Io is a Goddess

Patch 2.4

still being updated by the way. you may see inaccuracy when it comes to my explanations.

About IoSkills

LMB: Light Bow: A celestial bow that fires godly energy, dealing 400 damage every 0.6s. Has a maximum Ammo count of 10 and is fully effective up to 350 units. Hitting an enemy with Light Bow will Mark them for Luna to attack.

RMB: Moonlight: Hold and channel Moonlight into an ally, Healing them for 150 every 0.15s. Moonlight regenerates when not in use. Has a maximum Moonlight of 200 and a range of 125 units.

You need line of sights in order to heal your target, the healing can break in multiple ways, especially when moving. Being a skilled support Io, it is necessary to practice your aim and how would you effectively heal with your Moonlight.

Q/Ability 1: Guardian Spirit: Deploy Luna to fight alongside you. Luna will rush and Stun enemies that have been Marked by your Light Bow for 1s every 15s. Luna strikes enemies twice for 180 damage and a third time for 350 damage. Luna can be redeployed to a new location every 8s while alive. The deploy has a range of 50 units. Luna is able to capture objectives while summoned. Luna has 4500 Health and is affected by Bulldozer.

Luna can stun, meaning that she would be a nuisance to enemies capturing the point. She can absorb a hefty amount of damage before fainting, and is deployable. Luna can save Io's life from incoming one hits like Drogoz's Ult and sometimes Torvald's ult.

F/ Ability 2: Lunar Leap: Quickly leap backwards and upwards through the air.

Good escape ability to avoid incoming shots, as well as to reposition, it is necessary to have this in order for you to survive 1v1s. But it makes you vulnerable to champions with Vertical Mobility and or Hitscan.

This also gives you a wider scope. And with practice, and some map knowledge you may to reposition yourself in a quite good position, you can get past shields.

Ultimate: Begone: Project an ethereal manifestation of Luna and send it forward. Enemies caught will be pulled along the travel path and take 800 damage if they collide with a wall. You are Immune to damage while releasing Luna.

Alike Torvald's Ult, it pushes enemies away, with the exception that this can be played through one direction only. Enemies that are caught are stunned until they reach a wall.

Talents

Life Link: Luna now heals allies around her for 300 health per second.

This is the popular build but due to the small range and the positioning problems (it has the same problem with Grohk's totem). This is not the most effective build. It may help point tanks while you are repositioning yourself to heal another ally.

Goddess' Blessing: Allies being healed by Moonlight gain 25% damage reduction.

Highly used because of the 25% damage redux. Invest on swift arrows or moonlight garden to receive good effects. Main problem is due to the difficulty to the use of Moonlight.

Sacrifice: If Io falls below 200 health while Luna is active, she trades places with Luna, heals, and Luna dies in her stead.

Actually good if you know where to hide Luna, Luna from afar can still stun targets and also help you escape faster when on a 1v1 situation. After sacrifice is triggered, it also heals you to 50% of your Maximum Health so you can get back to the battle.

Using this, you should always update Luna's position, so you can get back faster.

Builds

Build Section

Notes

Before we get in to the builds, here are some tips on items you will likely to use. I also give it a personal rating whether you need it or not.

Illuminate: Not needed if your team, is already using it. 2/10

Resilience: Needed if against champions that utilizes on Crowd Control, better for escaping them. 7/10

Blast Shields: Needed, but avoid relying on this if there is only one blaster in the enemy team. 5/10

Haven: Needed when you're having a difficult time escaping because of flankers. This also makes you a bit tankier. 6/10

Master Riding: Not needed, unless you need to reposition faster after respawn. 3/10

Morale Boost: It is likely to resort to Morale Boost at late game. 4/10

Nimble: Needed, you should be able to chase you allies so you can heal them. 8/10

Chronos: Alike Morale Boost, this one is likely your resort to mid-late game. If your builds are mostly about cd redux, not needed. 6.5/10

Kill to Heal: Unless you didn't invested to Faith Restores, you need it. 5/10

Life Rip: Not needed, Io's weapon shots does not deal a large amount of damage. 2/10

Rejuvenate: Not needed, you are the healer, not the one being healed. 1/10

Veteran: Not needed, unless it is difficult for you to return back to the battle after escaping. 2/10

Bulldozer: Not needed unless the enemy team has more champions that utilizes on deployables. 4/10

Deft Hands: Needed, only if you invested on Skywalker. refer to builds

Cauterize: Needed, but not much your priority. 5/10 it is up to you

Wrecker: Needed, but not much your priority. 5/10 it is up to you

Notes

Life Link, alike I said earlier is not much effective depending on team composition. Most builds would still revolve around Luna if this talent is used.

Notes

Use this if there is another support in the game, whether it is playing a damage build or not. This would make you more of a point healer. You would also be absorbing a good amount of damage through Haven, making you and Luna a bit more tank-ier.

Preferred team-ups: Inara and Terminus, since they are more likely to stay on the point.

Do not use when: You are the only support, when Ying is also in the game, since she is mostly like to stay near the point.

Personal Rating: 3/10, this is still more likely to be experimental but found effective at certain situations.

Notes

Goddess' Blessing is difficult to utilize because of the difficulty healing with Moonlight. Using this talent will give your RMB bonus effects when used to an ally. It will primarily receive 25% damage redux, if swift arrows are used then the ally will also receive speed boost.

Notes

This is more likely a personal build, this build revolves around Lunar Leap and about trying to maximize the repositioning capability of Lunar Leap.

Builds with SkyWalker III to V requires deft hands or eternal reliquary for full effectivity, since the only way for Io to remain mobile mid-air is her LMB, and time your usage on Lunar Leap since it will only start its cd when you touch the ground after using your F ability so you should already be in a good position when you touch the ground.

Preferred team-ups:

Do not use when: you are facing a lot of vertical mobility champions, and when you are prioritizing healing. and avoid this build when maps do not have a lot of open space. When activating Lunar leap, then hitting a wall or a ceiling makes you fall down easily despite of utilizing Sky Walker V.

Personal Rating: 7.5/10, more of a mobility build for Io making her more of a flank than a support.

Notes

A proper build now for trying to maximize the repositioning capability of Lunar Leap and also the healing ability. Practice is still needed to make great use of this build since healing is mostly relied on Moonlight.

Preferred team-ups:

Do not use when: maps do not have a lot of open space. When activating Lunar leap, then hitting a wall or a ceiling makes you fall down easily despite of utilizing Sky Walker V.

Personal Rating: 8/10, still experimental but ok.

Notes

After days of studying Io, i devised this one as a main build, it focuses more on the ability of Io to heal with Moonlight ass well as the ability to just escape.

Preferred team-ups: the numbers are still changeable to your preference.

Do not use when:

Personal Rating: 8/10,

Notes

Sacrifice, as some may assume, still focuses on Luna, so such cards that focuses on Luna is used. It is a common misconception, but it is important to hide Luna instead since you will be teleported to that spot eventually.

Notes

...

Preferred team-ups: I commonly use it for TDM but sometimes, I use the Modified Lunar Leap Build just for reposition.

Do not use when:

Personal Rating: 3/10, this is an experimental build

Matchups

Champion Section

Notes

Io is very fragile as a support, and therefore, cannot counter a lot of other champions.

Avoid being in the sights of snipers. Very self explanatory.

Avoid champions with vertical mobility, especially when escaping since they can still chase you and landing their killing blows.

Avoid those who can stun you mid-air

Atlas is a tough opponent and you will be just wasting your time when fighting against in the likes of a very skilled Atlas.

Notes

Most Ults can be blocked by Luna, as long you have the perfect timing. You can hide behind Luna to avoid being caught by Torvald's Ult, but can not do the same on Io's ult.

Through the Sacrifice ability, you may not feared about being stunned since you can eventually escape when they lowered your health, although that being said, Sacrifice Talent cannot be used on one hit abilities (like Drogoz' ult)

Builds Build Section
Matchups Champion Section
- Avoid
- You can block their abilities

Io Build Guide

Free Agent - Southeast Asia

Life Link

Guardian Spirit

Level 1

Broken Deity

Guardian Spirit

Level 2

Protectors

Guardian Spirit

Level 3

Feral Strength

Guardian Spirit

Level 4

Celestial Body

Armor

Level 5

Spirit Arrows

Moonlight

Level 1

Haven

Armor

Level 1

Resilience

Armor

Level 1

Goddess' Blessing

Moonlight

Level 1

Sky-Walker

Armor

Level 5

Half Moon

Lunar Leap

Level 4

Crescent

Lunar Leap

Level 3

Eternal Reliquary

Lunar Leap

Level 2

Full Moon

Lunar Leap

Level 1

Nimble

Armor

Level 1

Deft Hands

Weapon

Level 1

Goddess' Blessing

Moonlight

Level 1

Sky-Walker

Armor

Level 5

Broken Deity

Guardian Spirit

Level 2

Full Moon

Lunar Leap

Level 2

Crescent

Lunar Leap

Level 3

Moonlight Garden

Weapon

Level 3

Deft Hands

Weapon

Level 1

Kill to Heal

Armor

Level 1

Nimble

Armor

Level 1

Goddess' Blessing

Moonlight