Dota 2: How to Build Carry Lion with Fist of Death

Once the Grand Master of the Demon Witch order, his fame has made him a symbol of justice and the fight against evil. However, Lion was ambitious, and his ambition allowed him to be seduced by a demon and influenced towards evil. Lion committed terrible acts and was then betrayed and abandoned by the same demon.

Filled with rage and hatred, he hunted the traitor demon to the depths of hell, where he murdered him and took one of his hands for himself, replacing his own with the demon's hand. This act transformed Lion into an abomination, and he left hell as rage incarnate, causing death and destruction wherever he went. After destroying his ancient order, he became the last Demon Witch and anyone who presents themselves as an acolyte or apprentice will have their mana stolen and will be blown away like dust.

Lion is one of the best and most classic supports in the game, being able to act as Nuker, Disabler and even Initiator.

Earth Spike

Lion launches a line of spikes that emerge from the earth towards the target enemy, stunning them and dealing damage.

Hex

Transforms a target enemy into a harmless creature and causes their abilities to be disabled.

Mana Drain

Drains mana from the target enemy, slowing them over time, and can be used to give mana to allies.

Finger of Death

Hits the enemy target with a blast of energy that deals massive damage. This ability accumulates stacks for each hero killed by it.

The focus of this build is to abuse the hero's new facet, Fist of Death, which modifies Finger of Death, causing Lion to change his basic attack type from Ranged to Melee after casting this ability on an enemy and granting bonus attack damage for 20 seconds and granting more stacks for Finger of Death for each enemy killed by Lion's punches, which deal spread damage and can hit more than one target within its range.

You can check out more details about hero facets in my article about Patch 7.36.

In this build, Lion will act as a Midlaner, focusing on Farm and accumulating stacks for his damage bonus. When we combine this with his talent tree, which grants 70 life points for each death caused by Finger of Death, we’ll have a strong Lion capable of going head-to-head even with heroes who are naturally much more powerful than him.

Basic Items

Leaving the base at the first second, you should take with you Tango and Irowood Branch to maintain yourself in the lane, as well as wards to have vision of the opponent on the other side and items to start making your Null Talisman.

During the Early Game, Null Talisman will help you both in farming and in combat against the enemy mid and Bottle will be an essential item to guarantee sustain. The boot will help with movement and in the future will serve as base material for Phase Boots.

Essential Items

Phase Boots will help you run away faster and catch up with your enemies if they run away.

Aghanim’s Scepter is another essential item, as the scepter will improve your Ult, guaranteeing more damage and a lower cooldown in addition to making Lion capable of hitting multiple targets with Finger of Death.

Echo Saber will provide more damage to Lion's attacks and in the Fist of Death state will mean that each melee attack can trigger a second attack in quick succession and apply a movement delay to enemies who are hit. It can also be used to make Harpoon in the late game.

Blink Dagger brings greater freedom of movement for Lion, both to chase enemies and to escape.

Kaya is an excellent item for mages and goes very well with this build, granting magic damage and attack range to Lion, as well as being the raw material for making Kaya and Yasha in the late game.

Crystalys is Daedalus's base item and will grant Lion a chance to deal Critical Damage with his attacks, including Finger of Death.

Final Items

With the items I've described so far, you'll be more than capable of carrying the game once you've gotten enough charges for your Ult, but you'll be able to follow it up with some more than useful upgrades for your items.

Harpoon is the ideal tool for closing the distance between you and the enemy after casting Finger of Death and switching to melee. Harpoon also grants bonuses to agility, intelligence, strength, attack damage and mana regeneration.

Daedalus will take your attacks to another level, with each punch and Ultimate thrown being capable of dealing massive damage and killing enemies with a single hit.

Eye of Skadi is the ultimate item to transform any intelligence hero into a true battle tank, causing movement delay with its attacks passively and bonuses to all attributes.

Situational Items

Orchid Malevolence perfect item for disabling enemies, silencing them.

Black King Bar essential in matches against teams with many mages.

Blade Mail is an excellent item for dealing with heroes that deal critical damage or a lot of damage, such as Juggernaut, Phantom Assassin and Troll Warlord, returning part of the damage received to the attacker.

Ethereal Blade perfect for situations where you are having problems with physical damage heroes like Troll and Phantom Assassin.

At the beginning of the game, be careful. Lion is a fragile hero by nature and will only become strong enough to fight enemies alone towards the end of the game. Until then, keep farming constantly until level 6 and then leave the lane to rotate around the map searching for getting some Kills and accumulating damage for Finger of Death.

Lion doesn't need mana items, as his Mana Drain will supply his spell source and can be used on mage creeps.

Follow the indicated talent tree, it is essential for the build to work.

Don't be afraid to steal kills! If you see an opportunity to kill someone with your ult, do it.

After finishing your Null Talisman in the lane phase, focus your resources on buying Aghanim’s Scepter parts, starting with the Point Booster, which provides bonuses to mana and health.

Blink Dagger can also be used to close the distance between you and the target after entering the Fist of Death state. Guarantee that the targets will die a few seconds after receiving the punches or through a direct punch to guarantee the damage bonus.

Magnus and Grimstroke are great allies for this build. Magnus can bring enemies to you and give you bonus damage while Grimstroke, with his ultimate, allows you to hit two enemies at once with Finger of Death.

Legion Commander with your Spoils of War facet, allows you to gain duel bonuses when hitting the enemy who loses the duel and get double extra damage if that enemy is killed with Finger of Death.

Lion is one of my favorite heroes, and I've been playing a lot with him lately, exploring his facets and the versatility they give him. This build is extremely fun and can surprise a lot in matches, even turning games around.

I leave another article here. I hope you enjoyed it. Leave your questions, suggestions or criticisms in the comments. Thanks for reading, and see you next time.