How do people deal with Lina mid when she starts snowballing?

The big mistake is treating Lina like a normal lane bully you can just outlast. She is usually strongest when you trade small bits with her over and over. If you can, pick a mid that can either threaten her bottle control, punish her low armor, or clear waves safely without walking into constant right-click pressure.

In lane, the goal is not to beat her at her own game. Keep the wave in a spot where she cannot freely hit you and the creeps at the same time. If she takes the lead, stop bleeding resources trying to contest every creep. Go for efficient, boring CS and protect your HP for rune fights and rotations. Once she gets travel boots or a big damage item, she turns every overextended lane into a kill lane, so vision on likely rotation paths matters a lot more than people think.

Also, she tends to feel way worse when your team has no answer to her after lane. If nobody pressures her towers or forces her to show defensively, she gets to keep the map open and just pick off isolated heroes. That is where the game usually slips away.

If you are asking from a drafting angle, the best answer is often to make her lane awkward before the game even starts. Heroes that can reliably shove, sustain, or threaten all-in damage usually do better than heroes that want a fair, slow mid. Lina loves lanes where she can keep attacking and keep the tempo.

After lane, the real issue is map pressure. She is scary because she converts small openings into dead heroes fast. So the counterplay is less about one magical duel and more about reducing the chances she gets clean side-lane kills. Keep lanes pushed enough that she has to reveal herself, and do not give her free smoke breaks into a sideline that is already half-dead.

If your own team is behind, it can feel impossible because she punishes low resources so hard. In that case, I would prioritize recovery tools and a defensive posture over forcing fights. A lot of people lose to Lina by trying to force one proactive move too early, then she takes the counterfight and the map collapses.

Mechanically, the lane is annoying because her damage comes online with very little setup. That means you need to think about distance, creep aggro, and regeneration more than direct trading. If she gets two points in her passive and starts connecting her nuke through creeps, the lane often flips from annoying to miserable pretty fast.

When playing into that, I like to ask one question. Can my hero win by standing there and right-clicking, or do I need to play the lane around cooldowns and positioning? If it is the second one, then the lane is about patience. Use the first few waves to stay healthy, get the bottle or regen you need, and avoid giving her free attack speed stacks through repeated poke. If you burn too much mana trying to contest, she gets to shove you out and deny the lane anyway.

Midgame is the same idea. She thrives on enemies who are split and low. So your team should either group with purpose or play very disciplined around vision. Random jungle farming with no ward coverage is basically feeding her picks.

Short version, do not let the lane become a staring contest. If you are losing the exchanges, shift your goal from winning mid to not feeding her momentum. Secure range creeps, call for rune help if needed, and accept that some matchups are about reducing the damage instead of dominating.

People also overfocus on the hero itself and ignore the team part. A Lina with good lane start plus no pressure on the other lanes is terrifying. A Lina that has to deal with constant ganks, pushed side lanes, and forced reactions is much less special. She can still do damage, sure, but she stops feeling like the center of the game.