Xerath tips and tricks?

Keep playing him and practicing.

I don't really play xerath much myself, might pick him up though as he can be fun. His problem though is that his passive is not as good as other mid laners, and he lacks mobility. On top of that, he is entirely skillshot reliant. So if you can't reliably hit your one and only form of CC, you will get ganked often, and life will be very painful for you.

As far as actual play tips.

1. Vision Vision Vision. The more time you have to prepare for an incoming gank, the easier it will be to land that skill shot that could save your life. this is important on any champion, but more so for xerath than others.

2. Team comps are really important with xerath, does the enemy team have a malphite, or a hecarim, zac? anyone else who can hard engage on you? if they do, or they have a lot of it, don't pick xerath, you're gonna have a bad time. Xerath does best with poke/siege comps but you can work him into a team fight comp.

3. don't pick him into people with high mobility / can dodge everything you throw at them. some example of this would be master yi, katarina, akali, fizz, etc.