Lissandra is a ranged caster that specializes in Crowd Control moves. She has a completely unique skill set that brings power and control to her fights, making her a valuable asset for any team. She can lock down multiple targets at once and deal massive AoE damage. She can also give off a root, a stun, and a slow to enemies, locking them down. She does have a slight mana issue early game, and can easily be countered by long-ranged champions. She also has a low base armor, making her susceptible to AD mid and top champions. Lissandra is a pretty hard champion to learn, but with time, practice, and of course this guide, you'll be freezing circles around enemies in no time!

I'm back! This is MikenIkey and thank you for looking at "Frozen in Style | Guide to Lissandra". This is my second guide on Mobafire, and I am trying to make it as useful and informative for everyone out there to use. Lissandra is a new champion, but her unique role and abilities makes her a force to be reckoned with.

With this guide, there is a lot of information about mana and items and whatnot. My goal, with this guide, is not just figuring out how to play Lissandra, but solving the problem of playing an aggressive Lissandra. For a more passive player, you probably will not need as much mana, mana-regeneration, or health, and so you can use different items that only focus on more damage. However, I am also trying to figure out how to play Lissandra with a lot of aggression. I will try to point out which items work for which playstyle and why.

I would appreciate it if everyone who reads through this could give both positive and negative feedback. Feel free to upvote or downvote this guide, depending on how you see the content. It would help a lot, though, if you could explain why you are upvoting or downvoting this guide so I can make adjustments accordingly.

This Guide is aimed at:

• Help you learn more about Lissandra
• Help you learn how to build Lissandra and use her abilities to the fullest potential
• Give tips and tricks to unlocking Lissandra's fullest potential

I would also like to personally thank you for checking out my guide, and I hope you like what you see/read!


After many more hours of testing and coding, I have finally reworked this guide to where I think it should be. Of course, I'll be making many more changes to come such as adding more information as well as pictures and video, but I feel like I have made this more useful and more helpful than before. Without further ado, I present to you "Frozen in Style | Guide to Lissandra."

About the jungle Lissandra, here's what I have to say about it. Reason I had it is because my friend and I saw she was mainly AoE, and that Glacial Path + Ring of Frost offers great ganks. So we tried it. Jungle Lissandra can be done, but it is not viable at this time. Perhaps if she gets a buff in base stats or cooldowns, it might be viable, but until then, it IS NOT. That being said, still feel free to try it out if you want. It's fun jungling her if you can do it correctly. It just should not be done in ranked or anytime you are playing very seriously.

In order to understand Lissandra more, first, we need to review her base stats and what they do for her.

Health: 365 (+84 per level) Health Regen.: 6 (+0.55 per level) Mana: 210 (+50 per level) Mana Regen. 4.6 (+0.4 per level) Range: 550

Attack Damage: 48 (+2.7 per level) Attack Speed: 0.625 (+1.36% per level) Armor: 10 (+3.7 per level) Magic Res.: 30 (+0) Movement Speed: 325

Now, let's go over each stat and recognize how it plays out for Lissandra.

• Health: With a start of 449 health, we can notice right off the bat that Lissandra doesn't have much health at all. This means that you need to be efficient at dodging harass and stay out of fights as long as possible.
• Health Regen: Her starting health regeneration is 6.55. That's not too bad at all. It helps out a bit when you are being careful and only taking minimal harass.
• Mana: Lissandra has a starting mana pool of 260, not very high at all for an AP based player. With the cost of Ice Shard being 85 mana, you can only use it 3-4 times before running out of mana. Luckily, this is where her passive comes into play, allowing her to use one spell in the early levels for free every 18 seconds or less.
• Mana Regen: 5? Ouch. This is one of the lowest base mana regeneration in the entire game. At level 1, this means it takes 85 seconds to recharge enough mana from one Ice Shard. Luckily, our passive comes into play again, so really this is only a problem if you play aggressively. To fix this, you can get two Faerie Charms and Meditation bringing it up to 14, shortening the time down to 30.35 seconds.
• Range, AD, and AS: We aren't really worried about these since we the only thing we use these for is last hitting.
• Armor: Lissandra has a base armor of 14, the third lowest in the game. This means she is extremely vulnerable against top champions and AD mids. This is one problem that has to be solved right away, generally by getting Greater Seal of Armor.
• Magic Resist: Magic resist is constant, so the only thing to help with that is getting more magic resist.
• Movement Speed: With a movement speed of 325, she has one of the lowest base movement speeds. However, this isn't much of a problem. It is still easy enough to dodge skillshots from champions, and you have Glacial Path/ Flash as escapes. Still, try band get boots early on if you can.

Now that we properly understand Lissandra, we can begin to provide the numerous ways on how to help these problems and what these problems mean for us.

Pros Great synergy with Zhonya's Hourglass Reliable gap closer/escape High amount of CC Massive AoE Incredibly strong ganks Short cool down Q Passive to help with mana problems

Cons Squishy early game Very long cooldowns Immobile if ult is self-cast Mana hungry during early game Predictable escape Slow clear times for jungle

On Lissandra, there are two different mastery combinations I choose from, depending on what lane that I am playing her in.







Offensive Tree

• Sorcery It's cooldown reduction. This helps out early since she has such long cooldowns.
• Blast Bonus Ability Power. We always want more Ability Power.
• Arcane Knowledge Simple magic penetration. This allows Lissandra to do some poke damage that sticks.
• Havoc Gives us more overall damage, furthering our usefulness.
• Mental Force Grants us early AP.
• Spellsword Gives our autoattacks a little more deadliness
• Archmage Takes all of our AP and adds 5% to it. This is a must for more damage late-game.
• Executioner This will grant ourselves some extra damage to finish off low-level targets.

Utility Tree

• Summoner's Insight Allows more usage of Flash for securing kills or escaping death.
• Meditation Lissandra is very mana hungry, so this helps with that problem.
• Expanded Mind Grants us some early mana and then scales into more for the late game.
• Improved Recall Takes 1 second off of Recall, which will let us get out of sticky situations faster
• Runic Affinity Gives us more time to use blue buff

With Lissandra, she has a base movement speed of 325, which is just about the most terrible movement speed in the game. However, she also has mana problems if you plan on playing her aggressively. In the Utility tree, you can take either Wanderer or Meditation . With Meditation , this allows you to have a more aggressive playstyle without running out of mana as fast. You are also just fast enough to dodge skillshots if you are very aware of them. If you want more movement speed, however, you can put 3 points into Wanderer . However, this means that your early game playstyle cannot be as aggressive, since you don't have as much early mana regen.






Defensive Tree

• Perseverance Gives her a little bit of health regen for extra sustain.
• Durability Grants Lissandra more health.
• Hardiness Grants Lissandra some armor to help out against AD champions.
• Veteran's Scars +30 health. More early game survivability.

When going against AP top champions, such as Rumble or Singed, I put 3 points into Resistance instead of Hardiness .

Greater Mark of Magic Penetration- This is pretty easy to explain. Lissandra is an AP based champion, and so I take Greater Mark of Magic Penetration in order to deal more damage to minions and champions. There is really no good alternative for these. Greater Seal of Armor- For mid lane, I take flat armor seals in order to bolster Lissandra's horrid armor. With the new change in meta, and AD Mids a much more common thing, this will help greatly. It is also possible to take Greater Seal of Mana Regeneration as this will allow a much more aggressive playstyle and makes it easier to farm. Greater Glyph of Scaling Ability Power- I take scaling ability power glyphs to help out with my damage in the late game. While it offers a tiny bit of ability power early, it grants a lot of ability power in the late game, where it is most important. Three alternate rune choices could be Greater Glyph of Ability Power for more early game damage, Greater Glyph of Cooldown Reduction for some early CDR, or Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist for more survivability against AP Mids. Greater Quintessence of Ability Power- I take flat AP Quints in order to deal some damage during the early game and gain a slight advantage as well as clear minion waves faster and get some damage to stick.

Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist- I take scaling ability power glyphs to help out with my damage in the late game. While it offers a tiny bit of ability power early, it grants a lot of ability power in the late game, where it is most important. Three alternate rune choices could be Greater Glyph of Ability Power for more early game damage and early help in the jungle, Greater Glyph of Cooldown Reduction for some early CDR, or Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist for more survivability against AP Mids.

I would almost never play Lissandra without having Flash. The only exception would be in the jungle, and even then I use this almost all of the time. While laning, Flash can save you from some sticky situations. With a pretty low movement speed and base armor, ganks are pretty strong against her. With Flash, you can escape relatively easily and save yourself from death. Flash can also be used offensively to get in range of a Ring of Frost or a Frozen Tomb and land a kill. During the late-game, it can be used to get out after you've cast Frozen Tomb or to chase down a fleeing enemy. Flash has a wide range of usefulness, and should almost always be taken.



Ignite is the other Summoner Spell you will take almost all the time. It is a finisher spell/counter-tank spell. Ignite automatically gives you an advantage in lane. With it, you'll be able to secure early kills that you might have missed otherwise. Automatic true damage that also prevents rapid healing? This is a great finisher to your combos. When in team fights, Ignite has more usefulness as an anti-tank spell. Use it on an enemy tank that regenerates health quickly in order to kill them easier or the enemy ADC to prevent them from having life steal. You should almost always take this, especially in top lane against tankier champions.






Exhaust is an ok summoner spell to use on Lissandra. It doesn't have much use in the early game, since most people you won't be going against will rely on autoattacks. It is a good escape tool early game. Late game, though, is where this shines. It can be used in order to catch up to enemies and hit them a few times with Ice Shard or freeze them with Ring of Frost.
Summoner spell to replace: Ignite when laning, Flash when jungling.



Ghost is ok on Lissandra for the same reasons as Exhaust. It lets her catch up to enemies and hit them with Ice Shard, Frozen Tomb, or Ring of Frost, or can be used as an escape tool. This one has more usefulness early game and less late game.

Summoner spell to replace: Either



Teleport is an alright spell for Lissandra when she is in the top lane. This will let her get down to secure Dragon, gank an unsuspecting bot lane, or travel back to lane for a slight advantage. This doesn't have much usefulness if Lissandra is in the mid lane, since she'll be kind of equi-distant from everything, but it can be powerful in top lane.
Summoner spell to replace: Ignite



Barrier can be a great escape tool for Lissandra. Since she has a low base armor and health, this can be used in order to escape a life threatening gank or not get completely popped in the middle of a teamfight. Since the shield only grows in value, Barrier can be useful throughout the entire game.
Summoner spell to replace: Ignite






Clarity restores mana to yourself and surrounding allies. This can be very useful to Lissandra during the early game, but it will fall off during the late-game, so only take it if you plan to get ahead early. Using Clarity can allow yourself to stay in lane for longer or land the spell and claim a kill. It's not very useful overall, so I don't recommend it as much.



Heal doesn't work very well with Lissandra simply because it is taking the spot of other summoner spells that are much better. The healing is kind of minimal and is easily countered by Ignite. There are much better choice than Heal.






Clairvoyance is not a good summoner spell to take on Lissandra. Compared to Flash, it does not offer enough in order to replace Flash with this. Clairvoyance, if taken by anyone, should be reserved to your support.



Cleanse wouldn't be worth taking as a summoner spell on Lissandra. She has enough escapes/gap closers in order to counteract CC, plus she has her ultimate to use on herself in a tricky situation.



This wouldn't be worth your while, since it doesn't do much except in the very late-game when the enemy is pushing down our Nexus. Revive shouldn't be taken on Lissandra. This doesn't help her much, and will take the place of a more important summoner spell.

Iceborn- (Passive) 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). Cooldown: 18 seconds Iceborn is an interesting passive. Though it helps out with some mana cost issues since Lissandra has very high mana costs, the cooldown is incredibly high that it doesn't help out that much. That said, it is extremely great for a more passive player. The only good way to reduce the cooldown is to use Ring of Frost, but even that doesn't reduce it that much. If you can get into a good rhythm of using it right when it comes up during laning, it can prove to be kind of effective by not draining your mana as much. However, this passive is not as effective when playing an aggressive mana, since you drain mana incredibly fast. Otherwise, this is a great passive for laning and farming.

// First off, leashing. When you are playing mid, and even occasionally as top, you'll be required to leash. Generally, this means standing in the banana bush next to blue and then hitting if with an Ice Shard and some AAs. Well, you can control this passive in order to use no mana while leashing. First, it will proc when you use your first Ice Shard to damage wolves. So no mana used there. And since you hit wolves (hopefully), then that's automatically
one second less on cooldown, making it 16. Guess what spawns in 15 seconds? BLUE! So just wait another second, use another Ice Shard, and bam, you head to mid lane with a full bar of mana.

// This passive's cooldown is reduced by 1 second for each enemy affected by your CC. This comes in handy greatly when laning. Now, Ice Shard can only reset the cooldown by 1 second max. However, Ring of Frost can affect as many enemies as possible. If/when you use this to harass, make sure to hit minions too, since Iceborn's passive will then be reduced.

// When leaving the fountain to get back to lane, you can cast Glacial Path in order to get to lane a bit faster, and you'll still get there with full mana because of Iceborn.

// In general, try and abuse this passive. If offers a lot to her early game since you can control your mana consumption better and stay in lane longer.

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% AP) 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). Cooldown: 6/5.5/5/4.5/4 Range: 725 Cost: 85 mana Slow: 16%/19%/22%/25%/28% Ice Shard is Lissandra's main damage spell. It is used to farm, harass, and damage large clusters of enemies. The slow debuff it provides can be useful when chasing an enemy champion or trying to get away. The downside of this cost is its high mana cost, which prevents it from being spammed quite a bit at early levels. When farming with this skill, you want to line it up so that as many creeps are hit as possible per cast, and, if you can manage, the enemy champion.

// To start things off, the hit box. Ice Shard has an extremely narrow hit box compared to most other skills; therefore, we must be wary of this when trying to harass and farm and make sure we hit our mark. Otherwise, that's a waste of either her passive or 85 mana. It also has a much shorter range than what we would think, so always try and get the extended range boost on it by hitting minions. Using Ice Shard could be compared to Vi's Relentless Force, as it is the same concept.

// This, coupled with Ring of Frost, is a great kiting tool when you are consistent with hitting your slows. When you have obtained maximum cooldown reduction, the cooldown on Ice Shard is 2.4 seconds, so it's very spammable; thus, you can "stutter-step" (when you micro in such a fashion that you stop, shoot, then keep moving, basically stuttering your character) and kite with Ice Shard.

// This skill can be used to check bushes! While it won't provide vision of the area, you can see if it gets the extended range. If nothing happens, congrats! That bush is unoccupied. If the extra range comes off of Ice Shard, I'd recommend turning around, because an enemy is sitting there waiting for you.

Ring of Frost- Freezes an area around Lissandra, dealing 75/110/145/180/215 (+65% AP) magic damage to nearby enemies and rooting them. Cooldown: 18/16/14/12/10 Cost: 70 mana Root: 1.1/1.2/1.3/1.4/1.5 seconds Ring of Frost acts almost like a smaller Curse of the Sad Mummy. It freeze enemy champions in place. Granted, these champions can still use skills and attack, but they cannot move for the duration. Ring of Frost is a great skill for engaging in teamfights because it roots everyone in place, allowing yourself to catch up to fleeing enemies or advance on enemy carries. This has great synergy with Glacial Path since you can use that to get in the middle of everyone, and then Frozen Tomb since it practically guarantees that everyone will be in its range.

// One of the most common mistakes with Ring of Frost is the mentality that you must be standing almost right next to someone in order to use it. This puts you in danger of melee champions and also makes it easier for ranged champions to hit you with abilities. Instead, get familiar with the cast range and make sure you are near the edge of the cast range. This way you aren't in as much danger, but you can still root them.

// Kiting! That's right, kite away with Ring of Frost. With a slow on Ice Shard and the root on Ring of Frost, this is what can make Lissandra good in the top lane. With most melee champions, just get close to them, use Ring of Frost, and hit them with a good ol' slow from Ice Shard. You'll be able to land a few more Ice Shards probably before being in danger, while you walk away relatively unscathed!

// This is the main skill to bring the cooldown lower on your passive. When in laning, position yourself so you at least hit as many minions as possible, and if you can manage, the enemy champion. Generally, this will net you 4-6 seconds off of Iceborn, which in retrospect is quite a lot.

Glacial Path- Casts a claw of ice that moves forward in a line, dealing 70/115/160/105/250 (+60% AP) magic damage to all enemies hit. Reactivating this ability transports Lissandra to the claw's current location. Cooldown: 24/21/18/15/12 Range: 1050 Cost: 80/85/90/95/100 mana Glacial Path is your gap closer, initiate, and escape. This is what you will use to travel around places and initiate fights. Glacial Path combos well with Ring of Frost and Frozen Tomb as well as Zhonya's Hourglass. With Glacial Path, you can clear minion waves in lines very fast. This skill does significant damage, so you can use it to harass. Great ways to use Glacial Path is to send it in one direction while escaping, then let them chase after it and continue running. It is possible to steal objectives such as Dragon and Baron with this by going over the wall and Smite stealing Dragon or Baron. The only problem is that this leaves you vulnerable to the enemy team, so you better hope they are close to you.

// Using well-placed and well-timed Glacial Paths is partly what separates the GOOD Lissandra players and the OK Lissandra players. The most common misconception/complaint is that Glacial Path is hard to hit enemy champions with since it's so slow. News Flash: This is NOT a damaging tool. You should not be trying to harass/poke with Glacial Path. It's so slow and has such a long cooldown that using it in this way leaves you vulnerable for a long time. The only time you should use it to farm is hitting minions in a line to try and wave clear before going somewhere else (roaming, recalling, dragon/baron).

// Glacial Path Paths! This skill is SO useful partly because of the great ganking/escape routes it offers. Take, for example, the giant rocks on the Purple side of bot lane and the Blue side of top lane. Glacial Path let's Lissandra go through those and end up behind the enemy champion. Glacial Path is also so long that Lissandra can pass through TWO walls in some areas, making escapes even better.

// The Flash Glacial Path Combo! Now, this one's going to require some skill and practice if you want to pull it off correctly. When you are getting chased down and you have both Glacial Path and Flash up, there's a nifty trick you can use to get out. First, when you are next to a wall, aim your Glacial Path to end up in a bush. Then, quickly Flash over the small wall next to you. The enemy champions will most likely then try and chase you down from over the wall. But you aren't there! Why? Because after the Flash, you hit E again and transport safely into the bush, with the enemy confused to all ends. It's a difficult combo to pull off and requires fast action time, but done correctly, it can save your life.

// Escaping! Glacial Path is Lissandra's escape tool. So when someone ganks us, or we are in danger, we should just go ahead and send one of these off right? Nope! That's what the enemy THINKS we are going to do, and will expect it. Most people will just send off a Glacial Path and think they are safe. Well, you are pretty slow and it's predictable where Glacial Path lands. Therefore, before you use it, root your enemies with a Ring of Frost, and THEN send off Glacial Path. This will increase the distance between you and your enemies to a much safer distance.

Frozen Tomb- ENEMY CAST: Freezes target champion solid, dealing 150/300/450 (+70% AP) magic damage and stunning it for 1.5 seconds. SELF CAST: Lissandra encases herself in dark ice for 1.5 seconds, becoming untargetable and invulnerable but unable to take any actions. Dark ice then spreads from Lissandra's target dealing 150/300/450 (+70% AP) magic damage to enemies. The ice lasts for 3 seconds and slows enemy Movement Speed by 20%. Cooldown: 130/105/80 Cost: 100 mana Frozen Tomb is essentially what makes Lissandra so unique. With Frozen Tomb, you have two options: Cast it on yourself and make yourself invulnerable, or cast it on an enemy and watch them most likely die. With a 1.5 stun on one character and AoE damage, it is usually more beneficial to use it on an enemy AP or AD Carry to disable them from the fight. It is recommended to rush Zhonya's Hourglass so that you can ult an enemy and then cast Zhonya's, essentially casting your ult on an enemy AND yourself. This combo is deadly to the enemy and gives your team a great advantage to fight off of.

// The biggest question is: Do I ult myself or an enemy ADC/APC? Well, here's the answer: It's completely dependent on the situation. First off, using Frozen Tomb on an enemy AD Carry or AP Carry. What you should first identify is if either of them are pretty fed and doing most of the damage on the team. If so, then it would definitely be more beneficial to lock them down and get them out of the way. If the answer is no, then use it on yourself. You'll deal damage to ALL of your enemies instead of just one, become invulnerable, AND have that nice slow affecting all of your enemies.

// Frozen Tomb is a great skill to use defensively. Don't be afraid to use it to save your life. It has a relatively short cooldown, especially when you have cooldown reduction. There have been many times where I use it under tower to save myself from a Final Spark from Lux.

First, start off with Ice Shard because it provides good harass and farming ability. This is our main damage dealer/harass tool and so this is what we want to max first.

Upon reaching level 2, take one point in Ring of Frost. This will help boost the cooldown reduction for your passive and also helps in farming. A well-placed Flash and Ring of Frost and/or a good level 2 gank can net an early kill for you.

Upon level 3, I put another point into Ice Shard for the extra damage, cooldown reduction, and little more slow. This helps my damage stick, and you shouldn't really need your escape yet.

Finally, at level 4, I put a point into Glacial Path since this is our initiator/escape tool. If you reach 4 first, you can quickly send one of these towards the enemy, transport, and stun the enemy champion, possibly resulting in a kill for you. This combo grows to be very deadly and will help you out a lot.

We max Ice Shard first since it is our damage dealer and harass tool. Secondly, we max Ring of Frost for the large amount of cooldown reduction the, amount of damage it does, and the fact that it will hit more often than Glacial Path/used more for harass. Lastly, we max Glacial Path since it is only used to gap close and escape, is hard to use for damage since it's easy to dodge, and doesn't offer anything else to us when maxed besides CDR and damage, which will again rarely hit.

Obviously, we put a point into Frozen Tomb whenever possible since it's our ultimate.

This is Lissandra's main combo for fighting 1v1s. With this combo, Lissandra will be able to kill almost any relatively squishy champion from 100-0. It provides 3 forms of CC and is incredibly hard to get out of.

First, start off with an Ice Shard to deal some damage and possibly get the slow. Only damage works, but the slow is an added bonus.

Next, send off a Glacial Path towards the enemy champion. Remember, this is for positioning, NOT trying to deal damage. If you can set it up where both happen, then congratulations. But it is more important to get a good positioning than to deal damage with this.

Third, use a good Ring of Frost to root your enemy. This way, you can get into a good position, deal a good chunk of damage, and prevent them from escaping.

Lastly, hit them with a Frozen Tomb to deal a great amount of damage and stun them. This will render them completely useless. It's always good to Ignite them while they are in the Frozen Tomb. You can also use Ice Shard on them while they are trapped in order to deal extra damage and make sure they are dead. This combo is incredibly deadly late game.




This is Lissandra's harassing combo during the laning phase. It provides a good deal of damage without fully committing you to a fight. To start, hit the enemy with Ice Shard. To be safer, hit a minion with it first to get them with the extra range. Then, move up and root them with a Ring of Frost, which will let you hit them with another Ice Shard and then walk away.




This is the combo that works when kiting melee champions around. It requires you to hit your slows on Ice Shard, so make sure you can do that. First off, hit them with an Ice Shard directly, applying the slow.

Secondly, you are going to want to trap them in a Ring of Frost so they cannot chase you. After that, send out a Glacial Path away from them, but as soon as you can, reactivate it so that you don't go very far. This will get you a relatively safe distance away from them. And if they try to chase you, turn around, hit them with an Ice Shard, and walk away as they are slowed.




I call this combo the Freeze Dried combo simply because it stops your enemies in their tracks and generally allows you to walk away from damage while inflicting damage from Ice Shard and Ring of Frost on them. This combo is only one you want to use on enemies that have important skills with lengthy cooldowns.

To start off, you want to make sure that whatever skill that you're in danger of ( Null Sphere, Charm, Moonfall, etc.) is off cooldown. Skills such as these will stop your combo and allow you to take damage. Once you have baited once of these skills, or they are on cooldown for whatever reason, send out a Glacial Path towards the enemy.

Then, once you have transported close to them, use Ring of Frost to trap them. Immediately proceed to walk away from them, as the goal is to win a damage trade. As you are walking back, turn and blast them with an Ice Shard to deal damage and apply the slow. When done correctly, this combo will allow you to get off some harass while leaving you relatively unscathed.

Lissandra has the second lowest base mana regeneration out of any champion, and this especially affects us since she requires mana. Starting with Faerie Charms helps with that. Also, want to build into an early Chalice of Harmony, you generally want to start out with 2 Faerie Charms and 3 Health Potion.


Boots + 3 Health Potions is another common mid and top start. I DO NOT recommend this as much since Lissandra doesn't really need the early movement speed and will suffer early mana problems.



Doran's Ring is the last common AP start. This will help somewhat with Lissandra's mana problems since it offers mana regeneration, and will also give her more damage output. The only thing about starting with Doran's Ring is that this will leave you without any Health Potions, so you'll need to make sure you dodge harass.






On your first return to base, you should always have enough to buy the rest of your Chalice of Harmony. This item is essential to solving your mana problems. You don't have to upgrade it into Athene's Unholy Grail right away, but the Chalice of Harmony is a must early on to solve mana problems, especially if you are wanting to be aggressive.


We have two items that build from Fiendish Codex, Athene's Unholy Grail and Morellonomicon, both of which we will usually get. Therefore, picking up an early Fiendish Codex is not a bad idea. It provides a good deal of early cooldown reduction.


At this point, if you still have extra gold, but not enough to complete your Athene's Unholy Grail, then go ahead and buy a Doran's Ring. It will provide some extra damage and sustain.






Seeker's Armguard is an essential item on Lissandra, since it is used to build into Zhonya's Hourglass. The armor and ability power stacks on this item make it useful early on, and then you can upgrade it into Zhonya's Hourglass later for the bonuses that it offers.


More often than not, I grab Sorcerer's Shoes on Lissandra for the extra magic penetration they offer. These are the general boots for AP carry-types. Occasionally against a high CC team I might get Mercury's Treads, but then again, you also have your Glacial Path and Frozen Tomb to work against it.


This item is almost always taken for Lissandra because it covers her need for mana regeneration. I usually take Athene's Unholy Grail before grabbing boots because it offers magic resist, 20% CDR, and a large boost in mana regen. This allows you to harass, poke, and do whatever else you want to do with Lissandra.






Rabadon's Deathcap is generally compared to being the Infinity Edge of AP-based champions. Giving 120 AP, plus 30% increase on all AP, this boosts your damage output significantly. If you're going for more offensive-based play, this would be a core item.


Rod of Ages is an interesting item, with many debates about it. It provides 650 mana and health and 80 AP when fully charged. Now, with Rod of Ages, you should take this if you like extra sustainability on Lissandra. It gives her quite a bit more health. This is a good item to get if you like a tankier AP carry.
Note* Now, while most people will say this is a "core item," it is not. It is a preference item. Lissandra can be very good without use of this item.


Deathfire Grasp is a good offensive AP item on Lissandra. It gives out quite a bit of AP, enough for more damage on Ice Shard, and also gives a large bit of CDR. The active can also do a good deal of damage to enemy tanks.


Zhonya's Hourglass is my favorite AP item for Lissandra. It gives 50 armor, a rather good amount for an AP item, and also gives an incredible amount of AP at 120. In addition, it's active is great to use right in the middle of their team. I generally always get this item on Lissandra because it's great both offensively and defensively. The normal combo with this is to use Frozen Tomb on an enemy carry and the use Zhonya's Hourglass, protecting yourself and immobilizing a carry.


Void Staff is a good item for a large source of magic penetration. It offers the same amount of AP as Abyssal Mask, so when deciding between the two, look at the enemy composition. If they have a high amount of magic resist but not many AP champions, choose Void Staff. If they have a few damage-dealing AP champions, choose Abyssal Mask. This is better if enemy carries have magic resist OVER 100 AP.


Morellonomicon is a great item for Lissandra. It offers mana regeneration, a good amount of AP, and cooldown reduction. The passive from it is very useful in finishing off tanks like Nasus or Volibear, who are so dependent on health regeneration. This item gives Lissandra almost all the stats that she needs, and so it is practically a core item


Abyssal Mask is a great item on Lissandra. It is incredibly cost efficient and offers a great deal of both magic resist and magic penetration. When enemies don't have magic resist above 100, this is the item to use, since it is almost as effective as Void Staff, but also offers the magic resistance. Also, most of Lissandra's abilities are so short-ranged that enemies will almost always be in range for Abyssal Mask's passive.






Banshee's Veil is a good defensive item on Lissandra if you are in need of some more health and a large amount of magic resist. The shield is also very helpful if you can dodge pokes and keep it up until a large teamfight occurs.


Frozen Heart is the general defensive item that I build on AP carries. It gives an incredibly large amount of armor, 95. It also gives Lissandra 400 more mana to use at her disposal and will max out her cooldown reduction when combined with Athene's Unholy Grail. This is definitely a great item, especially if they have a high AD team.


Guardian Angel is generally the default carry item, since it grants you a second chance at life. It gives a good amount of armor and magic resist, but its true power lies in its passive of reviving you once every 5 minutes. I generally do not get this item on Lissandra since her Frozen Tomb (if used on yourself) and Zhonya's Hourglass should keep her alive, but it is viable to get this on her.

Liandry's Torment

I felt that explaining why this item is NOT a good choice needs an entire section, since I feel like it will bring up the most controversy/discussions. So let's take a look at Liandry's Torment. It costs 2900 gold, gives 50 Ability Power and 300 health. Now let's look at the passive, which deals 6% magic damage of current health to enemies, and doubles the effect when enemy movement is impaired. Now, let's compare to this to the items you will generally replace, Rod of Ages or Abyssal Mask. Rod of Ages costs 2800 gold, provides 650 health and mana when fully charged, and 80 Ability Power. As you can see, Rod of Ages is a better source of AP and health, and has the added benefit of a lot of mana. Abyssal Mask offers more magic penetration than Liandry's Torment, and also gives you magic resistance.

"But Liandry's passive combined with Lissandra's CC is so powerful right?" Well, here is where we delve into it. With Ice Shard, in order to proc the passive with double damage, you have to actually hit the enemy head on. Most of the time, you will be hitting the minions in front of an enemy and then the damage from the extra range will affect them. This means the double-damage won't happen. Glacial Path is the same, providing absolutely no CC. So this pretty much means the only time the passive will go off is when we use Ring of Frost and Frozen Tomb, and we will almost only use those for teamfights, not harassing. Plus, the range on Ring of Frost makes it difficult to harass with it anyways. So, Liandry's Torment has almost almost no use during laning or poking. The only use it has is for the Ring of Frost and Frozen Tomb combo that is used during teamfights, making this item much less efficient than anything else listed.

First off, when positioning for a teamfight, you should be standing behind your tanks, but close enough to be able to use Glacial Path to get inside their team. You should always wait for your tanks to initiate before you potentially go in.

Once you have waited for them to initiate, Glacial Path towards one of the enemy carries. Then throw down Ring of Frost to snare the enemies. After that, cast Frozen Tomb on one of the enemy carries and use Zhonya's Hourglass if you are in danger. If not, walk back to a saferange and hit enemies with Ice Shard. The other option is to use Frozen Tomb on yourself and then use Zhonya's Hourglass after that, again, if you are in danger. Since she does incredible damage and offers a slow, this will usually disrupt the enemy team, allowing you to win the teamfight.

While in the poke stage of teamfights, you should be sending out Ice Shards, trying to hit enemy tanks and minions to get the added range. This will help damage the people behind the tanks, and your Ice Shard does an incredible amount of damage.

Seems like Riot has been coming out with champions that really excel at new ganking paths. Lissandra and Zac both fall into this category with their long-range gap closers. With Glacial Path, Lissandra can pass through the large rocks at both top and bottom lane. Lissandra has incredibly strong ganks, considering she can root someone in place for 3 seconds, which will almost always result in a kill.

Lissandra is also good at towerdiving since she can become untargetable with her ult and won't tank tower damage while slowing and damaging the enemy. Then, you can either use Glacial Path to get out if it's up, or you can Flash out. Frozen Tomb plus Zhonya's Hourglass = Great Tower Dives

Lissandra is the weakest during the early game. Her base stats, as can be seen in the Stats section, are not great at all. The first thing that you'll want to focus on is farming. The ideal way to play this is to have your opponent push the lane to you. This will make farming much safer for yourself, since you will be closer to the protection from your tower.

Make sure that when you use Ice Shard, you are also trying to hit the enemy champion. That way, you aren't just achieving farm, but you are also damaging the enemy.

Ask your jungler for a gank or two while laning as Lissandra. Her Ring of Frost allows you to lock them down and gain a kill. If they just Flash out, then have your jungler come around again and net a kill.

Also make sure you aren't pushing your lane hard unless you are planning on recalling, going to dragon, roaming to bot lane, etc. You are considerably weaker than most other champions, and incredibly susceptible to ganks. Therefore, pushing up to their tower is generally a bad idea.







So around the mid game, you should generally have Athene's Unholy Grail and Sorcerer's Shoes completed and working on Rabadon's Deathcap or Zhonya's Hourglass. Around this time, most outer tier towers will be destroyed and lanes will be roaming. You should be doing the same. Be wary of roaming from top and bot lane, and/or go down to help them out and net a kill. You should also be aware of when going for dragon is a good/bad idea.

At this point you should still be in mid lane farming, but if you see something developing in one of the other lanes, head down there to help out your team. It is vital that you are more aware of what is going on, as you are more susceptible to ganks or multiple people coming to mid lane.







Ok, so the late-game has come around. You should have 4-6 of your items fully completed and working on the others. This is the point in which you'll barely go to lane and stay in the mid lane, waiting for potential teamfights. If side lanes are pushing, you should NOT go down to clear them unless you are returning from the fountain. Your team needs you, since you are the AP carry, and cannot afford for you to be missing. Roaming by yourself will also put you in danger and can make you subject to dying by the hands of the enemy team.

Baron and Dragon are both main objectives right now, and you should try to take either whenever possible, as long as it doesn't subject your team to complete annihilation. Baron is just about the second main objective after destroying the enemy Nexus.

This will be a work in progress for quite a while, as I want players to get the best idea of each matchup and how to react to it. As such, I will be updating this as much as possible and whenever I get the time, but it will take a little while, as I want to be as in-depth as possible.


This matchup requires a combination of great lane control and potent reflexes. When laning against Ahri, both of you harass and farm using skill shots. Ice Shard has a slightly less cool down compared to Orb of Deception, and that gap only grows when Ice Shard is maxed. Your skill shot is much more difficult to dodge, as the animation happens almost immediately whereas Orb of Deception is a pretty easy skill to dodge since it has a slow, arching animation. By using Orb of Deception and stacking the spell hits to activate her passage, Ahri pushes lane out way faster than you. This allows you to sit at your tower and farm, while you can also harass her without taking much harass back.

Her main initiator is Charm. It has a pretty lengthy cool down, and is only single target. You can negate this very easily by always keeping a creep between you and her. Once she wastes a Charm, you are free to use a Freeze Dried combo on her, as her only form of CC is down. When your jungler comes to gank, you want to bait out her Charm so that you both can keep up with her. She has no escape pre-6, so it will almost result in an early kill.

Post-6, you'll want to focus on still dodging those skill-shots, but also not dropping much below 50% health. If you do this, focus on recalling as soon as possible or getting your jungler to gank, as if she lands a Charm, she'll be able to full combo you and probably kill you.

Important Notes

• Let Ahri push lane and farm under tower
• Abuse high cooldown on Charm
• Your Frozen Tomb can completely negate Spirit Rush
• Easy to counter Charm by keeping minions in front of you

Judgement

• Winnable lane that is only semi-hard
• Get early jungler gank around level 2-3 as she has no escape. You'll most likely waste Flash, then have another gank around 3-4 for a kill.

Difficulty: 6

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One of Lissandra's greatest assets is her ability to completely devestate most melee champions, and Akali is no exception. She cannot do much damage to you pre-6, as her combo is very vital on Shadow Dance. Make sure to stay a safe distance away from her and hit her constantly with Ice Shard while trying to avoid getting in range of Mark of the Assassin. Her Twilight Shroud doesn't really do much since Ring of Frost can root her in its vicinity. By level 3, use the Freeze Dried combo in order to lay down harass and walk away relatively unscathed.

What makes Lissandra so great against melee champions is that she can disrupt any of their combos with as simple Ring of Frost. When the Akali reaches 6, she will most likely try to dash to you and combo. As soon as she dashes you for the first time, simply cast Ring of Frost and use Glacial Path to retreat safely. This will allow Akali to never get a full combo on you.

Important Notes

• Abuse your range and harass with Ice Shard
• Save Ring of Frost to break combos
• Ring of Frost will root even when she's invisible
• Call for ganks when Twilight Shroud is on cooldown
• Bait Twilight Shroud and then go aggressive
• Lissandra easily breaks melee combos

Judgement

• Easily winnable lane
• Get early jungler gank around level 2-3 to launch you ahead. Make sure to have them gank after you've baited Twilight Shroud so she can't simply walk away.

Difficulty: 4

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Like you, Anivia is a champion that is pretty squishy and has low defense stats early on. Frostbite is Anivia's main harass tool in lane. Ice Shard has more range, so stay as afar back as possible to avoid harass. Anivia doesn't take Crystallize until level 4 usually, so you can be offensive and use Glacial Path to get close without having to worry about getting stuck. When she does take Crystallize, you can save your Glacial Path to go through the ice wall. Flash Frost is also annoying with the stun, so make sure to avoid it as much as possible.

Anivia generally has some slight mana problems during the early game, but unlike you, she doesn't have your awesome passive. As such, you can generally harass her and zone her quite well. Now, you want to make sure you don't push the lane out too much, or you'll be subject to some early ganks. Remember when she does and does not have Rebirth. Proccing Rebirth only with a gank is just as good as wasting a flash, as that means she's more susceptible to dying.

Post-6, you definitely have an advantage over her. Her ultimate is kind of slow and is pretty easy to avoid, especially with Glacial Path. If she uses it for too long, then she'll run out of mana quickly and be subject to harass. It's also rather easy to avoid. At 6, you should be able to at least proc Rebirth with a Sheer Cold combo and possibly kill her too.

Important Notes

• Abuse your range and harass with Ice Shard
• No form of protection until level 4
• Rebirth can stop a death
• Pretty weak until around 9-11
• Has mana problems like you
• Don't towerdive when she has Rebirth

Judgement

• Winnable, but a bit difficult with her Rebirth
• A gank at 2-3 is very useful for a wasted Flash and/or proccing Rebirth. Should allow for an easy kill at 6.

Difficulty: 5

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Annie is a pretty tricky matchup. It requires upmost lane control. She has more damaging tools in her arsenal with Disintegrate and Incinerate being able to whittle your health down. She also has her annoying passive of Pyromania. Makre sure to keep a watchful eye on her to see if her passive is up or not. If it is, then make sure to stay back a little more.

It would be very difficult to fight Annie in a 1v1 and win. Instead, focusing on farming and not pushing out too far. Your early game is incredibly weak when compared to Annie's. She has much more sustain, with her Disintegrate restoring her mana with last hits.

Post-6, Annie is just terrible. Even if you have over 2/3 health, she can simply stun you and nuke you down with a full combo. She becomes incredibly annoying to deal with in lane after hitting 6. Once this happens, make sure to play very passively and control your lane.

Important Notes

• Has much more sustain and damage early on
• Stun is incredibly annoying to deal with
• On 6, full combo can nuke you down
• Molten Shield prevents a good amount of harass

Judgement

• Not usually a killable lane for you.
• Being even or gaining in CS is better in your case, as you do much more for your team later on.

Difficulty: 8

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Laning against Brand can be very interesting. He's fire, your ice, so basically he just melts you. On a serious note, though, he actually does melt you pretty fast. You have low defense stats early on, and as such, you are very vulnerable to his nuking combos. Pillar of Flame is key to his combo, and as such you should make sure to dodge it.

Another key point in this matchup is his Blaze. This will severely hurt you if you are hit by other skills while it is active, and as such you must note when your are blazing and when you are not. When you are, immediately switch to a more passive playstyle. Otherwise, a simple stun and Pillar of Flame could easily kill you.

Post-6, he hurts like a truck. The added damage from his ultimate can be enough to kill you even at full health. He becomes much stronger than you, and as such, you must make sure to play much more passively. If you can outfarm him, it's a win for you, as you do much more for your team during the lategame and scale harder than he does.

Important Notes

• Very potent nuke
• Stun is incredibly annoying to deal with
• On 6, full combo can nuke you down
• Ultimate becomes worse if people are nearby
• Higher single-target damage

Judgement

• Play passively and ask for ganks whenever possible
• Focus on CS to get ahead late game

Difficulty: 9

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Cassiopeia can be a very annoying lane. Her passive gives her quite a bit of sustain, and the fact that Noxious Blast also has such a short cooldown and low mana cost means she can spam it just about all she wants. In this matchup, focus on poking her down with Ice Shard and dodging Noxious Blast. This is easier said than done, as you must be constantly moving in unpredictable patterns while trying to line up a good shot. It helps to stay away from minions, as generally she will use Noxious Blast on clumps of minions.

Her other form of harass is Twin Fang, and while this can be annoying, it's not so bad as long as you are free of poison. Miasma is barely even a threat during lane, as you can easily dodge it. Cassiopeia will use it more for pushing her lane than trying to get damage on you.

Post-6, it is essentially the same matchup. You both gained stuns, great! That means when you try to combo each other, you'll sit there staring at one another. There is nothing more awkward than being petrified while Cass is in a Frozen Tomb. Granted, your stun is 1.5 sec while hers is 2 sec. This means she'll be free from her stun faster. You have much more DPS in a combo fight, though, so if you can hit all of your skills, you'll generally win the trade and get the kill.

Important Notes

• Poke-based gameplay
• Poison can get incredibly annoying
• Can still harass you when your under tower
• Ultimates cancel each other out
• Miasma is easy to dodge
• Lissandra has more DPS

Judgement

• Focus on poking and dodging pokes
• At 6, if she has 50% health or less, you can easily kill her.
• A gank around 2-4 can prove very helpful to winning lane

Difficulty: 7

Lissandra is a great champion to play with. She is incredibly useful during teamfights, does great AoE damage, and all-in-all is really fun to use. Since you will almost always play Lissandra as a carry, you should aim to get kills from ganks. That way you'll be fed good and proper.

* Matchup Section
* Warding Section
* More pictures/videos

I would like to add a Hall of Fame to this guide, so feel free to send me a picture of you being successful with Lissandra while using this guide. If it's not visible, include your username so I can giver credit to where it's due.

5/9/2013-
Changed Juggernaut to Block
Removed Rylai's Crystal Scepter to avoid confusion, as it is not an option
Changed Havoc to Butcher

5/10/2013-
Removed the Jungling portion of the guide due to "Popular Demands." Might just release it separately for anyone who wants to know how to do it.

5/11/2013-
Removed rest of leftover Jungling stuff from guide
Readjusted stats to level 1 in description

5/13/13-
Added Freeze Dried Combo
Started Matchups section