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Ares- The Avenger

1 1 14,082
by RoyaltyHD updated October 30, 2012

Smite God: Ares

Build Guide Discussion 2 More Guides
Tap Mouse over an item or ability icon for detailed info

Ares Build

Core Items

Build Item Reinforced Greaves (Deleted) Reinforced Greaves (Deleted)
3
Build Item Healing Potion Healing Potion
3
Build Item Void Stone Void Stone
3
Build Item Pythagorem's Piece Pythagorem's Piece
3
Build Item Rod of Tahuti Rod of Tahuti
3

Situational

Build Item Sovereignty Sovereignty
Build Item Gem of Isolation Gem of Isolation
Build Item Chronos' Pendant Chronos' Pendant
Build Item Polynomicon Polynomicon
Build Item Warlock's Staff Warlock's Staff
Build Item Book of Thoth Book of Thoth

Situational Abilities

Build Item Purification Beads (Old) Purification Beads (Old)
Build Item Creeping Curse Creeping Curse

What NOT to buy

Build Item Mystical Mail Mystical Mail
Build Item Cloak of Meditation Cloak of Meditation

Ares's Skill Order

Shackles

1 X Y
Shackles
3 6 9 13 17

Bolster Defenses

2 A B
Bolster Defenses
2 11 16 18 19

Searing Flesh

3 B A
Searing Flesh
1 4 7 10 14

No Escape

4 Y X
No Escape
5 8 12 15 20
Shackles
3 6 9 13 17

Shackles

1 X
Chains extend from Ares' shield, doing damage to all enemies in its path. Hitting a god shackles them to Ares, Cripples them, preventing movement abilities, dealing the same damage every second while slowing them by 15% and buffing Ares. While shackled, Ares can fire another chain for free within 2s. Jungle Camps take an extra +40% damage.

Ability Type: Line, Cripple, Damage
Minion Damage: 70 / 90 / 110 / 130 / 150 (+15% of your Magical Power)
God Damage per Tick: 20 / 40 / 60 / 80 / 100 (+15% of your Magical Power)
Speed Buff per Target Shackled: 15%
Duration: 4s
Max Shackles: 3
Cost: 70 / 75 / 80 / 85 / 90
Cooldown: 15 / 14.5 / 14 / 13.5 / 13s
Bolster Defenses
2 11 16 18 19

Bolster Defenses

2 A
Ares strengthens the defenses of himself and all nearby allies for 6s, granting Basic Attack Damage, Protections, HP5, and reducing Crowd Control durations. For each shackled enemy, the Protection Buffs are increased.

Ability Type: Circle, Buff
Protections: 20 / 25 / 30 / 35 / 40
CC Reduction: 30%
HP5: 25 / 30 / 35 / 40 / 45
Shackle Bonus: 7
Radius: 35
Cost: 40 / 45 / 50 / 55 / 60
Cooldown: 15s
Searing Flesh
1 4 7 10 14

Searing Flesh

3 B
Flames pour forth from Ares' shield, engulfing enemies in a cone in front of him causing damage every .5s for 4s. Ares is immune to Knockback for the duration.

Ability Type: Cone, Damage
Damage Per Tick: 15 / 20 / 25 / 30 / 35 (+7% of your Magical Power)
% Max Health Per Tick (Gods): 1 / 1 / 2 / 2 / 3%
% Max Health Per Tick (Minions): 4%
Cost: 55 / 60 / 65 / 70 / 75
Cooldown: 12s
No Escape
5 8 12 15 20

No Escape

4 Y
Ares throws chains out to all enemy gods in an area around him. All enemies hit by the chains are pulled to Ares after 2.5s, taking damage and are stunned.

Ability Type: Area
Damage: 200 / 275 / 350 / 425 / 500 (+40% of your Magical Power)
Stun: 1s
Radius: 35
Cost: 80 / 85 / 90 / 95 / 100
Cooldown: 100s

Introduction

Hey everyone, and welcome to my first Smite God Guide on Ares, The God of War.

I hope that you all benefit from this guide, and that it improves and influences how you play Ares.

I prefer to play Ares as a Magical Damage Bruiser, although he can be played as a Pure Tank (however I think you would have to be really silly to build him as a pure tank). Ares is a great asset to any team, and can change the tides of a battle with his impressive skill set.

Just to let you guys know (if anyone is interested) I am Australian, yet come from Greek descent. I can speak Greek, and the title was influenced by the fact that Ares literally means "Avenger" in Greek.

Enjoy the guide!

Pros / Cons

Pros

Very good at chasing people down using Shackles.
Is tanky, yet can deal a lot of damage.
Very versatile- works well with many laning partners.
Amazing ult, which can change the tide of a group battle if used correctly.
Can hurt other tanks using Searing Flesh.
Usually is equipped with Aura items, which can support a team greatly.


Cons

No escapability.
Mana hungry from levels 1-10.
Can be easily countered with Purification Beads, as well as numerous god skills.

Items

Core Items



Reinforced Boots


These are essential for any tank, regardless if you are building them for physical or magical power, or just as a pure tank. CC duration reduction + physical and magical protection = win. Oh, and don't forget the movement speed.

Healing Potion


Buy three of these at the start of the game. If you find yourself laning against aggressive gods, buy some more when you recall. Healing potions will improve your sustain greatly, and will ensure you can earn as much XP as possible early game, without having to recall.

Void Stone


What can I say? This item is amazing. +60 magical power, and an additional +40 magical power from Blessed Presence at rank 3. This also provides Magical Resist, and effectively Magical Penetration, allowing you to inflict more damage against other gods.

Pythagorem's Piece


This item is also very effective when used with Ares. +105 magical power, and and additional +40 magical power from Blessed Presence at rank 3. Also provides Magical Lifesteal, and additional mana to help your sustain.

Rod of Tahuti


BUY THIS ITEM. I don't care which magical damage god you are using. BUY IT NOW. Let me explain. This item in PURE magical power. Take this for instance-
Say you have built the following items:
Reinforced Boots
Void Stone
Pythagorem's Piece
Chronos' Pendant
Gem of Isolation
At this stage you have 335 magical power.
Add the Rod of Tahuti to this build, and that ends up at a total of 552 magical power. That is an increase of 217 magical power, from one item!
BUY IT!

Situational Items



Sovereignty


ONLY buy this item if you are up against an assassin or brawler, such as Bakasura or Thor. This item will greatly improve your tankiness, and you'll find any physical opponents cringing in despair at their lack of damage output. This item helps your team, providing them with physical protection (in a radius), which will make a huge difference during teamfights. Also gives you +90 physical protection, and +40 magical power at rank 3 from Blessed Presence.

Gem of Isolation


This item is very useful with Ares. The slow is amazing, and will make you very effective at chasing enemy gods. Also provides a generous amount of magical power, and increases your sustain.

Chronos' Pendant


I highly recommend this item, especially if the enemy team has Purification Beads. This item will reduce the cooldown of all your skills, reducing the cooldown time of No Escape by 18 seconds. That gives you a 48 second window to use your ultimate (cooldown on beads is 120 seconds). Skill cooldown reduction is extremely useful, and it also provides a fair amount of magical power. In terms of magical power, you are better off buying this than Sovereignty, and receiving the third 40 magical power stack from Blessed Presence. This also increases your mana regeneration rate greatly.

Polynomicon


As I previously explained, Ares can easily have 500+ magical power. Polynomicon provides you with +75 magical power, magical lifesteal and mana. Best of all though is this- Say you just used Searing Flesh in a 1v1. Your next basic attack will then deal 100% of your magical power in additional damage. That is easily a 700+ damage basic attack (60 damage for basic attack and an additional 550+ magical damage).

Warlock's Sash


Whilst this item can be very effective on Ares, I usually don't buy it, as it can be hard to farm with him. This item gives you up to +90 magical power, +460 health and +560 mana at full stacks. This will greatly improve your sustain.

Book of Thoth


Another good item. Provides you with +100 magical power, and also increases your mana and mana regeneration rate.

What NOT to buy



Mystical Mark


Why shouldn't you buy this? Well your better off going with Sovereignty as it provides more physical protection. Another reason I dislike this item is because if you are within 20ft of a god, you will damage them, and attract minion fire (which hurts early game), or be targeted by a tower/phoenix/minotaur. Don't buy it. Please?

Abilities

For abilities, you want to go with:

Creeping Curse


This ability will assist you in chasing down enemies. It is amazing. Alternatively, you can also use it to escape. But come on, I mean seriously, you're Ares! You never run away! Just pretend to run away, lead the enemy to your tower, and use No Escape to drag them to their doom! :D

Purification Beads


You should consider buying these if you're up against a good with a really good CC skill, such as an enemy Ares, Hades or Guan Yu. Pretty much a no-brainer actually, as this ability is useful to have regardless of which god you are using.

What NOT to buy



Meditation


I understand that some people love this item- but please hear me out! Whilst Meditation can be useful, you are better off not buying it when playing Ares. Why?

1. You are better off saving 500 gold to spend on Creeping Curse, Purification Beads or an item- all of which will leave you better off.

2.Meditation will become useless after level 10. Reason being that by the time you are level 10, you will have accumulated enough items to have a high amount of mana and sufficient sustain.

3. You can still farm early game without Meditation! Be conservative! Don't spam Searing Flesh! Use your basic attacks!

Skills

Blessed Presence (Passive)


Each completed aura item that Ares owns grants him 40 additional magical power.

Although some aura items can be beneficial to use with Ares don't feel pressured to buy 3 just to utilise his passive. As I have highlighted in my build, you can never go wrong with Void Stone and Pythagorem's Piece. The only other aura item you should consider buying is Sovereignty, and this is highly situational. Don't be afraid to only have two aura items!

Shackles


Chains extend from Ares' shield, doing 25/45/65/85/105 (+15 percent of magical power) magical damage to all enemies in its path. Hitting a god shackles them to Ares, dealing the same damage every second for 4s while slowing them and buffing Ares by 20%. While shackled, Ares can fire a chain for free within 2s, max of 3.

Cost: 70/75/80/85/90 mana.
Cooldown: 15 s.

The damage this skill deals is actually a lot more than you think it is, especially at later ranks. It also slows enemy gods, and increases your movement speed. The trick with this ability is not to use it early game, as despite the free 2nd and 3rd casts, it can still drain your mana extremely quickly. Be frugal with its use from levels 1-8. Another tip is to use Shackles as enemy gods are running away from you, and their movement is more predictable, rather than using Shackles in a situation where your enemy is strafing.

Bolster Defenses


Ares strengthens the defenses of himself and all nearby allies, granting 15/20/25/30/35 physical and magical protection and reducing crowd control durations by 15/20/25/30/35% for 8 seconds. For each shackled enemy, the protection buffs are increased by 10.

Cost: 60/65/70/75/80 mana.
Cooldown: 13 s.

This skill will save your life. It provides a ridiculous amount of both physical and magical protection. When should you use this? Well use it sparingly early game, but mid-late game you should use it when: an enemy is ulting/about to ult, during teamfights, when you are near a teammate who is in trouble, when running away on low health, when pushing a tower/phoenix/minotaur. Most important thing about this skill is that it lasts for 8 seconds, and has a cooldown of 13 seconds. That means that for 61% of the time, you can have Bolster Defenses activated. Pair this low cooldown time with Chronos Pendant, and you can have it active 75% of the time. That is amazing. Take advantage of this late game.

Searing Flesh


Flames pour forth from Ares' shield, engulfing enemies in a cone in front of him for 15/20/25/20/35 (+7% of magical power) plus 1/1/2/2/3% of the target's max health as magical damage every .5s for 4s.

Cost: 55/60/65/70/75 mana.
Cooldown: 12 s.

I love the fact that you can move whilst casting this. This skill is your farming ability- use it to level up early game- but don't waste your mana to quickly! I tend to use basic attacks the majority of the time, and never let my mana go below half. I use my basic attacks to kill the melee minions, and then use Searing Flesh on the archers, when my mana is above half full.

A good combo is to use all three Shackles on a fleeing enemy, and then using Searing Flesh. When paired with Gem of Isolation this ability is even more deadly and effective.

It is indeed weak early game, but build Ares as a magical damage bruiser, and it will be devastating mid to late game. It is also super effective against tanks.


No Escape


Ares throws chains out to all enemy gods in an area around him. All enemies hit by the chains are pulled to Ares after 2.5s, taking 200/275/350/425/500 (+40% of magical power) magical damage and are stunned for 1s + .3s for each enemy god chained.

Cost: 80/85/90/95/100 mana.
Cooldown: 90 s.

This ultimate is my favourite in the game. It is the ultimate team fight skill, and is so fun to use. It can however, be easily countered by Purification Beads. However the cooldown on beads is 120 seconds, whilst the cooldown on No Escape is 90 seconds. That gives you a 30 second window in which enemies are vulnerable. Build Ares with Chronos' Pendant, and that's a 48 second window. Even if your ult is countered by beads, you didn't waste it- as your enemies are now vulnerable.

This ultimate works well when laning with many other gods such as Hades, Sobek, Odin (if both ults are timed correctly), He Bo and Agni. If you are lucky to be playing in an all Greek God team, the following may happen:

ULTRA GREEK ULTIMATE COMBO.
1. Ares uses No Escape to drag all the enemy gods towards his team.
2. Hades uses Pillar of Agony where Ares lands after his ultimate.
3. Zeus activates Lightning Storm directly overhead Hades, as he activates his ultimate.
4. Artemis uses Calydonian Boar, after Hades finishes his ultimate.
5. Arachne uses Cocoon to pull back any enemy gods who managed to survive this assault (highly unlikely).

*Why didn't I include Cupid in this combo? Because he isn't GREEK. He is ROMAN. GET IT RIGHT HI-REZ.

Creeping / Jungling

Yes and No.

Levels 1-10



NO!
Don't jungle buffs. Just stay in your lane and farm. Just don't - please?

Levels 10-20



YES!
At this stage, if you have followed this guide and built Ares as this guide has explained you should, Searing Flesh should be at the stage when it should be able to kill the non-buff-wielding creeps. There are only 2 rules when it comes to jungling with Ares:

1. ONLY go for the mana buff,health buff or defense buff.
2. DON'T make jungling your main priority. If you are on low mana, and no teamfights are occurring/no towers/phoenixes are being pushed, sure thing, go and jungle the mana buff.

Lane Strategy- Early Game

In the early stages of the game be sure to keep and eye on your mana. My general rule is never to use a skill if you have under half mana, unless it will land you a kill or save your life. Running out of mana will mean you will have to recall, and will potentially result in XP loss. Rarely use Shackles at this stage, and don't overuse Searing Flesh. No Escape will be very effective at this stage in the game. Use it when your laning partners ultimate is also ready, and try and lead enemies towards your tower, then drag them into it with No Escape for easy kills.

Lane Strategy- Mid Game

Start using skills more frequently now. Now is the time where Shackles really shine. Use them to chase down enemy gods and secure kills. By this stage you should have pushed at least the first tower in your lane. Make sure to use [[Bolster Defenses}] when pushing towers. If you have pushed at least one tower, try to look to gank other lanes, especially mid. Pay attention to gank requests and pinging on the minimap. Feel free to start jungling buffs now, although as mentioned earlier, don't make it your main priority.

Lane Strategy- Late Game

Your should have pushed both the towers in your lane by this stage. Look to eventually push the phoenix, and remember to use Bolster Defenses when doing so. At this stage you can also afford to spam Shackles, Searing Flesh and you should have Bolster Defenses activated whenever you are in the vicinity of a god. No Escape can be hurt at this stage, due to the fact that everyone will have enough gold to have bought Purification Beads at some point. Remember the 30 second window you have to use No Escape (48 seconds with Chronos' Pendant)!

Teamfights should be occurring the majority of the time during this stage in the game. Make sure you talk with your teammates, and coordinate your attacks, as well as letting your teammates know when you are going to use No Escape.

Summary

Ares is possibly my favourite god. His skill set is amazing, and he can be so much fun to play with, especially when built for damage output.

Thanks for taking the time to read my first Smitefire guide. I hope you have benefited from it and that it will have improved your understanding of how to play and build Ares.

Please let me know what you guys think of the guide, and I will continue to add new content to it and improve it based on your recommendations.

Also, feel free to ask any questions, as I am happily willing to answer any you have.

Thanks again, best of luck in game,
RoyaltyHD.

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1
Milky (7) | November 4, 2012 9:31pm
668 magical power is just such a ridiculous damage output to have on a tank. Had I finished it with a Book of Thoth and went to pick up red buff, I can guarantee you it would have gone into the high 800s. That would mean my polynomicon attack would do upwards of 800 damage, which is ridiculous to have on an AP brusier. As you can see, I suck at playing a support role.

1
Onaturi | November 2, 2012 5:35pm
Quoted:
Why didn't I include Cupid in this combo? Because he isn't GREEK. He is ROMAN. GET IT RIGHT HI-REZ.


check wiki and ingame it has beeen roman since release of cupid.

Also rest of guide seems similar to msotguides here but will check it
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