Warning: this guide will not be updated again until November, when I have time to fix up the threat lists and whatnot. Take the threat lists with a grain of salt (especially the Leo bit). However, the rest of the guide should still be relevant on how to play Lyra.

Note: The threat lists above apply to support Lyra just as much as CP Lyra, except that with support you cast your Imperial Sigil on allies to heal instead of for damage, although if there is an enemy that you can kill with the damage from Imperial Sigil then go for the kill. The "friendly" lists are on the support section, as CP Lyra can fend for herself and does well in any team comp, but support Lyra is not as effective with some heroes. As such, I have omitted all the support heroes from the list. Two support mains on the same team are very rarely seen, but quite disastrous if they both decide to play support.

Hello guys, my name is Pasu and I have played Vainglory ever since 2014 on the SEA server. I first started playing when Joule came out, so I have been through a lot and although I did stop playing for a while in the middle (between when Idris and Grace were released), I have since then concentrated back on playing the game. I currently stand at Simply Amazing Gold in 5v5 and Hotness Bronze in 3v3, after the season reset.

I played the game casually without giving a single thought to important game knowledge such as last hitting, stutterstepping and freezing the lane for the first two years of my Vainglory experience (I remember I used to just build full attack speed items on Krul, so I would have like three Tornado Triggers), so I didn't really have a main. However, as soon as Lyra came out I fell in love with her ability set, and ever since have mained her through all her nerfs.

As a support main (and especially a Lyra main), I have all five stars on Lyra (over 80 ranked games on her), and one star on each of Ardan, Churnwalker, Koshka, Caine, Gwen, Phinn and Varya (around 11 ranked games on each). My mains for 3v3 are as follows: Laner: Lyra; Support: Lyra; Jungler: Koshka. In 5v5: Top: Gwen (to burst down the enemy bot laner, due to her strong early game); Mid: Lyra or Varya; Support: Yates (if not banned) or Churnwalker (if Yates is banned); Jungle: Koshka or Joule (depending on the situation); Bot: Caine (to execute the often tanky enemy top laner).

Lyra's perk is Principle Arcanum. If she stands still after basic attacking, she releases a missile that deals a scaling amount of damage at the cost of some energy, but Lyra can continue using these missiles even if she runs out of energy. After the last update she no longer has a slow when building her CP, but her heavy attack now does WAY more damage, so it’s a trade off that allows her more burst rather than sustain. Her slow when full build as support is similar to what it was before the update, so there is not much of a change there. A skill that must be learnt when playing Lyra is to cancel this by moving after you basic attack, especially when playing support in the jungle as it can drain your energy fast.

Lyra’s first ability, or her "A", is Imperial Sigil. This is her main source of damage apart from her auto-attack, and it deals continuous damage as long as enemies stand inside the circle, so to maximise damage, wait until enemies are about to leave the circle then reactivate it. The main rule of Imperial Sigil is to use it for damage as CP and healing as a support.

Lyra’s second ability, or her "B", is Bright Bulwark. This is like a miniature version of Ardan's Gauntlet, except that it doesn't stun upon contact but still stops all dashes. The only movement abilities that can move freely in and out of it are Mirage, Jump Jets (when overdriven) and Rose Offensive. All other dashes are blocked, including some ultimates! These include X-Retsu, Path of the Ronin, Yummy Catnip Frenzy, and powerful abilities such as Feint of Heart, Truth of the Tooth, or Glaive's signature Afterburn. The advantage of this over Gauntlet is that Bright Bulwark slows enemies inside the area, but Gauntlet does not. This is one of the most powerful abilities in the game that is not an ultimate, but use it wisely and time it right, or it will go on an 14 or 12 second cooldown (CP and support builds respectively).

Lyra's ultimate is Arcane Passage. Its passive increases by her range by 0.5, 1, and 1.5 per level respectively, and its active makes it the ability with the potential to move ANY hero (looking at you, Yates) the largest distance across the map, but comes at the cost of enemies being able to do so as well. However, if they are standing in your Bright Bulwark, they cannot use the portal until your B expires. Good Lyra's use it very well to escape from enemies, as well as to engage a backline enemy that deals tons of damage such as Baron or Kinetic. However, bad Lyra's can teleport an ally who is chasing an enemy back to where she started, or send a fleeing ally right into the enemy's hands. Arcane Passage is by far the hardest to use of Lyra's abilities and requires good positioning knowledge to be able to pull off the ultimate teleport.

{Update 4.0} Arcane Passage has an increased cooldown in exchange for a massive range increase, so remember to move your map to maximise that 20 range for support and 30(!!!) range for crystal.

Pros

CP Lyra

Easy to play
Zero skillshots
Extremely high mobility
Strong in every stage of the game
Can overextend without worrying too much
Good sustain in lane with her healing

Support Lyra

Extremely strong harass and poke early
Extremely strong counter to "Protect the Carry" team comps
Strong throughout the game
Most reliable healer in the game
Easy to fit into (pretty much) any team comp
Built-in slow

Cons

CP Lyra

Not much in the form of AOE for a CP hero
Difficult to farm with before Alternating Current
Rather squishy
Can run out of energy if uncontrolled rather quickly

Support Lyra

No hard CC
Very squishy for a support

It really hurts to see your Bright Bulwark go down, but catch no one in the process. One second later, the enemy Koshka jumps you and you're dead. Timing Bright Bulwark is more crucial for CP Lyra because she has a longer cooldown, and is far squishier so her Bright Bulwark is more important to use at the right time. So here I will outline HOW to predict abilities (it's a lot like playing mindgames against the enemy).

So, how do we predict enemy abilities as Lyra? If you're good, the enemy will likely target you first as Lyra can do some serious damage if left unchecked. However, there will usually be more priority targets such as Ringo or Kinetic, so you should be still be able to protect them with your Bright Bulwark. Let's highlight one of the most dangerous heroes early to mid game, Koshka. With insane burst damage and the ability to stun a player for a MASSIVE 2.2 seconds, she is one of the most dangerous early game heroes, but once a Slumbering Husk is built, she really is more of an annoyance that a threat. Her Pouncy Fun is easy to predict: when she is rushing towards you, Bright Bulwark just after you see her coming your way. Since Bright Bulwark's circle is slightly shorter than the max range for Pouncy Fun, more often than not she will attempt to use it at max range and get caught. Immediately auto her a few times and she should either run away or die. If she is low enough, you can even Arcane Passage to her and Imperial Sigil her, most likely killing her.

Another example of this is Taka. His ult, X-Retsu, deals massive damage and applies Mortal Wounds to his target. This reduces healing effects of the hero, so don't think about using Imperial Sigil on yourself to 1v1 Taka. His basic attacks refresh the duration of the Mortal Wound, so you have to be able to block it. Luckily, there's a telltale sign for his ult; when he goes invisible, immediately Bright Bulwark. As outlined before with Koshka, X-Retsu's range is larger than Bright Bulwark's, meaning that if the Taka tries to activate it at maximum range, he will be caught on the barrier. Anything that is caught on your barrier will take a short time to react to being stopped, so use that to your advantage, immediately attack them and try to kill them.

Lyra's ultimate, Arcane Passage, is the only ability to move any hero, friendly or otherwise, a large distance from where they started. However, enemies can also use it unless they are inside your Bright Bulwark. This allows for some interesting escape strategies, such as teleporting into your turret or into your entire team. You might ask, where's the timing in that? Well, this applies more to support Lyra than CP Lyra as support deals way less damage and might not even be able to finish the kill that teammates are chasing off, but CP Lyra usually can. When you Arcane Passage, both portals can be moved through, meaning that ANYONE who goes into one portal will be moved into the other one. In other words, you can easily stuff up your teammates who are chasing an enemy.

For example, the final remaining hero on the enemy team is a Phinn, who has very little mobility and your teammates are already hitting him while he is running, trying to get an ace. However, from behind them, you use your Arcane Passage, and send your teammates flying back to where you started, but you don't have the damage to kill the Phinn as you are support, so you have just cost your team a very valuable time period to take important objectives (i.e. Kraken, Gold Mine, Turrets). This is why it is important to know when to use Arcane Passage. The best use of this is to engage if you know there are enemies in, say, a bush, and immediately place Bright Bulwark so the enemy cannot escape through the portal and for the rest of the team to follow through with you.

This applies even more so to CP Lyra as you deal massive damage, so you can teleport behind high priority targets (i.e. the ones that deal the most damage), and kill them instantly with the combo outlined in the threats list, B+A, which means to place Bright Bulwark so the enemy cannot escape, as well as slowing them, and then casting Imperial Sigil on them, which should be easy as they are slowed, and then auto attack them to death.

{Update 4.0} Arcane Passage is now an even more useful tool both for engaging and escaping, but has a lengthy cooldown, so use it wisely!

Play Video

In the above video, I find the Baron farming by himself in early late game. I punish him for his insolence, and head over to where my team is getting absolutely wrecked. I rush over to where the teamfight is occuring with only the Ringo on our team left, and I instantly place Bright Bulwark down, slowing the Reza and Taka and allowing the Ringo to get some decent damage in. I then target the Reza, who is the bigger threat here, and kill him and get the double kill off the Taka. Then, I get stunned by Celeste's Core Collapse because I stood still to activate my Principle Arcanum. I stuff up my Arcane Passage slightly because I didn't see the Celeste use her Travel Boots as she was in a bush when she activated them, thus causing my teleport to be slightly off and require the use of my own Halcyon Chargers to catch her. I then engage the Krul, who is trying to take Blackclaw. Notice that I move close to the Krul for two reasons: (1), to deal damage with my Bright Bulwark, and more importantly (2), to reduce the stun time from the From Hell's Heart that I know the Krul will definitely use. Stealing Blackclaw was just a bonus in this clip. However, doing so requires extensive knowledge of all heroes' abilities so I would not recommend trying this unless you know exactly what abilities your opponents have and your limitations.

In this particular game, I took the overdrive on Bright Bulwark instead of Arcane Passage because they had three melee heroes compared to two ranged, as well as neither of the ranged heroes having any mobility abilities ( Celeste has no inbuilt movement ability, and I knew the Baron hadn't overdriven his Jump Jets). This video was taken a while ago, and back then I preferred to build Halcyon Chargers because they had the most passive move speed out of the three boots (all three have the same move speed boost now), as well as the fact that Lyra had an inbuilt slow. However, she no longer has this, so War Treads is a better option in the present day.

CP Lyra is far more difficult to play than support Lyra. Where support Lyra can just Imperial Sigil herself and she will pretty much heal herself for the damage dealt to her if she is fed enough, CP Lyra does not have that luxury as she is squishy at the cost of dealing far more damage. As a result, her abilities become even more important to time correctly, especially as when playing CP, you take the overdrive for her Arcane Passage over the overdrive for her Bright Bulwark as the increased range will allow you to kite from a safer distance. However, her cooldown on her Bright Bulwark goes from 14 seconds when overdriven to 18 seconds at level 4, so timing is even more important with CP Lyra.

However, with greater difficulty comes greater reward. Lyra can be played in both top and mid, and I personally prefer mid as it allows me to dictate the flow of the game - the mid lane is the most important lane. If farming correctly, you should deal upwards of 400 damage with your Principle Arcanum strong missile by the 15 minute mark, and absolutely shred anyone foolish enough not to buy Slumbering Husk to stop you. As a mid laner, you will get the most pressure and this is where Lyra truly shines, as she is able to heal both herself and teammates up with Imperial Sigil, something only Adagio before level 6 can do apart from her. As long as you win your lane and harass the enemy mid laner enough (hopefully getting a kill in the process), you should be able to carry your team in teamfights once you have Alternating Current, Travel Boots, and preferably Shatterglass, and as kills start rolling in, you should be able to snowball from there. Lyra's main source of damage is her auto attack, but her Imperial Sigil does pretty good damage too, so place that down as well after you've snared them with Bright Bulwark as this makes them far easier to hit.

CP Lyra's massive power spike comes when she hits level 6, and by massive I mean MASSIVE. Her Arcane Passage increases her range from being one of the shorter ranged heroes (at 5.6) to be able to rival the likes of Ringo, Gwen, and Kinetic, three heavy WP damage heroes without being in their attack range first. This allows you to be able to trade fairly with them, especially if you already have Alternating Current. The other massive perk is that you can overextend as much as you want without worrying about the consequences, because unless you get stunned and killed instantly, you can always teleport back to the turret, and the enemy ganker will often follow you and get themselves killed. Having said that, be wary if there is a Koshka enemy jungler, as at this stage you are quite squishy and once she locks you down with Yummy Catnip Frenzy and the laner comes to help, you're gone. Apart from Koshka there really aren't any other heroes you need to be careful of when overextending to get farm.

Arcane Passage, when maxed out, gives Lyra a huge range boost, from a lackluster 5.6 range (similar to that of CP mages with high-damage abilities that extend beyond their auto-attack range) such as Celeste and Skaarf to an acceptable 6.1 range at level 1, similar to that of high-damage WP carries such as (as outlined before) Gwen, Kinetic, and Ringo. At level 2, you already have an auto attack range higher than most other heroes at 6.6, drawing level with SAW, surpassing Samuel and Varya. At level 3, you have the highest auto-attack range of ANY hero in the game (with the exception of Baron with a level 3 Ion Cannon), which makes his range a massive 7.5 (and some people still don't understand why Baron is a late game hero). This means that you can poke any hero (bar Baron) without taking damage back if you time it correctly.

If you're looking for a CP laner that deals plenty of damage without having to land any skillshots, Lyra might just be the right choice for you, as her versatility will benefit any team that has her on it.

CP Lyra's main damage comes from her auto attack, and sometimes her Imperial Sigil. Her Imperial Sigil is just so useful you should always take it as your first ability, and her Bright Bulwark is mainly for protecting herself. Thus, you should overdrive her Imperial Sigil first, and then overdrive her ult for the extra range and teleport range over the decreased cooldown, increased slow and duration of slow of overdriving Bright Bulwark. To level up fastest, remember to last hit minions. If all goes well, you should be able to get at least 90 CS in 10 minutes, and that should set you up for the game.

When playing CP Lyra, you should recall only when you’re either level 6, really really low, or have enough to buy Alternating Current and preferably Travel Boots. Alternating Current is your core item, allowing you to deal massive damage even extending into late game. Travel Boots just offer massive utility by increasing your movement speed, and allowing you to escape from a sticky situation. After that I tend to build Shatterglass unless the enemy team is really tanky, in which case I build a Dragon's Eye.

The reason I take Shatterglass over Dragon's Eye first is because at this point, most people are not very tanky and you can burst them down faster with Shatterglass. Following this I like to build Broken Myth to pierce those shields, and then some defense needs to be built. In most cases the best option is Slumbering Husk, as it offers both armor and shield, but if the entire enemy team are building crystal or weapon power, buy Aegis or Metal Jacket respectively. Your final item, depending on the situation, should be Dragon's Eye if you built Shatterglass earlier, or vice versa. If the enemy has lots of lifesteal (such as Baptiste, Reim, or Samuel) you could consider buying Spellfire to reduce their healing.

The final item in this build is War Treads, which offers increased health, translating into a stronger heal and a stronger slow. This is my go-to item for boots, but some people may prefer Halcyon Chargers for the cooldown reduction and energy cost reduction. The choice is yours; however, Energy Battery needs to be bought at the start if you don't want to run out of energy, and you have to sell that if you want to buy War Treads but can keep it if you're going for Halcyon Chargers.

The CP build is pretty much fixed for Lyra unlike the support build, which has to adapt to each team comp. Please don't buy Aftershock, it's a waste of space. Lyra doesn't need that amount of burst. Clockwork could be an option, but Lyra's main damage doesn't come from her abilities, but her Principle Arcanum, so it would be more useful on support. Eve of Harvest is for healing, but if Lyra is played properly, she doesn't need healing, so a Dragon's Eye or a Shatterglass would do the job far better. As for Frostburn, while it can be useful against assassins like Taka and Koshka, you already have a passive slow perk with your War Treads, so there really isn't much incentive in sacrificing crystal power for a slow.

Finally, the item Shiversteel is now considerable for Lyra after the change to it, especially in fast-paced games, but in 3v3 and 5v5, it is still not viable. Shiversteel brings Lyra back to how she was before update 3.8, where she had a built-in slow, meaning she would be more sustain-orientated, useful against tanky enemy compositions. However, the big problem with Shiversteel is where it FITS. Alternating Current is a guaranteed first buy on CP Lyra. Shiversteel doesn't have any crystal power, so it doesn't really help the Alternating Current or Principle Arcanum, meaning a Dragon's Eye must be built before it. That's two items, Piercing Shard plus boots, and often a defensive item. In other words, it is just too slow to fit into Lyra and causes you to deviate from your build too much, as the place it will take is that of Shatterglass, which offers 130 crystal power. Sure, the extra health and attack speed are useful, but more damage means faster killing and if they do manage to escape, don't forget your Arcane Passage has a range of 30, so remember to move your mini-map to teleport further.

Currently the support list consist of: Adagio, Ardan, Catherine, Churnwalker, Flicker, Fortress, Grace, Lance, Lorelai, Lyra, Phinn, and Yates.

The most picked hero in this list is Ardan in the current meta, and most players I meet in ranked tell me to play Ardan when I indicate support. The thing is, Ardan is really not that good after both his Gauntlet and Vanguard durations were reduced, and is only picked so much because he is the easiest support to play, and most people who do not main support will play Ardan as he is the safest pick. As a support main, Ardan is almost never my go-to pick even if I am not playing Lyra, because the nerfs have really hit him hard and he is just not as reliable a pick anymore.

There is a reason the support role is the hero that is to be targeted last... unless your name is Lyra, the sole exception to the rule, and the only reason I lose a teamfight is because I get targeted first (or my team is very far behind in gold and items). She is just so versatile that sometimes teams decide to target her first even as a support due to the utility she offers her team. The only hero in the support list above that can compete with Lyra in my opinion is Yates. His pull is just so powerful and his kit is so useful (apart from his ult) that it is hard to pass over him as a second choice, and if for some reason Lyra is picked or banned my choice would be Yates.

So, why is Lyra so good? The simple answer is that all three of her abilities are incredibly good and usable in any situation, and she does everything well; healing, repositioning, dealing damage, and stopping enemies' dashes. Her Arcane Passage has many uses, be it engaging, escaping, or chasing, her Bright Bulwark can stop any dashes without a significant cooldown (as well as slow escaping enemies), and she can deal damage while also healing with her Imperial Sigil. Now, let's take a look at Adagio. His Verse of Judgement is pretty much useless in teamfights because to hit it, you have to use Gift of Fire to slow the enemies first, and that means not healing your teammates. Ardan has a similarly useless ability in Blood for Blood, Catherine can't help her team with Stormguard, Churnwalker is EXTREMELY difficult to play well, Flicker falls off dramatically late game as he just gets killed before he can do anything, and his root on Binding Light is nigh impossible to hit without another CC ability, Fortress is more of a damage dealing support than one that actually helps the team, Grace's Divine Intervention almost always means sacrificing herself, Lance's Combat Roll does literally nothing apart from movement, Lorelai's Fish Food is easily avoidable, Phinn has zero mobility and can do nothing when separated from his team, and Yates's Iron Mandate isn't very useful considering you should never engage while missing a hero anyway. The only thing missing from Lyra's inventory is a hard CC, such as a stun, root, or silence, but her slow on her Principle Arcanum in tandem with Bright Bulwark serves this purpose pretty well apart from abilities that MUST be stunned (if the hero in question is playing CP), like Dragon Breath, Verse of Judgement, or Big Red Button. An example of this is outlined below.

A couple of days ago I played a 3v3 game with two random people in the same guild, and I was second pick on the left side. Initially I wanted to play Lyra, but when our first player locked in CP Vox and the enemy first and second picks were Krul and Skaarf, and our last player indicated he wanted to play WP Blackfeather, I knew we needed a stun to stop the Skaarf's Dragon Breath, so I changed from Lyra to Catherine in an instant. By no means is this guide meant to force you to play Lyra; in that case, Lyra would have been quite useless as Krul is the hero highest on the threat list, and a Skaarf on the enemy team requires a stun on your team, which none of my teammates or Lyra has. We ended up absolutely curb stomping the enemy team, as the Skaarf could never use Dragon Breath without me using Merciless Pursuit on him, which meant their main source of damage was reduced significantly.

{Update 3.10} Support Lyra has received a MASSIVE buff on all of her abilities apart from her ult, as they scale more on health as well as the overdrive on Bright Bulwark giving an increased slow and duration of slow as well as the original decreased cooldown, so there really is NO reason not to play support Lyra!

At level 1, you should always take Imperial Sigil first, as it is the most versatile (and quite possibly the best) ability in the entire game; it heals and damages at the same time. Because of this, most teamfights over the middle treant will go your way if your teammates are half decent; if you got the middle treant, good, but if not and you manage to kill at least one of their heroes and damage the other, steal their jungle farm! They're not going to come back for another 10-15 seconds, which is plenty of time to take both the healing treant closer to the gold mine and the two small bears next to the middle treant. After doing all that, you should be level 2 by then, and upgrade your Bright Bulwark because while it is not as good as Imperial Sigil in terms of versatility, having another ability is far better than having a more powerful ability.

Help the jungler clear your jungle without using Principle Arcanum's powerful missile - you have no energy regeneration (as the jungler takes all the farm) and should the enemy jungler and support invade, you will be unable to heal or block their dashes, putting you at a massive disadvantage. And while clearing jungle, I cannot stress this enough. DO NOT TAKE THE JUNGLE FARM UNLESS THEY EXPLICITLY TELL YOU TO, that is, they use the green target ping on the minion telling you to take it. If you take the jungle farm without being told to, it will tilt your jungler and put you on a bad relationship, meaning they are more likely to make a mistake and thus lose teamfights. If you do by accident take a jungle treant, make sure to follow it up with either the sad face ping, or the "Sorry, my bad" emote in the top right corner if you're playing touchpad.

This process should go to level six with the occasional gank on the enemy laner - BUT ONLY IF THE JUNGLER FEELS LIKE IT. YOU DO NOT GO AND GANK BY YOURSELF. At around the 5 minutes mark you should be level 6, and have your abilities at level 3, 2, and 1 respectively. At this point you should shop at the middle shop, then ping your jungler to go and gank lane even if they haven't done so already, since your Arcane Passage and Bright Bulwark combo is so powerful that if the jungler takes the portal with you, the enemy laner has almost zero chance of escaping unless they are under the turret.

The above has been crossed out as there are two possible ways to play Lyra support before level 6, and at the moment the method below is more effective. Like mentioned before, start by trying to steal the middle treant with you Imperial Sigil if your team doesn't come to help you, or initiate a teamfight if your teammates are with you as you should be able to win a teamfight early with ease. However, the major change in the order comes after this, especially if you have a melee laner like Idris or Blackfeather. Follow the laner to the lane and protect them instead of the jungler, as they should be able to handle themselves in the jungle. When the enemy laner tries to take any farm, immediately attack them and force them to retreat, as you have quite a bit of damage at this point through Principle Arcanum, and should things get too hot to handle, you have your potion as well as Sprint Boots to escape. Remember to alternate recalls with your laner (3v3) or mid laner (5v5) as turrets do give quite a bit of gold to the enemies when they fall, and you really don't want that happening so one of you should be in lane at all times.

This harassment tactic is what makes Lyra so good in both 3v3 and 5v5: forcing the laner to go home means that they will be missing out on important farm that allows them to grow stronger. Remember that after you manage to get them really low with a Principle Arcanum strong missile that you can use your Sprint Boots to catch them and attack them once more, as well as popping an Imperial Sigil under them to kill them. Imperial Sigil can also be used to finish off low health enemies who THINK that they are safe under the protection of the turret as it does a surprisingly high amount of damage early game. While all this is going on, don't forget to heal your laner with Imperial Sigil and freeze the lane for them when needed! This should continue until around level 6 or when everyone starts converging towards lane in 3v3 and mid lane in 5v5.

The stages after level 6, I have noted, vary a lot. Sometimes all three enemies decide to push lane, in which case you should tell your jungler to head for their jungle farm, and head up to lane to support the laner. Otherwise, if only the laner is in lane, continue supporting your jungler in jungle until level 8. This represents Lyra's second power spike in the game, as her Imperial Sigil is at max heal, meaning that another teamfight should be an easy win. Ping your jungler once again to gank lane, and use the initiate combo (ult + B) to kill the enemy laner, at which point the enemy jungler and support should come to defend their turret. Destroy their turret and kill the remaining two heroes, and with some luck, you should have an ace. Head for the gold mine and take it for an almost unassailable lead in gold, although be mindful of the laner who has respawned coming to try and steal it. For this reason, you should always tell either the jungler or the laner to stay in the enemy's triangle bush (the one nearest the gold mine) while you and the other hero take the gold mine in YOUR triangle bush. The hero in the triangle bush should be able to beat the enemy laner with ease as their items should be far superior to the enemy laner.

At level 9 you have the option of upgrading either your Bright Bulwark or your Arcane Passage. I have tested both and decided that Arcane Passage is the better choice, as the teamfights at this point usually last less than 14 seconds, meaning waiting to overdrive Bright Bulwark later is a better idea and that the auto attack range increase is more beneficial. You should then take the Bright Bulwark upgrades for level 10, 11, and 12 as the 4 second cooldown decrease as well as the extra 20% slow on the final level of Bright Bulwark is just too good not to take, especially when playing support and the extra range doesn't allow you to do insane amounts of damage unlike CP. At this point, your team should have around a 3-4k lead in gold over the enemy team. Most games snowball from here, so this is what a successful game in VG when playing support Lyra should look like.

In 5v5 these rules should generally stay the same except that you are now following the MID laner around.

So, once you've decided to play Lyra, you need to choose your build. Your starting items should always include Sprint Boots if you're in jungle, just in case a fight over the middle treant goes pear-shaped and you want to escape quickly. However, Lyra's Imperial Sigil is so useful early that you should win nine teamfights out of ten early game, and snowball from there. Many of my games are already decided by the 10 minute mark, and only once have I lost a game that we were winning from the start. Your other item should usually be Oakheart to start amping up that slow on Principle Arcanum, as well as to build into Fountain of Renewal later on. However, less experienced players may choose to buy Ironguard Contract or Energy Battery instead if they don't know how to cancel Principle Arcanum.

Your first return to the shop should always occur when you have enough to buy at least Fountain of Renewal and hopefully Travel Boots as well, as that passive speed boost can really help you close the distance and allow you to slow your enemies with Bright Bulwark and allow teammates to catch them. The next two items to be built should be Crucible and War Treads, as both give bonus health to increase your slow, and offer great utility to the team; one blocks all enemy debuffs, and the other increases your entire team's movement speed, whether it be for fleeing or chasing.

The fourth item is where it gets tricky. Although these two items should always be built, the order really matters in deciding which one first. Personally, I prefer Alternating Current, as the extra damage it offers really allows you to make an impact in teamfights and deal some damage (indeed, a lot of the time I deal more damage as a support than the jungle does to enemy heroes), but if you find yourself in a losing position because your team just dies out too quickly, Capacitor Plate might be the better option to help heal more and increase the movement speed of your team. These two should always be your fourth and fifth item, and the build is nearly complete.

However, there are plenty of options for the final item. They include Dragon's Eye, Rook's Decree, Contraption, Atlas Pauldron, and Clockwork.

Dragon's Eye is the most offensive item here, as it build up your crystal power as you auto attack, allowing your abilities to deal more damage. This is most effective when your team has built some defense but as a result is unable to deal enough damage, and you can do some serious damage with Dragon's Eye in tandem with Alternating Current. A team with lots of tanks can also be a prompt to build Dragon's Eye, such as Ozo, Phinn, or Reim.

Rook's Decree is the other item I recommend in place of Dragon's Eye. This provides a massive barrier as all of your items bar Alternating Current give bonus health, and you end up with giving your teammates a sizeable barrier. If you feel that your teammates are doing enough damage but not surviving long enough, this item might just be the thing you need to keep them alive so they can get that ace.

Personally, I don't like buying Contraption, especially when my team is ahead in the game, as Contraption clogs up your inventory and doesn't help much in the area of attack, healing, or defense. Wards do a way better job at providing vision than those measly scout traps,so Contraption should only be picked as an item when your team is equally matched or behind, or when the enemy have Taka, Kestrel, and especially Flicker on their team.

Atlas Pauldron is best for defending against enemies with high attack speed that are carrying their team, like Ringo, Krul, or Kinetic. This reduces their attack speed by a whopping 65% for 4 seconds, with a 45s cooldown. The best use of this is just to Arcane Passage next to the high attack speed and instantly use it, as it will guarantee the debuff short of it being blocked by Crucible.

The final option for this slot is Clockwork, as Clockwork can be built for the extra energy, the energy recharge, and of course, its cooldown reduction/passive, which reduces all your abilities' cooldown by 10% when you hit a hero, which can only occur once every three seconds. Clockwork has become a more enticing option following the build path of Capacitor Plate from Chronograph to Warmail, as the build no longer has any cooldown reduction items. However, it does nothing for the team and is pretty much useless if you're losing in teamfights, so I would only advise buying this when you are evenly matched or ahead in games. Because of this, it should only ever replace Dragon's Eye if you really want to buy it, and should never replace Rook's Decree, Contraption, or Atlas Pauldron.

AT THE END OF ALL THIS, DON'T FORGET TO BUY Crystal Infusion WITH YOUR EXTRA GOLD, YOU CAN'T USE GOLD AFTER YOU'RE FULL BUILD ANYWAY!!!

Thanks for reading my guide guys, I hope that you have enjoyed reading it and learnt something from it. Hopefully I'll see more competent Lyra's out there on the Halcyon Fold and Sovereign's Rise, so that I don't feel like I'm the only one who sees how useful Lyra is! I'm currently working on a support guide for people who want to play support but just need that extra nudge. Visit it here!

Good luck to all of you, and happy ranking!

If someone tells me that isn't the best splash and overall skin effects in the game, I don't know what is!!! <3

P.S. Please don't use the School Days Lyra skin if you have it, it completely ruins the image of Lyra! The only Lyra skins that are actually good are Dear Diary Lyra and Tidal Enchanter Lyra <3. Which one is better though? I have both and I can't decide :'(