Ishar — Patch 1.62 Verdict
[Default: B]
Ishar — Mage Guide
Ishar is one of the most mechanically distinctive mages on the Thai server. Her personal damage ceiling is not the point. She plays the game on two separate bodies simultaneously. Furball, her permanent companion, scales off her bonus magic power, auto-attacks independently, and participates in every ability she uses. That dual-entity design means her skill floor is genuinely high: you are always making two characters' worth of decisions, and a mispositioned Furball can ruin an otherwise clean rotation. The gameplan is part controller-mage, part puppeteer. You bait with Q's mushroom plant, explode it while W's stun arc brings Furball back through the cluster, then cage the survivors inside Dreamy Circle so your buffed Furball tears them apart. Ishar sits at B tier in the current patch, and that rating feels honest. Her kit has real playmaking tools (the R barrier is legitimately game-warping in choke-point teamfights), but she lacks the raw burst to punish the fast, snowballing assassins that dominate this meta, and her laning phase is one of the weaker ones in the mid lane pool. She rewards players who understand timing and spatial control above everything else. If you are a Diamond-plus mid laner who came up on control mages and finds heroes like Diao Chan or Ilumia a little too straightforward, Ishar's depth will keep you engaged for hundreds of games.
Strengths
- +Dreamy Circle provides one of the only true terrain-creation tools in the mid lane, capable of splitting enemy teams or caging assassins who dive Ishar's backline.
- +The W stun-into-knockup chain is a fully reliable CC combo that requires no skillshot aim beyond Furball's return path, making it consistent even under pressure.
- +Furball's passive scaling means Ishar becomes progressively harder to burst in extended teamfights as her magic power build fills out, giving the passive genuine late-game tankiness.
- +The two-hit mushroom mechanic creates persistent lane threat even when Ishar's summoner spell and ultimate are on cooldown, forcing mid laners to respect zone rather than standing idle.
Weaknesses
- −Ishar's laning phase before the mushroom plant is established is genuinely weak, she outputs very little burst damage compared to tier-S mid laners like Tulen or Lorion, making early-game ganks against her low-risk for the enemy jungler.
- −All of her major CC is tied to Furball's physical position, so any hero with a knockback, grab, or displacement that separates Furball from the engagement window effectively dismantles her combo.
- −The 2.5-second mushroom delay means her burst window is telegraphed; high-awareness opponents at Diamond+ will simply walk out of the mushroom's detonation radius, turning her hardest nuke into zero damage.
- −Without Flicker she has almost no reliable escape from a hard focus; her W shield is brief and her move-speed buff alone will not outrun most assassin dash patterns.
Abilities
PFurball
Furball's Attack Power, HP, Armor, and Magic Armor scale with Ishar's bonus Magic Power. Furball's first attack deals Magic Damage. When not in combat, Furball regenerates 6% HP per second and can be resummoned after 15 seconds. If Ishar dies, Furball gains 100% Movement Speed and hunts enemies for 5 seconds.
1Somnial Fungus
Ishar releases power to deal Magic Damage to enemies. If the target is hit 2 times, the next ability cast spawns a mushroom behind the first hero hit. After 2.5 seconds, the mushroom explodes and deals Magic Damage. Furball charges the first target hit by this ability (always prioritizes heroes), dealing Physical Damage and applying a brief Movement Speed slow.
2Somnial Shield
Ishar creates a shield and gains 50% Movement Speed for 2 seconds. Furball charges back to Ishar and stuns enemies it passes through for 0.75 seconds. Upon return, enemies around Ishar are knocked airborne for 1 second and have their Movement Speed reduced by 50% for 1 second.
RDreamy Circle
Ishar creates a Magic circle at a target location. After 0.5 seconds, the circle becomes a barrier blocking enemies for 3 seconds. Furball charges to the skill location, dealing Magic Damage and granting itself a buff: takes 30% reduced damage, gains 100% Attack Speed, and deals 60 Magic Damage per second to nearby enemies.
How to Use Ishar's Kit
Furball is not a passive you activate, it's a second character you manage, and the most common mistake is letting it sit idle between casts. Because Furball's attack, armor, and magic resistance all scale off Ishar's bonus magic power, building AP early has compounding value: Furball becomes meaningfully tankier and hits harder as the game progresses, making it a legitimate zone-of-control tool in late-game teamfights. The death-trigger, Furball sprinting at enemies for 5 seconds with 100% bonus movement speed, is occasionally the reason you survive a dive, so track the 15-second respawn timer after it dies; going into a fight with no Furball is like going in at half kit.
The mushroom mechanic is the axis everything else rotates around: you need two Q hits on the same target to plant a mushroom, and only then does the 2.5-second delayed explosion become part of your threat pattern. In lane, fire Q twice at the enemy mid laner, back off so they feel safe, and then engage the moment the mushroom pops, the extra damage plus Furball's dash-slow creates a punish window that most opponents do not respect until it's too late. One critical nuance: Furball's Q dive prioritises heroes over minions, so in a wave trade you will almost never lose the minion-targeting lottery.
Somnial Shield is Ishar's entire defensive and engage toolkit compressed into one button: the shield and 50% move-speed buff give her a brief window to dodge burst or close distance, while Furball's return path, stunning anything it passes through for 0.75 seconds then knocking up everyone near Ishar for 1 second, delivers the hardest CC in her kit. The key mistake high-rank players still make is pressing W reactively as a pure panic button; used proactively, sending Furball through an approaching assassin before they reach you converts a defensive cooldown into an offensive one. Always think about where Furball is standing before you press W, because a Furball that's already on top of you produces a near-zero-range stun.
Dreamy Circle's 0.5-second pre-activation delay is short enough that in a teamfight most enemies will not clear it before it becomes an impassable barrier for 3 full seconds, use it to cut off escape routes, not as an opener. Furball's simultaneous dash to the circle's center, gaining 30% damage reduction, 100% attack speed, and 60 magic-damage-per-second aura, means R transforms Furball from a chip-damage nuisance into a miniature frontline threat; stacking mushroom detonations inside the circle while Furball aura-damages trapped enemies is your peak DPS scenario. Resist the urge to use R as a damage-only ability, its barrier value in isolating one or two targets from teammates is almost always worth more than the flat Furball DPS.
Skill Order
Priority: R > Q > W| Skill | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1Somnial Fungus | 1 | · | 3 | · | 5 | · | 7 | · | 9 | · | · | · | 13 | · | · |
2Somnial Shield | · | 2 | · | 4 | · | · | · | 8 | · | 10 | · | 12 | · | 14 | · |
RDreamy Circle | · | · | · | · | · | 6 | · | · | · | · | 11 | · | · | · | 15 |
Loadout
Desolate
Protect
SecretMid Lane
1
2
3
4
5
6Support
123
4
5
6Core Combos
Mushroom Burst (Core Trade)
1121Land two Qs to plant the mushroom, auto-attack to close the damage gap, then W so Furball's return stun keeps the target inside the detonation zone when the mushroom pops on the third Q cast, the sequence is designed so the explosion lands mid-stun.
All-In Teamfight Lock
R1121Drop Dreamy Circle behind the enemy frontline to seal off retreat, double-Q to plant the mushroom on a squishy trapped inside, then W to stun-knockup while the mushroom timer counts down, Furball's R aura does continuous damage to everyone penned inside.
Flicker Engage
R2111Use R to place the barrier on top of your position, immediately Flicker forward into the enemy cluster so the barrier now cages them behind you, then W for the knockup and rapid-fire QQ to plant and detonate the mushroom before anyone escapes.
Death-Passive Punish
R11P2If Ishar dies during an extended fight, Furball's enrage sprint is already inside a live Dreamy Circle, cast R and plant a mushroom before going down so Furball's deathbuff aggression overlaps with the trapped enemies and the pending explosion.
Gameplan
Ishar's first real power spike is Orb of the Magi completion. The flat HP and mana let her trade repeatedly in lane without running dry, and Furball's scaling jumps noticeably at that point. The true mid-game spike arrives when Soul Scroll is online alongside Hecate's Diadem. At that point the mushroom detonation deals enough damage that a two-man group caught inside R simply cannot ignore it. Dreamy Circle's barrier reaching full value in teamfights makes objectives, Dragon and Dark Slayer specifically, her strongest moments. She is weakest in the window between levels 1 and 5 before the mushroom mechanic is established, and again in ultra-late games against full-build assassins who can blow through both the shield and Furball in a single rotation.
Early Game
Levels 1–6- →Play safe and focus exclusively on landing two Qs on the enemy mid laner to establish the mushroom threat — do not greed for kills before level 4; your job pre-mushroom is to not feed.
- →Position Furball aggressively in the wave so its first-hit magic auto harasses while you farm, giving you free chip damage without exposing yourself.
- →Ping your jungler when the mushroom is planted and your W is up — that combination is a free-kill setup if they arrive within 2.5 seconds.
Mid Game
Post Broken Spear- →After Orb of the Magi and Gilded Greaves, rotate to Dragon fights and use R's barrier to cut the Dragon pit exit — this is where Ishar's unique terrain tool wins objectives that pure-damage mages cannot.
- →In skirmishes, always W before walking toward the enemy rather than after; arriving with Furball already recalled means you deliver the knockup the instant you enter melee range.
- →If you are behind, play the R barrier defensively — place it between your retreating carry and pursuing assassins rather than trying to force damage you can't afford.
Late Game
Teamfight phase- →Dark Slayer setup is Ishar's highest-value late-game action: place Dreamy Circle across the pit entrance so the enemy cannot collapse, then let your team secure the objective safely.
- →By Hecate's Diadem plus Staff of Nuul, Furball's aura damage inside R is significant enough to make it worth targeting squishy enemies rather than the tank — adjust your R placement to catch carries, not frontline.
- →Track enemy Flickers and gap-closer cooldowns; Dreamy Circle only wins fights if enemies cannot instantly Flicker through the barrier, so hold R for the 2–3 seconds after those tools are burned.
Matchups
Ishar is not a flex first-pick. The barrier and mushroom mechanics become liabilities against highly mobile assassin-heavy compositions that can dash through the circle or burst her before she completes the two-Q setup. If the enemy has already locked in Nakroth, Butterfly, or Keera, seriously consider a different mid laner. Playing Ishar into that lineup means spending the entire game on the back foot. Her best first-pick window is when you can see two or more crowd-control-heavy allies, Baldum or Grakk for example, in your team draft, because those supports convert Dreamy Circle from a soft zone into a death trap. In bad matchups, accept a farm-focused lane, buy early, and target the enemy's least mobile hero with the R barrier rather than their fed assassin.
Ishar gets countered by
NakrothHis E-dash chain has enough range and direction changes to stay outside Furball's return arc, and he can one-rotate Ishar before the mushroom even detonates if he hits level 4 first.
KeeraKeera's dragon displacement knocks Furball out of position immediately, stripping Ishar of her W stun threat and leaving her with no reliable CC to prevent the follow-up burst.
ButterflyButterfly's passive invincibility frames let her tank the mushroom explosion, and her high single-target dash damage easily exceeds Ishar's shield value before W can reposition Furball for a knockup.
TulenTulen simply out-ranges and out-bursts Ishar at every stage of laning; his passive lightning procs trade more efficiently than double-Q setup, and his R makes him immune to the Dreamy Circle barrier.
Ishar synergizes with
BaldumBaldum's R toss throws enemies directly into a pre-placed Dreamy Circle, creating a near-inescapable cage combo that gives Furball a full 3-second damage window on trapped targets.
GrakkGrakk's hook pulls enemies toward Ishar, perfectly lining them up for Furball's W return-stun path and letting the mushroom detonate on a stunned, stationary target.
AnnetteAnnette's tornado hold keeps enemies locked in one spot for long enough that the 2.5-second mushroom delay stops being a liability, detonation is essentially guaranteed on a held target.
ArumArum's suppression and slow stack with Furball's Q dash-slow to create a layered chain of movement-impairing effects that make Dreamy Circle practically inescapable in a teamfight.
Pro Tips
- →Before using W, always consciously note where Furball is standing, if it's already adjacent to you, the stun path length is negligible; walk slightly away from enemies first so Furball has to travel through them on its return arc.
- →The Dreamy Circle barrier blocks movement but not dashes, so use it to cut off non-dashing enemies (tanks, carries without gap-closers) rather than trying to cage heroes with dash abilities; against dashers, use it as a retreat wall behind your own team instead.
- →In the laning phase, the enemy will often step back after the first Q hit to avoid the second, use that predictable retreat step to drop Q slightly behind their back-walk position rather than at their current location, effectively leading the target.
- →Ishar's death-enrage passive on Furball is most valuable when you have an active Dreamy Circle already running, if you are going to die in a fight, drop R first so Furball's 5-second aggression sprint overlaps with the barrier and any live mushroom detonation.
Ishar is a niche but rewarding pick for Diamond-plus mid laners who want a mage with genuine macro impact rather than pure burst damage. Her terrain creation and dual-body kit offer decisions that straightforward damage mages do not. She does not belong in every draft, and playing her blind into high-mobility assassin compositions will frustrate even skilled players. The single most important thing to master is Furball's pre-W positioning. Getting into the habit of consciously tracking where Furball stands before every W press separates players who get half a stun from players who get the full stun-into-knockup chain every single time.
Ishar — Frequently Asked Questions
Is Ishar good in the current ROV patch?+
Ishar is a B-tier mid laner in the current Thai-server ranked meta, viable but not dominant. Her barrier and dual-entity kit give her unique playmaking tools that stronger players can exploit around objectives, but the prevalence of mobile assassins in this patch makes her laning phase and combo setup reliably punishable at high rank.
What is the best build for Ishar?+
The standard core is Orb of the Magi into Gilded Greaves, then Soul Scroll, Hecate's Diadem, Staff of Nuul, and Holy of Holies. Orb first is non-negotiable. The HP sustain covers her weak early laning, and the magic power scales both her personal damage and Furball's stats simultaneously.
How do you counter Ishar?+
Pick heroes with reliable dashes who can exit the Dreamy Circle barrier before it fully forms, or mobile assassins like Nakroth and Butterfly who can one-rotate Ishar before her two-Q mushroom plant is complete. In lane, stepping back after the first Q hit to avoid the mushroom setup is the single most effective counterplay. A mushroom that never detonates on a hero is essentially a wasted ability.
Is Ishar hard to play / good for beginners?+
Ishar is rated Hard difficulty, and that rating is earned. Managing Furball's position as a second entity while executing the two-Q mushroom setup and timing Dreamy Circle's barrier placement is a lot to track simultaneously. Beginners will almost certainly underperform on her. She is best picked up by players who already have a solid understanding of mid-lane wave management and team-fight positioning.