The Solo Mid Guide

Updated for v6.63

Soloing mid will work fairly well in most situations; indeed you will solo fine against many popular solo mid heroes including Tinker, Admiral, Lich, Shadow Fiend, Zeus, Krobelus and Mirana. This is due to Refraction, which makes it very hard for these heroes to control the lane as they rely on nukes to harass and keep you down. You need really good last-hit ability, especially seeing as Lanaya is pretty much a melee hero until you get Psi Blades (Which won't be until mid game). If you think you will face a lane you cannot solo against, or you are not confident in your solo capabilities even after reading this guide I suggest going to bottom lane (Sentinel) or top lane (Scourge) with a babysitter such as Warlock or Shadow Priest.

Skills and Statistics

All of Lanaya's skill and statistical information may be found here, for those unfamiliar with her stat gain and skill set. Note that her strength gain has been buffed to 2.1 from 1.7 in the latest patch.

Skill Build

1. Refraction/Meld
2. Meld/Refraction
3. Refraction
4. Meld
5. Refraction
6. Psionic Trap
7. Refraction
8. Meld
9. Meld
10. Psi Blades
11. Psionic Trap
12. Psi Blades
13. Psi Blades
14. Psi Blades
15. Stats
16. Psionic Trap
17. Stats
18. Stats
19. Stats
20. Stats
21. Stats
22. Stats
23. Stats
24. Stats
25. Stats

Whether you take Meld or Refraction first as your first skill is entirely situational. Wait until you walk into lane before you level a skill. If you are against a hero who has a stun or a skill that can be dodged via Meld (Such as Hellfire Blast, Magic Missile), I suggest taking Meld first. Otherwise, Refraction.

Refraction is maxed first. This is for defensive reasons to ensure your opponents do not harass the hell out of you with nukes or a ranged high base damage. It can also be used for last-hitting. This is the skill that allows you to solo against Shadow Fiend and Zeus, with the help of a Magic Stick.

Meld is maxed next to pump your damage output to the max by midgame. It is NOT used to hide. If, and only if the shit hits the fan and your Refraction's run out and it's on cooldown and you're about to die, attempt to juke into some trees and Meld and wait for Refraction to cool down. It's generally an OFFENSIVE skill.

One thing about Meld; try not to Meld-hit uphill if you can. If your opponent is at a higher position on a ramp than you are, you have the 25% chance to miss because you are a ranged hero no matter how short your range his. Your Meld-hit can miss, and this leads to halving your burst damage.

Psionic Trap is taken at every possible level, for cooldown decrease and to increase warding capability. As soon as you hit level 6, ward both rune spots with it. If enemies counter-ward, counter-counter-ward them and replace it.

Many players take Psi Blades early to make it easier to hit Melds. I say no. The damage spill is bad early on as it pushes your lane towards your enemy tower, making it hard to farm and leaving you vulnerable to ganks. Yes, Meld is hard to hit without it, but I suggest you harden the fuck up and play Lanaya as a melee hero until level 12-14. Psionic Trap + ally disables shouldn't make it a problem to walk right next to your target for a Meld-hit.

To kill with Lanaya, see the step-by-step guide below.

Solo Mid Tips

Good Refraction use is key to the solo mid Lanaya. It's quite difficult and takes a lot of intuition to know when to use Refraction. It costs 75 mana, and her mana pool isn't that large so it's obviously not a good idea to use it when you don't need it (Unless you have a Crystal Maiden on your team).

Generally, use it when you are going forward to punish an enemy for coming to close to the creeps with a Meld hit, or when your opponent walks forward to try get a nuke on you with your guard down.

It is often very easy to tell with Zeus, Tinker, Krobelus, Shadow Fiend and most other heroes when they are coming to nuke you. They often have to walk forward. Bait them into nuking you when you have Refraction on - turn it on from the top of the ramp where they can't see you, and run forward for a last-hit - more often than not they will be glad to take the harassment "opportunity".

Before you hit level 6 you will have to watch your map a lot to avoid ganks. After, you can lay down Psionic Traps on common pathways such as the ramps leading to your side of the lane and on the runespots to help avoid ganks. This way you can keep a constant eye on the Runes, and so you can use them yourself for your own ganks.

If you do get ganked, and have no hope of getting away, don't run. Turn on Refraction, wait for them to come into melee range and Meld-hit them. Either you catch them by surprise and kill them, or you deal some massive damage on them before you die so they are forced to the fountain or to empty their Bottle afterwards, or a nearby teammate can clean them up.

While somewhat risky to play, a well-played solo mid Lanaya has amazing mid-game destruction potential. However a single death will be very costly, so you will have to play very cautiously and be looking at your mini-map literally every five seconds.

Item Build

I strongly suggest having a chicken. If your allies won't buy one, buy it yourself I guess. It does hurt having to buy your own chicken, but it's worth it.



Really helps soloing against Shadow Fiend, Zeus, Krobelus and others. It happens to detects Arrows, Torrents and Illuminates for you too, telling you when to turn on Refraction. But if you're against someone who just doesn't cast spells often, forget it. Get a Circlet or some Tangoes instead.



You should take this early on as a core item for regeneration, rune-whoring (Extremely efficiently, thanks to your Psionic Traps) and ganking purposes. Have a courier ferry it over to you as soon as possible.



Gives attackspeed, extra damage and movespeed (Negligible, I guess) and most importantly the Phase ability. This will help in chasing and positioning Meld-hits. Rush these as soon as possible; it will be very useful if you can get them early.



This is your core damage item. Giving a -6 armor debuff on your target, combined with Meld this rips off a great 14 armor from your target. With just this item and Treads, you can tear down low-HP, low-armor heroes in a matter of three or four hits by midgame. If you can rush this item fast (Before 25 minutes), do it. If not, Dagger comes first.



Blink Dagger gives quite good survivability as you can juke into trees and Meld, then Blink out when shit gets thick. As well as this, this is amazing for positioning.

Ganking: From the trees, Refract and cast your Psionic Trap, and set it off. Then Blink next to the poor bastard. Then Meld-hit and finish it off.

Team fights: Let your team initiate, turn on Refraction and set off a Psionic Trap, Blink next to their weak heroes and Meld-hit, and then kill them.



Get these if you're having a really hard time surviving. I personally don't like them, they slow down your core items considerably and don't offer THAT much bonuses. But it's situational.



Gives nice DPS and an evasion that synergises with Refraction - this is an excellent lategame luxury item.



This is a must-get if your opponents have managed to counter you, by hero-pick or item-wise. This counters a good many DoT spells including the ever-so-annoying Radiance. You may also consider getting this over Butterfly simply for the immunity to disables if your opponents are disable-heavy.

Step by Step Guide to Killing with Lanaya

Your bread-and-butter ganking combo. Dangerous on its own, it's absolutely deadly with teammates throwing disables at them as well.

1. Turn on Refraction, preferably from the Fog or trees.
2. Cast Psionic Trap next to the enemy. It has an insane 2000 casting range; abuse it.
3. Activate Psionic Trap.
4. Blink next to your enemy if you have a Dagger; walk if you don't. Blinking is very efficient; if you don't have a Dagger you may need ally disables or a second Trap.
5. Meld-hit them. The correct way to do this is hold your cursor over the enemy hero, tap D and then right-click them right away.
6. Autoattack to finish, using another Trap if necessary.

Due to Lanaya's map control with Psionic Traps, you can sometimes see your opponent moving from one place to another - for example, going to a rune spot. If you happen to be in the path that they are travelling, you can actually Meld-hit twice if you predict their movement accurately.

1. Turn Refraction on. Make sure they can't see you.
2. Position yourself in their path, and Meld. Again, make sure they don't see you do this.
3. When they walk by you, Meld-strike them.
4. Cast a Psionic Trap, and activate it if they start to run.
5. Autoattack them.
6. Meld-strike as soon as the cooldown is up. It will be considerably shorter, since you Melded in the second step - the Meld cooldown triggers from the start of her invisibility.

This is your counterganking combo; it works best in an environment where you have a well-coordinated team that you trust and communicate effectively with (i.e. On Ventrilo, or other voice communication means). If your ally is being chased by one or two heroes:

• Set a Psionic Trap down.
• Turn Refraction on.
• Meld a little behind your Trap.
• Get your teammate to run past your trap and you.
• Select the Trap, and press T to activate the trap when the enemy hero(es) run onto it. This ensures that Lanaya does not break Meld by activating the Trap.
• Select Lanaya, and Meldhit the enemy hero with the least survivability (In terms of HP and armor).
• Add a second Meldhit if it's cooled down; if not Meldhit with the next cooldown which will be short, as you Melded before your enemy reached your trap.
• Finish them off with the help of your teammate.

Enemies to avoid



A well-placed Macropyre renders your Refraction utterly useless in a fight. Also, Dual Breath has a damage over time effect which will burn up your Refraction.



Firefly burns your Refraction when you chase him. Firefly and Flaming Lassoo together burns your Refraction whether you chase him or not. He then drags you to his team, where you die.



Diabolic Edict and Pulse Nova tear your Refraction down before you can blink, leaving you very fragile and vulnerable to his painful nukes and the subsequent beatdown from his teammates.



Ignite disables your Dagger and renders Refraction useless for its entire 7.5 second duration. Dangerous.



Rot burns down Refraction very quickly, and Dismember holds you in place while his teammates beat down on you. Even if you block the Hook damage with Refraction, the Rots rip the rest of the Refraction down and then you are a very soft hero for his team to kill. If a Pudge is foolish enough to try and kill you alone, however, turn around, turn Refraction on and Meld-hit and kill him.



Ion Shell and Vacuum together in a fight screws you up pretty badly. And he will be very annoying when he keeps Surging his allies out of your Traps.



A damage-over-time spell that owns Refraction in lane and an Infernal with permanent Immolation that burns Refraction off in an instant in teamfights. Ownage against Lanaya.



His ulti takes down your Refraction and reduces your armor leaving you very fragile. Static Link steals damage. Avoid.



Their summons take your Refraction charges down pretty fast, and there's not a lot you can do about it.



Probably the three heroes you cannot solo against. Viper and Huskar orb-walk and harass very efficiently, and your Refraction does shit-all to stop it - a single Burning Spear burns your entire Refraction and then some, and same goes with Poison Attack. Venomancer's Poison Sting has a similar effect, and his ulti and Venomous Gale just rape you later. I highly advise against picking Lanaya if any of these heroes are in play.



If any of your enemies gets Radiance, you're fucked. It's the ultimate anti-Lanaya weapon. Your Refraction burns up before you can do anything. You then die very fast in fights. Make sure you and/or your team ganks them hard and often to make sure they can't farm it up. If they do manage to get it, you have no choice but to get a BKB, or be cannon fodder every teamfight.



The Demons can see you when you've Melded (Not a big issue, as you won't be using it to hide... Except in emergencies, which will not be emergencies anymore - you'll just die). Also they help take down your Refraction charges faster, and there's not a lot you can do about it.

Replays

This single replay of Grunthorz playing solo mid Lanaya taught me everything I needed to know about playing Lanaya. I finally found it. Thanks to Bashtime for pointing out that I can use DotAzilla to convert it to a 1.23 replay.

Those of you who have 1.22 can download the replay here (You'll need the 6.59 map as well).

Those of you with 1.23, a converted 1.23 version of the replay is here. You will still need the 6.59 map.

Credits

Thanks to Vienna, dondy and LollyPatrolly for contributing various points to improve the guide.

Thanks to Style for pointing out that Fatal Bonds do not take Refraction charges; pointed it a while ago but didn't realise that I'd mentioned Fatal Bonds as one of the reasons Warlock can own Lanaya. Warlock is still to be avoided because his Infernal still has a dangerous Immolation effect.