I am low challenger of season 4 in NA and I fill during rank. I am making these guides for myself and friends mainly so sorry if you're looking for visuals. I was top 1000 Lulu players on lolskill.net in 2014 which tracked at least NA and EU together.

Published 4/16/16
updated mid game chapter 4/21/16
Updated purchase order 5/7/16
updated purchase order; when to pick lulu and items chapter 5/16/16
Updated items and items chapter 5/19/16
updated dragon chapter 5/20/16
Updated when to pick lulu chapter 9/22/16
updated when to pick lulu and baron chapter 10/17/16
Updated runes chapter 11/7/16
updated almost everything 12/15/21
Updated when to pick lulu chapter 7/3/22
updated when to pick lulu chapter 7/13/22

As of patch 12.13, you should only pick this champion as a counter pick against divers, Gragas, Gangplank and Ornn. Though right now Ivern and Zilean are the best enchanter mids in S tier. Seraphine and Soraka are A tier. Lulu and Karma are B tier mids.

Lulu and other picks like Malphite are situationally strong picks. Lulu's niche is very reliant on your auto attack adc like Kog'Maw due to speed and attack speed or specific junglers like Hecarim due to speed or mid laners like Yone due to speed and attack speed, having at least one other peeling champion like Janna or any tank, and you do not need an initiator.

You hard counter dive team comps as protect comps counters it. Your team can start dragons and barons with the lulu speed and shields, so the enemy team would need to initiate. She is weak against poke comps. If you do not have a suitable jungler or adc, then don't pick lulu.

With your E, you counter stealth champions really well as using your E on them reveals them.

Flash is mandatory on this champion.

Teleport can only be used in side lanes if your lane is pushed in or your jungler is near to catch the experience, but make sure you outnumber them by tracking their jungler.

Against laners without teleport, you should base at level 4 to buy then teleport back to lane to have an item advantage against their combat summoner spell.

The atk spd rune lets you auto twice after using Help, Pix! on the enemy laner then back off to drop minion aggro. You can switch from Gathering Storm to Scorch if you're likely to get solo killed, but you should be playing safe to not need scorch. You win lane by not dying since you scale as long as you counter picked.

Get Mercury's Treads when against stuns, snares, fear, and silences.

Upgrade Dark Seal if you have Flash and have 8 stacks.

Get Dark Seal after and if it gets to or near 10 stacks, you may upgrade it. If not you may sell it. Get Moonstone Renewer if against diving comp(3+ divers). If not, get Shurelya's Battlesong. After moonstone or shurelya, it becomes situational.

Prioritize Chemtech Putrifier if the enemy team has healing, and tell your teammates to not build healing reduction. This will save a lot of the team's money.

Get Mikael's Blessing if they have heavy cc like lilia and your team is ahead.

Get Staff of Flowing Water against diving teams and your teammates have AP ratios.

Get Ardent Censer when you have multiple attack speed allies, especially when your team is behind.

Get Redemption if the enemy team does not have healing reduction.

Get spell thief's edge after two items and boots as it would be hard to get income and it is the cheapest legendary item.

Never get Void Staff as you will not be doing damage late game, you will instead transfer your damage to your teammates as you amplify them.

You should always time the enemy summoners. Do this with ctrl a then ctrl c after typing the timers and later remind your team with ctrl v. You should always time the enemy summoners. Flash is 5 min, but Ionian Boots of Lucidity reduces flash by 30s, Cosmic Insight reduces flash by 46s, together reduces flash by 69s. Exhaust and Cleanse are 3 min 30s while Ignite and Ghost are 3 minutes. Teleport can be looked at by holding tab and divide their teleport cooldown by 60. Heal is 4 min. Buffs are 5 minutes if you dont have vision of their buffs to make use of riot's buff timers. Dragon and baron are timed by the game scoreboard. inhibitor is 4 min.

Actions per minute; you should try to never stand still. It will warm up your hands if you keep clicking left and right or circles. Also do some wrist exercise so you don't develop anything bad.

Champion spotlight is a little outdated but useful for this part. Your passive and auto attack animation can make it difficult to farm with at first. The pix does not go through enemies so you have to angle yourself or calculate your damage accordingly.

Generally you want to shield yourself in trades but if you can out trade your laner harder with using Help, Pix! offensively then do so. In team fights its better to shield your allies. You can also use Help, Pix! to extend your Glitterlance range. The pix stays on the enemy for 4s so you have that much time to use Glitterlance. Opponents will try to juke so you can wait and then predict their next move. If the enemy uses Flash while having Help, Pix! on them, the pix doesn't blink w/ them. You have to wait for pix to catch up before using Glitterlance.

A solo kill combo would be Flash Help, Pix! Ignite all at once, then Glitterlance at least a second after.

Glitterlance would never be used like the champion spotlight where you put your cursor in front of you to make it go 2 different directions, very risky and low reward.

Whimsy is generally used for all ins or ganks since it takes away your mana for your other spells in lane.

When using Wild Growth, try to make use of the cc as much as possible, such as a follow up engage since you have Whimsy and Help, Pix! for peel. Do not stack cc with Whimsy.

Use champion portraits with your E, W, and R when allies are bunched together.

Wards won't be enough as good jungle players know how to get around them. You need to keep track of junglers by their pathing. First know which side they started by a deep ward or on his teammates leashing. Be careful though, as people can fake leash. Ping on the map which camps the enemy jungler should be at and all laners should play accordingly. If you ping jungler is on opposite side of map while your jungler is on your side, you should trade with the enemy laners. If jungler is on your side, then play safe and do not push lane.

Jarvan IV can engage with his gap close Cataclysm and lulu Wild Growth him.

When you have Jinx, Sivir, Twitch, Kog'Maw, Lucian; your movement speed buffs and shields can let them dish out more damage safely.

Sivir with your team can engage fights where you outnumber the other team quickly with Whimsy on your engage.

If jungle Zac ever gets buffed, his kit fits well with lulu.

Zed will benefit from preemptive Help, Pix! and Whimsy before using Death Mark, and finally a Glitterlance and Wild Growth follow up to his gap close.

Fizz can engage and when he goes in, he can use some peel with your kit.

Riven usually flash engages anyone who mispositions so you should prepare to follow up on her.

Shyvana and her Dragon's Descent synergizes well with Wild Growth if you use it right when shyvana reaches her target.

Yasuo can use more knock ups and peel.

Rengar can use your speed, shield, and long range glitterlance damage for long range initiations followed up by wild growth.

Dr. Mundo would have easier team fights early game with your skills and has obvious synergy with his kit.

Ryze can use your speed to snare enemies with his own speed from ult or homeguard tp.

Your first skill can vary with lane match up, but an invade it is better to start Glitterlance. You should be defending mid lane. Have vision of both bushes and no need to have vision of their tower. If you see a group of invaders at mid lane, back up and ping.

You don't leash jungler.

Generally for all lanes, if you have more minions you can go aggressive if you know where everyone is in the map; but not past the minions if you need your minions to help fight the enemy champs, unless you can completely zone them. If there are 10 enemy minions and you have 3 minions just back up all the way to tower as you will get collapsed on by the enemy. Since you will not lose any cs(creep score), you might as well go back to tower anyways. It takes 7 minions as solo lane to get lvl 2 so you should count both minion waves to see if you get lvl 2 first, they get lvl 2 first, or both sides will get lvl 2 at the same time. If he is getting lvl 2 first then you're gonna have to back off far. If the lane is even then you have to be cautious. Only do short trades when playing aggressive or else you take too much minion damage. You can go for longer trades if you notice that you benefit more from it.

You should watch your lane and your teammates to see if they have the factors of getting dived. The most obvious one is low health. Others are no flash, huge incoming minion wave, and champions missing. If you pay attention to other lanes or yourself, you can warn the possible dive and move your jungler, others can roam to help, or get in a spot for a safe Teleport, all to turn around the dive. If none of the responses are available then the possible victim must leave. The duo lane should generally be together when the minion wave is at their tower, or else the enemy duo can 2v1 dive the lonely bottom player. Tell that bottom player to leave or call others to turn the dive around.

Towers will prioritize minions closest to itself, such as blue tower hitting the minions toward the top of the lane and red tower hitting minions toward the bottom of the lane. During early levels you can auto once on a full hp caster minion then tower shot then farm. The caster minions farther from the tower will most likely get hit by your minions which means you need to auto those more than once or not at all; and the tower will switch to hitting minions from top to bot or bot to top. Use your skills to catch farm under tower as a last resort.

Best case scenario is you know where everyone is on the map and you can safely push to their tower if you have more minions or freeze when they have a bit more minions. You can recall before a siege minion wave(which spawns after 2 minion waves during early game), so that by the time you go back to lane you won't miss out on too much cs since siege takes a while to be killed by tower as well as enemies can't push that fast.

If you killed your enemy laners and you do not know where everyone is on the map then you should go to your tower and recall. Do not risk getting killed by their jungler or whoever. If you got a successful jungler to gank you then ask him to push with you unless you are all low enough for a triple kill. After recalling, buy while walking to edge of fountain always until 20min mark.

It takes 7 minion worth of exp for solo lanes to level. You should count the minion deaths on both sides to see if you get lvl 2 first to go aggressive, both sides get lvl 2 at the same time, or if the enemy get lvl 2 first so you back off to tower. If you get lvl 2 first you can zone or trade hard.

Try to fake ward at times by walking to a spot as if you were warding. Do not facecheck bushes to ward.

You should conserve mana by not using Whimsy unless there is an all in or gank.

When trading, use Help, Pix! and auto then back up then possibly Glitterlance. If you are not full hp and just want to harass then just Glitterlance since it is a bit longer range than 550 range auto, but you want to stay full or near full hp.. Help, Pix! and auto atk harass, like other skills and autos, should generally be used right when they go for a last hit. If you hit them then its good, if they dodge it when his cs is about to die then he will miss the cs. A win win situation.

If they are about to harass you when you go for cs, then you need to pretend to go for a cs then back off to the left, right, or back to dodge the skillshot, such as Dark Sphere.

If you can't deep ward, especially around lvl 3, you can pretend to ward the mid bushes by walking to the spots towards jungle. Dont ward by walking directly to the mid bush or else the jungler can be there and kill you.

If the top, support, or jungler(who is missing the most) is missing then you should expect a gank and should play safe. Watch for top lane Teleport as well as you can't do extended all ins unless your jungler and top lane is ready to help.

Generally when your jungler comes, never bait for teammate; you let him show first before engaging since you don't want to die in a 2v2 before your jungler gets to do anything. You can harass at enemy tower only when they go for caster minions, and only if you know where everyone is and Teleport cooldown. If you push your lane, you don't know where everyone is, and you are lvl 6, then you can try to roam, fake roam, farm raptor if you have blue buff, farm murk wolf if u have blue buff, or invade with your jungler to deep ward. Fake roam is you show that your heading bot or top, but don't go all the way, this makes the side lanes play back b/c of your pressure.

A siege wave spawns at 4:00, this can be a good recall timing if you can kill the remaining minions and let the siege wave slow down the enemy push while you come back to lane(you don't have to recall when the siege is in front of you, you can recall when it spawns).

Stealth Ward the enemy raptor area so your team can see the jungler farming if safe.

Stealth Ward the middle of your lane if the enemy can outroam and 1v1 you.

Play safe when your Wild Growth is down, especially against Fizz and LeBlanc as they can easily all in you.

Stay half mana or above. Only use Whimsy during all ins or ganks or when you know where everyone is for a strong trade. Use speed if you expect your enemy to run, use polymorph if you expect them to turn around when you go for that kind of fight.

Get all 3 skills lvl 3 if you expect gank or all in.

Do not buy Control Ward. Those are only needed for dragons.

Mid game generally starts when a tower dies or when players get lvl 6 as that makes tower diving more potent. When you are lvl 6 and onward, if both top Teleport are down then you should tell your team to do dragon or siege bot since the enemy will most likely go top while you 5v4 at dragon or siege bot.

Just get experience and play safe to wait for next dragon fight. This is why late game counter picks are best. Be in side lane to get solo experience. If your tower is taken, freeze the lane until your laner enters a fight. You will get experience while they lose that side lane experience.

Always group for dragons, you can use Teleport to come back to dragon when low or to catch experience in a side lane.

Never get aced as just a siege wave is enough to end the game.

It is ok to lose inhibitor. Just focus on dragons and protecting nexus towers. Always take dragon over baron unless it's cloud. Always take dragon over towers and inhibitors as well. Do not take base towers if dragon or baron is coming up soon as the enemy will generally respawn in time.

Never get aced as just a siege wave is enough to end the game.

It is ok to lose inhibitor. Just focus on dragons and protecting nexus towers. Always take dragon over baron unless it's cloud. Always take dragon over towers and inhibitors as well. Do not take base towers if dragon or baron is coming up soon as the enemy will generally respawn in time.

If you have open nexus(no nexus towers) then sit in base until all inhibits respawn.

Only do dragon when 2 enemies are dead or at base & while your team isn't low, or it is a free dragon. A free dragon is when the enemy team is aced, their teleports are down, completely cleared their vision, they're taking top buff, or recalled to base.

If they have Fiddlesticks, Nunu & Willump, Master Yi, Udyr, Shaco, Elise, Karthus, Lee Sin, and possibly more(not to mention laners helping out), then you need to keep it warded from a specific lvl onward for a possible sneak.

If the enemy starts dragon, poke them until dragon is half hp, then fight. Poking them makes them disoriented to either finish, run, or fight. Dragon does aoe so if you start it, have one person in the pit to tank it away from team.

Always team fight for the third dragon as everyone would be closest in items. As scaling team, you can give the first two if not safe to contest.

Prioritize dragons over everything else.

If you have dragon soul, instead of starting elder dragon camp the enemy jungle and fight. If playing protection composition, backline hits dragon while frontline zones, then get off dragon if they go in.

When securing baron for bait or to take, you want to deep ward and ward surrounding bushes to keep from getting stolen or to get a pick. Do not exclude the tri bush towards top lane.

As red team you want to pink outside the pit and sweep inside the pit.

As blue team you want to pink in the pit near the entrance so that the enemy doesn't kill it over the wall.

Do not stand behind the baron when taking it, since it will do damage to everyone behind it.

As for positioning when taking baron you need to stand outside the pit with your carries. As for ward kills in the pit, support should be the one since support's dmg against baron is least important. When the enemy is in the baron pit, hit the baron to make it hit your enemies. Never use your cc at baron when enemies are around. One person should zone the enemy team if they are coming to stop the baron attempt. Communicate with your team beforehand to finish, run, or turn to fight.

At 20min and onwards you must ward it against sneaks from high objective junglers such as Nunu & Willump, Udyr, Karthus, Fiddlesticks, Master Yi, and possibly more(not to mention laners helping out).

Always take baron over inhibitors.

Use all your wards in bushes. Always be behind your marksman or jungle carry to use your spells on them only. Never be next to your carries. Use Help, Pix! on teammates rather than enemies. Use Whimsy if your teammate or yourself mispositions or to let them deal more dps(damage per second) with the boost of speed. If they have carry melee like Riven or Zed then save Whimsy for them when they get in range of your carries. Same with mid range assassins like Ahri. Do not stack cc with Whimsy.

Lulu is very strong against diving teams like Sylas Nocturne and Leona. A team's theme is represented by 3 out of 5 champions. Similar to Karma, lulu does rely on her team more than other top laners since lulu doesn't solo carry too hard. She works a lot better if you have champions like Kog'Maw, Yone and/or Hecarim.

All questions in the comments will be replied by private message. I stream on twitch.tv/bive and offer coaching lessons for all roles for $20/hr. https://www.youtube.com/user/sinc67/videos is my youtube.