ok, before starting, this is MY guide and everything i say WORKS FOR ME, also, it's my first time doing something like this, not a guide, well yes, but i mean i never did something this large and in english so i may explain bad or something, it also includes all what i do and the best things i think you can do for playing something similar to how i play, in other words, this is 100% based on my experience.

Before you say anything about my decks, tips or something, you need to know about my playstyle

what I usually do is to just move around and not be in a specific place and move Luna around with me since Life Link is my main Talent and I use it mainly for sustaining myself I also use it for healing of course but not in all the cases since most of the times my heals are enough.

Index (Just so you know the order and where to find what you want):

• Abilities & Some tips

• Talents

• Starter decks, Why those decks & quick description

• Items, mainly combinations for starting

• Self Defense

~~~~~~~~~~~~~ABILITIES~~~~~~~~~~~~~

i guess every single one of you know how her abilities work but i will describe every ability and how i use them, all with some tips, i divided them in 3: basic, experienced and advanced, these are not exactly what I say, if you can't do something advanced, just leave that for later, that's why the categories.

also, Basic is mainly made for those who are new in general (with healers) anyways, let's start

R2, Left click, RT

Light bow

A celestial bow that fires godly energy, dealing 400 damage every 0.6s.

Ok, this is just like every other healer's weapon, but this one has:

• No damage fall off: so if you hit someone from the max distance, it'll deal the same damage as someone who is in front of you,

• The projectile goes straight to your target: no, it's not like lian, i mean this projectile goes exactly to where you were aiming to, like a normal weapon

• the projectile is slow, not THAT slow, but slow, so if you want to be consistent on your shots, you should:

i don't really have any tips but hopefully this works for you

Basic:

just focus more on healing, try to land some shots from far away, try to just shoot the enemy tank, so you'll get used to it

Advanced:

try to do the same with self defense: when a teammate is defending you try to do both: damaging the other flank and healing your teammate

Experienced:

try to do the same as advanced but before the flank reached you, so he is low or just not full hp, so he backs up or one of your teammates can take care of him

Dont do what i said, i mean, yes, but these are tips for improving with light bow, not io, so don't really try them if you feel you're fine.

moving on to the next ability:

L2, Right click, LT

Moonlight

Channel the healing power of the moon to restore an ally, healing for 150 every 0.15s while channeling.

This is the only healing ability, and in the right hands, it's a really good healing ability, this one is different tho, here's why:

• Moonlight doesn't use cooldowns, it uses... idk the word, but you know what I'm trying to say, you should at least know that :l

• Moonlight CANT be regenerated in ANY WAY when

using it

• As you saw, she heals 150 every 0.15 seconds, that's 999.99... per second, so it's pretty good.

• She's not like seris, you need to aim the target you want to heal every single second, don't get scared, you probably know this, but the aiming sistem is like furia's, and not damba's or ying's, so you can move the camera a bit

• another thing, (this is why I like io) you can completely change between teammates whenever you want

Moonlight tips (you'll see other tips later, these are for improving)

Basic:

• you should heal the tanks and sometimes the damages and flanks when you feel they actually need it, this is not right, but you're just starting, of course, heal the whole team, but don't overthink that, for now, keeping the tank alive will do.

• you don't have to keep the tanks at 100% hp, if you can, perfect, but try to get them at 90-70% hp

• Don't move that much, try to stay in the backline use lunar leap just to escape, unless half of the team is on one flank, then try to get there, only if it's close, you have your tank on point, if you can't or just feel you shouldnt get there, just let them know that either they should retreat, or you won't be there.

Advanced:

• Your main objective is to keep the backline and frontline alive, try to also heal the sidelines, but just sometimes.

Your main priorities should be:

1: Tank/s

2: Off tank/s or whoever is defending you when a dps tries to kill you

3: Damage/s and/or flanks

• you don't have to, but if you want, you can start using lunar leaps for reaching sidelines, i don't recommend that, yet.

• Start saving moonlight as your moonlight amount is limited... but how?

well, here's what I think will make you improve

i just wanted that to be a title, but yeah. :P and if youre still in basic, don't even try these

well, it's not easy to explain this but you can reduce the tanks' healing (obviously received) by either just healing right when they need it, like, right when they take damage (Don't do that that often bc the entire team needs you)

or just trying to get their life from 60-90%, don't worry, if you do everything right, you don't have to leave the tank at 60% hp, I'm talking about a quick switch, for example:

youre healing your tank, he's dumb as fuck and he stays on the enemy's burn monster fire, he's taking a lot of damage, but you have your zhin that is low, either in the middle of a fight or just waiting for you, then get, the tank to 60-70% hp, heal that zhin and in 1-2 seconds he's full, your makoa will be really low, but enough for you to heal him.

Experienced:

• Now, here your goal is to keep the whole team alive, of course, you can't unless your flanks, damages or your team in general don't help you with their positioning. i can say that being able to see your teammates through walls is a HUGE, HUGE advantage, duh, everyone knows that, but you HAVE TO use that

• Also,

you NEED to use that health bar (well, not really but can make things easier).

• Try to save as much moonlight as possible obviously trying to heal the whole team, bc the idea is to heal the same or even more using less moonlight, so don't get the whole team at >80% hp bc you have to save moonlight, but try to focus more on the backline and sidelines since the tank can be on point for a long time (at least compared to the other classes) without any heals, but DONT let him die, but don't give all the healing to him/her. io's healing is fast and effective (imo) so as i said in the advanced moonlight part, you can stop for 1 second to heal another teammate who is really low, after their tank dies, you should reposition yourself in one flank, being able to heal your flanks/damages/off tanks.

when they are trying to reach and kill the backline, and the point tank. probably the other damages will either ignore the tank (because the rest of your team is trying to kill them) or keep trying to kill the tank til they did to your flanks.

in general you need to keep a positioning which is paying attention to sidelines, backline and frontline, so you can heal the whole team, i can't really explain this because it's just innate at least for me, but try to think about that

i guess i don't have to explain much more, so yeah, next ability

L1, Q or LB

Guardian Spirit

Summon Luna to your side to unleash your wrath in a series of hits against enemies stuck by your bow, dealing different damage for each attack.

this fucker can defend you and attack, it's not like any other deployable, here's why:

• Luna deals 180 per hit, her third hit deals 380

• She has 4k hp

• She can get healed, only by you tho

• Luna can also heal herself when out of combat, which is completely parallel from yours.

• She can be repositioned

• She can be cauterized (less healing from you)

now, to the tips

Basic:

As you're new, you can do whatever you want with her, it will obviously depend on your deck, but you'll see that later.

try to dont get her killed, maybe leaving her in the backline.

Advanced:

Same, just don't get her killed, you can defend yourself with her, but you'll also see that later.

Experienced

Same, all of Luna's utilities shouldn't be here, just scroll down to the talents part, deck or self-defense part.

Next ability:

R1, F or RB

Lunar Leap

Quickly leap backwards and upwards through the air.

this ability doesn't have anything in special, just this 2 things:

• Doesn't go on cooldown until io lands

• You can use all abilities while in the air (except lunar leap).

This ability looks simple, but trust me, if you give it a good use, it can be perfect.

there are different uses, lemme tell you:

Basic:

just, use it for what you usually do or just use it for escaping (which probably is the same) if you somehow don't know what i mean, here's a demonstration.

Just one thing, you can use it for escaping, but avoid doing this since it's not really effective try to get used to use it for moving

Advanced

ok, things are getting harder and you have to, not only make lunar leap more useful but also make this in a more effective way. here's a demonstration bc i don't know how to explain it

obviously, don't forget about the mobility, you should use lunar leap for escaping, but also for giving you more mobility and make this easier for you to heal, i think that if you get used to do that, it'll be easier but idk since it works for me.

Experienced

now, not only youll have to be even more used for using it for mobility (bc at least that's what I mostly use lunar leap for) but also making harder for the flankers to get you, confuse them, taking shortcuts, or just fun! (i don't think doing this is fun but maybe you find it fun :P) here are the examples, i got serpent beach and stone keep, bc not only they are my favourite maps, but also i found more shortcuts there:

and the ultimate ability:

∆, E or Y

Begone

Project an ethereal manifestation of Luna and carry away enemies in its path, removing them from your Realm and dealing 800 damage to them if they collide with a wall

People find this ult useless but trust me... they're right :(

jk, even though it's not one of the best abilities these are the most important things about it:

• the projectile pulls people away without any limits, except the end of the map or any wall.when they collide, all the people who got stuck in there get 800 damage

• you're completely immune during cast time

to be honest, you can pretty much do anything, you don't really have to do what I say, but here there are some ways that i use begone:

Basic:

• To get people off point: try to do this just to gain control of the point or the prevent the other to have overtime when pushing (you do that by getting them out before the time ends)

• you can also use this one to get people out of the map

• Avoiding some champions' ult, like:

Jenos

Raum

Inara

Advanced

• do the same as basic

• try to start using your ult to also get someone away from you, but don't do this that often, i don't recommend that

Experienced

• to improve over here, just do what i said, eventually you'll get better but also

• try to get even better at avoiding ults, maybe:

zhin

vora

Psst over here! i have a tip for Begone, if you want to get someone off the point and disable them for some time, then aim to the ground so it'll get them but Luna (the projectile) will constantly try to go through the ground, so it'll go way slower than before (try to apply this only to tanks)

Finally I'm done, but just with the abilities :(

Now, to the talents

~~~~~~~~~~~~~TALENTS~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Life Link

i couldn't find a better image, pls don't laugh :(

Luna heals allies around her for 300 per second

this one is pretty simple, luna now heals allies around her, nothing else to add, even though it might seem simple or maybe even bad, this talent is, in my opinion, the best talent, and you should totally use it, but that's up to you, i just recommend this talent this one can help in four ways:

• Healing the point tank

• Healing the Backline

• Healing the Flanks

• Healing yourself

and trust me, every one of those uses are really useful, and here's how you can use them:

Basic:

what you can do, is use it to heal the tanks, yourself, or the backline, that's pretty much it.

Advanced:

Try to just move her around to heal the most people possible

Experienced:

There are some good uses you can give to Luna, but you'll see those later.

next talent

Goddess' Blessing

Allies being Healed by Moonlight take 15% reduced damage.

This talent is pretty good, the thing is, i don't have any tips, it's the same, but 15% dr to the whoever you're healing.

i don't recommend using this talent, not because it's bad, just because Life Link exists, but you're completely free to use it

if i had to tell you when you can use Goddess' Blessing

I'd say teams that don't have any point tanks, i would still use life link, but in that case, you can use Goddess' Blessing.

next one:

Sacrifice

If Io falls below 200 Health while Luna is active, she trades places with Luna, heals for 50% of her Health, and Luna dies in her stead.

i don't recommend this talent at all, you can use it, but i don't recommend it.

it can be useful, but not as Life Link or Goddess' Blessing, it makes luna nearly useless, you can't let her on point bc when you "die", you'll be teleported to the point, and someone would kill you.

i don't have much to add, i just don't like it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~DECKS~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Moving on to the decks:

First I'll tell you which decks i use and why, then ill tell you some decks (apart from mines) that you can use, so yeah, let's start.

My deck

Life Link/Goddess' Blessing

Before you say anything, lemme explain every single card.

Protectors

How tf can you have the that card and at level 5?!

well, let me explain this is obviously adapted to my gameplay, and usually it's not recommended at all for most of the people. but this is not my case, I totally recommend using this, if you get used to it, it can be the best card in your deck.

just so you know, yes, you'll have to keep luna near you, no, this will not be always, in fact, you can heal without any problems without Luna, the thing is when you need moonlight, as you regenerate 10% per second, if you run out of moonlight (0%) and you instantly go near luna, you can keep healing for a bit (bc i think you need like 15% to heal again) and when your tank or the whole team is at least at 60% you can stop for like, 2 seconds and you'll have enough of your moonlight for you to constantly heal and get moonlight, but avoid these type of situations, even though you can get out of those situations, avoid them. try to stop whenever you can so you keep gaining moonlight. but don't worry, with this card you won't have many healing problems.

Moonwalk

Why that card?

well, if you're actually asking that, then you don't even know how to play Io, bc it's the most basic (and also effective) card. just 40% more Moonlight, nothing else to add.

Restored Faith

Why this one?

Ok, so now you already have more Moonlight capacity, and also your main way to get it, now you should focus on your self-sustain, every 150 hp you heal, you'll heal yourself by 30, that is 200 (199,9999...) per second.

Broken Deity

Why this one?

Broken deity may not be the best card, but for a lvl 1 card its really good, i mean, 20%? for lvl 1 card? it's really good, you can totally change it but i recommend this card.

Lunar connection

Why this one?

you can completely change this card, but this is like buying lvl 1 chronos, i couldn't find a better card, but you can change it.

Another card u can use (Spirit Arrows)

this is also a filler card, you can Lunar Connection to get this one in ur deck since it's hard to keep luna safe, even for me, that's why I'm saying this, im starting to use this card more than Lunar Connection.

I'M NOT SAYING YOU NEED TO USE THIS DECK BUT THIS IS THE ONE THAT I USE JUST SO YOU KNOW.

I personally don't like copying decks I create my own decks, maybe a copied but modified deck, so try to give it your personal touch if you're copying it, heres one tip for making your own deck or modify one:

• Never, NEVER leave a card at a level just because it looks effective, for example "Moonwalk" is considered one of the best cards to not say the best card, although this is true, if you feel that something is missing then probably is, so you can lower this card to level 4, because it's the best but not essential, you won't lose anything if you were wrong, just a few matches. obviously you can do the same with other cards it doesn't need to be moonwalk but the thing is to just never keep a card at some level because you think it is good you can just lower and try for a few matches and if you see that it doesn't go well, just go back.

This build has the largest Moonlight uptime, but it is difficult since you have to watch Luna’s HP as much as watching your own HP.

Now that my deck is explained, we should move to different decks, which i recommend, but don't use.

these decks are for getting into a type of gameplay, It's no professional deck, just to get used to a certain kind of gameplay apart from mine or even mine

Sanctum of Faith

this is a basic deck, for starters, this deck is made in the case that you don't have much experience as a healer and you want Io to be one of your first healers, but yeah.

Lemme explain every card:

Moonwalk (5)

just, more Moonlight capacity as i said, i don't recommend lowering this card's level since it's your main card, but if you really want to change it, you shouldn't lower it to >4

Sanctum of Faith (3)

This card is your main way to get moonlight, you only regenerate moonlight every second you don't use it, also, you should be careful bc 3% per second (plus the deault regeneration) isn't enough, that's why you can change this card to level 4, or 5 if you want.

Change of Faith (3)

i already explained this card, just self sustain, you can take out some levels but you shouldn't because at level two change of faith is already useless or nearly useless, in fact, you can add levels.

Swift Arrows (3)

This card is with the intention of giving your allies a little bit of movement speed while you heal them, this card is not essential, you can freely change it and give those points to another card

Moonlight Garden

This card is pretty much a filler card you can change it and do whatever you want with it, but the main idea is to get a little bit of moonlight when you hit someone.

Okay... Next deck

Protectors

This deck is like the one that i use, but this one will help you getting used to it, so you should start using this one, but before you do anything, listen to (or read) this:

Protectors (5)

this deck is 100% based on protectors so it'll be really important to just keep it like that. what you can do is just lowering this card to level four but no further than that.

Moonwalk (3)

These deck is for people who are new or just not experienced enough, so I suppose that you'll stay in the backline with Luna near you or right next to you. if that's the case, then you don't need moonwalk at a higher level if you do, then just change the level.

Swift Arrows (3)

this card is not essential as I said before, but can help your tanks a lot since their moment speed is usually really low, but this can help almost everyone since... who doesn't like an extra movement speed? but yeah, this card is not essential so you can change it to any level you want just try to not get it at a higher level since it'll be probably a waste.

Feral Strength & Spirit Arrows (2)

now this is why I say this deck is for people who are starting, if these cards Luna will have more survivability, and if you get better you can lower these cards little by little and you'll notice you don't need them anymore, but try to get rid of them asap.

Next deck

Moonlight Garden

this deck is mainly based on Moonlight garden, I mean, that is based on hitting targets so that's why I think this one is harder, I don't recommend this that much because it's the only way for you to get moonlight.

Moonwalk (5)

Do i really need to explain this every time? just moonlight capacity

Moonlight Garden (4)

Your main ability to get moonlight, as you can see, hitting enemies will give you moonlight, you shoot every 0.6 seconds so it can be a way to get moonlight, so hitting all of your shots will be twice as effective as protectors. it's really risky tho, this needs to be in the right hands, or else it can be your most hated card. as it's your main way to get moonlight, you shouldn't touch this card

Swift Arrows (2)

i explained this everytime, i won't say that again.

nah, I'll copy paste the explanation:

This card is with the intention of giving your allies a little bit of movement speed while you heal them, this card is not essential, you can freely change it and give those points to another card

Restored Faith (2)

Self sustain while you heal, you can change it but it's not recommended

Spirit Arrows (1)

Get Luna's reposition faster, this is a filling card, change it to whatever you want, this one is good tho.

Here there are some other combinations

General deck

This deck is just made if you tried every type of gameplay and like every single one of them, every card is already explained, so i don't have to explain then again, you can change pretty much every card to whatever you want.

Liz's Deck

So i got Liz in here so she can share her loadout, (If you're reading this, ty for participating <3) she'll show us the deck and why it's like that.

here's the Goddess' Blessing one

and here's her Life Link one

now, here's what she says:

"As you can see they both have max Moonlight capacity, Moonlight retention at 4 and self heal at 3. I think those are one of the most useful cards for Io cuz, well, the more healing you can pull off the better, and the Moonlight capacity/regeneration cards make is way easier to manage your healing; I personally like the self heal card a lot, I feel like level 3 is about the right level since anything below that doesn't quite feel like enough self healing, and anything above feels like a waste. This card in particular is very helpful for survival, since you'll be getting healed as long as you're healing someone, including Luna".

"The rest of the cards in my decks are either fillers or just some extra utility"

I totally agree, with what she says, i won't explain it again, bc i think that's enough. again, thanks Liz for taking the time.

Now, Dr. GlamStar is also here,

he's going to explain some cards and some other things, tbh i don't know what to say since he covered a lot of aspects, but yeah, I'll let him speak.

What do you think bout the starters deck

"They are okay, Life Link's absolutely shit"

Why?

"protectors is situational because luna should not be by you if you aren't alone".

"feral strength is redundant on luna now because her health was returned and you shouldn't use it because it should be used for something more useful, maybe as a filler card".

"Lunar connection isn't a flat reduction to luna's summon or redeploy, thus its use for summoning and positioning flops, and unless you are dying a lot you don't get that cards value enough; spirit arrows is good, and broken deity only sees value on either timber mill so luna can be closer to point to give to your team or if you are standing on point which you should only do if your main tank is dead".

"meanwhile the starter deck for goddess' blessing makes more sense:"

"celestial body gives you a health threshold that isn't outdone by the panick sheilds, the ones you get if you get bellow a certain health threshold, nor does she have something like moxie, so celestial body at level 2 can allow you to sustain more than not".

moonlight garden is good if the enemy tank isnt, you know, a sheild tank, or have a wall, or a siphon..."

"and your sacrifice starter deck is fairly competent".

"and your starter deck is fairly competent".

"as for item lo is in a unique position of not needing Chronos, instead you should take advantage of 2 features somewhat unique to lo, is her self healing while not bursty like pips nor is it a throwdown forget like grohk damba and ying its constant and its non cooldown reliant".

"this leads me into my actual deck:"

"moonwalk at level 5".

"So a interesting tidbit lo's moonlight always recovers at the same rate no matter how you increase it, so any cards that refill moonlight... should take second priority to moonwalk. Level 4 is good for litterally all of them: be it moonlight gardens sanctum of faith or protectors".

"if you arent against sheild/barrier/wall tanks and your hogging luna by you cause your running goddess' blessing any work but sanctum of faith is the most consistent. think of it like this your entire team needs heals, now moonlight alone can't handle that, so life link makes a bufferbut during this you shouldn't be close to your team because if you are blasters or something with aoe can feed that. now im not saying to be too far you can be singled out, im saying don't be pressed right against them, io's moonlight range isn't long as lets say mortal reach but its long enough that you don't need to be right beside them like grover... but what im saying is protectors is only good if your team doesn't need luna and instead she serves as a meatsheild/stun for you, but life link is the most consistent form of heals in io's kit which is really good, and as for something like moonlight gardens it was good when barik wasn't and when fernando and makoa weren't good at point tanking, but now barik is good and makoa and fernando are now able to point tank, and after the change to how certain cards proc you can't build moonlight from sheilds, thats why sanctum of faith is more consistent".

Ok, i think that's enough right?, well, thanks for participating... seriously, thanks.

And with that, we can go to the next section:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~ITEMS~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Y'all know what items are right? if not, here's a quick definition:

Items give benefits to players.

that's enough right?

okay :unamused: , here you have the Google one

These items allow players to gain useful benefits such as bonus movement or reload speed. There are four types of items: Defense, Utility, Healing, and Offense.

Io's items depend on what you want, there isn't a pattern or a code, it's up to you, but here's some things you can buy:

What i usually buy for starting is: Nimble level 2, these have a price of 150 and then 300, which is your initial credits amount.

Why?

because io's movement speed is essential for your (or at least mine) performance, plus, io's movement speed is already fast, so with this you'll have even more movement speed and you also can get this item at level 3 before the end of the first round.

Which combinations i can use for starting?

i will give a quick desc to every combination:

• nimble ×2: more movement speed (total price: 450)

• Nimble + Haven/Blast shields: movement speed and dr (which you would buy eventually)(total price: 450)

• Haven/Blast shields: dr and a little more credits for something else (total price: 300)

• Nimble + Kill to heal: movement speed and self healing (total price: 350)

• Nimble + Resilience: movement speed and reduce effectiveness to crowd control (total price: 300)

• Resilience ×2: when the other team has a lot of cc, also 40% cc immunity at the start is pretty good (total price: 450)

Those are the one that i recommend, you can use whatever you want, but as i said, that's what I recommend.

i don't have much to add, next section

~~~~~~~~~~SELF~DEFENSE~~~~~~~~~~

i don't recommend new people to try these out until they know the other things.

Intro:

Do you have problems with other flanks and your team doesn't do shit? well, unfortunately, you can't do much, but you can keep yourself alive until your dumbass teammates notice you.

First, you need to know that you're not the main priority, you have to keep yourself alive, but don't defense yourself too much, you won't be able to heal the team since your team is the one that should defend you, but don't get me wrong, you need to defend yourself, you won't have a teammate next to you all the time, so be prepared cause you're gonna need to do something.

How?

Simple, just pay attention to what's happening, as i said before (way before), being able to see your teammates through walls is a HUGE advantage, and if you get used to use that, it'll make things easier for you.

How tf can i use that as an advantage as a self defense thing?

Well, it's not helpful as a self defense thing, but at the same time it is, lemme explain:

This IS helpful bc it can help you prevent those type of situations, however, it IS NOT helpful for defending yourself, at least for you, that helps your team know when you are in danger, but here we're talking about you (io) not the whole team.

Tf you mean it can help me????

what i mean is that you can see that one of your teammates is fighting w someone, see that he died, or just taking dmg.

What else can I do for preventing the flanks approach me?

Well you can do something and that's as simple as just listening to what's happening. yes, footsteps, maeve's prowl sound, koga's agility sound or any other sound can help you know when someone is, maybe not approaching you, but at least close.

another thing you can know (this IS NOT necessary) is recognize the footsteps, i mean, have you ever heard tiberius' footsteps and vora's footsteps? yes, they are completely different, so if you know most of the champions' footsteps sounds, not only youll know someone is approaching you, but you'll also know who is approaching or near you.

Wtf can i do, there's half of the other team behind me?

Well, let's suppose the other team is a tiberius, zhin, koa, Inara and seris.

U said you had half of the team behind you and no one doing shit about it or not doing enough, that half of the team is: Zhin Koa and Tib or maybe even Seris.

so no dps is in their backline, what are Inara and seris going to do? probably not much, your backline is being completely destroyed, so why being i the backline? simple, just move to their backline or the opposite flank.

Just one thing: BRING LUNA WITH YOU.

this is not really essential, but i totally recommend doing that since she can be like a shield/tank, if you can do that with life link, it will be way better.

: this is REALLY RISKY you really need to know WHEN TO DO THAT AND WHEN NOT. that's innate, i can't really tell when you should do that, for now, take the example i told you.

Any other ways i can improve?

Yes. but this is harder, i recommend this one just to experienced people, this is really hard to master (at least it is for me), so don't try this until you have everything else done.

Try to be as unpredictable as possible.

Yes, but how?

Well, this is pretty much a combination of all of the things i said before, here's a summary (i will also add some things, so please read it) and before you read this,

DON'T DO THIS ALWAYS, JUST SOMETIMES, YOU'LL DIE IN NO TIME IF YOU DON'T DO THIS RIGHT.

• Listen to the footsteps or sounds

• Try to sometimes move to the other backline or to some flanks

• Switch between flanks, don't stay in the same one.

• Avoid being alone, even if it's a flank or the other healer.

• I'm not saying being in the backline is a bad thing, but try to be as close to the tanks as possible, not necessarily next to them, but close.

• Try to always play with the walls.

• Sometimes JUST SOMETIMES is more secure to be in the point than the backline, same with flanks and the enemies' backline

• The VGS is always an option, maybe with "Enemies behind us!" or "Enemies on the right/left flank!" or "Flank right/left!". maybe before or after a round, you can say "Defend left/right flank", maybe your teammates don't notice you're constantly dying or in danger, or they are dumb and think you can defend yourself (100%).

Those tips are for when your healing is already or nearly innate, once you reach that point, i recommend trying to focus on that.

Now, let's suppose the flank found u and you don't have anyone near enough to help you, here there are some thing u can do:

there are multiple ways you can defend yourself:

1- Moving Around/Escaping

This """technique""" relies on your team, since it's just moving around, making time until one or more teammates notice and kill/Repel the flank.

This one is kinda easy but can get complex as you're getting better and better, here you have some tips:

• Nimble ×3

sometimes having that much mobility (since io is one of the fastest healers i think) is enough, so literally moving around will sometimes do, this depends on where you are, you can apply this whenever you're near a pillar or somewhere you can spin around, or just somewhere you can move around, this looks pretty simple, because it is! mainly because this is not something you can apply alone, this is something you should apply with some other ""techniques"", if you do only this, it will rarely be effective.

• Lunar Leap

this doesn't really need to be explained, most of the things are in Lunar Leap | Experienced, there you'll have these shortcuts, which will also help to heal better or more comfortable, but that's not what were aiming to right now, you can use the shortcuts i show, or even find your own ones! these will most of the times either confuse them or just get away.

• Lunar Leap + Nimble ×3 + Unpredictable

it's the same right? well yes, but here what you wanna do is to force the other flank to be in an awkward spot if they go to where you moved, in other words, when they attack you, go to a safe place that if they go over there they'll probably die, also, when escaping, avoid going backwards since usually nothing can help you over there, and if someone wants to help you, it will take even longer for them to approach there.

2- Keeping it simple | Escaping + Defending

You have someone who wants to kill you, you don't have any cooldowns (every ability available), you're full hp, here's what you can do:

• Light Bow ×2 + Luna's Stun + as much Light Bows you can hit

i don't have to explain anything really, it's as simple as it sounds, but don't get too confident, cause you won't have Luna's stun always

Dmg:

Light Bow 400×2 + Luna's hits 180 ×2 + Luna's stun 300×1 + as much light bows you hit, for example: Light Bow 400×3 = 2660 dmg!

even though this looks easy, hitting 3 light bows ain't easy, but you get 1 or 2 free bc that first will be after the stun.

if you fucked up, get out of there as quick as possible.

• Light bow + Lunar Leap + Light bow + Luna's Stun + Luna's Reposition

this is for getting away and dealing damage while u escape, sounds hard, but once you see the step by step, you'll see it's easier than it looks

• hit your enemy

• use lunar leap to go to the opposite way or go to a safe place in general

• hit your enemy while in the air

• Luna probably stunned your enemy if she didn't do that short ago.

• Then move Luna to where you moved or just another placed

Analyzing dmg:

Light bow ×2 800 + Luna's hits: 180×2 & 380×1 (this last one will probably be after the stun) + Luna's stun 300×1 = 1840 damage! or if you hit with your light bow a third time, 2240 dmg!!

Damage may vary, mainly bc of Luna, her hits may not be those three, so yeah, it's just so you have an approximate dmg

Light bow ×2 + Luna's stun + Light Bow + Begone + Light bow

You can use this one whenever you want to secure the kill, the other ones are just for escaping or if you can, kill them, but that wasn't the main idea.

• Hit your enemy twice, that'll make Luna Stun them if she didn't stun anyone short ago.

• Luna will stun your enemy for 1.6 seconds

• use that time for 1 or even 2 hits

• right after that, use your ult to get him/her, (s)he'll take 800 dmg(bc the idea isn't getting him/her away, just the damage)

and then another hit

• This in total is either 2700 dmg or 3100 depending if after the Luna's stun you shot once or twice, but the last shot isn't even needed if it's a flank you're trying to get.

(this damage may vary because of Luna, but only for good)

Begone

yes, as simple as that, just yeet someone off the map, i only recommend using this as a last resort, like, when you're low.

also, don't do this often, people will know that you do that eventually. maybe once or twice per match, but i recommend to not do that too much

3- Life Link sustain (Me)

this part is mainly for Life Link players, since the sustain in my gameplay is 60% Life Link

Life Link + Change of Faith

while someone is trying to kill you, Change of Faith and Luna's heals can help you a lot AND can keep you alive while someone tries to kill you.

Heals:

Change of Faith (lvl 1) + Life Link = 367 hp per second

Change of Faith (lvl 2) + Life Link = 434 hp per second

Change of Faith (lvl 3) + Life Link = 500 hp per second

Change of Faith (lvl 4) + Life Link = 570 hp per second

Change of Faith (lvl 5) + Life Link = 634 hp per second

if you want to see change of faith's heals just -300 the result

Use Luna as a way to protect yourself

You can obviously see that with the other example, but what i mean is to use it as a tank/shield, just, spin around luna or go through her when you need to heal someone and also sustain yourself, try to do that to annoy, avoid getting hit, or both! this last one (not "both") can be harder with champions that have a precise way to shoot, for example andro.

the best ones you can use this "Technique" are vora and zhin, mainly bc of their projectiles have a bigger hitbox and it's harder to not hit Luna.

however, try to get out of there even though you can survive, and this applies to every tip i said.

4- Not Life Link self sustain (general) (Liz)

Okay, i got her again bc, as i don't what I did when I played Goddess' Blessing, i wanted to make sure that someone that at least knew about it explained.

"My main tip would be to not rely on your lunar leap to run away tbh, often times if you think your leap is gonna save you you'll end up dead. But you gotta be aware of the map you're in and stuff because :sparkles: walls :sparkles: ".

"Your best way to save yourself is just staying around your team tbh, being unpredictable is also important".

"I think that's the most important thing about Io and self defense, keeping in mind that your leap isn't gonna save you most of the time and the important of nimble 3. Nimble 3 Io is really good".

Do you think you can stay alive without Life Link?

"Hmm well, it's definitely hard without the extra life link healing, but it's possible if you use the self healing card, as Io you're healing people pretty much all the time, so that self healing is really useful"

How about a self sustain while in a fight, is that possible? How?

"Well, I don't personally think trying to 1v1 people as Io is a good idea, so either try to regroup with your team or use Luna as a self healing turret with the same card trick".

I personally agree in everything Liz is saying, I'm not just copy-pasting what she's saying but also I put this because I agree and think that this will be something will help you. again, thanks Liz for taking the time.

And with all of this, i can end my Io guide.

if you want to see how I play, you can dm me and I'll send you a video of one of my matches

~~~~~~~~~Some~Final~Words~~~~~~~~~~

Well, this took more time than i expected, and it's shorter than i thought.

I said that at the start however I want to say this again:

I'm not experienced with English at all, it's my first time writing something this large and in English of course.

Most of the things I said (neither Liz nor Dr.Glamstar) are based on what i do, and they work for me

if you find any spelling errors or some misspelled sentence, tell me.

Also, if you actually read all the guide, first, i really appreciate that you took the time and hope it works if it does, let me know! I would love to hear that!

if you think something's wrong or got any suggestions/tips/deck to add to the guide then just dm me what you think, and I'll tell you why I didn't add it, why I shouldn't add it, or I'll just add it (I will give credits)

some of you may ask

why tf you wrote something this large, no one is actually going to read all of it

sadly, I know it's true but that's not the main idea. first I just made this for fun. and also, if someone needs to know something specific then it probably is in the guide, if not, (and I know that) then I'll just tell him/her and also add it to the guide so it's even more effective to all of the new people.

So yeah, nothing else to say, cya guys