• 
  Tiny: [Avalanche] - this spell deals 25/45/65/75 damage every 0.25 seconds for 1 second. In one second you lose 4 Shields.
  .
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  Leshrac: [Diabolic Edict] - 12.5/25/37.5/50 damage is dealt every 0.25 seconds. In one second you lose 4 Shields.
  .
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  Pudge: [Rot] - 5/10/15/20 damage is dealt every 0.2 seconds. In one second you lose 5 Shields.
  .
• 
  Bloodseeker: [Rupture] - deals damage once every 0.25 seconds. In one second (of moving) you lose 4 Shields.
  .
• 
  Yurnero: [Bladefury] - 16/20/24/28 magic damage is dealt every 0.2 seconds. In one second you lose 5 Shields.
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• 
  Dark Seer: [Ion Shell] - at level 4 only, 7.5 magic damage is dealt every 0.1 seconds. In 0.5 seconds you lose 5 Shields. (note: +15% magic resist from a Planeswalker Cloak would reduce the damage taken per 0.1 seconds to less than 5, therefore preventing loss of Shields).
  .
• 
  Warlock: [Fatal Bonds] - if the units you are linked to take enough damage in one shot (like from Warlock casting his ultimate on the area), then you will lose Shields for each link that damages you.
  .
• 
  Dazzle: [Shadow Wave] - If you are within the damage AOE of multiple healed units, you will lose Shields for each unit that damages you.
  .
• 
  Sniper: [Scattershot] - 8/12/16/20 pellets in a 200 aoe, each one doing 10-25 physical damage. (you pretty much lose all your Shields from one casting of this).

Refraction Conclusion:
Early game is bad for Refraction (relatively), but it makes all your dreams come true mid/late game, so that is when I level it. There is also another reason to wait to level it, and that is…Meld…

Meld ( D )
The art of Shakuras allows Lanaya to conceal herself at any time of the day and strike from the shadows with her armor-shredding blades. Deals bonus damage and reduces enemy armor for 10 seconds.

Level 1 - 50 damage, -2 armor
Level 2 - 100 damage, -4 armor
Level 3 - 150 damage, -6 armor
Level 4 - 200 damage, -8 armor

Mana Cost: 50
Cooldown: 7
Casting Range: Self
Strike Range: 140-300, depending on level of Psi Blades.
Damage Type: Normal Physical Damage (reduced by armor, etc)

Meld in general:
When you click Meld your hero becomes invisible and stands still in “hold position” mode. Anything you do after that will cancel the spell. If you move or are moved in some way, the spell will cancel and you will become visible again. AOE stuns will not cancel your Meld, however. The way to perform the 200 damage, -8 armor Meld-Strike on your enemy is for that enemy to get within your attack range while you are hidden (which is very close to you) and for you to then right click on them. This will break your invisibility and deal your normal damage plus the bonus damage and put a negative armor buff on your enemy. It is important to note that the bonus 200 damage is “normal” damage, and is therefore reduced by armor. As the game progresses, enemies will have higher armor, which will reduce the damage dealt.

Just like windwalk, you can use Meld to try to “dodge” some spells by Melding after a targeted spell is cast, but before it hits you. It is hard to do but sometimes you get lucky.

Many people look at Meld and they see it as the world’s worst windwalk ability. It is more than that. Meld is primarily a close-range nuke/armor reducer. It has a secondary ability to hide in place either for ambush or escape. If the invisibility was removed from Meld, it would still be a decent spell. In fact, many people don’t bother to hide much at all, simply casting it when toe to toe with their enemy and immediately breaking it.

Defensive Meld for early game:
Early game Meld can also be used the way Clinks uses windwalk. If your enemy goes after you, nukes you, etc, just Meld. You break the momentum of their attacks, preventing them from chaining those attacks together. Don’t wait until you are at low life to Meld. Just do it as soon as you get hit with anything significant or even before that. Because it is still early-game, the creepline will have more “back and forth” movement due to heroes having a harder time killing the creepwaves. This means if you Meld as an escape, your creeps will at some point require your enemies’ attention. That is the point where you can make an escape. With the short cooldown of Meld, you should be able to Meld again if your enemies are gonna catch you.
Meld is not your saviour, but it will help.

Normally, a hero with no range or harass will be stuck tower-hugging and trying to get experience and last-hits while avoiding too much harrassment. Lanaya has Meld, and just as Broodmother can hide in her web early game and get experience, so can Lanaya. This ability allows you to gain as much XP as you want without leaving the lane. The only problem is that at some point you might want to hit the creeps for gold and to help defend your tower. Hiding is obviously not ideal, but at least you have the option if things are too heavy.

Of course, invisibility is easily countered by using sentry wards and Lanaya has it worse than every other invisibility hero because she can’t move. The good news is that Lanaya is not very dependant on invisibility. It is a nice thing to have but she can function without it. Therefore if your opponents buy a ward or two, just know that hiding as an escape mechanism is even more unreliable. At that point, you can either live with the situation, get wards yourself, or swap lanes. I would just live with the situation. If you need to escape danger just do it the old-fashioned way and RUN!

Defensive Meld for mid/late game:
Don’t count on this to save you if you ever Meld in sight of the enemy. If it ever does work, you got lucky. By this point, the enemy will have someone on their team who can use AOE damage to sit there and root you out, if not just bring a sentry ward over to finish you off. It will be like vultures circling a wounded animal and unless your team can save you pretty quick, Meld would usually just delay the inevitable.

There are, however, a couple ways to use Meld defensively that never go out of style:
Tactic #1 is to Meld out of sight. If you do that, the enemy might not be sure of where you are. Even if you just go around the corner or through some trees, if the enemy doesn’t actually SEE you Meld, they can’t be sure you are there and might give up the hunt.

Tactic #2 is to cast Refraction from within Meld, and then run like the wind. If you get caught again, Meld again. You probably won’t survive, but you increase your chances and at least make the enemy have to try.

Tactic #3 is like tactic #2. Usually enemy heroes will get close to your hiding spot since they feel strong with all their buddies there. You can perform a Double-Meld(see below) on them if they do that, followed by Refraction if need be to finish them off. It may be suicidal, but at least you might take one with you.

Tactic #4 isn’t really a tactic to keep you alive, but just to point out that even if your opponent roots you out of hiding, you should have spent that time buying on your chicken so you don’t lose money when you die. At least if you are going to die, you can make the best of it.

Offensive Meld for early game (ambush):
Early game, heroes stay with the creeps and the towers are still alive, making the battlefield smaller. With a smaller battlefield, chasing distance is limited and enemy movement options are more predictable. At any given time, the enemy is likely to be just behind his creepline. If you can predict where the creepline will be, you can predict where to Meld and wait for your enemy. Sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn’t, but if it doesn’t work out you only lost 50 mana.

Double-Meld for early game (ambush):
Double-Meld requires three conditions to pull off: First, assuming your opponent is s [Toss] can move you while you are Melded which would break your Meld revealing you. Stuns do not break your Meld, but anything that moves you will break it.

Meld Conclusion:
Early-game is great for Meld (relatively), but it starts to lose it’s effectiveness late-game, just like any other flat-damage nuke. The negative armor effect starts to matter more and that compensates a little, but all in all early game is Meld’s time to shine. I wish I could have Meld and Refraction both early game, but the next ability demands to be leveled at least a couple times before I touch Refraction…

Psi Blades ( B )
Using her psionic powers, the Templar causes enemy units behind her target to feel the same pain as the target itself. This psionic power extends her attack range.

Level 1 - 40 Bonus Range, 60 Spill Range. (New Attack Range: 180)
Level 2 - 80 Bonus Range, 120 Spill Range. (New Attack Range: 220)
Level 3 - 120 Bonus Range, 180 Spill Range. (New Attack Range: 260)
Level 4 - 160 Bonus Range, 240 Spill Range. (New Attack Range: 300)

Passive Ability.
Damage Type: Spill Damage deals the exact damage your original target took. (If you target something that has for example 1 armor, your normal damage is reduced by the 1 armor, and then the resulting damage from that is what spills out the other side as exact damage. This is nice because if you can hit a hero with spill damage, it usually hurts them more than if you hit them with your regular damage.

Bonus Range:
Lanaya begins with 140 range, the lowest range of any ranged hero, basically starting with a melee range (100-150). Even with Psi Blades maxed, her range is only 300, still 30 range less than Luna and exactly half the range of most ranged heroes (600).

Lanaya’s range is crucial to understand, as it will determine how close the enemy must be to break your Meld effectively. Obviously, the more range you have, the easier it will be to hit out of Meld. It is for this reason that I put a couple levels into Psi Blades early-game. I finish leveling it later to help with farming and team battles.

Spill Range:
The spill range is a 100% cleave that extends in a line past what you are attacking, damaging everything in its path. This line is about as thick as a creep, and with the 6.46b patch it now properly spills out in the direction you are facing. The spilled damage doesn’t contain any orb effects and is not reduced by armor. It deals exact damage equal to the damage your original target takes. If your original target takes extra damage from Refraction, Criticals, Double Damage Rune, having low armor, etc, whatever amount of damage the original target actually takes is what will spill out beyond the target.

Spill range can be used to farm later in the game. The most effective way to do this is look for a pattern of creeps in a line. Usually the melees line up left to right and the ranged form a line left to right. Then stand to the side of one of those lines and attack the creep at the edge. All the creeps to the other side will be taking the same damage. This method can wipe out creep waves pretty quickly. See screenshot courtesy of arcano:

Keep this principle in mind when you are in team battles. Even if you only hit one extra hero through your spill damage, you are basically doing double damage to the overall enemy team!

Psionic Trap ( C )
Creates psionic traps on ground. When triggered, it will slow units within 400 range by 50% for 5 seconds.

Level 1 - Max 5 Traps
Level 2 - Max 8 Traps
Level 3 - Max 11 Traps

Mana Cost: 15
Cooldown: 10
Casting Range: 2000
Strike Range: 400 radius AOE centered on the Trap

Psionic Trap in general:
When you place a Psionic Trap, it is visible initially for about a second, and then becomes invisible. This is a similar effect to how Techies mines work. An enemy with true sight can see the trap and kill it, but it only gives them 1 gold. Also similar to landmines, traps do not expire over time.

Note the 15 mana cost. That is nothing. It might as well be zero. Just pretend it’s zero and spam this thing every time it gives you any kind of edge, no matter how small.

Note the 2000 casting range. This is huge, allowing you to place traps from the next screen where your enemy can’t even see you! This makes traps great for helping teammates even when you aren’t near the chase. In addition, you don’t need sight of an area to place a trap, so they can be placed in the fog of war.

From level 6 on the enemy team should be screaming “trap is imba!” as you basically can hand your teammates kills in their lanes simply by throwing down a slow for them out of nowhere. Who knows, if your teammate can’t finish the job, the enemy might run back home and you can finish them off along the way.

Psionic Trap as a Slow:
Psionic traps slow by a huge 50% at all levels, AND it’s a 400 aoe slow. When used as a slow, normally you put one trap down in preparation to ambush someone, and/or you put one trap down and immediately activate it during a chase. Used as a slow, these traps are usually activated soon after being laid down. You wouldn’t try to put them out way ahead of time to predict where an enemy might run away someday. Instead, you pretty much put them out when you need them and activate them right away. To activate the trap, you can click on the trap itself and activate it on the trap itself (even if you are dead), or you can click the ability on your hero called “Trap” which will activate the trap nearest to your hero. Note, if you have a ton of traps everywhere, you might activate the wrong one this way, so be careful. The hotkey for “Trap” is “T”, so you can just hit “T” to activate your trap and if it doesn’t activate (because a different one did that was closer but not the one you wanted to set off) then you just hit “T” again. Pretty much spam “T” until you see the trap go off and you will be covered.

If the traps were only good for slowing I would never level it beyond level 1, as you wouldn’t ever use 11 traps for slowing! However, as if the trap wasn’t already good enough….

Psionic Trap as an Observer Ward:
Psionic Trap reveals the visible space around it in about a 300 radius aoe. This isn’t very big, but it is enough to see an enemy dot pop up on your mini-map or a rune appear in the river. Use your traps for this. Spam them as observer wards. If you spam all 5 as observer wards everywhere around your lane, in the river, at roshan, etc, it would take you 50 seconds from casting the first one to the last one and cost you 75 mana. What price would you pay for 5 small observer wards that last forever? If you wind up using a trap for a slow, no big deal you just lose one of your “observers”. Think about how powerful this can be with 11 observer wards around the map. Did I mention that your teammates can use BoTs to teleport to your wards? You are prevented from doing so by v6.45, but your teammates still can, and that is very powerful indeed. Psionic Traps are awesome even if they never slowed! Just remember to spam them.