You Can't Tame the Lion

Introduction

Lion, the Demon Witch
"To Hell and back."

Role: Roamer / Support / Babysitter

Lore: Once a Grandmaster of the Demon Witch tradition of sorcery, Lion earned fame among his brethren for fighting on the side of light and righteousness. But adulation corrupts. With powers surpassed only by his ambition, the mage was seduced by a demon and turned to evil, trading his soul for prestige. After committing horrible crimes that marred his soul, he was abandoned. The demon betrayed him, striking better deals with his enemies. Such was Lions rage that he followed the demon back to hell and slew it, ripping it limb from limb, taking its demonic hand for his own. However, such demonoplasty comes at a cost. Lion was transfigured by the process, his body transformed into something unrecognizable. He rose from hell, rage incarnate, slaying even those who had once called him master, and laying waste to the lands where he had once been so adored. He survives now as the sole practitioner of the Demon Witch tradition, and those who present themselves as acolytes or students are soon relieved of their mana and carried off by the faintest gust of wind.


Lion is a Dire Intelligence Hero who is most known for his epic disabling abilites. Although his skills are very straightforward, he still requires some knowledge to play. I will briefly go over his skills and how to use them to their most effectiveness, his friends and foes, and what items fit him best. This is my first guide so bear with me here, and I hope you learn something from the way I play Lion. I accept all feedback so please let me know if I missed anything, as I will be updating this guide whenever possible.

Skills

Earth Spike - This is Lion's first skill and best harassment tool while laning. If timed correctly, you can hit multiple Heroes and/or creeps, doing damage while also stunning. I like to initiate with this skill, and then Hex if necessary when ganking.

Hex - This is [[Lion's second skill and main disable. Use this to make sure fleeing enemies do not escape and to just disable hard carries in team fights. At max level, this will be essential to ganking.

Mana Drain - This is Lion's third and one of the best skills in the game in my opinion. The easiest way to acquire mana when your not being harassed. The best way to use this is to drain mana from a ranged creep.

Finger of Death - And finally, Lion's ultimate. One of the best early gank tools in the game. When going for an early gank, you should have Earth Spike doing 200 damage by level 7, and can easily finish a hero off with Finger of Death.

Pros / Cons

Pro's:

Great Disabler
Good Early Game Ganker
Very diverse

Squishy
Falls off late game
Reskinned to look like he has a triple chin
WHY VALVE?

Friends/Foes

Lion has many friends. He is great with just about any Support, Semi-Carry or Ganker, aka Crystal Maiden, Pudge, His Foes on the other hand are any that can disable him (stun/slow) or that can just straight rape him, aka Pudge, Tidehunter, Axe, and the very tanky heroes.

Items

For early game I usually pick up a bit of everything. Basic Regeneration like a Tango or a Healing Salve, a Clarity if im having mana problems, and a couple Gauntlets of Strength for the extra health (if you can afford 2), along with an Iron Branch with leftover gold, because it provides that little extra bit of everything, for cheap.

I pick up Boots of Speed as early as possible to gank while I'm most effective. I also upgrade the Iron Branch to a Magic Wand and turn the Gauntlets of Strength into Bracer's for some nice attributes and even more health, since Lion is squishy.

For the Core build, I always grab Phase Boots to chase down fleeing heroes, Hex them and then finish them off. I also make sure to buy a Refresher Orb to make sure that I can pop my Finger of Death twice in team fights, which will be absolutely devastating because I ALWAYS pick up Aghanim's Scepter to make the damage ridiculously high on Finger of Death.

For the Luxury/Situational items I like the Dagon because you can combo it with your Finger of Death to instagib. I sometimes opt for a Pipe of Insight if I am playing a Support Lion, also for the Spell Resistance. I grab Mekansm if I am playing Support Lion, but if we already have a person providing the Support, I skip this one. A Necronomicon is okay in certain situations, but I rarely pick this up if the team is doing well enough to where I don't need to call in the warriors. And last but certainly not least, a Black King Bar. The magic resistance this provides will be great when combo-ing your Earth Spike, Dagon (if you picked it up) or your ultimate.

Summary

So all in all, Lion isn't that hard to compehend. He is noob-friendly and shouldn't take much time to get decent with. If your getting bored of "dominating" with Ursa, I suggest Lion through and through. He has become one of my favorite heroes in Dota 2, and I hope that you will take a liking to him, and understand how he fits in the Dota world. Also, as a reminder, this guide is directed towards people who do not know how to play him, or Dota 2 at all, because of his simple and to the point skills. I thank you very much for any feedback you have on this guide, and any improvements, mistakes, or compliments you have. -Axefane_ :)