My Xerath Problem!
Ive been a
main since S3, he was the first champion I really wanted to buy, he was interesting to me and he was the champ that Ive played the most, I actually got to be amongst the #200 best Xerath in S4, I loved the old Xerath, and even I can say that atm he was more viable than the new Xerath in some terms, but when Xerath was reworked I said YES! finally some love, now his visual effects are awesome, he looks cool, he is cool, and he is arrogant. I started playing him as a mid-supp and got up in my ranked games real quick, and with this cool range of changes we had a trade; you got to be in the package of the "squishy midlaner nightmare", because without his old armor passive he is now squishy AF, I get it, it is kinda ok and Im not going to complain about it, the other thing that he lost was his capacity to pierce the enemies magic pen, now depending a lot on Magic Pen runes, still he gained some sustain, but I must admit that at some point of the game his passive becomes non-rewarding at all, specially considering that he still builds mana regen (
) as part of his core build, still!
ALL THAT WAS OK!
There is one little problem, and I need to know what you think about it;
is now a champ that depends on how (literally, im sorry but I must say it!) NOOB his target is, at the point that all of his abilities are an skillshot now, nothing, absolutely NOTHING is safe with him, specially considering he has no scapes and his burst is actually slower than almost every mage on the league, while
and
can cast their combo in 0,6 seconds and even less, Xerath needs 2 seconds to cast his combo, without counting his ult. If you don't land your E you are literally dead, and the damage of his E is really low, specially considering that it is a single target skillshot which stun duration depends on the distance, if the target is on your face it does almost nothing.
BUT THE WORST PART IS ONE THING: his ult! now we get to the point where we can become serius, the only way for Xerath to land his ult is if the enemy runs on a straight line or if he is super predictable (noob), if the enemy does so this means he has never played against Xerath, the reason why Xerath was succesful after the rework was because no one knew how to play against him, if the enemy is not predictable HE IS THE ONE WHO BECOMES PREDICTABLE. Getting up to the point where you use your ult and you use 1 charge JUST TO REVEAL THE AREA and the other 2 charges trying to hit your target. And the gods of lol may save you from the enemy assasin or jungler that is coming after you while you are distracted trying to land that damn skillshot, because even when it seems safe as an ability it is not safe at all, because you can get to totally forget about your champ body for about 3-9 seconds.
But hey! Im not here only to complain, I can propose solutions:
1) One of the things that Xerath's ult was suposed to do when the rework was on the PBE was to reveal the area of the ult itself, and to me it seems fair because literally you are giving the enemy your position and you are saying "come get me im distracted", like this the need to waste one charge jut to know where your enemies are is eliminated, also it allows Xerath to use his ult just to scout and area and it may also help him to know when to stop his ult and go out running.
2) Reduce the time between shots of his ult by 0.3 or 0.4 seconds or increase the travel speed of his ult missile.
3) Make a new total rework to his ult and his E (and this is my main idea):
- Return his E to his old state as "Mage Chains" (works kinda much like the old LB Q but with a stun, first hit leaves a mark, land another skill and the target is stunned).
- Change his ult and rename it "Arcane Siege"; Xerath lands himself into the ground, giving him vision of the nearby area and gaining magic pen. He gains 3 charges of Arcane Siege. While Arcane Siege is on Xerath basic abilities are refreshed and their cooldown is reduced to 0,8 seconds, also Arcanopulse (Q) loads 333% faster. Upon the first Charge Xerath gains 200 extra cast range, upon the second charge he gains 400 cast range and upon the third charge Xerath gains 600 cast range.
- Allow Xerath passive to deal magic damage on-hit (with a level scaling and a basic scaling -low damage-, also it turns all of his attack into magic damage), in this way
become a good option for him and adds some risk to his combo.
Why do I propose this change?; he looses some of his ridiculous range but he gains abilties that are somewhat easier to land, his stun is delayed but now is safer and he has more rewards for taking the risk of throwing an AA into his enemies face. Also this fixes the main reason why he is hardly EVER going to be played in an LCS game; all of his abilities can be dodged, his channeling times are too long and he redefines what "inmobile mage" means. Whit this change we add some of the old feeling Xerath has within the new reworked Xerath into what I hope is a better Xerath.
Once again, Im not saying DO IT. I just hope a Rioter sees this and maybe they give it a shot on the PBE, it would be good to finally use Xerath again.