After teasing the Greek God of War for weeks, Hi-Rez Studios has finally made the introduction of Ares official with his very own God Reveal trailer. The new reveal will catch players off guard immediately for two reasons. First, Ares’ introduction ushers in a new voice for Hi-Rez Studios’ trailers. Second, the art for this greek deity is simply badass. His shield alone is capable of scary the poop out of lesser beings.
Revealed and worshipped by the Spartans, Ares is the ideal warrior. Hi-Rez Studios set up the bloodthirsty god as a magical melee tank that has a very interesting passive. For each rank 3 aura purchased by the player, Ares gains 40 magical power. This passive essentially demands that players play the tank role. Assuming they’re paying attention to such trivial details as an innate ability.
Ares is a very powerful support tank capable of leeching movement speed from enemies, buffing allies with defensive powers and the potential for massive conical AoE damage. And then there’s his ultimate. No Escape chains enemies in the target circle to Ares. After a short delay, the God of War decides to give them all a big hug, stunning and damaging his foes as they’re pulled in tight.
I’m going to go out on a limb here and say he’s OP already. We’ll find out for sure when Ares becomes available later this week. Hit the jump for the full God Reveal and details on all of his abilities.
Blessed Presence (Passive)
Each completed aura item that Ares owns grants him 40 additional magical power.
Shackles (Skill Key 1)
Chains extend from Ares’ shield, doing 25/45/65/85/105 (+15 percent of magical power) magical damage to all enemies in its path. Hitting a god shackles them to Ares, dealing the same damage every second for 4s while slowing them and buffing Ares by 20%. While shackled, Ares can fire a chain for free within 2s, max of 3.
Cost: 70/75/80/85/90 mana.
Cooldown: 15 s.
Bolster Defenses (Skill Key 2)
Ares strengthens the defenses of himself and all nearby allies, granting 15/20/25/30/35 physical and magical protection and reducing crowd control durations by 15/20/25/30/35% for 8 seconds. For each shackled enemy, the protection buffs are increased by 10.
Cost: 60/65/70/75/80 mana.
Cooldown: 13 s.
Searing Flesh (Skill Key 3)
Flames pour forth from Ares’ shield, engulfing enemies in a cone in front of him for 15/20/25/20/35 (+ 7 percent of magical power) plus 1/1/2/2/3% of the target’s max health as magical damage every .5s for 4s.
Cost: 55/60/65/70/75 mana.
Cooldown: 12 s.
No Escape (Skill Key 4 – Ultimate)
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 ?/?/?/?/500 (+40% of magical power) magical damage and are stunned for 1s + .3s for each enemy god chained.
Cost: 80/85/90/95/100 mana.
Cooldown: 90 s.
Head over to SMITE: Demigods, Deities and Gods Explained for details on all of the playable characters.