In this article, I will
address potential problems with different champions in League of Legends. For
the first champion, Lux, I have created some potential changes to her kit that
I believe will make her a more viable pick in today’s metagame. Currently Lux
combines her high burst potential, with a more supportive style of play in the
form shields and soft crowd-control. She is burdened however with high mana
costs, and a lack of mobility. Instead of just varying her numbers slightly, I
decided to look for possible to tweaks to her kit, addressing all of her issues.
All of these changes are independent of one another, and could be implemented
without the implementation of another.
First I’ll
take a look at her passive, Illumination:
“Lux's damaging
spells mark any enemies with light energy for 6 seconds. Her autoattacks or
Final Spark will consume the mark, dealing 10 + (8 × Lux's level) (+ 20% AP)
magic damage to the target.”
This is Lux’s most recently changed ability, and I really
like how it was taken to be more late-game oriented. The change allowed her to
compete with other mid-laners in terms of late game damage, without making her
early game too overbearing. This is where I would address Lux’s current mana
issues, and here is what I had in mind for an addition to this passive.
“Consuming a mark on
an enemy champion will restore [35-200] mana, based on Lux’s level. This
ability has a static cooldown of 20s.”
Applying this change would help promote what Lux’s early
game playstyle is intended to be. That is, using her abilities along with
well-timed auto attacks for efficient trading in the laning phase. As with all
of my changes here, the specific numbers can easily be changed for better
balancing, but the idea remains the same.
Light Binding:
“Lux
releases a sphere of light in a line, striking up to two enemy units along its
path. It deals magic damage to the first enemy it touches and half that damage
to a second enemy behind it. Additionally, the first enemy struck is rooted for
2 seconds, and the second enemy is rooted for 1 second.”
Light Binding serves as the foundation to Lux’s entire
design. With it, she is able to safely proc her passive, and easily land her
other moves, Lucent Singularity and Final Spark. Light Binding also serves as
her main form of survival when being ganked, and this is where I see a problem.
Not landing this skillshot will almost always result in death under the
pressure of a good gank, and even landing it is sometimes not be enough. It is
highly unlikely that this ability will hit both the opposing mid-laner and
jungler, at which point if either opponent successfully lands a form of
crowd-control, there is a good chance Lux will not survive that gank. Here is
my proposal to hopefully slightly buff her mobility.
“If Light Binding
hits an enemy champion, Lux gains a [100] movement speed boost for 1.5 seconds
(This ability does not stack, but will be refreshed if Light Binding hits a
second target).”
This will reward Lux for hitting her key skillshot, thus
allowing her to avoid early game ganks easier. This implementation will also improve
her mobility at all stages of the game, which has been addressed as a problem
by many after her base movement speed nerfs in 3.5 (Base movement speed reduced
to 330 from 340). The exact numbers on this, as far as movement speed and
duration of the increase, would need to be tested to ensure that it is not too
overwhelming, or even underwhelming.
Prismatic Barrier:
“Active: Lux shields
herself for up to 3 seconds and throws out her wand in a line, applying the
same shield to allied champions in its path. Her wand then returns to her,
again shielding allied champions in its path and Lux herself upon return. When
reapplied, the shield does not stack, but is refreshed.”
This move is where I had the most trouble deciding on how I
could tweak it, without making it too strong. My first idea was to provide a
movement speed to both her and her shielded allies affected by the shield, but
only when a certain amount of allies were hit with it. This seemed problematic,
especially in the later stages of the game. Having a 40% CDR Lux with a now 6
second cooldown on this buffed Prismatic Barrier seemed too strong, regardless
of the specific numbers. I wanted to include my initial thought process just in
case it could somehow be built upon. In the end I decided against any changes
here, as making too many changes becomes problematic when trying to decipher
the impact of each individual change.
Lucent Singularity:
“Active: Lux sends an
anomaly of twisted light to a target area, slowing enemies within 300-range and
granting sight of a slightly larger area for up to 5 seconds.
At the
end of the duration or if Lucent Singularity is activated again, the zone will
detonate and deal magic damage to enemies in the area.”
Lucent Singularity is Lux’s main form of wave clear and
poke damage throughout the entire game. The biggest potential change I came up
with is here, so first we’ll look at the current damage, as all other factors
will remain the same.
“Magic Damage: 60 /
105 / 150 / 195 / 240 (+ 60% AP)”
My plan here is to reduce the damage but have it scale with
time. Here are some rough values.
“Magic Damage: 50 /
90 / 130 / 170 / 210 (+ 60% AP)
Damage
increases up to 50% over 3 seconds.
MAX
Magic Damage: 75 / 135 / 195 / 255 / 315”
There are a few reasons why I like the basis of this
change. This synergizes well with Lux’s Light Binding, by rooting the enemy
inside of Lucent Singularity. It also adds more depth to her play, by having to
strategically decide when to activate this ability again, before giving the
enemy the opportunity to escape. The other reason for this change is to help in
the mid-late game. Unless Lux has gotten a large early lead, she has many
problems with clearing waves. Since minion movements are fairly predictable, it
will be easy for Lux to position Lucent Singularity for maximum damage, and be
a significant improvement to her ability to wave-clear.
Lastly we
have Lux’s signature move, Final Spark:
“Active: After
gathering energy for half a second, Lux fires a broad and long-range beam of
light in a line that deals magic damage to all enemies in the area.
Any
enemies that are already marked by Illumination have it ignited for additional
magic damage, then re-applied.”
This is what comes to player’s minds when they think of
Lux, and because of that it becomes a very hard move to want to tweak. On top
of that, it is a rather one-dimensional move, aside from its interaction with
her passive. The most recent balance update to this move came in patch 3.5
where the cooldown was increased to “80/65/50 seconds from 80/60/40”. I fully
agree that this was needed, because Lux scales very well with cooldown
reduction. A 10s difference at max rank, or even a 6s difference (40% CDR) is
huge on a move with a power level as high as this. This nerf helped minimize
any chances of Lux being able to cast this move twice in any single team fight,
which can be game winning on its own.
Conclusion:
Overall I
believe these changes would properly address the current problems that Lux
faces. Lux already relies on a kit fully based around skillshots, and even when
successfully using all of them can be underwhelming at many aspects of the
game. Along with the recent changes to Morellonomicon and Athene’s Unholy
Grail, proper itemization has become very difficult. These champion changes aid
Lux’s mana problems, lack of mobility, and inability to efficiently clear
waves. As previously stated, the specific numbers I presented here would need
testing, but the basis behind every change could remain the same.
