Xerath Counters | Best Counter Champions Picks and Strategy to Beat Xerath

Xerath is the only champion on the ladder holding S tier in three separate roles this patch, and he still has less mobility than any of them.

He is mid lane, bot lane, and support, and in all three he does the same thing: stand very far away and hit you. Every champion beating him right now is one that solves distance.

Check out our top Xerath counters below for more information on how to beat him!

Counter Guide

How to Beat Xerath

Matchup Guide · Patch 26.14 · 3 Counter Picks

Xerath is the only champion on the ladder holding S tier in three separate roles this patch, and he still has less mobility than any of them.

Xerath is the quiet kind of frustrating: he never has to come near you. Being hit from outside the range where you are allowed to answer is not a fair exchange, and no amount of good play inside your own range fixes it. Every one of his abilities outranges what you can do about them. The matchup is decided before minions spawn, in champion select.

Matchup Snapshot Xerath, the Magus Ascendant

Where You Meet HimMid, Bot, or Support

Damage TypeMagic

Why He Is FrustratingHits you from outside your range

MobilityNone

Biggest ThreatRite of the Arcane [R]

Hardest CounterRiven

What a Counter Needs

A dash, blink, or untargetable window to cross his range
Magic resist, since he has no physical damage at all
A way to interrupt or punish a three second channel

Xerath Overview

Strengths: What Makes Him Dangerous

Rite of the Arcane [R] fires up to several artillery shots from 5000 units, and each shot deals more damage for every champion it hits, so a grouped team takes far more than the tooltip suggests.
Arcanopulse [Q] starts at 750 units and reaches further the longer he charges it, which means his poke range is a choice he makes rather than a fixed number.
Shocking Orb [E] stuns for longer the further it travels, so the safest place for him to land it is also the most punishing place for you to stand.
Eye of Destruction [W] reaches 1000 units and slows heavily in the center, which is how he stops anything that tries to walk at him.
Mana Surge restores mana on his basic attacks with the cooldown shortened by every kill, so he never runs out of poke in a lane he is winning.

Weaknesses: Where You Get In

He has no dash, no blink, and no untargetable window. Anything that reaches him has already won, because there is no second step.
Rite of the Arcane is a three second channel that roots him in place. Any interrupt cancels the remaining shots and he cannot move while it runs.
Arcanopulse slows him by up to 50% while he charges it. Committing to his longest ranged poke is also the moment he is slowest.
His damage is entirely magic. There is nothing physical in his kit, so magic resist is a full stat check with no downside.
All three of his threatening abilities are skillshots on double-digit cooldowns. A dodged Shocking Orb is an 11 to 13 second window where he cannot stop you.

Countering Xerath

Based on the strengths and weaknesses above, beating Xerath comes down to champions who can accomplish at least one of the following:

Cross the gap in one motion. A dash, a blink, or a Flash into range beats a champion with no repositioning tool of his own.
Dodge or blank Shocking Orb. It is his only crowd control, and once it is gone he cannot stop a champion who is already walking at him.
Interrupt the ultimate channel. Rite of the Arcane locks him in place for three seconds, and any interrupt ends the remaining shots.
Build magic resist without hedging. He has no physical damage whatsoever, so there is no reason to split your defensive stats at all.

If you are already locked into the matchup without any of those tools, these strategies still work:

Playing a Bad Xerath Matchup

Stay unstacked with your team. Every artillery shot deals additional damage for each champion it hits, so a spread formation cuts his ultimate damage substantially.

Walk at him when he starts charging Arcanopulse. He slows himself by up to 50% during the charge, which means the moment he commits to his biggest poke is the moment he is easiest to reach.

Do not stand in a straight line from him at long range. Shocking Orb stuns longer the further it travels, so the safe distance is either very close or completely out of range.

Trade at the minion wave rather than in the open. He has no wave clear pressure that beats being forced to answer a shove, and pushing him in gives you the only safe windows the lane has.

Best Xerath Counters

These three cross his range in three different ways: by dashing through it, by becoming untargetable inside it, and by simply not caring about the damage.

Riven Closes the Gap Instantly

Riven has the best record against Xerath in the mid lane, and the reason is arithmetic. Broken Wings is three dashes on one cooldown, Valor is a fourth with a shield attached, and Ki Burst stuns everything nearby. That is four separate movements plus hard crowd control against a champion whose entire defensive kit is one slow and one skillshot stun.

Once she arrives, Blade of the Exile extends the range on all of it and Wind Slash executes off his missing health. Xerath has no dash to buy distance back, no untargetable frame to wait her out, and no shield to eat the burst. He gets one Shocking Orb, and if it misses, the lane is over.

Fizz Dodges the Combo

Playful / Trickster makes Fizz untargetable for three quarters of a second and then damages and slows everything nearby, and he can recast it to dash again. Against an artillery mage whose damage arrives as slow, telegraphed skillshots, that is a button that deletes a full rotation and repositions him closer at the same time.

Nimble Fighter also gives him flat damage reduction from every source and lets him walk through units, so the minion wall Xerath normally hides behind is not a wall. Urchin Strike dashes through him for damage, Seastone Trident bleeds him out, and Chum the Waters knocks him up from 1300 units with a heavy slow attached, which is a long-range engage on a champion who cannot answer one.

Kassadin Stat-Checks the Magic

Kassadin is the pick that ignores the premise. Void Stone gives him flat magic damage reduction as a passive, and Null Sphere adds a magic shield on top of it, which means Xerath's poke is landing at a fraction of its value before Kassadin has bought a single magic resist item.

Null Sphere also interrupts channels, and Rite of the Arcane is a three second channel. That single interaction turns Xerath's teamfight ultimate into one shot and a cancel. Riftwalk then drops to a 2 second cooldown at rank 3 and gets stronger with each consecutive use, so the late game is a champion who teleports repeatedly against one who cannot move at all.

Itemizing Against Xerath

Xerath has no physical damage anywhere in his kit, so this is one of the few matchups where a completely one-sided defensive build is correct:

Banshee's Veil is the priority because it eats Shocking Orb, which is the only ability standing between him and a champion walking at him. Mercury's Treads shortens the stun when the spell shield is down, Zhonya's Hourglass gives you a stasis window to sit out the artillery shots, and Kaenic Rookern's magic shield scales off maximum health, which is the best possible answer to repeated long-range magic poke.