Luyana's New Playstyle! Switching from Marksman to Jungler? Cleverly Avoids the Weak Early Laning Phase of ADC

With the August 6th patch, the rift welcomed a fresh hero, Luyana, selected through a global player vote. Despite her short time in the game, she's been a hot topic. But it's common knowledge that she's notably underpowered early on while scaling well into the late game, which makes the marksman laning phase extremely challenging.

Therefore, aside from the standard gold lane approach, some players have recently developed a new jungle strategy that effectively addresses the issue of being too weak in the early laning phase. So, how exactly does this playstyle work, and what does Luyana rely on when jungling? Let's take a look below.

First, let's talk about Luyana's core mechanics. Her damage mainly comes from ring blades. Her passive, Serpent Flame Envoy, grants ring blades when she uses her first skill or ultimate, with a maximum of two held at once. Basic attacks cause the ring blades to follow and cut enemies; every three cuts count as one basic attack, benefiting from item spell effects and critical strikes.

Besides gaining movement speed and a ring blade when using her first skill, Luyana can also vault over a wall once while the ring blade is active, with a burst of speed after crossing. This terrain-ignoring mobility is quite unique among marksmen. Her third skill includes a 1.5-second blind, causing enemies hit to deal no damage with basic attacks and making targeted projectiles randomly deviate. With these three mechanics combined, Luyana gains strong mobility and kiting ability, making the jungle playstyle viable.

The core logic of this jungle playstyle is just four words: prioritize development. Luyana's early jungle clear isn't fast, but her first skill's wall-jump gives her an advantage. After clearing one jungle quadrant, she can vault over walls to rotate, gank, or steal farm more efficiently than most junglers. The strategy is to start at red buff, then use wall jumps to look for ganks. If there's an opportunity, use the second skill to lock down; if not, immediately rotate or invade the enemy jungle. The key is to never stay idle. The completion of the Static Shiv is the turning point for this build. Once the Static Shiv is finished, the ring blade cuts combined with the lightning chain significantly boost wave clear and jungle speed, quickly accelerating the pace.

Additionally, mastering the second skill is essential. It summons a fire serpent at a designated location, which after a brief delay charges toward Luyana, dealing magic damage and slowing enemies along the path while pulling them slightly back. If you have ring blades stored when using the skill, the blades will instantly cut the enemies hit by the serpent. This is the origin of the so-called "void lock-on" technique.

Normally, with one ring blade stored, you can basic attack and immediately use the second skill. The serpent pulls, and the ring blade cuts simultaneously, requiring little precise aiming. However, if you use the second skill without any ring blades, the skill only gets a 25% cooldown refund. So knowing when to store ring blades and when to use the skill takes practice.

As for the build, the focus is on stacking movement speed and AoE damage. The jungle item is the Bloodthirsty Blade, core items are Static Shiv and Blade of the Ruined King. The ring blade cuts can frequently trigger the spell effects of both items. Later, add the Dominator's Insight for penetration, and a survival slot for the Master's Blade of Fate. Combined with the ultimate's blind, this gives plenty of outplay potential. Boots start with Attack Speed Boots, then sell them later for Ninja Tabi. Stacking movement speed from the Bloodthirsty Blade, Static Shiv, and the first skill makes map roaming very effective. For runes, standard attack speed, lifesteal, and penetration combinations work well: Hunting, Desolation, and Eagle Eye are common choices. Specific numbers can be adjusted based on personal preference.

Of course, this playstyle isn't without weaknesses. Luyana's early jungle clear is indeed slow, and if the enemy invades her jungle, her development can easily be disrupted. In such situations, don't stubbornly defend; instead, go soak lane XP, steal camps, or use the teleport portal on the top lane to swap lanes and farm. First ensure your economy doesn't fall behind. Also, since Luyana is a marksman at heart, she's quite squishy. As a jungler, you must control vision and timing for ganks yourself, which is more demanding than playing in the gold lane.

That's an overview of the Luyana "Cheetah Flow" jungle playstyle. The core is to leverage the first skill's wall-jump mobility to boost your development pace. Once the Static Shiv is completed, her power spikes. However, early game control and handling enemy jungle invasions require careful attention to detail. If you're interested, feel free to give it a try!

*This article is authorized for publication by Tian Cai Shao Nv Ji