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Hide of the Urchin
Ninja Tabi
Jotunn's Wrath
Runic Shield
Transcendence
Shifter's Shield
Breastplate of Valor
Void Shield
Mystical Mail
Breastplate of Regrowth
Stone of Gaia
Runeforged Hammer
Magi's Cloak
Creeping Curse
Hand Of The Gods (Old)
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Hello, i'm Rampageriley. I'm here to tell you about the legitimate boss that is 
Guan Yu, a brief guide assessing the capabilities on one of my new favorite gods!. As one of the best supports in the game, he has the perfect balance of tankiness, damage, and sustain. His mobility is nothing to underestimate either. As a very well-rounded god, the only thing that he seems to not have going for him is no ranged attacks whatsoever. Nevertheless, prepare to mount up and charge into battle as the Chinese 'Saint of War'.
Focus on maxing CDR so that you can spam your abilities more, which is what Guan Yu is about. He can also be built well as damage, and is capable of high kill-streaks and exciting game-play. Many items are situational, so feel free to improvise.
Bruiser or Damage
1. Hide of the Urchin
One of the best items for Guan Yu hands down. Grants you 65 protections each when fully stacked, and extra health and mana. Almost a mandatory item unless your enemy team is completely physical or magical. Buy first to start building stacks early.
2. Ninja Tabi
If you are going bruiser, you need these epic boots for the CDR (also to be a true ninja warrior). If you plan on going damage, 
Warrior Tabi is a viable option for extra penetration, along with other CDR items like 
Hydra's Lament and Jotunn's Wrath.
3. Breastplate of Valor or Jotunn's Wrath
If you are building bruiser, you should have gotten Breastplate of Valor by now. If you want more damage, you could plan on getting Jotunn's Wrath instead of this item if you prefer, but a good base-line is Breastplate of Valor because Guan Yu definitely needs all the mana he can get for spamming abilities. Great with Transcendence, giving you more than enough mana to get the job done.
4. Runic Shield or Stone of Gaia
If you like stacking HP5 and MP5 on high sustain warriors as much as I do, then this item is a must. Otherwise, just buy Runic Shield if you feel it is a safe amount of magical protection against your opponent's composition. For instance, if they have an 
Anubis or 
Ao Kuang with heavy burst damage, Runic Shield is a good option for the passive without giving up power. If they have low burst, Shield of Regrowth is amazing for the sustain.
5. Transcendence
This item is unfortunately under-rated. Every stat this item has is great for Guan Yu since he is mana-hungry, and needs sheer physical power. It is relatively easy to stack, awards 1050 extra mana, and one of the most powerful items in the game. Combined with the passive, this item grants 66.5 physical power, and thats not even accounting for your own mana pool. This item has easily granted me over 200+ physical power while stacking mostly bruiser, so this is ideal with any build. I use this as a core item in a bruiser build since it gives the sheer power and sustain I need.
6. Shifter's Shield
A good item for bruisers and gods that are expected to shift between high and low health, like 
Hercules. This item fits in nicely to this build, but can easily be substituted for more protections.
NOTE: Do not worry about stacking attack speed, crit, lifesteal, or health. they are almost worthless since Guan Yu is not auto-attack reliant and his Conviction does not scale with additional health. therefore, protections are more useful. Focus on stacking sheer power and CDR to make the most of your cooldowns.
Active Items:
Hand of the Gods:
Aids in lance clear and ideal for being a support.
Creeping Curse: Brutal slow when going in on your horse, or Taolu Assaulting an enemy.
"Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win." -Sun Tzu
Painless empowers your Conviction, allowing you to heal up after taking a number of blows. Also allows your auto-attack to utilize a cool progressive swing. You should try to avoid burst damage, considering your passive does not give you additional stacks depending on the size of a hit.
Conviction is your bread and butter. It reduces cooldowns at the same time as healing you depending on the damage you have taken. Also boosts protections, like a true support! Tell your allies to group up for this (VVVG)!
Warrior's Will is a nice gap closer or even an escape. Since it makes you immune to CC while dashing, you can easily escape 
Hades' ultimate! Also slows enemies for a short time. Do not forget it reduces cooldows if you hit enemy gods.
Taolu Assault is one of the most fun moves in the game in my opinion. It does a nice bit of damage and forces people to move away. Do not be afraid to use this to clear minion waves. The longer you use it on someone, the more damage it does, because it reduces protections and buffs you the same amount. You will want to upgrade this as your main damaging ability.
Cavalry Charge is your epic ultimate, used to chase people down and secure kills. Or, it is a practical escape by making you immune to CC. The last hit stuns targets, preparing them for a follow up of combos. When mounting up, remember to sing to yourself (or if your in a Skype call especially), "Look at my horse, my horse is amazing! Give it a lick, MmMmMmMmMm tastes just like raisins!"
Team work as Guan Yu is definitely vital. This god is definitely a team player, who contributes in healing, chasing people down, poking, and tanking. You should be the guy who initiates combat head-first, letting your allies attack from the sides.
Team Combat
Guan Yu is responsible for distracting, being a bruiser, and overall keeping people alive and their morale up. Kills will definitely follow naturally when contributing in a fight with your allies. Basically, he is mainly a support.
Early Game
Assist your allies in anyway possible. Keeping enemy gods at bay while your carry clears lanes, getting them the jungle buffs, and informing them of an enemy's location. Hand of the Gods and 
Watcher's Gift is almost a necessity for conquest, and prove to be very useful items for Guan Yu. As you are particularly weak early game, just focusing on farming and not dying, which is fairly easy for this god if you are not reckless.
Mid Game
Go after towers, hunt down squishies, and be constantly annoying to enemy gods. Lowering their morale plays a big part in being a good support.
Late Game
This is it kids. Mount up, clear towers, and do whatever you can to defend your titan and pursue the enemy's. Guan Yu is a fairly straight forward god. Stay with your team and make their lives that much easier...
That is pretty much my brief guide of Guan Yu. Just decided to share how I view and play this god after trying him out and having a lot of fun with him. I hope you enjoyed this guide, and feedback is always appreciated. :)
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Really I see nothing wrong with this guide, it's solid and basically a good example for anyone trying to start up with Guan Yu, but honestly no one has to follow a guide word from word, I mostly just look up guides for some item hints or just tips on how to use abilities in right and wrong situations. Guan Yu is a relatively easy god to play for anyone and I can't see how people can tell me Sun Wukong is easy when I suffer pretty terribly with him xD
PERSONALLY, I prefer Warrior's Tabi over Ninja's, Guan Yu to me gets enough CDR through his kit and Jotunns Wrath, but naturally as a Bruiser/Warrior I look for items that give power while also providing a nice power up to your defenses,
I know this guide is almost two months old now but I figured since I've been playing a lot of Guan Yu in 3v3 recently I'd come pay respects to the guide that started me on the path of a warrior ^_^, don't let anyone down trod you for just taking a crack at a guide, too many superiority complexes around here xD.
Thanks man, that means a lot. Too bad he got some recent nerfes, but he's still pretty great. I was gonna get him to legendary too, but I kinda slacked off :P I always use this build when I play him and after I destroy people each match, I get comments like "nice build, I like how most of the sheer power comes from
PERSONALLY, I prefer Warrior's Tabi over Ninja's, Guan Yu to me gets enough CDR through his kit and Jotunns Wrath, but naturally as a Bruiser/Warrior I look for items that give power while also providing a nice power up to your defenses,
I know this guide is almost two months old now but I figured since I've been playing a lot of Guan Yu in 3v3 recently I'd come pay respects to the guide that started me on the path of a warrior ^_^, don't let anyone down trod you for just taking a crack at a guide, too many superiority complexes around here xD.
great guide , short , simple , useful , using that build now , and the music is funny just like geb's guide
Thank you for this. I really look forward to reading your comments on my guide, because you always give me so much helpful information. :)
I'm not sure you got me. I'll stop the jibber-jabber. I have a Guan Yu guide and It's much better that you look at it instead of me writing a long-*** comment about it.
In this guide you talk about his play in teamfights like he's a support but your build/builds disagree with that. He's meant to get in their faces, initiate!
I agree with Jordenito Meditation isn't a great item outside of Assault.
Your cons list for
"-Not much burst
-Lack of CC"
A nice ability combo description would be nice to add or add further on.
Overall a decent guide that may be short but still good! I think it deserves an upvote
I myself am not a fan of auto-attack-on-hit-effects on Guan. His abilities are overwhelming and his swing chain doesn't fit for applying them. Apart from
The skills are fine.
It seems that you are not familiar with the use of columns. I'll explain it shortly (this is not a criticism it's just to help you out).
The code:
You can mess with the numbers to change the size. Note that the numbers represent the amount of pixels. You can also put more columns just by typing more [nextcol]s.
Look, I can write endlessly about this guide, and give my opinion, but I'll just say this; there is a Guan Yu guide which I really like, and your probably know it. Check it out.