Ares as a viable support in conquest

I feel there is a place for Ares as support and he seems to be underestimated. Ill admit, its situational on which gods are chosen on both teams.

While most supports are about pulling/stunning enemies so you can set up kills. And about peeling enemies from allies to protect them. Ares is more about preventing an enemy from escaping, using up their beads (and forcing them to get beads), and about providing your team raw protection.

Early laning phase, Ares provides some aggressive damage that works very well with an aggressive ADC. When that neith rushes forward to backflip out, I can grab her with a crippling chain and she isn't going anywhere.

His passive is also very team friendly. Since a support goes for aura's anyway (sov, void stone, witch stone) it works perfectly with Ares' passive which allows him to still bleed scary amounts of damage off of groups of people.

As true support Ares, you'd only need one rank in chains so you can apply a cripple. Thus you'd max your 2 (to provide protections in group fights) and your 3 so you can melt camps/waves/enemies.

Ares ult is what most people view ares as, where as I view his ult as secondary. One point is all thats needed, much like Athena's. The primary purpose of ares ult is to force the enemy to consider beads. The secondary purpose is to force the enemy to use his beads and/or CC counter (such as forcing out a RA or sobek ult). The last purpose of the Ares ult is to pull in anyone who fails to counter it.

With the right team comp you can ensure the rest of your teams stuns land. You can ensure that enemy jungle has to go all in or not go in at all (since he wont' be able to jump away). And he provides for excellent roaming support ganks.

I think, however, to make ares viable as a support, it requires a bit of team comp planning.

Thoughts?

You are quite right. He is viable. And a good Ares can be the most frightening thing in the duo lane. But, like you've mentioned, there's that down side. Ares is a super-aggressive support. He is THE lane bully. But, the problem is,he cannot defend. He is one of the worst supports in that sense. The only way he can defense his Hunter is by dishing tons of damage. Ares' worst nightmare is aggressive opponents. If he initiates, if he get that first Shackles, down goes 50% of your health only from him.

And since he is so aggressive, he is best with an aggressive Hunter. Someone like Xbalanque or Anhur. They are the best ADCs with him. The worst is probably Neith.

Also, you are right about his ultimate. It does not need to be leveled up. Though I prefer to get level Shackles > Searing Flesh > Bolster Defenses, those 40 protections and 30% CCR early game can be devastating. I haven't tried leveling Bolster Defenses first, but I will.

I have a theory that maxing his Bolster Defenses will be great for support Ares, as it will make the minions and himself virtually unkillable, at least in the early stages. With Sov, it will be a total of 60 protections as an aura. Sixty.

Does bolster actually affect minions? But in essence this is what im saying. As a support, instead of 'peeling', he applies you a ton of protections and reduces the CC on you so you can more easily escape. It just requires allies to understand what Ares does so they aren't expecting a peel and so they realize that if they have their defense buffed they can be a little more aggressive.

It does.

But remember, even 40 protections doesn't change how ADCs will sometimes need peeling.

Actually that might work out. But Ares is in such a bad state, that he is much better played as a Magical Bruiser instead of a Supportive Tank. You'll be giving away all the damage potential that Ares has only for additional protections, and keep in mind that one of the Two Best Tanks of the game have a lot of disruption( Athena, Sobek). As an example, Sobek can Charge Prey you away from your carry( even though that sounds dumb), wasting a few seconds of your Aura.

But yeah, that might work out. I'll make sure to give it a try.

I still believe the strongest asset of Ares is controlling the enemy teams beads. Characters without a CC immune power are forced to buy beads (where normally they may buy another item). And his ult can force enemies to use their CC immune abilities leaving your allies stuns/grabs/etc to work just fine.

Edit: TL;DR at bottom

I'll give my opinion without respect to previous comments, despite having read them, for a rather straightforward point.

In lane, he's a bully. Outright. But against skilled players he falls off really really hard.

He's forced into buying blink, the enemy team is forced into buying beads. That's kind of an even ground early game - same amount of gold being wasted on both sides, not heading to items. But against ganks and with ganks, he's terrible. Skilled players will ward enough to escape a gank early enough, because ares really doens't have the ymir blink-freeze or the athen dash-taunt necessary to stall enough time between the jungler being spotted and being able to engage. Ares doesn't have a way to stop you from backing off once his teammate is spotting moving in.

Meanwhile, since he is a lane bully, he's EXCEPTIONALLY weak against passive players. You play something like a Neith Ra or Neith Sobek lane, or if for some reason he's facing it, an AMC Hel lane, he will be destroyed. He has no way to close gaps outside blink (which he needs for his ult), no way to CC, and no way to harass them if they have heals or stay back. This shoves their lane, and leaves THEM open for an easy gank. Sure, if Ares is playing with someone like Xbal or Neith or Apollo, his adc can escape. But Ares is the only tank in the entire game without some form of decent escape himself - even Ymir can 2.3s stun or do the tactic where you place wall directly in front of you as you run and walk through it. Ares is dead. And since he had to buy blink early on, he'll be more prone to ganks early on. In an odd way, BECAUSE he's a lane bully, he's weak early game, because being that bully leaves him open for ganks while disallowing others, and yields an almost guaranteed death several times. Finally, if by chance this aggression yielded an ADC who used their dash to force an opponent to get far back, Ares's lack of hard CC is absolutely devastating to an adc. Sure, he has a cripple, but a Fenrir who is able to simply Brutalize an ADC is terrifying, or a Mercury who just stands and tunnels punches into them without being frozen, taunt, flung back, bellyflopped, knocked up, or feared (notice, EVERY other tank has hard CC. Some have up to 3. Ares has 0).

Now, let's assume SOMEHOW that Ares and his lane partner has survived any ganks, and used their lane aggression for a couple kills before a wisened opponent bought beads and survived. So Ares and his partner are a few hundred gold each up on their opponent. Let's see how this transitions into the roaming phase, and the teamfight phase.

Ares does nothing in the roaming phase. He doesn't have ANY mobility, is slow as hell, and would have to ult to secure anything (provided the enemy hasn't already picked up beads). He has no lane pressure, and every decent mid can waveclear from afar (Ra, Ao Kuang, Poseidon, Agni, etc) He doesn't do anything for his own waveclear either to help pressure a tower...it's iffy at best. Finally, if he ults a person with beads, his aggression is done, because in the roaming phase, you really aren't grouped so much as trying to pressure. His best bet is to stick with his ally and keep pushing his long lane, and hope that his team is doing well.

In teamfight phase, he's horrible, and even moreso if the enemy team has healers. His base damage has fallen off at this point, and while a CDR Ares has his ult and blink up more often than beads, the teamfights will go HORIFICALLY in Conquest. It's something like this:
Ares Blink Ults
Team Beads
>Do they Disengage or Turn?
You are now useless because you have no CC, so you have to rely on doing damage and body blocking hits. Which is horrible as a tank. Think of what Bacchus does without his ult and stun. It's horrible. Your team is now in a 4v5, relying SOLELY on your ult damage and base stats to act as a horrible tank bruiser.
If they disengage, any healers return them to full. You are now shoved back in lane, as you most likely have 0 initiate at this point (Junglers, at this point in time, are almost entirely assassins. Your sole hope would be Fenrir, who can react to you using their beads. However, If the other team is grouped up after your ult, he'll have a hard time doing it well without melting in the process, and you have 0 CC afterwards). They shove the lane, and at any chance they can engage on a team they know has 0 CC. Especially if you have fenrir, who has none of his own, so they're pretty much relying on the 0 or 1 CC each mid, adc, and solo lane MAY have. Compare this to a sobek who can knock everyone up with a tailwhip, separate the group, and fling the mage back. With no decent CC potential, you rely on your team being able to simply outdamage their ADC and Mage, however your carries are CCable, theirs really aren't. They shove the wave, shoving you to tower, and probably either force you into an unfavorable fight while ult is down, or take an objective.

The only way you end positive, is if your team is so far ahead, that you CAN win on pure damage. Ares Fenrir is really the only combo that CAN work, but the only two carry targets - Mids and ADC's - are the only two who have BOTH active slots freed up. Aegis and Beads are very possible pickups, and would ruin Fenrir too.

Sorry for such a long essay, basically my TL;DR version
Ares is a lane bully, but actually may make him lose early game.
Ares has no roaming capabilities. He can ult, but if it's cleansed or beads is used, your roaming is then over until it's up again.
Ares has no mobility whatsoever compared to every single other tank.
Ares has strong teamfight ability, but is ruined by a team with beads, who can either heal damage, disengage, or reengage once you've used the ult and are useless.
Ares has strong early game damage with ridiculous base numbers, but even with aura items, falls off very hard in late game damage.