Talk:Xerath/@comment-86.163.10.158-20120322193541/@comment-77.97.134.113-20120323185419

You must have done something wrong then. You should start with boots and 3 pots. Then buy two or three dorans. I find three dorans to be very good, because it allows me to spam skills even without blue. It does slow down 'big' items, but it allows me to completely zone enemy carry - whenever the come to lane you just use your combo and free farm, because they have to go back. Though if you don't spam two doran rings are better. After that I rush Deathcap. With deathcap the damage done by Xerath is just ridiculous.

If you are not satisfied with the damage and yet you do not build RoA... I can't really see a reason for that. Maybe you were previosuly playing with Annie or other mages with greater burst? Xerath deals greater damage than Annie but it takes more time and skills, whereas Annie uses two skills and already does a ton of damage. I think this could be your problem. What skills do you max? When I started playing with Xerath I was maxing Q and then W (maxing E later). Prioritising Q and E and giving only 1 point into W increases overall damage in early and mid game. Alternatively you maybe don't land his E often. Many players keep theselves too far from the fight and reduce their damane by using Q and Ult while very rarely using E. I find that Xerath's E is very powerful with its scaling and base damage.