Xerath Rework Analysis: Showing you Real Magic

Why was Xerath reworked? Well to start off with, every champion that is designed has a specific theme to it. The champion's overall play style resulting from the intricacies of each ability, to how they pan out when you combine all of their abilities together, is what sets the theme of play style of the champion.

Xerath was primarily intended to be a sieging artillery monster, but his previous skill set did not really convey that. Old Xerath was more of a long range area of effect mage that can burst every once in a while. Riot was not satisfied with an artillery mage that only had one poke spell at his disposal other than his ultimate. For a long period of time after, Riot realised Xerath had to be changed in order to fit the intended theme.

However, reasons to rework a champion do not only just include making the theme of focus clearer. It also incorporates changes to replace any intended unique mechanics that are “not fun” and are more of a constraint than an advantage. One main offender of this is the primary use of Locus of Power to increase the range of other ablities. Xerath was then reworked and released, ascending into a fragile but chaotic artillery siege machine.

      

Less QQ, More Pew Pew

1. Damage Components

Access to more damage abilities means more spells thrown out by Xerath. This allows constant pressure with strong wave clear and poke (comparable to Nidalee as spells will affect all units, both champion and minion).

A point to take note of is the ability power ratio of Xerath’s main wave clearing ability, Arcanopulse. It is clear that from the number of it (+75% AP), it probably seems to do "tons of damage" which is useful for wave clear. However, it is missing a tiny bit of ability power scaling to one shot minions.

This was a problem with old Xerath, where you would need to keep up with a certain, high amount of ability power with the old Arcanopulse. This allowed Xerath to one shot either caster, melee or both minions. If this was not possible, you would have to auto attack them to ensure the last hit or wait for the next cool down, hindering (as well as be frustrating) Xerath’s proficiency with wave clearing. With the existence of an additional area of effect spell, Eye of Destruction, the base damage from your second area of effect ability will make up for having low ability power.

2. Range Components

By incorporating a smart idea of charging Arcanopulse to get a longer range compared to old Xerath's self-root to enter "siege mode", Xerath still has access to long range without having to do anything niche. Eye of Destruction and Shocking Orb automatically have a long range to retain his theme as an artillery machine. A short range spell would be against Xerath's theme, very much akin to old Xerath’s Mage Chains being half the range of his main damage spell.

Although movement speed is reduced while channelling Arcanopulse, you are still able to move. This is a huge change compared to not being able to move due to self-rooting from Locus of Power. Previously, you had to be in the absolute best position to maximise Xerath's damage output, in order to not waste time un-rooting and re-rooting yourself when you needed to move. Being in the best spot was key to old Xerath’s game play. As a result, Xerath is less likely to die as well as less punishing to play due to being able to move while channelling Arcanopulse in team fights.

3. Utility Components

Eye of Destruction applys a much stronger slow (with increased damage) if the smaller circle hits. Due to the circle being hard to hit with, you need help from your teammates to crowd control them or as use it as a follow up from Shocking Orb. It is not a simple damage ability as instead it requires foresight to judge (due to having a high cool down, so making full use of it is important) when is the best time to cast this on the enemy players.

Eye of Destruction has also been designed successfully in terms of player skill. This depends on how the player makes maximum usage of the spell, and how well the player plays to Xerath’s strength of long range. Managed to hit the central part? Great, they have now lost a chunk of health and have a massive slow on them. This allows Xerath to kite. Xerath can then reposition from diving enemy champions (and providing potent crowd control) which shows the player making use of Xerath’s long range to combat the weaknesses of not being mobile.

If all else fails of hitting the diving enemy champions with Eye of Destruction, you still have your trusty Shocking Orb left. This is a spell that rewards the player based on how well they are playing to Xerath’s strength (longer stun based on distance travelled). Xerath’s strength is the absurd range of his abilities. Because of Xerath’s theme as a sieging artillery mage, Xerath’s long range should be abused to make up for the lack of mobility.

When a player plays Xerath and takes this into account, the player’s range between Xerath and the enemy champions would be within maximum spell range. This is how Riot wants players to play the champion, and is one of the key aspects that help link the play style of the champion to its theme (an artillery mage firing from afar). As a result, the player will be greatly rewarded by getting a maximum duration stun once the diving enemy bruiser breaks through the pack of your team. A longer stun will allow you to safely reposition yourself further away to avoid the danger zone of the enemy bruisers. This is how playing to Xerath's strengths will overcome Xerath's weaknesses.

Mana Surge

Although Mana Surge is a simple mana regeneration passive, it is a lot better than his previous passive. Ascended Form gave additional armour based on your ability power. However, due to Xerath being a squishy champion anyway, the additional armour is not that too useful until a defensive item has been obtained, reducing the usefulness of Xerath's passive.

Mana Surge in combination with a mandatory Athene's Unholy Grail or Chalice of Harmony allows Xerath to wave clear sufficiently early to mid game without going out of mana. This reduces his reliance on Blue Buff, and therefore Xerath is more safe to pick.

The purpose of Mana Surge is also to help supply Xerath's large consumption of mana due to the abilities having a heavy mana cost. At level 5, both Arcanopulse costs a whopping 120 mana, with Eye of Destruction costing 110 mana (chunking around 10% of the mana bar with a maximum base mana of around 1100). A Mana Surge proc will regain at least 30-45% of Xerath's mana bar back. Spamming of abilities late game will still drain mana fast, even with Blue Buff acquired, making Xerath's passive important and valuable throughout the whole game.

Rite of the Arcane

Giving Xerath a global-like ability for his ultimate helps define Xerath’s main theme. With the option to fire upon enemies far away, that is also a self-root, it tells the player the scariness of artillery mage, while clearly conveying the drawbacks; the need to be in a good position before unleashing hell.

In my opinion, Rite of the Arcane is a skill that has a different purpose compared to his three main abilities. This is mainly due to you being limited to your ultimate when you anchor yourself. Therefore, players have to analyse the current situation to see whether the ultimate would be better than their main abilities at that moment.

Cases that would involve your ultimate is that you have managed to land all of your abilities including the stun onto a priority target, and the only ability you have left to finish off the target is your ultimate. Another situation is that your team has managed to make more than one enemy champion clump together but you are not in range for an Arcanopulse, Eye of Destruction combo. This means your ultimate would be used to make full possible use out of the situation.

Another situation (that might be obvious to you) consists of providing global presence by performing a “press R” Karthus gank, as well as cleaning up the low health stragglers during or after a team fight. Other unique cases include using it as poke if you land either Q or W on a priority target. Following on from this, a 4v5 would be the case if a team fight were to occur, which forces the enemy team to back off, allowing free objectives.

However, with the warning to the enemies of incoming Arcane Barrages in addition to the long delay between the skill shot indicator to when they hit, it is both a skill intensive and mind gaming skill shot to land without any crowd control. As a result, you have to weigh the success chance of it landing against the choice or choices of target. This includes differentiating between how prioritising the crowd controlled target is, the amount of people that you can hit or the prioritisation of carries at the back that are not necessarily crowd controlled (IF you are good at landing your ultimate). Nonetheless, as long as there is some form of crowd control, you are guaranteed a successful shot of your ultimate.

Conclusion

Overall, I think Riot has done a great job reworking Xerath. With a “charge” mechanic incorporated into Arcanopulse, and a long range Eye of Destruction and Shocking Orb with drawbacks, it makes Xerath’s main play style fluid without the use self-roots or being overpowered. Xerath does not need to abruptly stop to gain range which was similar to old Xerath’s Locus of Power mechanic.

Riot retains Xerath’s siege mechanic by making it clear that when Xerath anchors to the ground, Xerath is both extremely dangerous while vulnerable at the same time. Proper usage of Eye of Destruction, while staying at a far distance firing Shocking Orb (due to long range abilities and lack of mobility) awards Xerath for good decisions and correct style of playing. I would recommend others to try Xerath if they have not, as the once again ascended artillery mage is definitely fun to play with.

 

- Raymond "Masurai123" Poon

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