As a longtime Xerath Main, it's really dissapointing to see Zoe's kit in action.

Heya. It's really disappointing to see the vast majority of his kit almost completely outshined by Zoe's Paddlestar damage. There is very little reason to pick him with her on the table. Especially in the higher elos where players will capitalize on someone with so little mobility. Zoe at least has some tricks to try to juke/save herself.

A Fed Xerath will maybe snag a full kill with a Stun combo, which he arguably needs to be relatively close to land (his stun is fairly short ranged!) His ultimate is decent at best, it starts falling off once players learn to juke - it can be a great positional tool in teamfights (force enemy to turn back or take damage!)

Zoe on the other hand... It only takes 1 game playing as her to realize Paddlestars damage is just absolutely insane. If she gets fed, she basically can delete squishy targets with a single use of her stun into paddlestar.

I like the thematic of the ability, and I think her stun is neat, but they combine to turn her into one of the strongest AP Artillery assassins in the game. I can't think of a single advantage Xerath has other than... maybe a slightly easier laning phase? outside of mana issues, which Zoe doesn't seem to have.

Not that I'm really asking for Xerath buffs or even Zoe's nerfs.. but as a player who has put a TON of time into Xerath, it feels upsetting to see her be able to emulate his entire kit with a single 2 abilities, and then do so much more on top of that.