Xerath is the kind of stable Tournament viable champ that Riot NEEDED to make.
He's an agressive AP carry who will win mid lane against most other AP carries.
He fits the "siege" poke niche that Nidale has, but rather than dealing up to 250% damage at max range he just snipes people's health away without worrying about creeps in the way.
With potential REBALANCES on the way for Xerath it's hard to say where he WILL be. Where he is right now is actually perfectly fine. The rebalance whispers I've read...Literally are rebalances.
As well new masteries on the way....A lot will change.
He's an agressive AP carry who will win mid lane against most other AP carries.
He fits the "siege" poke niche that Nidale has, but rather than dealing up to 250% damage at max range he just snipes people's health away without worrying about creeps in the way.
With potential REBALANCES on the way for Xerath it's hard to say where he WILL be. Where he is right now is actually perfectly fine. The rebalance whispers I've read...Literally are rebalances.
As well new masteries on the way....A lot will change.
Xerath is going to need some tweaks. He simply gets too much magic pen, too easily. with a 
Void Staff and masteries, he gets 85% (80% in season 2) magic pen. Stupid numbers. A full tank with 250 magic resistance effectively has 37.5 magic resistance against an end game Xerath. The only viable way to build resistances against him is to health stack. And if paired with any taunt or root tank (eg Galio or Amumu), Xerath and said tank can pretty much 2v5 without a whole lot of strain. However, he does (as has been said) require a good bit of team coordination and positional care, and as such, doesn't tend to do nearly as well in solo cue and lower elo games. He, in that sense, it a bit like Ori was. Incredibly powerful in the right hands, but very manageable in most hands.
Void Staff and masteries, he gets 85% (80% in season 2) magic pen. Stupid numbers. A full tank with 250 magic resistance effectively has 37.5 magic resistance against an end game Xerath. The only viable way to build resistances against him is to health stack. And if paired with any taunt or root tank (eg Galio or Amumu), Xerath and said tank can pretty much 2v5 without a whole lot of strain. However, he does (as has been said) require a good bit of team coordination and positional care, and as such, doesn't tend to do nearly as well in solo cue and lower elo games. He, in that sense, it a bit like Ori was. Incredibly powerful in the right hands, but very manageable in most hands.
%pen would put him at ~58% with Void+LoP not 80%. It doesnt scale additively.
You're neglecting the fact that of his 4 abilities only 3 are damaging and 2 of those 3 are short channel skill shots.
His crux is the fact that he needs to be stationary to get the most out of his spells. Not moving is excatly what gets every champ in trouble regardless of who they are. Being stationary makes him an easy target for any number of champs.
I already mentioned the ideal champs to use against a Xerath. High burst, high mobility assassins with some sort of disable or hard/soft CC.
I might be biased, but if they wanted to "tweak" him the area that needs work could be his early game mana management. Applying a small cost ~10-15 mana to Locus of Power as well as scaling the move speed. (I cant remeber if it already does scale). Something like 15/20/25/30/35% move speed rather than 35% at all ranks. Reduce the damage of Mage Chains slightly but increase its range by a bit. Increase the mana cost of his ultimate at all levels and increase it's cool down by ~5 seconds or so.
Supposedly they're changing Xerath's passive. Making spells do more damage the further away a target is...Which means they'll probably reduce his base damage buff his ratios and increase the range on Mage Chains to synergize with his passive. Probably reduce the % pen too....
You're neglecting the fact that of his 4 abilities only 3 are damaging and 2 of those 3 are short channel skill shots.
His crux is the fact that he needs to be stationary to get the most out of his spells. Not moving is excatly what gets every champ in trouble regardless of who they are. Being stationary makes him an easy target for any number of champs.
I already mentioned the ideal champs to use against a Xerath. High burst, high mobility assassins with some sort of disable or hard/soft CC.
I might be biased, but if they wanted to "tweak" him the area that needs work could be his early game mana management. Applying a small cost ~10-15 mana to Locus of Power as well as scaling the move speed. (I cant remeber if it already does scale). Something like 15/20/25/30/35% move speed rather than 35% at all ranks. Reduce the damage of Mage Chains slightly but increase its range by a bit. Increase the mana cost of his ultimate at all levels and increase it's cool down by ~5 seconds or so.
Supposedly they're changing Xerath's passive. Making spells do more damage the further away a target is...Which means they'll probably reduce his base damage buff his ratios and increase the range on Mage Chains to synergize with his passive. Probably reduce the % pen too....
Either way, I've had a void staff Xerath shred right through 250 or so m-res as udyr before. Not a fun spot to be in. That passive change though... would just increase his skill cap, but also increase his maximum effectiveness. Akin to Nidalee spears.
Basically, and Udyr would have a tough time against most ranged champs...Give Udyr one with the best "overall" range and he's going to get owned.
The point is that Xerath is meant to do semi-large amounts of damage. He trades mobility for damage, then damage for mobility. It's the apex of his gameplay. All other champions (without steroids) do their "current max" damage at all stages of the game with out having to sacrifice a thing....Brand, Annie, Swain all examples of champs that sacrifice nothing defensive for offense. Xerath must sacrifice mobility for range and damage, and I'm sure some people will argue the overall importance of mobility as a general stat in LoL.
But currently it's not like he gets bonus AP when in LoP, he simply penetrates more MR. But the stat only becomes EXTREMELY valuable when the enemy has large amounts of MR to begin with. I can understand what you're saying though, at the same time though Xerath was designed as a seige tank. He's meant to counter the current meta in a few ways.
The point is that Xerath is meant to do semi-large amounts of damage. He trades mobility for damage, then damage for mobility. It's the apex of his gameplay. All other champions (without steroids) do their "current max" damage at all stages of the game with out having to sacrifice a thing....Brand, Annie, Swain all examples of champs that sacrifice nothing defensive for offense. Xerath must sacrifice mobility for range and damage, and I'm sure some people will argue the overall importance of mobility as a general stat in LoL.
But currently it's not like he gets bonus AP when in LoP, he simply penetrates more MR. But the stat only becomes EXTREMELY valuable when the enemy has large amounts of MR to begin with. I can understand what you're saying though, at the same time though Xerath was designed as a seige tank. He's meant to counter the current meta in a few ways.
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Graves can counter Xerath pretty well. You just have to get close enough, and graves has the toolkit to do so.Dodge what you can with
Quickdraw perferably that stun he is about to hammer you with. Smoke grenade then blow him away. Unforuntely he still irritates me in teamfights. As doing his job requires you to send someone to go around and attempt to kill him, or blitz through his team. What happens if Xerath is at a tower, you are probaly gonna need more than one guy to take him out.
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Graves' issue is his cool downs. Xerath's current passive gives him the edge before Graves can snag any ArP past runes. If Graves can get the drop on Xerath than he'll probably win, but if Xerath SEES Graves coming then it'll be the gunfight at OK Corral and Graves will be on the losing side.
W+Q->Deactivate W+Q+R+E+R+R+Q Graves is toast. And by the time Xerath throws out Mage Chains Graves is still too far to use buck shot after quick draw. (I think) REALLY hypothetical, but to sum it up, yes Graves is a champ capable of taking Xerath down, but Xerath isn't helpless against him.
W+Q->Deactivate W+Q+R+E+R+R+Q Graves is toast. And by the time Xerath throws out Mage Chains Graves is still too far to use buck shot after quick draw. (I think) REALLY hypothetical, but to sum it up, yes Graves is a champ capable of taking Xerath down, but Xerath isn't helpless against him.
ExamplePrime
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Xerath is OP in the way Artillery is OP in strategy games.
People say that it doesn't matter they are squishy, immobile etc. but in the end if they do their job too well they can still be OP
Much like the Hammerheads in SupCom2 and the Seige tanks in SC2 until the nerf. (Both of those units are ironically still questionable)
People say that it doesn't matter they are squishy, immobile etc. but in the end if they do their job too well they can still be OP
Much like the Hammerheads in SupCom2 and the Seige tanks in SC2 until the nerf. (Both of those units are ironically still questionable)
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I play games, I write stories. And I make youtube videos that are way to long.
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