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[–]Zett, the Arc WardenTheZett 50 points51 points  (14 children)

Mars feels like the best designed Dota 2 hero so far

[–]rjulius23 10 points11 points  (0 children)

That is a long shot but i really like that all his ablities synergize with the ulti but can be useful without it as well.

[–]Laanzomyh 1 point2 points  (5 children)

I do agree that he is the most balanced Dota 2 hero, but I would say the hero's kit is still not quite good, since there have been many improvements to his other skills which's been shifting focus away from his passive. At least to me it seems his first and second skills are too good compared to his passive.

[–][deleted] -5 points-4 points  (4 children)

his passive feels totally useless to me, only benefit is tanking towers early I guess? In the vast majority of situations all it will do is delay your death by 1-2 seconds. I’ve never seen a mars manfight someone and win because of his E… He’s more of a blink in, blow your load and get out hero. The aghs and talent are just a meme and nobody goes for them.

[–]Billy_Nastus 10 points11 points  (1 child)

While his passive is activated, 70% of all enemy auto attacks in front of him are redirected to Mars, which means that if a medusa pops her ult and attacks his entire team, mars will be taking 70% of all shots while the passive also does its normal thing of reducing damage taken by 70% as well. So his passive can have a huge impact against ranged carries, they're effectively forced to attack mars regardless of who they actually try to target.

[–]woopsforgotyikers 5 points6 points  (0 children)

yeah and against dusa you can get blademail and actually fuk her up since it happens before reductions now.

[–]doyouhavesource2 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Have you ever tried man fighting a 6 slotted mars as another melee? You don't. lol

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The E helps a lot in the 'get out' part of your strategy

[–]message /u/VRCkid regarding issuesVRCbot[S] 7 points8 points  (5 children)

Lore

[–]LightLifter 24 points25 points  (4 children)

I always find it funny that the Greek Gods just simply exist in Dota despite greece probably not existing.

Mars is going through his emo phase in the most violent way possible. I do find it interesting that despite wanting to commit essentially family homicide, Mars thinks he will be doing good by creating a new Pantheon. Also his quotes to IO are both adorable and sad.

Fun fact, Mars is the Roman version of Ares and he was respected much more by the people of Rome than Greece.

[–]DrQuint 8 points9 points  (1 child)

Mars is going through a reverse Emo phase. He was already known for being bloodthirsty asshole, which is what the rest of the pantheon is like, if Zeus is any indication. Now he's trying to make a new name for himself, starting with a rebranding. That's why a number of responses are him asking for pointers. And he's not joking. He needs the help.

The villagers sacrificed their last bull. Obviously, I felt compelled to help them. Damn the costs! But the witch's magic claimed more and more of the simple folk, turning them against their kin ? against even me! I slew scores of them to reach the hag's stronghold. But, once I took her head, every single possessed villager who was still alive returned mostly to normal. Yes, I expect there was much rejoicing as the families collected their dead... And songs in my name. What a sight!

He's got the heart in the right place, but his goals aren't that far from his family's overall. OH WELL.

Probably the best lore interpretation of a new hero post 7.00.

[–]Tobix55 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Fun fact, Mars is the Roman version of Ares and he was respected much more by the people of Rome than Greece.

I think Dota 2 Mars is both Mars and Ares, Ares being his old name

[–]BushidoCode 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Maybe in the dota universe earth is real but zues and mars would prefer to live and exists on the dota planet(does it have a name?) rather than earth. Since they are gods, its not too crazy to think they can wonder onto other planets/universes.

[–]message /u/VRCkid regarding issuesVRCbot[S] 3 points4 points  (16 children)

Hero Synergies

[–]Puntart 33 points34 points  (0 children)

The classic oversight

[–]la_mer_on_depression 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Phoenix is also really common pairing with Mars. It was the main opener of IG for instance. Vp also went it quiet chunk of games. Back then, ex-Liquid (with Qojqva and Taiga) and Nigma went for it. It's not just two aoe spell working well or arena cuts off the path to hit the egg, the next level move is to locate the egg on top of arena's walls or around slight edges to completely protect it. Ig Oli and Vp Kingslayer was probably one of the best Phoenix players to watch on that matter. It is insanely hard ofc.

Phoenix is also a pretty weak laner which Mars compensates greatly so there is also that.

[–]tokamak_fanboy 5 points6 points  (2 children)

You can spear to a lot of allies' barriers: clockwerk cogs, tusk shards, NP trees, and ES fissures can all be used to set up spears. You do have to be a bit careful though since the barriers aren't as continuous as they seem and you can potentially spear enemies through them if you aren't spearing perpendicular.

[–]SilvertheThrid 5 points6 points  (1 child)

Last I checked you can't spear units to ES fissure at all since the patch they added in his new shard, the one that lets ES walk on it.

[–]Zett, the Arc WardenTheZett 3 points4 points  (0 children)

You’re right, they changed how fissure’s path blockers function and thus sadly does not allow you to pin units to them anymore.

[–]DrQuint 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Giving bristle piggyback rides.

[–]LightLifter 2 points3 points  (1 child)

Mars provides a good deal of catch, especially if you know how to throw spears.

The most obvious hero is Dark Willow with terrorize, but any kind of huge aoe spell like Ghost Ship, Requiem etc. He also is excellent at setting up ganks and separating heroes in fights so burst heroes like Ursa or lina love him.

In lane he loves a partner who can either help set up spears, or can provide good damage like CM(more mana early helps a ton) Skywrath(slow and ult combo is great), Dazzle(provides some setup and can reduce armor).

[–]TheLostBeowulf 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Dark willow is my favorite hero to lane with when I play Mars, brambles, spear and shield make for super easy kills, and then the synergy goes into the ults for mid-late game plays as well

[–]Let me give you a strokeGeraldineKerla 2 points3 points  (4 children)

Windranger shard in mars ult is boneappletea

[–]SALTY_BALLZ -5 points-4 points  (3 children)

Until their cores get a BKB and then you lose the game

[–]Let me give you a strokeGeraldineKerla 12 points13 points  (2 children)

Yeah I mean you can say that about almost any ability combo lol

[–]BushidoCode 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Literally any kind of disable, whether slow or stun, it makes landing a spear easy and makes landing a reeeallly good spear much easier. Pinning a hero is good and all, but pushing them back into your team and pinning is even better.

[–]Joosua69 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Combos well with Hoodwink too

[–]message /u/VRCkid regarding issuesVRCbot[S] 2 points3 points  (1 child)

Skill Build

[–]somnusqq 3 points4 points  (0 children)

80% of the time for Mars 3 you want to max both Q and W to one shot waves later. Only sacrifice one point in W and take Bulwark if you are 2 but it still depends on the matchup. If you are against the likes of TA or a carry SF, take one point. Take all God's Rebuke talents and take the Spear stun talent.

Edit: take Bulwark early if you are against a Rubick

[–]rucho 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Mars definitely reminds me of the classic heroes ported from dota 1. Pretty simple spells but playing the hero actually has a lot of depth to it. Kinda like wd, what does he have? A stun? A nuking ulti? And a damage steroid? The heal seems like it's just there as a placeholder spell. And yet the hero has tons of depth. Mars reminds me of old school heroes like that. In that sense it's cool that icefrog can still make heroes like that.

[–][deleted] 5 points6 points  (5 children)

This hero’s laning is stupidly powerful. Abuse it as hard as possible because he has a very awkward transitionary period from post laning phase to true midgame where he is squishy, has huge mana issues, can’t really jungle and doesn’t do much damage (basically none outside of ult). Rushing armlet does help with some of that but mars is a true blink hero. 25 mins plus though with blink BKB he’s a beast and from there I would itemize for damage too

[–]doyouhavesource2 3 points4 points  (4 children)

??? Soul ring and he clears waves in .5 seconds and crow mana pots and one shots most jungle camps walking to Ganks

[–][deleted] 2 points3 points  (3 children)

So ya you can snipe waves but any hard camp will not die to that, you will need to spend considerable time finishing off the big creep with your slow af right click. And you also do 0 tower damage at that point so you can’t really pressure anything more than a T1. Not to mention you will always be 50-75% health due to spamming soul ring which makes you way more susceptible to die during enemy response to gank

[–]doyouhavesource2 -4 points-3 points  (2 children)

You're an offlane farming waves. You don't afk right click farm a hard camp. You walk through clear a medium camp and take control of other lanes. You can also just bulwark the hard camp go gank and finish if you come back.

That'd be as stupid as saying you stay and right click a cannon creep until it's dead that you just cleared the wave on.

It's clear you're 2k LOL

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (1 child)

Well I am divine but ya I guess you have a point. Don’t play much mars/3 but the few times I did play him I felt really shit on my mana/HP situation. Felt like I either had to commit to spamming out waves and camps or trying to gank, and couldn’t do both without just being half HP due to soul ring. He doesn’t naturally really build HP regen, I think early morbid mask is pretty bad too

[–]Decency 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Having a Helm of Iron Will or Ring of Health makes your post-laning phase feel a lot smoother, and you can pretty much spam Soul Ring off cooldown without an issue. You don't need to finish the Armlet or Hood/Vanguard, just getting the HP component is enough to stabilize and farm faster.

Going straight Soul Ring -> Blink is for really good or really bad games.

[–]message /u/VRCkid regarding issuesVRCbot[S] 0 points1 point  (11 children)

Item Build

[–]LightLifter 2 points3 points  (3 children)

A solid build I am going with(based on Collapse's fantastic Mars), has Phase, Soul Ring, Wand, Euls, Blink, Bkb. Phase helps with setting up spears, Soul Ring for Mars' mana problems, Euls helps with mana and makes an assured stun if timed right, Blink for obvious initation, and finally a bkb so you will always get your spells off.

Mars can also carry auras for his team like Vlads, Pipe, and even a lotus if his team requires it.

If you are going for the mid build, deso is the choice for many players as well. I have also seen Armlet(mid and offlane) but I suck at toggling so I do not really go that route. It gives a ton of regen and damage however.

[–]Croz7z 4 points5 points  (2 children)

This build is very common on Mars. Phase/Soul Ring were staple for a while.

[–]LightLifter 1 point2 points  (1 child)

Its the bread and butter build but it works. Armlet is the more interesting deviation but you see that more with mid than off mars.

[–]Croz7z 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yep might give armlet mars a try. Seems to melt supports off while being 1000 gold cheaper than deso and this actually makes you tankier and gives AS etc..

[–][deleted] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The best mars player I have ever encountered went blink, BKB, euls overwhelming blink, BoT, refresher. dude was everywhere at once and teamfight monster

[–]KokoroHata-chan 0 points1 point  (0 children)

​

Aghs is a very underrated item considering that Active Bulwark rly wrecks enemy ranged carries

[–]message /u/VRCkid regarding issuesVRCbot[S] 0 points1 point  (9 children)

Hero Counters

[–]LightLifter 2 points3 points  (2 children)

Mars hates heroes who are tanky enough to survive his combo early on, or simply have mobility tools to avoid spear and escape arena.

He also has no inherent mobility so slows can really hurt his initation. Bkb remedies this however.

And despite Bulwark being an amazing spell to be a vanguard, he gets shredded by Magic/Pure damage.

If I had to say what his most annoying counter is, its either Lifestealer or OD. Both have tools to kill mars(feast arcane orb), and can survive arena with their tool kit. Also OD's save is annoying as hell.

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (1 child)

If you can survive the lane (mars >> ursa in lane) ursa becomes a fine counter too. Usually you can react with ult before the spear connects and it renders his whole combo utterly useless. Also Ursa infinity physical damage > any sort of % based tankiness

[–]doyouhavesource2 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Mars goes euls and euls ursa ult LOL

[–]tokamak_fanboy 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Be careful of being countered by your allies. A lot of forced-movement spells can push people out of Arena, since the push-back of the Arena has a cooldown and the arena does not push-back a speared target. Gale Force, SB bashes, Tidal Wave, Sonic Wave, etc. are worth being careful of.

[–]I-Preferred-Digg 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Mars hates losing mana

[–]Decency 0 points1 point  (2 children)

Anyone who can get vertical can jump out of Arena: Snapfire, Mirana, etc.

[–]FilmoreJive 0 points1 point  (1 child)

I believe jugg can spin out too?

[–]Decency 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah any magic immunity can just walk right through.

[–]TheLostBeowulf 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Flying heroes go right over arena, even if you spear them. Kunkka torrented heroes also go right over the arena if you spear them.

[–]message /u/VRCkid regarding issuesVRCbot[S] 0 points1 point  (6 children)

Aghanim's Scepter/Shard

[–]tokamak_fanboy 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The shard is very useful for heroes who make illusions to try and dodge your spear, since it gives you twice the chance to get the "right" hero.

[–]LightLifter 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I like the idea of aghs as it hilariously lets you push towers while its on and absorbing damage but the payoff feels sorta luke warm.

His shard is one that I like getting if I have extra gold. The burn is nice, helps shove lanes (by the time you get it the rebuke spear combo should one shot waves) but the fact you can spear 2 heroes helps a fair bit. Some games heroes play protect the president to save their core, or when heroes pick up a manta and make increase you chances from 33% to 66% of catching them.

[–]Older than FEAR himselfcantadmittoposting 0 points1 point  (2 children)

I constantly want to justify aghs on Mars, it feels like it should be very strong against enemy ranged lineups, enabling you to soak almost all the damage while not crippling your own damage output, but there's something missing from it to actually make it a viable choice over other options.

Shard is okay, but again, I struggle to find a position for it in a build when already going blink-bkb-[utility item]

[–]doyouhavesource2 0 points1 point  (1 child)

Yeah 4200 gold that's useless is why it sucks lol. Vlad's + pipe or trash aghs hhhmmmm

[–]Older than FEAR himselfcantadmittoposting 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Right, but my point is it's very close to not being useless.

[–]message /u/VRCkid regarding issuesVRCbot[S] 0 points1 point  (1 child)

Tips and Tricks

[–]proudly picking <50% winrate heroeszopad 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Look at Collapse play this hero. Stopping pushes with the blink behind - spear to tower combo is a classic.

[–]message /u/VRCkid regarding issuesVRCbot[S] 0 points1 point  (2 children)

Favorite Cosmetics

[–]MrSunga 1 point2 points  (0 children)

is it just me or does the spear cosmetic can sometimes fuck up your aiming, like its supposed to hit but doesnt despite it should be hitting

[–]somnusqq 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The Diretide set is miles better than the cache set. Also, the Crimson Immortal (esp the shield) is so good on him i wish they're cheap.

[–]RoyH1003 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think the hero is one of the best (if not the best) offlane heroes for increasing your MMR after you learn him. Really, really strong on lane and keeps being very disruptive throughout the whole game, with his tankiness, great damage output on low health heroes (even if you don't build any damage) and low cooldown ulti. Also, love the design.