Thought of the Day: Lucian

It's been a while, but I had a epiphany about Lucian.

If Ardent Blaze, Lucian's W, could be cast while moving he'd be a competitive AD carry.

Right now Lucian is considered terrible for a number of reasons:

• He's a short range AD carry without a powerful steroid.
• His W isn't an effective tool for either chasing or kiting.
• His E is a relatively weak escape/gap closer.
• His ultimate is difficult to aim and doesn't do much damage.

At first it looks like Lucian has multiple issues that need to each be resolved individually. Upon closer inspection, however, it's clear that three of the purported issues are actually symptoms.

• Lucian's short range is an issue because he can't chase or kite effectively.
• Lucian's E is underwhelming because it's insufficient to make up for his chase/kite deficiency.
• Lucian's ultimate feels week because he's often forced to use it mid-fight when he's been zoned by the tanky front line due to his range and chase/kite issues.

It all comes back to the fact that Ardent Blaze fails to be more than an additional damage skillshot. If it provided the kite/chase potential it was supposed to, all these dominoes would be knocked over and he'd be much, much better. Perhaps not perfect, but far closer.