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7 Votes

Anti-Mage Hard Carry

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Build Guides Discussion (10) More Guides Report

Hero Build

DotA2 Hero: Anti-Mage

Purchase Order

Starting Items

In Lane

Poor Man's Shield

Ring of Health

Boots of Speed

Perseverance

Battle Fury

Power Treads

In Jungle and Splitpushing

Manta Style

Heart of Tarrasque

Lategame

Butterfly

Abyssal Blade

Boots of Travel

Six-Slotted

Battle Fury

Abyssal Blade

Boots of Travel

Butterfly

Heart of Tarrasque

Manta Style

Situational Items

Aegis of the Immortal

Black King Bar

Daedalus

Monkey King Bar

If you are completely owning and want to be a dick

Blink Dagger

Diffusal Blade

Force Staff

Divine Rapier

Hero Skills

Talents

Anti-Mage Hard Carry

1.	Introduction
2.	When to Pick Anti-Mage and Where to Lane
3.	Item Explanations
4.	Gameplay

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Introduction

Anti-Mage is one of the most powerful heroes in the game if used correctly and one of the best hard carries since he combines amazing flash-farm with great late-game potential. He is slightly outclassed very late-game by heroes like Faceless Void and Lone Druid but that doesn't matter because he takes so much less time to come online. This guide will cover when to pick Anti-Mage, and explain/cover in more depth the item builds and skill build.

NOTE: I have provided one item build, and I honestly believe that in 95% of games, that is the most effective way to build Anti-Mage. If you're heavily harassed and don't have your Battlefury and Power Treads by 25 minutes, you can make some changes that might be more effective, but it really depends on the game you're playing. The skill build is more variable. I find myself going the one I put above about 80% of games, but if I'm getting harassed early, then I might take stats or spell shield earlier, along with getting blink quickly for the lower cooldown, which means more reliable escapes. The reason I usually pick up Mana Break so early is to effectively trade hits with any melee opponents. If they don't have any melee, then get one level for until later, because you'll have a hard time trading hits with them.

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When to Pick Anti-Mage and Where to Lane

Pick Anti-Mage if:
There are mages on the enemy team to be "anti" against. Pretty obvious. Good examples would include Lich, Storm Spirit, and others. Note that you will counter them very hard after about 20 minutes, but early, without your spell shield and high Mana Break levels, you won't have a great early game.
Counterintuitively, if there are lots of strength heroes on the enemy team, you will have a great game (unless it's Huskar or Io since they're ranged and Huskar isn't mana dependent at all). If you're laning against Sand King, Chaos Knight, Earthshaker, or someone like that, get off one or two hits and they have no mana. If you think such a hero, like Clockwerk, is going mid, you can go mid yourself, but generally you will want the safelane. The offlane can be appropriate with 6.79 since the creep equilibrium is now similar in both lanes, just as long as you have a support. But 90% of the time you will find yourself in the safelane for at least 12 minutes.

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Item Explanations

Starting Items--Of course you need a Tango for basic regen. Usually you can skip a Healing Salve since you should be the one harassing, not the one being harassed, but this can be a good pickup, though usually I will ferry it to me if I need it via the courier. The Stout Shield is very important since you're a melee hero and will take a lot of creep hits if you're going for every single lasthit (which you should). Many consider the Quelling Blade a "noob" item and a waste of money but I still think it's most effective as a starting item. If you have an opponent with higher base damage, they can deny every single creep, so you need to neutralize your mediocre base damage. Additionally, and especially if your support is stacking and pulling, you will need extra creep damage for lasthits under your tower, since there's no way you can get some of them without the quelling blade. Third, your primary escape mechanism if there's a gank where you're completely surrounded is to blink into trees, and if they leave, it's very helpful for getting out of the trees quickly and getting back to farming. The quelling blade itself can also be helpful for escapes. Fourth, you can help your supports ward your jungle. Cutting down a few key trees really clears the lines of sight. Fifth, and most importantly, you will begin alternating between jungling and clearing enemy creep waves without your creeps around to splitpush once you have your Battle Fury and Power Treads, and the extra damage will make it so much more efficient.
Another reason that you could pick this up is that you're bad at lasthitting. This is perfectly acceptable, and as someone who has trouble lasthitting with heroes like Shadow Fiend, I feel your pain. Don't feel bad about getting this item, since it will more than pay for itself with lasthits that you get when you otherwise would have missed them.

In Lane--The Poor Man's Shield is one of the few items on this build that I would list as "optional." It's really great because it lets you take even less hero harass than you do with the Stout Shield. Additionally, the 6 agility gives you an additional 5.04% effective physical hp from armor, and the 6 extra base damage helps with trading hits, harassing enemy melee heroes, and lasthitting. There are very few situations when I don't pick this up, usually when I have complete freefarm and/or get an early kill or assist (meaning my extra agility and strength gain from levels make this less necessary). You will eventually sell this, but if given the choice between selling it and your Quelling Blade to make room for another item, I tend the Quelling Blade first since it only helps farming, and not in fights.
The early Ring of Health is essentially a continuous Tango and makes you effectively immune to minor harass in combination with your Poor Man's Shield or Stout Shield.
After that you pick up your Boots of Speed since your blink is on a high cooldown early in the game and you don't have the mana to sustain it; additionally, if you're far away from a nearly dead creep for whatever reason you can get there faster and it can be the difference between 50 gold and 0 gold.
Then pick up your Void Stone to complete your Perseverance. Many people like to get the Claymore and Broadsword components of your Battle Fury first for the extra damage, but this leaves you with too little mana regen to use your blink as a chaser since you can't escape with it if you have no mana. So instead I pick up the Void Stone first, but of course you can vary that if there is a good reason. Then pick up your Claymore (I get this first because it has 3 more damage, but it doesn't really matter, and besides, you often will get both in stash before bringing them if someone else needs the courier), and your Broadsword to finish your Battle Fury. Finish your treads after this. I usually get the Gloves of Haste first when I have a good support and we're likely to get a kill soon, but under heavy harass, it's better to pick up your Belt of Strength first.

In Jungle/Splitpushing--Your next big item will be a Manta Style. Generally I pick up the Ultimate Orb first, because it gives extra health, which you really do need, but it's up to you. Next comes your Yasha, and after that, the Manta Style, your main pushing item. After this you will pick up either your Heart of Tarrasque or Butterfly. Which comes first is situational. I get the Heart of Tarrasque first in about 75% of my games, because it's safer, but you will be a faster pusher and be able to kill people fairly easily with your Butterfly. The problem is that it's more important to not die than to get one kill and one death, since you'll get way more gold from going 0-0-0 than 2-2-0 as a farming hero, not only due to unreliable gold lost on death, but also from time spent dead and not spent getting gold. After that comes your next item, which will be your Heart of Tarrasque or Butterfly depending on which one you got first. Then I generally go for Javelin into Skull Basher into Abyssal Blade, but at this point, there might be situational items such as a Monkey King Bar against enemies with Butterfly or Phantom Assassin that you need. Abyssal blade is the best counter to Black King Bar since its active goes through it. After that, I will often sell my Power Treads for Boots of Travel, since the teleport ability is very good for the ultra-lategame meta of pushing and defending. After that I generally save for buyback. There are a few reasons you might sell your Battle Fury or Boots of Travel to make room for an item like Black King Bar or Monkey King Bar, but generally your build will look like I have outlined above.

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Gameplay

Try to get your Battle Fury and Power Treads before 20 minutes, and abandon them if it's 25 minutes and you still don't have them. Once you get them farm the jungle and split push, though your split push isn't too effective yet. Once you get Manta Style it's very good. Just try to be as annoying as possible without dying. Once you get most of your items it's time to team fight and completely wreck. Try to find a Storm Spirit or Pugna or someone like that low on mana and when the enemies are grouped together use your ulti on them. darkseer and Magnus are great in combo with Anti-Mage for this very reason. After you teamwipe the enemy take their towers and win the game.

TIP: Your ulti stops channeling spells. If Witch Doctor or Enigma or someone like that activates a game-breaking ultimate and you're the only one in a position to stun, then USE IT. I don't care if they're at full mana, it's more important to stop that Death Ward then to do a potentially 2000 damage aoe nuke, simply because you won't live to get that nuke off if you don't interrupt the channeling spell.
Your ulti, especially early, is a generally a single-target finisher. But if you have another friendly hero near or you can kill them after using it with your sick right-clicks.

Have a good time owning with Anti-Mage!