Lux, the Lady of Luminosity
Now that season 3 is behind us and season 4 is under way, it's time to do some spring cleaning and update champion threads. This is a comprehensive beginners guide to the brightest champion in the League.
A little about me: I've been playing Lux since mid season 2, and she's taken me from 900 ELO in season 2 all the way to high Platinum at the end of season 3. I don't pretend to be an amazing player at League of Legends, but with a positive winrate over 600 ranked Lux games played between seasons 2 and 3 and probably just as many in normals, I like to think I know Lux fairly well.
Why pick Lux?
I personally think that Lux is the best mid laner to learn if you aren't a mid lane player but need to pick up a mid lane champion for ranked play, or if you're just learning how to play and want to pick up a competitive mid lane champion. The following things make Lux an excellent champion to learn.
1 - She fits into any team composition. She can be used to poke, protect your carry, assassinate high value targets, and is excellent at sieges and objective control.
2 - She can be picked into any mid lane matchup. While she has few matchups that she absolutely dominates, she has essentially zero hard counters and can be infuriatingly difficult to kill in lane. You can first pick her blindly, and even then she can illuminate the enemy as support when that jerk 5th pick decides to instalock Kha'Zix.
3 - She is fairly simple and straightforward to play, and uses more or less the same item build every game, making her an ideal champion for newer players.
Playstyles
There are essentially two ways to play Lux, either as a solo lane mage or as a duo lane support. Both playstyles are similar in terms of playing the champion, but they are very different in terms of set up and build orders.
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Tactical decision, Summoner. This is the way Lux is typically played, as a solo lane, safe farming, endlessly harassing, one shotting death laser machine. Solo lane Lux is typically played in the mid lane, since she is somewhat blue buff dependant, lacks the escape tools necessary for top lane, and mid lane allows her a lot of objective control with her long range ultimate. I have played Lux top lane before in emergency situations, but it is simply not as good as playing her mid.
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24/0/6 is the standard page, which maximizes offense while taking necessary regen in Utility. If you want more movespeed for dodging skillshots in lane you can drop points in Archmage or Blade/Spell weaving for Fleet of Foot.
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21/9/0 gives you nearly the same offensive power, but some added defense against laners who have a lot of kill potential early game. Used against champions like Fizz, Syndra, Annie, Wukong etc. In offense take Spell and Blade Weaving for early game harassment, or 2 points in Archmage for late game damage.
Math behind Rank 1 Defensive Masteries (long):
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Below are the specific circumstances in which I will change my summoners.
Lux item openers used to be basically all Flask all the time, but since her buff in the the 4.13 patch you have a number of acceptable choices.
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Standard:
7 Hybrid Penetration, 2 Magic Penetration
9 Flat Armor
9 Flat MR
3 Flat AP
Anti AD: You can use this if both the enemy mid and jungle are AD champions. Use a Morellonomicon build order over Athenes with this rune setup.
7 Hybrid Penetration, 2 Magic Penetration
9 Flat Armor
9 Mana Regen per level
3 Flat AP
Anti AP: You can use this if both the enemy mid and jungle are AP champions.
7 Hybrid Penetration, 2 Magic Penetration
9 HP per level OR 9 Armor per level
9 Flat MR
3 Flat AP
Delayed MR: This is specifically for fighting AP champions that cannot pressure you before level 6, but become threats afterwards. Used vs. champions like Kassadin, Akali and Diana.
7 Hybrid Penetration, 2 Magic Penetration
9 Flat Armor
9 MR per level
3 Flat AP
Why 7 hybrid pen marks and 2 magic pen marks?
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7 Hybrid Penetration, 2 Magic Penetration
9 Flat Armor
9 Flat MR
3 Flat AP
Anti AD: You can use this if both the enemy mid and jungle are AD champions. Use a Morellonomicon build order over Athenes with this rune setup.
7 Hybrid Penetration, 2 Magic Penetration
9 Flat Armor
9 Mana Regen per level
3 Flat AP
Anti AP: You can use this if both the enemy mid and jungle are AP champions.
7 Hybrid Penetration, 2 Magic Penetration
9 HP per level OR 9 Armor per level
9 Flat MR
3 Flat AP
Delayed MR: This is specifically for fighting AP champions that cannot pressure you before level 6, but become threats afterwards. Used vs. champions like Kassadin, Akali and Diana.
7 Hybrid Penetration, 2 Magic Penetration
9 Flat Armor
9 MR per level
3 Flat AP
Why 7 hybrid pen marks and 2 magic pen marks?
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7 Hybrid Pen marks gives you 6 Armor Penetration, which is exactly how much armor enemy melee minions will have when you get your first blue buff at 7 minutes. After 7 minutes you will start clearing waves with spells over autoattacks, and extra armor penetration stops being as useful.
Do note that if you don't have hybrid pen runes, magic pen is just fine.
Do note that if you don't have hybrid pen runes, magic pen is just fine.
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24/0/6 is the standard page, which maximizes offense while taking necessary regen in Utility. If you want more movespeed for dodging skillshots in lane you can drop points in Archmage or Blade/Spell weaving for Fleet of Foot.
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21/9/0 gives you nearly the same offensive power, but some added defense against laners who have a lot of kill potential early game. Used against champions like Fizz, Syndra, Annie, Wukong etc. In offense take Spell and Blade Weaving for early game harassment, or 2 points in Archmage for late game damage.
Math behind Rank 1 Defensive Masteries (long):
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I feel like a lot of people overvalue Unyielding and Block on ranged champions, so I'd like to clear this up in regards to Lux. To start with, Lux begins the game with 12 armor, 25 with armor runes. At level 1 a standard enemy mid lane AD champion has lets say 70 AD. With 1 rank in Block, Lux will take 55.2 damage from their autoattacks instead of 56.
Recovery heals 1 HP per 5 seconds, so in order for Block to beat Recovery, you have to take at least 1.25 autoattacks every 5 seconds. This is not common in mid lane, so Recovery is likely better than Block here. Block has negative multiplicative synergy with armor and enemy AD, so as the game goes on, Recovery becomes more and more useful.
One rank in Enchanted Armor will increase Lux's rank 1 armor by 0.325, which will reduce a 70 AD attack from 56 to 55.8. This is worse than Block by 0.6 damage. However, Enchanted Armor also reduces minion damage, by 0.05 for caster minions and 0.03 for melee minions at the start of the game. Enchanted Armor also reduces damage from champion abilities. So ultimately we can say that the damage difference per auto is more like 0.5. Like with Recovery, Block gets less valuable the longer the game goes on, while Enchanted Armor gets more valuable, so this 0.5 difference is only at the start of the game, and then begins to decrease.
Note also that on your very first back, Lux will buy either 2 cloth armors or a null magic mantle depending on the lane. This gives Lux either 0.75 armor or 0.5 MR per point in Enchanted Armor, and reduces this gap even further.
So, to sum things up, Recovery is better than Block, and in the very early game the difference in damage between Block and Enchanted Armor is only about 0.5, depending on enemy AD. After your first back, Enchanted Armor becomes better and continues to scale better throughout the game. Lux is already a very safe champion and hard to kill early in the game, so I see no reason to take Block on her past the one point requirement to reach rank 9 Defense.
Recovery heals 1 HP per 5 seconds, so in order for Block to beat Recovery, you have to take at least 1.25 autoattacks every 5 seconds. This is not common in mid lane, so Recovery is likely better than Block here. Block has negative multiplicative synergy with armor and enemy AD, so as the game goes on, Recovery becomes more and more useful.
One rank in Enchanted Armor will increase Lux's rank 1 armor by 0.325, which will reduce a 70 AD attack from 56 to 55.8. This is worse than Block by 0.6 damage. However, Enchanted Armor also reduces minion damage, by 0.05 for caster minions and 0.03 for melee minions at the start of the game. Enchanted Armor also reduces damage from champion abilities. So ultimately we can say that the damage difference per auto is more like 0.5. Like with Recovery, Block gets less valuable the longer the game goes on, while Enchanted Armor gets more valuable, so this 0.5 difference is only at the start of the game, and then begins to decrease.
Note also that on your very first back, Lux will buy either 2 cloth armors or a null magic mantle depending on the lane. This gives Lux either 0.75 armor or 0.5 MR per point in Enchanted Armor, and reduces this gap even further.
So, to sum things up, Recovery is better than Block, and in the very early game the difference in damage between Block and Enchanted Armor is only about 0.5, depending on enemy AD. After your first back, Enchanted Armor becomes better and continues to scale better throughout the game. Lux is already a very safe champion and hard to kill early in the game, so I see no reason to take Block on her past the one point requirement to reach rank 9 Defense.
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- Flash and either Heal or Barrier is your standard setup, and you can always take this if you don't want to think about it or don't know who you're up against. The choice between Heal and Barrier is fairly preferential at this point.
Personally, I will take Barrier against Assassins that I expect to run Ignite and try to get kills in lane, and I'll take Heal when I expect the matchup to be more of a farm lane and am worried more about teamfights.
Below are the specific circumstances in which I will change my summoners.
- Teleport I will take against hard pushing champions that you can't really kill and want to outroam, such as Heimerdinger or Morgana. A full list of Teleport matchups is in the matchup section later on. Teleport is also good in those rare situations where you expect to be 1v2ing.
- Ignite I will take specifically against Fiddlesticks and Swain. Heal can also work here, but it forces you to be less aggressive and more farm oriented. Ignite is also an option against Master Yi if you don't want to take Teleport.
- Exhaust I only take against Zed, as it works perfectly as a counter to his ult.
Lux item openers used to be basically all Flask all the time, but since her buff in the the 4.13 patch you have a number of acceptable choices.
- Dorans Ring is the most aggressive and cost efficient opener, and is generally what you want to open in most matchups.
- Crystalline Flask is still acceptable on Lux, and is slightly more defensive than opening Dring. I might suggest this if you're in a matchup you're unfamiliar with and want to play passive. This is also the best opener if you expect to be in a 1v2, as you will not be fighting and will need the added regen to use spells to farm.
- Cloth Armor is actually very strong on Lux in matchups where an enemy AD is expected to try to all in you at level 2 or 3. Again, if you are confident with an AD matchup opening Dring is fine, but if you want a more defensive start, Cloth Armor is perfectly good too.
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Your level order as solo lane Lux will always be R>E>Q>W, but your first 3 levels what order you get your skills in is dependant on the individual game.
Why no second point in E at 3?
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- Going E>Q>W is your ideal, as this gives you the most offensive pressure early in the game.
- Q>E>W is fine if your team is doing a level 1 invade, or if your team is invaded.
- In some high pressure matchups I will open Q>W>E. This is good when laning against champions such as Fizz, Wukong, Xin Zhao, Fiora and Riven, who are likely going to try to kill you at level 2.
Why no second point in E at 3?
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First of all, you won't be using E to farm at level 3, so you're only putting a point in it at this stage for harassment on enemy champions. The second level in E increases the mana cost from 60 to 75. If we count Lux's passive into the damage calculation, the damage at level 3 will go from 114 to 159, counting typical level 3 AP. This increases the damage per mana spent from 1.9 to 2.1. On the other hand, W at level 1 shields for 88.5 twice at a 60 mana cost. Rank 1 E and Rank 1 W together have a mana efficiency of 1.7 if you only use one shield, and 2.425 if you use both.
Basically, getting W instead of E at 3 makes you safer to ganks, lets you win trades harder AND is more mana efficient if you are using your shield to trade aggressively. There's no reason to ever get rank 2 E at level 3.
Basically, getting W instead of E at 3 makes you safer to ganks, lets you win trades harder AND is more mana efficient if you are using your shield to trade aggressively. There's no reason to ever get rank 2 E at level 3.
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The midseason 4.5 patch opened up a couple different possible build paths for our light mage. The standard build path is very versatile, and is basically the same as Lux has been building since season 2.
The alternate build path is specifically designed for playing against an AD mid laner, and is designed assuming that you are taking the "vs. AD" rune page outlined in the rune section above.
Standard (Athenes) Build Path
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Cost: 2020 Gold
Cost: 4515 Gold
Cost: 12267 Gold
Cost: 17122 Gold
Other Itemization
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Timings for Deathcap and Void Staff
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Alternate (Morello anti AD) Build Path
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Cost: 1920 Gold
Cost: 5005 Gold
Cost: 13652 Gold
Cost: 17202 Gold
Other Itemization
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What about Seraphs Embrace?
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The alternate build path is specifically designed for playing against an AD mid laner, and is designed assuming that you are taking the "vs. AD" rune page outlined in the rune section above.
Standard (Athenes) Build Path
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Cost: 2020 Gold
- Although not specifically listed, don't forget to buy wards!
Cost: 4515 Gold
- After mana regen, CDR is your most desired statistic. Athenes gives both, so you're going to finish Athenes ASAP. The Needlessly Large Rod gives you a jump in AP and can branch off several ways depending on the game.
Cost: 12267 Gold
- Normally you want Deathcap before Void Staff, but sometimes it's better to get Void Staff first. See the notes below for details.
Cost: 17122 Gold
- This is your final build in an ideal situation. It's a versatile build with some resistances, 30% CDR and a ton of AP. See the Other Itemization section for possible changes.
Other Itemization
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As Lux your Deathfire Grasp is really your only optional item slot. While it gives you the most teamfight damage in an ideal situation, it is sometimes switched out for one of the following.
- Morellonomicon can be used instead of Athenes if the heal debuff is required against someone like Tryndamere or Mundo.
- Lich Bane is an option in the rare situation where you have to split push. This is also an option in the very late game, if you want to sell your boots. This will reduce your movespeed by about 5%, do little to your burst damage, but increase your shields and sustained damage in long fights.
- Twin Shadows can be used if your team needs more defensive CC and/or vision control.
- Banshee's Veil can be useful if you need a big MR item, or need the spellshield to prevent hard engages.
- Guardian Angel is fairly poor on Lux and almost never a good idea, but against very fed Assassins can be the only useful defensive option.
- Randuins Omen can be useful if you need a big Armor item.
- Games vs. Malzahar or Skarner a QSS will be necessary at some point in the game. Occasionally bought vs. Warwick as well.
- Swapping trinkets can be useful against stealth champions.
Timings for Deathcap and Void Staff
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These two items have interesting synergy with Lux's kit. Void Staff will outdamage Deathcap on champions, but Deathcap will outdamage Void Staff on minions. Critically, getting Deathcap second will allow Lux to one shot caster minions with her E, which makes farming much easier and allows you to roam much more in the mid game.
However, if you are either A - extremely ahead, or B - extremely behind, you can and should get Void Staff first. In the first case you'll be overlevelled and one shotting caster minions anyway, and in the second case you'll be underlevelled and won't be able to one shot caster minions even with a Deathcap, so prioritizing champion damage is more important.
Personally, I try to set the marker for this at about 25 minutes, when playing from behind. If I know that by the 25 minute mark I can't have Deathcap or be close to finishing it, I'll go for Void first instead.
However, if you are either A - extremely ahead, or B - extremely behind, you can and should get Void Staff first. In the first case you'll be overlevelled and one shotting caster minions anyway, and in the second case you'll be underlevelled and won't be able to one shot caster minions even with a Deathcap, so prioritizing champion damage is more important.
Personally, I try to set the marker for this at about 25 minutes, when playing from behind. If I know that by the 25 minute mark I can't have Deathcap or be close to finishing it, I'll go for Void first instead.
Alternate (Morello anti AD) Build Path
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Cost: 1920 Gold
- Two dorans rings and your mana regen glyphs here will provide about as much regen as a Chalice, but here you're also getting combat stats suited to fighting an AD lane opponent.
- Although not specifically listed, don't forget to buy wards!
Cost: 5005 Gold
- When buying Morellonomicon, build Forbidden Idol before Fiendish Codex.
Cost: 13652 Gold
- The late game here is basically the same as it is with Athenes, but you've sacrificed your Athenes MR for a better early/mid game against an AD team.
- In this build always finish your items in this order: Zhonya > Void Staff > Deathcap.
Cost: 17202 Gold
- This is your final build in an ideal situation. See the Other Itemization section for possible changes.
Other Itemization
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As Lux your Deathfire Grasp is really your only optional item slot. While it gives you the most teamfight damage in an ideal situation, it is sometimes switched out for one of the following.
- Lich Bane is an option in the rare situation where you have to split push. This is also an option in the very late game, if you want to sell your boots. This will reduce your movespeed by about 5%, do little to your burst damage, but increase your shields and sustained damage in long fights.
- Twin Shadows can be used if your team needs more defensive CC and/or vision control.
- All AD teams are usually very autoattack reliant, so Ninja Tabi is a reasonable early defensive option.
- Banshee's Veil can be useful if you need the spellshield to prevent hard engages.
- Guardian Angel is fairly poor on Lux and almost never a good idea, but against very fed Assassins can be the only useful defensive option.
- Randuins Omen can be useful if you need a big Armor item.
- If the game goes late enough you can sell your Morellonomicon for an Athenes, to pick up MR after the enemy support starts building damage items. This costs 1060 gold.
- Swapping trinkets can be useful against stealth champions.
What about Seraphs Embrace?
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I know some Lux players, even some pro Lux players, really like getting Tear + Morellonomicon, for a late game build of Seraphs, Morello, Deathcap, Void Staff and Zhonya. I've tried it and I just don't like it as much as the Athenes build. It has a theoretically stronger end game but I feel like you never actually get there. It's also more blue buff reliant than an Athenes build.
I do think it has some merit vs. an all AD team, but in comparison to the double Doran build I have listed it adds late game power by sacrificing early and mid game power. All AD compositions are strongest in the mid game and tend to fall off late, so I don't like it as much. I'm not going to include in depth instructions on Seraphs builds in this guide.
I do think it has some merit vs. an all AD team, but in comparison to the double Doran build I have listed it adds late game power by sacrificing early and mid game power. All AD compositions are strongest in the mid game and tend to fall off late, so I don't like it as much. I'm not going to include in depth instructions on Seraphs builds in this guide.
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As a disclaimer, I don't think Support Lux is very good. I've been part of many a Lux support discussion, and the conclusion is always the same, that everything Support Lux does Support Zyra does better. This section of the guide is not meant to suggest that Lux is some secret OP support, but more guidelines on how to play her as support if you find yourself in that situation. If you hate or don't own Zyra, Support Lux is similar. If you first picked a solo lane Lux and have to do some rearranging because some jerk has to play mid Riven, stay positive. We can do this.
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9/7/14 is standard page, very early game focused to ensure a strong laning phase.
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16/0/14 is the most offense oriented you want to go as Support Lux. This is your strongest late game mastery page and can be used against more passive enemy duos like a Soraka or Janna lane.
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5/11/14 is a defensive page for surviving enemy lanes wanting to all in such as Blitzcrank, Leona or double bruiser lanes.
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If you don't want to make a Lux Support rune page, your Standard solo lane Lux page will work fine. If you have extra pages to spare, I've found these two rune setups to be best.
Offensive: This is your standard page.
9 Hybrid Penetration
9 Flat Armor
9 Flat MR
3 Flat AP
Defensive: Use this page against enemy all in kill lanes like a Leona or a double Bruiser lane.
9 Flat Armor
9 Flat Armor
9 Flat MR
3 Flat AP
If you don't have Hybrid Penetration runes, Magic Penetration is fine for support Lux.
Offensive: This is your standard page.
9 Hybrid Penetration
9 Flat Armor
9 Flat MR
3 Flat AP
Defensive: Use this page against enemy all in kill lanes like a Leona or a double Bruiser lane.
9 Flat Armor
9 Flat Armor
9 Flat MR
3 Flat AP
If you don't have Hybrid Penetration runes, Magic Penetration is fine for support Lux.
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9/7/14 is standard page, very early game focused to ensure a strong laning phase.
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16/0/14 is the most offense oriented you want to go as Support Lux. This is your strongest late game mastery page and can be used against more passive enemy duos like a Soraka or Janna lane.
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5/11/14 is a defensive page for surviving enemy lanes wanting to all in such as Blitzcrank, Leona or double bruiser lanes.
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- Ignite or Exhaust is more preference based. Ignite is more aggressive and early game focused, Exhaust more defensive and late game focused.
- Taking 4 potions will give you more aggressive harassment against the enemy lane, but will make you more vulnerable to ganks. If you're not sure which option is best, I think 2 potions and a ward is a safer, more standard option.
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As Support your skill maxing order is R>W>Q>E, since you get the most mileage per skill point from your shield. It's important to note that with this skill order your E will do almost no damage after early laning, and will be used mostly for vision, the slow field, and farming gold from Tribute procs.
You have two options for what skills to get your first 3 levels.
You have two options for what skills to get your first 3 levels.
- Q>E>W is your ideal, as it allows you to use E harass at level 2 to start farming gold with your Spellthief's Edge.
- Q>W>E is a more defensive opener, giving you good staying power if you get pushed into a passive position at level 1.
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Your build path as Support is going to start off the same every game. However, after the laning phase you need to make a decision to branch out into either damage or utility itemization, to make up for whatever your team is lacking.
Cost: 1515 Gold
Cost: 3660 Gold
Cost: 13790 Gold
Cost: 13395 Gold
Other itemization
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Cost: 1515 Gold
- These items are all based around giving you a strong laning phase. You need to continue buying potions and wards until you complete Sightstone and begin roaming.
Cost: 3660 Gold
- This is your core item build. Swap your yellow trinket to a red one after buying Sightstone.
- At this point you have to decide whether or not to continue building AP, or transition into utility items for the late game. Below I have an extreme damage focused example, and an extreme utility focused example. What you end up with should vary depending on the game, and may well be somewhere between the two.
Cost: 13790 Gold
- This is an example of an end game, damage focused build.
- We built the Forbidden Idol into a Morellonomicon here for more AP/CDR, and then built Void Staff and Deathcap in order to turn our Support Lux into basically a solo lane Mage.
- Since you won't be farming, build Void Staff before Deathcap in this build.
Cost: 13395 Gold
- This is an example of an end game, utility focused build.
- We built the Forbidden Idol into Mikael's Crucible in this build, for defense and the Mikael active.
- For our final two items we built Locket and Twin Shadows, which caps out our CDR and gives us two more teamfight focused actives.
Other itemization
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On rare occasions you have some other options as support Lux. In general you either want to be using one of these as your fifth/sixth item slot, or selling your Frost Queens Claim for one of these very late in the game.
- Banner of Command can be alright in some games to help your team split push, or to help counterpush against a split pushing team. It also gives a good damage boost to a mid Zyra or Heimerdinger.
- Ardent Censer can be useful if your team benefits a lot from attack speed buffs.
- Talisman of Ascension is an option if your team needs help with the engage or disengage.
- Zhonya's Hourglass is likely your go to choice if you want to sell Frost Queens Claim for a big AP item late in the game.
- Deathfire Grasp is a more offensive option than Zhonya, if you're building a pure damage build and want to keep Frost Queens CDR.
- Lich Bane is an option in the very late game, if you want to sell your boots. This will reduce your movespeed by about 5%, do little to your burst damage, but increase your shields and sustained damage in long fights.
- If you need more resistances vs. a mostly AD or AP team you can change your boots. In general resistances are not as much of a concern as Support as they are as Mid, however. You will be a lower priority target, and are building tankier already.