Selemene's Annoying Princess - A Guide to Mirana

Introduction To Mirana

Currently, Mirana is functions well as an offlaner and a carry mainly due to the nature of her kit. She is able to provide utility even if she's behind (although this will boil down to her skill on being able to land her Sacred Arrow). While she is able to f****ion as a carry with some items, especially with her Aghanim's Scepter, since she can quickly clear lanes and creeps for farm, she is generally outclassed by other hard carry when both achieve full items. Therefore, it's generally unwise for Mirana to be the only carry in the game.

Mirana is most prominently known for her long-ranged ganks ( Sacred Arrow) and initiation ( Moonlight Shadow). This guide will explain the 3 roles she will normally be seen in (carry, offlaner, support) and provide an extra more fun-based build.

DISCLAIMER - I have played DotA since vanilla so I might accidentally use 'Starcall' instead of Starstorm and call her Priestess instead of Princess. Old habits die hard.

Pros:

• Global ult means you don't really need to be there to be useful.
• Sacred Arrow provides good damage and utility regardless of your farm.
• Forces enemy team to invest in Sentry Wards and Dust of Appearance
• Relatively versatile, can build almost anything and still be good.
• Good pusher due to your Starstorm and if you detect the enemy early, you can leap into the trees and TP away.

Cons:

• Very reliant on landing her Sacred Arrow. (Covered by practice)
• Farm-dependant if you go the carry route. (Covered by Aghanim's Scepter)
• Her Moonlight Shadow is quite easily countered as an escape. (Partally covered by Diffusal Blade
• Outclassed by most hard-carries even with full items. (Can't be helped, just don't 1v1 them)
• Mana-starved if not managed properly. ( Ring of Basilius is enough most of the time.)

Bounty Rune Always get it unless your hard carry is there to take it. More gold yada yada.

Rune of Regeneration Grab it only when you need it. In laning phase, always keep it since you might accidentally get caught out.

Rune of Haste Not really worth it since the closer you get the weaker your Sacred Arrow gets.

Rune of Illusion Grab it, especially later on. Since you generally build stats, illusions benefit off them.

Double Damage Rune Grab it, so you do more DPS, which is always good. Later on, the hard carry should carry it unless they're too far away.

Rune of Invisibility Only grab it when ganking other lanes so the wards can't detect you. Or to prevent enemies from taking it.

Arcane Rune Kind of meh. Does have its uses to wave clear. If your team don't have another spellcaster then grab it. If you're shoving a lane, then grab it.

Abilities

Starstorm

Calls down a wave of meteors to deal 75/150/225/300 damage nearby enemy units. The closest enemy unit to Mirana in a 425 radius will be struck a second time for 56.25/112.5/168.75/225 damage.

Very straight forward ability. You press it and there's AoE damage around you. The random target within the closer range will take an extra shot, so if you want to maximize damage on someone, hold off using it until they're in range of the second star. It's kind of **** for farming early on when the damage in meh. Once level 3 and 4, the damage will be good enough where you can one-hit the creeps after they take a shot of Starstorm.

Sacred Arrow

Fires a long-range arrow with deadly precision, which stuns and deal 50/140/230/320 damages the first enemy unit it strikes. The stun duration ranges from 0.01 to 5 seconds, with bonus damage up to 140 added, based on the distance the arrow travels to its target. Instantly kills the first non-ancient creep it hits.

Your bread-and-butter ability. You better learn to land this, and fast. Never attempt to shoot someone in melee range of you with this unless you only want the damage as it will merely be a mini-stun. The longest duration is a 5 second stun so the **** you can do with this is a lot. Obviously, this is hard to achieve due to the need of prediction and practice. Maxing this first or Starstorm will defer massively on how good you are on landing this and the lane you're playing in.

TIPS:
- Use the fog of war, it can allow you to snipe someone, especially if they're hugging the trees.
- You can use Diffusal Blade to slow them down if need to so you can land a good stun. You should Sacred Arrow -> Leap -> Diffusal Blade
- Use your allies to hide your Sacred Arrow. Mainly applies when chasing someone down, they'll normally run in a straight line so use your ally that's chasing behind them to get a quick stun on them.
- One problem I see many people do is that they tend to watch the arrow when it flies. Don't do this. Mirana will say something whether you hit a hero or not. Use it to know whether it hits or not so someone won't catch you off guard when you're looking.

When Arrow don't hit: 'Out of my way!', 'Who spoiled that shot?'. Quite simple to know which is which.

- Practice shooting up-hill / down-hill. The trajectory is slightly different if you're standing on a different terrain level as your target. Practice to get the right angle. (You can sometimes use this to your advantage as the enemy may not know the angle change, just don't rely on it as most higher level players know it)
- Provides a flying vision so you can use this to scout the trees if your enemy decided to hide there like a coward.
- Mostly when you play off-lanes, since you'll always be starved of exp and gold, you can always sent a Sacred Arrow to a camp, since it executes the creep upon hitting, this will grant you a somewhat good amount of gold and exp, especially early on. Just beware of your mana and make sure you can Leap away.
- Not so important tip: Who changed the fact that you can't shoot this through seige creeps anymore? Damn you.

Leap

Mirana leaps 600/700/800/900 units forward into battle, empowering allied units with a ferocious roar that grants 8/16/24/32 bonus attack and 4%/8%/12%/16% movement speed. Speed bonus lasts 10 seconds.

Your main escape or when you decide to commit to a target. While this does provide some extra buffs to nearby allies, don't use it for that if you're a glass-cannon as that's your only escape. If you're going for the Aghanim's Scepter build, this may be an option. Most of the times, save this for an escape. A Leap into trees to Town Portal Scroll out is most of the time of the better escapes. If you don't have a Town Portal Scroll to tp out, it's not advised to Leap into trees as you're basically boxing yourself in.

Moonlight Shadow

Turns Mirana and all allied heroes invisible for 15 seconds. If a hero is revealed, invisibility will restore after the fade delay as long as Moonlight Shadow's duration has not expired.

Another signature move for Mirana, grants invisibility to everyone on your team unless they attacked. If enemy has vision on any allies, they will see it being used so try to coordinate with them if you want to gank with it. It functions similar to Smoke of Deceit, except it is global. If you're escaping, Moonlight Shadow can always cover your escape unless you get dusted, which is when you want to Diffusal Blade yourself or Manta Style. This ability is strong in any phase of the teamfight, so you would always use it. Before teamfight allows you to get into optimum area of the enemy. During teamfight allows you to reposition if you get caught and manage to get away. After teamfifhgt to cover your escape if you're 'advancing in reverse'.

Talents

Level 10: +150 Health vs +8 Agility

Not much of a choice since Agility is always more superior since it gives armor, which raises your effective HP. Even if you're playing off-lane, the Agility will always be better since you can last hit somewhat better.

Level 15: +5% Spell Amplification vs +30 Attack Speed

Situational. If you have built Aghanim's Scepter, the +5% Spell Amplification is good. If not, the +30 Attack Speed will be better.

Level 20: +40 Damage vs +8 Armor

+40 Damage is always more superior, since you're going to be building a lot of Agility items, they will normally give a fair bit of armor so the 40 damage is better.

Level 25: +100 Leap Attack Speed vs +2 Multishot Sacred Arrow

The extra 100 bonus attack speed can boost your DPS. The reason why I don't think Sacred Arrow multishot is that good is because you're not likely to hit anybody with the other 2 unless they're really close to you. If that's the case, you're better off auto-attacking them.

How to Play? - Carry

You want to get Bottle as early as you can. But never, ever start with no items at all. Take the Bounty Rune that is not occupied by your hard carry. If too many enemies are at the other one, it's best to leave it unless u can get it and get away with it.

Skill Build Normally you will max Starstorm first, especially if you're going for Aghanim's Scepter since you want to maximize for farming potention. You'll most likely invest your level 1 skill point into Sacred Arrow to try for a level 1 gank on the enemy when they try to go for the Bounty Rune. Also get a Leap at level 3, or 2 if they have strong lane kill potential. Rush Ring of Basilius - A little bit of survivalbility for a cheap price. Mana is quite a bit of a problem for Mirana early on due to her obsencely high mana cost. This item will be able to deal with some of the problem early on while allowing her to survive better. Aghanim's Scepter - Choosing to get Aghanim's Scepter or not will impact how Mirana is built later on. Aghanim's Scepter allows you to quickly shove your lane and doubles as a nuke when you go close to the enemy. The main drawback it has is you actually need to be in close range to the enemy hero to use this as a nuke. This forces you to get more tankier stats so you wouldn't explode right after going in. Power Treads - Standard carry-based boots. AGI for more damage, INT for more mana, STR when running for health. Town Portal Scroll - Buy this or lose game. 'Nuff Said. If Yes Aghanim's Scepter... This is where Eye of Skadi comes in to give you some tank stats, allowing you some health while not forgoing too much damage. The slow is also good for kiting. Start Ultimate Orbs. If No Aghanim's Scepter... Get yourself a Desolator. The armor debuff it gives works really well since you're going for a glass-cannon build. If you're having trouble by getting harrass constantly due to your squishy nature, you can get an early Dragon Lance.

Situational Blink Dagger - Sacred Arrow -> Blink In -> Starstorm -> Leap out -> Profit Black King Bar - Get this if they have a lot of CC. No sense in dying for one more damage item and can't live to do the damage. Thank **** for backpack. If you're heading into a teamfight, hold this in your inventory instead of boots. Activate it then swap back your boots. Necronomicon - Backpack shinanigans again. Good for split-pushing and/or detecing invisible heroes. Luxuries Manta Style - Are you a hard-hitting agility hero? Of course you are. Buy this. The active allows you to purge some debuffs when you use it, but most of the time, you're gonna use it for the Mirror Image. Butterfly - Another go-to carry item to finish up. It provides good damage and an extra evasion in case you get focused. Active is good for running and chasing when evasion is redundant. Hurricane Pike - Used in the glass-cannon build. Extends your range so you can stay further away. If the melee carry comes for you, you can shove him away. The amount of melee heroes that can quickly resposition themselves in front of you will affect when you upgrade your Dragon Lance Bloodthorn - A bit of a niche item of Mirana, it's good to buy if you have already 5 items and have nothing better to buy on the glass-cannon build (which is rarely the case). It allows you more damage on a single-target but you're normally use it on the enemy carry, especially those with escapes Blink, so you and your team can burst them down faster. The only problem is Orchid Malevolence is generally kind of pointless on Mirana early on since there are better items. Daedalus - Another hard-hitting item. Gives you more damage on top of your already high damage. Get this for more damage but make sure you already have a decent amount of attack speed or it won't be worth that much.

This is a clickbait image and you have stared. Good.

How to Play? - Offlaner

Or, you know, the suicide lane, whatever. When you go to the suicide lane, your priority is not to farm, it's to survive. It also means you'll miss a **** load of cs. Get level 6 as soon as you can so your mid laner can have an easy time ganking the other lane to put them both ahead. If the situation permits, (they decided to back), you can go to the middle lane for a Sacred Arrow snipe. If it misses, you should just head back to lane. If it hits, you can try to go for a kill. During the start of the lane, try to creep block as much as possible so you can have a better time.

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Depending on the enemy team, if they have someone who can charge you to death, ( Spirit Breaker) and allow the enemy team to chain stun you at level 1, it is better to get Leap so you can run. After that, this is where you take a choice:
- If you're really good at landing arrows, you would max Sacred Arrow first so you can deliver ganks to middle lane or prevent yourself from dying.
- If you're meh at landing arrows, maxing Starfall will allow you to punish them if they get too close. Just be careful as there's a minor casting time in which you're vulnerable.

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You need as much survival as you can so you don't need to back. The Slippers of Agility allows you to at least get a minor damage boost so you can have an easier time last-hitting (if you ever go for it). If you're not confident, you can always get more health-based potions.

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Magic Wand will be your first item, especially if your lane enemies have spells to spam. Ring of Basilius is next, but remember to turn it off so your creeps won't push the lane in. Dragon Lance is meant to allow you to at least farm a bit since it improves your range. You can take last hits without the fearing of dying. Also, the stat boosts it provides is good for you.

Another thing you always need is to get an Observer Ward so you can watch the river so you won't fall into a gank you didn't expect. You're alone in the suicide lane, so if you were to get ganked, nobody can help you but yourself. Town Portal Scroll, remember when this cost 100 gold and it's good as fck? Now it's 50 gold and is way better. Buy the fcking thing.

How to Play? - The One-Shot build

This is a more of a for-fun build where you optimize the use of your Aghanim's Scepter. The basic combo of this goes like: Scared Arrow -> Leap - > Ethereal Blade -> Starstorm -> Dagon. Try to land your Ethereal Blade before you get in range of your Aghsnim's Scepter Starstorm to maximize your damage.

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Max Starstorm first so you can get maximum damage output when you get Aghanim's Scepter. Followed by Scared Arrow. Otherwise, you'll just level it up normally.

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Dagon

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The Manta Style and Butterfly are there mainly to boost your Ethereal Blade damage and can be substituted out for other items like Orchid Malevolence is needed.

Go ahead and burst any poor sod you manage to stun, unless it's a tank. You can't one-shot the tank so you need a better target.

Friends + Foes + Matchups

Friends

His Nightmare allows you to line up the perfect shot as it lasts pretty long. Try to abuse this by calling for ganks as often as possible so both you and the ganker and get extra farm.

Similar to Bane. Her Frostbite can really help you with your arrows. Your Moonlight Shadow can also hide her when she's using Freezing Field, so it's a bonus for her, too.

Similar to other friends, His Disruption can also help with Mirana's Scared Arrow but timing is crucial on this one.

Basically, anybody that can hold someone in place long enought for Sacred Arrow is pretty much a bonus for Mirana, making her a lot more consistent. Another friend that doesn't fit in this category is Omniknight as his Repel makes sure your Moonlight Shadow can't be blocked by debuffs.

Foes

Mainly any disruption based ability that erases the user from the map. If you decided to go mid as carry, prepare to deal with this ****. Any half decent player can easily use this to dodge, apart from Manta Style or Mirror Image which requires precise timing.

Phantom Lancer and all illusion based heroes - Phantom Lancer is the top of the **** list as he have his illusions up most time. Good luck trying to hit them with your Sacred Arrow. On the bright side, since illusions take more damage, you can use your Starstorm to scout out the original and beat the hell out of them.

Lol. **** you. His Doom have decent range and once cast on you, you can barely run away since your leap is silenced. Even Hurricane Pike can't save you. Your only option is to manfight him and not move alone so he can't get a free kill on you. If you see him coming and your team is not nearby, you should run as fast as you can.

Matchups

A standard mid, he is not much of a problem to you as you can hide behind waves to make sure he can't Meat Hook you. Even if he did, you can Leap] away. The problem is when he gets level 6, then you should not get hooked at all. Harass him if you can so he won't be able to [[Rot as often. You can't really kill him unless you get a gank so try to roam if needed. Also, you can mostly contest runes from him because of your Scared Arrow and Leap so you should do that if you can.

His Phase Shift has no casting time, making it ideal to dodge your Scared Arrow. If by some cosmic miracle, you manage to hit Puck with it, you can always try to go in for the kill. While unlikely to kill her because of her Ethereal Jaunt, you can at least sent her back to the fountain. Post-6 don't go too close as her combo can lock you in place since her Dream Coil can stun you.

Another standard mid, he is generally squishy early on. You can try to go in to kill him if you choose to. Just dodge his spells when he starts hurling them at you. Keep harassing him with your Auto-attacks whenever possible. If he chooses to Ghost Walk, them be sure to get a Sentry Ward. You can challenge him for runes as you have Leap. Also, he is relatively mana-starved early on.

Seldom appear but pay very good attention to him. Try to farm under tower if you can so he can't dive you. If he does dive you, Leap away as soon as you can. He wins in a 1v1 due to his Burning Spears and his ability to be a completely undying ****er if you let him get a thinnest bit of farm. Against him, just don't die.

Similar to Puck, can be a completely pain in the *** to deal with. If you're against her, just focus on farming up as she can just Blink away even if you land a stun on her. Just be mindful of her level 6 as her burst is quite insane for you when you're squishy.

You generally dominate the squishier mid-laners who don't have escape as your Scared Arrow + Starstorm does a fair bit of damage. Against those who can escape, just focus on farming and roam, if you can to get a kill or two.

Outro + Credits + Changelog

This conclude my Mirana guide. Also, it has been a while since I written a guide, so I'm pretty sure I gotten rusty somewhere. Any comments, suggestions and questions are appreciated.

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Credits to:
- Images I used belonged to their respective owners.
- Dr. Dre + Nubtrain + Jhoijhoi - Guide writing.
- Imgur, because Photobucket and Imageshack betrayed me.

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Changelong:
30 October 2016 - Draft started.
13 November 2016 - Guide published.