Hi everyone, I'm GlitterLancer and I've been maining Lulu since I started playing in late season 5. I'm not specifically high ranked (peaked in Gold this season), but after years of playing this champion I have a particularly high knowledge of the champion and have tried her in all roles and with multiple builds in each role. This build is my favorite so far using the new Runes Reforged update and is very fun for casual play (which we'll probably see a lot of for the next couple of weeks with Ranked Queues disabled). With that in mind, I've had a fair amount of success on similar builds for Lulu in ranked over Season 7. Let's get right into this (I will only be giving random laning and teamfight advice for the next and final 2 chapters of this guide, as I have given more matchup specific advice in the champion matchups section)).

Lulu top is particularly good early in this position given that most of her matchups are melee champions. The idea is to get a strong early trade or two, shove the opponent off of farm using the threat of your range, and then roam and gain as much vision as possible. It is for this reason that Lulu will excel in assisting junglers in the early stages of the game, both for invades and against invades. That being said, she's a squishy little mage who has lots of tools to prevent and escape ganks, but if she's caught too far up on a high-CC matchup, she'll likely go down fairly quick.

In disadvantageous matchups, you'll want to be able to farm under turret fairly well becuase her bad matchups are MISERABLE. With her passive, her autos do more damage than normal, so melee minions go down with one auto after 2 turret shots, and with the W empowerment, she can get an auto on each ranged and take them down as the turret targets them.

Use your pressure wisely and look for good teleport opportunities, especially towards bottom side where adding a high-utility damage dealer to the mix can certainly net a kill or 2. Roam mid with your jungler if you push in hard, or use that advantage to steal a buff with your jungler. Never roam alone with no vision either, as she will die fairly fast if caught out.

Depending on your matchup and outcome of the early game, the post-laning phase can be wildly different for a Lulu top laner. Below I will list some brief macro-level strategies for several situations to give you a mindset:

You and Team Generally Did Well:
- By this point you should have 2 parts of attack speed and, assuming you did well along with your team in lane, can press the advantage. Your team should group together and leave you in the side lane of choice to pressure turrets. In this situation beware of missing enemies in numbers of 2 or more, but sit in the lane safely, ward up, and keep pushing minion waves back at their turret. You can join in teamfights if the enemy plays towards you, or push the turret to give your team an advantage should the enemy show up for a 5v4.

You Did Well, but Team Did Not:
-This is the situation of a "feelsbadman" type feel. You've bullied your enemy laner and kept them down, while gaining an advantage for yourself, but your team just couldn't hold it together. In a situation like this, take a deep breath, don't tilt, and start to roam heavily and contribute to teamfights. It will be an uphill battle as always, but never give up, keep track of your sidelanes, and turn the game around as best you can.

You Did Poorly but the Team Did Well:
-to follow up on a poor laning phase, Lulu wants to join her team. The side lane is lost and you can depend on your utility to get your team through fights and pressure other areas of the map. Occasionally check to make sure your side lane doesn't get completely overpressured by pushing out minion waves. If your team did well enough and continues at that pace, you should be able to at least contribute to the game with your versatile, support-like kit. Stay tiltproof everyone.

You and the Team Both Did Poorly:
-As a squishy top laner who last lane and looks to a fiery, blood spattered battlefield to see the rest of her comrades doing just as bad, if not, worse; the end is pretty much in sight. What you can do is stick to your lane and help fights as much as possible. Try to continue applying pressure to your lane to draw attention safely and have your team play smart macro if possible.
(no shame in surrendering in normals/casual games if your team is completely tilted and you just want out).

Both Teams went Very Even Early Game:
This is a situation with no one true answer. Continue playing at your pace, read the map as well as you can (ie, if the enemy team groups, gauge whether your team needs you or if you can apply sidelane pressure). If your team wants to group, follow along and aim for objectives to get ahead. As always, play skirmishes and fights safely and intelligently.

This is just a fun little guide I thought I'd make for those interested in Lulu outside of support role. I enjoy my main so I'll share my little bit of insight/experience with everyone. Keep in mind this is a fairly casual build, I don't necessarily recommend it for every game (Lulu is an incredibly versatile champion with infinite possibilities as far as builds, roles, and capabilities, so have fun with her, use her as you see fit (but please try out my Semi-Auto Lulu Top :) )