The Black Death: Hades Solo and Mid (S8.5)

My name is Big Damage. I am a dedicated Smite player and spend most of my time playing Ranked Conquest, Ranked Joust and some Assault. In Conquest I mostly enjoy playing Solo and Support, however this build is just for Hades in Solo.

This is my 3rd SmiteFire guide, and constructive criticism is always welcome. Before I start I would like to add credits to Branmuffin17, Zilby and Mowen for the templates and notes on how to implement bbcode, this guide would not be possible without it!

..... Strengths ..... + Strong early game + Huge sustain in lane + Great hard for CC dive + Decent snowball potential .. Weaknesses .. - Falls off late game - Relies on lifesteal - Close quarters mage + Easily focused without beads

Hades full clears waves with ease in the early game, use this pressure to farm side/back camps, invade enemy camps if you have wards out or maybe make early rotations to surprise the enemy. The amount of pressure you can put out in the first 10-15 minutes with Hades generally dictates how the rest of your game will go.


If you have managed to put some good work in the early game, the mid game should be a breeze for you. Just keep doing what you have been doing but make more rotations and invade. If you didn't manage to get a lead this is where things start to go downhill, just keep farming play safe and wait for the enemy to make a mistake and take advantage of it to try and get you back in the game.


Hades really falls off late in terms of damage and also because of his close quarters abilities he can be locked down in a teamfight really easily. Just be patient and look for an opening to dive their backline with Pillar of Agony which can open them up to your jungler finishing them off.

• If an enemy is getting aggressive in the laning phase, try to Blight them along with nearby minions before using Devour Souls. The burst of blight on the minions as well as the enemy will increase the damage potential. Using this near minions will give you a crazy amount of healing too.
  
  
• If your target has beads or an escape, try to get your target to use either of them with the 'fear' from Shroud of Darkness on a blighted target. Once they have used beads/escape you can lock them down with Pillar of Agony.
  
  
• Try not to use Death From Below to initiate, because once your kit is down a fight can easily be turned on you and you wont have an escape.

• Blink is just super strong for anyone looking to dive and aggress the enemy team. Blink can help you close the distance on their team so they use their escapes and then you can chase them down with your Death From Below if it's safe to do so.
  
  
• Sometimes you can get beads before blink for safety but it lowers your early snowball potential significantly. It's always a good option as a second relic due to how easily Hades can be killed without the safety of beads.

• Shell can be really good into comps with crits like Mercury jungle and Jing Wei adc. You can pop the shell with it's block stacks before you ult so that you have a bit more survivability when you're just standing there.
  
  
• If you don't feel the need for any other relics, sunder is a great aggressive option. If you've locked your target hit them with the upgraded version of this before you ult and you can shred through them with ease.
  
  
• Don't be afraid to grab teleport if you're not too confident in yourself. It works well early for winning or losing lane.

Too good to be passed up on Hades, this gives him the mana, power and lifesteal he needs to sustain in lane, especially Solo. If you have several minions applied with Blight and hit them with your Devour Souls combined with Bancroft's Talon you can easily regain hundreds of HP. You should always pick this up 1st or 2nd to get the most benefit out of it.


What's better on a god that loves lifesteal? More lifesteal! This item combined Bancroft's Talon and any other lifesteal you get in your build such as Pythagorem's Piece or Sacrificial Shroud. There are very few situations where you shouldn't build this item, definitely get it around 3rd or 4th but only if you already have Bancroft's Talon.


Mantle is just strong on a lot of gods because of its beefy tank stats with some CDR, however it's an essential item for Hades in Solo and Mid because the passive has great application when he ults because if the enemies stuck in his ultimate try to turn on him will get stunned in his ult if they get his health low enough making him much harder to lockdown. Usually you would buy Mantle towards the end of a build but because Hades doesn't use many other defence items well you can get this anywhere from 4th item onwards.

The key component in what makes the mediocre abilities of Hades more of a hassle to deal with in the laning phase. Applying Blight will reduce the enemies (and minions) physical or magical power by 5%, which in itself is not overpowered, but nice. The real deal is the effects that it gives to each abilities which I will cover with said abilities below. The best tactic for using this passive is to apply from range with your auto attacks, and then follow up with the abilities that also apply blight before using the ones that remove blight which will also be covered lightly in the combos.



As the name suggests, although classed as a "leap" (which I will add can be taken advantage of by Awilix ult), will bring you up through the ground dealing AOE damage to nearby targets. If the enemy is already applied by blight, which would by through your auto attacks or your 2 the enemy will be slowed, however whether the enemy is already blighted or not this will apply blight again allowing you to get the extra ability effects again. This should only be used for initiation or securing a kill if you think that you can also get back out without it, otherwise save it as an escape.



The notorious CC that Hades holds in his kit, silencing in a similar cone to the Athena taunt, this will also apply blight similarly to Death From Below but also the unique effect that it gives when an enemy is blighted is that they are feared instead, forcing them to run in a direction. At max rank this ability lasts 2 seconds so the potential for setting up kills or burning beads is extremely potent with blight and this CC. It can be used when attacking to initiate, or defensively if an enemy is getting too close and you need to silence/fear them from using abilities.



Without the appliance of Blight I must admit that this ability is almost useless, however with the ease of applying Blight it is definitely far from useless. When nearby enemies are blighted Devour Souls will detonate the Blight applied and deal extra damage while also healing you per target. For best results in lane, try to blight the enemy laner but also the minion wave and detonate it all together with Devour Souls and you will get more damage off than expected.



If you can catch someone in this ultimate and they don't have a Purification Beads or an escape they are in trouble, dealing high damage every half a second for 6 seconds, and not being able to walk out so that you are a target is not a good time, and to top it off if the enemy is blighted their magical protections are reduced for the duration of the ability. To help protect Hades from being too easy of a target while he is in there he gains 160 dual protections and 10% damage mitigation for the duration and is granted CC immunity.



This is your standard combo. You never want to dash in unless there is real pay off for that risk or it is clearly safe to do so, therefore using the 2 and 3 together is great confirmable damage to an enemy and clearing wave and you can use the 1 to escape or chase.



Here you will leap in with the 1, applying blight, then use the 2 which will now fear them because they are blighted. For maximum damage we use the ultimate next to get the reduced protections on the enemy because they are blighted and finish them off with a burst from the 3. This is a riskier combo because if you use your leap to go in they might have an escape/beads and get away and leave you out of position.



When you blink in you want to immediately use your 2 on the enemy to silence them and apply blight and quickly follow up with the the 3 to confirm a burst of damage. The enemy will try to escape but you will still have your leap up that can apply blight and if you hit them with the 1 they will have blight to maximise the damage from your ult. This is the safest hard hitting combo against targets with escapes.



Similar to the previous combo, however in this one you will use your first blight hit with your ult and then as they try to escape, reapply blight with the leap and burst them with the your 3 last. This combo works better against gods with no instant mobility.

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