My soul is black with frostbite.

Changelog

29/12 - Completed guide

Hero introduction

Lich is usually played as a support hero, usually supporting a carry, appearing in a tri-lane or solo-ing mid, usually in a position of a roamer/ganker too. What makes lich such a unique hero to me is the skill, sacrifice This is a very underrated skill, but if used in a decent lich player's hand can result in total lane dominance very easily, especially if lich takes the long lane and pulls too. Frost Blast is lich's nuke, which not only damages its target, but also affects enemy units within a 150 radius. It provides a 30% slow and 20% attack speed reduction, making it a perfect skill for harassing. Ice Armor casts an armor of ice around an allied unit, increasing its armor and if a meelee enemy would to attack that armored unit, it would be slowed by 30% and have a 20% attack speed reduction too. Last but not least, Chain Frost, lich's ultimate which lich throws a big ice blast that bounces between enemy units, hitting a total of 7 times, dealing insane damage if used in a proper situation. At 460 damage per hit at level 3 and 550 damage with aghanim's scepter, it is indeed a deadly skill if you allow that chain frost to bounce around madly.

Pros / Cons

Pros

Has the ability to make the opponent team underfarm
Frost armor can be used to armor the whole team if you armor consistently
Great nuke-ing power in early game
Ulti scales perfectly into the late game
Great initiator

Cons

Ulti is easily countered
Squishy
Boring to play at times.

Skill build justification

The best way to go

Sacrifice is picked up at level 1, where you would deny one of your creeps in a lane (I always help my mid lane and then run back to the other lane I'm supporting continuously) This causes the lane to lack 1 creep and the opponent would get less exp. Combined with pulling, where more creeps would be denied or killed if done properly, there might not even be creeps going into the lane ! Denying a whole wave of exp to the opponent causes them to lose a lot of exp and farm. For first blood attempts however, frost blast might be picked up too. At level 2 and 3, you get your Frost Blast to slow enemy units and harass them madly, go around and roam, trying to get a couple of kills (especially if you have a pudge in your team, that rot + your frost blast = guaranteed kill). At level 4, you usually get sacrifice so that there won't be a 5 second delay when denying creeps, where your creeps might run out a little bit too far, giving the enemy the denied exp of the creep (denied exp is better than no exp at all !) and also, higher level of sacrifice gives more mana ! You can opt to go for ice armor at level 4 instead if your carry is being harassed. Continue to add frost blast and get Chain Frost at level 6. Max frost blast and from here, its totally up to your play style whether to get sacrifice maxed first or ice armor maxed.

I would recommend maxing sacrifice first due to the fact that after casting your nuke and ultimates after a teamfight, you barely have enough mana to continue pushing, so deny a creep to get a massive amount of mana and continue. If you maxed ice armor instead and don't have mana to cast it, then thats just another skill point wasted.

The rest of the skill build is self explanatory.

Item choice

Starting build

Lich is a support which would most probably get an Animal Courier. Ring of Protection would be turned into Tranquil Boots later and some Tango and Healing Salve for regeneration. No Clarity is needed as sacrifice is sufficient. If a teammate already picked up the courier, you can go for Observer Ward or Sentry Ward

Laning Phase

By about 10minutes, you should have gotten a Tranquil Boots. Also, try to upgrade your courier to a Flying Courier somewhere around the 6min-8min mark, where the courier is carrying alot of items, especially your solo mid teammate.
Remember to get your Magic Wand at this stage of the game too.
You would want to be a ward ***** and get Observer Ward to constantly ward, especially the river. Also Sentry Ward to deward when your enemy blocks your pulling camp.

Mid Game

At this time of the game, you should still continue getting Observer Ward, as I said, be a ward ***** or ***** or ****, whatever suits your liking. You should be building your Mekansm as soon as possible and then get your Aghanim's Scepter

*During laning phase and mid game, ALWAYS and ALWAYS carry a TP scroll, like any other support, you play around in case of emergencies to escape or to tp to another lane to save your teammate or when they call for reinforcements.

Late Game

I personally like to get Force Staff here to get into position and to chase up to enemies or force my teammates to get the kill.

Any disable such as Orchid Malevolence or Scythe of Vyse is good at this point to support your team :D

Refresher Orb is scary. When your opponent least expects it after dodging a crazy ult from you, here comes another one. Your opponent would be ****ting bricks and BOOM, SURPRISE BUTT SEX.

Veil of Discord to add more damage to your ult or teammates magical damage output

Black King Bar if you always get focused down before you even throw your ult (never seen this happen before though)

And finally Pipe of Insight if the opposing team is very nuke heavy.

How to play Lich ?

Laning phase

Constantly deny creeps in lane and using sacrifice when the enemies aren't in the creep exp range. Pull camps and deny the creeps to deny even more exp. Constantly harass them and when they are at low health, go for the kill.

*DO NOT be afraid to throw your ult even if you know that it wouldn't bounce around if you're 90% sure that it will kill the enemy hero OR if the enemy hero has no more regeneratives, forcing to go back to the fountain, losing out in farm and exp.

You may also roam around to mid to deny creeps there and harass the solo mid and go repeat, sometimes even going for the kill once you reach level 2.

Lich reaches about 80% of its potential when it gets its amazing ult at level 6.

Mid game

Throw your ult during teamfights when enemy heroes are clumped together with minimal or no creeps at all to deal the greatest damage output. You should be roaming a lot during this phase of the game. Constantly armor up your teammates and when you have nothing to armor anymore, armor your creeps, this helps in pushing the lane.

Late game

As usual throw your ult and stay back, throwing your nuke and keeping everyone armored up during an engage and use your items consistently to disable the opponents or benefit your team.

Choice of boots

Tranquil Boots VS any other boots

Power Treads, the most commonly argued boots on a lich. It does give decent stats and attack speed, but lich isn't a dps and does not benefit much from that extra attack speed. The extra int is pointless as you have sacrifice to keep up with whatever mana pool you have and the extra hp from str treads is almost comparable to the heal provided by Tranquil Boots Lastly, the movement speed of power treads is lower than tranquil boots.

Arcane Boots ***** please, you have sacrifice.

Phase Boots Lich does not benefit from that 24 damage as much as you will be nuking 99.99% of the time in a team engage. The phase ability would give almost the same movement speed as tranquil so theres no point

Boots of Travel Viable item to free up space to get more luxury items.

Credits

This is my second guide done, I find guides actually quite addictive to do and fun lolol. Hope that this guide will take your playing to a whole new level. Thanks for reading :D

Check out my windrunner guide :D