exhaustive lina pub ownage guide !!!

Introduction

Lina is extremely versatile nuker/carry hero. you can own almost every game with her if played correctly. She is powerful early mid and even late game (except against some hard carries).


when to pick lina

1. enemy team has at least two or three low hp heroes
2. enemy team has no one to sneak up on you ( like bounty hunter or rikimaru or even phantom assassin )
3. you feel like raping everyone ;)

Explanation - items

Even when playing lina as the carry the early game will still be of that of nuker lina. U need the mana and mana regen to cast your spells quickly. So the early items are all related to mana and mana regen. Also lina needs her spells to farm quickly and get her late/mid game items.

Later items are to make her a mid/late game DPSr. Most people ignore this phase and thus can't utilise her to her full potential. U can switch daedalus for a MKB if you want depending on the situation. also you can build orchid malevolence after daedelus for maximum damage output early on. But you can get monkey king bar to break channeleing and get true strike against heroes with miss chance.

laning and ganking

MID LANE
Most suitable lane for a carry lina would be mid. Her missile speed is a little slow and also attack animation takes a little getting used to perfect the last hits. Your goal here should be to get enough farm for your ring of bassilus and boots. Dragon slave should be your key skill hereif you see enemy creeps with low hp and the enemy hero behind them use dragon slave to take creeps and harras. Most heroes won't be able to farm in front of you. killing them now is cool but even sending them back to heal will mean a huge advantage to you and your team.
True range of dragon slave is more than cast range : knowing and abusing this fact will give you a huge advantage. u can dragon slave from safe distance if you click in direction of the hero but a lot away from them.

level 6, laguna blade, time to shine
You may get a bottle and try rune whoring too but she doesn't make the best use of the runes except invisibility and haste. An invisibility rune at level 6 means a sure kill just wait for the enemies to go out of position then go light strike array >> dragon slave auto attacks, u should be able to kill them with just these spells and a little help from your ally heroes but if they have a lot of hp left or if u missed you can ultimate them to death. Even half health of most agility/ intelligence heroes means insta gib from laguna blade.

Try to target low hp heroes and out of position heroes. Lina is not very good at tower diving but if the hero seems one laguna blade away from death you may tower dive and kill them.

mid game

Mid game for lina is on level 11 - 12. This is the strongest time for lina you can kill anyone right now coz you have the stongest nuke in game and also you have a lot of attack speed and movement speed ( after casting spells ). You can take down anyone right now.
You should already have force staff arcane boots and ring of bassilus by now. And if you are able to take down everyone you should get orchid melovelence. This will make you an absolute killer. But if you are not feeling that confident you should get ultimate orbs to complete your eye of skadi. You can also get helm of dominator to get life steal which will give you a lot survivability thatnx to fiery souls.

And if you are able to get eye of skadi, crystalisis and helm of dominator by level 16 you can solo roshan. Ya I know it sounds crazy soloing Roshan with lina but believe me I've done this almost every game with her.

Using force staff can get you a lot of kills and can also save you from dire situations. Always keep one finger on force staff. U can double click force staff and immediately cast light strike array for a nearly sure area stun. U'll be able to land the stun most times if you are not playing against super pros with jackie chan fingers.

Late game and team fights

do not initiate with a light strike array unless they are unaware of you presence. Light strike array is useful as a second/follow up stun. Let an initiator do the job then follow up with you combo and right click all those lived to death. eye of skadi + daedelus will mean no one u target will escape.

Remember that you are only a DPSr while fiery souls is active. Whenever it goes off, get back a little and within seconds u'll have your spells again cast again and out DPS the enemy. Hit and run would be the most effective tactic for her.

Coordinate and communicate well with your team. avoid soloing hard carries like phantom lancer or void, although you can take on the likes of troll or phantom asassin if you are able to orchid them and maintain you distance.

Summary

Lina is a really fun hero to play, but playing her as the carry requires a little bit of talent. If you are new to DOTA you should avoid playing lina as the carry. Go for a support/nuker build get scythe of vyse and mekansm and help your carry and win the game.