Startup
If nobody buys a courier, get one yourself. It will serve you well because you should always try to stay within grasp of gold and exp, and you are always one step ahead of the enemy who doesn't have one. Grab 2 branches, and spend the remaining gold on tangoes + clarities. Stats and health regen are basic needs while clarities will provide the necessary mana regen for you to use Lucent Beams. Share the chicken, and ask for a contribution to upgrade the chicken.
Luna Item Build DotA
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Why HotD?
For 1850 gold, Helm of the Dominator gives Luna a usable orb, which is lifesteal. Lifesteal helps to boost her field staying power so she doesn't need to go back to fountain. Going back to fountain means loss of precious time to farm for exp and gold. HotD also has the active skill Dominate which lets you to dominate a creep under your control. This can be used to Dominate a neutral creep to tank for you and it can also be used to assist you in creep stacking. In the buildup, you should always buy Helm of Iron Will before Mask of Death, because helm gives you +3hp regen and +5 armor, which is always better than 10% lifesteal where you don't attack often, as you mostly aim for last hits. As a bonus, HotD also provides 20 damage, which is always a good thing.
Luna Item Build DotA
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=Why Power Treads?
Boots of Travel is good if you get easy games and lots of farm, otherwise just stick to Scroll for teleports or changing farming lanes because 2200 gold is not a small amount. 6.68 introduces the Arcane Boots, which is 50 gold cheaper than Power Treads, and solves most of low INT casters mana problems. Some players might prefer the benefit of having endless supply of mana to support Lucent Beams/Eclipse, but I personally prefer Power Treads more for the dps bonus, as Luna doesn't really have much of a mana problem to the extent of needing extra mana support.
Phase Boots on the other hand, gives +25 damage, but it's still not that useful. Seriously speaking, Power Treads is still better. Why? This is because Luna doesn't need the active ability Phase. She has one of the highest base ms of 330, and with the new Treads it's already 400. It's also 500 cheaper now, so you can get the stat bonuses earlier, either for survival, for Lucent spam or just for the +10 AGI. +10 AGI already gives +10 attack and +10 IAS (on top of the +20 IAS from the item itself) for Luna.Toggling from Str/Agi/Int will work for Luna in terms of surviving/attacking/spell-casting.
Luna Item Build DotA
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=Why BKB?
Killing Luna in the shortest time possible is the only way to get rid of Eclipse, and the only way to do this is by using nukes. BKB's precious few seconds of magic immunity will let Luna unleash a total Eclipse without interference. You can already enjoy the HP boost as early as when you get its buildup part, Ogre Axe. BKB also further boosts her damage by 24. In lower level games where there are less co-ordinated fights, you can actually skip BKB and go straight for a Manta Style. The farming ability that Manta Style gives will skyrocket your gold compared to your enemies.
Luna Item Build DotA
Scroll of Town Portal
Luna needs it, so remember to carry one at all times, it's cheap, it's worth it, and you'll never know when you'll need it.
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=Bracers
Bracers provide cheap Str and some stats. Get them if you have trouble surviving, or Wraith Bands for some stats and early dps. If you can rush a Belt of Giant Strength and Ogre Axe though, you can skip them as you wish.
Luna Item Build DotA
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=Yasha
You get extensions if the game doesn't seem to be ending even after you've gotten your core items. If the game is difficult and farming is tough, you may consider getting Yasha. It boosts Luna's dps and gives a 10% increase in movespeed, which makes her have 418 ms, when equipped with Power Treads together. Speed helps to get her in position for a good Eclipse, and contributes in both chasing and escaping.
Luna Item Build DotA
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=Manta Style
Manta Style is a cheap and good choice if you managed to get some kills and decent farm. It's a powerful item against single targeted spells since it gives you images to confuse enemies. The stats it gives are all very useful for Luna, boosts her dps and survivability at the same time. Its active skill Mirror Image further boosts her dps with illusions, which are excellent in pushes and combats. It can also be used to dispel some negative buffs off you. The best thing however, is that Moon Glaive works with illusions, which means more bouncing glaives, more dps to multiple enemies! Just remember that casting Eclipse/BKB with your illusions around will give away your identity, although in most cases enemies won't have enough time to retaliate against your combo.
Luna Item Build DotA
Examples of total DPS boosting (rounded numbers)
Max Moon Glaive only
Base damage + stats = 100 damage
Total including Moon Glaive = 252 damage
Max Lunar Blessing only
Base damage + stats = 100 damage
Total including Lunar Blessing = 132 damage
Max Moon Glaive + Max Lunar Blessing only
Base damage + stats = 100 damage
Total including Moon Glaive = 252 damage
Total including Lunar Blessing = 284 damage
Max Moon Glaive + Max Lunar Blessing + Manta Style's Images
Base damage + stats = 100 damage
Total including Moon Glaive = 252 damage
Total including Manta Style = 418 damage
*(Lunar Blessing does not affect illusions.)
Luna Item Build DotA
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The Butterfly
With the farming ability that Manta Style is able to give you, you should have no problem getting The Butterfly if the game drags on. The Butterfly increases your dps tremendously as well as boosting your effective HP. Since it boosts your AGI, it reaps more bonus from what Moon Glaive gives. It further strengthens your role as a carry by being a multi-unit dps monster in a team fight. In an impending team fight, you should always time your entry. Luna doesn't have any escape mechanism so if you're going into the fray, make sure it counts and timed wisely, because once the enemies see you, they will focus fire on you to eliminate your dps threat. Try to anticipate combo spellcasters like ES or Enigma and let them exhaust their combos before going in, or else use BKB.
Luna Item Build DotA
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=Satanic
Satanic is another extension that you may consider getting if you need more HP. Other than boosting your passive Lifesteal, its active skill that boosts your Lifesteal to 150% is no joke. If you're not disabled, it's practically a free heal for you as you're fighting. Your Manta images also benefit from the HP boosts since it's based off STR.
Situational
If you solo mid, you can get Bottle to help you rune-whore and have adequate Lucent spamming. If you're playing side lane however bottle is not that useful for Luna because unlike Morphling/Mirana, she has no efficient ganking/escaping mechanism, thus she won't roam the map much, more so the river as she needs to be in her lane/jungle to farm constantly. Stick to consumables otherwise.
Luna Item Build DotA
The Ethereal Blade is really not a bad item at all for Luna. This is because Luna is an AGI hero that can deal high spell damage. Both conditions fit the use of an Ethereal Blade perfectly. The reason I consider it a situational item because you can't really opt out any of her cores (HotD,BKB,Manta) before this. This item can easily replaces BKB as core if only the majority of matches don't have nukes/disables (which is not the case!) and if it's cheaper. However, Ethereal Blade can really come in handy against a farmed physical carry of the other team which you can't out-dps by means of physical damage alone. By turning a physical duel into a magical duel, odds can really stack on your side with Eclipse, since a 4-hit Eclipse + 1 Lucent Beam = 2100 damage (1575 after hero's natural magic resistance) is not an amount of damage to be kidded, and that's not taking the 2.5x of your AGI's Ethereal Blast into account. The Ethereal form which you can cast on yourself could also save you from the likes of physical dps monsters such as PA, Troll, Ursa, etc.
Some players like to incorporate Lothar or Dagger as their core, and although it has its uses, it's purely situational. Both items provide an initiation and escape mechanism, which serves to assist Luna in positioning/chasing with Eclipse and to provide an escape in sticky situations. While these builds are outright effective in low level games where map awareness is almost inexistent, Lothar / Dagger will not contribute much in higher level of play where wards are aplenty and enemies will not linger in situations that provide opportunities for a missing Luna. Getting any of this item will delay BKB, which enables Luna to fight in team battles as she's usually a focused target due to her dps potential. Dagger does not serve well in escaping in midst of battle and Lothar can be countered by wards/dust/skills. BKB on the other hand, almost guarantees an uninterrupted Eclipse while giving her the needed health and damage boost passively.
Aghanim's Scepter boosts Moon Rider's ultimate, as well as giving good stat bonuses, it may be purchased if you're farming well and the game progresses in your team's favor. Otherwise, getting the extensions such as Satanic/Butterfly are much more beneficial since they give constant passive bonuses that increases Moon Rider's dps and survival significantly.
Luna Item Build DotA
Quote:
| "Aghanim would be nice but her aghanim ultimate was nerfed and now no longer gives shorter cd. Caster Luna is still sub par in the end considering all the nerfs her ultimate had taken like no more ministun, lowered dps, and aghanim no longer granting shorter cd. If you want to play a caster I think there are much better alternatives than Luna." - AzureD |
Heart of Tarrasque is a purely survival item in Luna's case that bolsters your health and hp regen by a good amount. It's a famous item to increase survival and tanking capability but it doesn't come cheap either. If you have Manta/Satanic and Butterfly, you shouldn't need it. If you want some sort of extra protection against spell damage, a cheap Planewalker's Cloak should work, if not Hood of Defiance or Khadgar's Pipe of Insight, all of which are much cheaper than a HoT.
Since Diffusal Blade's separation from Manta Style, it is no longer a core item for Luna. As the feedback orb is overridden by Hotd's lifesteal on ranged heroes and Moon Glaive itself, the cost of the item will include something you can't benefit from. Situationally though, you can be asked to carry a Diffusal if nobody else suits for it in special cases (i.e. against Warlock, Omniknight, Sven). It does provide a good slow and Agi boost, which benefits Luna.
Rejected
Yay slow multiple enemies? Nay it doesn't work.
Non-stat items such as Radiance, Burize or MKB are sub par items and can be neglected in favor for Satanic, BKB, Manta and Butterfly. They aren't cheap either so it's not wise to spend that much gold for inferior items when you can simply have better items.
Luna Item Build DotA
Eye of Skadi, although gives great stat bonuses and a somewhat workable Frost Attack buff placer, it simply takes too long to be farmed and is not really practical to be aimed for unless you're playing low level games.
Maelstrom , Mjollnir , Sange , Sange & Yasha and Stygian Desolator are all items that causes Luna's attack to malfunction, hence you should not buy them.
