Try to Elude Me! A Guide to Templar Assassin!

Who is Lanaya?

bent, she spent her early years engaged in meticulous study of nature's laws--peering into grimoires of magic and alchemy, recreating experiments from charred fragments of the Violet Archives, and memorizing observations of the Keen recordkeepers. Already quiet and secretive by nature, the difficulty of acquiring these objects further reinforced her skills of stealth. Had she been less retiring, she might have become notorious among the guilds as a thief-scholar. Instead her investigations led her into far more obscure corners. As she devoted her furtive talents to unlocking the secrets of the universe, she instead unlocked a secret door that exists in nature itself: the entryway to the most Hidden Temple. The intelligences that waited beyond that portal, proved to be expecting her, and whatever mysteries they revealed in the moment of their discovery was nothing compared to the answers they held out to Lanaya should she continue in their service. She swore to protect the mysteries, but more to the point, in service to the Hidden Temple she satisfies her endless craving for understanding. In the eyes of each foe she expunges, a bit more of the mystery is revealed.

Why pick Templar Assassin?

her abilities, psi blade, Refraction, Meld, and Psionic Traps. She has great mobility and with proper positioning can attack multiple enemies at once, making her an ideal damage dealer. Eventually she can be built as a pusher and initiator as well, making her quite versatile. Now lets get onto her skills. Refraction, her first ability, allows her to block up to 4 instances of incoming damage, while giving bonus damage. This ability scales quite well, allowing you too last hit easier in laning and get a bit greedy on tower diving in the early game while ganking. Her second ability, Meld is one of my favorites. Not only does it have a bad-*** looking animation, but she turns invisible while standing still. After attacking she not only deals bonus damage but reduces armor too! And that combines with Desolator! IS THIS EVEN LEGAL. Her third ability Psi Blades lets you attack multiple targets if you can get the angles right. It even hits invisible targets! Get harassed Riki who chooses to go mid! The best part is that this even works when you deny. So you can actually last hit and deny at the same time! Her ultimate ability Psionic Traps allows you to slow an enemy and gives you vision. Supports won't buy wards? Make your own rune wards!

Pros and Cons

Pros Great for transition between early and mid game. Great laning potential early game with psi blades and Refraction. Meld armor reduction is very helpful in teamfights against the enemy carry After Desolator she has high kill potential High potential to snowball out of control Great rune control in laning phase

Cons [-]Remains relatively squishy throughout the entire game [-]Begins to fall off late game if she didn't get the farm she needs [-]Counter'd through dust and damage over time heroes like Pudge's Rot and Venomancer

Ability Build

farmer, or iv'e even seen her jungle (but don't recommend it). Choose this build primarily when playing as a ganker or the damage dealer of the team. As far as abilities go I think it really depends against who you decide to lane against. When you have ranged advantage be sure to max Psi Blades first as compared to Refraction. This ensures that you have maximum harass and you might even get first blood from that ranged creep the Pudge is standing next too :). Meld in my opinion isn't very good in the early game and is mainly used for getting the final blow on your opponent. Primarily use it offensively rather then as an escape because it very rarely works. Later on though, if you choose to get Blink Dagger the meld is a great way to not be damaged from a team of right clicking heroes who wont buy Dust of Appearance. (heroes like Skywrath Mage, Sniper, Lina and most other ranged heroes) will tend to be an issue especially early game. Going the build that I show here helps to withstand a bit more harass and deal extra last hitting damage. After that the abilities are up to you. For abilities after the laning and farming I usually skill Meld and Psi Blades evenly, maxing your ult when you can. I've seen some Templar Assassin players skipping their ult entirely, thinking that they can go full damage and i think this is an absolute mistake. Lanaya's ultimate is an ability that I think is over looked. I tend to use it for the slow very rarely, and use it more like a mini ward. When in the late-laning phase and beginning to move more towards ganking the rune control that psionic trapss gives you is great. Place one on each rune spot ALWAYS, and if the enemy is also paying attention place one on their stairs leading down to the river. If you are racing the enemy to the rune, activate the trap on their stairs when they reach it and you will get the rune almost always.

Item Build

to utilize the Bottle rush strategy even though its a little greedy. 3 Iron branches give you a little bit of health and damage early, and helps because you almost always end up building this into a wand. I know, I know, asking for Tango (Shared)'s can be difficult especially in scrub tier. Sometimes you get lucky, but even without these you'll live long enough to buy your Bottle. There have been some games where it is a great choice to pick up the Hand of Midas. The only times I would buy this is if 1) your the only carry that has hard carry potential on your team 2) you can get it before 10 minutes. your opponent considerably, Phase Boots in a necessity. If your a bit behind and are going to need to focus a lot more on late game get Power Treads for the extra stats. After your early game item pickups you should have gotten a kill or two ganking, and be doing well on farm. Try to get your Desolator as soon as possible. This item is my favorite thing on Lanaya because it makes sure that you absolutely MELT your opponents. You thought you were doing damage before? Now you hit harder then a truck speeding down the freeway. Combine this with your Psionic Traps correctly and your opponents will be hopelessly trying to run away from their inevitable death. Beautiful. I tend to get a Yasha because late game Manta Style is almost always a great option for pushing down towers and even during team fights where you need a bit more damage output. After that do whatever you feel fits your situation. Team has no initiation? Why not get a Blink Dagger? Feel like you want to melt opponents even faster? Take a look at the damage dealing items like Butterfly and (my favorite) daedelus. Nothing, I repeat, Nothing is more satisfying then getting a lucky critical hit off and melting an enemy support in two hits, or god forbid one. If the game is going on a bit longer then you want and you've already picked up your damage items I feel like it is a good idea to get items such as Black King Bar (if the team has some stuns that get you worried), Monkey King Bar (screw phantom assassin man), Assault Cuirass (for tanking if you are the primary target. Helps with initiation too), and a Satanic (for 1v1's with the enemy hard carry). Situational items are quite diverse for Lanaya. Boots of Travel are great for split pushing and getting to a team fight after a necessary buyback. Divine Rapier? Lets be honest here. Everyone loves getting a rapier. If its 35 minutes and your already at the opponents tier four towers you might as well because the second a hero respawns taking them out just makes the game end faster and at that point the odds are slim. No but seriously only really get a Divine Rapier unless you like throwing games, or you feel confident enough and your team is communicating VERY well. Only application for it is if you have Aegis of the Immortal with it and in that case you've basically already won.

Authors Note

same name. This is my first build and I plan to update it as I get better at dota. No i am not a pro player but I think that my understanding of this hero is good enough to share so please respect that. If you enjoyed this guide rate it up so others can enjoy it too! Thanks!
~Chaotic5555