I've been playing a lot of Lunara lately.
She is a rewarding hero to play. She demands constant micro and her fragile HP pool makes makes even the slightest positioning mistake extremely punishing. The upside however, is she has all of the tools to completely outplay your opponent. Lunara must kite her opponents, constantly scanning for opportunities at free damage and safe auto attacks.
Easier said than done. After losing a ton and experimenting with all sorts of builds I've settled on the best, most practical Lunara tips to help up your dryad game. She is hard to get the hang of, but once you do, nothing feels better than winning with Lunara. She seems unstoppable in certain scenarios and, against melee heavy lineups, a skilled Lunara's presence is felt across the entire battlefield.
Ahh, the great out doors! Let's start with the basics:
1. Take Greater Spell Shield the majority of the time. Try to hunt mages.
This can't be stressed enough. Greater Spell Shield is a fantastic talent that allows Lunara to negate 75% of all ability damage for 3 seconds. This means that you win any 1v1 against Jaina, Kael'Thas, and to some extent, Falstad. It's tempting to ignore this talent but Lunara is way too fragile without it.
2. Crippling Spore Builds are your best bet at being useful.
I am familiar with the style of Lunara that focuses less on auto attacks and more on Blossom Swell, but in my experience, this poke style just makes you a less effective Kael'Thas. Lunara really shines when you are able to take advantage of empowered auto attacks thanks to crippling spore talents:
At level 7
At level 16
OR
These talents allow you to do what Lunara does best- whittle away at opponents while staying safe.
3. Cruel Spores is secrely one of Lunara's most powerful talents.
Cruel Spores is an easy to overlook talent because no one cares about extending DOT's on Minions or Mercenaries.
But cool down reduction is a very powerful thing when paired with the later Crippling Spore talents that empower her auto-attacks. Before a team fight, all Lunara has to do is attack one minion and immediately cast Crippling Spores. This activates her auto-attack buffs and by the time you throw your first spear, Crippling Spores is already off cool down. 12 seconds of godly auto attacks is usually enough to deal some serious damage.
4. Use wisps to scout useful locations. Don't spend too much time trying to microing them.
The wisp talents at level 4 are largely up to personal preference, but proper wisp usage is still up for debate. I am a strong proponent of the "use-and-forget-about" style of wisp usage, as usually the micro and attention it takes to move your wisp could be spend microing Lunara and bullying a lane.
I've found that the most useful place for wisps are at enemy mercenary camps and whatever lane your team is losing. Lunara has the passive move speed to avoid most ganks, so the Wisp is actually better suited covering heroes like Raynor or Kael'Thas.
5. Abolish Magic is an invaluable Storm talent.
It's tempting to be greedy and choose the flashier talents, but improved cleanse gives Lunara utility that no other Ranged assassin in the game can even touch. Cleanse used to be one of the most powerful talents in the game before it was nerfed.
EDIT: Mistakes were made and Abolish Magic, while still a good talent, is not the same as pre-nerf cleanse. That mechanic has been truely abolished.
Now, Lunara has access to a pre-nerf cleanse that is even better, as it affects both Lunara and whatever ally you target. Unless there is absolutely nothing to cleanse for your team, it's usually too good to pass up.
6. Don't try and poison their entire team.
I see this a lot with Lunara players and I understand the appeal. In a perfect world, a max value Lunara would have the skill and presence of mind to tactfully auto attack every single enemy hero in a team fight for max damage. In reality, this never works and will get you killed.
All Lunara want's to do is poison 1-2 front line heroes consistently. If you are doing that, you are being very useful.
7. The most important rule of all; don't try to flank.
Flanking the enemy team always sounds like a good idea, but Heroes like Lunara just can't do it. She doesn't have the burst-of-speed style of escape option to make it safe and her HP is far too low to survive multiple heroes focusing her down. Lunara is much better suited when surrounded by allies and there is very little to gain by leaving the flock.
If you can throw spears for free, you are doing all right. Stick with your supports and bait the enemy into attacking you. As long as you don't get stunned, Lunara's passive movement speed is usually enough to stay just out of harms way.
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