Lucian-Nami have been dominating the bot lane since Lucian’s mini-rework, but they are not completely invincible
After many updates from Riot, Lucian and Nami are still true monsters in the bot lane. This duo has so many things from CC, damage burst to a little poke that the enemy laners can hardly do anything when facing them. If you are also frustrated with this duo, here are some tips that may help you to solve your problem partly.
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First, also the simplest: Ban one of them or both!
Sounds hilarious. However, this is definitely the most effective way to counter this duo. Banning them means you won’t have to think or do anything, as they can no longer appear in your game, right? In a top-tier pro league like LCK, Lucian has been banned in 95/120 games, or during MSI 2022, Lucian reached 100% ban/pick rates after 77 games. If not, they would easily destroy the enemy laners, even the whole game. If you want to ban another champion instead of Lucian, let’s come to the other ways.
Understand their strengths/weaknesses
Strengths
- Totally “illegal” damage burst throughout the game: They could actually deal 600 damage with a combo in nearly 2 seconds! The main point here is that all marksmen have about 600-700 HP at level 2, so that amount of damage is too huge for them to survive without using spells.
- High mobility: Lucian has too many things to escape as well as chase, such as his E, Galeforce and Nami’s MS buff. This duo can both stay alive from ganks quite simply and come after low-HP enemies.
- Incredible snowball: Early takedowns for Lucian possibly bring the victory to his team thanks to early items, which means tons of damage that no tankers are capable of dealing with
Weaknesses
- Short-ranged skills/AA
- Inferior to poke champs or long-ranged skills/AA
- Easily slain when struggling with strong approaching or large damage burst
- Vulnerable to hard CC
Be aware of your position and your allied laner’s
During the laning phase, try to make sure that you and your laner always stand equally, and when Lucian dashes to deal damage, both of you can easily fight back. You two will now take advantage as at this time, the three of you create a 2v1 triangle (like the pic below). Nami will have to take time walking toward to support Lucian, and it is too late. Lucian has received too much damage and is unable to maintain the fight.
Pick champs superior to Lucian – Nami in the laning phase
As mentioned above, Lucian can easily be dominated by long-ranged skills/AA champs. Besides, he will have difficulty dashing toward to deal damage against champs having CC as well as high-damage burst. As a result, Ezreal-Karma; Tristana-Nautilus/Alistar; Ezreal-Karma are some many considerable picks to counter this duo.
Use Exhaust instead of Heal/Ignite
Reducing 40% of damage dealt is apparently terrible to a damage-burst champ like Lucian. So, when confronting this duo, one of you two should regard bringing Exhaust. Not only can you make use of this spell in the laning phase, but you also may need it later. In team fights, when Lucian tries to slay your allies with his burst, the impact of Exhaust will be optimized. Even if he uses Cleanse to get rid of that impact, your allies’ CC will bring him back to his fountain.
End
Although Lucian-Nami is a powerful duo in bot lane, they are not entirely undefeatable. Despite their peaked ban/pick rates, their win rates in pro league and ranked are not so high. Careful movements, logical picks, and effective tactics are the main factors enabling you to gain victory.