Hybrid Damage Lux

Question

I noticed that the reasons I like Lux in a team is because of all the utility. The stuns and slows can keep a highly mobile, high priority target (Zed, Akali, Yi) locked down enough for my allies to burst them in teamfights. Since the shield can theoretically get applied 10 times per cast (twice on each of the 5 members on my team, if we all get stuck in an MF ult, and I cast it just as it starts, for example), it probably as the most total damage negation of just about any shield ability. In lane, I've noticed that a lot of the damage I do is by getting a good combos with auto's in-between to trigger the passive as much as possible.

What I see from all this is a lack of reliance on AP. I don't believe the passive scales with AP (correct me if I'm wrong tho! SEE EDIT), nor do the CC affects (the binds don't last any longer with AP, and I'm assuming that I don't need the damage upfront when the bind hits because my team is going to turn and focus and burst whoever I catch).

So if I don't really need AP, what should I be building? CDR obviously, but you can get max CDR in 2 items. I'm toying with the idea of doing some AD and Attack speed items. I think there is a potential to do more total damage with my full combo that way, since a lot of my damage already relies on hitting auto attacks. Runnan's Hurricane applies on hit affects correct? So would it let me trigger my passive on 3 targets with 1 auto (if I mark at least 3 targets with a W or Ult)?

Could this be a thing? Has anyone tried it? Any other thoughts / is there anything I'm forgetting to consider?

EDIT: There has been some recent activity regarding the changes in the last patch (4.13), which nerfed the base damage of her passive and added 20% AP scaling. I feel this single change is significant enough to encourage an all AP build over a mixed damage build.

Answer 1

Well the thing is: she does scale very well with AP. The passive is strongest really early in the game especially at level 2 since you can burst around 250 damage in 1.5 seconds with

Q->E->Attack->E->Attack

The reason why lux is built on AP/CDR is because she can really burst squihies down in under a second without even getting close to them. Also if you position yourself right you can have a Huge Role in teamfights. And don't even get me started with poking. She's basically an AOE Version of Nidalee. While she doesn't deal as much damage with one spell, her main Poke (E) is a lot easier to land, has a built in slow and is AOE.

Also one thing is: She really does only scale with AP. Lux can kinda do anything but she doesn't really excel in anything else than bursting.

AP Lux

• Pro
  • Can oneshot squishies
  • Can Poke and Burst
  • High range
  • Easy to Farm
  • Safe Laning
  • Strong Shield
  • Exceptionally strong during Early-Midgame
• Con
  • Very weak vs Tanky enemies
  • No Gapcloser
  • Drops off lategame compared to other AP Champions

AD Lux

• Pro
  • 550 Range
  • Got a bit stronger with 4.10 (Infinity Edge Rush)
  • Has CC
  • OK-ish base stats as ADC
  • Can be very strong in a CC-Chain Botlane (Leona, Thresh, Blitzcrank)
• Con
  • Basically Nothing special/Gets outscaled (Every 550 Range champion can play ADC)
  • No AD scalings
  • Spells do have Casttime
  • Only strong Early game (Yes I've tried it...)

Tank Lux

• Pro
  • Range-Tank I guess?
• Con
  • Just don't do It

Well yes. Building Pure AP is basically the best thing you can do. While her spells don't really scale well individually they will deal a huge amount of damage combined and you can trigger the damage instantly. Of course you can take some build variations like with every champions but there aren't too many (Lichbane, Mejai, Abyssal for example).

Answer 2

I think the Hurricane will proc the passives. However, building AD on Lux seems a bad idea. A complete combo needs only 2 basic attacks to proc all the passives. Let's say you Q someone. Then you throw your E but don't let it explode yet. You ult. Remember that the ult procs a passive as well!! So your Q passive would be consumed. Since the ult itself also applies a passive, you atoattack, then let your E explode and autoattack again.

For multiple targets of course, you would have to autoattack more, but then again, someone will propably kill them if they had a slither of HP left.

Answer 3

I figured I had to comment on this, because of the recent changes : Lux's passive did not scale on AP until the last patch, when they reduced the scaling per level and introduced a 20% AP scale. For most AP Lux players, it is a boost to her dmg. I had calculated her burst combo before the patch to be among the worst of APCs (about 200% on her combo) but her base dmg is one of the best if you can get 3 passive procs (Q-AA-E-R-AA), but you don't get that kind of opportunity very often. Now you can add the 20%, or 40 or 60 if you can get the autos.

Before the change, the weak AP scaling (Compared to other standard APCs) meant you had to prioritize Magic Penetration and CDR over AP. Now, I guess you can consider trading some of the CDR and/or Magic Pen for some more AP.

For the AD question, I'd say that this is something really hard to theorycraft, because it is completely based on the number of autos you can get on target, which depends on the enemy champion, the situation, and people would think a good estimate is your range, but this is wrong because you have a snare spell, if you didn't have it, Lux would be less of a threat and it would be more difficult to get free autos.

You have to test it ! Be creative, like Siv HD's Counter-Bruiser Bruiser Lux ("She's impossible to counter : Becuase she has everything")

AFAIC, I wouldn't find building AD or trying hurricane multi-proc tricks on Lux a viable option. But I have met good Lux players that can get the most of her by building AP/tanky items to allow her to survive long chases and escape with her slows and snares. Try it !

Answer 4

Since apparently Im wrong about this being allowed or not (my apologies, I'm used to SO where opinions are basically always bad)

Yes, lux passive does not scale off of ap, it scales off of her current level.

Yes, Runnan's applies on-hit effects, so it should let you trigger lux passive on each target, providing that they are marked already.

I haven't tried it, but if you're good at anything you can make it work.

Here are my immediate thoughts:

• Lux has pretty decent AP ratios. You're kinda wasting them if you're not building AP.

• Lux passive does a MAX of 190 damage (10 + 10*level) assuming they have no mr, which is a lot less that it sounds like. If you can trigger it several times it will obviously add up.

• Lux's attack range is only 550, which is average for ranged champions. Note that she is incredibly squishy, and you cant afford to get caught.

• Remember that you will also do more damage if you get magic pen, so any items that give you that will also increase your damage output

Answer 5

While she has a decent amount of cc, she has no escapes. If you build AD, most of your damage is going to be over time, save for the few AD assassins like Zed, Talon, sort of Pantheon. As none of your cc is certain (all skillshot, unlike a Taric of Sion stun), you are very easy to get to, stay on, and kill. This makes it very difficult for you to stay in a fight, and do consistent damage at 550 range.

As Lux's abilities have really good range, you can hit people with them, and still be out of danger's way, though this can give up (some) passive procs. Her ratios are also pretty decent. You want to be farther back, stay unhurt, and keep throwing out good damage with your abilities.

CDR is an amazing stat on everybody, and there's math showing that it gets better the more you have. I don't really have an example of a time where CDR wouldnt be good to have.

If you have to build an auto attack related item, Nashor's Tooth is probably your best bet. It depends a lot, but you can sometimes have troubles getting in another auto attack to reproc your passive in early laning. Attack speed will help with that. I don't recommend it in general, but for some play styles or some situations, it may help.

Answer 6

Others have sort of touched upon my point here but I'll go into a little further detail.

The thing with building her AD is the fact that her forms of CC become about 90% useless. Sure she can root/slow a lot but these are all forms of soft CC. This means that if you are building AD you are putting yourself automatically into danger and your abilities won't provide you much protection besides vs melees with no gap closers.

Further, you talk about your shield negating a lot of damage from your whole team (potentially but very unlikely). Anyways, her shield scales off of AP as well and without AP you will just be shielding for the base stats which won't be super high.

The reason AP Lux works is because she can safely sit back and throw her beams of light that also help keep enemies back. Essentially she can poke for good damage as AP without ever getting into severe danger.

TL;DR; Building her AD takes away any safety advantages she would get as AP but gives her 0 advantages to make up for it. There really is no reason you should ever do it. You might as well pick an adc because at least they will have some scalings for the items you build.

Answer 7

Let's revisit this after this most recent patch. Her passive now scales with AP, is worse without AP than it used to be, and is much better with large amounts of AP than it used to be. This means that the passive is a good reason to go AP instead of AD.

Next, let's talk about her spells. On her 3 damaging spells, their range is huge. Much longer than your auto attack range. In lane, this isn't a huge deal because getting in AA range to proc your passive isn't too dangerous against another caster. In a team fight, with a character who has such a large amount of damage that they can put out from a safe distance, there isn't a good reason to go in and proc your passive. Your spell range keeps you safe, while allowing you to have high damage output and burst.

As far as I'm aware, none of her skills scale with AD, and they all scale fairly well with AP. You've pointed out that the snare and slow duration/strength aren't dependent on AP, and you're right. But as for her shield and ult, I think that they'd be very lackluster without AP.

I think the end result of AD Lux is an immobile AD Carry with less damage than Kog'Maw and Varus, less kite/chase/engage than Ashe (these being the other 3 completely immobile AD carries) having 4 spells and a passive, none of which are doing as much damage as they should be.

I don't think it's viable, but that doesn't mean that you shouldn't try it out in a bot game or with some friends.

Answer 8

There's no reason to build ad on Lux, she doesn't synergize with ad at all, I suppose you only need auto attack to proc her passive, but in one combo you usually only get chance to proc it twice, the ult will proc it once and you all you need to do another auto attack in roughly 5-10 seconds period before you have cd for another round of combo, in this case lich bane is much more superior than building a full ad, it actually grant your more burst from your single auto attack. Lux's two main strength are long range and high aoe burst, building ad would sacrifice both of her strength, if you really like the idea of building hybird on apc, you should try champion like Ahri, Leblanc etc, they have decent crowd control AND escape that grants you high mobility to improve you survivibility, which is the thing all range ad should consider first.

Answer 9

The only thing ad that would be possible is getting a triforce to make use of the passive as well as increase damage after a spell. You did mention hybrid, and I didnt see anyone mention hybrid. Like I said ad with sheen proc is the most you want. Mixing damage will lower one or the other so you wanna max ap or ad. Idk every one else a swered this pretty well already though so Just thought I would add my two cents