HoN Gladiator Hero Guide

Gladiator is the new strength hero for the Legion side that came up in the latest 1.0.5 patch. He is a direct port of Kunkka – Admiral Proudmore from DotA. For those of you who need a reminder, he can lay a trap that activates after some time damaging and throwing units in the air, can return a unit to a spot it occupied x seconds ago, has a passive splash and throws a ship at you as an ultimate.

Skill Overview

Pitfall – The Gladiator can summon a Spike Trap that will go off after a delay. Anyone hit is stunned and thrown in the air for 1.5 secs, magic damaged for 120/180/240/300, then 30% snared for 1/2/3/4 secs.

A most versatile skill: Use it to catch up with an enemy or the other way around: to set a  trap behind you to get rid of pursuers. Use it to disable an enemy disabler :). But the best use is in combination with Sowdown and ulti. Keep in mind you can hit multiple target as this is an AOE skill, although a little small (225 units). So it is better used in a bottleneck point where the enemies will be for sure forced to pass.

Showdown - Summons a Colosseum at the target’s location and applies Challenged to Fight to enemies/allies for 1/2/3/4 seconds forcing them to return to the marked spot.

Again a skill that can be used oofensively and defensively. Good for catching up when chasing down a hero (even if he TP’s out!). When chased by a single hero use the skill on him to put some distance between you but use it on yourself! when chased by 2 or more heroes, so that you will be able to out-juke them.

Flagellation - When attacking enemy units, applies 100% True damage splash in a 380/420/460/500 AOE and triggers cooldown.

Nice harassing skill. When not in cooldown use it to last hit creeps and splash on enemy heroes also. Keep in mind that attacking Towers or Buildings will not trigger the splash but will trigger the cooldown. Attacking allied units will trigger neither.

Call to arms –Summons a Chariot 1000 units behind The Gladiator that travels up to 1000 units infront of where he casted it. Any allies near where it passes have Call to Arms applied to them for 5/6/7 seconds. (+10% Movement Speed, Damage taken is halved. Prevented damage is taken all at once at the end of the buff and is nonlethal).

Nice AOE ultimate which can wreak havoc into enemy lines. Best used as an initiation tool, dealing a fair amount of damage and stunning for 1 second. Remember to position it so that the chariot passes by your allies to get the movement speed buff and damage reduction. Because of its travel time it can also be used to take down a fleeing enemy, but for this purpose use it better in combination with your Pitfall and Showdown.

Skill Build

1 Flagellation (1)
2 Pitfall (1)
3 Flagellation (2)
4 Pitfall (2)
5 Flagellation (3)
6 Call to Arms(1)
7 Flagellation (4)
8 Pitfall (3)
9 Pitfall (4)
10 Showdown (1)
11 Call to Arms (2)
12 Showdown (2)
13 Showdown (3)
14 Showdown (4)
15 Stats
16 Call to Arms(3)
17-25 Stats (3)

Flagellation is a great harassing tool, somewhat like a free nuke. Use it wisely so you both last hit a creep and splash on the enemy also. Pitfall is another nuke that you have, not free though, but it can put out a nice amount of damage, not to mention you can set up an early kill also. Ultimate is too got to miss, so take it whenever available. Showdown comes in handy when you start roaming so it will be the last skill to upgrade.

Special note here is the 4 skill combination! Showdown an enemy, quickly use Pitfall on the marked spot followed by ultimate and auto-attack (Flagellation will also proc most likely).

Item Recommendation

or at least

Bottle! or at least a Power Supply are a must for most heroes, especially mana intensive ones. They will allow you to stay in lane longer and farm.

Steam Boots are your boots of choice. Swith them to INT when traveling to replenish mana, but keep them on strength for the extra damage and life.

A common tactic on Gladiator is to get Assassins Shroud to get insane burst damage from Flagellation + Bonus comming out from Shrouds inviz! If you go this route, it si advisable to add a Rift Shards…for good measures.

If you do not go the Assassin’s Shroud way, Runed Axe will help you farm faster and replenish your mana and life.

Shrunken Head is a good option since he will be in the middle of team fights most of the time in order to do the most of his damage. This item will allow him to ditch those chain disablers.

and

These 2 items will also strengthen his survival chances in team clashes. Most of the times you will see them used as core on Gladiator.

If you feel that you can handle all the incoming damage and want to go for more chasing power FrostBurn build was common on Kunnka.

Example of a Practical Build and Strategy

Starting Items: 3x Minor Totem, 1x Mana Battery, 1x Health Potion

Clasical STR build with Power Supply.

Early Game: Power Supply, Talisman of Exile, Steam Boots

Early game is all about farming. Use your Flagellation to its fullest by last hitting a creep and splash on enemy also. You will most likely have a good farm since the extra damage from Flagellation will grant you the las hit. A side effect of it is that the creep wave will be pushed close to enemy towers, so be sure to pull neutrals in to lane from time to time.

Mid game: 1xRuned Axe + 1x Behemoths Heart

and

This item will greatly increase your farming capabilities and survivability. Once you have the Shroud, when coming from inviz, you will lay down entire creep waves in 1 shot. In-between farms do some ganking also (actually it is the other way around :)). For ganking remember that even if Showdown followed by Pitfall is a good practice, in most of the cases you should try to land a Pitfall alone. It is harder, but possible if you do it from forest when the enemy does not have yet sight of you. This way you will save Showdown for the chasing.

Late Game: 1x Daemonic Breastplate

Another item for insane Flagellation damage! making you splash presence in team-fights even more felt.

Team clashes is where Gladiator shines. With this build he will deal a decent amount of burst splash damage, and be quite tanky as well. So do not be afraid to jump in the middle of the action. (Preferably after you have initiated with you chariot ultimate). If you are the one being initiated upon use the chariot to boost your teams movement speed and short stun the enemies, giving you the window to regroup and turn the tides in your favor.

If you fear a lot of nuke burst or CC from the enemy team go for a   Shrunken Head, after the Helm of the Black Legion.

Interesting heroes, with interesting skills… meet the classical: The Galdiator!