Hero guide: Lanaya, the Templar Assassin

Welcome to my first hero guide! Lanaya, the Templar Assassin is not only the hottest chick in dota, she's also my very favourite hero in the game. This guide will give you a general idea on your gameplan for playing Lanaya. I also have an item + skill guide, which you can find right here: Lanaya, the Templar Assassin Guide

Hero general information:

Lanaya is an agility hero and amongst the highest dps-dealers in the entire game, throughout the entirety of a game - from laning phase until late game. Her skillset requires very quick fingers, and her most fitting role is the midlane. I have occasionally played her as offlane or safelane but completely stopped it, since her game influence completely droppes in these roles usually. She doesn't only want the solo levels (offlane / mid), she also wants the most possible farm (safelane / mid). Playing her offlane or safelane harms her potential in either one of those regards so I definitely recommend to only play her as a solo mid hero.

Favourable / Unfavourable matchups:

Favourable matchups:

> vs Invoker: Your high damage output combined with your harass potential from psi-blades can easily kill a badly-positioned Invoker on early levels. If your opponent plays properly, you will try to harass, deny and last hit as many creeps as possible. Refraction helps taking out Forge Spirits and completely negates a lot of your opponents' damage output. Given both players play properly, you can try to kill your opponent as soon as you get your Psionic Traps up to burst down Invoker before he can escape (Sentry Wards can be helpful, remember Ghost Walk). Later on, you will want to keep focussing on Invoker, since you're likely to three-shot him before he can turn a teamfight with his insane magic damage output.

> vs Puck: Puck - next to Shadow Fiend - counts to Lanaya's most favourable matchups in dota. Puck has poor base damage and basically no chance to secure any last hits or denies against you. Also, Puck's magic damage output is completely shut down by your Refraction. It even gets better: Puck is amongst the squishiest heroes in the game and killing him in lane is highly likely if you get a few psi blades in. Don't feel forced to make things happen though: If you deny a lot of creeps while farming yourself, you are already making things happen (keep in mind Puck's great positioning options with his Orbs, enabling counterplays from rotating enemies).

> vs Shadow Fiend: Shadow Fiend is Lanaya's favourite matchup. Since he relies heavily on earning souls to increase his farming potential, you can completely shutdown this power-farmer by basically denying every creep on every wave. Also, Refraction completely counters his Shadow Razes and once you get your level 6 there is absolutely no chance to run away for him. You'll usually end up killing him several times throughout the game. Killing him twice within the first ten minutes is very likely too.

> vs Tiny: Templar Assassin usually deals really good with melee heroes in general, and Tiny is a perfect example for a classic melee midlaner. Many arguments will also work against other melee heroes like Dragon Knight etc. Your high damage output and fast attack animation can easily secure denies even though Tiny has a good base damage. Also, his deadly combo is mostly negated by having Refraction up, so you really have to mess up hard to give him a slight chance of killing you.

50/50 matchups:

vs Huskar: Even though Huskar's Burning Spears deliver damage over time to break Refraction, I would not consider him a hard counter - in fact, it's a dead even matchup. Go into this matchup as usual by staying far away from your opponent, optimally getting a good block aswell. Harass him with Psi Blades and since Lanaya does not deal any magic damage Huskar won't be able to block any of it. It is highly recommendable to get some value points in Meld as you want to be able to kill him before his burn kills you instead. Nevertheless, do not attempt in killing him since you will just end up dying. Play safe and wait for the moment when every Huskar player overestimates his hero and tries to dive you to turn. Once one of the two gets ahead it's superhard for the other to comeback. Also, as soon as Huskar gets his level 6 he can kill you really fast, so watch out for that.

vs Queen of Pain: I think this is one of the best and most entertaining matchups in a classic 1v1 mid. It is purely decided by your and your opponents' skills since both heroes can easily kill each other. This is one of the matchups where you will face enemy projectiles through QoP's dagger causing damage over time, harming your defensive options that Refraction usually offers. Therefore, in this case you will need to get an unusually early level in Meld that can dodge incoming projectiles (also works on e.g. Magic Missile from Vengeful Spirit, Storm Hammer from Sven or Stifling Dagger from Phantom Assassin). Since Queen of Pain is rather squishy, you can do great work on harassing through psi blades, but it is highly unlikely to get a kill unless your opponent blinks forward. Play conservatively and focus on farming rather than making things happen - again you're already doing work if your opponent has a hard time last hitting creeps.

vs Outworld Devourer: Since Outworld Devourer is really strong in the current patch, I wanted to mention him aswell. He cannot break Refraction easily and it is highly unlikely that either you or he are gonna get a kill. His Orbs cause problems since he has access to a tool that keeps up with your early damage output. If you play safely you should usually be fine denying a lot, harassing a little with Psi Blades and getting most last hits since he cannot orb his own creeps for denying. You cannot avoid your mana being drained, so make sure to use that mana before it's gone anyways.

Unfavourable matchups:

vs Venomancer: Damage over time is your worst nightname as a Templar Assassin. You are highly reliant on your defensive options using this skill, but Venomancer cannot only hit you with DoT but also place wards giving him extra sources of damage. Sometimes, you will be able to take advantage of wards killing them off for extra money, but be careful going highground since it could've just been a trap to give you the good ol' Venomous Gale straight to your face, which is usually equal to dying. Play safe, just push out waves as far as possible and try to get safe last hits under your tower and maybe getting some more on neutral camps in the meantime. Never pick Templar Assassin if Venomancer has already been picked up by your enemy team.

vs Viper: This matchup is the worst matchup possible for Templar Assassin. Not only does Viper hit you with Damage over Time, he's also insanely tanky and has great range. This matchup is a straight loss, you can only survive given a good creep block and harassing as much as possible with Psi Blades. Do not get close to Viper and just make sure to collect whatever he leaves for you to get. If you don't start off the first wave properly it is basically impossible to survive the lane, so focus is highly important! Again, never pick Lanaya if Viper is already up on your enemy team.

Gameplan:

Templar Assassin is a midgame hero and highly reliant on proper timings. She is a high influence hero that can close a game by herself, but only if you stick to a certain gameplan which in 99% of the cases will be exactly the same.

> Laning Phase: Make sure to get a fast bottle and harass your enemy as much as possible. Lanaya is indeed a lane dominator for most matchups so take advantage of that. Rune control is absolutely essential for this hero to work. If you're on Radiant (highly recommendable to almost only pick Templar Assassin on Radiant) push out the creepwave at x:30 to make sure you can run to your Ancient Camp and stack it right before heading to the top rune. This trick increases your farming by a lot later on. On Dire you will not have this option available, but in case you can't go for top rune you will want to stack the Dire Ancient Camp before grabbing bottom rune. Many players try to make special plays with Lanaya, but there are only two runes advisable for ganking / killing: If you actually manage to grab an early haste rune, even may it be at level 4, take it and gank a sidelane or mid for the easiest kills of your entire life. No hero in dota matches up to her early damage output, so having something to make it impossible for them to run away from usually guarantees two kills. If you grab a double damage rune you can try to play aggressively against your opponent midlane, but ganks usually won't work since enemy wards are likely to spot you trying. Just use it to ensure lane dominance in the first place.

> Starting to take control of the game: As soon as you get your level 6, make sure to plant Psionic Traps on rune spots, in the midlane and on highground spots such as the entry of the Dire jungle. The advantage on vision is likely to spot out enemy movements to avoid ganks or setting up your own rotations. Traps can help you ensuring kills on the enemy mid and starting to snowball right from there, but do not spend your life for a kill since it is likely to hurt your timings more than your enemies (you might if you can get a first blood though). As soon as you get your Phase Boots up start stacking your Ancients. You do not wanna gank early at all because you want to farm your lane plus your Ancient stacks. Usually you will find yourself with a pre-ten-minute Blink Dagger (my best timing was around 6:00-6:30minutes). As soon as you've got your Blink up (on average, you should have it at 10 minutes) it is finally time to start rotating around the map. Inform your team where you want to go for a kill so they will help you out with a stun or two. You will want to get a high value target such as a safelane Spectre or Phantom Assassin - just generally try to gank heroes that the enemy team is heavily relying on farming. Keeping these core heroes from farming and gaining levels can give your team around one or two more minutes to farm up core items or push towers. After a successful gank make sure to start getting towers where you're at or at least causing damage. There are games where you will simply not find a good gank. In this case just make sure to pressure the enemies' mid tier one tower instead to give your team not only map control but also a chunk of early extra gold in their pockets.

> Converting midgame into structures: Between 16 and 20 minutes into the game you will have farmed enough Ancient Creeps to get a Desolator on top of your Blink Dagger. This is the first time in the game you can try to force a teamfight since you can usually blow up a backline Disruptor or Lina with two or three hits causing a straight 5v4 situation. Make sure to get all outer structures on your enemy team including tier two towers. Since you've got the Desolator plus your own armor reduction you will want to secure Roshan as early as possible. You will want to grab the Aegis for yourself. Play aggressive around your Aegis claiming all outer towers and gaining all map control. Use your Aegis to win a teamfight and if possible go straight for your first set of barracks or at least a tier three tower. Make sure to stay alive and go straight back to farming afterwards. You almost always will want to get a Black King Bar as your next item (and by that, I mean just get the freakin' item, seriously). When you have your Blink + Deso + BKB Templar Assassin has reached her absolute powerspike within the entire game. You can force a teamfight with BKB without Aegis, but make sure to only take a good fight. Do not force anything by running straight into a wall. Rather play it slow farming up some extra gold while waiting for the next Roshan spawn. With this Aegis you will most likely have to decide the game by claiming at least one full set of barracks, but rather two full sets to win the game straight away. It is highly unlikely to come back from being two barracks down in most games.

> Lategame decision making: After you've reached your powerspike (your game timer is around 30 minutes into the game) other heroes will very likely be farmed enough to outcarry you already. At this point you usually cannot go as aggressive as you have used to throughout the entire time before that. Therefore, just make sure to secure Roshan as many times as possible and try pushing out lanes as much as possible. You will usually want a Daedalus as your next item, but heroes like Phantom Assassin and Windrunner will force you into getting something else like in this case a Monkey King Bar. Make sure to stick around with your team more than you have done before since two heroes can usually kill you by now very easily. In general you will want to get another Aegis, but you might want to consider giving it to your safelane farmer at this point. Don't try to frontline teamfights anymore but rather wait behind your front lines for a good moment to pop your BKB and jump straight in for a good counter-initiation. Always focus the squishy enemy heroes since you can two-shot a Disruptor or Lion throughout the entire game. At this point, you will have to highly rely on your teammates to play properly to win teamfights so you can just make sure to kill one or two enemies and hope for the best. If possible claim structures or Roshan straight after any good engagement to close the game entirely. Always take care of pushing out at least one sidelane to give yourself the option of outratting your opponents. If the enemy team is becoming too strong, there are chances to use Travel Boots to pressure enemy barracks forcing at least two heroes to teleport back and save these structures. Your team might find a chance for an advantageous fight due to this. Just make sure to jump out as soon as you see enemies approaching since you just wanna waste their time. If you die, it's highly likely the enemy team will claim structures off of that.

If you have further questions on Templar Assassin, feel free to leave comments to this post!

The dota way of life

Welcome to my official dota 2 blog! My nickname is mightymouse and I usually play the midlane or safelane role. The goal for this blog is to provide basic knowledge and a gameplan for starters, but experienced players might also find one or another gold nugget in here. Feel free to comment, criticize or commend my thoughts on dota 2.

About me: My name is Chris, I'm 26 years old, currently at around 3000 MMR and I started playing dota when I was playing the good ol' Warcraft III: Frozen Throne. Unfortunately, I kinda lost interest after a year and only came back after friends invited me to play some dota 2. Since then, I never stopped and now I am a real dota maniac, watching many tournaments and just generally having fun at the game. I think dota 2 is gonna become even more powerful in the future since I see the potential for it to evolve into the major e-sports (if it isn't already, just look at them prizepools). Therefore, and furthermore due to requests of friends, I feel like handing out my thoughts on the game in general, how to apply this knowledge and help players become better at the game we all love.

If you'd like to see some specific posts on dota, feel free to write me. This blog is mostly gonna contain guides on how to approach heroes as they're supposed to be played and will heavily rely on you as a reader to have a general understanding of the game (such as game mechanics like denying, stacking etc. pp. ).

So for now, I hope you'll have fun and learn things to improve your dota 2 game!