[6.87 Lion] Ganking Mid & Lane Support

Introduction

While typically not seeing much love in the competitive pro scene, Lion is one of the most feared/hated (read: fun-to-play) heroes in public matchmaking. He is best when played at the #2 postiion (semi-carry/ganker) where you can quickly get your mobility items, or as a #4 (roaming support) position where you build up support items and let your double disables wreck enemies in team fights.


Pros

• High nuking potential with ultimate (1025 magic damage after Agh's upgrade)
• Great ability to gank or save carries from a gank with two disables, including longest duration Hex in the game (4 seconds at max level)
• Lane harassment with low cooldown nuke/disable and mana drain
• Self sustaining mana pool with Mana Drain
• High Intelligence growth (3 per level, T-9th highest in DotA)

Cons

• Low base movement [290] (T-12th lowest of all heroes)
• Low starting armour [1.1 at level 1] (T-12th lowest)
• Ultimate has increibly high cooldown at Lvl 1
• Easily counterable by BKB or Linkens
• Skills aren't percentage based, doesn't scale effectively late game

He's a squishy and easily targetable intelligence hero, who is strong at harassing offlaners in a dual safe lane support role. Exceptional in team fights with two long duration disables and nuking ability. Gets better in the late game if movement/initiation items can be purchased.

Image by deviantart user KaelNgu

Patch Change Log

6.87

• No balance changes to Lion

6.86

• Earth Spike mana cost reduced from 100/120/145/170 to 100/120/140/160
• Earth Spike duration increased from 1.02/1.52/2.02/2.52 to 1.1/1.6/2.1/2.6
• Mana Drain cooldown reduced from 20/15/10/5 to 16/12/8/4

6.85

• Aghanim's Scepter upgrade: Finger of Death radius increased from 200 to 300

6.84

• Hex no longer applies Break on the target
• [Earth Spike] no longer ignores ancient creeps, Roshan and creep-heroes (ie spirit bears, warlock golem)

6.83c

• Hex unit base movement speed increased from 100 to 140

6.83

• Mana Drain adjusted drain interval from .25 to .1 seconds
• Base attack damage increased by 7 (42-48 dmg to 49-55 dmg)

6.82

• Earth Spike damage increased from 60/130/200/260 to 80/140/200/260

6.81

• Hex cooldown decreased from 30/25/20/15 to 30/24/18/12

6.80

• Aghanim's Scepter upgrade: Finger of Death also hits units within a 200 AoE of the primary target.

6.79

• Mana Drain duration increased from 4 seconds to 5 seconds
• Hex cooldown increased from a flat 15 seconds, to 30/25/20/15
• Hex duration increased from 1.75/2.5/3.25/4 to 2.5/3/3.5/4

6.78

• Mana Drain cast range increased from 750 to 850, break range increased from 1100 to 1200
• Aghanim's Scepter upgrade: Finger of Death cooldown decreased from 160/100/40 to 100/60/20

6.76

• Mana Drain break threshold range increased from 850 to 1100
• Finger of Death cooldown rescaled (decreased) from 170/105/40 to 160/100/40
• Finger of Death cast range increased from 700 to 900

6.75

• Finger of Death cooldown rescaled from 150/90/55 to 170/105/40
• Finger of Death damage increased from 500/650/850 to 600/725/850
• Aghanim's Scepter upgrade: Finger of Death damage increased from from 600/800/1025 to 725/875/1025
• Mana Drain cast range increased from 600/650/700/750 to 750 across all levels
• Mana Drain break threshold range increased from 800 to 850
• Mana Drain cooldown decreased from 25/20/15/10 to 20/15/10/5

6.74

• Hex cooldown increased from 13 to 15
• Hex mana cost increased from 110/140/170/200 to 125/150/175/200
• Hex duration increased from 1.25/2/2.75/3.5 to 1.75/2.5/3.25/4

6.73

• Mana Drain level 4 increased from 100 to 120 per second
• Mana Drain now drains at 0.25 second intervals instead of 1 second.

6.60

• Hex duration rescaled from 1/2/3/4 to 1.25/2/2.75/3.5 seconds

6.49

• Mana Drain channel decreased from 5 seconds to 4 seconds

6.48

• Lion's movement speed improved a little

2 Position: Ganking-Mid Lion

Lion as mid lane ganker has a great ability to harass his opponent in a one-on-one situation and ultimately win the lane with nuke damage and eliminating the opposing mana pool. A quick level 6 and timely spams with your stun will guarantee first blood.

-When spamming Earth Spike, try and always time it so it lines up with your opposing hero and a creep that's ready to die. Remember level 1 Earth Spike is only 80 damage, so treat it as a stronger 'last hit' for you. Target the ground right in front of the opp and still get in an auto attack for the CC. You're given a radius of 125 units so there's leeway to skill shot here. This nets you creep kill gold as well as disrupting your opp's timing in last hitting.

-When spamming Mana Drain, most say to stun then drain. This works fine, but usually your positioning is poor to get max value off your channel (remember you lose the channel both when the opp walks out of the 1200 unit range OR if the opp walks into fog). If you dont have a ward placed on the high ground that provides vision, try to keep the wave pushed just before tower range to maximize the channel duration. This will force the enemy to either lose significant mana, bail into the trees missing out on CC, or go on the offensive. In the case of the later, earth spike and walk away.

-Lion doesn't typically need a Bottle. Mana drain will keep his mana supply up, and as long as there is sustainability with health regen items until Urn of Shadows is online, the bottle shouldn't be necessary. Again, use the situation to gauge the right item build. Either way, predict the enemy's movement to the rune to spam Earth Spike or stay in lane for unhindered farm.

-When you are about to reach Level 6, be sure that both your opponent is around 50-75% health, and that you have an adequate mana pool (340 MP) to cast both your level 3 Earth Spike and Finger of Death instantly. Most mid heroes are squishy enough that this will be an insta-kill. You can if you need to, but you dont want to rely on any auto attacks after your Q-R sequence. It will likely mean your opp got away, or that you'll chase and die to tower damage. Nothing feels worse than letting a hero get away with 20 hp and safely behind their tower while you wait 160 seconds for the cooldown.

In summary during the early mid lane phase... spam your Earth Spike and [Mana Drain]] on your opp, you should be guaranteed that the opposing hero dies as soon as as you lvl up at 6.

Once you get first blood/secure the kill, you have two options:

1. Continue farming mid if you have 'won' the lane and have full control. Based on the skill build for mid detailed in this guide... you'll notice that we skip leveling a point in Hex until we reach Level 8. We do this in favor of solo nuking ability and replenishing our mana pool to keep spamming. So sticking around in mid lane until you are 8 is usually preferred.

NOTE: If you stay mid, be sure you have an Observer Ward placed to protect you from river ganks. Winning mid as a lion is an easy invite for 3 hero ganks.

2. Start ganking yourself. Sometimes your other lanes will need help earlier, if that's the case, adjust your skill build accordingly, maybe getting an earlier level Hex instead of that extra 60 magic damage in Earth Spike, providing you two disables to help gank the side lanes even more effectively.

2 Position: Item Build

Starting Items

Here you are making items built around survivability, as well as mobility. Since you wont be on courier or ward duty to start... you'll have extra cash to spend towards your HP items as part of your CORE item build. That means double Gauntlets along with the typical tangos and healing salve to start. This boosts your starting HP from a weak and dangerouse 454HP to a respectable 587HP.

During Laning

While in mid lane, at some point before Lion starts ganking the side lanes... finish off Urn of Shadows immediately. This is critical for sustaining time in lane and ganking recurrences. Communicate this first as the charges dont stack across multiple urns. Ideally, boots and Urn before Lvl 6 will net that first blood kill and a pair of charges to start ganking the side lanes. Finishing off Phase Boots for extra damage and mobility at the side shop is preferred at this role. The key to Lion is a mobile Lion. Getting into crowds to disable is priority one.

To do this, you'll need 1025 gold in the bank (450 for the brown boots, and 575 to finish off the Urn).

CORE Items

Eul's Scepter
Aghanim's Scepter, while I didn't consider core in previous builds, is most definitely a CORE item since the 6.80 "Agh's patch". Lion already had the ability to shift team fights with two hard disables... but now his ult can potentially deal a full 1025 magic damage to all heroes within 200 AOE of your main target. That hits creeps, illusions and heroes. Incredibly tide turning if your opps are bunched together... or maybe, vacuumed / black holed / RP'd together?? Wombo-combo strikes back!

Force Staff has quickly become my favorite item on Lion. On top of the nice INT stats, it does multiple positioning tasks... not only does it help your team mates get out of a pickle with it's escape ability, but it more importantly gets you in position for a multi-hit AOE stun and finger, or at the very least, allows you to chase down and secure the kill on low-HP escaping heroes.

Blink Dagger does more of the same as Force Staff but makes for more precise positining moves. Blink in, get your off your Hex and Earth Spike on 2-3 heroes, then force staff out of harm's way letting your heavy hitters finish the job.

Eul's Scepter has increased in popularity recently as movement speed and cheap disables has become incredibly popular in the recent meta. Consider any combination (or all three) as CORE items for a ganking Lion.

Luxury/Situational Items

Boots of Travel allow you to get in and out of team fights or wherever you are needed on the map for split pushing, ganking late laners/jungles, or getting immediately back in the fight after a buyback.

Orchid Malevolence means you start to get some pretty impressive right click damage, in addition to a devastating 3rd hard disable.

Necronomicon provides you extra INT and STR to give you added tankiness. Pretty much always an excellent item to have on the team both for the pushing ability and true sight.

4 Position: Lane/Roaming Support Lion

Lion in the roaming/support role means just that... supporting the safe lane carry when needed, but otherwise roaming from lane to lane to ensure enemy's are on their heels and providing your team mates safe and reliable farm.

The current meta is all about solo offlaners as opposed to 2-1-2 dual lanes. In that situation, the lane support role will have to focus on one of two things:


1a. Harass melee off laners. You're not necessarily looking for kills, but harassing them with your Earth Spike and Mana Drain to keep them from getting last hits or even chasing them out of XP range. This is more of a 5-support tactic/role, but you have the bonus ability to harass with your Q and E spells to effectively scare away your opponent.

1b. Stack and pull the neutral camps to pull deny your creep wave. This keeps the enemy wave close to your tower for safe farm for your carry, and denies the enemy offlaner additional waves of XP and gold potential.

2. Start roaming the lanes (maybe with another disabling support hero. Good pairs are Rubick, Vengeful Spirit, and Shadow Shaman. The goal here is to communicate your movement and coordinate your spell sequences. Earth Spike has the longest range when targeting the ground, but is unreliable. Usually starting off with a Hex, and avoid stacking your disables, will mean a 2v1 kill opportunity.

NOTE: any support should know the timing of stacking and pulling. I think it was patch 6.79 that switched up the creep camps. But now the small/easy camp being next to the tower means that a single pull wont kill your wave and will end up pushing. So stacking is required unless you choose to double pull thru to the hard camps next to the river (both Radiant and Dire sides).

4 Position: Item Build

Starting Items

Starting with a set of Tangos and a Salve are standard. Get the Courier yourself and possibly an Observer Ward if you're the only support on your team. If this is the case, you're likely going to be on ward duty all game, so your luxury items are going to be just that... a luxury. Round out your starting gold with a Ring of Protection and a set of GG Branches.

(6.81 Note - Always consider your team's need for Sentries as well and balance your item progression around vision. Especially with Techies' release to AP, pubs got a lot more annoying without proper vision.

During Laning

-The ring of protection gives you extra +2 armor, but most importantly it allows you to finish your Tranquil Boots from the side shop without having to use up the courier.
-Bracers are common on squishy heroes; like Lina, Crystal Maiden, and Rubick. Even though it doesn't maximize your primary attribute, its one of the most cost effective stat boosters available to you (beyond stacked GG branches).
-Magic Stick is pretty self explanatory. Side-shop accessible instant health/magic recovery to help your carry out in escaping or stunning to shore up that kill of their off laner. Especially helpful against common offlaners like Bristleback.

Note: Iron branches in your starting inventory can be used towards a potential Mek, meaning a full Magic Wand isn't always necessary. Though feel free to go for the full wand upgrade if your gold resources are doing well. Getting your Mek that much earlier though will only help in your team fights once your initiate 5-man dota.

CORE Items

Mid game, unless you have a dedicated offlaner like Dark Seer, Necrophos, or Phoenix that build Mek as their CORE (in a much fast time), you'll probably be on Mekansm duty. And please, even though it's easier (read: cheaper) to get the Headress first, please go Buckler and never forget to use it's active armor boost for your team. Pending how you do on Neutral Creeps/tower gold, or contribution to any early kills... your Mek could be done from 12-25 minutes.

Next get your movement item... Force Staff or Blink Dagger... [strike]first consider breaking down your tranquils, since the Ring of Regen is needed for the force. Rebuild your boots into Power Treads for extra survivability (sell off your Ring of Protection) and boom shakalaka, easy transition into Force Staff.[/strike] Both provide survivability and initiation potential. And relatively cheap for your position on the team.

And finally... what should be considered CORE for all supports... VISION!!! There is never an excuse to have vision on cool down. And when you have a spare item slot and 200 gold? Get some Sentry Wards as well since you net gold with dewarding since the 6.79 patch