Why does ADC Lucian always go through long periods of being underpowered after short periods of op?

Violent Hunter··23 votes·5,353 views

If someone from Riot could answer this for me I'd appreciate it. I'm a person that loves to play Lucian. He is the reason i really stuck with the game. In the 4 years of playing I've noticed the same trend and that is he is almost always kept perpetually weak and it usually happens after something breaks him.

Season 5 is an example where as far as i know nothing broke him he was just bad period. I remember the year of Loscian clearly. He was bad (of course I still played him), the community knew he was bad, and until you did the marksman rework for season six, he spent the entire season 5 as not even viable.

Season 6 it was been Blade/Cleaver and Armor Pen before the lethality rework mid season. Before that he was in a an ok spot. Still kept weak like usual and he got range nerfs and item nerfs again. Then the mid seasoon Armor Pen thing happens and he received nerfs to handle him using those. He was the only one to get meaningful nerfs that abused armor pen. Miss Fortune with armor pen didn't get any nerfs. Jhin with armor pen received a very small nerf that did not kill his viability when they were abusing the same items that Lucian was. However Lucian was nerfed basically out of viability as he was the worst adc for 7+ patches and didn't even get a buff til 7.1 and it was only 20 damage on q. He still remained the worst.

Then in season 7 blade of the ruined king rework again tipped the scales. He again gets nerfed and the items get nerfed. Ok he wasn't bad still near the worst adc but at least he was still viable bot then the Ardent meta happens and pros figured out he can bully mid lane he was again Nerfed and given 0 compensation to help bot lane Lucian. So now we are sitting at 10 patches where he is now been the worst ADC bot lane and not had anything done to him.

I just want to know why does this happen where he is good for a short when compared to the amount of time prior he was in a weakened state.. He gets nerfed and left alone to stay at or near the bottom for a long time. I love to play Lucian, but i also want to climb and right now I can't do that playing Lucian. Thinking about that it brought me to wonder why does this happen to him so often. He is left very weak and is untouched for extremely long periods of time. I just want to know why. I understand if a champion is overpowered he deserves nerfs. He needed those nerfs. What i fail to understand though is why is he left in an under-powered state for many patches without any warning or anything. Poppy(before rework), Azir, and kalista as examples you actually told the community that those champions were going to be kept weak til you could tend to them. Why not tell us that about Lucian if this is the case? Then I'd understand. The community hasn't heard that as far as I know so it leaves me wondering why? If anyone from Riot could give me an answer I'd appreciate it. I just want to know why. I don't care that he is getting buffs in 8.4. I just want to know why does he stay in a weak state for so long without at least a, "hey he is a balance problem so we will keep him in a weak state til we can give him a extensive look at." If that is the reason then Ok I understand but I just want to know something.

49 Comments

Whisper8721 votes

It's partially his design and partially the state of the game. I'll talk about state of the game first since that one is easier.

  1. Right now the whole kill lane bottom thing is kind of gone. In order to remain viable like any kind of bottom lane including enchanters have decent kill pressure. So in order to make a burst ADC like Lucian or Corki maintain enough burst to where they do significantly more upfront damage than other ADC's, at this point that level of burst would be freaking nuts (damage creep). So instead they nerfed both of those two out of viability in bottom and left them just strong enough to survive in the mid lane where their base damages (in the context of a 1v1 and solo lane XP) are still decent. Right now supports determine a kill lane or not more than the ADC pick.

  2. His design has some elements that make him tough to keep viable without making him broken strong.

  • His Q is both his poke and his main burst, so giving him more burst makes him better at poking when he is supposed to be strongest sliding in and comboing you aggressively in trades. So you can't buff it, but you kind of need to buff it to allow him to burst. So then you think about moving damage onto his W, but Riot already toned down the damage on his W (making it mostly utility) cuz of it being a ranged skill shot and again, why should a short ranged duelist ADC who specializes in mobility and comboing have a poke skill that does damage? If you nerf Q's range but buff its damage, his wave clear becomes absolute garbage, not to mention his burst would not be outplayable just all loaded onto one spell which is not healthy or interesting. If you make it skill shot it becomes pretty hard to use since the aoe size on it is only super strong when you take it in the context of being clickable. -His dashing and passive resets: so ideally Lucian is dashing around dodging stuff and comboing people in the face. But here's the deal, if each combo is heavy burst, then he has to be pretty horrid at scaling to compensate, so then we see these BORK with Yomuus or BC builds develop to really abuse the early game burst cuz you don't want to get to late game. If you build him Crit, his passive does not actually boost his persistent DPS that much, but that is actually balanced because if Lucian could abuse crit builds he is basically Vayne part two, maybe even worse.

Summary: In order to buff Lucian back into viability you need to buff his burst without directly buffing his Q or W. And you can't buff Crit interaction with his passive or other steroid because then he will probably scale a bit too hard for what he is as a champion.

Recommendations:

  1. Emphasize his bounty hunter flavor by making his W apply a small debuff that makes the enemy pop for a small amount of bonus damage the next time an ally hits them. So like a baby version of Leona's passive. Something like marking a target.
  2. Emphasize his combos by buffing his passive. My thought is make it so that if he hits someone with a double tap, the next double tap does slightly more damage. That way he is still bursty, but there is some counterplay.
  3. Make his W apply the damage buff that applies to his spells only. So if you get off a Q or Ult afterwards you get some bonus burst damage but it is gated by the W cooldown and they have a chance to dash or flash away before that extra bit of burst comes through.

MAKE ALL OF THESE BONUS MAGIC DAMAGE SO PEOPLE DON'T TRY TO ABUSE LETHALITY BUILDS MID

-You would need to probably also make it so that his passive does not use on hit effects, therefore killing the BORK and Cleaver builds. The idea here is to buff him into viability bot lane with a traditional ADC build and NOT buff his mid laning. So you give him a flat burst increase that does not matter what kind of build he is going, then nerf the snowball build. Thus you relegate him to Crit builds but don't make a gigantic dent in his early and mid game, and then I think you are left with a more balanced version of the original. Lane bully early on, kill threat in mid game, decent but not good scaling in lategame - high mobility throughout. I think marksmen should have access to these kinds of mobile just do damage characters just as much as the other roles if they want that heavy early-mid game focus.

While we're at it can we have another poke oriented ADC back in the bottom lane? I mean now that Corki is gone we pretty much just have Ezreal for persistent poking ADC, sad day.

KaisadiIIa1 votes

Why do we have to confine Lucian to bot just because he's an ADC? I'd be more than glad to see Lucian being a powerful midlaner. I think RIOT should always make good champions and let people find where they suit, rather than tailoring every champion to a specific lane.

To this day every time an ADC has shone in a lane other than bot RIOT has shut them down instead of letting people adapt to it. A powerful mid Lucian is not the end of the world. He may destroy, idk, a Lissandra or a Talon, but then you'll pick Ziggs or Xerath to poke Lucian from a safe range. That way the meta evolves alone without RIOT having to constantly buff and nerf every champion.

Whisper871 votes

I don't think this post is complaining about Lucian being good mid. The problem is ADC players enjoyed playing him, and after the changes over the past season or two...not only is Lucian pretty unplayable bottom, but we are pretty much left without any damage casters in the bottom lane.

The removal of Graves, Corki, and Lucian have left a huge whole in the bottom lane champ pool. I mean they essentially removed an entire class. The only reason people call for Lucian mid nerfs is not because he is too strong mid, but because we want to play him ADC again but it's hard to figure out a way to make him strong enough to play bottom without buffing his mid lane. In which case he would probably be taken mid a lot and leaving the ADC unable to pick him.

Mawootad11 votes

When Lucian is good he walks into lane and smashes you into oblivion and then he gets out of lane and continues to smash your entire team for the rest of the game. He's not balanceable within the context of adcs because his early, mid, and late game power curves are actually sane relative to everything other than ADC and thus he either starts strong and never falls off or he starts weak and never does anything.

chipndip11 votes

{quoted}

When Lucian is good he walks into lane and smashes you into oblivion and then he gets out of lane and continues to smash your entire team for the rest of the game. He's not balanceable within the context of adcs because his early, mid, and late game power curves are actually sane relative to everything other than ADC and thus he either starts strong and never falls off or he starts weak and never does anything.

I don't think it's that he never falls off.

It's just a really hard fall off, unlike something like Panth or Hecarim where you legit fly downward.

Violent Hunter1 votes

{quoted}

I don't think it's that he never falls off.

It's just a really hard fall off, unlike something like Panth or Hecarim where you legit fly downward.

He falls off hard in the ADC role. Everyone at 30 minutes does more than him.

Daddy Ants1 votes

[{quoted}](name=Head of State,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=m1AhiKrT,comment-id=000000000000,timestamp=2018-02-03T05:05:43.664+0000)

He falls off hard in the ADC role. Everyone at 30 minutes does more than him.

He's meant to fall off.

Ability damage doesn't scale as well as auto attacks.

chipndip11 votes

{quoted}

I don't think it's that he never falls off.

It's just a really soft fall off, unlike something like Panth or Hecarim where you legit fly downward.

greekvandaL2 votes

{quoted}

When Lucian is good he walks into lane and smashes you into oblivion and then he gets out of lane and continues to smash your entire team for the rest of the game. He's not balanceable within the context of adcs because his early, mid, and late game power curves are actually sane relative to everything other than ADC and thus he either starts strong and never falls off or he starts weak and never does anything.

thats would be the case a few seasons ago. Now all adcs are lane bully mid game hyper carry monsters.

Whisper871 votes

That is how he designed to be, lane bully snowballer, not scaling. The problem is right now he doesn't do enough burst damage until he picks up a cutlass or a BF. Lucian has only thrived when he has enough burst/combo damage to put real pressure out like as soon as he hits lvl 2.

Now that his Q has been nerfed a couple times he can't consistently poke which is actually healthy because that isn't what he is supposed to do. But the problem is that if his poke is weak, and his burst combo is just meh, he's not really a lane bully duelist anymore. It's way too hard in the current state of the game for him to develop the kind of lead he needs to be relevant. As far as bot lane is concerned anyway.

Ahristocats7 votes

because he's a shit design

that's why

generalist mobile burst carry, nothing unique at all

HarrowR1 votes

Yes,it would be so original to just have another no mobility,stay behind your team turn on your steroid and right click carry

Anu3isII6 votes

He is a champion who offers only damage on the table. Champions like him are difficult to balance because they simply are either overbearing or useless.

The fact that he is also a lane bully makes him very difficult to approach. A champion who has acces to Hyper-Scaling items while also being great in the early game creates a snowballing monster that is difficult to stop.

To an extent, Draven, Corki, Graves and Vayne are as difficult to balance as him, and kinda have the same issue you brought.

He brings the question that I think everyone wants to see Riot's answer: What is the direction of Marksman? Should they be just characters who only deal damage? Or should they bring some unique utility and overall deal less damage?

Until then, I doubt they will work on him.

leakinb6 votes

Mordekaiser Skarner being trash for 2 years and no one cares

AmazoX2 votes

{quoted}

Mordekaiser Skarner being trash for 2 years and no one cares

Some mordekaiser mains are challenger/masters & diamond though nonetheless mordekaiser does seem like a trash champion that has the potential to be the opposite of what he is right now aka pile of buggy shit.

SHANK LUX MAINS1 votes

Ap0calypse hit chall euw only morde hes not very weak.

Ahristocats1 votes

It's not apo, he's scripting with rat irl to reach challenger with lulu/twitch ardent combo

I was the one who hit challenger with morde

Professor Ward5 votes

100% because he is an early game champion, and every single one of them get this treatment. It is almost impossible to find an inbetween for early game champs, as no matter what anyone says, on average, games are decided early.

The steam life2 votes

Oddly enough hes not actually an early game champ anymore. If you look at his winrate by game length in op.gg he gets stronger as the game goes on. The reverse happened with kogmaw and its a little concering.

Leonerdo2 votes

Games that go long tend to be closer games naturally (one-sided games end quick), so everyone has close to a 50% winrate in long games. Kog is just strong in general, Lucian is just weak, and that is most noticeable in stomp-y, short games.

I can't be certain that that is why, but I've noticed for a long time that late-game winrates tend to be closer to 50%.

Attticus Finch5 votes

The reason is that Lucian exists in the same realm as Vayne, Caitlyn and Ezreal as champs who can only ever be weak or game breakingly overpowered. When their numbers are bad they're pathetically weak and bring nothing to the table. When their numbers are good they're oppressive cancer that overwhelms bot lane and turns it into a cancerous hellscape.

NemeBro1 votes

[{quoted}](name=Attticus Finch,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=m1AhiKrT,comment-id=0012,timestamp=2018-02-03T02:39:02.568+0000)

The reason is that Lucian exists in the same realm as Vayne, Caitlyn and Ezreal as champs who can only ever be weak or game breakingly overpowered. When their numbers are bad they're pathetically weak and bring nothing to the table. When their numbers are good they're oppressive cancer that overwhelms bot lane and turns it into a cancerous hellscape.

What a boring non-answer.

"Why is Lucian only ever bad or good?"

"Because he can only be bad or good."

This guy.

Durzaka2 votes

Glad you only read the first sentence of his post. Rather than the entire thing where he explained himself.

Nice selective reading.

NemeBro1 votes

{quoted}

Glad you only read the first sentence of his post. Rather than the entire thing where he explained himself.

Nice selective reading.

I see that you're able to be misled by sophistry.

I read his entire post, and he said basically nothing of value my friend. Let me show you why that is.

"The reason is that Lucian exists in the same realm as Vayne, Caitlyn and Ezreal as champs who can only ever be weak or game breakingly overpowered."

This first sentence does nothing to really answer the OP's question. The OP asked why Lucian only has two states, brief moments of being overpowered and long timelines of being underpowered. All that was brought to the discussion was a comparison to Vayne, Caitlyn, and Ezreal.

"When their numbers are bad they're pathetically weak and bring nothing to the table. When their numbers are good they're oppressive cancer that overwhelms bot lane and turns it into a cancerous hellscape."

First of all, these two sentences are frankly absurd and redundant as written. If a champion's numbers are "bad", then yes, of course they are weak. Hence why their numbers are "bad". And if they're "good", then yes, they are strong, or "oppressive cancer" if you'd prefer. But this doesn't really address the OP's question. He has acknowledged the premise that Lucian's design might not be able to fit between these two extremes, simply reaffirming that premise does nothing to further the conversation. Although, neither does this conversation we are having, but that is beside the point.

Sasogwa1 votes

{quoted}

I see that you're able to be misled by sophistry.

I read his entire post, and he said basically nothing of value my friend. Let me show you why that is.

"The reason is that Lucian exists in the same realm as Vayne, Caitlyn and Ezreal as champs who can only ever be weak or game breakingly overpowered."

This first sentence does nothing to really answer the OP's question. The OP asked why Lucian only has two states, brief moments of being overpowered and long timelines of being underpowered. All that was brought to the discussion was a comparison to Vayne, Caitlyn, and Ezreal.

"When their numbers are bad they're pathetically weak and bring nothing to the table. When their numbers are good they're oppressive cancer that overwhelms bot lane and turns it into a cancerous hellscape."

First of all, these two sentences are frankly absurd and redundant as written. If a champion's numbers are "bad", then yes, of course they are weak. Hence why their numbers are "bad". And if they're "good", then yes, they are strong, or "oppressive cancer" if you'd prefer. But this doesn't really address the OP's question. He has acknowledged the premise that Lucian's design might not be able to fit between these two extremes, simply reaffirming that premise does nothing to further the conversation. Although, neither does this conversation we are having, but that is beside the point.

What he meant by that imo is that lucian is an all-or-nothing champion and a very little change to him can make or break him. Like +2 AD or something so stupid it seems irrelevant. The nature of his kit (extremely aggro/punishing ; and even more in solo lanes, because high selfpeel potential) makes him an insane do-it-all if his numbers are sufficient, crushing the meta and making him overpowered, but if you tune down those numbers, he can't crush as much, therefore plays kinda safer, can not do the yolo plays and solocrushing game, has to play with his supports and stay back, but at this point simple hypercarries like twitch, trist, jinx, varus, kog fill this niche immensely better.

I think that has a lot to do with his anti-melee kit, just like vayne. Extremely powerful selfpeel, which destroys melees especially in sololanes, but is irrelevant against ranged champs (laning), and doesn't matter lategame if you choose to be the guy that steps backs to dps, because the supports/tank will peel for you enough anyway.

NemeBro1 votes

{quoted}

What he meant by that imo is that lucian is an all-or-nothing champion and a very little change to him can make or break him. Like +2 AD or something so stupid it seems irrelevant. The nature of his kit (extremely aggro/punishing ; and even more in solo lanes, because high selfpeel potential) makes him an insane do-it-all if his numbers are sufficient, crushing the meta and making him overpowered, but if you tune down those numbers, he can't crush as much, therefore plays kinda safer, can not do the yolo plays and solocrushing game, has to play with his supports and stay back, but at this point simple hypercarries like twitch, trist, jinx, varus, kog fill this niche immensely better.

I think that has a lot to do with his anti-melee kit, just like vayne. Extremely powerful selfpeel, which destroys melees especially in sololanes, but is irrelevant against ranged champs (laning), and doesn't matter lategame if you choose to be the guy that steps backs to dps, because the supports/tank will peel for you enough anyway.

You're projecting your own ideas on the champion's problems (which might very well be accurate, I honestly find it hard to evaluate the problem with Lucian as a top/jg main because, honestly, Lucian feels very fair and easy to deal with relative to his class outside of laning phase as opposed to someone like Twitch, Kog, or Vayne) onto Attticus' post my friend. I never implied Attticus' post was wrong or even inaccurate, merely nonconstructive, which is true. It responded to the premise of this thread by essentially reiterating it, as opposed to analyzing why that might be the case like yours did.

Though tbh, the only reason I even responded to the post was because I'm a big bully and Attticus Finch is my best friend and I play League with him, so I'm picking on him on the boards. He is likely not the only person who offered a "boring non-answer" to the OP in this thread.

Done251 votes

{quoted}

I see that you're able to be misled by sophistry.

I read his entire post, and he said basically nothing of value my friend. Let me show you why that is.

"The reason is that Lucian exists in the same realm as Vayne, Caitlyn and Ezreal as champs who can only ever be weak or game breakingly overpowered."

This first sentence does nothing to really answer the OP's question. The OP asked why Lucian only has two states, brief moments of being overpowered and long timelines of being underpowered. All that was brought to the discussion was a comparison to Vayne, Caitlyn, and Ezreal.

"When their numbers are bad they're pathetically weak and bring nothing to the table. When their numbers are good they're oppressive cancer that overwhelms bot lane and turns it into a cancerous hellscape."

First of all, these two sentences are frankly absurd and redundant as written. If a champion's numbers are "bad", then yes, of course they are weak. Hence why their numbers are "bad". And if they're "good", then yes, they are strong, or "oppressive cancer" if you'd prefer. But this doesn't really address the OP's question. He has acknowledged the premise that Lucian's design might not be able to fit between these two extremes, simply reaffirming that premise does nothing to further the conversation. Although, neither does this conversation we are having, but that is beside the point.

Face palm Let me spell what he said out for you. Lucian is either broken or OP because HE HAS NO TEAM UTILITY. He only has damage. It's the same problem Mordekaier has.

NemeBro1 votes

{quoted}

Face palm Let me spell what he said out for you. Lucian is either broken or OP because HE HAS NO TEAM UTILITY.

That's not what he said, nor was that implied. He was explicitly compared to Caitlyn for example, and ADC who has a fair amount of utility for the role.

I'd recommend taking a comp course at your local community college.

Blåbæret1 votes

[{quoted}](name=Attticus Finch,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=m1AhiKrT,comment-id=0012,timestamp=2018-02-03T02:39:02.568+0000)

The reason is that Lucian exists in the same realm as Vayne, Caitlyn and Ezreal as champs who can only ever be weak or game breakingly overpowered. When their numbers are bad they're pathetically weak and bring nothing to the table. When their numbers are good they're oppressive cancer that overwhelms bot lane and turns it into a cancerous hellscape.

Lmao, I agree 100%. Hilarious articulation though.

Dead flag blues3 votes

item 3071 item 3812 item 3047 item 3046 item 3153 item 3142 item 3156

Who would have thought that having a ranged fighter was a bad idea

Jinx Hunter3 votes

Because he stole my bike and occasionally picks up speed down hill and becomes OP during those times when he doesn't have to peddle it.

DuskDaUmbreon2 votes

Because his problem is around his passive. His on-hit means when on-hit items are strong, he's strong. When they're weak or his interaction with them is nerfed, he's weak.

MohawkBird1 votes

[deleted]

DuskDaUmbreon1 votes

I think it's because Riot just hit his stats last time. He hasn't quite recovered yet.

Colgate Gator2 votes

In a nutshell, because he's a weird design for an ADC, much like Vayne, but has the extra detail of also being an AD caster, so he generally scales off another champion types' items than the usual crit ADCs.

BWG REFORMED2 votes

Because he either shits on the enemy adc hard early or he gets shit on the entire game and that hasn't happened in a while

Karn Bishop2 votes

Mostly because riot knows that he intentionally let thresh kill his wife and capture her soul, a divorce was too expensive so it was easier to scream his ex wifes name and look saddened while secretly browsing Runeterras magic dating sites.

Saucy Jack2 votes

they buff him, realize why he was dumpstered in the first place, and put him back.

rinse and repeat

Daddy Ants2 votes

Because he's a balance nightmare.

Even the smallest of buffs can break him.

Poop Jelly1 votes

I actually don't think he's shyt. None of the marksmen are shyt to be honest. Some just work better than others in certain meta but even in their dullest time they're not "weak".

Lucian back then can just walk up work his combo and win trades, now he just gotta be more mindful to do that. Agility and skirmishing power are still two things he excels well.

Violent Hunter1 votes

Only thing I disagree with is he isn't even viable in other lanes. People complain about him but unless its pro play he is horrible in top and mid. People like to point towards them not being able to handle it and it really just something high level players do well consistently. IF he had a good win rate top and mid compared to bot with a similar pick rate i'd say that maybe that is the issue. Truth of the matter he doesn't and his win rate is lower in those other lanes and the play rates are extremely low.

Hayaishi1 votes

Probably because Vayne Draven, Kalista, Trist, Twitch even Kog out traded him in lane.

Srs it's been awhile since Lucian has been a good pick. There's been times where he's been decent with BC but other than that he's been severely outclassed lately. As an ADC atleast.

Mostly has to do with how the ADC role is now days. He's a 500 range adc. It means he's gonna get shoved out of lane by Lulu/Janna/Nami.

AirKingNeo1 votes

Simple Answer: Meta is about huge tanks, op supports, and hypercarries that can break that defense.

Long Answer: Lucian can't break the tanks, can't duel ADCs due to supports, and can't deal more DPS than a hypercarry. Basically, the stars align for his competition.

MkShenGreatAgain1 votes

Plain and simply because he's completely unbalanceable. I made a post about a year back calling for a Lucian rework and if I recall it got about 110 upvotes. The plain fact is he's either in the stasis of completely useless or overbearing because his kit can just plainly do too much, especially on the dogfighting end of things.

koshkyra1 votes

His kit is just not fun to play against.

Hits like a fucking truck and has pretty dumb mobility for an adc. Simple as that.

koshkyra1 votes

His kit is just not fun to play against.

Hits like a fucking truck and has pretty dumb mobility for an adc. Simple as that.

SHANK LUX MAINS1 votes

Because when hes good you can play him into anything. It's not really that hes op most of the time, hes just strong in the hands of good players due to his versatility.

KennysDreamGirl1 votes

ive heard his biggest problem is his passive

TotalJerk1 votes

His kit is designed to do things ADCs are supposed to be inherently bad at, which makes him extremely difficult to balanced.

More from Gameplay

More by Violent Hunter