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Sentinel's Gift as a starter and either:
Glowing Emerald (building into 
Gauntlet of Thebes)
Cloak (building into 
Prophetic Cloak)
Benevolence as your starter, upgrading to your preference at 15.
Blink Rune should be your standard first relic. If you feel you need to start more defensively, you'll typically choose 
Magic Shell.
This is a generic Support start using Sentinel's Gift as a starter and either:
Glowing Emerald (building into Gauntlet of Thebes) Cloak (building into Prophetic Cloak) Benevolence as your starter, upgrading to your preference at 15. Blink Rune should be your standard first relic. If you feel you need to start more defensively, you'll typically choose Magic Shell.
Sentinel's Gift
Glowing Emerald
Healing Potion
Multi Potion
Sturdy Stew
Blink Rune
Horn Shard
Spirit Robe is a solid general pickup, but is the recommended item for replacement should you need counter items of any type.
This is a fairly standard build that provides some protection and utility auras and good CDR. This build example does not include any specific counter items.
Spirit Robe is a solid general pickup, but is the recommended item for replacement should you need counter items of any type.
Sentinel's Embrace
Gauntlet of Thebes
Sovereignty
Shogun's Kusari
Reverent Pridwen
Spirit Robe
Relic Dagger for more Blink use. Note that your starter in this build will need to use Cloak instead of Glowing Emerald.
Contagion, Shogun's Kusari, 
Spectral Armor, and 
Midgardian Mail.
This is a well-rounded, defense-focused build example providing strong protection auras for tankiness and sustain, flex CDR, and Relic Dagger for more Blink use. Note that your starter in this build will need to use Cloak instead of Glowing Emerald.
You can consider alternative items as needed. Key items include Contagion, Shogun's Kusari, Spectral Armor, and Midgardian Mail.
Sentinel's Embrace
Prophetic Cloak
Sovereignty
Heartward Amulet
Spirit Robe
Bewitched Dagger
Pythagorem's Piece is optional, picking it up immediately after Thebes provides a good measure of offensive push via CDR, lifesteal and power from the aura. Alternatively, you could look to an early Relic Dagger especially if the enemy doesn't have CC immunity abilities to cover them while their beads are down.
Stone of Binding, supporting aggressive play where you initiate and set up for your teammates. Protections in this build are lower in comparison to some other options, so after a Blink-Ult combo, don't be afraid to extract temporarily from the hot zone. If you don't want Relic Dagger, you can consider switching Spirit Robe with Reverent Pridwen and Dagger with 
Ethereal Staff for more tankiness, especially after ulting.
This is a build example with more offensive team focus. While Pythagorem's Piece is optional, picking it up immediately after Thebes provides a good measure of offensive push via CDR, lifesteal and power from the aura. Alternatively, you could look to an early Relic Dagger especially if the enemy doesn't have CC immunity abilities to cover them while their beads are down.
Also here is Stone of Binding, supporting aggressive play where you initiate and set up for your teammates. Protections in this build are lower in comparison to some other options, so after a Blink-Ult combo, don't be afraid to extract temporarily from the hot zone. If you don't want Relic Dagger, you can consider switching Spirit Robe with Reverent Pridwen and Dagger with Ethereal Staff for more tankiness, especially after ulting.
War Banner
Gauntlet of Thebes
Pythagorem's Piece
Spirit Robe
Stone of Binding
Bewitched Dagger
These are all items providing defensive support. Choose as needed.
Gauntlet of Thebes
Pridwen
Sovereignty
Heartward Amulet
Shogun's Kusari
Oni Hunter's Garb
Spirit Robe
Prophetic Cloak
Magi's Cloak
These are all items providing offensive or utility function. Choose as needed.
Stone of Binding
Ethereal Staff
Divine Ruin
Pythagorem's Piece
Relic Dagger
Mystical Mail
Emperor's Armor
Contagion: physical protection, anti-heal Midgardian Mail: physical protection, anti-basic attack Spectral Armor: physical protection, anti-crit
Pestilence: magical protection, anti-heal
Winged Blade: magical protaection, anti-slow
These are all items purchased to counter specific gods or builds. Choose as needed.
Contagion: physical protection, anti-heal
Midgardian Mail: physical protection, anti-basic attack
Spectral Armor: physical protection, anti-crit
Pestilence: magical protection, anti-heal
Winged Blade: magical protaection, anti-slow
Contagion
Midgardian Mail
Spectral Armor
Pestilence
Winged Blade
Blink Rune (Ult / Chase): Core relic for 
Ares, extremely well known for use in combination with 
No Escape. Can be picked up first for early aggression, or later if you want a more defensive relic first. Magic Shell (Damage Shield): Standard 2nd relic for defensive function. Can be a core item to help teammates get through enemy obstacles if you pick up the 
Phantom Shell upgrade.
Heavenly Wings (Chase / Escape): Option for increased movement speed. Helpful when chasing or retreating.
Bracer of Radiance (Utility / Vision): Consider for greater map vision and teamfight utility. Upgrade and use for its 
Sentry Ward function to hunt out and destroy enemy wards without having to use an actual Sentry.
Cursed Ankh (Anti-Heal): Pick up against healing-heavy comps to significantly reduce their healing capabilities. Level up ASAP to reverse the healing potential and allow your team to deal enhanced damage.
Blink Rune (Ult / Chase): Core relic for Ares, extremely well known for use in combination with No Escape. Can be picked up first for early aggression, or later if you want a more defensive relic first. Magic Shell (Damage Shield): Standard 2nd relic for defensive function. Can be a core item to help teammates get through enemy obstacles if you pick up the Phantom Shell upgrade. Heavenly Wings (Chase / Escape): Option for increased movement speed. Helpful when chasing or retreating. Bracer of Radiance (Utility / Vision): Consider for greater map vision and teamfight utility. Upgrade and use for its Sentry Ward function to hunt out and destroy enemy wards without having to use an actual Sentry. Cursed Ankh (Anti-Heal): Pick up against healing-heavy comps to significantly reduce their healing capabilities. Level up ASAP to reverse the healing potential and allow your team to deal enhanced damage.
Blink Rune
Magic Shell
Heavenly Wings
Bracer of Radiance
Cursed Ankh
Cloak of Meditation
Y
B
A
X
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Recent Updates:
2023/8/31: Guide is current as of Patch 10.9, "The Season of Celebration." Builds updated. Combos section added. Starting Process and Warding section added.
 Revision History |
Ares in a Conquest Support role, you're often going for early aggression to quickly dominate your lane, get your ADC ahead, and allow you to rotate sooner for further disruption and gank potential. It is helpful if you have an ADC and/or Jungler that has a strong early game, to take advantage of Ares' damage potential. Ares can only shine when others on your team have viable peel for themselves (or the Solo in particular has plenty of peel), since he has no immediately available hard CC. His greatest potential is as a true aggressor in the late game, and you practically have to have your Solo switch places with the Support role late-game; the Solo will help peel while Ares provides the damage and lockdown. No Escape. Shackles slows the enemy and cripples them, preventing the use of mobility skills, so you'll need to be time its use well. If you're not good with skill shots, you may not want to play him, because the hitbox for the ability is fairly narrow. No Escape. Learn to time your Blink Rune well to chain as many enemies together at once. Advise your teammates when your ult is up and you're looking to use it, so they can prepare abilities. Searing Flesh. Shackles. This is the preferred playstyle, and can be supported by picking up Mystical Mail. Shackles to allow for teaming up and securing kills. He can also burn 
Purification Beads easily with his ult, allowing teammates to more confidently go in with their full kits.
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Passive:
Blessed Presence |
Each completed aura item that Ares owns grants him 30 additional magical power Discussion: Build aura items, get free power. Tips: Aura items help his damage output, but building aura items should NOT be the primary focus of his itemization. Item choices need to make sense with the context of the mode, your team comp, and the enemy team comp. TL;DR, aim for aura items when they specifically fit your needs. |
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Skill #1:
Shackles |
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 by 15% and buffing Ares. While shackled, Ares can fire another chain for free within 2s. Leveling Priority: Max this first. General Use: Damage / Control Discussion: This is a narrow-line skill-shot that prevents enemies from using mobility skills, while dealing solid damage to up to 3 enemies. You get up to 3 shackles if you don't miss. You can use all 3 on a single target; however, with a 2 second timeframe to cast the next Shackle, you will lose some total damage potential. When possible, aim for different targets with each Shackle to control a larger group overall and for maximum damage potential in a teamfight. If you're targeting just one enemy, learn the timing, use basics in-between ability use, and maximize the time you have them shackled. Tips:
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Skill #2:
Bolster Defenses |
Ares strengthens the defenses of himself and all nearby allies, granting protections and HP5, and reducing crowd control durations. For each shackled enemy, the protection buffs are increased. Leveling Priority: Level this anytime after Shackles, as preferred for your needs.General Use: Personal / Group Defense Discussion: Provides an aura of protections, HP5, and CC reduction for you and nearby teammates. Anticipate heavy damage abilities by activating this preemptively, and always use it in a teamfight. Tips:
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Skill #3:
Searing Flesh |
Flames pour forth from Ares' shield, engulfing enemies in a cone in front of him causing damage every 0.5s for 4s. Ares is immune to knockback for the duration. Leveling Priority: Level this first in Duo to bunch up minions, but max after Shackles, as preferred for your needs.General Use: Minion Wave clear / Damage Discussion: This ability not only does base damage every tick, but additionally deals magical damage based on the enemy target's maximum health. This can make the ability deal a large amount of damage if you can channel on the enemy for the entire duration. Not stated is the fact it provides a small knockback effect against enemy minions. You can use this to group minions up a bit for easier clear by other teammates, and is a main reason to get this at level 1 in the Duo-lane as Support, to help with quicker clear. Tips: This is typically used after finishing a series of Shackles, to continue your damage output.[*]Note that it can be interrupted, so if you can, wait until enemies have used any abilities that can interrupt a channeled ability (e.g. stun, silence, freeze, taunt, etc.). However, you are IMMUNE to knockup/knockback, making it a great way to deal with gods like  He Bo,  Bacchus,  Hercules, or  Vulcan. |
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Ultimate:
No Escape |
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. Leveling Priority: Suggest leveling this last, but you can prioritize as preferred. General Use: Initiation / Peel / Teamfight Control / Kill Secure Discussion: Ares' signature and most recognized ability, this provides a huge measure of control against the enemy team. It forces them to buy (and burn) Purification Beads), and can easily outwork Beads due to a much shorter CD.You can use it on a single target to help peel or secure a kill, but it is often better realized in the midst of a teamfight, where you can connect on multiple targets. Tips:
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Shackles, you can opt to level Bolster Defenses for the utility, or Searing Flesh for further aggression. Bolster is obviously the more team-oriented option, while Searing is great if you're able to continually bully and you're ahead of the enemy. Searing Flesh has a jump in DPS at ranks 3 and 5. You can consider leveling this to 3, then switch back to leveling Bolster Defenses if preferred. Blink Rune fairly early in the build). As such, you might consider delaying leveling past 1 until other abilities are maxed. Shackles works. They will spam it on a single target thinking each hit will arbitrarily increase the damage total. Instead, remember that each shackle has a specific duration with constant tick damage, and hitting a new shackle on the same target just resets the timer. Spacing them out will get you longer total duration and damage output, especially on a single target, though if you're aiming to hit multiple targets, use your shackles as quickly as needed. Shackles on a single or multiple targets, and provides an example of a blink-initiated ult with follow-up. Sentinel's Gift (Universal Support): Good general support / tank starter providing sustain. The Sentinel's Embrace upgrade provides a strong aura of protections to nearby teammates. Benevolence (Utility Support): Provides situational healing to your nearby teammate, along with consistent HP5/MP5 sustain. The upgrades 
Compassion and 
Heroism provide additional direct support to teammates.
War Flag (Aggressive Support): Provides utility and offensive support to teammates via movement and attack speed boosts. The War Banner upgrade provides an enhanced form of this, while 
Spartan Flag can have tactical use for ults or fighting around objectives.
Warrior's Axe (Solo Sustain): For use in the Solo role to provide sustain.
Tainted Steel (Anti-Heal): Very situational use in Solo or as a tank in non-Conquest modes to provide anti-heal function. Gauntlet of Thebes (High Dual Protections / Health): Option for first item pickup in a Support / tank role, providing high protections and health. Provides Aura / passive synergy. Prophetic Cloak (Dual Protection Aura / CDR): Alternative to Thebes, offering similar overall stats, but with CDR and some added mitigations when building lots of protections. Pridwen (Dual Protections / High CDR / Shield): Currently very situational, as you can easily get CDR from other options. The Shield after ulting definitely has synergy for when you blink ult to initiate a teamfight. Sovereignty and Heartward Amulet (Protection Auras): Are good pickups if you want to help shield your team a bit more. Sovereignty counters physical damage and is the more common pickup, as physical protection also helps against minions and structures. Get Heartward Amulet if facing at least 3 magical gods and the magical damage potential is significantly higher than physical. Shogun's Kusari (Team Basic-Attack): Is a great item if your ADC is completely online and doing a ton of work near you constantly, or if you have at least 2 AA reliant gods on your team. Oni Hunter's Garb (Anti-Magical / Teamfight Damage Mitigation): Is a solid pickup if the enemy team is heavy on the CC and you're taking more magic damage than physical. Spirit Robe (Dual Protections / CDR / Damage Mitigation): Is a good pickup item if you're getting CC'd into the ground when trying to get off your skills, and want to be tankier. Magi's Cloak (Dual Protections / CDR / Anti-CC / Glyph Utility): If you don't need other items, this is a great one providing functional support stats. The glyph upgrades can provide good offensive (
Magi's Revenge) or defensive (
Magi's Shelter) functionality. Stone of Binding (Dual Protections / Team Penetration): Is a core item pickup for aggressive play, due to the passive's penetration function that allows all teammates to deal more damage. Ethereal Staff (Health / Mana Steal): Strong item providing health and mana steal for a long time. Great for long teamfights. Acts like a mini 
Soul Reaver for Ares, despite not having a lot of damage items. Divine Ruin (Offensive Anti-Heal): A good pickup if you're able to consistently bully a team heavy on healing abilities. Pythagorem's Piece (Team Aggression / Sustain): Situational offensive teamfight item that can see good use if the enemy team builds very little anti-heal. Relic Dagger (Relic CDR / Health): Almost core item to help spam relics (typically Blink Rune in combination with his ult). High health and CDR are also appreciated. The Bewitched Dagger glyph upgrade is a good counter to basic attackers. Mystical Mail (Early Aggression / Physical Protection): early-game item only, due to the dropoff in effectiveness as more protections are built and enemies have higher base health. Allows you to clear minions more effectively, and to deal steady damage to enemies you're sticking to. Emperor's Armor (Siege Structures): functional item if you plan on living underneath a tower, either offensively or defensively. This can be built at any time, but is a fairly niche item. Can be very functional especially if you're diving an enemy team camped under their towers. Contagion and Pestilence (Anti-Heal): pick up the physical or magical version as needed to counter enemy healing. Midgardian Mail (Anti-Physical / Anti-Basic Attack): Is a good item to help keep basic attackers under some control due to the attack and move slows. Spectral Armor (Anti-Physical / Anti-Crit): Build specifically to counter high incoming damage from crit builds. Winged Blade (Slow Counter): Is good if the enemy team is full of slows and you're having trouble getting in their face.
Duo Lane WardingSolo Lane WardingLate-Game Warding
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Conduit Gem
Gladiator's Shield
Phalanx
Archdruid's Fury
Gem of Isolation
Manticore's Spikes
Polynomicon
But I modified it some. I went for 5auras and stone of Gaia which gave him tremendous sustain and still good damage.
In hind sight I probably should drop stone of gaia for another aura...maybe tyrannicalhelmet. Because that's like adding a damage item and more protection
Yeah, i normally run magus on him as the last item and run all defense after boots except for blink rune. I already run frequently with void and pythag's depending on when I am trying out one of Bran's other builds. My current regular arena build for Ares has been
I have been working on building him more standard though because so many groups lately i have been getting hung out to dry trying to go the blink route. Trying out a bit more of an offensive build that dagger slot was what i was looking at shifting into an offensive option at the end of the build.
yeah, i normally do binding 3rd when i build
no problem, understandable. I just didn't know since i was building him with a bit more power and more offensive build oriented if it might work ok synced with pythags
The only reason i was considering is i was building more offensively so only had two defensive items but i guess if i am going magus 6 i could switch out binding for one of the two depending on if enemy team more physical or magical. If tanks were a big problem i'd go magus at the 5 and shard at the 6 right, or would magus still be better for him considering his dot?
:) +1
One question though, why isn't
This is another item I contemplated. I didn't want to fully list every item that might be functional...only the best to consider for his kit. This is why I didn't list Urchin, or Mantle, or BoV, and also Genji.
I consider BoV and Genji in the same vein of item function. Both provide CDR, one protection type, and mana sustain of some form. And although Ares (hell, ANY god) appreciates CDR, he has more important things he needs to build.
If he really wants CDR, he has options. Spirit, Witch, Focus, Pythag's, and Shogun's are all good options there, and provide some additional form of utility.
If he wants magical protection, he also has enough options. Sure, Pest, Void, Heartward, Shogun's, and Oni are all a bit on the situational side with regard to pure magical options, but besides these, he also has dual protection options from Gauntlet and Spirit.
With that in mind, I just don't feel Genji's stats are as important...not for this god. Does that make sense?
Also I have never used your skill level order. I always alternate between 1 and 3, then my ulti and only for last, his 2. My support is kill the enemy.
Regarding the skill leveling, I did talk about that in the body. If you want the highest kill potential, you would focus on maxing
This is more of a general thing I created for the community, so I'm willing to adjust certain things if group consensus agrees.