Battlemages are essentially Mage Bruisers, characters that need to get close to do damage and that have spells that help them survive while doing so. This is because they tend to have short-ranged spells and usually some sustain or defensive capabilities and both these gain from being able to survive.
As such, Battlemages tend to have an affinity towards both AP which they scale from and defensive stats. Battlemages employ a mix of Mage items and items specifically made for Battlemages — but the latter set is limited. Battlemages can also employ tank items when they are strong, as the biggest necessity for Battlemages to do damage is being close to the enemy and being able to survive, something tank items are made to do.
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Key Takeaways in Itemizing Battlemages:
- Battlemages are short-range Mages that trade their own health to do damage.
- Since they need to be close, they tend to build movement speed, AP, and health
- They can build almost all along the scale of glass cannon to full-on tank
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Variations of Battlemages
In general, Battlemages can range on the spectrum of full glass cannon to very tanky, though full-on tank since then they have no damage and their sustain tend to scale with AP, meaning they may even reduce their effective health by not building AP.
Glass cannon Battlemages are just short-range Mages as they don’t trade their health for damage, but instead, try to get in range with their utility spells to blow someone up.
We have Battlemage variants without mana like Vladimir and Mordekaiser which build only items without mana. And mana-based ones that can build the same builds as traditional mages but tend towards items with more health or early defensive items. Examples are Swain, Ryze, Cassiopeia, and Sylas
There is also the difference between Battlemages that have burst in their kit and those that need to do sustained damage — like Vlad vs Swain. A Swain will almost always build some survival for this reason, while a Vlad can build effectively like a one-shot glass cannon.
What Battlemages Need From Items
One of the crucial necessities of sustain Battlemages is to survive the burst that can be inflicted on them — to then be able to drain tank the sustained damage. So items like Archangel’s, items with lots of health like Rod of Ages and Gargoyle Stoneplate as well as Zhonyas and Crown of the Shattered Queen are very powerful to tank that initial damage.
Another requirement is to get into range and to stick to targets, which is why items like Rocket Belt, Cosmic Drive, Rod of Ages, and Rylais are popular. But any item giving movement speed and some survivability or damage might be considered.
Lastly, as Battlemages tend to be in the midst of the enemy team, items with AoE debuffs like Frozen Heart, Jak’Sho, and Abyssal Mask are strong.
Balancing Survival and Damage
Battlemage itemization tends to be a balancing act of damage and survival, without defensive stats it is difficult to survive to be able to sustain tank and with low AP you don’t sustain much and can largely be ignored. You also need to balance how much additional movement speed you need to be able to get into the opponents, without compromising your survival and damage.
A Battlemage like Vladimir with a supreme survival cooldown just needs a bit of movement speed with items or Ghost and then he can build full glass cannon. But sometimes you also require a Zhonyas to be able to get off a second rotation of spells.
For certain Battlemages, if you can survive based on positioning and your abilities and still do all the damage you need to do, you can go full glass cannon. But for most, you still want to build defense to be able to continuously stay in combat.
Optimally a sustain Battlemage wants some health, some resistances to the most dangerous source, and AP to maximize their effective health while also doing damage.
Specific Itemization Choices
Most Tank items scale with AD or bonus health and often involves auto attack components that are not that useful for mages. But there are certain use cases for movement speed items like Deadman’s Plate and Chemtech. Other items like Sunfire Cape, Radiant, and Jak’Sho also have their place at times and when they are strong as they either provide some damage or team sustain and a lot of survival stats.
As Battlemages tend to get close to the enemy, they can also make use of items like Frozen Heart, Randuins, and their passives. Anathemas chains can be useful to single out certain damage dealers that can take you down and make that task much more difficult for them.
