Since Warcraft’s Lunara first made her way into the Nexus, she has been somewhat of a niche hero as she’s a squishy assassin that mitigated that squishiness by unleashing poison spores to whittle away enemy health over time. I absolutely loved playing her in 1.0 form, hiding sneakily in bushes letting my Wisp scout do all the work while I planned my bait and switch. I certainly had some fond memories running duo lanes with a mean Nazeebo rocking a Toad build, which is still absolutely bonkers in the end game, causing unsuspecting lone enemy players to fall apart dripping in our poison shenanigans while running point to point.
Now we have Lunara 2.0, who was released alongside the (very cool) Nexomania in game event as well as a Diablo rework. I’m happy to report that this new iteration of the daughter of Cenarius is just as much of a joy to play as ever.
Her Wisp talents (E) have been overhauled substantially, including the removal of all mana cost to use the ability. The speed of the Wisp has also been increased and gains an extra 75% vision radius when stealthily sitting in a bush. The only downside to old Wispy 2.0 is a general vision decrease from 7 to 6 while on the move or out in the open, which isn’t so bad as that can be one of the worst places to have it.
Her Nature’s Toxin trait has taken a little hit (pun intended) with a damage reduction down to 30 from 34. This isn’t too bad, but it will mean players will need to time her spores a little better to deal the maximum amount of damage possible. The Nature’s Calling talent at Level 4 (previously sitting at level 7) will allow Lunara to take out Mercenary camp solo much easier in the early game. It also gives her a nice damage boost with Splintered Spear at level 7.
User AndreRX470 over on the Blizzard forums gave a nice little breakdown of how this works heading into the next tier:
If Nature’s Culling has been chosen at Level 4 with Splintered Spear she will gain the ability to instantly take out a minion wave. Q on the ranged minions, AA on the frontline and then W. Minions that die with Lunara’s poison active grant additional EXP even if she isn’t close to them.
– Executing 4 AA’s with Splintered Spear + W = 7 AA DMG + 4 from poisoned targets
– Executing 4 AA’s with the Wild Vigor trait = 6 AA of damage + 1 DMG from 1 poisoned target.
Heading into her ultimate ability will rely on team coordination and how well you are working together with the tanking heroes via Thornwood Vines. The classic Leaping Strike has always been a great punisher for low health enemies (and that ever sassy “Ha haaaa” she says while leaping through the air).
Her new talent Endless Spores at tier 13 allows her Cast of Crippling Spores while at least 2 enemy Heroes are afflicted with Nature’s Toxin to give a CD reduction of 3 seconds. Couple this with Starwood Spear and Endless Spores gives the longest AA range in the game, with a permanent 8.25 AA range.
Looking at her picks, Lunara retains a massive boost on her merc captures and solo wave clearing to rack up that EXP much earlier in the game than before. To mitigate this, she’s also lost a little bit of her overall poison damage output. I feel these are great changes however, with a reasonable trade-off to make a much more well-rounded hero.
You can study up on the full pool of Lunara 2.0 changes here.
