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It seems like after the new 4.10 patch, Bloodthirster is not the best Lucian route anymore. Now adc mains are all raging towards Riot because of the changes that were made. This guide was made to change that and make Lucian the God tier adc once again.

Screw that! We're in 4.12 now (as of July 16, 2014). However the Build is still the same, so don't worry, you won't have to change anything there. Instead I'm focusing this update on the skills. (Gameplay section)

Starting Items

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Starting with what this guide was made for, the first items you should buy are Doran's Blade, a Health Potion and one Stealth Ward. You could start off with a Long Sword, a Health Potion and Mana Potion, but the Doran's Blade gives you 70 health and 3% lifesteal. Obviously, this isn't a lot but it is better than nothing. As long you don't spam your abilities you don't have to say, "oom" at level 3.

First and Second Back

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Moving on to the first back, you should AT LEAST have a Vampiric Scepter, a Long Sword and one Health Potion. The extra pots are for staying in lane longer but they aren't necessary.

After your first back, on your second back (hopefully this is your second back and not fourth) you should have enough to get a Bilgewater Cutlass and one Dagger. If you can get a second Dagger, get one, however if that is not an option just get a few Health Potion and Mana Potion.

Core Items

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Your first item should be a Blade of the Ruined King. I'll explain all of the details later. The second item should a Youmuu's Ghostblade and your final core item is Berserker's Greaves. Make sure that you build them IN THIS ORDER.

Core Items Explanation and Order

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As said in the introduction, this guide is to find replacements for the old builds ( Bloodthirster, Trinity Force,etc.) Blade of the Ruined King is your first replacement. Bloodthirster just doesn't do enough damage anymore because of its nerf. Yes, it does have 10 more AD than the previous one, however it does not stack or scale anymore. Blade of the Ruined King does not scale either and it certainly does not have as much attack damage as Bloodthirster, however the active on it should give a big damage output for the early game (as long as you don't forget to use the active). It also has enough life steal to last you in lane with only one Health Potion (unless you get ganked or do something stupid). The Blade of the Ruined King is not good enough alone however, so your second item should be a Youmuu's Ghostblade. This gives you a Critical Strike Chance pretty early and armor penetration. This is good for people with more health than you (so basically, everybody). Make sure you use the active with your Blade of the Ruined King because you'll have extra damage from activating Blade of the Ruined King and then extra attack speed from Youmuu's Ghostblade(good for your ult, it gives extra shots). Your last core item should be Berserker's Greaves. Sometimes its good to get this early since it gives extra attack speed and movement speed (like most adc's, Lucian is not that fast compared to a lot of other champions. You can say otherwise, but it's true). The movement speed should help you get away more easily from champions like Skarner in the mid game so that you don't get picked off from the ground and dragged to the enemy team.

Offensive Items

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The order of your offensive items can vary. If you don't need the extra critical strike chance, and need armor penetration for tanks (let's say the enemy has a lot of health, which is certainly more than yours), get a Last Whisper over the Infinity Edge. However if the other team is kind of squishy get an Infinity Edge first and then decide between a Last Whisper and Phantom Dancer. Again the order can vary here too. The Phantom Dancer gives extra movement speed, crit chance, and attack speed. You can also move through unitsmove through units, which makes you harder to chase. However, if the enemy team is somewhat tanky and troublesome, GET YOUR Last Whisper (Let's pretend you got your Infinity Edge earlier than expected). The armor penetration should stack with the Youmuu's Ghostblade so you have more armor pen.

Optional Items

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I didn't include any defensive items because the aforementioned items should be your final items, however I did include some optional items. Bloodthirster is still good for the late game because of the overhealing passive, lifesteal and attack damage. This can be a replacement for the Phantom Dancer, just in case you need more health (I guess this makes Bloodthirster a defensive item). The Zephyr is actually not recommended because to me it seems like a waste of time ( Phantom Dancer is better IMO), however it is there just in case you want to build it because of the extra movement speed. The last item in this build guide is the Statikk Shiv. This can be a replacement to the Infinity Edge if you aren't doing very well mid game. Again this is only if you are building slowly. You can sell the Statikk Shiv later on to get extra gold and maybe finish the Infinity Edge or you can just keep it.

Enchantments

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One last thing. GET Berserker's Greaves - Alacrity OR Berserker's Greaves - Homeguard. If you are winning and need to get to the enemy base faster, get Alacrity. This gives you more movement speed overall and not just in your own base. You can also run from others more easily if you need to. Berserker's Greaves - Homeguard should only be for losing situations. If the enemy team is at your base and you need to get to your outer turret to save it (with the rest of your team), Berserker's Greaves - Homeguard should help. I've seen so many people get Berserker's Greaves - Homeguard instead of Berserker's Greaves - Alacrity in winning situations and not have the ability to run away if they make a mistake in the team fight. In the same way I have seen people take Alacrity even though the enemy is almost always at our Inhibitor Turret. They usually can't get to the turret fast enough to join the rest of the team and end up losing the turret. (Just FYI: I used Berserker's Greaves enchantments just as an example. For the people that don't know, the same enchantments found on Berserker's Greaves are found on every pair of boots in League of Legends, and unfortunately not in the Nike Store).

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I just took the standard rune page because not everybody has every single rune. The armor penetration should help a little if you don't have an early Last Whisper. If you want an alternative you can take health seals and one life steal quint.

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For masteries, I took 21-9-0. The Offense tree is a standard 21 points. Some people take utility masteries instead of defensive masteries. The utility points don't help much because 5 movement speed is not really something to brag about and the mana regeneration is not enough to help you stay in lane since you use up most of your mana in one combo and two abilities. Also the CDR should not even be taken considering you can't use more mana than you have, which is not very much. Instead take Defensive points so that you gain more health in the beginning of the game and some armor and magic resist (again, it's not something to brag about).

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With the Ardent Blaze nerf, it isn't as useful anymore. The extra damage is still helpful but it doesn't show how great it is during your full combo anymore. Also, as Lucian your main source of damage is Piercing Light and maybe your passive so you should be maxing that Q. The rest of the points should be obvious so no explanation needed.

Farming

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Farming with Lucian is not as easy as other adc's. It's pretty easy, however, since you are the adc. For the beginning of the game (until level 6) just farm and try not to play aggressively. You don't have enough mana to constantly go in and burst the enemy or else you will be backing and telling your support, "srry oom."It's still true that you don't have a lot of mana, but with 4.12 you can use e to get a passive for last hits or poking an enemy. Now you don't have to constantly buy mana potions when going back to the base. 1 will do just fine for every 3 backs. Tell your support at the beginning of the game to poke the enemy and don't go in unless you have a very good chance of killing them.

Damaging Your Opponent

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Previously, I said to use your q to bully your opponent and e to escape or get closer. It's still the same (I know, why waste your time right?). However now your range on Piercing Light is 500 (from 550, correct me if I'm wrong). That's actually not something to look over. The shortened range is the difference between killing your opponent through minions or being 20 units short. The good thing though is, minions do not reduce damage on Piercing Light anymore. So shorter range, more damage.

The best thing about Lucian now? It's his Relentless Pursuit. The 40% cooldown reduction is massive and gives him an extreme amount of mobility. It doesn't use mana anymore, has almost a 10 second cooldown at max points (which means a lot), always activates your passive and closes the gap for Piercing Light. That is a lot of damage coming from one person (even for an adc it's stupid). At full build, I can take down a tank with one q and the rest are auto attack passives from Relentless Pursuit(around 4 autos). The mobility given to Lucian is ridiculous and gives tons of damage (see what I did there) output for Lucian.

At this point, there's no reason for a combo guide. Sure it would be useful to include one but now it won't do anything. You don't even have to pull off a full skill combo anymore, unless it's pre-7 thru 10. After level 11, the mobility becomes ridiculous, Ardent Blaze becomes obsolete, and everything becomes auto attack reliant (which is why the build is so good right now. The attack speed will help with killing opponents easily).

To be honest, I had no idea what I was gonna write for this guide to update it. Riot said that Lucian was getting nerfed (which he sort of did) on his range to give him a weakness. Yes, it is obvious that Caitlyn will be a massive jerk in lane now but his "nerf" didn't do much for other adc's. In fact, it's now harder to lane against Lucian for adc's without huge amounts of range or escapes.

I was really disappointed when I found out about the Lucian changes. I thought he would be weaker than ever because of his range. I was wrong and now I'm disappointed in Riot. Lucian is stronger than ever and has an extreme amount of kill potential. No matter how much I like playing as Lucian, I have to say that Riot messed up if they were trying to nerf him.

Riot. When you nerf someone, do it properly. Giving an already high mobility champion more mobility and a 40% cooldown reduction on a mobility skill is not nerfing. That's just creating a new tier on it's own (higher than god tier).

Anyway, this was meant to be a guide not a rant, so I'll end it right here and hope you've enjoyed reading through my stupidity.