SNEK = GIGA-CARRY (How to rip teams apart as Medusa in Year 10)

HELLO THERE EVERYONE!!!


VanysH here. I've been a casual player of SMITE since 2019, just after The World Serpent Update. My main is Medusa, with 2,772 Worshippers, Diamond, and her making up 70% of Played Gods list, making her my most played. I've seen multiple meta shifts over the last couple years, and seeing what Casual games are picking up, this is one of the best times to pick up Medusa. So All Aboard, time for you to get your first class tickets to..


HOW TO DOMINATE CASUAL AND RANKED AS MEDUSA

This guide will be a decent amount of detail, to help players pick her up and learn her. There are other guides that go even heavier in details and specifications, but this guide serves as "The Kiddy Pool to get a feel for the water" And the mayhem you will be causing later on.

PROS

RIDICULOUSLY high damage for a hunter, able to burst down other Hunters, Mages, and Assassins

ACID SPRAY makes for great wave clear, and it's splash damage can kill low HP gods that think they are safe

Great and fast Dash


Medusa has some CERTAINLY broken damage as you will discover, able to shred through most Gods in the mentioned classes like a hot knife through butter. Don't take this for granted as some Gods can still do just as much back to you, so don't be overconfident.

Her 2nd Ability, ACID SPRAY is very good at taking out and weakening waves of minions. after you get your Jungle Buffs, the first thing you should be doing, is getting to your Duo Lane with your support, and using ACID SPIT on the minions, to weaken the wave, and deal damage to enemy Gods that stray too close to the splash damage.

Medusa's dash is GREAT as an escape, and a juke. MANY times a cocky Surtr has attempted to Ult me, only for me to use my dash last second and dart away like I was never there. both funny, and VERY strategic, since at Level 20 this dash hits SUPER HARD.

CONS

Dash can be blocked, leaving you defenseless to Ganks (Ambushes)

Mana dissapears VERY quickly

Damage takes a while to begin to ramp up


Medusa's dash has however, 1 CRITICAL FLAW. The way the ability works, is When Medusa Dashes, if she contacts an Enemy God, she stops dead in her tracks to root them and deal damage. This means if an Enemy Thanatos Uses his Ult right in front of you, or an Enemy God uses Blink Rune to get in your path of escape, YOU ARE ABSOLUTELY DEFENSELESS. Your Dash should be an escape tool early game, and only used when you can safely guarantee a Kill. Other players most often know this, and will try their hardest to body block you to prevent your escape, so take extreme caution.

Medusa also is a bit lacking in the Mana department. Because her abilities have a relatively short Cooldown, especially if you're running Horn Shard, you will burn through your Mana faster than a sheet of paper. Long Story short? Bring Meditation cloak, to Minimize cooldown late game, and to give your mana a much needed boost.

Lastly, While Medusa does have very powerful Damage, it will not appear until you build a few items first. Medusa at full build will be hitting with over 200 base damage a shot, but to start she will struggle to do over 50. Poke out minions with your abilities and basic attacks from maximum range to build up gold and levels, and hit any enemy Gods that stray too close. Once your damage becomes noticeably more powerful, you can safely begin to attack enemy Gods.

SO LET'S REVIEW YOUR ITEMS FOR THIS BUILD


First up, Ornate Arrow. You won't get access to it until Level 20, but we'll use the stats for it for now.
Ornate Arrow
Cost: 1500 (2150)
Can be upgraded from Gilded Arrow at level 20.
+60 Basic Attack Damage
+150 Health
+10% Attack Speed
+5% Critical Strike Chance
PASSIVE - All sources of gold gain are increased by 5%. For every 100 gold you have gain 1.25% Attack Speed and 1% Physical Critical Strike Chance, up to a maximum of 20 stacks.

Next, build Demon Blade

Demon Blade
Cost: 1050 (2400)
+25 Physical Power
+20% Attack Speed
+20% Critical Strike Chance
PASSIVE – Your Critical Hits provide you with 10% Physical Penetration and increase your Attack Speed by 10% and Movement Speed by 10% for 4s.

These next items can be built at random, but for the sake of the build, we will run off of my personal choice. Next would be Asi.

Asi
Cost: 1200 (2450)
+50 Physical Power
+20% Physical Lifesteal
+20% Attack Speed
PASSIVE – While below 50% Health, you gain an additional 25% Physical Lifesteal for 5 seconds. Can only occur once every 15 seconds.

Then, for #4, run Malicious Deathbringer.

Malicious Deathbringer
Cost: 600 (3500)
+50 Physical Power
+30% Critical Strike Chance
PASSIVE - Critical Strike Damage is increased by 25%.
GLYPH - Successfully Hitting an Enemy God with a Critical Strike will subtract 1s from all of your abilities currently on Cooldown, except your Ultimate ability.

Now, things get really fun. You can go either or for these last 2, but next will be Qin's Sais.

Qin's Sais
Cost: 1350 (2600)
+40 Physical Power
+20% Attack Speed
PASSIVE - On Basic Attack hits, deal Physical Damage equal to 3% of the target's maximum Health. If the target has over 2000 Health, your basic attack bonus damage scales up, capping at 5% max Health on 2750 HP targets. This only affects gods.

LASTLY, build Rage.

Rage
Cost: 1150 (2500)
+35 Physical Power
+35% Critical Strike Chance
PASSIVE - Killing or getting an assist on an enemy god gives you 1 stack. Each stack provides +5 Physical Power and 2.5% Critical Strike Chance. Stacks are permanent and stack up to 4 times.
EVOLVED STATS (Max Stacks):
+55 Physical Power
+45% Critical Strike Chance

TIME TO TALK ABOUT SKILLS

Medusa is blessed to come with a very Aggressive/Defensive kit. You can play 2 different styles however you like really. You can be Aggressive, Darting in with your Dash to pin players down, and tear them up with Heavy Crits, or more Passively, Dealing with minion waves and poking players down to give time for your Jungler or Support to close in for the Gank. Here are Medusa's Abilities, and brief comments on them.


SIDEWINDER

Key Bind: Passive
Medusa suffers no movement penalty when side strafing and half of the movement penalty when moving backward.
Ability Type: Passive

Medusa's Passive is VERY GOOD for literally slithering Circles around people to disorient them. What I love to do to Junglers, is if I'm getting chased, is I will abruptly take a hard strafe either left or right, and begin to backpedal and move backwards. When the Jungler goes to turn to attack, I complete my circle around them, and use my dash to launch away. By the time they realize they have been juked, you will be far out of reach, and they will leave you, or use up an Ult to try and rush you down, which 8 times out of 10 it won't be worth it.

VIPER SHOT

Medusa gains increased attack speed and her basic attacks become augmented, shooting Vipers that poison the targets hit dealing damage over time.

Ability Type: Buff
Damage: 10 / 15 / 20 / 25 / 30 (+10% of your Physical Power) every 0.5s for 1.5s per charge
Attack Speed Increase: 40 / 45 / 50 / 55 / 60%
Viper Shots: 4
Cost: 50 / 55 / 60 / 65 / 70
Cooldown: 10s

THIS is where your "Tearing people apart like wet paper" part of Medusa begins. Viper Shot increases your attack speed by a decent amount. Depending on whether you run this with Wing Shard, you can get up to double your attack speed if both Viper Shot and Wing Shard are active. It also poisons targets hit, which can come in handy in case a low health target tries to escape from you.

LACERATE

Key Bind: 3
Medusa quickly slithers forward, damaging enemies she passes through. The first enemy god she encounters causes her to stop before she damages and roots the god hit.

Ability Type: Dash
Damage: 80 / 130 / 180 / 230 / 280 (+70% of your Physical Power)
Root Duration: 1s
Range: 55
Cost: 70
Cooldown: 15 / 14.5 / 14 / 13.5 / 13s

Lacerate will be your bread and butter with Medusa. See a player you want to close the gap on? Lacerate. Need to escape an Ult'ing Baron Samedi? Lacerate. Need to freeze an Opponent that's about to reach their tower so your Level 20 Jungler can wipe them from existence? Lacerate. I think you get the idea, Lacerate is a weapon of Mass Destruction. Just use it wisely, YOU WILL BE KILLED if you're caught without it in a teamfight.

PETRIFY

Key Bind: 4
Medusa removes her mask revealing her true face, delivering a powerful blast from her horrifying Gorgon gaze. Enemies take damage and are stunned if they are looking at Medusa. Enemies not looking at Medusa take 75% damage and are slowed. Enemy gods that are killed during Medusa's gaze will turn to a stone statue and remain behind as a reminder to others.

Ability Type: Cone
Damage: 300 / 400 / 500 / 600 / 700 (+100% of your Physical Power)
Stun Duration: 2s
Movement Speed Slow: 20 / 25 / 30 / 35 / 40%
Slow Duration: 3s
Range: 70
Cost: 100
Cooldown: 90s

If Viper Shot was your Minigun, and Lacerate was your 50. Cal, Petrify is your Hydrogen Bomb. This thing will make enemies feel like they got HIT WITH A BATTLESHIP, but on the condition if they are actually facing you. It's actually pretty rare for an enemy to be able to react in time and pull a U-turn to not get stunned, but what REALLY counts is the monumental slow it gives. This will let you catch up super quickly to your opponent, and basically run them down. if they try to Dash away, don't forget your Lacerate to continue the Chase. REMEMBER, PURIFICATION BEADS CAN CLEANSE THE STUN, SO BE CAREFUL. YOUR ENEMIES WON'T BE DEFENSELESS FOREVER IF YOU HIT YOUR ULT.

NOW, YOU MIGHT BE THINKING, "VanysH, I thought this was a Carry build, what does Jungling have to do with it?"

Welllllll... A good amount actually. As a Carry, you're most likely going to want to take your Attack Speed Camp at the start of a game, and clear it and the XP Camp along with your Support and their respective camp (Bring your camp to the XP to clear both ONLY IF YOUR SUPPORT IS DOING THE SAME. YOU WONT BE ABLE TO TAKE ON BOTH ON YOUR OWN.)

As the game progresses, and around the 10 Minute Mark, I tend to notice something. Your Attack Speed with your build tends to equal out what the Attack Speed Buff is at the start of the game, so it's no longer needed. HOWEVER, there is a buff Medusa gets a HUGE bonus out of, that in the New Conquest map, is always left alone. The Secondary Speed Camp.

Play Any game of Conquest in Casual, and count how many times Your team's Jungler regularly clears the Secondary Speed Camp on your side of the map. From what I've seen, It doesn't happen too often. You can take the Secondary Camp and Buff after the 10 Minute Mark, and it will actually benefit both you and your Jungler. It will Increase your speed to allow you to Become a somewhat "Duo-Jungle role, Helping you clear out your XP Camp and your Attack Speed camps, allowing you to Level Up RAPIDLY. Your Jungler Benefits from this by if they want an Extra Speed Buff, they will have to Invade the Enemy Jungle, and take the opposing Team's buffs, allowing them to wipe out enemy resources and provide them for YOUR team as your Solo, Mid, and Duo lanes push forward.

ADC/CARRY ROTATION GUIDE BEFORE 10 MINS

Spawn/Duo Lane Jungle XP CAMP/ATTACK SPEED CAMP/DUO LANE

ADC/CARRY ROTATION GUIDE AFTER 10 MINS

Spawn/ Duo Lane Jungle SECONDARY SPEED CAMP/ Duo Lane Jungle XP CAMP/ATTACK SPEED CAMP/DUO LANE

AH, GOOD OL' TEAMWORK


Makes the dream work, right? Well playing as Medusa, she generally fits right in. To help you out for what a possible Teamfight scenario could be for Medusa, we are going to dream up a teamfight scenario. Enemy Team has a Fenrir (As of Year 10, your worst nightmare), a Merlin, and a Surtr.

YOUR TEAM has a Medusa (You), a Danzaburou, and an Ares. A WINNING FIGHT Would look something like this.

WE ARE GOING TO ASSUME THAT YOU ARE LEVEL 20, WITH ALL SKILLS FULLY MAXED OUT, AND YOU HAVE ALL ITEMS FOR YOUR BUILD. Same for your Teammates and their respective builds, and the Enemy. No Towers in sight, and the fight is at Mid-lane.

Danzaburou has just thrown down his vase, and luckily, its pulled an enemy player in. Their other teammates will be scrambling to break the Vase, so their teammate will get their movement back under control. This is your time to strike.

First thing to do, is get the range of your Ultimate down. You want to be using PETRIFY at Long range, to attempt to hit All the 3 players on the enemy team. SUCCESS!!! All three enemies are stunned, Merlin has lost Half his health, Fenrir a bit less, and Surtr has only lost just a little. THIS MEANS MERLIN IS YOUR TARGET.

Attacking the Merlin will be no problem, and your crit will tear him apart. Once he is down, your biggest threat will be Fenrir, who will be just coming out of stun. He will still have a second of slow. This is where your Danzaburou fires his Ult, Stunning Fenrir. At this point, Use your Horn Shard to start reducing Cooldown for Lacerate. You'll need it in a moment.

While Fenrir is stunned and Surtr is trying to escape, Your Ares uses HIS ultimate now. Not able to leap to safety, You and your Danzaburou will have now killed the Fenrir. This leaves just Surtur left. Once Surtr is pulled in, Use Acid Spray for some quick damage. By now, He'll be using his Ult to launch into the air and run away. Start chasing him down, and once he lands, use your Lacerate to root him in place if you can catch him.

You may not outright Kill Surtr, but the damage has already been done, granting you and your team the chance to go in, take out phoenixes, and Kill a Titan by the time the other enemies return.

ALRIGHT SWEATS (Just kidding lol) LISTEN UP


From what I've been hearing the last week or two, Word on the street is that this season will be FULL OF MAGES IN BOTH SOLO, MID, AND POSSIBLY DUO LANES. Now I can't speak MUCH for ranked since I haven't even reached it myself lol. HOWEVER, I can make a prediction on how Medusa will do as far as Ranked goes.

MEDUSA SHOULD (Hypothetically) DESTROY RANKED. If the Meta really is what I'm hearing, With Hades on Solo Lane, and Poseidon on Mid, Medusa is going to have a GREAT time with Ganks and aiding in Teamfights. She will almost act like a secondary Jungler, clearing out her respective camps and Duo Lane to speedily build levels, and the second she gets ahead, she can start bulldozing the enemy team. There are other Gods that can do just the same, and some even better. But should Top Tier Hunters get banned like Ishtar and Ullr, I see no reason why Medusa couldn't fit into those roles as the resident Carry/Duo-Lane Super Sweeper.

OKAY, TIME TO WRAP THIS UP!!!


Now to close this off. Am I a good player? Absolutely not. I get told that after saying GGS, but other than that No, I 110% KNOW I am not good. I learn new things every day, and Year 10 is still VERY fresh, with new things to learn and new strategies that haven't even been thought up of yet. I've played Medusa since I started back in 2019, and she's certainly gotten a little bit more challenging considering that Assassins now get a penetration buff as their class bonus.

ALL THINGS CONSIDERED, Medusa is a Fun Goddess to play, and this will be one of her best Seasons yet in my eyes.

Before I end this thing off, If you have made it to this point, I wanna genuinely thank you for taking the time out of your day to read this. I put a TON of effort into it, and I'm glad I get to teach both new and experienced players a couple things or two, through a Casual player's eyes. It means a ton, so Thank You!!!

And that Just about does it!!! Now Get on out there and start playing Medusa!!!