Xerath Build Guide by LoLxD

Introduction

Welcome! I see you've stumbled onto my first guide... ever! This guide will show; the Pros and Cons of Xerath, Reasons behind my choices of items, runes and masteries and will give you some tips&tricks on how you can play Xerath at his best even against a pesky Annie or a fed LeBlanc. But first I'd like to tell you a little bit about how i came in to possession of Xerath and why i play him even though he is majorly overlooked.

I came across the Magus Descendant, Xerath Whilst he was on free week, i had never previously seen anyone play him or heard anything about him, which sparked some interest. My first game went well (this isn't including the bot match i had played before going into a normal match like any normal person should) i went 5/3/12, which to be honest is mediocre at best (the best I've done as him is 22/2/12. unfortunately this was before i decided to write this guide so i have no other evidence than my word.) after going 5/3/12 i started to look at a lot of guides for him and playing him in various ways (Glass Cannon and Tanky Ap) i found that playing him glass cannon got more satisfying results than building him Tanky. well I'm going to stop jabbering on and leave you to enjoy the marvel that is my build. Oh! and one last thing if you are going to down vote my guide please leave a comment with some criticism as to what's bad about it and how i could improve, also if you're down voting my guide just because you have a Xerath guide then grow up because we are all adults here.

Lore

Pros / Cons

Tips And Tricks

Choice Of Masteries

For Masteries, I decided that 21/9/0 would be appropriate for Xerath as this build is full Glass Cannon, which requires a high damage output with some survivability (But very little)

Offense:

As Offense masteries take up 21 of your points I'd recommend these; 4 points in Mental Force for the added Ability Power which will give your EW Stun combo ( Mage Chains then Arcanopulse) added damage (which is always helpful), 4 points in Sorcery which gives you 4% CDR (Cooldown Reduction) this will allow you to cast your abilitys more often in a shorter amount of time, The one and only point in Arcane Knowledge which gives you 10% Magic Penetration which allows for your ability's to ignore some of the enemy's Magic Resist and chunk some well rewarded health from them, 3 points in Havoc to increase your damage by another 1.5% (that will come in handy when you nuke that 4 Warmog's Armor Dr. Mundo down to dust.), Blast and Archmage both increase your AP.. Need i say more?, last but not least take the last point in Executioner which allows you to deal 6% more damage to enemys under 40% health,this really synergies with your ult as your EW stun combo should take down half of the enemy's health and you should nuke them down with your ult now doing extreme amounts of damage.

Defense: As this guide is full Glass Cannon taking 9 points in defense will give you small amounts of survivability, either way i recommend taking; 3 points in Resistance as that will nerf some of the damage you take against the enemy team's AP carry and will reduce the amount of magic damage taken in general, only take 1 point in Hardiness as your passive ( Ascended Form) gives you a percentage of your Ability Power as Armor which allows for you to take some hits against the ad carry whilst you prepare your Arcanopulse to take them down, take all 4 points in Durability as the more health you have the longer your going to last in team fights as when your AD carry goes down they will move on to focus you, and last but not least take the only point in Veteran's Scars as this will give you 30 more health early game and will allow you to take a few more hits than their squishy AP carry.

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Alternative Masteries

Utility: I'm not completely dismissing Utility, I'd recommend taking 9 points in these; one point in Summoner's Insight so that your Flash's cooldown is reduced by 15 seconds (which means that you can escape much easier and a lot more often, take all three points in Expanded Mind so that you get an extra 12 mana per level (which means you will have an extra 216 mana at 18) this just means you can cast more ability's before you go OOM (Out of Mana) and become useless until you B (return to base), take 2 point's in Swiftness so that you can catch up to those who managed to survive your ult ( Arcane Barrage), take your last three points and place them in Meditation this gives you an extra 3 mana regen per five seconds, this means you will be less likely to run out of mana, but if you do it will rise fairly quickly.

Choice of Runes

My Recommended Runes:

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Rune Overview

Quintessence Overview: Greater Quintessence of Ability Power are a compulsory for an AP Carry as the more AP you have early game the more it's going to Benefit your late game. Having three Greater Quintessence of Ability Power grants you 14.85 Ability Power before the game has even started!

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Rune Overview

Marks Overview: Marks of Insight are very useful for building glass cannon as you could be easily overcome if they built MR (Magic Resist) then you are useless, magic pen allows you to bypass SOME of the MR and go straight for the good stuff, their health!

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Runes Overview:

Seal Overview: Greater Seal of Magic Resist gives you 6.66 Magic Resist which means you take less damage from Magic damage and can resist a little bit of magic pen. think of it this way; you are laning against a katarina and she uses her ult you now have enough defense to tank it and beat her silly *** to the ground

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Runes Overview:

Greater Glyph of Scaling Ability Power grants you 1.53 Ability Power per level (27.54 at level 18) this just buffs the damage of your abilities. it also makes you a more fearful opponent which gives you a major advantage over their team as they will run when they see you.. SURPRISE EW Stun!

Choice of Items

Early Game Items:

You should start the game Boots of Speed and 3 Health Potion this will give you early game speed and some sustain. if you want to play more aggressively then start Dorans Ring this will give you some health, AP and Mana regen. I have gone for Triple Dorans Ring for the early game Domination you should aim to have all 3 at around 10 minutes.

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Mid Game Items:

For Mid Game items you should upgrade your Boots of Speed into Sorcerer's Shoes then Rush a Rabadon's Deathcap this will amplify the AP given from the Doran's Ring's pushing you up to about 200 AP (Brief Estimate) this will increase the damage from all your spells and you will soon start to dominate the match. After the Deathcap you should go Giant's Belt then upgrade it to a Rylai's Crystal Scepter this will allow for an easier EW Stun Combo as your Mage Chains will now slow enemies making it easier to land Arcanopulse

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Late Game Items:

Now this is where you should be building items that will better enhance the chances of you winning, for example; building Deathfire Grasp if your having trouble with tanks or Morello's Evil Tome if your damage output is just not enough for you. So dont just build exactly what i say, my guide is just a guide line. i recommend you build a Void Staff because if they are clever then they will have bought MR (Magic Resistance) and this will grant you some more Magic Penetration to ignore their MR