Disclaimer: This review is based around where Medusa fits into the Conquest map variant, as most gods can be played in other game modes with moderate success
Role: Hunter
Damage Type: Physical
Conquest Meta: Duo lane ADC; possibly solo
Specialty: Being Slippery
Visual Style
The over all look of Medusa is about what you would expect when you think of the Gorgon. Hi-Rez has not taken many liberties with her design and went for a very traditional depiction. Medusa does fit into the general style of the game despite being a god, and hopefully this allows for more mythological beings to be incorporated as playable characters(although generally people refer to the character pool as gods, this is just a generalization)
Abilities
Passive: Sidewinder
Medusa suffers no movement penalty when side strafing and half of the movement penalty when moving backward.
While this ability offers no direct benefit to damage or survivability it does have a larger impact than you would expect at first glance. Sidewinder can allow Medusa to have a slight edge of unpredictability as people are generally well versed in how a god moves. This can allow you to have an upper hand in boxing(trading hits)with the enemy in lane as you may be able to avoid the incoming barrage of auto attacks more effectively. As the name suggests, sidestepping skills is made dramatically easier; which can make you deceptively more tanky since you take less hits. Lastly with Sidewinder you can re-position yourself in team fights with ease, which is arguably one of the most important jobs an ADC has in the later stages of the game.
Final Verdict: 8/10
[1] Viper Shot
Medusa shoots out 3 vipers in rapid succession that poisons the targets hit dealing 10/18/26/34/42 (+15% of your Physical Power) as damage every 0.5s for 1.5s. Cooldown 10s. Cost: 40/45/50/55/60.
This skill again is much better than you would first think it to be when reading the description. Viper Shot is actually a 5 attack chain instead of the three that it indicates. Because of the way that attack speed scaling works while holding the left-mouse attack button, you can benefit from the increase for 5 consecutive auto attacks(assuming you do not stop attacking). If you activate this ability immediately after shooting an auto attack, your next auto attack will be almost instant. The next two attacks will benefit from the attack speed as you would assume, then after the ability wears off, your attack will reset and shoot a fifth auto attack in rapid succession. This behavior is documented very well by the well known theory-crafter Krett.
As you can see in the video this skill is an extremely potent flurry of attacks. After all that you can factor in that each of these attacks apply a stacking poison effect whose damage can be hard to account for and this ability becomes deadly. Another thing of importance to note is the fact that with items like Executioner and Ichaival (and a lesser extent Bloodforge mostly used in game modes outside of Conquest) this skill allows you to stack them to full very rapidly. Lastly the cooldown on Viper Shot is very low for a steroid(auto attack speed/damage increase ability).
Final Verdict: 9/10
[2] Acid Spray
Medusa hurls back and spits out a ball of acid deals 90/135/180/225/270 (+70% of your Physical Power) as damage and sprays out acid in a cone behind them. Cooldown 14s. Cost 70/75/80/85/90.
Acid Spray is your bread and butter wave clear/pushing ability that any ADC enjoys having. It has a decent cast time allowing you to return to auto attacking shortly after casting it. It also has good base damage and scaling allowing it to effectively clear minions throughout all stages of the game. The projectile travels quickly and is of moderate size making it easy to land. The range on this ability is standard at first glance, but when you factor in that if it hits at max range, it will then spread outwards even further making it one of the longest range poke tools of any ADC. Acid Spray gains you lane advantage just by casting it on the creep wave, by simultaneously killing the minions and poking/harassing the enemy gods. It does enough damage and casts quickly enough to be worth stopping your auto attacks to cast in a fight for the majority of the game(until most of your crit comes online, in which case unless you aren’t in a position to auto attack, or you are hitting multiple targets/someone being blocked from autos then you are most likely going to auto attack instead). This skill can also be good in objective fights like gold fury where you can deal damage to the objective and enemy gods at the same time.
Final Verdict: 9/10
[3] Lacerate
Medusa quickly slithers forward grabbing and slashing the first enemy she gets to dealing 120/150/180/210/240 (+80% of your Physical Power) as damage. The slash leaves the enemy reeling in pain, reducing their healing by 10/20/30/40/50% for 3s. Cooldown 15s. Cost 85.
So by now you are probably wondering if there is anything bad about this god (I know she isn’t a god but it’s too engrained in my mind to change my ways now). Well, there is… This ability is the weakest part of Medusa’s kit. As your movement ability having it be sub-par is a real let down. The damage is pretty great on it, as a one-point-wonder it does decently at early game burst with a level one base of 120 damage before scaling. The problem with Lacerate comes in a few parts. First of the problems is that you won’t be able to use this aggresively very often, as you will likely be punished for being out of position and with no escape plan. Secondly, Lacerate is a dash and not a jump, greatly diminishing your options of escape routes. Lastly, this ability can be body blocked by the enemy getting in front of your exit strategy, usually leading to your death. Lacerate is the only movement ability of the hunters that has this issue and it can be extremely punishing if it happens. Outside of the issues I have with this skill, I still feel that it is above average. It has almost no start-up frames on the cast, and it travels along the ground at a fast pace. That being said it does get cancelled frequently by stuns, eating the cooldown and leaving you vulnerable. The healing reduction part of this skill is nice against the lifesteal of an enemy hunter, or a god like Ra; although it is usually much too risky to use for this purpose. Lacerate can be nice for early game aggression in the laning phase as it does travel through minions, and has a great starting damage value as stated; pre-level 5 kills can be a very real possibility.
Final Verdict: 6.5/10
[4] Petrify
Medusa removes her mask revealing her true face, delivering a powerful blast from her horrifying Gorgan gaze. Enemies Take 300/400/500/600/700 (+100% of your Physical Power) as damage and are stunned for 2s if they are looking at Medusa. Enemies not looking at medusa take half damage and are slowed by 50% for 3s. Enemy gods that are killed by Medusa’s gaze will turn into a stone statue and remain behind as a reminder to others. Cooldown 90s. Cost 100.
Last but not least we come to Medusa’s ultimate ability, Petrify. The first thing to notice is that this skill does a LOT of base damage, and has full 100% scaling. Coupled with the fact that this is an AOE ability with a moderately sized casting cone and range means that you can easily hit multiple people with this in a team fight. If you manage to hit multiple people with the stun in a fight then the odds of you winning that fight are so heavily tipped in your favor that it is almost obscene. Medusa is completely immune to cc during the casting of this ability meaning it has large scale turn around potential as well if used at the appropriate timing. Possibly the best part about this skill is that while enemies can play around being stunned, they are only choosing the lesser of two evils. A 50% move-speed slow for 3 seconds is still incredibly strong, as you are more than likely going to land almost everything you throw at them for the duration of that slow, and out maneuver them to boot. There is generally no scenario in which you use this ability because even if you miss, you have more than likely terrified the enemy into using any form of beads/aegis et cetera. Pre-emptively in response and caused disruption for your team for a short duration. Giving such a potent ultimate to an ADC that can single handedly turn the tide of a fight is a dangerous prospect, and it makes it very hard to fight into a Medusa who has it available. The stone statues created by killing enemy gods are mostly irrelevant.
Findal Verdict: 9.5/10
Skill Build: 4 > 2 > 1 > 3
Both Viper Shot and Acid Spray can be taken at level one for different match ups. Hold your skill up until you know that you won’t need your Lacerate if your team gets invaded and you need to escape. Make sure you have all three abilities at rank one by level 3. At level 8 you can hold your skill point for level 9 to max your Acid Spray and put a point in your ultimate at the same time or you can just place it in Viper Shot, both are acceptable(generally choosing to level Viper Shot if you are fighting a lot and holding the point if your lane is playing passively)
Recommended Builds
Start with a bluestone pendant, rank one devourer gauntlets and a health potion walking out of base. Finish devourer gauntlets -> attack speed boots -> executioner -> rage -> deathbringer -> sell bluestone pendant (if you havn’t already) -> malice if enemy doesn’t have much armor, titans bane if they do. Actives will vary depending on the game, but nine times out of ten you will want rank 3 greater sprint and rank 3 greater purification beads.
Great review, the Medusa is a beast! Looking forward to reading more reviews on other new gods and the ones already released as well! :z_banana: