Inara is a highly mobile jungle assassin who relies on outmaneuvering opponents rather than overpowering them in order to win fights. Everything she does involves moving around the battlefield and picking the battles she wants while avoiding the ones she doesn't. To facilitate this, her kit includes several dashes, an aoe slow, a knockback+wallstun, and a teamwide speed boost. Not only that, but all of her abilities either do damage or enable additional damage in some form, so she scales particularly well with items.

Basically, to get the most out of her, you need to utilize her insane mobility for counterjungling, flanking, and securing kills you otherwise wouldn't be able to. She's also quite versatile in her builds and can be a good team player with the amount of utility her abilities naturally provide.

All in all, she's refreshingly fair and my favorite hero, so I like sharing what I learn about her. Hope it helps!

SACRED GROVE (Perk)
Inara summons wisps around nearby treants, gaining vision and allowing her to leap to them. Killing a treant grants Inara a movement speed boost for few seconds.

If you've ever played League of Legends, this is similar to Rengar's passive, except instead of jumping out of bushes she is jumping to treants and enemies marked with Banishing Kick. As with Rengar, repeatable mobility is powerful and can make-or-break your fights depending on how you use it. The jungle is your friend!
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DANCE OF LEAVES (A)
Inara spins with her blades, dealing damage to and slowing nearby enemies.
* Deals reduced damage to minions.
Max Rank Bonus: Energy Cost 0

This is your bread and butter damage ability. It has a surprisingly large range and slows to help Inara stick to targets or keep foes from chasing her. It's on a relatively low cooldown, is great for waveclear even with the damage reduction, and gets reduced to 0 energy cost when you max it. Make sure to weave auto attacks in between casts of this ability, especially if going WP, as the animation can cancel them.

Max this second, after her ultimate.
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BANISHING KICK (B)
Inara leaps backwards and kicks away enemies, dealing damage to and summoning a wisp on affected enemies. She may leap to marked enemies she has kicked for the next few seconds. Enemies knocked into a wall are stunned.
Max Rank Bonus: Cooldown 8s

Working like a leg shotgun, Banishing Kick synergizes with Inara's passive to get the initial dash/pushback and then a following leap to whoever she marked with the damage. This serves as a one-two punch to finish off escaping enemies and a reliable way to discourage enemies from cutting off your escape.

While there are a lot of things you can do with this ability, it's not primarily used for damage, so in most cases you should max it last. The only situation I might max it over Dance of Leaves would be with the +Utility build for the 8s cooldown since you aren't necessarily prioritizing damage.
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NATURE'S WRATH (Ult)
Inara rallies nearby allies, granting them movement speed. Reactivate this ability to dash in target direction, dealing damage to enemies.
Cooldown = 90s -> 60s

Inara's ultimate is deceptively powerful. First, it gives a substantial movement speed boost to both herself and allies, which on its own helps her close in on her targets rapidly. Then, you can activate it again for a dash in any direction, within a certain time frame, that also does a sizable amount of damage to all enemies she runs through.

This can be anywhere from underwhelming to crazy strong depending on how you use it. Just for herself, it's like a "get wherever you want" button, which single-handedly allows for her to pull off unlikely assassinations or finish off out of reach targets. With her team, it's like War Treads on steroids with an extra line dash icing on the cake. Definitely one of the most satisfying parts of her kit.

Max this first mainly to reduce the cooldown and increase her playmaking potential.

• This may be obvious, but try to fight in the jungle as much as possible and know what camps are up for you to Sacred Grove leap to. You'll want to think about whether to clear a camp or keep it up as an escape route for a nearby gank. Where other heroes have passives that enhance their combat prowess, Inara's is all about mobility, so make sure to have good map awareness.
  
• Don't forget to counter-jungle (steal their camps). Inara is built for maneuvering through the jungle (both yours and theirs!), so feel free to walk in like you own it - and keep a camp up near the entrance should you need to escape. You can always clear it on the way out. Use vision cams to control the area so you don't get surrounded!
  
• With how smoothly she clears the jungle, it's more okay for you to stick to safely clearing camps instead of ganking than it would be for other junglers, as Inara usually wins through resource advantage. If you're needed, Nature's Wrath covers distance quickly so you don't have to be sitting around waiting for action to happen.
  
• In terms of combat effectiveness, Inara will always be at least somewhat squishy and she's split between burst and damage-per-second, so avoiding damage is preferable to taking it. This makes her weak to any hero that's tanky-enough to not go down easy but also does enough damage to be a threat. You'll want to straight up avoid duelists and brawlers who want to fight you and only engage them unfairly and on your own terms. It's probably better to focus on her utility if you're struggling to compete with strong combat heroes.
  
• Inara's kit makes her more of a blank slate than other heroes, which allows her to be unpredictable. If you know what you're doing, feel free to mix and match items with her as long as they all conform to a single damage type. The builds below are more suggestions based on item synergy, which is important, but not everything if you already know what you need.
  
• Banishing Kick can be used both offensively and defensively. With good timing, you can counter Yummy Catnip Frenzy, Holy Nova, Verse of Judgement, Master's Lesson, Overwhelm, and more. It's movement, damage, a push, a stun when against a wall, AND a way to leap to an enemy with her passive, all rolled up in one, so be sure to use all parts of it as it's on a relatively short cooldown.

WP Inara has more consistent damage overall, which becomes bursty if ahead, and is a more reliable build in my opinion. With lifesteal and defenses she becomes able to tank dragons (although still struggles to solo them), and with attack speed she can shred towers to help with split pushing. Because her kit allows for a high degree of stickiness (staying next to her target), her auto attacks can do a considerable amount of damage if weaved in between her spell casts.

*Feel free to start with Stormguard Banner for all of her jungle builds. You don't have to upgrade it, but it helps her get through the early game before she gets items and all of her abilities. You can always sell it later.*

Other than getting early Sprint Boots, Inara needs some form of damage to facilitate her assassin playstyle. With WP, that ends up being Sorrowblade, which covers both auto attacks and abilities. Upgrading your boots to Travel Boots so she can keep up with enemy speeds is a good idea (going straight to Journey Boots after you've gotten a damage item also works if you're ahead and have extra money to spend, as movement speed is very effective on her). In addition to that, it helps to pick up a Reflex Block for a bit of health and a handy active to counteract crowd control abilities, which can wreck a squishy mobile assassin like her if she's not careful.

These three items are her "core" items, and are recommended for any of her WP builds.
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Getting past what she needs in order to function, how you build her next depends on what your opponents are doing and the role you're trying to fill for the team. *If your team needs more weapon damage and you're getting enough kills/participation to become a carry, building more damage items will help you do that.*

• Tension Bow is great for burst damage with some armor pierce for tanky foes, which synergizes with Inara's evasive assassin playstyle perfectly.
  
• Spellsword instead has a lot of raw weapon power, which is good against squishier targets while also giving her much appreciated cooldown speed to increase her spellcast frequency (she doesn't really have problems running out of energy, but it certainly doesn't hurt).
  
• Aegis upgrading your Reflex Block is only natural and helps her transition into late game survivability.
  
• Pulseweave adds raw health (+600!), which works best in shorter skirmishes while also throwing in some delicious movement speed and passive healing to recover between said skirmishes. The passive helps her stickiness, evasiveness, and dps (damage per second) and is slightly better with the health from Aegis.

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*If on the other hand your team needs some weapon damage but also needs someone to absorb damage in teamfights to keep the carries alive for longer, you can build her in a more hybrid WP/Tanky way.*

• Serpent Mask is the secret to her "tankiness," as more healing = more effective health. The more damage she does and the less she's focused, the healthier she'll become, which means she remains a threat that must be dealt with in addition to the carries on your team.
  
• Breaking Point more of a late game addition to top off the build with some additional damage, attack speed for turrets, and a passive which gets better the longer a fight lasts. Basically get this if you don't need any situational items.
  
• Aegis same as above.
  
• Slumbering Husk in contrast to Pulseweave, this gives Armor and Shield, which shaves off damage and is more synergistic with lifesteal than raw health is. The passive makes it harder for you to be bursted down, which is exactly what you don't want if you need to stay alive for as long as possible in a teamfight.

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*Outside her builds, there's still some flexibility with items she can throw in specifically because a threat on the enemy team needs to be dealt with.*

• Poisoned Shiv is great against Krul, Ozo, and healing captains like Adagio. This doesn't necessarily mean you'll suddenly be able to 1v1 them, but if someone on your team needs to provide mortal wounds, this is your item.
  
• Bonesaw is your more dedicated turret-destroying option, which also performs well on teams with high amounts of weapon power damage. Tornado Trigger is a good alternative. Get one of these to help you splitpush better and finish games that have stalled out!
  
• Atlas Pauldron counters attack speed heroes if you use the active at the right time. This works better on her tankier lifesteal build.
  
• Celestial Shroud and Metal Jacket are good against high amounts of crystal damage and weapon damage respectively. Pick one if the enemy team is all WP or all CP, or if a player(s) is carrying the enemy team super hard.

While it's a bit less consistent, CP Inara can definitely be more explosive. In exchange for solid reliable damage she gains higher burst and a better access to cooldown reduction/speed, which also increases her evasiveness, mobility, and disruptiveness on account of being able to use her abilities more frequently. Rather than aggressively running at enemies to cut them down, CP Inara performs best when ducking in and out of combat to poke and then burst with her large Dance of Leaves range. Her Nature's Wrath becomes a dash nuke to finish off low health targets, especially when used in conjunction with Dance of Leaves and Banishing Kick to stun against a wall.

*Feel free to start with Stormguard Banner for all of her jungle builds. You don't have to upgrade it, but it helps her get through the early game before she gets items and all of her abilities. You can always sell it later, unless you're going with the +Utility build, which can use the bonus to jungle clear speed and damage to objectives from Stormcrown.*

Same as WP, CP Inara will want to get early Sprint Boots, damage in the form of Aftershock, and Reflex Block for base-level survivability. Unlike the raw power of Sorrowblade, Aftershock gives her all-around useful stats to compensate for lower DPS on account of her auto attacks being less effective. This enables a more auto attack-focused assassin like her to function better than an item like Shatterglass might in my opinion, especially early in the game (Shatterglass could be rushed for gimmicky 1-shot builds, but I'm not covering those here). Same as with WP, upgrading all the way to Journey Boots isn't a bad idea if you're ahead and want to press the advantage, assuming you also have enough damage to make use of the added mobility.
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Speaking of which, *if your team needs more crystal damage and you're getting enough kills/participation to become a carry, building more damage items will help you do that.*

• Shatterglass is the crystal equivalent of Sorrowblade, and is just as necessary to bump up her damage to the next level.
  
• Broken Myth is the equivalent of Tension Bow, and helps to punch through defenses and make sure she's doing solid damage to all of her targets.
  
• Aegis upgrading your Reflex Block is only natural and helps her transition into late game survivability.
  
• Slumbering Husk A fairly "safe" choice. This will help you if you're dying to the enemy carries before getting to do anything.

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*If on the other hand your team needs some crystal damage but also needs someone to absorb damage in teamfights to keep the carries alive for longer, you can build her in a more utility-focused way. This gets significantly better the more coordinated your team is.*

• Stormcrown the jungler's item, but I've found that it's only necessary for Inara on builds that don't specialize in either dps or assassination. Basically it allows you to clear jungle and take objectives while also staying tanky.
  
• Pulseweave overall a synergistic item to Inara's kit and strategy. It differs from Slumbering Husk in also enhancing her ability to get in and out of fights. A good way for Inara's tankiest build to add to its damage while also doing its job better.
  
• Crucible finally something other than Aegis! Since the Reflex Block active is core on Inara, it only makes sense that utility Inara will instead upgrade to the more team-focused version of it.
  
• Rook's Decree is the tanky support item to really solidify her purpose as a protector. Instead of better killing her enemies it allows her to better save her friends!

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*Outside her builds, there's still some flexibility with items she can throw in specifically because a threat on the enemy team needs to be dealt with.*

• Spellfire the CP bursty counterpart to Poisoned Shiv. Since it has added crystal power rather than attack speed, it's better at finishing off enemies before they can heal it back than just chopping them down.
  
• Clockwork with the added evasiveness of extra spellcasts, you can opt to forego a second tanky item in the +Damage build for a CP dps-increasing item. While you'll be extra squishy, skillful play can turn you into a monster.
  Additionally, further cooldown reduction (speed) can enhance the +Utility build with extra damage and crowd control if you're not already being enough of a distraction. You could replace Aftershock if you want to stay at the same durability, or Rook's Decree if you want to be more aggressive.
  
• Atlas Pauldron is good against attack speed and since utility Inara is the tankiest Inara build, attack speed (dps) is a bigger threat to her doing her job. Less good for her +Damage build as she isn't likely going to survive long in close combat anyway.
  
• Celestial Shroud and Metal Jacket primarily for her +Utility build with the same benefits as stated previously.

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