To start off, a brief summary of me and this guide. This is my first guide for the first champ I chose to main. I play Lux roughly 1/3 of the time, but I also play many other mid champs like Azir, Yasuo, Malzahar, Twisted Fate, Kassadin, and even AP Lucian. I have had experience with many mids but I am yet to find any other champ I love like Lux. Now without further adieus, the rest of this guide.

The core items are called core for a reason. I would not suggest you swap any out unless you do see a big need for another more-situational item. That said, I will explain the core items' purposes first.

Morellonomicon should be rushed asap because it gives you the perfect amount of sustain to stay in lane for excessive amounts of time, enough CDR to use your Q more often without being afraid of losing your escape, it gives you a good amount of ability power, and the Grievous Wounds will really ruin your opponents' day when they try to heal.

Sorcerer's Shoes are essential about 4/5 of the time. Even if your enemies don't build MR, they will help you dish out some good damage and keep you on the move. The Distortion enchantment is easily the best option for Lux because is helps tremendously in keeping her Flash up as her only other true escape option, plus it makes Flash even better.

Rabadon's Deathcap is self-explanatory. As Lux you need to dish out more damage, and gaining a ton of ability power is going to help you do just that. Not much else to say.

Luden's Tempest is very important for wave-clearing in the late game, but it also gives you a healthy burst of damage in the mid-game, and the movement speed is extremely useful in helping your team by roaming as well as dodging skillshots. You can take it before the Deathcap if you would like. This part is up to you.

Void Staff is the same on Lux as any other mage. It will give you a bit more AP and help you dish out even more damage. Becomes more essential the more MR the enemy builds. Only take it before Deathcap if you don't get a ton of gold early on and/or if your lane opponent builds MR themselves.

Farsight Alteration, or just the Blue Ward or blue trinket, is hands down the best trinket in the game currently. You can keep everything you need warded around you to prevent the omnipresent jungle ganks, and if you have your bushes warded enough, even keep dragon, baron, the buffs, and other jungle points warded for your team. There is no reason not to upgrade to the blue wards as soon as you get to level 9.

Liandry's Torment and Lich Bane probably aren't the first items you would pick for a champion like Lux, and that is why they are not listed under the core items. Despite not being essential, they CAN be incredibly useful items in the later game.

Liandry's Torment gives you just a bit more HP to work with, and helps you do some viable damage to tanks, as well as help chip damage in general.

Lich Bane is very powerful for pushing objectives. It turns your W into an option for turret damage.

Zhonya's Hourglass is actually something you might see on a Lux. It's not really necessary all the time, though. Take it when against somebody with an easily predictable but high-damage output ult, or against a heavy AD team.

Mejai's Soulstealer is just in case you are super confident you will get fed.

Ionian Boots of Lucidity are great if you find yourself getting ganked a lot and need more CC, and/or if you find yourself supporting another champion on your team with your abilities.

Zz'Rot Portal is not an item to be trifled with. It offers good defensive stats and what is potentially the most powerful active in the game IF you can convince 3 or more of your team to get this item and place them all in one spot together. You can plow the turrets vehemently until you secure victory. Hail Zz'Rot.

Athene's Unholy Grail is just if you are a weenie and need the Magic Resist and mana sustain. Actually it is really smart if you find yourself behind in lane and/or taking more of a supportative role towards another champion on your team.

Rylai's Crystal Scepter is a decent item on any champ who runs AP, and it is not as bad as you might think on Lux.

Mercury's Treads are also like Athene's; only take them if you are a weenie (or very seriously need the MR and slow resistance).

Vision Ward is especially important early game if you want to be extra safe from ganks. Buy one and place it in the bush you don't expect to be ganked from because there is less a chance of that bush having its ward destroyed. Be sure to ward the other bush as often as you can with your normal wards until you get your blue wards.

Elixir of Sorcery is fantastic at keeping your mana full, and it helps you dish out even more damage. Because it is temporary, I would only recommend it for late game after you have a full build, or very occasionally, if you know you are about to push hard as a team for the win.

Lux's only escape is flash and her Q, but Q is also essential to guarantee your ult or a combo, so use it wiseley.

Lux's W is very nice just to mitigate damage in general, but can also help keep your team alive rather well in team-fights or if you are fighting dragon/baron.

Lux's E is a fantastic move for zoning, general damage, minion-wave pushing, team-fights, and in a pinch even escaping. A lot of the time people seem to forget that it does slow, and you don't have to close it immediately after you throw it out. Use it generously as a poke and attempt to land it directly on top of enemies because that will make it harder to dodge. It is also nice if you can hit some minions along with an enemy champion.

Lux's ult is just a big kamehameha. It is great for damage, and it's cooldown and mana cost are actually pretty forgiving, so do not be afraid to throw it out there, especially if you landed your Q first.

Your prime comboing move as Lux is your Q. The stun leads up into just about anything.

A staple combo for Lux is her Q-AA-E-AA, so you get a lot of damage off as well as proc your passive twice. It is really nice when you land this combo early because it often does about half of your opponent's HP, forcing potions and denying them farm as they retreat momentarily.

Lux's next combo is your ace in the hole to get you a kill. It goes as such: Q-Ignite-Open E-Ult-Close E.

This combo is very flexible, so here are some ways you can adjust it:
-If you don't have ignite, this can still easily do about a third of their HP at least through the entire game. Early on, though, with ignite, this can kill from just above half-HP.
-Land auto attacks (AA). You can mix an AA as soon as you land your Q but only if you are close to them already. Otherwise just follow through with the combo or else your stun will run out before you can walk to them and get your AA. The only time it is acceptable to walk to your opponent after landing your Q and trying to land this combo is if you have to ignite. Typically it is worth your while to go ahead and move in for the ignite before you E-Ult-E them.
-The only other way this is flexible is by not ulting, which sounds stupid at first but here is a reason. If your opponent has been overextending or is staying in lane with 1/3 or less HP and it is still early on in the game, you can often get the kill just by igniting and landing some autos in your combo. Basically this is the same thing as the first combo only you are igniting too. I don't typically recommend this, though, because it can be hard to tell if you will get the kill this way.

Lux can be considered a sweeper, initiator, and supporter for team fighting. She can initiate very reliably with her Q, keep everybody alive longer with her W, poke, zone, and cause general havoc with her E, and sweep up any who might escape by using her ult. Honestly, team fighting with Lux is the easiest thing you can do with her. Just start the fight then sit back and assist your team. She is also great at disengaging team fights but using her Q while everybody is running away and slowing with her E as well. You should not have too much trouble team fighting with Lux.

As easy as it would be for me to just say to take Flash and Ignite every single time, there is some merit to taking other spells every now and then, so I will cover the differences here.

Flash is a staple. If you are going to be playing ranked, I would very seriously suggest you take flash.

Ignite is perfect for getting early game kills, and helps keep you viable against tanks in the later game, as well as getting some cheeky kills during team fights if an opponent thinks they can run away.

Exhaust is a bit more of a support spell, I know, but you can think of it as a more flexible ignite for mid. It can allow you to dive them harder because they will not damage you as heavily, and it will help you land your skills, as well as get much more damage in. It is super good if you want to land your Q-E-R combo but don't have faith in landing your Q. It is also helpful late game for saving your team mates.

Barrier is not a bad option if you think you will have to play passively in lane a lot. It also allows you to dive their turret a bit further for a kill if you need to, and it will project you from those annoying junglers who like to camp mid. Personally I don't run this often, but I do like it from time to time when I know they have a powerful mid and jungle synergy.

Heal is okay as a midlaner, but with nearly every player mid running ignite, heal becomes far less viable (because ignite will half the heal). It is best as an escape if you get ganked or if you just want to stand and trade openly with your opponent, which you should really never do.

Teleport is actually an underrated mid spell option. You can get ahead on XP early on if you need to, or better yet you can roam and gank other lanes. It makes it harder for you to get fed on your own. but overall is not a bad option, especially if you run it with flash and get Distortion boots.

Smite is just not something you should take. Surprisingly, some people (more people than there should be) take it for midlaners to help them snag blue, and so they can buy the Runeglaive jungle enchantment, but most of the time Lux doesn't need the spellblade, and the loss of another summoner spell is going to hurt her quite a bit. In fact there is always a better option for midlaners. If you take smite and actually plan to jungle with Lux, well, good luck. This guide is only for mid Lux.

Any other summoner spell I would highly suggest you don't touch. Lux functions best with these summoner spells.