Alright, so I’ve been getting absolutely wrecked by Lissandra in the mid lane lately. It’s been rough, her burst is insane, and that crowd control? Forget about it. I decided I needed to figure this out, like, really figure it out. So I dove in, spent a good chunk of my day trying different things. Here’s how it went down.
The Initial Struggle (and Tilt)
First few games? Disaster. I tried my usual mid lane picks – you know, the assassins, the mages, the usual suspects. Nope. Got frozen, got ulted, got blown up. Repeatedly. I even tried playing super passive, just farming under tower. Still got dove. I was starting to think she was just unbeatable. I mean who even design a champion that has a build-in Zhonya’s Hourglass!
Experimentation Time
Okay, time to actually think. I knew I needed something that could either outrange her, survive her burst, or lock her down. I started going through the champion pool:
- Tanks? Hmm, maybe. But I’m not a huge tank player, and I wasn’t sure if they could actually kill her.
- Long-range mages? This felt promising. Xerath, Ziggs, maybe even Vel’Koz. Stay far away, poke her down.
- Mobile assassins? Risky, but maybe someone like Fizz or Kassadin could dodge her stuff and burst her back.
- Champions with cleanses or unstoppable? I though about Gangplank. Maybe his oranges could save me?
Testing, Testing, 1, 2, 3
I hopped into some normal games (definitely not ranked, I wasn’t that crazy). Tried a few different things:
- Ziggs: This was…okay. I could farm safely, but actually killing her was tough. She’d just freeze me if I got too close.
- Xerath: Similar story to Ziggs. Good poke, but she could still get on top of me if I mispositioned.
- Fizz: This had potential! I could dodge her Q with my Playful/Trickster, and if I timed my ultimate right, I could burst her down. But it was really skill-dependent. One mistake and I was dead.
- Gangplank: Not very effective against Lissandra, using oranges can get rid of the stun, but Lissandra’s damage still will make Gangplank killed.
The Breakthrough?
The most successful for me, surprisingly, was trying champions that can disrupt her. I started to play around them:
- Try to bait out her * she wastes her W (the root), that’s my window to go in.
- Ward * where she is is half the battle. If I see her roaming, I can ping my team and avoid getting ganked.
- Itemization is *’s Veil to block a crucial spell.
I’m still not saying I’ve “mastered” the matchup. Lissandra is still a pain. But at least now I feel like I have a fighting chance. I can survive lane, maybe even get a kill or two, and most importantly, not tilt off the face of the earth. It’s a work in progress, but hey, that’s League, right?
