Fans of Warcraft 3 will recall the Dryads, a Night Elf unit that became a cornerstone in the Warcraft universe. How does the power of the Dryad translate to the Heroes universe?
Dryads. Half night elf, half deer, these whimsical hippie-like creatures are fan favorites amongst the Warcraft crowd. Now, the Queen of Dryad-kind is ready to send her enemies crying back to Mother (Nature). But how does this new ranged assassin work? I got some time to sit down to play Lunara at Blizzcon. Let’s take a look at what to expect with this upcoming hero.
Lunara:
Q: Noxious Blossom
A ground-target AoE that deals damage on impact, it is always a good way to apply her trait effect to multiple heroes at once.
W: Crippling Spores
When her trait is currently applied to any enemies, she can activate this ability to slow all affected opponents.
E: Wisp
Send out a wisp, granting vision of a targeted area for 45 seconds. This wisp can be moved by activating the ability again, and this can happen as many times as you want. Global range. The wisp can be killed, and is quite squishy.
R1: Thornwood Vine (3 charges maximum)
Longrange fast-moving skillshot on a 15 second cooldown. Will damage all enemies in a line.
R2: Leaping Strike (2 charges maximum)
Targetted on an enemy. She will jump over the target while dealing damage. Because of the 2 charges, she can immediately use it again so she does not stay out of position for long. This ability can also be used to hop over obstacles, if the opponent is appropriately positioned. 25 second cooldown.
Trait: Nature's Toxin
Her abilities or basic attacks apply a damage-over-time posion to her target, this poison can stack.
Z: Dryad's Swiftness
Instead of mounting, Lunara has a permanent 20% movement speed bonus. But she does not simply walk around, she hops making her move in a different timing. This allows her to easier dodge skillshots when used properly.
The Goods and Bads of Lunara
Goods
- In-fight mobility. Lunara doesn’t have a mount, and instead hops every second when moving. This quickness allows her to dodge skillshots and aoe abilities fairly easily. She is also able to chase targets very well because of this.
- Incredible sustained damage. If Nazeebo is the king of dots, Lunara is his loyal queen. Her damage potential is not to be underestimated in drawn out fights. Nature’s Toxin hurts, and when it starts stacking up, it can reach very scary numbers.
- Vision. The wisp is unlike any ability thus far in HotS, allowing Lunara to quickly scout out an objective, or allowing Lunara to keep an area under vision for extended periods of time. This also makes her laning phase that much more potent. Want to gank a Lunara? Good luck.
- Anti-Magic capabilities. Dryads in Warcraft 3 had very powerful anti-magic capabilities, and that is no different in HotS. At level 13, Lunara has Greater Spellshield available, allowing her to negate 75% of magic damage once every so often. At level 20, she has an active (forgetting the name!) that allows her to cleanse herself and an ally of dots/CC.
Bads
- Lack of burst damage/underwhelming abilities. Often, assassins are picked for their great burst capabilities. Lunara has nothing in that regard. While her dots are powerful, they take time to actually hurt. A good healer will be able to negate Lunara’s power in short fights. In addition, I found her non-wisp abilities to be very underwhelming. Q has a 12 second cooldown, and has an extremely small radius. Combined with a short range and mediocre base damage, I found it hard to effectively use this without feeling like I was just wasting mana. W is nice to slow enemies, but it’s not very significant. (Side note: at level 16, she is able to amplify her W with talents. You can choose between increased attack speed or bigger, longer slow on W activation.)
- Suffers on bigger maps. Cursed Hollow is not kind to Lunara. Like Sgt. Hammer, not having a mount ability severely hurts her ability to traverse large distances.
- Feels clunky. It takes a little bit to get used to Lunara’s hopping, and even after adjusting accordingly, she feels very slippery. Players will need to take a fair amount of time to learn how to move with Lunara effectively.
Overall, I found Lunara as a pretty solid hero. While I wasn’t particularly impressed, she has a niche - and excels in it. She doesn’t seem to fit in all compositions, and I don’t think she is effective as a solo assassin. Honestly, she feels way more like a specialist than an assassin. All in all, If you want a hero with great sustained damage, Lunara is definitely for you. She is very fun, and in the right hands, can be devastating.
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