Simpleton guide for Lich

Introduction on the Publisher (me :D)

Hello to those are reading my guide. My name is Pumpkinseed and i really like pumpkins. I am not a (total) scrub, nor an expert. This guide is a creation of my personal play style with Lich, so please don't complain how my guide may be similar to the other guides, as nothing is ever truly "unique". Thanks for reading. On with the Guide.

Introduction on Lich

Lich is a hero who specialises in using high mana-taxing skills to deal much damage with slows, affecting the enemies attack speed and movement speed. He is ideal for against DPS carries, being considered one of the best baby sitters, though he doesn't have a heal as a skill.

Thanks for the awesome artist who created the image below

Pros and Cons

Pros


-Good baby sitter
-Good nuke
-Faster than average movement speed
-Good hero model
-Sounds cool
-Scales well game
-Has a skill that increases tanking capabilities for allies




Cons


- Mana Burn never feels nice
-Pretty much useless if enemies have Black King Bar (All he can do is throw small --snowballs as physical damage)
-Quite low health
-No target point, only target unit skills (so it's trash if you are against invisible units and you do not have detection

Skills + Items

Frost Blast

Simplified description: This is a skill which deals above average damage while slowing the as and ms of opponents. Use this skill to tax a chunk of hp of the enemy in early-mid game phase. DO NOT use this to harass when you put one point into this, as your skills use alot of mana and does not deal much damage. You will notice that the AoE part of the skill isn't used for the damage, but for the slow. Pretty decent for pushing creep waves. Arcane Boots is an item which i emphatically implore you to buy, as his mana pool is measly early game. It is also ideal as when you use Frost Blast on creeps, you realise a long bit of the blue bar is gone. Then you think, "No nws, got a friendly creep with full hp ready to be sacraficed". This pretty much negates the "pushing" factor. Thats why you can use the active bit on Arcane Boots to help you. It also helps your team to a great extent.

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Ice armor

Simplified description: Provides additional armor for any selected ally unit and which ever enemy unit attacks the friendly unit has its movement speed and attack speed slowed (effect is halved for ranged). I chose this skill at level 3 because during early game laning phase, the opposing lane support will attempt to harass your carry. Since the starting armor for most heroes is quite close to 0, it significantly eases the pain. Additionally, if the player harasses the carry, the player would be slowed by 15% (assuming the player is ranged). Therefore, since the average player ms is 300, the player will have a current ms of 255 + 50 (assuming the player has brown boots as it's pub and the support ALWAYS takes the last hits from the carry)= 305. You carry will have 350 ms. This creates an easy killing opportunity coupled with Frost Blast. Applying ice armor to creeps is not that ideal as they have low health after a one wave clash. Also a nice counter against melee gankers, namely Bloodseeker and Spirit Breaker, as you reduce their ms close to normal.

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Sacrifice

An important tip is to hand over the Observer Ward and Sentry Ward to your teammates, as you have to wait for the mid creeps to spawn then you can sacrafice one creep before going away. Many believe that Sentry Ward are not important early game, but they are. They pretty much determine who wins mid and who gets ganked, as your team can see who is coming and where the runes are, while your enemies cant as you dewarded (that is...if the enemy even DID ward). Use this skill whenever its off cd so you do not push too much.

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Chain Frost


Simplified description: You throw an uncontrollable bouncy snowball which does lots of damage. Can be a good skill, can be a trash skill. It all depends on the location. Its better to use your ultimate in the jungle or river, because once it bounces to a creep, it practical stays there... The bad side is that if you use Frost Blast one or two times with you ult, you are left with no mana. Luckily, if you followed my guide, you have more mana to CAST IT UP. Since this ultra giant snow ball moves at a relatively slow pace compared to other skills, enemies have time to react. The will attempt to run away from each other to prevent dem epic bounces. This is why you need a skill which brings then together such as Black Hole, Vacuum, Reverse Polarity, combined with a very good slow *hint hint*. A cool thing is that if Puck uses Phase Shift, it doesn't screw up the whole chain link thing, but instead jumps to another enemy. Another common misconception is that Tidehunter's ultimate Ravage is pretty damn useless if they weren't bunched up as it just stuns them....while doing damage (yes...his ult does damage though quite unnoticeable)

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For Core, the simple Cloak saves you from other nukers, especially Nyx Assassin, Lina and Zeus. Good and cheap for its price, and later upgraded to Pipe of Insight. Drums of Endurance provides moar ms to you and your allies, along with a little attack speed boost to increase your pushing capabilities slightly as well. Tanks you up quite well.

The Orb of Venom may seem as an insignificant item acting as a 4% slow, but it really helps in ganks and chases. Deducts 12 ms on the enemy (assuming the enemy has a base ms of 300).

Mekansm

In 90% of the time i play carry, and there is an epic team fight going on, the support forgets to use Mekansm, Thats why, as your role as support...is to actually use a mek. Thats all there is to say about that.

Its nice to have some wards every so often

Plant the wards at the location where there a eye looking symbols, namely to rune location. You can also plant wards where there are 3 or 4 lane "intersections" where enemies are more likely to travel through.

Good Guys and Bad Guys

Goody guys are guys who really help in initiation and guys who amplifies damage (or items) such as





Bad guys are guys (or items) who really screw up your gameplay and ultimate, or can escape really easily. Long silenced are a real pain as well.

Doom bringer

ARCH NEMESIS: BOSS BATTLE



All your skills compliment Rubick very nicely, as he can use ice armor to even the odds on the battlefield, sacrifice allows him to keep his mana high and since Chain Frost has a relatively slow cast animation, it is quite easy to steal.

I lost?!

If you lost...

you can analyse your gameplay to see if you did anything out of the ordinary which you shouldn't have done (such as stealing carry farm). After analyzing your mistake, play with Lich again.

If you lose again

Conclusion

I really hoped you actually read the guide and not only read the colorful parts :D

Let me know if there is anything which i need to adjust. I'll try to come online every so often. Thanks for reading :D