User blog comment:ClariS/Why Xerath's Passive is Bad/@comment-173.189.222.243-20130317133247

His passive does help him hold his own BECAUSE of his long range.

EX: You are sitting in the far back, nuking down the Ezreal. Out of nowhere, Mantheon shows up. He only does physical damage, and because you built like "any other far ranged mage", you have TONS of AP meaning TONS of armor. Meaning he cant do too much to you. His passive is meant to stop assassins when he is out on his own. Except Leblanc. F**k Leblanc.