Magnus - Utility Initiator (with Matchups)

The first and most obvious thing to look at is your positioning...are you often farming dangerous locations or leading from the front of your team? At higher levels you often want to counter-initiate unless a really good RP opportunity presents itself - stay back, out of sight, and wait for the opposition to engage first, then go in.

Failing that, look at armour - for a strength hero, you have good gain, but it isn't necessarily enough to make you tanky. Items like Blade Mail or Shiva's Guard can help if you're getting focused a lot.

The main thing is to make sure your carry has Empower on, and that you land a decent RP/skewer/shockwave combo. After that, your job is essentially done, and if the opposition want to land a "revenge" kill afterwards while the rest of your team clean up, that's basically fine.

You just need to make sure you're not giving away cheap pick offs from ganks, or being the first down in teamfights - which takes us back to the first points.

Sando, i REALLY need your help.

Magnus is a pretty fun hero to me. I love playing him early-mid game just like this build (however i build Force Staff after [[Blink Dagger, it's a pretty good utility item.). But, his later game (usually post 30 minutes) I have problems with. I just die a lot more at that stage because the enemy has some good items going and I can't keep myself alive well. This often leaves my team losing teamfights and nearly losing. I'd love your help.

Great guide, +1 gucciii

I'm surprised earth shaker never came up here. Wanna talk about a happy bunny? Let him get an echo slam off of your reverse polarity. He may just cry with happiness. Blood seeker is also a good partner due to his 6 second silence he will get on everyone when you reverse polarity.

I wrote wrong, my bad.
I didn't mean skewer before RP, I meant turning before RP so you can have an easier skewer, my bad.
And yea refresher is a must if game goes late 7.5 sec stun is no joke.
Also having refresher gives you double skewer, be sure to use that properly as it's really good!

Thanks - glad it was helpful.

Yeah, not sure why I set the items out that way Blink Dagger IS core on Magnus, have updated. Skills-wise, I'm fine with an earlier point in Empower, although I'd generally max Skewer first for the extra nuking power.

Why would you want to Skewer before RP? The only time I do this is when blink is unavailable for whatever reason. Reverse Polarity guarantees you'll Skewer every hero you catch, you can take them in whatever direction you want, and the slow will apply after RP ends (it doesn't the other way round). My usual combo is Blink, RP, Shockwave, Skewer.

Carry Magnus...as you say, it's not terrible, but I'd tend to go for it when my team lacks damage for whatever reason (e.g. the carry is doing badly). You can have Empower on two heroes at once due to the duration, you can be one of them. Generally it's more efficient to focus on Empowering them, while grabbing more utility/teamfight for yourself, maybe a bit of extra damage. I'm a BIG fan of Refresher Orb - double RPs!

I don't think you need drums. Blink with arcanes and you are good to go, drums just delay blink a lot. Also, I don't think maxing skewer before empower is always good, 2-3 lvls are enough. Also blink is core, not an extension no disscussion. You MUST have it.
You want to skewer before RP if possible.

Also what do you think of the "carry" magnus? I tried it a few times and I have to tell you, it's not bad. PT, MOM and crits+empower (maybe bfury) and you kill all the heroes you RP pretty much.
However, I use that build only when my carry is doing really bad and someone has to carry the team untill the carry gets really fed.

Great guide,been pretty annoyed lately the the other guides are pretty misinformative. This explain everything and I do love the gif of magnus screwing the entire team over :P, +1 from me.

Let me just say that whenever I am looking for a guide on a hero I am trying to get better at, I always look to see if you have made a guide for them. Your guides are always informative, interesting, and free of grammar/spelling mistakes; this one is no exception +1!

Thanks for all the feedback guys - I've relented and added the Assault Cuirass to luxury items, as I can see the aura being beneficial there, and your right click damage is "ok enough" at that point to make it worth considering. Tbh I didn't initially include it more because I think it can encourage a "carry mindset", but yes, the aura is strong.

You're right Timmay that good Rubick players can sense when you're likely to initiate and not be near their team...sometimes this is unavoidable. It's much easier to land big team fight powers when people are noobs and group up :). This is why I mention sometimes waiting for the fight to start before RP'ing - it can be the only way to land a good one against decent players, and as long as you don't wait too long and have allies dying, it's still ok.

Kunkka - he's annoying more than a straight counter, but you do need an early Stout Shield to soak up the splash damage. You should be able to out rune him, and as long as you land your Shockwaves correctly you can keep the harassment battle reasonably even. Yes, technically he can disrupt Skewer with X Marks, but I can't see many Kunkka players putting 2 points in it early on unless they're sure they'll get rotations. Maybe if they've got really quick fingers they could land level 1 as you wind up.

Good guide, personally if I'm having a good start I normally just get a Magic Stick and would skip the bracer and get that early blink dagger. Really good description of his role, after his blink dagger he doesn't really need anything.

As an avid Rubick player, I believe that Reverse Polarity is a very stealable spell thanks to the cast animation after magnus has cast rp and the time it takes for him to cast another spell, and any good Rubick player should have enough time to steal it. Getting him in the rp should be very tricky as he should position himself well. You either have to keep him occupied whilst you are casting his ult, or just have someone kill him before he can use it, or just be prepared for him to have your spell.

Finally, Kunkka as a counter mid? Great harass and a way to completely nullify your Skewer. He couldn't kill you on his own probably, but with a roaming support it could be deadly when your escape fails you.

i agree with adding assault cuirass to the guide.
personally i tend to completely skip small items like bracer or drums if im rushing an item like a blink. like boots blink bottle batrider or even phase blink TA.

A very good guide for the usual mid Magnus: I sometimes skip the Drum of Endurance if I can't get a fast Blink Dagger - so I can focus on the big items - but building auras on this Hero is always beneficial after the Dagger. About the late game/situational items, they're perfect; you could add the Assault Cuirass since it's another aura for your team, but most of the time a Shiva's Guard is better if you want armor and teamfight presence (not to mention it also has a good aura).

The off-lane build is good, but I usually get two set of Tangos without Clarities and focus on getting a fast Bottle (or Soul Ring) so that I can always spam my Shockwave: getting 650 gold is difficult at the beginning, but after that you're fine for the rest of your laning phase.