Magmus

[Padawanabee]

Magmus


http://honwiki.net/w/images/8/81/Magmushero.gif (http://honwiki.net/wiki/File:Magmushero.gif)
Primary Attribute: Strength
Melee
Strength: 18 +2.3
Agility: 19+2.1
Intelligence: 16+1.8
Health: 492
Mana: 208
Movement Speed: 300
Armor: 0.66
Damage: 43 - 59


The primordial and elemental creature known as Magmus is no demon, though he fights alongside the Hellbourne. Rather, he was drawn forth from the earth, as evil calls to evil and separate flames join to form an inferno. A holdover from an ancient, cataclysmic age of fire, Magmus dreams of returning Newerth to ash, lava, and cinder, and he wields his considerable might and magic in that terrible cause.



Table of Contents


Introduction
Pros/Cons
Skills
Skill build
Items
Strategy
Skill use and Synergies
BFF's and Worst Enemies
Gameplay
Advanced Strategies




Introduction


Magmus is a powerful hero who happens to also be pretty fun to play. He's part of a select group of heroes with powerful AoE ultimates with long cooldowns, most of whom have Portal Key in their core. He also has a slightly above average str gain and two skills to use as an escape mechanism, making him harder to kill than most heroes.

He hovers somewhere between supporter and ganker, with a powerful AoE ultimate for team fights. He isn't the traditional hard carry who spends 40 minutes in the woods. But between incredible pushing power combined with good escape mechanisms, and an ult that wins team fights, a good Magmus can decide the game for his team.

He's a direct port of Sand King from DotA. And while his story always made me think he should have been named Lavos, his lava effects do look pretty sweet.

Pros and Cons

Pros

Great team oriented hero.
Epic power ulti with a versatile skillset.
Powerful roamer, laner, and ganker.
Quick farmer and fast pusher.


Cons


Skillset places him in the middle of fights.
Choked for mana early.
Loses power in the late game.
Ultimate easily countered by stuns.



Skills


http://img199.imageshack.us/img199/1604/64pxmagmusskill1.gif Lava Surge
Riding on lava, Magmus surges toward a target location, damaging and stunning enemy units in his path.

Target ground
Magic damage
Range: 400/500/600/700
Mana cost: 140
Cooldown: 11 seconds

Transports self to target location, dealing 100/160/220/280 Magic damage to targets who pass within radius of self and stunning them for 2.17 seconds. During the first 0.52 seconds of the stun, affected targets cannot be attacked. Range 400/500/600/700.

A good all around ability, it serves both offensive and defensive purposes. It works as a powerful AoE stun, a tool for getting up or down ledges that enemies may not be able to chase past, and a decent setup for our ult.

http://img14.imageshack.us/img14/50/64pxmagmusskill2.gif Steam Bath
Magmus releases extreme heat, toasting the area around him. The resulting steam damages nearby enemy units over time and cloaks Magmus from enemy eyes.

Self
Magic damage
Range: 300/350/400/450
Mana Cost: 60/50/40/30
Cooldown: 40/30/20/10

Applies stealth to self for 20/40/60/80 seconds or until spell is cancelled and deals 20/40/60/80 Magic damage per second to enemies in radius around self. Upon breaking channel, there is a 0.6/0.9/1.2/1.5 second delay before Magmus is revealed.


Magmus's most underused and underestimated ability, this skill has many uses. Without levels, it leaves you immobile and invis, a sitting duck. However, with levels it becomes an excellent tool both offensively and defensively, as many of your enemies will ignore the damage.

Don't knock it 'till you try it.

http://img196.imageshack.us/img196/1200/64pxmagmusskill3.gif Volcanic Touch
Upon attacking enemy units, Magmus' flaming mace instills an intense heat in them. If they die while under the effects of this intense heat, they explode, damaging the nearby enemies of Magmus.

Passive, applied on target
Attack modifier

Applies Volcanic Touch to target for 0.25 seconds. When the unit inflicted by Volcanic Touch is killed, enemies of the inflictor within a 400 radius are damaged for 90/130/170/220 Magic damage.

A passive ability that makes enemies we last hit explode, dealing damage in an aoe. It's uses include easy destruction of a creep wave and a good follow-up to our stun.

http://img196.imageshack.us/img196/8715/64pxmagmusskill4.gif Eruption
Magmus channels the power of the lava, releasing it after a short delay. The resulting lava grows over time, damaging nearby enemies over several seconds.

Mana cost: 175/250/325
Cooldown: 140/120/100 (130/100/80) seconds

At the end of 2 seconds channel time, deals 110 Magic damage to targets in radius every 0.35 seconds for 1.8/2.5/3.2 (2.1/2.8/3.5) seconds. Radius grows from 300 to 550/675/750 (600/700/800), Slows movement speed of enemies within radius by 30%. Stats upgraded with Staff of the Master in blue.

An epically powerful ultimate, able to destroy entire teams. The difference between a good magmus and a poor one is generally how effective their use of Eruption is. It will be explained in length in the strategy section below.


Skill Build




Standard



Level 1. Lava Surge
Level 2. Volcanic Touch/stats
Level 3. Lava Surge
Level 4. Steam Bath/stats
Level 5. Lava Surge
Level 6. Eruption
Level 7. Lava Surge
Level 8. Volcanic Touch/stats
Level 9. Volcanic Touch/stats
Level 10. Volcanic Touch/stats
Level 11. Eruption
Level 12. Stats/Volcanic Touch
Level 13. Stats/Volcanic Touch
Level 14. Stats/Volcanic Touch
Level 15. Stats/Volcanic Touch
Level 16. Eruption
Level 17-22. Stats
23-25. Steam Bath




This is the build you will see most Magmus's of a certain skill level use. Lava Surge and Eruption are taken whenever possible. One level of Volcanic Touch can be taken at two to combo with Lava Surge, or for easy farming. One level of Steam Bath can be taken for it's stealth effect. Magmus has poor stats and stat growth, so they are taken over additional points of each until mid-game, when Volcanic Touch becomes essential to farming well.

The reasoning behind taking 1-2 levels of stats early is the same reasoning used with getting stats early on Swiftblade.


The +4 int gained allows Magmus/Swiftblade to combo their abilities better. With +4 int, Swiftblade has above 310 mana by level 6, enough to use his whirlwind and ult. With +4 int, Magmus has enough mana to stun, ult, and stun again.
Magmus and Swiftblade need to be in the center of fights to do damage, and they need the +4 strength to survive longer.

This means that if you can buy +4 from stats (like my build suggests) you do not need the levels in stats to combo your stun+ult+stun. However, since Volcanic Touch is situational, and Steam Bath is viewed by many to be a sub-par skill, you can take the levels in stats since there is nothing better, and use that +stats money on getting Portal Key faster.




Mine



1. Lava Surge
2. Stats
3. Lava Surge
4. Steam Bath
5. Lava Surge
6. Eruption
7. Lava Surge
8. Steam Bath
9. Steam Bath
10. Steam Bath
11. Eruption
12-15. Volcanic Touch
16. Eruption
17-25. Stats.


Me? I like Steam Bath. I think it's a versatile skill with many uses, so I max it, rather than take one level and ignore it until 23. Lava Surge and Eruption are still taken where possible, but I put off Volcanic Touch until 12 so that I can get that initial level of stats and max Steam Bath by 10.


Build Summary


The choice between stats, Volcanic Touch, and Steam Bath can easily come down to who you're laning against. Volcanic Touch is almost useless until level 12, unless you're laning against melee heroes who want to last hit. Steam Bath goes from versatile to worthless if you're facing a Pyromancer or Swiftblade. Their AoE's will mess you up. If you aren't facing melee, and AoE is a problem, take stats early.

When soloing mid as Magmus, many of the same rules apply. Your choice of skills will depend on the hero you're facing. Volcanic Touch will mess up melee heroes and low range ranged like MQ and TB. Steambath can be a silly way to farm against solo's with no AoE. An enemy with 600 range will have an easier time against you, however.





Items


Initial Items

http://img33.imageshack.us/img33/5827/33o4aro.jpg http://img33.imageshack.us/img33/5827/33o4aro.jpg http://img59.imageshack.us/img59/4536/313jh2d.jpg x6 http://img203.imageshack.us/img203/8149/dxmz3k.jpg http://img203.imageshack.us/img203/dxmz3k.jpg/1/w64.pngx2

2x Minor Totem - 106
6x Runes of the Blight - 180
2x Mana Potion - 100
Total -386.

You can switch out a set of runes for a health pot if you want. This leaves you with just over 200 gold left, assuming you didn't random. You can use this on either:

http://img59.imageshack.us/img59/7618/s6r4mu.jpg Mana Battery - 210
Which you will want, but can purchase at the outpost next to your lane.

http://img196.imageshack.us/img196/4299/20879ea.jpg Courier - 200
You'll want an animal courier to bring your bottle to you. You should grab one if no one else did.


http://img34.imageshack.us/img34/7532/bfkeps.jpg Pretender's Crown - 185
Starting stats, and part of our Fortified Bracelet.


http://img17.imageshack.us/img17/6506/3128cp2.jpg Wards of Sight - 200
Once you get bottle you'll be ganking and rune whoring, grab some wards to make this an easier task, or to spot ganks.

Striders - 300
Magmus does not need the benefits of any other boots upgrade and is a very effective roamer early-mid game. Striders are the best choice for an upgrade.

You should first pick up Mana Battery at the outpost if you haven't already. Then, you should purchase a bottle, followed by Marchers. Upgrade to a Power Supply and Fortified Bracelet next. Your items should look something like this.

http://img196.imageshack.us/img196/4066/sff52q.jpg (http://img196.imageshack.us/i/sff52q.jpg/)http://img17.imageshack.us/img17/5061/5n51zp.jpg (http://img17.imageshack.us/i/5n51zp.jpg/)http://img59.imageshack.us/img59/7006/2wd9esz.jpg (http://img59.imageshack.us/i/2wd9esz.jpg/) http://img59.imageshack.us/img59/2wd9esz.jpg/1/w64.png (http://g.imageshack.us/img59/2wd9esz.jpg/1/)
http://img196.imageshack.us/img196/2609/96cj9v.jpg (http://img196.imageshack.us/i/96cj9v.jpg/)http://img17.imageshack.us/img17/6506/3128cp2.jpg (http://img17.imageshack.us/i/3128cp2.jpg/)http://img203.imageshack.us/img203/6918/27815320.jpg (http://img203.imageshack.us/i/27815320.jpg/)

You then farm a Portal key to complete your:

Core

http://img196.imageshack.us/img196/4066/sff52q.jpg (http://img196.imageshack.us/i/sff52q.jpg/)http://img17.imageshack.us/img17/5061/5n51zp.jpg (http://img17.imageshack.us/i/5n51zp.jpg/)http://img59.imageshack.us/img59/7006/2wd9esz.jpg (http://img59.imageshack.us/i/2wd9esz.jpg/) http://img59.imageshack.us/img59/2wd9esz.jpg/1/w64.png (http://g.imageshack.us/img59/2wd9esz.jpg/1/)
http://img203.imageshack.us/img203/6918/27815320.jpg (http://img203.imageshack.us/i/27815320.jpg/)http://img17.imageshack.us/img17/4261/portalzo.jpg (http://img17.imageshack.us/i/portalzo.jpg/) Striders

Mana Battery - 544
Bottle - 600
Fortified Bracelet - 510
Striders - 800
Various consumables - wards (200) Courier (200) Runes (180) mana pots (100) between 0 and 680.
Portal Key - 2150
Total - 4304 to 4984


Explanation

Magmus needs +stats and a bottle for ganking. Marchers is obvious. Portal key maximizes Eruption's potential. Magmus needs no more items to do his job, so feel free to buy tp stones and wards.

However, if you do your job right you'll still be making money. Eruption gets hat tricks and Magmus farms very quickly. So here are some of Magmus's luxuries.

Luxuries

At this point, Magmus has what he needs to do his job. But there several areas he is still weak in. Both his health and mana pool are still pretty low.

In order of how much I'd recommend it....

http://img17.imageshack.us/img17/6506/3128cp2.jpg More Wards of Sight - 100 per - Buy them whenever they're available in the shop and use them.


http://i37.tinypic.com/f4fbdl.jpgKuldra's Sheepstick - 5675 - Yes, Sheepstick. The thing is, Magmus has what he needs. If you are still getting thousands of gold, just go with the standard support buy, it'll do more than a Mock or Runed Axe.

http://img28.imageshack.us/img28/6452/22ncjd.jpg Staff of the Master - 4400 - It gives a nice bonus to multiple aspects of Magmus's ultimate, while giving decent bonuses to our health and mana pools.

http://img28.imageshack.us/img28/4865/2mxpi6t.jpg Behemoth's Heart - 5500 - A good item on any hero, especially a squishy str like Magmus.

http://img33.imageshack.us/img33/1161/nobrly.jpg (http://img33.imageshack.us/i/nobrly.jpg/) Barrier Idol - 3653 - A powerful defensive item for you and your teammates. Due to Magmus's ease of farm it's quite easy for him to get the cash for this item, and his relative squishyness+needing to be in the middle of fights makes him a good candidate for holding this item, as he could make use of the magic defense.

http://img43.imageshack.us/img43/4401/1iogwj.jpg Frostfield Plate - 4700 - More AoE and slow, synergizes nicely with Eruption. If you've already purchased hp, such as with Behemoth's Heart, you will be quite hard to kill with the armor. Also gives a hefty boost to your mana pool, a prerequisite for the next item.

http://img94.imageshack.us/img94/6554/23kzzu0.jpg (http://img94.imageshack.us/i/23kzzu0.jpg/) Restoration Stone - 5300 - I'll list a couple significant problems with this item, first. It gives no bonuses to our health/mana pools, only to damage and regen. Our ulti cooldown is 100 seconds without SotM, and 80 with it. That's pretty short. With Magmus's innate int gain, we won't have the mana to ult+restoration stone+ult without going to fountain. It's very expensive. However, if you can get over these problems, such as by already having fixed the mana issues, having 2 eruption's available is very, very, powerful.

http://img28.imageshack.us/img28/9403/2ilm0i1.jpg Shrunken Head - 3900 - Gives a short duration of Magic Immunity, good alternative to Portal Key for channeling Eruption. It's +str and damage are useful as well.

(http://img687.imageshack.us/i/4ke1w.jpg/)

[Padawanabee]

Strategy


Laning


Magmus does quite well in a lane, for a melee hero. It is preferable that he be laned with a ranged, preferably with a stun. Pyromancer is the perfect candidate to lane with Magmus.

Lava Surge is your nuke, your disable, and your blink. Never underestimate it's power or it's utility. It allows for two auto attacks after the nuke from the stun, since it places you right next to the enemy.

If you picked up Volcanic Touch, you can last hit enemies and any enemy heroes nearby will take the damage. This works best against melee heroes trying to last hit as well.

Your abilities will push a lane whether you try to or not. Take advantage of this by using the extra fog in your lane to gank a different lane. Enemies will be worried about out last-hitting the tower, and might just think you're staying back and waiting for the next creep wave in the fog, when really you just bottled a haste rune and are about to gank mid.


Notes:


Don't babysit a weak hero if you can help it. You need to get Portal Key in a hurry, so you'll be competing with a carry for last hits.
You need a strong lane to gank effectively. Magmus does best with a fellow stunner/disabler, preferably AoE.
Steam Bath can be used to farm a lane. However, it will push your lane, enemies can deny creeps with ease, and AoE abilities will counter this strategy. It is suggested you not do this.
With Volcanic Touch and Lava Surge, you will push the lane eventually. This gives you a great opportunity to grab runes and gank other lanes. The constant supply of health and mana you get from bottle this way is essential for your lane domination.
Volcanic Touch is a tradeoff of pushing your lane versus exploding creep damage on heroes. It is usually more effective to take against melee heroes.


Skill use and synergies


Lava Surge

Lava Surge hits an AoE in a line, from wherever you are to the ground you clicked on. It's range and damage goes up as you level it. This ability works as a nuke, a stun, and a blink. The fact that it can place you within melee range of a stunned and nuked enemy makes this an especially powerful skill, especially early game.

This ability can hit as many enemies as are between you and the ground you targeted. If two heroes are within range of each other so that you can stun them both, then do so.

Lava Surge synergizes well with all three of Magmus's other abilities. He can use surge to bring a ranged creep within one hit from death, whereupon Volcanic Touch will effect any enemies within range if you hit that creep. You can use Steam Bath for bonus damage (80/sec at level 4) while the enemy is stunned. If the enemy doesn't have any form of disable, you can use the stun to channel most of your ultimate. They won't be able to run out of range with the extra .3 seconds they have.

Notes:


The width of the line effected is about 200, so you have a small window of error upon moving targets.
Can be used to traverse impassable terrain, such as hills or trees.
While enemies can't be attacked for the first .5 seconds after being hit, you can still act and they can still be hit by spells.
The stun does not give you enough time to channel your ult, so if your enemy has a stun of some sort you will not be able to Lava Surge+Eruption.

This picture shows an Arachna farming bot lane. She is at about 60% life and right next to a creep.
http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/9801/magmusguide1a.jpg (http://img11.imageshack.us/i/magmusguide1a.jpg/)

See what happens below, after I Lava Surge. Arachna has lost a good chunk of her health, and the ranged creep is now within one hit from death. The reason I surged so far was so that I could hit the ranged creep as well, since I put two levels into Volcanic Touch. I can now hit the ranged creep, and deal 130 magic damage to arachna. And if that doesn't kill her, she has to run past me to get to her tower.

http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/2127/magmusguide1.jpg (http://img11.imageshack.us/i/magmusguide1.jpg/)

In this shot, a low hp Arachna can be seen running to the right to get down the ramp. While you can target with Lava Surge, often you will want to surge to a certain side of an opponent, or they may be around fog of war, causing you to want to click the groun. You should Lava Surge along the blue arrow rather than the green one if you want to hit Arachna.

http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/9679/magmusguide2.jpg (http://img11.imageshack.us/i/magmusguide2.jpg/)

Steam Bath

Steam Bath has several uses, both defensive and offensive. Once cast, Magmus is invisible so long as he doesn't move or act. Assuming you put 4 levels in it, he also deals 80/sec in an aoe of 450. For some reference, that's more than the range of Succubus's auto attack.

Swiftblade's spin does 140 magic damage a second. Steam Bath does 80 magic damage a second in a much larger radius. Lava Surge stuns for just over 2 seconds, so if you combo this right after using Lava Surge you can deal an extra 160 magic damage before they even get to move. If they don't have a way to attack or stun you while you're invisible, you can deal another 160 while they run out of range.

The easiest way (apart from True Sight) to counter Steam Bath is with an AoE attack, such as Pebble's stalagmites. If you see an enemy with an aoe attack you should not rely on Steam Bath to keep you alive. Instead, there are some other tricks you can do with Steam Bath.

For example, with four levels in Steam Bath it keeps you invis for 1.5 seconds after you start moving again. Most people's first instinct on seeing the steam from the ability is to drop AoE's on the spot, thinking you won't move. If you've used that time to run towards or away from them, you've made them waste time and mana.

You can use Steam Bath for evading a projectile, as well. Hit it while Hammerstorm's stun projectile is in the air and it will miss if you move again. You can also use it to dodge auto attacks, such as that last ranged attack your enemy sent towards you to finish you when you had 10 hp left. Just make sure you cancel Steam Bath and keep running, afterward.

Notes:


Extremely ineffective without putting additional points into it.
Deals decent damage in a small AoE, many players unaware of how painful it can be.
Can be used in various mind games. Excellent escape mechanism, because even if enemies have an AoE stun, or something similar, you can use the 1.5 seconds of invis to juke.
Gains a low cooldown of 10 seconds once fully leveled.

Volcanic Touch

Volcanic Touch deals magic damage in an AoE if you last hit a target. The two most obvious uses are to last hit a creep, dealing magic damage either to creeps to farm and push, or to heroes for extra damage.

Apart from it's obvious farming uses, Volcanic Touch can be used as a nuke. At level 4 it deals 230, a not insignificant amount. Killing a creep with an 80 damage swing can deal 230 to every creep around it, possibly causing other nearby creeps to fall below 80. Two last hits like this can hit an enemy hero for 460 magic, instead of the 160 physical 2 swings would have hit them for.


Notes:


Pushes a lane, which is usually a negative early game unless you're going to use the push your lane so you can gank a different lane.
Excellent farming and pushing tool.
Never underestimate it's effect on nearby heroes, it hits almost as hard as most nukes.

Eruption

Eruption is one of the most powerful abilities in the game. When used correctly it can bring entire teams from full to dead. Usually, however, it will kill one or two heroes, leaving the rest injured enough for your team to pick off. It requires two seconds of channeling before it activates, during which your hero swing his hammer very noticeably and can be stunned. At which point your ult does not go off and you have to wait on it's fairly long cooldown. After the channeling period ends, several waves dealing 110 damage each spread out from Magmus in a ring around him. Each wave travels further and further away, starting at 300 and ending at 800, when fully upgraded and carrying Staff of the Master. At level 6 it deals 660 magic damage, and fully upgraded it deals 1100 to everyone in it's AoE. It deals this damage over 1.8-3.5 seconds and slows everyone it hits by 30% for 3 seconds. It's a very powerful ultimate.

The problem, then, is getting it channeled while being close enough to enemies for it to deal full damage to them. The rest of this section will be devoted to various ways to do that.

Option 1: Stun+Ult
This is the simplest and most easily counterable version. You simply need to stun an enemy without the ability to inturrupt you, and start channeling your ult.

In this shot you can see Arachna and Armadon near Sentinal's first top tower. I'm about to stun+ult both of them.

http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/5737/magmusguide3.jpg (http://img11.imageshack.us/i/magmusguide3.jpg/)

As you can see if you look below, I used the line of Lava Surge to hit both heroes, killing Armadon and stunning Arachna. Arachna has no means of cancelling my channeled ultimate, so her two choices are to either run through my ult, or through the legion tower. Since she's a level 1 in practice mode she dies like a punk.

http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/9881/magmusguide4.jpg (http://img11.imageshack.us/i/magmusguide4.jpg/)

Option 2: Fog of War+Ult

A really nifty trick that will give your allies a chuckle, this involves using trees and hills to hide your hero while you channel your ulti. Probably most commonly used while being chased.

You can see the bright hammer, and I can see the bright hammer. But since Magmus is on a hill, Arachna just sees fog.

http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/4176/magmusguide5.jpg (http://img11.imageshack.us/i/magmusguide5.jpg/)

Option 3: Fog of War+Ult+Stun

The key in this situation is to find a spot hidden from your enemy within 700 range.

Ignoring the dead arachna in the upper right corner for a moment, you can see that Magmus is within 700 range of Arachna, and fully concealed in the fog of war. For this combo to work perfectly, I need to use the shift key to queue ult+stun. While holding shift down, hit r to begin channeling your ult. You then have two seconds to, while still holding down shift, activate your stun on the ground below the enemy hero. What this does is queue's the stun, making it so the instant he finishes channeling his ult he will immediately Lava Surge towards Arachna.

http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/1308/magmusguide6.jpg (http://img11.imageshack.us/i/magmusguide6.jpg/)

As you can see, my ult channeled in the fog, where no enemy could have stunned me, and I combo'd it with Lava Surge to hit Arachna with both spells.

http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/791/magmusguide7.jpg (http://img11.imageshack.us/i/magmusguide7.jpg/)

Option 4: Fog of War+ult+Portal Key+stun

The most common way Magmus will ult a team, it's also the most effective. Simply channel your ult in the fog of war. Then, while holding shift, blink into the middle of the enemy team. It's easier to do if you've bound one of your item slots, the one holding Portal Key, to a button like 1 or F. After you blink in, Lava Surge in such a way as to stun as many enemies as possible.

The enemy team is pushing mid with three heroes, and I'm sitting on the ledge with my Portal Key.

http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/6851/magmusguide8.jpg (http://img11.imageshack.us/i/magmusguide8.jpg/)

After channeling my ultimate I blinked in and stunned all three, resulting in a hat trick.

http://img5.imageshack.us/img5/4586/magmusguide9.jpg (http://img5.imageshack.us/i/magmusguide9.jpg/)

Option 5: Shrunken Head

While Portal Key is superior in giving Magmus's ult maximum effectiveness, you can also use Shrunken head to keep yourself from getting stunned.
In this scenario, either Plague Rider or Nymphora could normally stun me to stop me from channeling my ult. But since I have Shrunken Head activated, they can't. After it finishes channeling, I'll simply Lava Surge into the largest group of enemies.

http://img682.imageshack.us/img682/3584/magmusguide10l.jpg (http://img682.imageshack.us/i/magmusguide10l.jpg/)
Synergies

http://img199.imageshack.us/img199/1604/64pxmagmusskill1.gif (http://img199.imageshack.us/i/64pxmagmusskill1.gif/) + http://img196.imageshack.us/img196/1200/64pxmagmusskill3.gif (http://img196.imageshack.us/i/64pxmagmusskill3.gif/) A fairly simple combo. Lava Surge is a heavy nuke which also stuns. 280 is enough to bring a ranged creep one hit from death. Volcanic Touch can then explode that unit, dealing extra damage in an aoe already hit by Lava Surge.

http://img199.imageshack.us/img199/1604/64pxmagmusskill1.gif (http://img199.imageshack.us/i/64pxmagmusskill1.gif/) +http://img14.imageshack.us/img14/50/64pxmagmusskill2.gif (http://img14.imageshack.us/i/64pxmagmusskill2.gif/) While you can't hit anyone in the air from Lava Surge, you can start dealing damage to them from Steam Bath right away. And if you leveled it early, you would be dealing 80/second, far more damage than you can do with auto attack.

http://img199.imageshack.us/img199/1604/64pxmagmusskill1.gif (http://img199.imageshack.us/i/64pxmagmusskill1.gif/) + http://img196.imageshack.us/img196/8715/64pxmagmusskill4.gif (http://img196.imageshack.us/i/64pxmagmusskill4.gif/) Stunning an enemy will give them very little time to react to your suddenly glowing hammer. Far more useful against foes without an inturrupt/stun.

http://img195.imageshack.us/img195/3546/portaluk.jpg (http://img195.imageshack.us/i/portaluk.jpg/) + http://img196.imageshack.us/img196/8715/64pxmagmusskill4.gif (http://img196.imageshack.us/i/64pxmagmusskill4.gif/) Channeling Eruption while in fog of war, and then blinking in, is the greatest combo Magmus can get.

http://img196.imageshack.us/img196/8715/64pxmagmusskill4.gif (http://img196.imageshack.us/i/64pxmagmusskill4.gif/) + http://img195.imageshack.us/img195/3546/portaluk.jpg (http://img195.imageshack.us/i/portaluk.jpg/)+ http://img199.imageshack.us/img199/1604/64pxmagmusskill1.gif (http://img199.imageshack.us/i/64pxmagmusskill1.gif/) + http://img196.imageshack.us/img196/1200/64pxmagmusskill3.gif (http://img196.imageshack.us/i/64pxmagmusskill3.gif/) + http://img14.imageshack.us/img14/50/64pxmagmusskill2.gif (http://img14.imageshack.us/i/64pxmagmusskill2.gif/) In this hypothetical situation, Magmus channels his ultimate in the fog. He then queue's blink using shift, blinking into the middle of a group of heroes with his ulti on. He Lava Surges into the largest group of enemies. After his ultimate ends, he can Volcanic Touch any low hp creeps for extra AoE damage, or use Steam Bath to hide/run/damage.
http://img199.imageshack.us/img199/64pxmagmusskill1.gif/1/w64.png (http://g.imageshack.us/img199/64pxmagmusskill1.gif/1/)
http://img14.imageshack.us/img14/64pxmagmusskill2.gif/1/w64.png (http://g.imageshack.us/img14/64pxmagmusskill2.gif/1/)http://img196.imageshack.us/img196/64pxmagmusskill4.gif/1/w64.png (http://g.imageshack.us/img196/64pxmagmusskill4.gif/1/)

BFF's and worst enemies

Best Friend's Forever

Gankers/stunners
Example: Pyromancer


Magmus does his best work ganking and counterpushing. Anyone with significant ganking power will be buddies with Magmus from level 9 to endgame.


Fellow power ulti's
Example: Tempest


This one's pretty obvious. If Tempest and Magmus have coordination, these two ulti's can wreck a team. Magmus's skills can clear entire creep waves, giving Moon Queen or Swiftblade an excellent ult opportunity.


Tank Support
Example: Accursed


Magmus is a relatively squishy hero, he has low str gain and a core without much hp in it. A hero like Accursed or Jereziah can greatly extend his life with their support spells.


Worst Enemies


Anyone with an inturrupt/stun/disable
Example: Glacius


These are our least favorite heroes, because unless you take precautions they can stop the channeling of your ult.


Heroes with blink
Example: Magebane


Our power ulti can be avoided by blink, if they aren't Lava Surged immediately after your ult goes off.


Heroes with insane hp
Example: Legionnaire with Behemoth's Heart


Our ult does pretty swell damage, but a tank like Legionnaire will simply take it and keep hitting you.


Favorite Enemies


Squishy's

Example: Glacius


Heroes who generally have a low health pool easily fall to Magmus's ultimate. These squishy-supporter/nuker types are generally the one's Magmus wants to blink on top of and include in his initial Lava Surge.


Heroes with no inturrupt
Example: Arachna


We like these enemies because they can't do anything against our stun+ulti combo but run away.


Neutrals and Jungling


Magmus is not a jungle hero. Steam bath doesn't even hit neutrals. However, just as his skills are good for pushing a lane, they can easily destroy creep camps as well for some extra cash. Lava Surge if you need to, and start auto attacking the weakest enemy. Volcanic Touch will explode on the entire creep camp every time a creep dies, making the next Volcanic Touch even easier.


Gameplay


Early game

Grab your starting items and head to your lane. About 75% of the heroes in HoN are a better solo choice than Magmus. So go bot/top with a friend, hopefully a hero like Pyromancer or Pebbles, who can stun an AoE. Last hit creeps to get gold and to hit your enemies with Volcanic Touch and look for opportunities to Lava Surge. Good times to use your stun are:


Your enemy is fighting or running from creeps without any enemy creeps nearby. The extra 2 seconds of creep auto attack makes a difference early.
If your teammate also has his nuke/stun/whatever ready. Stun, and auto attack the weaker enemy while your gank partner unloads.
If the enemies are ganking you or your teammate, Lava Surge can either stun the enemies or use it as a 700 range blink, sometimes over trees and cliffs.
You have extra mana to spare.

As soon as you have money for bottle, pick it up. This greatly strengthens Magmus's game, since he's a powerful ganker who pushes a lane. Use your skillset to push the creeps to the enemy tower, and while he's busy last hitting and you're in the fog, go gank mid lane. Grab the rune on the way, tell your mid solo you're going to gank, and Lava Surge the hero.

Magmus has a powerful early game skillset and good survivability. By the time you reach level 6 and have your ult, you can easily be 1-0-2. The key is to keep up pressure on multiple lanes with bottle and your skills. Roam between lanes, grab runes every 2 minutes, and keep a teleport consumable handy. If any enemies pushed a lane past river, that's your chance. Call a gank on him to your teammates and head into the woods behind him. If you have a useful rune, such as haste or double damage, take it and fill up your mana reserves. Lava Surge as many heroes as you can find and begin auto-attacking the weakest one.

As far as items go, you should grab Marchers and create a power supply+Fortified Bracelet after you've finished bottle. Your inventory should look like this.
http://img196.imageshack.us/img196/4066/sff52q.jpg (http://img196.imageshack.us/i/sff52q.jpg/)http://img17.imageshack.us/img17/5061/5n51zp.jpg (http://img17.imageshack.us/i/5n51zp.jpg/)http://img59.imageshack.us/img59/7006/2wd9esz.jpg (http://img59.imageshack.us/i/2wd9esz.jpg/)
http://img59.imageshack.us/img59/2wd9esz.jpg/1/w64.png (http://g.imageshack.us/img59/2wd9esz.jpg/1/)http://img17.imageshack.us/img17/5n51zp.jpg/1/w64.png (http://g.imageshack.us/img17/5n51zp.jpg/1/)http://img17.imageshack.us/img17/6506/3128cp2.jpg (http://img17.imageshack.us/i/3128cp2.jpg/)http://img203.imageshack.us/img203/6918/27815320.jpg (http://img203.imageshack.us/i/27815320.jpg/) Striders
You have been using wards on rune spots, and been carrying a tp stone, right?

Your goal is to farm this item by the 20 minute mark:
http://img17.imageshack.us/img17/4261/portalzo.jpg (http://img17.imageshack.us/i/portalzo.jpg/)http://img17.imageshack.us/img17/portalzo.jpg/1/w64.png (http://g.imageshack.us/img17/portalzo.jpg/1/)

If you can get Portal Key by 20 minutes, congratulations. You're all set for the:


Mid Game


First off, if you don't have Portal Key yet you need to go farm it. It's essential to doing well. Don't neglect team fights and ganks that aren't too far out of your way, but focus on farming.

Once you have Portal Key, your farming is done. Gold is a luxury, your focus should be on keeping your enemies weak. You belong in team fights and ganks, and should only be killing creeps to push a lane to maneuver your enemies.

Otherwise, your role is still the same mid as it was early, only now you have blink+ulti in your arsenal. Most ganks will still revolve around intelligent use of Lava Surge and Steam Bath, but for fights involving 2 or more enemies, consider using your ultimate if it's off cooldown. It's cooldown is only about two minutes, so be use it often.

Team fights are where Magmus shines, as all four of his skills are AoE. The key will always be proper execution of Eruption, but Lava Surge, Steam Bath, and even Volcanic Touch have their uses in team fights due to high magic damage dealt in an AoE.

Late Game

This is where eruption's power begins to taper off. Enemies will have upwards of 2k hp, making Eruption still powerful, but not enough to destroy an entire team. Push lanes, Eruption enemy teams, etc. By now you should know the drill.

The key at this point in the game is not to let yourself get picked off. If you die, you can't use Eruption on the entire team. You have several survival tools, but even so you should be careful to never die without first having ulted the enemy team.

Advanced Strategies

Magmus has a powerful ultimate that can end a push. This allows your team to do a strategy called turtling. The idea of turtling in general is to keep the game going on for a long time with a solid defense, until you have enough troops/a REALLY farmed Sand Wraith to win for you. Hard carries like Sand Wraith don't do much until approximately 40 minutes in, depending on how well they farmed. If you blink+ult+stun the enemy team every time they try to push as a team, you can make all their pushes fail, allowing your carry hero/heroes the time they need to win the game for you.

Push lanes to maneuver your enemies where you want them. Magmus can clear a creep wave in 3 seconds by level 8, so 15 seconds of push for you can bring the enemy creeps up to an enemy tower, where a hero will have to defend.

A nifty way to get Eruption off is to gank with a fellow stunner. The key is to open with Lava Surge and begin channeling your ultimate. Before your stun wears off, your ally will then stun the enemy hero/heroes, leaving them helpless before Eruption.

Steam Bath is useful for mind games. Never sit in Steam Bath if the enemies can hit you or have true sight, simply hit the ability and start moving. This gives you a short duration of invis, and enemies might waste AoE's on the spot you just Steam Bathed.

Lava Surge+Cliff's.
As you can see here, I am running from an enemy Arachna.

http://img5.imageshack.us/img5/3368/magmusguide11.jpg (http://img5.imageshack.us/i/magmusguide11.jpg/)


I used Lava Surge to travel over impassable terrain up a cliff. She can't see me, nor chase me unless she has blink. I am then free to teleport home.

http://img687.imageshack.us/img687/5351/magmusguide12.jpg (http://img687.imageshack.us/i/magmusguide12.jpg/)

Steambath+move+Lava Surge

Many enemies won't let you close enough to Lava Surge them. However, if you've played against a Mag who used Steambath effectively, you may have noticed that if they cancel right after using it, no steam appears and Magmus simply goes invisible.

If you wanted to be really tricky, you could use Steambath, and then immediately cancel it to gain invis. You could then run toward your enemy, invisible, and get into range to Lava Surge them.

Portal Key

Portal Key can be used as an escape mechanism, especially since Magmus has multiple ways to not take damage for three seconds. You can either Lava Surge out of range, or Steam Bath and wait for the cooldown to wear off so that you can Portal Key away.

Obviously, this will not work if your enemies have AoE or you are taking damage over time.


That's all I have for Magmus. I'll keep this updated and such.

[Padawanabee]

Replays wiped.

Filler replay is 1332381. I go solo mid in an AR inhouse. However, I end up 12-0-27 so it at least has some good gameplay going on.

[mrseldowski]

Great guide!
One thing you might want to elaborate on YOUR skill build is situations when taking Steam bath early over Volcanic Touch is more viable and visa versa. Hence which heroes you are laning against make one more valuable than the other.

[Padawanabee]

Great guide!
One thing you might want to elaborate on YOUR skill build is situations when taking Steam bath early over Volcanic Touch is more viable and visa versa. Hence which heroes you are laning against make one more valuable than the other.

Build Summary

The choice between stats, Volcanic Hammer, and Steam Bath can easily come down to who you're laning against. Volcanic Hammer is almost useless until level 12, unless you're laning against melee heroes who want to last hit. Steam Bath goes from versatile to worthless if you're facing a Madman or Swiftblade. If you aren't facing melee, and AoE is a problem, take stats early.

How's that?

[Testknight]

Excellent guide. Probably Premium worthy. I can't think of anything you didn't cover.

[ElementUser]

In most of your guide, you called Volcanic Touch "Volcanic Hammer". Fix please! Or just use the replace function to replace "Volcanic Hammer" with "Volcanic Touch".

Maybe recommend Barrier Idol on Magmus too? In the scenario that you need some defense against spells & you can't afford a full Behemoth's Heart, not to mention it's a great item for team fights.

Looks like a good guide like your other guides ^^

[Padawanabee]

In most of your guide, you called Volcanic Touch "Volcanic Hammer". Fix please! Or just use the replace function to replace "Volcanic Hammer" with "Volcanic Touch".

Maybe recommend Barrier Idol on Magmus too? In the scenario that you need some defense against spells & you can't afford a full Behemoth's Heart, not to mention it's a great item for team fights.

Looks like a good guide like your other guides ^^

Fixed, added, and thanks.

[ThePwninator]

Yeah if this isn't a premium guide already it should be imo.

[Blazeinferno]

Great guide, really helped!




Worst Enemies


Anyone with an inturrupt/stun/disable
Example: Glacius


These are our least favorite heroes, because unless you take precautions they can stop the channeling of your ult.


Here's the only error I could find. AFAIK, Glacius's "stun" merely immobilizes and disarms, meaning it shouldn't stop your ult channel.

Edit: this is incorrect. disregard.

[novaSphere]

Great guide, really helped!



Here's the only error I could find. AFAIK, Glacius's "stun" merely immobilizes and disarms, meaning it shouldn't stop your ult channel.

Glacius' Ice Imprisonment also casts an initial ministun in addition to the root/disarm.

[Blazeinferno]

Yeah, tested and it totally interrupts. :(

[PoopyDesires]

Long, intuitive, good.

Definitely premium material.

[amarant123]

Just a quick question. You say that after mana battery+bottle Magmus will still be pretty low on mana and health then shouldn't we rush for staff of mastery because it makes our ulti even stronger and gives a good mana and health boost.

[Grimace]

This really is a fantastic guide. Most of this I already knew, but your skill builds will help my early game tremendously. GJ!

[_Wolf_]

ruined axe give you alot too. HP and stacks with your AOE, so when those lil creeps blow up, you do Massive aoe dmg. its good for gaining lvl and money on the other hand of things.

[Flipguarder1]

Another tip for skill synergy. Steambath-lava surge: Say you are steambathing andpyromancer or pandamonium are moving towards you, and you think they are going to aoe stun you. I've used lavasurge straight from steambath to escape much faster than what would be possible with mere walking.

Note: it does require that you predict a lil bit into the future.

[ThePwninator]

excellent guide, I'm gonna try out magmus today.

this should be a premium without a doubt imo.

Edit: Oh man i already posted that apparently that's how sick it is I didn't even remember.

[Padawanabee]

Staff of the Master is useful on him, it doesn't do any single amazing thing for him, but when the stats and upgrade are included together it's one of the better items for him. However, you wouldn't "rush" it because nothing comes close to how important Portal Key is, and Post Haste will do more for you in the mid game.

Runed axe on Magmus is practically useless: he farms like a dream already, it's regen is wasted on him, and his primary source of damage is spells, not auto attack.

[Vulpes]

Having Glacius mentioned in both "worst Enemies" and "favourite Enemies" seems somewhat strange ;)

Other than that, great Guide;
Got him in AR and Alt+Tabbed my way to the Win | 13105092 (http://replays.heroesofnewerth.com/match_replay.php?mid=13105092)
Nevermind the Doombringer, Scout bought it for fun then died, I just picked it up.

EarlyGame went great with me soloing Bottom and getting 3 fast Assists from Ophe-Ganks;
Beginning of Midgame was awesome due to Kraken (Starts his Ult, I channel mine besides his, Double Tap) -
After that we totally crushed them though Kraken dropped; my BlinkUlt + later farmed Scout just did too much damage.

[Meowshi]

Good guide

Under advanced strategies, why don't you reference roaming? Magmus is a perfect candidate to roam, having a meaty stun.

[Padawanabee]

Having Glacius mentioned in both "worst Enemies" and "favourite Enemies" seems somewhat strange ;)


Listed that as more of an example than putting too much thought into it, after all the fave enemy is s hero with 800 hp 30 minutes in, rather than Glacius. And the counter is a hero with an inturrupt, rather than Glacius. I just put him down both times.

And I don't mention roaming under advanced strategies because I pretty much suggested it 20x earlier. Quoting myself in the guide:

Magmus has a powerful early game skillset and good survivability. By the time you reach level 6 and have your ult, you can easily be 1-0-2. The key is to keep up pressure on multiple lanes with bottle and your skills. Roam between lanes, grab runes every 2 minutes, and keep a teleport consumable handy. If any enemies pushed a lane past river, that's your chance. Call a gank on him to your teammates and head into the woods behind him. If you have a useful rune, such as haste or double damage, take it and fill up your mana reserves. Lava Surge as many heroes as you can find and begin auto-attacking the weakest one.

[Griddler]

I have occasionally seen people ult and then lava surge vs stun heavy teams (i.e. they do not yet have portkey).

Is this considered an effective tactic? How much of your ulti's damage is lost in the time it takes you to surge in from the fog? i.e. is it much worse than ulti-portkey

[HeartAttack]

Make this guide more pleasing to the eyes(matching colors,bigger hero/item screens) and this would be totally a Premium IMO =) Gonna try him tonight,hopefully the shift trick will work for me.

[zacke10]

This guide is awesome! Should be premium guide and should get more comments. I usealy dont comment that much, but this is really good work. Bump it up!

[sieneh]

I'd like to mention one small typo:

Plague Rider can stun you with or without BKB, since his ulti is considered Superior Magic Damage(the initial hit, that has a mini stun).

He won't deal any damage to you, but he will stop you from channeling.

Thats all.

[Blockk]

Really nice, detailed guide. Good job.

[ICYUNVME]

ruined axe give you alot too. HP and stacks with your AOE, so when those lil creeps blow up, you do Massive aoe dmg. its good for gaining lvl and money on the other hand of things.

I've seen a lot of beginning magmus' get Runed Axe and I really think all of the options hes given here are much better. The damage of your actual attack isn't that important.

[Bocks]

4 totems, 9 tangos, 2 claritys
strong lane partner - first blood
no AoE in mid lane = lvl1-7 steambath farm and incredibly effective ganks on outside lanes
support lane partner - lavaexplosion, blinkstick by level 6-7
first item should be a portkey, bad laning early game get phase boots then 1 bracer (2 if its that bad), go for a portkey by 11
grab a platemail, finish with a shivas, win

[Bocks]

I have occasionally seen people ult and then lava surge vs stun heavy teams (i.e. they do not yet have portkey).

Is this considered an effective tactic? How much of your ulti's damage is lost in the time it takes you to surge in from the fog? i.e. is it much worse than ulti-portkey

your ult radius grows as each charge is emitted, the first 2 are almost guaranteed to miss, without portkey youre missing out on alot of dmg, but you forget you also miss out on the stun dmg, when you stun from fog you miss two charges and also most likely miss 4/5 of the heros present, if you blink in you hit with all of the charges and are left with a stun that is easily targetable towards at least 3 of the enemy player giving an extra 260 dmg + a stun, a blink dagger is essential

[ForTheSwarm]

I never thought about using fog to channel! :) Great guide.

[Spanked1]

Why do you hate Arachna so much, what did she ever do to you!

[Az3]

Why do you hate Arachna so much, what did she ever do to you!

As he mentioned - Arachna has no stun
:magm:>:arac:
Anywayz really nice guide, tried playing him after i read this and was really awesome :D

[MichaelBurge]

I noticed Magmus has terrible armor - would the new Plated Greaves be a good choice for him?


As he mentioned - Arachna has no stun
:magm:>:arac:
Anywayz really nice guide, tried playing him after i read this and was really awesome :D

But she has her harden carapace so Magmus shouldn't do too much to her.

[Padawanabee]

I noticed Magmus has terrible armor - would the new Plated Greaves be a good choice for him?



But she has her harden carapace so Magmus shouldn't do too much to her.

My boots philosophy on Magmus are that none of them are good enough to be worth delaying the all-important Portal Key except basic Marchers. But once you have Portal Key, I would advocate either Post Haste or Plated Greaves. The other two boots give nothing he needs. I use Post Haste because the teleport feature both frees up a slot in my inventory and allows for more effective pushing. Plated Greaves would help survivability somewhat, but I myself get Post Haste after Portal Key->SotM.

[Stalker]

what about a hatchet on him for last hitting early as wthout the volcanic touch he has a bit of rouble farming that early port key as hes melee.

[adrift]

Post haste doesn't make much sense. It is generally for heroes that farm the map well. Magmus obviously can farm the map but you shouldn't be farming that much - you should be initiating ganks with your portal key and forcing team fights so you can use your ult.

Steamboots are cheap and you can swap between 10 Str (HP and +damage) or 10 int (bigger mana pool) as needed.

[Padawanabee]

Added a replay of my own, might add a pro replay at some point if I find one.

[Kabale]

Just a question. Lava Surge mentions heroes getting stunned are not "able to be attacked" for 0.52sec. I was under the impression that using the stun whilst your ult is running would lessen the damage the ult does because of this 0.52sec. Have I got this wrong?

[Padawanabee]

I'm not entirely sure if one of the surges will miss a target in the air. Regardless, stunning someone while ulting will do enough damage that the missed surge will hardly be missed in most situations, so it's not worth worrying about.

[Albain]

Panda I love your guides man, YOU RULE you have helped me out a lot.

[Fernseher]

Good guide

Under advanced strategies, why don't you reference roaming? Magmus is a perfect candidate to roam, having a meaty stun.

Probably because it's more important to rush your portal key.

[jay`t]

a+ magmus guide so tired of seeing these magmus players not get portal key ug disgusting

[Lokey]

I disagree with your skill build.

You only need lvl 1 steambath to be effective. Levelling up volcanic touch over steambath has the great benefit of being a farming powerhouse.

I usually go

1) Lava surge
2) Touch
3) Surge
4) Bath
5) Surge
6) Ult
7) Surge
8-10) Touch

etc.

[Fernseher]

I disagree with your skill build.

You only need lvl 1 steambath to be effective. Levelling up volcanic touch over steambath has the great benefit of being a farming powerhouse.

I usually go

1) Lava surge
2) Touch
3) Surge
4) Bath
5) Surge
6) Ult
7) Surge
8-10) Touch

etc.

He mentioned it's situational and even described diffetent scenarios.

Additionally often you don't want to push the lane which you would do while last hitting with Touch.

[Padawanabee]

Yeah Kesh, you disagreed with my personal build and listed the same build I posted and suggested people use right above it in the OP.

[JC]

I wanted to come back here and say thank you, again, as I've been using Magmus in a big way for many months now with your help and have become quite successful with him using this build with almost no variation save for the skill build depending on my lane / opponents.

Well done, sir.

[Takeshy]

It's a really handy guide :)

9/10

[Well_Shebber]

Great guide, Looking forward to the replay. I've always wanted to play Magmus well.

[ricco]

very good guide, i just won a game from this :D

[Orkimond]

personally i've always liked the:
Lava Surge
Stats
Lava Surge
Stats
Lava Surge
Eruption
Lava Surge
Stats
Stats
Stats
Eruption
Volcanic Touch
Volcanic Touch
Volcanic Touch
Volcanic Touch
Eruption
Stats till 21

But that's just because it allows me to skip my bracers if I have a decent lane.

[Well_Shebber]

Just watched the replay, and I'm inspired. 99% of Magmus' I've played with play him wrong, and I'm really looking forward to getting better with him.

Thanks for the guide, great material and very helpful.

[TheHogger1]

Great job on the guide!

Just two small typos i noticed:

- You got two "Option 4", the Shrunken Head option should be the fifth.:rolleyes:

- In "Option 5" (but it says 4) you wrote that Plague Rider can stun you. He got no stun.

[LightRain]

- In "Option 5" (but it says 4) you wrote that Plague Rider can stun you. He got no stun.

Plague Rider's ultimate has a ministun, he can use it to interrupt your channeling.

[shiN3]

nice guide, really up'd my magmus game. I was'nt aware of the shift click method in this game, thanks a lot, hat tricks have been rolling in for me so much lately because my ultimate has the maximum length when i port in. I already used those core items, bottle, boots, power supply and portal key great guide neways.

[HOONdeSOON]

Add the Steambath + Portalkey combo. 3 Sec of Invis alow you free port out of danger whe nlavasurge is on cd!

[dropdead]

nice guide

[Padawanabee]

Updated and fixed the typo.

[ThePope]

Portal Key

Portal Key can be used as an escape mechanism, especially since Magmus has multiple ways to not take damage for three seconds. You can either Lava Surge out of range, or Steam Bath and wait for the cooldown to wear off so that you can Portal Key away.
Great guide, but you gave astonishingly little attention to how damned hard to kill Magmus is if you know how to use a portkey. I usually go for it before staff of the master simply because it makes farming beyond 'safe' zones so much easier.

If you look like you're screwed, first hit steambath. Normally, if you're up against a team with really any ground-target aoes, this will buy you about a second and a half, maybe two. Still, this is important, seeing as a level 4 Steambath will also keep you concealed for 1.5 seconds. So far, you've got 3.5 seconds of safety if you time it right, which puts you pretty close to Portkey's 5 second cooldown.

Next, usefulness depending on the number of enemies, use Lava Surge. Not only will it stun them for two seconds, it'll make you get out a lot faster. Already, you've wracked up 5.5 seconds when they're not attacking you, which is half a second more than you need for Portkey to have finished its attack cooldown, and you're out. Simple, and infuriating for the other team.

[pelipperx]

Amfufufufu

[Zalias]

Myself i've found steamboots much more usefull since you always must be in the center of fight with ulti, that hp boots at mid/early is great.

[KissMyHook]

I would like you to add another strategy for using ult.Its pretty effective in certain situations.
You basically use steam bath and ult inside steambath.It has 1.5 sec time before u get revealed so most enemies will be confused.They will have no time to react if u stun right away.
And as for the guide thanks alot.Ive been really confused at what items i should get for mag exept for the obv portal key.Gonna go play him now :D.

[Padawanabee]

Steam bath gives you invis unless you perform an action, thus as soon as you started channeling ult the stealth effect from Steam Bath would be broken.

That's memory, I'm gonna go test it in practice mode in 5 seconds but I'm pretty sure I'm right.

[sieneh]

Steam bath gives you invis unless you perform an action, thus as soon as you started channeling ult the stealth effect from Steam Bath would be broken.

That's memory, I'm gonna go test it in practice mode in 5 seconds but I'm pretty sure I'm right.

There is a small delay before becoming visible, so yes, in theory you CAN start channeling, but that still leaves a small gap where you can get stunned and given the middle finger.

[Padawanabee]

There is a small delay before becoming visible, so yes, in theory you CAN start channeling, but that still leaves a small gap where you can get stunned and given the middle finger.

If you mean the 1.5 seconds then no, that invis is broken if you perform any action. If you don't please explain so I can fix the guide.

[Boiled`Goose]

Awesome guide. I am but a 1700 pubbie, but I've been playing magmus loads recently and I'd like to get your thoughts on some things.

1. Puzzlebox. I like to go puzzlebox straight after blink. The mana and hp are great, the minions are awesome for ganking, and it's built out of relatively small pieces so it doesn't hit you too hard if an aggressive gank goes wrong. It's also all round op and an incredible boon for pushing. Is there a reason why it's not mentioned in your guide?

2. Enhanced marchers. If stuff goes bad in lane but my team still needs me to gank and control the early-mid game, I like to go enhanced marchers before blink. It makes getting around and getting your stun off on gank targets so much easier, and often seems to turn 5 minutes where I would've been a useless ricer into 5 minutes where I can keep the pressure on and at the same time build towards the all important blink.

3. Late game pick offs. I don't know if this is a technique that just doesn't happen in higher tier games, but one of the most important things I find myself doing late if I have a blink buddy is picks on heroes that are out of position. Late game your ability to punish people for being out of position is second to none, and that joint kill with blink-pyro on the engineer who thinks he's farming safely just out of range of his tower gives you a 70 second window for a 4v5 push.

Anyway, thanks a lot for the sick guide. I really want to try out a proper steambath heavy build now. <3

[Padawanabee]

1. Really, you can get whatever you want after blink in my opinion, I just threw some suggestions down. If you like puzzlebox do it up, I rarely put much thought into my late game items, usually getting something my team needs such as Barrier Idol or Kuldra. Unless it's a pub, where I end up getting Mock.

2. You can if you want, but I don't think it's worth it. Half of the price of Pkey right there. Usually you can just utilize fog and allied stuns to be effective until that Pkey.

3. This is a huge part of Magmus' late game, I would agree. However, I find that if I do pick off an enemy I'll usually just Steam Bath, break the invis, and run back out, since Magmus' DPS is so low. That way, if enemies do show up I'm already back in the fog, ready to ult+pkey in again.

[FaTaLiTyZ]

you should mention sand wraith, his passive is 1000 range so if he's taking damage your pk won't work unless you're 1001-1400 range away (added 200 range to account for the 300 range of magmus' ult) ...and can be very annoying, mock of brilliance isnt nearly as bad, and soul reapers passive doesnt put pk on cd

[Padawanabee]

you should mention sand wraith, his passive is 1000 range so if he's taking damage your pk won't work unless you're 1001-1400 range away (added 200 range to account for the 300 range of magmus' ult) ...and can be very annoying, mock of brilliance isnt nearly as bad, and soul reapers passive doesnt put pk on cd

Other honorable mentions would be Vindicator and Thunderbringer. I could put in a section for it.

[SilverStars]

Yeah, Vindicator is so friggin annoying. He casts his ult when I'm channeling even though he has no way of knowing I'm channeling.

By the way, does Steam Bath work like Sand King's Sandstorm and not give unitwalking? I remember watching a DotA video where you could bait someone into following you into a one-way path, Lava Surge past them, and use Steambath until they die.

[Theburned]

best friends should be chronos too (might be in same category as the tempest ulti though)
slither's wards is a good PK canceler too
had an example where I channeled my ulti slither throws up a ward I cant PK in wasting my ulti, :( already told i was going to initiate
I started to cry :/.

[Coolcollo]

best friends should be chronos too (might be in same category as the tempest ulti though)
slither's wards is a good PK canceler too
had an example where I channeled my ulti slither throws up a ward I cant PK in wasting my ulti, :( already told i was going to initiate
I started to cry :/.

Think that is bad? I bought a Tablet of command on :wret: once and ported during the channel(ward saw him) and pushed him into :temp: ult. Then :engi::wret::plag: used ults on them to genocide. Magmus planned on killing our entire SQUISHY TEAM :wret::engi::temp::moon::plag: with one ult/stun/bath/touch.

Yes. He instantly quit after saying we used HAX to some how 'push' him. I wish I had the match id. He was near the legion ancients. It was just beautiful. Never had a game with so many fun antics.

[Zinfandel]

I've been playing A LOT of Mag lately, and have gotten really good w/ him.

One of my favorite things that steam bath brings, is escaping w/ portal key. In PUGS, it's remarkable.

[Kazrugore]

Great Guide.
Didn't read all the comments, but not having Striders even mentioned seems somewhat wrong to me especially if you call him a roamer/ganker.
Also Shrunken seems somewhat underrated in your guide, compared to sheepstick and other luxuries, might be me with less experience, but I wanted to mention that :P
Liked the shift+skills use explanation :)

[Pimpmuckl]

I think after Initiation, Surge and everything you can a) Keep yourself alive long enough so that your team can clean up and b) you are not nearly as useful as other heroes after your initiation.
I like the pullzebox idea though.
Other than than, Shivas is one of my favs next to Kuldra and in Pubs SotM + Spellshards for dem lulz.

[Zetax]

When i tried to ult+PK my ult kept on triggering the CD on PK. Then the ult would run out before i could blink in, am i missing something?

[Beukgast]

This is not only a great guide with nice tips and strategies, you are able to explain it very well to everyone. From highskilled players to beginners, I think everyone can understand the way you point things out :)

Definitely premium worthy!

[swindlemelonzz]

I don't see how a magmus guide that tells you not to level steam bath past 1 can be premium. There is no reason not to level steam bath after stun is maxed.

[Diabolis]

Great guide, but this hero is very hard to master. Don't expect to pick him and achieve a lot of kills the first time, he requieres extreme good positioning and timing with his ulti and portal key, and a good farming skill too.

Definitely, he is a pro-orientated hero.

[TryckFel]

lol premium needs an update this wont work no more

[Abnecide]

Please update. Striders should be core, Consider an early scarab, which can be used for spell shards or blood chalice. You don't really need a bottle (unless you went solo mid), considering your early scarab, and you really shouldn't take THAT much damage if your playing correctly. Chalice *:blac: @ No Regen* may be a better situational pickup, +3/+3 is pretty godly, and 100 uninterruptible mana can be extremely clutch for a steam bath invis, or lava surge into fog/river.

I would like to say that these are personal preferences, however for my play style they work phenomenally.

[Kaddy]

I usually start out with bottle, farming toward a lifetube, then boots. If farm is bad i take striders right away, if my farm is good, i would finish up sustainer. This allows for more roaming, This is when i get my blink. i usually take another lifetube to create a sacrificial stone, and a helm of the black legion.

I find this more equipped for roaming seeing as you can change lanes quickly at early stages of the game. You also can continue to roam grabbing runes every two min, and sustainer easing up on your mana depletion. Im not an expert so let me know what you think, thanks! :D

[Padawanabee]

I very quickly and lazily changed all boots choices to Striders, since it's obviously the only upgrade worth getting.

I'll be keeping bottle recomended more than chalice simply because I don't like using chalice and striders work well with a bottle user. If you prefer chalice, go for it, they're interchangeable.

I have the first build with 1 of steam bath because at the time of writing it was a more acceptable build, I've always preferred using Steambath because it's amazing.

Those are the only points I saw worth refuting. Surprised the guide was still in premium.

[Insanitarius]

If people are actually considering this guide to learn, you should really put Spellshards into luxury.

It's kinda godly on Magmus.

[Padawanabee]

I'll try it a few times.

[SassyFriend]

Nice job on the guide, Padawanabee. They're always great

[rkarons1]

It is kinda wierd that you said that magmus is a terrible solo when he is one of the better ones because of his second and third skill. in a lane with an AOE stun u max touch while in a lane with no AOE damage or stun u max steam bath. ive gone several games where i mid with magmus and am able to farm up PK by at least 15.

Concerning boots i think that phase is a great pickup because of the damage boost so you have a higher chance of getting last hits which increases the amount of damage you do because of touch. It also gives u movement speed and it also gives u good positioning. creeps blocking u can deny u so many kills if u dont have surge so its also good. great guide keep up the good work

[Dragnmn]

On Magmus: he might be able to solo (I've seen it done before), but he is so much better in lane, and the few things he needs are striders (ghost, only if you have farm [which you shouldn't]), manaregen and a pkey.

[Padawanabee]

It is kinda wierd that you said that magmus is a terrible solo when he is one of the better ones because of his second and third skill. in a lane with an AOE stun u max touch while in a lane with no AOE damage or stun u max steam bath. ive gone several games where i mid with magmus and am able to farm up PK by at least 15.


I've successfully done SK/Magmus solo mid, myself, a few times. It's very good against a BH if you're good at last hitting, but how well do you think you'd do against an Arachna who couriers herself a ward of revelation? Magmus solo is, at best, situationally excellent.

[rkarons1]

I've successfully done SK/Magmus solo mid, myself, a few times. It's very good against a BH if you're good at last hitting, but how well do you think you'd do against an Arachna who couriers herself a ward of revelation? Magmus solo is, at best, situationally excellent.

ive outdone an arachna mid. its easy u get stout shield and go touch instead of steam bath. i rarely go steam bath i usually go :CrushingClaws: x2 :MinorTotem: :RunesOfTheBlight: and :IronBuckler: and i can beat most mids.

Spellshards is pretty good on magmus as well because it enhances his dps significantly so if u land ulti u can just destroy ppl. but it should be a luxury id say get it after PK.

SOTM is good but i think it should be picked up only if your team doesnt have as much AOE presence and there are a lot of team fights. If u do your job at mid right and are ganking well you wont really need the SOTM as much because there wont be as many team fights.

Still pretty good guide gives people the basic concepts on him and how to do well in each situation

[SassyFriend]

chu plays a really good sand king mid, though he's never done it in competitive play to my knowledge. search for some replays of him stomping pubs/inhouses, and try searching for it on his smurf, too, named Keonda.

[RUS_igorGUY]

Awesome guide, thank you!

[Jezu]

Indent your body text, please.
SotM has wrong price, possibly some others, dunno.
Add strider picture?
Add chalice?
Add spellshards?
Its Power Supply, mana batter is the 200 item.
Thank you.

[Ithiel]

Love the way this guide is made, very gj, thanks. Can't wait to get my ISP issues fixed to test magmus again.

[Magnitoo]

Why do you think that you should level volcanic touch over steam bath?

I consider myself a pretty decent magmus player :P I usualyl always max out Surge then steam bath due to the delay it has in revealing you, also leveling volcanic touch too early just pushes the lane (I know you can turn it off, but if you do, what's the point of leveling it?)

That's the only thing I have to say, other than that, great guide, love the effort that you put into it.

[CorpPor]

Why do you think that you should level volcanic touch over steam bath?


Ya, it's actually incredibly stupid to not only level volcanic touch over steam bath, but to wait until level 22 to finish leveling up steam bath. If you look at almost every replay you can find of a "pro" or even "inhouse" level player, they always know to max steam bath after lava surge.

The thing about this guide is that it's written for and by a public player, and in public games maybe volcanic touch is better because you can farm and play carry magmus? Maybe it is! But yeah, seriously, steam bath is a way better ability to get early on

[Anakha]

Steam Bath's longer invis upon breaking its channel is the best reason to level it. Second is the duration, manacost and damage. It's significantly less intensive to flashfarm/push with Steam->Volcanic then Surge->Volcanic.

[kippetje]

Steam Bath's longer invis upon breaking its channel is the best reason to level it. Second is the duration, manacost and damage. It's significantly less intensive to flashfarm/push with Steam->Volcanic then Surge->Volcanic.
You don't want to be pushing a lane with either to get farm. As the moments of having a freefarming lane as magmus are very rare, you should use them effectively. Passive farming is the best. As for vul. touch, it helps farming in jungle a bit. (I myself still don't take it but....)

[Anakha]

It still costs less mana. Which was my point.

[souppy]

Can't believe he recommends waiting until level 22 to finish leveling steam bath. That's just incredibly stupid.... No good player does that

[Isin]

I think steams are very good on magmus, even before PK. It gives you that extra bit of oomph in your autoattack to farm and endure harassment. Your autoattacks with steams are also just as good as any other hero's early game, and you can double the damage of your combo by autoattacking your focus after stunning.

Furthermore you can switch them to int to give mag the much needed int for casting his full combo.

I think steamboots are much more cost-effective than bracers etc. I've had a lot of good experience with steamboots on magmus, he is my top played hero, and I win almost every game with him.