The first suppordle in the game and in my eyes the new best support.
This is the way I choose to play her if you don't like it don't use the guide.

The guide will have a pretty standard support item build because pretty much all supports use the same items but I'll try my best to explain what choices I make and why you should also make them.

I will apologize for all spelling mistakes up front.

21-03-2012:
-Guide created
22-03-2012:
-Added some more summoner spell explainations
-Added ward map
-Explained a bit more about my rune choice
-Added another harass combo
-Removed some spelling errors
27-03-2012:
-Added response to comments section

Pro:
-Shield
-Morph
-Speed increase
-Vision
-Slow
-She has all support abilities besides heal. See above :)
-Not to squishy
-Long ability range

Con:
-Moves really slow
-Easy to miss click shield

Greater Mark of Armor: You take these because the more armor you have the more hits you'll be able to take from those nasty AD carries. Also you'll be able to shug of those little pokes early game better.

Greater Seal of Replenishment: As with any support you should be able to use your skills anytime, if you are out of mana that is out of the question thus you will need more mana regen to stay in the game longer.

Greater Glyph of Magic Resist: The same as with armor. Let's you shrug of the poke better and helps you stay alive longer.

A lot of people think you should use Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist but I dont think thats really smart because you need to hit level 10 before those are better then the flat MR you get from Greater Glyph of Magic Resist. Because you are support and running around a lot you will not level that fast. I finished a lot of games when I was only level 13. Because of all that I think it's much more usefull to be able to be strong right away.

Greater Quintessence of Health: With these you remove your semy squishyness early game. The smaller your health blocks are the more scary you look.

As you may have noticed all these runes are focused on staying alive and in the game. You can do some really nasty CC and team support but if you aren't in the team fights you won't be helpfull at all.

Continuing on staying alive and in the game i chose these masteries. Even more health and defense so that you can stay in fights longer or will be able to take more hits if the enemy decides to focus you.

In utility you want the extra gold regen and the cooldown reduction because like all supports your skills have a painfully long cooldown and you should be willing to spam them out as quick as possible in teamfights.

Clairvoyance:Also called CV. This should be pretty self explaining but i'll try to make it clearer. You use this to make sure you don't have to facecheck those nasty bushes or to check if buffs or other objectives are still up. A well times CV can save lives or take them. For example you can use CV to spot an enemy so that a long range ult can be thrown on him.

Flash: Still the number 1 escaping tool. Flash can be used from anything to closing that last gap to get in the last hit to flashing just away from that last skill shot. In the case of a support you should use flash to benefit your team as much as possible.
See one of your allies nearly dieing?
Flash in range to use your shield or ult on him.
See a skillshot heading towards your ally that will kill him?
Flash in between so that he can live.
If you save lives using your own flash your teammates will love you for it.

Heal: You can take this for the classic heal bait or to heal and survive, preferrably save someone else with this as they might be on a killing spree and worth more gold.
If you decide to take heal I recommend you master it in the mastery tree.

Exhaust: You could use this to give you even greater chasing power or to completly ruin someones damage output for when you can't use Whimsy on them.
If you decide to take exhaust I recommend you master it in the mastery tree.


The rest of the summoners aren't really viable if you ask me.

NOTE: this item build is what I mostly use. You should always build the items that suit your situation the best.
You most likely will not be able to even get past the Aegis of the Legion in this build because you'll be buying so much wards and Oracle's Elixir all the time.

Faerie Charm: Mana regen to help you stay in lane longer.

Vision Ward: See the ward war chapter.

Philosopher's Stone: More mana regen and health regen. With the health regen and the armor of your runes you should be able to make pretty good trades in poking and if they leave you alone for to long you can heal up. Also the gold gen is really helpfull since a support won't last hit so much.

Boots: Lulu moves really slow, even with basic boots people will chase you down but it is vital that you do not forget to make them early because it's curcial that you don't take all skillshots to the face.

Heart of Gold: More health to get you to stay in fights longer and more gold generation.

Ionian Boots of Lucidity: Nasty long cooldowns are best countered with cooldown reduction :)

Aegis of the Legion: I keep talking about staying in the fight longer with Lulu only. This will make everybody stay in fights longer and therefore really helpfull.

Zeke's Herald: Supports are put in lane with the AD carry so you might want to make yourself as usefull as possible for him. What do AD carries want most? AD life steal and sttack speed, with this you can give them 2 out of the 3 which should really help them along.

Shurelya's Battlesong: Want to initiate but just out of range?
Trigger this and BAM! you are in range.
Getting chased with almost no health and they will run you down?
Activate this and BAM out out range and safe under the turret.
I take this item really late because when you build this you lose the gold generation from Philosopher's Stone and since you don't last hit as support you will need the gold gen. You can of course take it earlier if you need it but I reccommend holding on to the gold generation a little longer :)

Locket of the Iron Solari: Don't have your own shield up and don't want to use flash to life save your ally from that skillshot. Then use the shield from this item to make sure that he stays alive. Also really nice to triiger when the fight starts to maximize the damage the shield absorbs.

Rylai's Crystal Scepter: Stacked enough auras? Might as well add some more utility to the package. With this your morph and shield will also slow your enemies making them easier to chase down.

As pointed out to me in the comments you end up with 51% cooldown if you have all the items.
You probably won´t be able to get all the items but if you do manage to get all of them you can sell Ionian Boots of Lucidity and get Mercury's Treads for the extra MR to make you more tanky in fights.

On of the most important things for a support to do is ward the map. If you do this correctly you will be able to know where the enemy is during the whole game thus preventing ganks and making ganks for your team easier.

That sounds really awsome but remember the enemy's support also focuses on doing this so you should try to prevent that whenever possible. To do this you have a really strong tool called Vision Ward. Place this next to an enemy ward to reveal it and destroy it so you claimed that ward place. You probably want 2 of these in you inventory all the time to make sure you can clear the enemy's Sight Ward at the most crucial points to your lane to enable a gank.

Vision Ward should always be used to ward baron and dragon because the enemy will also most likely ward those. The trick is to place your Vision Ward after they placed their ward. To do this check when the enemy support is gone and how long he is gone.
If he was gone for a long time he probably warded a spot pretty far away. Was he gone really shorrt then he dropped a ward close. The enemy will try to ward the same spots as you so if you know how long their support was gone you should be able to guess which spot in now warded.

If your team is doing well and you get some gold for that make sure to buy Oracle's Elixir as quick as possible. If you destroy all enemy wards with this you can create the perfect game for your team. You will know where every enemy is and they won't know where any of your team is. You can play on this advantage to lure them into a gank/teamfight.

Sight Ward should be used to keep track of global movement on the map but Vision Ward Should be used on the key points on the map to make sure you know when they are at key points and they don't.

Because of all of this I think it is really important to take a Vision Ward with you when you leave the base at level 1. With it you can clear the main approach to your lane to enable ganks. You should preverably wait to use it until you know the enemy placed a ward in the river before you place yours.

This thing above is the ward map I made for you guys (paint skill go!) and I'll explain how I use it.

Purple filled:These are the places you almost always want to ward with a Vision Ward because these are the main approaches to the bottom lane and if placed correctly you can also see people coming from the tribush. Numbers 1 and 2

Purple not filled:These places will cover a very important place of the map. With wards in these simple places you cover the most common used entry point for someone to get in or out of the jungle. Because of this people will try to ward it, and because we don't want any wards of them in the most used routes we place a Vision Ward there.

Green filled: Sight Ward places. The lower the number the better to place them there. You will need think for yourself if you want to place the wards more on their side or more on your own side that depends on if you're winning or losing. Also the number are made to give the most map coverage, if you have their jungler coming from the tribush all the time and your pink ward doesn't grand you enough vision then place one in the tribush.

NOTE: All of these places are potentional Vision Ward places. If you know the enemy team has a ward in a route that your team uses frequently, Vision Ward there and clear it!

I have seen people place their wards in the bushes in bottom and top lane such that their opponents cannot hide in the bushes to jump them. Don't do that! It might seem like a nice advantage but you will scare your opponent away with that and then you will push. And when you push you end up wasting your ward because you will be occuping that bush anyways.

Pix, Faerie Companion: This passive is really strong. At level 18 this does 3 x 3+(2x18)=117 extra damage! with each basic attack. That is more damage then a freaking Infinity Edge. Yes the damage gets reduced by magic resist but even if you would ignore half its still 50+ damage you get for free which you can transfer to an AD carry.

Glitterlance: This should be used for slow and slowing only. Don't try to poke with this it's not usefull you will only burn your mana and put this awsome skill on cooldown when you might need it about 2 seconds later to get away from a gank. 80% slow is just really good if you land it during a chase. Also you shoot the bolts from you and where Pix is. So if you transfer pix to an friendly champion that is chasing faster then you you can shoot the bolts from his place to help him chase. Als if you have placed Pix on an enemy chapion you won't be able to miss it.

Whimsy: This can save your life in so many ways I don't even wanna try to explain all. -Use this on the main damage output from the enemy team during teamfights to completely ruin their day. Don't waste it on the first thing of their team that tries to initiate.
-Cast it on a friendly to help him chase down an enemy or to run away.

Help, Pix!: This is what makes Lulu the best support in my eyes. With this you can manuver a lot of your support around.
-You can use the shield to life save and prevent damage.
-You can use the damage to harass and kill.
-You can use the vision it grands to chase down an oponent.
-You can transfer Pix to your carry to increase his damage.
-You can transfer Pix to your ally to cast glitterlance from their position to help them chase the enemy down.
You can miss click this skill on minions! Be carefull!

Wild Growth: Again a skill with multiple uses!
-Friendly that nearly dies? increase his health to make him surive to deny the enemy a kill.
-Friendly bruiser that jumps into the fight head on? Increase him to stun all the enemies and make them think wtf was that?
-Need a perfect bait? You can do this easily by yourself if you use this to suddenly increase you HP and you even CC them while you do it :)

It is vitaly important that you don't use all your on the wrong person. Watch who does the most damage and use Whimsy on him. If you see that your AD carry is positioned right use Help, Pix! to increase his damage. See that they decide to focus your bruiser up front? Wild Growth and screw their day.
You should really try to learn when to use your skills and on what enemies, I can't do that for you because it's different every game.

Harass combo 1:
For a nice harass combo with your AD carry you can try to hide in the bush and the initiate with Help, Pix!, Whimsy and immediatly Glitterlance to hold the enemy in place for your AD carry to hit him. After you cast your skills if the enemy runs you can chase but if they don't go scared immediatly move back.

Harass combo 2:
Depending on your Lane can also use another trick which works really well with AD carries that close distance easy. You initiate with Glitterlance and if you hit you instantly Whimsy the target then use Help, Pix! on the AD carry that comes to the target and starts hitting hard with the damage of Pix. If they decide to stay and fight your Help, Pix! shield will take the damage and your AD carry should easily win the trade in damage.

To sum things up a bit here are some last tips and thoughts.

-Lulu moves slow so try to use Whimsy on yourself to get around quick.
-2 Vision Ward in your invertory are practically a must unless you have Oracle's Elixir.
-Try to be in every fight, your auras are great for the team.
-HP>0 = WIN

Lastly playing a support is probably the most unrewarding job in the game. Practically noone will thank you if you lock down the map and give perfect map control and save lives. Just remember for yourself that none of those awesome ganks would have been able without your control.

-Phreak said he jungled her. I'm gonna try that and if it works I'll tell you how I do it.
-Gonna try playing her AP and give you my experience on that.
-Clean up and more explaining if people want to know more :) ask ahead.

Alright I decided yo add this chapter to explain to some people in the comments why they are not right and I am of course :)

1.You don't need 51% cooldown reduction it's a waste to buy Ionian Boots of Lucidity!
You hit the 51% cooldown when you buy Shurelya's Battlesong. That is 8145 gold into the game if you don't buy wards or Oracle's before that. Since I'm excluding I'm also going to exclude assists in this calculation because I'm pretty confifent that you should spend more on wards then you get from assists.
You need to get 8145 gold to make Ionian Boots of Lucidity useless. To get 8145 gold with only your gold gen, because you won't be last hitting or making kills you will need to play 54 minutes!

The math explained:
You generate 13 gold/10 seconds by default.
Masteries up that with +2 gold/10 seconds
Philosopher's Stone +5 gold/10 seconds
Heart of Gold +5 gold/10 seconds
This adds up to 25 gold/10 seconds = 2.5 gold/second

8145g/2.5=3258. This mean you would need 3258 seconds to generate the gold.
3258/60=54. This just turns the seconds to minutes showing that you need 54 minutes to generate the gold needed for Ionian Boots of Lucidity to be useless if you would start out with the gold gen from Philosopher's Stone and Heart of Gold.

Because most of the games you play won't be 54 minutes I think it's really viable to get the CDR from Ionian Boots of Lucidity and swap out for different if you manage to get past a 54 minute game.

2. Glitterlance Should be maxed first!
This is just incredibly wrong. You are support, you don't play a poking game.
If you are poking at enemy chapions in lane you will hit a minion and therefore you will push your lane, ruining a lot of chances for the jungler to come down and get someone.
If you are poking you can put this skill on cooldown just when you needed it to escape the enemy jungler.
If you max this skill first you can either level Whimsy or Help, Pix! later.
If you level Whimsy later you ruin a 2.5 second silence with slow or a speed increase for your allies needed to outrun or chase down.
If you level Help, Pix! later you ruin a shield which helps you stay alive and vision on the enemy which helps you tack them down. Because you don't have any other way of helping you AD carry's sustain you should shield him. Without the shield you will lose damage trades.
I know Glitterlance is fun to poke with but the damage will quickly be healed by your enemy team leaving you with a skill on cooldown less mana and a pushed lane.