Arcane Comet allows Xerath to have stronger laning presence, and is a reliable source of extra poke with all your abilities. It's easy to proc, reducing it's remaining cooldown - meaning extra poke, and use it with Arcanopulse as it adds to your overall harass damage.

Xerath may be able to sustain mana quite well with Mana Surge, but the costs can ramp up quickly if you're casting your combos a lot in lane, and if you don't want to get in auto range if you're vs an aggressive all in lane. Manaflow Band helps negate running out of mana in laning phase as fast, and grants passive mana regen when you reach the 250 threshold.

Transcendence is a strong rune for Xerath, granting you 10% CDR at level 10, and converting any excess into AP, increasing his damage output exponentially. Absolute Focus is also a good choice for Xerath, he has very long range using his abilities to poke the enemies - staying safe from damage, and this rune increases his damage output as long as he stays above 70% HP. You generally want to take Absolute Focus if you can guarantee you'll manage to stay above the threshold more often than not, otherwise the rune is useless.

As we know, the main reason for choosing Xerath is his high damage output in lane, and Scorch is used for early game, laning harass. It adds extra damage on your first ability used, and then again after the 10s cooldown. Gathering Storm is an option, but as games don't tend to go above 30 minutes in this meta, it loses a lot of it's usefulness.

Biscuit Delivery adds extra sustain in laning phase, giving you another source of health and mana regen. Consuming or selling a biscuit permanently increases your mana cap by 50, which is great with Xerath as he needs a high mana pool. This is a great rune as it synergizes well with Manaflow Band and Mana Surge. Magical Footwear is a counter option you can take if you think you'll be getting a lot of kills in lane, to provide yourself with free boots early in the game. This rune becomes useless if you're not getting takedowns.

Cosmic Insight has good synergy with Transcendence, offering you extra CDR, as well as Summoner Spell CDR - great for decreasing the cooldown on Barrier - and Item CDR. Generally the optimal rune to take.

Cheap Shot deals bonus damage when impairing enemy champions movement, which includes the slow from your Eye of Destruction and the stun from your Shocking Orb, offering you extra burst damage.

One of Xerath's highest damaging abilities is his ultimate, enabling him to cast a long range, AoE damage arcane barrage. Ultimate Hunter reduces the cooldown by 5%, plus an additional 4% per bounty hunter stack, which is gained on the first kill of every enemy champion. Very good synergy with Transcendence.

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Sorcerer's Shoes > DAMAGE Xerath's main aim in the game is dealing spell damage, and the +18 magic penetration is going to increase his damage output and burst exponentially. These are the best boots to take on Xerath. Ionian Boots of Lucidity > CDR A good choice if you want extra CDR, synergizing well with Transcendence and Cosmic Insight, but it's generally overkill at this point. You're better off buying Mobi boots, increasing your roaming potential. Boots of Mobility > MOVEMENT SPEED These are the best pick up if you're behind, or you're going to be concentrating on roaming, or peeling.

Luden's Echo > DAMAGE/SUSTAIN/CDR Xerath focuses on doing damage as a mage support, making Luden's Tempest a core item for extra burst AoE damage. It also increases your movement speed by 30% for 2 seconds, giving us a little more mobility as Xerath is an immobile mage. It also provides us with magic penetration, and gives all of our legendary items an extra 5 magic penetration, which is great against enemies who are taking magic resist.

Horizon Focus > DAMAGE/DMG AMP When hitting an enemy with a none-targeted ability (Q/W/E/R) at more than 750 units away, or immobilizing one (E), reveals them and increases your damage dealt to them by 10% for 6 seconds. This synergizes very well with Xerath's kit as none of his abilities are targeted, and he is a long range mage; this item increases our damage substantially.

Morellonomicon > DAMAGE/UTILITY/SURVIVABILITY While increasing your overall damage output and magic penetration, and increasing your survivability with an extra 300 HP, Morellonomicon is a brilliant pick up if the enemy team has healers such as Sona, Soraka or enemies like Vladimir, or a Draven with Bloodthirster. Morellonomicon inflicts grievous wounds, reducing their healing on themselves and others by 40% for 3s. You can pick up the Oblivion Orb first for the grievous wounds.

Zhonya's Hourglass > UTILITY/SURVIVABILITY/DAMAGE If the enemy team has a lot of burst damage threats, you can take Zhonya's Hourglass to keep yourself alive longer, or negate damage spells such as Zed's Death Mark or Ignite. Zhonya's Hourglass is generally a core item on Xerath as he is squishy and immobile. It can spell the difference between living or dying, you also gain a nice chunk of AP for your burst damage, 45 armor and CDR.

Banshee's Veil > UTILITY/DMAGAGE/SUSTAIN Banshee's Veil offers protection from long range engage, such as Malphite or Blitzcrank, that Zhonya's Hourglass cannot - if you're cc chained, you can't activate it! You gain 60 magic resist, so a good pick up vs heavy AP teams such as Fizz and LeBlanc.

Void Staff > DAMAGE If your team is AP heavy, the enemy team is most likely going to start stacking MR - Void Staff negate's 40% of their magic resist, which then applies magic penetration, making this a very strong item vs MR.

Rabadon's Deathcap > DAMAGE Rabadon's Deathcap increases the damage of all of your abilities. Unfortunately, as a support, Rabadon's Deathcap takes a substantial amount of time to build, and mostly replies on you to be very ahead of the enemy team, as it has a very high cost, and it doesn't offer any defensive stats. It's not a good pick up vs any assassins like Zed, LeBlanc, Rengar etc. You're better off building other items first, and only consider this when you're ahead.

You'll most likely want to start with Arcanopulse, it's his main harass ability. If you're being invaded, you can take Shocking Orb for the stun to disengage and get out alive, or if you're going for an invade and you need the hard CC, but you lose a lot of lane pressure, especially if you don't secure a kill.

You'll want to utilize your Arcanopulse in lane as often as possible, preferably when Manaflow Band and Arcane Comet are off CD, but if you see a kill possibility, do not hold back. You want to charge up Arcanopulse as long as you can, pressuring your opponents in trying to juke, and increasing the range you can cast it at. Try not to spam your other abilities unless you see a good opportunity for a kill, or to disengage, otherwise you'll find yourself running out of mana very quickly. You can use the slow off your Eye of Destruction to help land your Shocking Orb easier. Arcanopulse goes through minions, so be careful about
breaking a freeze your lane partner has set up.

You have a very high burst combo at level 6, especially if you land a Shocking Orb. You want to be going all-in pretty much as soon as you level up, ping your ADC so they know your intention. You're most likely guaranteed to burn at least one Flash with your ultimate as your opponents try to juke it, or at best, securing a kill.

Make sure to ward the brushes nearby your lane, and you can roam to midlane to set up an easy gank with the stun from your Shocking Orb, following up your midlaners CC, locking down the enemy, and utilizing long range from Arcanopulse.

You can use your Rite of the Arcane from a huge range, potentially helping out your jungler from lane, if they're having a skirmish in the river or jungle! It forces the enemy back, or to take extra damage from your Arcane Barrages, or even die to you. You can help secure or steal objectives from safety using your long range.


During the mid - late game teamfights and skirmishes, you will be trying to slow multiple enemies with your Eye of Destruction, output lethal amounts of damage with your Arcanopulse and Rite of the Arcane, and the added aoe from Luden's Tempest.

You have very long range, use this to your advantage in teamfights, spamming your Arcanopulse into the middle of the enemies. You don't want to be caught out during your Rite of the Arcane as it roots you in place, making you very susceptible to getting dived, or having to cancel it early.

You can focus on peeling your ADC with Shocking Orb, or slowing the enemy down from engaging - or escaping - with your Eye of Destruction, along with Rylai's Crystal Scepter slow.
Xerath excels at locking down a single target with Shocking Orb, and bursting them down.

When you're roaming, you can throw Eye of Destruction's out for brief sight, instead of face checking brushes or fog of war. You can proc an enemies Banshee's Veil with one Arcanopulse, or getting your Luden's Tempest proc to bounce onto them from minions. Use this to your advantage, making them easier to CC and be bursted down.

The main thing to be aware of, is making sure your teams threats stay alive, while removing, or zoning, the enemy teams threats. Remember, you're also a very high damage threat, and very squishy, along with being very immobile if you get caught out! Utilize your Zhonya's Hourglass at critical times to survive burst damage, especially if they have a blue Kayn or a Zed.

You'll want to be sticking close to your ADC, while roaming efficiently and safely as possible to place deep wards.

Control Ward's are a staple part of any support, both to deny your enemies vision, and to provide your team extra vision.

I hope you enjoyed, and learned enough from my Xerath guide, to deconstruct your enemies as well as the pro's!

If you enjoyed my guide, you can check out my other guides here, in which I've covered more styles of supports, incase you want to branch out on supports such as engagers ( Nautilus, Pyke etc!).

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