DOTA Tips And Guides: Priestess of The Moon Guide

To play MiRaNa, you need:
*aim
*a bit of expeirence with the map
*luck
*map awareness
*and thankfully, no micromanagement!

Mirana Nightshade - The Priestess of the Moon
Range: 600 | | Move Speed: 300 | Primary: AGI
Str: 17 + 1.85 | Agi: 20 + 2.75 | Int: 17 + 1.65
Damage: 38 - 49 | HP: 473 | Mana: 221
HP Regen: 0.76 | Mana Regen: 0.69
Attack Speed: 1.14 (+ 20% IAS) | Armor: 1.8

Pros:
-360 damage, 5 second stun, 100 mana cost. = ImBa!!! (if you can aim it!!!)
-nice defender(starfall)
-nice aoe skill(starfall)
-kinda flexible(you dont need her to be the carry)
-has leap(very important)
-has very ImBa(if used correctly) last skill, come on, your whole team gets invisible!!!!!!
Cons:
-hp is bullshark. enough said.
-that 360 damage, 5 second stun, 100 manacost thing i was talking about? did i mention you have to aim it as well?
-has big cooldowns on spells(i mean that they cant be spammed like hell, except starfall)
-im too biased on her(theres more pros than cons, while for real, she really isnt that ImBa)
-her armor is kinda low for an agi hero

Starfall (T)
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
Mana Cost: 100/120/140/160
Cooldown: 12
Comments: Just a nice skill, can get you gold, and fast!

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
Mana Cost: 100
Cooldown: 25

Comments: very ImBa skill if one is able to maximize its potential every time one uses it. But tell me, who can?

Leap (E)
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.
Mana Cost: 60/55/50/45
Cooldown: 40/35/30/20
Comments: Escaping and charging, very nice for both offense, and defense.

Moonlight Shadow (W)
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
Mana Cost: 200/250/300
Cooldown: 160
Comments: I really don't like this skill early on, but late game it can be devastating as it can be used as an ambush skill for your whole team!!!! i dont like it for escaping much bcuz of its mana cost and fade time but hey, at least it turns you invisible!!!

So yada yada yada, all that stuff about her, like you dont know?!!! but alas, it must be there, so now to the skill build!!!

SKILL BUILD

1. Leap
2. Elune's Arrow
3. Starfall
4. Starfall
5.Starfall
6.Elune's Arrow
7.Starfall
8.Elune's Arrow
9.Elune's Arrow
10.Leap
11.Leap
12.Leap
13.Moonlight
14.Moonlight
15.stats
16.Moonlight

EXPLANATIONs:
Why get a level of leap first?
>so that you wont die. but in pubs, you should get elunes first as it is the neares thing to a first blood you have(in lvl 1).

Why max starfall first?
>so that you wont have to rely on using a unreliable skill(elunes arrow) or a skill that gives you position but not much firepower(leap).

Why max leap and not go for stats?
>lvl 4 leap grants 16% speed bonuses. this is especially important for chasing and escaping.
After that, go for stats and you are on your merry way!

okay, here it is, the item build!!!!!!!!!!

Early game
1-6.
Get these items as you choose mirana(assuming its 5 on 5 -ap)

a. Chicken (use this to ferry you items and more tangos and clarities, as much as possible, dont go to the fountain)

b. 4 tangos

c. 1 circlet

Levels 7-11.

Slowly form these items:

a. boots

b. 2 bracers

c. 1 bottle

MID GAME/ CORE ITEMS:
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There will be 3 parts of the core items, the permanent part, the untested items, and the ever changing part:

The Permanent part

1. BoT- important for side lane dominance and farming all over the map.

2. 2 Bracers- its a shame selling them.
The ever changing part:

3. PeRsEvErAnCe/ MaElStRoM- get either one of these after your first items(boots and 2 bracers) then quickly rush BoT. both of these items offer great farming and pushing capabilities and its your choice in which one you want. just never get the 2 before BoT bcuz you want push along with map dominance. In short, get perseverance if you want to be a pusher and a money maker, and get maelstrom if your more into ganking and killing. I would choose perseverance most of the time.
P.S.:you could sell your bottle if you want perseverance if you like.

WHAT WAS JUST PRESENTED WAS THE CORE ITEM BUILD, THE FOLLOWING ITEM IS CURRENTLY UNTESTED:

1. HoD: Helm of the Dominator, it doesnt just look cool having a centaur, a satyr, and an alpha wolf following you, in paper, it looks very good. troll gets it, some razors do, lifesteal is probably the most common orb used, hey, why not use it on mirana.

P.S. if you ever do get it, dominate(according to sequence of presentation) a centaur cuz it has an IAS aura, and alpha wolf cuz it has a MEGA 30% DAMAGE AURA, then the big yellow satyr for that yummy 3 hp per second regen.

And the game goes on:

1. LINKEN'S SPHERE/ BLOODSTONE- now, you have 2 choices, bloodstone or linken? well, if there are about a million stunners on their team well, you dont need to ask(linken you dolt! duh!!!), but if your killing like all hell broke loose(bloodstone you dumby!!!), well, no need to ask.

2. M'jolner- you knew this was coming, you knew it.

3. Butterfly- I dont really know when you should buy it on her, I just know that you should.

4. HoT- It's time to move on with the 2 bracers son.

6. Assault Cuirass- in my mind, either you get butterfly, or you get cuirass. its up to you. (im a butterfly biased person.)

7. Eye of skadi: Very nice on her. (i said this cuz maelstrom stacks with it and the stats are very welcome)

8. Satanic- if ever you went for HoD, you know whats up next.

9.Buriza/MKB- Damage items, get these if you have slots for them.

10. Desolator - nc item, but i say mjolnir is better.

11. Guinsoo - yah. go hex and starfall all you want. im going to sleep

i know there are 11 items here. just pick 6 and go to sleep.

Choose which of these you like in your situation. I have presented many items here becuz mirana is such a flexible hero and many items do good on her. Just remember this, never put AC and butterfly in the same build. They dont do well together bcuz:
1. The IAS stacks diminishingly. That means that the more IAS you think you have, the less IAS-gold ratio you will have.
2. High armor sucks with evasion. It works like this, every time the opponent makes a miss at you, the armor bonuses wont count at all. so that would be like reducing the effectiveness of the armor bonuses of AC by 30%. And youll have a lot of life already with Linken's and HoT.

Optional items:

1. HoD- No, not helm again, this time i mean hood. when your facing too much nukes and just have to little regen, get this before BoT.

2. BKB- hahahaha, what i just said earlier.

[color=#48D1CC]Bad items

1. Other orbs- nah, lightning is better or corruption, is better.

Game Play
1. LANING

Any lane would really do but if you want to be an early game ganker, go mid because you can freely gank both of the side lanes. Dont solo cuz mirana doesnt need the experience that much (she doesnt have a lvl 6 ultimate that terrifies the enemy). Shes best pared with a stunner bcuz stun-elune combo mostly translates to first blood situations.

2. EARLY GAME PLAYSTYLE 1-8

Last hit and deny. Animation cancel. I will be elaborating on the different combos mirana can do with her skills later on. Slowly build up your 2 bracers and ferry them along with some tangos. then slowly build up your boots and bottle and ferry them with a few tangos as well. try to minimize your trips to the fountain.

3. MID GAME 8-15

GAMEPLAY:
Let's assume that you have picked to get perseverance first in your build. So your strategy now is to push, farm, and gank. push and farm on empty side lanes and participate in ganks on the mid lane. Rush you BoT for global map map domination. If your enemy calls for a 5 man push mid, you have a choice to stay and try to destroy the tower and barracks, or go back to defend your base. What I would recommend is to continue pushing to the last tower. Why? Because at this time of the game, heroes are weaker and they wouldnt be able to tank towers or push effectively, so the possibility of your opponents winning the war in the mid is smaller. But a 5 man push at this time could certainly happen, but most times it would just end up in you enemies retreating to their base and the carry neutraling to pass off time. After you BoT, keep pushing on the side lanes but now you should alternate between top and bottom. Rush your maelstrom thereafter.

ESCAPING GANKS:
If you followed what I said and kept pushing the side lanes, it would be fairly easy to escape ganks. Well, not fairly easy, you just have and advantage. If you notice that the map has no enemies showing, shoot a random elune to the trees and see if anyone's ganking you. This will help you in being alive but it will not insure your life. Because if you do find gankers, chances are you are getting cornered with no where else to run. What you do is to find loop holes between them. Know the map. If you find a good spot to run for your life, go run there. but be careful, you never know if one has already advanced to corner you. If you got cornered, and you are about to be disabled, use leap wisely, and when i say wisely i mean leap into the trees. Which trees you might ask? The trees where they cant get you. In short, the side trees. Then, safely TP away. But if you dont have TP or BoT, just w8 for them. So what if they dont move? So what if they stay with you? Then you will stay with them yourself. Bcuz in the near future, they will have to go away, so you w8, and leap when they go.

TEAM BATTLES (5 MAN PUSHING/DEFENDING):
Use your ulti at the start so that your team can position themselves especially with the initiators. If you have Mjolnir, buff your tank with it immediately. Use your starfall at the start so that you can use it again. Try to hit someone(preferably their carry) with elunes. Only use leap for retreating and chasing, if chasing with leap, always stick with an ally. Try to hit the carry or the one with the least armor and life. Ignore the enemy tank as much as possible.

GANKING:
Dont gank alone. Gank in pairs or threesomes. Mirana pairs well in ganking with stunners. You know why? Bcuz stunners make them stay for you to hit them with elunes. But if you dont have stunners, you can still kill them. Just go leap in with your buddie, press T, try to shoot an elune, then chase your enemy to death.

COMBO: (R=elune E=leap etc... the letter represents the hotkey of the skill)
1. E-T-R-DPS: your main combo bcuz its the surest way to score an elune hit and the chance that starfall will score a double hit.

2. R-E-T-DPS: use this combo with heroes that are just attacking creeps and staying at one place.

3. ALLIED STUN-R-E-T-DPS: this combo starts with an allied stun. it's very effective because you wont have that much of a problem aiming elunes arrow.

4. T-R-E-DPS-T: this combo starts with starfall being used to initiate the attack in the hope of using it 2 times in the same battle.

And so on... Just choose what you want to do first and follow it up with your other skills.

GOOD ALLIES

1. Stunners, Disablers, etc...: They are always good allies.

2. Initiators: Very good with Mirana bcuz they wont need blink dagger with moonlight shadow. But blink is always better.

3. Channeling ultimates: Same reason as above.

BAD ENEMIES

1. Stunners, Disablers etc...: They are always bad enemies.

2. Armor reducers: If you get hit by anything that reduces your armor, retreat immediately bcuz if you are disabled for even 1 second, your dead meat. One time, a Lanaya with deso killed my Mirana in 3 hits.