An analysis of how Riot handled the Lulu experiment
Season 4 was quite eventful for Lulu. Riot experimented with a new direction: Instead of “enforcing the meta” they would keep Lulu viable in multiple lanes. Now we can look back and see what we can learn from that experiment. What can be done better next time?
More than half a year ago Mid Lulu started to become popular. After casting Help, Pix! on an enemy she could land two guaranteed Glitterlances. Something needed to be done about this low-interaction, high-obnoxiousness harass pattern. Riot decided to try something new. Instead of taking a huge hammer swing to make Lulu stronger as a support than a mid laner, they wanted to preserve both playstyles. "Enforcing the meta" reduces experimentation and discovery of new things, so this approach was worth a try. Riot said that they would keep an eye on support Lulu and help her if necessary.
The next patch there was not a word on Lulu. On the forums players kept asking about the Lulu analysis. Morello noticed one of those threads and brought in Statikk, his subject-matter expert. Statikk responded in-depth with Riot’s perspective. The message was that support Lulu was somewhat weaker but still fine in terms of balance. He explained why they did not want to enforce the meta, but also created false expectations.
If we do make changes again to address her power level in Mid Lane, we will most definitely have to compensate her in Bot Lane.
Support Lulu never got this much needed compensation. A little later Top Lulu started to rise, bullying common top laners. She has an easy time harassing melees while staying safe with her disengage. I imagine that Riot thought long and hard what to do next. The patch notes 4.13 give a glimpse of their evaluation. They are also the last thing Riot said about Lulu.
We initially thought solo lane Lulu was a unique addition to the game, so we wanted to let her stay a viable pick in both solo and duo lanes.
Riot initially thought solo lane Lulu would be a unique addition to the game. But now she causes problems and there is no way back. She needs to stay viable in multiple lanes. It is unclear what made solo lane Lulu so unique in the first place, nobody explained that.
As an aside, we know this isn't a great situation where we keep indirectly reducing support Lulu's power to maintain her viability as a mage, so this is something we'll have to really consider for the future.
This is something we heard before. Yes, we damaged support Lulu, but we had to for the health of the game. Just give it time and we will look into it in the future. Compensating support Lulu is really difficult because her support power en solo lane power are so connected. What followed were a few months of complete silence from Riot.
So what can we learn from this?
- Making threads to Riot helps sometimes. In this case Morello himself made sure that the Lulu analysis was posted. Keep reminding Riot about these kind of things!
- When Riot goes for a quick nerf, the follow-up can be lacking. In the last 6 months Lulu had two emergency nerf patches with the promise to keep an eye on her. But the follow-up never came.
- Communication does not always align with Riot's actions. They say support Lulu will get compensation when needed, but never actually do it. They do an extensive analysis on a champion, but forget to communicate it. That makes it hard to keep trusting them.
- Making sweeping changes like allowing a champion in multiple roles should be done with a clear vision in mind. We now have solo lane Lulu with an unclear identity and a weakened support. There was no back-up plan to keep them both viable, so nerfs were the only option.
I hope Riot presents a vision for Lulu’s place in the game soon. She needs it desperately.
Thank you for reading! 
