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TopicA ranking topic: Isq rates Dota heroes for fun and time-killing.
Isquen
10/31/22 11:14:50 PM
#232:


61 - Medusa (ranged Agility)
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/0/9/1/AAAACbAAD1oL.jpg
Basic Abilities: Split Shot, Mystic Snake, Mana Shield, Stone Gaze
Shard Upgrade: New passive ability "Cold Blooded, " a 12-second cooldown that casts a one-bounce Mystic Snake at a target of any enemy who uses a single-target ability on Medusa (as if it were a reactive Linken's Sphere/Lotus Orb.)
Scepter Upgrade: Upgrades Mystic Snake to Petrify targets struck by it (based on Medusa's current level of Stone Gaze) with the Petrify duration scaling up per bounce. This also includes the Mystic Snake fired by Cold Blooded.
7.31 through 7.32c changes:
Split Shot - Attack damage modifier while active lowered by 5%. L15 talent added for 12% outgoing damage reduction, later lowered by 2%
Mystic Snake - Manacost lowered by 0/10/20/30. L10 talent added for +15% movement speed/turn rate slow. L20 talent changed from +30% mana gain to +2 bounces (including on Cold Blooded's initial target.)
Mana Shield - Passive +mana from the ability increased by 20/30/40/50. L10 talent of +0.5 damage absorbed per mana added.
Stone Gaze - Physical damage amp on petrified units rescaled by -5%/0%/5%. Manacost increased by 50.
Other talents and stats - Cold Blooded reduced from global to 2000 range, and is disabled by Break. L10 Evasion talent removed.

5.84. When you know, you know.

Anyway, it's Medusa! She's very weird for a Dota hero statwise. Her strength is always awful at best, and yet she's obscenely tanky because her armor is nice (due to being an agility hero, even despite being ranged and lacking the innate damage block of a melee) and her manapool fuels her health in an oblique way. She deals a lot of ranged autoattack damage, yet has a potent bouncing nuke spell and some very nice teamfight CC/autoattack damage amplification, plus cleave by default. Let's run through her abilities.

Split Shot does exactly that - it is a free toggled ability that makes Medusa fires 4 additional autoattacks with 150 bonus range on secondary targets. These autoattacks won't trigger things though each autoattack has its damage lowered to compensate. She can toggle this on or off at will if she finds herself fighting a single target for some added oomph, or if its messing with her early game lane equilibrium, but generally shooting five arrows for 45/55/65/75% damage is almost never going to be a bad idea, especially when illusions can benefit from it - all the more so later game if she picks up the "Split Shot Uses Modifiers" talent and suddenly each arrow can proc Mjollnir or critical on its own. (Fun trivia I just learned during this: Rubick can actually steal this if it's toggled on and was her last spell cast, though the usefulness is suspect as Rubick's autoattack damage is questionable throughout most of the game.)

Mystic Snake is a slow-moving targeted projectile nuke that also strikes mana, and has a hefty initial manacost. Medusa is encouraged to "bank" the shot off of a creep wave, though, because the snake will speed up after striking its target and bounce a few times to the nearest enemy, amplifying its damage on each additional target. If the current bounce target goes invisible, invulnerable, or hidden for some reason (like with a Phase Shift from Puck,) it will still "bounce" to the next nearest target while maintaining its remaining number of bounces. Once the snake is sated, it returns back to Medusa, giving her back a percentage of the mana based on the targets' max manapools - at rank 4, it will recover its casting cost if it strikes targets with at least 700 maximum mana.

Mana Shield is another toggleable ability that is permanent until disabled. Levelling it passively gives her some additional mana. With it active, 70% of incoming damage on Medusa strikes her mana pool instead, with the amount of mana used varying by the ability level and whether she talented its improvement or not. This effect happens before any other additional damage mitigation (such as Crimson Guard, Aphotic Shield) so she's not effectively immortal if one of those occurs, but also gives her a bit of a soft-counter tool in Diffusal Blade or heroes with Mana Break passives (Anti-Mage in particular, though a Nyx, Bane, or Lion can also make her sad.)

Last, we have her ultimate, Stone Gaze (and also a secondary effect on Mystic Snake, if she picks up her scepter.) When it goes active, Medusa emits a piercing shriek and moves 50% faster for a short time. If enemies are looking at her at any point during this within a 1200 radius of her, they begin accruing a debuff. This debuff slows both the movement speed and turn rate of anyone affected if they're facing her - if two seconds elapse and Stone Gaze is still active, the enemy becomes petrified - basically, a stun that also amplifies physical damage from autoattacks. If a hero has some form of status resistance - for example, a bulldozing Spirit Breaker - they can be affected by this debuff again when the petrify ends.

Medusa is extremely idiotproof to play - the way stats interact with her kit, she can basically perform any carry or semi-carry role with even a little bit of luck, but she typically is pigeonholed into "greedy, unmoving mid" status, as her base stats aren't going to do her any favors against a more gank-friendly lane. On top of that, her base movespeed is basically "ass" and doesn't get much better from there with her common item choices. Despite modifications to her kit throughout the years, she is... well, very boring. Her item choices boil down to a game where her M.O. is "build up tankiness but also build up damage, Manta Style to push, press Stone Gaze if engaged upon and get the hell out of dodge/murder anyone looking at her, and cry when you get counterpicked by common Diffusal carriers or Anti-Mage." It rarely gets more cerebral than buying a Hurricane Pike for some added mobility or Butterfly for some added damage and tankiness and zzzzzz.

I'm sorry. She bores me to tears, takes a very long time to come online, and she is undoubtedly potent when she IS online, but there's plenty else on this list that does that. I guess the fact that she deals ranged cleave by default in a few different ways improves her standing, plus the aforementioned "Cold Blooded fucks over Primal Beast in general" from somewhere earlier in this topic. But MEH/10, but not a bad hero by any means, and certainly not at the strongest she has ever been.

Again, 5.84, the patch so bad that I remember it a decade and a half later. (And I thought I was exaggerating, until I found a very-2007-era DotA:Allstars Youtube clip where she had a Broadsword, Power Treads, Circlet, Demon Edge, Butterfly, and I think that was Perserverance?)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=teWb56JiQ-E

Yes, she did come out of that at full health and 200 mana remaining. Yes, Silencer did have Infernals back then for some reason. No, she did not have any form of Lifesteal, as far as I'm aware, and just completely dunked a Necrolyte/Bounty Hunter/Faceless Void/Silencer/3 infernals by standing still and shooting with Mana Shield up, and this was BEFORE she had any mana economy (as Medusa back then used WC3's Forked Lightning, IIRC.) Yeesh.

Next hero hint: Decidedly do not go Greek.

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[Rock and Stone] <o/
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