Mirana in 6.88 - Best Aghanim's in the Game

Welcome!

Hi, this is my second guide for Mirana, focusing on dealing magic damage and the new Aghanim's Scepter. Mirana is my best hero and the one I know the most about, as such you trust this guide to give you the best advice on how to play this hero, which is very strong in the current meta.

Best item in the game? Most OP thing in post 6.87 Dota?

WELCOME COMRADES! I produced a glorious Mirana guide before the revolutionary 6.87 patch (and before I got good at any other hero, but we'll skip over that) which was at a time before Valve added probably the most broken item in the game - Aghanim's Scepter on Mirana.

When this upgrade first came out I thought, well that looks disgusting, and I was right. PICK MIRANA NOW BEFORE IT GETS NERFED. Starstorm passively activating every 8 seconds with no mana cost? Wow.

As such the way you should play Mirana has seen a big shake up. I always used to like doing Mirana mid and go for DPS items, like I did in my other guide, go check it out and +1 it? Maybe? Ok... never mind. But yeah, if you weren't doing DPS you'd roam which was the generally accepted thing to do and buy whatever item you needed to help the team out, auras, utility items, whatever, position 4 Mirana. But then they added this Aghs and now you'd be wasting her potential as an insane nuker if you didn't build it. Even if you think you'll go DPS items later on, or might do, or are even definitely going to, get an Aghs first anyway. Both the farming and fighting potential from this upgrade are amazing.

Laning

With this build you can mid, you can safelane (if you have another hero on your team to deal physical damage) or offline if you feel like it. It really doesn't matter. I tend to go mid where I usually win the lane and get the fastest aghs timing. Item wise I get:

1st

- Wraith Band, Faerie Fire, a couple of shared Tangos if possible and an Iron Branch

2nd

- Bottle rush and Boots of Speed

3rd

- Magic Wand and Ring of Aquila

I generally stay in lane and try to win it or push the tower for a bit, ganking if you get a good opportunity and a nice rune. I tend to stay in lane until roughly the time at which I have a Point Booster, then I start to properly rotate and join in all fights if possible. As soon as you finish the starting items rush Aghanim's Scepter, don't bother upgrading your Boots just yet.

Mirana has always been my best hero and I think is quite strong this meta and an excellent mid hero. I usually win my lane, taking the tower in good time and rotating and killing straight after. In my most recent Mirana mid games I usually get up to a mega kill streak straight away and if I play right usually end up going godlike very early on.

Skill build

Starstorm

-will be your main source of damage throughout the game, so of course, we will max this as early as possible. It works by dropping a star for 300 damage on every enemy unit in a 650 radius and hits the closest unit, provided it's in a 425 radius, for another 225 damage, so a potential 525 nuke if you hit it right. It's been continually buffed for a few patches to make the second stratal easier to land. With the new Aghanim's Scepter you can do 1050 nuke damage to an enemy hero in a quick burst, not including damage from a well landed arrow. With this combo you should be able to kill basically anyone with a teammate for about the first 25 minutes, and most enemy heroes on your own if you have a nice early game. We skill it at levels 2,3,5,7.

Sacred Arrow

-is Mirana's iconic second spell. It helps if your team has slows and other simple stuns to help, but you should be fine without. It's probably not a very good idea if this is your team's only stun, so try not to let that happen. There's not really much of a need to put any more points in it early on besides to the one we put in at level 1. I tend to put another in at 6 and max it after getting Leap to level 4.

Leap

-is your way of getting in and out of sticky situations. You can disjoint things with it, I think, but for some ******** reason you can't Leap out of Slark's Pounce, don't ask me why... Skill it at level 4, then at 8, 9 and 10 I think. I find it's better to max this before Sacred Arrow - it's good to increase it's distance and decrease it's cooldown nice and early.

Moonlight Shadow

-is a BRILLIANT spell. You can do so much with it. Use it during teamfights if you think some one on your team might want to slip out of the way for a short while, use it to save teammates from ganks - keep your eyes on the map, use it more initiation, and use it for general escape if you know they don't have detection. Feel free to use it as you like, but try not to waste it. Skill it at the standard 6, 11 and 16, but I often delay the first point in it until I start to feel the need for it.

Item Build

After you have your Ring of Aguila, Magic Wand, Bottleand Boots of Speed you want to rush:

Aghanim's Scepter

- Mirana in 6.88 Dota is all about Aghs. You CAN play without it, but it really is just so so strong. Get in as soon as you possibly can, and once you have, your farm will accelerate massively. Let the aghs proc and use Starstorm once to take out a whole creep wave. Aghanim's Scepter massively increases Mirana's teamfight presence, the automatic Starstorm every 8 seconds means you will be doing a LOT of damage. I think that Mirana's Aghanim's Scepter is the strongest Aghanim's Scepter is the best in the game, my other favourite Aghs are Lion's, Tidehunter's and Sand King's. With this new item I recommend a magic damage focused build, although often I find myself going into a DPS agility right click focused build. After Aghanim's Scepter go:

Boots of Travel

- Boots of Travel should be the immediate follow on from your Aghanim's Scepter. The 2000 gold needed for the recipe should be easy to farm once you complete your Aghs. You get this because it helps you farm a lot faster, means you can quickly get into fights and turn things around with your insane burst damage, and, importantly, makes you a very, very effective split pusher.

Linken's Sphere

-Grab an Ultimate Orb after you get your Boots of Travel. The stats boost is very welcome and should put your hp up to about 1700 by this point. At this point you will decide how you want to itemise. Generally you will go for a Linken's Sphere, it will give you some nice regen and protect you from important targeted spells, and makes split pushing a lot safer. If, however, you are not confident in your carry's ability to output physical damage, then I recommend that instead you build Eye of Skadi and then get a Monkey King Bar.

Ethereal Blade

-With this build you are focusing on doing a large amount of magical damage and finishing enemies off with some right clicks, so naturally you should get an Ethereal Blade to keep on blowing up enemies later into the game. It also gives you a large amount of agility, and you will start to notice that you also hit quite hard with your right clicks. What you can do if you like is put the Eaglesong into a Butterfly instead and turn into a right clicker at this point in the game if you haven't already.

Dagon

-Finish off your items with a Dagon. Classic combo with Ethereal Blade. Simples. After Dagon get whatever you need to for the sake of the team. Feel free to get an Octarine Core if your team has no pressure to get any item, bet get an Orchid Malevolence or a Scythe of Vyse if you need to.

Finishing Thoughts

So yeah, I think I've said everything I had to so. Lemme know if you have anything you'd like to add, or anything you don't agree with. So yeah, thanks for talking a look!