When Riot Games announced that Lissandra was getting a mini-rework back in May, we could almost hear her fans breathe a sigh of relief. She’s a solid champion, but her kit has always been held back by her ultra-lame passive. That was indeed the aspect of her kit that was brought up the most when Riot solicited ideas for the rework.
Now, after several months of trying different things, it looks like big changes are coming to the Ice Witch. Her new passive, set to hit the PBE this week, turns her into a walking teamfight demolition tool. According to Design Director Andrei “Meddler” van Roon, it makes any enemy champion that dies near her an ice zombie.
We’re guessing someone at Riot is a big fan of Game of Thrones, the novel series by George R. R. Martin that has become one of the hottest shows on television and a cultural phenomenon in its own right. Because this basically turns Lissandra into the queen of the White Walkers. Can you imagine her hitting a huge ult onto multiple enemy team members and turning them into marauding zombies all at once?
Riot first started working on this iteration of the idea in July of this year. The first idea was to turn enemies into immobile statues, but we’re glad Riot went with zombies, because they’re way cooler. The zombies walk towards the nearest enemy, prioritizing champions. They can’t actually attack, but they slow and explode after a set time.
Originally, Lissandra was required to actually damage the champion to proc the effect. We’re not sure if that still applies, or if proximity is enough. We also don’t know what the cooldown will be like, but it should be a hefty one, or else this ability could become super broken. Finally, we’re hoping that this isn’t broken on death-defying champions like Sion and Aatrox.
So if you’re a Lissandra fan, stay tuned to the PBE to see when this new ability drops. And if you’re not, you better learn to run fast, because winter is coming.
Published: Nov 5, 2018 03:45 pm