Lucian was considered trash tier on his release by most people, for having a 'useless' ult, but after some experimentation Lucian soon came to flourish in nearly every region as THE top tier ADC. However, after numerous nerfs, he has been taken down from his god tier status in competitive play and is now a fairly balanced ADC, that shines when someone has put a lot of practise into him or likes more mobile ADC's. He is particularly loved by players that have fast reaction times and/or slightly poorer positioning due to his dash, but is easy to punish due to his short range if the player does not predict incoming threats, and can't carry too hard due to his lack of strong steroids while waiting on his cooldowns. Despite having the lowest win rate of all ADC's (hovering around 46%), he is still a go-to for many high level ADC's in solo Q. Some great Lucian players include; Forgiven, Rekkles, Sneaky, Imaqtipie and Space.
- Mobile
- Good in Lane
- Decent Scaling, never really weak
- Rewarding for learning him
- Has Poke
- Excellent in 1v1s
Weakness:
-Easily outscaled by Hyper carries such as Jinx, Kog and Vayne
- Early game damage pre-BF not outstanding
- Jack of all trades, master of none
When to pick Lucian:
- When you need a self-peeling AD
- If you are confident with him (he's pretty useable in most compositions, so is great if you're not sure)
When not to pick Lucian:
- You are the only late game damage source on your team
- The enemy has short range, point-and-click CC which will kill you
Summoner Spells:
Flash/Heal - Standard ADC combo in this meta
Flash/Cleanse - If you really need the cleanse earlier than QSS
Lucian's Skill Set
Passive - LightslingerUse in kit- This passive is what made lucian extremely strong early in his release, and why many people played him with a triforce core in his build. Although this has stopped, this passive is still why he scales well and why he's good in lane, and without it his kit wouldn't be nearly as effective.
Summary - This passive essentially causes lucian to shoot twice after each spell cast. The second shot comes out in the same attack animation as the first, and deals 30/40/50% of Lucian's AD (100% vs minions and monsters). Although the AD scaling isn't AMAZING, it makes his burst impressive, and most importantly, these secondary shots can critically strike and apply on hit effects. This is why lucian scales well AND is good in lane. In lane it provides burst, and it acts as his steroid late game.
Using this skill - To make full use of this passive you must auto-attack between each spell (known as spell weaving), and this is especially important in lane, as you can combo your skills one after the other with auto-attacks in-between with virtually no delay. Each double auto can be cancelled by another spell, and you can also stutter step between them, providing great mobility and burst when practised.
Q - Piercing Light
Use in kit - Piercing Light is a linear skill shot, and is usually maxed first. It provides great damage in and out of lane, being used to poke in lane, and hit the WHOLE team if lined up correctly in teamfights. It is one of Lucian's most powerful skills and, if well practised, can make the difference between a great Lucian and just an OK one.
Summary - With a 120% Bonus AD scaling at max rank, this ability can do crazy damage in the mid-game. It is the primary skill to land on as many people as possible, and due to the fact the skill range goes beyond the initial cast target it can hit squishies through their tank line in team fights, or hit the enemy by targeting minions in lane
Using this skill - Aim this carefully mid-late game, if you can stutterstep well this really helps. Early game you can use this to poke in the lane, but it has a VERY high mana cost, so if you keep missing just stop and save your mana for a while. A Lucian with no mana is not very strong. The single biggest thing people dont do with this skill, is auto and cancel with this skill (essentially auto-q). A lot of Lucian player's simply Q thier target, and do not auto first. The damage difference is significant, so get used to doing this if you want to get good at lucian.
W - Ardent Blaze
Use in kit - From an AD Lucian's perspective this is mostly utility focused. The speed boost is nice when kiting, and the mark is easy to proc if you can hit the whole team with the AoE. It can be maxed second if you do not feel like you need the cooldown from the E and will slightly increase your damage, but is also maxed third sometimes if you do need the cooldown sooner. However, if you feel like breaking the meta, this skill has a crazy AP ratio. I do not recommend AP Lucian in ranked, but it can be fun with friends
Summary - The base damage on the skill is fairly good, maxing at 220, albeit it has a useless AP ratio of 90%. The speed bonus also scales from 40% bonus movement speed to 60%, which can make a good case for maxing it second. If you do not max it second, and in the early game when it only has 1 point, it can be used for mostly the speed boost, but it also procs Lightslinger. This makes is great in all-in trades, even if you don't have to kite or chase. And extra damage is always nice!
Using this skill - This skill can also be cancelled after an auto (including a double shot), so can be used to help increase your burst whatever the rank of this skill. It is also very important to throw this skill out before your ultimate, as your ultimate will continually proc the mark and give you a beneficial speed boost during your ultimate channel.
E - Relentless Pursuit
Use in kit - Lucian's basic mobility spell. This is his escape, engage and the only reason that he is viable with his tiny 500 range. Like all his other spells it procs Lightslinger, but Lightslinger also reduces the cooldown of this skill by 1 second every time a double auto hits which can make engaging in lane with E fairly acceptable, and helps it come up often in teamfights.
Summary - The only reason to rank this skill is the reduced cooldown, scaling from 18 seconds to 14 seconds. The mana reduction from 40 mana to 0 is nice too, but it's fairly cheap at all ranks so this is not a big deal. At max rank a full rotation of spells will have this nearly back up if you started with this spell.
Using this skill - Like all other skills, this can increase your damage using Lucian's passive. It's also great for dodging skillshots that would otherwise get you killed. In teamfights, like most ADC's, you should save this for when you really need it, but using this aggressively in lane (provided you dodge lethal CC such as a thresh hook, and you're not being ganked) can really increase your lane pressure and allow you to bully weaker laners. However, it is a long cooldown, especially early, and
aggressive use can be heavily punished by a clever player.
R - The Culling
Use in kit - This ultimate is great for when you're zoned out from a fight and still want to put damage down, clears waves fast and can finish fleeing enemies. It does proc Lightslinger, but due to the extended channel time it is not recommended to use this in close range as simply auto-attacking usually does more damage when you crit once or twice.
Summary - With both an AD and an AP ratio, as well as the shots fired scaling with your attack speed this skill is seriously loaded with stats. 25% bonus AD and 10% AP on every shot means this can really hurt if you land the full duration, even on tanky characters. The real gem of this skill is that it deals 400% damage to minions so can be used to quickly clear minions from range and the fact you can move and even dash with Relentless Pursuit can give you some nice safety when using this.
Using this skill - You should throw Ardent Blaze and activate this if zoned from teamfights, or wanting to chase/kite as this can create a nice constant movement speed buff. Because it is buffed by attack speed, activating Youmuu's Ghostblade prior to activating this skill can give it a real boost if you choose to build that item.
Lucian's Build Paths
Standard -
Infinity Edge, Statikk Shiv/Phantom Dancer, Last Whisper, Bloodthirster, Beserker's Greaves, Defensive item
This build is fairly standard amongst most ADC's and allows good scaling throughout the game. Good use of Lightslinger allows great laning and late game damage, and the Bloodthirster and Last Whisper allow fantastic mid-game damage from your Q and ultimate.
Tank Killer Lucian -
Infinity Edge. Phantom Dance, Blade of the Ruined King, Last Whisper, Beserker's Greaves, Defensive item/Bloodthirster
This build makes use of the fact that Lightslinger fully applies on hit effects, so the Blade really does work on tankier targets that simply stack health. The Blade also gives an extra duelling power in its active and you can kite really well with it, and is ideal against really tanky teams.
Burst Lucian
Infinity Edge, Youmuu's Ghostblade, Bloodthirster, Last Whisper, Ionian Boots of Lucidity, Defensive item
This build leans really heavily into Lucian's duelling power and burst in his abilities. It can absolutely crush lanes, but only if you're already ahead! The early Brutaliser really helps his bullying power, but it does fall off toward the late game and your damage is really ability orientated.
Using Lucian
Lane - In lane Lucian can perform a bully role if paired with the correct support, and played correctly. His main trading tool is to either poke through minions with his Q without retaliation, or to auto-Q-Lightslingerauto. Getting double hits on your opposing laners as often as possible will really create your lane dominance, especially after you have a BF sword. Make sure to use Relentless Pursuit to avoid opposing skills in trades (such as thresh/blitz hooks or Ezreal Mystic Shots), and this will cause you to win trades even harder after you double auto in retaliation. However, your short range can get you bullied by very long range ADC's such as Caitlyn and Ashe so be wary of these lanes. If you can get in close you WILL win the trade most times, but they can poke you out of lane easier than you can push them out.
Midgame - In the midgame a lot of your damage is fairly front-loaded burst damage from Q. Your ultimate really hurts too and your Lightslinger passive makes your damage very significant if spell-weaving correctly and this is probbably Lucian's strongest point in the game. Really abuse your strength here if you can, especially against AD's that are still scaling such as Kog'Maw and Vayne, as few ADC's can match you here. Corki and Graves are the only ones that will be stronger at this stage of the game.
Lategame- Here you're damage does begin to fall off compared the real late game scalers. However, you do more than some other burst carries such as Corki (especially if you built Blade of the Ruined King), as you are less skill dependant. However, be careful due to the long death timers and your short range but you can use your ultimate to put down damage if zoned and otherwise just keep auto-attacking and casting spells whenever possible, except for Relentless Pursuit which should be saved for when it's really needed. Like ALL ADC's you are the main damage threat at this point and should treat yourself as such.
Summarising Lucian
A consistent ADC with good scaling that has a fairly low skill floor but a high skill cap that allows mastery of this champion to really make him strong. There are very few situations where picking Lucian is a really bad idea, and can be a solid staple ADC to learn for all levels of players if they are willing to put time into him. He also has smooth animations, and feels great to pull off combos with which can make him great fun too.
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