Some of Xerath’s power should be shifted from Q W and E to Rite of the Arcane.

TL;DR: Xerath’s ult feels weak. However, as seen by his recent picks in the LCS, if he’s straight buffed, he’ll become OP. I propose that we reduce some of the massive power on his Q W and E and give it to Rite of the Arcane so it’s allowed to be more easily landed and more reliable. Also, give a visual update to his ult. Not necessarily a new skin (I would welcome a new skin, as long as it came with particle updates to current skins). In addition to this TL;DR, I bolded the titles of problems and solutions that I have identified. Skim over those as well.

Sources that I quote from/draw experience from:

Xelnath’s thread titled “Let’s talk about Xerath,” in which he discussed why Xerath was underplayed and his potential rework options: here. Especially important is one quotation from Xelnath in that thread, in which he states the core values of Xerath:

Here's what I perceive to be the great values of Xerath: -Long-range Caster -Transformational spell that improves his other abilities -A combination of multiple types of skillshots that work together. -Vulnerable at close range -Cool theme and character

A previous thread I made about Xerath

And my personal experience of pre and post rework Xerath. In s3, I had 94 ranked games + some amount of normal games on Xerath, and in s4 I have 139 and counting ranked games of Xerath. My lolking: http://www.lolking.net/summoner/na/35602033

All ability info comes from the League of Legends Wiki.

Problem/Solution #0: Ult visuals.

I label this one #0 because it’s not directly related to the topic, but it should be fixed regardless.

Not related to balance, but this also must be said: his ult looks stupid. There needs to be a particle update on his ult on all skins. No, Riot, do NOT release a new skin with better ult particles and leave his base and current skins (SE, green, red) as they are. That would just be unfair to the people who like the current skins – You either get a skin you don’t like the theme of quite as much, or you get stupid ult particles. All of his skins are pretty cool, but the ult particles on them need updating to make them awesome-tier skins.

Problem #1: Too much power in Q, W, and E.

Xerath’s Q W and E are OP. Q and W are AoE and have huge base damages and ratios. E is a semi-long duration fast moving hard CC. Let’s compare Q and W to some other standard AP damage spells:

Xerath Q: 80 / 120 / 160 / 200 / 240 (+ 75% AP). Long line AoE, no travel time, brief cast time, CD 9-5. Xerath W: 60 / 90 / 120 / 150 / 180 (+ 60% AP) (10% slow) 90 / 135 / 180 / 225 / 270 (+ 90% AP) (60 / 65 / 70 / 75 / 80% slow). Large AoE, .5s delay, CD 14-10. Syndra Q: 70 / 110 / 150 / 190 / 230 (+ 60% AP), short delay, no cast time, CD 4. 15% bonus damage to champions @ max rank TF Q: 60 / 110 / 160 / 210 / 260 (+ 65% AP), brief travel time, slow moving Ziggs Q: 75 / 120 / 165 / 210 / 255 (+ 65% AP), fairly fast, bouncing

All three of these abilities have less damage than Xerath’s Q and are harder to land. TF’s has comparable range on his Q, Ziggs requires bounces to reach the same range, and Syndra’s is shorter. In addition, Xerath also has his W – a damage ability with slightly less damage base, but vastly superior damage if the target gets hit by the center, a fairly easy setup if he lands his E. These three champions have no secondary damage ability that does nearly as much as Xerath’s W (bar maybe TF cards with lich bane), and they have less damage on their Q.

And Xerath’s stun. One of the longest duration hard CCs of any AP mid, on a fairly low manacost traveling fast.

Xerath is also one of the most safe AP mids ingame while using Q W and E. His kiting is impressive with an E > W combo for a stun and big slow, and his range is massive. Ziggs is the only other mage who competes for being as safe as him. The only time Xerath is at risk is when he ults, which brings me to the second problem…

Problem #2: Not enough power in ult.

What keeps Xerath balanced despite the above? His ult. It’s the hardest to land skillshot in his kit, and comes with huge warning, along with letting the enemy team know where Xerath is channeling it from. It’s like the opposite of a TF ult. His ult has the most backwards logic: Rite of the Arcane expects you to aim three small, precise skillshots from long range, but also expects you to be looking at the map to be able to see anybody approaching you. Now, I like looking at the minimap as much as the next guy, but when I’m aiming a skillshot it’s really hard to look in two places at once.

Xerath’s ult warns the enemy team of four things and gives them two ways to prevent the damage: -When he begins casting it -Where he’s casting it from -The maximum range he can cast it -And where the skillshot will land.

And prevention: you can dodge the skillshot, something fairly easy to do unless the enemy is fighting somebody else, or you can use the warning of his location that it gives to run towards him and interrupt the ult, a trivial task for popular junglers such as Vi, Lee Sin, and Elise to do.

“But Xerath’s ult does 570 / 735 / 900 (+ 129% AP) damage!”

It’s incredibly difficult for Xerath to land all three shots, because of how tiny the aoe is and how often standard movement in fights makes enemies avoid it. The huge prevalence of mobility in the meta doesn’t help at all, as a gap closer that can be used in any direction will definitely net you at least one miss, and often two. The only time Xerath’s ult will actually do that much is if somebody has gotten smacked by a morgana binding or some similar lockdown, and in that case, there’s no AP mid who won’t be able to easily do tons of damage to that target.

Solutions to problem #1:

Note either or both of these solutions could work. I propose these nerfs in addition to a fix to his ult, in order to retain his currently fine overall power level. Xerath would be much more satisfying to play if his ult felt more impactful than it is.

Solution #1: reduce damage on Q W and E.

A fairly simple solution is to nerf the damage or ratios on Q and W. Those two spells punish Xerath’s enemies incredibly hard for getting hit by and E, as it guarantees Xerath a center W land for the huge slow and 80% AP ratio, and the subsequent Q. A change in ratios as simple as Q from .75 to .6 and a possible removal of the bonus ratio for a center W (same base damage and slow increase in center) would put Xerath’s basic abilities in line with those of other AP mids, given how safe Xerath is.

Solution #2: Reduce utility on Q W and E.

Xerath also has powerful kiting for how much damage he does. If Riot feels Xerath’s high damage is part of his identity, then they can remove some of his utility to compensate. The stun on E could be capped at 2.0 instead of 1.5, and the base 10% slow on W could be removed while the bonus 80% slow for a center W land could be reduced to ~50%, giving unlucky enemies who were hit by the W more room to dodge the following Q.

Solutions to problem #2:

Solution #1: Remove some of the warning on Xerath’s ult.

There’s no reason Xerath’s ult should tell the enemy where and when he cast it from, and it certainly shouldn’t show range. The only other global ult that behaves even remotely like this is TF’s, and he has as much warning because he gets two effects from his ult: He both reveals the enemy team and gets a teleport. TF has two warnings: Destiny (little circle above heads) and gate (the circle of cards showing where TF teleports to) TF has two effects: Reveal and teleport. This makes sense. This is intuitive. Xerath, on the other hand, has four warnings: Where cast, when cast, max range, and the damage aoe. Xerath has one effect: damage. Intuitive? Not at all.

Xerath should not show when he begins the cast, it should not show the maximum range. The most frustrating thing as a Xerath player is needing two shots to kill somebody, landing one, and then having them walk right outside the range and spam /l at you. However, if Riot believes that there should be more than just the damage aoe for warning, then I propose the following:

Solution #2: Allow ult shots to interact

In the post from Xelnath I quoted earlier, he states that one of the things about Xerath people like is a transformative ability which affects his other abilities, like old Mage Chains. This solution would give Xerath players more interaction in his ult, so it feels more like a combo and less like one ability that happens to shoot three times. This would fit one of the “great values” of Xerath that Xelnath has identified.

A cool way to make Rite of the Arcane more usable would be to make the first shot a “warning” type shot. It would have a much larger aoe, do little to no damage, and reveal the area. This could come with a debuff that made the following ult shots on enemies in the area easier to land, either by making ult shots within the “warning” effect travel faster or have a larger aoe.

This preserves the counterplay that Xerath has which prevents enemies from taking one shot immediately because they have no warning, but it allows Xerath to gain something for the warning he gives. This change rewards Xerath for knowing where his enemies are instead of just guessing with all three shots, and allows enemies sufficient warning to have the ability to dodge shots, albeit making them harder to dodge than they are at the moment.

Solution #3: A minor CDR buff

Xerath has a really clunky effect in his ult. If Xerath begins channeling Rite of the Arcane and cancels it by moving before firing any shots, the ability’s cooldown is reduced by 50%. However, if Xerath only fires one, then the ability still goes on its full cooldown. I propose to make the effect more consistent and reward Xerath when he only needs 1-2 shots, the ability should have 34% reduced cooldown when Xerath only fires one shot, and it should have 17% reduced cooldown when Xerath fires two. This doesn’t fix any big problem, but it makes the ability more consistent and rewards well-used Rites of the Arcane.

Alternately, to avoid guessing where enemies have gone and pot shots by Xerath, the CDR could only apply if the shots used were landed.

If solutions 2 and 3 were implemented, then the warning shot would have to only give the CDR bonus if it found any enemy champions, because then Xerath could simply fire off the warning to look for enemies and then cancel the rest and reduce the cooldown if he failed.

Rite of the Arcane should feel like Xerath’s most awesome moment. It should feel like he’s ascended and is blasting his foes away from his sight at a whim. It doesn’t. It feels like he’s yelling to the enemies, “Look out! I’m going to go pew pew pew at you! Run in circles to take 0 damage!”