Hello everyone! Today, I will tell you about my main hero, Lina. I have 1500 games with her as Mid & Safe-lane roles with the highest win ratio among other main heroes.
Since I’m working with the Dota 2 account boosting team here at Immortal Boost, with my versatile experience and expertise, this guide will help you win and be impactful in most of your rank games. Let’s dive in.
Introduction
Lina is a versatile ranged intelligence hero who can be played in any role due to her amazing high magical burst abilities. Still, she can mostly scale as a position 1 and 2. Her abilities allow her to nuke and stun multiple heroes at once, and her strong ultimate can annihilate low-health heroes. Her passive allows her right clicks to exceed those of other typical intelligence heroes far, giving her a very respectable amount of physical damage output.
Type
Ranged, Carry, Disabler, Nuker, Support
LANE PRESENCE
In this meta, Lina has been played a lot and the following are the statistics of Lina in this patch.
| Period | Presence | Win Rate | KD | GMP | XPM |
| Mid Lane | 53.12% | 47.46% | 2.83 | 577 | 731 |
| Off Lane | 23.23% | 46.08% | 2.05 | 405 | 550 |
| Safe Lane | 22.05% | 45.73% | 2.12 | 451 | 587 |
Hero Attributes
| Movement speed | 290 |
| Sight range | 1800/800 |
| Armor | 3.22 |
| Base attack time | 1.6 |
| Damage | 51 – 59 |
| Attack point | 0.65 |
Pros and Cons
| High burst damage | Slow attack animation |
| Long attack range | Slow cast animation |
| Great physical damage with her passive | Zero mobility without items |
| Very powerful single-target burst damage | Somewhat fragile |
| Can be fit in any lane | Items are required to be impactful |
Item Build & Skill Build
According to the current patch 7.35d, this is the skill build you should make.
Skill Build
- Take the Dragon Slave on the level 1.
- Lina channels the breath of a dragon, sending out a wave of fire that scorches every enemy in its path and burns them over time.
- Dragon Slave’s range is deceptively long, and can be used to finish off fleeing opponents, or as a parting shot when retreating.
- Further, upgrade the skill according to the following sequence (3,5,7)
Tip: Use Dragon Slave to stack without leaving the experience from the lane.
- Light Strike Array should be taken on level 4.
- Summons a column of flames that damages and stuns enemies.
- Light Strike Array has a very long cast animation. Make sure to target near Lina, so she doesn’t need to move into range before casting it.
- Use Light Strike Array to destroy trees around enemy towers, spotting heroes that are hiding to initiate.
- Further, you can upgrade the ability according to the following sequence (13,14,16)
- Fiery Soul should be taken later on Level 2.
- Grants bonus attack and movement speed each time Lina hits an enemy with a spell. Stacks with itself. Lasts 18 seconds.
- It is sometimes acceptable to use Lina’s other abilities simply to gain Fiery Soul’s speed bonuses, such as when attacking a tower, or when you’re certain no enemies are nearby.
- You can upgrade this ability according to the following sequence (8,9,11)
- Laguna Blade fires off a bolt of lightning at a single enemy unit, dealing massive damage. Temporarily Supercharges Lina giving her 10 stacks of Fiery Soul.
- Upon reaching level six, immediately begin looking for opportunities to use Laguna Blade, as few enemies can’t stand its high burst damage in the early game. A few kills with Laguna Blade in the early game can put Lina ahead.
- Always level up to this ability whenever it is up on level 6, level 12, level 18
Note: Only save Laguna Blade for situations where ending an enemy decisively would prevent them from recovering, such as against targets with high health regeneration.
Note: Buying Aghanim’s Scepter on Lina grants her unobstructed movement, increases her spell damage and magic resistance, and grants her max fiery soul stacks on activation.
Tip: Get Aghanim’s Shard on Lina, which allows her to deal 20 more damage for each Fiery Soul Charge.
Talent Tree Choices
- Level 10 Select +25 Damage.
- Level 15 Select +325 Health.
- Level 20 Select +10/1% Fiery Soul Per Stack.
- Level 25 Select +150% Crit On Targets Affected By Dragon Slave.
Item Build:
Starting items
- 1x Faire Fire
- 1x Tango
- 1x Observer Ward
- 4x Iron Branch
Early game items
- Bottle
- Null of Talisman
- Boots of Speed
- Magic Stick
- Falcon Blade
Mid-game items:
- Maelstrom
- Boots of Travel
- Gleipnir
- Black King Bar
Late-game items:
- Hurricane Pike
- Daedalus
- Satanic
- Swift Blink
Situational items:
- Arcane Boots
- Aether Lens
- Kaya and Sange
- Linken’s Sphere
- Ghost Scepter
- Octarine Core
- Aghanim’s Shard
- Nullifier
- Dagon 5
- Bloodthorn
- Silver Edge
- Monkey King Bar
- Aeon Disk
- Revenants Brooch
- Scythe of Vyse
- Eul’s Scepter of Divinity
- Aghanim’s Scepter
- Refresher Orb
Early gameplay / Mid game / Late game
Early gameplay (0:00 – 12:00)
In the early game, your goal should be to farm as much as possible and harass your opponent out of the lane. Attack creeps only when they’re low on HP. Use the rest of your attacks to harass the enemy. Do not use your Dragon Slave unless you can kill at least one ranged creep that would otherwise get denied. Most Dota 2 heroes need to be careful about putting too many enemy creeps on low HP because such situations give the enemy hero the chance to deny some of them more easily.
But in Lina’s case, you don’t need to worry about that because you can kill several creeps with Dragon Slave. Buy your early-game items as fast as possible and rotate with smoke to kill enemy heroes in the other two lanes or jungle farm as much as possible. Most players prefer to farm at the highest competitive level because it’s safer.
Mid gameplay (12:00 – 25:00)
During the mid-game, you will be one of the main damage dealers on your team. Never stay in front because you can get killed relatively easily. Use your attack range to your advantage and wait for the right moment to strike. She can easily kill an enemy hero with just several attacks and a few spells.
This is why you should play Lina the way you play Sniper. Maintain a safe distance between yourself and your opponents, and use your Laguna Blade to secure kills. Having a Gleipnir or a Silver Edge is extremely useful during this portion of the game because it allows you to escape dangerous situations and get solo kills. Another critical item to have is the Black King Bar. Without it, you can get chain-stunned and killed very quickly.
Late gameplay (25:00 – 60:00)
In a late-game scenario, Lina’s primary source of damage is her basic attacks. But it would be best to cast your spells whenever possible to stun enemies and gain Fiery Soul stacks. These stacks disappear rather quickly, so you need to refresh them constantly.
Because of the latest nerfs, doing that requires you to hit creeps and enemies. The recipe for success is simple, stun an enemy or wait for your team to do that for you and then attack. Use your Laguna Blade to secure the kill. Repeat this tactic as often as you can.
Counters of Lina
Antimage
- Since Lina has a high mana pool, it is easy for Antimage to kill her with a mana void when she has with low mana.
- With Antimage’s Blink ability, he can jump on her easily.
- You can read the guide here to learn how Antimage can counter Lina.
Faceless Void
- Time Walk will easily backtrack Lina’s burst damage (especially Laguna Blade) if not timed correctly.
- During Chronosphere, squishy heroes like Lina will be the main target of Faceless Void in his ultimate.
Ember Spirit
- Ember Spirit absorbs a large amount of magical damage with its Flame Guard and dodges the abilities of Dragon Slave and Light Strike Array with its Sleight of Fist.
Axe
- With Axe Blink Dagger and Blademail. He can kill Lina easily as she is fragile and has physically damaged items.
- You can read the whole guide to check how Axe can counter Lina.
Rubick
- Rubick can counter Lina in team fights by stealing her abilities, which can be bad for Lina and her team.
Templer Assassin
- Thanks to her own Psi Blades, the Templar Assassin can outmatch Lina on the center line, which is why Lina’s advantage in long-range attacks becomes turned against her.
Spirit Breaker
- Spirit Breaker Counters Lina by using Charge of Darkness and not allowing her to cast spells, locking her down in the fights. Early ganks from Spirit Breaker can easily destroy Lina early in the game.
Life Stealer
- Rage protects Lifestealer from all of Lina’s abilities. However, Lina can partially counter this if played as Carry, a common role for Lina.
Nyx Assassin
- Spiked Carapace can easily be used to counter Lina’s abilities because of their long cast animation, and could probably kill Lina outright if Laguna Blade is reflected.
- Mind Flare does tons of damage against Lina because of her high intelligence.
- Dark Pact can be cast during the cast animation of Light Strike Array and dispel its stun.
- Shadow Dance prevents Lina from killing Slark with her Laguna Blade when his HP gets low.
Wrapping it up
Lina is a hero for which you will understand the movements and positioning. Lina requires a lot of practice to land her stun on point. This hero has a wide attack range, which gives her an advantage, just like a sniper. However, if done correctly, she has the potential to kill every single hero. Try this guide and let us know in the comment section.