Omniknight
[wiki] rating: 2.0 (winrate: 50% pickrate: 1%)Phantom Lancer
[wiki] rating: 2.0 (winrate: 50% pickrate: 9%)Chaos Knight
* Chaos Knight's single target abilities are difficult to target against Phantom Lancer's illusions.
* Chaos Knight's lack of mobility makes him an easy target for Phantom Lancer to rush and drain of mana.
Additional:
* Juxtapose allows Phantom Lancer to overwhelm Chaos Knight due to his single-target abilities.
* Doppelganger can be used to dodge Chaos Bolt.
* Spirit Lance can be used to harass Chaos Knight during the early game.
* Since Phantom Lancer builds Diffusal Blade often, it can quickly drain Chaos Knight of all his mana, leaving him unable to cast spells.
Slark
* Slark has no sustained AoE to fight off Phantom Lancer's illusions as they continually spawn.
* Spirit Lance can give vision of Slark by spawning an illusion, making it harder for him to juke and gain the passive bonus from Shadow Dance.
* Phantom Rush helps Phantom Lancer chase down Slark if he tries to escape with Pounce.
Additional:
* Slark has no sustained AoE to deal with Phantom Lancer's many illusions.
* Doppelganger lets Phantom Lancer dodge Dark Pact and Pounce, and partially wastes the duration of Shadow Dance.
* Spirit Lance can give vision of Slark via spawning an illusion, making it harder for him to juke and gain the passive bonus from Shadow Dance.
* Phantom Rush helps Phantom Lancer chase down Slark when he jumps away with Pounce.
Axe
[wiki] rating: 2.0 (winrate: 47% pickrate: 9%)Chaos Knight
* 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.
Slark
* 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.
Abaddon
[wiki] rating: 1.6 (winrate: 52% pickrate: 4%)Slark
* Heroes that can deny Slark early kills will prevent him from snowballing: Dazzle,
Abaddon
Chaos Knight
* Abaddon could punish Chaos Knight for using his Phantasm and Reality Rift combo on him with Aphotic Shield. Additionally, it provides extra protection against Chaos Knight's potential to take Abaddon down quickly.
* Furthermore, Abaddon's Borrowed Time makes it utterly impossible to burst Abaddon down, effectively reducing the amount of targets Chaos Knight can threaten by 1 for the entire game.
Outworld Destroyer
[wiki] rating: 1.6 (winrate: 52% pickrate: 17%)Chaos Knight
* Illusion based heroes (like Chaos Knight and
Terrorblade) can't use their illusion beneficially against Sanity's Eclipse's high AoE burst damage.
Slark
* Arcane Orb deals pure damage, which ignores armor granted from permanent agility stacks.
* Astral Imprisonment can disrupt any Pounce attempt by banishing the leashed ally.
* Slark's low intelligence and therefore mana pool makes him more susceptible to Sanity's Eclipse.
Jakiro
[wiki] rating: 1.6 (winrate: 51% pickrate: 9%)Slark
* Heroes with AoE abilities will hit Slark in Shadow Dance: Lina,
Jakiro,
Underlord,
Leshrac,
Dark Seer,
Earthshaker,
Timbersaw,
Crystal Maiden
Chaos Knight
* With his AoE damage, Jakiro can easily kill Chaos Knight's Phantasm illusions.
* Chaos Knight usually doesn't buy a Black King Bar, making him vulnerable to an Ice Path into Macropyre combination.
Additional:
* Ice Path and
Macropyre punish Reality Rift with a long stun and heavy damage across all illusions.
Centaur Warrunner
[wiki] rating: 1.6 (winrate: 49% pickrate: 4%)Chaos Knight
* Heroes who are reliant on illusions: Chaos Knight,
Phantom Lancer,
Naga Siren.
Slark
* Both Hoof Stomp and
Double Edge can hit Slark during Shadow Dance, the latter requiring a unit nearby for the ability to be cast on.
* Slark has very low health in the early game, making him susceptible to the burst from Double Edge.
Tiny
[wiki] rating: 1.6 (winrate: 46% pickrate: 6%)Chaos Knight
* Melee carries will have a hard time against Tiny's Craggy Exterior: Phantom Assassin,
Chaos Knight,
Juggernaut.
Slark
* A Toss plus
Avalanche combination deals heavy damage to Slark in the early game, making Tiny a very dangerous target to gank.
Puck
[wiki] rating: 1.4 (winrate: 52% pickrate: 17%)Chaos Knight
* Puck's area of effect nukes in the form of Illusory Orb and
Waning Rift clears Phantasm illusions from the early game to mid game.
* Phase Shift can be used to disjoint Chaos Bolt.
Slark
* Illusory Orb and
Phase Shift allows Puck to avoid most ganking attempts.
* Waning Rift and
Dream Coil makes it very hard for Slark to escape bad situations.
* Puck's abilities used together also deals significant magical nuke damage, none of which are targeted and thus cannot be avoided by Shadow Dance.
Slark
* Heroes with blink or movement abilities, which are disabled by Pounce's leash: Anti-Mage,
Earth Spirit,
Faceless Void,
Magnus,
Mirana,
Monkey King,
Morphling,
Pangolier,
Phantom Assassin,
Phoenix,
Puck,
Queen of Pain,
Riki,
Sand King,
Spirit Breaker,
Timbersaw,
Tusk.
Timbersaw
[wiki] rating: 1.4 (winrate: 49% pickrate: 7%)Slark
* Timbersaw can use Chakram as a scouting tool to find Slark if he tries to Pounce into the trees.
* None of Timbersaw's abilities require a target to be cast, allowing him to hit Slark inside Shadow Dance.
* Reactive Armor can be effective protection against a Slark who attacks quickly, since the strong armor and health regen cannot be stolen by Essence Shift.
* Timber Chain makes Timbersaw very mobile, meaning he is among the very few heroes who can actually give chase to a fleeing Slark.
Chaos Knight
* Reactive Armor helps Timbersaw to endure the damage from Chaos Bolt and
Reality Rift combo.
* Timbersaw's large amount of pure damage AoE nukes clears Chaos Knight's illusions quickly, drastically reducing his damage.
Additional:
* Strong area damage, particularly from Whirling Death and
Chakram, lets Timbersaw clear out illusions quickly.
* Whirling Death directly reduces Strength from both Chaos Knight and his Phantasm illusions, reducing both the damage output and raw health that the hero relies on.
* Reactive Armor quickly builds stacks against Phantasm illusions, making Timbersaw hard to kill.
* Timber Chain allows Timbersaw to escape while surrounded.
Slark
* Heroes with blink or movement abilities, which are disabled by Pounce's leash: Anti-Mage,
Earth Spirit,
Faceless Void,
Magnus,
Mirana,
Monkey King,
Morphling,
Pangolier,
Phantom Assassin,
Phoenix,
Puck,
Queen of Pain,
Riki,
Sand King,
Spirit Breaker,
Timbersaw,
Tusk.
Ancient Apparition
[wiki] rating: 1.0 (winrate: 52% pickrate: 10%)Slark
* Ice Blast stops Shadow Dance's passive health regeneration, even when Slark is not in vision.
Sand King
[wiki] rating: 1.0 (winrate: 51% pickrate: 10%)Slark
* He has a hard time killing Sand King because of the survivability he gets from Burrowstrike and Sand Storm.
* Shadow Dance, which usually allows Slark to survive fights, is ineffective against Sand King's AoE damage.
Chaos Knight
* Because of his massive AoE damage, Sand King is very effective against illusion heroes: Chaos Knight,
Phantom Lancer,
Terrorblade,...
Additional:
* Sand King's massive area damage output, particularly Epicenter, allows him to quickly take down Chaos Knight and his illusions.
* He can apply Caustic Finale to illusions with attacks for extra damage.
Slark
* Heroes with blink or movement abilities, which are disabled by Pounce's leash: Anti-Mage,
Earth Spirit,
Faceless Void,
Magnus,
Mirana,
Monkey King,
Morphling,
Pangolier,
Phantom Assassin,
Phoenix,
Puck,
Queen of Pain,
Riki,
Sand King,
Spirit Breaker,
Timbersaw,
Tusk.
Pugna
[wiki] rating: 1.0 (winrate: 51% pickrate: 4%)Chaos Knight
* Decrepify turns the target ethereal, protecting them from Chaos Knight's and his illusions' attacks.
* Life Drain instantly destroys illusions. It can effectively negate Phantasm when upgraded with
Aghanim's Scepter.
* Nether Blast quickly clears out illusions and can harass Chaos Knight in lane.
Elder Titan
[wiki] rating: 1.0 (winrate: 51% pickrate: 1%)Slark
* Natural Order aura prevents Slark from gaining armor from the agility stolen with Essence Shift.
* Echo Stomp and Earth Splitter can hit Slark through his Shadow Dance ultimate.
* Slark's stats gain is relatively low compared to most agility carries making him quite squishy without his agility-based armor.
Crystal Maiden
[wiki] rating: 1.0 (winrate: 50% pickrate: 14%)Slark
* Though Slark's large damage output is most certainly a concern for the squishy Crystal Maiden, she does perform fairly well against him when coupled with aid from her team.
* Slark has no innate way to cancel Freezing Field, but the common purchase of Skull Basher does make Slark a substantially greater threat to Crystal Maiden as the game progresses.
* Freezing Field can still hit Slark while he is under the effect of Shadow Dance, and for the early and mid game, the damage output of Crystal Maiden's ultimate outscales Slark's passive regeneration, making a quick use of Freezing Field as soon as Slark uses
Shadow Dance a great way to combat him.
* Crystal Maiden's Frostbite and Crystal Nova are helpful in disabling and slowing the slippery Slark so he can be killed by her teammates.
Chaos Knight
* 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.
Chaos Knight
* Innately fragile heroes will die almost instantly to Reality Rift while Chaos Knight has illusions active: Drow Ranger,
Bane,
Necrophos,
Crystal Maiden.
Earthshaker
[wiki] rating: 1.0 (winrate: 50% pickrate: 15%)Slark
* Earthshaker's many stuns can lock down slippery heroes like Slark in his
Shadow Dance and
Weaver in his
Shukuchi.
Additional:
* Earthshaker's many AoE stuns help lock down Slark, and will often waste the duration of Shadow Dance.
Chaos Knight
* Echo Slam's damage potential increases due to Chaos Knight's Phantasm illusions.
Additional:
* Echo Slam will deal a colossal amount of damage to your army, as will
Fissure at lower levels.
* The area stuns from Aftershock will always slow down your illusions, since they can't have spell immunity.
Slark
* Heroes with invisibility and high mobility can jump on and focus down Earthshaker before he has a chance to initiate: Clinkz,
Slark,
Storm Spirit
Lich
[wiki] rating: 1.0 (winrate: 49% pickrate: 11%)Chaos Knight
* Chain Frost can eliminate Chaos Knight's Phantasm army, especially after he clumped up using
Reality Rift.
* Frost Shield will heavily reduce his army's effectiveness.
Additional:
* Lich's Chain Frost, especially after obtaining its respective talent that provides unlimited bounces, can take out all of Chaos Knight's illusions quickly.
* An Aghanim's Scepter-upgraded
Sinister Gaze can hypnotize Chaos Knight and his illusions while also draining his already low mana pool.
Gyrocopter
[wiki] rating: 1.0 (winrate: 48% pickrate: 2%)Chaos Knight
* Flak Cannon destroys Chaos Knight's illusions very quickly.
Dragon Knight
[wiki] rating: 1.0 (winrate: 48% pickrate: 4%)Chaos Knight
* Dragon Blood's armor bonus greatly reduces the damage dealt by Phantasm.
* Breathe Fire and
Elder Dragon Form's splash damage quickly destroy illusions and reduces their damage output.
Mars
[wiki] rating: 1.0 (winrate: 48% pickrate: 15%)Slark
* Bulwark blocks much of Slark's basic attack damage, even during Shadow Dance.
* Slark finds it very difficult to have a good early/mid game when pressured in the early game by Spear of Mars and God's Rebuke.
* Spear of Mars and God's Rebuke can hit Slark through Shadow Dance.
* Should Pounce be on cooldown, Slark is very vulnerable inside Arena of Blood.
Ember Spirit
[wiki] rating: 1.0 (winrate: 47% pickrate: 9%)Chaos Knight
* Ember Spirit is evasive and can dodge close encounters with melee heroes like Chaos Knight. Ember Spirit can't be caught with the slow from Reality Rift, and Flame Guard and Sleight of Fist can bring
Phantasm's illusions down quickly.
Witch Doctor
[wiki] rating: 1.0 (winrate: 47% pickrate: 13%)Chaos Knight
* Maledict cannot be dispelled by Phantasm, and can be used to tag the real Chaos Knight hiding within his illusions.
* If Witch Doctor has an Aghanim's Scepter,
Death Ward will bounce between Chaos Knight's illusions, destroying them quickly.
* However, Death Ward is easily interrupted by Chaos Bolt until Witch Doctor buys
Glimmer Cape or
Black King Bar.
Bristleback
[wiki] rating: 1.0 (winrate: 47% pickrate: 8%)Chaos Knight
* Quill Spray quickly destroys Chaos Knight's Phantasms.
Brewmaster
[wiki] rating: 1.0 (winrate: 46% pickrate: 1%)Chaos Knight
* Storm's Dispel Magic combined with Thunder Clap deals high damage against Chaos Knight's illusions even in the late game.
* Chaos Knight's reliance on physical damage is easily hindered by Drunken Brawler.
* Chaos Knight's lack of area effect and mobility makes him easily overwhelmed by Primal Split.
Additional:
* Dispel Magic from {U:Storm} can instantly kill the Phantasm army early on, and can still deal a lot of damage to them late game, revealing the real Chaos Knight.
Shadow Fiend
[wiki] rating: 1.0 (winrate: 46% pickrate: 18%)Slark
* Shadow Dance does not protect Slark from Shadow Fiend's AoE spells.
Sven
[wiki] rating: 1.0 (winrate: 44% pickrate: 1%)Chaos Knight
* Great Cleave is very effective against Chaos Knight's illusions.
* Storm Hammer's radius can catch all of Chaos Knight's illusions at once, especially after Reality Rift.
* Warcry shields Sven and his teammates against Chaos Knight's burst physical damage.
Additional:
* Storm Hammer's faster projectile speed and cast time allows Sven to stun Chaos Knight and his illusions before he can cast Chaos Bolt.
* Warcry's armor bonus counteracts Reality Rift's debuff and reduces Chaos Knight's damage output.
* Great Cleave and
God's Strength devastates Phantasm illusions.
Kunkka
[wiki] rating: 1.0 (winrate: 44% pickrate: 4%)Chaos Knight
* Tidebringer, Torrent and Ghostship destroys Chaos Knight's Phantasm army all through the game.
Broodmother
[wiki] rating: 0.6 (winrate: 56% pickrate: 2%)Chaos Knight
* Illusion-based and multi-unit heroes can take advantage of Chaos Knight's lack of area damage: Naga Siren,
Phantom Lancer,
Broodmother
Underlord
[wiki] rating: 0.6 (winrate: 53% pickrate: 8%)Slark
* Heroes with AoE abilities will hit Slark in Shadow Dance: Lina,
Jakiro,
Underlord,
Leshrac,
Dark Seer,
Earthshaker,
Timbersaw,
Crystal Maiden
Dark Seer
[wiki] rating: 0.6 (winrate: 53% pickrate: 3%)Chaos Knight
* Heroes that rely on illusions will suffer against Ion Shell, which kills them very quickly: Phantom Lancer,
Chaos Knight,
Naga Siren,
Meepo.
* Heroes that rely on illusions typically spawn very strong illusions inside your Wall of Replica that you should use against them or their team.
Slark
* Heroes with AoE abilities will hit Slark in Shadow Dance: Lina,
Jakiro,
Underlord,
Leshrac,
Dark Seer,
Earthshaker,
Timbersaw,
Crystal Maiden
Slark
* Dark Seer relies on Surge for most of his mobility, so he's not very vulnerable to slows, but much more to root effects and walls or pseudo-walls such as Disruptor's
Kinetic Field or
Slark's
Pounce.
Windranger
[wiki] rating: 0.6 (winrate: 51% pickrate: 17%)Chaos Knight
* Heroes who rely on illusions can be tagged by Focus Fire: Chaos Knight,
Terrorblade.
Naga Siren
[wiki] rating: 0.6 (winrate: 51% pickrate: 2%)Chaos Knight
* Illusion-based and multi-unit heroes can take advantage of Chaos Knight's lack of area damage: Naga Siren,
Phantom Lancer,
Broodmother
Death Prophet
[wiki] rating: 0.6 (winrate: 50% pickrate: 5%)Slark
* Heroes with silencing abilities can be particularly deadly when Slark is trying to escape: Silencer,
Death Prophet,
Puck,
Doom
Leshrac
[wiki] rating: 0.6 (winrate: 49% pickrate: 2%)Slark
* Heroes with AoE abilities will hit Slark in Shadow Dance: Lina,
Jakiro,
Underlord,
Leshrac,
Dark Seer,
Earthshaker,
Timbersaw,
Crystal Maiden
Dazzle
[wiki] rating: 0.6 (winrate: 48% pickrate: 5%)Slark
* Heroes that can deny Slark early kills will prevent him from snowballing: Dazzle,
Abaddon
Slardar
[wiki] rating: 0.6 (winrate: 48% pickrate: 6%)Slark
* Slardar's level 25 talent makes
Corrosive Haze undispellable, thus providing his allies a vision to Slark.
Anti-Mage
[wiki] rating: 0.6 (winrate: 48% pickrate: 13%)Slark
* Heroes who build mana boosting items but have low mana regeneration are especially vulnerable against Mana Break and Mana Void: Timbersaw,
Slark,
Shadow Fiend,
Clinkz,
Bristleback
Nyx Assassin,
Magnus
Chaos Knight
* Anti-Mage commonly builds Battle Fury, which can deal with Phantasm illusions easily.
* Counterspell, if timed right, will turn Chaos Bolt against the Knight, and can set up for a kill if he is not careful.
* Even if Counterspell is on cooldown, Blink can almost always dodge a Chaos Bolt because of its slow projectile.
* Mana Break will quickly drain Chaos Knight's mana.
Slark
* Pounce prevents Anti-Mage from using Blink, and lets him disengage from Anti-Mage if needed.
* Essence Shift allows Slark to permanently steal agility from Anti-Mage.
* Shadow Dance stops Anti-Mage from being able to fight back in a slippery situation.
Grimstroke
[wiki] rating: 0.6 (winrate: 47% pickrate: 12%)Chaos Knight
* Heroes who are reliant on illusions or summons: Chaos Knight,
Broodmother,
Naga Siren.
Legion Commander
[wiki] rating: 0.6 (winrate: 47% pickrate: 12%)Chaos Knight
* Heroes who rely on illusions will see them destroyed easily by Overwhelming Odds: Phantom Lancer,
Chaos Knight,
Terrorblade,
Naga Siren
Snapfire
[wiki] rating: 0.6 (winrate: 46% pickrate: 6%)Chaos Knight
* Heroes reliant on illusions or summons: Broodmother,
Chaos Knight,
Naga Siren.
Meepo
[wiki] rating: 0.6 (winrate: 46% pickrate: 1%)Slark
* Slark's Dark Pact and Pounce can deny only one Earthbind and Poof can penetrate Shadow Dance if he doesn't build Black King Bar.
Additional:
* Earthbind and
Poof will still hit Slark in Shadow Dance.
* Dark Pact can only remove one Earthbind.
* Ransack will still affect Slark, even if he has a
Black King Bar.
Enigma
[wiki] rating: 0.4 (winrate: 54% pickrate: 7%)Chaos Knight
* The area of effect damage from Midnight Pulse and Black Hole help deal with Chaos Knight's illusions.
Additional:
* Black Hole usually catches Chaos Knight with all his illusions.
* Midnight Pulse deals damage based on max health, quickly killing Phantasm illusions.
Slark
* Enigma is fragile, and lacks escapes, being dependent on Blink Dagger for mobility. Ganking Heroes or Heroes with burst damage will likely kill him before he can do anything. Such Heroes include:
Lina,
Lion,
Puck,
Slark,
Nyx Assassin, etc.
Bloodseeker
[wiki] rating: 0.4 (winrate: 52% pickrate: 5%)Slark
* Thirst prevents Slark from healing with Shadow Dance.
* Rupture will deal damage during Pounce.
* Dark Pact cannot dispel Rupture, preventing Slark from escaping ganks.
Additional:
* Thirst makes Slark visible while at low health, canceling out Shadow Dance's passive. For this reason, Bloodseeker is usually considered the hardest counter to Slark.
* Rupture cannot be dispelled by Dark Pact, and using Pounce while affected by it will cause Slark to take damage.
Chaos Knight
* Heroes with illusion and clone abilities may confuse Bloodseeker, causing him to waste time in fights: Phantom Lancer,
Chaos Knight,
Arc Warden
Monkey King
[wiki] rating: 0.4 (winrate: 51% pickrate: 17%)Chaos Knight
* Wukong's Command and
Boundless Strike combo can easily cause havoc on Chaos Knight by destroying all of his powerful illusions.
* Chaos Knight without Phantasm cannot deal with Jingu Mastery at all.
Slark
* Heroes with blink or movement abilities, which are disabled by Pounce's leash: Anti-Mage,
Earth Spirit,
Faceless Void,
Magnus,
Mirana,
Monkey King,
Morphling,
Pangolier,
Phantom Assassin,
Phoenix,
Puck,
Queen of Pain,
Riki,
Sand King,
Spirit Breaker,
Timbersaw,
Tusk.
Disruptor
[wiki] rating: 0.4 (winrate: 49% pickrate: 9%)Slark
* Thunder Strike provides vision on him while Slark is invisible.
* Glimpse's range at lvl 3-4 is more than enough to pull him back to a favorable position for your team to group up and kill him.
* Even though he is capable of picking you off and deal enough damage to kill you, Slark will be literally sticking his neck out, since jumping on Disruptor means being on his battleground.
* AoE silence and the ability to mute Black King Bar is deadly to Slark at all stages of the game.
Additional:
* Static Storm and
Kinetic Field locks down Slark, as he cannot use Dark Pact to dispel any disables, or Pounce out while silenced.
* Glimpse puts an end to any attempts at ganking Disruptor or his allies, and also negates Slark's mobility by bringing him back into the fight if he tries to escape with Pounce.
Chaos Knight
* Chaos Knight with
Phantasm
* Heroes that can dodge Glimpse:
* Puck with
Phase Shift
* Riki with
Tricks of the Trade
* Phantom Lancer with
Doppelganger
* Ember Spirit with
Sleight of Fist and
Activate Fire Remnant
* Chaos Knight with
Phantasm
* Naga Siren with
Mirror Image
* Tusk with
Snowball
* Juggernaut with
Omnislash
* Brewmaster with
Primal Split
* Lifestealer with
Infest
* Phoenix with
Supernova
Additional:
* Phantasm removes Glimpse and dispels
Thunder Strike. Additionally, the Phantasm illusions make it difficult to use Glimpse and Thunder Strike on the real Chaos Knight.
* Disruptor's lack of mobility, combined with his lack of innate defense, sets him up for a Reality Rift and a beatdown by Chaos Knight and his illusions.
Queen of Pain
[wiki] rating: 0.4 (winrate: 47% pickrate: 9%)Slark
* Both Scream of Pain and Sonic Wave should hit him during his Shadow Dance.
Slark
* Heroes with blink or movement abilities, which are disabled by Pounce's leash: Anti-Mage,
Earth Spirit,
Faceless Void,
Magnus,
Mirana,
Monkey King,
Morphling,
Pangolier,
Phantom Assassin,
Phoenix,
Puck,
Queen of Pain,
Riki,
Sand King,
Spirit Breaker,
Timbersaw,
Tusk.
Spectre
[wiki] rating: 0.4 (winrate: 46% pickrate: 3%)Slark
* 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.
Slark
* 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.
Magnus
[wiki] rating: 0.4 (winrate: 45% pickrate: 4%)Chaos Knight
* Using Reality Rift sets up a Reverse Polarity on Chaos Knight and his illusions.
* Shockwave and
Skewer kill Phantasm's illusions quickly, as can
Empower cast on a melee carry.
Additional:
* All Magnus abilities are very good against Chaos Knight's Phantasm illusions.
Slark
* Heroes with blink or movement abilities, which are disabled by Pounce's leash: Anti-Mage,
Earth Spirit,
Faceless Void,
Magnus,
Mirana,
Monkey King,
Morphling,
Pangolier,
Phantom Assassin,
Phoenix,
Puck,
Queen of Pain,
Riki,
Sand King,
Spirit Breaker,
Timbersaw,
Tusk.
Faceless Void
[wiki] rating: 0.4 (winrate: 41% pickrate: 3%)Slark
* Time Dilation while Dark Pact and
Pounce are on cooldown will make these abilities unusable for a long time, reducing his escape potential. However, Time Dilation is dispellable with
Dark Pact so it needs to be timed well.
* Chronosphere will not reveal Slark during Shadow Dance, but covers the whole duration of Shadow Dance making him unable to use it to attack or escape. Slark still receives the regeneration benefit from Shadow Dance.
Slark
* Heroes with blink or movement abilities, which are disabled by Pounce's leash: Anti-Mage,
Earth Spirit,
Faceless Void,
Magnus,
Mirana,
Monkey King,
Morphling,
Pangolier,
Phantom Assassin,
Phoenix,
Puck,
Queen of Pain,
Riki,
Sand King,
Spirit Breaker,
Timbersaw,
Tusk.
Lion
[wiki] rating: 0.2 (winrate: 50% pickrate: 17%)Chaos Knight
* One of Lion's level 20 talents lets Mana Drain affect 2 secondary targets. This can make things difficult for heroes like Phantom Lancer,
Chaos Knight, and
Terrorblade who rely on illusion armies.
* Mana Drain and Hex instantly kill any illusions. Finger of Death upgraded with Aghanim's Scepter also shreds most illusions.
* One of Lion's level 20 talents lets Mana Drain affect 2 secondary targets. This can make things difficult for heroes like Phantom Lancer,
Chaos Knight, and
Terrorblade who rely on illusion armies.
Additional:
* Mana Drain is a real problem to Chaos Knight in the early game, considering his already low mana pool.
* Aghanim's Scepter upgraded
Finger of Death is an AoE ability, which can deal a tremendous amount of damage to his illusions.
* Lion has two abilities that can instantly kill illusions. Provided that he does not get stunned by Chaos Bolt first, Lion can render Phantasm near-useless.
Slark
* Heroes with heavy magical nukes will take advantage of Slarks poor HP or force him to use Shadow Dance early: Lina,
Lion,
Zeus
Slark
* Pounce allows Slark to close in on Lion and prevent him from escaping.
* Lion's fragile health pool makes him easy prey for Slark's high burst damage through Pounce,
Dark Pact and right-clicks.
* Shadow Dance prevents Lion from casting Hex, Mana Drain, or Finger of Death on Slark.
* Dark Pact allows Slark to dispel any of Lion's disables.
Pudge
[wiki] rating: -2.0 (winrate: 47% pickrate: 19%)Slark
* Dark Pact dispels Dismember if timed perfectly.
* Pudge's low attack speed and poor agility can be lowered even further by Essence Shift.
* Shadow Dance grants Slark invisibility and a high degree of mobility, which can make Slark a difficult target to hook and also protects him from Pudge's Dismember (including allies with an
Aghanim's Scepter).
Chaos Knight
* Phantasm's illusions make it difficult to land Meat Hook and
Dismember.
* Chaos Bolt is a comparatively low cooldown tool to interrupt Dismember.
* Chaos Strike's lifesteal offsets Rot's damage.
Rubick
[wiki] rating: -2.0 (winrate: 47% pickrate: 17%)Slark
* Pounce and
Dark Pact together with some attacks can gank Rubick down quickly. Rubick can seldom retaliate because of the strong dispel of
Dark Pact. What is more, Rubick is the type of squishy support that Slark exactly wants to gank.
* Though Shadow Dance is a great spell to steal, Slark's untargetable nature and his low cooldown spells prevents Rubick from stealing it.
* Slark usually builds Diffusal Blade which can prevent Rubick to cast his abilities from Spell Steal.
Chaos Knight
* While Chaos Knight can land far away from Rubick due to Telekinesis, it can be counteracted by Reality Rift.
* Phantasm dispels Fade Bolt's damage reduction debuff.
* Rubick is fragile and can easily be killed by Chaos Knight and Phantasm's illusions, before he retaliates.
Drow Ranger
[wiki] rating: -2.0 (winrate: 47% pickrate: 5%)Slark
* A well-timed Dark Pact can dispel Frost Arrows and Gust, letting Slark engage and escape freely.
* Shadow Dance lets Slark quickly close the gap and deal heavy damage without giving Drow Ranger a chance to retaliate.
* Pounce counteracts Frost Arrows' slow, letting Slark easily pin Drow Ranger down or flee.
Additional:
* Pounce and items like Shadow Blade makes it very difficult for Drow Ranger to keep her distance from Slark, thereby losing her
Marksmanship bonus.
* Gust is rarely enough to keep Slark at bay, as Drow Ranger has no movement abilities and will simply be chased down afterwards.
* Drow Ranger's heavy dependence on agility also makes her significantly weaker after being drained by Essence Shift.
Chaos Knight
* Reality Rift will disable Drow Ranger's Marksmanship, along with
Chaos Bolt he can keep her locked for enough time to be killed.
* Phantasm's illusions are hard for Drow Ranger to deal with as she lacks of AoE damage.
Lifestealer
[wiki] rating: -2.0 (winrate: 49% pickrate: 5%)Chaos Knight
* Chaos Knight's Level 20 Talent: Reality Rift Pierces Spell Immunity allows for quick bursting down of Lifestealer during his Rage.
* Phantasm dispels Open Wounds.
* Lifestealer has no way of dealing with Chaos Knight's illusions.
Slark
* Dark Pact can be used to remove Open Wounds.
* Shadow Dance allows Slark to attack Lifestealer for its duration without any way for Lifestealer to fight back.
* Slark commonly buys a Silver Edge, which can break Lifestealer's Feast, severely diminishing his damage output and lifesteal.
Ogre Magi
[wiki] rating: -2.0 (winrate: 50% pickrate: 15%)Chaos Knight
* Phantasm dispels Ignite and makes targeting the real Chaos Knight much harder.
Slark
* Dark Pact dispels Ignite's slow and Fireblast's stun.
* Shadow Dance allows Slark to regenerate HP, even when he is affected by Ignite and Fireblast.
Wraith King
[wiki] rating: -2.0 (winrate: 52% pickrate: 18%)Slark
* Dark Pact, if timed correctly, can dispel Wraithfire Blast's stun and slow.
* Since Wraith King has a lot of health and multiple lives, Slark can keep gaining Essence Shift stacks, increasing armor, damage, and attack speed and can beat down Wraith King twice.
* Slark sometimes carries Diffusal Blade to burn mana as an attempt to shut down Reincarnation.
* Because Wraith King has no AoE abilities, Shadow Dance is particularly useful against Wraith King.
Chaos Knight
* Wraith King has no form of AoE to clear Chaos Knight's illusions from Phantasm.
* Wraith King is very vulnerable if he reincarnates in the middle of his illusions.
Arc Warden
[wiki] rating: -2.0 (winrate: 54% pickrate: 5%)Chaos Knight
* Chaos Knight can dispel Flux with Phantasm.
* Chaos Knight can use Reality Rift to pull Arc Warden out of Magnetic Field.
* Once Chaos Knight jumps on Arc Warden with Reality Rift, Arc Warden struggles to escape due to low mobility.
Slark
* Flux is dispelled by Dark Pact.
* Pounce allows Slark to avoid Spark Wraiths.
* Tempest Double allows Slark to build up Essence Shift stacks, especially when it is being used for split pushing.
Razor
[wiki] rating: -2.0 (winrate: 55% pickrate: 4%)Slark
* Pounce can easily break Static Link, making it less powerful against him.
* Slark is one of the few heroes who can man fight a Razor, because of Essence Shift.
* Shadow Dance can prevent Razor from killing him and may provide an opportunity to kill Razor due to it preventing Razor from attacking Slark.
Chaos Knight
* Razor has no way to deal with Chaos Knight's multiple illusions from Phantasm.
Phantom Assassin
[wiki] rating: -1.6 (winrate: 46% pickrate: 15%)Chaos Knight
* Heroes with illusions and summons can be hard for Phantom Assassin to deal with, as she lacks any AoE abilities to deal with them: Broodmother,
Phantom Lancer,
Chaos Knight.
Slark
* Slark's Pounce allows him to close the gap on Phantom Assassin and prevent her from escaping with Phantom Strike.
* As a hero who always goes for the Silver Edge and
Abyssal Blade Slark can use it to disable Phantom Assassin and her
Blur and
Coup de Grace, drastically reducing her damage output and ability to evade attacks, and also preventing her from acting.
* Phantom Assassin's Coup de Grace requires Random Number Generation in order to proc, which gives Slark more than enough time to escape and recover himself.
Ursa
[wiki] rating: -1.6 (winrate: 51% pickrate: 16%)Slark
* Slark can detect early Roshan attempts due to Shadow Dance if he frequently checks the Pit.
* Enrage cannot restore attributes stolen by Essence Shift and will reduce his physical damage output.
* Even if Ursa initiates with Earthshock, Slark can Pounce away or use
Dark Pact after Ursa's initiation to avoid Fury Swipes' damage until Earthshock's slow is gone.
Chaos Knight
* Ursa struggles against illusion heroes like Chaos Knight and
Phantom Lancer.
Additional:
* Ursa cannot effectively fight against Phantasm's illusions with his single-target damage.
* Chaos Bolt's potentially long stun with Chaos Bolt gives Ursa little opportunity to Enrage.
Warlock
[wiki] rating: -1.6 (winrate: 52% pickrate: 5%)Slark
* Upheaval does not interrupt Slark too much, as he can just Pounce out of the area.
* Fatal Bonds and
Shadow Word can be dispelled by Dark Pact.
Chaos Knight
* Warlock is a very strong hero when positioned correctly, and his long cast range helps him with this. However, some Heroes might disrupt or sneakily pass through your allies and deal with you, preventing you from doing your job. Such heroes include Chaos Knight,
Spirit Breaker,
Riki, and some others.
Juggernaut
[wiki] rating: -1.6 (winrate: 52% pickrate: 18%)Slark
* Heroes with escaping and disjointing abilities can be good against Juggernaut:Anti-Mage
Riki,
Queen of Pain,
Puck,
Storm Spirit,
Ember Spirit,
Slark etc.
Chaos Knight
* While Blade Fury is on cooldown, Juggernaut can easily killed by a standard Chaos Bolt &
Reality Rift combo.
* Phantasm illusions can tank Omnislash.
Bounty Hunter
[wiki] rating: -1.6 (winrate: 54% pickrate: 10%)Chaos Knight
* Phantasm dispels Track, and the illusions make it difficult to Track the real Chaos Knight.
* Bounty Hunter is fragile and can easily be killed by Chaos Knight and Phantasm's illusions.
Slark
* Slark with
Dark Pact
* Heroes that can remove the Track debuff with their skills:
* Abaddon with
Aphotic Shield and
Borrowed Time
* Huskar with
Life Break
* Juggernaut with
Blade Fury
* Legion Commander with
Press the Attack
* Lifestealer with
Rage and
Infest
* Naga Siren with
Mirror Image
* Omniknight with
Heavenly Grace
* Oracle with
Fortune's End and
False Promise
* Phantom Lancer with
Doppelganger
* Slark with
Dark Pact
* Ursa with
Enrage
* Weaver with
Time Lapse
* Tidehunter with
Kraken Shell when damage received reaches the threshold.
Silencer
[wiki] rating: -1.4 (winrate: 47% pickrate: 6%)Slark
* Heroes with silencing abilities can be particularly deadly when Slark is trying to escape: Silencer,
Death Prophet,
Puck,
Doom
Chaos Knight
* Casting Phantasm before a fight minimizes the disruption from Global Silence.
* Because Chaos Knight generally relies on attack damage, Silencer's spells won't be as effective against him.
Slark
* Slark's Dark Pact allows him to dispel Silencer's debuffs.
* Against a carry Silencer, Essence Shift will lower damage from both Glaives of Wisdom and his basic attack.
Vengeful Spirit
[wiki] rating: -1.2 (winrate: 47% pickrate: 4%)Chaos Knight
* Heroes who relies on illusions and summons (Beastmaster,
Chaos Knight, etc.).
Slark
* Heroes who have a high mobility (Queen of Pain,
Storm Spirit,
Slark, etc.).
Templar Assassin
[wiki] rating: -1.2 (winrate: 51% pickrate: 5%)Chaos Knight
* Multiple attackers thanks to illusions: Phantom Lancer,
Chaos Knight,
Naga Siren (bonus for her
Ensnare). Also despite the visual effects, Templar Assassin does not spill damage against illusions or buildings, so she is not a really good hero to clean up illusions.
* Heroes that can quickly deal damage to her, regardless of how weak they are, can easily break through her Refraction:
* Multiple attackers thanks to summoned units or clones: Meepo,
Witch Doctor,
Lycan,
Enigma,
Shadow Shaman
* Multiple attackers thanks to illusions: Phantom Lancer,
Chaos Knight,
Naga Siren (bonus for her
Ensnare). Also despite the visual effects, Templar Assassin does not spill damage against illusions or buildings, so she is not a really good hero to clean up illusions.
* Weak damage but high tick rate or persist in a long time: Slark,
Gyrocopter,
Queen of Pain,
Shadow Shaman (
Shackles),
Pugna
Slark
* Weak damage but high tick rate or persist in a long time: Slark,
Gyrocopter,
Queen of Pain,
Shadow Shaman (
Shackles),
Pugna
* Heroes that can quickly deal damage to her, regardless of how weak they are, can easily break through her Refraction:
* Multiple attackers thanks to summoned units or clones: Meepo,
Witch Doctor,
Lycan,
Enigma,
Shadow Shaman
* Multiple attackers thanks to illusions: Phantom Lancer,
Chaos Knight,
Naga Siren (bonus for her
Ensnare). Also despite the visual effects, Templar Assassin does not spill damage against illusions or buildings, so she is not a really good hero to clean up illusions.
* Weak damage but high tick rate or persist in a long time: Slark,
Gyrocopter,
Queen of Pain,
Shadow Shaman (
Shackles),
Pugna
Additional:
* Dark Pact rips through Refraction charges and still steals attributes during Refraction.
* Pounce and Dark Pact will still hit Templar Assassin while she is Melded. Since she cannot move, both abilities will be easy for Slark to land.
Shadow Shaman
[wiki] rating: -1.2 (winrate: 52% pickrate: 17%)Chaos Knight
* Single-target disablers will have difficulty locking down a Chaos Knight with Phantasm active: Bane,
Beastmaster,
Bloodseeker,
Clockwerk,
Doom,
Shadow Shaman.
Slark
* Nyx Assassin,
Bounty Hunter and
Slark can all sneak up and kill you, Nyx being particularly deadly. Watch Slark carefully, as he can break either (but not both unless you are making a mistake) of your disables, with
Dark Pact and leap out of a serpent ward ring. These heroes, however, rely heavily on escape and are themselves not very durable and none of them can survive a full lockdown with Mass Serpent Ward. Having Sentry Wards can turn you from prey to predator.
Beastmaster
[wiki] rating: -1.2 (winrate: 55% pickrate: 7%)Chaos Knight
* Single-target disablers will have difficulty locking down a Chaos Knight with Phantasm active: Bane,
Beastmaster,
Bloodseeker,
Clockwerk,
Doom,
Shadow Shaman.
Slark
* Heroes with strong dispels can remove Primal Roar's stun: Abaddon,
Slark,
Oracle.
Medusa
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 45% pickrate: 3%)Slark
* Medusa cannot chase Slark in any way and has no disable beyond her ultimate, making her unable to stop him getting away and regenerating before coming back to finish her off.
* Essence Shift removes 1 of every attribute, lowering Medusa's mana pool's cap and leaving her much more vulnerable in prolonged fights.
Additional:
* Medusa is especially vulnerable to Essence Shift, as both strength and intelligence contribute to her effective HP, while agility contributes to her damage.
* Dark Pact when timed right can be used to dispel Stone Gaze right after it petrifies Slark, allowing him to keep attacking Medusa throughout the duration.
Lone Druid
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 47% pickrate: 1%)Chaos Knight
* Reality Rift lets Chaos Knight bypass the Spirit Bear and jump onto Lone Druid.
* The Spirit Bear's lack of scaling means it dies quickly to Chaos Knight during the late-game.
Sniper
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 48% pickrate: 6%)Slark
* Slark is a natural Shadow Blade carrier, and with
Pounce Sniper has no opportunity to escape or react.
* With Essence Shift and
Shadow Dance, Slark will easily win a fight against Sniper.
Additional:
* Sniper is one of the most gankable heroes in the game, and has no defenses when Pounced on by Slark.
Techies
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 48% pickrate: 7%)Chaos Knight
* 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!.
Zeus
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 48% pickrate: 8%)Slark
* Heroes with heavy magical nukes will take advantage of Slarks poor HP or force him to use Shadow Dance early: Lina,
Lion,
Zeus
Chaos Knight
* Chaos Knight's high health pool makes him resistant to Zeus' burst damage. Phantasm can dispel
Veil of Discord, a typical item purchased by Zeus.
* Zeus is easily overwhelmed by Chaos Knight's strong illusions, as Arc Lightning is not enough to kill them fast enough to have any impact.
* Zeus' low base armor makes him extremely vulnerable to Chaos Knight's high damage output and armor reduction.
Slark
* 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.
Batrider
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 49% pickrate: 4%)Slark
* Dark Pact can dispel Flaming Lasso if is used in anticipation, but a Blink initiation from fog can catch the Slark off guard.
* Slark can also take off any Sticky Napalm stacks with Dark Pact in lane.
Earth Spirit
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 49% pickrate: 9%)Slark
* Pounce's root prevents Earth Spirit from using Rolling Boulder to escape, making it easier for Slark to shut him down especially in the laning phase.
Venomancer
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 50% pickrate: 5%)Slark
* Dark Pact can dispel Venomous Gale and Poison Sting.
* Shadow Dance allows Slark heightened regeneration when out of vision making DoTs effects less threatening.
Luna
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 50% pickrate: 4%)Slark
* With Dust of Appearance, Luna will be able to use
Eclipse on invisible heroes. Be mindful that
Slark is exception because he'll be able to remove the debuff with
Dark Pact.
Slark
* Shadow Dance prevents Luna from damaging Slark, and together with
Shadow Blade he can kite her or escape.
* Luna has no way to escape from Pounce's leash.
Additional:
* Luna's lack of mobility and escape abilities makes her easily gankable by Slark.
* Shadow Dance will avoid all the damage from Eclipse.
* For the same reasons, Slark is a good ally for Luna when they are in the same team.
Chaos Knight
* 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).
Bane
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 51% pickrate: 3%)Slark
* Low-health, normally mobile carries with a lot of damage are vulnerable to Bane's nukes and disables: Anti-Mage,
Clinkz,
Drow Ranger,
Faceless Void,
Gyrocopter,
Juggernaut,
Luna,
Meepo,
Mirana,
Monkey King,
Morphling,
Phantom Assassin,
Phantom Lancer,
Riki,
Shadow Fiend,
Slark,
Sniper,
Terrorblade,
Troll Warlord,
Weaver.
Slark
* Dark Pact can dispel Enfeeble, as well as Nightmare and Fiend's Grip if timed well.
* Shadow Dance protects Slark from Bane's single-target-only abilities.
Chaos Knight
* Heroes with illusions and summons can swarm Bane, who has no area abilities: Broodmother,
Chaos Knight,
Nature's Prophet,
Phantom Lancer,
Terrorblade
Additional:
* Phantasm's illusions make it difficult for Bane to target Chaos Knight with Nightmare,
Brain Sap and
Fiend's Grip.
* Chaos Bolt is a comparatively low cooldown tool to interrupt Fiend's Grip.
* Nightmare can be transferred by Phantasm illusions.
Mirana
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 51% pickrate: 16%)Slark
* If Slark sees the Sacred Arrow before it hits him, he can use Dark Pact to remove it a moment later.
* Pounce prevents Mirana from escaping with Leap.
* Slark can survive Mirana's Aghanim's Scepter combo with
Shadow Dance.
Troll Warlord
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 52% pickrate: 9%)Chaos Knight
* Chaos Knight's tanky illusions easily take advantage of Troll Warlord's lack of AoE damage.
* Chaos Bolt can stun Troll for up to 4 seconds and
Reality Rift prevents Troll Warlord from chasing down foes.
* Phantasm increases Chaos Knight's physical damage output up to 4 times and can easily kill Troll Warlord before he has a chance to use Battle Trance or a
Black King Bar.
Alchemist
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 53% pickrate: 8%)Slark
* Shadow Dance allows Slark to not be targeted by Unstable Concoction, making Alchemist stun himself and making himself vulnerable to the enemy.
* Dark Pact also allows him to just purge off the stun if timed correctly.
* Essence Shift will steal stats over long durations at a time should Alchemist lack the damage to kill Slark.
Enchantress
[wiki] rating: -0.6 (winrate: 42% pickrate: 1%)Slark
* Heroes that can jump on her: Slark,
Queen of Pain,
Anti-Mage
Chen
[wiki] rating: -0.6 (winrate: 45% pickrate: 0%)Chaos Knight
* Illusion and heroes with summons are difficult to kill with Chen's single-target offensive spells: Terrorblade,
Phantom Lancer,
Chaos Knight,
Broodmother,
Naga Siren,
Lycan,
Visage. However, Chen can convert enemy summons with Holy Persuasion, as long as they don't bunch up.
Nature's Prophet
[wiki] rating: -0.6 (winrate: 46% pickrate: 7%)Slark
* Pounce also stops Nature's Prophet's
Teleportation.
Morphling
[wiki] rating: -0.6 (winrate: 47% pickrate: 13%)Slark
* Heroes with blink or movement abilities, which are disabled by Pounce's leash: Anti-Mage,
Earth Spirit,
Faceless Void,
Magnus,
Mirana,
Monkey King,
Morphling,
Pangolier,
Phantom Assassin,
Phoenix,
Puck,
Queen of Pain,
Riki,
Sand King,
Spirit Breaker,
Timbersaw,
Tusk.
Shadow Demon
[wiki] rating: -0.6 (winrate: 47% pickrate: 2%)Slark
* Heroes with Break abilities will prevent Slark to regenerate and gaining Essence Shift stacks: Viper,
Shadow Demon etc.
Chaos Knight
* Chaos Knight,
Lone Druid,
Meepo and
Arc Warden can be hard targets since Shadow Demon's spells are ill-suited to fight many enemies at once.
Slark
* Heroes who can dispel will be able to remove Shadow Poison before Shadow Demon can build up a big stack, or remove Soul Catcher's debuff to instantly bring the health of affected heroes back to a considerable amount: Abaddon,
Slark,
Legion Commander,
Oracle.
Tusk
[wiki] rating: -0.6 (winrate: 49% pickrate: 7%)Slark
* Heroes with blink or movement abilities, which are disabled by Pounce's leash: Anti-Mage,
Earth Spirit,
Faceless Void,
Magnus,
Mirana,
Monkey King,
Morphling,
Pangolier,
Phantom Assassin,
Phoenix,
Puck,
Queen of Pain,
Riki,
Sand King,
Spirit Breaker,
Timbersaw,
Tusk.
Undying
[wiki] rating: -0.6 (winrate: 49% pickrate: 5%)Chaos Knight
* Chaos Knight's multiple illusions from
Phantasm can destroy Undying, as Soul Rip can't offset the damage from the high amount of damage from his illusions.
Riki
[wiki] rating: -0.6 (winrate: 49% pickrate: 13%)Slark
* Heroes with blink or movement abilities, which are disabled by Pounce's leash: Anti-Mage,
Earth Spirit,
Faceless Void,
Magnus,
Mirana,
Monkey King,
Morphling,
Pangolier,
Phantom Assassin,
Phoenix,
Puck,
Queen of Pain,
Riki,
Sand King,
Spirit Breaker,
Timbersaw,
Tusk.
Tinker
[wiki] rating: -0.6 (winrate: 49% pickrate: 7%)Chaos Knight
* With Aghanim's Scepter, Tinker's Laser completely stops Chaos Knight's damage, forcing him to buy either a Black King Bar for his own survivability while leaving his illusions still vulnerable, or a Monkey King Bar leaving him still vulnerable to Tinker's nukes, though improving his damage.
* Tinker rarely finds himself in the middle of a fight, which is where Chaos Knight typically thrives, and even in the rare cases of being so, at level 3 Tinker's constant rearm and blink away can kite and dodge Chaos Knight's spells reliably, so Chaos Knight has very little catch against Tinker's mobility. This gives Tinker impunity to create more chaos in a teamfight than Chaos Knight can control, laying down the field with March of the Machines and constantly being hit by rockets and lasers.
Additional:
* Tinker's Aghanim's Scepter upgraded Laser can blind him and all of his Phantasm illusions.
Slark
* Pounce prevents Tinker from blinking away.
* Slark frequently builds Shadow Blade, which allows him to approach Tinker unnoticed. Since Tinker's farming usually covers a significant amount of area on the map, Sentry Wards may not be cost effective.
* Shadow Dance allows Slark to detect both common and unusual wards. Eliminating common ward causes Tinker trouble farming many lanes if he does not know who may be waiting to jump on him. Slark is also uniquely able to identify some of the less common wards used by Tinker, such as those placed on the cliffs at map edges which Tinker uses to give him vision over the trees he uses to hide in.
* Slark's extremely high move speed from Shadow Dance, potentially stacked with
Shadow Blade, allows him to easily follow Tinker between lanes, especially if Tinker has pushed the lanes out.
* Dark Pact dispels Laser's blind.
Chaos Knight
* Illusion heroes, such as Naga Siren,
Phantom Lancer,
Chaos Knight,
Terrorblade will become strong against Tinker in the late game when Tinker's only area of effect damage, March of the Machines, ceases to kill illusions quickly. Without
Aghanim's Scepter Tinker is forced to defensively disarm heroes with Laser, leaving illusions free to deal physical damage which Tinker's low armor makes highly effective. In addition,
Mjollnir or
Battle Fury, two common pickups against illusion heroes, don't work well on Tinker at all.
Huskar
[wiki] rating: -0.6 (winrate: 50% pickrate: 3%)Chaos Knight
* Heroes with illusions can overwhelm Huskar, as he has no AoE abilities: Phantom Lancer,
Anti-Mage,
Arc Warden,
Chaos Knight.
Skywrath Mage
[wiki] rating: -0.6 (winrate: 50% pickrate: 6%)Chaos Knight
* Skywrath mage also has a terrible time fighting against anything that isn't a hero. As Mystic Flare only affects heroes, his skills are mostly target-based and he has terrible strength and agility, he can easily be kited or harassed by illusion-based heroes like Chaos Knight and
Phantom Lancer, or by Heroes that summon other units like
Lone Druid,
Lycan and
Beastmaster.
Spirit Breaker
[wiki] rating: -0.6 (winrate: 50% pickrate: 8%)Slark
* Heroes with blink or movement abilities, which are disabled by Pounce's leash: Anti-Mage,
Earth Spirit,
Faceless Void,
Magnus,
Mirana,
Monkey King,
Morphling,
Pangolier,
Phantom Assassin,
Phoenix,
Puck,
Queen of Pain,
Riki,
Sand King,
Spirit Breaker,
Timbersaw,
Tusk.
Clockwerk
[wiki] rating: -0.6 (winrate: 51% pickrate: 7%)Chaos Knight
* Single-target disablers will have difficulty locking down a Chaos Knight with Phantasm active: Bane,
Beastmaster,
Bloodseeker,
Clockwerk,
Doom,
Shadow Shaman.
Visage
[wiki] rating: -0.6 (winrate: 53% pickrate: 1%)Chaos Knight
* Heroes that can overwhelm Visage by sheer number like Chaos Knight,
Meepo,
Terrorblade and
Phantom Lancer.
Lycan
[wiki] rating: -0.6 (winrate: 55% pickrate: 4%)Slark
* Lycan cannot escape from a Pounce even if he uses
Shapeshift, and has no disabling abilities to stop Slark.
Lina
[wiki] rating: -0.4 (winrate: 45% pickrate: 10%)Slark
* Heroes with heavy magical nukes will take advantage of Slarks poor HP or force him to use Shadow Dance early: Lina,
Lion,
Zeus
Slark
* Dark Pact can be cast during the cast animation of Light Strike Array and dispel its stun.
* Pounce allows Slark to close the gap to Lina.
* Shadow Dance prevents Lina from killing Slark with her Laguna Blade when his HP gets low.
Storm Spirit
[wiki] rating: -0.4 (winrate: 49% pickrate: 11%)Slark
* Heroes that rely on their high mobility such as Queen of Pain,
Slark and
Weaver can be constantly engaged against due to your excellent ability to chase over any terrain. Make sure you carry true sight items (such as
Dust of Appearance or
Gem of True Sight) for invisible heroes that could potentially escape your clutches.
Slark
* Pounce's leash prevents Storm Spirit from using Ball Lightning, making it hard for Storm Spirit to escape a gank from Slark.
* Dark Pact can dispel Orchid Malevolence's Soul Burn.
Pangolier
[wiki] rating: -0.4 (winrate: 50% pickrate: 10%)Chaos Knight
* Heroes who are illusion based, or even heroes who frequently build Manta Style can be cleared quickly by Pangolier's high damage, or lose their damage ouput because of Lucky Shot: Chaos Knight,
Naga Siren
Slark
* Dark Pact easily purges away both slow and disarm effect from Lucky Shot.
* With Pounce now apply leash to the target, Pangolier is helpless against Slark since both his Swashbuckle and Rolling Thunder will be disabled. Pounce also help Slark to easily escape from Rolling Thunder.
Keeper of the Light
[wiki] rating: 0.0 (winrate: 45% pickrate: 5%)Slark
* Melee carries during the laning phase: Sven,
Slark
Slark
* Heroes with dispels: Legion Commander,
Oracle,
Slark
Doom
[wiki] rating: 0.0 (winrate: 46% pickrate: 2%)Slark
* Heroes with silencing abilities can be particularly deadly when Slark is trying to escape: Silencer,
Death Prophet,
Puck,
Doom
Chaos Knight
* Single-target disablers will have difficulty locking down a Chaos Knight with Phantasm active: Bane,
Beastmaster,
Bloodseeker,
Clockwerk,
Doom,
Shadow Shaman.
Viper
[wiki] rating: 0.0 (winrate: 48% pickrate: 5%)Slark
* Nethertoxin negates Essence Shift and the regeneration aspect of
Shadow Dance.
* Dark Pact doesn't mean a lot against Viper's ubiquitous slows.
* Viper becomes a relevant presence in team fights before Slark can procure his standard items (e.g. Shadow Blade).
Chaos Knight
* Viper has no response to the standard initiation combo of Reality Rift into
Chaos Bolt.
* Phantasm can eliminate Viper almost instantly with its damage output.
Additional:
* As Viper focuses on single-target damage, he has trouble fighting off Phantasm illusions.
* Reality Rift counteracts Viper's slows and reduces his durability.
Winter Wyvern
[wiki] rating: 0.0 (winrate: 50% pickrate: 5%)Chaos Knight
* Cold Embrace protects targets of Reality Rift.
* Winter's Curse turns Phantasm illusions against Chaos Knight or a teammate.
* Splinter Blast deals decent area damage to Phantasm illusions.
* Arctic Burn's percentage-based damage quickly wears down Chaos Knight's health.
Additional:
* Winter Wyvern can make Chaos Knight's illusions attack the real one, provided the player knows who it is.
* Alternatively, Winter's Curse can make Chaos Knight and all his illusions attack one of his allies.
* Cold Embrace protects ally who is focused by Chaos Knight.
* Splinter Blast deals decent area damage to Chaos Knight's illusions.
Slark
* Arctic Burn and Splinter Blast debuffs are dispellable with Dark Pact. Arctic Burn is also no escape against
Pounce.
* Cold Embrace just gives Slark free Essence Shift stacks. He also relies mostly on magic damage early in the game.
Necrophos
[wiki] rating: 0.0 (winrate: 50% pickrate: 3%)Chaos Knight
* Heroes that have high health but little to no magic resistance are easy prey for Necrophos, as no matter how high they build their health up, Reaper's Scythe will kill them outright as long as they fall under a certain threshold, and Heartstopper Aura will deal the same amount of damage regardless, decaying their health the longer they stay within range. As such, Strength heroes like Chaos Knight,
Centaur Warrunner or
Magnus are good targets for his ultimate.
Chaos Knight
* Illusions make it difficult for Necrophos to target his Reaper's Scythe correctly, thus giving illusion heroes like Chaos Knight or
Naga Siren an edge against Necrophos.
Phoenix
[wiki] rating: 0.0 (winrate: 50% pickrate: 9%)Chaos Knight
* Illusion-based heroes such as Naga Siren or
Chaos Knight are vulnerable to Phoenix's DPS and attack speed slow, as their illusions, no matter how many, will be unable to deal enough damage to actually be a threat, and they will all be completely useless against the Supernova.
Slark
* Heroes with blink or movement abilities, which are disabled by Pounce's leash: Anti-Mage,
Earth Spirit,
Faceless Void,
Magnus,
Mirana,
Monkey King,
Morphling,
Pangolier,
Phantom Assassin,
Phoenix,
Puck,
Queen of Pain,
Riki,
Sand King,
Spirit Breaker,
Timbersaw,
Tusk.
Tidehunter
[wiki] rating: 0.0 (winrate: 51% pickrate: 9%)Chaos Knight
* Ravage damages and disables Chaos Knight's army.
* Anchor Smash deals respectable area damage at early levels and lowers Chaos Knight's damage.
* Kraken Shell dispels Chaos Bolt and Reality Rift while providing protection from damage.
Slark
* Dark Pact dispels debuffs from Gush, Anchor Smash and even Ravage if timed correctly.
* Kraken Shell cannot restore attributes stolen by Essence Shift or dispel the leash if he gets
Pounced.
Night Stalker
[wiki] rating: 0.0 (winrate: 53% pickrate: 5%)Slark
* With Dark Ascension he can keep vision on Slark, disabling his Shadow Dance regeneration. Slark is also too weak to seriously threaten Night Stalker in lane.
Chaos Knight
* Reality Rift pulls out Night Stalker while he tries to escape or chase.
* Night Stalker doesn't have a lot of ways to deal with multiple targets, which makes him vulnerable to Phantasm illusions from early to mid game, until Night Stalker buys
Aghanim's Scepter.
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.
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Chaos Knight
*
Phantasms can be easily killed with Purification.
Chaos Bolt and the armor reduction from
Reality Rift.
Purification heals a teammate targeted by Reality Rift and heavily damages Chaos Knight and his illusions in the process.
Guardian Angel blocks all of Chaos Knight's damage for a duration.
* Heavenly Grace dispels the stun from
* Guardian Angel works well against Chaos Knight's overwhelming reliance on physical burst damage.
Additional:
*
*
Slark
* Slark's dependence on Pounce and close range makes him very easy to hit with
Purification.
Guardian Angel.
* Slark's damage, even with a high count of Essence Shift, is easily negated by Omniknight's heals and