Xerath/Strategy

Skill usage

 * has strong lane control in the hands of a skilled player, using well-aimed to harass and farm at the same time.
 * If the target is running (without any speed buff) perpendicularly to the line of, lay the spell about 100 to 150 distance before the target.
 * Use in conjunction with your team's gankers to help in the kill effort.
 * burst damage at level 6 is one of the highest in the game, at potentially the greatest range as well.
 * is a hard champion to kill and catch due to the short cooldown on and high armor
 * An essential combo for is to use  on a target, then immediately follow it up with an  directed right on top of the foe, making the stun nearly guaranteed. Combined with  range bonus,  can easily punish an enemy in a bad position.
 * can also be used to trigger, the upside being its very short cast time and thus making it even more difficult for foes to react in time.
 * Make use of the 12 second period that  remains active; it can be prudent to save your remaining shots to pick off fleeing targets.
 * is one of the most powerful mages in game; but takes time to master, just as he has:
 * He holds one of the most potent bursts in game, combined with a mix of sustained damage thanks to his short cooldowns.
 * His entire kit is quite flexible, allowing him to lock down key targets and keep himself safe.
 * His abilities are somewhat forgiving, missing an ability is usually not a problem as you got a lot of  shots and 's cooldown is almost a joke.
 * His armor suits his role; to kill the ADC without taking much punishment
 * However, while he has few weaknesses , they are terrible for him:
 * is very mana-hungry  and his poke is quite avoidable if not used correctly.
 * While  burst is to be feared ,  he is ultimate dependant get caught without  and you will get easyly killed.
 * While it might seems obvious to max out it's actually pretty situational:
 * Max when you are facing a normal ranged mage champion
 * Max when you are facing a melee champion; it's going to be really easy to land and provides much more damage than.
 * Maxing out  is not a very good idea, while you will be doing nearly true damage to your opponent your other skills remain weak; anyways it actually work if your opponent has a lot of magic resistance at the start , over 60 (think of ) and you are likely to end up dealing more damage than if you maxed the other 2.
 * The CD drop in the ability is an extremely noticible improvement, as you will be able to spam your abilities a lot and with massive range , and while you are not doing huge damage you will actually able to hold their use as they don't cost much mana at low ranks.
 * The vision granted by an can help against a juking opponent, or to open a fight on brush you suspect/know has enemies within.
 * Each of  shots deal a pretty low damage at rank one, if you are hoping to kill your lane opponent before going to the shop for the first be sure to harrass them under 80% before going in for the kill.
 * Never understimate  and  range without ; they still hit from pretty far away ,  for example can be used to harrass  without fear of getting much counterattack, and   AoE range can be impressive and usually allows  to kill someone retreating into their tower
 * Unless has built up sufficient cooldown reduction and you anticipate needing the movement speed soon, deactivate  immediately after done casting the first row of active abilities, not waiting for cooldowns. Otherwise it would buy the target some time to run and you cannot even hit them with  's auto attack.
 * Do not use for the movement speed boost when attempting to escape because of the channel time to activate and deactivate.
 * However the speed boost can be used to juke. Enter a brush and then activate, then juke the opposing champion by running out the way you came.
 * has relatively low cooldowns on his main sources of damage, and, so use them whenever possible in a 2v2, or 2v1 situation. When you expect a teamfight, keep all of your abilities off of cooldown.
 * A deadly tactic  can use is to hide in a brush where you suspect a teamfight will break out soon, let your team initiate and activate , procceed to recklessly spam   , and when you see a key target (ADC , APC) lock them down with +  , all of this is perfomed in a veil of safetiness as  can abuse of his range to use all of his abilities without leaving the brush.
 * Rebember that  deals severe AoE damage ,and as key targets usually hide with their tankier allies you can use any remaining shots of  (after killing the key target) to bring down the weakened opponents, and always rebemer to continue the reckless spam of  and
 * is a good farmer with his long range ability to hit all the minions in a wave at once when is activated and  is used while locked. After injuring the wave and waiting for a few seconds he can clear the whole wave with  once again.
 * When activating, there is a delay until you can cast spells. However, you can still acquire a target during that delay, and the range increase will apply. So if you activate and immediately target an enemy with ,  will cast as soon as the delay for  is over even if they have left the normal range. . In Xerath's champion tips, it says to use the delay in  to line up enemies.
 * What this means is you can "queue" up your damaging spells during the delay in . After the delay, all spells "queued" will be cast.
 * A smart damaging combo would be to start off with and proc the stun with  with only one cast, then activate  for the extra range in case they manage to slip out of range. Hit them with the the last two casts of your ultimate and  + the extra magic penetration to finish them off.
 * Another smart combo is to get them in range and pop, while it is activating queue up and , hit them with two shots from  (they will be stunned hopefully and not moving) and another  (it should be off cooldown at least at higher levels and with any CDR) and your last . It's important to note that while there is a cast time for both  and  the cast times can overlap, meaning you can cast them in sequence without having to wait for the previous spell to finish.
 * If your target has a quick escape ability, it may be hard to land all of your before they run away. Instead, stun them with  and one  then, and use your last two casts of  after they've blinked away. Feel free to use  any time during this combo.

Build usage

 * doesn't have as many of the itemization problems that other tanky mages have because his abilities have two important stats. grants him armor as he builds ability power and  gives him percentage magic penetration.
 * Itemizing for cooldown reduction and ability power is most viable, as already has built in magic penetration from.
 * lets  ignore  and get .
 * most importand stats are Ability Power (pretty obious -he is a mage-), Mana Regeneration and Cooldown Reduction
 * ​It is imperative for  to atain those stats and while   gives all of those, it quite lacking in terms of AP , a much cheaper option, (however it does not provive -it isn't actually necesary on -MR) ,and as it gives all of the refered stats in a very generous amount, this item should be obtained first to abuse of the great Mana Regeneration it provides.
 * combined with  and sorcery will let you hit the 39% CDR, which is one of the main goals of .
 * should be bougth right after hitting the CDR cap as you have left damage a bit behind to aim for the precious CDR and  is just the perfect thing to get rolling again.
 * It it's extremly unrecommended to get  on the first time you go shopping, you might deal harsh damage, but you will not able to sustain the cost of your abilties for long or spam them, which is a natural caracteristic of 's kit, instead , build up your  , you will find an endless source of mana,  the CRD will quickly result in more damage than just investing on raw power ( due to the reckless and costless spam) and the damage it provides it's not bad at all.
 * To further the percentage magic penetration of, it is recommended for a to be eventually built.
 * is good at ignoring magic resistance with and , while  is activated. That's 64.12% Magic penetration.  makes buying magic resistance poorly effective against.
 * Tied highest possible combined instant (as opposed to stacking debuffs like ) magic resistance ignoring, from one lone champion targeting a high MR champion, can be achieved with level 5 active,, , , , ,  a fully stacked  and all 21  runes (19.53 flat Mpen) for a total of 101.53 flat + 64.12% Magic penetration (the other highest possible being with  which applies -40% MR, and this same build).
 * Apart from  , has no need to invest on tanky AP items, in a good player , his range should keep him safe enoght, and will let you focus on raw AP and the aforementioned CDR.
 * Since Patch V1.0.0.152 percentage penetration is applied BEFORE flat penetration, making  combined with runes and items that grant flat magic penetration a whole lot more powerful.
 * Buying a is a great investment as it will proc when you land  and allow you to land either  or  more easily.  also helps keep enemies in range of your.
 * If you enjoy spamming your skills, a can go a long way. It's a cheap way to use your spells more often early game, and it can be later upgraded into ., , and masteries/runes can get you to 40% cooldown reduction, which means your Q can be fired off every 3 seconds, for essentially no mana cost.
 * Because has  excellent ability power ratios, as well as base magic damage, on his abilities and gains armor from,  is a highly recommended item.

Countering

 * spells have a very long range because of his, take care when moving to attack him.
 * ALL of abilities' cooldowns decrease with rank. With max cooldown reduction he will be able to use his ultimate every 36 seconds. When fighting him, never expect him to be without it.
 * Even without, and  have  formidable ranges, and he will always be able to damage you first with those if you want to fight him
 * Avoid getting hit by his or  if you are debuffed with  to avoid his stun.
 * will have high armor due to his . Therefore, buying a can help reduce the effectiveness of the armor.
 * While range can be scary, he will not be able to properly get rid of you if you can get to him, as he has no dashes and a mediocre speed up. His stun might be annoying but it will not be a problem if he is not near a turret or his allies as long as you can stick to him.
 * However, rebember that getting right up in his face will not always allow you to kill him. His armor can take care of fighters and ADCs. The best approach is a melee mage, like , who can ignore his armor and take his combo for long enough to bring him down.
 * Mobile champions like, ,  and  can be hellish for  , as he will not be able to hit you with anything past.
 * can devour mana quickly if overused. Avoiding 2 or 3  of these will severely weaken  in laning phase if he has not bought  mana regeneration.
 * has an indicator of where it will land. Try to avoid Xerath's poke damage.
 * Dodging even one of will devastate his effectiveness in 1v1's and team fights because he will deal significantly less damage to you.
 * Buying can disorder  combo and also grants some magic resist.
 * However, a  keen will notice it and land  before unleashing the combo, as  has an insignificant cooldown.
 * incredibly fast burst damage and his spectacular range allows him to kill important team members like mages and ADCs in teamfights easily.
 * Normally, is not physically present in a teamfight, instead being far behind his team. Tanky champions who can survive his combo and get past his team to kill him like, , or  are an effective counter to this tactic.
 * is one of the few champions capable of harrasing and even killing early game when facing an opponent who is hiding under their turret.
 * players will always attempt to drive you to your turret and use their massive range to kill you without even getting hit by the turret.
 * depends heavily on his range to keep him away from enemy damage. Because of this, champions who can challenge his range like ,, or and gap closers like, , or  can potentially beat him.
 * Without his ultimate, damage output is not very high, but catching him without it is also hard, due to its relatively short cooldown, even at lower ranks.
 * It's even harder to kill him as his stun has a miserable cooldown and he has high armor.
 * Hit him with a silence or attack right after he has uses his ultimate.
 * Bursting him very quickly with a mage like or  is possible, due to their interrupt abilities.
 * can't burst very well before level 6. Try to make him overuse his abilities to waste his mana (just avoid ) and harass the best you can before level 6.
 * This way he will not be able to combo you at level 6.
 * has a long animation, so you should prepare to avoid.
 * 's range is fearsome but if you are able to reach him, he is still a powerful opponent at close range. Jump to him only if you are sure you can out-burst him or survive his own burst, as 's combo is one of the strongest in game. It is optimal to save your hardest CC when he has already thrown, so that his second spell can be prevented with CC before he can trigger the stun , ruining his escape.

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