Skywrath Mage

Dragonus the Skywrath Mage is a ranged Intelligence hero equipped with tremendously powerful nukes, able to enhance magical damage and thus scales well into late game. However, he is a proverbial glass cannon; while he can bring superb amounts of damage, he is dangerously vulnerable and will most likely meet a swift end if the player isn't careful. Arcane Bolt is his main spell; its damage is based on his current Intelligence level. Concussive Shot blasts the nearest enemy hero, along with nearby units around the foe, slowing them down. The Ancient Seal marks the target with magic amplification and silence, leaving the target vulnerable to magic and unable to cast spells. Skywrath Mage's ultimate Mystic Flare is one of the most dangerous nukes in the game. Its power is split equally among enemy heroes within its radius. Enemy heroes caught in this field will suffer damage; if it is used on a single hero, it will deal its full damage potential. His spells are most effective when targeted on a lone hero and thus suffer decreased effectiveness when used on groups.

Tips

 * Skywrath Mage needs to control the spacing between him and his opponents carefully. Skirt the outside of the fight and slow and silence enemies that attempt to shut you down, everything you can do has very long range and your turnspeed is very fast.
 * The amplification of magic damage couples nicely with arcane bolt's bonus intelligence damage. Ancient Seal also silences your target, so use this to net kills early game.
 * Arcane Bolt deals a lot of damage at level 1 to level 1 heroes. When coupled with Intelligence bonus items like Mantle of Intelligence, even more damage is dealt. The mana cost is also very low, so it's a wonderful harrassment tool. It will also make last-hitting an easy task when you have some good mana regen going.
 * Skywrath Mage is a very squishy hero, so HP items are commonly built. When laning or in a teamfight, try to stay out of range of enemy auto-attacks, and use your skills from a distance, only jumping in when necessary. Force Staff solves this problem easily, allowing a quick escape if danger arises.
 * Mystic Flare is much more efficient on single heroes during ganks, since they receive the full, undistributed damage amount. Try to use this with an ally's stun, however, as the AoE is very small, and very easy to escape out of when not disabled. Using Mystic Flare during a teamfight isn't a bad idea, but it only really works if all the enemies are stunned by a large AoE teamfight Ultimate, such as Magnus's Reverse Polarity. Mystic Flare can be used to kill off the remaining heroes after the stun has been successful.
 * You will need to be extremely careful when facing heroes that can deal damage based on your mana pool or intelligence. Examples of this include Pugna's Nether Ward, Anti-Mage's Mana Void and Nyx's Mana Burn. If these heroes are giving you trouble, you may even wish to consider a Black King Bar of your own later in the game to keep you protected from these powerful counters during teamfights.
 * It is common to begin ganking at level 6. Skywrath Mage needs all the farm he can get for his core items and all the experience for more levels, which equal more intelligence.
 * Skywrath Mage's killing combo is to initate Ancient Seal, then attack with Concussive shot. Follow up with Mystic Flare and some Arcane Bolt's to finish them off. Most supports and squishy heroes like Sniper will drop right after Mystic Flare and one or two Arcane Bolts.
 * A wonderful combination are Legion Commander's Duel and Mystic Flare, this will allow Tresdin to snowball much faster and with far greater ease.
 * It is best to lane with heroes with stuns like Vengeful Spirit, Lion or even Alchemist. Stuns guarantee that Skywrath Mage will be able to land his Mystic Flare. Similarily, Heroes with long lasting disables like Shadow Shaman can hold them in place long enough for Skywrath to hit them with some Arcane Bolts and Mystic Flare.
 * Although Aghanim's Scepter is usually very weak due to Mystic Flare's high mana cost, having an Outworld Devourer on your team, while having a fair bit of farm yourself can justify the item pickup. But beware, at level 3, Essence Aura will NOT restore mana for each use of Mystic Flare, because of its lack of cooldown.
 * Only build Dagon if you lack burst damage. Because of your massive damage output, it almost renders Dagon useless.
 * Concussive Shot will not target illusions, so do not hesitate to use it check if there is an illusion. Be wary of its cooldown, though.
 * If you are level 6 and you plan to kill with a level 1 Mystic Flare, you need to make sure that you harass the opponent roughly half-way, due to the fact that when you factor in magic resistance, it will only deal 450 maximum damage, even lower if they do not stay in for the entire 2 seconds. Having 1 point in Ancient Seal will increase the damage to 531 magical damage maximum, fixing up the problem and deal a bit more damage, which counts in the early game.

Trivia

 * In the start of 's lore, the Skywrath are stated as being hateful and vengeful, yet Dragonus carries none of these traits, and is instead mild-mannered and tempered.
 * In DotA, Dragonus's hero model was a Dragonhawk Rider, a unit of the blood elves. Blood elves are a playable race in World of Warcraft.
 * A silhouette of what appears to be Skywrath Mage can be seen in 's splash artwork, seemingly still having a beta model/texture.