Introduction
“One little spark and before you know it, the whole world is burning.”
Lina is a fantastic nuker, with extremely high burst magic damage abilities and a decent disable, all of which have low cooldowns. For this reason, and because she is fairly item independent, Lina is most commonly played as a lane support or roaming support.
Occasionally she is played mid, where she can get an extremely fast (and deadly) level 6, and this is a viable role for her if there is no more ideal mid hero on the team.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Huge burst magic damage
- Item independent
- Good support hero
- Great range
- Very low cooldowns on abilities
- Good at clearing creep waves
- AoE stun & nuke
Cons
- Slow move speed
- Terrible attack animation
- Fairly squishy
- Stun can be hard to land
- Mana issues early on
Item Build
As support Lina is by far the most common way to play Lina this build is primarily aimed at covering support Lina.
Starting Items
As a support hero it’s your job to ensure that the Courier and/or Observer Wards are bought at the start of the game. Usually these duties will be split between yourself and another hero on your team, but you can’t always guarantee this in public games. If no one else ponies up the gold for one then you should bite the bullet and buy both for your team.
Good starting items if there’s another support on your team:
Courier or Observer Wards, a Set of Tangos, a Healing Salve, Gauntlets of Strength, and an Iron Branch.
And if you’re forced to solo support:
Courier, Observer Wards, a set of Tangos, a Healing Salve, and an Iron Branch.
Early Game
Ensure that the Courier is upgraded into a Flying Courier when it comes off cooldown at the 3 minute mark. Also ensure that Observer Wards are always purchased when they’re off cooldown.
Get your Boots of Speed up and running as quickly as possible. Lina has poor move speed (295 base) and is very squishy, so without Boots of Speed you may end up being easy pickings for enemies during early rotations and ganks.
Upgrade any Iron Branches you have into a Magic Wand, and any Bracer components into a Bracer.
Core Items
Again, keep ensuring that Observer Wards are bought up whenever they’re off cooldown.
Lina’s first core item is Arcane Boots. Lina is a hero who not only relies entirely on her mana-expensive skillset to prove useful, but also one whose abilities have such low cooldowns that they will often be used more than once in engagements. This makes Arcane Boots almost compulsory on Lina, giving her both a big chunk of mana and mana regeneration, and also some added utility for the team.
At this stage it’s important to mention the status of Mekanism. Mekanism is always a fantastic item for any team to have, but Lina isn’t generally thought of as an ideal candidate to build one. I’ve listed it as situational in the image attached to this guide, but it’s core for your team, so if no one else intends to build one (ask your teammates and check!) then you should consider it core on Lina after Arcane Boots.
Although there’s a lot of flexibility to Lina’s item build from this point onwards, most of the time a mobility item is the next item people pick up on Lina – typically either Force Staff or Blink Dagger.
You can never go wrong with Force Staff on a support hero (make sure you actually use the active!). It will help to mitigate Lina’s poor movespeed and lack of innate positioning ability. It's great for clutch escapes and also gives you even more utility for your teammates (you can use Force on allied heroes, yourself, and enemies).
Blink Dagger is a popular alternative to Force Staff (especially in the competitive scene). Personally, I prefer to buy Force Staff on Lina, but Blink is great as well. Blink doesn't give you any utility for your team, unlike Force Staff, and is the more aggressive positioning tool, whereas Force Staff can always be used defensively as well as offensively.
Luxury Items
Drums of Endurance - I recommend Drums on a lot of heroes, especially supports like Lina or Crystal Maiden. You're slow, squishy, and supposed to provide support to your team. Drums goes a little way to combating all of these points. The attack and move speed aura affects teammates, the stats gain makes you a little bit tankier, it's a very cost effective item that's easy to build into, and since you already likely have a Bracer anyway it means you can grab a Drums without taking up an extra item slot. This should be a high priority luxury item if no one else has one on your team in my opinion (and even then it’s still a good pick-up, just not quite as good).
Eul’s Scepter of Divinity – Eul’s gives fantastic mana regeneration and a huge +40 move speed, which really helps out Lina who has naturally poor move speed and feels quite immobile. The active also synergises superbly with your skill set, as it can be used to help ensure you land your stun, which has a lengthy cast delay.
The active is also good for taking an enemy carry out of the fight for a couple of seconds in the late game. In that respect it’s sometimes referred to as a poor man’s Scythe of Vyse, the downside being that the hero selected cannot be attacked. Nonetheless, it’s useful for buying your team time. The other downside is that whilst a Scythe use is universally beneficial, Eul’s can sometimes be disadvantageous to your team, perhaps saving an enemy when they would otherwise have died, or trapping an allied hero who would otherwise have escaped. If you’re not confident in your decision making abilities in the heat of battle then don’t go for Eul’s.
Ghost Scepter - If the enemy carry tears through you like a warm knife through butter than save up for a Ghost Scepter. You'll buy yourself 4 seconds in which to do something, such as Force Staff to safety, disable the carry using Frostbite, or just distract them during a teamfight for a full 4 seconds (that's 4 seconds the more important heroes on your team have to punish the enemy team). Ghost Scepter can also later be upgraded into an…
Ethereal Blade – E-Blade is a great offensive and defensive item. Defensively it grants you 4 seconds of physical immunity, and allows you to give that effect either to an ally (ideally someone who’s the target of enemy right clicks), or an enemy hero (the enemy physical DPS’er). This gives you time to create distance between yourself and the enemy carry or at the very least buys your team 4 seconds of distraction time.
Offensively, when combined with burst magic damage E-Blade becomes a tool by which magic damage nukers can scale into the late game. After casting E-Blade on an enemy nuke them with as much burst damage output as possible; E-Blade will buff that damage by a huge 40%.
Dagon – One of the greedier luxury options for a support hero. Usually Dagon is reserved for ganking heroes who can get the most out of its effectiveness as an early insta-gib item. The longer the game goes, however, the less useful Dagon becomes. Not really recommended unless you’re way ahead and want to have a bit of fun at the enemy team’s expense.
Heaven's Halberd – Halberd is a good defensive item that is often overlooked. While Ghost Scepter makes you invulnerable to enemy physical attacks for 4 seconds, Halberd will prevent them attacking anyone on your team for 3-4.5 seconds. On top of that you gain a nice chunk of strength and survivability.
Veil of Discord – Veil gives decent all-round stats - +6 all stats, +6 health regeneration, +6 damage, and +6 armour, but the main reason it’s purchased is for its active, Magic Weakness. Magic Weakness increases the magic damage taken by an enemy caught within its 600 unit radius by 25%, which augments your abilities superbly. It lasts for a lengthy 25 seconds, making it a great active for teamfights, and won’t just buff your own magic damage output either - it will also increase the potency of any other magic damage spells your teammates cast on affected enemies in that time frame too.
Aghanim’s Scepter – Aghanim’s Scepter gives Lina a good chunk of health and mana, as well as all-round stats. It also buffs her ultimate’s range (from 600 units to 900 units) and damage (from magic damage to pure damage, so it also goes through spell immunity).
Bloodstone – A good option if you want to tank up. It gives a huge 500 health and 400 mana, as well as enormous health and mana regeneration. The Bloodpact passive will further increase your mana regeneration, as well as reduce the amount of gold lost upon dying and the respawn timer, and will heal allies in a 1675 radius when you die.
Orchid Malevolence – Although usually picked up by intelligence carries and semi-carries, Orchid has great utility as a support caster item. It'll give you a decent chunk of mana regen and a lot of offensive stats. The active 'Soul Burn' will allow you to silence an enemy hero and deal significantly more damage for its duration. The other great thing about Orchid is that it's really easy to build into.
Situational
Sentry Wards, Dust of Appearance, Gem of True Sight – all-important detection. You’ll need at least one of these in your inventory if the enemy line-up features an invis hero. Sentry Wards will also allow you to deward rune spots, and Gem will give you superior vision going into the mid and late game.
Smoke of Deceit – If you roam with another support in the early stages of the game a Smoke will allow you to do so more quickly and without being spotted by enemy wards. Smoke will also come in handy in the post-laning phase if your team wants to gank as 5.
Necronomicon – Great if you’re part of a pushing line-up or your team is struggling to break the base. Also a great item for teamfights and for countering any invis enemy heroes.
Skill Build
Dragon Slave is skilled second but usually maxed first. This is a magic damage nuke that goes out in a wave ahead of you which covers 1075 units and has a radius of between 200 and 275 units. The damage scales slightly better than Light Strike Array’s from levels 1 through to 3, but at level 4 they both deal 280 magic damage.
The reason Dragon Slave is usually maxed first is that it is a more reliable damage dealer than LSA; it covers a far greater range and is much easier to hit.
Light Strike Array is always skilled first, in case of a level 1 engagement, where the landing of a stun can make a massive difference to the outcome of the fight. Like most stuns, LSA can be used both offensively and defensively to stun enemy units. It has a short cooldown (7 seconds) and deals good magic damage, but is unfortunately let down by an extended cast delay which can make it hard to hit. In this respect it is similar to Leshrac’s Split Earth, and like Split Earth it is also an AoE stun (225 units).
The upside of this lengthy delay on LSA is that you can cancel the ability with relative ease, and so bait out a reaction from an enemy without actually expending any mana (for example, if you anticipate a tower dive you can cast LSA to put the enemy off advancing, and then cancel it once the enemy backs off in anticipation of your stun).
Fiery Soul is skilled and max last. This is a passive ability that increases you attack and movement speed whenever you cast a spell. This means Lina can dish out fairly potent DPS when she has casted her nuke combo, but you really want to max out your magic damage potential first, and so this is left until last to max.
Lina’s ultimate, Laguna Blade, is always skilled (levels 6, 11 and 16). A single target nuke, it deals tremendous burst damage (450/675/950) and has a fairly low cooldown (70/60/50). The only downside is it costs a lot of mana (280/420/680). Most enemies will die to your basic combo once you hit level 6 (LSA > Dragon Slave > Laguna Blade), but as with Lion’s Finger of Death it is best used to secure kills on enemies that are low on health but almost certain to escape or at the start of an engagement to soften a key target up for your cores to take down; avoiding using it to kill steal!
Gameplay Tips
Lina is best combined with a hero who has a more reliable stun, so as to ensure Light Strike Array always hits. Let your ally use their stun first, and then follow that up with an LSA on the position of the enemy hero.
If you don’t have an ideal set-up for Light Strike Array you’ll need to anticipate enemy movements in order to land the stun. Although it is an AoE disable, it only covers a relatively small 225 unit radius, so you’re probably going to miss your fair share of stuns. Don’t worry too much about this, just try to learn from your misses for future attempts.
A Light Strike Array, followed by a Dragon Slave on a creep wave allows you to nuke down and flash farm creeps with ease. This means Lina can actually push out waves very quickly, providing she has the mana to support spamming her abilities.
Laguna Blade is blocked by Linken’s Sphere, so make sure to periodically check the inventories of enemy cores, especially those who often build into a Linken’s Sphere, like Weaver or Morphling. As it’s your only targeted ability that is blocked by Linken’s Sphere you will not be able to pop the active yourself, unless you invest in a targeted item. A good option in this respect is Medallion, which is fairly cheap and has an extremely short cooldown, ensuring you’ll always be able to render the passive of Linkens ineffective.
Laguna Blade has a slight cast delay (0.25 seconds), and so it can be dodged by certain mobile heroes or those with Blinks if they manage to time their reactions accurately (think of it as being similar to Sniper’s Assassinate ultimate, albeit with a much short cast delay).
Last Updated - Patch 6.83.
