Hello there, my name's Ivan. I've been playing League of Legends since the end of Season 6 and my go-to role is support. I started as a Sona- Soraka main and got bored of it eventually. So I decided to go for off-meta way. If I can play it as a support, I will.

My first exposure to Lissandra support was a bet in uni. I was thinking about Lissandra and asked a friend what he thought about Lissandra support. He told me "it probably isn't possible, I bet you won't make it work".

He dared a beer - I won that beer as I got to diamond with Lissandra support. Ever since then I've been testing several champs as a support. From Karthus to Orianna and eventually Lissandra. With this guide I want more people to discover Lissandra and give her more love - if at the very least it will result in more fanart and fanart.

This guide is meant to be sort of like a university book but nicer to read and written by an amateur. I want to share my experience and knowledge and always add examples on what I mean. As much as I am not a fan of university math, I have to say that the german book "Teschl & Teschl Mathe für Informatiker Band 2" (Teschl & Teschl Mathematics for IT students volume 2) is a big inspiration for parts of my structure (and some quirky jokes) and if you are ever forced to do university math about integrals and derivaties in german, I can recommend the book.

In turn, this means that my guide will look less fancy, although I am trying to make it look a bit nice, and that I put more emphasis on presenting information and wanting you, the reader, to form your own opinion in what you prefer in each segment. For example, are you more of an Aftershock player and disregard the cyan tree or can you, unlike me, not say no to Ultimate Hunter since you don't like Font of Life?

Also, one thing I want to preface: Thank you very much Katasandra for donating parts of your guide's code. A few Mobafire veterans will probably notice that parts of the guide look like their guide, and that is because it is from their guide! I seriously cannot emphasize how thankful I am. That is why I will thank them two more times in this guide :p

PS: Since Katasandra doesn't update her guide anymore, I'm taking it upon myself to, at some point, make a mid Lissandra guide. I've recently been practising mid a bit and builds similar to mine have been working out well so far.

1.1. Why Lissandra?

1.2. Why Tank?

2. Summoner Spells + Runes explaination

3. Abilities + Skill order

4.1. Item explaination

4.2. Sub-optimal items

4.3. Sample builds

5. Support upgrade - Which one do I choose?

6.1 Playstyle - Laning Phase

6.2 Match-Ups and Synergies

6.3 Playstyle - Mid- and Lategame

7.1. Warding - Basics

7.2. Intersection - Major Objectives

7.3. Warding - Why, when and where

7.4. Warding - Tips, tricks and quirks

7.5. Warding - Addendum

8. Fun facts

9. Closing thoughts

10. Currently testing

11. Personal skin tier list

12. Changelog

Pros ❄ Lots of (Instant) Crowd Control ❄ Flexibility ❄ Teamfight/AoE Prowess ❄ Mobility Tool offers non-committal Mobility + Blink

Cons ❅ Low Range + Low Damage ❅ High Cooldowns ❅ Weak Early Game ❅ Very Predictable Engage

Lissandra is a very flexible champion. In terms of playstyle, she can be played aggressively as well as defensively - being the engage is just as viable as waiting for the enemy to make a mistake. In terms of builds, she can opt into AP items as well as tank items, with a personal bias towards the latter. Her entire kit contains AoE Crowd Control in the form of slows, a root and a stun, making her superb at controlling a (team)fight. Her engage tool is one of the few abilities in the game which offer to not commit. This can come in handy when an engage looks good, but a second later it isn't due to unforseen circumstances. It also is a Blink, which can be used to dodge certain spells.

However, all of these positives come at a price: Lissandra has quite low range with low base damage. This makes her susceptible against poke champions, of which bot lane offers quite a few. What's more is that she does not have any built-in sustain, needing help from Runes to fix this. Add high cooldowns in the early game and Lissandra simply is quite weak in that stage of the game.

But if you are able to get out of laning phase, Lissandra can give you one thing: Control. You control the enemy's movement, you control if a fight should happen, you control the enemy's success within a fight. And with every second you survive, you only make it more difficult for the enemy, especially when they start to fall.

A friend of mine once described her as an "AP mage version of Nautilus" and while I don't 100% agree with it, I have to admit that he as a point. However, Lissandra is more about general disruption and has more of an instant effect than Nautilus. Both are good in their own way, but I thought I would give the reader a broad idea of what one should expect from Lissandra.

Burst vs Tank - Explaining the gist of burst mages

Let's start by looking at a few other champions people consider to be burst/poke mages:

All of these champions have one thing in common: They have range with which they can (usually instantly) pepper the enemy from afar and/or disable the enemy in the process, thus in theory not really needing defensive stats. This means that the champions's defensive stat is their range with which they can avoid damage in the first place:

Syndra's entire kit has at least 800 range (excluding her R Unleashed Power) and her E Scatter the Weak as a superb "get off me" tool due to its knockback.
Orianna's gimmick is her ball that has superb range in general; while she has no "get off me" tool, she has a ton of range to offset that weakness.
Zyra follows the same idea - lots of range, root on E Grasping Roots and a delayed knockup on R Stranglethorns.
Vex's Q Mistral Bolt and E Looming Darkness have plenty of range to pepper for some all-ins for your R Shadow Surge.

Let us look at another batch of champions that can build burst items/are classified as burst mages that do not necessarily have a lot of range:

Ahri doesn't need a lot of introduction: Once she gets her R Spirit Rush, she can easily avoid a lot of skillshots and even stop dashes with her E Charm.
LeBlanc has her damaging blink W Distortion. This basically ensures that she can go back to safety after a trade.
Katarina, just like Ahri, needs no proper introduction. She is the blink-everywhere-before-you-know-where-she-is champ.
While Sylas's dash Abscond isn't anything to write home about, his W Kingslayer ensures a healthy trade if he goes in.

These champions either have blinks/dashes to get to safety, some sort of healing and/or minor dash to emerge victorious out of a trade or just mobility in general. This is similar in terms of advantages to range where mobility/sustain is meant to offset squishiness.

Suppose the following burst mage items:
All of these items are meant for burst mages and their stats reflect that: They all give AP. Some offer mana, one Ability Haste and two flat Magic Penetration. And they all do their job well - they are meant to aid burst mages do their (burst) job better in exchange for no (proper) defensive stats.

In turn, due to the lack of defensive stats, you are very squishy and have to use the defensive stats/methods you are given quite well. Otherwise you will die over and over again or...

...you fix the issue with defensive/utility items.

This is where items like Zhonya's Hourglass, Rod of Ages, Seraph's Embrace or tank items in general come into play since they offer survivability to offset a lack of mobility/range.


Does she fit into the category "Range"?
Not really:
Lissandra's Q Ice Shard has no respectable range, including the extention on hit. Her W Ring of Frost has a laughably low range. Glacial Path should not be seen as a damaging spell but a one way blink, so we can't really see this as a reliable tool to poke from range. And Frozen Tomb's range is roughly auto attack range, so again, not that much range.

Well, can we put her into the category "Mobility/Dashes"?
Again, not really:
Besides Glacial Path's one way blink, Lissandra has no mobility whatsoever. Frozen Tomb's cooldown is too high to be considered a proper defensive tool* and Ring of Frost's 1.1 to 1.5s root are not enough. Since Ice Shard only slows the first target hit with a miniscule slow, kiting is out of the question.
_{*I am not saying that Lissandra's Frozen Tomb cannot be used defensively. In fact, it is a superb defensive tool. But in comparison to LeBlanc's blink or Sylas's Kingslayer which are on a way lower cooldown, it pales.}

Burst vs Tank - The contradiction in Lissandra's kit

First, let's analyse Lissandra's kit, look at a few basic combos read out of her kit's idea and eventually point out the contradiction:

First we notice that E Glacial Path might have the higest range, but a very high cooldown; it also is her mobility tool, so we need to use it whenever it counts. It synergises well with her W Ring of Frost which basically has melee range. This means that Lissandra, combined with R Frozen Tomb, would like to all-in at some point. But when is that at some point?
That is where her Q Ice Shard comes into play! With its range being extended upon hit, it is meant to poke the enemy down for the eventual all-in and a kill!
So basically:
Another very similar interpretation of her kit would be a short combo of Glacial Path, followed by Ring of Frost and an Ice Shard for good measure, until low enough to commit to the first combo's second half.
In summary:
These are the most common bread and butter combos on Lissandra, regardless of which lane. Of course, you can mix these up in any way you want. Sadly, there is but one issue...

To help convey my point and get a feel for my argument, I will again look at a few champions that are meant to be good in short trades and have means to still emerge victorious:
I again am using Sylas here as he is quite good in short and even longer trades thanks to his W Kingslayer.
Anyone who has ever played against a (good) Tahm Kench knows that wittling him down is out of the question, especially if he uses his E Thick Skin to soak up damage, Doran's Shield with Second Wind to regen back any damage and hits his Q Tongue Lash; let alone the fact that his damage is to be respected due to An Acquired Taste and his high base damage.
Mordekaiser, while also good in long trades thanks to his microwave Darkness Rise, can win trades simply by timing his W Indestructible well after laning his E Death's Grasp and landing Q Obliterate since his W provides shields based on tamage taken and damage dealt!
Pantheon goes in with W Shield Vault, empowered by Mortal Will, stabs with Q Comet Spear and safely disengages with directional damage immunity spell Aegis Assault. No need to add a lot here.

You might have noticed another pattern I want to be noticed:
All of these champions have some sort of spell/tool to ensure that they win the trade by either having a bit of sustain or damage mitigation in form of a shield or damage immunity, despite engaging into melee range. The champions in the category mobility, especially Katarina and LeBlanc, could also fit into this category due to their mobility.


What in Lissandra's kit will ensure that she emerges victorious out of a short trade?
...well, that's the thing: There really isn't anything in her kit to aid here as her passive only works once an enemy champion dies and nothing besides her R Frozen Tomb provide any sustain, let alone defensive capabilities. If Ring of Frost was a stun, then I could see it work out, but a root still means that the enemy can fight back.
So combo 2, in the long run, will cost us trades unless we manage to pick really good trades.

So what about "combo" 1 that is about poking the enemy down for a good all-in? For this, let's compare these 3:
Syndra's Q Dark Sphere has 800 range which is 25 less range than Lissandra's extended Ice Shard. However, the key differences here are that Syndra Q is quite fast (0,6s) and can be placed on an area of your choice while Lissandra's Q originates from herself and, quite frankly, takes a bit to reach its target, let alone no guaranty that the range will extend. So in terms of poking an enemy down, Syndra Q is superior in basically every way.

Orianna's Q Command: Attack has the same range as Lissandra's extended Q and is considerabely slower with a difference of 800 units/s. However, Clockwork Windup's ball range is 1290 units, thus enabling you to use Command: Dissonance in cheeky ways, besides the fact that, if you hit your Q, you can instantly activate W to deal way more damage than any Lissandra Q.

Now a bit of experience from my part: Hitting a Q Ice Shard is only really reliable on people not respecting you or melee champions. Once you need to deal with ranged champions, especially champs like Syndra in mid or Caitlyn on bot, hitting a Q only happens if they need to go for farm or misposition hard, and even then it is not that hard to dodge.

Now, I am aware that my explaination is basically "dude trust me" in regards to Lissandra Q, but even when looking at other spells that are meant for poke like Syndra Q or Orianna Q, we can safely assume that it is quite unreliable

This shows that combo 1 isn't as reliable as it'd need to be to ensure a lot of successful all-ins.
_{I want to mention that I am NOT saying that it is impossible to poke your enemy down, otherwise high elo Liss mains wouldn't manage to do it. But it is quite hard to do and thus unreliable}

• Lissandra has no proper tools to survive a trade as she lacks lane sustain in comparison to champions like Mordekaiser, Ahri or Sylas
• She also lacks some sort of safety-mobility since her Glacial Path is a one-way blink in comparison to champions like LeBlanc or Katarina
• Ice Shard is a spell that feels slow due to it originating from Lissandra, only having respectable range once it hits a target and being quite predictable, therefore being quite unreliable to hit
• Ice Shard pales in comparison to other poke tools like Syndra's entire kit
• Ring of Frost in combination with Glacial Path and Frozen Tomb imply a short trade/all-in playstyle due to their ranges, synergy and cooldowns

_{This is especially true for botlane where basically every lane has ranged champions that outrange you all the time ( Caitlyn, Jinx, Ashe), ignoring how a bad Ice Shard on bot lane can make your lane so much more difficult}

Within this chapter, we will go over the viable summoner spells, explain them, and then do the same for runes. There, we firstly go over major runes/keystones. Secondly, we will go over each tree's minor runes.
In these two segments, smaller icons mean less optimal choices and greyed out runes being unviable in my opinion. The reason for this is to explain the viability of choosing the minor runes in the second tree.
Finally, I will show two viable rune pages I personally use and explain what each rune page excels at.

		This runepage I recommend to people who want to start playing Lissandra support and get a general feel for the champion that isn't damage-focused. It has all the essentials: Defensive stats to aid in an engage/trade; Sustain to survive enemy poke; Lower cooldowns on Summoner Spells.

		This runepage essentially flipped the Aftershock rune page and uses Glacial Augment instead to double down on Lissandra's ability to keep enemies in place while providing ample sustain to survive the lack of defensive stats in the laning phase.

While Lissandra is alive, if an enemy champion dies within a 1350 unit radius, that enemy turns into a frozen thrall, chasing nearby enemies, slowing them and detonating to deal damage. You can think of them as exploading zombies, chasing their prey until they die. The following video shows the passive in action:
Play Video


Lissandra's passive is a great tool to assert pressure in a fight once the enemy has suffered casulties. It slows and deals quite high damage, but only procs if you are alive, so try to stay alive for as long as possible to get the most out of your passive!

Straightfoward ability: In a direction of your choice, Lissandra will throw one big icicle. If it hits a target, its range extends. In any case, it will slow every target and deal the same damage to every enemy hit. You can use it to push waves, poke enemies and slow them at the same time. Font of Life synergises very well with this ability.


Play Video



Instant AoE magic damage root. Simple, but effective and is the entire reason Lissandra hardcounters Rakan. With its now mana cost and conservative Ice Shard usage, you will never need a mana increase. Due to its effectiveness, this ability is your bread and butter if you don't enjoy maxing Ice Shard.


Play Video



Lissandra's core mobility spell. She casts a claw in a direction of her choice that goes up to 1025 units. She can recast the ability to blink herself to the current location of the claw. This spell can be used in a lot of different ways: Offensivly to engage/close the gap or defensively disengage/rush to your allies's position. It can also be used to do some sneaky engages by casting the claw into the wall, making you pop out next to it. Also, due to it being a blink, abilities like Steadfast Presence or Event Horizon don't stop Lissandra. Besides this, never use Glacial Path for damage unless you are absolutely ceratin that you cannot get punished for it/the additional damage is necessary.


Play Video



Arguably the most iconic ability that Lissandra has to offer: Point and click stun on a very low cooldown in auto attack range (550 units) or a 2,5 seconds long statis with healing. Once cast, the floor iteratively turns into breaking ice, damaging any enemy touching it and slowing them. It is strong due to its simplicity and flexibility, enabling all sorts of plays. An enemy needs to stay put? Frozen Tomb that guy. Slow the entire enemy team for your team? Frozen Tomb yourself. Getting tower dove/performing a tower dive? Frozen Tomb! Due to it being one of the very few point and click stuns left, the enemy has to either build Quicksilver Sash instead of more cost efficient items or choose Cleanse instead of Heal or Exhaust.

It is also worth noting that Frozen Tomb is first a knock-down, then a stun and finally generates the ice floor. This is great to stop enemy dashes. It is also worth noting that casting Frozen Tomb on Lissandra herself heals her, scaling with AP.
_{Some useless knowledge: Unending Despair still procs, even when in stasis. Make of that what you will}

Play Video




_{Some Mobafire veterans will notice that the ability headers and structure are very similar to somebody else's guide. This is because I am using Katasandra's headers which they generously gave me the code for. I am eternally thankful for that and if you read this Katasandra, shoutouts to you! Even when their guide is outdated and not updated, it is without a doubt the magnum opus of Lissandra guides.}

Quintessential Boots might just provide movement speed for a low price, but the reason they are so important are their upgrades. The only question that remains is: When should you prioritise Boots over other items? Movement Speed is a very flexible stat and can help when you need to either get away or walk towards someone faster. Example situations for this could be playing against a Nautilus, Blitzcrank or Pyke. Dodging their key abilities with Movement Speed is more beneficial than more HP or resistances.

Quintessential Plated Steelcaps provide more Movement Speed, Armour and a damage reduction against auto attacks, making it ideal into AD compositions.

Quintessential Offering Magic Resist, increased Movement Speed and Tenacity, these boots are an ideal choice into teams that rely on a lot of stuns and roots. One key information about Tenacity: Suppressions (e.g. Malzahar's Nether Grasp) and knock-ups ( Blitzcrank's Power Fist) DO NOT get affected by Tenacity.

Basically always Evenshroud is no more, now Locket of the Iron Solari has taken the place of the default first proper item. The reason is simple: Every single stat you can use well: HP, armour, MR and Ability Haste. This alone makes it a good all-rounder, but the active, giving everyone around you a good shield, makes it the item to aid your team.

Pretty common You get all the things Liss would need: AP, AH/CDR and mana (as mana regen but it's still good). You also enable more damage for your allies with your entire kit which fits with a more aggressive minded playstyle.

Pretty common Abyssal Mask is a very good default MR choice, providing a decent amount of Magic Resist, Health and Ability Haste and a damage amplification passive: With your presence alone you increase the magic damage dealt to enemies from all sources, including your own. This item you should only build if your team has either a magic damage champion that carries you or if your team has a lot of magic damage.

Pretty common Highly recommended against mostly AD comps. Mana, Ability Haste, armour and attack speed reduction - good allrounder item. You should build this item over Randuin's Omen if the enemy doesn't have a lot of crit. For example: Irelia, Lee Sin, Syndra, (Lethality) Miss Fortune, Lulu is a team where Frozen Heart is a better idea as noone in the enemy team builds crit. However, a team like Yone, Elise, Yasuo, Ezreal, Senna would be a good team to get Randuin's Omen into (Don't ask why the enemy would pick 4 AD champs, you know how soloQ goes...)

Situational Highly recommended against crit AD comps. Slows, a ton of HP and crit damage reduction - what else would you want in that case? (A Lissandra dakimakura that I actually own kekw)

Situational I've said it once but I'll say it again - these items are extremly underappreciated and are worth their gold. Dont rush them but keep them in mind. If you definitely need to ward a bit more often, build this item sooner. Alternatively, build this item if you have enough money for it, you cannot finish an item you were aiming for but you desperately need more stats. (An example I've run into: I have built Negatron Cloak, aiming for Abyssal Mask, but the next fight might decide the game, but I do not have enough money to finish Abyssal Mask. In this case it might be good to get the ~300 HP and other stats it provides) Otherwise it should be the last item to finish.

Situational The Anti-Heal choice if Thornmail isn't effective (e.g. enemies not attacking you). Cheap and effective. Also helps Glacial Augment with the AP as well as any skill rotation due to the Ability Haste.

Situational Now, I know what you might be thinking. "Why Thornmail? Applying Anti-Heal with Oblivion Orb is way easier than forcing the enemy to auto attack you!". And you are right Jimmy! However, consider the following: What if the enemy has a lot of healing champions that are AD based and you desperately need armour but anti-heal is a priority? (consider against Yone, Samira, Yasuo). In these cases, it is actually worth going for Thornmail.

Situational Only if there is some CC your carry cannot avoid and you need them to survive. Only into CC heavy comps tho.

Situational There are 3 key situations when you'd consider Kaenic Rookern over Abyssal Mask: Your team cannot gain any value from reduced magic resist (e.g. ally full AD team) The enemy team has so much magic damage that getting Kaenic Rookern after Abyssal Mask increases your survivability tenfold You don't like Abyssal Mask and want the generally good option The first two situations are fairly niché with the third being personal preference, making Kaenic Rookern a situational item

Situational Zhonya's is a good recommendation on Lissandra into certain matchups due to the vulnerability. Mentioned matchups would be Pyke, Darius and similar snowballing ults. Not recommended against Jinx, Caitlyn and champions who can trap you while you are immobile. Other than that, due to its cost, it has become very situational, but can still be built if just like its active.

Uncommon A very good idea if you have a carry that needs to survive and you need armour, although the survivability of your carry is the main reason to buy Knight's Vow. Fairly situational, but also quite good in that very situation.

Very uncommon The selling point of these boots are the Ability Haste and the Summoner Spell cooldown reduction, enabling more frequent usage of Exhaust and Flash and every other ability except Iceborn Subjugation. These boots should be bought when Plated Steelcaps and Mercury's Treads aren't viable options. An example would be a team with very little stuns and roots and very little auto attack based champions.

Very uncommon Symbiotic Soles/ Synchronized Souls should only be build if you cannot rely on your lane partner at all and/or would like to affect the map instead of your lane. The risk with these boots is that you have to generate a lead on the other lanes that cancel out a very behind bot laner. If Alicopter is your favourite streamer and you're confident, choose Symbiotic Soles/ Synchronized Souls.

Too expensive Jak'Sho would be a very good allrounder item as it gives you armour, MR and Health. With its passive, you gain even more stats! So what's the catch? The price tag keeps it from being a valid support item. 3.2k for nothing but stats on a support's budget is only possible if you get a ton of kills - and we aren't trying to get kills. Locket of the Iron Solari gets a similar effect to Jak'Sho, but is less expensive and gives a good shield.

Underwhelming The stats on this item sound decent: 400 Health, 25 armour, 25 magic resist and 10 Ability Haste. And its passive sounds nice: Dealing damage and healing 250% of the amount of damage dealt ensures a bit more survivability. However, the passive feels a bit too underwhelming, especially with the low base damage. If you wanted similar stats but for less gold and be more supportive to your team, look no further than Locket of the Iron Solari or Zeke's Convergence.

Extremely situational and underwhelming I was looking forward to this item. It seemed to fit a niché I was looking for: Healing and Shielding power + AP increase for fairly cheap (2500G) to increase Glacial Augment's slow. Due to its stats, this item would only be good as a third item to buy as we first need some sort of tankiness. However, with a standard build of "Support upgrade -> Locket of the Iron Solari -> Dawncore", we only get to around 38,6% slow on Glacial Augment (see math below if curious). In that case, one should consider Zeke's Convergence: While it may provide a smaller slow, it has better defensive stats. And even when considering an increase to Locket of the Iron Solari's shield, the increase of shield goes from anywhere between up to 239 to 454,1 (implying 5 people are shielded). Math (HSP = Healing and Shielding Power) Total mana regen: ( Bounty of Worlds + Dawncore) mana regen = 75% + 100% = 175% mana regen Dawncore's passive translation into stats: 175% mana regen * (2(%) HSP/100% mana regen) = 1.75 * 2 HSP = 3,5(%) HSP 175% mana regen * (10 AP/100% mana regen) = 1.75 * 10 = 17.5 AP Mentioned stats translated into Glacial Augment slow: (16 HSP + 3.5% HSP) * (9% slow/10(%) HSP) = 17.55% slow 17.5 AP * (6% slow/100 AP) = 1.05% slow 17.55% + 1.05% = 18.6 slow => 20% + 18.6% = 38.6% slow ======================================================================================= Solari shield increase: 200 * 1.195 = 239 380 * 1.195 = 454.1 Lower/Upper limit of shield difference if 5 people shielded: (239 - 200)*5 = 39 * 5 = 195 (454.1 - 380) * 5 = 74.1 * 5 = 370,5

Doesn't work with Font of Life In theory, this item could help Liss out in the healing niché with Font of Life: A bit of healing, some damage when healing a teammate and stats that Lissandra can use. However, ever since Riot removed the interaction of Echoes of Helia working with Font of Life, this item has sadly lost all its viability on Lissandra support.

Passive doesn't slow on Lissandra + awkward with Glacial Path The stats on Trailblazer are alright on Lissandra - the best would be the Movement speed. And its passive gives you even more, making it easier to get in range for Ring of Frost if an engage didn't go as planned. However, the passive only slows people when you are melee. We therefore are missing out on one of the bigger benefits from the item. Moreover, the acceleration trail only works on area you walked on. And since Glacial Path is a blink, it creates this weird gap that doesn't really do much. We might as well get Shurelya's Battlesong if we want more impactful speed (not that I recommend either...)

Too underwhelming without AP While the magic penetration would be a fairly wasted stat (we aren't focused on damage here), the AP, Ability Haste and its passive sound worth a try. However, with a base heal of 85 (50 + 35 from the item itself), one should ask why Cryptbloom should be built if Locket of the Iron Solari does the same job as the passive but way better: At least 200 shields per teammate compared to at least 85 healing. However, if you were more interested in building more AP items like Zhonya's Hourglass, Rod of Ages or Malignance, I could see it being a good combination with Locket of the Iron Solari. But realistically, does a support have that budget and enough item slots?

Slow doesn't stack with Frozen Tomb + better alternatives exist The price for its stats is good: 2.2k gold for quite good stats. And the passive dealing up to 250 magic damage with a 30% slow sounds like a good piece of utility. Yet there are a few issues: If you wanted an armour item with a bit of ulility, why not get Frozen Heart or Knight's Vow? The former has 40 more armour, the other 5. If you wanted Ability Haste, Frozen Heart delivers an equal amount, Knight's Vow merely 5 less. If you needed mana... guess what, Frozen Heart! And if you wanted an armour item with HP, again, Knight's Vow exists. Now, the second main selling point besides the stats are its passive which procs whenever you ult. Here comes up the next issue: Frozen Tomb's base slow is 30%, equal to Zeke's Convergence. And in League of Legends, slows don't stack. Using your self cast R will do nothing but add the puny damage in a small area around you. The "best" use case would be to use it on an enemy and moving away, but if you have aura/AoE items like Abyssal Mask, Locket of the Iron Solari, you might be missing out on crucial area coverage. The item sounds nice, but underdelivers in every way for Lissandra support.

Outclassed by Kaenic Rookern This used to be the number 1 Magic Resist option. So why has Kaenic Rookern taken its spot, moving Force of Nature down to sub-optimal? While Force of Nature can provide up to 125 Magic Reist, it needs to proc its first passive, requiring you to get hit by up to 8 abilities. Otherwise, it can only offer 55 Magic Resist until then. In comparison, Kaenic Rookern offers 80 Magic Resist from the get-to and offers a strong magic shield, scaling with HP. From experience, I can say that by the point you'd get the 125 Magic Resist, the shield from Kaenic Rookern has provided way more value. Reasons are that Lissandra tends to either go in at the beginning or stay back and peel for her carries. In either scenario, an up-front shield will help more than more Magic Resist over time. The only stats Force of Nature has going for itself are its up to 10% Movement Speed. This could be useful if you intend on moving around a bit more between teammates, but even then would the massive magic shield provide more value.

In general, I found that Solstice Sleigh feels the best if you want to support your teammates as the heal and movement speed can help in either offensive plays (getting faster to your enemy) or defensive plays (getting away from your enemy + healing). Due to everything but Glacial Path proc'ing the item, the item has constant uptime. You cannot go wrong with this upgrade. However, if you are looking to survive an engagement for a bit longer, Celestial Opposition will be right up your alley. It is like a weaker version of Crown of the Shattered Queen's passive and acts like a budget Aftershock. Due to this, I feel that it is overkill with Aftershock and works really well with Glacial Augment. You also cannot go wrong with this upgrade. Bloodsong is for the aggressive minded player. With a budget Sheen and damage amplification passive, this item was practically made to snowball the lane. In practise, I have noticed however that this isn't made for teamfights as hitting 5 enemies with 1.5s of delay is not only unrealistic, but extremely difficult. Due to this, this item is more situational and less of a general upgrade. Zaz'Zak's Realmspike is the mage support's option and provides nothing but damage. This alone makes it the least interesting upgrade (to me) as I feel that Bloodsong does the same job but better. The only thing it has going for itself compared to Bloodsong is that it has 3% max health damage and AoE, making it marginally better in teamfights. Least supportive upgrade and outclassed by Bloodsong. Dream Maker doesn't work with Font of Life, so this support upgrade is not worth it in any case.

I suggested this build as the "default" build as it covers you against most things that might happen: - Solstice Sleigh is the default option for the support item upgrade, giving you healing and movement speed whenever you hit an enemy champion - Mercury's Treads will help whenever the enemy has some sort of hard crowd control excluding airborne and suppression. - Locket of the Iron Solari is the best choice for the first item due to its superb stats, providing HP, Armour, Magic Resist, Ability Haste and its team-wide AoE shield - Thornmail with healing being a norm in most games, getting anti-heal with armour isn't a bad call and will cover your armour needs - Abyssal Mask covers any Magic Resist needs and will aid any magic damage dealers (including you) in your team - Vigilant Wardstone will give you stats for carrying Control Wards and increase its cap

Very similar to the default build with the exception of swapping Mercury's Treads with Plated Steelcaps and Thornmail with Frozen Heart - Plated Steelcaps are more useful if the enemy has little to no dangerous stuns but a lot of auto attack based champions ← Frozen Heart instead of Thornmail will be more useful if you already have plenty of anti-heal in your team and would instead get the attack speed slow → Alternatively, if the enemy has a lot of crit based auto attack based champions, getting Randuin's Omen instead is more valuable

Personal recommendation against very heavy AP teams - Mercury's Treads are good here as a lot of AP champions tend to have stuns in their kits. Besides the tenacity, the 25 Magic Resist are always welcome - Rarely will there be a team without any magic damage, making Abyssal Mask not only a cheap, but also team-oriented buy that will provide a lot of bang for your buck - Kaenic Rookern, as previously mentioned, will make you almost unkillable with the amount of HP this build already has. This is due to the HP scaling on its shield and solid base stats

Personal recommendation against very heavy AD teams - Plated Steelcaps provides armour and damage reduction on auto attacks. At least one of these attributes is always welcome ← As previously mentioned, Frozen Heart is good against non-crit teams and → Randuin's Omen against crit teams . Thornmail will usually be effective into these teams as well as most AD champs will weave in auto attacks against you, applying the anti-heal

Here, we decided to add Imperial Mandate to the mix - Imperial Mandate greatly boosts the damage of your teammates with whatever Lissandra does that has crowd control or slows The build on the ← left is more focused against AD teams and the build on the → right is more balanced

In this build we decided to insert Knight's Vow into our build due to a fed carry in our team - With Knight's Vow being the designated cooperation item, these builds focus on keeping one of our carries alive and getting healed in return - The build on the ← is focused on AD teams, while the build on the → right is more balanced

A snowballer's build across the map, relying completely on AP and Imperial Mandate to carry fights - Bloodsong will aid in your teammates dealing more damage and adding your auto attacks a bit of oompf. If Movement Speed for easier follow-up is prefered, Solstice Sleigh can be chosen instead - Imperial Mandate boosts your team's damage, as previously mentioned

The previous build, but the boots have been swapped for a more lane/lower half focused playstyle

These builds will be useful when you need anti-heal and the enemy will generally not auto attack you, making Thornmail useless. The build on the ← is focused on AD teams, while the build on the → right is more balanced

NO.

For warding specific playstyle tips, check 7.2. Warding - Why, when and where

As per usual with botlane matchups, there is no simple answer as just play safe or just go in. Rather, the question on how to behave in lane depends on several factors; to list the most important:

• What are my strengths and weaknesses?
• What are my ADCs strengths and weaknesses?
• What makes me and my ADC strong?
• When are we at our strongest?
• What are the enemy supports strengths and weaknesses?
• What are the enemy ADCs strengths and weaknesses/weakest?
• When is the enemy at their strongest?
• Who is the enemy jungler and what does that mean for my lane?
• Who is my jungler and what does that mean for my lane?

Questions like these dictate what the League community likes to call win conditions, or win cons short and winning lane specifically for lane. As the name implies, these are conditions that enable your team to win the lane/game.
_{A well-known example for this would be getting a Draven unbelievably fed due to his gold generating passive, enabling him to get more items before anybody else and turning that into a win.}

Due to the sheer volume of possible bot lanes, explaining every single bot lane matchup in full detail would be extremely time consuming. Therefore I will attempt analyse a few match-ups, answer a few of the questions above in each and attempt to present guidelines to follow at the end of this section.

Strengths + Very good slows due to Frost Shot + Decent poke with Volley + Ranger's Focus makes her strong in longer fights + Strong initiation with Enchanted Crystal Arrow past level 6 + High auto attack range (600 units) + Synergises well with Font of Life + Hawkshot makes scouting the map easier

Weaknesses - No mobility whatsoever - Low upfront damage - Ranger's Focus requires Ashe to stack first - Ganking her is fairly easy - No sustain

It goes without saying that these two gets their biggest powerspike at level 6 - Getting someone locked up for up to 6.5 seconds is nothing an enemy can take easily. Ashe starts with her Enchanted Crystal Arrow and Lissandra follows up with Frozen Tomb+ Ring of Frost for Ashe to clean up with her buffed up auto attacks ( Ranger's Focus). Of course Lissandra can also initiate the entire combo

Strengths + Very strong poke + Good follow-up thanks to Deadly Flourish and Grasping Roots + Easy way of scouting bushes with Captive Audience and Garden of Thorns + Strong pressure when you are low ( Whisper's 4th shot)

Weaknesses - Low mobility - Mediocre in longer lasting fights ( Jhin needs to reload) - No sustain (Unless Jhin uses Fleet Footwork)

• Due to the sheer amount of CC these two have, setting up ganks is very easy. Whoever you jungler is, a gank is bound to at least burn the enemy summoner spells.
• Any mispositioning mistake by the enemy can be abused to a fatal degree - abusing mispositioning is one of their strengths as either can make it easier for the other to keep an enemy in place
• Sort of related to the second point: Once Ashe is able to activate Ranger's Focus, unless she gets hit by some sort of CC, she will melt (ha) any enemy foolish enough to be in her range; Lissandra will make sure of that. And if Lissandra picked up Font of Life, Ashe can even take riskier fights thanks to due sustain
• Even the decision making is aided by Hawkshot: Often enough, fights are lost due to the jungler convenientely showing up when going in. This makes it easier to prepare whatever you are planning: Poking down the enemy, reading an enemy's bluff... And in the best case, Hawkshot makes the enemy jungler drop the idea of ganking you as you already know that they are botside anyways

Master Yi tends to perma farm until he reaches his necessary items and/or levels, with the earliest good gank timing being once he reaches level 6 or the enemy heavily mispositioning/overextending. Therefore, you shouldn't expect Master Yi to gank your lane, even if the enemy is touching your turret. However, if he does decide to gank bot lane, your roots, slows and stuns, especially past level 6, should result in either kills or wasted summoner spells.

Zac, on the other hand, can gank as early as level 2 and delivers knock-ups/-backs with almost every spell in his kit. Due to the nature of his Elastic Slingshot, he can throw himself onto you from less common positions (Behind walls, tri brushes, etc) . Unlike Master Yi, you therefore have to ward mentioned positions or ideally play according to your game sense and not engage if you suspect that Zac is nearby.

If the enemy is Master Yi, regular warding spots (shown below) will do the trick.



Lissandra and Ashe should ideally use their slows and roots in order to punish the enemy's bad positioning. In that case, a longer trade is prefered if allowed to. Ashe should attempt to poke the enemy down with Volley or auto attacks . Because of the enemy's lack of sustain and low mobility, this should be easy, presuming that roots by Zyra and Jhin can be avoided.

If longer trades don't work out , e.g. due to jungle or mid attention, waiting it out for level 6 and taking as little poke as possible is the safest bet as you unlock your strongest phase with Frozen Tomb and Enchanted Crystal Arrow.

Strengths + Strong pressure when you are low ( Whisper's 4th shot and Curtain Call) + Good follow-up thanks to Deadly Flourish's root in medium range and Curtain Call from long range + Easy way of scouting bushes with Captive Audience + Captive Audience can slow enemies down, adding flexibility + He yells four

Weaknesses - Low mobility (Movementspeed from Whisper) - Mediocre in longer lasting fights due to low DPS ( Jhin needs to reload) - No sustain (Unless Jhin uses Fleet Footwork) - Ganking him is fairly easy if Jhin didn't prepare defensive traps ( Captive Audience) - Bad synergy with Font of Life - Annoying if you don't like the number four

Starting level 2, there isn't really a time where they aren't strong. While they don't have as much synergy as Lissandra+ Ashe, Jhin can follow up any play due to Deadly Flourish and at the very least chunk the enemy quite a bit, though short trades are prefered due to the lack of sustained damage by both. Starting level 6, Lissandra can ease Jhin's ability to confirm hits in Curtain Call: Be it keeping the "meat shield" or the desired target in place.

Strengths + Very strong poke + Very high range (Minimum of 700 units range on Zyra and Caitlyn's 650 auto attack range) + High kill pressure once rooted ( Yordle Snap Trap+ Headshot+ Zyra's plants), especially when low ( Ace in the Hole) + Quite good in longer fights ( Zyra's plants + Headshot)

Weaknesses - Low mobility ( 90 Caliber Net) - No sustain (Unless Caitlyn uses Fleet Footwork) - Without Garden of Thorns seeds, Zyra does not offer much besides Grasping Roots and Stranglethorns's delayed knock-up

• Jhin's ability to follow up to any play with Deadly Flourish is the core reason they work so well since it keeps enemies in place for a bit longer, potentially enabling up to 5.4 seconds of crowd control ( Ring of Frost 1.65s + Frozen Tomb 1.5s + Deadly Flourish 2.25s)
• Especially with Aftershock, Jhin and Lissandra can take short trades and emerge victorious due to his high damage potential with Whisper's 4th shot, only getting better if the Jhin player planned accordingly with additional Dancing Grenade bounces and Captive Audience traps
• As previously mentioned, Lissandra can help a Jhin hit the right targets when Curtain Call is cast
• While Lissandra's ability to deny a gank is good, with a few additional Captive Audience traps by Jhin can make it even easier and even provide vision at key point

If there is one thing both of these junglers want to do, it is ganking a lot early in order to get ahead. Both deliver a good amount of CC ( Cocoon and Biggest Snowball Ever!), but in the case of Nunu & Willump, their engage is more telegraphed since he needs to start his charge from a distance. Elise, on the other hand, is more simple and arguably more telegraphed as Nunu & Willump's engage as her options to gank aren't any different than most of the jungler roster.

In Lissandra's case, she should attempt to ward spots where a Nunu & Willump might start his Biggest Snowball Ever! - around Dragon pit, the Blast Cone on either side, the enemy Gromp/ Krugs or even the area between tier 1 and tier 2 turrets. If the enemy was the Elise, the regular warding spots will do the trick.



Lissandra and Jhin should attempt to get an early lead by reaching level 2 before the enemy to abuse their roots and high frontloaded damage in order to keep the enemy low and prevent the enemy from taking longer fights. However, due to the enemy's high poke, high range and ability to punish bad engages, every engage afterwards has to count. If the enemy missed their abilities, a short engage to punish is a good idea.

This is one of those match-ups where you will definitely have to consider asking your jungler to help. The low mobility of the enemy team and your ability to follow up an engage are very good reasons for your jungler to help you out.

This playstyle doesn't really change past level 6 with the exception of getting aid by Jhin with Curtain Call, either slowing enemies down or killing low health targets.

Strengths + Very high damage ( Spinning Axe) + VERY high snowballing potential ( League of Draven) + Good follow-up ( Blood Rush+ Stand Aside+ Whirling Death) + Very good in medium length fights + Good synergy with Font of Life + DRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAVEN

Weaknesses - Alright mobility ( Blood Rush) - Very predictable fighting pattern ( Spinning Axe's catch area) - No sustain (Unless Draven uses Fleet Footwork) - Besides Stand Aside, Draven delivers nothing but damage - Bad from behind

Even at level 1 are the two fairly strong, although Draven is the core reason why. As long as it gets Draven some sort of advantage or kill, he will only get stronger. Their level 2 spikes insanely hard due to Draven being able to run faster towards the enemy and Lissandra getting her proper engage tools. The last proper spike is at level 6 as Lissandra can keep enemies locked up even longer, increasing the potential for kills

Strengths + Big cheese potential ( Ambush) + Camouflage can enable escapes ( Ambush) + Good shielding ( Help, Pix!) and buffing ( Whimsy's attack speed + Pix, Faerie Companion's additional damage) + Good disengage ( Whimsy's polymorph + Wild Growth's knock-up, slow and HP buff) + Exceptionally good in longer, clumped up fights ( Deadly Venom + Contaminate + Spray and Pray + Lulu) + Flexibility in build ( Twitch can go either AP or AD)

Weaknesses - Low mobility - No sustain (Unless Twitch uses Fleet Footwork) - Fairly predictable if anticipated (Infamous Lulu+ Twitch combo) - Control Wards reveal camouflage - Mediocre neutral game - Second Wind is a very good sustain counter when only 1 stack of Deadly Venom is applied (Exception: AP Twitch) - I WAS HIDING! HAHAHAHA GR

• With Draven's lack of crowd control, Lissandra compliments that well due to her abundance of crowd control
• Similar to Jhin, Draven can follow up your engages well by running faster towards the enemy with Blood Rush and keeping them slow a bit longer with Stand Aside
• If Draven wants one enemy dead, Lissandra can tell that enemy to not move
• Once Draven is ahead, he will be focused down. Yet again, due to Lissandra's crowd control and potential item choices, she can keep him alive

Similar to the last match-up, both of these junglers aim for early advantages in order to snowball. In this case, the difference is that Kha'Zix scales well but doesn't have to win the early game as hard as Rek'Sai. Rek'Sai also doesn't scale well at all. As a trade-off, Rek'Sai can see hidden enemies with Burrow, use Unburrow to knock enemies up and gank from uncommon angles with her Tunnel, similar to Zac.

In Kha'Zix's case, he needs either evolved Void Spike, overextention or a CC-heavy teammate to successfully gank, potentially giving the enemy team time until level 6 before he ganks.

Warding against Kha'Zix is similar to other junglers. In the case of Rek'Sai, uncommon ganking spots where she can use her Tunnel should be warded.




One word: Aggression. Draven relies on him cashing out from his passive League of Draven and getting as much gold as possible to buy as many items as possible soon as possible possible, thus snowballing the game. It does not matter if Lissandra dies in the process, it matters that Draven gets ahead and uses the item advantage to dish out tremendous amounts of damage.

In order to do that, a level 2 push is mandatory as every single advantage in lane needs to be grasped. Draven should be throwing Spinning Axes at the enemy whenever possible while Lissandra can throw a few Ice Shard's at the enemy. Rinse and repeat until an engage is possible.

Despite this clear game plan, they should not fall for any cheese tactics by Twitch and Lulu. Ideally, Lulu's mana pool should be depleted by forcing her to shield frequently or the shield might prevent a kill. Even engages have to be thought out because of Lulu's Whimsy polymorph, otherwise she can prevent Draven from dealing damage.

Most importantly, the enemy cannot be allowed to reach the mid to late game as Twitch and Lulu scale really well because of Spray and Pray and the buffs Lulu can provide.

Strengths + Very good DPS with Noxious Blast into Twin Fangs + Miasma grounds enemies, denying movement abilities + Good defensive tools ( Miasma+ Petrifying Gaze) + Very good in long fights + Above average sustain ( Noxious Blast+ Twin Fang) + Snek

Weaknesses - Modest mobility ( Noxious Blast + Serpentine Grace) - Extremely mana hungry/useless without mana - Cannot buy boots and its upgrades( Serpentine Grace) - Sustain requires AP ( Twin Fang) - No synergy with Font of Life

Level 2 enables Cassiopeia to deal proper damage as Twin Fang's empowered damage only applies on targets poisioned by either Noxious Blast or Miasma*. Aided by Lissandra's Ring of Frost, Cassiopeia will have an easy time hitting mentioned poision spells and unleashing Twin Fang's onto the enemy. It is important to mention that this has to be done sparingly before Cassiopeia has respectable amounts of mana since spamming Twin Fang costs 50-42 mana each cast.
It is thereby advised to either turn in a win with this risk or wait for Cassiopeia to return with enough mana from items or runes; around level 6 onwards tends to be when she has enough mana for longer fights. So either small engages/punishments or any plays from level 6 onwards, provided enough mana.
_{*Technically any poision will do, so either Teemo, Singed or Twitch can help out as well}

Strengths + High DPS ( Deadly Plumage) + Very high backloaded damage ( Bladecaller( + Lots of lockdown ( Death Sentence+ Flay+ The Box+ Bladecaller) + Save potential + low shielding ( Dark Passage) + Very good in longer, clumped up fights ( Deadly Plumage+ Bladecaller) + Untargetability on Featherstorm + Clean Cuts feathers + Thresh never becomes useless

Weaknesses - Low mobility ( Featherstorm) - No sustain (Unless Xayah uses Fleet Footwork) - Missed Bladecaller removes a lot of damage - Death Sentence has a fairly high cooldown early

• As per usual with DPS powerhouses, they need peel and/or lockdown to enable dishing our their damage. Lissandra can provide these necessary attributes
• Due to AP items being more versatile than crit items, Cassiopeia can afford to build defensive items like Banshee's Veil, Zhonya's Hourglass or Seraph's Embrace, giving Lissandra a bit more time to react to all kinds of plays by the enemy
• The combination of Miasma onto any target hit by crowd control by Lissandra can secure kills due to Miasma's grounded effect

Ivern's gameplan is to be at the right place at the right time in his own way - saving a teammate with Triggerseed and Brushmaker or being a general annoyance with Daisy! or Rootcaller. With the low cost that enchanter items come with, he can help out the team fairly early and arguably way more than more raw damage.

Bel'Veth, on the other hand, is interested in scaling up Death in Lavender's strength with stacks and on-hit items to provide her tremendous amounts of DPS in the late game. Post 6, her goal is securing void objectives like Rift Herald or Baron Nashor because of Endless Banquet. Her empowered form enables her to spawn her (cute) little minions, giving her a ton of pushing power. Regardless, she has fairly little interest in ganking early, although if obvious ganking opportunities arise, she can provide plenty.

In both cases, the usual warding spots should help out.



The core idea is surviving the laning phase and getting into the mid to late game. Cassiopeia needs gold to buy items in order to furnish her high amount of possible magic dps. This does not mean that early fights cannot be taken: Given enough mana, Noxious Blast into Twin Fang spam hurts even early on - add the inability for the enemy to use movement abilities and maybe a bit of jungle help and impossible laning phases can turn into exceedingly good laning phases.

Mentioned situation will sadly rarely happen - with Thresh's identity as a hook champion, bad positioning or engages will be punished severly, guaranteeing kills or wasted summoner spells for the enemy. Even seemingly good engages can be foiled because of Xayah's untargetability or Thresh's Dark Passage. The only saving grace is that Dark Passage and Flash get denied by the grounded effect by Miasma.



As formerly adressed, the amount of match-ups are endless*. The aim of this segment was to give a rough idea of analysing a match-up and deciding what the game plan for laning phase is - knowing your lane partner's strenghts, weaknesses, strong phases, power spikes and assumed behaviour. The same deal goes for the enemy and their behaviour. This knowledge should aid in knowing what the goal of laning phase is and lead to a winning lane.

As shown by the stark contract between the Draven and the Cassiopeia lane, a winning lane can change drastically: Draven wants aggression to snowball, Cassiopeia wants to survive laning phase. Having a combined bot score of 2/1/5 for your bot vs 3/1/6 for the enemy bot does not mean that you have lost your lane. To use the comparison again, the Draven lane might not be as successful as the Cassiopeia lane as the goals of "lots of kills early" versus "survive laning phase" differ.

In any case, laning phase tends to end after turrets have fallen and people roaming across the map, eagerly awaiting either 5v5 teamfights, rigorous splitpushing in a 1-3-1 fashion or getting objectives like Dragon, Rift Herald or Baron Nashor. This is around 15-20 minutes, plus/minus 2-3 minutes.

With this chapter, I'm hoping that you, the reader, have seen the basics of how to identify strengths and weaknesses of each laner (and potentially every champion!), how to behave in a lane and identifying what the win con of each respective lane is.

This concludes the "Laning Phase" section of the Playstyle chapter. In the following chapter, we will talk about the mid- to lategame behaviour of Lissandra support.