Someone From Riot Please Watch This Match And Justify Lux's Current State

Cosnirak·Aug 14, 2015·40 votes·22,726 views

The specific game's pick/ban phase starts at 2:14:43 (there's only one Lux game). Please as the title says, justify this. How is Lux not getting buffs next patch? Everything the commentators say about Lux is everything we've all already known for so long and proven repeatedly in the game itself. It's not just community echo chamber, it's not just that what's good in pro play and solo queue are different, it's that Lux sucks. Her strengths rarely even matter let alone shine. Her weaknesses are glaring and massive.

This is the sort of thing people are talking about when they get pissed over stuff like Zed buffs and say "Really?! You're buffing that champion while others?!" There are so many ways you could buff her without making her op or obnoxious. Honestly she could probably use a rework of the level Garen and Darius are getting next patch, maybe even more than that.

And ya know what? I would love to write all about it, to suggest tons of stuff, to make a reasonable case for it all. But why spend the time and effort on that? The odds it gets anyone to do anything about it are next to none. Hell this entire post is almost certainly going to accomplish nothing except me getting to vent so the 2 people that read it can down vote it and/or tell me I just suck at the game.

311 Comments

CreationFlawAug 14, 201526 votes

I think she's fine, buuut that's just me.

RiotRiotRepertoirAug 14, 201519 votes

I can't watch the video at the moment, but I am interested in hearing what everyone thinks about Lux. She seems to be a pretty popular champion, but that could just be because people find her fun to play.

What specifically is it about Lux that you (or anyone else that reads this) think she needs changes? What is she supposed to be good at that she's failing to do at the moment? Is there something baseline she's just too weak at to even be competitive?

HellioningAug 14, 201535 votes

Every time I go out and Guard the Stars, I stare at my E's mana cost. 130 for a basic ability is ludicrous.

Silents429Aug 14, 20155 votes

Okay weeks ago before they buffed her E everyone wanted it to pre detonate instead of getting the mana cost lowered, and Meddler was careful to specify she wouldn't get both.

manbearswineAug 14, 201513 votes

{quoted}

Every time I go out and Guard the Stars, I stare at my E's mana cost. 130 for a basic ability is ludicrous.

The issue is that unless you are yasuo(/etc),her e is pretty impossible to miss in lane.

I'm not saying she doesn't need buffs,but maybe somewhere that won't make people cry how obnoxious she is?

maybe give her a speedboost when throwing her shield? make procing her passive heal herself? allow allies to proc her passive too(damage is attributed to lux)?

DecaedeusAug 14, 20154 votes

I don't know if this is too... Xerath-y but I like the idea of restoring a small amount of mana when Illumination is detonated. It encourages her to get in and weave autoattacks in to keep her mana up, while opening up counter-harass opportunities when she goes in.

manbearswineAug 14, 20152 votes

{quoted}

I don't know if this is too... Xerath-y but I like the idea of restoring a small amount of mana when Illumination is detonated. It encourages her to get in and weave autoattacks in to keep her mana up, while opening up counter-harass opportunities when she goes in.

Most mages need to aa to lasthit anyway,so it doesn't change much.

Buffing her mana regen isn't very different from reducing the cost on her e,so it won't solve riot's issue with the case.

AMYS GRAVEAug 14, 20152 votes

Her e is pretty impossible to miss, what would you think about lowering the mana cost and lowering the size of the AOE?

manbearswineAug 14, 20152 votes

{quoted}

Her e is pretty impossible to miss, what would you think about lowering the mana cost and lowering the size of the AOE?

I mean you definitely could,but would you even want that?

AMYS GRAVEAug 14, 20152 votes

i don't really know to be honest, but it would help solve one of her biggest complaints (mana costs) and would allow for more accessible counterplay (dodging the AOE).

s LessThanThreeAug 14, 20154 votes

{quoted}

Every time I go out and Guard the Stars, I stare at my E's mana cost. 130 for a basic ability is ludicrous.

Viktor's E is 110 mana. It's not ludicrous as it simply forces the player to learn mana management vs just playing the game like mana doesn't exist.

BlackEyesBlueAug 14, 20155 votes

I like Lux but only play her every now and then.

Personally, I think she IS fun and that she's in a good place right now.

I've previously called Lux one of the games most balanced champs, and a GREAT learning champ! Her kit is very skill based w/o being overly complicated. Her costs are pretty high early game and she'll be OOM constantly if she spams too much. Her less then stellar damage combined with her cc heavy kit encourages team work. If your playing against her, she doesn't feel frustrating b/c none of her kit is point and click!

Her stats are fair and she has exploitable weaknesses, specifically her low mobility, general squishiness and high mana costs. And; as fed as she may get, I've NEVER seen a Lux snowball into unstoppable-ness!

Stuff happens, but w/ so many champions still unbalanced one way or the other, Please let Lux be for now! :)

(That said, I wouldn't mind some slight buffs to her CD's or mana costs.) :P

CosnirakAug 14, 201512 votes

"her cc heavy kit"

2 second root on a 15 second cd and 20-36% slow on a 10 second cd is a cc heavy kit? That is literally the entirety of her cc until lvl 8 where the root cd drops to 14 seconds IF you max Q second...

Silents429Aug 14, 20152 votes

I like how you made no effort to take CDR items into account.

CosnirakAug 14, 20151 votes

And other champions can't do the same why? Even at half her base cds (which I know is not possible) her cc is still pretty light compared to actual cc heavy kit champions like Tresh and Alistar. Her slow in particular is really weak and she has 0 cc that stops you from casting spells.

EDIT: Think of it this way. Yasuo isn't thought of as having a "cc heavy kit" and I consider him to have more cc than Lux though I can see people considering that debatable.

Silents429Aug 14, 20152 votes

Lux is plenty strong, She dwells in having some good utility basic CC, and long range damage at the cost of mobility, she is older and obviously seems out of place in comparison to some newer champions, but for her intended role she does just fine, and does not need further buffs.

The buff to her E not to long ago everyone choose over her having less mana costs on her E, Meddler was careful to specify Lux could not have both.

CosnirakAug 14, 20152 votes

"She dwells in having some good utility basic CC, and long range damage at the cost of mobility"

I disagree. I find her cc very lacking and her long range easily dodged.

"she is older and obviously seems out of place in comparison to some newer champions"

Why is that an excuse? They could change her, and that's the point.

"but for her intended role she does just fine, and does not need further buffs."

And here I especially disagree. She only excels at one thing, bursting. But only in the late game, if not too behind, verse people who can't dodge her. As someone else in the thread said she's not actually all that good at any one thing, she's mostly mediocre at several things.

"The buff to her E not to long ago everyone choose over her having less mana costs on her E, Meddler was careful to specify Lux could not have both."

I don't remember him saying that but it has been a while now. My goal isn't to make her op, it's to make her fun. Running out of mana all the time is not fun. I'd gladly trade some of her power for reasonable mana costs.

Silents429Aug 14, 20152 votes

I don't remember him saying that but it has been a while now. My goal isn't to make her op, it's to make her fun. Running out of mana all the time is not fun. I'd gladly trade some of her power for reasonable mana costs.

No one else agreed with that at the time, if she gets reduced mana she is going to get her power taken down a notch on her E, and no one wants that.

Critmaster GarenAug 14, 201511 votes

{quoted}

I can't watch the video at the moment, but I am interested in hearing what everyone thinks about Lux. She seems to be a pretty popular champion, but that could just be because people find her fun to play.

What specifically is it about Lux that you (or anyone else that reads this) think she needs changes? What is she supposed to be good at that she's failing to do at the moment? Is there something baseline she's just too weak at to even be competitive?

mana. shes literally impossible to play without athenes right now.

i tried with just morellos and was just constantly out of mana when i needed to help my team and was absolutely useless. thats all she needs, some mana buffs on her rank 5 abilities. its really terrible right now. otherwise her kit is fine. i wish her ult cooldown would go back down. but thats secondary.

when i got both items by the way, i had no probems at all, and she was pretty statisfying to play. maybe we just have to swallow the dependency on athenes.

Earl EulrichAug 14, 20158 votes

never balance based on Montes bias...

apart from that Lux is really far too save a Champ (longest range+best shield in the game), making it incredible frustrating to play against her. The only reason she´s not popular in pro-play is that she´s even more dependent on hitting skillshots than most other Champs+she really needs some item spikes before she starts tearing teams apart.

Nerfing her Shield and adding some ms on her passive would be a good step for me - so she can actually be punished if she´s out of position and gets more rewarded for closing the gap and using her passive (also, turn the passive into a dot, she really has a tad much burst in sucess-cases).

Critmaster GarenAug 14, 20153 votes

[{quoted}](name=Don Eulrich,realm=EUW,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=EOtRUl6A,comment-id=00040005,timestamp=2015-08-14T03:12:44.090+0000)

never balance based on Montes bias...

apart from that Lux is really far too save a Champ (longest range+best shield in the game), making it incredible frustrating to play against her. The only reason she´s not popular in pro-play is that she´s even more dependent on hitting skillshots than most other Champs+she really needs some item spikes before she starts tearing teams apart.

Nerfing her Shield and adding some ms on her passive would be a good step for me - so she can actually be punished if she´s out of position and gets more rewarded for closing the gap and using her passive (also, turn the passive into a dot, she really has a tad much burst in sucess-cases).

if i can kill a lux on garen after dodging her binding, i think you can fight her with any other champion.

i believe in you.

seriously, its what makes her balanced. strong ranged abilities, but incredibly vulnerable if she misses her q. shes fine. its not like nidalee, who can spam spears and go cougar whenever shes threatened and run away, or just heal herself back up.

Earl EulrichAug 14, 20154 votes

a shield with the potential of shielding 900dmg rank 1 without even ap certainly is not fine. And yea, i´ve slain enough Lux players - but if you ever run into a good one that gets going it´s almost impossible to ever get her of her mejais stacks...

Critmaster GarenAug 14, 20158 votes

[{quoted}](name=Don Eulrich,realm=EUW,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=EOtRUl6A,comment-id=0004000500000000,timestamp=2015-08-14T03:21:04.012+0000)

a shield with the potential of shielding 900dmg rank 1 without even ap certainly is not fine. And yea, i´ve slain enough Lux players - but if you ever run into a good one that gets going it´s almost impossible to ever get her of her mejais stacks...

if you hit 5 people. do you want to come up with any other urealistic scenarios while youre at it?

if that makes lux op, then karma must make you fall into a rage.

the ability does literally nothing else than shield. most support shields in the game grant additional effects like resistances (orianna), movement speed boosts, or a free bf sword (janna).

Earl EulrichAug 14, 20155 votes

5man might be unrealistic, but if you comp around Lux you usually have a good frontline that allows her to savly hit her skills from behind them...meaning a 3-4man shield will occur on a regular basis during fights, making it near impossible to ever turn around a game vs a lux once she gets rolling.

i mean...i like playing Lux, but whenever you get going it just feels like cheating.

CosnirakAug 14, 201520 votes

"She seems to be a pretty popular champion, but that could just be because people find her fun to play."

Ever since my first game as her where I actually listened to her voice over stuff and tried out her dance and taunts and all that and I was pretty hooked. Her R? SOOOOO fun to cast. Even if it sucks it looks and feels amazing.

"What specifically is it about Lux that you (or anyone else that reads this) think she needs changes? What is she supposed to be good at that she's failing to do at the moment? Is there something baseline she's just too weak at to even be competitive?"

I could spend hours writing about potential options to fix her but I'll try to briefly mention what's wrong instead.

Her mana is incredibly bad and none of the good to buy early mana options work for her. Her cds are too long and costs too high for Tear. She's the opposite of the kind of mage that wants Catalyst into RoA because she shouldn't be up close getting hit at all and her costs are so high she can still easily run out of mana. This leave Chalice into Athene's, what people often get on her. Nothing even comes close to beating Athene's in mana regen in fights that actually result in kills and assists. But Chalice itself actually sucks because mana regen based on base mana regen will always be terrible early on. Even with Athene's her mana is so bad that without kills/assists/blue buff she still easily ooms. I take pure mana regen seals, chug mana pots, rush Athene's, and still have trouble wave clearing reasonably let alone poking anyone if I don't get a blue buff.

Her base stats are bad, very very bad. She's squishy, slow, immobile, has only a weak shield to keep herself alive, and is a very easy target for early kills.

Her passive is awful. It's the exact opposite of what the entire rest of her kit is about and to top it off her attack speed is the worst, making it hard to even use her passive effectively for wave clear with her E. The best use of her passive is popping it with her ult to help you kill people.

All of her "utility" is actually pretty weak: Her root duration never changes and the cd on her Q starts at 15 and eventually scales into what Morgana's is at every rank. The ability to hit two targets or through a minion is fairly laughable because it does half everything to the second target. Also the particle is pretty narrow. Her shield's 'potential' is massive but its actual shielding done is almost always tiny due to its cast time, travel time, short duration per application, narrow width, refreshing rather than stacking on champs hit twice, long cd, and penchant for allies to dodge it on accident. It is good for doing Baron. The slow on her E starts weak, scales slightly with ranks to still being weak, doesn't scale with ap, only lasts for .25 seconds after someone leaves it or its popped, and is very punishing to use for anything but damage due to its high mana cost and cd. Her E does grant vision while sitting there which is nice but hardly unique or strong.

Her damage per spell is bad early unless you always pop her passive, mediocre in the mid game, and basically on par with similar champions later on. But her cooldowns are medium to long outside her R. For an ultimate her R is on a relatively low cd and is her best and most fun spell but even it isn't really all that impressive in terms of damage and it's not that hard to dodge if you aren't cced.

One of the most frustrating things is that while laning she has a hard time last hitting because all of her damage doesn't line up well with killing minions. If you E the whole wave just one auto won't finish a melee minion despite the passive. If you E the whole wave + auto the casters the melee start to die before you can get to them. You end up with really awkward stuff like E the wave, auto 1 or 2 casters, wait to auto melees as your minions put them just in range, which means you get 2 passive procs on 6-7 minions and only 2 easy minion kills despite using a spell. As you level and get items it changes a ton and the details are intricate and depend on how much gold you have of course but until you can just E + R to kill a whole wave it's always time consuming and annoying. Meanwhile Viktor just goes E and they all die...

The one fix I will suggest besides the obvious "fix her mana" is to change her passive. It's really annoying and bad and often feels like a death trap vs champions.

Electro522Aug 14, 201511 votes

Since you're the OP, I'll leave this here.

The amount of detailed feedback this has gotten is just mind-boggling. This is one of very few times that this community has impressed me in a good way. After reading all of the replies to Repertoir, there is no raging, no "FIX MORDE NOW!!!!" posts, or anything like that. Just straight, constructive, professional feedback.

And I must say.......It. Is. Beautiful.

Hyrum GraffAug 14, 20157 votes

[{quoted}](name=Paleo Electro,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=EOtRUl6A,comment-id=0004000a0000,timestamp=2015-08-14T06:01:53.565+0000)

Since you're the OP, I'll leave this here.

The amount of detailed feedback this has gotten is just mind-boggling. This is one of very few times that this community has impressed me in a good way. After reading all of the replies to Repertoir, there is no raging, no "FIX MORDE NOW!!!!" posts, or anything like that. Just straight, constructive, professional feedback.

And I must say.......It. Is. Beautiful.

That's what happens when you have a rioter who asks and listens.

CosnirakAug 14, 20152 votes

Every other time I've made similar threads (and no not just about Lux :p ) there's been little to no response and it just falls off into non existence. I definitely credit most of the attention this thread has gotten to Repertoir posting in it, though it did actually get some responses right away before he did.

I agree though, it is beautiful to see the amount of real discussion and lack of uh... "crap" posting. ;)

AutoreactiveCD4Aug 14, 20153 votes

I don't know about changing her passive, maybe add something to it. Not the multiple passive thing riot loves doing recently, but an extra bonus other than just damage when it's procced. Move speed boost, mana heal, but pls don't give her a heal she would probably be too annoying to lane against with that.

UrgleAug 15, 20152 votes

Lol her R does not suck. Its a finishing move. And a hefty hitting one at that. With a perfectly timed combo you will melt everyone in its wake. She's a bit broken but oh well. It is what it is. Yusou is even more scary.

Danyul TargaryenAug 14, 20157 votes

{quoted}

I can't watch the video at the moment, but I am interested in hearing what everyone thinks about Lux. She seems to be a pretty popular champion, but that could just be because people find her fun to play.

What specifically is it about Lux that you (or anyone else that reads this) think she needs changes? What is she supposed to be good at that she's failing to do at the moment? Is there something baseline she's just too weak at to even be competitive?

She has no waveclear, her passive is counterproductive to her role, she has the 3rd lowest base hp and armor of any champion, she has no mobility, her q is impossible to land if the enemy is paying attention, and her strengths dont make up for her weaknesses. The success of any lux is a game completely relies on the failure of an enemy and she doesnt even punish mistakes like other champs

ZhuganAug 14, 20155 votes

The big issue with Lux at the moment is that her kit is gated by mana in a way that very few champions are. Her base damage is decent and her ratios are good, but she is so gated by mana that early laning against a lot of the top tier champs mid right now is, for lack of a better word... frustrating.

She's fine when she has mana and can lane against basically anyone, but two full spell rotations takes her mana pool to nil... Then I look at champions like Azir who can get out three of his soldiers, send them in and dash in behind them for only a little more mana than Lux's rotation... At level 5... At level 9 it is actually more mana spent by Lux to do Q-W-E than it is for Azir to do W-W-Q-W-E. That stay's true when you include their ultimate abilities too. (That also ignores that a champion like Azir has way more damage potential than Lux.)

Comparing her to Viktor (another of the higher tier mid lane champions at the moment) isn't much more favorable. While at lower levels Lux can trade with Viktor more easily in terms of mana costs, hers scale way higher way faster than his do on both Q and E. That would be a tolerable trade off if Lux dealt more damage than Viktor, but she doesn't. Before Viktor even upgrades the damage on his E (through the hex core) it has both higher base damages AND scaling than Lux's E. Yes, Viktor's doesn't slow, but its not like he can't buy Rylai's and then have a better slow than Lux. (Not to mention that the CC potential of his gravity field far outstrips anything Lux has to offer at the cost of being slightly less reliable than Lux's CC.)

TL;DR Version: I can tolerate higher mana costs on Lux if she was dealing more damage than other mid laners. She isn't. I could tolerate lower damage if she had lower mana costs. She doesn't. Even then, I guess I could tolerate that particular gate on her mana/damage if she was offering more utility than other midlaners... (You can see where I'm going with this.) She doesn't. Either the mana gating should go, or she should get some kind of compensation for her VERY high mana costs.

TourianAug 14, 20151 votes

Victor himself is actually a big problem for mid ATM. He's supposed to have a high skill cap but who needs skill when one of your spells does half a non tanks health on a comparatively low CD? Coming from someone who has taken the time to play him btw.

ZhuganAug 14, 20152 votes

I actually don't think Viktor is that bad, honestly. Yes, he has a lot of damage, but he is low mobility and, other than his laser, relatively low range. At the moment Viktor is crowding out other champions more because he has an insanely easy path into the mid-game with a hex core + any 1 other ap item build, and the need to have some sort of ranged farming tool that at least one shots caster minions, if not melees as well.

The only thing about Viktor that I find obnoxious is how he's allowed to exist in the state that he does, yet champions that are in a similar role are left far weaker than Viktor is for reasons that are completely incomprehensible. Most other mid range burst/control mages are relatively weak (Azir and Viktor actually stick out for being the exceptions to that rule) compared to assassins and poke champions mid lane. I can't remember the last time that I saw a Lux/Brand/Ziggs/Lissandra/Malzahar/Vel'koz/Veigar in a pro match do well. I haven't even seen any of those champions in a Challenger Series match do well.

Now, some of those have to do with pretty glaring weaknesses (Brand's ulti is unreliable with how it fizzles, Veigar's early game is awful, Malzahar's ultimate can be cleansed out of, etc), but they aren't given any kind of compensation for those glaring weaknesses or changes to their kits to allow them to function with those weaknesses intact if they are meant to be parts of those champions' gameplay.

Viktor, conversely, has obvious weaknesses (squishy, low range, relatively low mobility) but he also has effective ways to compensate for those weaknesses with good play. That is kind of the sign of a well made and balanced champion, unlike the state that the aforementioned champions are left in.

HeraldAug 14, 20155 votes

I think there isn't one huge glaring problem that Lux suffers from, but a lot of little/medium things that make her a less viable pick.

- Mana Probably her biggest issue. Most of her spells cost too much when she hits around level 4. She's pretty much forced to get Athene's no matter what, which isn't that big of a deal but again it doesn't really leave her the option of going Morello's/Tear/RoA.

- Other Champs Can Do What She Does But Better While not saying that there is a champion that can 1-up all her skills, most of her skills can be done by better champions whether in terms of utility or power. Besides Lux's Iconic Ult which got name-nerfed, her skills aren't as strong as other mid-lane mages. I don't know if people would agree with the following assessment but I'll give it a whirl. Passive: Illumination - I think when she was first released her passive made a lot of sense. She had to risk more by attacking to get the most out of her spells and it actually differentiated good vs great Lux players. But as time passed, mobility creep pretty much makes her passive not worth procing. Assassins (Ahri, Zed, Talon, etc) who have strong mobility pretty much force her not to AA them because they have easy ways to all-in even if they get rooted. I feel like an okay buff would be to let other people proc it for her so it could boost her support/team potential since she works well in a comp that can protect her or hard cc the team.

Q: Light Binding - 2 Sec Root. Not bad on paper. But her Q missile speed is 1200 and has a small hitbox. Lets compare to other straight skill shots with cc attached to it. Ahri : E--ProjectileSpeed=1587(1600) 1-2 Charm (Way better than root) Elise : E--ProjectileSpeed=1437(1400) 1.6-2 Stun (Faster and better than a root) Leblanc : E--ProjectileSpeed=1559(1600) 1.5 Root (Kind of holds up to the same standard, less root time for faster speed. Has a smaller hitbox I believe) Leona : E--ProjectileSpeed=1970(2000) (Harder to compare since this is a tank support with a root, but still almost twice as fast!) Lulu : Q--ProjectileSpeed=1513(1500) (Another Utility Mage who's kit is just better than Lux utility-wise. Sure it's a slow but it's 80% and you can safely use it with her E) Morgana : Q--ProjectileSpeed=1173(1200) (Same speed here, but up to 3 sec root and bigger hitbox) Point is most spells with CC are way faster than Lux and are more reliable in the long run.

W: Prismatic Barrier - I actually like this skill a lot, lots of potential here for a great Lux to thrive in team-fights. I think the problem I encounter most is the fact that it isn't as instant and reliable as other shields. Most other shields from other supports/mages are generally instant (but only affect 1-2 people at most, except for a Mantra-ed Karma Shield). This makes it less reliable since a lot of fights can be decided in the blink of an eye.

E: Lucent Singularity - Her Damage Skill with a slow, but kinda crappy slow. Honestly Ori's W beats this in almost every aspect. The missile speed iirc on this is 1300, which again, if you wanted to compare it makes it relatively easier to dodge than other mages. The recent buffs to let her pre-det were nice, but I think it needs a slight buff in missile speed/utility/mana cost.

**R: Finales Fukeln - What is Final Spark? ** I think her Ult has no major issues. Only thing are it's bugs where it gets mis-aimed randomly.

Overall her kit isn't bad, just lackluster. Lacks strong utility to make her a support, and lacks skills that are reliable to make her a decent mage. I think back in 2011/2012 she was more viable, but now there are just too many champs that do a better job than she does. Kind of how Taric used to be an OP support, but now there are just better supports around.

- Lack of Mobility I'm going to refer to one of her past nerfs that I wish would get reverted.

v3.05 Balance Update On top of her long range and wide array of defensive utility, Lux was also among the fastest ranged champions in the game. These changes force Lux to be more mindful of her timing and positioning as opponents now have more opportunities to capitalize on her mistakes.
Base Movement Speed reduced to 330 from 340 

I know it's only 10 movement speed, but I feel like it was making her lack of mobility even more crappy. She is a Kiting Mage that has been around for 3 years and has been way too easy to catch nowadays. Moreover with items like item 3800 and her lack of strong/reliable CC, she's probably in the same class as Zyra who, hey what do you know sucks in the meta now as well.

- What does she need then? To be honest I'm not entirely sure. She does great in ARAM and Dominion, but ask her to be in SR and she'll be an easy mid lane to gank or a support that just can't do as well as everyone else. I think her risk/reward in her kit should be tuned, probably on her passive and W or E. Maybe add MS when she procs her passive so she can escape a bit or let her gain some mana to offset her costs? Her pure skill-shot kit I believe should feel more rewarding. Moreover I believe she needs to be slightly more defined in either her utility or poke potential. She just doesn't fully excel in either, while other viable mages utility or not, can be more defined as one or the other. Lastly, when Lux gets behind she is pretty much useless. She ends up doing little to no damage. And the utility in her kit just won't cut it to make plays.

I don't know if that was helpful or even 100% on topic, but I hope that was informative!

CrossetteAug 15, 20152 votes

I hate Lux's damage. Her Q seems a bit too wide. That's about it. I don't feel she's too weak, but she can be countered by anyone that can dodge (with any bit of mobility)

And yes those mana costs are a bit excessive, but they're fair for her power.

Edit: Lux is easily countered if you get into melee range while she can't cast spells. (silence or cooldowns)

46104328_DELAug 16, 20152 votes

{quoted}

I hate Lux's damage. Her Q seems a bit too wide. That's about it. I don't feel she's too weak, but she can be countered by anyone that can dodge (with any bit of mobility)

And yes those mana costs are a bit excessive, but they're fair for her power.

Edit: Lux is easily countered if you get into melee range while she can't cast spells. (silence or cooldowns)

See, I disagree, as then, she now doesn't have to aim at all, E's her own feet, and then gets two feet away, and ults, your dead.

FalconPawwwwnchAug 14, 201511 votes

Yea Lux is so weak she's one of the most popular champs and has a 52% win rate

http://www.lolking.net/champions/

CosnirakAug 14, 20151 votes

And Ahri, Heimerdinger, and Malzahar are the gods of winning.... Those numbers mean ridiculously little in terms of actual champion balance. There are so many factors involved when you try to look at something like total win rate.

FalconPawwwwnchAug 14, 20158 votes

Except I'm pretty sure Ahri is broken as hell right now in all levels of play which is why she's getting nerfed next patch

Stevev45Aug 14, 20152 votes

Those champs are all nasty strong in solo que right now.

RocketRelmAug 14, 201510 votes

To be fair, I kind of agree. Lux is in a bad spot right now, I remember back in season 3 or so when I was learning the game and starting to main Morgana. Lux was a champion I liked as a sniper mage, but the more I actually learned how to play the game, the more I kept thinking "Why am I trying to make Lux work when Morgana is literally a better Lux in ALL capacities?"

I think a lot of the problem is that a fair bit of her power is funneled into that easy mode spam e poke. That E is borderline Pre-Rework Nidalee in obnoxiousness, so when Lux is strong with it, she's toxic. You could make that like Gragas Q where it scales up with time waited, except not make the damage suck like they deliberately did with Gragas Q. Cuts power out which lets you put more power into the charged up state. Lux E right now MAGIC DAMAGE: 60 / 105 / 150 / 195 / 240 (+ 60% AP) Lux E with Delay MAGIC DAMAGE: 40 / 70 / 100 / 130 / 160 (+ 45% AP) scaling up to 80 / 140 / 200 / 260 / 320 (+ 90% AP) after 2 seconds

Also, you could solidify Lux as the Lazor mage by letting her R cooldown go down by 1 every time she pops her passive, counting the passives the R pops E-R a minion wave and it'd have a significantly lesser cool down.

Danyul TargaryenAug 14, 20152 votes

{quoted}

To be fair, I kind of agree. Lux is in a bad spot right now, I remember back in season 3 or so when I was learning the game and starting to main Morgana. Lux was a champion I liked as a sniper mage, but the more I actually learned how to play the game, the more I kept thinking "Why am I trying to make Lux work when Morgana is literally a better Lux in ALL capacities?"

I think a lot of the problem is that a fair bit of her power is funneled into that easy mode spam e poke. That E is borderline Pre-Rework Nidalee in obnoxiousness, so when Lux is strong with it, she's toxic. You could make that like Gragas Q where it scales up with time waited, except not make the damage suck like they deliberately did with Gragas Q. Cuts power out which lets you put more power into the charged up state. Lux E right now MAGIC DAMAGE: 60 / 105 / 150 / 195 / 240 (+ 60% AP) Lux E with Delay MAGIC DAMAGE: 40 / 70 / 100 / 130 / 160 (+ 45% AP) scaling up to 80 / 140 / 200 / 260 / 320 (+ 90% AP) after 2 seconds

Also, you could solidify Lux as the Lazor mage by letting her R cooldown go down by 1 every time she pops her passive, counting the passives the R pops E-R a minion wave and it'd have a significantly lesser cool down.

that is a very bad idea

Sire HippingtonAug 14, 20152 votes

for what reason? it allows to add good waveclear to lux(something luxplayers seem to complain about awfully oftern) without makeing her easy-mode E-poke obnoxious.

It adds more zoneing-potntial(walking into a fully charged E actually hurts) It adds more meaning to the slow as not explodeing it instantly is more desireable. It adss aditional snyergie with her Q

An other idea would be adding a dot to it till it explodes, effecktilvy serving the same purpose, less damage on a isntant pop, more damage if you can delay the pop, lbut more focused on keeping enemies in the aoe, so not a 1-1 copy from gragas Q change. You could even go as far as increasing the aoe a bit over the duration, putting more focuse on controlling teamfights rather than easy poke+ 1-shoting quishys. This would also help more in finding a niche between zoggs and xerath. Xerath is a good poke mage with decent sniping skills, but little zone controle, Ziggs is a poke mage with alot controll, but little snipping, lux offers decent poke, decent controll, good snipes., so she isn't that different from xerath.

With some changes to her E, she could become a controll+sniper mage, while xerath is poke+sniper and ziggs is poke+controll.

Danyul TargaryenAug 15, 20152 votes

[{quoted}](name=Don Pavoni,realm=EUW,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=EOtRUl6A,comment-id=000200010000,timestamp=2015-08-14T21:53:54.616+0000)

for what reason? it allows to add good waveclear to lux(something luxplayers seem to complain about awfully oftern) without makeing her easy-mode E-poke obnoxious.

It adds more zoneing-potntial(walking into a fully charged E actually hurts) It adds more meaning to the slow as not explodeing it instantly is more desireable. It adss aditional snyergie with her Q

An other idea would be adding a dot to it till it explodes, effecktilvy serving the same purpose, less damage on a isntant pop, more damage if you can delay the pop, lbut more focused on keeping enemies in the aoe, so not a 1-1 copy from gragas Q change. You could even go as far as increasing the aoe a bit over the duration, putting more focuse on controlling teamfights rather than easy poke+ 1-shoting quishys. This would also help more in finding a niche between zoggs and xerath. Xerath is a good poke mage with decent sniping skills, but little zone controle, Ziggs is a poke mage with alot controll, but little snipping, lux offers decent poke, decent controll, good snipes., so she isn't that different from xserath.

With some changes to her E, she could become a controll+sniper mage, while xerath is poke+sniper and ziggs is poke+controll.

For literally every reason. You lower the damage so much she wont have any poke no one is gonna sit in her e for 2 seconds. Gragas starts at 60% ap and goes up. You made hers start at 45 and end where gragas does. It makes no sense and its a really bad idea it gives her waveclear kinda but completely decimates her poke

Sire HippingtonAug 15, 20153 votes

i didn't make up any numbers, as i didn't write the first post. Numbers are always subjects to change, no need to worrie about them. The important thing is the idea of makeing her E a bit less powerfull if instantly exploded, so nerfing her poke, but increase the power of her E if delayed, so it gives more waveclear and zonecontroll, as well as more damge if she first lands the snare(though thats kinda dangerous as it increases her '1-shot that squishy' potential even more)

CosnirakAug 15, 20152 votes

I for one think it's a really cool idea. The best idea? I'm not sure. Worth Riot spending some time exploring? Heck yeah.

Jungle Lux GodAug 14, 201510 votes

Just seeing Lux get picked in competitive play suggests that she's in a somewhat decent spot right now, even if it's not a good spot.

Considering she was picked into one of the strongest mid laners at the time when other mids were available, and you can make the argument that Lux is strong enough to be worth a pick, even if it didn't work out.

Even then you can't really just take one game and say that "Lux is bad", because one game doesn't decide balance. A large quantity of games is needed to gather a large enough sample size in order to determine whether a champion's balance is in a healthy state or not.

CosnirakAug 14, 20157 votes

"Just seeing Lux get picked in competitive play suggests that she's in a somewhat decent spot right now, even if it's not a good spot."

She was picked by someone known to play her a lot for fun but not in competitive play (because she's bad) in a match that they have no reason to care about winning. It was literally chosen for the fans.

"Considering she was picked into one of the strongest mid laners at the time when other mids were available, and you can make the argument that Lux is strong enough to be worth a pick, even if it didn't work out."

She got crushed and was almost completely useless all game. IIRC she died the most and so basically fed the enemy team if anything.

"Even then you can't really just take one game and say that "Lux is bad", because one game doesn't decide balance. A large quantity of games is needed to gather a large enough sample size in order to determine whether a champion's balance is in a healthy state or not."

This is absolutely true. But try finding games of Lux in really competitive play.... That's the problem, she isn't there because she's bad. I've watched a lot of people like Lilypichu and A Little Jenny (Jennyeatsbabies on twitch) play Lux at a diamond level. If she gets a little fed her damage can start to really get up there and be a real threat. But there are tons of other mid lane mages that can do the same thing even better.

darkdillAug 14, 20158 votes

Lux is one of my main mages, so I could tell you where her problems lie.

No mobility whatsoever.
Her long-range isn't nearly as safe anymore with high-mobility assassins being strong against her.
Her counterpicks include Ahri, Yasuo, Fizz, and Xerath, all who are popular mid picks.
Lux simply cannot kill tanks effectively, lacking any sort of % health damage. She also can't effectively use Liandry's Torment, making her unable to handle powerful tanks like Dr. Mundo or Volibear.
Lux's E has a nasty mana cost, limiting her early purchase options essentially to Chalice of Harmony or Forbidden Idol. She CANNOT deviate from this without shooting herself in the foot.
Being completely skill-shot reliant, Lux is bad against mobile opponents who can dodge her attacks.
Lux pales in comparison as a support compared to Morgana and lacks Orianna's utility, while being outperformed in damage by Xerath and Ziggs. She essentially tries to be more versatile, but pays for it in terms of power and overall utility.
The usefulness of Lux's passive goes drastically down at the mid-game, when she cannot afford to get into autoattack range of an enemy. If she does, she'll generally get sniped when the enemy jumps on her.
Lastly, Lux's reliance on going 40% CDR means her builds are kinda limited; she essentially has to choose between Luden's Echo or Zhonya's Hourglass, and can't really build tanky or build AA Staff.

Lux is not bad by ANY stretch, but there are several things that hold her back. The main problem for her is that when you want something out of her, there's generally someone else who can do that job, but do it better than her.

That said, she's a good mid-lane counterpick to Azir.