PBE Preview: Force Beyond Measure! - Xerath Rework

Standing at an abysmal 1,5% pick rate and dangling around the 50%-ish winrates, Xerath is a mediocre and underplayed champion. With Riot being proud of their 50%-ish winrate, and Xerath falling well below that - the lowest winrate is roughly 40% whereas the highest is about 55% - makes people wonder whether Xerath is a bit flawed. And I like Xerath, don't get me wrong. He's just a very nichey pick, and with the surge of assassins, Xerath really doesn't fit that picture an awful lot. Thankfully, Riot recognized this problem and made a rework on him, which is getting pushed to the PBE shortly.

So let's get cracking. The PBE takes off with a change to his passive, which is completely reworked. Instead of giving AP based off of Xerath's Ability Power, it now gives him Magic Pen as he scales throughout the game. Additionally, once every 10 seconds, he is refunded a small amount of his mana on his next basic attack. While it all doesn't seem all too special, it's pretty neat. The magic pen is taken from his old Locus of Power, which now doesn't exist anymore, and the mana regen addition is to make up for the changes made to his kit, where he now has 3 basic abilities that cost mana, and where his Q now costs more mana than currently on live. All in all, I like these changes.

Seconly is Arcanopulse, his Q. Line skillshot that deals damage. Pretty simple as it was, and it's still just as simple. Only difference is a few things. It can now ramp up range similar to Varus' Piercing Arrow, and it has a slightly increased AP ratio and mana cost. Good changes, especially since Locus of Power doesn't exist anymore, this is a way to retain that long-range snipy mage he used to be.

Next is Cosmic Blast, his new W skill. I hate the name, but that's beside the point. The old Xerath ult, Arcane Barrage, did the same thing, only thrice within its activation window. I like that they made a new skill for Xerath, because playing Xerath was, although fun, pretty stale, because you only had Q and E before. Cosmic Blast deals magic damage in an area and slows all affected targets. The targets caught in the center take significantly more damage and are significantly more slowed than those who aren't. While I like the idea of a higher reward the better you aim it, I dislike how much better the center of the skill actually is compared to the rest of the ability's AoE. A 60% increase in damage in the center is just way too much and makes it so that it's next to useless when missed and way too stronk when successfully landed. Not as thought-through a spell as it could have been.

Fourth is Spellsphere. They did a bad job on the names, really. Xerath shoots a sphere in a line and if it collides with an enemy, they are stunned briefly. I can recall a leak from Xelnath that had this skill described as a '1000 range, sniper-thin passthrough skillshot that stuns for 0,75-1,25s'. This is not what they delivered, and quite frankly, it's as underwhelming a skill as it possibly could have been. A sniper-thin line skillshot similar to Arcanopulse would have far better fitted into the kit than this ability, as far as I'm concerned. However, with what it does... it's at least a way to actually land the best possible damage from Cosmic Blast.

Then there's the new ultimate, Ascension. It immobilized Xerath, similar to how the old Locus of Power did, but it has an added gimmick. It completely doesn't do anything else Locus of Power did. His basic abilities are disabled throughout the duration, and while Xerath is "Ascended", he can shoot up to 4 blobs at a - pretty long - range, dealing magic damage to those units. He can only shoot those 4 shots within the 7 second timeframe and do nothing else. Such a wasted opportunity to make something of a wonderful concept.

The first concept of Xerath - which Riot held true to -  was: "The cornerstone of this is in his ability Locus of Power. This makes Xerath immobile, but gives his spells massively increased range(...)". This is not retained in the rework. Not only is there no ability called Locus of Power anymore, but its replacement is really underwhelming, both visually and gameplay-wise, and has no interaction to his other abilities anymore.

All in all... I'm really disappointed with the rework. I really dislike the ultimate and the E, I had such high hopes of them. Alas, there's only to wait and see what Riot's gonna change about Xerath until he actually hits the live servers. I pray to the MMR-gods that they have mercy on poor Xerath, because like this, he won't see more play than he currently does, I'm afraid.