Ares

Ares Guide

Ares dominates duo lane due to his high base damage and innate tankiness. Focus on clearing waves while looking to catch enemies out of position with your chains. Shackles hurt a lot at early levels, so use them whenever your carry has follow up CC or damage. Save your 2 for escaping ganks or chasing kills. Start with Guardian’s blessing and health chalice, as you’ll be taking a lot of poke.

Ares works best with dive comps and other aggressive guardians. Pair well with mages like Poseidon or assassins like Da Ji who can take advantage of your ult. Avoid passive hunters like Artemis. Ares can flex into solo or jungle, but support is your strongest role. In solo, build hybrid defense and look to rotate for mid camps and objectives. As jungle, build pen and damage, ganking duo lane frequently.

Use your 1 offensively in lane to poke, or defensively to peel for your carry. The slow helps confirm kills or escapes. Your 2 gives movement speed for chasing enemies or escaping. The flames from your 3 zone enemies and clear waves. Save your ult exclusively for teamfights, looking to trap 3+ enemies in the cripple field. Drop it on objectives like Gold Fury to secure for your team.

In teamfights, your role is initiator. Look for the right time to blink ult the enemy backline. Pull enemies off your damage dealers with your 1. Bodyblock and counter-initiate as needed. Ares excels at disrupting enemies and setting up kills for his team. Help your jungler secure buffs and objectives when abilities are off cooldown. Keep track of purification beads and leap/dash relics so you know who to prioritize in fights. Communicate with your team before starting objectives or fights. Let them know if your ultimate or relics are down. Build aura items like Sovereignty and Heartward Amulet to benefit allies in teamfights.

Ares requires coordination to play effectively. Focus on peeling for your carry early, then transitioning to playmaking in the mid game with blink ult initiations. Look for every opportunity to punish enemies out of position. A fed Ares can carry teamfights, securing multiple kills for his damage dealers. With practice, you’ll have enemies raging in lobby over your Ares pick.

Early on, focus on stacking your blessing and clearing the wave. Look for poke with your 1 and 3 when possible, but avoid taking too much minion aggro. Call for ganks if your opponents overextend or their jungler shows on the map. Around level 5 you have kill potential, especially if paired with an aggressive hunter. Try to bait escape relics before committing to a fight.

Once you get blink, look for opportunities to ult enemies under their tower. The damage from your 3 and carry should secure first blood. Keep wards up and track the enemy jungler so you know when it’s safe to dive.

Ahead in lane, zone enemies with your 3 and deny them farm. Take their purple buff and roam mid for ganks. Behind, play safe under tower and call for help. Ares can still set up kills from behind with his ult, so look for counter-engage opportunities. In teamfights, focus on peeling for your backline. Your ult remains useful for trapping enemies in place for your team to collapse on.

Build aura and hybrid items to maximize utility and durability. Heartward, Sovereignty and Stone of Binding are core. For boots, get Reinforced Greaves for the protections. Relics should be Blink and Shell/Sprint. Ares’s abilities cost a lot of mana, so build MP5 as well.

Ares rewards patience and teamwork. Look for the right times to ult, and communicate well before committing to fights. Focus on enabling your damage dealers through CC and zoning. A fed Ares leads to fed carries, so do your best to get them ahead. With time, you’ll have the experience to carry games through teamfight control and objective secure. Your opponents will learn to fear the sight of an Ares charging towards them, chains and flames blazing.