Inubashiri Momiji


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Allegiance: Moriya

Momiji is a ganking hero who excels in harassment with her invisible wolves. She is also one of the speediest girls in the game with her ultimate and has an extremely annoying stun. However, she is rather fragile and useless in teamfights.

Attributes
Strength: 22 + 1.9/level

 Agility: 21 + 2.6/level

Intelligence: 13 + 1.0/level

Movement Speed: 310

Range: 120 (melee)

Skills
Dog Sign "Rabies Bite" (D)

Summons 2 wolves to aid Momiji. Wolves have high HP regeneration and have 25% chance to deal 170% damage. Wolves last 180 seconds.

Spirit Cost: 130

Cooldown: 39s

Level 1: Wolves have: 500HP, Attack: 26, Armour: 2.

Level 2: Wolves have: 700HP, Attack: 41, Armour: 3.

Level 3: Wolves have: 900HP, Attack: 56, Armour: 4. Wolves are invisible.

Level 4: Wolves have: 1100HP, Attack: 71, Armour: 5. Wolves are invisible.

Mountain Nomad "Expellee's Canaan"(F)

Target a location anywhere on the map to reveal it for 8 seconds. Reveals invisible units.

Cast Range: Global

Spirit Cost: 25MP

Cooldown: 15s

Level 1: Area of effect: 300.

Level 2: Area of effect: 600.

Level 3: Area of effect: 900.

Level 4: Area of effect: 1200.

Tengu "Maple Vanguard"(R)

Stuns and damages the target enemy.

Blocked by Hakurei Shrine Amulet

Cast Range: 100

Spirit Cost: 100MP

Cooldown: 17s

Level 1: Does 60 damage. Stun lasts 2 seconds.

Level 2: Does 90 damage. Stun lasts 2.5 seconds.

Level 3: Does 120 damage. Stun lasts 3 seconds.

Level 4: Does 150 damage. Stun lasts 3.5 seconds.

Whistle Scout "Youkai Mountain’s Patroller" (Passive)

Passively increases movement speed of Momiji and her wolves.

Affects all units owned by Momiji, including moderators and yukkuris.

Area of Effect: 900

Level 1: Movement Speed: +12%

Level 2: Movement Speed: +24%

Level 3: Movement Speed: +36%

Analysis
Brief overview of the hero's strengths and weaknesses.

Dog Sign "Rabies Bite"
This is Momiji's bread and butter spell. The wolves summoned are very tough, and combined with the invisibility at level 3+, become excellent tools for harassing. Wolves can easily beat other girls in the early game, and can abuse their high regeneration rates to heal while invisible and then resume harassing. This can become very annoying and even kill slow fat girls like Patchy. Wolves are also useful out of harassing; they can take down neutral creeps easily or scout for ganks while Momiji herself sits in the lane.

Controlling Wolves

Wolves have collision while invisible, meaning that they can block enemy girls while remaining invisible. This becomes useful when fighting in cramped places like the Hakurei or Moriya bridge, or to slow down girls who are running away. When harassing with wolves, wolves should be sent behind the target before engaging. This gives the wolves 1 or 2 additional hits, which can easily become critical hits and add almost 200 damage in the space of a few seconds.

Dealing with Wolves

There isn't much of a counter early game, but wolves become useless lategame and are extremely ineffective when girls travel together or have any form of detection. PADs also reduce wolf damage dramatically.

Mountain Nomad "Expellee's Canaan"
This skill is good for spying on enemy girls, to find lone girls for Momiji to bully. It is also a last-resort invisibility counter, as it is usually fairly simple to walk out of its area of effect.

Tengu "Maple Vanguard"
A straightforward stun spell, it is infamous for lasting incredibly long. While the damage is unimpressive, the long stun makes it extremely useful all game. Early game, it gives Momiji's wolves additional time to beat on a helpless girl. Later on, it becomes a highly infuriating disable that usually guarantees a kill if landed.

Whistle Scout "Youkai Mountain’s Patroller"
A rather underpowered ultimate, it gives Momiji good speed to chase with her wolves but nothing else.

Team Options
Momiji goes well with every girl in the game, since her wolves can be sent to any lane and do such an excellent job harassing that they can usually grant Momiji (or her allies) free farm in the lane while leaving enemy girls underleveled.

Item Options
Footwear and such

One important decision players of Momiji must make is whether to get the Green Llama, Sukima Generator, or no movement speed enhancers at all. And if they choose to get the Llama or Generator, whether to get a Kitsune Exalt in addition to that. As Momiji's ultimate adds a rather hefty movespeed on its own, some players may find they can go without any movespeed items. However, as the bonus added is a percentage of your movespeed, getting a llama or even just a broom can make the difference between catching up to your opponent or her getting away.

Getting an Exalt is another choice of importance, while it's inexpensive, the Exalt can delay other important items like Watermelon Blade and Moderators. The advantages that the Exalt offers Momiji are numerous, it adds even more movement speed, attack speed, damage, and the ability to move through other units. It is the last ability of the Exalt that makes it so precious to Momiji. Far too many times, a wall of creeps or summons will obstruct Momiji from reaching her target, but with the Exalt, Momiji can walk right through that wall and strike down her mark with impunity.

Damage Options

Momiji, having no innate damage adding skill, has a wide range of damage items to select from, each of them with their own uses and situational benefits.

Watermelon Blade

One of the better items that Momiji can get in the mid game is the Watermelon Blade. The blade adds a respectable +38 damage on its own, but the armour reduction orb is what makes it lethal in Momiji's hands. As the armour reduction is applied to the target, Momiji's wolves experience a sharp damage increase against such marked targets. This paired with her lengthy stun make her a death sentence to the softer heroes like Yukari or Yuyuko. Do note that the Watermelon Blade's benefit is greatly reduced should the enemy heroes have high armour, so if they have already farmed a Myon Balloon, consider getting other items instead.

Critical Options

As Momiji possesses a reasonable base damage and good Agility growth, the critical weapons make a good late game option for her when the wolves don't contribute enough damage. However, as the Watermelon Blade adds more damage in the early and mid game (and possibly at the late game, should the other team fail to get armour), it is recommended not to rush for the critical weapons.

Bashing

The Inaba Medicinal Scepter, while not a bad item on Momiji, is less useful on her than on other heroes. As she already possesses a lengthy stun and good movespeed, one that happens to have a short cast range, she should focus on improving her ability to land that stun (with items like Exalt) or on the followup (with items like Moderators or Watermelon Blade). If the enemy team happens to have an abundance of channeling effects or often teleport after your shield bash, a basher might be a worthwhile purchase.

Concordia

Don't consider getting this item unless you really know what you're doing. Momiji isn't particularly resilient and often is the hero to lead the charge in a team fight, carrying a Concordia is likely to be a liability to your team. Only after completing your item build should you even consider getting a Concordia, and even then, saving that money for buy-outs may be more worthwhile.

Supporting Options

Other than focusing on Momiji's ability to hit things harder, certain support items work well with Momiji's skillset. For example, the Magician's Hat can be used to allow Momiji to close in on the enemy to land her shield bash.

Newbie Detector β

Another item that works exceptionally well on Momiji is the Newbie Detector β. In addition to providing a hefty bonus to all of Momiji's stats, the Moderators summoned have several useful skills and properties. They have truesight, which means that Momiji won't need to waste time (or skill points) on her peeping beam. They deal rather impressive damage (even more if you have a watermelon blade), they stun in an AoE periodically, and they multiply after attacking 5 times. This lets them extend Momiji's already long stun and potentially multiply out of control into a huge mob to steamroll the enemies. Do note that moderators have extremely low hit points and should the enemy team have a large quantity of AoE attacks, they may wind up feeding more than they contribute.

Tentacle

While Tentacle may be costly and difficult to farm, its usefulness is undeniable. However, it does suffer from the same shortcomings as the Inaba Medicinal Scepter, that is, it doesn't really help Momiji get to the target and it doesn't really help her kill the target faster. What it does offer, unlike the IMS, is a massive strength bonus, allowing Momiji to withstand some serious punishment. Tentacle is best paired with a Kitsune Exalt to avoid trapping yourself in bad situations.