LogFAQs > #962579502

Big props for guessing four-lettered L names.

102 - Lion (ranged Intelligence)
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/4/3/3/AAAACbAAC6oR.jpg
Basic Abilities: Earth Spike, Hex, Mana Drain, Finger of Death
Shard Ability: Upgrades Mana Drain to target two other random units, while making Lion spell immune while channeling it.
Scepter Ability: Upgrades Finger of Death to splash in an AoE around the primary target for full damage; cooldown decreased and damage increased.

I hate this guy and it feels wrong to win with him.

Of what I've posted thus far, Lion is probably the first hero that can be considered "newbie friendly." His abilities are straightforward, powerful, and self-sustaining - Earth Spike for line damage and a stun, Hex for a second point-click disable, Mana Drain for a channeled slow that is basically free until vision is broken, and Finger of Death: fire at someone, they eat a heavy a nuke, making the spell more powerful if a hero dies to it (or in a close window of being struck by it.) Such a kit, along with his bad base movespeed, durability, and attack range, is intended to teach a newcomer how a support plays.

Lion, unfortunately, teaches terrible habits on top of good rookie practice, however. Earth Spike's range is longer than it appears, as it can be ground-targetted and hits a bit of distance beyond the endpoint, but nothing other than experience will ever tell you that. If you target Earth Spike directly on a unit, it's all too easy for a hero to juke to the side and have it whiff completely. If you aren't move-canceling your cast animations, Earth Spike has a long wind-down also. Common sense dictates harassing in lane with an Earth Spike to Mana Drain combo, but newbie Lions will do this to the exclusion of all else, failing to take into account another lane enemy with a disable, or enemy Magic Wands, or an already out-of-mana enemy not caring that you're giving them the succ and slaps your flabby unarmored gut with a giga-critical.

Lion also teaches you to be extremely selfish, which is not good practice to have if you're being the support. He doesn't need any items beyond the usual suspects - Smokes of Deceit, Sentry Wards, buffing items like Glimmer Cape or movement items like Force Staff, yet Lions will almost invariably go for a Blink Dagger rush. Why? Because of Hex's cast point of "basically freaking instant." And this is another bad habit of Lion - use the dagger to Blink into a squishy enemy out of position to chain disable to try and farm a Finger of Death kill/stack, only to run out of steam halfway through. So how to fix this? Getting the autoattack damage talent at level 10... which is bad practice for support when the movespeed talent is much more useful, even if the damage one is more gold efficient, as Lion's autoattacks are supposed to supplement his kit's damage, not supplant it.

More accurately for the scenario is Lion will blink in, instant cast his hex, and get immediately murdered by not reading the minimap and realizing the other four heroes out of vision are waiting for him to do it again. Bye, whore!

The last nail in support Lion's coffin is his ult actively encourages kill-stealing, since it increases in damage the more often something dies within a moment of getting struck by it... which then gives the bad habit of taking the "gain health from a Finger of Death stack" talent at 15 or "increase the stack damage by an extra 20 per stack" talent at 20 when the other two options are much more support-oriented, especially if Lion picks up a Shard to improve Mana Drain by making it triplecast to yack it back out at a teammate. But do they ever do that? Nooo...

Lion can be played pretty effectively as a semi-core as well, though, by doubling down on the selfish talent picks and item choices - Lion's scepter upgrade is *stupidly* good at snowballing, but he's like any other gank-vulnerable core - if their snowball doesn't get going, they're going to be a sitting duck if ever stunned or silenced, or worse, he winds up nuking his own team against a Lotus Orb, which is a common item choice against him.

I won't deny that Lion is extremely effective but my distaste for how most of them usually play - and my utter boredom when I play him too - threw him a lot lower than he probably deserves, but my list, my rules, I suppose. I will forever take pleasure in murdering the hell out of his ugly arse if he even dares to show his face and missed his Earth Spike.

Next hero hint - getting spoiled by build inflexibility when I, personally, perform terribly at both of the non-griefing options.