A matriarch and high priestess of Elune's blessed order, Mirana Nightshade serves as a light in darkness for the front line of the Sentinel ranks, raining arrows and falling stars alike upon the shambling undead masses of the Undead Scourge, while her very presence is said to be so holy that it melts away the fatigue of nearby allies, giving them greater haste on the battlefield. In times of need however, she can fade herself and others around her into the safety of invisibility, making her a potent supporter matched by few.Mirana Nightshade
Mirana is among few other heroes a character who needs practice and timing before she can be mastered thus making her harder to play than most other heroes but it's also makes available to spend much more time and games on to learn. Given the fact that she needs a lot of practice to control properly it also makes it much more fun to play her, especially when you reach the level where your enemy roars in despair and accuses you for having maphack and aimbot.
Pros
- Dominant throughout the entire game.
- High nukes and excellent lane and ganking capabilities.
- Has an escape mechanism that also gives you a good buff.
- Has a global spell that often turns out to be really effective and helpful.
Cons
- Has low health.
- Takes much practice to master intentionally.
Strength - 17 + 1,85
Agility - 20 + 2,75
Intelligence - 17 + 1,65
Attack range of 600.
Movement speed of 300.
Level 1 information:
- Health: 473
- Mana: 221
- Damage: 38-49
- Armor: 1,8
- Attack Speed: 1,42 sec.
Level 25 information (without any worn items):
- Health: 1689
- Mana: 988
- Damage: 104-115 +20
- Armor: 11,2 +2,8
- Attack Speed: 0,83 sec.
Abilities
Starfall
Calls down a wave of meteors to damage each nearby enemy. If enemy is farther than 600 range, it has a 60% chance to still hit him. One random enemy unit within 200 aoe will get hit again for half the damage.
Level 1 - 75 damage per wave.
Level 2 - 150 damage per wave.
Level 3 - 225 damage per wave.
Level 4 - 300 damage per wave.
Cooldown: 12 seconds.
Mana cost: 100/120/140/160.
Comment: An excellent damage tool as well as farming and pushing ability. This spell will mostly not be used to farm in the beginning, but later it's doing a great deal capping you a lot of creep kills and it also pushes really good. Throughout the game, but especially early on, Starfall is a great damage device. If you can get up on a lone hero (e.g. in the forest), hitting one twice with this is imbalanced.
Useful information: The random enemy unit within 200 aoe includes corpses, so if you cast it around a lot of dead people, hoping that Starfall will hit someone a second time can be rather naive.
Elune's Arrow
Fires an arrow to a location with deadly precision, dealing large damage and stunning the first unit it strikes. Stun duration increases based on how far the target is, ranging from 0.5 to 5 seconds.
Level 1 - Deals 90 damage.
Level 2 - Deals 180 damage.
Level 3 - Deals 270 damage.
Level 4 - Deals 360 damage.
Cooldown: 25 seconds.
Mana cost: 100.
Comment: This skill is where it gets complicated to play Mirana. Basically you click on the ground and an arrow launches, just like throwing a shockwave. The arrow flies for a great distance and stuns and damages the first target it collides with. This mean you might hit a wrong target or not hit anything at all. This is definatly not like throwing a Storm Bolt. On the other hand, it has a great damage and a crazy stun. If you hit someone on almost max distance, they will be stunned for 5 seconds from one single nuke. This skill, when mastered, is absolutely crazy and it's your main gate to all your kills, ganks and kills setups. Without mastering Elune's Arrow, Mirana is not a very fun nor good hero to play.
Useful information: The arrow flies 2600 range which is more than enough to hit distant targets. The stun duration is, as described, 0,5-5 seconds. The duration increases with 0,5 second by each 150 range the arrow travels and at a 1500 range (just about 60% of the full distance) it stuns for the maximum 5 seconds. This means that you don't have to hit your target from a maximum distance in order to stun it the longest. A mediocre arrow shot can also reach its full duration. It's not easy to use and sometimes it might seem even easier to hit a target farther away than a hitting target being very close.
Leap
Mirana's wild Frostsaber leaps forward into battle, empowering allies with a ferocious roar upon landing. Movement and Attack Speed bonus lasts 10 seconds.
Level 1 - 400 range. 4% speed increase.
Level 2 - 450 range. 8% speed increase.
Level 3 - 500 range. 12% speed increase.
Level 4 - 550 range. 16% speed increase.
Cooldown: 40/35/30/20 seconds.
Mana cost: 40/35/30/20.
Comment: Leap - Mirana's very reliable escape mechanism. Besides of it working just like a blink (with a slightly shorter range and a little longer cooldown) it gives you an excellent movement and attack speed buff. Not only to yourself but also your teammates around you. This means it can be used as an excellent escape device, it can be used for chasing and for buffing up your opponents in i.e. a team combat.
Useful information: The Leap is an activated-when-clicked ability, which it has no target. When you click it, Mirana leaps forward in her current facing angle. So if you want to leap somewhere, try to face that angle and then leap. Misleaping is common but can be quite dangerous.
Moonlight Shadow (Ultimate)
Turns Nightshade and all allied heroes invisible. If Invisiblity is broken, it gets restored after the fade time during the shadow duration.
Level 1 - Lasts 7 seconds. 2.5 second fade time.
Level 2 - Lasts 9 seconds. 2 second fade time.
Level 3 - Lasts 11 seconds. 1.5 second fade time.
Cooldown: 160 seconds.
Mana cost: 200/250/300.
Comment: A global invisibility for you and your allies. It's maybe not the strongest invisibility due to its duration and fade time (the time before you turn completely invisible), but it can be quite handy in many different situations. Set-ups, initiations, ganks, positioning, scouting and whatsoever. Most common is using it to escape though or avoiding getting initiated by strong aoe stun enemies (Tidehunter, Magnataur, Puck, Axe etc.).
Useful information: If it didn't appear clearly enough from the description, an hero will turn invisible again should he break it, if the duration of Moonlight Shadow is still active. The fade time is also important to remember because the enemies will still see you for 2.5/2/1.5 seconds after you've used the ability and/or have broken it. It's not an instant invisibility like Wind Walk or Vendetta for instance.
Skill order
Level 1 - Elune's Arrow/Leap
Level 2 - Elune's Arrow/Leap
Level 3 - Starfall
Level 4 - Starfall
Level 5 - Starfall
Level 6 - Elune's Arrow
Level 7 - Starfall
Level 8 - Elune's Arrow
Level 9 - Elune's Arrow
Level 10 - Leap
Level 11 - Moonlight Shadow
Level 12 - Moonlight Shadow
Level 13 - Leap
Level 14 - Leap
Level 15-24 - Stats
Level 25 - Moonlight Shadow
Skills explanation
Whether you're going to take Elune's Arrow or Leap at your first level depends on if you're going to shoot the arrow straight away, e.g. for a First Blood attempt. If not, take Leap because of the early game escape mechanism to dodge hostile First Blood attempts yourself. Elune's Arrow and Starfall are your main killing devices throughout most of the game thus skilling them is very important. Starfall will be taken over Elune's Arrow because the arrow's stun is the same at all levels. The 15-60 damage difference between the two abilities is not something extremely important and Starfall is much more reliable. Leaping in and using Starfall will in most cases guarantee a much higher damage output than missing your arrow and not getting to Starfall your target(s) at all. Atlast, Starfall is an aoe ability so it will help you more against a double lane or even a triple lane.. Leap is taken at level two though because its use is far away from negligible. Moonlight is skilled at level 11 and 12 where you have a level two Leap which makes it better than level 1 ( ). The reason why you want it to be atleast at level two is because level one is fine but it's not strong enough in the long run. However, Moonlight Shadow can be neat on some few occassions and you never know when you really have to use it. Having it as a backup (or for other purposes) ability is good. However, the last level is not really needed compared to Stats. The spell's duration is not very long and you're not supposed to use it and run around invisible for years like the Wind Walk ability, so extending its duration as well as its mana cost is not as smart as levelling Stats for more survivability which Mirana lacks a bit.
Item Build
The starting items
These are the items you ought to buy from start as soon as you've chosen your hero. The 3 x Slippers of Agility are for the last hit damage which will hopefully help you last hit better against nifty lane heroes (Nevermore, Viper and Warlock for example). As for the Ancient Tangoes of Essifations and the Clarity Potion you ought to buy 2-4 (depending on the mode) and 1 respectively.
The cookie cutter
Core item build
The Boots of Speed should be self-explanatory. The Bottle is excellent for controlling the rune spots giving you neat advantages during the early/middle game with haste, double damage and etc. The Slippers of Agility from the core starting items should be kept for as long as possible, but only as long as they don't take up important item slots too. For example, keeping a Scroll of Town Portal with you at all time is much more important than +3 damage. Also a Mithril Hammer is much more worth than one Slipper of Agility. Anyway, eventually you ought to upgrade them to Wraith Bands if you feel your health is too low, i.e. if you're against a lot of nukers. I mostly choose not to upgrade them but that's just because I'm so darn good . Anyway, it's pretty much up to your own judgement. If you're doing well with just the Slippers, there's no need spending extra money on upgrading them. Else go ahead and buy the extra health/damage.
Items afterwards
Boots of Travel are bought to give you better movement speed, higher ganking and capability and most importantly excellent map domination for both farming, escaping and ganking. Mjollnir gives you excellent damage and it lets you clear large creep waves within seconds. It's a huge damage boost and a great farming device. Eye of Skadi gives you an extremely helpful slow effect allowing you to chase nearly every hero. The frost arrows and chain lightning stacks on Mirana so you can easily get both items without one orb effect cancelling the other. Furthermore Eye of Skadi gives you a much needed survivability boost (a lot of health and some nice stats) as well as some damage. Finally, Butterfly is of course bought for its damage and increased attack speed, but the evasion buff is certainly not negligible either.
+
- Great map control.
- Huge damage.
- Excellent survivability.
- Good chasing capability.
-
- Very expensive build.
- Huge tier 4 items with few but expensive pieces.
The fast and furious
The reason this build is called "the fast and furious" is because it's fast and furious. It's still meant to be for a carry Mirana, however, this often takes less focused farming. You will mostly be able to buy your items faster instead of farming 30 minutes for a single item thus making you able to gain more damage quicker. It's very offensive though because it's weaker in terms of effective hit points which means you will be more of a glass canon when you fight. You are able to deal a high amount of damage but you shatter from taking a mediocre amount yourself.
Core item build
Unlike the cookie cutter, the fast and furious' build uses Power Treads (preferably with strength) and Wraith Bands instead of Slippers of Agility. This build also aims at high late game items that require much farm, though the pieces are lighter, fewer and more "accessible", but the change of items means you'll have less attack speed and less health thus making both Power Treads and Wraith Bands obligatory. During the build, one of the three Slippers of Agility can be sold to make space for more important items.
Items afterwards
The Stygian Desolator and Butterfly mix is becoming more populare nowadays. The orb effect from Stygian is great, the damage is high and Butterfly adds a lot of the missing attack speed as well as extra damage. Finally, the Buriza-do Kyanon is bought to make you a true late game dps with high damage and raping critical strikes.
+
- A cheap and simple build.
- Most of the piees are light and easy to farm and gives you fine stats in return.
- Gives you a very high damage output which is a mix of attack speed, armor penalty and critical strikes.
- Gives a good fallback opportunity with the cheap man's build.
-
- Mediocre map control.
- Mediocre farming capability.
- Weak survivability and health.
Cheap man's build
Whether you like it or not, it's almost certain that it will happen from time to time. Things don't go as you want them to. You're being outplayed, underleveled and ganked. You're farming poorly and you can't gank your enemies. The cheap man's build is a good semi fall-back build for when you fail and realize that you won't have time to farm the bigger items. This build reminds much of the fast and furious but it slightly different, yet it gives you a good chance to bring you back into the game and once again shred your enemies to pieces.
Core item build
The core build looks exactly the same as the fast and furious' but the justification is different. Power Treads are bought because they're cheap and gives you some neat, cheap health. The Slippers of Agility are also upgraded to Wraith Bands, also for the reason that it gives you some cheap damage and some more hit points which will help you survive longer. However, one of the three ought to be sold among the way to make space for new and better items.
Items afterwards
Stygian Desolator is a sweet item with high damage and a strong orb effect. As a bonus, the pieces are simple and easy to farm. It drags you back in the game as a good damage dealer and lets you dish out much damage. However, the downside is that it makes you a glass canon. You're able to blast your enemies but you will shatter from taking only few hits. This is why we recover the missing survivability by the Power Treads and Wraith Bands. Finally, if you're able to, farm a Heart of Tarrasque. It's not as good as Eye of Skadi but it's cheaper and gives you just about the same survivability which you will probably be needing if it's necessary going through the cheap man's build.
+
- A cheap and simple build.
- Most of the piees are light and easy to farm and gives you fine stats in return.
- Allows you to regain your lost strength in a game where everything seemed to go wrong.
- Gives a good opportunity for a come back into the fast and furious carry course.
-
- Mediocre map control.
- Mediocre farming capability.
- Not a complete late game damage dealer.
Optional items
I don't have space to buy Mithril Hammers or whatsoever because of the Slippers of Agility/Wraith Bands. What do I do?
Sell them. Let's say you're following the fast and furious path. Start with building the core items (Power Treads, Bottle, 3 Wraith Bands and Scrolls of Town Portal). You then have a strong foundation for your upcoming game. Then, eventually, when you have the money, sell one Wraith Bands and replace it with a Mithril Hammer. When you've got the money for another Mithril Hammer you can sell another Wraith Band and replace it by this 2nd hammer. Yes, you will lose some money in upgrading and then selling the Wraith Bands, however, to reach a good late game you need a good middle game. To reach a good middle game you need a good early game. If you keep getting killed because you can't be bothered to buy more health, it's not gonna benefit you obviously. Besides, the money lost is only a few creep kills which you can eventually get from the neutrals, a hero kill or some normal creeps.
Of course I hope it makes sense that if you get all your items bought, you can easily sell your Bottle and replace it by a last luxury item.
Items not to buy:
Mask of Death, Mask of Madness, Helm of the Dominator and Satanic are not recommended. Of all the orb effects lifesteal is prolly the worst one for Mirana. Some of these items' survivability boost might be okay but you can get the same survivability or even better on other items for around the same price as well as getting other neat bonuses.
Radiance is not recommended. It gives fine damage yes, but you don't really need the immolation for which Radiance is bought for. You can spend the 5325 gold better somewhere else.
Lothar's Edge is not recommended. Leap should be more than enough to escape and it lets you run almost just as fast as well as increasing your attack speed.
Strategy
Early game
When you've picked the Priestess, buy 3 Slippers of Agility, a pair of Ancient Tangoes of Essifation and a Clarity Potion then head of to a lane. As Mirana is a strong solo hero, a solo lane would be prefered, but a double lane isn't too bad either especially not if you lane with a disabler. Now, as all other heroes, start last hitting and denying. Try to harass your enemy(ies) by hitting them a few times on occasions. From level 3 you should start to look for an opening in your enemy's defense. If you see a good moment for an arrow, fire it off and try to kill him. A tip is to wait for your creeps to kill his creeps. In the moment they push, launch your arrow and stun him. Finish him off with Leap and Starfall. If you're good, lucky and/or fast you'll eventually claim the First Blood rather quick. If you're laneing with a disabler, try to let him throw his stun first so you're making almost sure that your arrow will hit. This requires a bit timing though and you need to communicate with your mate to succesfully do this.
Try to keep farming untill you're around level 6-7. Buy your Boots of Speed and a Bottle and start to look for opportunities to gank other lanes. Don't waste to much time roaming around in the river. Return to your original lane and if you see a good ganking lane, try to head off unnoticed and gank. When you've done so you ought to return to your lane again. Don't lose too much gold and experience trying to gank without succeeding. Eventually just kill your lane opponent(s) instead. Keep a constant flow between farming and ganking without roaming too much. Don't farm all your game away. Mirana's capability is too high to just stand passively and farm. But you also need items later so don't spend 5 minutes in the woods waiting for someone to arrive and kill. It may take a few games practice to get a good grip of when to farm and when to gank and also how to do it. Eventually you'll get the idea rather fast.
Middle game
Middle game will basically be the same as the early game to you. Like before, try to keep a constant flow between farming and ganking. Follow your team mates' gameplay and try to follow them in ganks. If there are any big fights going on, try to stay in the background throwing your Starfall and saving your Elune's Arrow. If you see a low healthed hero escaping, try to get to the flank and shoot him. Else, try to farm empty lane or run around killing enemies. If you're doing well you can still kill most enemies alone.
Late game
Actually, the late game will be pretty much the same drive as the early game. Follow your team mates in ganks and heavy pushes. Still try to stay in the background in fights dishing out damage. Help pushing and clearing creep waves with Starfall so you only need to worry about the heroes. Again, try to save your arrow for when someone low trys to escape. If you're against a strong initiation team (Warlock, Tidehunter, Magnataur, Earthshaker, Puck etc.) try to stay even further back than normal and the moment before the two fronts smash together (you need to learn to calculate this by practice too) activate Moonlight Shadow. Hopefully this'll make your enemies waste their aoe stuns and whatsoever and keep you and your allies safe in the invisibility form avoiding to get raped. Else just stand in the back and again just focus fire your enemies hoping to kill somebody. If the showdown turns out to your favour, you can Leap and aim for fleeing enemies. If you have your Eye of Skadi, escaping won't be easy anyway.
Mastering Elune's Arrow
Shooting Elune's Arrow is not like throwing a Storm Bolt. You have to aim and time it. The very first lesson is the most basic and important one:
Do not click directly on the target when you shoot your arrow. Always aim and time it and click on the ground.
Clicking on the target itself makes the arrow's trajectory odd and you will almost never hit it like this. Instead, time the arrow, think ahead of your enemy and guess where he's going to run. When you think you've got a clear shot and a correct estimation, shoot and (hopefully) hit. This technique is going to take a lot of practice but once you master it you can damage and stun your opponents over cliffs, hills, corners and whatsoever for a crapload amount of damage and stun them for nearly 5 seconds. Here are a some situations.
Situation: Direct, clear shot.
Description: This shot is prolly the most simple shot. It has a short distance, there are no enemies to block your shot and you are shooting directly at your enemy. This shot requires very little aiming. Just watch out your opponent doesn't suddenly change direction in order to avoid your arrow. That's pretty much the only thing you have to be aware of in this situation.
Situation: Using the creeps as a cover for your short.
Description: As you can see on the picture, my enemy's last creep is just about to die and he is just about to walk back. I fire my arrow a split second before the creep dies. By doing this, my enemy's attention will still be around denying his last creep and not so much about getting away. In the moment the Necromancer dies, my arrow hovers over the field and stuns the unprepared Shadow Fiend. If I have waited a few more seconds, Nevermore would have run into cover by his tower and I wouldn't have killed him. This is an excellent First Blood method. Not only do you catch your enemy unprepared, but your creeps also get a short moment to shoot on your target helping you taking him down. Just make sure you time your arrow so you don't hit the nearly-but-not-quite-dead last unit. This is of course most effective when your creeps are the pushing force.
Situation: Curved and/or long distanced arrows.
Description: It is here in a not-so-directly-shot situation where you need to be very judgemental. It's important that you take a lot of things into account before shooting. Your position. Your target's position, direction and movement speed. Possible detour routes near your target. Additional enemies and neutral creeps that can eventually block your shot. It's also important that you shoot a good distance ahead of your enemy. Aiming directly at him is wrong. Aiming behind him is of course a failure. Aiming in front of him but not enough is bad too. Make sure to aim your arrow perfectly in front of where he goes and also compared to where you stand. Giving it too little thruttle is one of the most common mistakes. Giving it too much also happens though, so don't overdo it, but in general people mostly don't aim it far enough.
Situation: Colliding and/or blocking enemies.
Description: It's not always you will have a clear arrow trajectory for your shot. Many times you will be blocked by other enemy heroes, neutral creeps or enemy creeps. Always be aware that your arrow might be blocked by appearing units. If you are being held back by some, either see if you can clear them fast with Starfall if they're at low health or else try to get around them to get a clear shot. Leaping over, running around, using openings - everything but just shooting a Ghoul mindlessly. Be aware that ancient creeps, invisible units and magic immunes will also block the arrow.
Situation: Predicting advanced blind shots.
Description: A few times you will get into very advanced but nonetheless situations. Many of these situations you won't have sight your hero for several seconds and the arrow will be a much blind shot. This requires very much practice, excellent aiming and perfect timing. You will prolly rarely hit in these situations unless you are very, very skilled. It's always worth the try, but don't bet your money on it. It doesn't only takes a lot of skills for such an arrow but also a bit of luck. As you can see on the picture, Death Prophet is running away from me with Haste. Knowing that I can't outrun her, I choose to position myself for a curved arrow. Judging from her high movement speed and knowing which way she's heading I throw my arrow a large piece in front of her. Without having sight of her for nearly 10 seconds I hit and kill her with a perfect shot.
Various tips when taking your aim:
Be patient. Waiting with shooting your arrow will many times be the best method. Most smart enemies will try to dodge your shot by running in curves, but they will lose track to you. After realizing you "won't" launch it at them they will mostly start running in a direct line to get away from your auto-attack shots. At this time launch your arrow and hit it. By shooting it too fast you're just wasting it and it will be too predictable. Always be a step ahead of your enemies and wait untill the right moment.
Sometimes, close-up shots are actually very difficult. If you let the enemies run a bit away before shooting you will have a much higher chance to hit because the degrees they can avoid it has been lowered significantly. The stun will also last much longer. Instead of stunning them for 0,5 seconds they will not be disabled for about 2 seconds if you do it perfectly. Again, patience is a keyword for timing it perfectly.
It can't be said enough. Have patience and wait untill the right moment before shooting your arrow. Give it a few seconds to predict where the enemy is moving. If you see two ways near him, wait for him to choose either one of them and then launch the arrow in his direction. Patience, patience, patience. Don't hessitate it.
Various tips for the remaining spells
Moonlight Shadow is good in many situations. Use it to save cornered allies. Use it to position your team just before a team fight. Use it to avoid being initiated and killed in a team fight. Use it to scout (e.g. Roshan). Use it to cover channeling allies like Crystal Maiden and her Freezing Field or Witch Doctor and his Death Ward. There are lots of other possibilities, just use your imagination. Just remember that you have it, that it is a team invisibility and that it is global.
Don't forget that your Moonlight Shadow has a fade time for which period you can still be seen. It lowers by level but it is rather long from the beginning so the invisibility process is slow.
As mentioned earlier, Leap is activated when clicked and not when targetted. You're leaping towards the direction you're facing and you and nearby allies gain the speed buff upon landing.
Use cliffs, hills, corners, shadow and trees to your advantage when leaping after enemies, away from enemies or just taking a shortcut. Watch out that you don't get stuck by miscalculating the Leap direction and distance though.
The general ganking pattern for Mirana is shooting your arrow, leaping in next to your target and use Starfall. Arrow -> Leap -> Starfall. You will eventually learn to follow this pattern in like 95 % of your ganks by time.
When you Starfall someone, especially during early/middle game ganks, placing yourself right next to your target is the best idea. If you're almost sticked together to your target when you cast Starfall there's a big chance (depending on the units around you) that it will hit him twice thus, obviously, increasing the spell's effect. However, you might want to take the situation into consideration before you act so. Towers and multiple enemies can obviously be a huge threat so use your head and judge if it's smart to place yourself right next to the target or if it's better to distance yourself from your target and use Starfall in order to stay safe.
Don't use Starfall to farm during the early game. It's a waste of mana, it's just pushing the lane and you need it for ganking and sudden situation.
Do you have different build & strategy for Mirana? Share it here! ;)
PS: Check also the Mirana's Arrow Training Map
Source: Ingolf's Mirana Guide
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