Kratos Ain't Got S**t

There are actually dozens of tier list made by pro players for the current season and in each ares is between a to a+. And yes I play the game and know the current meta

Well, the higher levels of play you go, the less individual skill matters. The capabilities of the gods themselves become more important than whether or not you can hit with [blank], since everyone will be able to hit with "[blank]."

Teamwork skill is beyond your control, so logically, the biggest factor you should feel are the differences in gods. I think.

Tier lists don't indicate player skill which is a huge factor for in-game experiences.

That's exactly what they said in 2014, you know. "cripple shuts downs escapes, ult is a beads or die." Nothing new there.

The only difference between then and now is the itemization changes, and since all tanks across the board enjoy cheaper protections, the only real benefit that Ares gets is early, easier use of his passive.

Smite doesn't really have an official tier list like League does. But one I did find put him in A rank. You're telling me he got all the way from zero to hero because of that?

I find it much more likely that this is another case of Smite's hive mind-like mentality. There was a time where Artemis was top tier (maybe she still is), but I haven't ever had problems facing her. Apparently, Nemesis is top tier right now, and yet she's, to me, pathetic. There's always been this problem of Smite tier lists claiming one thing and completely contradicting my in-game experience.

And the logic behind Ares' supposed viability is as flawed as ever. "Chain counters escapes" So does Sylvanus' pull, or Athena's taunt, only those actually interrupt things, resulting in a crippling overspecialization. "Ult forces beads or die." Well, as your as long team is quick in following up, the same goes for every other tank's "giant AoE CC ult." "Flame counters knockup." That's only if they try to disable YOU with a knockup, and the enemy CCing the tank instead of the ADC is their own problem - and a support's job, at least in other MOBAs, is to help his allies, not himself, so I see self-knockup immunity as an extremely insignificant point.

And the one ranked game I played, no one picked Ares. No one even mentioned Ares. No one even considered Ares. So like I said, what you're saying is completely contradicting my experience with the game. I really have no clue if we're playing the same game or not.

Lol sub Ares is a A+ Rank Support you are so out of date it isnt even funny. Welcome to 2015, this isnt 2014. Ares is a great pick against gods with a esacpe... which most gods have, his shackle does absurd amount of damage while still beeing tanky with the currten meta tank build. His ultimate force beads/aegis or ults out in every situation if they dont want to die. His flame can be used as a counter against knockup lanes like Bacchus+Anhur.

Ares right know is the very definition of the most aggresiv support god followed by Athena.

Even NA starting to play him, and he is for a reason a very often high comeptitiv picked god in the current meta.

Sub, this is the comments section for a guide, if you just want to bash on Ares and wish for him to be blessed by the buff gods then make a new thread in the forums.

I don't fail to understand anything. Lower level play is not a niche. That's like saying taking candy from a baby in a "taking candy from adults" contest is a "niche." Or that's like saying in chess, playing against a level 0 CPU is a "niche."

Is going all tank a niche? Is going Artemis jungle a niche? Is triple mid a niche? Those strategies are utterly absurd, and yet they work, because you're in lower levels of play. A niche isn't something defined by "your opponents are too stupid to handle it," a niche is defined by "what this god can do that others can't." Example: Apollo's global mobility was a niche.

Ares' ult isn't even that good, since most tanks have the same blink-initiation combo, and can do more things outside of their ults. Sure, other gods can't lock people from escaping for as long, but who would pick a 3 second cripple versus a 2 seconds stun or taunt or root?

Ares does have a niche, the problem is that it is worthless. No one cares about crippling three people for 4 seconds when you can stun three people for 2.25 seconds or taunt three people for 2 seconds, you get the point, and that's not even mentioning the other abilities they have. Hell, other tanks do more overall damage, too, since Ares is almost all single target damage, and the other tanks don't rely on skillshots. He's harder to play for less results, and that isn't a niche, but a grave.

Thanks for more insight. taking all the comments in note.I have also stated in my guide that this is not aimed towards conquest so it meant for things such as arena and joust. things like Pythagorem's Piece help with a tad bit off sustain and power for more aggressive stance. i know the lifesteal falls short on most guardians but i find the power you get from Ares's passive makes it stand out a bit more for him. Subzero you have argued more so if he is a God worth playing rather than if my build sucks. as for the statement on the ult, im not saying not to use it in a group, I'm saying don't just walk into the group. I see player just walk in with ares all the time and people just range his ult or have their finger on beads making it even more easy to counteract. where if you work your way into the line its less expected, just like using blink.

As for greenevers comment. Witchblade is somethings that i juggle for Mystical Mail on a a heavy hunter team or some left clicking assassins but its not often I do this because not often is there more then one. magi's blessing also great but I do not play conquest alot and once again Bolster Defensesi know it does not ignore the CC but the reduction is great. Still a very useful piece none the less.

Ares does not have the amazing CC like Ymir or Sylvanus making less useful when stacking common tank items like Breastplate of Valor. where Ares gets his edge is assisting in helping allies with the burst. I have taken all comments into consideration and will adjust my build or add more builds to this guide on making more of tank support then aggresive support

In reference to the others' comments: Ares is not currently a very competitively viable god in high level play. He's fine in lower level play, and this guide fits very well into that niche... something that subzero seems to fail to understand. However, I would take Greenevers comments seriously since he brings some good points. I would argue that his suggestions are really situational items, but they're REALLY common situational items, at least one of which will probably be used in every match. I would still say that Pythagorem's Piece would be a good choice assuming the other team is not CC, slow or basic attack heavy since it does give your team a nice buff as well, but generally this is not the case.

The build is eh... It's alright but you're missing 3 items that are usually staple on a support or needed at sometime in the match.

Magi's blessing is required for those fights at objectives. The enemy support can blink in, cc you and hog the fg/gf in a split second. Also good for a scape goat incase you're caught out of position.

Witchblade is good to help against some physical auto attack based gods. The item is flexible too since it helps against magical auto atttack gods as well as physical ability based gods too. Not to mention it adds a stack to your passive.

Winged Blade is usually a good pickup as either a starting item or later in the game. Saves your *** against slow heavy comps and provides a variety of stats that can help your build come online sooner.

Pythags piece can work but the fact that you need other items to help your team, I doubt you can fit it in your build.

"when I see other Ares playing they don't use this to its full potential"

It's an 8 second buff that has a huge AoE and stays active as an aura so you don't even need to time it. It's almost literally the most uninteractive ability possible, and with max CDR, there's a downtime of two seconds if you keep mashing it. It's pointless to talk about it because it has no depth to it at all - the only layer of strategy you need for it is "use it when you get in fight unless you need mana for something else." (and no, one layer is not depth)

Also, lifesteal is a terrible idea, just like how pure damage Ares is a terrible idea. It's fun, but unviable. There's just no point on building lifesteal on a tank/bruiser outside of some very specific champions that aren't even in Smite. Most of the time, your damage output isn't going to do much against the damage you'll take - you'll be better off taking protections rather than a psuedo-heal to mitigate damage, because that is simply more efficient.

Look at this:

"Well Rounded
Anti-escape
Bulky
Powerful"

He has no mobility or hard CC outside of his ult, so no, he is not well-rounded.
He's not bulky, at least compared to other tanks (Geb's shield, or Sylvanus's heal, etc, are superior to the protection buff, especially when considering that Sylvanus' heals actually gives protections, AND he has the lowest base stats of any tank), and certainly not with your build.

Powerful? I think you mean "damaging," and the distinction is important. Ares is not powerful, he is trash tier garbage who is 80% winmore - as in, he's a champion that's only useful if you're already ahead, making him pointless - and 20% early game damage, but the thing people never seem to understand is that if you want early damage, you might as well pick a mage or bruiser or Thor in lane, especially considering that most mages have more mana, CC, and/or damage than Ares and nearly all points of the game plus the range advantage.

Also, I think you're being idiotic when you say NOT to use his ult when a large group is in range because it'll make it harder for them to forget to use beads. You are literally telling us that an important part of effectively using his ultimate is that the opponent must be a complete moron. Because the truth of the matter is, your biggest concern isn't them remembering to use beads, but that they'll just walk away from you, out of range, while wearing you down with ranged attacks. Your best, and ONLY bet for initiation against a competent team, would be to simply wait for Blink to come off cooldown and use that.

Actually, I lied. The biggest concern is you using a garbage ult from a garbage god - I've seen teams literally ignore Ares in teamfights due to how his damage falls off and his ultimate is worthless. I've done it plenty of times, myself.

tl;dr: Morgana from LoL has a much better version of the ult, where you don't get stunned if you break the chain by walking out of range, turning it into a mostly defensive zoning tool. There's like no one who uses beads there, and yet the ultimate is balanced because it has counterplay, and can be avoided in ways that don't require a "get out of jail free button." In Smite, Ares' ult is an obnoxious indicator of your own incompetence at best, and a mild annoyance at worst, because this is a perfect example of how beads actually reduces counterplay options.

Whoops, I think tl;dr wasn't supposed to be a slightly tangential rant. Whatever, im done.

Oh I didn't even think about Bolster Defenses, that's a good point though. I will admit since Ares is more of an offensive support Shoes of Focus will almost always be more useful. I would still probably go more defensive if I fell behind early game though.