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 but no KR.

Published 10/14/14
Added Recognizing tower dives chapter 10/16/14
Added nidalee match up 10/24/14
Added not facecheking for early game chapter 10/29/14
Updated Akali matchup, lowered difficulty for Tristana, Kog'Maw, Ryze for their nerfs. 11/11/14
Updated When to pick Lulu chapter 11/12/14
Updated conclusion, kayle matchup as AP 11/16/14
Updated for new rift beta 11/21/14
Replaced elixir of brilliance for sorcery, Updated conclusion, added pantheon to dragon chapter, added late game chapter anti backdoor 11/24/14
Updated early game chapter for fake ward 12/1/14
Updated when to pick lulu, shakarez has a youtube vid about double morello 12/10/14
Changed sorc shoes to cd boots, updated when to pick lulu chapter, shortened conclusion 1/9/15
Updated when to pick lulu, changed title, champion synergy with rengar, changed runes, updated farming under tower, updated leashing, updated recall scenario 1/21/15
Updated dragon and baron chapter 2/12/15
Added rumble matchup 2/27/15
updated rumble matchup 2/28/15
Added nautilus matchup 3/18/15
updated runes, runes chapter, when to pick lulu chapter, mastery chapter 4/4/15
Added sion matchup 4/5/15
Added kennen matchup, updated when to pick lulu chapter 4/26/15
updated when to pick lulu chapter 6/27/15
Updated Introduction and When to pick Lulu chapters 8/7/15
updated items chapter, added Luden's echo and Greater stealth totem to items 8/8/15
Updated ryze matchup because of ryze rework 8/11/15
added Gnar matchup 8/21/15
Added tryndamere matchup and updated runes, items, and shyvana matchup 8/23/15
updated skill and purchase order, when to pick lulu chapter 8/24/15
Updated when to pick lulu chapter 8/30/15
updated items chapter and champion synergy chapter 8/31/15
Added darius matchup 9/18/15
added yasuo matchup 9/26/15
Updated ryze matchup 10/6/15
added poppy and renekton matchup 10/13/15
Updated timers chapter 10/15/15
added teemo matchup and updated masteries and masteries chapter 10/17/15
Updated tryndamere match up and when to pick lulu chapter, added lee sin, shen, and soraka matchups 10/24/15
updated runes chapter and darius maokai matchups, added fiora matchup 10/26/15
Updated riven match up 11/10/15
updated masteries, when to pick lulu, leashing, the level one before minions spawn, timers, items, early game, mid game, late game, and conclusion chapter 12/17/15
Updated conclusion chapter 12/20/15
updated recall scenarios 12/21/15
Updated items purchase order, when to pick lulu and champion synergy chapter 12/31/15
updated items chapter, maokai and malphite matchup 1/2/16
Updated early game chapter 1/5/16
added tahm kench and udyr matchup 1/9/16
Updated fiora matchup 1/11/16
reformatted items, skill usage, recall scenarios, early game, mid game, late game, dragon, and baron chapters; updated late game chapter 1/12/16
Updated recall scenarios chapter 1/13/16
updated items chapter 1/15/16
Updated typos and when to pick lulu chapter 1/26/16
added pantheon matchup; updated rumble matchup 1/27/16
Added wukong matchup 2/13/16
updated introduction and skill usage chapters 2/27/16
Updated when to pick lulu chapter 4/3/16
updated champion synergy chapter 4/4/16
Updated when to pick lulu and champion synergy chapters 4/9/16
updated team fighting and conclusion chapters 4/16/16
Updated purchase order 4/17/16
updated mid game and items chapter 4/21/16
Updated when to pick lulu chapter 5/1/16
updated dragon chapter 5/20/16
Updated when to pick lulu chapter 9/22/16
updated when to pick lulu chapter, leashing, and baron chapter 10/17/16
Updated when to pick lulu chapter 11/4/16
updated when to pick lulu chapter 2/10/17
Updated when to pick lulu, summoner spells, runes, items, timers, champion synergies, leashing, team fighting, and conclusion chapter, removed masteries 9/30/20
updated runes, items, item notes, skill usage, the level one before minions spawn, mid game, and late game chapter 10/2/20
Updated recall scenarios, early game, and dragon chapters 10/5/20
updated items, runes, when to pick lulu and conclusion chapter 1/31/21
Updated dragon chapter 2/3/21
updated runes note and when to pick lulu, runes and items chapter 3/26/21
Changed items, runes, updated when to pick lulu, skill usage, runes, items, and conclusion chapters 7/16/21
Reverted runes, updated skill order, changed items chapter 8/1/21
updated when to pick lulu, items, timers, leashing, early game, mid game, late game, dragon, baron, and conclusion chapters; removed importance of vision control and added jungle tracking chapters 12/15/21
Updated when to pick lulu chapter 7/2/22
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, Ornn or Gangplank. Though right now Zilean is the best enchanter top lane and A tier top laner. Lulu, Ivern, and Karma are B tier top laners. Taric is C tier for top lane.

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 is the best summoner for the top lane meta. When there is a fight 2v2 between jungler mid or 3v3 between jungler bot, you can tp(teleport) in before your laner and win the fight only if your minions will get to enemy tower or level 6+. Takes experience to know if you should tp or not, and where to tp. If there is nothing going on in the map at level 1-4 then you can tp to your top tower at level 4 if there is an incoming minion wave.

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.

Rush Boots of Swiftness which decreases your chance of dying. 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. 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 use Help, Pix! offensively and auto your lane opponent once. Shield yourself instead if they start the trade. In team fights its better to shield your allies than using on enemy. 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. Lastly, your E counters stealth champions well. If an invisible champion is going for your carry, use E on them instead of your ally.

A solo kill combo would be Flash Help, Pix! auto attack all at once, then Glitterlance at least a second after. Against an evenly skilled opponent, you won't get any solo kills. As this champion, you don't really need to. Just farm well and you will carry team fights by helping jungler or adc.

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 hp it gives by ulting your ally right when he takes damage, not when he is about to die. In lane, when your lane opponent ults you like Fiora then just Wild Growth right away. If in lane it's a champion with a delayed ultimate like Darius then ult yourself when he hooks you. If your ult is down while lane opponent can have his, play extremely safe until it's back up.

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

When you have Ashe, 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.

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.

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.

Generally, you should only use your spells with your adc and carry junglers.

Do not pick a skill yet until you see your lane opponents in lane, when top laner appears at top to show there is no lane swap, or there is no delay invade. Your first skill can vary with lane match up, but an invade or lane swap it is better to start Glitterlance. You should defend top river area by not being in the bush. If defending raptor area do not stand in bush. If defending mid lane then have vision of both bushes and no need to have vision of their tower. You should not use your trinket ward early, unless you see a group of invaders then you ward where you are escaping to. If you ward in front of them, they can kill it. There are some junglers like Jarvan IV that can lvl 2 gank you top as blue team, so you should ward river bush at 1:30. If everything proceeds as normal, ward at 2:30 if enemy jungler top side.

If jungler starts at top, you leash until 1:37 which you then go top. If a cheese can happen top, just ward it beforehand or go the long way around. If you know who is going into your lane then use your skill to help leash.

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 toward the top of the lane first usually. In the early game auto the full health caster minions once with your passive then tower shot then farm. The caster minions at the bottom of the lane will most likely get hit by your minions which means you need to auto those more than once or not at all, and they can draw turret aggro since they are hitting your minions. 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 both low enough for a double kill. When lvl 4, you can recall to buy Dark Seal and Control Ward then Teleport back to tower if nothing is happening early game, despite where the minion wave is. After recalling, buy while walking to edge of fountain always until 20 minute mark.

Depending on match ups, you may start Glitterlance instead.

Do not face check tri bush or river bush at top if the enemy top can be there to out trade you.

The enemy can use minions to block your passive when trading, so if you know you can win trade then use Help, Pix! offensively. It takes 7 minion kills for solo lanes to level, if enemy will get lvl 2 before you then sit at tower. It is hard to trinket at a specific time since some junglers have versatility in their routes. What you can do is fake ward by moving to a spot to pretend to ward, or when u push to tower u can sit in the river bush.

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.

Try to ward with trinket the gromp / raptor area as that is the easiest after your lane is pushing(preferably under enemy tower). For warding the raptor make sure you see the jungle camp to see their jungler. For warding the gromp , you don't need to ward the blue buff bush, just ward over the wall that can see both blue buff and gromp . If you see their jungler and he can 1v1 you or is not scared then you should just back off and ward a spot where he can't see you place since he is preventing u from deep warding. Generally you should have your jungler come help ward or roam, u let him show first before engaging since u dont want to die in a 1v1 before your jungler gets to do anything.

It is also good to ward the middle or their top lane bush to spot lane ganks.

Try to save Teleport for turning around fights at mid or bot. If there is an enemy jungler and your jungler isn't near the action, then it's usually best not to tp since the enemy top can Teleport follow. If both junglers are there and its an even fight then you must teleport before the enemy does since being there sooner is more impactful. If your teammates can turn around or escape ganks safely, then you don't need to Teleport since the enemy will most likely disengage already. Let your teammates know when your summoners are down. If your Teleport is down while the enemy is up, you must urgently tell your team that it is so and that the only action the jungler can do is to gank top for that situation of Teleport discrepancy.

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.