Hey Mobafire, I call myself Dryeck and I've been playing League regularly for over a year. I tend not to buy RP and possess very few skins, and own around 2/3 of Champions in the game. Currently, I'm sitting in Platinum III, perhaps not the best position, yet I feel my climb to this spot combined with 1000-1100 wins so far has given me enough credibility to write a guide on my new favorite Champion, Lissandra.

Part of the reason I fell in love with the new Champion is her preference for CC and control over massive damage. Part of the reason is her nigh unmatched ability among AP Carries to initiate fights. Yet, most of it was her chilling voice that just hooks me every time. Her story, character, and personality fascinate me (no, I'm not evil though!) along with her game mechanics. Though I'm still working to master her, I hope to inspire new enthusiasm in this Champion!

Lissandra is a ranged Ability Power Champion who focuses on terrorizing the enemy team through long range poke (in lane) and hard engage combined with a gap closer (in teamfights). While her base damage and ratios are fairly low for an AP Carry, she possesses four AoE damaging abilities and four CC effects; two are hard CC and one of these is AoE as well.

Pros: [+] Lane bully [+] Strong escape [+] Powerful engage [+] Epic ganks [+] Best voice in the game [+] Beautiful animations [+] Lots of AoE damage [+] Very quick wave clear

Cons: [-] Low range especially without minions present [-] Shut down by hard CC [-] Low burst damage unless fed [-] Only one targeted ability [-] Engage is choreographed for the enemy [-] Useless passive late game

Provides strong damage reduction vs other AP Champions.

Boosts your early game damage by a bunch.

One of your only sources of Magic Penetration.

Provides strong damage reduction vs AD Champions as well as minion aggro, autoattacks, and turrets.

Greater Glyph of Ability Power

Greater Glyph of Scaling Ability Power

Lissandra's burst isn't too high for an AP Carry, and Ignite greatly increases her damage output in order to eliminate targets that would otherwise live.

Flash is a broken Summoner Spell. Very few Champions play without it. Take it always.




Barrier is a great spell for baiting the enemy and surviving duels by the skin of your teeth. However, the duration is very short, and the shield is quickly shredded with more than one enemy on you.

In the hands of a player with strong map awareness, Teleport can be a stronger option than Ignite. Where Ignite can get you a kill you otherwise wouldn't, a well-timed Teleport can get you 1 kill, 2 kills, or more, and possibly save your teammates lives. If you're being chased down by an enemy and know you won't get away, baiting their Crowd Control and using Teleport can even get you out of a tight situation. A versatile skill, but requires finesse.

Then,
Frozen Tomb clearly takes precedent as each point massively reduces the cooldown and damage.

Ice Shard is your main damage spell. Max it ASAP for maximum damage in lane.

Ring of Frost damage is far more secure than E, and leveling it increases the root duration. Max this third.

Finally, max Glacial Path. You shouldn't really need to use it too often in lane anyway, so the lower cooldown isn't too necessary.

• Reduced by 1 second whenever an enemy is CC'ed by one of your spells. (Can be triggered multiple times by Ring of Frost, Frozen Tomb)
  
• Not effected by Cooldown Reduction.

• For function, think Collateral Damage; however, if Ice Shard doesn't hit a target, the shatter effect won't occur at all.
  
• Only the primary target hit will be slowed.

• The range is not that great; don't waste this spell by overestimating the radius.
  
• This spell has no cast time.

• The spell lasts approximately 1.5 seconds.
  
• Can be used to cross walls.
  
• The secondary effect cannot be activated if Lissandra is under the effect of any hard CC, including Silences and Roots.
  
• The end location of the claw is visible to both teams.
  
• The claw lingers momentarily at the end point, allowing time for a max range teleport.

• The damage on enemies other than the target is not instant; think Stranglethorns.

Builds into Chalice of Harmony, and gives regen while you wait for your passive to come off cooldown.

Sight WardSight Ward Lissandra's harass combo has to push lane in order to be effective, meaning she will need to be warded at all times or risk dying often. Though she has a good blink-escape in Glacial Path, it requires buffer time to set up, which wards provide you with.

Spend the rest of your gold on these, as early sustain is the name of the game in today's meta, allowing you to stay in lane and farm up your first items.




: Once you get this you can afford to cast Ice Shard far more often without your passive active, and even use your other spells without running out of mana. The Magic Resist provides survivability against other AP Mids.

: Even since the Boots nerf, Movement Speed remains one of the most critical stats in the game. It allows you to get back to lane faster, avoid skillshots, escape ganks, and roam to other lanes. All of this travel time adds up quickly over the course of a game.




Kage's Lucky Pick: If you plan to purchase Morellonomicon, you want to buy Kage's early in the game in order to take advantage of the Gold Per 5 passive.

Catalyst the Protector: Builds into Rod of Ages. Its sustain helps in lane every time you level up. Due to how this functions, the earlier you buy it the more you will get out of it. Rod of Ages tends to be an item you want to get before the 20-25 minute mark as well, so it will be fully stacked for important fights.

: If you're fighting a difficult AD Champion ( Zed, Talon, Kha'Zix, etc), this item gives great defense for a low price and builds into the amazing Zhonya's Hourglass.




: Other than her Q, Lissandra has pretty long cooldowns, especially before she can level them up. 20% Cooldown Reduction helps immensely. The added Mana Regen allows you to use your abilities liberally for farming and still have enough left over to spam them during teamfights. As stacking a massive amount of AP isn't Lissandra's job, the relatively low amount on this item isn't a huge concern.

: "But Dryeck, Lissandra already has a built in Zhonya's! And it deals damage!" She sure does. Yet stunning a high profile enemy damage dealer for your team to slaughter is far more beneficial than stunning yourself. Since a lot of Lissandra's strength comes from her ability to initiate, Zhonya's means she doesn't have to build super tanky in order to survive being focused. Having Zhonya's gives Lissandra a lot of neat plays with her Ult:

1. Use them both on herself for a whopping 4 consecutive seconds of invulnerability, saving your life and wasting enemy cooldowns.
2. Glacial Path/ Flash into the enemy team, stunning the carry and rooting everyone else, then using Zhonya's Hourglass while your team moves in.
3. Using Frozen Tomb on an enemy allows you more control over where the AoE effect spreads from.
4. Using them at different times on herself to induce rage among the other team.

: Increases her damage, simple as that.

: Provides some Magic Resist, while the Tenacity prevents her from dying during the duration of one hard CC. If you're the primary initiator on your team, you should seriously consider these boots.

: If the enemy team is within vision range, Glacial Path + Flash will provide enough range to force a conflict. Lowering the cooldown on Flash will increase the frequency with which you can do this. If you are going to choose this option, get it in time for the teamfighting phase.

: If you feel that battles are constantly being fought around the map and most of your time is spent running towards them, this enchant provides the fastest method to get from base to another location. An early Homeguard also allows you to quickly get back to lane, saving farm and possibly turrets.

: If you neither of the above two choices appeal to you, this enchant is a jack-of-all-trade option that you'll get instead.




: Magic Pen is a great stat, and this will be the only Pen you have in this build.

: See above as to why you should pick this lovely item every game.

: Again, another item you should get almost always.

: Though your forte may be CC and engaging, you are still an AP Carry who needs damage to be an asset to your team.

: Builds on the relatively low amount of MR provided by Athene's, and Lissandra's short range means the passive will be put to good use.

: With Penetration so abundant and powerful in Season 3, Health is the way to go for survivability, and it combines with the defensive stats in the rest of the build to make you deceptively durable.







Example team in which these items would work well: Jayce, Shaco, Miss Fortune, Soraka

If your primary purpose in the game is to initiate teamfights, these are some of the best items:

: Magic Resist, some AP, Movement Speed, and an active which scouts for you and slows enemies, allowing you to close in to engage. It's also cheap and builds out of a GP5 item.

: Provides damage and a bunch of health, plus the mana synergizes with the passives on Athene's Unholy Grail.




Example team in which these items would work well: Jarvan IV, Nautilus, Leona, Varus

If your team already has plenty of engaging power, and you can safely stay at range throwing Q's and peeling for your carry, this build would work better than the previous:

: Damage, damage, damage.

: This item provides a respectable amount of AP and an interesting passive, however the real draw is the CDR. With 40%, you can throw out a Q every 2.4 seconds. Late game you may wish to trade this item in, as the CDR can also be provided by Blue Buff or an Elixir of Brilliance.

: The main draw to this item is the passive, which works well on a poking champion. However, I find it's not the best choice on Lissandra. In lane, only the first target of Ice Shard gets slowed, and as the enemy usually gets hit by the shatter effect, the Liandry's damage won't be very high. In teamfights, her long cooldowns and narrow explosion radius/low range of Ice Shard means it won't hit apply the DoT to many enemies.

-> : This item is a bit iffy.

Pros: [*]Quick to stack with Ice Shard [*]High amount of AP [*]Decent defensive shield [*]Near infinite supply of mana

Cons: [*]Athene's makes the mana unnecessary [*]The amount of mana is overkill for Lissandra [*]The amount of AP and strength of shield scales off Mana, requiring other mana items to show its full potential

It feels redundant, and having to stack Tear provides for a weak early game, where she should shine. Unless you want to worry a lot about mana, the only feasible item to replace with this would be Athene's Unholy Grail, losing out on 20% CDR. However, it's not a bad item overall, and can work if you really like it.




: Looks good on the surface, however the health is pretty low and she has no way to proc the full slow.

: While it gives the same health as Rylai's Crystal Scepter, it provides a lot of armor and a passive/active that helps keep enemies off of you. Very strong even for an AP Carry if the other team has a lot of AD Champions.

• Throwing Glacial Path in one direction and running in another will confuse the enemy as to your destination; however, make sure you don't run out of range to reactivate the spell.
  
• If chasing a fleeing enemy who is just out of range, try to shatter Ice Shard off a nearby minion to hit them.
  
• Casting Glacial Path towards an enemy late game can often cause them to panic and waste an escape cooldown, even Flash, without any risk on your part.