Legion Commander [6.87] - "This Land Will Burn!"

Introduction

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Hi! :) This is my first guide but I feel confident that some people will find it useful!

Legion Commander is my most played hero, and maybe even my favorite. but the first thing I'll tell you is that she isn't a 1st position carry, meaning she shouldn't usually be in the safelane and have farm priority over any of these guys: Spectre, Anti-Mage, Juggernaut, Morphling, Medusa, Sven, Terrorblade or Slark picked already, let them have the safelane. You come online much more early if you get a fast Blink Dagger than any of those other carries, at level 6 and a simple Smoke of Deceit can guarantee some kills.

I can't stress enough however that once Legion has at least Blink Dagger and Blade Mail, she shouldn't be afk farming for 10 minutes, she should be roaming the map, and looking for Duels on people. I often almost have the least amount of last hits in matches sometimes because of how much you're roaming to pressure the enemy carry or midlaner.

She can easily be played anywhere on the map, offlane, midlane, safelane, and the controversial, jungling legion, which IS NOT bad. Jungling is bad, because it makes the lanes push towards your towers causing you to lose an early tower, you can't roam and gank until you have Duel, and someone has to roam because someone else is solo defending the tower (offlane or safelane and midlane), and/or the support is babysitting the 1st position carry, and the midlane has to defend midlane most of the time. All that aside jungling Legion, is an option in many games still.

Here's my Dotabuff for anybody interested! :)

I have a winrate of 63% as Legion Commander with over 200 matches.

Skills

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Overwhelming Odds should absolutely be leveled at level 1 if you are planning to lane, this spell is one of the best nukes in the game that you can start with, it deals more damage if there are more units and heroes within its radius. I don't usually start spamming it until it's level 2 in lane because the base damage is doubled from 40-80.

If you're planning to spam this then you should buy some mana regen items at the start of the match.

There are lots of times when you can get first blood with this spell, you might not be able to kill with it but the move speed it gives allows you to chase people down and harass them out of lane and even kill them, they won't come anywhere near the creep wave or else they'll take massive damage from Overwhelming Odds giving Legion absolute lane dominance versus most heroes.

Never use this spell in the early game when there are no enemy creeps nearby to amp the damage and move speed, unless it'll get a kill for you.

The only problem with Overwhelming Odds, other than its dumb high mana cost, is that it pushes the creep wave which isn't _bad for a Legion but you might want to know how to pull the small camp (stack this camp first before pulling) or hard camp if you don't already have a support doing that, because the closer you are to your tower the safer you'll be and the worse of a time your enemy laners will have!

Please ^PLEASE look up how to do this if you don't already know how because everyone should know how to stack camps and support. :)

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Press the Attack is one of the best buffs and purges in the game, giving attack speed and health regen. It can save allies, giving Legion a role as being more of a utility to the team. At level 3 it gives 50 hp/sec, which is the same as Alchemist's Chemical Rage at level 1.

Always use this before a Duel, unless you don't have enough mana to Duel after Press the Attack, in which case you may not want to Duel at all.

This spell is so good, it can purge people out of stuns like Pudge's Dismember and other stuns and disables, you're able to purge Bounty Hunter's Track and Slardar's Amplify Damage, and many other debuffs.

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Level this passive at level 1 if you are taking jungle, max this last if you are laning. It is a ^VERY strong passive at level 4 giving you 85% life steal if you were hit and get a Moment of Courage. This gives you sustainability in pushing, which gets rid of the need of building a life steal item usually.

There is a 25% chance for it to proc if you were attacked, so if there are more units attacking you the better chances of proccing it there are, assuming you aren't stunned, this will give you some survivability if you are in the unfortunate position of initiating in teamfights.

There are tons of times where you see a Legion getting attacked at low HP and she kills the squishy support before going down because of Moment of Courage procs.

85% life steal is a ^LOT at level 4, if you have around 100-200 Duel Damage at this point and you are pushing towers and lost some HP, you can just go into jungle and farm a camp to ^GAIN HP because of your high damage from a single Moment of Courage.

I don't usually put levels in it in lane because it does mess up your last hits sometimes.

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Duel is the reason everyone ^LOVES Legion Commander, it's what gets her to scale into the late game, it's what gets you a kill a ^SUPER farmed carry when you're 50 minutes into the match.

Dueling, knowing when to pick Duels and so on is a skill that someone just learns as they play Legion. But I'll try to give my best advice on Dueling and knowing when to Duel.

The second Legion is level 6 you should have a Town Portal Scroll ready if you didn't already. Watch the lanes for the enemy if they're tower diving, so you can TP and Duel them under the tower and save your teammate(s). Another item you should consider is Smoke of Deceit, using it and ganking a lane for early Duel Damage is important for you and the team if you want to be relevant later on as a carry.

Usually you should only Duel in the first 15 or so minutes if there's a teammate nearby or the enemy is low HP. However if you think that you can get them to low enough HP to kill them after the Duel it's worth it for the kill. In summary however early on don't Duel alone.

Don't try to be the initiator for your team, you can't be the initiator until you have something like 200 Duel Damage, when you have that amount you can very easily use Blink Dagger or Shadowblade on their Tidehunter or Enigma and kill them in a couple hits. Just try not to get stunned and just win the Duel!

Items

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Items on Legion is something that changes from game to game, moreso than other heroes, if their team doesn't have a high damage carry at the moment, Blade Mail might not be a great option, you may want to build a more aggressive item like Sange and Yasha, giving strength and agility for damage, HP, armor, and attack speed, it also comes with 16% movespeed increase and a slow that also reduces attack speed, it's a great item on Legion and almost any melee strength or agility carry. This is just an example of what you might want to build on Legion.

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Blink Dagger and/or Shadow Blade should be built every game, how else will you be able to sneak up on people and kill them! If the enemy is placing very good vision and you can't seem to manage to pick people off because of it, Shadow Blade is an option, however Blink Dagger is a much more of a core item because it allows you to dodge their skill shots, escape more easily.

Sometimes you don't have to surprise the enemy, you can literally sit in lane and blink + Duel them if they're not careful and they're away from their tower or team, they'll just die.

If you're _interested in taking high ground objectives a Blink Dagger is much more useful, the tower has true sight, you want to be able to quickly blink and get a pick off on their important hero before the real teamfight starts. Blink Dagger is usually just more effective in general. Having both is an option in some games however.

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With the mana problems you have the entire game you might want to get a Ring of Basilius and build it into a Ring of Aquila, it's meant mostly for agility carries, but the Ring of Aquila gives ok stats and damage and an aura, so it's not a bad item for the slight pushing power that the aura gives.

I still don't build it super often because you want to get that early Blink Dagger, and ~900 gold is a bit much.

A Stout Shield is a pretty important early game item because when you exchange autoattacks with the enemy after you throw down Overwhelming Odds you don't want the lane creeps to be hitting you for that much damage, and the Stout Shield helps with blocking some of that.

A Quelling Blade will let you last hit more easily and navigate the jungle more quickly, so be sure to grab one at the side shop along with your Power Treads, Blink Dagger and Town Portal Scrolls.

Phase Boots aren't terrible on Legion as you do have Press the Attack, making the Glove of Haste inside the Power Treads less useful, however Legion really benefits from the stats and Tread switching for when you cast any of your three spells. The Phase Boots are good early game when you have no Blink Dagger as it offers more move speed, and it's active which gives a % move speed buff ^AND the ability to walk through units, however, Legion should have Blink Dagger which should have all the move speed and chasing potential that Legion would probably need to get a duel, I also try not do build a lot of damage items on Legion most games as you should be just getting almost all of your damage from Duels and not items, however this is situational. Getting Phase Boots is mostly preferential. Build survivability on Legion almost every game and not just damage.

A Soul Ring isn't a bad purchase on Legion if you get it quickly enough, just look at the spells she has Press the Attack which will heal more than how much was taken away by the Soul Ring active, and Overwhelming Odds which will help against zoning people out of the lane, so if you have a really sucky lane you might want to build the Soul Ring to help stay in lane and help keep them away from your farm. The HP regen and % mana regen from the Sage's Mask also really helps with your mana problems early on.

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Blade Mail is a must most games, as you can easily kill their enemy carry even if you only have 10-20 Duel Damage. For example, Phantom Assassin is an easy target if you have Blade Mail, you wouldn't even need a Monkey King Bar.

Armor reduction items are in the list of items that I build almost every game, you can kill enemies even faster, if their team is mostly composed of agility heroes, Desolator is a ^GREAT item, because of all the agility they have, they will be gaining a lot of armor. Desolator is also useful for pushing towers, as it reduces the armor of structures as well as heroes.

An absolutely ^CORE item on Legion is an Assault Cuirass, this is an item I get every game, attack speed, armor aura, attack speed aura, armor reduction aura, giving legion plenty of damage and more survivability. The armor reduction aura effects enemy structures and creeps making pushing easier.

If you don't have any sort of carry like the ones I talked about in the introduction, and maybe your lanes aren't doing too great, you might want to sit tight for the late game and just build a Hand of Midas, but this is usually pretty rare, because you want to be rushing Blink Dagger which gives you huge synergy with Duel.

Drums of Endurance are a good item on Legion now after this recent nerf to them in 6.87, a lot of carries like Sven, Invoker, and even Spectre have built a Drum in the past, but now they offer less stats and damage overall except for int, which Legion could really find useful, also, as said before it offers an aura which is useful for pushing and just offering utility to your team, the extra move speed and attack speed the active offers really helps with chasing down opponents or backdooring one of their towers as a team, you may want to build it some games as it isn't too much of an expensive item.

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Boots of Travel are ^FANTASTIC on Legion, she doesn't really need the attack speed Power Treads offer later on because of Press the Attack, and the Boots of Travel frees a slot so you don't need to carry a Town Portal Scroll anymore, so you can TP to a creep wave, and exterminate rats like Nature's Prophet, Invoker, Tinker, or Ember Spirit or anyone who might be in the lane, some matches I skip Power Treads altogether and go Boots of Travel.

If the enemy is building Linken's Spheres to counter you, you may want to consider building an Abyssal Blade, this will break the Linken's Sphere and let you to duel them if you're fast enough, however you should at least have an Assault Cuirass, Power Treads, Blade Mail, and Blink Dagger before you buy an Abyssal Blade.

With the buffs that Abyssal Blade got in 6.87, lower cooldown on its active, lower cost to build, and it building from Vanguard, I would say it would be a good option if you're headed into late game.

Most heroes that do build Linken's have quick escapes so when someone jumps them and the Spell Block is broken, they run away and come back once it's up again. So the Abyssal Blade strategy isn't super viable for most Linken's Sphere carriers.

As said before Sange and Yasha is a great item to get instead of Blade Mail, giving Legion stats that give HP, armor, attack speed, damage. As a bonus it gives 16℅ more move speed, and a chance to slow and reduce the attack speed of heroes and creeps.

If you already have a 1st position carry and him/her or some other hero on your team hasn't already built it, a Vladmir's Offering is a good item for the life steal aura, mana regen, and health regen, the main benefit is that Legion gets the mana regen and life steal, it's another good tool for pushing supplementing the Assault Cuirass and/or Desolator.

As a side note, building a Helm of the Dominator or Satanic is something that I don't do often and in general don't recommend as you have Moment of Courage which gives great life steal already.

Mjollnir is an item I don't often build on Legion, however it's a great item as it gives damage and attack speed, and attack speed later on just gives huge DPS because you'll have a lot of Duel Damage,

I recommend Mjollnir in a game against a Nature's Prophet, or some other very good pusher like Invoker, or Tinker. The active on Mjollnir is very good too, allowing you to finish Duels even more quickly.

A Moon Shard is one of the best items on Legion, I recommend it over a Mjollnir in most games because its pure attack speed, which again is one of the ^REALLY important things to have on Legion in the late game.

Black King Bar is something I build a lot of matches, I don't need to list all of the stuns and disables and magical damage that's in Dota, but if you're running into problems surviving all of it, this is the item for you. It gives damage and strength (damage) so it's not half bad for stats even when it's 5 seconda long.

Remember to Press the Attack yourself before you use Black King Bar, as Press the Attack doesn't pierce spell immunity, but it isn't purged by Black King Bar.

Monkey King Bar for that squishy Phantom Assassin or that Slark, Juggernaut, Terrorblade or countless other agility carries that build a dumb Butterfly..

Heart of Tarrasque is ^SUCH a good item on Legion, the strength gives more HP and damage and you can sustain pushes for basically forever if you have enough mana, it is absolutely needed if you have Blade Mail and the enemy team is just focusing you down before you can kill any of them, do not confuse this item as a replacement for Black King Bar as you should have enough sustain in fighting enemies while you have Black King Bar up with Moment of Courage, getting rid of you probably wanting the Heart, regardless it's not bad to have a 4k HP Legion if you have enough Duel Damage to be useful.

I personally have never built a crit on Legion, meaning a Daedulus or Crystalys, but in general I try not to build only damage items as that's the whole point of Duel anyways, but you may want to build it some games if you simply just need more damage to kill them and you don't have enough Duels.

^]DON'T build Battle Fury on Legion, she shouldn't be afk farming, she doesn't benefit from a Battle Fury at all. She is more useful making space for carry or midlaner and roaming for a Duel.

Pros / Cons

Pros High Base Movement Speed High Snowball Potential Good Ganker Anti-Carry Potential ( Blade Mail + Duel) Can completely shut down late game carries

Cons Blink Dagger is expensive Shadow Blade is expensive Could use more mana and mana regen throughout the game Blade Mail used quickly before Duel can counter you

Good & Bad Versus

Good Versus Heroes with quick escapes Anti-Mage Slark Ember Spirit Queen of Pain Storm Spirit Puck Bounty Hunter Clinkz Riki

Bad Versus Heroes who can stop you from winning duels Dazzle Omniknight Outworld Devourer Shadow Demon Abaddon Oracle Winter Wyvern Heroes with a stun... Wraith King* (You win the duel but he still resurrects)

Riki, Bounty Hunter, Clinkz, Weaver, and maybe Nyx Assassin (watch out for these heroes if you're jungling because until you get a Stout Shield you'll probably be at low HP while jungling, so be careful)

In fact be careful of anyone while jungling look at the map and see who's missing.

Closing

I'm accepting feedback and suggestions! Thank you for reading! :)