They who live by the wand shall die by my blade (Guide to Anti-Mage 7.01)

Introduction

Hi this is Gil Bot and welcome to my guide to Anti-Mage. I made this guide to give information about Magina, the Anti-Mage He used to be my one of my favorite heroes to use specially when the time I love the carry role so much. English is not my native language so please inform me about my grammatical mistakes.

This is my 1st guide but I'm hoping you will learn something useful in this guide :)

About the hero

Magina, the Anti-Mage is a melee carry hero that is notoriously known to be one of most slippery heroes and one of the strongest carries in the game. He specializes in farming items quickly in order to reach his peak faster compared to other carries that farms slowly. But unlike other carries, Anti-Mage can be quite aggressive even with a few levels because of his Blink and Mana Break. One of my favorite aspects about Anti-Mage is he can zone out or possibly kill opposing offlaners by himself even though he suffers to some offlaners which I will discuss later. But like other carries, he is farm dependent but with his Blink, he can farm between neutral creep camps and lane creeps in order to get the farm he needs. But the common thing about him is the fact that he is very good in dealing with spell-reliant heroes because his kit allows him to easily get rid of them while being resilient to magical damage because of his Spell Shield.

Pros / Cons

Pros

One of the best counters to spell reliant heroes

Very good at flash-farming(because of Blink)

Very good at splitpushing

Can zone out many offlaners (if he has respectable levels and gold advantage) by himself, giving supports an opportunity to leave the lane and help other lanes without thinking too much if their carry will have a hard time alone in the lane

Can be aggressive in the early game(with the help of your supports of course)

Decent starting HP

Very low base attack time which means he scales very well with items that give him attack speed and agility.


Cons

Farm dependent

Low strength gain

Low starting armor

Gank magnet(even though u can escape most of them provided your reflexes are fast enough)

Struggles against high-armored heroes or heroes that doesn't need mana too much.

When to pick or not to pick anti-mage

When to pick Anti-Mage:

There are at least 3 heroes in the enemy team that are skill dependent and possesses a big mana pool

You need a carry that be quite self sufficient so your supports can have a free time roaming instead of guarding the safe lane

Your team has heroes that can force fights even without having you (since most of the time you will push lanes)

When not to pick Anti-Mage:

You are not good in farming

There are lots of high-armored heroes in the enemy team (I will explain this later)

The enemy team relies on physical damage

The enemy lineup consists of heroes that can go for deathball push strats

Skills

Mana Break

Description

Burns an opponent's mana on each attack. Mana Break deals 60% of the mana burned as damage to the target.

Ability: Passive
Damage Type: Physical
Mana burned per hit: 28/40/52/64

Notes:

1. The damage is directly added to Anti-Mage's attack damage.
2. Deals up to 16.8/24/31.2/38.4 damage per hit (before reductions)
3. Anti-Mage can lifesteal the damage dealt by Mana Break when the lifesteal comes from a non Unique Attack Modifier source (e.g. Vampiric Aura or the lifesteal aura of Vladmir's Offering).
4. The damage dealt by Mana Break cannot crit or cleave and cannot be increased by attack damage increasing effects like Empower or the Rune of Double Damage.
5. Applies the mana loss first before the damage.
6. Is a unique attack modifier (so please don't think of buying things like Desolator on Anti-Mage).
7. Can be used by illusions.
8. Blocked by spell immunity.
9. Disabled by break (e.g. Silver Edge, Demonic Purge)


This skill is simple yet strong ability to have. It burns mana on every hit you make (so it scales into late-game) and deals bonus physical damage for every mana burned (which means it will deal less damage to high-armored foes like Dragon Knight). This skill makes you capable of trading hits with enemy offlaners in the early game even with just a value point of the ability. The ability to cripple enemy casters by burning their mana and dealing lots of damage makes this skill one of the best unique attack modifiers in the game.


Blink

Description

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

Cast Animation: 0.4+0.53
Max Blink Distance: 925/1000/1075/1150
Cooldown: 12/9/7/5 (Can be improved by the talent tree --> 10/7/5/3)
Manacost: 60

Notes:

1. Blink disjoints projectiles upon cast.
2. Cannot be cast while rooted (e.g. Ensnare, Overgrowth, Entangling Claws)
3. Does not blink for the full distance when targeting closer than its max distance.
When targeting beyond the max blink distance, Anti-Mage will blink for the max distance towards the targeted point.

As the description implies, this skill allows Anti-Mage to move in and out of combat. This skill also allows Anti-Mage to move between lane and jungle quickly to farm creeps, boosting his GPM. Using this in fights can be tricky though. To be a good Anti-Mage player you need to know which opponent will you Blink into since blinking to a wrong opponent can be fatal. I would suggest to save your Blink for escaping if the fight doesn't go to your team's favor unless you are 110% sure that u can easily eliminate the foe you are blinking into. This skill can also be used in split pushing since you can push to your heart's content then if the enemy comes to stop you just Blink into the trees and teleport out (even though this trick won't work on certain foes). Be sure to max this first since the cooldown reduction is very useful on a fragile hero like Anti-Mage.


Spell Shield

Description

Increases Anti-Mage's resistance to magic damage.

Ability:Passive
Magic Resistance Bonus: 26%/34%/42%/50%

Notes:

1. Stacks multiplicatively with other sources of magic resistance.
2. Increases Anti-Mage's total base magic resistance to 44.50%/50.50%/56.50%/62.50% (then why the **** it is not 75% in total since all heroes (except for Visage and Meepo) have 25% magic resistance? Well as far as I know stacking magic resistance of Anti-Mage applies this formula --> " X(the 50% magic resistance of the spell shield) + 25% of the larger magic resistance on the numbers that u will add (50% x 0.25) which will result on 12.50 magic resistance so 50% + 12.50% = 62.5%)

Another simple yet useful skill to have. This allows Anti-Mage to shrug off even the most deadly nukes they will use on you (which is balanced by your low HP pool). This is the reason that buying tanking items like Heart of Tar***que is good since having more health will give you more EHP(effective HP) because of this spell. However, I personally on put a value point on this skill since adding levels on this skill doesn't do much since the scaling is kinda pathetic. But feel free to add more levels of this skill if you feel the need of having extra magic resistance.


Mana Void

Description

For each point of mana missing by the target unit, damage is dealt to it and surrounding enemies. The main target is also mini-stunned.

Damage Type: Magical
Cast Animation: 0.3+0.63
Cast Range: 600
Radius: 500
Damage per Missing Mana: 0.6/0.85/1.1
Stun Duration: 0.3
Cooldown: 70
Manacost: 125/200/275

Notes:

1. The targeting reticule must be centered over an enemy unit.
2. The damage is calculated based on the primary target's mana, but applied to all enemies within the radius.
3. Only the primary target gets stunned.
4. Can be cast on units without a mana pool, applying the mini-stun only.
5. Plays a sound effect during the cast time, which is audible to everyone.
6. Blocked by Linken's Sphere when used on the primary target
7. Area effect is still applied if primary target is spell immune. Does not attempt to damage spell immune enemies.

Finally the ultimate or the 4th skill of Anti-Mage. This skills deals damage based on how many mana the enemy is missing so it synergizes with your Mana Break. Using this skill is kinda simple. You just need to aware on how much mana the enemy is missing which is simple (just click on the hero and check his/her mana pool). This skill is best used on a spellcaster that has a big mana pool (e.g. Skywrath Mage) so you can deal tons of damage to surrounding enemy around your primary target.

How to use this skill in fights:

1. Go and burn your target's mana with your mana break then blow him/her up with Mana Void.
2. Wait you enemy to cast his/her high-manacost skills (e.g. Mystic Flare, Ball Lightning) then blow him up.

This skill scales very well in the late game since as the game goes,the enemy will have more manapool for you. You can use this also to cancel teleporting foes if you have no sort of bash or mini-bash that can be obtained by buying Skull Basher or Monkey King Bar. You can also use this to cancel gamebreaking ults like Black Hole, Death Ward since this skill pierces spell immunity so buying Black King Bar wont save them but sadly buying Linken's Sphere will counter this strategy. :(

Skill Build

Before the 7.00 patch, my favorite skill build for Anti-Mage is getting a value point of Mana Break and Spell Shield and maxing Blink, then proceed to take stats. But now, attribute bonuses are removed so my skill build was changed.

My skill build now is the 2-2-1-1 skill build. Most of the time you want you Blink maxed out as soon as possible but your won't need the cooldown reduction in the early-game so get two points of Mana Break to increase your damage output then take a value point in Spell Shield then proceed to max Blink and Mana Break and taking more points in Spell Shield when they are maxed while taking Mana Void at levels 6, 12, and 18. Take your talents at levels 10, 15, 20, and 25.

Talent Tree

Anti-Mage's talent is very simple but taking the wrong talent can make your effectiveness in the game decrease drastically. Every player has a personal favorite talent even though this might change depending on the situation. So get the talent that is applicable to the situation you are facing.

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Level 10 Talents: +6 strength or +20 damage

I prefer the +20 damage over the +6 strength here because the bonus damage can be helpful in taking objectives such as pushing towers, fighting or even for farming faster but if you are in a situation that you will need survival over the bonus damage, then take the +6 strength but for me the strength bonus, yeah it's still something but it's negligible in the sense that if an enemy can kill you easily means that they can still kill you even you have the bonus +6 strength.

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Level 15 Talents: +20 attack speed or +250 HP
In these two talents, both are good since they are both small in numbers anyway so no one is better than the other one even though sometimes one is better than the other based on the situation. So feel free to get what you really need. But my preferred one here is the bonus +20 attack speed.

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Level 20 Talents: +15% evasion or +10 all stats

I really like the +10 all stats because that's like having a FREE Ultimate Orb. But against team that have heroes that deal serious right-click damage, taking the bonus +15% evasion is a good call but this talent becomes useless if they proceed to buy Monkey King Bars.

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Level 25 Talents: -2s Blink cooldown or +25 agility

So, more mobility or more carrying potential??? Hard to choose right? Well to choose your right talent have these question in mind:

Is your right-click damage enough but you need extra mobility because your are against team with heavy lockdown?

If yes, proceed to take the -2s Blink cooldown because your carrying potential is useless if you are constantly being locked down while being beaten to death. But if not go take the bonus +25 agility because Anti-Mage scales well with agility and attack speed which means this talent will help him a lot.

Items

Note: Anti-Mage's item selection in the old Dota days is kinda one dimensional but after the release of the new items, various items selections are now applicable for him. Just adapt to the situational and get the items you will need the most.

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This build is The most common build you will see. Because this set of items allows you to farm efficiently, gives sustain and contains the basic components of the items you will be buying next (e.g. Battle Fury, Poor Man's Shield or Vanguard, and Magic Wand).

This build is a good choice if you are facing opponents that can deny your farm by harassing you instead of denying your creeps.

My favored item build because I'm very confident of my last-hitting capabilities that I don't really need to have a Quelling Blade in the early-game and this gives lots of sustain which can be useful to negate harass ,to trade hits effectively, and even to tank creeps a bit because you really need to do that especially if your supports pulls your creep wave so you won't miss lasthits by lasthitting under your tower. But I won't recommend this to newer players because you need to be really good at lasthitting when going for this build.

A quite better version of the one above this for beginners to try out their lasthitting skills. The difference of this from the one above is you are trading some of your sustain for a bit of right-click damage and stats.

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Early-Game Items

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Grabbing a boots of speed is pretty self explanatory. Buy these boots to give you more MS to chase,escape and even to rotate from the lane to jungle quickly (combined with QB will boost your GPM by allowing you to move to a creep camp to another camp by destroying a tree and creating a short way instead of running all the way around which allows you to save at least 5-6 seconds per camp which is useful in the early game because you can't spam Blink too much).

PMS or the Poor Man's Shield. With just 500 gold you can block 20 damage 53% of the time which will seem weak at the first glance but take note that most heroes deal at least 60 damage in the early stages of the game. The ability to block 33% of that damage is great. This allows you to trade hits even you are melee since this Poor Man's Shield allows you to almost negate creep damage so creeps aggroing into you is not a big deal.

This item is basically a tango that is not consumable, meaning you will receive the regen as long u have this item. This item can be upgraded into a Battle Fury later on. Take note that if you don't need the regeneration you can temporarily share this to your supports in lane if they are injured so they won't be forced to retreat (just don't do this in low MMR brackets since I'm sure you won't have it back XD ).

Your early game friend. This allows you to deal extra 40% base damage to creeps ONLY (which allows you to farm effectively) even though it doesn't work on denying creeps. You can also use this to create paths in the trees to hide or to rotate in the jungle faster. Another component of Battle Fury oh and I almost forgot that you can use this to destroy enemy wards instantly.

Magic Wand or Singsing's big stick XD. This item is cheap yet life-saving in many situations. Not a required item unless there is a foe that can give you many stick charges in a short amount of time (e.g. Bristleback, Zeus, Phantom Assassin)

Not a required pickup in all situations because it delays your Battlefury a bit. But a good pickup overall if you have some extra gold to spare since you will delay your Spell Shield levels by a bit, having a extra magic block combined with putting more points in attribute bonus will give you a lot of EHP (effective health points). Also the extra mana regen is nice especially when combined with a Perseverance.

An item that is worth mentioning since it gives you extra MS that is further increased by you Yasha pickup in somepoint in the game.

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This is your farming item. Combined with your low base attack time and Blink, you will obtain all your items faster than every hero in the game in my opinion (except for Alchemist even though you can still catch up with him). Still retains the usefulness of the Quelling Blade for maneuvering in the jungle but blinking is the better choice(still you can use it if Blink is on cooldown). This item synergizes with your ult a bit. When the enemy team is clumped up, you hit the guy with the largest mana pool then the others will also be damaged by the cleave of this item making your Mana Void deal more damage than the way it should be (even though this will only happen if you have a Magnus, Enigma on your team or if the enemy is too dumb to clump up).

Ah, this item makes me remember the old dota 1 days when the standard Anti-Mage build is Vanguard, Vladmir's Offering, Manta Style and Skull Basher. Since the rework in the items required to build Abyssal Blade which is great on Anti-Mage, Vanguard I would say is a viable item to buy even before the Battlefury even though I would recommend buying the Battlefury first since buying a Battlefury makes building a [Vanguard]] faster anyway. This item is useful on Anti-Mage since he is weak against physical damage.

The best boots for Anti-Mage in my opinion. This boots gives you more attack speed which synergizes with you low BAT(base attack time). But my favorite part of this item is the ability to save mana by tread switching into blue then blinking then switching into green. This will save you at least 3-4 mana per cast but as the game goes you that numbers will be HUGE in the long run.

This item is pretty self-explanatory since all heroes must ALWAYS BRING A TP SCROLL (GG CLOUD 9). This item can give you the ability to split push everywhere then if things goes wrong just Blink and teleport to other lanes. And having one in the early game is good since Anti-Mage is a carry that can do well in early engagements so be ready to help your team if you think that is the right call.

A good pick up on Anti-Mage for just 2050 gold. It give more attack speed, movement speed and armor. And also you can turn this into a Manta Style.

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A MUST on Anti-Mage in my opinion. You can go for a non Battlefury build but skipping this item is not a good idea. This item is one of the best items Anti-Mage can buy.

WHY:
1. An upgrade of Yasha.
2. Can remove certain debuffs (e.g. silence, some slows etc which can be fatal to Anti-Mage)
3. Having 3 Anti-Mages that can burn mana means faster work on enemy casters.
4. Can be used to disjoint certain projectiles (e.g. Magic Missile, Storm Hammer etc.)

Usually a 7th item pickup on heroes that have extra money to spend but u can buy this as a 4th item on Anti-Mage for a good reason. Since Anti-Mage has a low BAT, buying this will make Anti-Mage attack more faster. Also the +250 night vision is great for a hero that pushes alone most of the time. But in the late game it is a good idea to consume this an buy another item if you have enough gold to spend.

A better version of Boots of Travel. Most of the time this item is bought when you have extra gold to spare but if you feel you need the ability to teleport into your comrades, feel free to buy this.

Your damage item. Also if you go early Vanguard you can upgrade that into this item (even though you can buy the Skull Basher first before the Vanguard). With Anti-Mage's fast attack speed, this item will make use the most of that attack speed. Useful for locking down BKB carries in the late game. Can be used also for solo pickoffs by blinking next to them then using this to stun them then whack them to death. The only weak point of this item is it has a measly 140 cast range but since you a melee hero anyway, it is not a big deal. The extra strength is also appreciated on Anti-Mage.

MORE ATTACK SPEED! This combined with Moon Shard and Manta Style will make Anti-Mage attack like crazy. The evasion also is very appreciated on Anti-Mage since he is weak against physical damage (this is countered by Monkey King Bar). The flutter also is great for escaping and chasing when combined with Blink. Also give Anti-Mage at least 4 extra armor and 65 damage.

This item gives Anti-Mage lots of HP that when combined with Butterfly and Spell Shield will give Anti-Mage lots of EHP. This item will also give Anti-Mage tons of HP regeneartion to prevent Anti-Mage from retreating into the base if he is injured (just Blink into the trees to prevent enemies from seeing you then regenerate then come back to the fight).

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Not the item that you'll pick up every game. Sometimes the Spell Shield is enough to shrug off enemy spells but if you are constantly locked down by enemy spells, this item is worth getting.

A greedy pickup in my opinion. Only buy this if you can finish this in 4-6 minutes or else it will delay your Battlefury even more. The extra attack speed and the ability to boost your EXP is appreciated anyway.

An alternative to Black King Bar. The reason you might want to pick this up is if your constantly locked down by Black King Bar-piercing spells like Duel, Rupture, Primal Roar etc).

So you've made it in the late game huh? You have sufficient damage and yet you can still lock a carry or a key hero down? Then consider this item worth buying. An alternative to Abyssal Blade but because of the bashes that Abyssal Blade will give you, cases that you will buy this are almost non-existent.

Gives Anti-Mage the ability to lifesteal from his attacks which is nice. But basically you will sell this into the late game to buy better items. This item is great anyway since you can solo roshan without having trouble by having this.

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So here we go to the late game. Basically you have at least 10,000 money in your pocket and you already bought a Moon Shard and upgraded your Boots of Travel. Why not buy ur own cour so u can ferry items for your self. Also you can use this to carry important items like Refresher Orb, Black King Bar when the item is on cooldown.

The reason you will buy this item is your swimming in money to spend. Buy this if you need the second Mana Void immediately, to refresh you Boots of Travel or to refresh your Black King Bar.

The item that wins or throws games. Buy this if your desperate of winning because your team is behind since this item is a great gap close to net worth advantage or the game is too evenly matched that you need the damage to win a fight and end the game. High risk yet high reward if I would say. Just don't give this to the enemy carry or else you're screwed.

Also the item that you will buy if you have extra gold to spend. Just go to a lane use Manta Style and this and go back to base then place this on your courier, backpack or stash then teleport to other lane. Also a good pickup against invisible enemies. The creeps that you will summon with this will give your team extra pushing power by giving extra attack speed and movement speed and just having extra 2 units that are suprisingly tough can push out lanes a bit.

Gameplay

Early Game

Basically you buy your starting items and head to the bounty rune and try to get it (but most of the times you will leave the Bounty Rune to your midlaner so they will have a faster bottle or so they can ferry a salve right away) but if the midlaner will give u the rune then take it. Then go to your lane as fast as you can so you can body block the creeps because the offlaner will sure block their creeps as well (You can also ask your supports to block it for you). Then just do your job as a carry. Be sure to lasthit every creep as possible (denying is great but if your denying a creep then missing a lasthit, it is not good). For ****'s sake please maintain creep equilibrium by attacking the creep only when your sure you landing the final blow instead or attacking it until the creep died. This may not seem useful on the first glance but your doing this so the lane will not push towards the offlaner's tower so he can't secure his farm and also it will save you support time since they will have to pull the small camp less frequently. But don't farm passively, try to trade hits EFFICIENTLY with your opposing offlaner (with mana break and Poor Man's Shield you will usually win). Killing the enemy offlaner is not really an option here but if you can kill the offlaner then go back to farming as soon as possible then good for you.

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Basically if you're free-farming in the lane without any of the enemy team contesting your farm you can obtain your Battle Fury and Manta Style as early as 17 minutes with Poor Man's Shield , Magic Wand and Town Portal Scroll (but even up to 22 minutes is still acceptable). Just try to push safely the lane then retreat to jungle clear all the camps then go back to lane (with blinking and tread switching you will do this so easily). Try to join small skirmishes but if the fight goes wrong it is a good idea to leave and push out lanes. Push the lane and chip away their tower. Wait until the enemy team shows up or if you smell something different is happening then blink into the trees and teleport out.

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Fighting

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1. Try to judge if you can blink in and eliminate one of the enemy without getting focused.
2. Blink into their enemy caster and auto-attack them (be sure to activate your Manta Style when they throw their spells at you so you can dodge but blinking and activating Manta Style immediately is okay).
3. Once their mana pool has run dry, blow your chosen target with Mana Void.
4. Try to back off a bit but if you think you won't need to back off repeat step one.
5. Go to your next target and eliminate him/her.
6. If you win the fight go back to farming immediately (but if you think you're losing the fight, get the **** out and push).

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If things go to your favor, you will have at least 4-6 big items now and have at least 400-500 lasthits. Just do the pushing stuff but try to be more active in fights now. Basically in the late-game you have managed to destroy at least 1 set of barracks (unless the enemy team is good at defending their base). The enemy casters now should have at least 2000 mana pool so it is not impossible to score a triple kill from using your Mana Void if you do things right.

Matchups

In this chapter you will see some of the offlaners and carries that you can possibly meet in your lane. Also I will also include the carries that you may meet in the game. But if I will try to include all possible matchups, this will be a long one so i'll just try to include some of them.

Offlaners

This guy can be a pain in the *** to deal with if you are not prepared. Trading hits with axe is not a good idea (axe will 90% lose all of his mana to you which is nice in the first glance but if the enemy has no mana u wont deal any bonus dmg). Making axe attack you will make your creeps attack him, proccing counter helix which deals PURE damage. And lots of axe players will go to your own lane to tank all the creeps (since creeps deal almost no damage to him and counter helix will clear them in no time) between the your first and second safe lane towers and yes you can't do anything to stop it unless your supports or your midlaner will come and help you out. Most of the time he will try to use his berserker's call at you (he takes almost damage since berserker's call grants him 40 ****ING ARMOR for a quite long duration) which forces you to attack him even if you activate your BKB (attacking him will make him spin) and it gives time for his team to beat u up.

How to deal against him: Just secure your farm in the early game,ask your supports to give you space by zoning him out even it is hard to do against axe. Try to avoid being affected by his berserker's call (which means chilling a bit and waiting him to jump into your teammates instead, giving you time to beat the weaker points in his team).


The big badass spider. This arachnid is made to be dominant in lane (well she will just put webs in your lane granting her and her spider army bonus regen and movement speed and the ability to walk through trees and cliffs,giving your supports a hard time to zone her out or predict where she will come out). U may feel safe in the first 3-5 minutes, because in that time she will try to munch on your supports instead (so supports that have no AOE or wave clearing ablities like skywrath mage or witch doctor will have a hard time against her). She also farms so fast even in the early game because of her spiderlings and since she is in a solo lane she will have the level advantage against you even if u manage to kill her once. Don't even try to fight her alone in the early game because this spider is made to make your early game feel like hell. But when the time you get your battle fury clearing her spiders will be easy BUT when the time your got your battle fury, she will probably have an orchid which prevents you from blinking and allowing her to chew on your low HP pool. Late game against her is not a big deal though.

How to deal against her:Try to shut her down in the lane by putting lots of sentries and bringing dusts (your supports will buy them of course but sometimes u can buy ur own dust. Try to obtain your battlefury and manta as fast as possible before she can unleash hell in your team. It is a good idea to pick supports that have waveclear to deal against her in the early or else she will just eat your supports again and again. And also PMS helps against her spider in the early game. Finally broodmother is very fast pusher, don't allow her to destroy your towers or else you will map control.


Not a difficult hero to lane against but she can cause serious problems if you left her unchecked. Even she is a strength hero, she is not that tanky compared to others like axe. Shutting her down in the lane is not an easy task though since her Press the Attack removes debuffs which means slows and skills like Crystal Maiden's Frostbite are not good against her. Trading hits with her is not easy also since creeps attacking her will proc Moment of Courage which allows her to hit u again immediately and heal herself. But the problem is her ultimate, Duel which forces u and her to attack each other until either one dies or the duel duration ends and she will probably have backup so if she catches you alone, there is a big chance you will lose the duel and losing the duel will grant bonus damage to the winner. Giving her successful early duel victories will make you fear of pushing alone since she will definitely hunt for you because you wont have much HP early on so winning against you in a duel will be easy.

How to deal against her: Shut her down repeatedly early game (don't give her farm ask ur supports to roam the jungle and kill her there if she manages to go there and catch up with farm. But the most important thing is don't give her early duel victories to prevent her from snowballing (which can be done by continuous warding and baiting out duels that are unfavorable for her causing her to lose and give your team the bonus damage). If she is shut down really hard in the early game-mid game, she will not pose a threat in the late game but if she manages to rack up duel wins and snowball, buying a linken's will be a good call.


Another dominant laner. Since your a melee hero, trading hits against him will be tough since not only he is a ranged hero but his sticky napalm will slow your movement speed and turn rate so even going for lasthits will be tough (sticky napalm also makes him deal bonus dmg on his spells even on his auto-attacks, making him easy to zone you out in the lane). His flamebreak and firefly won't be much of an issue because of your spell shield unless he managed to put lots of napalm stacks on you. During fights,most of the time he will try to lasso you to drag you towards his team to beat u up before u can do anything so be careful on your positioning during fights. His quite fragile though so u can easily shut down him in the lane with the help of your supports.

How to deal against him: Magic stick or magic wand helps u a lot when laning against him since he tends to spam napalm a lot. He is easy to gank though since he is quite slow (290 MS w/o boots) and his armor is low (even though his HP is somewhat decent). It is a good idea to target him first in fights because he is fragile and you can beat him up easily in the mid-late game. Respect his flaming lasso and don't be cocky in fights (buying linken's is good against him).


Using a melee against this guy is almost auto-win for him but luckily u have spell shield to back u up and trading hits with him will almost always be favorable for u since he is too mana dependent but he wont take too much damage since he has a high HP pool and high starting armor but the mana loss is the reason u will win the trade. Killing him is a hard task though because a good DS player will always surge to run away from danger and you can almost do nothing to it (u can blink in front of him then bodyblock him until the surge ends so your teammates can beat him up. But he will be a constant thorn in the neck for your team when you start forcing fights since he can create a version of you that deals up to 60%/75%/90% of your dmg which is insane for a ****ing illusion but wait he can buy aghs to make it 100%/120%/140% (so basically it deals more base dmg than your hero BASE DMG ONLY RAW DMG IS NOT OBTAINED BY ILLUSIONS) and talk about a fat antimage on the enemy side that deals 140% dmg and burns mana and attacks at fast as your hero. So basically he can make a copy of your team to destroy you and your team in fights.

How to deal against him: Shutting him is kinda easy, just bait out his surge because without surge he is an easy prey. It is a good idea to focus him in fights since he is a good mana void target and it is a good idea to eliminate him before he can cause issues to your team.
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Carries

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This ***** is a pain in the *** to deal as anti-mage,why? She has a very high agi gain and high starting armor coupled with a low mana pool you'll almost deal no bonus dmg to her. And fighting against her is one sided since she hits like a truck while able to dodge 50% of your attacks (oh and PA buys butterfly too which increases her evasion even more). You can't afford to miss your attack when fighting toe to toe with one of the carries that dishes the highest amount of physical damage. And respect the fact that she gets online faster than you do.

How to deal against her: Ask your supports to shut down her early farm so you can outfarm her. Oh and almost 90% of the game against her you will require an MKB just in case she will get fat.


You are not just made to fight against this guy. He farms almost in the same speed as you do since he has a passive cleave that deals more cleave dmg than your battlefury does,he has a ridiculously high 15 armor at level 25 (35 with warcry oh AND HE IS A NATURAL ASSAULT CUIRASS CARRIER!). Once he has reached his peak, he just needs to activate his ult then dagger, stun and clean you with your poor teammates.

How to deal against him: Still try to outfarm him. Ask your supports to block the ancient camp of his team but if he still manages to stack, wait him to go far from the stack and clear it yourself (vlads will help here). Focus more on pushing to give his team less map control. Respect the fact that he is stronger than you.


A common carry to see in the game now. This guy is the king of gold so if you get shut down, you will just be suprised that his net worth are almost twice as yours. Luckily he is easy to shut especially if he goes for the radiance rush build since he will save almost 4k money with just boots and bottle with a QB and stout shield to boot so he wont any stat items to tank him up. U can still beat his farm though since in my observations and matches against him, AM gets online faster than alchemist since alchemist needs radiance manta and octarine to do something which is still not enough.

How to deal against him: Fighting toe to toe on him is very easy in the early game since he has pathetic armor and str gain and also going for the radiance rush (which is common these days leaves him with no survival items and even he managed to farm radiance, going for manta style won't give him enough tankability to survive unless your team sucks). U can also try to steal his stacks (since all good alchemist players will try to stack camps for future use). Buying MKB can be a good call though since he will go radiance.


Not a common carry these days,but going against him requires farming quickly before he reaches his peak. These guy doesn't farm fast enough in the early game (Waveform can clear creep waves fast though but morphling suffers mana problems early on) so u will probably have the lead in the early game against this guy. But the problem is if he manages to farm unchecked since catching him requires at least one guy with a silence and another guy to beat the **** out of him (since he doesn't give a **** about stuns because he can still morph strength even if he is stunned). This guy can also buy ethereal blade so he can blow your supports and even your midlaner then escape by going to his replicate before you can do a thing (allowing him to do this again and again will slow down your farm since you will try to chase him a lot which is almost impossible to do in the hands of a good morphling player and it will speed up his farm since he can obtain easy pickoffs while still being consistent in his farming). Late game going toe to toe to him is almost impossible for you to win since a farmed morphling will have all of his base strength morphed to agility (giving him almost 50 armor combined with other stat item he will buy so ur manabreak won't deal the dmg you need) and causing him to hit like a truck while still having at least 2.5k HP and finally any good morphling player will buy linken's for your ult and abyssal and satanic to heal himself with just 3-4 hits to sustain himself when going toe to toe against you.

How to deal against this guy: He can be easily shut down in the early game since he heavily relies on mana to farm quickly (waveform) and escape tricky situations (waveform, morph str and just in case adaptive to stun u for 4.25 second and replicate as his get out of jail free card) and don't forget your that you can drain the mana he needs. Without mana he is an easy catch since he relies on mana to escape since his base MS is 285 which is incredibly low. But if manages to farm, catching this elusive guy requires silences and just in case multiple sources of burst dmg spells to burst him before he can activate his morph strength. Don't allow him to reach his peak because he is just another stronger carry than you.


One of the cancers before she received a quite big nerf in the 6.87 patch, this uhmm..ghost is still a forced to reckoned with if played by the right hands. While she farms slowly without radiance and can easily be rendered useless for the whole game, she makes up for it by making the space given by her team worth it by crushing entire enemy teams during late game team fights. Don't play her type of game or else you will just lose since going toe to toe with her won't happen since she will haunt and beat all your teammates and chew you later but she can't kill you easily since she doesn't have disables and she is not that type of hero that will buy disabling items.

How to deal against this..uhm...thing: Shut her down HARD in the laning phase (going offensive trilane against her is a good idea since she is garbage in lane). Don't play her type of game. Buying MKB in the late game can help if she goes radiance.

Summary

ANTI-MAGE IS A VERY FUN TO PLAY HERO. JUST KEEP PLAYING HIM AND YOU WILL BE A GOOD AM PLAYER SOMEDAY.

HERE IS A LIST OF SOME GOOD ANTI-MAGE PLAYERS:

1. VG.BurNIng
2. VG.Sylar
3. OG.Miracle

So this is the end of my guide. I will add maybe the match-ups or the guide of "what will u do?" from early to late game later.

PLS INFORM ME IF I HAVE MADE MISTAKES ON THE GRAMMAR THE DETAILS ETC.

If u like the guide pls leave a thumbs up.

Feel free to give suggestions to me so i can make my first guide better then before.

Thanks for reading! :)