Hades, the Ultimate Tank and Damage Build

Hello and thank you for taking the time to read my guide for Hades. Hades has great survivability as well as a great damage output if you know how to build him properly. In my opinion, he is one of the best gods in the game for that reason. Hades in Conquest mode can play well in any lane as well as Domination mode!

PROS
-He is a great lane farmer
-Great survivability and damage
-Amazing at intiating team fights
-Has a charge to secure kills or escape from harm
-Fantastic Crowd Control

CONS
-Kind of squishy early game
-Mana ***** early game

LORE
Inevitably, death sends eveyone to Hades, God of the Underworld. In the end, he always gets his way.

Eldest son of the Titans Cronus and Rhea, Hades was swallowed by his father as an infant along with five other siblings. Zeus, the youngest brother, escaped this fate and freed them once he'd grown strong enough to battle Cronus. Together, the six siblings defeated the Titans and banished them to the dark realm of Tartarus. Now the reigning Gods, Seus, Poseidon, and Hades drew lots for dominion. Hades drew the Underworld.

Of the few that have entered the Underworld and come back, all speak dismally of the place, never wishing to return. Yet Hades, himself, rarely leaves the subterranean realm, constantly seeking ways to grow the numbers of the dead.

When he desired a wife, Hades captured the radiant Persephone, daughter of the Goddess Demeter. Concealed in the Underworld, none could reach her, so Demeter cursed the land with great famine. The other Gods pleaded with her to end it lest she destroy mankind, but she would not relent until her daughter was returned. Hades finally let Persephone leave, though not before feeding her pomegranate seeds. Having consumed the fruit, she was required to return to her husband once per year to eat of the seeds again. This, it said, is a time of mourning and the cause of winter.

While many fear death and view it as evil, in truth, Hades endeavors only to keep balance. He is stern but fair. As God of the Dead and the Underworld, he views his authority on this matter absolute, forbidding anyone to leave his realm and growing wrathful when disobeyed or when someone tries to cheat death or steal from him.

For everyone, death is unavoidable and service to Hades inevitable. Even the gods.

NOTE: Please understand that this is a guide for helping the player. I would recommend using this guide to help you get started and learning to play this god better. While this may work well for you, there are multiple ways to play each god.

February 28th, 2013
Pillar of Agony - The strength of the pull from his ultimate has been adjusted to be stronger initially to reduce the frequency of players being able to walk out of it.

Blight - Hades' normal staff attacks apply a debuff to the enemy, called Blight. This debuff stays on the target for 5 seconds and can be refreshed. If an enemy is affected by Blight, each of Hades' other powers have an additional effect.
Helpful Hints: Be sure that before you use any of Hades' abilities, you try to have this passive skill active on your target(s) so you can take advantage of the additional effects it produces for the other abilities.

Death from Below - Hades descends into the ground and erupts from below at his ground location, doing 50 / 90 / 130 / 170 / 210 (+70% of your magical power) magical damage to all enemies in the area.

If the enemy is Blighted, they are slowed by 25/30/35/40/45% for 2 seconds. Applies Blight.

Cost: 50 / 55 / 60 / 65 / 70 mana.

Cooldown: 12 s.
Helpful Hints: Be sure to save this, it is very useful for escapes, intiating the target or escaping. Also, remember that this ability causes Blight to be applied to all targets hit by this.

Shroud of Darkness - Hades silences all enemies in a cone in front of him for 1 / 1.25 / 1.5 / 1.75 / 2 s.

If the enemy is Blighted, they are also feared. Consumes Blight.

Cost: 80 mana.

Cooldown: 15 / 14 / 13 / 12 / 11 s.
Helpful Hints: If you can use this ability to save the lives of your team mates if they are in danger. For example, it is great to use if Loki opens from stealth on a team mate to prevent him from additional damage or stealthing away. This ability also fears the target(s) if you have Blight on them, so if you can be sure to apply it first.

Devour Souls - Hades devours the souls of his enemies in a radius around him, doing 75 / 110 / 145 / 180 / 215 (+60% of your magical power) magical damage.

If the enemy is Blighted, the enemy explodes, doing up to 20 damage to nearby enemies and healing your allies for 30/40/50/60/70 within 20 feet of the exploding target.

Cost: 65 / 75 / 85 / 95 / 105 mana.

Cooldown: 15 / 14 / 13 / 12 / 11 s.
Helpful Hints: This ability is great for clearing lane minions for pushing enemy towers or dealing a lot of damage to enemy gods. I would recommend ONLY using this ability after using Death from Below because of the healing you get from having your targets blightened. You can earn about 20% life back just from killing fully blightened lane minions.

Pillar of Agony - Hades calls to all enemy souls nearby, pulling them closer to him over time, doing 50 / 65 / 80 / 95 / 110 (+35% of your magical power) magical damage every .5 s for 4 s, additionally gaining 40 / 50 / 60 / 70 / 80 protection to all damage.

If the enemy is Blighted, their protections are reduced by 10 / 15 / 20 / 25 / 30. Consumes Blight.

Cost: 100 mana.

Cooldown: 90 s.
Helpful Hints: I would advise only using this ability on 2+ enemy gods. If you use to secure one kill, you may not have it later during a team fight. This ability, if used correctly, will kill an entire team pretty much during a team fight. It is a great idea, if you get the chance, to Death from Below into the enemy team and then use Pillar of Agony if the enemy team is grouped up. Something that's also great to do is ward the Fire Giant and ambush the enemy team with his ultimate ability.

Reinforced Boots - These bad boys are essential for any tank. They allow you to escape from crowd controls much quicker, which means you can escape quicker or secure a kill. Hades utilizes the boots very well, due to the fact that he can use Death from Above to kill or escape death.

Purification Beads - These remove you from crowd control, allowing you to get that much needed escape, kill or in some cases saving an ally's life.

Void Stone - This little item comes in handy not only for the magical protection, but since Hades is an up close and personal god, it makes his Death from Below, Devour Souls and Pillar of Agony do a good amount of extra damage. It reduces everyone within 55 feet's magical protection by 25, which can be the just needed amount to secure a kill.

Hide of the Nemean Lion - An item required by most gods if physical damage becomes an issue. This item is one of the best tanking items in the game and is especially handy when facing Loki or Thor. It reflects 30% of basic attack damage back to the attacker.

Aegis Amulet - An item that makes you immune to all sources of damage and crowd control for 2 seconds. This can come in handy as a way to avoid death or prevent Ares' pull.

Hide of the Leviathan - This item stacks really well with your Reinforced Boots and reduces crowd control by alot. Also it will balance out protection that you need for physical and magical damage. This is the last item you will need and you will have enough resistance to survive most encounters.

Gem of Isolation - This item will give you the much needed slows from all of Hades' abilities. This works best with his ultimate, unless they have Purification Beads they cannot leave Pillar of Agony's pull since they will be too slow to leave the circle guaranteed.

Rod of Tahuti - If you are able to achieve this item by end game, the other team is screwed for team fights if you have a team with communication. This will give you that huge boost of magic power to slaughter the enemy, it usually gives you 200+ magic power. This combo'd with your Pillar of Agony will destroy anything stuck inside of it.

Thank you very much for reading my guide! This is the first guide I have ever made for SMITE and I hope you enjoy it! If you have any questions or concerns be sure to send me a message on here or post in the comment section below!

Thanks for your time,

HolifiedTV

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