Boards›Gameplay

Full tank Lissandra... Is it actually a thing?

Elindiir··5 votes·5,661 views

I have been playing around with Lissandra and her abilities, and while she doesn't have any innate tankiness, she has the kit of an initiating tank... Her gap-closer is better than most in initiating in that you have full control of where you will land, with a long distance. If you wanted, you could go behind the enemy group or right in the middle... You could even choose not to go in at all and bait out different abilities. Also, Lissandra has an AOE hard CC on a reasonable CD, as well as a multi-use ult that can be used either on herself to make her invulnerable and heal, or on an enemy to stun them, both of which doing large amounts of AOE damage, as well as slowing.

However, my worry is whether one can build her tanky enough early enough to initiate fights at midgame. Also, I do not quite know what the best route for tankiness is for her (other than the obvious spirit visage for her ult)...

11 Comments

Bonipherus2 votes

I tried it. It wasn't that good. I've had much more success with going tanky ap.

item 3027 item 3001 item 3157

Miror B2 votes

Not exactly sure it'd work with her needing some AP to avoid being 5.24 Nunu. If you wanted to try a semi-tank set though, frozen heart + spirit visage + 3 AP items could work quite well on her and give both cdr and raw stats.

Elindiir1 votes

What was 5.24 Nunu like?

Miror B1 votes

He had a ridiculously strong early game, but due to his kit having terrible cooldowns/ap ratios did literally nothing post 25mins.

Cerebral Absence2 votes

Why so many downvotes? +1 man, tried this out (Tank Lissandra jungle with Cinderhulk, Rod, Rylai's, Spirit Visage and Warmogs,...) and it worked pretty well :^) the early levels were though but after I finished Cinderhulk + 850g AP item (don't know the name :3) things were getting better and better :)

Elindiir1 votes

I like these comments, they are constructive! So, in general, moderate tankiness is good, but one question I also have is, can she be tanky enough to function as a teamfight initiator in the common situation that you are the midlaner in draft and nobody else picked tanks? All too often, I end up with an all squish AD comp without tanks and mages... All too often i see teams with 3 AD assassins and then my team wonders why we can't win teamfights when the enemy Rammus has 500+ armor and literally can not die....

Abyssphere1 votes

The whole point of Lissandra is that she initiates like a tank while also bursting the enemy team. This is why she has stasis on her ult - so that she can initiate and spread tons of damage without needing to build tanky.

If you build her tank then you miss out on her damage-dealing abilities and unlike true tanks, Lissandra doesn't get melee tank stats. On top of that, she hasn't got a single tank steroid. Stasis doesn't really count because it doesn't help her tank, it just makes her team focus other members for a while. The tl;dr here is that tank Lissandra will never really be a tank, so you're exchanging the ability to do damage for... being kind of capable of tanking. This exchange you're making is very iffy as is, but also restricts the amount of situations you can do stuff in - Lissandra is a team-reliant mage as it is, but in sacrificing all of her damage (her bases are just poor across the board), she forces herself to go everywhere with her team. In a small skirmish she just can't contribute the amount of damage needed to actually kill people with her CC if she builds tank and so you're basically locking yourself into only doing 5v5s with her.

I really do think AP carry is the best way to build her. If a team fight is going well then you aren't going to die with Zhonya's and the option to self-ult and if you're not going to die regardless then you're a lot more useful doing damage than not. If a team fight is going badly then no amount of tank items will save you so you're gonna die regardless and when doing 0 damage you're not gonna take anyone down with you. You have no chance of 1v1ing anyone ever as tank Liss (not that she tends to do that when build AP carry) either so in what situation are you more useful?

LordGeovanni1 votes

if people start playing her as a tank and riot allows the play style i garentee that riot will make her cooldowns longer cause they dont allow tanks to have low cd skills

Elindiir1 votes

Leona

LordGeovanni1 votes

ill say leona does have a low cd q but thats about it although it takes makes you have to get in range

ValyrianBlade1 votes

Why go full tank when you can be almost as tanky and still a huge damage threat?

item 3027 item 3157 item 3001 item 3116 item 3151 item 3111 just as an example.

I mean, sure, it's not as tanky as item 3065 item 3110 etc... would make her, but it offers a lot more of what she wants.

Although, Lissandra is probably best built primarily AP with selective tankiness: item 3027 item 3157 item 3001item 3020 item 3089 item 3135 (building Zhonya's or Abyssal early/late depending on what you need to mitigate).

I think the idea of going tanky would be something along the lines of: item 3027 item 3157 item 3020 - then see the situation really calls for a tank and finish item 3065 item 3110 item 3135 or something. It would never be a core build or a repeated build, just something to pull out when the situation calls for a very tanky team member.

More from Gameplay

3 Refunds per season, upvote if you want 3 refunds per season.
Gameplay764 comments
7,167
votes
3 Refunds per season, upvote if you want 3 refunds per season.
Gameplay156 comments
3,510
votes
UPVOTE FOR URF
Gameplay606 comments
2,440
votes
Yes plz.
Gameplay456 comments
1,721
votes
3 Refunds per season, up vote if you want 3 refunds per season.
Gameplay114 comments
1,716
votes
When is ANYONE at riot going to address the awful new player experience?
Gameplay634 comments
1,383
votes

More by Elindiir

That weak champion... That you fell in love with anyway...
Gameplay201 comments
28
votes
How do you discourage tankiness?
Gameplay70 comments
9
votes
@Riot: Why is ranked scoring directly based on Win/Loss? Why does it punish everyone for having AFK?
Player Behavior5 comments
5
votes
So, what assassin ISN'T unbalanced and overbearing?
Gameplay16 comments
4
votes
Cassiopeia+Singed bot lane... The anti-meta duo?
Gameplay23 comments
4
votes
Most healthy Assassins....
Gameplay24 comments
4
votes