Greedy mid? Check
Great AoE base spells? Check
Really the big difference between QoP and Lina is QoP has far better maneuverability than Lina, but Lina can pick a hero and delete them. QoP has the better teamfight with her AoE scream, but with stacking magic resistance I think her output falls off even faster now. At least Aghs Lina still retains her main utility.
OD falls in the same category but I think he's in a different class since his Q turns any INT item into ridiculous right click pure damage. I wouldn't pick Lina over OD but OD is also a much heavier investment, without high INT he's useless.
Just like the hard carry Abaddon build right?
Movement speed being bad is the least of her problems.
It's like, okay, she has an AS/MS steroid. Cool.
Except because of Lina's shitty animations she loses a shitton of time, and therefore DPS, casting her spells to keep that steroid up.
Not to mention that Lina's attack animation is also shit and good luck switching targets or kiting while attacking.
And then there's the stupid amounts of farm that you'll need for this to work and the lack of available item slots given you need to compensate for Lina's shitty MS/animations.
Euls is all you need for enough regen to sustain QW spam if you're really poor, she has a great INT growth. Euls also gives her more MS and gives her a really easy way to self-setup LSA. Typically I go Orchid tho for the damage amp and she actually uses the right click damage it gives. QoP typically goes Orchid for similar reasons, so item progression doesn't differ very much.
With the increased mana costs to Mek, you're no longer going to see STR/AGI cores get Mek, and your 4/5 spots aren't going to get it very fast. So this is another + for the INT nuker mid. She loves Mek since she badly needs the armor (since she's not slippery like QoP).
I'm pretty sure the ganking mid died even more with this patch. But that's just my opinion and I haven't looked too deeply into the changes so I can't really comment on this much.
EDIT: Maybe it will be more in vogue now. Dunno. But I don't see anything that stops the farming mid.
HUGE nerf to bottle crow, it's not even viable anymore. Rune control now even more important since 1) both runes spawn and 2) runes replace themselves after 2 minutes. A mid can't afford to ignore runes anymore, and expect significantly more fights breaking out around them.
So can Lion. Or Skywrath. Both of which are much better heroes than Lina to have on your team.
Lion is arguably a better support than Lina. Lina's really a poor lane support. Her stun is annoying, she needs farm, and she's more likely to steal kills than help set them up. Skywrath is a poor support too since he needs significant farm, and now with concussive shot disjointable I don't think he's going to be nearly as annoying as he used to be. Ancient Seal is still gross.
... Or SB or Sven or Shadow Shaman or Centaur or Tusk or Veno or PotM or FV or VS or NA or Bane or WD or Necro or Bat or Visage.
Basically, why would you pick Lina over any of these heroes?
Why would you ever pick space cow? He's awful in every way, probably the worst hero in the game. Shadow Shaman performs a far different role than Lina, and with the nerf to deathball I don't think he's going to be nearly as popular. PotM is a better pick but you'd typically stick her in the offlane or keep her purely for roaming, not playing 1v1 vs another mid. She doesn't have much kit to contest farm and harass the other mid like Lina/QoP/OD. Veno has an arguably better 1v1 in mid, but again, push strats have gotten a huge nerf with refreshable glyph and less tower gold. VS/Bane/Bat fit different roles too, they're initiators. Lina is a nuker core that transitions to nuke+right click. I don't think she'll ever be good at initiating.
Again, we're not in disagreement here, she's an awful support, and an awful initiator. But that's not where I'm saying she belongs. She belongs in mid, zoning out the other mid and being able to exert a massive threat to carries before they come online.
Firstly, most supports don't fall off that in the end game. Initiation, even single target, on cores can wreck the enemy team any day.
She's still not an initiator :S A stun doesn't make someone an initiator, there's other bits to that kit such as rapid movement, tankiness, etc. You don't pick Mirana for her arrow, you pick her because she's slippery as hell and Starfall is a gross AoE nuke and her ult gives great team utility. I don't consider her an initiator because she still needs a REAL initiator (like Bane or Shadow Demon) to setup her arrow dunks. Lina needs similar setup support as well, so it's not really in either ones favor.
Again, I'm not arguing Lina is currently a first class mid pick, but I don't think she's unpickable like some other heroes.
950 pure nuke is highly situational and assumes that you've actually managed to farm the aghanims in the first place. And then you want DPS on top of that?
Aghs isn't that much to ask for on most mids now. Look at the current mid dominators, Razor/DP/Naga. They need Aghs or similar cost items to start really going (although DP is a bit less farm intensive). Naga is useless without Radiance, if you're making her a 3 and she doesn't get Radiance at a decent pace you've wasted a pick. Razor is useless in any lane outside of mid since his kit is all about being a dick to a single hero, typically a carry. Aghs is when he transitions to tower pusher.
What do other typical stawart mids need? Orchid (QoP/OD), BKB (Shadow Friend), Deso/BKB (TA). These are your current "snowball mids". I think the only real farm light mid is Veno, since Naix/Timber/Clock/DK haven't been mids in a long time. Tinker doesn't count since he lived in mid for the easy ancient stack. Really the only mid I think that simply outclasses Lina in every way is Viper, and Viper just kind of shits on everyone, it's his job. Although I think the Mek nerf is going to hurt him HARD.
Good luck getting all that gold before the game ends. It doesn't help that aghs doesn't really help your autoattack at all.
Yeah, which is why I think it's more of a situational or 2nd/3rd item after something else core like Orchid or Mek/Euls. It's something you tack on after the game has dragged on, not something to rush. I mean, early game the extra range and pure damage isn't going to affect your utility as much. It's when things like BKBs become commonplace and eHP starts going through the roof from MR/armor would I consider going for it.
Given Lina's lack of mobility and shitty animations, 650 range on autos isn't enough for Lina to be safe while autoattacking.
I think she really needs a MS boost, since that low MS makes her worthless in anything except a core role. It becomes a severe liability as a support since she can't get the farm or want to get things that mitigate it (phase/drum/euls).
Sniper's strength comes in his 1k range and stupid attack/projectile animation. Lina doesn't come anywhere close to Sniper as a carry.
Honestly I have no reason why Sniper hasn't been picked at all in protier play. His kit is ridiculously good for what it was, and his only real liability (escapability) is covered by good teamwork and rotations. I guess it's because of other heroes that may not give the same things he does as well as he does, but give other things far more useful. Sniper's kit is geared strictly towards right clicking a single person to death. Merlini had a similar comment about Zeus, simply pro teams fall prey to flavor of the month and refuse to practice heroes outside their comfort zone.
EDIT: Oh, and as mentioned above, even if you managed to farm 30k gold somehow you lose a shitton of DPS casting your crappy spells because of Lina's horrible cast animation.
Phase/Orchid/Deso is what, 1350 + 4125 + 4100 = 9575? That's not that unreasonable, and that's a HELL of a lot of damage at level 14-16 (which is typically where you'd end up at that point). We can argue that other heroes can do better with that same amount of gear and I wouldn't disagree with you, but there's far worse options and she has a lot more flexibility than say, a TA or Storm Spirit. And if she gets shut down, she still has her nukes and it's not like she ends up being a boat anchor. A shut down TA or Storm Spirit gives you nothing. I'm not sure a shut down QoP gives you anything either. OD is pretty much impossible to shutdown but he conversely needs a lot more before he can get stupid snowbally.
