Talk:Xerath/@comment-24055932-20131221031835/@comment-24042737-20131221144058

I don't think the rework WEAKENS him but nor do I think it makes him stronger either. I think it's more of a rebalance of power. Like the magic penetration that is in his kit gained from using locus has been moved onto his passive and, while weakened, it is on ALL the time. This way you can attempt to retreat plus cast spells that still hurt the tanks. And Xerath is still a monster at poking, except this time it isn't one arcanopulse every 3-4 seconds. It's his arcanopulse and his new W. And the charge up time needed for arcanopulse to fire ~1400 units felt around the same as using W like before. It may not give you the feeling of snap on locus, fire away, then snap off, but it doesn't mean that his poking pokwer was reduced. And his hard CC is kinda a nerf in lane, but it's still a strong skill, nonetheless. And the new Xerath farms waves much better than now, so it's also a general increase in gold for him.

On the other hand, about locus. First off, I do not think that locus should count as an escape. You do have to use about a second to even get that movement speed, which is only 35% for two seconds. So lets say Xerath, without boots, runs in a straight line for three seconds, thats about 1020 units traveled. Another instance is Xerath uses one second to set up his locus and to deactivate it then uses his 35% ms for two seconds, which means he moves about 918 units in a three seconds total. So that's really nothing to worry about. And second, locus as an ultimate was a good step overall. I like the fact that immobilizing himself gave him an extremely strong skill, rather than the fact of boosting existing skills. You can end it early though, just re-press it's button. And it does help, quite a lot, in teamfights. His ultimate nearly guarantees a hit so using it on the ADC or APC from an unholy distance is extremely powerful. Plus it gives sight on WHEREVER Xerath can fire. That is a HUGE powerboost because unlike ultimates made to snipe low health enemies, Xerath has vision anytime, no relience on wards. It means that a half health enemy within his ultimate range is practically dead. It's nearly unbelieveable how much power is loaded onto that ultimate. I beleive it's well worth the cooldown it has.

Now that all said, I will miss Xerath. He looses the old cycle of locus and arcanopulse, which is a void which will probably never be filled. But all that I have said was based on my experiences on PBE when he was last on there. It's been a long time since then and they've been working on him. It's possible that he's been radically altered since then. Like I personally think they might change/remove the vision his ultimate gives.