Dealing With Anti-Mage
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Anti-Mage is one of the most iconic Dota 2 heroes. His overall design is very easy to understand, and Blink provides newcomers with room for error. Similar to Juggernaut, the core concept of Anti-Mage has never changed and likely never will, as the hero feels well rounded enough to always be relevant. In big matches on the biggest stages, teams will pull out an Anti-Mage to secure a win. At The International 2015, Invictus Gaming last-picked Anti-Mage vs. Team Secret and staged a comeback following a 22k networth deficit. The hero was banned in both subsequent games.
While Anti-Mage will always have his strengths and weaknesses, he’s especially strong in the current patch and meta. The recent changes in 7.07 have allowed him to become a capable weapon at an even earlier stage of the game. Now’s a good time as any to look at why Anti-Mage has been a go to pick throughout all these years, and what it is that can be done to stop him.
Flash Farm
There are several things that let Anti-Mage standout, though none shine as bright as his flash farming abilities. Blink allows Anti-Mage to jump from camp to camp and with 
Battle Fury, he can clear camps and waves quicker than anybody else. While other Agility carries, such as Juggernaut or Phantom Assassin, could build a Battle Fury as well, they don’t have the same mobility as Anti-Mage that lets him farm as quickly across the map. As a result, Anti-Mage is, if uncontested, usually the most farmed hero in the mid game and will find himself “full-slotted” much quicker than any other carry.
Because Anti-Mage does farm so quickly, he’ll naturally push out waves quicker and more efficiently than most carries, certainly in the early midgame. This makes AM a natural split pusher, which is why many teams consider him a safe fallback pick during events.
He’s elusive, difficult to kill, and can abuse the space he’s given, while applying pressure onto the enemy. But what has made AM so strong in this meta and patch specifically?
AM in 7.07(b)
Battle Fury has become cheaper, 400 gold cheaper. Yes, AM may has to hold onto more gold now, but that generally isn’t much of an issue. The changes to Agility have made him more potent as well. He’ll naturally gain more movement speed, which adds to his elusiveness.
The biggest change was his new talent. Previously, his level 15 talent would summon an uncontrollable illusion upon using Blink, an ability/passive that had massive impact. Anti-Mage players only needed to clear a camp halfway and could then Blink out to the next, knowing their illusion would take care of the rest. The illusion would also keep lanes pushed out and during a siege could be used as a Manta Style substitute, giving players the freedom to save their Manta Style for when they are silenced.
While this talent has been nerfed in 7.07b, pushing it from level 15 to level 20, it is still a very effective talent to have. Additionally, players can now choose both the -1s Blink Cooldown talent and the illusion talent. Changing the level 10 talent in 7.00 also gave Anti-Mage quite the boost, as 20 attack speed allow AM to be a bit more flexible with his item build, getting away with an early Basher, or even a defensive item following his Manta Style.
For a while now, Valve has encouraged the comeback of split push, with towers receiving more bonus armor the more enemy heroes there are around.
Shrines are now also deeper inside the jungle, so if any carry does get ganked while farming, supports can rotate much easier than before.
Timing
There’s an old running gag in the Dota 2 community, in which people would say to “ward his jungle” whenever someone would ask how to deal with Lycan. While it isn’t necessarily bad advice--although since Lycan is rarely played in the jungle these days it might just be bad advice now--it shows that such answers are usually more complex.
While many look towards the early game, i.e. the laning stage, as an important factor in keeping AM down, that is rarely the whole story. Yes, shutting him down in the laning stage is a surefire way of delaying his impact, but that is true for almost anyhero.
If anything, Anti-Mage is one of the best heroes to recover with. Due to his flash farming capabilities, Anti-Mage can come back into the game even with a sizeable deficit in net worth, granted his team backs him up properly. Often times the effort in keeping an AM down leads to sacrificing at least one or two lanes, which in turn allows AM’s team to create space for their carry in the mid game.
No, if anything there’s a case to be made that leaving AM be can be a good option. As farmed as AM may be, he can only really pressure one lane at a time, he certainly can’t join his team in fights, nor can he defend a lane against heavy sieges. This is where AM is exploitable, and why he wasn’t as popular in a professional environment for the longest time. He takes time to be truly ready, as he generally needs a Battle Fury and at the very least a Manta Style to fight. More often than not one more item is desirable, such as a Skull Basher or Vladmir’s Offering.
That said, pushing fast enough to make an Anti-Mage obsolete is difficult in itself and often requires a dedicated team and coordination. But what about specific heroes or items?
Lockdown is Key
Anti-Mage has lots of armor and magic damage reduction, so naturally he isn’t easy to burst down, be it with physical or magic damage. Having sufficient lockdown, akin to how you’d play against a Slark, is crucial and timing those stuns and disables can make or break the game.
Naturally, a hero like Lion, whose instant hex is a huge ability to have against mobile heroes, is one of the better counters, but any hero that can give chase (Spirit Breaker) or has a long range initiation (Earthshaker) will do.
As for items, any additional disable will do, but items that apply Break (which for now is only 
Silver Edge) are very strong against him as well. The new item 
Nullifier, while blocked by Linken’s, is also a great way of dealing with AM. Not only is its cooldown shorter than a Linken’s Sphere, so even if it does get blocked there will be a time window in which it can definitely be applied, its mute effect is a fantastic way of dealing with AMs other items, such as Manta Style or Abyssal Blade.
Accept that you lose map control
One of the hardest aspects of playing against Anti-Mage is often a mental one. Inexperienced players tend to break under the pressure that AM applies. Losing towers and map control against him is a natural progression at a certain stage of the game, something that players need to accept.
Of course, this only applies if the trade is a favorable one, but that’s the tricky part of this aspect: When is trading with an Anti-Mage acceptable? There is no universal answer other than “if it brings you closer to winning than him”, which is going to be different in every game.
The takeaway is though that players need to keep their cool against Anti-Mage. Anti-Mage is a stellar example of a carry that is likely to be tunnel visioned. Players will try to do everything in their power to shut him down. “He has freefarm guys!”
Assessing his power level and that of your own team is crucial in determining when to strike and where. Exploit the fact that he is alone either by killing him or killing his team, in both cases you should outnumber the opponents.
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To the guy who said am got instantly nerfed over the high win rate. You gonna turn a blind eye to his pick rate? Also necro got heavily nerfed in the last few patches
articles on dotabuff are worse and worse everyday.. no wonder nobody reads them
He needs to be silenced and stunned so he can't get away. Pick Sven and get a Bloodthorne. You will wreck him.
If you want to nerf AM so bad, just make his blink follows the same rule as Blink Dagger. Taking damage from hero, reset. Ah, I love how that works against AM.
just pick shadow demon and watch him cry.
Pick those items:
blink, force staff, windlace... any mobility item... he will try to run from you, just make sure to follow him whenever he goes.
Once he makes manta go ghost scepter.. GG
Nobody mentioned Axe? That son of a bitch can shut down AM literally in the early game
TEXTO TRADUZIDO EM: https://www.facebook.com/irmaoURSO/posts/344278456043417
spec with radiance can be better at handling the fight as well as pushing thing.
60 comments indecate how community aware about this iconic carry. No one concern about CM maybe
lol what are u doing in here grammar nazi idiot
i use my own language
the best counter is teamwork - 6k++ can handle AM , but 6k below , like a shit vs AM
excellent - BS sure counter, TP ? u had teammate / eul , BS can snowball hard in early , his rupture reliable , almost every minute
AM not move , force staff with double bloodrage justu , or pick teammate Sky , he can decrease resistance + discord too
core - the best is OD(pure) , Sven(flash farm n disable) , Magnus(flash farm n disable) , Void(skill 2 + ult) , Doom(pure)(many ppl dont know the epic potential of doom , but his doom cd like a shit , octacine needed maybe)
supp - NS , CM(her skill 3 buff her team so much) , Lion , Bane, ShadowShaman , SD(expert user shadow demon)
ability - Viper(disable passive, then u can fingering him with Lion)
best item - nullifier , no manta , no BKB , no blink
once upon a time , i saw a broodmother with nullifier + travel + shadow blade (search AM on jungle), rape AM almost 24 hours , nullifier slow 5 second guaranted death for AM , he hunt down AM when AM alone , as usual , split push AM
im no kidding about BS can counter AM really hard
coz i know how to use BS to have fun rape 3k mmr ish
i can do double bloodrage jutsu very fast , one blink AM will die in my hand
https://www.dotabuff.com/players/204417053/matches?hero=bloodseeker&enhance=overview
do u guys has 80% winrate++ hero in your account ?
i has
Who say BS countering AM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1KoiK80wPVM
my ez counter to AM and so so sooo effective even in late game is Axe just farm ur dagger and blade mail ez game for u guys
https://www.dotabuff.com/matches/3552093527
@¯\_(ツ)_/¯ nova lol? with his new 300range to blink range, he can actually blink out and not get rupture dmg. also aghs and linkens counter BS. early game BS is hard but later on not really
I usually pick offlane Doom against an AM, but a simple silence and enough burst is usually enough to kill him.
Fala galera, esse texto foi traduzido para galera que fala Portugues em: https://irmaoursoblog.wordpress.com/2017/11/15/lidando-com-o-anti-mage/
I actually use disruptor on AM because Skill1 can let me track where he blinks ang then glimpse him back for mfkin SS. Sometimes it works, just make sure no other heroes you need to use your SS with e.g. Storm Spirit. Just my 2 cents.
prior to update: bloodseeker with a Heaven for mid game and Basher/sb for late game. Now: idk
Doom is too weak after mid game. You need a game good team coordination to remove the linken for you in order for you doom him.
So sad seeing some of the ill-informed comments that debate the article's points terribly. Other than mentioning Disruptor as a counter pick to AM, most other "pick this [carry] to beat him" are very bad suggestions from inexperienced players. The list of carries that beat AM in a man fight or team fight is large, and misses the point that AM can pick and chose how, when, and where to fight and a good AM player knows what situations not to fight into and will avoid them - exploiting cooldowns, team composition, etc. Maybe he can't win a straight team fight and is trying to high ground you, but your viability in stopping him is with a long cooldown (Black Hole, Chronosphere, etc, so he secures map space -> Aegis -> now you gotta choose to when to spend the long cooldown. First life or second? Of course, there are lots of other things that can be done to affect the team fight one way or another beyond one cooldown and one hero, but the point is the single hero has that much influence over how the game plays out.
Given that so many heroes easily have the damage to kill him, the real issue is lockdown. In that sense I think Disruptor and Lion are the best supports to pick against AM. Disruptor should pair up with a teammate that has reasonable damage, Thunderstike first to lock vision on the hero, let AM attempt to blink out as the second hero charges him, glimpse AM back (Thunderstrike gives the vision for this), and on the spot AM is coming back to ult then Kinetic field in rapid succession and right click AM while he's stuck under there.
Lion aggro can just blink->hex on a farming AM from out of vision; followed up with Earth Spike with an ally that can put out enough damage during the disable period. Defensively, if AM blinks in and instant manta's, Earth Spike first to disable all illusions and the real hero (defensive on the ally he jumped out, if you got jumped you were probably already out of position). Earth Spike first also damages all three units and quick players should instantly know which one is real, allowing you to follow up with a hex on the real one.
Rubick isn't really a counter pick in a normal sense, but the fact that basically every spell steal will give you blink is a great bonus for survivability and initiation. Blink Dagger -> Blink is OP. Blink (either dagger or ability) to Telekinesis is just about as strong as Blink->Hex.
Other teammates who have non-instant, or non-critical disables should use them to disable AM's Aghs/Linken's cooldowns if he gets that. If AM gets a new BKB, run and kite. Try to wear it down to 5-6 seconds before you lose map control. AM does not like to have to buy this item because it massively nerfs his offensive power but may be necessary for him to operate at all versus some team compositions.
only foolish people let AM farm until he finish his 6 item
in 5k++ bracket AM winrate not that high
u can check at dotabuff
if enemy pick AM , means u must rape him , or rape his teammate if possible
or pick carry that can match AM late game power
so many foolish comment from ppl under 5k mmr here
so enough to comment in here
is AM be ban/pick material in pro scene ? no , coz his team can be destroyed in early game if not super duper carefull