great guide, really good!

@darkrai I don't really play Xerath anymore since I'm not much of a mid player. If I do mid, I play Zilean. But for viability, chaice into grail would work if you have a very strong burster against you in mid lane, eg leblanc, veigar, etc. It helps for laning purposes.

Do you think it might be viable to replace the Evil Tome with the new Athene's Unholy Grail? They're pretty similar in terms of stats, but with the changes made to Evil Tome I think the Grail might suit Xerath better. Conceivably one could replace the two Doran rings with the Chalice of Harmony, and when the time comes to build the Tome just make the grail instead.

Excellent Guide, perfect item build.
I've seen a lot of weak Xerath's in my time, And I've came to try him out today since he's FTP; Extremelly powerful when used with this guide, He's pretty versitile, If you can perfect the W instead of spamming it, He will stay on the ground shorter, Leaving you with a good 2-3 Speed Buff. ;)
Very Good guide though, I went through the hassle of havingg to find out my Username And password just to log in again, Just to Vote this Epicness up!
Very well done, Hope you can make guides for other Champions as good as this!

May want to check yourself, Mage Chains doesn't grow in range as you level it.

At first i was frustrated because your guide bumped mine down to 4th on the list of top-rated Xerath guides. But this is the first one I've seen that I can honestly say is better than my guide, and actually deserving of the #1 spot. Well done good sir.

Haha uhh I never really focused on it. I don't really have boots set in stone for him because it all depends on the enemy team and what I'm focusing on doing early game/late game.

Do you not upgrade your boots in the item cheat-sheet just 'cause you switch around three different ones? Or did you forget :3c

He's not incredibly skill intensive but he requires some knowledge on how to poke, positioning etc. Much like an AP carry. His Q does take some skill to hit and prediction is necessary to hit it on opponents that strafe a lot.

Holy... Bawls...

Just tryed this (75% sale ftw?)

40/1/11 score as my first game ever played with him...
and no it was not co-op

Great guide

How much skill does it take to play Xerath? Is he a pretty easy champ to play or will it take some time to master him?

I don't get it that much since the game usually ends much sooner but it's because of the active that makes it so powerful. Also it is a lot of AP. Abyssal Scepter is fine if you are dying a lot to AP champs, but I prefer to get Banshee's over both or QSS against a hard CC team.