General Discussionantimage

Pubs you get lvl in stats and you buy poor man's else u get rolled also maybe go 8 tango and stuff and split push and tp once u have ur bf and boots. Am sucks if the enemy team has a million stuns and disables though so don't pick him if that happens or just work on awareness and go bkb earlu

Go rosh too once u have bf vlad manta don't max ur spell shield until 22

Learn how his ulti works and when to fight and when not^^

pretty much what applelove said, you get 1 blink, 1 shield, get stats or mb also 1 mana break, max stats and blink, get pms and try to get bf>vlads>manta>basher
rest is situational

^ the vid is essentially a dumbed down version of the original clan_iraq jungle am idea, which was that you could use the HotD to cs in lane while killing jungle camps

granted either way is still pretty awful, you can get a faster bfury by laning while exerting pressure on the offlaner and not having to buy hotd, which is 950 gold wasted

20~ minutes of afk jungling for treads bfury hotd oh wait you have to sell the hotd

seems good

antimage can really bully offlaners with treads roh (ror), i feel like a lot of people might play him too passive

also pick him when your team has amazing teamfight like zeus/phoenix and not with greedy shit like axe/jug/troll jungle

http://www.dotabuff.com/players/79461888/matches?date=patch_6.83c&hero=anti-mage&skill_bracket=&lobby_type=&game_mode=&region=&faction=&duration=&enjoyment=any

heart is imo really overrated, bkb helps a lot with actually dealing damage in fights and heart gives very little to your tower damage

I miss the old days of vanguard manta basher am... Everyone just wants to make battlefury even if they are playing from behind

cuz there's no other viable way of playing him

if u don't go bfury why the fuck would u play this hero? he's literally useless if less than 3 slotted and probably the best carry 6 slotted (for taking out other heroes at least, i think spec/medusa would win in the 5v5 department)

i mean if u see a storm spirit with 100/1400 mana u don't need 4 slots to use ulti but other than these corner cases you absolutely need to prioritize farming

1 kill (no streak) yields roughly the same as 7 creep kills so do the math yourself

I think AM is rather a better alchemist than a true hard carry. Because he farms so fast the point is that you should always to try to be ahead in the item departement. His passive mana burn doesnt stack with orb such as skadi and satanic and those items are in the meta atm because of troll/sf/jugg manfighter.

Even a 6 slotted PA can beat a 6 slotted AM i believe. It all depends on item choice of course but a simple abyssal or sheep on PA could result in a 1hit KO AM.

AM needs his passive to not be an orb effect anymore, its whats keeping him slighly behind right now. Orbs effects should have been removed with the removal of composite dmg etc.

Old relic mechanic.

I too wish AM could NOT go BF and be more flexible in his build.

^ I don't think mana burn being an orb is what is holding him back. What items is it going to let him get that will suddenly make him strong, eye + satanic? MoM to flash farm early? OoV in lane? Sure there are games where these would be good, but they aren't inherently any stronger then the items he gets now.

I am not saying that it wont get patched to not be an orb, in fact it would surprise me if it didn't get patched, but it will be just like when furry swipes got patched, there will be hype, people will be excited to try new builds, but then after 2 weeks everyone will realize that the hero is still exactly the same. now if it stacked with deffusal that would be a different story.

You max mana burn first, AM can do alot of shit early game if you time correctly.

I like the fact that people here are getting my initial point. Manabreak needs to be just a passive and not orb so it can open more doors on how to build AM. Getting a helm of the dominator + treads + yasha + bkb + basher would be killer on him.

Also, even with the current state of things people don't understand that 6 slotted AM is actually: abysal + hex + BoT + refresher + Manta + bkb/heart/mkb

ill give u some advice

the reason am is a decent hero is because he farms extremely fast with battlefury and comes online once he gets 1-2 items

if u are in an easy lane u should aim for 11-13 minute battlefury, into a 15-18 minute manta

once u have manta u can do whatever u want - whether its split push farm fight etc

if you can't fight them split push them, if u can't split push them then farm their woods and look to make things happen with ur manta

am is not the hardest carry in the game. his timing of dominance is roughly 30-45 minutes after which most other carries will be farmed/maxed as well. am is melee and doesn't scale extremely well past 45 mins.

quick question. what is a good time to get a BF these days?

id say 11-13 with a boot and pms is pretty good

when you are behind u can rush vlad and build maelstrom. Work in low rank like me http://www.dotabuff.com/matches/1406462456 and work in pro game like kky :D

Watch Burning play him. That guy is the best antimage

Don't fight unless you know you can win it, if you aren't 100% sure that you are strong enough its because you aren't yet.

Just keep farming, keep blink off of cooldown and farm some more.

Once you get big join your team but remember 4v5 can prevent tower pushing for at least 10-15 minutes which will give you enough space to get those items to actually make an impact when you join in.

Axe, Shield and Tango
Battlefury
PT
Manta

After manta you can fight EZ
But you will need basher and terrasque

This hero is played wrong early game, and can seem weak.
The optimal build is:
QB or stout, RoP, Tango -> PMS -> Ring -> Treads -> Battlefury (13-14 min) -> Vlad (15-16 min) -> manta (20-22 min)
You should aim for these timings. You can solo roshan easily with vlads + yasha.

Skillbuild is 1-1-0-1 at lvl 6. Keep getting stats and max blink when you have BF, max first skill when you have manta.

Gameplay is: split push a lot, do not afk farm or you will lose the early game. Keep watching minimap and bring a tp, TP - blink - ult on running enemies and maybe you will get some free kills.

^^ I think you need at least brown boots before BF, you might want to get the full PT and a PMS some games.

Full PT are much better. You can rotate jungle/lane and clear jungle camps with just Treads + Ring of Health and get a fast BF

MackTen is legit