The Lucian – Nami duo has always maintained their overwhelming power in the bot lane, but they are not completely undefeated.
Through many updates from Riot, the Lucian-Nami duo has always maintained their hegemonic power in the bot lane. This pair always causes inhibition or sometimes “helpless” for any gamer every time they have to confront them. If you are also among the aforementioned gamers, this is the article for you.
Lucian-Nami one-shot opponent right at level 2
The first and easiest way: Let’s… ban them
It’s not a joke! The strength of this couple is not average. Even in a top tournament in the world like the LCK, teams had to ban Lucian 95 times after a total of 120 games. Or just recently, at MSI 2022, Lucian reached 100% of the pick/ban rate after 77 games. And in all 3 games he was revealed, the team that owns the Lucian-Nami pair easily destroys the opponent. So, in case you don’t want to go through the headache of figuring out how to deal with this couple, simply ban them. However, if that’s not your option, let’s move on to the next steps.
Understanding the pros and cons of Lucian-Nami
Master yourself, master the enemy. To defeat this duo, we first need to understand their strengths and weaknesses:
Strength:
The ability to stack “disgusting” negative single-target damage throughout the game. Right from level 2, this duo can deal up to… 600 damage in less than 2 seconds after a combo. Gunners or Paper Support champions with only about 500-600 health at the beginning of the game will easily “evaporate” if they eat this critical combo completely. Maneuvering, approaching opponents is extremely easy with the movement speed buff from Nami and Lucian’s E-Pursuing to the end (and also equipped with Wind Spirit Bow). Combined with the ability to stack damage, this pair is extremely strong in the odd catch phase in the mid game. The ability to snowball is extremely terrible. As long as Lucian has a few kills early, bot lane and possibly the whole game is considered a result.
Brand easily got on the counting board even though he used Flash for himself
Weakness:
Relatively short range, not very good recovery, both are extremely fragile, easily defeated when being close or taking large amounts of damage Fear of crowd control skills
Once you know their pros and cons, you can completely limit the power of this pair.
Pay attention to where you and your teammates stand in the laning phase
During the laning phase, get your support player (or AD carry) side-by-side, positioning yourself so that when Lucian dashes up and attacks either, both of you can instantly. deal damage as well as control to him. Now all 3 will create a “triangle” (as shown below). Lucian-Nami will have a hard time taking advantage of their combo damage, because after dashing, the damage Lucian takes from you and your teammates will often be more than he can handle. cause.
Pick bots that can beat Lucian-Nami in the laning phase
With a short arm span, Lucian is easily overwhelmed by champions with long range/skills. Also, surfing Lucian’s move will also be difficult against pairs that can return some control and damage to him. Therefore, prioritize champions that have both long range, and abundant control and damage such as: Ashe, Zyra, Xerath, Jhin, Caitlyn, Ziggs, …
In addition, you can also choose duos that have the ability to put extremely strong damage and control to dry up blood and “lose enough” with Lucian-Nami, such as: Tristana-Alistar, Kai’Sa-Nautilus, … Surely we still haven’t forgotten how SGB’s Shogun-Taki duo has time and time again solo killed “world’s number one bot” Gumayusi-Keria at the last MSI.
Shogun and Taki “popularize Vietnamese” for T1 bots right at level 1
Carry the Summoner Spell Exhaustion
Lucian-Nami’s close range dashes will be completely countered by 40% damage reduction from Exhaustion. Therefore, every time you encounter this duo, you should consider bringing yourself at least one Burnout in your bot lane. This summoner spell isn’t only beneficial in the laning phase. In the mid and late stages, when Lucian-Nami is at his strongest thanks to his dashes looking to damage you or your teammates, Exhaustion will maximize its effect. Even if Lucian carries Purification, he will easily get other crowd control effects if he had to use Purify on your Exhaustion.
Stay away from places where there is no view in the middle and late game
Lucian-Nami’s strongest moment is not the laning phase, but the mid game. With their great mobility and ability to deal single-target damage, they will take advantage of the enemy’s loopholes to dash up and find a way to take down the enemy. So in this phase, you need to play it safe and focus. Control your vision carefully, do not push high when there is no vision around. When entering the dark areas of the map, let tanky teammates – champions that can withstand a Lucian-Nami combo – go first. As long as you don’t let them pick up / split blood before the fight phase, you have successfully reduced the power of the Lucian-Nami duo by 50%.
Conclude
Although Lucian-Nami is a very strong duo, they are not unstoppable. Their win rate in the tournament and in the rank is not too high. Just deploying the correct counter strategies, winning against Lucian-Nami will be much easier than we think.
See also: T1 struggled to overcome KDF, fans asked to immediately give MVP to Faker in game 3