What's up guys. My name is Marcan. In today's guide, I'll be showing what I feel is the best way to build/play Lissandra. Lissandra is an extremely high utility, AP caster. While her burst damage is not as high as some other AP casters, she makes up for it with her insane utility. Lissandra is one of the best champions at engaging, disengaging, and overall harass, from almost any distance. Her skillset allows her to initiate team fights, do damage, and escape, making massive plays for your team.

Pros
+Extremely high mobility
+Strong and easy harass in lane
+Very difficult to gank
+High amounts of CC
+Invulnerability
+Amazing play maker
+Works in any team comp

Cons
-Dangerous poke while not in lane
-Damage isn't as high as other champs
-Skillshot based

Passive

Lissandra's passive ability is called Iceborn. Every 18 seconds, her next ability costs no mana. This is an amazing passive for laning. You can essentially harass the enemy laner for free, every 18 seconds. Also, for every enemy you hit with a slow or snare ability, your passive's cooldown is reduced by one second. If you hit 4 enemies, minions included, with her W, the cooldown of Iceborn will go down by 4 seconds.

Q


Lissandra's Q is called Ice Shard. It is a skill shot. When it hits an enemy, it shatters, dealing damage and slowing the target for 1.5 secs. The shards then pass through the target dealing the same damage to other enemies, but not slowing them. This is an amazing lane harass tool. You never have to be out of position to poke your opponent. You can use the enemy's own minions to take the direct hit and still hit your opponent with the shattered shards. You can keep your distance, stay safe, and at the same time, hit the enemy with insane damage.

W


Lissandra's W is called Ring of Frost. It is an AoE snare. As you rank it up, the duration of the stun increases from 1.1 seconds to 1.5 seconds. This is a great ability to use when you are forced to farm under your own tower. It can be used offensively or defensively. This is an amazing team fight ability as well. If you position yourself in the middle of the enemy team, you can snare and damage all five enemies, creating huge plays for your team.

E


Lissandra's E is called Glacial Path. She creates a claw that moves forward in a line. This deals damage to all enemies it hits. At any point while the claw is moving, you can cast this spell again to teleport to the claw. This is an amazing ability to avoid ganks and get to safety at any point in the game. This is also one of the best initiators in the game. Coupled with Lissandra's W and R, you can change an entire team fight in your team's favor.

R


Lissandra's R is called Frozen Tomb. If cast on an enemy, it will stun them for 1.5 seconds. Magic damage will then spread in a circle dealing damage and slowing any enemy it hits. If you cast this on yourself, you become untargetable but unable to take any actions for 2.5 seconds. Magic damage then spreads, dealing the same damage and slows, as if cast on an enemy. This is an AMAZING team fight ability. Along with the active from Zhonya's Hourglass, you can be untargetable for 5 seconds.

Now let's get to the the skill order. I take a point in all three skills my first three levels, starting with Q. I always max Q first for the great harass in lane and low cooldown. Next I max W. Not only does it lower the cooldown, but it extends the length of the snare and increases damage output. Lastly, I max E. I mainly use this spell as an engager or escape, so the cooldown is not as important, to me, as W. Some people prefer to max E over W as well. It is just personal preference. As always, take a point in R whenever available.

Starting Items

+ x2

I like to start with a Doran's Ring and 2 Health Potion. This gives me added damage, health, and mana regen.

+ x5

If I am going against a strong AD mid laner, such as Zed, I'll often start with Cloth Armor instead of a Doran's Ring for the added defense.

Early Game

+ +

Early game, if everything is going normally, I like to pick up a second Doran's Ring. I pick up my base Boots as well. There could be some ganks or people making plays, and boots could make the difference. Next, I like to rush a Seeker's Armguard. Why a Seeker's Armguard? Because it builds into a Zhonya's Hourglass.

Core Items

+ + /

The first core item I rush is a Zhonya's Hourglass. It works incredibly well with Lissandra. As Lissandra, you can initiate team fights. You can E in, ult yourself, then use the Zhonya's Hourglass active once your ult wears off. What this does is slows every enemy you hit, and makes you untargetable for 5 secs. The enemy team will be wasting all of their damage dealing abilities on you, while the rest of your team annihilates them. Next, I'll pick up Sorcerer's Shoes for the added damage and movement speed. After that, I will either pick up a Morellonomicon for added damage and cooldown reduction, or an Athene's Unholy Grail for slightly less damage, the same cooldown reduction, but a heavy amount of magic resist. Pick up an Athene's Unholy Grail if you are going against a strong AP assassin that is giving you a hard time.

Late Game

+ / +


Late Game is heavily dependent on how the game is going. Generally, I pick up a Rabadon's Deathcap next for the insane damage spike it gives you. Next, I will either grab a Rylai's Crystal Scepter for the damage, health, and slow, or an Abyssal Mask for the damage and magic resist. As my final item, I almost always take a Void Staff. By this point in the game, most of the enemy team will have some sort of magic resist. This will just shred through them.

Laning with Lissandra can be incredibly easy. She has a ranged auto attack, so last hitting creeps is a lot safer than a melee champ. Constantly use your Ice Shard to harass your opponent. Remember, with Iceborn, you get a free spell every 15 seconds or so. Use this to your advantage. Instead of trying to attack your opponent directly with Ice Shard, hit a minion in front of them and let the shards that explode hit them. You will still get the full damage of the spell, just not the slow. This early in the game, you don't have to worry about landing the slow anyway.

If you get pushed back to your tower, don't be afraid to use Ring of Frost to farm. If multiple creeps are weak, just W and watch your CS climb up! Also, if you are pushed more to your side of the lane, don't be afraid to throw out a Glacial Path every once in a while. The spell does a lot of damage on it's own. Using Glacial Path without teleporting is great because your opponent won't get comfortable and know that every time you throw out your Glacial Path, you'll be engaging. If you do teleport to your claw, it will catch them off guard and force them to make mistakes.

If your jungler comes in to gank, it is best to Glacial Path, then immediately Ring of Frost to snare your opponent, creating a successful gank almost every time.
If the enemy jungler comes to gank you, just Glacial Path away. You barely ever have to burn your Flash as Lissandra.

Lissandra is an amazing utility to any team. For team fights, you can either act as an assassin and try to take out the enemy team's most valuable target, or act as an initiator. The way in which you use Frozen Tomb changes all of this. If you would like to be the assassin type, you could Glacial Path to the enemy VIP, and use your Frozen Tomb on them. This will deal massive damage to your target, and stun them for 2.5 seconds, allowing you and your team an easy kill. However, this will lead you open to any damage the enemy team has. Since you just used Glacial Path, your only escape option would be to Flash. Using Zhonya's Hourglass active will prolong your life a bit, but chances are you've already taken too much damage to survive.

Option 2 would be to Glacial Path into the middle of the enemy team, hitting as many targets as possible. You would then Frozen Tomb yourself. This will deal damage to everybody it hits, plus make yourself completely invulnerable to any damage. This will, however, NOT stun any champion, making an easier escape for the enemy team. Once your Frozen Tomb wears off, you can then use the active on Zhonya's Hourglass to give yourself a total of 5 seconds of invulnerability. By this time, your Glacial Path should be off cooldown, giving you an escape if necessary.

Choosing which way to use your Frozen Tomb is a HUGE difference between weak and strong Lissandra players.

Lissandra is one of my favorite champs to play and I hope you can see why. The utility she has is second to none, and she is one of the best all around mid laners in the game. She can distrupt, make plays, and be safe at all points in the game. Get a couple kills early, and it will tough for anybody to stop you. If you're looking for a mid lane champion who works amazingly with any team comp and who can create plays throughout the game, Lissandra is your champ. I hope you enjoyed the guide. Let me know in the comments anything you do differently and why.