Is Lina weak in Dota 2 patch 7.33c?

Lina used to be an amazing hero and she still is in many ways, but she doesn’t get much love these days from the Dota 2 community.

Lina’s current win rate is barely 43.4%. And her pick rate is below 4%. These statistics clearly show that the hero is regarded as being extremely weak compared to others. The current meta revolves around other options: Silencer, Ancient Apparition, Jakiro, Undying, Lich, and many more.

Lina’s strengths

But Lina is not a bad hero. In fact, you can play her not just as support, but also in the mid lane. Her damage output can become spectacular if you purchase the right items and have a decent game.

One of the great things about Lina is her attribute increase per level: 2.4 strength, 2.4 agility, and 3.8 intelligence. That’s a total of 8.6! By the time you’ve reached level 5, you are already significantly stronger than many other heroes that might lane against you. And at 7 you’re a beast that can kill a target with basic attacks and spells.

The biggest weakness of the hero is the movement speed. At 290 MS, Lina is relatively slow. But you can fix that slowness by purchasing Boots of Travel. On top of that, Lina has Fiery Soul, which greatly increases her movement speed and attack speed.

Lina can keep the lanes pushed with ease thanks to her AoE spells and overall damage output. Dragon Slave deals 325 damage at level 4 and will hit numerous targets. Light Strike Array deals 260 damage and will also hit around 4-5 targets.

The biggest decision that you’ll need to make when playing Lina is the item build. This hero benefits a lot not just from HP, mana, HP regen, and mana regen items, but also from mobility and attack damage items. This means that it makes perfect sense to invest in a Eul’s Scepter. But it also makes sense to buy yourself an early Crystallis.

Other excellent items are Orchid Malevolence, Kaya and Sange, Witch Blade, and Eye of Skadi. There’s no clear path to take and each match will require you to find the ideal combination of items. Because of the current meta, a pair of BoTs is essential. A Blink Dagger would also help a lot.

Lina’s Laguna Blade deals 500 damage at level 1, which makes it the perfect tool for securing kills.

Header: Valve Corporation