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Hades is no mage, Hades is a guardian!

0 0 15,764
by Vithaliy updated August 14, 2015

Smite God: Hades

Build Guide Discussion 6 More Guides
Choose a Build: Full Tank
Full Tank Moderate
Tap Mouse over an item or ability icon for detailed info

Hades Build

Start

Build Item Cloak Cloak
Build Item Watcher's Gift Watcher's Gift

Mid game

Build Item Hide of the Urchin Hide of the Urchin
Build Item Watcher's Gift Watcher's Gift
Build Item Bulwark of Hope Bulwark of Hope
Build Item Breastplate of Valor Breastplate of Valor
Build Item Warlock's Staff Warlock's Staff

Late game

Build Item Hide of the Urchin Hide of the Urchin
Build Item Bulwark of Hope Bulwark of Hope
Build Item Breastplate of Valor Breastplate of Valor
Build Item Warlock's Staff Warlock's Staff
Build Item Spirit Robe Spirit Robe
Build Item Ethereal Staff Ethereal Staff

Mandatory Active

Build Item Shield of the Underworld Shield of the Underworld

Recommended Actives

Build Item Girdle of Support Girdle of Support
Build Item Greater Sprint Greater Sprint
Build Item Salvation Salvation
Build Item Shell of Absorption Shell of Absorption

SITUATIONALS

Build Item Celestial Legion Helm Celestial Legion Helm
Build Item Lotus Sickle Lotus Sickle
Build Item Heartward Amulet Heartward Amulet
Build Item Sovereignty Sovereignty
Build Item Void Stone Void Stone
Build Item Shoes of the Magi Shoes of the Magi
Build Item Gem of Isolation Gem of Isolation

Hades's Skill Order

Death From Below

1 X Y
Death From Below
2 8 11 12 15

Shroud of Darkness

2 A B
Shroud of Darkness
3 14 16 18 19

Devour Souls

3 B A
Devour Souls
1 4 6 7 10

Pillar of Agony

4 Y X
Pillar of Agony
5 9 13 17 20
Death From Below
2 8 11 12 15

Death From Below

1 X
Hades descends into the ground and erupts from below at his ground location, doing damage to all enemies in the area. If the enemy is Blighted, they are also Slowed. Applies Blight.

Ability Type: Circle, Leap, Damage
Damage: 70 / 120 / 170 / 220 / 270 (+60% of your Magical Power)
Slow: 20 / 25 / 30 / 35 / 40%
Slow Duration: 2s
Radius: 20
Cost: 50 / 55 / 60 / 65 / 70
Cooldown: 14s
Shroud of Darkness
3 14 16 18 19

Shroud of Darkness

2 A
Hades silences all enemies in a cone in front of him. If the enemy is Blighted, they are also Feared. Applies Blight.

Ability Type: Cone, Crowd Control
Silence: 1 / 1.25 / 1.5 / 1.75 / 2s
Cost: 60
Cooldown: 14 / 13 / 12 / 11 / 10s
Devour Souls
1 4 6 7 10

Devour Souls

3 B
Hades devours the souls of his enemies, dealing damage in an area around him. Blighted enemies hit by this ability are Detonated, dealing damage to enemies and healing your allies around the Detonated targets. Enemy gods only take 50% of the damage from Detonating Blights.

Ability Type: Circle, Heal, Damage
Damage: 75 / 115 / 155 / 195 / 235 (+70% of your Magical Power)
Detonated Damage: 10 / 20 / 30 / 40 / 50 (+50% of your Magical Power)
Detonated Healing: 20 / 35 / 50 / 65 / 80
Detonation Radius: 20
Radius: 20
Cost: 60 / 65 / 70 / 75 / 80
Cooldown: 10s
Pillar of Agony
5 9 13 17 20

Pillar of Agony

4 Y
Hades calls to all enemy souls nearby, creating a Vortex which drags targets toward him, dealing damage every .5s for 4s. For each enemy hit Hades reduces his ability cooldowns by 0.4s. If the enemy is Blighted, their Protections are reduced. Hades also gains Protections and 10% damage mitigation for the duration.

Ability Type: Circle, Vortex, Damage
Damage per Tick: 45 / 60 / 75 / 90 / 105 (+30% of your Magical Power)
Protections: 60 / 85 / 110 / 135 / 160
Protections Debuff: 10% + 10 / 15 / 20 / 25 / 30
Protections Debuff Lifetime: 4s
Radius: 30
Cost: 100
Cooldown: 90s

Introduction

Why to play Hades?

First, because he looks really cool, but most of all because of his abilities that grants him with pretty good combos for most type of games. He's also pretty great to control lanes and engage fights.
If you are not convinced yet, just remember the times you lost a game just because Hades got all your team killed at once.

About the author (I always dreamed of doing that):
I might add that I'm an Xbox One player (it's been released only for 3 weeks so far), so I don't have the same level of expertise that most of you PC-gamers that have been playing for a long time now.

I should also mention here that I'm no native English speaker, so please be lenient if I'm not making myself perfectly clear, and feel free to correct my English in the comments ;)

Abilities

Blight is Hades passive that will give extra powers to your abilities when applied to enemy gods/minions. In order to Blight an enemy, you have two options: basic attack or Death From Below.

Death From Below is a leap that will makes area damages and most importantly that will apply Blight to all enemies in the area. That will be the basis of most of your moves and combos and that is also a good tool for escaping difficult situations. In attack phase in early games, don't use it if you don't have enough mana to use Devour Souls just after.
Another interesting fact is that this ability let you go through walls.

Shroud of Darkness is a silence move that might also stun if the enemy god is blighted. If will be important during defensive phases.
NB: Using this attack will "consume" the Blight, so you shouldn't use it before the Pillar of Agony.

Devour Souls is your everything. That's for damages AND healing. In most cases, you will use this attack just after Death From Below in order to deal a lot of damages to minions and heal yourself and any other ally god in the area. That can of course be applied to enemy gods. Remember that if an enemy is not blighted, you won't get healed.
NB: Using this attack will "consume" the Blight, so you might want NOT to use it before the Pillar of Agony if you don't have good support.

Pillar of Agony is the reason to choose Hades but also probably the reason you'll die if you don't have a good build to support your abilities.
When doing this attack, you'll be pretty opened to all attacks, especially AOE. In order to survive, you'll need a lot of protection, some good actives and a good support from your team mates. You most likely won't be able to kill the enemies on your own with this attack unless there almost dying, so you will need your allies to shoot and make the kills.
If the enemy gods are blighted, a debuff will remove some of their protection (both magical and physical, which will help your team mates).

Don't forget that your enemies can get away from your ultimate, so it can be wise to wait for them to use it before engaging.

My tip to improve your survival rate and kill ratio is to use the Shield of the Underworld just before the Pillar of Agony. If a god tries to counter you with damages, he'll probably kill himself more quickly with reflected damages. This item was probably build for the King of the Underworld anyway ;)

Hades is not a mage

If you want to deal a lot of damages or if you are obsessed with how many kills you will have at the end of the game more than winning the game, then you should probably skip Hades and try a real mage, go play Scylla!
I often see Hades builds that are mage builds, using only MP items. Sure, you'll do great in some games and you'll get some decent kills... but this is probably not the best way to take advantage of Hades abilities, and you'll be as vulnerable to assassins as any mage. Just yesterday I serial killed a mage Hades with Loki in the arena (like 8 kills to 0).

Hades is a guardian

He shall not die.
Hades is one tough god to kill, because of his ability to escape ( Death From Below), his ability to self heal ( Blight+ Devour Souls) and his protection when throwing his ultimate ( Pillar of Agony).
In order to make sure you will be able to survive your ultimate, you should have a good protection basis. That's why you should remember he's a guardian, not a mage.

Making damages to other gods on your own is secondary. The damages of your ultimate will mostly come from your team mates, if you perform your moves correctly, and with the right help.

However, if Hades is a guardian, he's also a pretty god solo laner for Conquest or Siege. Keep that in mind, I'll come back to it later.

Moves and combos

Minions Killer Machine


Starting somewhere around lvl 7 you should be able to kill waves of minions on your own. That's pretty simple to do :
Step 1. Use your Death From Below to appear in the middle of the minions. If they are running, anticipate their movement to be in the middle of them in order to apply Blight to all of them.
Step 2. Use Devour Souls to kill them and restore your health (and ally gods's health in the area)

Border Line


I like to call this move "Border line", but this is of course a name of mine. The idea is pretty simple but also pretty efficient in early games for Joust, Conquest, Siege and Assault.
It can be used when players are trying to take your tower, or with players that like to play really close to tower lines to kill minions.
Once I was really close to make a penta kill using this move during an Assault game. So close.

Step 1. Use your Death From Below to appear between your tower and the player(s)
Step 2. (Optional) Kill minions using your Devour Souls
Step 3. (Optional) Activate the Shield of the Underworld if you already have it, especially if you did Step 2, because the enemy gods are no longer blighted and their protections are not lowered.
Step 4. Use your Pillar of Agony to bring the players at the tower range. 3 shots of the tower should most likely kill the player (in addition to the damages you already did

Thunder-stuck


Come on. You all know ACDC right? Anyway, this move is pretty simple... provided there is a Zeus in your team. This works fine in Joust and Arena, sometimes in Assault, Siege and Conquest, though it's rarer to have move that 3 players at the exact same place.

Step 1. Use your Death From Below to appear in the middle of your enemies
Step 2. (Optionnal) Activate the Shield of the Underworld if you already have it
Step 3. Use your Pillar of Agony to bring the players at the tower range. 3 shots of the tower should most likely kill the player (in addition to the damages you already did
Step 4. Let's Zeus make the kills with his ultimate.

Remarks:
1. Don't use Devour Souls unless you want to get health from minions, because it will consume enemies' Blight.
2. This move works also with any god with good AOE, but the play on words work only for Zeus. And Zeus is one of the best anyway.

Runaway


It is possible at some point that you are really vulnerable and might want to get away from an area. As my default builds do not use shoes (even if you have the Shoes of the Magi as situationals), you might consider other options.
My favorite is the following :
Step 1. Apply Shroud of Darkness to your enemies
Step 2. Leap using Death From Below
Step 3. (Optional) If there are minions nearby, use Devour Souls to restore some life
Step 4. Use Greater Sprint

Builds : The "no-shoes" explanation

I won't go into much details regarding the items I chose, because I guess it's quite obvious what I'm trying to do : max my protection and HP while trying to take advantage of this to have some Magical Power (using the Ethereal Staff in the full tank build for instance).
Also, the Warlock's sash is a really valid choice considering you'll clear a lot of minions waves and max it really easily in most games.

However, I feel like I need to explain why I don't put shoes in the core build items while obviously everybody uses shoes : I don't mind being slow. What I want to do is to put myself in the middle of my enemies, and I can do that by leaping, of just by letting them chase me. As I don't do a lot of basic damages, they won't focus on me unless I use the Pillar of Agony (that's their mistake).

Regarding escape, I think that my "Runaway" move is efficient enough to allow me not to buy shoes.

BUT PLEASE GIVE ME YOUR FEEDBACK AND IMPRESSIONS ABOUT IT

Arena walkthrough

Maybe that's not the easiest game to start with... but you can make it work in the arena if you have good team mates.
Basically, I only choose Hades in the arena when :
1- Other players are using their mic (or are really playing smart)
2- There is at least 1 ally god with good AOE (like Zeus)... but if point 1 is valid (otherwise it is useless, you won't be fast enought to synchronize your combo if he initiates)
3- There is at least 1 hunter (so that I don't have to worry a lot about minions), Neith would be the best choice due to her good ability with CC and her sniper ultimate to finish/stun the gods that might escape

If you have those 3, then you can defeat almost any team.
My dream team in the arena would be Zeus, Neith, Bakasura or Loki, Bellona or Guan Yu and of course Hades.

In the enemy team, I really like when there are a lot of Assassins and gods without escape abilities... because that might mean a lot of easy kills.

In the arena, I generally wait for the other gods to buy their 2nd item to really decide what build I will use. Most of the time (I remind you that I play on Xbox One) only one opponent really boosts his protection (sometime none). If there is no tank in front of me, then I would play the "Moderate" build, in order to be able to deal some damages, and I might switch one item with Shoes of the Magi in order to run away if I go low in life.

My strategy would be quite simple :
Early Game
Lay low. Don't die. Take opportunities for kills if you can using the Death From Below + Devour Souls combo
Mid Game
Buy the Hide of the Urchin and Shield of the Underworld as soon as possible to max the Hide of the Urchin stack (should be easy with assists) and increase your damages when using the Pillar of Agony.
When possible, if you are really comfortable with your protection, buy the Warlock's Sash asap as well, because it takes more time to max the stack.
Late Game
You should now deal low damages compared to your opponents, that's no biggie. If your team is doing fine with kills, play it safe by adding extra defense and CDR ( Breastplate of Valor is a wise choice) to use your Pillar of Agony as often as possible. If you need to play risky to win the game, then buy some extra damages and shoes, for example the Rod of Tahuti and the Ethereal Staff.

Joust, Siege, Conquest and Assault walkthrough

In most of those games, you will probably be a solo laner, because you can take a lot of damages and you will early be able to clear waves of minions. However, at the end of the game, you'll be requested to be in the melee in order to kill as many enemy gods at once as possible.
I generally go for the "full tank" build, unless there is a clear tendency on enemy gods using similar kind of damages (physical or magical), in which case :
Physical enemy gods :
- Replace the Bulkwark of Hope by the Celestial Legion Helm
- Replace the Spirit Robe by the Rod of Tahuti (you have already good physical protection with the Hide of the Urchin, Breastplate of Valor and Celestial Legion Helm)

Magical enemy gods :
- Replace the Brestplate of Valor by the Void Stone
- Replace the Spirit Robe by the Rod of Tahuti (you have already good magical protection with the Hide of the Urchin, Bulkwark of Hope and Void Stone)

NB: In Joust, this happens most all the time because there are only 3 enemy gods.

Early Game
Lay low. Don't die. Kill Minions.
I would recommend buying one of two mana potions to stay on the lane longer and the Watcher's Gift to make more cash quickly (cause your builds are expensive)
Take opportunities for kills if you can, but don't play too risky. Use towers at your advantage, and try the "Border Line" move if you can

Mid Game
As for arena, buy the Hide of the Urchin and Shield of the Underworld as soon as possible to max the Hide of the Urchin stack and increase your damages when using the Pillar of Agony.
When possible, buy the Warlock's Sash asap as well, because it takes more time to max the stack.

Late Game
Your main goal will be to kill all enemies at once in order to finish the game. In order to do so, you should synchronize with your team mates so that you can use your special combined with them all. A sort of Mega Thunder-stuck move if you will.

NB: For late game, Sovereignty and Heartward Amulet are of course good items, especially it you're not the only one wearing it...

Assault special consideration

Unfortunately, you will have to remove the Warlock's Sash from both builds if you are playing assault, because it's banned. No worries, you can use the Gem of Isolation instead. That's it.

Leave a Comment

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1
Vithaliy (8) | September 21, 2015 6:45am
Yes, I removed the "full tank" build as it was never working out. Also, regarding boots, I tend to use it more often now, especially because Sun Wukong is big right now in the solo lane and mobility is more important than ever.

EDIT : Just updated the builds! ;)
1
Diomedes232 (6) | September 21, 2015 6:39am
You shouldn't build hades full tank and you shouldn't build him full Mage. That and unless you are playing 1v1 you should always buy boots. If not you will be absolute gank treats and the jungler will never leave your lane. That and your rotations around the map to teamfights will be terrible. The other reason to buy boots is to help allow you to dodge abilities otherwise you may be able to take more hits but you will take every hit... Period.
1
Vithaliy (8) | August 23, 2015 3:11pm
Hi Devampi, thanks for your comment as well.
I mentioned Heartward Amulet and Sovereignty for the late game and team fights, but I confirm that I did not always choose those in the early game. Regarding Warlock's Sash, I agree that we should start stacking early (I usually build tier 2 of Stone of Gaia and tier 3 of Breastplate of Valor then directly the Warlock's Sash), but even if you don't stack early it's still a great item for Hades combined with the Ethereal Staff. However you're right, I'll put it earlier in the build to make sure that people don't get mistaken.

Vithaliy wrote:

Late Game

At this stage of the game, Sovereignty and Heartward Amulet are of course good items, better than Bulkward of Hope and Breastplate of Valor, especially it you're not the only one wearing it.
However, if you plan to solo lane, then it might be a burden for you (and therefore all the team) in early-mid game if you're not beyond the enemy god in your lane. (That's why I put them into situationals)
Anyway, you can consider selling Bulkward of Hope and Breastplate of Valor in the late game and buying Sovereignty and Heartward Amulet for the late game with team fights. This will cost you approximately 1200 to perform the items change. It's a lot but it's a valid investment for your team.


Regarding the Watcher's Gift I only have it in the support build, have I some typo in my guide? In the solo builds, I go for the Vampiric Shroud as well.
1
Devampi (105) | August 23, 2015 4:47am
It's good you mentioned him in the solo lane otherwise I was going to say that Heartward Amulet and Sovereignty are core (for support). Still you would need them on your team anyway.

And well hades is normally build in a more bruiser style as he is normally found in the solo lane. I do find some items misplaced being warlock's sash for 1 (if you go stacking you should be building it early or not only Hide of the Urchin doesn't apply to this rule.

for some other things I'm missing Stone of Gaia or the popular Bancroft's Talon for not needing to rely to much on your heal (as in assault you aren't going to heal a lot from minions) or heal better.

and well the Watcher's Gift being very misplaced for conquest. in the solo lane you will be last hitting so you won't make use of it's passive and it's not hard to miss last hits as you can insta clear them with a combo. you will also get less money from the passive if you just let the minions die (the last hit bonus is at least 6 or 8 gold instead of the 4 gold you get from the pasive). my recommendations would be to take Vampiric Shroud or Mark of the Vanguard.

regarding the warding issue you should always have wards up so you will always have that problem. and wards pay back in ~2.5 minions (Last hits) a ward. you may have less damage mitigation but you will have a bigger pool. especially late game this will pay of better as you won't be clearing a lot after laning phase (making the sash pick up pretty worthless)
1
Vithaliy (8) | August 23, 2015 1:42am
Thanks a lot for your feedback. I was pretty sure that the lack of boots will be a problem, that's why I have a dedicated chapter on this. I guess it's all about play style; if for you it's mandatory then you should include them in the build. When I play solo lane or support, I don't mind behind slower than average, and I still manage not to die often. The second build do include Shoes of Focus though. I strongly suggest to start as a solo laner, it's easier with Hades.

Regarding the stacking issue, it totally agree, and I guess it's possible to get Warklock's Sash as a third or second item, but even if you do, this item require a long time to stack. Getting it as a first item is possible, but it's a bit risky and will extra expose you to jungle ganks. To avoid that, you must ward twice as usual... which also cost money...

Anyway, I appreciate your comments.
1
Rokkir | August 21, 2015 7:17pm
The lack of boots is very unsettling and you should not be stacking near mid to late game. Hades can be an extremely Valid mage if built to duel stack. he cannot support very well in conquest due to thte simple fact of beads out of his ultimate. overall the items are valid and a very detailed guide that the rare few who hades supp will enjoy. but dont be fooled by his scaling, for he can truely be a demonic helion.
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