Though slow, Arcane Bolt becomes your main damage-dealer given its low cooldown, constant mana cost and how well Skywrath Mage scales in intelligence later in the game. Use this ability to harass foes out of your lane and to finish them off after your other abilities.

Use Concussive Shot to initiate onto foes if you have allies close by to follow-through, otherwise Ancient Seal is your opener: 1. Target foe with Ancient Seal 2. Use Concussive Shot to keep them near 3. Kill with Mystic Flare 4. Finish them off with Arcane Bolt

Ancient Seal causes an enemy to take more magic damage. Traditionally this is your opener given it allows you to so easily follow-up with your other abilities. Ancient Seal combined with other ally abilities makes it even more potent.

Your ultimate has a small AOE, but incredible damage. Be mindful that the damage is spread to whoever is in the AOE. Wait until an enemy is slowed, stunned and/or silenced before casting this to ensure you get the full damage off. This does not go through Black King Bar.

With your combo., Skywrath Mage will already be gaining massive intelligence and a nice sum of armor. Due to the low cooldown of Skywrath Mage, it makes a lot of sense the value of this ability to compensate for when you misposition or initiate as a core.

Iron Branch can be placed on the ground to then be consumed by your tangos for additional healing.

Rely on Blood Grenade as your initiating or sequential slow on foes when going for a kill in-lane or throughout the ganking phase

An early Null Talisman provides just enough last-hitting power for you to last-hit comfortably while also giving you some breathing room in mana-pool and regen to use your spells consistently to last-hit the ranged creep, harass the enemy or alleviate dependency on Bottle or Soul Ring.

Arcane Boots is most importantly used to give you the necessary mana to heavy use your spells and abilities. Consider disassembling them (right-click on the item and select disassemble) if youre building towards major items like Aether Lens or other. This will hasten your timing in reaching those items which should preserve your mana-pool sufficiently from there on.

Atos is to work in combination with your Ancient Zeal and Concussive Shot. Open with either ability, use Ancient Zeal and then slow again with Conc. Shot or Atos and destroy them with Arcane Bolt. The extra intelligence will make Arcane Bolt even more potent mid-game.

For Skywrath Mage, jumping in right in the middle of a battle so no one is focusing you means you can pull off all your abilities on your ideal target. Skywrath Mage is very weak but has strong spells, so timing your involvement is key and knowing when to stay back until the battle is well underway.

Phylactery provides great stats for ganking heroes that need the additional slow and damage to set up kills and follow-through.

Aeon Disk helps you get out of a jam where you are constantly being chain-stunned or destroyed by abilities like Faceless Voids ultimate or PAs massive critical strikes.

Aghs Shard rewards you for spamming your spells

Glimmer Cape can be needed for Skywrath Mage who either wants to be more utility for his allies or to save his own allies as mana no longer becomes a core issue for Skywrath Mage.

Force Staff continues to improve on Skywraths need to kite and stick on targets to continuously dish slows with Concussive Shot and Arcane Bolt. Force Staff can help you keep your distance on an enemy or ultimately be in range for your long-range Concussive Shot.

Aghs Scepter means all your spells are even more amplified at the same mana cost, justifying its value due to how fast you deplete your mana.

Ethereal Blade is a great nuking component as an addition to your abilities. To add, it can also be used defensively to either disable physical carries from attacking or save an ally from being targeted by physical attacks.

For physical carries who are always on your ass. Use Ghost Scepter to cast your destruction safely. Skywrath Mage typically never auto-attacks and relies on Arcane Orb to be cast: Ghost Scepter ensures you can dish the damage for a bit longer.

Eul's Scepter of Divinity can be used to ensure Mystic Flare gets a fair amount of damage after the disable ends on a target. Eul's Scepter of Divinity can also purge away any buffs the enemy has. In addition, the mana regeneration and movement speed are nice additions to Skywrath Mage.

Skywrath Mage relies on amplifying his magic damage in order to sufficiently pick-off or gank key enemies caught out alone. Ancient Seal with Veil of Discord adds extensively to that intention and the duration for both is extensive; allowing for ganks to take full advantage of it.

If your farm is interrupted and you are going to opt for larger items from the get-go. Go for Hand of Midas. Hand of Midas is valuable only if you know the game will go late and you can take advantage of that with early-levels and faster farm.

Skywrath has two things going for him: movement speed and damage output. Tranquil Boots is a quick item to keep you moving and positioning comfortably to avoid taking damage or getting too close.

Lotus Orb provides the armor to give more survivability but also allows you dispel big stuns/slows or reflect back nuke damage on your teammates who keep getting targeted.

Additional range may be necessary if you find yourself constantly too close to enemies or enemies are easily closing the gap between you.

For heroes who are dependent on their abilities to engage fights, Octarine Core is a great assistance, especially if you naturally build into it by having its components created earlier in the game.

Skywrath is particularly frail, making your positioning important to ensure you can move in closer to a fight or position further to maximize your spell-casting range. Boots of Travel capitalizes on Skywraths strong maneuvrability to ensure he can outrun most people and also engage in a fight anywhere on the map.

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