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Meaningful choices and Lulu

Ghiefelstein··2 votes·695 views

Meaningful choices are a core design value in LoL and Lulu is a great example of that. Her kit has many offensive and defensive use cases (think W and R). Making RIGHT or WRONG decisions gives Lulu players something to master and her opponents something to capitalize on. But Riot removed many meaningful choices for Lulu during season 4, like target selection, skill order and her E ability. Let me explain why.

Target selection The choice "Who do I use my ability on?" is the essence of what Lulu is all about. That choice becomes more meaningful when there are more people around. But her strongest, most popular role is being a solo laner. With only one opponent her target selection becomes meaningless.

|Choice|-----|Solo lane|-----|Duo lane| |- |Who do I polymorph? | |My only enemy || Thresh so he doesn't cc us, or their ADC to suppress their dmg |Who do I ult?||Always myself || My ADC for the health, or myself to knock up both enemies

Target selection creates wonderful gameplay, but that is lost when Lulu goes to a solo lane.

Skill order In a difficult lane, Lulu could max E first for the shield. She could also use W as a one point wonder if she primarily used it for the speed boost. But after her nerfs there is only one viable skill order: Q>W>E. I cannot think of a situation where I would skill in a different order. Skill order is no longer a meaningful choice, you never even have to think about it.

Help, Pix! Lulu's E is either a shield or a nuke. Which one you use depends on which has the higher number. The shield has significantly better base values and ratios, so offensive E needs something else to become a serious option. It has a reveal and provides targetting for glitterlance. But the reveal duration was nerfed drastically to only 4 seconds and you no longer get two glitterlances once you hit E. That leaves offensive E in a very lackluster state. Which E you use is not a meaningful choice, the shield is almost always better.

Adapting and making the right decisions is what I love about Lulu. Meaningful choices are what makes her such a great champion and gives her a unique place in LoL. That is why I believe she should get some meaningful choices back. One idea is reworking offensive E into something more supportlike. That could make Lulu stronger in the support role, provide incentives to max E sometimes and offer a real choice between offensive and defensive E. What do you think?

4 Comments

Sailor Mint1 votes

You're overthinking it.

The biggest limiting factor is and always been mana.

"Do I EQ for maximum damage and a potential hit on both players, or do stick to AA-Q harass?" That part has not changed. You didn't really have the mana to support EQQ.

The tradeoffs for puting more than 2 points into E early greatly outweigh the benefits. You pick Lulu mostly because of her godly wave clear (for a support). If you want shield harass and disengage power, Janna is the better option.

Ghiefelstein1 votes

Putting more than 2 points into E was a viable option before the nerfs. I would do it if the enemy was far ahead in lane and I just wanted to survive. Like you said, currently it is no longer viable to max E first. Therefore Riot removed a meaningful choice in the skill order.

I want to adapt to situations in game, not do the same thing over and over every time I play Lulu. Riot has that as one of their design goals as well. This post is jmeant to draw attention to the fact that support Lulu lost something to keep mage Lulu healthy.

Sailor Mint1 votes

Traditionally, if you're not feeling like dealing with the enemy lane as Lulu, you just force a shove. You can also use Glitterlance to help kill minions before they crash into your turret. Additionally, if you're so far behind that you need to max E first, you're not playing aggressively, so the damage part is completely irrelevant. Let's not forget that they buffed the shield at lower ranks.

If you're not abusing Lulu's waveclear potential, you might as well pick something else. Any choice that harms you more than it helps is a false choice. And that's effectively what putting extra points into E early does.

Meriipu1 votes

Traditionally, if you're not feeling like dealing with the enemy lane as Lulu, you just force a shove.

How would one negotiate that with the ADC? Some tend to get grumpy when you touch creeps.

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