Gildur: He's Got The Midas Touch

Build and Guide Gildur: He's Got The Midas Touch

Cheat Sheet
Skill Build

Extravagant first with Siege second. Focus on Extravagant for the most part while picking up Indulgence at Level 4. From there, try to keep them even.

Items

Orb of the Magi

Frost Cape

Boomstick

Rhea's Blessing

Zweihander

Soaring Aura

Arcana

Top up ability power with Red arcana like Talisman and Corruption and Violate. Purple arcana can be used on Max HP and Magic Life Steal like Vigor, Undying and Devour. Green arcana will focus on Armor early on with  AP/Magic Pierce flavors like Corrosion and Consume later on.

Talents

Endure

Disrupt

Heal



Introduction
Gildur isn't your average tank. While he can certainly hold his own in just about any fight, he does so in a way radically different to that of Arena of Valors other defensive powerhosues. He throws himself headfirst into battle not to just soak up as much damage and attention as possible, but to reduce how much goes out and to pin and push enemies back into the reticles of his allies.

It's a dangerous job, but a gratifying experience for anyone capable of using his varied toolset to their team's advantage.

Skill Build
You'll hear of the Midas Touch a lot from Gildur's mouth – and with good reason. It's his passive skill that turns every fourth auto-attack into a magical blast with range ever so slightly longer than standard melee. With a slight wind-up time when compared to the attacks before, this one hits nearby enemies back a fair distance, either away from your next swing or, if aimed correctly, toward your eager allies to finish off. On top of that, using any ability grants Gildur a shield with a shockingly short duration. Still, any shield is better than no shield.

Seige, Gildur's first ability, is a short-range charge that deals damage to anyone within its path. Besides being a decent gap-closer or retreat ability, it also causes the next auto-attack to become Midas Touch, meaning it's great for charging in front of an enemy and hitting them back into your team.

Extravagant is one of Gildur's stand-out abilities. On a relatively short cooldown, this incredibly long-range skill stuns whoever it manages to hit. The explosion has a minor area-of-effect blow and generous hitbox that means your aim doesn't even have to be perfect for it to land. Just don't attempt to squeeze it through a minion wave; they'll soak up the good stuff.

Lastly, there's Indulgence. A fantastic skill for pinning the entire enemy team on a sem-rare occasion, you've likely fallen victim to this barrage of stuns in a match already. Available at the touch of a button, Gildur traps his enemies in a wide radius and stuns them every second with a damaging magic attack. It's enough to root enemies in place for a decent amount of time while your team uses the opportunity to let loose.

Thanks to its long range, it's highely likely you'll find Extravangant to be far more useful than Siege at the start of a match. This way you won't have to risk your own health to harass your opponent early on. Siege, of course, comes in handy as a getaway tool, but stunning encrouaging enemies from afar usually results in more than enough time to gain some extra distance.

Pick up Extravagant first and feel free to grab Siege soon after. Focus your points into Extravagant for that extra damage and cooldown reduction to keep the early harass going. You'll likely want to focus on poking with the stuns rather than rushing in wth Siege, but it can help with any unexpected gank attempts for when one ability is still on cooldown.

Grab Indulgence at level 4 and keep on top of powering that one up. Keep leveling up Extravagant until group fights become more common. At that point, start pouring your attention into reducing the cooldown and damage output of Siege.

Items
Focusing more on his abilities than his chaining auto-attacks, Gildur is a mage at heart that makes good use of Ability Power thanks to the rapid hits of his Indulgence ultimate and long-range Extavagant blast. Furthermore, that fourth Midas Touch hit makes good use of Magic Damage, so stacking up AP can make Gildur a powerhouse up close.

As with most mages, Orb of the Magi is a great starting point. It grants that all-important early Abiltiy Power bonus and stacks up as time goes on to make up the power we won't be getting from the Frost Cape we choose next. The added cooldown reduction of both items should help us play Gildur just as he's designed – as a disruptive magical tank.

From there, Boomstick is an obvious choice to compliment both the long and short-range capabilities of Gildur's unique toolset. You can trigger Boomstick's 5-second cooldown explosion by launching Extravagant from far away, by charging in with Siege or when surrounded by enemies when you pop Indulgence. The added 240 ability power will mean big numbers when that explosion hits, and the more enemies around when it triggers, the more hurt you'll inflict.

If you've been taking on a bunch of group fights already and feel the need for more survivability, take up Rhea's Blessing for that extra shielding, cooldown reduction and Magic Life Steal. Otherwise, go the brute force route of Hecate's Diadem and let em' have it.

To make up the rest of our damage, we'll be looking at Zweihander and Soaring Aura. Zweihander could come last if you're packing many mages on your team already, as the proximity-based Magis Resistance reduction of Soaring Aura could boost your team damage output far more far earlier. If that isn't the case, however, grab Zweihander first and start making use of your increased potency auto-attacks against some Jungle mosnters when you're not busy helping out your allies. Absyssal Dragon and Spirit Sentinel shouldn't be hard to take on solo, and their boosts can be a big help.

Recommended Talents
For maximum disruption, Disrupt is, ironically, a great choice for any tank. It goes great with damage-dealers, too, but taking Disrupt as a tank enables you to shut down a tower when you know your stuns were enough to bring a foe to their knees. They usually expect a tank to brave the tower to shut them down, but never expect the tower to remain idle as they attempt to bait an eager beast to an early grave. Do what you can against your eneny. If your stuns were enough to have your team dish out enough damage without securing the kill, shut down the tower and give chase.

Endure can be another way to throw your opponents off-guard. By freezing in place and dodging any incoming damage, there's a good chance your Endure won't be noticed in the midst of a frantic fight – so that's 1.5 seconds worth of wasted opponent energy if all goes well. You'll cling on for dear life that much longer and give your allies ever more time to react with their own attacks. Inbetween your stuns and shields, Endure further increases your survivability in a team fight as can ever help distract your opponents long enough to enable your friends to run off as your risk your own life to save theirs. Better yet, you'll bide some time while your own skills come off cooldown. Follow up with Extravagant and Siege and there's a good chance you'll escape too.

If you're not interested in being a little technical with your Traits, a safe bet would be Heal. Another one never hurts, anyway. You'll be joining in with just about every teamfight in the match, so having an AOE heal available before, during or after the encouter will keep you and your allies fighting just a little while longer. You'll be surprised by how often that little sliver of HP can make all the difference.

Arcana
Top up Ability Power with Red arcana like Talisman, Corruption and Violate. Purple arcana can be used on Max HP and Magic Life Steal like Vigor, Undying and Devour. Green arcana will focus on Armor early on with  AP/Magic Pierce flavors like Corrosion and Consume later on.

For arcana, Gildur has plenty of stats he can make use of, but it's picking which to focus on that usually proves difficult. If you're just getting started, you'll want to go for Ability Power in those vital Red slots. When you start to unlock Tier 2 and 3 arcana, you'll want to grab things like Indomitable and Corruption to make bolster your Max HP and Armor while earning a little Ability Power and Attack Speed on the side.

Purple arcana is a little bit more situational. If you're a confidant Gildur player, picking out Ability Power and Magic Life Steal could see your rise above those who aim for the solid survivabiltiy of  Max HP and HP Regen. Revelation, Vigor and Devour stand out here. Earlier tiers have just Life and Rebirth to focus on.

When looking at Greens, your choices are similar. Focus on gaining armor before complimenting whichever stats you're gaining or not gaining with other arcana. Choice like Corrosion and Consume stand out here.

Early Game
As ever, tanks have a very lackluster early game. Typically heading onto the top lane on their own, things are pretty simple; stay alive. If you're fighting against another tank, you'll be butting heads a lot for the next couple of minutes as you whittle down each other's HP before one decides to take things a little further. It's a that point you'll typically figure out who's packing Heal, Flicker or most other Traits as they'll usually be relying on it to turn the tide of battle by baiting you into a false sense of victory.

By taking Extravagant first, you'll typically out-range most of the enemies you'll come across on the top lane. Use this to your adavantage. Spend most of your time poking your foe into submission with a well-aimed Extravagant. It'll give you and your targets a chance to learn its damage potential while, hopefully, allowed you enough time to farm some minions. Remember; your auto-attack deals minor cleave damage, so aim to scoop up as many minions in the swing of your fist as possible.

Grab your Orb of the Magi whenever you can and just bank on sticking around long enough for its ability power stacks to become something meaningful; because you're working toward Frost Cape now.

Mid Game
You've tried bashing your fists against the towers but haven't made much of an impact. That's to be expected. You're not built to do much with your fists other than knock your opponents back and throw what we imagine to be molten metal at their faces.

If you're given the opportunity, continue farming those all-important minions. If your lane enemy has broken away from the pack, just alert your allies to their likely whereabouts and try to keep them safe through light information. If each lane has fragmented, you're bound to start seeing some team fights break out before long. Feel free to break loose yourself and take up center stage. Hopefully your precense alone will be enough to either disperse the fights again or keep things in a stalemate situation long enough to enocurage everyone to grab some more gold elsewhere.

To do this, aim to initiate battle with Extravangant. Stun your opponent from afar if you're looking to fend them off, but attack from up close so that you can charge behind them with Siege and make the most of your instant Midas Touch to blast your target back into range of your allies. Imagine it as a way to tag the target you want your team to attack. Again, the aim here would be to not encourage tea, fights. Instead, focus on fending them off while using any excess time to soak up minion kills. If you've taken Distrupt, use any free moment after a team fight to silence a tower long enough to shut it down.

Late Game
By this point, team fights are probably unavoidable. You're going to need to help your allies in as many of these as you possibly can. As a self-proclaimed AOE king, Gildur can initiate from far away for some respectable damage and and a stun that either acts as a warning system for the enemy or something that will anger them enough to turn back and fight.

Either way, you're aim in most of these late-game situations will be to use a mixture of close-range Extravagavant stuns and Siege rushes to get in close to a group of enemies before letting loose with Indulgence. The repeated stuns on multiple enemies should last long enough for allies to launch a counter offensive against any helpless opponents while your own pinning ability does plenty of damage on its own thanks to your scaling Ability Power.

During these situations, you'll usually last long enough to follow up with a second helping. You'll still have a Midas Touch waiting for you after that initial Siege attack, so use this to knock and surviving enemies back into range of your allies. If they're fairly fast on their feet, attempt to keep them in sight long enough to launch another Extravagant strike from afar. Follow it up with Siege yet again to close the gap and bring them back into the fold. This will be your bread and butter combo for the most part, with masters learning to make the most of each Midas Touch to bounce foes back into harm's way.

But don't think you're only good for getting slammed on in the middle of a battle. The long range of Extravagant means you're the one who decides whether a fight goes ahead or not. Stun an opponent from afar to give a targetted ally time to escape. Use it to check the brush before a potential ambush breaks out, or as a way to steal a jungle kill from over a wall or through the river.  Push ahead, stun the opposite team and pin them with Indulgence, or use your repetoir to stun and escape the massacre coming your way. If needed, take one for the team. You take a lot longer to kill than the rest of your team.

FAQ/Tips
Indulgence can be interrupted just as easily as it interupts others. Your passive shield may help here, but sometimes its best to save it until your foes have expended their early burst.

Thanks to your shields, Siege is a quick way to intercept and protect your ally.

Remember, every fourth auto-attack takes a little extra time to fire. Reposition to the front of your enemy to send them stop their retreat

Indulgence hits multiple targets. Try to pin as many as possible so that other AOE allies can make the most of their abilities.

Boomstick can be activated from afar thanks to the range of Extravagant

You can check brush locations safely with Extravagant too

Matchups
Thanks to the AOE capabilities of Gildur's abilities, he goes hand-in-hand with those capable of similar feats. Characters like Mganga, Kahlii and Alice can use the time Gildur's Indulgence provides to drop their strongest AOE abilities on multiple pinned targets. Alice would benefit from using Hissy Fit slightly before Gildur's own ultimate ability, but a popular item pick for the big guy – that being Soaring Aura – provides a similar bonus of outgoing damage for all.

Single player allies can, of course, make the most of these opportunities in their own way by focusing their attention on whichever target falls victim to the knock-back of Midas Touch or the a single stun of Extravagant. They're sitting ducks at that point. As for during Indulgence, focus on a mage first as they're the most likely to push Gildur into an early grave. Outside of that, go for whichever seems has the highest escape opportunity. Gildur can't pin a group more than once unless they stay practically on top of each other, so lend a hand by targeting whichever he wouldn't be able to chase.

When fighting against Gildur, your main focus should be on stunning him during Indulgence with a ranged attack to allow those captured to break free more easily. At that point, he likely has nothing left to fight back with for a little while. That means no shields, too. Extravagant has a quick – but noticable – cast time, meaning it's fairly easy to dodge if you bait a location and step to the side. If you can beat his mind games, Gildur can't do too much