Mirana Nightshade, Priestess of The Moon

I. Introduction

Ok back to me again in another guide. This time Mirana has chosen. Now, what so good about her? First, good ganker with long range Elune arrow, second, the best escape artist i’ve ever seen, third, this hero requires high imagination and experience about enemy movement.

II. Hero Stat’s

Name: Mirana Nightshade Strength: 17 + 1.85 Affiliation: Sentinel Agility*: 20 + 2.75 Damage: 38 – 49 Intelligence: 17 + 1.65 Movespeed: 300 HP: 473 Range: 600 (ranged) Mana: 221 Attack Time: 1.42 (+20%) Armor: 1.8

Mirana is a DPS hero packed with 2 nukes and a stun which is one of the most effective ganking skills. Her Leap also makes her one of the most difficult heroes to kill, providing her with an effective escape tool that doubles as a Battle Initiator.

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 Duration Cooldown Mana Cost Casting Range Area of Effect Effects 1 N/A 12 seconds 100 N/A 600* 75 damage per wave 2 N/A 12 seconds 120 N/A 600* 150 damage per wave 3 N/A 12 seconds 140 N/A 600* 225 damage per wave 4 N/A 12 seconds 160 N/A 600* 300 damage per wave Has a 60% Chance to also hit units ranging from 600 AoE to 900 AoE away from her. Starfall hits all enemy units in a 600 AoE around her. One random enemy unit in a 200 AoE around her will be hit again by Starfall and take half of the said damage. The position of Mirana does not affect the random enemy to be hit again. When Mirana casts Starfall and moves away, the second star will hit the enemy 200 AoE from where she was when she cast Starfall, not from where she is recently. This is not blocked by Linken’s Sphere. Starfall deals Magical damage which is reduced by the target’s Spell Resistance and is blocked by Spell Immunity. Starfall is a general instant AoE nuke that makes Mirana a great farmer and at the same time allows her to initiate with Leap. Combined with Elune’s Arrow powerful stun and some help from allies, it provides the team with powerful ganking power early and mid game.

Elune’s Arrow (R) 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. Has 3000 range.

Level Duration Cooldown Mana Cost Casting Range Area of Effect Effects 1 depends on range 25 seconds 100 3000 140 Deals 90 damage 2 depends on range 25 seconds 100 3000 140 Deals 180 damage 3 depends on range 25 seconds 100 3000 140 Deals 270 damage 4 depends on range 25 seconds 100 3000 140 Deals 360 damage The arrow does not hit allied units. For every 150 distance the arrow travels, the stun duration upon impact increases by 0.5 seconds. For example, an arrow that travels for 300 range stuns for 1 second, and an arrow that travels at least 1500 range stuns for 5 seconds (which is the maximum stun duration). The arrow has an effective movespeed of 837 units per second. The stun duration is determined by the distance between where Mirana fired the arrow and where the arrow hits its target. This means the stun duration is not based on the actual distance the arrow travels in some cases (if the arrow hits the map boundary and moves along it). This also means that firing the arrow and immediately moving backwards will not increase the stun duration. The stun is blocked by Linken’s Sphere but the damage is still dealt. Invisible units will not be stunned, but will still take damage. Elune’s Arrow deals Magical damage which is reduced by the target’s Spell Resistance and is blocked by Spell Immunity. Elune’s Arrow deals the damage before the stun, so it is fully evadable by Phase Shift. Elune’s Arrow is regarded as one of the most powerful single target nukes when used by a skilled player. Apart from Pudge’s Meat Hook, it is a non-ultimate instant single target nuke that does the most damage with a concurrent stun (Laser deals more damage, but has no stun). Also the fact that it goes through allies makes it very powerful in lanes, especially if you catch an opposing hero unawares. Together with Leap and Starfall, it gives Mirana a very powerful combination. If you find yourself getting targeted a lot by Mirana’s Elune’s Arrow, getting Linken’s Sphere would be a smart idea, as it blocks the stun entirely.

Leap (E) Mirana’s wild Frostsaber leaps forward into battle, empowering allies with a ferocious roar upon landing. Speed bonus lasts 10 seconds.

Level Duration Cooldown Mana Cost Casting Range Area of Effect Effects 1 10 seconds 40 seconds 60 N/A 800 630 range, 4% IAS and MS increase 2 10 seconds 35 seconds 55 N/A 800 690 range, 8% IAS and MS increase 3 10 seconds 30 seconds 50 N/A 800 780 range, 12% IAS and MS increase 4 10 seconds 20 seconds 45 N/A 800 840 range, 16% IAS and MS increase While Leaping, Mirana is moved forth 30 units every 0.025 seconds, thus she has a speed of 1200 while leaping. The original tooltip in DotA Allstars states that the leap range is 400/450/500/550, but due to a coding typo, the actual distance moved is about 50% farther than stated (630/690/780/840). For more technical information, refer to Talk:Priestess of the Moon. Leap uses a 0.01 second Wind Walk to dodge any projectiles currently en route to Mirana. Leap is a basic escape/initiator ability that synergizes very well with the rest of Mirana’s abilities. When Mirana first came out Leap made Mirana invulnerable, allowing her to completely evade damage from around half of the nukes in the game. This has recently been changed, but the instant casting time and its ability to go over cliffs make it a reliable escape mechanism.

Moonlight Shadow (W) Turns Nightshade and all allied heroes invisible. If Invisibility is broken, it gets restored after the fade time during the shadow duration.

Level Duration Cooldown Mana Cost Casting Range Area of Effect Effects 1 7 seconds 160 seconds 200 N/A N/A 2.5 second fade time 2 9 seconds 160 seconds 250 N/A N/A 2.0 second fade time 3 11 seconds 160 seconds 300 N/A N/A 1.5 second fade time This spell temporarily grants all friendly heroes a modified version of Rikimaru’s Permanent Invisiblity. Moonlight Shadow is a great ability to prevent enemy ganks or doing surprise ganks against the enemy (although the sound made by Moonlight Shadow often gives away surprise ganks). Nevertheless, providing that enemy players don’t have Wards or Necronomicon, it is very useful.

Thanks DP for this info. I just copied and paste this.

So We have four skill, two for escaping or initiating the battle. Since Star Fall is the only AoE nuking ability, so we should max it out asap. We don’t need Elune Arrow damage, we need it only for stun. So, save the points for Star Fall and Leap since Mirana is rather a weak hero without escape method. So skill build maybe like this :

Star Fall : 1, 3, 5, 7

Elune Arrow : 2, 12 ,13, 14

Leap : 4, 8, 9, 10

Moonlight Shadow : 6, 11, 16

Stats : The rest. You can substitute between stats point and skip Moonlight shadow lvl 2 & 3.

III. How to Use & Strategy

The most important, you are not gonna be a killer in early game. Just support your friend for being a mobile stunner with elune arrow. Elune arrow is the longest single stun skill in the game if you can use it well. First, make sure that you are 1000 range from your target, and predict their movement. The best practice is, let your friend choose Mirana and you’re the enemy. Now, we will get 2 point of view, the stunner and the stuned target. Good enemy always keep move when farming or last hitting. The safe way to dodge from Elune arrow is always stays near creep. But in this case, since we just a support hero, you need to positioning and well timed Arrow to make sure, Elune hit the right target. Always help your friend who solo in his lane.

So, maybe this is general way to kill with Elune Arrow

1. Predict Enemy Movement

2. Shoot Elune Arrow

3. While Arrow directly sent through it’s path, move behind enemy lines or just leap to arrive near him.

4. Starfall + auto attack.

At least this combo will kill most heroes except he can blink/turn invisible.

This is an example. I don’t play with human since i don’t have a time play bnet. I prefer play with AI and some of my friends with LAN.

Image above show the path to Enchantrees. This is a great path since she doesn’t move too much.

Shooting Elune Arrow. Predicted the path as stated in image 1.

And she is stunned. Another point of view

Everything is fine.This is the good elune shoot, since the target can’t see you shoot.

Look at this picture. I chase enchantrees and ready to shoot her.

I don’t see creep coming in front, but as usual i shoot elune not too precise to trap enemy movement.

As i predicted before, my elune doesn’ hit creep. This is the reason why i shoot rather right than usual. To prevent creep block elune’s path. And this is the result. She is stunned and i come to star fall her.

And this is the bad elune that i did.

wrong prediction elune. LoL

IV. Item Build

As usual, DPS Agility hero item

1. BoT/PT. I prefer BoT and spent my money later for Assault Cuirass (if there are no AC in my teammate inventory)

2. Butterfly/Maelstrom/Desolator. Butterfly will be my best choices since i can get satanic later. The others is 2 orb modified.

3. Satanic. Just a lifesteal item, this item has save my ass in dueling 1v1 when the game reach end.

4. Assault Cuirass/Buriza. Well, get Buriza if one of your mate has got AC.

5. MKB. I prefer get this item first, because the price of this parts is rather cheaper. DE + 2 Javelin.

6. BKB. 10 sec for first time and 5 sec immune to magic at the last time, still precious to have it.

So this is my general item. Starting with Ironwood x 5 and tango or Bottle if there is rune. I get boots and then maybe start getting 1/2 Wraith band/Bracer. If the game goes too easy get DE. Ussualy lvl 9 can be reached at lvl 9 without dying and good farm. Remember, we must go mobile in entire map. Getting two javelin will not cost too much time. After that get BKB/Travel. It’s your own choice. If there is a high nuker like Lina/Lion, get BKB first, otherwise BoT for farm and escap method. Butterfly will be soon our target and AC will be the next. Buriza is the last since i don’t think we v.really need it.

V. Worst Enemy & Best Friend

Best Friend : Stuner.

Worst enemy : Blinker Nuker.

VI. Conclusion

-Elune is your main wewapon to gank.

-Starfall is your main weapon to kill and farm

-Leap is your main weapon to chase and run

-Moonlight Shadow is your team weapon to win, both for initiate and for run.