We have guides for the most overpowered Dota 2 heroes, like Witch Doctor and Phantom Lancer, but we haven’t mentioned Mirana yet. For those wondering, this is for a good reason. She’s pretty high up there, certainly a good champion, but not enough so to be considered top notch.
This is is the exact reason why I think she is worth maining: nobody expects a special support who knows all about their hero and is capable of carrying.
Who should play Mirana?
Mirana is a great choice for players who want to main a support. She has a ton of crowd control right from level 1, and the vision she provides her teammates is astonishing. For beginners, this means a pretty good opportunity to learn how to act like an actual support. For experienced players she’s an excellent disabler-carry disguised as a support. There is nobody playing Dota 2 who couldn’t make good use of Mirana.
And if you’re just looking to win some ranked games, she’s fine for that too. Her winrate is above 50% in every single rank, so by playing consistently you will most likely start moving upwards.
What items does Mirana need?
- Aghanim’s Scepter
- Diffusal Blade
- Spirit Vessel
Unfortunately, Mirana’s core items aren’t as simple as they would be for most other Dota 2 heroes. You can’t just start building them straight off the bat mindlessly, relying on our guide. These items should be bought in this order, but not back-to-back. Between them you need to buy one other thing, which should be tailored to the current match you’re playing.
The item between Aghanim’s Scepter and Diffusal Blade will be obvious: some kind of boots. Phase Boots, Guardian Greaves and Power Treads are the most common ones, but their winrates vary a lot. This is because people immediately opt for Phase Boots, which is usually the ideal pick, but unfortunately a lot of players buy it even when it’s not necessary. You should only buy them if you need a lot of movement speed for roaming or getting to teamfights. Otherwise they won’t be of much help. Power Treads is a great buy if you want some more Intelligence. Guardian Greaves is a rather supportive item, as it allows you to spam your abilities and restore some health and mana to your allies.
If you want to take your build into a more aggressive route, you can buy Mjollnir, Monkey King Bar or Black King Bar. These will all give you a little more damage, although that’s probably not what you should be aiming for as a support. Therefore, only get them if you have a ton of gold and your team is already ahead.
Eul’s Scepter of Divinity and Linken’s Sphere are both all-out support items. They give you more mana regeneration, which helps you cast more of your abilities, and thus have a bigger impact on the game.
Ability build
- +2 Multishot Sacred Arrows
- +12% Spell Amplification
- -5s Sacred Arrow cooldown
- +200 Health
As you can see, this ability build maximizes what you can get out of your spells. It also has the highest winrate.
I must warn you though, when you are presented with the first option, do NOT pick the alternative. I know it’s tempting to have a smaller cooldown on your ultimate – by 70 seconds at that – but it isn’t worth it. You will use your Sacred Arrow much more often, and having your ultimate ready at all times won’t help as much.
When to switch it up
For once the list of counters against this Dota 2 hero is absolutely correct. The biggest threat to Mirana is Meepo, obviously. We have already talked about how dangerous he is because of his most recent buffs, but he also counters her hard.
If it just so happens that you get into a game with one of those awful match-ups, just start building like a regular support. You aren’t a carry or a nuker anymore, so don’t even try those types of tactics and builds. You will get pounded into the ground.
How to play as Mirana
Your playstyle depends on whether the enemy countered you or not. If they did, you need to stay in lane and stick to the carry. That’s not a situation where you want to risk dying and enabling the enemy to get ahead with a few kills, as even one death could be enough for them to get a lasting advantage over the rest of the game.
If they didn’t get countered, good for you. Start roaming as soon as you feel strong enough. If you aren’t confident in your Mirana skills yet, you can wait until you’ve built your first item. That’s the threshold, you can’t wait any longer than that under any circumstance. For that you will need quite a bit of gold though, so it’s ideal to push your carry to gain kills. Since you have a strong crowd control ability at level one (Sacred Arrow), you can easily hold down a hero for a couple of seconds to at least lower their health.
Once the laning phase ends and your team begins to group up, you need to be with them at all times. You are their initiator, their carry and helper. Without you, they aren’t likely to win teamfights, or at the very least their chances will be much lower.
