Xerath has one serious problem ever since his rework. Something that must be recitified.

5G8Nri0B54·Jan 25, 2015·109 votes·6,186 views

Let us look at his identity and kit.

: "I AM XERATH! LIVING PURE ENERGY! A WELLSPRING OF POWER UNLEASHED!"

Q: I WILL CHARGE MY ENERGY AND UNLEASH A TORRENT OF LIGHTNING!!
W: A LIGHTNING BOLT FROM THE SKIES SHALL PUMMEL YOU!
E: A BALL OF LIGHTNING TO LEAVE YOU DAZZLED!
R: MY ULTIMATE POWER! THE PINNACLE OF MY MASTERY OVER ARCANE ENERGY! I SHALL ASSUME AN ASCENDED FORM TO UNLEASH THIS POWER!!! GET READY....dink....dink...dink...

I think that illustrates a pretty accurate picture of Xerath. The issue is his R. Is it powerful? Yeah it's okay. It's function is obvious and it works even if it's kinda annoying to use. However, why can't you make the projectiles more..."ultimate-y"?

89 Comments

TalamareJan 25, 201556 votes

To be fair, he mastered ultimate magic like... 10,000 years ago?

We have kinda of advanced magic technology since then...

Xerath is kinda like bragging of having a super computer from the 60s

Leti the YetiJan 25, 201519 votes

pls ancient magic has always been better than advanced magic tech when was this not the case lol

TheDuelist999Jan 25, 201512 votes

the ability is fine the visual aspect is whats lacking

5G8Nri0B54Jan 25, 201580 votes

...

Isn't that what I said?

BallisticMouseJan 26, 20153 votes

Remember his old ultimate? The AOE lighting splash of death, it should be a visually updated version of that. You launch the ball then it lands and explodes into something like that.

CindikleJan 25, 20156 votes

I feel like it should be a beam he fires at the ground. After a short delay the ground explodes.

The beam will still show his location. Which is why the ulti is the way it is now. Riot doesn't want him throwing them out and no one knows where it came from.

TheHobbitsJan 25, 20156 votes

I am 100% with you! His ult is 3 ping pong balls and pop-rock fizzles. He is a being of pure unrestrained power of lightning!

The rest of his moves are fine. They feel like they have enough power to them, but that ult just leaves me feeling like "ehh".

Heres an idea, make it so his ult has a global sfx that is thunder, so you can hear when he shoots them. Make the effects look bigger and more lightning arching off it. Make it boom as it contacts.

Give a global clap of thunder to mark when Xerath fires his ult.

Ahri Body PillowJan 25, 20155 votes

It'd be kind of cool if instead of those tiny little bolts, it was like Brand's Pillar of Flame and blue energy just shot up out of the ground after the projectile hit the spot except it was be brighter and would go a lot higher up. I think what I'm thinking of is it would kind of look like an IRL depth charge.

Idk I'm just kind of spitballing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1flVlL4Mf8k

^ Like that

5G8Nri0B54Jan 25, 201518 votes

And each time he fires, he'll say "lightning bolt!"

disregardableJan 25, 20153 votes

Sure feels ultimatey when I'm getting hit by the god damn thing with no way of retaliating.

5G8Nri0B54Jan 25, 201530 votes

It's heavily telegraphed and you can easily see exactly where the bolts will land.

It's strength is it's ability to give Xerath a chance to snipe you from afar, but in return it's also really easy to dodge. It's 100% a match of skill to see whether your ability to dodge is better, or Xerath's ability to aim and lead you.

What Is SmiteJan 25, 20154 votes

I can lead Xerath's shots, walk in a straight line and then press S when he fires ahead of you

xXSomeoneElseJan 25, 20151 votes

yeah that's really my ONLY problem with playing Xerath is landing the freaking ultimate haha. those circles are so small and are there for long enough to tell the other person hey don't go there.

FoggyPawsJan 25, 20154 votes

It works great for getting people while they are busy teamfighting, or when they're running away with little to no HP, and being chased by someone, where if they dodge your ultimate, they'll die, and if they DON'T dodge your ultimate, they'll die, it's a great Kill ~~Stealing~~ Securing ability.

Doom BrowniesJan 25, 20151 votes

{quoted}

It's heavily telegraphed and you can easily see exactly where the bolts will land.

It's strength is it's ability to give Xerath a chance to snipe you from afar, but in return it's also really easy to dodge. It's 100% a match of skill to see whether your ability to dodge is better, or Xerath's ability to aim and lead you.

Isn't that true of every skillshot ult? You gotta actually aim it?

5G8Nri0B54Jan 26, 20152 votes

Different skillshots.

Xeraths outright tell everyone within range that he is about to fire. Then when he fires, there's a circle indicating where the shot will go, giving the enemy more than enough help to dodge it.

Balance wise it's completely fine. But this thread isn't talking about how strong/weak it is now is it?

Doom BrowniesJan 27, 20151 votes

{quoted}

Different skillshots.

Xeraths outright tell everyone within range that he is about to fire. Then when he fires, there's a circle indicating where the shot will go, giving the enemy more than enough help to dodge it.

Balance wise it's completely fine. But this thread isn't talking about how strong/weak it is now is it?

I apologize, I thought you were going in another direction with this thread.

BoswickJan 25, 20153 votes

Honestly the W particle effect would be a better fit for his ult than what we've got now. Scorched Earth Xerath's ult pre-rework was so sick looking and it's so sad now.

AquariusGineJan 25, 20153 votes

i really dislike Xerath's ultimate as well. It looks really stupid.. probably the reason why I don't play him

LordOfTheLeagueJan 25, 20153 votes

I've made a bunch of threads about that but Riot completely ignores the feedback.. I've stopped to play Xerath cause of that, that is just unacceptable for me.

Stars ShaperJan 25, 20153 votes

There is a lack of "impact effect" in it thatn is dishearting

YGW CaspieJan 25, 20153 votes

Honestly I think the SFX on his ult is what makes it feel so weak... it just doesn't sound powerful at all. That's just my opinion though, but the VFX could use some work as well.

GunpointJan 25, 20153 votes

Before the rework it looked badass.

EfficientDynamoJan 25, 20152 votes

Agreed. His visual effects aren't all that impressive on any of his abilities (lighting would look way better than the blue streaks we have now), and his ult especially looks lackluster.

PickleBabahJan 25, 20152 votes

I honestly feel like his E could look less ball-y and more like a bolt rather than a ball. The ult, though, look like little water guns being shot at places. Give them a sort of electrical comet tail and bring out some brightness when it hits, maybe having additional powerful feeling visuals if it does hit.

DrMarshSwampJan 25, 20152 votes

Personally I think it would look much better if he instead shot down a beam of energy (similar to Karthus.)

PredatoratorJan 25, 20152 votes

Meddler said he will look to improve the visuals of Xerath's ult...it doesn't look like this will happen in the immediate future, but at least it's still something, can't wait for it to happen!

LordOfTheLeagueJan 25, 20153 votes

Hi can you give a link pls ?

PredatoratorJan 25, 20152 votes

http://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/gameplay-balance/qe7EEFPo-riot-why-are-you-taking-a-look-at-popular-champs-that-are-on-the-rework-list-first?comment=000700000001 Here you go =)

LordOfTheLeagueJan 25, 20152 votes

Thx, it's pretty recent so it's a good new. I hope it won't take too much time tho.

Fed by Snu SnuJan 25, 20152 votes

It doesn't even have to change rapidly, it's just...too small.

If you take the exact same particle, have 3 of them and have them spiral around a common axis until they merge to a single shot a little before the end, even that would look much more spectacular.

Pandemic PunchJan 25, 20152 votes

I can agree with this.

MessaigaJan 25, 20152 votes

I've complained about this since they put his rework on PBE, as did many others. I'm still not too much of a fan of his Ultimate gameplay-wise either (though when I play mid chances are I'll play him because I like his lore more than most other champions), but that's not likely to change so I'll learn to accept it still. Seriously though, his Ultimate looks like somebody shooting a tiny water gun when it should look like RAW UNLEASHED ENERGY.

Off topic: What do Xerath's chains still have to do with his lore, cause idk anymore.

Edit: The guy who mentioned global sounds for Xerath's Ultimate, all of my yes.

BavalJan 25, 20152 votes

Its in his new lore, they tried to chain him up but he easily broke out, so Renekton fought him into a tomb.

Meep ManJan 25, 20152 votes

VFX make a champion feel good. I wouldnt mind an improvement.

InbredFeederJan 25, 20152 votes

I think that instead of shooting out a ball of energy to the location, he should instead create a column of lightning in the area that would proc the damage after a delay. Unless he is getting an ultimate skin.... then i would like this idea to go there.

AuryielJan 25, 20152 votes

They could just bring back the old R particle as a placeholder while they work on a new one or something... I dunno, it's just so LAME

Sure, the old R particle would not fit completely but it would be WAY better than this little thing flying through the air and just... splashing people

AHeroNamedHawkeJan 25, 20152 votes

Id almost vote for swapping W and R's particles, as his W is far more fitting

gubigubiJan 25, 20152 votes

It should look like a wraith tank cannon shot from halo but have the same speed it has now.

LithiumWednesdayJan 26, 20151 votes

Tbh the old Xerath ult was far more useful... Instead of the finicky small ugly balls of decent late-game damage, he had a shorter range ult with (if I remember correctly) a larger AOE. His ult charges were significantly easier to aim and more immediately useful, as opposed to the pseudo-Ziggs ult he has now. Besides his lackluster ult, there's the situation with his annoyingly clunky combo. He has a ridiculously long pass-through skillshot, a delayed short range AOE CC, and a short range stun. As far as I can tell, his combo involves poking with Q, moving into E range, and then dumping his moves onto his opponent while hoping he doesn't run out of vision to use his ult.

iamthegoatofwarJan 26, 20151 votes

His ult can hit more than one person at long range and can help his team from the river while they're all fighting. It makes up for his lack of mobility.

Dingding123Jan 26, 20151 votes

I've always wanted his R to root him and give his kit huge buffs. Instead of 3 beanbags why not just give the rest of his kit insane range damage and CDR? Who has ever liked the beanbags?

If you're gonna be able to harass from afar it should be really satisfying damage when it lands. Beanbags are not satisfying to me at all. +1.

MrSc0ttyJan 26, 20151 votes

What I don't understand is why the energy comes from the sky.

Wouldn't it be cooler and make more sense if Xerath shackled himself to the earth and send out bolts of energy from the ground?

The only instances of Shuriman magic we've seen outside Xerath are Nasus E, Amumu R, and possibly Ryze and it's all runic circles. I think one of those would make a much cooler ult indicator.

Picture this: a runic circle appears on the ground, a bolt of energy flows through the earth towards it and when the two touch, a huge pillar of energy explodes forth from the earth.

RaptameiJan 26, 20151 votes

Rework proposal:

http://youtu.be/SNtT68tK3YE?t=12s

terkmcJan 26, 20151 votes

I feel like his W should have been his Ult animation

XenethJan 26, 20151 votes

Riot totally agrees with you, can't find the posts but I know I've seen red admissions that it's visually underwhelming. The Xerath rework originally had the current ultimate positioned as a regular ability, and it got changed mid development. The spell effects and audio on it were actually authored to be lower key like that, so I imagine if they revisit him that'll be one of the easy wins.

Who knows how long that'll take, so of course upvote this thread and give it more visibility so that the champUp team prioritizes it higher!

5G8Nri0B54Jan 26, 20151 votes

Wait...that would have been cool, and so much better!

My initial criticism of the rework was that his rooting mechanic was changed into a high cooldown ultimate even though it was his defining trait.

UracleJan 26, 20151 votes

Did they make it into a petty ball to illustrate an arc so that it could communicate better where the blast was coming from? I think so. But that wouldn't really matter much because

you're mostly trying to avoid the red circle, not the ball
It has such a long range that xerath is in a bush or another unforeseen location so the arc projection doesn't really matter

Just make lightning rain from the sky like pre-rework....oh wait they made that into his W. Just make it look like a giant lightning meteor shower. Oh, wait that's they did.....MAKE IT BETTER!

TheArmyOfOneJan 27, 20151 votes

I like the animation of xerath shooting a small ball of energy capable of doing immense damage. If it did the animation of kinda like a bomb, throwing up dust or exploding, releasing all the energy that was encapsulated in that energy shot, giving it a nice crater after it hit the ground and give it a cool loud sound like how syndra hits her q on the ground. Hers sounds and looks more powerfull than xeraths ult

AwoofJan 28, 20151 votes

I agree on the visuals being "dink". Though I'd like to point out his abilities aren't (at least supposed to be) lightning bolts. (Don't ask me why they changed his joke to screaming "lightning bolt" when they tried to move away from that misinterpretation of his old animations, but that's riot for you)