Hi everybody, my name is Yetified and this is my first Mobafire guide( So it wont look that professional) and I have always been playing Xerath mid. He was the first champion I got into because he's SO FUN to play ! The reason why I'm making this guide is because of the recent rework and I want more people to use this champion and experience how fun and strong he is.

I know most people don't like a big chunck of text so I ought to keep it short.
Here are my Xerath stats, KDA is 4.7, win rate could be better.
I'm going to explain the following things in this guide:

• Pro/cons
• Items
• Ability explanation
• Skill combo's
• Teamfights

Pros Insane Range with Rite of the Arcane Very strong mana sustain because of Mana Surge High burst damage Pretty low cooldowns Great harras Strong laning phase (and matchups) Strong wave clear Good CC with Shocking Orb and Eye of Destruction Looks BADASS! Fun to play!

Cons Skillshot only champ Hard to master Easy to dodge Shocking Orb and Rite of the Arcane No escapes Not very mobile Passive Mana Surge useless late game. Low basic AD Needs a good team comp

When the new Xerath got released, most of the time I took Ignite. But after a while I noticed that you don't use ignite that often (late game especially) and that spells like Exhaust and Heal are more usefull. Xerath's lack of mobility means he can use a little bit more safety with the help of Exhaust or Heal.

Barrier is also a possibility but i prefer Heal for the movement speed buff.
I would take heal against ranged mages like Ziggs, and Exhaust against high burst/mobile champions like Zed or Fizz.

Other options
You could also take Ghost or Teleport but both are highly situational and I wouldn't recommend them if you plan to play soloQ.

Flash is in my opinion the best summoner spell and is an all time must have.

• Greater Quintessence of Ability Power: This will help your laning phase A LOT. Arcanopulse will do a lot of damageearly game and it will help you farm.
• Greater Mark of Magic Penetration: It will give you the needed Magic Pen you need for high early game damage.
• Greater Glyph of Scaling Ability Power: This will not only give you some AP early game, but this scales well into Xerath's late game and it will give you extra AP from Rabadon's Deathcap
• Greater Seal of Armor: You can always change this Greater Seal of Health or even Greater Seal of Magic Resist, just to have that extra little sustain.

• Mana Surge: Great sustain during laning phase, it really helps with the high mana costs.
• Arcanopulse: This is xeraths bread and butter, the new rework gives it the high range without having to use his old locus of power. If you cast it, the range will gradually expand. (like Varus his Piercing Arrow) Always keep in mind that you can move while you cast it AND cancel it (if you hold it in).
• Eye of Destruction : A new spell as a replacement for Locus of Power. It is almost identical to Leona's Solar Flare. The only difference is that when targets are hit in the center, it will not stun, but it will do extra damage. So try to aim it so the center will hit your opponent.
• Shocking Orb: The new stun for Xerath. It has a pretty decent range and the duration of the stun depends on the distance travelled. Beware that the stun does NOT TRAVEL TRHOUGH MINIONS. This makes it harder for him to actually get a stun of in lane.
• Rite of the Arcane: Xeraths Arcane barrage got a huge Range buff, however, your Area of effect is much, much smaller. This skill is very tricky to land as it is not that hard to juke it or dodge it. However, you can try to snipe unsuspecting targets from across the map without them even noticing! Beware though! As you are not able to move while casting, you are vulnerable so keep an eye on your mini-map.

Because Xerath's rework, his old W + E + Q Combo isn't the same anymore.

While laning, try to hit Arcanopulse on your enemy AND on minions, so you dont waste any mana and farm trying to harras him. Also Make sure to always use Mana Surge when it is available.
In lane if you want to get the kill, Use your W Eye of Destruction first to get the slow of. Try to get this when your opponents minion wave is almost gone. When he is slowed, land a Q Arcanopulse on him while he is still slowed. (Your jungler should engage about now if he is there to gank your lane) Now try to land your stun Shocking Orb when his minions wave is cleared. You now have the option to use Rite of the Arcane while he is stunned, or you can pop Ignite and use your Arcanopulse again to pick up the kill.

Because Xerath his high range and lack of mobility is it your job to stay behind your frontline (so you cant be targeted) and try to kill their carries. If Their carry got hit by hard CC ( like Leona's Solar Flare ) Use your ult to hit all three shots on their carry.
Then ( because of the low cooldowns) you can keep spitting out high amounts of damage so you and/or your team can pick up the kills and win the fight.
Also, always make sure that your team is there to protect you and always try reposition yourself as the fight goes on.

This is why Xerath is pretty reliant on his team. BUT, his High AoE damage can turn around teamfights completely if used correctly.

Thank you for reading my guide!, I know it is a litlle short a.t.m. but I am going to add a lot of things in the future like : Lane matchups, In depth Item guide, Synergies , Laning phase and more if this gets a good rating!

Be sure to leave a rating if this guide helped you, or leave a message behind what you think and how I can make this guide better.

19/08/14
- I played Xerath a bit more and I refined the item section to the best possible build.
- Patch notes added.
31/08/14
- Added a section with items you shouldn't build on Xerath.
- Added a support build section.
- Aded a summoner spells section.
11/02/15
-Removed Deathfire grasp out of the 'Not recommended' section since it has been removed from the game.
15/03/15
-Added Luden's echo to the build path
31/07/15
-Replaced Ludens with Rylia's Scepter,