Lissandra exists between that sweet spot being a burst mage and a control mage. Her mix of abilities make her an excellent pick in a lot of situations. In this guide, we’ll show you everything you need to know to get you started playing the Ice Witch.

Lissandra is a very unique champion. Her abilities are a little unconventional because of how they are used. She has both tons of burst damage and tons of crowd control. She has excellent AoE abilities that ensure she has great wave clear plus superb lockdown CC. This means that she can secure lane priority early on and allows her to easily roam to other lanes. Her ganks are pretty powerful as well thanks to the sheer amount of crowd control she has in her kit. The only real drawback to playing Lissandra is her range. Most of her abilities have short range and require her to be near her targets.

Abilities

As we’ve mentioned before, Lissandra’s kit feels like a cross between a control mage and a burst mage. This means that she has lots of crowd control abilities that also deal a ton of damage.

Passive – Iceborn Subjugation

When an enemy champion dies near Lissandra they become a Frozen Thrall. Frozen Thralls seek out living enemies, slowing their Movement Speed when nearby by 25%. After 4 seconds, Frozen Thralls shatter from the intense cold dealing magic damage.

This is a great passive during team fights and ganks. Iceborn Subjugation makes securing kills on other targets easier thanks to the slow and damage it provides.

Q – Ice Shard

Throws a spear of ice that shatters when it hits an enemy, dealing magic damage and slowing Movement Speed for 1.5 seconds. Shards then pass through the target dealing the same damage to other enemies hit.

Ice Shard is your bread and butter. As Lissandra’s primary damaging ability, most of your combos will involve this ability one way or another. It’s great for clearing waves and just dealing damage during teamfights.

W – Ring of Frost

Deals magic damage to nearby enemies and roots them in place.

Ring of Frost is fairly straightforward. It is your primary source of crowd control and lets you lockdown single or multiple targets in place, allowing your team to follow up with damage or their own CC. 

E – Glacial Path

Casts an ice claw that deals magic damage to all enemies hit. Reactivating this ability transports Lissandra to the claw’s current location.

Glacial Path is what makes Lissandra’s ganks really great. It is her only source of mobility and can be used to go through most terrain. 

R – Frozen Tomb

On Enemy Cast: Freezes target champion solid, stunning it for 1.5 seconds.

On Self Cast: Lissandra encases herself in dark ice for 2.5 seconds, healing a base amount that increases based on how much Health she is missing, and becoming untargetable and invulnerable but unable to take any actions.

Dark Ice then emanates from the target dealing magic damage to enemies. The ice lasts for 3 seconds and slows enemy Movement Speed.

Frozen Tomb is what makes Lissandra’s lockdown CC top tier. She can use it on an enemy to deal damage and hold them in place while your team follows up. Pretty handy for focusing squishy targets on the enemy team’s backline. On the other hand, when you cast it on yourself, it essentially acts like the stasis from Zhonya’s hourglass which can buy you enough time for your teammates to catch up while also dealing damage to surrounding enemies.

Runes and Item Builds

When it comes to items, your focus on Lissandra would be to increase her ability power and her survivability.

Starting Items

Lissandra begins the game like any other mage, starting off with a Doran’s Ring. This is the best starting item for her and gives her everything she needs to make it out of the laning phase. It gives her both ability power and mana sustain.

Mythic Item

For your Mythic item, you have two options: Everfrost or Luden’s Tempest. Both give you similar stats and their difference lies in the bonus abilities they provide. Everfrost is the superior choice because it gives you another active crowd control that allows you to root your enemies. Luden’s Tempest is also a good alternative but only go for this if you would want more burst as opposed to the utility Everfrost provides.

Full Build

After purchasing your desired Mythic, it’s time to upgrade into tier 2 boots. Since Lissandra is a mage, go for Sorcerer’s Shoes. Next, go with Zhonya’s Hourglass for more damage and another stasis active. After, go with Shadowflame to increase your ability power, health, and lets you deal more damage based on your target’s health. Up next, go with Morellonomicon to give your damaging abilities Grievous Wounds. Finally, top off your build with Rabadon’s Deathcap to increase your overall damage output.

Runes

For runes, go with the Domination tree and take Electrocute as your keystone. This will increase the damage of your combos and give you an additional burst of damage. Next, take Cheap Shot to deal more damage to champions with impaired movements or actions, Eyeball Collection for more damage, and Ultimate Hunter to improve the cooldown of your ultimate. For secondaries, take Manaflow Band and Transcendence from the Sorcery tree. Manaflow Band will increase your mana sustain while Transcendence will improve your cooldowns. For rune shards, take double Adaptive Force and Magic Resist.

Useful Tips

1. You can instantly use your ultimate on yourself by pressing the self cast key and the ultimate key at the same time. (Alt + R by default)
2. Akshan is countered by Anivia, Syndra, Orianna, Azir, and Zed. If you’re matched up against these champions, try to play it safe instead of being aggressive.
3. For your summoner spells, take Flash and Ignite to give you more utility and to help you secure early leads. If you want to play it safe, you can swap out Ignite for Heal, Barrier, or Cleanse.

So there you have it! That’s all you need to know about playing Lissandra in League of Legends. Be sure to check back with us again for more awesome guides on your favorite games. Have fun and we’ll see you on the Rift!