Beaver's Antimage

Introduction

Welcome to Sneaky Beaver's guide to Anti-Mage! Anti-Mage is probably my favorite hero because of his absolute awesomeness and versatility. He is an agility carry and probably the best in the game currently due to the synergy of his skills and the absurd utility of Blink. This is a full guide on the hero, so be prepared to read! One last note is that this guide will be constantly updated and improved.

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.

Skill Overview

Skill Build
The skill build above is an example of the 'Burning' build, generally it involves getting one point in your Q, W, and E skills then focusing on stats, and maxing blink by the time you have a battlefury. The point if the build is to give you more HP and damage, making early-mid game conflicts safer. Another reason is that the first point into your skills is the most efficient, with mana break starting at 28, and gaining 12 more per level, and spell shield starts at 26% and gains 8% per level.

Mana Break

Type: Targets:

Passive Enemy Units

Burns an opponent's mana on each attack. Mana Break deals 60% of the mana burned as damage to the target. Mana Break is a Unique Attack Modifier, and does not stack with other Unique Attack Modifiers.

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Notes:

• Damage dealt is physical damage.
• Deals 0.6 damage per point of mana burnt.
• Mana burn is blocked by magic immunity.
• This skill is an orb effect.

-Simple skill, gives you more physical DPS and a great laning presence, especially against solos. While a good skill its much safer to get one level and level stats afterwords.

Blink

Type: Targets:

Active Point

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

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Notes:

• If you used Blink to teleport to a distance over the maximum range, you'll be teleported 4/5 of the maximum range instead.
• You can use Blink to dodge incoming projectiles.
• Blink has a 0.4 seconds teleportation delay.

-Simply an amazing skill, it's the best escape skill in Dota, allows you to chase, maneuver, and doge spells effectively in teamfights. As well as allowing you to clear the jungle faster than any other hero in Dota. Another note is that it's easy to practice tread switching with blink :D.

Spell Shield

Type: Targets:

Passive N/A

Increases Anti-Mage's resistance to magic damage.

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Notes:

• Stacks with spell resistance items.

-Passive spell resistance, this combined with antimage's high armor from his agility gain can make him a complete tank in the late game. However because of its low scaling with levels it's usually more useful to level stats after you put one point into this.

Mana Void

Type: Targets:

Active Target Unit

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.

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Notes:

• Damage type: Magical
• Mini-stuns the main target
• Damage is calculated based on the primary target's mana, but applied to all enemies within the AoE.
• Stun works on magic immune units.

-A fairly devastating ult when used correctly in a team fight, make sure to check the mana levels of enemies with high mana pools, then cast this on them when they're near their allies. Some heroes which generally make prime targets are heroes like Leshrac, Storm spirit, Shadow shaman, Lion, Enigma, Lina, and Tinker, as well some others. Level this up as it becomes available as it scales very well with levels.

Item Build Guide

Tango and Healing Salve: Basic regen used keep yourself at full hp in the early laning phase,

Iron Branch: +1 to all stats for 53 gold makes for an incredibly efficient item at the especially since you are limited more by gold than item slots at the beginning.

In Lane

Note: If you are in an easy lane, meaning you are free farming nearly uncontested, consider skipping the upgrade to Power Treads in favor of completing your battlefury sooner.

Ring of Health: Buy this for basic in lane regen and of course for your battlefury, I generally buy this first because with an average amount of harass you should be out of tangoes by the time you can afford one.

Boots of Speed: Basic boots that i buy after i get the ring of health, simple.

Power Treads: Best boots for Anti-mage until you need an expensive item and you're out of space, once you finish these you shouldn't be missing any last hits, especially with a quelling blade.

Poor Man's Shield: Generally a good thing to grab because you need a stout shield anyways

Mid Game

Battle Fury: This is what makes antimage so great. If you manage to get this in under 20 minutes you almost always have a win in the bag. It allows you to farm like a mad man and finish your manta at least by 30 minutes as you farm the entire jungle and jump in lane to push it a bit and get last hits. Usually i get this item at about 20 minutes in as my average and any faster only comes if im fed, so try and aim for 20-25 minutes at most.

Manta Style: This is your first major dps item, once you have this you should definitely be jumping in to teamfights (and probably winning them). Just remember to activate your illusions in the teamfight and try not to think of yourself as invincible...yet. Also dont completely stop your farm just yet.

Town Portal Scroll: Just make sure to have one on you at all times, especially at this point in the game. (but you should have one on you at all times of the game really)

Late Game-Luxury

Heart of Tarrasque: Gives you massive tankeyness, once you have this the game is basically over simply because of how unkillable you are. The choice between this and butterfly is that in a close game you should get this first, but if you just want some more kills because you are going to win anyway, get butterfly for the lulz.

Butterfly: Once you have a heart but its not over the last real item you should get is a Butterfly because with your passive and massive HP there basically isn't any nukes that can take you down, just physical dps, and thats where butterfly helps out.

Aegis of the Immortal: Once you get your manta you should most definitely be the one picking up the aegis over basically anyone on your team.

Situational

Black King Bar: While i dont recommend this as a heart lets you simply tank up all the damage they do during stuns, it can be necessary some games.

Monkey King Bar: Just get this if you're up against anyone with evasion or has build a butterfly.

Abyssal Blade: I only recommend this if your team literally has NO stuns, otherwise a different item would be much better.

Gameplay

Laning: Farm, farm, and farm. Thats basically it, also remember to get the last hits on enemies if you can, but only if you can very easily.

Early-Mid Game: Keep on farming up your core Battlefury and manta, you dont have too much use until you get them. You should be able to farm the jungle relatively well once you get the in-lane items. But only do so if farming the lane isn't safe. Also if you're farming the jungle with a quelling blade, be sure to cut holes in the trees rather than needlessly wasting mana by blinking (talking bout radiant jungle mainly).

Mid-Late Game: At this point you should have manta up and be ready to dominate, however if there aren't many fights going on, feel free to keep up your farm advantage and grab the late game items early ;).

Late Game: At this point as long as your team is sticking together and teamfighting reasonably well you should completely dominate, often times being a full item ahead if the enemy teams carry, even if given free farm.

General tips: Honestly the success of an antimage relies more on his team ensuring he gets farm rather than the antimages individual skill as that only comes into play in teamfights where the game is close.