Where art thou, Xerath?

[quote=Totallynotn00b]Great range. Great with his ult. without it becomes kinda meh. Can't get gap closers off him, compounded by the fact one of his skills roots him to the floor >.> There are just stronger mages around at the moment...[/quote]

[quote=TheJohn]People think that only a few champions are good, or viable You can really pick any champion and win, it just depends on how well you play (and how your teammates play as well xD) Imo, people try to be like pros. I don't see a problem, everybody has an icon, a role model, but they tend to think that only those picks are great, match-winner champions, and that's wrong. It just depends on who's playing[/quote]

[quote=The Overmyynd]Mmh, I think there are definitely pros and cons to the champ. He has an ability that roots him to the ground. This gives his abilities CRAZY power, but to trade off he can't move. However you can un-root yourself after only .5 seconds, and gain movement speed off of it. Which could be useful for escaping ganks. [[arcanopulse]] has great range by itself, not to mention if you have [[locus of power]] activated, and it has a good AP ratio. However it can be easy to dodge, IF the opposing player is on his/her toes. As far as the passive goes, I actually have absolutely no problem with it. Stack AP and grab some mres and all of a sudden you're an uuber tank with insane damage. 15% of, lets say conservatively, 600 AP is still 90 armor. Thats only 9 less than a [[frozen heart]], which has one of the highest armor ratings in the game. It certainly does nothing to help you during lanephase, but during teamfight phase its awesome. Building some CDR and magic resist on Xerath would make him an ungodly monster in teamfights during lategame, since he naturally will have over 120 armor (when normal AP carrys naturally have only about 45 give or take). Possible example build to take advantage of his passive and keep him balanced and way tanky: [[athene's unholy grail]] [[abyssal scepter]] [[sorcerer's shoes]] [[rod of ages]] [[rylai's crystal scepter]] [[rabadon's deathcap]] This gives almost exactly 600 AP and xerath ends up with well over 100 armor and mres, as well as about 3k health. Thats pretty damn scary for someone who is throwing out high damage spells every 3 seconds. I think he is an under played champion in general, and I plan on picking him up very soon. I think he has a fairly high skillcap, but it would be well worth it if you practiced. Not to mention, he is NEVER seen, so people have NO idea how to play against him. All in all, I think its just a case of forgotten glory, and being over shadowed by flavor-of-the-month champs.[/quote]

[quote=throatslasher][quote=Fox Rage] I play [[Xerath]] a lot at the moment, his burst is extremely powerful, but he is very team dependant. He requires the right team to be efficient. Also, his W is complete trash, just like his passive. They both need reworks. Pressing W as [[Xerath]] usual mean that you died. As [[Xerath]]. my whole combo usual does a bit less than 2k late game. 1.5 from that 2k being AoE damage from Q and R. He has incredible burst, but god damn is he hard to play. [/quote] If you don't optimize your W in the laning phase and in teamfights, you're doing it wrong and you have no idea how to play xerath. Use w to... 1. When you recall and buy, press w and cancel it to get MS boost back to lane 2. When mid, you can duck into FoW behind your side ramp, press w, and hit q guaranteed from fog 3. When you're winning a teamfight, press w before you ult for maximum damage. 4. When you're losing a teamfight and fleeing, you can press w, throw quick q behind you, cancel, and continue running if you're not the primary target or out of range of them. 5. Secure kills during the laning phase as they flee. W fits perfectly with xerath's kit. It just take a lot of skill to know when to use it. Dismissing it as a trash skill is a really stupid thing to do. I mean, it's no cost and it gives you 400 range on your skills and 16% magic pen. there's nothing bad about that. @Overmyynd That build is not very good. It's way too expensive, and there's not way to finish those items unless it's a 50 minute game. Skip to RoA and abyssal and throw in a voidstaff and wards. @TheJohn Friend, there are only a few champs that ARE viable. And by a few, I mean 55-75. In their current state, champs like poppy, nasus, heimerdinger, ziggs, etc are so outclassed by other champions, there is no point in playing them. @jinlee "a lot of those nine champs will be ones that are free that week" Yeah, if you're playing sub-level30 blind pick games.[/quote]

[quote=Vavena][quote=devdevil] While we're on the topic of missing things it seems, that Evelynn is "in hiding" as well... [/quote] Hiding? I wish. If she isn't banned, expect an [[evelynn]] on the enemy team. But who wouldn't ban her in the first place..[/quote]

[quote=bsurma]I guess no one hardly ever plays [[xerath]] these days because staying in one place can be punished easily... There are many displacement tools in the game that make playing [[Xerath]] risky. But when put in a good team and/or well played, he turns into a moving artillery of bursty awesomeness.[/quote]

[quote=The Overmyynd][quote=throatslasher] @Overmyynd That build is not very good. It's way too expensive, and there's not way to finish those items unless it's a 50 minute game. Skip to RoA and abyssal and throw in a voidstaff and wards. [/quote] The build i recommended was made to make xerath pretty much a tank with more than decent sustained damage, not a nuke/standard AP mid. And i usually only get [[void staff]] if they stack mres anyway. This build became LESS viable after the nerf to abyssal, but if you want to build tank xer i still think this is one of the better ways to go. Edit: The build is in no particuar order (except perhaps for rushing an athenes) and herp derp ofc you get wards throughout the game, i thought that was obvious >.> And you don't have to have a "complete" build to be effective, dude.[/quote]

[quote=FalseoGod]Something I also notice in tryhard Xeraths is that they position completely wrong; man, you can be hitting everyone on the enemy team from behind a wall while a ward/offtank gives you perfect visibility. Also, early points on W benefit from CDR on that skill, which is awesome, period.[/quote]

[quote=H4xDefender]chauster thinks verrry highly of him[/quote]

[quote=BlackIceT]I play [[Xerath]] and he is very powerful but needs to have great positioning to do well. I find his passive to fit perfectly fine with his kit. Since [[Locus of Power]] requires you do stand still RIOT put that passive in to help with the fact that you are very vulnerable. Yeah it isnt amazing and probably should be changed a little bit but I wouldn't consider it trash. Same thing with [[Brand]]. Powerful champion but has many counters/champions that outclass them. Does it me that they shouldn't be played? no. What it does mean is that in order to be good with the champ on a consistent basis you need a lot of practice and know how to position yourself so that you don't get caught and die in like 2 seconds. Lol btw throatslasher you comment about [[Poppy]] you know that there is a player that got to 2K elo playing ONLY [[Poppy]]? So she can't be that useless lmao. Edit: [[Xerath]] is one of coolest champions in terms of artwork and that S.E.X skin is well sexy :D ![/quote]