Lissandra - The Ice Witch: Which icy path will you take?

Lissandra - The Ice Witch

Lissandra is the newest arrival to the Fields of Justice and is the champion to gain most summoners attention before its release. Lissandra is the third and last princess of the Freljord, she is a high damage mage that carries a huge amount of crowd control that benefits to both securing kills in lane and in team fights. In this article I’m going to explore the items you can build on a top, mid and a support Lissandra and why the items are a good choice for later.

For the top and mid lane, I recommended to build:

Starting with boots, the Sorcerer’s shoes. With the 15 magic penetration you receive from these boots you can ensure yourself that Lissandra will deal true damage to the opponent in the early game allowing her to shred the enemies health down and guarantee kills before they can buy magic resistance to react to it. The movement speed increase she also gains from the Sorcerer’s shoes will help her mobility and disengage from the enemy as well as picking up the kills. Combining Lissandra’s Ice Shard (Q) or Ring of Frost (W) with the Sorcerer’s shoes she can impair or completely disable the enemies movement which will allow her to get away from the enemy safely or engage in for the kill with Glacial Path (E).

Liandry’s Torment is a great item to build as a first or second pick on Lissandra since it helps her out with her sustain and damage output. The 300 health you gain on this item helps Lissandra last longer in fights, become a bigger impact and to deal more damage to the enemy. The 50 ability power this item also gives works well with her passive allowing her to burst her opponents down much faster. Due to her Ice Shard (Q) and her Ultimate, Lissandra will deal double damage from Liandry’s Torment’s passive since when the enemies movement is impaired it will deal double damage which will burn 6% of the enemies health over 3 seconds.

Pairing the Liandry’s Torment with Rylai’s Crystal Sceptre is a perfect match for Lissandra. With the 500 health you gain from this item you get a total of 800 health from the pair so she’s now not only hard to catch but also hard to kill. From this item she also gains 80 ability power which will help her considerably, on top of that Rylai’s passive will slow the target’s movement speed by 35% for 1.5seconds. The slow from Rylai’s Crystal Sceptre stacks with the slows Lissandra automatically has on her Ice Shard and Ultimate but this does add a slow to her Glacial Path (E). This now results in every single one of her skills to have some kind of crowd control on them and Liandrys passive will activate on every skill she casts.

Another great item for Lissandra is the Morellomonicon. This item gives Lissandra 75 ability power, 20 cooldown reduction and 15 mana regeneration resulting in having a total of 120 ability power allowing her to have much more burst onto her enemies. As well as the ability power, her lack of mana will be eased with this item and she will have the ability to use her skills such as, Ring of Frost (W) and Glacial Path (E) much more frequently due to this. The Morellomonicon also has a rather nifty passive, when an enemy drops below 40% health she can inflict grievous wounds for 4 seconds which reduces healing and regeneration rates by 50%. Overall, this item will allow Lissandra to burst down her enemies quicker and easier once they get below 40% health having a greater chance of ensuring a kill.

Rabadon’s Deathcap and Deathfire Grasp are incredibly good items on Lissandra. Starting with the Rabadon’s Deathcap, it gives 120 ability power and then has a passive which increases Lissandra’s ability power by 30%. This boosts her total ability power over 200 and will burst the target’s down incredibly fast and picking up kills along the way and with Lissandra’s Glacial Path she can then escape before her health gets too low.

The second item to look into is the Deathfire Grasp, it gives 120 ability power identical to that of the Rabadon’s Deathcap but the Deathfire Grasp also gives 10 cooldown reduction and a active that deals 15% of the target’s maximum health in magic damage then amplifies all magic damage they take by 20% for 4 seconds. This item is overall similar to the Rabadon’s, the cooldown reduction this item gives benefits massively to Lissandra’s ultimate which will now be as functional as the Zhonya’s Hourglass and if all of Lissandra’s skills are on cooldown you still have the active from the Deathfire Grasp to lay that little extra damage and maybe secure a kill for yourself or for a teammate.

All offensive items always have a defensive item. Here, the best items for Lissandra would be the Guardian Angel and Zhonya’s Hourglass. Since Lissandra is a squishy target in team fights the Guardian Angel’s 50 armor and 30 magic resist is beneficial for her. For her to stay in team fights as long as possible she needs to have the survivability to do so and her presence is incredibly important due to the amount of crowd control she withholds. Along with the armor and magic resist the Guardian Angel will revive her among death with 50% of her health remaining, this will allow Lissandra to help clean up the team fights and help assist her teammates in securing more kills as well as keeping them alive as well.

The Zhonya’s Hourglass, this item isn’t that important since Lissandra has her ultimate but the 50 armor she gains is exactly the same as she would gain wearing the Guardian Angel, and instead of the magic resist she gains another 120 ability power which adds onto the 120 ability gained from either the Rabadon’s Deathcap/Deathfire Grasp which boosts Lissandra by 240 ability power just by two items. The active on Zhonya’s hourglass is identical to casting Lissandra’s ultimate, this makes Lissandra invulnerable and untargetable for 2.5seconds. This item in general will make Lissandra a very overpowered champion to deal with since when you’re battling her if she gets too low she can either Ultimate and Glacial Path/Ring of Frost away or cast Zhonya’s and then her allies can jump in to initiate on the team fight and she can escape safely.

Other items that can be built on Top/ Mid Lane Lissandra:

Athene’s Unholy Grail

Athene’s Unholy Grail is one optional item that can be taken instead of the Morellomonicon it gives 60 ability power, 20 cooldown reduction, 40 magic resistance and 14 mana regeneration. This item also gives two passives that restores 12% of your maximum mana on kill or assist and increases your mana regeneration by 1% per 1% mana you are missing. This item is aimed more towards a mid lane Lissandra where she'd be going against heavy AP laners such as Diana or Lux where she'd need a lot of magic resistance to keep herself in lane without being harassed out. Also, having enough mana and cooldown reduction is vital since Lissandra will want to out trade and force the opponent out of the lane early so she can pressure for a early turret.

Void Staff

 

The Void Staff is another great optional item on Lissandra, it gives 70 ability power and 35% magic penetration. In the later part of the game this will allow Lissandra to shred through the tankiest enemies magic resist and burst them down much quicker than before as well as laying all the crowd control she owns she will be extremely beneficial and the main threat to the enemy.

Abyssal Sceptre

Another great defensive item for Lissandra is the Abyssal Sceptre this allows her to still deal a huge amount of damage to the enemy as well as reducing the damage she recieves. The Abyssal Sceptre grants Lissandra 70 ability power, 30 magic resist and owns a passive aura that reduces the surrounding enemy champions magic resist by 20. Pairing this item with Liandrys Torment, Lissandra will be able to deal as much damage as possible to the enemies, freezing them with her Ultimate, combined with her Ring of Frost and then repeatedly casting her Ice Shard will make her hugely important in team fights and producing successful ganks. The magic resist aura will also reduce the enemies magic resist to everyone on her team so if any of her allies deal ability power they will also be able to deal more damage to the enemy with a 20 magic resist difference.

To Summarize:

This whole build will benefit too Lissandra is many ways, it will keep her sustain up in lane and still give her the ability to deal enough damage to clear minions and harass her opponent. She gains a lot of mobility which allows her to lurk around the map with her Glacial Path and still have presence in lane ganks and team fights. All her mana issues will be sorted as well as earning enough cooldown reduction to be a big impact with her ultimate and Ring of Frost to deny movement to the enemies and poke with Ice Shard.

For the traditional support lane, I recommended to build:

 

Playing as a support Lissandra has many optional choices of boots depending on who she is going against and the play style whether Lissandra is going to be a traditional support or an offensive support. Lissandra’s best choices for boots are the Mercury Treads if you’re against a heavy ap composition where the magic resist from the boots will help Lissandra be able to stay in lane longer to assist her ad carry. Ninja Tabi is a great choice if you’re against a heavy ad composition, especially in the ad carry and support lane such as Graves and Caitlyn this will allow her to focus more on her ad carry than herself. Sorcerer’s shoes are a choice she can take if you want her to be an offensive support being able to hurt the opponent but still being able to keep your ad carry safe. The last choice is the Mobility boots these are good if you feel like you’re going to be moving around the map a lot and need extra movement speed to get from A to B.

The Ruby Sightstone, support’s number one item that they take to the battlefield. Buying this item early on in the game will give Lissandra 360 health and 5 sight wards which will automatically be refilled when she returns to base. The item has a unique active “Ghost Ward” that consumes a charge to place an invisible Sight ward that will reveal the surrounding area for 3 minutes and you have a maximum of 3 wards placed from this item at once. This allows Lissandra to have much more control of the map and will also allow her to stay in lane longer as well as having more space and money to buy other items to ensure her survivability throughout the game.

The first practical item to build on support Lissandra would be Shurelya’s Reverie. This item is built from the Philosopher’s Stone and getting that item early game she’d have extra income of gold as well as 7 health regeneration and 9 mana regeneration so if you do happen to fall behind in game the Philosopher’s Stone will keep the gap smaller. When upgraded to Shurelya’s Reverie Lissandra gains 250 health, 10 health regeneration, 10 mana regeneration, a 10% cooldown reduction and an active that gives all nearby allies 20% movement speed. This item will help Lissandra and her ad carry out 100%, the health and mana regeneration will allow Lissandra to stay in the back lines, spam her skills and Glacial Path to the enemy to take down the enemy ad carry or support. The 250 health and the 10% cooldown reduction will help her become tankier and more of a pest in team fights as well as when a team fight doesn’t specifically go the way it’s meant to she can activate the Shurelya’s Reverie so her and her allies can get away safely.

The Locket of the Solari is another popular pick on any support. It grants Lissandra 35 armor, 10 cooldown reduction, 300 health and 10 health regeneration. The armor and health the item gives allows Lissandra to be much tankier in lane and allow her to stay and harass the opponents much longer, pairing them with the 10 health regeneration and 10 cooldown reduction she will now have 20 health regeneration from two of her items making her fully capable of being a lane bully and due to her health regeneration she can focus more on keeping her ad carry alive, laying down crowd control effects to secure kills for her ad carry and other allies she may assist throughout the laning phase. Above this, the item has a shield that will absorb 50 + 10 per level damage on all surrounding allies for 5 seconds this overall combined with Lissandra’s Ring of Frost or Ultimate she can disable the enemies from moving, activate Shurelya’s to get a gap between herself, her allies and the enemy and then activate the Locket’s active to give them extra survivability getting away from team fights and losing members.

This is another defensive item that guarantees Lissandra and her allies that extra survivability during lane ganks and teamfights. The Runic Bulwark is built from the Aegis of the Legion and when upgraded it gives 20 armor, 300 health and 30 magic resistance to Lissandra making her much more effective in team fights. This item is hugely valuable against heavy AP champions since Lissandra needs to survive in team fights to set up kills and to keep her allies alive with the amount of crowd control she owns. The Runic Bulwark also obtains an aura that’s valuable to Lissandra’s allies boosting them by 10 armor, 25 magic resist and 10 health regeneration, pairing this item with hopefully the jungler’s Aegis of the Legion or Runic Bulwark everyone on the team will be gaining a lot of magic resist and armor allowing them to have much more survivability and be a bigger pest. Along with this Lissandra’s skills will prolong the enemy getting to the team quicker and allow the ranged champions to hammer down on them.

The last item that will be good on Lissandra is the Shard of True Ice. It gives Lissandra 45 ability power so she can hurt a little more and help burn down enemy champions when needed. Due to Shard of True Ice being built via Kage’s Lucky Pick this allows her to get almost double income with the Philosopher’s Stone early game so losing a lane will not affect her and when you have upgraded to Shard of True Ice you still have the gold increase on Lissandra which will help her stay in the game longer even if she does get pushed out. Along with the gold increase she has an aura which allows allies to gain 6 mana regen per 5 seconds so now in the later game there shouldn’t be any mana issues among any of the team. The item also withholds an active, allowing Lissandra to cast a blizzard around an ally for 4 seconds and if any enemy makes contact with that ally they will be slowed by 30% allowing Lissandra to maintain more crowd control and to keep her allies safer.

Other items that can be built on Support Lissandra:

Zeke’s Herald

 

One optional item for support Lissandra is Zeke’s Herald, it makes her tankier with 250 health and allows her to cast Glacial Path into team fights and cause chaos without dying instantly. The item also grants her 20 cooldown reduction, which, at this point of the game will only make a greater impact to her ultimate allowing her to use it much more and set up kills or team fights for her allies. Zeke’s Herald will also benefit to her allies gaining them 20 attack damage and 10% life steal whenever Lissandra is surrounding them allowing them to have much more sustain resulting in them to be much harder to shred down and especially beneficial for her ad carry stacking onto the existing life steal she owns as well.

Banner of Command

The last optional item for a Traditional Lissandra support would be the Banner of Command granting her 40 ability power and 30 armor and 10 cooldown reduction. This will give Lisssandra a little extra ability power similar to the Shard of True Ice allowing her to have a little more impact in team fights. The difference between them is that the Banner of Command gains you 30 armor as well making Lissandra harder to kill especially as she can get away by combining her Ring of Frost and Glacial Path or by activating either her Shurelya’s Reverie or Locket of the Solari to give her more survivability. The 10 cooldown reduction isn’t needed at this point of the game since all Lissandra’s skills will be spammable and her ultimate will be down to a cooldown of 1 minute, identical to that of Zhonya’s active. The aura and active on this item doesn’t benefit to Lissandra’s allies but to her surrounding minions in lane which makes this item less popular since it can’t benefit too her allies but will allow Lissandra to help push the lanes by transforming a siege minion into a much more powerful unit and Lissandra will get all gold that the minion gains off this.

To Summarize:

This build overall gives the survivability needed to herself and her allies as well as still allowing herself to be a big and major part of team fights carrying a lot of crowd control with her to secure kills and assists on lane ganks and team fights. Along with this, this also still allows her to be mobile across the map and still assist allies when needed. This is just a build for a traditional support, Lissandra can be build as an offensive support combining items from a traditional supports build with a mid or top lane build.

 

Thanks for Reading!

Bemmie.