Playing a support role is a godsend to your team. Supporters generally have the most important task in preparing the ally carries for the late game. These responsibilities include babysitting them in their lanes and opening the map to provide vision to the team. 

However, supports are normally squishy with low health points and armour that make them easy targets for the enemy team. One support sticks out of the norm that has great bulk and farming capabilities that can uplift the team to superiority.

This hero is of course Ogre Magi who has a plethora of useful skills that help allies get a kill and push towers like it’s nothing. If you want to get better at playing support heroes in Dota 2, then here is a guide to learning one of the easiest and most effective characters in the game.

Abilities overview 

Ogre Magi is an intelligence melee hero who has a plethora of disables on top of their useful ultimate that buffs allies and towers to generate more offence. This two-headed monster can lane against enemies with hard-hitting heroes in the early game. 

Here are their skills that you need to learn to better utilise them in the game:

Fireblast 

This target unit skill deals damage and stuns the enemies for 1.5 seconds at every usage. While it may look like a normal stun at first, it synergises incredibly well with its other skills, especially their ultimate. 

It’s important to mention that Fireblast first applies the damage of 70 to 250 from levelling up then debuffs the enemy with armour reduction for 10 seconds. 

This skill is helpful during dire situations or potential skills where a carry hero can quickly finish off. If an enemy hero is about to flee in the battle scene, hitting your ‘Q’ will help your lane push the creepwave and get you a higher chance of killing the heroes against you.

Ignite 

Ignite is another target unit skill that slows the enemy for 20% to 26% upon levelling up. Furthermore, the casks that Ogre will throw at the enemy will burn, dealing damage over time for 20 to 50 seconds. 

This is incredibly important when the enemy unit has really low HP and is about to die. The burn will slowly deplete the health points and eventually kill them in the process. Together with their ‘Q’, this is a deadly attack that will deal so much damage and cripple the enemy heroes when laning. 

Bloodlust 

Bloodlust is a target unit or toggle autocast ability that increases both movement and attack speeds for both Ogre Magi and nearby ally units and heroes. This is a great skill for supporting since it’s aura-based which means it acts as a battery for more damage. 

While it sounds like an average ability seen in the most common carry heroes, it will make sense later why this ability is so overpowered once you get your ultimate. 

Multicast 

Arguably one of the best support ultimates in the game, multicast enables Ogre Magi to cast his skills and items multiple times in a single use. This grants double or even quadruple the effects of his ‘Q’ and ‘W’.

The multicast ability can range from 2 to 4 multipliers where you can seriously do a lot of damage to the enemies. When paired with a damage dealing carry and sem-carry hero, your team can potentially wreak havoc in the map. 

Pros and cons of using Ogre Magi 

As you can see, Ogre Magi have a unique skill set that allows them to potentially help teams destroy the opposing roster of heroes. However, there are still a few problems with Ogre that you need to worry about. Here are their pros and cons:

Pros

• Ogre Magi’s disables are incredibly crippling and can be devastating in the early game. When you are paired with another disabler, you will become the most annoying lane for your enemies. 
• Ogre Magi’s defences are among the highest in the intelligence tier. They are almost comparable to average strength heroes with high HP and physical armour that prevents them from dying easily. When paired with defence-boosting items and heals, you are quite impossible to kill. 
• Multicast is a great ultimate for not only yourself, but your allies as well. You can utilise this by being near your allies and give them boosts when trying to hunt a hero or destroy a tower. 
• Ogre’s item build is not too expensive which means they don’t need to farm a lot during the game. This caters to their support role that will lead carry heroes to farm more efficiently without disrupting their economical movements around the map. 
• Ogre’s skills scale well and have relatively low cooldowns. This means that you can potentially spam your disables while dealing more damage even through the latter parts of the game due to multicast. 

Cons 

• Ogre Magi are among the slowest heroes in the game. While you may have high defences, you might die easily if caught by another disabler or damage-dealing hero. 
• While multicast is a great ultimate, it is still luck reliant depending on 8x multipliers to really deal heavy damage.
• It’s a melee hero which might be harder to lane. Ranged enemy heroes can simply harass you until you have below 50% health which is within the kill zone. 
• Low intelligence despite being an intelligence hero. This also means that you’re going to have low intelligence gains that won’t add to your magic resistance. 

Ogre Magi item build 

When playing Ogre Magi, your items will heavily depend on the circumstances. Here are the usual builds that you need to learn in the most crucial situations:

Standard build 

This build is the most common that you can rely on in every situation. Here are the needed items and why you should get them:

Early game

Tango – Healing for the early game is helpful, especially as a high strength hero which means you can quickly recover health from harasses. Furthermore, you will also need this since you’re a melee hero which means you will be hit a lot from ranged attacks. 

Enchanted Mango – Mana is important as it allows easy access to your skills

Orb of Venom – Any melee hero should have an Orb of Venom equipped for better last hitting chances due to slow damage overtime bonuses. 

Observer and Sentry Ward – You are a support after all, so start warding the map!

Tranquil Boots – Since Ogre Magi is needed at all times and will face enemies as a melee hero support, Tranquil Boots provide solid healing to achieve mobility when warding and ganking. 

Magic Wand – Since you are reliant on your skills, a magic wand is needed for quick heals and added defence and health points.

Core items 

Aether Lens – Used to increase cast range and hit enemy heroes from far away. 

Force Staff – Adds intelligence gains and allows Ogre Magi to be more mobile during team fights due to quick blinks and going on top of terrains. 

Glimmer  Cape – An extremely useful item to help allies escape and stat boosts for your intelligence abilities. 

Optional items 

Lotus Orb – For heroes like Queen of Pain and stunners, this is excellent to bounce off skills. 

Aghanim’s Sceptre – Ogre Magi will double its Multicast multipliers to 8x which provides even more damage. 

Octarine Core – Highly optional but not needed in any way. This is only recommended if you are in the late game and your team is snowballing hard.

Eul’s Sceptre – For added mobility and cancels a lot of teleports and can save you from stuns and incoming ganks by using it upon yourself. 

Heroes who are weak against Ogre Magi

Here are the heroes who will not seek to fight Ogre when they approach:

Earthshaker 

Especially with items, Earthshaker’s stuns can quickly be marginalised due to lower cooldowns and Ogre’s faster response time when synergising their Q and W. When Earthshaker uses his first skill, Ogre can simply Q back and run or either have allies help for a kill.

Templar Assassin

Basically any shield-based heroes, Ogre’s second skill can diminish that in seconds due to their strong damage overtime W. 

Weaver 

Weaver is incredibly weak against stunners and with her low defence and health points, she can quickly get killed in team ganks. 

Ogre Magi is among the easiest heroes to use in Dota 2 because they don’t need to buy the most expensive items in the shop. You can dominate the game without having strong items and your allies will benefit from your skills which will lead to more wins and rank ups in the future.