Lux Build Guide : Lux - Divided they stand, United they fall

Introduction

Why should I play Lux?

You want to play Lux like this? Follow this guide and victory is yours. If you're still not interested in doing so: In this case, well, see you ingame summoner!

Note: This Guide focuses on the playing style of Lux. I won't give you too much different Item builds since in my humble opinion it's all about skill!

Updates

4-19-2012

Pros / Cons

Pros

+ Spectacular Skills
+ High Damage
+ Way underrated and believed to be weak
+ Most people have no idea how to face you since they are not used to play vs Lux mid.

Cons

- Squishy
- Blue Buff depended
- People suppose you to be support

When to play Lux mid?

This is a guide how to play Lux in ranked. It's optimized for solo queue.
So in general...

Play Lux AP mid whenever you can!

First of all because it's fun. We play video games for fun, isn't it that way? Secondly in my opinion she is very strong in solo queue if played the right way. I'll explain the reason for that later on.

Whom will you face mid?

Lux can face nearly any ap laner mid lane. The possible opponents differ in playing style though. I've categorized them in terms of the accordant way to deal with them.

Skillshot-CC Champions

The advantage with Skillshot-CC Champions is the fact, that they can be calculated. You can dodge their spells! By learning how their playing manner is like, you’ll get a feeling for their spell roation, playing behaviour, movement... In most cases it’s just a matter of skill here. Who zones whom more, Who's calculation is better and so on.

Mobility champions

The champions with high mobility are dangerous in a certain way. The problem here is if the enemy jungler appears, they will instantly jump at your face. The CC they’ll throw at your face will be enough for their jungle to catch up and stun/slow/throw you again. While playing versus such champions, you have to be aware!

Heavy-CC Nuker

These enemies are the hardest one. Annie will just flash at you like "Tibbers in your face!", Ryze will flash at you using activate his ultimate and finish you straight away, Malzahar will flash at you channeling , not to talk about veigar - boom! Oneshot! Be aware of that when facing them mid. Have a look at the Summoner section if you struggle dealing with those.

Special Cases

Kassadin

must be dominated hard pre level 6. Try to communicate with your jungler. Make him gank mid over and over. Probably change Glyphs to flat AP if you see them picking in champion selection (well actually you can't change any runes in champ selection). Use Auto Attacks to harass him in lane pre6. As soon as he got level 6 you will be dominated hard. But it’s not he couldn’t be dealt with. Just play save and farm. Use your spells smart: He'll usually force you to cast to just Riftwalk at you. Don't let him force you or bait him that way if jungler is awaiting in bushes.

Sion

in contrary to Kass is kind of easy to deal with. He is played against like a Skillshot-CC mage since you can calculate his actions. He needs to activate before stunning you. If he does, you know even more what his next actions will be. Count the time the shield will detonate, bait him to you just before that time exceeds, then bind him with Light Binding, 1 auto hit, cast [[Lucent Singularity and detonate it when the shield is gone, add another auto hit. That’s some pain for little sion. But be aware: He will try the flash-at-your-face-move as well.

Mordekaiser

Mordekaiser as well does not fit the categories above. If you can count on your jungler (also when not) play aggressive. There are 2 reasons:

Mordekaiser will harm you not too much, but steadily no matter what unless you are zoned that hard, that you don't gain xp
Mordekaiser will naturally push and he is indeed a strong pusher

Play more oriented than usual.
Keep buying 1-4 Health Potions while going back to lane. The reason is the constant damage output of Mordekaiser. You have to find a way to keep harassing him when his shield is not up. The way doing so are Health potions.
Thirdly Blue Buff is even more important. With blue buff you can play VERY Aggressive. Always walk forth, cast your shield to minimize HIS damage while you throw him YOUR damage instead in his face. With blue you can dominate Mordekaiser pretty easy.
Last point: When ganking Mordekaiser be aware. He may change his mind and go All-IN after you. You could die to that. (Well actually every champ can decide to do so but while playing versus Mordekaiser i see that more often)
Last but not Least: Get at level 3 instead of 4 beacause with and Mordekaiser has a high damage dot (damage over time) output early.

Summoner Spells

Why Ignite?

Some people may think it's inconsequent to say to stay behind at any cost and grab . What the idea behind Ignite is to get early kills in lane. In my opinion that benefit is high enough to grab it. Often people tell me, Lux can't cary and is weak late game. In my opinion Lux is one of the strongest late game AP champs. But she is kinda weak early on. Ignite is to balance that.

Cleanse while facing Heavy-CC Nukers

If you face CC heavy nukers, feel free to grab instead of . Also have a look at the general team. If you aren't sure about grabbing vs or for example, have a look at the rest of the enemy team. If they got heavy CC elswhere as well, then grab .

What about Clear Voynce?

If your supporter does not pick Clear Voynce you can also make your mind up about picking CV since vision is very powerfull and your ultimate benefits from cv.

Teleport

on Lux in Solo queue is not very usefull in my opinion. If you play with a premade team, well then it's a different thing and you could pick it for some reasons. In Solo Queueu you can also walk to the lanes to support them. Most of the time enemy team won't notice you leaving your lane throwing Finales Funkeln at them when you half passed baron/dragon.

Clairty or Revive?

Everything else is completely useless in my opinion like - a Summoner Spell i often see advised for Lux on Mobafire. In my opinion that's ****.

Runes

I've played for a long time with 3x before reaizing Lux benefits from the flat Quints. It's just to early dominate your lane, being able to support sidelanes and kill mid.

Items

Starting Items

I used to advice many different starting sets. Finally after much studies with starting items, what i came out with is the most simple one: Dorna's Ring.

Getting nuked or ganked over and over

In case you get nuked/dominated ganked over and over build Catalyst the Protector.
If enemies have high iniciate potential (Nocturne, Malphite, Pantheon) build Rod of Ages.

Boots

Watch the Items of your opponent and think about his masteries/runes. It's possible to face a or with boots and Speed Masteries/Runes mid. That could mean some lack of mobility at your side. Cut your item build at a realistic point (let's say finish Catalyst the Protector then instant ). Don't buy too early though. You won't need magic penetration before you don't have AP at all. Buy the finished boots only early, if you really get outplayed by, let's say Karthus, Sion or Vlad which finished boots too early. As a rule of thumb we could say: Spend first about 1600 gold for AP Items before finishing your boots. That first AP item will most likely be or + 2y Dorna's Ring.

Mejai's Soulstealer in ranked?

I keep getting flamed ingames when buying ; ignore such people. Even if your team is slightly behind and you don't got a kill yet buy that item unless you play in highend elo. Often enough i get 20 stacks while the game is going on by proper positioning in teamfights. Here the reasonning why I strongly advise to buy :

It's easy to get the final hit on an enemy champion with ultimate.
You will be the one, catching escpaing champions with one HP left.
In teamfights you will gain more assists than you can count since your spells have both huge range and aoe damage.
You stay behind most of the time. By proper positioning you won't die what results in not losing your stacks.

Short Item explanations

To make that clear onec more: This guide is supposed to show you my way to play Lux and furthermore showing how to play Lux, not primary what to buy with Lux. If you don't like the way I play Lux or my philosophy about guides, then read the sections about how to lane and cast your spells or leave and don't forget to leave a negative vote. I want people to make their minds up about laning, behaving on map not that much whether they buy or not...

Dorna's Ring improves lane sustainability and gives you a pretty little burst for early ganks. Never get more than the maximum of 3x Dorna's Ring.
Rabadon's Deathcap for AP - makes going your "Finales Funkeln" like "pure damage in your face!".
Void Staff - Will ensure your brute AP force penetrates through any magical resistance (Watch the enemy item build: If they don't buy magic resistance at all: well keep going pure AP!)
Lich Bane - We have several ongoing discussions about that items here. If you don't like that Item just go for another Rabadon's or even Morello's Evil Tome.
Zhonya's Hourglass - Only in case enemies are hardcore focusing you in teamfights

Heavy-cc Nukers: Y U no buy defensive item?

In case you get bursted down by heavy-cc nukers, or the enemy keeps iniciating on you (ww ulti, pantheon, nocturne, malphite), buy as third or fourth item a defensive one.
is a way underrated item. Yu can use it to get rid of some stun or even to get rid of e.g. Zileans/Vladimirs debuffs.
Versus nukers is a great choice as well.

Most important items are wards!

I can't say that enough. While playing mid after my first return I nearly always have one ward in both bushes, left and right. In addition to that I often place a ward at enemy blue to snipe that one when enemy mid tries to take it.
If there is some enemy Jungler supposed to be counterjungling ( is common these days), ward the entrance of the jungle.

When should i go back?

An optimized laning phase looks like this:

Doran's Ring
First Base with about 1000 gold: Doran's Ring, Boots, 2x Vision Ward, 1x Mana Potion
Second Base with whether another 1000 gold or 1600: Blasting Wand or Needlessly Large Rod if you can afford it.

Have a look at the section "Laning Phase" for the proper timing!

Skill Sequence

Don't skill anything at lvl 1 until contact happens!

Sometimes enemies invades and you are happy to upgrade just in time. Another time enemies catches one of your allies and he just flashes away, but with ignite on him and Soraka is miles away. Then you are glad being able to upgrade . But most of the time you will just upgrade first to pull something for your jungler or damage wraiths/wolves. It's also best in lane to start of.

Benefit from your passive!

is a pain in lane early game. Try to hit your opponent after every spell you casted on him while harassing.

Use the correct spell order!

I often see Lux-players around, which aren't able to master proper skill usage.
Harass with and by using your passive in lane until enemy is low enough to oneshot with one proper skill combo like the following one also used in Teamfights*:

Hit with Light Binding
Throw Lucent Singularity
Cast Finales Funkeln
If enemy is not dead you have a short period of time to walk towards the enemy before he is able to leave Lucent Singularity. If he is doing so or you fear him to flash out of the area or Lucent Singularity could be the killing blow go ahead. Otherwise use Flash, cast Ignite then detonate.

* Sometimes (actually very often) you want in teamfights to be detonated before casting Finales Funkeln. The reason is, that your ultimate ignites charges on enemies (): So you want all enemies to be charged with Energy before you use [[Finales Funkeln] (See also "Finales Funklen" two paragraphs below)

Tipps

Keep in mind is binding up to two targets.
Most people are not aware of the enormous width of Finales Funkeln. You can zone an enemy to a wall so he can't escape wherever he goes.
If possible fire Finales Funkeln aslope, not straight since it's easier to dodge if fired straight. Same goes with Light Binding.

Finales Funkeln

Quoted:

"It ignites and refreshes Lux's Illumination debuff if it hits enemies already afflicted."

Use this. As you can see in my video (5:07) for example, I cast before releasing my Laser at the very end to gain a Quadrakill. If I'd not have done that; well some of that could still be standing.

Laning Phase

Last hits!

I used to concentrate too much on harassing until i noticed how much money was floating actually every second through my hands - wrothless since i concentrated on denying my enemy instead on just taking the money!

By watching streams/ tournaments i noticed, that professional players (mid, top and bottom) have about 120 cs at 15 minutes.

Try to reach it! Don't forget: Pros get this score although they are playing against OTHER pro's, so try not to blame the enemy jungler for denying your farm too much. Just try to reach the score!

By doing so you'll get your between 16:00 and 24:00. At this time you'll nearly oneshot any ap laner, ad carry or support. Try it out!

Start to watch your own creep as well!

Start last hitting with Auto attacks - how obvious. Now our goal is to gain more last hits than our opponent. Most people concentrate on the enemy minions only. Well make your mind up and think about OUR minions. You don't only want to get all the last hits; you want your opponent also to miss last hits! So start to watch at your minions and predict, when the enemy laner will try to last hit them. For most AP laner it goes that way, that if they have decided to last hit a certain minion, they do it, no matter what. So watch at him and cast and an auto hit. In best case, you throw the spell, auto attack and detonate just before your auto attack hits the target.

This Screenshot explains the situation.

Positioning and behaviour if jungler appears

Make the laner feeling save

After Jarvan told me he'd come gank i hang back towards top lane beacuse Jarvan has positioned bottom bush. If I'd stay near the bottom bush, Fiddle would have positioned near top bush - far away from Jarvan.
I turn my back to Fiddle since i walk away. I'm in the middle of his red creeps: Such stuff makes people feel save. Try it out.

Now I force the opponent near bottom bush even more. By doing like some random harassment action. The only way for him to dodge is near bottom bush.

Unfortunately Jarvan was awaiting him there...

Now one last thing: Don't use if your ally already stunned the enemy unless you get a kill by doing so. Wait until the allied CC is running out, thenn cast just in time (a little bit before stun runs out). I've done that in that Screenshot situation: After Jarvan knocked him out my hit him and he died.

Use Wards

Wards are just so strong and I use them after my first Shop Session nearly all the times in both bushes, left as well as right. You can not only leave lane fast and easy, but also Push hard when needed. You don't have to fear getting raped while pushing too hard or zoning your enemy.

Teamfights and Leaving Lane

Positioning

Your position is always behind. Since you are stacking Mejai's, your life is worth alot. Don't risk too much, stay behind and cast your spells. Always let people die instead of trying to rescue them, failing and dying as well. You want to get 20 stacks since we don't buy too much cooldownreduction.

Finales Funkeln in teamfights

Don't just say "oh battle is happening, let's throw some laser". Try to illuminate as many targets as possible first, to make your laser even more insane. If you are away from fight and coming in with your Laser from very behind, think about the situation first. Don't fire just to have contributed your laser to the fight. Your damage will come anyway. Give thought o the situation and what is to do with your laser. Watch the video at 3:03 to understand what I mean.

Beofre Leaving lane

If you cann afford it (Mana) or have a blue buff on use and on creeps before you leave. Also in midgame dependent on the situation you want to push little bit forward to be able to help sidelanes without being pushed mid instead. Again, wards and a blue buff are mandatory to do that.

Leaving Lane

As soon as you get level 6 you may viable support sidelanes. It's already enough to go half way down/up the river (1:30 in the video) to snipe one with ultimate. Again your wards in bushes help alot since you can walk through them instant to leave lane without fearing to stumble into the enemy jungler.
In the following screenshot for example, i could not cross that bush without wards since 3 enemies are missing. It would be too dangerous. Fortunately there is a ward and I can instantly leave the lane to support bottom.

It's all about map awareness: Something you have to teach yourself.

When do I leave lane?

I often see mid laners write "mid miss/mia" in chat, but they won't lift a finger while the enemy laner disappears towards bot/top. So if you realize mid is missing think about several aspects:

How many people are missing?
What is the timing of neutral creeps? (Blue, Red, Dragon Nashor)
How far are the lanes pushed and where is my jungler?

For example at about minute 12, an AP laner will get blue buff. If you know this, you can for example ask for cv and try to snipe the blue with your laser as soon as ap is leaving lane. For example it's likely for a jungler to gank the lane, where he just took blue. Keep such and similar things in mind and your map awareness will improve alot.

If the enemy leaves although there is no buff to take nor an enemy jungler to see, i usually support the accordant lane if I know or suppose the way he left. For example heavy roamers like Sion i don't let gank sidelanes without following them. Of course i make sure not to get awaited in a bush.

Be aware of Buffs

You are blue buff dependent! You will need second blue buff and every further. Otherwise you will have serious mana problems and too high cooldowns in teamfights.

Wards, wards, wards. You are AP carry, so what? Buy wards. Vision is the key to any league of legends game but especially to your Ultimate. Furthermore with wards at mid lane bushes you can play as aggressive as you want: especially with blue buff. Your range is like insane.

Write times of enemy blue buffs, dragon and nashor in chat and set wards at enemy blue if your supporter does not. It's easy to snipe the Blue Buff if you think about golems magic resistance, your Ability Power and the cast time of your ultimate.

Summary

Here I'll add answers to question you ask if anybody is interested. I'll start with one common misbelief:

LeBlanc is absolutely NO counter to Lux. Don't fear her while playing mid. YOU are the counter instead. Just play save until lvl 6. As soon as you reach 6, well throw your Laser in her face as often as possible. She can't dodge it with any of her skills and her life bar will go like beneth 50%.

Have fun and melt faces!

Lux - Divided they stand, United they fall