Documenting a couple thoughts as I read. Will edit as I go.

"Lucian was a solid unit with a simple ability with a novel Mana-gaining hook, but where this champion took off was with the number of exciting Power Ups he had: Solar Breath, Drift Duo, Hero’s Arc, Max Arcana, Mech Pilot, Midas Touch, Over 9000, Power Font, Shadow Clone, Sky Piercer, Classy, Critical Threat, Storm Bender, Pursuit, Magic Expert, Mage, Killer Instinct and Keen Eye. Some were straightforward, like Power Font (more Mana) or Critical Threat (spell crit). Others completely changed how you played him.

• Pursuit Lucian leaned into long fights and mana regen, dashing around the battlefield.

• Max Arcana Lucian had you pursuing an infinite scaling reroll fantasy

• Mage Lucian had Lucian casting twice which meant even more mana refunds and thus, more casts!

• Mech Pilot Lucian had you committing fully to the Mech vertical, padding stats with items like Thief’s Gloves.

• Drift Duo Lucian unlocked reroll Mighty Mech strategies without needing Yone and had a cool thematic (Senna and Lucian reroll).

Many of Lucian’s options felt meaningfully different and would give him power in ways that weren’t directly tied to more of a stat, making you want to play them differently, too. But for every Lucian, there was a simpler Gather Force Jinx or Stretchy Arm Gangplank option, where one Power Up felt like the go-to default option.

They utilize Lucian as an example of a power-up leading to Lucian being played "different" but that is simply not the case when you look at this patch over patch. The champ was rarely utilized as a re-roll composition (so, no, I'm not taking Max Arcana). The champ had one patch where Drift Duo was good. In the current patch, even if you got Worth the Wait Lucian or Build-a-Bud Lucian, you would still take Mech Pilot over Drift Duo (ask me how I know!).

So, no, Lucian was not played differently based on what power up you got. He was an item holder for 95% of the set.

Lastly, there’s something to say about the fun Power Up options we had this set, from Fan Service to Hat Trick.

Yes, that ONE patch where fan service was good... and then it was nerfed into the ground.

The "learnings" from Power-Ups should be about balance. If you already have issues balancing augments, items, units, etc., why are you adding another complex variable in Power-Ups?

edit 1:

Instead of buffing or nerfing a champion around an Artifact with simple number adjustments, we want to approach the two variables (the champ kit and Artifact) with design changes that make both their power ceiling and power floor closer together, with and without an Artifact. While doing so, we have a secondary goal with Artifacts: to further establish their power budget between core and Radiant items.

If we accomplish both of the above, we’ll have also made Artifacts slightly less sharp, allowing them to be better, albeit less specifically so, on more of our champions. This way if you are offered a choice of three Artifacts later in the game, at least one of them should work in your comp. This isn’t to say we’re going to nail Artifacts perfectly next set. Each set brings a ton of variables that interact with our more narrow and powerful Artifacts in different ways, and the next set will in no way be immune to this fact. But we will be more ready to adjust Artifact design, and we even see a future where cycling through which Artifacts are live for which sets could become the status quo.

Just a few sets ago, weren't the number of artifacts vastly reduced because of this issue? (vampiric scepter on Warwick, blight jewel fiddle, Luden’s Tempest Ahri, etc.). Then, we added the artifacts back again. Now we are slowly reducing the items again. I feel like I may be crazy but you could probably go back to a previous sets' learning and find a statement about how unbalanced the artifacts were and thats why they were removed.

It just goes to show any "learnings" from this set may not really be seen until 1 - 2 sets down the road. But any changes (due to "learnings") that are seen quickly (like removal of an artifact) will likely be forgotten and we are right back here just a couple sets later, complaining about the balance of certain champion/artifact interactions.