Dude, I really think you need professional help if you have a fetish for Medusa.
Jokes aside, your sections titles (Early, Mid, Late game) are with quite a small font. You might want to increase that a little bit. And cheers for posting a guide!
I'm improving. =)
5 KDA in last match. My items progression was like:
1) wraith band
2) ring of aquila
3) magic wand
4) arcane boots
5) disassemle arcane boots to make bloodstone
6) power treads
7) buy some damage items now, Radiance first is best I think
@Soultrap
To speak frankly, you had terrible XPM and GPM for Medusa in every game you won with her.
In my opinion, buying stuff like Ring of Aquila and magic wand for Medusa is a waste. These items have great cost effectiveness, but they'll just turn your early game from goddamn terrible to "ok", while everyone else will get a good boost from their items.
If you did read my "guide", you can see, I did point out that +34 damage PB and Linken's give you is good. That's main idea of this whole freaking build. You are not just farm, you're kinda snowballing without being fed. PB as first or second item will make you hit hard at that point of game. Perseverance will make you hit even harder, again at that point of game. And this goes on.
If you look at my match history, you'll see that I actually lost all of my hour+(all whole load of two of them) matches with Medusa. Why did it turned out that way? Because if you are not terribly outplayed by enemy, you'll just stomp them somewhere near 40~50 minutes mark, never allowing game to go that far.
And speaking of Bloodstone, I don't think it's a good choice for her. It is surprisingly good on her, guaranteeing 100% Mana Shield uptime and such, but that's just like what I think about Manta. Add 625 gold and buy freaking Eye of Skadi. Not having all these extra stats (assuming you didn't bought Linken's either) will make you non existent in team fights, except for your ultimate. Your enemies just need to be smart enough to look at your build and to stop focus you.
Allow me to ask you a question: "Why do you buy Power Treads for Medusa?"
What's your motivation for this?
It's fine as long as he won the game..
Don't make him ruin his playstyle lol
I like your build
Sometimes i use your build, sometimes not
As contrary believe that this hero need farm, i don't like to play long match
I usually finish my match with medusa with around 30 mins mark
fastest probably 20 mins
I usually pick this old lady just because i'm fighting PL anyway, don't really play her much
Have only 36 games with her.
I really enjoy playing her because of her gamebreaking ulti
btw are you using Melody's template? how come it looks different from other guides?
Power Treads give you +8 damage and +38 attack speed +1 armor. And if you plan to build Rapier at some point, you'll need that attack speed.
Mystic Snake hits last target for about 400+ damage, with its relatively low 11 seconds cooldown - it is enough to justify your presence in teamfights. Even if you lack big damage items. And with Bloodstone you can spam it even if you taking beating in your Mana Shield. Don't forget about other advantages of Bloodstone - you can deny yourself, you heal teammates when you die, lose less gold on death and you can resurrect immediately, like one more free buyback. And Bloodstone actually provides +10 damage on top of that. =)
@Yfay
I am using that template. I just decided that's there is no point to introduce her skills, cause everyone somehow interested in Medusa already know them. Instead, I put icons for them to point out moments where you begin to use them.
Should I put Stone Gaze icon somewhere? I don't know where though...
@Soultrap
And PB gives you huge boost in lasthitting you need so much, "ok" escape and chasing mechanism, more harassing power and goddamn guarantied way to turn anyone into stone. If you will ever think about Rapier, setting up your ulti is much more important than +38 attack speed, which becomes obsolete after 100% IAS from Linken's, Skadi and Butterfly, not counting Medusa's stats.
Also PB give you very huge boost in farming speed, by offsetting -damage property on your Split Shot.
Actually, Linken's and Skadi will give you enough Mana, to use Mystic Snake, Stone Gaze and to wipe out everyone in a team fight while taking all damage to yourself in any fight that doesn't involve mana burners. In a fight that involves them, result will be the same, you'll just finish it with no mana left.
And having just Linken's Sphere is enough to freely use Mystic Snake for farming. Just don't spam it - you don't want to push a lane at that moment.
And yes, Skadi also gives you Drow's arrows for free. That's a much better way to contribute in a fight, then just throwing in one snake.
Tell the truth, sometimes you run into the fight, take damage in your shield and find out that you don't have enough mana for your Ultimate. It happens. Bloodstone fixes that.
If you can't lasthit without extra +16 damage from Phase Boots, then try to fix the roots of your problem - practice lasthitting more.
Content is good, item build also seems about right just need to format the guide a bit. Medusa ultimate is indeed game breaking if timed correctly. Was able to win games with Medusa while the team was down like 16 kills.
@Soultrap
If you have Linken's, level 4 Mana Shield and still run out of mana before casting Stone Gaze in a team fight, you're doing it wrong.
You don't seem to realize difference between lasthitting and securing lasthits. And you should not be satisfied with your lasthits until you can farm 100% of creeps. Even pro carry players fail lasthitting with Medusa from time to time.
@nevermort
I'll be glad to hear your suggestions about formatting, if you have any.
Its nice to see that someone else shares my twisted love for the snake-skinned beauty. Good guide too >.>
Doesnt antimagus counter this hero ? I mean he farm faster so he comes online quickly and he burns your mana and shit.
Actually, no. Antimage is an awful counter to Medusa. Mid-game - yes, manaburn is a pain for Medusa, but AM has no presence early, even Medusa has more presence then antimage due to her ultimate. So, if AM with boots and one big item will meet Medusa with similar items - he'll have very good chance to kill her. But lately, most of his power comes from insane manaburn by Manta illusions and ability to deal tons of focused damage. All of this countered by Stone Gaze, which also counters whole enemy team, while AM has zero team fight potential - he only kills things fast.
Also, endgame Medusa isn't really bothered by manaburn.
Medusa is a good farmer too, plus she doesn't need to buy Battlefuty to farm.
I mean i know medusa farm fast too, but not like AM, when he gets 3 major items he could easily push, plus i dont think medussa can deal well against split push.
Late game i think abysal blade and bash will give antimage a better chance in a 1 vs 1, but i guess medussa isnt really a 1 vs 1 hero, oh well.
btw bane ulti burns like 50 % of the target mana too right ?
Medusa, on the other hand, needs only Linken's and Skadi to lead any even teamfight to a win. I'll agree, that splitpush isn't Medusa's thing, but AM ability to splitpush isn't that great, compared to real split pushers.
And AM can't manfight rapier Medusa either. If he won't initiate her with blink - he'll get kited to death. If he will - he'll die to Stone Gaze. To use Abyssal he must somehow break Linken's. Only suited for such purposes spell he possess - Mana Void. That's just enough time to use Stone Gaze.
Bane, actually can suck up to 70% of mana. But there are Linken's and Stone Gaze to counter this.
http://dotabuff.com/matches/542450107
My teammates told me that it was entirely my fault that we lost. You know, it's always pleasure to play late-late-carry with such caring people. Heh...
@Soultrap
Told ya, it feels awesome to play pubs with Medusa.
I watched this game and I would say, that's not entirely your fault for losing this game, but as a "hard carry" you failed for sure. You can look it up yourself - Phantom Lancer had like x1.8 of your CS through the whole game. Your poor farm is your first mistake.
Second one is loads of ultimates wasted for some bullshit. Why did you even think of using your precious Stone Gaze to stone invisible Sand King? It's not like you'll be able to kill him after that, given he still has 1.5 reveal delay, burrowstrike and another freaking sandstorm, while you have no means of revealing. Same goes for wasting your ulti on a bunch of PL's illusions.
Also, skipping Linken's is a bad decision. All of bloodstone's advantages are outweighed by a single Burrowstrike/Cold Snap you'll eat. More to this, you're going for PT after this, having no real damage to profit from IAS and having no escape whatsoever ('cause your ultimate is usually wasted) it's not like you have Yasha to outrun anybody.
In this particular case you were purely outplayed by PL. Both of you were given free farm, both of you had no wards (well, PL did had first pair of them, but it's not like they were any use. Dat Invoker is retarded). There were some amazingly retarded moves by your team, but for some reason everything ended up just fine for them.
It's not like I am trying to offend you in any way, it's just sincere wish to support someone who actually plays my favorite hero.
@epsik-kun
Probably you are right, but I don't think that Sand King is viable offlaner, so I felt like: this guy must be punished for sitting here in sandstorm. All my calls: "We need wards" got replies from Rubick: "Fuck you!", so I bought sentry wards myself. At some point this guy started to compete for lasthits with me, but these are just my excuses for poor farm...
Linken vs Bloodstone is hard decision really. Even if Linken can block some spells, Bloodstone gives you way more hp and mana to make you that much tankier. And I actually used it to deny myself once... or twice...
I had Diffusal Blade in my mind at beginning of the game, but forgot about this item in process - that was my only real mistake, I think.
Even ignoring everything I said about Bloodstone before, I still have one big "NO" for it. This item isn't really synergies well with Medusa until the point of no return, where you either stomp your enemies or die miserable. Bloodstone general idea is to stay around your teammates, generate charges from kills or assists, heal your team when you're dieing and rush back into the fight after your death. On the other hand, Medusa's general idea is "fuck off and let me farm", which is pretty much opposite of bloodstone's one.
The way you are playing Medusa looks a lot like how someone will play Tiny. In the beginning you're going for big support items (RoB, Arcanes, Bloodstone) and lately you begin to get some carry items, just because your hero is suited for this.
Problem is that Tiny has great early game as a ganker which helps him to snowball a lot. And Medusa has terrible early game. Plus, "support" role usually won't allow you to snowball into late game, I did already said, that despite having such an awesome ultimate, Medusa is a bad support.
You need to farm your optimal item set as soon as possible and Bloodstone will have almost no impact on Medusa with Linken's and Skadi, therefore will only hold you back.
How Medusa can snowball?
P.S. Do you think that Skadi is better than Diffusal Blade even when you fight against Phantom Lancer?
Well, that's pretty much the idea of my "guide". Not a pure snowballing from level one or six, but not a "I HAVE FINISHED FARMING" situation either.
Fast PB to give you damage and farm potential, Linken's for stats and overall survivability and you already can TP drop into team fights near your towers without much risk. You can add one Ultimate Orb to this, just to be sure.
Main point is if you're going for this, Ring of Aquila is a bad item. With PT and Linken's Sphere at level 12 you are strong. With PT, Aquila and Linken's at level 15 you are not.
Why do you even need Diffusal against PL? To remove lance debuff? That's Linken's work. To kill his illusions? That's useless.
Skadi is a core for Medusa. It is too damn good to miss it out. Stats, health, mana, 35% slow. And Medusa is one of a few heroes who profits from every attribute of this item.
I think, Medusa can get FB only as a result of huge misplay of your opponent(s).
If you look at pure damage:
Ring of Aquila: +9 damage, +9 agility
Linken: +10 damage, +15 agility
Aquila wins, because it costs 5 times less.
Every hero profits from Skadi. Medusa is just fine with Diffusal or Desolator (depending on the situation).
And that's why I said that you shouldn't go for the First Blood with Medusa.
You missed the context. I did never say that Aquila itself bad. It's bad if you're going for Linken's. You will need these +15 to all stats and spellblock as soon as possible. RoA will make you stronger while you're farming for Linken's, but past this point its impact will begin to become less and less noticeable. Furthermore, the difference between Linken's on min 15 and min 20 marks is huge. And I do really mean HUGE.
If I'll play Medusa in a good team that wants to tryhard with proper communication and such, I'll go to the lane with Blades of Attack only, stuffed with one or two shared tangos from my supports whom I'll ask to buy me few TP scrolls later. Because this little advantages you'll get will mean a lot to your further play. With fast PB you can harass enemy as hell, with fast Linken's you can give your "worthless until very late" Medusa great presence, with fast Skadi you're basically asking your enemies to give up trying to do anything with you.
No one profits from Skadi as much as Medusa does. Due to her unique HP/Mana interaction, she gets twice more effect from both flat HP gain and str gain, damage bonus from agi for being an agi hero and scaling to the very end of game effect from int and flat mana gain.
And I can't see Diffusal being much of use for Medusa. Even if she goes for Manta, any end-game item will be much better then DB.
With Blades of Attack you have only 416 hp and 1 armor. Maybe I'm wrong, but I think this is the best way to GIVE first blood.
P.S. Wraith King. He has twice the profit from HP and str, because you have to kill him twice and he gets damage for each point of str as well.
P.P.S. Try Bloodstone+Radiance instead of Linken+Skadi. It's cheaper and allows you to farm.
I always start with Ring of Protection, Tango, Salve, 3x Branches and stats at level 1 to keep me alive in lane. After that, rush your Ring of Basilisus --> Boots --> Wand (if you want) --> PT/PB --> Linkens --> Big Items
@Soultrap
That's why you need teammates.
Leoric, just lol. Medusa doesn't need reincarnation for double HP. She's online for the whole battle, can't be kited/focused and rendered useless in a team fight. Well, that's higher level of play, not the one I'm playing.
And even considering it this way, it's much more effective to just build str items on Leoric.
@Stinkoman
That's pretty much default way to build Medusa, providing her early game survivability. But at the same tame this is the way which makes Medusa go afk farm to have a presence, unless you're farming machine and can pull off 600+ GPM in a 30 min game without being fed by an enemy.
IMO Radiance isn't good on Medusa because if you rush it you'll have no survivability, and if you get it after Bloodstone/Linken's it won't be nearly as effective.
I was actually thinking the other day that Bloodstone would be a good replacement for Linken's on Medusa in most situations. Medusa doesn't necessarily need stats, just HP and mana. Linken's isn't gotten on Medusa for the damage output, it's gotten for surviability, and if the enemy doesn't have any good abilities blocked by Linken's it's not really worth it to get one when you compare it to Bloodstone.
Bloodstone vs. Linken's
HP: 500 vs. 285 - Bloodstone wins
Mana: 400 vs. 195 - Bloodstone wins
HP Regen: 9 vs. 6 - Bloodstone wins
Mana Regen: 200% + Charges vs. 150% - Bloodstone wins
Damage: 10 vs. 25 - Linken's wins
Attack Speed: 0 vs. 15 - Linken's wins
Passives:
Linken's Sphere: Spell Block - Great passive if they have something like a Batrider. Becomes less good later one because it'll get popped by something like a Rod of Atos or other cheap spell in teamfights.
Bloodstone: Pocket Suicide - Really frustrating for your opponents. Especially on a tanky hero like Medusa. Not what you get Bloodstone for, but it's nice to have the option if you do end up getting caught out. Just don't misclick. :)
Bloodpact - The mana regeneration isn't as big of a deal although it does help you farm, and if you snowball hard your mana shield will become very hard to get through just from the regen. The big deal about this is the respawn reduction. How can a team hope to come back against a fat Medusa that has a 20 second respawn even if they do manage to kill her?
IMO Bloodstone is generally the better choice than Linken's unless they have some very pressing pickoff skills that you need to counter with a Linken's. Otherwise I think the survivability advantage of Bloodstone combined with the respawn cooldown reduction makes it an ideal choice for Medusa as long as you're not so far behind that you'll have 1 charge within minutes of getting your Bloodstone.
EDIT: I'll admit that I don't have a lot of experience on the hero, but Bloodstone seems like a great choice on her to me.
EDIT2: I think my ideal 6 slotted Medusa would be: Phase/Travels > Bloodstone > Skadi > Butterfly > Monkey King Bar > Rapier
@Dacheat
I really miss "like" button in this forum, because you posted my own thoughts about Bloodstone vs Linken.
The thing is that even in pure numbers most of the difference in HP and MP values are offseted by a first blocked spell. Moreover, this spellblock will give a vital brief moment to use Stone Gaze, even if it broken by cheap means.
You'll go for unnecessarily overkill tankiness, while forsaking utility, presence and farm potential.
Which is why I said that if they have a strong initiation spell that is blocked by Linken's you should get that over Bloodstone. However, if you're not getting much out of Linken's passive (they either don't have anything that you need to block, or they have a low CD spell to break it) it's much better to get a Bloodstone.
Bloodstone has plenty of utility. The suicide is at least frustrating for your opponents, the extra mana regen makes your shield just that much better if you have charges, and the respawn timer reduction is arguably the most important aspect of either item during the mid/lategame. Every charge is 4 extra seconds that you have to farm/defend/gank whatever.
Bloodstone is also close to Linken's in terms of farming potential. Linken's gives slightly more damage/attack speed, but Bloodstone lets you spam Mystic Snake on camps with no worries of running low on mana.
Well I wouldn't say it's core, but if the enemy's initiators are Clockwerk and Puck then a Linken's is a waste.
Do you really think so? In my opinion, just one blockable disable is more then enough reasons to prefer Linken's. For example, Puck will get hex eventually, not speaking about three other team members.
Pretty much the only way to catch and kill late game Medusa is chain disabling. Linken's gives you a way to break free out of such chains.
Why not midas ? I mean if you are going to pick a hero who is the biggest shit early and mid game to farm 2039123912308123 minutes why not get a midas ?
I mean lets be honest every medussa game goes longer than 40 minutes
@Dorkly
There are several reasons:
1) The fact she's a shit early. Medusa is like one of the weakest and easily killable heroes early. If you'll build Midas - you'll prolong this state, die and lose any presence you had. In such situation, you can only hope that enemies will forget about you and let you freefarm. And freefarm Medusa doesn't need Midas, both her GPM and XPM are good enough without it.
2) Most of my won Medusa games are between 30 min and 50 min marks. So I would disagree about your statement.
3) Medusa has no use for 30% IAS early, thus making Midas zero-effect item at that point of game.
Even if you can buy Midas at like 3 minutes, don't go for it and buy Ultimate orb instead. It will be much more useful.
" The fact she's a shit early. Medusa is like one of the weakest and easily killable heroes early."
Yeah i guees its right.
That could actually play in your favor. Level 3 Medusa with 2 Blades of Attack could be surprisingly dangerous for many offlaners.
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Medusa the Gorgon is a manifestation of the word "sexiness" itself. She is known for being too much to handle at any stage of game. By her player that’s it. “One of the hardest carries in the game, but requires too much farm to do a thing”. Worst hero blah-blah-blah.
Despite that, Medusa is my favorite hero by far (surprisingly, I didn’t liked her at all in original DotA). So, this “guide” is made for sharing my love.
[size=20][color=#00ffff]Pros and Cons:[/color][/size]
[color=#0dbd00]+ sexy;
+ many snakes;
+ center of attention;
+ team fight breaking ultimate;
+ Hardest. Possible. Carry.[/color]
[color=#ff0000]- terrible start;
- squishy;
- highly depends on her team;
- center of attention;
- everyone has a twisted sense of beauty.[/color]
[size=20][color=#00ffff]Abilities:[/color][/size]
Well, you know them. Split Shot for ranged cleave, Mana Shield for tons of effective HP, Mystic Snake for being a pain in the ass and Stone Gaze for the flavor. I mean – you’re Medusa the Gorgon, aren’t you?
I don’t feel necessary to explain what each skill does because tooltip in the game makes it just fine. However, I will write more about their role at different points of game.
[size=20][color=#00ffff]Roles:[/color][/size]
Again: you are carry. Hard carry. Very hard. That means you need to farm your items and then kick all asses if game isn’t over yet (how do you even kick with a snake tail?). Don’t try to support or roam with Medusa. Play other creeping… things for these purposes.
[size=20][color=#00ffff]Lanes:[/color][/size]
This is the point, where I’ll stop speak nonsense and start actual guide. Of course best lane for Medusa is the safe one (top for Dire and bottom for Radiant). However, most of people who try to read this guide (I don’t even talk about “need it”) play in pubs. This is a wonderful place where various miracles possible! Like 5 carry team with 3 raging players on the mid simultaneously.
So I highly recommend you: always ask other players if you’re allowed to pick Medusa and go safe lane. Never pick her silently, except situation where you are picking last and your team doesn’t have a carry (those miracles appear too, but not as often as I would like them to).
But if you end up in situation where you picked our lady but safe lane already taken, remember: Medusa can stay on any lane. And I do mean any. I’ll tell you more – sometimes safe lane isn’t best choice in pub game. In my case, typical situation is where everyone in the enemies’ team knows what Medusa is and what threat she pose. And my team, on the other hand, asks me to buy a courier and wards… Did I tell you that playing Medusa in pubs will bring you pain? It will. But let’s continue.
Worst lane choice for Medusa is a mid lane. Not because of ganks – there’s a tower really close to outweigh it, but because of Medusa herself not being fit for that role. She has low movement speed and no real use for a bottle, so she’ll not benefit from runes that much. Also she needs money over experience. And she isn’t roamer, so she’ll not be able to help her team.
Offlane, on the other hand, can work out just fine. I don’t say it will be easy, but Medusa has tools to make this possible.
[size=20][color=#00ffff]Item choices:[/color][/size]
To be honest, I hate to waste money. So I strongly oppose every single Iron Branch you’ll buy for her. I’ll speak about starting items later, for now I want to point few controversial items:
Power Treads or Phase Boots? As you can see in Dotabuff’s statistics, despite PB being recommended item for Medusa, PT has higher winrate. So I recommend you to ignore this and never buy goddamn PT for Medusa. Please.
Phase Boots is better suited for her in every situation possible. Boots choice has most impact early, and this is a time, when Medusa has shit damage and no escape mechanism. Also, Medusa doesn’t need DPS early, but she really needs extra damage per attack to secure lasthits. Second very important moment – Phase Boots allows you to setup your ulti to actually stone some targets when it really needed.
Manta Style. Second most used item on Medusa. Easy to predict, I’m going to say “Don’t buy it!”. In my opinion, this item for her is too much overrated. Main argument for buying this item is: “you turn on Split Shot, then use Manta and here’s your 224% extra damage”. Let me ask you one thing: Shockwave skill can hit 10+ units and deal total of 3000+ damage. Does it makes it best skill ever? No it doesn’t. Same goes for splitshotting illusions. This is fun, but doesn’t have too much effect. Also you should remember, that illusions neither profit from extra damage nor from IAS modifiers on gear (you bought these PT, didn’t you?). This being said, in late game pair of illusions will add you like 10~15% DPS on a single target. You can calculate it yourself, if you want to.
I am not saying that Manta is a bad item. It’s good and fits Medusa well, but there are much better items for her. You can add 625 gold and buy Eye of Skadi which is amazing.
Midas. Just no.
[size=20][color=#00ffff]Actual game:
Early, [/color][/size]
there are either laning or
laning.
As I said before, Medusa has terrible early game, mostly because of low base damage, so-so stats and all skills being useless on lvl 1. In my opinion, countering her damage problem is essential. So, as starting items, I suggest Tango and either
Ring of Basilius or
Blades of Attack. Both will give you some extra damage. Ring has couple of nice properties that will help you on your lane, while Blades will give you more damage and will be used for your Phase Boots later.
It’s important to know who you’re facing before using your first skillpoint.
Mystic Snake should be leveled first only if you’re going for first blood (and you really shouldn’t). In every other case you should pick either stats (for damage that you need so much) or
Mana Shield (if your opponent can possibly do something to get you killed). Best build in my opinion is:
Stats->Snake->Snake->Shield->Snake->etc
I don’t think you need second point in stats, cause you’ll probably already have extra Blades of Attack at level 4. And recent buff for her Mana Shield is good too.
Mana cost of Mystic Snake renders it completely useless on level 1, but after level 2 it’ll become your main harass tool, given you can hit at least two targets with mana at once. But don’t use it for farm itself before you build Perseverance.
Your objectives are simple: don’t die, try to lasthit as much as possible, look at map often. Lasthitting>harassing. Harass enemy only if he/she/it gets in your way or if you have nothing else to do. Deny your creeps as much as possible (without sacrificing lasthits though). Attack them as soon as their HP drops below 50%, so you can prevent lane from pushing further from your tower.
Your items of choice at this point of game is:
Blades of Attack(two, if you bought Ring earlier)->PB->Ring of Health (or Void Stone if you aren’t being harassed for some reason)->Perseveranse->Linken’s Sphere.
Don’t make Ring of Aquila. It’s a good item, but it’s also extra 500 (or even 1000 if you skipped Ring of Basilius) gold you’ll spend on item that you don’t really need. Save it for your Linken’s Sphere.
Remember, that you’ll have your escape option
only on lvl 6. You can give just enough food to an enemy before that moment comes, so don’t risk. Yes, for now try to not think about your ulti other then being your only escape.
Linken’s Sphere is kind of a break point for you. If you have it before 17~20 minutes mark – you’re dangerous already. This doesn’t means you should go and fight with enemy heroes, but they can’t kill you in split second and in most cases that is more than enough. Also +34 damage from Linken’s and PB is good at this point.
[size=20][color=#00ffff]Mid game:[/color][/size]
By the moment enemy’s tower is destroyed and you can’t lane safely anymore, you should already have PB and Linken’s Sphere. Your level at this point would be somewhere around 12. What will change? Basically, nothing. You’re still in the beginning of your farm, but you must remember it isn’t so terrible anymore. You’ve just got your first level in
Split Shot (You did, right?), you have big manaregen boost from Linken’s and enough damage to guaranty lasthits. Your course of action from now on is farming lane without going away from tower. If your creeps begin to push lane – just abandon it. TP on another lane or go for some jungling until things change.
Jungling as Medusa at this point is pretty simple, yet have few unique moments:
[*]Don’t waste your time on any camps except big ones and satyrs’ camp. Always use Mystic Snake on satyrs – it works wonders.
[*]Stack ancients as much as possible. If someone in pub does this for you – it’s basically a game you already won. I mean – no one going to stack your ancients for you in pub, deal with it.
[*]Stack big camps if you can’t stack ancients for some reason.
In summary, your action pattern is something like this:
Farm on a lane->creeps move too far from a tower->look at the map – if there is a creep wave coming to your tower on the other lane – go there, if not – go in the jungle.
If you see, that anytime soon some lane will be free for your farming, then come in jungle just at time to stack big camp and kill it with Snake and few shots. If there are no such lanes – go stack ancients and kill big camp if you have free time.
Remember, 12lvl Medusa with PB, Linken’s and one point in Split Shot can easily farm three stack of ancients by herself. Just attack them from some distance, to make them go back sometimes, so you’ll not get attacked by all at once.
Farm
Skadi.
Start with Ultimate Orbs and finish it by going in a Secret Shop. You’ll have no problems with it, if you didn’t have problems with Linken’s before.
Once you get your first Ultimate Orb you can go fight actually. But you should remember: farming>>>fighting. So even if theoretically you can help your teammates in a fight hell I know where – don’t do it. Don’t waste your precious farm time.
But if you see a fight happening in a place you can quickly reach (by moving or TPing) – go for it. In most ~even fights your ultimate will bring victory for your team.
Very important moment: [color=#ff0000][size=25]CARRY THOSE GODDAMN TP SCROLLS![/size][/color] Yeah, I know that’s a given for basically every hero in the game, but as Medusa you MUST always carry at least one of them. You don’t have reliable escape, don’t you? And you’ll not try to make Shadow Blade if you’re not retarded. TP scroll will give you that escape you need so much. It’s very hard to catch Medusa even with multiple heroes if she just presses her ulti and runs away. But if you time her ulti well, with TP you can even escape organized five man ganks.
[size=20][color=#00ffff]Late Game:[/color][/size]
I think that idea of Medusa coming online after having 4-5 big items is wrong. She, actually, needs two of them to participate in fight efficiently, three to wipe anyone who wasn’t powerfed by your precious teammates, four to destroy everything in team fights and five to annihilate them solo.
So, your “Late game” begins when you have Skadi. With PB, Linken’s and Skadi you can easily win team fights even while being focused. You’ll also be immortal in one-on-one manfights if any happen (except for powerfed cases). Keep this in mind, when some Riki decides to take you one on one in a cloud. Don’t run away – fight him, he’ll be the one to run away. You can completely ignore Juggernaut’s Omnislash too.
At this point of game, you’re going for aggressive… farming. Yes, you are. Push towers with your team, then stack ancients from time to time, farm jungles and large waves of creeps. Don’t hunt enemy heroes and ask your team to play defensively for a little bit. Don’t go on enemy’s high ground just yet. All fights you should participate are team fights, preferable defensive ones.
Make
Butterfly. That’s it.
If you have done well until now – call your team and A+click on enemy’s base for a free win. In an equal game these three big items is all you need for a win. They will not be able to do anything – you’ll hit hard and any of your hits will force them to actually fight you (or lose a teammate due to Skadi’s slow), and only thing you need to do to stop their initiation is to use Stone Gaze with a good timing. It will nullify anything – Black Hole, Chronosphere, Reverse Polarity, etc. And after that you’ll kill them. Just because you can.
However it’s pretty rare to have equal conditions at this point. Even if it was for like 10-15 minutes, your team had 4vs5 situation and that’s your fault entirely. You should take a look if there’s anyone who actually can fight you. If answer is “yes” than you should delay your dive for a time enough to build
Rapier – your fourth big item and one of reasons why Manta on Medusa is a trash.
You probably know already that Medusa is considered as best Rapier holder in the game. She is range, has an AOE attack without wasting money for Battlefury, tons of effective HP to survive and team fight breaking ultimate. Suck it up, Leoric.
Still, even for her Rapier is still a risky strategy, keep that in mind. In most cases you’ll win, just don’t make terrible mistakes and you’ll be fine.
You could consider buying Rapier as your third big item if you far behind in terms of farm. In a team fight (when defending your highgrounds for example) four-slotted Medusa with a Rapier can outplay other hard carries (like AM) with six slots;
And what’s for sixth slot is that you don’t really need it. Fill it with Aegis for your final rush or save your money for a sudden buyback + another Rapier (I had a game like that). However, if you ask me, I would say that best sixth slot item for Medusa is
Guinsoo (sheep stick). Seriously, it gives you extra stats, active skill to counter enemy’s evasion and manapull that guaranties 100% uptime for your Mana Shield in every possible situation.
[size=20][color=#00ffff]Friends and Enemies:[/color][/size]
The very amusing trait of Medusa is that she has no real counterpick. There are few heroes who can put up some resistance to a full farmed Medusa, given they have equal farm (which is little not realistic), but no one, I repeat, NO ONE excels Medusa in a team fight.
Even DOOM, who is an universal hero counter, doesn't really counter her. Your Mana Shield still works under effect of Doom and your Linken's Sphere will give you enough time to activate Stone Gaze before being Doomed.
Best way to counter Medusa is to shut her farm, like with every other hard carry.
You could say, that evasion based heroes could be considered a counter pick. Cause you don't really need that MKB. But if you're facing some Phantom Assassin, getting MKB instead of Butterfly will still win you a game.
Also, "kinda" counter is Bane with his -damage skill. However Linken's does block it, and on a stage where it has an impact, your work is not to deal damage anyway.
Based on that, her best friends are heroes who can stop fast push, don't feed enemy too much and provide Medusa some space. And it's never a bad thing to have some initiate and crowd control potential in your team.
[size=20][color=#00ffff]Few facts about Medusa:[/color][/size]
- There are few things that you should know about Stone Gaze:
[*]It will have no effect on someone who never faced Medusa for all Gaze duration. So idea of using it on someone running from you is not a good one.
[*]Stone Gaze drastically slows turning speed of affected targets. You'll stone anyone, who faced you twice, even if it were for a moment. That means, only few heroes can effectively disable you if they turned away from you in the first place. Yes, I am talking about TP out.
- Did you know that you can switch PT from intelligence to any other and gain more mana with a Mystic Snake? You did, right? Forget about it and never buy Power Treads on Medusa;
- Mana Shield will piss off anyone who'll use HP% based skill on you. It's just ridiculous when you get ultied by Necrophos while having like ~40% HP and just creep away;
- Split Shot will never target buildings, but will still work if you attack them yourself;
- Medusa can push stupidly good by learning Split Shot on the first level, but that's a bad idea;
- You can easily protect Stone Gaze from being stolen by Rubik - switch Split Shot or Mana Shield off/on.
[size=20][color=#00ffff]Whom to watch:[/color][/size]
I don't think too much knowledge could be gathered by watching other's Medusa plays, cause she don't really has any skillshots or advanced techniques. But if you want to see good Medusa, obviously you can watch ZSMJ games. XBOCT played a good one too, and I saw SingSing game where he nicely used Stone Gaze to catch running away target that turned back to throw some disable.
Don't associate their item builds with this guide though.
[size=20][color=#00ffff]That’s it, folks![/color][/size]
“guide” is over. Feel free to ask me anything about it or about my cute Medusa. I would really appreciate if you point out my mistakes in grammar or punctuation.
Thanks for reading, if you really did waste that much time of yours to read something like this.
[size=20][color=#00ffff]Bonus[/color][/size]