The long-awaited DOTA 2 hero is finally here: “Mars, god of war and first son of heaven, has now joined the battle of the Ancients." In addition to the new hero, Drow Ranger has also received a new update to her model. That change is kind of strange because her model has never been that bad. In my opinion, there are definitely other heroes whose models should have been changed.

Overview of Mars

Mars is a melee strength carry who deals tons of damage during all stages of the game. Let’s take a quick look at his abilities.

Spells

Spear Of Mars - This is a ranged nuke, which appears to be a skill shot. By throwing his spear, Mars does damage to each enemy unit that it strikes. The spear skewers the first hero and pushes them back. Furthermore, if the skewered hero hits a tree, a building or a cliff, he will get stunned for 2.8 seconds and impaled to the tree.

God’s Rebuke - This is one of his most broken spells. By using his shield, Mars smashes the enemies in front of him and knocks them back. In addition, the spell damages the enemies with a critical hit which is based on his attack and adds bonus base damage when it hits heroes. The ability also has True Strike, which means that he can’t miss with it.

I have tested the spell with a 6-slot Mars and when you also get the 25 talent, the average crit is around 1.3k. Thanks, Gaben.

Bulwark - This passive ability works in a similar way to Bristleback’s passive. However, instead of blocking damage from behind, he blocks damage from the front. Seventy percent to be exact, in contrast to a 35 percent reduction when he is attacked from the side.

Arena Of Blood - The big ultimate. This spell sort of resembles Monkey King’s ultimate ability. When used, it has an area that “traps the enemy inside of it”. If they try to escape, they will be attacked by spears that do damage and will be knocked back. While the “ring” is out, no enemies can go into it.

The duration of this spell is 7 seconds on level 3 and it has 60 seconds CD.

Talents

Level 10

+20 Movement speed or +8 Strength

Mars has 320 base movement speed so he is by no means slow. Choosing the proper talent here will depend mainly on the enemy’s line-up.

Level 15

+8 Armour or +35 Damage

The +35 damage is the obvious choice here. The Armour is pretty good but Mars will most likely be an AC builder, which means that the damage bonus definitely makes more sense.

Level 20

Spear Of Mars stuns last +1.5 seconds or Spear Of Mars +150 Damage

If you chose the stun, the total stun duration will be 4.3 seconds, which is just insane.

Level 25

Arena Of Blood Grants Team +100 HP Regen or God’s Rebuke +80% Crit

My personal opinion is that the better choice here is God’s Rebuke Crit. Even though his ultimate is pretty strong, it has a 60 seconds CD. In the end, it all comes down to personal preferences.

The hero has literally just been released, which means that there will definitely be many nerfs on the way. Make sure to follow us on Twitter for all the latest updates.

Images VIA: Valve