The times have been interesting for Lucian, ever since his release in early Season 3 (August 22, 2013). We saw him ravage competitive play during his early days, being utilized to great extent by nearly every professional AD Carry. He remained a force throughout Season 4, even as Riot massively reworked his kit to morph him into a short range AD Carry that was highly reliant on mobility to maneuver in fights. However, the meta soon began to shift away from kill-lane bot compositions, and a wave of nerfs steadily chipped away at Lucian throughout the process. It was at this juncture that Lucian seem fell off the face of the Rift - he was removed almost entirely from the competitive scene, and Solo Queue echoed this change. It remained this way for the vast majority of Season 5, with Lucian being brought out only rarely and to little avail.

As Season 5 came to a close, Riot announced that they would be looking to revamp the AD Carry role during the preseason. When the time came, Riot released massive changes for several of the more destitute AD Carries, each with varying degrees of comprehensiveness. While Lucian was not among them, he was given a helping hand during the preseason, in the form of the newly reworked Essence Reaver.

The Essence Reaver rework was one of Riot's Preseason strategies to help propel AD Carries back into the limelight (after two seasons of grueling tank metas). Before the rework, the item was niche at best, as it was simply underwhelming compared to The Bloodthirster and Infinity Edge, Essence Reaver's BF Sword based cousins. However, Preseason Six sought to change this - and it certainly did.

Previously, Essence Reaver provided the buyer with 80 AD, 10% Lifesteal, 10% Cooldown Reduction, and a Unique Passive that restored between 2 - 8% of the buyer's mana on each auto attack. With its rework, the item gave the buyer a noticeably smaller 65 AD, but retained the 10% CDR. However, the item no longer provided lifesteal or mana restore on hit. Instead, it provided 20% Critical Strike, coupled with a Unique Passive that restored 3% of the buyer's maximum mana on each critical strike.

The nonpareil change, however, came as an entirely new Unique Passive, which allowed Essence Reaver's buyer to gain up to 20% additional CDR when they purchased critical strike from other sources. This, in itself, was the most direct catalyst for Lucian's entrance back into the meta. Through this Unique Passive, AD Carries now had an efficient, effective way to attain 40% CDR.

"Big deal," you might say, "a 40% CDR ADC is almost like a 300 AD LeBlanc, right?" Wrong. While a 40% CDR Jinx may not seem frightening, a 40% CDR Lucian, Ezreal, or Corki certainly will. Through the Essence Reaver, caster based AD Carries like the ones mentioned above became the rulers of the bot lane kingdom.

While Essence Reaver brought Lucian back to the top of the AD Carry pile, there were three main reasons why he was able to solidify himself as the premier AD Carry choice for months afterwards.

• Riot Nerfed His Competition Quickly After Preseason Began
  • Once the Preseason dust settled, Riot quickly spotted the power of Lucian's compatriots; namely, Corki and Kalista. The Nerf Gun was quickly applied to both of them, while Lucian, strangely, went untouched (perhaps in fear of nerfing him back into the ground of non-viability). This was crucial to Lucian's ascent to the AD Carry throne.
• The Tank Meta Resurfaced (to an extent)
  • As the full extent of Season 6 began to set in, tanks such as Maokai, Ekko, Nautilus, and Poppy began to see ample play, largely due to the fact that AD Carries were permeating the Rift in other roles (Graves and Kindred in the jungle, Corki and Varus in the mid lane, Quinn in the top lane). While most AD Carries were not able to deal with a tank Ekko leaping onto their face, Lucian was one of the few capable of holding his own, thanks to his hyper mobility and high burst.
• Game Times Became Much Shorter with the Preseason Changes
  
  • Riot sought to quicken the pace of games, and thusly implemented a series of changes that led to games ending in 25 - 30 minutes, on average. With this change, late game hypercarries such as Jinx, Vayne, and Twitch lost their ability to do what they do best; namely, scale into the late game. While previously these champions would have been able to thoroughly outdamage Lucian in the late game, they now were unable to stand toe-to-toe with him, as he reached his power spike much more quickly than they. This allowed Lucian to negate what had formerly been a glaring weakness in his kit, and gave him the ability to snowball games frighteningly well.

The combination of these three things allowed Lucian to thrive on the Rift, which he did, and is continuing to do. Currently, he is the most played ADC in Solo Queue, with a pick rate of 39.56% and an overall win rate of 50.36%, perchampion.gg. This popularity is likely to find its end soon, as Riot has confirmed they are looking to bring Lucian down from his AD Carry throne in the near future. The nerfs will likely close the book on Lucian's current stint of dominance, and his time at the forefront of the AD Carry world will be brought to a close.

If, however, Lucian's strange cycle continues, we are likely to see him make a stunning resurgence after a year or so. In the meantime, he'll quietly await his next chance to bring Purity to the Rift.

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