Lvl 1:
- Winds of Celerity: weak, only worth it on the biggest maps and you give up too much for it
- Raven’s Intellect: my way to go, helps you lane for more without backing and helps a bit in team when you are the only hero capable of healing
- Portal Mastery: the best at lvl 1 because it helps you with one of your weaknesses, placing portals when you’re giving vision of enemies and suddenly need to help with portected, it’s the talent with the most utility (con: making portals is slightly more time consuming)
Lvl 4:
- Mage Armor: my way to go. Helps keeping myself and others alive.
- Raven Familiar: if we lack dmg or I can pick whatever I want. Surprise dmg is always sweet
- Dust of Appearance: I rarely pick this because Armor is super useful and I’m big fan of the familiars, but if we have stealth heroes as our enemies or they’re more of a gank squad, i take it sometimes
Lvl 7:
- Mystic Assault: if we lack heals or if it’s a map where I need to dual more or have to be alone more often
- Arcane Explosion: my way to go. 1 Q+W in the middle of the wave is a dead wave, plus surprise dmg (plus good combo with Circle of Protection, this combo got nerfed for a good reason)
- Force of Magic: if I want more dmg (and the enemy is not close enough for getting enough ppl with Arcane Explosion)
Lvl 10:
- Polybomb: if the enemy has some bastard like Genji or clump together a lot or they’re mostly melee or if my team has abilities which can be screwed up by Leyline Seal (or if I need to be a lone wolf raven
- Leyline Seal: I like this more, you can steal camps with it, set up engages, disengage, just way too much utility (but beware to not screw up your allies’ plans)
Lvl 13:
- Circle of Protection: if i picked AE and we need the team protection from aoes
- Enduring Will: enables divers like Illi/Butch
- Reabsorption: mostly when we don’t have enough heals and I do solo stuff
Lvl 16:
- Arcane Charge: if you need a little extra dmg
- Temporal Flux: if you need your ulty (mostly Polybomb) more often (let’s say against someone like Genji or an enemy diver)
- Stable Portal: my way to go, especially if I picked portal talent at lvl 4
Lvl 20:
- I almost always pick Guardian of Tirisfal. Makes you the king of lanes.
- Medivh Cheats: super fun!
- Dust of Dissappearance: meh imo but can work
- Arcane Brilliance: for extra dmg (mostly for allied mages but you are scary as well)
- Glyph of Polybomb: best against noobs or if you fight in tight places but otherwise the weakest imo