Calico vs Mina

Do

• Plan for Slowing Hex Slowing Hex 1,600 souls Tier 2TechPress +29s Cooldown +3.5s Duration +0.1s Cast Delay +16% Move Speed -26% Dash Distance — know which tier it sits in so you are not improvising at the shop.
• Know what Sanguine Retreat looks like. It is the cooldown this lane revolves around.

Avoid

• Walking to lane on the same path every wave against a hero with Mina's engage range.

Do

• 660 base health is low; a single landed hard-CC plus follow-up removes her outright.
• Her pistol's falloff starts at 20m and ends at 46m — a long-range laner can out-range her.
• Gloom Bombs Gloom Bombs 14s Cooldown Calico lobs a handful of bombs that scatter and blow up after a short fuse, dealing spirit damage in the area they land. Damage 45 base spirit damage per bomb (deadlock.one); Defensive Can be thrown behind her while retreating to deter a chase through a choke. 1 -3s cooldown (from a 14s base) 2 -6% melee resist on targets hit and +6s duration 5 +3 grenades clears the wave and chips the enemy laner from a safe distance on a short 14s cooldown

Avoid

• Love Bites lets her deal real Spirit Damage from a distance on a short effective cooldown, so she can poke despite weak raw gun stats.
• Sanguine Retreat means she can contest an orb or a soul she has no business contesting and blink out untargetable before the answer arrives.

Do

• Their first real spike is Love Bites unlocked first (laning 0-10min) — respect it from that point, not before.
• Your spike is ult unlock: Return to Shadows gives her a dive-and-leave button and turns her from a farmer into a genuine pick threat

Avoid

• Taking an even fight against Mina on their spike timing when you could take the same fight ten minutes later on yours.

Do

• Watch for Nox Nostra Nox Nostra 40m Range150s Cooldown Mina releases a cloud of bats that home in on targets, each dealing spirit damage and silencing what it hits. Crowd Control Silence on every bat hit. Damage 4.6 damage per bat, multiplied by the number of accumulated bats. Defensive Indirectly — silencing a diver mid-approach cancels their follow-up. 1 +1.9 damage. 2 -45s cooldown. 5 on hit, deal an additional 0.5% of current health as damage. . Do not group inside its reach at the start of a fight; bats seek, so distance rather than dodging is what works.
• Buy Spirit Resist, not Bullet Resist. Her pistol does only 7.3 per bullet; Love Bites and Rake Rake 10m Range16s Cooldown A close slash that deals spirit damage scaled up by how much health the target is missing, executes weakened non-hero units outright, and refunds health to Mina on a kill. Damage 60 base damage with 25 heal per kill. Defensive Heal per kill (+30 more at T2) is her only sustain; 1 +60 damage. 2 +30 heal per kill, -8s cooldown. 5 +7% missing-health damage and increased heal-per-kill spirit scaling. are spirit, and cutting spirit removes most of her damage.

Avoid

• Spending your own escape before Sanguine Retreat is on cooldown.

• Nox Nostra Ultimate

  Once this lands the fight is usually already decided — Silence on every bat hit.

  • Do not group inside its reach at the start of a fight; bats seek, so distance rather than dodging is what works.
  • Nox Nostra is her ultimate, so Dispel Magic Dispel Magic 3,200 souls Tier 3ArmorInstantCast +45s Cooldown +10% Spirit Resist +3s Buff Duration +250 Heal Amount cannot purge its Silence: cast Unstoppable Unstoppable 6,400 souls Tier 4ArmorInstantCast +60s Cooldown +5.5s Duration +125 Bonus Health +25% Debuff Resist Builds from Debuff Reducer before the bats reach you (it keeps the Silence off), or carry Debuff Reducer Debuff Reducer 1,600 souls Tier 2ArmorPassive +25% Debuff Resist +90 Bonus Health to shorten it — the Silence, not the 4.6-per-bat damage, is the ability.
  • Deny Love Bites procs during laning and mid-game; a Mina who never got to chip you has a visibly smaller swarm.
• Sanguine Retreat Ability 2

  A blink, a dodge, a gap-closer and a disengage on one button, and the untargetable state eats whatever was about to hit her.

  • Its cooldown (32s base) is the whole matchup. Force it early with a cheap threat, then commit your real burst in the window it is down.
  • 9m base range is short. Spreading your team so there is no safe landing spot within 9m of her means she blinks out of one threat and into another.
  • The untargetable state does not stop ground-persistent zones — McGinnis' Heavy Barrage Heavy Barrage 36m Range8s Duration200s Cooldown McGinnis unloads a continuous stream of rockets that home toward a designated location for a duration. Crowd Control T1 applies a 24% movement and dash slow for 1s to targets hit, which… Damage 21 damage per rocket (deadlock.one). Mobility She keeps moving and can use stamina during the channel, but is slowed. 1 24% movement and dash slow for 1s on hit. 2 -45s cooldown, +6s duration. 5 +2m radius, +15 damage per rocket with increased spirit scaling. , Pocket's Affliction Affliction 170s Cooldown An aura around Pocket that continuously damages nearby enemies. Crowd Control None at base. Damage 32 damage per second. T3 adds +13 DPS with spirit scaling. Defensive None directly, though the T3 heal prevention is effectively defensive… 1 -35s cooldown. 2 +3s duration, +4m radius. 5 prevents all healing on affected enemies, +13 DPS with spirit scaling. and similar keep ticking when she lands.
• Love Bites Ability 3

  No control at base; the upgrade is what changes that — T1 adds a 30% slow for 3s when the bite procs.

  • Spirit Resist items cut most of her output — her raw Bullet Damage is only 7.3, so almost all of her damage is spirit.
  • Denying her bullets on your body in lane denies both the damage and her Nox Nostra stacks; her ultimate is built out of your laning mistakes.
  • The per-target cooldown means she cannot re-proc on you immediately — after a bite lands you have a real window to trade back before the next one.
• Rake Ability 1

  Her finisher and her lane sustain in one button. Because it scales on missing health it is the reason a Mina who has already chipped you can convert from 'annoying' to 'dead' faster than the health bar implies.

  • It requires her to be at close range on a 16s cooldown. Once Rake is spent, she has no way to finish you and must disengage.
  • Anti-heal removes the heal-per-kill, which is the only thing letting her stay forward after a trade.
  • Because it scales on missing health, topping up between trades (a Restorative Locket Restorative Locket 1,600 souls Tier 2ArmorInstantCast +20s Cooldown +0.1s Cast Delay +8% Spirit Resist +25 Max Stacks +3 Max Stamina Restore , a return to base) resets her damage curve to base.

1. 1 Sanguine Retreat

   Sanguine Retreat, unambiguously. Everything else in her kit is tolerable; this is the button that makes her hard to kill. Force it with a cheap ability and hold your combo.

2. 2 Rake

   Rake second — it is her finisher on a 16s cooldown, and it requires close range. Once spent she cannot convert your low health bar.

3. 3 Love Bites

   Do not bother baiting Love Bites; it is effectively always available. Instead deny it by breaking line of sight so it never builds.

• Low durability at 660 HP with no barrier, no damage reduction and no armour ability. Strong evidence
• Weak raw gun (7.3 per bullet, ~29 DPS); strip the spirit and there is almost nothing left, so Spirit Resist cuts most of her damage. Strong evidence
• Her whole safety profile is one cooldown; a baited Sanguine Retreat is often a dead Mina. Strong evidence
• Read this matchup as one where the early deficit sticks. Mina is a top-tier laner, and the 09-16-2026 patch removed the fixed bonus souls for being modestly behind in net worth on both hero kill bounties and Rift bounties, with the notes explicitly naming early-to-mid game as the most affected window. What is left is a redistribution inside your own team, not a handout. The practical consequence is that a lane you lose 0-6 minutes no longer self-corrects — you have to not lose it, or take the game somewhere else quickly. Documented

• Love Bites turns her weak pistol into constant spirit chip that builds to a 45+ burst bite, and she can re-proc on your teammate while yours is on cooldown, so the pressure never stops. Strong evidence
• Rake scales with your missing health (6% and +7% more at T3), so the last third of your health bar disappears far faster than the first two thirds did. Strong evidence
• Sanguine Retreat makes her untargetable mid-flight with a recast, so your burst combo lands on empty air and your cooldowns are gone while hers are not. Strong evidence
• Nox Nostra silences everything it touches with a swarm that has been growing all game off Love Bites procs; your interrupt, your escape and your ultimate all stop working at once. Strong evidence
• With T1 Sanguine Retreat she gains +25% fire rate and 8 free bullets on cast, so the blink that dodged your ability is also the start of her damage window. Strong evidence
• Mina can Silence, which means your escape is only real if it is already active. Pre-empt rather than react: if you are walking into a position where the Silence lands, your defensive cooldown should be spent getting out of that position, not saved for after. Strong evidence

• Buy Spirit Resist, not Bullet Resist. Her pistol does only 7.3 per bullet; Love Bites and Rake are spirit, and cutting spirit removes most of her damage. Strong evidence
• Bait Sanguine Retreat with a low-cost threat, then commit real burst in its 32s cooldown window. At 660 HP she dies to almost any full combo when it is down. Strong evidence
• Use persistent ground zones rather than instant burst: McGinnis' Heavy Barrage, Pocket's Affliction, Paradox's Pulse Grenade Pulse Grenade 3.2s Duration32s Cooldown A grenade that sticks where it lands and then pulses repeatedly. Crowd Control Time slow on each pulse — a movement slow that compounds while you remain… Damage 35 base pulse damage. T2 adds +20 pulse damage with increased spirit… Defensive Thrown at her own feet it is a real anti-dive tool, slowing anyone who… 1 -12s cooldown. 2 +20 pulse damage with increased spirit scaling. 5 +4% damage amp, +1.6s duration. and similar keep damaging after she reforms, and untargetability does not remove them. Strong evidence
• Answer Nox Nostra's Silence with Unstoppable cast before the bats reach you, or Debuff Reducer to shorten it (a dispel cannot purge an ultimate's Silence); without one the Silence, not the damage, is what loses you the fight. Strong evidence
• Deny her Love Bites procs in lane. Every proc she lands on a hero permanently grows her ultimate, so playing behind cover in the first 10 minutes shrinks her late game. Strong evidence
• Stack immobilize and Root effects over stuns where possible — she is dodging burst, not duration; an immobilize that outlasts her recast window strands her. Strong evidence
• Against Mina the item that changes the matchup is Slowing Hex, and not for the slow. It silences movement abilities and movement items — that is their dash, their blink, their Warp Stone Warp Stone 3,200 souls Tier 3ArmorInstantCast +16s Cooldown +30% Bullet Resist +6s Buff Duration and their Phantom Strike Phantom Strike 6,400 souls Tier 4ArmorPress +35s Cooldown +0.35s Cast Delay +8 Spirit Power +15% Weapon Damage +40% Move Speed +3s Slow Duration all turned off at once — and raises their gravity to 120% on top. At Tier II Spirit for 1,600 it is the cheapest way to convert a mobility advantage into a stationary target, and you deal the Spirit Damage needed to apply the follow-up. Strong evidence
• Mina leaves fights on stamina, not on a single button, which is why slows underperform here and Arctic Blast Arctic Blast 6,400 souls Tier 4TechInstantCast +24s Cooldown +0.6s Spread Duration: +48% Move Speed +4s Slow Duration +10% Spirit Resist +1s Freeze Duration Builds from Cold Front over-performs: it freezes stamina regeneration, so they cannot dash out of the sequence rather than merely dashing out slower. Layer it with the fact that wall jumping already costs them 25% stamina regeneration for 5 seconds — if you can force a wall-jump exit first, the freeze lands on someone already short of charges. Strong evidence

• The moment she reforms at the end of Sanguine Retreat — untargetability ends and she is a 660 HP target standing in a place you can pre-aim. Strong evidence
• Sanguine Retreat on cooldown (32s base). This is the only stretch where she is a normal-durability hero, and it is when every kill on her happens. Strong evidence
• Immediately after Rake is used — 16s base cooldown, and she has no other close-range finisher. Strong evidence
• After a Love Bites proc lands on you specifically: the per-target cooldown means she cannot re-proc on you right away, so that is your trade-back window. Strong evidence
• The 150s Nox Nostra cooldown after she uses it — her only contribution to a grouped fight is gone for over two minutes. Strong evidence
• Mina builds almost no resist, which is the case where shred stops being a tank-buster and becomes raw amplification. Because shred is subtracted from total resist, a target sitting near zero goes negative — and negative resist is a damage multiplier, with −30% meaning they take 130%. Against a hero this fragile, one shred source in your build is doing the work of a damage item for the whole team's bullets, not just yours. Strong evidence

• Mina is one of the strongest laners in the game and the standard build order will lose to them. Tier I is 800 and Tier II is 1,600, so your first meaningful decision comes fast: against this hero the 1,600 that answers their specific threat (Healbane Healbane 1,600 souls Tier 2ArmorPassive +8s Duration +7 Spirit Power -35% Incoming Healing if they out-sustain you, Debuff Reducer if they out-lock you, Battle Vest Battle Vest 1,600 souls Tier 2ArmorPassive +18% Bullet Resist +3 Out of Combat Regen +65% Life Threshold +22% Weapon Damage +7% Fire Rate at +18% if they out-gun you) is worth more than the damage item that wins you a lane you are not going to win anyway. Strategic
• Play this lane looser than the guides say. The 09-16-2026 patch cut nearly all movement slows by about 20% and ground-dash slows by about 10%, so the distance Mina takes off you per application is meaningfully smaller than it was. With mobility as your main advantage, that shifts the break-even point on walking up: exchanges you used to refuse because one slow meant death are now survivable. Test it early rather than assuming the old spacing. Documented

• Fight Mina under cover — indoors, under walkways, inside stairwells. Taking away the vertical axis removes most of their kit's value before you spend a single item slot on it. Strategic

• Mina fights from the air, which is exactly what Knockdown Knockdown 3,200 souls Tier 3TechPress +35s Cooldown +0.1s Cast Delay +2s Stun Delay +0.5s Stun Duration +75 Bonus Health +5% Ability Range +5% Radius exists for: it applies +100% gravity to an airborne target (raised from +50% in March 2026) and its Stun scales with altitude, up to about +1.5s at 30m. The higher they commit, the harder the punish — and Debuff Resist will not shorten that Stun for them. Documented
• Your escape is a big part of why you survive fights, and Mina can turn it off. Debuff Resist shortens the lockout, and a cleanse removes it outright — one of the two is worth a slot specifically because of this hero. Strategic
• Slowing Hex (spirit T2) — Mina's Sanguine Retreat is what you are buying against here. Buy it when an enemy repeatedly uses a movement ability or item to dash, blink or fly out of your kill window. Documented
• Vortex Web Vortex Web 6,400 souls Tier 4TechPress +42s Cooldown +4s Duration +0.2s Cast Delay +0.5s Tether Duration +28% Move Speed -36% Dash Distance +8% Ability Range +8% Radius Builds from Slowing Hex (spirit T4) — Mina's Sanguine Retreat is what you are buying against here. Buy to set up team wipes against scattered, mobile enemies — it groups them and takes away their escapes at once. Documented
• Knockdown (spirit T3) — Buy whenever an enemy fights from the sky — it answers flying and airborne heroes and channelled aerial ultimates. What you are answering here: Mina's Sanguine Retreat. Documented

• The usual error against Mina is treating Nox Nostra as something to react to rather than something to pre-empt. By the time it is on you, the decision has already been made. Strategic