Sudden Death: Support Lion

Mana drain early pick up is a no-no, especially with your mana extensive build. his skills are too powerful to pick up a mana drain early. in addition one point of mana drain will give you bugger all anyways. though i avoid getting upgraded boots with lion (also usually due to the fact i build a drum on him too) its good with the soul ring combo.

His reason was that you don't want to stop in the middle of your combo to chill out and drain mana. Instead, just pop the soul ring and kill that hero. 1 point in mana drain is okay early but its just not the best spell to get levels in when you have 2 other great spells. This is also the reason why most pros decide to completely skip over mana drain. It looses effectiveness late game when you would be maxing it out and early game your other skills are just so much better for killing, disabling, etc.

I always thought that Mana Drain solved all of Lion's problems. Why does he need Soul Ring?

That's not necessarily true. There are other people on your team that can get these items. It doesn't always have to be the babysitter.





That's not really true. Soul Ring is amazing for the active. It's what allows me to be able to cast my full rotation more often and be able to use another spell on the fly that I might not be able to use. That, combined with the health regen it has with TB's health regen more or less completely negates the health loss from the active.



Eh. I feel like this route makes Lion's early game less effective for little to no reason. Soul Ring allows me to cast those spells early so that I can counter gank / gank better, which is the entire point of playing Lion.

I like the guide, really describes a good play style with Lion... I wouldn't classify it as Support though. The build really seems to be heavily loaded on the offensive side of things! Mek and mana boots are a necessity for supporting roles.
You can play him as a support, but I think those items are a must if you are truly playing the support role.

really like the Eul's addition for an additional disable as well as the speed boost. Never really thought to put that on him before.

I'd go Ring of Basilius instead of Soul Ring just because you have Tranquil Boots so you don't need hp regen, it also gives a little bonus armor. Same amount of early game mana regen and cost half the price. Also, Mana Drain instead of Hex as your level 2 ability because mana drain will let you get more mana to stun more frequently. You very rarely will cast your hex early game, but you will need mana. This will also let you get more mana instead of getting the soul ring. Instead get hex at level 4 when someone is more likely to push you back. I'd also recommend a Bracer so boost your squishy life totals. Use the gold you have left over from the ring of basilius to get a bracer instead of getting the soul ring.

Add a little more if you can, feels like it is missing something, but overall I like the guide. +1

I already explained why I don't think mek is a good pick on Lion.



It's not that I picked aghs or eul's for the sake of fun, I actually think they are more viable ways to build Lion.


Force Staff is a good pick but I prefer blink.

Nice guide, +1. but on supports make sure to stress the importance of picking up the mek or pipe before going for the fun items like aghs and whatnot. Also, blink over force?