Hello, I am Tyler "ecco" Spesick and I am the former mid player for the former LCS teams "Team MRN" and "Team Velocity eSports!"

This guide is about one of the newest champions, Lucian! Lucian is a champion I feel did not get nearly as much love as he should have on release as he had an amazing story, my favorite log-in music yet (best attribute about him), and is /extremely/ fun to play! He is a very versatile champion that has probably the strongest laning out of any adc currently. Use this guide to help refine your play with him or help convince you to try him out!

Pros

1. Extremely strong laning.
2. High-Burst.
3. Low-Cooldown escape that removes slow that makes him extremely slippery.
4. Jack of all trades.

Cons

1. Ult is very situational.
2. Low base attack-speed.

Lucian's kit is very versatile which helps him work in pretty much every team comp. He is good at a lot of things but not really the best at anything. He has very strong burst with his Piercing Light and Ardent Blaze coupled with his passive but he doesn't have a burst ult like Graves (nor is his burst cast as fast as Graves'). He is very slippery but his Relentless Pursuit doesn't make him as mobile as Ezreal or Vayne. Overall, he is pretty much a jack of all trades with his laning being the one thing that is arguably the strongest out of any adc.

Since he is so universal, put him in pretty much any comp. He is a tower killing machine from his passive Lightslinger so if you built a heavy siege comp around him then that work fantastically. Such a comp could consist of Rumble, Jarvan IV, Lux, Lucian, and Janna. It gives you a lot of poke, disengage and engage as well. Can use Lux poke to dwindle them down while they are defending the tower and she can also shield you as you walk up to hit the tower with your double hit. Like I said though this is merely an example of a comp he could excel in but he works with almost anything.

Barrier and Flash is what I have taken on Lucian in 100% of my games. He is a very aggressive champion (definitely in lane) and having the added health pool from barrier at his disposal allows him to be the most aggressive he can be. The reason I almost never take cleanse on Lucian is because he is already extremely slippery from his Relentless Pursuit. The only match-up I would likely go cleanse over barrier would be against a Fiddlesticks because his fear is flat out broken.

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Greater Mark of Attack Damage Greater Seal of Armor Greater Glyph of Magic Resist Greater Glyph of Mana Regeneration Greater Quintessence of Life Steal Greater Quintessence of Attack Damage

On Lucian I run the very standard page for ad carries. It revolves completely around making laning as strong as it possibly can in pretty much all situations. It is built in conjunction with the mastery page below and therefore they have great synergy together. You're giving yourself enough resistances for efficient trading, a good amount of ad for trading and best ability to last hit correctly under tower, and also a decent amount of life-steal for sustain.

Very standard masteries with pretty much no wiggle room to change anything at all. You /have/ to go the 9 in defense on an ad-carry nowadays to be at an even footing in lane and we take the mana-regen glyphs to help make up for the lack of it from masteries.

This skill sequence is the only way I could imagine leveling Lucian's ability with only one exception. If I had a very aggressive support in lane (such as Sona) who had ignite and we had a very favorable lvl 1 exchange and were about to both hit 2 before them, then I would consider taking a point in Ardent Blaze right as I hit lvl 2 if I had a shot open to do the most damage possible and hopefully lead into a kill or at least a demanding lead early. Leveling Relentless Pursuit at lvl 2 is much safer and can also be used for a ton of early aggression because it procs your passive as well. Where the points are put beyond level 2 is very straight forward as you are getting the most damage you possibly can at all levels.

Lightslinger (Passive) Lightslinger is an amazing passive that makes your burst incredibly high (definitely in lane). It also helps make up for Lucian's terribly low base attack-speed and the fact that none of his moves give me an attack-speed steroid either. The main thing about this passive is to /never/ stack passives. And by this I mean that if you use a spell, always auto-attack for your double-shot before using another. This will maximize your damage output. One small bug that came along with the passive on release Lucian was the when killing a target with the double-shot that the second shot would hit the target closest to it instead of overkilling the original. They ended up liking the bug and changing it actually be part of the ability but now it actually helps you last-hit. If you last hit a minion with your first shot of your passive, the second one will last-hit another minion if one is low enough!

Piercing Light Piercing Light is my favorite ability of Lucian's. My only complaint about it is that it isn't a skill-shot. If it was a skill-shot though it would probably be terribly overpowered for lane so I understand the reasoning behind it. Even though you can use your Q as harass if you line it up properly off of targeting a minion I very rarely do that. The reason is because Lucian's trading is /so/ strong that if you are using it long-range then you aren't getting the full damage out possible because of his passive. There are times where I will be using Piercing Light to help shove and if possible I'll try and hit the enemy with it as well but typically I use it for very hard trading. This hard trading is done by leading with an auto-attack and then cancelling the auto-attack animation with Piercing Light. Then you you auto-attack again immediately after and overall you do 2.5 auto-attacks worth of damage as well that from Piercing Light. It is just an incredible amount of burst/harass for a low amount of mana.

Ardent Blaze Ardent Blaze is a very unique ability. Any target that it hits is marked for 6 seconds and if Lucian auto-attacks a marked target then he gets a speed boost! Something to note is that Ardent Blaze's damage is magic instead of attack so Lucian has a bit of mixed damage which is typically strong for mid-game but weaker late game (because you never itemize for magic damage the longer the game goes on the more mr people get therefore it does less damage). Typically I use this ability to reset my passive Lightslinger. I don't really use it all that often in lane unless I am doing a very aggressive trade in which I would use it after Piercing Light to help me chase down my prey. In the end, it's a decently strong AoE, magic damage ability whose main purpose, in my eyes, is it to reset my passive.

Relentless Pursuit Relentless Pursuit is a fantastic little dash that removes all slowing effects. This means that even things like Wither who have other side effects (like in this example slowing your attack-speed) is all gone! It's just fantastic /and/ the ability goes /down/ in mana the more you scale it! It's the complete package and it is what makes Lucian such a slippery little bugger. Also, keep in mind that even this procs Lightslinger!

The Culling The Culling is an interesting ult to say the least. It is extremely strong in certain situations and very underwhelming in others. It excels in finishing off targets who are running away or being used as filler when all of your cooldowns are down when kiting backwards against a tank. It does stay activated after using Relentless Pursuit and even Flash! Once activated the ability only shoots in whatever direction you first had it aimed so make sure you choose wisely. Last hitting a champion with The Culling will reset the cooldown on Relentless Pursuit! This means more chasing/escaping ability as well as a quicker proc onto Lightslinger. Another thing to note is that casting The Culling will also proc your passive. So even if you use it for only half a second and then de-activate it, you get that double-shot off for a good amount of burst. There are times where I need that extra little bit of burst to win a duel where I will cancel my auto-attack animation by casting the culling only to turn it off immediately for the passive proc.

Doran's Blade is as standard as you can be for a starting item on an ad carry nowadays. There really is no other choice.



On my first back I will pick up a Vampiric Scepter because of how much stronger it makes your laning. It gives you mediocre damage for the cost but a bunch of sustain which is fantastic for an aggressive champion like Lucian who is constantly trading all the time. Then if I have enough gold left over I'll go ahead and pick up Boots for that extra little boost of mobility.

Next I add in a B. F. Sword and finish up Bloodthirster. Because Lucian is such a bully in lane and has a lot of strong scaling abilities, it is best to itemize towards early to mid-game by getting as much damage and sustain as possible. Because I am itemizing so much towards early to mid-game I will pick up only a Zeal before finishing my Last Whisper. This gives me more burst and overall damage while being weaker in extended fights due to my lowered attack-speed and critical strike chance.



I will then go back and finish up my Phantom Dancer next to help out Lucian's dreadful attack-speed as well as giving him a good chunk of critical chance. Then I have to look at the opposing team. If they have a lot of magic burst and cc (such as against a Lissandra) then it is probably best to go ahead and pick up a Quicksilver Sash for extra survivability in team-fights before building more damage.

Then I build an Infinity Edge for more critical strike and overall damage. This puts you up to 55% critical strike chance which in conjunction with your passive can lead to devastatingly high amounts of burst when luck is on your side. Then whether or not I got a QSS earlier or not I will get a Mercurial Scimitar to be as slippery as possible in team-fights while also getting a good chunk of damage.

Since Lucian's laning is so incredibly strong, you want to couple it with a support that compliments that play-style well. I'll go over the few supports that are my favorite with him.

Sona: Sona is by far my favorite support to run with Lucian. Starting at level 1 her damage is incredibly strong and she also has built in sustain which lets me play as aggressive as I want to be. Then, come level 6, a decently sized AoE ult that stuns sets up kills in lane so incredibly well. Sona is the best support with Lucian.

Nami: Nami is my second choice because of her aggressive sustain, the extra chase-down from Tidecaller's Blessing and just her overall play-style works so well with Lucian. In a way, she is also similarly the jack of all trades of supports so maybe that is why I love her so much in conjunction with Lucian. They compliment each other very well so I suggest you give it a try if you haven't.

Annie: Annie is a giant bully in lane with her constant harass from her 625 range auto-attacks as well as her decent damage and 1.75 second stun. Lots of burst and kill potential in this lane.

Zyra: Last but not least, Zyra. She brings a lot of poke damage to the table as well as a very strong all-in that is very hard to beat. Lots of consistent damage and burst potential in this lane.

There aren't really any match-ups do avoid picking Lucian into because he is so well rounded. Corki can be tough because of his high amount of aggression and all-in potential but it is a match-up that Lucian can still win. Just make sure while playing against a very aggressive match-up to always be using calculated aggression and not be too reckless otherwise you can get punished very hard.

As mentioned before in this guide, Lucian's laning is arguably the best of any ad carry. His passive gives him extremely strong base-scaling on his damage and also gives him very high burst. Starting from level 1 you should be constantly trading and dwindling down the opposing lane. Walk up to them, auto-attack them, cancel your auto-attack animation with Piercing Light and then auto-attack them again for a very, very favorable trade. Then if you have kill potential after this trade you can use Relentless Pursuit to proc Lightslinger again and to pursue your kill. Be careful about miscalculating your all-in damage though because if you use all your spells and your target isn't dead you don't really do anything because your base attack-speed is so dreadfully low.

Besides all of the constant, aggressive trading you can do the more standard auto-attack trades when they go to last hit because that is when they are most vulnerable. If you do get a sizable health advantage in lane make sure to be extremely aggressive off of it and zone them from creeps as best as you can while still being safe. Because your lane is going to be so forward because of the constant aggression make sure to have very strong ward coverage at all times and be weary about using Relentless Pursuit when there is a chance you could be getting baited by a Jungler sitting behind them.



Once the game gets into mid-game this is where you will excel the most. Your team should be aggressively forcing a lot of objectives and towers because it is during your power-spike. Lots of pink wards and aggressive denial of vision will lead to easier taken objectives as well as potentials for picks. When sieging, let your team poke and do most of the work will you can just walk up, shoot Ardent Blaze into them, and then auto-attack the turret for more than 200 damage with your core item-set.

During team-fights, make sure to stay near the back. Although Relentless Pursuit is fantastically well-rounded because it also moves slowing effects, it doesn't actually move you that far. Focus on the front-line unless there is an opportunity to get in aggressively onto their weakened back-line if there isn't much CC near them. You can burst priority targets within a blink of an eye so don't be scared to play forward with a champion like Lucian. As said before, mostly use your spells to reset Lightslinger and kite backwards while using The Culling as filler while your cool-downs are down or to pick off a low-healthed target who is wobbling away.



Late-Game isn't really any different than mid-game goal-wise. Your damage will start to fall off a little bit compared to other more hyper-carry ad carries because you don't have very high attack-speed but Lightslinger still brings a lot of damage to the table if you get lucky with your crits. Keep forcing objectives and towers as a team and overall keep playing aggressive.