Introduction:
Most people look at Lion as the casual support caster/ganger, who is good for nothing except disabling the heroes so his carry teammates can kill them.
Well this is all but true. Lion is an awesome soloer, ganger and he can make any hero helpless for the entire battle.

He usually is capable to end the whole game far before the Carry heroes become stronger than him, and still in such cases only illusion heroes are capable of beating him in 1v1 fight.

I think is about time to make a guide that will make Lion the biggest fear of the opponent team, and also probably the main focus target in the game!

I. Stats:

II. Skills:

III. Skills build:

As Lion has high expense spells, and at start not so big mana pool, it usually is quite ineffective to use all of his skill set, because you sooner or later run out of mana.

Most builds concentrate around Impale/Vodoo or Impale/Mana drain.
This one is all about stats. The core of this guide is that Lion is the solo mid player, and he does not need a second disable to harass/kill his opponent, as he can just nuke him during the first impale, and then finish him off during the second 8 seconds later!
This way you have all the necessary mana to constant spam your spells, and also have the high survivability most lions lack, while still maintaining your ganging and kill capabilities.

Level 1 - Impale
Level 2 - Stats
Level 3 - Impale
Level 4 - Stats
Level 5 - Impale
Level 6 - Finger of Death
Level 7 - Impale
Level 8 - Stats
Level 9 - Stats
Level 10 - Stats/Voodoo
Level 11 - Finger of Death
Level 12 - Voodoo
Level 13 - Voodoo
Level 14 - Voodoo
Level 15 - Voodoo/Stats
Level 16 - Finger of Death
Level 17 - Stats/ Mana Drain
Level 18 - Stats/ Mana Drain
Level 19 - Stats/ Mana Drain
Level 20 - Stats/ Mana Drain
Level 21 - Stats
Level 22+ - Mana Drain

Most Up-close-and-personal 1v1 encounters with Lion at levels 6-11 usually end with the Impale - autoattack - Finger combo, which is lethal for all non tank heroes, especially if Lion was the Solo mid, and is higher level than his opponent.

After level 11 It becomes Voodoo - Autoattack - Impale - Autoattack - Finger combo, which again is extremely lethal, but now Finger cooldown.

IV. Items build:
The core of the chain disable Lion is the Guinsoo, which together with his other disables is guaranteed to beat the crap out of any hero you may encounter - doesn't matter if team battle or 1v1, you can never lose 1v1 before the late game (unless OOM).
As the Guinsoo has the impressive 800 cast range, it usually is used first to catch up on the hero trying to escape after he sees you, or to a hero who has stunned you, and during the stun disable has gotten outside of your 500 casting range for your other 2 disables.

So here is my item build, based on Solo mid lane.
While if Lion is dual lane it will probably be delayed, and require and extra null talisman or Bracer.

-- Starting items --



-- in the first 5 minutes --

; or ; or

-- until minute 10 --
; or

-- until minute 15 -- (depending on gang/lane success)


-- Situational items until 15 mins --
- if the solo lane enemy hero is capable to harm you quicker than your Soul ring + Headdress 6 HP regen heals you. ; ; 2-4 x

At level 11 Lion usually has quite impressive HP and MP - both above 1100, good mana regen, a Meka for 300 heal, or a free 150 Meka heal with the Soul Ring + Meka combo, a Wand for desparate situations mana and HP, and 10+ armor, which is making him very hard to kill target, especially considering his disable, and burst DMG ultimate, while closing to Level 5 makes him even more harder to kill with the addition of the Voodoo's second disable to his arsenal!

-- Until minute 25 --
; or
-- Beyond the 25 minute mark --
The moment Lion has his Guinsoo (30-35 mins), his core build is complete.
The moment when you buy Mystic Staff is the latest time when Power Treads are switched from Int to STR (or earlier if you find yourself getting ganged/killed too often)





The 250% mana regen from Soul ring and Guinsoo give you all the mana needed for the entire game.

Having covered the basic core build you can now enter the high tier items:

The enemy has too high DPS for your 10-12 armor? Then add Shiva to protect you, and add another AOE dmg spell to Impale.

Forget about that invisible hero problems, also now you have a NOT CHANNELING mana drain from the opponent. And this for 8+ seconds with your 3 disables!

The 20 seconds target spell block Linken will be of great use in many cases, but when the enemy has too much spellcasters, who prefer focus you and not your teammates (usual case when I play Lion and ravage the opponent team) you may consider BKB.

25 to all stats + MP and HP is very helping with lion, and the slow is making attempts to walk towards/away from him quite hard, even impossible, as after the first 8 seconds of the disable lock there remain only 4 more seconds until his Impale is on CD again, and you get 5.5 stun lock again...

-- Situational items --
In cases when Blink/swap/wind walk/Silence initiators start the battle focusing you together with their whole team, and your teammates can't do anything to give you a chance to cast Impale.

I usually don't make Wind Walk for lion, but sometimes if the opponent is starting with too much silence(orchid)/disable the best way is to stay behind your team, and go in the middle of the battle unseen, make some opponent hero useless for 8 seconds, finish someone else with Finger, and hide for the next 4-6 seconds until your disables go on CD again.
Also as we all know - great escape mechanism, which we all know Lion lacks when unable to disable his chasers...

Against some magic DPS heroes like Venomancer/Doom/Lich or just a team of 4+ casters instead of Shiva.

Against that insanely hard to kill carry, refreshing your 8+ secs disable lock + dual ult, is quite good item

Sometimes it all comes down to who will silence the other mass/chain disabler first...

To compensate for your lower MS, and also add 4th disable, which will usually mean that by the time you end using all your disables, the Impale is already on CD, and Voodoo follows shortly after...

Other way to compensate for the MS, and also quite useful when you have to push, and go back to base ASAP for defend.

-- Forbidden Items --
All types of DPS items


And also - probably unexpected for many - NO AGHANIM!
This is one of the most useless items for Lion! Is simply not worth it compared to all other items he can acquire!

The favourite to many people Dagon - it maybe a "killer" in early-mid game, but it simply does not do nothing to help your survivability, and during team fights with the mass AOE dmg spells, Lion can be killed quite easili if he has chosen the Dagon as primary item.

VI. Gameplay:
So. Has any of you ever made the math on Lion Skills?
You can not use his skills more then 3 times before your mana is completely depleted.
And if you want to use a Impale + Vodoo + Finger combo below Level 9, or on level 11 you must have 100% full mana, because if you have casted even 1 spell in the previous 30 seconds, you will not be able to cast your ultimate due to mana lack....

And if you skill Mana drain, then you simply don't have enough points to level Voodoo.

So the logical solution is clear - take the standard Mana Drain build, and exchange the Mana Drain with stats. Vodoo follows the exact same leveling as it would have done in the Impale / Mana drain set.

The extra stats give you that much better damage for farming and denying capabilities, and also the possibility to constant spam your Impale+Autoattack whenever the other solo mid dares to come near you, as his HP will end much sooner than your MP.

Early game:
Lion has a mediocre starting attack damage for a range hero, but his 3 Int gain per level make him one of the ranged heroes with highest base damage in Dota. So this is what we will use for this guide
You start with 5 branches, only 1 free slot and 150 gold. The 5 extra damage makes you near the top of the ranged hero starting damage, so you have a very good chance to lasthit creeps.

So now you will have to make a decision during the first 200 farmed gold what you will buy first - Sobi mask or RoR.
If the opponent has send mid an opponent which you can dominate form early, and he has little chance to hit you (like the Carry of some melee hero) - start with a sobi mask, so you can spam Impale more often. Otherwise if he has some nuke, disable, or 600 range - you will probably need the HP regen first, and better go concentrate on the last hitting.
The moment you have farmed the soul ring, you have enough HP and MP regen to start intensifying the harass of the opponent.
As all should know - never autoattack creeps, just aim for the last hit.

After you become LVL 4 you buy your first pair of wards. Use the first to ward the top rune + mid, so no one can gang you from top, as the bottom gangs are quite harder to make.

If possible - go behind his creeps, and do whatever possible to denie them outside of his exp gain range, so he cant get even single point of experience.
Force him to play defensively, and rarely go outside of his tower. Of course if that happens, be prepared for a gang from his teammates, or switch of the solo mid.

On the other hand - if he has the means to not allow you to stay between the creeps and him, wait for the moment you have full HP and activate soul ring, use Impale + 2-3 hits and go back agian. The moment you have soul ring + Headdress you can even intensify that, as the 6HP /Sec regen is allowing you to spam Soul ring on 100%.

Intensify the harass the closer you get to level 6. A well played Lion becomes level 6 quite earlier than his solo mid opponent, and the fear of Death Finger makes the opponent hide even further away to his tower, making it even harder for him to become LVL 6 if you keep close to perfect deni (or even without deni, if you just keep him far from the dying creeps).
Any hero who is within your impale range with HP below 600 is a dead hero, only waiting for you to go grab his EXP and Gold.
Impale + 2-3 hits and Finger = fast kill.
Still care that you don't waste your impale, because as I have already mentioned - there is not a 100% hit rate for impale even if you target the hero directly.
Kill you solo Mid opponent and go gang some other lane, or if he just hides at the tower - go ravage some of the side lanes with your ultimate.
Mid game:
During the mid game you have already Lvl 2 ultimate and Voodoo, quite good healing possibilities, 1100 + HP and MP, 10+ armor , and very good attack speed and damage. During that phase you can kill most players 1v1 if both of you use autoattack only, but on top of that you also add the 5+ secs disable.
Keep ganging every lane where you see a player, and always use the Soul Ring + Meka combo for free heal of your teammates.

If you find yourself the main target of the enemy team, especially blinkers/daggers, than you better stay a bit behind of your team initiator, and join the battle only after your/enemy initiator has gone in.
Otherwise walking in front of gangs is the best way to ensure that the first hero you lay your eyes upon will die without getting out of disable.
Always keep your eyes open for channeling ults like Enigma/Maiden, and if they are amiss, try to stay a bit aside from the main action, so you can Hex them when they Blink-in.

And always finish off heroes with mass AOE spells with your ult, if there is any chance that they can cast their spell, otherwise save it for survivors getting away from cast/attack distance or wind walkers.
Never use it to steal served kills, but also don't just use your ult to "feed the carry", underfarmed weak lions are the reason why all think of this hero as "fragile" and only support.

And after the Guinsoo is finally completed, always remember to take the maximum advantage of it's 800 cast range, so making sure that you will be the one who gets the opponent in a disable lock, and not the other way around...
Late game:



VI. Replays:
http://www.playdota.com/forums/attac...4&d=1270468841