LOTR: Rise to War Gil-Galad Commander Guide

As a tier 3 commander in Lord of the Rings: Rise to War, Gil-galad—the high king of the Noldor elves—is a force to be reckoned with. Though he appeared only briefly in the films, Gil-Galad played a massive role in the events of the second age of broader Lord of the Rings lore and even formed the alliance that defeated the dark lord Sauron for the first time.

Understandably, an elf of such stature has a pretty powerful presence on the battlefield of Rise to War. In fact, there are actually several ways that you can effectively build him.

Elf Full Support Gil-galad

As a high king of the elves, Gil-galad has several titles and skills that specifically aid the elven units of his army. One of these is Kingly Kin, which gives elven units a 4.7% chance to avoid damage during the first two rounds of combat.

Two rounds might sound short, but bear in mind that preserving units at this stage means you’ll effectively start fighting the enemy with their numbers already greatly diminished.

The other skills associated with Kingly Kin are broader, giving all units in your army increased damage and granting melee units the ability to counterattack. That said, since they fall under an elf-specific title that takes 15 skill points to cap, you’ll still want to use an elven army if you level them at all.

Gil-galad’s fourth title, High King, also exclusively supports elves, granting them -1% damage received for every point that you invest in it. Elven Leader, one of its sub-skills, gives elves a chance to follow up with attacks. Chaotic Retreat, the other sub-skill, gives enemies a hefty defense debuff.

Investing in Kingly Kin, High King and their sub-skills is sure to give elven armies a massive advantage over their opponents.

General Support Gil-galad

Players in any good-aligned faction can potentially acquire Gil-galad, so it makes sense that some of his titles apply to allies other than just elves. If you’re planning to use him with men, dwarves, ents or beasts, Icicle and White Council are the titles that you should look to invest in.

Icicle, the first of his initial two titles, grants a physical damage attack that hits two targets and is guaranteed to stun opponents. It has a two round cooldown, but completely taking two enemy units out of the fight is a big advantage.

Icicle’s sub-skills, Precise Blow and Dazzle, grant another physical damage attack and give a good chance of stunning the enemy commander for two rounds, respectively.

White Council is Gil-galad’s third title and once again grants a more broadly applicable bonus. In this case, the title reduces the first three instances of damage that your units take by 1.2% for every skill point. This defensive buff also scales with his focus stat, so it will generally shield quite a bit more damage than 1.2%.

Its sub-skills give a massive decrease in focus, burn and poison damage taken by your army and greatly increase the damage that you deal to orcs, uruk-hai and trolls.

These two titles give bonuses to just about any army you can think of, though focus damage reduction and damage against certain evil-aligned units are obviously a bit situational, nonetheless.

So How Do I Build Gil-galad?

The best way to build Gil-galad really boils down to what kind of army you’re using with him. Elven armies appreciate Kingly Kin and High King while mixed or non-elven compositions prefer Icicle and White Council. If you don’t have all of his titles unlocked, Kingly Kin and Icicle should still be fairly good with elven armies.

In terms of gear, if you take the Icicle title, strength will buff its damage a bit. Conversely, White Council scales up with focus. Building up either stat or simply using gear pieces that provide boons specific to your army will generally work well.

That’s about all there is to building Gil-galad in Rise to War!