I haven't seen one in my games in ages and I don't really see her in competitive play either. She used to be quite popular but has really fallen out of favor since the nerfs. What is she missing to be a competitive pick again and how can it be added without making her oppressive?
I really hope to see a Lulu comeback because she's very fun to watch and play.
Chortle10 votesBuff Lulu's "Help Pix" to deal more on hit damage when Pix is helping an ally. I feel like this would help her early game while not letting her be oppressive in solo lanes.
Her teamfight capabilities mid-late game already are decent
AMYS GRAVE2 votesthis is probably exactly what she needs.
FantasySniper1 votes^This^
Teridax685 votesWhile 
's problems are far less serious than pre-rework 
or 
, she might need a gameplay update of some kind. She was nerfed mainly because of her play patterns in solo lanes: at first, he main issue was with her super-reliable and safe poke, which allowed her to damage her opponent from across the lane (E to a minion -> Q to a champion, or just E on the champion followed by a Q) and prevent them from reaching her. After her poke got mitigated through nerfs to her E (its cost got increased, and the damage + duration of its offensive component got reduced), she still remained difficult to play against due to how safe she could be as she built full AP (she can kite almost ad infinitum, all while dealing and absorbing a lot of damage), so the AP scaling on her Q slow got removed, and her W movement speed boost got nerfed at early ranks. Unfortunately, all of this affected her support playstyle, and as such she's not as good as she used to be.
Imo, Lulu should be viable as both a solo and a duo laner, but to do so her kit needs to be looked at with solo play in mind: as with a lot of old support kits, she was designed mainly for duo lane play, and while her solo lane problems didn't show then, they're showing now. She needs to offer significant windows of vulnerability even when she uses all of her abilities to save herself, and she needs to make adequate tradeoffs between reliability and power: ideally, her poke and harass patterns should be less safe and reliable, but should be more powerful in return. One of the main reasons she can't be allowed to have too much power now is because most of her abilities are point-and-click: while that's fine when you're targeting your allies, it gives little means of counterplay when against an opponent. Perhaps she could have the mechanics on her abilities changed a little, again to offer more power at the cost of less reliability and/or greater risk.
Kingsgrave3 votesWhile
Imo, Lulu should be viable as both a solo and a duo laner, but to do so her kit needs to be looked at with solo play in mind: as with a lot of old support kits, she was designed mainly for duo lane play, and while her solo lane problems didn't show then, they're showing now. She needs to offer significant windows of vulnerability even when she uses all of her abilities to save herself, and she needs to make adequate tradeoffs between reliability and power: ideally, her poke and harass patterns should be less safe and reliable, but should be more powerful in return. One of the main reasons she can't be allowed to have too much power now is because most of her abilities are point-and-click: while that's fine when you're targeting your allies, it gives little means of counterplay when against an opponent. Perhaps she could have the mechanics on her abilities changed a little, again to offer more power at the cost of less reliability and/or greater risk.
Honestly she just needs more things directly related to duo lanes that have no impact at all on her solo lanes. For example, if Braum's Q went through minions he'd be overpowered as fuck top. If Leona could proc her own passive she'd be broken as fuck top, but since they have that key limiter, it makes it a lot easier to balance them and give them a lot more power.
I really like Braum because he has 2 abilities specifically made for utility purposes, and they cant do anything else. Lulu has basically a suppression, ms boost, 80% slow, health increase etc., Way too much shit.
MAZZ1M01 votesAnd that's where the problem lies. Lulu's strength as a support is easily chalked up to her utility. She's a Swiss Army Knife with all sorts of crap. The problem is, unless a situation comes up to use said tool, she's a poke champ. The E and Q nerfs hurt. As far as how to balance that, I would recommend restoring both, but with limiters as you say.
Rather than increasing her base stats, increase her scaling. This way she can't be overly oppressive early on and this would encourage support over solo. Then she can get massive power spikes later if she's lucky enough to get the gold to build an AP item. This way she would be viable either as a support or soloer. Put a Blasting Wand on her and BAM! Of course, you'd have to weight that against a Sightstone and that has its drawbacks as well. Significant choices - design values, right?
FFirebrandd5 votesHow on earth would increasing her scaling encourage support over solo? Solo usually gets more gold and increasing her scaling would mean she could use said gold better.
Lwnt2 votesexactly!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
FantasySniper1 votes[deleted]
AccountaBilabudy1 votesYou missed the point.
Solo laners get more AP than supports. This would only encourage Lulu being a solo laner.
How would increasing the base shield value and health from ult, while reducing her Q damage encourage being a solo laner?
FantasySniper1 votesWoops. I posted thinking that it was Rusty saying "exactly". My bad. :/
MAZZ1M01 votesIt wouldn't necessarily so much as it doesn't entice her to be a solo laner. Having just played a game with her -it's been awhile, the base damage is way too low. So I take back what I said anyway. The utility is nice, but if you can't keep the enemies back, they just have to charge into your face. There's little you can do about it early game without going oom. Now I remember why I stopped playing her for awhile. :
She's really dependent on a competent adc atm. My last game with her, our Cait was braindead and I fell too far behind to recover. I'll have to play a few more games, but I recall the nerf issues coming up awhile back those worried me then. Nothing's really changed about the items or anything else to make up for said nerfs. There was also a discussion about what to do about Lulu's kit, but none of us could really get a grasp on what to do with her in terms of a rework. Obviously the ideal would be to restore her Q and E, but then she becomes OP in toplane so... idk. Lulu just has problems and it's difficult to figure out what to do with her.
FFirebrandd2 votesI've been having some success with a kinda cheesy build, abusing the fact that her shield scales with armor. I've found that works fairly well to maintain lane presence without going OOM instantly.
I wholeheartedly agreed on the "She needs a competent ADC". My last game my Ezreal and I got an early kill, and then he used that lead to buy a tear... which gives zero combat stats. While our opponent came back with a longsword and a bunch of potions. I am fairly certain that's why we lost bot lane.
As for reworks, what do you think about this one. I proposed it a while back and it got a pretty good reaction. http://forums.na.leagueoflegends.com/board/showthread.php?t=4746535
MAZZ1M01 votesBest proposal I've seen so far. I like everything about it.
FFirebrandd1 votesThanks!
Now if only some of that would get implemented...
MAZZ1M01 votesI wish it would. I never would've thought of that genius Q fix. You could restore all of her utility from the nerfs with those changes. (E on minions again! REAL damage! YEAH!) You should create a thread about it. It's a wonderful fix.
Sirsir4 votesA competent team. Lulu is more dependent on teammates than most supports.
FyshinaTux2 votesI'd love to see lulu come back... as a support...
Watching a lane lulu is kinda meh imo, but then I love to support with her, so I may be biased.
Sailor Mint1 votesLulu got a major buff in 4.20. She struggles against healers.
Sohleks1 votesI believe Lulu is still pretty good both as a solo laner and support. There's just a lot of other overpowered champions being discovered. Just about every solo lane pick being played these days are some kind of carry and the occasional super tank like Mundo or Maokai... Only tanks with absurd steroids or mobility are any good right now...
To me when supporting as Lulu it kind of feels like her damage/mitigation numbers are kind of low. Especially when you consider range and especially mana costs. Yet lulu's kit is still great in all in combat mostly from W and R, her most unique spells. Very punishing for assassins. Lulu adds poke too but it's not the best. Not nearly as potent as more true mages like Vel'Koz or even Karma. She's still great at shoving the lane though if Q is ranked up... So playing Lulu it feels like she is the jack of all trades support in lane, good CC but lowish numerical output. I pick Lulu support for basically point and click CC of W and R, hoping to shut down aggressive enemy dives if you see enemy assassins in champ select...
As a solo lane she still plays as a potent safe laner. Her pushing power is still strong. Only a champ like Syndra or Karma can bully Lulu. Orianna is about equal if slightly stronger when playing defensively. Everyone else either has to be tanky with sustain or super ranged or Lulu has the advantage... I think solo lane Lulu does what it's supposed to do now. An annoying laner, sets her opponent back. Has the CC to set up team plays, save allies and burst squishy champs in a pinch. I've had games as Lulu where I'm doing well and cannot carry. I've also had games where my team is playing from behind but our Vayne is scaling and at some point the enemy team cannot assassinate our AP Lulu enhanced Vayne. I still play Lulu because I'm very effective with her. I am more likely to pick her when my teammates lock in very high damage carries.
If Lulu has a problem it's this. When she feels strong as a support she is oppressive in solo lanes. Her damage output (damage/range/mana efficiency) feels weak when pitted against other supports with either more poke or sustain in a duo lane. Especially if the enemy AD buys lifesteal. Lulu's CC is still great in all out combat especially later in the game. She is just weak numbers wise. I don't know how you can buff Lulu without making her a problem again honestly. It would take some kind of rework. I think the problem in the kit is the disparity between leveling Q or E for support Lulu. Ranking E feels like a passive playstyle. With only 1 rank in E you have no heals and not much damage mitigation... Solo lane Lulu can always get by with more waveclear from Q and more AP + hp from items...
So I wonder what would happen if E on enemies and allies had separate or reduced cooldowns. Or what if E worked like Orianna's ball, damaging or shielding the first thing hit... Nah, I don't think I want Lulu to play like Ori...
Joe Dredd1 votesFuck lulu she's cancer.
Earl Eulrich1 votesa good carry? She´s still an incredible strong Sololaner.
FFirebrandd1 votesI actually made a thread about how to rework her so she's strong in a duo lane but not ridiculous in a solo lane during the bit where she was getting picked a TON for mid lane. Hopefully this link will work. http://forums.na.leagueoflegends.com/board/showthread.php?t=4746535&highlight=how+to+fix+lulu
the tldr of that thread is: Q does reduced damage to minions until rank 5 Transfer her offensive AP ratios to her ult and defensive E Revert most/all of the utility nerfs she's gotten Slight base damage buffs on Q and E E refunds half the mana cost if the shield breaks
Leblancs Boob1 votesShe needs to be a support and not a solo laner. As long as she remains in the top lane she can't be a good support. Anyone whos ever played a melee against her in the top lane knows the epic struggle
Lost R1 votesI play Lulu support a lot. The problem is my team tends to be more often than not hyper-glass cannons (They can die from having a Poro sneeze on them) with absolutely zero crowd control, so I have to pretend to balance out the team by picking Braum, Thresh or Leona.
AccountaBilabudy1 votesReally they just need to buff her E shield and Ult health...maybe slightly reduce Q damage. Now she's a better support and worse laner.
AccountaBilabudy1 votesRiot balancing team just graduated from University of Phoenix online video game development program. Don't expect even the simplest fixes to actually happen.
Fiorinol1 votesDidn't Riot originally say they'd compensate support Lulu for the nerfs?
My decision to stop playing support as a main role in solo-queue has been pretty much based on the fact that Riot nerfed Lulu so hard that other champions that I don't enjoy playing as much like Nami end up doing a better job in lane. It costs too much mana to do any decent amount of poke, especially when the enemy ADC builds Anti-Support Vampiric Scepter
SmokingPuffin1 votesDidn't Riot originally say they'd compensate support Lulu for the nerfs?
My decision to stop playing support as a main role in solo-queue has been pretty much based on the fact that Riot nerfed Lulu so hard that other champions that I don't enjoy playing as much like Nami end up doing a better job in lane. It costs too much mana to do any decent amount of poke, especially when the enemy ADC builds
Anti-SupportVampiric Scepter
It's not really possible to compensate support Lulu for solo Lulu nerfs, because the play patterns are so similar.
Even something like buffing the damage amp on Pix still is a buff for solo Lulu.
SmokingPuffin1 votesThe main thing Lulu needs is for enemy melee champions to have kits that can fight back against hers. So long as she is 100% invincible, she'll remain in purgatory with Quinn for being too strong in lane.
As far as support Lulu goes, her main problem is mana. Solo Lulu can buy tons of mana with Doran's Rings, Chalice, Morello's, etc. Support Lulu has to buy Sightstone and Frostfang, so she has to be really sparing with her ability use.
