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 mid hero he is capable of harassing opponents and dominating the lane with his low cooldown, low mana cost nuke before becoming a high-powered ganker once he gets his ultimate.
This particular guide will focus on Skywrath as a mid laner. If you're looking for a more support-oriented build you can check out our Skywrath Mage Build Guide (Support) 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 - can dominate his lane
- Good solo kill potential once he has his ultimate
- Flexible item build
- High base move speed
Cons
- Very, very squishy
- Low armour
- No stun
- Nukes mostly fall off in the late game
- Ill suited to the current meta, which prioritises semi-carry mids
- 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 has since fell off. Nonetheless he is still a strong mid lane dominator.
The goal of a solo mid Skywrath is twofold: early on it is to secure dominance over mid lane by putting your lane opponent on the back foot with constant harassment, and later it is to rotate and gank the side lanes with your high burst magic damage abilities.
Starting Items
My recommended starting items are as follows:
- A set of Tangos, 3x Iron Branches, and a Mantle of Intelligence.
This is a cheap starting build that totals 425 gold, leaving you with enough left over to get a quick Bottle. The one set of Tangos should be sufficient regen to see you through the first couple of creep waves and to your Bottle, while the Iron Branches and Mantle of Intelligence give you some solid starting stats, which don’t just augment your health and mana pools, as well as your attack damage, they also increase the damage dealt by your Arcane Bolt.
Early Game
You have four high priority early game pick ups. The first is the aforementioned Bottle, which will give you great health and mana regen (allowing you to continue to be aggressive in the lane and spam Arcane Bolt) and will allow you to secure runes.
After that you want to grab some Boots of Speed, upgrade your Iron Branches into a Magic Wand, and upgrade the early Mantle of Intelligence you bought into a Null Talisman.
Core Items
Arcane Boots are your upgraded boots of choice – a no-brainer for a hero that is as mana hungry as Skywrath.
When it comes to major item choices there are two key options - Force Staff, for the superior mobility it grants Skywrath, who is a very fragile hero that lacks an escape mechanism (beyond the slow that you have access to in Concussive Shot), and Rod of Atos, which will help tremendously to both give you great stat gain (350 health, 25 intelligence) and to increase you kill potential – the 60% slow from Atos is actually more powerful than the 40% from Concussive Shot, which makes hitting your ultimate easier and chasing down fleeing enemies a more likely possibility than it would otherwise be for a hero like Skywrath who lacks lockdown.
Luxury Items
Skywrath has quite a lot of options for luxury items, especially a core position Skywrath. Some of the most popular and effective item pick-ups include:
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 burst abilities superbly.
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.
Scythe of Vyse - Scythe is the ultimate late-game item for pretty much any intelligence hero being played as a core - 3.5 seconds of solid disable, excellent stats and huge mana regeneration. There’s a reason in the competitive scene it is often rushed on heroes that intend to build into it; it’s that damn good. The problem is it’s also really damn expensive. Most of the time, therefore, it’s probably best made a second luxury item rather than your first luxury item.
Shiva’s Guard - Shiva’s makes for a great late-late game item. By this stage you’re likely 5 slotted, and so it becomes a contender for your last item slot or two. The armour will go a good way to making you tankier, while the aura is great to have for your team. You also gain a nice chunk of intelligence (always helpful for Skywrath; both as a way to increase damage and maintain your mana pool). You can also use the Arctic Blast AoE as a solid additional nuke.
Orchid Malevolence – The riskier, more offensive luxury item. No defensive stats to speak of, but a lot of offensive capability - It gives you good intelligence gain, a nice boost to your mana regeneration, and a good chunk of damage and attack speed. Most importantly the active, Soul Burn, amplifies the damage you deal to an enemy by 30% for 5 seconds.
Aghanim’s Scepter – A popular pick up in pub games, but not an item I build very often at all. As well as giving a decent chunk of stats – 200 health, 150 mana, and +10 all stats – Aghanims reduces the cooldown on Mystic Flare from 60/40/20 to 20/10/0 – a not insubstantial buff, but one that rarely brings notable benefits because with an 800 mana cost at level 3it’s not particularly spammable, even with a 0 second cooldown. Still, it generally allows you to get off a couple of Mystic Flares in succession, which is great for if you miss with the first attempt.
Situational Items
Boots of Travel - The best super late game boots. It combines your TP Scroll slot with your boot slot, freeing up room in your inventory for an extra item when you’re starting to get maxed out. Also always reassuring to have in the late-late game when an enemy team can quickly break the base – if they catch you by surprise in a base rush you will always be able to TP back.
Ethereal Blade - E-Blade is a great offensive and defensive item. Defensively it grants you 4 seconds of physical immunity, and allows you to give that effect either to an ally (ideally someone who’s the target of enemy right clicks), or an enemy hero (the enemy physical DPS’er). This 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.
Offensively, when combined with burst magic damage E-Blade becomes a tool by which magic damage nukers can scale into the late game. After casting E-Blade on an enemy nuke them with as much burst damage output as possible; E-Blade will buff that damage by a huge 40%.
Dagon - Gives you even more burst damage – 400 to 800. Dagon is a good snowball item, but a terrible item to get if you’re not snowballing because it will gradually taper off if effectiveness over time. Dagon 5 is also the least cost efficient item in the game at 7720 gold for an 800 magic damage nuke, although if you’ve built an Ethereal Blade it’s more effective. Highly situational (and risky!).
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.
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 your lane (a mid Skywrath will build differently to a lane support one) and also the enemy team’s composition (lots of mobile heroes, or a core who’s very reliant on a blink ability? Ancient Seal should be maxed early).
The images above shows a typical mid-lane skill build for Skywrath.
Arcane Bolt is a minor magic damage nuke that scales with Skywrath’s intelligence gain. When laning mid this is usually both skilled and maxed first.
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).
In the mid lane it is used to constantly deal harass damage, whittling down the enemy’s health and forcing them to stay away from the creep wave – the low mana cost and cooldown mean that once you have your Bottle you should be able to throw it out almost constantly on the enemy laner.
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 when playing Skywrath mid.
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. It is skilled last and maxed second if laning mid - this gives you early access to the full 6 second silence without sacrificing the full spammability and harassment potential of Arcane Bolt.
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 (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
Arcane Bolt’s damage is increased (i.e. it scales) based on Skywrath Mage’s intelligence, so items that provide raw intelligence bonuses are fantastic on a core Skywrath Mage.
The low cooldown makes Arcane Bolt very spammable – so long as you have the mana to support in, when performing your ganking combos or when establishing your presence in the mid lane use Arcane Bolt in between abilities and atuo-attacks on enemy heroes. 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. This will net you a solo kill on all but farmed or inherently tanky opponents so long as you manage to land Mystic Flare accurately.
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.
