This guide is written for Forest of Caldavar play on non-EM modes. It assumes you are playing on the Legion side. If you are playing on Hellbourne, reverse the top/bottom
lanes.
Gold
Item
Ability
Item Ability
It's the Moon Queen! This is the one hero you really, really don't want to meet alone by the river or in the jungle. She's go all those curves and isn't even sexy!
When and when not to pick the Moon Queen
Moon Queen is useful in almost all situations. Laning, ganking, teamfighting. However, there are a few heroes she synergizes especially well with, and a few heroes she's HORRIBLE against. For more information on this, check the hero synergy sections.
Your starting items as MQ are completely up to you. Assuming you have 603 gold at the start of your game, you can go with
Trinket of Restoration 375 and several
Minor Totems 53. If you are soloing mid--the preferred lane--go with a
Bottle 600.
Skill Build
1
Moon Beam 1
2
Stats 1
3
Moon Beam2
4
Stats 2
5
Moon Beam3
6
Moon Finale 1
7
Moon Beam 4
8
Lunar Glow 1
9
Lunar Glow 2
10
Lunar Glow 3
11
Moon Finale 2
12
Lunar Glow 4
13
Multi-Strike 1
14
Multi-Strike 2
15
Multi-Strike3
16
Moon Finale 3
17
Multi-Strike 4
This is a build that separates the newbie from the experienced player. Newbies tend to believe that getting a skill is better than getting stats--in many cases, this is not true. Players like to level up
Multi-Strike early, but what's the point?
Multi-Strike sucks if you don't do any damage, and you'll just end up
pushing the lane.
Lunar Glow is nice to have, since it does give damage, but your base HP and Mana are low, and low levels of
Lunar Glow don't give you enough damage, so
Stats are the better choice.
The Unstoppable Mid-Solo Moon Queen
1. Buy a
Bottle 600.
2. Attack only to
last-hit and deny. Use low-level
Moon Beam to get last-hits if necessary. Your mana pool can handle it with
Bottle.
3. When you push into the river, move upriver slightly to check runes every 2 minutes. Once you've ascertained the rune location,
Bottle it. If opponent goes for rune, outrun him using your superior movement speed (320) and use
Moon Beam to ministun if needed.
4. Once level 5, use
Moon Beam to harass. Keep at least 150 mana in stock for
Moon Finale at level 6.
5. Congratulations, you are now level 6 and unstoppable. Apply pressure by placing yourself in offensive positions. Keep your opponent out of XP range. You are now the undisputed owner of all runes. Go after EACH AND EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM. If your opponent attempts to grab a rune, follow him--once you are in the river, use
Moon Finale to kill.
The only heroes that have a chance to stop this are Thunderbringer and Pyromancer, who can nuke you to death despite your
Bottle.
Build-Your-Moon-Queen: Always Get the Following
Whispering Helm 1850:
Helm of the Victim 950 +
Hungry Spirit 900A great item that allows you to disappear into the jungle forever and emerge as a god. It also adds to your battle survivability.
Shrunken Head 3910:
Mighty Blade 1000 +
Warhammer 1610 +
Recipe 1300This is an absolutely necessary item in higher-tier games, as it provides you with magic immunity. Because of your huge damage output, you will be the focus of repeated ganks and team battles. In low-mid tier games, you may opt for
Assassin's Shroud instead.
Build-Your-Moon-Queen: Early Game (0 - 20)
Homecoming Stone 135As a relatively weak hero in terms of HP and survivability, you MUST carry one of these at ALL times if you don't have a
Post Haste.
Soulscream Ring 460:
Duck Boots 150 +
Pretender's Crown 185 +
Recipe 125Get a lot of these. Alternatively, get Fortified Bracelets if you're fighting a nuke-heavy team.
Build-Your-Moon-Queen: Mid Game (15 - 40)
Assassin's Shroud 3610:
Warhammer 1610 +
Steam Staff 900 +
Recipe 1100 A great item to help you with positioning and survival. If you are mid-solo, and are farming well, it may be worth it to skip the early ganking stage until you can farm this in full first. You can also use Moon Finale, then activate Assassin's Shroud. Moon Finale will continue while you are invisible.
Nullfire Blade 3300:
Quick Blade 1000 +
Quick Blade 1000 +
Apprentice's Robe 450 +
Recipe 850Apparently the feedback from this item carries across all bounces.
Portal Key 2150Are you feeling super-confident in your snap judgments? Get this instead of Assassin's Shroud. Not recommended for most players.
Post Haste 2700:
Marchers 500 +
Recipe 2200A great item for survivability, ganking, and all-around map presence.
Steam Boots 1850:
Marchers 500 +
Gloves of the Swift 500 +
Bolstering Armband 450 +
Recipe 400 While Post Haste is preferred, if you are getting owned and are being relegated to jungle duty, this is the superior alternative, as you will be autoattacking. You should keep it on AGILITY while jungling, and STRENGTH while fighting heroes.
Build-Your-Moon-Queen: Late Game (35+)
Symbol of Rage 6150:
Whispering Helm 1850 +
Axe of the Malphai 3200 +
Recipe 1100This is your contingency item for the Whispering Helm. It gives you more damage and makes you quite tanky.
Wingbow 6000:
Dancing Blade 3300 +
Steam Staff 900 +
Recipe 1800 "Can't touch this."
Staff of the Master 6000:
Acolyte's Staff 2700 +
Beast Heart 1100 +
Glow Stone 1200 +
Pickled Brain 1000Improves your ultimate. Get this if you're highly reliant on pressing R.
Geometer's Bane 5800:
Nullfire Blade 3300 +
Beast Heart 1100 +
Recipe 14003x bouncing feedback. Balance?
Build-Your-Moon-Queen: Item Decision Tree
1. Starting Items: What lane are you?a. Mid: Bottle
b. Bottom (Legion): Bottle or Soulscream Ring + Runes of Blight
c. Top: Bottle or Trinket of Restoration + Runes of Blight
2. You're level 6. Are you doing well? a. Yes, I'm getting farmed: Continue to farm, and save for Dancing Blade.
b. Yes, but I want to go ganking: Continue to farm, but aim for Assassin's Shroud.
c. No, I'm slightly behind: Get a pair of marchers, then go ganking.
d. No, my butt hurts: Get some Soulscream Rings and aim for Whispering Helm, then disappear into the forest for the next 20 minutes.
3. What's the lineup situation? a. Their team has no disables: do whatever the hell you want.
b. They have a balanced team: aim for Symbol of Rage or Staff of the Master.
c. They have every single possible counter for me: get Assassin's Shroud and farm+evade.
Ganking
As the Moon Queen you are one of the most feared and despised gankers. As soon as you hit level 6, you are able to get free kills under most situations. Bottom lane is the easiest to gank if you're playing Legion, but in general, it's most efficient to gank right after you've grabbed a rune. So alert your teammates to start applying pressure. Head towards the lane, emerge from the trees behind them with the rune active and give out a
Moon Beam right away. If they're smart, they will try to dodge back into the creeps, where they'll probably die to your allies. If they're bad, or desperate, they'll continue running towards their tower. If there are no creeps there, press R and win.
Runes
An excellent rune guide can be found here:
http://forums.heroesofnewerth.com/showthread.php?t=5285Moon Queen has no special interactions with any runes (apart from DD helping out Multi-Strike), so you should follow the general advice given there.
Team Battles
Unless you're high level and do a lot of damage, you're going to rely on other heroes to fulfill periphery roles during team battles. You're going to need a tank to draw fire, as well as AoE casters to disable and clear creeps. Unless they're out in the open, you should always allow your team to initiate. Remember that due to your team-clearing power, you'll be the prime target during the battle, so hang back and coordinate well, because once it starts, it'll end in seconds, either in your favor or theirs.
"Ancient" Stacking
This is a somewhat advanced tactic that requires full-levels in Multi-Strike as well as decent damage output and a Whispering Helm. Basically, early on, use Whispering Helm to control a good, strong creep. Send this creep to the super neutral camp (close to the secret shop), and at around :53 of every minute, send the neutral into the camp to draw aggro before pulling him away as far as possible. If you did this right, because the neutrals were away from their spawn point, a new camp of neutrals should've spawned. You can stack these super neutrals indefinitely so as long as you have the damage output to kill them. Each stack gives you 300 gold and a lot of XP, so if you have the patience and skill to do this, then by all means do it.
Heroes to Avoid
Ophelia: She constantly has neutrals guarding her, which effectively nullifies
Moon Finale.
Swiftblade: Although you're the superior hero overall, in 1v1 battle of ultimates, Swiftblade wins due to him being invulnerable during his ultimate, and the fact that he has a skill that grants magic immunity.
Predator: He has magic immunity as well.
Pyromancer: He will 1-shot you.
Blacksmith: 30% of the time, he will 1-shot you, but you'll rage 100% of the time.
Your Best Friends
Behemoth: By far your BFF4L, he is the most powerful creep clearer that will also soften up the entire enemy team. Let him Portal Key in first and ultimate, then run in for the finish with Moon Finale.
Kraken: If he runs in first with Whirlpool, then teleports the enemy heroes to you, you can wreak some sexy havoc.
Pyromancer: Another great AoE creep clearer.
Legionnaire: Another great AoE creep clearer, but he will also tank for you. What a friend ;;
Accursed/Jereziah: Both are healers and debuffers. Jereziah is slightly better due to his ultimate and the fact that his anti-magic works a lot easier.
Glacius: His aura gives you a lot of
Moon Beams early on.
Miscellaneous Tips
Always click a hero before you gank him. See what items he has. If he has a TP, save your
Moon Beam for when he TP's, so you can cancel it with the stun.
You are, in general, the carry. That means you need kills. Go KS everything you can--you have a good reason to.
As a soft target, you should always be aware of ganks. If there are heroes missing from other lanes, play defensively and be prepared to dodge.
Moon Finale's range is big. Keep in mind that you don't have to be at short range to use it--however, you should make sure your opponent can't escape into fog.
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Courtesy to Nome @ forums.heroesofnewerth.com
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