Talk:Xerath/@comment-4530717-20121129083752/@comment-69.141.8.150-20121229040624

"Doesnt help him carry? Waatt

he gets armor by building ap "

He's not a tanky mage like mord, swain, rumble, etc. He gets a tiny amount of Armor early on to mid game which does jack shit during the laning phase against his ap mid opponent. It does nothing late game when he actually gets a sizable amount... but the ADC has last whisper.

It makes no sense on him whatsoever. Riot just scrapped his old passive that granted him increasing spell power based that built up over a few spellcasts then reset, then slapped some scaling armor on him that has nothing to do with the rest of his kit.

Why is Graves' passive good, then, if Xerath's is bad? Graves gets 10 armor AND mr at level 1, this doubles at level 7, then triples, at level 13. Plus, trades are largely VERY similar in bottom lane. Being able to mitigate much of your opponent's damage allows an ad carry to win lanes easier. This is why Aegis was so popular as a rush item for supports and junglers.