LogFAQs > #964454467

I agree, Tony, but I just have awful luck and/or positioning, I guess, when I play him :(

80 - Mirana (ranged Agility)
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/2/8/7/AAAACbAADJ-X.jpg
Basic Abilities: Starstorm, Sacred Arrow, Leap, Moonlight Shadow
Shard ability: Upgrades Leap with an additional charge, dealing 150 magical damage and slowing in front of Mirana where she and Sagan land.
Scepter ability: Upgrades Sacred Arrow to cast Starstorm in a 500 unit radius around the main arrow during its travel, and cast another half-power Starstorm on the unit it collides with.
Notable 7.31(b) changes: Base attack damage, agility growth, armor, and attack speed all lowered; base agility increased to compensate (slight late-game nerf as a result.) Shard ability changed from 150% damage criticals on attacks with the Leap buff active (plus the additional charge) to the current shard.

As I alluded to in the last hint, Mirana is one of my most played heroes, but I feel she's in a terrible place right now. Let's go over the abilities again before I go a bit more into my opinions.

Starstorm is a Mirana-centralized circular delayed blast nuke. After the cast point, a bunch of meteors fall simultaneously on any visible enemy in the radius. The nearest enemy unit will be hit by a second meteor a moment later, even if they duck into fog of war.

Sacred Arrow is the defining Mirana ability that Ashe stole and modified as a global ultimate in League. A slim skillshot that travels painfully slowly, the arrow that Mirana fires will instantly kill any enemy creep or normal jungle monster hit by it. More importantly, if you tag a hero, hero-creep, Roshan, or an ancient creep with it, they will take scaling damage and be stunned based on how far the arrow has travelled.

Leap is a three-charge ability that launches Mirana in the direction she's facing, buffing her with a short burst of increased movement speed or attack speed. A level 10 talent can increase the distance launched, while a level 15 talent can greatly increase the attack speed buff she applies to herself.

Moonlight Shadow, her ultimate, buffs her team with a slow-fading invisibility and increased movement speed (and, with a talent at 15, 20% evasion.) Simple but effective.

Easy, right? Take a look at those stats, though. She has bad starting stats that don't grow nearly as powerful as other similar ranged agility heroes as the game goes on, pigeonholing her into a caster/nuker roaming jungler or support hero, but one that either requires a good setup or the element of surprise. Long gone are the days of Singsing's "shoot arrow, hit arrow" wonder - she frequently lives, and more frequently dies, through the strength of her kit alone; if roaming and taking potshots at jungle camps while showing in lane are both bad, she is in a really weak position where she can't catch back up without putting herself in danger. Alternatively, if you try to pick her as a core, she will get easily outfarmed by any other traditional melee core or those "versatile" heroes with inherent farming abilities better than Starstorm, like Gyrocopter or Shadow Fiend. Additionally, unlike other "jack of all trades" picks that can function in multiple roles, an early Mirana pick is very, very easily countered. Anything that will stop a Pudge gank flat (read: decent warding) will punish her focusing on roaming support build even harder, and a Bloodseeker pick makes her ult useless for anything but offense short of taking the evasion talent.

Mirana is great fun but extremely inconsistent and should absolutely not be either your main support or your main core, and... oh, I've lost the reason she dropped down! She was in my personal top 20 earlier, but the change to Leap to be yet another nuke feels clunky as all hell - especially since it feels like it cancels her own autoattacks after being used; not a good thing to have if you're relying on it to boost her attack speed. What's more, since the Shard no longer gives her free criticals, it feels like it draws away some of her versatility for skill build. Other item/recipe changes for 7.31 also feel like they've hurt, rather than helped her. Ethereal Blade now requires a Kaya instead of a Butterfly, which further pigeonholes her into a nuker build instead of letting her mix up her damage, while she also dislikes the Orchid change in that it *doesn't* provide her with any additional mana regeneration she sorely needs. About the only item change that feels like it benefited her is the new Revenant's Brooch, which hits enemies for magical damage and can hit Ethereal Units, but it gives her a lot of extra intelligence she doesn't need and requires a steep investment for both the Ethereal Blade and that.

Also, items aside, I feel like she's been nerfed throughout the years. Leap doesn't buff allies like it once did. Arrow stun now scales less than it used to over distance, and requires leveling Arrow more to get the most out of it. Old Aghanim's Scepter provided free Starstorms around Mirana, which turned her into a shotgunner, which consequently made Starstorm get nerfed to hell, and the new Scepter is a - funnily enough - pale, moonlit shadow of what it once was. Sort of like the current patch's Shard.

And for a cosmetic quibble - why in the blue hell can I not use her circus taunt with the persona equipped? Seriously, her persona just is... leaps and bounds better-looking and better-sounding.
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/2/8/8/AAAACbAADJ-Y.jpg

Next hero hint: Sheer concentrated fun in a small package, but gets sorely outclassed if they don't snowball.