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

Become the Artillery

Artillery mages are some of the longest ranged champions in the game, assaulting the enemy team with a nonstop bombardment of area of effect spells. They sit on the backlines of a fight, behind their tanks and far out of reach of the enemy team. Every artillery mage possesses three major traits: they have area of effect damage with high scaling into late game, extremely long range on two or more of their abilities, and strong waveclear. They excel at wearing down the enemy team from a long range as well as picking off low health targets who attempt to retreat from the fight. The majority of their damage comes by rotating between their low cooldown basic abilities, allowing them to output a significant amount of damage that completely discourages an enemy from engaging in a fight. The longer the artillery mage is allowed to spam their abilities, the greater an advantage their team will have. As such, they function best when paired with heavy peel and a strong tankline, especially one that can force a teamfight once the artillery mage has softened up the enemy. Champions such as Zac, Sejuani, and Alistar all have the ability to keep the artillery mage safe while also having the ability to jump onto the enemy.

The distance that Vel'Koz is able to apply damage from is much farther than anything Ezreal can throw at him (excluding his ultimate).

In exchange for significantly lower kill pressure on their own than any of the other mage subclasses, artillery mages have some of the best pressure when combined with their team, especially in 4v4 or 5v5 situations. Their sieging power and ability to poke out enemies from under their tower allows the artillery mage to shove in towers even in situations most other mages would be ineffective, or discourage teamfights even when significantly behind. This can let them stall out games long enough for a losing team to stage a comeback. As such, artillery mages tend to fight the best in lanes or in the river, rather than in the jungle. While fighting in the jungle may give them more obstacles to hide behind, it can also interfere with their ability to properly distance themselves and make it impossible for their allies to peel for them.

Even from behind and with low mana, Ziggs is still able to stall out the enemy push from out of harms way, giving his allies time to assist him.

Xerath is one of the primary artillery mages, with relatively low cooldowns on all of his basic abilities and a very long range ultimate. He is fully capable of bombarding the enemy team with a constant rotation of spells, dealing large amounts of AoE damage. In the event that the enemy escapes the range of his basic combos, he has his ultimate to pick off the survivors. While his lane pressure is on the low side and his roaming power is worse than many other mages, his waveclear is strong enough to allow him to scale into late game with a vengeance.

Can you see Xerath? Neither can Annie, but Xerath can still hit her.

In exchange for their high, AoE damage and extraordinary range, artillery mages are entirely skillshot based, requiring precise aim to connect their spells with their enemies. Against teams with high movement speeds or a variety of dashes and blinks, the artillery mage can have a difficult time poking down the enemy before a fight. They also have very little in the way of mobility or self-peel, making it almost impossible to escape once an enemy is on top of them. Assassins and Divers are an artillery mage’s worst nightmare, especially when the mage is isolated from their team. Without peel from their team, the artillery mage will usually be deleted before they have much of a chance to fight back. Enemies such as Fiora, Zed, and Nocturne are difficult to properly play an artillery mage into, thanks to their ability to quickly close the distance and the difficulty in peeling them off once they do. Enemy team compositions with heavy engage or a slew of assassins are usually best to avoid picking an artillery mage into.

Here, Ziggs has made one of the largest mistakes an artillery mage can make; he got too close while the enemy could still fight back, giving Zyra the opportunity to kill him.

The three major artillery mages are Vel’Koz, Xerath, and Ziggs. All three of them serve slightly different purposes, but have the major traits of artillery mages: long range, low cooldown basic abilities, strong waveclear, high scaling into late game, and very little mobility and self-peel. Vel’Koz does the best at destroying teams with high magic resist, as his kit contains large amounts of true damage, Xerath has the strongest damage on a single rotation of his basic combo and the best AoE, and Ziggs excels at sieging and clearing minion waves to stall out pushes.

Itemization on Artillery Mages

Artillery mages rely on low cooldowns and repeated use of their abilities to reach their maximum potential. As such, items that offer mana sustain and cooldown reduction are prevalent in their early game build path, with their most common first item being Morellonomicon. The more often they can spam their abilities without having to retreat back to their fountain, the better it is for them. After building their mana and cooldown reduction, artillery mages should focus on altering their needs to suit the game. If they are out on the map for extended periods of time, constantly throwing spells, then Archangel's Staff may be a good buy. If they need to deal with an enemy who is excellent at closing the gap, then Rod of Ages or Zhonya’s Hourglass could be a better choice. When fighting against a team with high mobility, Rylai’s Crystal Scepter will help the artillery mage keep the proper distance and land their skillshots. Because of the distance they fight at, artillery mage’s builds can be some of the most varied and forgiving of all the mages, second only to control mages.

Conclusion

Artillery mages are exactly what they sound like; long range bombardment specialists with little mobility and a heavy reliance on their frontline to keep them safe. Once they can set up far outside of the enemy team’s range, however, their ability to deal damage without any fear of retaliation is unparalleled. They have no need to stand and trade with their enemies, as their enemies are often dead or in retreat long before the artillery mage has any need to get close. If you need a champion who can win a fight without ever closing the distance, then an artillery mage is your best bet.

This is why people hate geometry, Vel'Koz. While he is at a significantly closer range than necessary, it is still possible to see where his laser's range would have normally ended.

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