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6 Votes

T'was Not Luck...: A Guide to a Semi-Support Mirana

November 29, 2014 by UnrulySupportGuy
Comments: 7    |    Views: 15202    |   


Semi-Support Mirana

DotA2 Hero: Mirana




Hero Skills

Starstorm

2 4 5 7

Sacred Arrow

1 8 9 10

Leap

3 12 13 14

Moonlight Shadow

6 11 16

Talents

15 17 18

Intro to Mirana

Mirana
Status: Don't need no man
Height: Mounted
MTG: Selesnya (Green-White)
Likes: "William Tell," Richard Wagner, her cat, heroes that stand still, parkour
Dislikes: Luna , Sentry Ward , Dust of Appearance , proper carries, enemy creeps, the cost of cat food.

Mirana is one of those semis that I liked to play a lot. The only reason I started picking her is because I hated playing against her, which is a valid excuse for anyone to learn a new hero. Honestly anyone that picks up a hero to learn because they're sick of playing against it is the sign of someone who wants to understand the game and be better at it.

Now, most people I know turn Mirana into a carry due to the fact that since she is an AGI hero and can do so (one of the reasons why Vengeful Spirit waifu can as well), but she can also effective as a complete support throughout the game.

Actually this guide feels really lame because I accidentally didn't save it when I first wrote it out.

So, let's get down to her abilities for anyone too lazy to hover over what she does and why people play her, but if you want a basic rundown she has one AOE, one skill shot, one escape, and one global:

Starstorm
Anyone that Mirana does not take a fancy to within a 625 meter radius takes magical damage to the face, and one random enemy in the area gets that exact same damage to his face AGAIN. No, it does not invisible units,so don't walk into an enemy Sandstorm and try to get that last hit.

Sacred Arrow
Mirana throws a slow arrow that will stun whoever it hits minimum .01 seconds and max 5 seconds. Hell of a stun time, but beware the creeps that mess you up, and there is an actual science formula behind it for those geeks out there that like math. It's much like a Pudge with his Meat Hook but unlike the fat bastard, you need to go to the enemy rather than dragging them to you. Also does a nice chunk of damage.

Leap
Remember you leap in the direction she's facing, don't accidentally wind up in a neutral camp at low health or into the enemy and get killed. I know a chick who did that, and as her coach, I just sort of sighed to myself. This also gives nearby allies an attack and move speed buff which scales with each level. It also disjoints projectiles that Mirana or her cat might dislike, such as Concussive Shot Waveform Magic Missile or Assassinate , which displeases a lot of her opponents, mostly Sniper .

Moonlight Shadow
For 16 seconds on a delay fade time across the map, all your team becomes invisible. Very useful trying to gank, disengage a fight, or run away. Honestly even though it sounds great and everything, I've always found it underwhelming, mostly because the Miranas I play with don't use it when asked to.

Mirana in Ranked Play

There is no doubt that Mirana is a high-risk high-reward kind of hero, and even though they have smacked her *** with the nerf stick (or other things, thanks Reddit) a couple times, she's still very strong. In a ranked match, she will be played as a roamer from level 1, with the Sacred Arrow and a few Clarity bottles in hand. This is where the big plays come into effect, because if her ganks go well, she'll have just as many levels and presence in the early game as any laner, but if they do not come to fruition, you'll find yourself scrambling around at level 3 around the 8 minute mark and end up getting clubbed down by an Ogre Magi or the enemy carry who's level 6 packing Coup de Grace or a Chronosphere or a Rupture perhaps and end up dying.

You will also be expected to buy wards or a courier in ranked, or both if you managed to first pick her. This is why you should save picking her until you already have another semi-support core-support kind of hero on your team, because in my opinion on the double support strat is that with dividing the burden, both supports are able to get items that will give them more presence, and so far it's worked pretty well for me. However if your ganks go well and you find yourself with a lot of money, do not be afraid to transition yourself into a semi-carry Mirana but never forget your humble beginnings as a support and buy wards if the other support needs to finish his Aghanim's Scepter or, in the case of dear Crystal Maiden , a Eul's Scepter of Divinity .

Since Mirana is very level dependent for her damage output, I would suggest, if your ganks are not working out, you return to your lane that was assigned to you or use pull creeps as your main experience and money income.

When to Pick Mirana

Mirana actually fits all lanes except that of a solo offlaner or jungler (at least until they buff her arrow so that it stuns creeps for twice as long), but depending on where she goes will determine whether or not her semi will lean towards support, core, or carry.

When to Pick Mirana

Your team has follow up/set-up for your Sacred Arrow in order to net kills
Your team is able to turtle until late game or performs well late game
Your team needs a cheap scout out for Roshan
Your team requires some setup for initiation or lacks escape
The other team relies on one particular hero to carry the teamfight

When not to Pick Mirana:

The other team has early game strat
Your team requires a reliable stun
The other team has an anti-gank/counter gank hero such as Nature's Prophet .
The other team has a push strat or a lot of sustain

Mirana will always require a snowball in my opinion, and having lanes that are easily ganked or have stacking stuns will always help tremendously. Also since Sacred Arrow gives vision as it travels and lingering vision if it stuns someone, it will always be a useful skill throughout the game.
On the red though, I will say that Mirana has a poor mana pool throughout the early and mid-game which is why she still suckles her Bottle until she is preparing to 6-slot herself, and what COULD be good for the team will always lose to what IS good for the team, such as a stun which will always hit, and even though Mirana has great follow-up for her arrow, heroes like Legion Commander or Slark can debuff stuns with their abilities, and those with global presence, like NP can TP in and surround you with trees and give them just enough time to run away, which is more time and XP wasted on your side than anything. However Mirana is squishy and she builds more of a glass cannon build for late game, which makes her very susceptible to tanks of the late game, in which it would take a very lucky arrow (*cough* skilled *cough*) to change that in the endgame phase. Even though she's not easily kited, it's not impossible either, so keep that in mind and save your leaps for the right time.

The Arrow Probability Factor

If you don't like math, physics, or thinking too hard, just skip this. The TL;DR is basically predict where your enemy is going.

Here's something that some people are just naturally inclined to (like some guy named jkirby that a friend of mine worships) and others need some help with (like my friend who, even though she's taking some crazy Calculus classes, can't seem to understand).

Factors of landing Sacred Arrow :
1. Velocity of the arrow
2. Movement speed of the hero and their boot type
3. Creeps
4. Distance between enemy and Mirana
5. Angle of the Arrow
6. Predictability of enemy

The speed of the arrow is 857.14 units per second, and as far as I know, the movement speed of a hero is equal to the number of units it moves in a second, the max for most heroes being 522, Lycan running around in wolf form at 650, and a charged Bloodseeker capping at a whopping 1040 according to this Dota Poop video I was watching. The hit box is fairly large and encompasses the WHOLE arrow and will travel 3000 units, which means the arrow is active for approximately 3.5 seconds of flight in a straight line. Enemy creeps will block your arrow if it enters the hit box at any time in the arrow. For the distance, you should calculate the movement for every 1 second you are arrow distance away from an enemy hero and what they are doing at that particular moment. For instance, a support will run in an awkward pattern behind their carry in a small line or circle or try to zone out the enemy while doing their best not to draw creep aggro. A carry or tank will focus on walking near the creeps or being surrounded by creeps, standing still just long enough to last hit the creep. As far as the angle goes, you may want to position yourself as far away from open vision as possible, since trees just jump away from the arrow apparently. In doing so you are less likely to be spotted by a ward while ganking. As we sort of covered, the predictability and behavioral patterns of each role will help you land the arrows, but who you match up against as far as rank goes matters a lot too as you'll have to anticipate a juke, a feint, or just noob behavior.

That was a large chunk of information, I'm sorry, but this is Dota 2, not COD where you just shoot things.

Overview of Mirana's Position and Laning

Honestly Mirana is one of those semi-supports that has a high skill ceiling, which requires you to have played quite a few games with her, unless you're secretly RTZ and Dendi's child in disguise, in order to get behind her attack animation, the speed of her arrow, and general awareness of the mini map. Remember, YOU HAVE A 16 SECOND GLOBAL INVIS, SO USE IT. I was playing with a Mirana who refused to ulti, and my best mate said "Just act like you are playing without Mirana." Dumb **** in my opinion. This guide will focus her mainly as a position 4 semi-support, which means even though she isn't a ward slave, she shouldn't expect to complete her core items by the 30 minute mark.

Moving on, if you follow SingSing, he plays her as a roaming ganker from level one, since she has tons of kill potential with the right arrow shot. Others prefer her as a core, and some make her a full support until the bitter end. Depending on your lineup you'll need to figure out how she fits.

Remember though that at the beginning you should buy at least Observer Ward for the team, or if you don't, buy the second round of wards. Getting an early Bottle and roaming around trying to find kills will allow your carry or your tank to get some levels on his own, especially if they are in a low harass lane. Sometimes you could forgo buying any items in the beginning and just wait for the gold to be good enough to buy one if you feel certain lanes have high first blood potential.

A normal trilane for Mirana consists of a hard carry like Phantom Assassin or Faceless Void who both have slows, and a setup for arrow such as Earthshaker or Bane or even Rubick , who is generally the less greedy support. Overall, no matter how you lane though, just remember that you need to fulfill the role that your team needs the most.

Early Game

After you buy your starting items, like Tango and Healing Salve and Iron Branch and getting prepared to quickbuy your Bottle . It's possible to get your bottle pretty damn early, especially if you get first blood. Normally I level Sacred Arrow first, but in cases of a high harass lane, new Mirana players should consider leveling Leap first, especially if you feel like the other team isn't going to be swayed by a single arrow because they're too tanky and you might want a level or two in Starstorm as an arrow follow up.
If you wish to transition Mirana into a carry later on while supporting early, like most Miranas like to do, I would advise you stay in lane, sap up EXP when you get the chance, and possibly punish the enemy if they get too cocky. For the newer players you'll find yourself up against Axe sometimes, and luckily Mirana sort of has a ******* for the guy. If he starts diving under your tower, or anyone for that matter, if he gets the tower aggro on him, even a second-long duration on an arrow is approximately 5 or 6 tower attacks, and even tanky heroes will be quickly taken down, or at the very least forced to pop all their lane sustain (for new players, that is all your tangos and potions).

Here's a small list of farm priority, which let's you know if it's okay to last hit or not with your lane partner:
Hard Carry > Core Carry > Core Teamfight > Tank > Aghanim's Scepter Support > Semi-Support > Hard Support > Tri-lane Support 1 > Tri-lane Support 2 > Roamer

I'm sure with just that I've managed to piss off a lot of people who will be reading this or perhaps got a lot of approving nods, but here's the conclusion: Mirana probably won't be last hitting as much as some might like to think if she isn't going mid lane, which this guide is not for. Let's say you're paired with Centaur Warruner . As a tank who needs a blink dagger like Axe or Tidehunter , he gets early farm priority due to the fact that they depend on a good mid game to help be effective later on. If you're paired with a Bane or an Ogre Magi , they are closer to Hard Supports who don't really require their Scepter upgrade as 1st item priority, so Mirana can try to farm.

Too lengthy, I know, but please bear with me, new players.

As I've mentioned before, the early game officially ends when all lanes are supposed to have reached level 6 or someone's tower has been destroyed, or we've reached the 15 minute mark, mostly the last one but that debate has been opened before. So while it is really important for Mirana to reach her ulti in order to be of assistance on a global scale, it is also important for her to force people out of her lane or the mid lane. An offlane Mirana I feel has a lot more impact on helping mid out with a Sacred Arrow than a safelane one, but it could just depend on the side of the map your team is on. As soon as you get a bottle, you can begin securing runes and making sure your mid performs well. Plus a lucky arrow will secure the kill for your mid hero and allow him to reach level six more quickly, earn some gold, and of course, underlevel and deny farm to the enemy mid.

Don't forget that if you didn't buy wards or the courier when the game began, you should buy the second round of wards and place them, as not only does it keep vision for your team but it also allows you an excuse to gank, which is two birds with one stone,and it could even turn into an early tower kill, or at the very least force out a glyph. Assuming that you have a hard support on your team, buy wards every other round unless you really need to finish that item that's only 200 gold away in which case ASK VERY POLITELY IF YOUR SUPPORT CAN DO YOU A SOLID AND BUY THEM THIS TIME. If they do immediately jungle to get that gold ASAP and help them out.

The Mid Game Mirana

Mirana really flourishes the mid game, because she's gained enough levels in Starstorm that it actually matters in taking down the enemy carry, possibly even tanks or cores, and being able to be a one man ganker. By the time a tower has been taken down, whoever is in the lane should have left for the most part unless people have an emotional attachment to their lane. Phantom Assassin is one of the few heroes that can farm a lane with her tower gone, because Blur makes her invisible to the minimap when heroes aren't around. Because of this, Mirana is able to move around much more freely, and even if her own tower is compromised because Jakiro went and spat fire all over it, allows her more anonymity while moving around versus the normal "Missing!" calls when all the towers are standing.

Power Treads are the best boots for all semi-right clickers like Mirana because Leap even gives her an attack boost, which isn't much of one at level 1, but it does help slightly. Also 4 seconds of right clicking on a 5 second Sacred Arrow with a nice increase of APS really does a lot for people. Depending on the need, you can either opt for a Force Staff first, which helps out your team, or a Yasha for the extra movement speed, armor, and right clicking power. In the heat of the moment a poorly timed Leap will trap dear Mir on a cliff or in between trees, and so to prevent getting stuck on a cliff where the enemy has an Observer Ward and mini stuns like Zeus with a Lightning Bolt , one may use their staff to get away. Overall it is a very useful item for any support. Mirana also gains about 130 Int from the staff, which is one more arrow and then some. Yasha, on the other hand, while it will allow you to get to fights a little bit quicker, it's more of a selfish item for her to go first, and probably only should be gotten if the farm is good and the ganks are sweet.

Mirana's split pushing potential is actually solid with the Starstorm ,and if space is created or there's a stalemate in a lane where your team does not want to engage, take the opportunity to destroy a lane and get a little extra gold in the bank for everyone. Maelstrom allows that wave clearing to be more effective with it's lightning passive, which deals an acceptable amount of magic damage to creeps who are always clustered up, so before you finish Sange you may want to grab the 'strom first.

Gold needed for Sange and Yasha is 4100, which is the same price as a Desolator actually, so if you really want to push lanes, you could even consider this, but the reason I'm bringing up the pricing is because frankly, to have your basic core items excluding Sange and your Bottle means you have a networth of 8,400 by the 30 mintue mark, and as a support Mirana, that just isn't really going to happen, considering you need to buy Dust of Appearance or you need a Town Portal Scroll and wards, and you're giving all the farm priority to the hard carry, the core, and the tank. I actually looked at a pro match to give you an expectation, and a position 4 Mirana on a winning team would have a networth of about 4,000 gold at 24 minutes, and that's with the opposing team losing all tier 1 and two tier 2 towers.

Ah, the support life. You don't choose it, it chooses you. Usually.

So in this case with a networth of 4,000, that is -1400 for your Treads, -700 for your bottle, -300 for two sets of wards and -200 for at least two TP scrolls assuming you can walk to most of your ganks, which means you have 1400 gold left! :D But that's a pro match, you might find way more space to farm, so don't lose heart if you don't have all your core items by the 30-40 minute mark. There's a reason they call them core items.

The Late Game Mirana

Mirana only has two skills which carry into the late game, which is Sacred Arrow and her ult. However, the problem is that the enemy support will buy the enemy tank a Gem of True Sight if they're especially wary of the ganks and the carry will buy a Black King Bar if they really don't want to get hit by that arrow, which means none of her skills are completely reliable late game. However, A 5 second arrow on the enemy teamfighter or team support like Dazzle or Witch Doctor or one that surprises the hard carry like Faceless Void or Legion Commander means that it's probably go time if your team has backed you up. Otherwise, if your strategy is to push them to death you should give top priority to your Maelstrom and your Force Staff and possibly even invest in a Blink Dagger , assuming that as a semi support you are giving most the kills to the carry or tank and you're living off assist gold. Now, here's my reasoning for some of the Late Game and Situational items:

Helm of the Dominator is used primarily for stacking ancients, and that is the reason you will use it. Take over a creep, and around the :51 second mark, order your creep to pull the ancients and take them as far away as you can from the camp, and then your carry will have a reliable gold pit to dig into when they need it. For those who are bad at micro, here's something I do. Around that time, I will go into the jungle and afk farm a camp. While I'm doing so I'll focus completely on the creep to pull the ancient camp. This is more of a support item for this guide, so you'll probably never transition it into a Satanic which means you could sell it for a more suited item in the late game.

Monkey King Bar is solely for when the farm is good and the enemy has one of those pesky evasion type heroes, which makes it a greedy item on a semi-support, but if possible you should get it.

Desolator adds a lot of right click potential damage wise, but I would use it if you're running a pushing strat just to make the towers fall over much easier. It also helps when the carry needs an easy Roshan but doesn't naturally build Deso, for instance, like a Phantom Assassin (at least the way I build her I don't. :p) or a Clinkz or Wraith King , who generally have other skills or items to cope with not having one. Also it allows for more damage in a teamfight if Mirana fires a Deso shot at each person, which is 13 seconds of -7 armor, which if a fight lasts longer than that, she can just keep shooting.

Orchid Malevolence could be used as a follow-up on a Sacred Arrow or vice versa if Mirana chooses to Leap to her target. As it does nothing personally for stats other than a slight increase in damage and attack speed, it's most noted for giving your team a silence, so will be used mostly as a support item like Windranger uses it.

Eye of Skadi is just a stat item. If you need to tank up and last longer in a teamfight to kite the enemy team a little bit more or give them someone to focus on as a sacrificial lamb, but there's definitely more useful items.

Pipe of Insight and Mekansm are examples of more team-oriented items. Mek you'll have to start building fairly early as a core item since it will begin to fall off on the team in the late game, but the Pipe will block 400 magic damage regardless, which is most of an Assassination and a large chunk of a Reaper's Scythe , not to mention it will do wonders against things like Ghostship and Chaotic Offering and even Black Hole and Ravage and its passive aura is always nice when walking around as a team trying to heal up while laying siege to a tower.

Diffusal Blade is highly situational, as it has a purge and slow as it's active. Curiously enough, if you find yourself against a Warlock you may consider this item as by using a charge you can completely destroy his Golem and remove it from the fight. The more you know, my friends, the more you know. Otherwise, I wouldn't get it.

Linken's Sphere is a very pricey item which gives you a nice boost in stats as well as mana and health regen. It has an active which blocks a single target spell such as Rupture , Burrow Strike , Amplify Damage , and all items which target, such as Dagon , Orchid Malevolence and Abyssal Blade . Even though it costs a lot, you can cast it on an ally, which makes it a viable pickup for a Mirana who is supporting, and it helps her if she finds herself alone and she needs to block a stun to teleport to safety, disengage a fight, or prevent someone from getting initiated on who is necessary for the team.

Overall, as a semi-support Mirana, your goal is to harrass early game, gank mid game, and be the beast of burden the late game with utility items that will always be reliable. I encourage you all to play Mirana more, thank you for reading this guide.

Sincerely,
UnrulySupportGuy

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