Fellowship: Ardeos build and hero guide

If you’re playing Fellowship and are a fan of pyromancers/fire mages, Ardeos is a great pick. He’s got a reasonable rotation, can deal tons of burst damage, and unlike DPS like Tariq, you never have to be in melee range to succeed. He isn’t quite as powerful in the early game, because he doesn’t have as much resource generation as I’d like.

That said, I’m a big fan of how Ardeos works, as someone who played a Fire Mage in World of Warcraft for a very long time. It’s a little like Fire Mage, and a bit like an Affliction Warlock, in that DOTs (damage over time) matters. Here’s how to tackle this DPS, and succeed at playing them.

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Pros and Cons to playing Ardeos in Fellowship

Pros

• With practice, has incredible burst damage potential
• Thanks to instant casts and Flickerstep, is mobile, and thus, safer in combat
• Rotation isn’t hard to master

Cons

• Very reliant on secondary stats to be successful
• Early game can feel frustrating with slower resource generation
• Reliant on the AI pathing for your Frogs to be useful

Ardeos can be a blast to play, literally, in Fellowship, thanks to his incredible burst damage. Managing your Cinders, and getting big Detonations is going to feel super satisfying, once you’ve spent some time with him. He’s mobile, but his early game is going to be a little on the frustrating side. He doesn’t really generate resources as well as other characters, so just be prepared for that.

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How playing Ardeos works in Fellowship

As you cast spells with Ardeos in Fellowship, he generates Cinders, and when you reach 100, they create a Burning Ember. You can then use Detonate to trigger all the active DOTs you have on enemies, to deal extra damage. You can only have 4 dots at a time, but thankfully, Detonate doesn’t consume your DOTs, so they’ll keep ticking and dealing damage.

It's all about dropping DOTs and building Cinders with Ardeos (Image via Arc Games)

By casting spells like Engulfing Flames, Fireball, Infernal Wave, and Searing Blaze, you’ll inflict DOTs and generate Cinders. Targets that have Searing Blaze on them allow you to spam Infernal Wave to build Cinders, so at least there’s that.

Detonate is arguably our most important button as an Ardeos player in Fellowship. When you use it, it will look at the DOTs you have on all enemies, and then deal bonus damage equal to 2.5s worth of that DOTs damage. It’s so important to use this when applicable, for serious numbers.

When dealing damage to single-target enemies, make sure to have Searing Blaze up at all times. If you need to build Cinders, spamming Infernal Wave is a great idea, so you can then flick those Detonates. If you’re doing AOE damage, you’ll use Fireball, so you get plenty of Cinders from each target you hit.

Getting big Detonates feels so good in Fellowship as Ardeos (Image via Arc Games)

Ardeos players have a great option for inflicting Searing Blaze on groups, too: Apocalypse. It deals damage and inflicts Searing Blaze. If this is on CD, then you have to manually inflict Searing Blaze on targets. It’s an amazing opener in AOE settings, to get everyone all Blazed up. Pyromania is another very important skill, because it inflicts Engulfing Flames onto a target, and to two other nearby foes.

It also focuses on enemies that don’t have Engulfing Flames already on them, so that’s a nice bonus. Engulfing Flames is one of our DOTs, so having it, alongside the others is key to getting the most out of Detonate.

Rotation (single-target)

• Searing Blaze (always keep this up)
• Pyromania
• Engulfing Flames (keep this on)
• Fire Frogs
• Incinerate
• Wildfire
• If all dots are active, use Infernal Wave
• Detonate when necessary to not overcap resources

Rotation (AOE)

• Apocalypse
• Fire Frogs
• Engulfing Flames (Keep this on)
• Pyromania on a target without Engulfing Flames
• Fire Ball
• Incinerate (if up)
• Wildfire
• Detonate to not overcap resources

Between your rotations, re-apply Searing Blaze, and use Infernal Wave to get back Cinders. Between those big burn rotations, you’ll also be applying Engulfing Flames. Between rotations, it’s likely that you’re going to use Fireball, Engulfing Flames, and spamming Detonate as is available for your targets. The hardest part I think is making sure you have all those DOTs out, so you can build Cinders, deal damage, and prepare to Detonate.

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Best Talent Setup for Ardeos in Fellowship

Talents in order

• 2: Great Balls of Fire
• 3: Flare Up
• 4: Replace Flare Up for Firestarter
• 5: Replace Firestarter for Reign of Fire
• 6: Flare Up
• 7: Replace Flare Up for Firestarter
• 8: Flare Up
• 9: Crackling Inferno
• 10: Intensifying Inferno
• 11: Replace Flare Up with Slow Burn
• 12: Flare Up
• 13: Swap Reign of Fire for Pyrophibian Frenzy and Spontaneous Combustion

Here's a selection of our favorite Talents for Fellowship's Ardeos (Image via Arc Games)

Depending on your needs, your Talent Tree might vary, but this is the order that we think is the most useful and efficient. In the early game, we want Great Balls of Fire for more Fireball Damage, and are going to swap Flare Up and Firestarter a few times for bigger skills like Reign of Fire, at least, for a little while.

However, you may want to do more with your Frogs, so Frog Squad could be useful, to add another Frog to your swarm. There’s another talent build I like for Ardeos:

• Slow Burn
• Frog Squad
• Flare Up
• Undying Flame
• Firestarter
• Crackling Inferno
• Pyrophibian Frenzy
• Intensifying Flames

It’s not too different, but I am a fan of Frog Squad, personally. This build is only slightly different, removing Spontaneous Combustion as one of the endgame talents.

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Ideal Stats and Gearing for Ardeos in Fellowship

One of the downsides to Ardeos in Fellowship is he is very substat dependant. You want high Critical Strike for more damage, but also increases your Fire Frog respawn (when you’re using Pyrophibian Frenzy), which then leads to even more Detonates.

You want Expertise for more damage, and Haste to make your DOTs trigger more frequently. Some people think Haste is better than Critical Strike, but I don’t really fall in that camp. If you prefer the faster DOT procs, then worry about Haste more, instead.

However, more than anything else, you want a high item level when looking at gear. That’s the most important thing in Fellowship, full stop. When gearing up just in general, you want weapons with ideal weapon trees, high item level, legendaries, good completed set bonuses, and then substats.

Best Stats

• Item Level/Intellect
• Critical Strike
• Expertise
• Haste
• Spirit

As far as specific gear goes, we've covered a few great BiS pieces, but more important than any of them is Frayed Cloak of Explosive Potency. It makes your Detones deal 50% more damage to low-health enemies, closing fights out that much faster.

BiS gear

• Weapon: Asha's Chronoshift Spire
• Back: Frayed Claok of Explosive Potency
• Relics: Sinbinding Stone, Ancient Wardstone

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Edited by Jason Parker