Lissandra Needs a Gameplay Update/Tweaks
So I bought Lissandra on release and she was fun for a bit. Before the nerfs she was quite the threat with her initiation/ult combo. Now she can't really do that as well (except the new ult slow is a great step in right direction, albeit it still requires amazing team play to make use of). Lissandra is not a weak champ atm however I believe she is really flawed.
Thematically, she is a mess and honestly she has the potential to be way more fun and viable (right now I believe she isn't quite). Firstly, she is supposed to be a short ranged mage with a lot of CC and can kite well. To an extent, she is those things but it doesn't feel that way. 1. Her CC on paper looks like a lot but to do damage with Lissandra you have to burst all your spells and your short range doesn't really allow you to chain your CC all that well. If you can, you can do one rotation of Q-W-R-Q which is about 2-3 seconds of CC and that brings me to my next point...Cooldowns. Her W has a ridiculous cooldown for something that is essential to her kiting/damage. With that one rotation above, you do NOT have enough damage to kill anyone but maybe an ADC and only if you are slightly ahead/doing well. Once that rotation is done, you are left sitting on a bundle of CDs that even with max CDR, won't be back up in time to keep fighting (because you will be in such close quarters and have to evacuate). So basically you are going into range to stun/root combo and maybe chunk them a decent amount...Other champs can do this far better, from safety of range and have other tools of initiation. Let's compare TF since I had to play against him recently...Her has his ult for initiation, a stun on his W and damage on his Q and E and both his Q AND W have very, very short cooldowns which means in a regularly timed skirmish he can often get two whole rotations of his skills in. That is 2-4 seconds of stuns and way more damage than Liss can dish out in a skirmish. My point here is that his damage spells have both spammability, low cooldowns and strong CC while giving him the safety of range. Lissandra has mobility in her E but it is the slowest moving skill in the game and you can easily be CCd before you recast it to teleport. (I like the skill, it is fine and works for her kit, but it still is not a reliable skill to be safe like a medium-long range mage [ALSO, her move speed is abysmal). Here we see an abundance of weaknesses in her kit, but very little reward (initiation, teamfights, targetted CC - all of which are out done by other mages (Ori, Ziggs, Ryze) or junglers/top laners).
On top of her cooldowns and low damage - her build paths are weird. She requires full CDR to function well but also a lot of mana (her mana pool is terrible)/ mana regen to be able to spam her Q while also having to build somewhat tanky to be able to survive in short range. If you build this, you are getting very limited AP and not much damage. If you build AP, you are honestly - what feels like - one of the squishiest champions in the game.
So, what can change? Firstly, her passive should be less about lane sustain and more about skirmish sustain. I was once able to actually kite decently and spammed about 6-7 Qs and just when I finally had them low enough, I was going to ult-Q and get a triple but of course I ran out of mana. I am imagining something along the lines of a Cassiopeia passive on Lissandra (which would be fantastic). I also believe her W needs to be a more integral part of her kit - make it cost less mana and lower the cooldown so you can rotate your spells and kite properly (because beyond kiting for 3 seconds, Lissandra is a sitting duck and is forced to use her long-cooldown ultimate to survive). Maybe adjust the damage to compensate. These two things would make her much more enjoyable. As a mid lane main mage, having cooldowns that all fall together and can rotate/cycle just feels really satisfying and it also would let Lissandra properly fit her niche of being a short ranged kiting mage.
The most recent changes to her Q were a step in the right direction. Now you can cycle your spells better with more Q rotations. It feels great. More of this!
TL;DR Lissandra is an awkward champ that isn't as satisfying as she should be with oddly spaced cooldowns, low burst damage and clustered CC. Cooldown and mana changes to her W and a new passive to let her spam her skills would make her a much more interesting and fun champion. I would love to hear some feed back.
Oh yeah, and even with the initiate combo that people like to do (E-W-Q-R yourself), it feels very similar to Diana complex which means go in, do one thing, and be stuck there. Not very fun.
