Anti-Mage/Guide

Carry
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 Blink, 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 shut down 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.

General

 * You are useless in team fights if you can't physically attack enemies. There are many ways to counter raw physical damage, 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, , or.
 * 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 Blink 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, it may be better to keep them on strength if you are not jungling.
 * If under a lot of harassment 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 . The item 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 attack. 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.


 * Mana Break is effective against heroes with low mana pools, as you can deplete 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.
 * Take note that heroes with small mana pool also potentially take much less damage from Mana Break since they are emptied so quickly, preventing the mana burn from further contributing to the Anti-Mage's potential damage.
 * 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.
 * The damage from Mana Break is dealt as physical damage. As such, deliberately reducing your opponent's armor will increase the damage that Mana Break does.
 * Unlike most passive attack modifiers, Mana Break does not bypass spell immunity.


 * 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 Counterspell 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 mobility tool. You can also use it to chase, maneuver, or to avoid spells during battles.
 * Relative to Anti-Mage's mana pool, Blink is somewhat costly in terms of mana. As such, you should refrain from freely employing the spell in the early stages of the game unless you have intelligence and mana boosting items to supplement your low base intelligence.


 * Counterspell provides Anti-Mage with magic resistance and also upon cast, giving him a spell shield that blocks and reflects any targetted spells for its duration.
 * While Counterspell provides substantial magic resistance, it is not a substitute for spell immunity as it does not block non-damage effects of enemy magic.
 * Additionally, spells and abilities that deals physical and pure damage will completely bypass the bonus bestowed by Counterspell.
 * Against an enemy lineup that consists of almost entirely physical damage dealers, Counterspell can be considered as redundant and should be leveled up last in such a situation.
 * Likewise, if you're against a spell and nuke heavy opposition, you may need to spend some early points in Counterspell to negate and reduce some of the potential spell damage.
 * As Counterspell has no cast point, Anti-Mage should wait to use it when enemies are playing their abilities' cast animation.
 * Use Counterspell to cover Blink's cast animation when escaping.
 * Because it has a very low cooldown at max level, keep on activating it whenever the enemy pursues you or while you charge on the enemies.
 * Try to guess as to when an enemy hero will use a spell. If you are at low health, you might want to use it to block certain spells that deal massive damage. eg. Finger of Death, Laguna blade.


 * Mana Void is 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.
 * Enemies around the radius will take full damage from the spell based on the mana loss of the primary target.
 * Mana Void will apply a stun to the main target. This can be used to disrupt channeling spells and abilities.
 * When upgraded with, it not only increases its stun duration but also increases the enemies' highest cooldown skill's cooldown. This makes it effective against heroes with powerful teamfight spells.

Items
Starting items:
 * provides Anti-Mage with health regeneration in the early game.
 * gives Anti-Mage a massive boost of health restoration.
 * gives Anti-Mage an additional attribute boost in the lane, and builds into.

Early game:
 * provides bonus damage against creeps to help Anti-Mage get last hits. It builds into and stacks with Battle Fury.
 * 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 health regeneration in the early game, and later builds into.

Mid game:
 * provide Anti-Mage with attack speed and attributes switch, keeping him alive with strength, or sustaining his abilities usage with intelligence.
 * provides Anti-Mage with more attributes and good HP and mana regeneration if the enemy is using a lot of spells.
 * provides Anti-Mage with HP and mana regeneration, and gives Anti-Mage a cleave that allows Anti-Mage to farm faster and push faster.
 * provides attributes that benefit Anti-Mage 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.

Late game:
 * gives Anti-Mage a damage boost, a chance to bash enemies when attacking, and a guaranteed stun that goes through spell immunity. It also gives Anti-Mage a small amount of strength and health 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.

Situational items:
 * grants spell immunity so Anti-Mage can attack without worrying about enemy disables.
 * increases strength, status resistance, and lifesteal, giving Anti-Mage much more survivability.
 * provides an ultimate tankiness boost so that Anti-Mage can lead pushes and manfight the enemies in the late game.
 * grants a lot of attributes, particularly increasing the mana pool so that Manta Style and Mana Void can be used more often. It can also be considered as an alternative to Abyssal Blade if its slow is enough to disable particular enemy heroes (i. e. if particular enemy heroes lack escapes and rely on keeping a good position or high movement speed).
 * provides Anti-Mage with bonus stats and spell block, making him more elusive.

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