Anti-Mage is one of the strongest carries in the game when fully farmed, which he is capable of being relatively quickly thanks to his skill set and play-style. Although he requires lots of space to farm and many items before he becomes relevant, his late game strength makes up for what his early game lacks.
Anti-Mage should find farm wherever it is available on the map until he has a few items and can participate in team-fights. You should take advantage of the space that the enemy team gives you when they push one of your towers and split-push to break even because you are a lot weaker in the early and mid game.
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[/column]Anti-Mage Skill Build
- Mana Break
- Blink
- Mana Break
- Spell Shield
- Mana Break
- Mana Void
- Mana Break
- Blink
- Blink
- Talent
- Blink
- Mana Void
- Spell Shield
- Spell Shield
- Talent
- Spell Shield
- –
- Mana Void
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Anti-Mage drains the mana of the enemy with each attack and deals a portion of the mana burned as damage. This should generally be maxed first as it will let you farm neutrals faster and harass enemies out of lane more easily. If your are free-farming and are unlikely to participate in any kills, it may be better to skill Blink instead of Mana Break.
This is the reason why Manta Style works so well on Anti-Mage, as his illusions gain Mana Break. It can be good to trade hits with heroes who’s survivability is dependent on mana. You can play aggressively by blinking onto the enemy and attacking them until they back to in order to drain a lot of their mana if you’re sure that they won’t be able to punish you for it.
Anti-Mage immediately teleports a short distance away. If you’re facing a difficult lane and taking lots of harass, skilling Blink over Mana Break may be more helpful as it can save your life when facing some of the best Dota 2 players. Blink should be maxed secondly as it allows you to move between neutral camps and creep waves much faster. Taking Blink at level 1 is a better choice if you are likely to be able to kill the enemy before level 2. This is because you’ll be able to close the gap more easily, although it may also be better at level 1 if you are against a hard lane.
You should be very careful with how you use Blink. It’s often a bad idea to use it to initiate onto the enemy, as they may be able to turn the fight around and kill you while it’s on cooldown. It consumes quite a lot of mana when used liberally, especially if you lack items that regenerate mana. You can switch the primary attribute of your Power Treads to Intelligence before casting it as it will preserve some of your mana-pool. Manta Style can be used defensively to allow you to Blink away to safety. Always carry a Town Portal Scroll so that you can Blink into trees and teleport to a different lane and farm there instead.
Anti-Mage passively gains resistance to magic damage. Aghanim’s Scepter makes this passive Block and reflect single-target spells back onto the enemy. Spell Shield is almost always maxed lastly after getting 1 or 2 levels in it early. This is because it’s much less useful than your other 2 spells and because it gives 20% at level 1, then increases at increments of 10%. Anti-Mage also doesn’t engage enemies very much until later in the game. It can be prioritized if you are facing lineups with lots of magical damage and especially if you are taking lots of magical damage in your lane and are unable to farm. Heroes like Dark Seer and Lich tend to spam their spells against you and are prime examples of when you may need more points in Spell Shield. You can mostly ignore Spell Shield if the enemy lineup mostly has physical damage.
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Anti-Mage deals damage to the target enemy and nearby enemies based on how much mana they are missing. The target will also be mini-stunned. Magic immunity will prevent damage from being dealt, but will still damage nearby enemies and mini-stun the primary target. Make sure to always keep an eye on the mana and spell blocks of the enemy before you use Mana Void, as it has quite a long cooldown. This spell is very effective in close quarters or when the enemy is forced to be close to each other. You can use Mana Void to secure kills in the early and mid game to increase your farm rate.
This talent choice is fairly straight-forward. If you are facing aggressive lineups with lots of stuns or silences, the extra HP may let you live long enough to Blink away. More strength will also tank up your Manta Style illusions. The extra attack speed will let you farm a little bit faster which may be a better choice if you are farming well and not in any immediate threat from ganking heroes. The attack speed will also buff your Manta Style illusions.
The extra Blink cast range is quite situational. If the enemy lineup is capable of catching you even after you Blink away, you should consider getting the extra cast range as it will make you much harder to catch. If you’re against a Bloodseeker, you will be able to Blink away with Rupture cast on you without taking any damage if you ensure that you Blink away at max range.
The extra 15 agility will help you to farm a bit faster and deal a bit more damage and your illusions also benefit from it. If you need to carry very hard, then the extra agility will help you in the long run.
The reduced Blink cooldown will reduce it from 6 to 3.5 seconds. This can be helpful when you are against a lineup which can easily chase you and/or disable you. The reduced Blink cooldown is better if you need more survivability or mobility to survive or chase down slippery heroes. The other option will spawn an illusion that attacks nearby enemies whenever you cast Blink. This will help you push out lanes faster, clear jungle camps a bit faster and deal a bit more damage in team-fights. If you can get away with it, you should get the extra illusion.
If you are playing against a lineup with several large mana-pool heroes, then the reduced cooldown will let you cast it every 20 seconds. This will allow you to use it usually at least twice in a team-fight, which is particularly effective in tight quarters, such as when defending high-ground or when fighting near the ancient camps. If you are facing lineups with mostly magical damage and few or no Breaks, then the increased Spell Shield will massively reduce the amount of magic damage you take.
A Stout Shield provides you with a lot more EHP and will allow you to jungle more easily after the laning phase ends. You will also need it to be able to soak up any harass in your lane. Tangos and a Healing Salve will provide you with enough HP regen for most lanes, and Iron Branches will give you a bit more damage and potentially increase your regen.
An Orb of Venom will help you to chase down enemies and get kills more easily. Generally, this is not needed against heroes with strong survivability spells or if you have allies with strong stuns or disables.
If your last-hits are being contested, a Quelling Blade will make it easier for you to last hit. It will also be built into a Battle Fury later.
Anti-Mage’s stats and stat gain is relatively low, which Power Treads helps with. The agility and attack speed also lets you farm faster and can be tread-switched to tank you up if needed or to use mana more efficiently.
Ring of Health gives Anti-Mage lots of sustainability, allowing him to lane and jungle without losing much HP. You can build it into a Battle Fury or, if the game is not going well for you, a Vanguard later. This should be the first part of Battle Fury that you buy, as you’ll most likely need the HP regen as soon as possible.
Battle Fury should be core in almost all games. If you can’t farm you lane or if you’re dying a lot, then it may be better to skip it in favor of a Vanguard. Battle Fury is so good on Anti-Mage because it lets him split-push and farm neutral creeps faster, especially when combined with Blink. It also provides HP and mana regeneration, providing him with some sustain for when he jungle and Blinks around. You should get your Battle Fury around 16 minutes in a good game. If you will get it very much later than this, you should consider getting a Vanguard to tank you up instead.
A Vanguard will tank you up, give you some HP regen for survivability and a helpful damage block. It can also be built into an Abyssal Blade later in the game.Vanguard will allow you to contribute a bit to fights when desperately needed but most importantly, it will help you to survive ganks. It’s good in games where your team has been dominated and you can’t find any farm against their ganking heroes. Also, if you got little to no farm from your lane, you will not be able to farm very quickly as a result and be very squishy. A Vanguard helps with the latter, and you’ll have to find farm wherever possible to get your next item. Generally, it’s not ideal to have to get a Vanguard in the early game, but some games are very hard.
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Manta Style is core on Anti-Mage as Mana Break is granted to his illusions. It also lets you split-push more effectively as it allows you to take towers much faster. You should be careful about when you use Manta, however. This is because Manta is largely your main dispel for a large portion of the game. If you’re facing many silences, you may not want to use Manta to push towers, You won’t be able to use it to purge silences and as such, Blink away to safety. You can also use Manta Style to dodge several sources of incoming damage.
Skull Basher allows Anti-Mage to disable a target, making them vulnerable to your damage and mana burn. You will also gain a decent chunk of HP and it is later built into an Abyssal Blade
Aghanim’s Scepter is often a very strong item on AM. It effectively combines a Lotus Orb and a Linken’s Sphere into one, with a lower cooldown that Linken’s Sphere. This makes you much harder to lockdown and makes it much harder for the enemy to stop your split-push. Despite the amazing passive it gives you, it can sometimes not be enough to help you survive against heroes like Legion commander, Vengeful Spirit and Terrorblade. Effectively, any spell which would be detrimental for you to cast onto an enemy can potentially cause problems for you.
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Butterfly is a great late game item on Anti-Mage in Dota 2 esports. It provides a massive amount of attack speed, agility and damage. It also provides lots of evasion, which is helpful against the enemy team’s carries, especially if they are unlikely to buy an MKB or haven’t yet.
Abyssal Blade is an extension to Skull Basher which provides a guaranteed lockdown, even through magic immunity. This works very well on Anti-Mage as you can Blink onto an enemy and use Manta Style after the stun to grant you 2 seconds of massive damage and mana burn before you finish with Mana Void. Abyssal Blade is great against heroes which deal a lot of damage to you, such as Sven. This is because you can reliably disable them and deal a large amount of damage during which they can not lifesteal. It also sets up for the possibility of chain stunning if your allies are nearby. It grants a total of 450 HP which is good for him as AM is quite squishy.
If you find yourself getting burst down quickly, a HoT will give you a massive boost to your HP and HP regen. It doesn’t provide any extra damage or kill potential, but if you are ahead and already have enough damage, a Heart will solidify your lead and make you much harder to kill. It’s good on Anti-Mage because he is relatively squishy, and his ability to Blink in and out of fights allows him to regen his HP very quickly if he gets too low.
An Assault Cuirass is great against lineups that mostly have physical damage or have lots of minus armor effects. All of the stats it gives you are great and overall, it will largely increase your damage output.
When you have 6-slotted yourself, a Moon Shard will massively increase your damage output and, by extension, mana burned.
Boots of Travel allow you to split-push and defend your towers against split-pushers more easily. You won’t always need them, although they are usually good to have in your inventory unless you desperately need a 6th item. You can swap them in and out with Black King Bar for example, as it has quite a long cooldown.
You will need a Linken’s Sphere against heroes who’s spells are not reflected by Aghanim’s Scepter. As mentioned, spells like Dual will initially be blocked. However, you will reflect it back onto the enemy so that the spell will still be triggered and usually to your detriment. It also gives you some helpful stats and regen. It’s usually overkill to get both a Linken’s Sphere and an Aghanim’s Scepter. Note that Spell Shield is prioritized over Linken’s Sphere if you have both.
A Nullifier is a very situational item, but it can be good against certain heroes. The slow, dispel and mute it provides lets you lockdown heroes that don’t have a natural escape spell. Most importantly the purge lets you cripple enemies with buffs that makes them harder to kill. Against heroes like Necrophos and Omniknight it can be helpful.
You may not need a Black King Bar every game, but it will definitely help you to survive against disables and magic damage.
Bloodthorn can be good against heroes with strong survivability spells and evasion. The extra damage will let you tear through the target, provided the target is disabled. Bloodthorn by itself doesn’t slow or stun an enemy however, so they can still run away from you. For this reason, it is usually better to get it after an item that can disable the enemy.
You may need a Monkey King Bar against lineups with lots of evasion. The attack speed is good for your illusions, although the Pure damage doesn’t proc from them.
Eye of Skadi will give you lots of stats and tank you up considerably. It provides a strong attack and movement slow which is strong against physical damage dealers. The slow lets you attack enemies much more easily as they won’t be able to escape very quickly.
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Anti-Mage naturally tears through the mana of high intelligence heroes. Prioritize these heroes for Mana Void.
Heroes like Wraith King and Medusa rely on having mana to survive in team-fights, which Anti-Mage naturally deals with very well for most of the game and especially so when he gets his Manta Style
If Anti-Mage gets silenced with Manta Style on cooldown, he will be unable to blink and very vulnerable. Play very carefully against silences and avoid using Manta unless it’s safe to. Heroes like Clinkz, Storm Spirit and Riki have spells or usually get Orchids which can silence Anti-Mage and kill him if he doesn’t have a Manta Style.
Bloodseeker can toggle your Linken’s Sphere or Spell shield and prevent you from escaping with Rupture. He also has a spell which deals pure damage which is effective against your Spell Shield. You need to play very carefully against Bloodseeker. If there are strong disables on the enemy team, you may be able to justify getting a Linken’s Sphere and an Aghanim’s Scepter if you are getting caught out. The increase Blink range at level 20 helps a lot against Rupture, although you will likely need some item to help you survive in the mid game until then.
Anti-Mage requires a lot of space to farm through the mid and late game. He’s most effective when his team makes space for him and lets him split-push a different lane. This means that if he has to sacrifice a part of the map to one of his allies, he will be able to farm less and the team will suffer. You should avoid picking Anti-Mage if there is already a hero like Shadow Fiend, Alchemist or Tinker on your mid lane.
These heroes can create illusions of you which can deal a large amount of damage to you or your allies. If SD is on your team, he can also create even more illusions of you to destroy enemies.
Meepo can keep Anti-Mage rooted almost permanently with his nets if played well.
OD can destroy your illusions very easily with just a few hits, and can restore his and his team’s mana-pool relatively easily.
LC can Duel you and prevent you from Blinking away to safety. If she activates Blade Mail, you will also likely kill yourself fighting her.
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