Xerath mega thread
With the secon tranche of Shurima Lore coming up (and MYMU) there have been a lot more of information about its inhabitants (present and past) and many questions arised.
Xerath is the character that has undergone major changes over the corse of the two events and I want to make this a place to discuss them.
LORE
This is where the biggest changes happened, we did know that Xerath saved Azir when they were young, he was made the prince right hand and that he could study magics because of it. We knew that Xerath ultimately betrayed Azir taking the Ascension ritual in his place. What we didn't know was which actions had taken Xerath to achieve this goal and keep Azir alive until then. This revealed a rather dark character which was already hinted in his color text. Many players didn't like this change from his original character of the magus who wanted to learn the very essence of magic, yet the whole new story held it's ground and while me myself was one that really disliked this change firsthand I came to realize that this new Xerath could be on par with his former self...
Until the opening of the Tomb of the Emperors...
The being that emerged from the tomb doesn't have much left of this new Xerath either... I canìt see no reason for him to want to become an "emperor" unless:
- There has been another change in his personality during the imprisonment of which there is no sign for now (and would be poor writing if this is it because it's just justifying a plot tool).
- It's actually a play from Xerath in order to lure out Nasus and Azir.
- He uses the term "emperor" but what he really wants to do is reshaping Shurima and Runeterra in a way we don't know and doesn't put him as a proper emperor with slaves at his feet.
I really hope it to be one of the last 2 possibilities (or another one I did not foresee, just not the 1st one please Riot). Xerath doesn't need to be in the grey zone, it's fine if you want him to be dragged from there to the darker than black one but don't to that at the expense of a solid character
SKILLS AND KIT
The Mid Year Mage Update did turn to be not as drastic and destroying as most of us predicted and was overall a good thing. What bothered me a lot was the added (though minor) delay on his R shots but it's something you can get used to, and having 3-4-5 shots helps a lot in triggering TLD (which has become a more valid Keyston even if still not that right).
I'm a bit disappointed with the promised small visual upgrade of his ultimate. The zoom out is something I thank RIot for, the new explosion is also better than before but it still feels like a shiny bubble blower without the visual and sound impact it should have as an ultimate move (like some ground shaking effect).
Then there is something that popped out during the Shurima Q&A about Xerath magic:
The magic Xerath uses is a blend of the dark magic he found in his researches, combined with the power he stole from the Ascension ritual, so it's kind of a blend of different strands of magic.
I think as Xerath's power grows he'd be able to master most types of magic, but that they'd have a different effect from other users of the same magic when filtered through his body
Now, this is rather odd because it doesn't make much sense that different kind of magic mixed together with the power from Ascension all result in what is pure destructive force without even the slightest sign of anything related to dark magic (curses, illusions, etc.). I can justify it with Xerath chosing to use only destructive magic also as a way to "discharge" himself from the overflowing power he has.
ART
This is just a little rant of mine but I'm still not ok with his best skin, Guardian fo Sands to be out of focus in his Splash Art being in the background of the other characters.
