Lux Build Guide by Gott der 7 Meere

Introduction

With an amazing shield, two excellent scouting abilities and a long, two-target snare, Lux has everything that a support desperately needs to protect his team. Even with a low-cost build, she can do miracles on the battlefield. Lux is purely skillshot based and not an easy support to play! She has quite long cooldowns and some Mana issues that need to be adressed - and her positioning has to be flawless.

This is a remake of my old Lux guide from S2. Rather than explaining all the general things about Supporting and Lux again, I suggest you read these guides first:

Pre-Game Settings

The usefullness of Flash is essential for escapes, positioning and finishing enemies. This spell compensates many of Lux inherent weaknesses and is therefore your frist priority - this is for your survival. Your other options are plenty - in theory. But in the arms race on bot lane and with gap-closing bruisers dominating the jungle and later teamfights, Exhaust should be your second choice - give your AD carry those extra seconds.

Other choices for support spells are Heal and Clairvoyance. I would not take CV on Lux, as I think it only works on mobile supports that can forgo Flash for some reason, it is no replacement for a allied support spell like Heal or Exhaust - also Lux does possess more than enough scouting tools already. However, I see Heal as a viable alternative to Exhaust that works best with a 0/9/21 setup and makes you a bit more beefy against the likes of Leona.



The main issue you want to adress with runes is Armor. Lux's base Armor of 8 isn't enough. I also try to get an even 15% CDR - cooldown reduction - from runes and masteries and depending on my mastery choice, I use and to compensate. With all her magic damage - especially from her passive, I also fancy magic penetration marks, they yield more damage than AP and there are not many competing marks anyway. My Quints vary between gold and movement, depending on my matchups and playstyle. Below are the two pages I use most:

MPen Armor CDR MS These provide you with Mobility and Magic Penetration and make an easy early game.

SPACE

Armor Gold CDR Gold This will make your lane hard, but reward you with a massive income boost.

You aim for gold ( , ), MReg ( , ), CDR ( , ) and MS ( ). Don't skip utilty masteries like:

• and - Lowered CD: 300 -> 255 sec and CD: 210 -> 189 sec.
• - -10 Armor and MR increase burst damage by ~10%.
• - Especially helps your . They have smaller range than Sight Ward.

Sometimes you want something of the defense mastery to increase your early game durability with Armor ( ) and Health ( , ) - or you go for more offense with AP ( ) and Defense Penetration ( ).

Abilities

HH Illumination (Passive) - Damage (MPen): This is your primary source of damage. Throw a Shield and get in range to attack after you hit something. You can take your time, as it lasts quite long. Whenever you use your ultimate, make sure that you apply this in advance. However, never trigger it at the cost of your live.

HH Light Binding (Q) - Initiator, Escape (CDR, AP, MPen): This double stun pretty much guarantees a kill if you catch someone. The CD decreases a lot with each rank. This also makes your very hard to chase. Like all of Lux's abilities, your Q range is huge. Its a perfect ganking, escaping and chasing tool. Remember to save your precious CC for the right targets.

HH Prismatic Barrier (W) - Shield (CDR, AP): This is your best support skill. It may not look high in numbers, but it is nevertheless one of the best shields in game - it shields twice, it shields your entire team and it lasts 3 sec two times with a 6 sec CD. If you can aim and time it, your team will be untouchable.

HH Lucent Singularity (E) - (Zone, Scout, CC) (CDR, AP, MPen): Even with only one level, this is a really great tool for scouting, slowing and zoneing. It's incredibly useful for a support as it allows for bush control vs. enemies like Blitzcrank or can even disrupt the CS of long ranged ADC's like Caitlyn. This skill - on only one rank - can win your lane. In late game fights, it will destroy enemy ambushes and initiations. The active slow and reveal are even more valuable than the damage in these clashes, so don't detonate it unless you need the -tag for your ultimate.

HH Final Spark (R) - Damage, Scout, Finisher (CDR, AP, MPen): This allows you to controll half the map and show an incredible presence. A high base damage - since it procs and has a nice scaling - long range AOE snipe that is always up (30 sec CD). You use it to scout over long distances (2 times shorter than ), to finishing someone with low HP after he escaped, to steal enemy jungle creeps, buffs, dragon and baron and finally to farm or push lanes.


After many games starting Q, I decided to revert to my old skilling order and take E first - unless faced with a jungle invasion or lvl 1 gank, the zoning power it provides in lane incredibly helps with getting through the early levels savely. Bush control, movement disruption, and quite some damage are your best bet to keep strong melee champions at distance, as well as trade with kiting and poking ranged annoyances. Take Lucent Singularity at level 1 !

When you decide on leveling Q or E after your shield, the lowered CD on your snare is much more valuable than a damage, slow and mana cost increase on AOE damage. Light Binding is such a phantastic skill, with the potential to save everyone from everything and get those easy kills on imprudent enemies. I still agree that Lucent Singularity is a great skill overall, but taking it first or second is just not my way of playing her.

With Light Binding snares every 6 seconds, Prismatic Barrier shields always on your team, Lucent Singularity slows and reveals all around you, and your ultimate to trigger Illumination, damage and reveal again... No one should be able to close the gap and kill you, while your remain a huge asset to your team; the longer fights last, the more your team will capitalize.

How to Build Her ?

While lux has strong abilities, she is far to squishy for a support. You will therefore abuse the cheap defensive support items until you survive long enough to make buying AP worth it. Your early game priorities are mana and wards:

Your first priority will always be a and boots. Should you plan on getting items that build from gold/10 items, you can also get them, allthough I advise against buying Kage's Lucky Pick - it is not worth it. A Philosopher's Stone is the standard way to handle sustain in lane. From your first back on, you will also try to always have a in your inventory.


You proceed with your two core items: and - They will put an end to your mana issues and will make you feel less useless after you throw your skills, as you know they will be back up quite soon. Increased survivability is provided with and , they are cheap, provide quite some health and core to a support build.


This will be your core, only rarely deviating when you get a Kage's Lucky Pick early. Your first big purchase will be either Shurelya's Reverie or ; with the changes in the build path of its not an item you will want to build on support Lux any more. Make sure your jungler gets an though.


Now that you are loaded with defense and protection, and all your kit is ready to use - you have enough mana regeneration and CDR - it is time for your final items. Sometimes I go for cheap AP support items now, that add to CC - Shard of true Ice or - but mostly I like to get Will of the Ancients in my last item slot. Allthough less cost-efficient than it used to be, spellvamp is a phantastic late game stat, it allows for incredible regeneration under your shields and especially synergizes with the kind of fighters teams where I pick lux - for exactly that reason: Ryze, Vladimir, Swain. But it does more than just benefit AP DPS champs. Any champ can profit from spellvamp - but mostly cant afford the item slot or AP - every AD carry that uses his (mostly AD scaling and quite strong) abilities, every farmed solo-laner and even you. Wota really fits my personal playstyle of drawing out engages and outsustaining your enemies. However, going for an and more wards is another good option. Your final build could look like this:



Why no 6th item you may ask ? Well you are a support, you need to provide vision! Believe me when I say that Ruby Sightstone is not enough. Late game you should always have another 5x Sight Ward or 5x Vision Ward stack on top of your Sightstone just to throw wards everywhere you go. Don't think your team will be better off with a Rabadon's Deathcap instead of wards on the support.

Tips & Tricks

• When to take Lux ? - She works best with fighter teams as she is best at using her skills in repeated cycles. If you want burst or AOE damage, you better play her mid.
• When to avoid Lux ? - Some support items like Aegis of the Legion or Zeke's Herald are terrible on her, and you better pick a different support if your jungler cant get them.

Conclusion

I hope you learnt something from this guide, I wrote it to clear my thoughst on Lux and to let others look at my conclusions. Credits go to jhoijhoi for learning about BBCode and to anyone who gave me feedback, thank you very much for your help.

Before you post, think about this: Its a miniguide, so takes those 60 seconds to completely read it and your confusions might be gone.

Thank you for reading!