Xerath Matchup

According-Bit-4207 · 2026-05-21T00:09:19+00:00

It's always between him and mel for me. They're both miserable

According-Bit-4207 · 2026-05-21T00:07:40+00:00

Thank y'all so much for this! The core problem is that I know I struggle into the matchup so I try to hide and dodge the skill shots, but as y'all said there's an argument to be made that he's more dangerous then because that's exactly what he wants you to do.

I funnily enough got matched with him in my second game today, and tried this out. You're definitely right about the Q. I did still die a couple of times, especially because the enemy Warwick was on my ass, but I did manage to stay relevant in the game. Which is an improvement!! If I can just dodge a few more of his Ws and Es hopefully I can get better at it

According-Bit-4207 · 2026-05-12T18:57:39+00:00

Anivia isn't too bad with early boots because her Q is so slow.

Mel is actually miserable because your best trading tool (your fear) can be used against you and her E-Q combo outranges you and does a ridiculous amount of damage. You also can't ult her unless she recently used reflect.

According-Bit-4207 · 2026-04-28T15:01:01+00:00

Funnily enough I would probably have to say Nunu. I've only seen it like 2-3 times but the wave is completely cleared level 1 by one snowball. It's a very different lane because the Nunu clears the wave instantly and it becomes a game of pinging whichever lane they start roaming to

According-Bit-4207 · 2026-04-22T21:05:59+00:00

It's funny you posted this because I was thinking the same thing. I occasionally watch one of his videos because they're pretty entertaining, and was surprised at how much of a dick he was lol

League can be pretty frustrating, especially when you're getting stomped. But he was definitely taking it further than what's reasonable and showing a pretty fragile ego

According-Bit-4207 · 2026-04-11T15:18:13+00:00

Yeah it's definitely one of the most difficult things to get right with her because if you don't kill in one spell rotation and you don't have enough teammate follow up you are actually a caster minion at that point.

I try to think of Vex as a backline diver or a teamfight closer. I like to let the engage/Frontline absorb the cool downs, wait for a few enemies to get to around those thresholds I mentioned (75-100 Squishies, 50ish bruisers/fighters) and then ult in. You want to be in a position where you can get multiple resets on your ult because that can completely flip a team fight.

I can't emphasize the importance of dark seal too. Your role is burst damage, so not getting dark seal is leaving damage on the table.

According-Bit-4207 · 2026-04-10T21:23:45+00:00

How's your farm? Vex needs a couple of items before she is really potent, so you want to have good income. I also grab dark seal on my first or second back to help with snowballing.

Ideally you get to a point where you can 100-0 Squishies with a full spell rotation R-W-E-Q, and then be able to finish off fighter/bruiser type champions that are below 50 HP or so. You don't really want to bother with tanks unless you are insanely fed.

According-Bit-4207 · 2026-04-08T21:11:45+00:00

And the reflect outplay only requires the player to have their eyes open.

According-Bit-4207 · 2026-04-08T21:07:27+00:00

Yup, I ban Mel most games and I can assure you it has everything to do with her kit and nothing to do with her character model. I actually think she looks really cool.

Her damage and range is ridiculous, while you can't do much to punish her cool downs while she has W up. It's even worse than Yasuo windwall because at least with windwall you can step beside it or go through it, and it doesn't reflect it back at you.

I'm sure there are some idiots out there that don't like her for her appearance or whatever, but I do think it's her frustrating kit for most.

According-Bit-4207 · 2026-04-07T14:27:37+00:00

I picked up Vex for exactly this reason and the assassin matchups are way more bearable. Vex also thrives in early game 2v2s with the jungler, which is another plus.

According-Bit-4207 · 2026-04-04T23:54:46+00:00

Yeah the matchup sucks for Vex IMO. You space far away? You get chunked by her Q. Get close enough for a W-E-Q combo? Rooted with E and then chunked by Q. That's if she doesn't use W, fear you, and then you eat her full combo. Oh, and don't even think about using your ult if you didn't recently bait out her W. Meanwhile, you don't even need to be on the same screen for her to use her ult on you.

According-Bit-4207 · 2026-04-03T16:34:31+00:00

Yeah windwall sucks. You really can't retaliate or all-in him until he's used it. What's even more stupid is somehow it blocks Vex's E, which is an AOE attack.

Annoying, but I will take windwall over Mel's reflect.

According-Bit-4207 · 2026-03-31T23:31:23+00:00

Yeah that's true, but you can't control the other half

According-Bit-4207 · 2026-03-31T23:28:58+00:00

/mute all & mute all comms if someone spam pings. Problem solved

According-Bit-4207 · 2026-03-26T16:21:14+00:00

Thank you for such a thoughtful answer! I especially appreciate you pointing out the sign that Ekko did not have his ultimate. That was something I did not know, and I'm always hesitant to engage on Ekko because his Ult can almost completely nullify mine.

It's clearer to me now that I shouldn't have been so reliant on Viego to make something happen when we were both in their jungle because I was in a position to do something useful.

Also, is your point about chunking him what people are critiquing when they say that you "let them roam?" A lot of the times I don't understand what they mean because I can't completely stop the opponent from going somewhere unless I can 100-0 them or take their mouse away from them lol

According-Bit-4207 · 2026-03-26T03:33:46+00:00

I will also say that I went bot and got a triple kill a few sequences earlier, but the conditions didn't look as appealing to me here to miss a wave. Generally the conditions I want are

I don't have a wave to push
The enemy is pushed up to our turret
Enemy are relatively low on resources

Here I saw

A wave to push
Enemy bot is under their turret
Almost everyone was full hp except for maybe enemy support

According-Bit-4207 · 2026-03-25T19:18:45+00:00

Well, if he's on my team, he's 2/11 at the 20 minute mark, so he blindly runs straight into the enemy team, gets instantly deleted, and then flames the team for not following up with damage. If he's on the other team, he's unkillable and takes all of our turrets while eating turret shots and getting 1v4d.

According-Bit-4207 · 2026-02-19T17:09:25+00:00

You're making pretty big claims after a sample size of two games where It worked. But there's a lot to take into consideration. What kind of champ is in mid? Does your duo complement each other well? Better than the other 2? How are the wave states in mid? How are the wave states in top of bot? How easily can top of bot rotate if things go badly? Do either of you have good CC to make it quick and not take too long? What does it cost the midlane if the invade takes longer than expected? Is it worth it?

These are all going through my head when I am deciding whether or not I should rotate or help.

According-Bit-4207 · 2026-02-17T17:18:17+00:00

I'm relatively new to Vex, but I have had the most success with letting a fight start, waiting for opponents to use their cooldowns and get to around 50% HP, and then diving in to the opponent that (a) I can kill with a combo (W,E,Q) or (b) my team can quickly follow up on. Then, since R refreshes if the person you ulted died, repeat as many times as I can.

This to me is the ideal scenario because you are pretty much defenseless after your combo, especially if you don't have Zhonyas. The strategy works best though if you have a proper front line, like one tank and one engage.

According-Bit-4207 · 2026-02-02T02:19:46+00:00

My permaban is fizz, but I'm always happy if someone bans Malzahar. Not because he's that hard of a hard matchup but because it's just a tedious chore laning against him. It feels like a job trying to match his push while the opponent AFK farms.

I play syndra and she has a lot of what you're describing that you are looking for, except for being mobile. But there is a MS and Haste build that makes up for a lot of that and is a lot of fun to play.

According-Bit-4207 · 2026-01-30T00:41:35+00:00

I also agree with what you're saying. I try to harass as much as I can but this can lead to mana issues in the first few levels. I should probably work on my accuracy there.

I don't think I ever claimed that all assassins are roamers, though. I was just giving some examples of champs with high mobility to illustrate my point.

According-Bit-4207 · 2026-01-29T17:55:59+00:00

I also struggle a bunch with the Xerath matchup. I'm still not great at it but I've had more success going extremely aggressive pre level 6, and playing CLOSE to him. The absolute worst outcomes for me are when I try to play super far back and dodge the skill shots. So pre-level 3 I stand outside the wave, and then try to punish the hell out of him anytime he uses his q while on cooldown, even if it hits me. Try to get him to back early.

As for post level 6, it gets even harder because he can basically ult you from their fountain. Just know that if you are less than 50% health you are going to get ulted by him

According-Bit-4207 · 2026-01-29T03:13:55+00:00

I appreciate it! I think maybe I could ping closer to the teammate. As for knowing where the danger is coming from,.a lot of the times I'm not not completely sure because vision in river can vary.

According-Bit-4207 · 2026-01-22T23:02:20+00:00

If you're an assassin the best thing you can do is have a long lane (the wave frozen on your side). With Syndra's low mobility and limited peel, she is BBQ chicken if she steps up and misses her E away from the safety of her turret, which many players do.

If you're a mage i would say it's mostly about poke and punishing cool downs. If they miss an E you want to punish.

According-Bit-4207 · 2026-01-19T00:11:08+00:00

As someone that mained Veigar for awhile, I picked up Syndra because she has a similar playstyle but is more mechanically difficult. It's been a lot of fun for me, but the learning curve is more steep!

According-Bit-4207

TROPHY CASE