Dota 2 Hero Spotlight: Magina the Anti-Mage
Introduction
Magina the Anti-Mage is arguably one of the most lethal agility heroes in entire Defense of the Ancients (Dota) 2, especially when you are up against intelligence heroes or heroes that rely too heavily on mana. For some reason, Magina has a thing against
mana, something that does not go too well with his opponents. Much to the woes of his foes, it requires an insane amount of effort to kill him, courtesy of his innate ability to make an escape in a blink of an eye.
Mana Break
His first skill is called Mana Break and that is exactly what it does. Hands down one of the strongest passives in Dota 2, the skill gives every single attack of Anti-Mage a mana break orb effect. At its highest level, each of his physical attack will burn
64 mana off his enemies. To further add to the lethality of the skill, Anti-Mage deals 0.6 damage to the targeted enemy for each point of their mana burnt. Do a little math and you will realise that as he burns 64 mana on each attack, he will consequently
deal 38 extra damage. You may be wondering what happens when the target is completely out of mana. Well, hold your horses as we will get to it in a bit.
Blink
Aptly named, Anti-Mage’s second skill allows him to cover a short distance in a blink of an eye. At its highest level, it allows Magina to blink up to a range of 1150. What really makes this skill effective is the five-second cool-down period, meaning it
can be used to chase enemy heroes or escape an imminent death quite conveniently. If timed correctly, Blink even makes it possible to evade incoming projectiles, such as stuns. This can be quite useful as disables is the only real counter to Magina.
Spell Shield
Spell Shield is yet another passive skill that is among the best in the game. The mechanics of this skill is much simpler than that of Mana Break though. At its highest level, it will grant Magina 50 percent resistance to magic spells. What makes it really
special is the fact that the magical resistance is stackable with items that serve the purpose of reducing damage from incoming magical attacks. It is indeed a rare mechanic, one that works exceptionally well on Magina. It is because of this high magical resistance
that most players go for a tanky build while playing with Anti-Mage, making him even more lethal against intelligence heroes.
Mana Void
Before we start talking about Magina’s ultimate Mana Void, let us take a minute to look back at his first skill Mana Break. Remember when I mentioned that for each mana burnt, Anti-Mage will deal an extra 0.6 damage to the target, something that rose the
question regarding what would happen if the enemy was to completely run out of mana. Well, that is where his ultimate comes in to shine. Being a single-target skill, Mana Void deals 1.1 damage for every mana point that the target is missing. Interestingly,
units within a 300 Area of Effect (AoE) of the main target will also be hit by the damage. Furthermore, the ultimate will also mini-stun the target for a 0.3-second period, something that comes in real handy when coming across a channelling spell. One thing
to note here is that the mini-stun mechanic of Mana Void will go through magic immunity.
Magina is indeed the guy whom the mamas of intelligence heroes warned them about. He is a formidable foe to face and once he gets on your trail, it is extremely hard to shake him off.
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