Templar Assassin Guide

Items

Starting items:

• Tango give Lanaya health regeneration allowing her to stay in the lane for longer.
• Healing Salve, used at the last moment, can save Lanaya from death.
• Clarity help her sustain the mana cost of her Refraction, which is an essential ability for Lanaya in her laning phase.
• Iron Branches give an overall cheap damage, health and mana boost and can be built into a Magic Wand later on.

Early Game:

• Boots of Speed is a vital item for every hero in the game in order to escape and chase when necessary.
• Bottle is important for saving runes and sustaining her health and mana while she roams the map to find kills.
• Blight Stone is very cost-effective early game item and will be upgraded later to Desolator   Item   Changelogs     DesolatorB A wicked weapon, used in torturing political criminals. Cost3500 Bought FromArtifacts Passive Corruption Bonus +50 Attack damage Disassemble? No Alert allies? No Recipe The Desolator is an Item .
• Magic Stick can help Lanaya out a lot when facing heroes which spam their abilities. The instant health and mana restore can turn around the outcome of a fight when used properly.

Core Items:

• Power Treads are a good choice of boots upgrade for Templar Assassin, as it provides a bit of everything she needs: health, damage, attack speed and mana. If an aggressive approach is desired, Phase Boots should be considered instead.
• Magic Wand makes use of the branches and the Magic Stick from earlier and has a stronger potential heal burst.
• Blink Dagger For the cosmetic item equipped by Axe, see Little Blink Dagger.   Item   Changelogs     Blink DaggerBL The fabled dagger used by the fastest assassin ever to walk the lands. Cost2250 Bought FromArcane is essential to reach Lanaya`s maximum potential. Although she is technically a ranged hero, her base attack range is similar to that of a melee hero. A Blink Dagger allows her to get in range to attack enemies and land her Meld attack, or to catch up to enemies slowed by her Psionic Trap. In teamfights, it helps her to position herself to use the full potential of Psi Blades. On the other side, it is also a great escaping tool when combined with her spells. Refraction prevents the dagger from getting disabled, but if it does get disabled, Meld can help her hide for a moment and then blink out if the enemy has no True Sight or area spells.
• Desolator   Item   Changelogs     DesolatorB A wicked weapon, used in torturing political criminals. Cost3500 Bought FromArtifacts Passive Corruption Bonus +50 Attack damage Disassemble? No Alert allies? No Recipe The Desolator is an Item increases Lanaya`s damage output immensely, since Lanaya only deals physical damage by default (besides Psi Blades). The armor reduction of Desolator fully stacks with that of Meld, allowing her to reduce up to 15 armor on a target. This results in a highly increased damage output, which then translates into higher damage with Psi Blades, since their damage is based on what the initial attack target received. On top of this, Desolator also grants a decent raw attack damage bonus.
• Town Portal Scrolls are an item every hero should carry around, especially aggressive heroes like Templar Assassin. Combined with a Blink Dagger For the cosmetic item equipped by Axe, see Little Blink Dagger.   Item   Changelogs     Blink DaggerBL The fabled dagger used by the fastest assassin ever to walk the lands. Cost2250 Bought FromArcane , it can ensure a safe escape.

Situational items:

• Black King Bar may be required to deal with disables. Although Refraction helps her from taking any kind of damage, it does not stop disables. If avoiding their disables with blink or Meld is not possible, a Black King Bar should be bought.The item also grants some raw damage and a bit of health, increasing her damage output and survivability further.
• Assault Cuirass, similar to Desolator   Item   Changelogs     DesolatorB A wicked weapon, used in torturing political criminals. Cost3500 Bought FromArtifacts Passive Corruption Bonus +50 Attack damage Disassemble? No Alert allies? No Recipe The Desolator is an Item , synergizes well with Lanaya as it reduces enemy armor and increases her attack speed, upping her damage output by a massive amount. Besides that, the additional armor compensates for her squishiness. The armor bonuses and reductions of it are also auras, making it a valuable contribution to any teamfight.
• Heart of Tarrasque allows Lanaya to fight for much longer, as it gives an enormous health boost. Be that as it may, it should only be bought after having built up some damage first, because being tanky does not help her much when she deals little damage.
• Butterfly is always a great item for every agility hero, as it increases atta

Gameplay

Playstyle
Templar Assassin   Hero   Strategy   Counters   Equipment   Gear   Responses   Sounds   Lore   Old Abilities   Changelogs   Known Bugs     Templar Assassin 18 + 2.4 23 + 2.3 20 is a highly elusive and devastating hero in the right hands. Her Refraction simultaneously protects her from any damage instance, no matter how low or high, and increases her attack damage output for a few attacks. Combined with the armor reduction of Meld, any enemy hero with small health pools should be wary of her, as if they are not vigilant, they will be crippled by her Psionic Traps, letting her catch up, or materialize herself beside them with the help of a Blink Dagger For the cosmetic item equipped by Axe, see Little Blink Dagger.   Item   Changelogs     Blink DaggerBL The fabled dagger used by the fastest assassin ever to walk the lands. Cost2250 Bought FromArcane , then finish them off in only a few swings of her Psi Blades. With proper timing and the right tools, Lanaya can protect herself from powerful nukes, evade the enemy team, and even have the potential to wipe out an entire team with perfect positioning and quick actions.
Pros	Cons
Capable of shredding armor and dealing massive amounts of physical damage. Can be very elusive. Provides some free vision for team. Can efficiently farm Ancient stacks.	Very vulnerable to damage over time abilities. Meld by itself is not a reliable escape mechanism. Rather dependent on good positioning to make most use of Psi Blades` spill AoE.

Videos

Info

Hero

Strategy

Counters Play “Many hands make light work.” This article is badly written or needs more information. Please help the community by updating it. Read this formatting guide first.   Hero   Strategy   Counters   Equipment

Equipment   Hero   Strategy   Counters   Equipment   Gear   Responses   Sounds   Lore   Old Abilities   Changelogs   Known Bugs     v • d • e Templar Assassin Equipment (collapse sets)Sets Clandestine Trail Concealed Raven Epitaphic

Gear   Hero   Strategy   Counters   Equipment   Gear   Responses   Sounds   Lore   Old Abilities   Changelogs   Known Bugs     This is a list of cosmetic items that reflects

Responses   Hero   Strategy   Counters   Equipment   Gear   Responses   Sounds   Lore   Old Abilities   Changelogs   Known Bugs     v • d • e  Voice responses Hero responses Abaddon Alchemist Ancient Apparition Anti-Mage

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Lore   Hero   Strategy   Counters   Equipment   Gear   Responses   Sounds   Lore   Old Abilities   Changelogs   Known Bugs     Lanaya, the Templar Assassin Lanaya, the Templar Assassin, came

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Ability Builds

Talents

Hero Talents   Main   Table of Gained Bonuses     The Talent Selection interface. Talents are traits unique to each hero. They are chosen every 5th level starting at level 10, offering a permanent choice between
+3 Refraction Instances	25	-8 Meld Armor Reduction
+40 Damage	20	+275 Health
12% Evasion	15	+6 All Stats
+20 Movement Speed	10	+25 Attack Speed

Notes:

• The evasion stacks multiplicatively with other sources of evasion.

• Upgrading health increases maximum health capacity and keeps the current health percentage.

• The attack damage is added as bonus attack damage, and therefore does not benefit illusions.

General

• Templar Assassin is almost always played in the mid lane.
• While Templar Assassin is a situational pick, when drafted properly she can spiral out of control and enter a state of near invulnerability. This allows an experienced player halt the opposing side at the start of the midgame, preventing the match from ever reaching the late game.
• Templar Assassin requires an aggressive play style in order to be effective.
• Templar Assassin reaches her damage peak at around level 11, earlier than most carries, through the use of Refraction and Meld.
• Due to her early damage peak, snowballing is crucial to TA being successful. You`ll want to have both your Blink Dagger For the cosmetic item equipped by Axe, see Little Blink Dagger.   Item   Changelogs     Blink DaggerBL The fabled dagger used by the fastest assassin ever to walk the lands. Cost2250 Bought FromArcane and Desolator   Item   Changelogs     DesolatorB A wicked weapon, used in torturing political criminals. Cost3500 Bought FromArtifacts Passive Corruption Bonus +50 Attack damage Disassemble? No Alert allies? No Recipe The Desolator is an Item as early as possible, ideally no later than 20 minutes.

Refraction

• Refraction places two separate buffs onto Templar Assassin to keep track of the bonus damage and protection portion. Therefore, each buff is tracked independently and depleting one of the buffs does not affect the other.
• Attacking allied units “ Play Denied! Click to listen— Juggernaut ” Denying is the act of preventing enemy heroes from getting the last hit on a friendly unit by last hitting the unit oneself. Enemies earn reduced experience if the does not use up a Refraction charge. Use this to preserve your Refraction charges in lane for more damage.
• Just like Meld, Refraction has an instant cast with no animation nor backswing.
• Refraction and Meld deal physical damage and are effective against siege creeps and ancient creeps. Refraction`s bonus damage also works on towers Buildings are special units that are immune to most spells, use structure armor, and are immobile. Destroying a building rewards you with a bounty, similar to most creeps or heroes. Destroying towers rewards the entire .
• Refraction`s cooldown is the same as its duration. Try to plan on entering a fight when its duration is almost finished, so you can re-cast Refraction shortly after it expires for two sets of damage block and bonus damage.
• Refraction has a minimum damage threshold of 5, meaning that damage less than 5 is fully ignored by Refraction and is not absorbed. Because of this, enemies can still disable Blink Dagger For the cosmetic item equipped by Axe, see Little Blink Dagger.   Item   Changelogs     Blink DaggerBL The fabled dagger used by the fastest assassin ever to walk the lands. Cost2250 Bought FromArcane through Refraction with the help of a damage source that deals very little damage such as Orb of Venom   Item   Changelogs     Orb of VenomBL Envenoms your veapon with the venom of a venomous viper. Cost275 Bought FromArmaments Passive Poison Attack Disassemble? No Alert allies? No Recipe The Orb of Venom .
• You can bait out powerful abilities (mostly ultimates) by casting Refraction just before the ability is cast. This does require quick reflexes, but if done right, abilities such as Finger of Death or Reaper`s Scythe can be wasted and give your team a bit of breathing room.

Meld

• Meld is instant invisibility with no fade time and can be used to disjoint Shadow Fiend using a Blink Dagger to dodge Phantom Assassin s Stifling Dagger Disjointing is the act of dodging projectiles, or rather, to cause a projectile to fully lose track of its target. A disjoint is projectiles.
• An early point in meld can help significantly reduce harassment from other mid heroes, such as Queen of Pain   Hero   Strategy   Counters   Equipment   Gear   Responses   Sounds   Lore   Old Abilities   Changelogs     Queen of Pain 16 + 2 18 + 2 24 + 2.5 and her Shadow Strike or Tinker   Hero   Strategy   Counters   Equipment   Gear   Responses   Sounds   Lore   Old Abilities   Changelogs     Tinker 17 + 2.3 13 + 1.2 30 + 2.2 Level Base and his Rockets, or to disjoint the attacks from a tower that may follow you after a gank.
• Enemies cannot remove Meld without altering Lanaya`s position in some way.
  • Be that as it may, Meld is not removed by spells and abilities that forces movement in a vertical manner, such as Nyx Assassin This page is about the hero. For the goddess in Dota 2 lore, see Nyx.   Hero   Strategy   Counters   Equipment   Gear   Responses   Sounds   Lore   Old Abilities   `s Impale, Sand King   Hero   Strategy   Counters   Equipment   Gear   Responses   Sounds   Lore   Old Abilities   Changelogs     Sand King 22 + 2.9 19 + 2.1 16 + 1.8 Level `s Burrowstrike, Kunkka   Hero   Strategy   Counters   Equipment   Gear   Responses   Sounds   Lore   Old Abilities   Changelogs   Known Bugs     Kunkka 24 + 3.3 14 + 1.3 18 + `s Torrent, Lion   Hero   Strategy   Counters   Equipment   Gear   Responses   Sounds   Lore   Old Abilities   Changelogs   Known Bugs     Lion 16 + 2 15 + 1.5 20 + `s Earth Spike, Tidehunter   Hero   Strategy   Counters   Equipment   Gear   Responses   Sounds   Lore   Old Abilities   Changelogs     Tidehunter 22 + 3.3 15 + 1.5 16 + 1.7 Level Base `s Ravage and from Cyclone-based abilities such as Eul`s Scepter of Divinity For the cosmetic item equipped by Crystal Maiden, see Eul s Scepter of Divinity (Equipment)   Item   Changelogs   Known Bugs     Eul s Scepter of DivinityB A mysterious scepter passed down through the ages, and Tornado.
  • Additionally, despite X Marks the Spot shifting Layana`s location, Meld is not removed by that ability.
  • Telekinesis will only remove Meld if the sub-ability is used. It will not remove Meld by itself.
  • Toss will only remove Meld if Layana is tossed towards another unit. If Layana is both the Toss object and the Toss target, it will not remove Meld since she is only being moved vertically.
• It can be difficult to hit an enemy from within Meld without a high level in Psi Blades. Use Psionic Trap, Blink Dagger For the cosmetic item equipped by Axe, see Little Blink Dagger.   Item   Changelogs     Blink DaggerBL The fabled dagger used by the fastest assassin ever to walk the lands. Cost2250 Bought FromArcane , or disables from teammates to get close to enemies.
• Meld is very useful for evading enemies when you can use it just out of sight. For instance, say you are being chased towards some stairs while you are on the lower ground. Using Meld once you reach the high ground will often leave assailants confused and can sometimes lead to them continuing on in the direction you were originally headed if they assume you just blinked in that direction.
• Maxing meld is incredibly powerful against a team with two or more heroes that can tear down refraction very fast. Such heroes ( Pudge   Hero   Strategy   Counters   Equipment   Gear   Responses   Sounds   Lore   Old Abilities   Changelogs     Pudge 25 + 3.5 14 + 1.5 14 + 1.5 Level Base and Venomancer   Hero   Strategy   Counters   Equipment   Gear   Responses   Sounds   Lore   Old Abilities   Changelogs     Venomancer 18 + 2.15 22 + 2.8 17 + 1.8 Level Base are common picks) have low armor and will be quickly taken care of.

Psi Blades

• Against an enemy lineup that consists of entirely ranged Heroes, you may need to max Psi Blades early in order to have any chance of last hitting and harassing efficiently while laning.
• Psi Blades deal pure damage, not physical, meaning whatever is behind her initial target will take the same damage as the primary target. As such, try to position yourself so that you either deny and last hit at the same time or harass your foe out of the lane.
• If you are having trouble with attacking with Meld, putting more points on Psi Blades instead of Meld early game may be a better choice. At most, a level 2 Psi Blades gives Lanaya decent enough range for her early-mid game, spending the rest of her ability points on Refraction and Meld for higher damage output.
• The spill area of Psi Blades is positioned based on where you are when the projectile lands, not the direction the projectile came from. This can be used to score some very strange kills with a blink dagger.

Psionic Trap

• Psionic Traps can be used for vision. Place traps in narrow walkways to monitor enemy movement. Traps can also be used to maintain vision of runes For the runes that come with cosmetic items, see Inscribed Gem.   Main   Changelogs     Runes are special boosters that spawn on the game map. They come in two categories. Bounty Runes can and the Roshan For Roshan as he appears in holiday events, see Roshan (Diretide 2012) and Roshan (Diretide 2013) Roshan Ancient Jungle Creep Level 30 Health 5500 Health regeneration 20 Armor 15 Magic resistance 55% Attack damage 65 pit.
• Psionic Trap gains 5% more slow for every second after placement. Try to place your traps slightly ahead of enemies and let them charge past the base 30%.
• The movement speed from Drum of Endurance, Yasha, and Phase Boots helps Lanaya chase enemies caught in her Psionic Trap.
• You are allowed eleven Traps at max level. This allows you to permanently place traps in key spots such as rune locations and Roshan`s pit for vision while having a respectable amount left over for fights.
• Other useful places for Traps include the top of stairs, secret shops and other common chokepoints.