Lich Dota 2 Guide – Fantastic Support in Patch 7.07d

Lich is a support/offlane hero that has a number of important strengths:

• He can refill his mana pool, gain experience and take it away from enemy heroes by sacrificing friendly creeps using the Sacrifice ability.
• He has high movement speed (315) and multiple ways of slowing down enemy heroes. This mobility advantage makes him highly survivable against heroes that aren’t very mobile.
• His Frost Blast ability is a 200/150 (main target/secondary targets) nuke that deals AoE magical damage and can be used every 4 seconds after level 15 (due to the -4s Frost Blast cooldown talent). This ability allows the hero to quickly kill creep waves and push out the lanes.
• His Ice Armor ability allows him to buff all of his teammates, including friendly creeps and buildings, giving them +3/5/7/9 armor for 40 seconds. Enemies who attack them while having this buff get their attack and movement speed slowed by 30/30% for 2 seconds. This constitutes a huge advantage during fights, considering the fact that every point in armor translates into 6% bonus HP against physical damage.
• His ultimate ability, Chain Frost, is very strong against heroes that are stunned or slowed while being close to each other, and can deal high amounts of magical damage.

The strengths listed above make Lich an excellent choice for supporting or playing as a position 3 offlaner. The hero is well equipped against physical damage and he can have a significant game impact even without landing a single offensive spell on enemy heroes.

@ Valve

Lich Item build

Lich is a hero that can greatly strengthen his teammates. As a result, the best item builds are designed with that goal in mind and focus on physical resistance, magic resistance, HP regeneration and mobility. Here are some of the items you should consider buying when playing Lich in Dota 2 esports:

• Tranquil Boots: they give you excellent movement speed and HP regeneration. Both of these things are well suited for a support that also moves around the map from time to time. If your plan is to buy some other items that give you HP regeneration, you can either buy Phase Boots instead (for the extra damage) or simply play with brown boots (Boots of Speed) until the later stages of the game.
• Magic Wand: this is a good early game item on any hero.
• Urn of Shadows: allows you to heal yourself and allies and will boost your team’s sustainability.
• Infused Raindrop: since you will naturally have high armor and good protection against physical damage, a little bit of protection against magical damage will go a long way in the early game.
• Hand of Midas: Like many other heroes, Lich benefits a lot from higher levels and the talents they unlock, so Hand of Midas is often a good choice. Just make sure you’re not being too greedy by buying the item, given the circumstances of the match you’re playing.
• Force Staff: an excellent choice on any support hero. The HP regeneration, intelligence and added mobility are always very valuable. This item also gives you the ability to save allies from time to time.
• Pipe of Insight: this item gives you high HP regeneration, great survivability against magical damage and the ability to make your allies more survivable as well.
• Lotus Orb: this item is a good choice if your opponents have ways to silence and prevent you from using your spells during fights. You can also use this item to remove debuffs from your teammates and deter enemies from casting spells on them.
• Aghanim’s Scepter: this item greatly improves your ultimate ability and your offensive potential, but you should only buy it if you have a line-up with good AoE lockdowns that can guarantee its effectiveness.
• Medallion of Courage/Solar Crest: combined with your Frost Armor ability, this item allows you to more than double a teammate’s effective HP against physical damage.
• Ring of Basilius: if nobody else in your team has a Ring of Basilius, a Ring of Aquila or a Vladmir’s Offering, this cheap item can further increase your team’s armor for just 500 gold. You can also upgrade it later on into a Vladmir’s Offering (if nobody on your team has it), giving your entire team + 4 armor.
• Helm of the Dominator: the item is great not just for its aura, which gives surrounding allies +10 attack speed and +10 HP regeneration per second, but also for the Dominate ability, which allows you to find an Ogre Frostmage and then use its Ice Armor ability to further increase your teammates’ armor by 8. This ability fully stacks with your Frost Armor, allowing you to give your entire team a +17 armor bonus, on top of which enemies have their movement and attack speed slowed every time they use their basic attacks against you. If you do the math you will see that these two abilities alone will more than double your team’s HP against physical damage, making the hero extremely potent against line-ups that rely on this type of damage to succeed.
• Glimmer Cape: good for escaping, initiating, increasing magic resistance and helping allies in difficult situations.

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Lich Abilities Explained

Frost Blast

Deals AoE damage in a 200 radius. The main target takes 50/100/150/200 magical damage while the other targets take 75/100/125/150 magical damage. Also slows movement and attack speed by 30%/20 for 4 seconds. Initially has a cooldown of 8 seconds. After level 15, if you select the ability’s associated talent, this cooldown is reduced by 4 seconds.

Ice Armor

Increases a target’s armor by 3/5/7/9 for 40 seconds. Enemies who hit this target with basic attacks have their movement and attack speed slowed by 32%/32 for 2 seconds at max level.

Sacrifice

Allows you to sacrifice a friendly creep and convert 30%/50%/70%/90% of its current health into mana. You also get the experience bounty for this creep.

Chain Frost

Shoots an orb of frost at a target. The orb bounces between enemy units in a 600 radius, hitting an enemy and then going to another. When it can no longer find a target, it disappears. Enemies can be hit more than once, but not consecutively. The orb can bounce up to 10 times, or indefinitely (with Aghanim’s Scepter). Enemies hit by the orb have their movement and attack speed slowed by 65%/65 for 2.5 seconds, and take 280/370/460 magical damage per hit.

@ Valve

Best Lich Talents

• +25 movement speed / +175 health – The second is usually better.
• -4s Frost Blast cooldown / +120 attack damage – If you are able to attack enemies a lot in fights then the extra damage can be good. If you’re having mana issues, then it may be better to avoid the Frost Blast cooldown as well. Otherwise the cooldown reduction provides a strong slow and nuke in fights.
• +120 gold per minute / +175 cast range – The extra GPM is good if you expect the game to go into the late game. Otherwise the extra cast range will help you use all of your spells more easily and from a safer position.
• Attacks apply 30% MS/AS slow / Ice Armor provides +30 HP regen – If you’re winning the match and are on the offensive, the first option is better. Otherwise you should consider taking the second one, as it’s extremely powerful against sieges and will force the enemy team to spend a lot of time to bring down your structures. It will also considerably tank up your allies, especially in long fights, where the regen quickly adds up.

Lich Skill build

The hero’s skill build can take 3 different directions:

• The first focuses on fast leveling and increasing your offensive potential. With this build, you max out Sacrifice first and Frost Blast second, striving for a 1-1-3-1 build at level 6 and a 4-1-4-2 build at level 12.
• The second focuses on fast leveling and increasing your defensive potential. With this build, you max out Sacrifice first and Ice Armor second, striving for a 1-1-3-1 or a 1-2-2-1 build at level 6, and a 1-4-4-2 build at level 12.
• The third focuses on increasing your offensive and defensive potential. With this build you max Ice Armor first and Frost Blast second, or the other way around, putting just one point in Sacrifice.

The choice is entirely up to you and should be guided by how the game goes and the role you are playing. As an offlaner, you should opt for a defensive build. As a support, you may have better kill potential by going for an offensive one.

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When to pick the hero

As mentioned before, the hero is very strong against line-ups that heavily rely on physical damage. High armor and decreasing the enemy’s attack and movement speed make Lich a great counter to such hero compositions.

Conclusion

Lich is an excellent hero that can be played both as a support and as an offlaner. He can refill his mana pool and level up quickly due to his Sacrifice ability. He can deal great amounts of magical damage to enemies that are stunned or slowed while being close to each other. Furthermore, he can also make his entire team highly survivable against physical damage, and as a result should be considered whenever the enemy line-up relies too heavily on this type of damage.

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