Greetings summoners! With the amazing new Elementalist Lux skin coming out there seems to be an influx of new Lux players and I feel a new guide is in order to celebrate! I'm onlywrin, a Season 2 player who mains Lux, Kayle, and a few other support/DPS style mages.

LORE

Luxanna was a prodigy as a child, capable of reverse engineering and casting complex spells. She was a master of magic at a young age and enlisted in the Demacian military, where her ability to bend light made her an excellent spy and infiltrator. Lux eventually decided to stop serving behind enemy lines and became a figurehead of the Demacian military.

BREAKDOWN

Lux is a control/support mage with mid to high-ranged damage and moderate crowd control. Her kit consists of a dual bind, an AoE shield, an AoE slow, and four damaging abilities including her passive.

She is best used as a back or midline controller that can both provide support to her team and damage the enemy backline. Her shield provides moderate sustain in teamfights and some potential dueling power in skirmishes while her crowd control and AoE spells allow her to manipulate enemy positioning and punish unaware players. She also has the best laugh in the game.

SKILLS

Passive: Illumination

This ability is straightforward. Your damaging spells apply a mark to enemies that allows your next basic attack or ultimate to deal additional damage. This ability counts as a spell for Thunderlord’s Decree, meaning that with just an E and Basic Attack you can proc it. You have a full six seconds to pop the mark, so it works well for zoning in lane.

Q: Light Binding

Lux’s Q shares a similar functionality to Morgana’s Dark Binding or Bard’s Cosmic Bind. This ability is a skillshot that can hit two targets, rooting them both for two seconds and dealing a considerable amount of damage. It’s got a high cooldown at early ranks, so be selective with your casts.

W: Prismatic Barrier

This is an awesome ability with more depth that most people realize. Prismatic Barrier throws a skillshot that shields allies it hits (including yourself) and then returns to you, refreshing the shield of any allies it hits (again, including yourself). It can be a bit tricky to use but just remember that it returns like a boomerang so by timing it just right you can outplay enemies by getting the refresh on yourself or allies.

E: Lucent Singularity

This is Lux’s bread and butter ability. It fires a slow moving projectile that creates a zone upon landing which slows enemies and grants vision of the area (350). After five seconds, the zone explodes dealing moderate damage in an area. Lux can choose to detonate the zone early.

R: Final Spark (Finales Funkeln)

Lux’s ultimate is easy to understand; press R, blast people with a rainbow that does Tons of Damage™. This ability will consume any Illumination stacks your targets may have which increases its damage and will likely proc Thunderlord’s Decree along the way.

SUMMONER SPELLS

Flash: This spell is required on Lux. Not taking it is a death sentence.
Ghost: This is what I recommend as a secondary summoner in most cases. Great defensive and offensive uses.
Barrier: Take this against high burst mids such as Syndra.
Cleanse: I like to take this against extremely CC heavy teams. See Naut, Rammus, and Galio? Pop cleanse on your bar.
Teleport: This can be good if you practice with it a lot, but I feel it leaves Lux a little too open.
Ignite: Godmode Lux only

RUNES

Lux is a versatile champion that can take full advantage of any ability based runes so you have a good mix of options and free room here. A good rule of thumb is to stick with AP or Hybrid Pen Marks and AP Quints. CDR blues are also effective.

The Classic (HPEN/AP/ARM/MR)

The Veteran (AP/AP/HP/AP)

The Slow Burn (AP/AP/MREG/AP)

The Brave (AP/AP/AP/AP)

In Case of Pantheon (ARM/ARM/ARM/ARM)

MASTERIES

Like runes, Lux can be very flexible when it comes to masteries. She makes good use of a few of the keystones however Thunderlord’s in particular has excellent synergy with her kit. I recommend a variant of the page below.

LANING PHASE

Lux’s most vulnerable position is during laning phase. She is a low mobility champion with mediocre base movespeed and no escapes to speak of. This makes her a prime target for jungle ganks and in this jungle heavy meta that can be a problem. This is why your choice of summoner spells is so important: Choose wrong and you could end up as an all-you-can-eat buffet for the enemy team.

During laning phase, your primary focus will shift according to the matchup. Against melee assassins such as Fizz or Yasuo you need to be aggressive early and use your high damage output with Lucent Singularity and Thunderlord’s Decree to harass before they scale to unbearable levels. If you manage to get ahead you can easily abuse your range and CC to control them for the rest of the game. Against other control mages it often becomes a farm lane or a matchup of “who hits CC first”. Lanes like Orianna, Ahri, and Veigar rely on your ability to dodge skillshots and your accuracy with Light Binding.

Lux is very susceptible to jungle pressure. It is important that you know how the enemy jungler operates and take that into account when making plays on the map. Something like a Lee Sin might seek to camp you early but you may not even see a Warwick until he hits level six.

ROAMING

Lux is a control mage by definition and while she can roam when opportunities present themselves you are often better off preventing the enemy from roaming. Your push potential means you can typically force the opponent under their tower where they will lose CS and aggression opportunities. When executing this strategy, you need to keep plenty of wards out (ask your jungler to help you ward) and pay close attention to the map. While you should focus on manipulating your opponent, don’t hesitate to roam if you see a golden opportunity.

MID AND LATE GAME

Mid game is where Lux really starts to shine. Her damage spike after Morello and Luden's gets pretty ridiculous and she has a huge presence in teamfights. You want to focus on helping with vision and grabbing picks when you can. Try to stay within short ranges of teammates – you’re vulnerable on your own and having a second teammate can turn a good bind into a good kill.

In teamfights, you want to focus on mid- or back-lining on the edge of the fight. Look for good angles to throw the bind so that it hits priority targets and once you snare a valuable target unload your kit to take them out of the fight. Positioning is the most important skill a Lux player can learn and it's a skill that takes practice and patience. Work on keeping yourself at range and supporting your teammates.

ITEMIZATION

While all builds should be situational, a few items synergize very well with Lux’s kit. No build is optimal 100% of the time and you should use common sense when picking items for certain situations. Lux should be prioritizing Ability Power, Cooldown Reduction, and Mana/Mana Regeneration with heavy emphasis on AP.

When beginning the game, you have the option of Doran’s Ring or the Dark Seal. The choice is entirely up to you though I personally prefer Doran’s Ring for the extra buffer it will give you in the event of a gank.

Core Items

Morellonomicon: Morello’s is a great item for Lux. It gives you much needed mana regeneration and CDR on top of base mana. If there was any item to build in every game, it would be this one. Try to grab it early on in the laning phase because that’s when it’s going to matter most.

Rod of Ages: Against some burst casters such as Syndra, Leblanc, and even Zed, this can be built in place of Morellonomicon. The extra health will help keep you alive during difficult situations and the item gives enough mana to sustain you through laning phase. When building RoA, you should typically opt for Ionian Boots of Lucidity due to the missing cooldown reduction from Morellonomicon.

Luden’s Echo: This item benefits Lux in many ways, starting with its lower cost relative to Deathcap and the high damage proc. The movement speed it gives her is highly beneficial when moving around the map and helps you position in teamfights. You should almost always get this as your second item.

Situational Items

Deathcap: A bit of a gamble item, it can be great if you have plenty of spare gold (lots of farm or kills) but is a bit expensive to go for early in the game. With no utility, Deathcap is usually best as a fourth or fifth item if you plan on building it.

Void Staff: Great item against teams with more than one hard tank (i.e. Malphite and Rammus) or against bruisers that dive onto you such as Olaf or Irelia. Can be good against squishies that pick up Banshee’s Veil as well.

Lich Bane: Lich Bane is an amazing item for dueling. Typically you shouldn't be close enough to proc this item but in those cases where the enemy is diving you, it can be a huge DPS increase.

Zhonya’s Hourglass: An incredible item against champions with high cooldown, high burst abilities such as Syndra and Veigar. It is also a great pickup if you’re having issues with AD duelists or assassins.

Banshee’s Veil: While this doesn’t offer damage, it is an item I find myself picking up more often than not. It’s excellent against any kind of hard engage (Malphite, Vi, etc.) and can be a strong second or third item against hard burst AP mages. If you are building Rod of Ages, you should not build Banshee's Veil and instead opt for a more damage oriented item.

Mejai’s Soulstealer: If there is any champion to build Mejai's on, it is Lux. With all of her area damage and multi-target shield, she can rack up the assists quickly. Be wary of building this against hard-engage such as Malphite or Vi, however, as it paints a large target on your back.

Boots: When it comes to boots you've got to make a judgement call. Do you need more CDR? Grab Lucidity. Don't need CDR? Get Sorc Shoes. In some rare cases, when my team is snowballing and I find myself roaming a lot, I'll grab Boots of Mobility. This is a bit risky however and I don't get them very often.

Other items not mentioned here can be used in niche situations but use common sense when selecting a build path. Build for what you need in that game instead of following cookie cutter build paths.

TIPS AND TRICKS

- Throwing Q and W at the same time can make the Q difficult to see in some cases.

- Lux's ult hitbox is actually wider than the visual range of the ult.

- For a quick trade use E+E (Detonate)+AA to instantly proc Illumination and Thunderlord's Decree.

- For a long trade use Q+E+AA+E (Detonate)+AA. This will proc Illumination twice and Thunderlord's Decree. I find this combo can nearly one shot squishy midlaners.

- If you manage to catch a target with Light Binding, you can throw Lucent Singularity and use Final Spark at the same time. Try to detonate your Lucent Singularity in the same moment your Final Spark's damage pops. This will deal incredible amounts of burst damage in a very short time frame which will often take people by surprise.

- Don't shy away from ulting minion waves if you're playing the tower defense game. Final Spark's cooldown is short so there's a high chance it will be back up for the next fight.

- Watch your opponent's positioning in lane. Some people think they're safe near their back-line of minions so when you see one die you may have a good opportunity for Light Binding.

CONCLUSION

Luxanna is an excellent pick for climbing ranked this season. Her high damage, strong crowd control, and long range make her a good pick for both solo queue and team play. Picking up Lux can be a challenge at first but she is worth the time investment. A good Lux can take over an entire game by herself, turn around losing games, and even carry 4v5's. She is a very rewarding champion to play and can be picked up by anyone with enough practice. A bonus to picking her up is the incredible job of the voice actor who really brought the champion to life. Lux constantly encourages you throughout the game and hearing "I never think about losing!" or "Focus on the battle!" all game can be enough to lift anyone's spirits. If you love having a personal cheerleader who doesn't judge you whether you're 10-0 or 0-10 and love long range control mages, Lux is the perfect mage.

Good luck on the Rift summoners and remember: Stay Positive!

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