[WIP] Queen of rat DotA - Carry Naga Siren in competitive play

Good guide. You should check out Arteezy's Naga too, very strong, plays mid and now it's at the point where when people go up against his team Sadboys, that Naga is banned in the first round.



No it's not, Images can farm medium camp with 2 points in it and then with actual hero can farm hard camp which is really good for her.

she is getting increasingly popular as a carry again though. meracle really showed that she is really hard to defeat once you have your radiance, and that she is in the top 3 of hardest carries, since her illisions are much stronger than PL's.

Watched EE play this build too and by god that seems frustrating to play against.
Really micro-intensive though, so not a lot of people who can pull it off very well.
Also, I think someone he chatted with suggested getting BoT before Radiance, it's kinda good to do so, if you die a few times in the early game.

Does he go BoT prior to Radiance? If you consider the pick up after Radiance check out Build #2!

Thanks again everyone for the feedback.

Ever saw EternalEnvy play Naga Siren?

Consider getting Boots of Travel as your first big item - doesn't give much fighting power, but it really works for anti push. (Yeah, I was skeptical too, but watching him play naga was unbelievable.)

Yes, I did read it. I was just saying that Naga Siren is rarely used as a hard carry now and more of a support. I never said that she was a bad carry. I would also agree that she is indeed one of the best carries around.

@GotYou
I did check out both builds. Still, I have to agree that maxing Ensnare is pretty situational too. You did a good job explaining your choices of items (well, and my questions), so I'll give you a upvote on this.

getting early levels in mirror image is fine, they help you farm faster and generally you dont need ensnare that much.

but did you even read it? he is writing a guide about hard carry naga, to do this you NEED a radiance. why do you even mention that you think she is better as a support?
i would say that she is the best late game carry in the game apart from spectre and situationally medusa.

great guide, you described very well how you need to play the game if you want to 1v5 the opponent.

Thanks for your feedback so far.

a) Regarding diffusal blade: I agree that Diffusal Blade works well with your illusions in terms of DPS against heroes. However, this is not the style I want to illustrate here. This guide is all about split push and the style pursued mostly by Meracle. It's not about getting kills, it's about getting 600 last hits by 45 minutes. You cannot achieve this with Diffusal Blade.
By the way, I am not saying that getting a Radiance past 20 minutes is bad. In fact, in the average game you get it at about 25 minutes. Im just saying that if you get it any later, the game usually is out of hand and your chances of winning pretty slim. The only way of coming back at that point IMHO, is to still get the Radiance and rat your way to victory.

b) Also you questioned the Abyssal Blade. Abyssal Blade should be considered as your 6th slot item to finish the game. For finishing the game your illusions usually are not enough. So you have to come and fight. Abyssal Blade helps locking down the most important hero for a sufficient period of time. This item should be considered a game finisher, though is highly situational.

Refer to the average game item progression for the normal build. I just wanted to cover every viable item pickup in the situational section.

By the way: you are the "hard carry" with this paticular style.

c) The question regarding Ensnare is answered in the skill section. There are pros and cons for both builds. Paticularily, it's Meracles build and he always plays it like that. Check Lod[A]'s build though. It is situational.

d) Mirror image has to get maxed asap after Rip Tide since your illusions in fact get quite tanky after optaining Drums and are able to jungle the big camps while you are still in lane. Also Mirror Image at lvl 1 is useful to stack camps to farm them later. Going Mirror Image at lvl 10 is just way to late in my opinion.

e) I too think the Armlet is generally a viable option. But again, it is not the style I want to point out in this guide. Getting things like Armlet just fills up the much needed slots in your inventory, thus delaying your core and not paying off because you have to sell them again very soon.

tl;dr: You have to understand this as some kind of a "niche guide", which focuses on one paticular style and does not want to cover every viable options in terms of gameplay.
This is in my opinion the best way of playing her.

I agree so in order to make early illusions work, you need armlet.

i actually think that armlet is a good item on naga since she can turn it on, make illusions then turn it off to get that extra damage

First, do you realize that Naga Siren is barely played as a carry anymore in the competitive, except on one or two rare occasions, she's mainly used as a support for her Ensnare and Rip Tide.

Now, back to your first build, getting Mirror Image at level 4 is just useless, the images will be so puny and weak that they won't even be worth the mana. You already said so yourself that you shouldn't get Radiance after the 20 minute mark, so why forcefully try to obtain it? Why isn't Diffusal Blade good in your opinion? She's a AGI hero that can offer massive amount of DPS with Diffusal Blade since her images can help her.

I won't agree on getting Abyssal Blade as only the main Naga Siren can proc the real bash, making it partially useless on her. Normally, the hard carry will be the one carrying this around as majority hard carries have good DPS.

Also, why max Ensnare last? You already said that she have the longest anti-BkB skill and yet you max it last.



Actually, she exist as a support a lot times more than a carry.



You're writing a guide here for other people to read. You're suppose to explain why those items are good to you. Saying that makes people feel that you don't actually know much. No offense on here.

Even if you want to play split-pushing, I suggest getting only a point of Mirror Image when you get Radiance and not before that. Then, proceed to maxing your Rip Tide and Ensnare.