Get out the jungle once in a while - Legion Commander played right

ENOUGH JUNGLING! - Put Legion where she should be, MID

I am sick and tired of jungling Legion Commanders. Here, I'm gonna tell you you've been doing it wrong every time.

The amount of games I've seen in pubs where your early game falls apart because your Legion Commander jungle doesn't help at all, gets first item Hand of Midas, and flames the team because we're getting destroyed by roaming supports while he farms his Shadow Blade in the jungle totally oblivious is infuriating.

Legion is first and fore most, a MID hero. By far the best place to put Legion is in the midlane. You want to max Overwhelming Odds, first, get early levels and GANK lanes and snowball! You gain damage by fighting and using Duel so it makes sense that you want to get involved and not farm for ages.

Legion should never be your main carry. Legion is not a hard carry. Legion is a DISABLER. Your role in fights is to duel that Phoenix before he can use Supernova, that Enigma before he uses Black Hole, or whichever hero on the enemy team is a menace and needs to be controlled.

I'm not saying you can't jungle with Legion, but I think you should do it only when you have, say, a solo safelaner, a strong early game mid, NOT Medusa, and an active duel offlane with a mobile support. Even then, you should leave the jungle AS SOON AS you have Duel and a Blink Dagger. And yes. Get BLINK. NOT shadow blade.

Legion Mid

I have to say, I am struggling to think of any mid laners who Legion Commander would struggle against. In fact, I didn't think I would be saying this but I think Legion is quite possibly one of the best mid heroes in that game. I have only started playing Legion mid fairly recently but I can't remember losing while doing it.

Let's consider some match-ups with standard mid heroes.

- Invoker - you should be fine. Overwhelming Odds destroys Forge Spirits if he goes Exort, and you can zone him out with that spell as well. Also, you can purge Cold Snap with press the attack so you should be fine. Also Invoker is one of those mid heroes who barely leaves lane, so you will be ganking all over the place, racking up duel damage while he farms his Hand of Midas and Orchid Malevolence while the rest of his team is having a miserable time.

- Puck - Overwhelming Odds comes down far too fast for him to have any chance of dodging it, and Duel is one of Puck's worst nightmares.

- Sniper - Overwhelming Odds has a very large radius and will melt him. Also, when you get a Blink Dagger, he might as well call 'gg wp ff' because he has no chance.

- Pudge - are you kidding? I could beat Pudge mid on Omniknight, it's such a bad mid hero.

- Templar Assassin - slightly harder, make sure you don't use your Q against Refraction, but now that it's visible, and Overwhelming Odds drop like a hammer you should be able to hit it every time.

- Viper - Viper is probably one of the mid heroes I wouldn't feel too great about going up against. But again you really should still be OK.

Basically, the reason Legion is so good mid is that Overwhelming Odds is one of the best spells in the game - a mini Echo Slam with low cooldown and mana cost with a huge movement speed boost afterwards as well - and because Press the Attack not only heals you but provides a purge and a fantastic attack speed boost. Also, Legion has a great attack animation, strong starting damage, high HP, and has VERY high base movement speed.

Good and not so good games to pick Legion

Duel is quite a good spell, let's be honest, very good, in fact.

Legion is a brilliant pick against high mobility heroes. Pick [Legion Commander if they pick things like Storm Spirit and Timbersaw. Timber is getting picked an awful lot of the time now in 6.88, so get a duel on him and stop him bouncing around for a while.
- Legion is a no-nonsense hero. Legion is fantastic against heroes that are hard to isolate and hit, like Puck, carries like Spectre, and in particular Phantom Lancer, and also against heroes that need to press a lot of buttons - magic damage dealers.
- Also, like I said a bit earlier, Legion is brilliant against heroes that revolve around using certain spells at certain moments like Phoenix and Enigma

Legion isn't too great against heroes that don't really have to worry about pressing many buttons in fights.
- Carries like Sven don't care too much about Legion because they just press r and hit things. Also heroes like Death Prophet who just use their ult and walk around a bit don't mind too much about standing in the same place for a little while. Although Legion with Blade Mail will melt Death Prophet so that's one counter that isn't actually a counter.
- Supports like Shadow Demon are your biggest enemy, I would say. Those heroes who can save their ally or ruin the duel are the things you need to watch out for, mainly.
- Also, know which heroes have Linken's Sphere on the enemy team. Don't waste duel.

Skill Build briefly explained

I discussed this mostly in the second section, but I'll summarise here.

- Overwhelming Odds. Max this spell first. Very damage, such movement speed, wow.

- Press the Attack. Max next. Good heal, purges things, always be thinking about who on your team you can help out by using it on them. Purges stuns. Use it before duel - duh.

- Moment of Courage. You won't be jungling so you can max this later.

- Duel. Skill whenever.

Pretty simple huh?

So, Items

Start off with whatever you like, I assume you know something about DOTA to have found your way here.

Standard Mid Game Items

-Get Phase Boots, not Power Treads. Legion is a hero with high movement and with the buff from Overwhelming Odds and Phase Boots and Sange and Yasha you are terrifying. They're cheaper as well, and Legion doesn't need the attack speed because you already have 2 spells that give you more attack speed. Legion is all about chasing down heroes and duelling them, so do the smart thing, get Phase.

-Pick up a bottle. You are mid. End of. Feel free to pick up a Magic Wand, and always, I repeat, ALWAYS, have a Town Portal Scroll.

-Pick up some Blade Mail. It's cheap, and let's be honest, slightly overpowered this patch anyway (since it now goes through BKB). Use before Duel and watch them melt.

-Pick up an Armlet of Mordiggian if you feel confident with one, and activate it before the duel.

- Sange and Yasha is a good stat item and helps with your movement speed. An easy to build, cheap, cost effective pick up that improves your presence on the battlefield. However, it's not crucial in anyway at all, so feel free to skip it and move on to greater things.

- Black King Bar is basically core. I leave it up to your discretion it you think you won't really need or benefit from it, depending on their heroes, but I tend to get it every game, it's just a good thing to have, even if the need for it isn't particularly great at the time.

Possible Mid Game Alternatives

-You may want to skip Sange and Yasha, I often do, or the Armlet, in which case you could consider some of these items instead.

- Linken's Sphere is an item that you should always consider at the start of the game and pick it up if there is one spell or a few that in particular are annoying you, and they don't have an easy way to cancel it like Stifling Dagger.

-Get a Skull Basher for all your bashing needs, and if you think you might want to upgrade to Abyssal Blade by the time the game is up.

-Even though you should always get a Blink Dagger, there is nothing wrong with having a Shadow Blade as well, especially if you want to slip away after winning a duel...

-Legion can also carry a Diffusal Blade pretty well, and if you need to slow heroes down, purge them of certain buffs, do some mana burn or if they have an Omniknight then you can get one. Legion is a perfectly good Diffusal Blade holder.

Late Game Options

When you get to late game on Legion you've hopefully got yourself a fair few Duel victories. You can amplify your damage with a Daedalus to deal massive critical damage, or enable yourself to dish out the damage with a Monkey King Bar if you need it, or with an Abyssal Blade if you feel you need more lockdown.
- Assault Cuirass is a very popular Legion Commander item and rightfully so. The armour is often much needed, the aura means your damage is amplified and the attack speed is greatly appreciated. A very good Legion item, much recommended. I actually recommend going for it fairly early, maybe even straight after Blade Mail if you want to maximise it's effectiveness.
- Heart of Tarrasque is especially good late game if teamfights go on for extended periods of time. You can take a second or two to get a load of HP back and then go back to hitting things.
- Mjollnir is good for a load of attack speed, and is good for killing creeps if you are defending. I personally don't tend to build it on Legion, although I guess you are welcome to.

Final Comments

I think I've said what I needed to. It suffices to say that Legion Commander is not a safelaner, is a decent jungler, but really excels in the midlane. If you have any doubts about this guide then lemme know, but try this out once, even if it's unranked - I think you'll change your mind.

Til next time, see ya.