Champion Spotlight
Learn to unleash 
a barrage of bullets and send opponents to the grave in the 
Lucian Champion Spotlight.
A highly-mobile ranged damage dealer, Lucian shines when blasting enemies with 
Piercing Light and quickly repositioning himself with 
Relentless Pursuit to unleash more pain or retreat from counterattacks and jungle ganks. By tagging enemies with 
Ardent Blaze and activating The Culling, Lucian gains the speed boost needed to chase down opponents, unload massive damage and secure kills. And since 
Lightslinger enables double on-hit procs of life steal, 
red buff and more, Lucian can overcome opponents in duels and in-lane trades with strategic use of his abilities.
Put evil in its place - 6 feet under - as Lucian with sample masteries, tactics and more in this Champion Spotlight.
Recommended Items
Tips
- Playing As
Lucian
- Marking with Ardent Blaze is a great start to sticking to a clean-up fight.
- Playing Against Lucian
- Lucian has strong burst instead of sustained damage, an extended fight isn't really ideal for him.
- Lucian cannot change the aim of The Culling. Take advantage of this by sideswiping past his angle.
- Piercing Light's shot is farther than its range, if Lucian is farming with this, avoid standing within the minions taking the damage.
Playstyle
Lucian is a relentless spell-slinger with a habit of firing between every ability. His main strength is his frequent use of Lightslinger that ties into the cooldown of Relentless Pursuit. If he plays his combo efficiently, he can deliver a quick amount of damage faster than most marksmen.
Ability Usage
- Lightslinger [Innate]
- Don't try to burst down towers with this, the damage isn't cost effective compared to just basic attacking in the same time.
- Piercing Light [Q]
- The shot extends farther than its targeting range, this is a great way to deceptively harass enemies while farming a minion.
- Ardent Blaze [W]
- If you need a boost into the fight, try marking the enemy for the bonus movement speed that even allies can provide for you.
- The cross-section is somewhat reliable, but may need practice to improve finesse.
- Don't get carried away with trying to use this ability first in order to get the most seconds off. A dash goes a long way when it's needed.
- The Culling [R]
- Remember that this ability sets off Lightslinger. If the enemy catches you at another angle, it's better to stop to retaliate.
- Firing at a target affected by the Ardent Blaze mark makes it easier to keep up with their possible dodging maneuvers.
- Try to aim in a straight line rather than diagonally, this will make it easier to position to hit the target.
- The Culling can be a very good way to scare off enemies attempting to cross a choke-point during an escape.
- You use The Culling to quickly clear minion waves when your turret is being sieged, allow it to target enemy champions.
Runes
Lucian is a marksman that depends on basic attacks despite needing to fire abilities. As someone that's nimble yet without the burst of an assassin, a tree with dueling power would see a ton of action.
- Lucian can easily trigger Press the Attack with the help of a Lightslinger attack.
- Conqueror is a viable option that's going to require a lot of skill to make use of the duration of power. It's more of an all-in power spike compared to Lucian's sticky combos gated by his attacks.
- Legend: Alacrity can generally help with farming, but it also scales down the timing of Lightslinger, which in turn would allow his combos to go faster.
- You could also decide to go Legend: Bloodline if you want a bit more sustain in your fights.
Domination as a source of damage is really good for champions that intend to score a lot of kills. Despite having decent burst, Lucian isn't really equipped to attain such a goal. If your allies are coordinated for this, then there are some powerful choices to take advantage of.
- Lucian can electocute much easier than Press the Attack, it's a harder-hitting zap that has better scaling at the cost of a short effect. If you're playing aggressively, this keystone is the best fit.
- Transcendence isn't normally needed if max cooldown reduction is covered by Lucian's items, but if the game looks like it might progress before he can muster the money for it, then there's nothing wasted with this rune.
Items
Lightslinger practically cover's Lucian's rate of fire, which eliminates the need for attack speed. As a spell-slinger, he works best with stats like 
Cooldown Reduction and 
Attack Damage.
- Given how dangerously Lucian fights, a sustain item would be needed for mid-game chaos. Blade of the Ruined King doesn't have much in raw stats, which makes it an inexpensive power spike. However, the percent health damage would put enough damage to hurt tanks with his short combos.
- The Black Cleaver is an ideal item for Lucian's need of damage, cdr, and an edge on his stickiness. Cleaving is very useful if the enemy actually has armor items to cleave through, which would become relevant by the second or third item purchase.
- Essence Reaver is a lovely item that Lucian can easily utilize to sustain the supply of mana for his relentless attacks. If you intend to use Essence Flare, don't try to use The Culling as an execute.
Attack Speed items aren't a must-have unless you plan to get 
Infinity Edge or 
Stormrazor.
- Statikk Shiv doubles as a source of damage that can critically strike itself, and it's very easy to charge up with Lightslinger.
- Phantom Dancer is bought for one reason: Divers.
Synergies & Counterpicks
- Most of outplaying Lucian in lane centers around baiting out his dash, if he blows it off, it is much easier to land skillshots and go all-in.
- Due of his limited attack range, a longer ranged, better scaling marksman would be able to poke when he doesn't trade, and output consistently more damage in a teamfight.
- A dueling marksman would be able to output more DPS against Lucian.
| Works well with: | Struggles against: |
|---|---|
 
|
  Despite having the same problems later in the game, Vayne's sustained damage adds up in more ways compared to Lucian's burst. She is also a fantastic dueler that can easily eliminate his health pool when she gets the jump on him. |