Lich

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Lich #7 20 + 2.1 17 + 2 26 + 3.8
Level 0 1 15 25 30 Health 20 460 1098 1824 2088 +0.5 +2.5 +5.44 +8.74 +9.99 Mana 80 392 1028 1628 1880 +0.75 +2.05 +4.71 +7.21 +8.26 Armor -1 1.83 6.5 11.83 13.83 Magic Resist 25% 27.6% 32.92% 37.92% 40.02% Damage Block - Damage 24 33 50 59 103 112 153 162 174 183 Attack Rate 0.59/s 0.69/s 0.85/s 1.04/s 1.11/s Attack Range 550 (750) Attack Speed ▶️ 100 (1.7s BAT) Attack Animation 0.46 + 0.54 Projectile Speed 900 Move Speed ▶️ 290 ( 320) Turn Rate 0.7 Collision Size 27 Bound Radius 24 Vision Range (G) 1800 ( 800) Gib Type Ice Internal npc_dota_hero_lich

Unleashes a powerful attack that bounces between enemies.
Resurrected by a curious geomancer, Ethreain bewitched his savior with a Sinister Gaze, then promptly made the man his newest sacrifice. Finally freed from the depths of the Black Pool, the Lich returns to wreak icy destruction on the world. Cloaking his followers with a Frost Shield, Ethreain floats across the battlefield to Blast any who cross him. A frozen orb descends on his foes, traveling between foes and Ice Spires until the Chain Frost brings all opposition to their demise.
Roles:	Support Nuker
Complexity:
Adjectives:	Blue, Flying, Icy, Undead, Nose Legs ( 2 )

Bio

Ethreain, the Lich

▶️ "And so the dead will bury the dead."

Lore:

In life, the frost-mage Ethreain (not yet a Lich) had used the threat of destructive ice to enslave entire kingdoms. His subjects, aided by a few desperate magicians, eventually grew bold enough to ambush him. Armed with enough charmed rope to bind him forever, they tied the frost mage to adamant weights and dropped him in a pool known chiefly for being bottomless. It wasn't.

He only fell for a year or so before an outcrop snagged him. There he rested, dead but undecaying, until the geomancer Anhil thought to verify the legend of the supposedly bottomless Black Pool. Anhil's plumbline snarled with the ropes that bound the drowned magician, and up he hauled an unexpected prize. Thinking that by rendering the dead undead, he could question the Lich about the properties of the pool, he removed the bindings and commenced a simple rite of resurrection. Even the descendants of Ethreain's enemies were long forgotten by time, so there were none to warn Anhil against imprudence. But he learned the error of his judgment almost immediately, as Lich threw off the shackles and consumed him.

Voice:

Gary Schwartz (Responses)

Abilities

Frost Blast

▶️QV

Ability
Target Unit

Affects
Enemies

Damage
Physical

Blasts the target enemy unit with damaging frost, dealing area damage and slowing movement and attack rates for 4 seconds. The primary target receives both base and area damage.

Cast Animation: 0.3+0.93

Cast Range: 575/600/625/650

Effect Radius: 200 ( 325)

Base Damage: 40/80/120/160

Area Damage: 80/120/160/200 ( 205/245/285/325)

Move Speed Slow: 25%

Attack Speed Slow: 30/40/50/60

Slow Duration: 4

 7 ( 3.5)

 110/120/130/140

Spell Block / Reflection Notes:

Blocked fully only when primary target.

Particle effects still appear on the target.

Modifiers [?]

modifier_lich_frostnova_slow

Any

Frost-mage Ethreain has not forgotten even the simplest of ice manipulation.

• The targeting reticule must be centered over an enemy unit.

• Deals the area damage onto the primary target as well for a total of 120/200/280/360 ( 245/325/405/485) damage (before reductions).
  • The damage is not summed up into a single instance, meaning the primary target takes two damage instances.

• Frost Blast first applies the area damage, the debuff, then the base damage.

• SCEPTER
  While channeling Sinister Gaze, Frost Blast has an instant cast time and does not require facing the target to cast.

Frost Shield

▶️▶️WF

Ability
Target Unit

Affects
Enemies / Allies
(Ice Spire)

Applies a magical frost shield around the target, reducing damage from attacks against you. While the shield is active, ice magic will affect nearby enemy units every 1 second, dealing minor damage and slowing them.

Cast Animation: 0.2+0.93

Cast Range: 1000

Damage Reduction: 30%/40%/50%/60% ( 40%/50%/60%/70%)

Pulse Radius: 600

Pulse Interval: 1

Pulse Damage: 18/32/46/60

Pulse Move Speed Slow: 20%/25%/30%/35%

Pulse Slow Duration: 0.5

Ice Spire Hero Hit Heal: 1

Shield Duration: 5/6/7/8 ( 9/10/11/12)

 Health Regen Bonus: 50

 30/25/20/15

 100/110/120/130

Modifiers [?]

modifier_lich_frost_shield

Any

modifier_lich_frost_shield_slow

Any

First conceived of to protect him in his mortal years, the frost magic that Ethreain weaves around himself has only grown colder with time.

• Can be cast on any non-invulnerable ally unit. This includes others wards-type units (e.g Phoenix Sun), Couriers and buildings.
  • Heals Ice Spire for 1 hero hit (or 2 of the unit's health) per pulse.
  • ↓↓ Double-tapping automatically targets self.

• Applies generic incoming damage reduction on the affected target. Stacks additively with other sources of generic incoming damage manipulation.
  • Affects only hero-based attack damage, including instant attack sources, regardless of damage type, the affected target recieves.
  • Treats attack damage from clones, illusions and the Spirit Bear as heroes, from buildings and other creep-heroes as creeps.
  • Does not reduce the following damage sources:
    • Spell damage.
    • Damage flagged as HP removal.
    • All Cleave sources.

• Pulses in 1-second intervals, starting 0.1 seconds after cast, resulting in 5/6/7/8 ( 9/10/11/12) pulses.
  • All pulses together deal up to 90/192/322/480 ( 162/320/506/720) damage per enemy (before reductions).
  • Can heal up to 5/6/7/8 ( 9/10/11/12) of the Ice Spire's health for the entire duration.

• The pulses first apply their damage, then the movement speed slow debuff.

• Frost Shield does not hit invisible units or units in the Fog of War.

• Successive casts on the same target do not stack but refresh the duration, and reset the pulse interval.
  • Both leveling up Frost Shield and the health regeneration talent do not update the current active instance.

• SCEPTER
  While channeling Sinister Gaze, Frost Shield has an instant cast time, does not require facing the target to cast and can be cast on untargetable allies.

• TALENT
  The health regeneration talent fully works for ward-type units and buildings as well, except for Ice Spires.
  • Can regenerate up to 250/300/350/400 ( 450/500/550/600) health over its full duration.
  • However, it does not update the currently active instance of Frost Shield.
  • The health regeneration bonus applied fully heals ward-type units that require a fixed amount of hero attacks to destroy.
    • Other aspects of the ability fully affects the Phoenix Sun, but the health regeneration bonus is not applied despite visually regenerating health.

Sinister Gaze

▶️ER

Ability
Target Unit
( Target Area) / Channeled

Affects
Enemies
( Self)

Damage
Physical

Hypnotizes an enemy unit, causing it to move towards a point between the two of you and drains a percentage of its current mana.

Cast Animation: 0+0

Cast Range: 600

Distance Moved: 32%/38%/44%/50%

Current Mana Drained per Second: 12%

Max Channel Time: 1.1/1.4/1.7/2 ( 1.5/1.8/2.1/2.4)

Creep Damage per Second: 250

Creep Duration Multiplier: 2

 Radius: 400

 24/22/20/18

 50/60/70/80

Aghanim's Scepter Upgrade:

Sinister Gaze becomes an Area of Effect ability, affecting units within a radius of 400 in the target area. Sinister Gaze allows Lich to cast other abilities while channeling it.

Debuff Immunity Notes:

True Sight pierces debuff immunity.

Spell Block / Reflection Notes:

Blocked as a unit-targeted ability.

Not blocked when turned into an area-targeted ability.

Modifiers [?]

modifier_lich_sinister_gaze

Any

Ability Draft Notes:

Allows casting any non-channeled abilities and items during Sinister Gaze without interrupting it.

Mind the cold...

• Applies a hypnotizing fear and provides True Sight over the target, forcing it to face and move towards the Lich, and preventing it from acting.
  • Does not provide any form of other visions over the target(s).

• Certain status effects on the affected target that might cancel other channeling abilities do not cancel Sinister Gaze. This includes the following status effects:
  • The target turning invisible, invulnerable or hidden.
  • The target being affected by the Fog of War.
  • The target being dispelled in any way.

• In short, Sinister Gaze can only be canceled if Lich's channeling is interrupted.

• Applies the following effects on the affected target(s) while Sinister Gaze is channeling:
  • Grants the affected target unobstructed movement and does not destroy trees while moving.
  • Unlocks the target's minimum and maximum movement speed limits, then sets the target's movement speed to 32%/38%/44%/50% of the distance between Lich and the target.
    • The set movement speed does not adapt even if target is moved or teleported.
    • When cast at max cast range, this results in a speed of 174.55 ( 128).

• Drains 12% of target's current mana in 0.1-second intervals, resulting in 11/14/17/20 ( 15/18/21/24) instances.
  • Can drain up to ≈12.44%/15.55%/18.55%/21.45% ( 13.99%/16.55%/19.03%/21.43%) of the target(s)' current mana.
  • The mana gained is based on how much the target actually lose on each interval, enemy targets with higher current mana will restore more mana than using the ability on a target with lesser current mana. If they have no mana left, no mana is gained either.
  • However, if Lich is at full mana, the target still continues to lose mana.

• Deals 25 damage to creeps based on the same intervals, starting immediately upon cast, resulting in 22/28/34/40 ( 30/36/42/48) instances.
  • Can deal up to 550/700/850/1000 ( 750/900/1050/1200) damage to creeps (before reductions).
  • Treats illusions, creep-heroes and ancient creeps as heroes.

• Destroys trees within a 200 radius around the target at the end of the channeling.

• All aspects of Sinister Gaze are not affected by status resistance sources.

• SCEPTER
  Sinister Gaze now turns into an area-targeted ability, so that it cannot directly target units anymore.
  • Fully affects untargetable, invisible units and units under Fog of War.
  • The Ability Upgrade now allows Lich to cast his other abilities (e.g. Frost Blast, Frost Shield, Ice Spire and Chain Frost) while channeling Sinister Gaze without interrupting it, as long as the target is within cast range.
    • This means during Sinister Gaze, all of Lich's abilities have an instant cast time and do not require facing the target to cast.
    • Does not apply to item abilities.
• SPELL STEAL
   / 
  MORPH NOTES
  Sinister Gaze's ability upgrade is only limited to Lich's basic abilities.

Ice Spire

▶️▶️▶️DE

Ability
Target Point / Passive

Affects
Enemies

Creates an Ice Spire at the target spot, slowing enemies around it. Can take 5 hero hits or 10 creep hits and when destroyed it will create a Frost Blast around it.

Chain Frost can bounce to the Spire if there are no other enemies in range.

Lich can cast Frost Shield on the Spire. Each Frost Shield tick will heal the spire by 1 hero attack.

Passive Component

Damage Radius: 200 ( 325)

Damage on Death: 80/120/160/200 ( 205/245/285/325)

Cast Animation: 0.3+0

Cast Range: 750

Radius: 750

Hero Attacks to Destroy: 5

Non-Hero Attacks to Destroy: 10

Move Speed Slow: 25%

Duration: 15

Aura Linger Duration: 0.5

 25

 150

Cast Event Notes:

Frost Blast released upon destruction does not proc any on-cast effects.

Modifiers [?]

modifier_kill

Death

modifier_magic_immune

Death

modifier_lich_ice_spire

Death

modifier_lich_ice_spire_debuff

Undispellable

modifier_lich_frostnova_slow

Any

Ability Draft Notes:

Frost Blast must be drafted as well for it to get applied.

Requires drafting Chain Frost to be unlocked.

Ice Spire
Summoned Ward
Health 10 +0 This unit has no mana. Level 4 Duration 30% Armor 0 Magic Resistance 0% Status Resistance 0 Collision Size 36 Bound Radius 16 Vision Range (G) 800 Bounty 20 Experience 20 Abilities Spell Immunity

• Requires Aghanim's Shard to be unlocked.

• Deals 80/120/160/200 ( 205/245/285/325) damage (before reductions) within the damage radius, sourced to Lich, based on the current level of Frost Blast centered on the Ice Spire's location upon its destruction.
  • The Frost Blast applied is independent of the ability and does not cost any mana.
  • Frost Blast notes fully apply. If it is not learned, it is not applied.

• Frost Shield applies all its ability effects and heals the Ice Spire for 2 health.
  • Always heals for the full amount per instance, regardless of how much damage the targets actually take.

• • Treats attacks from clones as heroes, and attacks from creep-heroes and illusions as creeps.

• Chain Frost can bounce on, and be directly targeted on Ice Spires.
  • It may only bounce to the spire if no other valid targets are within its bounce distance.
  • The bounces still fully count toward the bounce limit.
  • Can only bounce on ally Ice Spires, enemy spires are ignored.
  • If multiple spires are within range, it chooses one at random.
  • Can bounce back and forth between multiple spires if no enemies are within range.

• Ice Spire gains its spell immunity through a buff, so it is possible for enemies to check the buff and ‼ Ping the remaining duration of the ward.

• SCEPTER
  While channeling Sinister Gaze, Ice Spire has an instant cast time and does not require facing the target to cast.

Chain Frost

▶️▶️▶️RC

Ability
Target Unit
( Passive)

Affects
Enemies
(Ice Spire)

Damage
Physical

Releases an orb of frost that bounces between nearby enemy units up to 10 times, slowing and damaging each time it hits. Each bounce increases the damage for the subsequent bounces.

Passive Component

 Number of Casts on Death: 1

 Search Radius: 750

Cast Animation: 0.3+1.03

Cast Range: 750

Bounce Distance: 600

Number of Bounces: 10 ( Infinite)

Bounce Delay: 0.2

Initial Damage: 250/400/550

Damage Increment per Bounce: 15/20/25

Move Speed Slow: 65%

Attack Speed Slow: 65

Slow Duration: 2.5

Flying Vision Radius: 800

 100/80/60

 180/300/420

Aghanim's Shard Upgrade:

New Ability

Grants the Ice Spire ability.

Spell Block / Reflection Notes:

Only the first instance of the cast is blocked.

Blocked upon impact.

Does not stop bouncing or increase in damage when blocked. The blocked instance still counts toward the number of bounces.

The passive cast can be fully reflected.

Modifiers [?]

modifier_lich_chain_frost_thinker

Undispellable

modifier_projectile_vision

Undispellable

modifier_lich_chain_frost_ondeath

Undispellable

modifier_lich_chainfrost_slow

Any

Almost universally considered the ultimate in frost magic, Ethreain's orb of frozen death strikes fear into those who dare stand against him.

• Chain Frost initially travels at a speed of 1050, and continues traveling at a speed of 850 after bouncing off the primary target.

• The projectile bounces with a 0.2-second delay.
  • The projectile stops providing vision and stops playing a sound upon hitting non-hero units when bouncing more than 60 times.

• Can bounce on the same unit multiple times, but only when another target was hit between the bounces.
  • Can bounce on invulnerable units only when the projectile is currently airborne.
  • For Undying Zombies and Couriers, Chain Frost can be cast on them, but not bounce on them.

• Does not bounce on hidden and invisible units, and already invulnerable units.
  • However, it can bounce on untargetable units from Shadows and Shadow Realm.

• Chain Frost fully affects Roshan only when the first instance is cast on him.
  • Otherwise, the projectile can bounce on, but neither damages nor applies its debuff.

• Chain Frost first applies the debuff, then the damage.

• Leveling up the ability immediately updates all currently active Chain Frost projectiles.

• For how much damage (before reductions) Chain Frost deals up to the 10th stack, please refer to the chart below.
  • Can potentially deal up to 3575/5500/7425 damage total if all bounces hit.

• The projectile has an 800 range flying vision. The vision is provided after the 0.2-second bounce delay.

• SCEPTER
  While channeling Sinister Gaze, Chain Frost has an instant cast time and does not require facing the target to cast.

• TALENT
  The Chain Frost on Death talent cast Chain Frost based on its current level passively and instantly from Lich's death location whenever he dies, prioritizing the nearest unit.
  • The search range can be increased by cast range bonuses.
  • The passive cast on death does not trigger the ability cooldown and work while on cooldown, and does not cost mana. It is also displayed on the HUD as a buff.
  • They do not proc on-cast effects either.
  • Does not trigger with Reincarnation sources.

Chain Frost Calculations

Level	Chain Frost Damage at nth Bounces
	Initial	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
Level 1	250	265	280	295	310	325	340	355	370	385	400
Level 2	400	420	440	460	480	500	520	540	560	580	600
Level 3	550	575	600	625	650	675	700	725	750	775	800

Talents

Hero Talents
Chain Frost Unlimited Bounces	25	Frost Shield Provides +50 HP Regen
+4s Frost Shield Duration	20	Chain Frost on Death
-3.5s Frost Blast Cooldown	15	+0.4s Sinister Gaze Duration
+125 Frost Blast Radius and Damage	10	+10% Frost Shield Damage Reduction

Recent Changes

Main Articles: Changelogs, Old Abilities and Hero Lore

Version

Description

7.35d

• Rescaled Frost Shield Damage from 20/30/40/50 to 18/32/46/60
• Chain Frost Can now select the Ice Spire as the initial target

7.35

• Increased Sinister Gaze current mana drained per second from 10% to 12%.
• Aghanim's Shard upgrade:
  • Reduced Ice Spire movement speed slow from 30% to 25%.

• Talents:
• LVL 10

   

  +150 Frost Blast radius/area damage reduced to +125.

7.34d

• Increased base intelligence from 24 to 26.

• Talents:
• LVL 15

   

  -3s Frost Blast cooldown increased to -3.5s.

Recommended Items

Starting items:

• Tango sustains Lich's health so that he does not get harassed out of lane; he can also use it to heal allied carry as well.

• Healing Salve also restores health to Lich or an ally.

• Clarity supplies mana for Frost Blast, keeping enemies from touching the creep waves.

• Iron Branch is cheap and gives Lich good attributes. It can build to Magic Wand.

• Observer Ward provides map vision for team to spot enemy ganks.

Early game:

• Not really Regular Stick, but later Magic Wand grant burst healing and mana, keeping Lich going longer in fights or ganks.

• Tranquil Boots help sustain Lich's health, while using clarities to regen mana. It also helps Lich kite melees in lane with wind lance build up.

Mid game:

• Aether Lens gives Lich much-needed mana and allows him to cast his abilities from a safe distance, while letting Sinister Gaze displace enemies further.

• Force Staff helps manipulate allies' and enemies' positioning to set up Lich's spells or escape in a pinch.

• Glimmer Cape grants cheap magic resistance and invisibility to foil gank attempts and escape from bad situations.

• Urn of Shadows gives some cheap armor and mana regen, along with a useful heal or damage-over-time as long as Lich keeps ganking. Can be upgraded to Spirit Vessel to break down bulkier enemies.

Late game:

• Blink Dagger helps Lich get the jump on enemies with his disables or Chain Frost.

Situational items:

• Refresher Orb massively increases Lich's teamfight damage with a second Chain Frost cast, but takes a severe toll on his mana supply.

• Scythe of Vyse gives a powerful disable and solves Lich's mana problems, though it comes at a prohibitively high price.

• Ghost Scepter provides Lich attributes and ethereal to counter physical damage, letting him survive against farmed carries.

• Mekansm can be used to support allies with burst healing in the mid-game before upgrading to Guardian Greaves, though the heal taxes Lich's mana pool.

• Eul's Scepter of Divinity gives Lich more mana to spam spells, along with some mobility and a coveted hard disable.

• Rod of Atos gives an efficient attribute boost along with a long-range root for leading ganks.

• Solar Crest helps allies in ganks with a slow and armor debuff, protects allies that are focused down in teamfights, and helps soften up Roshan.

• Pipe of Insight is a useful utility item against nuke-heavy teams and synergizes well with Frost Shield.

Dota Plus Progress

Main Article: Hero Challenges

Relics track a hero's actions and statistics, and display in-game notifications when a milestone is reached. They are only available to Dota Plus subscribers.

Relics	Voice Lines
Multi-Hero Frost Blasts Frost Blasts Leading To Kills Chain Frost Triple Kills Chain Frost Bounces Slow Duration Magic Damage Allies Glimmer Duration Triple Kills Dominating Kill Streaks Dusts Leading To Kills Enemy Ward Kills Wards Placed Kill Assists Kills	Bronze	▶️ Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! ▶️ Stay frosty!
	Silver	▶️ Watch your step, it's six feet down. ▶️ Can't kill the dead.
	Gold	▶️ Does it tingle? ▶️ Feel my cold embrace!
	Platinum	▶️ Who's the number one now?
	Master	▶️ Ah, IceFrog!
	Grandmaster	▶️ Ha ha! Who's ready for a cold one?

Equipment

Lich Equipment (expand sets) Sets Ascendance of the Rime Lord Dead Winter Set Eldritch Ice Set Forbidden Knowledge Frozen Emperor Frozen Star Garb of the Frost Lord Jiang Shi's Revenge Lord of the Forsaken Revival of the Ice Witch Rites of Vile Convocation Shares of the Mad Mutineer Sorcerer of the Black Pool The Serakund Tyrant Head Perversions of the Bloodwhorl Neck Shearing Deposition Arms Glare of the Tyrant Taunt Taunt: Ice Cold Baller Kinetic Gems Kinetic: Deadwinter's Soul

Trivia

• Lich's voice actor, Gary Schwartz also voiced the Heavy and Demoman classes in "Team Fortress 2", another title by Valve.
  • Lich's line upon casting Sacrifice, ▶️ "Om nom nom!" refers to a line spoken by the Heavy which he uses upon consuming the Sandvich Edible Device.

• In the first iteration of Invoker's abilities (Pre 6.18), when the order of his three orbs determines the Invoked ability, Frost Nova was one of his abilities and functioned almost identically as the current Frost Blast, and was mapped to Quas Quas Exort.
  • Crystal Maiden also had the same Frost Nova ability with small differences in numbers.

• Lich is almost entirely based on a Warcraft III hero. His title and name, "Lich, Kel'Thuzad" and all of his basic abilities except the ultimate are the same as the original Warcraft 3 hero, although entirely rebalanced around Dota.
  • In his transition to Dota 2, he kept his title (Lich), but his name got changed due to copyright reasons since Kel'Thuzad is a notable character from the Warcraft universe.
  • Lich's response ▶️ "Dead man drifting." is a reference to the line ▶️ "Dead man walking." spoken by the Warcraft 3 hero.

• Anatomically, Lich's cranium has no visible sutures, another proof of his age.

• ▶️ "Frost bitten, twice shy" is a reference to Great White albums: Once Bitten... and ...Twice Shy and also to the English idiom.

• ▶️ "And so the dead will bury the dead" is a reference from Bible (Luke 9:59-60), where Jesus said, "Let the dead bury the dead," in response to a disciple who wanted to bury his father before committing himself to the Lord.

Gallery

• 

  Model

• 

  Low Violence model

• 

  Early concept art

• 

  Ability icon progress

• 

  Hero icon progress

• 

  Lich illustration