Dota 2 Ogre Magi Guide

Dota 2 Ogre Magi Guide by ericm331

Ogre Magi is an easy to play & versatile hero who unfortunately sees very little variation in his builds. While he seems simple and slightly downsy, analyzing his potential is a fairly complex task. With the latest buffs to Ogre Magi, I believe that that majority of players build/play this hero one-dimensionally and wanted to share some insights. Let me know what you think, especially if I fucked up on something. I want to make sure that the information here is accurate.

For starters, I aim to go way too in depth with the roles ogre magi can play, specifically as a solo off-laner, and also resolve the age old question: ‘Do I max fireblast or ignite?’.

** Is Ogre Magi off-lane viable?**

Considering the following:
-Ogre Magi has the highest armor in the game. (30% reduction)
-His attack damage is in the top 10 at level 1.
-Starting HP pool awesome, especially with 8 armor and 2+ hp regen.
-Mana pool is fine however his mana regen is awful.
-Great attack animation for last hits.
-Levels really benefit Ogre’s potential as his stat gains are good, and his low cd nukes round out with his ult.

He is most often seen as a safe lane support skilling ignite and fireblast; however, this conflicts with his want for levels and his negligible starting mana regen. Ogre’s effectiveness as a disabler is limited by his mana regen until he gets items such as arcane boots or euls.

So what? Well, effectively farming the jungle is not an viable until lvl 6. Stacking and pulling is an option, but again Ogre’s early game strengths are all about harassing the shit out of the enemy. All in all, why use ogre magi as a 5 role support when another like CM can perform the same tasks, but bertter?

This is why: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ZptXgW0Z94
Ogre Magi is too stronk for the safe lane. His attributes and needs make him a great off-laner against physical carries and squishy supports. Doing so capitalizes on his inherent strengths early, allows solo exp and better farm. The offlane should be used to get ogre leveled up and itemized quickly- solving his two biggest issues of mana and mobility. By 15-20 minutes Ogre can easily transition to a strong roaming/pushing role, farm the jungle, and get towers erect.

In the mid/late game, Ogre magi actually plays quite a bit like a magic based Bristleback, in the sense that his low cd nukes, slows and buffs flourish at dragging an engagement on. Also, items builds on him are really super versatile. While BB builds defensive items, I believe that Ogre’s style is more effective with offensive/disable items.

Ogre is fairly unique in his ability to constantly spam nukes and disables- the longer a fight, the more casts he’ll perform, and the higher the number of multicasts. If the enemy slips up, it can be a very fast GG, as blood lust lvl 4 onto a team of 5 gives incredible pushing power.

SKILLS:

Max ignite first, get a level of blood lust at lvl 2, and fireblast at lvl 4. Max out fireblast after 6 but before lvl 11. Reasons for maxing ignite are in the 2nd section below. TLDR ignite is more mana efficient for harassing, while ogres fireblast casting animation takes up a third of the stun duration reducing his time to land attacks. Always get ult ASAP. If you end up roaming, or have a rotation to your lane, feel free to lvl stun at 2 instead of B.lust.

Yup that’s right blood lust. This skill is actually crazy good at lvl 1, especially in combo with ignite + OoV. For 75 mana it gives you 30 IAS and 10% MS buff for 30 seconds. This is equal to the IAS and MS buff of yasha FO FREE. Ogre’s shit agi is totally remedied by this buff and his starting armor. Use this skill to guarantee last hits, deny, and zone out the enemy carry. If you end up leveling stun at 2 because changes are scary, just realize that your lane presence is weakened in comparison to what I have found effective.

The first item I like to have completed is a force staff as it remedies the stunted range of your stun, and ogre likes the added mobility. B.Lust>Forcestaff>stun>1 right click>ignite>8 seconds of fire and ogre dick. This ensures that your stun does not stack with your slow, maxing the number of right clicks you land. This matters as most of your damage early comes from those clicks rather than the spells. Forcefully staffing an enemy out of position combos neatly into a stun & slow too.

After F.staff, items should be built totally around the match you’re playing. Ogre’s versatility shines when he’s ahead in levels. One can roam and gank but your fireblast nuke damage really comes online at level 11, so until then I recommend focusing on getting one mana regen item (euls boots) and one disabling item suited to your enemy carries. (atos, ghost, veil is cheap af now, aghs).

ITEMIZATION:

The items and times at which I manage them by are here as a guideline!

Starting items vary but almost always get a clarity or two. If the lane is easy I’ll rush boots, 2 clarities and get a ring of regen pronto, followed by OoV. The boots are important to ogre as a melee offlaner, as his base ms is slower than average at 295. With boots, and lvl 1 B.lust, your MS is 379 and more than enough to escape most early game threats. If I think I will be heavily harassed I ward their pull camp and buy tangos or ring of regen. Ring of regen gives magi 5+ hp/s and builds into F.Staff. I have not yet needed more armor to mitigate damage so have not been getting a stout/ring of prot. Against trilanes a stout would probably be advantageous as early game nukes aren’t yet that strong compared to the 3 heroes right clicking you. I would not play aggresively against a tri-lane. If the tri doesn’t get a kill its pretty shitty for their exp split. If you can aggro creeps, bring them under the tower and last hit. Ideally on shouldn’t need to travel back to fountain, ensuring exp at the least.

With ring of regen, OoV, and lvl 3 and you can begin harassing squishy heroes aggressively with ignite. Item times for ogre are not imperative. He uses them for utility, not farming, therefore a 14 minute force staff is fine. The item’s value will be found in the roaming/teamfights, so just use the laning phase to complete as much as you can.

Next item is wizard’s staff, building your base damage and increasing your mana pool. I have gotten this item at the 6 minute mark consistently against a dual lane. If ever need more mana I ferry out clarity pots with components. I usually finish the Fstaff at 12-14 minutes, and send a second wizards staff with the recipe, which will build into a Rod of Atos. I finish the Rod of Atos around 21-22 minutes. Note that the Fstaff and Rod completion times are not optimized here, as it’s rude af to always have the crow during laning phase. The two items are not as imperative to laning as they are to pushing and team fighting.

It’s another strange one I know but Atos is actually OP as fuck and really cost efficient. It’s received buff after buff- giving 30 damage, 350 hp, 390 mana, 1.2 mana regen AND A 60% SLOW FOR 4 SECONDS, with a cd of 10 seconds. (for 3100K gold). This can be gotten around 13-15 minutes I believe. This items offers great utility in teamfights especially for restricting the movement of enemy carries or preventing weak supports from escaping. It’s CD will allow for multiple castings during fights. Did that one hero just buy back while your taking high ground? Atos him if he gets too close and a lusted team can dispatch him with ease.

Like what the fuck, this doesn’t seem like a big deal, but try it. These two items give ogre all he needs, fantastic mana regen, survivability, mobility. They allow ogre great control in preserving his team, by crippling the enemy. Atos range is prefect for picking off lonely heroes. Did they blink? Fstaff>atos>run>ignite>suck a dick.

BKBs do counter ogre’s spells, however at the 5 second duration it hasn’t been an issue as ogre is really fuckin tanky. Just multicast teammates and grab distance before atosing and re-engaging. Also worth noting that stun>slow>atos>stun takes exactly 15 seconds allowing ignite to come off CD.

I like BoT’s after atos, reducing tp cd is pretty sweet and I like racecars. If you went arcanes earlier, oct core is a natural follow up- the mana regen is more than enough and the cd reduction’s dope as hell. I have to test out aghs more often but I think the mana cost is only justifiable after mana regen has been established aaaannnd probably more worthwhile getting after lvl 11 as a 3rd item. 4k can be a lot of time spent farming for a skill that reduces your ability to cast as the fight lengthens.

Thank you for reading! Let me know if you agree or not. This is my first time posting a guide and look forward to getting shit upon.

When do I max fireblast vs. ignite?

(Warning: I pretty much jerk off to ignite here for about 2 pages, skip to the conclusion if TLDR)

FIREBLAST:
1.5 stun duration
Damage: 55/110/165/220
Mana cost: 75/85/95/105
Range 475
CD: 12

IGNITE:
Total damage at duration end: 130/204/294/400
Duration: 5/6/7/8
Mana cost: 95/105/115/125
Slow %: 20%/22%/24%/26%
Range 700
CD: 15

The classic ogre magi build is to split levels in fireblast and ignite with priority on fireblast. Players usually build this on a safe-lane support or roaming Ogre. The idea is that by maxing fireblast, one has maximized the burst damage from multicast at lvl 6 while also picking up ogre’s other disable. The thing is, putting more than one point into fireblast before level 6 is just is not worth the investment.

At level one, fireblast stuns for 1.5 seconds and does 55 dmg before reductions. Note: Even if one cancels their back swing of .53s, ogres base attack speed will still only manage one hit before the stun ends. I think this holds true even if he is blood lusted lvl 1. If it’s not obvious just note that fireblast is not very useful if ogre is 1 on 1, its damage potential is only wurf while, when an additional source of damage is nearby. (tower, teammate, or royally pissed off hellbear who’s just gonna killsteal you anyways.)

A level one ignite will deal 130 damage over 5 seconds. The slow and duration will allow ogre just about 3 hits. This is significantly better than fireblast for these reasons:

*almost all heroes start at 25% magic resis while phys resis is usually 5% – 20%.
*You maximize damage by saving mana for ignite and increasing the amount of times you can hit the enemy. Go figure. If with a lane partner, one point of fireblast at 2 or 4 is all one needs to disable the target for a little bit longer while keeping your mana cost low.
*paired with an Orb of Venom the slow stacks additive to about 50%, greatly reducing the enemy’s mobility.
*Ignite gives the largest window for ogre and his teammates to land hits on an opponent in most cases.

Alright next let’s look at how these spells scale?

As one can see above the utility of fireblast (i.e. the stun) is a flat 1.5 seconds for all levels. With each point the skill gets +55 damage at the cost of 10 more mana. Comparing that to ignite, which increases by 74/90/106 damage, 2% slow and 1 second duration per level, it’s clear that ignite’s growth per level is much stronger. (Keep in mind we are talking about maxing this skill before level six.)

What about multicast damage?

Ogre’s ult produces multiple castings of Fireblast’s and adds an AOE spread to ignite. Throughout all levels of multicast, ignite’s damage stays a reliable 400 over 8 seconds. In comparison, at lvl 1 multicast, fireblast has a .4 chance of doing 440 damage and stunning for 1.9 seconds.

Lines below show how fireblast scales on avg with multicast:
*Lvl 1 multi, avg damage is 308 with a 1.66 second stun.
*Lvl 2 multi, avg damage is 418 with a 1.86 second stun.
*Lvl 3 multi, avg damage is 544 with a 2.09 second stun.

CONCLUSION

It is best to max ignite first in most cases. Its damage is reliably higher until lvl 11 and gives the player an easy way to farm the jungle earlier in the game. After lvl 7, one can start dumping points into the stun in preparation for lvl 2 multicast. By keeping fireblast at lvl 1 you minimize mana usage… only use the stun with a teammate nearby or if it gives the kill, as spamming both spells for harasses will quickly exhaust ogre’s very limited mana pool. Speaking of which, if one uses a clarity ignite has range enough to still safely harass whereas the stuns range is about handshake length.

Thank you very much for reading! I understand that this is a rough read. I will add further edits to reduce word count. Leave feedback, especially if I fucked up on something, I want to make sure that the information here is accurate.