Introduction

To many times have I seen AM picked and hoped for a decent carry, then to have found a useless blinking sack of 200 gold for the enemy team. Why does this happen? One would assume that with blink you would be extremely hard to kill and a undesirable gank target. I have an answer for you. Several answers actually.

This is a more advanced guide, I expect that the reader has a basic grasp of DotA and has played games above the pub level. If your a beginner I encourage you to read this anyways, But you might have to do some research on your own.

Not being a carry
In general, People who play anti-mage seem to think that he's some sort of ganker. Or a tank. I'll be quite blunt here; They're being stupid. To play a carry, You first have to understand the concept of being a carry. Its never a pleasing role because your going to have to farm like a Chinese WoW Gold seller, then hope you get something out of it.

So what is a carry?

As a carry, Your job is to be the unstoppable pillar of awesome at the end of the game when killing people with just 300 damage nukes becomes more and more difficult. Your job is to kill everything and be good at it. Generally better carries are actually strength heroes; But a agility carry is much more fearsome end game.

So Mister; How do I play like a carry?

Good question chap! That's what this guide is here for. Before you can play Magina; You have to play like a carry.

THE RULES OF BEING A CARRY <--If I could stress this anymore then I would.

1. Kill steal with no mercy.
Why kill steal? Isn't that bad? Mommy tells me kill stealing is a sin and sends you straight to hell. Yeah I really don't care. As a carry, You need cash, and more cash and there isn't ever enough gold for you. In competitive play, teams understand this concept. I don't care how much of a kill steal it is, You do it, You get the gold and enjoy it. 30 minutes later your teammates will be thanking you for winning the game. When you play a carry, You have to be selfish. It sucks and its true.

2.No mistakes
When you play a carry; You shouldn't ever die in the first 30 minutes of the game. Especially with Magina; You have a blink and unless the enemy team is chock full of silences, Then you shouldn't die. When you play a carry, You have to be ALOT more careful. A single death could delay an important item by 5 minutes. Time is gold, gold is carry.

3.Towers and Creeps
Refer to 1.
Take everything. Your lane-mate should be concentrated on denying, if they really need gold then you tell them to pull. Which brings us to..

4.YOU DO NOT SOLO. YOU DO NOT GO TOP SENTINEL, BOTTOM SCOURGE.
Golden rule. Your a carry, You should have 0 lane control, Solution? Bring someone else in to do it for you. Also realize the importance of reminding your lane-mate to pull.

5.Alarm Bells
As soon as you see someone who's within range to stun you, and you know there's at least one other person missing and or that person can kill you by himself, You get out. You hope that you haven't already screwed up and have been set up for a gank and you run. INTRUDER ALERT. INTRUDER ALERT, YOUR GOING TO DIE.

Strength:20 + 1.2
Agility:22 + 2.8
Intelligence:15 + 1.8

For more advanced statistics, view Anti-Mage - DotA Hero Details

So what does this tell us about Anti-Mage?
1.Complete and utter crap for health.
2.Terrible base mana pool.
3.Pretty good base agility and agility gain.

Which leads me to the...

Skill Build

The Safer Build
1.Blink
2.Stats
3.Blink
4.Stats
5.Blink
6.Stats
7.Blink
8.Stats
9.Mana Break
10.Stats / Mana Break
11.Mana Break
12.Mana Break
13.Mana Break / Stats
14.Spell Shield
15.Spell Shield
16.Mana Void
17.Spell Shield
18.Mana Void
19.Mana Void
20.Spell Shield

Please don't be witty and tell me "Sir you have 5 Mana Breaks in there!" I assume that you'll make your own judgment call of when to take your 5th level of stats at lv 10-25.

Oh wait--- "SIR YOU TOKE STATS INSTEAD OF MANA BREAK EARLY ON?"

Yes. And there are several reasons for it. I would like to direct your attention to what we deduced from AM's stats. He has bad health and a poor mana pool. Why is stats important? Because remember the rule of being a carry, Your goal is survival and having an extra blink or that extra health is much more useful then mana burn.

Items

Your starting items
1.Branch
2.Branch
3.Gauntlet/Slipper
4.Gauntlet/Slipper
5.2x Tangoes

Your Core
1.Branch
2.Branch
3.Wraith/Bracer
4.Wraith/Bracer
5.Treads
6.Vlads

OR

Replace 3. and 4. With a PM Shield.

Items to aim for after your Core

1.Battlefury
2.Butterfly
3.Buriza
4.Basher or MKB
5.Manta Style

Use your own judgement to what order of items you want. I highly suggest you try to rush a battlefury within 20 minutes of the game, It makes your jungling life extremely easy, You can also have someone on your team pull ancients for you and that's some easy cash. With a battlefury on the Sentinel side, You can make around 800-1k Gold in a minute in the jungle.

Butterfly is self explanatory; 30% evasion, 60 damage and 60% IAS

Buriza is for the 700-900 damage crits you'll be rocketing out.

Basher or MKB is useful to you because of your amazing BAT and decent agility gain. Pick whichever you want, Both have advantages.

Manta style is viable on Magina for the health, and illusions that gain your Mana break.

Laning Phase

Early Game

First off, before you even head to your lane, You must of course purchase your items. Now your probably thinking; Well of course! I'll just buy that nice item lineup you had there for me; Way to be brainless! When you play a fragile carry like AM you have to do a lot more thinking then people who play heroes like Krob (I push X and run around. Sometimes I silence people). So look at the enemy lineup and think for second about what you see. If you see lane control power houses like Viper/Huskar you may want to consider taking a salve instead of a slipper. If you see casters that are prone to spamming (ie Bat rider; Bristleback; fill in the blank) then take a Magic Wand.

So what lane do you want to pick?

You'll want to see who's headed where and then make a judgment call. The number 1 lane you cannot be in, is another agility heroes. Unless its Vengeful Spirit or Nerubian Assassin (Who are often the exception to agility hero stereotypes) then don't lane with them. Why? You'll fight over last hits, Probably feed and a lot of QQing will happen. Who else should you avoid? Heroes like Pugna, Magnus, Kunkka. Heroes that have better last hitting then you and amazing creep clearing skills. Unless you know the player and or they promise to go more supportive (In Kunkka/Magnus's case, not possible). Then you'll get no money out of the lane and should steer away from it. Ideally you'll be laned with a disabler/slower who's not a carry and doesn't rape all of your gold.

Now then; On to the ACTUAL laning.

Situations and how to deal with them:

Solo Ranged Lane controller

If you don't have a lane partner (WHY DO YOU NOT) then you better start screaming like a little girl for one. You cannot solo against these heroes because you will be sitting back 90% of the time and not able to get any last hits. Any last hits you get will cause you to take probably 10% of your health off. And if you think about it; Letting viper free farm for about 15 minutes doesn't sound cool. Heroes that are lane controllers against you (May not seem like it) can be Nevermore, Viper, Trax, Dazzle, Enchantress at level 6, Obsidian Destroyer, Wind runner, and possibly Venomancer.

Nuke heavy solo

Same as above. Don't be soloing against them. You run the risk of DIEING often because they'll be keeping you at 50% health with constant harass and then with a couple of nukes, Your dead.

That's it for solo heroes. Seriously, the solution to dealing with most solo heroes is having a lane partner. You'll instantly turn it into a situation where they have to be careful and run the risk of feeding an AM.

Lane Controller and a Suppourter

Get out of this lane. You don't belong here, You wont be able to change the lane into your favor ever. Swap lanes immediately with someone who has an easier one.