How to play IO

[Graf Unknown]

I am completely tired of people not understanding, that Io can be a decent healer, if the player knows how to play with her. She is much more difficult to play then healers like Grover or Seris, so people conclude that Io is just bad. I want to explain how to play her and why she is not bad.

Firstly, my loadout:
Talent-Life Link
Moonlight Garden-4 tokens
Restored Faith-4 tokens
Spirit Arrows-2 tokens
Swift Arrows-2 tokens
Broken Deity-3 tokens

So what is the idea of this loadout and of Io overall? There is one thing, that makes her decent as a healer: It's RMB healing ability, basically without cooldown. There is literally no cooldown, you just have to watch for your Moonlight scala. What do you do, if you run out of Moonlight? You just shoot a couple of arrows towards enemy shields/deployables/or enemy himself. 3 hits (in 1.8 sec) and your moonlight has already restored over 25%.
Io is not that type of healer, who just runs around in the backline, always holding down the healing button. You have to passively participate in the battle, while not losing your purpose out of sight.
If you play it correctly, you can heal your frontline permanently.
Another important part is the positioning of Luna. Many Io players just set their Luna on point, in the middle of the battle, or position it infront of the payload, and then forget about her completely. That's not how you play Luna. You basically have to play Luna like Grohks Totem. You have to position it in a relatively save spot, so it can heal your frontline, while not being in line of fire. 300hp per second are quite some heals, don't waste them like that! So if your frontline is moving, you need to reposition it. That's why Spirit Arrows earns a place in my Loadout. You need only 2 tokens on this card, and you can reposition Luna in less then 5 seconds, if you heal at that time.
Sometimes your frontline is quite far and you can't/shouldn't come after him. That's where Broken Deity helps you out. Or for example if a flank goes for you, you can position Luna right next to you, so the flank can prepare himself for a juicy stun, while team is coming to save you (if you get a decent one). And well, Restored Faith explains itself I believe.
Many people play those gravity reducing cards, that reduce gravity while shooting or healing with Moonlight. When Io first came out, I also thought, that those are cool cards. But after playing a lot of Io, I finally understood, that those cards are basically useless. What do you want to do with them? The only reasonable thing to do with them is to increase your Lunar Leap distance. But since the first thing, that will limit your Lunar Leap distance are map obstacles, this cards are basically useless.
Io isn't that bad at all, when it comes to heal. I can finish a mid-long game with Io, having 200k healing with one frontline, she can't be that bad. Of course her healing is no match against healing machines like Maldamba. But she is still decent and shouldn't be underestimated.
If you have any questions or thoughts, you can comment here.

[Cartylie]

io sux, delete io

[Конструктор]

Meh, not my style of playing Io. Here's how me actually plays as her:

Goddess' Blessing
Sanctum of Faith 5
Moonlight Garden 5
Protectors 3
Feral Strength 1
Celestial Body 1

Basically I use my Luna to enhance my Moonlight regeneration. In fact, my whole loadout is full-on focused to maximize my Moonlight replenishment. Since I use Luna to regenerate Moonlight, my go-to talent is Goddess' Blessing. Because, you know, heals can be negated with Cauterise, that's why secondary effects like Damage Reduction, are taken for granted. If my target doesn't receive heals, at least he will stay protected.

[76561198294736058]

tokens? what is this arcade?

[Graf Unknown]

Originally posted by Mr. Gunpowder:

Meh, not my style of playing Io. Here's how me actually plays as her:

Goddess' Blessing
Sanctum of Faith 5
Moonlight Garden 5
Protectors 3
Feral Strength 1
Celestial Body 1

Basically I use my Luna to enhance my Moonlight regeneration. In fact, my whole loadout is full-on focused to maximize my Moonlight replenishment. Since I use Luna to regenerate Moonlight, my go-to talent is Goddess' Blessing. Because, you know, heals can be negated with Cauterise, that's why secondary effects like Damage Reduction, are taken for granted. If my target doesn't receive heals, at least he will stay protected.

That's also a good way to play Io. Of course Io is playable in different ways.
My only question is, why don't you play the "Swift Arrows" card? If you boost your healing target with dmg-reduction, why not give him the additional speed boost?
Renegade also played Io for the first time in Paladins E-Sports history with dmg reduction and speed boost :D

[FacuPovv]

I dont find her difficult to use, indeed i tried her this free weekend and i did a lot better with her than Seris

[Graf Unknown]

Originally posted by serpientesolida:

I dont find her difficult to use, indeed i tried her this free weekend and i did a lot better with her than Seris

Well that's strange, because with Io you have much more things to care about. With Seris you just need to chose your healing target, have direct line of sight for one moment, and then you can completely heal him, with moving around and looking around as you want. Your other two abilities you use for self deffence.
While with Io you need to aim in direction of your target all the time to heal, meaning you can't really heal through the wall or something. Meanwhile you got to keep an eye on Luna, decide wether you want to change her position or not, you have to manage your moonlight etc.

Maybe you just had a good match/team or something, cause I would say as a Support/Frontline Main, that Io is one of the most difficult support champions to play.

[Vassago Rain]

I play boost jump cooldown 5, boostjump shield 5, Luke Skywalker 3, boostjump ammo restore 1, and lunar leap cooldown reset 1.

[Graf Unknown]

Originally posted by Vassago Rain:

I play boost jump cooldown 5, boostjump shield 5, Luke Skywalker 3, boostjump ammo restore 1, and lunar leap cooldown reset 1.

So you basically play Io damage? Cause I don't see how your loadout is good for healing...

[Vassago Rain]

Originally posted by Graf Unknown:

Originally posted by Vassago Rain:

I play boost jump cooldown 5, boostjump shield 5, Luke Skywalker 3, boostjump ammo restore 1, and lunar leap cooldown reset 1.

So you basically play Io damage? Cause I don't see how your loadout is good for healing...

I heal plenty from the air (she has infinite range, and there's no reduction on your healing with distance), but yes, I primarily play for actual damage and kills, and heavily use my doggo for offensive purposes, or to give our tanks an easier with the stuns. Her great mobility makes her very good at getting intel on the enemy, and you can bait people into following you when they really shouldn't. I get killed, I have another boostjump and 50% HP to get out (I commit the heresy of running sacrifice, because it's the only fun talent she has, while the only effective talent is the boring lifelink), which is rather easy unless I actually got baited or counter played This all came about because of the great advice I got in my support rage thread. She can't pull Seris heal numbers, so people will always complain, and the heal is awkward, but heal is heal, and as long as you keep people, especially the important people, alive and get the win, it really doesn't matter if you got 60k or 200k. I'm also a crackshot with her bow for some reason, and finish of wounded targets all day, every day.

More importantly, this is a fun way to play her for me, rather than the more passive doggo healstation. As the other thread suggested, people will complain no matter what, but if get the win, why does it matter? It's a game. It's supposed to be fun. Mute the VHS spammers, and move on with your life.

I'm sure they'll change her, or I'll find a better playstyle, but it is what it is,

[Ryu the Fox]

Originally posted by Vassago Rain:

Originally posted by Graf Unknown:

So you basically play Io damage? Cause I don't see how your loadout is good for healing...

I heal plenty from the air (she has infinite range, and there's no reduction on your healing with distance), but yes, I primarily play for actual damage and kills, and heavily use my doggo for offensive purposes, or to give our tanks an easier with the stuns. Her great mobility makes her very good at getting intel on the enemy, and you can bait people into following you when they really shouldn't. I get killed, I have another boostjump and 50% HP to get out (I commit the heresy of running sacrifice, because it's the only fun talent she has, while the only effective talent is the boring lifelink), which is rather easy unless I actually got baited or counter played This all came about because of the great advice I got in my support rage thread. She can't pull Seris heal numbers, so people will always complain, and the heal is awkward, but heal is heal, and as long as you keep people, especially the important people, alive and get the win, it really doesn't matter if you got 60k or 200k. I'm also a crackshot with her bow for some reason, and finish of wounded targets all day, every day.

More importantly, this is a fun way to play her for me, rather than the more passive doggo healstation. As the other thread suggested, people will complain no matter what, but if get the win, why does it matter? It's a game. It's supposed to be fun. Mute the VHS spammers, and move on with your life.

I'm sure they'll change her, or I'll find a better playstyle, but it is what it is,

Io hasn't infinite range on her heal.

[Lie Chen Zhou]

Broken diety 4, reset jump 4, whatever.
Jump around while healing/shooting.