Dota 2 patch 7.35b carry hero trends: Medusa

Medusa is no longer the broken hero she was several patches ago. But with a win rate of 51.80% and a pick rate of 5.5%, she is still one of the most successful carries that you can play in Dota 2 patch 7.35b.

Why Medusa is strong in this patch

Medusa is a very strange hero. Her strength gain per level is 0, but her agility gain is 3.6 and her intelligence gain is 3.4. So if you can survive long enough to start buying stat-giving items and level up a bit, you will quickly become very hard to kill thanks to Mana Shield, which essentially gives you 3.6 effective HP against both physical and magical damage per mana point.

For typical heroes, 1 point of HP becomes 2 points of HP against physical damage if you have around 17 armor. And 3 if you have 34 armor. To have 3.6 per point against physical damage, you’d need around 43 armor, which is an enormous amount.

For Medusa, you get that benefit not only against physical damage but also against magical damage without buying anything else. So your goal should be to have as much mana as possible but also a decent amount of HP. Other than that, you only need damage.

The trick is to buy items that give you both damage and stats early on, so that you can speed up your farm but not hinder your ability to stay alive in case you get ganked often.

Medusa’s farming speed is phenomenal thanks to her Split Shot, which deals 40 – 85% damage to four extra targets. This means that your total damage that her total damage output when farming or fighting multiple enemy heroes is 100% + 85*4% = 440%. That is absolutely insane.

So you have a hero that’s both a powerful tank and a terrifying offensive unit. That is why, the longer the game goes, the harder it becomes for the enemy team to win fights. In many cases, you will win them almost on your own.

The only weakness when playing Medusa is the early game or the first 15 minutes. After that, unless the enemy team is far ahead and has strong counters such as Anti-Mage, you have very little to worry about.

Of course, there are always additional challenges that can arise. For instance, the enemy team might buy Diffusal Blades and burn your mana very quickly. Your response should be to buy a Butterfly.

Header: Valve