Lillia Build Guide by Doubtfull

Hey everyone! I'm Doubtfull, a Challenger NA Jungler since Season 6. I have been playing Lillia since her release and have over 300 games with her as high as Challenger elo in NA. I love playing Lillia because she feels like she is so incredibly unique and has a lot of carry potential in all stages of the game. Welcome to my guide! If you have any more questions the easiest way to contact me is to join my Discord community and ask there! https://discord.gg/PtajvCC Alternatively, you can watch my play live at https://twitch.tv/imdoubtfull

Dark Harvest

VS

Phase Rush

The go-to rune choice for Lillia is going to be Dark Harvest. The DoT on Lillia's passive makes DH extremely easy to proc, and adds a lot of damage to her kit. With her movespeed and long range on her E, she can easily proc Dark Harvest multiple times in a fight.

In certain match ups its more important that you are safe ( Olaf), and in these you want to run Phase Rush. You lose a lot of damage, but you are incredibly fast. You might also consider taking this when you are against a team with a lot of slows.

Cheap Shot: -- With the slow on your E and your R, it isn't too difficult to proc Cheap Shot. This is the only viable option in this tier aswell. Eyeball Collection: --Lillia will more often than not stack this rune first, so this is what we end up taking. Ravenous Hunter: Lillia NEEDS this rune to have a healthy jungle clear. To the point where no matter what your keystone page is, you have to spec into domination to get the spellvamp.

Magical Footwear Free boots and a little bonus move speed which Lillia utilizes incredibly well. This is a great rune for Lillia and allows her to get to her power spikes a little sooner than normal.	Cosmic Insight I still take this rune, mostly because there isn't really much of a better option. The decreased cooldown on summoner spells is very useful though, as Lillia's Flash Q combo is very strong.

Liandry's Anguish This mythic gives Lillia the highest damage output that she is capable of having, and I build it most games (especially when into HP stacking teams.) It also helps you clear camps and neutral objectives more than any other item.

Riftmaker This is more or less the only competition that Liandry's Anguish. Riftmaker has the advantage of being 200g cheaper, and offering a 15% omnivamp which drastically increases your sustain. It also gives you 150HP which can make you tankier into dive heavy comps. The real strong thing about this item is, if you land any ability and wait a few seconds, you can cast ult, and as the target is falling asleep you will be fully powered up by Riftmaker's passive and will deal 10% increased damage.

Demonic Embrace This is Lillia's most popular 2nd item choice for a reason. It gives great base stats, and once completed the two passives are actually strong on her. The DoT on your passive keeps proccing Demonic Embrace, and the MR + Armor that you gain helps you go in and out of fights to land your Q. I build this 2nd in most of my games.

Luden's Tempest This item sounds good in theory on Lillia, but never build it. You end up having no damage.

Cosmic Drive This item is quickly becoming one of my favorites on Lillia. It gives you HP, ability power, and 30 Ability Haste, which is more than any other item. On top of that, whenever you land an ability it gives you a large chunk of movement speed, which is perfect for you. I build this if I want some extra speed in a game.

Zhonya's Hourglass The best armor item for Lillia. I build this 3rd in almost all of my games. A cool trick you can do with this item in the late game is flash into the enemy team, Q, cast your R, and then use the Zhonya's Hourglass active. When you come out of stasis, the enemy team will be asleep. This is actually harder to pull off than you would think, so beware.

Rylai's Crystal Scepter This item is a great niche pick up this season. It gives a lot of AP + HP, and when combined with Liandry's or Demonic, it perma slows opponents by 30%. I love to build this into melee comps that I want help kiting, or slowing for my carries.

Rabadon's Deathcap This item has grown on me as a 3rd or 4th item when ahead. The Lillia's AP scaling is actually incredible when you consider that the move speed bonus from her Q Blooming Blows scales with AP. With Rabadon's Deathcap you are insanely fast and hit like a truck. 10/10 item. The only downside is build path/cost.

Void Staff If the enemy team is heavy stacking MR than Void Staff is a must. It doesn't feel too great to buy, but it is incredibly powerful for how much it costs.

Banshee's Veil This is my preferred MR item of choice on Lillia if I still want damage. An extremely strong MR item that I will build 3rd into heavy AP comps. The shield passive is also nice and for Lillia and allows her to potentially dodge some cc.

Spirit Visage Building really tanky on Lillia is sometimes the way to go depending on team comps. Spirit visage can be a good option if your team has a lot of healing. Alternatively you can choose Adaptive Helm or even Abyssal Mask. Note the the range for the magic amplifier on Abyssal Mask is smaller than your Q range, so you usually are only empowering your W and your teammates' damage.

Mejai's Soulstealer This item is everything Lillia wants and more. The potential to give you huge AP numbers and at 10 stacks, it even grants you 10% bonus movement speed. This makes it near impossible to lock you down. Beware, when you build this you need to play safer than you normally would as building this item paints a target on your back. Build when ahead, and when the enemy team doesn't have a reliable way of locking you down.

Morellonomicon I rarely if ever buy this item, but if no one else on your team is purchasing grievous wounds you may need to opt into this item. Lillia spreads this fairly easily, but pen isn't that useful on her and by 3rd item you usually want to be itemizing some type of defensive stats.

Now that you know how to build Lillia, it's time to learn how to actually play her. My favorite way to learn a new champion is to practice their clear in the practice tool for 30-60 minutes, so that is what I would recommend you do.

Lillia's standard clear is pretty much always going to be Red > Krugs > Raptors > Wolves > Blue > Scuttle . If you get a good leash its possible to fit Gromp into the rotation and get to scuttle around 3:18, but that is a bit advanced. Here is a good video to see how the clear more or less is done.


These days I usually Smite red and Gromp (if I don't think that I will need smite for scuttle . Lillia struggles with the single target/large HP camps, but it is very easy to kite blue , and its also weak to AP damage so I rarely smite that camp.

You can do some fun level 2 gank/invade plays with Lillia as well. If your midlaner has CC, something I like to do is is Red > Raptors > level 2 gank with the move speed from raptors . Whether the gank works or not, I usually follow it up with an enemy raptor invade from there. Most junglers will not have done those raptors yet, and with the XP you stole soaked mid, you should hit level 3. From here I usually do my blueside camps and am at scuttle on spawn.

Team Fighting with Lillia is pretty simple. You want to spam your E Swirlseed on CD when people start grouping up for the poke and to look for picks with your Ult Lilting Lullaby.

When a fight eventually breaks out, you want to try to be poking with your Q Blooming Blows on CD to keep your stacks up. Try to keep track of the enemy CDs and when you see the angle, go for the Flash Q into R Lilting Lullaby. This is easier to do safely if you purchased a Zhonya's Hourglass.

Your W Watch Out! Eep! slows you down a bit late game and requires you to be right on top of someone. use this ability cautiously. I can't tell you how many times I've died because I used a W aggressively when it wasn't necessary.

Below is a great example of how to win a team fight using the Flash R combo:

Here I'm going to put a lot of information that I've picked up after hundreds of Lillia games that I think you will find useful.

Farming Playstyle - I've found a lot of success playing Lillia similar to a Karthus early game. Essentially just hard farming and looking for ganks when available. You scale fairly well and your clear is really good. Top tier once you get Liandry's Anguish. I usually have an average of 7/min CS.

Gank With Camps - Lillia wants to gank with her Q Blooming Blows fully stacked. This means that I usually only gank lanes if there are camps or a scuttle near them. For example, after doing a standard full clear rotation I might base and head to my Krugs . If the opposing lane is pushed into my turret on that side of the map, I'll look to gank after I stack my q.

Blooming Blows is Life - Your Q is everything on Lillia. It is incredibly important that you keep your stacks up while skirmishing/clearing/ganking. Sometimes it is better to be patient with your Q and not necessarily cast it on CD. If you miss, it can leave you dead in the water, or keep you from being able to follow up and finish a kill. A master Lillia player never drops her stacks. Remember you can also keep your stacks up by Q'ing minions!

Patience in the Key - Your E Swirlseed is a very easy ability to dodge. A mistake I frequently made early on was leading some of my ganks with E when it wasn't necessary (I had Q Blooming Blows move speed to gap close and didn't need the slow.) Sometimes its better to wait until you are closer to the target and have slowed them with Chilling Smite before you go for the E.

Hold the R - Your passive Dream-Laden Bough lasts for 3 seconds. Often times its better to not cast your R Lilting Lullaby the moment your ability lands. This gives your other abilities time for their CDs to reset, and can give your team mates a chance to follow up (I usually spam ping "on-the-way" when I am about to cast my ultimate)

Your W is Really Hard to Land - Your W Watch Out! Eep! is a very difficult ability to land onto moving targets. This is why we max this ability last. Do not just cast your W because its off CD, save it for when the target is slowed or CC'd, or as an escape tool (cast as you are about to get cc'd to reposition yourself).

Beware Insomniac's - Some champions just won't fall asleep no matter how hard you try. Lillia's ult Lilting Lullaby is one of her key defensive tools, and there are many champions in the game that have ways of avoiding falling asleep. Beware these champions. To name a few... Vladimir (pool), Rek'Sai (ult), Yone (E spirit thing), Kayn ult. Keep in mind these champions (and many, many more) have easy ways to get around your R, when you are thinking about fighting them.

Though Lillia is a hard champion to play, she really doesn't have too many "Combos". Here are a few scenarios for you though:

You land E Swirlseed and cast your ult Lilting Lullaby. Auto attack the target if possible as they are falling asleep. Where they land, cast your W Watch Out! Eep! and smite as soon as the damage lands. Then take cast your Q Blooming Blows before they can react.

The FULL damage combo is slightly different, and that is when you proc your R Lilting Lullaby with your Q Blooming Blows. This means the rest of your abilities are off of CD. When the target falls asleep, you lob your E Swirlseed and dunk it on them with your W Watch Out! Eep!. Smite at the same time the damage lands and do the fade away Q for maximum damage output.