Introduction
“Siren rises from the deeps.”
Naga Siren is a melee agility hero that, somewhat uniquely, can be played as either a hard carry or a support. This particular guide will focus on Naga as a support.
She is most well known for her ‘anti-fun’ ultimate, Song of the Siren, which puts all enemy units in a huge radius to sleep for a lengthy 7 seconds.
You can find Naga Siren's complete character profile here.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Song of the Siren can be used as an initiation tool or to disengage from a poor fight
- Very high base move speed
- Very high base armour
- Has a disable that goes through spell immunity
Cons
- As a support she needs to be paired up with a good partner
- Her disable does not stun and does not deal damage
- Her nuke relies on being almost within melee range of targets
- Melee attack range is less than ideal for dewarding as a support
- Song of the Siren can just as easily harm your team as it does save it if not timed well
- Need good micro skills in order to get the most out of her
Support Naga Item Build
As with almost every support in the game your starting items are fairly standard. In particular, it’s your job to ensure that the Courier and/or Observer Wards are bought at the start of the game. Usually these duties will be split between yourself and another hero on your team, but you can’t always guarantee this in public games. If no one else ponies up the gold for one then you should bite the bullet and buy both for your team.
Good starting items for support Naga are:
- Courier and/or Observer Wards, a Set of Tangos, a Healing Salve, 3x Iron Branches, and as many Clarities as you can afford.
Early Game
Ensure that the Courier is upgraded into a Flying Courier when it comes off cooldown at the 3 minute mark. Also ensure that Observer Wards are always purchased when they’re off cooldown.
Get your Boots of Speed up and running first. Naga Siren actually has fantastic base move speed (320), but you’ll still want the added mobility and security that brown boots provide you as a support.
Finally, upgrade any Iron Branches you have into a Magic Wand. You may wish to consider an early Bracer for the cost efficient stats it provides early on and the ability to upgrade it into a Drums of Endurance in the mid-game, but this is optional.
Core Items
Arcane Boots are my favourite upgraded boots on support Naga Siren. Unlike carry Naga, who will use her abilities sparingly for the most part (and even then typically the cheaper of the four for farming purposes), support Naga will actually use her Ensnare and Rip Tide abilities frequently from the get-go. You will also need to be able to call on Song of the Siren at a moment’s notice AND you’ll need mana for Mekanism if you’re the one building it for your team. All told, that’s a lot of mana you’ll be burning through, so a higher mana pool and burst mana regeneration are great to have. Additionally, Arcane Boots provide great utility for your team, and will allow you to more easily pull off being the team’s Mekanism carrier.
Talking of which - if there are no more viable Mekanism carriers on your team that will get it up much faster than you (such as a mid-Viper, or a jungle Chen), then Mekanism should be your go-to core item – it’s absolutely necessary for your team. Be sure to check with your team to see if anyone else intends to build one before you get started on it. If someone else does intend to build it then you can move straight onto a luxury item pick-up.
I love running Mekanism on support Naga. The only real downside is that you may be slow to get one completed, and you pretty much have to get Arcane Boots first. Still, she’s a great holder for the Mek – already innately fairly tanky, Mekanism makes her significantly more tanky and provides a tonne of support and utility for your team.
Luxury Items
Drums of Endurance – Drums of Endurance are a great option because they give you team bonus attack speed and move speed auras, whilst at the same time giving you plenty of stats and being easy to build into (since the components are so cheap you can buy them up whenever you have the spare unreliable gold, meaning you won’t lose much gold when you die). If you already have a Bracer from the early game as well then Drums become a natural extension to your inventory.
Good stats, utility, and cost-efficiency – what’s not to like? The only time I wouldn’t consider purchasing them is if a core on the team already has Drums – the auras don’t stack and so their advantage as a utility pick-up is largely lost, so your team would be better served by something else, such as…
Vladmir’s Offering – Your entire team will benefit from the bonus damage, mana regeneration, and armour auras. It’s doubly good if any of your team’s core heroes are melee DPS’ers thanks to the lifesteal aura. You’re melee too, so you get even more out of it than most supports.
Let’s not forget, either, that Naga is a viable core hero, and although you’re playing a support role in this particular case, should the game go long enough you will gradually be able to transition into more of a DPS role. Vlad’s doubles up both as a great utility item for your team and also an item that can allow you to start transitioning into more of a core role as the game drags on.
Blink Dagger – Blink Dagger is a strong positional item. You can use it to make up for your lack of innate positioning ability (aside from Song, which you don’t want to waste) to get off your abilities. A good alternative is Force Staff, which has the added advantage of allowing you to provide utility for your team (forcing allies out of bad situations, for example).
Heaven’s Halberd – I love picking this up on supports that can transition into cores, like Alchemist or Sven. At this stage of the game you’re actually becoming difficult to deal with yourself and transitioning into more of a semi-carry, so a Heaven’s Halberd (which doubles up as both a good carry item and a support item) is an ideal pick-up. It will make you even harder to take down and also gives you the ability to disarm enemies for 3-4.5 seconds.
Scythe of Vyse – The likelihood of you being able to afford a Scythe during all but the longest of games (or largest of stomps) is minimal, but if you can afford it then definitely get it! Another 3.5 seconds of disable for your team is absolutely enormous, and that’s on top of the stats it provides.
Necronomicon – Great if you’re part of a pushing line-up or your team is struggling to break the base. Also a great item for teamfights and for countering any invis enemy heroes. Finally, don’t forget it gives you a pretty decent chunk of stats - +16 strength and +24 intelligence; always nice to have.
Situational Items
Sentry Wards, Dust of Appearance, Gem of True Sight – all-important detection. You’ll need at least one of these in your inventory if the enemy line-up features an invis hero. Sentry Wards will also allow you to deward rune spots, and Gem will give you superior vision going into the mid and late game.
Smoke of Deceit – If you roam with another support in the early stages of the game a Smoke will allow you to do so more quickly and without being spotted by enemy wards. Smoke will also come in handy in the post-laning phase if your team wants to gank as 5.
Medallion of Courage - A really good cost-effective early game support item. The mana regeneration will help a lot, especially if you’re roaming, and the minus armour is seriously under-estimated in public games. Also opens up the possibility for an early Roshan for your team.
Pipe of Insight – If you didn't buy the team's Mekanism earlier on then consider getting a Pipe as a luxury item for your team. If you did buy the Mekanism then it's very risky getting Pipe as well - it's inadvisable to have both on one hero, but Naga is actually tanky enough to get away with it, unlike most support heroes. If your team is up against a lot of burst magic damage and is struggling to break the enemy base, I’d definitely consider it.
Support Naga Skill Build
Mirror Image allows Naga to create three illusions at will. It is always skilled and maxed last when playing support Naga. At the cost of 70/80/90/100 mana, Mirror Image creates three illusions of Naga which lasts for up to 30 seconds. These illusions deal 20/25/30/35% of Naga’s own damage and take 500/400/300/200% bonus damage when attacked.
On support Naga, these illusions tend to be put to more support-oriented uses, such as scouting fog of war, checking the Roshan pit, stacking creep camps, delaying enemy pushes, split pushing, and harassing enemies with Rip Tide.
Ensnare is a disable which holds enemies in place for a few seconds. On support Naga it is always skilled first and maxed second. Ensnare allows you to pin an enemy down for 2/3/4/5 seconds.
It has a lengthy cast range of 650 units, and a low-ish mana cost of 90/100/110/120, making it a great initiation tool for ganks, however it deals no damage and does not stun, so only tends to be effective as a set up for allies to follow up on.
Rip Tide is Naga’s only magic damage nuke. It is always skilled second but maxed first. Rip Tide deals 130/160/190/220 magic damage to all enemy units within a 320 unit radius of Naga. It also reduces those units’ armour by 2/3/4/5 for 8 seconds.
Rip Tide is a strong nuke but the main problems is that, when played as a support, Naga will typically wish to avoid getting up close and personal with enemies. Nonetheless, it’s a potent nuke and the minus armour buff is great for any physical cores on your team to follow up on.
Song of the Siren is Naga’s ultimate and it is always skilled (levels 6, 11 and 16). Song of the Siren puts all enemy units within a 1250 unit radius of Naga to sleep for a full 7 seconds. Units cannot be attacked whilst slept, but Song of the Siren is a great way to set-up teamfights or to allow your team to disengage from a fight that is going badly.
Gameplay Tips
Mirror Image also allows you to mount decent high-ground defence without putting yourself at risk. Using the illusions you can whittle down enemy creep waves before they reach high ground and can also use them to secure jungle farm when you would otherwise be starved for creep kills due to your defensive positioning.
| Tip: Upon casting, Mirror Image makes Naga invulnerable for a split second, which allows you to dodge some stuns and damage instances if you time it correctly. |
Mirror Image also dispels most debuffs upon cast, which allows you to remove negative buffs like silences, slows, DoT abilities, blinds, etc.
Ensnare is a great means of keeping enemies locked down so that you can get in range to attack them or to use Rip Tide, it’s also great at preventing enemies from escape, as it disables them for up to 5 seconds.
| Tip: Ensnare reveals invisible heroes for its duration, making it a great way to prolong true sight vision on pesky invis heroes like Weaver or Bounty Hunter. |
Ensnare also goes through spell immunity, so it can be a fantastic way of wasting an enemy core’s BKB charges. Once they activate BKB use Ensnare on them to keep them locked down and to prevent them from going ham on your teammates.
| Tip: Most people aren’t aware of this, but Ensnare can actually be used on animal couriers, so you can lock it down for an easy kill and gold bounty for your team if you spot it out in the open. |
Ensnare is a disable, but it is not a stun, so it does not prevent enemy heroes from casting their abilities – it merely prevents them from moving or blinking. It will, however, interrupt channelled abilities that have already been cast.
Rip Tide is a great magic damage nuke and armour reduction ability. Be sure to try and hit multiple enemy units to get the most out of it, and to target enemy cores with it in teamfights so that the armour reduction takes effect on them.
Naga’s illusions (be they from Mirror Image, Manta Style, or an illusion rune) will also cast Rip Tide, making them great ways to deliver your magic damage nuke to enemy units or creeps if you fear being put out of position by approaching them yourself.
Song of the Siren has a number of fantastic uses, including:
- Saving allies who are otherwise about to die, giving them time to run away or Teleport out to safety.
- Saving yourself from an enemy gank or dive.
- Delaying an enemy push when those 7 seconds could prove crucial (such as allowing your teammates to teleport back to base, to resurrect after dying, or to deal damage to the enemy base)
- Holding retreating enemies in place so that your team can surround them and pick them off
- Pausing the action near the Roshan pit if he is low, so that you can finish him off and steal the Aegis for yourself
- Catching enemies in bad positions, allowing your team to re-position themselves and prepare their abilities for when your Song ends
- Allow yourself and your teammates to set up for a teamfight (for example by using your Mirror Image illusions and splitting them up so that they cover a wide area and effect all enemy heroes when you use Rip Tide)
- To isolate an enemy who has activate BKB, allowing your team to focus on him without worrying about his allies
| Important: As amazing as it can be, Song can also bite your team in the ass big time is not used at the right time. Enemies under the effect of Song of the Siren cannot be attacked and will not be affected by any abilities unless they activated Black King Bar or spell immunity before you cast it. Time its use poorly with your team, therefore, and you could end up wasting all manner of huge impact teamfight abilities like Black Hole, Eclipse, Ravage, etc. |
Remember also that the area of effect of Song of the Siren is 1250 units around Naga Siren, and that this AoE follows Naga. Thus, as Naga moves away from enemy units or heroes that have been caught by it they will wake up. If using Song to, for example, allow your team to disengage from a poor fight, be sure to be the last person to bail, lest your leave an allied hero behind to die.
Song of the Siren can be prematurely cancelled, by pressing R a second time, so if you do mess up and cast it whilst an allied hero is using a channelled ability, for example, or your team is ready to fight, you can end Song early.
Last Updated - Patch 6.82.
