The current Dota 2 meta is filled with a ton of OP champions, but Naga Siren has been very overlooked. She has a winrate of almost 54% in the lower ranks, and around 51% in the higher. This makes her overall a great pick, yet her pick rate is quite low, stagnating around 5%.
So, the numbers tell us that you can win games with Naga Siren, and I am here to tell you exactly how to do it!
Who should play Naga Siren?
I recommend her to everyone who has had enough of losing because of bad teammates. If you have raged, trash talked and wanted to quit Dota all because other players can’t fight properly, she is the hero you need.
She is very independent and can easily go from support to carry, which means that you will only need to endure other players’ mistakes in the early game. After that you can go wherever you like and kill whomever you want. And you will easily be able to do so. This is why she’s also great if you want to play competitively and climb, as she has great potential to carry the entire game.
The only downside is that you will need about 20 minutes at least before you reach your peak. You have to be somewhat careful up to that point.
What items does Naga Siren need?
- Manta Style
- Boots of Travel
- Yasha
- Octarine Core
- Eye of Skadi
- Radiance
Radiance should be your very first item. It will help with both your farm and your kills.
Yasha will be one of your most important items after that. It will help you farm faster, which will be crucial to get your other items. Plus, it makes you and your Illusions very fast as well. This can either help you escape, or catch someone.
The next most important item is Octarine Core. It will reduce the cooldown of your items and abilities, which will make things much easier. You will need to use Song of the Siren as often as possible: it’s your key to winning. Without this item you can’t use Song liberally and your hands would be a bit tied.
Besides these, you can choose from several other items, depending on your current game. The best choices are Heart of Tarrasque, Diffusal Blade and Moon Shard.
When to switch it up
There are a couple of counters to Naga Siren in Dota, but the worst of them are out of the meta right now. Let’s take Leshrac for example. His winrate is at a whopping 43%. Nobody is bringing him into matches anymore, at least not sober. The rest of her counters aren’t quite as bad as Leshrac, but they aren’t too hot either which is why you shouldn’t be too worried. It’s not very likely that you will have to deal with a hard counter.
Another thing you need to watch out for is your team’s attitude. If they are getting tilted, swearing and messing up, then you have to pick up your own tempo. At that point you can’t continue on with being a support. Start farming as aggressively as you can, and make sure that you get as much gold as possible, because a slow paced Naga Siren won’t be able to help a team that’s already messing up their game in the first few minutes.
How to play as Naga Siren
This Dota hero is pretty hard to perfect, so take some time to practice with her. First you need to make sure that you are comfortable with the person you are playing alongside with all the time, as you are a support by design. You need to have the support mentality, even if end up diverging from that playstyle. This is going to be really hard, because it’s very likely that you’d want to be the carry of the game, which I get. But you can’t do that from the start.
In the early game you need to be somewhat in the background. Make sure you get plenty of gold and participate, but try not to stir fights up. You will be too weak for it until you get Radiance. Once that’s done, you can get a little more daring. Just go through your checklist before attacking anyone:
Do you already have Yasha and Radiance?
Do you have Song of the Siren available?
If you said no to either of these, then don’t even think about starting or joining fights. You will not last. The best thing to do during this time is to push a lane or try to go for an objective. The only exception is when the enemy is threatening high ground. At that point it doesn’t matter how weak you are, you need to try.
Follow this flow and in the late game you will be an absolute monster. You just need to hold out until the 20-minute mark. Once you have all your core items, you can go around and pick kills whenever you like. If allowed to grow to full strength, Naga Siren is an absolute Dota 2 monster.
