Hard Carry Naga Siren: An In-Depth Guide to the Most Solid Hero in the Game

After further playtesting and experience, I conceed the most of your points and will alter the guide soon. However, Linken's Sphere is core on more than just Morphling- Medusa and Weaver to name a few others.

Maybe this is just a major difference I see in the way sniper is played. Now, he is almost never picked up in professional games, so there is no concrete examples of items or playstyles that sniper would "normally" go.

But the reasons he isn't played in pros have been explained by the teams themselves. He is slow, squishy, item dependent, easily gankable, and provides very little to team fights. You could potentially, as you often see in low/mid level pubs when you see sniper, use him as lane harass as you suggest in your guide. The issue with that isn't a problem with Naga Siren and more a problem with sniper. Sniper needs protection, and of the two heroes, one of them is very often played a support ( Naga Siren) and one of them is exclusively a hard carry who needs: Lothar's Edge, Power Treads, Manta Style, and a combination of various situational damage/ survivability items before he can truly become effective.



Dignitas is my favorite team based on their extremely greedy playstyle. They love their 4 core lineup and I love the way they pull it off so often. That said, they don't get [[Vanguard]. Evil Geniuses and Team Liquid I have never seen get a vanguard either. I don't know much about fanatic.na, I usually see Fanatic.eu, but I am pretty sure they don't get Vanguard either.

Vanguard, at least at a higher tier of gaming (and by that I am talking strictly professional), is an item that, when picked up, the announcers stop and take a moment to talk about it because it is so rarely seen and they really just can't figure out why they have gotten it.

It's an item that has lost effectiveness, not because of a change in how the item itself works... but because the game mechanics have changed. Ganking and tower pushes became worth more, so hard farming for the third game and then winning with 1 hero doesn't work as often. Early aggression is more rewarded. So Vanguard, being the jack-of-all-trades defensive item, lost effectiveness. It is an item you have to farm in 10 minutes, and stops being good at the 30-40 minute mark, and is 2000 gold not spent on mid game damage.

I have honestly not seen vanguard in a long time, though I am a huge supporter of the item on most tanky carries whose damage is based on staying alive in the teamfight (so heroes like Bristleback/ Slardar). If you can give some examples of semi-recent games in which Vanguard has been picked up I would love to see those games and how they went. But not even Chinese teams get Vanguard on spectre anymore, and Anti-Mage hasn't gotten vanguard since TI2 basically. It is just, as I am explaining my wording, outdated.

Also, I don't like using dotabuff for information of that type. win rates is fine and how often a hero is played is similarly good and wholesome information, but win rates based on items is a pretty iffy way to go about it. 98% of heroes who get a Divine Rapier win their game. only about 20% of people who buy Smoke of Deceit win theirs. The deviation between the effectiveness of these items is pretty huge. Dotabuff records pub scores, so if the enemy team has a big expense item, they are very likely to win. Also the more often the item is purchased, the more chances it has of winning regardless of the effectiveness of the item



As above, I would love to see examples of this. I have not seen naga siren get linken's. I have seen many skip diffusal, but never have I seen her go straight linken's. Weaver I have seen rush linken's, but usually because a natural Hex/ Scythe of Vyse carrier on the enemy team exists and the single target disable block is more of less needed to stay alive




As of 6.78, the update that brought naga back into the meta by changing Riptide back to a flat 10 second cooldown, one of the updates was as follows:

" Level 11 XP requirements reduced from 6500 to 6000
* Level 12 XP requirements increased from 7700 to 8200"

This means that it costs 500 less experience to get to level 11, which allows more ultimate oriented heroes to get to their second level of ult more easily. It also costs 500 more experience to get to level 12. Overall, the total experience is the same, but the time between 11 and 12 is far longer.

First I want to say thank you for actually leaving a critical reply instead of saying "Oh looks great" or "Oh this is a piece of ****."
I'm going to look at each of your problems with this build as they appear in order to reduce confusion.

First, I believe I do say that you use song as an escape mechanism until later in the game. I'll double check and correct myself if I forgot to mention that, nut I don't believe I did.

Thanks for giving me more info about Dazzle, I don't know him very well. I'll be sure to add the Weave point.

You are probably right about Drow, I was most likely being too exited about her slow and silence that help you. I don't think she is a horrible lane partner though, because you leave very early in the game with this guide, so she can get her farm. I'll remove her. Sniper, Howeever, I disagree with you on. Yes, he is a carry and needs farm, but very early in the gameplay section and again when i talk about Sniper, I mention that you have to communicate that you will leave early and they will make up any farm lost from your presence. Sniper isn't item dependent early, has helpful abilities for your ganking, and gets more farm after you leave. You just have to tell him that you need at least 60 percent of the last hits early.

As far as the items go, I specifically mention that the Power Treads are better in almost every situation than the boots. The only reason they are listed next to them is because it is core that you upgrade your Tranquils into one or the other. Also, you mention that they should only be bought late. Your boot upgrade does come late in this guide, so I believe this to be a non issue. I might move those to Other Options though.
Many Asian teams rush a Linken's Sphere with Naga in most games, sometimes even skipping a Diffusal Blade. The reason the pro teams do this is because it solves many of her issues (Squishiness, Silence/Stuns, and Mana regen). This guide is meant to be a sort of best of both worlds thing, and has proven itself through rigorous testing. I should probably mention that in the intro though, so thank you. The point is, some teams do have Linken's as core for Naga, as does this build. It's required for it to work properly. Just because it isn't core in the "typical" American build, doesn't mean it can't be core in any build.
The Vanguard is not outdated. If you ever see an American player playing, he will always go for the Vanguard if he doesn't get a Heart of Tarrasque. Additionally, a Vanguard is the third most often built item on Naga Siren (in pub games) compared to the Poor Man's Shield's 17th. Also, the winrate on the Vanguard is 55.66%, compared to the Poor Man's Shield's 39.28%. Info from here http://dotabuff.com/heroes/naga-siren/items
I do have the Poor Man's listed for those who want to go that route, btw.
With the Blink Dagger, I do have it listed for the specific purpose of "If your team NEEDS someone to be a walking Ultimate intitiator." You only get it for that reason, so I don't see your point there. You have a good point about it being better for counterinitiation, though. I'll be sure to mention that.
You're completely right about the Dust/Sentry Wards. I don't know what I was thinking. Thanks for bringing that up.
As for the Skill Build, the early points in illusions are because you spend a LOT of time jungling in this guide. You need at least level two illusions to do that. You're probably right about the second level of net, though, that can be saved for later. I had it listed to help you escape ganks, but forgot that you are really fast. I do max out riptide first, so I'm not sure what your complaint there is, but taking out the net will allow me to max it faster, so thanks for that. I'll also probably move the final illusion level until after when you normally finish your first Diffusal Blade, as they aren't completely necessary. Doing so will allow me to move the second level of Song to level eleven. Lastly, it wasn't a tyupo, I wanted to finish my other skills first, but I'll be changing it because of the update you're talking about. I hadn't heard of that before now, so perhaps you could elaborate further on why it's now harder to get to level 12?

Once again I want to thank you for leaving a really critical response. It helped realize a lot of minor flaws in this guide that I hadn't seen before, Even if I don't agree with you on some of your points. Thanks.

Well, to start off, your skill build is horrible. Why the Mirror Images? They're ****ty at the early phases of game, you can get one point for defensive purposes, though. Maxing Rip Tide first is your main priority. As you know, at level 9, you'll need the net to tie down opponents while you and your allies beat them down. The extra armor reduction will help reduce the burden.

Vanguard? That thing is plain useless for Naga, getting a PMS would be way better while you rush Diffusal. Vanguard delays your diffusal too much to be effective. Never really consider Soul Ring on Naga, since Soul Ring is best effective in early game, it's pointless since Naga is naturally very squishy.

Unless your team has a Sand King or something that has a very awesome nuke but us hard to land, you normally won't need Dagger. Then again, other initiators like Tidehunter are way better than you.

Mm, about the combo. Both are generally used, except the Net => Mirror Image => Rip Tide is used when you can engage in close quarters with the possiblity on surrounding them, thus locking them in place. You need to adapt to the situation.

Wisdom Eye's has pretty much covered everything I was gonna say :). She is great as the initiator for team fight heavy ORGANISED teams thou - combine her with the likes of Disruptor, Enigma, Sand King etc and it can be very difficult to cope with without a serious number of BKBs.

The reason Naga Siren is mostly underplayed, and has a below average win rate on pubs (about 47%), is not because she is an illusion hero. That has never stopped Phantom Lancer. The ult, Song of the Siren however, is a huge risk in pubs. In most cases, without playing with reliable people, you can end up very quickly miscommunicating and overlapping other skills with song of the siren. It also needs to be built around in order to be most effective, using the song itself as a set up for other things.

In pubs, song of the siren is an escape mechanism almost exclusively until level 16, in which case you would use it to initiate for yourself and hope your teammates don't pop Freezing Field during it.

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Dazzle's Weave works through Naga Ult, which is a much better reason to use them in tandem. Quantic did this against Alliance and won that match, although they used an aggressive support Naga Siren

Sniper nor Drow Ranger are never good lane partners for any carry hero, and don't work well with Naga Siren's Song of the Siren

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Boots of Travel are not core on any hero but Tinker. The cost you get for the ability to travel to creep waves isn't worth it until you are very high level, Treads should be the only things you have until you are 6 slotted and need to travel places fast but don't have very many towers left to travel via TP scroll

Linken's Sphere, Similarly, is only core on Morphling. Otherwise, it is strictly situational.

Vanguard... kind of an outdated item. Doesn't really provide much. It seems like you just put that in there because Stout Shield was a starting item and you wanted to get Ring of Health. It doesn't benefit illusions and loses effectiveness 30 minutes in.

Blink Dagger is not an item that gives you much beyond the ability to land a "good" ult, but again the ult just locks people in place. Using it as counter initiation is usually a better idea.

Dust of Appearance is for chasing. Carry heroes get Dust of Appearance not Sentry Wards, which are very defensive/ aggressive warding items

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Why get multiple points in net and getting such early points into illusions? The net increases in mana by quite a bit for only 1 second increase in duration. 2 seconds is still massive for a level 1 spell, and often good enough, while allowing you to conserve a lot of mana. The illusions... don't do anything... at least not until you get stats (later in the game after leveling) or diffusal blade (after farming it)

Also, I noticed you forwent the second level of Song of the Siren to max Mirror Image before it (4th point at 11). I assume that is a typo? Especially after the change in the level up requirements making it easier to get to 11 and harder to get to 12, postponing anything until 12 is much riskier now.