Why I wrote all this stuff or just "the Introduction"

~Table Of Contents

1. Story
2. Introduction
3. Info and Stats
4. Skill Usage
5. Skill Build
6. Item Build
7. Strategy
~7b. Medusa's Key Points
8. Hero Synergy
9. Screens and Additional Strategy
10. Conclusion
11. Replays
12. Credits

1. Medusa's Story

2. Medusa's Introduction

I was thinking a lot about the question, why I suggest you to play Medusa and what I found is nothing. Seriously, there are 97 heroes and I don't believe that any hero is worse than another one. Every hero is useful in some situations. For example: In a 1vs1, porbably no one can stand against a well farmed Troll, but in a 5vs5 a well-placed Statis Trap can decide the tide of the battle. There are so hunderds of situations where every hero could be good or bad. All in all, I think that if you already opened my guide and started to read it, you won't stop now. You already decided that you are interested in how to play Medusa.

3. Medusa's Info & Stats

Pros:
[+] PRO # 1
[+] PRO # 2
[+] PRO # 3

Cons:
[-] CON # 1
[-] CON # 2
[-] CON # 3



For complete stats, click below:

Read the skill descriptions on that page, since i won't copy all the details. Click here or here

4. Medusa's Skill Usage

Split Shot
4 arrows à 45%-75% damage. Split Shot is the skill, that makes Medusa a feared late-game carry. In clashes there are usually 2-3 heroes in your range, so you can't use the skill to its full potencial (which would mean 300% damage output!) beside you have a Magnus or a Dark Seer. Activate the skill to farm and for teamfights and deactivate it, when you attack a low-hp hero, for example, or when you chase someone.



Mystic Snake
Your only nuke. Unlike Lich's ultimate, it doesnt hit any unit twice. When it's maxed, it jumps 6 times with a base damage of 200.
That makes 200 + 240 + 280 + 320 + 360 = 1020 total damage
Therefore we try to hit the heroes with the last jumps by aiming on creeps first. This approach is useful to harass your enemies in the lane or to initiate a gank just before your ally stuns the poor man, since the ally's stun could kill some creeps which we need to deal max. damage with the snake. The skill can also be used to farm later on and to counter pushes. This skill ensures you a good early-mid game.
Usually I don't use it on lvl 1 because of the poor damage. A level 2 snake can be annoying if it is casted after 2 enemy creeps died, because it will hit the greedy bastard, who is trying to get another last-hit
A level-4 snake becomes a real pain in ass for everyone in your way. It costs 170 mana and gives you 120 back if you hit a ranged creep and a hero, while dealing 350 damage to the enemy. Who can take that for more than 3 times?
In the most cases that is how you will get your early game kills.



Mana Shield
Since Medusa has quite low HP, that makes her a lot tankier. In the early game I would suggest to use this skill only in the case of being ganked. Activate it as soon you see 2-3 enmies around you, then use your ultimate and run.
With a decent mana pool and mana-regenration and with the skill being maxed, never turn it off! It increases your effective health points by 100%.
All you need, is to have enough mana. You do that by following my skill build



Stone Gaze
Always use this skill to escape from a gank. It's cooldown is quite low for an ultimate. You can also use it in order to slow the opponents to give you teammates the chance to hit them. Kunkka would love you for doing this. However, be careful because the enemies have to have line sight of you. That means, that you can't come from behind to use this skill.
Another thing to be mentioned here is the fact, that this wonderful ultimate deals up to 1000 damage to summons and illusuions. That gives you the possibility to counter heroes like Warlock, Chaos Knight or Naga Siren and just makes Manta Style useless for the opponents team.
However, a Phantom Lancer with a diffusial blade is someone you dont want to meet alone.

5. Medusa's Skill Build

Level 1 - Mystic Snake
Level 2 - Mana Shield
Level 3 - Mystic Snake
Level 4 - Mana Shield
Level 5 - Mystic Snake
Level 6 - Stone Gaze
Level 7 - Mystic Snake
Level 8 - Mana Shield
Level 9 - Mana Shield
Level 10 - Split Shot
Level 11 - Stone Gaze
Level 12 - Split Shot
Level 13 - Split Shot
Level 14 - Split Shot
Level 15 - Stats
Level 16 - Stone Gaze
Level 17+ - Stats

Not much to say here. If you want, you can delay your shield with some early investements into stats. Maxing Snake is self-explantory.
You want to make use of Split shot as soon as possible and while 45% damage on 4 units are nearly useless, 75% ensure easier farm and up to 225% bonus damage team fights, which could start by the time when you reach level 14.
Some players don't skill the ultimate until level 10, but I don't recommend this. You can save your ass nearly every time you are being chased or ganked, because even if you take only 50% less physical damage in the next 5 seconds, Stone Gaze stops movement! That means that melee heroes can't harm you anymore ( I don't talk about spells here).

6. Medusa'S Item Build

Startig items

1 x is enough if you don't lane against a Tinker.

2 x for better last-hitting and denying of creeps.

1 or 2 x depending on whether you randomed the hero, playd the normal mode or anything else.

That's basically all you need for the first minutes of the games. Ask a teammate to buy a chicken, which will bring you your core items.

Did I say, that you always should solo mid?
If there is a Nevermore, Bloodseeker or a Tinker, just don't pick Medusa or pick her before they can pick their solos


Core Items

First, I get a
Don't blame me for that. Try to understand. The mystic snake replenishes your mana by a certain degree, but is still not spammable. With a void stone you will be able to use it much more often.
Another reason to get a void stone is, that it is available at the mid lane only, so why not to get it?

Feel free to finish the 2 x to get some free slots and improve a little bit of everything.

Everyone needs some movement speed. The best choice is to get some boots. Probably, you should get some


A will provide you some health regen for the rest of the game and automaticaly turn into a
Let's say that it's a miracle.


If you farmed well, you should have about 40-50 creeps killed by now and got all those items between 8-10 minutes. Sometimes it just doesn't go the way you want it to and you finish them only after 12 or 14 minutes.

In the first case, try to farm some real boots in the following 8-10 minutes, also known as

If you can't farm a Preservance and Boots of Travel by 20 minutes, just get some cheaper shoes. You don't have to make it into the Guniess World Records.

Cheap stats, 25% IAS... I think you know what Power Treads are.

I guess that those are the items that you need to start hardcore farming. With Boots of Travel and Preservance you can teleport to a lane, farm 3 waves with Mystic Snake and some last-hits and teleport to the next lane.
By now you should be level 11-13.
The real core items

+ =

For only 3k gold, which contain cheap parts, you become a real farming machine. But that's, not the only reason to get a Maelstorm. Now it just takes you several hits to bring any spellcaster under 500 hp before they will drop their weapons and run.
Maelstorm fits perfectly Medusa's role in the team, since she never fights alone and Maelstorm is at it's best when used in teamfights. Moreover, you will upgrade it later on into a Mjolnir.

According to the DotaZilla stats on www.dota-league.com, 29% of my 50 Medusa-games end here. One reason is that my team failed. The other one is that the opponents already lost by forfeiting.

The next item to get is a

+10 to all stats. Why not?

is to be finished next. It has great synergy with Mana Shield.
Usually every team has annoying skills and Linken's Sphere is the best way to avoid them. Even if it is only one spell each 20 seconds, that might be three spells in one minute and thirty spells in 10 minutes. It also counters some spells, that BKB wouldn't counter.
Wait, what? BKB? why not to get it instead? I'll explain later :P
Linken's also offers you a lot of mana- and enogh HP-regen. You can't say, that those 5k gold are wasted. Without a Preservance you would never be able to farm that much. Without a Preservance you would have to go back to the fountain all the time.
And if you already have spent a slot for it, feel free to improve it into a great survivalability-increasing item!

Last but not least, finish by getting a

The active skill of Mjolnir is not to be underestimated. Use it on an Axe to rape the enemies and use it on your own to avoid them attacking you.
I guess, it's best used on the one who is being attacked.


If farmed well, the game should be going on for about 30 minutes by now. If you didn't farm well about 40 minutes.

My personal record in ricing is 170 creepkills after 30 minutes. Feel free to beat it. I'm not a pro-gamer at all


Luxury/ Late game items

Usually the game won't last long if you have Mjolnir and Linkens after 30 minutes, but you still remain a monster that kills creeps and if your team doesn't have enough advantage to win the game, go and farm more!

kicks ass!

More Survivalability, More HP and mana regen for the Mana-shield and a f***ing annoying slow.
It stacks with Mjolnir's even when Split Shot is turned on and slows the unit that you hit with you main arrow.

In every third game I mange it to finish that item.
The longer a game lasts when you play Medusa, the better are your chances to win.

If your team is still not strong enough get a

It increases your DPS and your tankiness. Not much to say about it. Since it is your 5th expensive item, you ususally won't play long enogh to get it.

I reach that in 15% of my games.
I'm just sharing that wth you, because I don't know what else to compare with

Now Let's see a Medusa with all those items on Level 20:



And now some calculations:

2231 HP + 30% Evasion means 2974 EHP
2974 HP + 19 Armour means... I don't know what exactly...something like 60% reduction and leads into 4956 EHP
With Mana Shield that makes 7447 HP. Not that easy to kill for an Agi-hero

Lets calculate the DPS...

It becomes quite complicated with th IAS and doesn't really matter and anyway everything depens on the amount of heroes you hit with Split Shot and Mjlonir...


Now, what to get as a 6th item if the opponents still did not lose?
First, flame your nooby team and then go farming again.
Another record of my own: 450 creep kills in one game

Get a if there is a better carry, like Void/Troll (there should be none) , than you in your team or if you just feel like it.

Get a for everything it provides you.

Get a if Linken's is not enough.

Get a - my favourite - to finish the game.

Good items I personally don't like




Why Linken's and not BKB?

1) Feel free to try both of them.

2) Medusa has no channeling spells.

3) Medusa deals more damage the longer she stays in the fight. Well, actually every hero does, but... no, we need an example.

Let's say Sven. A strong carry. He stuns his poor enemies, then comes closer or blinks in, uses his MoM and BKB an starts to bang out the hell of them.
Without BKB, he would get stunned and maybe easily killed. With BKB, he will kill everyone during those 5-10 seconds!
Why can't the same happen to Medusa?

Medusa is ranged and not that close to the opponents, but she does not deal as much damage as a Sven.
When she gets focused, she can use her ultimate and just run away. Mana Shield will block enough damage not to die during one stun. Anyway, with linkens they have to stun you twice and at least 3 heroes to attack you. If your team is not able to use that to your advantage, they are bad.

Basically, I think that BKB is useful for heroes that can deal a lot of damage in a short time.

Another very popular item for Medusa is:


Images have Split shot. Theoretically, that would mean that Manta Style increases the damage output by another 200%. That's true.

1) Illusions have no Mana shield or Evasion and get amplified damage. That means, that it takes only some seconds to kills them.

2) Again, if you dont hit 4 heroes at the same time with one Medusa, how do you want to hit 4 heroes at the same time with 3 Medusas?

3) Try Manta if you like it.



Buriza gives you a lot of DPS, but it costs 5800 gold. Get another 400 gold and buy a Divine Rapier instead.




Radience is nice, but farm another 450 gold and get a Mjolnir's, which is much more useful in my opinion.


Items not to get

All the rest, but some might be ot that stuipd as others.


With Split Shot Lifesteal will work only for one arrow, your main arrow and that arrow deals only 75% damage.



Sounds great, but simply doesn't work with Split Shot.



Get Skadi instead.



Again, that will work on one target only. Your task is not to kill single targets.



Go to the supermarket and buy a pair of balls instead.



Sounds interesting to combine DPS ans tankiness over Mana Shield, but get a Butterfly instead.


You are not a good chaser anyway.

7. Medusa's Strategy

Early Game

EARLY GAME THUMBNAIL ICONS GO HERE

FIRST STRATEGY POINT GOES HERE: FIRST POINT EXPLANATION GOES HERE
SECOND STRATEGY POINT GOES HERE: SECOND POINT EXPLANATION GOES HERE
THIRD STRATEGY POINT: THIRD POINT EXPLANATION GOES HERE

Mid Game

MID GAME THUMBNAIL ICONS GO HERE

FIRST STRATEGY POINT GOES HERE: FIRST POINT EXPLANATION GOES HERE
SECOND STRATEGY POINT GOES HERE: SECOND POINT EXPLANATION GOES HERE
THIRD STRATEGY POINT: THIRD POINT EXPLANATION GOES HERE

Late Game

LATE GAME THUMBNAIL ICONS GO HERE

FIRST STRATEGY POINT GOES HERE: FIRST POINT EXPLANATION GOES HERE
SECOND STRATEGY POINT GOES HERE: SECOND POINT EXPLANATION GOES HERE
THIRD STRATEGY POINT: THIRD POINT EXPLANATION GOES HERE

7b. Medusa'S Key Points

KEY POINT #1 GOES HERE
EXPLANATION OF KEY POINT #1 GOES HERE

KEY POINT #2 GOES HERE
EXPLANATION OF KEY POINT #2 GOES HERE

KEY POINT #3 GOES HERE
EXPLANATION OF KEY POINT #3 GOES HERE

KEY POINT #4 GOES HERE
EXPLANATION OF KEY POINT #4 GOES HERE

KEY POINT #5 GOES HERE
EXPLANATION OF KEY POINT #5 GOES HERE

8. Medusa's Hero Synergy

YOUR HERO SYNERGY INTRODUCTION GOES HERE

HERO ICON #1
EXPLANATION OF HERO #1 SYNERGY GOES HERE

HERO ICON #2
EXPLANATION OF HERO #2 SYNERGY GOES HERE

HERO ICON #3
EXPLANATION OF HERO #3 SYNERGY GOES HERE

HERO ICON #4
EXPLANATION OF HERO #4 SYNERGY GOES HERE

HERO ICON #5
EXPLANATION OF HERO #5 SYNERGY GOES HERE

9. Medusa's Screens and Additional Strategy

SCREENSHOT EXAMPLE #1 TITLE
EXPLANATION OF SCREENSHOT EXAPMLE #1



SCREENSHOT EXAMPLE #2 TITLE
EXPLANATION OF SCREENSHOT EXAPMLE #2



SCREENSHOT EXAMPLE #3 TITLE
EXPLANATION OF SCREENSHOT EXAPMLE #3

10. Conclusion

YOUR CONCLUSION GOES HERE

11. Replays

YOUR REPLAYS GO HERE

12. Credits

I thank my english teacher, the one who made the template I use. I thank Icefrog for DotA and the reader for reading.

13. Changelog

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