Possible Options to make Lucian on-par with other ADCs
I'm not whining or anything but I've had about 200+ games as Lucian so I've been with him through his ups and downs. I'm not a pro player and I'm not some guy that works at Riot that balances champions for a living. I'm just a player that loves the champion and hates seeing him in this weak sort of state. Therefore I'm going to give my own take on balancing Lucian by buffing what makes him underwhelming right now.
Passive and Q Both abilities are fine. Maybe the passive scaling with levels is a bit underwhelming early on, but is fine with what I'm about to propose.
W - Ardent Blaze One of Lucian's most underwhelming abilities even with the recent buff. Let's add some neat interactions.
Changes Movement speed duration increased to 1.25 seconds when Lucian procs and 1 second when an ally procs. In addition when Lucian fires 3 autos at the same enemy champion he deals .1/.2/.25/.3/.35 bonus AD as extra Physical Damage and removes the mark. Using Piercing Light on an enemy also removes the mark but deals 2/4/6% of a target's maximum Health as True Damage [scales with levels 1/8/15]. If the Piercing Light goes through an enemy minion(s) it instead deals .15/.2/.25 bonus AD as Magic Damage [scales with levels 1/7/13].
Reasoning Lucian is an in your face kind of Champion and I think removing that 50 range on him was appropriate but currently leaves him at a disadvantage for taking any risky in your face plays. As such there isn't any incentive for dashing into someone's face unless you're very ahead. Since Lucian's kit is one that revolves around dashing in and making risky plays he should at least be rewarded instead of being punished. The 3-hit proc kinda jumps on the bandwagon of all these 3-hit proc abilities but gives a nice reward for hitting enemies marked with W. In addition it makes W a more interactive ability for its somewhat long cooldown and lackluster impact to Lucian's kit. It also fits into Lucian's current combo which is W>E>Q (the animation cancel). The sole purpose of Lucian's change is to help reward him for getting in people's faces at such an awkward range, make himself relevant to the team at all times, and help him through laning phase. It finally adds some diversity to his kit prompting players to choose between more damage (W max) or less mana costs/lower CDs (E max).
Balance Changes There are some potential balance issues the change to the W might have. The early bonus AD ratios may seem very underwhelming considering the popular Q>E>W (sometimes Q>W>E for the smart people) skill order but still reward players for landing Piercing Light. The W may seem very strong as well for not putting any points into it with the W/Q interaction. Therefore a shift to where the % HP instead scales with points in the ability could also be used. The interaction with Q could also just be the Magic Damage but instead changed to Physical Damage and entirely removing the % HP feature. Finally the second proc on his passive could not be able to crit if the 3-proc style ability becomes an issue. There are a lot of possible balance changes to the W interaction that could be done if it becomes overwhelming/overloaded.
E - Relentless Pursuit Lucian's bread and butter, but seems not so Relentless with its high CDs. Changed for a reason, Lucian's E was one of his best abilities until nerf after nerf it finally just became almost as underwhelming as W but still a good ability nonetheless.
Changes Not going to touch the CDs on this but rather its interaction with The Culling. To make Lucian's pursuit on an enemy champion actually relentless, each shot of The Culling to an enemy champion reduces the cooldown of Relentless Pursuit by 1.25/1.75/2.25 seconds [scales with the points put in The Culling]. In addition Relentless Pursuit reduces the duration of slowing abilities by 25/40/55/70/85% [scales with points in E] during the duration of The Culling.
Reasoning Lucian's E feels a bit underwhelming at times and doesn't really live up to its name. Its essential to his kit in many ways and to again jump into the ability interaction bandwagon I feel like doing something similar to this would help Lucian a lot when executing far away targets and again promotes ability diversity within his kit. Lucian players will be forced to choose between the additional burst from his W or the slow reduction from his E. Competitively it makes Lucian a nice pick into comps that include Azir/Braum/Ekko/Eve/Kalista/Gnar all champions that are used competitively... It doesn't immediately put Lucian at an advantage but rather forces him to lock himself into an ability in order to gain advantages for a situation. It also doesn't immediately remove slows but rather mitigates them which still allows him to be chased down. It helps him kite Champions that have higher range or stickier than him while also having a cost.
Balance Changes If the ability to reduce CDs on his E becomes overwhelming the seconds can be reduced or the ability's CD can be increased (which I don't see as the better option). The slow reduction can be decreased or the mana cost can be increased as well. The balance changes to his E's interaction with his R are primarily mathematical changes and should be somewhat easy to adjust.
R- The Culling One thing that could be changed is allowing Lucian's allies to boost his attack speed during the duration of The Culling but not increasing the amount of shots during the duration of the ability but just having the shots release faster. It would still interact the same if he received the bonuses before but would help create a neat interaction with Lucian and his allies and helps Lucian remain relevant and possibly develop comps around Lucian's Culling. Make mathematical balance changes if it also becomes overwhelmingly strong.
My Thoughts, etc. Lucian doesn't really have a place anywhere right now. He seems like the low division SoloQ ADC that's really easy to pick up but his lackluster burst is easily abused in higher divisions. Making his kit a bit overloaded by complimenting his in-your-face style of dueling with additional burst and making his W a not so useless ability rewards higher level Lucian players for picking the champion. Competitively Lucian doesn't quite fit anywhere because he lacks the proper burst or consistent damage of other ADCs and doesn't make an impact in the game as much as Sivir and Ashe do or the kiting of Vayne and Kalista. The changes that I present are concepts to help Lucian retain his identity of the in-your-face bursty ADC and helps him remain relevant in very general compositions and especially good in compositions around him. I really enjoy playing Lucian but he's just not as strong or relevant as the other ADCs, banning 2-3 ADCs limits a lot of the comfort zone for most pro players. Changing him mathematically won't help him but instead making his kit a bit overloaded but interactive in a healthy way that rewards his style of play is definitely the way Riot should approach him and I hope my proposed changes helps Riot see what they can do to his kit.
A response to a Reddit Comment
Comment:
tl;dr Riot oversaturates so many champions these days. Lucian is, pun not intended, the prime example of a great kit. He's fallen on hard times because fights have shifted towards bursty, blink-and-you'll-miss-it short skirmishes, and he's not about that. You say changing him mathematically won't help him, but it definitely would.
Me
I feel like Lucian's at this sort of plateau for mathematical changes. They keep changing his numbers on his abilities (base damages, CDs, ratios) but they haven't really tried making his kit as interactive as other ADCs: Vayne's E and W, Kalista's Q and E, Sivir's R and W, Tristana's W and E. All these ADCs are used competitively and have interactions with their abilities that help change fights in some sort of way but Lucian doesn't really have that and I feel like making his kit a bit more interactive would help. I'm not saying mathematical changes wouldn't help him out, but I feel like they've tried and haven't really hit the nail for him. I really do love his kit and he should be just as rewarded as the other ADCs especially taking account his low range of 500. The W change was definitely a move in the right direction though!
What I meant by this is that no mathematical change in Lucian's current kit could possibly make him a consistently picked ADC both competitively and in SoloQ. Either his base damage, CDs, or ratios get changed to make his output stronger, but force nerfs later on causing him to fall off again. Its ultimately that Vayne does Lucian's job better and you can see that I've taken an idea from Vayne's kit to make Lucian's burst relevant for most of the game (which I see is his style of play). He's an ADC that buffs himself (passive/W) to get solo kills (from his up front burst), but Vayne does this better while also contributing a lot of damage during teamfights. Lucian is capable of doing this but is reliant on up front burst which isn't as rewarding or reliable right now. By making his burst rewarding, but still risky I think it would put Lucian back into the spot he is in.
