[2.0.0] Ultimate Lulu Guide - by Excoundrel

GAME START

So we ALWAYS start with Boots of Speed . By the first dragon you want to have a usable item and one of the most cost-efficient items in the game is the [Locket Enchant] for boots. You only need 1000 gold from when the game starts to finish [Locket Enchant] and it's usually going to be the first thing you buy when you head back to base. This is important as it gives us an item that has team-wide impact for the first dragon, and it handily helps negate damage from Kennen who is currently present in almost every game.

CORE ITEMS

Your first item will be dependent on the ADC you are paired with;

If you are with an attack-speed dependent ADC such as Jinx , Vayne , [kaisa] or even Miss Fortune you will want to pick up Ardent Censer as your first tier 3 item. This gives your ADC a significant boost in their DPS output. In general, I go Ardent first when I'm paired with every single ADC with the exception of Jhin . Even Draven benefits from an Ardent Censer so I will usually keep this build path for most ADC pairings.

When I am paired with Jhin I usually skip Ardent altogether and pick up Harmonic Echo as my first item. This is because Attack Speed is not as effective on Jhin, especially early game. I may consider an Ardent Censer later into the game.

Otherwise, my standard build will always be Ardent Censer -> Harmonic Echo -> Athene's Unholy Grail .

LATE GAME

This is situational, Lulu gets a lot of utility with AP scaling and therefore I often go Rabadon's Deathcap as the AP increase boosts the health gain from [lulu:ult], her shield value on Help, Pix! , Pix's damage from Pix, Faerie Companion and the movement speed boost that Whimsy provides. I almost never get to finish Deathcap in the majority of games that I play but even a Needlessly Large Rod will help boost Lulu's utility output significantly.

I don't often pick up things like Protector's Vow or Zeke's Convergence mostly because Lulu has such a low base HP value that she doesn't make use of these items particularly well. Zeke's is never usually a good idea as you need to be in the middle of the enemy team for this to be effective and you usually want to be close to or behind your ADC. Protectors vow is a better choice for a situational defensive item as you are often shadowing your ADC and the extra resistances can be of use.

I have seen some high elo Lulu's legitimately go Guardian Angel because the item is still really good. I've never personally picked it up but if you are being focused at the beginning of the fight by an assassin and you can't cast any spells to buff your ADC then you can consider this or a [stasis enchant] to help keep you safer in teamfight situations.