Gorgon’s Grasp: Medusa’s New Ability transforms the Dreaded Beauty

Rohan

Rohan

It’s a brand new attempt to provide validation to Dota 2’s SnakeHead

Medusa is one of the hardest carries in Dota 2 - a hero that can single-handedly stand in front of five enemies and fight. However, the hero has had several nerfs over the past years making her early game quite disastrous. The Dota 2 7.37 update gives her a new ability - one that will make her much more useful in the mid-game and in team fights.

What is Gorgon’s Grasp in Dota 2?

Gorgon’s Grasp is a new basic ability for Medusa in Dota 2. Mana Shield is no longer an ability you can level up in the game and is available as a passive for Medusa. 

Medusa fires a volley of arrows into the sky that land in 3 groups in a line, with each grouping larger than the previous. Enemies struck by a grouping of arrows take 30/70/110/150 physical damage and are rooted, can't turn and take 100 physical damage per second for 0.8/1.2/1.6/2s.

  • Initial Radius: 150.
  • Radius Growth: 50.
  • Cast Range: 625.
  • Mana Cost: 40/60/80/100.
  • Cooldown: 30/27/24/21s

Gorgon’s Grasp is a very unique ability that allows Medusa to be more active in the mid-game. The ability deals intense physical damage and also roots enemies. The ability to root enemies in their place is very useful as it gives the team a positional advantage. 

Medusa has always been a hero who thrives in the super late game. The hero needs six-stack backpack to shine and can tank a lot of incoming damage. With her Aghanim’s and Shard, she already has ways to stun enemies. Her ultimate ability petrifies opponents who look into her eyes. When they are petrified, they take additional damage from physical attacks. 

Medusa: The new Superstar?

Medusa’s pick rate was abysmally low before the latest update. The hero had a 4% pick-rate as most players were not keen on picking the hero. With a very low HP pool at the start of the game, Medusa was highly unlikely to provide any significant impact in the early to mid-game. In fact, most of the early games would be heavily focused on trying to survive. 

<em>Medusa's Win Rate and Match Volume. Screengrab via Dotabuff.com</em>
Medusa's Win Rate and Match Volume. Screengrab via Dotabuff.com
<em>Medusa's Pick rate. Screengrab via Dotabuff.com</em>
Medusa's Pick rate. Screengrab via Dotabuff.com

However, the Dota 2 player base has taken a keen liking to Medusa post 7.37. Within hours of the patch release, the hero has seen an uptick in pick rate.

At the same time, the hero also has seen a bump in win-rate. It’s still early hours, but it will be interesting to see how the meta shifts for a hero that is still played as it was nearly ten years ago. 

Stay tuned to esports.gg for the latest Dota 2 news and updates