About the Author: Hello, I'm Gleebglarbu, a high elo player on the NA server and have peaked at rank 4 on the ladder, but I'm currently at rank 26 in challenger as of 12/18/13. Lulu is a difficult but incredibly fun to play support that has seen a recent resurgence in popularity.




Lulu is a great pick now for a few reasons. She has a solid lane phase when paired up with the right AD and can go head to head with most of the popular supports, such as Thresh, Fiddlesticks, and Annie. Her utility scales phenomenally into the late game, allowing her to use her Wild Growth to either follow up initiations or peel for a fed carry. She's a bit difficult to pick up at first compared to some of the other popular supports but is a blast to play and definitely worth the time investment required to become proficient with her.

Pros

1. Wave clear
2. Very good at avoiding ganks
3. High poke in lane
4. Can win most auto attack trades because of Pix, Faerie Companion
5. Utility that scales well into the late game
6. Bittersweet skin fills your enemies with terror

Cons

1. Squishy
2. No way to lock someone down (immobilize) pre 6
3. Very high mana costs
4. No sustain

9x 9x 6x 3x 3x

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greater mark of hybrid penetration Greater Seal of Armor Greater Glyph of Magic Resist Greater Glyph of Mana Regeneration Greater Quintessence of Health

9 x Greater mark of hybrid penetration

These marks give you a well rounded laning phase that has devastating poke but still has a strong all in as well. The magic penetration will allow your Glitterlance, Help, Pix!, and Pix, Faerie Companion to do more damage in lane while the physical penetration will bump of the power of your auto attacks which matter a lot in an all in 2v2 or 3v3 fight bot, especially in the early game.

9 x Greater Seal of Armor

These runes are very effective at mitigating physical damage. They are mandatory as a support because you will be taking physical damage from the enemy AD, the enemy support, and creeps in lane, not to mention the jungler if he ever decides to gank.

6 x Greater Glyph of Magic Resist

Lulu is very squishy with her base stats alone, so some defense through runes and masteries is necessary to stop her from getting blown up in the lane phase. Most enemy supports deal primarily magic damage as do a lot of popular junglers ( Shyvana/ Elise). If the enemy team has an incredibly low amount of magic damage you can switch these runes out for more mana regeneration.

3 x Greater Glyph of Mana Regeneration

Lulu has higher mana costs than most supports which leads to you needing mana regen in order to stay in lane for a prolonged period of time. Getting a bit more mana regeneration helps you stay in lane longer and allows you to get more spells off in a long teamfight before your mana bar drops to 0.



3 x Greater Quintessence of Health

Greater Quintessence of Health is recommended here for the same reason as the Greater Glyph of Magic Resist. The main way you will end up losing a lane as Lulu is if you get burst down in a 2v2 fight or a jungle gank, getting more tanky through runes and masteries will allow you to survive more situations and not give the enemy team a lead.

The 0/9/21 set up is great for Lulu, as well as for any other ranged supports that are primarily focused on improving their gold flow and getting CDR. I choose to run the mana regen on Lulu from the first section of the utility tree as well as the movement speed because the XP mastery is not as strong as those. This page is very strong at the moment because the utility tree has been buffed significantly. You can get a lot of gold, reduced flash cool down, mp5, CDR, summoner spell reduction, and increased movement speed when out of combat. All of these benefit Lulu more so than the other two trees because you're not going for your damage and you're also not a tank.

This start is emerging as one of the most common builds for supports in the new season. The Sweeping Lens has a very long cool-down before level 9, but can still be very useful for setting up ganks and forcing the enemy to play scared by denying vision. Ancient Coin is the strongest of the 3 new support starts on almost all champions, especially ranged ones, after the nerf to Relic Shield. Getting a ward helps make sure you stay safe in lane and grabbing potions will keep your health and mana high.




These are the items you should aim to buy when you first head back to base. Sightstone will give you vision to protect yourself from ganks and the Nomad's Medallion will give you increased regen as well as gold flow. Picking up a Vision Ward at this stage of the game is nice as well because they no longer have a duration. You can usually put it down in the small bush in the middle of the river early game and often have it last for 10+ minutes because most players just walk through the river without actually checking that location.





This will be the new commonly seen core item set for most of the supports who decide to not itemize as tanks or to be heavy damage threats, neither of which make sense for Lulu. Talisman of Ascension is an incredibly strong item currently, giving you a whopping 20% CDR, regen stats, and the old active that used to be attached to Reverie. Mikael's Blessing also saw a massive reduction in price in the new season which makes it almost always a worthwhile purchase for a mana hungry champion like Lulu. These items will allow you to better set up engages with Crescendo, keep your mana pool afloat in longer fights, and cleanse/heal your allies with Mikael's Blessing's active.


Situational Items

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This item has little utility for your team outside of the healing reduction passive, but it brings three stats that will benefit Lulu greatly if you are ahead and have gold to spend: CDR, AP, and mp5. This item gives a whopping 20% CDR which is double that of talisman of ascension. The reduced healing active can also be extremely useful against champions like Vayne, Vladimir, and Volibear.

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Twin Shadows is more of a niche pick up but can be used in a variety of ways. If the enemy team has a ton of catch and it is risky to scout alone, as you often have to in solo queue because teams rarely group to place and clear wards, the active on this item can become invaluable. The ghosts will run into fog of war and scout for nearby enemies, preventing you from facechecking into a brush and dying. The AP and MS are also a nice addition for you, giving you a more powerful ultimate, a little boost to damage, and some speed to roam around the map and drop wards more quickly. The active is also great for following up w/ long range engages such as Unstoppable Force or Paranoia.

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This item provides a great magic resist aura and active that can be useful against heavy AoE based AP teams. If the enemy team has multiple sources of magic damage or AoE damage it can be a great pick up for teamfights.

Take your ultimate, Wild Growth, at 6, 11, and 16 because the bonus health and slow aura increase significantly while the cooldown drops by 15 seconds with each rank.

Maxing Glitterlance first in lane will give great poke, wave clear, and damage in an all in fight. The main disadvantage to this skill is that it is a skill shot, so if you miss it you're not going to get anything. With a little bit of practice and understanding how to pair the skill with your Help, Pix!, though, a high ranked Glitterlance can allow you to out trade the enemy duo as well as maintain control of the minion wave.

I max Help, Pix! second because the damage goes up by 50 with each rank and the shield increases by 45 per rank. Having this skill at rank 5 by level 13 allows you to have a large shield that can soak up most dots and a potent damage spell to instantly put burst down on priority targets.

Whimsy is maxed last because it doesn't do any damage and most of the utility of the skill is with it at rank 1. By ranking it up you get a longer polymorph and extra bonus AP. The MS steroid is static from ranks 1-5 at 35%.

For solo queue, Flash and Ignite are my preferred summoners to take. Soloqueue is about snowballing the game and getting a lead for your team, this is easiest to do with the added kill pressure from Ignite.

Alternative Summoners to Replace Ignite:

can be a good pick up against champions that dive into your team such as Kennen and Zed. The resist shred while the Exhaust is applied also makes it easier to focus down these targets once they jump into your team.

is a strong teamfight summoner against a lot of AoE damage such as Karthus and Vladimir. I have been dabbling with taking it more and more in solo queue and people are often very under practiced against the spell. Enemies will often make questionable dives or downright silly plays, completely neglecting the fact that you have Heal. I'd recommend trying this spell out for a few games and seeing if it works well for you. One major downside though is that many supports run Ignite which will reduce its effectiveness for the duration of the Ignite.

Laning as Lulu requires a fair bit of practice with the champion but these tips should help give you an idea of how to play out most lanes:

1. Abuse your auto attack range. Lulu has 550 auto attack range, which while not extraordinary, is longer than a lot of common supports and a few AD carries. If you are laning against someone who has a shorter AA range than you, you can poke them with auto attacks when they come close to try to get their spells off. The supports that have lower range than you besides melee heroes are Thresh, Fiddlesticks, and Janna. Nami and Sona have the same range as you while Annie and Zyra out range your basic attack.

2. Conserve your mana. Many other popular supports such as Fiddlesticks and Thresh can use their spells in lane without abandon and rarely run into mana issues. This is not the case for Lulu. Think about what you're doing in lane and use your spells when it will count and make a difference. If you hit level two and then immediately use Help, Pix! on a creep to set up a rank one Glitterlance on a single far away target you just blew 120 mana to do around 60-70 damage depending on their magic resist which is in no way worth it.

3. Pay attention to the map. This is not specific to Lulu but is important for laning in general. If you haven't seen the jungler in a while you should play cautiously, especially if you are pushed up. Mid lane can often roam down bot as well so make sure to check the mini map and keep tabs on the enemy team. Also be wary of Teleport ganks from champions such as Malphite and Lissandra, as well as global or quasi-global abilities like Stand United and Paranoia.

4. Whittle your foes down before going all in. This sounds pretty basic, but many players are often overzealous and rush into even 2v2 fights when they could easily wait to force a fight that is in their favor. Sure you may win an even fight, but there is a much bigger chance for something go wrong when everyone in the 2v2 fight is full health as opposed to a fight started with the enemy support and ADC down to 60%.

These will be rated from 1 - 10 with 1 being very easy and 10 being very hard. A difficulty of 5 would mean the match up is even. I won't discuss every match up in this section, though.

9 : Sona is the hardest lane for Lulu to win a 2v2. You don't really have enough burst damage to kill her in one trade and once she gets rank 2 in her Hymn of Valor she can out trade you, as well as sustain up the damage you deal to her. Just play this lane defensively and look for opportunities to engage when either she runs low on mana or your jungler is coming in for a gank.


5 : Annie has a longer ranged auto attack than you but her wind up is long enough that if she goes to auto attack you, you can usually walk forward and hit her with an auto + Help, Pix!. You can out trade her in lane and at six your Wild Growth is great for saving someone from her burst combo. Watch your mana pool in lane because you will go oom before her and just force trades until she is too low to fight back. Her stun lasts 1.75 s so be very careful for jungle ganks.

4 : The recent nerfs to Zyra have toned down her damage in earlier levels and allowed supports like Lulu that originally had a hard time vs her to do well. Zyra is incredibly squishy and can easily be forced out of lane if you land a few Glitterlances on her. The main thing to worry about in lane when trading against her is that you don't stand near her plants. The damage adds up quickly over time and if you are trying to fight Zyra while two plants are hitting you, you're going to lose.

3 : This is a very easy match up for Lulu. You can win trades against him 1v1 pretty easily and if he panics and uses Terrify on you, your ad can engage to finish him off. Use your Whimsy on the enemy AD when Fiddlesticks locks down your ADC and make sure to keep vision in bushes so he can not surprise you with Crowstorm. Remember that you have two ways to interrupt both his Bountiful Harvest and Crowstorm with Whimsy and Wild Growth.

4 : This match up is not very hard but if you are not playing properly you can get blown up. The only way you lose this lane is if you get burst by the enemy duo lane. You win this lane at level one by auto attack harass and zoning the enemy duo off of the creep wave. If they hit level two before you and catch you in a Zenith Blade you are done for so just make sure you push them up early and abuse Leona with your auto attacks.

Lulu is also great vs Janna and Soraka, but they all have such weak laning phases that there isn't too much to discuss in terms of match ups. Just auto attack them down because you out range all three, you also win in all in against any of them because you out damage them hard.

I hope you enjoyed my guide for Lulu! While her kit may seem intimidating at first with the multiple uses of her Whimsy and Help, Pix!, along with the peculiar aiming for her Glitterlance, she is a very powerful pick in lane as well as in the later stages of the game. Hopefully the advice here should give you a good idea of how to get started playing Lulu. If you want to watch me play Lulu to pick up some more tips and tricks, head over to my stream when I'm live!