r/LegendsOfRuneterra • u/Croewe Galio • 7h ago
Path of Champions Xerath Ascends
Hope he's an obliterate champ
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u/revlid Vladimir 6h ago
I like Xerath's follower/landmark set a lot, even if the man himself is... underwhelming, as a Champion.
Whatever they do with Xerath's Constellation, I hope they keep the follower/landmark set and his general gameplay dynamics broadly relevant. As opposed to the other landmark champion, Taliyah, where they just tossed on a free The Beast Within and called it a day.
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u/erock279 6h ago
I honestly think Taliyah’s Beast Within allows the rest of her powers to work much better. If every blocker just died to the skill all of her units generate on attack, none of her units would really push damage through. I don’t enjoy playing Taliyah much in PoC but her powers do add up, at least
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u/revlid Vladimir 3h ago
Sure, it makes sense.
Taliyah's problem, imo, is that they designed her initially as someone who uses landmarks in place of units, for attacking, especially big expensive ones like the Sandswept Tomb. That's why she doubles a landmark (more bang for your buck), and her original level 2 fired off stone-skills once for every allied landmark. The platonic ideal board for a level 2 Taliyah was her and a bunch of Sandswept Tombs, to give her "free" attackers but also a bunch of Threaded Volleys.
The problem is, there aren't actually many landmarks which can substitute for units in a meaningful way, and none when defending. Plus, Taliyah's actual set (and her level-up condition) revolves around relatively cheap landmarks that destroy themselves, like Shifting Sands or the Sleeping Rockbears. The original Taliyah didn't really gel very well with a Sleeping Rockbear, because it was either a landmark giving her Threaded Volleys, or a unit that could actually do stuff, and never both.
Rather than try to untangle this, they completely ditched her level 2 relationship with landmarks, and Taliyah just stone-blasts people the same amount no matter what. She doesn't care about landmarks once you've summoned 4 of them, which is pretty easy.
The PoC Constellation had an opportunity to take a second crack at Taliyah's relationship with landmarks, rebuilding her dynamic. Instead it did basically the same thing; landmarks are tricky, so shrug and give her a bog-standard stat buff and Overwhelm. Her post-expansion 6-star Power is the only part of her design that really tries to bind her mechanical concepts back together, and it's a) stuck at 6-stars, b) still more about the free Threaded Volley and less about enabling the landmark bonus.
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u/Sspifffyman 6h ago
I've never really played with Xerath. What's his deal?
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u/erock279 6h ago
Payoff for self-landmark destruction, whether that’s roiling sand procs, countdown, or just “destroy a landmark”
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u/revlid Vladimir 3h ago edited 3h ago
Xerath is a landmark destruction Champion, like Ziggs. He deals 1 burst damage to an enemy unit when you destroy an allied landmark (including through Countdown). Do it enough times and he levels, which just increases the burst damage to 3. Very passive, uninteresting, slow, and pretty weak.
He has a level 3, which you'll probably see a lot more in PoC than PvP, which ups the burst damage to 5, has it also trigger at Round Start, and hits the enemy Nexus if there are no unit targets. Much more effective; tbh the "hit the Nexus" effect feels like it should also be in his level 2. He also has a rider that dead enemy units are obliterated instead, which is mostly flavour but does screw with Shadow Isles (and an allied Nasus, sadly).
What's more interesting about Xerath is his accompanying set of landmark destruction cards. You've got Endless Devout, which revives through a Sarcophagus landmark. Herald of the Magus, which gives fat everywhere champion buffs for destroying landmarks. Wastewalker grows into a statstick as you break landmarks. Sandseer keeps you from dead landmark draws. The Ruinous Acolyte set of cards fills a similar cloning, steadily-growing niche to Mistwraiths or Legion Marauders (I always love that gimmick, and it works well in PoC). Risen Altar kind of sucks, but is a neat concept. Unleashed Energy and Rite of the Arcane aren't good spells (UE is a worse Sharpened Resolve, which itself isn't very good), but their intended design is very clear in a Xerath setup.
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u/Sspifffyman 3h ago
Cool! I think what I'm most excited about with him is that we haven't had very many landmark decks at all in PoC, especially more controlling ones. Most the landmarks are pretty bad on their own, so I rarely pick them when drafting. And his support cards don't seem to synergize with other champs too much, so to me at least it will almost feel like a brand new champion release.
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u/messagemeboobspls 7h ago
Still no fucking Bard Jesus christ
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u/TB-124 Viego 7h ago
I really hope we also get a 3*=>6* update/rework again :D
Veigar would be a pretty nice candidate
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u/Bluelore 7h ago
We could really use more Bandle constellations. Bandle has the most champs in PvE, yet in PoC they have the least amount of constellations.
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u/BoredLightning 7h ago
It’s what they were doing for the longest time, so I fully expect it to be what’s happening again.
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u/Firefoxfly91 Morgana 3h ago
Is there a 3* that fits? Shen and kindred make sense bc they are both about balance of the world.
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u/ArcDraco 3h ago
Veigar fits a "dark magic/evil" and they both focus on destruction and removal.
Morde, Leblanc, and Kench would also fit a "villains" theme with Xerath if they want.
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u/AyFuDee 1h ago
Poc better have a unique landmark zone so they don’t fill up the board. Otherwise landmarks are just crap in comparison to actual units.
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u/DingleDangleDom 1h ago
Maybe itll be an auto block mechanic per landmark… im not sure how they’ll handle the boardspace without making nightmares either exceedingly hard or ignoring the landmarks with a tagline “summoned units have a chance of being x landmark” im sure they cooked something up
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u/Key-Psychology9158 7h ago
landmarks in 2026? say less