Hello everyone I've been seeing some questionable Lux players recently and I've decided to throw my 2 cents up here on Moba. Do enjoy and remember constructive criticism is always welcomed.

Note: Also please remember this is a guide to Lux as an AP carry not a support as Riot has so peculiarly tagged her.

Pros: good burst very good range on ultimate easy to pick up kills with often underestimated huge range all skill shots great counter pick

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Cons difficult to master squishy all skill shots relies on tanks/dps soaks to block for her

My rune choices are very simple, I take flat AP quints and Mpen marks for the added early game damage, mana regen seals to keep my spells coming before the jungler can give me blue, and AP per level glyphs to keep my damage consistent as my AP will be scaling in the lane alongside our levels.

The Best:

You don't have an escape spell and to be honest this thing has so many uses it's just too good not to pick up

I take Ignite because it gives me that little bit of extra oomph to take out my lane opponent early, and late game it can totally stuff things like spell vamp or life steal.

The Good:

Now if you really feel like you need to win your lane and you need to do it quickly, Teleport is the way to go. This will allow you to never miss your cs and can allow you more freedom to go gank other lanes as you have the quick jump back to lane.

On an AP carry wth??? But really exhaust isn't the worst choice. It can give you the extra time to land your skills/passive procs and combined with Lux's base cc kit this can make ganks on your lane neigh impossible to escape.

The Scrubby:

If you're new to Lux or just new to the game in general you're probably going to find yourself out of mana pretty often and clarity might just be the crutch you need to get through the early game.

Now I'm not saying I haven't seen this work out ok on an AP carry and get a successful tower bait with it before but it's really not the best and if you really need the health boost, well you're Lux and with skills on cd you aren't escaping anyone extra hp or not.

Explanations:

Passive: - A somewhat underestimated passive by new Lux players in my opinion. This is what is going to allow you as Lux to really drop the early harass onto your lane opponent. When you land a skill don't be shy, follow it up with an AA to get your proc damage. This will also help you to last hit.

- You're lock up. Pretty straight forward snare, when you need someone to stop moving or just feeling like dishing out a little extra pain hit them with this followed by an AA.

- It saves lives. With a 30% AP ratio this thing can really tank some damage by the late game. Remember always try to lead allies with this skill as it can hit them on the return for shielding as well. Also don't forget to throw this as you run from a fight with a DoT on yourself. I've survived quite a few would have been lethal Ignites in this fashion.

- The bread and butter. This is going to be your main harassing/farming tool for the laning phase and you should respect its power. You want to use this skill not only to harass or to farm but to do the two things at the same time. Throw it over your opponents probable escape route while still casting it over enemy creeps. This tactic will allow you to get damage onto your opponent while still picking up cs in the process.

finales funkeln- Your ultimate and what an ultimate it is. This bad boy will line them up and knock them down ladies and gents. More about this one later. Refer to it's special section below.

To be honest this is the most important part of the game in 90% of games. If you take the early lead you can often snowball your way to victory so let's talk about your priorities for this part of the game.

Danger Wall Of Text Approaching! (Just hang in there it's good information I promise.)

So you decided to lock in as Lux for the teams AP carry, you picked up your Boots and your Health Potions, already leashed blue for the jungler and are rollin into the lane. It is at this point I want to you realize that this is your lane and nobody is going to take it from you.

Your first main goal is to farm like an absolute maniac. Yes not to kill the guy across from you and not to take the turret but to farm your way into that monsterously expensive build we've laid out for you. It is at this point that I feel the need to explain this mentality. Now why are we focusing primarily on farm? Because one kill = 11 creep kills in gold and as long as you can out farm the guys across from you it is going to be innevitable that he will go down to you and the tower will soon follow.

For the first 5 levels of the game focus your last hitting of the creeps. If you can catch your opponent in the AoE of your Lucent Singularity by all means please punish them and don't forget to try to follow it up with an AA for your passive damage. If that crazy bastard decides he wants to come at you instead of farming make him pay. Catch him with a Light Binding give him an AA and send a Lucent Singularity on his path out, and before you collapse it on him send an AA on his way, immediatley after the AA leaves your character collapse the Lucent Singularity and your flying AA will also score the passive proc.

First Blue Buff.
It's time we show this guy what you're made of. By now your jungler should be able to give you the second blue buff that's come up and with the regen you can begin to zone your opponent out of his creeps. Use your Lucent Singularity so that the front quarter is over the caster creeps and the latter three-quarters lies in the zone in front of your opponent. This should at least keep them away from hitting your caster creeps and it is through the use of our excellent range as Lux that we will starve him of cs.

Note: This same effect can be put into place without blue buff however it is considerably harder as you can just cast on nearly every cooldown you get. You should always be trying to gain zone control.

Lv6:
Disclaimer: Now before I proceed I should mention that if you see an opportunity to get a kill before this you should take it, especially if a jungler gank is involved but this is how we take people out as 1v1 Lux.
Now most people who face Lux are going to stay somewhat behind their creep wave to avoid being hit by Light Binding and giving enough time to juke a Lucent Singularity so we are going to assume that the enemy is just behind is caster creeps. When you've harassed to the point where you think your burst is sufficent enough to take out the enemy mid (level/resistance based but some mid's can be taken out from anything lower than 3/4 hp). Now walk up and flash over their caster creeps and land your Light Binding and immediately cast your Lucent Singularity on the path straight behind them but still has them sitting bound within it. Follow this up with a quick AA and Ignite. As they begin to run collapse the Lucent Singularity and channel finales funkeln over their exit. Done correctly you just landed a kill.

Remember if you are able to zone your oppenent or force him to back don't be afraid to push your lane up to his tower and go gank other lanes. Why? Because just winning your lane isn't good enough, this is a team game and if you can apply pressure that leads to other lanes winning as well the game will turn into a W real fast.
Also remember to be aware of the map, if someone goes m.i.a. I don't care whose job it was to call it out, if you get ganked by that person and die it is your fault for not having the proper level of awareness, not the guy who forgot to call it.
If bottom lane stomps out their opponents and can force a back or even a double back and your jungler is in the general area, throw the ping on dragon, push your lane, and go help your team take it. Global gold wins games and having more people there to take it out gives your team significantly better odds of getting the gold successfully.
Also I know your build is expensive as hell but if you find yourself with extra gold grab some sight wards. Nothing changes a game more than good map vision it allows you to counter the enemy so hard its not even funny.

Light Binding > Lucent Singularity throw > AA > Ignite > Lucent Singularity collapse > finales funkeln

Now the fight rotation outlined above is the best for taking out enemies without a proper blink ablility ready to go and a different rotation may be necessary to take out higher skilled opponents.

Higher skill opponents will most likely flash out of the way of your finales funkeln as they see it channeling so to kill them I would suggest the following:

Light Binding > Lucent Singularity throw > Ignite > Finales funkeln > Lucent Singularity collapse > AA if in range

This rotation will allow finales funkeln to land while the enemy is still within the snare of Light Binding. This combo also puts out the highest burst in the shortest amount of time, so use this to nuke someone down quickly in a fight. (Pre- Lich Bane)

And for the highest damaging sustained fight by maximizing the amount of damage done by your passive.(essentially they don't look like they're going to try to run):

Light Binding > AA > lucent sigularity throw > Ignite > Lucent Singularity collapse > AA > finales funkeln > AA

As you can see Lux doesn't have just one set burst rotation like most mages, she can choose to deal more damage if the situation occurs, it is for this reason among others that she is a higher skill cap champion as one really needs to judge the situation properly in order to deal the maximum damage and still come out alive.

The Core:

+ 3 s - The early game kiting and sustain from potions gives us our optimum early lane presence.

2 s - Stacking these bad boys early will allow us to deal just enough more damage, take just enough more damage, and spam just enough harder to allow us to take the lane with relative ease.

- Early/Mid game damage bump and tier 2 boots of choice

- You are an AP carry who needs the ability to nuke people down fast, this is your item, rush it.

- Now this item looks good on paper for Lux and performs even better. The synergy with you passive will give your burst combos that much more damage and actually makes you a sustained damage threat as well as a nuke if you utilize your Illumination well. The extra Mr and mana never hurt either.

- Now we want to continue nuking but we need to be able to defend ourselves too. The armor will help you to not be 2 shotted by the AD carry and will keep you from being shredded by enemy tanky dps as well. But what really calls to us here is the unique passive. You can literally take entire enemy team wombo combo's if timed well and can give you invoulnerability to enemy ultimates which is nothing to scoff at. Oh and 100 AP to go with that... thx.

The semi-core:

- Now to be honest you can pick this thing up at any time you'd like in the build (usually don't finish until after deathcap) so if you're getting merk'd by the enemy AP don't hesitate.

- Now I used to think that this item was core but to be honest on Lux all it's really good for is the cdr because you can get better AP or better mana regen elsewhere but if you've gone through the core build and built a defensive item it's safe to pick this thing up.

- They stacking the Mr to stop the unstoppable? Pick this thing up to keep the pain rolling.

- Once you pick up the Void Staff its time to ditch those old boots which are damping down the effects of the void and pick these up for the cc reduction.

The No Goes-

- Sure it gives you all the mana you want but for the price this thing is insane and doesn't give you the damage you get from Lich Bane or the damage and survivability you get from Zhonya's Hourglass.

- Don't get me wrong I love this item, just not on Lux. We don't need to spend our entire early game scrounging up the money to get this, then need to go get our Rabadon's Deathcap.

- Again the money spent here doesn't give enough, on other champions the health and slow are invaluable, but on Lux the slow is wasted and to be honest it's the main attraction here.

- We don't have low cooldown spam skills that we can use to regen the health to make this viable. (If you have a Rumble top you could consider stacking one to go with his, maybe.)

- No, just no, please don't be that guy. All you will accomplish is getting yourself focused down so hard you lose any stacks you may have gained and will become useless to your team.

As Lux you are your teams magic damage nuke, however you do not fit this standard role in the way that others might. Other mages may sit just out of range of the enemy team and wait for the engage to jump into the mix. As Lux you too will sit and wait for the teams tanks to initiate however you will never "jump in" like a traditional mage. Your range will allow you the freedom to in a sense snipe your targets. You can sit safely behind your team and send in Lucent Singularity to damage the bunch. Put your Light Binding on the closest carry and allow your team to destroy the target. All the while casting your Prismatic Barrier in front of you to shield both yourself and your mates. But where you really shine is finales funkeln. While your positioning in general is important and you must keep your role in mind at all times it is your signature move, the epic laser, that will define you.

I have found that most Lux players understand how to use all of their standard abilities in a team fight and know how to position themselves to deal damage while taking minimal damage in return. The most common mistake I see any given Lux make is with the use of her ultimate. finales funkeln is an excellent killing machine, there's no doubt about it but saving your ultimate to pick up the kills isn't always the best choice. When your two teams initiate, if you feel like your team is losing the fight, it is your job to realize this and send your finales funkeln straight through the heart of the enemy team. By doing this you will get the maximum amount of possible damage out of it, you can and will change the tides of the fight by delivering a massive 500+ nuke to the entire enemy team. That you can technically generate 2000-2500+ damage with relative ease onto the enemy team in 1 second is no small feat.

finales funkeln is also an excellent execution move, as long as you know how to use it. Try to think about the map when you fire it, what is the most likely path someone is going to take to run from the fight. Is there anything you can do to influence them in such a way that your finales funkeln is a sure thing? Yes, yes you can. One trick to employ would be to lead them with Lucent Singularity and attempt to force them into taking a certain route. Your team mates can also channel opponents into a certain path with or without such intentions. Watch the fight closely and look for ways to trap your opponents into taking the hit.

You don't pick Lux because she's the best AP carry there is, because she isn't, not by a long shot, we pick Lux because her set of skills allows her to be an excellent counter to certain champions. Here's a list and why she counters each.

Super Counters-
- Her moves are all close range, against a Lux she'l never even set foot close enough to you to hit you.

- Long range in a way himself too. However Lux can deal her damage and never get in range of those damned turrets of his.

- Slow, squishy, and has less range than you do. Talk about easy pickings.

- For him to hurt you he has to get close to you and if he tries to get close he is punished and if you can push the wave to under his turret he can't farm effectively without using all of his mana.

- When you're out of his range but he's in yours this little ball of squish is definitely going to get zoned.

Counters-
- A melee AP will always have trouble with ranged, does however have a decent gap closer so it isn't just a slaughter.

- He requires you to come out from behind the creeps every now and again to really get nice harass onto you, but as Lux you can sit back and farm away. Has good speed though and if he gets on top of you its over.

- The epic ranged battle, the upside here is that his Arcanopulse is a channel which means you can dodge it and send a Lucent Singularity his way that he won't be able to side step as easily. Truly epic range in locus of power though.

One of the reasons why I decided to pick Lux back up again right here. Legend.
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So Lux is an AP nuke that can counter other traditionally AP mid champions, hard, and put in the right hands she can carry games like the best of them. Goodluck and I hope you enjoyed my guide on how to play AP Lux =]