Anti-Mage/Guide

Classic farming Anti-Mage
The role of the classic safe lane farming Anti-Mage has not changed through many patches, and is still essentially the same. The main role of a safelane Anti-Mage is to farm a as quickly as possible and then start farming up bigger items. As soon as Anti-Mage get his he should start flash farming with his, switching between lanes and jungle camps while split pushing around the map. At this point Anti-Mage should focus on forcing the enemy to rotate and defend against his splitpush or taking towers that aren't being defended.

The main problem with this playstyle is forcing your team to take fights 4 versus 5, while you are off either farming your or farming bigger items like  or. If Anti-Mage gets shutdown too hard or if you play against heavy early push heroes like or  the game can be over before Anti-Mage get enough items to fill his needed role.

Combat-Mage (also known as the Miracle- build)
In recent patches an Anti-Mage build focusing on heavy early fighting has become more popular, most notably pulled off by pro players such as Miracle- and occasionally Fear. The build revolves around getting strong early game items like and  combined with  then proceeding to join early teamfights while delaying or completely skipping. In this video Miracle- pulls off the no build to get 9k mmr.

This build is high risk, high reward and requires incredibly good decision making and map awareness to pull off well, and is not recommended to newer players or people inexperienced with playing Anti-Mage.

Ability Builds
A standard Anti-Mage involves tons of points in stats to make up for his very bad strength gain, after 16 it's common to just keep going stats till you can't get anymore, then maxing and only max  with the last 3 skill points. A rule of thumb,if you need to max for whatever reason, is to match it with your  timing, meaning you try to have 4 points in  at the same time you get your.

General

 * You are utterly useless in team fights if you can't physically attack enemies. There are many ways to counter raw physical damage in DotA, especially if it's melee. Decent players will buy items like, and  to shut you down. Timing your entrance into the battle is everything for you.
 * Do not pick Anti-Mage if your team picks farmers such as Shadow Fiend, Enigma, or Tinker.
 * If you find yourself being killed quickly a provides 250 health and can be later built into a . Generally, it is advisable to get a faster.
 * A quick will greatly increase your farming ability which will greatly help later in the game.
 * Don't only farm the jungle. If the enemy is pushing Anti-Mage can push a different lane solo with a reliable escape mechanism with and  and can indirectly defend by forcing the enemy to defend.  It will require at least 1 core to respond to kill you generally giving your team a huge advantage if you TP back home to fight.
 * Be very wary of heroes like, and , as illusions created from you carry the Mana Break spell as well, and combined with Anti-Mage's high Agility, could easily turn the tides of a teamfight.
 * Once you get full slotted you could opt to sell your for a different item, but its creep clearing abilities are still very useful and sometimes critical. You should sell it if you absolutely need another item that can turn the tides, such as a.
 * Many players are tempted to switch to agility, but given your low strength gain (1.2), it may be better to keep them on strength if you are not jungling.
 * If under a lot of harass in lane, it can be worth it to get a Ring of Regeneration on top of your Ring of Health and later use that to build a . Vlad's allows Anti-Mage to solo Roshan and also farm at full health while also being able to jungle ancients efficiently.
 * It can be a good idea to finish a hero with your ultimate, even if you could easily kill with an autoattack. Chances are a hero you focused is running low on mana and its team trying to save would come in close enough for your ultimate to hit quite a few enemies.
 * Even with, you should avoid being an initiator and instead bide your time until you can exploit a weak spot in the enemy's formation after a team fight starts, usually in the back lines where the supports are. This is especially important if the enemy carry is on the front lines with a BKB, which is a fight you will almost never win head on.
 * Even though you have poor strength gain, your starting strength and armor is actually very decent. Couple that with your naturally fast attack speed and a single point in mana break makes you very strong in trading hits.
 * With the above tip in mind against some common offlane heroes like and  who try to harass you it's a good idea to constantly blink on them to trade hits as early as you're level 2, rather than simply withstanding harass. Setting the pace for the laning is critical to how fast you farm later in the game.
 * Your laning phase is an absolute nightmare. Many heroes can cripple your early game by harassing you and chasing you away. Also, if you don't utilize your laning phase the game may well end before you reach Anti-Mage's maximum potential. Ask your teammates to babysit you.
 * Anti-Mage has relatively low base health. If you can't kill an enemy quickly, it may be best to disengage, as an unfavorable fight can easily result in your own death.
 * Excluding, all of Anti-Mage's regular abilities have mediocre per-level scaling, and offer most of their utility/effectiveness with only one level, so it's generally advised to put them at level one and then upgrade a few attribute points before upgrading them any further as the increased strength, attack speed/damage, and armor are all going to help Anti-Mage's lane sustainment more.


 * Mana Break is most effective against heroes with low mana pools, as you can completely deplete and disable them in less time. However, this also means that Mana Void will do significantly less damage when deployed as its damage is reliant on the mana pool's maximum size.
 * is a commonly built item on Anti-Mage as your illusions can also apply Mana Break, tripling the ability's effectiveness. It also provides an increase to all attributes and a means to remove most disables, especially silences, that could prevent escaping via blink.


 * Blink is the most common choice for your first ability point, as its immediate benefit is better than either of your passives. Put some points into Spell Shield and attributes if you are facing strong opponents or go for Mana Break if you want to be aggressive.
 * Never use Blink to start a fight unless you know you can win it. Doing so could leave you stranded in a bad situation.
 * Blink is a very versatile and powerful escape mechanism. You can also use it to chase, maneuver, or to avoid spells during battles.
 * Very short cooldown and very effective for escaping. One of the best mobility mechanics in the game. Can be used to farm faster.


 * While Spell Shield provides substantial magic resistance, it is not a substitute for magic immunity as it does not block non-damage effects of enemy magic.


 * Mana Void is very difficult to use to full effect. Constantly check enemies with large mana pools. Use it on enemy casters after they have used their abilities and burned most of their mana. It can absolutely devastate an enemy team if used properly. Note that it does have a short stun, allowing you to cancel spell casts and channels.

Items
Starting Items:
 * es help provide Anti-Mage with health regeneration in the early game.
 * will give Anti-Mage a massive boost of health regeneration.
 * es will give Anti-Mage an additional attribute boost in the lane, and can be built into.
 * will allow Anti-Mage to take a few more hits from enemies when taking last hits in lane. Anti-Mage will often build this in a.

Early Game:
 * give Anti-Mage a speed boost which can be helpful for getting around.
 * is a good idea to pick up if the enemy is using a lot of spells since that gives Anti-Mage a lot of regeneration in case of emergency.
 * provides Anti-Mage with decent HP regeneration in the early game, and can later be built into a.

Core Items:
 * provide Anti-Mage with attack speed and attributes, allowing for a substantial increase in damage and durability.
 * provides Anti-Mage with more attributes and good HP and mana regeneration if the enemy is using a lot of spells.
 * provides agility and movement speed to Anti-Mage, and can be built into a.
 * provides Anti-Mage with HP and mana regeneration, and gives Anti-Mage a cleave that allows Anti-Mage to farm faster and push faster.
 * is always a good idea to have on Anti-Mage at all times, as it allows Anti-Mage to easily escape from enemy ganks if Anti-Mage is out of position.

Situational:
 * provides attributes that benefit Anti-Mage very well. The illusions benefit from Mana Break, greatly improving Anti-Mage damage, pushing potential and mana-burning capabilities. Additionally, the split allows Anti-Mage to dodge and remove spell effects, which can be useful in combat or when escaping.
 * gives Anti-Mage a damage boost, a chance to stun enemies when attacking, and a guaranteed stun that goes through magic immunity. It also gives Anti-Mage a small amount of strength that will increase his health pool.
 * offers a very substantial damage boost as Anti-Mage is an agility hero, it also gives Anti-Mage armor, evasion and additional attack speed on top of the attack speed gained from the agility on the item.
 * increases the health pool of Anti-Mage massively, which gives Anti-Mage a lot more survivability.
 * is the only way for Anti-Mage to have lifesteal since is a Unique Attack Modifier. The lifesteal and damage boost benefits both Anti-Mage and his teammates throughout the entire duration of the game.
 * Gives Anti-Mage a big increase to survivability with health and armor, a passive late game slow that goes through magic immunity that works with, and DPS increase with 25 agility.