Guia Gandalf

The guide is structured into the following topics:
1. Pros & Cons
2. Abilities
3. Shields in GOME in general
4. Relics & Jewels
5. Playing with Gandalf and succeed
6. Final Words


1. Pros & Cons

pros:
-Flexible, has alot of different tools to get the job done
-Slightly faster movement speed than all other enchanters (difference is really minor but it is an advantage)
-A bit more durable than the other enchanters
-Slightly better basic attack damage
-You get him for free after playing the tutorials

Cons:
-damage does not scale well into lategame


2. Abilities

- Gandalfs AP ratios & scaling

I think this deserve alot of attention. The tooltips are misleading regarding his AP ratios because they give you the impression that stacking AP is great but actually he has low scaling and the base damage values dont compensate for this fact. Other enchanters start to shine when they unlock their major relics during the course of the game but gandalfs performance do not increase that much, in short he falls off lategame and has the weakest lategame damage of all enchanters.

- Passive Ability Lore-Master
Adds 5% basic damage resistance off the bat and increases your ability power by 10 per level
the 5%

Passive looks good on paper but is not that great actually. The bonus AP per level would be great if Gandalf had the AP scaling of Lugbol or Ori but unfortunately he does not. I guess the bonus AP is meant to slightly offset his lower scaling on his abilities. The basic damage resistance helps at early levels because it brings him close to the resistance of warriors.

- Narya's Power
Blinds enemies within close range for short time
Deals decent damage per second for 4.0 seconds
improves resistance to all damage types for 4.0 seconds

Reducing damage taken is an important part of the laning phase to win exchanges with your enemies. it also features a blind and defensive steroid which makes it quite good for both offense and defense, especially against warriors and strikers. the downside is that you have to walk up to the enemy first to use it (does not work without targets) which makes it hard to use against some guardians.

- Flame of Anor
Reveals all units within long range for 6 seconds
Creates a shield that absorbs damage

A shield that will reduce the damage taken to your health pool. It also allows you to track enemies movement in the jungle or bushes which will prevent unpleasant surprises. I will go into detail regarding shields later.

- Gandalf's Might
Steals a bit of health
Deals a great deal of true damage
Roots target in place

The true damage part is really great as it ignores shields and resistances. This is your major tool for dealing damage against guardians, trading hits in the lane and still come out on top.

- Fireworks
Big AOE spell dealing decent damage
Silence for short time on anyone affected by initial cast

Total damage is higher than Narya's Power but only if you manage to keep your target in the area of effect. Use the root of Gandals Might to keep them in the area. The silence alone can win team fights because it denies the use of abilites for short time BUT keep in mind that it will silence enemies that were hit by the initial animation only, enemies walking inside it afterwards will not get silenced. The silence also helps ganking targets that have a form of escape because they wont be able to use their escape ability for a short time.


3. Shields in GOME

Shields are special in GOME. I did extensive testing and I think shields deserve special attention no matter what guardian is used.

Shields add a protective barrier above your health pool and damage done to you will get depleted from the shields health pool first but there are some things you should know:
-True damage ignore shields and the damage will be taken from your health pool instead
-Your resistances (be it from abilites, jewels or just your basic resistance) have no effect on shields. Any damage done to shield health is unmitigated. Keep this in mind and dont rely on your shield for survivabilty, it will block 1 attack lategame at most.
-Shields stack. Shields are seperate buffs and also get depleted seperately. This makes the Black Gate Relic a good choice for Gandalf.


4. Relics & Jewels

Gandalf does not scale well which makes early snowball relics or relics that provide huge boost early less valuable in my opinion. Gandalfs range is also short thus he needs some durability to apply his damage or he will melt in team fights very fast. It is best (atleast this worked best for me) to opt for a well rounded relic setup that makes Gandalf a bit durable lategame but still lets him deal a good amount of damage.

The relics I use for Gandalf are:
-Grey Company 4 Slot with blue and green slots (gives you bonus health and AP when you defeat enemy units, stacks up to 15 times and 5 stacks are lost up on death)
-Black Gate 3 Slot with blue and green Slots (shields you for 10 seconds and gives you bonus AP as long as the shield persists)

I fill the jewel slots with ability life steal and resistances against basic attacks and damage. Ability penetration is also useful for Fireworks and Narya's Power, you can mix ability penetration with ability life steal jewels if you want.

My resoning behind those choices is simple:
-Gandalf is a close range enchanter thus needs durability
-As already mentioned before, shields stack which makes Black Gate relic a good choice. Late game both shields together will protect you for about 700 damage thus will block 2 attacks (keep in mind that the shields do not benefit from resistances, it will only block unmitigated damage). Additionally "Flame of Anor" will be depleted first (tested this) thus the bonus AP from the Black Gate relic wont be nullified instantly by a single basic attack from a striker.
-"Narya's Power" gives a great boost to your resistances thus it scales well with any additional HP you get. AP should not be neglected because you still want to deal damage with your abilities (you are playing an enchanter after all). The Grey Company relic is handy in this case because it gives both AP and HP and as Gandalf you can farm it up in no time.
-The ability life steal jewels are important because you need some kind of sustain during laning phase. It will also expand your lifespan during team fights slightly.
-The green resistances jewels work well with the bonus HP from the Grey Company relic, as it makes every point of HP more effective.


5. Playing with Gandalf

Laning phase:
The laning phase is the most important part of the match for Gandalf. It is very hard to recover from a bad laning phase as Gandalf thus pay attention to the map, dont overextend or put you at high risks of dying. Your aim is to bully out your opponents by constant harass and ganks to snowball your team and gain level advantage. Bullying out the opponent (or even kill) will deny XP and thus major relics will get unlocked later. Other enchanters (or any other offensive guardian with a damage relic layout) scale better but their scaling is not that useful when it takes ages for them to reach certain level breakpoints to unlock their damage relics.

How do we bully out our opponents?
-Use your shield first to check if an unseen enemy is close thus you dont get ganked. The shield will also mitigate some damage while you approach your target.
-Ideally hit the target with Narya's Power first. The defense boost will mitigate damage your opponent might deal to you in exchange. Sometimes it is not possible to open with Narya's Power because the enemy has higher range and tries to kite, use Narya's Power on the Soldiers to mititage damage with the defense boost in this case while you approach your enemy.
-Follow up with Gandalf's Might and basic attacks if possible. Go for the kill if he is low enough otherwise retreat.
-Repeat as often as possible or gank another lane when your own lane is pushed back to the enemy tower

Team Fights and Lategame:
When I play Lugbol I can usually kill the squishier targets in a single rotation of my abilities but this is not possible with Gandalf due to the weaker scaling (assuming that both teams are about equal in strength). Trying to nuke the enemy team with Gandalf (like you would normally do with Lugbol or Agandaur) in a team fight will end in a painful death cause your targets will most likely survive with a bit of health left, your abilities will be on cooldown and you are suddenly surounded in melee range without any escape mechanisms. Follow your tanks, let your tanks engage first and try to hit the as many targest as possible with Fireworks and Narya's Power. The CC on your abilities will help your teammates do their job, finish off the enemy team and win the engagement.


6. Final Words
I played all enchanters extensively and wanted to give you my point of view on my favorite enchanter Gandalf. I hope this gave you some useful insight and you enjoyed the reading (keep in mind that English is not my native language)