DOTA Allstars: Lich King Tips

Kel`Thuzad - The Lich

Range: 580 | Move Speed: 280
Primary: INT
Str: 18 + 1.55 | Agi: 15 + 2 | Int: 18 + 3.25
Damage: 37 - 49 | HP: 492 | Mana: 234
HP Regen: 0.79 | Mana Regen: 0.73
Attack Speed: 1.44 | Armor: 1
Frost Nova (V)
Blasts enemy units around a target enemy unit with a wave of damaging frost that slows movement and attack rates for 4 seconds.
Level 1 - 50 target damage and 75 nova damage.
Level 2 - 100 target damage and 100 nova damage.
Level 3 - 125 target damage and 125 nova damage.
Level 4 - 175 target damage and 150 nova damage.
Mana Cost: 125/150/170/190
Cooldown: 9
Comment: This is the Lich's basic damage spell (nuke), and in the game called DoTA it makes sense to level up nuke spells as quickly as possible. By level 7 you can raise this to level 4, making it a very painful spell against your enemies and, used together with Dark Ritual, makes the Lich a powerhouse nuker and harasser. To use this spell the Lich has to select a target, which will receive 325 spell damage (not yet factoring in magic resistance) while enemy units near the target will be damaged for 150 spell damage as well. You as the Lich receive this nuking power at level 7. Note that the cooldown for Frost Nova is 9.25 seconds.

Frost Armor (F)
Creates a shield of frost around a target friendly unit. The shield adds armor and slows attacking melee units for 2 seconds.
Lasts 25 seconds.
Level 1 - Adds 2 armor.
Level 2 - Adds 4 armor.
Level 3 - Adds 6 armor.
Level 4 - Adds 8 armor.
Mana Cost: 50
Cooldown: 5
Comment: The recent buffs to the Lich increased the armor provided to 3/6/9/12 that lasts for 40 seconds (not 25), making it much more imbalanced as the Lich is now able to give free sets of Dragon (Knight) armor to everyone, abusing the duration. Great as this spell is, the Lich only learns it after he has maxed out his other 2 skills. If there are many melee enemy heroes that deal little attack damage (eg caster earthshaker, ogre magi), it may be useful to take just 1 level of this spell to provide the slow effect. Otherwise max this skill to provide a reduction of attack damage, very useful against late-game heroes who depend on attack damage. More about this spell later.
Dark Ritual (D)
Sacrifices a target friendly unit to convert its hit points into mana.
Level 1 - 15% of hit points to mana.
Level 2 - 30% of hit points to mana.
Level 3 - 45% of hit points to mana.
Level 4 - 60% of hit points to mana.
Mana Cost: 25
Cooldown: 55/50/45/40
Comment: The spell which makes the Lich fearsome as a nuker, it is used in conjunction with Frost Nova to repeatedly bombard the Sentinel with ice blasts. This spell requires you to sacrifice a friendly creep to regain mana based on its remaining hit points. Therefore it is best to select a full-HP Ghoul (scourge melee creep) and kill it preferably before it is doing battle so that you can regain as much mana as possible. We will discuss more aspects of this spell later on.
Chain Frost (C)
Releases a jumping breath of frost that can jump up to 7 times. Frost will bounce back and forth between units that are within 750 range.
Level 1 - Deals 280 damage per hit.
Level 2 - Deals 370 damage per hit.
Level 3 - Deals 460 damage per hit.
Level 4 - (with Aghanim Scepter) - Deals 580 damage per hit.
Mana Cost: 200/ 325 / 500/ 500
Cooldown: 145 / 115 / 60 / 60
Comment: This is probably what the Lich is most well-known for. The timing of this powerful spell is what makes or breaks the Lich. Due to various buffs on the Lich, level 3 Chain Frost now has a cooldown of 60 seconds (not 95). Therefore it is easily abusable late-game and probably only a few other ultimate spells like Laguna Blade and Finger of Death can match its cooldown. With Aghanim's Scepter, Chain Frost deals 550 damage per bounce and leashes out 7 bounces instead of the usual 6, and improves cast range from 750 to 850. We will discuss more on this spell to maximise its power.