Lucian and the current meta

I would like a Red's opinion or explanation on Lucian if possible

He has always been one of my favorite champion concepts, he was the first champ I paid for RP for (Dryad Soraka was my first purchased skin and that was with the free RP at level 4 or 5) but ever since the nerf-fest of Season 4 I've seen him disappear.

Now, we've all seen Riot admit they overbalanced (read: nerfed to oblivion) a champ that was considered OP. Remember Kassadin a couple patches back? Let's look at what happened to Lucian:

4.12

Attack Range: 550 ⇒ 500 Base Movement Speed: 330 ⇒ 335 Base Health: 470 ⇒ 500 Base Attack Damage: 49 ⇒ 52

They made him the shortest ranged ADC in the game, although alone this wasn't his downfall. He was given other base stat buffs to compensate, which weren't great but weren't yet overkill. This alone would have been fine.

Q - Piercing Light NEW Farmcian: Piercing Light now deals 75% ⇒ 100% damage to minions Cast Range: 550 ⇒ 500 Cost: 60/65/70/75/80 mana ⇒ 50/55/60/65/70 mana 

His Q cast range was reduced, which is perfectly fair. It's to match with his auto range. They buffed the minion damage and reduced the mana cost. Nothing to complain about here.

E - Relentless Pursuit NEW Now With More Relentlessness: Cooldown is now reduced by 1 second per Lightslinger (passive) hit, doubles against enemy champions (2 second reduction per hit, 4 seconds total for a full passive proc) NEW Now With More Pursuit: 60/45/30/15/0 mana ⇒ 0 mana at all ranks NEW Smooth Shooter: Lucian now resets his basic attack timer upon dashing Cooldown: 18/16/14/12/10 seconds ⇒ 14/13/12/11/10 seconds REMOVED Culled: Relentless Pursuit no longer resets on kill during The Culling

THIS is what made Lucian still viable back in the day. A costless dash that rewarded him for getting in the enemy's face and popping off a passive proc. He became a short ranged mobile attacker who was required to go aggressive to keep the pressure on. The removal of the ult reset wasn't that heartbreaking. The base cooldown being reduced was possibly an overbuff on their part when mixed with the mana cost removal but it was just one gimmick he had. Nothing too dangerous or unfair.

4.12 was Lucian's first trip on the Season 4 nerf train. It wasn't too horrible, with a little bit of damage done but not too much. Left like this, I'd say he was still VERY powerful, but balanced. I played as and against him often after this change.

4.13 E - Relentless Pursuit "REMOVED" OCCASIONALLY RELENTING: Relentless Pursuit no longer removes slows COOLDOWN: 14/13/12/11/10 seconds ⇒ 18/17/16/15/14 seconds

This started the downward spiral of overbalancing. The cooldown being set back wasn't that horrible, but removing the slow-escape first off ruined something I found funny, related to the lore (Thresh, his main enemy, has two slowing abilities, he has a dash to break slows) and also removed part of his mobility. This could have been done better if only one of these two changes were made. He was dropped to a slightly lower tier of strength, but able to hold his own.

4.18

E - Relentless Pursuit COST: 0 mana ⇒ 40/30/20/10/0 mana

This is when I literally stared at the screen for a minute or two before saying out loud, "You've gotta be ****ing kidding me." They once again attacked Lucian's dash, which was the only thing that made him strong enough to go even against longer range opponents. This was when he started slipping toward unplayability; he was usable, but the skill required gave a poor return on the investment compared to other carries of the time. But, at least things couldn't get any worse, right? Right?

4.19

W - Ardent Blaze "REMOVED" ATTACK DAMAGE RATIO: 0.3 ⇒ 0.0 MOVEMENT SPEED BONUS: 40/40/40/40/40 ⇒ 40/45/50/55/60

R - The Culling COOLDOWN: 100/75/50 seconds ⇒ 110/100/90 seconds

So, let me get this straight: Lucian can't have mobility because it makes him too powerful. So, we're going to take away a lot of his damage in exchange for a miniscule movement speed boost? Lucian's popularity experienced a massive drop after 4.18 and 4.19, maybe because he was being destroyed by Riot? He had literally no strengths after this point.

Short range Low damage High cooldowns

But thank Morello we have a LITTLE mobility!

4.21

Passive - Lightslinger PASSIVE BUFF DURATION: 6 seconds ⇒ 3 seconds RATIO: 0.5 attack damage at all levels ⇒ 0.3/0.4/0.5 attack damage at levels 1/7/13

Why? WHY?! They hit his damage even harder and make him weaker when he's already fading into obscurity! They hit his damage so hard that he was basically unplayable. If he even was after 4.19. At this point it went from balancing to pure stupidity. It's like nerfing Galio.

HOW TO FIX IT

To fix this, it's simple. Decide on Lucian's identity. Do you want him to be a mobilr, in-your-face type? Then set his dash back to no cost while leaving the cooldown at its current state. Do you want him to be an AD caster? Give him back his damage ratios and nerf his dash some more.

I know, this devolved into an angry rant. But I just want to see Lucian come back as a viable pick. Give people a reason to use him again!