Community Guide to Anti-Mage (Safe Lane)

Introduction

Hey everyone, welcome to this community Anti-Mage guide. In this guide, we'll be going over all the essential info you'll need to get started with Magina. This guide is aimed at lower level play or for players unfamiliar with the hero.

This guide was written with contributions from community members like you! Thank you to the following DOTAFire members for contributing to this guide:


Please feel free to leave any comments or suggestions if you have feedback on the guide. Without further ado, let's get started!

Abilities

Mana Break - Great at securing the Ranged Creep, as the creep has mana and burning it deals extra damage. Paired with the bonus damage from Quelling Blade, it’s almost impossible to miss. Strong way to harass your enemies in lane. The bonus damage cannot be ignored, plus it burns the mana of the enemies hit, disabling them from using any abilities and forcing them to spend their gold on mana regeneration consumables. Your illusions also benefit from this passive, making items such as Manta Style very cost effective on Anti-Mage. Also, the bonus damage dealt by Mana Break also increases life steal and cleave, increasing the effectiveness of Battle Fury and items like Satanic. The mana burnt does not stack with Diffusal Blade, no matter how tempting it sounds!

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Blink - Allows you to quickly traverse the map to farm faster and join or exit fights easily. Its cooldown is relatively short, being only 6 seconds (4 with talent), but be aware of your mana as you might run out without realizing; this tends to happen when you’re focused on farming or on getting to a specific part of the map. Always switch your Power Treads to Intelligence when you’re planning to use Blink. After successfully Blinking away, you’re free to switch back to Agility or Strength, as you prefer. It’s important to always do this, especially in the earlier stages of the match, as it’s going to be saving a lot of mana thus saving gold spent on mana regeneration items. Can be used to disjoint projectiles (Blinking away right as a spell is going to hit you, e.g. Bounty Hunter’s Shuriken Toss, Dark Willow’s Shadow Realm, etc.). If you are in need of mana, buy some Claritys and bring them to you so you keep farming while having your mana regenerating faster.

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Counterspell - Makes Anti-Mage very resistant to magical damage. Can also stack with items and other abilities or auras that grant magic resistance. Very effective against heroes such as Lion, as you can reflect any of his abilities if you time Counterspell properly. If you plan to use Town Portal Scroll to escape from an unpleasant situation, always cast Counterspell before starting the teleport channeling, as casting it afterwards will cancel the teleport altogether. The passive can be disabled by Break, be aware of abilities and items that can apply this effect (e.g. Silver Edge, Nethertoxin. This will bring Anti-Mage] to the normal magic resistance of other heroes, making him vulnerable to spells. Even though the bonus magic resistance makes spells very ineffective against Anti-Mage, when you’re against heroes with multiple disables, it’s worth it to consider building Black King Bar to make you unstoppable (unless they also have spells that pierce magic immunity, e.g. Fiend Grip, in that situation Linken's Sphere can help).

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Mana Void - Deals damage to the primary target as well as to targets surrounding it. When enemies are close to each other, make sure to always use Mana Void on the enemies with most mana missing. You can simply click on an enemy in anticipation to check how much mana they’re missing and estimate the damage you’re going to deal. Can also be used to cancel channeling abilities and teleportation, as a mini-stun is applied to the primary target when casting Mana Void (e.g. cancelling Witch Doctor’s Death Ward). Don’t be afraid to use it while farming, some creep in a stack which you are hitting that has 400 max mana is now at 0? Your ultimate is going to deal 320/380/440 damage, which can greatly help farming before your Battle Fury or when farming the ancient Prowler camp since they have no magic resistance.

We will be focusing on Blink because it enables you to quickly travel the map to farm, to engage in fights and also to escape when needed. Mana Break will increase you damage output and also your farming speed, as most creeps in the forest have mana, meaning you'll be dealing increased damage to them. This also applies to enemy heroes, as you'll be burning their mana more with each level invested into Mana Break. A single point early in Counterspell should serve you well enough until the later stages of the game. As always, always place a point in your ultimate whenever possible!




+9 Strength - Gives you 180 health, almost the same as an Ogre Axe, while 15 attack speed is less than what Gloves of Haste gives. Anti-Mage has a fine agility gain and builds items that give him attack speed but his max health at times is very low making him vulnerable to physical and pure damage.

+300 Blink Cast Range - Good in combination with the level 20 talent. Allows you to move faster around the map, also better for escaping. The +8 armor is the other alternative, but it's rarely worth trading over the bonus cast range.

-2 Blink Cooldown - Good in combination with the prevous talent, gives you even more flexibility for moving around the map and escaping.

+20% Spell Shield - Enables you to almost entirely ignore magical damage, making it not a problem at all. 70% magic resistance means it is basically impossible for you to die versus it, the other talent is very mana-consuming and very situational since a lot of the time you can get to kill people before they are low on mana.

Items

Quelling Blade gives 18 additional damage against creeps which helps you get last hits, speeds up your farm and later builds into Battle Fury. 3x Iron Branches to give you more health and damage in the lane, 2 Iron Branches are going into Magic Wand and the other can be consumed with a Tango for double the regeneration.



Power Treads - gives you damage and attack speed when picking agility, which helps since Mana Break already gives you damage so you can attack more often, you can also change the attribute to intelligence before using Blink so you use less mana overall.

Magic Wand - grants more sustain in lane, more escape potential and more stats early on.

Wraith Band - gives stats which are important to stay in lane, survive ganks and to be effective while farming.

Ring of Health - gives you health regeneration which is important during the laning phase, and it will be used to build Battle Fury later on.



Battle Fury - is what allows Anti-Mage to farm very fast in conjunction with Blink and get all his other items quickly. The additional damage is good for farming, the health and mana regen sustain the damage you take from creeps and the mana you spend with Blink, and the cleave makes so you farm camps and the lane very fast.

Manta Style - dispels silences which are an easy way to kill you, since you cannot Blink while silenced. Also gives good attributes, the illusions do have Mana Break which increases your damage and they can also be used to farm jungle camps or the lane.

Gives you additional damage, some of it being magical which diversifies your damage a little bit, and it does pierce Black King Bar or other sources of magic immunity, but you really should only get it when there is evasion on the other team, since you get a 75% chance to pierce it. Also good versus heroes with high armor and low health such as Terrorblade.

As much as you do have a lot of magic resistance from Counterspell, pure damage such as Outworld Devourer’s Arcane Orb is going to deal a ton of damage to you. Also, disables that are instantaneous such as Hex, are hard to reflect with Counterspell, meaning the enemy team is capable of chain-stunning you. During a team fight, you might want to use Black King Bar to kill those who can lock you down or those who can deal massive amounts of pure damage.

If you need health, some damage, and more strength in trading hits, this is a great choice. If the enemy team has a very strong carry which can kill you, this might allow you to man-fight. The lifesteal helps but the active is especially strong, this can also be good versus disables since it lowers them down by 30%, so you can use Counterspell after and Blink away.

Anti-Mage has a lot of magical resistance due to Counterspell, but not a lot of physical resistance. Assault Cuirass gives armor and attack speed which is always welcomed. Consider getting this if you are playing versus heroes that tend to get additional armor reduction items such as Desolator (e.g. Phantom Assassin and Templar Assassin).

If the enemy team has one strong spell that is very hard to reflect with Counterspell, get Linken's Sphere. For instance, Lion only has one disable with no animation, that being Hex, he depends on getting it off. Earth Spike is very easy to dodge, if you are in a situation like this, it might be better than getting other items that deal with disables.

If the enemy team has passives that are very hard to deal with, such as Bristleback, Inner Fire, Dispersion and Bulwark, consider getting this to make dealing with such heroes much easier. The attributes are good and the active is the key to disabling enemy passives. Remember that you have to hit out of invisibility in order to apply the Break effect, blinking or using any other ability will cancel the invisibility and the Break won't be applied.

Gives you agility, attack damage, attack speed and evasion, more damage with Mana Break and Manta Style, and also allows you to be more durable when dealing with physical damage which is a natural problem of Anti-Mage. Keep in mind that enemies can get items that pierce evasion such as Monkey King Bar and Divine Rapier, the first is not as good since it deals magical damage and you have Counterspell, if you get this item try to fight before the enemy is able to complete these items.

Direct upgrade of Skull Basher, you keep the bash and get an active, which is good versus heroes that have magical immunity such as Lifestealer or those with Black King Bar. Also strong for jumping heroes that can disable you before you get to hit them.

Slows targets hit by your attacks which greatly helps you with chasing down enemies. The targets hit will also have their healing effects reduced, meaning this item can be an effective choice against heroes with lifesteal, such as Wraith King and Lifestealer.

Offers a lot of damage and True Strike. Anti-Mage can be a great carrier since he's difficult to catch and kill due to his Blink and Counterspell]. Only pick it up in matches against heroes that cannot properly focused you down. You can secure this item by building items such as [[Satanic or by claiming Roshan's Aegis.

Grants more health, if you believe you need more durability, this can be a good item choice. Also offers a massive regeneration boost which can be useful if you are constantly getting low on health after fights.

Gameplay

Farm. All you need to do is get last hits and try to harass those who get close to you with Mana Break so they cannot use their skills, but try to check if they have Enchanted Mangoes or a Soul Ring later on.

Don’t overextend, your only real kill potential is at level 6 thanks to Mana Void or with the help of your supports. If you see someone is about to use a skill on you, consider using Counterspell, that can give more kill potential early on.

Don’t be afraid to Blink into the big or small camps near the lane to also farm them, try your best not to die, killing someone and dying right after is not a good trade in your case because you really need Battle Fury to get into the game. Don’t spend too much time trying to get kills since it might end being less efficient than if you simply were farming creeps.

Don’t be afraid of jungling once you have your Ring of Health. If you cannot get last hits in your lane, it is the better choice to go for. In addition, do not be afraid of switching lanes, is the offlane safer and they already destroyed their tower? Switch lane with your allies, they are stronger and you are easier to harass, so they can keep fighting while you farm.



You should have your Battle Fury by now, split push and farm, that is your goal, only get into fights the enemy is overextending or when they are weak. You aren't very strong in the early-mid game, but you're effective with your Mana Break and Mana Void against targets with high mana pool, such as Skywrath Mage and Leshrac. Managing to drain their mana and cast your ultimate when their mana reserves are empty will be devastating both to the main target and to the ones surrounding them.

Another situation to keep an eye on and react - if the enemies are overextending on another part of the map, use your Town Portal Scroll and try to help your teammates. Having your Town Portal Scroll ready at all times will enable you to react to enemy attacks and potentially get some kills, all while helping your teammates survive.

Focus on the mini map and enemy movements, as they will attempt to group up and kill you. You're going to be vulnerable until you're able to pick up Manta Style, as any disables including silences will render you without an escape mechanism. However, after you've successfully acquired Manta Style, silences shouldn't be a problem. Don't hesitate to use all of your resources to escape when the situation is dire! Blink and Counterspell can be used when you anticipate that enemies are going to be initiating on you.

If you have vision of the enemy heroes, you can use this to your advantage to safely farm and push lanes. For examples, if you notice that most enemy heroes are farming their jungle, pick the lane that's in the opposite direction of their jungle and pressure the towers. They will be forced to come back and in theory, they shouldn't be able to catch you if you use your available resources correctly. Also - you can also do "creep skipping" which is going behind the enemy towers to kill the creep waves before they manage to get too far. This will deny the enemy lanes from pushing and it will trigger them to teleport back to defend, wasting their time, gold and nerves.

Once you get Skull Basher or Eye of Skadi you should be able to fight. In this situation, try to focus the enemy supports if a fight is going to start, as they can disable you and they also almost always have a lot of mana, meaning Mana Break deals a ton of damage. However, if the enemy team has a magical damage dealing core, such as Skywrath Mage, Lina or Tinker, focus them instead! You can use Manta Style to deal more damage but be careful of silences and roots since these can easily get a kill on you if your Manta Style is on cooldown.



Anti-Mage is not an actual very strong late-game carry, he just gets a lot of items fast, he is mostly strong versus magical damage heroes with a lot of mana, but heavy physical or pure damage carries like Phantom Assassin or Outworld Devourer can effectively take him down, even with fewer items. Once you get most of your core items, try to close the game as fast as you can. Remember you do not always have to win a team fight, you can split push and rat, but do not let your entire team die if possible, mostly if you are capable of fighting, just try to not overextend the game and end it as soon as you can.

Later on you can remove your Power Treads and buy another item in it’s slot, works better if you have an item that allows you to keep hitting heroes like Abyssal Blade or Eye of Skadi. Beware of items like Silver Edge since they can make you vulnerable to magical damage or items like Skull Basher and Abyssal Blade that can disable you.

Conclusion

Thank you for reading this Community guide to Anti-Mage! If you'd like to contribute to this guide, please leave me a comment in the Discussion tab with your feedback or send me a Private Message if you'd like to contribute regularly to guides like this. Everyone who contributes to one of these Community Guides will be credited in the guide.

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