There are many heroes to choose from in the technically new game Honor of Kings, and each of them specialize in a certain role that dictates how they play and which lane they belong in. In this guide, we will be covering Mai Shiranui, an assassin who likes to get up close and personal despite being a magic-based character. She is also an SNK character, so fans of certain fighting games will likely recognize her as one of the iconic figures from the Fatal Fury and King of Fighters franchises.
Complete Mai Shiranui Guide
As a mage and assassin, Mai Shiranui is typically played in the mid lane, where she can easily rotate to other lanes throughout the game for some quick ganks. Before we go into more detailed tips, let’s quickly go over her abilities, which are the following:
- Hissatsu Shinobi-Bachi (Passive Ability) – Every five seconds, her basic attack is enhanced. This will cause her to dash and deal damage to everything within range along the way. You can dash a second time by moving after an enhanced basic attack or using a skill.
- Hishou Ryuuenjin (Active Skill 1) – Mai will dash towards the target location and launch enemies within range with a kick that deals magic damage. A bit of energy is recovered on a successful kick.
- Kachousen (Active Skill 2) – Mai will throw a fan that slows down the target for a split second and reduce their magic defense for a longer duration. A successful hit will recover a bit of energy and deal some damage to the closest unit behind the original target.
- Chou Hissatsu Shinobi-Bachi (Active Skill 3) – Mai will dash towards the target location and knock enemies back if they are hit. In addition to dealing damage, this will also temporarily reduce the target’s physical attack.
Tip #1 – Focus on Gold Farming Early On
Because of how her kit works, Mai has a ton of burst potential but incredibly slow creep clearing capabilities at the start of the game. Because of this, you will want to be focusing on killing creeps and occasionally taking jungle camps whenever they are available.
During the early game phases, you will not have enough consistent damage to poke enemy heroes unless you take Kachousen at level 1 and have good aim. This is why you’re going to want to get your items as soon as possible.
Gank the bottom or top lane with your jungler if the enemy there is overextending. This will provide you with even more gold to snowball harder, assuming you get successful kills.
Tip #2 – Abuse Kachousen Often
Your Kachousen ability is essentially free and has multiple uses outside of simply damaging enemies. With good aim, this ability + your dashes will prevent an enemy from widening the gap in a chase.
Outside of that, as mentioned earlier, you can spam it during the laning phase to get some last hits on creeps and deal a small amount of poke damage.
Later on, you will want to land successful hits at all times with this ability. This will drastically increase your damage output due to the magical defense debuff that it applies to enemies.
One additional useful thing you can do with it is check bushes. To avoid face checking, you can throw a fan at them instead to see whether or not it hits somebody. This trick can save you from getting ganked as well, if other lanes have reported missing heroes.
Tip #3 – Remember Your Mobility
Almost everything Mai can do involves dashes, including her ultimate skill Chou Hissatsu Shinobi-Bachi. Do not be afraid to use it for retreating if absolutely necessary, as it has a relatively short cooldown anyway.
On the flip side, your passive dashes can also be used to quickly traverse the map and rotate to other lanes. As the game progresses, this can be incredibly useful for split pushing, which is still a viable option despite your role as an assassin.
Having a lot of mobility does not mean that you should just mindlessly dive enemies, though. Remember, you are essentially a glass cannon that can’t just take down an entire team alone, unless you have been overfed throughout the game.
Pay close attention to your map at all times. With your dashes, you can very quickly respond against an overextending enemy in a different lane. Since you are a mid laner, it is crucial that you help your team (and yourself) snowball by constantly ganking weak links in the other team.
And those are pretty much all of the tips we can give you when it comes to mastering this SNK collab character. While you are here, check out our guide on how to play Luara in Honor of Kings as well to widen your hero pool and allow you to adjust into the marksman role when needed.
