Medusa
Hero
Medusa
    17 + 1.5
22 + 3.6
23 + 4
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Medusa, the Gorgon, is a ranged agility hero. Highly item-dependent, she acts as a carry who can potentially strike down entire teams at once while protected by tank-like survivability. Split Shot allows her attacks to hit multiple targets, greatly increasing the potency of damage-granting items. Mystic Snake grants Medusa some presence in the lane and skirmishes, and its mana stealing refunds part of the cost to boot, making it an excellent farming and harassing tool. Mana Shield protects her from the opening damage of teamfights, and if supplemented with items makes killing Medusa a fatally time-consuming process. Stone Gaze acts as a fantastic defensive mechanism against ganks and initiations alike, with crippling effects on all who dare face the Gorgon.
Contents
Bio[edit]
Medusa, the Gorgon▶️ "The only real beauty is power."
Lore:
Beauty is power. This thought comforted Medusa--the youngest and loveliest of three beautiful Gorgon sisters, born to a sea goddess--because she alone of the sisters was mortal. It comforted her, that is, until the day masked assailants invaded the Gorgon realm and tore the two immortal sisters from their home, unmoved by their beauty or by their tears. One of the invaders seized Medusa as well, but then cast her aside with a disgusted look: 'This one has the mortal stink upon her. We have no use for that which dies.' Humiliated, enraged, Medusa fled to the temple of her mother and cast herself before the goddess, crying, 'You denied me eternal life--therefore I beg you, give me power! Power, so I can dedicate what life I have to rescuing my sisters and avenging this injustice!' After long thought, the goddess granted her daughter's request, allowing Medusa to trade her legendary beauty for a face and form of terrifying strength. Never for a moment has Medusa regretted her choice. She understands that power is the only beauty worth possessing--for only power can change the world.
Voice:
Abilities[edit]
Split Shot
Medusa magically splits her shot into several arrows. These arrows deal a lower percent of her normal damage.
The extra targets will not receive other attack effects (such as critical strike).
The extra targets will not receive other attack effects (such as critical strike).
Cast Animation: 0+0
Secondary Arrows Range Bonus: 150
Bonus Attack Targets: 4
Attack Damage Reduction: 50%/60%/70%/80%
0
Illusions created while Split Shot is toggled on have permanently Split Shot active.Modifiers
Split Shot: Dispellable with death only.All who encounter the cursed Gorgon will feel her rage.
Notes:
- Split Shot does not interrupt Medusa's channeling spells upon toggling.
- Causes Medusa to perform instant attacks on a certain number of enemies whenever she launches an attack projectile.
- This means all projectiles are released at the same time together with the main attack.
- Therefore, it does not matter whether the primary attack misses or not, the extra arrows are still released.
- The extra arrows travel at the same speed as the primary arrow.
- The search radius is based on Medusa's attack range + 150, resulting in a search radius of 750, considering her default attack range.
- The instant attacks of Split Shot may not proc any attack modifiers or on-hit effects, unless the talent which allows them to do so is chosen.
- However, they still count as regular attacks. Damage done by Split Shot does not count as spell damage.
- They are also affected by armor type, and blocked by damage block like regular attacks.
- If Medusa is blinded, Split Shots can miss, unless she has True Strike. They can also miss to evasion.
- Does not target wards, buildings, invisible units, attack immune units, or units inside the Fog of War, but does target couriers.
- However, attacking wards or buildings still causes secondary arrows to hit valid targets within the radius.
- Secondary arrows are not released upon attacking allies.
- When toggled on, Medusa's main attack damage and bonus attack damage are reduced.
- Other sources of damage added to the primary attack are not reduced (e.g. bash from items).
- The reduction displayed in the HUD is inaccurate, as it is based on the main attack damage, instead of main and bonus damage.
- Split Shot persists through Medusa's death. If Split Shot was active upon death, she respawns with it active.
A mystic snake made of energy jumps from target to target dealing damage. After it reaches its last target, it returns to Medusa to replenish her with mana. The snake deals more damage per jump and returns 11%/14%/17%/20% mana based on the targets' total mana.
Cast Animation: 0.2+0.67
Cast Range: 700
Bounce Radius: 475
Number of Bounces: 3/4/5/6
Base Damage: 80/120/160/200
Damage Increase per Bounce: 35%
Max Mana as Mana Restored: 11%/14%/17%/20% (
43%/46%/49%/52%)
43%/46%/49%/52%)Movement Speed Slow: 30%
Turn Rate Slow: 50%
Slow Duration: 3
Base Stone Duration: 0 (
1)
1)Stone Duration Increase per Bounce: 0 ( 0.3)
0.3) 10 ( 7)
140/
Causes Mystic Snake to turn enemies hit into stone. Stone duration increases with each bounce of the Mystic Snake.
If the current target turns spell immune, it does not count towards the number of bounces.
Blocked fully when primary or secondary target. Blocked upon impact. When blocked, stops bouncing and returns to Medusa to restore her mana.Modifiers
Mystic Snake Slow: Dispellable with any dispel. Stone Gaze Stone: Dispellable with strong dispels.The Gorgon's curse is her greatest strength.
Notes:
- Mystic Snake travels at a speed of 800.
- Applies the damage first, then the slow debuff ( and then the Stone Gaze debuff).
- The snake always bounces to the closest valid target around its current target. Cannot hit the same unit more than once per cast.
- Medusa's mana is restored when the snake returns to her. The restored amount is based on all hit enemies' maximum mana.
- Hit illusions are not counted towards the mana restore.
- Mystic Snake needs to hit units with a combined total mana pool of 1273/1072/942/851 ( 326/327/327/327) in order to fully reclaim its mana cost.
- Each successful hit on an enemy increases the damage of the next bounce by 35% of the ability's base damage.
- This means its damage grows linearly, not exponentially, dealing 28/42/56/70 damage more per bounce.
- This is how much damage Mystic Snake deals ( and for how long it petrifies) per bounce when all bounces successfully hit (before reductions):
- Level 1: 80/108/136 damage, 324 total damage (1/1.3/1.6 seconds petrified)
- Level 2: 120/162/204/246 damage, 732 total damage (1/1.3/1.6/1.9 seconds petrified)
- Level 3: 160/216/272/328/384 damage, 1360 total damage (1/1.3/1.6/1.9/2.2 seconds petrified)
- Level 4: 200/270/340/410/480/550 damage, 2250 total damage (1/1.3/1.6/1.9/2.2/2.5 seconds petrified)
- The snake can bounce on units in the Fog of War, but not on invisible, invulnerable or hidden units.
- If the snake's current target dies or turns invulnerable, hidden or invisible, the bounce neither counts, nor increases the damage.
- The snake continues bouncing to nearby valid targets in these cases.
- The snake provides 100 radius flying vision around itself. The vision does not last.
- The Aghanim's Scepter upgrade requires Stone Gaze to be learned.
- It applies the same modifier as Stone Gaze does, so their effects do not stack. The debuff also always uses Stone Gaze's icon.
- In Ability Draft, Stone Gaze must be drafted as well for this upgrade to work.
Ability
Toggle
Toggle
Affects
Self
Self
Creates a shield that absorbs 70% of incoming damage in exchange for Medusa's mana.
Cast Animation: 0+0
Damage Absorption: 70%
Damage Absorbed per Mana: 1.6/1.9/2.2/2.5
0
While spell immune, Mana Shield does not react on magical damage.Modifiers
Mana Shield: Dispellable with death only.While Medusa was not gifted with eternal life upon birth, her curse bestowed her with impressive defensive powers.
Notes:
- Mana Shield does not interrupt Medusa's channeling spells upon cast.
- Absorbs damage before any damage reduction takes place, including damage block or reduction from spells (e.g. Aphotic Shield).
- This also affects everything which works directly with damage dealt after reductions (e.g. Orchid Malevolence).
- Increases Medusa's effective health by 233.33% when toggled on, assuming she has enough mana.
- Mana Shield persists through Medusa's death. If Mana Shield was active upon death, she respawns with it active.
Ability
No Target
No Target
Affects
Enemies / Self
Enemies / Self
Any enemy units looking at Medusa will have their movement and attack speed slowed. If 2 seconds of total time is accumulated looking at Medusa while Stone Gaze is active, that unit will turn to stone. Petrified units are stunned, and take bonus physical damage.
Cast Animation: 0.4+0.5
Radius: 1200
Facing Angle: 85°
Self Movement Speed Bonus: 50%
Enemy Move Speed Slow: 35%
Enemy Attack Speed Slow: 35
Enemy Turn Rate Slow: 35%
Physical Attack Damage Amplification: 40%/45%/50%
Gaze Duration: 5/5.5/6 ( 7/7.5/8)
7/7.5/8)Stone Duration: 3
90 200
Modifiers
Stone Gaze: Dispellable with death only. Stone Gaze Facing: Dispellable with death only. Stone Gaze Slow: Dispellable with death only. Stone Gaze Stone: Dispellable with strong dispels.The beauty of Medusa is legendary.
Notes:
- The enemy team must gain vision over Medusa (while she is using Stone Gaze) for at least 1 server tick before it will begin to affect any enemies.
- Stone Gaze will affect no enemies at all until this is achieved.
- Once this is achieved, enemies that break vision of Medusa can still be affected by Stone Gaze, even through the fog of war.
- Every enemy unit that faces Medusa within 85° in front of them within a 1200 radius around Medusa gets the facing and the slow debuff applied.
- The facing debuff counts for how long the unit faces Medusa. If it accumulates 2 seconds of facing time, it petrifies the unit.
- The facing debuff lasts for either as long as Stone Gaze does (ending whenever Stone Gaze ends in any way), or until getting petrified.
- Looking away from Medusa does not reset the the 2 second facing counter.
- Facing Medusa while invulnerable or hidden still counts towards the 2 second counter.
- This means the petrifying can be avoided by being invulnerable as the spell attempts to petrify.
- The slow debuff only slows affected enemies while facing Medusa. Units that turn away are not slowed, but keep the debuff.
- The slow debuff lasts for either as long as Stone Gaze does (ending whenever Stone Gaze ends in any way), or until getting petrified.
- Once the petrify debuff expires, the unit can be affected by Stone Gaze again, repeating until Stone Gaze ends, so long the unit faces Medusa.
- The petrification is a simple stun, which also freezes animations, and amplifies incoming physical attack damage.
- Does not amplify magical or pure attack damage, and does not amplify physical spell damage.
- Stone Gaze does not affect neutral creeps.
- Stone Gaze ends when Medusa dies, but already petrified enemies stay petrified for the duration.
Talents[edit]
| Hero Talents | ||
|---|---|---|
| Split Shot Uses Modifiers | 25 | +800 Mana |
| +2s Stone Gaze Duration | 20 | -3s Mystic Snake Cooldown |
| +32% Mystic Snake Mana Gain | 15 | +30 Attack Speed |
| 15% Evasion | 10 | +15 Damage |
Notes:
- The evasion talent stacks multiplicatively with other sources of evasion.
- This attack damage talent is added as raw attack damage, so it does not benefit illusions, and is not affected by most percentage-based damage increasing or reducing effects.
- The mana talent increases maximum mana capacity, and keeps the current mana percentage.
Recent Changes[edit]
Main Article: Medusa/Changelogs
Version
Description
- Increased base strength from 15 to 17.
- Increased base intelligence from 19 to 23.
- Reworked Split Shot
- Old Split Shot:
- Medusa magically splits her shot into several arrows. These arrows deal a lower percent of her normal damage.
- Radius: attack range + 100
- Bonus attack targets: 3
- Secondary arrows damage: 30%/45%/60%/75%
- Note: Passive. Attacks multiple enemies at once. The primary target takes full damage, while the secondary targets take reduced damage.
- New Split Shot:
- Medusa magically splits her shot into several arrows. These arrows deal a lower percent of her normal damage.
- Radius: attack range + 150
- Bonus attack targets: 4
- Secondary arrows damage: 50%/60%/70%/80%
- Note: Toggle. While toggled on, attacks multiple enemies at once, all targets take the reduced damage.
- Mystic Snake
- Reduced cast time from 0.4 to 0.2.
- Reduced cooldown from 11 to 10.
- Talents:
- Level 10 left talent: 20% evasion reduced to 15%.
- Level 10 right talent: +20 attack damage reduced to +15.
- Level 15 left talent: +40% Mystic Snake mana gain reduced to +32%.
- Level 15 right talent: +40 attack speed reduced to +30.
- Level 20 left talent: +2.5s Stone Gaze gaze duration reduced to +2s.
- Level 20 right talent: -4s Mystic Snake cooldown reduced to -3s.
- Level 25 right talent: +1000 mana reduced to +800.
- Talents:
- Level 15 left talent: +25% Mystic Snake mana gain increased to +40%.
Recommended items[edit]
Starting items:
- Tango for a bit of regeneration in lane.
- Healing Salve's flat heal will go a long way to keep Medusa healthy, considering her abysmal starting health.
- Iron Branches provides early attributes needed for last-hitting creeps and a small boost in your hit points and mana. On top of that, planted Iron Branches increase the total healing from Tango.
- Enchanted Mango gives passive health regeneration and burst mana.
Early game:
- Power Treads give Medusa additional movement speed to compensate for her low mobility and a boost to attributes.
- Wraith Band gives a cheap boost to Medusa's attributes, and can be picked up in multiples to pad out her inventory slots early on.
- Magic Wand is one of the most cost-effective survivability items on Medusa early on. The instantly restored health and mana you get from charges is doubly effective on her thanks to Mana Shield.
Mid game:
- Hurricane Pike gives cheap attributes, attack range and a useful active ability - a very cost-effective item for Medusa.
- Mask of Madness is good for increasing your farming speed and being slightly active in the mid game. Her Mana Shield 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. However, be careful with the active ability as the silence will prevent you from toggling Mana Shield.
Late game:
- Manta Style bolsters Medusa's attributes all around and can dispel troublesome debuffs. The illusions also benefit from Split Shot.
- Eye of Skadi gives both killing power via slowing enemies and survivability because of attributes and mana for Mana Shield.
- Butterfly offers bonus damage, attack speed, and armor, and its evasion gives you even more survivability.
Situational items:
- Drum of Endurance is a great cost-effective attributes 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.
- Linken's Sphere gives decent attributes and protection against disables, and can be prioritized if your farm is being disrupted or you are being locked down in fights.
- Mjollnir can be bought to deal with summons or illusions.
- Monkey King Bar can be needed if the enemies have evasion items or heroes.
- Black King Bar is considered if the enemies are keeping you locked down before you can get Stone Gaze off.
- Bloodthorn gives intelligence and mana regeneration to make you even tankier, and it effectively gives you a Crystalys and Monkey King Bar in one slot.
- Moon Shard boosts attack speed further, a handy item in the late game as you can consume it to save a slot for reduced bonuses.
- Scythe of Vyse for an extra disable, attributes, and mana regeneration which may help Mana Shield.
- Aghanim's Scepter allows Mystic Snake to petrify any enemies it hits, giving the ability a hard-disable utility that allows for more strategic employment. It also provides attributes in all departments, as well as adding a respectable amount of health and mana to Medusa.
- Divine Rapier is the best damage item on Medusa. She's tanky enough that, even with Mask of Madness, the odds of her dropping this are extremely slim, and it'll help you take on the enemy team with Split Shot. That being said, if you are against heroes that can burn through your Mana Shield, it may be too risky.
- Satanic should be picked up when building Divine Rapier. Due to the extremely high damage provided by Divine Rapier, Satanic's passive lifesteal and its active skill become effective in terms of healing yourself, decreasing the chances of dropping the Rapier.
Gameplay[edit]
| Roles: | Carry Disabler Durable |
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| Complexity: | ★☆☆ |
| Playstyle: | The youngest Gorgon was also the most beautiful, but looks alone could not rescue her kidnapped sisters. Therefore, Medusa traded her beauty for terrible new powers, and has never regretted it since. Each arrow she fires divides into multiple Split Shots, striking several targets at once. Foes bitten by Mystic Snake are sapped of energy, a resource that returns to Medusa for her defensive use. Encased in a Mana Shield, she survives against even the most unfavorable odds. Heroes who lay eyes on her may find it hard to turn away. Petrified, none could hope to approach Medusa before the Gorgon's legendary Stone Gaze turns their bodies to statues. |
Audio[edit]
History[edit]
Equipment[edit]
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Trivia[edit]
- While the lore of Medusa is heavily inspired by its ancient Greek counterpart it should be noted that in the early versions of the myth, Medusa was born hideous to primordial sea deities Phorcys and Ceto who are described as cthonic monsters from an archaic world.
- The mythology that describes Medusa as having incomprehensible beauty was introduced later by the Roman poet Ovid and in that version Medusa did not exchange her beauty for power. Rather after being attacked by Poseidon in the temple of Athena the enraged goddess twisted Medusa's beautiful visage to the point that merely looking at her would turn the onlookers to stone.
- Medusa's response upon killing Gyrocopter ▶️ "Snakes on a plane", refers to the movie of the same name.
Gallery[edit]
Model
Early alpha model, based on the leaked concept art
Early minimap icon
Leaked concept artwork
Splash artwork
Hero icon progress
