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-Author's Note

-About Io

-Talents

-Abilities

-Ultimate : Begone!

-Best Team Compositions / Counters

-Io's effectiveness on every map

-Tips and Tricks

-Cards, Builds and Items

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Author's Note:

A staple guide for any Io playstyle.

This is a throughout guide and let's talk on Io, by a level 100 Io player. It covers every aspect of her gameplay and kit, and aims to teach both new and veteran players some niche tips. It also covers a multitude of different builds all at once. Sure, you can just play her and figure out what works for you, but you can't read that at work while bored.

Enjoy yo!

-ColourWolfe

Io has been around for a while, and has already captured hearts of many. With the unique ability to fine-tune her healing to extremely precise amounts, she is becoming a very popular pick that can rock with any team composition.

She is a well-rounded support, bringing a little bit of everything to the table. Unlike most other supports, Io can command a very strong presence in fights, but her greatest weakness lies in being very team dependent.

Io's talents are : Life Link, Goddess' Blessing and Sacrifice.

Life Link : Luna now heals allies near her for 200 per second. The heal is small, but is persistent, and helps Io create more space for herself where her team isn't. A pretty staple talent, especially when paired with defensive teams. With Life Link, you have a personal bodyguard for you and any nearby allies, and this talent changes the playstyle of using Luna as your companion that follows wherever you go. However, it means you will often linger in places for too long - the trick is to make Luna fluidly move around you, and not to get stuck where you shouldn't be while you try to move around Luna's cooldown. With Life Link, you want to look for corners and environmental blocks where Luna can safely spread healing area without being a sitting duck that sponges up damage. While considered a starting talent, it can be very effective in certain team compositions, and against some specific enemies.

Goddess' Blessing : Allies you directly heal take 15% less damage. A very nice talent if the enemies have a lot of spam or area damage that can decimate your Luna in seconds, and a "can-never-go-wrong-with-it" type of talent. Coupled with few cards it can buff allies to oblivion all the while healing them, making certain impossible match ups very likely possible, and allowing many characters to duel who they couldn't. This talent shines through both early and late game, due to the fact that damage reduction is never reduced. With Goddess', you want to be greedy with your juice bar and continuously pump out heals in any fight you can reach. This talent also gives plenty of breathing room for zoning capabilities, as you rely solely on your resource bar to heal your team, while Luna can be used to stall, capture and push objectives. This build suits aggressive teams which can capitalize off Luna's zoning power.

Sacrifice : If you die while Luna is active, she is sacrificed, you take her place and heal. Heavily overlooked talent that isn't all that bad (who doesn't like a second chance) - the reason it's very rarely used is because the first two talents bring more direct value during the fights, even if you rock a more aggressive play-style. But if you really wanna rock this, make sure to place Luna in a safe spot, and while playing aggresive keep in mind you take anywhere in between three to five seconds to kill a standard-hp champion - so know who you can duel if you do or don't have the cooldown up. Another thing to keep in mind is that when Sacrifice triggers, you get your Luna off-cooldown, so you can instantly redeploy her to fight that Maeve that's been camping your Luna for a full minute now.

Moonlight

Io's default healing is very reliable. You can almost instantly react to allies needing help around you and quickly swap in between them, effectively being in two or three fights at once. This also means you can quickly top off your entire team without having to wait for your cooldowns to cycle. Since you don't work with a cooldown but with a resource bar ("juice"), be careful about burning through it to pocket a tank - that leaves you without any healing options for the rest of your team. With that being said, Io's default meter sucks some moon balls. It's essential to run a choice of cards that grant more Moonlight, this or that way, tailored to fit your playstyle. Her healing lingers for a little while after target exits your line of sight, making her good at hugging corners and peeking to heal or land shots, where she can quickly slip away if flanked.

Luna

Luna is a nice companion that, while very often used as "What you leave on point so your team can push and zone enemies back", it can double as huge turret or meat shield when needed. You can place Luna on a suspicious flank as a warning to whoever might be coming. You can place Luna in between you and attackers to sponge up some damage or cooldowns. Early game especially, Luna really is another character with persistent auto-attack and a decent hp bar, making a game 6v5 up-front. Remember that you can see your Luna's hit points near your character portrait, and don't ever leave her to die or sit idle forgotten half-way through a push.
Unless she's pushing the payload and your team is zoning the enemies far up ahead, always keep Luna around you, as you can land stuns on overextended enemies or flanks. The stun will go through many obstacles (It stuns enemies out of shields (Nando, Khan), Luna can pass through deployables ( Inara's Wall), and it ignores cripples and roots ((Tyra's Fire, Imani's Volleyball)). It really is a nice stun that allows you to either set-up for an ultimate, run away, get a few shots in or save an ally. Oh the choices!

On a side note, while Luna can capture, she generates no credits nor objective time for you.

Leap

Last but not least, we have her leap. It's your best ally and your worst nightmare. You will start to hate tight places in some maps like Brightmarsh - what a nice little jump OOF, you've hit that ceiling. Your amazing escape ability moved you exactly four steps back. Or remember that time when you've yeeted yourself off the map on Frog Isle? Or that one when you've almost got a triple kill but your jump got stopped on an environmental rock, size of Barik? Learn to never panic-press the jump. It's cooldown is too long to be used as a lucky bail-me-out card, and it doesn't grants any invulnerability.

Now that you know when to use the jump, it really is a great tool to escape or reposition. It covers a lot of ground, has a decent upwards momentum so you can reach some high ground, and is relatively fast in movement so that it can try to throw enemies off aim. A practice to have with Io is learning to use the leap backwards, so you can use this ability for forward momentum as well.

Io plays grew as time passed by and players started maximizing her potential. With good positioning, having your ultimate almost guarantees you will survive the next encounter and get away with a cheeky kill.

Begone! is not an ability you use out of desperation to try to push away that Skye who's on your ass for the seventh time this round (unless she's suspiciously close to an edge) - think of it more as a very precise Torvald ultimate. It's a defensive ultimate that can be used very aggressively if need be. Due to the speed of it and it's wonky hitbox, it's best used at close range, meaning Io has easiest time countering frontline ultimate plays. You can push Ash off her ultimate field, dodge Inara's spear and push her off from your team, or fully immunize yourself against a Terminus explosion and send him off to another realm. Keep in mind that it does a decent chunk of damage and can be used as a finishing move as well. Double points if you proceed to get a kill while countering them. To correctly aim this ultimate, you have to learn to not shoot enemies, but calculate whether or not the missile will pick them up on their way. Remember to spam "Completed!" and "I'm the greatest!" after you get picks.

-Best team compositions / Counters:

Io works best in team compositions where she has advantage of free middle ground. If her team is able to maintain line of sight on her, she can be present in all fights at once very effectively, all the while capturing the point. Therefore, Io's positioning should be as central while as safe as possible.

Io fits in with any team composition, duo-tank or single tank, and she also works wonders with double support comp (Jenos + Io and Grohk + Io work really well together).

Her best team composition is two off-tanks, herself as support and two free characters, best if both damage to be nearer to her, as Io usually has no problems with flanks as long as she has an ally nearby to pocket.

Io's worst nightmare is the Blue Orc, as his chain lightnings eat through Luna's hit points and force you in a position where entire team needs healing at once, and that's Io's weakness. To counterplay your counterplay, make Luna bodyguard unsafe flanks instead of being in his sight (Goddess'), or stand just behind an environmental obstacle so she eats the bounces but isn't causing them (Life Link). That way, she still gives value while not frying your team for being a sitting duck.

With that being said, going against Deep Root Grover is a pain train - having Luna in tree's sight guarantees free root chains.

Io's other counter is Zhin. He can follow you through any distance you cover with leap, and he has two immunity abilities that let him reset or resist Luna's stuns. In most 1v1 scenarios, Zhin wins, even if Io player tries to dance around Luna and pump her bow. The only times Io wins is if she can spot him before he's too near.

New to season changes, her new problem is now also Koga, as she can no longer outrun him even with perfect leaps.
To do what you can best against good counters, hug your damage characters better and pump them with heals so that they win fights for you. You're a healer, it's no shame to ask for help with problematic characters, because if your ass is dead your team isn't getting any support.

-Io's effectiveness on every map

Arguably, Splitstone Quarry is Io's best map. You have not one but two environmental hazards to send enemies into with an ultimate (tho for some reason, sending them in blades does not credit the kill to you). You got multiple layers of height that don't really benefit Io's healing too much, but make you very hard to flank. Last but not least, there's a lot of obstacles all around the map which you can use to safely peek with heals and shots.

To play a good Io, you are somewhat map reliant. You need three things from every map:

1) Rocks, shrubs, pillars and corners galore

2) Environmental hazards or map edges

3) Multi-layered height differences

3 Points Maps (Excellent) : Serpent Beach, Fish Market, Stone Keep, Splitstone Quarry

2 Points Maps (Okay) : Frog Isle (1+2), Jaguar Falls (1+2), Frozen Guard (1+2), Ice Mines (2+3), Brightmarsh (1+2), Ascension Peak (2+3), Warder's Gate (2+3)

1 Point Maps (Hell no) : Timber Mills (has only one clear off-map shot next to spawn, very little to no hiding spots), Bazaar (no environmental hazards, very awkward height difference with an absurd amount of pillars, ledges and walls to block your heal sightlines), Shattered Desert (incredibly clear and long sightlines, very open space, and, very limited ultimate plays options).

-Niche tips and tricks:

-Luna is immune to damage while switching places, but can still be healed.

-Switching places for Luna immediately creates her collision at cast point, even before she arrives. Be careful not to block yourself by casting it in front of you.

-You can utilize a wall jump (jump by the wall to gain extra height) + leap to reach otherwise unreachable platforms.

-To aim Begone!, don't aim at the character - aim towards the skies / slightly up from the edge you want them off from, and Luna will pick them up on her way. Otherwise, you risk them hitting something.

-Be careful when using ultimate on hyper-mobility champions as they might be able to get back on ground (Evie, Androxus, Maeve, Ruckus). On the other hand, in certain maps like Fish Market, you can absolutely abuse this to get them out of the fights for a real long time.

-You can utilize tapping Goddess' damage reduction on full hp targets to block a large chunk of damage against snipers.

-To securely land a stun with Luna, mark an enemy and THEN re-position her near the enemy. Otherwise, you risk stun going on cooldown against targets you didn't really need to stun.

-If you aim your ultimate straight down upon cast, Luna will glide across the floor very slowly, picking up enemies and disabling them for a brief time before she explodes. Situational use of the ult, but it has it's uses.

But which one shall I pick? - you ask yourself. Simple.

If the enemies have a reliable thing you can hit, like big shields and deployables, go for loads that include Garden to generate Moonlight off from them.

If the enemies will have difficulties flanking you or you think you'll be stuck in same places for long times, go for Protectors.