Path of Champions Guide: The Fae Sorceress (Lulu)

The Fae Sorceress Path of Champions Guide

Hey all, it’s Trevor “Shugo” Yung and today I’m here to escort you through Path of Champions: The Fae Sorceress!

We’re gearing up with Vi to challenge Poppy and Lulu!

I’ll be going through this adventure with a Reputation Rank 2 Vi. This is fresh after the Piltover story playthrough, so the only usable perk is the +1|+1 from Studded Leather.

Your experience will vary depending on your champion, but this should serve as a reasonable baseline to compare to.

When it comes to PoC, the choices and possibilities are endless. One run can be completely different from the next, and your experience will differ from mine.

That being said, there are some strategies we can use to prepare us along the way. These PvE bosses can be tricky and often lead us in a direction far different from the champion’s normal trajectory. It’s good to scout out their unique abilities before you begin your run so you can build accordingly. Let’s begin!

For more advanced advice that applies to all champion runs, check out our 10 Path of Champions tips.

Adventure Preparation

The first venture through Ionia is fairly tame as far as overall rule changes. There are no additional enemy perks, so we won’t have to tread too far off-trail.

Future adventures will offer even greater challenges that make deckbuilding more complicated. However, this time around is pretty straightforward. Just don’t mistake straightforward for easy!

Poppy

Round Start: Grant the Foe’s strongest ally +1|+1 for each of their other allies.

Poppy’s ability is built around buffing units and scales depending on the number of units on her side of the board. Just like the champion herself, our best bet is to try and keep the board as clear as possible. Thankfully the AI isn’t afraid to attack, so we can use that opportunity to block and trade efficiently.

Preparation

Prioritize drafting cheap units with efficient stats to ensure you don’t fall far behind. Cheap removal spells are a bonus if you find them!

Lulu

Round Start: Transform the Player’s strongest follower into a 1|1 Squirrel and Silence it this round.

Lulu bullies those who rely heavily on powerful followers. Since the strongest follower is transformed at the start of each round, it’s better to “go wide” than “go tall”. However, if you read carefully, this ability only affects followers. Take advantage of the fine print and let your champions do the work!

Preparation

Don’t overinvest items onto a single follower, unless you’re able to consistently summon multiples. Gear up a champion and you’ll dance around freely!

Note: There’s more detailed info on the bosses as we approach them.

Starting we’ve been given three Common powers. And honestly, none of these are great. Against Poppy and Lulu, we’re going to want to keep the enemy’s board to a minimum. While Enfeebling Strike can weaken units, it doesn’t remove them. Emperor’s Dais works best with heavy aggression or “when you summon” synergy. Not the best fit either. Crush is a fair option overall. While Overwhelm isn’t useful on the elusives, it’s a pretty wicked keyword on Vi herself. Crush it is!

Sparring Student: No Ability

There’s nothing worth noting about the first encounter. The AI starts with only 10 health and zero mana gems. Their units will attack poorly and fodder themselves into yours. Easy!

Yuck. Two of these cards are effectively unplayable, and the other isn’t great. At least Trueshot Barrage has a chance to bail us out of some specific board states. But I’d happily pass on this one.

Statwise, these three champion bundles aren’t great. The scouts are mediocre at best but have poor stats for Demacia units. Thresh requires desirable slay fodder or is otherwise awkward. Zoe however is quite reasonable.

Zoe gives us free value, and Spacey Sketcher essentially mulligans away any awful cards we’d normally be stuck with. Bonus points for Sleepy Trouble Bubble. While normally undesirable, it can Stun and remove Poppy in a pinch!

Fae Bladetwirler

Round Start: Stun the player’s weakest unit.

Fae Bladetwirler can be a rather scary opponent, especially in your second encounter! You will constantly have your weakest unit stunned and be down one attacker/blocker each round. This is stronger than Lulu’s ability in most cases as it can affect champions, and overall make it challenging to block the ever-growing quick attackers. If you decide to take on this node, be sure you can go wide enough to minimize the impact of the stuns.

Puffcap Pup

Round Start: Plant a Poison Puffcap on a random card in the Player’s deck.

Puffcap Pup isn’t difficult but can be mildly annoying. Due to the added Puffcaps each round, you’re almost guaranteed to take at least a couple of points of damage. Not a big deal in the long run, but it’s worth mentioning.

I opted for the Puffcap Pup simply for the Event node. The Healer isn’t typically needed at this point, especially without access to the “cut cards” reputation perk.

Efficiency is the game plan so Jayce is an easy pick here. As a bonus, we get to start with him as an extra card every game; provided that we don’t draw him in our mulligan. The other two cards are too slow to be worth considering.

Alright! Now that’s a lucky find! These three reroll tokens will come in handy as we move throughout the map.

It’s usually best to prioritize these on Item Shops to get a more consistent improvement. However, it can also be great to find a better power or avoid selecting one of three terrible card additions.

Kelp Maidens

Round Start: A random card in the Player’s hand costs 2 more this round.

Oh man, the developers must’ve had fun making this one. Kelp Maidens is loaded with Pranks and will spam them to no end, then troll you even more by making you discard your lowest cost cards with Tricksy Tentacles.

Be prepared to have a ton of unplayable cards, because this Round Start ability is nasty! If you’ve got a card worth playing, play it. Nothing’s worth saving because it’ll be pranked to oblivion if you wait too long. Overall Kelp Maidens are mostly just a nuisance. Just be careful you don’t fall behind early or you may be in trouble.

Note: Did you choose a different path? Here’s the other encounter!

Herald of Spring

When one of the Foe’s allies is supported, grant it +1|+0.

Herald of Spring is your classic Ionian Support deck that’s loaded with poor stats and clunky followers. It’s essentially the entry-level version of Poppy and Lulu, so it won’t take much to match and take over the board.

However, one notable trick to watch out for is Rush. The AI is notorious for making poor attacks, but if you aren’t aware of this underplayed combat trick you could get blown out pretty badly. Fae Guide can also make an appearance, so be sure you can handle an Elusive.

Healing always has a home when playing Path of Champions. If you’re aiming for an S Rank Skill, you’ll need it. Guiding Touch is a solid choice alone, but stacked with the elixir it becomes a two mana, draw two, heal two. Bonus synergy with Astute Academic. Sign me up!

Since the early game is so important for this adventure I’d rather focus on powering Zoe over Jayce or Vi. Pickaxe is pretty solid, but the greed in me decided to use a reroll.

Looks like it was worth it. Focusing Crystal can make Zoe get out of hand fast and works well with the Guiding Touch I just picked up. We’ve also got Poro Cannon which enables this to pop off early. Bonus synergy with Chump Whump.

Nothing of real interest here. I’m comfortable with where we are now so I’m happy to stock up another reroll token and move on.

Miniboss

Poppy

Round Start: Grant the Foe’s strongest ally +1|+1 for each of their other allies.

Alright, quick recap, we must keep Poppy’s side of the board to a minimum. Don’t allow her to keep units alive. Take trades whenever possible.

Poppy likes to open with Yordle Squire. The notable card here is Tiny Shield as it will grant a +1 health buff to make it harder to remove Poppy. So long as you can match Poppy on board you shouldn’t run into much trouble. It’s important to have a 2-drop or 3-drop with at least three power so you can deal with Stone Stackers.

If you survive the first five turns, all you’ve got left to deal with is her Yordle Rangers. Again, make sure these are dealt with before they become unkillable. Lastly, watch out for Mega Inferno Bomb as it can wipe your board if you’re not prepared for it.

Vi’s deck lacks 2-drops outside of Boomcrew Rookie and Veteran Investigator. Since the recurring theme is early tempo, Solari Shieldbearer is a great fit and allows me to save onto my rerolls.

Counterfeit Production is rather hilarious with our Focusing Crystal-equipped Zoe, but it’s not worth diluting our deck with duplicate cards. Raiding Party is quite powerful when combined with inherent Nexus pings or hyper aggression, but not the best fit here.

Even though other decks can take better advantage of it, Domination is always a solid choice to give us more combat opportunities. We could reroll, but Domination is good enough that I’m happy to save my reroll tokens for later.

Swole Squirrel

ALL units have “Strike: Double my Power.”

If you’re aiming for a good speed rank, this is probably the best node to choose. Doubling your power upon every strike is just downright silly. Jam your 1-drops and 2-drops and you’ll be miles ahead from the get-go. Gotta go fast!

Twisted Catalyzer

Round Start: The Foe creates a Darkness in hand if it doesn’t already have one.

If you’ve been following the plan of building for tempo, Twisted Catalyzer is a breeze. An unempowered Darkness is slow, clunky, and nonthreatening. It won’t take much to run over their poor-statted units and end the game. However, just be mindful of letting this one drag out longer than it should. The enemy has access to essentially infinite removal, so don’t give them a chance to use it!

• Once again, I followed the path opposite to the Healer to gain as much potential value from the nodes.

Item rewards can be quite powerful when they are bolstering cards already within your deck. However, none of these are very appealing. I’ve got three rerolls, so let’s try this again!

Well then… It looks like the game wants me to have Golden Crushbot. Yeah, I’m gonna have to pass on this one too. Doubling Dice is cute with Trueshot Barrage, but as I mentioned earlier, I’m better off not drawing it in the first place.

Iceborn Gauntlet is a solid item, but would honestly be better off on another unit. This draft has me wanting to play Zoe on turn one, so this won’t likely be relevant. That being said, it increases my odds of drawing Zoe, so I’m picking it anyway!

All three powers have the potential to do some silly combos in the right build, but one stands out as the clear favorite here. Sorcery will help fuel Zoe’s Supercool Starcharts and let us be even more spammy with our spells to build up our Focusing Crystal triggers.

More mediocre cards and I’m too low on gold to justify a reroll. Some epic rewards are right around the corner before Lulu, so I’ll just take a reroll token and move on!

Greenglade Caretaker

When ANY player summons a unit, give it Barrier.

Barrier is an annoying keyword, especially in large quantities. It’s a good thing this perk isn’t one-sided or else we’d be in trouble. Develop your units on defensive turns so you can open-attack on attacking turns.

We don’t want to play something only to have the AI drop a unit with a free barrier. On the flip side, the AI will often develop, so take advantage of all the free blocks.

Mirror Mage

Game Start

ALL players summon a Mirror Mage.

The thought of a turn one Mirror Mage could be both exciting and horrifying. But don’t worry, the AI doesn’t take it too extreme. Do be prepared for some early Elusive Poros because Poro Cannon’s created Poros double up and flood the board fast.

Fortunately for us, the AI is happy to block and trade off their Mirror Mage, so the madness will only continue for so long. If you manage to have your way to take advantage of Mirror Mage, this will be a breeze.

• Both path rewards are solid, so this time the decision was deck-based. I’ve got both Zoe and Poro Cannon of my own, so if I draw them, I’ll get my own crazy value!

SpellShield for our unstoppable Zoe? Yes, please!

We’re at a pretty solid point already. Unless we find something really good, I’d rather skip the addition to maintain higher odds at drawing our best cards. Not a bad item for Astute Academic, but I’d rather not have more copies in my deck.

YES! ANOTHER GOLDEN CRUSHBOT! Yeah no, not happening. 🙂

Nothing of value here, but that’s okay. We’re more than set for our final challenge!

Final Boss

Lulu

Round Start: Transform the Player’s strongest follower into a 1|1 Squirrel and Silence it this round.

Alright, this is it. Remember, the best way to take advantage of Lulu is to prioritize champions instead of followers. This effectively nullifies her ability and greatly minimizes her as a threat.

Lulu, like Poppy, is at her strongest when she can attack. The Support mechanic relies on this, and if enabled, can lead to some scary board states. Young Witch can be problematic if you lack answers, so either save removal or have an elusive that can block her.

Utilize your champions to do most of the heavy lifting. There’s a good chance you’ll have at least one that’s geared up. Challengers help a lot to deny Lulu’s Support attacks. It’s important to stay ahead in terms of stats.

If you do need to rely on followers, be sure to account for which unit will be transformed each round. Avoid playing anything big and expensive as it will effectively be a useless 1|1 except on the round you play it. It’s better to go wider than play a follower on-curve, as typically speaking, that unit will be nullified completely next round.

Conclusion

And that’s a wrap! Not a bad run all things considered. I’d say as far as RNG goes we rolled pretty average. There’s definitely some power, but nothing over the top busted combo-wise.

You gotta work with what you get and make the most of it. If it doesn’t work out, start-up another round! The possibilities of Path of Champions are endless!

Shugo’s Productivity Thought of the Day

We spend the majority of our time caught up in the whirlwind of life. So much so, that our own thoughts get lost in the storm.

Give yourself the chance to free your mind. Whether it’s talking to a friend, journaling, or simply stopping to breathe. That moment is important. Refresh and reset.

If you enjoyed this guide, check out our past and future Path of Champions guides.