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Healing Salve
Iron BranchIron BranchIron Branch
Slippers of Agility
Tango
Magic Wand
Perseverance
Ring of Basilius
Boots of Speed
Linken's Sphere
Power Treads
Ring of Aquila
Butterfly
Assault Cuirass
Manta Style
Daedalus
Divine Rapier
Mjollnir
Heart of Tarrasque
Eye of Skadi
Satanic
Bloodstone
Boots of Travel
Black King Bar
Scythe of Vyse
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Hello everybody,
This is my 2° guide here on dotafire and today I would like to introduce you to Valve's last masterpiece, Medusa, the Gorgon!.
"Medusa, also known as Gorgon is an impressive late-game carry, disabler and in the meanwhile also a great initiator. Her farming capabilities fuel her role almost perfectly. Medusa can be considered as tank as well, both in durability and AOE damage, once she is fully leveled and after she has acquired damage items. With her current skill set, she can in fact nuke for a lot of damage, and in the meanwhile survive even the most aggressive ganks thanks to her spells. She is one of the rare breed of carries that can both tank and DPS at the same time!"
Critics are welcome, since I want to train myself in things like these, so suggestions or tips will help me! :)
English is not my native language, so you will surely find some mistakes.
If you aren't familiar with this hero I would suggest you to look at Dotacinema's video below
Enough said,
Let's get to it.
An insidious creature that dwelled for eons in the underwater prisons of Nazjatar, the Gorgon was unwittingly freed during the war waged between King Arthas's Scourge and the Naga on the icy shores of Northrend. Plagued by undeath in the aftermath, Medusa welcomed the blessing of immortality. Gifted with a keen sense of archery and affinity to magic at birth, she has honed her skills over the ages. Firing barrage of arrows, freeing her energy leeching serpent upon her enemies, and conjuring a protective barrier of mana are just minor skills at her disposal. Like her namesake, Medusa instills paralyzing fear into all that would dare looking at her.
Medusa's Pros:
- She can cover both the roles of Carry and Tank
- Due to her abilities, she is a great farmer
- She has a significant Crowd Control
- It is very difficult to not escape a gank with her!
Medusa's Cons:
- She has very poor initial stats as well stats gain through the game
- The loss of mana, caused for example by mana burn is fatal for her
- Very, if not completely, item dependant
- She hasn't lots of ganking material
- Bad movement speed
[Q] Split Shot
When you activate it, Medusa Will split her shot into 4 arrows for each attack, hitting nearby enemy targets at its max rank for 75% of your damage. Notice that this skill is a toogle one, that means it has 0 coldown (!) and 0 Mana cost (0!!)
Remember that only the primary target will receive attack effects like bash and orb effects!
This skill is also based on transformation ability so it can be used to dodge projectiles and stuns like Skeleton King and 
Vengeful Spirit's!
Toggling this skill on and off counts as a spell; this can be used to dispel many things as well, like 
Silencer's Curse of the Silent.
Split Shot is a very useful farming tool, as it will grant you most of the time 4 creeps in a relativately short time, or in teamfights, a more divided damage for each enemy's heroes. In fact, when you will be probably be the tank you'll be doing 75% to 4 different heroes.
[W] Mystic Snake
This is my Medusa's favorite skill, another great farming tool basically, that allows you to dominate your lane with not so much difficulty. The important fact is that it returns mana, and in specific every time it steals mana, the amount raise by 20% of its base value; same works the damage: 20% of its basic value.
And if you are lucky enough to hit 3 units possessing mana with it, you will be spending no mana for casting it!
E Mana Shield
Mana shield is what makes her such a big threat, especially in the mid and end game, because it effectively doubles Medusa's Hit Points! It Allows you to tank and at the same time inflict high damage output. A fully-farmed Medusa with mana-shield on is what constitutes an awesome game for you and your allies.
It basically takes 50% of the incoming damage (!) and turns it into mana drain without applying damage reduction. [Mana shield comes into handy when you are going to receive 
Finger of Death or 
Laguna Blade, but these are only some examples, there a lot of situations in which it can be useful of course!
[R] Stone Gaze
Medusa's ulti has lots of effectiveness as an defensive skill in the game. This skill has proved its eminence and usefulness time and time again. It makes you almost unGankable, because of the Attack and movement speed slow of a factor of 2/3/5!
Always remember that Stone Gaze will affects ONLY units that have line of sight with Medusa, but at any period during 0.6 seconds after cast! If an enemy has his back in front of Medusa literally nothing will happen.. (considering the mythology it makes sense, no?)
Oh most important thing: notice that this ultimate ISTANTLY destroyes illusions! Stone Gaze will easily counter 
Phantom Lancer's
Juxtapose and 
Naga Siren's 
Mirror Image, as well as 
Visage's 
Summon Familiars. (!)
Early Game
Laning
Mid lane is possibly the safest lane for Medusa, because you are freely to farm. While on lane you have you absolutely need to last hit every creep, denying as well, as it will give a significant advantage; If you don't start well you might take time to catch up. Whenever you have the chance, keep spamming Mystic Snake, as you won't be consuming tons of mana, considering its self-recovering.
Mid Game
Always Try to keep the opponent tower alive as long as possible due to your Mystic Snake ability will push the lane a lot. Try to farm in lanes in which creeps are very near to your towers. If you don't feeld safe, Don't hesitate to go killing some neutrals. Play reaaaaaly carefully, a single death can longen your core items.
Remember to not try ganking, since Medusa really sucks at it, and for you all would only mean a loss of time. However, you can still expect some ganks to to your mid lane. Pff, that's okay, two opponent ganks will be pretty easy to escape from! Your ultimate is probably the most useful skill during this phase of the game along with mana shield. just activate them and fade away.
Late Game
Now is the time to relax, just right click and enjoy your beautiful damage! If you feel fed enough, keep your Split Shot activated and kills as many heroes as you can, always activate Mana Shield when in danger and secure kills thanks to the items you have acquired.
First Purchase
Some Tango and a Healing Salve will do some regen for our laning phase, while 3 Iron Branch will grant us some stats. (Remember that Medusa's stats suck in this early phase) Finally a Slippers of Agility is for some more early damage output and last hitting capacity.
Early Game
Now as soon as you can you should get your Boots of Speed for your survivability and chasing capacity. After this a Ring of Basilius will grants Medusa +6 damage and some brilliance aura, for some mana recovering + Mystic Snake and +2 armor. Now it's time for your Magic Wand , the Iron Branches will free a lot of space, in order to get your Ring of Health, and then by going into the shop converting it into a beatiful Perseverance thanks to which you will be able to absorb some more damage with your Mana Shield.
Core Items
Your Power Treads are calling, time to get them! I see that a lot of people prefer to take 
Phase Boots, but sincerely I like more The first one, since they provide some stats management for poor Medusa and base attack speed, useful for your last hitting. On the other hand Phase Boots will provide you +24 damage and a sprint to counter your slow movement speed of 290. As usually it's up to you to decide!
Ring of Aquila is in my opinion a good item for our Medusa, because it composed both by Ring of Basiliusand 
Wraith Band; Besides this item grants some stats for her and damage!
Linken's Sphere: Oh God how much I love this item. If you are farming veeeery well you should rush for it, immediately! It gives you survivability, a legendary Spell block, substantial mana and hit points regeneration. Thanks to this, you will be allowed to keep your Mana Shield up! Think about it!
Luxury Items
Manta Style Is a mixture of both dps and survivability. Good survivability and right click capacity. With the reagent of 
Ultimate Orb this item is great to grant you some stats! Remember that your images will have the split shot ability as well even if you yourself turn it off after the images have been produced. Also the reverse effect is equally true. VERY IMPORTANT: Mana Shield gets deactivated when you use Manta Style, so don't forget to turn it on!!
Daedalus gives you fairly a great deal of dps and a beautiful 20% chance to crit! Although it will not help your tanking ability in any way you will be a monster-truck. Notice that the interaction of Split Shot with critical shot works like this: When critical damage is to be inflicted Medusa will shoot only one arrow to the primary target whose damage will be reduced to 75% and then multiplied by the crit factor!
Assault Cuirass is another awesome item that boosts your incredible damage and your ability to tank as well. Your Split Shot will be advantaged a lot with it.
Mjollnir This item combined with Butterfly will make our Medusa sick. Gives tons of damage and attack speed as well! Its interaction with Split Shot works just like Daedauls.
Divine Rapier Finally if really really REALLY think you will need it you can get a.. Divine Rapier! Simply to explain I guess, more damage -> more crits -> more fun. Pay attention though, since you will drop it when you die. An eventual loss would mean a 100% blame from your mates, care.
Optional Items
Bloodstone will give you lots of Hit points and Mana, and tons of regen! You Mana Shield will be kept up. a lot.
Eye of Skadi grants you a lot of stats, not much though.. If you think It's time to tank then go for this item. The slow from is immensely valuable since you do not have any disables or way of holding down your enemies.
Satanic works very well with Daedalus. It gives little damage , but the active ability to lifesteal ONLY from your primary target while using Split Shot; that's 75% of your damage output, remember. It's very valueable because of the survivability it grants!
Black King Bar is very suitable to our Medusa because it will provide us some strenght -> health, damage and magic immunity. If there are a lot of casters ahead, I stronly suggest to take this item
Scythe of Vyse is a nice to associate with medusa; this is THE ultimate mana regeneration item, (150%) and you will have the ability to sheep someone while you are harassing him!
Boots of Travel should be taken in case the game is going veeeeeeeeery long; considering your relativately slow movement speed, it will resolve this con, definitely.
Finally the most tanking item you can get is obviously a Heart of Tarrasque, thanks to which you won't have to count only on your Mana Shield thingy. With it your survivability will dramatically increase.
ALLIES
Well, Medusa has a lot of allies that can easily help her. Most of them are disablers and stunners.
Enigma's 
Black Hole for istance, will let you the chance to a lot of damage while he is ulting your enemies!
Frostbite+ 
Arcane Aura. Crystal Maiden's stun and aura can really make you become a great Thread, with your Mana Shield and Mystic Snake, too!
Beastmaster's ulti will create a path for you and your damage!
Similarly to Enigma's ulti, 
Treant Protector's will allow you to perform tons of damage.
Tidehunter's ulti works as Enigma and Treant Protector's, very good with Medusa.
Shackles and 
Hex will completely render an enemy useless, take advantage of it!
Little 
Ogre Magi can 
Fireblast a target for a lot of seconds if lucky! Also he can slow enemies with his 
Ignite and at the same time boost you with his 
Bloodlust!
Vengeful Spirit is a fantastic mate that can stun and do a good damage with 
Magic Missile and boost your Attack damage with her 
Vengeance Aura. 
Wave of Terror is really helpful for the -5 armor debuff as well!
Keeper of the Light's 
Chakra Magic will help you keeping up that Mana Shield!
FOES
On the other side there are some heroes that can easily counter poor Medusa, mostly mana burners, argh.
Ally as Foes, Keeper of the Light's 
Mana Leak will consume great percentuals of your mana if you don't pay sufficient attention!
When he casts his 
Sanity's Eclipse, 
Outworld Destroyer will most of the time burn out all your mana, that means no Mana Shield for you in teamfights.. that bastard!
and
Phantom Lancer and Naga Siren will completely render you useless when they get 
Diffusal Blade because of their copies! If you see a lot of "them" coming, don't hesitate using your "stone gaze" to prevent a lot of mana burn!
One of the most irritating hero to have against, especially for Medusa.. his damn 4 seconds coldown 
Mana Burn will be a pain in the *** if he has a quite good mana regeneration to keep spamming it..
Ahh, 
Anti-Mage.. that ****er, when he'll get a Manta Style there will be a lot of problems for you! Or at least if you have your Stone Gaze on coldown! Damn 
Mana Break..
I would like to thank every person that will comment this guide, since I spent a lot of time for it; as i said in the Introduction, critics are welcome, This is my 2° guide and I'd still like to learn as much as possible from you, guys :)
Thanks to Ebrithil, who helped me setting a lot of things of this guide, and that have granted me to post it today, here, on Dotafire!
Thanks to Icefrog who kept developing Dota.
Finally thanks to Valve, that created DotA2 in collaboration with Dotacinema, I love you.
Ty all!
:)
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