Lissandra
Build Guide by MorePierogiVanya
Lissandra Support - A generous Queen that helps + Warding guide!
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Recommended Items
Runes: Glacial Augment + Resolve
1
2
3
Inspiration
Resolve
+8 ability haste
+6 Armor
+6 Armor
Spells:
Summoner Spells
Exhaust
Flash
Items
Ability Order Skill order
Iceborn Subjugation (PASSIVE)
Lissandra Passive Ability
Threats & Synergies
Extreme
Major
Even
Minor
Tiny
None
Low
Ok
Strong
Ideal
Karma
Poke mage and enchanter. God I hate playing against her...
Lissandra
Lissandra is very compatible to herself uwu
Ideal
Strong
Ok
Low
None
Lissandra
Lissandra is very compatible to herself uwu
Champion Build Guide
An introduction
Hello there, my name's Ivan. I've been playing League of Legends since the end of Season 6 and my go-to role is support. I started as a
Sona-
Soraka main and got bored of it eventually. So I decided to go for off-meta way. If I can play it as a support, I will.
My first exposure to
Lissandra support was a bet in uni. I was thinking about Lissandra and asked a friend what he thought about Lissandra support. He told me "it probably isn't possible, I bet you won't make it work".
He dared a beer - I won that beer as I got to diamond with Lissandra support. Ever since then I've been testing several champs as a support. From
Karthus to
Orianna and eventually
Lissandra. With this guide I want more people to discover Lissandra and give her more love - if at the very least it will result in more fanart and fanart.
This guide is meant to be sort of like a university book but nicer to read and written by an amateur. I want to share my experience and knowledge and always add examples on what I mean. As much as I am not a fan of university math, I have to say that the german book "Teschl & Teschl Mathe für Informatiker Band 2" (Teschl & Tschl Mathematics for IT students volume 2) is a big inspiration for parts of my structure (and some quirky jokes) and if you are ever forced to do university math about integrals and derivaties in german, I can recommend the book.
In turn, this means that my guide will look less fancy, although I am trying to make it look a bit nice, and that I put more emphasis on presenting information and wanting you, the reader, to form your own opinion in what you prefer in each segment. For example, are you more of an
Aftershock player and disregard the cyan tree or can you, unlike me, not say no to
Ultimate Hunter since you don't like
Font of Life?


My first exposure to

He dared a beer - I won that beer as I got to diamond with Lissandra support. Ever since then I've been testing several champs as a support. From



This guide is meant to be sort of like a university book but nicer to read and written by an amateur. I want to share my experience and knowledge and always add examples on what I mean. As much as I am not a fan of university math, I have to say that the german book "Teschl & Teschl Mathe für Informatiker Band 2" (Teschl & Tschl Mathematics for IT students volume 2) is a big inspiration for parts of my structure (and some quirky jokes) and if you are ever forced to do university math about integrals and derivaties in german, I can recommend the book.
In turn, this means that my guide will look less fancy, although I am trying to make it look a bit nice, and that I put more emphasis on presenting information and wanting you, the reader, to form your own opinion in what you prefer in each segment. For example, are you more of an



That being said, I hope you will enjoy reading my guide as much as I enjoy writing it!

Table of Contents
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1.1. Why Lissandra? |
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1.2. Why Tank? |
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2. Starting items |
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3. Rune explaination |
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4. Skill order |
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5. Item explaination |
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6. Mythics - Which one do I choose? |
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7. General Playstyle |
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8.1. Warding - Basics |
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8.2. Warding - Why, when and where |
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8.3. Warding - Tips, tricks and quirks |
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8.4. Warding - Addendum |
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9. Fun facts |
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10. Closing thoughts |
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11. Currently testing |
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12. Changelog |

Why Lissandra?


A friend of mine once described her as an "AP mage version of





Why tank over burst?
This part will be slightly more informal due to this being a more personal matter that I've been fighting other Lissandra mains over ever since I've brought this up.

Burst vs Tank - Explaining the gist of burst mages
Let's start by looking at a few other champions people consider to be burst/poke mages:
All of these champions have one thing in common: They have range with which they can (usually instantly) pepper the enemy from afar and/or disable the enemy in the process, thus in theory not really needing defensive stats. This means that the champions's defensive stat is their range with which they can avoid damage in the first place:











All of these champions, again, have the trait of a lot of range to wittle down their enemy, thus enabling successful all-ins/burst combos.
Let us look at another batch of champions that can build burst items/are classified as burst mages that do not necessarily have a lot of range:






While



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


All of these items are meant for burst mages and their stats reflect that: They all give AP. Some offer small amounts of HP, some mana, most Ability Haste and two Magic Penetration. And they all do their job well - they are meant to aid burst mages do their (burst) job better in exchange for no (proper) defensive stats.
I will go into more detail why these mythic items are not suitable for my playstyle in another section. For now just bear with me.
In turn, due to the lack of defensive stats, you are very squishy and have to use the defensive stats/methods you are given quite well. Otherwise you will die over and over again or...
...you fix the issue with defensive/utility items.
This is where items like



Now, let's look at
Lissandra:
Does she fit into the category "Range"?
Not really:
Lissandra's Q




Well, can we put her into the category "Mobility/Dashes"?
Again, not really:
Besides




*I am not saying that Lissandra's





Burst vs Tank - The contradiction in
Lissandra's kit
First, let's analize

I will soon add a section explaining Lissandra's spells in more detail. For now I assume that you know what her spells do
First we notice that E



That is where her Q

So basically:
into | into | until low, | into | and |
Another very similar interpretation of her kit would be a short combo of



In summary:
into | into | until low, | into | and | and |
These are the most common bread and butter combos on

To help convey my point and get a feel for my argument, I will again look at a few champions that are meant to be good in short trades and have means to still emerge victorious:
I again am using


Anyone who has ever played against a (good)
















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


Let's take another look at
Lissandra:

...well, that's the thing: There really isn't anything in her kit to aid here as her passive only works once an enemy champion dies and nothing besides her R


So combo 2, in the long run, will cost us trades unless we manage to pick really good trades.
So what about "combo" 1 that is about poking the enemy down for a good all-in?
For this, let's compare these 3:








Now a bit of experience from my part: Hitting a Q



Now, I am aware that my explaination is basically "dude trust me" in regards to Lissandra Q, but even when looking at other spells that are meant for poke like


This shows that combo 1 isn't as reliable as it'd need to be to ensure a lot of successful all-ins.
I want to mention that I am NOT saying that it is impossible to poke your enemy down, otherwise high elo Liss mains wouldn't manage to do it. But it is quite hard to do and thus unreliable
So, to recap:
Lissandra has no proper tools to survive a trade as she lacks lane sustain in comparison to champions like
Mordekaiser,
Ahri or
Sylas
- She also lacks some sort of safety-mobility since her
Glacial Path is a one-way blink in comparison to champions like
LeBlanc or
Katarina
Ice Shard is a spell that feels slow due to it originating from Lissandra, only having respectable range once it hits a target and being quite predictable, therefore being quite unreliable to hit
Ice Shard pales in comparison to other poke tools like
Syndra's entire kit
Ring of Frost in combination with
Glacial Path and
Frozen Tomb imply a short trade/all-in playstyle due to their ranges, synergy and cooldowns
As you can see, combo 2 will result in too many losses in the long run while combo 1 is too unreliable/short range to even get a winning all-in/short trade going.
This is especially true for botlane where basically every lane has ranged champions that outrange you all the time (This is the contradiction in her kit: Her W-E-R are short trade/all-in spells that are meant to get prepped by Q, but Q is not reliable enough in most match-ups




WORK IN PROGRESS IT IS 3:48AM AND I AM TIRED BUT HEY AT LEAST I WORKED ON THIS AFTER MONTHS SO AT LEAST SOME PROGRESS, RIGHT?
Starting items

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versus |
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Lissandra's Q![]() ![]() ![]() Maybe ![]() ![]() |
Rune explaination
For Resolve:
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Aftershock is, besides ![]() |
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versus |
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SW if against poke, BP if against all in/short burst. |
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versus |
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Unflinching by far is the superior rune if you need a bit more tenacity. Otherwise, consider Overgrowth. |

For Domination:
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Your ult simply is too precious to not have it up, every single bit of CDR/AH you can get for it is needed. |
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versus |
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Zombie Ward is good if you can expect your enemy to ward. If not, go for Ghost Poro. |

For Inspiration:
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This is the rune I have been looking forward to the most. It is by far my new favourite on Lissandra support. If you go in, you root people with W ![]() ![]() ![]() |
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Due to the lack of Aftershock, Lissandra will lack tankiness until she, at least, gets Evenshroud and boots. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
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As just mentioned, Lissandra support's laning phase is even weaker as it used to be. This means that you either have to play defensivly until you can afford to get ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
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Minor Runes:
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Lissandra benefits from Ability Haste way more than raw AP because more Ability Haste means more
![]() ![]() |
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As hinted at, raw AP doesn't benefit us that much. Hence, we prefer the more defensive stats like armor or magic resist. Which one depends on your lane match-up
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Skill order
> |
> |
> |

Lissandra's level 1 isn't all that good with a Q


Going E



Item explainations
The following items are being ordered by how common they are being built:

Evenshroud is a great item. It will provide you the tankiness you need in the early and will scale really well into the mid- to late game. Considering Liss tends to go in and will get engaged on/will use her CC on people, you can use ![]() ![]() I have added a chapter that revolves around when one should choose which mythic. It is below this chapter. |
You get all the things Liss would need: AP, AH/CDR and mana (as mana regen but it's still good). You also get some bonus damage and, most importantly, more damage for your allies which fits with a more aggressive minded playstyle. I have added a chapter that revolves around when one should choose which mythic. It is below this chapter. |
![]() ![]() You should build Everfrost, when you genuinely need a bit more CC. An example would be this teamcomp: ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() This is a teamcomp I've run into today. As you might notice, Lissandra is the only reliable CC on the team. While 3s of CC are good, getting another 1,5s instead of a bit more damage will help peeling/keeping an enemy in place. To be a bit more meta: ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Sure, LB has a bit of CC, but it by far is not enough. I have added a chapter that revolves around when one should choose which mythic. It is below this chapter. |

Pretty common Force of Nature is the go-to MR item. Marvelous MR stats and the 25% magic damage reduction. If the enemy has a ton of magic damage champions, pick this. However, if your team also has a lot of magic damage, go for ![]() ![]() |
Pretty common Highly recommended against mostly AD comps. Slows, a ton of HP and crit damage reduction - what else would you want in that case? (A Lissandra dakimakura that I actually own kekw) |
More common than you might think The theory is simple: Get it if you need to CC someone for a bit longer or if you get focused and need to survive a bit more. The amount of HP you get is bonkers and could definetly help. After testing it for a while I have to say it has become a worthy item to build. It sure isn't the tankiest item as you still lack a surprising amount of resistances. But if that annoying Sylas got fed yet again, you will love this item. Definitely recommended if the enemy has one fed champion in order to survive the damage a bit more. Otherwise only if the enemy has a champion you absolutely need to CC for a bit longer. |

Situational I've said it once but I'll say it again - these items are extremly underappreciated and are worth their gold. Dont rush them but keep them in mind. If you definitely need to ward a bit more often, build this item sooner. Alternatively, build this item if you have enough money for it (And are level 13), you cannot finish an item you were aiming for but you desperately need more stats. (An example I've run into: I have built ![]() ![]() ![]() Otherwise it should be the last item to finish. |
Situational Abyssal Mask now has 500 HP, 40 base MR, 300 Mana and 10 Ability Haste. That sounds quite good... and then you read the passives: With your presence alone you decrease the enemy's MR aswell as increase your own per champion aswell as having a bit of mana/health sustain in fight. This item you should only build if your team has either a magic damage champion that carries you or if your team has a lot of magic damage. |
Situational You get these solely if the enemy has some pesky healing problem. ![]() |
Situational Now, I know what you might be thinking. "Why Thornmail? Applying Anti-Heal with ![]() What if the enemy has a lot of healing champions that are AD based and you desperately need armour but anti-heal is a priority? (consider against ![]() ![]() ![]() In these cases, it is actually worth going for ![]() |

Situational Only if there is some CC your carry cannot avoid and you need them to survive. Only into CC heavy comps tho. |
Situational These items are very good on Lissandra. You will have to abandon a bit of early game agency as you need to buy a ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Situational Zhonya's is a big recommendation on Lissandra - the extra second it can give you is very valuable. Great against ![]() ![]() ![]() |

Very uncommon Zeke's is good if you have someone who can reliably deal damage with unique damage sources (Think a lot of AAs, spamming one ability often, etc. Think Cassio, Jinx, Twitch, etc.). However, it isn't advisable to build Zeke's once you are behind. Mind you that Zeke's is a consistent 8 second damage steroid! |
Very uncommon Knight's Vow is a good item if you need your carry to survive a bit more. The HP, HP regen and the AH are welcome additions. |
Very uncommon Quite situational, but works really well if you have a) ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |

Mythics - Which one do I choose?

I have personally switched over to ![]() ![]() However, ![]() ![]() ![]() However, I personally recommend ![]() ![]() ![]() And then there is ![]() |
General playstyle

If you have an ADC who can be aggressive, you can actually do stuff in lane despite

Furthermore, be wary of one thing: Especially without



If lane isn't going well, consider roaming but don't forget your own lane - ideally get your jungler to help.
Nevertheless, if your ADC is more defensive minded, you should have a good time as


Now, past level 6, I want you to think about a job that we all tend to forget, never want to do but we secretly all respect:

The trusty janitor. A janitor's job is to keep a building clean and intact, repair things if needed, keep bugs out and keep things in check. This tends to include some dirty and unfun work including talking with potentially rude people, but they are basically keeping the building afloat. And the worst of all? Not a lot of people tend to even acknowledge the janitor!
As Lissandra support, you are the janitor of your team.
Your job is to keep the team together, to check on your enemies and holding them at bay for your team. You will do all the warding that maybe your teammates won't even see and take for granted; and if you are lucky, maybe a teammate will notice your work and praise you for it.
You might need to










- She excels at locking enemies down
- She can play aggressively aswell as defensively due to
Glacial Path's flexibility
- She is one of the best anti-carries and being behind on
Lissandra doesn't mean much as 3 seconds of hard CC will always be relevant, no matter the circumstances.
- Tank items are very flexible and due to their sheer amount, as long as you roughly know what you need, you can never really go wrong with them
- And if you need a bit more damage, Lissandra's superb AP scalings enable her to get the most out of the AP you get


Warding - Basics
"The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting." - Sun Tsu
Let's face it: We all know that wards are not just some fancy +30 gold for the enemy and we all know that we should use them more often. Vision wins games and can prevent an unfortunate engagement or enable picks since if you know where the enemy is, you can plan opportunistic strategies to get ahead and eventually win the game!
So, let us start with the very basics then by explaining what wards are, what they are capable of and what their limits are!
Disclaimer: The following segment is about the very basics of warding. If you are already familiar with these basics, feel free to skip to the more nuanced segments.

Setting up vision, ward limits and coverage
Stealth Wards - League's CCTV
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The good old trusty ![]() A ward can reveal a circular area around itself with its radius being fairly big. They remain on their spot for 1,5 - 2 minutes, have 3 AAs worth of HP and after a delay of 3 seconds, they will remain camouflaged/invisible until they expire. You can, by default, place a ward by pressing 4 on your keyboard and clicking wherever you want to place it. By default you will get 1 ward in your trinket slot with a limit of 2 wards available to place. You can place up to 3 ![]() On the right you can see the game showing how many of your wards are currently active. |
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How to get wards - earn 500 gold, get wards for free!
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Wards are all fine and dandy, but how does one get these beautiful things? If you play support, you usually are meant to buy one of the following tier 1 support items: ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Congratulations, you can now place wards wherever your heart desires! Be wary that the tier 2 support items can store up to 3 wards at once. The tier 3 support items ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Replacing wards - lim(wards)=3
Wards and bushes - Watching grass grow
Now that we have covered what wards are, what they can do, how many we can usually carry and how far they can reveal the map, let's talk about vision denial, a concept as fundamental as vision setup.

Vision denial and control wards
Oracle Lens - Become a walking radar!
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Before I explain ![]()
The gist of vision denial is destroying the enemy's wards and denying the enemy vision with
![]() In the section about ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() To illustrate, I decided to get a friend as a paid actor to help out:![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
As you can see, the
![]() ![]() ![]() |
Control Wards - Purchasable wards???
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Why would I ever buy a ward for 75 gold if I get them for free from either my trinket or my support item? What a scam!! - Timmy "Naive" Johnson That is because you actually get something in return for buying this beautiful, extremely useful red ward! ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() I again got my paid actor to help out with this:![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() This means that Lissandra herself cannot see him. Yet I see him because of the ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
This covers the very basics of vision setup and vision denial. The following segment will explain:
-
1. Why you should setup and deny vision
2. When you should ward and deny vision
3. Where you should ward and deny vision
Warding - Why, when and where
“By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” ― Benjamin Franklin
Now that we have explained what a ward is, what they can do and what dewarding is, let's go over why we even need these cute little buggers, when we should use them and where to put them!

Why to (de-)ward and its benefits
Reasons for warding - Paint your minimap!
![]() ![]() |
Let's start off a with an example IRL: Why would one want to set up a camera in their shop, their parking lot or in their room?
To feel a bit safer that if someone were to steal some of our goods, break into our room or ram our car, we know who it is, when it happened, where it happened and maybe where our criminal has gone to.Setting up wards is like setting up cameras: We want to ensure that we feel safer traversing the map by knowing where the enemy is (going), ideally when they were at the ward's location and which enemy is/was at the ward.
Another reason to ward is deeply related to the first reason:
Suppose your team plans on doing drake soon since it would be soul. However, the enemy ![]() ![]() ![]()
Yet again, another reason is related to the first reason:
Let's assume that the enemy ![]()
By knowing where he is!
With a properly placed network of ![]() ![]()
One reason is related to the role of the jungler:
You are minding your business on bot lane with ![]() ![]() The enemy ![]() Just like you wanting to know where the enemy jungler is to avoid stealing objectives, knowing where he is to avoid getting ganked is just as important if not more.
One of the last main reasons to ward would be about planning:
Let's get back to the example in the second reason: You are planning to get drake for soul and the enemy knows that. Yet, you also know that your team could absolutely wipe them in a teamfight. If you set up a network of wards beforehand, you can know your enemy's moves and perhaps bait them into your ![]() ![]() There are many, many more reasons as to why one should ward, but these are, in my opinion, some of the most relevant reasons. Most reasons are derived of the very first reason, as knowing the enemy's moves and location enables planning. And a solid game plan can always push your lead or get you back into the game. The possibilities are endless. |
Reasons for dewarding - An eye for an eye
![]() ![]() |
After covering the reasons of why to ward, you should be wary that the enemy is very likely planning the same thing as you are - they themselves want to deny your ![]() ![]() To avert that, we want to deward using ![]() ![]() |

When to (de-)ward
Timing of warding - When warding gets tense
![]() ![]() |
As I have mentioned, warding should be done to secure major objectives like
![]() ![]() A good rule of thumb: Try to ward a minute before an objective spawns. In order to know when an objective spawns, hold (by default) Tab and look at the top of your screen. The closer it is to a minute, the more you should start considering to ward key points around the objective. However, if you want to be somewhat technical, you would be alright warding objectives anywhere between 1:45 minutes in later stages of the game and 1:15 minutes in earlier stages of the game before an objective spawns since ![]() Holding Tab should reveal this at the top of your screen:![]() Relevant objectives are highlighted in red. However, if there is no objective in mentioned time, just keeping up ward uptime is just as important. Basically, you should be warding whenever you can, but prioritize objectives and key targets/win conditions in your team. Now, warding should be your top priority, nevertheless: Playing with your team should be more important! Do not tunnelvision too much into warding and instead learn when warding does not compromise your teammates. Some examples would be:
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Timing of dewarding - Lowering intensity
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Knowing when to deward is just as much of an experience thing as warding. Generally though, you can follow the same ideas as in the "when to ward" section, but in reverse. Examples would be:
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Where to (de-)ward
Location of ideal wards, early game - The early bird...
![]() ![]() |
Covering the "when" aspect kind of also covers the "where" part since they are deeply related. As an example, if you know that
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Recommended warding spots in laning phase(~15 minutes):
![]() ![]() |
![]() Each green dot represents a possible and viable spot to ward but just like with cooking, timing matters aswell. For example, warding at the spot on the top of the image as red side isn't all that worth if you are pushing into the enemy. Instead, in this case, it would be more adventagous to ward these spots: ![]() Now, why would you want to ward those spots? I'll pull up another image: ![]() Let's assume that the blue dot called "J" is the enemy jungler. If he plans on using the red route, he will be spotted, thus making his gank harder. Same deal with the blue path the green path. But what do we do if we are the blue team and we get pushed in? Where should I ward if I can? The following spots are advantageous: ![]() Reason being: If the enemy jungler decides to lane gank (red route), we will know where he is and thus can plan around that. Due to having warded the blue path, no surprises can come from tri-brush. Same deal with the green path. The following image will cover a few more examples on red side and other game states that can happen early with green dots being blue side wards and pink dots being red side wards: ![]() A few wards that are a bit more risky but are worth it if you pull it off are shown in the image below. They are meant to spot the enemy jungler at his camps which might be the only way of spotting them (Looking at you ![]() ![]() Be wary that the pixel brush in river is a good ward for both sides! The wards that are not in a bush can, of course, be put into nearby bushes aswell. This should cover the early game. Of course, putting some wards into bushes on bot lane or the alcove can be a good idea aswell (for baits, etc). But these are the main wards I do in the early game to help me out as much as I can. |
Location of ideal wards, mid and late game - ...catches the
Baron
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Luckily, mid and late game are a bit simpler, but still follow the same ideas of prevention of ganks/flanks and securing area for your team. Just like before, I will show a few images, optimal warding spots and explain their reasoning. Since there can be a lot of wards, I will cover red and blue side seperately:
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Where to deward - A
Control Ward's favourite activity
![]() ![]() |
Before I start to explain where, let me give you one word of advise. If you, the reader, are going to take one thing away from this guide, it should be this:
Always have at least one
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Unless you want to be featured in a montage about objective steals Similar to "why to deward", "when to deward" is just as short as, yet again, dewarding is just the inverse action of warding. A few examples of where dewarding is a good idea:
And most importantly:
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And now we have covered the most important things about warding! In the next and final section about warding, I will talk about tips, tricks and quirks I have noticed and learned about establishing vision; be it simple warding spots, how I see


Warding - Tips, tricks and quirks
Similar to the upcoming Fun Facts section, I will make this a list in which I sum up things I've learned and what to watch out for.


- Let's start with the elephant in the room: In my Basics section, I kept mentioning how you usually can only place up to 3
Stealth Wards and only 1
Control Ward. And in my item section I praised a certain item in the situational tab.
I of course am talking about one of my favourite items:
Now, what does it do? It increases bAD, bHP, AP and AH which is nice. But the main reason you buy this item is the increase in placableStealth Wards and
Control Wards by 1. This might not sound like a lot, but being able to place one more
Control Ward can mean a ton. It also means that instead of a maximum of 4 wards, you can now place up to 6 wards!
Stealth Wards and
Control Wards have a radius, as mentioned. But knowing how far that radius goes can make the difference between disabling a ward and keeping it alive. See the image below as an example:
I got another paid actor to help me out. As you can see, her ward has not been disabled by my
Control Ward as the radius (white circle) of the
Control Ward does not reach the ward.
- Talking about the radius, be wary that walls can stop you from seeing certain angles. An example of such walls obstructing vision can be seen in the video below:
https://imgur.com/a/oK3j2Kt
- Be cautious when attacking a ward! Attacking a ward will reveal your position to the enemy team for around 3-4 seconds after your auto attack lands!
- Here's a big trick to ganking midlane:
- Don't necessarily see
Control Wards as a
Stealth Ward, but see it as the instant, paid version of
Oracle Lens. Their main purpose is to deward and deny vision, so you should rather see them as such. While it is viable to put them down in a certain spot (like pixel brush), I personally think that using them to deny vision is ultimately more useful.
- If you are in a bush that has been warded by the enemy, minions will likely decide to walk into the bush and attack you. So if minions go towards your bush instead of attacking other minions, be careful as the enemy knows you are in that spot!
- While
Control Wards do deny
Stealth Wards, be wary that if you place any ward into a
Control Wards radius, the
Stealth Ward will work for about 1-2 seconds before turning off. This can be crucial when you decide to fight at
Baron or
Drake and need to see the objective's HP or the enemy's exact location. So don't be shy to use them for a quick glimpse!
- While this doesn't apply to
Lissandra as building it on her is not a good idea,
Umbral Glaive is the ideal dewarding item as it deals 3 damage to enemy wards and reveals wards around you! This means that attacking a
Control Ward needs 2 instead of 1 auto attacks and you oneshot
Stealth Wards. Truly a beautiful item, I wish it would be viable on
Lissandra...
Zombie Ward is a very complementary rune for supports that want to squeeze out every last bit out of their vision capabilities! However, as mentioned, it isn't worth it if your enemy barely knows how to place a ward. In that case
Ghost Poro would be more advantegous as they sort of prolong your placed wards's life span!
- The most important stat to me: Vision Score! In short, Vision Score shows you how well a player has kept up vision throughout the game; the higher it is, the more a player managed to keep the map warded. But how exactly does it work?
If you kill a ward, you get +1 vision score. Per 60 seconds of a ward's lifespan that you denied, you gain +1 vision score. In turn, this also means that per 60s of ward lifespan that was not denied, you gain +1 vision score. I am unsure if this applies toZombie Ward or
Ghost Poro, but let's just assume that they do.

Warding - Addendum
So, to recap:

The whats
Stealth Wards reveal an area around them for up to 2 minutes
- They are camouflaged and are only revealed by
Control Wards or
Oracle Lens
- They have 3 auto attacks worth of HP (RIP
Jhin)
- You, by default, get
Stealth Wards for free in your trinket slot with a maximum of 2 at once
- Otherwise, you get
Stealth Wards by reaching the 500 gold mark on your tier 1 support items
- You will get 1
Stealth Ward upon upgrading, but to a limit of 3 when reaching your own fountain
- Tier 3 support items store up to 4 wards
- The default limit of placable wards is 3 and your first placed ward will get destroyed if you place a ward in the 3/3 stage
- Wards cannot reveal things behind a wall aswell as what is inside of a bush
- ...unless you place a ward inside of a bush!
Oracle Lens is the inverse trinket of
Stealth Wards as they can reveal and disable
Stealth Wards
Oracle Lens also shows the silhouette of enemies aswell as
Control Wards
Oracle Lens also counter traps like
Shaco's
Jack In The Box,
Nidalee's
Bushwhack or
Teemo's
Noxious Trap. It won't stop them from working, but it will reveal them, thus enabling you to destroy them.
Control Wards are superior wards as they are a mix of
Stealth Wards and
Oracle Lens; however, they are not camouflaged
- Unlike
Stealth Wards,
Control Wards are something you need to buy for 75 gold each
Control Wards, just like
Oracle Lens, disable enemy
Stealth Wards and
Farsight Alteration
- They also reveal camouflaged enemies like
Twitch in his Q
Ambush or
Evelynn past level 6
- Buying
Watchful Wardstone/
Vigilant Wardstone increases your placable ward limit by 1 for
Stealth Wards and
Control Wards

The whys and whens
- Warding is done for the same reason as cameras IRL: You want to ensure safety in important locations to plan your next moves
- This involves preventing ganks by the enemy team, enabling ganks by your team, securing objectives, picking off enemies or baiting them into advantageous plays
- Dewarding follow the same idea, except in reverse: You want to make it harder for the enemy to plan accordingly and have more control over the map
- This results in the enemy having to ward more, make objectives harder to contest/steal and go for riskier plays
- It is generally advised to ward a minute before an objective like
Baron ,
Drake or
Rift Herald spawns, although one can make an argument for 1:45 later on and 1:15 early into the game
- Keeping warding uptime up in case of no objectives is just as relevant, so ward whenever you can

The wheres and relevant tips
- Warding should be done around key points on the map
- This generally involves big objectives like Dragon pit, Baron pit, turrets, smaller objectives/win conditions like turrets or the safety of your splitpusher, or places where you can expect enemies like their jungle (camps) or the entrances of their base
- Don't just ward the same spots! Sometimes you need to abuse the range of a
Control Ward to still have vision of the area by warding just outside of its denial zone. Being flexible is key
- Always have a
Control Ward ready for objectives and see them as more of instant
Oracle Lens than glorified
Stealth Wards
- Auto attacking a ward reveals your position, so be careful where you go after clearing the ward

Now, let me adress another big elephant in the room: I mentioned
Farsight Alteration exactly once (now twice!) in my guide. The reason being:

As a support, your key trinkets are




Fun facts
This section is mostly about adding a few fun facts I have discovered:
- Lissandra
Frozen Tomb is not only a stun, but also a knockdown! Great to annoy dash users. Examples of dashes would be:
Sejuani's Q
Arctic Assault
Rengar's passive (and thus
Thrill of the Hunt aswell)
Unseen Predator
Irelia's Q
Bladesurge
Tristana's W
Rocket Jump
- People can see your claw...well, not always. If the claw is within 600 units of a champion within a wall, the enemy team can see the claw. However, beyond the 600 units your claw cannot be seen.
How much are 600 units to be exact? I will add a screenshot to illustrate:I chose
Varus here as he has exactly 600 auto attack range
This also means that the closer the enemy is to your red side turret, the higher the chances that the enemy won't know that you are pulling off the Lissandra special!
- Adding to the last point: You can use Liss
Glacial Path into a wall. As long as the claw indicator is positioned more towards the end of the wall you wanna get out of, you will pop out of that wall. I'll drop a picture to roughly illustrate what I mean.
If you put your E to the left of the line, you will land on the left side. To the right - right wall. Take the line with a grain of salt tho; it's a rough estimation
Rakan W
Grand Entrance can be stopped with
Lissandra W
Ring of Frost. If
Rakan hasn't reached his destination yet, he can be stopped with any kind of CC. Neat thing I found out on accident.
I like to think that this very thing happens when you cancel Rakan W with Liss W:Credit goes to @cosmicbim!
- Lissandra's Q
Ice Shard only slows the first target hit. A bit odd.
Closing Thoughts
This is all I have on the pick that I love! I will try to keep this guide updated for the future and the guide has sort of become my pride. What started as a spite project towards other Lissandra mains (
Aftershock will always be viable on her!!!) slowly but steadily became a passion project. Granted, my guide could probably look better, but I have always been more of a person that prefers to read information, have images illustrate things and generally explain things from the ground up. It probably also shows that I am not the most literate person as I have never been much of a reader besides books for university (e.g. Teschl & Teschl for maths), but hey, it is a passion project after all :)
I hope that by reading this guide, I have given you a few tools to improve your warding, get a better idea of tank items and give
Lissandra a bit more love. And most importantly, widened your horizon in terms of what is viable. After all, some off-meta strategies became meta because someone was crazy enough to try it!
For example, remember
Nautilus? He used to be a top laner before he became a support! Or AP
Miss Fortune support after it was played in World's. And if tank
Lissandra support ever becomes meta (which I doubt, but hey, a man can dream), you know where you saw it first :p
That being said, I hope you enjoyed reading the guide. Have a good one and obey our ice queen - and most importantly draw more art. She deserves more fanart.
Thanks a ton to MOBAfire for giving my guide an honourable mention. I didn't actually expect to get anything, but hey, I can't complain!
HUGE thanks to @Vaileigh for giving me the beautiful seperator and to @cosmicbim for letting me use their sketch (that I commissioned :p) in the fun facts section aswell as all the "paid" actors that helped me out setting up videos/screenshots to explain some concepts.You all are truly wonderful. Take care and have a good one.

I hope that by reading this guide, I have given you a few tools to improve your warding, get a better idea of tank items and give

For example, remember



That being said, I hope you enjoyed reading the guide. Have a good one and obey our ice queen - and most importantly draw more art. She deserves more fanart.
Thanks a ton to MOBAfire for giving my guide an honourable mention. I didn't actually expect to get anything, but hey, I can't complain!
HUGE thanks to @Vaileigh for giving me the beautiful seperator and to @cosmicbim for letting me use their sketch (that I commissioned :p) in the fun facts section aswell as all the "paid" actors that helped me out setting up videos/screenshots to explain some concepts.You all are truly wonderful. Take care and have a good one.
Currently Testing
This segment is about things I'm wondering about and testing. I will add my thoughts into the corresponding segments.
NOTHING
NOTHING
Changelog
26.7.2021 - Added opinion about Anathema's. Added explaination when to prioritize the Wardstone items. Polished the guide a bit. Added a few synergies/threats. Changed the title to something I feel like fits more.
3.8.2021 - Added further details about Zeke's. Updated Testing tab.
11.8.2021 - Added opinion on Mobi Boots. Updated Testing tab.
14.8.2021 .bat gnitseT detadpU . Tidied up the Items tab a bit.
11.9.2021 Tab testing updated. Added more details on when to build the wardstone items. Added more details on when
Everfrost is a viable buy. Added
Rakan counter trick.
19.10.2021 - Added opinion on
Unflinching vs.
Overgrowth
20.10.2021 - Added a tab about Season 12, being about my thoughts on the new items and runes
21.10.2021 - Changed opinion about Lucian and potentially more to follow. I dont want to see him again...
18.11.2021 - Added
Glacial Augment runepages, added explaination for the runes in the inspiration tree
11.8.2022 - Added "rarity" to how often one buys which item, excluding mythics, Updated testing tab again.
16.8.2022 - Tidied up the introduction to the guide a bit, added a sketch by @cosmicbim to fun facts
18.8.2022 - More tidying up. Prepare for a warding and match-up section aswell as a general outline for the guide!
19.8.2022 - Added segment "Warding - Basics". Will add additional chapters soon.
19.8.2022 (at night) - Added custom made seperator by my friend and expanded on "Warding - Why and When". "where" will follow tomorrow.
20.8.2022 - Further expanded the "where" section. Will add tips, tricks and quirks later.
21.8.2022 - Added a tip and tricks section, expanded on a few chapters aswell as more seperators, thanks to my "paid" actors and artist friends
22.8.2022 - Fixed a few tiny things.
6.9.2022 - (nice) Added a personal segment: Burst vs Tank and why tank is prefered
7.1.2023 - Expanded the "Why tank?" segment
12.1.2023 - Moved
Thornmail up to situational tier
22.1.2023 - I'm sneakily announcing a
Bel'Veth tank support guide. Whenever I decide to make that one? Who knows!
Damn, you read things this far? Coolio! Here, let me tell you something:
If you read this far, you probably share my sentiment/opinion of tank Lissandra and why she is better suited as a CC bot. I keep seeing people desperately trying to rework her into something that she isn't anymore or push her into a direction that she isn't doing well into. Some people want more damage, I ask "why not play a burst mage then?". Some people want less CC to free up some of her power budget, I ask "what will differentiate her from other mages?"
If you want my honest opinion, in case it wasn't clear yet: I think burst Lissandra is dead and has been for a while. I don't blame the people that fell in love with that playstyle and, if anything, I feel sad for them. Lissandra simply is an anti-carry and she always has been and always will be unless they change her kit drastically which, frankly, I doubt Riot will do. I understand that her kit incentivises her to build AP, but as described in my introduction (WHICH BY THE TIME OF WRITING I STILL HAVE NOT FINISHED), her kit contradicts the items's purpose.
However, be wary that I will always stand by the principle that one should play whatever the fish they want. If you want to play burst Lissandra, go ahead. If you want to play AD lethality Lissandra, go ahead. If you want to play tank Lissandra, go ahead. The beauty of League of Legends is that one can play the way they want and make it work if they have a good plan in mind. Let noone tell you otherwise.
To any Lissandra mains reading this: Please, stop trying to force Lissandra into something that doesn't apply anymore. Her main builds revolve around utility (
Everfrost) and double pen. I think that
Shadowflame is a wasted item and Liss should rather go into further utility with plenty of items (looking at you
Abyssal Mask) as her main strength is being an anti-carry exactly due to her utility and CC. Lissandra is fine as she is and
Aftershock is still just as viable. The attempts I see trying to rework her or give her a new passive or whatever the fish, followed up by begging Riot to rework/change her just sadden me and it feels too desperate. Please, adapt. Her WR is at 49% and that is perfectly fine for a champion that is a pro play champion due to her reliable CC. Her main identity is being an anti-carry by being a CC bot and a burst champion second. It's not like I don't understand the concerns and complaints (I personally really loved the old scholar/arcanist in FFXIV but they changed it to something that doesn't feel like the classes I loved anymore), but please. It's been years. I hate seeing all of this and just want to have some fun without seeing people chase a dream that has long gone.
To the people who read even this far: Thank you for reading my guide and this segment. I guess I just felt like ranting a bit.
3.8.2021 - Added further details about Zeke's. Updated Testing tab.
11.8.2021 - Added opinion on Mobi Boots. Updated Testing tab.
14.8.2021 .bat gnitseT detadpU . Tidied up the Items tab a bit.
11.9.2021 Tab testing updated. Added more details on when to build the wardstone items. Added more details on when


19.10.2021 - Added opinion on


20.10.2021 - Added a tab about Season 12, being about my thoughts on the new items and runes
21.10.2021 - Changed opinion about Lucian and potentially more to follow. I dont want to see him again...
18.11.2021 - Added

11.8.2022 - Added "rarity" to how often one buys which item, excluding mythics, Updated testing tab again.
16.8.2022 - Tidied up the introduction to the guide a bit, added a sketch by @cosmicbim to fun facts
18.8.2022 - More tidying up. Prepare for a warding and match-up section aswell as a general outline for the guide!
19.8.2022 - Added segment "Warding - Basics". Will add additional chapters soon.
19.8.2022 (at night) - Added custom made seperator by my friend and expanded on "Warding - Why and When". "where" will follow tomorrow.
20.8.2022 - Further expanded the "where" section. Will add tips, tricks and quirks later.
21.8.2022 - Added a tip and tricks section, expanded on a few chapters aswell as more seperators, thanks to my "paid" actors and artist friends
22.8.2022 - Fixed a few tiny things.
6.9.2022 - (nice) Added a personal segment: Burst vs Tank and why tank is prefered
7.1.2023 - Expanded the "Why tank?" segment
12.1.2023 - Moved

22.1.2023 - I'm sneakily announcing a

Damn, you read things this far? Coolio! Here, let me tell you something:
If you read this far, you probably share my sentiment/opinion of tank Lissandra and why she is better suited as a CC bot. I keep seeing people desperately trying to rework her into something that she isn't anymore or push her into a direction that she isn't doing well into. Some people want more damage, I ask "why not play a burst mage then?". Some people want less CC to free up some of her power budget, I ask "what will differentiate her from other mages?"
If you want my honest opinion, in case it wasn't clear yet: I think burst Lissandra is dead and has been for a while. I don't blame the people that fell in love with that playstyle and, if anything, I feel sad for them. Lissandra simply is an anti-carry and she always has been and always will be unless they change her kit drastically which, frankly, I doubt Riot will do. I understand that her kit incentivises her to build AP, but as described in my introduction (WHICH BY THE TIME OF WRITING I STILL HAVE NOT FINISHED), her kit contradicts the items's purpose.
However, be wary that I will always stand by the principle that one should play whatever the fish they want. If you want to play burst Lissandra, go ahead. If you want to play AD lethality Lissandra, go ahead. If you want to play tank Lissandra, go ahead. The beauty of League of Legends is that one can play the way they want and make it work if they have a good plan in mind. Let noone tell you otherwise.
To any Lissandra mains reading this: Please, stop trying to force Lissandra into something that doesn't apply anymore. Her main builds revolve around utility (




To the people who read even this far: Thank you for reading my guide and this segment. I guess I just felt like ranting a bit.
MorePierogiVanya
Lissandra Guide
Lissandra Support - A generous Queen that helps + Warding guide!
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