Five reasons Mage Slayer is dominating the Dota 2 meta

Dota 2

3 Feb

Otomo

Mage Slayer is one of the best items in Dota 2 patch 7.35b, appearing in pro and pub matches alike. After the rework received in the previous update, everybody and their mother wants to slay some mages.

But what is it about Mage Slayer that makes it so popular? it can't just be the cool art right?

In this article, we will examine what the Kaya look-alike does and why you should buy it in your next game.

Five reasons Mage Slayer is worth buying

Being most picked doesn't mean being the best though. (Credit: Valve)

It's relatively cheap

With a price tag of just over 2,600 gold Mage Slayer is a pretty cheap item. The build-up is also fairly easy, with Blitz Knuckle being the most expensive piece at 1000 gold.

Players can start the game with an early Sage's Mask for mana regeneration and use that to build an Oblivion Staff. Or they can buy Hood first when playing against a magic-heavy lineup.

The low overall cost and easy buildup make it an affordable purchase for any role, greatly increasing the item's viability.

Mage Slayer trivializes spell damage

Why pick budget Mage Slayer anymore? (Credit: Valve)

The aforementioned item is well-named, as it is amazing at negating the enemy's spell damage.

The person holding the sword of destiny gets 25% magic resistance, a nice bump up from Cloak's 20%. This is solid on its own but it's the debuff that's got everyone excited.

Mage Slayer (the ability, which is oddly enough named after the item) reduces the enemy's spell output by 40% damage.

Now all these numbers sound confusing, 25% resistance, 40% reduction. So how much damage does the Slayer reduce?

Most enemies start with around 27% magic resistance. A 100-damage nuke would hurt for 73 damage.

When hit by Mage Slayer, that same nuke now deals only 32 damage, pretty incredible. It translates to more than twice the durability against spells.

And it's important to note that we mean spells, not magic damage. While these two things are similar, they are not the same. Bristleback's Quill Spray deals physical damage AND gets affected by Mage Slayer, the same thing as Silencer's Glaives of Wisdom.

Against a spell-heavy lineup, which let's be fair is like every lineup in Dota 2, one of the best ways to buff up the whole team and keep them safe is by getting Mage Slayer, a good offense is the best defense in this scenario.

Mage Slayer is an impressive offensive item

Good luck jumping around when hit. (Credit: Valve)

While the item doesn't provide direct damage, there's plenty to like in its stats.

We discussed the defensive aspects, but the offensive traits are pretty nice. Firstly you get 45 attack speed, which is a huge amount of extra attacks. It's very efficient for it's cost.

Every time an attack lands, it also debuffs the enemy and deals 20 damage a second for six seconds, so that's an additional 120 damage added.

In the mid-game, thanks to the bonus attack speed and debuff, Mage Slayer provides a fantastic boost to a hero's DPS. The extra mana regeneration, while not exactly an offensive stat, allows heroes to stay on the map longer and continue to apply pressure.

Mage Slayer is fantastic at blocking Blink Dagger

Planetfall, Earthshaker's Arcana is an exclusive skin.
Credits: Valve

The debuff we talked about earlier isn't just good at dealing damage, it has plenty of extra utility.

For one it lasts six seconds, a lifetime in Dota 2. The debuff deals damage, which means that during these six seconds, enemies can't use Blink Dagger or anything disabled by taking enemy hero damage (Urn charges, Monkey King Tree Dance).

For Blink Dagger, the ability gets blocked for three seconds after taking damage. This means if you hit a Magnus or Earth Shaker once, you don't have to worry about their ultimates for nine seconds.

Oh, and it can also be used to remove Refraction charges on Templar Assassin. It's not fast at doing that, but it certainly helps.

The debuff has no cooldown

Tidehunter's strength Aghanim's Shard gives him a new ability.

One Anchor and Tide can't be killed. (Credit: Valve).

The debuff has no cooldown, this allows players to hit one target, and then focus on applying the debuff to another enemy. And due to the six-second duration, it's quite easy to hit multiple targets in that time frame.

Certain heroes are extra suited for the item, due to having multi-target attacks. The most obvious examples are Ember Spirit, Void Spirit, Tidehunter, and Hoodwink.

This is why Ember Spirit and Hoodwink are dominating the competitive scene, while a Tidehunter with Mage Slayer and Vladimir's offering is unkillable.

And there you have it, five reasons why Mage Slayer is a fantastic item in Dota 2 patch 7.35b and well worth your money.

Featured Image Source: Valve