- Default
- Attack
- Special
- Injured




Ares - Black Knight |
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Hero Stats
Stat Variations
HP | ATK | SPD | DEF | RES | |
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Low | 17 | 7 | 7 | 6 | 4 |
Middle | 18 | 8 | 8 | 7 | 5 |
High | 19 | 9 | 9 | 8 | 6 |
HP | ATK | SPD | DEF | RES | |
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Low | 36 | 33 | 26 | 30 | 14 |
Middle | 40 | 36 | 30 | 33 | 18 |
High | 43 | 39 | 33 | 36 | 21 |
IV Sets
Key stats worth increasing through nature if possible. | |
Complementary stats that matter, but not to the point of picking them over key stats for nature increase. | |
Relatively worthless stat that can safely be decreased through nature. |
HP | ATK | SPD | DEF | RES |
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Boons
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+ATK: Attack is consistently the best boon that Ares can have regardless of the skill-set he is running, as it will increase his raw damage output in both Player and Enemy phase.
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+SPD: Although somewhat middling at a base value of 30, a boon in Speed allows Ares to avoid crucial follow-up attacks from mid-high tier Speed units, greatly reducing the amount of damage he takes.
Neutral
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DEF: While raising it is not a priority, Ares prefers to keep his Defense neutral in order to keep his solid physical bulk of 73 intact.
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HP: Similarly, Ares would rather avoid his superbane in HP (-4 reduction rather than the standard -3), as it can be detrimental to his overall survivability.
Banes
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-RES: Resistance is Ares’ weakest stat and the best bane that he can receive, as dropping it further will hardly affect his overall performance.
Skill Sets
Bloody Stream (Enemy Phase Melee)
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Dark Mystletainn (+Eff) | A | Atk/Def Unity Alternate: Atk/Def Solo (3 or 4) |
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Positional Assist | B | Lull Atk/Def 3 Alternate: Mystic Boost 3 |
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Draconic Aura Alternate: Dragon Fang |
C | Atk Smoke 3 Alternate: Pulse Smoke 3 |
IVs | +SPD or +ATK or +DEF | S | Mystic Boost 3 Alternate: Atk/Def Solo 3 |
Preferred IV: +SPD or +ATK or +DEF
- This build aims to have Ares perform as a general melee combatant with the assumption that there will be a Far Save unit supporting him against ranged foes. As such, there is more variety in the types of assets that Ares can use for this role.
Weapon: Dark Missiletainn (+Eff)
Assist: Positional Assist
Special: Draconic Aura / Bonfire / Dragon Fang / Ignis / Aether
- In addition to the aforementioned, Ares can make effective use of Specials such as Dragon Fang or Ignis which trade a longer cooldown for more power. You could even use a 5cd Special such as Aether given the proper support.
Passive A: Atk/Def Unity / Atk/Def Solo / Sturdy Stance
- This build favors combat against melee-range opponents, particularly those that deal physical damage.
- In addition to the simple +5 boost to the key stats, any debuffs and/or Panic effect inflicted on those stats will be reversed to become an in-combat buff with Atk/Def Unity.
- Keep in mind that this does not neutralize penalties or change your visible stats so AOE Specials will deal complete damage and weapons that are activated based on opponent’s penalties such as Void Tome or Broadleaf Fan will still retain their effects.
- Both Stance skills and Solo skills that boost Ares’ key stats have their advantages as you prefer.
Passive B: Lull Atk/Def / Mystic Boost
- Lull Atk/Def further supplements Ares’ key stats by nullifying the visible buffs of his opponent as well as reducing their Atk/Def.
- Mystic Boost grants Ares some sustainability through its healing after combat.
Passive C: Smoke Skills / Flexible
- This time, Pulse Smoke is particularly effective in reducing the damage of opponents around the target after combat by slowing down the activation of their Special.
Sacred Seal: Mystic Boost / Atk/Def Solo
- If not already being used in the B slot, Mystic Boost can also be used effectively in the Sacred Seal slot.
The Dark Knight Rises (DC/Vantage)
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Dark Mystletainn (+Eff) | A | Distant Counter |
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Reposition Test | B | Vantage 3 |
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Draconic Aura Alternate: Bonfire |
C | Def Smoke 3 Alternate: Fatal Smoke 3 |
IVs | +ATK | S | Quickened Pulse Alternate: Atk/Def Solo 3 |
Preferred IV: +ATK
- An asset in Attack is ideal for ensuring that Ares is able to OHKO his opponent.
Weapon: Dark Mystletainn (+Eff)
- The natural choice for this playstyle, as it favors the quick charging of Specials and hitting as hard as possible on their activation.
Assist: Positional Assist
Special: Draconic Aura / Bonfire
- Offensive Specials that have a cooldown of 3 allow for an instant recharge following the initial activation.
Passive A: Distant Counter
Passive B: Vantage
- The crux of this build is pairing Distant Counter with Vantage to have an instant Special-charged retaliation against any opponent upon having less than 75% HP.
Passive C: Smoke Skills / Flexible
- Smoke skills such as Fatal Smoke or Def Smoke are very effective when taking on multiple opponents.
- The C skill can otherwise be replaced as needed to suit the team.
Sacred Seal: Atk/Def Solo / Quickened Pulse
- Any Sacred Seal that further boosts Ares’ key stats makes for a suitable choice
- Quickened Pulse can make for an easier initial Special activation.
Strengths
Dark Missiletainn
Dark Missiletainn is an exceptional Enemy Phase weapon that allows Ares to chain activate his Specials at a constant rate, as well as boosting the power of those Specials when the opponent initiates combat.
Cavalry
In addition to his superior mobility, Ares has access to class-exclusive skills.
Weaknesses
Terrible Magical Bulk
Ares’ low magical bulk of 58 makes him susceptible to getting completely blown away by powerful magic attacks.
Cavalry
Although being a cavalry unit has its advantages, it can also be a detriment. On top of forests and trenches making it harder to navigate maps, Ares has an innate weakness to cavalry effective weapons.
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Dark Mystletainn | A | Distant Counter |
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Reciprocal Aid | B | Vantage 3 |
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Luna | C | Atk/Def Menace |
S | Defiant Atk 3 |
Ares' prf weapon is surprisingly powerful. Having the special spiral effect built in the weapon and a slaying effect allows for a really powerful unit, after all, always activating your special isn't something to scoff at, more when you are able to activate 3 charge specials. As such, we we'll try to benefit from that.
Since this unit will be based on special attacks always activating, we should first decide which special are we gonna use. Ares could be a potent nuker if used with a special like Luna. Ignoring half of the enemy's defense is always good for a nuker, however, Ares is a cavalry unit with terrible res. This means that it can't use much good B skills that other units like infantry or armored units can, and has a terrible match-up against mages, that will usually one-shot him. To avoid this, we'll attack first and we'll make sure that they fall before being able to even attack. A vantage/distant counter set will become great for him, aided a lot by the luna activation.
This means that we'll need as much attack as we can get from skills in order to achieve this one-shot requirement. Threat Atk/def (or Atk/def menace) will allows us to improve our atk greatly and make sure that the closest enemy doesn't survive our hit, and defiant atk will improve our atk when we are at the vantage threshold (also, it's atk buff is better than the one fierce stance gives and can be used in both phases)
For the support skill, reciprocal aid will be our best bet. Being able to change hp with a unit to proc vantage is quite helpful, and also, the opposite is also true, if you find a unit that you think you won't be able to defeat on one hit, recovering to survive their hit and then on the next turn defeat them will be helpful.
This, however, isn't a flawless build. Fighting a hardy bearing unit will probably end badly for Ares, he doesn't have much ways to control his Hp at the start of battle (this can be patched up if supported by units like duo lif or F! Berkut) and, in order to work, this unit needs to proc Luna at least one time in order to become an always special build, so, if possible, attacking a unit with a lot of defense or having a unit dance ares in order to get him attack back to the enemy and get his special ready for the next round would be nice for him.
And knowing his one shot nature and his lack of res, the banes and boons should be clear. Atk boon and res bane, since mages and a lot of dragons should be falling before being able to counter him (however, armored dragons like idunn and myrh are a threat, but threat atk/def should be helpful, since they have horrible movement, which makes it so they probably will get affected by the debuff)
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Dark Mystletainn | A | Brazen Atk/Spd 3 |
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Reposition | B | Desperation 3 |
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Astra | C | Savage Blow 3 |
S | Brazen Atk/Spd 3 |
Sacred Seal: Brazen Atk/Spd 3
Preferred IVs: +Spd or +Atk
While a 3-Cooldown in-combat special may not sound like the best idea for a Special Spiral weapon, Ares is one of the very few units that can pull this off thanks to his ability to run both Special Spiral and Desperation alongside his Accelerated Special trigger.
Dark Mystletainn is a given, as it allows Ares to run any 3-cooldown Special and turn it into no cooldown, however for the sake of this build a 4-cooldown special works just as well. His Assist skill is open to change and is up to the player.
Astra boost damage by an extra 1.5x, which is a great deal for a mighty high Atk unit like Ares.
Double Brazens are used because the center piece of the build is Desperation, since both Brazens and Desperation help your unit when they’re below the HP threshold. Attack stacks are important to do more damage while Speed stacks help guarantee doubles. With Desperation, it won’t matter whether your first attack is an Astra or not as the second attack will almost definitely trigger it (if Guard effects are not active), and after a round of combat it then returns to 1-cooldown
Finally, Savage Blow is chosen as the C skill to bypass any pesky Guard units, however this makes him vulnerable to Vantage foes if their HP drops too low (and losing a Brazen for Hardy Bearing is a risk to Astra and Desperation). The skill can be swapped out for Def Smoke but that then makes him vulnerable to Guard units, so pick your battles wisely
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Dark Mystletainn | A | Life and Death 3 |
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Reposition | B | Mystic Boost 3 |
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Miracle | C | Def Smoke 3 |
S | Heavy Blade 3 |
This is a fun little setup that I've been experimenting with the last few weeks. In a similar fashion to Karla, Ares has enough power to secure KOs without using an offensive Special and therefore can opt to increase his longevity with a defensive Special.
The core idea of this set is to abuse Dark Mystletainn's Special Precharge in conjunction with Mystic Boost's consistent healing to trigger Miracle indefinitely. Life and Death provides a substantial offensive boost while Def Smoke helps Ares finish off already weakened enemies after surviving combat thanks to Miracle. Tying everything together, Heavy Blade will allow Ares to charge Miracle for the first time, bypass Guard effects and still have his Special ready after combat provided that he doubled the opponent and Dark Mystletainn's effect triggered. Heavy Blade IS the most reliable option for the seal slot, but choosing it means that Ares cannot use Brazens to bolster his killing power even further. If you can accelerate the charging process with Ostian Pulse and do not care about Guard, Brazen Atk/Spd 3 is an exceptional choice for a seal.
The IVs are really flexible, but naturally you want to preserve and/or invest in Ares' offensive statline while disregarding his bulk as Miracle will allow him to survive indefinitely.
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Dark Mystletainn | A | Distant Counter |
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Reposition | B | Vantage 3 |
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Bonfire | C | Def Smoke 3 |
S | Brazen Atk/Def 3 |
[Merged +10, Dragonflowers +2]
This boy is a beast on the battlefield and can easily solo difficult maps once he's taken at least 12 points of damage. He solo'd the Ishtar & Reinhardt Infernal BHB when he was only +3.
Just stay away from Hardy Bearing/Firesweep users and you're golden.
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Dark Mystletainn | A | Brazen Atk/Def 3 |
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Reposition | B | Vantage 3 |
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Bonfire | C | Hone Cavalry |
S | Brazen Atk/Def 3 |
LV. 40+1 merged with a +Def IV. C slot is flexible if you're not running a cavalry team.
Somewhat of a gimmicky build that can't deal with ranged attackers due to the lack of Distant Counter, but still a fun Ares build nonetheless.
The "slaying" effect with Dark Mystletainn lowers his Bonfire cooldown count from 3 to 2. Once Ares triggers Bonfire during combat, he will always have it charged and ready to go after every combat thanks to the Special Spiral effect with Dark Mystletainn.
In order for this build to work well, Ares will need to be equal to or less than 75% HP for Vantage 3 to take effect. He also has double Brazen Atk/Def 3, which will both increase his Atk and Def by 14 during combat once equal to or below 80% HP. Bonfire will hit for 25 additional damage, only taking the Brazen buffs into account. Once these conditions are met, Ares will always counterattack first and with a fully charged Bonfire. Just watch out for ranged attackers which he can't counterattack against and bulky blue units that can take his attacks.
Weapon Skills
Weapons | SP | Rng. | Mt. |
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![]() Only Inheritable by Sword Units.
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50 | 1 | 6 |
![]() Only Inheritable by Sword Units.
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100 | 1 | 8 |
![]() Learns by default at 4 ★ Only Inheritable by Sword Units.
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200 | 1 | 10 |
![]() Learns by default at 5 ★ Unlocks at 5 ★ Non-Inheritable skill.
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400 | 1 | 16 |
Special Skills
Special Skills | SP | Turns |
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![]() Learns by default at 4 ★ Non-inheritable by Staff-wielding units.
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100 | 4 |
![]() Unlocks at 4 ★ Non-inheritable by Staff-wielding units.
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200 | 3 |
Passive Skills
Passive Skills | SP | Slot |
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![]() Inheritable by all units.
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60 | A |
![]() Inheritable by all units.
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120 | A |
![]() Inheritable by all units.
Unlocks at 4 ★ |
240 | A |
![]() Non-inheritable by Staff-wielding units.
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40 | B |
![]() Non-inheritable by Staff-wielding units.
Unlocks at 4 ★ |
100 | B |
![]() Non-inheritable by Staff-wielding units.
Unlocks at 5 ★ |
200 | B |
Other Info
Origin |
Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War
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