This is going to be a very long post.
I have tested Gulzar's level 10 ability against virtually every recruitable hero in the game (and then some) and will report my findings here.
Reference: This is the English description of the ability:
"Steal Ability"
"Requires: Level 10 \n Gulzar uses his magical knowledge to steal the ability of an enemy hero. \n Does not work on Hobbits and summoned heroes \n Left click on a hero"
I tested if he gains any ability at all, if the ability can be used, if it has any effect and if the effect seems to be the one advertised by the description of the button.
Heroes that just have "works" are ones where all the questions above can be answered with "yes", though I have also commented further on some heroes that "test positive"
on all questions but that I find odd for other, somewhat arbitrary, reasons.
This list does not claim to be complete; some abilities listed as working have wonky descriptions, incorrect hotkeys (a lot of those, as far as I noticed) or no FX, for example. Balance was mostly no consideration.
Finally, I often looked into the game files (or let my brother do it) to find out why an ability may be bugged, if I found a reason, it is reported here.
The heroes will be sorted by factions, those in turn do not have any particular order besides the one I tested them in.
Dain - Works
Gimli - Works
Gloin - Works
Thorin III. - Gives "Oakenshield", which works, but is not particularly fitting
Brand - "Black Arrow" has a MISSING description, Gulzar cannot pick up the arrow again
Nori - No new CommandSet is gained, Nori seems to lack the FireWeapon behavior (going forward: "No effect")
Drar - Works (It's quite strong though)
Dain - Works
Narin - Works
Murin - Sends Flood Horses instead of "Images of Dwarves" to trample the enemy
Thorin III - Gives "Oakenshield", which works, but is not particularly fitting
Bofur - Works
Dwalin - Works
Gulzar - Works (wait what? No idea why I have him written down here...)
Thorin II - Works (Apparently he's the one missing - Gulzar stole not only his ability, but his place too, it seems)
Bilbo - No effect, as intended
Balin - Clicking the Button of the ability does nothing; it's likely the Behavior uses another SpecialPower than the CommandButton
Bard - "Black Arrow" has a MISSING description, Gulzar cannot pick up the arrow again
Kili & Fili - No effect, which seems intended as they are technically summoned heroes, however they are perma summons and therefore an exception could be nice
Cirdan - Works
The Twins - Works
Gildor - Works
Elrond - Works
Halbarad - Works
Glorfindel - Gulzar gets a new CommandSet that doesn't exist, therefore his entire Palantir turns black permanently and he loses all abilities
Arwen - The Heal does not actually heal, just fires a TriggerFX (Post Scriptum for heals see below)
Bill Ferny - Works
Lurtz - Works
Wulfgar - Works
Ugluk - Works
Saruman - Works
Sharku - The new CommandButton is greyed out and cannot be clicked; the ability also says "gain 50% double their damage"
Grima - Says it takes over units; actually takes over a hero, the hero also gets the "infighting" FX and is seemingly compelled to attack enemy units instead of listening to commands
Drauglin (Human) - Works
Drauglin (Power of the Witch-King Werewolf Form) - Works
Durmarth - Works
Hwaldar - Works
Helegwen - Works
Karsh - Works
Witch-king - Works
Zaphragor - Works
Gulzar - No effect, probably as intended
Mornamarth - Button greyed out and unclickable
Rumil - Works
Haldir - Works
Celeborn - Works
Orophin - Works
Grimbeorn - No effect
Legolas -
The amount of XP "Train Archers" gives to the Carn Dum Rangers is neglectable, it would need 5 casts or more to reach Level 2.Thranduil -
Shield Wall works but spawns Mirkwood Palace Guards. Halbarad's ability gets Dark Rangers, so I think this should be held to the same standard Galadriel -
The ability can be clicked, but the RadiusCursor cannot be activated anywhere on the field. I assume the new mechanic where Galadriels abilities interact with Gifts of Lorien is responsible for this. Boromir - Works
Gandalf the Grey - Works
Imrahil - Works (No FX though, iirc)
Pippin - No effect, as intended
Faramir - Says it summons 2 batallions of Rangers, but summons 3 instead, the Rangers are Rangers of Ithilien which should be changed to Dark Rangers.
Beregond - The ability effects some buildings (e.g. Towers, iirc) only when they belong to Gondor.
Furthermore, the actual Modifiers are far from what the ability says (for example, castles and fortifications seem to get resistance to 4 types of elemental damage, but nothing else, the description just says they are "half as strong" as other buildings which gain "double armour")
Afaik an issue with the parent ability: The ability has no FX so it can't be conclusively found out if it works or not.
Denethor - No effect
Aragorn (all 4 normal forms) - The ability does not heal anyone (even though it looks like it should, from a glance). See Post Scriptum below.
...Ah, actually, it just came to my mind that Athelas might be using Lua Functions, if that's the case, here's the issue.
Gandalf the White: Not tested, for once.
Theodred -Works
Gamling - Works
Theoden Ednew - Works
Merry - No effect, as intended
Old Theoden - The ability has an outdated description and only works on Mills for Angmar (and on Iron Mines
)
Eowyn - Clicking the Button does nothing (except possibly give you a crossed out cursor that cannot target anything whatsoever), because the Behaviour of the ability has a different SpecialPower than the CommandButton.
Also, the weapon Gulzar would shoot if he actually used this ability can one-hit Ugluk and presumably almost every hero in the game, doing 10k damage before Levelups are factored in.
Eomer - Exact same issues as Eowyn (he grants the same CommandSet)
Hama - Gives triple armour instead of actual invulnerability. I know that's intended at least on Hama's side, but it's also a pretty big difference and the description should say so.
Aranarth (Ranger) - Works
Aranarth (Prince) - Works
Carthaen - Works
Araphant - Works
Gandalf - Works
Glorfindel - Ye olde black Palantir
Malbeth - No effect
Arvedui - As soon as he enters the battlefield, Gulzar (if present) gains the ability "Hold Ground". Already reported by Necro in more detail some posts above.
The Witch-king - Works
Sauronwolf/Gorthaur/Annatar/SauronBats - Works
Necromancer - Works
Gorbag - Works
Shagrat - Works
Mollok - Works
Dark Marshal (all 3 forms, not tested on flying steed) - Button greyed out and unclickable.
Shadowlord (all 3 forms, not tested on flying steed or in armour with Sauron Level 10) - Dread Visage works but has no FX, which is rather important for such an ability. The ability also technically has a minor effect on enemy armor which the description does not say.
Khamul - Damages Buildings around him, but the description says it also gives a debuff to enemy troops which is not the case.
Gothmog - Instead of taking 25% less damage from arrows and siege, Gothmog & friends become invulnerable. Issue with the parent ability, already reported in the Mordor section.
MoS - This Dissent ability seemingly has no effect beyond an FX when used. (There's a small chance it just doesn't work on creeps, will test soontm)
Aaaaand done.
Signed,
The Only True Witchking
PS: Any feedback/questions/corrections are welcome. I can conduct a large number of tests on this ability fairly quickly now, so if you want info that isn't here already, ask away.
PSS: I would love to see this ability used to its fullest potential, which currently just isn't the case. Beyond the bugs, it feels very unpolished and has some major balance issues & inconsistencies, but the concept is awesome so I'd hate to see it go. I'm currently thinking about opening a discussion about this in the Balance section.
PSSS: Healing abilities are weird, especially Athelas. However! There is a far better way to include an ability that heals heroes exactly like Athelas without actually using an AutoHealBehavior (and possibly tinkering with Lua scripts, disgusting
).
I present to you: The PlayerHealSpecialPower! Just make sure to set "HealAsPercent" to False and you can achieve the exact same effect Athelas has. I'll just post an example of code below:
Behavior = UnpauseSpecialPowerUpgrade ModuleTag_BeShorterDammit
SpecialPowerTemplate = SpecialAbilityAragornAthelas
TriggeredBy = Upgrade_Level_5
End
Behavior = PlayerHealSpecialPower ModuleTag_CreateAHeroHealingPower_Level2
SpecialPowerTemplate = SpecialAbilityAragornAthelas
UpdateModuleStartsAttack = Yes
StartsPaused = Yes
HealAffects = HERO
HealAmount = 2000
HealAsPercent = No
HealRadius = 150
HealFX = FX_StreicherAthelas
InitiateSound = AragornAthelesEffect
TriggerFX = FX_StreicherAthelas
End
Behavior = SpecialAbilityUpdate ModuleTag_CreateAHeroHealingUpdate_Level2
SpecialPowerTemplate = SpecialAbilityAragornAthelas
UnpackTime = 1
PreparationTime = 1
PackTime = 3000
UnpackingVariation = 5
End
If you know this already, sorry for rambling, but I think Gulzar could very much use this
That's it from me, this abomination of a post has grown to insane lengths already.
PSSSS: Quotation marks galore.
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Edit 24.10.2021 - Forgot to write "Works" for most of Mordor's heroes.