My take on making Xerath's passive relevant through the game

Hi! So this is Xerath's actual passive: "Every x seconds, Xerath's next aa restores x mana (doubled when hitting champions)"

It's pretty basic, but it has it's own place in Xerath's kit:

• every x seconds xerath is encouraged to go in aa range, to gain some mana, so he can sustain his waveclear/poke/etc., which otherwise would make him run out of mana in a little more than a rotation (until lost chapter is bought, at least). Double mana is gained by hitting enemy champions with basic attacs, so higher risk ---> higher reward;
• this allows for the enemy champs to have a window to interact with him during laning phase.

So essentially, xerath needs the mana to sustain his ability usage, and this gives the laner an opportunity to interact with him.

However past laning phase Xerath kinda "loses" his passive: position his key, as enemies can jump on you from everywhere, so you got to stick with your team. Normally at that point you either waveclear with your skills, or it is the rest of your team in front of you clearing, so you hardly aa any minions (let's not talk about the champions lol).

So here's take number 1 to give Xerath's passive a meaning after laning phase: "Every x seconds, Xerath's next basic attack restores x mana (effect doubled if enemy champions are hit), and increases his max mana by x amount (effect doubled when enemy champions are hit".

Why?

• Xerath got plenty of damage, and in skilled hands he got tremendous carry potential (but that's all gated by skillshots), so adding more damage would probably take him onto the "endless balance cycle" train. As in, adding more damge would make him needlessly hard to balance. Also we don't need more damage in the game;

• increasing his mana pool seems just as an effective way to make him more efficient at outputting damage, since it means he can poke more without going oom as fast;

• stacks amount would be balanced around being relevant from midgame;

• a stacking mechaninc fits well with Xerath's nature as an ascending being.

• would probably need balancing around most mana stats (regen, lvl1 pool, growth, etc.), or passive timer.

• overall it would be easier to implement because of the reasons above.

And here's take 2: "Every x seconds Xerath's next basic attack restores x mana (doubled against champions). After x seconds Xerath next ability cast gets x increased damage/penetration".

• it doesn't really solve/alleviate the need for xerath to proc his passive past laning phase;

• but it helps making his damage less item dependant, adding an inbuilt source of damage;

• if that would be increased penetration, it would allow him to fare against tankier comps;

• increased damage/penetration should be tuned to not make it overbearing/warp xerath's kit around it, making him more feast/famine;

• however that's every x seconds, and you actually have to aa to proc the passive;

• the delay on the empowered ability effect is placed so xerath wouldn't feel encouraged to use it in melee/aa range, and instead he would get to safety so he can cast the ability from distance;

• particle effects for the empowered cast would look cool!

• it's added damage, so that would make it inevitably harder to balance, apart from the various timings, conditions, etc. That would probably consist of ability damage tuning (base damage probably? scalings are too important for xerath, but i wouldn't exclude that), passive timer. the end of such balancing might be something too dependant on proccing the passive in order to deal damage.

So in conclusion, excluding game updates that could completely change one or more ability of xerath's kit, i think take 1 is the best wat to make xerath's passive relevant as the goes away from lasthitting minions. it's easier to implement in my opinion, and still would add something noticeable.

Take 2 would be riskier, since adding more damage would break the character. But still something to discuss.

Let me know!