@Meddler: Please talk to us about Lux
EDIT: Downvoted for asking Meddler to talk to us. Joy.
Lux has hit a bad spot ever since Season 5 started and her mana costs basically ruined her. 130 mana on her E for something that has worse cooldown and worse damage output than pretty much all other mage waveclear spells is something that is becoming intolerable. Lots of people think the same, but whenever it's brought up, no official reply is made.
Here's something someone else posted to put it in context:
Its base damage and ap scaling are pretty poor for a 10 second cd, 130 mana cost ability. It can't even clear the caster minions. Other mages' main damage/waveclear spells for comparison:
E - 10s cooldown, 240 base and 60% AP scaling. 130 mana.
W - 9s cooldown, 250 base and 70% AP scaling. 110 mana.
Q - 4s cooldown, 230 base and 60% AP scaling (versus minions), 264.5 base and 69.5% AP scaling (versus Champions). 80 mana.
Q - 5s cooldown, 240 base and 75% AP scaling. 120 mana.
Q - 4s cooldown, 255 base and 65% AP scaling. 70 mana.
E - 9s cooldown, 250 base and 70% AP scaling. With evolution, 350 base and 98% AP scaling. 110 mana.
Q - 7s cooldown, 280 base and 70% AP scaling, with half of that being true damage. 85 mana.
In every case, Lux's E has the lowest base damage, lowest AP scaling, highest cooldown, and highest mana cost. All of these abilities aside from her E clears the casters in one cast. In other words, her E doesn't kill a single minion by itself until late game, which lets her be shoved under tower and roamed on. This is actually a huge indirect nerf in season 5 due to minions' buffed health, which took away her ability to wave clear but not that of other mages.
Yes, it has utility, but most of the time the slow on it is lost because you either detonate it immediately or the enemy walks out of it. Vision is good, but I think the downsides are too many for too few upsides. On a 10 second cd, I don't think upping the damage a tiny bit so it can kill caster minions is going to break it.
#What problems does this cause?
- Lux is required to rush either Morellonomicon or Athene's Unholy Grail. She basically cannot deviate from this, or her mana problems are too severe.
- Lux cannot kill ranged minions with a single E, and is required to last-hit using her basic attack to trigger Illumination. Many mobile opponents can jump on her at this point, negating her safety.
- Even after obtaining her mana regeneration items, Lux's E causes multiple mana burnouts until she hits level 18.
But wait, there's more! Lux also has some serious control issues with her W and E.
For her E, unlike Gragas' Q, Lux cannot "pre-detonate" her E. As such, she's left with an awkward 0.1-0.2 seconds when her E arrives at its target where she cannot detonate it. It is EXTREMELY frustrating to watch a kill escape because of that control issue.
For her W, Lux doesn't get any shield from Prismatic Barrier until after the casting animation finishes. Other shield-capable supports like Janna, Karma, and Lulu, can instantly shield themselves without having to wait for the end of a cast animation. Yes, Lux can shield multiple allies multiple times, but does she have to get killed so often because of a stupid animation delay? That just feels punishing.
Bottom line, Lux has had the short end of the stick for too long. She either needs the mana cost on her E reduced to make her safer (i.e. doesn't burn out as much and doesn't need to autoattack farm as much against mid-lane assassins), or her E needs a minor damage buff. Also fix up the aforementioned control issues, and Lux will be in good shape. I don't think they'd make her broken.
Please respond, Meddler.
