Mina vs Infernus

Do

• Plan for Majestic Leap Majestic Leap 3,200 souls Tier 3ArmorInstantCast +45s Cooldown +5s Interrupt Cooldown +100% Air Control +50% Air Control +32% Move Speed +2.5s Slow Duration +8s Barrier Duration — know which tier it sits in so you are not improvising at the shop.
• Know what Flame Dash looks like. It is the cooldown this lane revolves around.

Avoid

• Walking to lane on the same path every wave against a hero with Infernus's engage range.

Do

• Very low burst — if he cannot sustain contact, his damage never materializes
• Before Flame Dash tier 3 he has one charge, so committing forward is genuinely risky
• Love Bites lets her deal real Spirit Damage from a distance on a short effective cooldown, so she can poke despite weak raw gun stats.

Avoid

• Napalm harasses the enemy laner and clears the wave in a single cast, so he farms and pressures simultaneously
• Afterburn keeps damaging after the trade ends, so every exchange is worth more than it looks

Do

• Their first real spike is laning 0-10min — respect it from that point, not before.
• Your spike is Love Bites unlocked first (laning 0-10min): Love Bites with double Rake Rake 10m Range16s Cooldown A close slash that deals spirit damage scaled up by how much health the target is missing, executes weakened non-hero units outright, and refunds health to Mina on a kill. Damage 60 base damage with 25 heal per kill. Defensive Heal per kill (+30 more at T2) is her only sustain; 1 +60 damage. 2 +30 heal per kill, -8s cooldown. 5 +7% missing-health damage and increased heal-per-kill spirit scaling. gives her spirit chip and a missing-health finisher right away.

Avoid

• Taking an even fight against Infernus on their spike timing when you could take the same fight ten minutes later on yours.

Do

• Watch for Concussive Combustion Concussive Combustion 190s Cooldown Turns Infernus into a living bomb that detonates after a delay, dealing spirit damage and stunning every nearby enemy. Crowd Control area stun on detonation; Damage about 125 spirit at base (deadlock.one) Defensive uninterruptible, so it functions as a panic button that punishes whoever… 1 +100 damage 2 about -65s cooldown and +100% explosion lifesteal 5 +0.9s stun duration, +10m radius and +0.4 spirit scaling on the damage . Do not try to Stun him out of it — it is explicitly uninterruptible; instead use the delay to leave the radius
• Hold him at range — Napalm is a short cone and his SMG has 660 m/s travel; Grey Talon, Vindicta or Holliday fight him from outside his entire kit

Avoid

• Spending your own escape before Flame Dash is on cooldown.

• Concussive Combustion Ultimate

  The one cooldown worth tracking on its own timer: area Stun on detonation.

  • Do not try to Stun him out of it — it is explicitly uninterruptible; instead use the delay to leave the radius
  • Unstoppable Unstoppable 6,400 souls Tier 4ArmorInstantCast +60s Cooldown +5.5s Duration +125 Bonus Health +25% Debuff Resist Builds from Debuff Reducer pre-cast makes you immune to the Stun even if you eat the damage
  • Ethereal Shift Ethereal Shift 6,400 souls Tier 4TechInstantCast +37s Cooldown +4s Duration +5s Buff Duration +30% Spirit Resist +20 Spirit Power during the delay makes you untargetable through the detonation entirely
• Napalm Ability 1

  Sticking power rather than damage: movement slow on everyone hit.

  • It is a short cone — back out of the arc rather than trading through it; the coating stops ticking once the burn expires
  • Spirit Armor is the correct resist because all of it is Spirit Damage, not bullet
  • At tier 3 the -33% healing means you cannot outsustain him — disengage instead of trying to heal through it
• Flame Dash Ability 2

  His gap-close and his escape, plus a lingering zone that makes retreating through the same corridor costly.

  • Before tier 3 he has one charge — if he dashes in, he has no dash out; collapse on him immediately
  • The dash is a fixed straight line; sidestep and he overshoots past you
  • Do not walk back down the corridor he dashed through — the trail persists and refreshes his burn

1. 1 Flame Dash

   Flame Dash first — before tier 3 it is his only mobility. Feint an approach, make him dash to close, then focus him with no escape available

2. 2 Napalm

   Napalm second: force it onto a durable frontliner or the creep wave, since without the slow he cannot hold you in his SMG range

3. 3 Concussive Combustion

   Concussive Combustion is not worth baiting for interruption (it cannot be cancelled), but it IS worth baiting for position — make him commit it on a target holding Ethereal Shift or Unstoppable

• Almost no burst — every kill requires several seconds of contact Strong evidence
• Must be at close range, where he is also easiest to focus down Strong evidence
• Low durability with no defensive ability besides the dash Strong evidence
• Read this matchup as one where the early deficit sticks. Infernus is a top-tier laner, and the 09-16-2026 patch removed the fixed bonus souls for being modestly behind in net worth on both hero kill bounties and Rift bounties, with the notes explicitly naming early-to-mid game as the most affected window. What is left is a redistribution inside your own team, not a handout. The practical consequence is that a lane you lose 0-6 minutes no longer self-corrects — you have to not lose it, or take the game somewhere else quickly. Documented
• You fight at mid range and Infernus has to reach close range, but they have the movement to do it — which means the matchup is not a range advantage, it is a cooldown one. Their gap-closer is the only thing bridging the band, so track it rather than tracking their health. With it up you are in their range and should behave accordingly; with it down you are in a range they cannot reach and every second of that window is free. Strategic

• Napalm plus Afterburn means you keep taking damage after the fight appears to be over — disengaging at 40% health frequently still kills you Strong evidence
• Napalm tier 3 applies -33% healing, so your Restorative Locket Restorative Locket 1,600 souls Tier 2ArmorInstantCast +20s Cooldown +0.1s Cast Delay +8% Spirit Resist +25 Max Stacks +3 Max Stamina Restore , Lifestrike Lifestrike 3,200 souls Tier 3ArmorPassive +4s Cooldown +48% Move Speed +2.5s Slow Duration +16% Melee Damage +125 Bonus Health Builds from Melee Lifesteal or support heals simply do not save you Strong evidence
• Concussive Combustion cannot be interrupted — stunning him does nothing, and at tier 3 the radius is large enough that walking out is not reliable Strong evidence
• Flame Dash with two charges lets him dive in, detonate, and still have a charge to leave with Strong evidence
• His damage is split spirit and bullet, so a single-resist build is only half-effective against him Strong evidence
• Your mobility is a real advantage here, and Infernus's slows exist to delete it. Note that Debuff Resist barely helps against short hard slows because it only trims duration — spacing and cover do more than an item will. Strong evidence

• Hold him at range — Napalm is a short cone and his SMG has 660 m/s travel; Grey Talon, Vindicta or Holliday fight him from outside his entire kit Strong evidence
• Buy Spirit Armor, not just Bullet Armor: Napalm, Afterburn, Flame Dash trail and Concussive Combustion are all Spirit Damage Strong evidence
• Carry Dispel Magic Dispel Magic 3,200 souls Tier 3ArmorInstantCast +45s Cooldown +10% Spirit Resist +3s Buff Duration +250 Heal Amount to strip the Afterburn burn and the Napalm slow together — it resets his whole damage ramp Strong evidence
• Use the Concussive Combustion delay to LEAVE, not to CC him; it is uninterruptible, so a Stun on him is a wasted cooldown Strong evidence
• Collapse on him whenever Flame Dash is spent — pre-tier-3 he has exactly one escape and nothing else Strong evidence
• Break line of sight completely for a few seconds; Afterburn only extends on weapon hits, so hard cover lets the burn expire Strong evidence
• Metal Skin Metal Skin 3,200 souls Tier 3ArmorInstantCast +24s Cooldown +5s Duration +12% Bullet Resist -20% Dash Distance +20% Gravity Scale is the right shape of answer to Infernus's gun — 5 seconds of complete bullet immunity on a 24-second cooldown — but know its two holes before you rely on it. It does not stop on-bullet build-ups, so their Toxic Bullets Toxic Bullets 3,200 souls Tier 3WeaponPassive -40% Incoming Healing bleed, Silencer Silencer 6,400 souls Tier 4WeaponPassive +12% Spirit Resist -25% Spirit Damage Reduction +2.5s Silence Duration +6s Debuff Duration +10s Immunity Duration stacks and slow build-ups keep landing while you are immune, and it costs you −1.5 m/s and −20% dash distance for the duration, which is the wrong trade if you were planning to walk out during it. Use it to win a stand-and-fight window, not to escape one. Documented

• Any moment Flame Dash is on cooldown — he has no other escape and low durability Strong evidence
• During the Concussive Combustion delay if you are already outside the radius: he is standing still, visible, and committed Strong evidence
• His 2.25s reload on a 27-round magazine emptied at about 9.5 rounds per second Strong evidence
• The first few seconds of any engagement, before Afterburn has ramped — his burst is the weakest in the group Strong evidence
• Any time you can force the fight past 30m, where his cone and trail cannot reach you and his gun has lost nearly a third of its damage Strong evidence
• Being stunned by Infernus now pauses your reload rather than restarting it, as of 09-16-2026. That quietly changes when it is safe to reload in this matchup: a reload caught by their Stun resumes where it left off instead of costing you the whole cycle, so the old rule of never reloading inside their engagement range is too conservative now. The compensating change is that parrying also pauses your reload, so a defensive parry no longer buys you free reload time. Documented
• Parry is your best tool against Infernus's arrival and it is now a commitment rather than a hedge. Since 09-16-2026, parrying during a dash cancels the dash and its momentum, so you cannot both reposition and hold F. The cooldown maths makes the decision for you: a successful parry costs 0.5 seconds and stuns them for 3 with no Debuff Resist reduction possible, while a whiff costs 4.5 seconds — against a hero who arrives on a cooldown, that whiff is the entire window they needed. Documented

• Your escape route is vertical and the 09-16-2026 patch aimed at exactly that: slows now affect air drag at 35% of their value, where previously they mostly did not bite in the air. Going airborne to break Infernus's slow no longer restores your full movement — you carry a fraction of it into the air with you, at the moment you are also a stationary silhouette. The slow cut of ~20% partly offsets it, but the net is that air-escaping a slow is worse this patch than last. Documented
• Infernus is one of the strongest laners in the game and the standard build order will lose to them. Tier I is 800 and Tier II is 1,600, so your first meaningful decision comes fast: against this hero the 1,600 that answers their specific threat (Healbane Healbane 1,600 souls Tier 2ArmorPassive +8s Duration +7 Spirit Power -35% Incoming Healing if they out-sustain you, Debuff Reducer Debuff Reducer 1,600 souls Tier 2ArmorPassive +25% Debuff Resist +90 Bonus Health if they out-lock you, Battle Vest Battle Vest 1,600 souls Tier 2ArmorPassive +18% Bullet Resist +3 Out of Combat Regen +65% Life Threshold +22% Weapon Damage +7% Fire Rate at +18% if they out-gun you) is worth more than the damage item that wins you a lane you are not going to win anyway. Strategic
• You are a strong laner, so know where the income actually goes. Trooper souls are split among players within roughly 45m of the orb or 30m of the killer, and two players nearby take 54% each rather than 50% — a duo lane is slightly net-positive for the team and clearly negative for you individually. If you are winning the lane against Infernus, holding the wave alone at range from your partner is worth real souls per minute. Treat the exact distances as community-sourced. Uncertain

• You have a window where you cannot be hit and Infernus does damage that does not need to target you. Untargetability of the Ethereal Shift kind explicitly does not stop aura-type effects, and the same logic applies to persistent fields: going untargetable inside their zone means you emerge on the other side at the same health, having spent the cooldown for nothing. The window has to be used to leave the area, not to survive standing in it. Strong evidence
• Your Silence may be worth more in a chain than a teammate's Stun. The 03-06-2026 diminishing-returns system reduces subsequent CC by 10% then 30% inside an 8-second window, and community reporting holds it applies to stuns only — not to silences, slows, hexes or disarms. If that is right, sequencing your Silence after an ally's Stun costs you nothing, while a second Stun in the chain is already 10% shorter. Treat it as community-reported rather than confirmed, but order your chain accordingly against Infernus. Uncertain
• Stacking a second damage-reduction debuff onto Infernus is close to a wasted slot: since 05-22-2026 total damage-reduction debuffs stack diminishingly rather than additively. If someone on your team already brings one, your souls buy more as anti-heal or as resist shred, both of which sit on different multipliers. Coordinate this before the game rather than discovering it in the fight — two players independently buying Inhibitor Inhibitor 6,400 souls Tier 4ArmorPassive +150 Bonus Health +5s Debuff Duration -30% Damage Penalty +10% Weapon Damage -40% Incoming Healing against their carry is a common and invisible waste. Documented

• Your habit of taking the fight vertical to reset spacing against Infernus is weaker on 09-16-2026 than it was. Slows now apply to air drag at 35% of their value, so the air is no longer a slow-free zone, and 2026 has been a steady closing of exactly these loopholes — wall jumping costs 25% stamina regeneration for 5 seconds, and knockups came under debuff reduction in May. Going up is still correct against their ground CC; it is no longer a way to ignore their slows. Documented
• Infernus wins by choosing where the fight happens. Take your position before the zoning goes down, not after — once the area is committed you are fighting on their terms, and walking in to contest it is exactly the mistake the kit is built to farm. Strategic

• Infernus heals through damage, so healing reduction is not optional here — but pick the right application route. Anti-heal arrives two ways: bullet-applied (Toxic Bullets, T3) builds up through gunfire, and spirit-applied (Healbane, T2) lands off Spirit Damage. Buy the one that matches how you actually deal damage, or it will never apply. Documented
• Majestic Leap (vitality T3) — Infernus' Flame Dash — that is the zoning and area denial this answers. Buy to escape ground-based lockdown and to rotate across the map quickly. Documented
• Stamina Mastery Stamina Mastery 3,200 souls Tier 3ArmorPassive +2 Stamina +18% Stamina Recovery +23% Air Jump/Dash Distance Builds from Extra Stamina (vitality T3) — Infernus' Concussive Combustion — that is the stuns and Hard CC this answers. Buy when dodging telegraphed abilities and disengaging is how you survive. Strong evidence
• Warp Stone Warp Stone 3,200 souls Tier 3ArmorInstantCast +16s Cooldown +30% Bullet Resist +6s Buff Duration (vitality T3) — Infernus' Concussive Combustion is what you are buying against here. Buy when you are repeatedly getting caught and killed out of position, or to close a gap onto a fleeing target. Documented

• The usual error against Infernus is treating Concussive Combustion as something to react to rather than something to pre-empt. By the time it is on you, the decision has already been made. Strategic