What made Lucian suddenly become the “King of the Bottom Lane” when the win rate increased sharply?

As we all know, in the last version 12.5b, a series of ADCs have been Riot Games major tweaks, especially nerfs aimed at Aphelios and Jinx. The reason is because these are two very strong ADC generals in the early stages of the last 2022 season and they often confront each other in professional matches. So to meta League of Legends become more diverse, these two characters were forced to be nerfed and ceded to other generals.

However, with this power correction, Riot Games accidentally brought back an extremely strong champion that is Lucian in the bot lane, even in Singles. Specifically, according to statistics from LeagueofGraph, Lucian has increased 2.6% win rate and 6.7% pick rate after version 12.5b was released. These are all the highest numbers in League of Legends and show that Lucian is an extremely strong character. So what is the exact cause of Lucian’s hegemony?

Lucian is increasing both win rate and usage in solo rank

First we need to mention the direct buff in patch 12.5b when the bonus AD per level increased. This makes it possible for Lucian to have a lot more damage in the mid and late game when building towards the critical. Moreover, with the use of the Soul Scythe as a “suppressing” item, having such additional AD helps Lucian have a stronger output damage.

The buffs, although not too large, are extremely meaningful that Lucian received in version 12.5b

In addition, we can see in the statistics above that Kai’Sa suddenly has a strong pick rate in both the Mid and Bottom lane positions thanks to the “Faker effect”. Kai’Sa is still basically a weak champion in the early game, so he is directly countered by Lucian, a very strong character at this stage. As a result, whether you like it or not, you still need to use Lucian in the current meta to be able to override the lane and prevent the opponent’s Kai’Sa from buffing up too quickly.

When Kai’Sa is picked more, Lucian also shows up more often

Even in Singles, the current Lucian is still a very strong pick at the moment thanks to the change of Teleport. To put it simply, when Teleport is no longer usable early on, champions that are strong or advance to a good later stage will be crowned in Top lane. And how coincidentally, when Lucian possesses both of the above factors, this champion has become an extremely good choice in the single-rank environment.

Regarding how to build Lucian, this general still makes good use of the duo of equipment that provides a lot of damage in the middle of the game, namely the Wind Bow, the Soul Scythe. For the mastery rune, Ready to Attack is still a very suitable and almost indispensable rune for Lucian. If you want to rank up with Lucian effectively, you should play with a Support Nami as this is an extremely strong duo in the mid lane in terms of attack and defense.