DotA All-Stars Guide

Hagar The Horrible’s Guide To Lina Inverse The Slayer v6.57

Writer’s Way Of Introducing Lina

Lina is a very good choice of hero to be picked on the battle field due to her ability to spam spells and bring down enemies easily. Although Lina might not be a good 1v1 hero, Lina will progress by farming and teamwork of teammates. She might be weak but DEADLY! To find out more and how to play Lina more efficiently read my guide.

Heroes Bio

Lina Inverse - The Slayer
Range: 600 | | Move Speed: 295 | Primary: INT
Str: 18 + 1.5 | Agi: 16 + 1.5 | Int: 19 + 3.2
Damage: 37 - 55 | HP: 492 | Mana: 247
HP Regen: 0.79 | Mana Regen: 0.77
Attack Speed: 1.43 (+ 16% IAS) | Armor: 1.2

Dragon Slave (D)

A wave of fire that ripples out from the Hero, causing damage to land units in a line of 900 range.
0.5 second casting time.

Level 1 - 100 damage.
Level 2 - 170 damage.
Level 3 - 230 damage.
Level 4 - 280 damage.
Mana Cost: 90/ 105/ 125/ 140
Cooldown: 10

Writers Review On Skill

Dragon Slave is an important skill for farming. Lina depend on DS (Dragon Slave) a lot through out the entire game. This is what makes her a great harasser, damage dealer and a spell spammer with a short cooldown of 10 seconds.

Light Strike Array (T)

Summons a column of flame that damages and stuns an area of 200 AoE for 1.6 seconds.
1 second cast time.
Level 1 - Deals 90 damage.
Level 2 - Deals 150 damage.
Level 3 - Deals 210 damage.
Level 4 - Deals 280 damage.
Mana Cost: 90/ 100/ 110/ 125
Cooldown: 10

Writers Review On Skill

This skill is also an important skill for Lina. She also depends on this skill a lot to stun enemies and farm also. This skill might be harder to use compare to DS because the casting time of the skill is 1 second and it might be a bit hard to aim for those who are weak at aiming LSA (Light Strike Arrray)

Ultimate (E)

Increases Lina’s attack speed.
Level 1 - 10% increase for 20 seconds.
Level 2 - 20% increase for 25 seconds.
Level 3 - 30% increase for 30 seconds.
Level 4 - 50% increase for 30 seconds.
Mana Cost: 60
Cooldown: 30

Writers Review On Skill

Not so important skill during the early game as you will be nuking all the way till level 21. Ultimate increases your attack speed but remember she is a nuker and that means she don’t really depend much on her attack. This might come in pretty handy during the late game when you have skadi to slow the opponent.

Laguna Blade (G)

Fires of bolt of lightning at a single target, dealing critical damage.
Level 1 - Deals 450 (600 with Aghanim Scepter) damage.
Level 2 - Deals 675 (875 with Aghanim Scepter) damage.
Level 3 - Deals 950(1250 with Aghanim Scepter) damage.
Mana Cost: 280/ 420/ 640
Cooldown: 150/ 95/ 55

Writers Review On Skill

This skill is a very powerful skill and useful for finishing off the opponent. A very important skill indeed and will get more powerful when you have a Refresher to cast double LB (Laguna Blade) to the opponent. The cooldown is also quite fast at the level 16 so is worth playing Lina.

Pros & Cons Section

Pros

-Nuking abilities
-Spell spammer
-Good harasser
-High Damage Dealer
-Fast Farmer and LVLer

Cons

-No escape mechanism
-Depend on teammates and teamwork a lot
-Fragile, usually instant death if gang banged

Skill Build

1 - LSA
2 - DS
3 - LSA
4 – DS
5 – DS
6 – LB
7 – DS
8 – LSA
9 – LSA
10 – Stats
11 – LB
12 Until 15 – Stats
16 – LB
17 Until 21 – Stats
22 Until 25 – Ultimate

Writers Explanation On Skill Build

This brief explanation should explain it all. DS and LSA are maxed to have a high damage to nuke, kill and farm. Just DS and LSA combined can deal 560 damage combined alone. That would be able to injure your opponent badly sending him back to the fountain. Also DS and LSA combined can blast off creeps in one shot giving you the last hit and gold. The reason I din’t add ultimate first is that it would be useless to attack with ultimate during early and mid game so stats is replace instead of ultimate so that Lina would be a bit more buffed and won’t get killed easily.

Item Build

Item Order

Ring Of Basilius
Tango
Energy Booster
Disassemble Ring Of Basilius
Arcane Ring
Boots Of Speed
Oblivion Staff
Void Stone
Ultimate Orb
Mystic Staff
Guinsoo
Peseverance
Refresher Orb
Boots Of Travel

Item Build Explanation

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These 4 Core Items [Arcane Ring, Refresher Orb, Skadi, Guinsoo and Boots Of Travel] will assure your victory, if you have been playing properly. Boots Of Travel is obviously to increase your movement speed. Arcane Ring is to die for during the early game! This item keeps you nuking and farming in your lane with mana, it refills 135 mana and with a short cooldown of 33 seconds. Lina usually gets fat by farming with Arcane Ring so don’t leave out this item in your item build, this item is the decider in the game. Refresher Orb is to cast double LB and to give you mana regeneration. Guinsoo grants you hex to disable the enemy! It grants you 200% mana regeneration also meaning that you can keep spamming your DS and LSA and won’t run out of mana (this means you don’t have to fill your mana with arcane ring so constantly unless needed too). By the way, if you were wondering why I din’t finish Refresher Orb first and get to Guinsoo that’s because after when you get Guinsoo your mana pool expand which allows you to LB+Refresh+LB again. Right after, you finish the 4 core items you have 2 free space for other possible items. One more thing, this is not an -em kinda build.

Writers Conclusion On Item Build

This is a nuker, spell spammer and semi-attacker (her Int gained up increases her attack) build. Although she wouldn’t be able to tank much with this build, she will have to depend on teammates to do tanking and Lina to do massive amount of damage.

Ps: This item build has been tested 2 days straight and I manage to win 4 out of 5 times using this skill build. I manage to get Lina to wicked sick although it was ended later on.

Other Possible Items Later

Sentry Ward/Gem Of True Sight

An optional for every hero in Dota! When invisible heroes can be quite annoying and theres no warders!

Shiva’s Guard

Chunk loads of armor for an Int hero is a must! Try and get this as it will benefit you a lot! Attack speed reduction and movement speed reduction plus the Int you gain! An Item you should get!

Skadi

Skadi can work out for slowing enemies and giving you a more precise hit using LSA although this item might be for luxury. Leading to a good streak might help you obtain Skadi.

Agahnim Scepter

Agahnim helps max out the damage of Lina’s LB. Besides that, Agahnim will also toughen up Lina in the end. Not recommended to buy Agahnim before Refresher because Refresher can allow you to cast LB twice.

Lothar Edge

A great item for Lina to run in harsh situations. This item may come in handy. But I don’t recommend this item during early and mid games as it will effect Lina’s item build a lot but some people do so I am leaving it here.

Dagon OR Necronomicon

This I haven’t tried but what I can say it will definetly help Lina’s nuking a lot. Dagon would be my choice if I were to pick between these two items as I am not good in controlling Necronomicon. It would be much easier
to zap the opponent in one shot.

Liken Sphere

This item is good for negating spells and 15 to all stats. This item negates away stuns, purge and etc. So is pretty handy when you want to escape without getting stunned and being gang banged. Lina wouldn’t survive an attack against gang bangers.

Kelen’s Dagger

I don’t have to explain much about this item. This item blinks Lina away from the scene of danger, a good escape mechanism but once Lina is hit she will not be able to use Kelen’s Dagger for 3 seconds. Besides that, Blink is meant to allow you to land LSA without problems, allowing your allies to barge in and beat the tar out of the enemy hero. It’s a Gank/Teamfight initiation tool. Escape is strictly a secondary function. << Point Taken from Ali Radicali.

Empty Bottle

As a healing aid empty bottle is very useful most of the time. But I hardly acquire empty bottle because I will be changing lanes trying to farm so I hardly get in to fights unless the situation demands it or unless I have a chance to get a free kill.

Rejected Items

Writers Reminder

I want you to know that, buying attacking items or trying to do a DPS build during early or mid game is not a good idea. Using DPS or attacker items like Buriza, Cuirass, Monkey King Bar or Battle Fury is plain stupid. The reason I mention this is because I found a few guides that had these kind of DPS or attacker build which is just stupid and ridiculous. Lina can’t tank much nor can she attack much with her primary attacks during early to mid game. To farm with a attacker Lina is just disgusting might as well use Magnus or Dragon Knight if you want to play attacker and semi-nuker.

Heart Of Tarrasque

A definite “NO” for this item because Lina has no chance to tank against enemies due to her armorless and fragile appearance. Don’t be fooled by this item on a nuker it will never work. Also it is a total distraction and waste to our item build.

Cuirass

“NO” for this too because it would be a waste to buy this and takes you a long time to get this. Lina is a nuker therefore she needs lots of mana to spam and shes not a DPS attacker! So get the point and never buy Buriz , Monkey King Bar or other attack items.

GameplayWalkthrough

Tips On Using LSA

Some of you might be curious on ways to aim LSA. I added this section to show you a few ways to aim LSA on your enemies.

About the aiming tool

The aiming tool of LSA is a circumference with a midpoint in the middle of the circumference.

A Precise Hit

I cast LSA on Rylai by aiming my circumference aiming tool and center it to the middle of the circumference. Right above, Rylai’s head and click on my left mouse button.

Right after she tries to run, she was hit by the flames and got stunned. She was a few inches close to escaping but her attempt to run from the flames was an epic fail due to my precise hit.

The Less Precise Hit

This less precise hit is only for a splash damage to every creep and hero around the circumference aiming tool. If it misses the enemy hero it hits the creeps and BONUS if it hits the enemy hero and hit the creeps as well. I can conclude that this less precise hit is usually for harassing or farming and will pretty much stun a hero, giving you a chance to kill if it hits the hero quickly before the enemy hero notices your LSA.

Proper Ways Of Casting DS

Casting DS, making proper use of the spell range.

Damaging every enemies in its path!

Combos to apply on enemies

1) LSA + LB + Guinsoo + Refresher + LB
2) LSA + DS + LB
3) DS all the way until low life + LB + DS
4) DS all the way until low life + LB

Farming combos to apply on enemies

1) LSA + DS

Ps: Remember these few tricks as I have been using this for 2 days straight and it works like a charm.

How To Play Lina In The Game

First few items when you start the game you need to get Ring Of Basilius and Tangos to keep you in the game. Right after that, pick a solo lane (could be a bit hard to handle) or pick a partner lane (easy kill if work together). Before level 6, you should be able to get energy booster or arcane ring done. Right after you get arcane ring, you don’t need to go back to the fountain unless you are injured badly. When you get arcane, you are now able to farm without wasting much mana and also remember to replenish your mana every 33 seconds with arcane. Keep on casting LSA+DS on the wave of creeps. Keep changing lanes and farm so that your opponents have a hard time coping up with you. You can also farm at the forest too. Farming also increases your level very fast. Right after you get Void Stone, you will notice that your mana regenerates faster and after Guinsoo, your mana regenerates incredibly fast that you hardly have to replenish mana. By level 16 or so, you should be able to finish Guinsoo if you have been playing properly and farming properly. By level 20 and should have finished Refresher and start making other possible items. Remember now that you have Guinsoo, start disabling your enemies and help supporting a major ownage for your team. By the time you can even finish other possible items, I am sure your teammates will already infiltrated you enemies base and aiming for the throne. If not, continue the game and help your opponents to victory.

Best Allies

Stunners

Earthshaker, Skeleton King, Sven and etc are stunners that can make your work easier for killing. These teammates can help a lot in the game so work with them.

Tankers

Sven, Pudge, Magnus and etc are tankers that can help you a lot through the whole game. Stay behind them and spam skills while they do all the melee attacking. You are a damage dealer and spell spammer so don’t tank unless necessary.

Mana Replenishers

Ezalor and Obsidian Destroyer are mana replenishers which means during the early game they will replenish mana for you to make it easier for you to spam skills without worrying much about mana.

Healers

Warlock, Omniknight, Chen and etc are healers. They help you through the whole game and supporting you.

Worst Kind Of Enemies

Mana Burners

Nerubian Assassin, Anti Mage and etc are mana burners that can be pretty annoying. Their mana burn can cause severe pain and also loss of mana making you unable to spam your skills.

Assassins

Stealth Assassin, Phantom Assassin, Bloodseeker, Pudge and etc are assassins. Assassins can deal very high damage to a fragile nuker like Lina. Assassins will often depend on nukers like Lina for food.

Counter Your Worst Enemies!

Mana Burners

1) Stay away from them/Change lanes.
2) Go for a kill before he burns any more mana/Call for a gank.
3) Get some instant regeneration so that you’ll have some mana/hp when you need it (eg. Bottle, Arcane Ring).
4) Gank mana burners more often, so as to deter them from being too aggresive.

Assassins

1) Avoid feeding Assassins too much.
2) Stop them from leveling too much and getting late game items to own.

Note: Assassins are much more easier to kill since their quite fragile during the early game

Replays

http://www.dota-allstars.com/replay/75581/index.html << download replay from this link.

A very nice game, although I totally lost. But overall I manage to cope up with the rest of the enemies level and manage to get a few kills before the end. Totally lost in the end and all of my teammate lost. Notice that we did quite well although we had a feeder and leaver Rikimaru in the game. Could have been more worth watching if Rikimaru didn’t leave and played nicely.

Watch this video and see how i really played Lina in this game. You might learn something from this. Take note of all the lane changing and see how I farmed. Very important to show the effectiveness of this guide.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction
2. Skills
3. Skill Build
4. Item Build
5. Strategy

I - Introduction

Proudmoore’s Role:

• Supporter/Mid-game Ganker
• Initiator
• Tank/Buffer

His Top 3 Pros:

• 500 AoE Cleave
• Great (and fun) disables
• Team player

His Top 3 CONS:

• Item dependent
• Vulnerable to INT enemies
• Only 1 active spell with a low cooldown (12/30/100 seconds for his 3 actives)

II - Skills

Visiting this guide by AlekianKnight is worthwhile to really get a feel for the distances and combos involved with Proudmoore’s spells.

III - Skill Build

1. Tidebringer
2. Torrent
3. Tidebringer
4. Torrent
5. Tidebringer
6. Ghost Ship
7. Tidebringer
8. Torrent
9. Torrent
10. X Marks the Spot
11. Ghost Ship
12. X Marks the Spot
13. X Marks the Spot
14. X Marks the Spot
15. Stats
16. Ghost Ship <– Now maxed

Tidebringer is maxed first period. I cannot see any reason why it should not be taken immediatly as it becomes available. It gives you a way to “nuke” quite effectively and constantly all-the-while helping you last hit and score gold.

Torrent is the next best thing besides picking your ultimate “Ghost Ship” at level 6. At the start of the game, use it when enemies go to last hit or deny–this is the best strategy. However, you will also use it to save yourself from damage, or worse: death. (ex: Pudge, Omni, VS, Veno.) Use it when your allies come to gank your lane.

Ghost Ship is excellent with the MS bonus, Nuke/Stun, and CoCo… just a great spell period.

XMtS becomes more relevant later on when you start to play in bigger groups and you are no longer attached to a particular lane. I wouldn’t hold off on getting it though… stats are not worth it considering the increased range and duration XMtS gets with each level… yes with added mana cost but you do get mana regen item and bracers.

IV - Item Build

-Starting Items-

$180 - x2 Tangoes (6 charges)
$335 - x1 Gauntlet, x1 Circlet
$53 - x1 Ironwood Branch

***************

-Important Items-

$135 - Scroll of Town Portal (good practice to always have one on you after ten (10) minutes of playtime)
$600 - Bottle (Consider getting if you are farming well in the first 5 minutes. It helps a lot with ganks.)
$200 - Magic Stick (this can be really good depending on your opponents spells)
$100 - Healing Salve (useful after your ult wears off [from its 50% damage reconciliation] or when you or an ally needs desperate healing)
$50 - Clarity Potion (you need your mana, buy 1 if you are still in the first 20-25 minutes of the game and don’t have a voidstone and you have $50 extra cash to blow)
$190 - Dust of Appearance (situational: anti-invis… use with XMTS)

<— NO! A *more* support-oriented ally should be covering these for your team!
***************

-Core Item Sets-

The Basic Core

Build up these items first… don’t forget to buy TPs…


<— The Str is great for buffing you up, but don’t forget how important the Int you get is as well

Bracers are taken over Nulls because str translates to more damage as well as HP.

Basically, any of the boots are good… consider all 3 options by reviewing your ally’s and enemy’s picks
<— The best positioning… but $$$… I only get this if it’s an inactive game and I’m farming up a storm.
<— More armor, better positioning (recommended)
<— More strength, DPS

Items Afterward

Remember:
—> +

In descending order of preference/likelihood to get:

–A great supportive item in general (ty drscrewyou)
-or-
–If you cannot farm Mystic Staff and your team needs more disable. Cyclone + Torrent is pretty.
-or-
–Very effective against CM, Rhasta, Lion, Bane, etc…
-or-
–A decent item… will make enemies receive 135% cleave damage. (You can rice super fast with this.) However, I find this item to be very un-supportive.

6. Now’s a good time to start working towards it… hopefully you are still in the game!

Some complete–but very hard/long to achieve–builds… (just for fun)

Support Proudmoore


or or

DPS Proudmoore

Situational Items

These items will effect the core. (ie you might want to consider not getting Perseverance.)

1. You might need to get some magic resist.

2. If your team is heavy melee and you are the best candidate for getting this…

4. This is reasonable too if against wwers

Viable Orbs
(ty yochingy)

1. Maim

2. Lifesteal

3. Corruption

* Orbs are not really necessary on Proudmoore. Sange provides good strength. HotD allows you to grab a netter/stunner/slower, or Alpha Wolf for command aura. Corruption is good against a beefy enemy team.

Item Justification:

Strength Oriented Items
Basically the best candidate items for Proudmoore are those that give strength because it makes him beefy so he can stay in the fight longer and do lots of damage–and the strength adds to that damage–in a deadly 100% cleave, 500 AoE fashion every 4 seconds.. Remember, Tidebringer already provides a modest boost in his DPS by default (it’s like you get a sacred relic once every 4 seconds and then it’s taken away when you attack), this is why it’s better to stay away from additional DPS items as they are sort of redundant and make him less well-rounded. His abilities determined that he is more support rather than DPS/carry… even though he *could* be a carry. However, this guide is meant for serious games where the teams are working together rather than alone… much more decisive games… which means you want your hero to be the most effective possible. Proudmoore, in a real difficult game, is better off as a support/gank than a DPS/ricer.

Perserverance

This item allows you to persevere lol. It gives you great HP/MP regen and can be used to build Guinsoo’s, Eul’s, and Linken’s. You need this item early on and bottle alone is not reliable enough. Farm it up fast and get it over with… it will allow you to persist in your ganks, supportive tasks, and early farming. The +10 damage is welcome and synergizes with Tidebringer.

Phase Boots

Positioning: These allow you to position yourself easier among creeps in order to land the 500 AoE cleave onto the enemy (in the case when you cant reach the enemy directly). Also, phase boots give you more MS than power treads, allowing you to get into position even faster. These 2 points are very important considering your ultimate requires precise positioning. Phase boots also synergize with Sange (so does power treads’ IAS), by allowing you to stay with the enemy and hitting him while your spells are on CD; hopefully you will maim.
When to activate: Always use these when going long distances. You should always be hustling and thinking of where to go.
Do NOT activate them when you are about to use a spell as this cancels the phase boot’s buff. The best time to activate is when the enemy is hit by a Torrent: you will be able to walk through him onto the other side in order to block him and get more attack hits off. Try and always stay ahead of the enemy… this leaves more room for opportunity AND does not usually sacrifice the # of attack hits dealt. Also, when you are chasing and the enemy is marked with XMTS… when you place your Torrent on the X, hit Return 1.2 seconds after this and immediate active phase boots to get over to the enemy’s new location. Basically there are many times when to activate phase boots and since this is not a guide on phase boots I will stop here.

Disables

Fits your supportive role.

Heart of Tarrasque

Proudmoore scales into lategame only by continuously beefing him up. Your team will rely on you to be strong and tank to some degree.

V - Strategy

Visiting this guide by AlekianKnight is worthwhile to really get a feel for the distances and combos involved with Proudmoore’s spells.

Early Game

Your hero can babysit or take up solo mid. Try to last hit with Tidebringer all the while hitting enemy with its AoE.

If you soloed mid, early Bottle is a must (to control runes). Start ganking around level 8. Prior to that, you should only leave your position to aid in a river/jungle kill. Early Boots of Speed is advisable.

Remember, at level 6, you now have a decent amount of potential to land a kill using Ghost Ship. If someone comes to gank make sure it is available. When ganking, having it available is very advisable.

Early game for Proudmoore is a lot of farming… I would say you are in good shape for mid game once you upgraded your boots and have a good mana source.

Mid Game

Ganking with intermittent farming. Farm jungle spots on the fly. Do not ignore the players’ (allied and enemy) activities. You really should have good comm (vent if you are serious) or–at the very least–have some allies working with you.

Do not waste XMTS, use it with:
- Torrent
- Chasing
- Ghost Ship

Use XMTS it on:
- Channelers (right before the *time window* for them to use their combo arises)
- Disablers (that you wish to Torrent)

When ganking, try to use torrent w/o XMTS… this takes a lot of practice and it is best used when the enemy doesn’t know you’re there. XMTS and Torrent synergize extremely well but that does not mean to always use them together. I personally only use them together when I’m out in plain sight of the enemy (for instance a 1v1 situation or team battle) and want to guarantee the disable. Also, in big, complicated fights it is good to target the enemy with the disables and strong ultimates (before they get into position… so they get put back OUT of position) with this XMTS/torrent combo… it will put him back away from the fight and buy your team some time.

Always use XMTS on the enemy when he is alone and chasing you. Always use XMTS on yourself to juke if 2 or more are chasing you. Same goes if you are helping an ally being chased.

Initiating with Ghost Ship is the best (or most effective) use for this spell. If your team is fleeing (ie was ganked) and the enemy is already on top of you, then cast Ghost Ship in the direction you are all moving. If the enemy is chasing your team but are somewhat behind you, cast it in the opposite direction so that you get the 10% MS boost sooner.

If you are going to use Ghost Ship during a fight (after initiation), use it ASAP and target the disablers.

When you spells are on CD, position yourself to damage the most # of enemies with Tidebringer. Harass the disablers (or the hero your team is focusing) and try to get them to cast their spells on you. (Usually you want to walk behind the enemy disabler so that you are hitting the other enemies.)

When going into a battle, know who you are disabling, know who your team is focusing as well.

Late Game

Same as mid game, however Ghost Ship becomes more important… so I will say just one thing:

CAST GHOST SHIP AS SOON AS THE TEAM BATTLE BEGINS FOR COCO. LEARN THE TIMING. FEEL IT. KNOW IT.

Important Points:

• Torrent cancels Sand King’s Sand Storm.
• “X” does NOT cancel windwalk-type abilities.
• “X” cancels Panda’s Primal Split if cast before Primal Split.
• Avatar, Jugg’s Blade Fury, Rage, and Infest ALL cancel “X”.
• Use “X” on enemy. Have Rhasta cast Mass Wards on top of “X”. Hit Return.
• Use “X” before enemy Lothar’s, Leaps, Runs from your tower.
• Use “X” after enemy starts to cast Town Portal, Teleportation, Dark Rift.
• Use “X” on enemy. Have ES cast fissure in such a way that you “trap” the “X” on the side closer to your base. Immediately hit Return. Kill. Works best in top or bot lanes.
• “X” cancels enemy’s channeling spells.
• Cast “X” on enemy. Get POTM to fire arrow at “X”. When arrow is about to reach “X”, hit Return. While enemy is stunned, cast Torrent or Ghost Ship.
• Cast “X” on friendly VS before Swap -or- cast “X” on swapped enemy after Swap.
• “X” can be used to set up friendly Black Hole, Reverse Polarity, Epicenter, Pure Lesh (TS) Pwnage, etc…
• Use “X” to prevent stray enemies from fleeing… free kill. Think about aftermath of big battles.
• Use “X” on high MS / stunning chasers when fleeing.
• Use “X” on enemies that require a high degree of positioning (ex: Lesh, Ursa, and Axe).
• When you Cyclone an enemy, IMMEDIATELY place a torrent under him.