Lulu should get a new offensive E
Season 4 has been quite eventful for Lulu. She became popular in solo lanes and got some nerfs to keep her in check. But those short term balance changes moved her away from some of Leagues long term design goals. Lulu's offensive E, Help, Pix! is an example of that.
These are some things that are there to make offensive E a healthy ability: ** Kit cohesiveness**: Moving Pix around, combo with Q ** Meaningful choices**: Choice between dmg on auto-attacks versus reveal ** Counterplay**: Lulu can't shield if she uses E offensively Unfortunately each of these pillars has been reduced over time. Let me explain why.
Kit cohesiveness
Since Lulu became more popular as a solo laner, she cares less where Pix is. Support Lulu can try to hit two people with glitterlance by moving Pix, and she can give her ally the damage Pix deals. Solo lane Lulu misses that depth. Also the duration of E was reduced from 6 to 4 seconds. That means less time to aim Q. The interaction between E and Q has become less important and has a shorter time window.
Meaningful choices
For a meaningful choice between defensive and offensive E, they need very different effects that are situationally strong. That effect is the reveal for offensive E. A reveal is situational, but very strong against bush jukes or stealth champions. But Lulu's reveal was nerfed to 4 seconds, while new, stronger reveal effects are being added to the game. The new item Skirmisher's Saber adds a 6 second reveal effect to smite. Everyone with ignite can already reveal an opponent for 5 seconds. Wards are a cheap way to get quick vision. That makes Lulu's 4 second reveal underwhelming and irrelevant. Chosing which part of E you want to use is no longer a meaningful choice. The reveal effect is too weak to make offensive E attractive.
Counterplay
When Lulu uses her E offensively, it is not exactly a moment of weakness. All her other abilities are great at keeping someone safe. That lack of counterplay is extra bad in a solo lane. Support Lulu is at least constrained by mana, but solo lane Lulu becomes oppressive without weaknesses. Her E has never scored great on counterplay, but it is way worse when Lulu plays against a melee top laner.
So how can we improve Lulu's offensive E? I would say remove the damage and the reveal, but give it an interesting effect back. For example, E could increase teammates' damage against the target by a percentage or it could get a Graves' smokescreen effect. Whatever effect it gets, it should be situationally strong to make using offensive E a meaningful choice. What are your ideas for Lulu's E?
*"Let's put on our thinking caps! Hmm... hmmhmm, hmmhmm... Ah, I got it!" *
tl;dr Lulu's offensive E is no longer in line with Riot's design values, so it needs to be reworked.
