Table Of Contents

1. Story
2. Introduction
3. Info and Stats
4. Skill Explanation
5. Skill Build
6. Item Build
7. Strategy
8. Hero Synergy
9. Replays
10. Others
11. Conclusion
12. Credits

I. Hero's Story

Forcibly raised from the dead by the Lich King to serve as his elite magical guard, the Lich has the burning cold of Northrend in his realm of control. Evoking numerous freezing blasts, his talent in life still remains in death. Delving into the essence of cold magic, he has the power to cause ice to condense into an orb that bounces from foe to foe, causing tremendous pain in its wake. Sacrificing his allies for magical power, the Lich is a murderer without a trace of warmth.

2. Introduction

Lich, probably the babysitter/support/hard lane solo in the game. This versatility makes him insta firstpick for most teams.

When to Pick

- When your team needs mid game damage
- When your team needs an offensive babysitter
- Anytime

When not to Pick

- When your team lacks ganking power. Hes not the best roamer out there and does much better laning.
- When you team is filled with fragile int and agi heroes
- When enemy teams goes for mass summons push strat.

3. Info And Stats

Basic Hero information found here: Kel'Thuzad, Lich

4. Skill Explanation

Frost Nova

Blasts enemy units around a target enemy unit with a wave of damaging frost that slows movement and attack rates for 4 seconds.
Level 1 - Deals 50 to the target damage and 75 AoE damage.
Level 2 - Deals 100 to the target damage and 100 AoE damage.
Level 3 - Deals 125 to the target damage and 125 AoE damage.
Level 4 - Deals 175 to the target damage and 150 AoE damage.
� Damage type: magical
� Frost slows movement speed by 30% and attack speed by 20%.
� Casting range: 600
� Area of Effect: 200
Mana Cost: 125/150/170/190
Cooldown: 9.25/9.25/9.25/8

Lich's primary harassing spell at early game, as well as killing spell.Nova's slow can also save your allies and let you do an additional 2-3 attacks from max range. You basically spam nova then dark ritual your creeps.

Frost Armor

Creates a shield of frost around a target friendly unit. The shield adds armor and slows attacking melee units for 2seconds. Lasts 40 seconds.
Level 1 - Adds 3 armor.
Level 2 - Adds 6 armor.
Level 3 - Adds 9 armor.
Level 4 - Adds 12 armor.
� Frost slows movement speed by 30% and attack speed by 20%.
� If autocast is activated, the Lich will cast this spell on nearby allies who are attacked.
� Casting range: 800
Mana Cost: 25
Cooldown: 5

Best used against roshan and melee dpsers. Nothing much to say, pretty spammable.

Dark Ritual

Sacrifices a target friendly unit to convert its hit points into mana.
Level 1 - Converts 15% of the current HP of the creep to mana.
Level 2 - Converts 30% of the current HP of the creep to mana.
Level 3 - Converts 45% of the current HP of the creep to mana.
Level 4 - Converts 60% of the current HP of the creep to mana.
� Enemy heroes get no experience from creeps killed with Dark Ritual.
Casting range: 400
Mana Cost: 25
Cooldown: 35/30/25/20

This skill satisfies Lich's early game mana problems, makes constant spamming for Frost Nova like no problem. This skill made Lich permapick or permafirstpick in competitive games.(due to the buff, 2years ago Ritual's cd was 55/50/45/40). Even tards should know when to use this.

Chain Frost

Releases a jumping breath of frost that jumps 7 times.
Level 1 - Deals 280 damage per jump, 370 damage with Aghanim's Scepter.
Level 2 - Deals 370 damage per jump, 460 damage with Aghanim's Scepter.
Level 3 - Deals 460 damage per jump, 550 damage with Aghanim's Scepter.
� Damage type: magical
� Frost slows movement speed by 30% and attack speed by 20%.
� The first target of this skill is ministuned.
� Casting range: 750
� Area of Effect: 600
Mana Cost: 200/325/500
Cooldown: 145/115/60

Best used against 2-3 heroes because it wont do that much damage if you cast this vs 5 enemies, without surrounding creeps/summons. Too hard to get all 7 bounces hit heroes, dont get too disappointed, 3-5 bounces at hero should be fine. Gives "Flying vision"(visit this link). tl;dr DWS21 - SMM again, HFGL update, Vision, and Riddle hints! - YouTube @ 5:05

5. Skill Build

1. Frost Nova/Frost Armor/Dark Ritual
2. Frost Nova
3. Frost Nova
4. Dark Ritual
5. Frost Nova
6. Chain Frost
7. Frost Nova
8. Dark Ritual
9. Dark Ritual
10. Frost Armor
11. Chain Frost
12. Frost Armor
13. Frost Armor
14. Frost Armor
15. Stats
16. Chain Frost
17. Stats

Any skill could be useful at lvl 1. Frost Nova is the option at level 1 if your team plans to gank with lich, although most of the time no. Dark Ritual is the best choice at level 1. Frost Nova wont do much damage anyway, plus the fact that you already denied 1 creep before they even hit your creeps is just gay. Frost Armor should only be gotten at lvl 1 5 man roshan attempts.

Nova should be maxed first at level 7, followed by Ritual at level 9(i said earlier that i personally leave ritual at level 3 and skill frost armor but your choice) and ulti whenever possible.

6. Item Build

Early Game Items

Start with a Chicken or a pair of Wards, Salve and the rest is GG Branches.I personally prefer Chicken/Ward + Salve + 4 GG branches, lich is the only support that does not need clarities. Later on, buy Ring of Regen and then later complete Headress. Bracers gives stats and can be upgraded to a janggo later on. Special mention would be Boots + Tango if soloing a Trilane because thats what the Chinese do.

Core Items

Upgrade your chick into Courier, it provide better mobility and faster delivery. Lich doesnt really need null talisman, Dark Ritual solves his problem in mana. Wand is one of the most powerful and useful low-tier item in dota, it also makes use of the shittons of branches you bought as starting item. Upgrade your bracers to a Janggo if no one in your team got it also your headdress to Mekansm, gives you overall nc stats and a Aoe heal. Lich is one of common wielders of meka in competitive games because of the mana gaining ability.Dont forget to buy wards/blue wards/dust and whatever your team needs. Urn is also good but get it if no one buys it.

After Core

After u got Meka, Janggo boots basically you can just buy anything. Wards/Blue Ward/Dust/Force Staff/Mass Bracers/Veil/NecroBook and High Tier items like Guinsoo, Shivas, HoT. DPS items is obviously rejected.

7. Strategy

Nothing much to be said here. Deny using dark ritual at lvl 1, Spam Nova then Ritual. In laning, focus on denies. Lich got some nice stats/animation so no reason to get <10 denies not counting Ritual denies. Chain Frost whenever youre dying but not in the obviously worst situation, long cooldown is long so you might wanna save it and wait for respawn.

Additional Strategy

Roshan at Level 1

Line up of Lich/Syllabear +3 heroes(not random heroes of course, something that has summons and stuff) can take down roshan at lvl 1 even without items. Lich uses frost armor on syllabear's bear and then let bear tank and the rest auto attack. The reason why teams kill roshan at level is simple: he got less hitpoints, attack, and is weaker, it ensures a sure level 2 on all 5 players and an aegis OR Insta Level 5 too a hero(allies should leave out of EXP range).

Warding

Lich's item-independence makes him a candidate for warding. For guide in warding, refer here: [Warding]The Eyes of the Wolf by Lycan

Basic Knowledge

1. Tower Hugging. By last hitting efficiently, you can control the aggressiveness of the creep waves. Auto-attacking all the time will hasten your creep advance. This means your creeps will get to the opposition towers EARLIER therefore, dying faster and you not gaining EXP has quickly as you could have. Ritual + denies ensures good creep equilibrium

2. Harassing. The mana generated through your denying with DARK RITUAL + FROST NOVA and your occasional attack(A)-clicks on the enemy, over time, you can force them to return to the base, denying them tomoney, EXP and the ability to do the same to you.

3. Call missing heroes.(from all lanes) That's what a good babysitter is for.

8. Hero Synergy

Allies

Lich benefit from heroes with Mass Aoe positioning skillls like Dark Seer and Magnus. Compressing them and then possibly killing creeps makes enemies easy prey. Lich also benefit from AoE Disablers. Who doesnt benefit from them? Lich ensures the hardcarry farms under their tower. Lich is also the best hero paired with a hardcarry in the trending Dual-lane mid.

Enemies

Clones/Illusion makers such as Slithice, Phantom Lancer and Dark Seer makes Chain Frost weaker, and uneffective, Chen also counters lich for the same reason. Lich is fragile, nukers like Lina can kill him like one-two-three pwn. Panda, when critical, splits into OMGWTF panda and that is hard to kill even using ulti, even when you killled those 3 pandas, it counts as a suicide. Hardcarry's gonna instagib lich later so might as well add them to enemies

9. Replays

Nah, you would fine tons of them at GGnet. Youll see every Lich is similarly played by pro teams.

10. Others

Tower Attack Cycling

One way to stop the tower from attacking you is to press "A" key, (attack command) then left click on an ally creep that is full or close to full hp as if denying. This is useful to know if you like to dive towers. The tower will "cycle" pass you and start attacking another unit.

Animation Cancelling

Learn more about animations here:

Animations - Learn DotA

Newbie Guides:

Purge's Inclusive Guide for Noobs - DotA Guides
Improving Yourself - DotA Guides

11. Conclusion

So this is the end, thanks for reading my Lich guide. Lich will still reign as a TOP pick at competitive games and will be one of best heroes to start with in playing Dota. As same as int-based casters, he excels at early game but not that effective at late game as on early game. Lich is a murderer without a trace of warmth.

12. Credits

Credits to: All the guys who helped me with this guide 2 yrs ago, shoutout to PDPH

Kel'thuzad the Lich
Author: FlamingFist
Map Vers.: 6.72f

Without a Trace of Warmth

Date Posted: 12/19/09
Last Comment:06/11/2011
Total Votes: 84
Current Rating: 8.59
Views: 232439