Dota 2 Heroes – An introduction to Lyralei the Windrunner

By: Jason McCarthy

  |   December 7th, 2012   |  

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Lyralei the Windrunner is a huge asset for her team in Defense of the Ancients (Dota) 2. She is an intelligence hero that can be played in a variety of ways. She can play as a hard-support or side-carry and has the ability to survive in the dreaded suicide lane.

Shackleshot is a single target spell that, when used on an enemy, will bind them to another enemy unit or tree behind them if positioned correctly. If successfully executed, the unit or units shackled will be stunned for 3.75 seconds. If used on someone who does not have a unit or tree in a 500 range behind them, then they will be stunned for a mere 0.75 seconds.

Her second ability Powershot is a skill-shot ability that will cause Windrunner to wind up her bow and shoot a powerful arrow in the direction she targets. After a 1-second period, she will release the shot that will travel 1825 units while dealing damage and destroying trees in its path. An important thing to know here is that the damage starts off at 360, but will diminish for 10% for every target it hits. If you cancel the shot before the 1-second channelling time, she will still shoot her arrow, but the damage will be greatly reduced.

Her third skill Windrun is what allows her to escape an imminent death. When used, she will gain 50% movement speed and have a 100% physical evasion for a 5-second period. As an added bonus, any enemy within a 300 Area of Effect (AoE) of her will have their movement speed reduced by 30%. With the cool-down of only 15 seconds, you can imagine how difficult it is to kill her and especially during the early laning stages.

Focus Fire is a challenging ultimate that will give Windrunner maximum amount of attack speed for up to 20 seconds. At first glance this seems completely broken, but rest assured the attack damage will be reduced by 30% and this includes damage from any orb that she may have equipped. Keep in mind that this can be used on building and most of the time it is. Aghanim’s Scepter can be purchased for Windrunner and can improve her ultimate by reducing the cool-down from 60 seconds to 15 as well as eliminate the 30% reduction from orbs.

Playing as Windrunner can be a lot of fun as one can choose from a number of roles to serve. Her abilities synergise well with each other. Keeping her Shackleshot ability and ultimate Focus Fire in mind, you would more often than not find yourself making damage-boosting items on her. While her third ability Windrun does well to cover her frailness, adding life-steal to the inventory will make her even more sustainable.

Disclaimer: The research used in this article is accredited to Dota Cinema and SUNSfan. No copyright infringement is intended.