Despite only qualifying for the Situational tier in our pub tier list, Legion Commander is definitely worth discussing. The pick rate of the hero has been on a steady rise, reaching slightly over 25%, making her the 4th most popular hero in Dota. However, her win rate cannot be called impressive, decreasing rapidly from its highest at 49% in the 2-3k bracket to 45% in the 5k+ bracket. Today, we would like to go over how to utilize the hero better, while addressing some issues players might face.

Drafting

It has been said time and time again, but it is always worth repeating: the drafting stage is important, not only for the choice of a role, but also the hero you pick for that role. More versatile players will find themselves at an even bigger advantage in this patch, since the pool of viable heroes is unquestionably larger. But when exactly do you draft Legion Commander?

There are a couple of drafting stage ideas that would indicate a good Legion Commander game:

Her ability to dispel stuns is among the most underrated mechanics in Dota. Being able to get rid of strong single-target disables on one of your important heroes, while remaining relatively safe from potential silences, can and will be fight-turning. Sacred Arrow, Fiend's Grip, Shackles and Primal Roar are probably the strongest disables which turn into nothing with the help of Press The Attack

Her outpush potential is incredibly high. Think of Overwhelming Odds as a smaller Echo Slam on a much lower cooldown with a smaller radius. The damage is lower, but when facing a pushing line-up with a lot of controlled/summoned creeps, it is probably even better—low cooldown and decent cast range allow for it to shine earlier and occasionally brighter.

The hero does very little against tanky line-ups, since almost all of her abilities work better on squishy targets. In a single teamfight she also doesn’t offer a lot in terms of damage, until very late into the game, and even this is dependent on her getting a decent early-mid game. As such, she should complement glass cannons on her team and works better against glass cannons in the enemy team. The early game of the hero is generally more utility-based.

There are certain heroes which do not necessarily have great auto-attack damage/attack speed but deal a lot of damage through melee/ranged splash attacks. Heroes like Ember Spirit, Medusa, Gyrocopter are all good match-ups for Legion Commander.

You don’t draft Legion Commander to jungle from level 1. She can’t contribute much to the game from the jungle and she generally can’t and shouldn’t get an early game-breaking item such as Mekansm because of her limited mana pool. Even the introduction of Iron Talon doesn’t solve the issue of having to spread skill points out for Press The Attack or Moment of Courage earlier in the game. Getting Overwhelming Odds maxed by level 7 is almost always a must, since otherwise the hero offers very little in the initial skirmishes.

Laning and Role

The fact that the hero should be played as a core should not raise any questions—there are better options for a support hero.

The choice of lane is also quite limited. According to global statistics jungling is by far the worst choice for the hero. The hero is also not exactly the best position one material, since her scaling is unreliable and she isn’t exactly the hardest of carries.

This leaves middle and off lanes and both have their ups and downs. The win rates for mid and off-lanes are 49% and 51% respectively.

Midlane

By far the most XP-rewarding lane is great for the hero, since she does benefit from getting her levels. While there are few matchups that can be considered to be in favor of the Legion Commander, she can stand her ground against almost any opponent and shouldn’t get harassed out of lane completely.

Mid lane and the XP advantage the midlane provides also benefit the general gameplan for the hero—getting a lot of kills in the early-mid game and snowballing from this advantage. Unlike many previously popular tempo heroes in this role, she doesn’t fall off as hard come late-game.

Moreover, midlane will generally provide more gold for the hero, since last hitting is easier against a single opponent. This would potentially lead to an earlier initiation item and higher chances of snowballing.

Offlane

The second choice, which is almost three times as popular among the players as the middle lane. Being decently tanky, it is generally hard to completely zone out an offlaning Legion Commander. Moreover, her ability to deal surprisingly high damage with Overwhelming Odds should also leash the enemy supports to their safelane core—even with a level disadvantage, the hero can be extremely strong in 1-on-1 or 1-on-2 situations.

This creates much needed space for your mid laner and it should also provide benefits in early-game skirmishes, since numerical advantage at this point is key. If the enemy supports have to make a trade-off to rotate mid and your supports feel more freedom moving around the map, it can be easy to get a decent early-game advantage from ganks or even simple zoning of the enemy mid. It is especially important if the enemy mid relies on snowballing and/or is a glass cannon.

Having lower income should also be less of a problem, if the coordination with your teammates are at a decent level. With the speed boost of Overwhelming Odds, it is quite easy to catch up to a fleeing enemy and earn extra damage in the early game.

With a couple of extra levels and/or some items such as Iron Talon, transitioning to the jungle is an option. You do not farm the jungle full-time as Legion Commander, though. Instead, it is a good way to earn money in-between duels for the next item, if the lanes are occupied by your teammates (and they can’t jungle well) and/or are too dangerous to farm in. Sometimes, giving some space to supports is also necessary—at this point the jungling efficiency is higher for you, while your supports can benefit from extra Gold/XP in lane. It is also less of a deal if your support dies in the lane, compared to a core Legion Commander—there is going to be a significant level and Net Worth difference between the two.

Item Build

Item choices are extremely important on any hero, but Legion Commander is among the hardest to make correct choices for. The reason for it is the analysis paralysis caused by the fact that when she needs to aim for late-game, she has to build-up tempo and that requires her to make mid-game item choices. When aiming for tempo-control, on the other hand, you can end up having not enough item slots later on and fail at becoming relevant late-game and/or have reduced gold efficiency due to the fact that you will need to buy/sell items.

Overall, there are only a handful of staple items for the hero and even those are somewhat situational.

This first option is a lot more reliable, while the second one is better in terms of DPS. Most of the time Blink Dagger is going to be a better choice, however in certain cases Shadow Blade into Silver Edge is a better option. Disabling strong passives can be game-changing at any point in the game, while stats synergize extremely well with with the hero.

Excellent choice against glass cannon heroes. Since the hero herself is good at dealing with those, it is generally a safe choice if and only if gotten early. An average 12 min. Blink Dagger into 16-18 min. Blade Mail is a good transition. If it is hard to get this item early, it might be a waste of money, since its efficiency is subjective to the enemy getting survivability items.

This item is almost always self-explanatory. You shouldn’t be forced to get it too early though, since it makes for a huge tempo hit (4k gold for very little DPS). It also gets weaker as game progresses, so make sure you do not waste all the charges early on, especially if the early-mid game doesn’t seem to provide an opening for a convincing victory.

One of the best items for the hero, since it incorporates high DPS and survivability, while also benefiting team. If there are no better carries for the item (other strength cores), you should aim for it relatively early.

A decent choice against right-clicking enemy line-ups, but offers too little DPS per gold spent. It’s better if you are frontlining, initiating, or when facing a strong ranged core. Otherwise, almost 4k gold can be spent better.

One of the more underrated choices. Extremely good if there are no natural Diffusal Blade carriers on the enemy team (and/or purge abilities). Provides amazing DPS and scales really well. Extra points if your team has little magic damage, since it is unlikely the enemy is going for a Pipe. Even better, if the enemy has a lot of core heroes which primarily rely on Armor/Evasion rather than HP for survivability (most agility cores).

Final Thoughts

I have been saying that the hero will become a staple by the end of 6.85 due to the rising popularity of both Broodmother and Beastmaster, but the statistics prove me wrong. Nonetheless, the hero has a lot to offer and is situationally strong in many lineups--there are games where the Legion Commander can be the best choice by far.

Her low win rate, to a certain degree, comes from the Dota 1 habits of jungling the hero. In most other lanes she is a solid pick and should not be underrated. I would be cautious to call her the next big thing after being proved wrong in 6.85, but this time around she has better chances to become popular.