Medusa counter and synergy picks
Pick Medusa with Vengeful Spirit to increase win-rate from 51.7% to 57.9% or against Beastmaster to increase win-rate to 61.8% in Patch 7.39c.
Good with...
...based on stats [7.39c]
Hero | Change in Win Rate ▼ |
---|---|
6.1% | |
5.0% | |
4.4% | |
3.9% | |
3.6% | |
3.4% | |
3.2% | |
2.9% | |
2.9% | |
2.8% | |
2.7% | |
2.6% | |
2.5% | |
2.4% | |
2.4% |
...based on gameplay [7.39c]
Magnus grants Empower to accelerate Medusa’s farming with Split Shot. Reverse Polarity groups enemies so she can deal massive AoE damage. Skewer saves Medusa from overcommitting or drags enemies into Stone Gaze. They scale together into unstoppable late-game power.
Keeper provides Chakra Magic to restore Medusa’s mana and enable more Snakes and Split Shots. Illuminate clears waves while Medusa farms jungle. Will-o-Wisp combos with Stone Gaze for fight control. Together they hold high ground and choke zones with ease.
Treant provides armor that make Medusa even harder to kill. Overgrowth locks enemies in place during Stone Gaze. Living Armor keeps Medusa tanky against physical damage during long sieges. They combine to create an immovable late-game wall.
Jakiro’s slows and disables help Medusa stay alive and land her Stone Gaze. Macropyre zones enemies trying to rush her down. Ice Path prevents melee heroes from getting close. His magic AoE complements her physical spread damage.
Warlock offers teamfight control with Chaotic Offering that combos with Stone Gaze. Fatal Bonds amplifies Split Shot damage across enemies. Shadow Word sustains her during pushes. Warlock enables Medusa to safely scale and win long engagements.
Venge buffs Medusa’s damage with Wave of Terror and provides vision for Snakes. Swap saves Medusa from dangerous positions or commits her into fight. Venge’s aura gives bonus damage to accelerate early farming. She is a powerful positioning partner.
Crystal Maiden’s Arcane Aura gives Medusa mana regen throughout the game. Frostbite and Nova help kite melee heroes trying to reach Medusa. Freezing Field becomes deadly when used during Stone Gaze. CM helps stabilize Medusa’s early lane and late fights.
Grimstroke’s Inkswell enables Medusa to stun enemies who rush into her. Soulbind with Mystic Snake spreads mana damage to multiple targets. Their combo zones and punishes close engagements.
Snapfire’s Mortimer Kisses rain down AoE while Medusa holds enemies with Stone Gaze. Lil’ Shredder assists in killing frontline heroes quickly. Cookie helps Medusa reposition or close gaps. Their teamfight damage output is overwhelming when synced.
Phoenix slows enemies with Fire Spirits and locks them with Supernova while Stone Gaze activates. Sun Ray heals Medusa while she tanks the front line. Their AoE presence makes it hard to fight into them. They scale well into late game together with strong teamfight control.
...core items [7.39c]
A core
Boots of Speed upgrade to improve your mobility and damage output with attack speed and stats. Helps farm much faster with more DPS using Split Shot.
A core item that gives you mobility and damage through stats. Also gives you a dispel and the ability to split push lanes with illusions.
A core item to have more DPS with attack speed and stats while also boosting your tankiness with evasion and armor.
A core item to significantly increase your tankiness and damage through stats. Works well against lifesteal and high HP regen on enemy heroes. Reduces the movement speed and HP sustain of enemy heroes you hit to make them less tanky and keep chasing them.
A core item to boost your right click damage and burst down enemy heroes. The critical strike can proc on multiple units once you upgrade Split Shot with
Aghanim's Scepter.
A core item to have a defensive tool against single target initiations and disables. Also brings you some mana when the reflected Snake returns to you.
A core item to apply attack modifiers such as the slow from
Eye of Skadi or the critical strike from
Daedalus and
Revenant's Brooch to all the Split Shot arrows.
A laning stage pick up that increases your mana pool, which is effectively also your HP pool. Also provides some much needed mana regen.
An upgrade for
Kaya to have even more AoE damage and control alongside your spells, and do significant damage to towers. Also lets you clear creeps quickly together with your spells and provides decent stats.
An upgrade for
Rod of Atos to lock down multiple enemy heroes from high range and set up for your Gorgon's Grasp and Meteor Hammer on them. Also increases the AoE of Gorgon's Grasp.
A core item to maintain your teamfight prowess and tankiness on the map more often by decreasing the cooldown of all your spells and items. Also improves your mana pool to increase your damage and effective HP pool.
A core item to have an instant disable against elusive enemy heroes and hit them freely. Also boosts your mana regen and mana pool, effectively making you more tanky with Mana Shield.
Good against...
...based on stats [7.39c]
Hero | Change in Win Rate ▼ |
---|---|
10.0% | |
8.9% | |
5.9% | |
5.7% | |
5.4% | |
5.4% | |
5.1% | |
4.8% | |
4.4% | |
4.3% | |
4.3% | |
4.3% | |
4.1% | |
4.0% | |
3.9% |
...based on gameplay [7.39c]
Medusa's Mana Shield is essentially her HP bar, which makes her the perfect counter to Ice Blast as it does not affect mana regeneration in any way, completely rendering the impact of the spell to only a fraction of it. Manta and Butterly are staple items for Medusa, with which she can Dispel Cold Feet and Evade Chilling Touch hits.
Mana Shield does not take into account any Armor or Magic Resistance, making it the perfect counter to Doom's Pure Damage. Cold Blooded (Aghanim's Shard Upgrade) when combined with Aghanim's Scepeter allows Dusa to stun Doom upon casting Doom and naturally create distance. Doom lacks Mana Burn and the Attack Speed to justify a Diffusal/Disperser and struggles greatly to get trough Dusa's Manapool.
Medusa’s Mana Shield absorbs Bloodseeker’s burst damage from Thirst and Rupture. She can stand still during Rupture and deal damage safely with Split Shot. In late game, she becomes too tanky for Bloodseeker to finish off. Bloodseeker’s lack of scaling struggles against Medusa’s farm pace.
Leshrac’s magic damage becomes less effective against Medusa’s massive mana pool. Mana Shield absorbs Pulse Nova and Edict chip damage easily. Medusa can outlast Leshrac in drawn-out fights and kill him after BKB ends. Her ranged attacks punish Leshrac’s close-range playstyle.
Undying is strong early, but his impact falls off as Medusa scales. Medusa easily kills Tombstone with Split Shot without committing. She shrugs off Decay stacks with mana tanking. Undying lacks the burst or control to ever threaten her late game dominance.
Medusa clears Beastmaster’s summons with Split Shot and builds stats to avoid Roar burst. Hawk vision and summons become less valuable against her AoE pressure. Beastmaster’s physical push is stalled by Medusa’s wave clear. In late game, she outscales Beastmaster easily.
Witch Doctor’s Death Ward becomes ineffective when Medusa activates Mana Shield. He lacks burst damage and can’t stop Medusa’s scaling. Maledict fails to finish her off through sustain and stats. Medusa kills him quickly with ranged damage during fights.
Elder Titan’s armor reduction is partially countered by Medusa’s tankiness. She zones him out of fights and kills Spirit easily. His magic damage does little to her mana pool. Medusa can kite him while he sets up for Echo Stomp or Earth Splitter.
Medusa builds Manta or BKB to avoid Black Hole setups. She farms faster and scales better into ultra-late game than Enigma. Even if caught, Mana Shield can delay her death long enough for teammates to respond. She can also clear Eidolons and push against him.
Queen of Pain lacks the sustained damage to break Medusa’s mana pool. Her blink harassment fails once Medusa has items. Sonic Wave doesn’t deal lethal damage due to Mana Shield. Medusa forces longer fights where QOP gets outdamaged and zoned.
Techies' mines and magical burst are ineffective against Medusa’s passive damage soaking. She can tank proximity mines and still fight. Blast Off initiation is absorbed and punished. Medusa’s slow siege style denies Techies time to set up traps.
Medusa’s Split Shot clears CK’s illusions quickly before they can overwhelm her. Mana Shield stops most of CK’s burst from Chaos Strike crits. CK struggles to kill her even with full combo. Medusa dominates illusion heroes in teamfights.
Bad against...
...based on stats [7.39c]
Hero | Change in Win Rate ▲ |
---|---|
-12.5% | |
-6.8% | |
-6.5% | |
-6.4% | |
-4.7% | |
-4.3% | |
-4.2% | |
-4.1% | |
-4.0% | |
-3.8% | |
-3.7% | |
-3.6% | |
-3.4% | |
-3.3% | |
-3.2% |
...based on gameplay [7.39c]
Simply put by the time Medusa is ready to fight Alchemist is ready to end the game. Her inability to pressure early or scale quickly when paired against Alch's farming potential often result's in games where she has half an inventory versus a maxed out Alch. Chemical Rage and Berserk Potion dispel Gorgon's Grasp.
Mana Break is amazing at shredding trough Medusa's mana pool and turning her core defensive mechanic Mana Shield against her with a huge Mana Void follow up . Manta is a staple item for AM that provides him with dispel for Gorgon's Grasp root and Counter Spell can block/reflect Mystic Snake.
Wall of Replica and Normal Punch (Aghanim's Scepter Upgrade) can create multiple Illusions of Medusa to do devastating amounts of damage to her own team as she tends to build heavy stat items to improve her own Manta Illusions' damage and durability. The Illusions DS creates inherit both Mana Shield and Split Shot if it was active at the moment of creating the Illusion. Surge is amazing at disengaging from Stone Gaze or closing the gap on Dusa.
Nyx burns Medusa’s mana with Mana Burn and stuns her with Spiked Carapace off Split Shot. Vendetta bursts her before she can react. She triggers his spells unintentionally with constant attacks. Nyx repeatedly harasses and disables her during crucial fights.
Slark dodges Split Shot and Stone Gaze with Shadow Dance and pounces out of danger. He builds up Essence Shift during drawn-out fights. Medusa can’t hit him reliably in fog or darkness. She struggles to lock him down or match his agility scaling.
Centaur absorbs her attacks with Retaliate and initiates with Hoof Stomp. Stampede helps his team disengage from Stone Gaze. Medusa’s slow mobility becomes a liability against his high-tempo play. He survives her damage and enables his allies to burst her.
Alchemist farms much faster than Medusa and applies pressure earlier. His BKB timing allows him to ignore Stone Gaze. Acid Spray and Unstable Concoction burst Medusa before she’s fully online. He snowballs into late game with more map control.
Pangolier’s Rolling Thunder disables Medusa during her Stone Gaze and ruins positioning. Diffusal Blade drains her mana quickly and forces retreat. His mobility allows him to avoid Split Shot and kite her. Pango controls teamfights where she needs to stand ground.
Monkey King builds Diffusal Blade and stays in Wukong’s Command to drain Medusa’s mana. She can’t escape the arena without items like Force Staff. His high physical DPS overwhelms her early before she scales. He jumps on top of her and avoids most of her damage.
Shadow Demon disrupts Medusa during her Stone Gaze and makes illusions of her. These illusions deal high damage and drain her mana with Split Shot. Disruption saves allies from Life Drain and Mystic Snake. He stalls fights long enough to counter her momentum.
Sniper outranges Medusa and chips her down safely from distance. She struggles to reach him through his mobility and slows. Sniper doesn’t rely on mana, so Stone Gaze has minimal impact. He scales better with attack range and pure damage items.
...counter items [7.39c]
Gives you HP sustain to stay in the lane and not get zoned by Medusa's constant damage from right clicks and Mystic Snake.
Gives you movement speed to kite or close the gap on Medusa. Also lets you counter the movement slow from Mystic Snake.
Gives you movement speed to kite or close the gap on Medusa. Also lets you counter the movement slow from Mystic Snake.
Lets you block jungle camps from spawning to slow down Medusa's farm speed.
Gives you and your team a barrier to take less damage from Medusa right clicks and nullify her AoE kill potential.
Lets you burn through Medusa's mana pool with right clicks and burst her down as she relies on mana to survive and has a relatively small HP pool.
Provides evasion and lets you disarm Medusa to prevent her from right clicking freely in fights.
Lets you block jungle camps from spawning with
Sentry Ward to slow down Medusa's farm speed.
Observer Ward helps you scout and gank her with
Smoke of Deceit plays.
Lets you kite Medusa by protecting yourself or an ally against her right clicks through invisibility.
Gives you a repositioning tool to kite Medusa as well as push an ally to safety when stunned by Stone Gaze.
Lets you kite Medusa by protecting yourself against her right clicks in Ethereal form.
Gives you an instant disable against Medusa to burst her down in its duration before she can defend herself with Stone Gaze or regain mana with Mystic Snake.
Lets you save an ally stunned by Stone Gaze. Can also be used to protect yourself against Medusa's right clicks in Ethereal form.
Gives you an instant lockdown against Medusa and potential to burst her down with chain stun before she can defend herself with Stone Gaze or regain mana with Mystic Snake.
Gives armor to your team to take less damage from Medusa's right clicks to nullify her AoE kill potential.
Gives you armor and evasion to defend yourself against Medusa's right clicks with the tankiness and miss chance.
Gives you an instant silence and massive burst damage against Medusa to kill her before she can defend herself with Stone Gaze or regain mana with Mystic Snake.
Bad with...
...based on stats [7.39c]
Hero | Change in Win Rate ▲ |
---|---|
-9.9% | |
-8.6% | |
-7.0% | |
-6.8% | |
-6.7% | |
-6.4% | |
-5.6% | |
-5.3% | |
-5.3% | |
-5.3% | |
-5.1% | |
-5.1% | |
-5.0% | |
-5.0% | |
-4.9% |