NOTE: If you dislike, atleast msg me what is wrong, I love criticism.


1. Xerath is a champion where you want the enemy to be as squishy as possible, and ideally not a enemy team that can engage well like (Kled, J4, Noc...) So if the meta, or the enemy team comp has multiple fighters/tanks you probably want to avoid Xerath in that matchup or in other words, you dont want to be in a matchup where you need to buy liandrys

2. If you dont feel confident to ask me or for any reason, ask questions on this link Xerath Reddit, or ask on Xerath Discord Channel


3. If you look over the recomended items above each item set is a "Note" and it explanes why I buy it and when you should buy it more clearly, my brother said he would not know this at all if I did not tell him so Im telling you now :)


4. If you dont like my guide or any reason you want a diferent build, click HERE it will redirect you to a popular website what many people use to quicly see the most used champon builds from high elo/lvl up spells/First buy and some statistics.

4. My current IGN is Deppengu and I really like this electric boyo :)

Patch Notes

- Visual update ⇒ CANCELED This part is taking last priority, so it will be updated after I complete the "Vs. Champions and Guide" update

- Vs. Champions ⇒ CANCELED For nor I want to put a link what will get you to a certain part of the guide on every champion what can be your oponent so you see a bit more in depth how to counter him.

- Guide ⇒ UPDATED Deleting unnececary stuff and prepearing for visual update.


- Gameplay explanation "Section" ⇒ UPDATED Explaned how I play from lvl1-5, lvl6-14, lvl15-18 and in the 3 sections I explaned how to deal with certain champions in the 3 game phases


- Spells "Section" ⇒ REMOVED I merged it with the new updated "Gameplay explanation" section


- Before Game "Section" ⇒ REMOVED I merged it with the new updated "Gameplay explanation" section


- Masteries ⇒ UPDATED These masteries are a bit situational, but in teamfights they can be usefull aniways, I just dont like changing masteries based on enemies and like to take the best ones and keep them. I did some testing and witout any defensive items your MR and Armor jumps from 81 /39 to 118 / 71 for 2seconds.


- Vs. Champion ⇒ UPDATED Added Kayn, junglers that you need to be carefull of, and tweaked some already egzisting counterpicks.


- VideoClips in "How to hit enemy dodges" section ADDED


- Explore "The Dark Seal" as starting item (probably worth but still) ⇒ADDED This item is amaizing especialy for this build, beacasue it helps psyhically that you play safer, click HERE to see my most recent games with it, the more recent games are better because I was still going into that "Safe mod"


- Explore when and is "Seraphs Embrance" worth it ⇒ REMOVED With my playstile I get into risky situations extremly rarely and I dont feel the use of the item for me.


- "Spells" section ⇒ REMOVED In the start I did not see the point of it but I kept it because other gudies did that, now Mobafire has the ABILITIES section on the website so I think now its a great moment to delete my part, to check the abilities click HERE


- Rush negatron cloak early game to counter AP enemy bursts and finish the item after the core build is finished (Morellonomicon, Ludens Echo) ⇒ REMOVED the item is not worth because you cant rush negatron cloak what is the main reason I buy it and you get cleanse on enemies that need CC to kill aniways.


- Alot of UPDATING, ADDING, REMOVING where I did not start to type patch notes (sorry)


- Guide published May 24th, 2016

Gameplay

Pregame

Because Xerath has no escape he needs to get defensive summoner spells.

Cleanse for champions who need to stun to kill like (Twitted Fate, Syndra, Veigar...) but it doesent work for Annie that well
Exhaust champions who make a all in combo on close range like (Zed, Azir...)
Barrier for champions who do long ranged combos/ults (Lux, Ziggz, Karthus)
Teleport I might use it in a stupid way, but I mostly use it for a fast recall and then back to lane to not lose on XP and gold

Heal I only take heal as support, and basically force my adc to take exhaust, because its allot more usefull to him because he has a shorter range

Ignite I dont preffer that item on Xerath and I hate it overall


Early-Game (lvl 1-5):

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After I get to lane I ward for possible invades and wait for minions, when minions spawn I Arcanopulse all minions (witout any reason I just do it), but while you charge your Arcanopulse enemy is scared and tryes to dodge, he doesent even think about attacking you, and sometimes you land your Arcanopulse on all minions + enemy champion.
After that depending on the enemy I AA minions, the enemy or ward raptors so I can mele them for mana. At this stage while they are still not too fast, I preffer to aim your Q in a way that it hits when they dont dodge and when they dodge, so that the edges get them.

When I get 1300 gold (950 if you start blue crystal)(MINIMUM) I recall to buy Lost Chapter so my sustain on lane is huge and I get some bonus damage with the AP, obviusly its not a 100% thing you need to think about it "do I recall or not?"

Depending on the enemy I choose to upgrade diferent spells, and if enemy is good at pushing upgrade Eye of Destruction to lvl2 so you can clear caster minions in one combo, and if you are ok with your farming speed lvl2 Shocking Orb because safety always first

And dont forget, dont be impatient with Xerath, there were so many situations where enemy was extremly low and becuase I went too agressive I died, remember Xerath is POKE.
And as a overall bonus ward one side and stick to that side of the lane, but ward a bit deeper because the lane bush is not the only path they can choose to gank you (from the side you ward).

"PATTERN" if enemy dodges your Arcanopulse-s try to find his pattern... if its a better enemy he wil change the patterns often so if you are interested what patterns people normaly use click THIS to get to that section.
NOTE: I dont pay atention to patterny anymore, it became automatic for me, so this might be outdated, or even wrong, it was just what my impression was how the enemy dodges at that time.

When landing your combos, they are usually like this: (W + Q), (E + AA + W + Q), (E + AA + W + Q + R).
Note: After E you almost always want to sneek in a auto attack, not for the damage but because of the boosted mana refund of your pasive

Depending on the matchup of your lane and other lanes I roam, and I roam alot if I feel like it.


Mid-Game (lvl6-11):

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Now that I have my ultimate, I always look at top and bot every now and then to see can I ult, and if our jungler wants to gank a specific lane

When you get enemy low HP only use Rite of the Arcane when its one hit ult unless you are confident. At this stage the game will have more action and it would not hurt to help someone because your wave celar is excelent now, and depending on the situation I use spells to zone the enemy, you let him decide or he dies to you if he doesent dodge or to your ally if he dodges because he will lose the distance between your ally and himself, because its better to always play it safe.

I never enter unwarded areas (In emergency situations you can use Eye of Destruction for vision, when I have Farsight Alteration I ward all possible flanks to warn me (from less agressive wards slowly to more agressive), because blue trinket doesent have a expire timer and you can place infinite amount and you only lose it if the enemy passes the area.

Now many junglers start geting dangerous so you need to be more carefull, and assassins start to be a threat to you.
And at this point enemies should get roaming ults, and their Zhonya's Hourglass, when the enemy uses zhonias throw your Shocking Orb at him so that the spell is IN him when he comes out what makes a instant stun and doesent let him to flash away or use any spell at all, same for teleport ults like the ones from Twisted Fate and Pantheon, just land your Shocking Orb where they should appear and if you time it correcly it should instant stun them (not sure will the card still be casted or panth jump because they aim at a specific target before they even fully TP)

If enemy roams try to follow them, even if your team loses you will most likely find atleast one enemy with a easy ult kill, but if you react fast you can come there and save the day, for example if corky takes package dont just spam ping and leave it be because no one listens in solo que, just go to the lane where teammates pushed the most and wait a bit, but if team listens dont roam and honor them because its a rare sight.


Late-Game (12-18):

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I try to evade buyng defense and go full glass cannon, and if your positioning is good no enemies should get to you unless they are a champ like "Noc, Kayn.. or a champion with 2 jumps"

Late game try to find the enemy that carries, if its a tank it will be hard for you but if its the ADC that should be the easiest enemy to deal with, if enemies have a even team try to kill the utility enemies first.
Your level 3 ultimate is extremly strong and can kill a non tank enemy if you hit 2-3 casts.

If teamfight is ON and enemy got champs what can get close to you easy, try to keep your Shocking Orb for that.

Stealing baron should be with Q if you are in range because your ult warns them and just makes them wait for a certain HP pool to burst smite baron, but if you ult and have no vision try to hit a spot where no enemies are so you dont waste ludens and get the extra damage for the steal.

Finding the patterns

NOTE: Yes again, just wanted to say, those patterns are something I wrote long ago, and I dont activly look at them anymore, so they can be outdated or wrong, this was just my interpretation of how people dodged at that time.

If your gut feeling doesent work try to analyse how they dodge, here are dodge patterns I noticed and if you notice some I will be sure to add them.

Bronce
Here people dont even know Xerath is a champion because he is not a often champion.
Against the midlaner you will see extremly basic dodges and sometimes even not even dodging because they dont know your animations.
And if they dodge it will probably be bot side, this is not from personal expirience but I asked some people.

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Silver - Gold
Mainly people are not good at dodging and will go for the gut feeling and think little about dodging, especialy when you hit all your skillshots.

Q Dodges in this elo are:
COMMON - Always left, Always right, always to the closer river, continue walking, doesent dodge

UNCOMMON - Walks the oposite way after you cast the spell, Always dodging to the center of the lane

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Platinum
In low platinum there is 50/50 will the person know how to dodge but in higher divizions expect it more often

Q Dodges in this elo are:
COMMON - Runing to the closer river, Runing to the direction of your base if you get them close to a wall and they are runing away, Ignoring you and farming, runing oposite direction after you cast your Q

UNCOMMON - Runing to the direction of their base if you get them close to a wall and they are runing away, moove left-right-left-right fast and releasing the mouse after you cast your Q, Ignoring your Q and going full ham on you because they are anoyed of your Q-s :D
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Diamond
These diamond patterns are from me and from another person on Xerath reddit and its not organised on rarity becuase I did not play alot games in diamond.

Q Dodges in this elo are:
-When you charge your Arcanopulse they will run in a certain direction, and just before you released your spell (still not released) they will go oposite direction and after you release it they will walk the original direction again.

- When you release your Q they will try to go backward to get out of your Q range, this only works if you just get enough range to reach them with your Q

- left right left (very fast) then go right but keep walking right.




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How to hit your ULTIMATE
-The most common type of dodging your ultimate is by walking to the direction where you are, but i recomend to press ult and R direcly on enemy and try to suprise him with your first R, after that try predicting where he walks and just if he dodged backwards predict the dodge, and the last ult you throw it between your ult max range and their character if they are close to the edge or they will dodge sideways, in rare situations they juke back if they are so close to the edge. And this is the only pattern I can tell for starters if they are strugling with hitting ults because you get this basicly with game expirience and I cant help here too mutch because its too complicated to tell in words.

- Basicly how they dodge depends on their: Skill/HP/Moovspeed/MobilitySpells/How close to your ult edge they are/How many shots you fired/How close the support or cone is/Alone or in a group/Is he under pressure of your teammates/... so I cant tell patterns for this especialy because its a spell that can be dodged in all directions.

-Press R and try to hit a bit infront it is good for zoning if you are not so confident or the enemy is good at dodging, that way he wont run away so easy when your team tryes to katch up to him, so if you want that press R the second you activade ult on him and ONLY ult when he starts walking again.. dont do it unnececary, but after your ult comes to expire point just spam the last ults on him.

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Here I will show the 3 basic enemy dodges, this is just so you see what I typed, especialy the one what I explaned this way "Runing to the direction of your base if you get them close to a wall and they are runing away"

- This one shows the classic type to dodge when they are close to a wall (ofc can just continue walking) and this is explaned as this in text format "Runing to the direction of your base if you get them close to a wall and they are runing away"
Play Video

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- Sometimes you need to aim just where the enemy is because they do all fancy wiggle movements but dont move in the end.
Play Video

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- This is you could say "The mainstream dodge" just SO MANY people dodge to the bottom side, In this case this could be dodging to closest river or dodging always bottom side. Play Video

TIPS / Warnings

-you CANT cancel your Q so dont charge it brainlessly

-DONT get greedy and try to get mana on minions if enemy is scary, rather ward Razorbeaks and auto attack them!

-If a enemy comes with a gap closer DONT E him if he has 2 or if he has one gap closer but still did not use it, rather slow with W and wait him to jump and THEN stun him, because if you hit or miss its closly the same... HIT means he will be stuned short period of time because what closer you hit the stun is shorter and he can katch up to you with hes gap closer after that

and if you miss... well same situation but just you did less damage


-When you are not confident about hiting your Q get in the "Fog of war" or bush and charge it from there and hit the enemy, its a 100% chance to hit (example in video) Play Video -When being cased, or when enemy is going towards you but you are just out of his vision, you can use your E stun to suprise him, probably wont dodge, and maybe even kill him (Clip not available yet, bcs its not that often that you get in that situation)


-DONT be like other xerath palyers and charge to the max and THEN think what to hit charge the minimum ALWAYS

-Your Shocking Orb has a shorter stun duration if you hit a target what is close, try to avoid using your Shocking Orb at close distance if possible, a way to do it is slow him with Eye of Destruction and then after some distance throw your Shocking Orb

-If you play on locked screen like me when you hold a shillshot what is far away press "Z" or "Y" idk what is it on other keyboards.. but the most convinient position to press that is this one so put the lock on this key.
-When you go through the jungle to roam or whatever the reason is, AA jungle camps for mana (Plants and wards work too)

-if you have a sneeky gap through enemy minions use it to hit your E, its closly a guaranteed hit Play Video
-The first dodge direction enemy uses will be used again if you Q after some time, its like the enemy brain refreshed :)

-While you charge your Q try to analize how the enemy moves, over time it should start to go automacly, basicly dont be stupid to try to analize while you dont even charge your Q.

- For hitting your skillshots you can use the animation of the enemy auto attacking a minion, because: It roots them for a small duration and they are probably focused on the minion more than your Q

-In lane or when enemy is alone and knows you are aming at him that is the only part where they activly try to dodge, when there are teammates close to him (not just one but the full team) they wont think about it too hard even if you start hitting, unless they are in front line.

- And you can predict movements most easy if enemy is under pressure of your teammates or towers because the angle is of escaping your ult is not a 360 but a 180.

- Im not sure why but I sometimes just aim at a place with my Q and wait the enemy to walk in and the I release it, did not do it too often but the times I did it was more easy to predict how they move

- Try to ult enemies only when they dont have mobility spells, because they can use them to escape more easy or to get to you, basicly if possible try to avoid ulting before you waste their mobility spells

- Sometimes its worth to take a spell in your face for meleing the enemy for mana (Ahri Q for example)

-If you see your ally attacking a enemy and you ult WAIT and see will he kill him, but if he escapes then ult, if not dont... because if you cast even a single ultimate your CD will be the full cooldown, but if you dont then it will be 50% less. But if your ally might die ult and support him ofc

-if you get the enemy pattern and you OVER predict he wil probably realize it and change the pattern even if a idiot.

-if enemy is tilted try to poke them most they dont try to dodge your spells at most so its easiest to hit them

-You dont need blue after you buy lost chapter so dont ask the jungler for the blue unless its like Rengar or so because you can alow yourself to miss more Q-s and spam W too in that situation

-I recomend to turn "Screen Flash on damage" on because you dont look at your champion too often, your spells have long range and especialy when you ult you have no idea if someone is attacking you.
Sadly if minions attack you or monsters it can make you panic and cancel your ult, happened more often than actual champs, so you decide

Random Moments

Totaly "calculated"
Play Video
_______________________________________________________________________________________ This one would be sutch a cool looking play if I did not get a lag spike at my 4th shot, its not a excuse you see it would hit but it landed too late :(
Play Video _______________________________________________________________________________________
In this clip ... well I just killed enemies with style :)
Play Video
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Just a clip of killing one of my bigest counters <3
Play Video
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Love when enemies suck :D
Play Video
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You can hit minions for ludens to not risk enemy dodging your ults Play Video
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Putting it as a last clip so not many ppl see it :)
this is a dodge patternt hats almost impossible for xerath to hit (Im the vayne) Play Video