The math behind Gul’Dan talent selection

Initial thoughts

Gul’Dan’s “Thirst for power is his greatest strength...and weakness.” -Kevin “Cloaken” Johnson
 

• Gul’Dan’s DPS is tied to his mana and his mana is tied to his HP so more HP equals more DPS.
   

• Consider offsetting talents that increase his damage with talents and teammates that increase survivability.
   

• Gul’Dan loves his Healers. Lt. Morales and her healing beam would translate into insane value for his sustain DPS; the dream! Consider that Gul’Dan’s mana constrictions are an intentional core weakness designed to offset his sustained damage output; Healers who understand this can empower Gul’Dan to spam Life Tap and minimize this weakness.
   

• Gul’Dan is a Sustain Damage, Ranged Assassin which means his playstyle is centered around poke and follow-up attacks from safety.
   

• Positioning: Other than Horrify at lvl 10 and Demonic Circle at lvl 20, Gul’Dan has zero means of escape or disengage. This groups him among heroes who are especially vulnerable to CC.
   

talents by the numbers

Knowing Gul’Dan’s limits is key to maximizing his DPS and will allow you to more effectively attack or pull back.

Trait: Life Tap (D)

Chaotic Energy vs. Glyph of Drain Life
 

• Taking Glyph of Drain Life for the increased range is probably going to be the more popular talent choice at lvl 1 but you might get more value out of Chaotic Energy because lower mana costs translate to increased damage output.
   

Consume Soul vs. Improved Life Tap
 

• This basically comes down to survivability vs mana efficiency. Consume Soul gives you 427 HP at Lvl 4, 800 at Lvl 20 and you get 2 charges of it. Its ability to sustain and insta-heal in a pinch makes this a hard talent to pass up.
   
• However, as I calculated the talents that increase Life Tap's efficiency I realized something; Life Tap will likely be Gul’Dan’s largest source of damage received. I’ve already talked about Gul’Dan’s damage output being directly tied to his HP. Conversely, Gul’Dan can only use 5-6 abilities before having to Life Tap and W. So these efficiency talents mean less frequent use of Life Tap, which translates to damage reduction.
   
• Completing the Chaotic Energy quest (lvl 1) will reduce Q and E's mana cost by 4.5% (max mana).
   
• Improved Life Tap (lvl 4) increases mana received per Life Tap by 10%.
   
• This approximately translates to a net damage reduction of 15% throughout the match.

Which talent better fits your playstyle with Gul’Dan?

Fel Flame (Q)
 

• Gul’dan’s Q is on a 1.5 second cooldown, keep this in mind when specing into it as certain talent choices will translate into semi-passive upgrades.
   
• Bound by Shadow (lvl 7): In the time it takes to throw out your Q 5-6 times (just hitting 1 enemy) your E is off cooldown because of the CDT. Could be useful in team fights when enemies are likely to clump up.
   
• Hunger for Power (lvl 7): Getting a huge power spike with Hunger and Darkness Within (lvl16) on a 1.5 sec CD.
   
• Fel Armor (lvl 13): practically grants Gul’Dan a perma-Spell Shield.

 

Drain Life (W)
 

• Base Dmg (DPS): 137 (lvl 1), 220 (lvl 13),  and 290 (lvl 20)
   
• W/ Hunger for Power: 200 (lvl 7), 253 (lvl 13), and 334 (lvl 20)
   
• W/ Hunger + Darkness Within: 335 (lvl 16) and 392 (lvl 20)
   
• If you go with Devour the Frail instead of Hunger for Power, combined with Darkness Within, Drain Life becomes a devastating finisher as it will deal 446 Dps (lvl 16) and 522 (lvl 20) if the target is below 50% health. That's 1338/1566 total damage, respectively, if you complete the channel.
   

 

• Healthstone: Possible noob trap. Sometimes I can't help but suspect the game developers intentionally put noob trap talents into the game to foster an investigative tendency in the player base.
   
• Consume Soul (lvl 7) and Healthstone (lvl 13) give you "Piano Gul'Dan" and make no mistake, he is one tanky ivory tickler.
   

On the other hand...
 

• Dark Bargain permanently increases Gul'Dan's HP by almost just as much. 
   
• Harvest Life gives you almost half of what Healthstone gives as long as you're hittin heroes.; plus, its cool down is 6 times shorter. 
   

Now maybe the burst heal on demand is what you need or prefer and if so, it's still a strong talent. But the other two choices provide a health boost AND allow Gul'Dan to increase his damage output. It's up to the player to decide which is needed per match. 

Corruption (E) 

 

• This ability gets max value when chasing due to the incentive to land multiple hits.
   
• It also combos nicely with Horrify (Slyvanas’ Mind Control also comes to mind).
   
• As random as it seems, you can actually determine the enemy’s “Feared” path in the same way Li Ming’s Wave of Force can. It’s hard to hit but skilled players who can position themselves so that their E lines up with the direction Horrify “fears” the target in can create an opportunity to fully stack Corruption’s damage. Ooh baby a triple!
   
• Check out how much punch you can give this ability; especially Ruinous Affliction. Alone, it grants a 35% damage increase for each of the first 2 stacks and a whopping 58% if you land the third. The potential damage just might make it a skill shot worth mastering and building around.
   

Hunger for Power + Darkness With vs Hunger for Power + Ruinous Affliction

Horrify (R1)
 

• Good Initiator: “Isolate and Destroy” is the easiest and most cost effective tactic for gaining a numbers advantage over the enemy team.
   
• Strong Disengage: 1 of 2 options Gul'Dan has.
   
• An intuitive counter to dive compostions
   
• Deterrent: HotS is all about forcing the enemy team into catch 22’s. Anticipate when the enemy team has no choice but to dive in (like when your team is about to secure a tribute or a contested late game boss) and watch as the enemy is either too paralyzed with horror to contest or they’ll get horrified if they do. 
   

Ability Power talents

TL;DR

 So far it's looking like Gul'Dan belongs in the upper tiers for Assassins. He's a punishing duelist with strong sustain and wave clear. His ranged poke playstyle has a plethora of talents which complement it. His health and mana have a complicated relationship. Talents that increase HP translate to more damage output and making your trait and basic abilities more efficient means less damage taken.

"Piano Gul'Dan" is tanky with impressive burst self-heal but it might be a noob trap or niche build because the alternative talents boost his health while ALSO increasing damage output. Gul'Dan has some serious firepower if he chooses ability power talents. Drain Life can reach painful levels of DPS and Corruption's Ruinous Affliction, though extremely difficult to triple stack, can inflict over 2500 damage just as a basic ability.

Horrify is awesome. Great utility with engage, disengage, and dive-counter; plus a skilled player can use it to set up a triple stack on Corruption.       

Building Gul'Dan has tough choices and diverse options in most tiers. Hopefully, these numbers will help inform your approach to building Gul’Dan and allow you to push his limits with increased aggression in numerous situations. If you want to check out all the raw data, here’s a link to the Google Sheet I made for Gul’Dan.

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