An in-depth guide to Medivh, the hyper-defensive Mage by ThatGuyThatDoneThat

An in-depth guide to Medivh, the hyper-defensive Mage

By: ThatGuyThatDoneThat
Last Updated: Sep 8, 2017
20 Votes
Build 1 of 1

Medivh

Build: The go-to Build

Level 1
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Level 7
Level 10
Level 13
Level 16
Level 20

Threats to Medivh with this build

Threat
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Threat Hero Notes
1
Leoric Portal out of Entomb, easy. To be noted however, using Force of Will on the target of his Drain Hope will not stop Leoric's healing since they are 2 separate effects.
2
Li-Ming Very easy duel for Medivh if you can time your Force of Will right. Even in team fights, Li-Ming shouldn't be able to do much against Force of Will.
2
Li Li Water Dragon is easily countered, but the Slow still applies.
2
Lt. Morales A well placed grenade will throw you away from the Portal, but otherwise she can't do anything.
3
Abathur Abathur can't do anything to you while Medivh can easily hunt him down. Global pressure is the only real danger due to your lack of waveclear, although less and less Abathurs spec into Locust build nowadays.
3
Cho Cho himself can't do much against you, he has a gap closer and sustain but he doesn't hurt. Avoid the Bomb if your Force of Will is on CD.
3
Chromie Useless against Medivh, Temporal Loop is completely nullified by Force of Will as well as her burst. Easy 1v1. Her poke is scary however since Force of Will has a 5 second CD, and Chromie's Q is only on a 1.5s CD.
3
Johanna Can't do anything against Medivh other than stunning him which will cause her to use a 60 seconds cooldown and her only actual Stun. Her pull won't do much since it doesn't actually pull a lot.
3
Kerrigan Medivh is the best Kerrigan counter since it nullifies all of her burst -- and that's the big deal with Kerrigan.
3
Murky The Pufferfish burst is nullified by Force of Will. Slime Advantage is scary however and he can stack up a lot of slows. He's mostly annoying, and since Octograb lost its popularity long-ago he suddenly can't stunlock you.
3
Raynor Theoretically dangerous due to his sustained damage and knockback. In reality, no one plays him.
3
Sgt. Hammer Easy dive with the Portal ,make sure you don't Poly Bomb her out of Siege Mode, that was she can move. Sustained damage tho, counter to the old Force of Will
3
D.Va She can only knock you back, otherwise she's fairly weak. Her zoning can be denied with a casual Force of Will. Well, on 1 person. She's annoying in Pilot mode mostly, and even then she can't do much.
3
Lúcio Knockback, no map pressure, no damage, nothing. Can stop wombos with his Heroic but if executed correctly it really won't matter.
3
Probius Wait he still exists? Same as Gazlowe, just weaker. And that says a lot.
3
Valeera Stun is theoretically deadly, although pretty much everyone goes for Ambush build for whatever reason, you can mitigate everything she does with a swift button press.
4
Anub'arak Scary if he can stunlock you and not allow you to use Portal or Force of Will. Easy to duel otherwise since he can't output enough damage to 1v1 you.
4
Azmodan His Globe can be mitigated by Force of Will which can be upgraded at level 16 with Circle of Protection making it much stronger. He can 1v1 you if you eat his Laser. His splitpush pressure is strong against Medivh however.
4
Diablo Not enough damage to duel Medivh, Portal can help an ally ( if they are not a dummy ), or you, to get away and usually Diablo is paired with burst -- Force of Will mitigates that perfectly. Can flip you away from your Portal fairly easily tho.
4
Kael'thas If he Stuns you and you don't have Force of Will on yourself you'll take a lot of burst right to the face. His Flamestrike poke isn't too shabby either.
4
Zeratul He does burst which you counter, and you can reveal him with Dust of Appearance. You can 1v1 him due to his low HP pool. If he baits out Force of Will, you can still Poly Bomb him.
4
Ragnaros He is really not that relevant anymore. His damage output was gutted along with his survival. Molten Core is probably the most dangerous part, although that's on a 120 seconds cooldown.
5
Chen You cannot 1v1 him due to the heavy regen, gap closer and the Shield generation. Wandering Keg is anything but dangerous since you can just Portal away after it ends or Force of Will away the burst that an ally might suffer. Easy farming for The Master's Touch however.
5
Kharazim Due to slightly recent DPS build buffs he provides strong sustained damage which Medivh won't be able to do much against.
5
The Lost Vikings You lack waveclear and their splitpush pressure will do a lot until level 20. You can 1v1 any of them ( or all the Vikings at once ) , but they have a fair amount of ways to escape.
5
Tyrael Sanctification shuts down your Ley Line setup completely and Holy Ground denies your portal completely. Threat rating is heavily skill dependent on both your team following up on Ley Line Seal and the enemy Tyrael using Sanctification properly.
6
Artanis Easily jukeable, he shouldn't ever catch you and Force of Will can mitigate his burst late game from Triple Strike + Titan Killer. Being a more popular pick nowadays ( although not that much more popular ) he's a threat just due to his ability to pull you way from your portal.
6
Jaina Little poke, very high CD burst. Force of Will completely nullifies all of her damage ,she's an easy 1v1 and you can Portal if she roots you with Ring of Frost. Water Elemental is actually really good against Medivh, that's scary. With the new AA Talent at level 7, she can suddenly do decent sustained damage and go past your Protected.
6
Malfurion Correction : His Roots WILL stop you from using the Portal, as will all other root effects. Besides that, he has a big AoE Silence that will kill your DPS for a significant amount of time.
6
Stitches You get hooked, you die. As simple as that, your HP isn't all that high so even some wonky follow-up will destroy you. However if someone else gets Hooked ,Force of Will is going to mitigate the damage.
6
Tassadar Since his rework, he can suddenly do a lot of damage with Archon, meaning that your Force of Will won't do as much.
6
Thrall Since both Heroics are just as used, he can safely pick Sundering and ruin your day. Ancestral Wrath won't be stopped by Force of Will and nor can you pressure him due to his crazy sustain.
6
Tyrande Since her rework, she'll mess you up heavily. Her Owl poke is hard to react to ( or you just can't protect everyone ) and, due to the rework, she can actually do AA damage now with Darnasian Archery.
6
Xul AoE damage is scary as well as Poison Nova and his CC. You can 1v1 him easily by juking, but you are weak against him in team fights.
6
Garrosh Timing dependent threat level. If he pulls you/your ally while your Portal is on Cooldown.
6
Stukov Silence right on your Portal, how do you like that? Yeah, it's pretty painful. but Stukov is also very weak to dive so if you manage to get on top of him he'll flop and die.
6
Cassia A lot of AOE damage that lasts for 8 seconds due to Charged Strikes. You won't be able to mitigate most of her damage, however, she is very vulnerable to Spell Damage so you got her there.
7
Brightwing Despite her being an easy 1v1, her Polymorph stops you from casting spells ( we all know how much that hurts as a Mage ) and with Emerald Wind's rise in popularity she can push you away and daze you for a while. Also, Spell Armor.
7
E.T.C. A much stronger Muradin against Medivh due to his knockback ,especially with the level 4 Talent that increases its knockback even further.
7
Muradin His stun will stop you from using your Portal and due to your low HP pool ,if the enemy team focuses you because you got stunned, you will be dead.
7
Nova Generally easy 1v1, but if she can bait out your Force of Will, you're dead. Especially in team fights, if Nova waits, she can just burst you down when Force of Will is on CD.
7
Rexxar He does continuous damage and in 1v1 he can send Misha after you. If you Portal past Misha ,right into Rexxar's face, you can duel him.
7
Sonya You can barely 1v1 her by juking, but her sustained damage from AAs and Slams will hurt a lot during team fights. Easily countered by Poly Bomb however.
7
Uther Rework happened, Uther can enable far better without Divine Shield now so Storm is more popular. What does Storm do? AOE stunlock so you can't save everyone and his stunlock ends up stopping you dead in your tracks if you try to dive.
7
Auriel While a great pair with Medivh due to him having a lot of AoE DPS allowing Auriel to heal a lot, she also goes well against him due to her whip. You don't even need to get stunned by it, just getting pushed away from your Portal will screw you over. Also the pull on lvl 13 from her is quite annoying.
7
Alarak Remember Auriel? Yeah she needs to be in position to whip you away. Alarak on the other hand ,just pulls you in the worst possible direction from anywhere ,and with a high range. You can mitigate his burst, sure, but his Silence is still going to hurt since it prevents you from doing any damage and from shielding yourself.
8
Arthas If he catches you he'll kill you if you can't Portal away. His damage is continuous and therefore Force of Will is less effective. If you can't juke him in a 1v1, you'll die.
8
Dehaka Drag is a long duration stun which can mark your death assuming the enemy has any form of burst. Tough to 1v1 nowadays due to his CDR on Drag at 7 and race-car build which allows him to gapclose swiftly. Can basically stop you from going to your Portal permanently. Global pressure doesn't help either.
8
Falstad Despite the sudden rise of popularity of his Mage build, Hybrid build is still very popular which allows you to be less reliant on the burst which you can mitigate. Can Gust you away, can disable your wombo potential with Ley Line Seal and has global pressure.
8
Gall Poke poke poke poke poke poke. Gall's continuous long range poke will easily go through Force of Will. While Poly Bomb does hard counter him, the poke is far too good. His Shadowbolt Volley is easily countered by Force of Will. That is, until the level 20 upgrade.
8
Gul'dan A lot of poke and sustained damage which will go through Force of Will, as well as sustain. Tough 1v1 assuming Gul'dan plays just as well as you, since you can't juke him and Force of Will isn't great against him.
8
Rehgar Rehgar jumps up even further due to his abusive damage and capacity to heal even while Ley Line Sealed due to his Healing Totem. Can stop your wombo combos with Cleanse and Ancestral, can apply heavy map pressure.
8
Sylvanas Continuous damage, Silence and a way to run away from you. She is very scary, but easy to 1v1 unless she burns Wailing Arrow.
8
Tracer Lots of sustained damage ,burst from her Heroic is countered by Force of Will. You can 1v1 her if you time your Force of Will right and hit every Arcane Rift + use Poly Bomb.
8
Tychus You can't do much against Tychus, he can follow you with Overkill, his Grenade is a good finisher and Minigun will burn you to pieces. Strong sustained damage dealer and juker.
8
Valla Oh lord Jesus, you can 1v1 her due to your heavy damage with The Master's Touch, but if you miss once you're done for. She has very heavy sustained damage. Both her Heroics are countered by Poly Bomb ( Strafe ) or by Force of Will ( Rain of Vengeance ).
8
Varian Point and click CC and the power known as "protected btw haHAA" ( only meme, I promise ). His Taunt will ruin your day
9
Gazlowe You can't dive against a good Gazlowe. Medivh's backline dive with Portal is incredible, but Gazlowe's Turrets and their continuous damage will go through Force of Will. Grav-o-Bomb isn't scary, but the Turrets are a heavy counter to your dive.
9
Greymane Greymane has a lot of burst. And that burst keeps on going as long as he is in Worgen. You cannot 1v1 Greymane unless he stays a long time in Human form and you have The Master's Touch finished and you time your Force of Will perfectly as soon as he goes Worgen on you and you Poly Bomb right as Fore of Will ends. His sustained heavy damage in Worgen is an incredible counter to Force of Will, however Go for the Throat gets countered by it. And then he picks Marked for the Kill and you can't do anything about it.
9
Nazeebo The poke in team fights will easily go through Force of Will and hurt. To make things worse, his Spider cooldown at 16 is just barely lower than your Force of Will's.
9
The Butcher He does not have poke, but just like Greymane, he does a lot of sustained damage. If he uses Lamb on you, you're dead as s**t. One of the only Heroes who can 1v1 Medivh, if he uses Lamb to the Slaughter. Poly Bomb hard counter, and Force of Will stops him from healing.
9
Zagara You know the deal by now, global pressure = high threat. And Zagara is the mother of global pressure. If you can't force team fights enough, you're done for.
9
Zarya So Alarak, ETC, Auriel, they can push you away from your Portal for like a second. Yeah? Zarya does it for 4 seconds with a very low Cooldown ult ( Expulsion Zone ) ,and your Shield won't block all of her damage because sustained DPS and those Shields she has really get in your way.
9
Malthael Ley Line Seal him during Tormented Souls and disengage. He has excessive AOE damage-over-time and your damage won't do much against his copious sustain, especially if he takes the Spell Shield on level 13.
10
Illidan Can't 1v1 him, he has no burst for you to mitigate, he will chase you even if you Portal. Poly Bomb is a very strong Illidan counter however. You still can't 1v1 him tho.
10
Lunara You can 1v1 her but in team fights you are useless against her. Her DoT stacks up to 9 seconds and Medivh's Force of Will lasts 1.5 seconds. She can also spread her poison and even with Circle of Protection you can only mitigate
10
Genji Sweet Jesus, he'll destroy you. You'd think about running Poly Bomb against him right? Well then you just passed on a really strong Heroic just to throw Genji off. And even then, he will absolutely destroy you and your team if paired with a Divine Shield or Cleanse.

Side Note Top

Sorry for not having pictures on Braxis Holdout and Warhead Junction. It just so happens that I'm either dumb and can't figure out how to put that picture or Heroesfire just doesn't have it.

Up to date as of 9th of September, 2017. Does not include Kel'thuzad threat level as he's still fairly new. Updated Threats/Map choices/Talents and fixed the color on the "What your team should have" part of the guide, no more OCD for y'all.

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Arcane Rift is Medivh's main way of doing damage. It's decent poke and quite strong if it hits multiple enemies. You should always try to spam it when it's off CD ,assuming you can hit an enemy Hero to refund the mana cost and reduce 5 seconds from its CD. With The Master's Touch, Medivh's damage goes through the roof, and usually takes your enemies by surprise.
Force of Will is an amazing ability. It does not reduce CC abilities from its target, but it can completely nullify the entire burst from a mage. It's also on a very low CD, making it always available to stop the burst from an enemy. The range on it is pretty big as well. It doesn't have a lot of Talents and the only ones worth picking are Circle of Protection and Reabsorption at level 16, which makes me sad, since there could've been a lot of variety added to this ability, especially a bit of damage reflection.
An important aspect to this ability is self-casting it with Alt + W, as this makes it so you can keep your aim on your enemy ,and is also faster than having to aim it at yourself + it assures you don't use it on the wrong target.

Holy s**t this Ability is amazing. This alone makes Medivh completely un-punishable since he can always just get away using it. It also allows Medivh to easily dive the enemy back line. Heroes like Artanis or The Butcher pair incredibly with Medivh since Portal allows them to disengage.
This is Medivh's Trait, and it's a damn good one. While the channel time slightly longer than a normal mount and the vision radius small, it makes up through some cool things. First of all, you are invincible during Raven Form, making it the best escape tool in the game if you combo it with a sick Portal, especially if you Talent into Astral Projection. Second of all, it sees through bushes and allows you to go through any Terrain, making Medivh a mobile Watch Tower.

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The Highs



+ Good damage output with The Master's Touch
+ Has an easy time diving the enemy back line during team fights
+ Great dueler
+ Great at scouting
+ Enables Melee damage dealers very well
+ Very strong Heroics

The Lows


- Bad waveclear until level 20 along with literally no PvE presence
- Very high skillcap and skill floor
- Portal has a high CD and its position is important
- Team needs to play around him to release his full potential

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The smaller the icon, the worse the Talent. Big icon means it's the general pick, small icon means the Talent is not useful, medium sized icon means it's a viable pick.
Stable Portal is your go-to pick. A 9 seconds duration on the Portal gives you more time to maneuver between your team, and the enemy's backline. Make sure that you place the Portal in a safe spot however. It's also great in duels so you can juke the enemy more.
Portal Mastery makes you place both Portals, which increases the execution time and makes escaping harder. This Talent should be avoided since proper positioning will do just as much as Portal Mastery, however it can have its uses since it can effectively increase the range of your Portal. Can be useful especially with Astral Projection for some very significant range. The Portal however is already versatile enough and a 50% increase in duration means you can have full uptime with the level 13 Cooldown reduction.
Raven's Intellect is a good pick if you tend to run out of mana often, which you really shouldn't since Force of Will has a low cost, Arcane Rift basically has no mana cost unless you miss and Portal isn't something you spam all the time. Suggest staying away from this Talent, since just improving your play will effectively make this Talent baseline.
Gives 3 weak Block charges when an ally enters a Portal for the first time. 3 Block charges are not to be called weak, but it certainly is the worst Talent at this Tier, however that does not make it useless. Not worth picking, even tho it might look good.
Gives you increased vision in Raven Form which is needed, considering how awful it is baseline, as well as an active which boosts your view radius quite high. It does not get enemies out of Stealth, but the size of your vision radius is huge. Also note that in Raven Form, Medivh sees through bushes.
Is a niche pick against Stealthed Heroes. It's a 10 seconds reveal, which might sound nice, but it's just inferior to Bird's Eye View in every way, especially if you can actually see the Stealth shimmer.
Is a decent pick. It boosts your damage a fair amount, but that amount is still lower than The Master's Touch. However, this is a good beginner's pick, as dying won't reset your Quest progress ( from The Master's Touch ). It's also better than The Master's Touch if you are very scared of staying close to the enemies and can't spam Arcane Rift every second.
Makes Medivh go from "Meh" damage output to great damage output. The Master's Touch isn't hard to complete, but death is punishing. As soon as you complete it, you can 1v1 most Heroes in the game. With this Talent, Medivh should easily top the damage charts while also getting a fair amount of Kills/Assists. This Talent turns the tables and allows Medivh to play the Damage Dealer role easily, while also being a good off-Support for enabling Melee Damage Dealers like Thrall, Sonya, or Illidan. If you get the hang of playing Medivh, this is your must-pick level 7 Talent.
Is almost as bad as Raven Familiar. The explosion gets triggered by any damage, and it's only 200 at level 1 every 5 seconds. The Master's Touch lets you duel, lets you top damage, lets you kill, outputs more damage over 5 seconds, is more reliable and brings much more satisfaction when used right. Never pick this.
No.
At this point in time, people have gotten used to playing with Ley Line Seal and spreading out against Poly Bomb. It won't do much, and you pass on Ley Line Seal which is a Godly Heroic that allows you to single-handedly win team fights and also games.
So what can this do? A lot of things, that's what it can do. I'll list them in an unimportant order since they are pretty straight-up : You can steal bosses and camps with it since, as opposed to Void Prison it won't put the capture point in Stasis. You can use it as an engage method by using it on their backline to make the fight a 5v4-1 for a brief period of time ; on the more advanced part you can use it right when someone like Kharazim or Rehgar tries to use Divine Palm or Ancestral Healing since you effectively stop them from getting in range -- both of those Heroics have a fairly short range. Can be used to easily setup a Mosh Pit, Ring of Frost or even just a plain old Blizzard if you hit multiple enemies. It can also be used to secure an escape since it stops the enemy from doing anything for 3 seconds, or on the opposite side stopping the enemy from running away since it is, again, a 3 seconds stasis. It is also incredibly useful at screwing over your ALLIED Mosh Pit or Ring of Frost etc. so watch out will ya.
Is not half bad, it allows you to have 90% uptime on Portals if you picked Stable Portal at level 1, and makes dueling against Melee Heroes even easier since you can juke more often. It's also awesome in team fights if you need to move a lot. Although the mana cost of Portal is 75, Arcane Rift basically doesn't have one and Force of Will's is insignificant, so you still shouldn't run out of mana fast.
The range is already large enough so you won't get much value. It's only use is getting from the bottom beacon to the one on Braxis Holdout, and even then, by level 13, it'll already decided which team controls the map. If you control it, you don't need the range increase, if the enemy controls it, you won't get value from the range anyways.
Is worse than the 2 Portal talents overall. You should pick it if you are incredibly slow in rotating to an objective in which case you probably aren't past Wood league ( no offense, just kidding ) but otherwise the other Talents in this Tier are just more useful.
If you're picking Medivh, you're picking him against heavy single-target damage. This does not help with that, and the heal from Reabsorption will save people far more often than an AOE W will.
Is awful, 0.5 seconds worth of duration just won't do much ,those 0.5 seconds of duration will defend less damage on 1 target than Reabsorption will. Avoid picking this Talent.
Is so damn good, a 50% heal is incredible and overall just makes Force of Will 50% better. Put this on an Illidan that dove too deep and they are suddenly safe again. This also lets you do some cheesing, like putting Force of Will on yourself and walking into the enemy's death zone on Towers of Doom while Force of Will is active to get some mega-healing.
Is strong on any map with very close quarters, such as Cursed Hollow since it makes the Poly Bomb spread much more. It does however weaken your dueling potential since the duration of Poly Bomb is halved, but that shouldn't matter late-game since you should never be alone at that time.
Is good if the enemy dodges Ley Line Seal a lot ,or if you just want to take out multiple enemies from the team fights to make it easier. To be noted, you cannot overlap Ley Line Seal with this Talent by redirecting it in order to get a Hero in Stasis for a total of 8 seconds.
Grants Medivh great wave clear and makes him into a very good pusher since he can instantly wipe minions and catapults. You just go to a wave, press Q on it and it's gone. If anyone tries to gank you, well, good luck to them cause you have Portals and Force of Will, as well as a very strong Heroic for running away.
Is great with Mages such as Kael'thas or Li-Ming due to the extra Ability Power, but also with Heroes that are mana hungry such as Muradin ( used to be Valla here, but then the rework happened so she has infinite mana now ) since it does grant 200 mana. To be noted that it also affects you, increasing your DPS by 10%, which is nice.
Can allow some really cool plays. It's also a very strong defensive tool since, if you are fighting an AA-oriented Hero and you want to run ( or you want to save an ally ), the enemy won't be able to AA your ally due to the Stealth applied by Invisibility. Invisibility is the first active-Talent is the game to have a mana cost, which I find pretty cool. However, this Talent requires fairly good coordination so I wouldn't recommend it in normal games.

When to draft Medivh Top

What your team should have



+ A Melee damage dealer, such as Sonya or Thrall who can be enabled by Force of Will

+ Any burst damage dealer since Medivh lacks burst, but he can output heavy sustained damage.

+ A Hero with strong Waveclear such as Xul , Jaina or even Johanna/ Leoric due to Medivh's lack of waveclear until level 20 when he gains Guardian of Tirisfal

What your team needs



These generally overlap with the first conditions

+ An enabler for a Melee damage dealer, which Medivh is great for. If you don't like Medivh, I don't know why you are reading this, but Tassadar is a great pick.

+ A sustained damage dealer.

+ A Hero with strong dive and CC while doing the dive shenanigans.

+ A way to stop the enemy's heavy dive.

You obviously don't need to fill ALL of these conditions with the Medivh pick. Out of all of these, the most important is to have a Melee damage dealer for Medivh to enable. Without one, just play Medivh as a Mage with a lot of dive and defensive options, but don't forget to help your allies.

Outside of team fights Top

Early-Game



Medivh has weak wave clear, unless he can hit an enemy Hero along with the Minions. He is also a rather weak solo laner since he lacks any kind of sustain. You shouldn't stay around the lanes ( unless there is no ally in that 1 lane ,then you really need to soak it so you don't fall behind in XP ) ,but rather look around and make sure your allies don't get ganked. Your vision from Raven Form makes that possible, as well as his Force of Will. He is also a great finisher due to Portal and Force of Will, which I'll explain in the last section of the guide. You should stay close to where the objectives will appear since you are pretty slow. Once you get The Master's Touch, you want to make sure you get it done as soon as possible, so keep poking at enemies whenever you see one, assuming you can run away easily with Portal and Force of Will.
The best poke targets are Warriors or Supports due to their general lack of damage or ways to instantly avoid Arcane Rift. Chen is by far your best stack farm since he has to drink and that makes him stand still.

Mid-Game



By Mid-game you should have The Master's Touch reward and Poly Bomb. This allows you to roam around and scout enemy Merc Camps, to see if you can steal any using your strong 1v1 powers. You can also look for easy 1v1s around the map, no one expects Medivh to be able to kill them. Again, make sure Portal is not on CD when you try to fight someone.

Late-Game



If you get to Late-game and you pick Guardian of Tirisfal, look forward to clearing some waves so yours push further. During late-game you should rarely solo, but rather stick to your team ( This applies to EVERY Hero in the game ,including The Lost Vikings )

During team fights Top

At the beginning of a team fight you should poke the enemy with Arcane Rift as much as possible or keep an eye on the enemy team using Raven Form.

As the battle rages, you need to make sure you use Force of Will on whoever is getting focused by the enemy, while potentially doing hit n' runs on the enemy backline using Portals, if you feel confident in your skills. If anyone dives your team, make sure to use Poly Bomb on them, specifically on the Melee damage dealers. If you pick Ley Line Seal, aim to hit as many enemies at the beginning of a fight, making it a 5v3/5v2/5v1 for 3 seconds, which should ensure you a victory.

The Maps Top

Disclaimer : While some maps will, theoretically, be horrendous for Medivh, a great player will still single-handedly turn the tides of a fight, making him useful on any map. Just make sure you can play him well before you draft him on one of his worse maps.

Cursed Hollow



Great map for Poly Bomb due to numerous tight quarters, making it easy to spread, as well as the double Boss. Medivh can also very easily poke away at the enemy that's channeling due to the low CD on Arcane Rift or just Portal if they are out of range.
The map is huge however, which is awful since Medivh's Raven Form can only move so slowly.
Medivh also lacks wave clear until 20, making it tougher to defend with him in your team, especially if you get cursed. If your team lacks wave clear, Medivh just isn't worth picking instead of a Hero with greater wave clear.
Due to the high amount of impassable Terrain, Medivh's Portal is significantly stronger.

Dragon Shire



Dragon Shire is a map heavily based on duels and skirmishes, both of which Medivh thrives in since he has ways to Support teammates during a skirmish if the Support is not there yet or dead, while also providing a good amount of damage and CC through Poly Bomb. Not a lot of Merc Camps on this map, however all of them are in very tight quarters ( especially the 2 Siege Camps ) ,causing Poly Bomb to gain great value, as well as Arcane Rift if you are fighting for one of the 2 Siege camps.
The map is fairly small, therefore the reduced movement speed on Raven Form is not a big flaw.
Also, hitting the Dragon Knight with Arcane Charge gives you a stack for The Master's Touch, making the Quest easy to finish.

Blackheart's Bay



While Medivh can certainly interrupt the enemy from paying the Coins to Blackheart for a long while, this is one of his weakest maps. It does not feature any tight quarters, the area from most Merc Camps is spread out, the map is large and taking Merc Camps is important, which Medivh can't do. Waveclear is also fairly important and Medivh has none.

Sky Temple



This is one of the best maps for Medivh. He gets a lot of space to maneuver with his Portals, which helps a lot in team fights or just for duels. There is a Boss and the enemy will generally split during Objectives due to greed, causing skirmishes which Medivh thrives in. Not a lot of tight quarters or impassable Terrain, but Poly Bomb will force enemies away from the Temples, assuring you a few shots and a better position.

Tomb of the Spider Queen



A god-awful map for Medivh due to his lack of wave clear, which significantly weakens your early game. However, on the bright side, Medivh gets a bunch of place to maneuver with the Portals and scout out the enemy's attempts to turn-in due to Bird's Eye View vision radius.

Battlefield of Eternity



Another awful map for Medivh since he lacks single-target DPS on non-Heroes. He can be picked if your team already has heavy damage with Lunara or Greymane, and even then racing for the Immortal is harder. Not a lot of place to maneuver either, making his Portals weaker due to the stuns from the Immortals.

Infernal Shrines



Not a bad map for Medivh since his Arcane Rift will usually hit some skeletons as collateral damage when you attack enemy Heroes. The map has an average size so Raven Form isn't a big drawback. Can be incredibly useful for snowballing as you can just teleport your entire team past the enemy's gate to force a fight along with your own Punisher. Talk about 6v5s.

Towers of Doom



Great map for Medivh since wave clear isn't as important, you get a teleport to the middle of the map in mid-game so Raven Form's movement speed isn't as bad, poking to stop channeling is great and Medivh can try to 1v1 whoever goes for the bot Altar in the 1st and 5th phase ( the 2 phases that have 3 Altars spawn, one of them being near the bot lane ). Overall awesome map for Medivh. There is also a boss that you can steal if you manage to do it. You're probably best off picking Ley Line Seal due to that and the fact that there's not a lot of places enemies could clump up.

Garden of Terror



Medivh is fairly good on this map. He's a good Hero to put in the Garden Terror since he can get away easily with Portal, wave clear isn't that important and he can poke poke poke and dive the enemy backline easily. Poly Bomb gets great value on this map ,due to a bunch of tight zones and lots of Merc Camps for Medivh and his team to steal.
Also, hitting a Garden Terror with Arcane Rift will give you a stack of The Master's Touch, making it easy to finish the Quest.

Braxis Holdout



Not the best map for Medivh as, despite his strength on a map such as Dragon Shire where skirmishes will happen often, having him in a constant 4v4 lane will mean you don't have a proper secondary Support/Warrior/damage dealer, and if you fall behind he's worthless in defense. Very risky pick, but oftentimes not worth it.

Warhead Junction



A very large map which causes Medivh's Trait to be more painful. If you don't draft a global ( Dehaka, Falstad, E.T.C., Brightwing ) or a splitpush Hero, you'll be at a great disadvantage due to Medivh. If you can, however, force team fights all the time, you'll still be capable of doing well, however the odds of that happening aren't that favorable.

Haunted Mines



Since the map was never played in competitive it's hard to know what the meta for it actually is. Some believe it's just splitpushing while the enemy team gets the Golem since it's so bad, some say you just need to push with the Golem and win. That means I'll talk about both cases where you'd pick Medivh. In either cases, Poly Bomb only ever gets value inside the mines themselves, so in a splitpush oriented comp it's not going to be as useful. Unless the enemy gets a 100 Skull Golem and you have to defend, then it's actually pretty good at shutting down divers. Either way, back to the comps : In a splitpush comp you want to play him defensive and make sure to save your Portal for escaping an enemy gank. On a typical comp that bases around getting the Golem and pushing with it, play like you normally would.

"Advanced" strategies Top

Hit n' run



You need to move very quickly during this one, so make sure you know where the enemy squishy is.

1. Place a Portal from a safe position all the way behind the enemy's backline.
2. Enter the Portal, make sure Force of Will and Arcane Rift are not on CD
3. As soon as you exit the Portal and are in the enemy's backline ,use Force of Will
4. Use Arcane Rift on an enemy squishy, such as Li-Ming
5. Use the Portal to get away safely
6. Repeat from step 2. Repeat from step 1 if the Portal expires.

This puts pressure on the enemy backline and possibly forces a heal to be used on them. If an enemy squishy is very low on Health, stick around until you kill them ,but make sure the Portal doesn't expire, which is why I really like Stable Portal at Level 1. Make sure that you don't attempt this if you are half-done with The Master's Touch ( or closer than that to finishing it ), unless you are absolutely sure you won't die.

Fort Dive



If you fight an enemy and he is low on HP, but runs away behind a gate, you can still kill him easily, assuming you aren't far too low on HP. You need to make sure that none of your Basic Abilities are on CD, an that the enemy has no very strong CC to stop you from executing the whole combo.

1. Go into Raven Form and see where the enemy is. Try to be out of their CC range, but also be in range to cast Arcane Rift on them
2. Bash them with an Arcane Rift
3. Immediately after, cast Force of Will on yourself to avoid damage
4. Put a Portal outside the Fort, to safety
4.5 If the enemy is not dead and you are healthy, stick around a bit more until you kill them. Otherwise, go to Step 5
5. Use the Portal and, if you are out of harm's way, go into Raven Form

If both you and the enemy live, that's fine, you gave the enemy a heart attack.
If the enemy dies, good job, you made the enemy mad.
If you die, look at what you did wrong. Maybe you got heavily CC'd, or you didn't have mana to cast Force of Will and Portal, or you just had low HP and stood around for too long.

Quick escape



If you are being chased by a lot of enemies and you can't quickly use Raven Form, consider doing this.

1. Look for the farthest away bush/steam vent that your Portal can reach
2. Use a Portal on that bush/vent. If the enemy quickly changes direction and no longer follows you, skip Step 3.
3. Go in the Portal ,and make sure you are in the bush so the enemy can't AA you
4. Immediately cast Raven Form

This is the most effective way to run away from the enemy(ies) that are following you. However, if is a lot of unpassable terrain around, you can also cast Portal behind all of them and quickly go into Raven Form as soon as your go through the Portal. Your enemies probably already used their gap closers, and little of them can go through terrain easily.
If only one of them follow you and your Poly Bomb is not on CD, you can fight them. Someone like Zeratul should be an easy kill if you use Force of Will and Poly Bomb at the right time.
If you picked Ley Line Seal, try and hit all the enemies chasing you with it. It lasts 3 seconds, and the channel time for Raven Form is about 2 seconds.

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