Best Xerath Build Guide | Runes | Spells | Items in League of Legends

Xerath support is annoying, especially if you are playing a passive bot lane duo. Xerath players tend to use the fog of war and bushes to their advantage as Xerath can surprise enemies with his Q. With Xerath playing the support role, he can demolish their enemies and be a carry in the late game. Learn how to make a Xerath build that can take you to higher ranks just by playing support.

Best Xerath Build

This Xerath build is for the support role focusing on early-game utility and transitions to a mid to late-game carry. League of legends games tends to be fast-paced especially if the enemy gets out of control, so for this build you will need to play safe when the game begins.

Best Xerath Runes

Xerath support is still a burst mage champion especially when he lands his stun on a squishy enemy. First strike greatly improves Xerath's burst damage and he can also use it in the early game to farm gold by poking enemies with his abilities.

Best Rune Path	Inspiration	Sorcery
Best Keystone	First Strike
Best Slot 1 (Rune)	Magical Footwear	Manaflow Band
Best Slot 2 (Rune)	Biscuit Delivery	Scorch
Best Slot 3 (Rune)	Cosmic Insight

Scorch will also empower the poke damage of Xerath by adding a little bit of magic damage to his abilities. Cosmic insight makes sure that you will be able to use the active ability of your items more frequently along with your summoner spells.

Biscuit Delivery and Manaflow band can be abused during the laning phase to build up your mana pool. Xerath also has a passive that lets him restore mana from time to time. These runes along with his passive allow him to spam his abilities without the risk of losing mana fast.

Best Xerath Rune Shards

Xerath is a poke champion which means he needs all the damage he can get so both Adaptive force taken on Flex and Offense makes sense. The defense rune shard however should be armor so when you take minion aggro, you can mitigate the incoming damage.

Best Rune Shards	Effect
Offense	+9 Adaptive Force
Flex	+9 Adaptive Force
Defense	+6 Armor

When you play Xerath support, having all the offensive power you can get can give you an early-game advantage over your enemies when it comes to poking. Just mind your AoE indicators as you can fast push your lane if you keep poking and hitting enemy minions.

Best Xerath Spells

When it comes to summoner spells, Flash and Exhaust is enough to peel for your ADC. Xerath can build different items to fill in for Ignite and exhaust is really great especially if enemies penetrate your poke defense. Xerath can also use exhaust to slow enemies down so he can easily hit them with his skillshots.

Best Spells	Icon
Flash
Exhaust

Best Xerath Abilities Order

Xerath's Q has the longest range and the lowest cooldown making it the best poking ability to max out first. You can charge this up in the fog of war or a bush to surprise your enemies preventing them to sidestep.

Eye of Destruction or Xerath's W comes next in this skill order as you can also use this for poking. The only downside to this is that it has a shorter cast range and enemies can anticipate you casting this ability. Finally, Xerath's E as it already has huge value coming from its stun duration.

Best Xerath Items

Xerath's item build focuses on burst damage and having high magic penetration for opponents with magic resist items. But if you see that there are no enemies building magic resist items, then by all means build high-ability power items.

Best Starter Xerath Items

Being support means you need a support item that you can easily complete during the laning phase. Spellthief's edge also synergizes with your rune set that includes First strike as you can gain gold each time you poke enemy champions.

First Item	Second Item
Spellthief's Edge	Health potion (x2)

Make sure to buy Lost chapter the first time you reset as this can help you mitigate your mana loss when poking enemy champions in the bottom lane.

Best Mid-game Xerath Items

Mythic items along with a completed support item are essential during the mid-game. Once Xerath completes his Shard of True Ice and Luden's Tempest, he can poke as much as he wants. From here on out, you can start building carry items to boost your damage.

First Item	Second Item	Third Item
Shard of True Ice	Sorcerer's Shoes	Luden's Tempest

Best Final Late game Xerath Items

When late game comes you can easily carry the game with items like Rabadon's Deathcap. You can use Rite of the Arcane or your ultimate to easily poke enemies before or after team fights. Rite of the Arcane can also be used to secure kills if enemies manage to disengage. 

First Item	Second Item	Third Item	Fourth Item	Fifth Item	Sixth Item
Shard of True Ice	Sorcerer's Shoes	Luden's Tempest	Horizon Focus	Shadowflame	Zhonya's Hourglass

Best Champions to pair Xerath with

The best champions to pair with Xerath are the ones that can initiate or easily follow up the long-range pokes of Xerath. Jhin is the perfect example for this as he can CC chain an enemy once Xerath lands a stun on one. Ashe and Seraphine can both use their ultimate to follow up on Xerath's E initiation. 

Champion	Win Rate %	Icon
Jhin	53%
Ashe	52%
Seraphine	51.5%

Strongest Champions against Xerath

Heimerdinger can easily take control of the lane when facing Xerath as his turrets can't be easily burst down. Heimerdinger also has better all-in than Xerath when he gets to level 6. 

Champion	Win Rate %	Icon
Heimerdinger	65.2%
Yuumi	58.9%
Amumu	58.1%

Weakest Champions against Xerath

Champions who have low turn rates and almost no way to sidestep Xerath's pokes are the worst picks against him. Ashe or MF simply walks and has no dashes or leap abilities to sidestep Xerath's pokes making them susceptible to lane bullying. 

Champion	Win Rate %	Icon
Miss Fortune	19%
Renata Glasc	37%
Ashe	39.1%