Lich

An 11.1% pick rate at 52.6% win rate makes Lich one of the more efficient support picks in the current patch, and Chain Frost is the reason he punishes grouped enemies so hard — a bouncing orb that hits harder with every subsequent bounce turns a clustered fight into a near-guaranteed wipe. The read most new players miss is that Sacrifice starts the game on cooldown with no charges, so the first cast isn't available until the two-minute mark — planning around that delay matters for early lane mana management. Below is the current 7.41e patch, the build that leans into the frost-and-sacrifice identity, and the picks that make it much harder to use.

Role and Position Lich Plays

Lich is overwhelmingly a support: 66.0% of his games are hard support and 31.9% support, with almost no appearances elsewhere.

When to pick Lich:

• your team wants a hero with strong bouncing AoE damage that punishes clustered enemy formations;
• the draft benefits from Sacrifice's flexible mana-and-experience economy for the lane;
• the game plan rewards patient positioning over immediate, reactive plays.

When to skip him:

• the enemy has strong ways to avoid grouping, denying Chain Frost's bounce potential;
• the team needs a support with more direct disable or initiation than Lich naturally provides;
• the map favors constant roaming over a more stationary, zoning-focused playstyle.

Lich's Strengths

• Chain Frost bounces between nearby enemies up to ten times, dealing increasing damage with each bounce, and can't be disjointed;
• Frost Blast deals both single-target and area damage while slowing movement and attack speed, useful for both harass and setup;
• Frost Shield reduces incoming damage on a target while passively slowing and damaging nearby enemies, protecting allies in a fight;
• Sinister Gaze channels to pull an enemy toward Lich while draining their mana, disrupting their positioning;
• Sacrifice converts an allied creep into mana and experience for Lich, giving him a flexible resource on the lane.

Lich's Weaknesses

• Chain Frost's bounce potential depends heavily on the enemy staying grouped — a scattered fight limits its damage significantly;
• Sinister Gaze's channel leaves Lich vulnerable and can be interrupted before it does meaningful work;
• relatively low base damage output outside of Frost Blast and a fully-bounced Chain Frost;
• no reliable escape of his own beyond positioning and item choices;
• Sacrifice sacrificing lane creeps counts as a deny, so overusing it can hand the enemy team extra experience.

Lich's Abilities

Sacrifice (innate) — instantly kills an allied creep, converting a percentage of its current health into mana for Lich and granting him an experience bounty; starts on cooldown with no charges until the two-minute mark.

Frost Blast (Q) — blasts a target with damaging frost that also deals area damage and slows movement and attack speed for several seconds.

Frost Shield (W) — applies a shield around a target that reduces incoming attack damage while dealing minor damage and a slow to nearby enemies every second.

Sinister Gaze (E) — channels to hypnotize an enemy, pulling them toward a point between Lich and the target while draining a percentage of their current mana.

Chain Frost (ultimate) — releases an orb of frost that bounces between nearby enemies up to ten times, with damage increasing on each successive bounce, and cannot be disjointed.

Build, Items, and Strategies

Skill order: start Frost Blast for lane damage and the slow, take an early Frost Shield for protecting allies, and prioritize Chain Frost at every level it's available.

Talents: the level 10 pick reducing Frost Blast's cooldown rewards a more aggressive, poke-heavy laning approach.

Starting items: Tango, Clarity, and wards — Lich's job on the lane is control and vision, supplemented by Sacrifice's mana economy.

Utility build — the default path: Glimmer Cape and Force Staff for survivability, since Lich has no built-in escape.

Aggressive-support build — when the game plan wants more lane pressure: prioritize items that boost Frost Blast's range and damage for stronger harass.

Reactive items: Force Staff or Glimmer Cape for personal safety, since Sinister Gaze's channel and general fragility both leave Lich exposed.

Pro tip: wait for the enemy to group before committing Chain Frost — a scattered cast wastes the ultimate's exponential bounce damage potential.

Footnote: exact item order flexes around whether the priority is early lane pressure or scaling toward maximum survivability for landing Chain Frost safely.

Timings, Roshan, and Power Spikes

0–10 minutes: apply Frost Blast pressure on the lane, using Sacrifice for mana once it comes off its initial cooldown.

10–20 minutes: first power spike — Chain Frost online gives the team a real fight-winning tool against grouped enemy formations.

20–35 minutes: second power spike — with core utility items, Sinister Gaze and Chain Frost both become significantly safer and more reliable to use.

Roshan window: Frost Shield's damage reduction and Frost Blast's slow both help control positioning around a Roshan attempt.

35+ minutes: wait patiently for the enemy to group before committing Chain Frost, rather than casting it on a scattered fight.

Footnote: these timings depend heavily on the enemy's positioning, since Chain Frost's entire value scales with how clustered the fight actually is.

Lich Counters

Any team that avoids grouping unnecessarily is a strong answer: spreading out denies Chain Frost's exponential bounce damage almost entirely.

— Silencer: Global Silence prevents Chain Frost and Sinister Gaze from being cast at all.

— Any hero with strong burst damage on Lich specifically: since he's fragile, punishing him before he can cast denies much of his value.

— Any hero who can interrupt Sinister Gaze's channel: preventing the pull denies both the disruption and the mana drain.

— Doom: the ultimate blocks item and ability usage, cutting off Lich's ability to react during a fight.

— Any hero with spell immunity: Black King Bar and similar tools let a target ignore Chain Frost's damage and Frost Blast's slow.

Where Lich is strong on his own: against clustered, less mobile drafts, where Chain Frost's bounce damage compounds against a tightly grouped enemy team.

Footnote: most of these counters share a theme — avoiding the group or denying Lich the time to cast both remove almost everything he contributes to a fight.

Synergies with Other Heroes

— Tidehunter: Ravage groups enemies together right before Chain Frost bounces through the entire cluster.

— Any hero with strong AoE follow-up: a group hit by a fully-bounced Chain Frost is heavily softened for teammates' spells to finish.

— Enigma: Black Hole holds enemies in place, guaranteeing Chain Frost bounces through the maximum number of targets.

— Any farming-dependent carry: Sacrifice's flexible mana economy helps Lich support the lane without needing extra items.

— Warlock: Fatal Bonds punishes a group of enemies caught by Chain Frost's repeated bounces.

These pairings work best around grouping enemies together — Chain Frost's damage scales exponentially with how many targets it can bounce between.

What Experienced Lich Players Do

• wait for the enemy to group naturally before committing Chain Frost;
• use Sacrifice deliberately for mana rather than reflexively, since it counts as a deny;
• protect allies with Frost Shield proactively before a fight, not just reactively during one;
• track enemy interrupt cooldowns before committing to a risky Sinister Gaze channel;
• position defensively since Lich has no personal escape once committed to a fight.

Insider insight: the real value of Chain Frost scales exponentially, not linearly — hitting five enemies instead of two isn't just more damage, it's dramatically more, so patience before casting almost always pays off.

Conclusion

Lich rewards a player who thinks about grouping before damage — Chain Frost's exponential bounce scaling means the setup matters more than the cast itself, and a patient Lich who waits for the right moment outperforms one who commits early. He's a strong, efficient support against clustered drafts, but scattered, high-mobility enemies deny much of what makes him dangerous. Pick him against clustered, low-mobility lineups; be cautious against highly mobile or spread-out drafts.