User blog comment:ClariS/Why Xerath's Passive is Bad/@comment-4929329-20130317063140

ClariS, I'm rather shocked that you can't see past Xerath using his spells at their (near) maximum ranges! You see, despite his range, Xerath is actually a great mid-long range carry. I would never play a Xerath that was so squishy that he could not literally walk into autoattack range of an ADC and duke it out by stun combo, then back off, and stun combo. Why? Because doing so removes so many dimensions from Xerath's gameplay (See your reasoning for Lux and Orianna having their passives) that's it's an unspeakable horror and atrocity, given that you don't even need to buy Magic Penetration (%, Flat is fine, but Liandry's is a waste of good money on Xerath) and thus you are defeating your own champion by making yourself one of those "If I'm caught I lose instantly, but otherwise, if I aim all my skillshots right, I can instantly kill an ADC" Since your Stun combo has shorter range, it's a good idea to get closer so you can actually stun people, thus upping your risk, making Xerath a risk-reward champion.

You do not play Xerath as a pure burst caster unless the enemy team has no way of getting to you. It's just screaming "GANK ME, FOR I CANNOT ESCAPE ANYONE, AND HAVE NO TANKINESS!" Instead, you should build items like Rod of Ages, (Not Abyssal due to range nerf of sadness) Athene's [Not much magic resist, but you don't care too much about that with your newfound SPAM] or the occasional Zhonya's, if their ADC gets big. If you argue that your Xerath has so much range that he cannot be ganked, reconcile on the fact that your Xerath gets no farm, because he must rely on his Root + Q to get minions down to LOW health, and he must wait for the cooldown on his Root to stay that safe. In short, you push the lane, lose a lot of mana, and don't get much farm. Am I the only one seeing how foolish this is? So you've effectively countered YOURSELF, yet you think that you're playing him right, and despite the fact that all you do is die after killing the ADC (sometimes, other times he is saved or Flashes) you are dead set on calling Xerath a "ranged nuker" - a title that could belong to Graves, who has range, and nukes.

Xerath's durability offers him what he  needs. He absolutely requires the durability to stay near a fight because his Root will not let him easily reposition himself, so he puts himself in slightly greater than medium range location, and proceeds to nuke. If the enemy team runs, he hits them. If they come closer, he can stun them. If they stay where they are, you STILL hit them. Best of all, when they DO leap on you, then you kite them to no end (if you have Rylai's and some CDR this is hilariously easy to do)

Bottom line here: Xerath is a champion that has his fill of Magic Penetration and burst damage inherently. This frees up spots in your build so that you can buy tanky/CDR/Utility items that most other mages consider only once and a while. Therefore, it is in your best interest to abuse these opportunities and turn yourself into a more DPS-like AP Bruiser. Are you OP? Pretty much the definition of it if you do it right. No, really, I'm waiting for people to pick Xerath up like this, and have him be nerfed. The only reason I don't play him is because I never saved up for him.