Hades: Drag your Enemies to the Underworld! (Conquest Solo Guide)

Welcome to my guide on Hades in the Solo Lane! In my mind, Hades does a much better job as a Mage in Solo or Mid than he does as a Guardian, purely because his skill set is better suited to causing a whole lot of death than supporting (fitting, since he's the god of the underworld). This guide will aim to show you the Pros and Cons of using Hades as a Solo Laner, the strategy behind using his skills, some items you will want to consider using, and how to handle the different phases of the game.

I have actually brought this guide back to "Work in Progress" phase - a lack of playing Hades Solo has made me out of touch with current solo matchup strategies. On the plus side, I got to expand my god pool a bit (beyond Hades, Eset, and Ra =P ).

Pros Pushes very hard High sustain All-around kit grants mobility, damage, and cc Has some natural bulk

Cons Applying Blight can be tricky Ultimate is easy to escape from Needs to get up close and personal

Hades' passive is Blight, which works very similarly to Zeus' Overcharge. While Hades does not deal extra basic attack damage to blighted enemies like Zeus, he DOES get an additional effect on blighted enemies with ALL of his abilities. Overall, it is very important to get the Blight on enemies and follow up with skills that have the appropriate effects.

Death from Below applies Blight, slows enemies that are already Blighted, and deals damage. This will be one of your methods of applying Blight to minion waves. Be careful, however, as it is your only escape and leaves you susceptible to ganks from the jungler. I suggest warding up and making sure either 1) the jungler isn't around or 2) you have eyes on him/her, and he or she is somewhere else before using Death from Below to Blight minions. Usage of the slow on this skill will be explored futher in the Gameplay section.

Shroud of Darkness is your second method for applying the Blight to minion waves. Like Death from Below, though, it also has useful applications for fighting enemy gods as it will silence them, or fear them if blighted. So be very careful when using this to Blight waves. Usually you will be able to escape a gank with either a fear or Death from Below, but still use caution using either of these skills to apply the Blight. This skill's utility is further explained in the Gameplay section.

So I've been talking a lot about applying Blight to minion waves, and people new to Hades might be asking - why? Here is the answer. Devour Souls is basically a minion nuker. On the surface, it just deals damage. But if the enemy is blighted, they will explode (eeeeeeew!) and deal damage to nearby enemies, and HEAL nearby allies. Two big things to note are that THERE IS NO LIMIT to the amount of explosion heals you and your allies can get (whereas other skills like Tyr's Defense-Stance Power Cleave has a limit of 3) and the heal scales with your magical power.

Pillar of Agony is what Hades is known for - and for good reason! A damage-over-time pull that reduces protections of blighted enemies is a very handy thing for teamfights. Unfortunately, it can be easily jumped out of, dashed out of, or beads-ed out of (though if you're right on top of your enemy when you start, Tier 1 beads will not last long enough to allow an escape).

HOLY SITUATIONAL BATMAN!

Okay, just had to get that out of my system.

You might have noticed that I have the situational items somewhat grouped by their "type" - stack item, cooldown reduction, penetration, lifesteal, and defense. Like I mentioned before, Hades is very versatile and his build can fairly easily morph to your desires. However, because it's a LOT to take in, I also tossed a sample build in there for viewing purposes. I'll also take the liberty of assessing the situational items by type instead of listing out their merits individually.

warlock's sash

Stack Items

warlock's sash

Your primary two options for a stack item are Warlock's Sash and Book of Thoth. If you do opt to build a stack item (and you don't necessarily have to), you will want to buy it early, alongside Vampiric Shroud, since the first tiers of both items cost 700g. Your choice will depend very heavily on the enemy team.



If I don't feel like an enemy team's composition forces me into Sash, I build Thoth.

Cooldown Reduction Items

Let's be real here: Hades has some long cooldowns. Because applying Blight to a minion wave usually takes either his escape or his silence, you will almost always want to build some form of cooldown reduction to soften the blow.

Both of these items have their merits; again, you will want to base your decision on...

1) The enemy team: Is the enemy solo physical? Is the jungler physical? Are you actually taking a lot of damage from these two? You may want to get Breastplate.

2) What you think your build will look like in the future: If you plan to build Hide of the Urchin, you might want to go with Pendant over Breastplate.

Penetration Items

This is where counterbuilding comes into play. If the enemy team is stacking up the magical defense, you may want to go with Obsidian Shard. However, with a very teamfight-y channel-style ultimate, your team's magical gods (almost certainly the mid-laner) would also benefit from Spear of the Magus.

You will almost always get two spear stacks on the enemy with either your 1+3 or 1+4. Most of the time I end up going with Spear over Shard. One quick note though - Blighted enemies lose protections during Hades' ultimate; if the enemy team hasn't built much defense, you may not need to go for a penetration item.

Lifesteal Items

Given that you have a channel ult that essentially roots you, you will likely want to pick up some Lifesteal to stay sustained while the enemies are trying to kill you. That being said, you have multiple options in this department.

Bancroft's Talon will give you more power as you get lower in health. This will come into play as you are ulting - if the enemy hits you, they will take more damage on the next tick of your ult! There is some discussion on the subject in the comments section, but overall I find Talon to be my primary choice in Lifesteal Items.

Polynomicon's passive is pretty decent for Hades. He has to be close to the enemy to be effective, so landing a basic attack, especially after fearing them isn't too much of a problem. It also gives you some mana if you ended up building Thoth.

Divine Ruin should only be built against teams with healers, since Bancroft's Talon and Polynomicon have passives that work much better with Hades.

Defense Items

Magi's Blessing

Oh the choices here! You will not always need to build a defensive item, because Hades is naturally bulky. But if you do, many of the options on this list are really quite self-explanatory.

Dynasty Plate Helm is great for power, penetration, and protection.

Pestilence is a good option if you're facing a magical healer such as Chang'e, Ra, or Aphrodite.

Void Stone will help you with magical power, and your magical teammates with its passive! Consider again that Hades has a pulling, channel ultimate so Void Stone's range is not usually an issue.

Magi's Blessing is for a team full of hard crowd control.

Hide of the Urchin gives you some health and mana (good if you got Thoth!) in addition to all around protections for use against balanced teams.

Ethereal Staff's passive goes nicely with Hades, since he has very good base health and scaling.

This should be pretty common knowledge, but I've seen some weird stuff go down in games, so I'll elaborate on how the beginning of the game goes.

If you're on the "Pristine" Side

1. Help the mid laner with the Mid Camp.
2. If the jungler started at the damage buff, try to get close to the wall of the camp to leech xp from the big cyclops and reach level 2.
3. Clear your mana buff with the jungler.
4. Go to lane.

If you're on the "Destroyed" Side

1. Help the jungler with the speed buff.
2. Clear your mana buff with the jungler.
3. Go to lane.

In the early game laning phase, your task is to outpush the enemy, put as many minions into their tower as you can, and take their tower as soon as possible.

Using Hades, this is a very easy set of tasks. Devour Souls is the key here. It can FULLY CLEAR a blighted wave in one shot, which is more than most solo laners can do. It can heal you once for all 6 of the minions in the wave, which will negate almost any poke the enemy solo hits you with. If you can hit your enemy with it, it deals them a decent chunk of damage as well (this works best with melee gods or first-time Vulcans who Backfire straight into their own wave instead of off to the side*). Essentially, Devour Souls turns your enemy's greatest asset - the minion wave, into a ticking time bomb that could seriously injure them if they're not playing smart.

Once you hit level 5, grab your Pillar of Agony and actively look for chances to use it. If the enemy solo is clearing your wave after you've already taken his/hers, ult him/her. If the jungler comes in for a gank and you are SURE you can take both of them, ult them. If any enemy gets too close to your tower, pull them into its range and let it do the heavy lifting.

If you're doing it right (and it's honestly just a matter of Blight, Devour Souls, Repeat), your enemy will be forced to throw tower VERY early in the game (I'm talking 5 minutes if you're doing really well) and you can roam around a bit.

*I do not endorse the excessive harm of first-time Vulcans.



Congratulations! The enemy's tier 1 tower is down and you're ready to roam. But where to go? You don't want to go too far from home, which means you should be looking primarily to gank middle lane or occasionally take a small camp if your jungler is occupied.

Fortunately, mid is a GREAT place for Hades to gank. Some mid laners do have escapes (such as Agni), but others do not ( Poseidon, Ra, Kukulkan, etc.) and that makes it very easy to tunnel in, pop your ult, get a kill/assist, and waltz back to lane like nothing happened.

If the enemy jungler is occupied elsewhere, you might also think about pushing the tier 2 a bit. Make sure you place a ward in the enemy jungle when you do this, because pushing that far leaves you very susceptible to ganks. However, if taking this risk allows you to keep the enemy solo laner under your thumb, it will be well worth it when he/she can't participate well in late-game teamfights.



Hades often gets a bad rap for having subpar teamfight capability, and I can't say I wholly disagree. His long cooldowns and lack of basic attack presence make it difficult for him to be an enormous factor in the fight, although his general bulkiness can help alleviate some of the pressure from the tank.

When you get to a late-game teamfight, you want to be paying extra-special attention to which enemies are where. This is the part where you drop in some basics to try and Blight enemies. Try not to commit too hard to anything yet.

At the beginning of a teamfight, look for Shroud of Darkness opportunities. I'm talking about preventing the enemy team from initating with bad things like Fear No Evil or a Shining Metal stun. You might not always be able to react fast enough to do this, but if you can, your team will (hopefully) be ready to jump on the opportunity and shred the enemy while they're incapacitated. If you think you can go in with Death From Below and fear multiple burst-y enemies at once, do it. This will turn tricky-to-beat bursters into easy targets.

The middle of a teamfight is also a good place to look for Shroud of Darkness hits if someone else on your team ended up initiating. Look to prevent jumps, dashes, and heals specifically; especially if your team doesn't have a Weakening Curse handy. You should also use it to fear an enemy that's about to finish off one of your allies. 2s is ample time for them to make their getaway.

Your Pillar of Agony should not be your go-to option for initiating a teamfight. Instead, wait for enemy Beads and escapes to go down, then strike with Death From Below and ult away. Use Devour Souls after an ult if the enemy didn't die.

If your ult is down during a teamfight, you should try to trap escaping enemies with a Blight-enhanced Death From Below instead. A 40% slow is nothing to scoff at, and the 2s duration will give your team a lot of time to capitalize on your efforts.

Unfortunately I haven't played a lot of solo Hades lately. Never fear though, this section will return!

Overall, Hades is a very versatile god able to handle many roles. In the solo lane, Hades can clear fast and easily outpush almost anyone, while being able to weather out blows from the hardest of hitters with his incredible sustain. His Devour Souls skill allows him to transform enemy minions into deadly time bombs to make a valuable enemy asset into a dangerous hazard. Pillar of Agony and Shroud of Darkness can help secure kills, and Death From Below gives him a bit of a slippery factor not always found in mages.

I hope this guide has been useful to aspiring Hades players. Enjoy dragging your enemies into the Underworld!

Chiulin for suggesting the addition of a Gameplay section.

Creationism and Sanguis for arguments regarding Polynomicon vs Bancroft's.

Sanguis for suggesting a matchups section (which WILL come back).

Jordenito's BBCode guide for multiple elements that improved the visual state of the guide.

Eriepo for his insightful comments about build choices.

• Visual improvement of the guide (will probably be a while).
• Repopulation of the matchups section.

• 24 Jan 2014: Initial guide published.
• 25 Jan 2014: Gameplay section added. Items section updated to be more detailed. Pros and Cons section updated (forgot a con).
• 27 Jan 2014: Matchups and Credits sections added. Item builds modified.
• 28 Jan 2014: In the Works section added. Added Guan Yu and Nu Wa to the matchups section.
• 2 Oct 2014: Matchups section cleared out. Pros and Cons, Items, Skills, Gameplay sections reworked both in content and appearance.