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Lux Build Guide by thepuma3

AP Carry Lux- The "Gold"en Lady of Luminosity

AP Carry Lux- The "Gold"en Lady of Luminosity

Updated on May 21, 2013
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League of Legends Build Guide Author thepuma3 Build Guide By thepuma3 6 3 83,756 Views 17 Comments
6 3 83,756 Views 17 Comments League of Legends Build Guide Author thepuma3 Lux Build Guide By thepuma3 Updated on May 21, 2013
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Choose Champion Build:

  • LoL Champion: Lux
    AP mid Lux- Gold
  • LoL Champion: Lux
    AP Support Lux

Whats on this Guide?

What is this?
This is a gold centered build for Lux, but it could be used for other long range, pokey, sustainy AP Nid champions. Like Nidalee (my 2nd favorite champ) and Xerath.
Not recommended for bursty champs like LeBlanc
On this guide you will find:
  • How to beat said "meta" approved champions you will face
  • A Generic Gold AP mid build (items, masteries, summoner spells, runes and strategy) that could be used for other similar AP mids like Nidalee or Orianna (basically any mage that uses mana and doesn't depend on early game dominance)
  • Why this build is effective.
  • The importance of farming and tips on how to farm with Lux in particular
  • Countering teams
  • Your role as AP carry in the varying stages of the game (laning, mid, late)
  • GOLD DOMINANCE. How you get it and why it is so important
  • And any other general tips that I deem necessary. You learn something new everyday. So read on.

This guide will help you train roll pub games or even carry in ELO games. I hope you all like my guide because I put a lot of effort into this.

Also, read the WHOLE GUIDE, a lot of crucial tips are found scattered through out the build. I promise you will learn something new about how to win, or how to play lux in this guide, but you must read it all. It will be worth it I promise.

Important Note:
There is a huge opportunity cost of going this way. With my gold chapter coming up soon I do not take into account the extra gold you may have gained from kills or extra csing, or etc. since you would be stronger in the beginning with a regular non-gold build. This is definitely something you must consider before utilizing this build. If you plan on being super aggressive early on, since your lane enemy is weak early game, then using this build wouldn't be in your best interests since you won't be able to get a kill as easily with less ap.

Buying the gold items is an opportunity cost as well. It takes 1465 gold to buy both Philosopher's Stone and Kage's Lucky Pick, with that gold you could have built say a Needlessly Large Rod. I personally believe having that extra hp regen, and mp regen from Philosopher's stone is really helpful in laning phase. Also, you still have a bit of AP from Kage's Lucky Pick. Yes, you don't get that early game killing potential, but I think staying alive early by playing defensively to not feed, then killing people later on in the game is a better way to play. Mainly because objectives are easier to come by later on and death timers are really long late game. So getting kills late>getting kills early.

IMO: If you don't agree I'm sorry. But that's how my build/strategy is made.
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How to win more games

How do you become the best player in any type of video games?

Most LOL pro's and other gaming pros say: it's having great skill, having good luck, knowing and studying the game you play, and having a good strategy.

These are all valuable things to have in any video game you play, but what if everyone has the same skill, luck, knowledge of the game, and same strategy, who would win then?

Typically, the team with the most gold (resources, armor, weapons, etc. for other non LOL games) wins the battle, game, competition, whatever it may be.

Now there are exceptions obviously. Some team comps have better late game potential and can just wait for everyone to have a full build to win the game, but typically teams in the lead, stay in the lead. Having more gold, means more items, more items means more damage output (or tanking ability), more damage means more kills, more kills means more turrets and objectives, more turrets and objectives means more wins. Yes this is a huge slippery slope of having more stuff, but is it not true?

If you had an extra 2-5k gold that last team fight, would it have gone differently?

That's why it is important to gain as much gold as you can, so that you eventually achieve total gold dominance.

Gold Dominance? What is that?

Gold dominance means you have the most gold of both teams regardless of how many kills they have. Usually, you'll have almost 2-5k more gold than everyone. (Only really really fed people with a quick game will out gold you).

How do you get this?
  • Early game passiveness
  • Buying gp/10 items as quickly as possible.
  • Gold runes
  • Snowballing items (like Mejai's Soulstealer but not completely necessary)
  • Not letting the game get out of hand, or lose in 20 minutes.
  • Taking advantage of mid game
  • Not letting the game last to super late game (like 40+ mins)

Are you trolling?

Figure it out for yourself. Try one game following my guide and see how well you do mid/late game and how much more money, kills and items you have than everyone on your team and their team. As well as seeing a victory screen. Maybe even gain some elo if you play ranked? =)

What are the benefits of using this build?
  • Mid-Late game DOMINANCE
  • Usually have full item build at 30-40 minutes (depending on farming ability)
  • Snowballing to the extreme (even without winning lane! O.o)
  • ]Great sustain early game (if you stay passive)
  • Not too dependent on farming ability (you don't need perfect creep score (cs)) to gain gold
What sucks about using this build?
  • Early game is bad (don't get strong until like 15-20 mins)
  • ]Depends on right item choice (choices, choices, choices)
  • Boring kind of game at the beginning, but laning is a challenge so i guess that can be fun! =P
  • Team will question you... Until late game. =)
  • Some good teams can punish you early. (You will be stronger later on, but the rest of your team won't like you if you keep dying which is very bad in a team orientated game) Don't feed early, and you'll win mid-late game.
  • Your team may give up on you at 20 mins if not going well. Just remind them that it will be okay, hopefully they will be understanding... if not there is a handy dandy mute button =).
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How to gain Gold

There are three main ways to gain gold
  • Passive Gold
  • Active Gold
  • Global Gold (kind of like active)
Passive Gold

Typically this is gold you gain over time, the key strength in our build. In Summoner Rift a champion will gain 16 gold every 10 seconds. Or 96 gold per 1 minute. So in a 31:30 game (30 mins of passive gold gain, since games start at 1:30) You would have gained 2880 gold passively. SO DOES EVERYONE ELSE.

This build I use will pretty much double that passive gold gain for about 20-30 minutes (depending on how long you keep and when you get your Philosopher's Stone and Kage's Lucky Pick). Since our runes and masteries are set for maximum passive gold gain, we will gain an EXTRA 7.25 gold/10 seconds (5.25 from runes, 2 from masteries) or an EXTRA 43.5 gold every minute. In the same 30 minute game you will gain an EXTRA 1,305 gold than anyone else just based on your runes and masteries!


Just to put this in terms of cs and kills. Per minute you gain about 2 cs extra, or 1/7 ish of a kill. So every 7 minutes you get a free 300 gold kill just by having the gold runes and masteries.


So you'll have ATLEAST 23.25 gold/10 secs from 1:30 on That would be 4185 passive gold gained in that 30 minute game. (O.o)?!?!?! is right. But we aren't done. We got items too. Philosopher's Stone and Kage's Lucky Pick increase our gold/10 by 5g/10 sec and 4g/10 sec, respectively. Increasing your gold/10 sec to a massive 32.25g/10.A bit more than DOUBLE the other champions passive gold gain. However, you do get these items at about 6 minutes in, and will sell it near the end of the game, for simplicity we'll say you buy those 2 items at 6 minutes in, and then sell them at the 26 minute mark. 20 minutes of gaining 32.25g/10 sec. About 3870 gold PASSIVELY in that time 20 minute time period.


NOTE: For that time when you have 32.25g/10 sec, you pretty much get 96 gold every creep wave spawned. That's about 3 melee minions (3*20g=60g) and 2 caster minions (2*15g=30g) (Not always the same gold amount though depending on time) gained passively. PLUS, if you get to farm the cs you will have technically gathered 11 cs worth of gold/per the 6 creeps available. So it's okay if your zoned (since you are technically weaker....for now =P)from 1 or 2 cs per wave. You have a easy to farm, long range skill shot you can continue farming with AND you gain more gold passively, and they only gain half that amount passively. They get about 2 cs per wave passively. Hardly anything compared to your massive gold gaining ability!

It may not seem like much, since you really only hypothetically gain 3 more cs (with passive gold included. 3= (11 possible cs- the enemies 8 possible cs)) per wave. But you have to remember that's PER CREEP WAVE. There are 60 creep waves spawned in that 30 minute game. So you can hypothetically gain around +180 cs to your score at the end of the game (It's less than 180 cs because creeps gold gained increase over time, so the gold you gained passively doesn't gain as much gold you could gain actively later on in the game). Play a normal game with this build, and then add around +180 to your cs and see if you beat their mid laner in cs. Hell anyone.

So how much passive gold do you actually gain?


Well starting from 1:30. Till 6 mins you'll be gaining 23.25g/10.(4.5min*6(to convert 10 sec to 1 min)*23.25g/10sec)= 627.75 in the first 4.5 mins.

NOTE: You need about 1100 gold to get both of your gold items (granted you started with Faerie Charm and Rejuvenation Bead, so you need to cs a decent amount to get it, but it's not that hard. Since in that time elapsed (4:30), 8 waves will have been spawned and have gotten to your lane. 24 melee minions, 24 caster minions, and 2 seige minions. Worth 20 gold, 15 gold and 40 gold, respectively. That gives you a possible 920 gold from active sources((24*20g)+(24*15g)+(2*40g)).Since you need 1100 gold to buy your gold/10 items, and you've already made 627.75 gold passively in that 4:30 time frame, you only need to get 472.25 gold (1100 *the gold needed to get the items*-627/75 *the passive gold gained*) out of that 920 gold possible. Hell you just need to get 50% of the cs to make that work. That's EASY MONEY!

Assuming you got both of those items exactly at the 6 min mark and then sell them at the 26 minute mark you'll be gaining: 32.25g/10sec*6*20min= 3870 gold PASSIVELY.

Then for 5:30 minutes (until 31:50) you'll gain the regular 23.25g/10: 23.25*5.5min*6=767.25 gold

Total gained PASSIVELY: 767.25+3870+627.75= 5265
Other mid laner gained PASSIVELY: 16g/10*6*30=2880.

The difference? 5265-2880=2385

What if you had an extra 2.4k to spend before that last teamfight?...That could be that final item the Void Staff right there!! That could have been the difference between winning and losing...

After 30 minutes the average gold gained is about 10-14k (rough estimate based on experience) for mid laners. You've already gained about half of that gold passively, when normally you'd gain 2880 gold in 30 minutes. About 1/5 of the average total gold gained from all sources for mid lane. Now passively you gain 1/2 of what most mid laners get in 30 minutes. WITHOUT DOING A FREAKING THING!
Active Gold

Gold gained from killing things. You gain some gold from last hitting (aka csing) and jungle creeps. As a rule of thumb, whenever your jungler goes top or bot and wraiths of wolves have spawned, push your lane and go get them, that's just extra gold that ]spawns every 50 secs for wraiths, every minute for wolves. Soo why not? It's like seeing a 1$ bill on the ground a little bit aways and just not going over there to pick it up. Yeah, it's not that much money, but it always will add up!
Global Gold

Towers, dragons and baron. No matter where you are, or if your dead, if your team secures this you gain that gold (and experience from baron and a buff if you're alive). They are very crucial and your team should always contest dragon early-mid game, that +150 global gold is essential to start snowballing harder and dragon/baron control can very well be a massive reason why your team wins. +750 for your team (5members*150g) every 6 minutes can really add up.

IMPORTANT:

Or tell your support to. You will spend 125 gold for a SAFE dragon.If you kill dragon from this, you will pretty much gain 50 gold. How? 150g(drag)+25g(ward destroyed)-125g(cost)= 50 gold gained. So why not? Plus you get great vision of the map for 3 minutes while they don't. The safety factor of this is amazing, so communicate that you all are ready to do dragon quickly. And time it correctly...I know this isn't about warding, but it's an important part about controlling objectives for your team. Remember to use timestamp!
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Masteries

Mastery Explanation
Offensive Tree
Butcher : Is very helpful for getting those last hits, if need be. (more experienced players (aka- better at last hitting) can get all 4 points in sorcery then)
Sorcery: [WHY ONLY 2???It's honestly just a filler point now, since CDR has been standardized (like all items give like 20% CDR now) you will get your max even without that 4% extra, although plus the 6% from Intelligence makes me think twice, but I like the extra 4 damage on creeps. If you're a good cser, take the 4%, but it's your call. Remember it is just a guide.
Summoner's Wrath : Only if you get take flash.

Utility Tree
Summoner's Insight : Nice -15 cooldown on Flash, which can add up quickly, plus with Mastermind and Enchantment: Distortion You'll be flashing all over the place. If you got Teleport It can help you teleport out of sticky situations faster. (That -.5 seconds can be a lot actually)
Meditation : Nice extra mana regen, always good on Lux and any mana user really.
Improved Recall : A filler point really, but saving 1 second each back could be useful-ish. Again your call.
Mastermind : That 10% CDR on Summoner Spells is awesomeeeee. (People think to get Expanded Mind , when you build Seraph's Embrace, but the extra 180 mana at lvl 18 is only really like +5 AP with that passive, so I always choose Mastermind
Runic Affinity : +30 seconds on Blue/Red buff, making it 3 mins long, instead of 2:30 mins long. DOES NOT EFFECT BARON BUFF yeah the thing isn't that great, but you'll have about 4-6 blues per game, so thats an extra 2-3 mins of unlimited mana, so why not? Plus if you forget your timer on blue buff (or theirs for that matter), just look at the timer on the blue buff. If it's half way, that means either 1:15 has passed (since blue buff lasts 2:30 without Runic Affinity ) or 1:30 has passed (with Runic Affinity since they killed blue buff. You just subtract that time from 6 minutes, and PRESTO you know when their blue will spawn. Simple, but overlooked tip that can help you out sometimes.
Greed : YES YES YES. I mean really it only gives you 2 g/10 sec, which is only like 360 gold in a 30 minute game, but MORE GOLD!!! That's all I need to say for you to get it. It's your ward allowance =)
Wealth : Not really vital or necessary... But having an extra 50 gold could help you get that Philosopher's Stone quicker, or an extra Faerie Charm early. But MORE GOLD!!! So yeah... get it.
Biscuiteer : If you don't buy hp pots to rush your Philosopher's Stone this can be a nice item if you get hurt a bit. You can use this point elsewhere really.
Pickpocket :This is actually a really good mastery! As Lux you'll be constantly auto attacking your mid laner to pop your passive Illumination, so why not get 3 more gold each time you do that! Almost every 6 attacks get's you a minion. But there is a cooldown, so don't constantly auto attack for gold, you'll just get harrassed back, harder and draw minion aggro.
Intelligence : 6% CDR is awesome, but if you plan on buying Athene's Unholy Grail and a Morellonomicon then it's just wasted CDR, so you could put it somewhere else like Awareness or Wanderer . Also, if you plan on getting 40% CDR with items, take out your Sorcery points and put them into that attack speed one and Butcher . 2%-4% CDR early game does pretty much nothing for you, so why not hit people with your light staff a little bit faster?
Nimble : With the movement speed nerfs, this actually got a huge buff. Everyone will be a bit slower and you'll be a bit faster. But Lux is still really slow, so don't be over confident.
Honestly, you could stop in the utility tree after getting Greed having 12 points in Utility and spend 9 more points in either Defense or in the Offense Tree. I personally like all those other little utility masteries. It helps me stay in lane longer and the movement speed especially helps in team fights and getting back to lane faster. (You know when Teleport is off cooldown =P)
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Runes

Why did I chose these runes?
Marks: (Reds)
What I chose: Greater Mark of Magic Penetration. This is probably the best mark for AP Mid. Its really the only other one... Yeah only get the magic penetration mark.

Seals: (Yellows)

What I chose- Greater Seal of Gold: This makes your gp/10 increase by 2.25g/10. Go to the How to Gain Gold chapter, it talks about this seal and how great it does.

Other choices- Greater Seal of Armor: This seal is good when laning against an AD person that goes mid, like Pantheon. But if your like me you only have 3-4 Rune pages, and this doesn't always happen, so it would almost be a waste.

Greater Seal of Scaling Ability Power: This isn't really good, AP is better with Glyphs and Quints.

Greater Seal of Scaling Health: Pretty good actually, but I like the more gold. You can just buy a Ruby Crystal to provide same amount of health these runes would give at lvl 18.

Greater Seal of Scaling Mana Regeneration: Really good! If your bad a mana conservation, get these. But have more gold and get better at conserving mana to only harrass efficiently (go to early game chapter for more info on that).
Glyphs! (Blues)

What I chose- Greater Glyph of Scaling Ability Power: Good for even more late game damage! (It catches up to the flat AP glyphs at level 7, so your ult can still get the damage, if you wait a bit.

Other good choice- Greater Glyph of Magic Resist/ Great Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist: Get the scaling if facing 2 AP (1 top, 1 mid). Get Flat if you are facing LeBlanc or any other super strong early mid champions. I still like getting scaling AP and just buy a chalice. =)

That's it really, CDR isn't viable now due to changes and itemization, and mana regen is better as a seal.

Quintessences!

What I chose- Greater Quintessence of Gold: 3 g/10 sec. AHHH op. In a 30 minute game, it gathers 540 gold. In terms of costs, it gets more gold than any other quints provide in around 18 minutes.

Other Choices- Greater Quintessence of Scaling Ability Power/ Greater Quintessence of Ability Power: Good for even more AP, but the gold gathers more gold than the ability given is worth in a 30 minute game. (Like 16 mins for Flat, and 24 ish minutes for scaling- NOT SURE but it does get out gained) But once your at 50 minutes in, aka super late game, gold means nothing now and that 15 AP and 23 AP for scaling could have helped.

Other quints can be helpful but AP is only one you'd really want other than gold, but GOLD IS BETTER!
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Summoner Spells

The BEST summoners for Lux

Because sometimes walking gets boring. No but really, with this you can get back to your GOLD quicker. Also, lets you get that Philosopher's Stone and Kage's Lucky Pick (RIP heart of gold) earlier to start making your GOLD!!!. Also, you can tele-gank other lanes with this and help your team get some more gold. (No worries, you will always have more gold though <3)Plus, with the new mastery Mastermind and the boot upgrade Enchantment: Distortion, you can get 32.5% CDR (the 25% and 10% stacks multiplicatively like tenacity like this:(1-((1-.25)*(1-.1))=32.5) off of your Teleport and Flash which makes the cooldowns 203 secs(3 mins 23 sec) for Teleport. You can go back, buy your next item and come back to lane to bully your lane partner more with all these teleports! Since you will have full mana and hp now, you can now kill/zone your previously harassed lane partner.


The most overpowered spell in the game, if you don't get this on every champ that you play then you are either: 1. a mad man (or mad woman), or 2. you play like Toyz and just never die. GET THIS. Plus, with the Enchantment: Distortion + Mastermind you get 32.5% off of the Cooldown, MINUS, the mastery Summoner's Insight makes the final cooldown only at 188 seconds!!! =) That's every 3 minutes and 8 seconds you get a new "get out of jail free card".


Don't do enough damage? -No. Enemies always walk away with under 50 health?- Yes...=(. Karthus ult for your team with low hp enemies?- No...=( Just want to screw over any healing champion in the game and Tryndamere when he ults?- YESSSS. Then get Ignite. It will solve all of your problems with a click of the button. Warning: Opponents may rage and say "IGNITE OP" or "YOU SUCK, YOU ONLY GET KILLS WITH IGNITE". Just remember. They are dead, and you are not. -You win. =)

Remember, after war or a fight there is no longer: Who was right or wrong, or who played dirty or fairly? Only the winners, the losers. The dead, and living.

Other viable spells


Does the enemy team have an Irelia, Tryn, Talon, or any other annoying bruiser that runs through AP Carries on the other team? Get an exhaust and they will be easy picking. Decent spell overall. Has good defensive and offensive capabilities. Basically it all comes down to preference and the enemy team you are against. AD heavy= exhaust. But really your support should be getting this, and saving it to protect you and the other carries, but whatever.

This spell I hardly ever use (mainly on ADC Vayne but we here to talk about AP Carry Lux. I could see how this is viable against a Stun heavy team. Like Taric, Annie, Amumu, Sion, and Ashe (that team would suck to play against...just saying.) But cleanse can become unnecessary if you have great positioning. Which is something you must have to be a great AP carry like Lux. I will talk about positioning later on.

Pretty much every other summoner spell I don't think would be very helpful to you. MAYBE Ghost, but that spell is mainly for bruisers to catch those pesky carries. All of this is based on your personal preference. If you can't live without Teleport or Ignite or even Clairvoyance, then by all means get it.
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Items- Choices, Choices, Choices

WHAT ITEMS TO GET AND WHEN
Start of the game:
First back?
If you have Teleport and what to be a complete gold machine, just go back when you have enough for Philosopher's Stone. Make sure you spam your abilities for harassing and csing, cause you'll be healing up anways. Other wise wait till you have 1180 gold in your bank and get double gold items + ward.
  • Philosopher's Stone
  • Kage's Lucky Pick
  • Sight Ward for that blue buff steal!
Second time back?
This should be after about 4-5 minutes of good farming and/or killing champions, your Teleport will be back up now with a 9/0/21 build. (If you got Teleport that is) Hopefully you will have about 2k gold now. (you gain about 1000 gold in that 5 minutes passively, so just be good at csing)
  • Needlessly Large Rod
  • Boots- Not necessary thanks to MS nerf but you still need it later so why not.
  • Sight Ward Steal that blue again at 12-13 mins =) make sure you time it!
  • Sightstone You no longer have to buy wards! (kind of) This will help cover your lane if your constantly getting ganked. (See the sightstone chapter)
  • If not the Sightstone I usually get Mejai's Soulstealer, it increases your snowballing potentially so much it's ridiculous (go to mejais chapter)
Third time back?
This should be around the 16-18 minute mark (you'll have another Teleport-Notice the trend yet? =P). If you are building Athene's Unholy Grail This is usually the time you get a Chalice of Harmony. If going for Seraph's Embrace, build that early Tear of the Goddess. If going straight for the Rabadon's Deathcap, then wait for enough gold to buy that outright. Remember you already have around 5 slots filled with 2 gold items, Sightstone, Needlessly Large Rod and boots, so use that last spot for wards or pots. This time is the trickiest time to choose. If your midlane hurts you, get a Chalice of Harmony quickly. But I still recommend Rabadon's Deathcap. The extra damage is just so helpful at this point.
Fourth back?
You save up to either upgrade Chalice of Harmony into a Athene's Unholy Grail. Or Tear of the Goddess into Seraph's Embrace. Or build your Sorcerer's Shoes. OR BOTH you have lots of money right? =P And you should get that distortion upgrade pretty quickly. The earlier you get it, the more useful it's effects will be. If it's almost game over, and you'll only flash or teleport 2 or 3 more times, just get homegaurd or alacricity upgrade. Upgrade Sightstone into Ruby Sightstone if you got that. Oh, if you still don't have Rabadon's Deathcap you should definitely get that now.
You should now have at around 20-25 mins (Usually a lot earlier if your doing really well, this guide basically follows a person who isn't too great at csing or getting kills. So it's a very user-friendly build =P) my typical build is:
You'll be doing lots of damage to those squishies, plus still making hella gold. Plus, you wont have much mana problems even without blue buff. Now it's time to sell your gold items, and it's decision time. (Probably the most important choices you make in each game. TIP: Before each game, like during the loading screen/champion select typically have a general idea what you plan to build early on and change your core items/masteries/runes/summoner spells accordingly. Also have a plan for if you are doing extremely well, or for if a certain enemy carry gets fed (cough bot lane feeders =P). Having a good, flexible strategy is a vital thing to increase your chances for victory.)

Situational Item Choices
Always get Rabadon's Deathcap! That's a must. Void Staff is almost a second must have. The rest are based on the other team.
  • Need CDR or mana?= Athene's Unholy Grail/ Archangel's Staff. (Go to Seraph's Embrace vs. Grail for more info)
  • Doing well? = Keep Mejai's Soulstealer. I almost always get Mejais. Go to Mejai's chapter. Doing bad? = SOMETIMES KEEP. If you really can't get a kill or assist, it's a waste. You need about 5-8 stacks for it to be gold efficient, so if you can never get that high, sell it.
  • Atleast 3 enemies have ^60ish MR (especially the ADC or APC)= Void Staff But you should have that anyways.
  • They have an ADC/Bruiser causing you trouble or you keep getting focused?= Zhonya's Hourglass
  • They have a annoying heal or sustain ability?= Upgrade Kage's Lucky Pick into Morellonomicon The passive helps those "siege the tower" battles against annoying healers like Sona or Soraka.
  • Want to troll a bit?= Lich Bane It is a good item! But Lux should be far away, aka not in that AA range to proc that passive of the Lich Bane.
  • Make sure to sell your Philosopher's Stone first, then your Kage's Lucky Pick. So you will continue to have that extra ability power longer.
  • Will of the Ancients= Eh. It's NICE if you have another AP carry, but Lux is a burst mage, and should be played like one.
  • Liandry's Torment- Not a bad item, magic penetration really helps later in the game, but the passive isn't very useful on Lux unless you are trying to hurt and poke their tanks before a team fight. Sometimes get this, but only against HIGH HEALTH TANKY TEAMS.
If you like a certain item, build it in! Although I don't know of any better items for the burst damage Lux you need.

After Boots, Rabadon's Deathcap, and Athene's Unholy Grail/ Seraph's Embrace, I usually buy the next three items in order (in blue). While selling my gold items in that order (in red).
Pretty much follow the core build I usually get. But it is a guide, not a LAW. So change depending on the enemy team.
The ability to change separates the good from the great.
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Trouble in the Jungle

On your first or second recall back before 7 mins, grab a ward.

Their blue will be up around 7- 7:20 and you will probably have your ult. What you do is you can place a ward in the brush next to their blue (make sure you can see the brush AND the golem), wait for them to damage it all the way down to like 400sh-500sh hp, then you Final Spark it.(Your ult does at least 300 damage at rank 1 and make sure you take into account the damage they are doing to the golem). But most of the time your enemy jungler will be holding it at a low hp for their mid and won't be expecting it, so their jungler probably won't smite it as long as they don't see it coming. Your ult is stronger than most mid champions regular abilities so snipe it sneakily (aka in brushes you know aren't warded), and enjoy easy mana management.

But don't start engaging till your ult is off cooldown, that thing does a lot of damage) A good strategy is to just poke and harass with Lucent Singularity because you basically have an unlimited mana supply so they will be low. Then try to kill right when your ult gets off cooldown, with a well placed snare.

But be careful, this makes the enemy jungler and mid mad at you, and will try to gank. LOTS. Tell your jungler and get ready to counter gank them, inciting rage quits everywhere. =)
Once you get the timing of the buff you can set up for the next time it spawns with your own jungler there, but be careful. Their team will probably know your plan and may gank you while doing it. Proceed with caution. Make sure to turn on timestamps (in the options menu) and say when blue is up. For example: you kill their blue at 7:40, what you say is "TB 12:40" so when you look back on the chat log in a couple minutes you'll know exactly when it's up and be ready for it.THATS YOUR JOB Keeping track of both blues should be any (mana using) mid laners job. Just type it in and remember it takes 5 mins to spawn after the camp is cleared.

Also, REMEMBER THIS:
Drag respawns every 6 mins. Baron every 7 min. Buffs (red/blue) take 5 mins to respawn. 1 minute respawns on wolves and double golems camps. and a 50 second respawn on the wraith camp. Just turn on timestamps and say DRAG, or BARON, or our BLUE/RED (OB)(OR), their BLUE/RED (TB)(TR) AND the time it will spawn. It will help you and your team keep track of objectives. Which can turn games in your favor. (Press Z to see the chat log from earlier)


Grab unused jungle camps

Say your jungler goes top/bot for a gank, while he enters top/bot, wraiths appear. KILL THEM. By the time your jungler comes back the wraiths will be up for him to farm up, so you won't waste his time, your time and you'll have a bit more gold and experience than the other mid laner. Froggen and Toyz (zyot now) are perfect pro player examples that utilized this with their pro teams during championship games. It is silly not to use them.

However, there are times when your lane is being pushed very heavily, so their minions will be killed on the tower (so you will lose exp and money, much more than you would gain with jungle creeps). If you can manage it try to push out your lane as fast as possible (without missing creeps) then go do one jungle camp, then come back to lane with a fresh wave to kill (every 30 seconds a creep wave spawns remember). This works better when you have a good source of mana regen (either with items or blue buff).

How to kill those jungle camp?

As Lux typically just Lucent Singularity (aka E) into the wraith camp, wait to get in auto attack range pop it and just Auto attack the blue wraith (big one). Do not even attack the little ones. Then use Prismatic Barrier (W) to shield the damage you'll take, and then cast Lucent Singularity E again to finish all the little ones (if they weren't dead already) and you should have finished off the big wraith with little to no damage, and gain a bit of health and mana from the camp. Same thing with pretty much all camps. Auto attacking the little ones is just a waste of time since you'll just use E again to damage the bigger one. But if you have no mana, or kill the big one without an extra E, then might as well get the little ones out of the way with autos.

Also, as a general rule of thumb remember. The wraith camp gives more exp, and the wolves camp give more gold. Golems are too far out of the way to be effective really, but if you are every around that area, and have to go back, why not grab a little bit more gold! =P
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Ruby Sightstone + Vision Wards


Answer: It depends.

Haha yes that's a stupid answer, but it's true. Let me explain.
First with cost/benefit analysis. (fancy word for is it cost efficient/when is it cost efficient?)

Cost/Benefit Analysis

Costs:

The Sightstone costs 950 gold on purchase. (A Ruby Crystal +475 combination cost)


Benefits:

It gives you +180 health and 4 ward charges, with a max of 2 active wards at a time.

]Stats Given (gold value):
+180 hp= 475 gold
4 Ghost Wards (per trip back)= 75 per ward (300 gold per trip)
Total: 475+ 300*x (x= number of trips you take back, given that you placed all 4 wards)

Note: it is the same cost efficiency if you were to place all 4 at once. (Although it would be stupid since you can only keep 2 at a time, it'd be like buying 4 wards then placing them all at once but you'd keep all 4 for 3 minutes)They all would technically give you a 75 gold worth 3 minute ward coverage. However to be the most cost over TIME effective, replace the 2 wards every 3 minutes.
Summary:
For the Sightstone, the item becomes cost efficient once you place down 7 wards. THAT'S ONLY 2 TRIPS. After about around 12 minutes of double ward coverage, you'll technically be placing wards for free now (minus your item slot).

NOTE:The Ruby Sightstone gives you an extra 180 health, an extra ward charge (to 5 stored) and an extra active ward (3 wards at a time). It costs an extra 600 gold (1 Ruby Crystal and 125 gold) This item becomes cost efficient after 8 wards. (This is if you were to purchase the item from 0 to 1550gold (total cost), if you just take the cost for upgrading (600 gold) it is a really cheap deal for the extra health and the extra ward) Technically if you take into account the health gained as a stat, the upgrade really only costs 125 gold. So after 2 wards (+150 gold) it is cost efficient. ALWAYS UPGRADE TO THIS IF YOU PLAN ON KEEPING THIS ITEM FOR A WHILE.

If you don't really understand the way I explained this, there are some really good videos on youtube about the sightstones by LolMath. He will explain it better than I will, so if your confused go to youtube for the information.

Although I only talk about straight up explicit (able to define clearly) costs and benefits, let's talk about implicit (not really a visible, definable thing) costs and benefits. An implicit benefit of the Sightstone is the ward coverage. It lets you be able to farm safely, (if warded correctly), and know where their jungler/other mid is to possibly counter gank. That doesn't have a gold value, but you could say you'd have about 12 creep waves of safe farming, about 76 creeps, from your 6 minutes of ward coverage. (And once you go back you'll have another safe 6 minutes of farming). Another great thing about the sight stone and our build, Teleport has a cooldown of about 5 minutes (4.5 minutes with the Mastermind mastery. So, you'll have safe farming until the time your Teleport is back up. Where you can go back, buy new items, fill up on your health and mana pool AND recharge your wards for more safe farming. Talk about safety first!Once you get Sightstone, you'll only die if you get outplayed in mid, you get over aggressive or ward incorrectly.

Now should I always get this apparently godly item?

No. This item has a certain kind of strategy behind it. For supports it's almost an always buy. It's great for them since they don't need to be super strong, and their job description is almost always to ward, but for a game that will probably be decided in only 20 minutes, that 950 gold should go to something more powerful.

However, since this whole build is about sacrificing early game for mid/late game dominance you won't really be able to single handily finish the game early, so this nice, safe early game item can do wonders for your chances of prolonging the game into mid-late game, and therefore increasing your chances of winning since you will be stronger then.

Remember: Never give up hope. You can always come back and win. You get serious, and they get cocky. And you just never know. I've had plenty of games where we on their exposed nexus and kept throwing the game to lose it later on.

ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE
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Seraph's Embrace vs. Athenes Unholy Grail

Archangel's Staff and Seraph's Embrace
Pro's
  • 1000 mana = 2000 gold.[/color]
  • 60 base AP (+30 AP from only the item's mana)= 90 AP = 1958 gold
  • 10 Mana regen= 600 gold
  • Total Gold Value= 4558g (not including extra AP from base champion's mana)
  • Mana Sheild- Drains 25% of your current mana to shield yourself for an equal amount for 3 seconds (120 second cooldown).
  • Active is good for surviving during a team fight if some damage gets thrown your way.
Con's
  • Costs:2700 gold. (But stats wise its worth 4558) so not a big deal.
  • Your build will only have 2 base CDR, (from your mastery) unless you have Blue buff, Mejai's at 20 stacks, Blue potion or build another CDR item. All of which you are less likely to have during the whole game.
  • Your build will have 0 MR, which is good with an All AD team, but probably not going to help out against a team with a mage or even a AP support (like Orianna.



Athene's Unholy Grail
Pro's
  • 60 AP= 1305 gold. AP always good
  • 40 MR= 800 gold. Helps out so much early game while trading with AP counter part.
  • 15 Mana regen (MP5)= 900gold. Helps out it's passive which does does better with the more base mana regen you have.
  • 20% CDR= 644gold. The 2nd main reason to get it. Even having 2 secs off your Lucent Singularity can make a huge difference in prolonged team fights or sieges.
  • UNIQUE - Mana Font: Increases your mana regeneration by 1% per 1% mana you are missing. So if you have 0 mana you have 100% increased mana regen. Which makes your 15 mana regen (not including base mana regen) now 30 MP5. It does decrease the MP5 when you gain mana back, but it is very helpful in sustaining in lane due to Lux always being mana hungry and spell dependent.
  • UNIQUE: Restores 12% of your max mana on kill or assist. Nice bit of mana gained back during team fights, not the best, but helpful.
    ]
Con's
  • You will have less AP, 30+ depending on base mana.
  • 1000 less mana, so less spells..."technically" (but you can cast more and you will eventually gain more than the 1000 mana you loss back over a time.
  • No active shield
]So which wins?

Depends on the enemy team
They are both great items for any AP carry that uses mana, but the best way to choose, is to look at the other team. Normally you'll be playing against an AP champ mid, so that chalice's MR and extra mana regen can help you sustain in lane longer and survive their burst better than Seraph's Embrace would, even with the 1 time shield sometimes. Plus, having that extra 20% CDR makes your Final Spark at the final rank 32 seconds, instead of 40. Which can be a huge difference in late team fights.

However, the CDR can be replaced with Blue buff, Morellonomicon, and blue potion for CDR. And the MR can be satisfied through Guardian Angel or having someone on your team get Aegis of the Legion for MR.
In conclusion...

Athene's Unholy Grail for when blue buff isn't always available and if they have 1-2 sources of magic damage.

Seraph's Embrace When they have no AP Carry and you build some other form of CDR and MR. The AP is more, so great. Maybe even get Banshee's Veil for more mana and for that passive against strong easy to hit initiations like Amumu's bandage toss + ult combo or Sejuani's ult.
I usually choose Athene's Unholy Grail just as my preference, but it's up to you. I gave you the information, now you decide.
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Mejai's Soulstealer!?!?! Worth it?

YES IT IS WORTH IT
Let me tell you why...

Pro's
  • The item gives you 20 base AP, and gains 8 AP per stack gained!
  • For a max of 160 (20stacks)+20(base ap)= 180 AP. Rabadon's Deathcap gains 156 AP (including its 30% in AP with just it's base stat of 120 AP), so it has the most potential AP in the game.
  • Plus, if you have Rabadons, then that 180 AP becomes--> 234 AP (190*1.3). GG.
  • You gain 15% CDR at 20 stacks. With your Athene's Unholy Grail and 10%% from masteries, you'll have the 40% CDR. You can give blue to your ADC or someone else who needs the CDR now! Unless you have mana problems. But you really shouldn't with the grail.
Con's
  • If you die you lose 1/3 of stacks. At 20, you'd go back down to 13... Losing 56 AP in the process, plus the 15% CDR from 20 stacks.
  • At 20 stacks you become Teemo, not really, but everyone likes to kill Teemo (since he does have an unknown passive called global taunt) and now everyone will want to kill Lux, you! You get a huge target on your head. Could be good though because while they TRY to kill you, your team kills them. You use your abilities, activate Zhonya's Hourglass, and then your team cleans up.
  • Hard to gain stacks at high ELO. People don't die as often, and especially if you build a Mejai's, they will start to truly hunt you down.
  • You sacrifice early game power, for late game power. You're already doing that with this build, so why not?
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Boots

So what boots should I get?

I pretty much always get Sorcerer's Shoes, it has:
  • 45 movement speed. (just like all tier 2 boots)
  • 15 magic penetration. Always good! You'll have about 22.8 magic pen once you get this item. Most champions start at 30 MR and don't gain it passively, so if they have no MR runes you'll be doing close to true damage to them, plus you'll have 43% ( Void Staff+ Arcane Knowledge ) of their MR reduced BEFORE your 22.8 magic pen takes in effect. So a champ with 100 MR would have: 100-43 (43%of 100)= 57-22.8(your mag.pen)= 34.2MR. Which is awesome! You'll destroy those squishies that decided to get MR Scaling Runes or think just having an Aegis of the Legion around them suffices for MR. =)

The only other 2 options are Ionian Boots of Lucidity, it has:
  • 45 movement speed (once again just like all the others, except Boots of Swiftness and Mobility Boots
  • 15% Cooldown Reduction- This could be useful if you only plan to get Athene's Unholy Grail and your blue buff is always gone (so you keep that max stat of 40% CDR. However, CDR isn't a stat you want to focus on! CDR is just an added bonus to any AP items you get. I almost never get these boots.

And Mobility Boots, it has:
  • +45 Movement Speed, this is all the time, even when in combat.
  • If out of combat for 5 seconds your movement speed increases from +45 MS to +105 MS. This is best used with support Lux. It will help you ward faster, travel back and forth to lanes quicker, etc. AP Mid lux can utilize this if you want super fast ganking potential. But these should be traded for Sorcerer's Shoes late game so you can have more damage!

Boot Upgrades
The possible upgrades for your boots are:
  • Enchantment: Alacrity: Flat +15 MS, it's an alright upgrade. I sometimes get this upgrade if I need to kite a pesky bruiser/assassin that keeps chasing me. It kind of resets your MS nerf just recently but, I like Homeguard better though. SOMETIMES GET THIS UPGRADE
  • Enchantment: Captain: Allied champions running towards you gain 8% bonus movement speed. Nearby minions gain 20% bonus movement speed. Meant mainly for tanks/iniators. Of which you are neither. NEVER GET THIS UPGRADE
  • Enchantment: Distortion: The cooldown of Ghost, Flash and Teleport are decreased by 25%. REALLY USEFUL EARLY GAME. This is what keeps your Flash up for almost every fight. And you'll get a Teleport every 3 minutes (works great with Mastermind equipped as well). I USUALLY GET FOR EARLY GAME,THEN I SELL FOR HOMEGUARD LATE GAME
  • Enchantment: Furor: Whenever you deal damage with a single target attack or spell, you gain 12% movement speed that decays over 2 seconds. As Lux the only time you'll get this buff is if you auto attack (since all of Lux's spells are multi target spells). Unless you plan on utilizing Lich Bane (not recommended) DON'T GET THIS UPGRADE
  • Enchantment: Homeguard:Whenever you are at fountain, you instantly gain full health and mana, and gain a 200% movement speed boost that decays over 8 seconds. The bonus movement speed is lost upon entering combat. The effect cannot activate while in combat. This is a great item when your team is losing, and the other team want's to wither down your hp and then take the tower down. The strategy for your team would be to 1. All buy homeguards. 2. Attack (BUT DO NOT DIE) the enemy team, making the enemy team all at 50% hp would be great. 3. If they go back, your job is done. Push the lane and try to take advantage of the time they are going back by taking objectives. 4. If they stay attacking the turret, you will all get there being super fast and at full hp. You should win the teamfight now, since they are all still at 50% hp. I prefer distortion early game, but then I get homeguard for late game, unless we are already losing badly. GET THESE LATE GAME OR WHEN LOSING. It may seem like a costly upgrade, but the 475 gold you spend, could save you that bit of time to grab an extra cs or 2 every trip back, so it will pay for itself soon enough.
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Farming- Tips and Tricks

Farming

Farming is probably the most important aspect of this game. You need gold, and the most common way of getting gold is with farming. (Go to How to Gain Gold for more info on Gold) Farming while under heavy pressure with Lux is really easy due to her long range abilities Lucent Singularity and Light Binding. You can even single handidly hold back a push by the enemy team, by keeping the creeps at bay! (Go to Ability chapter and then go to Lucent Singularity section for the wave clearing tip) But farming with Lux is relatively easy.

My advice to you is to go to a custom game and try just last hitting for like 5 minutes. Get used to her auto attack animation. It can be tricky at first, but Lux has a really good animation for last hitting.

(I think Steel Legion Lux has an even better attack animation? Idk, I don't have money to buy skins =P)

Farming is key early game and the more CS you get, especially the first 5 minutes, can help you get that gold lead even quicker. Typically you'll want to have about 1.1k in your inventory at around the 6 minute mark. As soon as you get that number PUSH THE LANE HARD into their turret, and make sure he doesn't stall the lane (hold the creeps right before his turret) or else when you come back you may get ganked since you'll have to be over extended to farm your creeps. The reason you push to their turret is so 1. They can't go gank other lanes without missing cs. 2. They may miss CS from the turrets attacks. 3. They can't push back to your turret which would make you miss minions and exp. By doing this correctly the lane will basically become reset (both creep waves hit the dead center of the map at the same time), but now you'll be gaining an extra 9 gold per 10 seconds, making your passive gold gain go to 32.25 gold/ 10 seconds until you sell your gold items.

Also, make sure right before you go back you use up all your MANA (not HEALTH, you can never have too much health) to harass and cs. You'll have full mana and hp soon anyways so just when you get close to 1k gold in your inventory, spam your abilities. (Make sure you keep utilizing Pickpocket and Illumination to your advantage, that +3 gold per attack adds up) BUT DON'T GET CAUGHT BEING TOO AGGRESSIVE WHILE DOING THIS. When you harass heavily usually your spells will be on cooldown (not ready to use) and you will be over extended. This will make it easy to be ganked and you will have no escape tools other than Flash if that is still up. Read your enemy. If he starts to be more aggressive than normal, that means he knows something you don't know, and his jungler is probably near to kill you.

Note:Farm a lot, and if you are about to leave to go back to base, use your Lucent Singularity on the first 3 melee creeps (keep the ball over them to slow them down so you spell hits all 3), then use Final Spark to clear the wave quickly so you can go back and not lose as many cs (even if you walk back). Your ult should always be able to clear the caster minions, but the melee and seige minions may need a bit more damage.

Mid Game

At around 20 minutes you should have 1-2 of your core items (I usally have Mejai's Soulstealer and Athene's Unholy Grail in most games at around this point, I know I say get Rabadon's Deathcap first for damage,but sometimes you can deal without it for just a bit longer so you can get those stacks early). You can start one-shoting the caster minions now (if you can't, auto them a couple time if possible, if not just focus on farming like early game) You should keep track of their blue/your blue and dragon. All three of those will make a big difference in the game. Buy 1 ward and then ward up their blue at the right time (remember all the little tips I gave in the trouble in the jungle chapter and mastery chapter), if your counter part at mid wants their blue, make sure to save your Final Spark/ set up a gank with your jungler. Don't be too obvious about it though. You may not always get the blue (since you may miss it or their jungler smites it away), but you'll still have yours to fall back on. =) KEEP FARMING. Start doing wolves and wraiths as well, (never golems, they are just too far away).

Late game

Now you'll be one-shoting the entire creep wave, and hopefully their carries now. You should have your full build at around 30 minutes, 40 if you play terribly.

If your winning: Now instead of farming, you should just clear waves as fast as possible so your team can push turrets fast. Care of ganks though. If you are fully farmed out, (like all 6 items filled + oracles and blue pot/red pot) just give the farm to someone like the support or ADC. If noone is around to get the farm, just push the lane fast and get back in the action.

If your team is losing: They suck. But raging at them won't help, use the creep holding wave technique I talk about in the ability section, so the other team can't push without diving your tower. They will eventually dive you, and then you can pick up a couple kills and start leading the game. Farming isn't too essential because by the time you go back after team fighting you'll have money from killing/towers/passive gold gain you can buy all your oracles and pots without farming. YAY =)
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Laning Phase

Your Early Game Strategy
  • Farm
  • Get all your gp/10 items
  • Don't die
  • Lane gank bot (ask support to ward lane bush for sneaky ganks with teleport) =)
  • Farm some more

You should be farming and last hitting as much as possible. Thats why you get Butcher so you can last hit easier when spells are on cool down. Try to be a passive laner. You are at a disadvantage early game! Be passive, have map awareness and ward your lane if their jungler is annoying.


Mana management:

Pretty much never use Light Binding, unless setting up for a gank or a kill early game. It does little damage. However, I sometimes use it to last hit a Creep I wouldn't get, gold>mana always. But to a point. You need mana to be a pressence in lane.

Harrassing is important in laning phase, but you gave up early game dominance for late, so you won't do to much damage. However, if you use Lucent Singularity well you can out trade someone if you play it safely. Also, people tend to automatically run away from any source of damage (no matter how little damage it actually does) use this to zone them from last hitting. If you see a low creep on your side cast out your Lucent Singularity inbetween them and that creep, they will most likely run away missing that cs. If they take it pop your E and auto attack them while they attack that creep. You just got free damage! (Because they can't attack you, usually, while they last hit a creep. Some champs can! So be cautious.)

Lucent Singularity Is actually pretty good for farming creeps you wouldn't get. Focus your attention on 1 creep thats low, and send your Lucent Singularity on the other low creep. Wait for it to get low, pop it while attacking the other one, and you'll get 1 more creep you wouldn't have gotten. Also, make sure to take into account it's passive for last hitting creeps with that mark. It makes farming easier, but it will cost a lot of mana. (more on that in the farming section, if you missed it that is)
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Mid Game- Gameplay

Coming soon for more in depth tips. But look to the skill usage/sequence chapter for tips on it.
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Late Game/Team Fighting Gameplay

Coming soon for more in depth tips. But look to the skill usage/sequence chapter for tips on it.
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Skill Usage/Sequence

These are Lux's 5 spells!

Illumination- This is Lux's passive. Whenever Lux hits an enemy champion, minion or neutral jungle creep they become illuminated. They get a yellow looking buff on them. If you hit them with a basic auto attack (or your Final Spark), you detonate the mark (except when you use Final Spark because it refreshes the stack of Illumination).
Tips and Tricks
  • This passive can increase your farming capability. If you hit a minion with an ability your auto attack will do more damage to that minion, causing your csing to be a lot easier.
  • If you hit a champion with your ability, especially early game, you can usually out trade their damage (out trading means to just do more damage to them). Try to auto them and get extra damage, plus 3 gold if you took Pickpocket .
  • Careful not to overextend to try to proc the effect. Lux has no escape mechanism so positioning is key. If you overextend to proc the effect, their jungler might come or in team fights you will get jumped on.
  • Late game you generally shouldn't be trying to auto attack for the proc anymore, you'll put yourself in too much danger for only an extra 20-190 magic damage. Just be safe.
  • The most damaging combo utilizing the passive is too. Light Binding--> autoattack--> Use Lucent Singularity--> Detonate Lucent Singularity--> Final Spark--> autoattack. You can kill almost any non-tank with this full combo mid-late game.


]Light Binding-Lux casts out a ball of light that damages and SNARES the first two enemies it hits. The damage and snare duration is reduced by half for the second target hit. It is a linear skill shot.

Tips and Tricks
  • This is your initiation for your combo. It can also become your teams initiation if you lack some initiation champions like a Malphite or Amumu.
  • You become vulnerable after you use this ability. Many champions will try to dodge your Light Binding, then dive on you since they can no longer be snared.
  • Remember this is a SNARE, meaning champions can still auto attack, use skills (except skills that jump them, such as Flash or Ezreal's Arcane Shift). Meaning even if you snare that Malzahar if you get in range of his ultimate Nether Grasp, it will still effect you.
  • After using Light Binding, follow up with an auto, then a Lucent Singularity, detonate, then auto for maximum SAFE damage early game during lane.
  • Try to aim for their ADC's or their APC's if they don't have a lot of magic resist so you can use your full combo.
  • Also, during team fights a lot of the times their adc or apc will be focused on attacking someone on your team (hopefully your tank), while they are standing still and auto attacking away they aren't ready for your Light Binding. Snare them and then combo them to death or close to death and now your team will have a distinct advantage.
  • If your chasing someone, try to lead the skill shot to where they will be. If your just out of range, use Lucent Singularity first. It has a slightly longer range, but don't detonate it right away! Use the slow to catch up to the champion/land your Light Binding to the slowed champion.
/league-of-legends/ability/lucent-singularity-317 Prismatic Barrier- Lux casts out a shield that shoots out like a boomerang, going to it's maximum range, then returning back to Lux.
Tips and Tricks
  • In team fights try to cast this out before/after your combo. You want to focus on hitting your damage combo, but it's nice to give people shields to soak up early team fight damage.
  • Typically use this on your bruisers/tanks while they are initiating, they could initiate and not lose too much health, this shield is deceptively strong.
  • If carries are getting focused try shielding them so they don't bursted down
  • If you are taking Damage over Time (DoT) damage cast your shield AWAY from where you are running so the shield doesn't refresh as fast letting you take the total amount of shield longer, it can last just as long as ignite ticks mostly. If you are getting bursted hard and over and over, like with strong auto attacks from an ADC cast it TOWARDS where you are running. This way the shield refreshes faster, letting you take more damage as you run/wait for cool downs.

Lucent Singularity- Lux shoots out a ball of light that gives vision while it travels. When the ball is out, enemies within the ball's radius are slowed. You can then detonate the ball to damage all champs in the radius of the ball, but removing vision and the slow effect.
Tips and Tricks
  • Use this to scout jungles early game. Never face check, use this ability to check brushes. Especially late game, because getting picked off late game, means GG.
  • Use this ability to slow enemies, not just damage. If you can keep a champion as long as possible in that slowing circle you'll disrupt their gameplay alot. However, do not do this if you think it will be the killing shot, they may have flash, so just kill them quickly.
  • Use this to zone people to a certain side. If you place it towards the right side of the lane/teamfight most people will go to the left side, making your Light Binding+ Final Spark be able to hit more people usually. VERY IMPORTANT.
  • Great for farming long distances especially if being zoned out of exp and gold. No matter how far away you are, if you kill something you will get the gold AND the exp.
  • A tip for clearing waves: Shoot out your Lucent Singularity before the first melee creeps. Wait till the first 2 are slowed in the range of the sphere's radius, then Light Binding on the front 2 melee creeps. This will somewhat block all 3 melee and all 3 caster minions in the radius of Lucent Singularity, then detonate. If you have about 20% CDR (blue buff + masteries usually) you can recast your Lucent Singularity again about 3-5 seconds right after you detonate it. Clearing the wave super quickly. But be warned, this costs a lot of mana to do.

Final Spark- Lux shoots out a Spark of Light. It does instantaneous damage after a short cast time in a long straight line.
Tips and Tricks

  • The short cast time makes you have to lead the champions A LITTLE BIT, but not too much. They'd have to be moving erotically and you guess wrong for you to miss it.
  • Most champs will usually flash out of it. ITS OKAY IF THEY FLASH OUT OF IT. Don't rage and say gg, or listen to teammates if they say you suck. Flash is a 3-4 minute cooldown? Your Final Spark is 40-60 seconds, it will be okay.
  • Although it is not a global ultimate, it does have an insane range, meaning from mid lane you can walk towards bot lane to about the dragon pit and snipe someone who tries to recall in the open (noob).
  • Typically, (especially if someone has tenacity via. merc treads) lead with Light Binding then immediately cast Final Spark. Typically you have enough time to snare them, cast Lucent Singularity and then use Final Spark, but when someone has tenacity, they can get out of your snare quicker making them be able to dodge your ult. Using your ult quicker against a person with tenacity will make sure your main damage ability hits.
  • If your mid lane opponent is low, and running back to tower try to make him go right in between the tower and the wall. This wall traps them so you can aim just a bit off the wall and they will have a 0 chance of dodging your ult, without Flash that is.
  • Make sure to roam when your allies at bot or top gets an enemy champ low. You can get a nice snipe and make your teammates love you, your enemies fear you, and you'll pocket a nice 300 ish gold from the kill =).
This next section is about what skill order you'll typically want to use in the various stages of the game.

Early Game- Basically before you get Final Spark. Typically you'll be farming, so you won't want to use Light Binding, just incase of a gank. So you primarily want to be using Lucent Singularity to farm and harass. TIP: Ghost Illumination proc- This is just a term for when you cast your Lucent Singularity on the enemy, auto attack them, and then, BEFORE YOUR AUTO ATTACK HAS HIT YOUR TARGET, detonate Lucent Singularity. Only use Light Binding when you are trying to set up a gank, about to go back and you may miss a creep or two (or feel relatively safe), or are getting ganked.

Sequence 1= Lucent Singularity + Auto attack.
Sequence 2= Light Binding + (optional Auto attack- Do if safe, if not don't) + Lucent Singularity + (optional Auto attack- Do if safe, if not don't).

Mid Game- You should have your ult by now. Try to kill people now/steal blue buffs. It is a really strong spell 1v1, so utilize it.

Sequence 1= Lucent Singularity + Auto attack/ Final Spark (if low enough to kill)
Sequence 2= Light Binding + (optional Auto attack- Do if safe, if not don't) + Lucent Singularity + Final Spark + (optional Auto attack- Do if safe, if not don't, but typically after using your ult on someone you should be on the upper hand of the battle so you can always get some more damage).

Late game- Search for those easy bindings on their carries. Especially if you have a place warded and they don't know about it. You can lead them with Light Binding and then kill them for an easy next minute of getting objectives/winning the game. In team fights, if you have all of your cool downs up and the fight has already started, look for their ADC and try to combo them. If you get them, their goes A TON OF THEIR DPS. You will most likely already win the fight now. Also, it's okay if they focus you, AS LONG AS YOUR FAR AWAY IN THE BACK. Hell after you use your combo to kill their carry, it's great for them to focus you now. You don't do any more damage now. It will prevent your ADC from being focused and you still have a chance to survive with your shield + Zhoyna's Hourglass. However, don't just throw yourself to the other team before you cast your skills saying "O ITS OKAY MY ADC IS SAFE NOW." No. Your team needs your damage and utility as long as possible, so try to stay alive. But if they use all of their CC and damage on you and you die after getting a lot of your damage off. Then it's okay if you died.

Sequence 1= Just Lucent Singularity. Zone the team to one side, scout unknown areas, or damage people who don't realize they are standing in it's area of effect.
Sequence 2= MOST COMMON USAGE FOR SINGLE TARGET AIMING. Light Binding + Final Spark + Lucent Singularity. You will be super far range away from everyone and you will do close to maximum potential damage. (you will have missed 2 Illumination stacks, but it's better to be safe at this stage)
Sequence 3= MOST COMMON USAGE FOR MULTI TARGET DAMAGING. Light Binding (whoever you can hit that does the most damage for the enemy team) + Lucent Singularity (make sure you detonate it too before casting your ult) + Final Spark. You can usually hit atleast 2 enemies with your full combo (2 snared by Light Binding, but also you have a chance to hit other people with your Final Spark that also procs Illumination stacks granted from your Lucent Singularity usage.

Prismatic Barrier= No I didn't forget about this over powered spell. Typically just use this to the best of your judgement. As a rule of thumb prioritize this skill usage on it: Able to hit all/most of the team> ADC/other carries (or yourself if you haven't used your full damage combo yet)> Tanks (while they are actually tanking damage)> Bruisers/Assassins (while they are about to go in to kill someone)> Yourself if you used your full damage combo> Supports.
Just be smart about how you use it, don't waste it on someone who won't be taking damage. (Also, use this on someone who is about to get a kill, just for the assist money and/or Mejai's Soulstealer stacks =P)

PRO TIP: Learn how to use smart casting. Probably the single most important thing I have ever learned in League of legends. I went from a decent player, to a much better decent player. =P. If you don't use it, just try it out in some normal games first. It will make a world of difference once you get used to it.
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Common Counters and Lane Enemies

Coming Soon.
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Lux Support= GG

Please stop trolling, Lux can't support.

Ahhh, but she can.

The idea behind support Lux is so late game you'll essentially have an extra AP carry. She has her W Prismatic Barrier that can save her ADC and team. Plus, Lucent Singularity has great zoning capabilities in laning phase, with good harassing capabilities. If you can land a Light Binding, and if your ADC is ready you can easily take out their ADC/support without taking very much damage. Support lux is more of a poke/burst support, not a sustain. Try to play with a good poke or burst ADC Tristana/ Draven for burst, and Ezreal/ Caitlyn for more poking. As support lux, your job in lane is to make sure the enemy ADC doesn't get much farm.

Like I said about having an extra AP carry late game, lets have an example. Say you go support Taric. He's a decent off-tank, with a decent heal, but he's really only good for stunning someone and keeping his ADC alive with his aura, no damage, just a rather squishy meat shield for his ADC. Not bad, but Lux is better.

Lux late game would have a strong shield to shield her ADC and the rest of the team. A snare that can snare 2 targets, a powerful zoning ability with her Lucent Singularity and a great finishing/engagement damage with her LAZOR. She can actually hurt people instead of staying in the back and healing the ADC when he gets hurt and stunning whoever comes close to his ADC. Lux could kill the person + damaging other enemy champions, while also shielding the ADC.

You build support Lux the same as AP Mid lux, the build will just take longer since you'll have little/no farm or kills. And you'll need to buy a Sightstone. Try to get Philosopher's Stone, then Sightstone, then Kage's Lucky Pick. Then build Mejai's Soulstealer So you can keep your AP high since supports shouldn't die too often. If you have good positioning that is. THOSE ASSISTS ADD UP.
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Ranked Play

What is the current Meta?
The meta:
  • Middle lane- AP Carry, or AD counters/bruisers, like: Talon
  • Top lane- AD Bruiser, off-Tank or full tank, AP Carry
  • Bottom lane- AD Carry + Either: Support (tanky or healy) or Kill lane partner
  • Jungler- Off-tank, Assassin, Bruiser, or Tank
Getting to play AP mid in Ranked games


YOU MUST CALL IT AS QUICK AS POSSIBLE
or... Duo queue and have them vouch for you or Ranked Team
or... Be leader of game and have decent teammates
Note: Sometimes you may get people who are like "MID or feed". Let them mid, by all means. It's easier than a 4v6 (ur teammate is the 6th =P) to have a decent mid go mid. If you have two of those, leave or hope they leave.
The Importance of Banning/Talking

If you plan on playing Lux ask for a ban on Kassadin/ Diana because they COUNTER you. Or ask for a trade so you can pick after their mid is picked. But it general don't pick Lux into a Diana. Skill beats counters, but if you don't have sufficient skill, you will lose.
NEVER GIVE UP
Games can always be won with wards, team fight coordination, and just positive atitude.

"Keep calm and buy wards."

O and tip the scales in your favor... DUO WITH A NON-TROLL. It makes it so you only have a 3/8 chance of getting a troll, while the other team has a 5/8 chance of getting that troll. It really does help to know you can depend on at least 1 other person on your team.

Ranked meta is always changing, over time and over different leagues. This strategy won't always work in Plat or in Bronze. So this may not be true in all cases.
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Summary

This build/guide is just as it is: a build or a guide. It is not a law you must follow every game with every champion, or even every time you play Lux. I love this build because it gives you like a safety cushion if you do poorly early on, AND gives you even more snowballing power if you do well early game. I really almost never use any other type of runes, masteries or builds when playing with Lux or any other mana using mid laner really. I just think it helps so much with those not as skilled as some pro players out there.

This guide is very user friendly, I'd say. I tried to explain most things some people wouldn't know about, and tried to explain the math I did in the gold section as best as I could. If you have any questions on what does this mean, or how'd you get that number, just ask me I'd be happy to help. Most people looking at this guide will probably be new players, someone who has just seen lux and thought she was op, or veteran players looking for a new way to play their favorite champions like Lux. I think this is a great build/guide and will help many people win games (granted the enemy team isn't using the same strategy, that would mean it becomes a skill/knowledge base game...scary thought =P) Remember this is a guide to help those who aren't as great as some p[layers, but skill usually trumps all. So no matter how much gold you have, if you can't land skill shots, it won't help you out. Just practice practice practice and you will get better eventually. If not, just play supports or other easy-to-play champs until you learn the game better.
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About thepuma3- Me!

I am currently a Gold 1 player about to enter platinum. I was at the cusp of starting in Platinum at the start of Season 3 (like one more win to being 1850 ELO or whatever the cut off was back in season 2- of course I lose the game and the following like 5,- stupid trolls THEY EXIST, but I was put in Gold 2 and just haven't been playing non-stop like some people do! =P

Honestly I'm not the greatest player and I firmly believe I deserve my ELO (to a point, trolls do exist and I have some sort of troll magnet), but I'd say I'm decent-pretty good. I prefer to win using a better strategy since I'm not as skillful as some of the greater players. I have a lot of online buddies who are in Diamond who I duo-queued with before season 3. They just play like 10 games per day, while I play like 2 ARAM games and some normals every day with my friends!

Having people to play with and talk to is a lot more fun, than having some silly rating or some silly "status" that means nothing in your life. LIFE FACT: You will go no farther in life by being a Diamond 1 player, than by being a Bronze 5 player. Most of you reading my guide are not Crs Voyboy, (my favorite season 3 player right now, Froggen was my favorite player season 1-2, then Toyz was my favorite during the season 2 championships: that man could play Orianna so well...) or other pro gamers who make a living by being the best at this game, so being in silver or bronze won't effect your life unless you let it. Games are about having fun. Don't forget that.

ARAM (All Random All Mid) One of the best matchmaking games in a long time. It forces you to learn new characters you never use, and how to team fight and it's actually pretty fun and challenging. However, sometimes you can't win with certain team comps. They should really add more to the game map, like jungle creeps or a special event, idk. Talk to riot for me =).

Sorry, I got distracted, but yeah I started college so I've been trying to play less and study more. (Growing up sucks!)

I love soccer/football (European football). I play it all the time and if I'm not studying, at school, or playing League, I'm playing soccer.

I am a Bleach anime fan! Ichigo inspires me and I just love the anime in general. Tite Kubo is awesome! The anime needs to come back up again! =P I grew tired of Naruto. It's still a great anime, but it just wasn't my style.

My username is thepuma3, add me if you want! I'd really like to join a ranked team, but I can't really be available all the time... So idk how that will work out... But I can duo queue with people! I don't really care about ranked stats anymore, I just want to have fun and get better at the game!

Thank you! And keep having fun! And don't forget to smile! =)
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Thank you!

To all of you for reading this and commenting and liking it. And if you don't like it or i messed up please tell me why so I can make this guide better.

To my good in game friends: OwnijPancakes, Jakhakshawak, thunderlips123 and Svidrigailov. For dealing with my trollness in ARAM/normal games and for consistently telling me I suck all the time (even though I will always beat them, isn't that right thunder) =P.

To jhoijhoi's How to make a guide on Mobafire. That was really helpful.
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Updates!

Started working on guide since: 3/20/13
Published guide on: 5/20/2013
Updates: 5/20/13: FIXED THE COLORS!!!! Already so soon! haha but I needed to fix the colors. Don't want to hurt people's eyes...sorry about that. And changed the gold part a bit, to take into account opportunity costs like gold you could have gotten by having extra ap from runes and items.
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