Lina/Guide

Hero

 

Strategy

 

Counters

 

Equipment

 

Gear

 

Talents

 

Relics

 

Responses

 

Sounds

 

Lore

 

Old Abilities

 

Changelogs

 

Known Bugs

 

Gameplay

Playstyle
Lina is a powerful ranged intelligence hero that can be played as a support or a semi-carry. 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 far exceed that of other typical intelligence heroes, giving her a very respectable amount of physical damage output. Played well, Lina is an extremely strong ganking hero who can kill out of position heroes all by herself.
Pros	Cons
Strong AoE nukes. Very powerful single target nuke. Long attack range. Deals fairly high physical damage with passive.	Slow cast animations. Slow attack animation. No mobility.

Semi-carry

• Semi carry Linas typically take the mid lane and aim to bully the enemy mid with superior range right clicks and Dragon Slave spam whilst farming a fast Eul's Scepter. You should aim to push the wave in order to secure runes and when you have enough levels, begin roaming around the map, setting up kills with your allies.
• With a blink dagger, you should aim to solo kill enemies with a Eul's into Light Strike Array combo along with your nukes and right clicks. You should use this time to shut down the enemy carries and acquire farm so that you and your team have a farm and gold advantage.
• Depending on the enemy composition, you will want to build into late game items that enable you to kill enemies more effectively. Fiery Soul allows you the option of building right click enhancing items such as Desolator, Daedalus or Monkey King Bar, allowing you impressive damage output that can deal with heroes that can survive your magic burst or are natural Black King Bar carriers. Aghanim's Scepter allows your ult to deal Pure damage and go right through spell immunity, so consider this as a choice should you be up against enemies with Black King Bars.
• However, builds that utilize powerful right click items generally won't provide you with much mana. Given Lina's low cooldown nukes and extremely high mana-cost Ultimate, you will find yourself running out of mana very quickly in prolonged engagements, something which a Eul's Scepter alone will not remedy. Consider items like Bloodstone, Octarine Core or Scythe of Vyse to keep you topped up on mana.
• In the same vein, you should not neglect to build for defense/positioning, as you are very squishy at all stages of the game and can easily be ganged up on by multiple heroes, feeding away experience and hindering your ability to snowball. Items like Drums of Endurance, Force Staff and Black King Bar allow you to last longer in fights, ensuring you are able to dish out your damage or escape a losing battle.
• Lina's passive allows her to scale extremely well into the late game with her constant high attack speed. Due to her out-ranging most heroes, she is similar to sniper.

Support

• Support Linas consume much less farming resources and participate in roaming and ganking at early time. She preferred Position 4 to support off-lane core, due to a constant harassment to enemy's core with Light Strike Array and robbery of stacking creeps with Dragon Slave. She can take great advantages upon enemy heroes during the laning phase.
• Basically, support Linas give up the physical damages and concentrate on magical damages, survival and aids to your core heroes. Aether Lens and Aghanim's Scepter are good choices for damages, while Force Staff and Glimmer Cape are always useful at critical moments.

Ability Builds

Generic/Mid Lina
1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	20	25

Support Lina
1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	20	25

Talents

Hero Talents
+175 Attack Range	25	-6s Dragon Slave Cooldown
+30/2% Fiery Soul Per Stack	20	+14% Spell Amplification
+140 Light Strike Array Damage	15	+350 Health
+100 Cast Range	10	+35 Damage

Notes:

• The cast range talent also affects the max distance of Dragon Slave.

• This attack damage talent is added as raw attack damage, so it does not benefit illusions, and is not affected by most percentage-based damage increasing or reducing effects.

• The health talent increases maximum health capacity, and keeps the current health percentage.

Tips & Tactics

General

• Lina has one of the longest attack ranges in the game, but also the slowest attack animation. Time your attacks well to get last hits.
• Always cancel the backswing animation after casting your spells, as Lina suffers from long animation times.
• In teamfights it can be very beneficial to quickly focus on low-HP or support heroes, as Lina has very good nuking abilities.
• If Lina has the basic items she needs, it is wise to augment her physical attack for the sake of Fiery Soul. Almost uniquely among intelligence supports, Lina's attacks becomes a serious threat if she attains a level advantage (owing to her enormous intelligence growth and her passive ability).

Abilities

Dragon Slave

• Use Dragon Slave to harass and get last hits in lane.
• Dragon Slave's range is deceptively long, and can be used to finish off fleeing opponents, or as a parting shot when retreating.
• Max Dragon Slave first if your intent is to deal the most damage possible.
• Use Dragon Slave to stack without really leaving the exp from the lane.
• More tips needed.

Light Strike Array

• Light Strike Array is often leveled first because the stun can either save Lina or help her finish a gank.
• Combining Light Strike Array with a guaranteed stun such as Magic Missile or Storm Hammer makes Lina a serious ganking force early on.
• 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.
• Positioning items such as Eul's Scepter of Divinity, Blink Dagger, or Force Staff can help land Light Strike Array and thus Lina's whole spell combo without relying on other heroes.
• Use Light Strike Array to destroy trees around enemy towers, spotting defenders.
• More tips needed.

Fiery Soul

• One early point in Fiery Soul can boost Lina's harass potential, especially after landing Light Strike Array on an enemy, as her attack speed will be temporarily increased.
• Use all of Lina's other abilities first to take the speed-enhancing effect of Fiery Soul to its maximum potential.
• 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.
• In a prolonged teamfight, remember to continuously use Lina's abilities the moment they come off cooldown, so her attack speed remains high throughout the fight.
• More tips needed.

Laguna Blade

• Upon reaching level six, immediately begin looking for opportunities to use Laguna Blade, as few enemies can withstand its massive damage in the early game. A few kills with Laguna Blade in the early game can put Lina's team comfortably ahead.
• In most cases, it is better to deal the burst damage right away in teamfights instead of saving Laguna Blade until the very last moment to finish an enemy.
  • Only save Laguna Blade for situations where ending an enemy decisively would prevent them from recovering, such as against targets with high health regeneration.
• Do not waste Laguna Blade on a target that is certain to die.
• Laguna Blade can hit for 1700 pure damage if she combines Aghanim's Scepter and Refresher Orb, granting her enormous nuking power.
• More tips needed.

Items

Starting items:

• Tango restores health to keep Lina in lane.
• Null Talisman gives attributes so Lina can get last hits.
• Iron Branch provides cheap attributes; it also gives more healing out of Tango.
• Clarity sustains mana so Lina can keep using abilities, threatening enemies more.

Early game:

• Magic Stick is useful since Lina is squishy and has multiple high-cost low-cooldown spells picking up Magic Stick can increase her early staying power greatly.
• Boots of Speed helps Lina get into position to land her abilities while avoiding danger zones.
• Bottle is a common pickup for Lina when playing in the mid lane.

Mid game:

• Phase Boots's attack damage complements Fiery Soul to increase Lina's damage output.
• Arcane Boots is a viable alternative, especially for a more support oriented Lina.
• Bloodstone can solve Lina's mana issues while also improving her low HP pool. With enough charges, she can keep up her full stacks of Fiery Soul without having to worry about being out of mana during the next team fight.
• Eul's Scepter of Divinity enhances Lina's positioning even further and greatly boosts her mana-regeneration because of her high base Intelligence and Intelligence gain. It can also be used to set up Light Strike Array fairly reliably.

Late game:

• Blink Dagger gives Lina the ability to stay back in safety, then blink in at an opportune moment to cast her Light Strike Array before the enemy can see it coming and evade it.

Situational items:

• Aghanim's Scepter roughly boosts Lina's Laguna Blade damage by another ability point, increases her survivability because of the increase to her attributes, and lets her damage stay relevant even against Black King Bar users in the mid or late game.
• Drum of Endurance improves her own positioning and all attributes for relatively low cost and also benefits her team.
• Shadow Blade can be useful for a carry Lina, as it helps her to cast Light Strike Array while invisible, and also provides her with an escape mechanism.
• Scythe of Vyse gives her team an important disable that also helps to ensure she lands Light Strike Array. Furthermore, its attribute bonuses will make her a bit more survivable and drastically improve her mana regeneration.
• Crystalys provides a good damage boost when playing as a semi-carry Lina, and can be upgraded in either Daedalus or Bloodthorn depending on your preference.
• Black King Bar is sometimes picked up when Lina is carrying, especially against teams with many disables.
• Shiva's Guard both helps with Lina's mana regeneration problems as well as her low armor value while also benefiting her team with Shiva's Guard's aura and active ability.
• Rod of Atos provides Lina with a larger mana pool that becomes more important as teamfights expand and Laguna Blade becomes more mana-intensive, as well as a significant boost to her low HP pool. Its active effect can also greatly assist in landing her stun, and has a low enough cooldown to do so almost as soon as Light Strike Array comes off cooldown again.
• Octarine Core's lifesteal gives more survival potential in teamfights. Also, it gives a huge intelligence boost, as well as a greater ability to spam spells.
• Ethereal Blade is a decent luxury item if the farm is available. It allows Lina to amplify her magical nukes, and slows enemies to help her land them. Using the active on herself is also a good escape mechanism against late game carries.