Skywrath Mage is a support hero that excels at silencing, slowing and killing enemies with magical damage.

• He can deal 75/95/115/135 magical damage + 150% of his intelligence as damage to a target, using his Arcane Bolt ability.
• Additionally, as of Dota 2 Update 7.33, Arcane Bolt leaves a debuff on the target, which increases Skywrath Mage’s Spell Lifesteal by 20%/30%/40%/50% for 5 seconds. This new mechanism is a massive improvement to Skywrath’s overall survivability, especially since he’s often dubbed a ‘glass cannon’.
• Using his Concussive Shot ability, he can slow the movement speed of the closest enemy hero in range by 40% for 4 seconds, and deal 120/180/240/300 magical damage to him.
• He can silence a target for 3/4/5/6 seconds and decrease its magic resistance by 20%/25%/30%/35%, using his Ancient Seal ability.
• He can deal 800/1200/1600 magical damage over 2.0 seconds in a 170 radius area, using his Mystic Flare ability. If multiple heroes stand in that area, the damage is evenly distributed between them.
• He has excellent base movement speed (325) and intelligence gain per level (4.1).

Skywrath Mage Item build

Your Skywrath Mage Dota 2 item build should improve your mana pool, sustainability, and magical damage amplification. Subsequently, these are some of the key items you should consider buying:

• Arcane Boots: they greatly improve your mana pool and your ability to regenerate it.
• Magic Wand: this is a good early game item against lane opponents that has spammable skills.
• Infused Raindrop: gives you good mana regeneration and protection against laning phase harassment.
• Rod of Atos: bonus stats and allows you to root enemy heroes, making it more likely that they will receive a lot of damage from your ultimate and combo.
• Force Staff: an excellent choice on any support hero. The HP regeneration, intelligence and added mobility are valuable stats. This item also gives you the ability to save allies from dangerous positions.
• Aether Lens: gives you 300 mana, 2.5 mana regeneration and 225 cast range.
• Eul’s Scepter of Divinity: provides good intelligence, movement speed, mana regeneration and the ability to cyclone yourself and your enemies.
• Scythe of Vyse: aka the Sheepstick, lets you render an enemy disabled, where they can’t use BKB to avoid the bulk damage of your skill combo.
• Blink Dagger: gives you mobility and initiation to position yourself in fights.

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Skywrath Mage Abilities Explained Arcane Bolt

Deals 60/80/100/120 base magical damage + 150% of your intelligence as damage to a target. Its cooldown decreases from 5 seconds at level 1 to 2 seconds at level 4, and has a default mana cost of 95.

Now in patch 7.33, has an added Spell Lifesteal debuff of 20%/30%/40%/50% which lasts 5 seconds on the target.

Concussive Shot

Launches a shot at the closest enemy hero, which deals 120/180/240/300 magical damage and slows movement speed by 40% for 4 seconds. Has a 15 to 12 seconds cooldown from level 1 to 4, and mana cost of 80 to 95.

Ancient Seal

Silences a target for 3/4/5/6 seconds and decreases its magic resistance by 20%/25%/30%/35%. The spell has a default 14 second cooldown and 80 to 110 mana cost.

Mystic Flare

Deals 800/1200/1600 magical damage over 2.0 seconds in a 170 radius area. Only affects heroes. If more than one hero is affected, the damage is evenly distributed between the targets.

Has a significantly reduced cooldown from 60 seconds to 20 seconds by max level, but a ridiculous 800 mana cost.

Aghanim’s Shard Ability: Shield Of The Scion

Offers a stackable buff for Skywrath’s survivability by granting 2 bonus intelligence and 0.5 armor per magic damage instance dealt. This lets Skywrath has an average of 44 bonus int and 11 armor in just 5 seconds of initiating his skill combo (E+Q+W+R+Q).

Each stack has an independent 35-second duration, which is sufficient to outlast fights by spamming more Arcane Bolts.

Best Skywrath Mage Talents

• +8 intelligence / +200 health – The intelligence bonus is worth considerably more than the 200 bonus health. Considering Skywrath’s new magic lifesteal buff, he gains more from dealing the extra damage from his int bonus than health.
• +1 Arcane Bolt per cast / -8s Ancient Seal cooldown – If you need to be able to keep a key target silenced in fights, take the latter option. Otherwise take the former as Arcane Bolts benefit from the various int gains and damage output.
• +10% Ancient Seal magic resistance reduction / Global Concussive Shot (no range) – The first talent is generally much more useful to increase Skywrath’s combo damage. Whereas global concussive shot just seems more fun than useful.
• +400 Mystic Flare damage / Arcane Bolt pierces Spell Immunity – Make the most out of your ultimate’s heavy mana usage by increasing its damage output.

Skill build

As far as this patch 7.33 Skywrath Mage Dota 2 guide goes, there’s only one rule of thumb. Although Arcane Bolt is seemingly the main damage skill that Skywrath Mage can spam, the laning phase benefits from maxing Concussive Shot and Ancient Seal instead. However, do get one level on Arcane Bolt when you reach level 2 for utility sake.

At level 7 your skill build should be 1-3-2-1. Since the Arcane Bolt damage is amplified by your Intelligence multiplier, its increased damage by levelling does not scale effectively at early game. Of course, put points in your ultimate and the recommended talents whenever available.

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When to pick the hero

Skywrath Mage is a very good pick whenever you need an instant long duration silence for a key spell reliant target such as Necrophos, Void Spirit, Muerta, Slark or Weaver. He is also good when you need an extra source of damage that can help kill heroes that are disabled or held in place, such as Axe.

Skywrath Mage is one of the strongest supports at level one thanks to his Arcane Bolt ability, which can be spammed frequently and mana-friendly. So, if you need a support that can zone out an enemy offlaner, Skywrath can often fulfill that role.

With the latest buff he received on Arcane Bolt, Skywrath can survive in fights where he may be the main target of the enemy team as he rejuvenates health from dealing more damage. However, be careful not to get disabled heavily as he would be obsolete.

Deal Heavy Magical Damage

Skywrath Mage is a support hero that offers comfortable laning phase and fighting potential in Dota 2 esports. His ability to silence and deal overwhelming magic damage by reducing an opponent’s magic resistance and amplifying his magic damage output puts him among the best Support hero to climb rank.