90% Winrate Core Naga (updated 7.07c)

Introduction

Naga Siren is a hero not many know how to play or counter, which makes her an incredible pick to climb MMR or guarantee a win late game. Additionally, the hero can transition from support to carry very easily, so she is a desirable pick. She works best with a team that can hold off for about 25 minutes 4v5, and then after that she takes over the game and is very, very hard to beat if you don't make mistakes. This is a very good hero if you want to be independent the majority of the time and are tired of bad teammates.

Skills

Mirror Image (Q)

Create 3 illusions. These can be separately controlled and when your hero casts Rip Tide (E), each illusion casts Rip Tide. Note that an enemy will only be hit once by each cast of Rip Tide -- if 3 illusions are in range of the same hero, casting Rip Tide will not hit the hero with 3 instances of Rip Tide. You can also use this to dispel and disjoint projectiles, as there is a 0.3 second invulnerability time during cast. This, along with Manta Style's disjoint, makes you pretty good at disjointing and dispelling.

Ensnare (W)

Throws a long-range net that roots the target, preventing movement, blinking, and invisibility, as well as interrupts channeling. With the 7.00 changes, it now stops a lot of escape mechanisms, such as Ball Lightning, Blink, Activate Remnant, etc. It pierces BKB, but will be removed if BKB is cast after being netted. The range on net is HUGE and can also net couriers, so use this to get free courier picks. This is very good for netting somebody from a long range and walking up to them and surrounding them with illusions. Note: if Naga casts Ensnare on a unit, all nearby illusions will stop what they're doing and do the cast net animation.

Rip Tide (E)

This is the spell you use to farm, harass, get kills, etc. This is your only damage spell. It deals a pretty good amount of damage and lowers the targets armor. Naga's illusions mostly deal physical damage (besides Radiance) so this synergizes very well with the hero. Read the section on Conjure Image (Q) to learn about how Rip Tide interacts with it.

Song of the Siren (R)

This is your ultimate, and can lose or win a fight depending on the timing of us. Early game, this is generally used to escape when you're caught out farming in unsafe territory, ganked, or otherwise about to die. It makes all enemy towers/creeps/heroes in your area invulnerable and unable to move for the duration. You can cast Song again to interrupt it prematurely, or it will end if you move out of range. Because of this, you should ALWAYS be carrying a Town Portal Scroll. Always safe at least 175 mana if you feel uncomfortable (100 for song cast, 75 for teleporting). Later in the game, when you're teamfighting, if the enemy carry activates his BKB, use song of the siren to isolate them and have your team focus. Song of the Siren does not penetrate BKB, so all units will be put to sleep except the BKB carrier, making it essentially a 1v5 for the duration. Note that this spell has a 0.8 second cast time, which is an eternity if you're trying to spam click it while being stunned/silenced. So try to use it well in advance if they have methods to prevent you from casting it.

Talents

Level 10 talent:

+10% Mirror Image Damage or +25 Movement Speed. The extra mirror image damage is almost always the play here, as that is your primary farming tool and getting it at this level can really accelerate your farm speed. Naga Siren already has fast movespeed and builds into an early Boots of Travel and eventually a Manta Style, so the move speed starts to experience diminishing returns, while the percentage-based damage scales with farm and levels.

Level 15 talent:

+15 Agility or +14 Strength. This talent is a bit more of a competition, as the extra agility is applied to all illusions, thus increasing the farming speed significantly as well. However, if the enemy team has poor wave clear, the strength talent is ideal to just sent waves of illusions at towers/waves and take towers by attrition. The core Naga build is naturally tanky, however, so the strength talent should be taken with great consideration.

Level 20 talent:

+1 Mirror Image Illusion or -5 Ensnare Cooldown. The decision here is quite simple on what the enemy team has. If there is an enemy on the other team that will cause issues, such as Anti-Mage, Ember Spirit, Storm Spirit, Weaver, or any other slippery hero, the ensnare cooldown is the play. Otherwise, the extra illusion is clearly better for pushing, splitting, farming, and damage.

Level 25 talent:

-6 Rip Tide Armor or +30% Evasion. At level 25, Naga's (as well as most other carries) primarily deal physical damage, so the Rip Tide armor reduction scales greatly here. The evasion talent isn't always the best call here, as enemies may already be going Monkey King Bar/ Solar Crest/ Bloodthorn that will render the evasion less worth it. However, if your issue is defending against heavy right clickers, this will usually be the best option, especially since Monkey King Bar no longer grants 100% uptime true strike.

Items

Naga's Bread and Butter is obviously radiance. With this she can farm up to 800 GPM even on mediocre laning games. Her item build is generally straightforward, but early game builds can differ, and you have a good bit of freedom in her last 2 items.

Midlane

Naga's best matchup is mid. She can harass and last hit with riptide and sustain it all with bottle and runes. Even against popular mids, Naga is very effective, as she can send illusions straight at them to cast riptide while she herself safely gets last hits. Additionally, any hero will find it challenging to sit in lane while soaking up inevitable riptide casts. The enemy midlaner cannot run from this, as you can use 3 illusions with 365 movement speed to chase them anywhere and cast riptide. Feel free to level net as much as you want, but the idea is to have your illusions maxed by the time you get radiance.

Safelane

Naga has 6 armor at level 1, and combined with the Ring of Protection, she takes very little damage from right clicks. Auto attacks from supports can almost be ignored. If the lane is really rough, you may need to use your illusions to get last hits or farm the jungle, which is why I choose to max this ability much earlier.

In a more contested lane, it is ideal to put more points into Mirror Images and use them to farm safely. If the lane is more difficult and zoning out the enemy will be difficult, putting points into riptide will only increase the mana cost without being able to effectively scare the enemy away.

The choice of Arcane Boots here is due to the fact you don't get a bottle in lane (as it's nowhere near as effective). This may seem like it will delay your radiance but you can farm much faster with the extra mana by using your illusions and riptide to farm. Additionally, this disassembles into Boots of Travel and Octarine Core later, two core items on Naga.

Constant Items

After Radiance, the item build is pretty much the same. If you were in lane, disassemble your arcane boots once you get the Boots of Travel recipe. Yasha increases your farming speed, and also makes you and your illusions extremely fast. This movement speed helps for farming, escaping, and catching/netting people. Since this will be around minute 27 you acquire it, it will also contribute to your teamfight potential since enemies might be trying to push.

Octarine Core is extremely important on Naga. It reduces cooldown of illusions to 30 seconds, and the duration is 30 as well. This means you have 100% uptime on your illusion, boots of travel cooldown of about 30, and song of the siren cooldown of 60. This makes it okay to liberally use song of the siren without fear of wasting it. Additionally, the illusions (and the real Naga) heal off the radiance burn and riptide, making them harder to kill. The tankiness and mana pool also goes a long way. It is preferred to get this after Yasha, as it'll give you sustain and health in order to survive. Without it, Naga is squishy and every minute she spends without health is a huge risk.

Manta Style is great for dispels, and for even more splitpushing with 2 more illusions. However, I find that the manta is so much more useful after the octarine core, so just go with a yasha until the octarine is completed.

Eye of Skadi is just your basic illusion hero item. Provides stats, as well as tankiness and mana. Core.

If you want to just send your illusions into the towers/barracks and the enemy has no way of stopping them, get a Heart of Tarrasque. This gives your illusions about 4000 health, and with a 17% miss rate and 5/6 of them (3/4 from Conjure Image and 2 from Manta) the enemy has to deal out 12,000 damage just to get rid of them. Every 30 seconds. This will allow you to just be a huge annoyance.

Diffusal Blade is a very, very good fighting item, as you will have 5 illusions with decent attack speed all getting the full mana burn from feedback (and the bonus agility). Buy this if you really want to fight.

Butterfly isn't as great of a choice anymore, as enemies will have long started (and completed) a Monkey King Bar, as the patch giving Radiance burn a miss aura has forced them to do. It is still viable, however, and makes your illusions even tankier to their supports and semi-carries.

Monkey King Bar is really only good if there is evasion on the other team. Otherwise, it's not ideal on Naga, as illusions don't get +damage benefits and can't active the pure damage proc. Additionally, it provides no base stats.

Black King Bar should be avoided as it reveals the real Naga, but if absolutely necessary, get it.

Gameplay/Micro

Midlane

Try to get a very fast bottle. Let your team know you won't be rotating to gank much, unless you get a favorable rune like a DD or a haste. This is because you are very weak early, and ganking to help other lanes doesn't make much sense when you're the #1 farm priority in the game (which you are, because once Naga gets Radiance and Boots of Travel, she soaks up the farm from the entire game). Use your illusions to zone out the enemy midlaner and harass, and if they get low enough, ensnare/riptide and give them a few right clicks. You can win lanes even against popular mids like Shadow Fiend, Lina, Queen of Pain, etc. Remember at this point in the game you are very, very fragile, so watch the minimap for ganks, request wards at the rune spots, and always have a TP scroll and be ready to song and TP out. Other than that, farm wherever you can.

Safelane

Get as much farm as you can without feeding. You don't need to be always around the creep wave if you're having trouble, as Naga is a good remote farmer with illusions and riptide. A few early deaths will push back your radiance to dangerous timings.

Microing once you get radiance

Get used to hotkeys. If you have a gaming mouse or special buttons, set one button to select hero, another button to select all units EXCEPT your hero, then another button to select all units. This will allow you to quickly control whether you want to select just yourself, just your illusions, or everybody. To farm, use the TAB trick. When you press Q to summon your illusions, press TAB and A-click on one jungle camp/one lane. (You might need to shift-queue an M-click along with that, so your illusions don't stop to attack something irrelevant along the way. An example sequence would be Q-TAB-Shift-M-Click-A-Click. This will make your illusions walk to a spot, then attack everything until that point). Press TAB and select another. With a bit of practice you can have all your illusions going different ways in around a second of controlling. Additionally, if you want to send your illusions down the lane and aggro the creeps so that they follow it, this is an excellent way to push towers even early game. Eventually your illusions will be strong enough to farm entire jungle camps just by sitting there, but early game you will need to use Riptide. The general rule of thumb is if you can push a lane out with an illusion, do it. Jungle is last priority. Learning this micro will catapult your farm and GPM, as well as becoming a hassle to your enemies.

When it's safe, use boots of travel to go to a creep wave on the other side of the map, use your Q, and send illusions down the lane and into the jungle.

Late Game

You should be 6-7-slotted very fast. Decide if you're behind and need to build for fighting (diffusal blade/butterfly) or if you're ahead and want to build for ratting, go for that Heart of Tarrasque. Now you want to use your Song of the Siren to disengage bad team fights, or initiate good ones if you have a big teamfight ultimate. Remember if a priority target uses Black King Bar, using Song will isolate that target for the duration of the BKB.

The "Do I show up to fight?" flowchart

Oftentimes, teammates will have no idea how Naga Siren plays. They will take full-on engagements at 15 minutes, lose, then ping the Naga for not participating. Usually some flaming will be delivered with it. Unless your early game is significantly better than the enemies', you will not win Naga games by taking early engagements. This may pressure newer Naga players into trying to fight early to satisfy their teammates, losing anyway, then being really far behind on gold. Here is a method to determine when it is time to fight.

Is the enemy threatening high ground (tier 3 or barracks)?

Yes - Fight, no matter what.
No - Proceed to the next step.

Do I have Song of the Siren available?

No - Do not fight.
Yes - Proceed to the next step.

Do I have Radiance + Yasha yet?

No - Do not show up to the fight, at all. Do not even TP to the nearby tower (unless you have song available and think it will help your team bail out. Doing so will interrupt your farm and put the enemy even further ahead, with a low chance of actually winning the fight.
Yes - Enter the fight, but be cautious. Fight mostly with illusions, don't overcommit to a target until it is ensnared and you have teammates around.