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Lissandra Build Guide by

Lissandra '' I make cold look hot ''

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27 Comments League of Legends Build Guide Author PoisonFang

Lissandra Build Guide By Updated on

Guide Discussion (27) More Lissandra Guides

Spells:

Flash

Ignite

Items

Core Items

Starting Items

Starting Items vs AD

Early Game Items

Mid Game Items

Late Game Items

Sample End Game Build

Ability Order

Lissandra Passive Ability

More Lissandra Counters

Introduction

Hello Mobafire, this is PoisonFang, a hight ELO player on EU West and this is my guide. This guide will cover the champion, why to play her, how to prepare before the game for playing her and ingame tips.

English is not my native language, so please excuse any spelling mistakes.

The guide will be, updated often so if you have any sugestions, leave them in the comments. Dont just downvote, because the guide doesnt feature something, you may see it in the near future.

Abilities and why to pick Lissandra

Passive: Iceborn - " Every 18 seconds, Lissandra's next ability costs no mana. Cooldown reduction does not affect Iceborn, but the cooldown is reduced by 1 second whenever Lissandra impairs an enemy's movement with an ability (does not apply to movement-impairing effects from items). "

This passive enables Lissandra to spam her spells, even in the early game, because it gives you no cost skills, very often.
Makes farming easier on your mana and enables you to poke a lot.
Its cooldown reduces even more if you hit a champion as your first target with Ice Shard, if you hit a champion with Ring of Frost or Frozen Tomb.

Q: Ice Shard - " Throws a spear of ice that travels in a line and shatters when it hits an enemy, dealing 75 / 110 / 145 / 180 / 215 (+65% of ability power) magic damage and slowing its Movement Speed for 1.5 seconds. Shards then pass through the target, dealing the same damage to other enemies hit (but not slowing them). "

Great skill for taking creeps. With the combination of Ice Shard and Ring of Frost, you can easily clear waves at almkost any point of the game.
Great skill for poking. You can use the creeps on lane for a first target and angle it, so you can hit your lane opponent to poke him down and clear waves at the same time.
It will be your main sustained damage tool, because it has a low CD and mana cost.
Ice Shard also has a MS slow, which helps you with chasing or slowing enemies down for your team, to be able to hit their skillshots easier.

W: Ring of Frost - " Freezes an area around Lissandra, dealing 70 / 110 / 150 / 190 / 230 (+60% of ability power) magic damage to nearby enemies and rooting them for 1.1 / 1.2 / 1.3 / 1.4 / 1.5 seconds. "

Ring of Frost provides Lissandra with a mass root for up to 1,5, which with Glacial Path makes for a great engage.
Helps with wave clear
Provides you with a good protection from melee champions. If someone tries to gank you, just wait for his gap closer and use your Ring of Frost to root them and then use Glacial Path to escape.

E: Glacial path - " Casts a claw of ice that moves forward in a line, dealing 70 / 115 / 160 / 205 / 250 (+60% of ability power) magic damage to all enemies hit. Reactivating this ability transports Lissandra to the claw's current location. "

It is Lissandra gap closer/ engage.
It is also your escpae, so be careful how you use it, because it has a very big CD.
It enables you to do some sick jukes, if you master the champion.

R: Frozen Tomb - " Enemy Cast: Freezes target champion solid, dealing 150 / 250 / 350 (+70% of ability power) magic damage and stunning it for 1.5 seconds.

Self Cast: Lissandra encases herself in dark ice for 2.5 seconds, becoming untargetable and invulnerable but unable to take any actions.

Dark ice then spreads from Lissandra's target dealing 150 / 250 / 350 (+70% of ability power) magic damage to enemies. The ice lasts for 3 seconds and slows enemy Movement Speed by 20 / 30 / 40%. "

When you get this abbility you get your full burst combo of Ice Shard for the slow and damage, Glacial Path to catch up and do some extra damage, Frozen Tomb to stun them and do massive damage, Ring of Frost them after the stun from your ultimate is over, Ice Shard them again.
It can also be used as a very good deffensive skill. When you use Frozen Tomb on yourself, you get a 2,5 invulnerability, that also slows and does damage to nearby enemies. In combination with Zhonya's Hourglass you can become untouchable for 5 seconds, which is amazing for baiting.
Remember that Frozen Tomb also does AoE damage so Lissandra is very good for AoE team compositions, because of that and her hard CC engage. All her other spells, also do AoE damage.

So lets sum up what skill set gives you and you will see why she is worth playing:

Poke
Good wave clear
Mass root
Mass slow
Engage
Escape
High burst damage
Decent sustained damage
Built in Zhonya's Hourglass
Soft and hard CC

Runes

Precision

Fleet Footwork

Phase Rush

I use 3 of these runes for the early game AP they give. The bonus 23 AP start with runes and masteries is always good, because you dont usualy start with a AP only item like or . You would usualy start with a , which will make you have 39 AP on level 1, or with a .

These runes + give you some nice magic penetration + % magic penetration for the early and mid game. You wont be getting much magic penetration from items, except for until late game, so these runes work fine. They also increase your early burst damage, because of the opponents low magic resist early game.

These runes give you some decent MR, until you get your . Their scalling is also nice, because you get a total of 24 MR just from your runes and + 4 from the masterie. With base MR per level and this MR, you should not get bursted down so easily by other mages.

These runes are standart for me on any page. For me it doesnt matter if im vs an AD champ or not on lane, I just like the bonus armor. It always helps vs the junglers and AD caries, but mostly vs an AD on mid. In combination with , you should have well over 120 armor which is fine for the entire game.

Masteries

Offensive Masteries:

You take this masterie, because of the bonus 5 AP and AD from . It isnt much, but it makes last hiting a litle easier, when you are not using spells, to do it in the early game.

This gives you 4 % cooldown reduction, which in combination with the 20 %, is not that bad of a boost, considering you probably wont be getting any items for CD reduction.

This is just for an easier time last hitting.

This masterie is great, because it gives you 1 bonus AP each level. On level 18 you got a free 18 AP, which is not a litle.

Meh bonus 8 % magic penetration. Always good.

Some bonus early 6 AP. With combination with your runes it gives you a good start.

Not the best masterie for , but you need the point on it for maxing the offense tree.

Gives you a great 5 % AP boost. This is a very good masterie for the late game. In combination with , they give you a total of 35 % bonus AP.

It enables you to burst down low hp targets, even easier.

Defensive Masteries:

Some extra health on level is always good.

Gives you some bonus early armor.

Gives you some bonus early magic resist.

This small health boost on level 1, often saves me.

Summoner Spells

Is my go to choice for mid laners. For , it provides some extra damage in the early game. This bonus damage is for dueling, because you will lose those 1v1 duels on lane if you dont have ignite, but your oponent does. In the late game its more of a tool to reduce healing.

In my opinion, its the best summoner spell in the game. It gives you a free escape and gap closer. is very important when you cant use your . It also provides an element of surprise. If you dont want to make your engage obvious, you can and CC them. Dont use it when you have other ways of escaping or engaging, because it has 300 second cooldown.

Is another spell people like to take on . I personaly dont roam much, so I dont realy like it, but its a relaible switch for . The masteries I use, dont work very well for this spell.

This is a good replacement for low level summoners. If you still dont have unlocked, use this. You can also use .

Key Items

These should be your boots of choice. They give you most of the magic penetration you will have, until late game, because with this item build, big magic penetration items are delayed for last. A respectable replacement for these boots are the , but I dont recomend them. For enchatments I usualy get homeguard.

I like starting with this item on , because I think its her most important item. Even if you are vs an AP champ, this item still works great for avoiding burst damage, so you will be fine. The baits you can do with your and , may turn around whole team fights.

If they have any AP in their setup this is a must have item for . Not only that it gives you magic resistance and AP, the aura reducidng their magic resist is also great on , becasue you usualy are realy close to them. That helps your teamates, who also do AP damage.

This item is a must have for the mid - late game, because if you dont have its giant AP bonus, you wont be doing much damage. It enables you insta kill most AD caries in the late mid game, when they still dont have much MR, but you have a lot of AP. This makes mid game realy strong.

I usualy take this item after I have my , because magic penetration is good, if you already have decent AP. It also gives some good bonus AP, so its a very cost efficient item. Dont rush it, because building early defensive items is much better on , than rushing full damage, even when your fed.

This is a great last item. It gives magic penetration and the very important for late game % HP damage. That combinatino make this item one of the best late game caster items. I dont recomend geting it any earlier. If you want you can pick up earlier, but dont rush making it into .

Other Items

A great starting item for , because of the all around good stats on it. I usualy take 2 almost every game.

I personaly dont recomend this item on , but I see a lot of people take it as a first item, so I featured it. I always prefer as a first item.

Is an item you can use when you dont want double magic penetration items. But in the late game, I dont think it is as useful on , as the magic penetration items, so I rarely buy it.

Is a item I sometimes get as a first big item if I am againts a AP champion and im behind. It makes wave clear very easy, because of the mana regen and cooldown reduction. It also gives some magic resist, which is nice.

In a realy long game, and I mean REALY long, you can get this as a replacement to one of your magic penetration items. Sometimes more tankines and a revive, is better than danage,

Matchups

Here I will list the hard - medium - easy matchups for mid lane as .

Easy matchups - In these matchups, you should be able to outfarm and outroam your opponent. In general, you should be able to win lane, as much as you can.

Medium matchups - In these matchups, you should be prety equal with your opponent, as much as power is consirned. But if you can outplay them or you get jungle help, you should still be able to win lane.

Hard matchups - In these matchups, you will probably lose or atleast have a hard time, even if your opponenet isnt very good. Keeping on CS is hard and you can kill then very hard.

Roaming and Warding as Lissandra on blue side

Here are some ward locations you want to have covered, when your playing on blue side:

And here are some good locations you can use your to gank , when your on blue side:

Roaming and Warding as Lissandra on purple side

Here are some ward locations you want to have covered, when your playing on purple side:

And here are some good locations you can use your to gank , when your on purple side:

In short : Early game

In the early game as you want to focus on geting as much CS as possible and controling your lane opponent. That means not letting him free farm ( without geting poked or beeing thretened) .

Dont let him take your tower. Try to back when your jungle can take your lane for you, so you dont lose CS to the tower.

You should also not let him roam, without beeing able to follow him. For that you need to keep the lane pushed enought, so he cant roam without loosing his tower.

Start your build acording to his champ if you are having trouble vs him, with a standart build.

In short : Mid game

In the mid game as you should start getting agresive.

Still try to keep up on as much CS as possible, but dont be afraid to lose some so you can roam.

If your or your oponents tower is dead, try to push the lane, as much as possible and start roaming to other lanes and forcing small fights.

You can force objectives very easily, because your mid game burst is very hard. You can easily win whole team fights by nuking one of their caries and just CC- ing the others.

In short : Late game

In the late game , becomes more of a utility mage, than a nuker.

That means you should focus on geting as much damage, as possible, on everyone with your AoE, rather than trying to focus all of your damage on one person.

In the late game even their caries, should have decent resistances, so prioratise helping your team with CC and zoning, rather than going in as a fronline caster.

Be careful about their AD champions, because by the late game they build enought armor penetration to almost nullify the armor from your .

Summary

For now this is the build. It will often be updated with your and mine ideas. Lets make this the best guide !

This will be a little timeline for the guide:

17:08:2013 - Guide has been released.
17:08:2013 - 1 good vote, making the guide 56 %
18:08:2013 - 5 good votes, making the guide 71 %. It seems the guide is prety good.
18:08:2013 - I went and fixed all the typos, so now the guide should be correct.
18:08:2013 - Added a matchups chapter.