Medusa/Counters

Bad against...

 * burns Medusa's mana easily, especially when coupled with a.
 * Can easily initiate on Medusa with, burning her mana or forcing her to use Stone Gaze.
 * is effective against Medusa's big mana pool and mana usage, presenting a huge hazard to Medusa's allies around her since her Mana Shield still gives her some protection if she has mana.


 * He can use either his own or his double's to bypass the spellblock from Linken's Sphere, using the leftover Flux +  to slow Medusa's already low move speed to a crawl.
 * Arc Warden has a farming advantage with double, and can generally bully Medusa with other items that benefit from duplication.


 * Axe can take advantage of Medusa's awfully low HP to insta-kill her with, making it extremely difficult for her to farm for items to compensate for the lack of strength during early and mid-game while Axe is continuously harassing around.


 * leaves Medusa defenseless, since not only does it deal damage, it also drains mana.


 * will allow Broodmother to pick her own fights and sometimes slip away to ambush Medusa.
 * Though Medusa's Split Shot and Mystic Snake can help Medusa deal with Broodmother's spiderlings, Broodmother will create too much of them for her to handle, allowing her to outnumber Medusa's targets from Split Shot and shield her team in process.


 * is a large mana burn nuke which can hit Medusa's Mana shield with enough damage to lose even more mana.
 * disarms Medusa's ability to deal pseudo-AOE damage during teamfights.
 * allows the opposing team to repeatedly stun Medusa in short succession, preventing her from successfully casting her ultimate due to its long cast time.


 * will keep Medusa busy after she got hit by.


 * burns a significant amount of mana on hit, and the damage from the ability drains Medusa's mana pool even further.
 * Due to the passive nature of Mystic Snake and Split Shot, it can possibly proc Nyx's if he's within range of Medusa's abilities and isn't invisible.
 * Medusa lacks single target damage, making Nyx with extremely hard to deal with if Medusa is the team's main damage source.


 * Phantom Lancer with will very quickly burn Medusa's mana, making Mana Shield significantly less effective.
 * 's 1 second invulnerability can be used to dodge Medusa's petrification from Stone Gaze, as well as Mystic Snake.
 * Phantom Lancer's illusions outnumber Medusa's targets from Split Shot, likely shielding his team in the process.


 * With, Razor can effectively make Medusa useless in teamfights by reducing her main damage output. It can, however, be blocked by a.
 * allows Razor to get on top of Medusa, slowing her already slow movement speed to a mere crawl.
 * capitilizes on Medusa's low armor and causes her to be very vulnerable, even through.


 * With, Riki will silence and catch Medusa in a surprise with high miss chance flushing her from positions easily in team fights.
 * He can deal a huge amount of damage through, even through Mana Shield.


 * Medusa is especially vulnerable to, as both strength and intelligence contribute to her effective HP, while agility contributes to her damage.
 * when timed right can be used to dispel Stone Gaze right after it petrifies Slark, allowing him to keep attacking Medusa throughout the duration.


 * Sniper can outrange both Medusa's arrows and Stone Gaze, allowing him to focus her down during a teamfight.


 * Ursa's status resistance from reduces duration of Medusa's Stone Gaze.
 * Ursa can stack damage with easily against her Mana Shield in a prolonged team match.


 * can make each of Medusa's attacks target him instead, reducing Medusa's contribution on team fights.
 * stuns Medusa and also pushes her away from teamfights, taking advantage of Medusa's low mobility.
 * blocks Medusa's attacks from outside the arena.


 * 's damage over time can rapidly burn Medusa's mana and health alike.
 * can slow and disarm Medusa and also allow Huskar to follow up with Life Break.

Others

 * Other heroes with mana burning or manipulating abilities will make Medusa much less tanky:,.
 * Heroes that build or can fit it well into their item build will also make Medusa much less tanky:, , , , ,.
 * Other heroes who has armor and slow debuffs won't allow Medusa to disengage from combat:, ,.
 * In theory Medusa counters all melee heroes, even though that is not the case with Mana-burning heroes and heroes with escapes although Medusa can outfight even Anti-Mage if he gets petrified.

Items

 * , and it's upgrade can burn away the mana Medusa needs for Mana Shield, and its active ability can slow Medusa down. These items can make Medusa weak even against heroes she naturally counters.
 * activation for a disengage can discourage Medusa from using any auto attacks or Mystic Snake cast.
 * can disarm Medusa for a long 5 seconds, and disarm cannot be dispelled with Manta Style.
 * repeatedly stuns Medusa with Overwhelm and Bash even if Medusa is spell immune, and her poor mobility means she cannot easily escape an Abyssal Blade user.
 * reduces her healing and lifesteal effects, and also eats away her mana pool slowly and can sustain the effects if it has stacks.
 * and it's upgrade can be used to defend yourself or your allies against Medusa's mostly-physical damage output.  can also be used to disarm Medusa and make her more vulnerable to magical damage. And besides Mystic Snake, Medusa has no other ways of dealing magical damage.
 * removes a huge chunk of armor and adds an attack speed debuff. Slows her damage output and movement in team fights allows her to get focused also weakens her durability.
 * will reflect Mystic Snake back at Medusa, damaging Medusa and stealing her mana if she uses Mystic Snake on the enemy hero protected by it.

Good against...

 * Enchantress often has a small army of neutral creeps, allowing Medusa to hit her with a later bounce of her Mystic Snake.


 * Lifestealer's low mobility makes him easy to kite.
 * Stone Gaze pierces, wasting its cooldown and making Lifestealer unable to fight.


 * Should Luna choose to buy, Medusa will be able to kill illusions from them with and , which is a common item on Medusa.
 * allows Medusa to easily harass Luna and steal mana from her, preventing Luna from retaliating with.
 * Medusa can survive thanks to, and since Luna is not a hero that often goes for , she will struggle greatly in bursting down Medusa.
 * Even with, Medusa's will still be able to disable Luna, which could even discourage her from counter-initiating with Eclipse.
 * For the same reasons, Medusa makes a very powerful ally for Luna when they are in the same team.


 * Medusa's and  combined with, a common item for Medusa, will whittle down all of Naga Siren's illusions, including Naga Siren herself.
 * Medusa's can disable Naga Siren even for the duration of  and even if Naga Siren is spell immune, discouraging Naga Siren from even trying to use  to save herself or counter-initiate against Medusa.


 * Mana Shield can tank most of the damage from Reaper's Scythe; with sufficient mana, the kill threshold drops significantly.
 * Necrophos has a movement speed equal to Medusa, and is easy to chase down with a slowing item in Medusa's inventory.


 * Stone Gaze allows Medusa to easily kite and kill Sven.
 * Mana Shield negates much of Sven's burst damage.


 * Split Shot can destroy Tombstone Zombies and Tombstone itself while still damaging heroes.


 * Can be easily petrified despite his speed.
 * Summoned wolves will be targeted by Split Shot or Mystic Snake


 * Medusa's can make quick work of Enigma's Eidolons and take advantage of their considerable bounty.
 * If Medusa activates at the start of a fight, it can make initiating — and landing an effective  exceedingly difficult.  can cancel Enigma's  even through spell immunity, which can discourage Enigma from initiating with.


 * Poof won't damage Medusa and she can use Stone Gaze to disable all of Meepo's clones.
 * Mystic Snake will easily become the bane of Meepo early game.


 * Mana Shield reduces the effectiveness of Counter Helix.
 * Stone Gaze makes it very difficult for Axe to initiate on Medusa and her allies.


 * Visage's familiars are easy targets to Split Shot.
 * Mana Shield will resist Soul Assumption instances without effort.

Others

 * Heroes that rely on summons. A few summons, such as Lycan's wolves allow Medusa to bounce her Mystic Snake between them to hit the hero for additional damage. Many weak summons, such as Visage's familiars can force the group to tank Medusa's Split Shot.
 * Heroes that rely on Black King Bar to survive teamfights.
 * Heroes with a lot of burst damage, especially those who rely on casting spells:,.

Items

 * cannot protect it's owner from Medusa's Stone Gaze and her physical damage output.

Works well with...

 * Berserker's Call can force enemies to face Medusa during her Stone Gaze.


 * Deals area damage with ultimate and can stun/disable to cast Stone Gaze and make it easier to freeze enemy heroes.


 * benefits Medusa's Mana Shield greatly, and also allows more liberal use of Mystic Snake.
 * Stone Gaze slows enemies and stuns them for a duration. With correct timing, Keeper of the Light can land a fully-charged on multiple enemies.
 * helps ensure enemies face Medusa when she casts Stone Gaze. Bothabilities have a long duration, causing massive disruption in teamfights.


 * further improves Medusa's tankiness
 * forces an enemy to face Medusa during Stone Gaze
 * can be used to force enemy melee heroes to scatter away from Medusa


 * The protection offered by Stone Gaze allows Phoenix to place its much more aggressively
 * helps to recover Medusa's HP
 * The upgrade for Supernova allows Phoenix to save Medusa from a dire situation, and allows Medusa to fully recover her HP and MP, provided that the egg lasts 6 seconds


 * During teamfights, casting Disruption upon Medusa creates a pair of illusions with Split Shot.
 * Shadow Demon can stack 2-3 jungle camps at the same time, speeding up Medusa's farming phase.
 * makes it easier for Medusa to chase down enemy heroes fleeing from Stone Gaze

Others

 * Heroes that deal pure damage like Tinker's Aghanim Laser upgrade can give him enough time to cast it a couple of times or Outworld Devourer can deal the full damage of his Arcane Orb and stack a lot of intelligence for those 3 seconds of Stone Gaze
 * Everyone with good physical damage and lock down for a good Stone Gaze
 * Abilities that grant sustain or heroes with sustain to keep the enemy kited and distracted while Medusa slowly destroys them

Items

 * ,, and restores both health and mana to Medusa, doubly effective as a sustain item since she can tank with Mana Shield.

List of heroes that counter Medusa, and list of heroes that work well with Medusa.

Medusa/Противостоящие 美杜莎/克制