I am an ADC and Jungle main. Lucian has been one of my most consistent picks since his release back in 2013. I love his fast paced playstyle between a fighter, marksman assassin and a bit of a spell master. I really enjoy his theme - Lucian is like a DPS Paladin but with guns which makes him even more fun to play.
Lucian is a great pick for solo queue - he can be played in a few ways depending on the enemies composition and in the same time stay relevant through most of the game. He has great burst potential and can duel most champions in the game. His high DPS is great for securing and taking objectives quick and easy.
Strengths
Has great burst damage | Especially with
Press the Attack
He is a Strong Lane Bully with his
Piercing Light
( Q ) and
Relentless Pursuit
( E ) | even more than before after Patch 12.4 with the reduced mana cost
Very mobile with
Relentless Pursuit
( E ) and
Ardent Blaze
( W ) and has great outplay potential even when the odds are against him | This gives him great 1 VS 1 and even 1 VS 3 potential.
Pretty good wave clear | especially because of Q and his passive.
Can be played in various roles and playstyles such as ADC, MID and Top.
Can help secure objectives because of his Burst Damage
Weaknesses
Has a bit of a mana problem, especially in the early to mid game | Hopefully with Patch 12.4 this is a bit less of an issue.
Short Range | Around 500 Range which makes him one of the lowest ranged ADC's in the game. Still in some situations you can neglect his short range with
Rapid Firecannon
.
His Ultimate
The Culling
can be a bit hard to aim at times | Especially if the enemies are mobile or have ways to block it
Samira
,
Yasuo
etc. Lucians ultimate can be also blocked from opposing minions and champions.
Lucian relies on aggressive playstyle in the early game to get ahead and snowball.
If you fall behind its hard to come backespecially in the late game.
Runes (Loadout)
Runes may differ from playstyle to playstyle but here I will be listing the once that I think best fit him as a champion ( The once that I use :D )
PTA 1
PTA 2
PTA 3
Keystone
Precision Runes
Inspiration Secondary
Domination Secondary
Sorcery Second
Works great with
Lucian
first because of his passive
Lightslinger
and secondly because it helps him burst the enemies as quick as possible.
You will need it so you have enough mana to poke enemies in the Lane Phase. Lucian suffers from lack of mana especially in the early to mid game so extra mana regeneration is great for him.
I personally prefer taking Alacrity because the extra attack speed will help a lot when going against multiple enemies and will make you even more of a quick killer.
This is the common rune people take for Lucian. Its best use is when you will be building your Life Steal item later in the game. Taking
Legend: Bloodline
gives you a nice bit of sustain till you take your Life Steal item.
This is especially helpful in early to mid game so you can secure easy kills and snowball as much as possible. It is also pretty good with your Ultimate
The Culling
to secure kills.
This runes is best used when going for Life Steal as first or second item. (
Immortal Shieldbow
,
Blade of The Ruined King
)
I tend to focus on early kills so getting free boots as soon as possible is pretty nice.
Versus Poke champions (
Ezreal
,
Caitlyn
,
Draven
etc. )
Having a way to heal in lane before you buy your Life Steal is pretty good especially when going versus a heavy poke lane. The extra mana is a nice added bonus, so you don't have any problems with lack of mana for poke. A biscuit a day keeps the doctor away. ( and lets you get one more cheeky Q
Piercing Light
in. )
This is a situational rune used only if the opposing lane composition has high poke and CC potential. This gives you a bit more survivability and has some synergy with
Biscuit Delivery
.
A way to heal before you get your lifesteal and keep you in lane for a longer time.
Combined with your E
Relentless Pursuit
is a nice added Lethality and Magic Penetration versus squishy targets.
Again for the heal but this time with your Q or even Ultimate. Good against poke lanes to give you a bit of sustain combined with
Taste of Blood
.
You can even go
Eyeball Collection
for the extra Attack Damage if you want to focus on early kills instead of farming. This rune will be also useful if you intend to roam a lot to mid or/and fight in the jungle and around objectives.
The Extra mana will allow you to poke very often with Q
Piercing Light
and minimize Lucians mana problem.
Again give you great poke potential with the Ability Haste and allows you to execute your combos more often. Has good synergy with
Manaflow Band
.
This Rune makes Lucian a bit more relevant Late game with the extra AD.
If you outpoke the enemy bot lane and support and have the dodge skills of a pro you can even take
Absolute Focus
- Especially when you have lots of lifesteal and can stay above 70% health. Whit this rune you can jump in, destroy the enemy ADC and jump back out.
Other Rare ( Situational ) Options
If you want to make
Lucian
into an absolute mobile ganking, flanking and roaming carry you can even go as Secondary
Waterwalking
. I realy don't recommend this, because it doesnt help you at all when your at lane. If you still chose this option combine
Waterwalking
with
Celerity
for even more movement speed. The best use for this rune is if you are premade with the jungler and support and you want to dominate the enemy bot side of the river as well as Dragon pit. Ganking and roaming will be key when using this type of playstyle.
You can even try going Assassin Lucian. For Primary Runes you will go
Domination
Domination
Domination and for Secondary Precision. Take
Dark Harvest
( allowing you to finish of your targets through out the hole game)
Sudden Impact
,
Eyeball Collection
and
Relentless Hunter
. From the Precision tree you want
Presence of Mind
combined with
Coup de Grace
. This Rune set-up will make you a Relentless Assassin but you will have a bit of a harder time in your early to mid game. You will be very dependent on lots of kills and roaming to stack your
Dark Harvest
.
Now after patch 12.4 Lucian can kind of go for a bit more versatile Secondary Rune choice. Still the changes are minimal and I believe he still suffers from mana deficiency in the early to mid game, so I do recommend still going for Inspiration or even Sorcery as secondary.
Summoner Spells
I usually go
Flash
and
Ignite
but this is dependable on the situation.
Breakdown
I would say that this is mandatory in most situations. Allows you to escape ganks, reposition in team fights and dodge key abilities. Flash is as well a great offensive tool.
For me this is the ideal spell for
Lucian
combined with Flash. Great for securing kills and making you into a bigger threat in the early game. Ignite can be very useful as an anti heal option especially in this meta where lots of people build Life Steal.
This is a much more secure option and is usually the standard pick for most ADCs. Going Heal will give you more survivability and can save you in lots of situations. Its very good to take against enemies with more poke than you.
Can be used as a defensive and offensive tool. Allows you to secure kills and in some 1vs1 or 2vs2 situations it gives you the upper hand.
Skill Path
Lucian is heavily dependent on his skills, so you will need to use them wisely and in synergy with one another. Following up each skill with auto attacks is another key thing for Lucian.
This will be your main skill order.
Piercing Light
( Q ) is your primary damage and poke spell and will act as your wave clear ability, this is why you will be maxing it first.
Relentless Pursuit
( E ) is your best defensive and offensive tool, allowing you to take chase after your victims and in the same time doge enemies and abilities.
Skill Path
Lucian
1
1
1
1
2
2
2
2
3
3
3
3
4
4
4
4
5
5
5
5
6
6
6
6
7
7
7
7
8
8
8
8
9
9
9
9
10
10
10
10
11
11
11
11
12
12
12
12
13
13
13
13
14
14
14
14
15
15
15
15
16
16
16
16
17
17
17
17
18
18
18
18
Ability Combos
Q Rotation
This Rotation is usually used in lane and is best if you can start with your autoattack (AA)
Quick and Short - AA + Q +AA
Short extended with a dash - AA + Q +AA + E + AA
Extended - AA + Q + AA + E + AA + W +AA
Full Rotation - AA + Q +AA + E +AA +W + AA + E + AA
W Rotation
This Rotation is a bit faster because your W doesnt have as long of a cast time as Q
Quick - W + AA / AA + W +AA
Extended - W + AA + E + AA + Q + AA
Full Rotation - W + AA + E +AA + Q + AA + E + AA
E Rotation
Typically used to follow an ally's CC or when chasing down targets.
Quick - E + AA + Q + AA
Extended - E + AA + Q +AA + W + AA
Full Rotation - E + AA + Q + AA + W + AA + E + AA
W + R Combo
Very simple - Start with W
Ardent Blaze
and than follow up directly with R
The Culling
. Each shot form your Ultimate will activate the bonus movement speed.
Item Builds
Lucian is a burst high mobility ADC so you will want to look for items which best help him push those traits even further.
Starting Items
Doran's Blade is a safe option against champions with good all-ins. The 80 Health can save you in many situations. And it is in general a classic starting item for most ADCs. Despite the low omnivamp it provides it can still help you heal up a bit after harsh trades.
Another classic starting item letting you stay healthy after trades.
Is great if your locking for a early all-in especially if you have a high CC support
Leona
,
Nautilus
,
Rell
etc. It is also best paired with
Refillable Potion
so you can save some money and go strait for your Core Items.
A very nice and cheap option against high poke lanes or lots of CC. I definitely recommend buying this in most cases because it gives you nice survivability for a pretty low cost.
Early Items
This is a great item to get as quick as possible it will provide you with a nice boost to your AD and a nice chunk of attack speed. It is also required for almost all Mythic items for Lucian. (
Kraken Slayer
,
Immortal Shieldbow
Galeforce
) Having Noonquiver early leaves you with plenty of choices into what you want to build it a bit later in the game.
Yet another great early item to help you stay alive and sustain in the early game. I tend to buy it along side
Noonquiver
to win most early game trades.
Core Items
Makes
Lucian
and extremely strong burst ADC ( close to and assassin combined with the right items)
Kraken Slayer
works great with Lucians passive
Lightslinger
, with the True Damage you can easily destroy Tanks and Bruisers.
Similar to
Kraken Slayer
,
Blade of The Ruined King
makes you an absolute Tank demolisher. Again BORK's Siphon works with Lucian's passive so it will gives you a nice speed boost and a bit of extra damage.
Yet another item that works with
Lightslinger
.Yes the Crit from your second shot is around 50% weaker but still activates Deft Strike lowering your ability cooldown. This combined with the 30 Ability Haste makes Lucian and extremely hard to catch target. His
Relentless Pursuit
( E ) dash will almost always be off of cooldown.
Navori Quickblades
lets you chain combos much more often and easily.
Situational Items
Breakdown
This item helps Lucian with his mana problems. Maybe that's just me but Lucian usually runs out of mana pretty fast especially in prolonged fights or versus multiple enemies. When going
Essence Reaver
you should aim to build
Sheen
first and than finish the item. The extra Ability Haste and the mana restoration makes you a lot more dangerous particularly combined with
Navori Quickblades
or another item with good Ability Haste.
This is a very nice Fourth Item option when going for a High Crit build,
Infinity Edge
will pretty much max out your Critical Chance and will greatly increase your Damage output.
In most cases Lucian is anyways a merciless killer but the Grievous Wounds from
Mortal Reminder
will be a great added bonus. Lucians passive as usual activates Sepsis a bit quicker reducing the targets healing even further ( 60% Grievous Wounds). This is a substantial Anti Heal item allowing you to burst down opponents like
Yasuo
,
Yone
,
Dr. Mundo
etc.
A great defensive option especially if you dont have another Life Steal Item.
Bloodthirster
in a way works with your passive as well. Despite the lifesteal being a lot less from your second shot you still manage to keep your shield up for quite some time. It is significantly better with
Overheal
resulting in doubled shielding.
Another defensive item for Lucian. It is a noteworthy item against Tanks (especially if you dont have
Kraken Slayer
) It is also very important to note that
Black Cleaver
gives you a nice kite potential against enemies like
Sett
,
Renekton
,
Nasus
,
Darius
and others. The HP + the movement speed and Ability Haste will give you more survivability agaist burst champions and assassins.
Serylda's Grudge
is similar to
Black Cleaver
but instead of gaining movement speed, you take a different approach and slow down the enemy so you can kite and poke. This also works well with your Ultimate
The Culling
. The 30% slow is applied from each shot from your Ultimate, so buying this item will make your R easier to land consistently. The armor Penetration is pretty nice against Tanks. The major difference between this and
Black Cleaver
is you lose on the extra HP. This is more of an offence option.
Maw of Malmortius
or
Mercurial Scimitar
are good options against heavy AP compositions. The Great thing about Maw of Malmortius is that since patch 12.3 the shield scales with AD and in addition the cooldown is low.
Again a good options vs Ability Power champions but the main thing about this item is the fact that it removes CC. Great for escaping and repositioning in tough situations. I usually buy it as a final item versus champions like
Malzahar
,
Braum
,
Morgana
and others.
Especially combined with
Death's Dance
is a great item against heavy AD teams or assassins.
Immortal Shieldbow
is useful against other Attack Damage Carries with lots of burst damage and the lifesteal will help you heal up and sustain in and out of fights so you can keep farming and/or pushing.
Despite me disliking this item ( especially on Lucian ) because of the high cooldown, it can still act as a gap closer in some situations or even as a means of escape. It's important to note that the item deals magic damage which will help from time to time. Still at least in my opinion
Lucian
is pretty mobile and doesn't need
Galeforce
because
Kraken Slayer
and
Immortal Shieldbow
work better with him ( and my playstyle )
Again a useful anti assassin item that will give you survivability and a nice bit of Ability Haste. The longer you survive the more damage you will be able to return to the opponents.
One of my favorite items against poke lanes. It will give you as well an extra bit of poke potential before engaging a team fight or enemies. Good against
Draven
,
Caitlyn
,
Ezreal
and many others.
Yet another viable anti heal option. Unlike
Mortal Reminder
this is more on the defensive side of things , giving you a nice bit of HP. Both items are good versus champions with lots of healing but for me
Mortal Reminder
fits
Lucian
a bit better.
This can be a nice defensive tool as a finishing item. Recommended against assassins and burst champions.
Build Types
Lucians Build and Play Style varies depending on the enemy team and of course what you feel most comfortable to play him as.
Anti Tank and Bruiser ( Fighter ) Build
You can swap
Serylda's Grudge
for
Lord Dominik's Regards
or if they don't have heavy healing go for
Black Cleaver
instead of
Mortal Reminder
. With this build you lose on some Ability Haste and mana regeneration but you will be an absolute Tank destroyer.
Versus Assassins and Burst Champions
In rare situations you can go
Mercury's Treads
.
Edge of Night
is a nice substitute item for
Black Cleaver
. If you want to go for a bit more damage instead of more life steal and shield, swap
Bloodthirster
for
The Collector
. ( I know both items have the same damage but the execute from
The Collector
is good against assassins ).
Guardian Angel
can be changed to
Maw of Malmortius
against AP champions. With this build you lose a lot on your outright damage but gain it all in survivability. You have pretty low attack speed as well.
Versus Champions with very high Poke potential
You can take
Plated Steelcaps
and interchange
Bloodthirster
for
Infinity Edge
or
Edge of Night
. The extra lifesteal will help you stay alive in lane longer so you can farm.
Rapid Firecannon
will allow you to make short trades and over all win them or come out even. The rest of the Items are focused on your damage.
Playstyle
Lucian
is a very strong and mobile champion throughout the entirety of most games. He has great snowball and carry potential and definitely earns all the points for style if you can play him well. Each fight ( especially against multiple enemies ) is like a dance, with lots of gun light and quick moves as well as blood all over the floor.
You will need to master his dash
Relentless Pursuit
( E ) and find perfect ways to use it in traversing the terrain and dodging enemies abilities while chasing them down and blasting the to bits.
Early Game
Lucian is one of the best if not the best early to mid game attack damage carries. Just after a few kills he can become and absolute monster and dominate Bot lane.
Look to snowball and capitalize on the early game as much as possible. You have great poke potential and can be a lane bully.
Playing pretty aggressive with Lucian ( especially with a strong CC Support ) is important. You have great duel potential with this champion so getting close and personal with the enemy is not a problem. Try and get on into their faces and punish every mistake they make.
You have a great all-in potential. When playing with a poke, all-in or CC support along side you is ideal. In many games you will be able to utilize your strong level 3 and take an early kill or two.
Be mindful of when and how you use your dash
Relentless Pursuit
since the cooldown is pretty high early game and you suffer from lack of mana. If you are sure you wont get punished for using your cooldown, go for a E + AA + Q + AA combo.
Poke enemies with your Q
Piercing Light
even trough minions and try and follow with your double auto attack.
Observing the opponents and looking for potential moments to poke and damage them is extremely important. Capitalize on every possible mistake they make and don't let them fell safe around you.
Mid Game
This is were every fight counts so you will need to win them all and end the game.
Having 2 or 3 key items will make you a very dangerous opponent.
Look to rotate mid and claim objectives.
Pick off squish targets and be present for teamfights . Poking enemies, picking them off and forcing them to recall will make a huge difference.
Use your dueling potential to its fullest.
As Lucian you have a few options on what you want to do in the mid game. One of the common scenarios is to swap with mid lane. You don't want to split gold and XP so your Mid laner will need to move to the side lane. Another thing you can do in mid and even late game is go for objectives. Try and be present for Dragons, Rift and Baron. You high damage output can be the difference between a won fight or/and conquered objective. Don't stay in one place too long, use your high mobility and help when and where you can. Secure a tower or two, take a dragon with your jungler, pick of a lonely enemy. Doing all of this will help you and your team tremendously.
Late Game
Lucian's late game isn't terrible but you still fall behind a bit.
Picking of squish champions is still important but it will be harder and you will have less opportunities to do so.
Poke before engagements and when teamfights start try and focus the back line ( squishy targets, ADC, APC etc. ).
Despite all of the above you should not forget that your a squishy ADC at the end of the day. Be mindful of enemy spells, especially once that can lock you in place or hard CC. Respect the adversaries range and damage. Use your high mobility and early/ mid game damage and dominate the game.
Matchups and Synergies
In my experience Lucian is a pretty well-rounded champion against most matchups. You will be able to win lane against commonly picked champions as
Jhin
,
Jinx
,
Kai'Sa
,
Ezreal
and many others. Most other opponents will be even with you but with a bit of practice and good decision making you will ultimately out play and bully them.
Big Threats
You basically can't trade versus him because of your low range. He out damages you and has better poke than you. Against him you have to play safe and wait for ganks or opportunities to deal damage. Deny him early kills as much as possible and play safe.
She has the a huge range advantage against you allowing her to poke you from safety. Still you have room to outplay. Doge her
Piltover Peacemaker
( Q ) as much as possible and when you can go close and personal. Most of the time you will be able to out DPS her. As long as you dont let her escape with
90 Caliber Net
and gain back her range you will be fine versus her. When Cait has no mana or E its your best time to strike.
His ability to block most of your damage combined with the stun from
Concussive Blows
makes Braum a big threat to
Lucian
. In addition he can completely block your Ultimate with
Unbreakable
. Try and force him to use it before you all in as it has a pretty long cooldown. You can also circumvent his Wall with your dash
Relentless Pursuit
. Repositioning and forcing Braum to waste his skills is extremely important when going against him.
She can be a bit hard to play against as well. Her
Piercing Darkness
can be a very annoying skill. It has a pretty low cooldown and can save her allies in key moments. The slow that was added to the ability makes it even more dangerous than before. Senna has good CC against you and can poke you with her long range from Q and late game with autos.
He has more damage and more range than you. You need to play safe against him and play around your supports strengths if you want to win lane versus him. Observe which weapons he has equipped and pick your moments to strike carefully. Aphelios is pretty immobile and is very squish so if you play attention to his rotation you will have no problems in out playing him.
Even match ups
Don't let her close to you. Keep your distance and stay behind minions. Poke with
Piercing Light
when you can. She has good all-in potential so try and read her movements and predict when she will jump you, than you can just dash away and keep poking.
Piercing Light
goes trough
Blade Whirl
, the rest of your skill will be stopped by it so use them wisely.
She has a similar range as you so if she wants to trade she will need to come close. When she does you have the upper hand. Your passive
Lightslinger
allows you to win the trade as long as you use your double shots. You can look for an all-in if she doesnt have
Icathian Rain
which is her primary damage spell. Her early game is week so ty and capitalize on that.
He relies mainly on the poke from
Mystic Shot
. As long as you stay behind minions and dodge most of his projectiles you will be fine. He can be a bit hard to kill early on because of
Arcane Shift
which makes him very slippery. Still the cooldown is very long so when you can be aggressive and force him to waste his E. Than you can go a few moments latter for the kill as long as
Arcane Shift
is still on cooldown.
Again another champion that has weak poke against you as long as you stay behind your minions. As long as you damage her often with
Piercing Light
you can go for an all-in. You need to be a bit mindful of her
Ranger's Focus
but other wise you can kill her pretty easy.
A very balanced and even match up. Avoid his
Avengerang
and pay attention when he has the shield from
Dirty Fighting
. Engage in all-ins when
Dirty Fighting
's shield is on cooldown or/ and
Heroic Swing
isn't available. Don't let him take the upper hand and pressure him when possible.
Support Synergies
In general champions with lots of stuns or/and movement speed disruptions/snares. Tanks go well with Lucian as well because they can block lots of damage while you burst down the enemy. In addition champions who can empower / proc Lucians passive
Lightslinger
will give him a nice boost to his early to mid game damage.
She can keep you alive and in the same time will help you with your early damage activating
Lightslinger
with her
Tidecaller's Blessing
. She provides a nice movement speed from
Surging Tides
.
He can provide protection for you to dish out as much damage as you can.
Nautilus
has lots of CC with
Staggering Blow
and
Dredge Line
so you have pretty good early all-in potential.
She is very similar to
Nautilus
and can provide great defence for Lucian. Punish enemies when you can as a combo and let Leona charge in and stun opponents with
Shield of Daybreak
.
Yet another champion acting as a guardian to Lucian.
Shattering Strike
will break enemy shields from abilities, Items and even
Morgana
's
Black Shield
, allowing Lucian to dash in and finish off the opponents. Her
Full Tilt
can act both as a defence and offence ( stun ) tool, providing Lucian a with a bit survivability and allowing him to pick off kills.
Great when facing enemies with lots of poke. He can block most of the incoming damage with
Unbreakable
. Braum's
Concussive Blows
can be easily applied from Lucians double auto to lock opponents in place to be picked off.
Champions like
Shen
,
Thresh
,
Sett
,
Pantheon
etc. provide similar benefits to the once listed above. They act as Defenders to
Lucian
letting him burst enemies in all-in situations. Champions like
Rakan
,
Soraka
,
Karma
and
Senna
can help proc the bonus damage from
Lightslinger
, making you more potent as damage in the early game. They will also provide you with survivability till you buy lifesteal. Over all lots of supports synergy with Lucian, helping him snowball and act as a lane bully. You need to mix and match to find your ideal combo for your playstyle.
Piercing Light( E ) | even more than before after Patch 12.4 with the reduced mana cost
Relentless Pursuit
Ardent Blaze
The Culling,
Samiraetc. Lucians ultimate can be also blocked from opposing minions and champions.
Yasuo
Lucian
Jhin
Jinx
Kai'Sa
Ezreal
Lightslinger
Shen
Thresh
Sett
Pantheon
Rakan
Soraka
Karma
Senna