Solo mid Lina

So, Lina, while being an amazing solo-mid, is nowadays mostly used as a support which makes me quite sad, because,let's be honest, she's an awful support - u don bilivit? Let's compare!

Support:
Throws her spells and dies because of LSA range and shameful str.

Mid:
1)Competitive because of good lh with nukes and harassment, nice rune control with passive ms.
2)Fast laguna when enemy agis and ints are squishy enough to die from her combo alone.
3)Farms very fast, if provided with manaregen.
4)Actually lives to cast her spells one more time.
5)Laughs at your 10 sec BKB.
Et cetera.


Her skillset screams she needs some items for manaregen, hp(optionally) and right-click damage.

So, I would like to discuss itembuild for Lina - which items do you prefer?

As for me, my favourite boots are Power Treads, as a core item I take either Eul's or Blink, depending on what I need and how I perform, and then there are quite a lot of options. My favourites are:
Manaregen/utility/damage - Orchid, Hex, Aghs.
Survivability - Bloodstone, Skadi, Linken's.
Right-click - MKB, Skadi and Daedalus.

All of the items are situational and I have to consider what I do need every game, but Eul's is close to being a must for his regen, ms and active that helps you land stun, prevent blink, or dispel/dodge some serious **** like Track or Global Silence.

Power Treads for boots. Core would be Rod of Atos to land that stun, Orchid Malevolence to solve her mana issues, and Blink Dagger for positioning. Maybe throw in a Eul's Scepter of Divinity instead of an Orchid Malevolence depending on whether you want a silence or a purge.

my build for a mid Lina would be a quick Power Treads into orchid of malovence into Blink Dagger/Euls scepter of divinity (or both) into yada yada yada

I think why Lina isnt played mid is like how Zeus isnt picked up often.

Squishy mids, Ez gank. Like level one gank and she= dead fire.

Unlike other squishy mids like Shadow Fiend lina doesnt scale *that* good to the late game.

But I think it is how she is very easily beaten/countered in lane and throughout the game.

Personally, I want to see a mid Leshrac and any Zeus in competitive.

But she is a monster in eraly-mid game. Like if SF is humiliated eraly he has ~0 use, whila Lina can still rember old support times and just BAM! people in face with Laguna.

zeus has actually been picked up reasonably often lately!


but lina is a pretty poor support yea, semi carry is decent, but when will you actually run her? what does she do that well?
even zeus has more utility with giving vision.
and if you want burst damage lion has that too, but he also gets an AOE stun and a hex which is great.

Comparing Lion's burst to Lina's? Seriously? Lina can dish out damage for as long as she lives in the fight. Lion can't, SORRY MAH COLLDOWNS. Lina is a decent semicarry if she is fat enough with skadi or bs, max as coupled with such a farm speed is no joke.

i was comparing it with an other hero that HAS burst. no hero is the same in dota.
with both heroes you can gank and quickly get one clean kill. the difference is that lion has much better utility with hex and his stun, while also being good against illusion heroes.
lina can often be a little overkill, and dragon slave can feel useless if the opponents have pipe/mek.

I don't think she's an awful support, but she does need more equipment than your average ward ***** if she's going to be able to play somewhere near her potential. She's a great pusher/anti-pusher with some decent mana/regen.

I think her biggest problem for a mid is her AWFUL attack animation, even a good player with some damage items can struggle due to the delay - enemies can mess you up with early-pre-denies etc. Plus she's not terribly mobile without a Blink Dagger and doesn't scale as well into late or team fights as many mids do. However, she does well dealing heavy harassment due to her range and Dragon Slave.

Don't really know why you're all building Power Treads on her!? For a hero with a great movement/attack speed buff it should be Phase Boots all the way if you're going for a semi-carry build. You're trading +8 intelligence (8 damage) and +30 attack speed for 24 damage per hit...one stack of level 1 Fiery Soul gives you over double that attack speed bonus. At max stacks/levels you're looking at +255 as. If you need HP or mana, just pickup an early Point Booster towards your Aghanim's Scepter.

The main problem I have with support Lina is the fact that she pushes the lane and screws up the creep equilibrium horribly. A single Dragon Slave = say goodbye to your lane equilibrium and the enemy offlane gets free farm/xp next to the enemy tower. A complete nightmare when playing carry...and she can't help it.

Why not play her solo offlane? Offlane isn't just about having an escape, it's also a lot about having long distance farming/pushing skills. Spamming Dragon Slave in the offlane (with a Soul Ring or something) allows her to overpush the lane, force the creeps under the enemy tower, and then the creep equilibrium goes way back towards you for free XP next to your tower. Lina can use her high attack range and 1 value point in Fiery Soul to trade hits with supports. The high range of her attack and her skills means that she never has to be out of position. And if things go bad she can just Light Strike Array and walk away.
For me Lina really needs solo XP to be at her most effective. But she doesn't need that much farm in lane. Pretty much an offlaner's thing. Kind of like Dark Seer, anything that destroys the creep equilibrium is good in the offlane. Not to mention the harass on the enemy safe lane carry.