League of Legends has a new champion approaching, and today Riot has given a preview of the mechanics. Xerath, the Magus Ascendant, is the newest champion in League of Legends. Though they classify Xerath as a mage-type, his “playstyle offers a new way to perform the mage-carry role; long range barrages and sieging.”
Xerath’s abilities include:
Locus of Power: The cornerstone of of his long range abilities, Locus of Power makes Xerath immobile, but gives his spells a massively increased range and defense penetration. This allows Xerath to “set up and barrage an area before becoming mobile again to perform the more standard mage role.”
Arcanopuls: His bread-and-butter ability, Arcanopuls shoots a short-delay beam at an area, zapping anyone hit for significant damage (sounds very similar to Lux’s laser).
Mage Chains: Used more as a defensive spell to protect himself, Mage Chains is a single-target spellt hat will allow Xerath to stun an enemy if he htis him with a subsequent spell.
Arcane Barrage: Xerath’s ultimate allows him to launch up to three massive explosions at a long range, both doing area denial and good team damage.
Riot further explained Xerath as “something we liken to a Howitzer or artillery piece. He should really appeal to people who enjoy very long ranges and like aiming skillshots and leading targets. We’re excited to offer a new mage paradigm to League of Legends, and will be continuing to add new ways to play existing roles into the game.”
What I feared the most with the launch of Dominion looks to be coming true. It looks like Riot is beginning to focus on creating champions specific to certain game modes. While I’m sure he has his usefulness in Summoner’s Rift, it seems the majority of his abilities were designed with Dominion in mind, by giving him long range, global disruption.
With the recent launch of Dominon game mode, it looks like Riot will be attempting to bang out some characters with global abilities. If there are two things that dominate on Dominion it’s speed and range. If you’ve yet to play a Dominion match, you should know that you can interrupt an enemy from capturing a point by simply hitting him. Giving Xerath these “long range barrage” abilities, makes him a perfect character for Dominion. He can poke at enemy champions and delay their capture just long enough for your teammates to defend to the point.
Like I said, I’m sure he is useful in 5v5, but I don’t expect him to be of much use in 3v3. His long range will allow him to stay away from receiving brunt of the damage, but will still let him dish it out. Your best chance of beating Xerath will be to find him when he’s immobile and take him out. I suspect it will take a while for him to go from being immobile to mobile.
What do you think of Xerath, the Magus Ascendant? Will he dominate Dominion?
The Return of Magic Online is a free MMORPG based on turn-based old school RPGs. The game presents nostalgic graphics like in 16-bit games. It is up to be able to pick up a character and freely interact with other players connected in the same world. There are several classes avaiable, each one has its unique skills and magic abilities. The battle system is up to a party of five, that way is possible for a more strategic gameplay. There's a world map system included with a perspective effect found on old RPGs.