Lion Dota 2 Guide – Nuke the Enemy in Patch 7.33d

Dota 2
July 21, 2023
Denis Alihodzic

Lion is a support hero with excellent nuking, crowd control and self-sustain capabilities:

  • He can drain mana from neutral and enemy units, keeping himself in a fight ready state at all times.
  • He can stun and hex his opponents for a total of 5 seconds if you chain his Earth Spike and Hex abilities consecutively.
  • He can quickly burst down a target using his Finger of Death ability, which deals 600/725/850 magical damage. Additionally, for every kill using his ultimate, he gains a stack of extra 40 magic damage for his ultimate.
dota-2-lion

@ Valve

Lion Item build

When playing Lion in Dota 2 esports, your item build should revolve around several factors: mobility, survivability, health regeneration and magical damage output. Subsequently, these are the key items you should consider buying:

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Starting Items

  • Tango
  • Healing Salve
  • Clarity
  • Enchanted Mango
  • Observer Wards
  • Sentry Wards

Early Game Items

  • Magic Wand
  • Tranquil Boots
  • Drum of Endurance

Mid Game Items

  • Blink Dagger
  • Ghost Scepter
  • Boots of Bearing
  • Glimmer Cape
  • Force Staff

Late Game Items

  • Ethereal Blade
  • Aghanim’s Scepter

Situational Items

  • Aghanim’s Shard
  • Aeon Disk
  • Aether Lens
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Lion Skill Build

  1. Earth Spike
  2. Mana Drain
  3. Earth Spike
  4. Hex
  5. Earth Spike
  6. Finger of Death
  7. Earth Spike
  8. Mana Drain
  9. Mana Drain
  10. Level 10 Talent: +65 Earth Spike Damage
  11. Mana Drain
  12. Finger of Death
  13. Hex
  14. Hex
  15. Level 15 Talent: Mana Drain Restores Allies
  16. Hex
  17. –
  18. Finger of Death
  19. –
  20. Level 20 Talent: +20 Finger of Death Damage Per Kill
  21. –
  22. –
  23. –
  24. –
  25. Level 25 Talent: +250 AOE Hex
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Lion Abilities Explained

Earth Spike

Lion’s skill set is relatively straightforward as they all target enemy units. Earth Spike stuns and damages enemies along a straight line measuring 825 units. The stun duration is 1/1/1/2 seconds, and the damage is 105/170/235/300. You can also target the ground, but that’s typically less accurate than selecting an enemy unit.

Hex

Hex turns an enemy into a harmless frog that cannot attack, use items or cast spells. The target also has its base movement speed reduced to 120. The effect lasts for 2/2/2/3 seconds. It’s one of the strongest disable due to it having 0 cast point delay, so when paired with a Blink, even the most intuitive enemy player will get caught out.

Mana Drain

Drains mana from neutral and enemy units at a rate of 20/40/60/120 per second. The maximum channelling time is 5 seconds. If the distance between Lion and his target becomes greater than 1100, the link breaks.

Finger of Death

Deals massive magical damage to a single target. Buying an Aghanim’s Scepter allows you to hit multiple targets in an AOE of 325 units. It can deal 600/725/850 magic damage and increments by 40 damage for every kill using this ultimate.

dota-2-lion-ingame

@ Valve

Best Lion Talents

Level 10: +65 Earth Spike Damage or +10% Mana Drain Slow

The first option is better than the second, as it upgrades Earth Spike’s damage. It is an AOE stun skill, which Lion relies on heavily.

Level 15: +70 Max Health Per Finger of Death Kill or +Mana Drain Restores Allies

The second option is great in line-ups that require mana regen heavily, such as Bristleback. Even so, it’s still more reliable than the first option since ultimate kills are rare to come by and would merely improve your health by 350 health if you got five ultimate kills. That itself is a difficult feat to accomplish.

Level 20: -3s Hex Cooldown or +20 Finger of Death Damage Per Kill

Similarly, ultimate kills are typically difficult to secure as a Hard Support Lion, but the extra magic damage buff on Finger of Death comes in handy anyways. Otherwise, the reduced hex cooldown is viable too.

Level 25: +250 AOE Hex or Mana Drain Deals Damage

The extra range of AOE Hex will do wonders in controlling multiple enemy targets in late-game fights. The second option just isn’t reliable, considering you have to channel Mana Drain.

What Items to build on Lion

Starting Items

  • Tango
  • Healing Salve
  • Clarity
  • Enchanted Mango
  • Observer Wards
  • Sentry Wards

As a hard support, Lion cannot afford anything except consumables for mana and health regeneration to spend on her laning carry. You would spend most of the laning phase, harassing the enemy heroes with Earth Spike, followed by Mana Drain to keep their mana pool low. With insufficient mana, the enemy team will find it difficult to attempt any opportunity to kill your ally.

Observer and Sentry wards are for general vision and blocking enemy camps to ensure a balanced lane.

Early Game Items

  • Magic Wand can be a sustaining laning item if the enemy heroes has low-cooldown spamming spells. It’s also cheap and effective regenerative item for Lion.
  • Tranquil Boots are the boots of choice for Lion in every game because it can be built into Boots of Bearing. He already has effective mana regeneration from Mana Drain to make Arcane Boots unnecessary and the health regen from Tranquil Boots make him self-sustaining. With high health and mana regeneration, the hero has phenomenal map presence throughout the game.
  • Drum of Endurance is a good early-to-mid game item on Lion because it offers lots of good stats and helps him fight. The extra strength and movement speed are very valuable since he is very squishy. It’s an absolute item to buy ever since Boots of Bearing is introduced in Dota Patch 7.33
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Mid Game Items

  • Blink Dagger is one of Lion’s essentials, providing him the mobility and initiation to catch enemies off-guard. Most players rush this item in the midgame due to its high price. Top-tier items that many of the best Dota 2 players build first on Lion.
  • Ghost Scepter ensures Lion can survive the auto-attack barrage from enemy carries, which can be a menace in close-combat fights.
  • Boots of Bearing uses Tranquil Boots and Drums as components, making it a great progression item for many support heroes. After consuming all your Drums charges, build this item, which offers a new active ability that provide attack and movement speed to nearby allies for 6 seconds. Furthermore, once triggered, the first 1.5 seconds makes your team immune to slows, serving as a defensive counter spell.
  • Glimmer Cape lets Lion turn invisible and safe from potential attacks. It is also targetable on ally units, turning them invisible instead.
  • Force Staff is another strong item on Lion, as it works very similarly to Blink Dagger. The extra intelligence increases his mana pool which helps to deal with the very high mana-cost of Finger of Death. It will help you to keep yourself and your allies alive and can be used to close the gap on fleeing enemies.

Late Game Items

  • Ethereal Blade uses the Ghost Scepter as one of its components. Moreover, when used on an enemy target, it also turns you ethereal. However, using Finger of Death on an enemy target in ethereal form deals a higher magic damage.
  • Aghanim’s Scepter is worthwhile if you are able to consistently use your ultimate very effectively. Giving Finger of Death an AOE damage turns Lion into a dangerous threat.

Situational Items

  • Aghanim’s Shard is situational but offers a very strong upgrade to Mana Drain. It makes you invulnerable to spells and lets you target an additional two enemy units.

 

  • Aeon Disk is a very situational too, although it can be good at preventing instant death. If you are getting burst down in team-fights very quickly, it will very much help to keep you alive, especially if you are getting disabled at the same time. It’s not an especially expensive item either, which means it’s quite affordable.
  • Aether Lens can be a good item if you require extra range, as you’ll be able to target enemy heroes. It can also be good if you’re playing against heroes who are dangerous to get near. However, mobility items such as Force Staff and Blink Dagger also allow you to reach enemies more easily and are more helpful items in general.
Read Also: Best Dota 2 Hard Support Heroes in Dota 2 Update 7.33

When to pick the hero

Lion is always a good first pick for a hard support player since long-duration stuns and disables are generally good. However, he gets especially effective when you play against heroes that have little mana and depend upon it to use a very important ability, such as Wraith King.

Mana Drain and Hex instantly destroy illusions too, so Lion is also good against heroes who buy Manta Style or use illusions to push out the lanes.

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