How to play Lucian — Wild Rift guide, combos & tips
卢锡安
How to play Lucian — Wild Rift guide, combos & tips
Lucian, the Purifier, is one of Wild Rift's most tempo-driven marksmen: his Lightslinger passive turns every ability cast into a free double-shot on his next basic attack, so plain auto-attacks double as burst physical damage. Rather than scaling into a stationary late-game hypercarry, he plays as an aggressive skirmisher who dashes in and out of range with Relentless Pursuit (E), chaining abilities into attacks to win short trades and pick fights. It's a moderate-difficulty marksman kit that rewards active ability-weaving and sharp positioning over passive farming.
Strengths
- Lightslinger (Passive) turns every ability cast into a bonus second shot on his next basic attack - 35% AD as physical damage, 100% against minions, and able to crit - giving Lucian some of the highest early burst windows of any marksman in the game.
- Relentless Pursuit (E) is a short dash whose cooldown drops by 1 second on every hit and 2 seconds against champions, so he can weave in and out of range far more often than most ranged carries.
- Ardent Blaze (W) explodes for 75 magic damage and reveals plus marks the target for 6 seconds, handing 65 bonus movement speed to any ally - including Lucian himself - who follows up damage on the mark, making it a real pick and skirmish tool rather than just laning poke.
- The Culling (R) keeps dealing damage even while Lucian repositions, since Relentless Pursuit can be cast mid-channel without cancelling the ultimate, letting him kite instead of standing still and eating a whole team's response.
Weaknesses
- Very fragile - his only defensive tool is the bonus damage his passive grants after an ally shields or heals him, so with no self-peel of his own, any assassin or burst mage that closes the distance can delete him in one rotation.
- Relentless Pursuit (E) is a short, straight-line dash with no untargetability, so hard crowd control shuts down his entire mobility kit the moment it lands - exactly why permanent slows and roots like Ashe or Senna are such rough matchups.
- The Culling (R) locks him into a facing direction for the whole channel; mobile targets can simply walk out of the beam, and any stun or knock-up cuts the damage short.
- His whole identity is tempo and burst rather than raw stat-scaling, so unlike a true late-game hypercarry like Vayne, he wants to end the game early rather than let it stretch past the 25-30 minute mark.
Combos
- Piercing Light (Q) into an empowered autoattack, then Relentless Pursuit (E): poke down the line to prime Lightslinger, and dash in just as the free second shot lands so the burst and the gap-close happen almost together.
- Ardent Blaze (W) onto the target, empowered autoattack, then The Culling (R): mark the target for the reveal and the movement speed bonus, cash in the follow-up hit, then channel the ultimate into a target that's already lit up and can't hide.
- The Culling (R), weaving Relentless Pursuit (E) mid-channel: open the ultimate down a chokepoint or lane, then tap E partway through to sidestep an incoming skillshot or dive attempt without ever losing the DPS channel.
- Relentless Pursuit (E) to disengage, then Piercing Light (Q) backward: dash away from a bad trade and still fire a line of damage back down the lane, so Lucian can keep dealing damage while retreating, not only while all-inning.
Skill order: Q > W > E (grab one early point in E for the extra mobility; level R whenever it's available)
Early game
Lane behind Piercing Light (Q): it's an 80-damage, wall-to-wall poke that also primes Lightslinger, so every safe poke into a trade doubles as a free empowered autoattack. Look for all-in windows once Ardent Blaze (W) can mark the enemy laner and Relentless Pursuit (E) is up, since landing hits refunds E's cooldown and keeps an escape ready for the follow-up trade. Play patiently until Essence Reaver completes - that's the timing that turns Lucian from a poking laner into a genuine skirmish threat, with Magnetic Blaster right behind it adding attack speed and extra on-hit magic damage to every Lightslinger proc. Because his only 'shield' comes from an ally's heal or shield triggering the passive, avoid diving alone into vision you don't control and let your jungler create the openings instead.
Mid & late game — teamfighting
By the mid game, Lucian wants to fight from an angle rather than head-on: fire Ardent Blaze (W) at a flanker or an isolated backline target so the mark's reveal and movement speed bonus let the whole team pile on. In the middle of a fight, channel The Culling (R) - each bolt hits for 35 physical damage, up to 759 total in a single channel - into whoever is easiest to keep inside the beam, whether that's an overextended tank or a carry you've already isolated, and weave Relentless Pursuit (E) mid-channel to dodge incoming crowd control without losing DPS uptime. Pick up Mortal Reminder or Lord Dominik's Regards the moment the enemy stacks healing or shields, and lean on Blade of the Ruined King if you need extra dueling sustain against tankier lineups. Positioning decides most of his fights: staying just out of engage range wins them, getting caught in it loses them instantly.
Pro tips
- Recast Relentless Pursuit (E) mid-Culling (R) purely to dodge an incoming all-in - the ultimate keeps channeling and dealing damage, you're only repositioning, so treat E as a defensive tool even in the middle of your own ultimate.
- Track the bonus-damage state from your passive - up to 4 charges of +26 magic damage after an ally's heal or shield, or after a nearby enemy gets hit by hard crowd control - and delay your next two attacks half a second when you see it trigger, so the extra damage lands on a champion instead of getting burned on a minion wave.
- Poke with Piercing Light (Q) in lane even when you don't need the damage - every champion hit shaves extra time off Relentless Pursuit (E), so the dash is far more likely to be ready right when a real fight actually breaks out.