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Tango
Iron BranchIron BranchIron Branch
Bottle
Boots of Speed
Bracer
Magic Wand
Phase Boots
Blink Dagger
Drum of Endurance
Aghanim's Scepter
Eul's Scepter of Divinity
Force Staff
Scythe of Vyse
Black King Bar
Ethereal Blade
Linken's Sphere
Boots of Travel
Desolator
Daedalus
Monkey King Bar
I checked out Dotafire and was quite depressed to see there is no guide which I would like to use.
So I decided to write one. Please enjoy.
So, Lina is a pretty strong nuker (see Dragon Slave and Ligth Strike Array), she has a great semi-carry potential (see amazing passive Fiery Soul) and is an awful slayer in 1v1 or 1v2 fights (see ulti - Laguna Blade). All that makes her a great hero for solo mid. With fast level gain, rune control and early Boots, levels 6-7 are the perfect time for her to gank heroes on another lane. The only problem with solo mid Lina is her awful attack animation, which makes lasthitting very difficult. But with strong nukes and crazy attack range (biggest in the game except Sniper with maxed passive) farm goes much easier: a skilled Lina just won't give enemy a chance to deny!
Please note that if you want to play solo mid Lina, you must be an experienced player. At least you need to have some experience in soloing mid, cause Lina isn't the easiest hero to go mid.
I prefer to rush Bottle, that's why my starting are 3 gg branches and a pack of Tangoes. If you feel some lack of damage, you may grab an additional Mantle of Intelligence and/or a Circlet.
At lvl 1 I take Light Strike Array to feel safe from smoke ganks or to take part in one if my team is planning it. Then I always max Dragon Slave for its crazy damage, it is useful to keep enemy mid hero away from creeps (be careful: do not push the lane much). Passive is taken at lvl 4 for early kills on mid or, if you are lucky with runes, at sidelanes. Ulti is taken at 6, as you can guess.
Boots (for speed) and Bracer (for stats) are my next choice. A Magic Stick can be taken earlier (against Batrider, Zeus, QoP etc), but building a Magic Wang after Bracer is strongly recommended. You are supposed to get it right before first serious fights start so it will be useful to restore hp and mana.
After Dragon Slave being maxed, max your stun, as your second nuke.
Phase Boots may sound quite crazy, according to the fact that Lina is a nuker, but if you control runes and do not spam spells, your mana pool is quite enough to perform your crazy combo. After Phase Boots it is time to get Blink Dagger which helps you with positioning a lot. If you see Radiance in an opposite team, think about replacing dagger with Force Staff.
After dagger i always get Drums due to stats and buff they give.
After Dragon Slave being maxed, max your stun, as your second nuke.
Arcane Boots is your choice in this build, so make them asap. After them, grab Blink Dagger, which increases your mobility a lot. After dagger, start making your Bloodstone with Void Stone: Void Stone -> Perseverance -> Point Booster -> Vitality Booster -> diassemble Arcanes -> get BLoodstone and pick up Boots -> build Phase Boots
In Drums build you may feel a lack of mp, so think about picking Eul's. Aside mana regen it gives, it's worth picking due to extra movement speed and a 2.5 sec disable, which lets you to make a 100% stun: just use Eul's on an enemy, count 2 secs and land a stun - voila! - poor guy standing in front of you ready to die.
Another good option is Force Staff, picked WITH (not instead of) dagger. With int gain and tiny hp regen it replaces Bloodstone a bit in Drums build (you may pick FS instead of blink if opposite team has Radiance or something).
Agh's is a very cool item, especially in Bloodstone build due to stats, hp and mp it gives. In Drums build I recommend to increase your mana regen first.
Linken's helps a bit from annoying stuns/disables, providing some stats and extra regen.
Scythe is an another pretty good item which gives disable, ton of int and crazy mana regen.
Ethereal is usually taken if you feel like you are the ultimate killer and having a lot of money. Ethereal + Laguna combo is almost always a sinonim to sudden death.
BKB increases your survivability in teamfights, but do not forget that BKB cancels the Ghost Form given by Ethereal - it is not that good making both.
They are taken for fun after blink and something on mana regen. Desolator is the best of those options, i guess.
1) 1 hero gank
It is simple:
- Blink in
- Land a stun
- Give 1-2 autoattacks
- Give a Drafon Slave
- 1-2 autoattacks more
- LAGUNA BLADE !
- Autoattacks and a 2nd Dragon Slave if necessary
2) Teamfight
Not that simple:
- Try to stun more than one enemy, 3 at least is ok
- The same thing with Dragon Slave: try to deal damage to all heroes you see
- Use ulti to oneshot strong teamfight heroes or useful supports like Enigma or Chen. Or at least decrease opposite team carry's hp.
3) Juking
Lina is a nice hero to juke. Just use your imagination: blink all around the jungle, stun enemies, hit them with your Dragon Slave.
Note: Light Strike Array breaks trees when it is landed on them.
Lina is a strong nuker, who needs a couple of items to be dangerous enough. To master solomid Lina you have to try again and again. Soon you'll be able to play her with any team setup and maybe you'll come up with your own build.
This guide was made to spread the idea of solo mid Lina. I hope now there will be less stupid people saying stuff like "Going mid on Lina? U MAD?! I will pick pudge and go to mid, you dumb freak!" or "Lina, buy cour! You are a support! Why ya going mid?!"
Also, this is my first guide. Constructive criticism is welcome :3
Hope you enjoyed it!
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