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.
 * 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 's 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 remains active; it can be prudent to save your remaining shots to pick off fleeing targets.
 * The vision granted by an can help against a juking opponent, or to open a fight on brush you suspect/know has enemies within.
 * 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 Xerath'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 speedboost 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.
 * 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. This may or may not be a bug. 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.
 * To further the percentage magic penetration of, it is recommended for a to be eventually built.
 * Choosing which boots to buy depends on what needs.  is great if you like to use your spells more often or if you miss your spells a fair bit.  are great if you land your spells frequently and want to do more burst.
 * is good at ignoring magic resistance with and , while  is activated. That's 67.6% 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,, , , , , and all 21  runes (21.21 flat Mpen) for a total of 81.21 flat + 67.6% Magic penetration (the other highest possible being with  which applies -40% MR, and this same build).
 * Additional FLAT Magic penetration from masteries or items is not as effective with.
 * You should also consider that the more flat magic penetration that you have the less effective your percentile-based magic penetration will be. Regardless, by adding flat magic penetration, you are guaranteed to always do more damage when you land a spell, both with and without.
 * 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 doesn't want to rely on  for cooldown reduction, items like  go well with him.
 * 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 rather low 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.
 * Avoid getting hit by his or  if you were debuffed  to avoid his stun.
 * will have high armor due to his . Therefore, buying a can help reduce the effectiveness of the armor.
 * 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.

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