Introduction
“This ice ain't nice!”
Lich is a ranged intelligence support hero who is unique in Dota 2 in that not only is he one of only a handful of heroes who can deny their own creeps, thus denying the enemy experience an gold, but he is the only hero in the entire game that gain experience by doing so.
This, alongside a solid magic damage nuke that makes for great lane harass, an amazing teamfight ultimate, and the fact that he has little in the way of mana issues makes him one of the most successful support heroes in the game.
Our complete character profile for Lich can be found here.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Can deny enemies experience and gold every 20-44 seconds
- Gains experience from denying his own creeps using Sacrifice
- Great lane harass
- Free mana
- Potentially extremely powerful teamfight ultimate
- Good defensive team ability
- Item independent
- Good base move speed
- One of the most successful heroes in the game in terms of win rate
- Easy to play – great beginner hero
Cons
- Struggles against early push
- No hard stun or disable of any kind
- Does not scale well
- Squishy
- Poor attack and casting animation
- Ultimate is very hit or miss and often largely luck based
Item Build
Lich can be played in any of the three lanes as a babysit support, denying creeps to give your lane an experience and gold advantage whilst using Frost Blast to dish out some additional harass.
He can also be played as a solo offlaner, although you will need to adjust your strategy slightly if they decide to push early on; Sacrificing creeps is inadvisable in such a situation as Lich can do little to stop or even stall a push besides attempt to draw enemy creep aggro and occasionally use Frost Blast. Thus, if you are to solo offlane Lich, make the most out of the early annoyance factor you get from Sacrifice and Frost Blast, but stop denying creeps at least temporarily if the enemy team organises for a push.
Starting Items
As a support hero it’s your job to ensure that the Courier and/or Observer Wards are bought at the start of the game. Usually these duties will be split between yourself and another hero on your team, but you can’t always guarantee this in public games. If no one else ponies up the gold for one then you should bite the bullet and buy both for your team.
Good starting items if there’s another support on your team:
Courier or Observer Wards, a Set of Tangos, a Healing Salve, Gauntlets of Strength, and an Iron Branch.
And if you’re forced to solo support:
Courier, Observer Wards, a set of Tangos, a Healing Salve, and an Iron Branch.
Early Game
Ensure that the Courier is upgraded into a Flying Courier when it comes off cooldown at the 3 minute mark. Also ensure that Observer Wards are always purchased when they’re off cooldown.
Next up grab your basic Boots of Speed. Lich has really good base move speed at 315, so they’re not as urgently necessary on Lich as they are on slower support heroes like Crystal Maiden or Lion, who feel extremely slow without them.
Cap off your early game purchases by upgrading any Iron Branches you have into a Magic Wand and those early Gauntlets of Strength you picked up into a Bracer, to give you a cost-efficient stat boost that will make you feel less squishy.
Core Items
Keep ensuring Observer Wards are bought up whenever they’re off cooldown throughout the early and mid game, even if you don’t need to place them immediately.
Recommended upgraded boots of choice for Lich are Tranquil Boots. He has free mana from his Sacrifice ability, and so doesn’t need Arcane Boots. He’s not a right-clicker (far from it), so Phase Boots are a waste. That leaves Power Treads or Tranquils.
Tranquils allow you to avoid returning to the fountain or shipping out consumables once you have them; indeed between Sacrifice and Tranquils you should never need to return to base except in an emergency. They’re also the much cheaper option, making them easy to build into for a pretty poor support, and are great for roaming because of the superior move speed they give you. Power Treads on the other hand give you a nice chunk of stats. Power Treads aren’t a bad choice per se but Tranquils are the superior option on Lich in my opinion.
Mekanism is your priority core pick-up. If there are no more viable Mekanism carriers on your team that will get it up much faster than you (such as a mid Viper, or a jungle Chen), then Mekanism should be your go-to core item. Be sure to check with your team to see if anyone else intends to build one before you get started on it though.
Luxury Items
Drums of Endurance - Drums of Endurance are a great option because they give your team bonus attack speed and move speed auras, whilst at the same time giving you plenty of stats and being easy to build into (since the components are so cheap you can buy them up whenever you have the spare unreliable gold, meaning you won’t lose much gold when you die). You probably already have a Bracer from the early game as well, making Drums a natural extension to your inventory.
Force Staff - Force Staff gives you less all-round stat gain than Drums, but it gives you much more mobility and more direct team utility (Drums’ auras are largely a passive, somewhat unnoticeable buff). It’s an amazing escape tool for someone who is naturally very squishy and can be used on allies and enemies, making it a great play-making item for clutch saves or to Force an enemy into bad positioning.
Ghost Scepter - The go-to luxury pick-up if you find the enemy team is able to bring you down quickly with physical damage (typically in the form of right-clicks). Most often this will be the enemy carry taking you out of the fight quickly with a few auto-attacks. Ghost Scepter will buy you a clutch 4 seconds of physical immunity, which gives you time to create distance between yourself and the enemy carry or at the very least buys your team 4 seconds of distraction time.
Heaven’s Halberd - A fantastic anti-carry item, thanks to the ability to disarm an enemy core for 3.0-4.5 seconds, Halberd will also give you a much-welcome chunk of health an evasion, making you a lot less fragile.
Eul’s Scepter of Divinity - The active is good for taking an enemy carry out of the fight for a couple of seconds. In that respect it’s sometimes referred to as a poor man’s Scythe of Vyse, the downside being that the hero selected cannot be attacked. Nonetheless, it’s useful for buying your team time. The other downside is that whilst a Scythe use is universally beneficial, Eul’s can sometimes be disadvantageous to your team, perhaps saving an enemy when they would otherwise have died, or trapping an allied hero who would otherwise have escaped. If you’re not confident in your decision making abilities in the heat of battle then don’t go for Eul’s (and for the love of the RNG Gods don’t Eul’s an enemy that you’ve just cast your ultimate on).
The other upsides of Eul’s are the fantastic mana regeneration and the burst +40 move speed, which although not as necessary on Lich as most supports are nonetheless good buffs to have.
Scythe of Vyse - You're unlikely to be rich enough to ever afford it, and if you are the game is likely already won anyway, but if the game is really stretching out it can potentially be a decisive item to get. 3.5 seconds of lockdown on a key enemy hero is the reason Scythe is considered one of the most powerful items in the game.
Vladmir’s Offering - Yes, you’re ranged, so you won’t get the lifesteal bonus from Vlad’s, but you’re not buying it for yourself, you’re buying it for your team. Vladmir’s Offering is great to pick up on a support even if your team doesn’t consist of any melee heroes because of the bonus damage and armour it provides. If your team does have a melee core and no one else has purchased one then it’s an excellent utility item to purchase.
Veil of Discord - Veil gives decent all-round stats - +6 all stats, +6 health regeneration, +6 damage, and +6 armour, but the main reason it’s purchased is for its active, Magic Weakness. Magic Weakness increases the magic damage taken by an enemy caught within its 600 unit radius by 25%, which augments your abilities superbly (both Frost Blast and Chain Frost deal magic damage). It lasts for a lengthy 25 seconds, making it a great active for teamfights, and won’t just buff your own magic damage output either - it will also increase the potency of any other magic damage spells your teammates cast on affected enemies in that time frame too.
Aghanim's Scepter - As of patch 6.81 Aghanims is a decent if somewhat gimmicky luxury pick-up on Lich. It not only increases the damage per hit from your ultimate from 280/370/460 to 370/460/550, as well as increasing the range from 750 to 850 units, it now gives you theoretically unlimited bounces.
Situational Items
Necronomicon - Great if you’re part of a pushing line-up or your team is struggling to break the base. Also a great item for teamfights and for countering any invis enemy heroes.
Diffusal Blade – A very situational pick-up. The trend of Diffusal on supports, like a lot of novel and unusual item pick-ups, traces back to the competitive Dota scene. It’s used on a support, primarily, in the super late game to purge the effects of Scythe when used on one of your cores. This way to effectively cancel the impact of a 5675 gold item with a 3300 gold item, providing you have fast reactions and purge your ally quickly.
Orchid Malevolence – Orchid is very situation on Lich. You don’t get much out of most of the stats, because you’re not capable of transitioning into a right-click damage dealer like some intelligence supports, so you’re mainly buying it for the active 'Soul Burn' will allow you to silence an enemy hero and allow your team to deal significantly more damage for its duration.
Boots of Travel - Great for the late game, when you need to free up a slot which would otherwise be taken up by a TP Scroll. With this, you combine your Boots and TP Scroll slot into one, allowing you to put a slot to better use if you’re about to become 6 slotted. This is a viable option because by this stage you should no longer need the health regeneration from Tranquils anyway, and you may well need to TP back to defend the base in an emergency.
Pipe of Insight - A very expensive item for a support, and not an ideal pick-up if you bought the team’s Mekanism (having both on one hero is very risky, especially a squishy one like Lich), but always a good item to have if the enemy team has any magic damage (which they almost certainly will). Quick rule of thumb: go for it if you didn’t buy the Mekanism earlier.
Sentry Wards, Dust of Appearance, Gem of True Sight – all-important detection. You’ll need at least one of these in your inventory if the enemy line-up features an invis hero. Sentry Wards will also allow you to deward rune spots, and Gem will give you superior vision going into the mid and late game.
Smoke of Deceit – If you roam with another support in the early stages of the game a Smoke will allow you to do so more quickly and without being spotted by enemy wards. Smoke will also come in handy in the post-laning phase if your team wants to gank as 5.
Skill Build
The skill build displayed above is my personal favourite, but adjustments can and should be made depending on the actual circumstances in your particular game. Namely, if you find yourself under heavy harass you should take an early point in Ice Armor.
You can also switch up the order of Sacrifice and Frost Blast during the laning phase, depending on what you feel the need to prioritise (denying and Frost Blast spam, or less spam but increased Frost Blast damage).
Frost Blast is always skilled second and usually maxed first. This is your spammable magic damage nuke that deals 50/100/150/200 magic damage to a single target and 75/100/125/150 magic damage in a 200 AoE around them. It also slows both movement and attack speed for 4 seconds.
Its power comes primarily from Lich’s ability to spam it in the lane once he has a few points in Sacrifice, making him a supremely annoying support to lane against. However, as it only deals 200 magic damage once maxed its effectiveness as a nuke scales off quite dramatically in the mid game, and its primary function shifts from being a nuke to being a slow.
Ice Armor is skilled and maxed last, but it’s a very under-appreciated ability that is surprisingly powerful, so make sure you do use it! This allows you to buff yourself or an ally (or a building) with 3/5/7/9 bonus armour and a passive that slows the movement and attack speed of any enemies that attack the target for 2 seconds.
Ice Armor should be cast constantly on your team’s cores once you have the mana to support spamming it. Earlier on you’ll need to conserve your mana, and so try to only use it either on your carry or on someone who is the focus of physical attacks; the bonus armour and slow effects will make them a much less desirable target.
Sacrifice is always skilled first and is maxed second. Sacrifice is what makes Lich such a unique hero as it allows him to ‘sacrifice’ (i.e. deny) an allied lane creep, converting both is current health into mana for Lich and also converting its experience, thus allowing Lich to deny his own creeps and gain experience by doing so.
Sacrifice is an amazing early game ability, especially in the offlane. It denies your lane opponents crucial early gold and experience every other wave initially, and every single wave once you have three levels in it, gives you the experience they should be getting, and gives you significant mana regeneration, allowing you to harass with Frost Blast.
Sacrifice gives you a huge early game advantage (you will often out-level the enemy mid even as a solo offlaner), and over the course of the entire game will deny the enemy team a considerable amount of experience and gold.
Chain Frost is always skilled (levels 6, 11 and 16). A potent teamfight ultimate, Chain Frost launches a ball of ice at the target which mini-stuns, deals damage, slows, and then bounces to nearby enemy targets, for a maximum of 10 bounces. The damage it deals is quite considerable (280/370/460) but its true strength lies in repeat bounces, massively increasing its damage potential.
Chain Frost is something of a skillshot and somewhat luck based. In order to bounce there must be a target within 575 units of the last target hit. If there are multiple targets one is chosen at random, and the bounce radius is reset.
This means you should aim to use it when there are multiple enemy heroes packed closely together. If there are creeps nearby, however, then it’s possible that the ball of ice will bounce to them and that the enemy hero can create enough distance from the creeps afterwards to avoid it bouncing back to him/her.
Gameplay Tips
When it comes to using Frost Blast remember that the target it is cast on will take the most damage (both the ability’s initial damage and the AoE damage), whereas nearby units will take the reduced AoE damage only.
Always cast Ice Armor on your carry and cores ahead of teamfights or ganks. It will make them considerably tankier, not only giving them a nice armour buff but also slowing both the move speed and attack speed of any enemy heroes who attack them.
Although it can be set to auto-cast, it is better to manually cast Ice Armour. The auto-cast only triggers when a nearby ally is actually attacked, not before they’re attacked, and Lich’s fairly slow casting animation means you won’t be able to cast your other abilities into Ice Armour’s animation is complete. In the hat of an engagement this can be costly – try to ensure Ice Armour is up on your cores before they’re even attacked and before the fight breaks out.
As of patch 6.81 remember to cast Ice Armour on your buildings when the enemy is pushing or base sieging.
Use Sacrifice whenever it is off cooldown, unless your lane is being pushed and you need a full creep wave to help fend off a concerted push.
Remember that the experience bounty Sacrifice gives you is AoE based, and so any nearby enemy or allied heroes will gain a share of the experience if they’re within experience range. For this reason it’s best to time your Sacrifices so that they take place before the creep waves meet, so you can ensure you get the maximum experience from the creep and aren’t forced to share it with nearby enemy heroes.
The healthier the creep you Sacrifice, the more mana Lich acquires, so aim to Sacrifice healthy creeps only, especially if you’re running low on mana.
Sacrifice’s mana capability makes Lich a great babysit support hero, capable of denying huge amounts of enemy experience and gold with Sacrifice and using Frost Blast to seriously harass any lane opponents.
Chain Frost has a mini-stun, and it is the only ability Lich has which deals any form of stun. This isn’t at all useful for locking down a target but it is important to remember that Lich can cancel channelled abilities and TP Scrolls by casting Chain Frost on the enemy in question.
| Note: Chain Frost cannot be dodged or disjointed. This means heroes like Storm Spirit or Queen of Pain cannot avoid it if it is targeted at them even by blinking or using ball lightning to create distance between themselves and the Chain Frost. Invisibility does also not dodge Chain Frost; if you become invisible after it has been cast on you, you will still be hit by it. |
It goes without saying that Chain Frost is best used when enemy heroes are clumped up and, ideally, not near a creep wave or neutral camp. Even then, enemy reactions (splitting up quickly in reaction to your ultimate) and luck play a large part in its success. For the first reason in particular it’s best not to use Chain Frost to initiate, as it allows the enemy heroes plenty of opportunity to react appropriately; instead, use it during the chaos of a teamfight when the teams have already engaged. It’s even better if combined with a big teamfight control ultimate like Tidehunter’s Ravage or Faceless Void’s Chronosphere.
When casting Chain Frost on a lone Hero (targeting the hero with Chain Frost) with 5 creeps, there is approximately ~55% chance of it hitting a hero twice, and ~65% of it hitting a hero twice with 3 creeps.
Last Updated - Patch 6.83.
