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7 Votes

Anti-Mage - Latest Scenarios and complex guide for low - mid MMR players

January 8, 2016 by ErpelHaze
Comments: 5    |    Views: 53790    |   


Vlads first (recommended)

DotA2 Hero: Anti-Mage




Hero Skills

Mana Break

2 12 13 14

Blink

1 8 9 10

Counterspell

3 15 17 18

Mana Void

6 11 16

Talents

4 5 7

Introduction - Why pick Anti-Mage

Screw these lores and tales. Let's just play Anti-Mage.

Warning: This is going to be a rather complex and detailed guide. The goal is to explain this hero to players who don't know AM or are fairly new to the game. However, especially the match up and how-to-play section might be interesting for experienced players who look to improve their meta and overview skills. I'm going to explain pushing and ratting strategies and most important, how to win the majority of games with him.

Anti-Mage. Magina. Anti-Fun.
This guy has been by far my most played and most loved hero for almost 3 years. Not only I'm picking him 2/3 games, I'm also watching replays, pubs & professional games.
If you learn how to play this **********er correctly, you'll receive a 70% Win Rate or even higher with this hero.

Let's get to it!

So why the heck would I want to pick Anti-Mage?

The question is easy to answer:

He's (mostly) purple. #no****
He brings end to magic.
His attack animation is one of, if not the best in the entire game.
He farms faster than almost any other carry (except for Alchemist).
His Split-Pushing capabilities are incredible, thanks to flash farming and Blink-Escape
His ult has decent AoE influence. If the enemy fights in bad position, you only need 3 hits + ~3 illusion hits on a core caster like Lina, Queen of Pain, Leshrac, etc to win the fight thanks to Mana Void (LvL 2&3).
If you want to win your save lane.
If you want to control or punish the movement of the enemy team.
If you know you can end the game between minute 30-45.
You absolutely want and have to drain the enemies mana, like Medusa, Wraith King, ...

Okay, gotcha, that's almost always. When should I not pick Anti-Mage?

Anti-Mage is capable to fight almost all heroes, but you should be aware of the match up as a whole. Playing Anti-Mage is always risky. You will never want to fight with your team until you have at least your Battlefury & Vlads, ideally also your Manta Style. But as soon as you've got your Manta, go into the fights. (Yes, there are exceptions. Explanations follow later.)
A scenario you'd want to avoid: The enemy has the "harder" carry and you're the only carry in your team. You could lack damage in that case. At a certain point Anti-Mage's influence drops drastically. But even then you can still win the game by ratting and split pushing.
Try to avoid: massive silence, massive disable, massive push (unless you have a Keeper of the Light in your team).

Alright, alright, would you finally tell me something about the items?

I was waiting for that. Some of you might disagree, but trust me, this should be the most effective and viable choice of items, in that correct order:
Spend your gold on 8x Tango, 1 Healing Salve, a Stout Shield, 1 Iron Branch.
The most important thing for AM indeed is last hitting. That's why you want to get your Quelling Blade asap. Get it in the side shop. Afterwards: Poor Man's Shield. It blocks creep damage, harassing damage from the offlaner and it also provides some damage. With these two items you should be able to not miss any last hit. Now "rush" your Ring of Health & Ring of Regen, then finish your Power Treads. You want to finish your Power Treads before you get your Battlefury because it gives you so much survivability and also regen, mana for example if you have to TP out after blinking away from a dangerous situation. Be aware that you never ever want to die before your Battlefury!

So now that you've got your BF, there's no point in hesitating to get your Vladmir's Offering. I know, we will now have the discussion "Why not Manta Style first?", well, the answer is fairly simple: Vlads will allow you to never go to the base, while farming with BF only might get you low or medium HP at a certain point. Vlads also gives mana regen bonus. Vlads provides an Aura for your team fight. Vlads allows you to fight your enemy without Manta Style (of course only if it's not too dangerous). Vlads provides pushing and at this point you might want to push. It allows you to farm, farm faster, even the ancient creep camps.
So, it gives you so much for the cost of a Yasha. Moreover, once you got these 2 items, you'll farm like a god.

The only time you have to finish your Manta Style before Vladmir's Offering is when there are single target silencers such as Queen of Pain or Clinkz with their Orchid Malevolence. In that case you could also consider skipping Vlads completely.

Now, as quickly as possible: Manta Style. Once you have it, you'll most likely not die anymore.
If you get silenced (single target), pull the trigger and Blink to safety or fight the enemy. Want to take down a caster within 3 seconds? Blink to him, hit 3 times with your illusions and Mana Void him. He'll be dead. So this item provides movement speed, stats, escape, aggression, fearlessness while farming and pushing.
These 3 items are your core items. They provide your 5th, 6th and 7th skill that you desperately need.

Juking with Manta Style: You can also Juke spells, just wait for the moment when the stun is going to happen, then pull the trigger and evade the stun. You can also possibly reengage now. Bind the 2 illusions to a key and use this for micro management. Attack the casting hero with the illusions.

From now on everything is situational.
You've got a Phantom Assassin against you?
She's also probably still farming. Get a Monkey King Bar now and the game is over. There's no point in waiting for it. Now that you've got your MKB, blink her, use your Manta, kill her. She can't run from you. She most likely can't fight you if you've got Vlads as well. PA is squishy, she'll drop low HP very fast.
You need the MKB at a certain point. Even if there are many other items that work better on Anti-Mage, you should get it instantly, just because after your Manta Style you want to fight with the team. You can't fight reliably if you are not able to take down the PA.

You've got Axe against you?

Get Vlads asap.

The enemy team has AoE Silence, Stuns, something that's endangering your mission?
You want to buy a Black King Bar as quickly as possible!

Your team is lacking disable?
Get a Skull Basher into Butterfly and stun them to death.

You are getting focused a lot by disables and single target nukes, but a BKB is not enough?
Go for Hearth of the Lulz. But be aware: Heart of Tarrasque is not the best item on Anti Mage. At a certain point you need Boots of Travel or Aegis of the Immortal, so it's kinda blocking one of your item slots because Anti-Mage needs attack speed, something HoT does not provide. Also, AM's strength gain is pretty low. Even with LvL 25 and HoT you don't cross the magic 3000HP limit.

The typical build for AM to win the game would be: Power Treads, Battlefury, Vladmir's Offering, Manta Style, Skull Basher, Butterfly. By now the game should be between 30-40 Minutes and this is your strongest match time. Try to finish it now, if you can.

Bonus: Invisible heroes are a pain for you. You would beat almost all of them in direct fights, but you're no natural Gem of True Sight carrier because you need every single item slot.

Match Up: Introduction and general information

Now that you learned about your items of choice, let me explain some general facts.

Make every second count. Especially in the early game you only farm and harass. Learn and read the game. Watch other lanes quickly while you wait for the next last hit. Know which hero is on which lane and try to read and predict the dangers that come from it. Is the mid laner able to gank you? Is he able to even gank before LvL 6? Which hero do you have to fear most because of his disables? Which runes are getting you in danger?

Answering these questions will give you the general idea of how to win the game and, of course, not to die.

Anti-Mage favors match ups where he has uncontested farm. In that case you're going to have your Battlefury + Power Treads within 12 minutes. This should be fairly easy when you only have 1 enemy on the offlane and you've got a baby sitter. If you stand against a dual offlane, which is getting common nowadays, your going to have more trouble farming. But also here: Don't die. Try to predict it in the picking phase and see if your team can go for a trilane and win the lane. Same goes for aggressive trilanes.
The ideal situation is that you win the offlane early and then get uncontested farm on your own because you don't have to fear anybody anymore. Then try to send your supports to other lanes to win them as well and you get tons of XP just for yourself. You need XP. You need stats (regen, HP, armor, ...).

Ask your team (kindly) to ward your own jungle, at least the entries. You will always want to see dangers and be able to react. Please don't die before your Battlefury, unless you can secure first blood. But even FB mostly is not worth it because of the farming time you're loosing.

Try to hit the enemy in order to burn his mana, probably with the help your mates. See if you can play aggressively. At a certain point you are above the offlaner and can stand alone yet still win the lane.

Match Up: Farming

As mentioned in the items section, make sure you have your Quelling Blade + Poor Man's Shield. This will also enable you to jungle a little bit if there is absolutely no way to farm on the lane. That's also why you bought so much regeneration items (8 Tango, 1 Healing Salve).
If you've got uncontested farm, deny as many creeps as possible to keep lane equilibrium (the lane stays at the exact point where it was before). If you screwed up, pull a lane (use the big camps!). You can also do this on your own if the support is not there. Farm the jungle creeps, then Blink under the tower to also get the farm of the creep wave. Always switch your Power Treads to intelligence before you blink. Then switch them back to agility if you need damage, switch to strength if you need regeneration. Try to do it. It will become a habit at a certain point.
Profit from the farm that's on the lane. Do not fully push the T1 tower. Wait until you have your Battlefury. The T1 tower secures that the farm will reach you.
Remember: The entire save lane is your territory! The mobility of Blink can make sure that you always have the advantage and stay ahead.
If you and the jungle are pressured too much, try to switch to the enemy jungle or offlane.

Skill Build:
You usually want to go for a 1-1-1-1 build with 2 times stats, after skilling Mana Void you should max your Blink to make sure you've got lvl 4 Blink as soon as you've got your Battlefury. It's as easy as that. Also, always get 1 point in Spell Shield. 25% Magic dmg resistance is great and you should profit from that. Always keep in mind that Mana Void has a mini stun. It's not only to finish your enemy off or cancelling TPs, the mini stun also helps to land this last hit you need to kill your enemy. Something I learned from Arteezy :)
Also, always use Mana Void to cancel TPs when following up. Even if you know the enemy has full mana. Don't rely on your team mates to cancel the TP, be proactive and do it on your own.

Different situations:
Szenario 1: Your offlaner is meelee, such as Bristleback, Clockwerk or Tidehunter. Usually these guys are somewhat mana dependent. Now you should get 2-3 points in Mana Break and trade hits with them. They can't really endanger you because when it gets threatening, you can just blink back to your tower or in the treelines. You got the regeneration to do so! These offlaners can't do anything without mana.

Scenario 2: You get pressured much by a dual offlane and/or by frequent ganks. Now max Blink instead of stats to make sure you can escape quickly, possibly you need more than one blink.

But in general 1 point in Mana Break is enough for last hitting and harrassing. 1 point in Blink is enough because a smart Anti-Mage only needs 1 Blink to escape.

How to Blink?
Think about it before you Blink! Predict what is going to happen. You usually only have 1 blink to either initiate your attacks or to escape into safety. Typically enemies (in low levels) think you just blinked back down the lane and might follow you. Blink towards the enemy lane instead and/or inside the treeline. They most likely won't find you there and you are safe. That's why Anti-Mage ALWAYS has a TP. As I said: Make every second count. If you see that you won't be able to farm the next 2 minutes because too many enemies are there, blink in the trees and TP to your jungle, to your save lane tower or another lane that is currently free. There must be something free if you have 3 enemies on your lane.

Match Up: Pushing

Dude! It's time. Now the Anti-Fun comes online. Anti-Fun for the enemies if you ask me.
You're equipped with a Battlefury, Power Treads and TPs. You just picked the BF up in the side shop and now you find your way to push the enemy T1 tower if no one else is on the lane. If there is someone and you can't kill him yet or have to fear to get killed yourself, go through the jungle. Go very far from the save lane to the offlane. Hopefully someone stacked camps for you. When you reach the offlane, your Vlads should be finished.

That's the time when you show yourself to the enemy if they didn't pay attention to you so far (well, if they didn't, the game is pretty much over anyway).

Number one prio is still to farm your Manta Style. Ideally it's minute 20-22 but this is happening pretty rarely.
Start pushing. You're rotating all over the map the entire time so you know where the enemies are. You can also ask your team mates to make something happen like pressuring a tower and getting the enemy to fight (hopefully without feeding them). At the same time you go for another tower. Without Manta Style you don't have much damage, so go behind the tower and clear the incoming creep wave there. Then last hit the tower. Don't miss it ;)
Try to push wherever you can. If you see that you team mates are fighting, push a lane. Ideally try to get to their base and get first damage to the enemy base. This will force the enemy to TP back to defend, which likely will secure the team fight for your team.
If the team fight is lost, they likely try to pressure a lane (usually this is mid haha). Go on the same lane as your enemies are, but between their T2 and T3 tower and skip the creeps. You might have to do this twice. It will stop their push and they have to back off because by now your team mates are back alive. Note: This will only work in mid game when the enemy is not that hard farmed.

One last word regarding "ratting". There are not many heroes that master this technique and you will most likely get flamed for doing that but hey, you want to win the game right? I believe that's why he's called Anti-Fun. If you lose an Anti-Mage game, you most likely didn't have fun :) But loosing is not what you are here for.

Go for ratting if you know you can't win the team fight at the moment. Push while the enemy team pushes, too. You're probably as fast as them, even way faster if your own team can try to fight them 4vs5. Try Split pushing: 4 mates on the top lane while you get tower damage or rax at the bottom lane.
In general, realize what the enemy team is up to and push respectively. How you do this against certain heroes & teams will be analyzed in the next section.

Match Up: Fighting

By now you should definitely have your Manta Style. It's time to fight, but be smart! You are turning into a killing machine but you are not tanky at all. You are not the initiator, unless you already got Aegis. If you don't, let someone also initiate the team fight. Then go for the most critical target, such as Witch Doctor. If necessary, Mana Void him right away to cancel the Death Ward. If not, burn the mana of the caster and Mana Void him if it makes sense. Don't be silly! If he is dead anyway and your ult won't have AoE influence or there is another valuable target, save your ultimate for this target.

Be sneaky. As mentioned above - you're not the initiator. Try to pick 1 hero off the team fight. Check if you need to save Manta Style for when it get's dangerous. If the fight is already kind of won, they might run from you. But they can't. Your 5seconds cool down of Blink is just too strong. It's pretty likely that the first Manta Team fight will give you enough gold for your next item, it's either through your kills or through the money that you get out of your free farm-pushing after the fight. From now on you only get stronger. That is the time when the enemy supporter are either saying to their mates or thinking "**** this AM is screwing me up. He only needs 3 hits an I'm dead. Sorry I didn't bring a single spell to the fight". This get's worse as soon as you have your Skull Basher.

Match Up: Friends & Foes + Team Compositions - A guide how to beat them

Basically almost every hero can be a friend to Anti-Mage, as long as farming roles are clear and your team is not too greedy. Heroes like Alchemist for example don't fit in your team because this motherf*cker farms even faster than you do.
But some heroes need to be pointed out.

Let's start with Invoker:
Wow. Such a guy. Your Invoker should play QW to have max EMP. If this EMP is placed well, the team fight is most likely already won. You don't even have to auto-attack, just Mana Void the caster who is out of mana. Also Invoker has a very high game impact and team fight control, such as Tornado. Alacrity boosts Anti-Mage as well (for pushing the base after team fights are won, or to get Roshan). This is the guy to get if you want to set up a nice team composition.

Magnus: His Reverse Polarity synergies perfectly with AM. He get's them all together, you jump in, activate your Manta and hit the high mana hero. Then ult him. GG. Of course Empower can be used to your favor.

Lion: His lane presence is awesome because he just buys time for you to either engage or to escape.

Lich: So much lane control and the enemy wave is going to get pushed into your tower, which gives you the safety you want to have.

Enigma: Same principle like Magnus but Engima as a Jungler might leave you with less lane control if he stays in the Jungle. On the lane he's a pusher, which you don't want to see. Still in team fights the Black Hole is awesome for you.

Omniknight: Repel is your free Black King Bar.

Now let's take a look at his Foes, or possible enemies. As I said, there is basically no one he couldn't fight. It all comes back to your skill and, most importantly, map awareness. I'll try to point out what to do in different scenarios.

Alchemist: There are not many heroes who farm faster than you do. But this guy does. I often pick Anti-Mage to have an equivalent who at least can keep up with him. 1on1s with Alch are going to be 50-50. You should consider a different strategy to defeat him.

Axe: Axe can really destroy your laning phase. If he is solo you might be able to deal with him when you have a good support or even 2 supports. Burning his mana is not really solving the problem of whirling axes. If you even get a dual offlane with axe against you, try to find save farm with jungling or safe last hits under the tower.
Get Vladmir's Offering as soon as you can, otherwise Berserker's Call is going to screw you up, not only in team fights.

Bloodseeker: When I play against an Anti-Mage, I sometimes like to pick him. There's not much you can do when you eat Rupture. The only thing you can do: Stay close to the treelines. Almost always when you feel like you could get ganked. Then directly blink into the trees and hope that they don't have a Windranger behind who can cut down the trees quickly. Try to TP into the base asap! You should survive this 1 rupture + blink damage.

Bounty Hunter: Manta Style solves the Track problem. He's no match for you at a certain point.

Bristleback: In the offlane he can be a problem. Try to get a disabler - Lion is your joker. He also has mana burn and Bristle can't do anything without mana.

Broodmother: She will kill you if you don't have a decent support player. Really. Only go for this match up if you know you can rely on your support. She's no match for you as soon as you've got Battlefury but it's more likely that you already lost both lane towers before you even get close to your BF.

Chen: Again, a crazy pusher that has the capability to end the game early. If the enemy team doesn't have rax by minute 30, you're most likely winning the game against Chen because at that point he'll because useless. You can very easily nuke him out.

Clinkz: You'll be lucky if he comes offlane. In that case you can zone him out. If you blink to him and burn his mana, he's destroyed. But if he is mid, he'll get Orchid Malevolence before you've got your Manta Style. Be careful, skip Vlads and get Manta asap. Then he's no match for you.

Clockwerk: Mana Break him and force him to cast spells. He's useless in the lane without mana.

Dark Seer: Your Spell Shield and regen will make it easy to stand against Ion Shell. The creep waves will get pushed under your T1 tower, which should be easy last hits for you.

Death Prophet: In a team fight she can really destroy you. The ghosts are melting your illusions, however, with disable you can try to nuke her. Her high Mana pool will help you to win the fight. But always always always be careful. Her Silence + ultimate can kill you in seconds if you do not have manta ready. It's extremely dangerous because it's an AoE Silence.
You should try to get her off position, hopefully when she's farming somewhere, solo. But this rarely happens because DP wants to team fight.

Disruptor: Careful with TPs because of Glimpse. Get a BKB after Manta for his ultimate. It's rare that this hero goes Aghanim's Scepter to also silence items.

Doom: You can easily survive the Doom if you have friends around. Then it's just wasted, like with any other hero. However: Try not to get doomed. Careful if he's got a Blink Dagger. He can be indeed very dangerous to you, but only when you get doomed. Therefore, as mentioned before already, do not initiate the team fight. Don't be the first target he sees. Keep behind and join the fight when doom is out.

Drow Ranger: Drow is most likely to be played save lane and therefore is no thread to you. It's quite the contrary. Since you can blink in front of her, she's almost always dead. But there are 2 scenarios I'd like you to be aware of: When she goes Shadow Blade, you have to be careful. At a certain point she might stand behind you, silence you and you're dead, which will delay your Manta farm significantly. Map awareness!
Traxex is also an amazing pushing hero. Her Precision Aura increases the enemies damage and the game could be over at minute 15, which is too early for you to be effective in split pushing. I recently experienced this. Hint: If you predict such a match up, have your team pick a Keeper of the Light and the game is won since the enemy just can't enter your base.

Earth Spirit: When played well he can be a pain in the a*s. This hero is capable of doing everything. Silence, Stun, Damage over time... Only your supports can save the lane for you. But he needs to be played well in order to do that. Mostly he's no danger.

Ember Spirit: As Anti-Mage you mostly won't loose against Ember. Your split pushing endangers him, also your follow up possibilities with Blink. But most important: You get effective way earlier than he does. In a 1on1 you beat him. Try to get that.

Enigma: Black Hole is getting you killed. The disable just lasts too long. Stay out of the Black Hole and Mana Void him.

Faceless Void: Chronosphere kills you. Stay out of it and try to fight the team. Omniknight will win the game if he's not in the Chrono but in general I'd say: Don't pick AM vs Faceless Void.

Huskar: If you get Huskar against you, you need to juke him. Wait for him to Life Break you, when his jump is over, instantly Blink to safety. You might want to get a Heart of Tarrasque. Then win the game through split pushing. Don't Mana Void him. It's useless.

Invoker: You can easily kill him if he's out of position. Careful if he goes for Orchid Malevolence. Seems to be a 50-50 match up, even in late game.

Juggernaut: Be very careful! He can fight you. It's fine to burn his mana but Jug doesn't need it to kill you. He can't Omnislash you because you just blink away. But in a 1on1, especially in the early game, you loose this fight due to Blade Dance. But otherwise you're a great counter to him.

Legion Commander: That's easy: Don't get into a Duel with him. I'd rather not pick AM against him, unless your team can deal with him easily.

Leshrac: Yes. He's your person of interest in a team fight.

Lina: She will kill you with her Eul's Scepter of Divinity - Light Strike Array - Laguna Blade combo. Laguna Blade With Agha is pure damage so your Spell Shield is useless. HoT solves the problem but you have to get then, which is difficult against lina. Otherwise her high mana pool can be your great advantage. I don't think she's too dangerous when she's not played as a core.

Lion: Disables much :(

Luna: Difficult to play. Bait her Eclipse out, then you can try to fight her but I would wait for your Skull Basher before you do so. Maybe you also need a Monkey King Bar.

Medusa: You picked Anti-Mage to defeat her. Mana Break is her death.

Meepo: A great counter to Anti-Mage. Don't pick AM against him.

Naga Siren: It's hard for you to kill her and she follows the same strategy like you do, but: You get farmed faster and can push earlier. Also she can't really kill you. It's tough but Anti-Mage can win this when played with cleverness.

Nature's Prophet: Your Quelling Blade and Mana Void is his death, especially in early levels.

Necrophos: Well, if he's played offlane, Heartstopper Aura can be a pain. He's difficult to play against but at a certain point, especially with Ring of Health and Power Treads, you're turning the tides.

Night Stalker: Yeah you better don't pick Anti-Mage against this dude. If you did, skip Vlads and get Manta directly to get rid of that silence.

Oracle: Her abilities to save people can be annoying and totally destroy your momentum. I'd suggest you focus her so she's forced to use her spells on herself.

Outworld Devourer: People always think that AM would be the greatest counter to OD. That's just not true. His mana pool is so huge, you would take a lot of time to burn it down. Also he's got a huge damage output - be careful! Also he's going to buy a Scythe of the Wise and a Force Staff, very dangerous for you.

Phantom Assassin: She's considered to be a counter against you. She isn't. Once you got Manta, you can easily fight her. Go Monkey King Bar right after Manta Style (but don't forget Vlads - you'll need that) and she's on your diner plate today.

Phantom Lancer: I like to pick AM against him. The matches are always very close and fun to play. It's a 50-50 match up where the better player will win.

Pudge: You're the only one who should not get hooked! Then you're all set. Watch out for ganks.

Queen of Pain: You should win this. QoP might have a huge influence in early game but she actually can't win against you. As soon as you're in a team fight and her Sonic Wave is out, Mana Void destroys her. Careful for Orchid Malevolence.

Riki: Ouch. Yes, Riki is definitely a huge problem, especially with that Diffusal Blade / Skull Basher. Just try to evade the Smoke Screen, then he's got no chance against you. But he also forces you to carry a Gem of True Sight, which is not in your interest.

Rubick: He will steal your [[Blink, then engage and disable you. He can't kill you, but he can set the kills up. Always remember this when you play against Rubick.

Shadow Fiend: You should be able to win this once you get close to him. His damage output is huge, try to evade his ganks.

Slardar: It's as easy as that: in 1on1s you win until level 6, then he pwns you, until you get Manta Style. You might also consider a Black King Bar to evade the stuns.

Slark: He can't kill you. Just blink away until you have Manta Style], then you destroy him. He's not going to be faster with his [[Orchid Malevolence. Even if he is, you'll have manta soon. Actually it's a great thing if he buys Orchid. It block an item slot because Orchid is not the best item for Slark. Also the time his Orchid could be successful is very small.

Spectre: She's a harder carry than you are, but you are faster. Use this advantage!

Spirit Breaker: There are many other gankers who are much more dangerous. Just wait until the Charge of Darkness has reached you, then Blink to safety. Or even fight him. Careful: If you blink first, you're dead.

Storm Spirit: Evade him until you have Manta Style. This is a hard match up but fun to play. Your team should make sure they don't feed him anyway.

Techies: Well, Mines are always annoying, especially for you because you move around that much. It's a team effort to win this.

Terrorblade: Yeah, so much damage - can be difficult to kill him. Try to juke his Sunder, which shouldn't be too hard because of Mana Void and you're good.

Tide Hunter: A solo match up is hard to deal with, but not impossible. Burn his mana, trade hits and make sure you get damage very fast.

Timbersaw: Same as Tidehunter match up.

Tinker: Tinker's damage output is very high through the entire game. Your Spell Shield helps a lot but you still have to be careful, especially if he's got Scythe of the Wise. However, you're actually a great counter to him. Again: Map awareness is the key to success. Predict on which lane he will appear next. Hide at a save place and wait until he used his dual March of the Machines and take care in which direction he's blinking. Follow him, hit him with your Manta Style. Wait with your Mana Void until you're absolutely sure he will be dead or until he tries to TP away.

Tiny: Tiny can screw up your game if played correctly. His Toss / Avalanche + Blink Dagger is probably going to kill you. With more items his Craggy Exterior can also kill you. His pushing capabilities are great. I'd still call this a 50-50 match up when your team does not lack disable to deal with Tiny. Focus him last.

Weaver and Windranger on the offlane: Shouldn't be a match, both heros have to fear death when they are out of mana.

Wraith King: You picked AM to counter him, right? Careful if he still got an Enchanted Mango in his inventory.

I'll end this section with a rhyme: You can't loose against Zeus.

That's it. The wall of text has come to an end. Let me know what you think, let me know if I got something wrong or if you are missing anything. Looking forward to your comments and, most important, thanks for reading!

Now go, my young apprentice, and win some matches!

PS: I'm also going to add a section for favorable team compositions and what to do if the game isn't going well.

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