Many times throughout League’s history, AP Lulu has been a proper mid pick and not just an off-meta shenanigan. And even though full AP Lulu isn’t as common nowadays, it’s still a powerful build worth trying.
Lulu’s abilities all scale with ability power but the ratios aren’t super high. She’s particularly strong during the laning phase with good power spikes in the mid game.
However, the real value of playing full AP Lulu is having really strong defensive abilities, E and R. With more AP, Lulu can cast bigger shields, and her ultimate grants more bonus health.
My AP Lulu build focuses on more damage through on-hit magic effects to solve Lulu’s late game damage deficiencies.
The playstyle involves more auto-attacking than it’s usual for this champion, but it’s also quite rewarding.
Anyway, check it out!
AP Lulu – Runes
- Summon Aery
- Manaflow Band
- Transcendence
- Scorch
- Magical Footwear
- Biscuit Delivery
The rune page for AP Lulu is almost identical to that of AP Karma and AP Soraka. All 3 of these support champions are extremely good at bullying opponents during the laning phase with early game runes such as these ones.
For starters, Summon Aery deals extra damage each time you hit an enemy with an ability. But it also grants you extra shields when you use Lulu’s W, E, or R.
The value of the keystone is huge on this champion, so make sure you take it in 99% of the matches.
Manaflow Band is an excellent rune for increasing your maximum mana and mana regeneration.
And it can be easily stacked by damaging enemy champions with abilities each time the rune is off cooldown (you can track it above the UI).
Transcendence is essentially a free source of bonus ability haste. Cooldown reduction is really important for AP Lulu because she doesn’t have too much range and needs to have her E + Q combo available in order to deal damage.
On the other hand, Scorch is simply fantastic for burning extra health from your opponent’s HP bar during the laning phase. It has a short cooldown and its damage is decent.
From the secondary runes, Magical Footwear from Inspiration is the first one to take. This rune gives you free boots after 12 minutes (or sooner if you have champion takedowns).
But sometimes you can swap it for a free Stopwatch, especially against assassins like Zed.
And the last rune to pick up is Biscuit Delivery. It’s another lane-focused rune that allows you to regenerate health and mana so you can keep bullying your opponent early on.
Read Also: AP Jinx Build Guide
AP Lulu – Items
- Luden’s Tempest
- Nashor’s Tooth
- Lich Bane
- Rabadon’s Deathcap
- Void Staff
- Ionian Boots of Lucidity
As I mentioned above, this AP Lulu build focuses on auto-attacking as well as using your abilities.
Starting with the mythic, Luden’s Tempest is the best choice overall. Besides the key stats, it also allows you to deal extra damage when you first hit an enemy with an ability.
It boosts your burst damage and even adds extra magic penetration for each item you have.
But Nashor’s Tooth is really the must-have item here. It gives you a lot of bonus AP and makes it so each of your basic attacks deals on-hit magic damage.
The item gives you attack speed as well so after your E + Q combo you can focus on auto-attacking for dealing damage.
The item that synergizes super well with Nashor’s Tooth in LoL is Lich Bane. It’s another on-hit magic effect that activates after you use an ability. Lich Bane’s damage can get really nasty because it also scales with your total AP.
Nashor’s Tooth and Lich Bane give Lulu a machine-gun-like playstyle where she decimates all enemies that come in her range.
It’s a really powerful playstyle of an AP carry and you can even improve with some of the optional items you see on the image.
But in general, Rabadon’s Deathcap will always be a good way to spend your gold. It massively boosts your AP and doubles the effectiveness of your abilities.
Void Staff is mostly here to help you take down tanks in League of Legends. It adds magic penetration to your damage that directly increases your damage overall.
As for boots, the best ones for AP Lulu are Ionian Boots of Lucidity. You can get them early on and enjoy the fantastic cooldown reduction all throughout the game.
Read Also: Full AP Nami Build Guide
Situational and Optional Items for AP Lulu
Depending on which trajectory you want to follow with AP Lulu, there are different optional items you can go for.
As I mentioned above, the on-hit AP Lulu is the best one for actually carrying games. Items like Guinsoo’s Rageblade and Runaan’s Hurricane will help you be more effective than your ADC, so make sure to try them out.
But items like Banshee’s Veil and Zhonya’s Hourglass can also be helpful, especially against fed opponents. So, build accordingly!
Skill Order and Summoner’s Spells
As you can guess, the skill order for AP Lulu goes like this: Q > E > W. Lulu’s Q is the strongest spell early on and is a great tool for poking. Next is your E because it’s a point-click damaging spell and a shield.
But here’s a level-by-level skill order for AP Lulu to see how you should go about it.
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 |
| Q | Q | Q | Q | Q | |||||||||||||
| W | W | W | W | W | |||||||||||||
| E | E | E | E | E | |||||||||||||
| R | R | R |
When picking Summoner’s Spells for AP Lulu, it’s important to consider your lane opponent and analyze what you’ll be able or won’t be able to do to them.
For example, if you know you can 1v1 Yone early on, go for Flash + Ignite. But if you’re up against a Zed and you fear his level 6 all-in, go for Flash + Exhaust.
Those two combinations are the go-to for AP Lulu.
Read Also: Full AP Janna Build Guide
General Tips for Playing AP Lulu
Be Strategic When Using Lulu’s W and E
Even though Lulu isn’t the most mechanically complex champion in League of Legends, she still has a unique kit. And because of the fact that her W and E can be used offensively or defensively, there’s room for mistakes.
If you’ve ever tried playing Lulu, you’ve probably wondered whether you should use her W to speed yourself or to polymorph the enemy champion.
But it’s even more important when playing AP Lulu because almost half of your damage comes from your E button, the same button that you for shielding yourself.
And so, you need to be very strategic about the way you’re going to cast your W and E, especially in the early game when the cooldowns are high.
For example, if you’re playing against Xerath and you need the movement speed buff from the W to reach him, then casting that way is fine.
But if you’re against Yone whom you can always auto-attack, it’s clever to save your W for when he attacks you back.
On the other hand, if you’re full HP and you’re looking to burst a champion, casting Lulu’s E offensively is the natural thing to do.
But if you’re struggling to survive, giving yourself a shield is sometimes more valuable than doing extra damage.
Focus on Being Aggressive in the Early Game
As I mentioned above, Lulu is really relentless during the laning phase. She can poke and trade favorably in most matchups. And you need to abuse this power to create an advantage for later on.
With Lulu, your job is to make the laning phase as hard as possible for the enemy by constantly poking them with Q or E + Q.
You have your movement speed or shield to sometimes negate incoming damage and win most trades.
If you’re up against an opponent that’s playing safely and you can’t 1v1, it’s a good strategy to roam with your jungler and aid them with damage or shielding. But overall, focus on playing aggressively in lane.
Read Also: Full AP Leona Build Guide
Learn to Auto-attack and Kite like an ADC
In the late game, the playstyle of AP Lulu usually shifts to auto-attacking. And so, if you aren’t an ADC main, you might have trouble relying on your basic attacks to do most of the work.
Luckily, this is all practice and you can become good at it. My advice is to build more on-hit items on AP Lulu and play as a machine gun more often.
Lulu is a fantastic champion because she can kite extremely well thanks to her W, E, and R. All of these spells help you absorb and avoid damage, so use them well in teamfights.
Conclusion
AP Lulu can be your pocket counter to many mid lane picks. I already mentioned that she’s particularly good against Yone and Zed, but that’s also true for most melee mid laners.
With the build above, you can keep high DPS throughout the game and make Lulu’s AP scalings bearable.
That said, good luck and have fun!
