Maelstrom + Bottle Anti - Mage [Mini guide]

Introduction

About me
Hi, my name is Redd. I'm just a normal Dota player, my rank is about 2900, which is not really high, lol. But I still want to write a guide. So, I wrote this guide. This guide is about how to play Anti-mage with maelstrom instead of batterfury. I've searched on the internet for maelstrom build on AM but their wasn't any. That is why I decided to wrote this guide. I hope u guys can help me complete the guide. Sr for my bad english.

About Anti-Mage
AM is a cool hero, which has cool skills and many cool set. He is capable of flash farming. That is the reason why people pick him. He's a hard carry, but not as hard as others. But still hard, lol.

His lore:
The monks of Turstarkuri watched the rugged valleys below their mountain monastery as wave after wave of invaders swept through the lower kingdoms. Ascetic and pragmatic, in their remote monastic eyrie they remained aloof from mundane strife, wrapped in meditation that knew no gods or elements of magic. Then came the Legion of the Dead God, crusaders with a sinister mandate to replace all local worship with their Unliving Lord's poisonous nihilosophy. From a landscape that had known nothing but blood and battle for a thousand years, they tore the souls and bones of countless fallen legions and pitched them against Turstarkuri. The monastery stood scarcely a fortnight against the assault, and the few monks who bothered to surface from their meditations believed the invaders were but demonic visions sent to distract them from meditation. They died where they sat on their silken cushions. Only one youth survived--a pilgrim who had come as an acolyte, seeking wisdom, but had yet to be admitted to the monastery. He watched in horror as the monks to whom he had served tea and nettles were first slaughtered, then raised to join the ranks of the Dead God's priesthood. With nothing but a few of Turstarkuri's prized dogmatic scrolls, he crept away to the comparative safety of other lands, swearing to obliterate not only the Dead God's magic users--but to put an end to magic altogether.

Pros/ Cons

Pros Able to be 6 slotted at 40min. Great at split push. Have a Blink with 5s cd. High AGI gain Very good BAT

Cons Low STR gains. Items dependent. Semi-hard carry, lol. Can't escape when silenced. (That's why we need manta)

Skills

Skills sequence
About the skills sequence, I've decided to put 2 points into stats early games because I think it'll make my jungle easier later since I won't have any regen or life steal.

AM's skills

Mana Break

Type: Targets:

Passive Enemy Units with manapool.

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

A modified technique of the Turstarkuri monks' peaceful ways is to turn magical energies on their owner.

Notes:

• Can deal up to 17 / 24 / 31 / 38 damage per hit.
• Mana Break is blocked by magic immunity.
• Anti-Mage can lifeleech the damage dealt by this ability with a Lifesteal aura.
• Is a unique attack modifier.

My notes:

• This skill is why AM is Anti-Mage, with manta, AM will burn 64*3= 192 mana per hit. Yeah, alot of mana burn.
• Its help you farming faster a bit, but not much since there is only one creep with mana in the lane. But in the jungle, its help you farming faster.

Blink

Type: Targets:

Active Point.

Short distance teleportation that allows Anti-Mage to move in and out of combat.

Range: 1000 / 1075 / 1150 / 1150

In his encounter with the Dead Gods, Anti-Mage learned the value of being elusive.

Mana Cost: 60 Cooldown Time: 12 / 9 / 7 / 5

Notes:

• Blink can be used to dodge incoming projectiles.
• Blink has a 0.4 seconds teleportation delay.
• The in game tooltip is in error and clicking beyond the range of the ability will still use the maximum range of the blink.

My notes:

• This is your very important skill. It's help you to flash farm, split push, escape and chasing the enemies

Spell Shield

Spell Shield

Type: Targets:

Passive N/A.

Increases Anti-Mage's resistance to magic damage.

Resistance: 26% / 34% / 42% / 50%

Years of meditation and obsession with revenge have hardened Anti-Mage's skin against mystical opponents.

Notes:

• Stacks with magic resistance items.
• Total hero magic resistance with Spell Shield at each level is 44.5% / 50.5% / 56.5% / 62.5%.

My notes:

• This skills protect AM from spell but not fully protected.

Mana Void

Type: Targets:

Active Enemy units with mana pool

Deals damage to target unit based on each point of mana missing and also deals the same damage to surrounding enemies.

Range: 600
Damage per missing mana: 0.6 / 0.85 / 1.1
Radius: 500
Stun Duration: 0.1 / 0.2 / 0.3

After bringing enemies to their knees, Anti-Mage punishes them for their use of the arcane arts.

Black King Bar The damage is blocked, the stun is not.

Linken's Sphere Blocked on primary target. No interaction otherwise.
Mana Cost: 125 / 200 / 275 Cooldown Time: 70

Notes:

• Stun goes through spell immunity.
• Has a casting delay of 0.3 seconds.
• Damage is calculated based on the primary target's mana, but applied to all enemies within the radius.

My notes:

• Your nuke, aim for those big mana pool.

Items

Starting items

Stout Shield Add some damage block, you will need that to survive the jungle.

Tango Since you aren't go for the Ring of Health you gonna need more healing items.



Quelling Blade If your last hit skills isn't good enough, you can add this. Any way you will want to buy it later to increase your damage againts those creeps.

Farming items

Maelstrom This will be your farming items instead of Battle Fury. It's cheaper so you can start to farm and pushing sooner than the Battle Fury. It can be upgrade to Mjollnir, which is better than a Battle Fury in team fight.

Bottle Because you choose maelstrom so regen will be your problem. That why I pick this item. With tread switch, it will give you enough regen to farming. And you can store runes easily with your blink.

Poor Man's Shield This item make your jungle easier a lot, but a Stout Shield is fine too.

Power Treads Your boots, stats, AS, MS and the ability to switch between STR, AGI, INT.

Quelling Blade Faster farming, pushing, tree-cutting.

Complete your core

Manta Style Kind of a must have item on Anti-Mage. It's make your mana burn become deadly and it's free you from the fear of silence. Some stats, AS, MS also.

Offensive items

Abyssal Blade Blink -> Bash -> Manta -> Your opponent's mana has been dissapeared. A nice combo of AM and his items.

Mjollnir An upgrade of Maelstrom tons of DPS, no need to worry about lightning proc that override your mana burn because you are too fast. And its have a nice buff that can be use to increase your damages out put when buff on yourself or your friends, or it can be use for a mind game when you put it on your illusion.

Butterfly Every agility hero's wet dream. And you can make it become true faster than other agility hero. They'll feel jealous with that.

Monkey King Bar No more miss and some mini stun.

Defensive items

Heart of Tarrasque Every STR hero's wet dream. And you can make it too. This item give you the HP you need to survive teamfight, to be able to teamfight effectively. Very important item on Anti-Mage.

Heaven's Halberd Disarm their carry and fight him, you will win the fight. It's also give you evasion as well as HP and damage. Situation item.

Black King Bar Avoid go for this bar if you can, but you will need it many times, so go for it if you feel you gonna need it.

Linken's Sphere Block those nasty ulti that go through BKB that aim you like Reaper's Scythe, Doom, Primal Roar, etc

Boots of Travel A boot fuse with a town portal scroll. A free tele scroll.

Gameplay

If you confident about the lane or you have proper supports that share their tangoes with you, you go for the starting items 2. If not go for starting items 1, you buy a Stout Shield, 2 Tango then go for a bounty rune, blink back to creep-block or run to the secret shop and get yourself a quelling blade (You can buy it later if you want). If the opponent is aggressive harassing you with their Normal Attack, you will want to upgrade your Stout Shield to a Poor Man's Shield which give you about 1 armor, 6 damages, 6 attack speed and the damage block. With 2 tangoes, your health will not be a big problem, keep farming and denying if possible, use aggro tricks to get easier last hit position. Each time you get a last hit, scan the mini map for their mid, their support. You don't want to get caught with a gank so becareful, don't die, avoid dying. It's crucial thing to a carry, don't die.

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If you are good at farming and you have good support, you will get ~ 5000 gold (Your farm, and 600 reliable gold) after 10 minutes (You didn't miss any last hit) for 5000 gold you can have Maelstrom, Bottle, Power Treads, Stout Shield. But that's the ideal situation, with my skills I gonna miss about 1 creeps each wave (or more). So I ll have ~ 4000 gold or less. So I ll have Maelstrom and a Boots only. You will want to have Maelstrom after 10 minutes farming. When you have it, if the lane is tough, or you feel it's danger to stay in the lane, you can leave it and go for the jungle. You dont' have any regen now but you will have the Bottle soon so feel free to farm. Try to avoid the hard camp or leave it last because those creeps are tough. If the lane is fine, you should keep farming in the lane plus some easy camp.

I'll talk about how to jungle with Maelstrom, Bottle, Stout Shield, Quelling Blade, TP scrolls (Optional but recommended) and Power Treads. Yeah, 6 slotted AM in the jungle (You can start with Maelstrom and Bottle] then complete these items). You blink from camp to camp just like a normal Anti-Mage. What you need to remember is Tread Switch and Runes. Switch to INT before you blink, to AGI before you use bottle. Farm in a camp near runes at 12, 14, 16, 18 minutes ... (I don't know how to call it, sr). Try to fill your bottle, then keep farming. One more thing, you should use Attack -> Move -> Attack to faster your farming, change target to make sure you use least attack to kill that camp (Work better with [[Battle Fury) Once you get your Yasha you can sell your Stout Shield.Then keep farming like that with other items. That's all I know now about farming in the jungle with Maelstrom + Bottle.

But jungle isn't what you want to do, you want to jungle and split push. So don't forget the lane. Always farm in the lane if possible. (Safe)

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Escape and split push

Escaping

Anti-Mage is excellent at escaping with his blink. But sometimes he still being caught by his opponent.

• When you are escaping with your blink and your opponent has some ability that allow him to chase you effectively, you will not want to blink straight to your base to escape. What you gonna do is to blink into some trees and then TP out of there or blink back and push. (Depend on the situation).
  
• When you are able to blink cross the river, cross the trees, into the fog of war, ... make sure you make a good use of it to escape or to kite your opponent.
  
• You can sefl cast to blink to the base or use quick cast to blink faster.

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Split push with Anti-Mage

Summary

That's all, thank you for reading.