Ares Guide (Synergies and Strategies)

Wounds

Ares offers a mix of on-hit effects and damage modifiers. Wounds can only be inflicted once every 3 seconds, so you don't necessarily want it on a fast-hitting Weapon like Aspect of Hel's Attack.

Compared to the rest of the damage % Attack/Special Boons, Ares lags behind the rest of the God roster. Vicious Strike & Vicious Flourish have the lowest damage % boost. As a trade off, they inflict Wounds that deal +50 Power on the strike that inflicts the curse.

If you have either of these boons, you need to immediately prioritize grabbing Grievous Blow. While +50 Power every 3 seconds is underwhelming, +200% global damage increase is super strong!

Another deadly combo of Boons Ares offers is Mutual Destruction with Blood Spree. You can keep increasing your Max HP to increase the double damage chance from Mutual Destruction.

Then, once your at low health, you can keep yourself alive and maintain a high +200% damage chance with Blood Spree. Since you heal with every strike, faster hitting weapons or moves are better here (ex: Lim and Oros standard moves, or Zorephet's Omega Attack)

Falling Blades

• Sword Ring
• Stabbing Rush
• Cut Above
• Coffin Nail
• Cutting Edge

When you manage to find a high rarity Falling blade move, then get one or both of the Duos, they add a lot of damage to your build. Unfortunately, this feels inconsistent to accomplish, and possibly not worth it when considering the investment required compared to what other Gods offer.

Vicious Revenge Damage

Using an attack to inflict a revenge Boon may sound odd, but Heinous Affront builds destroy both standard and Guardian encounters. If you have a high level Divine Vengeance, you'll can add 500+ damage to every other Wounds infliction.

To breeze through standard encounters, throw on Light Smite. Since it damages all foes in the vicinity (huge AoE btw), you can instantly kill every foe in the location. Think of this as Hades 2's only "trio" Boon.

The best Gods to pair with Ares:

• Zeus, because Ares double damage is huge for Blitz. Plus, the same builds that work well with Static Shock are good for Blood Spree.
• Hestia to put introduce Scorch and unlock Fourth Degree for burst damage.
• Poseidon for a big increase in Splash damage from Arterial Spray

The best Weapons to pair with Ares:

• Aspect of Selene has a unique Hex with Ares Godsent that inflicts Shine. An upgraded Sky Fall ramps up your damage nicely.
• Aspect of Medea's +90% Attack/Special damage boost perfectly pairs with Vicious Strike Wounds +50 Power.
• Aspect of Artemis with Vicious Flourish makes for an powerful and easy combat loop to cycle in Wounds. You can stack Grievous Blow and Mutual Destruction double damage with Aspect of Artemis's Crit damage! Additionally, utilizing Blood Spree is easy on the rapid Attacks and double hitting Special.