This New Anti-Mage Item Build is Dominating Pubs

Anti-Mage is a swift and slippy agility hard carry hero that causes havoc for the enemy team, and it is a well-known and popular hero in Dota 2. Known for its swift attack speed, mobility and late-game threat, the hero is a stable to many world-renowned safelane hard carry players.

Much to the extent that the ability of how good a carry player is measured by how well they play Anti Mage. Anti Mage’s item build how hasn’t progressed much in the years.

Until recently, Anti Mage players have been buying a traditional Battlefury into Manta Style and building up other items depending on the game scenario. Even though there were some alterations, no build was able to challenge the traditional Battlefury Anti-Mage.

The New Item Build 

In the recent patch update, Radiance got buffed. As heroes like Alchemist and Abaddon got tested out by players, surprisingly, Anti-Mage players started picking up the item instead of Battlefury.

However, the Radiance built on Anti-Mage differs from traditional Anti-Mage. During the early game, Radiance Anti-Mage will max out Mana Burn (AM’s first ability). AM can zone out any melee heroes in his lane by maxing out his Mana Burn. Instead of picking up a casual Ring Of Health, Radiance Anti-Mage will get a Vanguard.

Why it’s trending?

This build offers Anti-Mage to be active since the early game because of the damage block Vanguard offers. By parking in the lane and shoving in the wave, Anti-Mage shut off the opposing team offlaner. Players going this build start by buying stats items for the laning stage.

Before they build Vanguard, the player would play defensively by pulling the waves. However, when they get their Vanguard, the player will try to play aggressively. After the Vanguard, the player will go the traditional way of buying boots. From there onwards, the game’s afoot. Anti Mage will farm for Radiance whilst looking at the map for favourable fights. After Radiance, the build will get back to the traditional item build by getting Manta Style.

The Counters

Fortunately, for every problem, there is a solution. Even though this build on Anti-Mage is perfect against physical damage, it is prone to magic damage. Moreover, when Anti-Mage with this build suffers during the laning stage, the game is just over for the hero. So heroes that output heavy magical damage or pure damage are a perfect way to counter Anti Mage going this build. Currently, Anti-Mage has a 19.84% pick rate with a 51.60% win rate in pro-level pubs.