Venomancer
[wiki] rating: 3.0 (winrate: 51% pickrate: 5%)Shadow Demon
[wiki] rating: 3.0 (winrate: 46% pickrate: 3%)Techies
* Shadow Demon's spammable illusions can be used to scout Techies' Proximity Mines. The illusion of your carries can be even used to trick Techies into detonating his precious
Remote Mines.
Axe
* Disruption will save Shadow Demon's teammates from being killed by Counter Helix or Culling Blade.
* Soul Catcher and
Shadow Poison can put Axe's Blink Dagger on cooldown.
* Demonic Purge slows Axe to a crawl, making him nearly useless after initiating. If Shadow Demon has Aghanim's Scepter, it will also break Counter Helix.
Spectre
* Her illusions with Desolate are very valuable, especially when they are usually paired with
Radiance. Unlike blink or force movement,
Spectral Dagger's escaping mechanic requires manual movement, and therefore Demonic Purge can hold her back really hard and allow your allies to finish her off.
* If she tries to kill you or any key ally with Haunt at any point of the game, remember to not panic and always use Disruption on the illusion, whether it is fake or the real Spectre herself. When the situation calls, Demonic Purge can save a second victim from a haunting Spectre.
* When upgraded by Aghanim's Scepter, Demonic Purge can remove Spectre from a fight by disabling Desolate and
Dispersion, negating her damage and tankiness respectively.
Lion
[wiki] rating: 2.2 (winrate: 49% pickrate: 15%)Techies
* In general, heroes such as Lion,
Silencer,
Skywrath Mage,
Sven,
Ogre Magi and others with reliable disables are crucial to killing Techies before they can suicide.
Axe
* Ranged heroes that can easily harass Axe: Drow Ranger,
Sniper,
Lion.
Spectre
* Hex and
Mana Drain can be used to immediately destroy Spectre's illusion when she Haunts. A fast fingered Lion can protect himself and a teammate.
* Hex and
Earth Spike are good lockdown spells to control and kill Spectre, especially if she doesn't buy defensive items like
Linken's Sphere and
Black King Bar.
* Finger of Death can be used to burst down Spectre when she is low on life as she has very poor magic resistance.
Pugna
[wiki] rating: 2.0 (winrate: 51% pickrate: 4%)Spectre
* Nether Blast is one of the best tower pushing abilities in the game, with a low cooldown. A competent Pugna will (at the very least) destroy tier 2 towers and make space for his team before Spectre can finally come online.
* Spectre's spells, while not spammable, have a fairly high mana cost, so Nether Ward can be fairly damaging to Spectre early game. The mana degen will also dampen Spectre's early game power significantly.
* Once Pugna gets Aghanim's Scepter, he can spam
Life Drain on any illusion Spectre summons, whether it'd be from Haunt,
Manta Style, or some other means.
* In addition, Pugna can disable Spectre's Desolate ability (although its damage is pure, it requires physical attacks) with his Decrepify ability, leaving Spectre only with Spectral Dagger.
Axe
* Decrepify can be used on allies to prevent them from attacking Axe and triggering Counter Helix during Berserker's Call. He can also cast it on Axe to prevent anyone from attacking him.
* Life Drain can be used to heal himself or allies caught in Berserker's Call, preventing them from dropping low enough for Axe to kill them with Culling Blade.
Undying
[wiki] rating: 2.0 (winrate: 50% pickrate: 7%)Axe
* Decay's stacking strength reduction makes Axe much less dominant in lane.
* Tombstone's zombies take no damage from Counter Helix, and will continuously put Axe's
Blink Dagger on cooldown until dealt with.
Spectre
* Spectre must chase for kills and relies on movement speed for mobility in fights, and has no way to counter the Tombstone zombies.
* The potency of Soul Rip can be increased from nearby illusions from Haunt.
* Decay will shut down Spectre during the laning phase by effectively cutting down her initial health pool.
Additional:
* Spectre must chase for kills and relies on movement speed for mobility in fights, and has no way to counter the Tombstone zombies.
* The potency of Soul Rip can be increased from nearby illusions, so Undying can use Haunt against Spectre.
* Early game Decay will make Spectre easy to shut down in lane.
Omniknight
[wiki] rating: 2.0 (winrate: 50% pickrate: 3%)Axe
* Omniknight's healing prevents allies from dropping low enough for Culling Blade. However, it can still go through all his buffs.
* Axe also enjoys getting close to allied heroes in order to damage them with his Counter Helix, which can easily be punished by Purification.
Spectre
* Global Guardian Angel will protect his allies from Spectre's Haunt, both when they are alone and in teamfights.
* Purification is a major problem for melee enemies, Spectre included, since they must be next to an enemy in order to attack. The AoE damage also allows Spectre to be singled out from her illusions.
* Degen Aura will prevent Spectre from chasing Omniknight, further exacerbated by her terrible mobility outside Haunt.
Viper
[wiki] rating: 2.0 (winrate: 48% pickrate: 7%)Axe
* Poison Attack and
Viper Strike slows Axe significantly, and puts his
Blink Dagger on cooldown, preventing him from initiating.
* Nethertoxin can break Counter Helix.
Additional:
* Nethertoxin prevents Counter Helix from triggering, which significantly lowers Axe's damage output in the early to mid game.
* Viper's various slows and damage over time prevents Axe from initiating as well as putting his Blink Dagger on cooldown.
Spectre
* Nethertoxin disables Desolate and
Dispersion, leaving Spectre with far less damage output and damage mitigation in engagements.
* Spectre is one of the weakest heroes at early levels. Viper can stifle her farm with early fights before Spectre purchases any major items.
Additional:
* Nethertoxin removes passives, negating Spectre's damage and survivability by removing both Dispersion and Desolate.
* Due to Haunt and Radiance's burn, Spectre is heavily susceptible to being persistently slowed and damaged by Corrosive Skin without even directly attacking Viper.
* Poison Attack and
Viper Strike further slow Spectre's movement speed to a crawl, while his improved magic resistance means he can easily shrug off Radiance's burn.
Lifestealer
[wiki] rating: 2.0 (winrate: 45% pickrate: 5%)Techies
* Lifestealer's Rage lets him clear Remote Mines and Proximity Mines with proper vision.
Additional:
* Rage protects Lifestealer from all of Techies' magic damage and disables and dispels Stasis Trap's debuff .
* Usually teams will have a hard time pushing high-ground against Techies, but Lifestealer can just pop Rage and walk uphill without fear of Techies.
Axe
* Feast's lifesteal makes it nearly impossible for Axe to initiate and bring Lifestealer's health low enough for Culling Blade, even with many procs of Counter Helix.
* Feast's damage is calculated as a percentage of health, turning Axe's high health against him. This allow Lifestealer to hit Axe much harder than most other heroes.
Additional:
* Feast makes it impossible to put Lifestealer's health for a Culling Blade and also deals high damage to Axe due to his naturally high health.
* However, Lifestealer's Rage can be pierced by Berserker's Call.
Doom
[wiki] rating: 2.0 (winrate: 44% pickrate: 3%)Spectre
* Infernal Blade's damage is calculated by percentage of maximum health, meaning that it will hurt Spectre more than most normal attacks, negating some of her tankiness.
* With Aghanim's Scepter Dispersion and Desloate are disabled.
* Doom can pick up several different abilities from neutral creeps using Devour, some of which can be annoying to Spectre.
* Mud Golem, Dark Troll Summoner, Harpy Stormcrafter, Satyr Mindstealer or Satyr Tormenter are good examples.
* Doom makes Spectre less disruptive.
Axe
* Infernal Blade's damage is calculated by percentage of maximum health, meaning that it will hurt Axe more than most normal attacks, negating some of his tankiness. With
Aghanim's Scepter, Counter Helix is also disabled, making him effectively useless for a lengthy duration.
* Doom can pick up several different abilities from neutral creeps using Devour, some of which can be annoying to Axe.
* Mud Golem, Dark Troll Summoner, Harpy Stormcrafter, Satyr Mindstealer or Satyr Tormenter are good examples.
* Doom's naturally low attack speed makes Counter Helix less likely to proc.
* Doom makes Axe less disruptive, preventing him from using his skills or items.
Additional:
* Infernal Blade deals scaling damage and is useful against high HP targets such as Axe.
* Doom has low attack speed because of his high Base-Attack-Time, poor agility gain and limited attack-speed granting items which are commonly built. This means Doom will trigger Counter Helix less often and thus is an unideal target for initiation.
* Doom has naturally high HP so it takes longer for Doom to be brought down to the killing threshold of Culling Blade.
* Axe is highly reliant on his abilities and items to be effective during a fight. Without the usage of Berserker's Call and
Blink Dagger, Axe offers very little in the way of damage.
Night Stalker
[wiki] rating: 1.6 (winrate: 53% pickrate: 5%)Spectre
* Heroes that have a weak laning stage: Spectre,
Nyx Assassin,
Clockwerk,
Spirit Breaker,
Omniknight,
Pudge.
Techies
* With Dark Ascension Night Stalker gains unobstructed vision during night-time allowing him to easily detect mines if he has a
Gem of True Sight, but Night Stalker is a melee hero so he has to use
Quelling Blade to safely defuse Remote Mines and Stasis Trap.
* Dark Ascension also allows Night Stalker to fly over Proximity Mines without triggering them.
* Crippling Fear is effective in stopping Techies from using Blast Off! and
Void is effective in stopping them from running to the safety of their mines.
Winter Wyvern
[wiki] rating: 1.6 (winrate: 51% pickrate: 5%)Spectre
* Arctic Burn makes it nearly impossible for Spectre to juke into the trees.
* Cold Embrace negates all of Spectre's physical damage. Furthermore, Cold Embrace will generally outheal Desolate.
* Winter's Curse can taunt illusions, not only wasting the entire duration of Haunt but also turning its illusions against Spectre's own team.
Axe
* Heroes who can slow and kite Axe will severely inhibit his presence in fights: Bristleback,
Crystal Maiden,
Batrider,
Arc Warden,
Winter Wyvern,
Clockwerk
Jakiro
[wiki] rating: 1.6 (winrate: 49% pickrate: 11%)Axe
* Axe is a hero that is very vulnerable against magical nuke damage and disables, Jakiro is perfect against him with all of his spells.
Additional:
* Ice Path neutralizes initiation attempts with Berserker's Call, and its long area of effect discourages follow-up from Axe's teammates.
* Ice Path serves as a large obstacle to stop Axe from chasing down fleeing stragglers to kill with Culling Blade.
* Jakiro's many damage-per-second skills prevent Axe from initiating with his Blink Dagger.
Spectre
* Jakiro's early pushing ability from Liquid Fire makes Jakiro very strong against heroes, that take a long time to get online: Morphling,
Naga Siren,
Spectre.
Pudge
[wiki] rating: 1.6 (winrate: 47% pickrate: 22%)Techies
* Techies struggles early game against heroes with naturally large strength and health regeneration such as Pudge,
Axe or
Ogre Magi, as the player is forced to lay down more mines than usual to kill these bulkier heroes.
Additional:
* Pudge is the perfect hero for tanking mines, as Flesh Heap grants him lots of strength.
* Techies' high ground defense can be bypassed by Pudge hooking his enemies to him.
* Techies usually sits in the trees during the laning stage, setting up Proximity Mines. Meat Hook can easily pull them out and set them up for a kill.
Spectre
* Pudge's Dismember does not allow Spectre to escape with Haunt.
* He can easily tank the damage reflected by Dispersion due to his high strength and the healing from Dismember.
* Should Spectre try to get away through the trees or over a cliff with Spectral Dagger, Pudge can hook her back.
* Spectre takes a long time to come online, and Pudge can ruin her early game with ganks.
Batrider
[wiki] rating: 1.6 (winrate: 47% pickrate: 4%)Techies
* As long as Batrider is under the effects of Firefly, he can safely fly over mines.
* Sticky Napalm also punishes low mobility heroes that like to kite, such as Techies, by lowering their turn rate dramatically. This can also potentially delay Techies' Blast Off! if Techies tries to cast Blast Off! in a direction he's not currently facing.
Additional:
* As long as Batrider is under the effect of Firefly, he can safely fly over Proximity Miness (He does not receive vision over the mines).
Axe
* Heroes who can slow and kite Axe will severely inhibit his presence in fights: Bristleback,
Crystal Maiden,
Batrider,
Arc Warden,
Winter Wyvern,
Clockwerk
Necrophos
[wiki] rating: 1.4 (winrate: 49% pickrate: 4%)Spectre
* Death Pulse can single out Spectre from her illusions, as well as heal his team against her. He also usually stands close to his allies for Death Pulse, effectively disabling Desolate.
Axe
* Frequent healing from Death Pulse and
Mekansm makes it difficult for Axe to finish off targets with Culling Blade.
* Ghost Shroud's instant cast time allows Necrophos to turn ethereal before being initiated on by Berserker's Call. This prevents him from attacking Axe while taunted, thus lowering the chance to proc Counter Helix.
* Axe's high health is relatively ineffective against Heartstopper Aura's percentage-based health degeneration.
* Reaper's Scythe negates Axe's tankiness, and can kill him quickly after initiation.
Additional:
* Frequent healing from Death Pulse makes it difficult for Axe to finish off targets with Culling Blade.
* Reaper's Scythe negates Axe's tankiness, and can kill him quickly after initiation.
* Heartstopper Aura is effective due to Axe's high strength gain.
Spectre
* Enemies that possess high defenses through magic resistance, damage reduction, or high regeneration will make it difficult to whittle their health down to get to Reaper's Scythe's threshold. Such heroes include Bristleback (although only from behind),
Spectre,
Ursa, and
Dragon Knight.
Medusa
[wiki] rating: 1.4 (winrate: 46% pickrate: 2%)Axe
* Mystic Snake can harass Axe in lane and drain his small mana pool.
* Mana Shield reduces the effectiveness of Counter Helix.
* Stone Gaze makes it very difficult for Axe to pursue.
Spectre
* Stone Gaze negates Dispersion's damage reduction and allows Medusa to kite Spectre.
* Spectre's small mana pool is depleted quickly by Mystic Snake.
* Split Shot can clear Haunt illusions quickly.
Spectre
* Heroes that build Diffusal Blade or can fit it well into their item build will also make Medusa much less tanky:
Riki,
Naga Siren,
Terrorblade,
Juggernaut,
Spectre,
Slark,
Drow Ranger.
Lycan
[wiki] rating: 1.0 (winrate: 57% pickrate: 6%)Spectre
* The movement speed granted from Shapeshift means that Spectre has no way to punish Lycan if he wants to splitpush or pick off supports. Furthermore, he will kite Haunt and cannot be slowed by Spectral Dagger.
* As Lycan typically has Summon Wolves out and builds
Necronomicon, very rarely will he be damaged by Desolate if he does manage to get into a fight against her.
* Lycan is often part of an early game push strategy which is often the best counter to Spectre because she needs a lot of time and space to come online as a late game carry.
Techies
* Heroes with summons like Broodmother,
Enigma,
Invoker,
Nature's Prophet,
Lycan,
Visage;or illusions, like
Naga Siren,
Phantom Lancer,
Terrorblade are effective at keeping the choke points and rune spawns safe from Proximity mines in the early game.
Additional:
* He can send wolves to defuse Proximity Mines, and he can catch up Techies and kill him before they can deny themselves. Even if the suicide is successful, Lycan can still survive because of his tankiness.
Axe
* Melee heroes who rely on summons, illusions or clones will trigger Counter Helix more often, thus taking more damage: Meepo,
Lycan,
Chaos Knight,
Phantom Lancer
Additional:
* Berserker's Call can keep Lycan in place during his Shapeshift even through
Black King Bar.
* Counter Helix is very effective against Lycan because of his summons.
* Culling Blade will prevent Lycan from running away with Shapeshift when he drops low.
Beastmaster
[wiki] rating: 1.0 (winrate: 55% pickrate: 4%)Techies
* Call of the Wild Hawk can scout Techies as they are placing mines.
* Call of the Wild Boar can clear Proximity Mines.
* The stun of Primal Roar will usually be enough to deal with the squishy Techies before they can try to suicide with Blast Off!.
Wraith King
[wiki] rating: 1.0 (winrate: 53% pickrate: 21%)Techies
* Due to Reincarnation and his general tankiness he can live through at least one major Remote Mines stack or Blast Off!.
* Special mention for a bug with his Aghanim's Scepter. If enemies get killed from your mines under the effect of "Wraith Delay", they get denied instead of crediting the kill to you.
Additional:
* Wraith King is not afraid to walk into mines, whenever he goes with his Reincarnation ready.
Juggernaut
[wiki] rating: 1.0 (winrate: 53% pickrate: 20%)Techies
* Juggernaut can attack Remote Mines and trigger Proximity Mines while in Blade Fury.
Spectre
* Juggernaut's Healing Ward can help save allied supports when Spectre attempts a Haunt kill.
* Juggernaut has a stronger push potential than Spectre, enabling him to end the game early before Spectre can come online.
* Spectre is often paired with two supports that are often weak against Juggernaut.
* Juggernaut also tends to build a Manta Style, which can prevent Desolate from taking effect.
* Juggernaut is invulnerable against Dispersion while using Omnislash
Axe
* Berserker's Call pierces spell immunity, making a Blade Fury teleport escape impossible. It's very useful against Omnislash as well.
* Juggernaut's low base health and high attack speed causes him to take a lot of damage from the pure damage of Counter Helix.
* Axe is a common Blade Mail and
Blink Dagger carrier making him a very big potential threat before Juggernaut gets items.
Visage
[wiki] rating: 1.0 (winrate: 51% pickrate: 3%)Spectre
* Familiars will be able to chase Spectre through the trees when she uses Spectral Dagger, while Visage can keep blasting her with Soul Assumption.
* Desolate will almost never proc because Visage will always have nearby Familiars.
Techies
* Summon Familiars can scout Techies as they are placing mines. They even trigger Stasis Trap.
Axe
* Axe can
Berserker's Call into a flock of Familiars, proccing
Counter Helix and killing them off.
* Familiars' very fast attacks will proc Counter Helix, receiving full damage due to their low attack range.
Mirana
[wiki] rating: 1.0 (winrate: 51% pickrate: 16%)Techies
* Techies spends lots of time standing still planting stacks of Land Mines away from creep waves.
* Sacred Arrow can be used to scout hidden Land Mines among trees and at uphill places. It can also be used to catch Techies while he's planting them.
* If Techies is hit with a Sacred Arrow, he can be killed before he has a chance to use Blast Off!.
* Mirana has a high attack range to destroy his traps from a safe distance.
Timbersaw
[wiki] rating: 1.0 (winrate: 50% pickrate: 7%)Axe
* Whirling Death reduces Axe's strength by 15%, making him much less tanky, especially in the early game. It is also stackable.
* Axe's Blade Mail is ineffective against attribute changes, and Timbersaw's mobility with
Timber Chain means he can wait out Blade Mail's duration.
* Reactive Armor's armor and regeneration makes it much harder for Axe to finish Timbersaw with Culling Blade.
* Chakram disarms Timbersaw, making Counter Helix less effective.
Ursa
[wiki] rating: 1.0 (winrate: 50% pickrate: 12%)Axe
* Enrage reduces the damage from
Blade Mail and Counter Helix to a minimum, forcing Axe to play around Ursa's ultimate ability.
* Enrage and
Fury Swipes tear through Axe's low armor, even if he has relatively high health.
Chen
[wiki] rating: 1.0 (winrate: 50% pickrate: 1%)Techies
* His creeps can trigger Proximity Mines and
Stasis Trap, wasting them.
Additional:
* Holy Persuasion creeps can be used to clear mines.
* If Chen has an Aghanim's Scepter he can send his Ancient creeps to defuse visible Remote Mines with little risk of giving up their bounties because their magic resistance is extremely high.
* Due to their high magic resistance, siege creeps are the best possible creep to persuade for scouting and killing mines.
Axe
* Hand of God and Divine Favor make it hard for Axe to finish off allies with
Culling Blade.
Techies
* Heroes with damage burst can often kill Chen or his allies before he can use Hand of God: Lina,
Techies,
Shadow Fiend,
Pugna,
Nyx Assassin.
Death Prophet
[wiki] rating: 1.0 (winrate: 50% pickrate: 3%)Techies
* Exorcism's ghosts will automatically clear all Proximity Mines revealed when Death Prophet walks near them, provided that the ghosts do not have a specific target at that time.
Templar Assassin
[wiki] rating: 1.0 (winrate: 49% pickrate: 5%)Techies
* Refraction can be very useful in safely navigating potentially mined choke points and rune spawns.
Zeus
[wiki] rating: 1.0 (winrate: 49% pickrate: 11%)Spectre
* Zeus is good against heroes that juke in trees or up cliffs, like Batrider,
Monkey King,
Spectre, and
Tinker, by providing vision in any area with Lightning Bolt, or guaranteeing vision on enemies with Thundergod's Wrath.
Techies
* Due to the fact that Lightning Bolt gives True Sight, Zeus is able to reveal where Techies' remote mines are. He can also cancel Blast Off! due to the mini-stun on the Lightning Bolt.
Spectre
* Zeus can deal a huge amount of damage, but he lacks defensive abilities, such as good mobility or resistance. Due to that, he doesn't like to be touched by any means. Heroes with higher damage output and good mobility will often get easily near Zeus and trade damage (eventually causing Zeus's downfall). Such Heroes include: Lycan,
Slark,
Storm Spirit,
Spectre and others.
Anti-Mage
[wiki] rating: 1.0 (winrate: 48% pickrate: 14%)Techies
* Thanks to Counterspell Anti-Mage can fight Techies head on and trip multiple mines once the late game hits.
Spectre
* Spectre cannot chase down Anti-Mage with Spectral Dagger because of Blink, though it still grants her team vision over him.
* Counterspell reduces much of the damage from Dispersion and Spectre's
Radiance.
* Anti-Mage usually builds a Manta Style, preventing Spectre from dealing any
Desolate damage to him once he summons his illusions.
Additional:
* Spectre has no way to prevent Blink, for escape or initiation. Anti-Mage can easily pick off enemy supports and Spectre cannot do anything about it.
* Mana Break burns through Spectre's low mana pool.
* Manta Style's illusions prevent Desolate's damage.
* Even though Anti-Mage is outcarried by Spectre in the later stages of the game, a competent Anti-Mage with a Battle Fury can easily outfarm and get ahead of Spectre before she can come online.
Axe
* Berserker's Call prevents Anti-Mage from escaping with Blink, and works well with
Blade Mail against Anti-Mage's relatively low health.
* Counter Helix deals pure damage, ignoring the protection from Counterspell.
* Counter Helix will trigger even if Axe's depleted of mana, which will make Anti-Mage take more damage than he's dealing.
* Axe's low mana pool makes him a bad target for using Mana Void.
* Axe's high base health regeneration allows him to dominate the lane against Anti-Mage, especially with a support.
Additional:
* Berserker's Call is one of the most reliable ways to lock down Anti-Mage, preventing him from Blinking away.
* Anti-Mage's high attack speed, along with illusions from Manta Style, triggers Counter Helix continuously.
* Axe's low mana pool and high health pool makes Mana Void deal very little damage to Axe.
Kunkka
[wiki] rating: 1.0 (winrate: 46% pickrate: 4%)Spectre
* Spectre can't escape with Spectral Dagger under X Marks the Spot.
* Kunkka can dominate Spectre's lane using Tidebringer and gain an advantage.
* Ghostship helps your team soak up damage from Haunt.
Outworld Destroyer
[wiki] rating: 1.0 (winrate: 45% pickrate: 2%)Axe
* Outworld Destroyer's pure and magical damage is particularly effective against Axe.
* Astral Imprisonment is an excellent way to defend against an initiating Axe.
* Sanity's Eclipse deals high damage to Axe due to his low mana pool.
Additional:
* Berserker's Call bonus armor doesn't block Arcane Orb's pure damage.
* Astral Imprisonment can be used to prevent an ally or Outworld Devourer himself from an Axe initiation.
* Axe's low mana means he's susceptible to a powerful Sanity's Eclipse.
Ogre Magi
[wiki] rating: 0.6 (winrate: 53% pickrate: 17%)Techies
* Techies struggles early game against heroes with naturally large strength and health regeneration such as Pudge,
Axe or
Ogre Magi, as the player is forced to lay down more mines than usual to kill these bulkier heroes.
Dark Seer
[wiki] rating: 0.6 (winrate: 51% pickrate: 3%)Spectre
* Dark Seer can pull together Spectre's illusions with
Vacuum, and
Wall of Replica creates an illusion of Spectre that deals massive damage.
Phoenix
[wiki] rating: 0.6 (winrate: 51% pickrate: 10%)Axe
* Heroes with high health especially Strength heroes will take more damage on Sun Ray: Axe,
Pudge,
Bristleback,
Mars.
Additional:
* Sun Ray allows Phoenix to heal any allies caught in Berserker's Call, while burning away Axe's high HP at the same time.
* Icarus Dive and
Fire Spirits puts Axe's Blink Dagger on cooldown.
* Axe's slow attack speed makes it difficult for him to destroy Supernova on his own.
Invoker
[wiki] rating: 0.6 (winrate: 50% pickrate: 18%)Techies
* Heroes with summons like Broodmother,
Enigma,
Invoker,
Nature's Prophet,
Lycan,
Visage;or illusions, like
Naga Siren,
Phantom Lancer,
Terrorblade are effective at keeping the choke points and rune spawns safe from Proximity mines in the early game.
Skywrath Mage
[wiki] rating: 0.6 (winrate: 50% pickrate: 6%)Techies
* In general, heroes such as Lion,
Silencer,
Skywrath Mage,
Sven,
Ogre Magi and others with reliable disables are crucial to killing Techies before they can suicide.
Clockwerk
[wiki] rating: 0.6 (winrate: 50% pickrate: 7%)Axe
* Heroes who can slow and kite Axe will severely inhibit his presence in fights: Bristleback,
Crystal Maiden,
Batrider,
Arc Warden,
Winter Wyvern,
Clockwerk
Elder Titan
[wiki] rating: 0.6 (winrate: 49% pickrate: 1%)Techies
* Slow heroes that have a hard time escaping the Echo Stomp radius: Crystal Maiden,
Pudge,
Techies.
Silencer
[wiki] rating: 0.6 (winrate: 49% pickrate: 8%)Techies
* In general, heroes such as Lion,
Silencer,
Skywrath Mage,
Sven,
Ogre Magi and others with reliable disables are crucial to killing Techies before they can suicide.
Disruptor
[wiki] rating: 0.6 (winrate: 49% pickrate: 8%)Spectre
* Disruptor can control where she goes with
Kinetic Field and
Glimpse.
Static Storm shuts her down in teamfights.
Legion Commander
[wiki] rating: 0.6 (winrate: 49% pickrate: 13%)Techies
* Heroes with low health will die easily during Duels, and can be farmed for damage in the early game: Crystal Maiden,
Lich,
Techies,
Rubick
Gyrocopter
[wiki] rating: 0.6 (winrate: 48% pickrate: 3%)Axe
* Heroes that relies on armor or other type of physical damage negation are easy for Gyrocopter to take down during the early game with his magical damage: Axe,
Dragon Knight,
Sven.
Slardar
[wiki] rating: 0.6 (winrate: 48% pickrate: 9%)Spectre
* Slardar's
Slithereen Crush allows him to stun Spectre and illusions, and
Corrosive Haze prevents her from juking with Spectral Dagger.
Terrorblade
[wiki] rating: 0.6 (winrate: 46% pickrate: 6%)Spectre
* If Terrorblade's health gets low enough, Terrorblade's Sunder can be used to completely deplete Spectre's health pool without any consequences from Dispersion.
* Terrorblade is one of the few late game heroes that can stand toe to toe and man fight Spectre. Not all is lost if the game goes late when Terrorblade is on your team against Spectre.
Techies
* Heroes with summons like Broodmother,
Enigma,
Invoker,
Nature's Prophet,
Lycan,
Visage;or illusions, like
Naga Siren,
Phantom Lancer,
Terrorblade are effective at keeping the choke points and rune spawns safe from Proximity mines in the early game.
Additional:
* Techies' mines can be destroyed by Terrorblade's spammable illusions.
* Terrorblade can push without the fear of dying to mines; he can instead use his illusions to push.
Axe
* Terrorblade's low base health and lack of mobility make him an easy target for Axe to initiate on, and kill.
* Counter Helix will trigger from, and destroy many of Terrorblade illusions.
Additional:
* Berserker's Call and
Counter Helix together can be devastating to Terrorblade, especially if Terrorblade has a lot of illusions. Their high attack speed will trigger Counter Helix a lot, and the pure damage will quickly slice through Terrorblade's low health and kill his illusions.
* Culling Blade finishes off Terrorblade before he has the chance to Sunder due to his low health in the early to mid game.
Keeper of the Light
[wiki] rating: 0.6 (winrate: 44% pickrate: 5%)Techies
* Heroes with flying vision such as Visage,
Beastmaster,
Keeper of the Light, or
Night Stalker can scout your mines from outside their trigger radius.
Crystal Maiden
[wiki] rating: 0.2 (winrate: 50% pickrate: 13%)Spectre
* Heroes the make heavy use of illusions, like Chaos Knight,
Phantom Lancer, or
Spectre can suffer from Crystal Maiden, as Freezing Field can quickly kill off the entire horde if not stopped.
Axe
* Heroes who can slow and kite Axe will severely inhibit his presence in fights: Bristleback,
Crystal Maiden,
Batrider,
Arc Warden,
Winter Wyvern,
Clockwerk
Spectre
* As Crystal Maiden is squishy with very bad movement speed, Spectre can easily stay on Crystal Maiden with Haunt and Spectral Dagger.
* Late game, with enough farm, Spectre can withstand an entire Freezing Field, possibly even causing Crystal Maiden to kill herself from Dispersion.
Phantom Assassin
[wiki] rating: -2.0 (winrate: 46% pickrate: 17%)Spectre
* Black King Bar is useless, since all of the Spectre's abilities go through spell immunity,
* Phantom Assassin's Blur cannot evade Desolate because its damage is a separate damage instance and is applied before the attack hits.
* Spectre's high durability provided by Dispersion and damage block items makes her one of the hardest carries to take down.
Additional:
* Dispersion makes it hard for Phantom Assassin to burst down Spectre while also reflecting back Phantom Assassin's high burst damage against herself.
* Desolate ignores the evasion from Blur.
* Black King Bar is useless against Spectre as all of her skills pierce spell immunity.
Axe
* Phantom Strike's extra attack speed causes Phantom Assassin to proc Counter Helix more often. Using it on Axe also makes Phantom Assassin an easy target for a counter-initiation with Berserker's Call and
Blade Mail.
* Most of Axe's abilities pierce Black King Bar, allowing him to lock down Phantom Assassin at any time.
* Berserker's Call greatly reduces Phantom Assassin's ability to crit hard against Axe, and may cause her to kill herself when used with Blade Mail.
Additional:
* Jumping in with Phantom Strike makes Phantom Assassin an exceptionally easy target for Berserker's Call.
* The bonus attack speed from Phantom Strike also means that Phantom Assassin will proc Counter Helix numerous times.
* Black King Bar is generally useless against Axe's abilities and item build, as Black King Bar doesn't prevent Axe from finishing Phantom Assassin off with
Culling Blade. It also doesn't work against Berserker's Call and Counter Helix.
* Blade Mail is an item that Axe purchases every game, and it can be used to turn Phantom Assassin's critical strikes against herself. The situation becomes even worse if she's affected by Berserker's Call, as she has no way to stop attacking.
Morphling
[wiki] rating: -2.0 (winrate: 48% pickrate: 12%)Techies
* Morphling usually has low max health due to shifting strength into agility, making him an easy target to blow up.
Axe
* Jumping on Axe from Waveform he will be an easy target for a counter-initiation with Berserker's Call.
* Morphling is often played at low health to maximize the bonuses from Attribute Shift (Agility Gain), and also because his abilities cost health to use. This makes him especially vulnerable to Culling Blade.
* However, Morphling is common Linken's Sphere carrier to block Culling Blade forces Axe to use Battle Hunger to pop the Spell Block first.
* Attribute Shift (Agility Gain) gives Morphlig no protection against the pure damage of Culling Blade. Its attack speed bonus also means that Counter Helix will proc more often.
Windranger
[wiki] rating: -2.0 (winrate: 49% pickrate: 16%)Axe
* Windrun does not provide protection against Counter Helix and
Berserker's Call. Her fast attack speed with Focus Fire will also quickly trigger
Counter Helix multiple times.
Spectre
* Spectre can instantly escape Focus Fire or hunt a Windranger with Haunt.
* Spectre can catch up to her with Spectral Dagger, even if she uses Windrun.
* Desolate allows Spectre to hit Windranger through Windrun.
* Dispersion makes Spectre tanky and also reflects some damage back to Windranger.
Additional:
* Spectre can catch up to her with Spectral Dagger, even if she uses Windrun.
* Spectre can instantly reach a ratting Windranger with Haunt.
* Windrun's miss chance is countered by Desolate.
Earthshaker
[wiki] rating: -1.6 (winrate: 49% pickrate: 10%)Techies
* Techies is very good against roaming supports and gankers such as Bounty Hunter,
Riki,
Weaver,
Earthshaker,
Nyx Assassin, etc. that are constantly moving around the map.
Spectre
* Spectral Dagger can be used to traverse past Fissure.
* Haunt will usually disable Earthshaker's
Blink Dagger prior to a teamfight, preventing him from initiating.
* On the other hand, Haunt will amplify damage done from Echo Slam. Use this to your advantage.
Additional:
* Spectre can use Haunt to intercept and disrupt Earthshaker's initiation attempts.
* Spectral Dagger can be used to traverse past Fissure.
* Earthshaker often travels alone when he is trying to initiate, so Desolate can be very effective against him.
* Beware that the Haunt illusions amplify the damage done from Echo Slam, which can prove fatal for Spectre's own team.
Dazzle
[wiki] rating: -1.6 (winrate: 49% pickrate: 6%)Spectre
* Spectre's entire ability set is designed to get to and destroy heroes that stay in the backlines, both carries (like the aforementioned Drow Ranger and
Sniper) and supports (like
Dazzle and
Shadow Shaman).
Axe
* Culling Blade ignores the protection from Shallow Grave, and will kill any target whose health is low enough. This makes Axe one of the hardest counters to Dazzle, and he neutralizes one of Dazzle's most important abilities.
Additional:
* Culling Blade kills any target under the health threshold, even through Shallow Grave.
Tusk
[wiki] rating: -1.6 (winrate: 49% pickrate: 7%)Axe
* Durable heroes can fight with stand against Tusk during 1v1: Axe,
Dragon Knight,
Night Stalker,
Centaur Warrunner,
Wraith King and more.
Techies
* After using Snowball, Tusk can't control where he's going, allowing Techies to make him roll onto mines.
Luna
[wiki] rating: -1.6 (winrate: 49% pickrate: 4%)Spectre
* Heroes that create illusions (such as Spectre,
Shadow Demon,
Phantom Lancer,
Naga Siren,
Chaos Knight,
Terrorblade) or bring other units into the fight (such as
Nature's Prophet,
Lone Druid,
Chen,
Enchantress and the aforementioned
Meepo and
Arc Warden) can cause Eclipse to strike the illusions/summons unintentionally. (However, in many cases Moon Glaives can resolve this issue and eliminate them before activating Eclipse).
Techies
* Luna has low HP, low range and often stalks through jungle. She cannot properly disarm Proximity Mines and could fall victim to their traps.
* Of course, if Luna happens to catch Techies off-guard, they won't be able to survive for long against Eclipse, Lucent Beam, and right-clicks.
Troll Warlord
[wiki] rating: -1.6 (winrate: 50% pickrate: 9%)Spectre
* Heroes that rely on evasion are slightly countered by Desolate: Phantom Assassin,
Troll Warlord.
Axe
* Troll Warlord has significant attack speed due to Fervor and Battle Trance, giving Axe a higher chance to proc Counter Helix and seriously injure Troll Warlord due to his relatively low maximum health.
* Axe often purchases Blade Mail, which can help Axe turn Troll Warlord's farm and high physical damage against him. The bonus armor provided by
Berserker's Call means that Troll Warlord will take a lot more damage than Axe.
* Culling Blade is still capable of killing Troll Warlord during Battle Trance if his HP is low enough.
Additional:
* Troll Warlord's high attack speed means Counter Helix will proc extremely frequently even without creeps near him. This, combined with a Blade Mail means Axe can easily solo kill Troll Warlord even in later stages of the game.
* Battle Trance does not save Troll Warlord from a Culling Blade.
Bloodseeker
[wiki] rating: -1.6 (winrate: 51% pickrate: 2%)Axe
* Heroes with high armor and durability can be exceptionally hard for Bloodseeker to bring down: Dragon Knight,
Axe
Techies
* Well planted Proximity Mines can lure Bloodseeker to his death during ganking attempts.
Bounty Hunter
[wiki] rating: -1.6 (winrate: 52% pickrate: 8%)Spectre
* Spectre can instantly reveal Bounty Hunter's position on the activation of her ultimate Haunt. She can also semi-reveal( visible but not target-able) Bounty Hunter by hitting him with
Spectral Dagger.
Techies
* Techies is very good against roaming supports and gankers such as Bounty Hunter,
Riki,
Weaver,
Earthshaker,
Nyx Assassin, etc. that are constantly moving around the map.
Riki
[wiki] rating: -1.6 (winrate: 54% pickrate: 10%)Spectre
* Riki's Smoke Screen can make it hard for Spectre to escape or burst down Riki with auto attacks.
* Riki can build Aghanim's Scepter and jump inside an allied carry or offlane tank with
Tricks of the Trade to do a lot of damage to Spectre while completely avoiding Dispersion.
* Riki is great at destroying supports which are often needed to keep Spectre safe until she comes online. He can take them down quickly in team fights, which will leave Spectre alone against your whole team, a fight that she will most likely not win.
* While on Tricks of the Trade, Riki does not take damage from Dispersion.
Axe
* Axe can disable Cloak and Dagger's invisibility with Berserker's Call, which forces Riki to attack him at a very bad angle.
* Axe has a very high HP pool, making it hard for you to kill him before you get big items - that is if you survive engaging him. Counter Helix ignores your armor and goes straight for your tiny HP pool, totally ignoring Smoke Screen.
Techies
* Techies is very good against roaming supports and gankers such as Bounty Hunter,
Riki,
Weaver,
Earthshaker,
Nyx Assassin, etc. that are constantly moving around the map.
Spectre
* Spectral Dagger follows Riki even after he goes invisible and stays on him through Tricks of the Trade, revealing his location.
* Desolate grants Spectre the ability to damage Riki with right clicks regardless of Smoke Screen's blind.
* Riki relies on his high damage to kill is opponents, which is countered by Dispersion.
* Haunt can find Riki globally at any time, negating much of his ganking potential.
Monkey King
[wiki] rating: -1.6 (winrate: 54% pickrate: 18%)Spectre
* Dispersion will not do anything against throughout the game due to his high lifesteal with Jingu Mastery.
* Monkey King often buys Manta Style, which will deny
Desolate benefits in 1v1 situations.
* Haunt will do nothing to stop people trapped within Monkey Kings ultimate.
* In all, Spectre is very easily pressured by Monkey King early into the game and is a very easy gank target to coordinate with your team.
Techies
* Proximity Mines and
Stasis Traps can be placed near trees to detect Monkey King.
* Follow up with Blast Off! to destroy the tree, causing Monkey King to take high damage, fall from the tree, and become stunned.
Additional:
* Techies can turn his tree jumping ability against him, by placing Proximity Mines/Stasis Traps that will detect him near trees, and then destroying the trees around him with Blast Off!, stunning him and dealing high damage, on top of him being silenced when the stun expires.
* Monkey King's mobility is also severely limited around Techies' mines as he will almost always trigger them due to the cooldown time between tree jumps. Monkey King will be forced to take mine damage or escape with Primal Spring.
Axe
* Heroes that can keep Monkey King stunned for a long time can pose a threat: Axe,
Centaur Warrunner.
Spectre
* Spectral Dagger maintains vision on Monkey King, and allows Spectre to chase Monkey King into the trees.
* Haunt will still spawn an illusion next to Monkey King while under the effects of Mischief, removing the disguise.
* Monkey King attack range is exactly 300. The best range for Dispersion buff.
Slark
[wiki] rating: -1.4 (winrate: 48% pickrate: 12%)Spectre
* Heroes with good escapes can usually outmaneuver and escape from Spectre: Slark,
Clinkz,
Weaver
Additional:
* Essence Shift deals 20 extra damage by draining one strength per hit, which cannot be reduced or spread by Dispersion.
* Pounce prevents Spectre from escaping with Spectral Dagger.
* Haunt illusions usually don't deal a lot of damage to Slark as he tends to buy a
Shadow Blade, preventing
Desolate's and
Diffusal Blade's damage and activating Shadow Dance's regeneration to make up for any damage caused by
Radiance.
* Slark is a natural Silver Edge builder.
Axe
* Berseker's Call catches Slark in Shadow Dance, wasting its duration and preventing him from escaping to regenerate.
* Unlike most disables, Dark Pact cannot dispel Berserker's Call, and the output damage would be returned by
Blade Mail.
Additional:
* Berserker's Call forces Slark to attack him, even during Shadow Dance.
* Counter Helix will hit Slark in Shadow Dance, with pure damage. It also triggers frequently against Slark's high attack speed after having stolen agility with Essence Shift.
* Culling Blade finishes off Slark before he gets a chance to slip away and regenerate his health, preventing him from playing the hit-and-run style often associated with Slark.
Spectre
* Spectral Dagger give vision over Slark, slows strong with the talent, can not be dispelled and can not be missed if targeted. With the cooldown reduction talent Spectre can keep constant vision over slark, so he has to use his Shadow Dance to disengage so he cant be targeted by the dagger, which can still latch on to him when ground targeted.
* Spectre deals a lot of AOE damage in teamfights which still goes through Shadow dance.
Sniper
[wiki] rating: -1.4 (winrate: 48% pickrate: 5%)Axe
* Ranged heroes that can easily harass Axe: Drow Ranger,
Sniper,
Lion.
Axe
* Axe can easily close the distance to Sniper with either Blink Dagger or
Shadow Blade.
* With Berserker's Call in combination with
Counter Helix and
Battle Hunger, Axe can make short work of Sniper, finishing him off easily with
Culling Blade due to his low HP & high attack speed in the late game.
Spectre
* Haunt instantly allows her to get up and close with Sniper, and
Spectral Dagger makes it difficult to escape from her.
* Spectre outcarries Sniper in the late game, so Sniper must try to end the game early before Spectre comes online.
Additional:
* Spectre can reach him easily in the backlines with Spectral Dagger or teleport to him with Haunt.
* He is usually a fair distance away from his allies, so Desolate will quickly tear Sniper down.
Tinker
[wiki] rating: -1.4 (winrate: 49% pickrate: 8%)Techies
* Any hero with a low HP pool is easy for Tinker to nuke down: Crystal Maiden,
Enchantress,
Gyrocopter,
Lion,
Riki,
Techies,
Terrorblade,
Necrophos,
Invoker.
Spectre
* His global teleportation with Boots of Travel and
Rearm is easily countered with Haunt, and Spectre can reach him anywhere on the map.
* He is squishy, and if alone Desolate will kill him very fast.
* Laser's blind isn't reliable, since Desolate cannot miss.
Techies
* A common playstyle among Tinkers is to teleport to a lane creep using Boots of Travel and immediately blink into the trees to cast
March of the Machines. If Techies can predict where said Tinker would blink after teleporting, he could place strategic Proximity Mines or even Remote Mines in those places. Stasis Traps also prevent Tinker from blinking or teleporting away.
Drow Ranger
[wiki] rating: -1.4 (winrate: 50% pickrate: 8%)Axe
* Ranged heroes that can easily harass Axe: Drow Ranger,
Sniper,
Lion.
Axe
* Berserker's Call forces Drow Ranger to attack Axe up close, disabling her Marksmanship bonus.
* Counter Helix occurs more often with Drow Ranger's high attack speed.
* Culling Blade is a dangerous ability against a low health hero like Drow Ranger.
Spectre
* Spectre can easily close the distance on Drow Ranger with Haunt and stick on her with Spectral Dagger, negating the bonus agility from Marksmanship.
Magnus
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 46% pickrate: 7%)Spectre
* Spectre can use Haunt to intercept and disrupt Magnus's initiation attempts.
* Spectral Dagger can severely slow down Magnus after he uses Skewer.
* Magnus often travels alone when he is trying to initiate, so Desolate can be very effective against him.
Additional:
* Spectre disables Magnus' Blink Dagger using her ultimate, and later into the game can usually outlive Reverse Polarity's duration.
Lina
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 47% pickrate: 14%)Spectre
* Spectral Dagger and
Haunt allow Spectre to get close to Lina.
* Desolate is very strong against Lina, who's usually a bit isolated in fights because of her high attack and cast range.
* Dispersion can mitigate a good portion of Lina's burst damage, allowing Spectre to turn on her afterwards.
Additional:
* Spectre can very easily close the distance on Lina with Haunt and Spectral Dagger, and due to Lina's abysmal mobility without a Blink Dagger and terrible health pool and armor, Lina easily gets slaughtered due to Desolate.
* Dispersion can mitigate a good portion of Lina's burst damage, allowing Spectre to turn against her afterwards.
Ember Spirit
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 47% pickrate: 9%)Techies
* Ember Spirit relies on his Fire Remnant to keep a steady push and then retreat to a safe distance. Keeping two or three patches of Remote Mines on a lane will severely impair him from pushing that lane without risking his life.
Rubick
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 47% pickrate: 17%)Spectre
* None of Spectre's spells are very good for Rubick to Spell Steal.
Shadow Fiend
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 47% pickrate: 19%)Axe
* Berserker's Call and
Counter Helix allow Axe to kill Shadow Fiend if he stands too close to a creep wave.
* Battle Hunger is very strong against Shadow Fiend in the early game because Shadow Fiend's low attack damage makes it hard for him to get last hits.
* Axe's naturally high strength and health regeneration will be enough to tank a lot of Shadow Fiend's damage in the early game.
Hoodwink
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 47% pickrate: 22%)Techies
* remote mines are frequently placed in trees, and can thus kill an unwary Hoodwink should she
Scurry away due to her low HP pool.
* Blast Off! can clear out trees, denying the tactical advantages from Scurry.
Huskar
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 49% pickrate: 2%)Axe
* Berserker's Call and
Blade Mail can be used immediately after Huskar jumps on Axe with Life Break.
* Huskar's high attack speed procs Counter Helix repeatedly.
* Huskar's health loss from using his abilities make him a frequent target for Culling Blade.
Additional:
* Huskar is often played at low health to maximize the bonuses from Berserker's Blood, and also because his abilities cost health to use. This makes him especially vulnerable to Culling Blade.
* Berserker's Blood gives Huskar no protection against the pure damage of Culling Blade. Its attack speed bonus also means that Counter Helix will proc more often.
* Axe's tankiness and base health regeneration makes it hard for Huskar to take him down with Burning Spears.
Earth Spirit
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 49% pickrate: 9%)Techies
* Stasis Trap's root prevents Earth Spirit from using Rolling Boulder to escape.
Weaver
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 50% pickrate: 6%)Spectre
* Heroes with good escapes can usually outmaneuver and escape from Spectre: Slark,
Clinkz,
Weaver
Techies
* Techies is very good against roaming supports and gankers such as Bounty Hunter,
Riki,
Weaver,
Earthshaker,
Nyx Assassin, etc. that are constantly moving around the map.
Axe
* Berserker's Call is one of the best ways to lock down Weaver before he has a chance to use Time Lapse. It can also catch Weaver in
Shukuchi.
* Weaver's high attack speed, along with high attack damage from Geminate Attack, triggers Counter Helix continuously and the output damage would be returned by
Blade Mail.
Additional:
* Berserker's Call is one of the best ways to lock down Weaver before he has a chance to use Time Lapse. It can also catch Weaver in Shukuchi.
* Due to his fast attack speed from Geminate Attack and items that give attack speed, Counter Helix will activate a lot, and the damage would be returned by
Blade Mail, which hurts Weaver far more than it hurts Axe.
* Culling Blade can finish off Weaver's low health pool before he escapes with Shukuchi and Time Lapse.
* Battle Hunger is a good tool to pop Weaver's
Linken's Sphere due to its low cooldown.
Oracle
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 50% pickrate: 9%)Techies
* Since Techies' skills are all magical damage, casting Fate's Edict immediately upon hearing the warning sound from Proximity Mines and
Blast Off! can render Oracle or an ally immune to the burst damage from these skills.
* If timed correctly, Remote Mines can also be countered using the same technique.
Additional:
* Fate's Edict gives 100% magic resistance, which prevents most of Techies' damage and his
Fortune's End dispels Stasis Trap root.
Axe
* False Promise will not save an ally from Culling Blade if their health is low enough.
* Fate's Edict, offensively or defensively, does little to protect Oracle's allies from the majority of Axe's damage.
Spectre
* Oracle's burst damage is ineffective against Dispersion.
* Disarm provided by Fate's Edict is not as significant debilitation for Spectre as it might be for other carries since She can do damage even without landing attacks.
Dark Willow
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 52% pickrate: 6%)Axe
* Berserker's Call forces Dark Willow to attack, cancelling Shadow Realm.
Ancient Apparition
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 52% pickrate: 8%)Spectre
* As Ancient Apparition likes to stay far away from the fight to get full effectiveness from Ice Blast, he is a very good target for a Haunt gank. Ancient Apparition also has no hard disables and escape spells, making him an easy kill for Spectre.
Nature's Prophet
[wiki] rating: -0.6 (winrate: 47% pickrate: 4%)Techies
* Equipped with Necronomicon 3,
Sentry Ward or a
Gem of True Sight, Nature's Prophet can use Teleportation to position himself outside the reach of Techies'
Remote Mines to clear them.
* Treants are useful in clearing Land Mines and
Remote Mines.
Spectre
* Nature's Prophet can literally do nothing against Spectre, because she can chase him from anywhere with Haunt.
* Spectre, just like Naga Siren loves buying Radiance, which can kill Nature's Prophet's treants, and grant her farm simultaneously.
Additional:
* Spectre can get to him anywhere on the map with Haunt.
* Spectre can pass through his trees with Spectral Dagger.
* Desolate's damage will melt him quickly, as he's alone most of the time.
Axe
* Heroes that have AoE damage: Lina,
Keeper of the Light,
Timbersaw,
Leshrac,
Bristleback,
Axe
Additional:
* Berserker's Call and Counter Helix will still hit targets inside of a defensive Sprout.
* Counter Helix clears treants in no time.
* Nature's Prophet's low damage is unlikely to hurt Axe until the very late game.
* Nature's Prophet's low mobility makes him very easy for Axe to chase down or initiate on, especially when affected by Battle Hunger.
Io
[wiki] rating: -0.6 (winrate: 47% pickrate: 4%)Axe
* Heroes that are hard to gank: Axe,
Death Prophet,
Phantom Lancer
Meepo
[wiki] rating: -0.6 (winrate: 47% pickrate: 1%)Spectre
* Poof combined with
Earthbind can be used to easily lockdown and burst Spectre down.
* As Meepo's playstyle is often to come online early to mid game and take over the whole game, Meepo will often be much further ahead of Spectre in farming.
* Meepo's global map presence allows him to effectively hunt for Spectre and disrupt her farm.
* Spectre has no strong AOE abilities or way to control or lock down Meepo.
Axe
* Melee heroes who rely on summons, illusions or clones will trigger Counter Helix more often, thus taking more damage: Meepo,
Lycan,
Chaos Knight,
Phantom Lancer
Additional:
* The combination of Counter Helix and
Berserker's Call can disable multiple Meepos and deal heavy area damage.
* Axe's natural high survivability makes it difficult to burst him down with Poof or chip away at his health with Ransack.
Techies
* Due to the nature of Divided We Stand and the playstyle of splitting up multiple Meepos across the map, Techies can limit Meepo's movement with mines forcing the Meepo player to either keep all Meepos together or be extra careful when moving each individual Meepo because clones cannot carry any True Sight-providing item.
* However, if a mine blast isn't enough to kill a Meepo, he can Poof to safety of another Meepo.
Additional:
* Stasis Trap can lock multiple Meepos in place and prevent them from Poofing.
* Proximity Mines,
Remote Mines and
Blast Off! can deal heavy magic damage to multiple Meepos.
Queen of Pain
[wiki] rating: -0.6 (winrate: 48% pickrate: 9%)Axe
* Heroes with gap closing abilities will be easy targets for Berserker's Call: Phantom Assassin,
Faceless Void,
Slark,
Chaos Knight,
Morphling,
Queen of Pain
Additional:
* Berserker's Call prevents Queen of Pain from escaping with Blink and also pierces her
Black King Bar.
* Due to her fast attack speed from Mjollnir, it will quickly trigger
Counter Helix.
* Culling Blade finish off Queen of Pain's low health pool before she gets a chance to escape, preventing her from playing the hit-and-run style often associated with Queen of Pain.
Pangolier
[wiki] rating: -0.6 (winrate: 51% pickrate: 7%)Axe
* Heroes with other kind of disables that pierce spell immunity can hold Pangolier in place during Rolling Thunder: Axe,
Beastmaster,
Enigma,
Magnus,
Pudge,
Batrider,
Bane,
Winter Wyvern
Spirit Breaker
[wiki] rating: -0.6 (winrate: 51% pickrate: 8%)Axe
* Heroes who continue dealing damage while being stunned: Luna,
Razor,
Axe,
Bristleback,
Leshrac,
Underlord
[wiki] rating: -0.6 (winrate: 54% pickrate: 8%)Techies
* In general, heroes that provide vision will see Dark Rift coming: Techies,
Templar Assassin,
Treant Protector
Nyx Assassin
[wiki] rating: -0.6 (winrate: 55% pickrate: 11%)Techies
* Techies is very good against roaming supports and gankers such as Bounty Hunter,
Riki,
Weaver,
Earthshaker,
Nyx Assassin, etc. that are constantly moving around the map.
Sven
[wiki] rating: -0.4 (winrate: 42% pickrate: 2%)Techies
* In general, heroes such as Lion,
Silencer,
Skywrath Mage,
Sven,
Ogre Magi and others with reliable disables are crucial to killing Techies before they can suicide.
Spectre
* Spectral Dagger hinders Sven's low movement speed, and can be an easy tool to escape against his high damage.
* Dispersion makes it harder for Sven to burst down Spectre in one on one fights, and can reflect Sven's high damage back to him or his nearby teammates.
* Haunt and
Radiance disables Sven's
Blink Dagger.
* Desolate's pure damage ignores Sven's high armor.
* Spectre should not attempt to stand up to a full slotted Sven, since she will get shredded.
Phantom Lancer
[wiki] rating: -0.4 (winrate: 49% pickrate: 7%)Techies
* Illusions can be sent out to destroy Techies' mines.
Axe
* Berserker's Call helps locks down Phantom Lancer in a group of illusions.
* Counter Helix combined with
Blade Mail clears Phantom Lancer's illusions quickly.
* Phantom Lancer's low health in the early game makes him a frequent target for Culling Blade.
Additional:
* Berserker's Call catches Phantom Lancer when he is hidden among his illusions.
* Counter Helix quickly destroys Phantom Lancer's illusion army. The more illusions there are, the more often Counter Helix is triggered.
* Phantom Lancer's low early game health makes him an easy target for Culling Blade.
Naga Siren
[wiki] rating: -0.4 (winrate: 51% pickrate: 2%)Techies
* Heroes with summons like Broodmother,
Enigma,
Invoker,
Nature's Prophet,
Lycan,
Visage;or illusions, like
Naga Siren,
Phantom Lancer,
Terrorblade are effective at keeping the choke points and rune spawns safe from Proximity mines in the early game.
Axe
* Axe will destroy her illusions by proccing Counter Helix more often due to him being hit by more attacks.
Clinkz
[wiki] rating: -0.4 (winrate: 53% pickrate: 6%)Spectre
* Heroes with good escapes can usually outmaneuver and escape from Spectre: Slark,
Clinkz,
Weaver
Spectre
* Spectre can instantly escape Burning Army or hunt Clinkz with Haunt.
* Spectre can catch up to him with Spectral Dagger, even if he uses Skeleton Walk.
* Desolate allows Spectre to hit Clinkz through Skeleton Walk.
* Dispersion makes Spectre tanky and also reflects some damage back to Clinkz.
Additional:
* Spectre can catch Clinkz with Spectral Dagger, even if he uses Skeleton Walk.
* Spectre can instantly reach a ratting Clinkz with Haunt.
* Desolate's damage will melt him quickly, as he's alone most of the time.
Enigma
[wiki] rating: -0.4 (winrate: 53% pickrate: 4%)Techies
* Heroes with summons like Broodmother,
Enigma,
Invoker,
Nature's Prophet,
Lycan,
Visage;or illusions, like
Naga Siren,
Phantom Lancer,
Terrorblade are effective at keeping the choke points and rune spawns safe from Proximity mines in the early game.
Spectre
* Haunt can ruin Enigma's initiation with Blink Dagger, no matter where he is on the map.
* Dispersion reflects the damage of Midnight Pulse and Black Hole inflicted back to Enigma.
Broodmother
[wiki] rating: -0.4 (winrate: 56% pickrate: 2%)Techies
* Heroes with summons like Broodmother,
Enigma,
Invoker,
Nature's Prophet,
Lycan,
Visage;or illusions, like
Naga Siren,
Phantom Lancer,
Terrorblade are effective at keeping the choke points and rune spawns safe from Proximity mines in the early game.
Axe
* Berserker's Call can catch Broodmother in her web, as well as groups of spiderlings. This is particularly effective when Broodmother attempts to push towers with her spiderlings.
* Counter Helix destroys spiderlings very quickly, and earns Axe a good deal of gold.
Additional:
* Berserker's Call forces Broodmother and her spiderlings to attack, allowing for large amounts of pure damage to be done through
Counter Helix.
Shadow Shaman
[wiki] rating: -0.2 (winrate: 52% pickrate: 13%)Spectre
* Hex can be used immediately to destroy Spectre's illusion when she Haunts.
* Shadow Shaman can use Shackles to lock down Spectre for his team.
* Shadow Shaman's Mass Serpent Ward and
Ether Shock help him push lanes and end the game early before Spectre can come online and take over the late game.
Spectre
* Spectre's entire ability set is designed to get to and destroy heroes that stay in the backlines, both carries (like the aforementioned Drow Ranger and
Sniper) and supports (like
Dazzle and
Shadow Shaman).
Axe
* Pudge,
Legion Commander and
Axe will make the match a living hell for you, since they are known for surprise attacks from the fog and quickly killing low HP heroes. They can also interrupt your channeling, Legion being especially problematic, as she can use
Press the Attack on an ally who is hexed as well.
Faceless Void
[wiki] rating: 0.0 (winrate: 44% pickrate: 8%)Techies
* Faceless Void's Timewalk allows him to backtrack any damage taken from Techies' mines. Also, he can kill Techies easily with his
Chronosphere and
Time Lock, preventing them from suicide.
Chronosphere also reveals Remote Mines and Stasis Traps in its radius.
Axe
* Heroes with gap closing abilities will be easy targets for Berserker's Call: Phantom Assassin,
Faceless Void,
Slark,
Chaos Knight,
Morphling,
Queen of Pain
Bristleback
[wiki] rating: 0.0 (winrate: 45% pickrate: 7%)Axe
* Heroes who can slow and kite Axe will severely inhibit his presence in fights: Bristleback,
Crystal Maiden,
Batrider,
Arc Warden,
Winter Wyvern,
Clockwerk
Axe
* Axe forces Bristleback to turn around with
Berserker's Call, allowing allies to attack him without fear of his passive.
Mars
[wiki] rating: 0.0 (winrate: 49% pickrate: 16%)Spectre
* Spectre cannot have a good game if she is pressured heavily in lane, which is something Mars can do.
* Spectre can use Haunt and
Spectral Dagger inside and outside from Arena of Blood, but it doesn't really matter since Mars does best during the early and mid game.
* Should Spectre get to the late game, Mars can block a large amount of her damage and split the teamfights in his advantage.
Axe
* Berserker's Call forces Mars to face in the direction choosen.
* Counter Helix is a much stronger lane trader than Spear of Mars.
Storm Spirit
[wiki] rating: 0.0 (winrate: 50% pickrate: 10%)Spectre
* Ball Lightning is the ultimate counter to Spectre's entire toolkit. With this ability, he can score easy kills on Spectre without her having any means of escape early game, kite her and her Haunt illusions when it's later in the game due to her having no form of pseudo-blinks. Furthermore, it is very difficult for Spectre to deal any substantial damage against Storm Spirit with
Desolate, and without both a
Manta Style and a
Diffusal Blade he will always remain on the move. Also, Ball Lightning grants invulnerability, and as Storm Spirit likes to spam that ability, he can mitigate the damage done from
Dispersion and
Radiance.
Additional:
* Storm Spirit can exploit every one of Spectre's weaknesses, and thus is one of the best counters against her.
* Spectre has to be in melee range to deal damage, making her likely to trigger Static Remnants and susceptible to being kited by
Overload procs.
* Electric Vortex can lock Spectre down as she doesn't like to build
Black King Bar.
* Ball Lightning gives Storm Spirit multiple advantages:
* Spectre cannot evade Storm Spirit, as Ball Lightning is superior to Spectral Dagger in terms of mobility.
* Storm Spirit can kite her and her Haunt illusions when it's later in the game due to her having no form of pseudo-blinks (Reality is far inferior to Ball Lightning).
* It is very difficult for Spectre to deal any substantial damage against Storm Spirit with Desolate. Ball Lightning grants invulnerability and can mitigate damage done from Dispersion and Radiance.
Techies
* If Storm Spirit isn't careful, he could fall into a trap set by Techies and another hero acting as bait.
* Stasis Trap roots Storm Spirit for 2/3/4/5 seconds, which could be the end of Storm Spirit since he can't use Ball Lightning to escape.
Void Spirit
[wiki] rating: 0.0 (winrate: 51% pickrate: 10%)Spectre
* Void Spirit is strong against heroes who cannot deal with his rotations due to his mobility. Such heroes include Spectre,
Gyrocopter,
Morphling, and
Chen.
Axe
* Heroes with burst damage of their own won't be afraid to go toe to toe with Void Spirit, like Ursa,
Lifestealer, or
Axe.
Chaos Knight
[wiki] rating: 0.0 (winrate: 51% pickrate: 4%)Techies
* Phantasm's illusions can be used to push towers and force Techies to detonate Remote Mines.
* Phantasm's illusions can be used to sweep Proximity Mines and
Stasis Traps.
* Chaos Knight can easily kill a lone Techies before they Blast Off!.
Axe
* Berserker's Call and Counter Helix makes short work of Chaos Knight's Phantasms.
Additional:
* Berserker's Call allows Axe to lock down Chaos Knight and his illusions.
* Counter Helix combined with
Blade Mail clears illusions out in no time.
Arc Warden
[wiki] rating: 0.0 (winrate: 51% pickrate: 5%)Axe
* Heroes who can slow and kite Axe will severely inhibit his presence in fights: Bristleback,
Crystal Maiden,
Batrider,
Arc Warden,
Winter Wyvern,
Clockwerk
Axe
* Heroes who rely on fast attack speed will also trigger Counter Helix frequently: Faceless Void,
Troll Warlord,
Anti-Mage,
Juggernaut,
Arc Warden,
Morphling
Additional:
* Magnetic Field doesn't provide a protection against Berserker's Call and
Counter Helix and his high attack speed together with Tempest Double will often trigger Counter Helix.
Abaddon
[wiki] rating: 0.0 (winrate: 53% pickrate: 3%)Techies
* Borrowed Time's automatic activation will help Abaddon survive a massive Remote Mines explosion; however, the damage from a single one can kill him if his HP is low enough.
Additional:
* Aphotic Shield makes it less likely for allies to be killed by mines.
* Because they explode in very short intervals, a stack of Remote Mines will always trigger Borrowed Time, making them impossible to kill Abaddon unless his resistances are lowered enough or Abaddon is affected by Break.
* Abaddon can easily dispel the long-lasting root of Stasis Trap on himself and on an ally, while at the same also providing protection against the other mines' damage.
Axe
* Culling Blade ignores Borrowed Time should Abaddon's health falls under the threshold.
Additional:
* Culling Blade's instant kill is not prevented by Borrowed Time should Abaddon's health falls below the threshold.
To start select enemy heroes in the field above. It's intended to be used with multiple heroes. The more enemy heroes you provide the better results you will get.
About
This website was made to help you in pick stage of online game Dota 2. It calculates rating for each possible counterpicks based on tips from web-based database made up entirely of user contributions Dota 2 wiki.
You will get the list of recommended hero counters with a list of tips written by Dota 2 wiki contributors explaining why it's good against the particular hero. In comparison to other similar websites, which show only rating based on average hero winrate from dotabuff or similar service.
How to interpret this data
Take it with a bit of grain of salt, especially if the recommendation has a low rating (<= 1), some heroes
may win a lane in an early game but would lose in late game (and vice versa). That's why sometimes
you could hero names appearing as a counter and as being countered, as on image:
You can also add your own tips, update old data and fix mistakes by editing page on Dota 2 Wiki (it works like Wikipedia - anyone can contribute, you don't even need to register) these edits will appear on this website automatically (data is updated several times per week).
Right now there is no app/overlay that will detect picks automatically (like overwolf dota plus or become the gamer), instead, you can open web version in a steam in-game browser or use mobile version on your smartphone.
Want to know more? Check FAQ
List of new features that have been added
- Results now also sorted both by rating and average hero win rate for the chosen rank (data from dotabuff)
- You can share counterpick suggestions just by copying URL. Try it: Pudge and Phantom Assasin counters
- Results from the left and right column are partially merged now: the green color shows counterpicks and red color heroes who are countered by an enemy pick.
- Added link next to each hero pointing to wiki hero page
- Counterpick suggestions will appear as you type
- Added statistics: Total entries in the database: 557, last updated: about 1 month ago
- Filtering by role: carry/durable/support - data taken directly from the game (basically the filters which you see on pick stage in dota)
- Filtering by lane: off lane/safe lane/mid lane (dotabuff most played)
- Tips now include icons next to the heroes/spells/item names (just like on Dota 2 wiki)
- Added item suggestions
- Heroes now can be searched by their abbreviations: CM - Crystal Maiden, Kotl - Keeper Of The Light, AM - Anti Mage etc.
- Mobile website version
- importing picks from dotabuff/opendota URL or matchid
- sorting by personal winrate after logging via steam
- dota overlay(like Overwolf Dota Plus) that will automatically detect picks and bans this will also bring synergy and ban suggestion based on opponent recent games and most played/highest winrate heroes (but don't expect it soon).
Sharing link to this site is always appreciated.
Dota 2 is a registered trademark of Valve Corporation. This site is not affiliated with Valve Corporation. All game images and names are property of Valve Corporation.
Most popular searches list
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Spectre
* Venomancer's poison damage-over-time are very effective against Spectre, which is lack of magic resistance from early to mid game.
Spectral Dagger.
Plague Wards can scout out Spectre while she is hiding in trees.
* Venomancer's multiple slows greatly reduces Spectre's low mobility, even through
* Plague Wards reveals Spectre while she is hiding on trees.
Additional:
* Venomancer's poison damage over time is very effective against Spectre, who tends to lack magic resistance during the early to mid game.
* Venomancer's multiple slows greatly reduces Spectre's movement speed and mobility.
*
Techies
* Plague Wards may reveal a hiding Techies. If there's a sentry nearby, they may also reveal a stack of mines hidden in a juking spot.
Axe
* Venomancer's slows and magical damage-over-time work well against Axe's complete lack of mobility.
Plague Ward is especially useful for slowing down Axe, and revealing him before he initiates, as well as putting his
Blink Dagger on cooldown.
Blink Dagger on cooldown.
*
Additional:
* Venomancer's slows and magical damage-over-time work well against Axe's complete lack of mobility.
* Plague Wards is especially useful for slowing down Axe, and revealing him before he initiates, as well as putting his
* For the same reasons, Venomancer is a good ally for Axe when the situation is reversed.