Lux: Honestly, How Important is Her Element?
So, recently I decided to make an Electric-Assassin comp. To begin with, Electric is one of the Elements where the only way to reach the maximum synergy bonus is with a Lux. Second, to get that maximum Assassin bonus, I built two Youmuu's Ghostblades.
Well, with good fortune, the second Lux I found just happened to be Electric and I was able to finish my comp. I did what any person would naturally do and equipped her with powerful items: a Rabadon's, a Seraph's, and shortly after, a Jeweled Gauntlet. Needless to say, she became one of the main powerhouses on my team, even more so when I got her to Tier-2. Between the Seraph's Embrace and the bronze Ocean synergy I had going on, there were times it was like she was a Mage Doublecasting her ability.
But it begs the question: how relevant was the fact that she was Electric?
While having the gold Electric synergy was nice, it wasn't really what was winning the battles, even though it took finding the right Lux to achieve it. Even though I had invested multiple Spatulas to achieve gold Assassin synergy, they weren't the ones supplying my damage.
If I had purchased the Inferno Lux that I had found first (and as a result had no synergy with the rest of my units) would it have even turned out any differently?
And this is only one example of how Lux can overshadow the rest of her team. A Lux of _any _Element can fit onto a Mage comp, if you make her into a Mage with the proper item.
Honestly, it feels like Lux is such a potentially powerful unit that her Element can be considered an afterthought. And while one would expect no less from the game's first and only Ultimate unit, it just doesn't feel like it achieves the Elemental "fantasy" they were going for.
The one exception to this, I find, is Woodland Lux. You then only require one other Woodland unit to achieve full synergy, and this means you'd have a 50% chance of duplicating your Lux at the start of the round. I actually had a game where I achieved two Tier-2 Woodland Luxes, giving me a 66% chance of having 3 Tier-2 Luxes on the field. Unfortunately, the game ended soon after, so I didn't get many rounds to enjoy it.
In the end, I feel like having a Lux isn't really about achieving Elemental synergies. She helps people who are doing well do even better. She allows people who are in a good position to win to secure their victory. That's not a bad thing, I suppose, but I don't think it was their goal, either.