Recently, the champion Lillia has been making waves in the Challenger tier of Korea. Notably, she has been used in both the top lane and mid lane. This is due to a complete overhaul of Lillia’s abilities by Riot, especially the reworked passive that allows for healing and increased damage. Additionally, Lillia possesses a frustrating poke ability that allows for item builds tailored to playstyle and game dynamics. This has led to various “unusual” variations of Lillia, attracting players to choose her in ranked games. But today, let’s explore one of these variations: Lillia with the “Frozen Heart” build.
This item build is suitable for Lillia when facing damage-dealing champions in the top lane. Therefore, players must consider and evaluate who they will be facing in the draft before deciding to pick Lillia. Each playstyle has its own strengths and weaknesses. One cannot simply follow guides without understanding how to adapt to the situation.
First, let’s summarize some of the critical weaknesses of the champion Lillia (Bashful Bloom). The first weakness, which any player who has tried Lillia can feel, is her low starting health, making her a poor choice for solo laning due to the disadvantage in trading abilities. Second, she lacks burst damage to eliminate targets; Lillia’s abilities mostly focus on poke (Q, W) and slowing or stunning targets (E, R). This is also the third weakness of Lillia, as Q is her main damage-dealing ability but is very easy for opponents to dodge.
For example, in the match between FPX and EDG, Lillia in Doinb’s hands showcased her lane dominance and quick wave-clear ability in the early game. However, as expected, from mid to late game, Lillia gradually became less impactful and contributed little to the overall gameplay as she couldn’t engage in fights to use Q – R to control the enemies. Finally, after the skill adjustments, Lillia has also gained additional weaknesses regarding energy consumption and increased cooldowns. However, the “Frozen Heart” build somewhat mitigates these weaknesses.
Strengths
When building “Frozen Heart”, this item not only increases Lillia’s armor to make her tankier but also provides two critical stats in the early game: reduced cooldown and increased mana. This is not only suitable for Lillia’s poke-heavy playstyle but also compensates for her squishiness when she completes “Frozen Heart” early. From here, Lillia will not hesitate to trade abilities combined with the passive that was adjusted in patch 11.14, granting healing and significant damage output. Additionally, the passive of “Frozen Heart” allows Lillia to continuously slow enemies when they are hit by her abilities.
Clearly, Lillia thrives when building this item, not only continuously applying Q to slow enemies but also increasing her movement speed when hitting targets. Opponents not only have a hard time dodging her abilities but also cannot catch Lillia as she continuously kites them with E (Drowsy Seeds) slowing and Q (Twisted Blossom) increasing her movement speed. Opponents facing Lillia must choose between farming minions or engaging in fights, requiring them to make the right timing decisions to avoid falling behind. Most importantly, “Frozen Heart” is a cost-effective item, priced at only 2500 gold, while Lillia completes “Frozen Heart” before her opponents can even focus on their Legendary items.
Weaknesses
The weakness of the “Frozen Heart” build is that it is only suitable against damage-dealing champions in the top lane. The additional armor from “Frozen Heart” won’t be very effective against mages like Vladimir, Rumble, or Syndra. Furthermore, when facing a team with heavy crowd control or burst damage, Lillia will struggle to engage to use Q and slow enemies in the late game. Therefore, the solo-lane Lillia playstyle is only suitable for ranks where individual skill and situational handling are crucial, rather than for control-oriented or combat-heavy playstyles like in tournaments.
Lillia’s Playstyle with “Frozen Heart”
Summoner Spells:
Rune Page:
Item Build:
Start with a Doran’s Ring and two Health Potions. Quickly complete the components of Frozen Heart as soon as possible. Instead of building Liandry’s Anguish, prioritize Frozen Heart first, followed by the Rod of Ages, Boots depending on the situation, and the Rylai’s Crystal Scepter. Once you have these items, Lillia will not only be tanky but also incredibly agile when using abilities to poke and harass opponents.