Laning Discussion: Lich Offlane

Lich is a support hero, but he is also played sometimes as an offlaner. I personally never quite new why this was. Since I haven't done a laning discussion in several days, here's everyone's chance to figure it out. Here are my thoughts on it;

• Lich is XP dependent, but not farm dependent, which makes a perfect candidate for offlaner.
• Even though he isn't item dependent, he can still use gold to build very useful items, i.e. Mekansm or Aghanim's Scepter.
• Lich possesses an ability which destroys his own creeps, helping him to stay back under or near his own tower, and denying gold and XP to the enemy carry.
• Lich's Frost Armor paired with the slow from his Q helps him to stay alive if he is gone on or ganked.

This is just why I thought he might make a viable offlaner. I'm still not sure why you would choose him over another hero to put in that position though.

Just because a hero can survive the offlane doesnt mean he should.
Offlaners are more about what they do after the laning stage.

Still lich is always good in low mmr pubs.

You make a good point which I agree with Timm, but offlane Lich is used sometimes in high level play. I saw Admiral Bulldog play it at Faceit Proleague as well as synderen do it several times on stream. If "just cuz he can doesn't mean he should," then why is it done so often compared to other semi-viable offlaners?

What do you gain from solo off-laning him? What does he bring to your team?

Like, Lich is a hero about winning a lane. That is practically all he brings to a team by picking him, he denies exp and farm from one of your opponents lanes, and gives you a laning advatange as a result. Because outside of the laning stage he has a minor armour buff, some slows, and an unreliable team-fight ult.

He can't control the games tempo, he doesn't really scale with farm, he only scales to a certain extent with gold, and the hero drops off extremely hard to the point of being basically useless past like 40 minutes.

So sure, it's possible to solo offlane lich. It's not viable however. The only time I can see it being done as a solo offlaner, is if you've got an opposing safe laner whose very reliant on a specific timing for a given item, because he messes with that.

Ive also noticed that lich has completely disappeared from pro games now, and i also have the explenation for it. (atleast part of it)
Undying replaced him.

He's guaranteed XP (you get it for snackrifice), he denies gold and xp, you can't solo against him with most heroes, so it can lock the supports in for many carries. He's actually pretty effective with levels and some farm - it's funny how much people under-estimate him as they're used to only seeing him support.

Sure, he's not a play-maker or an aura carrier, but he can play as an auxiliary support if you have a greedy #4 or #5.