Lina is a very strong mid hero with the potential to carry in the mid-to-late game. Given the right circumstances, she has the potential to snowball out of control and win the game for her team almost single-handedly.
Watch your positioning with her, as she has quite long attack range is doesn’t need to be right in the heat of the battle.
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[/column]Lina Skill Build
- Dragon Slave
- Fiery Soul
- Dragon Slave
- Light Strike Array
- Dragon Slave
- Laguna Blade
- Dragon Slave
- Light Strike Array
- Light Strike Array
- Talent
- Light Strike Array
- Laguna Blade
- Fiery Soul
- Fiery Soul
- Talent
- Fiery Soul
- –
- Laguna Blade
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Dragon Slave casts a fiery dragon in the target direction to deal damage. This should be maxed first as it deals more damage and is a more reliable nuke than Light Strike Array is. When laning mid, it can be used to get an easier last-hit onto the ranged creep at the same time as harassing your opponent. Line up the creeps with the hero and hit them both at the same time.
At level 7, when it should be maxed, you should attack the melee creeps down to about half HP and the ranged creep once or twice and then finish them off with a cast. This should be done shortly before the rune will spawn so that you can get the rune more easily. Doing so will also guarantee all of the last hits, pressure the enemy tower and harass the opponent’s mid. This will force them to stay by their tower to deal with your push, and give you space to jungle. If they decide to leave mid, you should nuke the creeps down with your spells and take the tower very easily.
After a short delay, Lina releases a blast of fire which damages all enemies caught in the target area. Light Strike should be maxed secondly, as it increases the damage dealt and the stun duration.
You can cancel this spell quickly after using it to show the enemy an animation to scare them. Landing this spell reliably takes a lot of practice, but it’s safer to use it in conjunction with another slow or stun. It can be used to destroy trees, so try to do so against heroes that tend to hide in trees like Pudge or Tinker. This can also be strong against Monkey King if you suspect he is in the trees near you. You can use this spell to cut a path for yourself in the trees to juke away from enemies.
After each spell Lina casts, her attack and movement speed increases. One point of this should be gotten early as it can be used to pressure towers and dish out more damage in fights. After this, it should be maxed last, as you get more kill potential out of your nuking spells. This spell allows Lina to transition into a very powerful mid-to-late game carry.
Laguna Blade strikes an enemy with a massive burst of damage. Aghanim’s Scepter changes the damage type to Pure, and allows it to pierce magic immunity. Note that there is a 0.25 second damage delay, during which time enemies can become immune to cancel the incoming damage.
If you chose the level 10 increased cast range talent, Laguna Blade has a longer range than your regular attacks and can therefore be used to catch enemies that are fleeing much easier. Avoid using it on heroes that have high magic resistance if you don’t have Aghanim’s Scepter. If you do, you should take advantage of the pure damage to burst down a tanky hero. Laguna Blade is also great against heroes who are keeping themselves alive with lifesteal, especially if they have just used, or are about to use Satanic. However, it can also be very strong against squishy support heroes in the late game.
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This spell can be quite hard to use efficiently in Dota 2 esports. It can be hard to know whether you should use it to nuke down an enemy or to secure a kill and on which target to reserve it for. In team-fights it should generally be prioritized on carries. Otherwise, it can be used to get a kill much faster if you feel the need to escape from a bad situation. For example, if you are diving a tower and see some teleports coming in from the enemy team.
If you have gone for a smoke-gank either with or without your team and caught out an important hero in the late game, it’s better to nuke down that target and remove them from the potential ensuing fight before their team has a chance to respond to you. This also helps to guarantee that the enemy won’t have a chance to save themselves with spells or items.
Clearly, there are many factors to take into account when deciding which hero to use your ultimate on. However, it boils down to whether your team has enough damage against an important target or not. It has quite a long cooldown and as such is likely to only be used once in a fight.
The extra damage will help you to farm faster and deal a lot more damage in fights, especially after getting a few stakcs of Fiery Soul up. On the other hand, the cast range allows you to cast spells from a further distance and kite heroes more easily. It also makes your stun easier to land. The damage can be better if your team generally lacks much physical damage but if you need to play safer and survive, the cast range can be more helpful.
The extra damage increases the spell’s damage by 70% which is effective against enemies who don’t have high magic resistance or immunity. It’s also very strong if you have some slows or stuns on your team to help you land it more reliably or against creep/illusion hereos. On the other hand, the extra health will help you to survive fights more easily. If you are able to deal enough damage in fights as it is, the extra HP may be safer.
The Spell amplification can make your ultimate stronger if you have an Aghanim’s Scepter and are making good use out of all of your spells. However, this is a level 20 talent which is usually taken in the mid-to-late game and by this point you should have transitioned into dealing more physical than magical damage. For this reason, the buff to Fiery Soul is often better as it will help you to deal more right-click damage in fights. However, if you mostly have caster items, then the extra spell amp could be a better choice.
The cooldown reduction gives Dragon Slave a 2 second cooldown which can be very strong when defending the high-ground, or if you’re playing against illusion/creep heroes. However, it can be very taxing on your mana-pool, and since you usually transition into a physical damage carry in the late game, the extra attack range is usually better. It lets you attack from a much safer position which is arguably equally as helpful when defending the high-ground and can be more useful in more situations. You would still have to move in a lot closer to enemies when going to cast Dragon Slave, unless you got the increased cast range at level 10, which may be less safe for you. In general, the extra attack range is usually better.
For a mid Lina, a good starting build is a Null Talisman, an Iron Branch and a Faerie Fire for damage. You’ll also need either 2 shared Tangos, or a set of your own. You can also get a Healing Salve couriered out to you after getting the bounty rune. Lina has the third highest attack range of all heroes in the early game and can harass her opponents very easily. More damage means harass onto the enemy and an easier time last-hitting.
A bottle is necessary to be able to use your spells in lane, which is key to winning your lane. Get this as soon as possible in almost all cases.
Boots of Speed can be temporarily upgraded to Arcane Boots before disassembling them for your Bloodstone later.
A Magic Wand is almost always very helpful, as Lina tends to fight quite a lot in the early-to-mid game. A full heal almost gives you enough to get both of your regular spells off in a fight.
If you intend to buy a Eul’s in the mid game, getting an early Wind Lace can be quite powerful as Fiery Soul increases your movement speed by a percentage figure.
Arcane Boots should be built while you are building your Bloodstone. It should be disassembled when you need an extra item slot in your inventory, as a Soul Booster provides the same stats as if all components were in your inventory.
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Bloodstone is a great item on Lina as it gives her the regeneration she needs to be able to use her spells in fights, tanks her up and increases her mana pool. This is especially helpful as Laguna Blade costs a significant amount of mana. The active ability of Bloodstone allows Lina to deny herself and preserve a kill streak which is especially powerful for a carry likely to get many kills.
If you opted to skip a Bloodstone and instead get more utility items such as a Shadow Blade and Hurricane Pike, then a Kaya will help to offset some of the mana issues you may face as a consequence of this.
A Eul’s Scepter can be built before Bloodstone if the active is needed for defensive purposes, such as against silences or stuns. Note that it can be used offensively by lifting an enemy and connecting Light Strike Array with their landing. The best way to do this is to count to just over two seconds as soon as you use it on an enemy and then use your stun, as it has a 0.5 second delay and Eul’s lasts for 2.5 seconds.
A Shadow Blade is a great item to get after Bloodstone and Eul’s as it allows Lina to reposition herself in fights a lot easier and transitions her into more of a semi-carry. Even if you don’t intend to build a Silver Edge, the ability to go invisible and escape with very high movement speed from your passive is very strong.
Boots of Travel should be the boots of choice to get after disassembling Arcane Boots in the early game. However, it’s usually better to get this after purchasing some items which provide you with more helpful stats and abilities in the mid game. Boots of Travel in conjunction with Fiery Soul result in very high movement speed, and the ability to move around the map very quickly.
A Hurricane Pike may be a better alternative to Eul’s scepter as it allows you to instantly move away from danger. It’s better against heroes that can kill you easily such as Lifestealer, Riki or Clockwerk because it moves you out of the danger, as opposed to temporarily avoiding damage. It’s generally a bad idea to get both of these items as they don’t improve your ability to carry. Pike also increases your already very long attack range.
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Assault Cuirass increases your armor and attack speed, which makes this item great if you need to tank up a bit and deal more damage in the late game. Increases your survivability by quite a bit, thus increasing your odds of winning and securing Dota 2 ranks.
Bloodthorn gives Lina more attack speed, damage and a very powerful disable. The active silences an opponent and gives her attacks true-strike which is very powerful against heroes with evasion or heroes that rely on their spells to survive. If these enemies have BKBs however, then a raw damage item such as MKB or Daedalus can be better.
Daedalus is a very strong item on Lina as she has very high attack speed from her passive. This means that she can crit more often.
A BKB can be necessary against lineups that can disable and/or lockdown Lina in fights.
A Shiva’s Guard increases her armor significantly and provides her with more intelligence. You would mainly get this if you needed the armor and attack slow against several sources of physical damage.
A Desolator gives Lina a lot more damage to her attacks. It’s a great item choice if there are several sources of physical damage on your team or if you’re against tanky heroes.
MKB may be the best damage item if you need the accuracy it provides. The main difference between an MKB and Bloodthorn is the silence that it gives you, as well as the fact that Bloodthorn only provides true-strike against the affected target. If several heroes have evasion, you should consider MKB.
A linken’s may be necessary against lineups that have strong single target abilities. Linken’s also provides some decent stats.
A Blink Dagger can be helpful if you need the ability to reposition yourself or chase enemy heroes. Given Lina’s potential to achieve very high movement speed, a Blink Dagger isn’t always necessary.
Aghanim’s Scepter provides Lina with some good stats and changes her ultimate’s damage type to pure and pierces magic immunity. The reason that this is a situational item is because the damage difference with 25% base magic resistance, Level 3 Laguna Blade deals 637.5 as opposed to 850 pure. This means that there is roughly a 200 damage difference before any additional magic resistance. This means that Lina is usually better off buying a damage or attack speed item instead. It can be a good pickup against lineups who have several heroes with high magic resistance or immunity or are generally tanky, as Laguna Blade will have the potential to remove a significant amount of HP from them.
A Silver Edge can be a good upgrade to your Shadow Blade if there are heroes on the enemy team that can suffer from the Break ability.
Mjollnir can be a good item against illusion heroes. Coupled with your strong AoE spells, Lina can clear illusions quite quickly, especially with stacks of Fiery Soul.
A Scythe of Vyse provides you with another disable which can be important against heroes that are hard to lock down. It also becomes significantly easier to land your stun towards the end of the hex which increases the amount of time they are disabled for.
Rod of Atos can be a good pickup if your team has fallen behind and you’re playing against heroes with Blink abilities. It’s also easy to build and provides you with good stats as well as a strong disable against certain heroes.
Veil can be a strong purchase if you have lots of magical damage on your team and you want to dominate the mid game. It provides some good stats for the early-to-mid game. It makes your Laguna Blade deal significantly more damage.
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Any allies who have the ability to stun or slow go well with Lina as they allow for her to get an easy stun off. Note that a Rubick can throw enemies back, so communicate with the player if you want them to be thrown back or left in place.
Nyx can burn your mana and deal a lot of damage as you tend to have high intelligence. He can also reflect your ultimate if he times Spiked Carapace well. Be hesitant about casting your ultimate on him, and try to get him to use carapace against one of your weaker spells. You can try to fake the animation on Light Strike Array, for example.
Anti-Mage can blink onto you and deal a significant amount of damage to you very quickly if you are not careful. You will probably need a defensive item of some kind, perhaps a Eul’s.
Lina is very strong against Squishy heroes as she can nuke them down very quickly. A Blink Dagger or some other movement item gives her the potential to kill a squishy carry on the back lines of a team-fight, such as Sniper or Enchantress.
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