Hero Guide: Ogre Magi

Ogre Magi is a pretty tanky ganker and support hero. He can also roam pretty well with an early set of boots (not starting item, but early) because he has a reliable stun and slow. Situationally, he can also do decent at mid.

Items

Starting:

• Tangos
• Salve
• 2 x Clarity
• Courier / Wards
• 1-2 x Iron Branches

Alt Start (it's a bit unorthodox, but I like it. Don't do this if you're in lane with a carry though or you are the primary support):

• Quelling Blade
• Stout Shield
• Tangos

Boots:

• Arcane: This is the standard choice as its good for his mana pool, works as a support item, and he needs the mana to spam.
• Phase: If you have an alternate source of mana (e.g. Soul Ring, Bottle), Phase boots can be picked up as they give him good speed to gank between lanes and chase.

Core:

• Magic Wand always a good item, especially good if they have a spammy team
• Force Staff: because it's good in so many situations. You can use it to chase, escape, save an ally, screw an enemy, etc.
• Support items (Wards, Dust, Smoke, etc..)
• TP Scrolls: Need these for ganking, counter-ganking, and defending.

Situational:

• Soul Ring: If you need an alternative source of mana, good for ganking where you're getting lots of kills, etc.
• Bottle in the scenario you are mid.
• Vanguard: If you want to build up your tankiness. One of the most annoying things is a support that's hard to kill. Especially since OM gives a stun, a slow, and makes the entire team more effective with Bloodlust.
• Mekansm: Solid support item.
• Urn of Shadows if you're ganking a lot.
• Orchid Malevolence If you're doing well enough to farm one up, the extra silence can be very useful, as well as the mana regen. This is especially useful if they have a blink hero (e.g. Anti-Mage, Queen of Pain) so that they cannot blink away as easily.
• Eul's Scepter of Divinity: Good for the mana regen, the extra CC, and the movespeed.
• Shiva's Guard: Good for the extra armor and INT. The active is powerful for teamfights. You're also very tanky, so the aura is effective on you.
• Pipe of Insight: If no one else has one, you're a pretty good carrier.
• Ghost Scepter: If they have a lot of physical damage and you can't handle it.
• Drum of Endurance: Good pickup if you're behind or no one else has gotten one.

Luxury/Endgame:

• Veil of Discord: More damage from your spells. Also, the stats aren't bad for OM.
• Aghanim's Scepter: Gives you an extra fireball. Great for Crowd Control and the stats.
• Bloodstone: Gives you increased ability to spam.
• Scythe of Vyse: More crowd control, good stats.
• Blink Dagger: Great for chasing, good for jumping in to surprise the shit out of your enemy.
• Ethereal Blade If you're balling out of control, dunking bitches left and right, and want to upgrade your Ghost Scepter to the point of nearly 1 shotting anyone with a lucky multi-cast with that sweet 40% extra magic damage.

Skill Build

He's pretty straight forward to build.

• Prioritize Stun
• Second priority is Slow
• Take Ult when available
• Level Bloodlust last

General Strategy

• Early game you're a very aggressive lanemate
• You roam and gank pretty well
• Ideally paired with another stunner
• Late game, you're good for the crowd control and your Bloodlust steroid spell. Once you have the regen, you should be constantly casting Bloodlust to keep your team at maximum potential.
• You can be a pretty dangerous mid if you're in the right lineup. OM is good at ganking and early levels give him more magic damage.
• If you tank up a bit, then you become super annoying since most people want to focus support. Adding to his natural tankiness means the enemy spends longer on you and not attacking your DPS.
• You're relevant basically the entire game. Early game, you have powerful nukes and crowd control. Mid game, those skills are maxed out and your multi casts help you decimate. Late game, you become full support basically due to having crowd control and Bloodlust to aid your teammates.

Hero Guide: Storm Spirit

Storm Spirit is a pretty interesting hero. Well suited for Mid. By and large a very good ganker and great at surviving. A good Storm Spirit is very hard to play against because, similar to Pudge, he's a very intimidating ganker. With farm, Storm Spirit can carry as well. Depending on your build, he is also a capable initiator.

Skill Build

I think the best way to go is (in general):

1. Electric Vortex
2. Static Remnant
3. Overload
4. Electric Vortex
5. Electric Vortex
6. Ball Lightning (i.e. Ult)

Justification:

• Electric Vortex is your ganking skill
• Electric Vortex will completely screw over anyone that tries to tower dive you
• One level of Static Remnant keeps the mana cost low (70 mana) while still allowing you to last hit numerous creeps when you're trying to push the wave just before rune spawn
• One level of Overload comes in handy to chase, harass (to some extent), and you get it each time you use a skill (even your ult)

Item Build

Starting

Mid (w/ proper support that gets Wards/cour):

• 1 x Tangos (90g)
• 1 x Salve (100g)
• 2 x Clarity (100g)
• 2 x Mantle of Intel (300g)

Mid (w/o proper support items AKA average pub):

• 1 x Tangos (90g)
• 1 x Salve (100g)
• 2 x Clarity (100g)

Then choose:

• 1 x Courier (150g) + 3 x Iron Branch (159g)
• 1 x Wards (200g) + 2 x Iron Branch (106g)

Core

• Magic Wand because it's good. Plus, as a ganker, you will gain charges super fast because the first thing people do after shitting their pants from a gank is cast spells wildly.
• Power Treads because none of the other boots (save TP Boots) make much sense. Power Treads give you a lot of versitility because you can switch the main stat in a pinch.
• Bottle if you're playing Mid or no one else is getting one. Sometimes, it makes sense to get one even if another player has it (especially if they fail at rune whoring). You can make use of every rune type and the regen is very useful to Storm Spirit.
• TPs because they let you jump from lane to lane and gank, take advantage of free farm situations, etc... I usually carry 2 of these around once I get the money.

Luxury/Late Game

• Blood Stone because it gives you the regen you desperately need. The bonus HP and Mana are also very useful.
• Boots of Travel these are good on pretty much every hero late game because it gives you so much mobility, frees a spot that is normally taken by TPs, and allows you to push with ease because you can port onto creeps.
• Scythe of Vyse because when isn't having sheep stick a good thing? Besides, the stats are good, especially that delicious INT.

Situational

• Arcane Boots If you're taking up more of a support role for some reason.
• Eul's Scepter of Divinity If you need more crowd control. You benefit from the Regen, Int, and Move Speed.
• Eye of Skadi Because it gives good stats and has a nice passive effect.
• Linken's Sphere because it gives you good regen and makes initiations super easy (unless they have an AoE stun). You get really annoying with this, but it's not effective in every game because it only blocks single target spells.
• Shiva's Guard because of the stats and armor. You are hard to kill, so the passive will be present to antagonize the enemy team for the entire team fight. The active ability is great for initiating.
• Orchid Malevolence For the silence effect, regen, and attack speed. You can chase blink heroes pretty well, so it's more for heroes with spells that will wreck your team or spammy heroes.
• Assault Curiass to help your team push, it gives you armor you need, and again, because you're difficult to kill, your team reaps the benefit of the passive for the entire teamfight.
• Medallion of Courage can make your sidelane ganks easier because it lets your teammates kill Electric Vortex'd enemies faster. You also gain armor and small regen otherwise.
• Ring of Basillius can be a good pickup for help pushing, the armor, and the regen.
• Drum of Endurance this is moreso if you're not doing well or having to take on a support role. Again, you're hard to kill and this can be great for the bonus attack speed for you & your allies while ganking.

Other

People will pick up almost anything on a late game Storm Spirit since it's all highly Situational. I've seen people go: Desolator, Radiance, Manta, BKB, etc...

General Strategy

• Lane: Usually want to go Mid with him. He can do OK in a side lane, but he's Mid at heart.
• Crystal Maiden is a good ally for him due to her Mana Regen Aura
• At mid, about 10 seconds before rune spawn you want to push the lane so you can snag the rune while your enemy is forced to choose between gold/XP and the rune. You do this by hitting creeps down to low levels, then casting Static Remnant
• Ball Lightning is the hardest skill to use. You'll want to practice with it to get a feel for how much mana you use to travel what distance. Ideally, you wanto use as little mana as possible while getting to where you want to be.
• You are invulnerable in your Ult, so you can dodge shit with it.
• Mana management is very crucial on Storm Spirit. The more regen you have the better.
• Your ult triggers Overload. You can use it to chain slow by only going a small distance.
• The default ganking opening is: Ult -> Overload -> Vortex -> Overload -> Static Remnant -> Overload
• Only getting one level of Static Remnant keeps the mana low, while still dealing 140 magic damage, which is enough to last hit a low creep wave.
• You can use Remnant for vision, or to discourage enemies from chasing you.
• Remnants have flying vision (i.e. can see over cliffs/trees)
• Remnants cannot block creep spawns anymore