Trilz’s Dr Strange Guide

Here’s my Dr Strange guide! We finally know what Doctor Strange’s Skills are!

With the announcement of Marvel Super War Season 1 heralds in Doctor Strange. He is a caster/support type of hero specialized in time manipulation and dealing large amounts of AoE damage. His kit is pretty loaded and has a lot of things to keep in mind when playing him!

Passive: Cloak of Leviathan [CD: 270 secs]

This passive has a 4m30s cooldown and it is essentially a get out of jail card. When your health dips below 35%, any incoming attacks that deal more than 5% of you max HP will also trigger a dash in the direction your joystick is pointing and NEGATE that damage. Cloak of Leviathan lasts for 4 seconds after it triggers.

Skill 1: Time Manipulation [CD: 16 / 15 / 14 / 13 / 12 secs] (Costs 30 EP)

His Skill 1 will mark an ally or enemy hero. For allies, their hero and health will be returned to the time they were marked after 2.25 seconds. For enemies, the mark lasts 1.5 seconds and only restores half the amount of lost health (if any). This is a skill that can either be used to keep an ally alive for longer (if they survive the 2.25 seconds, that is) or to drag an escaping enemy back. Also, you can cast this before running in for a trade, either with auto attacks or Bolts of Balthakk. You don’t have to worry about your health bar earlier on, because the enemy won’t have enough damage to burst you to zero so easily. Use this to harrass your enemy aggressively early on. If you time it right, you can even take a tower shot or two before Time Manipulation runs out, since you’ll just return to your original health.

Skill 2: Bolts of Balthakk [CD: 6 / 5.5 / 5 / 4.5 / 4 secs] (Costs 40 EP)

Strange’s Skill 2 is a bolt of lightning that pierces all units hit in a straight line for 120/190/260/330/400 (+55% Energy Attack) energy damage. If it hits an obstacle or goes through an Inter-Dimensional Portal, the skill will repeat one more time, dealing the same amount of damage. This is your bread and butter damage skill, and has a pretty low cooldown. Always try to aim this skill at a wall, or turret or else you’ll be dealing half your possible damage output.

Skill 3: Inter-Dimensional Portal [CD: 15 / 14 / 13 / 12 / 11 secs] (Costs 40 EP)

This was the highlight of Strange’s toolkit when he was teased. Inter-Dimensional Portal (henceforth referred to as IDP) is a very long range ability that will place two portals, with one being in front of Strange. The range can cover about 3/4th’s of the mid lane. IDP will last for 4 seconds. All abilities seem capable of entering the IDP, including turret and minion projectiles (the projectiles will still home towards the target). This skill is a game-changer, because it means Strange and his team can now rotate quickly around the map. Strange can also use this in conjunction with Bolts of Balthaar and his ult to poke from a mile away. It’ll take some time but, theoretically, enemies can poke back by throwing their skills through IDP to hit you too, so take care.

Ulti: Sorceror Supreme

Doctor Strange’s ult fires an orb forward that deals 350/500/650 (75% Energy Attack) energy damage to all enemies hit. When it hits an enemy hero or reaches max range, it turns into an AoE that rains laser beams at enemies, dealing 125/185/245 (+30% Energy Attack) energy damage every 0.4s for 2 seconds. Keep in mind that your ult can travel through your IDP as well, and will pass through minions. The second part of your ult only procs when it hits an enemy hero or finishes travelling to the max range of the ult.

Item Build

I always say in my guides, these item builds are just suggestions. Your matchup will determine what you will be buying as your first item. If you’re facing a very mobile champion who you think you won’t be able to kill consistently, get Cosmic Cube first. If you’re confident you can get kills this early, you could get the Arc Reactor instead to snowball harder. Either way, after boots, get the other item that you didn’t pick up. This will be your core.

The other three items will fulfill what you need in the game. Casket of Ancient Winters will be your go to item for the slow if there’s no problems you need to address. If the enemy heroes are stacking Magic Resistance to survive your damage, you could get the Loki’s Scepter first.

You can also swap the Wand of Watoomb or Loki’s Scepter for an Eye of Agomotto if you’re still learning Dr Strange and not used to his Time Manipulation yet. You are trading damage for another get out of jail card, but Strange already has two (his passive and Time Manipulation) so a three is overkill.

Overall strategy, tips & tricks

The meat and potatoes of my Dr Strange guide. Max out your Bolts first, then your IDP. Take Ult whenever you can, of course. Bolts is your only damaging skill while IDP will let you get around the map quicker for better rotations.

1) Know your downsides

During the laning phase, be aggressive when you have both Time Manipulation and Bolts of Balthakk for free harass, then back off afterwards. When that combo is down, you can instead open up an Inter-Dimensional Portal next to the enemy laner and send another Bolt through the portal for more harass. Be careful since your abilities can also work against you. Time Manipulation gives you a sort of “invulnerability” since you will reverse time and ignore the damage but it also means the enemy will know exactly where you will bounce back to. IDP gives you long range harass but it also means enemy skills can be thrown back through it towards you.

2) Portal for travel

Besides slamming Bolts through your IDP, it’s also good for actual travel. Use it to rotate with your team and threaten objectives like Surtur, Panther or other towers! At max rank with full CDR, this baby’s cooldown is only 6.6 secs. The potential of this skill is still unexplored and frankly, I’m looking forward to seeing this in play between competitive teams.

Thoughts and opinions: Flavor and Mechanics

I think Dr Strange brings something great to the Marvel roster. I’m so excited to see players unlock the potential of Inter-Dimensional Portal. I love the design of his skills and I think they reflects his Marvel Cinematic Universe version perfectly. Unfortunately, there are a slew of spells that are promptly pushed aside to make way for his current skills. Like the Winds of Watoomb, Crimson Bands of Cyttorak, and a whole lot more. I also think that his passive could be renamed to Images of Ikonn, as that would be more appropriate.

A good middle ground would be the Crimson Bands of Cyttorak, the red and golden strands that binds Thanos in the MCU. It can be a CC-focused AoE effect, rather than the flashy but uninspired Sorceror Supreme that just deals more AoE damage.

As for the mechanical aspects, I wish that Dr Strange’s IDP would have a quicker channel time to travel through. To balance this so that you can’t just yeet an enemy away, perhaps there can be a different channel time for enemies (longer) and allies (shorter). That way, it has a stronger identity as a travel spell while not being a CC-zoning ability where the enemy will have to walk around while escaping.

And there you have it, my guide for Marvel’s latest hero, Doctor Strange! I hope you enjoyed my Dr Strange guide. For more Marvel Super War content, you can check out our other feature articles about it. We hope you have fun on  the battlefields of Wakanda.