Ares The Spartan Idol

Sound the drums of war!
Welcome to my Smite guide for Ares, greek god of war.

In this guide i will explain items, skills and tactics that i find effective in my matches with Ares.

Hopefully you'll be satisfied, do give some feedback, this is also my first guide :)

Play Video Feared by his enemies, reviled by his father, adored by the Goddess of Beauty, and worshipped by warriors, Ares, a tortured and lonely soul, is the bloodthirsty Greek God of War.

Ares is not loved by the people. He represents everything they fear and despise: war, strife, chaos, and murder. Its said that the sky darkens when Ares takes the field. That he rides to battle on a chariot drawn by fire-breathing steeds and delights only in the clash of battle and smell of bloodshed.

Ares is not loved by his father. Zeus has many sons, but only two with his wife Hera. However, the thunder God has long suspected Hera of having an affair that led to the birth of Ares, perhaps as revenge for all of Zeus infidelity. For this, Zeus is disgusted by him.

Ares is not loved by his sister. Athena and Ares are both Gods of War. Where Ares represents violence, force, and slaughter, Athena is the embodiment of intelligence, strategy, and leadership. Ares is quick to act and leave a bloody trail. Athena is thoughtful and careful with lives. Often they have been on the opposite sides, most notably at the Battle of Troy, where Athena viciously wounded him and forced Ares to retreat.

Ares is the lover of the Goddess of Beauty. Though Aphrodite is married to Ares brother, Hephaestus, Ares takes what he wants, and Aphrodite gives in willingly. Their union created offspring almost as terrible as Ares himself: Phobos and Deimos, Fear and Terror.

Ares is loved only by the Spartans, who revere the God for his masculinity, his merciless warrior spirit, and tenacity against all odds. The Spartans, however, know the unpredictable fury of their patron, and bind his statues in chains. This is, in part, to prevent Ares spirit of victory from escaping Sparta, and a vain effort to keep the God of War contained.

Tank Build:

reinforced boots
The best boots for a tank, great for Ares because of CC reduction before and after getting


Great item as it gives magical protection & power and the passive reduces your enemies magical protection. I usually get this right after boots because of it's many bonuses unless i'm facing lots of physical in the lane.


Gives Ares hp5 and much needed mana and mp5. Also since this (like many items in this build) is an aura item, you also get +30 magical power.

mystical mark
A great item against physical. Gives a nice amount of defense & health and the passive adds some dmg to go with Shackles and Searing Flesh. Also +30 magical power from Ares's passive


More health, defense and magical power! This time you'll share some with your team too, you greedy bastard. Great item for tankyness.


Good item to choose late game if you want more magical defense. Also the passive is useful against ability combos you are going to take from enemies.


I usually get this one last to get that extra 100 magical power and some lifesteal, aura is also useful for teamfights if you have magical teammates.


A useful item if you don't want to get pythagorem's for some reason. +50 magical and some MP5, and that CDR will help you with dmg. I rarely get this though since i would miss the +50 magical i would get from pythagorem's.


A Great item against physical, gives alot of mana and cdr-passive helps you with dmg.


Good amount of health & defense, passive is useful against assassins and carries.


Great item to get early game if your facing for example 4/5 magical enemies or 2 mages at a lane(since i always try to get lots of auras unless i really,really need magical protection alot).
Upgrades your sustain and is relatively cheap.

meditation
I buy this almost always at the start of the games, since Ares will go oom very quickly in the beginning, especially if you decide to clear minions with Searing Flesh. If you want to take a different active instead of this, i suggest you buy at least 2x manapots at start.


Pretty selfexplanatory, get if you feel the need


Check above. I usually go with this or sprint +meditation

sprint
Good for escapes, chasing and charging in to get that ulti do it's job(see tactics later)


Useful for chasing and somewhat for escaping, i rarely get this if i go full tank.






Hit and Spam build:


Good movement speed and 15% CDR. Also cheap for boots


Good defense, good amount of mana and this combined with boots will get you to the 30% cap of CDR


Same reason to get this baby as in the tank build. More useful stats, mainly damage.

winged wand
This item probably seems odd.
The reason it's here is that it gives you a bit more health, some mana so you don't have to run back to base to get mana since you should be using abilities until your oom with your maxed CDR. It also gives movement speed(which is useful in this build) and helps with slows. Works pretty good, not 100% sure about this yet, needs more tests.


More damage, mana & lifesteal and useful aura for magical teammates

mystical mark
Damage and damage. Also defense and health


Situational replacement for breastplate of valor since CDR is the same amount, i suggest going for this only if there are no physical assassins or carries (which is pretty rare in arena).


My alternate for winged wand because of protections for you and teammates and the +30 magical. Also a good replacement if there's alot of physical enemies. Not sure which one to use yet. Will update later.

blink
Great item for charging in and popping ulti, quite low cooldown. Combine with sprint

sprint
Another great item for charging in and grabbing 3-5 enemies with ulti. I usually go for this and blink to get charges more often


Good active if you have alot of teammates who need to get close to enemies you've pulled with your ulti. Pop after landing ulti and watch the numbers roll


Great active instead of blink/sprint if there are alot of enemies with strong CC or CC ultis e.g. Ares, Hades, Anubis


Quite selfexplanatory again. I sometimes get this if there's alot of gods with hardhitting ultis e.g. Ymir,Ra

Blessed Presence
Key Bind: Passive

Each completed aura item that Ares' owns grants him 30 additional magical power.
Ability: Buff
Affects: Self

+30 Magical for every completed (III) aura item. Good passive for getting some extra dmg. Unfortunately there is only one aura item that gives magical protection ingame atm, so if you find yourself needing alot of magical protection, you won't benefit from this passive so much.


Shackles
Key Bind: 1

Chains extend from Ares' shield, doing damage to all enemies in its path. Hitting a god shackles them to Ares, cripples them, preventing movement abilities, dealing the same damage every second while slowing them and buffing Ares. While shackled, Ares can fire another chain for free within 2s.

Ability: Projectile
Affects: Enemy
Damage: Magical
Minion Damage: 25 / 45 / 65 / 85 / 105 (+15% of your magical power)
God Damage per Tick: 25 / 45 / 65 / 85 / 105 (+15% of your magical power)
Slow/Speed: 15% per unique Shackle
Duration: 4s
Max Shackles: 3
Cost: 70 / 75 / 80 / 85 / 90
Cooldown: 15s

Great CC, mediocre damage. Slows enemies, disables their movement abilities, gives you speed and buffs per shackled enemies. Useful for chasing, somewhat for escaping. Great skill to use before popping ulti especially if you can hit with all 3 shackles to different enemies. I usually put one point to this at lvl 3 and then max other skills first since i use this mostly for CC and upgrading only increases the damage.


Bolster Defenses
Key Bind: 2

Ares strengthens the defenses of himself and all nearby allies, granting protections and reducing crowd control durations. For each shackled enemy, the protection buffs are increased.

Ability: Buff
Affects: Self/Allies
Radius: 35
Protections: 10 / 15 / 20 / 25 / 30
CC Reduction: 10 / 15 / 20 / 25 / 30 %
Lifetime: 8 s
Shackle Bonus: 7
Cost: 60 / 65 / 70 / 75 / 80
Cooldown: 15s

Nice amount of protections and CCR for you and nearby teammates, works also for minions so this is useful when pushing lanes or towers with minions since they last a bit longer. Always pop this in teamfights as well.


Searing Flesh
Key Bind: 3

Flames pour forth from Ares' shield, engulfing enemies in a cone in front of him damage every .5s for 4s. Ares is immune to knockback for the duration.

Ability: Cone
Affects: Enemy
Damage: Magical
Damage per Tick: 15 / 20 / 25 / 30 / 35 (+7% of your magical power) +% Max Health per Tick: 1 / 1 / 2 / 2 / 3 %
Cost: 55 / 60 / 65 / 70 / 75
Cooldown: 12s

Youre bread & butter for damage. The only effective skill for clearing minions. Be careful of not wasting this since Ares is very manahungry early game. Be wary of CC as well since it cancels this. Combine with mystical mark for more DoT


No Escape
Key Bind: 4

Ares throws chains out to all enemy gods in an area around him. All enemies hit by the chains are pulled to Ares after 2.5s, taking damage and are stunned plus additional time for each enemy god hit by the ability.

Ability: Area
Affects: Enemy Gods
Damage: Magical
Radius: 35
Damage: 200 / 275 / 350 / 425 / 500 (+40% of your magical power)
Stun: 1s + .3s per enemy god hit
Cost: 80 / 85 / 90 / 95 / 100
Cooldown: 90s



This is the one ulti i like the most in game. Awesome for teamfights especially with gods who have aoe ultis. Has good range, deals pretty good dmg, and i just love seeing how everybody runs after they get hit by this and how they die to my teammates when i land. That is, of course unless they have beads or aegis ready. Luckily for some reason not that many buy beads or aegis or they already have 2 actives bought already. You should use this everytime it's out of CD if possible to combine with teammates so you have a bigger chance of countering beads/aegis when they're on cooldown

Ares is a great teamfighter with lots of CC, CCR, some damage and protection.

In tank build:

Your main job is to harass and chase low health enemies, get them in range for your teammates and push lanes when you have the mana for it.

Combination of skills:

----> ----> ---->

This combination starts with slowing enemies and preventing them from escaping, then adds CCR and protections and finally pulling the enemy with your ulti so your teammate can secure the kill while you add some dmg through your personal barbecue. Another good combination would be to start off with bolster and ulti, then shackling to prevent escape and adding dmg with barbecueshield. The latter works good early game when you might not be able to kill the enemy with ulti + your teammates ulti.


In Hit & spam build:

The way i play Ares in arena is that i try to get as many enemies as possible with ulti so my teammates can combo their skills and ultis and secure triple kills and quadras and deicides. I have CDR capped with added mobility so i can spam ulti to counter possible beads/aegis, and to get most out of the other skills.

Combination of skills:

---->blinksprint----> ----> ---->

I use blink/sprint with bolster defenses to close the distance without being hurt or CC'd too much, then pop my ulti, then cast shackles into one of the enemies i've pulled and fry them down while my teammates sling their ultis, combos, hellfires, old rusty kitchen knives and everything they've got at the enemy. Keep spamming and especially the other skills as much as you can and your enemies are guaranteed to be pissed off and dying alot.



Always try to get more than one enemy with your ultimate so you can maximize it's efficiency and just because that one enemy had beads and uses it this time, the other might not.

And always, every ****ing time make sure your teammate is ready to attack, tell your teammates that your ulti is ready and that you're going to attack with VVVR & VAA. Because if you don't, that ulti might be a complete waste and even with CDR capped it's another 60seconds for a new one. I sometimes see people playing Ares and they charge in, pop their ulti and the nearest teammate could as well be in Ulan Bator, OOM or has just used all of his abilites. After this the enemy manages to get away with 30-60% hp left and is dying of laughter

Ares shouldn't really jungle because it will take you long even in mid/late game to get jungle camps down. If possible, get blue buff early game with the help of your lane partner or the cooldown buff since i don't use CDR items much in my tank build. If your lane partner jungles alot or goes for jungle buffs help him out with getting them but keep an eye on that lane since it's your main place to be.

Ares is a great lanepartner for basically any god because of his high CC, but i've added some gods i like to lane with below.

Magical:


With afros' heals and momentarily immunity you have alot more sustain and you can push lanes pretty easy. Just make sure she stays alive.


Zeus benefits alot from Ares' ulti because he's ulti has AoE.


Ymir as well benefits alot from Ares' ulti because of AoE and sometimes it's hard to hit with Ymirs' ulti. Also ymir has lots of CC so you can piss off the enemy and keep them occupied.


Hades has a CC ulti as well, this combined with your ulti can help you both secure kills especially if hades has some damage in his build. Also one of your ultis is guaranteed to work even if the enemy has beads/aegis


Freya can put out alot of dmg and has good chasing capabilities. All of ares' skills benefit her much.

Physical:


Hercules has alot sustain and can chase with high efficiency, it should also be easy for him to hit with ultis combined.


Another god with a great CC ulti, combined you can easily hurt the enemy and they will have a harder time defending against magical/physical damage.


Lots of CC + Loki = lots of kills






And here are some gods that are very useful and powerful to have as teammmates in arena for ulti combos and added CC:


Optimal team buildup imo:












Other great ones:

Ymir having lots of CC and being real tanky he can be a pain in the butt


Since Ares has next to no escape, brwaling with a bruiser Odin could be frustrating.


And another god with an ulti you can't escape from without beads


Anubis the facemelter, what can i say? Nasty stun, lots of dmg and can(will) debuff some of your protections


Lots of CC, sustain and a good escape.

Tank Build:

Pros:

+Loads of CC
+Can take a beating
+Great chaser
+Awesome in teamfights
+Ultimate can really wreak havoc when used correctly
+Gain magical power from protection aura items



Cons:

-mana sustain can be hard early game even with meditation
-Ultimate can be easily countered with beads/aegis
-main damage skill can be canceled with cc
-Only one aura item with magical protection so you will miss out on some magical power if you have to go heavily protected against magical
-doesn't basically have a single escape move



Hit & Spam arena build:

Pros:

+Awesome teamfighter when combining ultis and attacks with teammates, especially ones with AoE and CC ultis
+CDR capped means you can spam your abilities and ulti more often, also counter beads and aegis quite effeciently
+Lots of mobility for chasing and grabbing a pile of enemies with ulti
+Lots of mana so you don't need to VVB that often
+Good CCR


Cons:

-Squishier than tank build
-Ulti can still be countered with beads/aegis
-Missing some magical power as lacking a few aura items
-no beads/aegis if you want to charge almost every time you use ulti(blink+sprint)

Will update with screenshots of my victories later