Talk:Xerath/@comment-10880231-20140326100011/@comment-6778736-20140327170717

To say the least, the statements regarding the rework have been contradictory, to say the least. From the initial Rioter, Xelnath, claiming Xerath is statistically balanced (with statistics from over 2 years of play mind you) and in dire need of quality of life changes to make him better and unique, to ZenonTheStoic summarizing it was a mix of non-popularity and a broken kit, only to retract his statement claiming Xerath had unhealthy gameplay which has neither been the case for years, nor has it ever been an issue or an actual threat to balance.

If you've seen Zenon's recent posts about Xerath anywhere you'll see on most of them he plainly says he can 100-0 on-demand without being seen, with the implication that it's done with no countermeasures available, when Xerath was brimming with options for counterplay.

For starters, getting hit by Mage Chains out of the blue is a pretty damn good indicator of what Xerath'll try to do next, not to mention he'll be visible to the player shortly afterwards. His base damage was never high enough to kill anything from 100-0 at any point in earlygame/midgame in one go, as implied by the statement above. There's also the fact that 80% of his casts were, in fact, skillshots, skillshots which had those nice red indicators on the ground to warn for an incoming hit.

There's also the fact that Xerath could only reach approximately 400 units beyond other players seeing him, meaning that flashing/dashing/blinking his combo is a viable option. Speaking of which, said combo is, most of the time, done with Mage Chains as to assure the kill, since missing a single skillshot could easily mean a lost kill opportunity until lategame, where if you build smart in said lategame and ward accordingly, outplaying a Xerath can be a relatively simple task, as you could have your carries build a Banshee's Veil/GA to prevent unexpected lethal burst, having your support build a Mikael's Crucible to both remove Xerath's stun and heal the target, or simply building health to counteract his burst.

All the aformentioned factors don't even include Xerath's lack of mobility, big windows of opportunity due to ultimate dependency, self-root and his unreliability compared to other similar champions, as Xerath offered damage and damage alone, with the stun being more of a tool to execute said damage rather than being used for disruption.

TL;DR Rework be dubious, yo. Xerath was pretty balanced in terms of assassin-burst-mages. Skarner and Lee have people backing them up while Xerath clearly has issues that aren't being adressed, and I don't just mean the ultimate.