Win, Pick and Ban Rates
Change vs 2026-09-25
- Tier
- unchanged
- Win Rate
- −0.4pt
Statistics from the official in-game HoK Camp (as of 2026-10-09).
Base Stats
- Max HP
- 3320
- Max MP
- 640
- Physical Attack
- 167
- Magic Attack
- 0
- Physical Armor
- 150|20%
- Magic Defense
- 75|11.1%
- Movement Speed
- 370
- Attack Range
- Ranged
- HP Regen / s
- 44
- MP Regen / s
- 16
Transcribed from the in-game hero status screen. Arcana bonuses are excluded.
Recommended Builds
When the enemy stacks magic defense and you want to delete a backliner in one go.
Boots of the Arcane at 700G lead into Insatiable Tome, so 24% magic lifesteal and 750 max HP are up by 2,760G. Ardent Dominion, bought third, clears crowd control below 30% HP and grants a 4-second shield with +30% movement speed. The last three slots — Savant's Wrath, Sage's Tome, Void Staff — push magic power to 1,122 and cooldown reduction to 15%. Void Staff lands last, adding 45% magic defense penetration on top of the flat 85.6.
When you draw the enemy's focus early and want to hold ground up front.
Augur's Word third and Breakthrough Robe fourth put health, physical defense, and magic defense in place by 7,030G. Breakthrough Robe grants magic power worth 2% of bonus health and magic defense penetration worth 3%, which pays off at +3,150 max HP. Savant's Wrath and its 30% boost wait until the fifth slot, so magic power finishes at 862 — 260 below build 1. Staves of Sorcery closes the build, adding magic damage to the next basic attack within 5 seconds of a cast.
This is what the Popular tab of the in-game Recommended Loadout screen showed on 2026-08-28. The number on each arcana is how many of the 30 slots it fills; each colour adds up to 10. The game also shows a rank and a win rate, but those shift from day to day, so they are not reproduced here.
Strategy Guide
A sound mage whose notes ricochet between enemies and whose ultimate is a five-second concert that hits harder the closer the audience. He plays a mage from a frontliner's position.
Best for: mages willing to stand where mages should not — the ultimate hardens with every enemy nearby, so hanging back throws it away and holding the concert for five full seconds is the job.
Casting Skill 1 during Skill 2's dash grants a second dash. Chain both to land in the middle of a clumped enemy team, then open Skill 3 on arrival. Damage reduction starts at 10% with one enemy hero nearby and adds 5% per extra hero. The center of a brawl is where the full 5 seconds actually goes through.
Basic attacks and skills each count as one performance. The attack right after the third one becomes an energized chord that hits every enemy in its path. It reaches the enemy laner straight through the minion wave, so you poke for 290 (Lvl 1) from a safe distance.
These combos are not official data. They are this site's own write-up, built only from the skill data transcribed from the in-game display; nothing that the skill text does not state is included.
- Ultimate's damage reduction grows with nearby enemies — the deeper the brawl, the longer he survives
- Skill 2's heal and dash recast give rare engage-and-exit mobility for a mage
- Passive's piercing basic attack handles wave clear and poke at the same time
- With the Ultimate down, both damage and durability are ordinary — he can't start fights
- Max damage requires diving the enemy team, and one stun ends the performance
- Skill 1's repeat hits on the same hero are heavily reduced, so single-target burst is low
Until level 4, Gao's only escape tool is Skill 2, so don't force anything in mid lane. Skill 1's notes ricochet to nearby enemies, so land them on the minion wave and let the bounces chip the enemy laner from safety. Every third performance turns your next basic attack into a piercing energy chord thanks to the Passive, so make a habit of finishing each wave clear with a basic attack to speed up your rotations. Skill 2's heal is cut in half when it hits non-heroes, so unless you're escaping, angle the dash to clip the enemy laner.
The moment your Ultimate comes online at level 4, Gao becomes a different hero. At the 4-minute Tyrant, wait behind your frontline, then dash in with Skill 2 the instant the enemy clumps up and start spinning your Ultimate. Its damage reduction stacks an extra 5% for every nearby enemy hero, so counterintuitively, performing in the middle of three enemies keeps you alive longer than half-committing onto one. Casting Skill 1 during Skill 2's dash lets you move again — save it to correct your entry angle.
Once three core items are done around 15 minutes, a single full Ultimate rotation can decide a teamfight. The flip side: while it's on cooldown, Gao is just a squishy mage with a healing dash, so stay off the frontline until it comes back. Before you commit, check which enemy is holding the stun, and only dive after you see it land on your frontline — that's how you finish the channel. The tight corridors around Shadow Tyrant and Overlord suit your bouncing notes, so you contribute plenty with pre-fight poke too.
Open at range with Skill 1 poke — the real play comes when the enemy stacks up. Skill 2 into a Skill 1 recast lands you in the center of their team, and if you survive the Ultimate's full 5 seconds, damage ticks every 0.5 seconds into everyone around you. The 50% move speed on activation decays over 3 seconds, so settle your positioning within the first second or two. If you're about to get dropped mid-performance, don't force the full channel — simply walking back toward your team baits the chase and buys time.
Counters & Synergies
Countered-by and synergy picks are this site's own reading, based on each hero's kit. What the official app publishes is how often heroes are picked together (see "Frequently Paired With" below); it does not publish any rating of how well they match up.
Frequently Paired With
The figures are the "match rate" published by the official in-game HoK Camp: how often these heroes ended up on the same team (fetched 2026-08-14). It is not a win rate, so a higher number does not mean a stronger pairing.
First Skill to Level Up
Source: the official in-game HoK Camp (fetched 2026-08-14). What to level after this depends on the matchup.
Skills
Guitar Solo
| Details | Lvl 1 | Lvl 15 |
|---|---|---|
| Base Damage | ||
| Base Damage | 290 | 580 |
Wild Chord
When multiple notes hit the same hero, subsequent hits only deal 30% damage.
| Details | Lvl 1 | Lvl 2 | Lvl 3 | Lvl 4 | Lvl 5 | Lvl 6 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cooldown | ||||||
| Cooldown | 8 | 7.8 | 7.6 | 7.4 | 7.2 | 7 |
| Base Damage | ||||||
| Base Damage | 340 | 408 | 476 | 544 | 612 | 680 |
String Bender
Using Wild Chord during the dash allows for another dash.
| Details | Lvl 1 | Lvl 2 | Lvl 3 | Lvl 4 | Lvl 5 | Lvl 6 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cooldown | ||||||
| Cooldown | 10 | 9.6 | 9.2 | 8.8 | 8.4 | 8 |
| Base Damage | ||||||
| Base Damage | 450 | 540 | 630 | 720 | 810 | 900 |
| Slow | ||||||
| Slow | 15% | 18% | 21% | 24% | 27% | 30% |
| Health Recovery | ||||||
| Health Recovery | 100 | 120 | 140 | 160 | 180 | 200 |
| Damage Reduction | ||||||
| Damage Reduction | 10% | 12% | 14% | 16% | 18% | 20% |
Rock Out!
| Details | Lvl 1 | Lvl 2 | Lvl 3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cooldown | |||
| Cooldown | 45 | 40 | 35 |
| Base Damage | |||
| Base Damage | 200 | 300 | 400 |
Other Mid Lane Heroes
Stats: official HoK Camp, as of
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