So after many hours of playing Lux i realized that there is no real way to play her the same everygame.. alot of the builds that you see are people who are stuck in the same elo non stop
i myself have spent many hours pushing to each new elo bracket and noticed a huge change in gameplay. Alot of the builds for lux are almost all the same. except the circumstances.

Pro's :
- Lux has very short Cd's allowing for you to unload abilites like a train.
- Synergetic passive with ult (meaning your passive procs off your ult and re-applies)
- Very good at escaping
- Can make or break a teamfight

Con's :
- Lux uses alot of mana due to her short cd's
- She has no armor and low hp
- Requires a certain finesse to unload max dmg with all abilities.
- Is focused alot during team fights

For your runes its pretty straight forward:

Marks -- MPen

Seals -- MP5

Glyphs -- CDR

Quints -- HPx3 // Mpenx3
- now your prolly wondering why i say mpen on quints.. the reason for this is if your a polished player and you can practically smell the ganks and know when to get out of dodge.. then you may not need those 3 quints for health and rather take mpen for later game when tanks are just stacking that **** and everyone has 100+ mresist.

Nothing to really say 9 in offense for the spell pen. Now the utility tree has several dif routes you can go in order to fit your playstyle. my build is for more of the assist style. see lux can be a nasty carry if you go mid. but this build was more for sidelanes. with that being said i picked up imp clarity and imp exp instead of mana because every little bit of exp you can get during the lane phases will make you that much stronger during mid ganks and late game. Also getting imp ghost even though it was nerfed in a patch many moons ago its still absolutely essential for lux.

Now this is where you see alot of lux' item builds begin to differ. My build makes laning against your early game even more devestating. Now im going to use my lane partner (pantheon) as a way to demonstrate why its effective. I get dorans ring right off because i play fairly distant early game till i get my boots and can start carrying health pots.. but i still harrass with my lucent as often as possible. Now the reason i rush sheen is because with your passive that little bit up front can really help you get alot of last hits on minions as well as the devastating effect of taking over 200 dmg at lvl 5 or 6 from an auto attack easily. i rush sorc boots because if i end up laning against a tank i dont want my dps to be diminished at all.. because its vital to scare your opposing team laners into not even wanting to attempt getting near you. the game i just played before getting on this, i had 2 kills and an assist before we even reached lvl 6 and that was because i was able to nail my snares. in combo with lucent and auto attacks
panth would either stun before or after the snare and over all together it was a nasty makeup.

If the game goes on for a very long time, it never hurts to get more hp and or ap, i would say that either getting a rylais or banshees, or even an archangel at this point would only be beneficial but most games will end before you get the other 5 items

lucent singularity is always my first choice. simply because with the cdr runes and mp5 runes along with dorians. your able to spam this ability. This allows you to get alot of creep kills and it acts as a deterant to enemies.. they dont want to be in it. so throwing at the caster creeps can help distance them from the minions so you and your lane partner can farm last hits. as youll also notice you only need 1 lvl of shield early game. basically this is to save you or your partner during an initial gank its not much but it is effective.

Alot of people spend time out there looking for different style builds for ranked play. lets break it down simply.

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Every ranked game is Different

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some of your ranked games youll be stacking mr others armor others youll be getting hp... it depends on the makeup. thats why this build i have listed is particularly effective. rod of ages gives you a sizeable amt of health ap and mana.. making you a scary site early game if you get it. also lich giving you a portion of MR. and really cool glowy orange hands.. Hourglass providing the armor.

The only time i would switch up from this build is dependant on who you lane against.
but i always get ring tier 1 boots sheen.. then you start building depending on what your against.

Now since ranked play is more about stuff to expect here is a typical fight as lux in a team fight...

You may and/or often be the initiator... Your best asset to the team is the ability to launch harrasing dmg into their grp before the fights. Wittle them down before the fight if you can.
By doing this youll find that you end up being targetted... this is perfect! You want them to chase you down this is why lux is awesome bait. Your lightbinding will seal the deal for their team... If they start chasing you simply fire your lightbinding directly towards the dir they are running while you run back. followed by a lucent and ult. you will take half their team to 40% or less health before your team has even really startd fighting. This is how lux plays. She is a nasty kiter. Use your slow and snare to your benefit. the passive stays on the target a long time along with your sheen buff.. you have time to get some distance and auto attack and follow up when the cd's drop.

if you are not the initiator this is ok... the first thing you want to do is to mitigate all the dmg being taken by teamates. firing your shield into the fray does more then alot of people realize. especially if its 45 min into the game and your sitting at or around 400+ ap.
that shield bounces back refreshing that amount. after firing in the shield throw in light binding, ult, and then lucent to slow any stragglers this is where you go on auto attack mode, and start cleaning up those passive debuffs you just passed out. Also remember to keep tossing shield whenever its up. because you still have sheen and this gives you even more dmg if its upgraded to lich.