The Heroes in Dota 2 - An Introductory Guide for Lion

Introduction

Dota 2 has over 120 different heroes, and each of them has its role and purpose in the game. While some have the job to carry the team to victory, others have to be by their side during the early stages of the game and do everything in their power to help.

With that said, today, we will take a look at one of the most annoying support heroes in Dota 2 - Lion. Even though he might seem tedious at first, he is one of the strongest support heroes in the mid to late game. Apart from the massive damage, he also has some of the best CC in the game.

Let's dive in and see everything we need to know about this hero.

General information about Lion

As we mentioned, Lion is one of the most popular support heroes in Dota 2. Having said that, there are people who prefer to play him even as a mid laner. While it's true that he can work wonders there, the situations in which this happens are minimal. That's why the hero is played as support in like 90% of the games.

Lion is a ranged intelligence hero that's capable of doing insane CC and damage. Let's take a look at his abilities and how to deal with them:

• Earth Spike is a stun that can hit either one or multiple heroes at once, depending on their position. It does a pretty significant amount of damage, and the stun duration is good as well. Apart from using it on heroes, this ability is also good to farm with it because it has a low cooldown.
  During the laning stage, it is a wise idea to spam this and Mana Drain as much as possible in order to harras the enemy laner.
• Hex is another disable that Lion has. This spell turns the enemy into a frog for a couple of seconds during which he can't cast spells or items, but he can move with shallow movement speed. Although his spell might not seem that strong at first, it is an absolute game-winner during the later stages of the game.
  This is one of the best ways to altogether disable the enemy hero, especially when you have a Blink Dagger. That's why you can often see players purchasing a Linkin's Shere when they play against Lion.
• Mana Drain can be one of the most annoying spells in Dota 2, primarily when it's used against certain heroes. As the name of the ability suggests, this basically drains the mana from the enemy hero. However, it is a channeling spell, which means that Lion has to stay in one place in order to use it. This means that you need to be very careful when you are actually using it because you might easily die.
  Apart from the mana drain, this ability also slows the enemy while Lion casts it.
• Finger of Death is one of the highest-damage ultimates in the game. All it does is to deal with tons of single target damage, which makes it very useful against certain weak heroes. Despite the long cooldown, the damage it does is very good, which makes it easy to kill people at every stage of the game.  The cool thing is that the spell gets stronger with every single kill you do with it. So, if you have a lot of kills during the early game, you can easily one-shot someone later on.
  That said, the thing that makes this spell stand out is the Aghaim's Scepter that's involved. As soon as you get this item, Finger of Death becomes very deadly because it becomes an AoE spell that can quickly clear a wave and heroes.

Counter heroes and Items

As a support hero, pretty much every single hard carry or mid laner can be a potential counter. After all, supports tend to die very fast. That said, here are a couple of heroes that can really make the life of every Lion player a living hell:

• Slark is by far the most annoying hero to play against when you are a support. He can easily pick you off in just a matter of seconds. As if that's not enough, this Dark Pact allows him to remove your Hex and stun, which is even more dangerous.
• Storm Spirit is another obvious nightmare for every single support, including Lion. He can jump out of nowhere and kill you in just a matter of seconds.
• Templar Assassin is a very dangerous hero that can one-shot nearly every single support, especially during the mid-game.

As for items, pretty much every single support item will do the job. However, there are a couple of very notable ones that every player who picks Lion has to get:

• Glimmer's Cape is a trendy item because it allows Lion to survive when he is being jumped on. Alternatively, you can also use this on your team-mates to save them in certain situations.
• Blink Dagger is an absolute must for every single Lion player because this item completely enables the hero to be aggressive. You can always perform a Blink + Hex combo on someone, and unless he has the fastest fingers in the world, he won't be able to react to your spells, which means that you will be able to keep him in a CC chain.
• Aghanim's Scepter is another very strong item for Lion because it buffs significantly his ultimate, which is exactly what this hero needs.
• Aeon Disc is also a popular choice when you need an item to keep you alive. Although it's a little bit expensive, it's definitely worth purchasing it because it allows you to cast your spells before you're dead freely.