Mana Medusa

So straight to the point Medusa is a hard carry which becomes extremely durable during late game with the ability to hit all enemies at once, much like Spectre. Since her durability depends on mana, it's common to see Linken's Sphere on 'dusa to boost up mana + HP regen. BUT. What if we replaced Sphere with something different? How effective would it be?
Suggestion #1:
Bloodstone
It's obvious that good Medusa player will get quite a load of kills in the game, exactly what the Bloodstone needs. With about 15 charges already, the mana regen flies above the clouds, allowing mana to regen faster than deplete if 1v1, thus infinite Mana Shield. Also early Soul Ring doesn't sound too bad either with mana + HP regen and allowing 'dusa to pop that ult at any time. Or even Arcane Boots and later dissassemble. Also costs about 400 more gold than Linken's which should be insignificant to 'dusa's farming capabilities.

Suggestion #2:
Shiva's Guard
Gives Medusa + 390 mana and decent mana regen. Also gives +15 armour and aura attack speed slow, making it almost impossible to kill 'dusa until her team comes to help and not possible at all to go 1v1 with her with right-click dependant heroes, e.g. Faceless Void, Lone Druid, etc. Provides more chase down ability + a nuke with the active. The only downside is that it doesn't provide HP, making you vulnerable to magic damage. Can be countered with a Pipe of Insight on the team (which you should have anyway, if enemy team has significant magic damage, e.g. Lion) or if your farm goes incredibly well, BKB after Manta Style.

Suggestion #3:
Scythe of Vyse
Gives 455 mana and 150% mana regen along with agh's like stats. A really good choice against heroes like Faceless Void and Phantom Assassin who have a chance to 1v1 you successfully due to evasion and high DPS. Provides with chase down ability and a guaranteed ult hit on at least 1 enemy hero.

Honourable mentions:
Rod of Atos: Good mana + decent mana regen and nice additional HP along with chase down/ult guarantee ability. Relatively cheap.
Orchid Malevolence: Attack speed, attack damage, mana and 150% regen? YES, PLEASE! Incredible item, since allows you to manfight skill dependant carries like Faceless Void and deals more damage after expiration.
Eul's Scepter of Divinity: 150% mana regen + decent mana and chase down ability. Gives that movement speed Medusa needs and a combo with ult, then Tornado. Very cheap. Void Stone can be rushed first, like Perservanse.

Thoughts?

It's not about getting intelligence, as it is about getting ALL Stats. This is why Linken's, Manta, Skadi, are so highly regarded compared to the rest you listed.

In that case, I think Scythe of Vyse would be great!

Anything with an Ultimate Orb is good.

What about Drums?

Okay let me start.


Your build:



I can see where you are going... Stacking mana for tankiness. But let me point out: Bloodstone gains charge for each kills, and since you are not a snowball/early game hero, its pointless since you are going online in the 35+ minutes. Shiva's Guard is pretty decent, but Medusa stacks armor from stats, and really your ultimate slows nearby enemies. The tankiness is pretty decent, yes, but as you mention, it doesnt provide HP, which she desperately needs. Scythe of Vyse is probably the most decent item on the list, as it gives mana, HP, and great active. And scythe is bought on carries as well, actually.


For the honourable mentions' Orchid Malevolence, like bloodstone, is for ganker/snowballing hero. Dusa is not going to gank or get early game kills. The silence, dmg amplifier, and mana regen is for roamers to continue on ganking without having trouble. Rod of Atos gives good stats for squoshy supports, but the overall stats are not good for medusa. Eul's Scepter of Divinity gives good mana, active, and move speed, but Manta Style gave off better stats for dusa. Rod and Euls arent necessary for Stone Gaze, since the ability slows units.




Usual Build:



Like Wulftsan said, its about getting all stats. While also gave good stats, these items gave more carrying capabilities, which dusa needed badly. Linken's Sphere is the usual core(arguable) because it gave good flat out stats, which dusa needs REALLY bad. Manta Style is built from Yasha, which both items gave AMAZING stats for agi carries. Eye of Skadi is, arguably, the best stat item in the game. The mana and HP is AMAZING, again. And the slow is usually enough to manfight carries.

The rest of the items are luxury carry items, which she could use really well. Butterfly gave AMAZING offensive stats, and the evasion increases her durability. Satanic could be built from Helm of Dominator, which she could use to stack ancients early in the game, and the stats and active is AMAZING, as it increases durability greatly. Scythe of Vyse is always a good item, even on carries, and especially on medusa. The incredible stats and active is AMAZING on medusa, adn the active is really good to manfighting.




Conclusion: Dont get mana items, rather get items that increases both ALL stats and offensive capabilities. She is unique as she benefit greatly from STR, AGI, AND INT. Thats why she is a very hard carry.

You can just do quick math to figure out why INT items are not that helpful for her.

Mana Shield diverts 50% damage to mana. At level 4, 1 pt of mana soaks up 2.5 damage. Not including armor into the equation, if you are dealt 10 damage, 5 goes to HP, 5 goes to mana which eats up 2 mana pts (5/2.5=2). So basically, having mana in a ratio of 5/2 is "optimal" because HP/MP will go to 0 at the same time when you die. Too little MP and you lose your armor. Too much MP and you basically die with MP left over. For example, if you have 2000 HP, you need 800 MP. Obviously, you want overhead for spells, but what do you really need? Just enough to cast 1-2 Mystic Snake and a Stone Gaze. The rest is all right-click. That's an extra 540 MP (not counting mana return from snake). So for 2000 HP, 1400 MP will suffice. You will need a bit more due to armor though.

All those INT items just gives you excess MP without the HP to go with it. That's why Ultimate Orb items are desirable because it balances out both and adds AGI. In fact, you will generally always have excess MP because 1 STR/INT gives you 19hp/13mp (more MP than you actually need for mana shield). In other words, for 1 pt of STR, you only need like 0.6 INT. Her INT gain is already more than her STR gain, so naturally, you already have more MP than is necessary.

For regen, Bloodstone + Heart of Tarrasque is probably doable, but adds nothing to your right-click. IMO, the best item to increase your tankability is Butterfly. You will reach effective HPs of like 4000-6000, and this will increase your physical effective HP by 35%, or 1200-1800. That's more than a Heart of Tarrasque!

Side note: Mask of Madness is an underrated item for her. It helps her sustain HP while farming and has a useful active which will double your DPS from split shot, as the only way to increase split shot damage is by increasing damage or attack speed (UAMs, crits, etc. only work on the primary shot). She only gets penalized 15% instead of 30% because the penalty is only assessed on the HP portion of the damage (so only 30% of the 50% reduced by mana shield). Turning it before you Stone Gaze is a cool way to bait them into attacking/looking at you while simultaneously mitigating any of that incoming damage.