Hello guys,welcome to my Xerath guide,on MobaFire. Xerath is my main,and my favorite AP caster to play. In this guide, I will cover all the basics,and tricks you need to know in order to play Xerath with more effeiciency. If you wanna learn Xerath,and get better with him,you came to the right place.* Also,please note that this is not the only way to play Xerath and you can twist the builds up if you want to.*

This chapter will cover ALL of the pro's and all of the con's of Xerath.

-Pros!:
-Very strong lane controll and harass
-ALOT of free magic penetration
-High burst damage at all stages of the game
-One of the highest range for spells in the game
-He's fun to play
-His skins are just so badass.
-Naturally resistant to physical attackers thanks to his passive.


Cons!:
-Dependant on W for magic penetration and range
-His Q(arcanopulse),is hard to land if your new
-His R(Arcane barrage) is quite hard to land,especially for beginners.
-Xerath cant move when he's in his W.
-Quite hard to play for beginners.

I think the Pro's outweight the cons,so in my opinion,you should definetly pick Xerath up if your looking for a great and fun AP mid caster.

Xerath is an AP mid,which no one plays. Xerath is rare sight to see in your everyday games. Xerath boasts one of the,if not the highest amount of magic penetration in the game. Not only that,but his spells get much more range when hes in his locus of power! Thats not to say Xerath isin't a menace outside of his locus of power though. During his laning phase,he can harass exeptionally well starting from level 2, with his arcanopulse and his mage chains. If you land the whole combo,(e first,then hit him with q) he will not only take damage,but get stunned aswell.

The summoner spells i love to take on Xerath are Flash and Ignite. I take ignite to further improve his burst damage,and flash because he dosen't have any form of escape. You can take exhaust to slow opponents down,but i prefer ignite over anything else. For an alternative to flash,you can take ghost,but flash is still the much better option for chassing and escaping.

For the skill build,i always take q first,because its a great harassing and farming tool in lane. I take e at level 2 for the best harassing combo in the game,not only damaging them but stunning them too. I proceed to take q again and w at 4. I then proceed to max out my q after,and taking my ultimate whenever i can. As for what to max after q,i skill mage chains and locus of power equally,and taking the ultimate whenever possible.

As for the item build,i start off with dorans ring because it gives you so much benefits for 1 item:HP,AP,5 mana on kill and some mana regen.I then proceed to get sorcerers boots for the movespeed(obviously) and the magic penetration. I then get a chalice of harmony for some magic resist and good regen. After that,i like to enchant my boot with alacrity for bonus movespeed. I then get a tear of the godess for ALOT of mana and some decent regen(mostly for the bonus mana) then I complete the chalice of harmony into Athenes unholy grail. Void staff is then made for even more magic penetration and a great amount of AP. Then,i like getting rabadons deathcap for the 30% bonus AP and for the extra AP. I then proceed into getting Archangel's staff which is built from tear of the godess,then finish off with a Rylais scepter for hp,ap,and a slow on your spells.

For the laning phase,Xerath has decent base damage,just enough to get some minion kills. I highly recommend you be agressive and harass actively with the e+q combo. Once you get to level 6,you can atttempt to kill whoever the hell is mid. After your kill in mid,i like to stay in my lane and farm until level 10,then i usually gank top and bot once before going back mid. Yes,xerath can gank,he has amazing burst damage and a stun. After the 2 ganks,you resume your game and stay mid,while farming and killing whoever comes mid.

Xerath is an absolute beast in teamfights. All you have to do,is let the fight start,let your tank initiate,and all you have to do is go far,but not too far to the point where your spells wont reach them. Once the tank initiated, you stand back and use w. You can't move in this state,but you get much more range on your spells and huge amounts of magic penetration. I usually use e on the nearest target,q as many people as I can,and use arcane barrage on the whole enemy team. They usually die if you do that combo,but if they dont keep using the e+q on someone till they die.

I decided to make this in a seperate chapter,because I know several combo's that will help you out when you play xerath.

FIRST COMBO:
-Laning phase(1-6): Mage Chains,Arcanopulse + 2 basic attacks

SECOND COMBO:
-Killing whoever the hell dared go mid: Mage chains,Arcanopulse,Arcane barrage,You can cast arcane barrage 3 times before going on cooldown.

THIRD COMBO:
-Ganking someone top lane or bot lane: Mage chains,Arcane barrage 3 times,Arcanopulse


Last,but not least:
Teamfight destroyer: Locus of power,Mage chains,Arcane Barrage,Arcanopulse

Those are the 4 basic combo's I recommend,they are highly recommended for the extreme burst damage provided from the combos.

Nothing much to say about the runes really,all you need to know is that they give everything Xerath needs: AP,cooldown reduction and even MORE magic penetration.

Well,this is the guide,although it wasen't as long as you guys would expect it to be,I still think i covered everything. My final recommendation is to practice, and most importantly,to have fun.

Thank you for taking your time to read my Xerath guide,I hope it helped you get better with Xerath.

Please feel free to critisize my guide and feel free to comment.