Lich vs Ringmaster

How this matchup plays

Picking Ringmaster means you're looking for enemies who can't react to your team's coordinated setup. Lich, however, has some of the best reactive tools in the game for exactly that scenario. A successful pull from Ringmaster groups heroes together for a burst attempt, but that's an ideal situation for a bouncing Chain Frost. Even before the ultimate, Frost Shield can be cast on the caught ally, which reduces the incoming damage and slows all the attackers who just committed to the kill. This makes it much harder to secure the kill and easier to punish the attempt.

This dynamic often forces the Ringmaster's team to overcommit. They either need an overwhelming amount of damage to punch through Frost Shield, or they have to accept that their initiation target might survive and turn the fight. The main path to success for Ringmaster is to find and initiate on Lich himself, as he is much less capable of saving himself. For the Lich player, the game becomes about careful positioning, staying far back with spells ready to spoil any plays Ringmaster tries to make. It's a matchup of initiation versus counter-initiation where the defensive option has a slight advantage.