Dota 2 Heroes – An introduction to Luna the Moon Rider

By: Jason McCarthy

  |   July 12th, 2012   |  

News, Uncategorized

Introduced in the final week of June 2012, Luna the Moon Rider is a powerful addition to Valve’s remake of the popular action real-time strategy game Defense of the Ancients (Dota).

She is a popular choice for players who possess good farming skills and not too quick with their fingers to handle more than a couple of active spells. Her fragility is one of her major drawbacks, though this is nothing that a few expensive items cannot fix.

Luna is an agility carry hero that rides on a menacing-looking panther. She has a good early and late game presence, courtesy of her powerful magic spells, but can also be devastating with her auto-attacks if given enough farm.

Lucent Beam is a single target spell that, at its highest level and cool down of only 6 seconds, deals 300 damage and a mini-stun of 0.6 seconds. This is a very simple spell, but is equally effective, something that will become more apparent once we talk about her ultimate.

Moon Glaive is a passive ability that will cause her auto-attack to bounce up to 4 times at its highest level. Each enemy that is hit will incur a 30 percent damage loss per unit. This is great for pushing as the bounces will work off buildings as well. Also items with orb effects that did not work in the original DotA, such as Mjolnir, will now work with Moon Glaive. Other items such as Skadi and Diffusal Blade will only work on the first attack and lose their effect on the bounces that follow.

Lunar Blessing is a passive aura that will provide any ally within a 900 Area of Effect (AOE) a +32 damage buff. Luna will not only get the buff, but will also gain full vision range at night. The vision will extend to the maximum even by taking Level 1 of the spell.

Luna’s ultimate is named Eclipse. When it is activated, a couple of things will happen. Firstly, it will turn the day into night for 10 seconds, thereby allowing her to have night vision is Lunar Blessing is levelled. Secondly, she will summon 10 Lucent Beams that will damage random enemies within a 675 AOE. These 10 beams will damage over a 5.4-second period and will only be able to hit a singular target up to 4 times. The damage of each beam is based on the current level of the Lucent Beam, meaning that at its highest level, a singular target will take up to 1200 magical damage. The downside is that if Luna is killed, her ultimate will not continue and any invisible units will not take damage from it whatsoever. Also, the mini-stun from the Lucent Beam is not carried over as that would probably end up making it the best ultimate in the game.

Luna is suitable for no other role than a carry. Her spells are excellent at dealing high damage within a short span of time. If handled correctly, she is one of the deadliest heroes in Dota 2. Anyone who doubts this claim should try facing a well-farmed Luna in both team as well as one-on-one battle.

 

Disclaimer: The research used in this article is accredited to Dota Cinema and SUNSfan. No copyright infringement is intended.