Dota 2 Skywrath Mage Guide.

Hello everyone and welcome to my second guide for a Dota 2 hero. I am interested in heroes with low win rates and after checking the current hero list it turns out poor Skywrath only has a 43% win rate, a very low number for such a  powerful hero.

Skywrath is one of the strongest Int heroes in the game, possessing 3 nukes and a very powerful spell that both amplifies magic damage as well as silences, he has a very strong skill set that can wreck havoc on the enemy team. However due to being very fragile and the fact that he requires quite a few items with active abilities to be truly successful makes him not suitable for new players.

Stats.

Looking at his stats you can tell early on that Skywrath has pathetic Strength and Agility and they wont improve much with levels either as his stat gains is quite bad ( only 5.5 per level) He has excellent Int though which is very useful for his expensive spells but his lack of other attributes means survivability will be an issue throughout the game.

He starts out with less than one armor so again remember that you are fragile in all stages of the game. Skywrath does however have an excellent attack animation which is good for last hitting although I recommend simply using arcane bolt to win a lane. He has high movement speed of 315 which is really good, combined with his long range spells means you should be able to avoid most of the damage in a fight.

Skill set.

Arcane Bolt

Skywrath's bread and butter skill is this. It deals a lot of damage throughout all stages of the game as it scales with Skywrath's int. It has a 2 second cooldown at max level and 70 manacost which makes it very spammable. This skill's only flaw is its very slow movement speed of just 500 ms, meaning faster heroes can outrun it.

Because of its very short cooldown its useful against Linken's Sphere since you can use this spell to remove the magic block so other more useful spells can be applied on the enemy.

Concussive Shot

Sky has very versatile spells and while AB provides the damage he needs, Concussive Shot provides him with a strong long range AOE slow. with 1600 range and 40% slow, enemies will have a lot of trouble escaping from you. Flaw of this spell though is its weak scaling, it only does 200 damage at max level and the cooldown reduction while nice, usually makes me question leveling it up at all.

Ancient Seal

Sky seriously has too many good spells, AS synergizes so well with this hero. Silencing for 6 seconds is huge on any hero and that by itself is enough to max it out but the additional 36% magic damage amplification is just icing on the cake. Considering how all of Sky's damage is magic this is insanely good on him as well as improving the magic damage of all your allies.

Mystic Flare

Sky's ultimate and what an ultimate it is, causing massive magic damage in a very small AOE. The damage is divided by the number of heroes in the area over 2 seconds, often times its best to target just one hero as the damage from this spell can outright kill one enemy but isn't as lethal against a group of clumped up opponents.

Creeps and Illusions are not counted, only real heroes take damage from this so you don't have to worry about random creeps walking in. Still the problem of this spell is keeping them there for the whole duration, but if you have any sort of stunner on your team it isn't that big of an issue. The bigger problem though is the massive Manacost this spell will take, so always make sure you have enough mana to cast it. Lastly this spell is not so good against 4-5 enemies as the damage becomes really weak ( 240 damage if its 5 enemies, 300 if its 4). So always aim to get 2 or 3 enemies in it only, otherwise you'll deal less damage than a Magnus Shockwave.

Skill build.

Skywrath's skill set allows you to experiment with quite a few builds yet from my experience the best way to go is usually something like this.

1. Arcane Bolt/Concussive Shot

2. Arcane Bolt/Concussive Shot

3. Ancient Seal

4. Arcane Bolt

5. Arcane Bolt

6. Mystic Flare

7. Arcane Bolt

8. Ancient Seal

9. Ancient Seal

10. Ancient Seal

11. Mystic Flare

12. Stats

13. Stats

14. Stats

15. Stats

16. Mystic Flare

17-22. Stats

23-25. Concussive Shot

Skill Build justification.

1. At level 1 you'll have to decide between Arcane Bolt and Concussive shot, Bolt is taken if you're going to the mid lane as its great for harassing and last hitting. While Concussive Shot is the more useful skill if you're in a tri-lane as it offers a very powerful 4 second slow at level 1. Either way you should have one point in each at level 2

2. Taking Ancient Seal at level 3 is early but it does provide a very useful 3 second silence, if you're mid lane though you can afford to delay taking it till level 4 since the extra level of arcane bolt is more useful for last hitting and harassing.

3. Always take your ulti whenever you can, the damage it gives is fantastic and should never be skipped over.

4. Max out Arcane Bolt by 7, the cooldown gets lowered to 2 seconds meaning you can spam it a lot in a fight and it only costs 70 mana so there wont be any problems here.

5. Now comes the big issue, the most used build according to DotaBuff has players maxing out Concussive Shot by 10, this is ( in my opinion) a very bad idea. AS Has a very useful slow and long range, upgrading it doesn't provide much more except for lowering the cooldown slightly and giving you a bit more damage, both of these things are insignificant when compared to Ancient Seal's scaling as it gives more magic damage and a longer silence, its way better to max it out than Concussive Shot.

6. Honestly I think Concussive Shot is a one point skill, it simply does not scale as well as Sky's other skills and therefore I believe stats are more useful to max out, they provide life, mana and more damage through improving Sky's Int. This is more personal preference but you really don't need more than one point in CS.

Item build.

Skywrath can use pretty much any item that improves his Intelligence since that's what he really needs, however the items you buy should fit the situation you're in, so see what enemies you're facing and choose your items accordingly.

Tier 1 Items.

These are early game items that you should try to get as they are cheap and provide decent stats that you could use.

Magic stick is probably the most cost-efficent item in the game to begin with and while its debatable whether you should upgrade it or not to magic wand, the stick itself is very useful and you should get it anyways.

Very cheap boost to your stats, Nulls give you some extra damage both through your normal attacks and by making arcane bolt just a bit stronger, Bracers are more useful if you are worried about dying and want to be a bit more tanky.

I love this item on almost every hero, the cheap regen is fantastic and the extra 6 strength will bulk you up quite a lot, it doesnt provide any Int sadly but the ability to get charges is really useful.

The choice of boots for Skywrath although usually I don't upgrade my boots into anything since with your massive Int gain you don't really need them. But regardless if you're going to upgrade then Arcane is the way to go, they give you a huge manapool as well as providing useful mana regen for both you and your allies.

Tier 2 Items.

These are slightly more expensive than tier 1 items of course but provide a lot more stats. Most of these items come with some sort of active ability and you should try to get at least 1-2 of these in every game.

An excellent defensive item for you, while Skywrath has good range and movement speed, you will be caught out of position sometimes no matter how good you are, if you're facing strong DPS enemies who can only deal physical damage ( Void, Ursa, Troll) then this item becomes quite worth it. Usually though it leaves you too weak to magic damage, often you'll use it to avoid Ursa but get fingered by lion instead.

Mostly a support item really and more fitting for a tri-lane Skywrath who cant farm better items, nonetheless its still a very good item if you're behind or simply if you want to upgrade your bracer.

This is an excellent item for Skywrath no matter how you play him, it provides a bit of Int which is always good and some small regen, but the real point of this item is its active ability is really good. Whether you're chasing enemies or using it to save allies, for its price its too good to pass up and I always buy it.

I cant say i have tried this item myself yet, but on paper it looks perfect since it provides everything Skywrath could ask for, good int and regen and some nice armor to tank you up. The active ability reduces magic resistance of any enemy caught in its AOE which works great since this hero is all about magic damage.

Have you noticed a trend with the items I recommend on Skywrath yet? almost all provide Int because that's what you need. Euls is an excellent addition to your arsenal because the cyclone ability can help you avoid damage as well as using it to position enemies right on top of a Mystic flare. The bonus stats and mana regen it provides means you should almost never have mana problems anymore. +30 MS is also nothing to laugh about.

My personal build on Skywrath is to mix Force Staff with Rod of Atos, its simply a fantastic combo, Atos has probably the best slow you can get, 4 seconds of a 60% slow will allow you to land your ulti on anyone without needing help from your allies, it has a short cooldown of only 16 seconds and also provides a huge 325 HP boost. All in all its one of the best items you can get.

I recommend any combination of tier 2 items but my personal preference is to always go for Force staff + Rod of Atos when I can, if not I fall back on Drums and Euls since they are slightly cheaper and come in smaller pieces. Ghost Scepter is rarely useful unless you are facing an all physical line-up which almost never happens.

Tier 3 Items. 

These are the most expensive and best items you can go for, getting as many of those in one game should always be your goal.

Obviously the best item  any Intelligence hero can go for, Giving the highest Int per game as well as a devastating ability in the form of Hex, you cant go wrong if you get it. Sadly its high price means that most often its simply too difficult to aim for unless you're playing Skywrath in a farming role. Support Mages will have to skip this 95% of the time.

Excellent boost to the stats you want, both Strength and Intelligence are improved with this item and you can use the Necro units very well thanks to your slow. I would recommend this more when facing Invisible heroes, enemy mages or you simply want more life, other than that though the other items in tier 3 are better. Either way though the minions are awesome.

Another item I am a bit hesitant to put in the list here. Dagon though can provide huge nuking power even though it comes at a giant cost ( 7730 at level 5) If you're going Dagon its often best to get one or two levels of it only and not upgrade it fully, since it takes 2700 gold to get a 400 damage nuke but it will take you 7730 gold to get 800 damage out of it, I don't think its worth it to upgrade on most heroes but with ancient seal you can get 1088 damage from a level 5 dagon which can kill a lot of non-strength heroes in one shot.

Sick and tired of getting killed in 3 hits by Void? will no worries anymore you can now just get a Shiva for your problems. Providing 30 int which is second only to Scyth of Vys it also gives huge armor for you and the passive and active abilities are incredible for keeping you alive longer as well as dealing a bit more AOE damage. 

 As damaging as Skywrath is, he is completely useless if he dies early or is somehow unable to cast any spells, if you're facing so many stuns and silences that you are unable to do anything then you should get BKB as it allows you to avoid all these problems, it may not improve your offensive abilities but by making you more durable and immune to disables you are more likely to fire off all your spells and be useful than if you farmed a Hex but die 2 seconds into every fight.

It also stops Pugna's nether ward which is always useful.

While I am not exactly a fan of Bloodstone and Soulbooster, my friend ZeLover from Playdota brought up that if you do make Arcane boots, its easy late game to simply disassemble them and use 2300 gold to make a Soulbooster which is great for your HP and mana pools, and I cant argue with that logic. So if you feel like you have enough Active items, go for it.

I always recommend getting Scyth first if you can, there is simply no better alternative to it in the game, however skip if you're facing an enemy Riki or Bounty Hunter and get Necro 3 instead, they give almost as good stats and the minion DPS is huge. Dagon can almost be considered a tier 2 item due to how cheap lv 1 is and it can really nuke people down easily. Shiva's will allow you to stay in battles a lot longer so think about it if you're dying a lot but somehow still have a lot of money ( how do you do that?)

Lastly most of the items I recommend have some sort of Active ability, its best to practice games with just 1 or 2 of them before adding more as you already have 4 spells to use + whatever items you have, so don't be afraid to use simpler items with no active abilities (Linken) if you get overwhelmed. Items with active abilities are almost useless if you don't use them and having 6 of them tends to be very confusing. 

Rejected Items.

Because of how versatile he is, Skywrath can be played in a great many roles and due to that people like to experiment with different items on him, regardless though in almost all cases you should not get him any of these items.

Skywrath needs a big mana pool for all his spells, so Soul Ring would be awesome right?
Wrong, you simply do not have the HP pool to support frequent uses of this item, it doesn't provide enough mana and any benefit it gives you in the laning phase will be gone by the time you reach level 9 or 10, costing you almost 1k in gold you can use to get much better items.

Not bad items at all, but unless you're playing a support Skywrath you simply don't need these items, Meka is better on someone else and costs you too much mana to use, mana better spent spamming Arcane Bolt while Pipe provides no useful stat whatsoever.

Not a bad item per say, but you already have a Silence and a damage amplifier, you don't need more. For a little bit more gold you can get a Hex instead.

Useless item, you will usually not have the mana pool to use Mystic flare twice in one fight, it will cost you exactly 1975 to do that and you don't need it. You'll do a lot more spamming your other spells and items then getting a Refresher.

While Bloodstone is actually a good item if you're having trouble using all your items in one fight ( Force Staff, Atos, Hex, Shiva) and don't wish to add more items with active abilities, its not as good as Linkens and doesn't provide you with any Int for Arcane bolt. The regen is also overkill although the HP is nice, its still not enough to warrant buying this item.

Walkthrough.

Early Game.

When the game starts you should already have an idea of where you are laning, the laning stage determines a lot for Skywrath so knowing whether you are going to support someone or solo a lane is crucial. If you go for the mid lane then take arcane bolt and use it to late hit and harass, Skywrath does 103 damage with a level 1 arcane bolt meaning you should never miss a last hit with it.

Rune control is not quite as vital for you as it is for others, you have a large mana pool and AB costs very little so you'll do fine with just a sage mask and a few Intelligence items. However you should still ask someone to ward the runes just so the other mid lane doesn't get them instead of you.

If you're playing as a support then buy the courier for your team and even the wards if no one else does. You're a support so getting wards and supporting your team should be your goal, not farming Hex. Get a level of concussive shot and stack and pull the neutral creeps. Skywrath is extremely fragile so its better that he does the neutral pulls rather than someone whose more tanky and useful in the lane like a Jakiro or VS.

 Mid Game.

Once you acquire a significant level advantage and have your ultimate, you should move around the map and gank for your allies. While its nice to sit in mid lane and farm, that's not really your role in this game. Helping your allies secure some kills will go a long way to winning the game, plus Skywrath is one of the best gankers in the game, capable of outputting huge damage in just a few seconds by spamming Arcane Bolt and casting Mystic Flare.

Late Game.

Late game is all about teamfights and positioning, at this point you should have whatever core items you need so if your supports cant afford to have wards up then be sure to do it yourself. In teamfights you should hang back, you have huge range on all your spells and should use that to your advantage and not walk ahead of your team. 

Ancient Seal's value increases as the game goes on, so be sure to use it on the best target you can find and to use it early, its very useful on a Puck who wants to initiate but it barely does anything on an enemy Viper whose about to die, so picking the right target to silence is crucial. Other than that focus on landing all your other spells and items as best you can, there really isn't much to say about team fights except to be careful, fight from a distance and spam your spells as best you can.

 Replays.

Here are some replays I attach on playing Skywrath, do note that I am not a great player myself and do a lot of mistakes yet still managed to do decent in both these games.

Game 1 Match ID 226724732
Game 2 Match ID 222834923

Got any questions?

I'd love to hear from anyone if they have any thing to ask or which hero I should make a guide for next, any feedback would be greatly apreciated.

Dota 2 Anti-Mage Guide.

Hello everyone and welcome to my guide for AM in Dota 2.
After writing a couple of guides ( check them out here and here) I decided to write this guide because I have been thinking of making a series of Dota 2 guides and after checking out the current win percentages of heroes I found out that poor AM has only 41% win rate, third lowest in fact.

A very sad fact for such a powerful hero which is why AM is my first guide in this series that aims to improve player understanding of certain heroes with very low win percentages.

Please keep in mind that this guide is for version 6.78. Some tactics and items mentioned here may not work in other versions. Also this guide is written for Pub players and may not apply to higher levels of play.

So lets begin our talk on AM.

Hero Stats.

As you can see, AM has some...well bad stats to be completely honest. His starting strength is decent but tapers off very fast due to his low strength gain making him quite fragile in that regard. Agility is fine for him and he has decent Agi growth as well. Lastly his Intelligence is good enough for his spells, AM doesnt spend much anyways so his small mana pool is fine.

Overall though due to his really poor strength gain AM has a lower stat growth than average. The average stat gain in Dota 2 right now is 6.1 stats per level while AM only gains 5.8, still its a minor difference and more than made up for by his powerful skill set.

Anti-Mage has a base movement speed of 315 which is one of the fastest in the game. Luna currently holds the highest MS in the game at 330 but AM is still blazingly fast early game.

AM has a base armor of 2 which means he will not be able to handle much harass early game, not a factor later one when his Agi gain kicks in but early on AM players need to be careful of physical attacks.

Lastly AM has one of the best Basic Attack Times at 1.45, because of this very high attack speed AM is well suited for items that proc a lot ( like Basher and Crits)

Skill Set.

Anti-Mage has a very versatile set of skills that suit him perfectly for his role as the...Anti-mage 

1. Mana Break.

A modified technique of the Turstarkuri monks' peaceful ways is to turn magical energies on their owner.

Ah Mana Break, what a great orb effect, with every hit that AM lands enemy heroes are drained of their mana. Its a really simple passive really with not much to add to it.

60% of the mana burned is dealt in damage. So at level 4 you're adding an extra 38 damage to every attack, this is also useful early game for harassing and makes last hitting ranged creeps ( who have mana) very easy to do.

2. Blink.

In his encounter with the Dead Gods, Anti-Mage learned the value of being elusive.

Blink used to be a much stronger spell when it had a 3 second cooldown back in the old days, nevertheless its still an incredibly versatile spell that can be used for chasing, escaping and moving around. In almost all cases Blink should be the first skill maxed out for its reduced cooldown increased range and the fact that its mana cost remains the same.

Be sure to master blink as it can be used to dodge a lot of spells, if you see a projectile coming your way simple blink and you'll dodge it.

Yes its a Dota 1 image, sorry.

3. Spell Shield.

Years of meditation and obsession with revenge have hardened Anti-Mage's skin against mystical opponents.

A really simple passive as well, Anti-Mage takes less magic damage. Yeah that's about it really.'

All heroes ( except Meepo now) have a base magic resistance of 25%, with Spell Shield maxed AM will have 62% Magic resistance in total, allowing you to shrug off Finger of Death..well most of it.

4. Mana Void.

After bringing enemies to their knees, Anti-Mage punishes them for their use of the arcane arts.

Anti-Mage has a very powerful Ultimate in the form of Mana Void, it looks a little confusing but its actually quite simple, for every point of mana missing, AM will deal damage to the enemy hero and a small AOE around him.

Obviously this makes enemies with big mana pools great targets for AM to use Mana Void on, Heroes like Skywrath Mage and Enigma are perfect targets as they have to use a lot of mana to cast their spells.

The damage as mentioned before is applied in an AOE so try to make sure that your primary target is near his allies so they take the same amount of damage he does. Here's an example of how powerful Mana Void can be.

Mana Void also performs a mini-stun on the enemy, this isn't a big deal since its just 0.3 seconds but it does go through Magic Immunity, meaning you can stop enemies from teleporting or casting channeling spells even if they activate BKB.

Skill build.

1. Blink

2. Spell Shield or Mana Break

3. Spell Shield or Mana Break

4. Stats

5. Stats

6. Mana void

7. Stats

8. Blink

9. Blink

10. Blink

11. Mana Void

12-14. Mana break.

15. Stats or Spell Shield

16. Mana Void.

17-25. Depends on enemy lineup.

This skill build is quite open really, but it does have a few core rules to stick to.

1- Always take Blink at level 1, no exceptions, you have no idea what you will face in the lane and Blink allows you to chase, harass and escape depending on the situation you face.

2. Have a point in each skill by level 3, Mana break allows you to last hit range creeps easily and harass your enemies. While Spell Shield Makes you much more durable against Magic damage which you will face a lot of in the laning stage.

3. Take points in Stats, AM is fragile and doesnt need his other skills much early on, having 3 points in stats by level 7 makes you much more durable.

4. Max out blink by level 10, why? because around this time you should have your Battlefury and with a maxed out Blink you can clear camps very fast and move on to the next camp without having to walk around and waste time.

5. Take Mana Void whenever you can, its too good to skip.

6. After level 11, look at your enemies and decided what you will need to face them, if Magic is still an issue then further points in Spell Shield will help, however usually by this time Mana Break is the better skill since you are close to Manta Style and need your images to do as much Mana Burn as possible.

7. After level 16 its up to you again what to take, Stats or Spell Shield, honestly I find that one point in Spell Shield is usually quite enough, but if magic is a problem then don't hesitate to go for more Spell Shield.

Item Build.

Anti-Mage has a very good cookie-cutter build that usually will be enough for every game.

Starter Items.

Pretty basic starting item build, Quelling Blade is a must because it allows you to get every single last hit, some people choose to skip it but I find it too useful to give up and against harassers and your ally supports. Because lets face it half the time you will lane with some Idiot Rubick who will try to steal your last hits. Quelling blade helps against both enemies and allies.

One branch early for a tiny bit of stats, you wont really need more than that since you will be getting stats naturally from your skill build, but feel free to replace Magic Stick with more branches if you must.

One tango obviously for early regen. As for whether or not to buy Magic Stick, consult the image below.

Core Items.

Power Treads are the best boots for AM, they give him some life, AS and allow him to Tread switch when he needs to, They should be replaced later on with Boots of Travels in the super late game.

Magic stick should be upgraded to Magic wand, it doesnt cost much and is well worth it for the extra Stats and charges.

ALWAYS carry a TP scroll, some people think it delays their farm too much to buy TP scrolls, well you know what delays farm even more? dying, and TP scrolls can prevent that so have one with you at all times.

Your first big Item should always be a Battlefury, it offers tremendous regen powers which will allow you to Blink to your heart's content as well as regen life, it offers really good damage but the best part is that it allows you to farm Neutrals extremely fast, really increasing your gold per minute by a lot.

After getting your Bfury the rest of the items shouldnt take too long to get. Manta Style is perfect for AM as it offers him a lot of speed and some life, but the best part is the Illusions who also gain your Mana Burn skill, allowing them to do a ton of damage and really drain enemy heroes of their Spells.

Also using Manta Style gets rid of the debuffs, so if you're silenced and cant blink, just use Manta and the silence will be removed.

Late Game.

 After finishing your Manta, check to see what you are facing to decide your next set of items.

Butterfly or Heart will be the main choice here, of course its great to go both but which one first?

Butterfly is great against strong physical DPS like PA, Void and Troll, where the evasion is incredibly useful. However see if any of your enemies are making a Monkey King Bar which really reduces the effectiveness of Butterfly.

If your enemies are making or have an MKB, get a heart then, AM does a lot of damage so what he needs now is more HP to live with. Heart is also more useful than Butterfly when facing enemies who do Pure damage like Obsidan Harbinger.

Lastly if you get both and the enemy team is pushing hard then you will need Boots of Travels so you can split push very effectively and TP to defend if you're ever needed.

Alternative Items.

One of the things that you should consider when playing any hero is that there is no one perfect item and skill build, when you encounter certain situations its best to adjust your item build to fit the enemies you're facing.

Linkens Sphere or BKB are very useful in combating stuns late game, they both have a purpose so decide accordingly which one you need more. BKB makes you magic immune but some ultimates still go through it, while Linkens blocks every single target spell in the game, which is very useful when facing enemies like Bane and Beast Master.

Basher is a decent item for people who dont like to go Manta, it provides some life and decent lockdown so its an Ok item but not much more than that. Very good on AM with his fast attack speed. The upgrade to abyssal goes through BKB so its worth it if you're facing a lot of magic immune enemies.

MKB is useful if your enemies build evasive items or when facing certain heroes like PA, Panda and any other hero with either a passive evade or a skill that reduces your chances of landing a hit. However Manta can usually remove debuffs that give you any sort of miss chance so MKB is really only useful against enemies with evasion.

SNY give a bit of everything and work well if you go for Basher, SNY is great for when you are getting ganked a lot and cant save up to buy bigger items. It comes in cheap useful pieces so its worth getting if you're behind. You can make your own item builds with AM as he is really versatile. Though I recommend sticking to the one I mentioned above and only looking into alternative items when you have to.

So why does AM have such a bad win rate?

Anti-Mage despite all his good points still has one of the worst win rates in Dota 2 right now, this is because of the fact that most players are not aware how to play him if he gets shuts down. Getting outharassed in a lane is something AM players will have to face so players should always set a plan in case they run in a lane they cant win in.

If you're getting harassed too much and cant get your farm, consider changing your item build to  be far more defensive, its always good to add the above items because they allow you to play far more defensive as well as jungle if you have to in the early game. Don't be afraid to mix things up if you have to.

Also if your team is losing bad then staying in the jungle and farming is no longer a viable strategy, games dont pause and wait for you to finish your six slot items so if you are forced to defend, then go and defend.

Walkthrough.

Early Game.

Early game AM doesn't offer much sadly, he is weak, prone to be bursted down and not that damaging, so early game take the safe lane, and farm as much as you can,. Focus on last hitting and denying your enemies. You're not too useful against enemy heroes right now so don't bother rotating to other lanes and trying to help. Find a place to farm and stay there.
If your allies dive in for a kill wait and see if you can get the last hit, Blink has a long cooldown early game and you don't want to blink yourself into 5 enemies for no reason.

Mid Game.

Your role in the mid game has not changed much but you should have Bfury by now which allows you to farm the jungle and let other heroes farm the lane if they can. Split pushing is also an option now since you can clear creeps fast and Teleport out of there before enemies are able to kill you.

You can team fight now since you do some damage, in team fights focus first on heroes with small mana pools but strong spells like Tide Hunter, Sand King and Earthshaker. These heroes can cause a lot of damage but don't have much mana so you can drain them easily.

Late Game.

Your time has arrived, finally after 30 minutes you can be useful, yeah it sucks to take so long but now you can split push perfectly using Manta Style.

Use Mana Void during this stage after you activate Manta and drain enemies, focus on Int heroes with naturally large mana pools like Pugna and Tinker. Late game AM is one of the strongest heroes in the game so if you can last till the late game you should be able to win this. Watch your enemy items and adjust accordingly and you'll do fine.

Replays.

Here are replays of a couple of games I played using the Item build I mentioned, the first game is a lot more epic in my opinion so check it out if you have the time.

Game 1

Game 2

Thank you for reading my guide so far, I appreciate any comments you leave behind. I am planning on making a series of guides for Dota 2 so please tell me which heroes you would like to learn more about.

Credits.

Credits to the people below for their help in writing this guide:

Zelover for his ideas on how to be more flexible with Anti-Mage.