Best Lucian counters in LoL

LoL Esports

April 20, 2024

Davide Xu

Learn which are the best counters to beat Lucian this season. Can you guess which three are most effective?

Image Credit: Riot Games

Lucian counters in LoL – the top three picks

Nilah – the best counter

Nilah is not one of the most popular ADCs but she does a great job against Lucian. While she doesn’t win against the enemy champion early on, she can open up a substantial experience lead thanks to her passive. Snowballing is not as effective as it used to be in the past so Lucian has a much smaller window of opportunity to gain an advantage. Not to mention that Nilah will block off most of Lucian’s DPS later in the game with her W.

Kog’Maw – the meta counter

Kog’Maw hasn’t been popular until recently thanks to some needed buffs. Just like Nilah, he doesn’t win against Lucian early on but he compensates everything with some incredible late-game scaling. As long as you can safely reaches a three item spike without bleeding advantage, you will instantly get into an advantageous position to close out the game.

Ashe – the evergreen counter

One of Lucian’s greatest strengths is his mobility and general ability to dash around and kite enemies. What happens, however, if this strength is heavily reduced? That’s what Ashe does with her kit: she can snipe him across the map for picks but also slow him down with the passive, neutralizing his power. These two are the main reasons why Ashe will always be considered one of Lucian’s worst matchups.

Image Credit: Riot Games

If you’re fairly new to the game, check out our guide on how counter picks work in League of Legends. You will understand why counter picks are important, and how you need to take advantage of them to increase your win rate. Make sure to also understand how classes counter one another in LoL so you always know what to pick in each game.

Worst Lucian counters

Sivir – too weak early on

Sivir typically needs time to scale up but against Lucian she doesn’t have the luxury of time. He will bully her out with short and fast trades throughout the laning phase. On top of that, her spell shield is not effective against Lucian given that she can only block one instance of his abilities.

Varus – not a great matchup

Varus can theoretically match Lucian in the early game with the higher range but he’s also less mobile than his counterpart. This can be extremely troublesome during the mid-game where positioning matters heavily where both champions spike up relatively well. If Lucian gets an advantage, it will be tough for Varus to fight and get back into the game.

How do you counter Lucian with the items?

When going up against Lucian, it’s recommended to stack a mix of armor and HP. Below is a list of items to build you should consider, based on the class of champion you’re playing:

Bruisers: Randuin’s Omen, Frozen Heart, Death Dance
AD assassins: Guardian’s Angel
ADC champions: Guardian’s Angel
AP champions: Zhonya’s Hourglass
Tanks: Randuin’s Omen, Frozen Heart, Warden’s Mail

What Champion counters Lucian?

The three best counters are Nilah, Kog’Maw, and Ashe. Other strong counters are Twitch, Draven, and Jinx.

Does Xayah counter Lucian?

Xayah struggles quite a lot against Lucian in the early game as he has the upper hand in short trades. For a champion who excels in front-to-back teamfights, Lucian is just a troublesome champion for Xayah to deal with since he can dodge most of her feathers with the right reflexes and reaction.