Xerath

Support

Middle

Be Their Undoing

Oppressive lane harass and efficient power-spikes.

Sorcery

Empowered abilities and resource manipulation

Arcane Comet

Hitting a champion with spells hurls a comet that deals adaptive damage at them. Landing more spells reduces Arcane Comet's cooldown.
Manaflow Band

Hitting enemy champions with a spell grants maximum mana.

After reaching 250 mana, Manaflow Band restores 1% of your missing mana every 5 seconds.
Absolute Focus

While above 70% health, gain up to +40 Ability Power or +28 Attack Damage (based on level), Adaptive.
Scorch

Your first ability hit every 20s burns champions.

Inspiration

Creative tools and rule bending

Magical Footwear

You get free boots at 10 min. but you cannot buy boots before then. These boots give additional MS. For each takedown you acquire the boots 30s sooner.
Cosmic Insight

+5% CDR
+5% Max CDR
+5% Summoner Spell CDR
+5% Item CDR

Offense

+5 AD or 9 AP
Flex

+5 AD or 9 AP
Defense

+6 Armor

WhyArcane Comet

Arcane Comet can really shine on poke champions who are able to proc the effect from a long distance.

TIP: If you're only proccing Comet with Xerath's [Q] your hit rate is going to suffer. Try using [W]s slow and [E]s stun to more effectively deal chip damage in lane.

WhyManaflow Band

Manaflow Band is what makes Xerath Support possible. His [Q] and [W] mana costs are extremely high with without Manaflow you're going to struggle poking and harassing in lane.

Try to use [Q] when the Manaflow effect is up so that you get the most out of the mana refund.

TIPS: Always try to auto a minion when your passive is off of cooldown, to further sustain your poking pressure.

WhyAbsolute Focus

Absolute's bonus ability power is fantastic for asserting early game lane dominance from afar.

WhyScorch

Scorch is the bread-and-butter of Xerath support as it further empowers your poking and oppressive damage in lane.

WhyMagical Footwear

Magical Footwear is a valuable and safe rune option on nearly all champions (minus roaming supports), acting effectively as a kill's worth of gold at 10mins.

The saved gold lets your opt into more AP damage items earlier than otherwise possible.

If you're playing into a few scary assassins/divers (Zed/Nocturne) Perfect Timing can be a great alternative for minimizing deaths.

WhyCosmic Insight

More CDR means more spell casts/poke and thus more lane harass, playing up on your strengths.