Poke ‘em man: Breaking down Heroes of the Storm’s Lunara | Technobubble

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Halfway through my first day of playing Lunara upon her release, I got asked this question after donning her Level 8 skin for the first time in a match.

“What … are you?” one curious teammate inquired.

“Bambi,” I said.

The answer is always Bambi.

All kidding aside, I was very much looking forward to Lunara after she was first revealed at Blizzcon 2015 alongside two-headed monster Cho’gall and shapeshifter Greymane (who, by the way, made a quick tease of an appearance on my HotS home screen after the Lunara patch). As a support main who also enjoys playing ranged assassins, I thought her kit based on damage over time, speed and vision added something new to the table.

On that note, here are my initial thoughts after my first day playing the first daughter of Cenarius. For a more “official” take, you can also check out Blizzard lead hero designer Hugh Shelton’s take on Lunara.

Hop to it

Lunara’s movement is, well, strange. She basically bounds and hops around like a deer, which earned some inquisitive comments from some of the randoms I played with.

Admittedly, it can take a while to get used to. When using the camera lock position, for example, the fact that Lunara slows down a bit at the end of her hop results in this weird, almost stuttery framing that actually made me feel a bit dizzy at first.

As someone who likes to be constantly moving while attacking, I also couldn’t attack quite as fast on the move with her as I do when she’s standing still. Maybe I just haven’t gotten down the nuances of her stutter step in terms of the best time to attack during her animation but it’s especially important to move while attacking as Lunara as she’s super squishy.

On the plus side, that always-on, 20 percent passive speed boost from her “Dryad Swiftness” ability is literally a lifesaver. Given your low health pool, positioning with Dryad Swiftness will be your only method of escape unless you take Leaping Strike at Level 10 and maybe upgrade it with Boundless Stride at Level 20, both of which still have their limits by the way. Anyway, lord knows how many times I managed to disengage from foes with only a sliver of HP left because I simply outran opponents straight out or deftly zig-zagged through bushes or smoke. She’s like the mayor of juke city. The smarter folks actually mounted up to chase me down a bit before re-engaging, which capitalizes on the main weakness of Dryad Swiftness. In exchange for a normal walking speed that’s 20 percent faster, Lunara can’t mount up so her regular top speed is slower than the poverty pony and all other mounts. This can be a pain in larger maps or when you have to hearth back then rejoin your team deep into enemy territory during a push.

Then again, Dryad Swiftness combined with her attack range and poison trait is excellent for annoying foes in fights as well as chasing down low-health enemies. I practically rub my hands like Mr. Burns as soon as I see an injured foe trying to peel off from a fight.

“Excellent.”

That girl is poison

Speaking of poison, I’m really loving Lunara’s trait Nature’s Toxin. All I can say is, I’m a patient man.

Whenever you damage an enemy with a basic attack or ability, it inflicts poison that does light damage for three seconds. What’s more, you can use multiple attacks to stack the poison for up to nine seconds, which you can easily do with any combination of her Noxious Blossom “Q,” Crippling Spores “W” and auto attack, for example.

That nine-second stack is almost single-handedly responsible for me topping the post-match leaderboard for hero kills in the majority of my Lunara matches even with other assassins on my team — sometimes by a ludicrous margin. That’s a bonafide miracle because I’m normally a non-aggressive player whose careful style is more conducive to support and I rarely get top marks for kills. I could only imagine how insane the hero damage and kill counts could be with a player who actually knows what they’re doing.

Then again, maybe the fact that I play carefully is the reason I do so well with Lunara. Although her poison trait is excellent for damage over time, she doesn’t really have any means for burst damage outside maybe using full stacks of her heroics consecutively. Add durability that’s on par with wet toilet paper and you really have to be patient with Lunara and focus on surviving with her speed and agility while layering the poison on foes.

Once you get folks in low health, though, it’s Mr. Burns time. I can’t even count the number of occasions when I’ve chased enemies back to their gates, disengage and head the other direction to avoid tower fire, then see the “Enemy Slain” message pop up on my screen a few seconds later. Her poison is like the Showtime Rotisserie on low-health heroes. You just set it and forget it.

Admittedly, a lot of my success with this character might be from the fact that many players aren’t quite used to dealing with her and her poison trait quite yet. I’ve noticed that I tend to have a tough time against aggressive players with either good burst damage or a stun, particularly in one vs. one situations. This seems especially magnified in the late game when some characters get big power spikes that really put your squishiness to the test. Folks with some form of burst heal like Raynor’s Adrenaline Rush and survivability or sustain like Johanna (groan) can be annoying to finish off, too. Healers also can mitigate your poison DOT so keep that in mind.

On the other hand, I found Lunara to be excellent in duos and groups. Lunara can poke like crazy and poison folks to death with a second teammate running interference. She can also pump out some sneaky damage in team fights thanks to her poison ability. Stack up her Thornwood Vine heroic and you can really weaken multiple foes, which can help turn around a team engagement. By the time some players realize they’ve been stacked with poison on top of getting damage from the rest of your team, it can be too late. Her leaping strike is also good for positioning as well as cancelling some enemy abilities such as The Butcher's "Ruthless Onslaught" and even Illidan's "The Hunt." Adding to her team bonafides are her wisps, which have excellent utility when holding objectives or keeping an eye at key areas such as turn in points or the middle portion of the Immortals stage. I’ve also used it to great success to prevent ganks or set up counter ganks at the objective points for Sky Temple, for example.

Overall, I really like Lunara. I’m not a pro player by any means so I’m not sure how viable she’ll be in competitive play but I think she has promise in certain comps that allow her poison ability to really take full effect while also leveraging the vision from her wisps. She’s also excellent at chasing and finishing off fleeing heroes thanks to her speed and range. Just keep in mind that playing Lunara requires lots of patience and discipline to get the most out of her kit and using that speed and range to stay in the backline and skedaddle when necessary. Ultimately, if the prospects of excellent poke, damage over time, vision and agility sound great to you, Lunara is the droid, er, dryad you’re looking for.

Talents and abilities

Here’s a rundown of Lunara’s various talents and abilities at launch. I’ll provide my preliminary thoughts on them but take them with a grain of salt as this is based on my preliminary play of the character.

LEVEL 1

Blossom Swell: Increases Noxious Blossom's radius by 20%.

Increases Noxious Blossom's radius by 20%. Photosynthesis: Crippling Spores returns 8 Mana per enemy hit, up to 40 Mana.

Crippling Spores returns 8 Mana per enemy hit, up to 40 Mana. Natural Perspective: Nature's Toxin reveals enemies for its duration.

Nature's Toxin reveals enemies for its duration. Cruel Spores: When Crippling Spores hits only Minions or Mercenaries, its cooldown is reduced by 80% and 20 mana is restored.

— I’ve never really had any mana problems with Lunara so I usually take Blossom Swell to get some more wiggle room with Noxious Blossom. I can see some utility with Natural Perspective, though, in situations where vision is key.

LEVEL 4

Nimble Wisp: Increases Wisp Movement Speed by 100% and vision radius by 50%.

Increases Wisp Movement Speed by 100% and vision radius by 50%. Timelost Wisp: Wisp costs no Mana and its cooldown recharges 100% faster while no Wisp is active.

Wisp costs no Mana and its cooldown recharges 100% faster while no Wisp is active. Skybound Wisp: Wisp can see over obstacles and reveals the area for 4 seconds after dying.

Wisp can see over obstacles and reveals the area for 4 seconds after dying. Dividing Wisp: The first time you relocate a Wisp it leaves a copy of itself in the previous location. Only one Dividing Wisp can be active at a time.

— The more I played, the more I gravitated toward Nimble Wisp because the speed boost for placement makes a big difference in large maps. For maps like Tomb of the Spider Queen, I’ll usually take Dividing Wisp so I can put vision on both turn in points. If foes are super aggressive in taking your wisps down, Timelost is a good option, too.

LEVEL 7

Siphoning Toxin: As long as you have Nature's Toxin active on an enemy you heal for 18 Health a second.

As long as you have Nature's Toxin active on an enemy you heal for 18 Health a second. Wild Vigor: Using Crippling Spores increases the damage of your next 4 Basic Attacks by 50%.

Using Crippling Spores increases the damage of your next 4 Basic Attacks by 50%. Splintered Spear: Using Noxious Blossom causes your next Basic Attack to hit up to 3 enemies.

Using Noxious Blossom causes your next Basic Attack to hit up to 3 enemies. Nature’s Culling: Increases Nature's Toxin's damage by 200% to non-Heroic enemies.

— I tried Siphoning Toxin a few times at first but it didn’t feel like the extra healing was significant enough to keep me alive while foregoing the extra damage from Wild Vigor, which can be useful during both 1V1 and team fights. If you’re more interested in wave clear or siege damage, the other two talents might be worth a look.

LEVEL 10

Thornwood Vine: Send forth vines that deal 164 damage to all enemies in a line. Can hold 3 charges.

Send forth vines that deal 164 damage to all enemies in a line. Can hold 3 charges. Leaping Strike: Leap over an enemy, slowing them by 80% for 0.35 seconds and attacking for 246 damage. Has 2 charges.

— Although not incredibly damaging, both heroics have their uses, can be stacked and also sport relatively short cooldowns. Leaping Strike is great for repositioning, cancelling certain enemy abilities and also focusing on one hero or two. I tend to gravitate more toward Thornwood Vine, however, because it works really well with my play style. It’s long range and speed makes it great for poking, chasing and finishing of kills and it’s also great for applying poison and damaging multiple foes in team fights, especially when unleashing all three stacks consecutively. I do wish there was a better way to figure out the timer on your extra stacks and when they’ll be back when you’re down to one for both ultimates, though.

LEVEL 13

Pestering Blossom: Increases Noxious Blossom's range by 40%.

Increases Noxious Blossom's range by 40%. Unfair Advantage: Nature's Toxin deals 50% more damage to Heroes that are slowed.

Nature's Toxin deals 50% more damage to Heroes that are slowed. Giant Killer: Basic Attacks against enemy Heroes deal bonus damage equal to 1.5% of the Hero's maximum Health.

Basic Attacks against enemy Heroes deal bonus damage equal to 1.5% of the Hero's maximum Health. Greater Spell Shield: Basic Attacks against enemy Heroes deal bonus damage equal to 1.5% of the Hero's maximum Health.

— Probably the most balanced skill tier of Lunara so far. I’ve found myself picking either of these depending on the situation. Pestering Blossom grants you extra reach for chasing, Unfair Advantage gives added bite to Crippling Spores, Giant Killer is useful against high-HP heroes like Cho’gall and Diablo and Greater Spell Shield can help against mage-heavy comps (e.g. a Kael'thas "Salami Ashalanore" Sunstrider with Pyroblast) as well as those sneaky Zeratuls and Novas, especially if the latter takes Triple Tap.

LEVEL 16

Choking Pollen: Increases Noxious Blossom damage by 50% against enemies afflicted with Nature's Toxin.

Increases Noxious Blossom damage by 50% against enemies afflicted with Nature's Toxin. Starwood Spear: Using Crippling Spores increases your Basic Attacks range by 50% for 6 seconds.

Using Crippling Spores increases your Basic Attacks range by 50% for 6 seconds. Invigorating Spores: Using Crippling Spores increases your Attack Speed by 50% for 6 seconds.

Using Crippling Spores increases your Attack Speed by 50% for 6 seconds. Let Them Wither: Increases Crippling Spores' slow to 60%.

— I personally like Invigorating Spores, which is especially useful for folks going for her auto-attack build. For extra positioning leeway, you can go for Starwood Spear, too, especially if you like poking.

LEVEL 20

Forest’s Wrath: Increases Thornwood Vine's range by 30%, its speed by 20%, and your vision radius by 35%.

Increases Thornwood Vine's range by 30%, its speed by 20%, and your vision radius by 35%. Boundless Stride: All Leaping Strike charges are returned every 20 seconds. You can also use Leaping Strike on allies.

All Leaping Strike charges are returned every 20 seconds. You can also use Leaping Strike on allies. Galloping Gait: Activate to increase the Movement Speed bonus of Dryad's Swiftness to 80% for 6 seconds.

Activate to increase the Movement Speed bonus of Dryad's Swiftness to 80% for 6 seconds. Abolish Magic: Activate to remove all stuns, roots, silences, slows, and damage over time effects from yourself and an ally. For 2 seconds after, the duration of stuns, roots, silences and slows is reduced by 50%.

— I usually pick Forest’s Wrath since it’s based on the heroic I tend to use. The next two helps improve your escape and positioning options. Abolish Magic can be good against comps with lots of CC, which can be bad news for Lunara.