Lion Overview

Lore & Bio

“I don’t fear Hell; Hell fears me.”

Once honored as a great master in the mysterious Demon Witch field of magic, Lion fought with his brothers for light and right. However, the words of flattery made him fall. Born with ambitions beyond his own power, the mage was seduced by a demon, turned evil, and sold his soul in exchange for glory. After committing terrible crimes, Lion's soul was deeply wounded, and the demon immediately abandoned him.

And that same demon made a more profitable trade with Lion's enemy. In a fit of rage, Lion chased the demon all the way to Hell, crushing it, tearing it to pieces, then took the demon's arm and built it for himself.

However, fusing with the devil would come with a heavy price. Lion was transformed by the process, becoming something no one else could recognize. After returning from Hell, as if a rage entered his body, the Lion slayed all those who had honored him, also desecrating the land he once worshiped.

Currently, he is the only survivor of the mysterious Demon Witch art, and everyone who wants to become his assistant or disciple will be sucked out of his magic power and torn to pieces. particles of dust fluttering in the wind.

Attribute & Stats

Level: 0 1 15 25 30

Health: 200 560 1160 1840 2100

Health regen: +0.25 +2.05 +5.13 +8.53 +9.83

Mana: 75 291 879 1443 1671

Mana regen: +0 +0.9 +3.35 +5.7 +6.68

Armor: -1 2 5.5 10 11.58

Damage Block: -

Magic Resistance: 25%

Status Resistance: 0%

Damage: 29‒35 47‒53 96‒102 143‒149 162‒168

Attack Rate: 0.68/s 0.78/s 0.91/s 1.06/s 1.12/s

Attack Range: 600 (800)

Attack Speed: 115 (1.7s BAT)

Attack Animation: 0.43+0.74

Projectile Speed: 900

Movement Speed: 290

Turn Rate: 0.6

Collision Size: 24

Vision Range: 1800 • 800

Legs: 2

Gib Type: Default

Ability Upgrades:

• Upgradable by Aghanim's Scepter.
• Upgradable by Aghanim's Shard.

Abilities & Talents

Skills building guide

Get 1 Earth Spike (Q) at first level and max it out at first to benefit from damage and stun. Hex (W) has an effect time at first level up to 2.5 seconds so you only need to get 1 point at early levels. Mana drain (E) is a very good mana recovery skill for Lion with a fairly fast cooldown, making up for the mana cost of his skills so you raise the next max, moreover with the ability to stun and disable, Lion can easily cause the enemy's mana to drop rapidly, making them unable to use skills. Ultimate of course get the correct level.

Abilities

Earth Spike

Cost: 100/120/145/170 mana

Cooldown: 12 seconds.

Cast range: 500 distance.

Effect: shoots spikes that spring up from the ground, knocking enemies into the air, dealing 80/140/200/260 damage and stunning them

Stun Duration: 1.02/1.52/2.02/2.52 seconds

Spike range: 825

Radius: 125

Hex

Cost: 125/150/175/200 mana

Cooldown: 30/24/18/12 seconds

Casting Range: 500

Effect: Turns the enemy into a harmless frog, blocks the ability to dodge and block damage and reduces the target's base movement speed by 100

Impact duration: 2.5/3/3.5/4 seconds

Note: this skill will destroy clones instantly if you use them.

Mana Drain

Consumption: 10 mana

Cooldown: 20/15/10/5 seconds

Range of use: 850

Effect: drains 20/40/60/120 mana per second from the targeted target until the duration of the effect or the target runs out of mana (doesn't affect units that have no mana). The opponent can run away from Lion to interrupt this skill

Effect time: 5 seconds

Breaking Range: 1200

Note: this skill will destroy clones instantly if you use them.

Finger of Death

Cost: 200/420/650 mana.

Cooldown: 160/100/40 seconds

Casting Range: 900

Effect: unleashes a powerful blow from his demonic arm to the specified target, dealing 600/725/850 damage.

Upgraded by Aghanim's Scepter:

• Damage: 725/875/1025
• Cost: 200/420/625 mana
• Cooldown: 100/60/20 seconds
• Bonus Effect: Deals equal damage in a 300 radius area around the main target

Effective items guides

Early game

Magic Stick

Magic Stick: Magic Stick provides Lion with a burst of life and mana, which is useful for low-HP casters whose spells may make a big impact in teamfights. While a fully charged Magic Stick does not guarantee that Lion will be able to perform another spell if he runs out of mana, it can afford him a few seconds to contribute more in a battle or flee from pursuers.

Boots of Speed

Boots of Speed: Because of Lion's strong disables, it's critical to gain Boots of Speed early. Lion can pursue down adversaries and get into position to cast his disables faster, scoring early kills for his squad.

Mid game

Magic Wand

Magic Wand: Magic Wand is a fantastic upgrade for more characteristics and charges, and it's always beneficial against hard supports. Its low cost makes it ideal for Lion, who may not always have enough money to purchase better equipment.

Tranquil Boots

Tranquil Boots: Tranquil Boots' passive life regeneration keeps his health pool full, which works well with Mana Drain's ability to keep his mana pool full. He can wander and position himself better now that his movement speed has risen.

Blink Dagger

Blink Dagger: Blink Dagger is a very strong item for Lion, and it should be regarded as a must-have regardless of his farm condition. He can utilize Hex and Earth Spike considerably more effectively now that he can instantaneously leap on top of adversaries, dramatically improving his chances of killing the adversary.

Sentry Ward

Sentry Ward: As a support Lion, Sentry Ward is critical to have on hand. As a ranged hero, Lion may demolish enemy Observer Wards he encounters, robbing the opponent team of map view.

Town Portal Scroll

Town Portal Scroll: The Town Portal Scroll should be carried with you at all times. If Lion is present, his nuking and disabling abilities let him to totally flip ganks and teamfights around.

Late game

Force Staff

Force Staff: Lion's Force Staff is a versatile utility and mobility item that gives him greater mana, basic damage, and life sustain. It may be used as a cheaper alternative to Blink Dagger or as a supplement to boost Lion's mobility. 

The active may also be used to assist friends in repositioning as needed, or on an adversary to dispose of them or shatter their Linken's Sphere before other disables.

Glimmer Cape

Glimmer Cape: The Glimmer Cape provides Lion with a lot of utility as well as considerable initiating power. Lion can utilize the active to approach gank targets secretly and get close enough to throw his disables, and it can even be employed as a shield while channeling Mana Drain.

It may also be thrown on allies who have been caught off guard, offering them invisibility and considerable magic resistance to help them in escape.

Aghanim's Scepter

Aghanim's Scepter: Finger of Death's killing power is considerably increased, and its cooldown is drastically reduced, allowing it to be employed tactically. It's preferable if Lion has farm priority and his squad has outstanding crowd control so they can clump up the enemy to hit with the area of effect.

Situation items

Mekansm

Mekansm: If no other teammates can successfully use the item, Mekansm is a good item to develop on Lion. Lion's survivability is improved by the added stats and armor, while his teamfight participation is greatly improved by the heal. Lion is also unaffected by the item's high mana cost because he can easily recuperate it with Mana Drain.

Aether Lens

Aether Lens: Due to the high cost of Finger of Death, Aether Lens improves Lion's mana pool, allowing him to more easily complete his spell combinations. All of Lion's abilities, notably Hex and Earth Spike for debilitating adversaries, can benefit from the increased cast range. It also extends the cast range of Lion's main item, Blink Dagger.

Scythe of Vyse

Scythe of Vyse: The Scythe of Vyse is a costly late-game equipment for any casting-oriented support. It improves Lion's overall stats and decreases his need on Mana Drain while also providing another immediate hard disable to his already fearsome arsenal.

Medallion of Courage

Medallion of Courage: Lion gains additional utility from the Medallion of Courage, as well as a mix of armor and mana regeneration. Lion may utilize the active on gank targets, boosting the damage they receive from allies' physical attacks, as a ranged support with powerful disables. It may also be used on Roshan to lower his armor, and it can be upgraded to a Solar Crest for greater effects.

Dagon

Dagon: Dagon significantly boosts Lion's nuking capabilities by allowing him to double up on Finger of Death's already fearsome nuking power. It is, however, highly expensive to upgrade and can be mostly worthless if acquired too late in the game, therefore it is best purchased if Lion already has a significant gold advantage and needs to conclude the game early.

Urn of Shadows

Urn of Shadows: Because of Lion's excellent ganking skills, the charges in the Urn of Shadows quickly accrue; these charges may heal friends or do small damage to foes in early engagements.

Ghost Scepter

Ghost Scepter: The Ghost Scepter is very beneficial against low-HP casters like Lion. The ability to escape physical damage for a brief period of time might help Lion survive if an adversary tries to focus him down, allowing him the few seconds he needs to cast his spells. If he gains the gold advantage, he can upgrade it to Ethereal Blade to increase the damage of his nukes.

Eul's Scepter of Divinity

Eul's Scepter Divinity: may provide Lion with a number of powerful advantages. The item grants him increased movement speed, allowing him to move around more freely, as well as increased intelligence and mana regen to aid him in casting. The active ability may be employed on the adversary as a secondary disable or on Lion himself to grant him temporary invulnerability while eliminating debuffs like silences.

Enemies & Allies

Allies

Drow Ranger

• Drow's health pool is extremely low, allowing Lion to explode her.
• Drow has no natural means of escape, giving her a vulnerable target for Lion's disables.
• However, Lion should be aware of Drow's Gust, since he has no natural defenses against it.

Ember Spirit

• Early in the game, Ember has no protection against Lion's disables, and he frequently does not acquire any later, allowing Lion to Hex or Earth Spike him before escaping through his Fire Remnant.
• Flame Guard can protect against magic damage, but it can't stop Lion from disabling himself, and Lion can typically get through it with Finger of Death.

Enchantress

• Enchantress is extremely vulnerable due to her lack of magical resistance, allowing Lion to simply burst her.
• Because Nature's Attendants is a sluggish heal, it's useless against Lion's Burst.
• Apart from her raw movement speed, Enchantress has no escape option, allowing Lion to cripple her.
• Untouchable has little effect on Lion's damage because it is largely caused by his talents.

Medusa

• Medusa is immobile and has no means of escape. Her high damage potential may be neutralized by Earth Spike and Hex, allowing Lion's squad to focus on her.
• Mana Deplete may swiftly drain her Mana Shield, making her significantly less tanky, in addition to readily destroying her widely acquired Linken's Sphere with its low cooldown.

Phantom Assassin

• Hex or Earth Spike can lock Phantom Assassin down and make her vulnerable, despite her great mobility.
• Phantom Assassin has a limited health pool, rendering her vulnerable to Lion's magical burst, while having great evasion through Blur.

Weaver

• Although Weaver has the ability to Time Lapse out of any burst, his health pool is frail, and Lion's disables can kill him at any time.
• Weaver relies heavily on mana and has a limited mana pool at the start of the game. Mana Drain can reduce his mana supply, reducing his early game impact.
• Earth Spike may be pinpointed and strikes Shukuchi, rendering him susceptible.
• Targeted spells with a short cooldown can quickly break Linken's Sphere.

Counters

Abaddon

• Although Finger of Death has the ability to circumvent Borrowed Time, the delayed damage from Finger allows an Abaddon with a quick enough response time to activate Borrowed Time and heal from Finger.
• Aphotic Shield is an excellent counter to both Earth Spike and Hex, nullifying the stun or hex while preventing further harm.
• Due to Lion's lack of escape methods, Abaddon and his allies can use Curse of Avernus to follow him.

Lifestealer

• Rage grants Lifestealer spell immunity and so negates all of Lion's powers.
• Lifestealer can easily catch Lion with Open Wounds and prevent him from fleeing.

Puck

• During team fights, the Waning Rift prohibits Lion from performing spells, ultimately rendering him worthless.
• Puck can easily kill Lion thanks to its burst damage potential via Illusory Orb, Waning Rift, and Dream Coil.
• Puck's superior mobility via Ethereal Jaunt and Blink Dagger, along with Dream Coil's lockdown, allows it to hunt Lion with ease.
• Puck can use Phase Shift to avoid almost all of Lion's spells, including Finger of Death.

Rubick

• With Spell Steal, you can steal all of Lion's powers.
• The disabling spells taken from Lion become highly beneficial with Arcane Supremacy, letting you to disable adversaries for an unusually extended period during engagements or ganks.
• Rubick may easily catch Lion off guard by employing Telekinesis. Lion is vulnerable without an escape method, especially when ganked.

Slark

• Slark is able to close in on Lion and keep him from fleeing thanks to Pounce.
• Slark's powerful burst damage from Pounce, Dark Pact, and right-clicks is easy prey for Lion's low health pool.
• Lion is unable to cast Hex, Mana Drain, or Finger of Death on Slark while performing Shadow Dance.
• Slark may dispel any of Lion's disables with the Dark Pact.

Nyx Assassin

• Nyx can sneak up on Lion and do enormous damage with Vendetta, especially when combined with Impale, Mana Burn, or even Dagon.
• Spiked Carapace has the ability to not just negate Lion's damage, but also to cripple and perhaps kill him, especially if he reflects Finger of Death.

Items Counter

Black King Bar

• Black King Bar: The Black King Bar renders all of Lion's powers useless against a single target.

Orchid Malevolence

• Orchid Malevolence and Bloodthorn: Lion is silenced by Orchid Malevolence and Bloodthorn, preventing him from activating his vital powers.

Linken's Sphere

• Linken's Sphere: Any of Lion's abilities, including Finger of Death, may be blocked by Linken's Sphere.

Lotus Orb

• Lotus Orb: The Lotus Orb reflects all of Lion's powers, perhaps stunning, hexing, or even causing him to burst.

Eul's Scepter of Divinity

• Eul's Scepter of Divinity: Eul's Scepter of Divinity is capable of catching Lion as well as avoiding Earth Spike and even Finger of Death.

Blade Mail

• Blade Mails: With the correct moment, teams with several Blade Mails can lead Lion to mistakenly murder himself with enhanced Finger of Death.

Diffusal Blade

• Diffusal Blade: Because Lion can always restore his mana with Mana Drain, Diffusal Blade is worthless against him.

Favorable Matchups

Wraith King

• Wraith King's mana pool is extremely low, and he relies on it to cast Reincarnation. He'll be rendered ineffective by Mana Drain.
• Because the Wraith King has limited mobility, Lion may easily cripple and harass him.

Pugna

• Together with Finger of Death, Lion can cause a massive amount of damage when combined with Decrepify.

Anti-Mage

• Mana Drain, when combined with Mana Break, may not only prevent opponent heroes from activating potentially life-saving abilities, but it can also lay the stage for a devastating Mana Void.
• Anti-Mage is already good at following targets because of Blink, but Lion's disables let him spend less time chasing targets and more time hitting them.

Centaur Warrunner

• Both the Lion and the Centaur have excellent AoE disables and do a lot of damage. Centaur can initiate and tank for Lion, while Lion may support and perform his abilities from the back, allowing both of them to stay alive while dealing massive damage.

Leshrac

• Leshrac features a variety of disable, lockdown, and burst options. They may keep adversaries from reacting at all while exploding them down, with Lion's disable and burst.

Tinker

• Tinker's burst damage potential is tremendous, despite his low health pool, making Lion's disables incredibly useful in both offensive and defensive circumstances.
• In later phases of the game, the combined burst damage of Tinker and Lion will certainly empty any target's health pool.

Ursa

• Lion's disables make it easy for Ursa to lock down potential targets, which is something Ursa usually has problems with. Ursa can easily annihilate opponent heroes because of her lack of mobility and kiting.

Game plan

Early game

You should determine whether you are going to roam or stick to the lane to protect your teammates from the beginning so that you can buy appropriate equipment. With roaming, when you have 2 control skills, you and your teammates can easily get kills if combined well. With protective lane, if your lane teammates are heroes with good damage ability, you and that person can overwhelm the enemy lane or get kills early. 

However, with thin blood and too much armor, the most important thing for you is to choose an appropriate standing position to minimize the damage taken when roaming or laning. During the match phase, you always have to follow the Town portal scroll to support your teammates in time.

Mid game

This is the extremely frequent roam + gank phase when your team's gankers already have enough levels and basic equipment for ganking, and create space for your carry team to farm to the maximum, or go to that lane to help. It pushes the lane, counter gank if the enemy targets your carry team. Because Lion's mana regeneration is very good, you can gank continuously during this phase (unless you already have the ultimate, it's different). 

Depending on the approach distance, you can use Earth Spike (Q) first to hold the enemy and then use Hex (W) to increase the hold time. Finger of Death (R) is a very powerful damage skill, you should launch it early when you are sure that your teammates can get a life or finish the enemy when they have run too far (900 range). When buying equipped with Blink dagger or Force staff, you can actively rush to arrest the enemy so that your teammates run to defeat that bad guy. Remember to plug wards, break wards in this phase regularly.

Late game

This stage you go with your teammates, fully ward, use Smoke of Deceit to gank single targets or start a teamfight by surprise, creating conditions to proceed to destroy the opponent's Ancient or push 1 lane, force the opponent to def turret or have to fight. When you have Aghanim's Scepter you will deal a tremendous amount of damage with a cooldown of only 20 seconds. 

Your ultimate goal in combat will usually be initiators, supports, nukers, enemy tankers, using Earth Spike. (Q) to lock the enemy so that they don't harm your team in teamfights (and carry guys usually already buy bkb in this stage), or you can make the enemy carry unable to react by focusing your control skills directly on the target, burning the carry health to a low level (or finishing it if your skill is enough damage) so that the target does not dare to rush into combat anymore, creating a favorable situation. event for teammates to finish or corner the enemy team.