Hello folks! My name is Vartazian this is my first guide ever on this site and I'm looking forward to help out many a new blossoming Lux player! I have used this build from level 20 into the 1600 ELO range with almost no problems. I have about 1200 games as Lux (Averaging about 300 a Season + 600 Normals) Lux is easily my favorite champion and I hope I can make her yours too!. This guide uses numbers for non-professional players. While the numbers aren't best case scenario they set a rough guideline for about how much farm you should have at those time areas.

I have put a lot of effort into this guide to try and help you (it is quite long!), if you have any questions feel free to ask, and please vote!

The Snipers' Dream

A Long range AP Carry harass build Focusing on Max range harassment.

This Build Is a Team fight focused Mass Damage Dealing build.

Most players either expect Lux to be played as a medium damage support or as a lackluster AP Carry, however not many people are aware of the possibilities of an AP Carry from our little blonde bombshell. You can Expecting to get Quadras and Triples all over the place with this build.

Now you might ask me, Var? AP Carry? Why? She has great Support abilities! Well My answer to you is, what other AP carry has such an effective kill range? What other AP Carry can so safely engage from long range and retreat so effectively? That's right, Probably cant think of any, and that's why Lux is our lady for long ranged combat.

This build is all about poking and heavily relies on being able to land your Lucent Singularity ability and out zoning your enemies.

Most players starting into their lvl 20 zone will take relief in knowing that this build, focuses on in game CDR, So Blue CRD Runes are not advised. (In case you dont know they cost 800 per rune so they are quite expensive)

I Personally run

9x Greater Mark of Insight (Red) (0.95 Magic Pen per Rune) Totaling +8.5 Magic Pen
9x Greater Seal of Replenishment (Yellow) (0.41 Mana Regen Per 5) Totaling +3.7 Mana Per 5
9x Greater Glyph of Potency (Blue) (0.99 Ability Power Per 5) Totaling +8.9 Ability Power
3x Greater Quintessence of Fortitude (+26 Health) Totaling +78 Health

Insight is a no Brainer giving you early Magic Pen and Bonus damage with your abilities.

Replenishment gives you early game lane presence, It will really help and you never know when you wont get blue. Highly Recommended.

Potency is for early game damage, I run 16 AP at Lvl 1 Allowing effective harassment from the get go. I prefer early game to late game with my runes, However with me experimenting as of late, You can trade Early game for the late game equivalent of these runes.

Lux Sniper Build Pros
- Long Range Harassment
- Incredible Damage output.
- Powerful Mid Build.
- Spammable abilities

Lux Sniper Build Cons
- Extremely prone to Melee Carries throughout the game (Xin, Nocturne, etc.)
- Has trouble dealing with Support / X in Duo lanes
- Difficult to punch through Tanky Characters massive Health pools

Lux has 4 Very powerful zone control abilities. Get acquainted with them, and you will be denying like a pro.

Light Binding: Light Binding is your combo opener, make sure you land this and early to mid game you can demolish a target before they even know what hit them. This ability travels through more then one target so don't be bashful about landing it through a minion. The damage applies an illumination debuff that can be ignited for a nice burst of damage (About the equivalent of a 2nd auto attack) The Stun Lasts 2 seconds, the damage increases with level.

Tip: The targeting reticule is slightly smaller then the range the snare actually travels, Be sure to use this to your advantage.

Prismatic Barrier: AKA The weapon which is gonna make everyone love you. This is your "Oh ****" Button. Throw it towards allies and a shield is applied, The Numbers seem small, however your baton is a boomerang in this case, and will return to your position. It will apply the effect on the Throw and the return, AKA 2 shields. This is a strong ability in team fights make sure you keep throwing it to keep your allies up in a team fight.

Lucent Singularity: The bread and butter of this build. Lucent Singularity has large range and a Large AOE. In addition the AOE has a small slow to slow down enemies that get caught in it. The Cooldown is short and the damage is high. This ability is an amazing poke spell and is great for farming. Following this build at lvl 5 throwing this into a group of creeps makes them get 1 shot by your auto attack + illumination debuff. When throwing this spell be sure to place it behind the enemies as most enemies fall back into it.

Lucent singularity also doubles as a Sight weapon. Meaning you never have to face check!

Tip:The Ball is actually bigger then the circle around it. enemies outside will still be hit if they are immediately beside it.

Tip:The Center of the ball is the center for the spell (obviously) That being said the center of the circle can be put outside of your targeting area. This gives you a couple more units of harass space. Use it to your advantage.

Finales Funkeln Finales Funkeln: (Its now Called Final Spark but as a Lux player since release it will always be Finales Funkeln to me) Lux's Trademark weapon, when people think of Lux, they think of Finales Funkeln. This is probably the best sniper weapon in the game, Maybe only second to Ashe's arrow for Ranged ults (and thats only because of the stun!) The wording is Kind of funny on Riots site for how this weapon works with the Illumination debuff. When the Laser fires, if it hits a target without the illumination debuff it just applies it, Much like Light Binding or Lucent Singularity. However if the Laser hits a target that already HAS the Debuff, it will ignite it (for the equivalent of about 1 auto attack) And apply a SECOND illumination buff. So the spell deals more damage then originally thought if you hit them with a snare already. The Laser is quite wide and the delay is short. Dont be afraid aim ahead of someone if they are fleeing however.

Lasers Cooldown with this build at Lvl 16 is 24 seconds. So poke away!

In this build it is all about maxing out Lucent Singularity: ASAP, However it should not be the first ability you get. To shut down early pressure on your jungle Starting off with Light Binding: will allow you to harass or protect your jungle by shutting down 2 of their champions. You shouldnt harass with Lucent Singularity until it hits rank 2. The Mana to damage ratio isn't that great at rank 1 and you will find yourself drained quite fast. Make sure to keep your opponents as far away as possible.

This build setup is an amazing counter to strong middle champions Such as Karthus, Ashe, Caitlynn and Annie.

Masteries

As for Masteries I take a basic 24-1-5 Caster masteries set.

The Purpose of this build is extreme early game harassment and for that, You want to be hitting hard. Keeping in mind that you shouldn't be taking unnecessary risks. This build allows for easy farming and regardless your opponent wont be able to stop your enormous damage output without either

A: Repeated ganks from their jungler (Be sure to keep the lane in your half if you can help it)

B: Playing your counter and deny you.

Item Paths

EARLY GAME Start - 15 Minutes
Approx 80-120 Farm
Boots of Speed- Standard AP opener. This gives you your harass power early. You should have 16AP at Lvl 1

Health Potion x3 - Gives you some lane presence.

From here you can evaluate your situation.

Blasting Wand If their Jungler is behind or isn't ganking mid as often as they should be then this is what you want. Straight up more damage with a blue and Quick lane farming opportunities.
Sorcerer's ShoesWhat I would suggest getting first ~90% of the time. Here we start to punch through your enemy Mid lanes already Low MR. If they DO build more MR this will keep your lane presence up.

Sight WardSight ward X2 Regardless of what item you get, get 2 of these one for each bush. Maintain lane superiority by denying their jungle a kill on you.


MID GAME 15-30 Minutes
Approx 120-180 Farm
From Here the Build starts to deal Large portions of damage ~80% HP per combo.

Rabadon's Deathcap
Void Staff

Rush the Deathcap. Your second back after your Sorc boots you should be able to get a Needlessly large rod (If you haven't already gotten your Blasting wand) and start to deal Massive chunks of damage to opponents with ease. With a Large Advantage you should be able to have a Deathcap at 16 Minutes. with a Void staff by 23 Minutes.


LATE GAME 35 Minutes +
180 Farm+ (35-ish minutes)

Lich Bane
Athenes Unholy Grail

Now that you have your items base set up for your combo you can split off in two paths.

If you find that your team is pushing but not able to get past their defences under a turret, get a Lich Bane. This thing mulches turrets like no other. Toss out a Prismatic Barrier and Hit their turret once for 15% of its health (or even more)

Getting Caught without Blue? Grab a grail. This will let you spam plenty but you shouldn't have that many mana issues as it is (You only need one combo to decimate someone) Still a good item to get later on.

Banshees is the obligatory anti-caster item to stop those massive combos from Kassadin and Annie late game.

Items That dont Fit this Build too well

Archangel's Staff:Im not that big of a fan in this item mainly because with so much Mana Regen, Your mana pool isnt all that large. Hence this thing doesnt affect you as much. I much prefer CDR to a larger mana pool, and if you skip Rod of Ages for this you are too fragile.

Mejai's Soulstealer: Snowball items are risky, plus the 20 stacks buff wont help you max out your CDR, You are better off making a solid AP item instead.

Zhonya's Hourglass: As Lux, you almost never want to stop moving, And unlike Morgana, Fiddle and other champions with AOE attacks that continue through this. If you really want more AP, get another death cap. If they are already on top of you, you are probably already dead. The ONLY case I see this being useful is if there is a Trydnamere on top of you and you need to survive his ult for several seconds before your team catches up. But that is a rare circumstance.

Here, I will cover the Summoner Spells.

Flash Not Much to be said here, except don't try to use this offensively if you can help it. I would only suggest flashing for a kill to detonate an illumination charge and they are below 5% HP.

Heal My Personal favorite for this build. People will more often then not have to Dive you to get the kill. You want this Snare, Shield and Heal make you an extremely difficult target to dive (and survive) against.

YOU SHOULD NOT BE GETTING CLOSE ENOUGH TO USE IGNITE AS LUX

Teleport Been Experimenting a lot with this recently and it works well for ganking. However with a long range laser special I STILL prefer heal.

Ghost Always a Solid choice, however flash I find is much more useful, plus you probably wont need to close a gap very often with Lux, After all, you do have Finales Funkeln.

Cleanse If you are caught anyways, You are already dead. Not Recommended.

Ignite You wont get close enough to use this. Not recommended.

Incase you missed it...

YOU SHOULD NOT BE GETTING CLOSE ENOUGH TO USE IGNITE AS LUX

Exhaust You have one of the best snares in the game, this wont help you too much.

Clairvoyance This is an AP carry build, not a support build, however having global sight is always a plus. If you can carry with only once Summoner spell, feel free to take it.

Smite Sorry, but you cant jungle with Lux. And trolling isn't very nice either.

Promote Not that useful, unless you are really trying to push, if that is the case you still dont need this spell.

Surge You hit hard enough as it is, if you want the guaranteed kill, get ignite.

In summary keep these things in mind when playing as Lux.

- Does it Work? Oh baby does it Ever! Here's some stats from my 1500 ELO games.

- KEEP. YOUR. DISTANCE. Use your amazing Zone control to Punish them. Make them fight on your terms, don't move in where you are vulnerable to ganks. Make them come to you.

- Keep the Pressure up! If they are trying to return to base by their tower, throw a Singularity, Delay them from farming and maybe get a kill!

- Dont be afraid to fire blind! If an Enemy retreats with a low life bar Fire that laser! Even if you don't see them, The laser is wider then you think you could get an unexpected kill!

- Practice, Practice, Practice! You wont land every snare, laser and ball your first try. Every player moves in different pattens. force them to fight by walls so that your laser is a guaranteed hit!

I hope you have enjoyed reading this guide, because I sure enjoyed writing it! Please leave a comment and rate! If you have any questions, feel free to ask!

~Vartazian~