Radical Change to Lissandra
Lissandra is one of the champions I've grown to love in League, and to be honest, I think she's in a pretty good place. She has a strong kit and a niche that makes her unique compared to many other mages that are in the game. However a lot of players, myself included, feel like she could do just a bit better. Lissandra's passive has been the target for feel-good change by both players and RIOT members alike, with little headway being made to show. I propose a change inspired by players that would further carve Lissandra as being a unique and powerful champion in the game.
**Current passive; ** Iceborn: Lissandra's next ability periodically has no cost.
Iceborn's cooldown is reduced by 1 second every time Lissandra applies crowd control to an enemy with her abilities, excluding crowd control from spell effects. 18 second cooldown.
My thoughts Although very useful in the laning phase for putting a band-aid on her high-mana poking, this ability does nothing to translate into the late game. You could make the argument that her kit is strong enough by itself late game that she doesn't need a passive, which I think is true, but that just isn't fun. And this game is all about having fun. But in order for everyone to have fun, and not just the Liss player, the change has to put her at about the same balance point.
Proposed changes
-Base mana: 0 -Mana per level: 0 -Mana regen: 0 -Ice Shard: Mana cost 85 --> 50 -Iceborn: Cooldown reduced to 10 seconds -Now grants 5 permanent Black Ice Mana on unit kill, 10 on siege minion kill, and 25 on champion kills and assists. Lissandra will prioritize using regular mana over Black Ice Mana (Black Ice Mana will be visually shown as a much darker blue portion of the mana bar, as well as showing a tooltip in the passive for total mana gained). -After reaching 0 health, Lissandra does not die but loses all MR/Armor, cannot regenerate health, and is permanently slowed by 30%. Further damage is taken from her Black Ice Mana. When Lissandra reaches 0 Black Ice Mana, she then dies. Returning to base or using Frozen Tomb on self while at 0 health will remove the debuff and heal Lissandra the normal amount.
Now I know this is a pretty big change, but hear me out before raising your collective pitchforks. A mana champion that has no mana seems like a silly idea at first, but let me give a good explanation as to how this affects her identity and playstyle at various points of the game.
Early Game Lissandra becomes a much more conservative laner with this change. Mana is a precious resource, and her ability to CS will be crucial to her being able to use abilities and make up for her lack of normal mana. The large reduction in the passive will alleviate this issue somewhat, but efficiency will be crucial in order to make the most out of each ability cast. Buying early mana items will be a big help, and there are going to be new starting options between the new item The Dark Seal, which gives 100 mana right off the bat, as well as the corrupting potion which offers an effective 150 mana after csing for a bit. Of course this is assuming that these items make it to live in their current state, which is likely.
Late Game These changes are, obviously, more geared towards shifting Lissandra's power from the early to the late game. By this point, having a Tear or Rod of Ages will have solved most of the mana issues, and Lissandra should be feeling about the same as before. In exchange for her weaker early game, there is an added bonus that her passive mana brings. As a short range mage, Lissandra will often find herself in the middle of the chaos, relying on her powerful AoE damage and CC to soften up the team along with her ult/zhonya's to prevent being squished herself. Being able to dip into her mana pool for emergency health will give just a little bit more survivability and solidifies her unique ability to engage and fight within the middle of the enemy team.
In Conclusion
The above changes would not only make her passive feel more impactful throughout the entirety of the game, but also add a unique twist that fits well and couldn't really be pulled off by any other champion in the current roster. Of course, this is all a bit complex and might be difficult to balance, but it's a nice thought at least.
