[Slayer] A guide to Lina Inverse

[The Other Guy]

Forum version|Guide version

Editors note: This guide is currently under construction and is a tribute to many known guide writers who have helped / inspired me in my long years of playing Dota. Feedback is welcome.

Written by The Other Guy

Quick Reference

This section provides a quick look at this hero's skill and item builds for those that are in-game or just want a brief overview of the hero in general. Enjoy!

Easy for newcomers: No
Easy to last hit / deny: No
Should you dual lane or solo: Duel
General knowledge of warding necessary: Yes

Skill Build:

1. Light Strike Array
2. Dragon Slave
3. Dragon Slave
4. Light Strike array
5. Dragon Slave
6. Laguna Blade
7. Dragon Slave
8. Light Strike Array
9. Light Strike Array
10. Fiery Soul
11. Laguna Blade
12. Fiery Soul
13. Fiery Soul
14. Fiery Soul
15. Attribute Bonus
16. Laguna Blade
17 - 25. Attribute Bonus

Item Build:

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Table of Contents:

A. Introduction: Lina's Basic Information and Stats.
B. Skill Build
C. Item Build
D. Strategy

A. Introduction: Linas Basic Information and Stats.



Initial Stats:
HP/ MP: 492 / 312
Damage: 37 - 55
Armor: 1.3
Strength/ Agility/ Intelligence: 18 + 1.5/ 16 + 1.5/ 24 + 3.2
Range: 600
MoveSpeed: 295

Strengths:

1. Strongest burst damage in the game.
2. Good farmer

Weaknesses:

1. Bad attack animation
2. Hard to land her stun without help from a partner.

B. Skill build:

1. Dragon Slave



A wave of fire that ripples out from Lina Inverse, causing damage to land units in a line.

Level 1 - 100 damage , 825 range
Level 2 - 170 damage , 825 range
Level 3 - 230 damage , 825 range
Level 4 - 280 damage , 825 range

Mana Cost: 90/ 105/ 125/ 145

Cooldown: 8.5 Seconds

2. Light Strike Array



Summons a column of flames that damages and stuns enemies for 1.6 seconds.

Level 1 - 90 damage and stun , 600 range
Level 2 - 150 damage and stun , 600 range
Level 3 - 210 damage and stun , 600 range
Level 4 - 280 damage and stun , 600 range



Mana Cost: 90/ 100/ 110/ 125

Cooldown: 10 Seconds

3. Fiery Soul



Grants you bonus attack and movement speed each time you cast a spell. Stacks with itself. Lasts 5 seconds.

Level 1 - 20% IAS, 2% MS
Level 2 - 30% IAS, 3% MS
Level 3 - 40% IAS, 4% MS
Level 4 - 50% IAS, 5% MS

4. Laguna Blade



Fires off a bolt of lightning at a single target, dealing critical damage.

Level 1 - 450 (600*) damage , 600 range
Level 2 - 675 (875*) damage , 600 range
Level 3 - 950 (1150*) damage , 600 range

Mana Cost: 280, 420. 680

Cooldown: 150, 90, 55

* Improved damage by Aghanim Scepter

Suggested Skill Build:

1. Light Strike Array
2. Dragon Slave
3. Dragon Slave
4. Light Strike array
5. Dragon Slave
6. Laguna Blade
7. Dragon Slave
8. Light Strike Array
9. Light Strike Array
10. Fiery Soul
11. Laguna Blade
12. Fiery Soul
13. Fiery Soul
14. Fiery Soul
15. Attribute Bonus
16. Laguna Blade
17 - 25. Attribute Bonus

Brief explanation to skill build:

1. Light Strike Array is your only stun and as such is skilled first. Landing it can be difficult but as you should usually be laning with an allied stunner this should not be much of a problem. Just chain stun as much as your mana allows it early on and try to finish opponents off with your Dragon Slave.

2. Pulling off your full combo is a bit mana intensive but should generally not be a problem after you have your Wand/Bottle and a Bracer/Null or two. Your stun and your Dragon Slave, followed up by a Laguna Blade is an almost sure kill on most heroes early game and is what makes you such a feared ganker.

3. Whether you skill Fiery Soul immediately or take some stats first is entirely up to you, however do note that Fiery Soul does increase the power of your burst combo quite notably and delaying it too much would be a waste. Learning it from level 10 or so and maxing it out should be a good choice in most situations.

C. Item Build

Starting items:

1. Wards if you are warding from the start, otherwise get a chicken
2. Some Ironwood Branches/Circlet for some good early game stats
3. A set of consumables such as clarities, salves and tango's

Warding:


Courier:


Basic:


Recommended Item Build:

1. Upgrade those Branches to Magic Wand, very useful early on
2. Bottle for grabbing runes and burst regen
3. Boots next followed by either a Bracer or a Null
4. Get Dagger asap
5. Remember to keep buying wards for your team and to carry TP-es





Note: If you are doing very well, you can skip the Bracer / Null and go for a Point Booster instead.

Final Items:

1. Get Boots of Travel afterwards
2. Turn that Point Booster into a Scepter
3. Finish off with Guinsoo




Note: While getting a Guinsoo earlier might seem the better option, it has a much harder buildup compared to Scepter, which in contrast is fairly easy to build, giving you good stats and some extra burst damage to boot. However, if you find yourself with large amounts of gold or are facing a strong carry lineup getting Guinsoo first would be the better choice.

Brief explanation to item build:

Early Game

1. Wand and Bottle are pretty much standard choices for most gankers / roamers and Lina in no exception. She needs all the regen she can get to start putting pressure on the enemy asap. The charges on Wand will more often than not save your life a few times or even grant you that unexpected kill. Same can be said for Bottle. She also finds herself warding often and as such Bottle is even better as you can simply grab runes from the river to refill it. Bracers / Nulls for some added stats is nice although a single Point Booster should be enough if you can get it quickly enough. Also remember to keep carrying TP-es and to keep on buying wards for your team if they need it.

Mid Game

2. Boots you can leave as it is for the better part of the game and just focus on getting your Blink Dagger as soon as possible. Dagger increases her overall mobility by a ton, helping her land her spells better and escape tricky situations and is just a damn good item in general. Any boot upgrade will do really. Boots of Travel provide you with superior movement and pushing abilities and having the ability to essentially teleport to anywhere on the map. Phase Boots grants you some burst move speed, very useful in landing her spells and some extra damage to go with it. Power Treads gives you a nice boost in your HP and its ability to switch between attributes can be very useful when trying to squeeze out that last spell or give that quick boost to your HP.

Late Game

3. If the game last long enough and you can afford it, getting some higher tier items are always welcomed by any player and his team. This can go two ways. Getting Guinsoo is certainly the best option if you can afford it but is usually hampered by its expensive components and generally bad buildup. Aghanims on the other hand gives you a nice increase to your HP and Mana pool and also boost the damage of your ultimate, although not by much. Personally I would get Aghanims first purely for the better buildup, although if you get your hands on some quick cash, getting that Guinsoo quicker would be the better option and is easily one of the best items in the game.

Note: Alternatively though, if you find yourself having trouble farming either of them quick enough, Euls Sceper of Divinity would be an excellent substitute, providing some nice benefits of its own. It is a great utility tool that can be used to disable enemies / aid in doing so or potentially save yourself by using it on yourself and simply escaping with Dagger after its duration is done. A very fun and useful item.

Why certain items are bad?

[The Other Guy]

filler post

Edit: Damn was testing the guide feature. Well anyway can't undo. As you can see I am working on a Lina guide, feel free to give suggestions for what you want to see, post replays or just generally give feedback as I go allong. Was meaning to revive my Medusa guide first but since I'm at it might as well do one on Lina.

Enjoy.

[K2SO4!Archangel]

Don't need to find a better pic

[The Other Guy]

Ok well, I'll start off. Is spell discriptions really THAT needed. I am providing a link to the hero page and find that repeating what is said there in a guide to be a waste of space.

Comments?

[Val]

I'm a huge fan of spell descriptions because they let you discuss nuances of them (eg cast delay, of your nukes' AoE, etc).

Btw, your alt+tab guide isn't formatting correctly for me (?)
http://phoenixdota.com/junk/toglinaalttab.png

[The Other Guy]

Should be fixed now.

I don't know, I just dont like the fact that despite the newbies, that there are other players who read chunks in guides I.E. stats, skill decriptions ect, that they could easily access through say the hero page instead of filling half of a guide with it. It is unneded information and really seem to take the place of otherwise more useful information.

[DarkSpirit]

Lawl, Has her own TV series!

[The Other Guy]

Originally Posted by DarkSpirit

Lawl, Has her own TV series!

Celebrity man, celebrity

[GoD_Tyr]

Lol awesome picture, good luck with the guide.

[Zesty_Pancakes]

Interesting, I never even considered leveling firey soul early, ill try it.

[The Other Guy]

Originally Posted by Zesty_Pancakes

Interesting, I never even considered leveling firey soul early, ill try it.

While nothing major you DO rely on some physical attacks inbetween your spells. Fiery Soul does well to boost that and makes going hybrid lategame a very viable option.

You still should'nt max it over any of your spells though.

[The Other Guy]

Hey guys ,found this vid and thought it might be nice to introduce players to her skillset while at the same time showing how awesome Euls and/or Dagger can be on her which is something I am going to advocate anyway.

[Lifeburns]

That video feels too long for an introduction and such a high aerial view is annoying.
The pic is a nice way to introduce Lina, though.

[The Other Guy]

Meh, only wanted the first part, o well.

Gonna start on the itembuild soon. feel free to voice oppinions people.

[Lifeburns]

Anyway, try to not make it too long like it is currently. Some dinamic battles with good use of Eul's and Lina skillset seems like a good way to show off her power imo.

[The Other Guy]

Originally Posted by Lifeburns

Anyway, try to not make it too long like it is currently. Some dinamic battles with good use of Eul's and Lina skillset seems like a good way to show off her power imo.

Not gonna use the vid. If it was shorter maybe. Just thought it would be worth a look.

[The Other Guy]

Pretty much done for today. I'm fine with the skill build and the formatting up until the item build. I'm gonna try some stuff tomorrow to see if I can cut out some of the fluff and generally improve the format.

Still have quite a few sections that I might want to add, but lack of sleep is making me not think straight so I will probably work on the guide later this evening.

Feel free to comment and give advice where you can though.

[windrunner023]

I have wrote a Lina guide before (well I didn't really get it published I don't think, too busy at the time to completely finish, I wish I would've kept it and posted it for real now that I have the free time). I disagree with an early point of Fiery Soul. A point of Fiery Soul lvl 4 is as useful as a point in Stats; you should be concentrating on your nuke damage, not getting in 1 or 2 extra hits (which would be the equivalent of a point in DS or LSA). All in all; FS does little to nothing as far as a lvl 1 skill goes, it should be skipped until your others are maxed out. I have started to try out new stuff with Lina, and I agree that maxing out DS with 2 LSA points (considering you took out your FS point) is the best way to go.

Besides that, pretty similar builds, though I wouldn't put Desolator. As I have said, experimented more in the ways of Lina, all I can say is that DPS Lina is almost never worth it (if you're in -EM, possibly) and/or you will almost never get up to that point unless you have a lot of disables on your team. A good opposing team will take you out among the first if you go for DPS, you would need BKB first to get an item like Desolator to actually do some DPS damage, which (like I said) is something that you won't ever get to (at least you SHOULDN'T).

Also, as I look at your Point Booster I thought to myself; wouldn't it be more worth it to grab a Bracer/Null or two in the early game stages? Sure it's a good filler item for the quick boost, but you won't use it in any item (thankfully you didn't put Aghanim's Sceptre as a core/luxury item like some people), and the fact that you will need the help of a Bracer/Null for early last hitting. Let's compare these towards Point Booster:

Bracer vs. Point Booster: You get 28 more HP, 6 more damage, and 0.6 more armor, and 6% more AS, costs 180 less gold. Easy buildup and you might get (on a low average guesstimation) 8 more creep kills than without anything except +3 damage/3% AS with Wand, which would translate to (on average guesstimation) 392 gold, making it much more worth the Point Booster. It could possibly hook you a kill as well.
Point Booster vs. Bracer: You get 72 more mana, equivalent to about the mana of a Dagger blink. One less item slot filled. I'd rather go with the Bracers/Nulls usually, but that one less item slot filled is sometimes a winner.
Null vs. Point Booster: Same as Bracer except costs 230 less gold, the Point Booster bonus would be opposite (change 72 mana to 72 HP, meaning more mana with Nulls).

I'd say it's a matter of need and personal preference. I think you would be good with just 1 Bracer for the game, that's why you have Wand AND Bottle, no?

[The Other Guy]

Edited the format, gonna leave it like this for now unless there are complaints. Will finish the Skill descriptions by later this evening and should move on to items after that.

Just in advance. The skill =/= stat chart is going to display your attributes from level 1 - 25 depending on how you followed my build.

Thats all for now, will add lots more pictures/sections/replays over the next few days. Feel free to add if there is anything you would like to see.

[eatmyfist]

I just gotta say thank fucking god someone has finally advised dagger on Lina...she needs it so bad to help land her stun. But...

I die a bit inside everytime I see a lina go aghanims. Please, take that ugly blue staff off. It's definitely not worth it, 4k gold for about 200 more damage on her ult, and it doesn't even reduce CD.

Euls is great because it solves her problems of having low base MS and a lack of escape mechanism. Simply cyclone and blink away.