Lich

Hero

 

Strategy

 

Equipment

 

Gear

 

Talents

 

Relics

 

Responses

 

Sounds

 

Animations

 

Lore

 

Old Abilities

 

Changelogs

 

Known Bugs

 

Lich 18 + 1.85 15 + 2 18 + 3.25
Level 0 1 15 25 30 Health 120 516 1066 1748 1990 +1.5 +3.3 +5.89 +8.94 +10.07 Mana 75 291 831 1371 1587 +0.9 +1.8 +4.08 +6.3 +7.21 Armor -1 1.5 6.17 11.5 13.5 Magic Resist 25% % % % % Damage Block - Damage 24 33 42 51 87 96 132 141 150 159 Attack Rate 0.59/s 0.68/s 0.84/s 1.03/s 1.1/s Attack Range 550 (800) Attack Speed 100 (1.7s BAT) Attack Animation 0.46 + 0.54 Projectile Speed Move Speed 315 ( 345) Turn Rate 0.5 Collision Size 24 Bound Radius 24 Vision Range (G) 1800 ( 800) Gib Type Default Internal Not Provided

Ethreain, the Lich, is a ranged intelligence hero that uses his abilities to slow his enemies down with his ice-based attacks, as well as giving a boost to ally defenses, and serves as a great teamfight ganker with his powerful ultimate. He can use Sacrifice to easily level up and keep his mana high, making him very good at harassing in the early stages of the game. While a relatively frail hero and mostly known as a support, he can prove to be a force to be reckoned and mighty foe to stand with as he can render the attempts of multiple enemies futile with his ultimate, Chain Frost. Lich is a powerful crowd controller and can easily turn a teamfight, or dominate in a lane.

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
Magical

Blasts the target enemy unit with damaging frost, dealing area damage and slowing movement and attack rates for {{#show:#Frost Blast|?value7#}} seconds. The primary target takes the most damage.

Cast Animation: 0.4+0.93

Cast Range: 600 ( )

Effect Radius: 200

Primary Damage: 50/100/150/200

Area Damage: 75/100/125/150

Move Speed Slow: 30%

Attack Speed Slow: 20

Slow Duration: 4

 8 ( )

 125/150/170/190

Modifiers [?]

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.

• The area damage is dealt before the primary damage.

• The primary target takes the primary damage and the area damage, resulting in damage (before reductions).

Ice Armor

▶️WF

Ability
Target Unit / Autocast

Affects
Allies / Enemies

Creates a shield around the target friendly unit or building, which adds armor and slows attacking units. Lasts {{#show:#Ice Armor|?value6#}} seconds.

Cast Animation: 0.4+0.93

Cast Range: 1000 ( )

Armor Bonus: 3/5/7/9

Health Regeneration Bonus: 0 ( )

Move Speed Slow: 8%/16%/24%/32%

Attack Speed Slow: 8/16/24/32

Armor Duration: 40

Slow Duration: 2

 5

 50

Modifiers [?]

Frost Armor

Any

Frost Armor Autocast

Undispellable

Frostarmor Slow

Any

Originally crafted during his ambush for self-defense, the Lich is capable of enchanting others with a formidable defense of frost magic.

• Can be cast on any allied unit, including invulnerable ones, but excluding wards.

• The slow is applied upon a successful hit on a unit with the buff on.

• This means when an attack misses, or is disjointed, the slow is not applied.

• Allied units can attack an ally with the buff on without getting slowed.

• Fully stacks with the Ice Armor from the Ogre Frostmage. This goes for the armor buff and the slow debuff.

• Can be set to autocast.
  • When on autocast, Lich automatically casts this spell on an allied hero that is attacked within 1100 radius of Lich.
  • This includes attacks from any source, including wards and allied attacks.
  • Only heroes and illusions are autocast targets, including spell immune heroes. All other units are ignored by autocast.
  • Can interrupt Lich's current order and makes him forget the next queued command. Following queued commands are not forgotten.
  • Cannot occur while channeling a spell.

• When choosing the talent, restores health in the form of health regeneration, so it regenerates health in 0.1 second intervals.
  • Regenerates a total of health.
  • The regeneration works for buildings as well.

Sacrifice

▶️ED

Ability
Target Unit

Affects
Allied Units / Self

Sacrifices a friendly creep and converts its current hit points into mana for Lich.

Cast Animation: 0.4+0.93

Cast Range: 400 ( )

Current Health Converted: 30%/50%/70%/90%

 60/46/32/18

 25

It was not unheard of Ethreain to make examples out of those who contested his rule during his human life.

• Despite the visual effects, Lich instantly gains the mana from this spell.

• Units killed by Sacrifice do not count as denied. Enemies do not gain any experience from the unit.

• All allied heroes within the experience range share experience from the unit killed by Sacrifice.

• Cannot be cast on ancient creeps (under Chen's control), creep-heroes and summoned units.

• Non-summoned, non-ancient units converted by Holy Persuasion, Enchant, Control or Helm of the Dominator can be targeted.

Chain Frost

▶️RC

Ability
Target Unit

Affects
Enemies

Damage
Magical

Releases an orb of frost that bounces between nearby enemy units up to {{#show:#Chain Frost|?value3#}} times, slowing and damaging each time it hits.

Cast Animation: 0.4+0.93

Cast Range: 750 ( ) ( 850,  )

Bounce Distance: 600

Number of Bounces: 10 ( Infinite)

Bounce Delay: 0.2

Damage: 280/370/460 ( 370/460/550)

Move Speed Slow: 65%

Attack Speed Slow: 65

Slow Duration: 2.5

 100/80/60

 200/325/500

Aghanim's Scepter Upgrade:

Increases damage and casting range. Removes the limit on the number of times Chain Frost can jump.

Modifiers [?]

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 travels at a speed of 850.

• The projectile bounces with a {{#show:#Chain Frost|?value4#}} second delay.

• Can bounce on the same unit multiple times, but only when another target was hit between the bounces.

• Cannot bounce on Undying Zombies and units which are out of vision (e.g. invisible), invulnerable or hidden.

• Can bounce on, but cannot damage or slow Roshan. Only the initial hit can damage and slow him.

• Can deal up to ( infinite) damage to a single unit (before reductions), since it can hit one unit up to times.

• All bounces together can deal up to ( infinite) damage (before reductions).

• The projectile has 800 range flying vision. The vision is not provided during the {{#show:#Chain Frost|?value4#}} second bounce delay.

• Chain Frost stops providing vision and stops playing a sound upon hitting non-hero units when bouncing more than 60 times.

• The projectile blocks neutral creep camps.

Freezing Slow

Ability
Passive

Affects
Enemies

There is no description for this ability.

Movement Speed Slow: {{#show:Lich|?talent4left value#}}%

Attack Speed Slow: {{#show:Lich|?talent4left value#}}

Duration: 3

Modifiers [?]

Attack Slow Debuff

Undispellable

• The ability is unlocked by choosing the left level 25 talent.

• The debuff from successive attacks does not stack, only the duration gets refreshed.

• Fully stacks with other slows, including all of Lich's abilities.

• Works against wards, but not against buildings.

• Changes the visual appearance of Lich's attack projectiles (same effect as Eye of Skadi).
  • Uses default attack projectiles against enemies which cannot be affected.
  • Desolator's red projectiles take priority.

Talents

Hero Talents
Attacks Apply 30% MS and AS Slow	25	Ice Armor Provides +30 HP Regen
+120 Gold/Min	20	+175 Cast Range
-4s Frost Blast Cooldown	15	+120 Damage
+25 Movement Speed	10	+175 Health

Notes:

• Upgrading health increases maximum health capacity and keeps the current health percentage.

• Gold granted from the talent is unreliable gold.

• The attack damage is added as bonus attack damage, and therefore does not benefit illusions.

• The health talent increases the max health capacity and keeps the current health percentage.

• Grants bonus attack damage.
  • Does not benefit illusions and is not affected by most percentage-based damage increasing or reducing effects.

• Gold granted from the talent is unreliable gold.

Gameplay

Resurrected by a curious geomancer, Ethreain threw off his shackles, and immediately Sacrificed his savior for mana. Finally freed from the depths of the Black Pool, the Lich returns to wreak icy destruction on the world. Shielding his followers with Ice Armor, Ethreain floats across the battlefield to Frost Blast any who cross him. A frozen orb descends on his foes, traveling from one body to the next until the Chain Frost brings all opposition to their knees.
Roles:	Support Nuker
Complexity:
Adjectives:	Legs ( 2 )

Strategy & Tips

Counters &
Matchups

Audio

Responses

Sounds

History

Lore

Old Abilities

Changelogs

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, when the order of his three orbs determined the spell that was invoked, Frost Nova was one of his abilities and functioned almost identically to the current spell, 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 3 hero. His title (Lich), DotA name (Kel'Thuzad) and all his spells except the ultimate are same as the original Warcraft 3 hero, although entirely rebalanced around Dota.
  • In his transition to Dota2, 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.
• Lich's response :▶️ "Frost bitten, twice shy" is a referense to Great White albums: Once Bitten... and ...Twice Shy
• Lich's response ▶️ "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

References

de:Lich