Item-choice guide for Luna

This is another of my advice-comments-turned-into-guide-because-I-wrote-too-much. What can I say? I get carried away when I talk about heroes I think I know how to play. Obviously, everything here is my own opinion and is subject to the critique of people who disagree(my bit on why I don't usually like hotd is the biggest example of this) and I'd LIKE you to say if you disagree and why. Regardless, here it is:

Skillbuild

Skillbuild is pretty static, hold skillpoint at level one just incase you need lucent beam in order to to secure a kill(will usually not be the case in a dual lane but in a trilane with two short stuns, it might be worth it) but as soon as the creeps start fighting, level blessing if you haven't. Max lucent beam over blessing, don't take a point in glaives until you want to push the lane AND you have max beam(while obviously levelling eclipse when you can). I personally like blessing to be at least level two as that means you can 1 shot ranged creeps under the tower after two tower hits and reliably get cs under the tower, but that's merely a preference as opposed to something that's required.

Starting Items

Starting items are somewhat variable, as are most things item-wise with Luna. If you have a trilane and you're pretty sure you can easily get freefarm, you can start with ring of protection, four branches and six tangoes, but usually you want to start with ring of protection, three branches, a tango and a healing salve. If you're mid, you may want to skip the ring of protection and go straight six tangoes, healing salve, three branches and slippers of agility as you may want a ring of aquila before the tranquil boots for armor/damage/mana regen, not to mention the lane control it gives you.

tranquil Boots

• Your boots are almost always going to be tranquils. They give you good health regen, armor, make you into a fucking racecar AND they give you an heal regenerating active that allows you to jungle very easily. I don't really see a reason to get treads until later, and usually by the time I want to switch boots I want boots of travel, not treads.

• Power treads are a decent option if you know you're going to be uncontested for a while, and you can get lifesteal plus treads fairly quickly(around 7-10 minutes) but I personally like tranquils a lot more, the attack speed isn't something I value over tranquil's active as I make up for it buy getting drums.

• Phase boots are kind of trolly. They give you great early-midgame damage, make you into a fucking racecar like tranquils do but give you NO SURVIVABILITY. This is a dealbreaker as Luna is an amazing carry but she's really squishy without items, and if she's really squishy then all your opponents need to do is burst you down constantly and you'll never be able to farm safely. This is okay if you are really dominating the early game and have a significant level advantage over your opponents, as it makes you hit for like 150 at level 9 if you've maxed lunar blessing and lucent beam, which is pretty fucking hard.

tl;dr dont get these unless you're singsing

• Arcane boots? Nope. Not even on support Luna(I build support Luna as treads/drums/mek/heaven's halberd if you're wondering). Just no.

• Boots of Travel? Probably later on. These are okay as they also make you into a racecar(sidenote: I mention being a fucking racecar on Luna being a good quality a lot because of the fact she's a squishy hero with zero mobility beyond her movespeed. because of this, stacking movespeed is pretty damn good as you have the highest base movespeed in the game, so you'll generally be faster than most heroes with similar, if not lesser farm. this allows you to escape situations that an equally squishy hero may never be able to survive, which is a trait unique to Luna as a hero) and give you global map presence, but you don't have any wave-clearing spells, so think of the reasons you'd get this on SF(squishy hero with zero mobility) and then remove the fact that you can remove yourself from the map by clearing a wave instantly and pushing it, and you're left with the reasons you'd get it on Luna.

tl;dr it's extremely situational, but usually dont do it until youre tanky enough to escape ganks and do enough damage to clear creep waves

Early-mid game

• You know why I emphasise getting a ring of protection at the start? Because it's the only component of tranquil boots that cannot be purchased from the sideshop. Get tranquil boots. Just fucking do it.

• Ring of aquila I find is viable in two situations. First off, if you're in a tri-lane. Generally do not forgo getting this over tranquils, as having tranquil boots will allow you to tank creep waves when your supports are pulling(assuming you're in an uncontested laning situation, i.e. vs a solo or no heroes) and have regen enough to withstand harass from their supports if ever in a trilane vs trilane situation, or even in a dual lane vs dual lane situation. You could get it over tranquils if you're pushing early, in which case you will want the ring of basilius first, then deliver the wraith band on the courier. It's good for laning with many heroes because it gives a nice aura that gives good stats, damage, armor and mana regen. It'll also gives these attributes to the creeps(at least the armor I think) when you activate it, which makes pushing towers a lot easier. Secondly, I personally get it when I have a shitty early game. The stats and the armor have saved my life on countless occasions where I've been pressured in my lane a fuckton by an assortment of gankers and allowed me to cut my losses to the point where the game is carryable(which I've learned, is a key point of playing carry). You probably don't want it if you're having a good game though, it delays your bkb/manta by 1000 gold more and isn't worth the investment if you're ahead and not immediately pushing(i.e. at 3-6 minutes).

• Drums of endurance are the best fucking item in the universe for Luna. They make you into a fucking racecar, make your allies into a fucking racecar, give you attack speed, give you and your allies even MORE attack speed at fucking will, give you +9 to all attributes and a negligible amount of damage. You want this whether you're ahead or not. They make you tanky, they make up for the loss of attack speed from not going treads and they make you INTO A RACECAR. The only situations where I wouldn't go drums is where you've either been pressured so hard by magical burst damage in ganks/teamfights where you feel it would delay your bkb by too much time(about three minutes) or you're ahead and you're going treads helm of the dominator because you don't trust your supports to be stacking jungle camps. It's great on Luna, try it out.

• Helm of the dominator deserves a special mention because it's the item most people get on her. It's a decent item all in all, it allows you to jungle, get a good creep for its utility or to stack ancients and gives you decent damage, lifesteal and armor. Luna hits hard without items anyway so you'll never lose substantial hp while jungling, so the general notion of not getting lifesteal until you have damage is not relevant within this context. Personally though, I almost never get this item early. Combine this with tranquils and drums(two items I pretty much always get) and I feel it gives you very little that the combination of the two items doesn't. Tranquils + drums gives you armor and survivability and allows you to jungle. The only thing helm of the dominator is going to add is 20 damage, a bit more armor and the ability to stack ancients/creep auras. I feel that adding hotd to my investment is too expensive for what it adds to my item build, as not having stacked ancients(if your supports suck) won't lose you the game and the cost of 2000 gold in addition to around 2800 gold in the tranquils + drums will generally delay my late-game items way too much. This isn't to say I don't value the utility hotd gives. Creep auras are fucking strong as shit, but I'm not going to invest 4800 gold into that utility when I'm playing hard carry unless I have complete and utter freefarm and I can obtain all of these items in under 12 minutes or so. This is a judgement call as opposed to 'bad item vs good item', as it's a good item, but it conflicts with my principle of limiting my investment on the early game to the point that I can survive early game, but get to late game ASAP.