Introduction

A highly-mobile ranged damage dealer, Lucian shines when blasting enemies with Piercing Light and quickly repositioning himself to unleash more pain or retreat from counterattacks and jungle ganks. This Lucian guide will cover everything on how to play Lucian, The Purifier including

• Pros & Cons, ie, strengths, and weaknesses of playing Lucian
• Masteries and Runes required for playing Lucian
• Summoner Spells mandatorily taken while playing Lucian
• Abilities of Lucian
• Skill Order for abilities while playing Lucian
• Your role in team fighting as Lucian
• Item build which is basically the best Lucian Pro build at the moment

PROS AND CONS

Runes

For your runes, you wanna choose the Precision and Sorcery trees.

Precision

Grab Press The Attack, as your keystone. This is really strong on Lucian because it’s really easy to proc and activate with your two auto-attack passive and can output a lot of burst damage and make you have some really effective trades. We will, of course, look into that combo later on in this Lucian guide. You will then want to follow that up by getting Triumph so that your takedowns restore 12% of your missing health and grant you with additional gold. Then pick up Alacrity so you get some nice attack speed on those takedowns as well. Then finish up by getting Coup De Grace so you deal more damage to low health enemies.

Sorcery

Then moving into the Sorcery Tree, we want to pick up Celerity and Gathering Storm. Celerity is going to be really strong on you because you will get some extra movement speed which makes kiting a little bit easier and also some extra attack damage based on your movement speed as well. Then as mentioned before, pick up Gathering Storm so you get some increasing amounts of AD over the games so you will be able to carry in the later stages of the game.

Summoner Spells

For your summoner spells, first of course, you will want to pick up Flash. You are a very squishy AD Carry, so you can use that throughout the game, over and over again to save your life if you do get caught in a bad position. Of course you can always use this just to dodge skill shots or you can use it offensively as well to close the gap on a target so you can easily kill them.

Now as per your second summoner spell, I would recommend always taking Heal but Teleport is a good alternative. Heal usually is more effective though since it can be used to save both yourself and your teammate and the movement speed is also great at adding to a little bit of your kiting or in a chase. Either way though, if you feel like you don’t really need Heal, you can definitely get away with Teleport.

Abilities

Passive – Lightslinger

It is a nice, offensive ability that gives you a free second auto-attack. After you use any ability, Lucian’s next basic attack shot within 3 seconds shoots twice and the extra shot will deal 50/60/70% AD of your bonus physical damage. The second shot also applies on-hit effects which is why a black cleaver is so strong on Lucian and can also critically strike.

If your first shot kills an enemy, this will attack another target beside it so it’s also great at last-hitting as well because you can finish off multiple enemies at the same time. Of course, as mentioned before, since this fires two auto-attacks, it’s great at activating Press The Attack quickly as well.

Throughout your laning phase and in team fights, you want to make sure you follow up any of your abilities with your auto-attacks so you can pump out as much damage as possible.

Q – Piercing Light

This is one of your main sources of damage, outside of your auto-attacks. This ability makes Lucian fire a laser in the direction of a targeted enemy dealing physical damage to all enemies in a line. This has a 60/70/80/90/100% bonus AD ratio so it does some pretty damn good poke damage and it’s also pretty good at clearing a bunch of minions.

One really strong combo with this ability would be, auto-attacking then using your Q-ability and then auto-attacking twice again to activate your Press The Attack and do a lot of burst damage really quickly.

The range of the ability is also longer than the target you attack as well so use this to poke an enemy that is behind a minion as well, making it really strong in the laning phase.

W – Ardent Blaze

This ability can reveal targets hidden as well as deals Magic Damage. When activated, Lucian fires a shot that explodes in a cross pattern upon hitting an enemy or reaching the end of its path, dealing Magic Damage.

Therefore, right off the bat, you can definitely tell we won’t be maxing this ability since this ability is based of your AP ratio.

Enemies, however, will be marked for six seconds granting true sight of them, so it’s really useful when checking bushes if you think somebody might be hiding there.

Lucian will also gain bonus movement speed if he or his allies attack and damage the target marked by Ardent Blaze. That means, in those late game team fights as well as those early game duels, this is a pretty decent ability still because if you can get that movement speed, you will have a much easier time kiting your target.

So you will want to try to mark targets to get yourself that movement speed and also check bushes whenever you’re moving around the map.

E – Relentless Pursuit

This gives you really solid mobility which is great at both kiting and chasing your targets. Passively this cooldown will be reduced by one second by each Lightslinger shot landed, doubled to two seconds against enemy champions.

That means you can’t use this ability too much in the early game but when you do get your cooldown reduction, you could spam this ability over and over again.

When you do activate this ability Lucian dashes a short distance, this also resets Lucian’s auto-attack timer, so you can use this to get an extra auto-attack in.

Either way though, this is one of your best abilities because you can use it to kite your targets over and over again, dodge skill shots or even just chase your own target. When you do acquire your Black Cleaver and your Essence Reaver, this will be a rather spammable ability, because you do have a lot of cooldown reduction and you can use it over and over again.

R – The Culling

This is a really nice ability because it shoots a ton of shots in the target direction. When activated, Lucian fires shots in the target direction for 3 seconds, dealing physical damage to the first enemy they collide with and the damage is doubled against enemy minions.

Now, when you’re using your ultimate you can’t use any of your other abilities or your basic auto-attacks but you will be ghosted which means you will be able to pass through minions and you can activate E – Relentless Pursuit.

This used to be great at just getting through minion waves as well but now that the damage has been reduced, you won’t be able to make it through an entire minion wave, let alone hit the target behind the minion wave afterward. It is still a pretty decent ability for an ultimate because if you hit the target over and over again you can do some pretty damn significant damage.

Skill Order

R– For your skill order, your first priority should be on putting a point in your ultimate whenever you can, at 6, 11 and 16.

Q-Then focus on maxing your Q ability as quickly as possible because this is your main source of damage outside of course, your auto-attacks.

E– You will then want to focus on maxing your E ability second because it will lower the cooldown greatly and you will be able to use this more often giving you some really solid mobility.

W-That of course means you want to save your W ability for last because it doesn’t really do too much damage since it is based on your AP but you do wanna put one point early on at level 4 so you do activate that movement speed boost and also, of course, use it to reveal the area.

Combos

Now we’re gonna cover a couple of the combos and first up is just using your Press The Attack.

Combo 1 : To activate Press the Attack

As mentioned previously, you want to start off with a normal auto-attack and then use your Q ability and follow up with 2 auto-attacks to activate your Press The Attack and do some really nice burst damage. This is a combo you can use really easily throughout that early laning phase to get a lot of damage on to the enemy champions and do a lot of bullying.

Combo 2 : To utilize all of Lucian’s abilities and passive

Next we will go through Lucian’s ability interactions in general. So one way which is preferred to combo all his abilities is to start with his Q ability, then auto attack, use E ability to reposition, auto attack again, and then use the W ability and auto attack yet again. This will get out 3 sets of different auto attacks, all of your abilities and a really nice reposition.

Combo 3 : Variation on Combo 2 where you initiate from a distance

Now if you were too far away from your target, you could also open up with your E ability instead. In this scenario, you can close the gap with your E ability, then auto attack, use my Q ability, auto attack again and then use my W, followed with your auto attack yet again. This will do the same damage as the previous combo, but instead you will be using your E ability however to engage rather than to reposition, it is a bit more risky, but it is a great way to get on top of a target if you are confident of winning the trade.

Threading and mixing combos

The last combo, we will look into some late-game spamming. Once you have your Black Cleaver and Essence Reaver, you will be able to spam your abilities pretty much over and over again. Here you combine Combo 2 and Combo 3, which will look like this-

Q – Auto – E – Auto – W – Auto – E – Auto – Q – Auto – R

Reasoning

That’s probably pretty hard to keep track off, but your abilities come off cooldown so insanely quickly that you can use your E over and over again and you can really be mobile.

Basically what you need to know is that you want to use your E ability between each of your other abilities, i.e., your Q and your W for it’s really nice mobility. Of course, since your Q ability does a lot more damage than your W, you want to prioritize using your Q ability over your W ability whenever you’re able to.

Keep in mind that your E ability is, of course, usable in during the usage of your ultimate ability R as well so you can use it to kite backwards while your R is pumping out all of that damage.

Lane Phase

Farming

During the laning phase, farming is, of course, the most important part of the lane phase. You want to focus on last hitting as many minions as possible and you will want to use your abilities if you have to, and keep in mind that your passive and your Q are both great at last-hitting minions.

If you do end up pushing the lane, you want to be very careful when you’re pushed because the enemy jungler or mid laner may come in for a gank. That of course means, both yourself and your support champion have to keep the lane warded at all times and especially if you are pushed.

Trading

Another very important part of the laning phase is trading, you want to use your abilities to make sure you auto-attack between them to get out that extra damage. Of course like I did mention it, it is also great with Press The Attack because you can activate it easily and quickly with your passive auto attacks which is great in trades.

Teamfighting

Teamfighting as an AD Carry

Now team fighting can be pretty hard on an AD Carry, especially in this patch. You will have to make sure you’re positioned in your backline and you’re as safe as possible. This, of course, means you will have to attack the targets on that frontline and if you can, attack the enemy AD Carry of course but if you have to just stick on the tank.

Play safer

Since you are a squishy ranged champion, you want to try and space yourself away from the enemies and kite them as much as you can to avoid damage. Of course you will be able to use the dash from your E – Relentless Pursuit to keep a distance. Then, you want to make sure you’re using the rest of your abilities and your passive to pump out your damage while you remain at a safe distance whenever it is possible.

Lucian Build Item Build

These is the Lucian pro builds.

Starting Items

You start with a Doran’s Blade and one health potion.

Lucian is a pretty damn strong lane bully, so usually you will want to go for the Doran’s Blade to output as much damage as possible but if you are against a very hard lane then you could go for a Doran’s Shield but it isn’t recommended.

Core Items

For your core items, you will want to go for Blade of the Ruined King, The Black Cleaver and Essence Reaver.

The Black Cleaver

You will then want to pick up The Black Cleaver because it’s great at shredding target’s armor because it works with your passive and it also gives you really nice health pool and phase gives you some really nice movement speed making kiting even easier.

Blade of the Ruined King

Blade of The Ruined King is a really strong dueling item and you will want to try to get the Vampiric Scepter component of the Blade of the Ruined King as quickly as possible for that lifesteal to make the laning phase even easier. This item also has some really nice additional damage on it so it’s great against tanky targets as well.

Essence Reaver

You then want to pick up Essence Reaver because it will give you some nice attack damage, cooldown reduction making you reach the maximum capacity for cooldown reduction, basic attacks will also refund mana solving your mana issues.

Essence Flare

You will also get something known as Essence Flare for 6 seconds whenever you do cast your ultimate and basic attack afterward. This will give you an additional 50% attack speed, and your basic attacks will also refund 20% of your remaining non-ability cooldowns which is what allows you to spam your abilities like crazy.

You will be able to use your E ability over and over again, you will be incredibly hard to catch and hit, and you will be pumping out all sorts of damage especially with your Q and those passive attacks.

Reasoning  

This core Lucian build will make Lucian incredibly strong and one of the best carries in the game when he does acquire it.

Picking Boots

In between getting those core items, you of course want to pick up your boots and you do have the berserker Greaves, Ninja Tabis or the Merc Treads as your options.

Situational Boots

It is recommended getting Berserker’s Greaves as much as you can as they will give you some really good attack speed and give you nice damage output but you can go for Ninja Tabis against high AD teams or Mercury’s Treads against high AP and CC heavy teams.

Additional Items

Rapid Fire Cannon

Now for your additional item pool, you first have your Rapid FireCannon, this is a great way to get yourself 30% critical strike chance and some nice attack speed and have that really good increased auto-attack range when you do have a 100 stacks.

Infinity Edge

Now when you do acquire this you could, of course, go for the infinity edge as well because you will have 60% critical strike chance when you have both these items and deal some nice true damage which is pretty damn strong.

Guardian Angel

Another solid item on Lucian is Guardian Angel, this also gives you some nice attack damage but you will also have that defensive shield to come back to life in the later stages of the game if you do end up dying.

Lord Dominik’s Regards/Mortal Reminder

Now if you instead needed some Armor Penetration, go for either the Lord Dominik’s Regards or the Mortal Reminder. I don’t pick this up too often because you do already have the black cleaver and the blade of the ruined king, but if you do need one, it’s preferred to go for the Mortal Reminder and only reason for getting it would be for that Grievous Wounds for champions like Swain or Dr. Mundo.

Mercurial Scimitar

Then finally your last defensive here would be your Mercurial Scimitar, it is a really solid option against champions that do have a lot of crowd controls, especially point-and-click ones, since Lucian cannot dodge them and it may get you killed really, really quickly. This will of course allow you to break out of those and allow you to do the rest of the combo.

Full Item Build

For the full item Lucian build, it is preferred taking the Core items combined with Berserker’s Greaves, and then get the Rapid Firecannon and Infinity Edge. You will deal all sorts of damage with this Lucian Pro build, you will be CDR capped and you will have some nice armor shred from The Black Cleaver and some additional damage from the blade of the ruined king.

Of course with the Rapid Fire cannon and Infinity Edge combo, you will have 60% critical strike chance which will also make you do some true damage because of the infinity edge.

It is an extremely strong full Lucian build, and you will be dishing out all sorts of damage when you acquire it.

                              And that’s everything for Lucian.

Final Words

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