Gilles de Rais (Caster 4th)

## Introduction

Gilles de Rais is a versatile servant with immense potential to dish out high amounts of damage along with a variety of debuffs. He excels at dishing out single target damage, AoE damage and crowd control. Gilles' only weakness is his low durability coupled with the difficulty of his kit.

## Skills

 Gilles summons 3 demons from the depths of R'lyeh. These demons will explode when there are nearby enemies and corrupting them for 2 seconds, dealing damage and slowing them by 35%

**Mana Cost:** 20%
**Damage per Creature:** 80/120/160/200/240
 Icon

## **Gameplay**

Caster 4th is a summoner type servant with 2 playstyles. Support and Burst Mage. Gilles excels at having a very high early game damage output but falls off in the late game. Gilles is recommended to play aggressively in the early to mid game and focus on supporting the team with **Link Scrolls** and vision as he approaches the late game as he relies on his team to create a wall between him and the enemy frontline to stay outside enemy vision.

As a Support, Gilles is a low-risk servant that focuses more on his Q ability as the core of his gameplay. With it, he provides his team with vision that can cover a very wide area depending on how well Gilles can control his Q skill's summoned units. Although the build's kill potential is lower, Gilles instead provides high damage output at practically no risk, zoning enemies out as they avoid eating free damage. When it comes to poke damage and providing vision, support Gilles is second to none. Support Gilles is very strong against enemy frontline with no natural regen but weak to those that do.

As a Burst Mage, Gilles is a high-risk burst servant that focuses more on his Spell Book abilities (W) to quickly burst down enemies. Burst Gilles is designed to hard counter the Reality Marbles(R) of **Emiya** **Shirou (Archer 5th)** and **Iskandar (Rider 4th)** (read more about this playstyle in **Spellbook Build** in the Playstyles section below).

## **Playstyles**

**Common Safe Skill Sequences:**

*Skill sequences that is shared by all skill builds.*

* R > **S**/**EX** > **C** > Squid E
* **Blink** > R > D > Squid E
* **S**/**EX**/**C** > WW > WD > WQ

**Common Lethal Skill Sequences:**

*Skill sequences that is shared by all skill builds.*

* R > **S**/**EX** > **C** > **CME** > WD > WQ

* **S**/**EX** > **C** > Q > WD > WW > WQ
* R > **S**/**EX** > **C** > Squid E > R (combo)

#### **Rider Build (New Player)**

**Skill Build**

* Q = R > Combo > Stats > E > W

**Special Attributes**

* C'thulu > Demonic Horde > MAX Str = 10 Movement Speed

**Skill Sequence**

*Before C'thulu SA*

* **Blink** > R > **S**/**EX** > **C** > D > run
* R > **S**/**EX** > **C** > D > **Blink**

*After C'thulu SA*

1. *Cast R outside of fight*
2. *Hunt and flank for squishy enemy while riding squid.*
3. Squid W > Squid Q > Squid E > Exit Squid(Z) > **C** > Q > **S**/**EX** > Squid Z
4. *Run and buy items*
5. *Repeat step 1-3.*

This build requires the least amount of micro for the Gilles player. At the first round, make sure you already have the squid bound to a control group. If you are not sure if you already have, don’t hesitate to summon the squid right away and control bind it. Gilles is a very low impact hero without his first SA so you aren't losing much on casting R early. Move it towards the bridge and it will do its zoning job by providing vision.

Before your first SA, focus on casting R on the enemy frontline just before they cross the bridge, catch enemies as they clump up or save allies by casting R over the ally.

20 mins into the game, you'll have enough Master Mana for C'thulu. Take C'thulu SA first to gain access to Integrate, allowing Gilles to enter the Squid (R summoned unit). When Gilles is riding the Squid, Gilles cannot be attacked, have unobstructed vision, can move through walls and cannot be detected by Servant Pings. Strong qualities for safe and effective flanking. Proceed to hunt and snipe single enemy servants.

Be careful with enemies that have strong beams (like Saber 5th, Saber Alter, Rider 5th, etc.) as if a beam kills the Squid, Gilles will automatically exit it, dropping inside the beam AoE and die instantly.

If your combo is available, wait for when the enemy frontline starts to dive and cast R over them and R again to activate your combo. This will activate your combo to instantly kill the squid. Move back to safety and activate your W Master Skill to refresh your skill cooldowns and summon the Squid again to ride it.

#### **Summoner Poke Build**

**Skill Build**

* Q = R > Combo > Stats / E / W

**Special Attributes**

* Demonic Horde > 10 MS > MAX Str

**Skill Sequence**

* Q > select minions > attack move / right click on enemy
* (Safe): **S**/**EX** > **C** > Q > WW > WD > WQ
* (For when enemies have **blink**): **S**/**EX** > **C** > Q > WD > WQ > WW

This build have strong scouting and high poke damage, allowing Gilles to eat through enemy B scrolls for free with no risk. With the Q summons having good vision range and high movement speed, they are effective at scouting flank routes and softening the enemy frontline before they dive. Enemies are forced to commit a skill cd and mana if they wish to clear the mob and avoid the poke dmg. This build thrives on annoying the enemy before the fight begins, weakening them as they dive into your burst damage.

Due low risk nature of this build, Gilles has a lot of space on supporting his team with **Link**, **Wards** and **Healing Scrolls** as he will not be the primary kill sniper with this build. However, its low risk nature and effectiveness depends on the player's ability to utilize their Q summons effectively. Additionally, this build does not boast in high lethal damage. The Gilles player would often need to utilize Master Seals to finish off enemies over saving them defensively when against a high priority target as this build focuses heavily on zoning over killing.↵

#### **Spellbook Build**

**Skill Build**

* W = R > Combo > Q / E / Stats

**Special Attributes**

* Eye for Art > Black Magic = 10 MS > MAX Str

**Skill Sequence**

* **C** > WW > WD > WQ > **S**/**EX**
* R > **S**/**EX** > **C** > Squid E > WD > WQ > WW

This build have high single target burst damage and is a hard counter against Reality Marbles like Iskandar and Emiya. WQ deals damage according to distance traveled. With high skill investment, the damage is almost always lethal when you catch them without **A** & **B scrolls**. However, this build is a lot more vulnerable to flankers with Gilles losing his scouting capabilities.

This build relies more on sealing to escape fights as it is a very short ranged build on a fragile hero. Do not hesitate to refresh your Blink Scroll once or a few times to escape fights.

#### **Rider Spellbook Build**

**Skill Build**

* W = R > Combo > Q > Stats > E

**Special Attributes**

* C'thulu > Eye for Art > MAX Str

A more defensive approach to the Spellbook Build. Instead of personally running around, vulnerable to being burst down while he flanks, this build tries to rush C'thulu SA to gain access to Integrate for safer movement. However, because riding the squid means losing access to your **blink**, this build tend to be less responsive and need to position more aggressively to quickly respond to nearby fights. However, its safety makes it a comfortable introduction to the Spellbook build for newer players.

## **Tips & Tricks**

* Binding Units to Group Keys is important to playing Gilles to his maximum potential. Everyone has their own preference and comfort but you can start finding your own preferred set up by trying out this setup.
	+ 1 = Select Hero Unit
	+ 2 = Select Squid/Gigantic Horror (R summoned Unit)
	+ 3 = Select All Units
	+ 4 = Select Master (Shirou)
	+ 5 = Select All Other Units
* Gilles de Rais have a very low starting movement speed at 350. If you find yourself joining to fights too late, needing to run away a lot from enemy Servants or needing to flank the enemy (not inside squid), consider purchasing 3 **Movement Scrolls** over a **Link Scroll** instead.
* When you're having a hard time against flankers like Assassins, consider taking **Attribute: Eye for Art** and buying **Ward Familiars** with your extra gold.
* Place **Ward Familiars** in locations behind walls that you expect yourself to stand behind to stay away from the frontline. Try not to utilize the wards on flank routes as Gilles will not have the mobility to place forward wards in time, nor would he have the ability to survive if he gets caught. Instead, utilize the wards to spot enemies that are too close. To spot flank routes, utilize Gilles' Q summons instead.
* **Attribute: Eye for Art** allows you to gain true sight over enemies that use spells when they are within 2000 range of you. This means, even if they have invisibility, **Eye for Art** still grants you vision over them for 5 seconds. When you take this Attribute, try to stick close to your team so they can assist you in attacking that enemy when they appear on the map, and protect your teammates as well who may be weak against flankers.

* Casters generally tend to be Early Game servants as they are very weak against **Anti-Magic Grail Shard**. As a Caster, Gilles should heavily focus on getting as many round wins as he can in the early-mid game as if the enemies get to 14 deaths, Gilles' damage and control can be rendered nonexistent as multiple enemies gain access to magic immunity.