In this guide we will learn some of the stronger possible lanes that you and a friend could put together for an early advantage.﻿

#1 Nyx, Keeper of the Light, and Phantom Lancer





I know this isn't a lane you will generally see in your pub games but this trilane is a monster these days! The real secret to this trilane is the amount of synergy Kotl has with both Nyx and Phantom Lancer, both in the laning stage and later on in the game! The first combo we see in this lane is Nyx using Mana Burn to burn off the mana of his opposing laners. Generally when Nyx would spam Mana Burn he would also run out of mana himself. The beauty of it here is that Kotl can use Chakra Magic to ensure that Nyx will gain his mana back and be able to keep on Mana Burning!

This heavily increases the control you have in the trilane because if your opposing laners are out of mana then they do not have a way to cast any spells and thus will be very scared of coming too close and getting hit by an Impale or a Spirit Lance.

Some more things to go into here, just to clarify this is a very strong trilane in both a trilane vs trilane match up or a trilane vs offlaner match up. It’s particularly strong against an offlaner because offlaners need mana to cast their escape mechanism’s and so when Nyx hits them with Mana Burn a few times then most likely the offlaner will no longer be able to escape from an engagement.

In a trilane vs trilane situation, Nyx can burn down the mana of the supports (aim for the support that you feel has the better crowd control spell first) and thus the enemy trilane will have far less spells to cast during an engagement. Unfortunately keep in mind that at level 1 Kotl will only have his Chakra Magic ability as usually Nyx will be able to completely drain the mana of one enemy hero by the time he hits level 2. So getting engaged at level 1 is a little risky but it shouldn’t be too bad if you position yourselves safely and just spam Mana Burn.

Also, later on in the game, Kotl and Phantom Lancer go together like two peas in a pod! Once Phantom Lancer gets his farm up he is able to split push your enemies' other lanes while your team is doing things like forcing teamfights in the other lanes. Most likely the enemy team will react to the four people pushing one lane rather than the Phantom Lancer pushing the other lane .

That way Phantom Lancer can keep on pushing and as soon as an engagement starts Kotl can use his Spirit Form and then Recall the Phantom Lancer into the fight! This works well with most pushers also such as Lone Druid or even a Leshrac, but still best with Phantom Lancer as he has a decent escape mechanism.

#2 Vengeful Spirit and Drow Ranger

Now I know that Drow has been seeing a lot more play in pub games since her recent buffs and some players are calling her a little overpowered and such, (I won’t judge myself but maybe a slight bit more nerfing and she’ll be ready for Captains mode) and that she can lane well with just about anybody but Vengeful Spirit is the peanut butter to her jelly in lane. Vengeful Spirit provides just about everything that Drow Ranger really needs in order to be able to shut down her opposing laners.



First things first, the basics. This lane is already good just on the simply fact that it is a double ranged lane. Most lanes will have at least one melee hero in them so the fact that you have two ranged heroes means that you will be able to harass that one melee every time they get a little too close. So far so good.

Next thing to talk about is what does Drow Ranger really need in order to win a lane? Well for those that don’t know Drow Ranger can dish out a ton of damage with her right clicks especially when she hits level 6 and gets her ultimate, but even before then with a VS in your lane you will already be hitting like a truck! The reason for this because both VS and Drow rangers auras stack with one another, when running this lane get both of your auras at level one.

Note: It’s ok to skip stun at level one for VS because most Drows just focus on last hitting more than anything before their Frost Arrows are leveled up and your Vengeance Aura will help out your Drow with her last hits. Also there’s a bit of right click harassing that happens at level 1 so these will make your right clicks harass do more damage as well.

The next part is not so simple but it is important, it has a lot to do with positioning. Drow Ranger once she gets her Frost Arrows leveled up can chase down and get a kill fairly easily on an enemy hero, unless they have a way to crowd control her. But luckily the way that this lane works Vengeful Spirit will always be in front of the Drow Ranger if played correctly because her attack range if half of Drow Rangers. So this means that if Venge is in front she will most likely be the target that the enemy heroes go for, so they will use their crowd control on her.

I know this feels a bit like bait but after they use the crowd control on Venge then Drow Ranger can start going to town on them with Frost Arrows! In the early game when your opponents are still very squishy, 3-4 right clicks from Drow can actually deal more damage than most low level nukes. Add in a Magic Missile from Venge along with the armor reduction from her Wave of Terror, and whatever engagement they were going for, can easily get turned around in your favor. In a different scenario, if Venge feels like an enemy hero is coming closer to engage on Drow instead of herself, she will be in the front lines and can stun whoever is charging at Drow, assuring her safe getaway from the engagement.

#3 Chaos Knight and Ancient Apparition





The last lane that I would like to talk about is this one, although it is not particularly the strongest in my opinion it is still quite good! Chaos Knight is able to set up a lot of follow up stuns since he has one of the longest single target stuns in the game and Ancient Apparition needs all the time he can get for his Cold Feet ability!

While Chaos Knight is farming AA can work on harassing the enemy laners if possible, definitely don’t overextend as AA as it will not end well for you. But as soon as the two of you gain some levels you can unleash a devastating combo on whoever you choose.

The way it works is Chaos Knight uses Reality Rift and pulls the target enemy hero closer to the two of you. Then right after that AA will cast his Ice Vortex on wherever the enemy hero got pulled to. The reason for this is because Ice Vortex lowers the enemy magic resistance which means that Chaos Bolt and Cold Feet will do more damage. Then Chaos Knight proceeds to use Chaos Bolt right after AA casts Cold Feet on the target.

Cold Feet needs 4 seconds before it procs its own stun of 3.5 seconds at max level. This means that you have the ability to crowd control someone for 7.5 seconds!! This is an absurd amount of time for someone to be stunned and will almost always result in a kill, especially in the early game when Cold Feet is doing an impressive 50-75 magic damage a second. So as soon as you gain some levels go ahead and unleash this devastating combo.

Also I would recommend grabbing an Urn on AA because this combo basically guarantees free Urn Chargers!



That’s it for now, again I highly recommend trying some of these lanes with a friend if you are either having trouble winning your lanes in pub games or if you just feel like experimenting with something new.