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6 Votes

Lion support guide for pub [by mat.]

November 27, 2015 by mat.
Comments: 28    |    Views: 43103    |   


lion support

DotA2 Hero: Lion




Hero Skills

Earth Spike

1 5 8 9

Hex

3 12 13 14

Mana Drain

2 4 7 10

Finger of Death

6 11 16

Talents

15 17 18


Lion support guide for pub [by mat.]

mat.
November 27, 2015


Introduction

Welcome to the pub gaming guide for Lion
(*limited heroes/all pick mode, please keep in mind this is no pro support guide)

For having fun with this hero You have to keep in mind few basics:

- Lion is aimed to be a support.
(*example: don't finish off nearby duel with your ulti, throw it in the middle to help.)

- Lion has slow movement

- and of course Lion is extremely low on HP

- as all support your budget is limited - optimise spending to teams aim

- in team-fight You have to engage multiple oponents

Skill Build / Items

Few comments to skill sequence:

- First point goes to stunt Earth Spike - mainly serving for your line mate protection,...

- Second point to Mana Drain - harassing melee opponents in lane and gaining mana

- Third can go to Hex this way you can deal a bit better with two opponents.

- Other points depends as Your game develops, I prefer putting 1-2 points to Mana Drain first because Earth Spike will become quite mana draining spell at higher levels.

- Finger of Death ultimate as usual - asap


Skills use & details:


1. Earth Spike

In early game stages use it carefully, don't steal carry farm (best behind creep line, or early while creeps are on high hp)

In its max upgrade it deals quite lot of damage, keep this in mind, if You can finish off opponent with stunt its far more better than wasting your ultimate.


2. Hex

Nice disable just keep in mind its low duration in first levels (taking into count Lions low movement speed)
Dont forget to use it in team-fight its a huge slow as well.


3. Mana Drain

In early stages works good to harass opponent especially melee one,
later on it needs more caution while using, be careful not to get jumped on while vamping mana of ranged creep , beware Pudge ;-)
Works on mana based neutral creeps as well.
Erases illusions - can be helpful against Terrorblade, for example.


4. Finger of Death

Remember as mentioned before, huge damage is better not to get wasted on low hp hero, use it at the beginning of the fight, first benefit is: You will do your support role and all damage will count. Second benefit might be that opponent will try to stop his attack and switch to "escape mode".

*update
as long as main benefit of aganims is low cooldown timer its best at level 3.
This way it is more reasonable to go first for any mobility item may be if you have pl in team small aoe radius of Aghanim's Scepter enhanced ult might help, or it might not, so aoe is not that crutial.

*second update
Blink Dagger is a must, othewise you will not be able to hex (short range)
just be careful dont blink+hex+die .. have team to back up this iniciating move.
Other items are not that crucial, well Tranquil Boots increased movement, and regen hp is nice, just go for what you like and team support items.

with lower refresh time of ultimate you will get lower and refined damage of course.
BTW don't hesitate to use ulti on void in chronosphere.

Beware opponent getting linkens sphere in this case throw dragon (if lvl 1) or something else first before ulti to get rid of linkens first.

You will not do much to anyone while under BKB, its good to know ahead of the situation.

Gameplay

As You probably already found out Lion is extremely easy to feed with.
Even-though you are a support it must be for a good trade when you die.

Lions spells have different radius, keep aware of them when getting ready to cast.

Always consider danger you might get yourself into, with lions low HP and no ability to escape, its usually one-way ticket. If opposing team has some brains you will be targeted in a first row.

Basically what I try to do is prepare for fight to begin from a little bit apart, throw stunt, ulti, hex, than suck mana, try not to get killed, throw again.

If You manage to stay alive there's not many opponents who can survive your damage,of course don't hex stunt same opponent.
Dont forget to use dragon or other of your items.

To break Your tunnel vision get use to glance over minimap even during team-fights, non vision of enemy units will alert you not to chase others off guard.

Friends and Foes

Lion as a standard low HP / high burst damage, goes well with more durable teammates.

In line I prefer to play with melee durable hero, some say Tiny is a good partner but I don't like this choice for pub especially because of Tiny temptation to throw lion to die somewhere under tower ;-)

If you do Your role well, any melee carry is good as a partner.

Dangerous Foes start with Pudge, Night Stalker other durable + stunt heroes which will finish u off in 3 seconds.

Just to be clear I never liked anyone in team diagonally over the other side of map, I have to make a note here, they are all foes, unless all of them are willing to die really fast and quite frequently.

Sad thing is that in pub You should beware even a same colour, I always forget "they say" keep calm its only a game.

Pros & Cons

I reckon You will have fun with:

+ all spells are great but "Finger" is the best even-thought it is not made to serve as a revenge tool, its quite pleasing to do so.

(* I am going a little bit against support ideas mentioned above, lets just restrict this to One on One situation with Bounty Hunter Stunt - attack - Finger - attack - Hex - attack - Good bye.

+ Easy to master hero

+ Lion has a great team value, if used correctly


Points You have to be careful about:

- Low hit points - easy to feed with

- You will be one of the main targets

- items dependent (*don't get over excited about all luxury items You are planing to get, in a game You want to win, You should play support, that means You will not get much!)

Links & Conclusion

short guide



for fun

Credits go to authors of course.



Interesting statistics page where You can compare what players usualy get, what builds they usually use, what opponents Loin did well against. Of course page contains statistics of all players not only the ideal ones.

Dotabuff Lion ovewiew.



Conclusion:

Lion skills are quite straight forward, its considered to be suitable hero for beginners.

Truth is its not as hard to master as some of the other heroes but if you will not keep in mind support role, selfish hero will not be much of a help to a team.

I guess its all for now please check back I will try to add content frequently.

good luck ingame

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