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 burst mages, explaining what they do and when to pick them.

Burst

Burst mages are usually picked for one major purpose - to eliminate a priority enemy target as fast and reliably as possible, while still providing some level of sustained damage and crowd control after their burst is on cooldown. To accomplish this, burst mages typically have some form of wide, area of effect crowd control, one ability on a short cooldown that gives them moderate waveclear, and an ultimate that poses an enormous damage threat that looms over the enemy carries whenever it is off cooldown. In addition, at least one of their abilities is targetable, allowing them to single out a priority target with no chance of failure. In order to take advantage of these traits, burst mages should be picked in team compositions that possess a secondary form of consistent damage other than the marksman, such as a bruiser in the top lane or jungle. They also work well with allies that can help them get into position to land their burst, such as Sivir or Jarvan, as well as with allies who can help them get out alive after their combo is down, such as Janna or Thresh.

With Jhin using his ult to slow Teemo, Veigar was able to get in range to use his ultimate ability. Even though Teemo still has around 1/3 HP, he's about to have a very bad time.

A well-played burst mage can practically win a teamfight in the first few opening seconds. In the event of a well disguised ambush, or an immediate capitalization on an enemy carry’s mispositioning, the burst mage can instantly turn the upcoming fight into a 5v4 situation, heavily tilting the situation in their favor. Even if the enemy team refuses to fight after losing their carry, it opens up chances for their team to claim objectives and establish ward and map dominance. The best way for a burst mage to maximize their presence in the game is by seizing upon any opportunity to instantly eliminate a member of the enemy team, then fighting alongside their allies with their cc and basic rotation of spells. Rather than large scale teamfights or chaotic skirmishes, burst mages work best either from ambush, where the enemy has little time to react, or following up on a hard initiation by their allies.

Syndra, in the current patch, is the premier burst mage. She possesses all of the normal traits of a burst mage, with low cooldown waveclear and AoE damage on her Q, extra AoE damage on her W, a long range, AoE CC on her E, and colossal, targeted burst damage on her ultimate. By stacking her balls while hiding in wait, Syndra can easily stun an unwary enemy and drop them before they have a chance to fight back, or she has the ability to sit back and wait for an enemy to make a mistake before quickly removing them from the map.

Aurelion Sol was a happy dragon...

Until suddenly, a few seconds later, he wasn't. This before and after picture took place over a period of about 2 seconds, in which Syndra used a single rotation of spells on him and dropped him from nearly 100 to 0.

While burst mages have the ability to deal massive, instant damage, their damage falls off significantly after they use their initial combo. If they are unfortunate enough to accidentally waste their combo on an enemy who finds some way to survive, the burst mage will be quickly overshadowed by the enemy mage in the teamfight. They also do poorly against tanky enemies who can stick directly on top of them for an extended period of time, as they have a relatively lower amount of sustained damage in comparison to their burst. Because of this, it is best to avoid picking a burst mage into a team with more than two tanks or into champions with very strong peel or allied damage mitigation, such as Tahm Kench or Kayle.

A few examples of burst mages are Annie, Syndra, and Veigar. Each of them has a single form of AoE CC, along with an initial combo that makes up the majority of their damage threat. Rather than relying on repeated use of their basic combo to take down enemies, a large portion of their teamfighting potential is stacked onto their ultimate abilities.

Annie's AoE stun can be used in conjunction with her ult, which both locks down and almost instantly deletes the enemy Vayne.

Itemization on Burst Mages

In general, burst mages should focus on items that allow them to maximize their damage and get off their full combo on the target of their choice as frequently as possible, preferably without dying. As such, items such as Luden’s Echo, Rabadon’s Deathcap, and Void Staff are even more important on them than on control or battle mages. They want to make sure that the enemy they burst does not survive, no matter what defensive items the enemy might have built. Since they fight at medium range, and generally have some form of self-peel, defensive items such as Abyssal Scepter and Rod of Ages are less important on them. Syndra, for example, does not require defensive items except in specific matchups or until very late in the game. Instead, she usually rushes Morellonomicon into a heavily damage oriented item.

In order to become a threat as early as possible, burst mages should usually focus more on proper warding and positioning to defend themselves in lane as opposed to building defensively. Two matchups that can be exceptions to this rule are against Zed or LeBlanc, two assassins with heavy damage that is almost impossible to avoid, even while trying to play safely and under tower. In these cases, the burst mage should build only as much defense as is strictly required in order to survive against all in attempts.

Conclusion

Burst mages are a cross between a control mage and an assassin, with less utility and mobility, but considerable crowd control and initial burst damage. While they might not be able to stand and trade like a battle mage, nor back up their team as well as a control mage, burst mages are the best choice when you need to reliably make one specific enemy a non-factor in every fight. They are not as flashy as assassins, but it is almost impossible for them to miss their target once they get in range. If you want to hold an enemy’s life and death in the palm of your hand, neutralizing any impact they could make on the game, there is no better choice than a burst mage.

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