Lion Hero Guide
Written by DarkMedina
Co-written by 173.GoodoldKuya
~Guide's IndexI. Introduction and Foreword
II. The Hero
III. The Skills
IV. Skill Build
V. Courier and Wards
VI. Roles
VII. Early Game Strategy
VIII. Mid Game Strategy
IX. Late Game Strategy
X. Solo Lion Strategy
XI. Items
XII. Drafting
XIII. Replays
XIV. FAQ
XV. Conclusion
I. Introduction and Foreword
Why a Demon Witch guide?
First and foremost, I was bored so I wrote this guide. But, Lion is an awesome hero. And talk about awesome, he is one of the best gankers in the game, very versatile and can still stick inlane and support godlikely. By the way, I have not seen a good Lion guide around these forums, so I decided to write my own guide. And I love this hero.
Useful info about the guide
Thing A / Thing B means Thing A or Thing B
Thing A + Thing B means Thing A and Thing B
This guide is fancy looking because 173.GoodOldKuya helped me out with the grafics, thereby co-writed the guide.
Also, Un1t3D_ ninja'd most of the typos in this guide, in the favor of good grammar.
Changelog
- September, 2009 -
15th - 15th - Anchor style ninja'd from Ramonar's guide.
15th - Reposted after almost deleting oO.
12th - Translated to portuguese, link.
- August, 2009 -
23th - Changed starting skill build.
23th - Added an index and some other stuff.
21th - Added Screenshots.
17th - Complete'd (grafics)
16th - Complete'd (text)
13th - Posted
II. The Hero
Playstyle
Lion can be played as a Ganker, as a Supporter, as a Roamer and as a Soloer. Each of those roles will be explained later.
Stats
16 + 1.7 15 + 1.5 22 + 3.0
Advanced Statistics- Affiliation: Scourge
- Attack Animation: 0.43 / 0.74
- Damage: 42 - 48
- Casting Animation: 0.3 / 0.51
- Armor: 1.1
- Base Attack Time: 1.7
- Movespeed: 290
- Missile Speed: 900
- Attack Range: 600
- Sight Range: 1800 / 800
Pro/Cons
Pros- High burst damage
- Loads of disables
- Can stay inlane like forever
- Can gank from level 1
- Can harass very well
- May use MD to nullify mana intensive heroes in-lane
Cons- Bellow Average MS
- Bellow Average damage
- Very Fragile
Comments
Lion cannot withstand focus fire. Even though, he's the one who will be focus fire'ing an enemy hero. Watch your positioning and use the map in your advantage.
III. The Skills
- Ability Type: Active
- Targeting Type: Point
- Ability Hotkey: E
The Demon Witch releases his demonic magics into the ground in order to thrust solidified rock spikes along a straight path. This sends all his enemies into the air, only to take damage on their painful impact with the ground.
Mechanics
The wave of tendris travels at 1600 units per seconds. As the casting range for Impale is 400 on all levels, this means that it'll take 0.25s at most to hit the farthest targets. Take this into consideration when casting Impale or you may see the enemy windwalking/leaping/getting away from your deadly chain of disables. Sometimes, Voodoo can be proven more useful for disabling heroes that can get away/cast a skill before being disabled (e.g. Death Prophet's Exorcism, Enchantress's Nature's Attendants).
Also, the units hit by Impale fly for 0.52 seconds before being stunned for the 0.5s/1.0s/1.5s/2.0s actual disable time. Doesn't deal huge damage, Nerubian Assassin's Impale is proven to be way better, but you do have other disables.
Impale costs a loadshit of mana (100/120/145/170) and has 12 seconds cooldown.
Impale gasta muita mana (100/120/145/170) e tem 12 segundos de cooldown.
Usage
When there are several enemies coming, you may want to turn around and throw an impale. Done also for initiating minor battles. Try to align yourself with the foes and click the farther target. Chances are that you'll catch him and one or two other enemies in the Impale.
DON'T CANCEL ANIMATION ON IMPALE. It may make it run shorter than it should, thereby making you miss it. Be patient, it only takes a split second to cast it fully. Can be cast up/down cliffs and for that you must click ground in the general direction of the target.
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NA hit from down cliff at maximum range.
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And now I hit WL from upcliff at maximum range.
This kind of stuns are used to delay some hero to reach the lane/team battle. It's actually very effective, mainly if it's a key hero like Warlock.
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- Ability Type: Active
- Targeting Type: Unit
- Ability Hotkey: D
Transforms an enemy unit into a random critter, disabling special abilities.
Mechanics
Instantly destroys illusions. This skill is very useful against Morphling because of this factor. Also, it won't take your time to destroy an hexed illusion, what would be weird.
The casting is instant, apart from Lion's own casting time. This prevents enemy heroes from fleeing/bracing themselves by casting an instant-cast skill (DP's Exorcism, Ench's Heal, Clock's Assault).
Casting range of 500, thereby a little larger than Impale's. Takes more mana though.
Hex also disables damage block and evasion. GG PA?
Usage
Be reasonable. Try to cancel any chanelling skills, to disable starters/blinkers/disablers and key heroes. Think outside the box and decide who and when you must Hex. Also, Hex has no casting delay, abuse it.
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- Ability Type: Active
- Targeting Type: Unit
- Ability Hotkey: R
Absorbs the magical energies of a target enemy unit by taking mana from it every second.
Mechanics
Transfers mana just like the ladder skill. Has 600/650/700/750 Casting Range and breaks if it goes up to 800 range.
Usage
Do it whenever you're safe to do it and still capable of catching up with foes (unless you're laning, in this case you can just MD to harass) or escaping by yourself. E.g. Enemy Sven is chasing an ally with 350 mana and casted Storm Bolt like 10 seconds ago. As the cooldown is 14 seconds, he may stun your ally and kill him. But, if you Mana Drain lvl 4 Sven for 3 seconds, he'll be left with 50 mana, what's not enough to cast Storm Bolt, leaving your ally safe. At this moment, you may get away too, help your ally further more for him to get away or still turn around and kill Sven as he's out of mana, you can easily gank him.
Mana Drain can be casted right after Impale, also can be shift-issued, but not necessairly. Abuse it inlane because it takes a lot of mana out of your enemies and replenishes your own mana. Just remember to play it safe.
Also useful at teambattles for denying low mana pool heroes to cast key spells, like Treant's Entangling Roots and Leviathan's Ravage.
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Impale, then rapidly cast...
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Mana Drain. Notice that NA is still stunned when I cast MD. You'll get 2 seconds of MD that a single enemy can't help to stop. NA choses to flee for being out of mana, so...
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MD's link is about to break in this screenshot. The target is moving out of the 800 range limit and had most of his mana drained.
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- Ability Type: Active
- Targeting Type: Unit
- Ability Hotkey: F
Instantly rips at a target, attempting to turn it inside-out. Deals massive damage.
Mechanics
Basic nuke. It works just like the good old Finger of Death from ladder. It simply nukes. Has a little casting time that can be cancelled, but I myself don't do it often. Again, abuse it as it can be cast around cliffs, just like Impale, but with more range.
As it's a ultimate skill, IT GOES THROUGH MAGIC IMMUNITY. But, as it has magic type magical, IT DEALS NO DAMAGE AT ALL to magic immune targets. So, choose your target wisely and pay attention to bkbs/rages/bladefurys.
Usage
You may use it on every situation that you are not sure if you can get the kill without it, but still totally sure that you can get the kill with it.
Can be rapidly cast after Impale, just like MD, has large range and can be used up/down cliffs. Try not to overkill with it as it's your precious weapon. Also, try to leave the frag to the carries.
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Maximum range of Finger of Death. Watch the replay in the replay section, I reach the casting time at 3.5s after Warlock started to TP, therefore he tp's before the damage hits him, but still he dies. That was the one and only way to kill him in that situation.
IV. Skill Build
You must max Impale and Finger of Death asap, that means you'll get those skills at levels 1/3/5/7 and 6/11/16 respectively.
But, at levels 2/4/8/9/10/12/13/14, it depends. You can either max MD first then Hex, max Hex first then MD, max Hex but don't skill MD and so on. I'll list some situations you may face ingame.
List of Heroes that you shouldn't get MD against:
List of Heroes that you should MD very carefully:
List of Heroes that you can abuse MD against:
All the remaining heroes. Just be reasonable.
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Level 1 - Impale
Level 2 - Mana Drain / Voodoo
Level 3 - Impale
Level 4 - Mana Drain / Voodoo
Level 5 - Impale
Level 6 - Finger of Death
Level 7 - Impale
Level 8 - Voodoo
Level 9 - Voodoo
Level 10 - Voodoo / Mana Drain
Level 11 - Finger of Death
Level 12 - Voodoo / Mana Drain
Level 13 - Mana Drain / Stats
Level 14 - Mana Drain / Stats
Level 15 - Stats
Level 16 - Finger of Death
Level 17+ - Stats
Max MD ASAP when:
- You're facing a highly mana dependant hero inlane
- Draining his mana is more important than disabling him
- There aren't many ganks around
- You are using the turtle strategy / babysitting a carry
Also, useful info (wall of text):
MD at levels 2 and 4, Voodoo at levels 8 and 9 when:
- You're facing a highly mana dependant hero inlane
- You're ganking a lot and need to disable dangerous heroes
Max Voodoo ASAP when:
- You're facing a lot of dangerous heroes that can do well without much mana
- Heroes that have magic stick or bottle / chanelling spells / you're ganking a lot
Note that you may change the skill build accordingly to the game. Just be reasonable. If you don't feel like getting MD because you barely have the chance to use it because the ganking action is really intense, so go for stats at levels 10/12 and so on. But I should advise that if you have 2 levels of MD skilled, you may stop by a lane to regen mana and later proceed with the ganking. Also, as stated earlier, mana dependant heroes really suffer if MD'ed.
V. Courier and Wards
If you aren't soloing, then you must get one of those at start.
Constantly warding throughout the game will not only save you and your allies from ganks but also let you counter gank and landing some extra kills that may just turn the game in your favor.
VI. Roles
First, the discussion of the behavior of the Demon Witch when assuming each of his roles.
Ganker
You simply gank. Well, not so simple as that, ganking may be hard if the map was warded by the enemies.
Take your disables and go kill some carries / aid your own carries. Try to notice where are the enemy wards and avoid them or, even better, counterward them. At level 1, you can attempt FB, then go for your lane. If your mate is capable of soloing on that lane, you can go out and gank. Try to notice if he's doing well without your presence full time. If so, buy tps/wards/stick/bottle and go gank some unaware/key heroes/carries.
Support
In this situation, your mate isn't capable of soloing on that lane because the lane is just too hard for him. If the oposing lane has a carry, it's likely that you're going to stick to that lane and try to harass him as much as possible. You aren't supposed to leave your lane for whatever reason (despite being too much low on life) because your partner may just be harassed to death while you're away and the carry will be just farming. Attempt hero kills if possible. Lion isn't a so defensive hero, you have loads of agressive spells, abuse them. You may need MD for this role. Also, leave the farm to your partner as you aren't going to need it eitherway.
Roamer
You roam. Skill your disables, go alongside a disabler (and possibly other heroes) and grab that FB. The diference between the Roamer and the Ganker is that playing the Roamer means that your lane partner would be a natural solo, thereby capable of soloing without any problems. You never ever really come back to your lane, but to gank. You keep on ganking the whole game, you have no lane really. Take charge of creep pulling / rune checking / warding / counterwarding.
Solo Lion
Further explained here
VII. Early Game Strategy
Ganker
Magic Stick is very useful for a ganker because it provides regeneration throughout the game and can be upgraded. You'll benefit a lot out of it. Buy it whenever you're going out of your lane or at the beggining, if this is your preference.
You need to suply your team with wards and counter wards too. Use TPs for ganking and Tango/Flask/Clarity for regenerating.
Don't always focus the low hp heroes. They are easy to kill, yes, but most of them are supporters and won't do much later in the game. Go for the carries if they're unaware and if you can kill them. If you cannot, kill those supports.
If your enemies are all around the map, thereby also ganking, you may want to ward near towers (to notice TPs) and river areas so that you don't get yourself trapped too much. If they are just turtling in their lanes, ward them and make them always close to your towers, so that you can gank them without risking your own life for it. Remember: A carry's life is worth twice as much as yours.
Support
Ward defensively. Get loads of consumables so that your lane partner doesn't need to worry too much about you. Get Magic Stick + Upgrade it if necessary, but most likely you're going to need it.
Prioritize your lane partner's safety always and leave him the farm. Harass a lot. Deny. Don't let the enemies farm and have your partner to do it.
Roamer
Same strategy as Ganker, really. Gank with your double lane first, it's a bit easier. The just try to harass / hero kill the lanes that your allies have the most problems to deal with and get some time to SPARTAAA the lane that is easier for them, so that you capitalize out of the weak enemies there. Siege towers. Burst carries. Get your Magic Stick ASAP, that means, in base. Also, bring some tangoes/clarities because you're likely to need them. Bottle is your friend.
Remember to care about your carries and to dish out enemy carries.
VIII. Mid Game Strategy
Try to ult a target that has enough life to tank your ult and +1 hit, so that your carry capitalizes with the hero kill. Focus fire carries / key heroes / unaware targets. Plan ganks beforehand. Ward and counterward. Time hex so that it interrupts chanelling skills / doesn't allow enemies to cast the final blow, thereby saving allies. Just don't rambo. Stay safe. You aren't supposed to tank anything.
Ganking etiquete
From now on, there is no role in the game for you, except ganker. Gank gank gank.
Impale or Hex first? Depends. Hex has 100 more range, but it's single target.
Should you be the first to disable? Depends. Generally, the hero with the largest range on the disable initiates. But, if the target is low on life and your carry can use his disable to get the frag, allow him to do it, thereby you can initiate with ease.
Saving your disables
Do the enemy team have chanelling spells? Is there any hero that is oddly disturbing on the battle field, e.g. ES, SF or Lich? Save your Hex a little and you may turn the tides of the battle in your favor. If it happens for you to spot ES before he blinks in, you may be able to Hex him before / when he blinks, thereby having half the teambattle on. Remember to focus fire him while he's still disabled. Trust me, this is actually very very important. And, remember, attempt to stay away from the core of the nukes.
IX. Late Game Strategy
Communicate with your team. Figure out who must be taken down first in the battle. Gank. If it happens for you to kill / assist in killing a key hero before the teambattle even starts, you're doing great and may just win the game in the next push.
Gank -> Kill -> Push -> Win
Should you ult for a single kill before the battle? Depends. If it's a carry / key hero, hell yes. If it's a target that may get away unless you ult him, yes. If it's just going to be an overkill, save it, but remember: Your ult cooldown on level 3 is 55 seconds, thereby spammable. Abuse it. And remember to MD for being always full mana provided that you skilled it.
X. Solo Lion Strategy
So, now it comes. It's totally diferent when you solo. You want to have the hero kills so that you can build more items and be more and more disturbing in team battles. You want to farm. Lion is very good as a solo, underated imo.
Early Game
Last hitting is very important. Lion does have a good animation for it and is able to farm a lot with it and also deny the enemy his farm. Mana Drain may be useful, think if you're going to need it and if you do, skill it. Harass a lot, runewhore if necessary. Remember to ward the proximities of your lane so that you don't get ganked too much. You're still a bit fragile. At level 6, you may want to leave your lane to kill someone or call a gank mid. By the way, yes you're supposed to be soloing mid.
Is it right to gank before level 6? Yes, provided that there's no carry against you in the lane or he's back while you're ganking.
Mid Game
Gank. Gank. Gank. Don't stop and farm unless there is no heroes in their lanes anymore and be cautious because they may just come after you. Abuse your items, you must have some by now. Capitalize on hero kills. Be the highest level hero on the game by farming / killing a lot. Tear down key heroes before they even have the time to cast their spells.
Late Game
Be careful, the game is going too far. Keep on bursting heroes and gank even more. Gank then push. Abuse your ult. Wreak havoc among the battlefield with your disables.
XI. Items
Useful Items
Capitalize out of the spells the enemies cast. It's a must.
Useful to deny the enemy from runewhoring and you can also capitalize out of the runes. Not a must.
High mobility for ganking. If you're soloing, BoT could be a good choice provided that other heroes have it too.
The best item for Lion. You throw in a disable, activate the item, issue the necros to attack the foe, go back to yourself and throw another disable, issue mana burn with the necros and more attacks, go back to yourself and finish with ult if necessary. Remember to attack the foe yourself too.
It's one of the best ganking items on the game, deals way more damage than Dagon, has mana burn/feedback, endurance aura and last will. Upgrade it ASAP.
Also, Necronomicom boosts your stats nicely.
Works if you can get it at 20 mins tops. After that, it won't do well. Also, you don't upgrade it. It's a good item actually, you get a lot of burst damage and you become able to 1 hit people.
Dagon has no casting time, unlike your ult. Use it to right after a disable.
More disable'ing time. Very useful if you have heroes that can deal loads of damage on your team, not only initiators/supports. Has 800 casting range.
Get after Guinsoo, NOT BEFORE. Has 600 casting range. The extra disable time can do wonders and also you can just dish someone out of battle OR help an ally to escape by providing him with 2.5 seconds of safety. Also, if you use it on DP right before she dies, the tides of battle can be changed...
Euls actually gives you the option to cast your primary disables twice. You cast Impale, Hex, Guinsoo/Euls, Euls/Guinsoo, Impale, Hex. Loads of disables.
Now that it's cheap, it's an item to be considered. You may get it even if you aren't soloing. Gives you more burst damage, hp and mana.
Good for insta-gibs, ganks and surprise buttsecks. Gives you mobility if you need it. And it's not too expensive.
If you got BoT, Shiva's will do wonders for you because it'll boost your Armor and also give you burst+slow.
Also, Shiva's stands for one of the most expensive builds, that is Aghanims or Bloodstone, BoT and Shivas, in this order. It can be expensive, but it does work nicely also.
Situational Items
Bracers are very useful. But not always. Most of the times, you'll find yourself out of slots because you'll already be carrying Observer Wards + Sentry Wards + TP Scroll. There are 3 slots gone. Moreover, you need Boots and Magic Wand. There are 5 slots. Going to fill your precious last slot with a Bracer? Not really recomended, a Point Booster is yes more expensive, but can be upgraded and gives you a mana boost that is necessary for you to get level 3 ult. It's really mana intensive (650 mana each 55 seconds).
Yes, they are useful. You may want to buy one of those when you're supporting/ganking/roaming and even if you're soloing and you're already beefy provided that your team needs them.
You are not supposed to get it on Lion, but it works nicely on any hero, so I'm listing it here. It's cheap and can help you and your team to gank. You can speed up heroes to catch up and also take the enemies to you fast.
Tanking items.
Rejected items
No no no no no. If it happens for you to get Guinsoo / Euls / Aghanims / Dagon, then it's useful. But, instead of buying the Refresher Orb, leave the game because you're wasting your time. You aren't supposed to have this many items on Lion. If you don't have all those items, then it's not useful because you won't have the mana to use it to it's full potential and your ult doesn't have long cooldown, so it's lame.
They don't really protect you. Really. Don't buy those items.
DPS items are rejected.
Item Builds
General Build
Build for ganking/supporting/roaming with aproximated timing ingame.
- At base -
- 5 min mark -
- 10 min mark -
- 15 min mark -
- Afterwards -
Solo build
Example: Necronomicom + Aghanim's build.
Guinsoo + Euls and Dagon + Bloodstone follow the same concept.
- At base -
- 7 minutes mark -
- 12 minutes mark -
- 17 minutes mark -
- 25 minutes mark -
- Afterwards -
XII. Drafting
Lion is a pretty much versatile hero. Worth a second pick. You usually pick him if you go for a ganker strategy or if you want to have a special hero to carry/gank and be inlane with Lion such as Kunkka/Clockwerk Goblin and so on.
Teams like Ks.int and EG have used Lion even as a first pick.
Lion doesn't have something like a counter, so you can abuse him as a pick. Also, he's good to carry out insta-gibs, godlike if coupled with Necrolyte.
Allies
May go inlane with you
Basically any hero that needs to close in with the target to be effective, also stunners and heroes that can deal large damage within a short period of time (like Dirge, Juggernaut and PotM).
May be able to solo if you leave the lane
Generally, the heroes that can solo by themselves.
May go ganking and leave you solo early on
Gankers!
May combo with your skills
May 1-hit people all around.
Keep an eye for those heroes/items
They can dodge your stuff.
SilencezomgI'mUselessPieceOfSh1t.
Fag. Can kill you instantly if you haven't soloed.
You can, with your team, take her down before she evens starts to heal herself.
XIII. Replays
WarDotA BR IHL - Amazing game - DM as Lion
This game was simply wonderful. High skill scrim. I go for Magic Wand early, wards, boots, phase and Pipe. Khadgar's Pipe of Insight, as listed previously, is a situational item and it helped my team to tank the nukes flying towards our direction. I had the money to spare, so I got an item to help my team.
I get MD on this game, also.
XIV. FAQ
Quote: What about Bracers?
Bracers are useful for any hero. They are useful for Lion too. If you do have someone to hold observer wards for you (you'll be still buying them), this will provide you with one extra slot. Then, you can go for Bracer. Don't mass bracers or you'll be forced to sell them for buying wards.
Remember: You must always have Observer Wards (Scouting), Sentry Wards (CounterWard), TP Scroll (Ganking, Retreating), Boots of Speed, Magic Wand and +1 item. Don't waste your last slot with Bracer, you may need that slot later. If the game is very hard, go for it. Also, if someone can carry the wards for you, it would be just great.
Quote: Originally Posted by Eumellein Just swap the bracer with your wards if you are planing to set them up in your flying courier. Not really micro depending but still effective, just make sure there are no crucial other items stored.
Good point. That can be done also, provided that you aren't facing any invis heroes. In this case, you must carry sentry wards AND buy Dusts for your allies and yourself, if you can carry one set.
Quote: Originally Posted by gwho question. why do u need 2 clarities when u have mana drain?
In case you leave your lane without much mana (you're forced to tp for defending a gank) and if you can't use MD inlane because it's too aggressive for you, clarities are very useful. And they are only 50 gold each.
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