Laning Agni

BAM
Hello everyone, I'm back after a few weeks of testing my laning Agni. I'm bringing you this guide in response to a lot of people telling me that Agni is only good mid, and now not even that is viable anymore. The midding thing will be touched on later, This guides purpose is to bring you three good builds for laning Agni and not sucking complete ***.
Lets get to it!

The skill order is relatively straight forward with Agni. Take your first point in Flame Wave for some early damage. Second point in Path of Flame for your escape and or DoT damage. Then Noxious Fumes to get the ball rolling with some stuns. 4th point in Flame Wave, and finally your 5th point in Rain Fire. You need to level them up in that order of importance, (always level Rain Fire when available.) Flame Wave should be maxed first then Path of Flame then Noxious Fumes. Fumes last because you mainly use it for the stuns and the AoE slow it gets from Gem of Isolation.

Skills

Noxious Fumes

Flame Wave

Rain Fire

Combos

Noxious Fumes

Flame Wave

Noxious Fumes

Flame Wave

Noxious Fumes

Noxious Fumes

Flame Wave

Ok, I'm going to assume you know what each and every one of those items up there do. This is going to be a short explanation of each guide and why I choose those. And what I substitute it with when the need arises.

Note Yes all of these builds start with Reinforced Boots. Agni is too squishy in lane to be using Boots of the Magi. You will come to love them, I promise.

The All Around Normal Game Build
Now, this build is an excellent build if you are facing a balanced team and have a normal laning phase in your future. You should definitely know within the first few minuted how your laning phase is going to go, and you should plan accordingly. If you are facing two tanks try switching Gem of Isolation with Void Stone. give yourself some extra magic penetration and maybe some kills. Winged Wand has become something of a favorite, while not being necessary it is extremely useful when escaping as Agni as slows are the number 1 reason Agni ever gets caught when running. IF you feel like it then it is definitely viable to switch out Gem of Isolation with Winged Wand if you feel you need the extra speed an slow protection. Purification Beads should be picked up if you deem them necessary whereas Heavenly Agility should be picked up towards the end of mid game, the boost will save lives and by extension time. This build is definitely good for if you are new to Agni and don't quite have the hang of him yet. Gives you a lot of utility for getting out of trouble.

The oh snap I'm Fed Let's Kill Them Build
This build is a high risk, high reward build. Definitely only build this if either A, your confident in your skills. B your definitely on your way to being fed in lane. Or C you just got sick of having easy games with my other two builds. The way you play this build is a high speed ganker. You Spot an enemy out of position while your feeding your Doom Orb? Get in kill him and run away. Long Fights are bad for Agni no matter which way you slice it. This build is extremely unforgiving if your caught with your pants down and die, mainly because you stack so much m-power in Doom Orb That your sunk till you get it back up. If the game drags on into late game and you die (yes it happens :D). Sell your Doom Orb and pick up something that will either A keep you alive like Breastplate of Valour or B give you some boom like Pythagorem Piece Note DONT PICK UP THE PIECE UNLESS YOU SUNK YOUR ORBS. yes it gives you a good boom. but in place of Doom Orb it pales. Yes you can most likely substitute Void Stone for Pythagorem Piece but you wont get the much needed penetration. Because every mage in the game has started buying some sort of magic defense item it seems. I highly recommend sticking with this build for the biggest boom early/mid game.

The I'm Tanky and I Know It Build
Note Just to clarify when I say tanky, I mean you can get away with more ****. Not, OH SNAP SON IMA CHARGE MY LASERS AT ALL 5 OF YOU AN TAKE YOUR DAMAGE WHILE EATING ORANGES.
With that said. This build is made for the tanky mage who at end game can hold down a phoenix with some smart plays. While yes Agni can certainly do so without this build. He definitely doesn't have the better chance of surviving like this one. Late game all of your peeps should have their cannons fully charged. Your Rain Fire will still do good damage in team fights no worries. This build is made more for the Noxious Fumes stun assists while whittling down there squishies with meteors. This Agni is an excellent team fighter end game and should be used as such. Not as a ganker like build 2. Some of the items like Winged Wand and Book of Thoth can be substituted out for say Breastplate of Valour and Pythagorem Piece the breastplate for some much needed CD reduction and the Piece for an extra oomph to your mages boom. Either are good items. and should be bought as circumstances arise.

Note I didn't say buy the Purification Beads and Heavenly Agility in the last two builds because I assumed you would have the forethought to automatically get them as needed :)

Agni isn't a very picky guy when it comes to laning partner's, However. There are always a couple of gods that just, don't, mesh. Here are a couple of examples of who we love and who we don't.

Who we love
- Arachne amazing combo on left side. Her pull plus your Stun = and almost always instant kill. If you get an Arachne treat each other well.
- Hades Yes you can say, oh two magic in the same lane. So what. Hades ult plus your ult is a win. Plus you both can sustain the lane all day if needed.
- Odin This guys ult is great with your ult, along with the fact that its a melee phys with a ranged mage, makes it a solid combo if played well.
- Ymir This guy's frost breath plus your stun = and almost continuous landing of his ult on them. Plus the big guy will enjoy how much you can harass the other melees, leaving him free to breathe on whoever.
- Bastet A rare case, but when it happens it happens purrfectly. Her harass abilities along with her escape allows the two of you to be extremely mobile in early laning game. Plus her early game ult is just straight cheating when combined with your stun/meteors.
- Anhur Finally the big man lion himself. This god not only has your stun capabilities but when times right can chain stun and slow with you in the lane, any Anhur would love to have a competent Agni along in lane.

Who we want to roast
Thor This god, he has a good wall, an a good ult. however because of both of them tends to have balls the size of Manhattan. Most of the time he will miss the wall to save you, or will ult out of trouble leaving you with two very unhappy gods in front of you. Avoid him if necessary. If not. Then Play passively.
Artemis She is a great endgame god, however she needs a lot of love early game, love that an Agni just isn't equipped to give her. Avoid her if possible, if not, Then ask her to refrain from plunging as far into their territory as possible for that small chance of getting a kill.
Vamana This guy is cheap, an great. But his dash skill can definitely cause you to miss meteor shots at key moments because he is either trying to ks or run away. not a big reason, but enough of one to know that there are better options out there.
Bakasura, Kali. These two while not being bad lane partners, are definitely sub par to the combo of Agni/Arachne, and Agni/Bastet. Simply because of the ulting difference. their ults don't synch well with Agni and usually result in half dead gods an no kill laning phases.

Good and the Bad

Agni, after his Nerf, can no longer mid nearly as effectively. But with this guide and build I hope to have shown you guy's how effective he can be in lane, while still being viable in team fights late game. Any feedback is always welcome. Thank you Asmoday for your feedback, was definitely needed and welcome. Hope everyone can find some good usage out Agni now.


Ma®tre