Lionize me - a guide to support and mid Lion

Introduction

Lion is a really powerful disabler with TWO abilities that disables the enemy, one being a semi-nuke. He also has a really powerful single-target nuke that is very situational early-game, but doesn't fall off as bad in the late game. (He also has some late game sustainance)

Lion is best played as a utility support in my opinion, but in some cases he could go as a decent mid-laner. I've found Lion as a good pick when you're in need of a support with many lock-downs.

PS : There are probably going to be a lot of unattractive wall of texts in this really basic-format guide, so hopefully you can all bear with it. I will attempt to upgrade it when I have enough resources (screenshots and stuff) but in the meantime, it will be mostly words.

Pros and Cons

Pros [*] Good INT gain and average base INT [*] Two really strong disables [*] Has a 2.5 seconds disable for a level 1 skill [*] Really strong long ranged nuke [*] Some great mana management ability

Cons [*] Horrible starting STR and AGI, as well as STR and AGI gain [*] Squishy all throughout the game [*] Low base damage and movement speed [*] Very mana hungry early game [*] Hindered greatly by magic immunity and silence

Earth Spike

The Demon Witch exercises his demonic covenant, opening a fissure from hell.

Earth Spike is an semi-nuking AOE disable which affects targets in a short path of spikes.

This spell is one of your best teamfight contribution spells, as it can hit and disable multiple targets. The damage is not that fantastic, and relatively weak early on, but it pretty much reaches an average AOE disabling nuke damage as you level it up.

Arguably, this should always be the first thing you put a skill point into, as it deals damage and disables in an AOE. However, with the current changes to Lion's other abilities, you could adjust your skill build a bit.

This ability costs 100/120/145/170 mana and 12 seconds cooldown at all levels.

__________________________________________________________________________________________

What to keep in mind when using it
-It has a travel time and a short cast animation: Some really quick and mobile heroes could possibly avoid this so be careful!

Hex

Lion is compelled to share his transfiguration, twisting the essence of those who oppose him.

Hex is a very powerful single target disable, which turns the enemy into a frog.

An enemy that has been hex-ed will be unable to attack, cast spells or use items, as well as given a base movement speed of 100. As of the latest patch, it now has a whopping 2.5 seconds duration at level one, which is pretty long for a level 1 disable, however with a longer cooldown.

You could supposedly take this over Earth Spike now as your first ability, because of the duration increase. Even if you don't, try to prioritize this after you've max-ed out Earth Spike as the cooldown decreases per level, allowing you to pull off more Hex-es in fights.

This ability costs 125/150/175/200 mana and has a cooldown of 30/25/20/15 seconds.

__________________________________________________________________________________________

What to keep in mind when using it
-It disables damage block and evasion, and experience gain
-It has an instant cast animation so you might want to throw it out before Earth Spike if you're ganking a solo hero.

Mana Drain

Lesser magi are nothing more than a source of magical restoration for the Demon Witch.

Mana Drain is a very single target channeling ability which drains away mana points from a single target, restoring your own.

In the past, this ability used to be skipped as you won't probably be able to use it much, or reach a point where it was any useful as the level 1 Mana Drain was really awful, and you wanted to make full use of the Hex and Earth Spike duration increase instead. However due to the changes in Hex and an extra 1 second to Mana Drain, you could arguable even take a single level in it in the early game to sustain your mana-pool.

This ability costs 10 mana at all levels, and has a cooldown of 20/15/10/5 seconds.

__________________________________________________________________________________________

What to keep in mind when using it
-It is channeling which leaves you VERY vulnerable when using it. Be careful!
-You can use it on creeps so if you just want to quickly restore your mana, you could just pop one on a range creep to help, or a jungle neutral that your teammates are farming on. Just be careful as you are really vulnerable when using it.

Finger of Death

Lion's disfigured hand is also the source of his greatest power, capable of flooding victims with malefic force.

Finger of Death is your ultimate, which deals MASSIVE amount of damage to a single target at a long range.

This spell is what pubs recognize Lion for, it's the walk-up-to-low-health-target-press-R-to-kill-secure spell, and is MISUSED that way. For the love of all that is DotA, plesae NEVER use this to kill-steal, but to SECURE it (THERE IS A DIFFERENCE). It was designed to WORK DOWN really high HP heroes, or burst down the core enemy heroes in a fight.

You should always take a point in this whenever it is available, as it increases the damage and greatly decreases the cooldown.

This spell has a 200/420/650 (625 with scepter) mana cost, and a 160/100/40 (100/60/20 with scepter) seconds cooldown.

__________________________________________________________________________________________

What to keep in mind when using it
-It has a short delay before the damage actually comes: SOME HEROES CAN DODGE IT.

Gameplay - Support Oriented

As a support, you should remember that you're supposed to make use of your abilities to help the team, and please avoid being greedy. A lot of Lion supports love being greedy, rushing items like Aghanim's Scepter or sometimes even Dagon and other really expensive items, taking lasthits in lane and the such.

Always start off by buying what the team needs first before you can get your own items. An Animal Courier, or the Observer Wards and Sentry Wards is what you should prioritize (grab what the enemy doesn't have) before grabbing your standard stats and regen items like Tangoes, Healing Salves and Ironwood Branches. If you're confused to what the Sentry Wards are for, it's for dewarding purposes, unless you're planning to do a more aggresive roaming role instead of jungling.

Like I said, generally the items you want to rush are the ones that benefit the team. Flying Courier, constantly putting up Observer Wards and sometimes even a Smoke of Deciet if you wish to gank the mid-lane or something. If you're planning to do an aggresive roaming Lion, you could opt to grab a Tranquil Boots as it increases your movement speed by a huge amount, provides excellent health regeneration and armor, and as a support Lion you won't be attacking much as your disables are far more important.

Try to get your disables, Earth Spike and Hex up as fast as possible, to contribute as much as possible in ganks and teamfights. Depending on which support role you're playing, grab your mid-game items like Urn of Shadows, Mekansm or Arcane Boots, which will help the team out a lot as well as yourself. As Lion has relatively good INT gain, the mana regeneration from Sage's Mask should help you out in sustaining yourself on the map. Also, always carry a Town Portal Scroll just in case things get messy. If things does get messy, always remember to stay behind the team and don't try to be a hero(metaphorically). You are one of the core heroes in a teamfight and it's your job to catch as many people as you can with Earth Spike and prioritizing the enemy's core hero as well with Hex and Finger of Death.

REMEMBER, Finger of Death IS AN ABILITY TO WORK DOWN A HIGH HEALTH HERO, OR BURST DOWN THE MOST THREATENING ENEMY HERO AND NOT TO KILL STEAL. DON'T BE A HUGE **********ING ********* AND AVOID USING IT FOR THOSE PURPOSES.
(Apologies for the harsh language, it's the amount of Lion's misusing this ability in pub games that annoys me so much, especially when I'm on a higher farming role position)

As you progress onto the mid-late stage, where you start to fall off, make sure to use your disables on the most dangerous hero in the enemy team, and your Finger of Death as well. If the target is magic immune, avoid dying and choose the second-most dangerous hero. You should focus on getting survivable items at this point, like Ghost Scepter and Force Staff which are generally really good items.

Always remember to chain your disables properly! Time it right so you can make full use of the 6 seconds of both your disables. Do not throw them off at the same time, as you're just wasting precious seconds of them! Right-click in between disables to deal extra damage so they won't escape with 20 health or something like that, which is frustrating to see.

---

Mana Management

---

Keep in mind that Lion in the early game, as a support without items, is very very mana hungry, as his spells require a lot of mana. Always remember not to spam his abilities in lane, you cannot harass with Earth Spike as it's early game damage is horrible, and you're just wasting a lot of mana in inefficient ways and pushing the lane, making it hard for your carry partner to last hit.

Also don't think that having Mana Drain will redeem yourself from wasting mana to harass with Earth Spike, because a lot of people would skip Hex and go for max Mana Drain after Earth Spike. Strongly not advised to do so as you are wasting Lion's disabling potential to score early game kills, as well as it punishes you even further by making you very vulnerable while you are Mana Draining, allowing heroes to jump in on you easier, especially heroes that benefit well from enemies standing still like Mirana or Pudge.

Always, ALWAYS save your disables for crucial moments, be it counter initiating when the enemy initiates/dives in on you/your lane partner or securing a kill. Do not waste your mana in inefficient ways, as it will punish you if the enemy players are smart and take advantage of it.

Gameplay - Mid-lane Oriented

You might need to grab some Mantle of Intelligences for this to make up for your poor base damage. Otherwise, if you're confident enough, grab the standard Bottle rush starting items, which are the 3 Ironwood Branches and Tango.

It's going to be a bit harder to lasthit as a mid-lane Lion. If you can, try to use Earth Spike to avoid letting the enemy deny you as well as grabbing the last-hits with the nuke damage as well. Generally, I like skipping Mana Drain as you've already got a Bottle to sustain your mana-pool, but you could try some other builds since the level 1 Hex has a really long duration for this patch.

This is where you can kill all you want with Finger of Death, just remember if you're planning to kill-steal with it, you're wasting a 160 seconds cooldown ability to get credit for killing off an enemy hero that could have died in just 3 autoattacks. Use your abilities wisely.

While people like rushing Aghanim's Scepter and/or [{Dagon]], I generally prefer grabbing mobility items like Blink Dagger or Force Staff first, as it makes you such a powerful ganker, with the element of surprise on your side. Aghanim's Scepter does look quite good on Lion now, as it has the cooldown reduction on it, but you might want to do something about your mana-pool first before grabbing it, as it is very costly in mana points.

As you can actually be a bit more greedy in this role, you could possibly grab the much more expensive items that you could never afford as a support. Although I will frown upon rushing Dagon 5 on Lion, as it costs so much and you already have a powerful single-target nuke in the first place. It is advisable to grab much better powerful utility items like Scythe of Vyse. As you proceed to late game, be careful as silences and magic immunity can screw you over a lot.

Always remember to chain your disables properly! Time it right so you can make full use of the 6 seconds of both your disables. Do not throw them off at the same time, as you're just wasting precious seconds of them! Right-click in between disables to deal extra damage so they won't escape with 20 health or something like that, which is frustrating to see.

Situationals and Luxuries

Lion could possibly benefit from these other items that might not have been mentioned in the gameplay section :

Always nice if you feel like you're lacking in stats and need some more. One of the most cost efficient item in the game.

If you can't afford the Hood of Defiance, grabbing the Cloak as well as a Magic Wand helps against a lot of magical burst damage.

You do not really benefit much from the minus armor as most of your damage source is magical, but your carries will, and the mana regeneration and armor helps!

The cyclone could help take one more threat out in a teamfight, and the mana regeneration and movement speed does help you in positioning, and keeping active in fights.

As a lot of your damage is magical, this item helps a lot! Now that it's components is made up of the Null Talisman, you could use that for this instead of the Dagon

It's actually really nice to not get chain-stunned before you could even pull off your own disables and nukes. You can also dispel off silences with this.

Does a great deal in increasing your mana pool, your physical damage and your survivability against physical damage as well as an extra AOE nuke and slow.

If you want to sustain yourself longer on the battlefield, the Heart of Tarrasque is one of the best items for it as it gives you a lot of health points and health regeneration.

It helps increase your physical DPS in between disables, and your mana regeneration which makes you rely on Mana Drain less so you can use it on mana-hungry targets. Also, silencing an extra person in a teamfight doesn't hurt your team that much.

Did the target survive your initial combo? If so, they won't be getting away that easily! This item gives a really powerful cripple, health points and increases your INT which is always good.

Having global presence in the late-game is always nice

Dagon

Alright sure, more burst damage, fine whatever.

Once you've pumped your INT to high amount, this can help deal A LOT of damage with your Finger of Death (and [{Dagon]] if you have it), as well as having one of its components your survivable item, Ghost Scepter

Another great item that helps keeping your mana pool and health up, as well as increasing your mana-pool and health points. However I feel that it's an item to rush or it won't be that worth it as you're missing out a lot of charges if you snowball out of control before grabbing it. I could be wrong, but it is still pretty helpful, especially if you've got many charges and an Aghanim's Scepter boosted Finger of Death (Thanks to Sando for the suggestion)

Author's Notes

Remember, all item and skill builds are fluid. Dota is a game that is ever-changing and to be good at it, one must be able to adapt to the situation and do what is needed in that situation. Don't go for a static build, but be more flexible and look at the synergy with your team and the counters to enemies.

Lion is a really powerful support, and possible an okay mid-lane semi-carry. Just remember to be much more subtle and selfless when taking up the support role, or you will throw the game with your greed.




Edit : Added an extra situational item and mana management section for the support oriented role. (28/10/13)

More to come :
-Friends and foes section