Talk:Ziggs/@comment-24191440-20150312013953/@comment-1920550-20150320234352

It's a toss up...in the early game i view Ziggs as having the advantage, as he can clear waves faster than Xerath, his Q is easier to land (expert Ziggs will use Bouncing Bomb on Xerath while he's charging Arcanopulse) and his ultimate outranges Xerath's until Xerath reaches level 16...not to mention Ziggs' entire kit is AOE while Xerath's E is single target and his ult AOE is very small and unlike Xerath's, Ziggs' ult can be used in a one-on-one scenario...

However these advantages while many, are very small ones. They both have near identical damages and ranges. And Xerath has an early game advantage that nearly trumps all of Ziggs' ones by itself: his passive...the mana sustain will help him stay in lane long after Ziggs goes OOM and then you can go on the offensive...he'll either have to do a bad recall, blow Flash, or simply die. And then lategame Xerath just outscales Ziggs...while theoretically Ziggs total AP scaling is higher than Xerath's, that only happens if you manage to step on every.single.bomb on his minefield...on the other hand due to the more single target nature of his kit Xerath can burst him down faster...

But in terms of lane match up it all boils down on who can farm better and who can land more skillshots. In the latter stages Xerath works more as a single target sniper (hell's got assassin as a secondary designation), while Ziggs works more as an artillery siege mage, with more emphasis on objective taking, tower/base defences and sieges to the enemy base...to note both are extremely powerful in both these roles, but each is slightly better than the other in the aformentioned roles.