Thank you for your constructive criticism, I really appreciate it! In all honesty, I don't agree with some of the things you're saying, therefore I'm gonna comment on each one of them.



Well, you're saying "relying on Clarity is not optimal BECAUSE it's useless late-game". I'm saying "Don't spend your money on items that make Clarity useless late-game, such as mana items or mana regen items. Instead spend it on things that increases your damage".



I think we might have misunderstood eachother here. When I say "duel" I don't mean the lane harassing that every game starts with, I mean when two heroes run into eachother and start fighting, far away from any towers and minions. If you're gonna have a chance in this fight, you need a severe health advantage.



I'm not maxing Locus of Power because of the magic penetration, I'm maxing it because of the cooldown reduction, so I can use the range increase more often. I personally think that Mage Chains is pretty much useless without Locust of Power, at least when playing Xerath as an artillery mage.



Umm, I'm not quite sure I understood you right here... You're saying don't use Greater Glyph of Ability Power because early-game damage is bad, and a few runes won't fix it? Well, using that concept, all runes are useless.

In my experience, Xerath is good early-game because of his long-range harass. A few runes might not do wonders, but if it makes your opponent go back and heal once extra, you will have a level advantage.



Well, in case you didn't notice, Mejai's Soulstealer is in fact very cheap. I respect your opinion on snowball items, but I think that's more of an opinion than an actual fact.



The way I play him is that I fire my Arcanopulse as often as I can when I harass. The fact that Xerath has pretty low cooldowns isn't a reason to decrease them even more. Each hero has a maximum damage output per second, and CD reduction will increase it.

If I buy Lich Bane and Sorcerer's Shoes i will have:

80 AP
30 MR
350 mana
20 MP
A useless passive

If I buy Deathfire Grasp and Mercury's Treads I will have:

60 AP
25 MR
10 Mp5
15% CDR
An awesome active that does damage
760 Gold left

I'd take Mp5 over mana any day of the week. So the only thing I really lose by following your advice is 20 AP, 5 MR and 20 MP. But what I gain is 15% CDR and an extra nuke spell, and I save 760 gold.



Hmm, why do you recommend Sorcerer's Shoes but not this...?



Thank you for the criticism, but I can't help but to feel that you haven't really tried this build, and that you're just saying all this based on your experience playing other spellcasters. Thanks nevertheless!

Personally, making a build that requires Clarity does not seem optimal, especially because Clarity becomes useless after the laning phase. Also, Xerath does not have any form of mana problems a Rod of Ages does the trick and you will not be needing any mana regeneration runes.

Also, Xerath is a pretty powerful duellist against other mages as long as his ultimate is up, he is capable of damaging the enemy mage far beyond the their range.

Next, you should max Mage Chains before Locus of Power, this increases your damage output for early and mid game, Locus of Power only makes a real difference when the enemy has a lot of magic resist otherwise just don't max it second.

Greater Glyph of Scaling Ability Power definitely beat the Greater Glyph of Ability Power as Xerath's early game damage is not that high, and you will not achieve anything like that with early flat ap.

No good guide should ever include snowball items (e.g. Mejai's Soulstealer) because they are unreliable and very expensive.

Xerath does not require cooldown reduction so buying Deathfire Grasp is pretty sub-par, if you do want to increase your burst damage buy Lich Bane instead. Also, Sorcerer's Shoes really rock on this guy, definitely prefer those over Mercury's Treads.

Only go for Void Staff if the enemy is getting tons and tons of magic resist otherwise it is simply overkill on Xerath.

Well that was about it, I hope you will/can use my constructive criticism and I look forward to read it again if you have made some changes maybe I will upvote then.

P.S. Xerath definitely needs better skins xD.

Very good build, well thought out. I bought Xerath instantly and I've only been playing Dominion matches ever since it was released but now i feel like playing 5v5's. Great Job!