Updated on November 24, 4:00 p.m. (GMT+8): Updated Dark Seer’s section of the counters for relevancy based on the most recent Dota 2 patch notes.
Luna has maintained her position as one of the top carry heroes in Dota 2. As a hero that can snowball out of control after farming neutral creep stacks, she could be a handful to deal with in the late game.
While Luna’s pick rate has dropped in patch 7.32, she is still a carry hero with a decent win rate at 50.91 percent, according to Dotabuff.
With all the recent changes from the last Dota 2 patch, it’s a good time to know how to play against her. While the hero has her strengths, she can also be countered with a few tips and tricks.
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Top 3 hero counter picks to Luna in Dota 2
Dark Seer
Credit: Valve
Dark Seer is an effective counter to Luna. He does well in the lane thanks to Ion Shell, which allows him to farm safely. Once Dark Seer has Aghanim, he unlocks a new ability called Normal Punch.
When activated, Dark Seer’s next attack on a hero will have True Strike and knock an illusion out of the target. The attack will also damage and stun the enemy based on how far Dark Seer has moved in the past 3 seconds.
Normal Punch, in tandem with Surge and Vacuum, could lead to your team surrounding and eliminating Luna in team fights before she can dish out heavy damage with her Moon Glaves or Eclipse ultimate.
Surge is a great defensive and offensive tool to have for it allows allies to control their distance from the enemy. She moves pretty fast, but not fast enough to catch a Surged target.
Besides his basic abilities, Dark Seer’s ultimate is perfect against her. Wall of Replica creates illusions of enemy heroes. With the right talent, Dark Seer’s illusions are capable of doing even more damage than the original hero.
Between his strong laning stage, ability to buff allies, and ability to create powerful illusions, Dark Seer is by far one of the best counters to use against her.
Medusa
Credit: Valve
Medusa is an interesting counter to Luna because Medusa is essentially a better version of the same hero archetype.
Medusa also comes with a lot of spread damage, similar to Luna. However, Medusa’s Split Shot doesn’t reduce her damage as much as Moon Glaives do. Her late-game Split Shot is also able to apply attack modifiers, which makes Medusa that much stronger.
Besides dishing out more damage, Medusa is also far tankier than her, courtesy of her Mana Shield. While she can take a couple of hits late game, it’s nothing compared to Medusa, who becomes practically unkillable in the late game.
Lastly, Medusa comes with superior disables with her spells. It’s this combination of traits that makes Medusa more desirable to have on the team.
Ancient Apparition
Credit: Valve
Of the supports in Dota 2, there aren’t that many effective counters to Luna. Most supports have no way of getting close and safely using their spells, for it’s hard to counter a hero with such large spread damage.
That’s why Ancient Apparition is by far the best support to pick against her. Ancient Apparition is able to avoid all her damage due to his enormous cast range on two key abilities, Ice Vortex and Ice Blast.
Ice Vortex itself has a 1,500 cast range. This allows Ancient Apparition to safely throw the spell without having to worry about any counterattack from her.
This long cast range also ensures Ancient Apparition is at a safe distance in fights, allowing him to use items like Force Staff and Glimmer Cape to save others.
Ice Blast has a global cast range, which means that Ancient Apparition can use it from the fountain if he wishes. Take heed, for a good Ancient Apparition can almost always land his ultimate in a fight. Luna depends a lot on lifesteal to keep her alive in skirmishes, so Ancient Apparition’s Ice Blast is a perfect counter to her.
Is Ancient Apparition the best support against her? While other heroes like Shadow Demon is an option, Ancient Apparition is the easiest support to counter her, while also being very effective.
Tips and tricks: The importance of controlling the jungle when playing against Luna in Dota 2
Credit: Valve
Most Luna players will focus a lot on jungling. It eschews Lucent beam and focuses on maxing passive skills for faster farming in the jungle. This means that she is unable to join in early team fights, and relies on farming jungle creeps to scale.
With the knowledge that Luna will be focusing on farming, the best thing a team can do is block as much of her jungle camps as possible. The easiest way to do that is to spam sentries in the jungle.
This is what Luna’s nightmares look like
Screenshot by Otomo Alazawi/ONE Esports
It’s of course unrealistic to block the entire enemy jungle for there simply aren’t enough sentry wards to keep that up. However, you can stifle the enemy’s economy with these two strategic sentries placed within the triangle in the jungle.
By blocking off the triangle, she will only have half the jungle to farm. This not only takes away the most profitable jungle camps, but it also makes hunting her a lot easier.
Tips and tricks: Always build defensive Aura items on your hero when you’re up against Luna
Credit: Valve, ONE Esports
Luna does a good mix of physical and magical damage in Dota 2. However, her single target physical damage is sub-par for a carry, and her magical damage falls off hard without an Aghanim’s Scepter upgrade.
While the best way to deal with her is to kill her before team fights, that isn’t always possible. It’s likely there will be a full-on team fight involving everyone at some point in the game, so why not prepare for it?
Crimson Guard, Assault Cuirass, and Pipe of Insight all do an amazing job of mitigating AoE damage. By buffing everyone’s resistance, it significantly reduces the effectiveness of all incoming spread damage.
Of course, all these items are quite expensive, and there are cheaper alternatives. Vladimir’s Offering offers a decent amount of armor. Even a casual Buckler can help a team out. Ring of Aquila is also worth holding on to for the aura. These items won’t have as big an impact but every little bit helps.
Those are some of the tips and tricks players any player can use to significantly improve your chances of beating the Moon Rider hero. Happy Dota 2 pubbing!
