Removing Lulu's AP Bonus from Whimsy lowered her skill cap

Shattered Clock·Feb 7, 2014·3 votes·1,629 views

The TL;DR version of this is that it removed a lot of potential interactions Lulu had with not only herself, but her team, thereby lowering the skill it takes to play a masterful Lulu. I would like the AP bonus back, even if she can only give it to allies; if Riot doesn't want supports to be able to buff themselves significantly.

The non TL;DR version though:

Lulu is one of my favorite champions (that I do not play nearly enough), I fell in love with her upon release and whenever I feel I can play her, I do.

I am very upset with the removal of her AP bonus from Whimsy, as it removed a lot of strategic decisions Lulu players could make about using it.

These decisions include, but are not limited to

-Duo laning with an ADC (Stop saying marksman) that has decent AP ratios to take advantage of the buff

-Choosing to buff the ADC in fights so they could be more mobile or buffing the APC so they could achieve greater damage potential

-Buffing herself to be able to chase an enemy down and land a few stronger hits of EQ to finish off a duel.

-Giving an AP top laner/jungler a better engage on top of some better damage

With the removal of this AP bonus, Lulu's Whimsy is now only really used as a speed boost when you leave base. 90% of the time, in fights, you are going to be casting it on an enemy to disable them versus having the option of disabling an enemy or increasing an AP's damage for a few moments.

This has lowered Lulu's skillcap and made her a more binary champion.

It was also really nice to give immobile mages a bit of a pick-me-up with their new found AP bonus, really helped with that whole assassin meta thing in s3.

13 Comments

MandaariFeb 7, 20141 votes

I liked that Lulu had more synergy than most other supports with APCs. I'm really not sure why she had her AP buff removed while Janna kept her AD buff.

JackAquaFeb 7, 20142 votes

She lost her AP buff, because her 'utility' scales with ability power. This is the explanation, anyways. I really don't know what it is, because everything else stayed the same, but Lulu isn't the Lulu she once was. I like playing her before, but know it's weird... maybe it was actually the free damage she got from her W.

MandaariFeb 7, 20141 votes

If they're afraid of the free damage then just lower the base on it or make it so Lulu doesn't gain the AP buff when she whimseys herself.

I Main SwainFeb 7, 20141 votes

playing as ap mid lulu I personally without full build have had lulu's w give a 99% ms boost. Now tell me that's not op enough lol, the utility scaling is ridiculous enough to compensate for the lost bonus ap I think personally. As for janna keeping her ad, I don't really know a whole lot about her kit other than the basics so I couldn't really compare the two

JackAquaFeb 7, 20142 votes

Well the movementspeed cap makes that an effective 40% :/

I Main SwainFeb 8, 20141 votes

ya, theres kinda no movement speed cap. hence the movement speed record being about 3000 or 4000 on Rammus . unless you mean single ability movement speed boost, in which case its still wrong, as most movement speed boosts are at least 40%

JackAquaFeb 9, 20142 votes

Lawyered.

I Main SwainFeb 9, 20141 votes

doesn't mention a movement speed cap lol. why? because there is none

JackAquaFeb 10, 20142 votes

'doesn't mention a movement speed cap lol. why? because there is none'
Facepalm.
Did you really read the page ?
Edit : Ctrl + F is helpful.

I Main SwainFeb 10, 20141 votes

ok I missed the place it mentioned it, but it isn't nearly that significant. and the cap is only on raw movement speed. either way, her new w didn't really lower her skill cap.

ratcharmerFeb 18, 20141 votes

There isn't a hard cap, but there is a soft one.

Additional movespeed beyond a certain point gives diminishing returns.

http://leagueoflegends.wikia.com/wiki/Movement_speed

ratcharmerFeb 18, 20141 votes

I think the justification for removing the AP buff was that you'd get weird glitches if the skill giving you extra AP also scaled up based on your AP.

MandaariFeb 18, 20141 votes

I doubt that's the case. Vlad's passive would have a similar problem and they made that work.