Riot devs are testing Lissandra jungle for yet another League of Legends role swap

Isaac McIntyre
Lissandra looms over League of Legends logo in potential jungle buffs.

Lissandra is the latest League of Legends champion potentially set for a major role swap late on in Season 11, with Riot currently testing the Ice Witch’s jungling potential on staging servers ahead of a possible character update.

Riot Games has become obsessed with shifting popular LoL champions into the playmaking jungle role over the past few seasons, and now it looks like Lissandra is next.

As it stands, the Ice Witch isn’t in a bad spot on Summoner’s Rift. She boasts a 52.17% win rate, and is played in 3.02% of games in Platinum rank and above. Nine out of ten of her games come in the mid lane, however, and there are many in the League of Legends fandom that wants to see her shifted north.

That interest has seen Riot Games begin Lissandra testing.

While nothing is set in stone, there’s every chance the nine-year-old champ may be shifted to the jungle by early Season 12 in a bid to promote role diversity.

Lissandra in TFT
Riot Games have been secretly testing Lissandra jungle buffs over the past few PBE patches.

The most suggested buff for Lissandra jungle would be allowing her passive to interact with slain jungle creatures. At the moment, her Iceborn Subjugation “spawns a Frozen Thrall” from any defeated enemy character.

These Frozen Thralls ⁠— invulnerable, we might add ⁠— crawl towards other enemy champions, dealing magic damage in an area of effect when they arrive.

Being able to dish out up to 520 additional damage in her jungle clear would mean jungle Lissandra can rush to Scuttle Crab duels quicker, or pull off lane ganks with ease. Her iconic “E” already gives her great mobility through jungle walls, or when attacking lane characters, and adding her passive to that kit would boost her win rate immensely.

Riot Phlox admits, however, that passive tweak would need “a ton of work beyond [private early testing] to be at all shippable” in a balanced state on the Rift.

Blade Queen Lissandra League of Legends Cosplay
If the League of Legends devs shipped the Lissandra jungle changes as is, she would be totally unbalanced.

While jungle Lissandra may be a ways off, the Riot Games development team is still hard at work shipping several new characters. Just recently, League of Legends saw its one hundred and fifty-eighth champion debut on Summoner’s Rift ⁠— Vex the Gloomist, an anti dash Yordle armed with a living shadow.

Amumu was just recently handed major changes too.

On top of that, Dexerto has already got our hands on leaks about the next champion, a new ADC hailing from Zaun who was hinted at in Netflix’s Arcane trailer. Champ 159 will be filled with “sparky determination.”

The mysterious bot laner will be released “early next year,” League of Legends insiders have confirmed, likely in the first handful of patches in Season 12.