Magnus is one of the strongest initiators in the game. Reverse Polarity is one of the strongest ultimate abilities in the game and when used effectively can single-handedly win entire fights. Empower is also one of the spells that scale into the late game the best.
With a Magnus on the team, you will stand a chance of winning in almost every game, no matter how grim things look. Enemies get greedy, and Reverse Polarity can take advantage of this very well.
@ Valve
[/column]Magnus Skill Build
- Empower
- Skewer
- Shockwave
- Shockwave
- Shockwave
- Reverse Polarity
- Shockwave
- Empower
- Empower
- Talent
- Empower
- Reverse Polarity
- Skewer
- Skewer
- Talent
- Skewer
- –
- Reverse Polarity
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Magnus sends a line of damaging energy towards the target point. Aghanim’s Scepter increases the range and speed and makes it return to Magnus. Upon return, it slows enemies and deals only half damage to creeps. Shockwave should be maxed first as skilling it increases the damage dealt and reduces the cooldown of it, allowing it be a strong nuke in the laning phase and the early game. It’s better to use against stunned or slowed opponents as it can be dodged.
At level 1 it only deals 75 damage and costs 90 mana. This makes it not very effective to cast with only one skill point in it. At level 2 or more it can be used to harass the enemy safe lane carry or mid laner, depending on your lane. Try to use it to guarantee the last hit of either several creeps at the same time or the ranged creep at the same time as harassing the enemy. Shockwave is a great spell to guarantee you rune control in the mid lane and should be used as such. When you get a few more points in it, the cooldown is significantly reduced to 7 seconds, allowing you to use it several times during each encounter.
Shockwave is a great farming spell and can be used to stack and farm jungle creeps. In the late game it should be used to defend from pushes and to damage fleeing enemies. Shockwave should be used as immediate follow-up to Reverse Polarity.
Empower gives the friendly target bonus damage and cleave to their attacks. This is maxed after Shockwave because it allows you and your carries to farm faster and deal more damage in fights. This is often taken at level 1 to give you more last-hitting power both in mid and the off lane, although you may need to get Skewer to survive a very early engagement. Decide if you can get away with it at level 1 based on your lane.
Empower can be used to farm jungle creeps very effectively in the early game, especially when played in the off lane. Whenever the lane is too risky to farm or to get experience from, you can head to a jungle camp and farm. You will likely need to use Shockwave a few times to speed up your farm and to not get too low on HP.
In the mid-to-late game, you should always prioritize this spell on your carries. Put yourself in their shoes and consider how much of a help it would be to have Empower on at all times. Aim for never having to be asked to use Empower on a carry and you’ll have a much better chance at winning fights. Even in team-fights, when you need to be watching out for several things at once and looking for the optimal Reverse Polarity, keep an eye out for your carries and Empower them whenever they need it. Some carries will sometimes even skip a Battle Fury in good faith that they will have Empower on to make up for it, so don’t let them down.
Magnus charges forward, dragging any enemies caught in front of him with him. You will damage and slow the enemy upon arriving at the destination. You should max this lastly because your other spells are generally stronger. Skewer may be needed at level 1 if you’re in the off lane and need to be able to charge out of danger. It can also be good to skewer enemies underneath your tower to get a kill very easily. It’s usually best to save your skill point until you need either Skewer or Empower, depending on your lane.
If you’re in the off lane and the enemy support comes forward to harass you, try to move so you’re in range of a skewer to your tower and trade some hits with them while angling yourself behind them. Often they will be aware of what you are trying to do, but it can be achieved with some skill. Try to bait them into the trees, for example.
In the mid-to-late game, it can be best used to escape from danger and to pull enemies back into danger. You can use it to pass cliffs as well as trees which makes it a great escape tool, although it does have a long cooldown at all levels. It can be very effective in places that bottleneck the enemies, such as near the ancients, as this allows Magnus to catch several heroes and sets up for a good Reverse Polarity.
By using it after Reverse Polarity, the enemies are disabled for roughly another whole second if timed well, although be careful of pushing them too far away from allies. After casting Reverse Polarity, it can often be detrimental to a team-fight to skewer enemies away as your team will cast their AoE spells at the RP location. Be wary of this and remember that it’s often better to just leave them in place.
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Magnus pulls every nearby enemy in front of him and stuns them for several seconds. Reverse Polarity is one of the strongest ultimate abilities in Dota 2 esports as it goes through magic immunity. Many players save their Reverse Polarity for when the enemies are bunched up together as 3 or more. However, it’s often better to just use it on one or two heroes, especially in the early and mid game. In the late game, it may be most effective to simply use it on a farmed core if you’ve worked out that said core is biggest threat to your team. RP has a very long cooldown and can often be hard to cast without a mobility item such as Blink Dagger or Shadow Blade.
When you get Reverse Polarity in the laning phase, you can ask for an ally to come and gank your lane. If your ally remains hidden, you can often approach the enemy seeming to want to harass before using RP and Skewer to pull them to your allies for a kill. Remember that Reverse Polarity has a short cast time, during which you can cancel it. You can use this to intimidate approaching enemies and to cancel a bad cast.
The best Talent to choose at Level 10 depends on your item build. Many players like the attack speed, as it increases their farm rate and damage output when going for a carry build. On the other hand, the extra health will tank you up a lot which can be good if you are taking a lot of damage in team-fights.
If you find yourself dying in fights a lot or for any other reason need to tank up, the +15 strength gives you 300 HP. You may prefer the extra strength if you are managing to stay relevant in the mid and late game through farming items, as it will also increase your damage a bit. If you have gone for more of a utility build, then the Shockwave damage may be better. It’s also very good against illusion or creep heroes. It effectively adds another skill point worth of damage to the spell.
The extra Skewer range increases the total range by almost 50%. This makes it an even stronger escape and a useful spell to get enemies out of their base with. With a Force Staff and Blink Dagger, you can get deep into the enemies base, when sieging for example, and Skewer any unfortunate souls into your team. This can be risky if they have disables, so be careful if going for this play. On the other hand, the extra armor is almost equivalent to what you gain from a Shiva’s Guard and should be taken if you need to tank up, especially from physical damage dealers.
The extra stun can be good if you need more control in the late game against very farmed carries or heroes that are hard to lockdown, for example. It can be very strong if you have a Refresher Orb, as it effectively adds another 1.5 seconds to the length for which they are stunned. Otherwise the extra Empower damage/cleave is very strong in the late game, especially on melee carries. In most cases, the extra Empower damage/cleave is a better talent choice as it scales better and is arguably more impactful.
You can play Magnus either in the off lane or mid lane. Magnus will almost always need a Stout Shield. In a lane he can farm in, he can make good use out of a Quelling Blade. You’ll generally need a Healing Salve and Tangos in the off lane although much less for most mid lanes. A Mango can be good if you are going to an off lane against mana drain, as it can allow you to Skewer away if you need to survive. It can be used to build a Magic Wand later.
A mid Magnus will need a bottle to sustain himself in lane and to allow him to use Shockwave to contest the lane. It’s less needed in the off lane as you tend to use less spells and find it harder to refill the charges. In mid lane, you can get away with skipping a bottle for faster Arcane Boots if you intend to get those over Power Treads.
Power Treads give Magnus some attack speed and stats. These are the boots of choice if going for a more attack damage based built or if you have the space on your team to farm. If you’re on a team with many cores, you should probably avoid these. If not, they can increase your farm rate and ability to carry in the mid-to-late game.
Arcane Boots are better for a utility Magnus. A utility Magnus is best suited for when you have several cores or if you need to fight more than farm. Arcane Boots allow you to use your spells much more in the lane and in fights.
Magnus generally doesn’t need a Magic Wand because he tends to stay on the back lines of fights and mainly only uses Reverse Polarity. For this reason it is usually avoided, although it can be good against heroes that spam spells such as Batrider, Zeus or Venomancer.
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In most games Magnus will rush a Blink Dagger after his upgraded Boots. This allows him to get better Reverse Polarities off and land his other 2 spells much easier as well.
In certain games, a Hand of Midas can be effective. It can be good if you’re on a team with carries which farm very quickly, such as Luna, Shadow Fiend and Tinker. This is because they will generally farm wherever they can and not leave much for you. In this case, purchasing a Midas after Blink Dagger can allow you to stay relevant into the late game. However this is not needed very often, so think critically whether you can make better use out of another item.
Many players like to buy an Echo Sabre before Blink Dagger. This allows Magnus to farm jungle camps and creep waves much faster with Empower and gives him some very helpful strength and mana regeneration. If you’re going to get an Echo Sabre, Power Treads are definitely the better boots option, as they give you attack speed to increase your farm even more.
You may need a Force Staff after Blink Dagger to increase your mobility even further. If you need to reach a hero such as Sniper who stands very far back, a Force Staff can be used catch him much more easily. You should use Force Staff before Blink Dagger, as you can move more precisely with Blink than you can with Force. You can also make cool plays by Forcing enemies that are facing you into you so that you can catch them in your Reverse Polarity, although this is not the main reason you buy a Force Staff.
A Shadow Blade will allow you to be undetected until you surprise your enemies with a Reverse Polarity. If an enemy such as Riki is disabling your ability to Blink in and use RP, then a Shadow Blade can help you. If you need the Break later in the game, it can also be built into a Silver Edge . Shadow Blade also works very well with the Treads and Echo Sabre build as it increases your attack speed further. Although it may serve a good purpose even in the utility build, as stated above.
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Silver Edge can be a good item for the carry build. It gives Magnus more damage, attack speed and lots of stats. The Break active is very strong against some heroes, and the invisibility can be another means of initiation.
If you are getting killed either before you get a chance to get Reverse Polarity off, or very quickly after using it, a BKB may be needed.
Shiva’s Guard increases your tankiness against physical damage dealers. It also provides you with an attack and movement speed slow, more intelligence to allow you to cast more spells and a nuke. You should use the active after Reverse Polarity and towards the end of the stun duration so that the enemies are disabled for a longer period.
Refresher Orb allows you to cast Reverse Polarity twice in one team-fight. If you missed one or two heroes with your first RP, you can Refresh and reposition yourself so that you will once again RP those already stunned and also catch another hero or two. You can do this by Blinking to and Skewering an enemy who’s further away. This will pull them close enough to get RP’d Refresher Orb will also refresh the cooldowns on Shiva’s Guard and BKB if you have those items. This item on Magnus can carry your Dota 2 ranks very far.
Bloodthorn is a great item for a carry Magnus. After you cast RP, you should cast Soul Rend on an enemy. This in conjunction with Empower will cleave every one of your critical hits. The Reverse Polarity will give you several seconds to attack them without being disabled, especially if you have a BKB. If you use Bloodthorn, there is little chance that the Soul Rend from Bloodthorn will be purged, as most of the opponents will stunned. You can also use Bloodthorn independently of Reverse Polarity very effectively.
Assault Cuirass can be a good pickup if you are facing teams with heavy minus armor. It tanks you up against physical damage and gives you some attack speed.
Boots of Travel increase your movement speed and ability to position yourself better in fights and also free up an inventory slot in the late game.
Linken’s Sphere can be a good pickup if you find yourself being the victim of powerful single-target abilities that disable your ability to cast your ultimate in fights.
Eul’s can be a good defensive item against strong silences and more. It also provides Magnus with lots of mana regeneration. You can lift an enemy from a distance and follow up with a Skewer when they land.
Daedalus gives Magnus more physical damage, especially after Reverse Polarity. Generally, Bloodthorn achieves what Daedalus does and provides more helpful stats. You should consider a Daedalus if your team lacks physical damage and especially if you have lots of farm. Often a Bloodthorn may be a better option.
While Magnus does have an Aghanim’s upgrade, it isn’t very popular. This is because it is somewhat underwhelming when compared to items which indirectly make his Reverse Polarity stronger, such as Refresher Orb or Blink Dagger. It also doesn’t really compliment his carry build. However, it can be strong in a utility build after picking up some other items first.
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Magnus is powerful with allies who have area of effect nukes, especially ultimate abilities such as Echo Slam. Keep an eye on the cooldowns of such spells because it may be better to wait a few more seconds for them to come off cooldown before you RP. The damage may be the difference between a won and lost team-fight.
Magnus can give his melee carries cleave from Empower to increase their farm rate and the damage they can deal in fights. The cleave also allows very farmed carries to kill any heroes caught in Reverse Polarity. This is particularly strong on heroes who already build cleave such as heroes like Anti-Mage and Sven.
Rubick will likely always be watching out for your Reverse Polarity in team-fights. Use another spell as soon as you have used Reverse Polarity to make it harder for him to steal it and do not forget.
The cleave from Empower onto melee carries gives them a very strong ability to clear illusions much faster. The cleave is also great against heroes such as Nature’s Prophet and Broodmother who spawn creeps.
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