User blog comment:ClariS/Why Xerath's Passive is Bad/@comment-37.241.174.86-20130319134711/@comment-141.218.144.75-20130319142509

Lore and Gameplay should never be at odds with one another, and Gameplay should never have to gut itself to serve the lore. The reasoning of "As he gets more powerful his prison gets tougher" has been mentioned, and while it makes thematic sense, Xerath's passive is still terrible from a mechanical standpoint and doesn't work with Xerath's playstyle at all. If her were a close range caster, it would work. But he isn't. He's a seige tank. Seige tanks don't have outrageous armor for a very obvious reason: They shouldn't be getting hit.