I originally purchased Lux due to her amazing Spelltheif Skin being on sale. I know it's for such a petty reason, but in the end I ended up falling in love with Lux's play style and often switch between her and Sona. While I'm not the best with Lux, I'm pretty okay and understand how she's supposed to be played (which I fail epically at trying to play her correctly). Bear with me, as I try to sound authoritative and like I know what I'm talking about, even if I feel like I don't.

REMEMBER: Don't follow this guide to the letter all the time. Your build and items change with the current situation and your own personal play style. By no means do you have to adhere to anything I say here.

A great Summoner builds their Champion up based on the other team, not based on what a website says.

All guide writers do is give advice based on their own experiences. Some are flawed, but you might end up learning something in the end.

WARNING: I tend to repeat myself and ramble on about things you might not care about. if you don't want to read anything that's insanely long, don't bother with this guide. I tend to be long winded and get off track

• This build is based off of Apollymia's PewPew Lazer Build. The original is somewhat AP Centric.
• I have never played Lux in a Ranked game. Once I do though, I will post up a viable build for Ranked, possibly.

Pros:

• Relatively Low Cooldowns
• Great/Good Harasser
• Long (and Somewhat Wide) Spell Range
• Decent AP Scaling
• Plenty of Bust Damage when Needed
• Ability Scout with Lucent Singularity
• Decent Damage with Illumination Passive
• Amazing Partner (i.e. Laning, Ganking)
• Amazing Support in Team Fights

Cons:

• Skills are Linear Skillshots (Save for Lucent Singularity)
• Often Targeted in Team Fights
• Often Targeted when Doing Well (i.e. Plenty of Kills and Assists)
• Extremely Easy to Overestimate the power of Finales Funkeln

Neutral:

• [Somewhat] Squishy Caster
• Reliance on Well Placed Skillshots as an Escape Mechanism
• Somewhat Mid-High Mana Consumption if Skills are used too often in Succession
• Item Builds can further improve AP or CDR, but not exactly both
• Average Movement Speed: 315 - Decent Mobility

When examining the Pros and Cons (and even the Neutral Points), Lux isn't a bad champion at all. I would find the only real trick to her is her is how she is built and played, with more emphasis on the latter than the former.

Now, from my experiences, there are two ways that Lux is commonly built in normal games:

• Maximum Cooldown Reduction - Less AP: Due to her already low cooldowns, Lux is often commonly given EVEN MORE cooldown reduction to almost completely overpower her opponents by spamming skill after skill, doing decent damage due to her OK AP scaling. While you don't maximize her Damage output, this seems to be a common choice to play.
• Maximize AP - Less Cooldown Reduction: This is another build that I don't see too often but it's out there. As stated before, since Lux has low cooldowns it's not necessary to reduce them even more. You end up doing quite a lot of burst damage in the end, and is still a viable choice. Her AP scaling isn't the best though, in my opinion.

I'm more on the low Cooldown side myself, and it's what I built this guide on. While you don't maximize your damage output, you do just enough damage to get enough kills and more than enough to assist your team. Maximizing AP isn't really a priority.

Lux's original job isn't to be a Concentrated-Ball-of-Magic-and-Death, but to be a Support. That's how she was designed. If you want to nuke people with spells, you might as well switch over to Veigar. You're not going to get that kind of Damage output on Lux. It just so happened that Lux can be played as a damage dealer due to her scaling and incredible offensive abilities.

There are exceptions to these rules. Again, your role depends on your play style is and what your team needs. Builds almost become algebra equations depending on the variables.

• x Situation + y Situation = z item

1. Enemy Karthus + Squishy = Banshee's Veil to block Requiem
2. High-Mana Consumption + Caster = Tear of Goddess to Earn Mana per Spell Cast
3. Lots of Enemy Crowd Control (i.e. snares, stuns, slows) + Vulnerable Champion = Mercury's Treads for a chance to run away sooner

These are fairly generic situations, but you get the idea. Think strategically, think defensively and figure out what you REALLY need to get in a pinch. This goes for anything you build for your champion. You might need more Magic Penetration Runes to do more damage with your Ultimate. Or you need to change your Masteries to fit the situations you run into more often.

Always evaluate what is needed. Knowledge is power and you gain knowledge by observing. To keep with my Math analogy.

PERSON + OBSERVATION = KNOWLEDGE
KNOWLEDGE = POWER

By the Substitution Principle in Algebra stating: if one value is equal to another in an equation, they can be interchanged. Thus:

PERSON + OBSERVATION = POWER

Use your heads.

Anyway, onto Lux ranting now that I have that out of the way.

I've always been a number cruncher, and due to that part of me, I've always had a tendency to carry Mixed Runes simply because the numbers I get benefit me more than just having a set of 9 of the same runes in each section of a rune page.

Greater Mark of Magic Penetration - Flat Magic Penetration which helps with the damage output of all your spells.
Greater Seal of Replenishment - Flat Mana Regen to help with Lux's Mana Consumption at the beginning of the match. The regen becomes greatly negligible by the end of the match due to the way the item build is setup, which I'll explain later.
Greater Glyph of Cooldown Reduction - Flat Cooldown Reduction. You really don't need Runes of Celerity. Surprisingly. With 2 Glyphs of Focus, you get about 1.3% CDR, which is more than enough for our purposes of hitting the maximum CDR cap of 40%.

NOTE: If you're not going to use Mejai's Soulstealer and instead using Morello's Evil Tome, then skip the CDR runes and go for full Greater Glyphs of Force.

Greater Glyph of Scaling Ability Power - Scaling AP runes for extra damage output towards the end of a match.

Quintessences: Insight vs. Fortitude

Greater Quintessence of Magic Penetration is what I would pick each and every time.

Now, I know some people might be thinking "How lame is this? This girl doesn't take Fortitude, she'll die all the time."

Greater Quintessence of Health - I will agree with whoever shuns me. Fortitude is great to counteract Lux's eternal squishy-ness. 78 max HP isn't anything to scoff at, especially at the beginning of the game, where you're most vulnerable. However, approximately 50% of the time, you generally do not need the extra health.

Like taking Heal is better at the beginning of a game (and often downplayed as one of the most newbie-like tactics ever, I rage at it all the time when they mash Summoner Heal), from my experience Fortitude only helps at the beginning of the game when you are a caster. Almost 50% of the time, even 60% depending on the range of your skills, you are in a safe range away from enemy champions. If you even know anything about movement prediction, map awareness (i.e. visibility of the mini-map through wards and other similar skills like Noxious Trap/Teemo's Mushrooms and Summoner Clairvoyance) and know anything about the enemy you are facing, you can stay away from death relatively early. Again, knowledge is power. The early surviving state stops when you can start facerolling your enemies in giant beams of light and magically dodge death with your Snare.

Health can always be supplemented in items if you are that desperate for it. It is extremely easy to get Health in items.

Greater Quintessence of Magic Penetration on the other hand, gives you a magic damage advantage early on. The change may seem small, but you would definitely need all the help you can get, especially against high Magic Resist Champions (i.e. Cho'Gath). You have an edge at the beginning of the match against high magic resist champions. Magic Penetration is extremely valuable and runes are one of the few sources you can get it from.

WINNER: Damage Output over Health.

This has always been sort of a sketchy subject, even for myself, as Summoner Spells vary from person to person and their preferences. I personally am very particular with what spells I take.

MY CHOICES:

For me, Clarity is always a must for a caster with mid-high Mana Consumption (which, sadly is exhibited by both Sona and Lux). And unlike Heal, it has a more universal use at any point in the game, even if it's just a minor thing towards Mid-Late game.

Sorry, Guys. Mashing the Heal skill doesn't exactly save you from the massive amounts of burst damage that everyone has towards late game.

Clarity helps you incredibly with the first couple of minutes in the match so you can use your skills at a moderate rate till you finish your first item, which is Tear of Goddess. Once you cross that hurdle, you generally don't need Clarity unless it's to assist another teammate, or you found out you don't have enough mana (I don't see how you won't have enough though). Just hit it and you're ready to go.

OR

I'm a Ghost fan. I've always used Ghost and it's not hard to understand. Just mash the key and run away. You can also use it to chase down enemy champions without much trouble, even if they themselves have Ghost or Flash.

Similarly, Flash can also be an escape mechanism and/or a chasing tool. You are able to use Flash to jump over walls, teleport next to an enemy champion you're trying to kill or simply to get around faster. Yes. There are people who use Summoner Spells with no combat going on at all. I find it kind of silly sometimes.

OTHER CHOICES YOU CAN SWITCH IN:

I've commonly seen Clairvoyance used for Lux due to her surprising (but limited) scouting abilities. In tandem with ward placement and Lux's Lucent Singularity revealing portions of the map she casts it in, you can effectively scout out areas for danger or reveal enemy champions for your team granted you know how to do that effectively.

I've also seen this skill used to help aim your ultimate at other champions, especially if they're runners. Since Finales Funkeln has a long range, just pop Clairvoyance and you can aim it pretty well. It has a moderately wide range on top of it's 3000 range, surprisingly, so you can be slightly off with it and still pull off quite a bit of damage.




I can easily justify the use of Teleport due to often running it before playing Lux. It is a highly valued ability to be anywhere on the map you need to be. Just teleport in and have at it.




Fortify is another interesting choice. I don't see it too often though, but it does help when you're defending your base as well as help deal more damage to Minions... Sort of.

It also helps kill turret divers occasionally.

People don't often run Fortify, but I've seen it done. It's not exactly on the list of "High Priority" Summoner Spells. Don't take my word for it.




Now we're seriously starting to get into obscure and strange, but Ignite is a highly revered skill for it's DoT (Damage over Time) effect and it's healing cutting ability. You can use it to help you take out an enemy champion if you can't get seem to do enough damage output. Just lay Ignite on them and run the opposite direction. Let the DoT do it's work.

You can also initiate a fight with it to give you that extra damage push. Because let's face it. Everyone and their friends go for Magic Resistance late game...




Exhaust is a pretty decent skill, in all reality. It's reliable and it can help you get those few extra kills you need. I personally see less of a use for it since you have a Snare, but it definitely has it's uses.





Perfect compliment to Ghost as it removes all negative effects on you and reduces newly placed slow/snare durations. It has it's uses. You all should know what this does, really.

OTHER/REJECT SPELLS:

Rally is actually quite an odd spell to pack, this actually is somewhat viable for Lux to have due to the boosts it provides on a support level. This spell, unfortunately isn't typically found at all, even in normal play with other champions. Why? I don't know. I suppose it has to do with it's limited range and limited flexibility. The boost isn't exactly all that great either, compared to items and champion abilities.




The bane of my existence. Heal is only viable at the beginning of a match, and certainly makes people rage when they see you mash it. You can take it, and I've certainly seen people take Heal on Lux, but there are better options unless you use it for a specific reason. One would probably be for tower diving support. However, you hardly ever need to tower dive due to Lux's range.




Revive is the complete opposite of Heal. It's only viable when the match is coming to an end and your respawn timer is massive. You only use it then to pop back up and support your teammates as soon as possible. However, due to it's limited use, no one enjoys taking this skill and there is little to no reason to take this skill as your goal is to not die in the first place. More often than not, you would be called a "noob" for even fathoming the idea.




Smite only works on jungle monsters and creeps. You aren't jungling, so I see no point in this...

Summoner spells are certainly your choice and are really determined by your playing style.

Oh man. The item pool you can use is MASSIVE. I'll try to place the items in sections based on what I mainly use them for (as many items have multiple different effects), but definitely no promises. Your items will change all the time and you will never be locked into one set for every game.

MANA POOL/REGENERATION

=>

Tear of the Goddess itself gives you a large mana pool. A bonus 1000 Mana. When you build it into an Archangel's Staff, 3% of your maximum mana is converted into Ability Power.

In most cases, you'll be at about 1700-2100 Mana.

To put it into perspective, add in Archangel's Staff's Flat AP boost of +45

• 1700 max MP = 51 AP + 45 AP = 91 AP
• 1800 max MP = 54 AP + 45 AP = 99 AP
• 1900 max MP = 57 AP + 45 AP = 102 AP
• 2000 max MP = 60 AP + 45 AP = 105 AP
• 2100 max MP = 63 AP + 45 AP = 108 AP

108 AP isn't to scoff at. That's ~69.67% of Rabaddon's Deahthcap's flat AP boost of +155 AP. You can even stack more than one Archangel's Staff since it's 3% max MP to AP passive isn't unique if you can afford it.


Catalyst the Protector =>

Rod of Ages is one of those items that everyone stands by and says it's amazing. Personally, I don't find it all that great. To me it's a replacement for a Rylai's Crystal Scepter in terms on survivability, but I won't complain. Rod of Ages works great if you want to demolish Lux's low health and squishy defenses early on. It also gives a little of all the things Lux needs without the use of other items such as Rylai's Crystal Scepter and gives you a couple more options for damage output.

In this case, you want to get a Sapphire Crystal as your starting item as opposed to a Meki Pendant.


Both of these items you need to get early on to maximize their capabilities. Get either the Tear of Goddess or the Rod of Ages as soon as possible!

Why?

• For Tear of the Goddess/Archangel's Staff the 1000 Mana Passive takes 12 minutes and 30 seconds to max, assuming you are using a skill every 3 seconds.
• For Rod of Ages it takes 10 minutes to gain the full benefits of 630 HP, 725 Mana and 80 AP.

BOOTS

Ionian Boots of Lucidity is in fact, one of the items you can use to hit the 40% CDR, unless you supplement it with other items. It can easily be switched with Morello's Evil Tome if you want a different set of boots.




Sorcerer's Shoes is also a reasonable choice, as the metagame now is everyone stacks Magic Resistance. It helps with your damage output and is reasonably priced.




Mercury's Treads are CC reduction if you TRULY need CC Reduction. That's all I have to say.

COOLDOWN REDUCTION

Mejai's Soulstealer, at 20 stacks, provides you with a nice CDR of 15%, as well as 160 AP. Great item, especially if you're going to get plenty of assists and kills. And I assure you, if you're really into the game, you'll get a ton of them. Otherwise...



Morello's Evil Tome provides a flat 20% CDR and flat 80 AP with +12 mana regen. You don't have to worry about keeping your stacks up or panic if you die. Since the bonus is 20% CDR, you can change your runes setup to pack all 9 Greater Runes of Force.



Deathfire Grasp is a pretty insane item. It gives 15% CDR and +60 AP but it's active can give you that extra damage when you need it. Since you're packing quite a bit of AP and/or Magic Penetration, you can easily use this item to your advantage, even if it's range is about half of Lux's normal effective range. Personally, since the metagame is tanky DPS as it currently is, it's not a bad idea.

In combination with Ionian Boots of Ludicity, you easily hit the 40% CDR cap. How is this done? Isn't that only 31.3% of CDR using items and runes? Wrong.

• 1.3% CDR from 2 Greater Runes of Focus
• 15% CDR from Ionian Boots of Lucidity
• 15%-20% CDR from Mejai's Soulstealer/ Deathfire Grasp/ Morello's Evil Tome
• 9% CDR from Masteries

Bingo! Masteries! People seem to space out and forget your masteries provide you with an automatic 9% CDR from what I've noticed on these guides. This gives you room to fudge around the numbers with runes etc.

STACKING AP

Rabadon's Deathcap provides a flat +155 AP boost and 30% additional AP on top of that? NO BRAINER!




Zhonya's Hourglass provides a flat +100 AP and +50 Armor. The active portion of it is great too and keeps you alive. Feel free to use it if needed.

Of course, as stated before, you can also stack more than one Archangel's Staff. Remember, all that AP isn't to scoff at.

MAGIC PENETRATION/RESISTANCE REDUCTION

Void Staff provides you with +80 AP, which is pretty decent, as well as 40% Magic Penetration on top of that. Percentages are insane. I assure you that this is an amazing item to get to just completely faceroll everyone who is stacking magic resistance since it does more damage than flat Magic Resistance reduction in some cases.




Abyssal Mask provides you with 57 Magic Resistance of your own, +70 AP and -20 Magic Resistance to any enemy champion within a range of 1000 to you. A great item if you're in need of some survivability on top of some extra damage.




Haunting Guise provides +20 Magic Penetration and some health. I don't have much experience with this item at all, I've only used it once and found it a bit lack luster. Use it if you like though.

SURVIVABILITY

Rylai's Crystal Scepter is one of my favorite items of all time, though, I tend to replace it often other items if I don't need the extra health. Rylai's provides +500 HP and +80 Ability Power. Pretty meh, right? The perk: you have a slow now on Finales Funkeln.

You can easily use Lucent Singularity or Finales Funkeln to slow enemies for your teammates, for an escape or for a kill. 35%, while not the best slow in the world, helps tremendously. Don't even worry about wasting Finales Funkeln since it recharges incredibly fast with 40% CDR.




Banshee's Veil provides some health, mana and magic resistance and has the perk of neutralizing negative spells/CC which is invaluable. Example being Karthus' Requiem. It completely nullifies the damage from Requiem when the shield is up. It also nullifies item damage from things like Deathfire Grasp or Hextech Gunblade when she shield is up.




Dear lord. This item, along with Heal is one of those "bane of my existence" items. Only grab it if you REALLY need to. Like dying so often that you can't get kills or need to be there to support teammates more than be a burst caster. This is an EXTREMELY SITUATIONAL item and only get it in dire circumstances.




Shurelya's Battlesong provides Lux with many of the stats of other items (15% CDR, Mana Regen, Health) and has a good active for your teammates (increased move speed). Just don't forget to use the active. Feel free to switch it in and move items around when you're using Shurelya's Reverie.

As mentioned before, Zhonya's Hourglass and Abyssal Mask work well for some survivability too.

OTHER ITEMS

I haven't exactly experimented with many items past AP stacking and Magic Penetration, but from my experience playing other champions I can see how these items would fit. You can see if you can fit in these into a build.

THESE ARE MORE EXPERIMENTAL ITEMS THAN ANYTHING ELSE! USE THESE WITH CAUTION!



Lich Bane in combination with your passive and your frequent use of spells can be a great asset, especially if you find yourself relying on your auto-attacks more than burst damage from spells. Personally, I stick to burst damage with ultimate only, but it's up to how you play Lux. Your effective range with your skills is slightly larger than your auto-attack range, and just simply from experience, I'd say you're more often in the back and unable to ignite Luminosity half the time, especially if the other team are runners.

I've seen many builds use Lich Bane, and I've used Lich Bane a few times, but it's not exactly something I would consider a core item and it's not exactly the most effective if you're poor at positioning (like me). I would prefer to have another Archangel's in this slot and hit about 1000+ AP, rather than trying to proc Lich Bane and putting myself in a bad spot to do it due to my poor skill in analysis.




Frozen Heart is probably the most idiotic idea you have probably ever heard, but you CAN switch it in in place of Morello's Evil Tome or Mejai's Soulstealer. Why? Mana. Since I often would stack Archangel's Staff, you still get some AP out of it. But I would only want to grab it for it's Armor, and not anything else. You lose out on some AP by using it, but if it helps you survive then by all means, try it.

CONSUMABLES

Elixir of Brilliance is one of those items I've started to fall in love with. It's an amazing item, especially if you haven't fully built all your CDR in early game and even after in late game for that AP boost. If you have some extra Gold to spare and you aren't buying potions or wards, definitely pick one up and pop it. It's not a staple, but it's not a bad idea.

Sight Ward/

Sight Wards and Vision Wards are two items I would say you should definitely learn to use. They keep you from dying. They help you get kills. They help you jungle. They always help you. Try picking up a few and plopping them down when you push a lane. Keep an eye on your mini-map and profit.



Oracle's Elixir is situational. Make sure you get it for stealth champions though if they're going to start ganking you and make sure you grab them to kill enemy wards when you have the chance (if they're using them).

Light Binding is Lux's Q skill. It snares up to two targets in straight line and the second target snared takes 40% less damage.

It does quite a bit early game, as very few champions can handle getting snared, damaged then possibly proc'd due to Lux's passive without squeaking in horror. It's also one of the better CC's in the game due to it's range and the damage output mentioned before.



Prismatic Barrier is Lux's good-ole trusty W skill. Lux will throw her staff like a boomerang and any allied champion the staff crosses, including Lux herself, gains a temporary shield. this is amazing to use when you're trying to get out of a sticky situation and trying to save someone's life. That tiny bit of health you can provide them helps tremendously.



Lucent Singularity is Lux's E skill. On casting, it sends out an orb of light that emanates a small circular zone. Any enemy that enters this zone is slowed for a percentage. After 5 seconds, the zone will detonate and damage anyone who is nearby it or in it. You are able to detonate Lucent Singularity earlier by hitting E again while it's still out.

Lucent Singularity also has the property of clearing the Fog of War where it's thrown and can be used to reveal enemies in a bush. It's an effective scouting tool.

Finales Funkeln

Finales Funkeln is Lux's Amazing Ultimate R skill. It fires a long range beam of light in a perfectly straight line, damaging all in it's path for an incredible amount of damage.



Illumination is Lux's passive. Upon a target getting hit by one of Lux's damaging spells, it gains a bright light on them. Lux may then auto-attack the target and "ignite" or "proc" the light dealing bonus damage to the target.



Light Binding, Prismatic Barrier and Lucent Singularity all have a slight traveling time and are all skill-shots. As a warning, understanding the traveling time is part of the learning curve when playing Lux. Finales Funkeln has a slight channeling time as well. Make sure you watch out where you cast it as you will be unable to cancel it if you need to (and trust me, people can kill you while you cast it).

BONUS EARLY GAME DEBATE: Which to max first? Light Binding or Lucent Singularity?

Now, many Lux guides often switch between these two skills to max first and I can see why. Light Binding has pretty decent starting damage, even at level 1. It is a good CC and who doesn't love CC?

Lucent Singularity is an AOE and is ALSO a CC. It requires you to aim it in a way that enemies will run through it to use it's slow, but it's a CC nonetheless. It also helps greatly when farming minions early game as well.

Personally, I would say go with either one. They both have their faults and their good points and there's no real reason to pick one over the other. It's a matter of what you're prioritizing first. For me, I prioritize harassing AND killing champions with Light Binding while keeping up a decent farming rate going with auto-attacks.

It's just simply from my days playing Lux that her Lucent Singularity isn't effective enough at scaring enemy champions away at early laning phase when you need it to. It's damage is too low at early levels. Light Binding does have the damage that makes enemy champions run in fear. However, you can simply switch your priority to farming minions, and it should relatively work out just fine. After about level 3, Lucent Singularity should be making enemy champions scoot to the side.

Aie... I'm getting a bit tired of writing all this, but this has to be done. How the hell do you handle laning?

MID SOLO

Of course, this is the first thing that everyone says Lux is great at. I beg to differ sometimes, but I was never the best at Mid Solo. Lux is an amazing harasser in general with her moderately long range and, surprisingly decent initial damage with Light Binding. Play it cool, don't try too hard to get a kill. Pull the opponent into your pace and/or setup a gank. Don't try to rush First Blood, just let the flow of everything naturally revolve around you before you start trying for kills. Too many times have I seen people die incredibly stupid deaths because they try to rush First Blood, or just kills in general.

Watch out for ganks yourself. As you are alone, you're an easy target if more than one person appears in your lane. If you want, you can buy Sight/Vision Wards and place one on both sides to alleviate some of the strain of looking out for ganks. Just pay attention to your mini-map when you do this. Pay attention to the many passageways your enemies could use to gank you as well.

SIDE LANE SOLO

I have been in a solo lane at both bottom lane and top lane, so I just call this a Side Lane Solo. This works just like mid-lane, except you have the advantage of shrubbery and only one lane to watch out for ganks. Unfortunately, there are still passageways the enemy can use to gank you, which includes one behind your turret. Again, since you're an easy target because you're alone stay alert and stay observant.

DUO LANING

Duo Laning is my specialty. This is where you actually want to push for first blood immediately from the start, without being too reckless. You can snare people with Light Binding and make them an easy kill, especially at lower levels. Be sneaky if you have to. Walk around through the jungle and behind the enemy turret and kill the enemy while they're still in their early levels with very few items.

Communicate often with your partner in a duo lane to prevent unfortunate mix-ups and accidentally causing someone's death. And stay alert, just like in a solo lane. Just like you can be sneaky, the enemy has the same capability.

BONUS: EARLY WARDING

Map awareness helps incredibly and it doesn't hurt if you place a few wards around to prevent yourself from getting killed. I'm not going to go into too much detail about wards as that would take too long, but I will give you some areas your can ward to help prevent ganks at least in the laning phase.

Limited vision placements are indicated in Red Circles. Yellow Circles is ideal placement with the areas it covers indicated with arrows.

Bottom Lane

I've seen people ward the small bush off at the bottom to prevent someone from ganking in that bush, however, it only provides a limited range and is fairly close to you regardless if you can see into it or not. Place a ward back infront of Dragon to see into the various paths to the areas behind the turrets to see how the enemy is moving. This removes the need to put a ward in the small bush as you have a sufficient amount of time to move out of the way. You can also ward the bushes at the top and bottom "triangle bushes" as indicated if you really need to.

Mid Lane

Again, similar situation here. People tend to place wards in the bushes to the sides, not accounting for how small the vision range actually is. Instead, place them a bit farther back into the small brushes to see more of the bigger picture.

Top Lane

Wards on the top lane are the exact same as the bottom lane, but instead of Dragon, you're warding Baron. People might think that warding when Baron isn't there is unwise (even my friends thought I was stupid for warding that area before the 15 min mark), but it's actually not.

Start picking up the wards at about the 10 minute mark. Pick them up sooner if the enemy has a jungler on their team, as people have ways on how to finish jungle routes before the 10 min mark.

OVERALL

Stay alive, last hit minions as often as you can, earn gold, earn gold, earn gold, even if you have to use skills to Last Hit. Stay observant and change the tide of battle the second the opportunity arrives.

Once you hit Mid-Late game, you tend to start wandering more and killing champions. Just remember to never ignore lanes for extended periods of time.

Minion waves push hard and they hurt, a lot. More information on minions in a later section, if your attention span will allow for it.

Find a balance between killing minions, killing jungle creeps and killing champions.

You also tend to get into more and more team fights as the games drag on. Teams will start clumping together and you're more likely needed in those fights. Remember to stay in the back and deal damage from there. Don't try to get caught in the middle. If you need to run, then do so.

Most of these situations in late-game really rely on your observation and analytical skills. If you know you won't win the fight, there's in harm in running away if you can't push up any farther. Leave, then come back or go somewhere else.

You'll often get people angry at you if you do abandon a teamfight, but again, analyze the situation. You're not able to take hits. If you get caught in the middle, you'll be face flat into the dirt, faster than you know unless you build some survivability. Unfortunately, there's no real balance between survivability and damage, so you either get one of the other. Same with Magic Penetration, CDR and AP stacking. You get some of these but not all of them in some cases. You tend to focus on one and stick with it.

This forces you to learn how to position yourself in a way to minimize the amount of damage you take. Since Lux has good range, you have a pretty wide margin of error with this. Never try to head to the front lines alone unless you can burst champions down or outlast champions with massive amounts of MR or Armor. Most likely the former, and not the latter.

As for specifics, try to go for champions who start straying off from the pack. Snare them with Light Binding and keep them in place, burst them down and disappear like you were never there. Rinse and repeat.

Alternatively, slow with Lucent Singularity's zone, burst down a champion and immediately target another one.

And even more alternatively, burst down EVERYONE with Lucent Singularity, Light Binding and Finales Funkeln.

In all situations, shield your allies with Prismatic Barrier and in all situations TRY not to miss all your skill shots. You'll get situations where you will miss and it happens all the time, but try not to anyway.

And make sure to focus on the right champions. If you notice a person your team is trying to take down immediately, do the same as them and take them down to 0 HP.

NOTE: Might replace with videos if I ever get enough hard drive space.

• Lux's range is pretty good. 1000 for Light Binding and Prismatic Barrier. 1100 for Lucent Singularity and 3000 for Finales Funkeln. Take advantage of it.
  • Use Lux's range to hit enemies from very arbitrary angles as well as through walls and obstacles.
  • Since Lux's skills are all skill shots (they require aiming but no line of sight is needed), you can use them to kill people in the Fog of War. Don't be shy about spamming skills as they're on a short cooldown. If you can kill someone even if you can't see them, that's score +1 for your team.
• If you're going to kill with your teammates, don't be afraid of using Light Binding through minions or other enemies to hit the champion you want. While the damage is reduced by 40% on the second enemy it hits, more often than not, the Snare helps more than damage.
• Scout out areas of the map with Lucent Singularity since it reveals the portion of the map the orb is in, including revealing Champions in shrubbery. Very useful sometimes, as map awareness is king. Don't be afraid of throwing it into a shrub you're feeling wary of.

Magic Resistance and Magic Penetration are things that, as a caster, you can't ignore. People don't like taking lasers to the face, so they build up a resistance to that using Magic Resistance. Magic Resistance will reduce the amount of damage you deal by a percentage and can be combated by getting Magic Penetration. Magic Penetration reduces the effectiveness Magic Resistance on your spells in either Percentage Quantities or Flat Quantities using this formula:

• Damage Reduction Percent = 100 * (Effective MR) / (100 + ABS(Effective MR))

Keeping up with the whole numbers thing, I am often told that getting Void Staff will help me deal my potential damage and replace my Flat Magic Penetration items such as Haunting Guise and Sorcerer's Shoes depending on what kind of game I'm playing.

While percentages are indeed insane, as Void Staff gives a 40% Magic Penetration bonus, it only works well if the enemy is stacking Magic Resistance. Unfortunately for you.

Magic Resistance is calculated in this order:

1. Percentage Magic Resistance Reduction - Nidalee's Bushwhack
2. Flat Magic Resistance Reduction - Abyssal Mask, Malady, Several Champion Abilities
3. Flat Magic Penetration - Sorcerer's Shoes, Haunting Guise, Insight Runes
4. Percentage Magic Penetration - Void Staff, Archaic Knowledge

Void Staff and Archaic Knowledge are at the bottom of the list, sad to say. Void Staff ends up having smaller returns as you continue to stack Magic Penetration and only provides greater help when the item is used by itself or when the target has a TON of magic resistance. This makes it a situational item.

In a realistic scenario in a normal game, most people (from what I've seen) end up getting Banshee's Veil due to it's amazing defensive qualities and nullifying bubble of doom. You also end up fighting people with Mercury's Treads in combination with the Banshee's Veil. This is not counting any Defense Tree Masteries or total natural Magic Resistance the Enemy Champion would have. To calculate this all out:

• Mercury's Treads + Banshee's Veil = 25 + 50 = 75 Magic Resistance

When you calculate Magic Resistance (100 * (Effective MR /(100 + Effective MR) = % reduction):

• 100 * (75 / (100 + 75)) = ~42.857% magic damage reduction

That's almost half the damage your spells can possibly do. Now, with some Flat Magic Penetration Runes (a total of 14.22 with 9 Marks and 3 Quints)...
75 - 14.22 = 60.78 MR (Magic Resistance)

• 100 * (60.78 / (100 + 60.78)) = ~37.80% magic damage reduction

That's a little over 5% more damage you deal with some runes.

Throwing in a Haunting Guise

• 60.78 - 20 = 40.78 MR
• 100 * (40.78 / (100 + 40.78)) = ~28.967% magic damage reduction

That's a huge difference of about 13.89% damage you gain back just using a Haunting Guise and some Runes, without factoring in any additional resistances the enemy champion might have.

You also have a 15% Magic Penetration bonus from Archaic Knowledge , if you didn't already think this formula wasn't already ridiculous enough. Since Magic Penetration Percentages are calculated last, this is about the real damage you do in a game with a Haunting Guise, some MPen runes and an opponent with Banshee's Veil, Mercury's Treads and not counting their natural magic resistance.

• 40.78 * 15% = 6.117 MPen from Archaic Knowledge
• 40.78 - 6.117 = 34.663 MR
• 100 * (34.663 / (100 + 34.663)) = ~25.74 magic damage reduction

Imagine how much damage you're able to do now that almost half their magic defenses are completely gone.

Now, I realize that most champions have natural magic resistance. No champion has a magic resistance of 0 and you'll never actually do almost 74.26% of your true damage. Most champions have about 30-50 magic resistance which sets your equation with the enemy holding Banshee's and Mercury's Treads to about here:

• 100 * (60.163 / (100 + 60.163)) <=> 100 * (77.163 / (100 + 77.163)) = ~37.56% - ~44.36% magic damage reduction

Of course, this is a theoretical situation.

Not everyone will JUST get Banshee's Veil AND Mercury's Treads. And not everyone will just not get them. Sometimes people will stack Magic Resistance through the roof and some won't even bother with it.

You ARE able to reduce an enemy's Magic Resistance to the negatives (using Abyssal Scepter, Malady or champion skills) and do BONUS damage and you're able to just have all your damage negated.

It's an eternal toss up on what you want to do in a battle. You can possibly get a ton of Magic Penetration and even out the damage you wouldn't get from stacking AP. Inversely, you can stack AP and try to out damage the enemy's resistances (which in some cases, works really well, but in most cases no). Unfortunately, you can't ignore one or the other.

If you didn't think I didn't have enough of a time talking about formulas with Magic Resistance and Magic Penetration, while this doesn't have a set formula, I can definitely put some numbers into play here.

Early game, everyone is encouraged to kill things, whether it is champions or minions. Which one should you focus on first?

Both, with slightly more emphasis on minion kills.

The number of minions you kill and the amount of gold and EXP you earn from them is called "Creep Source".

Minions are one of the most stable ways of earning gold and experience, and most of the time they aren't trying to slice your head off unless you're alone out in the open or attacking a nearby allied champion.

The amount of gold you receive from minion kills/Last Hitting minions is dependent on how long you've been in game. The longer you're in a game, the more gold you get for killing the little buggers. Simple. no?

In the beginning of the game, the average amount of gold you get from a Last Hit on a minion is about 12-18 gold. An early champion kill without an assist and with the exception of First Blood (which is 400 gold) is 255-300 gold.

The amount of creeps you get in each wave is about 8.

If you are able to Last Hit 6 creeps in a wave, you earn about 72-96. That's about a third of a champion kill in just early game.

That ends up snowballing much later when you start getting about 18-20 gold a Last Hit on a creep (about 24 minute mark). You end up getting around 120 gold per 6 minion kills. That's almost half a champion, and all you did was smack around some mindless NPC enemies.

You never want to leave a lane unattended for an extended period of time with that kind of gold return, especially if you won't die getting that gold return. You can potentially earn more gold simply by killing creeps rather than hunt champions, but find a good balance of both. Too many times would you find situations where you're actually losing out on potential gold in lanes because you're off dying trying to kill a champion. Inversely, there are benefits of killing an enemy champion over minions.

Again. Find a balance of both.

What do you do though with the enemy champion? Easy. Deny them the privilege of killing minions.

You do this with Zoning. Zoning in it's most basic form is "controlling space". You want to control as much space as possible in early game, so you are able to prevent the enemy from snowballing into mid-late game. Harassing is one of the things you do to zone out the enemy champion. Play Video /league-of-legends/ability/light-binding-315 If killing a champion puts you in danger, don't dive in to kill them! This includes turret diving or moving into a potential area that could be considered dangerous.

Forcing a champion to recall has the same potential as killing an enemy champion, if you actually prioritize creep kills, the amount of time out of lane makes a huge difference.

Recalling takes 8 seconds to cast, this, along with buying items in the shop and healing up take about 2 seconds. The time it takes back to walk to their lane is about another 5 seconds, depending on movement speed and other factors. By then, you should have already farmed some creeps and got some free hits on a turret or possibly even ganked someone in another lane.

That's a lot of time to be away and that's a lot of time to not earn gold or experience and early game, with the new respawn timers (12-30 seconds), it can potentially be better than killing a champion.

An easy way you can zone is to simply farm creeps and prevent the enemy champion from farming creeps. This pushes your minion waves up and gives you cheap zone control when you're unable to put some pressure on the champion. Your creeps do it for you for free.

Again, don't be shy about using skills to kill creeps. The easiest way to kill creeps AND zone, is in fact, using Finales Funkeln. As creeps walk in a line, you're able to hit all of them as they and clear out or critically damage most of them so you can finish them off with Lucent Singularity. And, fun fact. Enemy champions LOVE to stand near their creeps in the early laning phase, so it's also free harassment!

Due to it's low cooldown, you're able to use it every other minion wave, and gain more gold than you can ever imagine.

While I don't have screenshots now, I can easily tell you that earning 300 minion kills along with just VERY FEW assists and champion kills nets you more gold than you would know what to do with.

WIP. I will write this when I get out of school.

WIP. I will write this when I get out of school.