You might know Lulu best for her showing bottom lane as a support and her annoying laugh. Currently, Lulu is making frequent guest appearances in mid lane as a utility mage thanks to a Korean FoTM AP Lulu trend that has leaked into the western pro scene.

Though Lulu's damage got nerfed in the preseason along with the other supports, Whimsy got a utility buff. It now scales with AP instead of giving a set percent. As a solo laner with plenty of farm, Lulu will have much more AP than she would as a tankier support to help scale Whimsy's speed buff. With the current trend for high mobility !! GO FAST !! teams (involving Sivir and On The Hunt), you can easily see why Lulu being able to cast a mini version of Ghost on an ally would mesh well. The speed boost can also turn certain champs into initiators. Evelynn in example initiates by literally running at someone.

Another result of Lulu having AP is her enhanced defensive ratios. She'll have much stronger shields with Help, Pix! for squishier allies to help reduce the burst damage of popular assassins like Zed, LeBlanc, and Kha'Zix. And with top lane just being a World of Tanks server, she'll further enhance her top laner's health pool with Wild Growth.

She's well off in damage, usually building Athene's Unholy Grail and Lich Bane. With the cooldown, her Help, Pix! and Glitterlance will allow her to kite targets a little while doing decent damage. And with Lich Bane, she'll have additional autoattack damage to accompany her passive autoattack damage. Overall, she's got plenty of tools in her kit and there's reason enough for her to be in a solo lane.

TL;DR Lock in Lulu and go mid.






Here are two basic rune pages you could use as mid Lulu:

THE AD PAGE 9 Greater Mark of Attack Damage 9 Greater Seal of Scaling Health 6 Greater Glyph of Cooldown Reduction 3 Greater Glyph of Scaling Ability Power 3 Greater Quintessence of Attack Damage

THE AP PAGE 9 Greater Mark of Hybrid Penetration 9 Greater Seal of Scaling Health 6 Greater Glyph of Cooldown Reduction 3 Greater Glyph of Scaling Ability Power 3 Greater Quintessence of Ability Power

The AD and AP pages are defined by quints they use: An AD page will be focused on early game autoattack harass and use AD quints, and an AP page will have AP quints for additional spell power. Pretty simple.

For reds, you can use hybrid penetration for your mixed damage harass. Flat AD also works with the AD page for autoattack harass. For yellows, I strongly suggest you stick to scaling health runes regardless of whether you're doing AD or AP on your reds/quints. They make you a bit tankier late game. You get more HP than a Ruby Crystal. Pretty efficient.

Glyphs are more varied. My suggestion of 6 CDR runes are to help cap out your CDR. Athene's Unholy Grail = 20%, Elixir of Brilliance and Crest of the Ancient Golem = 10% ea, Sorcery = 5%. You can't always rely on having blue buff or blue pot, so 6 CDR runes rounds out your CDR at 39.98%. If you're super anal, you can do 7 CDR runes to go over the cap of 40%. The remaining 3 glyphs are filler. They could be anything.

NO CDR / VS AD 9 Greater Glyph of Scaling Ability Power 3 Greater Quintessence of Armor

NO CDR / VS AP 9 Greater Glyph of Magic Resist (9 Greater Glyph of Scaling Ability Power) 3 Greater Quintessence of Ability Power

If you don't have CDR quints or don't find them as effective, look into running full Greater Glyph of Scaling Ability Power or Greater Glyph of Magic Resist. I tend to favor scaling AP because you're going to build Chalice of Harmony anyway and get that early magic resist.

If you happen to face an AD champ mid, using Greater Quintessence of Armor is now more effective than using Greater Seal of Armor. A combination like Greater Glyph of Scaling Ability Power with Greater Quintessence of Armor would give you the armor for fighting the enemy AD champ while still giving you some AP. And a combination like Greater Quintessence of Ability Power with Greater Glyph of Magic Resist would give you the magic resist for an enemy AP champ while still giving you some AP.







The 21/0/9 mastery page I recommend is a fairly straightforward and takes all of the useful masteries for AP mids. Sorcery is "duh" with her reliance on CDR, Arcane Blade compliments Lich Bane, Meditation for more early mana regen, Alchemist means longer Elixir of Brilliance, Runic Affinity means longer Crest of the Ancient Golem, etc.

The points in Executioner , Expose Weakness and Spell Weaving are filler and can literally be anything. Anything. Would you prefer to have Feast and Butcher ? Take them. Do you like Dangerous Game ? (It got buffed to include assists!) Or do you like to spend long nights on the beach with Double-Edged Sword ? Maybe you like it Brute Force style with a dose of Martial Mastery ? ...well, that's a little kinky, but I'm not judging you.

If you want to be manly, ditch 21/0/9 and go for 27/0/3, taking only Meditation in the utility tree. Screw options, take everything in offense that does damage. Spending additional points on AD masteries might seem odd for an AP mid, but it will further increase Lulu's autoattack power early on. Alternatively, for harder match ups, you could also go 21/9/0 taking Block , Recovery , Unyielding , Veteran Scars and Juggernaut .






Summoner spells are pretty straightforward: Flash is a gap closer and you should always take it on Lulu so you can bounce over walls. Ignite is typical of mids as it helps you kill people by setting them on fire.

That is literally it.

Oh, what's that? You want alternate options because you like having the illusion of choice? Uh, okay. Heal in place of Ignite is always a defensive option versus strong burst damage in mid lane. After the recent buff, it'll also boost your movespeed. Teleport is also a map control option. Barrier can still be used as a damage soaking spell along side Wild Growth.






STARTING INVENTORY: + ( / )

You can start the game with Doran's Ring and Health Potions or Crystalline Flask and Health Potions. This is definitely a preference. In example, if you're bad at dodging skill shots, you are probably better off with Crystalline Flask for more sustain after you eat a million Nidalee spears.

EARLY GAME INVENTORY: ( / ) +

As discussed in the introduction, Athene's Unholy Grail is the best item ever for her and you should build it ASAP along with your standard AP mid Sorcerer's Shoes.

MID GAME INVENTORY: ( / ) +

For your first AP build, invest in Rabadon's Deathcap for the large AP boost. Lulu has both defensive and offensive ratios. While something like magic pen will only benefit her offensive ratios, raw AP will benefit both her offensive and defensive ratios.

LATE GAME INVENTORY: ( / ) +

After, Void Staff for team fighting, and Lich Bane for additional damage. With Athene's Unholy Grail, you'll have lots of CDR to get off more Lich Bane procs and this compliments Pix, Faerie Companion. Note that if you're not in a position to actually use Lich Bane once, ditch it in favor of another item. If you're ahead, you can also buy Lich Bane before Rabadon's Deathcap.

If you're 5 items, then you're near or around end game. If you have spare coins, think about upgrading your boots and trinket. Enchantment: Distortion are very strong post-buff due to the bonus you get after using Flash. Enchantment: Homeguard have been nerfed but can still be useful for defending base. If you want the illusion of choice, there's Enchantment: Furor for kiting, or Enchantment: Alacrity for general movespeed. You can also upgrade your trinket to Greater Stealth Totem if you want, or sell it and buy Oracle's Lens to help your team clear wards.

FULL INVENTORY: ( / ) ( / ) + (Common multi-functional pick)
FULL INVENTORY: ( / ) ( / ) + (Less common but decent synergy option)
FULL INVENTORY: ( / ) ( / ) + (Less common pure defense item)

At this point, you'll have 5 items and need a 6th. The most common option is Zhonya's Hourglass for both defense and AP. If you need armor earlier, then buy Seeker's Armguard earlier. If you spent all early game feeding the enemy LeBlanc, then look into Banshee's Veil instead. If you aren't in any danger of dying for whatever reason, then there's Liandry's Torment for some DoT and a little tankiness. Liandry's Torment has synergy with Lulu because of her slow.

ALTERNATE CDR ITEM: →

This is a preference pick and I'm putting it here to acknowledge Morellonomicon exists. One possible point is that Athene's Unholy Grail gives magic resist so if you were versus a team with all AD damage, you could grab Morellonomicon instead for your 20% CDR. (Bonus: If Pix is attached to you, then damage from your passive will also apply the heal debuff.)

ALTERNATE DEFENSIVE ITEM: ( / ) →

Another possible defensive item but I personally think it's a bit "meh" compared to the other two. A Lulu with Guardian Angel says, "I want to Flash into the enemy team, ult myself, and be the initiator" which isn't really all that effective unless you're levels and items ahead of the entire enemy team.

ALTERNATE DAMAGE ITEMS: → ( / )

I don't think either of these are quite as good as Liandry's Torment. Deathfire Grasp is a little awkward because Lulu runs out of offensive spells quickly, but it's still a good source of raw AP. Nashor's Tooth can either be really effective or really ineffective depending on how much you're actually autoattacking in fights. (Before you consider building Nashor's Tooth instead of Athene's Unholy Grail first, please note that Nashor's Tooth lacks both magic resist and mana regen.)

ALTERNATE BOOTS: →

Choice of boots versus teams with multiple strong AP champions and lots of crowd control that threatens you.






Here's Lulu's skills: (Mouse over the icons for descriptions and stats)

Here's what order you should level them in:

• You can take Help, Pix! at level 1 to shield yourself while you autoattack harass, or Glitterlance to shove a wave early. It's entirely up to you. I think Help, Pix! is better though. Minion damage really adds up.
• Prioritize Wild Growth at 6/11/16. It's your ult.
• Prioritize Glitterlance second for easy wave clear. The slow also lasts longer with more levels.
• Prioritize Help, Pix! third for the damage. Higher levels means higher base damage on your QEQ or EQ combo.
• Prioritize Whimsy last. As a mid you're primarily using it for the speed rather than the polymorph and the speed scales based on your AP rather than skill levels.

Here's what you need to know about Lulu's skills:

• Help, Pix! sticks on an ally for 6 seconds, an enemy for 4 seconds, and Glitterlance has a cooldown of 7 seconds. Ipso facto CDR.
• Glitterlance fires from Lulu's location and Pix's location in the general direction of your mouse.
• Casting Help, Pix! on an enemy or ally then means you can Glitterlance from their location.
• E+Q Combo: To harass with Lulu's spells, cast Help, Pix! on an enemy laner, then Glitterlance toward them. Pix has a leash range of 2000 units.
• Q+E+Q Combo: After the nerf to Help, Pix!, Lulu's most damaging combo is to land a Glitterlance, autoattack, then once Glitterlance is nearly off cooldown, Help, Pix! and Glitterlance.
• As a mid, you will be using Help, Pix! more as part of your damage combo rather than a shield. The combo described above, QEQ, is your bread and butter combo and it's reliant on Pix sticking to an enemy target.
• Similarly, most of the time you will end up casting Whimsy on yourself for roaming or kiting, or on an initiator for running really fast. I note this because this is unlike support where you can land some clutch Whimsys to interrupt skills. While you can still use it like this as an AP mid, one of your specialties as a mid is your enhanced speed boost.

For a full list of little tidbits and "Did you knows?" about her skills, check out her page on the LoL Wikia.

Here's some screenshots from my old Lulu support guide about her Q/E interaction:








Level 1: First off, note that Lulu's mana costs a bit high compared to her base mana pool. Try not to spam Glitterlance too much until you get Athene's Unholy Grail. At level 1, you'll want to autoattack your enemy laner as much as possible to harass and whittle them down. For this, skill Help, Pix! and use it defensively to soak damage up from minions or enemy harass as you autoattack. Having the shield also might save you from using a Health Potion early on.

Harassing: Once you get level 2, you can skill Glitterlance and use your basic EQ spell combo. If you harass or waveclear with Q and happen to hit the enemy mid laner, autoattack them then follow up with an EQ after Q is off cooldown for additional damage. This is QEQ combo described in the skills section. If your enemy laner has Barrier, Help, Pix! will also persist through Barrier's duration. Once you've gotten someone low enough, Ignite helps you secure kills.

And once you've skilled Whimsy, you can add that to your list of things to cast. By Whimsying yourself, you can close distance on an enemy that's further away to harass and poke them. In example, you might face a melee champion who is tired of being hit by pixie dust and prefers to stick back and wait for you to shove the minion wave to his tower so he can farm under tower and hope to not take as much harass from you. Whimsy yourself then run up to him and smack him instead.

If you're having a tough lane, use Help, Pix! more defensively to soak enemy damage. Having an extra Doran's Ring for more base HP also helps.

Ganks: Warding in the river, side bushes, or spots behind the wraith camp can also help you spot jungler ganks if you're being owned by the jungler, and remember to self-cast Whimsy to escape possible ganks. When your jungler comes to gank for you, it's often beneficial to Whimsy them instead of you or using it offensively as a polymorph. Evelynn and Kha'Zix are popular junglers at the moment and they've both got stealth. The speed boost on them while they're in stealth can really throw an enemy mid laner off.

Roaming: Once you get your ultimate, you can go off to other lanes and influence skirmishes or accidentally counter-gank. To roam, cast Whimsy on yourself and zoom off somewhere. (You should also probably ping to let your allied lane know you're coming.)

Note that when you roam, ganks don't have to come from the side bushes (which are usually warded anyway). Due to the massive speed boost on Whimsy, you can Whimsy yourself and run up a lane.

If you have no idea when it's appropriate to roam, I suggest you sit mid and farm and attack the enemy mid tower. There's many factors to roaming - can you see the enemy jungler? Did you send enemy mid lane back to base? Will you lose your tower if you wander off? Can you get an objective like another tower or dragon out of this? Most of this stuff comes with experience from playing League and it's not easily explained in text. Observing featured games or watching LCS matches will often paint examples for you though you won't always hear the thought process behind these decisions.

Siege Poke: When you siege the enemy base and have a good old fashioned Mexican standoff, there's no need to whip out the QEQ. You can just poke with Glitterlance. Glitterlance has a much better range than Help, Pix! so it's less dangerous to just poke with that. To find targets in the fog of war, throw your Stealth Ward over a wall or in a high traffic area.

Team Fights: Admittedly Lulu is not the most ideal damage dealer in a team fight. Say you find the enemy carry and you're going to do your typical cute little QEQ combo and autoattack them a bunch. Your QEQ combo is also delayed by Glitterlance's cooldown which gives an enemy marksman plenty of time to autoattack you and lifesteal. It's possible to Zhonya's Hourglass during Glitterlance's downtime, but that also means your mark could move 2000 units away during the time.

Ultimately Lulu's greatest asset in a team fight is her utility. What you do in a team fight and how you're going to use Wild Growth is going to be very situational though. In example, if your team gets initiated on, you're likely going to be playing more defensive. You'll be using Zhonya's Hourglass to prevent the initial wave of damage, kiting enemy divers, and your Wild Growth might be more defensive to save you or your marksman.

But if your team is the one who initiated on the other team, you're going to feel like you're in a more aggressive position. You can speed up an initiator with Whimsy, put pix on him, then Glitterlance for the slow, and Wild Growth to keep enemies locked down. After that, shield to reposition pix to help slow targets who are fleeing, and autoattack for damage contribution. When you become focused, you can pop your Zhonya's Hourglass or shield yourself. With all of your AP, your shield will be pretty strong.

Overall, team fights are best played by ear - know your mechanics and limits, remember to pop items, watch health bars. (Or just kill people.)

VODs: If you're interested in looking for VODs and other mid Lulu vids I recommend you hunt about /r/LoLeventVoDs/ and YouTube. In example, here's a game on YouTube from Korean solo queue with SKT T1 Faker as Lulu versus Samsung Dandy on LeBlanc.





That's all folks. The intro banner was modified to be even cuter by Jomawmaw.