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Guardians of Middle-Earth Gothmog Guide

Guardians of Middle-Earth Gothmog Guide by Keninblack

My name is Keninblack (x A B Yotch x on xbox live) and I want to introduce you to the Gothmog guide for those who wish to place an offensive tactician!

To start off, Gothmog is THE best tower pushing tactician in the game. There is no other character who can inflict as much pain to structures as Gothmog (Nori comes close).

So who is Gothmog? Gothmog is a tactician which of course means he will use gadgets and doo-dads rather than brute force when it comes to demolishing enemies. As a tactician, one must be very watchful of locations to place traps / trebs and any opening shots with abilities.

Skills:

Black Land Banner (A) - Gothmog places his banner onto the Battlegrounds, drawing all Enemy fire within medium range to it for 2/3/4/5 seconds.
This ability gains no benefit from increased Ability Power.

This skill comes into use later on in the game because we will be focusing on offense early on which requires us to level our treb and battering ram first. This ability can be a life saver for teammates with soldiers on them, or for your trebuchet. The flag can also draw in enemy guardian fire, such as archery basic attacks and target specific abilities.

War-Machine (X) - Gothmog creates a stationary Trebuchet that lasts for 16 seconds, firing projectiles at all enemies within long range and causing 50/76/102/130 Ability damage. This ability gains a smell benefit from increased Ability Power.

This is our primary means of damage and excellent source of harass to both enemies and structures. The firing range as well as damage of Gothmog's trebuchet far exceeds that of Runsig's. We will level this first as the damage boost from each level is outstanding.

Grond's Blow (B) - Gothmog charges into battle, rushing forward while wielding a mighty battering ram. Enemies caught in the path of the charge are knocked into the air, briefly losing control, while his primary target takes 50/85/120/155 Ability Damage and is stunned, impeding the target from taking any action for 1/1.3/1.6/1.9 seconds. This ability gains a large benefit from increased Ability Power.

While the damage boost from the battering ram is greater than the trebuchet, it poses a greater risk since you charge into melee range, so it is safer to harass with good damage and know you will not be hit as much as being right in the fray. This skill is leveled second.

Rain of Doom (Y) - Gothmog summons a massive artillery strike centered on his current position. All enemy units and structures caught within medium range of the bombardment are dealt 44/77/110/144 Ability Damage. This ability gains a small benefit from increased Ability Power.

The creme de la creme of structure annihilation. This bad boy does outstanding damage to both enemies AND structures and the cooldown isn't too bad to boot! Level this whenever available.

Skill Leveling:

Lvl 2 - War-Machine
Lvl 3 - Grom's Blow
Lvl 4 - War-Machine
Lvl 5 - Rain of doom
Lvl 6 - War-Machine (maxed)
Lvl 7 - Rain of Doom
Lvl 8 - Grom's Blow
Lvl 9 - Rain of Doom
Lvl 10 - Grom's Blow (maxed)
Lvl 11 - Rain of Doom (maxed
Lvl 12 -Black Land Banner
Lvl 13 - Black Land Banner
Lvl 14 -Black Land Banner (maxed)

*THIS IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE BASED ON THE FLOW OF THE GAME*

1 Lane Strategy:

Gothmog excels in 1 lane games because of his trebuchet harassment and tower destroying ultimate. The strategy for 1 lane is to push the opponent as far back to their turret as possible so you can have breathing room to use your Rain of Doom on the tower to deal significant damage. Since our basic damage is mediocre we will rely on teammates and our trebuchet for damage until our ultimate comes in. The best thing to do is stay in the bushes and place your inbetween enemy forces and your forces but mainly closer to your side. This way if the enemy guardians wish to come and destroy your turret, you can stun with Grom's blow and your team with do the rest. If any enemy soldiers target your trebuchet, make sure to throw down Black Land Banner in front or a little ways away from your treb so they will go after it instead.

If your game is going good and you have the enemy forces pushed back to their turret, place your trebuchet at the corner of the bush so it will hit them and their turret without the turret being able to hit it. The only downside is enemy range guardians being able to snipe it because it can be seen when it attacks. The cooldown isn't too bad so you can keep up the rate and slowly whither down the enemy turret until there is enough space to actually run in and use Rain of Doom. Make sure you DO NOT use Grom's Blow as the turret will target you and you will most likely die before you have the chance to run off.

If your game is doing pretty bad and they have you at your turret, place your treb right next to your turret so it can snipe any foes that are incoming. Also place your Black Land Flag directly in front of your treb so enemy soldiers will attack it and not your turret or trebuchet. Do not be afraid to use your ultimate liberally if it will save your hide or a teammates hide, or if you want to clear out an enemy wave to push back.

3 Lane Strategy Top or Bottom:

In a 3 lane game you want your partner to be someone who either has a root or a taunt (prefer Witch King, Beregond, or Mozgog). They must be able to take a bit of a hit since your basic attack is really weak. Depending on the communication between the two, you can gain first blood almost instantly after the game starts if you can coordinate your stun with your partner's root or taunt for maximum control time. Make sure to place your treb behind the chasing enemy for maximum amount of shots. As a safety measure for ganks as well as a general rule of thumb, place your trebs in the bushes from spots that could be potential gank bushes. This way you know if and when you are being ganked and can plan accordingly. As always, push your enemies to their turret and use your ultimate on it.

3 Lane Strategy Mid:

I generally never use Gothmog mid because his lack of survivability and no escape mechanisms. However you can use him mid IF AND ONLY IF you play EXTREMELY DEFENSIVE (I'm talking Nori turret hugging defensive). There are better mid heroes like the Enchanters but if you don't have one on the team, you can be a potential midder. The only way to play mid is to sit by your turret and place your treb right next to it to clear our waves. Don't forget to place your Black Land Flag in front so your turret lives longer.

Potions:

Leech Potion - +70 Ability Power and 35% life steal on Abilities
Avenger's Potion x2 - +70 Ability Power and 10% Ability cooldown reduction
Dash Potion - 50% movement speed

Reason:

Leech potion is mainly for 1 Lane games because you can't heal back at your base so you want to maximize the time you can stay in the fight. Using a leech potion when your enemies are bunched up or have a big creep wave will score you lots of health when your turret rains down fire or you use your ultimate. Avenger's potions are an excellent source of Ability Power and cooldown reduction, which are both needed for a successful Gothmog. Dash potion is your hide saving potion when all else fails. FEET DON'T FAIL ME NOW!

Commands:

T1 - Heal - Instantly recover 200 health plus 10% max health; applies minor healing to nearby allies
T2 - Refresh - 45% of existing ability cooldowns are refreshed instantly. 35% cooldowns refreshed for nearby allies.
T3 - Amplify Ability - +150 Ability Power, +40 ability penetration, +10 basic attack bonus plus 5 per level AND 5 damage per second to enemies within 5 meters. 12 second duration.
T4 - Summon Defense - Summon a massive monster at the target location for 7 seconds which deals TRUE damage of 7% max health to enemies per second and reduces resistances by 30%. Soldiers receive bonus damage.

Reason:

Heal is self explanatory, it's an instant heal that gives back a ton of your health. Refresh is grand for moments of needing that spell right then and there and helping out allies with it as well. An excellent tool for 1 lane games. Amplify Ability of course increases your ability power and penetration which means harder hits from the treb, from your battering ram, and from your ultimate. The basic attack bonus is nice but you won't really notice it all the much in addition to the 5 damage immolation. Summon defense is an excellent surprise to this who don't expect it coming. Charge in with your battering ram and smash summon defense to rain total hell on those around you. I recommend this move for tanks rather than Gothmog since running into a bunch of guardians isn't the smartest idea for someone with a lack of survivability. Still a great edition to the arsenal when used correctly.

Belt:

Light of the West Relic - +70 ability power
Seat of Seeing Relic - +14 ability power per sapphire in your belt (7*14 = 98)
Warg-Claw Relic - 50 ability power per guardian kill. Stacks up to 4 times. Lose 2 stacks on death.

Reason: Gothmog has 2 choices to go with belts and relics. Either he can go cooldown reduction or ability power. I prefer hitting harder over more uses but it all depends on the person and their team. With these relics you will have maximum damage output but make sure you don't die or you lose a good chunk of your ability power.

Closing Remarks:

Gothmog should be played as an offensive tactician due to his overwhelming damage to structures versus the other tacticians who are more defensive. I am welcome to any and all forms of criticism and corrections as nothing is ever set in stone, but a work in progress.

GT: x A B Yotch x (add me if you want to play some time!)


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