Ares, The Great Destroyer : Sponsered by TEAM YAYO

This is a guide for Ares, the One True Destroyer. Ares is naturally a tank but when combining Shackles & Searing Flesh along with the proper build he can become a deadly damage dealer. This guide will give my personal strategies when playing Ares in various game types, I'll also give some info into my build choices and tips for newcomers to the Destroyer.

Boots of Celerity: I have tried numerous combinations of boots for Ares and for me, these have proven to be the most useful. In Arena the extra speed is very useful and getting your cool-down reduction for these means you don't have to buy other items like Breastplate of Valor. Cool-down reduction is extremely useful especially when most combatant players will buy Beads and or Aegis soon after realizing they're playing an Ares.

Mystical Mark: This item is one of my favorites, you get a good chunk of physical protection, health, and best of all it's an aura item that's effect is awesome with the little tics from Shackles & Searing Flesh, it all adds up and can be very powerful if used correctly.
Void Stone: Another aura item but with magical protection, its another item that has great defensive stats and has a very useful offensive aura.
Pythagorem's Piece: MP, Mana, and Magic LS another awesome aura item that creates survivability out of constant damage which is what should be happening with spam Shackles & Searing Flesh.
Rod of Tahuti Pretty straightforward a pure damage item, no aura but still very good because of our passive and its passive just building upon each other. This can also be substituted with Banecroft's Talon I just usually choose Tahuti because I'm capable of survive most of the time and the extra boost of MP is nice, but the lifesteal on Banecroft's has its useful niche aswell.
Soveregnty Another item some may disagree is necessary but its solid Phys Protection with a decent amount of Magic and its aura so in my opinion a solid item somewhat situation in non-arena matches but in arena with the aura bonus I usually always grab it 3-4th.

In Conclusion... it's very important to make use of Ares awesome passive (+20 MP per aura item) your a tank so naturally these are also awesome because they provide benefits to your teammates. Some may criticize this build for its cost but in arena, which it is designed for, you should have no problems keeping up with a gold.

I won't explain the skill-sequence by game type but I'll give a good general rule because you should pick your skills on how you play more then what I recommend but it would be ignorant do pick them in certain ways. With that being said I usually grab Shackles first in Arena, Domination its good because in both settings you're in team fights early and a cripple that early in the game can be extremely effective. In conquest I either go Searing Pain to help minions and then Shackles or vice versa the first skill choosing in my opinion isn't as important with Ares as it can be with others. You will be getting to level two relatively quickly no matter what and you main buy is your ultimate anyway. But I always tend to grab my 1 first, 3 second, 2 third, and then 1 again before getting my ultimate. After then I always tend to max my Shackles and spread points evenly between Searing Flesh and Bolster Defense, picking up a skill in my ultimate whenever possible. The main idea to take away from this is that Shackles is your go to until full the same can be said for your ultimate and you can interchange your 2,3 slots are you see necessary.

Arena: In Arena I'm very aggressive from the get go, I buy both actives right after 2nd tier boots. You gain gold so fast unlike conquest so it really doesn't set you back to buy both early and they are very useful for early game antagonizing. Since I am so aggressive I try to always communicate it with my team to Follow/Group Up and whenever I'm trying to initiate an ult. This way you aren't running into constant 4v1's. I do the same for domination as the gold gain is also much faster then in conq.

Conquest: Probably my least favorite game-type for Ares, unless your in a party with your lane partner coordination can be a problem. It's easy to get behind quickly if you get off to a bad start. That being said I approach this game-type much more cautiously because the penalty of death early puts you in a hole that can ruin the rest of the game, for the most part your setting up kills for the lane and keeping enemies focused on you not your carry. Shackle is awesome for harassing enemies and if you get some good 3x chains with Searing Flesh you can setup kills quickly, especially with the cripple chains provide.

Pros:
+Good Survivability
+Team - Fighter
+Effective Single Target
+Badass...

Cons:
-Escapes can be tricky
-Ultimate is less effective as time goes on
-Can get behind if not careful

These descriptions will be brief as I add more for specifically taking down each god.

Very Easy: Somewhat self explanatory these are your Mages and most other main Dps classes besides Thor, Hercules as their tankieness can pose some problems for a quick kill. Be careful with Ne Zha as well, I would highly recommend always grabbing Hide of Nemean Lion.

Meduim: This would be your Thor's, Herc's, and to some extent a tanky Ra. Increased caution with these gods but 3x Chains and Searing flesh maybe rinse & repeat and that in most cases should be enough.



Hard: These are tanks Odin, Vama, Bac, etc unless the circumstances call for it obviously, but unlike the gods listed easy and sometimes medium you can't simply apply chains, fire, and expect to secure a kill.

General Info - As with any tank you are the initiator, it's your job to choose the right targets and move the group with you. Tanking also gives your the responsibility of saving your allies, 7 times out of 10 all you need to do is move in the general direction of where a teammate is being picked off and people will scatter (Because of your ultimate, and just because your a tank), so fear can be one of your best tools.

Arena Strategy - As mentioned above, be vocal, /Follow me, /Group up, not enough tanks are vocal and actually lead most of the time people will listen and more organization is always stronger then people randomly running around trying to get kills etc, the more you can setup and coordinate attacks the better off you will be.

Conquest Strategy - Micro strategy is the key here for the majority of the game. You and your laning partner are a unit and attacks should be coordinated as such.

This was my first attempt at a guide so please critique at will, I will update and change things accordingly as I see fit. Thanks for reading hope it helps some of you new players out there.