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. Role versality.	Slow cast and attack animations. No mobility and durability without items.

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 Drum 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 consumes much less farming resources and can participate in roaming and ganking at an early time. She prefers Position 4 to support off-lane core, due to a constant harassment of the enemy's core with Light Strike Array and robbery of stacking creeps with Dragon Slave. She can take great advantage of 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

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 1800 pure damage if she combines Aghanim's Scepter and Refresher Orb, granting her enormous nuking power.
• Since Laguna Blade is blocked by Spell Block, it would be wise to invest for a single-targeted item such as a Eul's Scepter of Divinity.

Items

Starting items:

• Tango restores health to keep Lina in lane.
• Null Talisman gives attributes and mana regeneration.
• Clarity sustains mana so Lina can keep using abilities, threatening enemies more.
• Regular Stick is useful for absolutely no reason.
• 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.

Early game:

• Arcane Boots is a must-have item for Lina no matter which role she is playing, as the mana replenish will allow Lina to use her abilities more often and restore her own and her allies's mana.
• Force Staff gives Lina more intelligence, health and an escape tool for either escaping or chasing enemy heroes. Later it can be upgraded into Hurricane Pike that can also give her more attack range.
• Witch Blade gives Lina attack speed, armor, more intelligence, and increases the traveling speed of her attack projectiles while also providing Lina with true strike every 9 seconds.

Mid game:

• Eul's Scepter of Divinity enhances Lina's positioning and greatly boosts mana regeneration. It can also be used to set up Light Strike Array more reliably.
• Aghanim's Scepter will give Lina access to Flame Cloak ability that will allow her to gain unobstructed movement, magical damage resitance and extra spell damage.
• Black King Bar will give Lina spell immunity, which will allow Lina to use her abilities and to attack enemy heroes with minimal risk of getting affected by enemy abilities, it will also increase her strength and attack damage.
• Hurricane Pike, an upgrade for Force Staff gives Lina extra mobility to use for either escaping or catching up with enemy heroes and the increased attack range that allows her to attack enemies from safer distances.

Late game:

• Crystalys provides a good damage boost when playing as a semi-carry Lina, and can be upgraded to Daedalus or Khanda.
• Parasma, an upgrade for Witch Blade will allow Lina's attacks to weaken magic resistance by 20% for 3 seconds, making them more vulnerable to her abilities that deal magical damage.
• Wind Waker, an upgrade for Eul's Scepter of Divinity gives Lina bonus mana regeneration along with an escape tool and much needed mobility.
• Aghanim's Shard will allow Lina's Fiery Soul to have her all of her abilities to deal 20 more damage for each charge provided by Fiery Soul.
• Scythe of Vyse will give Lina 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 improves her mana regeneration.

Situational items:

• Silver Edge 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. It will also allow Lina's attacks to disable an enemy hero's passive abilities.
• Daedalus is an upgrade for Crystalys to greatly improve a carry Lina's attack damage, complementing Fiery Soul's attack speed bonus.
• Veil of Discord will give Lina armor, ince attributes and will also allow her to weaken the magic resistance of nearby enemy heroes, causing them to take amplified damage from Dragon Slave, Light Strike Array and Laguna Blade. Veil of Discord can later be upgraded into Shiva's Guard for bonus armor, attack speed reduction and heal reduction of nearby heroes.
• Monkey King Bar can be useful for a carry Lina, as it can give her bonus attack speed and attack damage, and the ability to have her attacks pierce evasion.
• Satanic increases Lina's survivability by providing her lifesteal, and allows carry Lina to use her high DPS to rapidly heal to full health.
• Shiva's Guard, an upgrade for Veil of Discord will greatly increase Lina's low armor while also allowing her to reduce the magic resistance, attack speed and heals of nearby enemy heroes.
• Linken's Sphere provide attributes to Lina's overall stats. The passive Spell Block also protects her from disables.
• 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 her coming and evade it.
• Bloodstone will give Lina very good amount of health and mana along with spell lifesteal that will allow Lina to heal herself whenever she damages enemies with her abilities.
• Dagon will give Lina nice attributes and even more magical damage burst along with spell lifesteal. Its active ability can be used to put Linken's Sphere on cooldown before using Laguna Blade.
• Ethereal Blade provides mana and mana regeneration for Lina's abilities, a greater cast range for all of her targeted abilities along with the ability to disarm enemy heroes and make them more vulnerable to her abilities that deal magical damage, or to protect herself from physical attackers.
• Revenant's Brooch will give Lina great attack damage, spell lifesteal, and will also allow Lina's attacks to deal magical damage that can pierce through armor and to attack ethereal units at the cost of 50 mana while it's active.
• Rod of Atos provides Lina with improved stats and a root to disable enemies that can make landing of Light Strike Array much easier. Rod of Atos can later be upgraded to Gleipnir with a Chain Lightning effect that procs reliably with Fiery Soul for heavy damage along with a root in an area.
• Gleipnir an upgrade for Rod of Atos will give Lina more health to withstand more damage, more intelligence to use her abilities more often, passive chain lightning that can make her attacks bounce between enemies and damage them, and an active root in a area that will allow Lina to root multiple enemies at once, making them easier targets for Light Strike Array.
• Abyssal Blade will increase Lina's durability and will also allow Lina's attacks to stun enemy heroes, and the bash will proc often thanks to Lina's high attack speed from Fiery Soul even if she is a ranged hero. Abyssal Blade will also allow Lina to stun an enemy hero if he/she gets too close to Lina even if they are debuff immune, making them easier targets for Light Strike Array.