Learn how to dominate your Dota 2 matches with Lina, the fiery slayer, in this complete build guide, showcasing her best items and playstyle.
In Dota 2, there are heroes who deal massive damage with their spells. And then there are those who hit like a truck in the late game with the right items. Lina gives you the best of both worlds. With plenty of nukes in her arsenal and a passive that gives her bonus attack speed each time she casts a spell, Lina, the fiery mage, is one of the strongest late-game heroes in the current Dota 2 roster.
But that doesn’t mean picking the hero is an auto-win for the team. The hero is extremely squishy, much like Windranger, and relies a lot on securing an early lead. If you plan on adding this hero to your toolbelt, here’s a complete guide showcasing her best items, playstyle, and spell order to help you get started. Dota 2 Lina Hero Overview
Lina is a ranged caster whose primary stat is Intelligence. She has two active abilities, one passive and an ultimate that unlocks once she reaches level 6. Her attack range is quite high, but her base attack speed, attack animation, and agility gain are all relatively low. On top of a low health pool of only 560 at the start, the hero also has a pretty low starting armor, making her early laning phase easy to punish.
Here’s a quick breakdown of Lina’s abilities in Dota 2:
Ability Name
How it Works
Dragon Slave (Q)
Lina fires a wave of flame in front of her, damaging every enemy unit it hits.
Light Strike Array (W)
Lina summons a column of flame in a small AOE that damages and stuns enemies.
Fiery Soul (Passive)
Gives Lina bonus attack and movement speed each time she hits an enemy unit with a spell. Can stack up to 7 times.
Laguna Blade (R)
Lina shoots a bolt of lightning at a single enemy unit dealing massive magic damage.
Other than these abilities, Lina has an Aghanim’s Shard and Aghanim’s Scepter Upgrade.
Aghanim’s Scepter: Grants Lina an additional Flame Cloak ability that gives unobstructed pathing, increases her spell damage, and provides bonus magic resistance. It also maxes out her Fiery Soul Stacks when activated.
Aghanim’s Shard: Upgrades Fiery Soul. Lina’s other abilities deal 20 extra damage for each passive stack.
The Dota 2 Crownfall update added two facets and an innate ability to Lina’s tool kit. Her innate ability, Combustion, allows Lina to deal additional damage to enemies anytime she deals 175 damage to an enemy hero. Her two Facets are as follows:
Thermal Runaway: Casting Laguna Blade gives Lina additional stacks of Fiery Soul that can exceed the maximum amount.
Slow Burn: Lina’s abilities get an extra damage-over-time effect. Dota 2 Lina Build Guide
Lina is usually played in the middle lane as the Position 2 of the team, but in some matchups, she can also play as the Position 1 Hard Carry. For this guide, we’ll be sticking with her Position 2 build since it’s the one that’s performing best in the current meta.
Though the hero can deal an impressive amount of physical damage with the right items, playing her as the mage and focusing on her spells is the better approach in the middle lane.