Hey friends. This is my standard ardan guide, that serves me very well. I don't think anything in this guide is out of the ordinary, but I thought it'd be nice to have it posted here, for my own reference, if no other reason.
Ardan is a strong support character, who has insane gap closing abilities. Every single one of his abilities leaps, either towards an enemy, towards a friendly, or wherever you want! Always get boots up fast and use your mobility to be where you need to be, when you need to be there. One strong shield can turn a death into a kill for your laner, or friendly jungler.
This guide has some key options, in whether you go for warhorn, or whether you rush aftershock faster. This all depends on how the game is playing out, and who you are paired up with and against. If you know that either team plans on invading, and you've gt a lot of fighting to do, I ted to start off withoutmy contract, although I still get one early. The real debate is whether or not to push to stor guard banner and warhorn, or whether to sell the iron guard contract mid/late game.
Since this guide rushes double dragonhearts, Ardan's shield is very strong early game... NEVER waste your shield when a fight could possibly break out. The cooldown is slow and that ability should always be saved to use on a friendly who is taking damage, or surrounded by enemies. It is, however, alright to use shield farming, when you are on your base side jungle minions above the minion mine, so long as you,now that there are no enemies invading your side of the jungle. This is fine, because by the time you make it back to the middle of the map, or could potentially be back in a teamfight, your skill should be back off cooldown. Also, always shield a friendly when leaving the base in the beginning of the game, so they can get a slight speed boost on the way out of base.
Before you get aftershock, it's not particularly easy to get kills with this build. The shield hurts, but that alone isn't really enough. I'd try to avoid teamfight a before you are at least level six, and hopefully have aftershock.
If you go warhorn early, try to steal minions from the enemy jungle, but avoid direct confrontation. Make some gold and run away... Live to fight mother day... After you have aftershock! Also, try to communicate with your team before using warhorn said speed boost. It is a very strong ability that can be totally wasted, if your team isn't prepared to make a move as soon as it is activated.
I tend to go crucible before shivesteel if I'm u against skaarf, ardan and ringo at least. However, in most cases (especially if I have a very Killy jungle partner) I'll go shivesteel as soon as ive finished aftershock, finishing crucible directly afterwards. The shivesteel, really helps ardan lock down fleeing enemies and helps gank in lane, as well as assisting in team fights. If your carry is getting nuked, you can shield them, hopefully saving them and giving them a speed boost, then immediately start hitting people with shivesteel activated, and even a stacked up taka, will have trouble chasing down your buddy!
In the late game, I often feel the need for an atlas Pauldron. It's not only against teams that have serious attack speed upgrades. Even in a one on one encounter withan enemy wrrior late game, an atlas Pauldron can really prevent them from putting out much damage. Also because ardan has lots of health and can hop around a bit, he can regularly get ther Pauldron off on the entire enemy team. Example: koshka jumps onto an enemy jungler standing with her team. You immediately shield her to protect her and to splash damage onto all enemies. That spell puts you in the center of combat, in a perfect position to atlas pauldron their entire team, hopefully ensuring a clean ace!
Only upgrade Ardan's ultimate at level six and level twelve. The spell is important, but the scaling is nowhere near as important as his other two abilities. When using the gauntlet, try to split the enemy team in half, cut off overextended players, or just try to land the edge of the wall directly on an enemy player. It takes practice, but once you are comfortable with the range and size of this a its, you will start to get your stun off on people, before they even have a chance to crucible and walk away, because the edge of the shield laner directly on their head. Be warned, that when you land the gauntlet directly on someone, it seems to randomly choose whether they get pushed inside or outside the wall. Also, if your opponents have crucible, try to use gauntlet AFTER you've recently seen crucible used. On the flip side. If you've got a skaarf or adagion on your team, you may want to force them to use crucible on your ultimate, so that they can't use it against your teammates ultcoming right afterwards!
As ardan, it's your job to lead the team. You must soak up damage and walk in front of your partners. Often, your team will expect you to be providing visibility, so don't cheap out on traps and flare guns. They are both almost alwys worth their value. Knowing where your enemies are is one of many keys victory!
This build is actually very inexpensive (gold-wise) so you should have plenty of. Extra gold for consumable items. Keep a all of scout traps up to see enemy players entering your side of the map. Move this wall forward (trench warfare) as soon as you've downward the first enemy tower. Keep your HP high using potions and flare if you're not seeing enemy p,ayers on the mini map.
Finally infusions... You shouldbe buying infusions fairly early, and in fact, I usually have both weapon and crystal insidious rocking by thend of the game. As soon as you. Pop both infusions, ardan goes into beast mode, really putting out hurt in an unexpected fashion. As soon as I've finished atlas Pauldron, I tend to buy infusions and flares every few minutes until the game is over. Only if I havea crazy amount of gold will I actually buy a fifth item, assuming I didn't go warhorn early game. Ill keep that slot open for flaring enemies constantly. Trying to keep their team pinned down in base, sharing lane so (not allowed into their own jungle)
Hopefully I'm not just rambling for no reason, and maybe someone will get some value out of this guide. If you have any feedback or ideas for me, please feel free to comment.
PS - I am playing at the hotness rank right now... I don't know how this build holds up in any tiers above that, but id assume it does fine!
Quick Comment (1) View Comments
You need to log in before commenting.