DotaTheory Guide to Anti-mage

The ultimate and everyone's favourite farmer. Today I will be showing the ideal way of playing the cookie cutter Antimage. Yes its the usual build but with insights in it and further explanations on the item Choices. This will allow you to fully understand the Hero's role and ability. So let's get started.
The Anti-Mage is known as one of the only two Heroes to have a Blink along with Queen of Pain. After being trash tier for awhile , he was eventually picked as a counter to the hardest carry in the game at that time known as Medusa. Soon people realised his strong carry potential as a quick farm carry , a role similar to Alchemist and his split push ability. DK Burning is most reknowned for his 1 blink 1 Mana Break 3 stats build. The Antimage I will be discussing is the Safe Lane carry with 2 supports and of course an alternative build when playing with 4 carries.

Anti-Mage


Strength : 20 + 1.2
Agillity : 22 + 2.8
Intelligence : 15 + 1.8
Level 1 HP: 530
Level 1 Mana :195
Damage 49-53
Armor 2.08
Movement Speed : 315
Cast point : 0.3
Base Attack Time : 1.45

Remarks :
-Anti-Mage has a low strength gain as like most agility carries. This needs to be addressed later in the game.
-His skills rely very little on Mana. (Only 2 active) just remember to keep an eye on the mana bar to know how many Blinks you have left.
-Above Average Movement speed and along with Blink makes him one of the hardest Heroes to catch.
-A cast point of 0.3 means that it will take 0.3 seconds for him to blink out.
- A low Base Attack Time means that he will have a higher attack speed compared to someone with the same Agillity.

Skills:

Mana Break

Burns an opponent's mana on each attack. Mana Break deals 60% of the mana burned as damage to the target.
Mana per Hit: 28/40/52/64

Notes :
- Illusions will also attain this skill allowing you to burn much more mana than usual.
- The additional damaged can be lifestealed with Skeleton king's Aura or with Vladmir Offering
- Does not go through Magic Immunity.
- Will not deal additional damage when the target has no Mana.
Remarks :
This is what makes Anti-Mage the AntiMage. He has a built in diffusial Blade without the Purge active but double the power. Two hits usually mean that the target has one less spell to cast. This spell is the reason why Manta Style is core on him as Illusions will also burn the same amount of Mana.
Do note that since its spent affect Magic immunity the damage you will be dealing is reduced. You at better of Right-clicking someone who doesn't have magic Immunity first breaking his mana to make him less useful in the fight.
This skill also allows AntiMage to farm faster. Ranged creep are almost always his because of the extra damage from burning a ranged creeps mana. The stronger Neutral Creeps usually have Mana as well.

Blink

Notes:
-This Blink takes 0.3 seconds to cast due to Antimage's cast time.
Along with a 0.4 seconds cast time it take 0.7 seconds for AntiMage to Blink Away.
- You can use this spell to Dodge projectile. See a stun flying towards you just Blink away or towards him. Some spells will stop.
- Always Blink in front of the enemy not just beside him when chasing. This is so when you start attacking him you are simultaneously blocking him slowing down his escape.
- When escaping always remember that Anti Mage will face the direction of which he will blink. So the enemy knows which direction you have blinked to.
- When escaping Blinking into Trees which are impassable will more likely allow you to survive if they have no way to cut trees or go into that area. Use the time they are wasting to find you to use a Teleport Scroll .

Spell Shield

- Magic Resistance Stack with items and Auras such as Null Field.
- Grants 62.5 Magic Resistance at Max Level.
Remarks:
- Getting 1 level on this spell is almost equivalent to getting a Hood of Defiance without the Regeneration.
- After getting 1 level, the EHP increase is actually quite little if you want to invest more levels into this skill, getting stats is usually the better option considering your Role until you managed to get a decent HP stat.
- This makes AntiMage able to tank nukes but still susceptible to disables.

Mana Void

Notes :
- The damage calculation is based on the target's Mana Pool and the same damage will be applied to the surrounding AoE.
- Has a mini stun not blocked by Magic immunity ( but still blocked by Liken Sphere). You can use this to stop a Magic Immune target from Channelling a Teleprt Scroll.
Remarks
- The AoE the very small as compared to other spells. Most of the time you will only be hitting One Hero. Try to use it when you see two Heroes clumping up together and only of them has almost no Mana.
- Always do a quick click check to see how much Mana he has left before Voiding him. Could be that he popped a stick and Arcane Boots resulting in you missing out the kill.
- Works very well with Magnus reverse polarity.
_

Skill Build
1) Blink
2) Mana Break
3) Spell Shield / Stats
4) Stats
5) Stats
6) Mana Void
7) Blink
8) Blink
9) Blink
10) Mana Break
11) Mana Void
12) Mana Break
12) Mana Break
13) Spell Shield
14) Spell Shield
15) Spell Shield
16) Mana Void
17) Spell Shield / Stats
18-25) Stats

Explanation :

Level 1 Blink is for escape in case of a Level 1 Gank followed by Mana Break for harassment.

The biggest question here is why stats? We have to look back at AntiMage's role in the Early game which is survive and farm. Very unlikely he will be able to take kills and if he does it will be by the help of teammates nd AntiMage will not be able to contribute much with the exception of one right clicks and Body blocking. Stats provide HP, Attack Speed, Damage and Mana for Blinks. Since early game you won't be chasing that much you won't be needing a high level blink unless you foresee yourself getting a really early Battlefury then getting Blink levels early will help in the farming stage later in the game. In the early stages of the game 1 Blink should be enough to get you within tower range.

Blink will be used early game after your Battlefury for escaping and move around the jungle.

Early game if you lane enemies are spell heavy its better to get 1 level in Spell Shield instead of stats. 1 level Spell Shield is almost as strong as a Hood of Defiance.

Mana Void is taken whenever possible. For ifs mini stun and nuking power.

Item Build

Starting Items

Stout Shield 3x Branches + 1 Tango

If you are playing the Safe lane with supports this should be enough for you in the lane. Stout Shield to take Harassment from the lane, Branches to build into stick if needed and Tango in the case you get Harassed too much.

Boots ,Ring of Health

Optional:  Queling Blade Magic Stick.

Soon, you should get a Ring of Health at the side shop before you used up all your Tangos so you can stay in the lane despite Harassment. Slowly build into your Boots. PMS if you feel that you are getting Harassed too much. Queling Blade if you are getting denied too much ( you shouldn't be fighting for creeps with your teammates)

Stick is a situational item which I only get if there is a Mana Burner on their team ( Nyx Assassin , KotL, OD) which I may end up getting Out of Mana. With stick I can pop up charges and get one Blink before I get beaten up.

WHAT IF MY TEAM PICKED 5 CARRIES? :O

Yes its common in the lower brackets of Dota2. This men's you might not be able to get a Safe Lane and your farm might be delayed. Try to get your PMS and Ring of Health as soon as possible along with Boots. Your aim in the lane is to survive and get as much farm as possible. After the laning phase always get a teleport scroll ready and teleport in an empty lane to farm.

Instead of calling it Mid Game I call it Farming Period. This is when AM has farmed his Battlefury.

Take the safe lane and stay there. The jungle is now your home. With Stout shield and the regeneration from Battlefury you should be able to farm in the Lane and the Jungle without going back to base.
The trick is to rotate around the jungle camps near the safe lane.
Radiant : Start with the Medium camp, go towards the Large camp and to the pull camp next in an anticlockwise method and then back to the lane.
Dire: Start with the Large camp closest to the lane , blink towards the Medium camp, then walk towards the river and blink upwards towards the pull camp. You may rotate over the Large and Pull camp if there are heroes pushing the lane.

Core items to get :




Yasha into Manta
Basher into Abyssal
Heart
Butterfly

Yasha while you are still farming helps increase your farming speed with the increase in Damage, Attack speed and Movement speed as compared to Ultimate Orb. After your Manta you should be either participating in Team fights or Split Pushing. Heart Should be taken earlier after Manta if you seem to have problem Tanking during teamfights.

ANTIMAGE IS NOT A HARD CARRY.

Anti-Mage plays a role similar to Alchemist. Both of them are able to farm incredibly fast as compared to the other carries. With Battlefury he should have no problems clearing creeps and neutrals fast. By being able to farm at a high speed he is able to get his core items out faster than other carries and be a threat before their carry farms up. Reason being AntiMage will not be able to fight on par or be that much of an impact as other Hard carries such as Faceless Void, Spectre, Gyro etc. So farming should stop once you got your Manta and start helping your allies win the game when AntiMage is at his Prime.
The other items are mainly for survival and DPS. Abyssal helps you to keep the opposing carry in place with is active and bashes.


Split Pushing

The technique of Split Pushing is best known and associated with Nature's Prophet but Antimage is also able to do so with the help of his Illusions, Cleave and low Base Attack Time.

Simply by pushing another lane as your other team pushes the opposite lane, (meaning AntiMage pushes Top Lane while the rest of the Team pushes Bottom lane) Reason being if the other team tries to engage them, AntiMage could easily take down towers or even the Barracks if the Tier 3 is at risk. If they try to gank Anti-Mage without any disables, AntiMage can just blink away and the other 4 from his team can try to down towers. If they decide to engage the team by sending one guy to tackle AntiMage and 4 guys to handle the other team AntiMage can easily take out the solo guy because AntiMage is at his prime at that moment. Sending more than 1 person will result in the rest of your team having an advantage of Heroes during the teamfight.

Good Allies:

Any Defensive Trilaner or Support:



Twin Headed Dragon, Treant Protector, Shadow Demon, Bane.

Anti-Mage doesnt really fit into an offensive Trilane because of him unable to contribute much until he has his items up. So playing defensively is the other option. Shadow Demon is a great teammate in the early and late game as he can use disruption to prevent enemies from Chain Stunning him and in the late game allow Anti-Mage to create more illusion when pushing or in Teamfights.

Magnus:


Magnus can enhance Anti-Mage's cleave to allow him to farm faster or deal AoE damage during Teamfights. Secondly, Reverse Polarity puts the other team into a position where Mana Void is able to hit all those affected by Reverse Polarity which could be game breaking. Magnus is so far one of the best Allies Anti-Mage can get because of the potential of Reverse Polarity and AntiMage's abillity to do damage in an area is only in a small AoE.

Bad Matchups:

Obsidian Destroyer

Known as the Hard Counter to AntiMage. Arcane Orb completely destroys Anti-Mage's illusions and go through Magic Shield since it is pure. Also, his Aura makes it impossible to drain out all of his Mana to successfully Mana Void him. One he gets a Hex he can burst you down within seconds.

Long Disablers:

Disablers such as Rhasta and Lion have the abillity to prevent Anti-Mage from Blinking with Hex and Stuns. This will reduce Anti-Mage's ability to escape during the early stages of the game preventing him from safely farming. Have someone to babysit you to stun them and prevent them from Chain Stunning you.

Nature's Prophet:

Why? This Hero has the ability to Teleport anywhere in the Map meaning if you were to Blink out with little HP he can Snipe you off. Secondly he can easily farm out Orchid and Hex quite fast even before your Manta if he is having a good game. Orchid really hampers you from safely farming in the Jungle as he can take you out in the Jungle alone if you are not at Max HP.

In Conclusion:

AntiMage is a pretty standard Hero to play, Farm, get a Battlefury, Farm somemore and then Proceed to split push and end the game. You can try out different styles and builds but currently this is the most effective build for both competitive and pub games. Practice last hitting with Anti-Mage at Lobby Games to ensure you wont miss a creep while free farming. Good Luck have fun ! LET MAGIC ENDS HERE.