Dota 2 Hero Guide: Lanaya, the Templar Assassin

Introduction

The Templar Assassin is a hero who seems counter-intuitive at first glance, having neither the ability to sneak around or the stereotypical mobility of her assassin namesake. Instead she is a hero who excels at quickly dispatching targets in brilliant displays of brutality. She is a hero who excels in close quarters engagements and, if the situation calls for it, chasing down heroes.

Unlike the other assassin heroes, the Templar has no steroid skill, which becomes her biggest strength and biggest weakness. She is a very momentum based hero, one who needs a few key items before they really start making an impact on the map, and as a result is heavily affected by even a single death. To play Templar effectively one has to have a firm grasp on both farming and ganking, which I hope to impart in this guide.

This guide will not tell you what items to buy. I will not tell you what order to skill your abilities, and it will not tell you what levels to leave your lane. To do so would be a grave disservice to both you, and the very core of Dota, the very dynamism for which it is so popular. It's your job to construct a timetable, to ask me to do so for you is asking me to think for you. Instead I will attempt to give you the power to make decisions moment-by-moment, as all the best players do.

The Mindset

I'm of the opinion that all the best players do three things every time they play a game.
1. Formulate a plan with a set of goals
2. Decipher the enemy plan
3. Discard your plan and react to counter the enemy's plan

Sometimes this means you have to completely change your plan. Sometimes it means you stick with your original plan and hope to weather the storm. Sometimes you have to leave yourself vulnerable and hope your opponents make mistakes.

Nonetheless, the ability to actively think and react will define you as a player. When you blindly play the game without making your own choices because I never told you what options you have at your disposal, I've handicapped you. I've given you the work but I haven't given you the tools necessary to get it done. What happens when the game doesn't go as the guide suggests it should? Not every game will be a good game, and the ability to understand and radically change your play in accordance separates the good players from the great players.

Skills

Templar's skills will be described and briefly discussed here.

Refraction
Ability: Active, instant self-cast
Effect:
1. Block 3 /4 /5 /6 instances of damage
2. Deal 3/4/5/6 instances of 20/40/60/80 damage

Description: Templar Assassin becomes highly elusive, avoiding damage while gaining a bonus to her damage. These effects are separate, and have a limited number of instances.
Flavor text: Manipulating her psionic veil, Lanaya bends nature's law to her will.

This is Lanaya's bread and butter skill. It blocks any damage taking until it shatters or the duration expires, and adds more damage than a Double Damage rune for six attacks early on.

 

Meld
Ability: Active, instant self-cast
Effect:
1. Become invisible but can't move
2. Deal 50/100/150/200 bonus damage when striking from Meld
3. Reduce target's armor by 2/4/6/8

Description: Templar Assassin conceals herself, gaining invisibility while remaining still. On the next attacked enemy unit, Lanaya will reduce its armor and deal bonus damage to it.
Flavor text: Lanaya is as elusive as her covenant with the Hidden Temple.

Meld is what truly allows Lanaya to become so dangerous so quickly. The armor reduction is dealt before the damage.

Psi Blades
Ability: Passive
Effect:
1. Add 60/120/180/240 range to Lanaya's attacks.
2. Splash range is 590/630/670/710
3. Her attacks damage units directly behind her primary target. Damage is pure, but accounts for damage reductions on primary target.

Description: Templar Assassin's psi blades slice through the attacked unit, splitting and damaging units directly behind it, while gaining bonus attack range.
Flavor text: Her blades pierce the skin as much as the mind, furthering her understanding of the mystery that is reality.

One of the most useful spells in the game. Positioned properly you can get kills, denies, and last hits that otherwise would have been impossible with any other hero.

Trap
Ability: Instant, no target
Effect: Detonate the nearest Psionic Trap

This is a complementary ability to her ultimate, Psionic Trap.

 

Psionic Trap
Ability: Active, target
Effect:
1. Places a trap at target point
2. Trap gives vision of small area around trap
3. When the trap is detonated units caught in its AoE are slowed by 50% for 5 seconds
4. 5/8/11 max traps allowed

Description: Templar Assassin places mystical traps that invisibly monitor enemy movement. When sprung, at her command, they exert a slowing influence of 50% in the area.
Flavor text: Calling upon the reach of the Hidden Temple, none escape the eye of the Templar.

This spell is one of the most versatile spells in the game, giving everything from vision to a pseudo-disable.

Role

Lanaya is a semi-carry. You should pick her to go solo mid with as she needs quick levels to become a threat with Refraction and Meld, and runes are crucial to early gank attempts. She is a capable side lane hero but only truly excels when given a role mid.

Skill Builds

Lanaya is one of the most flexible heroes in the game when it comes to leveling her skills. Any combination is viable in the right situation, but there are a few typical builds that do well in almost every situation.

The standard build - balance of safety and aggresion
1. Refraction
2. Psi Blades
3. Refraction
4. Meld
5. Refraction
6. Psionic Traps
7. Refraction
8. Meld
9. Meld
10. Meld
11. Psionic Trap
12. Psi Blades
13. Psi Blades
14. Psi Blades
15. Stats
16. Psionic Trap

This is the most common build, with the only variation being Meld at 2 and Psi Blades at 3 or 4. This build allows for a high early aggression as you can ignore six instances of damage at level seven, and deal twice your damage six times. Combined with Psionic Trap there are very few heroes that can escape you when you dive their tower to kill them.

First Blood is also a very real possibility if you harass them enough with Psi Blades, but the primary goal of this build is to allow you safe farm through level 7. It's very hard to force you out of the lane and you can ignore their harass while the bonus damage means you can last hit every creep.

Extreme Burst Damage

1. Refraction
2. Meld
3. Meld
4. Refraction
5. Meld
6. Psionic Trap
7. Meld
8. Refraction
9. Refraction
10. Psi Blades
11. Psionic Trap
12. Psi Blades
13. Psi Blades
14. Psi Blades
15. Stats
16. Psionic Trap

This build is geared towards dealing as much damage with a single hit as you can. If you can catch an enemy out of position you can easily kill them in one or two hits, but the lack of Psi Blades means they have to be in melee range of your Meld strike. Most players will wait for Meld to come off cooldown and use it twice in quick succession a guaranteed kill if you can pull it off.

Unfortunately this also means you will have a very reduced ability to tank towers until later on, so this build is best used with someone who can stun or slow your target to give you time to run up and activate Refraction and Meld.

Long lane solo - I'm not going to win the lane but I'm going to do my best to get some farm regardless

1. Refraction
2. Psi Blades
3. Refraction
4. Psi Blades
5. Refraction
6. Psionic Trap
7. Refraction
8. Psi Blades
9. Psi Blades
10. Meld
11. Psionic Trap
12. Meld
13. Meld
14. Meld
15. Stats
16. Psionic Trap

This is the build you go for if for some reason you're in the long lane by yourself, or against a truly impossible lane otherwise and just need to snag some quick, safe last hits and get out of the danger zone as quickly as possible. A point of Meld may be taken if you feel you'll be safe going invisible, but keep track inventories because Dust or Sentries will kill you very quickly.

Don't be afraid to change your build as your lane changes with it. Until level 5 you can transition into any of the other builds as your lane dictates. You should never be afraid to make a sudden change if the game calls for it.

Starting items

Combat: Tango, Salve, Branch x3, Slipper of Agility

This build is good if you want to win the lane early. The branches and slipper provide the extra HP and damage necessary to harass your enemy if they approach the creep wave, and with Refraction you can run across the line and trade blows with them if they choose to fight.

Fast Bottle:  OR

This leaves you enough gold to get a Bottle right after the first minute if you hit all of the creeps. Once you get the Bottle you can safely spam Refraction and Meld to harass with Psi Blades. You can easily push the wave by lining up multiple creeps with Psi Blades so you can get every rune and continue the harass.

I'm Going To Get Spell Spammed: 

This build is meant to deal with a lot of harass. The Tangoes and Salve keep your HP up until you get 9-10 Wand charges so you can use it for a large burst if your lane opponent decides to go for a kill. Timed properly you can kill them instead. This build is particularly effective against Zeus and Bat Rider; against other heroes you can usually get by with less regeneration and proper positioning.

Sidelane with an ally/will have gank support:

This build aims to take advantage of an ally that can set up kills. You deal a lot of damage, but your regeneration is primarily to deal with harass and you'll have to rely on Refraction if you want to dive. Use the Tangoes to keep your health up and the Salve to recover from a deep dive.

Side lane solo:

Your goal in the side lane without an ally is to survive. You want to sneak in and grab some come last hits if it's possible, and this build aims to allow you to do that as safely as possible. You have plenty of regeneration and HP to run in and grab a creep while handling harass. Don't be afraid to switch this build out with a different one if you feel the lane will be easier.

 

A Brief Discussion on Boots

Two boots are applicable on Lanaya aside from Boots of Travel. Power Treads give a attack speed and some survivability, while Phase gives more damage and maneuverability. I prefer Phase for the positioning and damage, but both boots are good. In summary:

Treads: A little more survivability, some attack speed which can help get off your Refraction faster.

Phase: Allows much better positioning and give a lot more DPS, but trade off on survivability and you don't attack as fast.

Core Items

These are items which can and will be used in almost every game in some order and combination. In a typical game you will start building these immediately after your Boot and Bottle if you choose to buy one.

Blink Dagger is an item you will get almost every single game. Use it to land a perfect Meld Strike every time - typically Refract, place a Trap, Blink into Meld and start hitting.

Black King Bar is your primary survivability item. The last thing you want to have happen is using Refraction only to be chain stunned and killed. The only time You'd skip this is if you're not being targeted or there are no stuns or DoT spells on the other team.

Butterfly gives Lanaya a little bit of everything she needs. Damage, attack speed, and survivability in the form of evasion - save your HP and your Refraction charges.

Daedalus is your primary damage item in most games as Critical Strike will amplify all of your damage

Assault Cuirass weill give you attack speed, damage, and armor. It's best gotten as a last item, or if you need a strong teamfight presence.

Strategic Items

These are items you would look at if you had a specific strategy in mind that required them, or the game state makes the core items look less appealing than normal. A large portion of games will call for at least one of these.

Bottle will be your best friend when you play Templar Assassin. Unless you're side laning there is no reason not to get this item as one charge gives you enough mana to use any of your abilities, restores your HP, and holds those crucial runes if there's not quite an opportunity to nab a kill just yet.

Medallion is one of the most cost effective items you can buy on Lanaya. The extra mana regeneration and armor greatly help your survivability. None of that matters. What matters is that at level 10 using the standard build with Phase, Bottle, and Medallion, you can solo Roshan at level 10. Activate Refraction so that about the time you run out of charges it's up again, then run in, Medallion, Meld Strike, and keep hitting him.

Use Meld whenever you can, but don't use Medallion when you don't have 4-6 Refraction charges up or Roshan will kill you faster than you kill him. When you start getting low pop a Bottle charge and Meld for the duration. Depending on how lucky you are with his bashes, you'll have to use anywhere from 2 Bottle charges to using Meld and waiting for Refraction to come back up once or twice. It's easier if you lead Roshan away from his spot a little so that when you Meld, you can wait for him to turn around and start walking away. This is enough time to get an extra attack off.

Heart of Terrasque is an option that you consider if you need a lot of HP or fast HP regeneration. I usually buy a Heart when I feel I would deal more damage just by being able to soak up a lot of damage. Consider this when you're behind in farm and levels and have to play defensively. If you're playing offensively, consider a Butterfly before purchasing this item.

Desolator is what I would call a momentum item. It functions perfectly as a damage item if gotten in place of Medallion and before Daedalus and Blink, but if you die after getting it or while building it, it's going to be a pain to regain your advantage. If you just want the -armor, buy the Medallion of Courage for a lot less. Don't buy a Medallion and Desolator together though. The less armor a hero has the less effective it becomes to reduce their armor further. Forcing your opponent to -10 armor isn't nearly as effective as just forcing them to near-zeo and then stacking damage items.

Rapier is effective on Lanaya given you fulfill at least one of these conditions: 1) don't need anymore survivability because you aren't dying 2) need a lot more damage than anything else will give you 3) have exhausted all your other resources and and the outcome isn't looking good with or without a Divine Rapier.

Sange and Yasha isn't an item I consider often. When you need the extra chase, but don't need as much chase as a Diffusal allows, SnY fills that area nicely. The main reason to get this item is if you think you'll need a Manta and Halberd later in the game and right now need a little more survivability and a little more chase.

Boots of Travel should be gotten once you have four top tier items and need to sell your TP for the extra space.

Niche

These are items that you will get rarely to address a specific need. Most of these items give sustainability by attacking an enemy and are going to be rarely gotten as a result.

Mask of Madness is an effective item if your shield Charges are lasting throughout msot of a fight. On the other hand, if you run out of charges while being attacked with MoM activated, you're going to die very quickly.

Orchid provides some decent attack speed, a little bit of damage, and a psedo-disable in the form of silence. Effective against escape artists like Anti-Mage and Morphling if no one else is buying or has a disable.

Linkin's Sphere gives you very little benefit. If there's only one or two big (targeted) spells on the other team and you're farming quickly, a Linkin's Sphere can be a compromise between DPS items and a BKB

Maelstrom and Mjollnir give you a larger AoE presence than Psi Blades alone give. The attack speed is nice for quickly getting off your Refraction charges, but Mjollnir's active ability is wasted on Lanaya as you should be trying not to get hit, and they add less than other items when it comes to Lanaya's specialty - assassinating single heroes.

Diffusal is an item you buyt when you need to be able to chase down everything on the map and a Blink with Psionic Traps just isn't cutting it. The mana burn isn't going to do a whole lot since you're ranged, but the rest of the stats are helpful. This is most effective when coupled with a Manta, but you will only very rarely encounter a situation where you need the chasing power of Diffusal and the defensive power of Manta.

Vanguard is an item you get when you need a little more HP and damage block. But be careful, a single Sange gives arguably more survivability on ranged heroes. The debate rages on so I'll leave it to you to decide which scenarios call for which item.

Heaven's Halberd is a perfect item for shutting down one carry hero so you can quickly kill them. Use this on an Ursa and you can target him down before he can get a single hit off. Sniper and Anti-Mage are two other heroes who are particularly hurt by this item. If you just need the evasion this item provides, a naked Talisman of Evasion costs a lot less and can be built into a Butterfly.

Manta is, contrary to popular belief, a defensive item on most heroes. You get it for the confusion factor and to dispel a few debuffs such as Bloodlust and Dust.

Helm of the Dominator and Satanic are both items that you will usually only get if you're in drawn out fights where you have to stand still and trade hits. You should try to avoid this as much as possible, but if it does happen these are both viable if you already have at least one damage and one attack speed item.

Tactics

There are a few techniques you'll use almost every game, and understanding the process behind deciding when and how to execute is crucial to playing any hero, but especially someone who relies on instances as much as Lanaya does.

Using Refraction

The most straightforward way to use Refraction is to tank damage while amplifying your own attacks. Keep in mind that Refraction lasts for 17 seconds and has a 17 second cool down, so make sure you activate it well before you'll run out of charges. Lanaya is actually a very fragile and weak hero when Refraction isn't up, so plan accordingly.

When you're tower diving it is especially important that you have at least an estimate of how many attacks you'll take before you either get the kill or have to back off.

It doesn't matter how much damage you take when a block instance is up. You can block Laguna Blade and Finger of Death without any problem, which is your greateststrength and greatest weakness. A creep will burn through your instances just as quickly as a hero will. A creep wave is your greatest enemy, be aware of where they are in relation to you all the time.

Only a damage instance greater than five will eat a charge. A Vanguard can effectively negate the danger a creep wave poses - but it can also have no effect at all if it never procs, so be careful.

Using Meld

This is where the majority of your killing power will come from early on. It reduces the target's armor by a hefty amount, so try to start your assault with a Meld strike. You'll likely be at least level 7 when you start ganking. This usually means at least level 2 Meld, dealing 100 damage but most importantly reducing armor by 4.

Meld can be used for hiding, but don't rely on it. It's an offensive skill despite its invisibility properties. Any AoE spells can still hit you and you're immobile while the skill is active. Your best bet for escaping with Meld is to Blink and Meld, or run up hill and through trees so you're out of sight when activate it. Be careful because depending on where you are, it can be easy to interpret what you did if your enemy comes around and can't see you anymore.

Perhaps the most deadly technique with Meld is the ambush. If you know someone is coming up a path to you, activate Refraction, place a trap if you have time, and Meld. When they walk by strike out of Meld and if you had enough time for Meld to come off cool down you can immediately Meld Strike them again for a 400 damage burst.

This is especially deadly in the laning phase against less attentive opponents but it's also very risky as you can miss out on farm and possibly even experience, and more attentive opponents will walk in an odd manner to avoid your probable position.

Meld is a lot more deadly with Refraction on. Your base attack, Refraction, and Meld damage are all calculated after armor reductions and this means you can easily deal a fast 400 damage burst at level 9 with a single Meld strike. This is more than most nukes do, and you can execute the combo every seven seconds for very little mana.

Meld is not a channeling spell. This means once you activate it, you'll stay Melded even if you're stunned or silenced.

Using Psi Blades

The damage from Psi Blades splashes to units directly behind your primary target. In the hands of a practiced player this can lead to a nightmare scenario because he will be able to deny, last hit, and harass at the same time. Any attack on an allied creep will still splash the damage in a straight line.

The splash from Psi Blades is pure damage after reductions. If you deal 150 base damage and 100 damage after all the calculations, you will splash 100 pure damage to everything in a straight line. It also hits invisible units, and you can use the animation as a way to locate an invisible hero if you're especially attentive.

When you level Psi Blades you have to be careful to avoid splashing the damage onto the creep wave as much as possible most of the time. A pushed creep wave means safe and easy farm for your opponents, and if you want to even be in experience range you'll have to be in a forward position, leaving you vulnerable to ganks and harass. You also shouldn't be afraid to harass your opponent off the lane if you can. You can use Meld and Refraction both to harass an opponent. This is especially effective against melee heroes.

Runes spawn every two minutes starting from 0:00. If you're mid and want to gain rune control, start pushing the wave at 1:45, 3:45, and so on. Your objective is to push the creep wave into your enemy's tower so you can grab the rune without losing any experience or gold.

If two units are very close to each other and you angle it right, you can actually hit two units that are side-by-side. This is because her splash has a width of 55 units at all levels. With some practice and luck with the aggro, you can hit the entire creep wave with one hit.

When you factor in the 240 bonus attack range from level four Psi Blades with the 710 splash range, you can hit a Sniper outside of his max attack range.

All effects only apply to the primary target, however -armor and critical strikes will further increase your damage on the primary target, thus increasing the damage you splash.

Since the damage that splashes from your primary target is pure damage, you can abuse illusions. An Illusion rune spawns two illusions that take 300% damage. If you can line up a Refraction + Meld Strike on an illusion that will splash to the real hero, you can two-shot most heroes throughout the entire game. This makes Lanaya especially effective against illusion heroes and heroes that buy Manta as their core.

Using Psionic Trap

Psionic trap will slow units within 375 range by 50% and have 400 sight day and night. If a unit is on the edge of your trap's sight they won't be slowed, so make sure you don't waste a trap.

Traps have a two second fade time and are magic immune, but can be physically attacked and destroyed before they fade if 100 damage is dealt.
They do not prevent neutrals from spawning.

As soon as you hit level six you should place a Trap on one of the runes so that you know where the runes spawns if you don't have wards. Another possibility is to place Traps along your opponent's paths to the wards so that they can't beat you to the rune without Blink. Runes are crucial to a solo mid Templar's early ganks, and since you can kill most other heroes if they try to contest the rune, there is rarely a reason where you'd want to prioritize farming over a rune at this point.

The second thing yous should do as soon as the enemy can't see it is place a Trap right at the top of their ledge. A lot of players feel safe standing up there because they don't think have sight of them. Wait for the Trap to cool down and the enemy to be over the Trap, active Refraction and run up to Meld Strike them. Activate the Trap when they start to run and then follow up when the first slow is about to run out. This is a guaranteed kill against most heroes. If they like to push you can also put a Trap in the river before going on them. I have yet to see anything survive three Traps at level 6-7, especially if they've been harassed with Psi Blades.

A large part of playing TA effectively is proper Trap placement before they're needed. Trap the runes, Trap Roshan, and Trap common paths players will take. Not only will they provide vision for you to see their movement, but they can help finish a kill or save your ally while you're safely farming across the map. At level 1 you can only have five traps up though so if you're ganking you'll probably need to replace some traps occasionally.

At level 11 you can skip a second level in your ultimate if you don't need to cast more than one in a fight and you aren't having to replace any traps. I'll do this occasionally when I feel the extra range from Psi Blades, survivability from Refraction, or damage from Meld is more important than a little more vision and a slow.

When you place a Trap during a chase you should avoid using Lanya's ability to detonate the closest. Instead, quickly highlight the trap and detonate it with that hot key instead, Lanaya has a detonation animation that is long even with animation canceling. Too many heroes have escaped or got a free kill during times where I was too busy checking items and mana to take a half-second to manually detonate the trap.

Final Words

And so we come to the end. A few final things to note:

To play Lanaya well requires precise timing. Knowing when to blink in, when to activate refraction, when to start running away, how long an opponent will be slowed, and where you should place your traps to maximize the time they're slowed just scratches the surface. She also requires a granular knowledge of positioning.

One Meld Strike can wipe a team if you can position it perfectly. On the other hand, you can kill yourself within seconds by blinking just a few steps too far and taking all the enemy fire. With time and practice this knowledge will come and you shouldn't get discouraged if you fail a few times. Lanaya is a hard but rewarding hero to play to her full potential.

 

Alt+Tab Guide

1. Refraction
2. Psi Blades
3. Refraction
4. Meld
5. Refraction
6. Psionic Traps
7. Refraction
8. Meld
9. Meld
10. Meld
11. Psionic Trap
12. Psi Blades
13. Psi Blades
14. Psi Blades
15. Stats
16. Psionic Trap

Start: Tango, Tango, Salve, Branch, Branch, Branch, Slipper of Agility

Early: Phase, Bottle, BKB, Blink

Late: Daedalus, Butterfly, MKB, Assault Cuirass