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Choose Champion Build:
-
Mid Lane
-
Spellthief Support
Recommended Items
Spells:
Flash
Barrier
Items
Ability Order
Mana Surge (PASSIVE)
Xerath Passive Ability
Introduction: Rebirth!

Greetings, ladies and gentlemen! Recently (as of this writing) Xerath was blessed with a complete rework, ditching his old kit for one much better suited for the new season. Although he was formerly the 5th least played champion, the new changes have made Xerath viable once more in mid lane. This guide will go over everything you need to start playing Xerath and how to effectively use the new skills you've been handed.
4.3 Patch Notes:
With the buffs to Spellthief's Edge, and a couple of successful games of mine, I'm adding a section to playing support

Pros:
- Powerful Mid with incredible burst potential!
- Overall good early, mid, and late game; abilities scale very well.
- Has access to a stun and a slow that scales from 60%-80%
- Passive ability gives fantastic mana regen in lane and out.
- *Amazing* range with all of his abilities, especially his ult.
- Fun to play!
- Has the Scorched Earth skin, which turns him into S.E.X.
- (Support) Supporting is now perfectly viable, even fun, to play.
Cons:
- Is countered by champions like
Akali due to his squishiness
- Has iffy mobility; only hope for escape is to land his slows and stuns
- All of his abilities are skillshots. Difficult to play and has a relatively high skill cap.
Keep all of these in mind if you know who the enemy mid laner is.









The rest I wouldn't recommend on





Xerath's




Although we max this last,


Oh man. Back up son, Xerath's new ult is really, really awesome. As with virtually every champion's ult, put points in

When you activate

A simple combo: your opponent approaches you, and you shoot your




Important:
If I had to describe Xerath's kit in a couple of words, it would be "Movement-predicting sniper". Your








Simple. Grab a doran's ring to start out, and your choice of two health potions or one health and one mana. Either starts are perfectly good, so take two health if the enemy has a good poke and one if you think you can manage. Don't forget your free ward!



For boots, take magic pen. There is no reason to take any other boots. Period. You don't have to get boots first, though; feel free to try a different order.




By the way, if you have the tear or the



I consider this a must. Seraph's will leave you completely set for mana and regen, and give you a great amount of ability power on top of it (at level 18, you'll have 2084 mana which gives you 62 AP, plus the flat 60 AP that the staff gives you. Not too shabby!) Otherwise, get the grail at some point - it's not as critical to rush it. After you've built one of these, you can move on to AP stacking. My advice to you is to build another AP item like



These are situationals, but all are perfectly good to get. It's really up to you which to get, but it's important that you buy at least several from this list.








Alright. That was a mouthful, let's move on.
icon=spellthief's edge size=50 icon=stealth ward size=50][[icon=mana potion size=50 icon=sweeping lens size=50
Ah, here we are. Somewhat standard stuff: you've got a gold income item, you have a ward since you don't have your good friend


icon=frostfang size=50 icon=sightstone size=50 icon=sorcerer's shoes size=50 icon=tear of the goddess size=50
Ok, so we're nearing midgame. You've been poking and earning enough gold to get some buys in, so you should obviously get

"But wait, why don't we take



icon=frost queen's claim size=50 icon=ruby sightstone size=50 icon=Seraph's embrace size=50 icon=rabadon's deathcap size=50 icon=zhonya's hourglass size=50
Finish up that support item quickly so you can get the most out of it. You might want to do this long before you even touch anything else, maybe even prioritize it over your boots. Finish up your





You can variate a bit on this, and I encourage you to experiment here and there. This is an unusual support, so don't feel too constrained with items.
1) Is the enemy mid laner AP or AD?
2) If they are AP, do I need the magic resist or can I afford to go full AP and mana?
That's all you need. Against a





Teamfights require that you're not in the front. Ever. If you do, you will be focused and you will die. Simply sit behind the fighters/tanks and use your skills from afar, you have good range. If you spot anyone retreating, ult! You won't regret the free kill.
Best case scenario is that after the initiation from someone with good CC like









Early game: Alright, so you've taken the items I've recommended and are ready. Now, early game your purpose is extremely simple: protect the carry with your stun and slow, set up kills for the carry with your stun and slow, and POKE! POKE LIKE THERE'S NO TOMORROW!!!!
But seriously though, your entire support basis is relying on your poking. Not only can you effectively zone the enemy with it, but you get gold for doing so! Your range is literally so high you take almost no risk every time you aim and shoot off an

As it gets later into the game, during teamfights, you'll need to fit the mage playstyle a bit better. You don't have the damage you would've if you had built like a mid-lane, but that's ok. Your range is great and that counts for a lot, so put it to good use. In fact, you might want to just read some of the mid lane teamfighting, it's mostly still the same. Here's one of Xerath's only support pitfalls: unless you've chosen aura items too, you can't do quite as much to support your team and carry. You'll have to make do with your long ranged stuns and slows.

1) Be extremely wary of ganks while laning. This may come across as obvious, but this is so crucial to your laning that I can't stress it quite enough. You need to keep at least one bush warded and you really don't overextend too much. If the jungler comes after you, the only hope you have is to stun the enemy, and follow up with your slow as you run away. Your base movement speed is slow and the boots will help with that, but odds are the jungler can close that gap quickly. Play conservatively when you don't have a reason to be aggressive; if they're low then try to snipe them, but if not you don't need to push and try to kill the tower.
2) Beware of mobile champions like Akali and Zed. When against them, they can close the gap you desperately need in seconds to get their burst on you, and you don't want that. Stay back, poke with

3) In team fights, stay behind. And I mean almost always, stay in the back. Your spells will be just as effective, and it's what you're built to do. If you're anywhere near the range where the carry can dash through and target you, you are too close! You're squishy and will be focused in team fights. Being in the back also helps you cope with the fact that your mobility is low, so if you need an escape you have a headstart.

Note: Scale is from 1-5, where 1 is a Don't-Even-Think-Twice-You've-Got-This, and a 5 is NEVER PICK. Probably won't be many of those, but still. A half point anywhere (2.5 or 3.5) means there might be a slight advantage or you just might need to be slightly cautious.
1/5

3/5

4/5

2/5 You've got better range than

3/5

3/5

3.25/5 Ok,


3.5/5 Ah,

1/5

3.5/5

4/5

2/5 You shouldn't have issues with

4.25/5 Shoot,

3.75/5


3.25/5 Kayle is pretty strong right now. What you need to fear is her ranged autos and that awful invulnerability. However, you still win in the range department, so you have that over her.
4.9999/5

3/5 You've got the range, and

3.5/5 Agh,


3.25/5 To be honest,

3.5/5

4/5

4/5

2.5/5

3.75/5 The problem with

3.5/5

4/5

2.5/5 AP

2/5


4.5/5

1.5/5

2.5/5

3/5

3.25/5


Please, if you enjoyed this guide leave me a thumbs, if it made you feed 3/25/1 vote me down, and if you have any suggestions for improvements leave them in the comments and I'll be sure to acknowledge them.
May luck be with you, praise the sun, and hail lord

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