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Lucian Build Guide by

Lucian : Purifying Bot Lane

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Lucian Build Guide By Updated on

Guide Discussion (7) More Lucian Guides

Choose Champion Build:

Lucian - The Purifier
Essence Reaver Style (Weaker e
Black Magicks Lucian

Spells:

Flash

Heal

Items

Starting Items

Choose Boots

Early Power Spike

Grab Two

Get Your Last Item

Can put at 5th item slot or 6th

Example Full Build

Ability Order

Lucian Passive Ability

Threats & Synergies

Threats

Synergies

Extreme Major Even Minor Tiny

Show All

None Low Ok Strong Ideal

Extreme Threats

Ideal Synergies

Ashe

Extreme

Ashe is pretty strong except for her lack of mobility. However in an ADC 1v1, a lack of mobility isn't exactly an issue. Once her Q gets to 5 stacks, she turns god mode for a few seconds. If you get caught in an arrow into her Q, you're donezo. However, this is a purely skill based match up and depends on when you get a QSS.

Synergies

Ideal Strong Ok Low None

Introduction

Hello I'm Reyne, a Diamond LOL player. I mained Lucian in season 4 and am somewhat returning back to him as the meta shifts.

Lucian is a semi-caster AD carry with one of the better early games and a great mid game/late game.
Although though Lucian's been nerfed his potential damage is the same, it just depends on skillcap now.
Just remember to open the matchups.
This is my first guide so don't judge me too harshly.

Lucian's real name is Tyrone Deshaun, a man so black he does not even lift. He carries.

ONCE YOU GO BLACK YOU NEVER GO BACK

Lucian is the blackest of all champions, and strongest in the bottom lane. He will wreck face, whether he is against an Urgot or a Teemo

Summoner Spells!

Lucian is a normal AD carry, and what do normal AD carries get?

Flash is a core summoner spell on almost every champion. Even on Lucian, you can make some plays. For escaping, chasing, all sorts of things are used with this. GET IT. NEVER CHANGE

This is heal. A summoner spell that pretty much all AD carries get. Why? Isn't barrier a larger amount of protection? NOOOOO you are really wrong. The difference between barrier and heal, is that for one, HEAL ISN'T A SHIELD. IT IS AN ADD-ON TO YOUR HEALTH.. It also gives you a secondary escape, so you can outrun the enemy.

The summoner spell isn't really that good this meta since heal got updated. This provides a bigger shield early game, but the problem is, how it has a 2 second duration and the fact heal gives a movement speed boost. It makes it seem INFERIOR which is why you get heal first.

This summoner spell, honestly in this passive meta, isn't really the best. It gives some kill potential, but when your in a bad situation it won't really do anything.

Cleanse, is pretty weak this meta. Although it takes off CC and reduces the duration of other CC by 65%, won't do much if you have no help. Heal and barrier help you win duels, but this just shakes off CC.

Even though you might not want to lose CS or anything..you're stupid for getting this for bot lane. If you recall then teleport then just get wrecked afterwards, you wasted that 4 minute cooldown(assuming you teleported to a teamfight). If you don't get fed with teleport you won't have any map pressure, and you'll be useless. Top Lucian doesn't exactly work that well so there is 0 reason to get this.

Why do you get this spell? Literally every other one could be used better than this...

This is for duels, but why would you get this for bot lane?

RIP

Pros / Cons

Pros

+ Most mobile ADC out (In my opinion pls no Kalista-senpai)
+ Can poke in laning phase easily
+ HUGE BURST
+ One of the best mid games and a strong early, however the late game is somewhat lackluster compared to other ADCs
+ Youmuu Black Cleaver POWERSPIKE BABY!
+ Nerfed a ton
+ Strong after Essence Reaver, solves his mana issues
+ THEY BUFFED HIM HALLELUJAH

Lucian is a good ADC, with a very high skillcap. He's been through some rough times with his nerf, but infact, if you play him right he still has the power of the legendary Tyrone Deshaun.

Cons

- Somewhat moderate late game
- Item Dependent
- After you use your dash, you have no escape since w movement speed boost isn't that large
- If set back and unable to snowball, you will be useless
- Short range
- No CC
- nerfed meaning you may struggle bursting pre-6, also only 3 seconds to proc passive
- Mana management pre Essence Reaver can be hard

While Lucian is a fun champion, he is easy to learn, but has a linear learning curve. In about 20 games you should be able to be plenty good, but you need to know some important things. First of all, Lucian's early game is good, but if you fight a Caitlyn or some lane bully, you may lose. His mid game is decent, but the biggest problem is how much cs you can grab or how many kills you get. He can carry, but isn't a one man carry. He is also item dependent, don't be try to fight someone who has six times the items as you. Common sense. Now continuing on, Lucian is very bursty, but do not spam every skill. The e, early game has a 18 SECOND COOLDOWN This means you cannot spam it unless to win a very bad trade. Those are most of the cons, now have some fun.

Skill Explanation

Lightslinger
After using one of Lucian's abilities, his next auto attack within 3 seconds will strike twice. The second shot deals 30%/40%/50%/60% of Lucian's AD based on level, but fully applies on-hit effects. Minions and monsters take full damage from the second shot. The second shot can critically strike. Just remember. The second shot does not apply Infinity Edge's effect meaning it can only do about 250%+100%=350% damage. Still pretty overpowered.
Rito nerfed it though so the problem is making it to level 13. Once you get there you will be extremely overpowered once again. Just don't make the mistake of not using your passive fast enough, and try to be mana conservant.
Using a skill activates you passive, WITH NO TIMER. OP, you can just keep spamming and spamming and spamming. It's like 150% damage that can crit, potentially with an infinity edge, it can do 350% DAMAGE. Against minions it can do about 450% damage making dragons and barons easier to kill with your teammates. Using this passive correctly shows the difference between the bad, good, and best Lucian players.

Piercing Light
After a short delay, Lucian fires a laser in the direction of the target enemy, dealing physical damage to all enemies in a 1100-unit line.
This skill is the one you need to master. Using this can help you secure kills, poke, and do much more. The main con about this skill is the fact you need a target, and it has the same range as your basics.

Ardent Blaze
Lucian fires a shot that explodes in a cross pattern upon hitting an enemy or reaching the end of its path, dealing magic damage and marking enemies hit for 6 seconds.

If Lucian damages a marked target with his basic attacks or abilities, he gains 40/45/50/55/60 movement speed for 2 seconds. This does not consume the mark.

This ability isn't as good as the E with 40$ cdr, so you no longer max it.

Relentless Pursuit
Lucian dashes a short distance. Relentless Pursuit's cooldown goes down by one second per lightslinger shot landed. (Doubled on champions)
Such a good skill... every proc from your lightslinger passive lowers the cooldown by one or two on champions. Thing about it this way, you can spam your passive and just subtract the cooldown by 4 on champs and 2 on minions/monsters. This is SO GOOD FOR CHASING AND ESCAPING. Just don't try to dash through too thick of walls.

The Culling
ACTIVE: Lucian starts firing shots in the target direction for 3 seconds, each shot dealing physical damage to the first enemy it hits. The number of shots fired scales with his attack speed. The Culling deals quadruple damage to minions but not monsters.
While using The Culling, Lucian's basic attacks are disabled and he cannot activate Piercing Light or Ardent Blaze. He can, however, move freely and activate Relentless Pursuit. He also ignores unit collision for the duration.

The Culling can be reactivated to end its effects early and it is interrupted by crowd control effects that inhibit basic attacks.
It's good for disengaging, melting, and sometimes dueling. Just remember, YOUR BASIC CAN DO MORE DAMAGE THEN THIS. The difference is that basics are typically for bursting while this is for constant damage. It's strong but just don't think you can win a 1v1 with an enemy adc with this skill. This also, when ended, procs your passive allowing a potential escape. Just remember, IT DOES 400% DAMAGE TO MINIONS. This makes it extremely good waveclear, and a way to do faster dragons/barons with it since it actually has a high amount of damage dealt. This is also a good move to disengage and get a decent amount of damage, but you should never try to secure a kill with it.

Runes

Precision

Press the Attack

Lethal Tempo

Phase Rush

: This is for early game, you can do duels with a decent attackspeed, but you can use 2 attackspeed + 1 ad if you want last hit and early game strength.

: This is for early game bonus damage, it can help alot in last hitting.

: Do you really need to ask? This is the core for damage in the early game.

: Well almost all supports do magic damage, and if you fight a Corki or something...

: This helps you win duels early game, having a little more attack speed can really help.

: This is to help you scale so you don't get wrecked too hard by APs in mid game. It's since how you get armor per level, you need something to get you magic resist per level.

: To protect you early game and to help you survive mid game.

Masteries

Right now Lucian's optimal masteries are an 18-12. I personally believe that taking is better than the others. Although people might argue that is better, I think the fact that Fervor gives you a bonus BF sword on hit to enemies at lvl 9 is worth it over the soon to be nerfed crit lifesteal.

T
O
O
O
P

N
E
V
E
R

C
H
A
N
G
E

My optimal Lucian page.

WIth season 6 rolling in, right now I think that each mastery in here contributes a lot. The lifesteal and the feast mastery will keep you healthy while you still have damage due to dangerous game and fervor.

Skill Order And Why

Skill Order

> > >

Right now, Lucian's skill sequence has only been reversed back to his original release. You max his ult like you do with all other champions, then piercing light as it's your bread and butter skill for burst. However, now W is for kiting and bonus damage and your E isn't exactly extremely useful. Unless your planning to dash more than twice times in one fight.

Skill Demonstrations

This is your passive, Light slinger. It allows you to fire two shots, on minions it does the whole amount of damage. However the second shot will do 50% damage to champions or turrets. Just remember Infinity Edge's passive does not work on the second shot, but you will get lifesteal fully on the second shot. This is very good with BORK.

This is piercing light. You use it as your primary bread and butter skill, but it can go through minions to hit champions. The biggest problem is that YOU NEED A TARGET. It is not like an Ezreal q, it's a skill you use to pierce through champions.

This is Ardent Blaze, the move that lets you apply an on hit buff, where if you hit them you get a small amount of movement speed. This move is good for chasing, but if you land ultimate after landing your Ardent Blaze on them, you can gain movement speed while running away.

This is Relentless Pursuit, the move that makes Lucian one of the most mobile ADCs in the game. If you hit ANYTHING with your passive, it lowers it's cooldowns. For example, when it is at max level it has a 14 second cooldown. If you use this to engage, then double shot, it will be lowered to 10 seconds. Then with a q + aa + w aa it WILL COMPLETELY REFRESH, doing alot of damage and providing a way to finish them off or to run away from them.

This is your ultimate. The Culling. It does 400% damage to minions, which means that minions can block this. It does alot of damage if you can land all of it, but REMEMBER THE MOST IMPORTANT PART. YOUR AUTOATTACKS DO MORE DAMAGE THEN THIS. This means, you can finish them with your basics. Your ultimate is typically a disengage, or an engage. You should never use it as it does not do much burst in duels.

Gameplay (WIP)

Apologies, but LOLReplay is being stupid. I will update this section later.
I'm going to list the most important facts about gameplay however.

is used to shoot through minions, and poke the enemies. It can also grab you that near-escape enemy.
is pretty much only used to proc your passive. You can use it as that movement speed boost, but honestly it barely provides anything.
is the BEST DAMN SKILL for an AD carry. I mean, a dash, that's cooldown can be reduced by hitting the enemies with the no cooldown passive. Damn is this skill strong, you can be dashing anywhere. The only problem is, Riot added back it's mana cost, which means you have to be conservative in early game and aim only to do good trades.
is a decent ultimate. Not the best,but not the worst. I mean, compare this to an ultimate like Sivir's ultimate, and it's better. Not bombing on Sivir players, but, you know. This can be used to engage fights, as you begin the ultimate and then use your out then cancel it and begin to burst enemies down. It CAN be useful, only if you do it right.

Itemization

This is your core starting item. Get a with it.

However if this is a massive farm lane you can get this, it just won't be as good.

This is your rush ALL THE TIME Get somewhere with this. If your doing bad just grab a . It lets you powerspike faster, however you grab a Cull as a type of scaling mechanic. You get a 350g comeback with an item thats slightly worse than another Dorans. With Youmuu, you can just grab a ton of long swords and it'll work however.

Welcome early powerspike. This item has become extremely good for bruisers, and ADCs apparently at the same time. This lets you shred without grabbing an early armor item early, gives a nice chunk of health, and a good amount of AD at the same time. Riot, thanks for this! :^)

With your power spike, you can now grab these afterwards. You have an option of either wave clear (Stattik), turret sieging (Rapidfire), dueling potential and possibly more damage every once in a while(phantom dancer), a way to ward off CC (Mercurial), or you can grab a Bloodthirster for survivability. This depends purely on the enemy team, don't just build one all the time, reflect on your team comp and the enemy before purchasing this third item.

This right here is in case the blood thirster isn't enough. You can upgrade it into or . This is situational, if they have tanks you take Dominik, if they have sustained laners like Soraka you can take the Mortal Reminder.

Decide which item you want. Just remember a couple of things.
The Mercurial Scimitar is if they have TONS of Crowd Control.
The Banshee's Veil is typically the buy since they might engage on you by accident, but that Thresh hook or Alistar headbutt may be blocked by this.
Maw is in the case that they have way too much magic damage and getting a QSS or something just isn't enough.
Guardian Angel is typically not a good buy anymore, since it's 5 minute cooldown and if your team just gets slaughtered and your guardian angel was just popped, while 5 enemies surround you, well you should get my point.

Skill Combos!

Normal Trade

When using this combo, just remember the relentless pursuit is a disengage. You use it just to back off, then shoot some minions or something with the passive proc. You have to hit the minions, so you can lower the cooldown on this.

Bot Lane Rush Combo

This is your typical trade combo. A large amount of burst in just about 2 seconds. Now at level 2, the damage is able to be calculated. Your base AD at about level 2 with runes and masteries is 52+9.5+7+1+4=73.5. Now assuming their armor is near about 30, your Piercing Light is 134 damage, which means it will do around 80 damage. Your relentless pursuit with your lightslinger passive is about 70, then the piercing light and another doubleshot is near 230 damage. With the base HP in the meta, that is about 1/3rd of their health, leading you to be more and more dominant.

Full Out Kill Combo

Now, you may be asking me, Why do I need so many skills to kill someone? Well, you used the first half, all the way until the lightslinger after the ardent blaze. Throw some basics afterwards, and if you kill them, your fine. But, in the case that you don't you need some moves afterwards. The Culling in this combo, IS NOT THE WHOLE DURATION. It's merely a way to use your passive again, to trigger relentless pursuit. I'm going to make another kill combo after this, which is, alot more simpler.

Executing Squishies

--------

This is the combo you use to kill an enemy without your ultimate. This is Lucian's extremely powerful burst combo. His damage comes from primarily his Piercing Light and Light Slinger. This combo, is not very long in reality. It can be completed in about 4 seconds if you can burst them fast enough. It can do up to 4500 damage, considering whether or not you're full build or have a Statikk Shiv or not, since the burst damage from the Shiv can be quite powerful. This is damage calculated without resistant in the formula so since normal armor reduces about 40 percent at level 18, somewhere near 2800 damage.

Support Match-Ups

Alistar - The Minotaur
Tank, Melee, Support , Hard CC

Synergy: Low
Jungler ganking potential: Extreme
Speciality: Tanking everything
Explanation: A tanky support that has a heal, tons of cc, and is a fairly good tank. You can use him as a meatshield but the big problem is, how good is this Alistar? If he is a good one he will pulverize + headbutt the enemy to you, but if he is a baddie, then he will headbutt away a potential kill.

face of the mountain

Annie - The Dark Child
Ranged, Squishy DPS, Mage , Support

Synergy: Decent
Jungler ganking potential: Pretty Good
Speciality: Intense engage/poke
Explanation: Annie Supports are pretty good. They have nice engage, with damage to zone out the enemies. Biggest problem is how she has no escapes for you and for her besides the stun. Also isn't really the tankiest support, and can steal kills really easily.

Blitzcrank - The Steam Golem
Support , Tank , Melee , Magic Damage , Hard CC

Synergy: Great
Jungler ganking potential: Medium
Speciality: Displacement move that can get enemies killed easily
Explanation: Blitzcrank is a great support, since you can grab enemies towards you with just one move! The only problem is if that Blitzcrank is trigger happy. For example, an easy pull is coming towards you, but their jungler is too. A bad blitzcrank would just grab right away hoping to get that easy pull, then you get ganked. However, another Blitz may just see that it's a bait. Ganks can be set up easy if they get a pull, but if not, oh well.

talisman of ascension

Braum - The Heart of Freljord
Support , Tank , Melee , Magical Damage , Hard CC

Synergy: OVERPOWERED
Jungler ganking potential: Amazing
Speciality: Both passives have amazing synchronization
Explanation: Braum and Lucian are an amazing combo. The Braum can protect the Lucian from almost all damage, while the concussive blows are applied in a split second from the Lightslinger passive. This combo is extremely hard to beat, and is easy to carry.

face of the mountain

Fiddlesticks - The Harbringer of Doom
Support , Mage , Squishy

Synergy: Bad
Jungler ganking potential: Bad
Speciality: Fiddle support is pretty bad. Only use of him is his 's silence and his 's fear length. The ultimate will do little to no damage late game, so he's only good in early-mid.
Explanation: Fiddle support sucks with Lucian

talisman of ascension

Janna - The Storm's Fury
Support , Mage , Squishy , Ranged

Synergy: Excellent
Jungler ganking potential: Mediocre
Speciality: Since the following nerfs have happened Lucian has a pretty mediocre lane phase with no real damage pumping out from his passive now. The way that Janna helps is by providing you with that 20-30 bonus AD at level 1 giving you pretty much similar damage to before. This can help ALOT in lane phase and in prolonged trades.
Explanation: Janna is a pretty safe support, and can peel for you, shield you, and do many things for you. She is good escape with her ultimate, and can provide LOTS of early game damage. Just remember, even if you think it's only you winning the lane, the support is there for a reason. However, the biggest problem is that she does no damage. So when that Caitlyn is walking out with 100-200 HP, Janna's basics won't secure it buddy.

Karma - The Enlightened One
Support , Mage , Damage

Synergy: Decent
Jungler ganking potential: Good
Speciality: Karma has a good shield with poke
Explanation: While laning with a Karma, you will want to play aggressive. She can back you up with her skillset, and save you with her shield. This is a strong lane, only countered by people with hard CC.

Leona - Radiant Dawn
Support , Tank , Melee , Hard CC

Synergy: Great
Jungler ganking potential: She can set up ganks quickly with her hard CC.
Speciality: Her hard CC and engage mixes with your engage and burst damage
Explanation: Leona and Lucian in bottom lane are extremely strong. In early game. Leona is the burstiest support out, and you can mix in with her skillset by triggering each and doing even more damage. When she engages with her zenith blade, you can follow up with your relentless pursuit and instantly destroy the enemy.

face of the mountain

Morgana - Fallen Angel
Support , Mage , Hardcore Utility

Synergy: Strong
Jungler ganking potential: Strong
Speciality: Great utility, and can provide you good support
Explanation: Morgana has her 1 year binding, with your burst, you can kill the target when their still in it.

Nami - The Tidecaller
Support , Medium CC , Mage

Synergy: Strong
Jungler ganking potential: Situational
Speciality: Her can be applied with your lightsligner two times
Explanation: Nami is a strong support, you can lose a trade then be healed, catch someone then burst them with your doubleshot with her tidecaller's blessing. This is an easy lane normally.

Sona - Maven of the Strings
Support , Mage , Healer

Synergy: Strong
Jungler ganking potential: Medium
Speciality: Strong laning phase
Explanation: Her skills work greatly with yours, she can poke and hold them back, give you extra magic damage, a shield, etc

Soraka - The Starchild
Support , Healer , Squishy

Synergy: Over Powered
Jungler ganking potential: Mediocre
Speciality: HER HEALS ARE SO OP
Explanation: Soraka has a low oooldown heal that each heal about 100-200 hp, and are extremely powerful. You can rush in, lose a trade, and just be healed back to full hp in a couple of seconds. You just take a beating and make them suffer also just to be brought back to life. THIS IS SUCH A BROKEN CHAMPION RIGHT NOW

talisman of ascension

Taric - The Gem Knight
Support , Tank , Melee , Medium CC

Synergy: Strong
Jungler ganking potential: Good
Speciality: His armor and his heals are extremely powerful
Explanation: He provides armor for you in lane, leading for you to be more tanky. He has a heal, a stun, and an ultimate that grants you attack damage and ability power.

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face of the mountain

Thresh - The Chain Warden
Support , Tank , Hard Utility

Synergy: Amazing
Jungler ganking potential: Great at setting up with his lanterns, just needs to land a death sentence afterwards for an easy kill
Speciality: Both your kits together are the most mobile in the game
Explanation: Although this bastard stole your wife, he is a damn good partner. You just go in, burst them down, and before they can get you, he throws his lantern out. You are extremely mobile with high damage output.

face of the mountain

Vel'Koz - The Eye Of The Void
Support , Burst , Mage

Synergy: Decent
Jungler ganking potential: Good
Speciality: His incredible burst without AP make up for his low utility
Explanation: Vel'Koz is a special support, as he can have NO AP ITEMS yet do more damage than a Darius with 6 trinity forces. His burst combo, if he can land it right, will do tons of damage, even when he only has a spell thief's edge.

timewarp

Zilean - The Chronokeeper
Support , Mage , Bombing the world

Synergy: Good
Jungler ganking potential: Bad
Speciality: Tons of bombs that do damage
Explanation: Zilean is a good support, that can do damage to enemies, slow them, speed you up, and revive you when you die. The big flaw is that, he only has one cc and it's only a slow. You can't set up ganks very well. Otherwise, Zilean can provide plenty of damage to enemies, while you burst them.

Zyra - Rise of the Thorns
Support , Mage , Burst

Synergy: Decent
Jungler ganking potential: Good
Speciality: She has plenty of damage and CC for you
Explanation: She only has one real CC move and that's her E. The rest of it is just slows. Zyra does alot of damage and can help you in laning phase decently.

Team Fights

This is a basic video about Lucian, but in teamfights I need to point some things out.

Lucian is a type of champion where you need proper positioning to teamfight as with all AD carries.

This is an example. The red circle is where Lucian's ult is shooting from. He has proper positioning and can lead the fight to victory.

This is a bad example of a Lucian fight, Altec was too overextended and lost the teamfight in the end.

When in teamfights, you have to maintain a steady amount of DPS and can't be too far from the fight. Just ulting isn't enough in team fights when playing Lucian. You need to get near the middle to kill the enemy squishies. The tanks are not a target, unless they are peeling THAT hard.

Farming

Farming with Lucian is easy

You just need to use your through almost dead minions with a to do fast waveclear. You can poke through the almost dead minions to win trades and to beat the **** out of your enemy.

JUST DON'T FAIL LAST HITTING. LUCIAN IS VERY ITEM DEPENDENT.

Lucian has pretty much the smoothest auto-attack animation out of the AD carries, it's easy to shoot and stutter-step with him.