IO solo top?

you're right, that wasn't the best possible lineup, but LD mid is much better than medusa mid. Medusa will bring nothing as a mid while LD can do so much things. LD can do rune control and last hit better than medusa thanks to the bear. With fast 6/7, he can push the tower fast. Lone druid should always get solo lane. If you put medusa mid, you give a fast 6 to the most passive hero in the game and you will lose your mid game.

The possible lineup i can think of based on that is
- LD/enigma - mid/offlane. Either 1 of them can swap around, enigma could gank better than lone druid tho.
- chen jungle
- Io support bot lane
- medusa farming carry

You seem to think that the mid is only for leveling heroes fast... that is partially correct (as evidenced by the various heroes considered as the "best mid heroes", such as Puck. Queen of Pain and Batrider) However, that does not mean that in the course of the game Medusa mid is worse. True, Enigma or Lone Druid would make better mid game heroes, but what would happen to Medusa? If you put Medusa mid and Lone Druid off lane, while the rest go to bottom/bottom jungle, you can have Lone Druid as your mid game carry and Medusa as your hard carry - this way, 2 of your main carries can get solo EXP while the rest do a solid pushing dual with Jungle lane on bottom.

Though I can't conclude without seeing the enemy's line up and lanes, really.

True, Enigma or Lone Druid would make better mid game heroes, but what would happen to Medusa? - Medusa will be the farming carry in the safe-lane where it's harder to get ganked and has no obligation to gank. She can then switch to farming the jungle whenever needed.



If you put Medusa mid and Lone Druid off lane, while the rest go to bottom/bottom jungle, you can have Lone Druid as your mid game carry and Medusa as your hard carry - this way, 2 of your main carries can get solo EXP while the rest do a solid pushing dual with Jungle lane on bottom. If you put medusa mid, then you waste the usefulness of mid lane. Mid lane is useful because it's easier to swing/gank anywhere from mid thus creating the trend of putting ganker hero as a mid hero.

If you put Lone Druid offlane, Medusa mid, Io bottom, and either Chen / Enigma jungle (which chen is probably the better jungler), you will have no gank from mid, Lone Druid will be slightly underfarm since he's offlaning, Enigma (which probably has the most useful ultimate) will need to share exp with Io, and Io will be supporting nothing.

Enigma is definitely the better mid of all because:
- he has good ganking tools such as malefice
- the faster he gets lvl 6, the better
- he can keep denying experience from enemy's mid thus delaying their lvl 6 gank.

A super hard carry shouldn't be placed mid after all, even Alchemist will do much better as a mid because he has stun.

I suppose you have a point.

Like I said though, it does depend on the enemy picks and lanes.