Lissandra combos: cooldowns, costs and the order that matters
Ability-by-ability breakdown of Lissandra with real cooldowns and costs, the combo worth drilling, and why order changes the outcome.
Damage is a sequence, not a sum
Casting in the wrong order on Lissandra does not shave a little damage off — it frequently wastes an ability outright, because the setup lands after the payoff.
550 attack range means Lissandra wins by not being where the fight is. Spacing is the whole skill, not a detail of it.
The kit, with the real numbers
Iceborn Subjugation
When an enemy champion dies near Lissandra they become a Frozen Thrall. Frozen Thralls slow nearby enemies and then, after a delay, shatter from the intense cold, dealing magic damage to nearby targets.
Ice Shard
Throws a spear of ice that shatters when it hits an enemy, dealing magic damage and slowing Move Speed. Shards pass through the target, dealing the same damage to other enemies hit.
Ring of Frost
Freezes nearby enemies in ice, dealing magic damage and rooting them.
Glacial Path
Lissandra creates an ice claw that deals magic damage. Reactivating this ability transports Lissandra to the claw's current location.
Frozen Tomb
If cast on an enemy champion, the target is frozen solid, stunning it. If cast on Lissandra, she encases herself in dark ice, healing herself while becoming untargetable and invulnerable. Dark ice then emanates from the target dealing magic damage to enemies and slowing Move Speed.
Skill order, and how to reason about it
Take Frozen Tomb at levels 6, 11 and 16 — the ultimate is always worth the point it costs.
For the basic abilities, Glacial Path (E) gains the most from being ranked: its cooldown falls by 12 seconds between rank 1 and max, which is the largest improvement in the kit. That is the usual argument for maxing it first.
This is reasoning from the cooldown data, not a win-rate ranking — a matchup that punishes you can invert it.
- Q · Ice Shard — cooldown 7/6/5/4/3s, improving by 4s across its ranks
- W · Ring of Frost — cooldown 10/9.5/9/8.5/8s, improving by 2s across its ranks
- E · Glacial Path — cooldown 24/21/18/15/12s, improving by 12s across its ranks
Reading the cooldown column
Those cooldown figures are per rank, lowest first. The gap between the first and last number is the best argument for a skill order there is — an ability that drops sharply as you rank it earns those points; one that barely moves does not.
Lissandra is mana-gated, which is the real limit on how often you can contest a wave early.
Riot's own notes on playing Lissandra
These are the designers' words, not ours — the tips shipped in the client for Lissandra.
- You can instantly use your ultimate on yourself by pressing the self cast key and the ultimate key at once (alt+R by default).
- Casting Glacial Path and then running in the opposite direction will leave your enemies uncertain which way you will actually go.
- Lissandra's abilities are shorter range than those of many mages. As a result, buying items that offer both ability power and defense, like Zhonya's Hourglass and Banshee's Veil, can be a great choice to help her both survive and deal damage.
Drill it in practice tool
Practice tool has no MMR attached and lets you reset cooldowns on demand. Ten minutes there beats ten games of learning a sequence while somebody fights back.
What the stat line does between level 1 and 18
| Stat | Level 1 | Level 18 |
|---|---|---|
| Health | 620 | 2490 |
| Attack damage | 55 | 55 |
| Armour | 22 | 93.4 |
| Magic resist | 30 | 52.1 |
Movement speed 325 and attack range 550 do not grow with levels — they are the two numbers that stay true all game.
Full Lissandra page — abilities, stats and every skin →