General DiscussionAnti Mage

just ban LC and ur gucci

If all things are even, I feel like he loses late to a decent amount of popular carries right now (e.g Sven, etc). If youre shooting for that 30 min mark window then probably if you're good enough. But I don't think he can really fight sven at any point in the game which is kind of a problem depending on team comp. (Disclaimer - Norm skill).

No, am can easily be punished by a strong pushing lineup, or be counter picked with heroes with good disable, or heroes who are tanky as fuck

Nah, definitely not good every game. See my AM games and when I pick him

if you pick him enough that you are very better than ur opponents, yes

very better

dont get caught by Rikis smoke

You can do it but you need to understand how his buildup works in order for it to be effective and you also need to have good decisionmaking regarding when to fight, push or farm. Back when Black^ was still teamless he did it quite a few times during his streams and it was very effective. You can probably find a few vods or alternatively instalock him 20+ times in a row on normal queue just to get the feel for every situation.
The worst thing you can do is brainlessly follow the item build, Black^ mostly used the Vanguard buildup during the streams but you should understand that the path you pick items is extreemely situational and that the skill bracket you are in also determines how the build will pan out as well as the patch you are currently playing the game in.

https://www.dotabuff.com/players/21289303/matches?hero=anti-mage

Black^ has 450+ games on the hero and 70%+ winrate so your best bet is to learn from the best while you are still starting but as fast as you get some experience with the hero it should be straightforward how to play him.
Good luck and magic be damned!

Just go dual lanes, pick bane for support offlane and spam first spell on am. Enjoy am getting mad cause he cannot kill any creep.

If you are below 2.5k then yes, you can win literally every game unless you meet a smurfer.

I'm pretty sure if you fp it you will lose a lot even if you are a very good AM player.

First pick? No. There are a lot of heroes and strategies that counter him and first picking him is just asking for the enemy to counter you.

I can its definetely if my teammates arent apes

i mean there are heroes that mitigate AM's effectiveness to a huge degree but if someone picks him 200 times after watching replays and analyses their play they will destroy OP's normal skill bracket

Worst scenario for first pick anti mage in 2/3k apart him being hard countered with all picks is that one of your teammates must satisfy his carry apetite and will pick naix/LC/ursa jungle to fuck ur laning stage even more. In that case if you will face cancer dual offlane like anything consisting axe/necro etc you have preety much guaranted failure in early game which most cases will probably outcome in -25.

just avoid doom and lc and make sure your team gets some D push then u have one of the best carries

http://www.dotabuff.com/players/306660316/matches?hero=anti-mage
@op we are in the same bracket.

U can't, more importantly.....

Pls ban any smurfers in my game :( 3rd lost in a row against smurfs :(

There is no smurf in ranked.

Oh really? When they typed in all chat "sorry guys this is my brother/friend's id"

And they got like 700 gpm xpm~ in their profile

Yeah right, i believe u.

^ At least u admit that NS cant farm ;p

I'm aware of my skill my friend, that i can guarantee. XD

The only counter strat u will see is LC and blood seeker. So u yes first pick am is good

Long duration single target disables like fiend's grip, doom, rupture, shadow shaman/lion's combo and duel can wreck you pretty hard. Mainly duel since lc is one of the few heroes that can kill am solo. But you should be getting a linken's if that's the case. In any case, it's a pretty terrible idea to first pick AM, not so much because of being countered, but the fact that there are so many heroes like WK, Medusa, and Morphling that AM counter.

Mr potato how does am counter morphling?

Mana burns and silences counter morphling.

The am can run at u and hit u and morph can't do shit abt it early game.

So manta orchid is legit as am counter to
Morphling? Seemsgood

no u just play am normally and in fights u rape morphs mana pool and then he just dies

Depends, you need to be able to pop his linkens first, which he'll probably have by the time you get orchid, and silences only prevents morphling from toggling morph on and off, it doesn't stop him from shifting stats if it's already toggled on. You're better off just completely mana draining morph since he has pretty low int, and wafeform has a pretty high mana cost.

Just hit creeps for 25 minutes then jump on morphling in fights, no need to buy shit like orchid. He won't be able to nuke you down, you have the mobility to keep up with him, you can out-rat him and keep sidelanes pushed in and when Morph gets his mana burnt he is a big creep.

Ye am is tanky enough to survive shotgun. And without mana morph is nothing but a weak cookie cutter agi carry. Nothing going for him without spells.

http://www.dotabuff.com/matches/2759960095
when u first pick am. never first pick am unless you 2k

im pretty sure i'd lost with antimage even in normal skill under certain circumstances
and i don't think that i'm THAT terrible am

I think you can play around AM counter's, linken's sphere is pretty hard for LC and doom to get around. The big issue really is pacing of the game. You pick AM first and your team is guaranteed to pick crap like alch mid, lc jungle, timber offlane, and a solo veno support or something and you'll have no space and too many cores and get like a 16 min bfury and 25 min manta and lose. You need people to hold lanes and make some space for you.