Mirana is one of the most versatile heroes in the game. She can do fine in any lane, can fit almost any strategy and can be played in all possible positions. She is a ranged agility carry and scales well with items into the late game. However, at the same time, she has a strong early game presence. Because of her long range high duration stun and high nuke damage, she has good kill potential and can afford to be active around the map. The fact that she is mobile makes such a play style even more beneficial.

There are two main reasons Mirana is getting picked in competitive Dota:

1. She is very versatile, so she is a safe pick in the first stages of the draft. She is quite hard to counter, and she can contribute to various strategies, which means that she gives tactical freedom to her team. This is a major reason she is a great hero to master. Spamming Mirana in pubs is quite easy exactly because she is very versatile and can fit various lineups quite well.
   
2. Mirana shines in action-packed games that focus on fights in the mid game. The reason for this is that unlike most carries she has very decent nuke damage from spells and has high kill potential in the early-mid game. Nonetheless, her tactical versatility means that if needed, she can start dodging fights and farming up for the late game instead. She is a ranged AGI hero and she scales well if she gets enough farm (which she can get because she is a decent flash-farmer).
   

Mirana is not the strongest hero in 1v1 situations but she can do decently versus most opponents. Her biggest problem is her low attack damage, but her other stats are good. A great trick that helps her in 1v1 scenarios is to use the Arrow to secure the ranged creep last hit or if this isn’t needed – to fire the arrow at a nearby camp (preferably at the big creep) to get some extra resources.

It is a good idea to avoid 1v1 matchups against heroes with very high last hitting potential (e.g. Templar Assassin, Bloodseeker, SF in the later laning stage, Puck early on, etc.). A good player on such heroes will severely win the last-hit war.

She is also a relatively hard mid laner to gank because of Leap, so it is an option to put her mid even if you suspect the lane is going to get pressured. 

The solo XP will help her get a high level in Starstorm as fast as possible and allow her to start getting kills around the map from very early on.

A core Mirana in a dual lane is likely the most common laning option. It’s easier to contest last hits with a support to help you out. More importantly, however, if your lane partner has a reliable long disable (Shadow Demon & Bane are the most common options), your lane will have amazing kill potential from early on because you’ll be able to land a relatively long-range arrow easily. The long disable of the arrow will allow both you and your ally to right-click and possibly even finish the kill with follow-up nukes.

You can send the dual lane to all three lanes, depending on the match-up. Against a weaker lane, you’ll be able to get a lot of farm and transition into a carry faster while slowing-down the development of the enemy. Against a stronger lane, you could stay safe thanks to Leap and use arrow on jungle creeps to help yourself get more resources. 

This position is probably the rarest out of the three because the hero needs some levels and farm to reach her full potential. Moreover, the main impact of a support Mirana is her ability to gank with long-range arrows, which is very unreliable and quite hard to pull off in practice.

Nevertheless, a roaming Mirana can apply a lot of pressure on the enemy cores, making them constantly watch out for arrows (a successful hit could easily lead to a kill if your cores have damage). If you have a core that can set up for the arrows (e.g. OD with Astral in the mid lane) your job will become much easier.

In case constantly roaming is not an option, with a couple of Clarities you can farm jungle creeps by killing the large one with the arrow. This will give you some resources and will ideally help you get enough items to transition into a semi-carry in the mid-late game. Because of Mirana’s resource dependence, she is not the best pos. 5 support and usually does best when played as a greedier pos. 4.

Nonetheless, Moonlight Shadow is always useful regardless of the level of farm you have.

Weak Against:

Strong Against:

Sacred Arrow Example:

On lvl1:

Leap on lvl 1 is the defensive option, allowing you to disengage unwanted fights. Arrow is the usual choice, allowing you to attempt kills even from lvl 1, especially with combos that can set up for your Arrow. More importantly for a core Mirana – it allows you to secure the ranged creep last-hit when your damage is lowest. Generally, the smart thing to do is to save your first point until you need one of the two skills.

Moonlight Shadow:

In more passive games with static lanes, you usually want to delay your ultimate because you wouldn’t use it a lot while your allies are visible in their lanes. If the game becomes action-packed from early on, however, having the invis could be great for some early ganks. The rule of thumb is that as a support Mirana you usually want to have it sooner rather than later, and as a core, you usually want to delay it a bit.

This build allows you to scale into a very potent right-click carry in the mid and late game.

In the early game, you go for the usual items for an AGI carry. A fast Aquila is vital because it gives you a much-needed boost to your right-click DPS. If you still have problems securing last hits you can go for Phase instead of Treads, but Treads are the usual choice because they make you a bit less squishy and help you more for farming with Maelstrom thanks to the AS.

The key item to the whole build is Maelstrom – it increases your farming speed a lot and with Leaps big AS boost you have very decent kill potential from early on. Afterward, you usually want to secure your survivability. In this example, you go for Dragon Lance and BKB, but you could choose alternative items. If you feel you don’t need the BKB so early, you can get it after the Mjollnir. 

In the late game, Mjollnir + Daedalus are the standard right-click items you get. Butterfly also gives very high value as on every AGI carry. Satanic is a great item in the super late game to help you stand your ground against enemy carries at least for your BKB duration.

The Aghanim’s build has fallen-off lately mostly because it doesn’t allow Mirana to scale as a true carry in the late game. In fact, even pos. 4 Miranas often go for a variation of the Maelstrom build. Nonetheless, an Agh’s burst damage build is still something to keep in mind if your team has enough late-game right-click carries.

In this example, the starting & early game items fit a roaming Mirana. If you are a core, you can simply use the standard AGI core items from above.

The Aghanim’s makes Starstorm a great tool for pushing out the waves and a devastating AoE nuke in fights. That’s why you usually want to follow it with a Blink, which allows you to position yourself perfectly for Starstorm and afterward disengage easily with Leap(s). You can repeat this every time your spells are off CD. 

In the late game, ETH + Dagon will increase your burst potential a great deal. Of course, it’s also possible to get some defensive items (e.g. Linken’s) to keep yourself alive if needed. It’s worth noting that BKB is less valuable in this build because you will rarely stand your ground and right-click - your playstyle is to go in-and-out of fights.

Mirana has a decent attack animation, but at the same time, her attack damage is quite low. This means that in the early laning stage contesting last hits against heroes with high damage might be very difficult – if you know you will be in a lane where you will have to fight for last hits, you might want to invest in items that increase your damage.

Use Sacred Arrow to secure the ranged last hit in 1v1 lanes if you suspect it could get denied. It is by far the most important creep and doing this will not let you fall behind in farm too much until you get some damage items.

If you are on the side lanes and contesting last hits is not such a problem, use Sacred Arrow on the nearby large jungle camp to get some additional resources. How often you do this depends on how much mana you can spare – if you have very good kill potential with your lane partner save the arrow for kill attempts. If getting early kills doesn’t seem viable, use it as often as possible for farming.

Passive Harass:

Because of your long range and decent attack animation, Passive Harass is relatively easy, especially against melee heroes or heroes with a short attack range. The more attack damage items you get, the more efficient your active harass becomes.

Active Harass:

In the early laning stage, you could try to hit a mid-range arrow and follow up with Leap and right-clicks. This could deal very decent harass damage and if your opponent is not on max HP it could even lead to a kill.

In the late laning stage, you could use Starstorm to secure last hits and harass at the same time. This is mana intensive, however. If you don’t have enough mana it would be better to save it for a kill attempt.

Your main killing tool on early levels is your Arrow. With a lane partner with good kill potential, if you manage to land a relatively long range Arrow, you could get a kill even from lvl 1. The long stun duration buys a lot of time to auto-attack.

In the later laning stage, when you have more levels in your Starstorm, your kill combo is the following: you manage to land an Arrow, you Leap towards the target, get in melee range, land a double Starstorm and finish the kill with attacks.

If the target is on relatively low HP and you don’t need a long stun duration to get the kill, you can choose to Leap first to ensure an easier to land Arrow and finish the kill the same way. For example, wait for an enemy to come closer to get a last-hit, you can use Leap and then cast Starstorm and short-range arrow to get the kill – try to Leap close to the enemy hero so that you can use can hit twice with Starstorm. 

The most reliable way to get kills, however, is with an ally that can set up for the Arrow. Otherwise, there is always a certain amount of luck involved in the success of your kill attempts. Anyway, if you don’t have this luxury, you should still try to land arrows whenever you think a kill is possible. Even if you are not successful, you don’t lose anything by trying – shooting the Arrow doesn’t require commitment, and you don’t risk anything but some mana.

Support Mirana

The key to success is landing your Arrow form a decent range, which will give you and your allies which are nearby time to finish the kill. With a setup, this could be relatively easy. Without setup, however, you need to think about the way you are shooting it. Take into consideration the aiming tips we have in the skills section of this guide – try to shoot from such an Angle that your target is unlikely to see the Arrow. Remember that when you are rotating to a lane in which you are not usually staying the enemy, there will not expect to get hit by an Arrow and will not be vigilant at all times.

Choosing where to rotate depends on the heroes in the lane. Even elusive and hard to kills targets can easily die to an Arrow initiation provided your ally in the lane has some damage to secure the kill. Because of this, you don’t really care if the enemy is tanky or squishy, mobile or not; the success of your rotations depends on your allies. Usually, it is best to rotate with another support – this way there will always be at least three heroes to finish the kill.

Core Mirana                        

For Mirana rotating out of the lane is optional. Mirana is strong at ganking because of her high nuke damage and control early on. So, if you decide that it is very important to attempt killing a particular hero, it might be worth it to leave the lane to do so. At the same time, you are a carry hero and you need to get as many resources as possible. Consequently, staying in the lane even in the late laning stage is not a bad choice.

Your biggest timing is when you get your ultimate. Try to coordinate your team and to capitalize on a Moonlight Shadow gank soon after you get the spell. You can gank your lane opponent; it isn’t necessary that you pressure the other lanes. You can even use your ult to help your allies gank without you present. 

Finally, it is much safer to rotate to a lane where your allies can set up your Arrow. This way the chances that your gank will succeed are much greater. Nevertheless, not having setup shouldn’t discourage you. If a lane needs help, it is better to try to help them rather than stay passive.

Even though Mirana is not a lane dominator, she can do quite well in a 1v1 situation. If you simply try to get last hits, you might get the worse end of the exchange (low damage) - try to create some space for yourself by pressuring your opponent with harass and kill attempts. Nevertheless, you are a carry, so your own gold and XP gain is your own priority. Last but not least, you can attempt to gank either alone or together with an ally. Your rotation will be mainly connected to the movement of your allies because of Moonlight Shadow. Moreover, you will likely need a setup for your arrow.

At lvl 5/7 your Starstorm starts dealing significant AoE damage. This opens up opportunities for you-you can use it to push out the wave so that you can more easily contest the rune.

When it comes to rune control, Mirana has a significant advantage over most heroes. First of all, Leap makes you mobile, and with it, you can easily race slower mid lane heroes to the rune. Secondly, if you have good vision on the rune spot, you can attempt Arrow hits which can even set up for kills provided a support from your team is in position. Aiming the Arrow at the rune just before your lane opponent is about to reach it is a good tactic.

By instantly killing the ranged creep it is possible to double-wave your opponent fairly easily. This could be useful in the early laning stage to force him to last-hit under tower. Remember that you have low attack damage, so contesting last hits in a static lane would put you at a disadvantage. Because of this using such creep manipulation tricks is useful. (Don’t forget to use aggro tricks as well).

In the late laning stage when you have more levels into Starstorm you could use double-waving to set up a kill attempt. When your creeps push under the enemy tower you could attempt to Leap and get a double Starstorm on your opponent. Followed up by right-clicks and arrow this could give you a solo kill.

Sumail plays mid flawlessly against Storm Spirit.

Notice that at early levels he focuses heavily on harassing. This is because he knows he has an advantage in the range of his attack. If he passively fights for last hits he will lose, because Storm has higher damage. Harassing him to make him pay for last hits is the better option.

Sumail even takes Starstorm on lvl1 which is unusual. While it doesn’t guarantee the ranged last hit like Sacred Arrow, it does some additional harass damage on the Storm. It pushes the wave (because of the AoE damage), but his is not a big deal in this matchup because Storm will constantly be pushing the wave as well with Remnant.

Notice that Sumail buys two Wraith Bands (later one becomes an Aquila) and Phase Boots. This shows how highly he values more attack damage – it’s vital for taking last hits comfortably.

On 03:08 (of the vide), Sumail gets a beautiful solo kill. Notice how he sets it up – he fires the arrow just as his opponent commits to the last hit, which doesn’t give him a chance to react. 

Tiny’s rotations are also interesting to note – before lvl6 Storm is not mobile, which makes him vulnerable to ganks. Tossing Storm on top of Sumail guarantees that he will be able to get a double Starstorm and secure the kill.

Mirana is one of the strongest carries to put in a dual lane because of her huge combo kill potential from early on. Usually, you want to accommodate this kill potential and make it more reliable by getting her a lane partner that can set up for the Arrow.

Depending on your lane partner, you need to start attempting kills right when your kill combo becomes potent enough. In some cases, this could be even from level 1. For example, together with Shadow Demon or Bane, you can land a very long-range Arrow thanks to the disables of the supports and secure the kill with attacks.

If kill attempts are not possible at the moment, your priorities should be to:

As we mentioned the ideal partners for Mirana in a dual lane are heroes that can set up for her Arrow. This works best with long duration disables which can allow Mirana to easily land a long-range Arrow – the more stun duration you get from the Arrow, the more time you will have to attack the hero freely, and the higher the chance will be that you are able to finish it off.

It is preferable that your lane partner is ranged because the kill combo relies on auto attacks and a ranged hero will be able to stick to the target and auto attack for longer. 

Any source of additional damage (nukes, dots, etc.) is a good bonus.

Other examples: Shadow Demon, Naga Siren, Maiden

Ahjit playes Mirana in the offlane together with his ally Tiny against Void and Treant.

Even though this is not a tough lane (the enemy heroes don’t have kill potential on him), it’s a very hard lane to get last hits in. Both Treant and Void have much higher damage than him, so they can focus on last-hitting and denying. In order to ensure that he doesn’t fall behind in farm, he uses multiple last-hit tricks:

• He stays in melee range to take the last hit as fast as possible.
  
• He pulls the creep aggro towards him to prevent the Void from reaching the creeps.
  
• He uses Sacred Arrow on enemy ranged and siege creeps to ensure the most important last hits.
  

On minute 05:20 (in the video), he manages to get a beautiful solo kill on the enemy Void. Crystalize thinks he can out-run the Mirana to the Bounty rune. Instead of racing him to the rune with Leap, Ahjit realizes he can ensure the Sacred Arrow hit if he times it with the rune spawn (a trick we mentioned in “Controlling the Rune”). He hits the arrow and follows up with Leap, double Starstorm and another Leap to secure the kill, managing to bring down Void from almost full health by himself.

It’s important to note that if Void hadn’t used Time Walk this kill wouldn’t be possible because he’d be able to backtrack the nuke damage, but since he used it to try to secure the rune he was left vulnerable. A similar situation happens at 08:15 in the video – Void uses Time Walk to run away, but he gets intercepted and disabled by CM. With the help of Frostbite's setup, it’s easy for Ahjit to hit the arrow and secure the kill.

On minute 12:00 Ahjit times a beautiful arrow, predicting the movement of Enigma and securing the kill. 

Notice that he stays in lane for a long time. He is practically his team’s position 1 hero and it’s important for him to maximize his farm. Moreover, he is extremely hard to gank, so staying to farm and pressure the enemy tower is the most productive choice in the long run. Nonetheless, he still uses Moonlight to try to help his allies whenever they are fighting.

If you are running a support Mirana, she will usually start the game the lane and transition into rotating to other lanes sooner rather than later, practically leaving the lane for the majority of the laning stage. Unlike some other roaming heroes, Mirana doesn’t really need a lot of levels to rotate efficiently. The success of her rotations is usually determined by the accuracy of her arrows – even on lvl1, she has the potential for a 5-sec stun.

Of course, the later the game goes, the more kill potential your core heroes will have, so the more dangerous arrows become.

If you are not in a position to get kills, you can pull and farm the jungle – arrow instantly kills creeps, so you can take the large creeps with it and finish off the small ones with attacks. When roaming you need to have enough clarities to sustain your arrow spam for farming and ganking.

The laning outcome isn’t a huge determining factor of the play style of Mirana. If you have a resource lead, it is important to try to use it and pressure your opponents – gain map control and afterward out-farm them.

After a bad laning stage, you probably need to do the same thing. You are not the fastest farmer in the game - in fact, you don’t really flash farm before you get an item like Maelstrom (or Agh’s), so it is unlikely that you will be able to catch up by being passive. You need to use your kill potential and get as many ganks and favorable fights as possible with Moonlight and Arrow. That being said, it is possible to use Moonlight to set up fights for your allies while you are focusing on farming and split-pushing. This option, however, depends on your lineup.

5-Man Pushing:

In 5-man pushing Mirana is very rarely a front-line hero even if she is quite farmed. She is usually squishy and even with items could easily die if she is the one that gets jumped. You can use your Leap for more tower damage, but be careful and leave some charges if you need to escape.

Most of the time, opponents will have some initiators that can jump on you. In such a scenario when pushing as 5, try to stay at a distance and use your Arrow optimally. Try to hit a hero with it before the enemy team initiates (this could give your teammates time to finish off the tower and will make your opponents hesitant to jump). If you don’t see good Arrow targets, use it to scout the positioning of the enemy team. They might be wrapping around you to initiate from a better angle.

Split-Pushing:

Until you get your flash-farming items, you are a relatively slow split-pusher as you can kill waves only with Starstorm. After you get them, however, you could actually clear waves and push out the lane quite fast. You don’t do too much tower damage before you get right-click items. This means you usually want to push-out the wave and get back to a safer farming spot. In the late game, however, pressuring enemy towers while the enemy team is away to force a reaction is definitely a viable thing to do with Mirana.

When you see that enemies are missing and suspect they could be ganking you, you need to get away safely. If you think you are in real danger, it is not a bad move to use Moonlight Shadow to ensure you get to safety more easily. Using your Arrow to scout is also important – for example, check if enemies are hiding behind the tower to initiate on you (an enemy supports might be staying there and waiting for his ally to TP in and kill you).

If you see an opponent closing the distance, Leap is your main escape mechanism – if you manage to get it off before you are disabled, the enemy team is unlikely to be able to catch up. In case you are not sure where enemies are, you can Leap into the trees and teleport away. Alternatively, you can wait in the trees to see whether enemies are rotating to the lane. It could be that they have something else in mind (to kill Roshan or get a gank on your teammates). If you see that enemies are actually elsewhere on the map and are not coming, you can Leap out and continue split-pushing.

Moonlight Initiation:

You shouldn’t think that detection totally counters Moonlight Shadow. When you are initiating a team fight with it, not all of your heroes would enter the range of the true sight right away. Usually, your initiators and tanks will be in the front lines, while the more squishy supports and damage dealers will move behind. The first heroes to be revealed will be the frontline heroes. Your opponents will have to jump on them because they wouldn’t immediately have the vision on your other heroes. For mobile pick-off heroes like Storm and other initiators who want to jump to the backlines and kill-off or control the squishier targets, this could be a big problem. After all, you want your tanks to be focused while your squishier heroes have the freedom to cast spells and deal damage. So, even with detection, using Moonlight might give your team a few seconds of freedom, which in even games might predetermine the outcome of a fight.

Positioning:

You as Mirana need to start the fight at the backlines. Your big attack range helps to contribute from a safe distance.

Ideally, you will have arrow to follow-up the disable of another ally. If there is no such opportunity, you can still attempt a short-range arrow after the Moonlight initiation. If an important target is disabled, you usually want to activate your BKB, Leap forward, cast a melee range Starstorm and finish the enemy off with attacks. You always have the option to Leap backward if you feel in danger.

Don’t commit blindly, however. It’s perfectly fine to right-click from the backlines until you see a good opportunity to jump. This is especially true if you don’t have BKB – Leaping in too aggressively is likely to get you into big trouble.

If you have Blink (and Agh’s) one of the best moves you can make in team fights is to blink on top of the enemy heroes, try to burst one down with Starstorm and any nuke items you have and to immediately disengage with Leap afterward.

Video Example (Sumail):

The fight starts unfavorably for EG. They try to initiate on the Necro and burst him down, but he manages to activate Eul’s and to dodge the arrow, which helps him stay alive. This is a problem for EG because they have wasted a couple of spells and now they are vulnerable to Aster’s counter-initiation.

Knowing this, Sumail tries to stay safe – watch his positioning. He stays out of range of the enemy initiation and whenever possible deals some damage.

When Storm commits on him, he creates some distance with Leap and hits him with Sacred Arrow, allowing EG to burst him down.

Afterwards, Aster commit on Arteezy and while they kill him they are left on low HP. Sumail needs to make a decision – to commit to a fight, get some kills and risk dying or to cut EG’s losses and Leap to safety. With Mirana it’s usually best to make the safe choices – dying too much will quickly make you irrelevant in the late game. 

In this case, however, Sumail realizes that he could take a couple of kills, one of which is Spectre. Trading a pos. 2 Mirana for a Spect + some change is always a good trade, so he jumps in with Leap and uses melee range Starstorm. Although he dies, he gets a triple kill, showcasing Mirana’s burst damage potential.

There are a few different ways to execute a gank:

• The most fail-proof way is to use Moonlight Shadow so that you are not seen by Observers or something else that gives vision and initiate on your chosen target. Ideally, you would have an ally with a reliable disable with you, and you will be able to follow up with your Arrow and Starstorm to finish the kill.
  
• With an ally that has a good setup for your arrow, you can choose to stay at a distance and wait for the initiation. Once it happens, you can land a long-range arrow and get a kill with the help of your allies out of the very long disable.
  
• Finally, if you want to attempt a solo kill (or your allies don’t have any setup for the arrow), there are two ways to do so:
  

If you think you need a long disable to finish off the target, you should simply attempt a long-range Arrow. If it connects, you can run and Leap to your target and finish it off. If not, you can back off and wait for another ganking opportunity.

The second way will give you a more certain initiation – Moonlight Shadow (ask your allies to get back first – you cannot use it only on yourself), melee range Arrow and Starstorm into attacks. The disable will be very short, however, so you need to consider whether you will be able to do enough damage to get the kill.

Sacred Arrow is a powerful scouting tool because it provides 650 flying vision around it and because of the 3k range of the spell. Provided you don’t think you will need it very soon for a fight and if you have the mana sustain, you should use it often. Check all areas of interest – Roshan pit, Ancients, enemy jungle, paths from which you could get ganked or initiated for a team fight, etc.

Using Moonlight Shadow as something like a Smoke of Deceit is not a bad idea when you are entering foreign territory where you don’t have vision. This could give you the opportunity to surprise your opponents and get a pick-off and map control instead of walking into a trap. Nevertheless, the duration is lower than that of smoke, so it gives you very short time to enter the territory (e.g. enemy jungle) and do something out of it.

Farming with Mirana is quite straightforward – you want to use your Starstorm for AoE damage to allow you to finish off camps and waves faster, and you want to use Leap to move faster from camp to camp and so, increase your farming rate. The IAS of Leap could also help you to kill faster high-HP creeps, like for example Ancients.

Using Sacred Arrow to kill off the highest HP creeps is quite important before you get enough items (but can still be used afterward to further speed up your farming).

Because of the long CD of Starstorm, it is a good idea, when it is not available, to hit different creeps a couple of times to bring them to lower HP in order to finish them off once it becomes available. If you have it available when you start farming the camp (or creep wave), it is generally best to use it right away.