This week on The Top 5 let’s take a look at the best Aghanim’s Scepter upgrades in the game. Currently of the 113 heroes in the game, 96 have received Scepter upgrades. The idea of Aghanim’s scepter upgrades is a favorite of Icefrog, so expect to see additional Scepters added in the future. Again this is a list based on personal preference, not fact. So with that in mind lets get into the top 5 best Aganhim’s Scepter upgrades in the game.
Best Aghanim’s Scepter Upgrade #5 – Weaver
Time Lapse
Cast Range: 0 ⇒ 1000
Cooldown: 60/50/40 ⇒ 16
Reduces cooldown, and allows Weaver to cast Time Lapse on an ally.
Weaver’s Aghanim’s upgrade allows Time Lapse to be cast on an ally. The addition of this Scepter made four position Weaver a real possibility. The Aghs upgrade also reduces the cooldown to 16 seconds, which means that Time Lapse can be cast multiple times in a team fight, giving weaver the opportunity to survive for longer. The Scepter also provides decent stats for Weaver, something which is always beneficial.
Best Aghanim’s Scepter Upgrade #4 – Tinker
Tinker’s Aghanim’s Scepter upgrades 2 separate spells, Laser and Heat-seeking missile.
Laser
Bounce Radius: 0 ⇒ 650
Causes Laser to refract between all visible enemy units within range.
Without the Aghanim’s upgrade Laser affects one target giving them 100% miss rate for up to 4.5 seconds. With the upgrade, Laser will affect bounce between all heroes within a 650 radius, dealing damage and applying the miss chance. With Aghanim’s Tinker has the ability to disjoint team fights whilst dealing heavy chunks of damage.
Heat-seeking Missile
Number of Targets: 2 ⇒ 4
Increases Heat-Seeking Missile target count
The second spell affected by Tinker’s Aghanim’s Scepter upgrade is Heat-seeking Missile. The Scepter upgrade increases the number of missiles from 2 up to 4. Considering that the missile’s each deal 350 damage, the upgrade allows Tinker to dish out 1400 damage on a spell that he can refresh and cast multiple times in a fight.
Overall Tinker’s Aghanim’s Scepter allows for him to dish out massive damage in team fights and heavily disjoint the efforts of the enemy.
Best Aghanim’s Scepter Upgrade #3 – Shadow Fiend
Like Tinker, Shadow Fiend receives two upgrades from Aghanim’s Scepter.
Necromastery
Max Souls: 15/22/29/36 ⇒ 22/30/38/46
Increases max souls.
The first skill affected by the Aghanim’s Scepter upgrade is SF’s passive Necromastery. The agh’s increases the max souls that SF can collect to 46, meaning that SF gets an extra +20 base damage when he is at max souls. In addition, SF also has the ability to increase this damage even further by picking up +2 Damage Per Soul as his level 20 talent. This would increase the damage from 144 to 184 damage when at max souls.
Requiem of Souls
Damage & Heal per Line on Return: 0 ⇒ 32/48/64
Increases Necromastery Max Souls and causes Requiem of Souls to return back to Shadow Fiend. The wave back to Shadow Fiend deals less damage but heals Shadow Fiend for all the damage it dealt.
The Agh’s upgrade also affects SF’s ultimate by increasing the number of lines produced and also causing all the lines to retract back to SF dealing 40% damage and healing SF for all the damage dealt.
If at max souls, Requiem has the ability to deal over 1k damage without the Aghanim’s upgrade. With the Aghanim’s upgrade Requiem has the potential to reach nearer 2k damage, which is enough to burst down the majority of heroes very easily.
Overall the SF Aghanim’s Scepter upgrade increases both the right click damage and also burst damage from SF’s ultimate.
Best Aghanim’s Scepter Upgrade #2 – Invoker
Invoke
Cooldown: 6 ⇒ 2
Mana Cost: 60 ⇒ 0
Decreases cooldown and removes mana cost from Invoke. Adds one level to the stats provided by Quas, Wex, and Exort on all Invoked spells.
Coming in at second on the Top 5 Best Aghanim’s Scepter upgrades in Invoker. Aghanim’s is considered core on Invoker as it reduces the cooldown of invoke down to two seconds and also removes the mana cost, meaning he is free to invoke multiple times during a fight. The main benefit is that with a two-second cooldown on Invoke it allows for Invoker to easily execute his numerous combos and dish out the most possible damage during a team fight.
Invoker also receives some decent stats from the Aghanim’s upgrade making it a worthwhile investment for Invoker.
Best Aghanim’s Scepter Upgrade #1 – Anti Mage
Spell Shield
Cooldown: 0 ⇒ 12
Causes Spell Shield to passively block and reflect a targeted spell once every 12 seconds. Disabled with Break.
In the 7.00 patch, Anti-Mage was given an Aghanim’s Upgrade, and it goes straight to the top of the best Aghanim’s upgrades. AM’s Aghanim’s upgrade makes his passive Spell Shield block and reflect one incoming spell every 12 seconds. Essentially AM receives a Linken’s Sphere and a Lotus Orb for more than half the cost. The only downside is that you do not get the stats that both items provide.
Overall the AM Aghanim’s upgrade provides him with decent stats but the change to Spell Shield is a real winner. Since its realize, Aghanim’s Scepter has become a common pick up for the majority of AM’s.
Aghanim’s Scepter Upgrades – Final Thoughts
With 17 heroes still yet to receive Aghanim’s scepter upgrades expect to see more and more Scepter upgrades be added in the future.
- Heroes that do not have an aghs upgrade as of the time of this writing are: