Xerath quality of life fix!!!!!!
Before jumping to conclusions of "too overpowered what the heck are you thinking" please read through everything. Understand that this is just a vague suggestion and any balance changes could make this nothing but positive for Xerath players and opponents.
Xerath has an obviously exploitable weakness - his lack of mobility. The only defense he has is an aoe slow and single target skillshot stun that hardly does anything when they are on top of you. The way Xerath players must work around this weakness is also obvious, exploit his range advantage. Which if done correctly can be very hard to play against and very boring. He must play so safe that the lane just isn't fun for anybody.
Any gank from jungler will leave you dead if you do not have flash up. But the point of this is not to make him overpowered and give the king of range more mobility than a late game kassadin.
My suggestion - update to Xerath e: After casting e, he gains the ability to use runic walk (or whatever you wanna call it). Xerath can recast e to shift forward a similar distance of flash. If this ability is used, his e goes on a much longer cooldown (25-30 seconds). This would mean that the lack of e can be exploited if Xerath does not learn his lesson. It will give him an option to not die but still punishes him for overextending as his e is now on a huge cooldown.
Ways to balance - if op Cannot shift through walls. Puts all abilities on cooldown if used (I don't think this is a good idea since the chance of using it as a risky offensive move would be removed). Delay after e cast before it becomes available. Decrease distance or speed of shift. Cooldown.
These are just some quick ideas to make sure this isn't beyond op. I just really think it is impossible to play safe enough with all the mobility at the disposal of enemy. And even if you do, that just isn't fun for anyone.
As to why this would be positive to opponents of Xerath - it gives them an opponent to face that isn't so one-dimensional. They have another element that they need to consider but also another element they can exploit.
I fully acknowledge there are players like Zwag that make his kit work and they are insanely good at it. But those are the best of the best, there will always be an exception to the rule. This is aimed at an improvement for the masses.
This gives Xerath a chance but also punishes him from overextending, I struggle to see a negative in this and would love input from the community and hopefully a Riot member sees this and an respond to why or why not this would be bad.
