Magnus is a hero that can do just about anything. Pushing, initiating, killing, supporting? He does all of that effectively, though not as effectively as heroes who specialize in those roles. He even has a decent solo game if you play him as one.Pros And Cons
-Gamebreaking ultimate
-Terrific damage
-One of the best nukes in the game
-Above average movespeed
-Base armour is good
-Does almost everything well
-BKB removes Empower
-Easy to click on due to large collision size
-Does not participate well in ganks because of the lack of a spammable disable
-Slow attack speed to semi-carry (easy to fix though)
-Needs frequent animation cancelling
-Damage range is a bit random (but this isn't that big a factor)
Skills And Spells
ShockwaveOne of the best nukes in the game. For only 90 mana, you get 300 damage, the range is solid, and the cooldown is awesome. Abuse it to control your lane and farm.
The casting range of Shockwave is deceiving, because the spell goes much further than that, 850 range instead of 500. If you are out of the casting range to hit a target, try targeting the ground instead.
EmpowerWith Empower, your damage jumps by alot. In teamfights, you can wreak havoc with your insane damage. The cooldown to duration also allows you to cast it on the hard carries to further boost their damage.
Never ever set this skill to autocast ever, because it will randomly buff units, and anyone with a working hand should be able to press E and click on the intended target anyway, so go that extra mile just not to screw up.
Note that you only benefit from stats with Empower.
Mighty SwingWhere we have awesome damage with Empower, Mighty Swing only serves to increase its potential even further. The end result after a few hits with Empower and Mighty Swing is extra cash.
Reverse PolarityThen Icefrog thought, hey, it's useless giving Magnus all this nice shit if he can't keep his foes in place to rape them! So Magnus got a 'raising my halberd and pulling the enemies towards me, after which they all get dizzied, leaving me to own them with my awesome damage' skill, called Reverse Polarity.
Never ever underestimate the power of RP. It could turn from what could be a 3v1 situation when you are running red HP and getting raped into a triple kill. Don't hesitate to use it even when you are using it to kill only 1 hero (unless there are signs of a team push that you need to stop). After all, if you never use it, it never goes into cooldown.
Animation Cancelling
This is very important to playing a good Magnus, because all of his active skills have a long backswing. You can cancel the rest of the animation by right-clicking ground to save some time. This is very important because it gives you a bit more time to chase after you Shockwave or to start attacking immediately after Reverse Polarity.
Proper Building
Skill Build
1. Shockwave
2. Stats/Empower
3. Shockwave
4. Empower
5. Shockwave
6. Reverse Polarity
7. Shockwave
8. Empower
9. Empower
10. Empower/Mighty Swing/Stats
11. Reverse Polarity
12. Mighty Swing
13. Mighty Swing
14. Mighty Swing
15. Mighty Swing/Stats
16. Reverse Polarity
17-25. Stats
Shockwave: One of the best nukes in the game, and if you don't rush it first, your lane control gets screwed, so it's natural to max it first.
Empower: Could be taken at level 2, or a level of stats first to boost your survivability and your mana to spam more Shockwaves. The reason why Empower is maxed faster is because the damage early game, no matter how little (like below 30 damage), will give you some last hitting advantage over your opponents. Also, by level 16 or so, we want to be ready with all our deadly tools to start raping team fights, so maxing all his skills by then is needed.
Mighty Swing: Taken last so as not to push too much early game, and later on when jungling becomes more viable.
Reverse Polarity: Obviously, taken whenever possible. Higher levels of this skill just makes it easier to screw around with your enemies.
Core Budgeting
Awesome for more damage. Generic for all melee DPSers.
Absolutely a core item for all heroes that can lane control well.
From 50% cleave to 85% cleave, which rounds up to almost splash damage. Gives you enough mana to keep spamming Shockwave as well as some decent regen to keep you going. The damage makes you all the more fearsome.
Serving your health and damage well for half the game.
What Magnus lacks is a form of burst attack speed, and it conveniently comes in the form of MoM. Magnus won't have to worry about the extra damage taken, because all his targets will probably be dead, or nearly dead, after he and his team are done with them.
You can't possibly expect to walk up towards 5 heroes and not get killed immediately. Try surprising them with this to land your ultimate.
Treads gives Magnus more DPS, which is exactly what he needs during those precious 4 seconds of stun, and gives him more survivability. Travels just allows Magnus more mobility to rice better, and therefore get more DPS later on with that farm. It depends on personal preference.
Luxuries
As your opponent's health grows, your damage must scale along with it, or you won't be able to kill them later on.
For hardcore farmers, and sparkling lights that damage.
Early on it could be good for burst damage. Turn on Armlet then cast Empower, so you get the damage bonus from the +25 STR. You can either turn Armlet off after that and just use Empower to farm, or proceed to kill a hero.
Another good item to increase Magnus's DPS. The evasion will also ensure his survivability if the remaining heroes that didn't get stunned attack him.
Better if someone else gets this actually, because you could be doing better with your money elsewhere. You could skip Dagger if someone gets this to help land your ultimate. Just make sure you didn't disable help and tell him not to push you into the enemy fountain.
Only as the very last resort if the opposing team has a full arsenal of disables. Another alternative would be to keep your opponents busy with an even scarier carry that they need to take down first.
The Way Of Caster
So you decided that you didn't want to be a DPS, but be a caster and support your team instead.
A 8 second stun certainly is good, but you won't get to pull this off consistently with the long cooldown, not to mention you need 975 mana to pull of just RP > RF > RP.
As a support, you will be getting all the auras. Shiva's works well with keeping your foes from fleeing.
And of course, the ultimate counter to any hero in the game, the only item that is viable to every hero in the game.
Proper Playing
The Correct Lane
When playing Magnus, try to get a solo mid if possible. Magnus is a great solo with his spammable nuke and good base damage. If he manages to runewhore successfully, he becomes even harder to dislodge from his lane, which means extra farming.
Of course, Magnus can also play as a babysitter to a certain extent, controlling the lane with Shockwave, buffing the carry so he can take more last hits with his epic damage. Be warned that if you choose to lane, you are already as good as playing the support role, because you lose out most of your farm already.
Early Game
Carry
If you got your mid solo, then you should be ricing up a bottle ASAP, and having the chick deliver it to you. With one rune, Magnus can easily spam up to 3 shockwaves, much more if the rune you picked up was a regen. At this stage, just passively farm, harassing your opponent with Shockwave when you hit level 3 whenever you can get a last hit (last hit creep and harass opponent with 1 Shockwave.
At this stage, it is advisable not to be too rambo, unless you are certain that target will die in 2 Shockwaves, in which case you can nuke him once, then chase until CD is over, and kill.
Support
If you didn't get your mid solo, or decided not to, go along with a carry. Empower him, so that he gets more damage to last hit, and try your best to deter your opponents from hitting your carry, so he gets time to farm. However, due to your lack of a disable, unless your carry has a disable, it is not recommended to fish for kills early on.
Mid Game
Carry
You are not as powerful as you are yet, with Treads, 2 Bracers, and perhaps a Perseverance, but give it time. As soon as you complete your Bfury and MoM, and probably get yourself to level 14, it's time to start owning.
Find lone heroes, or heroes farming in pairs. If you have a Dagger, your job is made much easier. If you don't have one, it just makes it a bit harder to pull off your job.
To kill:
1. Activate Empower on yourself.
2. If necessary, turn on MoM for the movement speed burst to get closer to the target faster, so that the target has less time to react.
3. Activate Reverse Polarity.
4. Click on the target.
5. Profit!
Support
You will probably not be having too great of a time farming, but perhaps you still have your Treads, Bracers, and Perseverance. Upgrade your Perseverance to a Refresher Orb ASAP, and get your Dagger. You still need a decent mana pool for your combo though, so maybe you should consider Nulls over Bracers.
Your other job, which is also important, is to Empower every carry hero when you see them.
Late Game
Carry
Your killing potential starts to weaken at this stage as stronger carries emerge to take their rightful place. Still, you are a formidable force, being able to dish out about 1000 damage to every stunned hero you caught in your ultimate. If you are the only carry in your team, it's time to end the game, before the stronger carries start to turn the tides.
Remember to Empower your teammates, as well as yourself.
Support
While you are extremely important in teamfights, you are virtually useless in 1v1 combats. The game depends mostly on your ability to land perfect Reverse Polarities and your carries to be able to take them down quick enough. If you didn't have a carry on your team, perhaps it's time to think, who was that retard who took my solo in the first place?
If your opponents push separately, it's not over yet, though your power is drastically reduced. Go to the lane with the most opponent heroes coming, and help out there. Make sure you have an ally carry to kill them, and hope the other lanes can hold out.
As with mid game, Empower every carry hero constantly, and do not Empower yourself unless there are no more carries.
Hope this guide will be you become a Pro Player, Good Luck
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