Lissandra Build Guide : A Lissandra guide [Patch 10.6] [Old Design]

A Lissandra guide [Patch 10.6] [Old Design]

A Lissandra guide [Patch 10.6] [Old Design]

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League of Legends Champions:


Guide Details	Champion	Pregame	Gameplay
Introduction	Pros and Cons	Summoner Spells	Combo's
Conclusion	Ability Info	Runes	Laning
Special Thanks	Skill Sequence	Items	Post Lane
Changelog	E Tips & Tricks		Matchups

Hi there! My name is Katasandra and I am a Lissandra one-trick. I started playing her in preseason 8. Back then I was actually maining something else and I was searching for a secondary midlaner. After trying a lot of different midlaners I came across Lissandra. I loved playing her so much that I dropped my old main and now she is pretty much the only champion I play. Here's my op.gg for those of you that are interested in it. I have played Lissandra for a while and I really wanted to create something to help other people learn and discover what she can do and how you can play her. I decided to write this guide, which will be my very first guide ever. I hope you will enjoy reading this and if you notice mistakes, if you have questions or if you have feedback, don't hesitate to comment!
One of the Lissandramains community montages used to reside here, but it was getting a bit outdated...

In a time long forgotten, before the sands birthed and then swallowed Shuri... Wait, a guide is no place for lore... If you want to know more about it you can click on the image on the left.
Anyway, a kind of weird champ. She is some sort of combination of a burst mage, control mage and a battlemage with short range, a lot of CC and a blink thrown into the mix. This makes her very versatile but it also means that she doesn't really excel at one specific thing like many other champions do. Lissandra is also more team oriented and has a more supportive playstyle than other midlane picks.


Those who know, do. Those that understand, teach - Aristotle If I thought I would be writing rubbish, I wouldn't have written this guide in the first place. Besides, other Liss mains approved of this ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°). This guide is probably one of the largest sources of information on Lissandra. It is meant to be both a guideline for new Liss players and a source of inspiration for more experienced Liss players. I tried my best and I can only hope that you can learn something new. If you think anything is missing or you think I should add something, please comment.

Pros		Cons
	Lots of CC		Short range
	All abilities are AoE		Weak early game
	Quite mobile		Mana issues
	Easy to pick up		Low damage
	Good teamfighter		Vulnerable to CC & squishy
	Always useful		Not a 1v9 carry

Lissandra's weakest point in the game is her laning phase. Her cooldowns are high and her range is quite low. This leads to her being poked by other mages and it can make her vulnerable to all-ins. Her gank setup is extremely strong though, Glacial Path combined with Ring of Frost and Frozen Tomb can lock the enemy laner down for ~2.5 seconds leading to an easy kill. Frozen Tomb gives her lot of pick potential. This really shows in the midgame as she gains the freedom to roam around and set up plays with her kit. This makes the midgame her strongest point in the game. She falls off in the late game compared to other mages as her damage is simply not as high as theirs. However, she will remain relevant because of her CC and AoE damage. As you might have guessed, Lissandra shines the most in teamfights. Not only because of her AoE abilities, but also because of her passive. It is capable of snowballing fights once an enemy dies. She can engage fights by herself or follow up on teammates as well as protecting her own team from divers. Sometimes she can have trouble to stay alive because of her squishy nature and tendency to jump in the middle of the enemy team.

Good Pick		Bad Pick
>>Against melees/assassins >>Team lacks CC >>You're a Lissandra onetrick		>>Against long-ranged champions/lane bullies >>Team lacks damage champs >>Team has a lot of AP champs (3+)
Lissandra can nullify the snowball potential of assassins and she shuts them down in teamfights. Obviously, because of her CC, she is a great addition to team compositions that lack CC. However, she is not a replacement for a tank.		Long ranged mages and lane bullies like Xerath, Orianna and Cassiopeia can exploit Lissandra's weak laning phase. Her damage isn't the highest and when your team has multiple AP champions the enemy will stack MR, making your damage irrelevant.

Tooltip Information and numbers

Definitely one of the weirder and more impactful passives in the game. Thralls can either help you kill the enemy or do nothing at all. Do not expect them to be smart. They will always target the nearest enemy and will not chase invisible enemies or enemies that enter unwarded bushes.

The place where the passive shines the most is in teamfights. Once you unload your initial combo and someone dies, the thrall will help kill others or force the enemy to flash/dash away. This creates a snowball effect that can win teamfights and skirmishes.
Of course you cannot expect the enemy to ignore the thralls (although, sometimes they will). Look to root them with or move towards/around the thralls in such a way that they are forced to take the damage or retreat.

can also be extremely strong in level 1 fights. Most champions won't have their movement abilities yet, making it almost impossible to escape the thrall(s) without flash. Which can, like in teamfights, result in a snowball effect.

Thralls can help with clearing the minion wave after a gank or when the enemy laner dies. This speeds up your recall & return to lane or gives you more time to collect turret platings.

Tips/Facts

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Actually has the highest damage of all abilities throughout a large portion of the game.

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Even effective when behind as the base damage is quite high.

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When multiple people die at the same time, their thralls will explode at the same time too. This will result in a huge burst of damage.

Tooltip Information and numbers

This is 's main damage ability. What separates from many other linear skillshots is that its range can be extended by hitting enemies and it deals full damage to everything in its path (it will only slow the first enemy hit though).

The most important part about is the shatter mechanic. It can be tough to master because the ingame indicator only shows the unshattered range and even the particles won't show the absolute max range. Check out this video if you want to know some more about the shatter mechanic.

You can utilize this mechanic really well when pushing waves, you can position yourself in such a way to hit all 6/7 minions in a wave at once. It can also come in handy in teamfights, as it allows you to hit targets that are not in range of the unshattered projectile.

Tips/Facts

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Only slows the first target hit.

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Has a slight cast time.

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Do not spam ice shard early on, you can easily run out of mana if you do so.

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Can be used to check bushes: it will shatter if someone is in it.

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The indicator only shows the range of the unshattered projectile. Ice shard has slightly more range when it shatters. Check out this video if you want to know the maximum range of the shatter.

Tooltip Information and numbers

Perhaps the least exciting ability of 's kit. It can be used to kite people, to chain cc people with your ultimate and it can ensure that people will get hit by the spread of (more on this later!).

The range of is on the low side, which can make it hard to use without endangering yourself. The trick lies in knowing the max range of the ability. Doing so enables you to root melees without them being able to attack you. This becomes harder when the size of the enemy champion increases. For example, it is almost impossible to root a stacked without him being able to attack you.

Another incredibly useful part of this ability is that you can use it to catch invisible targets. If you know/predict an invisible champion to be near, use it and if it hits you will see an outline. You can then run away or throw the rest of your abilities at the location of the enemy.

Tips/Facts

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Ring of frost doesn't have a cast time, so it can be cast without interrupting movement.

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Goes through 's and s .

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Does not interrupt dashes.

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Always try to cast before self ulting

Tooltip Information and numbers

This is my favorite ability. It kind of makes up for the lack of range on other abilities. Its most known (and major) use is to jump forward and get in range to initiate fights or follow up on your teammates.

gives a lot of safety in lane as it can be used to get away from ganks. It can also be used to set up ganks for your jungler. This combined with and means an almost certain death to (flashless) midlaners.

This is not the only use. It can be used to dodge skillshots by throwing it out and reactivating it after a short time. It can also be used to get back to lane faster by throwing it over the nexus after you recall, as well as extending the homeguard buff.

Lastly, my favorite use, it enables you to get over all kinds of walls. This might sound a little dumb, but it gives you immense gank potential (even without the walls) and allows you to escape tricky situations in the jungle. I made a separate section on this and some other mechanics somewhere below.

Tips/Facts

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You won't be able to recast when you're disabled (stunned, grounded, silenced, etc).

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can be used to cancel the animation of and .

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Reactivate after it has traveled a short distance or after it has vanished into the ground to surprise your enemies.

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The enemy team is (also) able to see the indicator, as long as it is in their vision or when they or a ward are within 600 range of it.

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Don't panic if you get stunned; the claw needs ~1.5s to travel to the end location and can be reactivated ~0.2s after it vanishes. You might still be able to teleport after the CC ends.

Tooltip Information and numbers

At last, the ability that makes the champion she is. Unlike many people think, it's not just ''press R to win''. Not only deciding who to ult is important, but when to ult is also important. Randomly pressing R and expecting to win the fight is not how it works.

But first the most important thing: use ALT+R to ult yourself or assign another hotkey in Options > Hotkeys > Abilities and summoner spells > Self cast (spell 4). This is vital! Ulting an enemy instead of yourself is one of the two most painful things to do on this champion (The other one is ulting yourself instead of the enemy (^:).

To come back on my comment on : the ice zone takes some time to spread. Especially when you self ult, people at the edge of the ultimate have plenty of time to run away from you and avoid the damage. To prevent this from happening simply use before self ulting to make sure people cannot run away.

Self - can also be used to avoid (lethal) damage. Some examples of this are 's , 's and ticks. Self ulting to simply heal yourself is simply a waste and should not be done.

Another thing you should avoid is ulting people with , or spellshields. The CC effect will go to waste and your target can immediately turn on you as you just used your most important survivability tool.

Tips/Facts

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will damage (and slow) anything on top of the target instantly. At rank 3 the slow is almost as powerful as the stun.

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If you cast from max range, make sure to walk a little towards the enemy before using .

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Self- doesn't have a cast time, but it does have a cast time when you use it on enemies.

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Space out the timings of and
to CC enemies as long as possible.

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You cast on a target that is not in range and then use and it will cast instantaneously. This makes it almost impossible for your target to react.

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Not only who you ult is important, the place where you ult is important too.


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		E											E	E		E	E
					R					R					R

L E V E L 1 - 3				Always skill this first. The only exception is when your team is invading. In that case you can skill Ring of Frost first. Keep in mind that you'll have disadvantage in lane if you do so.

				You usually unlock this at level 2. You might not use it yet (unless you're in a melee matchup or vs LeBlanc), but it allows you to defend yourself in case you need to.

				If you're pushed up and/or afraid of getting ganked, take this at level 2. Otherwise unlock it at level 3.
S E Q U E N C E				This is your main damage tool, always max it first.

				Maxing it will increase the damage (and root duration) and slightly decrease the cooldown. I max it second.

				If you have a hard time managing the high cooldown, put 2-3 points in Glacial Path before maxing Ring of Frost.

				Put points in it whenever you can. It's your ultimate after all.


		I already told you that you should always take this... It gives you more freedom to use our ultimate (flash in range, flash in the enemy team), it makes you able to outplay people and it can simply save your life.

		This often gives you that bit of damage you need to kill someone and it can give you a slight advantage in fights. The grievous wounds can also be a good pickup against matchups that heal a lot (like Vladimir).

		Can be a great help in hard matchups or matchups where you won't be able to get ahead in lane. Aside from using it to get to lane more quickly, it can also be used to teleport to botlane fights or to flank.

		Can be taken against mid-jungle combo's with large amounts of CC. If you're plat or below don't bother taking this. It's highly unlikely that your enemies know how to layer their CC, making Cleanse unnecessary.

Where'd Aftershock go? So first, I have never been a fan of aftershock ever since it came up. Currently it is mainly a laning keystone (e.g. later in the game you have you usually self ult/ Zhonya's Hourglass to keep yourself safe). Unless you are using Aftershock to force favorable trades it is simply not worth to take it over other keystones (especially since you miss out on a lot because you are also stuck with Resolve primary). I have always felt like Aftershock was simply a tool utilized by some high elo Lissandra players to neutralize the lane and a crutch utilized by new/low elo liss players because they go in at poor timings/make poor engages where Aftershock bails them out.

		The usual keystone in melee and easy ranged matchups ( Ahri and LeBlanc). It enhances your single target burst and is the most reliable keystone when you expect to get ahead early. Avoid taking it against long ranged mages/dps mages as you will have a hard time proccing it without taking a lot of damage yourself. Another downside of this keystone is that it can be hard to proc on your target in large fights. Lissandra's AoE is likely to hit multiple people and Electrocute will only proc on the first target hit by three different spells.
Electrocute

		Arcane Comet is the standard choice in ranged matchups, it gives you some extra poke damage in lane but also offers additional damage later on. It is better than Electrocute in matchups where you cannot commit to 'long' trades or where you cannot get close. This applies to applies to most battlemages ( Cassiopeia, Ryze, Vladimir), long ranged mages ( Xerath, Lux) and the rare adc in midlane.
Arcane comet

Other Options
		Dark Harvest has good scaling compared to other keystones and it is completely nuts in teamfights. It is actually a pretty good option against high-ranged mages like Azir and Lux. The reason for this is that whatever keystone you take, you'll be farming for 10 minutes anyway. You might as well go with the scaling option. The keystone is also goon in farm lanes like Morgana and Malzahar. It can be stacked through roaming and you should be able to get a decent amount of stacks by just simply showing up for fights. The obvious flaw is that it can be underwhelming when you're behind and/or don't have many stacks. I don't recommend taking this when you are completely new to Lissandra.
Dark Harvest

Glacial Augment		Ever dreamed of being a blizzard? This is your chance. Glacial Augment is combined with Everfrost (and possibly Twin Shadows) for some really obnoxious slows. This is overkill on Lissandra as she already has a large amount of CC, hence why this is merely a 'fun' option. The downside of taking Inspiration primary is that it lacks offensive options so you might be short on damage. The playstyle with this keystone is different than others, although you can still look to burst opponents this specific build is meant to kite. When enemies try to come at you, you can keep throwing slows and CC at them whilst spamming Ice Shard. It is also possible to catch people by slowing them with the GLP active and using Glacial Path to close the gap.


Sorcery	Domination	Resolve	Inspiration

Sorcery

>>The main secondary rune tree, offers the most benefits out of all trees outside of the laning phase.

Take this when you have a hard time in a certain burst mage/ap assassin matchup.

Take this if you're struggling with mana or when you intend to build .

The more CDR, the more damage, mobility and survivability. I always take this.

Take it when you cannot get ahead in the laning phase. Think of champions like , and .

A laning focused rune that is a good choice in matchups where you can poke the enemy or can get ahead in lane. Examples of these are all melee matchups and some ranged matchups like and .

Domination

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Mostly taken as a primary tree, but can be taken secondary with or .

Gives small amounts of damage and is most effective in melee matchups where it can be easy to proc the damage.

Gives some sustain which can really help out during the laning phase. Take it against tough matchups.

Will spawn a poro after one of your wards dies. Good for that little bit of extra vision.

Gives the same amount of AP as . Deciding between this and the is a matter of preference.

The standard choice of the hunter runes. Actually all the hunter runes are viable. If you prefer another, take it.

My favourite hunter rune. Gives some much-needed sustain, both early and late.

Resolve

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Resolve can be taken secondary against assassins or burst mages like if you have trouble with them.

A good choice against roaming assassins. It will guarantee you a plate when they roam to another lane.

Gives you some extra HP, which increases your survivability!

Can be taken in bursty matchups, the damage reduction can help you survive.

You can take this in pokey matchups, the regen can help you survive.

Inspiration

>>Inspiration can be taken secondary when you are up against a hard poke matchup or when you want a stronger laning phase.

These things REALLY help with pushing waves. They are a good choice in case you don't need the biscuits.

Gives more sustain in lane. This rune feels great in hard lanes where you can get poked down early.

When you take secondary you'll lack so take this instead.

Is a good pickup in lanes where the enemy can all-in you early. It is especially strong in combination with .


Row 1	The standard choice of this row.		A solid scaling option. Take it in lanes where you cannot get ahead nor set behind.
Row 2	The standard choice of this row, always take it.
Row 3		Take armor against ad matchups and take mr against ap matchups.


This chapter features the items Lissandra can build and when and why you build them. To help you on your way I created some item sets you can import into your league client!
How do I import item sets? Open the spoiler with the item set you want. Copy the content of the spoiler Go to the client and press this button: Select "Paste copied set" and press CTRL+V Congratulations, you just imported the item set! Item set code: Luden's build {"title":"Ludens Liss","associatedMaps":[],"associatedChampions":[127],"blocks":[{"items":[{"id":"1056","count":1},{"id":"2003","count":2},{"id":"2033","count":1}],"type":"Starting items"},{"items":[{"id":"3802","count":1},{"id":"1001","count":1},{"id":"1082","count":1},{"id":"1052","count":1},{"id":"1027","count":1},{"id":"2031","count":1},{"id":"2055","count":1}],"type":"First base"},{"items":[{"id":"3285","count":1},{"id":"3020","count":1},{"id":"3157","count":1}],"type":"Core (Not necessarily Zhonya second)"},{"items":[{"id":"3047","count":1},{"id":"3111","count":1},{"id":"3102","count":1},{"id":"3135","count":1},{"id":"3089","count":1},{"id":"3165","count":1},{"id":"3151","count":1},{"id":"3041","count":1}],"type":"Situational"}]} Item set code: Proto build {"title":"Proto Liss","associatedMaps":[],"associatedChampions":[127],"blocks":[{"items":[{"id":"1056","count":1},{"id":"2003","count":2},{"id":"2033","count":1}],"type":"Starting items"},{"items":[{"id":"3145","count":1},{"id":"3802","count":1},{"id":"1001","count":1},{"id":"1082","count":1},{"id":"1052","count":1},{"id":"1027","count":1},{"id":"2031","count":1},{"id":"2055","count":1}],"type":"First base"},{"items":[{"id":"3152","count":1},{"id":"3020","count":1},{"id":"3285","count":1},{"id":"3157","count":1}],"type":"Core"},{"items":[{"id":"3047","count":1},{"id":"3111","count":1},{"id":"3102","count":1},{"id":"3135","count":1},{"id":"3089","count":1},{"id":"3165","count":1},{"id":"3151","count":1},{"id":"3041","count":1}],"type":"Situational"}]} Item set code: Glacial augment build {"title":"Glacial Augment","associatedMaps":[],"associatedChampions":[127],"blocks":[{"items":[{"id":"1056","count":1},{"id":"2003","count":2},{"id":"2033","count":1}],"type":"Starting items"},{"items":[{"id":"3145","count":1},{"id":"3802","count":1},{"id":"1001","count":1},{"id":"1082","count":1},{"id":"1052","count":1},{"id":"1027","count":1},{"id":"2031","count":1},{"id":"2055","count":1}],"type":"First base (Chapter if mana issues)"},{"items":[{"id":"3030","count":1},{"id":"3020","count":1},{"id":"3157","count":1},{"id":"3151","count":1}],"type":"Core (Not necessarily Zhonya second)"},{"items":[{"id":"3047","count":1},{"id":"3111","count":1},{"id":"3102","count":1},{"id":"3135","count":1},{"id":"3089","count":1},{"id":"3165","count":1},{"id":"3041","count":1}],"type":"Situational"}]} Item set code: Snowballing/High risk-high reward build {"title":"Snowballing High risk-High reward","associatedMaps":[],"associatedChampions":[127],"blocks":[{"items":[{"id":"1056","count":1},{"id":"2003","count":2},{"id":"2033","count":1}],"type":"Starting items"},{"items":[{"id":"3802","count":1},{"id":"1001","count":1},{"id":"1082","count":1},{"id":"1052","count":1},{"id":"1027","count":1},{"id":"2031","count":1},{"id":"2055","count":1}],"type":"First base (Chapter if mana issues)"},{"items":[{"id":"3285","count":1},{"id":"3020","count":1},{"id":"3916","count":1},{"id":"3089","count":1},{"id":"3157","count":1}],"type":"Build path"},{"items":[{"id":"3102","count":1},{"id":"3135","count":1},{"id":"3165","count":1},{"id":"3041","count":1}],"type":"Situational"}]}

	The usual starting item in most lanes. It helps with last hitting and the health will make it easier to stay alive against lane bullies or champions that want to all-in you.
	The other starting item of choice. It gives a lot of sustain and a bit of poke damage. Take it in melee matchups, unless you are not confident in a particular matchup.

The best basing scenario is when you can afford either Hextech Revolver or Lost Chapter on your first base (depending on whether you go Ludens or Proto). However, sometimes you don’t have enough gold for either of them so you have to get one of the items below instead.
	Get this when you are having a hard time in lane (e.g. getting poked out, getting all-inned a lot).		Early boots will help with dodging skillshots. Roaming will also become a lot easier.
	Get this when you already have dark seal and boots.		If you don't enough money to get a tome, but enough money for this, get it.
	Don't forget to buy potions in case you didn't start with corrupting pot.		If you have 75g left, buy one and place it in one of the pixel brushes next to the midlane.

	The must-have item for Lissandra. Gives you a big amount of AP and the passive helps with clearing waves. The downside of this item is that it is quite expensive, so it can take a while to complete it.
		Gives some much-needed mana. This should be your first component when you go Ludens (or Hextech Rocketbelt and struggle with mana.
	Simply an amazing item for Lissandra. Always look to get it unless you really need mana, in which case you should build Luden's Tempest or Lost Chapter first. If you get this, build a Luden's Tempest second.
		Gives a small power spike. It gives as much AP as chapter and occasionally your autoattack will do a bit more damage.

	My choice in 90% of my games, always get these when you don't need one of the others. The magic penetration increases your damage which makes it easier to take enemies down.
	Get these when the enemy team has multiple cc threads or a lot of ap champions. It can also be a good idea to buy these if you are playing against an AP (burst) champion that is ahead/fed.
	Build these if the enemy team is full ad or when they have multiple auto-attacking champions.

	This item synergizes incredibly well with Lissandra's kit and many see it as a must-have item for Lissandra. If you really love (or need) the item, you can build it second (e.g. against Zed). But I prefer to build it as my third or fourth item.
		Armor is very effective against ad assassins. You can rush this and then continue building other items if you want to keep yourself safe.
		Is essentially a cheap one-use Zhonya's Hourglass. If you don't use it and get Zhonya's, you can buy it again for a 'double' Zhonya's!
	Is a great item if the enemy team has an AP assassin, burst mage or another (fed) ap champion (like Annie or Syndra). The spellshield can also help you with engaging (safely), as you won't get interrupted by CC immediately after you go in.

	You can build this item second when the enemy team has heal-oriented champions, like Soraka, Vladimir, Aatrox and Dr. Mundo.
		In case the enemy team has squishy champions without mr, you can build this second. Do not finish it if you don't need the grievous wounds.
	Get this when enemies have lots of hp (>2000). The later in the game, the more effective this item since it provides % extra damage.
	Get this when the enemy team is building mr items. Watch for Null-Magic Mantles, Void Staff is more gold-efficient than anything else when the enemy has +50 MR.
	This will give you a big boost of AP once you build it. Get it as your fourth or fifth item to make efficient use of the passive.
	When the enemy team has +3 AP champions building AP and you are getting blown up left and right, it might be a good idea to get this item. Not only does it increase your survivability, it also (slightly) increases your damage as you tend to get close to your enemies as Lissandra.
	If you get ahead, you have a stacked dark seal and you believe in yourself, you can take this gamble. If you do manage to keep it stacked you'll be able to do a disgusting amount of damage and you even get extra movement speed on top of that.

AA

Flash

Q

W

Cast 1 E

Cast 2 E

Self R

Enemy R

It is possible to cancel the animations of and with . This can be useful when kiting or when you need to dodge skillshots.

Unlike many other champions, is not able to buffer skillshots. However, this can be very useful when you are in a nasty situation and need to get out. You can cast (or ) and use right after, the skillshot will launch from your original position.

Level 3-5 All-In Combo

This combo can be used to all-in your opponent between levels 3-5 or at later levels when is on cooldown. Usage of is optional, its damage can be crucial but it is also your escape (reminder that junglers do exist). This combo also requires a large amount of mana, so make sure that you have enough before you try to execute it.

Some examples

Level 6 All-In Combo

or

This combo can be used to all-in post-level 6. Weaving autoattacks is extremely important at lower levels, but can be neglected later in the game. Flashing is optional since it is mainly used to get in range of/surprise the opponent (and you can use glacial path for damage). There are also scenario's later in the game where you can lead with your ultimate and then execute the rest of this all-in combo.

Some examples

Self ult/Kill Combo

This combo is only used when you are jumped on by the enemy team or you're all-inning your opponent and dropping low. You self ult yourself roughly next to/on top of the enemy, so that they will be damaged and you will be safe. Although can be used, I wouldn't recommend doing so. It slows down the combo and you might need it to get away once you get out of stasis.

Some examples

Quick Self ult Combo

Very similar to the self ult/kill combo. The main difference is that you only use and . This results in a nearly instant self ult as neither ability has a cast time.

Escape Combo

Aram poke combo

Well, the name says it all. Don't forget that you can cancel 's animation with .

General Teamfight Combo

with Zhonya's

with Proto

Combo with Zhonya's

Combo with Proto

This is Lissandra's most important combo and the most important thing in this combo is speed. It should be executed as quickly as possible to minimize the window where you can get CC'ed.

is used to reposition yourself so you get in range and/or hit as many enemies as possible with your combo. Usage of is optional as it will delay the combo. However, if you leave it out you'll miss out on a lot of damage.
In the variation, the active is used to get in range for . If you are already in range I would not recommend using it as the - combo has an even larger delay than just casting . Use it after the stasis ends instead.

I strongly recommend you to jump into practice tool and practice this combo.

Pick Combo

This combo is extremely similar to the general teamfight combo. However, there is one important difference: you ult an enemy instead of yourself. This is makes the combo way more situational and dangerous to use, it is used when a carry is out of position and the enemy team cannot (immediately) turn onto you. Nevertheless, having a can help a great deal.

When you are running the keystone will proc when you use Frozen Tomb. This combined will do a significant amount of damage when ahead.

It is not necessary to execute the entire combo as quickly as possible. Sometimes it is better to delay the cast of to get a better result. This might be a good idea when the enemy has or a (to bait them out so you can cast your ult after) or when you want to CC an enemy as long as possible.

Some examples

As I wrote a long time ago, is fairly weak in the laning phase. You should be looking to farm up and (at least) go even with the enemy laner. This doesn't mean that you sit back and huddle under your turret though.
If you really want to learn a champion, you should be testing its limits (and end up with your face in the dirt a few times). Always sitting back without knowing how far you can go won't get you somewhere.


Not all abilities are equal, here is an overview of what you (in general) should do with each basic ability.
Ice Shard	Ring of Frost	Glacial Path
Is used for pushing/clearing the wave and poking the enemy. You can't just throw it around because of its high cooldown and mana cost. Try to secure most of your farm with auto's and save Ice Shard for harass or when you need to push the wave.	Usage depends on the matchup. In ranged matchups it is rarely used (only for ganks or to push/clear wave) as the enemy will almost never be in range. In melee matchups it can be used to kite the enemy as well as for harass.	Isn't used that much. It has a high mana cost and cooldown, so its not worth to use it for harass. Its main use is to escape/setup ganks, waveclear before recalling or all-inning the opponent.


Lining up with minions to hit the enemy with Ice Shard is one of the key parts of playing Lissandra in the laning phase. Because of the way Ice Shard works, you can picture some sort of area where the shatter can go. The size of the area depends on the amount of minions as well as on the distance between you and the minions. When you are far away from the minions, the area will be narrow whereas if you're on top of a minion the area will be quite broad. This image is meant to give the idea, the actual hitbox of the shatter covers more area than shown in the image.
You should position yourself around the minions in such a way that the enemy laner is somewhere in this area (preferably not at the sides). This way you can easily hit them with Ice Shard. However, sometimes it is simply not possible to position yourself like this. Sometimes you have to stay behind minions to avoid skillshots or you cannot move next to the side of the lane where the enemy jungler is.

The trading stance is one of the most important concepts of laning in general. Essentially it is trading with someone when they are trying to get a minion.
As this means that whenever the enemy wants to secure CS, try to position yourself in such a way behind the minions that you can hit them with your . Autoattacking is optional but can be tricky, usually it is better to just use .

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The video to the right explains the Trading Stance more in depth and has some examples too. I recommend watching it if you want to know more about the Trading Stance.

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The most efficient way to utilize your mana is to poke the enemy and secure farm at the SAME time. Wait till some minions are low and hit them and the enemy with .


The way you want to trade differs a bit between keystones. Here's a small overview of what you should look to do with each keystone.
Electrocute		Glacial Augment
Can be hard to proc depending on the matchup. It is most commonly activated with AA - Q - AA (in ranged/melee matchups) or W - Q - AA (in melee matchups).		Autoattack - Ice Shard makes it easy to hit Ice Shard and procs Cheap Shot too. Only autoattack if the enemy walks into you, otherwise just poke with Q.
Arcane Comet		Dark Harvest
Play as usual, try to poke when it's off cooldown.		Nothing special, do not overreach for stacks though.


Keep in mind that using Ice Shard for harass can lead to your wave pushing towards the enemy. This in itself is not an issue (because Glacial Path), but make sure to place wards so you don't get surprised. In this section I'll show some common warding spots for midlane and give some tips.
Stealth Ward Spots
- Blue Side
		>>The red wards are deep wards and those might be dangerous to place without knowing the location of the enemy jungler. >>The blue circles around the wards are the vision range of the wards. >>The place where you ward depends on the amount of time you have. If you don't have much time, go for the ward just outside of the river bush or over the wall. If you have more time, place one in the pixel brush or place a deep ward.
- Red Side
		>>Wards do not only give vision of where the enemy jungler is, but also where he is not. >>Stick to the side of the lane you warded so you have more time to react when the jungler comes from the unwarded side. >>Avoid sitting on two trinket charges. >>The place where you ward also depends on the location of the enemy jungler. Do not place a ward on botside when he is ganking toplane or vice versa.
Control Ward Spots
- Blue Side
		>>The green wards are safe control wards, they are unlikely to be destroyed but won't give as much information as the orange wards. >>The orange wards give more information but are also more likely to be destroyed. >>Of all control ward spots I prefer the botside pixelbrush as it allows you to traverse the river without being seen.
- Red Side
		>>Always try to have a control ward on the map. However if your control wards get destroyed a lot it might be a good idea to put them in safer places. >>Try to place the wards in such a way that they grant a maximum amount of vision (e.g. place the pixel brush wards at the absolute edge of the bush so they cover the entrance to the river). And look at your minimap!

Sometimes enemies make errors in trading/wave control or whatever, which results in them being either overextended in lane or at low health. In case they are overextended and your jungler comes it's an easy kill, use to gapclose and / to CC them. When they are at low health you can look to kill them. This is where the lvl 3-5 & lvl 6 all-in combo come into play. The best time to all-in an enemy is when they go for a last hit as many people will greed for farm (especially for cannons) even when they low on health.

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Some mistakes are quite small, many champions have 'key' abilities, CC/escape abilities that are important for keeping themselves safe. For it is her and for it is . Once champions use/miss this ability you can look to play more aggressive or even kill them.

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Many melee champions, especially in low elo, will try to walk up for CS, putting themselves in range of you. This allows you to either land a lot of harass or even kill them.

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One very important mistake you should recognize on is the following: Sometimes enemies will greed for a turret plating when you are next to it. Make sure there is no cannon minion (or it is extremely low on health), forward, clear the remaining minions with & and use . If done correctly the enemy will be locked under your turret and draw aggro, resulting in an almost guaranteed kill.

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Minions can hurt a lot during lower levels. When the minions aggro you, retreat behind your own minions to avoid excessive damage.

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Some runes/keystones are more suitable for the laning phase than others, keep this in mind when customizing your runes.

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Don't give up when you fall behind/lose lane. Playing from behind is something you got to learn, the game isn't over yet.

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Be conscious of when you (and the enemy) get lvl 2/3/6. Especially level 6 is a moment where you/the enemy can look to all-in.

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Back off/avoid trading when is on cooldown, the enemy will almost certainly outtrade you.

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Although it might seem tempting to forward and trade with the enemy, it is also dangerous (enemy jungler might come) and it costs a lot of mana.


Lissandra is an excellent roamer because of the sheer amount of cc in her kit as well as the fact that she can come from almost any angle with Glacial Path. However, many players struggle with the question when to roam, so here is a checklist:
		Looks simple, right? Before you roam you ALWAYS have to push the wave. If you don't do this the loss of experience/gold won't be worth the roam. The only exception to this is when your jungler is fighting in the river/jungle. In this case you should get over there unless you are stuck under your turret with a large minion wave. The second point is a bit harder to explain. I will give a few pointers but keep in mind that the world isn't just black or white, it's a palette of shades of gray

A lane is gankable when...		A lane is not gankable when...
>>The enemy is pushed up >>Your allies are healthy and the enemy is not >>Your allies have good gank setup (champions with a lot of CC like Alistar or Leona)		>>The enemies are pushed in >>Your allies are low and the enemy is healthy
As I said, not everything is black or white. For example, if the enemy is pushed in but they are low and a large minions wave is about to crash into the turret you can look to dive them. If your allies are low, but your jungler is with you, you can go for it because it will be a 4v2 or 4v3 depending on whether the enemy jungler shows up. The question whether to roam also depends on your own state, if you are behind you will only put yourself even further behind by roaming. In this case you should stay in lane and focus on farming rather than running around the map. An even harder decision is whether to follow your opponent when he/she roams. Lissandra is far from the best champion in the 1v1 and your enemy might fake a roam and wait in a bush. Avoid following enemies (especially assassins) when you don't have vision of the path you will take to roam. Shove the wave instead and look for turret plates.

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Aside from walking down/up the river there are also some interesting paths you can take. Here are a few examples. (red side, red lines; blue side, blue lines; yellow lines where you would cast glacial path).

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Some of the gank paths illustrated above might be dangerous to walk if you don't know where the enemy jungler is.

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You can also place vision in the enemy jungle whilst/instead of roaming, but avoid (fighting with) the jungler unless your own jungler is there too.

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Even when you don't plan to roam, duck out of vision after clearing the wave so that the enemy doesn't know where you are.

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If you return to your lane after a roam and the enemy laner is not visible, be cautious when walking back as he/she might be waiting for you in a bush.

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Roaming botlane is more effective than roaming toplane as your passive can help secure the second kill.

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It is usually better to roam to the side of the map your jungler is on or to coordinate a gank with him.


We've all been in that spot where you do something dumb, the enemy does something you didn't expect or the enemy jungler puts up a tent in your lane. Either way, your opponent ends up having a gold/xp lead over you. What do you do now? Well, that depends on the champion you are playing against. Overall, the main thing you should do is farm up, avoid roaming and utilize lane wards so you know where your opponent goes.
Medium ranged mages ( Twisted Fate, Ryze, Malzahar)		Assassins ( Zed, LeBlanc, Fizz)
This is in my opinion the easiest class to play against from behind, if they try to threaten you, you can simply walk back and if you are unable to push the wave you can easily farm under your turret. Utilize lane wards as some of these champions roam a lot.		It's pretty safe to farm close/under your turret against these champions as they cannot dive you due to your CC & ult. However, if you don't have Frozen Tomb up, be EXTREMELY careful. It's also likely they are going to roam around the map, warn your team but avoid following.
Poke mages ( Brand, Xerath, Lux)		Lane bullies ( Syndra, Cassiopeia, Orianna)
It is downright awful to play against these champions, your best hope is a jungle gank. At later levels, they'll push you towards your turret (just stay out of range till they start doing so), try to clear the wave as quickly as possible so they won't be able to poke you.		If one of these gets ahead... Unless your jungle ganks you, you're completely screwed. It's the same as playing against poke mages, but these champions have a higher all-in threat so you have to be even more careful when you are at low health.

We have arrived at perhaps the most complex part of the laning phase: Wave management. It is not only hard to master all the different things you can do with minion waves, it can also be pretty though to determine when you should use them! So for those of you that do not know what I mean by wave management: Wave management is manipulating minion waves to your advantage.

Now, a simple soul might ask: why use wave management? Well, wave management can lead to advantages whether it be gold leads or xp leads or "time" leads. It can also help you through a tough matchup.

This section is merely meant to give you an insight in wave management and how to utilize it. I am a simple plat player and if I had truly mastered wave management I'd be Challenjour (Kappa). This also means that some things I say here might not be entirely correct.

The Even Minion Rule
Let's start with the most basic concept of wave management: the Even Minion Rule. Essentially, if two minion waves with an equal amount of minions meet somewhere in the lane they will push towards the side they are not on. If they meet in the center the minion line will initially stay in the center, but will start pushing to one side eventually. IMPORTANT NOTE: The minion wave will be in a "neutral" spot at the start of the game. When this occurs later in the game it is commonly referred to as a "reset".

Now you might ask: What does this have to do with wave management? Well, the state of the wave determines what you can do with it. Are you behind and is the wave pushing towards you? Let it come, no need to overextend. Is the wave pushing towards the enemy? No way you can setup a freeze without the enemy pushing the wave.

Fast Pushing

Fast pushing is the simplest of techniques, you just dump your abilities on the wave to make it push as quickly as possible. Avoid dumping abilities onto the wave without knowing why though. You mainly should look to fast push when:

There are several ability combo's that can be used to clear the wave. The quickest combo is also the most dangerous one whereas the slowest combo allows you to escape any unforeseen situations.

>>You want to recall
>>You want to roam
>>Your opponent has gone base
>>Your opponent roams
>>Your opponent is freezing

Risky: Q - W - E

Neutral: Q - W - Q

Safe: autoattacks - Q - autoattacks - Q - autoattacks

These are just some examples of when you can look to fast push. It doesn't mean that fast pushing is always the right thing to do in these cases. The speed with which you can clear the wave depends a lot on your items and level. At lower levels and before it will be pretty slow and you'll also have to use lots of autoattacks.

Slow Pushing
A slowpush happens when you have a pushing minion wave and you match the amount of damage the enemy laner does to the wave and only last hit the minions. The result is that you will get a large wave of minions which will start pushing slowly towards the enemy tower. You can accomplish the same things with a slow push as with a fast push, however the enemy will not be able to clear the wave as quickly though. Slowpushing also has other advantages:
>>It becomes hard for your enemy to all-in you since you have a large minion wave to back you up. >>You can look for harass on the enemy once the wave crashes into the turret unless: 1. There is a roaming opportunity 2. It is a ranged matchup or Zed 3. You are low on health (~55%) >>Slowpushes are usually better than fastpushes unless you need to get out of lane quickly.
It is not too difficult to create a slowpush against a melee assassin, but it can be almost impossible to do against a mage. The difference between the two is that Lissandra has more waveclear and range than most assassins whereas mages have the same (or more) range and waveclear. This allows them to "thin" the wave, killing minions to prevent the wave from getting too large. After a certain point they'll be able to clear the entire wave in no time. When the minion wave is slowpushing towards you, play with a bit more caution. The last thing you want to do is dying to a gank or all-in and losing 3+ minion waves. If this happens you will instantly lose your lane and you will have to play from behind. Lastly, avoid going 1 for 1 with your enemy laner (so both of you killing each other). Not only is this usually not worth ( Lissandra isn't exactly a snowbally champion) but your passive will damage the minion wave, which can create a slowpush towards the enemy. This will put you behind as the enemy will have a large minion wave to collect and you will get absolutely nothing.

Crashing & Bouncing
Let's go back to some concepts: Crashing the wave & Bouncing the wave. Once an entire minion wave gets in range of the enemy turret (so not only the melees, but also the casters and the cannon), the minion wave has "crashed". When you push the wave fast enough for the tower to clear all the minions before the upcoming wave arrives, it is called a "reset". The next wave will then meet in the middle of the lane, like at the start of the game! When you push too slowly or when a slowpush crashes into the turret, the turret will not be able to kill all the minions before the upcoming minion wave arrives. This will delay the new minion wave so the minion waves will not meet in the middle of the lane. Because of the even minion rule, the wave, if left unattended it will start slowpushing to the other side of the lane!

One might ask: Why is this useful? Well, imagine that you crash a slowpush, go on a roam and your opponent decides to follow you. Then something happens (a fight, you abandon the roam, w/e) and both of you return to lane. Now you can collect more minions compared to your opponent since the wave was slowpushing towards you, putting you ahead in xp/gold. This is essentially another reason why slowpushing is better than fastpushing.

Freezing
So here is the last and my favourite technique: Freezing. So first of all, what is a freeze? You have a freeze when you keep the minions in a certain spot for an extended amount of time. Freezing will force the enemy laner to overextend for farm and will keep you safe since you will be close to the turret. The downside is that you won't be applying any pressure, leaving your opponent free to roam.
Freezing is commonly done against assassins/melee matchups so you can freely poke them whilst making it almost impossible for them to trade with you. Make sure to place lane wards to see where they roam though. Freezing for a long period of time against non-assassins is much harder as they have an easier time breaking your freeze since they have more waveclear. You can still freeze for a short time to make them an easy gank target or force them to dump spells on the wave.
So, how do you freeze? Well, since you want the minion wave to stay somewhere on your half of the map there'll have to be more enemy minions than allied minions in the wave. If you are close to the turret you'll need around ~4 caster minions more and if you are around the middle of the lane 1-2 minions are good enough. The next step is "holding" the wave: Once the enemy wave killed all your minions you tank the enemy minions to prevent them from advancing from the spot where you want them to be. This is also what makes freezing in midlane pretty hard: If you hold too many minions you will take a lot of damage and if the enemy is ranged they can walk up and hit you with abilities or force you to retreat.

Overall, freezing against ranged matchups is not optimal unless your jungle will gank you. has a really low range so unless you are already ahead of your opponent, you will not be able to zone them from the wave. One of the other main reasons to freeze is to keep yourself safe from ganks. 's kit already does that well enough, so that reason is obsolete as well.

This concludes my wave management section & gameplay: laning chapter. If you are looking for more information on laning or fundamentals, check the spoiler below!

Other Sources on Midlane fundamentals


In case you didn't get shoved into the dust in the laning phase: Now is your time! You should be looking to farm in sidelanes unless your ADC is not able to waveclear/hold mid lane (in case the outer turret still stands). In that case you should hold mid lane. Avoid moving past the river unless you have vision/know where the enemy team is. It is also important that you farm on the side of the map with an objective (either drake or baron) so that you can join your team when a fight breaks out. In case you took Teleport (and it's off cooldown), you can go to the opposite side of the map. Keep an eye on the minimap for teleport wards so that you can immediately teleport when you need to. Sometimes this simply doesn't work and both teams start grouping in midlane and start to fight for no reason. This can be really frustrating to deal with, your best bet is to simply join your team and try to force an engage.

		Also keep an eye on the blue buff, ask your jungler for it when it's up. Don't steal it away when he/she makes it clear that he/she wants it himself. Playing without a blue buff is far easier than playing without a jungler.


In The Midgame
In this stage of the game Frozen Tomb is extremely important as a tool to create picks. When someone is too far forward you can easily Glacial Path forward and follow up with ult. If the enemy is in range of Ring of Frost, use that first as there is even less chance of the enemy getting away. The general teamfight combo can also be used to engage small teamfights/skirmishes, but will not do much damage yet. Its main use in this stage of the game is to root people so that your team can follow up and kill them.

In The Lategame
There is much more damage flying around in this stage of the game. Frozen Tomb is mainly used on yourself (as part of the general teamfight combo) so that you won't die when you go in. It is still possible to use Frozen Tomb on enemies, but only when you are able to CC a high priority member of the enemy team (usually midlane or ADC) or when you need to disengage a fight.

Sometimes it can be tough to choose when to ult enemies or when to ult yourself in a fight, here is an overview of when you should do what. Again, it's not always super obvious when you have to ult yourself and when you should ult an enemy. For example, you should only look to ult enemies for a 'more favorable' ult placement when you know that you won't die for it or that your death will win the fight.

Self Ult

Enemy Ult

>>You are (extremely) low on health
>>Resetting turret aggro during a dive
>>Buying time for your team (when engaging/out of position)
>>Jumping in the middle of 4-5 people without

>>Picking someone off who is overextended
>>No threat of dying when ulting offensively
>>More favorable placement compared to self ult

The downside of ulting yourself is that you cannot reposition yourself and the enemy can turn on you and kill you when you leave stasis. Here's an example of a midgame fight where the this happens:

The (obvious) downside of ulting an enemy is that you leave yourself open to attacks. When playing , you'll often find yourself walking the thin line between life and death.

One last note before I continue: Before you dive in the enemy team/engage a fight, check whether your team is able to follow up. Unless you are ultra fed you won't kill the enemy by yourself, so if your team can't follow up do not jump in as you will probably die cold and lonely in the middle of the enemy team.

I mentioned this in the section above (and you probably didn't know what I meant ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) ). Ultimate placement is actually just what it says: the placement of the ice zone of . A badly placed ultimate will do nothing at all whilst a well placed ultimate can win teamfights. So when is an ult placement good? When one of the following two options is true:
>>(Almost) all enemies are on ultimate zone
>>Enemy team is divided by the ultimate zone

>>The first option is the easiest, you simply ult yourself when you're on top of (almost) the entire enemy team. This way the enemy team will be slowed & damaged by your ultimate, allowing your team to jump on them.

>>This is especially applicable in chokepoints. Chokepoints are tight corridors in the jungle, you can see one in the image on the right and the spot where I ulted in the GIF above is one as well.
People are more likely to be clumped together in these spots, so your abilities will hit everyone. They will take massive amounts of damage and you'll be extremely likely to win the fight.

>>The second point is a bit harder to comprehend. You place in such a way that a part of the enemy team is on one side of you and another part of the enemy team is on the other side. Your team can finish off the people on their side whilst the enemies on the other side cannot help because of the slow (& damage threat) of your ultimate.

>>If you'd like to see some more clips of (successful) fights, there are some in the spoiler below.

Some fights (Pre & post passive)

>>Although is capable of diving into the enemy team with her kit, she can also protect her team from enemy divers/assassins. In this case she plays more like a secondary support rather than a midlaner. Determining whether to peel or to dive can be tough sometimes.

The answer to the question whether to peel or dive depends on your own strength and your teams strength. When you are really far behind you are next to no threat in terms of damage. The only thing you have is your CC, which is better used to peel than to dive.

In midgame fights, people cannot deal with you as they won't have defensive items yet meaning that you can look to shut down their backline. This is also true when you are ahead as you can erase carries from Summoners Rift before they can react.

In the lategame however, enemy carries should have the defensive tools to deal with you and it can be hard to threaten them. At the same time, your carries should be strong too (and if they're stronger than the enemy) you should be looking to protect them.

Neutral objectives like and are an important part of the game. It is very common for fights to break out around these. When the enemy team tries to take it they will usually group up, making it very easy for you to get good combo's off.

It becomes a bit more difficult when your team is trying to take the objective. Unless you have a blue buff, the enemy is dead or the objective needs to be taken quickly you should avoid spamming on it. You can easily drain your mana and you'll be completely useless once a fight breaks out.

It is a better idea to zone the enemy team or look for flanks. 'Zoning' is positioning yourself in such a way that the enemy is afraid of entering your 'zone'. In this case it would be that the enemy doesn't want to come close to you/walk through chokepoints because you might engage.

Flanking is a much harder concept: you hide at the side/at the rear of the enemy and surprise them by coming from a different direction than the rest of your team.
Having an is essential here: it allows you to sneak past wards without being seen so you can surprise the enemy. However, keep in mind that when you hit a ward it will reveal you (even with on), so if you want to sneak around you should avoid hitting any wards that are revealed.

It is also possible to flank with . Simply look for wards that are located behind the enemy and teleport. This is especially effective when teleporting from base post 20 minutes as you will have the movement speed buff for a small amount of time.

>>One thing I have always enjoyed doing in League of Legends is jumping over walls. is able to jump over any wall with . As long as the claw is halfway past the wall, you will end up on the other side.

>>When it comes to jumping over walls I'm always looking for a challenge. I looked for spots where you can jump over two walls at once. After smacking my face into countless walls I made the map on the left. It can be mirrored for topside.

Make sure that Glacial Path travels its maximum distance before reactivating!

The jump from baron pit to red buff is extremely hard. You have to stand in the right spot and make the indicator completely horizontal.
The jumps from drake pit to red buff and the jump out of baron pit are hard.
The jumps to the tier 1 and tier 2 turrets and the jump into baron pit are medium.
All other jumps are easy

>>There's an interesting interaction between
and glacial path. When you charge hexflash, reactivating (so not the 1st cast!) will not interrupt the channel. This means that you can cast , channel , reactivate and !

Welcome to the matchup section. Below is a table depicting the difficulties of the matchups. Please keep in mind that these difficulties are my opinion. Matchup difficulty also depends on your skill and the skill of the opponent.
The spoilers with matchup info are located below the table.

Champion

Matchup Difficulty

Champion

Matchup Difficulty

Ahri

Lucian

Akali

Lux

Anivia

Malzahar

Annie

Mordekaiser

Aurelion Sol

Morgana

Azir

Neeko

Brand

Orianna

Cassiopeia

Qiyana

Corki

Ryze

Diana

Sylas

Ekko

Syndra

Fizz

Talon

Galio

Veigar

Heimerdinger

Vel'Koz

Irelia

Viktor

Jayce

Vladimir

Karthus

Xerath

Kassadin

Yasuo

Katarina

Zed

Kayle

Ziggs

Kennen

Zilean

LeBlanc

Zoe

Matchups A

Ahri

Akali

Anivia

Annie

Aurelion Sol

Azir

Ahri

Summoners

Lane

Starting item

Teamfights

Key ability

Stat shards

Recommended Runes

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Always avoid getting hit by her by hiding behind your minions (or juking like a god). Try to avoid getting pushed under your turret as she easily hit you when you are trying to last hit. When you go in (e.g. for a gank/all-in) try to cast to her side and not straight at her, so you can dodge the by reactivating early or late.

is a linear skillshot that returns, so avoid dodging back/forwards and dodge sideways instead. Even if you get hit by the first part of it, you might be able to dodge the return part. Be a bit careful post-6 when you don't have a lot of minions around you as she might go for an all-in. She can do this by using to get past the minions and use on you.

If she does this and misses her charm, you can look to all-in her as well. This depends a bit on your health and on the amount of ult charges she has left. If she hits her charm you are in a bit of trouble, either use the escape combo to get away from her or the self ult/kill combo. Also keep in mind that is her only form of mobility, making her very vulnerable to ganks when it's on cooldown.

She can take two keystones at the moment, and . The former gives her quite some burst, but you're fine as long as you avoid the charm. The latter can be a bit annoying to play against as the slow rays from / make it almost impossible to avoid her charm, but she shouldn't be able to kill you if you play properly.

Later in the game, her main goal is kiting around and landing s. If you have trouble avoiding them, get a ( can be bought if the enemy team has more champions with hard CC). Sometimes Ahri players overstep themselves by using forward to look for plays, immediately use to lock her down. In general, if you lock down she's done for.

Akali

Summoners

Lane

Starting item

Teamfights

Key ability

Stat shards

Recommended Runes

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Can be a tricky lane. outranges , even her auto-range is larger than the range of . Push her in and whittle her down with and autoattacks. Avoid extended trades. When she's low enough you can look for an all-in.

Back off when she drops her and avoid standing in it unless is on the other side of it. If she is very close, use & and stay out of range until the shroud despawns. Once its on cooldown you can play more aggressive as she does not have the tools to all-in you.

Stay within or behind your minions to avoid getting hit by her . It can also be dodged by walking sideways because it's a linear skillshot. If she hits it, either retreat into turret range if you are close to your turret or hug your minions. If she takes it, use , follow up with and get out of her range.

Post level 6 she should not be able to kill you as long as long as you stay healthy and avoid extended fights. If she tries to all-in you, simply use and . Do not try to (reactively) self ult her R2 as the dash is extremely fast. In case she tries to dive you (or takes a when you are under turret) lock her down with and or use the self ult protection combo in case you are in danger of dying.

Playing against her in teamfights is easier than laning (if she isn't fed). Lock her down with when she jumps in and she's done for. If she uses after jumping in, move towards the middle (if possible) or where you think she is and use . Another neat trick is to use when she drops her shroud. Her outline will show, making it even more easy to hit .

Anivia

Summoners

Lane

Starting item

Teamfights

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is one of those matchups that usually ends with both of you hitting the minions. Pre level 6 you have the waveclear advantage and you can bully her. However you won't be able to kill her because of her passive unless your jungler is there.

Before level 6 you should focus mostly on dodging her . As long as it doesn't hit, her will do next to no damage. When is on cooldown you can look to play a bit more aggressive. Look to push her under her turret so she has to farm underneath it. Be careful though, her + are excellent tools to setup a gank, even if is up.

Post level 6 this matchup changes. She'll be able to clear the wave pretty quickly. Try to prevent the wave from crashing into your turret, but if that's not possible, its fine. Avoid using directly at her when she has up. Instead, aim it to her side and try to take it early/late. Then, immediately use so she cannot reactivate in case she threw it at you.

All-inning can be dangerous as she can put her beneath you after you use , if you her it will be disabled. However if you ult yourself she won't be stunned and will not be disabled. She can easily time a to stun you after the stasis ends and kill you. This makes it far less favorable to ult yourself when up against compared to other matchups.

She can be tough to play against in teamfights. As I said, it is a bit less favorable to ult yourself so if your AD is in a good spot you should definitely look to peel. However, if you know your engage is going to win the fight or you have you can jump in anyway.

Annie

Summoners

Lane

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Teamfights

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This is a skill matchup. is surprisingly similar to , she has slightly less range but lower cooldowns. The laning phase can go both ways and the matchup can even revolve into a farm lane.

The most important thing to keep track of is her passive, once she has four stacks you got to be careful and make sure to stay out of her range. When it isn't up, like at one/two stacks, you can walk a little more forward. Since the range on all her abilities is lower than 's range you can poke her without her being able to retaliate.

It is not necessary to push the wave towards her. is fine with farming under her turret and taking turret plates/harassing her can be risky because of her CC in combination with ganks. Try to keep the wave in the middle of the lane or a bit closer to your turret and whittle her down. Once she is low you can all-in her, but keep in mind that you'll do less damage to her when she has up.

The matchup doesn't really change post-6. Continue to whittle her down and all-in when she's low enough. However, be careful when you are at low health yourself, she will look for a + to kill you by surprise. If you have trouble dealing with this get .

Later in the game will try to do the same (run at you and use or + to incinerate you and/or your AD). Avoid standing on top of the rest of your team so you don't get roasted at the same time. If are not enough to protect you against her, get a as well.

Aurelion Sol

Summoners

Lane

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Teamfights

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Shattered slightly outranges so you should be able to poke him without him being able to hit you. The most important thing in this matchup is sidestepping his and avoiding his stars.

Avoid getting hit by his stars when he uses . Either use to slow him or walk towards him and use (and stay within the stars until they contract). Be careful of his early damage & cheese as commonly takes both and . tends to roam a lot so notify your team when he vanishes from lane. It can be extremely helpful to put a ward in the middle of the lane so you know where he is roaming and when he roams you should immediately start pushing the wave.

After you get you should be able to match his waveclear, if he roams you can either follow (if you're quick) or take turret plates. In case he stays in lane and misses his , poke aggressively with or all-in if he's low enough. can easily be taken down when your jungle ganks as he lacks an escape.

Be careful of his ultimate when fighting him at close range. It will push you away when you're within 650 range of him. To counter this you can either ult him so he isn't able to run away or ult yourself so you don't get pushed away. The choice of what to do depends (like always) on the situation.

In late game fights, is a force to reckon with. Fortunately, he is extremely vulnerable to CC. If you ult him his stars will be disabled and your team can jump on him. However, even if you do not ult him but hit him with a general teamfight combo instead he'll be rooted and won't be able to kite away.

Azir

Summoners

Lane

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Teamfights

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If was more popular I'd permaban him. Avoid standing next to his soldiers to avoid unnecessary damage. Also avoid standing within your minions so when he pokes with + autoattack he cannot use the same soldier for waveclear.

Aside from having quite some poke, also has an escape. This makes him hard to gank as he can simply dash away. Keep in mind that when he uses for poke, he won't be able to dash as far with . His abilities also have high cooldowns, so there is a large window where you can do stuff till has his abilities again.

Once you gain a few levels this matchup becomes slightly easier as it'll become much easier to clear the waves (and thus making it harder for to poke you). It is also easier to look for all-ins when he missteps. However be careful because his ultimate, can push you away (or in his turret).

His can be countered similarly to 's . You can ult yourself to dodge it or ult him to prevent him from escaping. However, since it is a wall your team will not be able to pass it (unless they have dashes) making it harder for them to follow up on you in a fight. Teamfighting against can also be really tough because of his high range (and high dps).

Matchups B-G

Brand

Cassiopeia

Corki

Diana

Ekko

Fizz

Galio

Brand

Summoners

Lane

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Teamfights

Key ability

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Avoid standing in the minion wave so cannot hit both you and the minions with . Also avoid standing close to minions that are ablaze so that cannot use on them to poke you.

If you do get hit by his poke, make sure he cannot hit you with as long as you are affected by . If he stuns you he can land his third ability, which will proc his passive and do a significant amount of damage.

tends to push the wave (if he doesn't, look to push him instead so he has to farm under turret). He is very immobile, making him an easy target for jungle ganks. However, be careful as he can do large amounts of damage with his passive explosion (always try to avoid the stun). This is especially true post-6 as he can do massive amounts of damage when you are on top of your jungle.

This matchup will become easier as your waveclear increases, at some point you can just clear the wave and run away. However, be careful of his ultimate. Immediately run/use away from minions & allies once he uses it to prevent it from bouncing multiple times.

be very dangerous in teamfights because of his massive AoE damage. Avoid standing on top of your teammates so he cannot melt your entire team in seconds. He is also very immobile, so if you get on top of him with a self ult combo he's done for.

Cassiopeia

Summoners

Lane

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Teamfights

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I've been banning this champ since the start of this season. The No.1 thing to do in the laning phase is to dodge . There is no such thing as staying out of range here, has nearly as much range as the shattered projectile. When you get hit by it back off immediately as s damage will be enhanced when you are poisoned (and she WILL outdamage you).

Because dodging is so important always get on your first base. Also watch out for her , it grounds so you cannot reactivate when you're on it. This can ruin your escape but can also ruin (allied) ganks. Make sure to walk away from when you plan to engage on her to prevent her from grounding you.

When laning against your best bet is to simply call your jungler. There is not much can do against her by herself. In the rare case that she messes up you can look to kill her, dodge her by either turning around or ulting yourself.

Playing against later in the game can be tricky too. The main issue is that she can put her beneath you after you leave your self ult, making you unable to escape (very similar to what can do). She also has a ton of dps and if you ever get stunned by her ultimate you are dead. Like many other mids, she is immobile so if you get on top of her (and your team can follow up) she will die.

Corki

Summoners

Lane

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Teamfights

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This matchup plays very similar to , but is easier early on. Early on he can poke you a bit, avoid standing on top of your minions so he cannot hit on you and them. Also back off when he turns on his , you can trade with auto + (+ auto) but do not stay in his range after that.

Focus mainly on farming pre 6. Post 6 he can hurt quite a bit with his rockets, keep minions between you and him (do not stand next to the minions, as the rockets do AoE damage) to avoid getting poked. If he focuses mostly on clearing the wave you should mirror that and if he doesn't it becomes the question who lands the most poke.

If you manage to get him low you can look to all-in him. Usually it is not possible to kill him because of and his tendency to take . However, if he wastes it offensively he becomes an easy target. Be careful when he gets The Package, many s will look to use it on a roam. Alert your team when he vanishes and immediately shove the wave.

is some sort of midlane ADC, he is extremely dangerous once he gets a few items under his belt. This can make him a threat in teamfights in case he is allowed to freely hit people.

Diana

Summoners

Lane

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Teamfights

Key ability

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is kind of a weak champion early on. You can play agressive during level 1 & 2 since she will not have access to all her abilities yet. Once she hits level 3 the fun begins though.

Try to dodge , even though she can jump on you if she misses it she won't do much damage. If you do get hit by , be careful, she will probably jump on you. Try to kite back and use . Use once she tries to retreat (or immediately if she's all-inning you).

Keep track of her , if she uses it on the wave you can play aggressive even if she hits . Once gets level 6 the matchup stays the same. It arguably becomes slightly easier because cannot use her ultimate against you, if she does you can either jump out with (if you're quick) or self ult to avoid the damage.

Be careful when roaming around the map as allows to shred turrets. Preferably, shouldn't be left alone for too long around turrets, not only during the laning phase but also later in the game.

In teamfights will look to hit multi-man ultimates, actually very similar to what wants. Avoid sitting on top of your teammates (even though you can avoid the damage with & , your teammates probably cannot). Once she jumps in you can look to use on her so your teammates can kill her.

Ekko

Summoners

Lane

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Teamfights

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You can harass a lot when he tries to last hit minions. However, he can dodge a lot of poke by spamming on the wave, pushing the wave in the process. Simply pick up the farm when he does so.

Do not be afraid to play aggressively into , unless he has two passive stacks on you (back off until they time out!) you're fine. If he tries to jump on you with you can use - run out of his range - and then chase him whilst beating him with autoattacks. He should not be able to proc his passive for disengage if you're fast enough.

His can be dangerous when you get caught in the stun, always be vigilant when he vanishes (briefly) into the fog of war. He might have hidden the casting animation to surprise you. Move away from the place where he vanished so he cannot jump onto you with should you be within the sphere.

Sometimes when he dashes with he ends up in range: use it immediately so he cannot autoattack - walk back and . Post level 6 this matchup doesn't change a lot, he cannot kill you as long as you don't misplay, don't get stunned by his and keep track of his ultimate clone. When you get ganked it is possible to perma CC him so he cannot use , if it takes too long to kill him, try to use before he ults so the healing is reduced.

Later in the game he is a slightly larger threat as he can do a lot of damage and can buy a lot of time with his ultimate + + . Wait with using till he drops to ~50% health, he'll probably die before he is able to use his own ult. If he is threatening your team you can also ult him right when he goes in. This usually forces him to ult as well, making him less of a threat for the remainder of the fight.

Fizz

Summoners

Lane

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Teamfights

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Fizz can be tricky to play against. When playing against him, play the safe game. Poke him with but avoid autoattacking as doing so will put you into range and allows him to jump on you.

When he jumps on you use either when he is still in or after he uses . If you use it after he finished he might dodge it with , immediately retreat towards your turret (with if needed) when this happens.

Once his is on cooldown and is off cooldown you can play a tad more aggressively. Post level 6 he becomes pretty dangerous. Although can defend herself with , the cooldown of is a bit lower so there is a small window where you have to be extremely careful.

In teamfights it becomes much easier to play against him, if he ults you either use your own ult or ( is extremely effective against him as it denies him his main burst). If he ults one of your teammates, try to prevent him from jumping in with your CC or if he's already in the middle of your team, simply ult him and take him down.

Galio

Summoners

Lane

Starting item

Teamfights

Key ability

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cannot kill you and you cannot kill unless one of you messes up. Focus on farming. When he jumps forward with , use once he retreats and chase him a bit with autoattacks. In case he misses it, use to prevent him from coming closer to you and walk out of his taunt range.

After you can easily push the wave into him and look for roams. is also a great roamer with , either follow the roam with (if you're in time) or push the wave and take plates. Also be conscious of the fact that can use his ultimate to follow your roams.

Later in the game playing against is like playing against any other tank/bruiser. Either dive the backline (be careful of his CC!) or peel for your team depending on the situation.

Matchups H-KA

Heimerdinger

Irelia

Jayce

Karthus

Kassadin

Katarina

Kayle

Heimerdinger

Summoners

Lane

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Teamfights

Key ability

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is one of those champions that are straight up painful to deal with. Killing his turrets early on with is suboptimal as the ability will not even deal half of the turrets health and costs far more mana. Focus on using on the wave/ instead and kill turrets with auto's.

The early laning phase is the toughest part as he will push you in and force you to farm under turret. Simply do so and avoid as much harass as you can. Stand behind minions to dodge the and be careful of his (moving in random directions helps a lot with dodging this one).

Jungle ganks when playing against can unfold in outright disaster. Although has great gank setup, ganking an heimer with all his turrets up can be deadly. is at his weakest right after he returns to lane since his turrets aren't there.

Later in the game is not that much of an issue, he can be dangerous to fight within his turret area and his empowered can turn around teamfights. Other than that he doesn't have that much value.

Irelia

Summoners

Lane

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Teamfights

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Another skill matchup. Do not stand next to low health minions so she cannot + auto you. Keep an eye on her passive stacks and do not come in range when its stacked.

As long as you dodge (early help a lot) and do not get poked, should not be able to kill you. Like almost all other melee matchups you can whittle her down and play more aggressive when her key ability is on cooldown (but keep the passive in mind).

After level 6 this matchup gets a bit more tricky. If she hits you with and tries to all-in with immediately use + to get out. If she is playing aggressively she is a prime target for jungle ganks, try to bait her into jumping onto a minion and CC chain her when your jungler is there.

In teamfights she can be annoying to deal with as she is quite tanky and also is very mobile if she hits people with her stun and ult. However, you can easily stop her from dashing around with and .

Jayce

Summoners

Lane

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Teamfights

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This is a very uncommon matchup, is mostly played top, if played at all. The key to this lane is avoiding/dodging his (empowered) shockblast. The best way to do is to stay behind your minions. Other than that look to farm up till .

After getting this you can play more aggressive and start pushing the wave. Use and walk back in case he jumps on you. Also be extremely careful of his knockback when using . It has the spaghetti trait that if he casts it when you reactivate , you'll be thrown back to where you were before you reactivated it.

becomes weaker as the game goes on, by the time the game is at teamfighting stage he'll be completely useless compared to you. The only thing you got to do is avoid his empowered shockblasts and its all good.

Karthus

Summoners

Lane

Starting item

Teamfights

Key ability

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-

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Who doesn't like dodgeball? The key thing in this matchup is to dodge , if you do that the lane will feel like a breeze. Try to stay next to your minions so if you do not succeed in dodging it the damage won't be doubled.

range is garbage when you take out of the mix. This allows you to bully him in lane with both autoattacks and . Early are not only a huge help in dodging but will also help with using your range advantage.

He is also extremely vulnerable to jungle ganks because he lacks mobility. However, be careful of when he dies. Immediately get away from him once he dies so he cannot retaliate. Post level 6 allows him to influence lanes without leaving mid. Always try to keep him in vision range and stun him with in case he channels it in a spot where you can reach him.

Later in the game his ultimate can be incredibly threatening, but the ability gets countered completely by . If he dies at the start of a teamfight, distance yourself from his ghost as fighting in its range can be extremely dangerous. Aim for getting him extremely low on health. The only thing he can do is use his ultimate, if he tries to fight he'll die with his ghost in an awful spot.

Kassadin

Summoners

Lane

Starting item

Teamfights

Key ability

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-

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is a mage counter and is no exception. Pre 6 you can bully him and push him in (or freeze in front of your turret so he has to overextend) and get a (CS) lead. Avoid using when he uses as the shield will absorb all the damage.

He gets a lot harder to play against post 6. He can jump on you at will and he will outtrade you because of his passive and . Avoid harassing with autoattacks as it will place you into his range and will start to hurt. Your best bet is to keep the wave near your tower and focus on farming.

At this point he's also a very slippery gank target because of . If you want to setup a gank and he's in the middle of the lane, bait him into using towards you and then chain CC him. If he is pushed up you can simply use (or ) and reactivate when you're in ult range.

is a scaling monster, once he reaches level 16 he becomes almost unstoppable. However, if he jumps in at the wrong moment or he fails to kill your ADC (instantly) you can ult him and hope your team can kill him. Always group up as a team.

Katarina

Summoners

Lane

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Teamfights

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Another skillmatchup. This one is slightly in 's favor as she has lower cooldowns. The key to this matchup is avoiding the daggers. Not only in lane, but at any point in the game.

If she uses on a minion, do not stand behind that minion but run towards the side. If she jumps on you with use and walk away. If she follows up with , move sideways. As long as you do not move on top/next to a dagger its good.

Try to poke her when is down or when she walks up to auto a minion. A good kat will not let her poke you and can be incredibly hard to take down. She will simply avoid the lane by roaming around the map. Focus on farming in this case and make sure to place wards so you can warn your team.

Later in the game you can shut her down by using when she jumps in. It is also possible to screw her over by using or self ulting when is mid flight, the projectile will vanish robbing her of a dagger.

Kayle

Summoners

Lane

Starting item

Teamfights

Key ability

Stat shards

-

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is a strange matchup. Pre 6 you will win because she is melee, try to bully her & deny cs. Don't forget to farm though. You can push her under her turret or (in case you have an early game jungler), let the wave push and ask for ganks.

Once you get 6 and the jungle is willing to gank your lane you can completely shut down with repeat ganks. If your jungler doesn't gank your lane you are in a bit of trouble. has enough sustain to survive your poke and can actually fight you because she has more sustained damage. If your jungler is not willing to pay attention to the lane, start pushing the wave and roam.

is extremely dangerous to deal with in later stages of the game because of her hyperscaling nature. Keep track of her ultimate, jump on her when she casts it on a teammate. She will be locked into the casting animation for 1,5s, if you intend to ult her, wait with using till it runs out (unless you can oneshot in which case you use everything immediately).

In case she holds her ultimate in teamfights you can either look to peel for your backline or to wait for a multiman ultimate. can only save one person so if everyone besides that person falls, the teamfight will be won anyway.

Matchups KE-M

Kennen

LeBlanc

Lucian

Lux

Malzahar

Mordekaiser

Morgana

Kennen

Summoners

Lane

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Teamfights

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More commonly seen in toplane, like . Stand behind your minions to avoid his . Use when he tries to use towards you.

Also keep track of his empowered auto attack (the shuriken in his hand will be white/lightning like). Do not trade autoattacks when he has it up. Try to bully him out of lane/kill him, if you cannot, simply push waves and roam.

Farm it out till you get , once you get it (and presumably, level 6) either poke him & look for all-ins. Or if that doesn't work, simply push the wave and look for roams.

Post level 6 (& in teamfights) you can completely deny his engage by casting , moving towards him when he has /, using / and reactivating . Be aware of the amount of passive stacks on you though, if you get stunned whilst trying this you're in big trouble.

Leblanc

Summoners

Lane

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Teamfights

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Definitely my favorite matchup. Avoid standing on top of your minions at level 1 to deny a cheesy + auto + auto trade. After that, if she ever tries to on top of you, immediately use + + auto (+ auto). If you don't have these abilities up, stay out of range.

The only way can get ahead in this matchup is to repeatedly hit you with . Stand within your minions to prevent her from hitting it. If she does hit it, either use early and reactivate just before it roots or cast it slightly after it roots. If you panic and cast it immediately after it roots you'll leave yourself without an escape.

If you are marked you can still let her onto you (as long as your abilities are up). Both of you will proc and do roughly the same damage. However, your minions will whack her for some extra damage, winning you the trade.

Post level 6 this matchup becomes even more interesting, again, as long as does not hit her chains you are good. If she has the audacity to dash into your face when she's at ~50% health you can easily kill her/force her away by literally pressing all the buttons on your keyboard ( + + + + ).

In teamfights it's essentially the same. If she dashes into your range, immediately use . Be careful with using as the casting time might result in her getting stunned after she reactivates (completely wasting your ultimate...). Stay near your ADC/other priority targets and she'll never be able to dash in without killing herself.

Lucian

Summoners

Lane

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Teamfights

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I'm glad that this pick is out of meta. can bully you around and outtrade you. Look to farm up and play defensive, help a lot since he is auto attack based. Avoid lining up with minions (much like how you would line up with ) so he cannot poke you with .

Once you get to a higher level and acquire you can (like in many other matchups) wait for him to clear the wave and then clear it yourself. He has a pretty short range so he won't be able to bully you under your turret. He is also vulnerable to ganks so if your jungler comes you should be able to lock him down and kill him.

is more of a bully pick and does not offer any utility to his team. As long as he does not get ahead he won't be able to take over a game and you should be fine. Teamfighting against him is like playing against the regular ADC, if you get on top of him he's dead.

Lux

Summoners

Lane

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Teamfights

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Welcome to another game of dodgeball. Stand behind minions (at least two) to avoid her , also avoid standing within your minion wave so she cannot hit both you and the minions with . Avoid getting autoattacked by her when you are affected by her passive mark.

Some es will permapush the wave once they (and you) get . There is not really something you can do against this, simply take the farm. Others may look to poke you out. In this case push the wave and base when you need to. cannot kill you when you have up as you can use it to dodge her ultimate. Be careful when your ultimate is on cooldown though, make sure you don't get caught in a .

This is also true for later stages in the game, if you get hit by she can unleash her entire combo, either forcing you to base or to use your ultimate / . It is possible to dodge her with since its such a slow projectile.

When you have mercury's threads, cast when you get hit by . Some players are slow to cast allowing you to reactivate before it can hit you.

Malzahar

Summoners

Lane

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Teamfights

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-

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Another *exciting* farmlane. Stay away from minions affected by so the DoT doesn't spread to you. Also wait with using till uses . Try to hit the voidlings and the minion wave at the same time.

Your ability to kill all his voidlings with one ability makes it tougher for him to push you in and subsequently makes it easier for you to farm. When he uses dodge it by moving towards or away from him. Be careful of this ability when using to escape/initiate, the silence will prevent you from reactivating. When you are about to get ganked (by your jungler) make sure to remove his passive shield by hitting him or an auto before using your CC.

Post level 6 / after this matchup really becomes a farm lane. Both of you have great gank setup with and . However, has a slight edge as she can cancel (although its quite hard) s ultimate with her own. This is done by casting your ultimate when you think he's about to cast his, if he does he will immediately get stunned and his ultimate channel will stop.

Be really careful of later in the game, especially when you are planning to initiate a fight. If he uses it before you are able to self ult you'll certainly die. Either use the quick self ult combo when going in or peel for your team.

Mordekaiser

Summoners

Lane

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Teamfights

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Another easy lane. The only way he can get close to you is by using . However, this ability is pretty telegraphed and not difficult to avoid. If it hits, use and to create some distance (or if you're really in trouble).

As long as doesn't hit you can sit at a distance, poke him and farm. Try to stay close to your minions as his will deal more damage when it hits a single enemy. Do not stand close to low health minions as he will probably use to pick up the CS.

The most dangerous part of his kit is his . If he uses it you can kite him around and wait for it to end (or kill him if you can). However, be aware that his team might come whilst you are fighting in death realm. Try to cast towards a safe location just before it ends and reactivate it when you need to (when you come out the claw will be invisible, but you can still reactivate it).

continues to be a threat throughout the game. is not at her best in 1v1 and it can be confusing to come out of his ult and find an ongoing teamfight/the entire enemy team on top of you. If he doesn't use his ult he can easily be kited because of his lack of mobility and the high amount of CC in 's kit.

Morgana

Summoners

Lane

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Teamfights

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I hope you are good at dodging skillshots. In the early levels the lane is kind of even, hit the wave with when uses on your minions. Make sure to stay behind your minions to avoid getting hit by .

At some point she can just permapush the wave with . Try to clear the wave as quickly as possible with , but you'll likely to end up under your turret. It is very hard to jump on her when she goes too far forward because of , this ability makes it also very hard to set up ganks. You can break it with before using your CC, but you'll lack the damage needed to kill her on your own.

Just take the farmlane and scale. Both and offer good utility later in the game, although Morg has an edge over Liss because of . However, has a lot more to offer in teamfights because of her AoE damage and slow, can only save one person...

Matchups N-T

Neeko

Orianna

Qiyana

Ryze

Sylas

Syndra

Talon

Neeko

Summoners

Lane

Starting item

Teamfights

Key ability

Stat shards

Recommended Runes

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Don't be surprised if you see someone other than when you get to lane, she probably disguised herself using . Avoid standing in your minion wave so she cannot hit you & the minions with . If you do get hit, immediately leave the impact area to avoid getting hit by the subsequent ticks.

Do not line up with her & the minions so she cannot hit an empowered . In case this is not possible (since using requires you to line up with minions) try to dodge it by moving sideways. It has a very obvious casting animation but keep in mind that the missile will speed up when it hits something.

are a great pickup when you struggle to dodge , they will reduce the root duration and offer some MR. Once you get the lane becomes more focused on waveclearing. In case she tries to all-in you with + , either get out with if the root wears off before her ult lands or self ult to avoid all the damage.

Later in the game all she can do is catch people with or get big AoE damage with . Again, avoid lining up with her and your teammates so you won't be rooted for ages and avoid getting hit by her ultimate.

Orianna

Summoners

Lane

Starting item

Teamfights

Key ability

Stat shards

-

Recommended Runes

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This one of the worst champions to lane against as . Her range is as large as shattered range, but it has no cast time. It is also almost impossible to dodge unless you fake your movement.

has an advantage in trades because of the shield and resists from and her low cooldowns. There is not much you can do besides (trying) to dodge her ball and farm. Post you get some more agency and you'll be able to clear the wave faster.

If you do manage to hit with a few s and you're looking for an all-in, try to stay on top of her when you do so. When she casts you can ult yourself to avoid the damage & knockback whilst damaging and slowing her. Her ult can also be dodged with or even with if you throw it out in time.

Later on you have to be careful of where the ball is. Avoid walking past it (if you really have to, cast to be safe). If you and your team get caught in a it can easily cost you an objective or the game.

Qiyana

Summoners

Lane

Starting item

Teamfights

Key ability

Stat shards

Recommended Runes

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is one of those champions that seems to have a gazillion dashes and you have no idea how they work. Frankly the best way to find out is to try her yourself (hop into a bot game/practice tool when she is on free rotation).

Keep minions between you and her to avoid long-ranged poke from her . Also be aware of what element she is holding, if she is holding water she might be looking to setup a gank or go for an all-in (or make you think she is going to) and if she is holding mountain be aware it'll do more damage when you are below 50% health.

Her mobility is actually quite gated. She is extremely vulnerable just after she picks up an element as will be on cooldown. This makes her unable to dash away from you. She is even more vulnerable when she uses directly after using . Be aware that the cooldown of resets when she uses so be extra vigilant when she is holding an element for a while.

If you have trouble against her, an early can help. Recall when you are low (especially because she gets extra damage on mountain ) and use potions in time to keep your health up. Post-6 it gets a bit tricky with . If you see it in time you can dodge it by self ulting.

In teamfights you play against as you would play against any other assassin ( can reveal her when she is in stealth!). She is more dangerous than other assassins due to her ultimate, make sure that you get and try to CC her when she jumps in.

Ryze

Summoners

Lane

Starting item

Teamfights

Key ability

Stat shards

Recommended Runes

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Another farmlane. is pretty weak in the early game and needs to scale before he can do stuff. The issue is that 's early game is terrible as well so you won't be able to do much. Avoid standing near minions when affected by so cannot bounce towards you.

It can be annoying to lane against because it is hard to hit the entire wave with without getting hit by his + . Also be careful of his empowered . Its most common use is to setup ganks. If you use slightly after he roots you will be able to recast once it wears off.

After you'll be able to whittle him down. If he stays outside of range, try to push the wave into him and roam. Do not take extended fights against him as he will win them because his cooldowns are lower. Be careful of the fact that he can easily follow roams with .

becomes more dangerous as the game goes on. By the time he hits lategame he can easily kill you if he catches you out. Do not ever try to 1v1 him at that stage of the game unless you can oneshot him.

Sylas

Summoners

Lane

Starting item

Teamfights

Key ability

Stat shards

Recommended Runes

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This matchup feels incredibly unfair to play. First of all, dodge the second part of (either sidestep or walk through minion wave). However even when he misses this he can outtrade you because of his passive damage and heal.

Try to keep the wave near your turret and focus on farming and dodging , his only form of poke. Poke him and avoid extended fights. If he gets low enough for an all-in, keep his enhanced heal and shield in mind. Also take note on his keystone, if he is running he can proc it with (so avoiding the second part becomes even more important).

After level 6 he becomes extremely dangerous to fight. Not only will he outdamage you in extended fights, but he can also steal and ult you when you're low and then finish you off with his execute.

In teamfights his strength depends on the ultimates on your team. is a pretty strong ultimate but in reality many players do not know how to use it. Look to ult him when he jumps into your team (although if he procs the effect it is best to wait for it to time out before using your burst).

Syndra

Summoners

Lane

Starting item

Teamfights

Key ability

Stat shards

Recommended Runes

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Literally dodge-ball this time. Avoid standing on minions so she cannot hit you and them with . Try to push the wave so she has to use it on the minions instead of using it to harass you.

Be careful of her + combo. Because 's range is so low you'll almost always be in range of this combo. This makes it incredibly hard to play against a good . Get early to make it easier to dodge the stun. If you keep getting hit, get mercury's threads

Post 6 if you do not get hit by too many QE combo's you're good. In case she tries to all-in you with her you can ult yourself to avoid most of the damage. If you can, try to push the wave and roam. If you can't, farm it out.

Later on there are two things to be careful of: her , you don't want to get pushed/stunned away when you initate and her . The latter can do a ton of damage and if you see it coming at you, use or self ult. Other than that, like every other immobile mage: if you get on top of her with a self ult combo it's done.

Talon

Summoners

Lane

Starting item

Teamfights

Key ability

Stat shards

-

Recommended Runes

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is called the first blood king for a reason. Be very careful when he hits level 2. Much of his kill pressure lies in his passive and melee .

Avoid getting hit by the return of by moving sideways, the first part is often too fast to dodge but dodging the return should be doable. If you have two passive marks on you, stay away from him. Also never ever come in melee range, even when all-inning. He does massive amounts of damage in close range.

It becomes a little more tricky when uses to gapclose and follows up with after he lands. Use , try to dodge the return of and walk away.

will mainly look to shove the wave and roam, make sure to put a at one of the entrances to your jungle and ping your team when he goes missing. Do not follow his roams unless you know where he and his jungler are, if you start running around alone he can ambush and kill you.

Once you get past the mid game it becomes easier. is not really that useful in teamfights, although he still has a lot of AoE damage. Once he jumps in, use /. If he uses his ultimate you can still use (if you predict where he is) or turn on to reveal his outline.

Matchups V-X

Veigar

Vel'Koz

Viktor

Vladimir

Xerath

Veigar

Summoners

Lane

Starting item

Teamfights

Key ability

Stat shards

Recommended Runes

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is pretty weak during the laning phase. Try to push him in so he has to farm under his turret. His is near useless as long as is up. Just avoid getting caught in the walls.

Stand behind (at least 2) minions to avoid getting hit by his and keep walking to dodge his . Besides that farm up, poke him where you can and all-in when he's low.

If you are fighting him post level 6 and you're on low health, be careful of his ult. It can be dodged by ulting yourself when it's flying at you. In case that you have trouble dealing with him (or he's playing safe) you should just push the wave into his turret and roam around the map.

Later in the game be careful of and also keep an eye on casts. Getting caught by either can chunk you, force you to use or even kill you. Although can do massive amounts of damage in this phase of the game he cannot defend himself against your engage.

Vel'Koz

Summoners

Lane

Starting item

Teamfights

Key ability

Stat shards

Recommended Runes

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The difficulty of the lane depends a lot on the accuracy of the . If he is good at hitting and you'll have a hard time. But if he doesn't hit them or wastes them the lane is a lot easier.

is his main poke tool, walk to the opposite side of your minion wave when he casts it. Do not stand between your melees and casters since he can easily snipe between the two minion lines to hit you. If your'e not near your minions switch between dodging backward and dodging forward so it becomes harder for him to predict your movement.

Try to avoid lining up with minions and him. Although it doesn't matter if you get hit by the first part of , however make sure to leave its area when it closes. If you do get hit by the second part, stay back till the passive stacks time out. In general, when you have two passive stacks on you stay back till they time out.

Avoiding can be a bit more tricky, (upgraded) help a lot. If he uses it (and misses it) he becomes incredibly vulnerable, even more so when is on cooldown too.

Post level 6 can obliterate other champions when he hits them with . You can get out of his combo with or ult yourself in case things get nasty. In teamfights his is something to watch out for, but if you manage to get on top of him he can do as much as : nothing.

Viktor

Summoners

Lane

Starting item

Teamfights

Key ability

Stat shards

Recommended Runes

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is another one of those horrible matchups. He will outrange you with and can easily win trades with . If you can, try to poke him from max range with but focus on farming. Even though is at his weakest in the early game, will still lose the 1v1.

Avoid all-inning unless your jungler is there for a gank. Do not stand in the minion wave so he cannot poke & push at the same time. Once he upgrades , avoid standing in/walking into the explosion. If the focuses on pushing the wave, clear the wave as well and if focuses on harassing you, focus on pushing the wave and roaming.

If he places his immediately (try to) get out of it. This can be tricky if you're engaging onto him with as he can place it on top of you when you reactivate. Because of 's low base ms it's almost impossible to get out of it without getting stunned.

Playing against in teamfights is tough, like he can put beneath you when you're in self ult/. Once you get you will get stunned and might get killed depending on the situation. If possible, try to wait for to use . Don't hesitate to go in when you see a great opportunity though.

Vladimir

Summoners

Lane

Starting item

Teamfights

Key ability

Stat shards

Recommended Runes

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Like , 's weakest stage is his early game. Poke him with whenever he walks up to lasthit. Avoid using autoattacks for harass as he can return fire with (and heal himself).

Keep track of when he gains crimson rush (the bar under his health bar will be become full and turn red). As long as it is red, do not let him use on you. Retreat and if he isn't behind minions anymore, throw in his face. I recommend getting early so it becomes easier to keep distance.

Stand behind minions when he charges his , if he tries to walk around them, keep the minions between you and him and use your abilities. Be careful of his early cheese. When you're low on health, he is about to get crimson rush and is charging , retreat. He can use + + possibly with (and , in case he has that keystone) for a respectable amount of damage.

When you focus mostly on poking (and picking up farm, of course) you can actually bully him out early. Even though he has you can look for all-ins. Once you jump on him he is forced to use it and it is possible to time so that it'll hit him just when he gets out of pool.

is a scaling monster and can be insanely dangerous in the lategame. If he's on the offensive he can be insanely hard to deal with. Try to target him with when he steps in.

Xerath

Summoners

Lane

Starting item

Teamfights

Key ability

Stat shards

Recommended Runes

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The more you dodge, the easier this matchup is. Get early on. Move away (sideways) from your minions when he starts channeling his . Dodging it is kind of a minigame where has to guess whether you go left or right, switching the direction you dodge towards can make it hard for him to hit.

At some point this matchup becomes a waveclear fest. Stay outside your minion wave so that if he pokes you, he won't be able to push the wave as well. You can then look to push the wave yourself. Because of his incredible range it is impossible to prevent him from pushing the wave in case he wants to do that. Just go with it and look to clear the wave yourself.

In case you want to go in on , either do so when his is down or cast to the side and reactivate early/late to avoid it. You can also buffer so it'll cast when the stun lands. If you drop low post level 6 and he ults you, walk around in half-circles and move into random directions. This will make it incredibly hard for him to hit his shots.

will remain an annoying champion to play against due to his incredible range. Try to stay out of range/dodge his poke so you won't get poked down before teamfights.

Matchups Y-Z

Yasuo

Zed

Ziggs

Zilean

Zoe

Yasuo

Summoners

Lane

Starting item

Teamfights

Key ability

Stat shards

Recommended Runes

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Many people hate playing against but it is one of my favourite matchups. So my first tip: do not tilt as soon as you see that you have to play against .

Try to secure a minion health advantage using autoattacks (e.g making sure you have ~1 more minion than he) so that you'll get level 2 first. Now, if walks up to last hit a minion with throw an in his face and/or autoattack him. When his tornado is up, keep your distance from minions (and ) until it times out/he uses it.

One of the things why people dislike is because of his endless dashing with . When he dashes through your minions, autoattack him and if he comes close, use and autoattack/use . During the cooldown you should play a little safer till it's back up.

His can be annoying as it blocks but that can be dealt with. When you use mostly autoattacks for harass, followed by the occasional , players will end up windwalling your autoattacks. Please keep in mind that will also block , which can make it dangerous to push up against a as he can deny you your escape in case you get ganked.

Later in the game you should avoid standing on top of your ADC/carry so he cannot hit both of you with tornado + . If he goes in use & to stop him from dashing around. If he has , space out your CC so that if he cleanses one CC effect he can still be hit by the other.

Zed

Summoners

Lane

Starting item

Teamfights

Key ability

Stat shards

Recommended Runes

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No, is not a counter. He is by far the hardest assassin to play against. It is hard to poke him because allows him to farm from a distance and your low range makes it hard to dodge his harass combo.

is his main harass tool (in combination with and and is also his escape. His main poke combo is WQE/WEQ and as long as you dodge the shurikens you are good. If you walk past it, can swap to it. If he does so, kite away with and keep harassing him until he reaches his minions. Be careful of jungle ganks, he might be trying to bait you.

If you have trouble avoiding his harass (or the is very good), rush . The armor from the item will reduce the damage from his harass and will make it easier to stay alive. Also keep an eye on s itemization, if he gets a neither of you will be able to kill each other.

Post 6 is where the fun starts. Most people think counters because of . This is partly true, can be used to negate the damage from in emergency cases. However, you can counter in a different way: You can cast when he marks you and recast when he reappears. It will look like this.

Playing against in teamfights is like playing against any other assassin: You have and to lock him down. Stay near your ADC/carry since will try to take them down.

Ziggs

Summoners

Lane

Starting item

Teamfights

Key ability

Stat shards

Recommended Runes

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One of the easier poke mages to play against. Do not stand on top of your minions to avoid getting hit by . Stand to the side of your minions instead. Dodge to the side if he throws it directly at you. Do not walk backwards as you might still get caught in the blast radius.

Do not walk over the . If he throws it beneath your feet, walk over as few mines as possible. Focus on farming and avoiding ' poke. Be careful of , if your jungler ganks he can use it to knock you back/knock himself away. You can deny his escape with when timed right.

If you fight him in lane you can utilize in multiple ways. As I said earlier, it can be used to deny his knockback, but it can also be used to dodge his . Keep in mind that if you go on a roam can murder your turret. Part of his kit is designed to take them down and he will look to do so.

Zilean

Summoners

Lane

Starting item

Teamfights

Key ability

Stat shards

-

Recommended Runes

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The one and only thing you have to do when playing against is avoiding his . Get on your first base and do not stand next to minions (especially when there is already a bomb on them). In case you get hit by one, back off till it times out and make sure that the AoE doesn't hit minions.

This is a pretty boring lane to play as neither of you can kill each other. is pretty safe with and it is impossible to take him down on your own unless you wait out the revive. If your jungle ganks you can easily lock him down and even his ultimate might not save him.

Look to push the wave and roam. Try to get your team ahead. kind of relies on his team so if you put them behind he won't be as useful. Later on he becomes incredibly annoying because he provides so much utility to his team with the stuns, the speed and . Either wait out the revive or burst him/his teammates down before he can use it.

Zoe

Summoners

Lane

Starting item

Teamfights

Key ability

Stat shards

Recommended Runes

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Stay behind your minions to avoid direct hits from but keep a bit of distance to avoid the AoE damage. When she moves backwards to cast you can throw once she moves forward. Try to push the wave early on as her waveclear is pretty bad and she won't be able to poke you when you have a lot of minions.

Standing behind minions will make it hard for her to hit her . It is also pretty easy to sidestep the skillshot and once she uses it she has no way to defend herself (unless she picked up something with ).
If you do get hit by either keep minions between you and her or use and reactivate it slightly before the sleep hits.

When vanishes in the fog of war, do not follow unless you have vision. She can throw a through the wall or simply catch you with a long ranged . This also applies to positioning in lane, do not stand on the side of the lane where she vanished as doing so will make it easier for her to hit you from the shadows.

If you read this, it means that you managed to reach the end of my guide.
I hope you enjoy playing Lissandra as much as I do, as her unique kit and playstyle are really interesting to utilize.
If you have any questions, suggestions or feedback, feel free to leave them in the comments. You can also check out the Lissandramains subreddit or Discord (click the images below).

And last but not least: Huge thanks to YOU for reading this guide!

Huge thanks to jhoijhoi's Making a Guide guide! I wouldn't have been able to create this guide without it!

Thanks to Foxy's table coding guide for expanding my coding knowledge (and a very very helpful preset).

Huge thanks to PsiGuard for taking a peek at my guide and helping me with the cheatsheet!

Lots of thanks to Fruxo for reviewing my guide and giving me feedback!

dd/mm/yy
03/04/20 Incorporated feedback from review
04/03/20 Changed Q ratio to 0.8 from 0.7
20/02/20 Slightly changed items
22/01/20 Fixed minor mistakes throughout the guide and updated Diana matchup
19/11/19 Added wave management chapter
05/11/19 Sizeable changes to runes ( Aftershock removal) and update to matchup section
09/10/19 Adjusted skill sequence due to buffs and made minor changes throughout the guide.
28/09/19 Adjusted some runes/items, added importable item sets.
28/08/19 Added two combo's and added Mordekaiser and Qiyana to matchups. Aurelion Sol and Kayle matchups will be adjusted once I encounter them.
16/08/19 Aesthetical update of guide, mainly focused on the gameplay sections
06/08/19 Some cleaning in the notes, slight changes in the runes and fixed some mistakes throughout the guide
04/08/19 Small changes in items section (first item)

Version 1&2

03/08/19 Finished matchup section
01/08/19 Fixed changelog (forgot to adjust for yesterday) and finished some more matchups. Also incorporated some feedback (hextech flashtraption & perfect timing have been removed from rune section and comet has been removed till I determine what to do with it).
31/07/19 Adjusted Frozen Tomb info due to buff, deleted threats & synergies and added some matchups to the matchup section (still WIP). Also added banners.
25/07/19 Changed cheat sheet, changed some runes/items discriptions and started with a matchup section.
21/07/19 Just some grammar fixing/polishing & updated E tips & tricks
06/07/19 Updated the gameplay, items and combo sections. It's not polished yet so expect more in some time...
21/06/19 Updated all sections from the ToC to the runes aesthetically and updated some info in the pros&cons, summoner spells, runes and changed the intro a bit. Accidentally hit the publish button, hence why the overhaul is now halfway done instead of fully done :(.
20/06/19 Updated the ability section (both information and aesthetics) currently thinking whether I should change the rest of the guide to this style as well.
07/06/19 Fixed some minor errors
01/06/19 Changed the chapter order, updated runes & items (changed some coding there too!), rewrote gameplay: laning section and added/adjusted ability info & skill sequence a bit. Still looking to update matchups and post lane gameplay.
03/05/19 Adjusted some matchups (rated some of them as more difficult as you cannot punish weak early champs as well as you could before).
27/04/19 Adjusted for buffs/nerfs this patch. Some changes in rune descriptions, change in skill order and some adjustments to gameplay.
03/04/19 Adjusted for nerfs this patch (items, combo's). 2nd row of domination tree changed as well.
25/03/19 Fixed coding in items for protobelt, nothing new this patch. (next patch might bring some changes though!).
07/03/19 Re-added protobelt, added Sylas matchup, added two tips on W. Aftershock still viable (-0,5 duration nerf doesn't kill it).
06/02/19 Adjusted some things because of this awful patch.
27/01/19 Rewrote almost the entire guide and recoded the whole thing.
12/10/18 Fixed discord link & unavailable video. Slightly adjusted some matchups and items. Adjusted margins.
13/10/18 Adjusted some more matchups, added two paragraphs (teamfighting with aftershock and GLP-E).
18/10/18 Slightly changed some aesthetics.
07/11/18 Changed some runes and other things throughout the guide.
20/11/18 Graphical/format changes
Updated guide for the new guide format: slightly changed chapter/subchapter colours. Also changed parts of the guide so that the style stays the same througout the guide. Changed the place of the E Tips & Tricks section. Swapped Counters & synergies with the matchups (it's hard to miss, uh?). Last but not least, added banners for the chapters.
Patch changes
Of course, adjusted ability info section. Also changed runes and items (rip protobelt).
21/11/18 Fixed some text and added pros/cons to secondary rune trees.
23/11/18 Changed some visuals (skill sequence) and added bbcode to matchups. Also changed (some) keystone descriptions.
28/11/18 Expanded some matchups (Ahri-Azir) and added a teamfight example clip.
09/12/18 Changed some runes and items (and added some). Added a build on nexus blitz (because it's fun! right?). Expanded some matchups (Brand, Cassio and Irelia). Fixed some spelling/grammar mistakes.

So, here's an overview of which summoners you can take on Lissandra. You should always run Flash. The three options to go with it are Ignite, Teleport and Cleanse. Ignite is the standard pick, Teleport is a bit more defensive and Cleanse is a (very) situational pickup.

Slot 1

Slot 2

Situational