My thoughts on Lucian

I normally don't play carries much and the times I do I pick Graves or Lucian. So this is more for my experience of playing him and what I've seen from Regions like LCK and LPL(LCS too but ya know....whatever). I'm no means the best player so I'm giving my opinion on Lucian and Riot's idea to buff him. To start, I like the W change and I think it's going to make him better but I don't think it will be noticeable or be a big improvement.

> Ardent Blaze (W): > Now gives movement speed when Lucian OR his allies damage a marked target, instead of only Lucian. > Movement speed increased to 60/65/70/75/80 from 40/45/50/55/60 > Movement speed duration lowered to 1 from 2 seconds. > Mana cost reduced to 50 from 60 >

Lucian has short range and relies on Piercing Light and passive shots to get going. The change will help with that but once Lucian can get in range ( or run away) for a full second, how will that give him a stronger impact than he already has in his current form. His passive works early game amazing well if you and your support can catch someone. But in my time of playing him and watching him be played in the pro scene, I haven't seen his passive to be all that amazing when he was behind or near even. Late game the passive is amazing but what passive from a 5 or 6 item carry isn't?

His Q requires him to stop momentarily and while other carries have "charge" abilities they aren't reliant on them for their kit to be significant. The Q can miss and factoring his range that's short enough for champs such as Maokai, Braum, Gragas and Thresh to shut him down, it gets difficult to apply damage without CC coming in to help you. Now if you can land your Q's, and you should be able to more than enough times, it isn't that much of a problem. Though it seems Lucian is too reliant on hitting with this ability in a teamfight, especially against mobile engagements. In lane, it's okay but minions can be weird and cause your Q to shoot off mark.

To sum up. Lucian has short range and benefits more from raw AD than other carries, which makes lane results and cs scores more important than most. The change to Ardent Blaze will help him close in, but I don't think it will be significant. Lucian still has problems trying to catch back up where other carries like Sivir, Graves and Kalista can still benefit the team either from AoE damage ult or team utility when behind. I think this is why Lucian loses far more often in the pro scene and if he does win it's because it was far into lategame or was ahead really early on. A Jinx with a good rocket or a Kalista that can kite is near game changing. A Graves that ults 4 people can make teamfights better for you. Lucian doesn't really provide anything for his team and doesn't have a game changing ability that allows him to catch up other than be fed and kill things. He's super reliant on his own kit to work for him and trying to utilize his passive with his kit is already difficult.

Like I said, W is a good idea, because it will let him gain movespeed to be mobile. But I also don't think this is the only change that will help him. I think making his passive better would be a good next step. What do you guys think?

2cents