* Lifestealer cannot use Rage, Infest or Open Wounds when affected by Smoke Cloud's silence, and Feast cannot heal him effectively because of the blind, leaving him very weak both offensively and defensively.
* Infest ganks are harder when the enemy team has a Riki, as there are often only four heroes on the map that you can initiate on.

* Smoke Screen prevents Dark Willow from using her close-range bursts with Bedlam.
* Blink Strike lets Riki jump past Bramble Maze.

* Quill Spray's constant AoE damage will hit Dark Willow even in Shadow Realm. Its automatic damage will hurt her if she tries to get close and use Bedlam.

* Heroes with high physical damage can damage Lifestealer more than he can heal: Bristleback, Clinkz, Luna,Shadow Fiend, Slardar

* Clinkz relies heavily on the physical damage provided by Searing Arrows, which completely overrides the capabilities of Rage.
* Open Wounds is near worthless against Clinkz as he can instantly run away with Skeleton Walk before returning later on.
* Clinkz, by nature will often build items that Lifestealer hates dealing with such as physical damage items like Desolator or Daedalus and instant silences or hexes from Bloodthorn and Scythe of Vyse.

* 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.

* Counterspell negates Dark Willow's high magic burst damage. Its active blocks Cursed Crown.
* Blink allows Anti-Mage to dodge Terrorize during its long cast animation, as well as avoiding the obstacles from Bramble Maze. On the other hand, if Anti-Mage gets caught inside Bramble Maze, he's unable to Blink away.
* Dark Willow's chained magic burst requires a lot of mana, setting her up for damaging Mana Voids.

* None of Dark Willow's spells pierce Spell Immunity, making Blade Fury a good counter against her.
* Dark Willow is generally fragile, which results in Omnislash being devastating against her.
* However, if Shadow Realm is activated during Omnislash then the attack damage is negated (though Omnislash can still jump to other enemies).
Additional:
* Blade Fury dispels most of Dark Willow's abilities, allowing Juggernaut to pass through Bramble Maze and cancel out Cursed Crown before the stun occurs.

* Lacking any stun and being heavily dependent on his physical attacks and spell immunity, Lifestealer has no way to stop Black Hole, assuming he does not initiate Enigma first with Abyssal Blade.
* Enigma's abilities, with exception of Malefice, can pierce spell immunity and deal pure damage (and percentage-based damage in Midnight Pulse's case), putting Lifestealer in potentially adverse situations.

* Primal Roar pierces Rage and can disable Lifestealer in fights.

* Fortune's End can easily dispel Cursed Crown before it times out and stuns. He can also save a stunned ally with False Promise.
* Fate's Edict can easily negate Bedlam's over-time damage, since the spell provides no form of control. Similarly, he can also negate the magic burst from Shadow Realm.
* Fortune's End can dispel the fear effect from Terrorize, and it can remove the root from Bramble Maze if you're quick enough. Be mindful that Fortune's End only dispels your allies' debuffs on the primary target.
Additional:
* Fortune's End not being disjointable is almost an ensured disable if Dark Willow tries to escape with Shadow Realm. Dispels Cursed Crown and Terrorize.
* Fate's Edict negates all her magic damage in case she catches a single hero.
* False Promise's strong dispel removes Dark Willow's disables.

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

* Although he can avoid Eclipse with Rage and Infest, Luna's physical damage can be enough to deal with him.
* Manta Style is a common pick on Luna, which can help her dispel Open Wounds. In addition, Lifestealer is not good against illusions created by Manta Style.

* 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.

* The Swarm is not blocked by Rage and can be used to lower Lifestealer's already low armor, making him even more vulnerable to physical damage.
* Shukuchi renders the Open Wounds slow pretty useless, as it gives Weaver maximum movement speed, allowing him to escape or kite around Lifestealer.
* However, Weaver is a common Linken's Sphere carrier to block and Time Lapse to dispel Open Wounds.
Additional:
* Open Wounds's slow is ignored by Shukuchi.
* Lifestealer has no other lockdown and relies on being on top of enemies; Weaver can kite him with ease.

* Static Link cannot be dispelled by Rage or Infest, so Razor will be able to track Lifestealer down during an attempted escape.
* Storm Surge makes it hard for Lifestealer to catch Razor.
* Static Link can stop Open Wounds from getting any additional lifesteal, but keep in mind Lifestealer can still utilize Feast.
* Eye of the Storm penetrates the spell immunity of Rage.

* Ice Blast prevents Lifestealer from lifestealing and healing with Infest in fights.

* Reverse Polarity pierces through Rage, wasting part of it's duration.
* Magnus is tanky and mobile hero and hard for Lifestealer to focus and kill in all stages of a game.

* Last Word and Arcane Curse have the range to hit Dark Willow beyond Bramble Maze.
* Global Silence renders Dark Willow useless in teamfights.

* Lifestealer's low mobility makes him easy to kite.
* Stone Gaze pierces Rage, wasting its cooldown and making Lifestealer unable to fight.

* Lifestealer's Feast will most likely not out-heal the damage from Fury Swipes and Overpower in the early to mid game.
Additional:
* Lifestealer can't fight Ursa in any stage of the game because of his high physical damage with Fury Swipes and Overpower.

* Aside from his ultimate, Lifestealer has no AoE abilities to deal with Phantom Lancer's illusions, nor does he have the mobility to escape Phantom Rush.
* Doppelganger dispels Open Wounds.
Additional:
* Doppelganger dispels Open Wounds.
* Lifestealer has no way of dealing with Phantom Lancer's illusions.
* Phantom Lancer also commonly builds Diffusal Blade, which poses a large problem to Lifestealer and his low mana pool.

* 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.

* Terrorblade's illusions and ranged attacks in Metamorphosis can burst down Lifestealer very quickly.
* Terrorblade has low health due to his low strength gain, which reduces Feast's lifesteal and damage.
* Terrorblade's high armor makes Lifestealer's Desolator useless.
* Because Lifestealer usually walks around with high HP in fights due to his lifesteal (and sometimes Armlet of Mordiggian), he is a great target for Terrorblade's Sunder.
Additional:
* Reflection's illusion carries Feast as well, making it useful in fights.
* Open Wounds is a lot harder to land on the real Terrorblade if he has illusions around him.
* Lifestealer relies on right-clicks to deal damage, and Terrorblade's high armor can reduce his damage by quite a bit.

* Lifestealer is a great target for Morphling to use Morph, as he can use Rage to gain spell immunity and a movement speed boost.

* Melee heroes that get kited easily have hard times dealing with Puck without any lockdowns, as Puck is one of the most mobile heroes. Heroes like Sven, Lifestealer, Ursa and Alchemist may have problems to get to Puck without proper initiation items. They also lack reliable lockdowns, as their disables are easily avoidable for Puck, or are just a soft disable.

* All of Puck's abilities are area-targeted, and will hit Dark Willow when she uses Shadow Realm.
* Illusory Orb allows Puck to bypass Bramble Maze, close the gap and silence Dark Willow with Waning Rift.
* Phase Shift helps Puck dodge attacks charged by Shadow Realm, and is easily timed against Terrorize's long cast time..

* Flame Guard blocks Dark Willow's magical burst damage, and harms her if she tries to get close to attack with Bedlam.
* Sleight of Fist and Fire Remnant makes it hard for Dark Willow to fully disable Ember Spirit.

* Since Untouchable pierce Spell immunity, Lifestealer cannot burst her down even with Rage ; meaning she can heal herself back to full HP.

* Heroes with summonns: Lycan, Broodmother, Visage.

* With the exception of Magic Missile (unless the player takes the Level 25 Talent "Magic Missile Pierces Spell Immunity"), all of Vengeful Spirit's spells ignore Spell Immunity. This also makes her good against heroes with built-in Spell Immunity like Lifestealer or Juggernaut or heroes that tend to pick up Black King Bar, like Sven.

* Heroes with spell immunity can still be disabled by Fiend's Grip: Juggernaut, Lifestealer, Pangolier.

Additional:
* Fiend's Grip can disable Lifestealer through Rage.

* Heroes with high burst damage and Black King Bar can take down Dark Willow quickly: Phantom Assassin, Sven, Wraith King

* Heroes with high physical damage can damage Lifestealer more than he can heal: Bristleback, Clinkz, Luna,Shadow Fiend, Slardar

* Heroes with summonns: Lycan, Broodmother, Visage.

* Heroes who can silence will shut down Dark Willow entirely: Death Prophet, Silencer, Drow Ranger

* Many physical-only single-target heroes like Lifestealer, Sven, Wraith King, Phantom Assassin etc.

* Heroes who can delivers a big chunk of damage in few hits will find themselves struggle against Templar Assassin's Refraction: Sven, Phantom Assassin, Ursa, Wraith King, Lifestealer

* Heroes with illusions: Chaos Knight, Naga Siren, Phantom Lancer

* Heroes with high physical damage can damage Lifestealer more than he can heal: Bristleback, Clinkz, Luna,Shadow Fiend, Slardar

* Heroes with high burst damage and Black King Bar can take down Dark Willow quickly: Phantom Assassin, Sven, Wraith King

* Heroes that rely on physical damage are ineffective against Dragon Knight due to his high armor: Phantom Assassin,Bloodseeker, Lifestealer, Troll Warlord

* Melee carries such as Sven, Ursa or Lifestealer can be slowed and easily kited with Demonic Purge.

* Sprout is good for trapping melee carries with no escape abilities: Sven, Ursa, Alchemist, Lifestealer etc.