Art of War: Guan Yu Guide (S8)

Hello, welcome to my guide. This installment I, Stuke, will now be focusing on not only a god but a historical figure who has ascended into Godhood for his role during the Romance of the 3 Kingdoms. Ladies and Gentlemen, I introduce the Great General, and Saint of War, Guan Yu.
Note: you don't have to follow this guide to the smallest detail, these are suggestions on how to play Guan Yu. I encourage you to look at the comment section below and see other suggestions.

Guan Yu is a Physical, Melee, Warrior that relies on him being in the middle of the fight and causing as much disruption as he can. Having high levels of crowd control and tankiness, thanks to his guardian roots, Guan Yu plays very well in the Support role just as much as the Solo.

• High Defense
• Good Crowd Control
• Heal
• Has a Horse (Need I say more)

• Poor Damage
• Mana Dependent
• More Guardian-like than Warrior (like he originally was)

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Guan Yu is a hyper-aggressive tank that uses his high crowd control as well as his healing ability to keep himself and his allies in the fight and weaken the enemy. Given his previous classification was Guardian, with his kit practically staying the same, his playstyle differs from most Warriors since it's more focused on control and supportive abilities.

Painless

Every time you get hit or hit an enemy, you build up stacks that, once maxed out, will give a boost to his abilities while in combat and goes back to zero shortly after leaving combat. Conviction gets boosted healing, Warrior's Will's slow increases, Taolu Assault gains even more stolen protection while hitting an enemy, and Cavalry Charge's slow and stun duration increase.

Conviction

Your main heal ability. S standard AOE heals not only heals allies and yourself but also minions. When you hit the maximum stacks with your passive it doubles the amount of health you get from activating this ability. There is a second effect on this ability as when you heal an ally the cooldown of the ability is reduced by 2 seconds. This is one of the main tools you will be using during the lane phase to keep your teammates and minions alive while they help with taking down towers.

Warrior's Will

This has a very short distance and has a long cooldown, but this seemingly straightforward ability has a lot more up its sleeve like Conviction. Besides the slow, this ability also reduces all cooldowns by 2 seconds when you hit an enemy. Using this ability and Conviction in the lane or during fights is almost necessary if you want to keep that ability spam going.

Taolu Assault

This is Guan Yu's signature ability, this is a great ability when in the solo, jungle, or support role. Every time you hit an enemy god, minion, or jungle monster, you steal their protection and give them to yourself. This beautiful ability is one of the better boxing abilities or a way to weaken your opponent for your teammate.

Cavalry Charge

Another one of Guan Yu's signature abilities. You hop on your horse and charge forward while having full control of how fast or where to turn. Every time you hit an opponent with the debuffs, the damage is increased. You could cancel this ability early to get the stun off if they try to get away. What is interesting about this ability is that it is affected by any movement speed items or relics you get on him.

Guan Yu utilizes his crowd control and heal to support his team, like a semi-support, but still needs to invest in some damage to be a threat in Solo. Getting your hands on items that provide CDR, protection, and damage will benefit Guan Yu greatly as you want to be an annoying consent presence throughout the match.

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Bluestone Pendant

The best Solo starter for Guan Yu. Outside of gaining HpS and MpS, your abilities will deal additional damage over time, stack, and refresh for each ability that hits an opponent. Combining this with Taolu Assault's multi-hit channel as well as the ability to steal protections, will allow you to deal a metric ton of damage. At Lvl 20, we will upgrade this to Bluestone Brooch to make those stats and effects more potent.

Warrior's Axe

A safer alternative starter for Solo. Not only providing protection and flat damage reduction but when you damage an enemy god, you steal a small chunk of health from your target. When this effect goes off it needs to cool down before it can be used again. At Lvl 20, we will upgrade this to Sundering Axe to make those stats and effects more potent.

Sentinel's Gift

The standard starter for support. When an enemy dies near you you get a small chunk of health, mana, and gold but only when near an ally god. If alone this passive will not work. At Lvl 20, we will upgrade this to Sentinel's Embrace to give yourself and your allies additional protections.

War Flag

The best starter for aggressive supports. When you get an assist on a lane or jungle minion, you and any surrounding allies get a small chunk of health and mana while also gaining a buff to movement and attack speed that stacks. At Lvl 20, we will upgrade this to War Banner to make those stats and effects more potent.

Warrior Tabi

The standard boots for most warriors. Giving your abilities a nice lead in the Early Game will benefit you in the long run.

Breastplate of Valor

A classic physical protection item for Solo, especially for those who are ability focused. Physcial protection, mana, MpS, and cooldown reduction is enough of a reason to pick up this item as Guan Yu wants his abilities up as soon as possible.

Genji's Guard

The magical defense equivalent of Breastplate of Valor, but it's passive makes it different enough. When hit with a magical ability, all cooldowns are reduced by a few seconds, an effect that Guan Yu really needs.

Gauntlet of Thebes

A staple item for most Support players. Whenever an enemy minion dies near you, you gain a stack. At max stacks, this item evolves and now provides an aura effect that gives you and all nearby allies physical and magical protections. Good for providing your team some protection during those close-quarter team fights near the Late Game.

Caduceus Shield Caduceus Shield

A healer specific item for physical gods. Functionally, this item is similar to Rod of Asclepius but swaps movement speed with protection, perfect for physical supports.

Hide of the Urchin

A perfect item from front-line brusiers. Every kill and ***iet gives you a stack of protections. At max stacks it upgrades and gains a new effect: while out of combat you gain health bubble that increases the longer you don't take damage.

Void Shield

Given Guan Yu's wants to get close and stick to his opponents, this item makes him a bigger threat. Once close enough to an enemy god, their physical protection gets reduced as long as they stay near you. Combine this with his ability to steal protection and multi-hitting abilities and you'll take out your enemies really quickly.

Runic Shield

Similar to Void Shield but with a different effect. When you get close to an magical enemy god, their magical power becomes reduced. Take this item if the enemy team is really magical focused or having trouble with an enemy that has high magical damage.

Runeforged Hammer

A fun item for when you want to abuse crowd control. When you attack an enemy affected by crowd control that damage is increased. Note: Knockups, Grabs, and Blinds do not trigger this effect.

Shifter's Shield

A classic item for physical bruisers. Based on how much health you have, you gain additional damage when above the threshold and you gain protections when below.

Sovereignty

A staple physical protection among Support players. Any ally that stands near you gains physical protections and HpS.

Heartward Amulet

A staple magical protection among Support players. Any ally that stands near you gains magical protections and MpS.

Pridwen

An interesting Late Game item that makes Guan Yu tankier during fights. After using your ultimate, you gain a health shield that explodes and deals damage to any enemies standing too close after a short duration or when depleted to zero. Since Guan Yu will start a fight with his ultimate, the health shield increases his presence during a team fight, especially while he's in the middle of it.

Mantle of Discord

A popular Late Game defense item that's practically a staple. Outside of a big boost to defense as well as cooldown reduction, a passive that makes you CC immune and fire a small blast that stuns any enemy god that stands too close once a threshold of health is hit. If you see this effect goes off, it usually means get out of the fight so make sure you can secure an escape before it happens.

Witchblade

For when the enemy team has a lot of auto-attack damage. When an enemy god gets close their attack speed is reduced.

Shogun's Kusari

A more aggressive support item. Any ally god near you gains increased attack speed. Use this when you have a lot of auto-attackers or when your ADC needs more attack speed.

Pestilence

Having trouble with enemy healing? When you get near an enemy god, their healing percentage is reduced until they get far enough away from you.

Contagion

The physical protection equivalent of Pestilence.

• Giddy Up
  Speed affects how fast your horse moves, so pop your sprint or get fast-moving items to make you get into a team fight faster.
  
• Heal
  Heal, AND OH PLEASE LORD BUDDHA HEAL! You play the second or even the main healer of the team so heal your allies whenever possible to keep them from yelling at you for "not healing enough".
  
• Former Guardian
  Guan Yu use to be a guardian, meaning his kit focuses more on crowd control and other supportive effects. His damage is fairly moderate to low so don't charge in and think you're going to wreck the enemy team but instead use that to set up the team during fights.

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Most of your combos, besides the Ultimate combo, will start with Warrior's Will into another one of your abilities to not just slow them down but also reduce the cooldown on your other abilities on cooldown. Here are some combos to use during fights.
This will be your standard damage dealing combo for laning and teamfights.
If you or a teammate need healing and you want to widen the gap between you or an enemy, than this combo will do the trick.
Use this during the start of a teamfight to capitalize on the slow and stun of your ult as well as Warrior's Will and Conviction to constantly reduce the cooldown timer on your other abilities.

Guan Yu's damage, tankiness, and healing during this stage are good but not enough to steamroll your opponent. During this stage level-up, build up your items, and keep the pressure up until you can take down a tower and start to rotate.
Guan Yu isn't necessarily bad during this stage, more like he plateaus in his stats. At this stage, you should have taken down or in the process of destroying a tower and begin to rotate around the map providing support for the other lanes and preparing for the team fights in the Late Game.
Now come the fun part and you have the power, defenses, and healing that a good front-liner needs. Initiate fights while providing healing for your allies and debuffs for your enemies.

In conclusion, Guan Yu is a Supportive Warrior that takes himself and his team into a fight and slaughters the enemy. Guan Yu might not be the strongest, but his ability to be in the fight and debuff his opponents prove his usefulness to the team. All you need to do is play your cards right and know when to strike and you can be a great team player like a true General.