3C's Comprehensive Guide of Lanaya

Introduction

Hello everyone, my name is 3C,and this is my guide to Lanaya the Templar Assassin. Dotabuff page link: 3C's Dotabuff page I play quite a lot of TA on high MMR games, and my TA usually wins(well most of the time).

To be totally honest, this hero does not do too well at high level games, needs lots of babysit, early bottle crow to be viable, and most people counter pick her anyways...HOWEVER that does not mean she is bad:) I will list some pros and cons of picking this hero

Pros

High physical burst
Strong Laner
Strong mid game but also can carry late
Can solo Rosh early game with some items
High solo kill and snowball potential
Cool looking spellz!

Cons

Badly countered by some heroes(BAT, TIMBER, ECT)
Does very little when opponents has early Mek(which is very likely at high lvl games)
Not very fun when playing from behind
NO STUN or any form of CC
Very easy to fall off late game if played incorrectly

However if you master this hero its very easy for you to stomp low-mid level games, easily snowball out of control, 1-2 shot heroes.If you like high burst, cool looking assassins, this hero is for you! This hero is not easy to master, takes quite a lot of practice (I played Lanaya about 100 games in Dota1 and 200 games in Dota2 on different accounts), so IF you want to stomp everyone in pub, practice in single players helps quite a lot.

Skills

OK lets briefly talk about her skill set.

Refraction Probably one of the best spell in game. Blocks 3-4-5-6 damage instances and bonus damage for 3-4-5-6 attacks. Note that denying does not take off your charges, this will be a big boon for you in lane. So this is your most important spell, I max it first 98%. However in certain matchups i will max meld first instead of this. This spell has many uses, farming, blocking spell damages, dominating your lane, you name it this spell does it.

With the recent nerf on Refraction, it costs 100 mana now, so generally I do not encourage you to spam it when its off cooldown, Manage your mana wisely is the key to TA in the current version.

Other tips&tricks will be in later chapters.

Meld Probably the signature move of Lanaya, at max level it deals 200 extra damage and reduces 8 armor on hit. Has the sickest animation projectile. This spell has almost 0 fade time, therefore can be used to dodge many spells or attack projectiles. Mostly useful on dodging QOP's Shadow Strike. I always max this after Refraction, its useful not only on kills, also farming ancients, roshan, ect.

Note that any movement breaks Meld invis, so beware of some spells like Vacuum, Blinding Light. You can use this spell to drag time until your refraction comes off cooldown, making it a pseudo escape. More tricks will be talked in later chapter.

Psi Blades Another core spell for Lanaya, and one of the unique spells in DOTA2. How it works is that when u hit anything, it damages units behind the target in a small width but long length area. Aside from that it also gives you bonus range on your attacks, which is important since Lanaya has garbage range.

Note that this also works on denies, the splashed damage is the same as the damage you dealt on the target, and the damage type is pure(which means bkb will block it). Practicing to use this spell to both deny&last hit&harass at the same time is a very useful laning skill and will help you crush your lane.

More tricks will be added in later chapters.

Psionic Trap A sick ultimate for an assassin, this spell allows you to place a trap from very far distance(2000). It gives little sight. Aside from normal rune spots, there are also other important spots on the map to place these traps.

IMPORTANT NOTE:YOU SHOULD NEVER ACTIVATE TRAPS WITH YOUR HERO'S SPELL. IT HAS A BAD ANIMATION DELAY AND INTERRUPTS YOUR ATTACKS OR MOVEMENTS, SELECT THE TRAP AND DETONATE IT.

It is very situational when to take level 2 Psionic Trap, depending on how the game progresses. Level 2 ultimate gives 3 more traps and 2 second less cooldown, you can mostly skip it and max your Psi Blades but it depends. More trap spots and situations will be in the advanced tactics chapter.

Essential Item Choices

I will analyse all the early to mid game items in this section.

Starting items

3 Iron Branch + 1 Tango You should always start like this. If your start with 603 gold, this will leave you enough gold for anything. Depending on matchup and how aggressive your opponent is, you can either immediately get a Magic Stick or Boots of Speed which i will describe in the matchup section. If game goes normally, when engage in the first creep wave, a Refraction can get you 3-4 last hit and you will have your Bottle at the second or third wave.

Boots choice

Theres only 2 boots upgrade you can choose, phase and treads. I NEVER GO BOOTS OF TRAVEL NO MATTER HOW FAR AHEAD I AM. Each type of boots have different play style and focuses, whichever you choose is totally up to you and how you want the game to go.

Phase Boots Phase boots gives you impressive 24 damage, a huge burst of movement speed. Phase boots focuses more on snowballing, heavy lane dominance, with 24 more damage, a maxed Refraction+24 damage, a few Psi Blades splash will force your lane opponents back. You move around very fast makes you a good chaser, also can escape lots of ganks.

However, running phase boots is very risky if your opponents is good, you got no stats, which makes you very squishy. You also have some mana problem, so if your runes are not secured, phase boots can backfire quite badly. With the recent nerf to Refraction and Psionic Trap phase boots is no longer your go-to build. I suggest you get phase when you are ahead or very far behind, when you are ahead with early phase you become nearly ungankable and no one can lane you. When you are far far behind, the movement speed to help you get kills and escape is essential, phase can be a comeback mechanic.

Power Treads I prefer treads a lot more than phase in the current version. I tread switch everytime I cast spell and it does give you lots of mana. The thing with treads is it is not very aggressive,but very stable, 8 strength gives you just enough HP to survive with Refraction and the attack speed helps you jungle.

The solo killing potential of treads is slightly lower than phase, but it just help you farm much faster. The thing is with treads you can farm ancients much more efficient, you can also solo roshan with treads and a few more items or a Double damage rune. With treads Lanaya can kill ancient camps with 1 Refraction and 1 Meld(NOT GOLEMS THOUGH) Therefore I prefer treads much more than phase, less risky, more farm, help you get your snowball starting.

THE CORE 3 ITEMS

There are 3 items that Lanaya need to position herself in fights, they have similar effect but plays very different in style, you can combo them however you like with your boots choice, it totally depends on personal preference. I usually only make one of them but you can make multiple of them, I think 1 is enough to do the trick.

The snowball
Yasha Yasha is the ultimate snowball item, gives 10% movement speed bonus and 31% attack speed. When you are super far ahead, say you solo your lane opponent 2-3 times before 10min mark, yasha will make you farm faster, chase better and transit better to late game. The thing with yasha is it really works well with levels, when you snowball you will have level advantage and yasha will give you enough power to overwhelm most heroes 1v1, and enable you to chase them down. It also transit to Manta style which is also very good for any Agi hero, Yasha work great with both Power Treads and Phase Boots.

I usually get Yasha with Phase Boots when ahead just to be a race-car and snowball faster. However in terms of getting you in and out of the fight, Yasha is the worst of all 3, only a 10% movement speed with no stats is not ideal for you to get in and out of a team fight multiple times, you should mostly be farming or solo killing if you get Yasha, not doing teamfights.

The Most Stable
Drum of EnduranceI ended up getting drums most of the game, this item is so good with Power Treads it is unbelievable. Additional 9 stats with a aura of 5% AS&MS is very ideal on Lanaya. It also can be activated to gain additional 10% AS&MS to initiate a fight or escape. In terms of getting you in and out of a team fight, drum is the most stable choice.

Drum is also the most cost efficient damage&overall stats you can get. With Drum of Endurance and Power Treads you are looking at 44% or 52% attack speed, 12 or 20 damage(switch to agi treads) at a total cost of 3175 gold, cheap and effective at its finest. With drum and treads and max Refraction and Meld, you can solo Roshan even without a DD rune (unless roshan bashes too much.....might happen sometimes). I recommend treads+drums most of the game.

WHEN YOU ARE UNSURE, GO TREADS AND DRUM, IT CANT BE WRONG

The Flashy
Blink Dagger Nowadays its rare to see people get this at high level games, but still fun to get it from time to time. It cost the most among 3(2150), gives NO STATS AT ALL, and also costs 75 mana to use(which could be a burden to TA now refraction cost 100). I will not describe this item, if you are confident enough to get it, GO for it. It makes plays....at a very high cost. If you are new, dont ever try to get blink, it is quite useless.

I will note that I think theres only 2 situations you should go for blink.
1. you can get your Power Treads Bottle Magic Wand and Blink Dagger at around 10-14 minute mark. You can switch to Phase Boots if you think the opponents are bad at rune control, but running phase with dagger really costs lots of mana so dont get phase dagger when you dont have absolute rune control.

2. A late game blink, usually after your 2-3big items. This allows you to surprise enemy team, use a late game blink to assassinate important targets. For example, they have a squishy Dark Seer or all damage Sniper

Oh, and one last note, a blink combo costs 100+50+75=225 mana per cast....so be sure to manage your mana wisely, dont go spam refraction and blink flash farm jungle until you got no mana and missing killing opportunities.

Mid Game Essentials

Black King Bar I rush BKB in most of my games, unless your opponents are total **** HEADS who pick ****ty lineups, you will want a BKB. This item extends the opportunity window of your striking chance, so basically you hit more, kill more. However this item is not necessary, it purely depends on hero composition.

Getting BKB early might not be ideal in all situation, because BKB's duration deceases each time you use it, its at the strongest when you bought it fresh. Having a clear mind about when to purchase a BKB to give you MAXIMUM fighting potential is a must have for good players. Also one last note that BKB does cancel your double damage rune, so if you got a DD rune in fight, pop it after you use BKB.

YOU SHOULD ALWAYS ASK YOURSELF, DO I NEED A BKB THIS GAME? IF SO, WHEN DO I NEED IT? HOW SHOULD I USE IT?

Special SHOUTOUT to PRETTYBOY, who Relocate me back to fountain in team fight right when I pop my 10 seconds bkb and DD rune.


Desolator A signature item for Lanaya, 1 or 2 shot heroes all day long. Getting this item when ahead is pretty much a death sentence for the squishy heroes, you have insane armor reduction with Meld and you can melt even tanks like Centaur Warrunner in seconds. I used to dislike this item in DOTA1 however after a patch, this armor reduction works on buildings so therefore it solves Lanaya's biggest problem "siege towers". It also help you farm faster, allow you to 2 shot creep waves and farm ancients without even taking much damage.

This item does has its drawback, it gives no attack speed, and once your opponent stack up on armor, this item's effectiveness greatly decrease. It falls of late game unless supported by armor reduction team. Pretty much forces you to make Assault Cuirass as follow up item. I have 2 approach to this item, either go big or go home, get it with Daedalus and hope for the best crit. Or stack crazy attack speed so the damage increase from armor reduction pays off.


Manta Style A natural follow up of Yasha and just generally a great item. It debuffs lots of stupid things, it creates confusion, can also dodge spells, gives you space to make plays. With Manta Style and Phase Boots Lanaya does very good damage early game and can 1v1 like a boss. Note that you can also trigger Psi Blades on denying your own illusion to reach far away target. (A trick i see iceiceice do when TA first came out in DOTA2), it used to do bonus damage on illusion and splash extras, but now it doesnt....still cute.

Manta Style is the best late game transition item for Lanaya, really gives her everything she need as a carry, can later build into Daedalus without worrying too much about attack speed, hence why I say Yasha is a snowball item, it helps you get into late game.

Late Game Items

Lanaya can be build anyway you want, mostly depends on how the game goes,and opponent hero composition. I classify all items into 3 categories, Offensive, Defensive and Hybrid.

Offensive

Daedalus The core item for lanaya, almost a must go if game goes late. I strongly recommend crit as first or second big item, it just help you kill people...plain and simple. It doesnt matter if you build massive damage or attack speed, this item is always gives the best overall damage increase.

Monkey King Bar Compare to Daedalus, MKB really sucks....A LOT. This item is meant to be a stable dps item, and Lanaya focuses mostly on burst damage rather than sustained damage, I only build MKB when I need to assassinate opponent carry with evasion. In other words, I rarely get MKB.

Assault Cuirass Well AC to me is also an offensive item, only when you already have Desolator. Because generally into mid-late game, all heroes will have around 10-15 armor, AC+DESO+ Meld will give you 20 minus armor, which is sufficient enough to reduce almost every hero's armor below 0. It also helps you siege, solves your attack speed problem if you go Phase Boots+ Daedalus.

In some situation I get this after my BKB as my first big item just to give you enough armor to fight damage heavy carry such as Lifestealer, it is an overall great item.

Defensive

Butterfly I put this in defensive because when you want to get more damage, butterfly is almost never the best option. It gives 60 AS and 60 DAMAGE for a total cost of 6000...quite expensive, compare this to Assault Cuirass which only costs only 5350, they give about the same damage output increase in mid to early stage of late game.

The thing with Butterfly is it scales with other item making it more effective, it eventually beats Assault Cuirass after you get 3 big items. Its evasion is very helpful against many melee carry who often opt Abyssal Blade than Monkey King Bar. If you want to go late, get Butterfly, but dont get it as your first big item, you will find it very underwhelming.

Linken's Sphere As a defensive item, it gives almost no damage increase, 15 stats for 5175 gold....It is a rare item but sometimes very useful. Because Lanaya has such high burst, in late game scenarios a crucial spell block can win you games. For example in one game, the opponent has only one instant stun Bane, all other heroes are damage dealer without stun. If you initiate on Bane, he has 2 options, Nightmare you and run away or Fiend's Grip you which goes through BKB. This is a situation where Linken's Sphere helps better than Black King Bar, you can block Bane's first spell, get close enough, because bane's long cast animation, he cant get off his second disable, you may manta and instant meld to kill off bane, which takes out all their disables right from the get-go. Overall this item is not recommend, but like I said, can help you win some games.

Heart of Tarrasque is somewhat a core item if you want to carry with Lanaya. Heart helps you tank tower, gives sustain so you dont have to go heal after a fight. OVERALL, this item increases your late game efficiency. Not much to say about heart, get it for your 4th or 5th item slot late game if you feel like it. I usually prefer heart over Satanic late game since it allows you to tank tower and siege down base by yourself.

Hybird

Scythe of Vyse A rare item choice but somewhat useful. Solves all your mana problem late game, spam Refraction all day, and gives you a huge pick off potential. Get it with blink and surprise your opponent.

Note that hex removes evasion...so you can go Daedalus and Scythe of Vyse to blow up squishy carries with evasion. Usually get it as your final item to end the game or 4th item to get a few surprise pick offs.

Satanic Gives some damage, lots of health, and an extra life(meld crit+satanic active=full health instantly) This is a stand-up and man fight item, if your opponent is tanky enough that you cant instantly blow them up, out sustaining them might be a good idea. Use to man-fight late game carries such as Spectre, Gyrocopter.



YOLO RAPIER
Divine Rapier Welp..this item is a good comeback item, get it when you desperately need to win a team fight or when there is no real way to win....Just hope for the best. A side note is that with rapier, Lanaya can defend megacreeps quite easily.

Lanaya's Role

Generally Lanaya is played as the 2nd role in games. The number means farm priority, with 1 being the highest. Templar Assassin is somewhat similar to Shadow Fiend in pubs, they have high bursts, snowballs easily and with correct item choice can become the 1 role carry late game.

One thing a lot of people forget about is that Lanaya is capable of farming ALL the resources on the map, she can jungle ancient camps with ease and push out lanes very fast. She can also kill stacked camps by the use of her Psi Blades, making her very efficient farmer throughout the game.

DO NOT ALWAYS FOCUS ON KILLS, FARMING IS IMPORTANT!

Lots of people fall into the false impression of Templar Assassin is only good at killing early, falls of late. This is due to lack of efficient farming, use your idle time to stack&farm large camps with Refraction. If no lane for you to farm mid game you can also farm ancients with Bottle crow.I have a average 561 GPM for Lanaya in 94 games played, most of it comes down to efficient farming, I can keep up with most carries in an even game and become a killing machine late game.


One last note is that Templar Assassin can be played as a split pusher. That is only when you feel like your team has no chance at fighting 5v5, get Power Treads and Shadow Blade, Layana can melt down creep waves fast and push towers with Refraction. Pushing side lanes to buy your team some time. Getting Shadow Blade can also sneak you Roshan. However to play split push means you communicated with your team and avoid team fights, not an excuse for you to play negatively.

Laning Tricks

Winning your lane is quite huge for Templar Assassin, lane advantage usually leads to snowball, having a good start will greatly increase your winning chance. To win your lane, theres usually a few tricks you can use.

Creeps Control
The concept of creep control is very complicated, it generally means you damage creeps in a way that they will fall into your favor. Most common way is to deny your creeps so that they end up on your ramp on the middle lane.
You can have the creeps on your ramp via creep block or denying so the creep wave balance falls back.


You can also hit 3 birds with 1 stone. This is by controlling both the enemy's and our creep's health so you can deny them while getting last hit. This skill effectively prevents your enemy from getting any last hits or denies. However most high skilled player knows how to deal with this, they just draw creep aggro making you unable to form a line for Psi Blades, making this trick harder to pull off.
I managed to control both the melee creep to a state which i can deny+last hit them both a the same time, while opponent puck attempts to last hit as well, I denied+last hit+harass at the same time,hitting 3 birds with 1 stone, doing this a couple of times your lane opponents will be crushed.

Note that heroes with above 600 range can dodge your Psi Blades spill if they move back after attack, it is hard to harass 600 ranged opponents if they are good. But normal players tend to stand closer to creeps so their projectile reaches creep faster, this gives you opportunities to do heavy damage on them.

Side stepping is important for Templar Assassin in lane, if you anticipate your opponent's movement and side step to last hit, you can land multiple Psi Blades hit, dealing heavy damage to them.
After the first splash, puck took damage but will still want the last hit/deny, therefore puck might rotate his movements up or down, in this case I anticipate him going up, so I decided to side step downwards for my last hit.
Just as I anticipated, Puck got hit a second time, if this is level 5 with level 3 Refraction, puck might have to use 2 bottle charge just to get back to full HP, giving you a huge lane advantage. The thing about this trick is, if it hits it gives you advantage, even if it didnt hit, you lose nothing...By laning your opponent 1 minute you should have a clear idea of how much he likes to move, you usually can figure out someone's movement pattern in the first few creep waves.


Try for a Kill
When you reach 6, you have a slight opportunity to kill the opponent most of the time, place a preemptive Psionic Trap on their hills and wait for it to cool down. The best time to go is when there is only 2 ranged creeps left, if you go on this time there will be no creep to take off your refraction and most heroes cant win 1v1 dual with you. Most inexperienced player will want to go for the last hit on your range creep, creating a slight opening for you. Because your high damage, you usually ended up with more denies thus make you reach 6 faster than your opponents, use this opening to set up a double trap slow into 5-6 hits with Meld and Refraction will most likely generate a kill.

For heroes with disables,such as Lion, you can setup solo kills if your opponent used their spells to farm, but with the trap nerf, it is not very likely for Lanaya to solo people at level 6, unless your opponents make a big mistake, just focus on getting last hits, rune control and see if your opponent make a mistake.

You can also setup kills via Rune Bait. Lets say the 6minute rune spawns top, you need to place a preemptive trap on the way to runes, lets take our last example.you are farming in the river, Death Prophet sees a rune top and will most likely to go from radiant high ground.(why would she walk to the river to take a meld strike in the face? thats the only route she can go for the top rune), place a trap there will slow her by 50% for a good 5 seconds, this will enable you to get the rune, you can win the race for most heroes, if you snatch a haste rune or DD rune, your opponent is most likely to die, even if you didnt get the kill, forcing your opponents to miss exp+gold while getting a rune yourself isnt half bad.


There isnt much more beyond those tricks, just focus more on last hit&denies, if you get a good rune you can roam side lanes, but if you are dominating mid, why let the pressure go? Get your core 3 positioning item mentioned above, and start snowballing. I will write a match-up section later, there are different strategies verses different heroes.

Psionic Traps

This section I will focus on the use of your ultimate spell, Psionic Trap

You always take your ultimate at level 6, but when do you level it up?
Each level increase of your ultimate increases the maximum number of traps by 3 and reduces its cooldown by 2 seconds, which means less downtime on your slows. The trap slow percentage stays the same from 30% initial cast and builds up to 50%, lasts 5 second on all levels.

At level 1, you should have 4 traps on the map all the time and last one is used when you are killing. Aside from 2 rune traps, I usually place one at middle lane opponent's ramp, sets up double trap kills or if there is a TP gank, you can slow them to escape.

The 4th trap depends on how the game progresses, if you are winning your lane, putting it at the opponent's small camp might be a good idea. Many mid laners with AOE can farm the small jungle camp with ease and having a trap there might help you pick up a kill when your opponent go farm it. If you are worried about side lane ganks, put a trap on the ramp that gankers most likely go from. Example would be if you are radiant and the dire had a trilane top, putting a trap at the ramp down the ancient camp might be a good spot to detect ganks.
Here is the general locations for all trap placements.
Red are the rune traps, should be up all the time.
Purple are potential traps that can setup double traps for a kill
Green are camp traps that help you spot low health heroes farming camp.
blue are traps that goes between T1 and T2 tower, which will likely setup kills for you or your team, great for finishing off escaping opponents.
Yellow are watcher traps, help you gain vision of crucial spots, ramps, to spot enemy movements. When your Psionic Trap is maxed, having a few at those yellow spots will help you win information war late game.


So now lets answer the question "When to level up your trap"
There is no right answer, depending on how you want to play the game. Level 2 traps at level 11 provides 3 more traps for more map control, you can trap more camps to catch opponents in jungle, having maxed Psi Blades helps you fight, the extra range just might get you an extra attack which might result in a kill.

It comes down to a trade of map control or more killing potential. It can go either way, the choice is up to you.


Also, when in mid to late game, you have excess traps not on the map, place 1 or 2 on the lane, when you go farm them. It might just set up a kill for you or your team later.

Advanced Tactics/Trivial Things

In this section I will write some useful tricks, things people might not know...just anything helps in general. Leave comment to help me increase this section.

Using Refraction preemptively before fights is usually a good idea, since Refraction runs 17 seconds and has 17 seconds cool down, you can pop it 10 second before fight, and have another set of Refraction in mid fight...this trick saves life.

Denies does not take off Refraction charges, already stated above but just so useful in lane.

If your attack animation projectile is already in mid air, even if the unit dies before the attack land, it will still splash and deal damage behind it. Just so you know you can still do damage even if attacking a target thats about to die.

Lanaya's range without Psi Blades is almost melee, it has a range of 140 while melee hero has 130ish. BUT LANAYA STILL COUNTS AS A RANGED HERO and loses more exp when creeps are denied.

The Meld damage is effective against some summons, most notably Tombstone and Visage's Summon Familiars, you can usually one shot level one familiars with maxed meld and refraction, making Lanaya an efficient bird farmer.Using Meld to take down Tombstone is quite important in team fights as zombies will chew through your refraction.

There are some interesting thing about Refraction and multi tick damage type of spells. For example, Venomancer's Poison Sting can only take off refraction charge when its level 2 or higher. Dark seer need level 3 Ion Shell to break refraction. However Pudge's Rot will break refraction at level 1. Note that Orb of Venom and Urn of Shadows will not take off Refraction charges, so these items DOES NOT COUNTER Lanaya.

You see lots of pro players doing accurate Meld strike, blink Meld strike very fast, you may question how they do it? The answer is you can A target ground to Meld strike your closest target. Blink-> Meld->Press A->Target the ground near you does exactly the same thing as clicking on hero, also removes mistake of mis-click.

How do I practice Lanaya? Its range is very low and hard to hit target. The answer is simple, go create a single player lobby, have console on, and use the range display command.The console command is dota_range_display XXX

XXX being the circle of range you want to display. Lanaya's range are 200/260/320/380 for each Psi Blades level. Use this feature and hit stuff will get you a great feel of distance, a few minute of practice and you are good to go. This only works in single players now, so you cant use it in match making...whatever.

Roshan is an easy target for Lanaya, just with treads and drums, with a double damage rune you can solo Roshan with ease. Getting this huge boon of gold and aegis for yourself mid game is quite insane. Never miss out Rosh opportunities, it will get you ahead.

General Game Plan

Early Game

Try to win your lane as much as possible, Bottle+ Flying Courier is very useful, as a mid laner if you miss out on runes, bottle crow immediately. If facing tough match-ups, just bottle crow, push the lane and stack camps at idle time. I see lots of player just afk at tower when facing ganking threats, you can go stack big camps for yourself, it is an investment that will payoff soon, especially with Lanaya's capability of farming multiple camps with the cost of 2 spells.

When ganking, be sure to keep an eye out. Opportunities comes with good runes, good side lane creep equilibrium, and low opponents. In the current vision, Lanaya can barely solo kill heroes with just 1 trap at level 7, so keep a Town Portal Scroll on you all the time. If you are dominating your lane, your opponents will most likely roam off side-lanes to gank, counter gank him with TP and punish him with good rune control.

So in a nut shell, Lanaya's early game is about farming, seeking opportunities to strike and accumulate advantage.

Mid Game

Mid game is when you truly shines, maxed Refraction gives you lots of survivability as well as damage, and Meld will crush squishy heros. But be wise about when to fight, choose fights that will go in your favor, Lanaya is very squishy and easily kited by some heroes, watch out for heroes that counters you and eliminate them quickly.

Try to control the tempo of the game, get items that you think will control the game the best. Play more farm heavy+solo kill if you go Yasha, get early team fights with Drum of Endurance's extra stats, or go snipe off squishy supports with your Blink Dagger. Try to keep your farm up in the mean time, if you are unable to finish the game off during mid game, or gain huge advantages, you have prepare your transition into the late game. (this happens a lot in pub games as you snowball but your team may throw and drag the game into late game...even happens when im stacking as 5)

Late Game

Choose your item build wisely, farm up ancient camps and sweep over creep waves ASAP, try to keep efficiency at farming while planting traps at crucial locations throughout the map. Late game information wins games, knowing your enemy's movement and anticipate them is important. Lanaya is not a real late game carry, so play smart. Sniping roshan is a piece of cake and you should always do it when possible.

Friends/Foes

Friends

Any hero with stuns, CC is a good ally for Lanaya. More armor reduction is also more than welcome. Since Lanaya is generally the 2 row, I will list good partners from 1-5 roles separately.

1 Role

Lifestealer, benefits well from your armor reduction and great focus fire..just a good hero in general.
Shadow Fiend, shadow friend is your best friend, more armor reduction with scary burst.
Gyrocopter, he creates chaos at fights and deals AOE damage, usually results in you to clean up fights.
Medusa, i have never tried medusa before but her newly reworked ultimate seems legit.
Razor, A front line tank, that also reduces armor, razor is an ideal partner for lanaya.

3 Role

Elder Titan, his aura is some BS, reduces base armor to 0? Welp, also your trap can setup his stomp quite well.
Bounty Hunter, track gives vision prevent jukes, and gives much needed speed bonus for your short range, probably the best partner Lanaya can dream for.
Batrider, i think this hero works well with everything...so im just gonna put it up here anyways.
Enigma, Black Hole can set you up for some sweet Psi Blades splashes, some easy yolo swag triple kill if enigma lands a big black hole.

Supporters

Visage, you burst, he bursts as well, Meld pretty much gives visage instant 3-4 charges of Soul Assumption, insane burst damage. His familiars also benefits from your armor reduction, and your trap can setup some familiar stuns.
Ogre Magi, huge shout out to this hero, Bloodlust is just too good, Fireblast is also great setup.
Crystal Maiden, the aura actually solves your mana problem, and CM's skill set is quite good for Lanaya to do damage.
Shadow Demon, you walk up, Disruption->soul catcher-> Meld=dead hero, plain and simple.
Abaddon, a some what forgotten supporter who has a 15% speed bonus to allies with just 1 skill point. Also can take off stuns with Aphotic Shield, a great supporter to have.




FOES

Heroes with strong damage overtime and superior armor really makes Lanaya suffer. The list goes on but I will list a few that you will have tough time dealing with.

Batrider, probably the biggest pain of Lanaya, removes your Refraction with ease, and can fu*k you up in lane. His Flamebreak also cancels your Meldinvis, no where to hide from this guy. I will write extensively on how to lane against bat in the match-up section.

Dark Seer, you slow, he Surge, you Refraction, he Ion Shell, starts with 5 armor, just WTF man. Mid game vac+wall combo will destroy you, he is a pain in the ***.

Tinker, not a horrible lane but just a pain in the *** to play against, you can never kill him due to his Laser, he spams March of the Machines so you cant dive him, he stops pushes. And once he gets Boots of Travel+ Blink Dagger, games over.

Warlock, team fight boss, Hit R, win team fight. No way around him, try to position yourself better and maybe pick him off with blink+massive damage late game.

Viper, he fu*ks you up on almost all stage of the game, his attack speed slow is just too much that forces you to buy AS item to even have a chance at killing him. If you accidently Psi Blades him, his Corrosive Skin will slow you even if you have BKB, his ultimate goes through bkb as well..just fu*k this guy.

Timbersaw, you can deal with him early because of his low armor, and he takes a few hits to stack up armor, but once he gets farmed, becomes a pain to deal with. His Chakramwill chew through your Refraction and slow you at the same time.

Treant Protector, when this hero is on the opposing team, just forget about killing early, farm your item and rape late game. He makes you do NO damage...what a hero.

Mekansm, I put mek here because mek is the ultimate counter to Lanaya, if the enemy team farms an early mek and team fight you, you are mostly useless, it greatly reduces your early game damage output.

Mid Lane Match-up against Bat Rider

I will continuously update this section....hoefully

Batrider

As worse as it is, there is a few way you can beat bat in 1V1 mid with Lanaya. However if the opponents knows what they are doing, Bat should always crush you..but since most opponents are not so experienced, you can get around with some tricks.

Skill Build
1=Q 2=W 3=E 4=R
E-Q-W-W-W-R

I do this alternative skill build verses bat, starts off with Psi Blades, because at level one bat can only stack Sticky Napalm on you and right click you. He wont win too much trade if you land a few splashes, keeping bat's hp at a moderate amount is the key to win this match-up.

I will take Refraction at level 2 fore more harassment with Psi Blades, also helps you shuffle the lane towards him. Then I max Meld, but I do not use it unless he decides to commit to a kill, maxing Meld is a surprising factor that might caught Bat off guard, the extra armor reduction will come in handy if bat takes too much creep and tower damage.

Most bats will make a go on you at level 4 to 5, you will have level 2-3 Meld to dual him.

item Build
Start with: 3 Iron Branch+1 Tango+ Magic Stick, Rush Boots of Speed when you have gold.
Bat also has **** range, so he wont harass you too much with right click unless you take too many stacks, start with magic stick can save you up some mana to spam Refraction early to get some much needed last hit. Each last hit is very important as it contributes to your Boots of Speed, which greatly reduces his killing potential.

How to play the lane

IMPORTANT NOTE: ALWAYS FACE YOUR TOWER IF YOUR NOT GOING TO LAST HIT, BY DOING THIS YOU ELIMINATE 50% OF BATS KILLING POTENTIAL.

The first wave: Block as much as you can, if the wave ends up in your on tower its even better, try to auto attack the creep as much as you can, try to line up a few Psi Blades splash, clear the first wave as fast as possible and get to level 2. Try not to get denied as getting to level 2 is a big deal. After the wave is done, the creep wave will most likely end up in the enemy's tower range. If you are on the Radiant, you can go stack up the small neutral camp, it will come in handy very soon. If you are on dire, just try last hit with refraction, constantly move left and right to see if you are lucky to dodge one napalm stack. Bat cant go on you at lvl 2 unless you got 7-10 stacks, so it shouldn't be too bad.

With the starting item, you will need to farm 300 gold for your boots, which is around 7 creeps, try to get it by the 3rd creep wave, it shouldn't be too hard. Use the stick charges to replenish your hp/mana, spam Refraction for 1-2 last hit, do this until bat reaches level 3.

After level 3: Once bat has level 2 napalm, he can play a lot more aggressive, each stack slows you by 5%, so a 4-5 stack he will be able to kill you. Save up the magic stick charge now, it should be easily maxed at 10 charge. Play safe, face back when not last hitting, refraction up and go for one single strike to last hit only, then backs off. If you take too much stacks(4+) just go back and hide. If you are on the radiant side its even better, you can use refraction and meld to kill small camp, you can kill a stacked small camp with ease, just remember to draw them out and line up for [[psi blades].

At level 4: At level 4 bat will have the choice of going Flamebreak for a higher kill potential, or level 2 Firefly. His choice does not matter to us but you do have to keep an eye on a lvl 6 flame break into lasso combo. For now if you have Boots of Speed+ Magic Wand, you have a choice of fighting him if you have full HP. Lets say the creeps are in the middle of the river, you take 4 stacks of napalm and still goes for a last hit, most bat will go on you. DO NOT POP REFRACTION AND WAND, JUST RUN STRAIGHT BACK TO YOUR OWN TOWER, your HP will drop pretty quick but its fine. RIGHT AS you reached tower range, you will have around 6-7 stack on you, 200+hp and 15 charge wand, suddenly stop running by using Meld, bat will run infront of you a little trying to cover your retreat path with firelfy, use this time to get off a Meld strike, this is the only time that you do not need to turn back to attack. Pop the Magic Wand and Refraction at the last second, say around 100 hp, and man fight, you are almost sure to win.
When I'm at level 4, I had 5 stack on me, full health, maxed wand charges, I decided that it is the time to go. Note that I preemptively used a tango, just to give me as much HP to work with as possible. The Bat took Flamebreak at level 4 so I know he only had 1 points in fire fly, having aroudn 7 stack on me will deal 7*15+20 damage per second via firefly, consider I have 660 health, I should be able to survive 5 seconds. The bat has bottle, 3 branches and boots at this moment, I had magic wand and boots.
When Bat just reached tower range, I used Meld and strike without turning back, used Refraction and max wand at 100 hp, after 2 refraction hits, batrider falls to tower attacks ending with me surviving around 200 hp.

Remember, this trick only works on inexperienced player, which accounts like 99% of Dota2's player population....in other words, ITS VERY LIKELY TO WORK.

If the bat plays super passive, and doesnt go on you, take level 2 Refraction at level 5 and push the lane out, only getting 1 last hit per wave is fine as long as you dont get 3+stacks and get out. Bottle crow and farm your jungle, stacking big camps farming small ones, you wont fall behind that much. Once you have Power Treads+ Magic Wand, it becomes harder for bat to solo kill you. Max Refraction by 8 and you can easily push the lane with just 3 auto attacks.Once you reach 6, have multiple traps in the mid lane so even if bat Flaming Lasso you, you can slow him and not get dragged too far out.

The main theme is to push and jungle, carry TP to counter gank side lanes, bottle crow 24/7. Bat will not have much opening to kill you and will just farm his blink.

Mid Lane Match-up against Queen of Pain

Queen of Pain

QOP is a hard match-up for Lanaya, especially if the QoP is skilled or pooled regen. However with many little tricks you can turn this match-up completely upside down, making you crush the opponent.

Note that these tricks will most likely not work against pro or good players, they may help you crush noobs or win with even skills.

starting item
3 Iron Branch+1 Tango+1 Healing Salve

First thing to do in lane is to click on the enemy hero, see what she buys, with or without sentry. Her starting damage is quite irrelevant, but how much regen does she have is the key. If she went 1 Tango with no Healing Salve, you can aggressively trade with her via Psi Blades. If she starts with 1 Tango and 1 Healing Salve, you will mostly play passive.

If you see no Sentry Wardin her inventory, start with Meld.

Meld can be used to dodge her Shadow Strike easily, the key is to have your headset or earphones on, just hit W when you hear the striking sound, its a big 'piang' sound that can be easily heard. As soon as you hear the sound, hit W, it will miss! No matter how hard the QOP fake casts, just wait for the sound effect, as if she fake casts, no sound effect will occur.

When you see QOP starts with sentry, see if its bought by herself. 200 gold early game is quite huge and will greatly slow her Bottle. If you see the qop used all the starting gold, typically with Sentry Ward+3 Iron Branch+1 Tango+1 Healing Salve, you can just get Psi Blades and trade hits with her. Since the cast range for Shadow Strike is very low, she will have to walk up and Shadow Strike you, which makes her easy target to land a few Psi Blades splash.

If the sentry is pooled...well you can curse their supports and hope your side lane wins, try to play passive, farm with Refraction and push the lane with Psi Blades to go for runes. If things does not go your way, just Bottle+ Flying Courier. I would personally just up the courier myself since you dont need boots to lane against QOP, you cant kill her anyways..up the courier yourself gives you more privilege to bottle crow.



Now there are certain tricks you can utilize to gain advantage in this lane.

1. Pulling creep aggro to land Psi Blades splash. You can easily achieve this when QOP is trying to last hit, you can walk up, right click on QOP when you are 200 range away from their melee creep. By doing this the creep will start chasing you and attack you, side step so you form a line with the creep and QOP, pop refraction and land a few hits. This will also distract their last hit tempo as you take damage away from the enemy creep and might result in QOP missing last hit and take damage.

Note that this trick is a must-learn for Lanaya players if you want to play better, Mushi does this all the time..its a difficult trick to master, but totally worth practicing. It works in other match-ups as well, especially verses Melee mid, so TRY TO DO THIS, IT WORKS!

2. Using up hill in your advantage. When creeps are fighting on your side of the ramp, if you stay on the ramp and QOP is in the river, she will not have vision on you. This up-hill down-hill advantage can be used to juke spells, if the QOP tries to Shadow Strike you while shes down hill and you are up hill, you can quickly run up to the hill. Her cast animation is very long, you can make her lose vision mid cast. But dont just stop there, most player will back off if the shadow strike did not cast, turn right back down and give her a Meld!
Lets pretend the melee creep is low. QOP is trying to last hit the creep, I walked down the ramp a bit and QOP immediately reacted by trying to Shadow Strike me, I simply take 1 step back, QOP stopped mid cast and now continues her attempt at lasthiting the melee creep, I can just walk back down the ramp and Meld in her face. QOP has very low armor so this HURTS even if its only a level 1 meld.

3. Bottle crowing, not really a skill but you MUST DO THIS against QOP...just do it. If the lane goes well you can just use 2 charge of bottle so the courier fly at normal speed, but I recommend using 3 charges and speed burst your bottle home.

If you master the above 3 tricks, QOP should have a hard time, her armor is really low so every hit you land on her counts. Her Shadow Strike ticks once per 3 seconds so it does not instantly take off your Refraction, use this to man fight QOP when she tries to harass you. Always bottle crow so even if you trade more HP for less of hers, its still in your favor. QOP will most likely bottle crow as well, catch her bottle crow down time to push the wave and gamble for runes, it will most likely payoff as ANY of the runes will help you greatly against QOP.

Impossible Match-ups

There are certain heroes that just crushes Lanaya no matter what you do. Try to dodge these heroes in mid.

Huskar, this guy can kill you over and over again, you have absolutely no way to deal with him, get BKB as first item and hope for the best.

Troll Warlord, this guy dump on most mid heroes, including Lanaya. You can some what last hit but a good troll will make you suffer a lot. You wont ever be able to solo kill him..and he will spam and take all your runes.

Viper, no way to lane this guy, even bottle crow wont help you, just call for ganks if you are facing him.

Lone Druid, theres probably not that many good bear players, but a skillful bear player will crush you. You can use Psi Blades to punish inexperienced bear players when they send the bear on you, but still a hard match-up.

Razor, If the razor knows the trick you will get owned. But since most players dont, I will write about razor later, about how to bait out his Static Link, trying to control the creep equilibrium and you may win this match-up.

Dark Seer, just switch lanes you have no chance. He will likely creep skip once he has the bottle. DS is also super hard to gank, so just dont go TA if you think DS is going mid.

6.79 changes! coming soon

6.79 is released today, theres major changes. Especially on the laning stage, i will update the guide once I played enough games to make my judgement.