Chang'e Solo 7.7: How to Win in Depth

Chang'e is a scary solo laner to play against. Her burst damage and poke make her a painful matchup, with most players understanding that she can be a nightmare to fight against. Her main asset is her poking power, which will allow her to gradually tick down an opponent while clearing the wave. She is not a god who is able to get quick kills early on, and Chang'e players should play for the long run rather than taking risks.

Chang'e's early-mid game damage is a pest. The player should always set off from the fountain as quickly as possible at the start of the game, carrying 650 gold with them, and plant a ward in the enemy mana camp. This way, the player will be able to see which power type they are against and buy their first protection item as the minions are spawning.

Chang'e players should be careful early on, and rely on the Mage's Blessing to bolster the little ticks of damage that she is able to land on opponents who get too close. Always prioritise hitting the wave minions with her crescent, positioning her to maximise damage by hitting the enemy solo with the edge of the crescent, so as to damage the entire wave and poke the enemy. Afterwards, use her heal to further damage the minions and poke the enemy. If the enemy solo is focussing on the melee minions, this ability can also heal your minions and get extra poke on the enemy solo, since her T1 heal surprisingly deals more damage than her crescent. This way, it will take the opponent longer to kill the minions and they can help in poking the enemy solo as well.

As her clear is better than a lot of enemy solos', the player is encouraged to take advantage of her ranged basic attacks and add some extra little ticks of damage to the enemy solo laner while her abilities are on cooldown: it all adds up.

Change'e's dodge can be very hard to use effectively, but can be a pain when used correctly. Given its huge cooldown, the dodge should be used as a last resort. Bear in mind that it cancels any active CC, which is great against long lasting, annoying CC, like Nike's ultimate. Even if the player misjudges and uses the dodge too late, they can still gain from mitigating these long-length CCs which are usually her end if her dodge is not up.

The enemy solo will always be aware that the dodge has a huge cooldown, and will be constantly trying to bait it out. Do not fall for it. Using a dodge to evade melee attacks while an enemy solo is chasing Chang'e does little when they dump abilities on her when she is vulnerable. Therefore, try to bait the hard-hitting abilities from opponents, and try to spot when they want to use their ultimate. This is also handy when being ganked by a jungler, since the jungler will usually be called in after she has used her dodge, meaning there is no escape. Understand the abilities of the enemy solo laner, and spot when they try to dump damage onto Chang'e, then use her dodge to maximise its mitigation.

STRENGTHS:
- Chang'e is a monster at poking. Her area damage and close combat damage will punish melee opponents who try to poke her.
- She will not need to return to the fountain ever, if her abilities are used economically and effectively, and if you keep getting the MP5 Totem. On top of this, her area damage can easily punish enemy solos who try to take the totem from her, as she can damage both the totem and the opponent simultaneously.
- Chang'e's healing and antihealing are fabulous in all stages of the game, and her area damage is handy in teamfights, whittling away opponents.
- Chang'e has better clearing capabilities than a lot of other solo laners, which gives her more time to directly attack an enemy solo who is trying to focus on minions.
- If built correctly, Chang'e can frequently get both top damage and top mitigation on the team.

WEAKNESSES:
- Chang'e lacks single target damage, and can really struggle if she is singled out from a teamfight.
- Once her evasion is on cooldown, she becomes a prime target for ability dumps and enemy junglers.
- Her ultimate is less effective in team fights when the opponents are spread out.
- Antiheal can really affect Chang'e's longevity in lane.

The key to building Chang'e is versatility, which means that the player must have a good understanding of who they are against in lane and who they are against in general. After getting the first protection item, the player must always get cooldown boots: the key here is maximising her cooldown reductions as fast as possible. After this, she will have reached 30% CDR against a magical opponent, or 20% against a physical one. Therefore, the spirit robe or BPV will boost her CDR to a maximum of 40%.

After this, the build may seem up in the air, but there are a few items that work really nicely on Chang'e, and should be built based on the opposing team's composition. Usually the fourth item can go one of two ways: if she is ahead enough to gank enemy lanes, or if she needs mobility to avoid constant ganks, Doom Orb is a great choice. If the opponent has built up a strong magical defense, Charon's Coin is a great choice, given its penetration boost as well as the mobility boost. If an opponent relies on healing and Chang'e is ahead, use Divine Ruin in this slot, or use Pestilence/Contagion if she is behind and needs extra defence. Towards the end of her build, Obsidian Shard is a handy item which will give her even more penetration, since penetration is really strong on Chang'e and lets her poke harder than power would. Upon completing the fifth item, try to keep the evolved Mage's Blessing, then trade it out for an item with 10% cooldown reduction as soon as possible to keep her CDR at the maximum of 40%.

Towards the end of the game, if built with sufficient penetration, will become a great aide in destroying towers and looking after the ADC. Given her healing abilities, she is great for split pushing with an ADC and can absorb structural damage with her huge protections and a correctly timed dodge.

In team fights, Chang'e should focus on defending allies rather than instigating attacks, as she needs to get close to enemies to damage them, which puts her in a vulnerable position. This is why the spirit mantle is important. Chang'e should not be on the front line, and should instead be between the front line and the back row, in order to maximise healing effectiveness and letting her have easy access to her ADC if the enemy jungler creeps up behind. Her ultimate is fantastic at stopping enemies from getting too close, and can set up with other ultimates amazingly, with a fairly consistent stun of 2/3 seconds, giving allies time to converge on opponents. Chang'e excels in saving allies who have been separated from the group, and can quickly make her way towards these isolated and vulnerable allies with the Doom Orb of Charon's Coin, saving the much squishier high-damage gods that the team needs alive in order to finish the game.