Hades - Burst Damage & Strong Late Game S3

The Play Style:

I like hitting hard once, not hitting twice softly. And if I can I want to hit so hard that people run away from me. Maxing every damage source is key to do so.


The Build:

== A ==

No Starter Item? No Vampiric Shroud? Maybe you can try > Soul Stone, but basicly you want Warlock Sash as soon as possible, so you have the 100 Stacks on it at the time you start teamfighting. Soul Stone can even be helpful through the entire game, because 20 Mp5 is still a big thing even in the late game! Going without starter item may be a little risky in terms of early sustain but as Hades you can heal up yourself with the detonate and use many basic attacks to apply blight to safe your mana.

Hades needs HP to survive incoming burst damage when ulting and sustaining the close quarter combat he always ends up in > Warlock Sash

I like to hit hard once, not hit soft twice > Penetration shoes will help you more in the early game as long as you can maintain your mana.

After using your combo on an enemy you will often find him on low HP. Not low enough I say! > Polynomicon procs on top of your combo so you have an even bigger amount of burst doing all of your stuff together, hopefully dealing such a big amount of damage to the enemy that he can be finished in a second encounter or with Sunder Relic!

> Mantle of Discord gives you the protections you need for the close quarter combat and also helps with cooldown reduction. The Passive Proc is just beautiful in several occasions.

> Rod of Tahuti for Damage. Simple!

> Spear of Desolation for huge damage with penetration. The Passive helps you to keep initiating or get out quickly when your dash ability comes online again after a killing blow with detonate.


== B ==

> Spear Of The Magus can be a "bridge" to maintain the damage output through the early game by penetration. Yet it is a risky choice in my opinion because as explained in the section "About Penetration" you might end up overcapping penetration while struggeling with other importans stats like protections Hades definitely needs too. Experiment buying this item or not, maybe have a very close look at the enemy team and their builds. If you find many tanky frontliners in your face you might need spear of the magus very surely to even reach late game, where it will swapped out with Spear of Desolation!

You might benefit from > Shoes of Focus more when buying Spear Of The Magus next. Decide yourself!

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In both builds buying order should always be adapted to the situation a.k.a. which enemies you are fighting. Remember that a well figured out mix of builds A & B & some of those "half items" between mid and late game will always give you the best result. Adapt to your enemies!
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Buying Half Items:

The thing with this build is: It is difficult to maintain your Power through the mid game. Polynomicon is not really viable until you have Rod of Tahuti or at least Spear Of The Magus, but then without a doubt is and still, you need a bit of life steal as Hades don't you? Mantle of Discord is not that expensive but still expensive enough to be careful about the buying order! You need protections and not as last items, do you? Having only 10 Penetration in Build A with your Shoes Of The Magi is not very much, but Spear of Desolation gets online so damn late because it is so expensive, that you will find yourself struggleing with tanky targets through pretty much the whole game. Buying Spear Of The Magus instead earlier can help but at the very end you want to sell it again anyways for Spear Of Desolation and selling items is never good because actually you lose a lot of farm/gold!

My personal way of fixing this problem is buying some items "half" through the mid game.
Enchanted Trinket is cheap and provides many useful stats! so does Cloak Of Concentration. Enchanted Spear is not a real thing, you might want to finish Mantle of Discord first before you even start building into any spear, but still it is an option if you need a little more pen dealing with a warrior e.g.! Go ahead and experiment with this, I think it is great way to have more "control" of what stat you need to buff next in your build. It is pretty safe to finish every other item before buying the first piece of Spear of Desolation. As said Spear Of The Magus might be a variation that will help you especially when facing more tanky targets.


About Penetration:

In Build "A" you might lack penetration till you have Spear Of Desolation. Most time you will only have Shoes of the Magi with 10 flat penetration. But here is the deal: Fighting a hunter or mage you might find it enough in most situations, really going for the kill here is waiting for his escape ability (and/or Purification) to be on cooldown and then dash-Ult into him. Ulting a blighted targets further reduces his/her Protections by anouther 30 and considering most hunters and mages only have about 40 protections you have done perfectly right!
Fighting Warriors and Guardians is a different story but: Wait! Sunder is a must-have in this build, isn't it? ;) ... Do pretty much the same as beforce but now the combo is "blight, sunder, dash, Ult"! you will end up a having 25% and at least 40 flat penetration. Fair enough!
Again i will mention the option to buy Spear Of The Magus in the mid game. It is cheap and it gets the job done!


The God & Build Concept:

I find Hades to be a very powerful and fun god to play. His sustain and burst potential is through the roof but needs a lot of careful positioning to be pulled of correctly. He can instantly clear a enemy minion wave once he reached Level 6 which gives him a huge farm and time to rotate. Dashing through walls into jungle camps even reduces travel time more for easier farm and rotations.

This all results in a strong early and mid game, but most Hades players will tell you he falls off in the late game.

So I came up with a simple idea. If his farm is very strong, mostly played in solo lane anyway and if he just needs a push late game, why not pushing by buying expensive but strong items for the late game? Mantle of Discord, Rod of Tahuti and Spear of Desolation are pretty much the most expensive items in the game but those are exactly what Hades needs! On Top of it all I love building Polynomicon and Sunder to pull of the highest Burst-Combo there is!


Combos and How Tos:

Level 1-12 you will dash into enemy minion wave, hitting all 6 of them, then detonate all 6 of them. Level 13-20 most of the time a Scream-Detonate-Combo will do the same if you position sideways to the enemy minion wave. Experiment! If you can save the dash as an escaping tool, it is hard enough for Hades to come up so close every time already.

When you find an enemy "hiding" in his minions, so your basic attacks can't hit him, this is the perfect time for you to Dash-Detonate! The Detonate "rips" blighted targets apart what results in an additional source of AoE-Damage. Thus an enemy god standing in a bunch of enemy minions will just make your combo deal like double damage! Instakill potential! This can also work with enemy gods that stand very close together, like when they have been pulled by an Ares Ult for example!

Use Detonate to heal yourself! If you can communicate with a teammate, let them stand right next to you and the detonating minions, it will heal him/her too! Try to max the amount of heal you get by always maxing the amount of targets that are detonated.
I often walk right up to an enemy minion wave and basic attack the first of their line a few times. Knocking them back they will get closer and closer to another and when they are closer together it is easy for you to dash-detonate-combo them. You wont even need your own minion waves to instaclear a wave.

Use Scream Ability to disrupt enemies. Breaking their Combo, denying their escaping ability for a short time or even fear (target blighted) them to save a teammate or setup the enemy for a teammates CC and/or damage.

Use Basic-Attack-Dash-Combo to slow enemys while chasing them or to buy a weak teammate some time they would otherwise reach and finish off.

Ult should be used very carefully as Hades. Be aware of what escaping tools like leaps, jumps, dashes, etc. an enemy god might have. If you see them use their escaping tool, Dash after them and use Ult while their escape is on cooldown to get the most out of your ult. Try to cast the ult when enemys are not too far away from you so your Ult's slow has a chance to stack up into the pull it actually is. Pulling enemies can be a kill set up for teammates or a way to save them.

Hardest Hitting Combo as Hades:
(- Basic Attack first for additional Blight aka. slow when...)
- Dash
- Detonate
- Basic Attack/Scream for applying blight
- Ult
(- insert Polynomicon-Passive-Proc with a basic attack and/or sunder at any point you think is best for the situation)


Relics:

Sunder is just nice! Nobody uses it, I do! And i get kills with it! Learn to use it, thank me later!

Blink may wonder you, but it basicly makes Hades able to "double dash", what is an extrem amount of distance that can be initiated through. Also Blinking in and Screaming is the best way to invade ever and the best part is: Now you are in the fight and still have your best 3 abilities ready and many blighted and silenced targets in front of you! If the enemy now jumps away, just dash after them and Ult to kill them for example, the posibilities are endless with blink! Practice it too!

Teleport is pretty much a must have when playing in solo lane and can be usefull for teleporting to wards in the late game!

Shell is a perfect way to make yourself an even harder target in Ult.