Fellowship Ardeos Hero Guide

Ardeos is an Intellect-based Damage hero who utilizes powerful fire damage over time (DoT) effects. His game play revolves around generating Cinders with his damage over time effects and direct damage abilities. Upon reaching 100 Cinders, they ignite into a Burning Ember, allowing you to use Detonate on his enemies.

This guide will teach you the basics of playing Ardeos in Fellowship, how to use his abilities, and which talents to choose for the best build.

Other Hero Guides

In the event you were looking for a different character guide for Fellowship, please use one of the buttons below to find what you’re looking for.

Tanks

Healers

DPS

Ardeos’ Abilities

Ability/Icon	Name	Cast / Recast	Range / Radius	Effect
	Searing Blaze	GCD	↔ 30yd	Target enemy burns for 67% Intellect fire damage every 2 seconds for 24 seconds. Generates 12 Cinders over its full duration.
	Engulfing Flames	1.5s 20.0s	↔ 30yd	Engulf your target in flames, dealing 182% Intellect fire damage every 1.5 seconds for 9 seconds. Generates 30 Cinders over its full duration.
	Fire Ball	GCD 30.0s (2)	↔ 30yd ↻ 5yd	Throw a ball of fiery devastation at the targeted area, dealing 281% Intellect fire damage to all enemies in the radius and setting them on fire, dealing an additional 70% of the initial damage dealt over 12 seconds. Fire Ball’s damage over time can not critically strike. Each damage over time effect generates 12 Cinders over its full duration.
	Infernal Wave	1.5s	↔ 30yd	Conjure a fiery wave to cascade toward your target, dealing 155% Intellect fire damage. Generates 40 Cinders.
	Fire Frogs	GCD 45.0s	↔ 30yd	Conjure five Fire Frogs to leap at your enemies dealing 77% Intellect fire damage and burning them for an additional 100% of the initial damage dealt over 12 seconds. Fire Frogs’ damage over time can not critically strike. Each Fire Frog will perform 3 attacks before dissipating.
	Flickerstep	Instant 20.0s	↔ 8yd	Instantly teleport forward a short distance.
	Scorch	Instant 20.0s	↔ 30yd	Interrupt the target’s spellcasting and prevent it from casting for 4 sec.
	Apocalypse	3.0s 60.0s	↔ 30yd ↻ 10yd	Conjure a major eruption of fire in the targeted area, dealing 773% Intellect fire damage and applying Searing Blaze to all enemies in a large radius.
	Detonate	GCD	Self	Instantly Detonate all active fire damage over time effects from Ardeos abilities on enemies, dealing damage equal to 3 seconds of average ticking damage to each enemy.
	Flame Ward	Instant 30.0s	Self	You take 40% reduced damage for 4 seconds.
	Pyromania	Instant 90.0s (2)	↔ 30yd	Instantly adds an Engulfing Flames effect on the target, and apply it to up to 2 other nearby enemies. Enemies without an already active Engulfing Flames and with the highest amount of health will be highest priority.
	Fireflash	Instant 24.0s	↔ 30yd	Conjure a bright flash of fire in front of the target’s eyes, causing them to become Disoriented for 30 seconds. Disorient Disoriented enemies are incapacitated, left to wander around aimlessly for the duration. Any damage dealt to a disoriented enemy will break the effect.
	Wildfire	Instant 45.0s	↻ 60yd	All active fire damage over time effects from your abilities instantly flare up, causing them to tick 20% faster for 9 sec.
	Incinerate	1.5s Cast 4.55s Channel SPIRIT ABILITY	Self ↑8yd	A jet of fire erupts from your hands as you channel for 4.5 seconds, dealing 95% Intellect fire damage every 0.5 seconds to all enemies in a cone in front of you. Each hit applies a stacking damage over time to them dealing 24% Intellect fire damage every 3 seconds for 12 seconds. The damage over time portion is increased by +20% for each stack that is applied to an enemy. Incinerate generates 40 Cinders every 0.5 sec while channeling. Spirit Ability When you activate your Spirit ability you gain Spirit of Heroism, granting +30% haste for 20 seconds.

Cinders & Burning Embers

Ardeos’ spells generate Cinders and ignite into Burning Embers upon reaching 100. Burning Ember is consumed by Detonate to deal additional damage based on your active DoTs. With a cap of 4, management is important. You’ll need to balance spending Burning Embers to avoid wasting resources against saving them for your burst windows.

Ardeos Talents and Build Progression

Slow Burn (1A) causes your Fire Ball spell to extend the duration of your Searing Blaze and Engulfing Flames by 0.5 seconds each time it deals damage. This is a straightforward way to help keep your DoTs active on targets for longer. It has great synergy with Haste, which makes your DoTs tick faster within that extended duration.

Frog Squad (1B) causes your Fire Frogs ability to summon an extra frog and makes each one leap an additional time. It’s a simple but effective talent that increases the damage from your frogs, which directly boosts the power of your Detonate.

Great Balls of Fire (1C) increases the damage of your Fire Ball spell, buffing both the initial hit and its DoT effect. Before you have enough points and gear for the Fire Frogs build, your Fire Ball is a much larger part of your overall damage, making this a great boost early on.

Flare Up (2B) causes your Infernal Wave to also damage your primary target and any nearby enemies affected by your Searing Blaze. This hits your main target too, making it a damage increase for both single-target and multi-target situations.

Undying Flame (2C) increases the duration of Engulfing Flames by 3 seconds. Because Engulfing Flames has a cooldown, a longer duration means it’s active on the target more often, leading to more consistent damage. Additionally, the increased duration also increases the amount of Cinders generated.

Firestarter (3B) increases the critical strike chance of all of Ardeos’ damage over time effects by 20%. Importantly, this also allows your Fire Frogs and the DoT from Fire Ball to critically strike, something they are unable to do without this talent.

Crackling Inferno (4B) grants Infernal Wave +20% Critical Strike Chance and causes its critical strikes to apply a powerful DoT, burning targets for 60% of the damage dealt over 24 seconds. The new DoT it applies scales with your Expertise and Haste. With enough gear, this burn effect can end up hitting harder than the initial spell, and it provides yet another damage source to empower your Detonate.

Pyrophibian Frenzy (5B) is a core talent for the frog build. It gives your damage over time effects an 8% chance to spawn a Fire Frog whenever they critically strike. This creates a powerful feedback loop with your other abilities.

Reign of Fire (5C) gives your Detonate casts a chance to instantly grant you a charge of Fire Ball and makes your next Fire Ball a guaranteed critical strike. It’s a bit of a gamble, but since Fire Ball is so important before you have all your talent points, this can provide a fun damage spike.

Intensifying Inferno (6A) is part of a powerful trio along with Flare Up (2B) and Crackling Inferno (4B). On its own, it buffs your Infernal Wave‘s damage. But more importantly, it also increases the damage of the DoT from Crackling Inferno and the splash damage from Flare Up. While individually they may seem underwhelming, they synergize incredibly well together and shouldn’t be overlooked.

Ardeos Openers and Rotations

Your top priority playing Ardeos is maintaining your DoT effects. This means reapplying your DoTs just as they are about to expire, and in some cases, after they expire. The goal is to maximize their active time on a target, because the power of your Detonate ability is calculated directly from them. Delaying their application can have a significant loss to your burst damage.

Once your DoTs are active, your second priority is managing your Burning Embers. You should spend your Embers while several DoTs are active, especially during important damage phases. However, you must also avoid generating Burning Embers when you’re already at the cap, as any excess is wasted. This requires you to balance between saving for moments you need damage and spending to avoid waste.

Finally, you’ll have moments when your abilities are on cooldown. This is where Infernal Wave comes in to help you generate Burning Embers for the next damage windows.

Detonate

Detonate deserves its own section, as knowing how it works is important to optimizing your damage as Ardeos. When cast, Detonate looks at each of Ardeos’ active DoTs on an enemy and calculates a bonus damage amount equal to two seconds of that DoT’s normal damage. This calculation accounts for your Haste and Expertise, using the calculated value as it’s baseline. An important detail is that the DoT’s remaining duration is irrelevant, and Detonate will still grant the full two seconds’ worth of damage even if an effect is about to expire. This calculated damage total is then combined and dealt to the target over three quick ticks.

The ability is also designed to prevent stats from applying their benefits twice, which is a common issue known as “double dipping”. Your Haste and Expertise boost the initial DoTs, which makes Detonate hit harder, but they do not increase the damage of the final three ticks of damage. The initial calculation ignores the critical strike chance of your original DoTs. However, each of the final three damage ticks from Detonate have their own independent chance to be a critical hit.

Full Cooldown Burst

When all your major abilities are ready, Ardeos can unleash an absurd amount of burst damage. In an ideal scenario, this burst comes in two rotations of Detonate casts. The first set happens before you Incinerate. You do this to spend your Burning Embers before Incinerate generates more, preventing them from being wasted. The second, and more powerful, set of Detonates happens after you Incinerate and Wildfire, taking advantage of every damage over time effect Ardeos has.

Outside of those burst windows, Ardeos’ gameplay is less about ability priority and more about preparing for the next Detonate opportunity. You don’t want to use DoTs with a cooldown if Detonate won’t be available to capitalize on them. Similarly, avoid staggering abilities as you want as many DoTs active as possible for each Detonate cast.

Gearing and Stat Priority

Secondary Stats have the following effect for Ardeos:

• Critical Strike – Increases the chance for your abilities to deal double damage. This is an important stat as it also increases the spawn rate of your Fire Frogs, leading to more DoT effects, which then increases Detonate’s output
• Expertise – A straightforward stat that provides a flat percentage to all your damage and healing.
• Haste – Increases the tick rate of your DoT effects and speeds up the cast time of your spells. It also increases the rate your Fire Ball generates Cinders. This is especially valuable because it allows more DoT damage to occur within the 2 second Detonate window.
• Spirit – Increases the rate of your ultimate Spirit ability. Additionally, it gives you a chance to refund any Burning Embers spent on Detonate. This refund chance scales with your spirit but has diminishing returns, meaning each point is slightly less effective than the last.

Item level is king and will have the greatest effect on your, damage and survivability.

Gearing Priority

1. Purple+ Weapon Traits
2. Legendary Item
3. Item Level
4. Completed Set Bonus
5. Secondary Stat Priorities

Secondary Stat Priority

1. Haste
2. Critical Strike
3. Expertise
4. Spirit

Haste >= Crit > Expertise > Spirit

Ardeos’ Legendaries

• Frayed Cloak of Explosive Potency (Back)
  • Explosive Potency: Your Detonate deals 40% more damage to low health enemies.

• Pendant of the Untamed Flame (Neck)
  • Untamed Flame: While Wild Fire is active, you gain +20% Spirit and +10% Critical Strike chance.

• Apocalyptic Brimstone Boots (Feet)
  • Brimstone Cataclysm: Your Apocalypse stuns enemies for 3 seconds. Each enemy that is successfully stunned reduces the cooldown of Apocalypse by 1.5 seconds, up to a maximum of 15 seconds.

Wishlist Fellowship

If you enjoyed your time with Fellowship during the open beta, or if you’re at all interested in playing, be sure to wishlist the game on Steam. The game launches into Early Access on October 16th.