Magmus - Wrath of the Volcano

[hellfire15]

Magmus

Wrath of the Volcano

Introduction



Hello there, this is hellfire15 a.k.a. "NoobishNoob" ingame. I am both an experienced GHoN pub player and Guide Writer in this forum. In this guide, we will be discussing about Magmus, one of the lucky [CENSORED BY ADMIN][CENSORED BY ADMIN][CENSORED BY ADMIN][CENSORED BY ADMIN] classic heroes who got ported from a sand scorpion into a badass giant of molten lava, with animations and concepts that are guaranteed awesome. Magmus fits well in many lineups and is quite favored by many players, mainly due to his reliable and instant stun, which not only helps in ganks, but adds to his survivability, coupled with Steam Bath's invisibility, he can become a very elusive hero to fight against. But his most powerful skill of all: Eruption, if executed properly, can decimate entire teams in an instant.

And without further ado, let me introduce you to Magmus!



Hero Overview


[img][/img]


"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.


Strength: 18 + 2.3 (Primary Attribute)
Agility: 19 + 2.1
Intelligence: 16 + 1.8

Health: 492
Mana: 208

Damage: 43 - 59 (Average Base Damage: 51)
Armor: 1.76 (10% Physical Damage Reduction)

Attack Range: 128 (Melee)
Movement Speed: 300



Author's Note:
> Due to Magmus' flexibility, mainly Lava Surge and Steam Bath which makes him elusive; he is balanced for the fact that he has below average starting stats; mainly his low mana pool and armor, which means, he's very much susceptible to harassment, and can't spam Lava Surge often until he gets some mana items first.
> Not much to say here, other than he suffers from being run out of mana too quickly and relies on a bit of farm at first to address this so that he can get use of Lava Surge quickly.



PROS and CONS:


(+): Reliable Roamer and Ganker thanks to Lava Surge's consistent stun duration of 2.15 seconds.
(+): Eruption, if executed properly, can really turn a teamfight to your favor in an instant, so try to invest in an early Portal Key so you can guarantee successful ultimates on top of the enemy team
(+): Lava Surge, along with Portal Key allows you to reach great, great distances!!!
(+): Steam Bath allows for great mind plays due to the invisibility it grants


(-): Naturally squishy due to low health and armor, and is quite susceptible to harassment early on
(-): Well timed silences can really screw you over, heck, even the slightest stuns/disables can interrupt your ultimate, thereby, wasting both mana and cooldown if it happens
(-): Although he's not item dependent much; he solely needs a Portal Key, quite expensive though, to allow successful, and fail-proof Eruptions to happen
(-): Steam Bath is easily countered by detection, like Electric Eyes and even Blood Hunter
(-): Magic Immunity or Magic Armor can severely weaken his presence in a teamfight e.g. Barrier Idol counters Eruption's AoE damage, etc.




Skill Overview





Lava Surge


Riding on lava, Magmus surges toward a target location, damaging and stunning enemy units in his path.


Transports self to target location, dealing 100 / 160 / 220 / 280 Magic Damage to targets who pass within radius of self and stunning them for 2.15 seconds.

During the first 0.5 seconds of the stun, affected targets cannot be attacked. Also note that there is a 0.5 second delay for you as well before you can perform action again after transporting self.


Radius: 175
Range: 400 / 500 / 600 / 700
Mana Cost: 140
Cooldown: 11 Seconds


MECHANICS:

Spoiler:

Author's Note:
> Your signature skill. Its utility+stun+damage skill in one.
> Basically makes you invulnerable for a short while, disjointing any incoming projectiles at you as you teleport to target location, while damaging and stunning enemies caught in your path. A pretty straightforward spell, and can set up for an easy ultimate since enemies have like 0.35 second window to interrupt your casting time.
> Note that you are disabled for 0.5 second after casting, which means, (2.15 sec stun - 0.5 sec delay on you - 1.65 sec cast time, meaning, enemies have 0.35 sec window of opportunity to disable you; but when facing heroes with no escape mechanisms like Soulstealer, Flint; then, the combo is pretty easy to pull off.



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Steam Bath


Magmus releases ******* heat, toasting the area around him. The resulting steam damages nearby enemy units over time and cloaks Magmus from enemy eyes.


Applies stealth to self for duration of channel 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.


Radius: 300 / 350 / 400 / 550
Mana Cost: 60 / 50 / 40 / 30
Cooldown: 40 / 30 / 20 / 10 Seconds


MECHANICS:

Spoiler:

Author's Note:
> A pretty nifty skill and is what makes Magmus quite elusive against heroes who don't have AoE spells or detection skills to force him out of Invisibility
> On cast, makes Magmus channel in place and becomes invisible, while the area around becomes continuously damaged
> When the channel is interrupted, the invisibility lingers for a short while before you are revealed, which means, you can create confusion with this skill and can further increase your survivability
> Although pretty weak at level 1, putting more skill points makes this skill drastically strong, mainly the 10 second cooldown and 30 manacost.




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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.


Applies the effect on attack for 0.25 second. When the unit inflicted by this state is killed, enemies of the inflictor within a 400 radius are damaged for 90 / 130 / 170 / 220 Magic Damage.


--PASSIVE--


MECHANICS:

Spoiler:

Author's Note:
> An interesting passive skill, but it adds nothing to teamfights, and is preferred to be leveled last since it pushes lanes early, which is quite counterproductive in a way that you are overextending away from your tower and becomes susceptible to ganks.
> Note that when you last hit a creep successfully, that creep explodes, splattering everyone around 400 radius of him for quite some magic damage
> Also note that this becomes a very powerful farming tool and can easily decimate creep waves especially when you last hit creep after creep



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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.


Activate to channel for 2 seconds.

At the end of channel time, sends out 1 pulse of damage every 0.35 seconds to targets in radius and applies Eruption (30% Movespeed slow) to enemy heroes for 3 seconds (5 seconds to enemy non-hero units). Each pulse deals 110 Magic Damage. Maximum of 6 / 8 / 10 pulses. Radius grows from 300 to 550 / 675 / 725 during the full duration of 1.75 / 2.45 / 3.15 seconds.

Can deal up to a total of 660 / 880 / 1,100 Magic Damage.


Radius: 300 to 550 / 675 / 725
Mana Cost: 175 / 250 / 325
Cooldown: 140 / 120 / 100 Seconds


MECHANICS:

Spoiler:

The obvious 2 second cast animation

Author's Note:
> Your very powerful ultimate, but only if that you are successful in channeling for 2 whole seconds without interruption. Afterwards, a huge wave of pulses surges from yourself, which expands from a small 300 radius, and ends in a large radius, depending on the level. Which pretty much means, that by the time you finished channeling, enemies must be right next to you to receive the maximum pulses for the maximum damage
> With a Portal Key, the problem of having to be right next to enemies after casting becomes way, way easy. As long as you channel out of sight, and still in range of Portal Key's teleport range.
> With proper timing and positioning, you can really deal massive AoE damage to everyone around you, and can really win teamfights with it.




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Skill Build


A. Pure Ganker / Roamer / Aggressive Build


Level 1 - Lava Surge (Rank 1)
Level 2 - Steam Bath (Rank 1)
Level 3 - Lava Surge (Rank 2)
Level 4 - Steam Bath (Rank 2)
Level 5 - Lava Surge (Rank 3)
Level 6 - Eruption (Rank 1)
Level 7 - Lava Surge (Rank 4)
Level 8 - Steam Bath (Rank 3)
Level 9 - Steam Bath (Rank 4)
Level 10 - Volcanic Touch (Rank 1)
Level 11 - Eruption (Rank 2)
Level 12 - Volcanic Touch (Rank 2)
Level 13 - Volcanic Touch (Rank 3)
Level 14 - Volcanic Touch (Rank 4)
Level 15 - Attribute Bonus
Level 16 - Eruption (Rank 3)
Level 17+ - Attribute Bonus


Author's Notes:

> This is a pretty common skill build, and works very good in your purpose to be as aggressive as possible.
> Lava Surge is to be maxed first for the cast range boost and damage boost, which helps out a lot in chasing people down'
> Steam Bath is maxed second for the drastic cooldown reduction and smaller manacost, which helps out your mana upkeep and survivability as well
> Volcanic Touch is maxed last since you won't be farming creeps until, way, way later in the game, mid game or so
> Eruption is to be taken whenever possible, respectively at levels 6, 11, 16



B. Farmer Build


Level 1 - Lava Surge (Rank 1)
Level 2 - Steam Bath (Rank 1)
Level 3 - Lava Surge (Rank 2)
Level 4 - Volcanic Touch (Rank 1)
Level 5 - Lava Surge (Rank 3)
Level 6 - Eruption (Rank 1)
Level 7 - Lava Surge (Rank 4)
Level 8 - Volcanic Touch (Rank 2)
Level 9 - Volcanic Touch (Rank 3)
Level 10 - Volcanic Touch (Rank 4)
Level 11 - Eruption (Rank 2)
Level 12 - Steam Bath (Rank 2)
Level 13 - Steam Bath (Rank 3)
Level 14 - Steam Bath (Rank 4)
Level 15 - Attribute Bonus
Level 16 - Eruption (Rank 3)
Level 17+ - Attribute Bonus


Author's Notes:

> This focuses more on pushing/farming, mainly due to Volcanic Touch's effect.
> Do this build when your team wants you to farm that early Portal Key, which is quite vital in pulling off early successful ultimates
> Not much is changed, although Steam Bath will be a lot weaker, but with the extra farm, you can get up early levels to make up for it, however, survivability becomes an issue since you can only get the invisibility once every 40 seconds, which is quite long.


Item Build






Starting Items

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Crushing Claws, Mark of the Novice: The staple items you will use, especially when you get Blood Chalice which is vital due to your poor mana pool.
Rune of the Blight, Health Potion, Mana Potions: Your early game laning necessities. Mana potions help regen you back since Surge costs ton of mana early on.





Core Items

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Striders: This provides loads of mobility and fits pretty well with roaming, ganking people style, since it helps you go to lanes at a much, much shorter time.
Blood Chalice: The 100 Mana boost on demand is quite good, especially for heroes like Magmus with a small mana pool.
Grave Locket: The huge int boost which is rewarded when you gank a lot really helps in casting more spells, and the reduced respawn time helps you get back into the fight.
Portal Key: THIS ITEM IS CORE!!! Provides loads of mobility and positioning, vital for ganks and ultimates.
Homecoming Stone: And as always, do bring one with you at all times.




Viable Items

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Tablet of Command - A good supportive item since it provides an offensive/defensive push which can help further increase your already good mobility.



Kuldra's Sheepstick - A pretty good pickup if you can farm it. The huge int boost makes your mana problem gone forever, while the long duration disable it grants can really help shut down important enemy threats, heck, can even help you set off a successful ultimate without any interruption.



Frostfield Plate - A pretty good pickup for Magmus and provides an extra damage and slow for your combo. Plus, the huge armor boost helps you against physical damage dealers.



Staff of the Masters - A good pick up for Magmus since the reduced cooldown allows for more ultimates in the game. Not only that, the boost in damage, radius really helps out a lot since its AoE, not single target.



Spellshards: A very good pickup, but is least preferred until you get some survivability items going. The armor penetration is a huge boost of damage to your damage spells.



Shrunken Head: A common pickup for many heroes, especially when there's loads of magic damage and disables going everywhere that keeps you from surviving any clash at all.

[hellfire15]

General Gameplay Strategy


Early Game


Magmus works well as a Roamer, his preferred role, as his instant, reliable stun is vital in pulling off Bloodlust and kills later on. But he is preferred to work at a sidelane, babysitting a hero, or alongside with a powerful ranged lane hero like Pyromancer, or anyone else with a stun since you can set up some interesting and damaging combos, which can help establish lane dominance.

Once you get Striders, you can now start roaming the map for possible gank scenarios, so always bringing a Homecoming Stone with you is vital since you can instantly teleport to an ally's aid with your stun, and can help turn the situation around in your favor.

At this stage, Magmus doesn't need much items other than Striders and some consumables like Mana Potion to reduce your downtime, so you can spend some of your cash for wards to help your team's map awareness and securing rune spots easier.

But all in all, try not to die often, or don't die at all. As you need that gold to build your core items as soon as possible. Especially your Portal Key.

Always remember that Lava Surge can teleport you a great distance away from combat as needed, especially when you are being targeted, not only that, Steam Bath also works well in preserving your hide for a longer period of time.


Mid Game


Ganks and skirmishes will happen quite often in this stage of the game. You need to be very active in this stage of the game, and hopefully, you should've completed your core item by this time, or most of it, with the most expensive item, Portal Key to be aimed for in this state.

Always remember your combo: Lava Surge + Eruption, as you surge right next to your target, immediately spam the hotkey [R] to cast your ultimate right away as any millisecond you waste will increase your enemy's likelihood to react, retaliate, and even interrupt your cast, which can waste your ultimate for a long period of time.

Hopefully, other people in your team will try to buy wards, not only you. So don't be afraid to say that you won't be buying any wards since you're saving up for that Portal Key. Your team should understand this and even help you get farmed by stacking up neutral camps, letting you farm creep waves by yourself. If you have leveled up Volcanic Touch, then farming up the gold can be quite easy, and not to mention fast.




Late Game


Sadly though, you'll lose your presence in this stage of the game since everyone is packing up loads of health, armor and resistance against spells like yours. However, your Lava Surge still packs quite a punch with its long duration disable, so try to hit more than one enemy hero with it.

Since enemies are already aware and equipped against your PK+Ultimate combo, try to tell your team to initiate first so as their formation to scatter and not to stick together becomes messed up, allowing you to follow up with your ultimate and stun them while they're clustered.

You're pretty much back being the team's ward buyer, although its not much of a big deal since you're still pretty good with just a Portal Key, oh, and do ward Kongor's spot, as his Token of Life can either make or break your chances of victory if you can't claim it for your team.




Ally / Enemy Section


Best Allies





Glacius
Well, he works pretty much well with any hero, mainly his godly global mana regen aura, which greatly helps solve your early game mana problems.



Tempest
A perfectly timed Elemental Void, and an Eruption follow-up makes up for a devastating combo.



Blacksmith
His two offensive spells, mainly his stun and slows, greatly helps in making a combo. He's also a great roamer and ganker like you, in which both of you can combo pretty well that the unfortunate enemy will most likely die by your two combo spells alone.



Pyromancer
These two work pretty well together, considering the fact that your Lava Surge instantly disables them at their feet for a good 2 second period, while he follows up with his unreliable stun + wave; which can dish out significant damage and can lead to early game kills.


Worst Enemies





Stunners/Disablers
There's a ton of heroes who can disable you, especially once you've started casting your ultimate, its like your signalling everyone in the vicinity to disable you, making it very hard to pull off an ultimate.



Predator
He has the ability to become completely immune to Eruption's effects, not only that, he hits hard like a truck and can easily whack off huge chunks of your health in a jiffy.



Blood Hunter
Once he gets to silence you, you're pretty much screwed until the effects wear off since you are dependent in casting your spells. Not only that, his Blood Sense makes sure that your invisibility won't save you.



Thunderbringer
His Lightning Blast hurts a ton, and also reveals your location, thereby, countering your Steam Bath. Not only that, a well timed Lightning Storm can disable your Portal Key, hence, can interrupt your Ultimate+Portal Key combo.



Remarks



If you reached up to this part, then I just want to say thank you, dear reader, for spending your time and dedication in reading my guide from start to finish. I hope that you have learned something new about Magmus.

Retaining the fresh, original concept, and fun playstyle from his [CENSORED BY ADMIN][CENSORED BY ADMIN][CENSORED BY ADMIN][CENSORED BY ADMIN] counterpart; Magmus provides ton of strength in his own way, capable to annoy enemies with his devastating and instant stun, coupled with his elusive Steam Bath, but the most threatening of all, his ultimate to destroy everything around him in an instant.

Again, thank you dear reader!



Credits


> To the S2 Games Staff who made this wonderful game and this wonderful, original creation.
> To the Garena HoN Staff who made this wonderful event
> Heroes of Newerth Website for game details and references
> To Eithrill for the Item Pictures Page

[Burbleflurg]

Slight error here, no bonus damage from striders.

Striders: This provides loads of mobility and the bonus damage it gives makes your attacks hit much, much harder.

Overall, good guide, will be using it :3 ~~Blutterfly

[hellfire15]

Oh, thanks for liking my guide and pointing that inconsistency out!

[Y_A_M_I]

about blacksmith 3rd skill
its improve cast speed

does that mean u can directly lava surge and eruption without being interrupt? =D

[hellfire15]

about blacksmith 3rd skill
its improve cast speed

does that mean u can directly lava surge and eruption without being interrupt? =D

No.

It does makes Magmus swing his glowing mace down much faster; the effect will always pop out after 2 seconds. Tried it in practice mode. It finishes the cast animation at around 1.44 sec, and just stands there for 0.56 second and then the pulses only come out.

[ikitot]

Sorry if its kinda off topic, but I tried sending you a message hellfire15. I would appreciate if you would take a bit of your time to attend to it. Thank you.

[Rokkun]

I have a question. If the enemy has an eye or something, does steam bath still disjoint?

[hellfire15]

Yep.

Tried it in practice mode with an Andromeda with an eye. He can still disjoint spells like Comet.

[zainfairuz]

I would start the early with 2x minor totem,1 potion,2 mana potion,and 1 tango,and upgrade courier

CMIIW

[Fealnir]

Can a magmus disjoint tower attack while he;s still under the tower range with steambath or stun?