The Mid-Solo-Magnus Wonder
I've seen some people laugh at the very idea of a mid solo Magnus. This is a post to prove them WRONG.
In fact, Magnus is one of the most powerful choices for the mid lane and can actually outcarry a Spectre, despite being a melee STR hero with a bad attack animation, and a hopeless attack swing.
But that doesn't matter, because you'll hardly be melee hitting much. You just need to make sure that you have a good early game, and that you do -- by going mid solo. =)
The key to soloing mid lane with a Magnus just as good as a Nevermore, if not better, is Shockwave.
Yes, just one single usable spell - Shockwave. Let's see why --
Shockwave has a pretty good AoE damage (300), but the cooldown and mana cost is just plain AWESOME. With a 90 mana req. and 11/10/9/8 second cooldown, it's as spammable as it gets.
But the real reason why we need middle lane is for the runes. And the Empty Bottle is the key item for this strategy.
When you start off in the mid lane, make sure you ALWAYS get a bottle, and a set of tangoes. Get the first rune that spawns. Head back to your lane and last hit normally till level 3. Try to get in a few melee hits on the enemy as well. After you reach level 3, start using Shockwave such that you hit the enemy hero AND get your creep kills while doing so. You should spam Shockwave from level 3 to 5. Spam like there's no tomorrow. Rune race to either side of the river and refill your bottle with the runes that spawn every two minutes.
If luck was on your side, and you happened to have a newb opponent laner, then you should have gotten a kill or two by level 5. If you did your 'Rune Racing' well, then your opponent just doesn't stand a chance.
If you're still not convinced, then just try it out. Works wonders.
Here's a replay of me playing Magnus mid solo (Sentinel) in a pub game on Garena
http://files.filefront.com/FeynorMagnusMidSolo/;13447931;/fileinfo.html
Observe the early game part of the game, which is the most important part of your play. I lane with an opponent Mirana who doesn't have the time to hit me because I'm always moving around for runes and spamming shockwave (plus, she wasn't exactly the best Mirana I've known. :P)
I get a quick godlike spree, followed by two silly deaths, and then a few kills again. Watch, and see for yourself how powerful a Magnus can get.
Note: Where I play, people still use v1.20e. So if you want to watch the replay, just use the 'Warcraft TFT Version Switcher'. Click here to download.
Oh, and I won't be discussing item builds or anything in this post, because there are guides for that. For items, I think it's pretty obvious that you get a Blink Dagger and maybe something along the lines of Armlet of Mordiggian.
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