I have been playing league since the end of season 5, so I can't say that I have been playing for as long as players did since season 2. I decided to see how different the game was back then as compared to now, more specifically, I watched Xerath's old champion spotlight...It looked very odd to say the least.
That's probably why they changed him. While he has a slightly more conventional Mage kit now, I would love to see his Locus of Power stance incorporated either back into him or reincorporated into a new champ. I'm a Xerath main but I played him from after the rework, and I'd love to play a champ that has a kit similar to his old.
Once I got a good grip on him I could turn games pretty easily because of the W-E-R combo that let me kill their squishy carries really easily (dat passive MPen).
They specifically changed him cause as Riot put it he was odd to play and when a player actually bothered to master his strange kit it was just unfair for any squishy target on the enemy team. You'd post up half a map away and you could just 100-0 anyone you saw. But if you either weren't all that proficient with him or the enemy team knew how to get up in your face there was basically nothing you could do, your kit was hard countered by general playstyles, not too mention certain champs you had no way of surviving.
He had Galio level playrates but had Azir level winrates, basically.
I played him a decent amount pre-rework, and it was a unique playstyle with it's rewarding moments, but it was clunky as all hell and impossible to properly balance. The new reworked version is not only stronger within the same role but feels the same without having to find a spot to safely post up and pray the enemy stays in range lol
