Xerath Reformed

This post will be in depth and focusing on the pertaining issues of . Particulary the issues regarding what prevents seeing him as a regular champion at the higher elo's. This can be used as a comment, feedback or just an opinion if any rioter reads through this.

Who is Xerath? Regarding his old lore (forgive me if i'm wrong lore masters) Xerath was a mage among mages, compared to that of a god. However being severly limited he was an entity that was pure energy. Similiar to the New lore, Xerath is painted with the same description of how strong he is. However it is a story of justice from his perspective, as he punishes azir for promising him freedom.

Does It fit? Does his lore really fit his current kit? Somewhat from his lore we could ascertain a few things:

• He has huge amounts of energy stored
• It is currently limited

Currently his kit i feel reflects this pretty well, however there are moments where it should reflect his the destruction xerath can release. Much as it defines his powers being limited, his death animation shows something different. Perhaps a play on that he is finally free:

• When Xerath dies his body quickly becomes unstable and overly shiny, just to blow up a moment later, much like a nuclear-powered machine.

Comparing this to his abilities it reflects somewhat.

Q - ArcanoPulse

FIRST CAST: Xerath channels for up to 3 seconds, increasing Arcanopulse's range over 1.5 seconds. Xerath can move while channeling, but he gradually Slow icon slows himself for the duration by up to 50%

SECOND CAST: After a brief delay, Xerath fires a beam of energy in a line that deals magic damage to all enemies hit.

Current Magic Damage - MAGIC DAMAGE: 80 / 120 / 160 / 200 / 240 (+ 75% AP)

W - Eye of Destruction

ACTIVE: Xerath calls down a blast of arcane energy upon the target area which strikes after a 0.5 second delay, dealing magic damage to all enemies within and Slow icon slowing them by 10% for 2.5 seconds.

Enemies in the center of the blast take 50% increased damage and are Slow icon slowed by a greater amount, decaying down to 10% over the duration.

Current Magic Damage - ENHANCED DAMAGE: 90 / 135 / 180 / 225 / 270 (+ 90% AP)

E - Shocking Orb

ACTIVE: Xerath fires an orb of energy in the target direction, dealing magic damage to the first enemy hit and Stun icon stunning them for 0.5-2 seconds, based on the distance the orb traveled.

Current Magic Damage - TOTAL MAGIC DAMAGE: 80 / 110 / 140 / 170 / 200 (+ 45% AP)

R - Rite of the Arcane

ACTIVE: Xerath Root anchors himself to his current location for up to 10 seconds, becoming immune to Airborne displacement and gaining the ability to cast Rite of the Arcane Arcane Barrage multiple times, but losing the ability to cast his other abilities.

ARCANE BARRAGE - ACTIVE: Xerath calls down a blast of arcane energy to the target area which strikes after a 0.8-second delay, dealing magic damage to all enemies within.

Current Magic Damage TOTAL DAMAGE: 600 / 920 / 1300 (+ 129 / 172 / 215% AP)

What is a common theme trait we see in xerath's abilities? well there are 2 the first is distance, the further away the target the more destructive the force, seen as in his shocking orb. The second being caught within the blast radius. The abilities that don't seem to reflect this well at all are his ult and his Q. In the mage update we saw them touch up on how his stun interacts with targets by punishing him when enemies are closer (makes positioning more important) and benefiting him when enemies are further away. However what i can't understand is the extra charges to his ult.

Alert

From this point on i would like to point out these are my proposed changes and what would be more benefiting to xerath's tool kit. Firstly people state that xerath doesn't really have an identity, other than stating electricity. He is a revamp of lux as most will say, however I don't believe this holds true. Xerath is a unique entity that operates at playing afar, he is the only champion that i know of that benefits in such a way. The further away his abilities are the more benefitting it is to him. I think this should be the primary attribute riot should play it off of.

Current Q

FIRST CAST: Xerath channels for up to 3 seconds, increasing Arcanopulse's range over 1.5 seconds. Xerath can move while channeling, but he gradually Slow icon slows himself for the duration by up to 50%.

SECOND CAST: After a brief delay, Xerath fires a beam of energy in a line that deals magic damage to all enemies hit.

Current Magic Damage - MAGIC DAMAGE: 80 / 120 / 160 / 200 / 240 (+ 75% AP)

In this state, i would like to personally see him being punished and rewarded off how long he charges for. Initially casting his q (no matter the distance it is 80 currently. If this was to be changed the damage would range from 60 - 100 increasing by 20 damage for every second charged. So it would currently look like this:

Xerath hits Q:

• 1st second 60 damage

• 2nd second 80 damage

• 3rd second 100 damage

This would create a unique trait only seen in Xerath that would create a unique sense of play style. As it stands i feel his W and E reflect this pretty well with the traits noted above. Individuals caught in the center of the blast is reflected very well in terms of how is W operates and his E does the same in terms of Stun. However his Ult is another story, i don't believe adding more shots was necessarily strongest decision that could have been made. As noted, riot realized that landing his ult could be difficult at times. My proposed change would be to instead have his ult operate along the lines of unleashing his true self. Noted as a being that he is being restrained currently, he could do true damage for X amount of seconds. This would empower his other abilities, which could either do more ap damage or in my opinion a fraction of true damage. This would reflect the raw destructive power xerath has bottled up. It additionally would be an ult that wouldn't rely to heavily on skill shots as it shouldn't be a barrier to entry for lower level players. However this is solely why i believe xerath isn't seen at higher elos, primarily because his ult is easy to dodge and or juke. However his abilities are a completely different matter as you can pressure players into where you want them. It also allows for some form of counterplay, instead of hopefully being able to dodge. Leave your comments or any suggestions you may have yourself! Thanks!

Note: i will attend to his passive later if i have time.