Introduction
“In the service of Selemene.”
Luna is a ranged agility carry that has proved a consistently popular pick in both competitive and public Dota 2. Although she needs a lot of farm in order to fulfil her role of late-game carry, in the early and mid-game she has access to considerable AoE magic damage in the form of Eclipse which allows her to contribute strongly to both early and late-game engagements.
As she acquires more farm, however, she transitions from an AoE magic damage dealer to an AoE physical DPS’er thanks to her Moon Glaive passive.
Luna’s key weakness is her squishiness; despite having high damage output and the highest base move speed in the entire game, she has no innate escape ability and a relatively small health pool.
Luna's complete character profile can be found here.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Great teamfight contribution at all stages of the game
- High magic damage AoE output
- Amazing late-game physical AoE DPS’er
- Has a short duration stun to interrupt channeling
- Highest base move speed in the game
- Maximum night vision gives her an edge over the vast majority of the hero pool at night
- Good last hitter
- Can flash farm creep waves and jungle camps easily in the mid-game
Cons
- Squishy
- No escape mechanism
- Needs a lot of farm to carry late-game
- Very short range on her attack (330)
- Outshone by most other carries in 1 on 1 engagements unless she has vastly superior farm
Item Build
Luna is an item-hungry carry. Without decent items, moving out of the mid game all she will provide for your team is the magic damage from her ultimate and she’ll be food for enemy cores. As such, you really need safe lane farm, or at worst a dual offlane where you will be able to get decent last hits.
Starting Items
To start with you want a mix of regen and cost-efficient stats that will allow you to stay in the lane despite some harassment. A typical starting build for Luna is:
A set of Tangos, a Healing Salve, 1x Circlet, and 3x Iron Branches
Last hitting should be quite simple even from level one/two, thanks to the bonus damage you gain from Lunar Blessing and those starting stat items.
Early Game
What you get next depends on how successfully you’re farming your lane. If you have uncontested freefarm and a good last hit rate then you can consider a Hand of Midas, in order to really accelerate your farming progress. It is a dangerous and greedy option to go for, however; if the enemy team react to your Midas pick-up by pressuring you early and forcing teamfights it could come back to bite you.
Another, slightly less greedy way to accelerate your farm in the mid game if you’ve been farming well early on is to go for an early Helm of the Dominator, and then stack your ancients with a dominated neutral creeps. You can then farm these ancient stacks up once you have some points in Glaives. The other benefit of this item choice is that you can farm jungle camps early on as well, with the life steal ensuring you keep your health up.
Both Helm of Dominator and Hand of Midas options are entirely situational/optional, and rely on you getting a good start. If you don’t get a good start then work straight towards your ‘core’ early items instead.
When it comes to Boots, you have two good options: Power Treads or Phase Boots. Tranquils used to be good on Luna, but the new Tranquils are terrible for carry heroes as they’ll be almost permanently broken. Usually you’ll want to grab Power Treads, for some much-needed health and a nice boost of attack speed. Phase Boots give you a nice chunk of damage and mobility (the so-called ‘race car’ build), but you’ll be seriously squishy; 99 times out of 100 go for Power Treads on Luna.
Upgrade any Iron Branches you have into a Magic Wand, and if you went for any Wraith Band components you can upgrade them into a Wraith Band, and in turn create a Ring of Aquila if you want the extra stats and mana regen (Ring of Aquila is especially cost effective as of patch 6.80).
Core Items
Black King Bar and Yasha into Manta Style are Luna’s core items. The order you get them in is up to you; when taking part in early teamfights, if you find yourself fearing lockdown/burst magic damage then you’ll need to prioritise Black King Bar. Otherwise, you can get your Yasha up and running first.
With Power Treads, Magic Wand, BKB and Manta Style up and running you have your core. If you picked up a Hand of Midas or Helm of Dominator earlier on then you’re in great shape heading into the late game.
Luxury Items
If you didn’t get a Helm of the Dominator earlier then consider purchasing one now, so that you can flash farm the jungle during any downtime, take down ancients, and life steal during teamfights. Eventually upgrade this in turn into a Satanic, which will give you phenomenal staying power in teamfights providing you don’t get stun-locked before using its active.
Butterfly – The ultimate late-game luxury purchase for agility carries – huge chunks of attack speed, damage, and evasion. The only problem with Butterfly is that it’s hard-countered by Monkey King Bar. If the enemy carry is working towards, or already has an MKB, consider purchasing a different luxury item. It’s still a great item to have, but the evasion is countered and it thus becomes a cost inefficient item.
Monkey King Bar – Alternatively grab an MKB yourself. High damage, a small attack speed boost, and completely counters agility carries that opt for a Butterfly.
Heart of Tarrasque – Purely to help tank up. If you find that you’re very much a glass cannon that, despite dealing enormous damage, goes down quite quickly, then Heart is a decent pick-up.
Daedalus – Damage, damage, damage. A solid carry damage item if you feel lacking in punching power.
Situational
Hand of Midas – As noted earlier in the guide, Hand of Midas is an option if you get uncontested free farm and you don’t expect the enemy team will be able to punish you for going greedy in your item choices.
Drums of Endurance – On the other side of the coin are Drums. If you have a terrible start, or you expect a lot of early engagements, Drums are a great option. It's cost-efficient, gives you decent stats, and is extremely easy to build into so you won't lose much unreliable gold upon death.
Divine Rapier - If you don't care about potentially throwing the game, or you're so far behind that it's worth buying it for a hail-mary attempt at winning, then feel free to go for a Divine Rapier. Just warn your team so they know to either protect you or be prepared to pick up the Rapier should you die.
Shadow Blade – Very much a pub stomp item. It gives Luna a pseudo-escape mechanism, some damage and attack speed, and you can hide under the cover of invisibility after using your ultimate (it works whilst invisible). That said, it’s easily countered, and will be countered more the higher up matchmaking ranks you go.
Skill Build
Skill Lucent Beam either at level 1, or more ideally level 2. Lucent Beam is your somewhat spammable magic damage nuke. You’ll want to max Lucent Beam first – so have 4 points in it by the time you hit level 7. Why? Because your ultimate, Eclipse, deals damage based on the level of Lucent Beam. If you have no levels in Lucent Beam your ultimate deals no damage (please, whatever you do, do not make this mistake!), and since your ultimate is such a powerful tool in the early and mid game, you want to maximise its potential straight away.
Moon Glaives is the passive that makes you a fearsome late-game carry. With it, your attacks will ‘bounce’ to nearby enemy units, effectively making you a 500 unit range physical AoE carry later on in the game.
As amazing as the Moon Glaives passive is later on in the game, it is not useful in the early stages. Not just because the damage reduction it applies to subsequent bounces means it doesn’t hit very hard without items, but because you’ll end up pushing your lane towards the enemy tower.
For these reasons Moon Glaives is maxed last, and not typically skilled until level 10. You can, however, put a couple of points into it earlier, ahead of Lunar Blessing, if you have your Helm of Dominator up and running and have stacked jungle camps to take down.
Lunar Blessing is skilled first and maxed second, after Lucent Beam. It provides fixed bonus damage to yourself and allies within a 900 unit radius. It makes last hitting with Luna extremely easy and also has the added bonus of giving her 1800 unit night vision (compared to the standard 800 units), which gives her a slight edge over enemies during nighttime.
The damage from Lunar Blessing does not scale (it is a fixed amount, not percentage based), however, so it really only shines in the early and mid game.
Finally, Luna’s ultimate, Eclipse, is always skilled (so levels 6, 11 and 16). An extremely good magic damage teamfight ultimate, Eclipse calls down several Lucent Beams of whatever level you have Lucent Beam skilled up to. This is why Lucent Beam is maxed first; by level 7 your ultimate will send out five 300 damage Lucent Beams in a 675 unit radius.
| Tip: At level 7 you will be able to take out virtually any hero that you catch out alone, in much the same way a level 7 Juggernaut uses his ultimate to insta-kill most heroes at this stage of the game. You’ll deal up to four 300 damage Lucent Beams to a single enemy with your ultimate, as well as any other additional Lucent Beams you manage to get off during the engagement, and any right-click damage you deal. |
Eclipse is a tremendous pick-off tool, but also a hugely important teamfight tool for Luna. In the early and mid game, when your right-click damage output is not particularly intimidating and your squishiness a huge liability in teamfights, casting Eclipse in teamfights will allow you to deal enormous amounts of damage to enemy units. Note that the Beams will hit creeps, so try to avoid using it near creep waves unless you absolutely have to.
Gameplay Tips
Early on, Lucent Beam can be used to secure last hits if you anticipate an enemy gank or you’re temporarily harassed away from the creep wave.
Lucent Beam is actually a stun. It only last 0.6 seconds, so it’s useless for locking down targets in the way stuns are traditional used, but it’s a great way to interrupt channelled abilities or items, like TP Scrolls.
| Note: Although Lucent Beam stuns, the Lucent Beams called down by Eclipse do not stun. |
Moon Glaive allows you to flash farm creep waves, jungle camps and, crucially, ancient stacks, which is why Helm of the Dominator is so heavily recommended for Luna. If you get an early Helm of the Dominator and manage to get a decent stack then consider skilling Moon Glaive a little earlier than normal (instead of extra points in Lunar Blessing), so that you can more easily take those stacks.
Remember that Moon Glaives will cause you to push your lane out, giving the offlaner valuable experience and gold, and putting yourself in a more vulnerable position on the map, so do not skill it until the more formal laning phase has concluded.
Last Updated - Patch 6.83.
