Lux Build Guide by Twedledee5

Intro

Hello, this is Twedledee here, and this is my first guide on how to play any character. Lux, was my first purchase from the store, and ever since she has been my baby girl. Her damage output is incredible, both early and late game. I know first impression on this build you may say, "This is just awful!" but bear with me, I will explain all of my decisions in runes, masteries, and most importantly, items.

Common Abbreviations Used Throughout the Guide

AP-Ability Power
AD-Attack Damage
OOM-Out of Mana
MR-Magic Resistance
Ult- Ultimate
DOT- Damage Over Time (For example Ignite)

Summoner Spells

Acceptable Spells

Flash- Great for chasing enemies or getting out of a gank. You call know this spell.

Teleport I like this so I can assist other lanes easily and get back to mine quickly, allowing me to go gank at other lanes and not worry about my lane.

Ignite Great for picking up a kill early or countering a [[Mundo] or to get someone low health to ult and get an easy kill with.

Exhaust If you notice you are against an AD Mid this isn't bad to pick up.

Cleanse Not that bad to use, never really used it much.

Clairvoyance If you constantly and effectively know how to use to steal baron and dragon and buffs, and support does not have it, don't hesitate to pick it up.

Ghost Not that great for chasing on Lux, but great for running away, but hard to on a gank early game.

Heal Not bad, but a lot of AP Mids have Ignite so that will counter your heal.

Unacceptable Spells

Clarity Goes against everything, and is just a waste of a spell, doesn't help against ganks, chase enemies, deal damage, or anything that useful. And it goes against the build.

Surge Just not that useful on Lux, don't need extra AS or AP.

Smite You in the jungle bro?

Rally Lux is a great pusher in her own right

Pros and Cons of Lux

Pros

Great Lane Ganking Potential Between Lucent Singularity and Light Binding
Great Farming Techniques
Outstanding Poking.
Can escape a gank pretty well with Light Binding and her slow from Lucent Singularity
Finales Funkeln is great for picking up early game under the turret kills on low health enemies.
Has a double replicating shield
Her snare will snare two people, even though second is one half the time
Hits multiple enemies in team fights and shields allies twice.
Abilities flat damage scale great and have not too schabby AP ratios
Lucent Singularity Can act as a great slowing ward while getting Blue/Red/Dragon/Baron
Her Passive is great for farming as well as poking at enemy champions
Not item dependent as long as she has AP scale runes and Mana


Cons
Squishy without items
Susceptible to ganks, especially if Light Binding is missed.
Has long Cooldowns if no CDR is purchased
Lucent Singularity takes time to travel to target location and is a low slow
She has 4 skillshots, which is hard to get the hang of
VERY mana dependant
Easy to accidentally KS with

The Lux Vision

Lux, despite your own opinion, should constantly be firing out spell after spell after spell. But, her spells are very pricey, in the sense of mana. So, in order to counter that obstacle, you must get a lot of mana items. Granted, you could not use spells until the team fight, but why not poke and poke and poke? That's what she is all about.

Runes/Masteries

The runes on Lux are pretty great IMHO. They give you that ability power to persist through the non-ability power items that we are getting. But still, even with minimal AP, you still do tons of damage through the regular damage on your Lucent Singularity. But, you also do need the flat AP runes for the very beginning. When you have these runes + masteries, you start the game off with 24 AP. While the runes take care of your early game damage output, this gives you time to do the early steps to your build.

Lux's Skills

Lux is a great poker, but also strangely good at bursting enemies out of nowhere. When you encounter an enemy, do the following burst order. Light Binding > Basic Attack > Lucent Singularity > Finales Funkeln > Basic Attack. If they are still alive, they won't want a piece of you and they'll run. If they do come at you, throw out your Prismatic Barrier and wait for your cooldowns to come off. Then do it again. (Minus your ult)

Her passive, Illumination is great for farming minions and poking at enemy champions. It also is great for doing damage to enemy champions late game, as it gets stronger every level. Pretty much you hit the target with Light Binding, Lucent Singularity, or Finales Funkeln and it applies the "mark". Follow up with a basic attack and they take increased damage.

Tips: If the target has a mark on them, Finales Funkeln procs the mark, doing damage, and reapplies it. Keep that in mind as they are trying to recall under the turret.

Her Q, Light Binding, is one of the best snares, if not the best snare, because it affects 2 targets in the line. Keep in mind that this is a SNARE, meaning NOT A STUN, meaning they cannot move, but can still cast spells at you, basic attack you, and what ever they want as long as the ability doesn't lead to them moving.

Tips: This will snare 2 enemies, which is great when trying to run, or as someone else is running too. When in lane and you snare the enemy champion, follow up with basic attack > Lucent Singularity > Basic attack. Getting the 2 Illumination hits off really maximizes damage.

Your W, Prismatic Barrier, is useful in the sense that you can shield yourself and allies twice. Why I pick it up at level 1 but not max it first or second is because Lux in this build is an AP Mid, and is also a Mage, not bot support. It is nice to have though so that you can get an easy assist by shielding your teammate as the chase someone or to save yourself or a teammate from exhaust.

Tips: Try to get easy assists by using it on a teammate as they are chasing for a guaranteed kill. Also, use it constantly to block the damage of Ignite or any other DOT abilities, or use it when getting blue or a huge minion push.

Lucent Singularity does fat damage to enemies in a circle and slows them. But it also reveals the fog of war when you place it and slows enemies inside the circle.

Tips: When getting Dragon, blue, or Baron, put this bubble in the place you think the enemies will come from, slowing them down and doing damage to them. Place it in a bush to see if an enemy is in there to prevent walking into a gank. Place it on the back minion line and explode it, then basic attack them for easy farm. Remember that it takes time to travel to the target destination.

Your Ult, Finales Funkeln deals damage in a straight line, revealing the fog of war and damaging all enemies in its path. And it has unreal range!

Tips: There are many uses for this ult, whether for damaging enemy teams, picking up easy kills under the turret on low health enemies, or seeing if they are at baron or dragon. But the best one is taking buffs. Place a ward around the enemy team's blue buff once you reach level 6 and have your ult. When you notice they are getting it, get in range of it and wait till it gets low health. When it does, ult that ish and get back. When you take it, who ever was taking it will come for you, so just wait a minute. Make sure to say "lol" when you take it too.

Items

The item focus that I am trying to emphasize is that Mages need to cast spells. Most mages, Lux being one of them, need mana to cast these spells. Lux, being one of these mages, has a high mana cost. So I will explain all of the possibilities. Also having high damage output through AP is essential too, and the mana items are actually more damaging than you may think.

Early Game/Mid Game Items

Tear of the Goddess- Great item, really gives the maximum mana we are looking for. I recommend getting this before boots if you can, but if you go back and it came down to getting a mana crystal or boots, get boots. This is crucial to get ASAP because then you can start stacking the mana quickly. This item also correlates to the second highest AP item in your build.

Chalice of Harmony- Absolutely great and fat mana regen, really gives you the mana sustain that you need. Even if you are at minimal mana, you will regen enough so quickly that you can easily get a spell off. I used to hate this item on Lux. Why? Because there was nothing to build it into. But, now that there is, I incorporated this item into my build immediately. Plus, the MR is perfect against another AP Mid that you are probably up against.

For boots, we will be looking at 2 different pairs. On one hand, you can buy the Ionian Boots of Lucidity, which is what I always get. But yet some people still prefer Sorcerer's Shoes, which do give you MP, but I just feel that is something you dont need, as opposed to getting CDR, which Ionian Boots of Lucidity give you. Especially because this is the only CDR item I get in correlation to the Athenes Unholy Grail.

Athene's Unholy Grail is unreal good, especially because they buffed it a little bit in that last patch. Now you are looking at 90 AP, 40 MR, 12.5 Mp/5, and a 15% CDR. And 2 great mana restoring passives. Now you may say that "this comprimises damage for mana!" and my answer to that is 90 AP? That is the 4th highest AP item in the game, but if you do not have mana, 3rd, as Archangel's Staff would only have 45 then(But who wants this that has no mana?) Plus, this item pretty much has a built-in Negatron Cloak

Highly Important Items

Rod of Ages is a great Health, AP, and Mana giving item, helps your damage output, especially when fully stacked, plus you get 630 Health when fully stacked! And the passive level up bonus is just great, it really is. And the extra Mana doesn't hurt either.

Archangel's Staff Is the second biggest AP item in this build, but really helps in mana regen and maximum mana. I mean, 1350 mana? That's an unreal amount. And, you can actually tell how much AP you get from it now, and I get over 150 AP with the 45 added. That's more than a Rabadon's Deathcap! But the Rabadons does have the UNIQUE Passive of 30% more AP, which is always nice to have in your arsenal. The Rabadon's Deathcap is just, to put simply, the most important item for getting lots of AP. Mix this with pretty much unlimited mana and lots of CDR, and you have a got a devastating blow.

Last Item to Get

Void Staff A great item, I tend to get this when they have too much MR for me to handle and cannot deal sufficient damage.

Will of the Ancients I don't ever get this, especially because its more expensive now, but you just don't get enough health from it. Because you only get 1/3 of the 20% of the damage you do, you get very minimal health back, especially in team fights. Why only 1/3? Because all of Lux's spells are multi-target. But if you feel it will help or you wanna support your team with it, go ahead.

Abyssal Scepter is great for countering an AOE person, such as Karthus or Cassiopeae or Amumu (Don't get this to counter a Veigar, he will still burst kill you with ease) and also does help in making a squishy suddenly a whole lot squishier.

Deathfire Grasp Is a great option, especially if there is a really fat Gragas or a demolishing Cho'Gath that need to lose a lot of their health. Also gives CDR, which will put you over the cap, but also brings you to the cap. And gives you another spell to use.

Lich Bane Great item, Passive stacks really well with Lux's Passive. Some more MR, and really gives your basic attacks a BAM! And more Mana too, which gives more AP (But minimal from that)

Zhonya's Hourglass More AP and lots of armor, with a great passive that lets you take all kinds of abuse with no damage being taken. Try to utilize it to counter a Karthus Requiem or a Fizz Chum the Waters

Banshee's Veil is great against a Veigar that eliminates you from the fight before you knew what happened. It will block a spell and reduce all the others damage. Plus health and mana are always welcome, as is some extra MR.

Maybe a second Archangel's Staff would be adequate. You get the 350 Mana plus the 45 AP plus the passive 3% mana to AP to. But you do not get the additional 1000 mana. This will really bump up your AP.

In Team Fights

Your job is simple, get your spells off, focusing either a fed AD Carry or the mage. Try to snare the tanks as they try to initiate and protect your AD Carry. Get that shield prioritized on the AD Carry and then whoever else you can. Then focus the Mage or AD carry, who ever is more fed or at the battle. Line them up in the ult before the fight, and you will have it back by the end of the fight. That is your job, protect with shield and demolish the AD carry or mage, with ult going out sometime during it. Here is a skill recap if I was not clear.

Light Binding- Snare the Tanks as they try to harass your AD Carry.
Prismatic Barrier- Shield the AD carry and whoever can fall into it too.
Lucent Singularity- Focus the AD carry or Mage with this.
Finales Funkeln- Focus AD carry or Mage with this, preferably after your Lucent Singularity has applied [[Illumination on them.

Summary

I hope you all enjoyed my guide and not to vote down until you tell me why. And I really hope you try it before you vote my up or down. I do look forward to haring your feedback as well. I wish you all the best of luck on the Summoner's Rift and may the odds be ever in your favor.
~Twedledee5