And if top lane fails in their ability to win (or at least, keep the lane neutral), the game is eventually going to go against that team.

In the games where I’ve jungled as Udyr, the threat of Darius in the field is enough to alter my game plan to the point where I’ve had to build tankier and try to shut him down instead of going after the carries. He feels so insanely strong if left unchecked. The problem is if I go for Darius, it leaves my carries open and so forth. It’s a delicate process in keeping Darius in check and bear stunning other carries on the field. I fully expect to die first. I figure if I can give my carries 5 or so seconds, then I’ll have done my job.

Normally, I’ll build straight into a Trinity Force and switch to win hard mode. But I can’t use that build with Darius on the field. I end up switching to an Aegis of the Legion, Warmog’s, and possibly a Thornmail or a Force of Nature before finishing with a Atma’s.

Darius is just plain scary.

During laning phases, I have to pay more attention to the top lane. Won’t be able to supply ganks to the bottom lane or middle lane as much.

It’s gotten to the point where I’ll just outright ban him so that it’s not worth the headache.

As I am not the best AP middle champion, what other suggestions and tips would you make for those looking to master that lane?

Last hitting is the act of killing a minion with your attacks and spells being the lethal blow. If you can get that last hit on minions, their deaths will yield anywhere from 15 to 30+ gold. Killing a Champion nets you 300 gold. If you have been killed once, you can minimize that disadvantage by last hitting as best as you can. If you can score 30 creep kills more than your opponent, you will have neutralized their gold gain (provided they haven’t killed anyone else, either).

Every chance you get to last hit, take advantage of it!

If you’re playing a caster of sorts, you may not want to use your spells early on to secure those last hits because you may need them against your opponent. But as you progressively get stronger in both levels and item gear, you’ll be able to afford to spam spells a little more with enough reserves to get you through the next engagement. For example, I will frequently Dark Binding one unit as Morgana if I know it will get me that last little kill instead of leaving it to one of the minions.

Ideally, you want to aim for about 200 combined creep score by the 20 minute mark. Most of us starting out won’t be quite that good yet, but that’s a okay. It’s a good value to aim for.

Combined creep score – Your creep score + (Number of champions you have killed x 30). If you have a creep score of 150 and 1 champion kill, you have a combined creep score of 180.

Now get out there and practice that last hitting!

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In-depth guide to freezing lanes

“Freezing” a lane is a difficult skill to pick up. There’s all these little nuances and priorities to keep in mind like threat tables on minions. Delta Zero does a superb job breaking down the priority order of lane freezing and how to successfully pull it off.

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Streaming, Sponsorships, and the Future of eSports

MonteCristo regarding the future of E-Sports especially with League of Legends. He writes that tournaments have to rely on sponsors in order to become sustainable. Events with prize pools in excess of $5000 become costly to run and organize.

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Free to play champions are being removed from ranked solo and duo queues

Thank goodness. I like this change. No more having to tailor bans toward specific free week champions.

1. My jungler gets stronger
2. Their jungler gets weaker

As games progress and if you are able to maintain this level of counter-jungling, you’ll gain as much as a 4 level leader over their jungler which can provide your team with a decisive advantage in any engagement!

When is a good time to invade their jungle?

Much of your decision making will be based around logic and inference.

If enemy jungler is visible in the top lane

If you see the enemy jungler heading to the top lane and attempting to take on your champion, you can sneak into their southern jungle and take out the Wraith camps as well as the Double golem camps (Assuming you are purple). If you are on the blue side, you can head straight up and knock out their wolves and possibly go for their blue buff.

If enemy jungler is visible in the bottom lane

Likewise, if you see the enemy jungler in the bottom lane, go ahead and invade their wolves if you are on purple side. If you are on blue side, you can tackle their wraiths, their double golems, and attempt to steal their Elder Lizard red buff.

If enemy jungler is visible in the middle lane

If you see both the middle champion and the jungler there, it may not be a good idea to counter jungle. You may have to help reinforce the middle lane so as to ensure that your middle tower doesn’t fall. However, if the middle lane champion is no where to be seen and you know that they were low and health or mana, you can safely deduce that they recalled to base. This frees you up to go for any of their jungling camps.

Going for Wraiths may be risky. If the middle champion comes back and the jungler peels off, the Wraith camp may be the first one they head to. Don’t do this unless your middle champion is near by and can help bail you out.

Remember, it’s best to do this if you know where all the champions are. If you have visibility the top lane champion and 3 champions on the bottom, but you don’t know where middle is, you could assume that they are clearing out their own jungle in an attempt to increase their experience. This provides you an opportunity to attempt a gank!

If your team is on the ball, they will communicate the locations of the enemies in their lane. For example, if Morgana dominated Brand in the middle name and was able to visually confirm that Brand Recalled back to base, then you know all 5 champions have been accounted for.

Should you clear out the whole camp?

No.

The jungle respawn timer doesn’t apply until the entire camp is cleared out. Doing so completely messes with their timers and slows down the respawn rate which in turn, slows down their jungle.

What about their buff camps?

Going after the opposing team’s buff camps is a high risk, high reward move. The buff minions don’t die quite as quickly as the other camps. If you stick around too long, you run the risk of being discovered. If you are busy fighting it, you may not have enough health or mana left to fend off the enemy jungler when they do eventually show up.

If you do want to go for it, I suggest dropping a ward in the bush such that you gain visibility into the camp itself and know exactly when to go in.

What I like to do is save my Smite for the last minute and try to smite the buff mob before they can. However, since their Smite is often up, it may not always work. What ends up happening is you taking on the jungler while they have diminished health and reduced mana.

You may be better off just taking them head on. Now they have to worry about the buff mob and fending you off.

For added insurance, ask your outer lanes to push as hard as they can.

When I play on the purple team and attempt to secure and gank red, I ask my bottom lane to push that bottom tower. Now the opposing team’s AD carry and support champion in the bottom lane have two choices to make:

1. If they attempt to gank me at their red, it leaves their bottom tower defenseless allowing my bottom lane teammates to push and eliminate it.
2. If they don’t leave, I can easily escape without being punished.

What champions are best suited for counter-jungling?

Champions that have fast jungle clear times due to AoE effects tend to be the best at this.

• Shyvana
• Dr. Mundo
• Udyr

The most important skills you need when counter-jungling is to have high awareness. Know what your escape routes are. Plan ahead and think where you should run to in case a Champion comes from a certain direction. Think about your outs (to use a poker term). Counter jungling benefits aren’t immediately known. It will take some time for the effects to be really noticeable.

How do I do this?

Hold down the shift key and press the corresponding skill (Q, W, E, R) to activate the smart casted skill shot without requiring you to aim it. If you plan on mastering the AP carry, you’ll need to rely heavily on smart casting.

What about self casting?

Hold down alt and press the corresponding skill to activate the self cast ability. Note that it only works with friendly or beneficial skills. You cannot self cast Lux’s Lucent Singularity on top of yourself. When I play Morgana, I like to hover my fingers over ctrl and E so I can self cast a shield the moment I see an ability fly towards me.

Does CTRL do anything?

If your champion has gained a level, holding down control and the skill will automatically level up that ability. Be careful and make sure you hit the correct key. There have been times where I mistakenly leveled the wrong skill which cost me possible ganks!

What does Smartcast ranged indicator mean?

If you open the menu while in the gaming environment and click on More Settings, you’ll find a check box that says Smartcast Range Indicators. The next time you activate smart cast, the range indicator will appear while the key is pressed (It acts like pressing a Q and showing the range indicator but doesn’t shoot the spell when you let your finger off the key). When you let go of the key, the spell will fire. Play with it on as you’re learning a new champion. Eventually, you’ll want to get to the point where you don’t need to use the indicator on it anymore. You’ll be so familiar with the champion to the point where you instinctively know what their range is.

Of all the champions I plan on writing these journal entries for, Ahri is probably the most competitive AP carry that fits my personal play style:

• Low to medium HP
• Has burst potential versatility

Although other champions may fulfill the standard AP carry role better, Ahri will likely remain the champion I pick if I want to try mixing up my playstyle or alter team strategies.

Pros

Ahri is well rounded and can do everything. She’s got enough self-healing with her passive and Orb, her sustained damage isn’t Cass but she can spam Foxfire pretty routinely, she has a powerful cross-terrain CC in Charm, and her ult is incredible for poking/escaping while having an average cooldown. She can push, she can turtle and last hit under towers, she’s difficult to gank if she’s got her ult. Ahri is really a strong early-mid ganker.

Cons

I don’t see any real glaring cons with Ahri. They’re aspects that affect all champions.

Ahri has some mana problems if you spam her abilities too much. She’s especially vulnerable if her ultimate is down since she won’t be able to escape.

A big weakness for Ahri is root abilities. They screw her over pretty hard even if she has ultimate up, since she can’t use it.

Since her abilities are skill shots, it’s possible an enemy can dodge them. She’s also not the beefiest AP.

Ahri’s lategame isn’t amazing, since she doesn’t have the most amazing burst (it is acceptable but not great) and her utility compared to Morg or someone is not as high. Ahri is a strong early-to-mid game ganker.

The glaring problem with Ahri’s lategame is that she is easy to screen from ranged AD or casters by someone with a push like Alistar. As you already pointed out, targeted disables mess with Ahri, so lategame you can go in, get hit, and the ranged ad 5 shots you. Her ratios aren’t the most amazing either. She does have acceptable poke, and charm can catch people in a poke fight.

Item discussion

Did you know that boots, HP pots, and Dorans Rings are really good items for casters?

Oh, really, you heard the EXACT SAME THING?

I’m shocked and surprised!

I only differ from standard builds in a few areas. Normally, I start with boots, 2 HP pots, and a mana pot. I’d rather have the mana, as HP pots are for when I make minor mistakes, and mana pots let me be both attack and sustain with my passive.

I find Hextech Revolver/Will of the Ancients to be an important item. Constant lifesteal on all your spells isn’t bad, plus with Wota,  you give your friends benefits too. One experimental build I’d like to try is turning revolver into a Hextech Gunblade instead of a Wota for less AP heavy teams; the extra burst and the snare mean it would be easier to catch people, and adds a non-skillshot to her arsenal.

Rylais would be my next pick, as having your abilities all snare make landing all your skillshots easier, and gives you greater utility. It also increases your fragile HP pool. Especially with Ahri’s AOE spells, in teamfights being able to snare multiple targets is a great amount of utility. However, if your team already has that, gunblade might suffice/be not awful.

Deathcap is pretty solid. Build one and you get tons of AP. It’s pretty self explanatory, but when and where I’d want to build it would be my concern. I’ve never been a fan of early deathcap, and always find I’d rather have another item before instead of it.

Silly items you’re not likely to see before the endgame but might be worth considering: Void Staff, Lich Bane, Rod of Ages instead of Revolver/Wota/Gunblade combo? More experiments!

You will 90% of the time need to include a QSS somewhere in that build since Ahri plays similar to TF, darting in to unload spells then backing out, the QSS helps prevent a single CC from stopping your damage or straight up killing you (Viegar, Ryze, etc)

Runes, Masteries, and Spells

MPen Reds, AP/level yellows, AP/level or MR blues, AP quints. I guess MR blues are awesome for mid right now. This stuff is pretty standard.
21/0/9 masteries, I know you’re all shocked as well. More AP, more spell pen. The only variation is ever really in utility; my choices are either movement speed, or mana regen and improved recall. I need to experiment and find my balance of success, but I find I’m more comfortable with MP5 for now.

For summoner spells, Ignite and Flash. Flash is important pre-6 for chasing and escaping, and Ignite is a good finisher. It’s also good guaranteed damage to screw with heals when you’re trying to burst someone down.

Clarity on Ahri isn’t really necessary; because she can conserve mana, let an opponent push, and use the same number of spells to clear the wave. A single Q can hit between 3 or 30 minions; letting the wave build up doesn’t hinder your ability to farm them in the slightest. Another thing to consider is any instance in which you’d use clarity you’d almost always benefit from having teleport instead. A) early game when you’re using it for mana, you just B at the fountain and teleport back to lane. B) late game when mana isn’t an issue, clarity is crap, but teleport lets you split push, or show up at teamfights when they happen, or teammates can drop wards and you can teleport in to pressure dragon.

Gameplay

Ahri is fragile, long range, and has the ability to keep a relatively safe defense while transitioning to a powerful offense with a single activation of her ultimate. Early game laning involves keeping the delicate balance of pushed and overextended versus defensive. Getting your ult just extends your options even more. Mid game ganking is really good while you have your ult, late game teamfights are good with her bursty AOE and ult, possibly the snare from Rylais on the entire enemy team. What she brings over other AP carries is really versatility; she’s got sustained DPS in Foxfire that other very bursty AP champions lack, she’s got three flashes on her ult that can be used for a combination of attack and defense. She definitely falls on the “offensive” side of AP though, requiring good knowledge of how to apply an offense and being able to threaten your opponent before being really useful to the team as a whole.

Defensively, once you are running out of someone’s range at equal/faster speed, you immediately stop taking any damage. You avoid 100% damage. Dodging spells with that extra MS, etc, you avoid 100% of things that do not hit you.

If you can dodge a wrench, you can dodge a skillshot.

Counterpicks

Ryze is a common and powerful counterpick. Personally, I would put Kennen up on that list, as his ult almost directly counters yours.

Cassiopeia is at least tolerable for me; Kennen gets too many direct untargetted non-CC counters to Ahri, just like Ryze.

Except Ryze is Ryze, and Kennen is half-manageable, and Cassiopeia needs to land her things to kill you, which you can make harder for her with your ult.

Kassadin counters many AP mids with stupid silence ball and repeated gapcloser ult spam over walls and shit, Morgana can shield your charm so she can counter-ult you (but you can keep ulting to break range if you don’t burn them all just to get to her… which is bad! Don’t do that!).

Talon seems like a ridiculous anti-caster champ that could wreck you mid but nobody really plays him mid.

Notable anti-junglers would be Maokai with his ranged root, as once landed you can’t ult to get away from him. Hecarim could cause problems as an early ganker because he can attack Ahri before she can escape with her ult.

Good Leblanc players.

Kennen pretty much pokes the same way you do, so it’s actually fairly even except his ult is better for teamfights, whereas your ult is better in ganks.

Sion takes dumps on Ahri, as he does the same thing she does. He has a targeted stun, and more burst.

Ahri’s lategame isn’t amazing, since she doesn’t have the most amazing burst (it is acceptable but not great) and her utility compared to Morg or someone is not as high. Ahri is really a strong early-mid ganker.

My team experienced a forfeit loss last week. Why? because we weren’t able to field a full five player roster for our team. Now under normal circumstances, I wouldn’t be as upset. It’s not the other team’s responsibility to ensure that both teams have a full and active roster.

What bothers me is that the other team didn’t even try. Using the on site messaging system, I repeatedly explained to them that we wouldn’t be able to make the default match times. Not once did I receive a response. That’s a lot of bullshit though. On Alienware Arena, whenever a person proposes a new match time or if there is a new message left on the boards, the players receive an email message notifying them of this.

So what ended up happening was that on the day of the match, their team leaders told my players that “Oops, didn’t see this message. If you can’t field five, we’ll take the forfeit win.”

That is cowardice.

What bothers me is that they didn’t even try to schedule or make accommodations to match our difficulties that week. If on the off chance that your team isn’t able to play on any of the other 6 days or any of the other hours in the week, I can reluctantly understand. Let’s be honest though, telling me that a team of gamers can’t find another day or time to play has more stink of bullshit to it than Walmat’s home and garden section.

The other team ended up playing dumb and taking the forfeit win.

What did Alienware say?

They essentially told me “tough shit”.

While I understand your frustration, and I share your belief that teams should try to work out times. They however do not need to agree to a new time, or even try to reschedule. Many teams sign up with the intention of just playing on Thursday night at 8pm as is on the schedule. If your team cannot make it for that time you should turn off automatic matches for that week so you don’t get stuck with a forfeit loss in a situation like this.

 

I personally don’t agree with that entire sentiment. You joined a league to play. Over an 8 week long period, it’s expected that a team might have to reschedule times once or twice throughout that period. I feel that teams should be obligated to at least try and work things out.

One solution

The automatic matches system is great. The system pairs you up against other teams with the same (or similar) record as yours. So all 2-0 teams are matched against each other, all 1-1 teams and so on and so forth.

If it were up to me, I would adjust the point system to disincentivize forfeit wins. The ideal league would have a point system like this:

Win: 3 points
Forfeit win: 2 points
Tie: 1 win per team
Loss: 0 points

Teams that have played their games and have won would emerge with the most points. Teams with forfeit wins will still get 2 points out of the ordeal but playing for the extra point will encourage them to at least try to accommodate and pick a time that’s suitable for both teams. You can go for the guaranteed 2 points or you can play for the extra point. It might not matter in the short run, but in the long run that extra point might affect the team’s standings in playoffs.

Anyway, I’ve been giving this whole situation a lot of thought. I’m a little demoralized right now and it’s left a really bitter taste.

I’ve had enough of ladders. I miss the old Cyberathlete Amateur League during my CS 1.6 days. I’d like to see something like that for League of Legends. No more of this ladder stuff. I’ll have a full blog post worked out with many of the details soon.

It’s obvious that Dominion is a vastly different game mode than Classic League of Legends and of the differences there are a few that really stand out. Some of the strongest champions in Dominion are considered so because they either mold well to the playstyle of capture & defend, or they are simply strong champions in and of themselves. While most players have realized these points subconsciously, I’m going to spell out the less obvious changes that Dominion brings to the table:

• All champions get to late-game: Every champion setting foot in Dominion can (and should) expect to complete at least a full 4-item build. Item-dependent champions really shine in Dominion.
• Exhaust is Everywhere: I still believe every Dominion team needs a straight DPSer, but given the sheer flexibility of Exahust (it’s a powerful offensive and defensive tool), auto-attack champions are automatically at a disadvantage. I’ve been chain exhausted more times than I can count.
• Tanky-DPS & Bursty-DPS are king: In Dominion, you’re either tanking on a tower point, or you’re attacking a tower point.. With the latter, the faster you can burst an enemy champion down while they’re defending  means the less tower damage you’ll take and the less likely they’ll be able to react with an Exhaust / Garrison. With the former, the more damage you can soak while interrupting caps means the more damage your tower is putting out (and the more damage you’re doing). Long-range poking and disruption is good, but not nearly as necessary.
• Nobody Builds Defensively: Dominion is a game of hyper offence. Defensive builds do work on specific champions (Rammus, Alistar to some degree, Warwick), but given Dominion’s global bonuses to magic and armor penetration, going defensive just means you’re not going to keep up with everyone else. If you’re looking for defence, you better pick a champion with inherent defensive capabilities.
• Nobody Gets to Build: What I mean by this is that champions who have abilities that “build up” through the game just typically won’t find themselves having those core traits any longer. This also means that a lot of champions who like to ramp up during the early laning phases (LeBlanc, Mordekaiser) to gain an advantage over the mid and late game will also have problems doing so.
• All-Zeal Builds Are Hilarious: UNTIL THEY’RE NOT.

• Akali, Jax, Kog’maw, Shaco, Rammus, Yorick, Singed, Warwick, Alistar, Gangplank, Xerath, Karthus, Poppy, Garen.

Akali and Jax, in specific, are uber-strong because they have huge burst, decent auto-attacking DPS, and solid inherent defensive traits (Stealth for Akali, Dodge RNG Stuns for Jax). Akali is a huge threat at early-mid levels, but Jax just doesn’t stop scaling while getting beefier as a tank. Kog’maw enjoys the status as being the best of the ranged DPS because he has the fastest face-melting capability. If we’re talking about a “kill them before they kill me” mindset, Kog’maw is your choice. He has the longest range (with W), the best poke (artillery), and can deal the most damage in a small frame of time. Shaco and Rammus are the two kings of capping, in my mind. Shaco (AP Shaco in particular) has incredible potential as a back-door capper and defender, thanks to his controllable illusion and his Jack-in-the-Boxes. Rammus has a monster combination of mobility, control, and defence. Stacking Armor in a tanky-DPS heavy game means that Rammus can have upwards of 200+ AD (thanks to his passive) while still being tanky as all hell. Combine that with a wide-disruptive ultimate for tower defending and a super-fast ability with Boots of Mobility, and you’ve got a huge threat. I consider Yorick to be one of the strongest bottom-lane pushers in the game, as the global mana regen buff has done him a huge favor. Also, his zombies block skill-shots, which is SO VERY ANNOYING. Also, if you lose a fight bottom lane, your ultimate lets you poke around for a while longer, meaning less time for your opponent to cap. Singed, Warwick, Alistar, Poppy and Garen all have fantastic defensive traits that let them defend while still being offensively threatening. Xerath has an incredible amount of poke and burst, and he can do it out of harm’s reach, while Gangplank and Karthus both have amazing poke and some of the most annoying global ultimates ever.

The Good:

• Pantheon, Zilean, Wukong, Talon, Vayne, Cassiopeia, Corki, Ezreal, Gragas, Heimerdinger, Kassadin, Kennen, Lee Sin, Lux, Maokai, Nidalee, Nocturne, Renekton, Sion, Soraka, Teemo, Veigar, Vladimir, Ryze,.

I started alphabetical sorting about halfway down there because I got lazy. Hah. I won’t touch on specific champions too much here, but most you should be able to understand. All of the above champions either have great poking capabilities, great burst, or a lot of control. In reality, they do all of what the above does, but maybe not quite as effectively. You’ll notice a lot of mages here, and that’s because I love their burst. Unfortunately, if an enemy can survive your burst, sometimes you’re out of luck because of Dominion’s heavy 1v1 / 2v2 / 3v3 nature, meaning you’ll have little time to hide for your cooldowns to come up. Xerath (above) is the only obvious exception. It’s also worth noting that Ryze is a rare mage in that he can build very tankish with mana-boosting items, and he’ll deal monstrous burst while still being able to survive hits.

The Alright:

• Skarner, Urgot, Xin Zhao, Amumu, Anivia, Blitzcrank, Brand, Caitlyn, Dr. Mundo, Evelynn, Fiddlesticks, Galio, Irelia, Jarvan IV, Janna, Karma, Katarina, Kayle, LeBlanc, Leona, Malphite, Malzahar, Morgana, Riven, Rumble, Shen, Tristana, Trundle, Tryndamere, Twisted Fate, Udyr, Nasus.

Most of the above are decent picks, and some of them have niche viability even against the top tier champions. For the most part, however, they just don’t contribute over a long term as much as I’ve seen the above two tiers contribute. This is usually due to higher cooldowns (in the case of the Mages), or a lack of offensive prowess present on the above. Also, a few are considered the best in classic LoL, like Caitlyn, but given Dominion’s wide-open battlegrounds and heavy reliance on independent contribution, they simply haven’t made the transition as well as others. Skarner is borderline good to me, and he will definitely make that transition come this patch.

The Bad:

• Sivir, Annie, Ashe, Cho’gath, Nunu, Miss Fortune, Mordekaiser, Sona, Master Yi, Orianna, Olaf.

For all of the above, I just consider them good champions but very bad at making the transition to Dominion. Annie relies almost entirely on her Pyromania stun for defensive purposes, and this leaves her wide open in many situations. Sivir has great pushing potential, but her ultimate is meant to be used in big team fights; something that rarely occurs in Dominion. Also, given that mages are not the incredible threats they once were, Sivir’s awesome Spell Shield becomes less powerful. She still has that Dodge while moving, but given how fast attack speed amps up, attacking and moving will slow down your damage considerably. Cho’gath can’t get feast stacks against any sort of organized team. Given that he’s losing one of his core mechanics, I feel like he becomes a mage with one close-range burst ability (which is icky). Miss Fortune’s passive is great, but she can’t take advantage of it nearly as much as she could in Summoner’s Rift with its weaving treelines. Ashe’s ultimate is, theoretically, great for interrupting caps, but given her complete lack of defensive options otherwise and the strength of Jax and Akali, she suffers tremendously. Mordekaiser can’t build shield to save his life (literally). In Classic LoL, he could throw out his abilities on stacked enemies to multiply his shield gains, but this isn’t the case with Dominion. Sona has one defensive ultimate and her heals are all sustain, which makes her bleh. Master Yi needs his offence to shine, but he gets exploded if he does this. Orianna relies heavily on hiding behind the lines, throwing that ball everywhere. With her shortened range, she just can’t do it as well. Olaf is like another version of Master Yi, but with no real movement closing abilities, he suffers hard. Nunu is a funny character. That is all.

Man, this took forever. I shouldn’t have done those paragraphs. I NEED A NAP.

First Impressions

As you’ve probably guessed from the Xerath Champion Spotlight, this guy is top tier when it comes to long-range poking. There are obviously a number of champions who also possess strong poking abilities (Nidalee, Corki, Kog’maw, Galio, Morgana, to name a few), but Xerath and Kog’maw are pretty much the only ones who can easily pick off an unsuspecting squishy in the back.

Unfortunately, the trade-off for Xerath’s long-range power and accuracy is his real lack of control in a team fight. Some of the top tier mages in LoL are so chosen because they have great control spells along with huge burst potential. At best, Xerath can stun a single enemy for 1.5 seconds if he hits them with a combo of Mage Chains (E) to Arcanopulse (Q). Sadly, Xerath’s Q ‘telegraphs’ its intended direction a second before it fires, so it can be predicted and then dodged by smarter players. Control-wise, Brand is the most similar to Xerath, but Brand has more straight fire-power, not to mention the fact that Brand’s commonly used E>Q combo stun is difficult to dodge at shorter ranges.

Long story short, Xerath is great fun, but he requires a solid understanding of keeping maximum range and knowing when to enter a fight. If you see a teammate entering a fight, find a safe spot, choose the biggest threat, and unload everything at long range. I use him to KS everything so that it looks like I’m contributing!

Runes and Masteries

Personally speaking, I don’t like to give straight Rune / Mastery setups, just because they should vary depending on player preferences and personal play style. With my propensity for aggressive lane play (almost to a fault, see my Leona play), I prefer to optimize my Runes and Masteries for early level advantages, even if they might not the best for late-game setups.

For Xerath, I run with a standard mage mastery (9/0/21), while with runes I do 9x Magic Pen marks / 9x flat AP Glyphs / 9x CDR Seals / 3x flat AP Quints.

Summoner Spells

See above for why I don’t like to give specific Summoner Spell suggestions. That being said, think of the following:

Flash: For obvious reasons. Flash over a wall, set up Locus and kill EVERYTHING.

Ghost: Combine this with Xerath’s 2 second speed boost after exiting Locus. If they continue to chase, re-toggle Locus when it’s up, poke at long range, and then keep running.

Garrison: Dominion only (rly), but Xerath can work with it. Hide behind a wall, poke the cappers in the face, Garrison when the point gets low, run in circles screaming when people chase you.

Exhaust: Exhaust is silly for Xerath, but if you think you’re going to have people diving you all day, Exhaust with Locus’ speed boost can work. You can also use Exhaust to help you aim your Arcanopulse and Arcane Barrage. I SUPPOSE.

Ignite: While Flash / Ignite is usually the best choice for Mages around the world, Xerath is rarely in range to use Ignite as effectively as he’d like. You want Xerath for his surprise poking abilities, not his “I’M ALL UP IN YO FACE” damage.

Skill Progression

One point in each, then: Arcane Barrage (R) > Arcanopulse (Q) > Mage Chains (E) > Locus of Power (W)

Item Suggestions

Sorcerer’s Shoes, Rylai’s Crystal Scepter, Rabadon’s Deathcap, Void Staff, Morello’s Evil Tome, Archangel’s Staff (only in classic), Mejai’s Soul Stealer (only against disorganized players). Hourglass isn’t so great on Xerath, but can be useful for baiting enemy focus.

AP > Cooldown reduction (to 30%-40%) > Magic Penetration > Mana.

General Tips

– Mage Chains (E) has a slow travel time. If you’re at maximum range with Locus, firing off Xerath’s E > Q combo in quick succession for a stun doesn’t work. Your Q will always hit just before the E. You’ll deal damage, but you won’t stun.

– While 90% of champions would do better to get on point with their teammates in any fight, Xerath is just as strong – if not stronger – hiding behind a wall, smacking enemies who are interrupting the tower for their teammates.

– Consider the fact that Xerath is at his strongest at maximum range. You might believe that he needs something to sustain his close-range burst (ie: Deathfire grasp) or his survivability (ie: Will of the Ancients), but going straight AP and Magic Penetration to pick off a squishy in less then two seconds is great.

– Once you have Rylai’s, Xerath gains a solid amount of kiting power. Start using Locus > E > Q aggressively to poke and slow, thereby making your subsequent Locus detoggle speed boost that much better.

– Xerath can use his Arcane Barrage pulses while moving and without being in Locus. If you see someone beelining you while you’re mid-ulti, consider toggling Locus of Power off and then running away, pausing to throw out the remaining pulses as you go.

– Don’t be afraid to use your Arcane Barrage pulses to trigger Mage Chain’s stun if you don’t trust your aim with Q, or if you need that stun to proc and your Q is on cooldown.