Lich Guide by LeBron
Artist: keinhangia
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  • MID & LATE GAME
Author:
LeBron & Co.
Date: 02/2018
Tags:
text
Lich
Builds
Mechanics
Tactics
Analysis

Welcome

Welcome to Lebron's Book of Lich, a hero guide part of the Book of Dota series!

Here you will find all the information you need to learn to play Lich on a high level – from drafting and builds to the optimal playstyle in different lanes and situations. We hope you’ll enjoy this guide and find it useful!

Lebron Lich Stats
TL;DR:

Draft: Picking Lich at the beginning of the draft is not a bad choice as you will most likely be the hard support and you are hard to counter. That being said, it's a good idea to draft him with/against melee heroes. You can also pick him as a counter to a physical damage strat.

Early Game: Choose a lane which you want to dominate – supporting in the offlane is usually the best option if you have another lane supp, because this way you will slow down the development of the enemy carry and will provide your offlaner with a much better start. Supporting in the safe or mid lane, however, is also possible. Support your allies with Frost Shield when they want to be aggressive.

Mid & Late Game: After you’ve won the laning phase, communicate with your allies, be aggressive and try to take over the enemy territory together. Once done, ward their jungle and secret shop areas so that they are contained in their base. Tail your cores and once they are strong enough, force fights and try to break HG.

Authors

Nikola "LeBronDota" Popović
Endorsement & Info

LeBron is a professional Dota player currently playing support for EPG.

He rose to fame after finishing first in a season of the Faceit Pro League - a very impressive feat for a support player. Later he found success in various pro teams, including EPG and Na'Vi.

Nikolay "CTOMAHEH1" Kalchev
Info & Editing

CTOMAHEH1 started his pro career as a support in Basically Unknown together with Mind Control. Since then he has consistently been playing on the European T2 scene, most recently on Unchained Esports. 

His highest placement on the EU ladder is top 100 - he plays all roles (mainly support), which is untypical for high-ranking players and shows his great versatility and understanding of the game.

Rijad "Cookie" Sarajlic
Writing & Information

Rijad originally calibrated at 1k MMR when playing with a friend. When his friend quit Dota, he decided to git gud and in 1.5 years he was able to reach 5k MMR. Nowadays he is 6k and spends a lot of time writing guides and making educational streams on Twitch.

The one bad thing about him is that he spams Arc Warden (Shame!). Yet, who are we to judge when his methods are obviously so effective.

Kyril "MrNiceGuy" Kotashev
PM & Editing

Esports and gaming enthusiast since forever and founder of DotaHaven.

Has been playing Dota since 2005 (5.84). An Ancient I player in Dota 2.

Lich gonna have your momma!

Lich is an item independent hero who is absolutely great at controlling the lanes, which makes him one of the best lane supports and babysitters. Moreover, he has great combo potential with his ultimate and could impact fights greatly.

Lich Loadout
Stats
Level 1
Level 15
Level 25
STR
20
Low
49
Very Low
70
Medium
AGI
15
Low
43
Medium
63
Medium
INT
16
Low
66
Very High
102
Very High
Attack
42-51
Low
92-101
High
128-137
Very High
Armor
1.4
Low
5.88
Low
9.08
Medium
Resistance
26
Medium
27
Medium
28
Medium
HP
560
Medium
1026
Very Low
1369
Very Low
MP
315
High
1065
Very High
1605
Very High
MS
312
Very High
316
Very High
319
Very High
STRENGHTS

MAJOR:

Allows your teammates to Davai!
Frost Shield makes your teammates extremely tanky against right-clicks. That’s why Lich is a great pick versus high physical damage and armor reduction drafts. Moreover, it actively slows and damages enemies, making it easier for your allies to chase and even dive towers.

MINOR:

Control:
A spammable nuke with slow, an additional slow from Frost Shield, and a hard disable from Sinister Gaze.

Frozored!
His ultimate is unreliable, but with a proper combo has the potential to wipe the enemy team.

WEAKNESSES

MAJOR:

Mana Issues:
Lich is a lane dominator but has trouble using his full potential because his mana pool is low and his spells - expensive.

MINOR:

Broken ankles:
Despite having a decent base MS, Lich is an INT hero with zero mobility or elusiveness abilities, which makes him an easy target in fights.

Has your mother never thought you not to hit elderly, disabled people!?
On top of being slow, he is also squishy.

Replays

Team Liquid vs VGJ Thunder, Dota 2 Asia Championships 2018

(Pre 7.20)

MATCH ID 3813829086
Replay

Kuroky plays a position 5 Lich in a very good 5-man pushing draft by Liquid vs VGJT. The armor Lich provides works amazingly well with Lone Druid’s Bear and allows him to use it for high-ground pushing very early on. Moreover, the armor is amazing with TUskar, who wants to play very aggressively from early on and Underlord, who is going to be almost unkillable by physical damage when the armor buff is combined with his own damage reduction aura, high HP and defensive items. The smart strategy allows Liquid to claim a 25 minute victory because once they hit their push timing VGJT doesn’t have the required damage to stop them from taking their towers and base.

Notice how Kuro plays in the laning phase: he spends most of his time with his Lone Druid, who is the hero that needs farm the most in their draft. Nonetheless, Kuro manages to help out all three lanes at some point – e.g. the initial creep deny’s are extremely useful in the off and mid lanes.

Drafting

First, Lich is a super strong lane support: he can be paired with basically any melee core and he has the potential to dominate the lane.

Second, Lich is a great counter to physical damage drafts, especially with single-target cores. Frost Shield is a direct counter to any hero that wants to right-click a target down.

Third, Lich has great team-fight damage potential thanks to Chain Frost. It makes it much easier for him to realize this potential if he has allies with team fight control so that the enemy team cannot "delta-split" out of his ultimate (create distance from each other so that Chain Frost can't bounce). 

Pos 5 Safe Lane:

This is the standard lane for a position 5 support. This allows your carry to get free levels and farm while Lich harasses and pulls. Frost Shield gives you great defensive potential and makes it hard for enemy heroes to focus down your carry.

Pos 5 Offlane:

This is the preferred lane for a Lich. With a strong lane partner, you can play the lane very aggressively thanks to Frost Shield and hinder the farm of the enemy hard carry.

Pos 5 Mid Lane:

You can send Lich mid to babysit your midlaner. Chasing down heroes with Frost Shield is harder in this shorter lane, so you usually want to spam Frost Blast with a lot of mana sustain to have an impact in the early game.

Core Lich:

This is a very rare role for Lich but could work out based on the fact that he has talents that help him scale in the late game. Try to utilize his Frost Shield by playing him with aggressive supports (Spirit Breaker, Earth Spirit, etc.). The only difference is that he takes the farm.

Synergy

Good friends to have are:

Melee Cores: AM, PA, Ursa, Spect, Doom, PL, etc.

Anti mage
Phantom Assassin
Ursa Portrait
Spectre Portrait
Doom
Phantom Lancer

Lich can be paired with any melee farmer thanks to Frost Shield. The offensive capabilities of the spell make it easier for your core to stick to a target in the early game. The defensive - to take a favorable trade in exchanges. The best partners early on are cores who can easily get in range of the enemy (AM, PA, PL) or deal high amounts of damage (Ursa, Jugg). In the late game, Frost Shield is great for cores vulnerable mainly to physical damage because of low armor (AM is a great example because of his spell shield already protects him from spells).

Strong offlaners (that can kill): AXE, Doom, Clock, Brew

Axe Portrait
Doom
Clockwerk
Brewmaster

The offlane is probably the best place to put a Lich. Having a strong offlaner allows you to dive the enemy’s towers as early as levels 3-5 thanks to Frost Shield.

Heroes with AOE CC: Titan, Magnus, Enigma, Puck

Elder titan
Magnus Portrait
Enigma Portrait
Puck Portrait
Dark Seer

When mentioning Lich’s midgame, it is impossible not to talk about his incredible team-fighting ability in closed areas. For a support, his ultimate does a huge amount of damage - all he needs is someone to set him up.

Counters

Strong Against:

Heroes/lineups that group up: Enigma, Meepo, CK, Beast, Terror

Enigma Portrait
Meepo
Chaos Knight
Beastmaster
Terrorblade

His ultimate forces people to stay away from each other, these heroes simply can’t. This also goes for any lineup that wants to simply show up on a lane as 5 and start pushing/fighting.

Physical damage, amror reduction, single target damage dealers:

Ursa Portrait
Troll Warlord
Phantom Assassin
Legion commander
Slardar Portrait
Templar Assassin

Frost Shield is strongest versus melee carries like the ones above because it makes them easier to kite and reduces their damage output greatly.

Weak Against:

Strong Lanes: Broodmother, NP, Clinkz, Weaver, Pugna, AM, Tinker

Broodmother Portrait
Nature's Prophet Portrait
Clinkz Portrait
Weaver
Pugna
Anti mage
Tinker

In general, Lich is a lane bully and he’s very laning/early game dependent. Strong laners that don't care about his Frost Shield (mobile, long range, etc.) are direct counters to him in the lane and could reduce his impact greatly. Magic damage dealers like Pugna and Tinker also counter him in the mid-late stages of the game because Frost Shield doesn't protect against their damage.

Items: BKB, Force staff, Lotus, Glimmer, Pipe, Blademail

Black King Bar
Force staff
Lotus Orb
Glimmer Cape
Pipe
Blade Mail

One problem with Lich is that his ultimate is countered by various items, which makes it hard to use efficiently in mid-late game fights.

Skills

Lich Frost Blast
Lich Frost Shield
Sinister Gaze
Lich Chain Frost

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.

STATS

Cast Animation: 0.4+0.93

Cast Range: 600

Effect Radius: 200

Primary Damage: 50/100/150/200

Area Damage: 75/100/125/150

Move Speed Slow: 30%

Attack Speed Slow: -30

Slow Duration: 4

CD: 7

Mana: 105/130/155/180

Frost Blast

Mechanics:

  • The primary target takes the primary damage AND the area damage.
  • Has a long cast backswing. You might want to cancel it right after casting the spell so you can get in more right-clicks on your target.

Uses and Tips:

Frost Blast is a very straightforward nuke with a short slow debuff. It is relatively mana intensive, but this is compensated by your ability to recharge your mana through Sacrifice. This allows you to use it to harass a lot in the laning phase.

Of course, as it is your main source of damage in the early game, you also use it for kill attempts. The low CD means you can even use it twice in the side lanes to secure a kill – make sure you have enough mana before you attempt to do this.

Applies a magical frost shield around you, reducing damage from attacks against you. While the shield is active, ice magic will be affecting nearby enemy units every 1 second, doing minor damage and slowing.

STATS

Cast Animation: 0.2+0.93

Cast Range: 1000

Pulses Radius: 600

Attack Damage Resistance: 30%/40%/50%/60%

Pulse Interval: 1

Pulse Damage: 20/30/40/50

Pulse Movement Speed Slow: 20%/25%/30%/35%

Pulse Slow Duration: 0.5

Shield Duration: 6

CD: 30/25/20/15

Mana: 100/110/120/130

Frost Shield

Mechanics:

  • The buffed ally gains resistance against attack damage. It does not gain physical damage resistance.
  • Can be cast on buildings

Offensive Use:

Don't forget that Frost Shield damages and slows nearby enemies with each pulse. If you have an ally that can get on top of an enemy hero, this makes Frost Shield your strongest offensive ability in the lane. In such situations, it's a great idea to max it.

Naturally, since Frost Shield works in an AoE, it's harder to utilize it on ranged allies that have trouble closing the gap.

Defensive Use:

Defensively, Frost Shield is quite straightforward - it reduces right-click damage, so use it on an ally that is getting focused with attacks. The spell is extremely strong against enemies that love to commit on a single target like Ursa, Legion Commander, and PA.

Hypnotizes an enemy unit, causing it to move towards a point between the two of you.

STATS

Cast Animation: 0+0

Cast Range: 500/525/550/575

Distance Moved: 32%/38%/44%/50%

Duration: 1.6/1.9/2.2/2.5

CD: 30

Mana: 120/130/140/150

Sinister Gaze

Mechanics:

  • The targeted unit will move directly towards Lich regardless of impassable terrain

Uses and Tips:

Sinnister Gaze is a relatively straightforward disable, but is also arguably the hardest spell to fit into Liches arsenal.

It is great for holding a target down while your allies kill it, for canceling TPs and for preventing an enemy from moving out of Chain Frost range in time.

Yet, with Lich you usually want to stay at a safe distance behind your allies, which makes the spell hard to use with it's relatively short cast range and long duration which will keep you out of position for a while. Moving a dangerous enemy towards you is also sometimes a risky thing to do.

Releases an orb of frost that bounces between nearby enemy units up to 10 times, slowing and damaging each time it hits.

STATS

Cast Animation: 0.3

Cast Range: 750

Bounce Distance: 600

Number of Bounces: 10

Bounce Delay: 0.2

Damage: 300/400/500

Move Speed Slow: 65%

Attack Speed Slow: 65

Slow Duration: 2.5

CD: 100/80/60

Mana: 200/325/500

Aghanim's Scepter

Increases damage and casting range. Removes the limit on the number of times Chain Frost can jump.

Chain Frost

Mechanics:

  • Cannot bounce to units out of vision (in the fog or invisible), but the AoE can damage them.
  • The projectile has flying vision, but the vision is not provided during the 0.2sec bounce delay.
  • Because of the AoE damage and the quick bounces, it deals the most damage on units that are clumped up.

Uses and Tips:

Don’t look for the perfect situation: in most games 10-bounce Chain Frosts are unrealistic and you’d be more effective if you use it every time you see two or three heroes relatively close to each other. In the best case scenario (if they get disabled) you will deal a lot of damage to them. In the worst case scenario, you will force them to split-up, which might give your teammates the opportunity to quickly finish off one of the targets while the others cannot help.

Be patient if you expect units to clump up: however, if you are relatively certain that you will give a good opportunity to use Chain Frost to its full efficiency – e.g. you have setup from Enigma, Magnus, Dark Seer or you are playing against CK, Meepo, etc., it pays to be more patient and wait for a good opportunity. Usually, this means following up on the counter-initiation of your ally with control.

Use for single heroes: in the early game, clumped-up fights happen less often. The damage and slow of Chain Frost are significant, which means it’s OK to use it on a single target if you think it will help you secure the kill. Using it when the target is close to creeps can net you a lucky bounce.

Lich Skill Builds

Standard Build
Lich Frost Shield
1
Lich Frost Blast
2
Lich Frost Shield
3
Lich Frost Blast
4
Lich Frost Shield
5
Lich Chain Frost
6
Lich Frost Shield
7
Sinister Gaze
8
Sinister Gaze
9
Talent Icon
10
Sinister Gaze
11
Lich Chain Frost
12
Sinister Gaze
13
Lich Frost Blast
14
Talent Icon
15
Lich Frost Blast
16
Lich Chain Frost
18
Talent Icon
20
Talent Icon
25
Pros: maxed-out shield for harass and defense; decent nuke damage in the lane;
Cons: no hard disable in the lane; not maxed-out nuke damage later on;

Frost Shield is your top priority because with the right lane partner it helps you win your lane the most AND it is your main defensive mechanism.

You get two levels of Frost Blast for harass and kill attempts in the lane, but max it last because it's not that impactful in fights after the laning stage.

You max Sinneister Gaze second (after Shield) to be able to provide your cores with some hard disable. If needed, you can get a value point in Gaze on lvl4 to interrupt enemy TPs.

If you would have trouble using Frost Shield in the lane (e.g. you have a ranged ally that cannot close the gap), you can get a couple more points in Frost Blast instead to help you harass your lane opponents more efficiently.

Talents

Attacks Apply 50% MS and AS Slow

25

Frost Shield Provides +60 HP Regen

+2s Frost Shield Duration

20

+150 Cast Range

-4s Frost Blast Cooldown

15
+120 Damage

+20 Movement Speed

10

+200 HP

Lvl10: Lich is super squishy, the +200 HP talent helps fix that.

Lvl15: The Frost Blast is the logical choice for a position 5 spell-caster that wants to be positioned defensively in fights rather than right-clicking at a target, which can easily get you killed. Nonetheless, if your team is snowballing or you’re playing a core Lich, the +120 damage is the go-to talent, because the damage buff is huge and increases your damage impact a lot.

Lvl20: Both options are viable. Get the Shield duration if you have an ally that benefits from the shield a lot. Otherwise, the cast range is more versatile because it helps you position yourself more defensively in fights.

Lvl25: The huge HP regen is amazing, because not only does it work on heroes, but on towers as well. The AS/MS slow (the so-called free Skadi) is only useful if you are playing a rich core Lich with right-click items and the damage talent (which is a very fun build, but not really competitive and in the guide we focus more on the pos. 5 Lich).

Standard Support Lich Item Build

Since Lich is incredibly item independent, his item choices are entirely team-centric. All traditional support items fit Lich quite well.

Starting Items
Animal Courier
Tangoes
Clarity
Wards Icon
Early Game
Tranquil Boots
Magic wand
Mid Game
Glimmer Cape
Force staff
Late Game
Lotus Orb
Scythe of Vyse
Animal Courier
Tangoes
Clarity

Clarities: You can skip Clarities, but if you have them you will be able to be even more liberal with your Blast spam.

Wards Icon
Tranquil Boots

Tranquil Boots: Boots of choice for support Lich, cheap and provide great MS and HP sustain.

Magic wand

Magic Wand: His spells cost a lot of mana, and he’s very squishy

Glimmer Cape

Glimmer: Helps with his squishiness, but more importantly a method to keep your cores alive.

Force staff

Force: Since he lacks mobility, this item helps with that, but also make sure to not just widely use it as your cores might need to be saved.

Lotus Orb

Lotus: Great against single target abilities, use it on your cores rather than yourself.

Scythe of Vyse

Hex: Since he lacks any disables, this is a very helpful item in the late game, if you can ever afford it.

Core Lich Item Build

If you are playing a solo Lich and your team needs more damage rather than utility items, you can go for this build, which utilizes the +DMG talent and the lvl25 slow talent to their full potential.

You want to get a Midas ASAP – you need both levels and gold, and you are terrible at farming without the help of items. The Force afterwards is needed for the early-mid game: without it you will not be useful enough since you still don’t deal right-click damage and you need some escape mechanism. Maelstrom helps you increase your farm even more, and Hurricane allows you to start right-clicking enemy heroes and kiting them more easily combined with your slows. In the late game you upgrade your Maelstrom and go for other damage choices, but beware that you will most probably need a BKB to keep right-clicking in team fights at some point.

Starting Items
Wind lace
Tangoes
Mango
Iron branch
Iron branch
Early Game
Boots of Speed
Magic wand
Hand of Midas
Power Treads intelligence
Mid Game
Force staff
Maelstorm
Hurricane Pike
Late Game
Mjollnir_icon
Black King Bar
Daedalus
Wind lace
Tangoes
Mango
Iron branch
Iron branch
Boots of Speed
Magic wand
Hand of Midas

Midas: Midas is core for this build because you need a lot of resources and you are terrible at farming, so it is your only real choice. Moreover, the attack speed is great combined with your high DMG talent.

Power Treads intelligence

Power Treads: Tread switching to INT is nice for using your Blast, especially for farming. The attack speed synergizes with the DMG talent and having them on STR will make you a bit tanker in fights.

Force staff

Force Staff: You need the utility as fast as possible to help your teammates – you are not a damage dealer yet. Moreover, you need Force anyway for Hurricane.

Maelstorm

Maelstrom: While Midas is great for GPM and XPM, Maelstrom helps you to start out-pushing lanes and farming for real. Moreover, it increases your right-click DPS.

Hurricane Pike

Hurricane Pike: Since you don’t want to man-fight heroes, the attack range is vital. The active is great for kiting your targets, since you already have great slows.

Mjollnir_icon

Mjollnir: Your talent gives you + DMG, but you need attack speed, so upgrading your Maelstrom to Mjollnir makes perfect sense.

Black King Bar

BKB: In a perfect world you would never get it and you will hit from a safe distance while kiting your enemies with Hurricane. Nonetheless, in most games heroes can jump on you with Blink, disable you and kill you off since you are squishy. To prevent this from happening you need BKB – it gives you the time to finish-off your right-click target.

Daedalus

Daedalus: The later the game goes, the more serious right-click damage you want to deal. Daedalus is the best DPS increase, but you can also go for MKB if you are playing against evasion or Bloodthorn if you are feeling rich and your opponents are elusive.

Other Items

Early & Mid Game
Infused Raindrop
Spirit Vessel
Solar Crest Icon
Ghost Scepter
Late Game
Aeon Disk
Heaven's_Halberd_icon
Aghanim's_Scepter_icon
Infused Raindrop

Infused Raindrop: since you are very squishy, Raindrops can help you survive some nukes.

Spirit Vessel

Spirit vessel: Great heal, only gotten instead of Mek if the enemy has Blink Dagger/regen dependent heroes.

Solar Crest Icon

Solar Chrest: To help with taking Roshan, but more importantly combined with your 2nd ability it makes your cores ridiculously tanky vs physical damage and allows them to siege HG very early on.

Ghost Scepter

Ghost scepter: If the enemy has physical damage cores that can jump on you; way cheaper than Halberd.

Aeon Disk

Aeon Disk: Applies a strong purge, and stops your HP from dropping below 80% which can give you more time to cast some spells if you are playing against heroes that can easily get to you and nuke oyu down (PA, TA, Slark, etc.).

Heaven's_Halberd_icon

Halberd: Rather than saving yourself with a ghost, you could disable the enemy carry's ability to hit anyone on your team.

Aghanim's_Scepter_icon

Aghs: Usually only gotten against heroes that really group up (Meepo, CK), otherwise, items that help your teammates are way more useful (Glimmer, Force, Medallion etc.) 

Early Game

Lich 350px

The early game is where Lich shines. This time should not be wasted, your early game should be planned out.


At the start of the game, depending on the lane, you will spend most of your time: harassing/zoning, stacking, pulling, grabbing runes.

Harassing & Zoning:

His Frost Blast has a very short cooldown, which allows him to spam it. His 1st ability costs a lot of mana - this is why if you intend to use it a lot you usually need Clarities or Mangos. The slow on your Q is 30% - makes it super easy to chase someone down with right clicks after you chip them away with the nuke.

Frost Shield provides a slow which allows you and your ally to right-click at a target, but it also provides attack damage protection, which makes it very hard for your opponents to fight back. Make sure you are positioned behind your ally so that enemies don't just turn and focus you.

Surviving:

Your Frost Shield can increase your survival potential, but Lich is a super slow and squishy hero nonetheless. If the enemies jump on you, then you’re almost guaranteed to die. Make sure that you position yourself in such a way that they’ll never get the chance to.

Kill Potential:

By himself, Lich has almost no kill potential up until he gets his ultimate. He works as the setup slow that allows his teammates to catch up and follow up his damage to secure the kill.

When it comes to killing people in the lane Lich contributes with the damage from his Frost Blast and Frost Shield and some attacks. A value point in Sinister Gaze could be used to stop TPs.

Once you get your LVL 6 it becomes easier to kill anyone: your first ability does a 30% slow, and your ult does a 65% slow. Make sure that the enemy is close to a creep wave or to some teammate and just simply throw both abilities at them. 

Stacking & Pulling:

In the safe lane most of the time pulling will be your job; after harassing out the enemy offlaner your carry wants some solo levels. You can now start pulling the easy camp and chaining the hard camp into it. This lets you get your own farm/levels without leeching from your carry.

Rotations:

Lich is a hero that usually doesn’t do rotations around the map: he likes to stick in 1 lane till he owns it, but like any support, it is KEY to keep a TP scroll to counter-gank if they dive your teammates on another lane. Frost Shield and possibly Chain Frost are very powerful abilities.

Support Lich

Harass & zone out the enemy farmer if you can
Protect your core against aggression
Stack camps and control the runes
Video Example:

(pre 7.20)

He goes for the standard item build: courier, 2x wards; but instead of a Clarity, he gets a Sentry. He passes 1 ward to the other support and uses the other ward to place it in his offlane and the Sentry - to block the enemy easy camp. His teammates manage to find a Rubick in the trees and get the first blood before rune. After the rune spawns, his mid laner gets the rune while he goes ahead and goes to eat a creep in his lane (offlane) and proceeds to block the wave.

Enemies managed to spot him place both of his wards, but that is fine as they had to expend 200g on a lane they’re guaranteed to lose.

His roamer (Tusk) starts off in his lane with him and PL. This allows them to secure a couple of kills on the enemy safe-laners, but they did die a couple of times themselves. Their PL didn’t, though, and got all the kills, meaning he’ll be highly leveled and farmed compare to the enemies.

At 4 minutes he makes a smoke rotation into the mid lane with Tusk. Even though their smoke gets broken, the OD was able to Astral the Sniper and that was an easy free kill for them.

He then attempts to continue off and make a rotation towards the top lane, but they run through vision and enemy spots their rotation and ends up killing him.

They end up losing the Top lane tower, but since the PL has free farm, his team was able to take the space and take the bot lane tower instead.

His mid game starts quite early because he has a DK on his team who can take towers whenever his ult is off CD. This allows them to get control of the enemy safe lane and mid lane areas.

Core Lich

Harass & zone out the enemy farmer if you can
Deny & last hit
Playstyle:

Core Lich has a very similar playstyle to a support Lich in the lane, with the difference that he takes the farm to be able to scale later on with the help of his talents. Make sure you have an aggressive lane partner like Spirit Breaker, Earth Spirit, Slardar, etc., to be able to utilize Frost Shield and win your lane.

Mid & Late Game

Lich Immortal 350px

Mid game as a Lich should be spent on placing wards and controlling the map with said wards. Your job is to make sure that the advantage you created/disadvantage your enemies have stays the same. Enemies don’t get to farm = your cores free-farm. 


Shadow your aggressive cores - protect them with Frost Shield and help them in their aggression. Contribute in team-fights - a well-timed Chain Frost can turn an engagement around.

Keep wards up and tail your cores;
Gank/pick-off with your allies;
Team fight with your allies and claim objectives;
Comeback Potential:

Relatively low, but your playstyle doesn't change at all - you are resource independent anyway. Your hope is saving your cores with Frost Shield/Glimmer/Force/Mek and that they’ll win the game for you. A well-timed Chan Frost can also help a lot.

Team Fights:

Chain Frost

Your ultimate should be used whenever it’s off cooldown. Tell your teammates that you have your ult and try to find a kill. If given a choice, always go for the enemy carry/mid laner as they’re the backbone of their team. If those can’t get farm then the rest are simply useless.

Your ultimate excels at taking fights at closed/small areas like the Ancient camps, Rosh, base ramp, etc. This way your Chain Frost will be able to bounce multiple times and enemies will not be able to spread-out quickly enough.

If a team fight happens, you should not wait for the perfect situation in an attempt to get a million dollar, 5 men, 10 bounce ult. Rather, simply throw it in the first targets you see who are close to each other. Hitting 2-3 targets with your ultimate are usually more than enough and perfect situations are extremely rare. If you have teammates wiht good lockdown, however, (Mag, Dark Seer, Enigma, etc.), patiently wait for them and do the combo.

Frost Shield & Blast

Most of the time you’re best off simply diving in and out of the fight whenever your Frost Shield and Blast are off CD.  This will help you stay alive for as long as possible during the engagement and have a higher impact overall.

Don't be too conservative with Frost Shield - throw it on your frontline hero right when he jumps into the fight to help him stay healthy. Only save it when you are trying to counter speciffic enemy heroes (Ursa, Legion, PA) - wait for them to focus someone and use Shield.

Sinister Gaze

Be very patient with Gaze. It has low range, so using it too early will most likely get you killed. Stay at a safe distance at the beginning/middle of the fight. Go in with Sinister Gaze only when you know enemies won't be able to easily focus you down (e.g. to prevent enemies from running away).

Video Example:

(pre  7.20)

A position 5 Lich is very often the poorest hero in the game and as a result – the easiest kill. In this example, you can see how Kuro positions himself behind his teammates and waits patiently to use his skills instead of rushing in right as the fight starts. When Lycan flanks his team in an attempt to kill him, he has his Chain Frost and Nova to fight back. Surviving this situation allows Kuro to keep using his defensive skills on his teammates, which helps them to continue pushing and to win the game.

Pushing:

5-man pushing:

When it comes to pushing with Lich, you should always be sitting in the backlines prepared to use Frost Shield on your pushing cores when enemies decide to initiate.

If your opponents jump on your pusher this will give you a good opportunity to use Chain Frost.

Split-Pushing:

You cannot split-push, but you can push-out the lane by Blasting the enemy wave and putting Frost Shield on your first melee creep.