This is my first guide for playing Xerath.

Xerath depends mostly on his cooldown and how much he can avoid getting hit by others.

I've started playing Xerath and what I noticed at very first is how much mana hungry he is.

Here is a build I've used many times that makes him an annoying mid lane champion.

ALSO, IF YOU'RE GOING AGAINST SOMEONE, KEEP POKING THEM AND KEEP THEIR HEALTH LOW. BY THE TIME YOU HAVE YOUR ULTI, GET TO PLANT YOUR CHAINS ON THE GROUND (W), FIRE THEM WITH UNSTABLE MAGIC (E), LAZER BLAST THEM WITH ARCANOBLAST (Q), THEN SPAM AWAY WITH YOUR ULTI (R)

Pretty much, you have to attack the enemy before they get to you or you're screwed.

But no worries, your passive helps with that... unless that enemy uses magic. (That is where the magic resist rune comes in)

Not many people know this but, if you go to your options, you can change your keys to where you can automatically cast your spells where your cursor points

If you go to Options in game then go to Key Binding, then go down, until you see Q, W, E, R. Unbind all those and scroll down some more until you see the Auto Cast spell 1 to 4. Set those to Q, W, E, R.

This helps alot because instead of aiming while you stop, your spells (especially Arcanoblast) just automatically casts itself and fires where the cursor is pointing. This is not recommended to any other heroes because most heroes dont have skillshots.

If you don't want to change it because you want to play other characters as well, you dont have to. You can always press Alt+ Q, or Alt+ W, and so on.

Also, you have to keep moving. Just because W makes you stop and plant to the ground doesn't mean you have to be an immobile champ. Xerath is very prone to ganks you know.

Pros
Probably one of the very best range out there
High DMG
Great solo lane
Great farmer
Awesome stun/ barrage ability
Fun to spam with


Cons
Skillshots required (This can be a good thing too)
Easily prone to ganks especially when you're mid
Very dependent to team
Mana hungry early game (But the manastone in this build helps with it)

Greater Mark of Potency- Ability power helps because it's passive makes ability power into armor

Greater Seal of Focus- Cooldown reduction is a must for him, especially in early to mid game because it helps to spam your enemies before they reach to you. Using E, then Q to an enemy who's about to gank gets help from cooldown reduction

Greater Glyph of Potency- MORE ABILITY POWER

Greater Quin of Focus- Of course, more cooldown reduction

When farming in mid lane, the minions line in a line. Your Q (Arcanoblast) is great for farming this. Line up with the minion then FIRE AWAY. Also, always get the last hit. This is a must because this build is very expensive. He's a great farmer and I recommend you not use your ulti to farm. It's just my opinion. I only use my ulti against other champs.

Xerath is a great creeper. He can hide in the jungle, and fire from a safe distance. It takes alot of practice to be able to fire accurately and precise from the jungle. With his great range of attacks, you can help your team with support of an artillery strike. Xerath is an artillery. If enemies are running away, get in the jungle, and fire at the lane they're running.

Number one thing that most Xerath players do is, they always use arcanoblast then use chains... which is the worst way you can possibly do.

Always lead with E, then fire with Q. Finish him up with your ulti, then boom. Dead.

Sometimes you don't like laning against a certain champ, for example for me: Talon. Talon gets can get to you in a flash then next thing you know, you're dead. My solution for that is, use locust (W) which increase your range, then use E, then right away fire with Q. (The auto cast really helps with this part). This way, you can stop the enemy dead from its tracks from far away before they get to you. Finish up with ulti, then they will either run away, or die.

USE THAT BOOST OF MOVEMENT SPEED AFTER DEACTIVATING LOCUST OF POWER FOR EITHER RUNNING AWAY OR CHASING ENEMIES. I see people not using it because I don't think they notice it or not even know about it.

The first thing I would get is the manastone. The reason why I'd get it first is because Xerath is very mana hungry in early game and you want to keep it consistent and not go back to the base as much to grab more mana and miss out on all the EXP. So you get the MANASTONE, HP POT, and MANA POT. After fully running out of mana (used all the pots), you can go back to the base, grab yourself BOOTS OF SPEED and then teleport back to the mid lane so that way you don't miss out more farming. After that, you should be able to have enough money to get TEAR OF GODDESS then finish up by grabbing yourself an ARCHANGEL'S STAFF.

Your boots choices are either SORC BOOTS which helps with your magic penetration, or IONION BOOTS OF LUDICITY which is great for cooldown reduction. I usually get more magic penetration because most people would have magic resist and it does suck hitting low.

Second priority is get RABADONS CAP as fast as you can. Without this much AP, you'll hit low in mid game. And yeah, you'll suck and die alot.

Third main item is RYLAI'S CRYSTAL SCEPTRE. You want to slow down your enemies so they dont run away from your artillery barrage after stunning them with your unstable magic.

Next is VOID STAFF. Void staff gives you magic penetration and it helps because like I said, enemies will tend to get magic resist to protect themselves from you.

The next is whatever you want. I usually finish up with more cooldown reduction items.

He is a very fun champ, and I still need to practice some more, but once you master him with his skillshots, it'll be fun. Especially killing enemies from the jungle.

Hope this build works for you.