DOTA 2 - Lion

Introduction

“Ooooh, time for strong-arm tactics.”

Lion is a ranged intelligence hero. He is almost always played as a support, as he is item independent, has good nuke damage, and is arguably the best disabler in the game, but this all comes at the cost of being very squishy and having poor move speed.

Although only occasionally chosen as a support hero in competitive Dota 2, Lion is one of the most popular support heroes in regular matchmaking, almost certainly thanks to his ultimate which deals a massive 600 burst magic damage at level 1.

Lion's complete character profile can be found here.

Pros & Cons

Pros

• Amazing disabler
• Great all-round support and babysitter
• Great burst damage
• Good ganker
• Built-in mana regeneration ability

Cons

• Very squishy
• Doesn’t scale well
• Very poor movespeed

Item Build

Starting Items

As a support hero it’s your job to ensure that the Courier and/or Observer Wards are bought at the start of the game. Usually these duties will be split between yourself and another hero on your team, but you can’t always guarantee this in public games. If no one else ponies up the gold for one then you should bite the bullet and buy both for your team.

Good starting items if there’s another support on your team:

Courier or Observer Wards, a Set of Tangos, a Healing Salve, Gauntlets of Strength, and an Iron Branch.

And if you’re forced to solo support:

Courier, Observer Wards, a set of Tangos, a Healing Salve, and an Iron Branch.

Early Game

Ensure that the Courier is upgraded into a Flying Courier when it comes off cooldown at the 3 minute mark. Also ensure that Observer Wards are always purchased when they’re off cooldown.

Get your Boots of Speed up and running as quickly as possible. Lion has terrible base movespeed (290) and he’s very squishy, so without Boots of Speed you may end up being easy pickings for enemies during early rotations and ganks.

Upgrade any Iron Branches you have into a Magic Wand, and any Bracer components into a Bracer.

Core Options

Again, keep ensuring that Observer Wards are bought up whenever they’re off cooldown.

For upgraded Boots you can opt either for Tranquil Boots or Phase Boots. The new Tranquil Boots are almost universally terrible because they break when you attack or are attacked, but this makes them quite viable for supports like Lion who will rarely be auto-attacking. It ensures you can travel between lanes quickly and get the jump on enemies when ganking. They also provide you with decent health regeneration and armour, meaning less trips back to the Fountain or gold spent on consumables.

The downside of Tranquils is that if you get attacked, or attack, they’ll break, and you’ll be a sitting duck. Phase Boots on the other hand will give you more reliable mobility, and extra damage (although this is negligible on Lion), but won’t ease your regen concerns. It’s up to you, neither are ideal but neither are bad; personally I tend to opt for Tranquils on generally poor supports like Lion.

Your core item options are quite open. If there are no more viable Mekanism carriers on your team that will get it up much faster than you (such as a mid Viper, or a jungle Chen), then Mekanism should be your go-to core item. Be sure to check with your team to see if anyone else intends to build one before you get started on it.

If you didn’t get the Mekanism but still want to provide healing for your team then an Urn of Shadows is the ideal pick-up. It’s fairly cheap too, so you’ll get it up and running quickly.

If someone else is working towards Mekanism then you’re free to go for a team utility and mobility item fairly early on. Drums of Endurance are a great option because they give you team bonus attack speed and move speed auras, whilst at the same time giving you plenty of stats and being easy to build into (since the components are so cheap you can buy them up whenever you have the spare unreliable gold, meaning you won’t lose much gold when you die). You probably already have a Bracer from the early game as well, making Drums a natural extension to your inventory.

The other option is a Force Staff (or Blink Dagger; but Force Staff is less greedy and provides you with more utility for your team. I feel Blink Dagger is always a luxury item on a support, whereas Force Staff can be core). While Force Staff gives you less all-round stat gain than Drums, it gives you much more mobility. It’s an amazing escape tool for someone who is naturally very squishy and slow, and can be used on allies and enemies, making it a great play-making item for clutch saves or to Force an enemy into bad positioning.

Luxury Extensions

Once you’ve decided upon, and have purchased your core, your options are truly wide open. Ensure you keep purchasing Observer Wards though!

The most popular luxury item on Lion is Blink Dagger. Your Hex ability has such a tremendously low cast time that it’s almost instant, making you a great Blink initiator. Blink into Hex and auto-attacks into Earth Spike and auto-attacks into Finger of Death will be enough to kill off a lot of heroes in the mid game. Even if you’re unable to insta-kill heroes with this burst output Blink will still make you a great Blink initiator when trying to gank as a team and grab pick-offs.

Scythe of Vyse – Lion is usually played as a 5th position support, sometimes a 4th position support, and rarely (and inadvisably) a 3rd position core. The likelihood of you being able to afford a Scythe during all but the longest of games (or largest of stomps) is minimal, but if you can afford it then definitely get it! Another 3.5 seconds of disable for your team is absolutely enormous, and that’s on top of the stats it provides.

Vladmir’s Offering – Yes, you’re ranged, so you won’t get the lifesteal bonus from Vlad’s, but you’re not buying it for yourself, you’re buying it for your team. Vladmir’s Offering is great to pick up on a support even if your team doesn’t consist of any melee heroes because of the bonus damage and armour it provides. If your team does have a melee core and no one else has purchased one then it’s an excellent utility item to purchase.

Heaven’s Halberd – A fantastic anti-carry item, thanks to the ability to disarm an enemy core for 3.0-4.5 seconds, Halberd will also give you a much-welcome chunk of health an evasion, making you a lot less fragile.

Eul’s Scepter of Divinity – The active is good for taking an enemy carry out of the fight for a couple of seconds. In that respect it’s sometimes referred to as a poor man’s Scythe of Vyse, the downside being that the hero selected cannot be attacked. Nonetheless, it’s useful for buying your team time. The other downside is that whilst a Scythe use is universally beneficial, Eul’s can sometimes be disadvantageous to your team, perhaps saving an enemy when they would otherwise have died, or trapping an allied hero who would otherwise have escaped. If you’re not confident in your decision making abilities in the heat of battle then don’t go for Eul’s.

The other upsides of Eul’s are the fantastic mana regeneration and the burst +40 move speed, which really helps out Lion who has naturally terrible move speed.

Ghost Scepter – The go-to luxury pick-up if you find the enemy team is able to bring you down quickly with physical damage (typically in the form of right-clicks). Most often this will be the enemy carry taking you out of the fight quickly with a few auto-attacks. Ghost Scepter will buy you a clutch 4 seconds of physical immunity, which gives you time to create distance between yourself and the enemy carry or at the very least buys your team 4 seconds of distraction time.

Black King Bar – On the other side of the coin is BKB, which will give you Spell Immunity, protecting you from spell casters and stuns. It will make you a lot more tanky as well.

Necronomicon – Great if you’re part of a pushing line-up or your team is struggling to break the base. Also a great item for teamfights and for countering any invis enemy heroes.

Aghanim’s Scepter – Aghanim’s is a bit gimmicky on Lion. It’s usually purchased because it reduces the cooldown on your ultimate to a mere 20 seconds at level 3 (making it almost spammable), and increases the damage by 175 at level 3, causes Finger of Death to hit units within a 200 AoE of the primary target, and it does provide you with a somewhat decent chunk of stats... but I think the other options listed above all give you more team-based utility, which is what you should be doing as a support most of the time. If you’re just out to have fun feel free to grab it though. With a maxed out Dagon, an Aghanim’s Scepter, and an Ethereal Blade you’ll be able to insta-kill a lot of heroes.

Situational Items

Sentry Wards, Dust of Appearance, Gem of True Sight – all-important detection. You’ll need at least one of these in your inventory if the enemy line-up features an invis hero. Sentry Wards will also allow you to deward rune spots, and Gem will give you superior vision going into the mid and late game.

Smoke of Deceit – If you roam with another support in the early stages of the game a Smoke will allow you to do so more quickly and without being spotted by enemy wards. Smoke will also come in handy in the post-laning phase if your team wants to gank as 5.

Skill Build

Earth Spike is skilled and maxed first. It provides a shorter duration lockdown than your Hex ability (1.02-2.52 seconds, compared to 2.5-4.0 seconds), but unlike Hex it deals damage (80/140/200/260) and stuns in a line, allowing you to catch more than one enemy in its stun radius.

I usually get a single point in Mana Drain at level 2, in order to recoup the mana lost from an enemy every 20 seconds after using Earth Spikes on them. Mana Drain is particularly great against melee enemies in the laning stage of the game as you will force them away from the creep weave (or drain their entire mana pool). It has a massive 1,200 unit range as well, meaning you will almost always recoup the mana spent casting it, and allows you to spam Earth Spike for early harass.

I skill Hex at level 4 and max it second. With Hex and Earth Spike you’ll have two forms of disable at level 4, which can be used aggressively to initiate on enemies, or defensively, to buy you and your teammate(s) time to retreat from a bad fight.

Always get your ultimate, Finger of Death, whenever you can (levels 6, 11 and 16). It gives you massive burst magical damage, albeit at a hefty mana cost and with a long cooldown. Try your best not to use it to secure kills – your team will be understandably angry at a support using Finger of Death to kill steal. Try to use it early on in teamfights to burst down important heroes and make them easy pickings for your team’s core heroes, or to secure a kill on an enemy that is otherwise highly likely to escape.

Max Mana Drain last. A few points in it is fantastic for leeching back lost mana (cast it ranged creeps, or jungle creeps with mana pools for quick and easy mana regen), or for gimping heroes that rely heavily on their mana pools (such as Skeleton King or Storm Spirit, or even heroes like Dark Seer or Lina whose combos are very mana intensive).

Gameplay Tips

A common lane support strategy is to cast Earth Spike on an enemy for harass, followed by Mana Drain, to recoup the lost mana and then some, whilst at the same time draining the enemy’s mana pool. Rinse and repeat whenever they're off cooldown. This is very annoying to play against.

Try to catch more than one hero with Earth Spike by lining it up to hit heroes stood beside or behind your chosen target. Although risky, you can cast it on the ground instead of directly on a hero, to get your optimal angle, but you risk not even hitting a single target so make sure you’re confident in your abilities before trying this.

Mana Drain is an excellent ability to use to pop the active on Linken’s Sphere, if an enemy has one. The cooldown and mana costs are both very low, and in the mid and late stages of the game Mana Drain will generally not be used in teamfights anyway because it is a channelling ability that leaves you unable to do anything else.

Similarly, Mana Drain and Hex are great abilities for dispelling illusions. Use, for example, on the illusions created by Phantom Lancer's Spirit Walk or Doppelwalk abilities to instantly dispel them and prevent them multiplying.

Last Updated - Patch 6.83.