Xerath

Some champions were born to fight; Xerath was buried before he ever got the chance. What remains of him now is arcane energy given form, bound loosely inside the broken pieces of a sarcophagus that was meant to keep something contained. For millennia the sands of Shurima kept him buried, and only the empire’s return to the surface broke that prison open.

Freedom Without Sanity

That freedom didn’t restore whatever he was before. Centuries underground left him fixated on power and convinced that the current order of the world — every civilization built since his imprisonment — has no right to stand. He now works to tear all of that down and remake it in his own image, a goal that puts him at odds with other freed or restored figures of Shurima, including Azir, whose own return to power took a very different shape.

His fighting style is a study in distance. He rarely needs to close in on anyone:

• Arcanopulse — a long-range beam that damages every target it passes through.
• Eye of Destruction — a barrage that slows and damages an area, hitting hardest at its center.
• Shocking Orb — a bolt that damages and stuns a single enemy.
• Rite of the Arcane — Xerath roots himself in place to unleash a long volley of barrages.

Mana Surge, his passive, keeps that barrage going by restoring mana on his basic attacks, refreshing faster whenever he finishes off a unit. Xerath’s entire design keeps him at arm’s length, raining damage down from a range no ordinary duelist can safely cross.

Landing that damage reliably still takes some reading of enemy movement. Arcanopulse connects more easily against a target moving straight toward or away from him than one sidestepping, and Eye of Destruction’s slow makes a follow-up beam easier still. A stun from Shocking Orb sets up a clean, centered hit with Eye of Destruction for anyone willing to line it up. Enemies who close the distance quickly can often trade with him despite his range, and Banshee’s Veil in particular makes that stun much harder to land at all.