Anti-Mage counter picks: who to choose against this hero in Dota 2

Anti-Mage is a strong carry hero, i.e. a killer hero, deals a lot of damage to the enemy, but has some weaknesses. With the right approach, Anti-Mage is able to send the entire team to the fountain almost instantly. But you should not be afraid of this hero, if you know what tactics to choose, who to play with and which items to collect. We will talk about this in the article.

Weaknesses of Anti-Mage

First, let’s see what weaknesses the hero has:

• at first, he is far from being the strongest player. If the opposite side has at least a couple of disables from the set of slow, stun, silence effect, then Anti-Mage often goes to the fountain.
• to become powerful Anti-Mage needs constant farm at the beginning, so at the start the rest of the players supply Anti-Mage with light farm in the lane, stacks in the forest, protect him from ganks.
• if the game does not go well for the hero, he goes into the most brutal split push, while his allies are forced to play four on five opponents.

Actually, these are all the weaknesses of Antimage in Dota 2.

Which heroes counter Anti-Mage

There are some heroes that easily counter Anti-Mage:

• Anti-Mage’s main counter pick is Outworld Destroyer, as its first ability is pure damage. And it is pure damage that Anti-Mage fears the most, because he has low HP. OD does not fear our hero’s defense.
• The second counter pick is Doom. He grabs Anti-Mage and blocks his escape, then deals heavy damage.
• Bloodseeker – blocks his movement with the ultimate and presents a choice – silence or a heroic death with allies.
• Bane is the owner of a large number of disables, counters of the hero.
• Faceless Void – hitting our hero with a Time Dilation is problematic for him, but there is another skill – it prevents the recharge of Anti-Mage’s abilities. If the hero has already lost his items, then he will not last long.
• Riki‘s Smoke Screen – effectively blocks our hero in the area.
• Axe – his passive abilities bring irreparable damage to Anti-Mage. At the same time, the damage from the ult does not block when it has reached the minimum thresholds for killing.
• Legion Commander – challenges Anti-Mage to a duel at the start and counters him, while her team kills a stationary target. If the duel takes place in the late game, LC successfully copes with the Anti-Mage by herself.
• Phantom Lancer – ignores Anti-Mage’s unique skill, while the ult easily kills the hero.
• Shadow Demon – materializes clones of the hero and they win.
• Night Stalker – runs very fast and blocks escape.

The main tactical point of the game against Anti-Mage is to block the ability to level up and collect a certain set of items. In the early game it is better to keep Anti-Mage away from creeps by putting a strong ranged hero against him.

Which items can help against Anti-Mage

The first thing you need to do is collect Orchid Malevolence, and very quickly. This item can stop our hero’s farm. Ghost Scepter, Force Staff, Scepter of Divinity – all these artillery will help protect supports from Anti-Mage’s focus. Abyssal Blade is another disable against our hero.

Conclusions

Anti-Mage is a hero who is dependant on farm with high agility and good physical roll. He can roam the map often, but likes to passively play in the mid. He performs well in the early stages of the match, so it is pointless to gang up in such a situation without good reasons. Hero gains invulnerability when collecting Battle Fury and Manta Style. To weaken Anti-Mage, you can’t give him the opportunity to farm. Prevent him from doing it in any way. The tactical scheme «strike – defense» works well against this hero.