Lúcio Abilities and Strategy
Welcome to our Abilities page for Lúcio. Here, we give you an overview of every ability in Lúcio's kit. For each of them, we explain what it does, how to best use it, and how it works in combination with Lúcio's other abilities. We also give you strategy tips to play Lúcio efficiently.
Lúcio's Tips and Tricks
- Frequently switch between Crossfade - Healing Boost and Crossfade - Speed Boost according to the situation you find yourself in.
- When an ally is chased by enemies, Crossfade - Speed Boost is the better choice to guarantee their survival.
- While chasing or retreating, make sure to use Lúcio's Wall Ride Trait to your advantage, as it provides a significant Movement Speed bonus.
- While rotating from one lane to another, combine Amp It Up and Crossfade - Speed Boost.
- Soundwave is a great Ability to disrupt enemy momentum. It should be used when a melee enemy uses an offensive Ability, like when a Thrall uses Windfury, or when Greymane uses Darkflight. Due to Lúcio's small healing potential in the early game, doing this is crucial to protect your teammates against these Heroes.
- Push Off can be either used offensively or defensively; try to only use it forward when you have other Abilities to peel yourself after it.
- Use High Five on a safe Hero before using it on an advanced ally, so you do not get Stunned before saving the ally Hero in danger.
Push Off
- Cooldown: 20 seconds
While moving alongside terrain, activate to slide towards a targeted location. Enemies hit take 100 (+4% per level) damage and are Slowed by 75% for 1 second.
Push Off provides Lúcio with an extra amount of mobility and allows him to dash towards a chosen direction. Keep in mind that Lúcio needs to be skating on impassable terrain in order for this Ability to become available.
Soundwave
- Mana: 30
- Cooldown: 7 seconds
Deal 105 (+4% per level) damage to enemies in an area and knock them back.
Soundwave is Lúcio's only source of waveclear and thus can be used to damage Minion Waves and Mercenary Camps. Enemy Siege Giants, in particular, can be knocked in range of your own Structures, which helps getting rid of them.
With its low cooldown, Soundwave proves to be quite a reliable disengage Ability as well. Use it to keep enemy melee Heroes at bay. However, refrain from using it too aggressively, as Lúcio can easily find himself exposed and killed when going for overly aggressive plays with Soundwave.
Crossfade
Currently playing Healing Boost, passively healing Lúcio and nearby allied Heroes for 15 (+4% per level) Health per second.
Toggle to play Speed Boost instead.
Currently playing Speed Boost, increasing the Movement Speed of Lúcio and nearby allied Heroes by 10%.
Toggle to play Healing Boost instead.
Crossfade is Lúcio's most impactful Basic Ability. It can be used in two ways, providing either Healing or Movement Speed boosts to nearby allied Heroes.
Using Crossfade efficiently requires a keen eye and good game sense, as it is often crucial to have the right beat active at the right time. While Healing Boost comes in very handy during longer skirmishes, Speed Boost is best used when rotating around the battlefield in order to either retreat away from the enemy or to chase them down.
Amp It Up
- Mana: 90
- Cooldown: 13 seconds
Raise Lúcio's Crossfade track volume for 3 seconds, amping Healing Boost to 112 (+4% per level) Health per second and Speed Boost to 30% increased Movement Speed.
Amp It Up can be activated to drastically increase the effectivity of Crossfade's Boosts. It is very important to notice that while Amp It Up is active, Lúcio can freely switch between Healing and Speed Boost, as the increased effectivity carries over from one to another.
While rotating from lane to lane, Amp It Up can be used to greatly enhance Lúcio's Movement Speed in order to compensate for the fact that he cannot use a Mount. During team fights, however, we recommend using Amp It Up more carefully, as its 15-second cooldown makes using it too early or too late quite unforgiving.
Sound Barrier
In this section we discuss how this Heroic Ability works and give some tips on how to use it. If you are looking for a detailed explanation on when and why you should pick it, check out the dedicated section in the Talent Build page.
- Heroic
- Mana: 100
- Cooldown: 80 seconds
After 1 second, Lúcio and nearby allied Heroes gain a 1296 (+4% per level) point Shield that rapidly decays over 6 seconds.
Sound Barrier offers an incredible amount of burst damage protection for short period of time, as its Shield decays rapidly. It is also worth mentioning that Sound Barrier needs to be cast with caution. Before activating it, Lúcio has a 1-second activation timer in which he jumps up in the air before casting the Ability. During that short time window, any Stun, Polymorph, or Silence effect will cancel Sound Barrier's casting animation, causing it to go on a 10-second cooldown.
We generally recommend picking Sound Barrier if the enemy team has multiple Heroes who have access to a high amount of burst damage, such as Li-Ming or Kael'thas.
High Five
In this section we discuss how this Heroic Ability works and give some tips on how to use it. If you are looking for a detailed explanation on when and why you should pick it, check out the dedicated section in the Talent Build page.
- Heroic
- Mana: 30
- Cooldown: 20 seconds per ally
Quickly skate to an allied Hero. Upon arrival the ally is healed for 230 (+4% per level), Lúcio is healed for 80 (+4% per level), and both gain Unstoppable for 1 second.
High Five works as an anti crowd control tool that Lúcio can use when an ally is in danger. The additional heal it provides works well to get the target out of the danger zone in many cases. What makes this Heroic Ability particularly interesting is its short cooldown. Experienced Lúcio players can use their Movement Speed to their advantage and always be in range to use High Five. We recommend picking High Five if the enemy team features several single-target crowd control and you do not need Sound Barrier. It is a good option against Qhira as well, since the Unstoppable effect it provides interrupts her Revolving Sweep.
High Five can be used against area of effect crowd controls as well, but it requires Lúcio to use it in a specific way. To save an ally hit by an area of effect Ability you have to first use High Five on an ally Hero close to you, getting the Unstoppable for 1 second, to then use it on the Hero in danger. Without this technique, Lúcio will get Stunned or Rooted by that Ability, cancelling High Five and dying alongside his ally.
Changelog
- 21 Jan. 2021: Updated High Five's description.
- 17 Jun. 2019: Revised the guide and found it still being up-to-date.
- 28 Mar. 2019: Updated Lucio's abilities section in accordance wih his latest rework.
More Healer Guides
Derenash has been playing Heroes of the Storm since 2015 and has achieved Grandmaster in multiple seasons, peaking at Top 1 in Season 3 and 4 of 2018. He participated in the HGC Copa America in 2018 where his team had a strong victory. He is passionate about teaching others about the game, and streams often on Twitch in Portuguese, and you can find him in Wind Striders' Discord as well where he is happy to answer any questions in English or Portuguese.
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