Choosing the Right Mage Part 2: Battle Mages
A brief guide to the strengths and weaknesses of battle mages.
Overview
With the upcoming meta shifts, assassins are likely to be far more prevalent in the midlane than they have been throughout the recent patches. Regardless, this does not lower the importance of the mage class in the slightest. With their access to hard crowd control and their high scaling, consistent magic damage, mages will still have their place in many team compositions regardless of the upcoming assassin rework. However, not every mage performs the same from game to game. Picking the mage with the best tools for the job can make or break your ability to carry a game. While this can be tricky at times, splitting the various mage champions into four main categories- Control, Battle, Burst, and Artillery- can make it easier to narrow down which mage you should choose. This particular post will be focused on battle mages, explaining what they do and when to pick them.
Battle
Battle mages are defined by their ability to fight on the front lines of a fight, taking hits that would fell any other mage and surviving while outputting consistent damage. Although their upfront burst damage often pales in comparison to the other three types of mages, they excel at sticking in a fight for a prolonged period of time through the usage of shields, healing, invulnerability, or, in the case of Karthus, the ability to continue fighting after death. Because of this, their damage is no lower than other mages over the duration of a teamfight. The paced, consistent damage that comes from a battle mage can quickly burn through the health bars of the enemy team under the right circumstances. Due to their need to draw out a teamfight in order to reach their maximum potential, as well as their requirement to be relatively close to the enemy, battle mages tend to work best when paired with a heavily crowd control oriented tank who can help lock the enemy down and absorb damage to keep them alive. They can also be useful on a team with a strong healer, such as Soraka or Nami, or with a dedicated sweeper who can charge in near the end of a fight and quickly eliminate low health enemies, such as Master Yi.
In this picture, You can see exactly how close Rumble needs to be in order to maximize his damage. He is preparing to fight in concert with his allied Ekko, relying on his shield and his ally to stay alive even while at low hp against a Yasuo and Darius. The missing portions of the enemy health bars were burned down by Rumbles Ult and Flamspitter moments before.
When utilized properly, a battle mage is nearly impossible to take down in a short period of time. Even when an enemy focuses their attention on them, the battle mage is often one of the last champions to go down in a fight. Whereas other mages will die if an enemy bruiser or assassin gets on top of them, a battle mage is fully capable of standing there and trading blows if need be. They tend to thrive in chaotic teamfights where they can get close to several enemies at once, maximizing their damage output. In order to dominate a team fight, battle mages should focus on getting close to the enemy team and staying there for as long as possible, keeping a steady rotation of spells in order to pose a constant threat that can not be ignored.
Even though Karthus has died in this picture, his passive allows him to continue dealing damage for several seconds. His passive allows him to get up close to the enemy without having to worry too much about dying.
A good example of a battle mage would be Rumble, who carries a massive amount of soft crowd control and raw damage in his kit, along with a spammable shield that can be crucial to keeping him alive long enough to melt the enemy. Enemies are unable to ignore him because of his ability to force them into a fight with his massive slow on his E and ultimate abilities, but also have a difficult time killing him quickly. Once he manages to get close, Rumble really starts to shine. With a potential 150% ap ratio on his spammable, aoe flamespitter, Rumble can burn an entire team to death in one or two rotations of his spells if they allow him to stay within range. Even if he is focused, his natural tankiness and built in shields let him shrug off damage so he can stay in the fight.
In comparison to their significant strengths, however, battle mages also have some of the most noticeable weaknesses of the mage class. As a whole, they tend to be lacking in the hard crowd control that most other mages possess. Against teams with strong kiting capabilities or large amounts of crowd control, a battle mage can be neutralized and kept at a distance where they can do nothing but serve as a punching bag. Since most battle mages have to run at the enemy in order to deal damage, teams that don’t bother to stand and fight can result in a frustrating experience. In addition, anything that interferes with their ability to rotate their spells, such as chained crowd control, will drastically reduce their survivability. Even without the enemy team performing either of these actions, one mistaken spell use at the wrong time can spell the end of the battle mage. At the distance they prefer to fight at, there is nearly no room for error, and one screw up can cost the entire teamfight. Because of these weaknesses, battle mages may not be the optimal choice against enemies who can easily keep them at a distance.
Here are two results of mistiming abilities as a battle mage. In the first image, Vladimir waited too long to use his pool and failed to dodge Rengar's snare. In the second, Vladimir panicked and pooled too early, allowing Rengar the perfect opportunity to land a guaranteed snare. In both pictures, Vladimir died shortly afterwards.
Examples of battle mages include Aurelion Sol, Karthus, Rumble, Swain, and Vladimir. Each of these champions has tools that allow them to mitigate damage and continue fighting even at close ranges to the enemy team, while possessing consistently paced damage rather than initial burst.
Itemization on Battle Mages
Like every other champion, your build as a battle mage should vary depending on the enemy team and the pacing of the game. However, in general, battle mages tend to focus on items that offer them damage and survivability simultaneously. Anything that can extend how long they can stay in a fight is fair game for a battle mage, along with items that raise their threat to the enemy. Aurelion Sol, for example, relies on proper distancing and a high movement speed to stay alive and deal damage. As such, items such as Rylais, Abyssal Scepter, and the Hextech GLP-800 are core on him, allowing him to force enemies into trying to fight him as well as giving him the tankiness he needs. Vladimir, on the other hand, acquires damage through building health, relies on healing to continue fighting, and has no use for mana. As such, items such as Hextech Protobelt and Spirit Visage allow him to maximize his potential.
The one exception to varying build paths, however, is Zhonya’s Hourglass, which is crucial on practically all battle mages. It gives them a slightly larger room for error with the active, which can function as a panic button in the event of a failed skill rotation or a mistimed dodge, while also increasing their damage by some degree.
Conclusion
Battle mages function as something of a cross between a mage and a bruiser, both taking and dealing damage without issue. In contrast to most other mages, battle mages tend to be the most comfortable face to face with the enemy, thriving at the heart of the fight. They might not have the ability to blow up enemies instantly, but are fully capable of melting through an enemy team given enough time. In the proper situation, a battle mage can be the heart of their team, standing and fighting at the frontlines.
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