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Choose Champion Build:
- Standard
- Item overview
Recommended Items
Runes: Standard
+10% Attack Speed
+9 Adaptive (5.4 AD or 9 AP)
+10% Tenacity/Slow Resist
Spells:
Flash
Ignite
Items
Ability Order
Iceborn Subjugation (PASSIVE)
Lissandra Passive Ability
Threats & Synergies
Caitlyn
Not in lane, in general [1] She will place traps beneath selfult/zhonyas and then hit a 1k crit in your face. [2] She will E away from your E and then hit a 1k crit in your face. [3] Either make sure she dies when you dive, or don't dive at all.
Hecarim
[JG] AD diving jungler. Mostly farms early on (but can gank too). Is a pleasure to teamfight with.
Hecarim
[JG] AD diving jungler. Mostly farms early on (but can gank too). Is a pleasure to teamfight with.
Unfortunately my times of being a new player are long past, if there's anything in the guide that confuses you, you have questions or you think I'm going too fast. Please comment! Feedback is key to improving this guide.
This guide will cover anything, from runes and items to combo's and gameplay. Because there are many levels of detail, I decided to split the guide in two pieces.
Whether you are looking to learn Lissandra, whether you are a seasoned Lissandra player or someone who is just trying to find out whether Lissandra is an interesting champion to play, I got your back!
About me |
In a nutshell, Lissandra is a weak laner. However, if the enemy gives you freedom or you manage to create some yourself, you can get some pretty good roams. Past the laning phase she starts to show her true self, where she excels in skirmishes and making picks. Once she gets a few items she transforms in a teamfight menace due to her AoE damage and CC.
One thing that stands out to me is her agency. Where other champions, mage or assassin, have to pick their moment very carefully, you can decide it will happen now. Her CC and AoE in combination with Glacial Path can easily lead to victory by your hand or demise...
Despite this, Lissandra is definitely not a flashy champ. Although she is very capable of pulling off highlight plays (most notable massive AoE combo's in teamfights), they are not what defines her. You'll find people accusing you of being a "press R champ" or "your jungler ganks so you win champ". This game isn't some honorable duel, it's dirty and unfair. It is often not possible to out-mechanic other champions as Lissandra and therefore she finds other ways...
Finally, be aware of her conflicting identities. She likes to fight up close, like Vladimir and Swain, but she doesn't have the survivability they do. She has glimpses of zone control, but doesn't have quite the damage or range as traditional control mages. And last but not least, she is very skewed towards burst damage, but fails to reach the same heights as champions like Syndra and Annie. Lissandra has a bit of everything, but excels at none.
Interested? The cold, bitter touch of true ice beckons you to continue reading...
Pros | ||
❄ | Good Teamfighter | |
❅ | Lots of CC | |
❄ | Semi-Mobile | |
❅ | Easy to pick up | |
❄ | Versatile |
Cons | ||
❄ | Low Range | |
❅ | Weak Early | |
❄ | Not a 1v9 champ | |
❅ | High Cooldowns | |
❄ | Telegraphed engage |
She also pays dearly for her teamfighting prowess by having a rather bad early game. Not only because of her cooldowns, also her base damage is low. Most of her damage comes from her % AP scalings, which won't be useful until you have a few items...
1.
| Your team picked multiple AP champs already (2+). Enemies will itemize MR sooner, which makes your all-in power significantly weaker. | |
2.
| The enemy team has multiple tanks/enchanters. It can be quite difficult to play against these comps as they counter what Lissandra does. It's still playable but it requires you to play different than usual. |
1.
| Your team lacks CC. Lissandra has a lot of CC and can be a good pick if your team doesn't have a lot of (reliable) CC at their disposal. Please note that she is not a replacement for a tank. | |
2.
| Against short ranged teams. Especially ones with assassins. Due to Lissandra's CC and AoE damage it is hard to dive on her. |
If you're looking for more in-depth tips & tricks >>go here<<!
Official description
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Official description
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Official description
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Remember this: better get a lil too close to the enemy than not hitting the enemy at all.
Official description
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Official description
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Disguised as 'press R to win', but it is actually much more than that!
Use Hotkeys to Selfult!
Skill sequence |
Summoner spells |
Runes |
Keystone & minor runes |
Taste of Blood gives some extra sustain throughout the laning phase. Although both other options are viable, this one simply is the most reliable.
Eyeball Collection just gives you some raw AP. Considering you'll pick up plenty of kills/assists you should be able to stack it quite reliably. If you consistently ward then Ghost Poro is also an option.
Just try them all a couple of games. You'll figure out which one(s) you like the most!
If you're completely new and just trying to get the hang of Lissandra: stick with the same rune page for a bunch of games. Switching all the time won't help with learning the basics.
Standard secondary tree |
If you're a newer player I recommend Manaflow Band since Lissandra is quite a mana-hungry champion. But if you're comfortable with managing mana, then Gathering Storm is a very decent rune, especially in gold and below as games tend to drag on.
Alternative secondary tree |
Nonetheless, the must-take rune of this tree is definitely Biscuit Delivery. They help with mana (sort of like Manaflow Band), especially when you're about to run out. The cookies also make Inspiration a decent choice versus harder ranged matchups as they'll give you extra (health) sustain as well. If you take Inspiration because of this reason, you could also take Cosmic Insight instead of Time Warp Tonic. This rune gives you added utility by lowering both your items' and Flash cooldown, which has more impact later in the game compared to TWT.
Alternatives |
The minor runes to go along with it are Manaflow Band, Transcendence and Gathering Storm. For the secondary tree there are three things you can pick: Resolve for extra defenses which can help a great deal when jumping into things (you can also run Resolve with Electrocute). This is by far the most 'beginner friendly' page as the extra defenses help with not dying while you get used to Lissandra's close-ranged nature. Inspiration or Domination, both of which give lane sustain ( Biscuit Delivery, Taste of Blood), but give different additional benefits (e.g. Hunter runes vs Cosmic Insight).
Lastly, here's a general overview of all the minor runes I consider to (not) be viable on Lissandra:
In the spoiler below there is an explanation on some of the runes. I won't repeat things I said above and if I don't mention a rune at all, it means that it doesn't synergize with Lissandra at all. I do not give a concise summary of take X or take Y. The choice depends on your playstyle, just as Riot intended it to be...
Explanation
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Rune shards |
Items |
Starting items |
Then there's also Corrupting Potion. The major advantage of Corrupting over Doran's is that it gives more mana sustain + burn on abilities/autoattacks. This makes it ideal if you were to lane aggressively and burn through your mana rather quickly. This is pretty much only possible in melee (assassin) matchups. Think of things like Yone, Fizz, Katarina and Akali. To increase combat power you can combine it with Biscuit Delivery and Time Warp Tonic. The 'burst' healing can save your life in close fights.
All that being said, playing this aggressive is a personal choice. It could help create a lead, but at the same time, playing even against these assassins means that you're winning. That's why I myself prefer to stick with Doran's Ring and play the game a bit slower.
First base |
The dream base |
Your actual base |
If you're struggling in a matchup, Null-Magic Mantle or Cloth Armor give you some additional defenses which can help you survive.
Whatever you end up buying on a base, make sure to buy (health) sustain as well! This means a Refillable Potion or Health Potion if you don't have enough gold. If you still have gold left, you should buy a Control Ward as well.
Mythics |
Everfrost is the 'beginner friendly' mythic in my eyes. It offers an active that allows you to chain CC enemies, or keep them off you in case you mess up. It is also the only mana mythic that offers health, which makes making mistakes a bit more forgivable. It does not give as much raw combat power as the other two mythics however. Nonetheless, it is a great buy when you want to shut down a specific (mobile) member of the enemy team and one (or more) of your teammates have the potential to carry.
Liandry's Torment is a good buy if the enemy team has multiple bruisers and tanks. Although you won't be killing them as quickly as squishies in other games, the bonus damage and burn will help a ton. It takes time to get going though, you'll need 3+ items to feel powerful. Also mind that is synergizes well with Morellonomicon since the burn reapplies the passive!
Legendaries |
Utility |
Damage |
Tanky |
Other items |
Builds and allies |
If you have a lot of allies that are building tank/defensive items, try going into pure damage yourself. Unless your team is significantly ahead, everyone building defenses might lead to a lack of damage. This also applies to grievous wounds: if your team already has 3-4 people building it, it makes no sense to also get it yourself.
Last but not least, if you aren't doing too hot (you're feeding), but your team is doing well. Focus on 'utility' options, like Morellonomicon, Zhonya's Hourglass or even a Abyssal Mask. It is not really your job to do damage, but to stick with your teammates so that they can.
Laning phase |
Early laning phase |
Abilities |
Especially in the early laning phase, you cannot spam Ice Shard. You'll run out of mana in no time. Use autoattacks to pick up CS, most of the trading will be done with autoattacks as well.
Basic gameplan |
Another example
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Versus ranged matchups the gameplan isn't so straightforward. A lot of mages struggle with farming under their tower ( Vladimir, Lux, Veigar, etc) so trying to push them in can be a good idea. Also, pushing an enemy to their tower forces them to use spells to farm, so they can't use them to poke you. On the other hand, pushing does make you vulnerable to ganks. Although Glacial Path exists, you can still take a sizeable amount of damage if a jungler decides to gank.
The main objective is to farm, you can try to push the wave before scuttle spawns so you can accompany/help your jungler. When you are level 5 you can push the wave into the enemy, base and get fresh items so you can look for a kill/roam once you hit 6.
Trading with Lissandra |
Either trade when the enemy goes for CS or when one/multiple of their abilities are down. Also be careful around minions, avoid autoattacking the enemy when you're close to the ranged creeps/the enemy minion wave is very big.
The importance of autoattacks |
In the example above, as soon as the Sylas tries to go onto me all my minions start hitting him. This can also do loads of damage and help you win trades (or lose them, if the enemy cannon/ranged creeps start hitting you). Be aware of this, stay near your minions or be careful when you do not have a lot of them around you.
Late laning phase |
If your own jungler ganks your lane, Glacial Path forward and either use Ring of Frost or Frozen Tomb. Then use the other CC ability right before the CC effect of the former expires. The enemy laner either dies or has to burn all their summoners. If your jungler has any kind of CC you can also try to play around that.
In some matchups you'll find that you get completely outmatched or fall behind. In that case, just try to farm and avoid fighting with your opponent. If you can walk up to the wave & hit it, do so. But if that isn't possible, wait for the wave to come to you.
You can also look to push the wave and roam. If there isn't anywhere to roam to, just sit out of vision or place a ward. If your opponent roams, only follow if you have vision and you're very close behind them. If you are very far behind them you won't be able to help much, just stay mid, push the wave & try to get a plate.
Midgame |
Whether you want to fight or not depends on your ultimate and objectives: you do not want to fight when Frozen Tomb is on cooldown and you do not want to use it right before objectives spawn (because then fighting over that objective becomes pretty hard).
You should always be on the lookout for picks: enemies that run around alone and end up within your range. If you can oneshot the enemy, you can look to do this on your own. But if you cannot you should look to stay near some of your allies so they can follow up.
Once the botlane tower falls the game moves into the phase called the midgame. Your ADC might move to midlane and farm over there. You should vacate the empty lane to avoid sharing farm. If there is a lot of fighting happening for no reason, it is often better to stick with your team. Although having less farm sucks, if you aren't present the game can easily swing out of control if your team loses these fights.
In skirmishes you should look to pick off important targets/burst enemies. For example if there is a fight over the drake I will be trying to single out the enemy jungler. Of course if the enemy ADC or midlane are out of position I can turn onto them as well.
Teamfighting |
I play a fair bit of ARAM and also run into a fair amount of Lissandra's there. The main issues I see is that they either going in too eagerly (like a tank/engage) or being too slow when jumping in (enemies can run away/get CCed and die). It is extremely easy for you to jump into the enemy team, but a lot of the time this will lead to your doom. Although Lissandra is not a mechanical champion, you need to execute combo's at high speed. If you are too slow either the enemies get away or you get CCed and die.
Comboing in teamfights |
This combo is the 'standard' whenever you dive in the middle of the enemy team. And it is very important to execute it quickly. You need to limit the time window where you are vulnerable. It is necessary to understand where the damage of this combo comes from: about 1/3th is from Ice Shard, 1/3th is from Frozen Tomb and the last 1/3th is from Ring of Frost + Electrocute. In some fights throwing Ice Shard can be dangerous due to CC (as it's cast time increases the window of vulnerability), however not using it means you'll miss out on a lot of damage. I personally always throw Ice Shard as not throwing it means that there is no point in diving in the first place.
Always use hotkeys to selfult. It's faster and it's more consistent. You can either use ALT + R or set another keybind in the settings.
When you can't dive |
Fight example
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There is not really a set way of using your abilities in these types of fights. Most of the time you spam Ice Shard, use Ring of Frost to CC divers/frontline. Hold Frozen Tomb for defining moments, to either make sure an enemy dies, to prevent the enemy team from running into your team or to protect yourself.
Fight example
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Fight example
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Boom! |
Passive Explosion Damage
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Last but not least, if you're certain that a passive explosion will kill an enemy you can walk away (+ mastery emote) to flex on your enemies (if you're into that sort of thing). Warning: this can backfire
Cool Liss players don't look at explosions
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Setting up Thralls |
Of course, only run into directions that won't get you killed. If you're really close to dying and you're being chased by a full HP enemy it might be a better idea to choose the shortest path to safety.
You can also use Frozen Tomb and Zhonya's Hourglass to buy time for the passive to explode. Often when you enter stasis, people will sit around and wait for you to come out (despite your passive sitting right there). This can swing fights in your favor!
Passive + Stasis
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Clip example
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A deceptive range |
Vague attempt on showing Q range
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Interaction with Flash |
This mechanic can also be used to your advantage. Ice Shard - Flash can be used to create more distance when kiting away. However it can also be used for some really fast all-in combo's.
Hitting every single minion |
Maximizing damage |
Gif is under construction :( |
Regardless of whether you are fighting minions or champions, try to hit as many targets as possible. If you need half a second to reposition to hit two people instead of one it is worth it.
Try hitting a Cho'Gath XD
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Instantaneous cast |
This can be used at all points in the game, whether roaming to botlane or in teamfights, as the main teamfight combo makes use of this.
Catching invisible enemies |
The travel speed of the claw almost halves over the duration. Unless you want to surprise enemies it is rarely useful to wait for it to get to it's maximum range (especially since enemies will run away from it).
Dodging skillshots |
Coolest dodge I ever did
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The nexus trick |
Playing around CC |
Some silly trick
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Using it in all-ins |
Tower dive
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Wall jumping |
The jumps I end up using most of the time are the ones around the tribush areas and the ones to/from the drake/baron pits (but not the ones to the red buff). The jumps to the T1 turret are also handy sometimes.
Some clips of difficult jumps
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Avoid lethal damage |
Interrupts dashes |
E - R on dashing enemy
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Towerdiving |
Major damage source |
This is also a major reason why you shouldn't fight without Frozen Tomb unless full build/ridiculously fed.
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Chain CCing |
Once you use your first CC ability, you should time your next on such that it applies the CC just before the bar vanishes (let the CC overlap a little bit, otherwise there might be a small gap where the enemy can use Flash). This is very easy to do with Ring of Frost since it has an instant cast time, but requires some practice with Frozen Tomb and Everfrost due to their cast/travel times.
- Frozen Tomb: Guaranteed mid-range lockdown, stuns
- Everfrost: Long range, no commitment
- Ring of Frost: Instantaneous lockdown
Together with an Ice Shard this can do up to 2.6k(!) damage (Maximum at full build, lvl 18, vs a target with 70MR). This is often enough to delete any ADC/mid laner as long as they do not have extra health/shielding.
Video example
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Instead of Ice Shard you can also use Ring of Frost (but since that ability is instant, it's not an animation cancel). You can also combine those two abilities:
Escape combo
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Alternatives
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Alternative
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Alternatives
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As seen in the clip, it is custom to retreat a bit after casting Ring of Frost. The main reason for this is to reduce the chances of retaliation of the enemy team. This is possible since Frozen Tomb's range is slightly larger. The combo is extremely effective in chokepoints as the enemy team has to run over Frozen Tomb to get to you.
The engage range of this combo is quite high, so should you use it you have to make sure your team is able to follow up. Even if you land a very good combo, if your team is not nearby it might be wasted anyway.
Alternatives
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Items |
The setup is as follows:
- Combo: 2x Ice Shard, 1x Ring of Frost, 1x Frozen Tomb.
- Level: 14
- Runes: Electrocute, Eyeball Collection, Manaflow Band, 1 adaptive
- Damage enhancement passive of Horizon Focus is active.
To make it a fair comparison, we can do two things: either divide the damage by the total gold cost of the build (the higher this number, the more 'gold efficient') this build. Or ''add'' Needlessly Large Rod, Blasting Wand or Amplifying Tome to the builds to sort of even out their costs.
Blasting Wand is added to Void Staff and Amplifying Tome is added to Horizon Focus.
1) Void Staff is insanely good.
2) Horizon Focus is more gold-efficient than Rabadon's Deathcap at 2nd item, but worse after. However, it is less reliable (the damage enhance is not always active) and scales worse. So to phrase it differently: if you think the game will end after the 2nd item, then Horizon Focus > Rabadon's Deathcap and in all other cases Rabadon's Deathcap > Horizon Focus.
I could leave it like this and just claim that Void Staff is OP. However let's look what happens if we buy Ionian Boots of Lucidity instead of Sorcerer's Shoes:
At 38 MR (standard value for a lot of ADCs and mage mids at lvl 16) the difference in damage is about 250-350 for a full combo (Void and Dcap respectively). And at 100 MR the difference is about 300-150 (Void and Dcap respectively). This reinforces my statement that Ionian Boots of Lucidity are there for a supportive playstyle & utility. They are definitely not your boots-to-go for oneshots. It's also a major reason as to why I do not buy defensive boots on Lissandra.
One last graph: Lucidities vs Sorcerer's Shoes
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The champions marked in red are my go-to bans in champ select.
Descriptions (1st column)
Descriptions (2nd column)
Descriptions (3rd column)
Descriptions (4th column)
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Descriptions (1st column)
Descriptions (2nd column)
Descriptions (3rd column)
Descriptions (4th column)
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Notes
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Support synergies |
Laning is perhaps the most important subject of the entire guide. Lane is the basis of all games, it happens in every single one and is therefore the one thing that influences its outcome the most! And to kick it off, let's launch into the first and most basic subject of laning:
Farm is perhaps the most important thing in the game. Farm gives gold, which gives items, which then leads to you doing more damage, having more survivability etc.
This is NOT about getting 10 cspm or that kind of thing. This is about when you miss minions because you mistime autoattacks, because you don't know the damage of your abilities. Like maybe you tried to use Glacial Path, it moved way to slow and then it dealt no damage so you missed the minion anyway. The key word here is practice, but I'll give you a general idea of what you use to CS on Lissandra:
Levels 1 - 4 | ||||
90% of the time | ||||
Sometimes | ||||
Under tower | ||||
Never |
Levels 5 - 9 | ||||
Mostly melee minions | ||||
Most of the time | ||||
To push waves quickly (QWQ) | ||||
Still not used* |
Glacial Path is not used for CS due to it's high cooldown, it's high mana cost, it's slow missile speed, it's low damage and the fact that it is your only escape. Sometimes I see people using it to CS under tower, but I don't consider that to be necessary.
❄ During the levels 1-4 most of the CS is secured with autoattacks
Yes you are playing a mage, no that doesn't mean you shouldn't autoattack. Especially on Lissandra, autoattacks are extremely important. But we'll get to that later. To keep things short: you'll have to practice this. Either by grinding out a lot of games, or using this wonderful thing called "practice tool" and actively trying to get better at CSing.
CSing drills
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1x Tower shot + 1x Ice Shard (level 4+)
1x Tower shot + 1x AA + 1x Ring of Frost (level 3-5)*
1x Tower shot + 1x Ring of Frost (level 6+)
Last hitting under tower often needs some planning, sometimes your own minions will come in and start hitting the enemy minions. Then you might need to use more or less autoattacks/abilities to secure the CS. Ultimately this comes down to lots of practice.
Please note that if you know that if using an ability on a minion will still not end up in you getting a last hit, don't throw the ability at all. I catch myself doing this from time to time (it feels so bad to let the minion just die!). But you're basically throwing your mana in the garbage can...
Lissandra's 'problem' is that she has a lot less tools to trade with compared to other champions. Where Syndra has Dark Sphere, Force of Will and Scatter the Weak to trade, you basically only got Ice Shard. And that ability also costs a LOT of mana, has a fairly high CD and a disappointing range. The solution? Trading smart, dodging skillshots and mindgames.
❄ Harass enemies when they go for a last hit
1.
| Identify which one your minions will die first. | |
2.
| Position so that you can hit the enemy right when they are going to last hit the minion. | |
3.
| Throw harass, since they are in AA animation they can't hit back* | |
4.
| Back off and restart process. |
Here's an example: Syndra get's all the minions low at the same time, so she can grab all of them at once with a Dark Sphere. I do not walk into my minions (otherwise I'd get hit too) and throw an Ice Shard at her right when she autoattacks the last minion. It may not seem like much, but little bits of chip damage like this will help you tremendously.
It is also possible to autoattack the enemy, but this depends on the matchup. You can do this versus most melee champions, and some ranged champs depending on their level and whether their abilities are up.
A few examples where you don't want to autoattack
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If you want to know more about the trading stance, here is the original video I got it from. Although it was made years ago, the concept and ideas remain relevant to this day.
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❄ Look for trades when the enemies' abilities are on cooldown
A lot of people will eat damage and do... nothing. They get scared because of all the damage and will run away. This is NOT good. When the enemy champion dunks their entire kit on you, you'll have to do something in the window where their abilities are on cooldown.
At the start of the clip my Ice Shard is on CD. Since Twisted Fate knows that I cannot trade back he starts to walk forward, my reaction is to back off. I dodge his Wild Cards and my own Ice Shard is coming off CD, so I move back up. He then walks back into me which enables me to use Ring of Frost + Ice Shard and land a few more autoattacks. At this point Twisted Fate took wayy too much damage and has to Flash away.
Wait.
Did you notice that I apparently did 85% of Twisted Fates health with four autoattacks, Ice Shard and Ring of Frost, at level 3?! The truth is, I didn't. My minions did. The major reason why I won this trade is because of my minions.
❄ Minions have massive influence on trades during the early levels
Whenever enemies walk past/next to your ranged creeps you can often win trades (unless you're really low already, then you'll get yourself killed). Even though their champion may be stronger, or if they have more abilities at their disposal. The truth is, your minions are a 'hidden' ability of your own. One that can hurt, a lot, if used correctly. This is also a major reason why you immediately back off after YOU trade on your enemy with autoattacks. If their minions start targeting you. If you stay the minions will murder you!
Especially in melee matchups you can assemble a minion army by pushing very slowly. They can then protect you, because if the enemy melee champions tries to jump on the minions will do massive damage to them.
An excellent example. I almost killed myself at the end trying to autoattack Zed instead of letting my minions finish him off. A matchup specific note: Zed's Death Mark damage depends on how much damage he deals to you during the mark duration. Since he used both Shadow Slash and Razor Shuriken before using it , it didn't deal any meaningful damage. Otherwise I'd Frozen Tomb myself.
1.
| Identify what skillshots your opponent can throw at you. Know which ones are possible to dodge. Be mentally prepared to dodge (eg: after Glacial Path onto an Ahri, immediately sidestep to dodge Charm) | |
2.
| Move. Don't stand still, but don't walk in straight (predictable) paths either. Keep changing directions. | |
3.
| Mindgame your opponent. You can walk in and out of the skillshot range*, dodge in different directions/alternating patterns. | |
4.
| Buy Boots. I'm not joking, these things genuinely help with dodging skillshots. |
Whether you are able to dodge skillshots depends mostly on where you click on your screen. The closer you click to your character, the more likely you are to be able to dodge skillshots as you can easily switch directions.
Ultimately dodging skillshots is something you can and should practice. ARAM is a commonly named practice ground, but there's also an app (https://loldodgegame.com/) where you can practice this kind of thing.
League of Legends is game of mistakes, and the laning phase is no exception. If you end up making a big mistake, you might die for it. If the enemy makes a mistake, you can use one of the all-in combo's to kill them. However the difficulty is that a lot of people don't know what a 'mistake' is. So let's get into a few common ones:
Overstaying |
When you run out of resources (and your opponent does not), then it's time to go base. Yes, you will lose farm and xp for this, but that's better than dying and losing MORE farm and XP.
Your health is the most obvious resource. If you run out, you die and obviously you don't want that to happen. If an opponent does get you low during a trade, try to push the wave when their abilities are on cooldown. | ||
Sustain is basically health, but delayed*. You should check the scoreboard from time to time to check whether and how much sustain your opponent has. | ||
Mana is the last resource. It is often overlooked, but if you run out of mana while playing a mage, you're almost a walking ward. And wards can't fight back... |
Whenever an enemy is in kill range, it's best to wait for them to go for a last hit. The importance of farm and last hits is so ingrained that people are willing to die for it. People greed especially for cannon minions and get themselves killed for it. Avoid falling victim to it yourself...
Wasting important cooldowns |
This is also a prime example of a completely senseless use of an ability. Twisted Fate uses Pick A Card to last hit a minion. However he is full mana anyway and if he just waits half a second he can last hit it with an autoattack.
Disrespecting range advantage |
This doesn't necessarily have to kill them. However just landing a ton of harass will force them into overstaying or getting a bad base.
Disrespecting CC |
When the minion wave is getting low (e.g. one low health melee minion & a bunch of casters) while the enemy is hitting the tower you can Glacial Path forward. Then clear the remaining minions with your abilities and chain CC the enemy. If done correctly, the enemy will be chain-CCed while being hit by the turret.
You can also 'dare' your opponent under the turret if you know you're not able to oneshot the wave. You basically Glacial Path at them, use Ring of Frost + autoattack. If the enemy hits you, you use Frozen Tomb on them and laugh while they die to turret. If they don''t you back off immediately before they can walk out of tower range and hit you.
This is effective especially at low elo. People will be surprised at you popping up and dealing a whole lot of damage to them. It takes some steel nerves or mental preparation to not hit you back.
This also applies to enemies trying to turret dive you or accidentally walking/dashing in its range ( Yasuo's sometimes do this...). Know the turret range and use it to your advantage. The turret is your best friend!
Where do you stand in lane? Although walking around may seem like an innocent activity it can determine whether you win or lose lanes & games. There are a few choices where you can stand in lane, depending on the matchup and the overall game state:
Alternatively, if the enemy champion has skillshots that get blocked by minions, then you should position inside the wave. A great example is Zoe. However there are champions like Lux that have both types of ability. Then you should position outside the wave, but on the opposite side of the lane as them.
On the other hand, if your abilities are on cooldown you should position back. You should also position back if your opponent has an advantage in trades or is flat out stronger than you. A prime example of this is Lucian, he can easily dash forward and land a very onesided trade onto you, so you should position back so that when he does so, he also takes damage from minions which will make it less onesided.
Typically, standing on the opposite side of the lane compared to your opponent is standard. This is way there is more distance between you and your opponent so it's easier to reach the wave without taking harass. Lissandra specifically, Ice Shard gains increased range when hitting targets (=minions). So by positioning on the other side of the lane, you'll ensure there'll be minions you can shatter Ice Shard on.
These two things can contradict each other. Positioning based on vision/jungler is more important (imo) than positioning based on harass/access capabilities. The latter is something people do subconsciously and it is actually a great way of tricking your enemy laner into a jungle gank: when your jungler is coming to your lane, stand on the side your jungler is not on. The enemy will position as far as way from you, which will be closer to your jungler!
1. River bush wards |
2. Pixel brush wards |
3. Ramp wards |
4. Jungle wards |
5. Lane wards |
This is one of the more complex parts of the early game. Essentially this is the study on how minions act and how to manipulate that to your benefits. How can this be useful? Understanding and being able to apply this can give you leads in gold, experience or "time". It can also help you in matchups, whether it be winning ones or losing ones.
IMPORTANT NOTE: The minion wave will be in a "neutral" spot at the start of the game. When this occurs later in the game it is commonly referred to as a "reset".
This rule tells you what the minion wave will do and therefore what you can do with it. Are you behind and is the wave pushing towards you? Let it come, no need to overextend. Is the wave pushing towards the enemy? No way you can setup a freeze without the enemy pushing the wave.
>>You want to roam
>>Your opponent has gone base
>>Your opponent roams
>>Your opponent is freezing
Sometimes it is too dangerous to use all your abilities on the wave. You should always be using Ice Shard and autoattacks. If there is no enemy nearby or the enemy is not able to jump on you then you can use Ring of Frost as well. If the enemy jungler is also not in the area, you can use Glacial Path. A few thresholds that are interesting (if you started Doran's Ring):
Level
| ||
4
| Can clear casters with 2x Ice Shard + AA | |
5
| Can clear casters with 2x Ice Shard | |
7
| Can clear casters with Ice Shard + Ring of Frost | |
9
| Can clear entire wave with Ice Shard + Ring of Frost + Glacial Path + AAs (rarely used, only if basing immediately after) |
You can accomplish the same things with a slow push as with a fast push, however the enemy will not be able to clear the wave as quickly though. Slow pushing also has other advantages:
>>It becomes hard for your enemy to all-in you since you have a large minion wave to back you up.
>>You can look for harass on the enemy once the wave crashes into the turret unless:
1. There is a roaming opportunity
2. It is a ranged matchup or Zed
3. You are low on health (~55%)
>>Slow pushes are usually better than fastpushes unless you need to get out of lane quickly.
It is not hard to create a slowpush against a melee assassin, but it can be almost impossible to do against a mage. The difference between the two is that Lissandra has more waveclear and range than most assassins whereas mages have the same (or more) range and waveclear. This allows them to "thin" the wave, killing minions to prevent the wave from getting too large. After a certain point they'll be able to clear the entire wave in no time.
When the minion wave is slow pushing towards you, play with caution. Avoid positioning forward to trade with your opponent as their massive minion advantage will win them any trade. Position back. Also be careful of ganks, if you die to a gank or an all-in you will lose 2/3 minion waves. You'll instantly lose your lane because of this you will have to play from behind.
When you 1v1 your opponent, try to avoid fights (near the minion wave) where both of you die. If this happens then Iceborn Subjugation might end up damaging the wave slightly, creating a slowpush towards the enemy. This will put you behind as the enemy will have a large minion wave to collect and you will get absolutely nothing.
When you push the wave fast enough for the tower to clear all the minions before the upcoming wave arrives, it is called a "reset". The next wave will then meet in the middle of the lane, like at the start of the game!
When you push too slowly or when a slow push crashes into the turret, the turret will not be able to kill all the minions before the upcoming minion wave arrives. This will delay the new minion wave so the minion waves will not meet in the middle of the lane. Because of the even minion rule, the wave, if left unattended it will start slow pushing to the other side of the lane! This phenomenon is called "bouncing".
Why is this useful? Well, imagine that you crash a slow push, go on a roam and your opponent decides to follow you. Then something happens (a fight, you abandon the roam, w/e) and both of you return to lane. Now you can collect more minions compared to your opponent since the wave was slow pushing towards you, putting you ahead in xp/gold. This is essentially another reason why slow pushing is better than fast pushing.
Freezing will force the enemy laner to overextend for farm and will keep you safe since you will be close to the turret. The downside is that you won't be applying any pressure, leaving your opponent free to roam. It is a great technique to stall and reduce losses when you are behind. However when you are ahead you don't have to freeze and are usually better off impacting the map instead.
Freezing is commonly done against assassins/melee matchups so you can freely poke them whilst making it almost impossible for them to trade with you. Make sure to place lane wards to see where they roam though.
Freezing for a long period of time against non-assassins is almost impossible[/color] since they have more waveclear. You can still freeze for a short time to make them an easy gank target or force them to dump spells on the wave.
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I think roaming is often displayed as this 'easy' thing to do, but in reality it is very complex. Therefore you shouldn't feel bad for not knowing how to/when to roam. View it as something you can improve on over time, not something you immediately should know. In this section I'll be talking about various aspects of roams. and some of my own roams and why they were good or bad. However I will not, and cannot, give you some golden rule for roaming.
1.
| Before going on a roam, ask yourself if you're able to roam at all (are you healthy, do you have Frozen Tomb up?) | |
2.
| Try to think of your roam targets in advance rather than on the fly. This way you can execute the roam quicker and lose less resources for it. | |
3.
| You don't always have to roam. You can also duck out of vision and make the enemy wonder where you are. Or you can run into the enemy jungle to place a ward or even recall and buy items! | |
4.
| Once a roam is finished you can either base or run straight back to lane. If doing the latter, be cautious as the enemy laner may be lying in wait to ambush you. |
1.
| Resources. If you're too low on health and/or mana* roaming is a terrible idea. You might die, putting yourself and your allies behind. It's much better to recall instead. | |
2.
| Cooldowns. Roaming with Frozen Tomb is much better than without. You might not always have to use it, but that's not something you can know in advance. | |
3.
| Pushed the wave. Before roaming you need to push the minions into the enemy tower. Not doing so will result is a huge loss of xp/gold which will offset whatever you can get from the roam. |
An example
|
1.
| Champion picks. Some champions are easier to gank than others due to innate CC. There are also champions that need to get ahead, making ganking them a priority. | |
2.
| State of the lane. How healthy are your allies/enemies. Are they ahead/behind? | |
3.
| State of the wave. If the minions are pushing towards the enemy / they are under their tower roaming there is very unlikely to be a success. | |
4.
| The side your jungler is on. Roaming towards the side your jungler is (going to be) on tends to have a higher success chance as it increases your number advantage. | |
5.
| If the enemies don't have their cooldowns (e.g. Flash) up. Ganking them is much more likely to be a success! |
Champion picks |
To give an example: let's say the toplane matchup is Camille (ally) versus Jayce (enemy).
- Camille has very good gank setup with Hookshot and Hextech Ultimatum
- Jayce doesn't really have an escape, but can use Thundering Blow / Acceleration Gate to create distance/run away.
- Camille loses the matchup early, but if she gets her items she definitely beats Jayce. If Jayce falls behind he's basically useless.
(Allied) toplane picks
|
An example for the botlane: Ezreal Janna (ally) versus Samira Nautilus (enemy).
- The allied gank setup is nonexistent. Janna has Howling Gale, but it's far too unreliable. Ezreal has none.
- Samira doesn't have the greatest of escapes, but her Blade Whirl can block a lot of your damage.
- Samira Nautilus will be looking to get ahead / all-in; whereas Ezreal Janna will look for poke and just farm it out. As long as Samira doesn't get ahead, there won't be a problem.
ADC picks
|
Support picks
|
State of the lane |
The main reason behind is that Lissandra has extremely good setup: you can make up for the CC your allies do not have.
❄ Especially in low elo, people will see roaming as some kind of get-out-of-jail card when their lane goes bad. These are actually the worst types of roams and I try to avoid them.
Botlane: Draven Pyke (allies) versus Varus Nami (enemies). However, your allies are under their tower at 30% HP while the enemies sit comfortably at 80% HP. Although the gank target is good, trying to gank them at that moment is a terrible idea. Even if you gank them, the chances are high that Draven and Pyke will die during the play since they're so low. It's also possible that you die because you essentially have to 1v2, which is something you cannot really do as Lissandra.
This logic also applies to allies that are (several) levels down on their opponents or opponents that are ahead. For example: Mordekaiser (ally; 0/2/0) versus Aatrox (enemy; 2/0/0). If you try to gank this lane the following is extremely likely to happen: Aatrox gets very low, your CC runs out, he presses R and proceeds to 1v2 you. Some toplaners are notorious for 1v2ing when ahead. A couple of them: Aatrox, Sett and Darius. It's also the question whether ganking them will bring your ally back in the game, or if it's better to put your effort elsewhere.
In some cases you can catch the enemy and kill them together with your team. In other cases, the enemy will end up killing your allies and you which is the worst that can happen. Even though you may want to help your allies, you should be aware that sometimes you just aren't able to and you shouldn't make things worse by trying to help them.
Pushing the wave |
1.
| Within the matchup. In some matchups you can push the waves whenever you want. Sometimes it's not possible matchup wise, but the enemy doesn't realize it and lets you do it anyway. | |
2.
| When the opponent recalls there is a time window where you can push the wave freely and go somewhere else. | |
3.
| When the opponent roams you can also push the wave freely. Then it's common to go to the other side of the map, as your enemy will complete their roam before you're able to get there. | |
4.
| After the opponent dies you have time to push the wave. Unfortunately, in most cases you'll have to recall because you have no resources or cooldowns. In some cases, if you still have both up you can look to roam. |
In harder matchups, 2. is the most common way of roaming. Here's an example of a game of mine where I was able to utilize this window:
1.
| Time is everything. Don't dither and go straight where you need to go. Think about whether to 'complete' to roam while walking, not when standing around. If it's not going to work, return to lane. | |
2.
| Choose your path. There are multiple ways to go somewhere, and as Lissandra you got a few champion specific ones too! | |
3.
| The final play |
Roaming paths |
Some paths are safer, other paths are more dangerous. If you do take a path through the enemy jungle, be careful of the enemy jungler. Especially when the enemies in your target lane suddenly disappear, you should abort (and Glacial Path over a wall towards the river). They might be coming towards you to spring a trap!
A succesful use of one of the more dangerous paths:
However, as Lissandra you got this marvelous ability called Glacial Path. With this you can jump over some of the walls around bot/toplane, giving you some extra paths (Yellow indicates where to cast Glacial Path):
The final play |
❄ Try to chain CC the enemy, also take you allies' abilities into account!
There is also a more tricky alternative to gank a lane. In botlane I like to use a 'greedy' combo:
Flash - Ring of Frost is used such that all enemies are rooted, Ice Shard + autoattack is then used on a target of choice, followed by Frozen Tomb on the target that is closest to safety. The enemy you Frozen Tomb isn't going anywhere and the idea is that all other enemies have trouble getting away as well because of the AoE slow. Sometimes this combo can backfire if the enemies have Flash / other dashes up and can result in everyone getting away.
When the roam doesn't work |
❄ If a roam fails you should immediately go back to your lane.
Staying around because "perhaps the roam might work anyway!" is going to cost you an enormous amount of xp/gold. It's not worth it. Go back.
1.
| Teleporting behind enemies. Watch the botlane brushes/rivers for wards. You can also Teleport on minions if the enemies walk past them. | |
2.
| Teleporting back to lane after you and your enemy recalled. By doing so you can freely push the wave and then immediately walk to the target location. | |
3.
| Teleporting back to lane after a roam is another classic. If you have Teleport you can spend more time on a roam without missing too much xp/gold. | |
4.
| Following your opponent roam with Teleport. If this can make a difference then doing so could turn a bad situation in a good one. |
1.
| Follow them | |
2.
| Get plates | |
3.
| Make a play on the other side of the map. This can be roaming to the other sidelane, or teaming up with your jungler to invade/take objectives. |
❄ A lot of people pick option 1, because they feel bad about their opponent roaming and want to make up for it.
Especially in low elo people fall victim to this. Sidelanes will just see an extra enemy champion in their lane and a severe lack of an extra allied champion (and thus become angry). They will often blame you for the enemy roaming toward them. Even if you couldn't do anything about it. A lot of people will then try to compensate, trying to follow even though it's bad to do so.
1.
| You know where the enemy went. Either through wards or logic, if a lane is pushed up then they are gankable. | |
2.
| You are able to take a safe path. Some champions wait in bushes, so they can ambush and kill you in case you try to follow. | |
3.
| You are not too far behind them. This is the major condition. If you are 10 seconds late then you are not going to be able to do anything! |
Condition 3 is the hardest. Sometimes your opponent roams and your allies just get oneshot/deleted. Sometimes a long dragged out fight follows. It's almost impossible to predict in advance and therefore following is a coinflip. On the other hand, getting plates / making a play on the other side of the map is often guaranteed/more likely to work. If you are very close behind your enemy (1-2 seconds at most) then following might work out. If not then following is probably not a good idea.
❄ Regardless of whether you follow or not, you must alert your allies
- You ping "missing" on your lane 2-3 times
- You ping "danger" at the river entrance of the lane the enemy roams to
- You ping "back off"/"danger" on top of your allies
- You ping "missing" on your lane, again.
Doing just 1. is not sufficient. Your allies may not see it, this is why you ping directly on top of them as well. Since this may cause confusion, you ping missing again.
Sometimes you get killed, or you lose a lot of CS/gold because of a bad roam. In whatever way it happened: you are behind. The first thing you'll have to do is keep your mental up: the game isn't lost yet! Don't give up, playing from behind is something you got to learn. This extends to both in lane & out of lane gameplay. But I'll focus on laning for now.
Your general focus should be on farming and avoiding fights. Also avoid roaming and utilize lane wards so you can warn your team when your opponent goes somewhere. Do not follow their roams. Even if you do get there in time, your impact will be severly limited due to being behind.
1. Medium ranged mages | ( Twisted Fate, Malzahar, Ryze, ...) | |
This is in my opinion the easiest class to play against from behind, if they try to threaten you, you can simply walk back and if you are unable to push the wave you can easily farm under your turret. Utilize lane wards as some of these champions roam a lot. | ||
2. Assassins | ( Zed, Fizz, LeBlanc, ...) | |
It's pretty safe to farm close/under your turret against these champions as they cannot dive you due to your CC & ult. However, if you don't have Frozen Tomb up, be EXTREMELY careful. It's also likely they are going to roam around the map, warn your team but avoid following. | ||
3. Poke mages | ( Brand, Xerath, Lux, ...) | |
It is downright awful to play against these champions, your best hope is a jungle gank. At later levels, they'll push you towards your turret (just stay out of range till they start doing so), try to clear the wave as quickly as possible so they won't be able to poke you. I recommend getting a Null-Magic Mantle or even a Negatron Cloak if you're having a lot of trouble. | ||
4. Lane bullies | ( Syndra, Cassiopeia, Orianna, ...) | |
This is in my opinion the easiest class to play against from behind, if they try to threaten you, you can simply walk back and if you are unable to push the wave you can easily farm under your turret. Utilize lane wards as some of these champions roam a lot. Again, I recommend getting a Null-Magic Mantle or even a Negatron Cloak if you're having a lot of trouble. |
Staying means you'll be sharing farm and XP. This is bad. As Lissandra you need gold for your items and all the XP you can get.
❄ Vacate the 'empty' lane
So let's say your botlane went midlane, your toplane is still top. Then you should 'pick up' the waves in botlane. You only pick up the waves that are safe. I'll talk more about this in the grouping vs splitting subchapter.
1.
| An objective is coming up in <1 minute. | |
2.
| You don't have Teleport. |
If the answer is yes, then you should go to one of the lanes next to the objective. If one of them is empty, then this is very convenient. But if they're both occupied you'll just have to go along with it. Even though you'll miss farm, grouping for the objective so you can contest is more important.
Onto the 2nd reason: ARAM. In this scenario, all players on both teams are midlane. If there's a lot of fighting then you should be there too. Not being there leads to a number advantage for the enemy team which leads to them winning fights and your team falling behind. Fortunately, every game has 'downtimes' where you can actually pick up farm.
1.
| People are dead after a fight. Dead people can't fight. | |
2.
| Abilities are on cooldown. Allies and enemies have a much harder time starting fights when their ultimates are on cooldown. | |
3.
| Everyone is recalling. You recall too, then run straight towards the sidelane, push the wave as far as you can safely* (don't go beyond the middle of the map) and run straight back to your team. |
1.
| Look at the minimap, where are the enemies? Can you handle the missing enemies? What if all of them suddenly show up next to you? | |
2.
| Is the wave in a 'safe' zone? Depending on the game, there are zones where you can always pick up waves. |
Keeping track of where enemies are is extremely important. You'll have to do this all the time. Imagine you're pushing into enemy territory and all the enemies suddenly vanish from the minimap: they might be coming for you! Then you have to retreat till you can spot them again.
Safe zones are something else again. When multiple enemies are missing (and you can't handle them), you'll need vision. If you don't have vision, walking up to clear the wave is very risky. You're essentially gambling whether the enemies are there or not. Here are two maps that show different areas where you can farm + the wards 'needed' to farm safely.
champions
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1.
| If you can 1v1 them: ask yourself whether you can handle them + the missing enemies. If the answer is no, follow the maps. | |
2.
| If you cannot 1v1 them: Avoid fighting them, wait for them to push the wave, then collect it. |
If your jungler isn't taking them. It's just free gold, especially if your team is ARAMing. If your jungler starts pinging angrily, back off immediately. | ||
After sieging it's common practice to retreat into the enemy jungle and take all the jungle camps that are up. |
As Lissandra, trying to kill baron nashor together with your team can be a mistake. Unless you have Liandry's Torment as your mythic, your damage to baron is underwhelming. Most of the time it'll drain your mana bar, leaving you unable to fight in case enemies show up.
❄ The only time where you should hit Baron is when your team needs to rush it
In all other cases there are two things you can do:
1. Zoning the enemy jungler
If the enemy jungler gets into the pit when the Baron is low, then it becomes a coinflip. You cannot blame your jungler for missing his smite when you let the enemy jungler get into the pit. So in some games you just need to keep out of the pit. Fortunately, as Lissandra you have more than enough tools to make sure he doesn't get in there.
2. Hiding out of vision to ambush the enemy team
You sit in a spot with no vision, then once the enemy team walks up you go in with Glacial Path and either use the standard teamfight combo or the pick combo.
Some common angles of attack:
It's very important that you are not sitting on an enemy ward. Either you or your team needs to sweep the area with Oracle Lens, or you need a Control Ward.
Lissandra is also quite good at messing up an enemy attempt of taking the Baron. Especially on redside, she can jump over the baron wall and dump all of her AoE damage on the enemies trying to hit the objective. It's harder to get a good angle on blueside since the enemies can see you coming. You can walk to the same spots as on redside, but it takes longer and can be dangerous since you have to walk into enemy territory to reach on of the spots.
❄ You don't always have to fight over dragon, sometimes it's okay to give it up.
If your team is behind, all your abilities are on cooldown or some of your allies are dead, then trying to fight the enemy team over drake can be a very bad idea. Try to ping your team back so that things do not get worse. You can give up three drakes in total, but you'll have to fight at dragon soul (or outscale the enemy team really hard).
Contesting is a team decision. If you want to give the objective up, but your team stubbornly tries to contest it, you should be there to disengage the fight / stop turning the game into a disaster. In this game you should go for the best play available, which won't always be the theoretically correct play.
Much like when taking baron, you can either 1. hit the drake, 2. keep the enemy jungler away or 3. ambush the enemy team.
1. is a bit better than when your team is taking baron, since drakes have less health and regen. However avoid bursting the drake when it gets low as the sudden damage from Ring of Frost + Ice Shard can mess up your junglers' smite. Since Ice Shard itself does quite a bit of damage in the lategame, I often don't hit the drake at all once it gets low, unless the enemy team is nowhere near the objective.
3. is a fine thing to do. There are once again a few ambush spots (which are similar to the baron ones):
Mountain soul gives you a big shield whenever you spend some time out of combat. This soul makes it much harder for enemy champions to dive into your team, while also making diving more forgiving as you got more health to play with. | ||
Infernal soul is a pure offensive buff. It's especially effective when diving as the additional damage and AoE can finish off targets. | ||
Cloud soul gives 'invisible' power. 10% bonus MS makes it much easier to navigate the map and kite in fights. The additional bonus after using Frozen Tomb can be insanely useful for getting away after ulting yourself or following up on enemies you've ulted. | ||
Ocean soul is often seen as the strongest soul of all. This soul greatly favors kiting. As long as you continously deal damage to enemies, you'll eventually outheal them due to this buff. |
This buff is on level with Baron due to the combat power it gives. Getting it makes it much more likely for your team to win the game. If you get it, try to play according to the strengths of the soul (and your team).
Everything I said about dragons is still applicable to the elder dragon. It gives a super powerful combat buff (20% health execute, anyone?). When the enemy team gets it, you should avoid fighting with them at all costs. Lissandra can delay the execute somewhat with Frozen Tomb and Zhonya's Hourglass, but it'll eventually hit you and you'll end up dead anyway.
If your team gets it, then you'll be a very happy Lissandra since one of the issues she tends to run into is that the enemy team runs away at 20% health after a good combo. They won't be able to do that this time!
Some elder liss
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Alright, almost done with all the general tactics and stuff. After that it'll get champion specific.
1.
| The fight is uneven (in your favor). Having five ally champions versus four enemy champions can make quite a difference. | |
2.
| The enemy team is split. Unless one of the split champions likes to flank (a bruiser/assassin) then you can engage on either. | |
3.
| The enemy team doesn't have their cooldowns. |
An example of 2:
In any other scenario, the fight is even. Even fights are coinflip. Of course you can always look to win them through fighting well and playing to your win condition, but this takes time and experience. And it is hard to tell this through the written word.
1.
| Diving is my favorite style. You dive into the enemy team, either to disrupt them or to assassinate an enemy carry (or two). | |
2.
| Peel is the other style. Now you're a bodyguard, you protect your team from divers/assassins and kite the enemy team. |
Since there are plenty of diving examples throughout this guide, have a clear peeling example instead:
A big question is: when do you use which style? In other words, what is the win condition?. This depends on the following factors:
1.
| Allied team composition | |
2.
| Enemy team composition | |
3.
| Which of your allies are doing well and which ones are not. | |
4.
| Which of the enemies are doing well and which ones are not. |
If your team has a lot of champions that like diving / are able to dive, then doing so along with them is a good idea. On the other hand, if your team doesn't have a lot of these champions then you should look to peel.
The majority of toplaners and junglers are champions that like to dive. The only exceptions are ranged toplaners and junglers.
Most ADCs don't like jumping into the enemy team and therefore favor peel. The only two exceptions are Samira, who does actually want to jump into the enemy team. And Kai'Sa, whose ultimate can reposition her so she can follow your dive.
For the rest of the ADCs it depends on the enemy composition. If the enemy team has multiple divers / assasins, your ADC cannot follow up on you when you dive. If they're strong you're better off peeling for them rather than diving.
The job subscription of support is usually 'protect the ADC', which is something all supports are capable of. However a lot of them can also dive with you (most notably the engage supports) or are able to create some kind of follow up. There are however, a few that cannot do that:
Support picks that don't really dive or facilitate dives
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It ultimately comes down to ally strength. Have a really fed toplaner? Diving is probably the way to go. Is your botlane ahead? Peeling may be a better idea.
You can apply the same logic to the enemy team.. If the enemy team has a lot of divers / assassins you're better off letting them run into you and peeling for your ADC rather than trying to dive them. On the other hand, if the enemy composition counters divers (multiple tanks, enchanters), then peeling is the way to go.
If you are diving into the enemy team you should ult yourself 95% of the time.
What diving does depends on the phase of the game: if you have 1-2 items it'll be mainly for disruption and kicking the enemy team into chaos. If you have 3-5 items it still disrupts the enemy team, but can also do massive AoE damage depending on your build.
1.
| If you have Zhonya's Hourglass, then you can still stall for a bit. | |
2.
| If your build is on the tankier side. E.g. Everfrost + other health items, Abyssal Mask. | |
3.
| Enemy has a single threat which you can take down by ulting them. If their only threat is down then your team should win the fight. |
If you are not diving into the enemy team you should ult enemies 95% of the time.
This manifests as two scenario's: either you are playing 'at the edge' of the enemy team and picking off targets. Or the enemy team is diving into your team and you use Frozen Tomb to stop them. The last 5% is when the enemy team dives onto you, and you cannot use Glacial Path to get away for some reason.
Frozen Tomb is not just a 1.5 second stun, or a 2.5 second stasis. It's also a large slow + damage field. You can use this to divide enemies, or to make it very hard for them to jump on you. In the following clip I again play 'at the edge' of a fight:
You can also use ultimate to 'divide' the enemy team. If some of them dive your team you can jump in the middle of them and Frozen Tomb yourself to force the rest of the enemies back, so their divers have to fight your team alone.
Lissandra loves fighting in chokepoints. All her abilities are AoE and it becomes impossible to walk around Frozen Tomb since it covers the entirity of the corridor. Enemies that don't get hit by it have to either walk through the entire thing or wait for your ultimate to go away.
The theory is easy: you sit in a bush where an enemy might pass through. Then you wait and if they show up you kill them. Make sure the bush isn't warded. Either place a Control Ward or use Oracle Lens.
The key word is patience. If an objective is spawning in the future, there's a high chance that an enemy walks up. Just keep chilling in your bush.
another one
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Lissandra's best and main role is in midlane. However she is somewhat playable in other roles. It all plays different from Lissandra mid though, not only in terms of lane and matchups, but also in terms of goals and your role in a team. Bear in mind that all of this is basically off-meta. Do not attempt to first time it in ranked.
Toplane |
When you are toplane I think you have a fundamentally different role than if you were playing mid. The one-shot glass cannon builds are much less prevalent and you should be much more focused on overall disruption/setup.
The main reason for this is the matchups: most of them suck. Although midlane matchups can be annoying/hard sometimes, toplane matchups are worse. They are either able to walk up and punch you in the face, and you have not enough damage to fight back. Or when you try to poke them you tickle them. Almost all trades/fights are losing ones and your main focus should be on poking the enemy with Ice Shard.
Because of this, builds that offer high haste early are favored: Liandry's Torment and Everfrost are the go-to mythics. This is then followed up by Cosmic Drive / Zhonya's Hourglass. Beyond that the build is pretty much the same as mid, Void Staff and Rabadon's Deathcap remain to be very good items.
Matchups to watch out for |
Botlane |
Lissandra pairs well with poke mage supports. They tend to deal massive damage and you can add some extra poke as you outrange all ADCs with Ice Shard. This can pull you through the early laning phase and post 6 you can keep the enemy in one place for long enough so that your 'support' can hit all of their abilities.
There is also an interesting synergy with CC/engage supports. Lissandra combined with Rakan or Leona can keep an enemy in one place for so long that they're guaranteed to die. However the early levels can be though, before level 6 you are not able to fight the enemies.
The main issue for midlaners going botlane is that they'll be lower level than the rest. However this is not as big of a problem for Lissandra as she relies more on items rather than levels.
Support |
I hope you enjoy playing Lissandra as much as I do, as her unique kit and playstyle are really interesting to utilize.
If you have any questions, suggestions or feedback, feel free to leave them in the comments. You can also check out the Lissandra mains subreddit or Lissandra mains Discord (click the text below).
And last but not least: Huge thanks to YOU for reading this guide!
Other Resources |
Click on the words to go there! |
Lissmains Subreddit (Link) | Lissmains Discord (Link) | |
Lissandra Streamers Not a lot, also consider looking at YT vods if you'd like to see Lissandra gameplay. |
Elsa of Garendel (Twitch) Ice Witch Elsa (Twitch) FearOfIce (Twitch) |
Special Thanks |
- Huge thanks to jhoijhoi's Making a Guide guide! I wouldn't have been able to create this guide without it!
- Thanks to Foxy's table coding guide for expanding my coding knowledge (and a very very helpful preset). Sadly all the images are broken, if you want to learn about tables check this out instead!
- Huge thanks to Psiguard for taking a peek at my guide and helping me with the cheatsheet!
- Lots of thanks to Fruxo for reviewing my guide and giving me feedback!
- Thanks to Jovy for helping me with banners!
- Thanks to Silverman43 for helping with banners and jungle synergies!
- Thanks to TheBlueImperial for helping me out and just being there!
- Thanks to everyone that left a comment on my guide! I wouldn't have known whether I my guide went in the right direction or not without you.
- Thanks to the Mobafire Discord! All of you are the best <3
Changelog |
- dd/mm/yy
- 15/08/21 Added post lane chapter
- 10/08/21 Some format changes + finished the laning part of gameplay
- 04/08/21 Updated gameplay - still wip
- 20/07/21 Bit of a larger update, mostly format changes. 2nd gameplay chapter will be updated in the future.
- 08/05/21 Some format changes
- 27/04/21 Some changes (especially to the cheatsheet).
- 22/04/21 Worked on roaming section, section on Liss in other roles
- 07/04/21 Added matchups
- 05/04/21 Published Final version (No more overhauls coming after this). Still adding minor sections/tweaks.
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