* Arcane Orb's pure damage ignores Mars' Bulwark.
* Astral Imprisonment can be used to stop Mars from being disruptive or save allies from his abilities.
* Sanity's Eclipse deals high damage to Mars, due to his low intelligence.

* The pure damage provided by Arcane Orb is a great addition for killing Ember Spirit.
* Astral Imprisonment fully negates all magic damage of Flame Guard and Searing Chains and will temporarily save himself from Sleight of Fist's physical damage, and Ember Spirit is not a hero that can counter these skills.

* Burning Spear's magical damage is very troublesome for Mars in the laning stage.
* Life Break's percentage-based magical damage bypasses Bulwark, and can also be used to jump in or out of Arena Of Blood.

* Ember Spirit does minimal damage to Huskar until the very late game.

* Shadowraze can easily remove the protection from Flame Guard and kill Ember Spirit due to his low health.
* Ember Spirit is very vulnerable to physical damage from Necromastery.

* If Mars lanes middle, Shadow Fiend can keep the lane pushed against him.
* Shadow Fiend can go an entirely magical based build, which is very effective against Mars.

* Time Walk allows Faceless Void to escape or enter Arena Of Blood, and helps him recover from Mars' burst damage.
* Time Lock's magical damage ignores Bulwark.
* Chronosphere allows Faceless Void to reposition behind Mars, ignoring his Bulwark while he is helplessly frozen in time.
Additional:
* Time Dilation while Spear of Mars and God's Rebuke are on cooldown will make these abilities unusable for a long time, rendering Mars nearly useless.
* Mars cannot turn inside the Chronosphere, which makes it easy to attack him from the back, bypassing Bulwark completely.

* Faceless Void is one of the best heroes against Ember Spirit, providing a lot of ways of dealing with him. Ember Spirit becomes a lot weaker if affected by Time Dilation, as he can no longer spam Sleight of Fist.
* Chronosphere is also a reliable lockdown for Ember Spirit, although it can be evaded sometimes by Activate Fire Remnant. Additionally, Void can easily negate Sleight of Fist damage with Time Walk.
* And finally, Void is a great Diffusal Blade carrier. Not only Manabreak's physical damage not negated by Flame Guard, but it also burns Ember Spirit's mana. That, in turn, prevents him from escaping if he survived Chronosphere.

* With Vendetta, Nyx Assassin can move closely to Ember Spirit when he's farming with his Flame Guard and use Spiked Carapace with Impale to provide a reliable and long disable.
* Mana Burn is also good, as Ember Spirit relies on his limited mana pool for the early to midgame.
Additional:
* Spiked Carapace can be easily triggered by Flame Guard or Battle Fury, setting up a deadly Impale.

* Heroes with break abilities: Nyx Assassin, Shadow Demon (with Aghanim's Scepter), Viper.

* Heroes with high magical or pure damage will bypass Bulwark: Timbersaw, Dark Willow, Enigma, Invoker, Pugna, Skywrath Mage, Tinker, Zeus, Oracle.

* Oracle can shut down both of Ember's early game abilities. Fortune's End can dispel Flame Guard on Ember Spirit and Searing Chains on allies.
* When Ember Spirit is affected by Fortune's End, his Fire Remnants move at 0 movement speed.
* Disarming him with Fate's Edict does affect Ember's Sleight of Fist ability, possibly making him useless for a few seconds in the late game without a dispel or spell immunity. This is especially good if he has a rapier or two. However, positioning for this is difficult when Ember plays far back.

* The pure damage provided by Purification is a great addition for killing Ember Spirit, as well as a good way of saving teammates.
* Guardian Angel will temporarily save his allies from Sleight of Fist's physical damage, and Ember Spirit is not a hero that will get Orchid Malevolence to counter it.

* Heroes that can save their allies can be a big problem for Mars: Dazzle, Omniknight.

* Kunkka's Ghostship and Torrent disrupt fights in Arena Of Blood.

* Using X Marks the spot Kunkka can prevent Ember Spirit from escaping with Activate Fire Remnant, until he purchase Eul's Scepter of Divinity or Linken's Sphere.

* Firestorm and Pit of Malice are very disruptive in team fights, completely matching Mars especially since it can all be cast inside Arena Of Blood and also does percentage-based magical damage, negating Bulwark.
* Dark Rift can save any allies of Underlord trapped in Arena Of Blood.
* Atrophy Aura allows Underlord to lane against Mars quite well since he does not have the best base damage during the early game.
* Underlord is a common carrier of both Pipe of Insight and Mekansm/Guardian Greaves, allowing his team to combat Mars in the mid to late game.

* Mars has no way to trade with Ogre Magi in the early game thanks to his high base health, resistance and Ignite.
* Once Ogre Magi gets level 2 he may also have Bloodlust, which makes him even harder to deal with in lane.
* Fireblast can be ridiculously strong later on in the game for controlling Mars.
* Spear of Mars, which is Mars' main source of damage in the early game, cannot guarantee kills early on Ogre Magi.

* Nether Blast, Decrepify and Life Drain deal high magical damage and bypasses Bulwark.
* Nether Ward reduces the amount of abilities Mars can use during fights and forces Mars to be careful about the heavy mana cost of Arena Of Blood.
* Pugna is one of few heroes that can contest Mars' ability to push and defend towers early on.

* Venomancer's spells all deal magical damage, ignoring Bulwark.
* Venomancer's multiple slows are especially effective at kiting Mars.
* Plague Wards can attack through Arena Of Blood.
Additional:
* Venomancer's poison attacks are all magical damage, ignoring Bulwark.
* Venomancer's multiple slows are especially effective against Mars' low mobility.
* Plague Wards can attack through Arena of Blood.

* 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.

* 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.

* Global Silence and Last Word can prevent Ember Spirit from casting Activate Fire Remnant to escape.
* Glaives of Wisdom also provide high pure damage that is not negated by Flame Guard.
* Arcane Curse is also a potent harassing tool in the laning stage as its cooldown is lower than Flame Guard's.

* Berserker's Call forces Mars to face in the direction choosen.
* Counter Helix is a much stronger lane trader than Spear of Mars.

* Mars' own father is a formidable foe because Zeus deals mostly magical damage. The high damage, low cooldown nukes of Arc Lightning and Lightning Bolt combined with the percent health magic damage of Static Field will shred Mars' health because it bypasses Bulwark completely.

* Necrophos' largely magical damage completely ignores Bulwark.
* Ghost Shroud protects Necrophos from God's Rebuke but more importantly stops Mars from being a threat in lane.

* Decay, Soul Rip and Flesh Golem all deal magical damage which ignores Bulwark.
* Decay reduces Mars' natural strength and therefore his health pool, which is what he relies on to trade effectively in lane.

* Lion possesses two strong disables in Earth Spike and Hex and heavy magic burst with Finger of Death which help lock him down and prevent him from escaping with Activate Fire Remnant. When getting his Blink Dagger Lion can punish Ember Spirit's overextension immediately, or initiate a fight on him with disables.
Additional:
* Ember lacks any protection against Lion's disables early in the game and often does not acquire any later, allowing Lion to Hex or Earth Spike him before he escapes through his Fire Remnant.
* Although Flame Guard can prevent magic damage, it does not stop Lion's disables, and Lion can usually break through it with Finger of Death.

* 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.

* Nethertoxin breaks the damage block from Bulwark.
* Poison Attack and Viper Strike's slows make it difficult for Mars to contribute to fights due to his low mobility.
Additional:
* Nethertoxin breaks Bulwark entirely, making Mars far less tanky. Using Nethertoxin inside Arena of Blood may discourage enemies from following up with Mars' initiation.
* Rod of Atos is currently common on Viper and keeps Mars in position long enough to be killed.
* Viper is not very tanky earlier in the game, so positioning against Mars is important since a well-timed Spear of Mars can be the end of Viper.

* Sticky Napalm slows turn rate, making it difficult for Mars to control the direction he is facing to activate Bulwark.
* Flaming Lasso disables Mars while enemies re-position themselves behind Mars to avoid Bulwark.

* Dragon Slave deals reliable magic damage during the laning phase against Mars.
* Lina's Eul's Scepter of Divinity and Light Strike Array combo can interrupt Mars from being disruptive for a decent amount of time and leave him vulnerable for follow up stuns.
* Laguna Blade deals massive magical damage, and pure damage with Aghanim's Scepter.

* Impetus will deal huge amounts of damage when he uses a Fire Remnant to escape.
* Flame Guard is useless against Impetus.
* Enchant dispels Flame guard.

* Heroes who rely on high mobility are especially vulnerable to Primal Roar: Storm Spirit, Ember Spirit, Queen of Pain.

* Heroes with high magical or pure damage will bypass Bulwark: Timbersaw, Dark Willow, Enigma, Invoker, Pugna, Skywrath Mage, Tinker, Zeus, Oracle.

* Any Hero with high mobility will be neutralized by dream coil: Queen of Pain, Storm Spirit, Ember Spirit, Lycan, Bloodseeker, Anti-Mage, Timbersaw

* Heroes that wish to disrupt fights with spell combos or big ultimates are vulnerable to the long stun of Fiend's Grip: Disruptor, Death Prophet, Enigma, Faceless Void, Invoker, Lich, Magnus, Mars, Medusa, Outworld Destroyer, Phoenix, Puck, Queen of Pain, Shadow Fiend, Treant Protector, Underlord, Winter Wyvern, Witch Doctor, Zeus.

* Heroes with high health especially Strength heroes will take more damage on Sun Ray: Axe, Pudge, Bristleback, Mars.

* Heroes with high magical or pure damage will bypass Bulwark: Timbersaw, Dark Willow, Enigma, Invoker, Pugna, Skywrath Mage, Tinker, Zeus, Oracle.

* Heroes with high magical or pure damage will bypass Bulwark: Timbersaw, Dark Willow, Enigma, Invoker, Pugna, Skywrath Mage, Tinker, Zeus, Oracle.

* Ursa is a special mention because despite his high physical damage attacking from the front won't achieve much against Mars but isn't a great target for Mars either since Ursa is very resistant to damage with Enrage so there isn't much that can be done to stop Ursa from going on your team.

* Heroes with high magical or pure damage will bypass Bulwark: Timbersaw, Dark Willow, Enigma, Invoker, Pugna, Skywrath Mage, Tinker, Zeus, Oracle.

* Heroes that can save their allies can be a big problem for Mars: Dazzle, Omniknight.

* Queen of Pain can be a good hero for dealing with Ember Spirit with Orchid Malevolence, her pure damage nuke in Sonic Wave and a slow in Shadow Strike. However, Queen of Pain can be punished by Ember Spirit, as his Searing Chains prevents her from getting Blink off.

* Medusa's Stone Gaze forces Mars to choose between getting petrified, or turning his vulnerable back on Medusa.

* Bulwark is generally irrelevant against Riki as he primarily deals bonus damage from behind.
Additional:
* Blink Strike gives bonus backstab damage. Along with Tricks of the Trade it completely bypasses Bulwark.

* Ember Spirit's Flame Guard provides no protection against Clinkz's physical damage output.
* Ember Spirit's low armor and health make him easy to kill quickly if a teammate can hold him down.
* If Clinkz has farmed an item that can disable, he can sneak up to and hunt down Ember Spirit while he farms or split pushes alone.

* 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.