Since Icefrog remade Magnus a bit in 6.67 and I played him around 10 times in this short time so far, (and I’m bored) I want to give you a guide to the cool new Magnus. This time it won’t be a step-by-step because it doesn’t help explaining Magnus’ play style. It was just perfect for explaining Bloodseeker’s and Nightstalker’s one because you can clearly say what they should do at a certain point of the game. But I will try to keep up your motivation with pictures and videos in this guide.
This new rating system looks pretty cool huh?^^ (I copied it from some TD) But before you all start disagreeing with me I have to explain my opinion about Magnus and his roles.
Teamfight: He is made for teamrapes. His new Skewer makes him more Dagger independent (what doesn’t mean you shouldn’t buy it), allows you come close to your enemies and gather them a bit, your Ultimate stuns and sticks them at one point and Empower in combination with melee physical dps carries does the rest.
Support: Magnus doesn’t rape a team on his own. Just in really rare cases when he is feeded and overfarmed. His only carry skill is Empower that should rather be casted on melee physical dps heroes that have carry skills and/or are agility heroes. Magnus himself is just a tanky and slow attacking guy. So initiate and let the carries go rampage.
Carry: Empower can be maintained on 2 heroes. That means if there is just one other carry, Magnus can be the second candidate. Even without other carry skills he can farm better than other carries thanks to Shockwave and cleave what allows him to get some strong dps items faster than other heroes. But some empowered Kunkka is still more effective, even with less farm. Rather buff 2 carries.
Ganker: One of his roles, but his weakest one. Skewer is some amazing ganking skill because you can pull heroes to your team. Also you can create a path through trees for surprise buttsex But the cooldown is very high for a normal skill (45 seconds) and it needs good positioning and teamplay. Since teamfights happen very rarely in early/mid game, your ultimate can be used for ganking. Shockwave gives you burstdamage, what is never bad.
In general it’s that: You don’t go ganking very often, but you usually kill more than one hero.
In a nutshell: Magnus fits perfectly into clash oriented teams with one or 2 physical dps carries.
When to Pick
When your team needs an initiator
When your team has one or more melee physical dps carries
When your team has deals much AoE damage
Skillbuild
1. Skewer
2. Shockwave
3. Shockwave
4. Empower
5. Shockwave
6. Reverse Polarity
7. Shockwave
8. Empower
9. Empower
10. Empower
11. Reverse Polarity
12. Stats
13. Stats
14. Stats
15. Stats
16. Reverse Polarity
17-22 Stats
23. Skewer
24. Skewer
25. Skewer
Shockwave should be maxed first for obvious reasons, the new Empower is superior compared to stats, Reverse Polarity should be skilled whenever it’s possible of course. The only thing that could confuse you a bit is this one level of Skewer. For some reason (and I think Icefrog will change this, it’s very strange) just Skewer’s damage increases from 50 to 200 when you skill it out. Cooldown, slow and range stay the same. I think this is the skill that benefits least from skilling it more than one time in the whole game.
A short review: What did Icefrog change in 6.67?
In my opinion Icefrog did an amazing job here. He solved all problems and made Magnus a hero that is very funny to play.
Magnus had a big conflict between supporting and carrying because of his skills. Empowering a physical dps carry is always more beneficial than himself, but for some reason he had cleave, what was a reason for buffing himself. He can Empower yourself also. Yes. But when you pick Magnus, why shouldn’t your team pick 2 physical dps carries? Buffing this 2 is more effective than 1 and himself. So Mighty Swing (his cleave, I had to look for it because I always call it cleave^^) was waste.
The new Empower allows carries to benefit much more from Magnus’ other skills and Magnus doesn’t have this stupid cleave problem anymore.
The second problem was that he can’t land a good ultimate without buying blink. Tidehunter’s ultimate has insane range, Earthshaker has a long range stun to come closer, but Magnus had nothing. Skewer solves this problem pretty good and makes Reserve Polarity much more effective and turns Magnus into one of the best initiators of the game.
Items
Starting Items
or 
GG-Branches give you cheap stats and can be used for Magic Wand, Tangos are needed to stay on lane. When nobody else does you should buy a chicken, if somebody does, buy Quelling Blade for better lasthitting.
Basic Core
Optional
Bottle is a very cheap item to stay on lane (the middle one the the best one for refilling the Bottle with runes) and spam Shockwave, Magic Wand and Boots are standard. Don’t forget: You have a courier. Let the poor little thing bring you the items.
If nobody does you can upgrade the chicken to a crow, it is very useful because you can let the crow refill your Bottle. 200 Gold and a bit micro can solve your mana problems quite well.
If nobody buys wards, do so. They are very important in every game. But you shouldn't be the main warder in general, you benefit far more from items than a for example a Demon Witch does. This Warding guide will help you:
Your first big item is still Dagger. Yes, you have Skewer. The new skill doesn’t make Dagger pointless, it makes it much cooler and more fun. You can do cool stuff like Blinking to someone and pull him ninja-like to your team with Skewer. Initiating with Dagger is still easier since Skewer’s 800 range aren’t that much.
Advanced Items
Your advanced itembuild dependents on the number of physical dps carries in your team. If there are more that 1 other carry, go for the supportive build. If not, go for the carry build.
Carry
Power Treads give you cheap stats and attack speed, the intelligence version will help you in cases where you don’t have enough mana for using all your skills.
Armlets perfectly fit your role: Dealing as much damage as possible in the seconds where your enemies are stunned. It’s quite cheap by the way. Empower just buffs bonus damage from stats, what means that you should cast it after turning Armlet on. If you want you can turn it off after that if you just want to farm instead of killing heroes. Always turn it on if you want to kill somebody.
Mask of Madness is an alternative item to Armlet. I made some test and found out that Armlet's and Mom's (+ 2 Blades of Attack, since Armlet is 900 gold more expensive) deal pretty much the same damage. You have to decide what you want more: Lifesteal or bonus damage (deactivating Armlet after casting Empower).
Battlefury is a your extremely manly cookie cutter item. Players that feel cool like to buy 4 of them. It gives you a bit mana regeneration that is really needed, damage and more cleave.
Fun fact: 6 Battlefuries and Empower give you 255% splash (and +435 damage).
Assault Cuirass gives a lot of damage and makes you tankier. It helps your team also.
Buriza is very strong for obvious reasons, splash crit is just amazing.
In late game Treats should be replaced by Boots of Travel since winning nearly always dependents on surprising the enemies with pushes and surprise group buttsex when some of their heroes are missing.
Orb effects
They are something that Magnus simply doesn’t need. He goes in and deals as much AoE damage as he can. The items I told you are much better for this than corruption or lifesteal.
Support
Shiva’s Guard gives your team some useful slow, makes yourself tankier, and you can deal a bit damage. And you have no mana problems anymore
Force Staff is a very useful item in any situation. You can save allies, chase enemies, initiate from a even longer distance and this stuff. With good timing you can hit Shockwave 2 times.
Vladimir’s Offering gives you the needed mana regeneration, allows you to push faster and buffs your melee carries even more.
How should you land a good ultimate when you don't see anyone? Gem of True Sight will help you.
Assault Cuirass’ attack speed doesn’t help you that much without empower, so it’s actually better in the carry build. The aura and the additional tankyness are still a reason for a support Magnus to buy it.
Guinsoo’s is an amazing item on nearly any hero (the most just need other items more). Hex is mainly to shut down a carry but it is also very useful for ganking in mid/lategame since all of Magnus’ disables and slows have a high cooldown. No more mana problems and more survivability are cool, too.
Pipe can be bought when you play against AoE strats, an early hood makes you quite tanky.
Arcane Ring is a good item when you run around with mana dependent heroes like Earthshaker or Tidehunter, what means when you are playing a high magical AoE damage strategy.
How can you be useful when you aren’t even there when you are needed? For that reason Travels should be bought. I explained it at the carry build already.
Last but not least Refresher Orb is a very imbalanced item on Magnus. 8 seconds of slow are more than enough time to kill a whole team in late game.
Eul's is a very useful item that solves your mana problems, helps you positioning for Skewer and Reverse Polarity in ganks and teamfights (more in ganks actually). Combined with Dagger you are very hard to kill.
The only problem: Your mana. You need Guinsoo’s AND Shiva’s Guard to handle the mana costs. Don’t worry you just have to spend 15.675 gold for all this stuff .
Gameplay
Ah, congratulations , you passed the theroycrafting part. Let’s start with the gameplay.
Early Game (1-7)
Step 1: Chose your lane
Let’s do what Magnus can actually add to your lane’s power.
1. A normal damaging skill without any stun or slow. This doesn’t really help your mate and is just useful in a burst damage combo. It makes you a potential solo since it can be spammed for lasthits and harass what results in lane control.
2. A ability to pull someone into your creeps or tower. This is much more interesting and actually needs a stunner or disabler to be used offensely. This is a pretty powerful dual lane skill, that can be useful for fleeing when you go solo.
In fact you can always go solo, dual laning can work pretty good with a stunner.
Step 2: Laning
Solo: You aim is actually not kill, but levelling and farming since you can’t kill smart opponents on your own. Usually you go mid.
The most important thing is fitting to your lane opponent. Lasthit with your normal attack as much as possible. Actually there are 2 situations:
1. Your opponent hero has high lane control and harasses you whenever it’s possible.
This is the normal situation, and Magnus can handle it pretty good. Stay back. The little hill that is infront of the water will save you . I mean this:
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Try to lasthit if possible, rather survive than die for a creep^^. When you see that 2 creeps’ hp are low enough to lasthit them with Shockwave, do. Always try to hit the hero also, like here:
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This forces your opponent to play less aggressively and avoids killing attempts since a hero with high lanecontrol and much damage usually doesn’t have much hp.
2. Your opponent hero is just mid to farm and level and is melee, like Balanar or Rexxar. No problem, lasthit normally and use Shockwave like I told you even when you should concentrate even more on hitting the enemy hero because you don’t want him to farm easily.
Dual (with some stunner/disabler): You play more aggressively, but you don’t use Shockwave that often. Sounds a bit strange, I know. Keep you mana for killing someone. Your mate stuns him, you walk right next to him, use Skewer and pull him into your creeps or (if possible) your tower, followed by some Shockwave. If the enemy lane is really that dominant, you should start using Shockwave like you would play solo against a decent opponent.
Here is a pretty funny double kill with a Sandking for you:
Managing you mana with Bottle
This is really needed. Your mana pool is low, you will run out of mana quickly even when Shockwave’s mana costs are low, but this low costs make filling up your mana with Bottle very effective since using your Bottle gives you more Shockwaves than for example it would give a Queen of Pain Scream of Pains.
1. Use runes to fill your Bottle: This should be done mostly when you are solo mid because you can reach both runespots easily, you shouldn’t run from bottom lane to top rune for example. Wards help a lot here.
2. Crow + Bottle: Let your crow take your empty Bottle, let it refill at the fountain, let the crow come back to you. Do that whenever your Bottle is empty. I think you know what I mean. This requires a bit micro management and is a bit annoying to do, but it is a way to keep your mana high. The only important thing is micromanagement without neglecting your hero.
Here is one of the lists I like so much:
1. Bind your hero on Strg + 1
2. Bind your courier on Strg +2
Binding makes it much more easy. Binding shops on Strg + 3-9 is a easy way to let your courier bring you new items.
3. Order your courier to come to a save area near to you (usually the tower) when your Bottle is empty and give the Bottle to him.
3. Now use courier’s skill to let it return to the fountain, press “Shift” and order him to give the Bottle to your hero, press “Shift” again and order him to return to the fountain. Now the courier will do all this stuff and you don’t have to micro him.
Oh my god, someone ganks me!
No problem, seriously. You have Skewer and Reverse Polarity which will help you fleeing.
The only “problem” is that Skewer pulls enemies with you. So there are 2 things that you can do:
1. Reverse Polarity -> Skewer
Try to run away from your enemies so that they aren’t near enough to be pulled with you. Reverse Polarity can help you to do that. Then use Skewer, preferable to pass some cliffs so that nobody can follow you. Otherwise this will happen:
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Here is a situation that was pretty cool and shows the defensive use of Reverse Polarity.
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You should have heard my battlecry while skewering Traxex (^O^)2. Skewer -> Reverse Polarity
Be mean: When you are near to a tower, let (if possible, don’t suicide) them come near to you and pull them into the tower. Usually they will try to cut off your fleeing route to get more hits, what makes it easier. Use your ultimate and rape them, if you know that this isn’t possible just run away. Here a short video about a foolish Storm that seriously wanted to kill me with some electro teddies:
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Early game in a nutshell
Go solo or with a stunner
Use Shockwave to farm and harass the same time
Keep your mana up with Bottle
Mid Game (8-14)
Step 1: Ganking
Whenever Reverse Polarity’s cooldown is over, you can go ganking. Like I mentioned before: You don’t gank often, but when you do you usually kill more than one. Here is a little Video how me and Kunkka gank Traxex (ok, actually we just ran in and hoped for the best). It shows how we could actually could have raped a whole team, but there was just one hero
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Your most important tactical ganking skill is Skewer. There are so many cool things you can do with it:1. Always try to gank from behind. That is gay, but effective. Let your mates initiate the gank and pull the fleeing hero to your team.
1.1 When you have blink, just blink next to him and pull him into your team. This can also be done over cliffs what is a bit like the old Storm’s ultimate (and you feel like a ninja).
2. Create a path through trees. I don’t think I have to say much, it’s surprising, effective and results in a big gang anal orgy.
After using Skewer just land a good ultimate, use Shockwave, probably buff your carry with Empower and leave him the kills if you are nice.
Mid game in a nutshell:
Gank when your ultimate is ready
Try to force teamfights if possible (for teamfights read the late game part)
Late Game (15-25)
Step 1: Always go with your mates, you are nothing without them.
Step 2: Teamrape
How to win a teamfight: Force it. Land it. Rape it.
Sounds gay, I know.
1. Force a teamfight: You have to force the enemy team to gather. They probably know that they can’t win against a team based on Magnus. So push with you whole team so that they have to defend. Maintain Empower on your melee carries meanwhile, you will need it soon.
2. Land your ultimate: This is actually pretty easy thanks to Skewer and blink. Blink is better to initiate because your opponents can hardly react, Skewer helps when not everyone is at the point you want him to be.
3. Rape the enemy team: You don’t have to do much anymore, just cast Shockwave and hit. Your team’s damage output should be high enough to kill everyone.
Here a situation where me and Kunkka kill 3 heroes easily and another easy won teamfight:
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Step 3: Pushing
Pushing is quite simple: You clear creepwaves with Shockwave and Empower. It should be done to force a teamfight and after winning a teamfight. So pretty much always. But be careful and don't push alone without Boots of Travel, your team needs you.
Late game in a nutshell:
Go with your mates
Force and win teamfights
Push
Friends and Foes
Friends
Magical AoE
They deal the main damage in teamfights. And this ones are just examples btw.
AoE Stun
I personally like spammable mini AoE stuns more than the big ones when you have Magnus in your team, since you can chainstun incredible long and often. Of course the high AoE stuns like Tidehunter’s ultimate do this job, too.
Critical Strike Carries
Cleave crits are incredible strong. In general all melee physical dps carries help you, but this one especially.
Multi-target-hitter
This guys help you killing a whole team even when they are ranged.
Who worth a special mention:
This guy is madness combined with Magnus. Like you saw in the videos their combined clashpower can kill a whole team and when you are really gosu you can pull people into Torrents with Skewer. Ok, me and my mate thought that would be easy, but we weren’t able to do it^^. But just look at this:
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How should you and your team be able to rape a team when you don't land a good ultimate? Dark Seer helps with his Vacuum and deals a lot of AoE damage.
Casting Maledict on a whole team and also having time to damage them is just madness. His stun gives you a few extra seconds to deal damage after your stun ends.
After you and your team did your best to kill the enemy team he comes and finishes them with his ultimate and the Empower bonus cleave. Just standing there for 12 seconds and watching how the whole team dies is quite cruel.
This hero is actually the best late gamemate you can have. Unlike Magnus he has the damage skills to kill a whole team without spending 20.000 gold to dps items. A well used hammer prolongs the stun of your ultimate, whats makes him also useful when he isn't farmed.
Foes
Combo breakers
Silencer and this guys who stay back and stop your team when they try to rush in are your only foes. And 5 heroes with Blade Mail are dangerous, too.
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