Introduction
"Behold the horn of Magnus"
Magnus is a melee strength initiator. He is a somewhat popular mid pick-up in competitive play, where his ability to quickly nuke down creep waves gives him good lane control.
He is primarily picked for his ultimate – Reverse Polarity – which allows him to disable any enemies within a 410 unit AoE for up to 3.75 seconds.
Magnus's complete character profile can be found here.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Amazing teamfight ultimate
- Good magic damage nuke
- Has a disable that goes through Spell Immunity
- Has an escape mechanism
- Empower is a fantastic utility skill
- High base move speed
Cons
- Mana dependent
- Quite reliant on Bottle crowing
- Really needs a Blink Dagger for initiation
- Squishy
- Melee attack range
- Requires great map awareness and positioning abilities
Item Build
Starting Items
Magnus is usually laned mid, however he can be a viable offlaner. His items build guide remains the same regardless of where you lane him though.
A good starting item set up for Magnus is:
- A set of Tangos, Healing Salve, 3x Iron Branches, and 1x Gauntlets of Strength
This gives you plenty of regeneration to see you through until your Bottle (if you anticipate a favourable mid match-up then you can even forego the Healing Salve and go for a straight Bottle rush – but only do so if you’re fairly certain you’ll have a good lane mid and won’t face much harassment), and some good starting stats.
Early Game
Your first core item then is a Bottle. Aim to get it before the 2 minute rune spawns and push your wave out a bit ahead of time. This is fairly easy to do with Magnus as you will often be using Shockwave to last hit, which will naturally push the wave out.
Your next two priorities are to finish off your Magic Wand, upgrading any Iron Branches you have in your inventory in the process, and grab a pair of Boots of Speed.
Core Items
Your upgraded boots of choice are Arcane Boots. They’re a no-brainer – you desperately need both the mana regen the active provides and the larger mana pool in order to be able to use your skillset effectively. Magnus, much like the hero he is often compared to in Tidehunter, has a fairly small mana pool but highly spammable active abilities, so you will need Arcanes if you want to use them freely.
Throughout the early and mid game you have two key items to shoot for. The first item is the aforementioned Arcane Boots. The second is a Blink Dagger. You 100% need Blink Dagger in order to get off the perfect ultimate, which is your primary goal heading forwards.
Luxury Items
Drums of Endurance – Gives good stat gain and a couple of great auras to nearby teammates. Even if you didn’t buy a Bracer early on you should still consider a Drums if no one else on your team has one. If someone else does have Drums then it’s still a good way to acquire a chunk of stats after your core but not an ideal pick-up.
Force Staff – Yes, as well as a Blink Dagger. You acquire so much mobility if you get both, and can use Force Staff to get yourself (and teammates/enemies) out of sticky situations, making it a great play-making item for clutch saves or to Force an enemy into bad positioning. It also gives you some stats.
Refresher Orb – An all-in on your ultimate, because that’s basically what you’re buying a Refresher Orb for. Either to allow you to cast your ultimate twice (if you get off a great initiation) and deal a whopping 400 magic damage and a 7.5 second stun in a 410 unit radius, or to have as a back-up in case a teamfight takes place soon after you’ve already used your ultimate.
Refresher Orb makes Magnus an absolute teamfight monster in public matchmaking. Since Reverse Polarity goes through Spell Immunity there is no direct counter to it either, outside of really cautious positioning from the enemy team.
Ghost Scepter – If you find that you're easy pickings for the enemy DPS'ers and at risk of feeding more than helping your team as the game progresses then get a Ghost Scepter. It will give you 4 seconds of physical invulnerability, which will feel like an age to the enemy carry who should probably be hitting higher priority targets instead.
Black King Bar – Gives you a nice chunk of health and a small damage increase, but most importantly you have access to spell immunity which protects you from (most) stuns and disables and will allow you to use your full initiation combo (Blink > Reverse Polarity > reposition > Skewer > Shockwave) without fear of interruption.
Shiva’s Guard – It will make you more durable thanks to the armour buff, and the aura will also provide utility for your team by slowing the attack speed of enemies. The Arctic Blast active also has great synergy with your own hero role, as it can be cast in the middle of your initiation to hit as many enemies as possible and thus further increase the impact of your initiation combo.
Heaven’s Halberd – Halberd will help you to tank up whilst also providing utility for your team. 20 strength is a nice boost to your health pool, whilst 25% evasion means you'll mitigate a lot of damage. The main reason I prefer it over Heart is that it also has good overall utility for your team, thanks to the ability to Disarm an enemy physical DPS'er for 3.0-4.5 seconds.
Situational Items
Boots of Travel – When you are at that stage of the game when you’re becoming 6 slotted, swap out your initial set of boots for Boots of Travel. It frees up a slot you would otherwise have reserved for a TP Scroll and makes you much less susceptible to split-push.
Vladmir’s Offering – Your entire team will benefit from the bonus damage, mana regeneration, and armour auras. It’s doubly good if any of your team’s core heroes are melee DPS’ers thanks to the lifesteal aura. Consider it for the utility it provides when you move on to your luxury extensions.
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. Some good stat gain too.
Pipe of Insight – Pipe is a possibility later on, since you’ll have a large enough mana pool to utilise it at that stage. The 30% magic resistance and 400 spell damage block in a 900 unit AoE makes you even more of a teamfight monster and will help your team to break the enemy base or defend against base sieges.
Skill Build
Shockwave is an AoE magic damage nuke. It is always maxed first, and usually skilled first too (the exception being if you fear a level one gank and decide to opt for the safety of Skewer at level 1 instead). Shockwave deals 75/150/225/300 magic damage in a straight line that stretches 1000 units and has a radius of 150 units.
Shockwave is always maxed first as it deals good AoE magic damage, making it great for last hitting creeps even if you fear approaching the creep wave. This isn’t just useful for securing last hits but also for pushing the wave – a useful resource to have as a mid laner.
Empower is a buff ability which increases the damage of an ally or yourself, and adds a Cleave to their attacks. It is always skilled and maxed last, although an early value point is sometimes gotten. Empower adds 20/30/40/50% bonus damage to the ally’s attack.
Early on Empower isn’t particularly useful, but it makes for a fantastic utility ability later on; when cast on your cores the bonus damage will make them hit so much harder in teamfights, and the cleave can accelerate jungle farming.
Skewer is a positional ability which also deals magic damage. It causes Magnus to rush forwards up to 1200 units, dealing 70/140/210/280 magic damage and dragging any enemies hit with him.
Skewer is a good escape mechanism early on, allowing Magnus to Skewer himself out of trouble, and later on allows him to Blink towards the enemy position, stun them, and then drag back any enemies caught to his teammates.
Reverse Polarity is Magnus’s ultimate. It is always skilled (levels 6, 11 and 16). Reverse Polarity stuns any enemies in a 410 unit radius for 2.25/3/3.75 seconds and deals 50/125/200 magic damage. Reverse Polarity serves a similar purpose to Tidehunter’s Ravage, or even Warlock’s Chaotic Offering – a potentially game-changing teamfight ultimate that locks enemies down for a decent period of time.
While it has a much smaller radius than both of those abilities, Reverse Polarity has the advantage of going through spell immunity, making it much more effective against core heroes that tend to opt for Black King Bar.
Gameplay Tips
You can use Shockwave to both secure last hits and push out the creep wave ahead of the rune spawn if you’re laning mid. Shockwave allows Magnus to get good last hits even in unfavourable match-ups, so long as he is able to secure runes or Bottle crow.
In the mid and late game remember to keep casting Empower on your team’s core heroes. The 50% bonus damage and Cleave is notable and should not be forgotten about. It lasts 40 seconds while it has a cooldown of just 12 seconds, so you can ensure its active on multiple heroes at the same time.
If you want to quickly push out a creep wave on your own, or quickly clear the jungle, use Empower on yourself in combination with Shockwave to quickly nuke down the creeps.
Skewer’s radius is a very small 125 units, so it can be tough to catch enemy heroes without a set-up stun or by using Reverse Polarity beforehand. Nonetheless, a Blink into Skewer on an enemy can be used to force an enemy hero into a bad position.
| Note: Units that you do manage to Skewer are slowed by 40% for 2.5 seconds after the Skewer. |
Always try to reserve 80 mana at all times, just in case you get ganked and need to Skewer away to safety. Remember, however, that there is a slight cast delay on Skewer, so more immediate disables will prevent you from Skewering to safety (such as Lion’s Hex).
Your goal with Reverse Polarity is to catch as many enemy heroes as possible. In the early game you can use it to ensure a solo kill, but from the mid game onwards you must save it for teamfights and must prioritise enemy cores/carries.
Remember that Reverse Polarity stuns through spell immunity, so it’s irrelevant whether or not the enemy has triggered Black King Bar (in fact, all the better, since it wastes some of its duration).
Magnus’s mid-game combo is: Blink Dagger > Reverse Polarity > re-position yourself > Skewer the enemies stunned back into your team > Shockwave.
Last Updated - Patch 6.82.
