Medusa

Introduction

Many guides about Medusa underestimate her early- and mid-game potential. Although this guide has a similar build to many others, it attempts to show her strength in early and middle game as well. Not to be confused, she is not a gank-machine, but she can help kill a hero, or harass enemies out of the lane.

Pros / Cons

Pros of Medusa:

Very, very hard to kill
Can damage all enemies at once
Her illusions can damage all enemies at once
Her spell can damage and affect all enemies at once
Farm machine
One of the few heroes that can carry the Divine Rapier
Although a carry, can go mid
Uses every stat to its full potential
Can single-handedly defend base against the mega creeps

Cons:

Can be beaten in the creep kill-deny game in the beginning
Very item dependent
Slow base movement speed
Not the best stat growth
Ultimate can be both good and bad

Items

Starting items

I suggest that you start with a Ring of Protection, a Circlet or Slippers of Agility, a pack of Tango and a Clarity potion.

Ring is not much of a use, really, and it is only bought to be upgraded into Ring of Basilius and a little later into Ring of Aquila. The item is cheap, offers 18 damage (9 from agility), few hp and some mana regen.

You can choose between a circlet or slippers depending on your preferences. Slippers would allow you to buy an extra pack of tangos, while the circlet grants you some extra hp and mana. In addition, if you go sidelane - I would definitely suggest you go for circlet, as you can buy slippers and sage's mask in the side shop.

A clarity potion can be skipped, but sometimes you want to spam your snake a little more, so it may be a good idea.

If you go mid lane - buy the sage mask as fast as you can, as these 6 extra damage mean a lot for your last hits and denys.

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Early game

The first items you want to buy are: Ring of Aquila and Phase Boots.

As mentioned above - ring of aquila grants the very needed 18 damage and some other secondary bonuses. Similarly, phase boots give you 24 damage, making last hits a breathe.

Now you may want to go for Power Treads power treads, which is also a good option. It gives you same ms, more hp and also attack speed. If you are doing fine farming - feel free to buy these.

After you got some kind of boots and RoA, you want to go for Perseverance. The item's conclusion is that you will have about 6hp/s, 4.5mp/s and some minor damage boost. With it you can spam your mystic snake even against a creep wave with a single ranged creep, and not run out of mana.

If things are going well in the early game, you farm very well - you may want to think about going for Hand of Midas. The item provides very good farming and leveling, but beware that it also somewhat pulls you back in teamfights: you could have spent the gold on an ultimate orb or yasha! If you feel like you will have a good farm on your lane - go for this item and try to buy it before 10th minute (but aim for 7-8).

If, on the other hand, things are going down, you may want to buy a Bracer and then upgrade it into Drum of Endurance. The item is easy to buy and provides hp, ms, mana. Basically all that you're missing, but in small amounts.

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Core items

The core for Medusa is a no-brainer.

Linken's Sphere is a very good defensive item. At over 5k gold, it is very expensive, but it is possible to get it before the 20th minute. Apart from the all-around stats and regen, it blocks a targeted spell every 17 seconds, which is a very good news against the likes of Doom, Huskar, Necrophos to name a few. It will certainly save your life a number of times throughout the game.

The other core item is Manta Style. Like I said - the illusions of Medusa can have split shot, if you create them while you have the skill active. 3 Medusas with split shot is a disaster for the enemy team during team fights.

The order of core purchase depends on your preferences and game style. In most cases I suggest that you upgrade your perseverance first. It will give you some survivability and then buy yasha. With yasha and Linkens you are already a force to be reckoned with and not that easy kill. After that you would want to buy Manta.

In some cases you may want to skip Linkens, if the enemy team has many aoe spells and few targeted. I.e. Shadow Fiend, Juggernaut, Tiny. You can go for Black King Bar instead, especially if your opponents include Shadow Shaman, Lion, Bane and other multi-disablers. Or you can try to farm Ethereal Blade or Ghost Scepter against the above mentioned juggernaut or void.

Helm of the Dominator is a good item for jungling, boosts your late-game potential at the cost of mid game. If your team has anti-pushers - you may try that.

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Extentions

If you and your team managed to pull it into the late game - that's good news for you. This is the time you shine. Your farm rate becomes simply ridiculous, so every next item is bought faster than the previous one.

Eye of Skadi is a gg item for medusa. She is the only hero that can use its all-around stats, hp, mana and bkb-piercing slow to the full potential. With Eye your HP will stand at about 25 hundreds, and with manashield, armor and magic resistance your EHP will be closer to the 8k mark. Oh, and did I mention that her illusions also benefit from HP and stats?

Butterfly is a way to go against right-click carries. It boosts your massive physical EHP by a third with evasion and armor. It also increases you DPS. Unfortunately, your illusions only benefit from the 30 agility bonus.

Satanic is a possible upgrade to Helm of the Dominator. If not disabled, makes Medusa virtually immortal for the Unholy Rage duration.

Monkey King Bar well, it's self-explanatory: to be bought against evasive heroes like PA, troll, Brewmaster, Windrunner or those with butterflies. Otherwise is relatively useless, as its bonuses are not passed on to illusions, do not improve mana shield.

Divine Rapier Now I would only advice to buy it as the last item. Only as the last-resort way to push your enemies and their towers. Be prepared that you are going to be the main target with this item, so keep your finger on R or BKB, if you have it. But once a fight starts - you will simply melt through the enemy team with 400+ damage from every split shot arrow. The item is not beneficial for your illusions, but when you consider buying it - there are not many items left that can help your stats anyway.

Gameplay

Medusa can go solo mid or safe lane. The lane you go depends on the heroes of your and enemy team. I.e. you will stand quite well on mid lane against, say, Zeus, but not so good against Sniper or Silencer. Zeus has low base damage, so he can't deny your creeps effectively. And also, his attack range is very low, so you mystic snake will usually hit him. Sniper, on the other hand, shoots from a range too far for your mana snake to reach, and his 3000 projectile ms is very good for denys. Silencer can beat you up in hp-mana trade game with Curse of the Silent being somewhat more effective than Mystic snake. Also, Shadow Fiend or Invoker on your teams will need mid lane more than you so if that is the case you you may want to go safe lane.

Medusa is a rare hero that benefits from stats upgrade in early game so get that at lvl 1. It will help you kill and deny creeps and add some mana and hp. With circlet you basically have +4 all stats, which is a fairly good deal. Upgrade you Mystic Snake twice at lvl2 and 3, and only then you can cast it the first time effectively as lvl1 mystic snake is a waste of your mana and time.

Positioning control is very important for Medusa. Look at how the enemy creeps are arranged and where the enemy heroes are. The best way you can harm them is when they come closer to the creep wave to kill or deny, and then you release the snake. Aim for a melee creep so that the snake will go through all the melee creeps, then ranged and then the enemy hero. That way, even a lvl2 snake will deal significant damage and restore most of your mana. Since the enemy hero is coming towards the creep wave with a deny in mind, it will take him some time to react and run away, but it will probably be too late already. An important point to mention is that snake will hit even in the fog of war, which is very important in the mid lane as even if you don't see the enemy, your snake will hit it if he's in the range.

Upgrade stats at lvl4 and mystic snake again at lvl5. Now your snake is a decent harassment tool, and you can allow yourself to spam it whenever a ranged creep and an enemy are there as you will recover most of your mana. Meanwhile, if the snake hits all 4 creeps, the hero (if he gets hit last) will lose 240hp (given 25% magic resistance) - a good deal for 50 mana.

Get Stone Gaze at lvl 6. While you will not be able to kill anyone with it in a 1v1 fight, it's your only escape mechanism, which is why you should put a point in it. It doesn't scale well from lvl1, so there is not much point in upgrading it at lvl11. It's the same 200 mana, same duration, same slow, same cooldown and just 10/20% additional damage. Just meh.

At lvl 7 your snake is strong enough to one-shot ranged creep if it hits melee creeps prior. Use that to your advantage. By this time you should have ring of Aquila and, preferably, phase boots. Make sure to spam your mystic snake, especially against heroes like sven or chaos knight (if for some reason you are standing against them) as without mana these heroes are creeps. Upgrade your Mana Shield from lvl8 and onwards.

A few points to mention about mana shield. It absorbs damage before your armor and resistance, which is why it is so mana-consuming. I.e. if you have 50% physical resistance and get 100 damage, you will lose 24 mana (let's say it's lvl4 mana shield), then damage is reduced by 50% and finally you only get 20 damage. If it was the other way around - Medusa would be op, as it would cost you just 12 mana for same damage reduction. That is why you should have mana shield off in the beginning you will get damage reduced, but your slim mana pool at lvl 8-10 cannot cover enough of it. More importantly, it can go below the critical 200 mana point, where you can't use your ultimate to escape - so take care when you use it.

At lvl11 you can start leveling your Split Shot. The utility of this spell at low and mid levels is quite similar to mana shield - very limited and can even be negative. But this is what Medusa is about - all her skills except for mana snake have drawbacks. With Aquila, Phases or PT and perseverance you can try some pushing and hero killing. A good mystic snake is similar to QoP's sonic wave in terms of damage, so don't underestimate it. One good snake at lvl below 11 will destroy 30-40% of enemy hp and then a reliable stun from Sven or Venge will secure a kill. If you've messed up with your snake (i.e. it only jumped once before it hit the hero, or didn't hit at all) - don't push your luck to finish him off, there is not much point.

Gaze is a good counter-initiation spell, so keep that in mind if the enemy team is trying to get into a team fight. It has a 3 second lag until the enemies freeze, but even until then they are slowed significantly. These facts make Medusa useful even at low and mid levels, but apart from mystic snake and stone gaze, she has very little to offer. Your dps is low, you have no reliable disable and no escape mechanism if you've used up your ulti.

Get your linkens as your first major item. It provides little utility in terms of dps, disable and chase, but you will get way tankier. 300hp and 200mana boost, mana and hp regen, minor damage and a spell block is worth the gold. After you've farmed it, you will be at a point where you may feel your gpm is slowing down - ganking is all over the place, you can farm only a wave or two and then you need to back off as the enemies are coming and so on. It is indeed a hard time, don't hesitate to go jungling if there are wards to keep you aware. Turn mana shield on - at this point your mana regen is good enough to disregard creeps' hits. Use mystic snake on satyr camps, as all of them have mana. This is a good place to restore it quickly even if you aren't jungling.

Get yasha and farm for Manta Style. Yasha is a great item for its price - at 2k gold it provides ms and agility that are transferred to illusions, it will boost your dps. Don't overestimate yourself though, you are not a PA-type 4-second killer. Yet.

Manta is a must-have item on Medusa. She benefits from the every single bonus the item offers, from massive agility to ms to illusions. An important note: if you turn split shot on and then use Manta, all your illusions will have split shot. This makes teamfights ridiculous, as there are 15 arrows flying around at the same time, hitting everybody. You will want you mana shield to be turned on, even when illusions are released. You are not a phantom lancer type of illusionist, to hide yourself. Your illusions are a source of damage, rather than a distraction. Keep in mind that manta costs 165 mana to activate, which is a big deal.

At this point you will probably either push the high ground T3, or the enemy will push your T3. If first thing is the case - keep going, but do get brakes to buy additional ultimate orbs for your skadi. If the latter is happening - try to organize with your team. Your ulti and split shot are good against pushers. If they've managed to destroy your barracks - don't give up. Keep farming and defending as long as you can, because time makes you stronger.

This brings us to late game. There are few heroes that can challenge us at this point, with the exception of some farmed hard carries. Scadi + linkens + manta = over 2k hp and about 1.5k mana. Tons of EHP, good slow and strong team fight presence. Broken gpm with split shot and a badass hero overall. What's missing? Dps.

Late game for Medusa is much less about aiming snakes, toggling mana shield, last hits, making do or going by. Actually, imo, it's rather low-skill right click farming and fighting. Just remember when to use manta and ulti. Nevertheless, do pay attention to the situation, as the enemies will have probably gotten some items against you in particular i.e. necronomicon with mana burn, diffusals, halberd or ethereal blade.

Go for butterfly to boost your dps to a, finally, respectable point. Or go for satanic if you are the tank or they've pushed megacreeps and you're tired to go back to the fountain. A farmed Medusa can easily stand up to megacreeps single-handedly, which is an extremely rare ability.

Finally, the Divine Rapier should end it for the enemy or for you, if luck is against you.

Allies and enemies

Allies:

Stunners like

Sven or Vengeful Spirit

Mass-ulti supports like Enigma, Tidehunter or Witch Doctor

Disablers, i.e. Shadow Shaman or Lion



Enemies:

Basically - you allies in the enemy team - stunners, mass ulti heroes.

Additional note goes to

Bane. Not only he can disable you, but his Enfeeble will nullify your stat-based damage.

Anti-Mage, Invoker, Outworld devourer and other heroes with mana burn.

Harder carries like Faceless Void, Spectre and Lone Druid




Any comments, critique and such are welcome.