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?

1.1. Why Lissandra?

1.2. Why Tank?

2. Starting items

3. Rune explaination

4. Skill order

5. Item explaination

6. Mythics - Which one do I choose?

7. General Playstyle

8.1. Warding - Basics

8.2. Warding - Why, when and where

8.3. Warding - Tips, tricks and quirks

8.4. Warding - Addendum

9. Fun facts

10. Closing thoughts

11. Currently testing

12. Changelog

Lissandra is a champion that can offer you a lot of flexibility in playstyle. She has aggressive capabilities with her E Glacial Path as well as defensive capabilities. Her build options are endless as the vast amount of tank items all fulfill their purpose well and her AP scalings are quite good. And let's not forget her core identity as a heavy CC mage - CC is never a bad idea under any circumstances.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Suppose the following burst mage items: _{Be wary that I am not mentioning Everfrost and Crown of the Shattered Queen since their purpose isn't burst but to survive it/aid in utility}

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 Zhonya's Hourglass, Crown of the Shattered Queen, Everfrost or tank items in general come into play since they offer survivability to offset a lack of mobility/range.


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

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


First, let's analize Lissandra's kit, look at a few basic combos read out of her kit's idea and eventually point out the contradiction:
_{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 Glacial Path might have the higest range, but a very high cooldown; it also is her mobility tool, so we need to use it whenever it counts. It synergises well with her W Ring of Frost which basically has melee range. This means that Lissandra, combined with R Frozen Tomb, would like to all-in at some point. But when is that at some point?
That is where her Q Ice Shard comes into play! With its range being extended upon hit, it is meant to poke the enemy down for the eventual all-in and a kill!
So basically:

into

into

until low,

into

and

Another very similar interpretation of her kit would be a short combo of Glacial Path, followed by Ring of Frost and an Ice Shard for good measure, until low enough to commit to the first combo's second half.
In summary:

into

into

until low,

into

and

and

These are the most common bread and butter combos on Lissandra, regardless of which lane. Of course, you can mix these up in any way you want. Sadly, there is but one issue...

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

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

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

So what about "combo" 1 that is about poking the enemy down for a good all-in?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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?

versus

Lissandra's Q Ice Shard not only can push the lane when it isn't necessary, it also is too short ranged for effective Spellthief's Edge usage. I personally recommend Relic Shield as the safe way to get your gold. Maybe Spellthief's Edge if you are playing into a very abusable melee matchup but I highly recommend Relic Shield.

For Resolve:

Aftershock is, besides Glacial Augment, one of the two core main runes for Lissandra support. You get a lot of armour and magic resist, stats you might need to survive an engage or disengage. You can't go wrong going with Aftershock if you don't like Glacial Augment.

versus

While 5 +0,9% max HP per auto attack don't sound like a lot, mind you that there can be a lot of auto attacks, thus meaning that you can easily get into the triple digits in a fight if things go well. However, there can be teamcomps where your team doesn't have that many auto attack based champions. In that case, Demolish should be chosen.

versus

SW if against poke, BP if against all in/short burst.

versus

Unflinching by far is the superior rune if you need a bit more tenacity. Otherwise, consider Overgrowth.

For Domination:

Your ult simply is too precious to not have it up, every single bit of CDR/AH you can get for it is needed.

versus

Zombie Ward is good if you can expect your enemy to ward. If not, go for Ghost Poro.

For Inspiration:

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 Ring of Frost and then keep them in place even longer with either Frozen Tomb and/or Glacial Augment slows, not to mention that people on top of the frozen fields on the floor deal less damage to the rest of your team. If that isn't compelling enough, I don't know what is.

Due to the lack of Aftershock, Lissandra will lack tankiness until she, at least, gets Evenshroud and boots. Stopwatch/ Zhonya's Hourglass has been an iconic Lissandra item since the dawn of time and though I am not the biggest fan of it, even I cannot deny that one Stopwatch is very useful as it provides pseudo-tankiness. Magical Footwear pales in comparison and Hextech Flashtraption, while nice, isn't enough either, considering Liss has Glacial Path.

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 Evenshroud or Plated Steelcaps/ Mercury's Treads. To help out with that, we need as much sustain as we can get out of runes - Total Biscuit of Everlasting Will is the rune for that. Besides, if you do not consider building Imperial Mandate, you will lack mana. While Total Biscuit of Everlasting Will merely provides an increase of 120 mana, it isn't too shabby either. Minion Dematerializer is not a bad rune, god no. But as I've said, surviving in lane should be the priority. Future's Market is a fun rune. One could afford to buy items a bit earlier, so if you prefer that over Total Biscuit of Everlasting Will, I won't stop you.

Approach Velocity is not that useful on Lissandra, considering the only time you could use it would be when running away (where the rune won't do its thing) or when you are already in your enemy's face. Time Warp Tonic would be useful if you want to get trades done early and abuse Total Biscuit of Everlasting Will and Health Potion's sustain. I personally prefer having Exhaust up a bit earlier, so this is a choice between Time Warp Tonic and Cosmic Insight, whichever you prefer.

Minor Runes:

Lissandra benefits from Ability Haste way more than raw AP because more Ability Haste means more Ring of Frost and Frozen Tomb, thus more flexibility on what we can do

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

Same deal as the second row, except we also have scaling HP available. From personal experience I have noticed that the scaling HP is not doing as much as it probably should. Hence, we stick to either more armour or magic resist

>

>

>

As explained in my starting item section, Q Ice Shard isn't really all that worth.
Lissandra's level 1 isn't all that good with a Q Ice Shard start, and since you don't need to farm, W Ring of Frost is recommended.
Going E Glacial Path on level two is a must due to its flexibility: Enemy runs towards you? You can E away. Need an engage as you get the level 2 advantage? Glacial Path

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 Evenshroud basically whenever. Evenshroud has become my mythic of choice. 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.

Everfrost is an item you might consider on Liss support sometimes. I have been experimenting with Everfrost in my past few games and I have a theory for when to build it: You should build Everfrost, when you genuinely need a bit more CC. An example would be this teamcomp: Jhin Xerath Tristana Nidalee Lissandra 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: Tristana Illaoi LeBlanc Nidalee Lissandra 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 Abyssal Mask, as you get MR and more damage for your team. However, if you prefer the additional tankiness from Force of Nature, then build that.

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 Negatron Cloak, aiming for Abyssal Mask, but the next fight might decide the game, but I do not have enough money to finish Abyssal Mask. In this case it might be good to get the ~300 HP and other stats it provides) Otherwise it should be the last item to finish.

Situational 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. Morellonomicon's better if you want a bit more HP and AP and you can afford it. Since Putrifier is way cheaper and it gives you a whopping 20 AH (25 less AP and no HP) and costs less, it is worth considering. Works well if you have Font of Life as a rune, but not necessary.

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

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

Situational These items are very good on Lissandra. You will have to abandon a bit of early game agency as you need to buy a Tear of the Goddess. However, you get a ton of HP and the shields if you hit someone with Ring of Frost and/or Frozen Tomb. The shields you get don't sound like much but feel like much. Highly recommended if you can abandon a bit of early agency.

Situational Zhonya's is a big recommendation on Lissandra - the extra second it can give you is very valuable. Great against Pyke, not so great against Jinx, Caitlyn.

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) Font of Life, b) enough auto attack based champions and ideally c) have Glacial Augment. a) and b) ensure the application of Ardent Censer's passive. With the Healing- and Shielding power, the slow from Glacial Augment gets empowered.

I have personally switched over to Evenshroud from Imperial Mandate as my go-to mythic item. However, Imperial Mandate is better if you need to win the game ASAP and need just a bit more damage as the damage from Imperial Mandate is higher than Evenshroud's puny 9%. However, I personally recommend Evenshroud for the sole fact of it being a tanky item. Whenever I chose Imperial Mandate as my mythic, I felt naked. Which makes sense, considering Imperial Mandate gives you no proper defensive stats besides 200HP. Not bad, but I don't think it is enough. And then there is Everfrost. It should be built if your team desperately needs more CC. This has become somewhat rare, but is still very much possible to happen.

If you have an ADC who can be aggressive, you can actually do stuff in lane despite Lissandra's mediocre early game. Liss has a good engage and can dish out a bit of damage while doing that. Don't forget to add some AAs while you're at it.

Furthermore, be wary of one thing: Especially without Aftershock, you are surprisingly squishy. You will need to know when you can afford to go in and when all you are going to do is peel duty. You are not a budget Leona, you are Lissandra.
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 Lissandra's early game is fairly mediocre. There is nothing wrong with just waiting for your ultimate Frozen Tomb or waiting for your jungler to gank. Remember, you are about disruption and the tools for that you will get in the mid- to late game.

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 Cleanse your teammates with Mikael's Blessing, stop the enemy Zed with Frozen Tomb, lock the enemy up with Ring of Frost by engaging with Glacial Path or just keep your carry alive by Exhausting and using Knight's Vow and Randuin's Omen.

Lissandra support is the swiss army knife of your team:

• 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

Lissandra is extremly flexible in how she can be played aswell as built. As long as you don't build AD items, you can never go wrong with an item or playstyle on Lissandra.

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.

Stealth Wards - League's CCTV

The good old trusty Stealth Ward. The bread and butter of warding and the support's favourite object to put up and clear. The very basics of being a support. 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 Stealth Wards (by default!) and the game will show you how many of your wards are active. On the right you can see the game showing how many of your wards are currently active.

How to get wards - earn 500 gold, get wards for free!

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: Relic Shield, Steel Shoulderguards, Spectral Sickle or Spellthief's Edge. These items have a quest on them that either is sharing a ceratin amount of minions with a teammate nearby or poking the enemy consistently. After this, they upgrade, turning into the tier 2 support items Targon's Buckler, Runesteel Spaulders, Harrowing Crescent or Frostfang. 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 Bulwark of the Mountain, Pauldrons of Whiterock, Black Mist Scythe and Shard of True Ice can store up to 4 wards. This does not increase your maximum amount of placable wards on the map!

Replacing wards - lim(wards)=3

Now, you might have noticed that if you place a ward in the 3/3 stage, something appears to have broken. That was your ward number 1! Each ward has a number assigned to it which (by default!) will be 1, 2 and 3. If you decide to place a ward in this stage, ward number 1 will be destroyed, previous ward number 2 will now be ward number 1 and previous ward number 3 will be ward number 2. The newly placed ward will then be ward number 3. So what happens ingame is this: Play Video Notice how the first ward I placed got a red 1 once I wanted to place my 4th ward and how that very ward got deleted and replaced by the 4th ward. This process repeats until you have no more wards left. I have also made a short animation that might help with the numbers: Play Video

Wards and bushes - Watching grass grow

As you probably have guessed and noticed, wards can be put inside of bushes! The relevancy of this statement? Wards can only reveal what's in a bush if it is in the bush itself. In the following video, you will see that I have put an enemy inside of the two bushes near Lissandra to illustrate what I mean: Play Video As you can see, the first ward I placed did not reveal the enemies inside the bushes, while the 2 other wards I placed inside of the bushes did reveal them. Have another edited screenshot that shows what the wards reveal. The red area is the left ward's vision coverage while the green area is the right ward's vision coverage.Why does the green outline lowkey look like a camel???

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.

Oracle Lens - Become a walking radar!

Before I explain Oracle Lens, I should briefly explain what it is: The gist of vision denial is destroying the enemy's wards and denying the enemy vision with Control Wards, the latter I will explain in the next segment. In the section about Stealth Wards above I mentioned that they are camouflaged/invisible. So how is one supposed to clear them, let alone see them? Simple: Oracle Lens! It reveals anything around your champion as a red silhouette that you cannot target, unless it is a Stealth Ward or a trap! Stealth Wards get revealed, made targetable by Oracle Lens which you can then destroy by auto attacking them up to 3 times and prevent the ward from revealing vision around it. This, in turn, means that the enemy has no more vision in that area and you have successfully applied the idea of vision denial! To illustrate, I decided to get a friend as a paid actor to help out: I asked my friend to put a Stealth Ward into the bottom bush, a Control Ward (Check the paragraph below) into the middle bush and to camouflage himself with Ambush. As you can see, the Stealth Ward is targetable, stopped revealing the area around it (as seen by the two red eyes below its HP bar), the Control Ward is just a silhouette and Twitch aswell is being shown as a silhouette.

Control Wards - Purchasable wards???

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! Control Wards, formerly known as vision wards or pink wards, are a mix of Oracle Lens and Stealth Wards. They are a type of ward that have the vision capabilities of Stealth Wards, 90% of the uncovering capabilities of Oracle Lens and disable enemy Stealth Wards to reveal the map; they however do not show a silhouette of an enemy nearby and only reveal a silhouette when seen by Oracle Lens. You can usually only place one and buy up to two. They also reveal camouflaged enemies like Evelynn past level 6, Twitch in his Q Ambush or Rengar in Thrill of the Hunt and do not get disabled by any means. I again got my paid actor to help out with this: Once again, Twitch is in his Ambush, being camouflaged. There is an enemy Control Ward and an enemy Stealth Ward in the same bush. This means that Lissandra herself cannot see him. Yet I see him because of the Control Ward I placed in the bush. You can also see that the enemy Control Ward does not stop working, while the Stealth Ward does. Control Wards are paramount to a support's success, unless you are The Tank Man who rarely buys them, since they are crucial for denying enemy vision since they disable Stealth Wards.

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

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!

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 Lee Sin has managed to steal two drakes off of you. Since you are a good support, your goal is wanting to stop him. While Lissandra is superb at that, it would be better to know where Lee Sin actually is to make stopping him so much easier. Basically: You also ward to make it easier to prevent the enemy from stealing objectives/securing objectives for your team. Yet again, another reason is related to the first reason: Let's assume that the enemy Sylas got fed. Like, really fed. Noone can fight him and even when ganging up as a group of 3, there simply is no way to fight him. So, the best course of action is to avoid him until your team can face him. But how do we ideally do that? By knowing where he is! With a properly placed network of Stealth Wards and deduction, avoiding Sylas should become easier. One reason is related to the role of the jungler: You are minding your business on bot lane with Caitlyn, wanting to abuse your range to punish the enemy under their turret. You decide that you can towerdive them, use Glacial Path and - The enemy Nidalee decided that she wants to gank bot side. Double kill for the enemy team. 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 Amumu + Xayah, thus leading to the enemy being severely crippled and you either winning the game after that, get soul or just get back into the game. 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 Rek'Sai stealing an objective, to avoid your Zed and to enable plays that ensure their win. To avert that, we want to deward using Oracle Lens and Control Wards in key positions when it matters, the details for those I will explain in the next segments.

Timing of warding - When warding gets tense

As I have mentioned, warding should be done to secure major objectives like Drake s and Baron Nashor or to ensure safety on the map. 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 Stealth Wards last anywhere between 90 seconds and 120 seconds. 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: You know the enemy Nidalee is currently topside, the enemy Zed is shoved into his turret and your Ezreal is aware of you needing to ward, so he plays a bit more defensively. You have a feeling that the enemy Nunu & Willump really likes to gank botlane and your Rek'Sai can't help. Putting down a few wards into bushes nearby while the enemy wave is pushing into you could prevent him from getting you killed. You just got out of a good teamfight and your team can secure Drake without your help. Putting down a few wards around Baron Nashor while they fight Drake to get control of Baron Nashor right after would help a lot here

Timing of dewarding - Lowering intensity

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: 45 seconds before Drake spawns, your plan is to ward asap. However, you just saw the enemy Bard go from bottom river to mid. This is a clear indicator that Bard just warded around Drake . Let's use the first example from above again: The enemy Morgana noticed that you left to ward, so she decided to ward around bot lane to prevent your teammates from helping you out. While on your way back, you should consider dewarding likely warding spots. You are contesting Baron but you notice that the enemy is playing a bit too coordinated, you feel like you are being watched. The enemy very likely has a few wards near your team's position.

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 Drake is spawning in a bit, warding around it is a great idea. However, I will first cover some basic spots that you can never go wrong with and then slowly explain a concept about knowing where you can safely ward without risking too much based on the game state.

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:The upper wards are all meant to cover ganks from river/jungle, the ones in the center to protect against immediate threats from river, while lane wards are generally used to prevent lane ganks and general knowledge of the location of the enemy support 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 Evelynn): 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

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: Drake Pit: Red side: As you can see, there are a ton of wards around dragon pit, mostly in the enemy jungle that touches Dragon pit. As mentioned in the "when" section, this is to know where the enemy jungle/team is and to play accordingly. I decided to place this many potential wards since you will always have to play around enemy Control Wards, but I will cover this in more detail later in the dewarding section of this guide. For now, know that if the enemy put a Control Ward somewhere, you will have to act accordingly. Blue side: This might seem like a ton of wards, but in reality it's almost as many as red side. I just decided to show more options here aswell. This follows the same idea as red side, except you ward red jungle instead of blue jungle. The wards close to mid are meant to spot enemies from mid lane/mid jungle, while wards deeper in the enemy jungle/closer to bot side are meant to spot them there. Same deal for bot side wards. Baron Pit: Red side: A lot of wards, but again, it depends on the game where warding is necessary and where it really isn't. Take a high amount of wards as suggestions For this specific image, I deicded to add some white lines to show where the enemy could go and thus get spooted by your well placed wards. There isn't much that needs to be said here, as we are trying to accomplish the very same thing as in Dragon pit. Blue side: Same deal as red side, except the sides are flipped Now, what if there are no objectives up? In this case, we look at the turrets on the map. To explain the idea of this, I want you to think of the game Risk (or Empire Earth II if you ever played that). You know, the game where you let dice decide whether you own a country? Yeah that one. In Risk, the area you own covers the area you can move reinforcements to, move freely without worrying about attacks and plan on attacking neighbouring countries. Some areas even have designated paths to send soldiers across as seen below: Now, let's try to apply this to Summoner's Rift: At the beginning of the game (until a turret has fallen), the map is sort of split even for red and blue side. If you for example, as a member of the blue team, move in blue territory, there is fairly high chance that no bad thing will happen. This also means that warding in blue territory is fairly safe and should not get you killed. In return, this also means that moving into red territory has a higher risk of getting caught and getting you killed, but also means that the chances of spotting an enemy are higher. Now let's assume that red side outer turret has fallen. The map's control now shifts a bit in blue side's favour, see the image below for a rough idea: In the context of Risk, this means that we have taken over an enemy's country. As you can see, blue team now has a bit more safety on moving on the map as the enemy's turret has fallen. This does not mean that it is 100% safe to move in the newly "aquired" area, but it does mean that it is safer to ward in mentioned area. This idea of painting the map can work with every turret and every team. However, what if both mid turrets are down? In this case, we get a sort of "No Man's Land" where it is neither safe nor unsafe to move in. These areas could be declared as minor priority warding spots, especially if it's the jungle that turns into No Man's Land. 2 images to illustrate: The left image shows if both outer mid turrets are gone, while the right image displays every outer turret having been destroyed. But Ivan, why explain the basics of tactics? Assume we are in the case of the left image. We want to get closer to destroying the enemy nexus and in order to do that, we need to get turrets. How do we, as a support, ensure getting them? By warding around towers of course! Have another illustration to see a potential course of action: Just as before, green dots are potential blue side wards and purple dots are potential red side wards. Whichever of these wards you place down depend on your game state. Is your Tryndamere just barely beating the enemy Sion, but the turret is down soon? Consider warding topside so that Tryndamere can get the turret safely. Is your Tristana doing work and you could get the bot lane turret? Ensure safety by placing wards in the enemy jungle to prevent the enemy Fiddlesticks from ganking you! Later stages of the game follow the very same idea and are sort of easier as the closer you get to the enemy nexus, the less safe area the enemy has, thus less area in the No Man's Land you need to ward.

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 Control Ward in your inventory for objectives like Baron or Drake . If you have none, at least have Oracle Lens ready. 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: Let's get back to that Bard from earlier: Dewarding these spots would be a good idea: The red area means potential ward locations, while the blue dots resemble a high chance to find wards (from my experience) Baron Nashor is up soon and you want to set it up for your team. However, you remember seeing the enemy Zyra recalling in your topside jungle, so there is a good chance that the enemy has warded your topside jungle and maybe even their own! Thus you decide to deward in your own jungle. Another illustration of where Zyra could've warded: You just saw the enemy Morgana leave for one around 10 seconds but come back to lane. This not only could mean that the enemy jungler might consider ganking you soon, but it could also mean that she just warded tri brush, river bush, etc. If it doesn't compromise your ADC too much, consider going to those places and deward her wards. Remember the enemy Lee Sin in one of my first examples, the one that stole two drakes? Now let's assume that is now our teammate and another fight at drake is brewing. Placing a Control Ward at the spots in the image below will help your Lee Sin a ton in stealing another drake! If you are the red team here, a Control Ward in dragon pit should suffice to keep the Lee Sin from knowing the dragon's HP. And most importantly: You are currently doing Baron and you know that the enemy has vision of the pit since there is a ward in it. Drop a Control Ward to deny the enemy vision or use at least Oracle Lens and stand close to the enemy wards so that the enemy has a harder time stealing Baron . Again, if you are going to take one thing away from this guide, it should be that you should always have a Control Ward ready for objectives. I can't stress this enough.

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 Control Wards as nothing but instant Oracle Lens and which items to watch out for!

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:
  and its predecessor
  
  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 placable Stealth 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: Play Video A few more examples of where placing your ward can make a difference; due to the high amount of images, I decided to post the collection on imgur:
  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: Play Video Notice how there are enemy dummies hugging the wall at the entrace of blue side jungle? If the enemy didn't place his ward properly, you can reach the outer bushes at midlane while avoiding pixel bush wards!
  
  
• 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 to Zombie Ward or Ghost Poro, but let's just assume that they do.
  

• 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

• 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

• 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

As a support, your key trinkets are Stealth Ward in the early and Oracle Lens later on. Generally, you have to expect your teammates to not know how to properly deward, so you have to be the one to do it. For this very reason, Oracle Lens for supports is far superior to Farsight Alteration.

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.

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.

This segment is about things I'm wondering about and testing. I will add my thoughts into the corresponding segments.

NOTHING

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.