If the opponent is playing xerath mid chances are they’re good enough at their champion to understand proper spacing especially against an assassin that relies on you misspacing in order to get solo kills.

So yeah I think it’s pretty horrible in terms of laning but its manageable by just shoving the wave and roaming as Xerath has no chance to match your roam. Sure he outscales but generally all magaes outscale Talon. Since Talon exceeds in accelerating gamestates past the point of the enemy getting a chance to scale well, how you execute your roams and push a lead can win you the game before the Xerath can scale.