Skywrath Mage comes to Dota 2

According to PCGamesN Skywrath Mage is being added to Dota 2 with the latest patch. Skywrath mage is a force to be reckoned with, a potent support hero. Check out all his abilities and stats, how to play this hero as well as the overall patch notes.

Dragonus, the Skywrath Mage

Dragonus is a ranged Intelligence hero of the Radiant faction. This means he deals in magical damage, here’s a look at his abilities shown on the Dota 2 wiki.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Arcane Bolt: Skywrath launches a slow-moving bolt of arcane magic, dealing damage to an enemy unit based on Skywrath’s intelligence.

Ability	Affects	Damage
Target Unit	Enemies	Magical

Base damage: 60/80/100/120
Bonus damage based on Skywrath Mage’s Intelligence: 1.6x
Range: 800

Mana: 70

Cooldown: 5/4/3/2

Concussive Shot: Skywrath sets off a long range shot that hits the closest hero within a long range. Upon impact, it deals damage and slows in an area of effect.

Ability	Affects	Damage
No Target	Enemy Heroes	Magical

Range: 1600
Damage: 50/100/150/200
Slow: 40%
Slow radius: 200
Slow duration: 4

Mana: 110

Cooldown: 20/18/16/14

Ancient Seal: Skywrath seals the targeted unit with an ancient rune, silencing it and causing it to take additional damage from spells.

Ability	Affects
Target Unit	Enemies

Duration: 3/4/5/6
Magical damage amplification: 18/24/30/36%
Range: 700

Mana: 80/90/100/110

Cooldown: 11

Mystic Flare: Skywrath uses his ultimate magical ability to conjure a precise and violent mystical field that lays waste to his adversaries. Deals massive damage distributed evenly among any heroes in the area over 2 seconds.

Ability	Affects	Damage
Target Point	Enemy Heroes	Magical

Total damage: 600/900/1200
Duration: 2
Radius: 170
Range: 1200

Mana: 350/575/800

Cooldown: 60/40/20

Playing Skywrath Mage

The way you play Skywrath Mage (for the purpose of not having to type that out every time, because I’m lazy as hell I’ll be using SM for the rest of the article) will be determined by the hero picks of the team, depending on what heroes they choose, will influence the items and role you play. SM’s main role will be as a support hero, a hero that aids the group in getting kills, rather than hunting for them himself. You’ll be doing this by making sure you slow and silence the right heroes so that they can be killed in the right order to ensure survival for your carries.

You’ll probably start off as a lane support, it’s always better to pair up with a melee hero so that you can harass your opponents while allowing your team mate to get in some last hits on creeps for gold. Starting up Concussive Shot first would be wise, since it has double the range of Arcane Bolt, deals damage and slows in AOE (area of effect) instead of just to one hero, as well as to creeps. It has a longer cooldown than Arcane Bolt, but moves faster. Arcane Bolt moves incredibly slowly at 500 movement speed, Concussive shot uses more mana though, so make sure you stock up on Clarity (mana potions, at least 3) and get those Arcane Boots as soon as possible. This could really come in handy to not only slow enemies for your carry to get in the kills, or help your team mate escape if he/she has to.

If your team mate sharing the lane with you has no silence ability, I’d level up Ancient Seal as well, which silences the enemy as well as increases the damage he takes from spells. This spell however is also quite mana intensive, so use it wisely. Otherwise Arcane Bolt would be a good option, since its mana usage is much less and it has a very short cooldown period. Obviously unlock your ultimate ability (ulti) at level six, it has a one minute cooldown to start with, but will knock off 20 seconds at a time when you level it up, this ability also uses an incredible amount of mana, so farming a mana regen item like Void Stone or Energy Booster would be a good idea, depending on the core items you are planning on farming. This ability will do more damage when there are fewer enemies, since the damage is distributed evenly among them. The fewer enemies there are, the harder you hit.

• If it hits 1 enemy, it will deal the full 600/900/1200 damage.
• If it hits 2 enemies, it will deal 300/450/600 damage.
• If it hits 3 enemies, it will deal 200/300/400 damage.
• If it hits 4 enemies, it will deal 150/225/300 damage.
• If it hits 5 enemies, it will deal 120/180/240 damage.
• Pulses once every 0.1 seconds (20 pulses at 30/45/60 damage each, each divided as described above).

Being a nuker should be really fun with SM. If your team has an extra support, you could be just as potent as any carry. You’ll want to boost your Intelligence stats as much as you can, farm Hand of Midas which will boost your attack speed and earn you lots of gold and XP. You should make sure your mana regen is as fast as possible. Start off with 3 x Clarity, 2 x Iron Branch and a  Tango, hang back a little when you start the game, just earning gold to farm the important items. Buy Boots of Speed first, upgrade to Magic Wand gradually and start farming Hand of Midas. Upgrade to Arcane Boots before you buy the Hand of Midas recipe, once you have those items, its smooth sailing from there. You can either decide to level up a Dagon, which will boost your Intelligence stat and damage and help you get in those last hits, or go for Eul’s Scepter of Divinity which will give you Intelligence, movement speed and 150% mana regen, this will also come in handy to sweep up any enemy and disable him. And after that farming your Bloodstone will significantly boost your HP, mana, mana regen, reduce respawn time and ensure continued XP.

This is all just opinion for pub play, I’ll let you guys know how it works out after actually playing Dragonus. But I predict it’ll not go too badly. If you have any advice on how to play this hero, please share your knowledge in the comments!

Patch notes can be found here.

Last Updated: April 19, 2013