His main problem is mana usage early game, in my experience. Playing over aggressively will have you using up way too much mana early on in the lane phase, and leaving you running empty whenever the enemy leaves an opening or your jungler ganks, losing easy kills on several occasions. His kit is strong, and when used properly, he could end up being a bigger early-game threat than Caitlyn. If they buff him, they'll boost his mana regen and/or base mana.
And yeah, IBG does seem a bit redundant, but perhaps I'm just a bit sadistic. Mixing in his high mobility with a constant slow coming up each time he blasts them with a skill or dashes up closer, along with even more damage beside his passive proc? THERE IS NO ESCAPE. Granted, Trinity offers even more damage with movement speed bonuses, so perhaps it's even more sadistic...
Mana management if you're spamming your spells is an issue for any mana-based champion. Besides, Lucian can build Tear quite easily, he even get 2 Muramana procs on his passive. Sadly it doesn't proc on each ult bolt, but that would nt only run Lucian from 100% to 0% mana, but also be completely borked.
Anyway, just kicked an Ezreal's teeth in with Lucian. One particularly hilarious moment was where I went aggressive with his 1st tower down, [His support had left the lane, mine was roaming because I was that far ahead]. He was low, and I was pressureing the T2. Udyr comes in, hoping to accomplish something.
He accomplished something alright. Making Ezreal run forward to try and help with Mystic Shots, immediately receiving a Peiricing Light through the Caster Minions as I fled to the face, killing him.
Also although he was
really bad and died twice to Blitz hooks early, with a little help from my Twitch Jungle brother, I force-fed a Lucian to domination as a Leona too.
In fact, played 3 games today, all three were wins by 20 min surrenders.
I'd say Lucian, for an ADC, has a pretty high skill level, but he's very strong if you know what you are doing.
