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Guardians of Middle-Earth Ultimate Haldir Guide

Guardians of Middle-Earth Ultimate Haldir Guide by snarkymike22

Hello and welcome to my guide on Haldir: The Marchwarden of Lothlorien.

Have you ever wondered what would happen if Ashe and Kassadin had a baby? Meet Haldir...

Haldir is the very epitome of an AD (Attack Damage) Carry and, if left alone, will completely wreck both in teamfights and in 1v1s. Haldir is extremely mobile with his teleport and can use it to gain a positional advantage. Additionally he has one of the longest range nukes in the game, an awesome attack steroid, and an aoe root. While he is extremely squishy, his 2 ccs and AS/MS steroid will keep you out of trouble... if you know how to use him correctly.

(I just finished reading The Art of War for about the 10th time so I will be using a lot of Sun Tzu quotes)

***CHARACTER OVERVIEW***
"If you know the enemy and know yourself you need not fear the results of a hundred battles" - Sun Tzu
(most overquoted Sun Tzu saying ever but meh I was lazy)

Strengths:
Extremely high damage
Excellent Mobility
Teleport to escape ganks or chase
AOE Root to help your allies secure a kill
Amazing at destroying towers
If left alone can achieve highest sustained damage in game
When played well can be extremely difficult to pin down
Almost all damage comes from autoattacks

Weaknesses:
Gets absolutely rolled by hard cc (if they can catch you)
VERY Low HP
VERY level dependent
VERY loadout dependent
Almost all damage comes from autoattacks

Skills:
(in order of level up priority)

1) Wrath of the Elves- After about a 2 second charge, Haldir looses a single arrow dealing 145/225/305/385 Ability Damage. This skill is amazing for opening or closing a fight. It has a very long range and as long as you initiate the skill, it will go off on your enemy even if they get away from you or you lose vision on them. However Haldir can be CC'd out of this skill which will simply put it on cd.

2) Forest Sprint- Haldir gains a MS increase of 25/35/45/55% and an AS increase of 20/30/40/50% for 4 seconds. I understand some may disagree with me here, but leveling up his other skills do not provide significant gains. Therefore I prefer to have this skill at max level right around level 9 in order to capitalize on my loadout which I will discuss later.

3) Sea of Arrows- Haldir launches a volley of arrows causing 40/70/100/130 Ability damage and rooting them in place for 1.1 seconds. This ability is great for harassing but it is not an instant cast. The skills seems to be channeled for the duration of the snare which basically prevents you from taking advantage of the time the enemy is locked in place. Still it has a relatively large aoe and it is excellent for harass and for grabbing assists.

4) Tree Top Ambush- Haldir instantly moves to a new location and surprises his enemy by stunning them with his next basic attack for .8/1.0/1.2/1.4 seconds. This abilty can be left at level 1 as a .2 second stun increase/level isn't really that great. This skill though is amazing for escaping/chasing/repositioning/stunning. Also since Haldir has a line basic attack, it will stun everything in a line thus you can use it to stun multiple enemy guardians.

Marchwarden of Lorien- Haldir's ability and basic damages increase as his health decreases. Not really the best of passives as it is simply too easy for him to get bursted down. Still it will help some in 1v1s where both you and your opponent are about on equal footing. Rare occurrence but hey every little bit helps.


***LOADOUT***
"Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win" - Sun Tzu

Your loadout is probably the single most important aspect of how you will play. I will make no assumptions on how you would like to play Haldir and I only will present to you what has worked best for me thus far.

Potions: Recovery potion, strike potion, experience potion, cleanse potion
My strategy with these potions is to use the strike potion + recovery potion to get an early first blood. After this point I use the experience potion to freefarm. This will really boost my lead at which point I can freely bully my lane opponent(s)

Commands: Heal, Healing Totem, Lightning, Group Cleanse
My strategy with commands is the heal for the immediate effect, Healing totem to keep myself and my allies healthy in a prolonged siege, Lightning to clear out large groupings of enemy guardians, and group cleanse to save myself if I get CC'd late game

Belt:

1)Fell Winter Relic (Ruby of Perseverance, Ruby of Perseverance) At level 4 this allows me some serious killing potential. At that point I will have 10% lifesteal to keep myself healthy and in lane and an additional 12 damage/sec dot that will apply every time I shoot anything (doesn't stack). At this point I will start playing much more aggressively and try to bully my opponent out of lane.

2)Mirkwood Spiders Relic (Topaz of Swiftness, Topaz of Swiftness, Ruby of Strength) At level 10 this complements my killing potential even further by providing a slow for 3 seconds when I shoot. This relic's ability has a 5 second cd which means that I can chase or kite easily most of the time. I put in Topaz of swiftness just to help a bit more with farming/pushing lanes/tower destroying. Really the only other option would be for increased MS which is unnecessary on Haldir due to his sprint and teleport. The Topaz of strength is there to help more with my next relic.

3)Red Book Relic (Ruby of Strength, Ruby of Strength) This relic is to round out Haldir's endgame killing potential. With my belt setup I will have a 22% chance to crit and at level 14 Haldir hits for about 260 base damage. Therefore his average damage should be somewhere around 320 damage/shot before resistances. Factor in resistances and you're probably looking at around 280 damage/shot and with 50% attack speed from Forest Sprint... well you see where this is going.

Other Relic choices/ideas

Crit Monster Haldir:

Goblin Gate Relic + Endless Stair Relic and 6 Rubies of Strength. At level 14 you will have 44% chance to crit base with 30% crit damage. Additionally when you use your ult + steroid + root you will have an additional 7.5% chance to crit and each crit you do will cause your cds to be reduced by 2 seconds. This will basically allow you to have your steroid up permanently as long as there are still things to attack (can't crit buildings to my knowledge). Alternatively instead of Endless Stair you could put in Red Book + 3 Rubies of Strength which would give you 20% + 28% + 14% = 62% chance to crit and +30% damage on crit. I would personally drop 2 Rubies of Strength for 2 Rubies of Perseverance. You lose 8% crit but gain 10% lifesteal and that early game lifesteal can make or break you.

Ambusher Haldir:

Anvil of Isengard + Mirkwood Spiders. This would allow you to roam and gank anyone under 50% health pretty easily

Snowball Haldir:

Dragon's Hoard + Mirkwood Spiders. Once you activate Dragon's Hoard make sure you farm farm farm. Once you get max stacks you will have an extra 45% base damage.

Many of my extra build ideas focus on late game which is good if you can get there without feeding. I personally prefer to take an early advantage and then keep bullying my opponents until they are underleveled and thus easy prey.

***GAMEPLAY STRATEGY***
"The opportunity to secure ourselves against defeat lies in our own hands, but the opportunity of defeating the enemy is provided by the enemy himself" - Sun Tzu

Early Game levels 1-5- Very early in the game Haldir can be killed pretty easily. Try not to blow your heal unnecessarily. Don't worry too much about the shrines from levels 1-3. Just farm and play it safe. Once you hit level 2 you can start to harass your enemy a bit but really wait until level 4 to put the hurt on. As soon as I hit level 4 I get very aggressive in lane. At this point I will constantly try to keep my bleed effect on the enemy . If I can get them down to about half by the time I hit level 5 I will go for a kill. Root them then hit your steroid and start hitting them. They will try to run and if you can get them down pretty low just ult them and walk away. If you need to you can keep chasing them into the tower range then teleport across the tower to the other side, stun them and then ult them. Obviously don't do this if they have a healthy teammate who can stun you or kill you once you get too low. As soon as you force them out of lane go ahead and push the enemy soldiers as hard as you can. Try to force your soldiers into their tower to deny them experience. Also you can leisurely take your shrines at this point but make sure to check the other lanes to see if anyone is missing before you wander into the bushes. Scary things can lurk in bushes.

DEMACIAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!

Mid Game levels 6-10- At this stage in the game you will likely be very strong. Focus on farming and denying your opponents as much experience as you can. If you can get a 1-2 level advantage on them you can basically farm them repeatedly to put them even further behind. If you have a teammate try to harass the enemy as much as you can then just wait for him to jump on your enemies and then hit your root. Steroid into range and start pounding away. Your goal here is to build enough of a lead that by the time you hit level 10 you have a good advantage. Now at level 10 your Mirkwood Spiders will take effect at which point you can basically roam and kill anyone that's too far away from their towers without them being able to run away from you. Once you gank someone successfully try to push their tower in to deny them map presence but don't go too far. If you get ganked by 2-3 people at this stage you can still probably escape unless they stun/root/silence/knock you in the air repeatedly.

Late Game levels 11-14- At this stage your team should be grouping up and trying to end the game. Make sure to stay behind your allies and let them take the brunt of the damage. You aren't a tank and you cannot kill 5 enemy guardians all by your lonesome savvy? Advance slowly and pelt away each chance you get. If you see your teammates pushing feel free to use your ult to try to force someone back but don't get caught with your pants down. Remember that your ult has a channel timer. Once a teamfight starts, hit your steroid and start pounding away. If you feel like you are winning wait for the opportune moment and root them all in place netting some easy kills. Chase anyone down with your teleport into steroid into ult if they manage to get away. If you do not feel like you are winning make sure to use that teleport for a uh "tactical retreat". Hey someone needs to stay alive to defend the turrets and what not right?

***CLOSING***
"Be extremely subtle, even to the point of formlessness. Be extremely mysterious, even to the point of soundlessness. Thereby you can be the director of the opponent's fate." -Sun Tzu

Remember to always try to catch the opponent off guard. Also Haldir's teleport is really the skill that separates good Haldir players from great Haldir players. A good Haldir player will simply use it to run away stay alive and keep farming. A great Haldir player can use it for things like repositioning so that your next autoattack will catch all of your enemies in a line stunning all 5 of them or jumping over a cliff to ambush your enemy as he is running away/camping under a turret. Or you can even run in one direction, aim your teleport into some bushes in another direction and teleport to completely throw your pursuers off your track. This skill alone makes Haldir extremely flexible as long as you are paying attention.

If you learn how to play Haldir to his highest potential you can almost single handedly destroy entire enemy teams and push down towers so fast they can't respond to you. Good luck and may the Lady watch over you.


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