Battle Lina v1.0

WRONG!

You're sticking too fast to the traditional way of thinking in dota. If ANY hero in the game has a passive that gives them 225 attack speed, they're going to be decent as a carry. That being said, she doesn't have the ability to outcarry heroes like Phantom Lancer or Anti Mage. She is best played in position 2-4. She can be played quite well as a late game support as is custom, but is also viable as a semicarry. Buy some damage items, and she can semicarry quite well. There is one problem with this, however. Lina is freaking squishy as hell. You need to have a good sense of map awareness to try and not get ganked, and you need to have an excellent sense of positioning. There's also several ways of building semicarry Lina.

Some of these people are utterly ******ed.
Lina is a viable semi-carry, if played correctly. Any "first-rate ganker" naturally has semi-carry potential and don't fall well into the hard support category. That said, I think a carry-orientated Lina is comparable to a sniper, but with more early game presence and less scaling ability for late game. So to the ******s saying that Lina is too soft/squishy or lacks mobility too much to be a carry, what would you say a sniper or drow ranger is?

The items section could do with some work.
I'd strongly recommend shadowblade as a core item, it provides some dps and grants an escape/initaition tool.
Alternatively, blink or force staff could be place into a situational section. These items help for Lina's lack of mobility skills and a force staff would be great to escape Riki's smoke for example.
Maelstrom/mjollnir works wonders with Lina's attack speed buff, improves farm rate and gives somewhat of a split push potential.
Orchid is great if you can pick it up early enough. It reallys helps to shut down certain heroes, particularly those with escape/mobility skills.
Manta Style could also be a situational/luxury, which would synergise well with skadi and a daedelus

Some of these people are utterly ******ed.
Lina is a viable semi-carry, if played correctly. Any "first-rate ganker" naturally has semi-carry potential and don't fall well into the hard support category. That said, I think a carry-orientated Lina is comparable to a sniper, but with more early game presence and less scaling ability for late game. So to the ******s saying that Lina is too soft/squishy or lacks mobility too much to be a carry, what would you say a sniper or drow ranger is?

The items section could do with some work.
I'd strongly recommend shadowblade as a core item, it provides some dps and grants an escape/initaition tool.
Alternatively, blink or force staff could be place into a situational section. These items help for Lina's lack of mobility skills and a force staff would be great to escape Riki's smoke for example.
Maelstrom/mjollnir works wonders with Lina's attack speed buff, improves farm rate and gives somewhat of a split push potential.
Orchid is great if you can pick it up early enough. It reallys helps to shut down certain heroes, particularly those with escape/mobility skills.
Manta Style could also be a situational/luxury, which would synergise well with skadi and a daedelus

Used this guide 2 years ago as a player who had no idea what they were doing and it more often than not worked. In retrospect it was a fairly greedy and silly build, but even now that I am experienced enough to understand dota 2 on my own without a need for guides like this I kinda like it. It's a fun build.

Not even an honorable mention to Orchid Malevolence? While not the best, it adds the three things this build endorses - Int, Damage, and Attack Speed.

logged in just to downvote this.

Sure Phase Boots are a good choice if you feel you need them, perhaps a situational items.
Personally I like to go Tranquil boots first so that I have more lane stability after my tangos/pots are gone.

My order (not including courier etc) is:
Tranqs > Wand > Eul's > Arcane Boots > Aghanims > Desolator

I'm a only Lina picking Dota noob with a question: How about Phase Boots?

It get's me out of trouble very often. Out of Rikis Cloud f.e., maybe out of Pudge's range (at least if he's as noob, as I am.). And the little cheap/early damage helps in lasthitting.

Excellent guide! :D +1 Though you may want to add shadow blade as an alternative... As a carry people will find it usually more favorable to focus you and as Lina is squishy... :)

4 Divines + MoM + BKB is my standard build, and I pretty much own every single bot with it

Would it be too much trouble to explain why Orchid Malevolence wouldn't be a good item for this build? I can't say I've tested it, but Intelligence/Damage/Attack Speed/Mana Regen... what more could a carry Lina want? That is, besides a Silence for heroes like Riki or Drow that basically guarantees their death with the extra damage AND disable; I couldn't possibly see why someone would pick up Radiance (which is a much more difficult item to piece together for a hero who, being so easily squished, has a tough time assembling all of its parts) over this item.

In fact, I tend to see a lot of people overlook poor Orchid.. am I just missing something?

Very Nice Guide
Up for me! :)