Medusa, the Gorgon: Dawn of a New Hunt

A new Hunter has slithered onto the Battleground of the Gods and what she lacks in beauty, she makes up for in pure power: many would say too much so! Enter Medusa, the Gorgon of the Greek pantheon.

Medusa is a Hunter, a ranged physical damage dealer, was released on April 1, 2015. She is the 64th God to be released, 14 days at the time of this writing, and has already shown an incredible amount of power and viability. Decent base stats and an ability package based around quick burst damage make Medusa incredibly potent.

 

BASE STATS

Health: 547 (+77/level)
Mana: 254 (+34/level)
Speed: 365
Attack Range: 55
Attack/Sec: 0.96 (+1.4%/level)
Attack Damage: 41 + 2.6/level (+100% of Physical Power)
Physical Protection: 15 (+3/level)
Magical Protection: 31 (+0.9/level)
HP5 Regeneration: 9 (+0.68/level)
MP5 Regeneration: 5 (+0.25/level)

Medusa's base stats start off by being quite strong for Hunters, her most notable being her Attack Damage gain per level, second only to Hou Yi's 2.8 gained per level. Medusa's starting Attack Damage is also in the upper echelon of Hunters: tied with Hou Yi but second to Anhur and Rama's 43. Her Physical and Magical Protections remain on the strong-to-high side and allow her an edge in trading with opposing Hunters, and combined with her ability kit - keep her healthy and sustained in the otherwise weak Hunter early game.

ABILITIES

 PASSIVE - Sidewinder
Medusa suffers no movement penalty when side strafing and half of the movement penalty when moving backward.

Medusa's passive, Sidewinder, makes her one of, if not THE best God for one-on-one skirmishes. Where all other Gods move slower while strafing or moving backwards, Medusa simply doesn't, allowing her to dodge enemy attacks while she stays focused on the enemy.

 1ST ABILITY - Viper Shot
Medusa shoots out 3 vipers in rapid succession that poison the targets hit, dealing damage over time.

Damage: 10/18/26/34/42 Physical (+15% of your Physical Power) every 0.5 seconds for 1.5 seconds per hit.
Ability Type: Buff
Attack Speed Increase: 100%
Cooldown: 10 seconds
Cost: 40/45/50/55/60 mana

Medusa's bread and butter skill, Viper Shot hits insanely hard and deals a ton of damage for a maximum of up to 4.5 seconds. Viper Shot is also easy to use, requiring only the ability to hit Auto Attacks and doubling Medusa's Attack Speed after activation for those 3 attacks. Adding to Viper Shot's versatility is the 100% Attack Speed increase it gives Medusa, which can servs a double purpose in quickening her attacks against Towers or Phoenixes. Viper Shot is also incredibly cost efficient, providing insane damage in a very simple buff skill boasting only a 10 second cooldown and a maximum of 60 mana cost!

 2ND ABILITY - Acid Spray
Medusa hurls back and spits out acid that damages the first enemy hit and sprays out acid in a cone behind them. Acid Spray will explode on statues Medusa has created.

Damage: 90/135/180/225/270 Physical (+70% of your Physical Power)
Ability Type: Line Skillshot
Range: 55
Cooldown: 14 seconds
Cost: 70/75/80/85/90 mana

Acid Spray deals a lot of damage initially, this damage increasing with a whopping 70% of Medusa's current Physical power. Even better, Acid Spray does the exact same amount of damage to any enemies behind the initial target in a small cone. This allows Medusa to weaken multiple targets while she focuses down an additional target, and can be also used against minions and statues created by her to harass any enemy Gods nearby. 

  3RD ABILITY - Lacerate
Medusa quickly slithers forward grabbing and slashing the first enemy god she encounters. The slash leaves the enemy god reeling in pain, reducing their healing for a short time.

Damage: 120/150/180/210/240 Physical (+80% of your Physical Power)
Healing Reduction: 10/20/30/40/50% for 3 seconds
Ability Type: Dash
Range: 55
Cooldown: 15 seconds
Cost: 85 mana

Most Hunters do their damage over a series of basic attacks and abilities, generally taking at least a few seconds to take down their targets. Many Gods in the game have some way to heal themselves through a Hunter's damage: Items or Abilities that grant Lifesteal, or healing abilities of themselves or an allied God. This combination of possibilities can reduce a Hunter's damage, or sometimes completely negate it. Lacerate allows Medusa the ability to reduce that healing while also dealing a significant chunk of damage. A possible drawback of Lacerate's power is that the ability necessitates Medusa rushing at her target, keeping her in close proximity to target. However, Lacerate's Dash ability type also can double as an escape tool or a way to close the distance to her target.

  ULTIMATE - Petrify
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 half damage and are slowed. Enemy gods that are killed by Medusa's gaze will turn to a stone statue and remain behind as a reminder to others.

Damage: 300/400/500/600/700 (+100% of your Physical Power)
Stun Duration: 2 seconds
Slow Duration: 3 seconds
Movement Speed Slow: 50%
Ability Type: Cone
Range: 70
Cooldown: 90 seconds
Cost: 100 mana

What would Medusa be without the ability to turn enemies to stone? While not instantanteous, Medusa takes about 1 second to take her mask off before Petrify's effects and damage hit, Petrify deals a ton of damage while stunning enemy Gods that face her. Petrify is slightly inhibited by only dealing half damage and slowing enemy Gods that aren't facing her - but when added to all of Medusa's other abilities and auto attacks, even the diminished effects can be enough to secure kills.

 

SUMMARY / ANALYSIS


Medusa's abilities deal an incredible amount of burst damage with their initial numbers and gain even more power by their incredibly high Physical Power percentage boosts. No matter what difficulty level she is played at, Medusa's strong abilities and strong basic attacks make her one of, if not THE most powerful Hunter in Smite. Lacerate can reduce enemy Gods' healing and even get Medusa out of sticky situations with it's Dash nature. Acid Spray can deal large chunks of damage to multiple targets in a small area, and it with Viper Shot makes her incredible in one-on-one skirmishes. Petrify also serves as crowd control, its cone allowing Medusa and her teammates to take down any target within whether stunned or slowed.

Medusa's base stats and damage of her abilities make her widely accepted as being too strong. Where Hunters are designed to deal late game sustained damage with auto attacks and abilities, Medusa can at all points in the game burst down nearly any target while harassing enemy Gods out of lane. Never fear, however, as Medusa is due to have a reduction in power with the next offical patch: reductions being made to the damage, attack speed, and Physical percentage scaling of her Viper Shot with an increase to its mana cost. Even so, Smite's Battleground of the Gods favors those with quick, heavy damage - and Medusa will continue to find her place within the most elite of Hunters for months ahead.