Ares

How to play Ares

Ares is a melee guardian from the Greek pantheon who deals magical damage. Top players play Ares in the Support role.

In your kit, Shackles (three crippling chains), Call to Arms (aura of protections) and Searing Flesh (channeled damage cone) add damage and pressure. Your ultimate is No Escape (pull enemies in), on a long cooldown (about 90s at rank 1), so save it for fights that matter. Your passive is Blessed Armaments: aura of power.

Community guides level Searing Flesh, Shackles and Shackles first. Max Shackles first, then Searing Flesh, then Call to Arms.

Your job is to start fights and protect your team, not to get kills. Move in when your team is close enough to follow up, then stay near your hunter and protect them from anyone who jumps on them. Your build makes you very hard to kill, so you can stand in front and absorb damage. As support, stay with your duo lane partner early and use your crowd control to set up kills.

Start with Heroism, then buy Gauntlet of Thebes. Buy it early so it finishes stacking. Your core is Prophetic Cloak and Stampede, and you finish with Genji's Guard, Freya's Tears and Draconic Scale. A good relic is Blink Rune. If the enemy team heals a lot or you keep dying, open the full tool and enter the enemy gods for the exact swaps.

If you own Aspect of Reverberation, it reworks Blessed Armaments (aura of power), Call to Arms (next attack stuns), Searing Flesh (channeled damage cone) and No Escape (root nearby enemies). It changes what to build, so turn on Aspect in the tool when you play it.

Top players win most often against Odin, Nox and Morgan Le Fay, and struggle against Sol, Aladdin or Jormungandr. Against those, play safer and consider a defensive item earlier.