[Guide]Zhen's Guide to the Medusa, Gorgon, bloodstone, controversial?

[unqART]

Introduction

 

Until recently, Medusa was never seen in action in competitive DotA games, and very rarely seen in even pub games. This was because of her horrible attack animation which led to poor laning, a very, very situational ultimate that anyone could Blink out of, and mediocre hp even in late game. So, why pick her now?

 

[*]Her attack animation was recently buffed. Now, she can creep and animation cancel decently.

[*]Blink dagger was nerfed, so enemy heroes now cannot just blink out when being Purged.

[*]Purge damages Warlock's Infernal by a ton.

[*]Purge is the only spell which can remove Omniknight's Repel + Guardian Angel combo on the enemy carry.

 

Hero Stats

 

Strength - 14 + 1.85

Agility - 20 + 2.5

Intelligence - 19 + 2.25

Starting HP - 416

Starting Mana - 247

Starting Armor - 1.8

Starting Damage - 44 - 50

Movement speed - 300

 

As you can see, Medusa's agility gain is high, her strength gain mediocre and her intelligence gain nearly as high as her agility gain. This allows her to use Chain Lightning in the lane often, without needing much mana regen items, if at all. Since her strength is quite low, we get two levels of stats at 2 and 4 to give her a slight boost. Overall, her stat gain is 6.6 which is awesome as a carry.

 

 

Skills

 

Medusa magically splits her shot into three arrows. These arrows deal a lower percent of her normal damage.

 

Level 1 - 45% damage

Level 2 - 55% damage

Level 3 - 65% damage

Level 4 - 75% damage

 

A pretty meh farming/pushing skill, get it after your Maelstrom to clear creep waves quickly.

 

Hurls a bolt of damaging lightning at a target enemy that jumps to nearby enemies. Each jump deals less damage.

 

Level 1 - 75 damage, jumps 3 times. Costs 90 mana.

Level 2 - 150 damage, jumps 5 times. Costs 105 mana.

Level 3 - 225 damage, jumps 7 times. Costs 125 mana.

Level 4 - 300 damage, jumps 9 times. Costs 145 mana.

 

Cooldown: 11 seconds.

 

A great harassing and farming skill. Low mana cost coupled with your relatively high int lets you use this skill often in the lane. Max this first.

 

Creates a shield that absorbs 50% of the incoming damage by using Medusa's mana.

 

Level 1 - .75 damage per point of mana.

Level 2 - 1.25 damage per point of mana.

Level 3 - 1.5 damage per point of mana.

Level 4 - 2 damage per point of mana.

 

This is what makes you such a tank later on. All you need to know is that you should turn on this skill permanently once it is level 3. It effectively doubles your HP provided you have the mana to sustain the shield. When you die and respawn, you also need to turn it back on. Get it after maxing Chain Lightning.

 

Some explanation:

Level 4 mana shield absorbs 50% of any damage, and uses a point of mana for every 2 damage taken.

Assume that you are nuked for exactly 300 damage. You will only take 150 damage, and 150/2 = 75 mana is taken away. Fair price, don't you think? If it was 3000 damage, thats when this skill really becomes truly valuable.

 

 

Casts a powerful anti-magic buff at a target enemy unit. Slows movement and attack speeds for 5 seconds.

 

Level 1 - Slows speed by a factor of 2. 12 second cooldown.

Level 2 - Slows speed by a factor of 3. 11 second cooldown.

Level 3 - Slows speed by a factor of 5. 10 second cooldown.

 

Deals 600/800/1000 damage to summoned units. ( THAT MEANS YOU, INFERNAL!)

 

Costs 60 mana at all levels.

 

This skill might seem underwhelming, but it's great. Due to its long cast range, you can single out anyone that strays a little too far from the 'safe' zone for your allies to pound on in team pushes. It allows you to gank. It severely damages Warlock's Infernal. It removes Repel and Guardian Angel. It costs 60 mana. What more could you possibly want?

 

 

Skill Build

 

 

1. Chain Lightning

2. Stats

3. Chain Lightning

4. Stats

5. Chain Lightning

6. Purge

7. Chain Lightning

8. Mana Shield

9. Mana Shield

10. Mana Shield

11. Mana Shield

12. Split Shot

13. Split Shot

14. Split Shot

15. Split Shot

16. Purge

17. Purge

 

Finish up with stats.

 

Skill Build Justifications

 

This should be the one and only skill build for Medusa. Chain Lightning is maxed first with a few stats as that is your only nuke and harassing skill. Purge is taken at 6 for a slow to help in ganks. Mana shield after Chain to make you tougher / longer-lasting, and finally Split Shot is maxed by the time your team is pushing.

 

Item Build

 

 

Finished Item Build

 

This build aims to get a fast Bloodstone as the core item. But before that, we need a means to farm that 5k, and we also need some damage before it. So, we get Maelstrom as it fulfills both requirements. BoT after Bloodstone is a no-brainer - helps farming and defending towers, etc. Split Mjolnir to make Butterfly later, since we all know Butterfly > Mjolnir. The build probably won't be achieved in a game if you're not godlike or something, but get up to Bloodstone at least.

 

Now comes the question: Why Bloodstone?

To be honest, I thought it sucked before I tried it, too. But think about it. Early perseverance for mana shield/lane-staying power. Tons of hp/mana from the Boosters. Quote from Patccmoi's Bloodstone guide:

 

Item stats:

 

+450 Hp

+400 Mana

+200% Mana regen

+6 Health/sec

 

It has 2 'abilities'. One is to accumulate charges. This is done through killing heroes. For every kill, you gain 1 charge (except when you have no charge, your first kill gives you 2). Each charge gives you a net +2 health/mana per second. While it's not much for health, it's actually HUGE for mana. You lose a charge every time you die.

 

 

So what does this mean? If you get even one kill (2 charges for the first), it means you get 4 mana/sec on top of the 200% mana regen. This is HUGE. Last hit 5 heroes with Chain Lightning, and you're in the realms of infinite mana as well as boundless hp regen. Both of these help your tanking prowess ENORMOUSLY. I have replay to prove it ^^. Just try it.

 

 

[cnter]Luxury Items[/Center]

 

Eye of Skadi

Permaslow, adds good HP, mana, some damage...no reason not to get it. Only drawback is that it comes very very late into the game. If you can farm it,

 

Linken's Sphere

Spell negation is always handy, coupled with extra regen.

 

 

Guinsoo's Scythe of Vyse

Hex is always good. Also gives more mana for your mana shield(not really needed, but meh..)

 

Optional Items[/center]

 

Hood of Defiance

In some games, the enemy heroes have tons of nukes all waiting for you the moment you show your face, lowering your HP down to nothing in a second. Hood gives you nearly a 50% resistance to those nukes (47.5%), and another 25% from mana shield. However you won't need it every game. It costs around 2000g, so decide wisely.

 

Black king Bar

Makes you an unstoppable god for 9 seconds. Get if you're being stunned to death all the time.

 

 

Strategy[/center]

 

Early Game

 

 

Grab your starting items and head to a lane, any lane. Just farm, and use chain lightning occasionally, and to kill heroes whenever possible. It's a very powerful nuke. Having trouble farming? Get your perseverance first. With Medusa's great animation now, I usually find no problem at all farming my Maelstrom and boots by the 20th minute.

 

Use Purge to Grab Kills

 

 

 

Even with your killing capabilities at level 6, don't concentrate too much on ganks and stuff. Let your teammates handle that. Your job is to farm and carry later.

 

 

 

Mid Game

 

 

Hopefully, you were able to farm your maelstrom, boots, wraiths, and a perseverance easily. You should have, anyway. Just form your bloodstone in this order --> Point, Vitality, then Energy boosters. I know there will be some problems with the slots, either buy them with a chicken or leave a wraith at the base. Not a big difference. Farm your bloodstone asap while helping your team defend with Maelstrom CL spam. At level 11 which is when you should have 3 Mana Shield, turn it on PERMANENTLY, no excuses. With this skill, I could solo two enemy heroes and a tower with more than half hp remaining.

 

NOTE: Hex and a few other skills MIGHT remove Mana shield, meaning you have to re-enable it. I'll check on that later.

 

 

 

Armed with your BoT, Split Shot, and Maelstrom, you should have no problem clearing/defending any creepwaves that might be coming up to your towers. Teleport to any free lane, farm farm farm, and finish up the item build. Hopefully, you should have at least 2 charges(1 kill) on your Bloodstone, which means that you = omfgimbabbq TANK. Just follow your team in pushes, purge whoever that comes out, push and win. Simple. Rack up those charges as much as possible to extend your ownage over the opposing teams.

 

Don't be afraid to solo heroes, you should own them easily. The only guy I ever had a problem against was Antimage, since he ripped up my shield like NP. Get a BKB in place of a Wraith if needed against like 5 stuns, although I haven't gotten it yet.

 

If your team manages to wipe out the enemy heroes, go and push for the win!

 

 

 

Good Allies

 

 

 

OmniKnight

 

Repel = Free 20 sec of unstoppable OWNAGE. They won't be able to touch you, at ALL.

 

 

Reliable Stunners

 

 

Stun, whack whack, purge, whack whack, repeat + Chain Lightning = death.

 

 

Bad Enemies Enemy

 

 

 

AntiMage

 

 

No mana shield = easy kill.

 

 

 

Replays

 

here

 

 

Conclusion

 

Following comments of my other guide, I tried to make this one as short and concise as possible. So I did minimal text explaining only the basics of what to do and not much else. The main point of this guide is to show the strength of Medusa in recent versions 6.50+. Have fun owning up pubs with Medusa, and possibly competitively!

 

 

Credits: [ Zhen ]

[|Itachi]

Are you serious? great job with the guides if you make another one you will get +1 karma :)

 

(Mods let me karma him :D I want to give my 1st karma xD)

[unqART]

Are you serious? great job with the guides if you make another one you will get +1 karma :)

 

(Mods let me karma him :D I want to give my 1st karma xD)

ohh tnx!

[NotAbastard]

Are you completely nuts? This guide is ANCIENT. Just look at the skill build - medusa has Chain Lighting and Purge. Seriously dude, if you copy paste guides here, at least READ them first.

[JuStAGaMe]

Are you completely nuts? This guide is ANCIENT. Just look at the skill build - medusa has Chain Lighting and Purge. Seriously dude, if you copy paste guides here, at least READ them first.

 

LOL indeed.

[Noble®]

wasnt zhen from dota-allstars?

[DreaM]

wasnt zhen from dota-allstars?

 

Indeed he's also regged in most famous dota sites including in garena forums.