* Ball Lightning allows Storm Spirit to close the gap between him and Weaver in no time. Once locked down with certain items, Weaver is extremely fragile to Storm Spirit and his teammates.

* A well-timed Gust will prevent Weaver from escaping, and a silenced Weaver usually dies very quickly.
* Precision Aura easily removes The Swarm beetles or counteracted by Shadow Blade/Silver Edge.
Additional:
* A well-timed Gust followed by Frost Arrows will prevent Weaver from escaping with Shukuchi. A Weaver silenced for more than 3 seconds usually dies very quickly.
* Due to her high attack speed, Drow Ranger can easily kill The Swarm beetles.

* Ball Lightning allow Storm Spirit to bypass Bramble Maze, and zip back into battle if he gets hit by Terrorize.

* Gust can hit Dark Willow beyond a defensive Bramble Maze, and before she gets close enough to hit Drow Ranger with Bedlam.
* Drow Ranger's long range allows her to hit Dark Willow's team without venturing into her Bramble Maze.

* A well timed Gust will push Monkey King off a tree while also silencing him.
* A well placed Multishot will hit Monkey King in the trees, perhaps making it possible to finish a kill after he jumps into the trees.
* Marksmanship procs ignore the extra armor granted by Wukong's Command, and with a Dragon Lance, Drow can usually hit Monkey King without entering the field of clones, even disregarding any Black King Bar he may have bought.
* A well placed Gust can push Monkey King out of Wukong's Command, ending it prematurely.
Additional:
* A well timed Gust will push Monkey King off a tree while also silencing him.
* A well placed Multishot will hit Monkey King in the trees, perhaps making it possible to finish a kill after he jumps into the trees.
* Marksmanship procs ignore the extra armor granted by Wukong's Command, and with a Dragon Lance, Drow can usually hit Monkey King without entering the field of clones, even disregarding any Black King Bar he may have bought.
* A well placed Gust can push Monkey King out of Wukong's Command, ending it prematurely.

* Ball Lightning allows Storm Spirit to destroy a large amount of trees, negating Tree Dance. It also makes it easy to avoid Wukong's Command and Boundless Strike.
Additional:
* Ball Lightning allows Storm Spirit to easily catch up to Monkey King, destroying a large number of trees, cancelling Tree Dance, and causing Monkey King to be stunned in the process.

* Drow Ranger can use Gust to push back Juggernaut before he can get in range to use Omnislash or Blade Fury.

* Heroes with escaping and disjointing abilities can be good against Juggernaut: Riki, Queen of Pain, Puck, Storm Spirit, Ember Spirit, Slark etc.

* Marksmanship allows Drow Ranger to pierce Terrorblade's high natural base armor. Since Terrorblade doesn't like to buy armor items like Assault Cuirass, that makes him very vulnerable to Drow.

* Terrorblade has low mobility, which makes it easy for Storm Spirit to kite him.
* Terrorblade gains a lot of agility and gains very low strength, which makes it easy to burst him down with Storm's magical damage.
* All of Terrorblade's abilities are easily avoided by Storm Spirit as he can simply use Ball Lightning, wasting the duration of Metamorphosis, Conjure Image, and Reflection.
* However, if Storm Spirit's Orchid Malevolence is on cooldown or if he doesn't have it, Terrorblade can easily use Sunder and kill a careless Storm Spirit.
Additional:
* Storm Spirit heavy magic damage bypass Terroblade high armor.
* Ball Lightning can either use to initiates Terroblade from distance or kite Terroblade from using Sunder as he has no source of disable to deal with Storm Spirit.

* As a spellcaster, silences will nullify him entirely. Some notable examples are Death Prophet, Drow Ranger, Bloodseeker, Disruptor and many others.
* Doom, as usual, fits this description nicely.

* 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.

* Escape-type carries: Slark, Storm Spirit, Weaver.

* Every hero that can withstand or prevent Eclipse at level 7: Juggernaut, Riki, Clockwerk, Drow Ranger, Abaddon, Faceless Void, Weaver, Outworld Destroyer.

* Powerful physical hitters that can destroy Pangolier during his rolling from afar: Drow Ranger, Sniper, Templar Assassin, Arc Warden

* Heroes with considerable mobility can easily escape from a rolling Pangolier: Anti-Mage, Queen of Pain, Void Spirit, Storm Spirit, Ember Spirit, Earth Spirit, moreover, if a player is familiar with how Rolling Thunder work, they can adjust their movement to avoid it entirely and of course outplay the Pangolier player.

* Any hero that can outrange Plague Ward can neutralize them without putting themselves at risk of receiving Poison Sting: Arc Warden, Chen, Clinkz, Drow Ranger, Lina, Mirana, Nature's Prophet, Pugna and Sniper.
* Special mention to heroes has attack range talent can also outrange Plague Ward.

* Squishy heroes or heroes without hard disables or silences: Shadow Demon, Shadow Fiend, Venomancer, Ancient Apparition etc.

* Just like Batrider, his Ball Lightning can be used clear Nature's Prophet's treants and easily destroys Sprout.
* Electric Vortex prevents Nature's Prophet's escaping from Teleportation.

* Ember Spirit greatly relies on his spells to engage in battle. Drow Ranger can simply silence him with Gust and make him useless for a few seconds, which Ember Spirit cannot afford during a teamfight.

* Storm Spirit is not only a potent Orchid Malevolence carrier, his Electric Vortex provides an additional disable and Overload provides a great slow. When paired with Static Remnant, they can cut through Flame Guard fast.
* Ball Lightning not only provides great initiation upon Ember Spirit from any position anytime, but also helps dodge Sleight of Fist.

* A well-timed Gust will prevent Rubick from casting abilities from Spell Steal, and his lack of capabilities and low health pool usually dies very quickly.
* Drow Ranger can dispel Fade Bolt's reduction debuff with Manta Style.

* Storm Spirit can easily make his way to hoodwink with his ultimate Ball lightning. Due to Hoodwink's low HP and magic resistance, she can be nuked easily by him.

* Ball Lightning disjoints an incoming Magic Missile, avoids Wave Of Terror, and allows Storm Spirit to easily escape if he ever gets Nether Swapped.

* Ball Lightning allows Storm Spirit to escape through Viper Strike, wasting Viper's mana.
* It's also very easy to wait out the duration of Nethertoxin's break until Viper picks the level 25 silence talent.

* Dragon Knight has no built in disengage from Frost Arrows, and Marksmanship procs ignore base armor, bypassing Dragon Knight’s tankiness for the most part, making Drow one of the few heroes that can deal enough sustained damage to solo kill Dragon Knight.
* With Aghanim's Shard, Frost Arrows also apply hypothermia stacks, reducing her target’s regen, which is especially potent against tanks like Dragon Knight. (A similar effect can also be achieved with an Eye of Skadi)
Additional:
* Dragon Knight has no built in disengage from Frost Arrows, and Marksmanship procs ignore base armor, bypassing Dragon Knight’s tankiness for the most part, making Drow one of the few heroes that can deal enough sustained damage to solo kill Dragon Knight.
* With Aghanim's Shard, Frost Arrows also apply hypothermia stacks, reducing her target’s regen, which is especially potent against tanks like Dragon Knight. (A similar effect can also be achieved with an Eye of Skadi)

* Storm Spirit can steal Aegis of the Immortal during Roshan attempts through the Pit, because of his Ball Lightning.
* Ursa has no way to catch a slippery Storm Spirit, as Earthshock's slow will do nothing to stop Storm Spirit from using Ball Lightning.

* In the early to mid game, Invoker is defenseless against Storm Spirit's ganking with Ball Lightning and Orchid Malevolence.

* Heroes with silence: Death Prophet, Riki, Drow Ranger.

* Ball Lightning makes Storm Spirit a target difficult to chase, even for a hero as mobile as Timbersaw.
* The magical damage from Static Remnant and Overload together with Storm Spirit's high mobility allows Storm Spirit to jump on Timbersaw and burst him down, even if he tries to escape.

* Storm Spirit is invulnerable during Ball Lightning, rendering Rupture ineffective against him.
Additional:
* Storm Spirit is invulnerable during Ball Lightning, allowing him to zip away from any ganking attempts with Rupture.
* Ball Lightning also prevents Bloodseeker from chasing down an injured Storm Spirit, or catching him in Blood Rite.

* Ancient Apparition's only skill to stop Storm Spirit is Cold Feet, which is bad in general when trying to stop a Storm Spirit without any other disable.
* As a fragile support with low Strength gain and no magic resistance, Ancient Apparition is vulnerable to Storm Spirit's combos.

* Using Ball Lightning with proper timing, Storm Spirit can protect himself from Malefice's instances, disjoint Demonic Conversion's attack projectiles, get out of Midnight Pulse's radius or even dodge a Black Hole.
* An isolated Enigma in the early game can be easily killed by Storm Spirit thanks his higher mobility and dueling potential. However, Storm Spirit can be killed when caught by Enigma's full combo, especially if Enigma has Black King Bar.
* Storm can kill all of Enigma's Eidolons relatively quickly without much risk, slowing down Enigma's farming speed, preventing him from split pushing, and giving Storm its considerable bounty- especially if Enigma chooses the Level 25 Talent that gives him more Eidelons.

* Heroes with teleports to escape Will-O-Wisp: Phantom Assassin, Puck, Queen of Pain, Storm Spirit

* Long ranged heroes like Sniper or Drow Ranger can kite Tiny effectively if he doesn't get the jump on them first.

* 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.

* Squishy heroes or heroes without hard disables or silences: Shadow Demon, Shadow Fiend, Venomancer, Ancient Apparition etc.

* Heroes with mobility spells can quickly escape from Stroke of Fate or break out of Soulbind: Anti-Mage, Queen of Pain, Morphling, Storm Spirit

* Heroes with high mobility will be able to avoid Gyrocopter's area attacks: Storm Spirit, Morphling, Ember Spirit

* Heroes with invisibility and high mobility can jump on and focus down Earthshaker before he has a chance to initiate: Clinkz, Slark, Storm Spirit

* Windranger heavily relies on her abilities for any form of tactical advantage and damage. A well timed silence will make her useless: Puck,Silencer, Death Prophet, Skywrath Mage, Drow Ranger, Earth Spirit, Grimstroke.

* Heroes with low health and low armor: Clinkz, Crystal Maiden.

* Heroes that have superior mobility that can easily catch up with Mirana even after she used Leap to escape: Anti-Mage, Queen of Pain, Storm Spirit, Riki.

* Gust prevents Mirana from escaping away from Leap and Moonlight Shadow before she builds defensive items.
* On the other hand, Mirana can Leap or close the gap with Moonlight Shadow to disable Drow Ranger's Marksmanship bonus.

* This is especially true against Visage's Summon Familiars.
* Armed with an Aghanim's Scepter and a Maelstrom or its upgrade Mjollnir, Drow Ranger becomes quite potent against summons and illusions.
* This is especially true against Visage's Summon Familiars.

* Heroes that are naturally hard to gank, ranging from beefy tanks like Abaddon and Wraith King to heroes with quick escape mechanisms like Anti-Mage and Storm Spirit are also undesirable targets for a lone, roaming Bounty Hunter to scout out and initiate on.

* Heroes with low health and low armor: Clinkz, Crystal Maiden.

* Storm Spirit's abilities all do magical damage, which can bypass Bulwark.
* Ball Lightning can escape through Arena of Blood and it is easy to dodge Spear of Mars.
Additional:
* Ball Lightning makes it almost impossible to catch Storm Spirit without someone else initiating for you.
* Overload is not reduced by Bulwark and the magical damage spam can wear down Mars quickly.

* Pugna is a very fragile hero who can easily get caught and killed by Storm Spirit's long range initiation.
* This is especially true if he has Orchid Malevolence or Scythe of Vyse.
* Pugna has no disables that can prevent Storm Spirit from escaping.
* Even though Ball Lightning requires high amount of mana, Nether Ward is ineffective since Storm Spirit is invulnerable while using it.
* Storm Spirit's other abilities cost very insignificant amount of mana for Nether Ward to be effective.

* Drow Ranger can be difficult to get on top of, thanks to her Frost Arrows and Gust. With these two abilities, Drow Ranger is able to effectively 'kite' Doom and minimize his impact during team fights and laning stage.
* Much of Drow Ranger's effectiveness comes from her passive, which is not disabled by Doom.

* Any heroes with silences can negate the majority of Outworld Devourer's damage output: Death Prophet, Night Stalker, Drow Ranger, Doom .

* 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.

* Squishy heroes or heroes without hard disables or silences: Shadow Demon, Shadow Fiend, Venomancer, Ancient Apparition etc.

Additional:
* Shadow Demon will have a hard time catching a Storm Spirit, as he can get away with Ball Lightning.
* Static Remnant will make quick work of the spawned illusions from Disruption.
* With very high mobility and usually being paired with Orchid Malevolence, he can catch Shadow Demon with ease both in ganks and in teamfights if Shadow Demon has no survivability items.

* None of Anti-Mage's skills are that effective against Drow Ranger. Gust prevents him from Blinking in or out, Counterspell is totally useless against Drow's physical damage, and as she usually doesn't have a high mana pool, Mana Break and Mana Void don't do much either.
* If Anti-Mage is going for Heart of Tarrasque and Black King Bar, heroes that do heavy damage-per-second are needed.
* Be careful however that Anti-Mage may eventually farm enough to Blink on top of you and kill you straight away, considering you have no natural tools to escape from him.

* Sniper is very squishy and cannot deal with heroes that jump onto him and lock him down. Storm Spirit closes the gap in a fight against Sniper, and Sniper has no way to escape except for some items.
* Storm Spirit can dodge Assassinate with a correctly timed Ball Lightning.
Additional:
* Storm Spirit can close the distance towards Sniper very easily with his ultimate Ball Lightning.

* Storm Spirit destroys trees and ignores impassable terrains with Ball Lightning, rendering them dangerous places for Tinker to hide within.
* Ball Lightning disjoints projectile from Heat-Seeking Missile and damage from March of the Machines.
* Electric Vortex prevents Tinker from teleporting away, and Static Remnant and Overload can easily burst him down.
Additional:
* He can easily catch Tinker in the trees with Ball Lightning and kill him with Orchid Malevolence and his abilities, which deal both physical and magical damage, making them difficult for Tinker to itemize against.

* Ball Lightning with or without the Static Remnant talent allows Storm Spirit to destroy Phantom Lancer's illusions quickly. It is also easy to dodge Spirit Lance with Ball Lightning and makes Spirit Storm very hard to catch even with Phantom Rush.
Additional:
* Ball Lightning destroys illusions, avoids Spirit Lance, and makes Storm Spirit very hard to catch, even with Phantom Rush.

* Heroes that usually builds Linken's Sphere as a core item: Weaver, Medusa, Morphling, Queen of Pain, Storm Spirit

* Storm Spirit can hunt down Arc Warden with his Ball Lightning and kill him quickly due to his lack of escape abilities.
* None of his abilities are effective against Storm Spirit, as they can be evaded with Ball Lightning.

* With 4 active abilities, Shadow Shaman is weak against silencing foes such as silencer, Drow Ranger and Death Prophet.

* Ball Lightning breaks Static Link.
* Razor has no way to catch a slippery Storm Spirit.

* Heroes with AoE abilities are a bane to Beastmaster's summons: Storm Spirit, Magnus, Pangolier.

* Ball Lightning and Electric Vortex will catch Broodmother before she has a chance to retreat, and is able to catch her through the trees.
* Conversely, Ball Lightning also allows him to easily escape Broodmother, as she has no way to prevent him from using it before getting Orchid Malevolence.