Gul'dan Build Guide “I am darkness incarnate.”

Gul'dan is a Ranged Assassin with a good ability to siege, waveclear and teamfight. This unique Hero possesses the ability to replenish Mana using Life Tap at the cost of his own Health. Life Tap combined with Drain Life allows Gul'dan to have some of the best overall self-sustain in the game, as he can very quickly rise back to full Health after having spent a large portion of it to restore Mana. It is very important when playing Gul'dan to maintain a reasonable balance of Health and Mana, as to not end up Life Tapping yourself into a compromising situation. Despite his lack of readily available utility, Gul'dan's massive raw damage output makes him a valuable asset to most team compositions and a serious force to be reckoned with.

Strengths

• Incredible self-sustain by means of Life Tap and Drain Life
• Fel Flame provides good waveclear
• High multi-target damage output
• Horrify provides great utility despite its relatively long cooldown

Weaknesses

• Health and Mana pools require constant monitoring due to their unique co-dependent relationship
• Incredibly vulnerable to crowd control
• No gap-closer or utility in Basic Abilities
• Requires great positioning during skirmishes and teamfights

Drain Life Build

Recommended

Level 1

Level 4

Level 7

Level 10

Level 13

Level 16

Level 20 ?

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Gul'dan's Drain Life Build is currently the best build to use on Gul'dan as it drastically improves your survibability by empowering Drain Life. The Talent choices in this build focuses heavily on reducing the downside of picking Gul'dan which is mainly having the Healer always healing Gul'dan due to how Life Tap works. With the Drain Life build, Gul'dan will have superb lane presence and lane sustain, in the later levels he gets alot of added burst damage if you manage to play around Darkness Within. Be careful when playing against interrupts.

Corruption Build

Advanced

Level 1

Level 4 ?

Level 7

Level 10

Level 13

Level 16

Level 20 ?

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The Corruption Build is comprised of talents that will maximize Corruption's overall effectiveness in battle. Completion of Echoed Corruption provides Gul'dan with a massive power spike, therefore it is important for Gul'dan to land as many casts of Corruption as possible on enemy Heroes right from the start of a match. Corruption's long range makes it great for defending and sieging fortifications, as well as poking away enemies from capturing battleground specific objectives such as the Altars on Towers of Doom.

Anti-melee Fel Flame Build

Situational

Level 1

Level 4 ?

Level 7

Level 10

Level 13

Level 16

Level 20 ?

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The Fel Flame build is a heavily situational build and its effectiveness depends entirely on the enemy team composition. If it is a heavy melee team (at least 3 melee heroes) this build can see some use with its constant casting of Fel Flames. The bonus size of Fel Flame upon completion of Pursuit of Flame will allow Gul'dan to feel somewhat safer as he will need to extend less to harass his opponents.

ARAM Build

ARAM

Level 1

Level 4 ?

Level 7

Level 10

Level 13

Level 16

Level 20 ?

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Gul'dan's ARAM build is the same as the corruption. The build offers heavy siege damage and good poke damage, both of which are exactly what you need for an ARAM game.

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Gul'dan synergizes with

Like most ranged assassins, Gul'dan performs best with a sturdy frontline to provide him with reliable peel, and a support to keep his Health topped-off as he will need to use it to Life Tap for Mana.

Gul'dan is countered by

Gul'dan's lack of gap-closer causes him to struggle most against highly mobile assassins, primarily those with a reliable form of crowd-control to interupt his channel of Drain Life.

Gul'dan's stronger maps

Gul'dan's average maps

Gul'dan's weaker maps

None

Gul'dan is a good overall pick and performs well in most, if not all maps. However, he excels in maps that have 3 lanes where you would need to rotate between two lanes. Thanks to his Fel Flame ability, Gul'dan is able to clear waves faster than most other heroes. His team fighting potential is also strong enough to make him a viable option on any map when a team composition is in need of a dependable ranged assassin.

• Try to avoid putting Gul'dan in vulnerable situations with low Health by over using Life Tap. Health can always be tapped for Mana, but once it has been there is no sure way of getting it back; particularly when Drain Life is on cooldown.
• Fel Flame's short cooldown allows it to be used in quick succession; take advantage of this to burn down waves of minions and your opponents.
• Drain Life is most effective when cast on an enemy Hero under the effects of crowd control as it will be harder for them to escape its cast range.
• Corruption is incredibly effective when cast on opponents traveling through a choke-point.
• Horrify can be used to split and isolate enemy opponents. Try to target the epicenter between your target of focus and the remainder of their team.

Although considered a ranged assassin, Gul'dan rarely should have to shy away from an enemy who may overstep their boundary. Fel Flame and Drain Life will put out massive amounts of quick damage to close proximity targets. To offset this strength, both abilities have been given rather modest cast ranges. Because of this, effectively utilizing Gul'dan requires excellent positioning. Players will need to be close enough to land their onslaught of Fel Flames and to channel Drain Life fully, but far enough away to prevent becoming the enemies' target of focus.

Gul'dan tends to fit well in generic teams of a “standard” composition. This includes a stable frontline and at least one reliable healer. Fel Flame provides great poke and waveclear while both Life Tap and Drain Life give Gul'dan ample sustain. During teamfights Gul'dan should not shy away from repeatably casting Fel Flame on any target available, as it has a very short cooldown. He may also require peeling from his teammates so do not hesitate to make this known to them. This is particularly important when facing off against Heroes with gap-closers such as Illidan or Greymane as they will try to capitalize on Gul'dan's lack of escapes.