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You NEED to have blink as your first relic in Conq. I will explain later.
Uncommon Staff
Mage's Blessing
Healing Potion
Mana Potion
Blink Rune
With the Bancroft cost increase, Asclaps is only 100g more and it has stats that help Hades far more. In my experience, I prefer it far more. Bancroft is a good option still, but I prefer Asclaps over it. If you want to be more offensive, you can get Ethereal Staff
Shoes of Focus
Warlock's Staff
Rod of Asclepius
Ethereal Staff
Pen Items (Pick 1)
Spear of Desolation
Spear of the Magus
Void Stone
Divine Ruin
You need at least two protection items. I recommend either Spirit Robe and Oni Hunter for Mitigation in team fights, or Urchin and Mantle of Discord for more overall protection from poke damage
Hide of the Urchin
Spirit Robe
Mantle of Discord
Oni Hunter's Garb
Shield of Thorns
Purification Beads
Y
B
A
X
Greeting Everyone! Welcome to my Hades Guide!
I would like to state a couple of things before we get started
A couple of facts about Hades
Items on Hades are really not up for a whole lot of toss up. It boils down to this:
The only pen item Hades should not build is Obsidian Shard. Not only is it bad, but it's not Hades' job to kill tanks. He is an anti-dive and counter initiator. Otherwise, consider:
Spear of Desolation gives the least pen but the most power and cdr. Not my favorite but if you want a bit more burst, you can use it.
Spear of the Magus allows you to do true damage in your ult to anyone not building protections (remember, his ult shreds 10 to 30 protections). Hades ult does 840 + 240%. That's a lot. It's only trumped in scaling by Ganesha's and Anubis' ults. Potent for a dive heavy enemy team.
Void Stone gives hp and protections, so it helps you stay alive better and has 20 base shred, so utilize it if the enemy has 3 or more magical gods and you want the extra protection, or if your team has 3 or more magical gods (Ao Kuang assassin, for example) so your team can benefit from the shred.
Divine Ruin should be used if they have healing. That's it. Otherwise, use something else.
Hades has two sets of Defensive Items he ought to build in my opinion:
Spirit Robe and Oni Hunter gives you a solid amount of protections, CCD (a very important stat on all gods, but Hades especially), CDR, but most importantly, damage mitigation. The protections on his ult are nigh on useless late game, so having an extra 24% mitigation when hit with hard cc or 9% when you ult is very good for survival. Use this for more general cases.
The other pairing is Urchin and Discord. They provide more protections and health overall, and Urchin's shield help protect you from those who would dive you. If they have a dive heavy comp, I would use these items. Obviously, you should build Urchin first because it needs stacks and is cheaper.
1: Death From Below
Death From Below is a leap. It can be targeted by Awilix. Keep that in mind
It has a long wind up, and immunity frames (when nothing can hit you) only apply when you are underground and moving!
It does 70 to 270 base damage plus 60% scaling
It does not slow anyone. It is useless. Who cares. Hades has 2 other forms of strong lockdown, so why does he need a slow? Because Hi-Rez won't admit power creep is real and ignores Hades because they hate him and me.
2: Shroud of Darkness
It is Hades' main "cc". It lasts 1 to 2 seconds, and either silences (no abilities) or will fear (a stun where they move slowly in the direction they were facing)
It applies in a fairly wide cone, and it is useless until it gets ranked up, except for blighting the minion wave . A 2 second fear late game is usually enough in a team fight to burn someone's beads or to gang up and kill them. It really depends on how attentive your team it.
It's not very good. Use it to engage people and keep them still for moment. If you need to use it defensibly, your positioning needs work. You should never have to use it for defense. It's not designed for it. Worst case scenario, try to fire a basic first so as to fear them, and can't chase as quickly.
Additionaly, because it is a silence, it can cancel channels. Anubis, Nike, Artio, you get the idea. Also, timed right, you can silence people out of their dashes, which removes their escape ability, which consequently leaves them open for your ult.
3: Devour Souls
Hades' bread and butter. His damage. His healing. What makes him B rather than C tier.
This allows you to pressure people and do tons of damage in the laning phase.
If someone is stupid enough to stand in the minion wave when playing against you, punish them. Severely.
It does far more damage when multiple targets are grouped up together. It also heals you for every blighted target, and with asclaps and a full build it heals for about 120, or 101 per target with Ethereal at level 20.
As of itself, the base damage is extremely low for his primary damaging ability, but with a blighted target (never use it on an unblighted target unless its a guaranteed kill) it does 260 + 95% to gods and another 24 + 25% per other blighted target within 20 units.
This is always leveled first, no exceptions.
4: Pillar of Agony
Pillar of Agony is one of the worst ult to god matchups in the game. Hades base kit is burst bruiser. His ult makes him the center of attention for 4 seconds.
It does 45 to 105 damage per tick (8 ticks) + 30% scaling (240% scaling). It pulls everyone in 30 units to you, gives you 60 to 100 protections, and shreds 10-30 protections off of each enemy if they are blighted (this increases the damage of it massively).
If you use this ult to leap in and initiate against a team, you're using it wrong. You can use it to catch someone who's escaping and beads are down, or if you know you can secure a kill during the laning phase. This is a counter initiation ability ! Hades needs to be tanky, so when an assassin or warrior dives your ADC or assassin, you can effectively lock them down and kill them. That is the proper use of Pillar of Agony.
Another use is to use it to zone people off. Use it in the middle of a fight and make the enemy team have to walk around you to reach the fight, giving your team a numbers advantage.
Combo 1: Basic Laneing Phase Combo
1 + basic aa + 2 + basic aa + 3 + basic aa
Attempt to attack them when they are near the archers, so it draws the melee minions to you. When you fear and detonate them, they will be hit by the base damage and 7 detionation, greatly increasing your damage. Late game, use this sparingly, as it is risky. You cannot 100 to 0 someone, and it often puts you out of position. Make sure you have someone nearby to help you clean up and finish someone off.
Combo 2: Basic Bully Combo
Walk + basic aa + 2 + basic aa + 3 + leap away
Walk up while juking any attacks, basic attack to blight them, then fear them, basic attack, use your 3 to do some damage, and use your 1 to leap away (back into a safe position
Combo 3: Counter Initiate
2 + 4 (early cancel?) + 3
This combo should be used more towards the middle late game in team fights when someone dives you or they initiate the fight. This blights and silences them, then keeps them on you for 4 seconds. If you have the opportunity, cancel it early if 2 or more enemies would be killed by using your 3. This ensures max efficiency for your team and obviously, better to kill people faster.
I hope you enjoyed it
I have about 250 hours in Hades, with him at 6700 worshipers. This is my first guide, so I understand it's sloppy in execution and format. But what matters the most is the information.
I live off of feedback and comments, so please post regards, suggestions, or if you feel like I was wrong on one part or another, comment and I'll get back to you
And if you build Book of Thoth or double stack, I will find you, and I will kill you.
He's not a burst mage. Don't play him like one.
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Also, are you on console or pc?
So, overall, im ok with this guide. Do consider adding bancrofts as an option. If you're the midlaner, you need to be a source of some threatening magical damage. Bancroft fulfils that role better than asclepius. Also, dv-8 was correct about not blinking to your mid wave. Be sure to take another look at that and see if it's necessary. But Anyway, +1 on your guide.
So...I read your guide. It's obvious you're very familiar with the god, and you've taken time to explain your item choices with some good reasoning. That makes me more willing to withhold judgment on my own personal doubt on that
Before I go further, want to comment on some of the things already being discussed.
- 100 gold cost increase on
Bancroft's Talon with no stat changes isn't enough reason for me to consider that it's no longer a good choice. I understand your reasoning, but I'm just focusing on Bancroft in this point. Hades will be built bruiser because he's much more vulnerable to enemy attacks due to being a sitting duck while ulting, and also needing to be up close and personal to deal damage. As such, he expects to take damage almost all the time, which means he's a prime candidate for optimal use of Bancroft's passive. The variable lifesteal of up to 35% at low health may be just enough to keep him alive. In addition, that damage he takes also increases the power from his ult, which as you yourself point out is very strong w/ great scaling (as long as you keep them in the ult the whole time). I personally would keep a choice open between Bancroft and Asclepius, even if you prefer Asclep...because it's not as if Bancroft is a bad choice for him (at least in my expectation, since it's always been a meta item for him).
- DV-8's statement of being able to get to lane and not miss a minion death may be subjective...on what, I'm not quite sure...I know DV-8 likes to test these things out, and I trust his word, so am wondering what situations you come across that might make you lose out.
As for the rest of the guide:@DV: was it a close call? Did you barely make it there before the first minion died? Or did you seem to have plenty of time? Did you perhaps do something to get there faster? Maybe instead of adding a single basic attack before ability use, you just used the ability right at spawn and moved directly to lane? Trying to figure out what's going on here.
- Your overall build suggestions, e.g. not getting Shard, and your preferences for pen items, is right in line with my thoughts and how I'd prefer to build him. I have not tried
Ethereal Staff at all, so I can't speak to how effective it is, but I will say the change to the item definitely turned me off. One nice thing about it is that it's not subject to anti-heal.
- Back to
Rod of Asclepius (and even 
Bancroft's Talon)...I see a 
Hades, and one of my initial thoughts is anti-heal. People will argue that anti-heal is a stronger reason to build Asclepius, to get as much out of it as possible...but in my eyes, that's like going against the grain, climbing uphill or whatever phrase you want to use. Since you lose the potential others get (team healers), you admit it's a selfish item for Hades, and your healing is dependent on blighted enemies, it seems much more like a situational choice than a core item. If they don't build anti-heal (and when you're able to just heal unmolested off minions) then great, but otherwise...I can then see at least some potential from Ethereal. (Don't lynch me, Kriega)
- For
Shroud of Darkness, you say that the fear is a stun where they move slowly in the direction they were facing. I always thought it pointed them in the opposite direction of the god who applied the fear. Also, I know you were just summarizing, but with the silence, you might also provide the tip that it can stop channeled abilities...so 
Anubis' 
Plague of Locusts, or in a teamfight something from 
Artio or a 
Nike 
Rend, etc.
- Great writeup on proper use of
Pillar of Agony. You may more specifically point out that it's imperative that you pay attention to enemy ability use...you mention it by talking about catching someone whose escape/beads are down, but emphasizing that awareness is good.
Welcome to the site!I get what you mean about Bancrofts. It most certainly is a good item on Hades, I just feel that because this build prioritizes more on being a bruiser, you won't be getting as high damage, so lifesteal is less, whereas the healing is mostly a flat value. I see where I might've been misleading on that note.
I will add the tip about silenceing channels, except Nox's 1 because for some reason once she locks a bird on, it cannot be stopped unless she steps in a Nox field, dies, or goes out of range.
Ethereal Staff isn't a great item for the average mage, but lane bullies use it well, and its stats and bully passive fit in nicely with his kit.
Regarding jungle camps, I usually end up having to miss one of the jungle monsters or the buff monster, which also prevents me from hitting level 2. The problem is that unless your jg has very fast clear, I usually missed some mid creeps as they would die, or I would be past the assist timer for the jungle monsters, so if the comp isn't specialized around early clear (Serqet, Baka) Hades usually misses something without blink.
Again, thank you very much for the tips and advice. I thank you.
Kriega, is this true?!
I thought what we had was special!
- harsh or bitter derision or irony.
- a sharply ironical taunt; sneering or cutting remark.
:PYeah, it was pretty close. I just stood at the edge of speed buff camp, threw an auto as it spawned to pull the camp my way, used my 3, and then headed to lane. I got the entire speed camp xp (split with my jg of course), and was in proximity of the wave by the time the first minion died, granting me the xp.
Also, I tested out that
LOL
Anyway heres my feedback: i have never considered asclepius on non healers, so this is news to me. Lets assume asclepius gives better healing to hades than bancroft. What if the enemy builds anti heal (they will because conquest players arent as brain dead as arena players). The healing from your "***claps" is useless. However, the power spike you get from bancroft's passive will still be there, especially when youre ulting.
The rest of your build is good. The asclepius and ethereal are a bit srrange to me.
Solid first guide. I like the write up.
I was under the impression that
That's the thing... I didn't have tier 1 boots.
Dude, take it easy...