring you a lot of joy in playing Xerath. I absolutely love the champion, and I hope you will too. Also, I hope this guide has made you a better Xerath player who carries a lot of games with him.

If you have read my guide I'd ask you to vote. If you planning on downvoting, I'd like to know your criticism and see if I can make changes for the good. Well, that concludes my guide; may the force be with you!



SPECIAL THANKS

• Wayne3100 - For reviewing my guide a couple of times.
• jhoijhoi - For creating an awesome guide on how to create a guide. Her epic guide can be found here.
  She also has created the awesome banner for my guide!
• Koksei - For making the text on the banners easier to read.

Here is the section with frequently asked questions and some questions that I have put there in order you do not have to ask them anymore. If you have a question that is not listed here, simply put it in the comments below in such a way that it is clear for me what the question is in order I can list it here. Thanks in advance.



Q: Does a late Rod of Ages actually work? Is it not wasting the item itself?

A: Not really, first we want damage and after that we want mana and health. It is cost-efficient right from the moment you buy it; so why not? Better a late rod than dying.



Q: Do you consider Xerath as one of the top picks for AP Mid?

A: Yes, I consider him to be one of the best mages due to his amazing range and damage combination. Together with a team that protects him, he is a beast through the course of the entire game.



Q: What do you think about CasterMaster's guide on Xerath?

A: I think it is ****; not only does he get Rylai's Crystal Scepter he also rushes it! He wastes a lot of Xerath's amazing damage potential. Also he maxes Locus Of Power second, and I think it is way too situational.








Here you'll find the entire history of the guide; things that have been added, removed and/or changed. Also, if there are any special patches affecting Xerath and/or his gameplay, I'll list them as well. If there is anything you feel that should be added, please post a comment below.

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Energize 03-14-2012

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Guide Released!: Xerath - Behold My Power has been released, finally! The entire guide has been added. Extra spell and grammar check was done by Wayne3100 and (hopefully) all spelling and grammar errors have successfully been removed.

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Energize 04-01-2012

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Xerath 2.0: Huge overhaul of the guide; looks better and is even more in-depth. Nope this ain't a joke! Added banners and separators. Mastery and Rune sections rewritten and updated. Several new sections added. New images added.

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Energize 04-16-2012

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As You Wish: Added a secondary, 'more conventional', Xerath build. Enjoy! This build does not hold a late Rod of Ages nor a Lich Bane. Rylai's Crystal Scepter is in the build... You guys happy now?

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Energize 04-27-2012

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Moment of Insight: I've been using a different mastery setup on Xerath lately and figured that it works a lot better than the one described in the guide. It simply improves your early-game significantly. Meditation and Improved Recall are exchanged for Swiftness .

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Energize 05-09-2012

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Stomp that LeBlanc!: I came up with a powerful rune page against LeBlanc and maybe other powerful casters. Enjoy stomping her! Rune page changed for LeBlanc Greater Quintessence of Magic Resist now listed as alternatives.