Reverse Hunting with Lunara (WIP) by unendingwrath

Reverse Hunting with Lunara (WIP)

By: unendingwrath
Last Updated: Jun 18, 2016
11 Votes
Build 1 of 3

Lunara

Build: Aoe damage

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Level 20

Threats to Lunara with this build

Threat
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Threat Hero Notes
1
Xul
2
  No Threat
3
  No Threat
4
Illidan illidan early game is harmless for the most part you can kite him for days with your slow and incresed move speed and your poison and q and w work though his evasion but if he as ample support he can become a threat that needs to be avoided or dealt with.
5
  No Threat
6
Li-Ming Li-Ming's high burst damage makes her a very large threat to you if she lands her skill shots she can easily take out half your life in a few seconds. However, your base movement speed increase allows you to dodge most of them with a little work so just keep and eye out and stay on your toes and you will do fine
6
Rexxar Rexxar is just as bad as Chen with his bear that stuns you and can keep you out of your basic attack range to attack him as 1 good stun and there goes half your life but he isn't so much of a threat later on when you get your ults or range increases.
7
Thrall thrall heals for a lot with his passive and can easily shrug off your poison but he is manageable if you can avoid his root.
7
Falstad Falstad just makes everything a bit more difficult he can keep up with you while putting out a lot of damage and as a hero that relies hevely on postioning this is not a good thing and if he takes his wind ult your almost certainly dead if he hits you with it if you dont have any team support but his one weakness is that he is almost as squishy as you so as long as your not crazy he can be managed
8
  No Threat
9
  No Threat
10
Chen He is your worst nightmare. Chen has with a gap closer and can shrug off all your poison that and even with giant killer . Also you don't have a way to stop him from drinking. All and all not your ideal lane opponent.

Lunara

Build: Single Target Damage

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Level 7
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Level 20

Lunara

Build: Siege

Level 1
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Who I am and My Motivations


Hello, I am Unedingwrath and this is my first time writing a guide so bear with me on this. In light of fixes to Lunara I decided to write this guide as I noticed a lot of guides were not as in-depth as they could be concerning some of her abilities. So I took it upon myself to help in whatever way I can. Now I know what you're thinking why listen to little old me well I am not a pro by any means I am simply your average rank 12 player who is trying traveling on that road to rank 1. So I could be wrong with some things I could be right with others but from what I have seen so far, I would simply like to show you a few tricks I have picked up over the course of playing her to level 12. If you have a better way to play her by all means do what works for you, but I would appreciate it if you told me, so I could improve this guide and have it grow into a collective of knowledge to help play just about the most fun hero in this game. Well that's enough about me and my motivations let's get started shall we.



PS.I will try to maintain this guide and keep it up to date with any changes Lunara sees as soon as I am able. I also plan on updating this guide to be more in-depth in the future and give explanations why and some math behind my talent picks later on but for now, I am just trying to get some of these builds out there as I don't see them very often and I have had great success with them.

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Pros and Cons


Lunara is a Hero with a high skill cap and can require a little forethought and creativity to get the most out of her if you want to be effective as Lunara you have to first think about what situations you will most likely encounter and build around that. The first step is Knowing some of her baseline pros and cons.

Pros:
-High sustained damage
-High mobility in combat
-Mid to long range depending on talents
-Flexible talent choice
-Insane ability to chase
-Both ultimates are viable
-The satisfaction Of putting on sunglasses turning around and slowly walking away from explosion that is your enemy dying to poison

Cons:
-SO SQUISHY
-Little to no burst
-Slow out of combat Mobility
-Needs others to be effective in team fights
-requires Good positioning

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Abilities

NoxiousBlossom Q
Small targeted Aoe

Charges 1
Cooldown 8 seconds
mana cost 60

The closest thing you get to burst damage, so make sure you get the timing of this ability down as its the little extra you need most of the time to land kills.

Crippling Spores W
Global range refresh and slow to any target poison

Charges 1
Cooldown 10 seconds
mana cost 40

This is your primary tool for chasing and kiting. This can also be used to keep the entire enemy team in places they don’t want to be for a few seconds longer. In addition to landing some pretty unsuspecting kills by extending that poison timer.
Wisp E
A movable scouting drone and possibly your best friend

Charges 1
Cooldown 30 seconds
mana cost 30
Duration 45 Seconds

Most people don't like this ability but as a squishy knowing when you need to back out is quite useful. The wisp can warn you 5-10 seconds ahead of time that someone is coming your way it also gives you the confidence to push a lane knowing you won't be caught out. The wisp can ward enemy camps or objectives so you have an idea of where the enemy team is and what they are doing. Overall a properly used wisp can be a key difference in what not only you do but your team does thus I highly recommend you get comfortable using this ability and using it often.

Nature's Toxin D
The primary source of your damage

Duration 3 seconds
Max Stacks 3

A thing that separates a good Lunara from a great Lunara is knowing when to spread your poison. Technically Lunara does slightly less damage if you already have 3 stacks of poison on a guy and keep throwing spears on him, so in any situation that you don't need to focus a specific target just try to poison as many people as possible to do maximum damage. treat Lunara like Jaina or KT the goal is to do AoE damage just make sure when your entire team is focusing a target you join in with them.




Ultimates

Leaping Strike R
An excellent single target burst ablity as well as a tool for escaping and chasing

Charges 2
Cooldown 20 seconds
mana cost 50

This is an excellent talent for when facing people who rely heavily on skill shots and characters who dive you. The reason why is this can be used to both dodge and kite enemies as well as chase them down when they are low. yet its best feature is it makes Lunara a hard counter for Morales as you can jump over her front line and start whaling on her. Thus causing her to either retreat or her team to collapse on you if the former happens Moralas is probably going to die if the later happens you just use your second leap to position yourself back by your team. now the big thing here is you want their cc to be down before you dive or else they will most likely be able to kill you, so wait for them to waste cc and put a little distance between them and their healer then pounce when there is an opening. Furthermore, if you ever have an enemy chasing you run into a side passage, and just as they turn and follow you jump and can easily escape most people. Really Lunara gets so much mobility out of this it’s uncanny but if you screw it up you have essentially killed yourself so just remember positioning and timing are everything.


Thornwood Vine R
the Choice that provides the most damage overall and is the go to choice when you need more aoe or poke
Charges 3
Cooldown 15 seconds
mana cost 35

Now this is a talent that at first glance may seem a bit underwhelming but overall it has significantly higher damage and it's fantastic if you would otherwise be out-ranged or it's unsafe to get to close to an enemy as you can do a lot of damage with this from poking at a distance.

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The Builds


While I am giving builds to people I would first and foremost I would like you to refer to these Builds as guidelines Not Law. The best players know the time and place to take the right talents as there is no right talent for every situation you just pick what you need when you need it, and the rest of the Guide will hopefully help making that call easier.

Aoe Damage math wise this would generate the highest hero damage and as long as someone besides you has a slow its a perfectly viable build

Single target damage This build is more for Dealing with tankier enimies and when the enemy team has an aoe healer or moralas that would render your aoe damage less effective this is by far burstier and a bit more mobile.

Siege This build while I find worth mentioning isn't why you want to pick lunara its more of a niche build that i find more suited for quickmatch when your comp is a bit screwy and you want a sort of pseudo-specialist as while she can pull it off lets be honest other heroes can probably do it better.

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Talents and Math


This section explains the pros and cons of each talent in repertoire, and there the logics of the builds in her competitive kit. Each talent is labeled green for a standard competitive build, yellow for the optional builds, orange for situational picks, and red for builds or talents you should rarely if ever use.(math will be implemented later)

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Blossom Swell
A small increase to the radius of noxious blossom

This talent is ok it is not the best level one talent in the world but it does help you cleave more enemies with your Noxious blossom.

Photosynthesis
This talent refunds the mana from Crippling Spores per target

Lunara doesn't really have mana issues and ussaly by the time she does have to back for mana someone else will or you will likely need health seriously she can go 3-4 long team fights without running out of mana
Natural Perspective
This talent Reveals enemies effected by your passive

This is fantastic for dealing with stealth Characters, but more than that it allows you to hit enemies behind walls or who run into bushes to avoid your auto attacks, as well as giving vision of the enemies positions to help your team land skill shots.

Cruel Spores
This talent reduces the cooldown on Crippling spores if you only hit minions down to 2 seconds from 10

At first glance this talent looks underwhelming, but if you look at Luara's talents and then give it some thought this is a fantastic talent. However the talent is map dependent if you were on say cursed hollow or Battlefield of Eternity its pretty meh. However, if you are on something more like Dragon Shire or Tomb of the Spider Queen. where you are in lane more often it works really well as you could hit a minion then use crippling spores to proc any w based talent and then have those talents up initially in any engage and have them constantly up while laneing.

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Nimble Wisp
Increases the speed at which the wisp moves by 100% and its vision radius by 50%.

This is my personal favorite it allows to quickly check enemy position at bosses, Merc camps, and objectives as well as its quick movement can allow it to stay in front of the enemy team to track their movement to an objective or where ever else they may be going.

Timelost Wisp
Wisp costs no mana and its cooldown recharges faster when wisp is not active.

This Talent gives you the highest uptime on wisp. Personally, I don't like this talent I find it is outshined by the others but most talents on this tier I find situational so if you can make it work go nuts
Skybound Wisp The wisp now has vision over walls and can reveals small area upon death.

Again I don't particularly like this talent either, but it does have its use on maps where there is alot of objects that obstruct the wisp vision but then its radius is kinda small to do much so its real use is for the reveal of stealth characters in team fights by sending it into AoE damage but that again is rather difficult so overall i find this one kinda meh at best but if you can use it well as I stated before go nuts.

Dividing Wisp
The wisp now leaves a Stationary copy of itself the first time it is moved at its current location

This one is my other preference its useful on maps that involve a lot of laning early and mid game as it allows you to be as aggressive as possible without being caught out making it a wonderful compliment to any build and it stays strong late game as well as it allows you to ward key points on the map. or make sure you have too many unexpected surprises.

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Siphoning Toxin
A small Heal that is active as long as your poison is active.

I don't recommend this as I find the heal rather week and so many of
Lunaras important damage talents are on this tier.
Wild Vigor
A Increase to the damage done by your next 4 auto attacks by 50%.

While it is not the highest damage value on the tier this is viable purely for its synergy with Cruel Spores and for the fact its the most focus fire talent on this tier. In addition, to being more reliable on damage compared to splintered spear which requires a bit of skill to use properly.

Splintered Spear
Your auto attack after using noxious blossom can hit up to 3 targets.

Ok I know what your thinking What Why take this well mathematically you do 200% more damage from your basic attacks every 8 seconds which is a shorter cooldown than 10 seconds for wild vigor in addition to the fact that its a small range increase on your basic attack if you are able to hit something close to your target the cleave which prioritizes heroes will always hit your target giving you a bit more safety early on in addition to the fact it also spreads poison. The only reason not to take this talent is if either A you really need to focus someone down or B there is a heavy AoE healer Like brightwing who would make the AoE Less effective.
Nature's Culling
This Increases the damage of your passive to non-heros by 200%

This talent is very map dependent you can get alot more out of this on battlefield of eternity then say dragon shire the ideal time to take this talent is when your team need more wave clear or need to kill objectives faster as since your poison has some of the highest scaling in the game this talent will ussaly do the trick it also lets you reduce the effectiveness of bosses monsters your enemies get.

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Leaping Strike
An excellent single target burst ability as well as a tool for escaping and chasing

Charges 2
Cooldown 20 seconds
mana cost 50

This is an excellent talent for when facing people who rely heavily on skill shots and characters who dive you. The reason why is this can be used to both dodge and kite enemies as well as chase them down when they are low. yet its best feature is it makes Lunara a hard counter for Morales as you can jump over her front line and start whaling on her. Thus causing her to either retreat or her team to collapse on you if the former happens Moralas is probably going to die if the later happens you just use your second leap to position yourself back by your team. now the big thing here is you want their cc to be down before you dive or else they will most likely be able to kill you, so wait for them to waste cc and put a little distance between them and their healer then pounce when there is an opening. Furthermore, if you ever have an enemy chasing you run into a side passage, and just as they turn and follow you jump and can easily escape most people. Really Lunara gets so much mobility out of this it’s uncanny but if you screw it up you have essentially killed yourself so just remember positioning and timing are everything.

Thornwood Vine
the Choice that provides the most damage overall and is the go to choice when you need more AoE or poke
Charges 3
Cooldown 15 seconds
mana cost 35

Now this is a talent that at first glance may seem a bit underwhelming but overall it has significantly higher damage and it's fantastic if you would otherwise be out-ranged or it's unsafe to get to close to an enemy as you can do a lot of damage with this from poking at a distance.

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Pestering Blossom
Increases the range of Blossom Swell by 40%.

Useful if you need to play more at range to be safe to prevent people from diving your or prehapse just to chase more effectively.

Unfair Advantage
Increases the damage of your poison to slowed heros by 50%

I love this talent normally if you are running this talent it would do less than giant killer, but if you pair it with thornwood vine, the other cleave talents, someone with a slow you won't believe your eyes. as with a nice little combo like this just watch as one 3 hits shreds 40% of the entire enemy teams health.

Giant Killer
A simple generic ability that make your basic attacks do % health damage.

While normally I find generic abilities a bit lazy from a design perspective, I find that giant killer works out rather well with Lunara. Pair it with her level 16 talent invigorating spores every 10 seconds you can sit and watch as your targets health pool turns to dust no matter how tanky they will fall before you.

Greater Spell Shield
A Improved version of spell shield lets be honest

Lunara doesn't have the biggest health pool and if the enemy team has a lot of mages or a nova you would be in a pickle. This is especially true if you are in quick match and don't have a healer. Which is why this talent can make all the difference as any heavy single target ult used on you is effectively useless. Allowing you to walk away from most situations you normally couldn't even with a healer. The only downside of this talent is any ability and I mean any ability can Knock it off which if its knocked off at the wrong time well your dead.

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Choking Pollen
Your Blossom Swell now does significantly more damage and gives you a bit more burst.

Normally people say that this is outshined by Invigorating spores or Star wood spear. However, I disagree if you are not running a Crippling Spores build then the other two are actually by far weaker. Furthermore, Chocking pollen allows you to more easily weave in and out of combat as needed. Essentially you do what you need to do and get out and come back when safe as opposed to waiting for the full duration of your new and improved slightly faster attack. Also, still have a damage increase as opposed to star wood spear which is just a range increase. In reality, if you took all other talents for maximum possible hero damage and utility to this point it's really the best of both worlds on this tier.

Star Wood Spear
A fairly long range increase to your basic attacks .

This talent is exactly what you need if your going a single target focused build, but still need to play safe also if combined with splintered spear you can get a surprisingly high range increase for your basic attacks.

Invigorating Spores
This increases your basic attack speed when you use crippling spores.

This talent should be your go to talent if you are running a single target build and you don't need to play as safe. Pair this with giant killer and the other single target talents and you will easily kill even the tankiest of tanks.

Let Them Wither
Increases the slow amount of your Crippling spores.

Let them wither is an ok talent now that it makes the slow a flat 50% and makes your slow no longer decay still it would only be preferable if you need to kite a lot or slow enemy teams to help your melee stay in range so definitely not your default choice but in some matches it's totally worth it.

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Forest's Wrath
This incrases your base vision radius and the range and speed of Thornwood Vine

This ability I Personally do not like as the vision can be blocked by bushes which on some maps would cover every major choke point that you would want to see by taking this talent really nice about this talent is it makes landing Thornwood Vine while chasing much more effective or need to poke from an obscene distance.

Boundless Stride
This allows you to leap over allies and both charges are now gained every 20 seconds

This is a damage increase and if you are usually with someone can be used as a slight mobility increase on larger maps to help you get somewhere.would not be as fast as galloping gate but it would be a good trade off as it would be a little movement and a little damage for the small to medium size maps and then you could take galloping gate for the really large ones.

Galloping Gait
This gives you a active 80% movement increase every 20seconds

This is exactly what lunara needs its a reliable escape with a moderate cooldown in addition to the fact that it gets her where she needs to be when she needs to be. Not to mention after you pick it up you can effectively take down any who try to run from a fight as only Chen's barrel is faster then you all and all a fantastic talent.

Abolish Magic
basicly a clense for cc and dots.

This talent is ok its not your default choice by any means but it does have its uses the prime example of this is to counter xul who is running poison nova as you can with this one button remove a poison that does a significant amount of damage and a root in one go which can turn teamfights into your favor or minimize your loses. Though its worth noting it needs to be used after the fact for cc or any dots applied and I also think its worth mentioning I wouldn't take it for dots only unless there is alot of them.

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Map Specific Strategies


This will be coming later for now just wait or if you want to help just get some data and post it in the discussion

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Tips and Tricks


leaping strike tips
  • You can use blossom swell on merc camps in order to get vision and then leap over them
  • if at all possible try to leap into a bush or behind a wall in order to get a few more seconds of cover while maintaining your damage
  • if facing melee heroes use leap to kite them when they close
  • you can use leap to fake out an enemy by running forward into a side lane then when they chase leap back over them

Inspiration Top


Inspiration


I would like to say that this build format is totally mine, but I am not that Organized. I Looked at Jaeris' Sylvanas Guide as the Baseline model for how a guide should be done as I have found his Sylvanas guide to be well put together. Also, I personally Believe that all guides should be put together like his as it’s a type of guide that gives guidelines for situations, math and logic to back up the talent choices. A link to his guide can be found here. I would also like to thank all of the people on the forums here. As there are a lot of you nice folks who make templates and post how-to guides for coding as it made making this so much easier because some of the coding can be a bit tricky if you’re not familiar with it. I would also like to thank all the Lunara fans out there who made this wonderful art as a guide without Art is just boring.

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