Lich is often recommended as a good starting hero for people new to Dota for a couple reasons. His spells are easy to understand and relatively simple mana management thanks to Sacrifice. He is relatively level and item independent, allowing new players to contribute to the game without having the mechanics of a more experienced player.
Lich can be played several ways. He is most commonly used as a support hero, but is also able to go solo mid or solo offlane. This guide will primarily focus on how to play Lich as a support hero.
In life, the frost-mage Ethreain (not yet a Lich) had used the threat of destructive ice to enslave entire kingdoms. His subjects, aided by a few desperate magicians, eventually grew bold enough to ambush him. Armed with enough charmed rope to bind him forever, they tied the frost mage to adamant weights and dropped him in a pool known chiefly for being bottomless. It wasn't. He only fell for a year or so before an outcrop snagged him. There he rested, dead but undecaying, until the geomancer Anhil thought to verify the legend of the supposedly bottomless Black Pool. Anhil's plumbline snarled with the ropes that bound the drowned magician, and up he hauled an unexpected prize. Thinking that by rendering the dead undead, he could question the Lich about the properties of the pool, he removed the bindings and commenced a simple rite of resurrection. Even the descendants of Ethreain's enemies were long forgotten by time, so there were none to warn Anhil against imprudence. But he learned the error of his judgement almost immediately, as Lich threw off the shackles and consumed him.
Stats 18+1.55 15+2 18+3.25 315 ms 1.1 armor 24-33 base dmg
When should I pick Lich? Lich fits in a team where you already have several farm-dependent heroes and need a hero that does not need levels or items to be useful. Because of this item/level independency, you can be the primary warder for your team. Lich can be a great babysitter if your carry needs help to get through the early game. Lich is also a decent pickup if you need more teamfight abilities with his ultimate, Chain Frost.
When should I not pick Lich? Lich does not deal a great deal of damage outside of his ultimate ability and thus you should not pick him when you need a damage dealing hero. You should also consider other heroes if your team already has one or two item independent heroes that focus on support to prevent overlapping of roles. Lastly, avoid picking Lich if the opponents have lots of pushing heroes.
Advantages - Versatile hero that can fit multiple roles - Simple and great spells make Lich an excellent laning hero - No mana problems due to sacrifice - 600 range autoattack - Ultimate which ministuns through BKB to interrupt channeling abilities Disadvantages - Fragile int hero with no escape skills - Not a great ganker - No strong push/anti-push spells
Hero Synergy Good Allies Notice a pattern? These are all heroes that can hold the enemy down clumped up together for extended periods of time, allowing your ult to do massive damage to everything.
Bad Enemies Anti-mage takes very little to no damage from you because of his magic resistance, he laughs at your slows as he blinks on top of you, and his ult wrecks you after you have cast a few spells. Any illusion based hero or hero with multiple summons/creeps reduces your ultimate’s effectiveness. Nyx is also every support hero’s worst nightmare.
Frost Blast Legacy: V Blasts the target enemy unit with damaging frost, dealing area damage and slowing movement and attack rates for 4 seconds. The primary target takes the most damage. Damage: 50 / 100 / 150 / 200 Area Damage: 75 / 100 / 125 / 150 Radius: 200 Movement Slow: 30% Attack Slow: 20% Duration: 4 Your primary spammable nuke and slow. The primary target takes both the single target damage and the AoE damage..
Ice Armor Legacy: F Creates a shield around the target friendly unit, which adds armor and slows attacking melee units. Lasts 40 seconds. Armor bonus: 3 / 5 / 7 / 9 Slow Duration: 2 Movement Slow: 30% Attack Slow: 20% Duration: 40 Gives your target bonus armor. Causes any melee units (including Roshan) attacking the armored target to be slowed.
Sacrifice Legacy: D Sacrifices a friendly creep and converts a percentage of its current hit points into mana for Lich. Health Conversion: 15% / 30% / 45% / 60% The spell that makes Lich not care about his blue bar. Sacrifices a creep and converts its current HP into mana for yourself. Use this on cooldown on creeps with high hp (melee creeps have higher max HP than ranged creeps) to keep your mana healthy. Also note that this denies 100% of the creep’s XP to enemies, compared to the 30%-50% of the creep’s XP when they are denied normally.
Chain Frost Legacy: C Releases an orb of frost that bounces up to 7 times, slowing and damaging enemy units. The first target is mini-stunned. Upgradable by Aghanim’s Scepter. Cast Range: 750 (850) Bounces: 7 Slow Duration: 4 Movement Slow: 40% Attack Slow: 20% Jump Range: 575 Damage: 280 / 370 / 460 (370 / 460 / 550) Lich’s big teamfight spell. Creates a projectile which jumps between targets at random, damaging and slowing each one it hits. Because of this it is best to use it when there are as few as possible enemy creeps in the area to ensure that it deals maximum damage to enemy heroes. This also ministuns the target at the moment you cast it (before the projectile reaches the target), ignoring magic immunity.
II. Items and Skill build Starting Items OR Coordinate with the other support hero on your team who will be buying wards or courier. The rest of your gold should be spent on some health regen and basic stats. You do not need any clarities as you have Sacrifice to manage your mana.
Laning Your first 220 gold should be spent on upgrading the courier, unless someone else has already done so. As you approach the 6 minute mark, buy another set of wards to replace the first set when it times out. This is very important as it is around this time when the mid heroes start to gank and map control becomes very important. Boots and Magic Wand are standard items. Make sure you are always carrying a TP scroll. You never know when it can be used to counter gank another lane.
Boots Tranquil boots are by far the best boots for Lich. They give you some much needed armor and easy health regeneration, as well as movespeed.
Core Urn of Shadows is a great pickup if no one else on the team is getting it. It gives you some HP and provides a strong heal that you can use in between pushes. You are a great Urn carrier as you should be actively present in all teamfights. Whatever extra gold you have should be going towards buying a Mekansm. It is a great teamfight item and boosts your survivability as well. Remember to keep buying those wards and place them actively. Buy sentry wards to counter enemy wards too.
Late Game Force Staff gives you some mana and HP regen, but more importantly gives you excellent utility in its active ability. Sheepstick is a great item in all circumstances, giving you some HP, plenty of over-the-top mana regen, and most importantly a targeted disable. Continue buying wards.
Optional Items These are typical support items that are excellent in all situations. Drums boost your HP and mana, and gives you and your team movespeed and attack speed bonuses. Remember to use those charges liberally. Bracers are for more cheap HP if you have no way of farming gold. Ghost Scepter should be your item of choice if you are facing physical damage carries as they can save your life. Pipe is a borderline core item that should be gotten if no one else on the team is getting one and you are facing lots of AoE magic damage. Necronomicon is exceptionally good if you can micro them, but are great anyway as they give you additional push power, as well as true sight when they are level 3. Veil is a decent item after you finish your Mekansm if your team has lots of magic damage sources, preferably AoE. It does not give you any survivability stats, but if you are able to land Veil on all 5 enemy heroes and cast your Chain Frost on them before dying, you can consider yourself successful in a teamfight.
These items are if you are far ahead and want to have a bit of fun. Aghanims gives you plenty of HP + mana and buffs your ultimate. It may seem as an automatic ‘core’ item to many people but keep in mind that it only buffs your ultimate by 90 damage per bounce, which is relatively lacklustre compared to many other items. Refresher Orb is a luxury item you can get in the lategame. It allows you to use your ult twice in teamfights. Bonus points if you already have sheepstick as you can ult twice and disable two heroes at once with it.
You should be one of the first heroes carrying Dust and/or Sentries if you are against invisible heroes. An early gem also allows you to gain complete control of the map by dewarding all the enemy wards. If your team seems to be decently coordinated, consider buying smokes to gank unsuspecting enemies.
Rejected Items You do not need the mana regen from bottle. The health regen could be useful but you won’t be roaming and ganking enough to control the runes. Let someone else get a bottle and those runes, and get tranquil boots for health regen instead.
Your first point should only be in Ice Armor if you plan on doing a level 1 Roshan. If you are planning to go for a first blood gank in your lane, get Frost Blast at level 1. If not, get Sacrifice at level 1 and use it on every cooldown to deny XP. After that, max Frost Blast first and get Sacrifice to level 2. At this point you should make a judgement on how your mana pool is doing, and how often teamfights are happening. If you’re still having mana problems, continue to max your Sacrifice. If your mana pool is okay and you notice teamfights starting to happen, start putting levels in Ice Armor. This is especially important if the enemy damage dealers are melee carries. Get your ult whenever you can.
III. How do you play? Laning Go to the safelane, ideally accompanying your team’s main carry hero. If you bought wards, start the game by placing one at the rune spot nearby, and then one further along the lane towards their tower. This allows you to keep vision of the enemy heroes wherever they are on the lane, as well as keep an eye for incoming ganks. + Show Spoiler [Radiant lane ward] +
Unless you are attempting a first blood or a level 1 Roshan, you should have Sacrifice as your first spell. Remember to use this on cooldown on any allied creep, this denies 100% of the creep’s XP and gold to the enemy heroes, and makes it easier to keep the lane closer to your tower. Focus on denying and harassing the enemy heroes while letting your allied carry take all the last hits. Don’t be afraid to start spamming your Frost Blast liberally on the enemies, and try to get one or two autoattacks off on them per Frost Blast. However, avoid autoattacking when there are many enemy creeps around the area to prevent drawing aggro from them. If you are already at full mana and Sacrifice is off cooldown, use Frost Blast on the enemy hero quickly so the mana is not wasted. If the enemy hero has been zoned out sufficiently and your allied carry is 100% safe in his lane, feel free to start pulling neutral creeps into the lane to get some of your own farm.
Ganking You should only ever leave your lane if your carry is 100% safe and protected by wards. Make sure you are always carrying a TP scroll so you can either teleport back in a jiffy, or teleport somewhere else to help counter gank. Pre-level 6, your gank method is simply to use Ice Blast and autoattack. Always try to coordinate with an ally. Be careful not to overcommit as you do not have any escape abilities and are very squishy. Once you are level 6, you will have your ult added to the mix. Use it when there are multiple enemy heroes in a small space. You can also use it if your enemy hero is next to one enemy creep, ensuring that the enemy hero takes every other bounce.
Teamfights Stay at the back of teamfights, you never want to be the one in front taking damage. Use your Ice Blast liberally. Early in the game you will be using your Ice Blast primarily for damage, but late game you should shift your focus to slowing enemy carries (especially if they’re melee), making it easier for your team to kite them. Try to use your ult at opportune moments when there are no enemy creeps in the area, but make sure you get it off before dying. Use your mek early in the teamfights to give everyone a burst heal and armor boost. Remember that your ult has a ministun that goes through BKB. If there is a hero like Witch Doctor or Enigma with a BKB on the opposite team, wait for them to start channeling their big ultimates before you interrupt them.
IV. FAQ Q) What else should I be doing as a support hero? Where should I be warding? What do I do in my spare time? A) BurningSera has written an excellent guide regarding support play in general, including warding placements, general item choices, etc. This can be found here: http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=377503
Q) I am trying really hard to keep the map warded and support my carry really well, but even if my team does well I never seem to get any items and this makes me sad. Why? A) That is fine! The job of a support hero is to make sure that the carry gets farmed and is protected at all times. The items that I’ve put in this guide are simply items to aim for, but your number one priority is still maintaining that map vision and being there in all teamfights.
Q) What about offlane or solo mid Lich? A) Offlane Lich focuses on using your Sacrifice to deny farm to the opposing carry and keep the lane close to your tower, where it is safer to farm. Play extremely carefully unless you have vision of the enemy support heroes, as you do not have any escape skills to evade incoming ganks. Your item choices will be very similar to that of a support/babysitting Lich. As a solo mid Lich, you will also be denying XP to the opposing solo mid and gaining a level advantage that way. Ask someone else to buy the courier and wards. Your item choices will also be similar to the above, but you may ask someone else to get the Mekansm instead while you shoot for a faster Sheepstick/Aghanim’s Scepter. Be active on the map, get a quick level 6 then start ganking the side lanes with your level advantage.
V. Video Guide I did a video guide on my stream for Lich for the Liquipedia team and they edited it to make this. My internet isn’t the best so the video quality isn’t superb, but it should give a good idea of how to play Lich for people that prefer to watch instead of read. ^_^
VI. Changelog 30/01/2013 - Posted guide. Also fixed typo’s and tweaked skill build slightly.
add faceless void to good allies and also yummy enemies doesn't seem all that yummy to me, LD will reach lvl 6 before you do so any extra bounces your ulti gets between him and his bear will be offset by ridiculous base hp and in teamfights his bear is just another target soaking up important dmg from your ulti and meepo is yummy to pretty much any high burst hero, lich isn't even close to being one of his biggest threats. nice guide regardless! edit: your guide isn't at all a bit short.
Last edit: 2013-01-30 21:13:17
Firebolt145 United Kingdom. January 30 2013 21:15. Posts 12307
Nice and short guide. There is not much too lich specifically if you know how to support in general. One of the best heroes to start playing the game imo. Very straight forward and usually can grap a few kills which makes new players happy.
Edit: You should add Ghost Scepter as an item. One of the best lategame support items and is easily forgotten.
Last edit: 2013-01-30 22:08:28
Leenock -- Last Hope of the Nydus
Firebolt145 United Kingdom. January 30 2013 22:03. Posts 12307
I feel that maxing Sacrifice is not necessary though as laning stage will most likely be over after level 7 and a Lich with 2 points each in Frost Armor and Sacrifice is a fair bit more useful than one with 4 in Sacrifice.
Firebolt145 United Kingdom. January 31 2013 00:15. Posts 12307
On January 30 2013 23:37 ForTheDr3am wrote: Good guide.
I feel that maxing Sacrifice is not necessary though as laning stage will most likely be over after level 7 and a Lich with 2 points each in Frost Armor and Sacrifice is a fair bit more useful than one with 4 in Sacrifice.
Ah yes, I had made a note of that when writing it but forgot to go back and change it. Thanks for reminding me. ^_^
Optional Items should almost never be Aghs or Refresher, those items are essentially worthless for lich. As a support things like Ghost Scepter, Veil of Discord, Pipe, Necrobook or anything actually useful are far superior
Even if you want to throw money away something like a Thunderhammer will typically add more dmg output than aghs/refresher
otherwise looks fine, though lich is excellent against antimage as long as you take a level of frost armor early
Last edit: 2013-01-31 00:20:01
This is what people who are too lazy to think of a signature do ~壮哉我大酒神~
Firebolt145 United Kingdom. January 31 2013 00:29. Posts 12307
Your summary of how Frost Blast's AoE and single target components function (especially at level 1) is very confusing. I'm pretty sure the primary target takes BOTH the single target AND the AoE damage.
Also, "casted" is not a word, except maybe in the context of a tournament is cast(ed) by ayesee or w/e.
Last edit: 2013-01-31 01:05:35
"Back then teams that won were credited, now it's called throw. I think it's sad". -Na'Vi.Kuroky
Firebolt145 United Kingdom. January 31 2013 01:18. Posts 12307
On January 31 2013 01:04 Sn0_Man wrote: Your summary of how Frost Blast's AoE and single target components function (especially at level 1) is very confusing. I'm pretty sure the primary target takes BOTH the single target AND the AoE damage.
Also, "casted" is not a word, except maybe in the context of a tournament is cast(ed) by ayesee or w/e.
You're right, I just double checked. Oops, people may find out I don't actually play Lich that much at all!
On January 31 2013 01:04 Sn0_Man wrote: Your summary of how Frost Blast's AoE and single target components function (especially at level 1) is very confusing. I'm pretty sure the primary target takes BOTH the single target AND the AoE damage.
Also, "casted" is not a word, except maybe in the context of a tournament is cast(ed) by ayesee or w/e.
You're right, I just double checked. Oops, people may find out I don't actually play Lich that much at all!
And thanks, grammar nazi T_T
I wasn't looking forward to laning with liches that nuked creeps instead of heroes, then explained to me that "It does more damage at level 1 this way" rofl .
"Back then teams that won were credited, now it's called throw. I think it's sad". -Na'Vi.Kuroky
TheEmulator Canada. January 31 2013 02:51. Posts 4951
Great guide Firebolt, but I have a few small suggestions and reminders. The first thing I noticed in your video, is that when you used frost blast the first time, it was immediately after using sacrifice. You could have hit him with frost blast and then used sacrifice to regen that mana. I know you said it is best to use sacrifice after each cooldown, but sometimes 1-2 seconds of idle time is fine.
Also, I noticed you use sacrifice on creeps with less than 1/4 hp quite often. You get more mana when a creeps health is higher, and melee creeps also give more mana than ranged creeps. So I would recommend auto attack denying the low creep and then sacrificing whatever creep has highest health. This just makes laning a lot easier as you will have more mana to frost blast harass.
I assume you know this stuff already, and that you were probably just distracted in the video or being lazy But either way it might be helpful to add to the OP. Creep health and mana management,etc.
edit: lol, I watched more of the video, and you started denying full health creeps more often. But you could still add it to the OP if you want.
Early game lich might just be the most annoying hero to lane against. Good hero. Good guide.
An alternative to safelane lich is him soloing mid. I'm not sure if you want to add a section to address this. Newer players probably shouldn't try this anyway, but lich mid is certainly viable if you know what you are doing.
Firebolt145 United Kingdom. January 31 2013 04:39. Posts 12307
On January 31 2013 04:27 lagmaster wrote: Early game lich might just be the most annoying hero to lane against. Good hero. Good guide.
An alternative to safelane lich is him soloing mid. I'm not sure if you want to add a section to address this. Newer players probably shouldn't try this anyway, but lich mid is certainly viable if you know what you are doing.
I briefly mention offlane/solo mid Lich in the FAQ. It isn't too different tbh, you just get items faster and roam a bit more.
On January 31 2013 04:27 lagmaster wrote: Early game lich might just be the most annoying hero to lane against. Good hero. Good guide.
An alternative to safelane lich is him soloing mid. I'm not sure if you want to add a section to address this. Newer players probably shouldn't try this anyway, but lich mid is certainly viable if you know what you are doing.
What would the point of putting Lich mid be? He isn't particularly item or level dependant compared to most heroes, nor is he a hero you can rely on to control the midgame. Also a lich rotating to come gank seems a lot less terrifying than some1 like TA or QoP heading down the river lol
On January 31 2013 04:27 lagmaster wrote: Early game lich might just be the most annoying hero to lane against. Good hero. Good guide.
An alternative to safelane lich is him soloing mid. I'm not sure if you want to add a section to address this. Newer players probably shouldn't try this anyway, but lich mid is certainly viable if you know what you are doing.
What would the point of putting Lich mid be? He isn't particularly item or level dependant compared to most heroes, nor is he a hero you can rely on to control the midgame. Also a lich rotating to come gank seems a lot less terrifying than some1 like TA or QoP heading down the river lol
Shutting down the opposing solo mid with denies and outharassing him with Frost Blast spam.
On January 31 2013 04:27 lagmaster wrote: Early game lich might just be the most annoying hero to lane against. Good hero. Good guide.
An alternative to safelane lich is him soloing mid. I'm not sure if you want to add a section to address this. Newer players probably shouldn't try this anyway, but lich mid is certainly viable if you know what you are doing.
What would the point of putting Lich mid be? He isn't particularly item or level dependant compared to most heroes, nor is he a hero you can rely on to control the midgame. Also a lich rotating to come gank seems a lot less terrifying than some1 like TA or QoP heading down the river lol
Shutting down the opposing solo mid with denies and outharassing him with Frost Blast spam.
Meh, I think most common mids would destroy him. Just seems like a waste of the mid lane imo