Heroes of the Storm Build Concept: Gul'Dan (abilities, stats, traits and numbers done)

Combat Trait

Ner'Zhul's relic

Gul'Dan's power comes from souls he collects. Using abilities cost souls, that he can harvest on minions, mercs and heroes that died nearby.
When his relic contains 15 souls or more, Gul'Dan's abilities are empowered.
Gul'Dan can still cast spells without souls, but it costs him 10% of his max health per soul needed to cast it (if he hasn't enough health, he can't cast).

Minions drop 1 soul.
Mercs drop 2 souls.
Heroes drop 5 souls.
Max 15 souls.
When the game starts or when Gul'Dan is resurrected, he gets 5 souls.

Range : ~7

Primary Abilities

Death Coil

Heal target ally for 100 (+20 per level) Health, or damage target enemy for the same amount.
Unit killed by Death Coil drop 1 more soul.

Empowered ability : Damaging an enemy with Death Coil heals allies around Gul'Dan for the same amount.

Cooldown : 3 seconds
Souls : 2
Range : 5.5 / Radius ~2

Haste

Increase target Movement Speed by 20% and reduce area of effect damage taken by 33% for 4 seconds.

Empowered ability : All allies close to the target benefit from Haste.

Cooldown : 12 seconds
Souls : 2
Range : 5.5 / Radius around target ~1.5

Unholy Armor

Target ally becomes Invulnerable for 1.5 second, but loose 15% of his max health.
Unholy Armor won't reduce health below 1.

Empowered ability : Increase target Movement Speed by 15% and lower the health lost by 10%.

Cooldown : 16 seconds
Souls : 5
Range : 5.5

Heroic Abilities

Death and Decay

Gul'Dan canalyzes dark energy for 2 seconds in targeted area.
After that, Death itself inhabits the area, dealing a percentage of max Health as damage every second for 10 seconds to enemy units and structures.

Minions and mercenaries (not boss) loose 10% of their life every second.
Heroes and boss loose 4% of their life every second.
Structures loose 3% of their life every second.
Nexus loose 1.5% of its life every second.

Cooldown : 80 seconds
Souls : 10
Range/Area : Range ~Tyrande's Starfall / Area ~1.5x Tyrande's Starfall

Army of the Damned

Raise an army of Skeletons equal to the numbers of Souls Gul'Dan has.
Skeletons deal 22 (+2 per level) damage, have 230 (+30 per level) health and the ability Cold Hand : each attack applies a 5% movement speed slow for 1.5 second, stackable to 6 times.

Ally heroes can move through the Skeletons, but other units can't. Skeletons will try to surround enemy heroes in order to block them.
When a Skeleton dies, Gul'Dan automatically gets 1 Soul back.

Cooldown : 100 seconds
Range : 2.5

Talent Ideas

Level 1 :

[Power Addict] - Trait : Collecting souls heal Gul'Dan for 3.5% of it's max Health.

[Melt Soul] - Q : Death Coil damage is increased by 50%.

[Essence Extractor] - Q : Death Coil healing is increased by 30%.

[Everything's Fast] - W : Reduce Haste cooldown by 2 seconds.

[Bribe] : Kill enemy Minions to gain stacks of Bribe. Use 20 stacks to bribe target Mercenary, instantly defeating them. Does not work on Bosses.

Level 4 :

[Corrupted Soul] - Trait : Casting spells without souls now only costs 5% of Gul'Dan's max health per soul needed to cast it.

[Phantom Feet] - W : Increase the Movement Speed bonus to 35%.

[Dark Agility] - W : Increase the area of effect damage reduction to 50%.

[Healing Ward] : Activate to place a ward on the ground that heals allies in an area for 1.95% of their max Health every second for 10 seconds.

Level 7 :

[One for you] - Q : Reduce Death Coil soul cost by 1.

[Weak must die] - Q : If Death Coil is cast on a minion, it is now cast on every nearby minions aswell.

[Light Armor] - E : Unholy Armor's target loses 5% less health, and increase empowered Unholy Armor's target Movement Speed to 25%.

[Unholy Knowledge] - E : Reduce Unholy Armor cooldown by 2 seconds and cost by 1 soul.

[Cleanse] : Activate to remove all stuns, roots, silences, and slows from the target and prevents their reapplication for 1 second.

Level 10 :

[Death and Decay] - (R1)

[Army of the Damned] - (R2)

Level 13 :

[Soul Jar] - Trait : Ner'Zhul's Relic can now hold up to 20 souls.

[Shrink Ray] : Activate to reduce an enemy Hero's damage by 50% and Movement Speed by 50% for 4 seconds.

[Ice Block] : Activate to place yourself in Stasis and gain Invulnerability for 3 seconds.

Level 16 :

[Empowered Soul] - Trait : While at 15 or more souls, Gul'Dan abilities cooldown are reduced by 20%.

[Loaned Soul] - Q : Casting Death Coil on an ally under the effect of Haste or Unholy Armor increase its duration by 33%.

[Phantom Hand] - W : Haste now increase attack speed for the same amount (as movement speed).

[Untouchable] - E : Empowered Unholy Armor now lasts 2.5 seconds.

Level 20 :

[From Death to Life] - R1 : Now heals allies for the same amount.

[Dead Hand] - R2 : Cold Hand now also slows attack speed by 5%, stackable to 6 times.

[Empowered Relic] - Trait : Gul'Dan abilities are now empowered while at 10 or more souls.

[Storm Shield] : Activate to give all nearby allied Heroes a Shield for 20% of their max Health for 3 seconds.

[Bolt of the Storm] : Activate to teleport to a nearby location.

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Well it seems like every other ability is pretty much reproduced W2 ability.

Anyway. This kit could work. Perhaps death coil shoud not heal directly because it is well DEATH coil.
My idea: You hit target with death coil and 1 allie get healed for damage done. Empowered version heals every around.

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Mermeoth, you're really mistaken about something : I don't want to reproduce W2 abilities, I'm using them as a base to do something that'd be good in HoTS.
Now I'd appreciate some critics about the actual work rather than pointing out that it's W2 stuff, because yeah, it is...

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Also one more thing. W2 death coil didn't heal allies. It healed caster for damage it dealt to enemy

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I see your point, and why you might not like it. :)
Clearly the abilities deathknights had back then are suited for a support character, and I think they are nice.
Since Gul'Dan has more or less thrown his orc identity, skills like those are more suited for him than for a deathknight, but that's just my opinion.
Thanks for your comment. ^^

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I don't mind using W2 skills. I also would not mind if this skillset was used for some W2 deathknight.
My issue is these skills were designed for deathknights and they were simply slapped over Gul'dan, because back then nobody really cared about working on unique abilities for 1 hero you barely play in campaign.

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In HoTS heroes come from different period of time, so you could get a war2 Gul'Dan, or a WoW Gul'Dan.
Ofc I've obviously taken my ideas from Warcraft 2, since it's my favorite game from the serie, but they've been modified to fit the MOBA style.
And come on, who doesn't want Death and Decay in the game ? :D

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This is very W2-like. However times changed I think you should be more creative these days. He was technicaly deathknight, just with different voice, skin and less health in W2.

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Gul'Dan (abilities, stats, traits and numbers done) by Chatpelier