Mirage

Mirage infests an enemy with scarabs that siphon life from them back to him and reduce the damage they deal.

Purpose: His sustain engine and his single-target debuff. Against multiple infested targets he heals continuously, which is what lets him stay in a brawl he otherwise has no durability for, and the damage reduction blunts whoever is trying to kill him.

Damage

Drains 8 health per second at base rank. 35s cooldown with 2 charges.

Crowd control

No CC, but the damage reduction on the infested target is a meaningful soft debuff.

Defensive

The life steal plus the enemy damage reduction is a double-sided defensive effect.

How to play against it

• Apply anti-heal (Healbane / Toxic Bullets) — the ability's value is entirely the heal-back, and cutting the rate removes his ability to brawl.
• Break line of sight and disengage for the duration rather than trading through it; feeding him the drain is how he wins attrition.
• Since the damage reduction lands on whoever he infests, have a different teammate take the damage-dealing role for those seconds.

Interactions

• Two charges means he can infest two heroes and double the drain; his sustain scales with how many enemies he can touch.
• Anti-heal items cut the drain, which is the standard answer to him.

Mirage becomes a whirlwind that travels forward, damaging enemies in its path, slowing their movement and lifting them into the air. When he exits the tornado he gains bullet evasion.

Purpose: His engage, his initiation and his defensive reset. It closes distance, catches multiple enemies in a lift they cannot dash out of, and hands him evasion on the way out.

Damage

65 base damage. T1 adds +60 damage. 36s cooldown.

Crowd control

Movement slow plus a Knockup/lift on enemies caught in the path.

Mobility

A committed forward travel — he cannot change direction mid-tornado, which is the main way to avoid it.

Defensive

Bullet evasion on exit (+30% at T2) makes the seconds after his engage surprisingly survivable.

How to play against it

• It travels in a straight line he cannot steer — dash or strafe perpendicular to his approach and the whole tornado whiffs.
• Do not stand in a corridor when he has it up; take fights in open ground where you have a lateral escape.
• If he lifts you, the follow-up is his pistol and his marks — a cleanse or a stamina-dash the moment you land denies the mark detonation window.

Interactions

• Lift plus Djinn's Mark is his core combo — the lift guarantees the bullets that build marks connect.
• T3 allows a recast within 6s, which converts it from an engage into an engage-and-exit.
• His plan around it is to catch up, lift, then punish.

Mirage's shots leave marks on enemies, with a per-target cooldown on application. Activating the ability consumes all accumulated marks at once for their Spirit Damage, and stacked marks multiply their effect.

Purpose: His burst. Marks accumulate quietly through normal shooting, then all pay out on a single button, which is how a hero with 40 gun DPS suddenly removes a squishy.

Damage

11 Spirit Damage per mark at base, with a doubling effect per stack. T2 adds +20 base damage and +3s multiplier duration. 2.75s cooldown with up to 4 stacks.

Crowd control

None at base. T1 applies a fading 48% slow for 0.8s on proc; T3 adds a 0.5s Stun when detonating at max marks.

How to play against it

• Watch your debuff bar for stacks. At 3+ marks, breaking line of sight or dashing out of his detonation range before he fires the active is a direct damage save.
• Spirit Resist blunts the whole payload, since all mark damage is spirit regardless of how it was applied.
• Deny the application: his pistol fires only 2.72 times per second, so every bullet you dodge is a full mark he does not get.

Interactions

• Ricochet spreads marks across an entire fight rather than one target.
• Dust Devil's lift buys the seconds needed to land the shots that build stacks.
• T3's max-mark Stun turns the detonation into a genuine pickup, not just damage.

Mirage designates a spot on the minimap and, after a 3s wait, teleports there and gains a barrier. Taking damage during the wait, or being stunned, immobilized, put to sleep or hit by a slowing hex, cancels the teleport.

Purpose: Map presence rather than combat power. It lets him farm a side lane and still arrive for a fight across the map, defend an objective he is nowhere near, or collapse on a gank — and it always arrives with a barrier, plus a speed buff after upgrades.

Damage

No damage. 140s cooldown.

Mobility

Global relocation, the split-pressure tool in his kit.

Defensive

Every Traveler grants a 400 barrier on arrival, so he lands into a fight already shielded; it only scales with spirit from T3, at 0.8.

How to play against it

• Before T3 any damage cancels it. A single poke shot, a DoT, or a trooper aggro while he is channelling locks it for 5s and buys your team the time — a cheap counter. Against T3, use a Stun, immobilize, sleep or slowing hex instead.
• Warding and watching his lane tells you when he is about to arrive; the wait period is long enough to reposition.
• Silencing him prevents the cast outright, which is worth a cleanse-denial or a Time Wall Time Wall 5.1m Range5.5s Duration25s Cooldown Paradox raises a wall of warped time that halts every enemy bullet and projectile that touches it, while speeding up and empowering friendly bullets passing through. Crowd Control Brief slow plus a silence on contact (2.3s silence at T2). Damage No direct damage. T2 grants +35% weapon damage to friendly bullets passing… Defensive Stops enemy bullets and projectiles outright — against a projectile-heavy… 1 +3.5s duration, +3m width, +1m height. 2 2.3s silence duration, +35% weapon damage for friendly bullets. 5 +2 ability charges. placed on him specifically.

Interactions

• Before T3 the 3s channel is cancelled by ANY damage, including a single chip tick — trooper damage and DoTs both count. T3 removes that weakness.
• Stuns, immobilizes, sleep and slowing hex cancel the channel at every tier.
• A cancel locks Traveler for only 5s, so it delays him rather than wasting the ultimate.
• Pairs with his farming pattern: he can safely hold a distant lane because he can always be in the fight.
• Silence effects (Mina's 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. , Paradox's Time Wall at T2) prevent the cast entirely.