HoN: Early-Game Solo Mid Moon Queen - A Beginner's Guide

Moon Queen is a great solo mid hero because of the longass range of Moon Beam, which allows her to nuke the shit out of other heroes from a safe distance. This often forces them to retreat from the lane or die. Winning her lane basically boils down to having a) a Bottle to refill her mana and b) rune control to refill that Bottle. This guide will focus on how to win the solo mid lane with Moon Queen during the early-game phase, up to level 6.

For comprehensive information on Moon Queen, check out her page at the HoN Wiki.

Starting Items

Hopefully, your supports are smart enough to buy wards (having a flying courier is not  necessary). Communicate to them that you need a ward at one of the rune spots. You can then proceed to buy 1 Runes of the Blight and 1 Healing Potion. You should have 413g left.

IF nobody buys wards, then you need to buy 1 Ward of Sight and 1 Blight. You should also have 413g left.

The reason you want to start with such few items is because you want to have a fast Bottle by level 3. With only a 187g deficit, you should be able to afford one by lv 3 (please use the Courier to deliver it to you in-lane). This begs the question, “Why don’t I just buy a Bottle as my starting item?” The reason for this is because you want to have some survivability so you don’t get destroyed before you can get your bottle. Some heroes, such as Thunderbringer, Flint Beastwood, and Plague Rider can just wreck you in the first few levels if you have no healing.

Beginning of Game (Lv 1 and 2)

If your supports are incompetent and didn’t ward the rune spot, make sure you do it yourself before the creeps reach the river. Put your first skill point on Moon Beam and your second skill point on Lunar Glow or Stats. The reason you don’t want to level up Multi-Strike yet is because it will push your lane. Also, try not to use Moon Beam, you gotta save your mana.

There are several goals during this phase:

• Hit lv 3 before your opponent does by last hitting well/staying in exp range and get a bottle when/before you hit lv 3.
• Rune control. The first rune will spawn at 2:00 (and then every other two minutes). Thanks to your ward, you will know exactly where it is. Because Moon Queen has an insane base movespeed of 320, you can usually outrace your opponent. It’s not a big deal if you don’t have a Bottle yet, what’s more important is that you’re denying your enemy the rune, so it can’t refill its Bottle. If you have friends help you rune control, even better! If your opponent does get the rune, then all is not lost. They’ll probably spam a few extra spell at you, but thankfully you’ll survive because of the Blights/Potion you bought at the beginning.

Mid Early-Game (Lv 3-5)

Hopefully, you’ve got a Bottle by lv 3. Upgrade Moon Beam to lv 2. Now you can now start spamming that skill. The reason we wait until lv 2 Moon Beam is beacuse it’s much more mana-efficient than Lv 1 (1.5 damage/mana vs 0.83 damage/mana). At lv 3, Moon Queen has a total of 283 mana. With full charges of Bottle, you gain an additional 210 mana, for a total of 493 mana. Including mana regen over time, we can easily round that up to 500 mana. You know what you can do with 500 mana? CAST MOON BEAM 5 TIMES! With a lv 2 Moon Beam, that is a total of 562.5 damage (factoring in 25% magic reduction). Note that we haven’t even talked about potential damage from autoattacks. Most heroes early-game can’t stand that kinda punishment, sending them to dangerously low health.

However, I would actually suggest saving enough mana for one Moon Beam, in case of emergencies. It has a 1 second stun, so you can use it to stop ganks or outrace your opponent to the rune.

Your enemies will probably have some form of restoration, making it harder to chase them out of lane. This is where rune control is necessary. By refilling your bottle with runes, you can regain mana and cast MOAR MOON BEAMS. The battle for the next rune at 4:00 is crucial. If you can stop your opponent from getting that rune, you will probably win your lane, because he will be at low health and out of regen items, while you should have full health, possibly with regen item.

At lv 4, get Multi-Strike. Now you want to push your lane, because if the creep wave is all the way at your opponent’s tower, he’ll probably be hiding behind it, making it harder for him to contest runes.

At lv 5, upgrade Moon Beam for great justice.

The next item you need is Marchers. It will help you close the gap for your short-range autoattacks, outrace your opponent for runes, and gank more easily.

Lv 6 and Beyond

At lv 6, you are one of the scariest heroes on the planet. With your ult, you can easily kill any hero you encounter. Hopefully, you have won the mid lane, chased your opponent out of lane, and gained a level/gold advantage. What you want to do at this point is up to you, whether it’s to continue farming to fulfill your destiny as a carry or gank a lane that needs help.

What To Do If Shit Happens

Let’s say things go badly during laning phase. Maybe you got ganked at the start of the game, setting you behind. Focus on getting a Bottle, staying in lane, and rune control. With rune control, your Bottle should help you survive any attempted assault by the more-experienced mid-lane hero. Hit lv 6 as fast as you can, and you can probably make a comeback, because your ult is so strong. If you’re getting instantly nuked (ex. Pebbles or Deadwood), buy as many Crushing Claws as you can afford after getting Bottle.

Hero Matchups

Blood Hunter

He’s scary when he hits level 6 because of his Hemorrhage + Blood Crazy combo, which will leave you silenced and unable to run away. You can simply counter this by carrying a Homecoming Stone (use AFTER Blood Hunter uses his silence! If he doesn’t silence you then Moon Beam his face). At lv 2 and 4, get Stats instead for the extra health.

Arachna

If Arachna lands an ult on you, don’t even try to run away. With a -40% slow and Webbed Shot, your movement and attack speed will be slowed to a crawl. You can try to counter with Moon Beams, but if your opponent is smart she’ll have lv 3 Harden Carapace, granting +24 Magic Armor and severely reducing damage. The safest option is to usually TP back to base.

Fayde

Get a Ward of Revelation before she hits lv 6. As soon as she becomes lv 6, drop that ward on the far side of the river. This will allow you to avoid her when she casts Reflection. Also, get Stats at lv 2 and 4 instead for extra health.

Flint Beastwood

Flint can abuse his long range to autoattack from the safety of his side of the river. This means that Flint will usually have the upper terrain advantage, making it hard to gain visibility of him. Get a Ward of Sight and stick one on his side of the river, then Moon Beam his ass. Also, get Multi-Strike at lv 2 and 4. This will quickly push the creep wave to his tower, forcing him to stay behind the tower and focus more on last hitting.

Thunderbringer

Boasting even longer range and more damaging nukes than Moon Queen, Thunderbringer is a frightening opponent. Rune control is absolutely necessary to beat him. Thankfully, with your superior movement speed and 1s stun, you should be able to outrace him. When Thunderbringer turns level 6, be careful to keep your health somewhere above 430hp, or else he can instantly disintegrate you with his Chain Lightning + Blast of Lightning + Lightning Storm combo. Against Thunderbringer, get Stats at lv 2 and 4.

Wretched Hag

Wretched Hag will easily outrace you to runes because of Flash of Darkness. You can beat her to the runes by preemptively guessing where the rune will spawn or push the creep wave back to her tower. Get Multi-Strike at lv 2 and 4.

Succubus

Succubus is a nightmare to lane against. Her nuke does more damage than yours and heals herself for the same amount. Therefore, it can be difficult to bully her out of lane. The upside for you is that Heartache costs a lot of mana (125/150/175/200).  In addition, her Mesmerize will allow her to easily gain rune control by disabling you for 4 seconds. Your best chance is to push the creep wave to her tower before the rune spawns. Get Multi-Strike and lv 2 and 4. When Succubus becomes lv 6, you have to be careful. Her Mesmerize + Succubus’ Hold + Heartache + autoattack combo can deal a combined total of 500 magic damage plus 310 True damage. You’ll need over 700hp to survive that assault. The key to avoid this combo is to stay over 500 units away from Succubus, which is the range of Heartache and Mesmerize. If she leads off with Succubus’ Hold, it usually means she cast it at max range (650). This means if you run back immediately after her ult, she can’t nuke you. The downside is that since your attack range is so short, you’ll never be able to farm safely while Succubus is in lane, so I would suggest you gank at lv 6.

Devourer

It’s really important to remember that his hook can’t go through creeps, so use them as cover and dodge his hooks. If he ever does manage to catch you, Moon Beam’s stun should let you get away. Get Stats at lv 2 and 4 for the extra health.