Gulzár

* Portrait
* In Game

* Ranged

"Can't you feel the magic, whipping the winds to the south? Isn't there a foul taste on your tongue and a tingling in your fingertips? Then you still have a lot to learn..."
—Gulzár, The Shadow of Angmar, Chapter 1: The Invasion of Angmar (Angmar-RPG)

Gulzár was the first Sorcerer of Angmar to serve the Witch-king with the dark arts of necromancy. He specializes in dark magic involving horrid diseases and pandemics, summoning acolytes who host deadly viruses to spread to Angmar's enemies as a form of bio-terrorism. His knowledge of the dark arts is so great, he can even absorb the knowledge of enemy heroes, acquiring new powers to use against them. Should he be faced with a deadly situation, Gulzar can transfer his spirit into any one of his acolytes as a means of escaping death.

Gulzar is one of the many made-up heroes of Angmar, with inspiration drawn from the forum Angmar RPG at ModdingUnion. His story is this: Gulzár son of Gulfár was a man of Umbar who had been captured by the Mouth of Sauron and been sent to the forges of Mordor as a slave. There he got the task to forge a weapon for the Dark Lord himself, but he failed and therefore was sent to deliver the imperfect weapon to the Witch-king. As a reward the Witch-king forced a part of his magic into Gulzár, corrupting him and making him the first of the thirteen sorcerers of Angmar and the head of the council of thirteen. From this day onward he never left the side of the Witch-king, except the one time he served the young Durmarth, even if he had no real reason for it.

Gulzár can be recruited from the Temple of Twilight.

## Abilities

 **Level 1: Plague Bearers -**Gulzár summons a group of his acolytes and conjures a terrible plague within them. Any enemy unit who comes near the Plague Bearers will suffer poison damage. Left click on the desired target area.

 **Level 3: Spread Plague -**Gulzár releases the plague held in his acolytes map-wide in a deadly explosion, dealing heavy damage to any units near a Plague Bearer. Left click to activate.

 **Level 5: Wandering Soul** **-** Gulzár dissolves his physical form and becomes manifest in his acolytes. Left click onto an allied Plague Bearer. This will teleport him to the target Plague Bearer.

 **Level 7: Deadly Ritual -**Gulzár sacrifices all of his Plague Bearers to raise them from the dead as Barrow Wights. Left click to activate.

 **Level 10: Steal Ability -**Gulzár uses his magical knowledge to steal an ability of an enemy hero. He may not steal a new ability if he dies and is revived. Does not work on Hobbits and Summoned Heroes. Left click hero. This will replace his '''Steal Ability '''with a ability of the target hero. This ability will remain until used, when used the ability will be deleted and **Steal Ability** will enter cool down.

## Upgrades

Gulzár can receive one upgrade:

 **Might of the Witch-King** - The might of the Witch-King will be bestowed to a hero gifting them with additional power for 120 seconds. For a limited time, **Gulzar's** spells reload twice as fast

## Strategy

Gulzar is a versatile sorcerer of Angmar, equipped with an arsenal of spells that serve a variety of purposes. His main attack is a volt of dark magic with excellent range suitable for taking down a single, powerful target at a time, such as a mountain troll or an uruk berserker. Combined with his excellent sight range, he makes for a wonderful support unit that weakens enemies from a great distance.

His true powers become manifest when he summons his plague bearers. These are acolytes of his making that, through a combination of unholy witchcraft and decades of profane studies in alchemy, have become the ever-living hosts of a deadly disease. The plague bearers cannot directly attack enemies, but all enemies near them will suffer continuous damage, making them excellent at destroying swaths of enemy units. Since Gulzar can summon acolytes fairly quickly, he can be considered a mass slayer.

Acolytes are summoned in groups of three, cost no command points, and have a fair amount of hitpoints, so summoning them frequently is a priority. Besides using his dark volts, Gulzar "attacks" by sending swarms of his plague bearers into enemy ranks, while he personally targets their more dangerous soldiers from a safe distance. As his level grows, he can also perform a genocidal act of mass murder by creating acolytes that hide in the untrodden corners of the map, then having them enter various places where huge swaths of enemy units are at. With the spread plague spell, every plague bearer across the map will then instantly die, releasing a horrible outbreak and killing hundreds of people at a time.

Plague bearers can also serve a defensive purpose as well. When Gulzar and his minions are stuck in a tight spot, he can transform his acolytes into barrow wights for a period of time, weakening nearby units with fear and slaying them while regenerating themselves with each strike. This can be effective for weakening enemy units or protecting the citadel from a siege involving multiple hero units, or multiple heroic units, but isn't recommended for attacking as the wights have a short time before they all disappear.

Gulzar is also quite capable of holding his own, provided he still has acolytes around somewhere. If cornered, Gulzar can instantaneously escape by teleporting to his acolytes in another area, and he can also copy an ability of enemy heroes to use their own power for Angmar. Beyond that, if Gulzar runs out of both spells and acolytes, he doesn't have the damage, health, or speed to evade assassinations.

## Trivia

* Gulzar's 4.4 quotes came from Pieter Van Eckhardt (Joss Ackland), the dark alchemist from Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness.