Lux Build Guide by Awyzuu

Introduction

[WIP - News]

Have you ever experienced a premade team raging that you need to go support because all else is taken? Yeah, I'm sure you have. But, lucky you, here is a solution.

This guide focusses on playing a champion as a support early and/or mid game, and then transitioning to a more aggressive build. You will be supporting your AD-Carry at the early stages and then going a more AP-Carry build later on.

There are definitely other ways to play Lux in the same lane, of which most of them are more support oriented and will build as such. If you're looking for a guide like that, I personally recommend <insert guide>.

Pros / Cons

Pros
+ More team damage.
+ Alternative to playing pure support while still playing bot.
+ Decent harassment early game.

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Cons
- Not always what the team needs. {1}
- Team might oppose you taking kills because you (start as) support.
- Your damage will come in the later stages of the game.

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{1} Thanks to Gott der 7 Meere.

Summoner Spells

Let's get the simplest things out of the way first, the Summoner Spells.

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Recommended

Vision is information, which is power!
Really useful escape spell!

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Decent

Lux can't heal, but usually the AD-Carry takes this. (Replace Clairvoyance)
Good escape spell, I prefer Flash though. (Replace Flash)
Could grant some kills, but no Clairvoyance if you pick this :( (Replace Clairvoyance)
Good for chasing and lowering incoming damage (Replace. Clairvoyance)
Could give you some roaming potential and cuts downtime after recall. (Replace Clairvoyance)
Removes CC, but seems only an option if countering a build. (Replace Clairvoyance)
Some mana back is OK, but we have other means to do so. (Replace Clairvoyance)

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Bad

Your jungler usually has this and it has no (direct) value to you!
Long cooldown and you're probably not gonna save the game using it anyway!
Simply put, other spells just suit you more!
Unless you could promote Cho'Gath I see no reason to take this.
This guide is not tailored for game modes using Barrier.
This guide is not tailored for game modes using Garrison.

Masteries

Our masteries will enhance our role as support and (semi) AP-Carry.

We will start with the Utility Tree, focussing on Mana Regeneration, Gold Generation, Improving our Summoner Spells, Cooldown Reduction, Movement Speed and some general utility.

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We take:
- Summoner's Insight : Enhances our two Summoner Spells!
- Expanded Mind : Mana, so we don't go OOM!
- Swiftness : Movement Speed wins you the game, this will help you keep up with your team, chase enemies or escape from them.
- Meditation : Mana Regeneration, so we don't go OOM!
- Greed : We will need the gold because we will not farm.
- Awareness : We'll get some more experience so we have our spells faster.
- Intelligence : We want our Cooldown Reduction, 24 second Funkles Finales is our goal!
- Mastermind : More enhancement for our Summoner Spell!

We don't take:
- Good Hands : This 10% is not really gonna help your team too much.
- Improved Recall : Can help out a bit, but there are more usefull masteries.
- Scout : If properly placed, wards give you good vision already.
- Transmutation : Spell Vamp might help us a bit, but, not too much.
- Wealth : We have the gold to make our first purchases, we don't need more.
- Sage : Unreliable, what if you don't get assists or kills.
- Strength of Spirit : we'll get regen from another source.

Well then, now we have spent our 21 mastery points, let's advance to Offense.
Why offense you ask? Well, don't forget we'll be building into a semi Carry later, for that we want damage.

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We take:
- Mental Force : Ability Power is our way.
- Sorcery : 6% from Intelligence + 4% here makes 10%, + 30% from items (which will be explained later) makes our magic 40% Cooldown Reduction, also known as 24 second Ulti.
- Arcane Knowledge : Magic Penetration enhances our damage.

We don't take:
- Summoner's Wrath : if using Exhaust or Ghost, this might be usefull.
- Brute Force , Butcher : we don't farm until our spells one shot minions (or 2 shot due to our passive).
- Alacrity : we rely on Abilities, not on auto attacks.

This makes our masteries, focussing on enabling us to reach Semi Carry while not farming.

Runes

Our runes will reflect our "Transitioning into AP" philosophy, therefore we will be building on Abilities and Gold Generation.

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Main build:
- Greater Mark of Magic Penetration: Magic Penetration is our best option as AP builder.
- Greater Seal of Replenishment: Mana Regenertation will help us not to go OOM.
- Greater Glyph of Scaling Ability Power: Ability power is what we build.
- Greater Quintessence of Gold: Gives us the gold to replace our farming in the early game.

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Alternatives:
- Greater Seal of Scaling Mana Regeneration: Provides us more Mana Regeneration late game, but we already have Chalice of Harmony or Athene's Unholy Grail by then.

Items

Our items will reflect our philosophy, starting as a support while building into a Semi AP Carry.

We will reach our goal by purchasing gold per 5 items and wards, and using that gold to build our Ability Power items and reach our precious 24 second Ulti.

Note: even though you will eventually become a Semi Carry, you are the one who's responsibility it is to ward!

Well then, now that "confusion" has been lifted, let's move on to our possible openings.

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Opening list:

Basic

Sight Ward

Sight Ward

OR

Counter Ward

Sight Ward

OR

Decent
OR

Possible
Goals:
- Get starting items that provide a good setup for the later stages ( Faerie Charm, Amplifying Tome, Boots of Speed).
- Survive the first few minutes ( Health Potion, Mana Potion, Sight Ward, Vision Ward).

Notes:
- If you harass alot (which I personally prefer, trying to scare away the opponents denying them farm), I recommend the "Basic" or "Counter Ward" opening.

Well then, let's get the game started now we have chosen an opening.

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Early game list:(Support)

Philosopher's Stone

Kage's Lucky Pick

Goals:
- Get the income to be able to afford our expensive AP items ( Philosopher's Stone. Kage's Lucky Pick)
- Prevent going OOM ( Chalice of Harmony).

Notes:
- Buy Sight Ward or Vision Ward when needed.
- Make sure the River Bush is always warded.

We have our income now, time to build into a Semi AP Carry.

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Mid game list:(Semi Carry)

- Ionian Boots of Lucidity
- Athene's Unholy Grail
- Rabadon's Deathcap

Goals:
- Reach our CDR cap of 40%.
- Get our main AP items.

Notes:
- Still ward if necessary.
- If you want you can skip Ionian Boots of Lucidity and go straight to Sorcerer's Shoes. It'll be cheaper, but I prefer to have my CDR cap as soon as possible.

We reached our goal of transitioning to AP, let's see where to go from now.

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End game list:


- Deathfire Grasp
- Sorcerer's Shoes (Sell Ionian Boots of Lucidity)
- Zhonya's Hourglass

Goals:
- Continue the stacking of AP and general damage.

Notes:
- Still ward if necessary.

Yay! We have completed the build, now sell the Philosopher's Stone to get us the following itemset.

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Final list:

Well then, I'm sure that you have noticed something is wrong in our final list...
Yes, indeed, we only use 5 slots where we should use 6!
The 6th slot will depend on the situation.
If you are not crushing your opponents inside their base (or being crushed inside your base) I recommend going wards.
Otherwise, either go Void Staff, Abyssal Mask, Lich Bane or Will of the Ancients.

Skill Sequence

We have 4 abilities to level.

We will start off with Lucent Singularity, follow up with Prismatic Barrier and end with Light Binding.

Of course, every time Finales Funkeln can be upgraded, we do so.

• We use Lucent Singularity as our primary skill because it provides us with some neat harassment, it is pretty easy to push your opponents away from the minions. Launch it and fire it as soon as possible if an opponent is inside it if used for harassment.
  You can also use this skill to escape easier (or line up your other skills) because it slows the opponents inside it. If this is your goal, launch it and leave it there a bit longer.
• We use Prismatic Barrier second to help our laner survive better, we don't need Light Binding this early.
• We take Light Binding last because we will only need the binding effect early game. Maximizing damage on it will suit us more in the later stages of the game where we are "speccing" into damage.

Farming

If you reached this chapter after reading the previous and are not confused by this title, something is wrong!

We took the gold items so we didn't have to farm (as much).

But, there is some farming in the early game though.
If your laner is recalled and you're not, farm all you want.

Summary

Starting in Bot lane with Lux as a support and then building into a Semi AP-Carry seems pretty ok to do, there are some situations not to do it, but it is your job as a support to find out when that actually is.

One of the cool things about it is, we can go AP without taking the farm of the AD-Carry so he/she can get all the farm he/she wants.

Well then, thank you kindly for exploring this alternative way of playing Lux, I hope you have fun playing it!

Please feel free to leave a comment if you have a opinion about this guide or play-style (constructive criticism preferred obviously).

Before you stop reading, I want to thank jhoijhoi her amazing guide on the coding, which you can find here.

This has been Awyzuu, thank you for reading!


[WIP - News]

[TODO List]

Discussion

In this chapter I'll discuss major topic that arise in the comments.

Q: Why is Lich Bane not in your build?
Lich Bane is a good item to have, but I think our other items are more important.

• Sorcerer's Shoes will not be replaced by it for the simple reason that they are boots, we don't want to lose our movement speed.
• Rabadon's Deathcap provides us with most of our AP.
• Athene's Unholy Grail provides us Mana Regeneration and part of our 40% CDR.
• Deathfire Grasp completes our 40% CDR.
• Zhonya's Hourglass provides us with some more survivability.

This makes Lich Bane the best item for the 6th slot, but we should only buy it when warding is no longer needed.

Q: Why is Morello's Evil Tome not in our build?
Morello's Evil Tome is actually a pretty cool item to have which suits our support/carry role. It does put us a bit over the CDR cap though, but has a cool active, and also uses one of the items we buy anyway ( Kage's Lucky Pick) If you want to use this item, replace Deathfire Grasp by it.

Q: Why do we take 30% CDR from items when we could get Blue buff?
Blue buff is most likely reserved for the mid AP carry, which we don't play. We play bot.

Updates

14-7-2012: Added coding/formatting, fixed some typos.
3-8-2012: Fixed some typos, moved Greater Seal of Scaling Mana Regeneration to alternative glyphs. Added Greater Seal of Replenishment to recommended glyphs.
4-8-2012: Added Lich Bane as an option for the 6th item slot. Added discussions about when to buy Lich Bane and about Blue buff.