Lich

• Death Knight
• Dreadlord
• Lich
• Crypt Lord

[e][h] Lich

Heroes Information

Attributes

15 +2

14 +1

20 +3.40

22 - 28

2

Primary Attribute

Base Stats

Movement Speed:

290

Sight Range:

1800 / 800

Attack Range:

600

Turn Rate:

0.50

Hotkey:

L

Icon

Level Changes

Level:

1

5

10

Hit Points:

475

675

925

HP Regen.: (+2.00 on Blight)

0.75

1.15

1.65

Mana:

300

495

750

Mana Regen.:

1.01

1.66

2.51

Armor:

2

3

5

Damage:

22 - 28

35 - 41

52 - 58

Cooldown:

1.48

1.4

1.3

During his mortal life as the Warchief of the Orcish Horde of Draenor; Ner'zhul commanded a number of Orcish Warlocks and Shamans. Yet, when these wicked sorcerers were captured by Kil'jaeden and the Legion after the destruction of Draenor, they were transformed into twisted aberrations of their former selves. These Liches possessed tremendous magical powers, yet their immortal, undead bodies were bound to the iron will of Ner'zhul. Since the Liches showed unswerving loyalty to their master, Ner'zhul granted them control over the furious elements of the cold north. Now, Liches wield frost magic along with their own considerable necromantic spells.

The Lich is a great first or second Hero mainly for his Frost Nova ability. Frost Nova is one of the uber abilities in the game, especially when combined with the Archmage's Brilliance Aura, Mana Potions, or Dark Ritual. Frost Armor can be useful on allied Heroes, Abominations, or Frost Wyrms. Dark Ritual is rarely used but is very powerful in a skilled player's hands. Dark Ritual works very well with Necromancers because the Lich can sacrifice Skeleton Warriors. Death and Decay can be used to attack tightly packed enemy buildings or towers.

The Lich is a very fragile caster like the Human Archmage. He can easily and quickly be killed. You can attempt to counter that by casting Frost Armor on him or healing him with Death Coil. The most common way to protect him is to do a lot of running away and never get close to enemy ranged or melee units whenever possible.

Spells and Abilities

Frost Nova
	Cast Type : Active  Ability Type:  Magical Target Type : Unit Target  Damage Type:  Magic Blasts enemy units around a target enemy unit with a wave of damaging frost that slows movement and attack rate.
Cast Requirements : 125 8 s  Range:  800 Targets Allowed : Ground, Enemy, Air, Neutral, Organic Area of Effect : 200 Duration : 4 (2) / 5 (3) / 6 (4) s Target damage : 100 Nova damage : 50/100/150 Debuff : Slowed Movement Speed : -50% Attack Speed : -25% Hotkey : N

Notes:

• People pick the Lich just for the Frost Nova ability. It is a very powerful ability that is up there with Chain Lightning. Frost Nova can take a chunk out of enemy units and destroy low hit point units such as ranged units and spell casters. The second benefit of Frost Nova is that it slows enemy units so it's great to use when they are trying to run away.

• Use Dark Ritual so you can get more Mana to cast Frost Nova.

Frost Armor
	Cast Type : Autocast  Ability Type:  Magical Target Type : Unit Target Creates a shield of frost around a target friendly unit. The shield adds armor and slows melee units that attack it.
Cast Requirements : 40 2 s  Range:  800 Targets Allowed : Air, Ground, Friend, Self, Neutral Armor : 3/5/7 Armor Duration : 45 seconds Slow Duration : 3/5/7 seconds Debuff : Slowed Movement Speed : -50% Attack Speed : -25% Hotkey : F

Notes:

• Frost Armor is useful for protecting allied Heroes and the Lich itself, who is frail without Frost Armor active.

• Frost Armor can be auto-cast, but savvy enemies can exploit this behavior to quickly drain the Lich of its mana by forcing Frost Armor on low quality targets. Good players manually cast Frost Armor on units that are under attack from melee enemies in order to get the most value for the mana spent.

• Frost Armor only slows units that strike with a melee attack. Use Frost Armor to slow down the movement speed of melee units trying to finish off your retreating warriors.

• Putting one point in Frost Armor gives extraordinary bang for the buck. Even at spell level 1, Frost Armor reduces damage output of melee attackers by over 50% due to the armor increase and attack speed slow. The second and third point in Frost Armor do not give nearly as much of a damage reduction boost as the first point.

Dark Ritual
	Cast Type : Active  Ability Type:  Magical Target Type : Unit Target Sacrifices a target friendly Undead unit to convert its hit points into mana for the Lich.
Cast Requirements : 25 20 s  Range:  800 Targets Allowed : Air, Ground, Player Units, Non Hero Mana : 33/55/80 % of HP Hotkey : R

Notes:

• Bring along a Rod of Necromancy or Necromancer to make Skeletons for your Lich to convert into mana. Carrion Beetles are also a good target if you have a Crypt Lord.

• Use Dark Ritual when one of your powerful units is about to be killed in order to deny your enemy the XP from the kill, but keep in mind that using Dark Ritual on a low HP unit will decrease the mana you receive.

Death and Decay
	Cast Type : Channel  Ability Type:  Universal Target Type : Area Target  Damage Type:  Universal Damages everything in its area of effect by 4% of its base hit points per second.
Cast Requirements : 200 150 s  Range:  1000 Area of Effect : 300 Duration : 35 s Notes : Trees are not affected by the damaginng effect of Death and Decay, but instead killed instantly. Hotkey : D

Notes:

• Death and Decay is useful for attacking enemy towns when they have packed their buildings very tightly. You can then destroy a lot of buildings and greatly damage the enemy. Death and Decay is also useful against people who build a lot of towers.

• Death and Decay can be used to clear away trees, as they are instantly destroyed by Death and Decay.

Version History

Balance Patch History
Version	Release	Balance Changes
1.36.2	2024-06-04	Death and Decay mana cost reduced from 250 to 200 Frost Nova slow duration reduced from 4/6/8 to 4/5/6 (units only - heroes remain unchanged)
1.35.0	2023-01-19	Lich Dark Ritual cooldown increased from 15 to 20 seconds. Lich Dark Ritual mana return reduced from 33/66/100 to 33/55/80%.
1.32.10	2021-04-14	Lich Frost Armor’s on hit duration now scales 3/5/7.
1.29.0	2018-04-10	Lich's movement speed increased from 270 to 290.
1.17	2004-09-20	Channeling ultimates now cancel invulnerability. If an invulnerability spell is used while channeling, channeling will end.
1.15	2004-05-10	Frost Nova cold effect now lasts 2/3/4 seconds against Heroes. It previously lasted 4/6/8 seconds against Heroes.
1.03	2002-10-09	Frost Armor is now an auto-cast spell which will target units under attack if auto-casting is enabled. Frost Armor also costs less mana -- 40 down from 50. Lich Heroes now have far more hit points, as they now have 15 str + 2/level, up from 13 + 1.6/level.

Games

• Lich first
• Lich second
• Lich third

The most recent games with Lich first are

SAVE422  |	vs.	|  kennsay
Game 2 on Tidehunters Semifinals - SAVE422 vs Kennsay in SomPlay Cup 1
SAVE422  |	vs.	|  kennsay
Game 1 on Autumn Leaves Semifinals - SAVE422 vs Kennsay in SomPlay Cup 1
InsoliTe  |	vs.	|  pra.flo
Game 2 on Tidehunters Semifinals - InsoliTe vs Pra.flo in Baguette Cup 3 - Qualifier 4
InsoliTe  |	vs.	|  pra.flo
Game 1 on Springtime Semifinals - InsoliTe vs Pra.flo in Baguette Cup 3 - Qualifier 4
pra.flo  |	vs.	|  Snakix
Game 1 on Northern Isles Round 1 - Pra.flo vs Snakix in Baguette Cup 3 - Qualifier 4

The most recent games with Lich second are

Kaho  |	vs.	|  국사무쌍
Game 2 on Northern Isles Upper Bracket Semifinals - Kaho vs 국사무쌍 in B Cup - Season 13
eer0  |	vs.	|  LawLiet
Game 3 on Last Refuge Grand Final - Eer0 vs LawLiet in Grilled Shrimp Cup 23
eer0  |	vs.	|  LawLiet
Game 2 on Echo Isles 2 Grand Final - Eer0 vs LawLiet in Grilled Shrimp Cup 23
eer0  |	vs.	|  LawLiet
Game 1 on Twisted Meadows Grand Final - Eer0 vs LawLiet in Grilled Shrimp Cup 23
eer0  |	vs.	|  Lyn
Game 4 on Tidehunters Grand Final - Eer0 vs Lyn in Faerie Dragon Cup 1

The most recent games with Lich third are

Kaho  |	vs.	|  국사무쌍
Game 1 on Last Refuge Upper Bracket Semifinals - Kaho vs 국사무쌍 in B Cup - Season 13
국사무쌍  |	vs.	|  HawK
Game 1 on Lost Temple LV Semifinals - 국사무쌍 vs HawK in B2W Weekly Cup 128
HawK  |	vs.	|  Edo
Game 1 on Lost Temple LV Quarterfinals - HawK vs Edo in B2W Weekly Cup 128
국사무쌍  |	vs.	|  Tekko
Game 1 on Northern Isles Round 3 - 국사무쌍 vs Tekko in B2W Weekly Cup 128
Happy  |	vs.	|  ColorFul
Game 3 on Concealed Hill - Happy vs ColorFul in Xiaomao Cup 4

References

http://classic.battle.net/war3/undead/units/lich.shtml