Abilities, roles and builds with an explanation for every purchase.
HERO GAME PLANI accelerate my farm, burn mana and choose a target I can quickly finish with Mana Void.
Should Anti-Mage have the opportunity to gather his full strength, few can stop his assaults. Draining mana from enemies with every strike or teleporting short distances to escape an ambush, cornering him is a challenge for any foe.
My recommendation is a starting point. We choose another position together with the team and for its needs.
I need protected farm, my item window and damage on important targets.
This is an editorial starting plan based on hero mechanics. It is not presented as a match I have already tested or a popularity ranking.
Here is my initial plan: I do my role's job first, then choose the items the team needs. I adapt the order and expensive purchases to the opponent.
Provide attack speed and switchable attributes for farming and managing my resources.
Speeds up wave and jungle clearing for a melee hero; an investment in farm before expensive fighting items.
Provides illusions for pressure and a separate dispel. This item cannot help you wait out or remove every disable.
Improves attributes and lets attacks keep a target under control, limiting suitable sources of its restoration.
Provides a targeted disable when slows and attacks are no longer enough.
Butterfly ↗Increases physical damage and protection against suitable attacks. I check whether the enemy has an answer to evasion.
Black King Bar ↗Provides a window for my actions against eligible magical damage and disables. I check effects that pierce the protection.
Linken's Sphere ↗Blocks an eligible targeted ability; a cheap enemy spell can remove this protection in advance.
I do not assign one ‘correct’ minute to every purchase. I look at my gold, the next fight and the problem: am I missing mana, target access, control or protection? If an expensive slot will arrive too late, I get a useful answer earlier.
Original Valve icons and descriptions. Cooldowns and mana are shown by level from the data snapshot; talents and upgrades can change the values.
Burns an opponent's mana on each attack and deals damage equal to a percentage of the mana burnt.
Burns an opponent's mana on each attack and deals damage equal to a percentage of the mana burnt.
Increases Max Mana Burned per Hit.
Short distance teleportation that allows Queen of Pain to move in and out of combat.
Short distance teleportation that allows Queen of Pain to move in and out of combat.
For 5 sec. after using this ability, the next attack with Mana Break burns an additional 20% of the target’s maximum mana and briefly prevents it from restoring mana. The debuff cannot be dispelled.
Passively grants magic resistance. Counterspell may be activated to create an anti-magic shell around Anti-Mage that blocks and reflects any targeted spells.
Passively grants magic resistance. Counterspell may be activated to create an anti-magic shell around Anti-Mage that blocks and reflects any targeted spells.
Creates a blinked fragment of Anti-Mage next to the enemy caster upon reflecting their unit-targeted spell while active.
For each point of mana missing by the target unit, damage is dealt to it and surrounding enemies. The main target is also mini-stunned.
These abilities are not necessarily available at the same time. I check the condition beside the name: innate ability, another form or an Aghanim purchase.
Attacks slow targets based on their missing mana. The slow begins at 60% mana and reaches its maximum when they have no mana left.
Attacks slow targets based on their missing mana. The slow begins at 60% mana and reaches its maximum when they have no mana left.
These are fields from the official source. The hero's final values in the client account for attributes and other active mechanics.
Items, slang and real episodes help connect abilities with what happens in a match.
