Esmeralda is a Mage/Tank that can deal a ton of damage while being extremely durable. She can be very tanky despite not buying any tank items. Here’s everything you need to know to get you started playing the Astrologer.

Overview

Most Mages you’ll encounter in Mobile Legends share a common theme. Apart from the fact that they deal mostly Magic Damage, they’re all also very squishy and can be easily killed if caught by the enemy team. Esmeralda is a Mage but she doesn’t share these qualities with the other heroes from the same class. Unlike the other Mages who like to stay at a distance and deal damage from afar, Esmeralda likes to be in the thick of the fight. Her strong sustain and high damage work best when she is up close and personal with her enemies. The best part is you don’t even need to buy tank items on Esmeralda to make her durable. This is all entirely thanks to the shield she can generate thanks to her abilities. What’s even better is that she can actively drain the shields of her enemies. And despite being a Mage and scaling mostly off of Magic Damage, her damaging abilities can also deal Physical Damage. Overall, Esmeralda is a very good champion that can fit most lineups in any meta. Her hybrid damage makes her stand out and is fairly easy to play.

Abilities

Esmeralda’s abilities are some of the most unique in the game. Clearly, a lot of thought went into her design and it shows. Her unique abilities make her a very fun hero to use while also being a strong pick in the game.

Passive – Starmoon Casket

Esmeralda manipulates the Stardust and Frostmoon. Each of her Basic Attack and skills deal damages twice – Stardust deals Physical Damage, and then Frostmoon deals Magic Damage and gives the enemy hero a shield equal to 135% of Frostmoon’s damage dealt.

The damage dealt by Esmeralda ignores all shield effects and transforms her Shield into her HP at the same time.

This passive makes it a bit harder to itemize against Esmeralda. Being a hybrid damage dealer, she can easily take out heroes in a pinch. Essentially, this means that Esmeralda deals damage more than any other hero in Mobile Legends. This passive also gives a bit of shield to the enemies but that should be no issue thanks to her first skill.

First Skill – Frostmoon Shield

Esmeralda gains 400 / 490 / 580 / 670 / 760 / 850 (+150% Total Magic Power) Shield and 40% Movement Speed which rapidly decays over its duration for 4 seconds. Meanwhile, she gradually transforms the shields of her nearby enemies into her own shield, capped at 50% of her Max HP.

This ability is what makes Esmeralda a very durable hero. Frostmoon gives enemies shields while damaging them constantly and with this ability, she absorbs the shields of her enemies. This means that Esmeralda will always have a shield on her as long as she keeps attacking her enemies with Frostmoon.

Second Skill – Stardust Dance

Esmeralda waves Stardust and Frostmoon, dealing 240 / 280 / 320 / 360 / 400 / 440 (+60% Total Physical Attack) Physical Damage and 240 / 280 / 320 / 360 / 400 / 440 (+90% Total Magic Power) Magic Damage to nearby enemies. Each time she deals damage to an enemy hero, the cooldown of Frostmoon Shield is reduced by 1.3 seconds (damaging non-hero units grants a 0.5 second reduction) and the enemy’s Movement Speed is reduced by 10% for 1.5 seconds.

Esmeralda can cast Basic Attacks, Skills and Battle Spells throughout the duration of this skill.

This is Esmeralda’s primary damaging ability. It deals area of effect damage and shortens the cooldown on your first ability. When used in synergy with all your other abilities, Esmeralda will have a lot of shields that can restore her health and help her be more durable.

Ultimate – Falling Starmoon

Esmeralda coheres the power of Astrospace into her two weapons – Stardust and Frostmoon. Esmeralda will be slowed while charging. The longer the duration lasts, the longer the range will be.

Use Again: Esmeralda casts the Stardust to the designated location, dealing 350 / 500 / 650 (+90% Total Physical Attack) Physical Damage and slowing the targets in the area, then she jumps to the designated location to cast Frostmoon, dealing 350 / 500 / 650 (+140% Total Magic Power) Magic Damage and immobilizing enemies in the area for 1 seconds.

Esmeralda’s ultimate is her most important ability since it is her only form of Crowd Control. It also deals AoE damage and can be the deciding factor in a team fight. It can take a bit of getting used to at first but learning and understanding the timing of when to use this ability can not only win a team fight, but the entire match.

Builds

There are plenty of different ways to build Esmeralda. You have a few interesting item paths that you can choose to switch up your playstyle. The main thing you have to keep in mind is to build items that give you Magic Damage. First and foremost, Esmeralda is a Mage. While she is also classified as a tank, that shouldn’t be the focus of your builds. Although, there are times when having a tank-oriented build would be needed in times where your team could use another durable initiator. Most of the time, however, you need to focus on building Magic Damage items. Out of all these builds. There are three items we would consider core on Esmeralda. These are Ice Queen Wand, Lightning Truncheon, and Calamity Reaper.

• Ice Queen Wand

+75 Magic Power

+10% Magic Lifeseteal

+150 Mana

+7% Movement SPD

Unique Passive – Ice Bound: Skills that deal damage to an enemy hero will slow them by 15%. This effect lasts 3 seconds. Stacks up to 2 times. 

• Lightning Truncheon

+75 Magic Power

+300 Mana

+10% CD REduction

Unique Passive – Resonate: Every 6 seconds, the next skill echoes, dealing 20-1000 Magic Damage (scales with the hero’s Max Mana) to up to 3 enemies.

• Calamity Reaper

+70 Magic Power

+100 Mana

+6 Mana Regen

+10% CD Reduction

Unique Passive – Calamity: In 3 seconds after using the skill, the casters next Basic Attack deals additional True Damage as much as 120% of Magic Power with a cooldown of 1.5 seconds. Then briefly gains 10% Movement Speed

All of these items increase Esmeralda’s Magic Damage and, by extension, her durability. These items make Esmeralda an effective damage dealer while also being a secondary tank that can absorb some blows and peel a little bit for her teammates.

Useful Tips

1. For emblems, the best set to use on Esmeralda is the Mage set. For the talent, take Magic Worship. Thanks to this talent, whenever you deal damage greater than 7% of target’s Max HP for 3 times in 5 seconds, you’ll inflict a burn on them 3 times for 82-250 Magic Damage.
2. For battle spells, Purify, Aegis, or Flicker are your best choices. Purify removes all debuffs on you and is pretty handy against team comps that have a lot of CC. Aegis gives you a small shield which could be useful against heroes with a lot of burst damage. And Flicker is a very good spell that has a lot of utility; capable of being used both offensively and defensively.
3. A lot of Esmeralda’s damage is dealt up close. So, heroes that can prevent her from getting near can counter her effectiveness. Heroes like Diggie, Johnson, Leomord, and Guinevere are generally unfavorable matchups when using Esmeralda.

So there you have it! That’s everything you need to know on how to play Esmeralda in Mobile Legends. Be sure to check back with us again for more awesome guides on your favorite games. Have fun!