Table of Contents

Jungle Lulu, Really?

Yes, really. I loved playing support Lulu in season 3 but was disappointed by how the new support items and masteries caused other characters to overshadow her in season 4. Mid Lulu is fun against certain matchups, but I kept an eye out for opportunities to play Lulu consistently. So, when StonewallRog said of Jungle Lulu "Now, Lulu is one of those junglers that make you ask, 'Why the hell is this working?'", I had to try her out. I experimented with jungle Lulu in season 4, and I found her to be pretty good but flawed by some serious weaknesses in her early game. However, in the season 5 preseason, much of her early game weakness has been mitigated by the new jungle items. In particular, Stalker's Blade - Devourer has been a great addition for her. I have now played her in over 100 ranked games with a fast attack "machine gun" Lulu and have found her to be very viable and in some games dominant.

Play Video (If the video looks blurry, change the video quality to a higher setting)

General Pros & Cons

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Pros

+ Good ganks + Excellent crowd control + Good mobility + Reasonable camp clear rate + Excellent team fight ability + AD and Fast Attack Lulu possibility

Lulu's ability to speed herself up with Whimsy, toss Help, Pix! on enemies to reveal them even if they run into bushes and shoot nearly point blank Glitterlance's to slow and damage enemies makes her a formidable ganker. On top of that, if she can maneuver behind an enemy without needing to speed herself up, she can use Whimsy to polymorph enemies, preventing them from using Flash or other escape skills for a short time. In addition, her jungle camp clear time and mobility are more than adequate to let her keep up equipment-wise by farming the jungle. Finally, jungling opens up the ability to build a viable AD Lulu -- an option not available to mid or support laners.

Cons

- Susceptible to counter jungling - Poor counter jungler herself - Can be a little weak early on

Lulu can be a little weak early on, so she's dependent on her teammates being aware of and participating in her ganks. Also, Lulu can be susceptible to counter jungling but not against many of the junglers that people think would counter her. She can duel and beat most assassin style junglers (e.g. Rengar, Kha'Zix, Nocturne, and Rek'Sai) early on as long as she has mana for her abilities and her health bar is nearly full. She is mainly weak against bruiser style junglers (e.g. Lee Sin, Vi, Xin Zhao, and Jax). I will explain how to counter counter jungling in the "How to Jungle With Lulu" chapter of this guide. Luckily, the new jungle is hard enough that early counter jungling has become less common in the season 5 preseason, so that change has also benefited Lulu.

Which Jungle Lulu?

Not only is jungle Lulu viable in general, but there are three distinct builds -- Fast Attack ("Machine Gun Lulu"), AD, and AP -- that are viable in ranked play. In particular, the new Stalker's Blade - Devourer jungle item has made Fast Attack and AD builds very viable.

Fast Attack Jungle Lulu ("Machine Gun Lulu")

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Pros

+ Amazingly fast farmer + Inexpensive build + Good AOE damage + Throws slows on the enemy team + Hilariously fun to play

It's fun to watch Pix, Faerie Companion fire at 2.5 attacks/second, and the farming and lane clear speeds can't be beat. If positioned right, one can deal a lot of AOE damage using Runaan's Hurricane, and if you choose a Frozen Mallet build, you can slow three enemies at once.

Cons

- Weaker single target damage

A fast attack ("machine gun") Lulu shines when she can take advantage of the side shots from Runaan's Hurricane. When she can hit more than one target at once, her damage is phenomenal. However, her single target damage is significantly less than what one can get from an AD build.

AD Jungle Lulu

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Pros

+ High single-target damage output + Life steal provides survivability + The perfect anti-assassin + Can out-duel any ADC or APC + Can take down structures quickly + Scales well into late game

In addition to normal ADC damage, Pix, Faerie Companion will add a steady diet of magic damage to each basic attack. By mid-game, Lulu can out-duel any ADC, APC, or assassin simply by casting Whimsy on the enemy and killing them before they get out of polymorph. If needed, she can also ult herself to pop the enemy up for another second of crowd control. The build continues to scale well into late game.

Cons

- Mildly more expensive build - Abilities remain at base strengths - Vulnerable to bruiser characters

Like all ADC builds, it's more expensive than other kinds of builds. Also, since Lulu won't get any AP, all crowd control and damage abilities will stay at their base values. Bruisers, whose tankiness will allow them to survive Lulu's damage for the duration of the polymorph and whose own crowd control abilities can hold Lulu down, can cause trouble.

AP Jungle Lulu

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Pros

+ CC abilities at full power + Shields and ult provide survivability + Moderate damage output + Strong team fight abilities

Gameplay involving an AP Jungle Lulu is the same as for a mid laning Lulu after the laning phase. With large amounts of AP, the exceptional slow from Glitterlance and amazing speedup from Whimsy allow for great kiting opportunities. Lulu can power up or protect teammates in ways that can shape the course of team fights.

Cons

- Why jungle when you can mid? - Can only duel with a lot of kiting

Fast attack and AD jungle Lulus can uniquely take advantage of the Stalker's Blade - Devourer jungle item, which scales well into the late game. However, AP Lulus use a ranger's trailblazer - magus, which does not scale well into the late game and will eventually need to be replaced with a Nashor's Tooth or Morellonomicon. In addition, an AP jungle Lulu will have difficulty keeping up with laners in terms of cash and experience -- at least in the beginning. Simply put, why bother jungle an AP Lulu when one could mid? If one is going to jungle Lulu, you might as well use a fast attack or AD build, which can effectively use the unique jungle items.

Comparing Damage Outputs

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To help you decide which build to use, here's a handy chart of the amount of damage that different builds can deliver to a single target in four seconds. This chart assumes that Lulu is standing still unloading every spell and basic attack that she can in that time (no kiting, in other words). Four seconds was chosen both because it's the time between Glitterlance shots (with 40% CDR) and because Lulu can just about cc someone for that long (2.5 seconds with Whimsy and 1 second with Wild Growth).

		A comparison of the damage outputs of fast attack, AD, and AP Jungle Lulu builds
		9x 1x 2x	9x 3x	9x 3x
Enemy Armor	Magic Resistance
50	50	4865	7259	3255
100	50	4208	5781	3185
100	100	3613	5465	2620
200	100	2942	3980	2547
200	200	2855	3657	1909
300	200	2047	2912	1873

Skill Discussion

Skill Descriptions

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Pix, Faerie Companion Adds scaling magic damage to your or an ally's basic attacks. Pix, your butterfly companion, will fire three small magic bolts on each basic attack. The damage increases with level and AP. This is an often overlooked and underrated ability. Tip: With enough fast attack speed, the damage dealt can be enormous. This is the basis of the fast attack ("machine gun") and ADC Lulu builds.

Glitterlance A piercing bolt that damages and slows enemies. Leveling up Glitterlance and building AP improves both its damage and slow. Pix also shoots a Glitterlance bolt (more on this below), but an enemy can only be damaged by one of the shots. Tip: Cast Help, Pix! on your enemy first and then cast Glitterlance in order to get an easy nearly point-blank hit with Pix's Glitterlance bolt. Tip: If you aim your Glitterlance spell at a point close to your character, you can get Lulu and Pix to fire in different directions to hit multiple targets.

Whimsy Incapacitates an enemy or gives a speed boost to you or an ally. When Whimsy is cast on an enemy, they are polymorphed into a cat or a bunny, slowing them down and preventing them from attacking or casting spells. When Whimsy is cast on ally, they get a run speed boost. Tip: Fast attack and adc Lulu's polymorph enemies with Whimsy and then try to kill them before they can get out of polymorph. Tip: If you need to run away from an enemy, cast Whimsy on yourself rather than on your enemy. Enemies may be somewhat slowed by polymorph but they can still move toward you and chase you. Usually, it's more effective to slow an enemy with Glitterlance and cast Whimsy on yourself to sprint away.

Help, Pix! Sends Pix to an ally to shield them or sends Pix to an enemy to damage them. If cast on an ally, Help, Pix! shields the ally and lets them have the benefit of Pix's extra magic damage. If cast on an enemy, Help, Pix! will damage them, provide sight of them for a short time, and make it easy for Pix to hit them with Glitterlance. Tip: Take advantage of how Help, Pix! provides vision of an enemy. When ganking, cast it on enemies so they don't disappear when they run into bushes. Also, use it on enemies who might try to go invisible like Akali, Kha'Zix, Twitch, Wukong, or Vayne.

Wild Growth Boosts an ally's health and knocks up and slows enemies around the target ally. More than just a healing spell, Wild Growth is a powerful crowd control spell. In team fights, this can be used to knock up several enemies at once and allow your team's tank to slow enemies around them. Tip: If a teammate jumps to an enemy you're ganking or chasing, you can cast Wild Growth on your teammate both to knock the enemy up and to cause your teammate to pulse a slowing aura around them. Unless the enemy has an escape skill available (e.g. Flash), there is no way the enemy will be able to get away. Tip: When to use Wild Growth in a team fight takes experience to learn. The basic rule of thumb is that you'd like to pop up as many enemies as possible. If your tank initiated a fight and the enemy team has pounced on him or her, then by all means cast Wild Growth on him or her to protect the tank, knock up the enemies, and throw a slow on the enemy team. On the other hand, if they're largely ignoring the tank, wait to use Wild Growth on a squishy target who gets jumped on by the enemy team's assassins and bruisers.

Skill Order for Fast Attack and ADC Jungle Lulus

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> > >

These skill orders may seem odd at first, but there is a method to the madness. Start with two levels of Help, Pix! to protect yourself from jungle monster damage and a point each in Glitterlance and Whimsy. Then, level up Glitterlance a couple of times both to increase its damage and to increase the effectiveness of its slow for use in early ganks. Then, max out Whimsy to maximize the length of polymoph. Finally, finish off Glitterlance and Help, Pix!, respectively. Lulu's ultimate, Wild Growth, should be maximized at every opportunity, of course.

Skill Order for AP Jungle Lulus

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> > >

Start with two levels of Help, Pix! to protect yourself from jungle monster damage and a point each in Glitterlance and Whimsy. Then, level up Glitterlance fully both to increase its damage and to increase the effectiveness of its slow. Then, max out Help, Pix! and Whimsy, respectively. Lulu's ultimate, Wild Growth, should be maximized at every opportunity, of course.

How to Jungle With Lulu

Farming the Jungle

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Play Video Pure Farming With a Jungle Lulu (If the video appears blurry, change the quality of the video to a higher setting).

Play Video A Real Game Jungle Lulu Start (If the video appears blurry, change the quality of the video to a higher setting).

There's nothing more exciting than watching someone farm the jungle, am I right? Seriously, though, there are some important techniques being shown in the above videos:

• Except for Gromp (the toad), every camp's large monster can be leashed so that they do almost no damage to you. Position Lulu at the spot just beyond the farthest point where the large monster will go and fire at it with near impunity. One of the reasons for needing to equip oneself with attack speed runes is to make sure that you can hit the large monster in each camp as often as possible to keep its attention. Otherwise, it will decide to turn around, head back to its starting position, and heal. Note that during the first pass through the jungle, this may not work perfectly. As you can see in the video, there are times where I cast Help, Pix! on myself, step forward to take a couple of punches, and then step back again. That's to keep the large monster from giving up, going back home, and healing.
  
  
• Get two levels of Help, Pix! early (by either level 3 or 4) and use it to shield yourself from monster damage. This effectively gives Lulu the health sustain she needs to succeed in the Season 5 jungle.
  
  
• Start with the red camp or Krugs, not the blue camp. In the pure farming video, I started Krugs in order to get the stunning buff, then went Ravens and then killed the red camp (with Smite). However, in real games where I can expect at least a modest leash from my teammates, I usually start at the red buff camp, kill the ravens, and then Smite kill the Krugs. The extra damage, slow, and health regen from the red buff helps speed up the early jungle farming greatly.
  
  
• As shown in the "real game" video, I usually try to get in an early gank after the 3rd camp, when I've reached level 3. In that case, I put the level 3 skill point in Whimsy. I usually use my Flash during this gank so that I can use Whimsy to polymorph the enemy.
  
  
• If you're playing an AD or a Machine Gun Lulu, once you upgrade your Hunter's Machete to a Stalker's Blade and get a pair of Berserker's Greaves, the farming goes much easier.
  
  
• If you are playing an AP jungle Lulu, it takes a bit longer before you can achieve enough sustain to clear the jungle well. Usually by the time you upgrade your Hunter's Machete to a Ranger's Trailblazer and build a Rod of Ages, though, you'll usually be fine.

Ganking

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Some jungle Lulu ganking tips:

• The best ganks occur when you can save your Whimsy to cast it on your enemy rather than casting it on yourself for a temporary speedup. This will prevent enemies from attacking, casting spells, or using escape skills like Flash for 1.5 seconds or more.
  
  
• I prefer to use a Stalker's Blade so that I can use its Chilling Smite ability to catch up to enemies. Smite has a larger cast range than Glitterlance, Whimsy, or Help, Pix!, so it can be used to catch up to enemies and bring Lulu into range of her other slowing spells. However, I can also understand a preference for Skirmisher's Sabre, which is better for direct head-to-head duels.
  
  
• Cast Help, Pix! on enemies so that you can keep vision of them when they try to run through bushes or use an invisibility ability.
  
  
  Video of Help, Pix! In Action

  Play Video

  (If the video appears blurry, change the video quality to a higher setting).
  
  
• Lulu's ultimate, Wild Growth, can be effective as a ganking tool. In addition to adding health to an ally champion and popping up enemies around him or her, Wild Growth also causes a 50% slowing aura to emanate from the ally champion. This is especially helpful when it's cast on melee champions, because they stay next to the enemy target and the slowing aura will ensure that the enemy can't get away.
  
  
  Video of Wild Growth In Action

  Play Video

  (If the video appears blurry, change the video quality to a higher setting).
  
  

Countering Counter Jungling

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Lulu's primary weakness in the jungle is that she can be susceptible to counter jungling -- especially by jungle bruisers. However, there are some things you can do to mitigate that threat:

• Start with the Elder Lizard (red buff), not the Ancient Golem (blue buff). Most people assume that a jungle Lulu would always start at the blue camp, so they often try to counter jungle by starting at their blue camp and then trying to steal your red. By the time they realize their mistake, you'll already be on your way to kill your Ancient Golem.
  
  
• Ask a teammate to ward the blue buff camp and then watch to see if the enemy tries to steal it. If they do, ping for assistance and try to kill the enemy jungler. However, if your blue buff does get stolen, it isn't the end of the world. Move on to the wolves and Gromp (the frog).
  
  
• Ward your jungle relentlessly and defensively. On your first back, you should buy a Vision Ward. You should always have at least two wards down at all times -- a Vision Ward and a ward from your trinket. When possible, do even more than that. Also, encourage your teammates to place a Vision Ward in the jungle as well.
  
  
• (Note: In normal/team builder/low ELO games where counter jungling is less common and where teammates tend not to ward very well, I will often ward the river instead of the jungle. In higher ELO ranked games, your teammates should have their own wards out to cover the approaches on the river).
  
  
• Keep track of your red and blue spawn timers and be there when those camps spawn. They both take 5 minutes to spawn after they are cleared.

Overall strategy: The goal is to ensure that the enemy never gets a chance to take your buffs and to ward your jungle well enough that you can call for assistance to kill the enemy counter jungler when he enters your jungle. If you succeed, the enemy jungler will realize that counter jungling you is a waste of time and will stop.

Dragon Control

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Lulu can solo kill the dragon once she has Berserker's Greaves, Stalker's Blade, and 2x Daggers. Or, if one uses Mobility Boots, Lulu can solo the dragon when she completes her Stalker's Blade - Devourer. I haven't experimented enough to find out when an AP Lulu can solo the dragon, but I suspect that she can do it when she has completed her Rod of Ages.


Occasionally, enemies will try to place a Vision Ward on top of the dragon on the theory that you can't clear that ward without engaging the dragon. That's true, but destroying such a ward is still fairly easy. You just have to wake the dragon, pull it out a little toward the entrance, cast Help, Pix! on yourself, and shoot the ward out from under the dragon. You'll take a little damage from the dragon, but not much.

Choosing Boots

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I've spent too much time experimenting with which boots to get. Let me explain the competing issues so that you can make your own decision:

Boots of Mobility

+ Speeds jungle movement + Helps get into ganking position

The extra speed of Mobility Boots helps a jungler move around the map faster. In addition, it helps a jungler to move quickly behind a potential ganking target. In the case of a jungle Lulu, it means she can choose to save Whimsy to polymorph an enemy more often rather than casting it on herself for the speed boost.

Offensive Boots

+ Provides offensive stats + Faster during combat

However, offensive boots ( Berserker's Greaves and Sorcerer's Shoes) are faster during combat which makes it that much harder for enemies to get away once Lulu has engaged them. Plus buying Mobility Boots means there is a long time before Lulu buys any offensive or defensive items that affect enemy players. Meanwhile, those enemy players are getting progressively stronger. Finally, Berserker's Greaves helps speed up jungle farming.

My choice at the moment is to buy offensive boots ( Berserker's Greaves) so that my offensive statistics keep up with enemies, so that my speed in combat allows me to keep up with enemies, and so that my farming is faster. Feel free to make your own decision on this matter.

Machine Gun Lulu (Fast Attack)

Runes

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• Greater Mark of Attack Speed: Increased Attack Speed is crucial to help with the early jungle camp clears. Plus, it helps throughout the game.
  
• Greater Seal of Scaling Armor: Scaling armor seals now beat flat armor seals at level 6, which is achieved so quickly that it doesn't make sense to get anything else.
  
• Greater Glyph of Scaling Cooldown Reduction: Unfortunately, the fast attack build doesn't include any cooldown reduction from items, so one has to get it from runes. Luckily, Wit's End will provide some magic resistance to make up for using glyphs for CDR rather than magic resistance.
  
• Greater Quintessence of Scaling Cooldown Reduction: More CDR. With these runes and masteries, Lulu will have 30% CDR.
  
• Greater Quintessence of Attack Speed: One quint of attack speed will get Lulu to fire at exactly 2.5 attacks/second once her build is complete.

Masteries

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21 OFFENSE 9 into Defense

O N H I T

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M A S T E R I E S

This mastery set follows standard AD offensive masteries except with the addition of some jungle masteries. AD masteries deal more damage than AP masteries and is more effective with jungle camp clears. I've found Tough Skin and Bladed Armor to be critical for those first few passes in the jungle. Q: Are other mastery setups viable? One could take some points from the defensive tree and place them in Meditation . However, since most of an on-hit Lulu's damage comes from basic attacks, mana is not much of an issue.

Items

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Start with:

The standard jungle starting items. As quickly as you can, try to upgrade to a Stalker's Blade and purchase some Berserker's Greaves in order to make both farming and ganking easier.

Build Goal: Our goal is use as many on-hit effects as possible to strengthen each basic attack while simultaneously adding an enormous amount of attack speed. This kind of a build is especially powerful on Lulu, because adding attack speed massively increases the damage that Pix, Faerie Companion provides.

The best jungle item for a machine gun Lulu. It has fast attack speed, great damage, and excellent jungle clearing power. In a couple of games that went very long, I managed to build over 100 stacks on it. I prefer using Stalker's Blade, because the chilling smite active helps Lulu catch up to enemies easily. However, I can understand if other players would want to use a Skirmisher's Sabre, which is stronger in head-to-head duels.

Fast attack speed and movement speed. Furor helps Lulu keep up with enemies as she's basic attacking them to death.

As Lulu builds up more and more attack speed the Blade of the Ruined King passive deals more and more damage. Plus the active damage and slow is very useful.

The item that makes the build work. Yes, it adds 70% attack speed, but more than that, it carries all of the on-hit damage and effects to two additional targets. It effectively turns a single target basic attack into an area-of-effect attack. Once this is built, the farming and lane clearing speeds are amazing.

Provides more attack speed, magic damage, and lowers an enemy's magic resistance -- making the magic damage from Pix, Faerie Companion, Stalker's Blade - Devourer, and Wit's End that much stronger. In addition, it provides some modest magic resistance, making Lulu less vulnerable to APC's.

Adds 30 AD, 700 health, and most importantly a 30% slow to all targets. The added health helps Lulu be tanky enough to survive the initial burst of damage from most assassins, and the slow helps crowd control enemies, making them easier to track down and kill.

In a long game, sell your Berserker's Greaves - Furor for a Trinity Force. It has fast attack speed, damage, health, critical strike chance, mobility and even some AP. There's a good reason why it's the most expensive item in the game. For a fast attack Lulu, it provides damage and fast attack speed while still allowing her to move at a relatively normal speed without boots.

Other potential items:

Adds fast attack speed, AP, 20% CDR, and some magic damage. When combined with a Rabadon's Deathcap, a Nashor's Tooth can be a part of the strongest single-target damage fast attack Lulu build. However, since AD build Lulu's can deal even more single-target damage, I don't recommend doing this.

Adds a lot of damage while at the same time greatly increasing Lulu's AP, making her crowd control abilities more effective.

Comparing Damage Outputs for Machine Gun Lulu Builds

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There are many different styles of fast attack jungle Lulu that one can choose from -- as well as a lot of bad suggested builds out there that are based on old information. Because of this, I feel it's important to clearly show the damage outputs for various offensive and defensive builds so that you can choose the type of build you want to use. I have highlighted the rows corresponding to more realistic enemy armor and magic resistance values that one is likely to experience in a game. Players tend to have more armor than magic resistance, so it's important to take that difference into account when calculating damage values.

		Builds - AOE damage, good speed, good health, applies slow
		9x 1x 2x	9x 3x	9x 3x
Enemy Armor	Magic Resistance
50	50	4865	4129	3638
100	50	4208	3746	3298
100	100	3613	3044	2757
200	100	2942	2653	2409
200	200	2855	2411	2219
300	200	2047	1798	1680

		Builds - Single target damage, good speed, good health, applies slow
		9x 3x	9x 3x	9x 3x
Enemy Armor	Magic Resistance
50	50	5118	4449	4178
100	50	4480	3875	3853
100	100	3794	3370	3071
200	100	3139	2785	2739
200	200	2996	2692	2429
300	200	2195	1997	1840

		OR Builds - High single target damage, lower health, slower or lacking slow application
		9x 3x	9x 3x	9x 3x
Enemy Armor	Magic Resistance
50	50	5530	5344	4585
100	50	4942	4757	4082
100	100	4086	4160	3545
200	100	3487	3560	3069
200	200	3242	3407	2906
300	200	2382	2581	2222

Gameplay Tips

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• Fast attack jungle Lulus do not have any mana generating items, so you need to conserve your mana for fights with other players. Once you have built a Stalker's Blade - Devourer, you should be able to farm the jungle using just basic attacks and one cast of Help, Pix! on yourself. However, you'll probably have to take the first two Crest of the Ancient Golem buffs in order to have the mana to gank and quickly clear early jungle camps.
  
  
• The side shots from Runaan's Hurricane can hit targets farther away than Lulu's basic attack range. So, for example, if an enemy is attacking a turret along with a group of minions, you can shoot at the enemy player and the side shots will shoot beyond him and kill off the minions. Or, similarly, if you shoot at the tank at the front of the enemy team, the side shots can shoot beyond him and hit other squishier enemies behind him.
  
  
• Fast attack jungle Lulus can farm and lane clear at incredible speeds. They can quickly sweep up an entire jungle in a few moments, fight a fight, and go back and sweep up the jungle again. Also, they can push lanes and place pressure on turrets so quickly that the enemy team may not realize what is happening until it's too late.
  
  
• A fast attack Lulu can often out-duel ADCs, APCs, or assassins simply by casting Whimsy on the enemy and killing them before they get a chance to return fire. They don't do as much single target damage as an AD Lulu, though, so sometimes fights can get dicey, if the enemy is fed.
  
  
• Be careful not to tunnel vision. It can be easy to, say, cast Whimsy on that annoying Draven and laugh while he's dying without being able to throw a single blade. But if you focus only on him, you'll miss, say, the enemy Syndra who unloads a stun and her full spell combo on you. If an enemy comes forward to help your target, back off, wait for Whimsy to come off cooldown, and find another target to hit. Eventually, you should be able to isolate an enemy and take them down safely -- or your teammates will come and you'll be able to safely shoot from behind them.
  
  
• In a team fight, your main role is to sit behind the tank and dish out as much AOE damage and as many slows as you can. You can also use Whimsy and Wild Growth to crowd control enemies and save your teammates.

AD Jungle Lulu

Runes

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• Greater Mark of Attack Speed: Increased attack speed is crucial to help with the early jungle camp clears. Plus, it helps throughout the game.
  
• Greater Seal of Scaling Armor: Scaling armor seals now beat flat armor seals at level 6, which is achieved so quickly that it doesn't make sense to get anything else.
  
• Greater Glyph of Scaling Cooldown Reduction: These glyphs along with masteries give 20% CDR. If one uses the Core AD Build, one will achieve the full 40% CDR.
  
• Greater Quintessence of Attack Speed: More attack speed is helpful both for early jungle camp clears and to increase the damage dealt throughout the game.

Masteries

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21 OFFENSE 9 into Defense

A D L U L U

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M A S T E R I E S

This mastery set follows the standard ADC offensive masteries with a few notable exceptions. I chose Sorcery over Fury , because ADC items tend to have little if any CDR on them. Also, I've found Tough Skin and Bladed Armor to be critical for those first few passes in the jungle. Q: Are other mastery setups viable? You could take some points from the defensive tree and put them into Fury . I do not recommend placing points in Meditation , though, since the goal of an AD Lulu is to get to the point where her basic attacks are doing most of the work.

Items

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Start with:

This is a standard jungle start. Upgrade the machete to a Stalker's Blade and purchase Berserker's Greaves as soon as you can to make ganking and jungle clearing easier.

Build Goal: Our goal is to use a standard ADC build but bias it toward fast attack speed in order to take full advantage of the additional magic damage that Pix, Faerie Companion provides.

Standard ADC boots. I discuss the choice of boots in the "How to Jungle With Lulu" chapter, but the short version is that I currently prefer to buy Berserker's Greaves instead of Mobility Boots.

It's the perfect item for an AD or fast attack Lulu. Unlike the Feral Flare that preceded it, the Stalker's Blade - Devourer is effective the moment you purchase it. In a couple of games that went very long, I managed to build over 100 stacks on it. I prefer using Stalker's Blade, because the chilling smite active helps Lulu catch up to enemies easily. However, I can understand if other players would want to use a Skirmisher's Sabre, which is stronger in head-to-head duels.

Damage, fast attack speed, life steal, and an active that adds a slow for even more CC. As if that weren't enough, since this build is based on fast attack speed, its passive will proc many times for a lot of extra damage.

Gives a solid amount of attack damage and critical strike chance. Also, since fast attack items tend to have critical strike% on them, the passive increasing critical strike damage is very helpful.

Armor penetration, 10% CDR, attack damage, critical strike -- and when the active is used, attack speed and run speed. It's a really good item, but you have to be careful to use the active appropriately. Wait until the enemy is in basic attack range before popping it. Don't waste it trying to chase someone down.

Damage, armor penetration, armor reduction, 10% CDR, and 200 life. All good stuff. The armor reduction will also increase the physical damage dealt by your teammates, so it'll make whittling down an enemy tank that much easier.

If the game goes long enough, sell your boots for a Trinity Force. It has fast attack speed, damage, critical strike chance, mobility and even some AP. There's a good reason why it's the most expensive item in the game.

Optional Items:

As you'll see in the next section, there are a few cases where Last Whisper helped increase the amount of damage dealt a little bit compared to other items. However, usually the damage increase isn't very much and one has to give up too much utility (e.g. health, CDR, and/or mobility) to use it. Armor penetration is most useful for "AD spellcasters" like Talon or Zed. For characters who rely on basic attacks like AD Lulus, usually attack speed and critical strike are more effective.

Attack speed, critical strike, and movement speed. All good stuff.

I was surprised at the passion people expressed in the comments when advocating for a Statikk Shiv over a Phantom Dancer. I want to be clear here that I think Statikk Shiv in general is a good item in certain circumstances. It's particularly good for a character like Tryndamere who doesn't have a good AOE skill and needs one to be able to jungle quickly or push a lane. However, that isn't the case with Lulu, especially late in the game. One could argue that Statikk Shiv deals more up front damage, but over time, Phantom Dancer beats Statikk Shiv in nearly all cases.

Q: Are other ADC builds viable?

Probably. In the next section, I compare the damage dealt by 15 different AD builds. However, if you think I might have missed a better build, describe it in the comments, and I'll be happy to run it through my spreadsheets to see how well it works. Keep in mind, though, that Lulu does not have any skills that scale with AD but she does have Pix, Faerie Companion that scales with fast attack speed. So, generally a faster lower AD build is better than a slower high AD build (e.g. usually a Blade of the Ruined King will beat a Bloodthirster).

Comparing Damage Outputs for AD Builds

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There are many different possible AD jungle Lulu builds that one can choose from -- as well as a lot of bad suggested builds out there that are based on old information. Because of this, I feel it's important to clearly show the damage outputs for various offensive and defensive builds so that you can choose the type of build you want to use. I have highlighted the rows corresponding to more realistic enemy armor and magic resistance values that one is likely to experience in a game. Players tend to have more armor than magic resistance, so it's important to take that difference into account when calculating damage values.

		Builds - Good health and a slow application
		9x 3x	9x 3x	9x 3x
Enemy Armor	Magic Resistance
50	50	5531	5979	5594
100	50	4515	4716	4565
100	100	4191	4400	4239
200	100	3153	3204	3188
200	200	2823	2881	2855
300	200	2296	2306	2322

		More Builds - Good health and a slow application
		9x 3x	9x 3x	9x 3x
Enemy Armor	Magic Resistance
50	50	6152	5615	5165
100	50	4846	4670	4428
100	100	4527	4388	4139
200	100	3288	3343	3264
200	200	2964	3056	2969
300	200	2368	2490	2466

		Builds - More damage and 10% CDR, less health and no slow application
		9x 3x	9x 3x	9x 3x
Enemy Armor	Magic Resistance
50	50	6557	7259	7535
100	50	5424	5781	5991
100	100	5100	5465	5673
200	100	3863	3980	4121
200	200	3533	3657	3796
300	200	2870	2912	3017

		Pure Fast Attack Damage Builds - "I don't care about defense!"
		9x 3x	9x 3x	9x 3x
Enemy Armor	Magic Resistance
50	50	7283	6565	7331
100	50	5711	5337	5747
100	100	5356	4974	5392
200	100	3867	3720	3891
200	200	3504	3350	3528
300	200	2789	2714	2806

		Builds - "I don't care about defense!"
		9x 3x	9x 3x	9x 3x
Enemy Armor	Magic Resistance
50	50	6856	6226	7088
100	50	5678	5319	5863
100	100	5362	4995	5544
200	100	4059	3917	4189
200	200	3736	3587	3864
300	200	3031	2968	3131

Gameplay Tips

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• AD jungle Lulus do not have any mana generating items, so you need to conserve your mana for fights with other players. Once you have built a Stalker's Blade - Devourer, you should be able to farm the jungle using just basic attacks and a Help, Pix! or two. You'll probably have to take the first two Crest of the Ancient Golem buffs in order to have the mana to gank and quickly clear early jungle camps.
  
  
• An AD Lulu can easily out-duel any ADC, APC, or assassin simply by casting Whimsy on the enemy and killing them before they get a chance to return fire. However, bruisers are more difficult to deal with. You can still cast Whimsy on them and damage them, but if you need to escape when they pop out of polymorph, use Glitterlance, the active on Blade of the Ruined King and maybe even Wild Growth to slow the bruiser down. If the bruiser chases you, you can damage them again when Whimsy comes off cooldown.
  
  
• Be careful not to tunnel vision. It can be easy to, say, cast Whimsy on that annoying Draven and laugh while he's dying without being able to throw a single blade. But if you focus only on him, you'll miss, say, the enemy Syndra who unloads a stun and her full spell combo on you. If an enemy comes forward to help your target, back off, wait for Whimsy to come off cooldown, and find another target to hit. Eventually, you should be able to isolate an enemy and take them down safely -- or your teammates will come and you'll be able to safely shoot from behind them.
  
  
• In a team fight, you are the anti-assassin. Your place is standing next to your team's other ADC. When an assassin jumps on you or you teammate, hoping for a quick kill, cast Whimsy on him and you and your teammate can burn him down. If two assassins or bruisers jump you and/or your ADC, cast Wild Growth to pop them up in the air. You and your ADC teammate should be able to burn them both down.

AP Jungle Lulu

Runes

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• Greater Mark of Magic Penetration: Helps cut through opponents' magic resistance. One can also choose to use 9x Greater Mark of Attack Speed in order to make early camp clears faster.
  
• Greater Seal of Scaling Armor: Scaling armor seals now beat flat armor seals at level 6, which is achieved so quickly that it doesn't make sense to get flat runes anymore.
  
• Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist: Scaling magic resist glyphs now beat flat magic resist glyphs at level 8, which is achieved so quickly that it doesn't make sense to get flat runes anymore.
  
• Greater Quintessence of Scaling Cooldown Reduction: These runes plus 5% CDR from masteries and 20% CDR from items gives Lulu the maximum 40% CDR.

Masteries

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21 OFFENSE 9 into Defense

A P L U L U

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M A S T E R I E S

This mastery set follows standard AP offensive masteries except with the addition of some jungle masteries. I've found Tough Skin and Bladed Armor to be critical for those first few passes in the jungle. Q: Are other mastery setups viable? I'm sure there are many mastery setups one could use. One could take some points from the defensive tree and place them in Meditation , for example. However, I've found once I have a Rod of Ages, mana really isn't a problem.

Items

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Start with:

This is a standard jungle start. Upgrade the machete to a Ranger's Trailblazer and purchase a pair of Boots and a catalyst the protector as soon as you can to make ganking easier and to provide more jungle sustain.

Build Goal: Our goal is simple: AP, cooldown reduction and magic penetration. Other than the Ranger's Trailblazer - Magus, we're following a pretty standard AP Lulu build.

When Riot nerfed Athene's Unholy Grail's mana regeration, I started looking again at straight mana items. I realized that it would take over 5 minutes for an Athene's Unholy Grail or a Morellonomicon to regenerate the 650 mana that a Rod of Ages provides right away. Within 5 minutes, you're almost certainly either going to go back to base or get a blue buff to fill one's mana bar back up. Also, the ranger's trailblazer - magus will provide the 20% CDR we need, so you're better off getting a Rod of Ages rather than a mana regeneration item.

Ranger's Trailblazer - magus

Provides some jungle sustain, AP, and 20% CDR.

Normal magic user boots. I discuss the choice of boots in the "How to Jungle With Lulu" chapter, but the short version is that I currently buy Sorcerer's Shoes rather than Mobility Boots to help with ganking.

A large amount of AP.

Gives some necessary magic resistance penetration. Without it, tanks and bruisers who build magic resistance items or have strong magic resistance abilities will be virtually unkillable.

80 AP plus damage added to the first basic attack used after a spell is cast. In essence, this is like adding an extra spell attack to one's repertoire. The 5% movement speed bonus is also helpful.

In a long game, sell your ranger's trailblazer - magus for a Nashor's Tooth. Nashor's Tooth's passive plus Pix, Faerie Companion and Arcane Blade means that all basic attacks will have a 35% AP bonus magic damage added to them. Also, the 50% added attack speed makes these attacks shoot more often, and the 20% cooldown reduction guarantees that one will reach the 40% cooldown reduction cap.

Long game or optional items: If the game goes long enough, you can sell your Sorcerer's Shoes for one of the following items:

120 AP, 50 armor, and an excellent defensive active.

Adds some movement speed to the build along with the utility that the active provides.

Q: Are other AP builds viable?

Probably. If you have a different build idea, leave it in the comments, and I'll run it through my spreadsheets.

Gameplay Tips

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• After the laning phase, an AP jungle Lulu plays almost exactly like a mid-laning Lulu (except for occasionally farming the jungle). If you are used to playing mid Lulu, an AP jungle build will seem the most natural to you.
  
  
• An AP Lulu usually cannot deliver enough damage and is usually too fragile to meet another character in a head-to-head standing still "throw everything at each other" duel. However, her kiting kit is amazing. Late game, Whimsy can speed you or an ally up over 80%, making you the fastest character in the game for 5 seconds. It's therefore possible to cast Help, Pix!, Glitterlance, and maybe use a Lich Bane charge on an enemy before using Whimsy to run out of range and wait for cooldowns to run out. The amazing speed of Whimsy also allows Lulu to safely bait enemies into chasing her into traps set by your team.
  
  
• You can also cast Whimsy on an ally so they can catch an enemy who is trying to run away. Imagine casting it on an Udyr or a Rammus. Speed upon speed.
  
  
• In team fights, cast Help, Pix! on the member of your team who has the most fast attack speed. Usually, this would be your ADC, but it could also be a bruiser or assassin like Jax, Xin Zhao, or Kha'Zix. They'd appreciate the powerful shield as well as the extra damage that Pix, Faerie Companion can provide.
  
  
• AP Lulus have a harder time in the jungle early on, because of the lack of sustain or fast attack speed. By the time she gets a Rod of Ages, though, usually she'll have enough sustain from that and the Ranger's Trailblazer to do OK. As she gets more items, the stronger her Help, Pix! shield becomes and the stronger her Glitterlance becomes, which makes jungling go much faster.

Frequently Asked Questions

Questions

Answers

Q: If jungle Lulu is so great, how come more people aren't playing her?

It would be easy to say, "Because people haven't tried it," and that's partially true. Most players are hesitant to try something that they haven't seen a pro team use. But there's also the issue that changing masteries and runes just slightly makes an enormous difference in how well she can complete that first jungle clear -- and that first jungle clear sets up the rest of the game for her. If a person tried a jungle Lulu with a less than optimal setup, that person could easily give up and say, "This is stupid! Jungle Lulu doesn't work!" I hope that this guide will encourage more people to play jungle Lulu, which I think has a lot of potential to be played in ranked games. Maybe someday soon jungle Lulu will become a part of the League of Legends meta.

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Q: Why is an AD Lulu viable in the jungle but not in mid or bottom?

An AD Lulu lacks range and mana regen. Lulu's basic attack range is only 550, so she can't effectively use her basic attacks to harass a lane opponent. Meanwhile, since she doesn't have any mana regeneration items, she will quickly run out of mana if she tries to harass with Glitterlance and Help, Pix!. Conversely, a jungle Lulu doesn't have a lane opponent she needs to harass, so all of the problems with range and mana regeneration go away. One of the most exciting things about doing all of this experimentation has been the discovery that a ranked game viable AD Lulu is possible.

Acknowledgements

• I want to pledge my love and undying gratitude to jhoijhoi, from whose Making a Guide primer I liberally stole.
  
  
• Similarly, I'd like to thank Astrolia who explained how to use advanced BBCode table features.
  
  
• I also want to thank StonewallRoG, whose Jungle Tier List inspired me to try out jungle Lulu. I sometimes disagree with the rankings, but I always appreciate the thoughtful analysis.
  
  
• Special thank-you's to DarkAkumaLord and Emikadon for their comments on this guide. Even when I disagreed with them, their comments helped me see where I needed to strengthen the guide.
  
  
• Finally, I want to thank all of the people who did not kick me from Teambuilder groups or call me a troll in ranked games when I played and experimented with jungle Lulu. Your sometimes reluctant willingness to accept a stranger's assurances that he knew what he was doing made this guide possible.