Lanaya, from newbie to master of the temple

Introduction

According to many people, Lanaya is one of the hardest hero to use. And actually, she requires good skills in order to be mastered.
Using the Templar Assassin will require good reflexes and positioning and a great map awareness in order to be useful not just as a simple carry.
Against the right heroes, Lanaya can easily stomp the middle lane, thanks to her ability to block every attack she receives using Refraction and her state-of-the-art harassment tool, the Psi Blades.
Her Psionic Trap not only improves her ganking abilities but also can be used to ward the map and help your team mates from afar.
This guide is designed to introduce the Templar Assassin's gameplay to those who never approached her before and then to get a deeper view into more unconventional, risky or anti-counter builds

PS: As I said in my first guide for Bounty Hunter, I'm not english, so I apologize for any grammatical or lexical error.

Pros & Cons

PROS

Meld deals a great bonus damage and reduces enemies' armor
Psionic Trap can be used as a ganking and "warding" tool
Can deal high damage and also survive against tremendous nukes like Assassinate thanks to Refraction
Psi Blades are a great harassing instrument
Shines during the mid game
CONS

Very squishy
High map awareness required in order to use Psionic Trap at its full power
Lacks of a real escape mechanism
Doesn't have a disable or a stun
Damage-over-Time attacks completely shut down Refraction's shield
Requires a long lasting survival and farm to stay on the lead during the late game

Picking the Templar Assassin

Pick Templar Assassin when...

You have a team with at least one good AoE spell
Your team mates can assist you during ganks with disables and/or stuns or, at worst, slows
The enemy team picked a hero countered by Templar (ez mid, gg fast, delete dota, commend me)
There are enough supportive spells to initiate a teamfight, giving you time to right click enemies to death
There are no hard counters in the enemy team or no more than 2 soft counters (see the Foes chapter below)

Don't pick Templar Assassin when...

Your team has no AoE/initiation ( Magnus could be a better pick, for example)
There are no safe stuns your team can use
There is a hard counter against you
You can't rely on frequent initiation (unless you're a good Lanaya player)
Your team lacks of tankiness (Tanky Templar build can overcome this, but don't push your luck too much)
The enemy team has one core escaper (like Anti-Mage) and no one in your team can stop him from blinking away

Skills

Refraction

The most useful skill in the list: Refraction deflects any incoming damage up to 3/4/5/6 attacks, turning even the most powerful nukes into a slightly colder breeze.
This also applies on DoT damage like Ion Shell, which can therefore destroy your shield in a bunch of seconds.
Also, the damage bonus you get using this skill is fearsome in the early game (20/40/60/80) and is your main way to take down your foes

Meld

No enemy is strong enough when he has to deal with a massive armor reduction.
Meld is an all in one skill: gives you invisibility (although also inability to move) for an indefinite amount of time, deals bonus damage to your enemy if you break the invisibility attacking and finally reduces his armor.

Psi Blades

Psi Blades are your harassment tool during the laning phase: you can consider them an extension of your hits, since every attack landed on an enemy unit passes through him and is then splitted so that it may hit other units positioned behind him.
In other words, you can attack multiple enemy creeps AND the enemy midlaner at the same time, and this goes even when you're denying an unit.
Moreover invisible foes are still hit by psi blades so that good positioning may give you the chance to deal the final blow on that pesky 40-hp- Riki

Psionic Trap

This is your ganking tool: a small trap landed on any place of the map (including the Roshan Pit) that can be "detonated", slowing every nearby enemy unit.
The mana cost is extremely low (so you can spam it during a chase) and you can use them in various ways: setting up an ambush, warding specific areas (in particular the jungles and the Roshan Pit) and scouting a restricted area from the distance.
Keep in mind that the longer the trap has been placed, the slower your enemy will be

Builds

Showing my mysteries (Standard midlane build)

When should I use it?
This is the standard Templar Assassin's build which can be used in almost every scenario where picking Lanaya is viable.
By viable we only assume an absence of medium or strong counters in the enemy team.

Item Build

After purchasing ASAP a Bottle and a Blight Stone, your next item should be the core one of this build: the Blink Dagger.
The idea is simple: blink near an enemy, use Meld and immediately break the invisibility with an attack.
The damage is sky high in the early game and the armor reduction works in conjunction with a Desolator (which you'll get upgrading your Blight Stone).
Considering the extreme mobility you have with your Blink Dagger and the powerful slow of your Psionic Traps, you'll most likely never lose a fleeing hero.
At this point you have to decide whether to prioritize safety over brute force, by buying a Black King Bar, or boosting your damage with luxury items like Daedalus or Monkey King Bar
Usually, you'll feel safe enough with your dagger, which means you can skip the BKB unless the enemy team has more than one disable or stun.

Skill Build

Even though we're giving a big importance to your Blink Dagger-Meld combo, we're gonna max Refraction first for survival purposes.
2 levels of Meld are enough to tear down your foes in the early game (-4 armor is no joke) while on the other side you wanna be sure that after blinking right in front of your enemy you wanna be able to deal more than a single powerful hit and, most important, to survive incoming attacks.
Templar Assassin is one of the few heroes who can try to tower dive without being tanky, and this build tries to exploit every aspect of your Refraction.
Moving to the Psi Blades, considering you're going to blink rather than chase by foot, you won't need the increased range, leaving this skill last to be maxed.

The fastest of the Temple(Higher early impact)

When should I use it?
This is the build I follow the most.
You should choose this build whenever the enemy team has only one powerful stun or disable or one of your team mates can purge any debuff you may receive (like Omniknight).

Item Build

This build is pretty much like the previous one, with one big difference: the absence of the Blink Dagger, switching it with a Yasha
The upside is that you become faster, you get higher stats and deal more overall damage.
Also, you can later upgrade said Yasha into a Manta Style or, in case you got low farm, a Sange and Yasha, instead of having a slot occupied by an item which gives you no stats or damage.
The downside is that you lose your only escape mechanism.
For this reason we're going to put a Black King Bar into the core items list rather than the situational one.

Skill Build

Since we won't get too close to our foes as we could before with the Blink Dagger, we're forced to pick at least 2 levels of Psi Blades, otherwise our attacks' range will be minimum.
You may even consider picking a third level before maxing Meld in case one of your enemy has a notable movement speed like Spirit Breaker, making it harder to attack them.

Tank of the Temple (Tanky Templar)

When should I use it?
In a game where you can rely on other other heroes dealing a good amount of damage per second (this includes having a Sven laning with Io, just to make an example)and /or you have an enemy team who can prove himself extremely durable (like having Undying and Omniknight teaming up), this is what you gonna need.
You can also consider this a build to use against soft counters.

Item Build

The items' focus is to make you harder to take down, solving Templar's squishiness issues.
Your Yasha now teams up with an Orb of Venom later upgraded into an Eye of Skadi.
The Eye, in conjunction with a Manta Style, makes sure you can survive long enough in battle even without a Black King Bar - although still necessary against heavy nukers - slowing and damaging your foes letting your hard carry finishing the job.
A Satanic further increase your survivability while the Butterfly aims at making your illusions much more fearsome.
You can also consider getting an Assault Cuirass to improve your ability to maintain the slow debuff plus the armor decrease on your enemies while giving a nice aura to your allies.

Skill Build

Since you'll be more durable and your aim will be weakening your targets in order to make the carry's job easier, we're gonna max Meld first. Psi Blades' leveling up can be delayed again, since the slow debuff will be enough to keep your enemies close.

When the Temple has a bad day (anti-counter)

When should I use it?
This is the build you're gonna follow when you get countered, and I mean countered hard.
Your impact on the game will be minimal for a long time since you won't be able to gank without the risk of being killed and your actions in the laning phase should be as much defensive as possible to avoid feeding the enemy midlaner.

Item Build

Your Bottle will wait before being picked up, since you'll need all the healing possible in order to get some experience without being killed.
We're gonna get power threads and an Ogre Club in order to boost our hp and a Medallion of Courage to make ganks simpler.
The Desolator is still our way to go, but you'll need the Black King Bar ASAP.
A Force Staff gives you a better hp regen but, most important, is gonna be your only escape mechanism considering that you've been countered (and that usually means that our Blink Dagger has been countered too).
Heart of Tarrasque, Eye of Skadi and Heaven's Halberd are your survivability tools, each one with a different aim.
Need tons of hp to stay alive? Get the heart.
Need something to slow a fast enemy? Get the eye.
Need to stop a rightclick carry? Get the halberd (especially if there is a Slark in the team).
Considering you are not gonna be a full damage carry in the game, you may consider helping the team with an Orchid Malevolence to shut down enemy nukers.
A Scythe of Vyse is definetely an excellent pick up, should you get a lot of gold, especially if there are just a couple of counters against you.

Skill Build

Typically, a countered Templar is a Templar who can't use her Refraction: this means we're gonna max it later, giving our attention to Meld. We're even gonna get some stats before the last 2 levels of refraction in order to improve further our survivability.

How to Play - Early Game

This is probably the most crucial phase for Lanaya, considering that getting killed even once in the midlane will lead to delayed ganks and a (probably) awful ganking session, making you less powerful during the mid game.
The key for a successful laning phase is positioning: use your Psi Blades to harass as much as you can and take advantage of it even when you deny your creeps.
Last hitting won't be an issue, since you can always activate Refraction and get all the gold you need thanks to the bonus damage.
Lanaya is extremely susceptible to ganks: Meld will always help you stop getting attacked by your foes, should the enemy midlaner been joined by his allies, but as soon as you'll try to evade you're gonna break the invisibility and get your *** kicked.
Your 2 options are:
1) run for your life, hoping not to get killed (definetely the good thing to do if you have mana for Refraction)
2) break the invisibility by attacking one of your enemies, dealing the Meld bonus damage. Rinse and repeat until they leave or you get some backup

Early ganks should be avoided: unless your team has good disables, you can't gank the lanes effectively without your Psionic Trap.
The only notable exception is Rune of Speed: if you manage to get one, you can try your luck and reach as fast as you can one of the lanes and start chasing the weakest enemy: since you'll be able to keep him close to you, you can try to use the Meld combo repeatedly

As soon as you get to level 6, you're gonna place 3 Psionic Traps immediately.
The first 2 on the rune spots, giving you complete rune control.
The third one has to be placed in the middle lane; the position depends on the type of the enemy hero you're facing in the lane: if he's melee, place the trap exactly in the middle of the river, otherwise uphill.
This because you're gonna use your trap later, when he's less expecting you to ambush him.
The different position of the trap, according to the attack type of your enemy, is obviously conditioned by the fact that a ranged hero will hardly go so deep into unfriendly territory.

When you feel ready to attack him, detonate the trap and immediately place a second one on the path he's taking to go back under tower: this way you'll debuff him with a first huge slow and, once the effect has worn out, you can strike again detonating the second trap.
Unless your foe has a decent escape mechanism, he'll die in few seconds.
A fourth and final trap can be placed inside the Roshan Pit: this is obligatory in the mid game but can be necessary early game if the enemy team has an early roshan fighter like Ursa or Troll Warlord.

How to Play - Ganking & Chasing

Once you're level 6, you're ready to gank.
Before doing that, be sure that your lanes are not too pushed: in that case you may have issues ambushing your foes and you may want to try and kill your enemy midlaner instead in the ways we've seen in the previous chapter.

Ganking as Lanaya requires planning and wasting time only makes you weaker and weaker by the second.
Also, in case you want to be 100% sure of doing everything according to plan, consider buying some Smoke of Deceit in order to reach undetected your targets.
Before attacking, wait for the next enemy creep wave to come: once that's happened, place a Psionic Trap along the path that connects your enemies to their tower: since the slow is extremely weak if the trap is immediately detonated, having it been used later will make sure that your foes are slowed long enough.
At this point you can engage, activating your Refraction and start hitting hard.
Once one of your enemies goes over your trap, use it, get closer, Meld and hit again.

Should he still be alive, place another trap in order to keep him down until you finally get him.
If he somehow reaches the friendly tower, consider towerdiving ONLY if you have Refraction out of cooldown and there are no enemy creeps incoming(you may want to activate the skill a bit before commencing the gank so that you don't have to wait for the cooldown before activating again Refraction).

Chases follow pretty much the same concept: place your traps along the path you suppose the enemy is gonna take.
An advanced tactic consists of placing a trap on a point the enemy can clearly see, trying to force him changing his escape route and possibly go towards your allies so that you can crush him togheter.
Of course this requires a lot of communication and is rarely seen in pubs.
Chasing an escaper is much of a different deal: you can't use the same approach, since your enemy Puck will just blink away instead of going right to your trap.
Forseeing where he's gonna hide is extremely difficult and usually relies on luck but you should always give it chance.
This means you're gonna try to place your traps in the middle of the woods (especially good if you're ganking a Spectre) or far areas you think the enemy is gonna land.
By this means, you should give some room for your stunners/disablers to get vision over the escaper and try to catch him.

How to Play - Warding

Templar's traps are not only used when you're trying to gank but also as a sort of "perma wards".
Considering how limited their vision is, calling this "warding" is improper, but Lanaya's traps can still be extremely useful when you need to check your surrounding and you want to improve your team's map control.
First, we have to discuss the distinction between Offensive Trapping and Defensive Trapping.

By offensive we talk about Psionic Traps placed in specific areas that are particularly used during the roaming.
The aim here is to set up traps that could be used later to slow chased enemies or to slow them if they're on to us or our allies.
In other words, it's a pre-emptive action which tries to make chases easier for us and our team mates.
Of course this is what makes Lanaya a hero who requires a lot of map awareness, cause otherwise you'll end up placing many traps and never use them when it's more needed.
Traps on the middle lane are also offensive.

With defensive traps we change our focus: these are traps placed particularly in both jungles: they're supposed to locate enemy junglers so that we can reach them ASAP.
Remember that Psionic Trap DOESN'T block the neutral creeps' spawn.
A notable defensive trap is the one we MUST place in the Roshan Pit during the mid game: Roshan will not destroy it, which means we can see at every point of the game whether someone is trying or not to kill the gigantic beast.
Traps on the rune spots are also defensive.

Another word should be spent for the scouting traps: you're gonna place wards in unfriendly and unwarded territory before getting inside; chances are that if the enemies are nearby, they'll destroy the trap and you can avoid the fight retreating.

Friends (Good Teammates)

Stunners & Disablers

Lanaya highly requires allies who can stun or disable the enemy players in order to strike them.
Carries with a reliable stuns or disables are ALWAYS helpful during a gank, making people like Alchemist, Sven or Gyrocopter (whose Homing Missile can be "helped" by your slows) your best buddies when it comes to killing people.

AoE initiators

This is strictly linked to what we said before: allies who can lock down your enemies are necessary, especially when you get to the late game where you want your opponents to shift their focus towards your initiator.
That's why people like Tidehunter, Dark Seer, Lich and Warlock are notable examples of best buddies.

Healers/Purgers

One of the requisites for picking up the "Fastest of the Temple" build is having someone in your team who can heal or purge you (especially purge you).
Having an Omniknight or an Oracle backing you up is like receiving a birthday present.
Dazzle is worth of a mention too, since his Shallow Grave will give you enough time to cast again your Refraction as soon as it's out of cooldown while his ultimate weave will grant you the much needed armor or will further decrease the enemies' one.

Foes (Counters)

Slowers (Soft counters)

Lanaya's skill-set is based on her high speed, therefore anyone who can slow her down is a potential counter.
Examples are*:
Freezing Field
Incapacitating Bite
Penitence
Degen Aura
Upheaval

Special mention to Bristleback, whose Viscous Nasal Goo combined with Quill Spray, can slow you for long while also tearing down your shield, making him a medium counter.

Defensive measures: a Blink Dagger is enough to overcome the odds of being slowed.

*We're including in the list slows which DON'T deal Damage Over Time (DoT)

BKB-Piercing stuns and disables (medium counters)

Lanaya is extremely susceptible to any form of disable. Even though a Black King Bar is usually far enough to avoid incoming damage, anything that can pierce your BKB is a threat that can end up shutting you down.
Try not to pick Templar Assassin when facing heroes like Bane.
Special mention to Clockwerk whose ability to close you inside his Power Cogs deserves him a medal as "hard counter".

Defensive measures: Going for a Linken's Sphere is safe, but it's not gonna help you boosting your damage output so the solution is following the Tanky Templar build.

Damage over Time (hard counters)

Lanaya's best skill is Refraction and mostly because of its in-built shield.
Whenever that shield gets shattered, the Templar Assassin is exposed to any incoming attack. For this reason, Damage over Time is the most fearful kind of counter you can deal with.
Considering that usually DoT attacks also apply a slow, you understand why you get completely shut down, unable to move, defend or escape.
Most common counters in this department are Viper, Venomancer, Pudge, Dark Seer (whose Ion Shell is probably the fastest spell in the game that can be used to shatter your shield).

Defensive measures: unless you can work around the odds (Pudge, for instance, has a DoT on a restricted area) you're gonna follow the anti-counter build.

Batrider (AKA "gg, ez mid, delete dota")

This guy is basically designed to counter Lanaya; every single spell he has completely annihilates your movements and attacks, one way or another.
Trying to move fast? Sticky Napalm is gonna take you down.
Using Meld to avoid being attacked? Flamebreak will make you pop out.
Your nasty little shield? Shattered by Firefly
Even worse, forget about escaping when he uses Flaming Lasso on you.
Don't ever EVER try to pick Templar Assassin against a Batrider: no matter how much Icefrog is gonna nerf this badass, he will always stalk you down.

Defensive measures: if you get counterpicked by Batrider, your game impact will go down to a straight zero until you survive long enough to buy some items. Of course the anti-counter build has to be strictly followed and you'll still end up dying every time you dare to stop towerhugging.
Have fun!

Preys (Countered heroes)

Nukers

Nukers are countered by Lanaya for 2 main reasons: they usually have a single shot spell which can be deflected by Refraction's shield and they are SO DAMN squishy that your Meld will take them down in seconds.
Of course, depending on their spells you'll have to choose the right build.
The standard- blink dagger build is great against heroes like Leshrac, Keeper of the Light or Enigma, while chasing heroes who have multiple stuns or disable like Lion requires a fast bkb-build.
Notable exception: Pugna, whose Decrepify completely makes you unable to attack and exposed to his ultimate Life Drain

Small-combo based heroes

Heroes who highly rely on some particular combos can often be countered by picking Templar Assassin for the simple fact that their combo will not deal any damage if you keep your shield on.
Notable examples are:

Kunkka: Torrent-ghost ship combo
Nyx Assassin: Impale- Mana Burn-dagon combo
Centaur Warrunner : Hoof Stomp- Double Edge combo
Ursa: Earthshock- Overpower combo

Heroes with no escape mechanism

Heroes who don't possess an escape mechanism or don't have Blink Dagger or Shadow Blade as a core item can do little when you chase them down