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Let's discuss Lux

Ceol·5/25/2017, 4:20:12 PM·3 votes·955 views

Hey all, Lux

Been a Lux main for quite some time now. Love her thematic, her personality, lore, etc. and have stuck with her through thick and then. Recently, I feel that she has become quite an ineffective mid-laner, whom only ever does anything if she gets very ahead. Now, I'm not saying she doesn't offer anything to the team when behind, but it is quite dilute and scarce aid should she be behind. Lux's current purpose and functionality is long ranged poke and the capability of bursting two (or more) carries/opponents out of a fight. However, with itemisation changes (y banshees, y GA, y Death's Dance), her functionality as a burst mage honestly feels quite compromised. And without her fulfilling this role, she can feel quite useless. I guess what I'm getting at is, inherently, Lux is a binary champion. Now, that's not necessarily a bad thing, but I'm here hoping that we could possibly provide feedback as to what changes could aid in enhancing Lux and her thematic.

Feel free to disagree, as this only serves as a discussion upon the state of Lux and her gameplay.

Currently OpGG states that she has a 45.72% WR with a 2.72% Playrate. However, Lolalytics states that she has a 48.96% WR with a 10.18% Playrate. Not entirely sure how relevant these are (or accurate), I can't for myself state whichever is correct but I think it may be safe to say that our Light Mage isn't performing as well as other mage counterparts.

To start with, the addition of a Cooldown Reset on Lux's ultimate was a horrible idea. Lux's main issues is remaining relevant and a threat without her ultimate. However, with scaling magic resist and the addition of various defensive options for carries, she finds great difficulty in actually bursting anyone - This makes her redundant. She offers comparatively long cooldown utility and mediocre damage without her ultimate and this change has done nothing to rectify this. It only aids as a snowballing tool. Perhaps, a simple change may just be that the Cooldown Reset on Final Spark is changed to "Every time Lux procs her passive on an enemy champion, Final Spark's cooldown is decreased by (X) seconds." This would be an interesting mechanic, and offer Lux less downtime in exchange for riskier gameplay. What this does not change; however, is what many people find as "toxic gameplay". Noone likes being Q>E>R'd from Fog of War and dying instantly; however, Lux's Q is the only way (besides team cc) that she can reliably apply her damage and should be rewarded for it. Quite the dilemma when your reward is an ADC that either has a GA (forcing you to be on a 30 second zone of irrelevance) or has enough MR to live through it and lifesteal back up (again, rendering you relatively irrelevant). As a comparison, Syndra, outside of her ultimate still has a great deal of damage available in her q>w>e and still has kill pressure when it is down - compared to Lux, whom without ult, has great difficulty killing anyone.

Perhaps we could offer gameplay changes? This is only a possible rework suggestion, minor changes could possibly be necessary.

[Passive] Illumination: Lux's abilities grant vision for the duration of their cast and additionally grant vision (not true sight) of opponents struck by her spells for 3/5/7 seconds.

  • Helps her utility be unique to her thematic: "Light Mage" and would be interesting with regard to engaging and objective control.

[Q] Light Binding: Remains the same. Functions quite nicely. Range: 1175 Cooldown: 15/14/13/12/11 seconds. Damage: 50/100/150/200/250 + 0.7AP

-- If Light Binding passes through the Prismatic Lens, the range is extended to 1500 and passes through all units, snaring them for 2 seconds.

New - [W] Prismatic Lens: Lux conjures a barrier of Light that functions as a Lens, slowing enemy projectiles that pass through it by 50% and granting Lux an enhanced ability if she casts an ability through it. The lens gradually decreases in Health as opposing projectiles pass through it and if Lux casts a skill through it, the lens shatters. Width: 500 units Duration: 7/7.5/8/8.5/10 seconds Cooldown: 25/24/23/22/21 seconds. Health: 5/6/7/8/10 (1 projectile = 1 health)

-- My reasoning behind this skill (though I love the wand toss animation) is to give Lux choice in her ability use and increase her versatility. It would give Lux specific decisions to make during combat. Her shield is quite obsolete at this point, and only functions as a small resistant to poke. "Do I leave this out so my team can dodge [skillshot]? Or should I place it in front of my ADC who's currently dueling the other ADC (granting them almost like a Death's Dance)? When should I use my enhanced ability?

[E] Lucent Singularity: Lux fires a singularity that grows in size for 2 seconds. The skill can be detonated early prior to its complete evolution. Enemies within the zone are gradually drawn towards its centre (rather than a direct slow, think of it as a gradual Viktor W). Range: 1100 Radius: 300 --> Current Size Cooldown: 10 seconds Damage:

  • Instant Detonation 60/80/100/120/140 + 0.5 AP Gains 30 + 0.125 AP per 0.5 seconds, maxing at 180/200/220/240/260 + 1.0 AP after 2 seconds. _
  • If Lucent Singularity passes through the Prismatic Lens, it reaches its destination fully grown and instantly drags all units inside the radius towards its centre._

[R] Final Spark (now with charging!): Lux fires a dazzling ray of light in a linear zone dealing damage to all enemies within it. First cast starts the charging of the laser and the second cast detonates it. Charging the laser fuels it with more energy, granting additional damage. If the laser is fully charged, it automatically detonates. If Lux is interrupted during charging, the Laser is fired (similar to how Nunu's ultimate works). Charging takes 1.5 seconds to complete. Range: 3340 Cooldown: 80/65/50 seconds Damage:

  • Instant Detonation 150/200/250 + 0.7 AP Gains 50 + 0.2 AP per 0.5 seconds of charging, maxing at 300/350/400 + 1.3 AP

- If Final Spark passes through the Prismatic Lens, the beam widens to 1.5x it's current width and is fully charged.

With these changes, I hoped to accomplish a Lux whose damage continues to remains relatively unreliable without cc; however, rewarding Lux's who hold out a bit longer on the instant poke to reward them with greater damage potential. The removal of E's massive damage when instantly procced aids in healthier trading patterns in lane, whilst also rewarding better Luxs who utilise and position her skills effectively with higher damage potential and actual kill potential without her ultimate. Scaling has gone up across her skills and ultimate base damage has gone down to account for the removal of her passive's 0.15AP scaling. In addition, Final Spark still can function as a snipe ability; however, it is given more damage when charged (and still can be used as a full damage snipe ability if used in conjunction with W).

This was just some fun small ideas I had. Feel free to comment or discuss other possible Lux changes (Passive reducing Ult cooldown, etc.) that'll aid in reducing her binary gameplay and promote a healthier, fairer burst mage.

5 Comments

9kPluzZ5/25/2017, 5:19:14 PM2 votes

I think the problem is her worthless shield, it needs to be scraped completely. Brand, Vel, and Annie all are better support than her with no sheild, even tho we are in shielding support meta. Rly says alot.

The good mages all have decent about of sustained damage to compliment their burst, so I would start there. Full on burst mages all suck unless they oneshot you with little effort like Syndra. So my idea would be to get rid of the sheild and replace it with something that synergies with lichbane and her passive. Something to give her sustained damage.

[W] Blinding Barrage: Lux gains attack speed and deals extra magic damage [% of ap] for the next 3 auto attacks.

Craft Zeppelin5/25/2017, 5:25:22 PM2 votes

generally its the limitations of a champion that has 4 skillshots that are in the same darn line.

Shibiko6/5/2017, 12:33:42 AM1 votes

From another seasoned Lux player, I been playing League on various accounts since league started and what has kept me playing the game when I was ready to quit long ago was Lux becoming a new champion.

Some notes

one point, Lux's ult had a 0.8 ap ratio. It was pretty nice, but at the time, pretty strong. Today, it would actually be good again.

Lux used to have 340 movement speed. Which when morello nerfed her, well there was a lot of movement champs, but it was not overbearing. Now it's too much movement on other champs. Really this would be good to give back to Lux. Brand has 340 movement speed. Other mid champ get some form of movement boost. Ori, Leblanc, Ahri, Zed, Talon, Fizz, Viktor, just to name a few and the junglers and tops that have some good movement are threats.

Lux's cooldowns are actually high and mana cost are high. The reason champs like ori push waves so well is that they have a low mana cost, low cd ability to farm with high base damage. Lux doesn't have those.

At 40% cdr, Lux's ult used to be 24 seconds. Whoever thought it would be a great idea to make it 30 really hurt lux's damage output. Keep in mind, lux was considered a 2nd tier mid when that nerf came out. It took her off the map.

Her passive used to just have base damage, but then with some work it had just an ap ratio, but now it also has the base damage. However, her passive damage is really low since she shouldn't be focusing on auto attacks late game. It really should be scaling in my opinion. up to 40% so that she is relevant when she is behind.

Lux's shield used to take 1 second to go out and return. Now it takes 2 seconds. This hurt Lux MASSIVELY!!!!!!! Her shield used to have higher base shielding and vs burst champs. She could take 360 base on cast and 360 base damage on return within a second. Remember, it takes about a second for her to die in many scenarios. This took her survival-ability and punted it out the door.

In my opinion:

Lux needs cdr and damage to be useful. Movement and AP for survive-ability. And bug fixes for her actually to land some point blank kills. I just love the root and ult centered on your target, and it deals no damage.

What I'd do Passive: .25ap, at lvl 6 .30ap, at lvl 11, .35ap, at 16 .40ap, All targets become visible. Including cloak, camouflage, and fog of war.

Q: CDR 10sec lvls 1-5, 9sec lvls 6-11, 8 sec lvls 12+ Q Binds and damages all minions hit, stops after snaring 2 enemy champions. Q reactivate, like velkoz, q splits into 2 separate beams. Each beam can snare only one champion.

W: Speeds shield to return after one second. Can proc passive if it hits enemy champion and applies 50%(Only if lux's passive is buffed, otherwise 100%) of passive damage. This way the shield can be used offensively as well.

E: AP ratio to .7ap, applies passive every 1 seconds and increase slow every 1 seconds on top of current slow. Still applies stack on detonation. (What I would really love to see is her E boosting movement speed for herself and allies. Fits her support quota)

R: On Lux kill, which used Ult on the target within the pass 6 seconds, reset by 50%. (Most champs just have a kill or assist for resets. Lux with a specific use this ability only breaks league mechanics and many times an auto attack afterwards secures the kill.

Lux's movement -> 340.