Before Reading

This guide is going to explain the difference between utility and damage mages and which ones you should pick up and when. It assumes the player has a large god pool regarding mages and will also require knowledge of multiple roles to gain the full effectiveness of the guide. However, I feel this guide will be a good indicator of which gods you should learn to play based on which playstyle you enjoy, so it should serve as a good resource for newer players as well. This should only serve as an indicator of the most optimal mage choices to increase your team's synergy. If you aren't comfortable playing the particular god, a lot of the time it's best to just avoid them in place of a god that fits your needs above your team's. Because if you are underperforming in whichever god you choose, it will do little to help your team.

Burst VS Utility, the Difference

Burst

Generally speaking, the role of a burst mage is to get fairly close to the enemy team and mash their face on the keyboard, trying to take out as many threatening targets as they can before dying. They usually won't have much in the way of CC or any way to help out their team besides taking out valuable members of the enemy team. You should be picking up a burst mage if you feel your team has enough utility or if the enemy team has someone of high value with low defenses that you believe you can shut down before they get off their abilities. Burst mages are typically late game powerhouses and very risky picks that rely heavily on snowballing and are only recommended if you are well versed with the god and have a good team that's willing to play around you.

Some prevalent burst mages are Scylla, Vulcan and He Bo.

Utility

Utility mages focus more on helping out their team as well as putting the enemy team at a disadvantage by controlling their location as much as possible. Utility mages usually have abilities focused more on zoning or buffing/debuffing rather than just flat damage. A lot of utility mages also possess some kind of movement speed buff or gap closer to better position themselves and fit a playstyle that is focused more towards staying alive and controlling objectives rather than going for kills. Picking up a utility mage gives you more survivability and teamfight presence, which makes utility mages the overall better choice for the current meta.

Some prevalent utility mages are Janus, Isis and Poseidon.

Choosing Your Lane

What lane you plan on playing is a huge factor when it comes to choosing your mage. Mid is obviously the most common role for magical gods and while it will give you the most variety, mages can be played in any role with a few restrictions. Recently we've seen He Bo and Sol being picked up as ADCs in SPL games with hunter mids, and burst mages seem to be extremely prevalent in the duo lane since the start of season 3. There are a few notable burst mage junglers as well, such as Freya and Ao Kuang. So if you want to go into the duo lane or even the jungle as a mage, for the most part you're going to be locked into the role of burst mage and you'll need to make sure your team has some form of utility elsewhere, as most of the viable mages get taken out really fast without any peel. Mid lane and solo are the obvious choices for utility, solo being more towards frontline mage-tank hybrids such a Zhong Kui where mid lane is home to CC heavy gods with lots of teamfight presence such as Isis and Poseidon. While there are certain burst mages that can be played in the mid lane, you will find yourself playing utility mages more often than not.

Synergizing with the Team

The Jungler

If you've decided on mid lane, you are going to have a very special relationship with your jungler and should look to his pick when decided who to play. Throughout most of the early game, you are going to be attached at the hip clearing both the mid wave and the various jungle camps. This means you are likely going to have to pick a god that makes up for your jungler's weak points. If your jungler is playing someone with high clear and damage but low utility such as Kali, you should be looking to play a mage that is more focused around control rather than damage, such as Janus, to compensate. With that same logic, having a jungler such as Thor or someone capable of providing a high amount of damage and utility in the early game would allow you more freedom to pick a mage with more damage and burst in the late game, such as He Bo.

An easy way to make sure you synergize with your jungler is to think of the two of you as one unit. You should be trying to get the most even balance of utility, crowd control and damage to ensure you leave as few weaknesses for your enemy to exploit as possible. That being said, this only works if you and your jungler truly move as a unit, so communication is essential here. Knowing how long your jungler plans to stick with you and how aggressive he plans to play is imperative in choosing a mage. If your jungler isn't being very talkative or doesn't plan to keep to mid lane for very long, you should probably be picking around other players on your team or even players on the enemy team.

The Support

Most of the mages you'll be playing in the jungler or ADC roles will require a lot of communication with the support. This includes understanding who your support is playing and whether or not they intend to play around you. If you're playing ADC or the ADC is playing someone with a lot of solo carry potential such as Ullr, they may not need the support with them for most of the game, freeing them up to peel for you. In this case, even a squishy burst mage who has to get up close to deal damage such as He Bo turns in to a very reasonable choice and, in general, it just frees you up for riskier picks. If you are mid or solo, there's no reason to think the support has any intention of playing around you however, which is why you see a lot of late game backline mages being played in the mid lane. While they do have their jungler with them for most of the early game, when the teamfight phase rolls around, your support should be focused on protecting the members of your team with the most sustained damage and you should be sitting in the back throwing out spells whenever you can.

If you are looking to play a solo laner, the support's god choice should almost not matter to you. You are going to be the one throwing yourself into the enemy team and trying to soak up as much of their cooldowns and damage as possible before the fight even starts and your support should be ignoring you for the most part.

Get your own AKRacing Chair here and support our players, all profit goes towards the teams!