Medusa/Guide

Ability Builds

 * This build gives you great sustain and harassment early game while letting you farm extremely quickly with . and  only get one level early on as that's all you'll need for farming, fighting, and escaping ganks. More levels in Mana Shield isn't bad if the enemy has heroes who eat through your mana however.
 * Mystic Snake is not any powerful at level one, with only 3 jumps and very low damage. Getting the first point into Mana Shield allows you to safely trade hits with the enemy when neccessary, as you can only get the second point into Mystic Snake at level 3.

General

 * Early on, Medusa should just focus on farming and surviving. Once you get, you'll have a lot more survivability in lane, but always keep an eye on the minimap for incoming ganks and your health and mana pools to see how much damage the enemies are doing.
 * Both in lane and in the jungle, take advantage of to keep your mana up so Mana Shield keeps you alive.


 * Split Shot makes you a really good farmer and pusher, especially once you get more levels in it. Use it to quickly farm jungle camps or push lanes to try to take early towers
 * When pushing towers with Split Shot, keep the tower as your main target, and the other arrows will hit creeps or nearby enemies. If you target creeps while trying to push, the extra arrows won't hit towers.
 * Split Shot also gives you immense damage during fights. While Medusa's single target damage isn't much for a lot of the game, with Split Shot you can easily deal decent damage to each enemy in a fight.
 * Keep in mind activating this ability reduces the damage of your attacks by 20%. Remember to turn this off when facing single targets or just deal more damage to certain enemies.


 * Mystic Snake is potent throughout all points of the game. It lets you harass enemies and keep your mana nearly full while posing minimum risk to yourself
 * For maximum damage against enemies in lane, try to bounce the snake off a few creeps into the enemy hero.
 * The mana steal works against heroes and creeps to the full extent. Use this in the jungle to keep 's EHP from dropping too low so you can tank hits from creeps. Medium Satyr and Mud Golem camps work the best for this.
 * This ability deals Pure damage to enemies petrified by Stone Gaze, so be sure to cast this after casting your ultimate!


 * One point in Mana Shield gives you the full 60% damage reduction. Subsequent levels just lower the mana lost per damage.
 * Level this up based on what the enemy has. If enemies have items such as, grabbing more points may not be a bad idea to lower the overall mana lost from it.
 * Even if you do level this up early, be wary of enemies who tend to build illusions with mana burn, such as 20px with his and  illusions.


 * Leveling Stone Gaze only increases the duration by 1 second each level. As such, one value point early on should be enough for both escaping ganks and turning the tides in team fights.
 * Stone Gaze goes through Magic Immunity, meaning the only way to escape it is to turn away from the Medusa. It'll even freeze a 20px who used and take them out of the Phase, so use that to your advantage.
 * deals pure damage to enemies who have been turned to stone by Stone Gaze. Considering that Mystic Snake also increases damage per jump, you can deal massive nuking damage if you bounce it correctly after ulting.

Items
Starting Items: Early Game Items:
 * is needed early for the hp regen, as Medusa's base HP points are tied with20px for lowest in the game.
 * gives you a 400 HP heal, which a large amount of Medusa's early game HP.
 * and a gives you plenty of stats and lets you pick up a  at the side shop. On top of that, planted Iron Branches increase the total healing from Tangoes.
 * An alternative start is and a  to finish  early.
 * is one of the most cost effective EHP items on Medusa early on, as storing charges can give you a huge burst health and mana for when things get rough.
 * gives you the stats and regen you needs early on, and is just an overall great item on Agility carries. Remember to turn this off if you don't want to push the lane.
 * gives Medusa more damage for farming, and a movement speed boost for when she needs to move quickly.


 * can tank Medusa up and give her more attack speed, plus good tread switching can be used to increase the total mana gained from . It doesn't do much to improve her damage however.

Core Items: Situational Items:
 * is good for increasing your farming speed and being slightly active in the mid game. Her pretty much negates the increase in damage taken from it, it gives her the movement speed and attack speed she needs for both farming and team fights, and it lets her be active early on.
 * feels almost made for Medusa. It gives her the stats she needs for both dealing damage and tanking it, and the huge amount of mana gained increases her ehp levels to higher than most other heroes who get it.
 * is one of the most cost effective damage items on Medusa, and the items it builds into are all great on her.
 * can be gotten before or after Skadi. If fights are not in your favor early on, you're farming rather slowly, or enemies have stuns to keep you down fights, consider a Sphere.
 * is one of the best damage items on Medusa. While the extra crit chance isn't given to the additional arrows from, the main target will still receive the crit effect.
 * can replace Daedalus if the enemies have evasive heroes such as 20px or someone picked up an item built from.
 * can be great on Medusa. While the illusions won't deal a whole lot of damage, they inherit if it was on before you used Manta, which can be used to push lanes while you farm the jungle, it'll purge debuffs, and the overall stats and movement speed are great on her.
 * is a great cost effective stat item on Medusa. It gives her both Intelligence and Strength which is needed on her, and the slight movement and attack speed it gives are great for farming or pushing.
 * should be considered if the enemy team has heroes such as 20px or 20px, as it helps keep your mana up and running against them.
 * into should be considered over  if it's either a risky choice or if the enemies have a lot of heroes with illusions.
 * is a utility item to keep a priority target locked down while you deal with their team. The stats also help tank her up.
 * is an item to be considered if the enemy is keeping you locked down before you can get off.
 * , while expensive, is a great luxury item on Medusa. The mana it gives will make you even tankier than before, and it effectively gives you a and  in one slot.
 * is a good item to consider on Medusa. The evasion adds a lot to your EHP, it gives you a significant bonus to attack speed and damage, and it can force enemies to pick up a to counter it.
 * is the best damage item on Medusa. She's tanky enough that, even with, the odds of her dropping this are extremely slim, and it'll help you massacre a whole team with Split Shot. That being said, if against heroes who can burn through your Mana Shield like no tomorrow, it may be too risky to consider this unless absolutely necessary.