Maiev Build Guide “The hunt awaits!”

Maiev is an exceptionally resilient Assassin who excels at initiating and generally punishing mispositioned opponents. With Fan of Knives as Maiev's main damage-dealing tool, she is excellent at facing multiple enemies. With good micro, she can very often win 1v2 or 2v3 fights.

Strengths

• Unique initiation utility through Umbral Bind
• Notably high survivability for an Assassin through high Health, Vault of the Wardens, and generally high mobility
• High area of effect damage potential
• Strong ganker and equally difficult to gank
• Decent waveclear
• Fastest Mercenary Clear in the early game with Naisha's Memento
• Extremely high skill ceiling
• Great pick-off potential with Containment Disc
• Two viable Heroic Abilities, being able to adapt for each situation

Weaknesses

• Predictable playstyle that can ultimately be countered
• No options for self-sustain
• Limited ability to solo-lane
• Relatively low single-target damage output, particularly in dueling situations
• Has to engage from bushes or vents to surprise enemies
• Easy to get punished after making mistakes
• Low damage output if you miss Fan of Knives

Standard Build

Recommended

Level 1 ?

Level 4 ?

Level 7

Level 10 ?

Level 13

Level 16

Level 20 ?

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Maiev's Standard Build provides superior sustain damage. Key Fan of Knives-related Talents provide you with powerful, continuous area of effect damage that force your opponents to spread out, reducing their effectiveness.

Naisha's Memento is the default option for this build, as it will greatly improve your early game and PvE capabilities. However, on Maps where you cannot abuse your improved Mercenary clear speed, we recommend getting Pursuit of Vengeance instead.

Cruel Chain Build

Situational

Level 1

Level 4

Level 7 ?

Level 10 ?

Level 13 ?

Level 16

Level 20 ?

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Maiev's Cruel Chain Build focuses on dealing the maximum possible damage in the late game. Through stacking in the early Levels, Bonds of Justice will greatly improve Umbral Bind.

Be aware that Bonds of Justice stacks for each secondary target hit by Umbral Bind, so it is better to always apply the empowered Basic Attack on a minion. As the name suggests, this Build is extremely dependent on Cruel Chain, therefore we recommend focusing on stacking your Level 1 Talent before picking it.

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Maiev synergizes with

Maiev's unique ability to reliably Pull a number of Heroes to her works particularly well with Tanks who seek to set up crowd control chains. Assassins with large amounts of avoidable area of effect damage will also find Umbral Bind particularly useful. Additionally, she is also favored by having healers with good AoE spells to benefit from her engage.

Maiev is countered by

Maiev's relatively predictable game plan tends to be easily disrupted by crowd control or blinds, since those will completely shutdown Maiev's Umbral Bind. Furthermore, Maiev also struggles against Heroes with high mobility that can easily kite her.

Maiev's stronger maps

Maiev's average maps

Maiev's weaker maps

Maiev's early game power and incredible mercenary camp clear speed make her a good pick in most maps. However, she excels in maps with numerous vents, bushes, and tiny corridors, as those will facilitate her engage with Spirit of Vengeance and Umbral Bind. Maiev becomes an even better pick if the map has several mercenaries for her to capture, since she will be able to dictate how the game will be played.

• It is often best to hold on to Fan of Knives's Cooldown to try and hit at least two Heroes than to use it at all, as its reset mechanic is very powerful.
• Using Umbral Bind against Minions or Structures can allow you to tether Heroes that are out of melee range.
• Spirit of Vengeance can be used through walls or from vents or bushes to surprise enemies.
• Recasting Spirit of Vengeance disjoints projectiles directly targeting Maiev.
• Containment Disc pierces Minions and Structures, and is particularly useful for denying strong Heroic Abilities or simply setting up.
• Vault of the Wardens allows you to pass through units, but not Structures nor terrain.
• With Cruel Chain, Spirit of Vengeance can be used after Umbral Bind towards enemies, so it will trigger Cruel Chain's extra damage, and blink would activate Pull, guaranteeing maximum damage.
• Since Bonds of Justice will only stacks on secondary enemies, try to always target a minion, mercenary, or structure with Umbral Bind to complete the quest faster.
• Against melee Heroes, you do not need to use your blink to get close. It is better to use Spirit of Vengeance towards them while they are marked by Umbral Bind, as it will guarantee that they take Spirit of Vengeance's damage twice.
• Warden's Cage has the same radius as Umbral Bind's Pull, and therefore it should be used right after applying it. It is not necessary to move backwards in order to Pull enemies into Warden's Cage, use these few seconds before the cage is active to deal damage or reposition yourself, since the enemies are already doomed into the area.
• With practice, you will know when Fan of Knives will hit 2 targets, and Naisha's Memento can be used right before it, because the Cooldown will be refreshed.

Maiev is a unique Assassin in that she provides an extremely reliable way of initiating, through the Spirit of Vengeance + Umbral Bind combo, at the cost of having a relatively situational damage output.

Since Maiev does a mediocre job solo-laning, she is generally valued for her good waveclear, fast mercenary clear with Naisha's Memento, and for her ability to set up for teammates using the aforementioned combo. In the early game, this means staying with teammates speeding up the clearing of Minion Waves, while also being aware of good possible engages. In later game phases, this means looking for opportunities to engage mispositioned opponents or peel for teammates.

To execute good combos and good engages you should always try to use Spirit of Vengeance from outside of enemy vision, as your opponents' time to react will be considerably smaller. After blinking, Maiev needs to use Umbral Bind onto the closest enemy, marking all enemy Heroes nearby. Players take from 0.5 to 1.5 seconds to realize and react to your engage, therefore, you should be aware of it and use Vault of the Wardens accordingly.