About Ardan Top
Ardan is a strong roam hero that can deal great damage or withstand great punishment depending on how he is built. In the build that I use, I look more towards the defensive, protecting roamer, instead of the high weapon building jungle Ardan. Ardans heroic perk, Julia's gift, gives him a certain amount of health back on the damage he takes. This amount will never add up to the full force of damage taken, but will allow him to stay in fights longer, and with more health. His A. ability, Vanguard, can be used on any one of your allies. Vanguard gives them a shield that's strength depends on your base health. In my build you may have noticed I have many items that branch off of dragon heart, that would be the reason why. Vanguard also grants a small in initial movement speed to your ally or yourself and emits a small shock wave that will deal crystal damage to nearby enemies. Take note that the effects of Vanguards shield are much smaller if used on yourself and that when you use it on an ally you will be pulled to them as well. Your next ability if Blood for Blood. this ability is a punch that deals both weapon and crystal damage and runs on a power source that is unique to Ardan, vengeance. Vengeance slowly ticks up on its own but when Ardan uses his basic attack on anything, Vengeance rises much quicker. Also take note that because Vengeance is only used for Blood for Blood, your vanguard and gauntlet can never run out of energy, that's right, you don't need to worry about running out of energy. Besides this, Blood for Blood also has a bit more range than your basic attack, and will reset it. Your last, but certainly not least ability, if your Gauntlet. Gauntlet leaps you into battle and creates a wall of energy around you that enemy's can't pass through in either direction without getting stunned and taking crystal damage. how long this wall stays up depends on the level that your gauntlet is. be aware that once an enemy takes the stun there is a brief time when they can pass in and out freely before taking the stun again. This ability has a very long cool down, so use it wisely.
What Team Comps to Use Ardan in Over Other Tank Roamers Top
As with any other hero, Ardan has team comps that work better than others. When I look at tank roams, for me there are three choices, Ardan, Catherine, and Fortress (just never really liked Phinn that much). If neither of your carries have abilities that stun, you may want to consider Catherine for her Merciless Pursuit, if your carries are heavily late game, you may want to consider Fortress for his early game ability. Most of the time though, I find myself choosing Ardan. he is the best at keeping fragile assassins and squishy laner's alive because of his Vanguard. Also Ardan is the best roamer with two ranges carries, actually, i prefer two ranged carries when i roam with Ardan. He works so well with this because he can catch the whole other team in a gauntlet, while his carries stand outside in complete safety and deal massive damage.
The Early Game (1-6 Minuets in) Top
Ardan is an anytime hero, preforming well in early, and late game. This means that your play style in this phase should totally depend on who your jungle carry is. If roaming with an early game specialist, like Koshka, then invade the enemy jungle early and often, especially against late game scalers, like Krul. If with a late game carry, then try to stay back, farm, and not be as aggressive in this stage. Your first item, being a roamer, should always be the ironguard contract for farming purposes. As a roamer you should be the one to engage the Jungle Monsters, but never to take the kill. With your starting out scout trap, place it in your laners bush, that way they wont get ambushed from behind without warning. After he first wave of monsters you kill, you should have enough gold to buy an oakheart, and another scout trap, this trap should be placed to where you have vision of the gold miner and later on kraken, so the enemy wont be able take either without your knowledge. After that farm and gank appropriately with your jungler. buy up items as you can until you have tier two boots and a warhorn. I buy the Warhorn instead of a contraption because of Ardans Vanguard. Since its shield depends on Ardans base health, and warhorn builds up from a dragonheart, it is worth more for ardan. Also i love the utility it brings to a fight with the speed boost for you and your allies (if you find your team in a really good spot, use it on kraken, hes funny when he has a speed boost). Tier 2 boots may not seem practical this early for a roam, but i like having them, they let me easily stay out in front of my team and let me get to battles much quicker. Of course if you don't see a big enough upside to this you can build them at a slower pase but i do suggest having them.
Crucible and Deciding your Path Top
As soon as you have your warhorn and boots, you need to buy a crucible in any situation your team may be at. The 600 health it gives you not only helps you stay alive much longer in fights, but it helps your allies as well. Your Vanguard will now be able to help your carries soak up much more damage as well, also allowing them more time to deal out damage. On top of all that you can reflex block your whole team from stuns and damage. AFter buying this you need to ***es how your team is managing in team fights, and what you can do to help them out. if your team just cant get enough damage output late into fights, then build a breaking point, this will allow you to deal heavy damage late into fights with the stacks you will build with it. to gain stacks with a breaking point you need to auto attack another enemy hero. As you place more hits and more stacks form, the more damage you will deal. This means that since your a tank and can stay alive late in fights, that you can be dealing massive damage and swaying, or keeping, the tide of the fight in your favor. If your team just always seems to be low on health, then move straight into your fountain of renewal. Your fountain, when activated, will heal all of your nearby allies. Take note that the healing scales based on how low whoever your healing's health is, that means that the lower their health is, the higher healing they will receive. If your team is doing well in team fights and you don't see either way as the clear option, then I would just go with whatever path feels more comfortable to you.
Finishing the Build Top
After you have your breaking point, I would then build your fountain of renewal because it is always nice to have the healing option for your team. Afterwards comes another choice for your build, in the items part of my guide I put down Bonesaw, that does not mean that it is favored by me, it is just one of the many options along with the others that I put under Replacements for Bonesaw. I would build bonesaw if you want to give out more damage in fights and to break enemy's armour down. This is usualy the best option when the two other players on your team are also weapon powered. The next choice I have listed is Atlas Pauldron. This item gives you armour to be even tankier, and, when activated, it heavily slows enemies attack speed. This item is usualy the best choice when the enemy has a lot of attack speed. After that, is Clockwork. You may think this an odd choice since Ardan doesn't need the energy space since he runs on vengeance, but this greatly reduces the cooldown on both his Vanguard and his Gauntlet. I would build this if it just doesn't seem like you can get your Vanguard off quick enough. Next, is Shiversteel. Shiversteel gives you more max health (again helping with Vanguard) and after activation, your next attack will greatly slow the enemy. Use this if your against slippery heroes or want some more shielding from Vanguard. If you chose to go defensively, then after buying your fountain of renewal, you have all of these items to choose from including breakng point for your last two slots, so choose wisely and check the situation before purchasing your items. I hope this build helps you guys become better Adran players and please give me feedback!!!!!!! (This is my first build)
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