DotaStrategy.com - View topic - Some of my observations on Lina the Slayer

caspian

Moderator Posts: 1943 Joined: 27 Mar 2007 53164 gold

Some of my observations on Lina the Slayer - including 6.52

Posted: Wed Apr 30, 2008 10:54 am

Frankly speaking I am rather shocked and disquieted about the 6.52 changes on Lina.

The fact that Icefrog is trying to make "less-stronger" heroes stronger, while re-balancing "stronger" heroes, is good. But the Slayer is not a weak hero, so to say. She has been very powerful, even without the 6.52 changes. But I am very puzzled as to why would Icefrog make an already strong hero even stronger, to the point of being like the Nerubian Assassin where some players have already complained?

6.48b league games has already proven to us that Lina is an absolutely powerful hero - make no mistakes about it. We already talked about the Bottle and Kelen's Dagger of Escape being used in 6.48b to achieve the Blink-Stun, a strategy that has players addicted to it so much that Icefrog had to do something about it. Not surprisingly Lina was part and parcel of this strategy - a 1250-damage ultimate with Aghanim's Scepter is indeed too much in 6.48b league games when you consider that coordination is so much possible in leagues.

And we also talked about Blink Dagger being used offensively in 6.51 to perpetuate the Blink-Stun. This is especially so with Lina, because Blink was used as an element of surprise, to target her Light Strike Array more accurately, and not just for escaping ambushes. In fun games, Lina, like Nevermore the Shadow Fiend but less so, has 2 AoE spells that can obliterate creep waves easily while earning herself a load of bounties in return. The only drawback was her clumsy attack animation, which consisted of a slow-flying chunk of meteor.

That was until yesterday.

When I heard that Icefrog "Improved Lina's projectile and visuals", I was just curious and took a look - and I was very surprised, even somewhat horrified - her attack animation has been changed to resemble that of the Archmage in TFT, which is significantly faster and far more accurate for last-hitting. This is not a healthy trend if it continues - the Slayer already has a high base damage thanks to her 3.2 intelligence gain per level, she has a 50% attack speed increase that can be turned on permanently, she has every means possible to obliterate an entire creep wave and earn 200+ gold every time that happens, and this does not count the hero bounties she will get with 950/1250 damage.

In a nutshell, this means that apart from using magic to "farm", she can also do it with might, and she might as well just use both and get double the fun (and bounty). We could see a Lina who will achieve the peak of her strength much faster than now, to the point of imbalance.

Will fun-game players rejoice over this change? Yes, I'm sure everyone loves 1250 damage and will relish something that attacks faster. But will league players rejoice as well? Apparently yes, because something that was already strong in their games now has been made far stronger, perhaps to the point of no return. If this reform is not reversed, expect a Slayer that literally slays anyone in her path - by might or magic, she will and she can do it.

If anything, Icefrog should have replaced the Lina in the sentence up there and put Rylai Crestfall the Crystal Maiden - she really has a slow attack projectile, and she cannot destroy creep waves that easily. The faster attack animation will help her indirectly, while not making her too strong. But unfortunately, this has been done on her counterpart not her.

I had hoped to rejoice as well, but I just have this bad feeling that I cannot dispel away.

The Ultimate Slayer in DoTA will outshine everyone else in the Morning Tavern, and is emerging to outshine everyone else in all the taverns.
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