Dota 2 hook tips and tricks

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In this Dota 2 Lion Guide, we will guide you on how you can play the hero Lion in Dota 2. Dota 2 comes with a very impressive roster of heroes and since this is a MOBA, there are no best heroes or worst heroes here. Every hero has its own strengths and weaknesses and depending on your playing style, every hero can be a really good one. If you prefer playing with Lion as your main, we have curated this Dota 2 Lion Guide which will help you become the ultimate player of this game.

Lion Guide – Dota 2

Our Dota 2 Lion Guide details everything that you need to know about playing the game as Lion including tips and tricks and best items.

Hero Introduction

If you want to have fun, enjoy the game and want to be a pain in the ass Lion is your pick. Lion is an intelligence ranged hero that is excellent in disabling a single target hero and giving out a ton of burst damage. It is a simple hero with less complexity for beginners to play with. This hero is mostly played as a Support Role/ Position 5 and very few times in a while as Mid Role/ Position 2. While facing heroes who are hard to stun or are too fast, you would want Lion to be on your side.

Lion’s first ability is Earth Spike. The ability is magical damage range stun which has the AoE of 125. This ability is quite useful to disable the enemy or a bunch of enemies if used properly. Really good Lion players know the cast range of the ability is 500 units but it extends to 825 units. While playing Pos2 you must max this ability in order to gain Last Hits (LH) in the mid lane and simultaneously stun the enemy hero. As Pos5 same can be done. Use this ability in the lane to harass the enemy and keep their health low to dominate the lane.

The second ability is one of the strongest disable ability of the entire game i. e Hex. An instant cast of this ability turns the enemy unit into a frog. Moreover, it gets rid of the passives like evasion or damage block of the target unit. At maximum level hex last till 4 seconds which is a quite long disable. During the laning phase, one level of the hex is more than enough. Hex not only stops channeling spells but also destroys illusions instantly.

Next comes Mana Drain. As evident by its name mana drain absorbs enemy’s mana. Dota 2 hook tips and tricks This ability comes in handy as Lion’s mana pool is low. Mana Drain and Earth Spike are usually spammed in the laning phase. The beauty of mana drain is that it not only absorbs mana from enemy heroes but also from ranged enemy creep and neutrals with mana pool. Just like Hex, Mana Drain also instantly destroys illusions making Lion effective against illusion based heroes. Plus Mana Drain also lowers the movement speed of the target unit.

Lion’s ultimate is the Finger of Death which deals massive burst damage. Starting from the first level the ability has 600 magic damage. Plus having a long cast range makes it even more dangerous for enemy heroes. The key to using this ability to its best is to kill a hero with this ability which results in having a charge of additional 40+ damage per kill. This essentially is the strongest point of the ultimate. With the Aghanim’s Scepter, the ability’s damage is increased, the cooldown is decreased and the ability hits all units in 325 AoE.

When playing as Pos5 focus should be made on supporting the team by warding/dewarding, ganking and harassing enemy heroes in the lane. Though Pos2 Lion will always try to secure kills with the Ultimate ability in order to gain charges. Mid position Lion is as much dominating as the hero’s mobility. In that case, you might want to refrain from warding and save to get Dagger of Escape and rush to Aghanim’s Scepter.

Items

Below we have detailed the best items that you can use with Lion in different stages of the match.

Starting items

• Support Role: Observer/Sentry wards, Tangoes, Magic Stick, Smoke of Deceit and Tranquil Boots.
• Mid Role: Tangoes, Healing Salve, Null Talisman, Power Treads, and Empty Bottle.

Mid Game Items

• Support Role: Bracers (If required), Force Staff, Glimmers Cape, and Aether Lens.
• Mid Role: Dagger of Escape, Aether Lens, Ghost Scepter, Aghanim’s Scepter, and Force Staff.

Late Game items

• Support Role: Aeon Disk, Aghanim’s Scepter, Dagger of Escape, Ghost Scepter, Euls of Divinity.
• Mid Role: Ethereal Blade, Octarine Core, Kaya and Yasha, Scythe of Vyse.

Lion is a hero which can even own a six slotted carry hero with his low cooldown disable and heavy burst damage. When facing Lion precautions must be made to avoid being ganked or disabled because 9 out 10 times you might end up being dead.

Talent Tree Selection

While opting for the talents you must keep your role in mind. Pos5 role should select the +100 Cast Range because you need to spam your skills from a safe range and avoid dying in team fights. Mid role should go for the +90 Damage talent so that it is easier to LH in the lane but higher rank Mid role also go for cast range talent. It entirely depends on the situation they have to play in.

Pos5 Lion must go for +150 Gold/Min. When playing Pos5 you don’t get to LH much and in order to keep having map control with wards you need gold, so this talent suffices the purpose. As mentioned earlier, Mid role would aim to have as many kills as he can achieve and for this purpose +200 Finger of Death should be selected.

At level 20 Pos5 should opt for +500 Health over +2 Mana Drain Multi Target. Since supports are easily killed and sometimes targeted first, having 500 additional health will give a fair chance of survival. Though mana drain talent can also be used to counter illusion based heroes. Pos2 Lion should go for mana drain talent since he has a higher requirement for mana then Pos5 Lion.

Both talents on level 2, +325 AoE Hex and +1000 Earth Spike Range are equally useful to any position Lion. This talent mainly depends on the situation of the game. If heavy disable is the need of the hour AoE Hex talent is highly useful than the Earth Spike talent.

This concludes our Dota 2 Lion Guide. If you want to add anything to this guide, feel free to use the comments section below.