Run like the Wind

About Windrunner

So you wanna learn about the redheaded Lyralei? This guide is a build more suited to being a semi-carry, but can function as lane support and pressure as well.

The Windrunner has a disable, an escape skill, a nuke, and a self-buff. This variety of skills lend to her being an all-around character, suitable for ganking, team fights, carrying, 1v1 scenarios, and last hitting.

Pros / Cons

Pros

A variety of skills and uses
Easy to use skills
A useful escape for the suicide lane and other scenarios
Well rounded for the most part

Cons

Low health
Susceptible to nukes
Skills are hard to master.

Skills

You can see the skill order suggestion up there, but for our purposes, that is very flexible depending on the way you're playing. For lane support, mid laning, and harassing, we max our Powershot first. By level 7 you've got a 360 damage nuke that works especially well against some of the nukers and carries if you hit them first.

For the first 8 levels, you pick only Powershot and Windrun.
WHY? Won't it be difficult to kill this way? Actually, no. Especially if the opponent underestimates your Powershot. It is completely possible to get early game kills with just these two abilities, and a good lane partner.

Your Windrun functions as your escape skill but that's not all. Often, sometime in the level 3-4 area, an opponent or two will commit to killing at least one of you. If at least one of them is a dps hero, then Windrun allows you to turn the tables when it's getting rough. That early in the game, your Windrun will be very short, but allows you to dodge a couple of attacks. Couple that with a perfectly lined Powershot or two and you can get kills early on.

Later, maxing out your Shackleshot is key to gaining the advantage in team fights and in preventing your opponents from pushing a lane. At this point, it's usually more useful than Focus Fire. But read how your game is going. Sometimes adding a point or two of Focus Fire is more important than Shackleshot. Especially when you're taking down towers.>
You may find yourself more often using Focus Fire on towers rather than enemy heroes, and that's fine. However, in ganks and team fights, using that skill on a particularly tough enemy, or one you wish to get out of the way quickly, is wonderful.

Items

All right. Now most people buy a lot of stuff for heroes early on, one of them being the town portal which is very useful. However, for this build, we DON'T want to go home at all. The longer we can stay in lane, the better. Which leads us to our starter item.
The Bottle. Now the bottle is usually most useful when in the mid lane, where Lyralei is often placed. But this does not detract from its usefulness in the side lanes. You may ask why I don't choose the branches or something else to add to her stats. This is because aside from last-hitting and denying creeps, you'll be harassing enemies with your Powershot. You'll be using a lot of mana and just in case you get hurt, you've got a total of 300 hp in health in the bottle. Runes are your best friend. Each rune has something to offer Lyralei and being able to use it almost whenever you want is a big plus.

Tip: Against a dps hero with no usable nukes, Windrun + Bottle can heal you while you're escaping or fighting back.
The Phase Boots are often combined with Windrun to give you a large movespeed boost as well as phase so that creeps or enemies can't stop you by blocking your way. I choose these boots over the Power Treads because it gives more damage, Lyralei doesn't need the attack speed boost because Focus Fire gives her MAX attack speed, and it's cheaper by about 50 gold. You might choose Arcane Boots and that's fine.
Next up is the Orchid Malevolence. Its use is not simply for mana regeneration and attack boost as well as an attack speed bonus. Its primary function is to protect Lyralei from Nukers. Its Soul Burn active not only silences the enemy but they take more damage as well. You'll need quick hands to pull this off sometimes. Some may dispute the usefulness of the OM, and that's okay. There are other builds and some are more useful than others. You can even try out your own builds. This item, however, may take awhile to completely get.
The Aghanim's Scepter is often a luxury item or a situational item. For this build, you'll want it. Pushing lanes with this is a breeze since it gives you focus fire every 15 seconds. If you've been playing well enough, you can tear down an entire tower in the time it takes them to walk from the base to it. Also very useful against Roshan. Since the duration of the skill is longer than its cooldown now, you can solo Roshan with ease if you have lifesteal, which this item also helps you with.
This is just for lifesteal. This way, you don't die so easily in a fight. you can choose to upgrade this to a Helm/Satanic ASAP or wait until later.
Why this? It provides you with a nice little damage bonus, as well as an extra disable albeit a bit short. Coupled with Focus Fire and the Scepter, you can be sure of proccing this item's effect. Also, this provides you with a possible extra luxury item, the Abyssal Blade, should you want more damage.
You can buy this interchangeably with the Basher. This little item can proc a whole lot during Focus Fire and should you want to upgrade it to Daedalus, you can do so. It mitigates the damage reduction of Focus Fire in small bursts but very deadly ones on whomever it is aimed.

If you'll notice about my first few items, all of their components are easily obtainable in a side lane. Which is why you don't want nor should you have to leave it until later. This gives you extra lane pushing/pressure capabilities. Be careful though, as that will make you seem like a threat.

Tips and Tricks

Runes:

Regeneration - This is most useful when you're VERY low on health and mana. It charges both right up and fills your bottle. Time its use right, and you're not leaving that lane any time soon.

Illusion - The illusions this ruune gives can amplify your damage output, redirect your enemy's attention, or even make them waste their skills. If you send the illusions out one at a time, an unwary enemy may unleash his ultimate on it, rendering him weaker against you. At early game, it can cause your enemies to waste all their mana, leaving you free to pick them off with your lane partner.

Double Damage - time this rune right. Nobody wants to fight someone with this rune. So you should activate it only when your opponent has committed to fighting you. Then activate Windrun and watch them writhe in terror.

Invisibility - with this you can position yourself for a good powershot or shackleshot or even just a surprise attack with your lane partner in early game.

Haste - Useful for escaping, chasing, and positioning for a good shackle or powershot. That extra movespeed can have many uses if you put your mind to it.

Skills:

Powershot - get used to using this skill. Not just about hitting your enemy but hitting a moving target. With enough practice, you can predict where to shoot a Powershot and kill low health heroes even when they're invisible. Can you shoot blind into fog of war and hit an escaping hero? Try it once or twice.

Shackleshot - This skill is not just about finding a good spot to shackle your oppnent. It's also drawing your opponent in so that he puts himself in a position to be shackled. Also learn to discriminate when positioning yourself for a shackleshot while getting hit is a viable strategy or use windrun to position yourself.

Windrun - Don't stick to using this as an escape. Remember, dps heroes with no nuke can be defeated with wise use of this skill. Couple it with shackleshot immediately before or after and you have almost 9 seconds of free shots against your enemy.

Focus Fire - A flurry of arrows is well and good but the difficulty is keeping your target. Don't be afraid to lose the buff this skill provides if it will aid your team in the long run.