Anti-Mage is one of the fastest farmers and a very strong late game carry. His Blink ability allows him to not only farm and split-push effectively, but to also be very elusive and mobile in fights. Yet with all his strengths the hero is very item-dependent and needs time in order to shine.

Anti-Mage is played as a hard carry irrespective of the lane he goes to. The hero is one of the most famous 4 protect 1 picks because he can use free space incredibly efficiently, out-farm the enemy and close the game. He is great in strats where his team is active while he split-pushes and joins engagements selectively.

When you pick Anti-Mage your aim is to give him space to farm during the laning stage and the midgame. Hence, the rest of your heroes should be capable of creating such space by fighting - pushing or ganking, without the help of AM. Though, even if your team can’t create space for AM, a good AM player will sacrifice his farming speed to start split-pushing early on so he can create space for his team instead.

That being said, there are 3 big things you have to consider before picking AM:

Can the enemy team finish the game before you get your items?

AM requires a huge amount of farm. If the enemy has a pushing + fighting lineup that can abuse the fact that your team is playing 4v5, then picking an AM would be a guaranteed loss. 

Do the enemy have a stronger lane?

AM is very lane reliant if your laning stage is bad then picking him would mean that his BF would be delayed from his standard 11-13 minutes up to even 19+ minutes, which should never happen. 

Are there any other heavy farm dependent cores on my team?

This is probably the biggest mistake lower rank players make when picking AM, he eats the map like no other so this makes it almost impossible to combine him with another farm dependent core (Alchemist, Meepo, Invoker etc.).

Good friends to have are:

Strong Against:

Weak Against:

Since leveling stats was removed from the game, AM is not a versatile hero when it comes to skill builds. He always goes for one build where he takes a value point in each spell at level 3, or a 2nd build where he takes 2 points in Mana Breah instead, then a value point in Counterspell at level 4 and then proceeds to max Blink into Break. Unless there’s a specific lane matchup where you’d want to level more Mana Break early to harass the offlaner out of lane, his build doesn’t really change.

The proposed build is the most common one for AM in the safe lane. You get your Battlefury as quickly as possible in order to get your flash farming started. Your next item should be Manta, as this item allows you not only to fight but also to split-push without worrying about dying. The dispell is great against silences - the most common AM counter, and the illusions increase your DPS (as they inherit Mana Break).

Abyssal, Butterfly and Heart are your standard luxury items. In what exact order you get them depends on the game. Abyssal gives you control if you want to fight and gank, Butterfly gives you the most DPS and Heart - the most survivability. In some games, you will also need BKB to team-fight if the enemy team has a lot of control.

Anti-Mage can be laned in a 1vs1 situation, usually in the safe lane. This is done usually after you harass the offlaner out of the lane, or kill him. Supports can now do a couple of pulls so that AM gets a level advantage over the offlaner and can be left solo against most offlaners while the supports should go roaming, or they can resume pulling/stacking - the solo EXP is quite welcome on any carry.

Your objective is to control the wave so your supports can harass the enemy out of lane and to farm up your core items as fast as possible. 

Anti-Mage doesn’t have any active spells he can use to get last hits during the laning stage. Nonetheless, his very fast attack animation and good damage are what allows AM to get last hits relatively easyly.

The Mana Break helps AM deal extra damage to the ranged lane creeps and jungle creeps that have mana. Whenever you last hit you need to take into account the Mana Break bonus damage, otherwise, you might miss a last hit on a ranged creep, especially if you are last-hitting under your tower.

AM doesn’t have any active spells he can use to harass. The only thing you can do is auto-attack enemy heroes and drain their mana with Mana Break. You can use your Blink to close the distance between you and the enemy in order to harass them with your attacks.

Alternatively, you can walk to the enemy, hit them a few times and Blink back after burning their mana, even if you lose the HP trade the mana loss on the enemy ensures that you will diminish your opponent’s laning presence.

Anti-Mage has no disable and no active ability that deals damage except for his ultimate which is not a big threat at early levels - enemies don’t have a large mana pool yet. So AM doesn’t have almost any kill potential, but his mana burn helps set up kills from supports roaming in, as enemies won’t be able to cast spells to survive afterward.

Anti-Mage is a very hard hero to kill due to his Blink. You can always Blink away if you are low on HP or if you see that enemies are coming to gank you.  You can, therefore, play more aggressively if the heroes against you have no instant silence or initiation to catch you off guard. Your Spell Shield also makes you quite hard to burst down since most heroes lack high physical damage output and only have magic nukes early on.

Rotating to another lane is not a good idea with Anti-Mage. There is simply nothing you can do to help out struggling lanes. However, if you are getting pressured and zoned-out of the lane, then you should try to switch the lane. If a lane switch is not possible it’s always better to go to the jungle and have a way slower BF timing than feeding the enemy for a couple of last hits in the lane.

When it comes to the laning stage AM only has 1 timing which is when you finish your PT + RoH + QB and level 7 to be able to start pushing the wave towards the offlaner and start clearing the side camp. This gives you more EXP and gold and not only helps you finish your BF faster, but also the levels make you farm even FASTER when you get your BF. If your supports aren’t taking the bounty runes, you should go take them by yourself to deny the enemy offlaner or roamer from taking them, but not at the expense of losing lane control or missing last hits.

He starts off with an additional set of tangos as he knows that he’s going to lane against a Legion Commander, who’s known for being extremely aggressive in the laning stage.

Before the rune spawns he runs quickly to his lane to possibly scout enemy placing a ward.

Then he proceeds to pick up his rune and go block. Once he gets into the lane he starts off with controlling the lane by denying his creeps while his support harasses. This is important as you don’t want to push into the enemy offlaner as this makes it impossible for your roamer to gank them and they’ll get free last hits under the tower. If the enemy offlaner comes close enough to him, he stops his last-hitting/denying to help his support kick him out of the lane. Once the lane is secured enough he now primarily focuses on denying and last-hitting while going to harass the enemy offlaner every now and then so he can keep his mana low.

Due to all of this preparation, they managed to keep LC on low HP/mana and low level, while still maintaining creep equilibrium near their tower, which was enough for their roamer Tusk to come in and secure a much-deserved kill.

Later on, the supports have secured AM his advantage they can now leave him to solo lane against an under-farmed and under-leveled LC, who is no longer a threat to him. AM goes for Treads first then Aquila as he didn’t use up all of his regen and this helps him harass the LC even further out of the lane.

With levels and more farm he can, later on, start farming the side-camp and once he gets his BF his midgame starts and he can start farming the whole jungle or split-pushing.

Alliance.miCKe plays AM with his ally Warlock against Team Spirit's dual-lane of BS + Shaker.

He starts the laning stage by trading farm very aggressively against both opponents. Alliance are prepared for this: 

• First, AM has a lot of regen from his starting item build and his quick Stick purchase (BS gives charges by spamming his Bloodrage), which helps him keep his HP up in the first few minutes of the game.
• Second, his support Warlock is able to heal him even if he loses the harass exchange heavily
  

And indeed, he loses the trade in terms of HP, but he gains something very important in return: he fully burns the mana of the enemy Shaker, which makes ES almost useless in the lane because he cannot replenish it quickly enough. Knowing this, the Shaker leaves the BS alone for a while. AM and Warlock fully capitalize on this opportunity and get a kill on the enemy BS.

By understanding that they have an advantage in the harass trades because of the Mana Burn and heal and by planning out the first few minutes of the lane, Micke and Insania (on Warlock) secure a great start for the AM. He wins the lane handily, which is surprising for an AM who is traditionally not considered the strongest hero in 2v2 situations.

AM, however, is quite strong versus opponents that rely on their mana pool to win their lane (like, in this example, ES).

(We made a more detailed break down of this game and miCKe's play on AM for esportsheaven.com.)

Before Manta:

After Manta:

The first important timing for Anti-Mage is when he gets his Battlefury – usually at the 11-13 minute mark if he is free farming. At that point, you start flash-farming and avoiding most fights (usually the jungle) until you get the next item.

AM before his fighting items should be played always opposite to everyone else on the map. So, if your teammates/enemies are on the bot lane - you’re on the top lane if they’re in your jungle - you’re in their jungle, if they’re pushing your towers - you’re pushing their towers.

The next timing is when you get your Manta – you can start split-pushing and taking some pickoffs if they get in your way. 

The last timing is when you get your next core items such as Butterfly, BkB, Abyssal Blade, Heart etc. Then you should start initiating engagements, push with your team and close the game using the item advantage you have compared to the enemy carries. 

Once you get your Battle Fury you can out-farm most heroes in the game even if they are currently leading you in items. This gives you a valuable opportunity to catch up in farm if not for the mid-game than at least for the late game. Hence, the most important aspect of the game when you are having a bad time is for your team to successfully create space for you 4v5 so that you can flash-farm and catch up. You should focus on avoiding fights and split pushing as much as possible, betting on the fact that you are a very fast hero and a hard hero to gank.

The mobility of Anti-Mage allows him to choose the way he approaches a team fight and gives the player a variety of viable options.

Which targets to focus?

You have three types of targets you can focus in fights.

First, you can Blink in on a support, use Manta and try to quickly bring it down before he/she has a chance to have an impact in the fight. Even though supports are usually positioned quite defensively Blink gives you the opportunity to reach such targets almost instantly.

Second, if you have Basher of Abyssal Blade you can jump on an enemy carry. Preferably, in that case, you will follow up a disable of your allies on the opponent and with the help of your fast AS and Bashes prevent the enemy carry from efficiently fighting back. You can also jump on a squishy but elusive hero and lock him/her down with Abyssal Blade, disabling your target from running away. You can even try to jump on a BkB-dependent hero and try to stun him before he can use his BkB, giving your allies a valuable window of opportunity to use spells on the target.

Third, you can go on a mana-dependent hero, use your Manta and burn his mana so that he can’t use his spells in fights. Even if you don’t manage to finish the kill you would have created a big problem for the hero – he needs its mana to have an impact in the fight. Even more importantly, by doing this you create a very good target for Mana Void later in the fight. If the target is close to any other opponents you can deal a massive AoE nuke which could win you the fight.

Entering the fight:

What you need to be careful about is how you close the gap between yourself and your enemies. If opponents have a lot of disables and DPS and you are not survivable enough, Blinking in might quickly lead to your death (since you will have your Blink on cooldown and won’t be able to get away). Therefore, in such a case it might be better to walk in the fight and keep your Blink as an escape tool. The other option is to jump on a target which is somewhat far from any other opponents. If the allies of your target want to assist him/her they will have to walk a certain distance – this should give you enough time to retreat (either by running or by waiting for Blink) and avoid getting in danger.

If you are survivable enough, however, it is way better to use the Blink to immediately get to your preferred target in the fight – this will make kiting you much harder and could net you quick kills. 

Ideally, you don’t want to be the first hero to jump in – you go for BKB relatively late and if you are the first available target for your opponents you are likely to get disabled. The perfect scenario is that your allies initiate and manage to control the enemy team and then you immediately Blink on the squishiest high-priority target and burst it down before the disables are over. With an Abyssal Blade and BKB, however, you can be a very potent initiator yourself. Blinking and immediately disabling a high-priority target will allow your teammates to follow up and allow you to get the kill.

By using your Blink you can quickly reposition yourself and switch targets during the fight. For example, you can jump in and kill a support then Blink towards the enemy carry hero that got disabled by one of your allies. 

Using Mana Void:

Look for enemy heroes that have lost a lot of Mana during the fight and use your ultimate on them. You can use it to burst heroes when they are escaping on low HP or cast it when heroes are grouped up to deal a lot of damage in an AoE.

In the ideal situation you will manage to use your ult on a low-mana target which is close to other opponents, however, this doesn’t happen very often. Because of this, you need to find a balance – don’t save your ultimate for too late, killing an important opponent with it can win you the fight. At the same time if you use it too early you are probably going to have a low impact with it (most heroes are on full mana at the start of the fight) and you might miss a very valuable opportunity that comes later in the fight because your ult is on CD.

Video example:

Notice how Mushi uses AM’s mobility to its full potential in this late game fight:

• Great Manta-dodge of the DK stun, which allows Mushi to back-off safely.
  
• He tries to burst down the enemy Omni with his BKB and Abyssal to prevent him from using Guardian, but his team saves him so Mushi backs-off.
  
• During the Naga sleep, he uses his mobility to go around the enemy team and get to the Omni once again and finish him off with a powerful AoE Mana Void, which wins his team the fight.
  

Split-pushing: 

When it comes to split-pushing your Manta sets the starting point for you since it increases your push potential a lot. Nevertheless, you can start split-pushing even before Manta if enemies are 5 man-pushing against you. The idea of split-pushing and not fighting is that AM out-farms enemy heroes – you want to delay the game a bit until you get a large advantage in items. If you start fighting too early on, you might get killed in fights too often and lose the game because of this.

How you split-push depends on the enemy heroes and their items of choice. If opponents have a lot of ways to lock you down and kill you (such as Hex, Doom, Bat Rider’s Lasso etc.) then you should Blink in, clear the creep wave as fast as possible and then Blink out. Don’t stay too long in the lane – once enemies see you, they will rotate to kill you. You can use your Manta illusions to continue split-pushing without exposing yourself to danger.

If opponents, on the other hand, don’t have ways to lock you down, you can be more aggressive and push to the enemy tower to force a TP reaction. You will always be able to get away with the help of Blink.

5-man pushing:

When it comes to pushing with your team there is one rule to observe – don’t get initiated upon and killed. You should chip the tower’s HP with your hero and/or Manta Illusions. Run in, hit the tower a few times and then Blink out.

You are not a natural 5-man Dota hero and you should participate in 5-man pushes only when you are certain that you are in a good position to force fights (usually because of an item lead).

Anti-Mage is not a very good ganking hero before you get your Manta and Basher/Abyssal Blade.  After you get the items, however, you can catch split-pushers and go for solo kills. 

Nevertheless, your priority is to farm – don’t try to roam to search for solo kills. Gank only when someone is in your way of farming/split-pushing and is a free kill, otherwise avoid wasting time like this.

Since you are a split-pushing carry, map awareness is incredibly important for you. Check the positioning of enemies that can kill you constantly. Keep in mind that opponents will try to pressure you even before you get your Battlefury – you need to be extra careful where you are positioned if you don’t see enemies.

If you have doubts about the positioning of your opponents you can even use your Manta illusions to scout out the territory close to your position. This tactic might allow you to dodge an incoming gank. This tactic should be avoided if the enemy is Silence heavy as you’ll need your Manta to purge it.

Carrying TP scrolls is always a must so you can Blink into trees and teleport away to farm a safer area.

Since AM is always played as a hard-carry, farming is your top priority - you become a threat to the enemy team by out-farming the opponent’s carries.

Mechanically, farming with AM is quite straight-forward. The hard part is realizing how much risk you can take to find the necessary space to farm. Ideally, you want to split-push as much as possible and even farm the enemy jungle (this way your own territory is available for your team), but you need to be super-aware of the positioning of dangerous enemies. Dying as an AM is a bigger disaster compared to most heroes (the opportunity cost is extremely high and it slows you down considerably), so make sure you find the necessary space to farm, but not at the cost of your life.