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Hello everyone, I’m Game Xiaodi.

Recently, the experience server saw another wave of updates. Besides some hero balance tweaks, what caught everyone’s attention most was that the new hero Luyana is once again being tested on the experience server. Many players probably remember that during the global hero voting event in March this year, Luyana won by a landslide with over 73 million votes, officially becoming a obtainable hero set to debut in the canyon.

But after the voting ended, she didn’t officially launch for three or four months, and there was no news for a while. Now, she’s finally back on the experience server for testing. The worrying question is: can Luyana maintain her previous strength in this new test? Let’s discuss it in this episode.

Is the blind mechanic overshadowed by airborne?

First, let’s talk about Luyana’s biggest feature: the blind effect. Her ultimate skill, "Blazing Gaze," fires a fire serpent in a specified direction, hitting enemies and causing a blind effect that randomly offsets enemy heroes’ basic attacks and skill projectiles. This mechanic was previously unique and highly effective against many marksmen, which is why many considered Luyana very strong.

However, the new hero Liu Er in season S44 introduced another powerful mechanic: airborne. Although Laixiao also had airborne before, it was very limited compared to Liu Er’s. Liu Er’s airborne allows him to stay in the air for a long time, dodging many ground-based skills and basic attacks while gaining a vision advantage.

In comparison, the airborne mechanic has a much higher ceiling: blind only makes enemies miss, while airborne directly prevents enemies from hitting at all. One is "interfering with aim," the other is "physical evasion." Clearly, the latter is more advantageous in actual combat. Moreover, Liu Er’s airborne can also avoid area-of-effect skills at critical moments, something blind cannot do. Additionally, the blind effect might cause enemy damage to hit teammates.

How much does the orb-effect nerf impact her?

Second, let’s talk about the collective nerf to orb-effect items in the new season. Luyana’s skill pattern is high-frequency, low-damage. Her passive "Ring Blade Slash" counts every third hit as a basic attack, and combined with the multi-hit damage of her first and second skills, she is naturally well-suited for orb-effect builds. Previously, most players built Luyana with orb-effect items like Endless and Lightning Dagger to trigger multiple orb effects, providing sustained high damage.

But in the new season, all orb-effect items have added an internal cooldown. Simply put, they cannot trigger multiple orb damage effects in quick succession. This significantly impacts Luyana, as the trigger frequency is limited, leading to a definite drop in overall damage output. Moreover, marksmen are now trending toward critical strike builds, and Luyana is not particularly compatible with critical strike builds.

However, don’t worry. Since she is being retested on the experience server, it means the developers have considered these changes and need to re-evaluate her. They may adjust her stats, such as skill damage coefficients, cooldowns, or ring blade duration, based on the current meta.

Also, the global hero voting event originally featured five heroes. Now that Luyana is almost ready to launch, I wonder if the remaining four global heroes will all make it to the official server? Personally, I’m most looking forward to Blade Baby. That hero’s strength is even more dominant than Luyana’s.

That’s all for today. If you found it interesting, feel free to hit like to support me. If you have anything to say, ask, or want to see, leave a comment below—I’ll read them all!~

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