On the last stop in the Aghanim’s Labyrinth journey, we take a look at how to tackle the Primal Beast at the highest of difficulty levels – Apex Mage.
Completing a difficulty tier in Aghanim’s Labyrinth: The Continuum Conundrum is a very exciting feat, for two games. After that, the realization that the next difficulty tier is going to be a much more daunting task brings us back to reality. The beautiful thing about conquering the Apex Mage level is that there is no further tier to complete.
Initially, we took a look at the best hero compositions to get past the Apprentice and Magician tiers. It was then followed by the best hero compositions for the Sorcerer and Grand Magus difficulty levels. Now, we take a look at who to turn to in order to achieve that feat. All stats have been taken from Stratz.com.
Fastest Wins – Apex Mage
The first three compositions on the fastest wins recorded a time of 00:00, so it is an obvious glitch that those made it in. Ignoring the first three and looking at the lists from 4 to 13, a good amount of diversity can be seen. Templar Assassin is seen in the first three teams, Queen of Pain and Void Spirit have been picked multiple times for their magic damage, and Viper and Luna make occasional appearances. The only hero that makes an appearance in most of the teams is Phoenix (9 out of 10). Undying, who is also a successful hero in Aghanim’s Labyrinth: The Continuum Conundrum does not make it in a single team. The Dirge might be a stable pick, but he isn’t meant for those in a hurry.
Best Composition – Apex Mage
The best composition is based on the rating, which is calculated as a combination of match count and win rate.
Apex Mage possibly has the least number of games played from all the tiers, which makes the best composition data sparsely populated for most ranks. Juggernaut, Disruptor, Magnus and Dawnbreaker boast a 100% win rate for the three games they have together at the Apex Mage difficulty and might be a lineup to consider. With three melee heroes in the mix, all of them can get the benefits of whatever effect Disruptor picks inside his Kinetic Field or Static Storm.
But the headline is again the preference for Undying and Phoenix at the higher tiers of the game. The two offer a lot to the game with their ability to tank, heal, save teammates and put out AoE damage. Not that it is impossible to defeat the primal beast without them, but chances are higher with them in the team.
Most Played Compositions – Apex Mage
A look at the compositions with the highest number of games under their belt at the Apex Mage difficulty tier confirms what the story that is told by the best compositions – Get Undying and Phoenix in your team. Literally all 10 of the most played compositions have those two heroes. The win rates aren’t very high for any of the compositions, but that is to be expected for the Apex Mage tier. On average, it is bound to take many more tries than the rest of the difficulty levels.
Another hero that the top practitioners seem to prefer is Juggernaut. Yurnero makes an appearance in 7 of the 10 most played teams. Clinkz, Gyrocopter and Omniknight are also heroes players find useful. While the data is not available, it would be interesting to see the kind of item build heroes go for.
With that, we come to the end of all the tiers for Aghanim’s Labyrinth: The Continuum Conundrum. The game might seem repetitive, but it continues to be fun through the different difficulty levels, rooms, hero combinations and Legendary Shard upgrades available. This is one game the Dota 2 community would be happy to see brought back every year.
