Lina Mid

'lemme tell ya' something, ok? wa' im' sayin' is that LINA SEMI-CARRY IS VIABLE, BUT, BUT, BUT, most other semi-carries BLOW you up, with the exception of bounty hunter, and maybe a stupid mirana (that can't use leap to dodge your skills). actually, CK, BLOWS the **** out of you, and long-range non-stun interrupted initiatiors (im looking at you, earthshaker) do counter you quite well. i think, the best way to counter pa (probably the hardest hero to counter in the game) is to get eye of skadi for not getting one-shotted from her crit, and, MKB, to hit your EOS attacks and slow her down, then, getting an agh's and maybe even a satanic (after getting EOS) might work. if you are playing vs some noob pa who doesnt get BKB, you can get dagon, veil and E-BLADE. thats all i had to say! other than that, great guide!

Your build is fine, and the more common one. With all of those things you mentioned, they are all good. I don't really like going with pure magic damage, but because I'm uncoordinated. It tends to be much easier to Right-Click somebody. I find that I suck at Dota not because I don't know what to do, but because I'm not comfortable doing it.

Next, although Veil of Discord is less reliable than Aghanim's Scepter, on a hero with 3 Magical Damage nukes, It ends up being really good for AoE, and burst in general. If you want to go with more reliable ganking, though, the build you use tends to be better. I kind of just end up going for damage. Which is kind of counterproductive, because of how I'm not yet comfortable with extra buttons. I'll try it.

Next, although Maelstrom gives more damage than it does attack speed, It tends to be outclassed by Orchid Malevolence. And Desolator. You already have all of the attack speed that you'll ever need, and you basically just need big damage items, or more utility. I listed damage Items, but all of the other Items that you have so far mentioned also work.

Thanks

Same, everything you say makes solid sence, but for Veil I still disagree.

Veil of Discord seems very good on paper, but the problem is itonly gives AOE damage... and tha\t's all, whule Eul's gives setup, manaregen and survivability, Orchid gives damage, disable and good rightclink as well as manaregen, blink gives insane mobility and survivability(eul's+blink will help againt alost any initiation), aghs gives the possibility at taking down key enemy carry no matter what...

And Veil gust gives damage and some stats, that's the problem. It's not like Lina is bound to her two AOE skills so hard she would need to go for Veil, she has a lot of ways of increasing her damage output, both physical and magical. Why try to scale her two nukes when you can boost her physical damage output and solve her problems with that money(for instance, Maelstrom does even more damage for similar price)?

Glad you took feedback well though, apaz.

Yeah, I basically agree with everything.

The Level 1 choice comes down to if you think you will need a stun or not. Dragon Slave will help you lasthit, harass, and push the lane. Light Strike Array is a stun, and is better in those level 1 rune teamfights.


2 Branches instead of 3 is fine. I'll probably actually start doing that. It's just the classic bottle rush build on most every hero that goes mid.

I think that Orchid Malevolence is much better when you have stuns in the lane that you gank, because of the difficulty in landing Light Strike Array. If you already have a reliable Light Strike Array, then why buy it? If there are no stuns in the lane though, Eul's Scepter of Divinity is probably better for ganking, but it will hurt your overall damage output. Lastly, I tend to be throwing spells all over the place. Lina can actually hit midgame, and just go jungle for a while. If you have good farm in the beginning of the game, and then your team starts losing, you could transition into a semicarry role with all the gold that that extra mana regen indirectly gives you.


Base hero magic resistance is 25%. Veil of Discord reduces it by 25%, resulting in 0% magic resistance, meaning that you actually get the same damage, but for WAY cheaper. However, the resulting Laguna Blade would not pierce BKB. I don't really approve of going with Dagon and Ethereal Blade as core, but if you've already gone BS magic burst, and you have the gold, those are the most efficient items to buy. Although you should probably get a lot of support items, because you won't scale very well.

Axe/ Centaur Warrunner /Ect. are god friends, but good players will go on the Lina. In pubs, though, yes.

Lastly, I would say that the most common build for Lina mid is:
Eul's Scepter of Divinity
Aghanim's Scepter
Boots of Travel

I saw Dendi doing a Lina mid on his stream (Out of sheer coincidence), and this is the build that he used too.

Thanks for the review, I really appreciate the effort that you put into it.

Just read your guide more thoroughly and some question popped up.

First, your skillbuild. I didn't see you adressing Dragon Slave/ Light Strike Array lvl 1 choice anywhere. Obviously against melee heroes you want to take Light Strike Array first. You will mostly encounter ranger mid heroes, but it's still worth mentioning. Also, you should swap Light Strike Array for Firey SOul at level 2, and vice versa for level 4. Fiery Soul is much better earlier with her range - you can easily land multiple blows which will bite a fair chunk of enemy's HP. And the last: you max Light Strike Array over Fiery Soul, I think Fiery Soul more worth maxing early, since before Eul's your stun is very unreliable and dangerous to pull off.

Second, itembuild.

It's better to take 2 Iron Branches instead of 3 if you bought your own Tangoes, because otherwise you won't have a slot for a Town Portal Scroll which you should get with your Boots of Speed on any mid.

Second, Eul's Scepter of Divinity first is way-way better than both Orchid Malevolence and Bloodstone because it let's you kill most targets reliably and increases you in every way - it's just perfect for Lina.
You don't need THAT much mana, and you can't kill people easily without item utility like Timbersaw, so there are always better choices than Bloodstone.

Also Veil of Discord, Dagon and Ethereal Blade are not in her possible item pool - as with Bloodstone, there are always better items than these. They all are heavily outclassed by Aghanim's Scepter.

And you should add fat and manly heroes like Axe/Cent/etc into friends as they set your spells up and draw focus from you, they are your best allies in the entire game.

Other than that, guide seems fine. Good luck.

Thanks for your explanations mate, very clear and interesting! I'm enjoying playing with her a lot now, so different from my usual picks. Now that I've entered these guide's world maybe I can do something on her one day (I've only done one guide so far, for Crystal Maiden, my favourite and most played hero).

About the skill build, I've noticed now why I've been prefering at least one point in Fiery Soul at level 2 or 3: I've only played her as a lane support (pubs have not been good to me in that respect, they are all like "yesss she picked Lina we have support"). In lane with a good partner (like the Sven we talked about and Axe)I've been able to get some pretty nice kills before level 6 with the stun - right click - Dragon Slave. But like you explained here, a one point only in Light Strike Array in the beggining is the way to go, because of the mana it takes to pull it of.

Once again: really good guide! Do more on other heroes please :)

Thanks, glad somebody else is giving feedback. The answers are:

Light Strike Array over Fiery Soul- Usually, in the early game, your auto attacks won't really mean much at all, at least until you have some damage items. Therefore, increasing your attack speed, instead of getting more burst damage and stun duration, is not going to be worth it, no matter how fast you'll be attacking.

Caster or Rightclicker- It's a gimmick, but I tent to go towards the physical damage side of things more often, that is, when I play here a a mid. Half the time, I play her as a late game support. I feel that the crazy dps is just too good. The thing is, I don't necessarily do this because I like that build more, but rather because I find that it's the correct build more often against the people that I play. At my MMR, which is to say very low, Wraith King and Ursa along with your usual Pudge are common picks. They're really tanky, but you can kite the **** out of them. Therefore, in that case, Physical is correct. But, If I'm playing against squishier ones/those who don't enjoy silences, I'll do the mixed Orchid Malevolence build. It also depends a lot on personal preference. I like it all, though.

Sven Partner- Whenever you have a single-target disable and a Lina in the same lane, wombo combos start to happen. If Sven just walks up and stuns them, and you can time a Light Strike Array off of that, then they're in some serious trouble, because of the fact that Sven can DPS so well. Level is where this gets scary, though. Once Sven gets God's Strength, His DPS gets even crazier than it was before, and people melt. Because of your combined disables. It's like Shadow Demon + Leshrac, but DPS style.

Mate, great guide! I'm trying to learn how to play Lina now, and your guide pushed me into the right direction. I completely agree with your view of how Dota games are flexible and never can there be said to be a perfect build - and still we know some items are better than others for some heroes. +1 from me!

Now some personal questions: why do you prefer to level up the stun instead of the passive? You tend to play her more as a caster than as a right clicker always, or specially when you're mid? DO you think Sven could be a good lane partner for her? Because I see a lot of potencial in this combo, but never saw it written down.

Thanks guys.

Metabee, Arcane Boots could sure be viable if you disassemble them into Bloodstone. It's just, at this point, free mana. After you rush the Bloodstone, you're left with normal Boots of Speed. You kind of have 3 options. You could make the Phase Boots for some "Fast" mobility and damage, you could go into Boots of Travel after Bloodstone, or you could sit on brown boots for a while.


ben7kong, I see what you're trying to say, but you have to do this entire combo in 5 seconds before the silence from Orchid Malevolence wears off. Also, Orchid amplifies damage from ALL sources, as long as it's considered damage. (Therefore HP Removal and Negative Regeneration don't work.) What this means is that orchid amplifies Laguna Blade. The thing is, it'll amplify physical and pure damage as magical damage. Really wacky, especially when you're trying to do math. So, Veil of Discord works only on the 25% of the Laguna Blade that gets amplified by orchid. The reason that I did it how I did is that you (probably) run up to them, Shift-Que Blink Dagger, or Force Staff, Shift-Que Veil of Discord, do a stun to hold them in place (Hopefully), and then get your ult off quick, because the damage amp from orchid alone is 296.875 damage, after the amplification from veil. Therefore, Aghanim's Scepter Laguna Blade is a 1246.875 damage nuke, 1187.5 after the magic resistance on the orchid amplification. It benefits better than most spells because of how gigantic it is, and after that all the other spells are easy to land. The reason I did it is because Veil of Discord lasts 25 seconds to Orchid Malevolence's 5. You get more amplification from trying to blow them up with your ult first, because, if you aren't fast enough, you're missing the amplification from Orchid, and that's the equivalent of another nuke.

A very very well made guide but I want to make a tiny adjustment, which is your combo

Veil of Discord---> Orchid Malevolence---> Light Strike Array---> Laguna Blade---> Dragon Slave---> Dagon
I think you should change it into this

Veil of Discord---> Orchid Malevolence---> Light Strike Array---> Dragon Slave---> Laguna Blade---> Dagon*

Reason: An Aghanim's Scepter upgraded Laguna Blade deals PURE damage, which means it doesn't get
reduced by magic immune OR amplified by other sources of amplification
so doing my way increases the efficiency of Orchid with her skills

Anyways, very good guide i like it as much as i like Lina

Pretty nice guide, I liked the item explanations. However, I'm a fan of Arcane Boots since they support your team and can later be built into Bloodstone.

Anyways 8/8 m8