Ardan has always been seen as a true protector on the Halcyon Fold. His kit enables him to
Vanguard himself or an ally to safety, applying a short slow while filling his vengeance bar should the target be taking hits.
Blood for Blood has a small gap closer to get in front of someone applying pressure to weave off enemy concentration and his ultimate the Gauntlet to trap or prevent enemy heroes from running away or chasing.
Today we are going to build a guide to play Ardan as a
Weapon Jungle Carry. Don't be fooled by the change in position for I think this way Ardan is able to fully utilize his kit better - prioritizing his
Blood for Blood to do devastating damage to targeted enemies. Not only is he able to still function well as a protector he is now able to chunk heavy blows to unsuspecting players on the fold.
Support playstyles to go with Ardan
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Adagio
- His heal and buff synergize very well with WP Ardan |
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Fortress
- Unlike Adagio, Fortress can leap in first baiting for the perfect Vanguard while bleeding a specific target for Arden to dash in and punish |
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Catherine
- A good pick if your laner is a mage, Catherine helps synergize team battles for the whole team and not just Ardan specifically |
Ardan's A ability,
Vanguard, gives him the ability to post up a 3 second shield equaling 50% of bonus health onto either himself or an ally. While Vanguard is up should the target take any damage it will also fill up his Vengence enabling him to reactivate his Blood for Blood skill much faster.
Now Vanguard is a very situational ability giving players the option of choosing when they should use it.
We'll start by saying when NOT to use vanguard
- Clearing your jungle - once you are getting close to the middle jungle DO NOT use Vanguard for quicker mobility. Even though the cooldown has been reduced to 13 seconds across the board having this skill down before a potential fight is very dangerous
- If your team is trying to take an objective while there are enemy players near by it is better to split the aggro than to Vanguard for the shield. Having the shield for your ally during a team fight is almost crucial to how the outcome will go. Use it wisely use it well
- If the enemy hero is full health try not to waste it for the slow unless your positive a kill may be secured
Situations in which Vanguard is BEST used
- During a team fight use Vanguard on a member of your team that is being focused. It could be on yourself who is standing out front taking aggro, support who is face-checking brushes, or laner who is priority #1 for the enemy team.
- As an escape Vanguard enables you to connect with an Ally hero over walls and it does have quite a decent amount of range. This is best used when Ardan is trying to escape from a fight that your team can't win. By distracting the enemy team and running in a different direction only to vanguard over the wall to safety. **can be used in the top corner of the Kraken pit to vanguard to the edges of lane brush
- Pop a flare in a brush and face-checking into enemy team that is waiting. If Ardan is the first person in he can buy himself about 3 seconds to unleash some damage while allies get into position to fight
- Because Gauntlet drops whenever Ardan leaves it he can throw one down to help allies escape waiting for a safe distance before vanguarding out to safety
Blood for Blood is the key damage dealer with this guide. Our goal is to unleash the burst damage from his Weapon ratio which can crit and scales 25% once given the overdrive skill point. This ability combos with Vanguard to reduce cooldown and spammed as much as possible.
Ardan uses his quick auto attacks and Vanguard stacks to fill up his vengence if done right he is able to Blood for Blood multiple times during a team fight.
Priority engagement in fights
- Aiming for enemy carry hero is priority #1 however try to keep a safe distance and do not steer too far from allies because no matter how strong and tanky you may be STUNS are your number 1 threat
One of my favorite ultimates in the Fold. Ardan's ultimate
Gauntlet throws down a giant perimeter which lasts from 4-8 seconds depending on how many skill points are put into it. I usually put only 2 points into this skill because of its longer cool down and due to use of crucibles from the enemy team.
The Gauntlet is best used to seperate and lockdown enemy heroes. Ideal situations would be to:
- Throw down the gauntlet after your team is winning a team fight preventing enemies from running to safety
- Initiate a team fight using Gauntlet to lockdown 1-2 of the enemy heroes
- Surprise them by jumping over a wall with your ultimate giving your team full vision and positioning to engage. This is best done by popping a flare first because once they see the flare they will get confused and separate in different directions
- Jumping over the lower wall by enemy base to backdoor
- In a situation to prevent enemy team from getting an ace jump over a wall to safety and backport right away
Ardan is very effective in the early game because of his 3 second shield and damage output he can be very aggressive. Tread carefully though his weakness would be facing stun team comps so do not run recklessly into 2v3 situations
Utilize his shield and Blood for Blood for damage output, sustain, and mobility.
Start off the game with a
Weapon Blade, after a few rotations his first few core items would include a
Heavy Steel,
Blazing Salvo, boots and dragon heart. After finishing a dragon heart to give Vanguard some worth pick up a Weapon Infusions to give him that early game spike. Use this 500 gold efficiently and try to be more aggressive in the jungle and lane ganks. When possible secure gold mine early and maintain good coverage of the middle jungle. Once your able to win some fights push over to their jungle and play aggressive to prevent any jungle farm.
Should the enemy team be running comps with more then one stun an early reflex block will be very beneficial. It is very easy to time when a stun is going to hit. In this instance Ardan will usually leap in for a Blood for Blood and reflex almost right after so keep this in mind if your not able to predict when a stun will be used.
Most often running WP Ardan in the jungle your early game comp will be quite strong. Building into the mid game we want to continue his presence as a heavy bruiser.
Our core item build now would be:
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Shiversteel
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Sorrowblade
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Blazing Salvo
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Crucible//
Fountain of Renewal. (Whichever is more needed)
Weapon infusions are still used periodically but please try not to pour an exceeding amount of gold into this. If your team is far ahead scaling back on infusions and opting for items might be the wiser choice.
If your team is just about even with no clear lead then yes an infusion will greatly help determine the next few battles/objectives
When really behind pop infusions in smart situations. Should it be if your team is able to catch someone off guard, before a coordinated attempt on objectives like the goldmine/turret, when your laner has an infusion and the other team does not
Our build goes into the late game is quite situational and mainly focuses around counter-building the enemy team.
If the enemy team is full of tanky heroes ie.
Glaive,
Krul,
Ardan so forth it would be wise to turn that Blazing Salvo into a
Breaking Point
If they are on the squishier side but loaded up on Armor then
Bonesaw is more optimal here
Atlas Pauldron's on the enemy team can be avoided or crucibled, however if Ardan is their main focus for items then use Vanguard to your advantage. Vanguard will give you the barrier and time needed to wait for these effects to die off while keeping your health quite full.
If there are 3 stuns on their team throwing in another Reflex item such as Aegis would be of great help so your build can look something like so
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Shiversteel
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Sorrowblade
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Crucible
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Breaking Point/
Bonesaw
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Aegis (opt for Another weapon item if enemy is WP with not much stuns)
- tier 2-3 Boots
A reason why there isn't any Armor heavy defence on Ardan is because they don't help our the use of Vanguard in anyway. Also with infusion you get defensive perks to help out damage intake
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