High mana costs High cooldown abilities (except ult) Long range poke champ whose passive forces her to put herself in harms way to use.
IDK to me she just feels like a really poor Xerath right now even though shes honestly not bad.
EDIT: For clarification i am not a "Lux main" nor do i play mid too often or Lux very often. I just enjoy playing her every now and again.
Boswick6 votesHonestly she just needs her e cost lowered, like, a lot. It can't even one shot minion waves until high ap but costs like half her bar. Athenes buffs will help bit not enough imo.
HandheldBrandon1 votesI agree with this completely.
SleepyLionCub4 votesHer passive is really counterintuitive.
Its like giving Nasus an ability that drains his stacks to heal him or something.
Saianna5 votesI have hard time understanding your comparison.
Could you try & explain me what's "counterintuitive" in her passive?
Leti the Yeti1 votesit would be like if yasuo gained flow for standing still...
why would a long range mage have a passive that encouraged her to do the exact opposite of what she's good at
Saianna1 votesI see.. But on other hand her passive works awesome with lich bane Tbh i'd prefer if her passive stay as is
Narasimha2 voteswhy would a long range mage have a passive that encouraged her to do the exact opposite of what she's good at
Same EXACT reason why 
has his passive.
Anidan1 votesOn the plus side, Xerath's damage isn't gated by that mediocre attack range.
Not that I disagree, since you're correct. Riot doesn't want either of them to be too safe, and without their passive forcing closer-range interaction during laning, they probably would be.
Narasimha2 votesThey do slightly differ in their roles though. Xerath is a 100% sieging mage type of guy. On the other hand, Lux offers more utility with her shield, slow, and double root.
Anidan1 votesThis is true. Plus, doesn't it help her do a bit more damage early on in the game if she can reliably trigger her passive, such as in the support role? I haven't really looked at the numbers, but I'd imagine hers would be a little higher early with the passive being burnt up, with Xerath outscaling quickly.
SleepyLionCub1 votesI have hard time understanding your comparison.
Could you try & explain me what's "counterintuitive" in her passive?
Her kit and playstyle is designed to be "dont get close to me, ima poke u down then nuke u from 1200 range"
yet, her passive makes her get 550 units away from the enemy, for some ungodly reason.
VardenSalad1 votesWhile Xerath's comparatively similar passive denies him access to his spells without atcking either minions or champions, it's something that can be ignored with proper itemization or blue buff. However, Lux has her damage locked behind her passive, forcing her to interact with the enemy to be at maximum effectiveness.
Serpens1 votesNot really. Her ult procs her passive and essentially adds another 20% AP ratio to the ult. Her whole combo is also extremely potent because of her relatively high ratios. Not to mention her teamwide shield that can be extremely frustrating to play against at times. Honestly the athenes buff on the PBE will likely put her and every other waveclear mage in a good spot
Final Raid Boss1 votesit's just like kog'maw being a mid-long range champion while having a redundant passive that requires you to be in melee range. man this design team is garbage
flibitydoo4 votesFor some reason, I've had way more success playing Lux as a botlane support than a midlane mage.
Her Q is a 2 second snare at rank 1 that can also snare a secondary target for 1 second. It doesn't scale in duration like Morgana's Q, but Lux has way more burst damage and poke threat (especially early on) than Morgana ever will (her pool doesn't do a lot of damage and Morg's base attack is actually pretty low). Landing Q into a right click on the enemy ADC will incidentally proc all 3 stacks of spellthiefs (the passive explosion counts as a proc).
Her W is a nice shield (though usually I either whiff it on a dying teammate, or they run away from me even though I could have saved them had they embraced my protections). Unlike Orianna, it's aoe, and refreshes twice. It's nice for tower dives.
Her E is a nice slow. It's also a great bush scouter due to it's long range, fast travel time and large sight range. It also adds to her burst damage and can function as aoe damage later on for pushing minion waves. I really like the utility of this spell.
R is great for securing kills that have "gotten away" and the base damage is very high.
For some reason I never have mana issues as support lux, but always run into the mana gate as mid lux. Also for some reason whenever I run mid lux, 75% of the time it's Yasuo/Zed mid.
Biffolo1 votesFor some reason, I've had way more success playing Lux as a botlane support than a midlane mage.
Her Q is a 2 second snare at rank 1 that can also snare a secondary target for 1 second. It doesn't scale in duration like Morgana's Q, but Lux has way more burst damage and poke threat (especially early on) than Morgana ever will (her pool doesn't do a lot of damage and Morg's base attack is actually pretty low). Landing Q into a right click on the enemy ADC will incidentally proc all 3 stacks of spellthiefs (the passive explosion counts as a proc).
Her W is a nice shield (though usually I either whiff it on a dying teammate, or they run away from me even though I could have saved them had they embraced my protections). Unlike Orianna, it's aoe, and refreshes twice. It's nice for tower dives.
Her E is a nice slow. It's also a great bush scouter due to it's long range, fast travel time and large sight range. It also adds to her burst damage and can function as aoe damage later on for pushing minion waves. I really like the utility of this spell.
R is great for securing kills that have "gotten away" and the base damage is very high.
For some reason I never have mana issues as support lux, but always run into the mana gate as mid lux. Also for some reason whenever I run mid lux, 75% of the time it's Yasuo/Zed mid.
Idk if you were referring to range, or damage on morganas aas. But I BELIEVE she still has the highest base damage of a ranged champ. Correct me if im wrong doe.
Madra3 votesHer passive is there to introduce SOME form of incentive to risk getting close to the enemy. Those were different times back then.
NorthernDruid3 votesI feel like if she had like, 50-100 higher AA range she'd be fine. Especially with the incoming grail buffs.
Better attack windup would also help really.
She just feels kinda clunky at the moment.
Crett2 votesyou ever had fun playing AGAINST lux? NOT ME I HOPE SHE has as many problems as possible lol
Zil Ult Jesus1 votesAgreed, i havent seen her played alot anymore, and i used to alot. But now its like i never play her and when i do i do shitty
HandheldBrandon2 votesYeah i feel like she's not a bad champ just really really outdated.
Sona Ping10 votesIt's not even "outdated"; she's just has problems she should not even have.
Remember when Riot said they were going to be adjusting mana costs because they didn't want mana to hold champions back from being useful? When they took a bunch of champion's ult cost down to 100 mana because mana shouldn't be such a bar to them? Well, I do remember that they nerfed Athene's because "it was used as a simple fix for all mana issues". Meanwhile Lux's E costs 130 mana at rank five and Athene's is a core item for her.
Krys Star1 votes[{quoted}](name=Sona Ping,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=KP2cxxgc,comment-id=000000000000,timestamp=2015-03-21T04:25:17.799+0000)
It's not even "outdated"; she's just has problems she should not even have.
Remember when Riot said they were going to be adjusting mana costs because they didn't want mana to hold champions back from being useful? When they took a bunch of champion's ult cost down to 100 mana because mana shouldn't be such a bar to them? Well, I do remember that they nerfed Athene's because "it was used as a simple fix for all mana issues". Meanwhile Lux's E costs 130 mana at rank five and Athene's is a core item for her.
Athene's is getting a huge, gigantic buff though. This should help a majority of mages. 100% mana regen AND 30% maximum mana restored on kill/assist is REALLY, REALLY huge. Although they're also reducing Zigg's mana cost a bit, so I'm sure he's just going to outshine her then. :d
HandheldBrandon1 votesThat's the main problem i have with Lux is her E mana cost.
Its her "primary spell" yet its mana cost is so high and its cooldown isn't too low either it just makes her feel like a slow champion. Her whole combo feels kinda slow tbh maybe they should clean up those animations.
DanofDemacia1 votesYeah shes currently my fave champion. Her mana cost are insane and the damage on her e is so low without her passive ad when u try to proc it they jst run away and you have no way of catching them or getting away.. Shes just outdate. The newer long range mages have more in thier kits.
Jefftiffy1 votesYeah shes currently my fave champion. Her mana cost are insane and the damage on her e is so low without her passive ad when u try to proc it they jst run away and you have no way of catching them or getting away.. Shes just outdate. The newer long range mages have more in thier kits.
You forget how much utility her ult has with its massive range and damage plus her hidden damage in her passive. Late game it does 1000 damage per target without passive procs for over 300 which meant she hit her E which was about 400 damage or more.
DanofDemacia1 votesYou forget how much utility her ult has with its massive range and damage plus her hidden damage in her passive. Late game it does 1000 damage per target without passive procs for over 300 which meant she hit her E which was about 400 damage or more.
Range and damage dont count as utility lol. :P i never said her ult was bad but all it brings is straight damage no utility.
bad arcade kitty1 votesshe does some crazy damage with or without procing the passive, mana costs are insane too they are going to buff athenes soon btw
The newer long range mages have more in thier kits.
if you mean xerath that 'newer' mage is around for like 2+ years or so
DanofDemacia1 votesshe does some crazy damage with or without procing the passive, mana costs are insane too they are going to buff athenes soon btw
if you mean xerath that 'newer' mage is around for like 2+ years or so
Well he is newer though. and he does have slightly more in his kit. His main poke is stronger but it is easier to dodge o i get that. His w i think it is does more damage in the center the the rest its those small things im talking about. Also ziggs has more in his kit to.
LoRdJeSuS69694201 votesI think her only real issue seems to be relatively high mana costs. And since they look like they are buffing grail soon, that should be a little less of an issue. She hasn't been changed at all in ages, with the exception of a small buff to her passive.
BeerOfRoot48431 votes130 MANA
No other words needed.
Stars Shaper1 votesFirst 2 things are for balance sake.
Third thing applies to Xerath too (and it will gimp his mana to a level worse than Lux if not used nearly on-cd) and his ultimate is really subpar compared to Lux (and this applies to Ziggs too) expecially if you think she can cast it an enormous amount of times and also procs her passive
Kaipop1 votesshes my favorite champ right now and i do really well with her but 130 mana on the ability you have to max first makes no sense it needs to be reduced. i think her passive is fine because if you are far away you can proc it with ult or if you are close to the enemy you can auto in between spells while kiting them
CoolKnightST1 votesThis is all what 
needs:
Uliekdat1 votesinstead of using ignite use exhaust. makes her a little more tolerable to play in lane
Bisaknosp1 votesi dont want her mana costs reduced to be honest i mean playing against lux is so boring and annoying a buff would make it worse imagine a lux spamming her e 24/7 clearing waves/aoe poke with good range no thanks
straight4free1 votesThe (enormous) buff to Athene's on the PBE should help her out. I would wait to see where that leaves her before anything gets changed.
HandheldBrandon1 votesI wouldn't even call that an enormous buff i would say they are bringing it back to its pre nerf values.
femmé1 votesya i do feel like xerath is just a better lux
RoyaiChaos1 votesImo they just need to give the ms they took away from her back.
Final Raid Boss1 votesyeah lmao that 130 mana cost e. the fuck riot? a basic ability costs more than almost all ultimates in the game? ROFL. and not to mention she is one of the squishiest champs in the game. having 1000 hp is ridiculous, no way to recover from even the smallest amounts of the damage, screw this garbage champion.