So you're looking to up your game with Luminae.

I'll be going through a few more intermediate tips with it.
I hope you learn something!

This section also applies to Pinaka players.

As long as you're playing a Hero Shooter, a Class-Based Shooter, or even an RPG, everyone knows the golden rule. Shoot the Medic first.

Sure, there may be games where you go basically completely unharrassed. However, you shouldn't count on that to win your games.

Even though the goal is to try not to get seen and to never be the sole target the enemies can lock onto, it's impossible to interact with the game without establishing your presence. You can ask any Narukami player to vouch for that.

As such, when you do get attacked, there is a flowchart of things to immediately ask yourself.
1. Am I being sniped? If so, where is the best cover between me and them?
2. If it's not a sniper, are they focusing on me, or is it just random shots? Can I risk thinking its the latter?
3. If they're focusing on me, am I already in a teamfight or next to my teammates? Can I ping the enemy so my teammates can assist?
4. If I'm not close to my teammates, can I reposition quickly enough to get to my team? Do I have to risk running right through the enemy team? For Luminae, is my Aux 2 ability off cooldown? For Pinaka, how much shields do I have on my Emergency Drone?
5. If I can't reposition to get to my team, or if I'm already with my team, are my teammates on enough health or doing well enough that I can attempt to fight back? For Pinaka, do I have enough shots in my support drone?

If somehow or another, you're caught far out of position, unless you use Luminae's Aux 2 ability or the enemy runs out of energy while you're full, you'll have no choice but to fight - and even using the ability, sometimes the best choice to fight regardless; such as when a Falcon or Stellaris refuses to let you go, or when the enemy has the tiniest sliver of health remaining.

Of course, use your discretion. Most Mechs are unable to easily deal with 1v2s. This most especially applies to Support mechs - it doesn't matter who you're fighting, if you're in a 1v2, unless they decided to fight you at very low health, you're at a severe disadvantage.

There are many times I've seen players get chased, fly around a bit, then get killed when they could have won if they had fought back. There are also many times I've seen players fight back, but never back off even as the 1v1 turns into a 1v2 or more.

The important thing to know from the saying "Fighting is always an option" is to turn the 0v1 (from you only running) into a 1v1.

1. Drone Launcher


Most people kinda know what Luminae does - "It shoots healing drones."

However, many people don't know that the healing drones heal based on the percentage of maximum health rather than flat numbers. In other words, a Light will take as much time to heal to full as an Ultra-Heavy if they're both at 1 HP.

Knowing this will help you triage which teammate to assist first, or knowing if attempting to fight an enemy will result in your teammate dying from no healing.

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In Corruption Mode, however, the drones deal Physical damage, which bypasses Fluid Armour.

Two important bits about this:
1. Your damage dealt is not percentage damage, but instead a flat damage number.
2. It's Physical damage, the same damage that Melee attacks do.

These two points combined are a massive factor in which matchups you're good against, and which you should almost always run from. More on that later.

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2. Haze Diffuser (Aux 1)


Again, most people kinda know what the Haze Diffuser does: damage or healing in an AoE around you. However, there are two quirks of the Diffuser to take note of.

Firstly, the Area of Effect is exceedingly small. 65m is smaller than a dash away; it's approximately one jump's worth of height.

Secondly, it's actually about 10% more than that - the Haze Diffuser works up to 71m away. That's about this far:


It's not much, but every little bit helps!

The Diffuser also does about as much damage or as much healing as a single drone, which stacks with other drones you've put out.

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3. Support Jetwing (Aux 2)


This is your Get-Out-Of-Jail-Free card, your Counterplay, your Ultimate Ability.
It is no exaggeration to say that this is the ability that makes Luminae Luminae.
Much of your skill expression is based on your usage of this skill.

Not only does it cancel stagger (from any damage source) and immobilization (mainly Aquila's stun), but it also gives you a total Energy Regen basically equivalent to spamming air evades for the entire 12 seconds of the skill.

Atop this, within a short range, you either mess with enemy targeting or grant allies the increased Energy Regen as well. This includes friendly spinning Welkins, amongst other things.

Same deal as the Haze Diffuser; it actually affects about a 10% larger area than the stated 50m, but...


...55m is exceedingly small.

Notably, it does seem to be specifically 10% larger - unlike the 6m increase that the haze diffuser gets, the Support Jetwing keeps affecting others at 55m and stops at 56m.

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Next up, matchups.

Remember what I mentioned above about the damage from the drones being Physical? That most significantly comes into play in these upcoming sections.

Due to the alpha strike capabilities of many mechs, many matchups depend on who catches who off-guard. The most popular example can be seen in the eternal conflict between Falcon and Aquila mains both alleging that they're strong against the other. Where appropriate, I will be mentioning both perspectives.

I'll preface first by saying: While it's best to take fights with your teammates, they won't always be around to assist you. Being able to win the 1v1s will significantly help you in your games.

Without further ado:

Purged Alysnes

Stellaris, but no invisibility and less health. Watch his melee, watch your energy, don't get baited into their team.

Go get 'em.

===

Stellaris

Stellaris' main advantage over most mechs is their ability to pick and choose when to engage and when to escape.

However, unlike Narukami, their invisibility goes away once they take any amount of damage.

In other words, you completely negate their biggest advantage for a full 8 seconds the moment you land a drone on them, and you can easily reveal their location if you simply fly around their general location with your Corruption Haze Diffuser up.

Your battle with Stellaris will almost always begin with them landing their charge on you. Unlike Panther, Stellaris' charge does not deal 80% of your health in one go. Once they lose their initial element of surprise, never let them take it back. Plink them with a drone or two, then make sure you're topped off, and continue harassing them.

They may attempt to hit you with their sword-beams and sword-drones, which does disable your target-lock. Some Stellaris will use it immediately after charging you, to prevent you from pinging them with a drone. Use the opportunity to toss two or so drones on yourself, before going (back to) corruption mode. If you fail to keep the damage drones on them, a quick fly-by with the Haze Diffuser will re-reveal them. Just watch your health and energy, as a good Stellaris will bait your fly-by to grapple or charge you again.

Don't let him get away. He won't let you get away either.

===

Falcon

Falcon's low effective HP makes them relatively easy to finish off.
However, their firepower and mobility makes the fight difficult at best without the use of Support Jetwing.
Good Falcons will always try to catch you off-guard, while you're low and away from your team, or when you're otherwise preoccupied.
Good Falcons will also never let you get away if they got you on the ropes.
You will never be able to outrun them in a battle of pure speed even with Support Jetwing, only match their speed.

With the number of Falcon mains in the game, this is probably one of the more important matchups for you to get good at.

In a pure one-on-one, the enemy Falcon's goals are as follows:
1. Stay just within range and constantly unload all firepower.
2. If the Luminae pops Support Jetwing and goes aggressive, immediately leave for 12s before coming back.
3. If the Luminae tries to run, chase them down.

The matchup is significantly determined by your response to their fly-bys and your usage of Support Jetwing. Only try to use Support Jetwing if you're almost out of energy, to maximise energy gain. The good Falcons will engage you specifically to make you pop your Wings before immediately leaving to their teammates, and re-engaging once your Wings are down.

Here are several tips:
-If the Falcon insists on fighting you, the worst possible action is to only fly off in one direction. Flight in a straight line is a Falcon Missile Barrage's best friend.
-Falcon's barrel-rolls that make them untargetable still consume their energy like how an evade does. They need to stop sometime (which they often do alongside their Fast Landing). While you can't beat them in a battle of speed, they can't beat your Support Jetwing in a battle of endurance.
-Falcon and Skyraider cannot do sharp turns without transforming back and forth. Because their blind spot is same as everyone else (directly behind them), if you know the enemy Falcon is chasing you, dashing backwards to get behind them is an effective option. They'll be forced to either disengage or transform back and forth, wasting their time and leaving them open to get hit by drones.
-Even if they choose to disengage, as long as you stay directly behind them (as opposed to being at an angle to them or to their sides), any semblance of a lock-on that allows you to fire your drone will often have the drone hit them anyway, even if they're barrel-rolling.
-The good Falcons may transform the moment you begin your dash behind them, and will be right on you in a second. Don't dash too far behind them, in case you need to repeat the movement.
-Haze Diffuser still damages them while they're untargetable. Support Jetwing can keep you basically directly on top of them.

Watch your energy, watch your cooldowns, health, and positioning. Don't let them bait you into their team, and you should be good.

===

Narukami

This matchup is directly determined by their range to you, and how focused they are on killing specifically you.

With their low Physical Def and generally low HP, the moment you see their position, it's possible for you to get in their range quick with Support Jetwing and reveal them with the Haze Diffuser.

Even if they're unrevealable from damage, they'll eventually run out.

From there, as long as you get a drone on them, you'll be able to follow the path of the drone even if they re-apply invisibility and attempt to get away. Drones don't go invisible, after all.

Generally, the moment you reach them, it should be a relatively easy kill, assuming you're both of equal skill level.

If you can't get to them, whether because you're preoccupied or because they're sitting in the middle of their team's deathball, follow the strategy for Aquila:

1. Be in cover.
2. Try not to be out of cover.
3. Teammates count as cover.
4. Always ensure you're at 100% health.

===

Panther

Most Panthers seem to attempt to get to a higher altitude to combo their shield-sword dive-attack into their Lance. This combo, if pulled off, will take you to about 10% health.
(If your reaction-time is fast enough, you can dodge out of the initial dive-attack's stagger, but it's insanely difficult to pull off if you aren't prepared for it, or if your ping is high.)

On one hand, Panthers don't have any ranged options.
On the other hand, they have 3 uses of their Aux 2, which refills their energy.

Your drones pierce both their Overshield and their regular Shield, so you don't have to worry about that. Use Support Jetwing if needed.

Thus, the strategy will be as such:
1. Don't allow them to be at a higher altitude than you. Jump a bunch to match their height.
2. Keep them at a short enough range that you can keep pinging them with drones, but long enough that you're able to react to their melee attacks. They can't change direction if they release their lance, so just side-evade that.
3. If you're in range to Diffusion Haze them, you're way too close.

Assuming good and equal skill, this matchup is greatly, greatly determined by who catches who offguard, and whose teammate comes in for an assist.

Sorta like Guilty Gear's Chipp vs Potemkin, you have to perform 100 simple addition problems, and the Panther has to perform long division twice.

===

Serenith

The matchup between you and Serenith greatly depends on who catches who off-guard.

Serenith's Beam Autocannon, like all the other Beam Autocannons, not only deal significant amounts of damage, but also have a longer lock-on range than your drone gun.
Their recon also allows them to shoot you through walls.

That's mostly all they got:
-Their alt-fire is easily dodgeable as long as you get the timing right.
-They can turn off your targeting for a few seconds, but as long as you have drones already on them or you're in range for your Haze Diffuser, those'll keep hitting them.
-They can make you see them as an ally for a few seconds atop that, but as long as you have good fire control, it shouldn't be a problem.

Being a Light mech, their effective Physical HP pool is relatively low. As such, if you can keep yourself in close range to Serenith, you should be able to use Haze Diffuser to turn the fight in your favor.

If you must fight Serenith, juke the Beam Autocannon with cover and plink them with drones until you've baited their recon out, before bringing the fight into Haze Diffuser range.

These following matchups are way more trouble than they're worth. Assuming you play it right, they shouldn't be a problem to avoid or otherwise deal with.

===

Alysnes

With a Physical Defence of B, up to 4 lives, and decent mobility, a fight between Luminae and Alysnes is a huge waste of time. Don't bother engaging in a 1v1 unless required*1. Or unless they've already purged, rearmed, and purged again. Or unless you want to force a purge or re-arm.

If they catch you off guard or won't let you go, just watch for their melee hits, dodging to the sides where relevant, and attempt to get back to your teammates while healing yourself or droning them. Their beam machinegun is blocked by Fluid Armor, so it should be alright.

Pop Support Jetwing if really necessary.

===

Hurricane

With an effective Physical HP equal to both forms of Alysnes combined, alongside his Decoy Drones and his Defense Field, fighting him is also a waste of time. Don't bother engaging in a 1v1 unless required*1.

If they catch you off guard, though, the only thing you really need to watch out for is their Focused Emitter laser; it's impossible to juke without getting completely out of their range, like Inferno's. Their main weapon being a projectile means you can potentially juke them while in mid-air.

You probably won't need Support Jetwing against Hurricane, even if they keep hounding you.

===

Luminae

Your drones heal 1120 on yourself each, and then heal 576 per second (increasing to 1152 per second for 2 drones, or 1728 per second if you have your Haze up).

Your drones deal 1800 on an enemy Luminae each, then deal 576 per second (increasing to 1152 per second for 2 drones, or 1728 per second if you have your Haze up).

Your drone's damage over time exactly cancel out their healing, and vice versa. For every second they have haze up healing themselves while you're out of range for your damaging haze, it cancels about 4/5ths of a drone you're shooting them with.

It will not finish before the round is over.

Don't bother engaging*1. Maybe toss a drone or two on them to farm damage and move on.

===

Pinaka

Similar to Luminae, but even more unkillable. Excluding their Emergency Support Drone ring, they can keep two drones on themselves nearly-indefinitely, and can fight back even if their ring is on themselves.

Their damage drops off significantly over distance, and you shouldn't be standing still long enough for them to hit you with a Wall (which deals about 75% of your Max HP, so don't do that).

Keep some distance. Don't bother engaging*1.

===

Stego

The second fattest in terms of HP, and third greatest in terms of Physical Armor.

Their shield stops your drones.

Other than keeping yourself outside of their 150-degree turn radius, there's not much else you can really do about them.

They won't be able to catch up to you if you leave. Waste of time to engage*1.

===

Tricera

The fattest both in terms of HP and Physical Armor.

Also has their own heal drones, which heal them faster than two of your drones can damage them.

You can sit on their head and shoot drones at them, as they can't shoot upwards in fortress mode. Most will ignore you if you're there, as they should.

Waste of time to engage*1.

Beware, the smart ones will save their 3 howitzers until they plink down your Fluid Armor, at which point they'll suddenly burst you to near 0, if not to 0.

===

*1: Unless they're capturing an interruptible objective, refusing to attack anyone but you, have very low health, or you've got literally nothing better to do.

In order of danger:

===

Skyraider

Unlike Falcon, Skyraider has significantly more effective HP, in exchange for lower movement speed.

While the play-by-play is similar to the one against Falcon, beware, as Skyraider has a cluster of homing rockets that do significant amounts of damage if the rockets completely hit you.

Dodging the rockets is simple, but is a massive Energy check - if you've played Team Fortress 2's Pyro Dodgeball before, you already know the technique: Dash 4 times, forming a square - the idea is to make the rockets circle around you until their homing fails and they scatter. You may need to repeat the full movement once or twice, depending on how close you were to the rockets when they locked onto you.

Unfortunately, with the number of times you need to dodge (they have multiple charges of homing rockets), it's almost certain you'll need to pop Support Jetwing to get anywhere after that.

Past that, if you must engage them, do the same as with Falcon. Manage your energy, try to get behind them, remember your Haze damages them even if they're untargetable, etc.

If there are two fliers on their team working together, it is dangerous to engage*1 either one without teammate assistance.

===

Inferno

Like Hurricane, but much more dangerous.
Not only do they have a multi-laser attack that's difficult to juke at best, their regular weapons are dangerous up close and far away.

Like fighting Aquila, you'll have to make sure you stay around teammates or in cover, due to the massive damage they can deal with their full-charge shot.

Your one saving grace is that their Focused Emitter (the massive laser) won't be able to keep up with your mobility, and you can easily get away if they try to use it on you.

Pop Support Jetwing if necessary to get away.

===

Welkin

The third fattest in terms of HP, and second fattest in Physical Armor.

Most of your engagements with Welkin will be him catching you and you attempting to escape the box. It's not too difficult to do so; dash to the complete opposite corner of the box from the Welkin while healing yourself. If they dally even a tiny bit, their box will disappear before they can re-engage you. Their axe takes a significant amount of energy to swing as well, which makes them unable to keep up with you in a straight fight.

While they do have a ranged option in the form of their RPG Launcher, their massive effective health pool makes a 1-on-1 fight a waste of time at best for you, but not too bad for them.

Do not engage*1. If you must, though, stay as far as your lock-on allows and watch your energy.

===

Aquila

There used to be a time way back when, when Aquila couldn't shoot anything beneath a certain angle as long as they were flying. While said angle is maintained for their Snipe mode, they have a much larger angle of attack when out of Snipe mode.

As such, with their relatively large HP pool, they are as close as it can get to being a Hard Counter to you. Do not directly engage them*2. Seek teammate assistance.

Here's a step-by-step instructional if you get caught out by them:
1. Find cover, keeping an eye on them to check if they are or aren't chasing you.
2. Get to your teammates as soon as possible while maintaining cover and healing yourself. Pop your Haze Diffuser, pop Support Jetwing if necessary for Energy or to cancel their stun.
3. Don't get caught out again.

Pinging them will help your teammates help you, but that's about it.
Note that the self-heal is extremely important; Aquilas do have a skill that may allow them to shoot through walls to hit multiple people at once, so don't stay on low health for too long.

In the worst case scenario, you can abuse your teammate's lock-on signatures by using them as cover - heavier mechs seem to have a larger lock-on signature, and may overshadow your smaller lock-on signature, not that that helps much against Manual Sniper Mode.

In the worst of worst cases, if you absolutely have to fight them, here are some tips.
-Assisting a fellow flier, such as a Falcon or Skyraider, by following on their tail with Support Jetwing and tossing drones at both them and Aquila, works perfectly fine.
-Aquila do still have a maximum downwards angle, where they can't shoot you if you're too low below them. Though you'll have to be at quite an extreme angle, attacking them from directly below is an option. Not a good one, but...
-If it's impossible to get below them, whether because you're preoccupied or because they're just that far away and using Manual Sniper mode, Aquila's Beam Autocannon fires once a secoond, and is dodgeable if you time it right, unless they manage to lock onto you.
-If you somehow manage to get right up against them, you could abuse the max speed anyone can turn, whether they're on mouse/keyboard or controller, by constantly dodging or flying around them while watching where their gun is pointed.

Good Luck.

===

*2: Unless they're capturing an interruptible objective that you're the only one capable of stopping, on the tiniest sliver of health, or the alternative is death or loss.

-Don't panic. Never panic. Panic causes you to make suboptimal decisions, like wasting your Support Jetwing to constantly dashing in a straight line away from a Falcon on you while he pulls you far away from your team. Or panic-fly away from a teammate who peels enemies off of you, only for them to die because you left. Or panic-flail around instead of seeking cover as an Aquila pings you to death in Manual Snipe mode.

When you're under fire, when there's explosions and energy going off everywhere, it's easy to get overwhelmed and make avoidable bad decisions. Don't panic.

-If you have a Stego on your team and you're being hounded by someone you can't fight off, standing between him and his shield is a legitimate option. It'll call attention to what's happening to you as well.

-Like every multiplayer game ever made that's any good, you can't heal stupid. Your healing may provide the best total effective HP regen being spammed on a Tricera, but if they insist on not moving from Fortress Mode even as their 1v1 becomes a 2v5, you won't be able to save them from getting Inferno-lasered while getting Welkin-spun while getting Skyraider-bombed while getting Serenith-orbital-lasered. Unless they're bait for something else to happen, de-prioritise them over your other teammates.

-It's obvious when said out loud, but as your healing is mostly a Heal-over-Time, it is generally better having 2 drones spread out amongst everyone injured in your entire team as opposed to being spammed on one person at a time. Two drones placed on someone not taking damage heals about 36% of their health, while spamming drones off cooldown past the first two only gives you about 5.5% each. Triage accordingly.

-That being said, the heal-over-time allows for pre-emptive healing; putting two drones on a full-health teammate that just captured a point on Eye of Misra (desert sandstorm map) or Vigil Imbrium (the moon) and is about to exit your range may help with the worst of their incoming damage, especially if their juking is even stopping you from locking onto them.

-Complete your challenges! They've been nerfed from the beta, and are significantly easier to complete now, but they still teach you to accomplish things. In particular; Challenge 4 specifically making you delay 3 different enemies from capturing their respective points for 90 seconds (used to be 2 minutes in the beta) directly applies in any extractor-destruction game!

-Baiting enemy chasers into the teammates that are great at killing those is usually fun. Panthers and Welkins, for instance, have a challenge mode where they have to kill a specific number of Falcons. If you're unable to kill a Falcon or Skyraider, pinging them and bringing them over to a decent Panther or Welkin may work.

-Ping greatly affects the hit rate of your Corruption drones, to the point where enemies simply moving without boosting/dashing/evading can cause your drones to miss when shot from further away with high ping. Typically, I subtract about 1m of effective range from my drone for every ms of ping I have. You can turn on your ping display in the options.

-Note that you and your enemy can both dodge drones if either of you dodge at the right time. It may be prudent to mix up your shot timings slightly if that happens.

(Asia server)

I'm not the absolute best Luminae out there, so take what I've mentioned here with a grain of salt.

I know the guide is currently rather sloppy, but I hope my info helps someone out there.

Do leave a comment if you have any questions, corrections, or suggestions!