Introduction
“I am sworn to turn the tide where ere I can.”
Skywrath Mage is a ranged intelligence hero who can be played as a solo mid or a support hero. As a support hero he has access to a potent slow and a lengthy duration silence which can seriously disrupt highly mobile heroes.
This particular build will focus on Skywrath Mage as a support hero. If you're looking for a more mid lane-oriented guide check out our Skywrath Mage Build Guide (Mid) here.
Skywrath Mage's complete character profile can be found here.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- High burst magic damage
- Good control between his slow and silence
- Long duration silence
- Very strong laning phase harasser and babysit
- Flexible item build
- High base move speed
Cons
- Very, very squishy
- Low armour
- No stun
- Very mana reliant
- Nukes mostly fall off in the late game
- Hard countered by BKB
- Also countered by Blade Mail and silences
Item Builds
Skywrath Mage is typically played in one of two roles – that of solo mid or that of lane support. Both are viable – the former was the more popular option when the hero was first released into Dota 2 but its popularity fell off and lately he has been played for the mostpart as a support hero, and that is the role which this particular guide will now focus on.
Support Skywrath Mage’s job in the early laning phase is similar to that of a mid Skywrath Mage. The goal is to harass any lane opponents, using both your long range attack and your spammable abilities, the difference is that you’re doing so in order to secure farm for your carry, and to do so you’ll need to build and skill slightly differently.
Starting Items
As a support hero it’s your job to ensure that the Courier and/or Observer Wards are bought at the start of the game. Usually these duties will be split between yourself and another hero on your team, but you can’t always guarantee this in public games. If no one else ponies up the gold for one then you should bite the bullet and buy both for your team.
Good starting items for support Skywrath are:
Courier and/or Observer Wards, a Set of Tangos, a Healing Salve, 3x Iron Branches, and as many Clarities as you can afford.
Early Game
Ensure that the Courier is upgraded into a Flying Courier when it comes off cooldown at the 3 minute mark. Also ensure that Observer Wards are always purchased when they’re off cooldown.
Get your Boots of Speed up and running first. Skywrath actually has really good base move speed (325), but is still squishy and vulnerable to early rotations and ganks, so Boots are a must.
Upgrade any Iron Branches you have into a Magic Wand, and any Bracer components into a Bracer. The Bracer is optional but recommended if you want some nice early stats and tankability.
Core Items
Arcane Boots are your upgraded boots of choice – a no-brainer for a hero that is as mana hungry as Skywrath. They have the added bonus of allowing you to provide utility for your teammates as well.
Arcane Boots is probably all you’re going to be able to afford for quite some time, and should never be prioritised over Observer Wards, which are an absolute must for your team. Until you get your Arcane Boots just be conservative in your mana usage.
Luxury Items
Drums of Endurance – Drums of Endurance are a great option because they give your team bonus attack speed and move speed auras, whilst at the same time giving you plenty of stats and being easy to build into (since the components are so cheap you can buy them up whenever you have the spare unreliable gold, meaning you won’t lose much gold when you die). If you bought a Bracer earlier on for some early health points then Drums are a natural extension to your inventory.
Force Staff – Force Staff gives you less all-round stat gain than Drums, but it gives you much more mobility and more direct team utility (Drums’ auras are largely a passive, somewhat unnoticeable buff). It’s an amazing escape tool for someone who is naturally very squishy and can be used on allies and enemies, making it a great play-making item for clutch saves or to Force an enemy into bad positioning.
Rod of Atos – Huge chunks of health and mana, and an active that slows an enemy by 60% for 4 seconds (especially useful if your team is ahead but the other team is attempting to avoid direct engagements). I'm actually a fan of Atos, but most people are not. If you like it, you can get it on Skywrath as a luxury pick-up.
Veil of Discord – Veil gives decent all-round stats - +6 all stats, +6 health regeneration, +6 damage, and +6 armour, but the main reason it’s purchased is for its active, Magic Weakness. Magic Weakness increases the magic damage taken by an enemy caught within its 600 unit radius by 25%, which augments your abilities superbly (all 3 of Skywrath’s nuke abilities deal magic damage).
It lasts for a lengthy 25 seconds, making it a great active for teamfights, and won’t just buff your own magic damage output either - it will also increase the potency of any other magic damage spells your teammates cast on affected enemies in that time frame too. If there are other high magic damage heroes on your team definitely consider this item.
Eul’s Scepter of Divinity – Sometimes called the poor man's Scythe of Vyse. Unlike Scythe the target cannot be attacked whilst trapped in the Cyclone, but it will take an enemy (or ally) out of the fight for 2.5 seconds. Good to use on allies with mobility skills currently on cooldown to buy them some time, or to use on an enemy carry that you want to take out of the fight for a short while. More directly, it will give you a very nice move speed boost and will put an end to any mana problems you may still be having.
Ghost Scepter – The go-to luxury pick-up if you find the enemy team is able to bring you down quickly with physical damage (typically in the form of right-clicks). Most often this will be the enemy carry taking you out of the fight quickly with a few auto-attacks. Ghost Scepter will buy you a clutch 4 seconds of physical immunity, which gives you time to create distance between yourself and the enemy carry or at the very least buys your team 4 seconds of distraction time.
Heaven’s Halberd – A fantastic anti-carry item, thanks to the ability to disarm an enemy core for 3.0-4.5 seconds, Halberd will also give you a much-welcome chunk of health an evasion, making you a lot less fragile.
Situational Items
Sentry Wards, Dust of Appearance, Gem of True Sight – all-important detection. You’ll need at least one of these in your inventory if the enemy line-up features an invis hero. Sentry Wards will also allow you to deward rune spots, and Gem will give you superior vision going into the mid and late game.
Smoke of Deceit – If you roam with another support in the early stages of the game a Smoke will allow you to do so more quickly and without being spotted by enemy wards. Smoke will also come in handy in the post-laning phase if your team wants to gank as 5.
Mekanism – Skywrath isn’t a very common Mekanism carrier, but the item is core for most teams – if no one else on your team intends to build one then you should probably work into it after you’ve built your Arcane Boots.
Necronomicon – Great if you’re part of a pushing line-up or your team is struggling to break the base. Also a great item for teamfights and for countering any invis enemy heroes.
Vladmir’s Offering – Yes, you’re ranged, so you won’t get the lifesteal bonus from Vlad’s, but you’re not buying it for yourself, you’re buying it for your team. Vladmir’s Offering is great to pick up on a support even if your team doesn’t consist of any melee heroes because of the bonus damage and armour it provides. If your team does have a melee core and no one else has purchased one then it’s an excellent utility item to purchase.
Medallion - A really good cost-effective support item. The mana regeneration will help a lot, especially if you’re roaming, and the minus armour is seriously under-estimated in public games. Also opens up the possibility for an early Roshan for your team.
Skill Build
Skywrath has a very flexible skill build – each of his abilities brings something to the table and which you prioritise is going to depend a lot both on the enemy team’s composition and your particular laning situation (lots of mobile heroes, or a core who’s very reliant on a blink ability? Ancient Seal should be maxed first. Combo’ing up with a lane stunner and looking for early and frequent kills? Perhaps consider Shot over Bolt).
The image above thus shows a typical Support Skywrath build, but keep an open mind and be prepared to adjust it as required.
Arcane Bolt is a minor magic damage nuke that scales with Skywrath’s intelligence gain. Support Skywraths usually skill it last.
Bolt deals a base damage of 60/80/100/120 magic damage and additional bonus damage which amounts to 1.6x Skywrath’s current intelligence, meaning it scales better than most nukes. It has a lengthy 800 unit attack range and a very low cooldown of just 5/4/3/2 seconds, making it a spammable nuke that can also double up as an alternative attack projectile (it will often be used to secure last hits or to harass an enemy lane, much like a passive orb walk ability).
When playing Skywrath as a support hero you will lack the mana regeneration from an item like a Bottle to sustain consistent Arcane Bolt harass, and for this reason it is skilled last and instead you will rely on your other abilities to try and combo up with lane allies to secure early kills.
Concussive Shot is also a magic damage nuke – it does not scale like Arcane Bolt, but instead deals a higher, flat 60/120/180/240 magic damage. It also slows enemy units by 30/35/40/45% in a 200 unit AoE for 4 seconds.
Concussive Shot is almost always maxed last regardless of the role you’re playing, however a lane support Skywrath should skill this first so that he is ready to either offensively gank at level 1 with another hero or use it defensively to help stave off a gank attempt by the enemy team.
Shot will automatically target the nearest enemy hero when used within a 1600 unit range, making it a great long range slow – very handy for ganking even if you’re not actually near the enemy.
Ancient Seal is a single target silence ability. It will silence the chosen enemy hero for 3/4/5/6 seconds and has a 700 unit cast range. Support Skywraths will usually skill it second and max it first, in order to get access to the full 6 second silence duration as quickly as possible.
It is the only ability of Skywraths which does not deal burst magic damage, however it does increase the damage that unit takes from magic damage by 30/35/40/45%, making it a fantastic buff to your other abilities.
Skywrath’s ultimate, Mystic Flare, is always skilled regardless of lane role (levels 6, 11 and 16). Another burst magic damage ability, this one deals huge amounts of burst damage in a small 170 unit AoE for 2.4 seconds. The damage it deals is 600/1000/1400 over those 2.4 seconds and will be distributed evenly among any enemy heroes caught within its AoE.
The 170 unit AoE is tiny, and its 2.4 second duration short, so positioning is paramount with Mystic Flare - you will either need to use it on enemies that have been locked down or will need to correctly anticipate their movements in order for it to have the huge impact that it can potentially bring to a gank.
Gameplay Tips
The low cooldown makes Arcane Bolt very spammable – so long as you have the mana to support in, when performing your ganking combos use Arcane Bolt in between abilities and atuo-attacks. Think of it almost as an orb for Skywrath Mage.
Concussive Shot’s long range (1600 units) and the fact that it automatically targets the nearest enemy hero makes it a great skill for catching enemies out of position and setting up ganks. The potent slow lasts 4 seconds and will allow yourself and your allies to quickly close the distance.
Remember that you must have vision of an enemy hero in order for Concussive Shot to fire out towards the enemy – enemies within 1600 units but who are masked by fog of war will not be hit by it!
| Note: Both Arcane Bolt and Concussive Shot reveal the target area for 3.34 seconds upon impact. |
Ancient Seal amplifies the magic damage taken by the chosen enemy hero, thus it is a good idea to use this to initiate fights if possible, and then follow up with your burst magic damage. Sometimes, however, you will need to slow them first with Concussive Shot in order to close the distance – it’s all situational.
Always use Ancient Seal on enemy spell casters or cores which rely heavily on mobility spells like Queen of Pain, Anti-Mage, or Mirana to escape from danger. At level 4 it lasts a lengthy 6 seconds – that’s 6 seconds during which they will not be able to escape unless they have a Manta Style or spell immunity.
Mystic Flare deals extremely high burst damage, but is easily dodged because its area of effect is just 170. This is why it is best combined either with a stun from an ally or by first using Concussive Shot to severely limit the enemy hero’s movement and thus make anticipating their movements much easier.
Your typical ganking combo is Concussive Shot (fired) > Ancient Seal > Concussive Shot (lands) > Mystic Flare > Arcane Bolts & auto-attacks.
Positioning is extremely important - Skywrath Mage is inherently very squishy, but high base movespeed and the long range on his abilities (800, 1600, 700, and 1200, respectively) allow him to for the mostpart stay in the edges of major skirmishes, somewhat out of harm’s way, whilst still contributing high burst damage.
Last Updated - Patch 6.83.
