Tulen: The Lightning Mage Who Tips The Scales

Build and Guide Tulen: The Lightning Mage Who Tips The Scales

Cheat Sheet
Skill Build
Grab all three skills by Level 4, but slot the first and third point into Ion Blasts. Focus on Ion Blasts until
you have The Aegis, then switch to Lightning Strike.

Items
Orb of the Magi
Gilded Greaves
The Aegis
Hecate's Diadem
Rhea's Blessing
Gaia's Standard
Arcana
Aim for a good mix of Ability Power, Magic Life Steal, and Magic Pierce to amplify your damage
potential while boosting survivability. Critical Strike Chance can be weaved in, but shouldn’t be a
priority. Avoid Cooldown Reduction, Attack Speed, and Attack Damage.

Talents
Heal
Sprint
Disrupt
Introduction
One of the later additions to Arena of Valor, Tulen is a lightning mage with some difficult-to-master elements to his playstyle.
Not entirely because of sheer complexity, but because each of his ability tooltips are like the page of a book.

Built to harass or finish of a foe, it’s hard to balance the two in everyday play; but it’s a skill that needs to be mastered to not
feed the opposing team. A bad Tulen player can, and will, cost you the game. A good Tulen play, on the other hand, can
massively ramp up your team’s potential in a bigger skirmish.

Skills
As good a reason as any to not simply copy and paste Tulen’s in-game tooltips word-for-word, here’s what to expect from his
fairly straight-forward set of skills.

Thunderclap – Tulen’s passive is activated whenever he surpasses 4 stacks of Thunderclap (with the stack counter found just
under his health bar like any other resource). These charges are accumulated by hitting a single target with a shot of his
abilities, with multi-hit skills (like Ion Blasts)adding one for each connection it makes.

Gaining that fifth charge will reset his count and cause lightning shards to spin around his body. Get close enough to an
aggressive monster or enemy champion and these will automatically jump over, causing some noticeable damage without you
lifting a finger. As with most abilities of its type, subsequent hits on the same target will deal less damage.

Ion Blasts – A triple-shot ability with that slowly split apart across a medium distance. Each bolt that connects with a target
will award a single Thunderclap charge. That’s 3 charges if all the blasts hit their mark. Fire at point-blank range for 3 quick
stacks and some sizeable damage, or fire within a minion wave to maximize the chance of gaining all three.

Lighting Strike – Stackable up to 3 times, this ability teleports Tulen a short distance forward (like Blink) dealing damage to
those within the start and end location and amassing a Thunderclap charge for a single target hit during both the start and end
of the ability. The amount of enemies hit doesn’t make a difference, and the distance travelled is fairly short, so it isn’t hard to
gain both stacks by blinking within close range of your target. There’s a short cooldown between each useable stack of
Lightning Strike, but enemies hit by two within 5 seconds will be slowed. This can be used as a gap-closer or an escape route
by blinking over thin walls.

Thunderbird – This homing missile locks onto a single target when cast from a distance, but can be intercepted by another hero
or minion blocking its path. Firing out after a short wind-up time, the bird strikes for set magic damage and 30% of the target’s
missing HP. A single Thunderclap charge is earned upon use, but Thunderclap will be activated immediately if Thunderbird
kills its target, with the bird then enjoying an 80% cooldown reduction allowing it to be used again in under 5 seconds.
Combined with Lighting Strike (which can still be used while casting Thunderbird), this is a great way to hunt down targets
and clean up a team fight.

Skill Order
Most champions we see around here stick to a fairly predictable skill order, as having only 3 skills makes them a bit of a one-
trick pony for the most part. Tulen, on the other hand, justifies his high difficulty rating by being far more fluid in operation.

This fluidity is caused by Tulen’s double-edged role in which he’s both a sufficient harasser and finisher – something that
doesn’t always go hand-in-hand. This means building him as one before eventually shifting gears to more effectively focus on
the other.

Tulen starts off just like any other hero with little in the way of raw damage in the early game. Things change once his Ult
arrives, but his lacklustre defence doesn’t make him the tank of the group at all. With Lightning Strike practically begging to
be used as a way to dance around the opponent dealing damage, its shockingly short range leads to too many dicey moments
early on. It’s best to really play on that harassment role until you can be sure you’ll survive more that two seconds after
blinking into a teamfight.

For that, it’s recommended you focus most of your points into Ion Charge – both at the start of a match and after picking up
Lightning Strike. Grab his ultimate at Level 4 by all means, but don’t focus on upgrading Lightning Strike until around Level 8
or so once things start to even out. Refer to the handy graph at the top of this guide for a more precise level-by-level idea.

Talents
Tulen enjoys a multi-use version of Blink in Lightning Strike, so we can rule the dedicated skill out right off the bat. Sprint, on
the other hand, makes a fairly compelling argument as a way for Tulen to more reliably chase down a target while a triggered
passive does all killing for him. Here’s a Top 3 for a semi-safe Tulen strategy:

Sprint – Touched upon above, Sprint isn’t the absolute go-to Talent choice for Tulen, but it’s one that will get a good deal of
real-world use rather than sitting there constantly off cooldown. Why? Because Tulen’s erratic playstyle means near-constant
movement and revaluation of the situation is constantly on the mind. If you’re staying back in a fight and manage a sudden kill
with Thunderbird, you’re going to want to get in closer to make us of your triggered passive. If you’ve already blinked around
with Lightning Strike, the easiest way to attack before they wear off is to pop sprint and dance around some more. Likewise,
using any ability in a teamfight can award more charges to your passive than you might imagine; Tulen’s situation is always
changing, and having a less sudden movement speed boost can be a great help.

Heal – This one rarely needs explaining; it’s a good pick for any champion in a pinch. Aided by Tulen’s lacklustre defences,
Heal simply keeps him on the field longer. Pop it as the enemy team retreats, and it keeps your own team itching for another
fight. The prince of lightning enjoys practically unlimited mana anyway, so any breaks back to base are usually caused by low
HP.

Disrupt – With the amount of chasing you’ll inevitably do with Tulen thanks to his gap-closing and long-range capabilities,
taking Disrupt can help in those situations where a towerdive is too tempting. Get them low, push them back, and surprise them
by attacking them in their safe spot. It’s still such a rare trick most won’t see it coming. Just make sure to keep a charge of
Lightning Strike handy to get out before the tower kicks back into gear.

Items
Due to the constantly shifting meta seen in just about any MOBA title, there’s a good chance Tulen’s more reliable armory
build will mean nothing in the future. Focusing on ensuring he buys enough time to do something with his life, the winning
community build is a mix of offensive and defensive picks that reduce his already impressive cooldown speeds. Mana is a
secondary focus, but you’ll rarely have issues even after one or two items. Slam down the Mage Golem time and time again,
and you’ll quickly forget that blue bar even exists

Orb of the Magi and Gilded Greaves will be your first two picks. Just like any mage, these two items will ensure you have the
mana and movement speed to put that growing Ability Power to good use. The faster you build into Orb of the Magi, the
quicker you’ll start to accumulate its benefits. Just keep throwing abilities at minions rather than champions early on, and you
shouldn’t need the boots until you’ve finished your main early-game pick.

Moving straight into the defensive to earn consistant Gold early on, The Aegis will be your next pick. The passive Attack
Speed reduction applied to an assailant helps with those pesky Assassin types or, more notably, Valhein and the rest of those
high attack speed ranged types. Armor makes a big difference here, but it’s the 20% Cooldown Speed that makes this one
shine. Extra mana is a bonus, but you won’t really notice the gains here on out.

Hecate’s Diadem rocking the fourth slot should come just in time for Orb of the Magi’s final burst of Ability Power. Boosting
it by another 35% on top of its own 200 Ability Power increase, the added Magic Pierce is something no mage is ever seen
without. Rhea’s Blessing adds a smidge more survivability in battle thanks to its shield, but it’s the Magic Life Steal that will
keep you fighting if you play your cards right. Of course, Ability Power and Cooldown Speed give this one its edge.

Lastly, there’s Gaia’s Standard. Perhaps the more questionable choice of the lot, this is purely designed as a survivability tool.
It’s passive regeneration only activates when you’re hit, meaning it’s something to justify your risky jumps into battle. Jump
in, gain a minor shield, and jump back out once the job is done. Harass while it cools down and repeat the process. You’ll have
over 1000 extra HP to work with now, so grabbing Gaia’s Standard is how you know when to start playing a little more
aggressively.

Arcana
There’s only so much you can do when it comes to building a defensive magic-user. With his short cooldowns and focus on
reducing them further through items, a good choice of Arcana for Tulen are those that beef up his damage potential while
bolstering his survivability through additional Magic Life Steal. There’s only so much single-digit cooldown reduction can do
to a 2-second recast, so that’s why we won’t really be touching things in that department. Tulen’s auto-attacks down do
anything for his passive either – not that you’d have time to use them – so you can forget building Attack Speed too.

Tier-1 Arcana couldn’t be more straight-forward in this regard. Slam all the Talisman you can into Red slots for ample Ability
Power, or toss in 5 or so Shock for the added Crit potential if you want to live life on the edge. The only choice with Purple
Arcana would be Absorption for its Magic Life Steal, with Disruption being the best option for Greens. If you’re going to
harass, you need to be damaging everyone – and taking Magic Pierce is how you shred those Tanks like cheese.

If you’re rolling Tier-3 Arcana, things are a little more complicated. Grab a full set of Corruption if you’re looking for
consistant damage, otherwise Surge is there to replace Magic Pierce with the RNG of Critical Chance. Far more straight-
forward comes Revelation in the Purple section, promising Ability Power, Magic Life Steal and a little extra Magic Defence to
hold off the likes of Mganga and his peers. When looking at Green Arcana, you have two options; Offense, or Defence. If you
picked Crit over Magic Pierce in your choice of Reds, go with Corrosion to pad out your damage even further – otherwise, go
with Spellbound to add a little more survivability. Consistent damage needs consistent HP.

Wide-eyed Tulen players with plenty of Gold/Cash in hand will feel spoilt for choice with Tier-3 Arcana options. Violate
should be the only real option in the Red section, with Devour taking center stage for the Purple representation. With enough
Ability Power already, a more Defensive option with Mythril in the Green slots will offer up Armor and Magic Defence that,
when paired with copious amounts of Magic Life Steal, should help Tulen fight long and hard to sweep the opposition. If
you’re playing things safe on the edges of the line, Hex might be a better choice.

Early Game
The interesting thing about Tulen is how simple things start off. No matter how convoluted his tooltips and downright
intimidating for newcomers, he couldn’t be more boring at the start of a match. With a triple-pronged initial attack being just
about all he has to work with for the first level, it’s best to simply focus on farming minions at close range to proc your passive
more often. Lightning from your passive can latch onto minions just fine, increasing the rate at which you can clear waves –
very handy indeed! Due to the lengthy cooldown of Ion Blastss early on, harassing isn’t going to be the best way to bulk up.
Just focus on minion kills and rely on your a well-timed passive proc to damage anyone who gets a little too close.

When you hit Level 2, Lightning Strike should be unlocked and allowed to charge up fully. As tempting as it is to blink around
your opponent in the hopes of scoring a quick confusion kill, it’s still a bit too risky due to relatively low damage and no real
getaway potential if you mistakenly overextend and run out of charges to get back to safety. Save them as a quick passive proc
if the enemy gets close as the minion hit from the origin spot will count as a stack. Harass only if harassed would be a good
rule to have here. With much of his damage potential coming from risky CQC situations, having Tulen lag behind in gold will
only hurt more and more as the match progresses.

Mid Game
Toward around Level 8 or 9 is when you should expect some get a little more hands-on with your abilities in the arena. Giving
plenty of time for Orb of the Magi to accumulate Ability Power and gaining valuable Cooldown Speed and Armor from The
Aegis, you have just about everything you need to zip in and out of combat while poking and prodding the enemy enough to
reliably trigger that Thunderclap passive. Aiming to keep the Mage Golem buff on you at all times is a great way to bolster
your Cooldown Speed even more, and ensure that Mana will never be a problem in a fight.

Much of the difficulty comes from intricate stack timings to ensure you’re close to the enemy as it activates, but just focus on
firing shots into the ring with Ion Blastss and only venturing in for a serious Lightning Strike dance when the enemy team is
busy with the rest of your group.

Firing Ion Blastss from close range is the easiest way to accumulate 2-3 stacks, with a single Lightning Strike then being
enough to trigger Thunderclap if you managed to gather the max amount from your skill just before. If not, pop another
Lightning Strike. Repeat the deal if things are looking good, and you may just trigger a second lot of Thunderclap that’ll almost
certainly prime your opponent for Thunderbird. This skill locks on, so you have a little time to use any remaining Lightning
Strike stacks to position it away from a high health hero looking to intercept, or to pre-emptively zip away – or toward – more
danger.

Tulen has a unique opportunity to hunt down runaway foes grasping for one last shot at life. Even with all three Lightning
Strike dashes used up, it isn’t long before another becomes available. Spam what you can to trigger another Thunderclap set
and zip in close enough for the electricity to jump to their target. If they’re already low, do what you can to lower them enough
for a distant Thunderbird to finish them off – or pop it when you know the resulting Thunderclap can finish them off. Tulen is
all about reassessing the situation and making this quick decisions. Harass from afar, hunt down stragglers, then return to the
battle with your refreshed skills to identify your next victim.

Late Game
This is where things start to get a little one-sided as Tulen realises his role as a Finisher. Harassment is still very much part of
the game, but his toolset and limited defences still make him far too tempting to run as some kind of high-damage close-range
magician.

With a shoddy auto-attack that we haven’t boosted with something like Apocalypse, Tulen isn’t the type to break away from
battle to knock down a turret or two, and he doesn’t have much in the way of control to make use of chokes on the frontline.
Instead, he relies on blisteringly fast cooldowns that frequently require him to dance with death in the middle of a skirmish.
While brilliant in a 1-On-1 fight should he come across one on his journey to lap up the Sage Golem on either side of the map,
coming across a healty enemy team with no backup will either deplete his main chase ability, or kill him in a split second.

So what is a late-game Tulen to do? Risk it all, of course. Due to the split in Ion Blastss over a long distance, harassing a group
of enemies in a teamfight rarely amounts to much. Get close enough to risk a counter-attack, however, and it’s a quick way to
prep 3 stacks of Thunderclap. Lightning Strike can then be used off a minion onto an enemy champion to immediately trigger
lightning charges that will shock every enemy champion in sight. Repeat the process as you dance around the enemy team to
trigger more Thunderclap shocks while staying on the lookout for a target getting low on HP. It’s typically best to wait on a
Lightning Strike stack to position yourself so that the inevitable Thunderbird finisher doesn’t get rudely intercepted by a more
healthy foe, but you might not always have the luxary.

If the attention hasn’t turned to you, just continue to attack the group while paying attention to their HP. Send out Thunderbird
when you’re certain of a killing blow, and let the procced Thunderclap do its work on whoever remains. By the time another
target is ripe for the picking, Thunderbird will be ready to roll around thanks to its drasically reduced cooldown granted by it
dealing the finishing blow beforehand. As ever, rinse and repeat.

FAQS/Tips
Lightning Strike can be used to teleport through thin walls/fences; like monster camps, river walls, and spawn fences.
Thunderbird won’t be intercepted by minions, but it will damage and launch them before reaching its original target.
This won’t however, grant additional Thunderclap charges.
Hitting the same target twice with Lightning Strike will slow them down. This can be triggered in a single use if
you’re close enough.
Thunderclap can proc more than once. Spam abilities within close range in a teamfight to inflict some heavy damage.
Finish with Thunderbird to start a possible chain reaction.
Attempt to charge Thunderclap on minions or monsters before heading into battle. Golems are a great opportunity for
this.
Thunderclap charges and its proc will wear out if not used or gained in around 5 seconds. Sprint is a great help here.
Counters
Tulen is a hero that can adapt well as the match goes on, but he’s still predictable in the way he played. Limited by his
lacklustre auto-attacks, he isn’t the type to gun down a tower while his target sits underneath pressumably safe. He has to get
very close to string his combos together, and his only other consistant ranged ability is pretty easy to dodge from afar. Mobile
ranged heroes, like Fennik and Lauriel, stand a good chance at besting Tulen in from afar.

Staples like Violet, Valhien, and Tel’Annas can typically expect a sweeping victory, too, but only if they’re able to get a clear
advantage or catch him without sufficant Lightning Strike charges. Catch him while he’s unable to advance or retreat, and there
isn’t a whole lot he can do. Get close on low HP, however, and you’ll have a Thunderbird knocking you down as he dances
around you soon-to-be corpse. Tanks who rely on snares shouldn’t look to catch Tulen out. He’s a bee that, while difficult to
catch, has difficulty scratching the skin of those of the thicker variety.

When it comes to allies, anyone capable of holding a character still for more than a second will be welcome company. Tanks
with hooks, mages with snares, and just about anyone with a slowdown opens the door for Tulen to do his thing. The more
caught in a crowd-control abilities from the likes of Lumburr or Grakk, the better. Knockbacks are a big no-no, but Alice’s
massive Magic Armor reducing slowdown will be the thing of dreams. Diaochan’s Blizzard comes to mind also.