Learning to farm with... Episode 4

Learning to farm with...

Midlaners are the usually fantastic at wave-clearing in the late game, and often have the best CS numbers at 20+ minutes, unless the ADCs are doing a really good job. The best style of mid-laner for this high CS number is the waveclear and seige style champions such as Ziggs and, you guessed it, Xerath. These champions have fast and effective waveclear from some serious distance, and in the late game can often clear a wave with one or two spells, while being so far back the enemy has no chance to capitalise on it. However, Xerath has a mildly better laning phase than his closest rival of Ziggs and is far less blue buff dependant thanks to his passive, so I believe he's a little more 'noob-friendly' due to not needing as much mana management skill, so here he is!

Why Xerath?

Xerath has awesome, ranged wave clear. It comes in the form of two really useable spells on his Q and W, that both have high range. He also has great mana sustain as his passive grants him mana every few seconds if he autoattacks an enemy champion, minion or any neutral monster. This means he can sit in lane and constantly clear the wave, forcing the enemy under tower, and as long as his mana doesn't run low enough to need to auto-attack, he never has to really look at the enemy laner. His poke is great in the late game and in lane, and fairly easy to land, and he has nice utility with his E, and strong ranged presence with his ultimate. Despite this, he's an AP champion and can have a really hard time last-hitting under tower and in the early game as you shouldn't build ANY AD on him at all, which means he is still somewhat challenging. It will also teach you to harass with your last hitting tools, as this is Xerath's only way of dealing damage, and teach some wave control as Mid-laners tend to have very good waveclear.

What makes this easier?

Xerath has a really obvious waveclear pattern. Q the wave as it approaches and then use W on either the Melees (if you outright killed the ranged creeps with your Q) or the Ranged minions when they group up. Late game this takes no effort at all, but early game doing this will drain mana awfully fast and still not one-shot the wave. Therefore, you must clean them up with your auto-attacks.

Summary 

One of the better Mid-laners for seiging and clearing waves, Xerath is one of the better champions to help you understand wave clear patterns. His entire gameplay revolves around clearing minions and using that to pressure enemy towers, while positioning far enough away from the enemy to not get caught, so played right he will quickly teach any player wave control and wave clear techniques.