Guide To Naga Siren, Slithice

Slithice - The Naga Siren

Backgound Story:
Slithice was always a vagabond among the Naga, roaming beyond the boundaries of the sea in search of new things. During her adventures she met and fell in love with a young Orc training to be a Blademaster. Though he was inexperienced he taught her many Orcish fighting tactics employed by seasoned warriors. During their courtship as she was learning how to make traps from a local raider, a swarm of Scourge came and invaded, her love was killed before her very eyes. She used her Naga magics to put the evil to sleep and fled, and now gives her all to the Sentinel, in the name of her love.

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1. Pros'n'Cons and Stats
2. The Skills
3. Skill Build
4. Item Build
5. Gameplay
6. Illusion/Ultimate Usage
7. Replays
8. Credits

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1. Pros'n'Cons and Stats

Stats
* Intelligence 18 + 1.65
* Agility 21 + 2.75
* Strength 21 + 2.3


* Affiliation: Sentinel
* Attack Animation: 0.5 / 0.5
* Damage: 51-53
* Casting Animation: 0.5 / 0.7
* Armor: 6
* Base Attack Time: 1.7
* Movespeed: 320
* Missile Speed: Instant
* Attack Range: 100 (Melee)
* Sight Range: 1800 / 800

* Starting HP: 549
* Starting mana: 234



Pros'n'Cons


Pro

[+] Fast base Movespeed
[+] Long semi-disable (one of the best)
[+] Ultimate very strong (escape or help engage)
[+] Free scout with illusions
[+] Good stats (overall)
[+] Strong pusher
[+] Wins nearly every 1on1

Cons

[-] Relatively low hp (agility hero)
[-] AoE nukes kill images very fast
[-] Melee hero



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2. The Skills

Mirror Image


Confuses the enemy by summoning copies of Slithice, which can deal damage. Images take triple damage (300%). Lasts 30 sec and has 40 sec cooldown.

Level 1 - 1 illusion(s) with 15% damage (70 mana)
Level 2 - 2 illusion(s) with 30% damage (80 mana)
Level 3 - 3 illusion(s) with 30% damage (90 mana)
Level 4 - 3 illusion(s) with 45% damage (100 mana)

Our illusions are what makes us a very dangerous girl.
Notes:
* During the casting, Slithice is invulnerable. This can be used to avoid spell and attack damage.
* Upon cast most effects will be removed from Slithice.
* If Slithice is targeted with an attack or skill before the attacker is in range and she uses Mirror Image the attacker will hit the real Slithice.
* Naga Siren and illusions all have 8 collision size.
Important: Read Mechanics -> Illusions to get some informations about what items work on illusions.



Ensnare


Entraps an enemy unit in a net, rendering the unit unable to move. 14 seconds cooldown.

Level 1 - 2 seconds (75 Mana)
Level 2 - 3 seconds (85 Mana)
Level 3 - 4 seconds (95 Mana)
Level 4 - 5 seconds (105 Mana)

Great skill in every gamestate, in best case we will have 5 seconds free hits with hero and 3 illusions
Notes:
* Works on magic immune units.
* Interrupts channeling spells.
* A few spells, including Blink, will also be disabled when Ensnared.
* Ensnare sets the movement speed of the affected unit to zero.
* Ensnare dispells non-combat consumables.

Additional Ensnare Information:
* Linkens Neglects Ensnare
* If Ensnares Hero uses Dagger, Blink or i.e. Waveform they
will be ensnared the rest of the duration at the new spot.
* Pugnas Decrepify and Abbadons Aphotic Shield and Burrowed time
remove Ensnare




Critical Strike


Gives a chance to deal 1.5 times damage on an attack. Passive.

Level 1 - 15% chance
Level 2 - 25% chance
Level 3 - 35% chance
Level 4 - 45% chance

Critical damage of our illusions is not shown correctly in order to hide which is the right Slithice.



Song of the Siren


Slithice sings a tempting song. Enemy units near her are put to sleep. 200 mana, 120seconds cooldown.

Level 1 1000 AoE - 6 seconds
Level 2 1500 AoE - 7 seconds
Level 3 2000 AoE - 8 seconds

Great ultimate, weather to save ourself/mates or initiate teambattle (if your team needs like 6 more seconds to get in position)
Notes:
* Gives vision around all affected units.
* Does not work on invisible units.
* Sleeping units are invulnerable until the end of the spell.




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3. Skill Build

Common:

1. Ensnare
2. Mirror Image
3. Ensnare
4. Mirror Image
5. Ensnare
6. Song of the Siren
7. Ensnare
8. Mirror Image
9. Mirror Image
10. Critical Strike
11. Song of the Siren
12. Stats
13. Stats
14. Stats
15. Stats
16. Song of the Siren
17. Critical Strike
18. Critical Strike
19-25. Stats/Critical Strike

Jungle Sisters:

This is how you can skill if you want to jungle with slithice.
But notice that jungling with naga siren is just effective with level 3 or 4.

1. Mirror Image
2. Critical Strike
3. Mirror Image
4. Critical Strike
5. Mirror Image
6. Ensnare
7. Mirror Image
8. Ensnare
9. Song of the Siren
10. Ensnare
11. Song of the Siren
12. Ensnare
13. Stats
14. Stats
15. Stats
16. Song of the Siren
17. Critical Strike
18. Critical Strike
19-25. Stats

So jungling is possible, but i do not reccomend it, there are much better heros to clear the jungle from the beginning on.

Explaination:
We will get ensnare first in order to prevent early ganks,
followed by mirror image to deal more damage if our team ganks, remove/avoid most poisons/stuns and as one of the best reasons the scouting.
Our ultimate will help us to prevent ganks on our team, whatever some people prefer to get it at level 9 but we dont want to get ganked.

That leads me to the point where we will just get one first level of critical strike (for now) and skill stats instead.
This has several reasons like images only benefit from extra damage/attackspeed gained by stats/agility and more hp/mana which are barely needed since we are only a little fragile sea girl.
If you mathcraft it, stats before critical strike is much more effective
and has more benefits for our hero.



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4. Item Build

Starting Items:





Not that common, but we will barely need reg/hp.
I have chosen 2 circlets, because we will get wraith bands anyways.

add

Go on with:
, + 3x into 3x
complete Power Treads
, into (STR)


so our itemcore will be:





Situational starting items:

Magic Stick/Magic Wand:

They are definetly an option if you have heros on your lane that spam their spells, according to what we need - stats - we should upgrade Magic Strick to Magic Wand.
Note: They can be usefull too if you jungle, because some creeps use spells, especially if you are there with your illusions. This also adds charges to the items.

Poor Mans Shield:

Poor mans shield is an option if you have a really hard lane.
(But always remember: block does not work on illusions.)


After we have completed our itemcore, the little sea girl
learned how to survive and we can get serious stuff.



, into
(level 1, upgrade only if charges are used)


into
in addition with into


We should have it like this:



everything else is luxury!



Quelling Blade?
Quelling blade is gread for farming and illusions also benefit from the damageboost against creeps.
Must have for Slithice. (does not work with lifeleach)

Why Power Treads instead of Phase Boots?
PT is all we need, since all we want are stats to take fully advantage of our Mirror Image spell. Phase Boots may have higer movement speed and an active chase ability,
but the other stats (+damage and +amor) are just crappy on an
agility hero that uses images to deal tons of damage.
(further explainations in the mechanics section)

3 Wraithband, why dont u go Diffusal directly?
As an agility hero we have very low hit points.
Wraith Bands are the cheapest and for our hero most effective tier 1 item,
that provides us with all we want (hp, damage) via stats.

Diffusal Blade:
*Purge ability which is very usefull for chasing an enemy.
*Diffusal has one of the rare orb effects which even work with our images, which means that every hit wether from you or your
images will burn the opponents mana and deal additional damage on every hit,
damage type of orb is physical.
(mathcraft incoming: you + 3 images = 4x20(36) = 80(144) damage
if all 4 hit once, remember its only the damage from the orb effect.)
*Nice Stats (agility is exactly what we want to push our images damage output)

-> all in all, diffusal is the best item we can imagine with Slithice


Manta Style:
Provides us with good stats (damage, movespeed, hp) and an active ability
that is equal to our level 3 Mirror Image spell, which means that we
will permanently have images around. Higher damage is the result.





Luxury Items:
We basically have all we want now, and every further item will mainly strengthen the main Slithice.(except hp items)


Butterfly:

Decent item with good agility gain aswell as higher damage for you and your images.
(remember that illusions dont benefit from +IAS and +raw damage)

Heart of Terrasque:

Best item to get survivability via hp gain.
Expensive but solid.

Linkens Sphere:

Linkens Sphere with good stats and nice survivability against single target spells like stun/doom.




Items to avoid:

Battle Fury:

BF is just crap on this hero.
Remember that we want to strengthen our main hero AND our images.
While raw +dmg wont work on illusions and cleave dosent work too
this item combines everything we do NOT want.

Crystalis/Buriza:

We already have critical strike, and again +raw dmg is no option.


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5. Gameplay

Earlygame:

Picking Slithice:
You dont want to pick Slithice if there is more than one hero with decent AoE nuke in the game, because they will destroy your images with just one or two spells.

Heros to Avoid are:

(just to name a few)


Choosing the lane and the lanepartner:

The Siren is a little fragile girl, so we dont want to be solo.
Chose wether top or bottom lane, but also prefer top for scourge and bot for sentinel. Its just that the tower will help us staying alive against 2 nukers in earlygame.

As we already have one of the strongest ingame disables we fit with nearly every other hero. Whatever - another disable/slow will surely grant us early game kills.

Perfect lane-partner:

Dazzle - The Shadow Priest

why?
* we fight with pure physical power, while dazzle can reduce enemy armor really heavy.
* good slow wich helps us to get next to the enemy and net again.
* chain heal which deals damage around every target he heals.

--> so just Mirror Image -> Slow -> Ensnare -> heal Naga + images -> dead

dazzle and siren are pure synergy

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The Earlygame (1-7):

Get your starting items...
Get on your lane...
... and try to farm.

If you have a pair of disablers just hug tower and get a creep now and then.
Use your spells offensively and defensively, like initiating/deny a gank with net
or scouting your woods if opponents team has misses.
(also try to net your enemy while he has towerfocus)

Once u hit level 6, and have your ultimate, it will grant you another big portion of survivability for you and your team.
Dont be shy to use it, there is no waste of your ultimate if it helps you to stay alive in critical situations.

Note: that you are capable of jungling too, since your mirror image has relatively low mana cost, use your images to block.
(in this case you may chance skillbuild in illusions first with level 1 critical strike and ensnare then, or just illusions first and ensnare second.)

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The Midgame (8-14):

Start carrying TP scrolls to either get say from a gank,
(Ultimate -> tp will save you for nearly 100%) or teleport
to other lanes/team mates and gank the other team,
remember that a well timed teleport of yourself will cause a very
critical situation for your opponents because of your 5 seconds disable.
But do not let your farm get too low.
At this point of the game we are finishing our Diffusal, which greatly increases our damage output, while purging the enemy stops them from runnay away (in addition to Ensnare.
They will never get away.
(if you have a warlock in your game: use your diffusal to neglect his ultimate)

Overall your role in Midgame:
Gank or farm while always watching the minimap to be able to help your team with a "save song".

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The Lategame (15-25):

At this state of the game, you should not go out alone too far, because teamganks are coming up.
Well we can use our ultimate to save ourselves but in lategame i reccomend to use your ultimate in teamsituations.
Stick with your team and gank, or 1on1 gank someone if you have warded their woods, there arent many heros that can match with you in 1on1.



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6. Illusion/Ultimate Usage

Ultimate
There are some tricks to use this ultimate correctly.

Defensively:
1. Save your mates in critical situations, maybe after a blink-ultimate that brings you and your mates to ~20% hp
2. Buy time if enemy tries to push your (base)tower and your teammates arent there in time.

Offensively:
1. Ultimate if other team is bunched up while your mates are getting into position and use their ultimates to destroy them after your sleep is gone.

Hint: Enemy carry will not be affected by your ultimate if he is magic immune,
which means that you sleep all after he activates, so he is the only one you can attack and your team will eat him alive 1vs5.
(net still works if Black King Bar is active)

Heros that have ultimates that fit to the offensive strategy:

(not all heros but i think this shows how powerfull such a "timed gank" can be)


There are also heros with spells that work while sleep is active.
Some of them are:







Does NOT work.




Illusions
Our illusions are our strongest weapon and its most important to use them correctly.


1. Initiating a gank
To take fully advantage of your skills, hide behind a tree if possible, cast illusions, run around the tree and net.
If you first net and then cast illusions it will cost you 2-3 free hits (of every image too) on the enemy.
Although there are situation where you have to net first and then cast illusions, but first move next to the enemy and cast Mirror Image next to him.

2. Neglecting a Poison/Stun
There are situations, like a gank, where you just w8 for the enemy to cast their stun/poison and cast your illusions after the projectile is in the air. While you are invoulnerable while casting illusions, it will not hit you.
You just have to excercise it and you should have a quite stable/good internet connection.
I do not reccomend this if you have any lag.

3. Trick the enemy in lanephase
You may also cast images and auto attack creeps with all.
Then select one image and controle it like it would be the main Siren, while the real one is autohitting.
Sounds a bit strange but i did that hundrets of times and there are many players that waste their spells into your illusion.
(make sure your other illusions/main Siren arent hit by the creeps and pushing the lane via autoattack is usefull in this situation)