Riki
[wiki] rating: 2.0 (winrate: 50% pickrate: 15%)Beastmaster
[wiki] rating: 1.6 (winrate: 56% pickrate: 7%)Skywrath Mage
* 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.
Lifestealer
* Primal Roar pierces Rage and can disable Lifestealer in fights.
Monkey King
[wiki] rating: 1.6 (winrate: 51% pickrate: 17%)Skywrath Mage
* Skywrath Mage's very low health allows Monkey King to ambush and finish him off quickly.
Lifestealer
* Heroes that lack burst damage will have a difficult time taking down Monkey King, and fare badly against Jingu Mastery: Legion Commander,
Lifestealer,
Weaver,
Wraith King
Phantom Lancer
[wiki] rating: 1.6 (winrate: 50% pickrate: 9%)Lifestealer
* 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.
Skywrath Mage
* 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.
Chaos Knight
[wiki] rating: 1.6 (winrate: 49% pickrate: 3%)Skywrath Mage
* 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.
Lifestealer
* 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.
Lycan
[wiki] rating: 1.2 (winrate: 55% pickrate: 4%)Skywrath Mage
* 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.
Lifestealer
* Heroes with summons: Lycan,
Broodmother,
Visage.
Shadow Fiend
[wiki] rating: 1.2 (winrate: 46% pickrate: 18%)Skywrath Mage
* Heroes with a low health pool (Crystal Maiden,
Skywrath Mage etc)
Lifestealer
* Heroes with high physical damage can damage Lifestealer more than he can heal: Bristleback,
Clinkz,
Luna,
Shadow Fiend,
Slardar
Razor
[wiki] rating: 1.0 (winrate: 55% pickrate: 4%)Lifestealer
* 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.
Enigma
[wiki] rating: 1.0 (winrate: 55% pickrate: 6%)Lifestealer
* 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.
Abaddon
[wiki] rating: 1.0 (winrate: 53% pickrate: 4%)Skywrath Mage
* Aphotic Shield removes silences, slows and stuns, possibly foiling a full-duration Mystic Flare.
* Borrowed Time makes it impossible to burst
Abaddon down, even healing him up due to Mystic Flare's damage.
Pugna
[wiki] rating: 1.0 (winrate: 53% pickrate: 4%)Skywrath Mage
* Nether Ward will make Skywrath Mage next to useless in fights, as his low hp pool will not allow him to sustain through the damage of the ward should he choose to cast spells. Be wary though that Skywrath's huge burst will make very quick work of Pugna's low hp should the ward be destroyed, and
Decrepify won't help you at all.
Additional:
* Due to the high mana cost of his spells and the low cool down of them, Nether Ward can seriously damage Skywrath Mage if he isn't careful.
* Skywrath Mage's fragility makes him very susceptible to Pugna's high burst damage.
Wraith King
[wiki] rating: 1.0 (winrate: 52% pickrate: 18%)Skywrath Mage
* In the early-mid game, Skywrath consistently needs to use his entire mana pool to kill a hero, but Wraith King's Reincarnation allows him to finish off Skywrath after the first death, as Skywrath Mage will have likely expended all his mana.
Troll Warlord
[wiki] rating: 1.0 (winrate: 52% pickrate: 9%)Lifestealer
* The passive armor provided by Berserker's Rage makes Troll Warlord resilient to Feast in early game.
* The 60% miss chance given by Whirling Axes (Melee) is useful when Rage is not active.
* Battle Trance can purge Open Wounds, negating a large amount of Lifestealer's sustain in fights.
Ursa
[wiki] rating: 1.0 (winrate: 51% pickrate: 16%)Lifestealer
* 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.
Luna
[wiki] rating: 1.0 (winrate: 50% pickrate: 4%)Lifestealer
* 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.
Slark
[wiki] rating: 1.0 (winrate: 47% pickrate: 13%)Lifestealer
* 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.
Magnus
[wiki] rating: 1.0 (winrate: 46% pickrate: 4%)Lifestealer
* 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.
Medusa
[wiki] rating: 1.0 (winrate: 45% pickrate: 3%)Lifestealer
* Lifestealer's low mobility makes him easy to kite.
* Stone Gaze pierces Rage, wasting its cooldown and making Lifestealer unable to fight.
Faceless Void
[wiki] rating: 1.0 (winrate: 41% pickrate: 4%)Lifestealer
* Chronosphere provides excellent lockdown against Rage.
* Faceless Void's Time Lock stops Lifestealer from getting health regeneration from auto-attacks
Broodmother
[wiki] rating: 0.6 (winrate: 56% pickrate: 2%)Lifestealer
* Heroes with summons: Lycan,
Broodmother,
Visage.
Night Stalker
[wiki] rating: 0.6 (winrate: 53% pickrate: 5%)Skywrath Mage
* Heroes with silence such as Riki,
Silencer, or
Night Stalker prevents Skywrath Mage from using his spells.
Juggernaut
[wiki] rating: 0.6 (winrate: 52% pickrate: 18%)Skywrath Mage
* Skywrath's pitiful defences also make him easy meat to heroes with high physical burst like Juggernaut or
Phantom Assassin, the latter occasionally downing a support Skywrath in a single
Stifling Dagger.
Bane
[wiki] rating: 0.6 (winrate: 51% pickrate: 3%)Lifestealer
* Heroes with spell immunity can still be disabled by Fiend's Grip: Juggernaut,
Lifestealer,
Pangolier.
Additional:
* Fiend's Grip can disable Lifestealer through Rage.
Naga Siren
[wiki] rating: 0.6 (winrate: 51% pickrate: 2%)Lifestealer
* Heroes with illusions: Chaos Knight,
Naga Siren,
Phantom Lancer
Templar Assassin
[wiki] rating: 0.6 (winrate: 51% pickrate: 5%)Lifestealer
* 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
Oracle
[wiki] rating: 0.6 (winrate: 50% pickrate: 9%)Skywrath Mage
* Heroes with little health or magic resistance are easily picked off with Oracle's magic burst, such as Skywrath Mage,
Crystal Maiden, or
Enchantress.
Slardar
[wiki] rating: 0.6 (winrate: 48% pickrate: 6%)Lifestealer
* Heroes with high physical damage can damage Lifestealer more than he can heal: Bristleback,
Clinkz,
Luna,
Shadow Fiend,
Slardar
Dragon Knight
[wiki] rating: 0.6 (winrate: 48% pickrate: 3%)Lifestealer
* Heroes that rely on physical damage are ineffective against Dragon Knight due to his high armor: Phantom Assassin,
Bloodseeker,
Lifestealer,
Troll Warlord
Lone Druid
[wiki] rating: 0.6 (winrate: 48% pickrate: 1%)Skywrath Mage
* Lone Druid's early game is good against slow, squishy supports since his bear is very strong early game and an Entangling Claws proc almost always guarantees a kill: Ancient Apparition,
Crystal Maiden,
Shadow Shaman,
Skywrath Mage etc.
Silencer
[wiki] rating: 0.6 (winrate: 48% pickrate: 7%)Skywrath Mage
* Heroes with silence such as Riki,
Silencer, or
Night Stalker prevents Skywrath Mage from using his spells.
Shadow Demon
[wiki] rating: 0.6 (winrate: 48% pickrate: 2%)Lifestealer
* Melee carries such as Sven,
Ursa or
Lifestealer can be slowed and easily kited with Demonic Purge.
Bristleback
[wiki] rating: 0.6 (winrate: 46% pickrate: 9%)Lifestealer
* Heroes with high physical damage can damage Lifestealer more than he can heal: Bristleback,
Clinkz,
Luna,
Shadow Fiend,
Slardar
Meepo
[wiki] rating: 0.6 (winrate: 46% pickrate: 1%)Skywrath Mage
* Skywrath Mage's abilities are single targeted and he can't use Mystic Flare to its fullest potential, since all Meepos spread the damage between them. He also has no disables to prevent Meepo from Poofing to another one (unless he can get
Ancient Seal off first).
Lifestealer
* Lifestealer's Rage and Open wounds become useless when Meepo has 4 or more clones, as Ransack will heal Meepo too quickly for Lifestealer to take down.
Lifestealer
* Lifestealer is not affected by Earthbind or Poof during
Rage, making him a difficult target to work around.
Nature's Prophet
[wiki] rating: 0.6 (winrate: 45% pickrate: 7%)Lifestealer
* Sprout is good for trapping melee carries with no escape abilities: Sven,
Ursa,
Alchemist,
Lifestealer etc.
Clinkz
[wiki] rating: 0.4 (winrate: 52% pickrate: 5%)Lifestealer
* 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.
Skywrath Mage
* Even though Linken's Sphere will block your silence, you can cast Arcane Bolt to break it or wait until someone on your team breaks it. In addition,
Linken's Sphere builders are usually squishy targets vulnerable to silences:
Weaver,
Queen of Pain,
Morphling,
Clinkz, etc. Don't forget that Ancient Seal also increases the magical damage these enemies take, along with silencing them.
Ancient Apparition
[wiki] rating: 0.4 (winrate: 52% pickrate: 9%)Lifestealer
* Ice Blast prevents Lifestealer from lifestealing and healing with Infest in fights.
Skywrath Mage
* Heroes with silence and mana drain abilites, as Ancient Apparition relies entirely on his abilities: Invoker,
Silencer,
Nyx Assassin,
Skywrath Mage,
Shadow Shaman,
Lion and etc.
Weaver
[wiki] rating: 0.4 (winrate: 50% pickrate: 8%)Lifestealer
* 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.
Skywrath Mage
* Even though Linken's Sphere will block your silence, you can cast Arcane Bolt to break it or wait until someone on your team breaks it. In addition,
Linken's Sphere builders are usually squishy targets vulnerable to silences:
Weaver,
Queen of Pain,
Morphling,
Clinkz, etc. Don't forget that Ancient Seal also increases the magical damage these enemies take, along with silencing them.
Additional:
* Arcane Bolt has a long range and a low cooldown, and is a great spell to waste Linken's Sphere. It also serves as an effective spell to harass Weaver with.
* Ancient Seal prevents Weaver from using Shukuchi or Time Lapse.
Windranger
[wiki] rating: 0.4 (winrate: 50% pickrate: 16%)Lifestealer
* Lifestealer relies on Open Wounds to slow enemies to burst them, but Windranger can use Windrun to escape through Open Wounds duration.
* Windrun and
Focus Fire can easily allow Windranger to kite Lifestealer and do good amounts of damage in the process.
Skywrath Mage
* Since Windranger is bad against magical damage, heroes with continuous magical damage or magical nukes can blast her: Zeus,
Tinker,
Leshrac,
Viper,
Skywrath Mage,
Lion,
Lina,
Venomancer.
Anti-Mage
[wiki] rating: 0.4 (winrate: 47% pickrate: 14%)Skywrath Mage
* Counterspell gives Anti-Mage magic resistance to negate a majority of Skywraith Mage's magical damage.
* Anti-Mage often builds Black King Bar and
Manta Style which can dispel Ancient Seal and Concussive Shot.
* Huge mana cost on Mystic Flare means easy target for Mana Void.
* However, Anti-Mage is weak early-game to Ancient Seal until he can dispel silences, but still, Skywrath's solo kill potential is very low.
Skywrath Mage
* Heroes with abilities or items that can silence or disable Anti-Mage for long periods of time will prevent him from Blinking away: Silencer,
Shadow Shaman,
Grimstroke,
Clinkz,
Riki,
Faceless Void,
Skywrath Mage,
Puck
Enchantress
[wiki] rating: 0.4 (winrate: 40% pickrate: 1%)Lifestealer
* Since Untouchable pierce Spell immunity, Lifestealer cannot burst her down even with
Rage ; meaning she can heal herself back to full HP.
Skywrath Mage
* Heroes with nukes: Bane,
Lich,
Lion,
Skywrath Mage
Additional:
* Untouchable is useless versus constant Arcane Bolts, and it doesn't help that her strength gain is the lowest in the game.
* A jungle Enchantress can weaken lanes and make Skywrath Mage's job easier.
* The magic amplification from Ancient Seal makes her even squishier to Skywrath and his allies' magic nukes.
Earthshaker
[wiki] rating: -2.0 (winrate: 50% pickrate: 15%)Lifestealer
* Rage prevents Earthshaker from damaging and stunning Lifestealer.
* Feast is very effective against Earthshaker, because of him being a strength hero, allowing Lifestealer to heavily harass and kill him.
* Open Wounds prevents Earthshaker from escaping after he initiated.
* Infest gives Lifestealer an easy way to escape should he get caught out by Earthshaker.
Skywrath Mage
* Arcane Bolt allows Skywrath Mage to harass Earthshaker out of lane.
* Ancient Seal is an instant silence that can be pre-cast onto Earthshaker to disrupt his combo, before he uses
Blink Dagger to initiate.
* Mystic Flare will nuke Earthshaker down while he stands in place during his long cast animations.
Jakiro
[wiki] rating: -2.0 (winrate: 50% pickrate: 10%)Lifestealer
* Rage grants Lifestealer immunity to all of Jakiro's spells. Note: magic resistance will not dispel the attack speed slow effects from Dual Breath and Liquid Fire.
Skywrath Mage
* Ancient Seal can silence Jakiro up to 6 seconds. Also, it makes Jakiro vulnerable to magical spells.
* Skywrath Mage can burst down Jakiro with his high damage magical spells.
Alchemist
[wiki] rating: -2.0 (winrate: 53% pickrate: 7%)Lifestealer
* Feast is good against high health strength heroes such as Alchemist.
* Rage allows Lifestealer to not be targetable by Unstable Concoction, possibly making Alchemist stun himself.
Skywrath Mage
* Skywrath Mage can easily harass Alchemist in the laning phase with multiple Arcane Bolts. Additionally, if Alchemist is in the process of throwing an Unstable Concoction, and has no way to dispel Ancient Seal, the self stun becomes an easy set up for Mystic Flare.
* Caution, however, as a decently farmed Alchemist with {Item ID:Radiance} and {Item ID:Manta Style} can easily send illusions to harass and force Skywrath Mage out.
Techies
[wiki] rating: -1.6 (winrate: 48% pickrate: 7%)Skywrath Mage
* In general, heroes such as Lion,
Silencer,
Skywrath Mage,
Sven,
Ogre Magi and others with reliable disables are crucial to killing Techies before they can suicide.
Lifestealer
* Lifestealer's Rage lets him clear Remote Mines and Proximity Mines with proper vision.
Additional:
* Rage protects Lifestealer from all of Techies' magic damage and disables and dispels Stasis Trap's debuff .
* Usually teams will have a hard time pushing high-ground against Techies, but Lifestealer can just pop Rage and walk uphill without fear of Techies.
Zeus
[wiki] rating: -1.6 (winrate: 48% pickrate: 9%)Lifestealer
* Rage is very useful against Zeus, as it negates magic damage and provides spell immunity. In addition, the increased attack speed can tear Zeus apart in combination with
Open Wounds.
* Lifestealer can avoid Thundergod's Wrath with Infest.
Skywrath Mage
* Heroes with long range abilities are also able to touch Zeus, such as Clockwerk,
Kunkka,
Puck,
Skywrath Mage,
Spirit Breaker,
Tusk and others.
Clockwerk
[wiki] rating: -1.6 (winrate: 50% pickrate: 7%)Skywrath Mage
* Skywrath Mage's
Mystic Flare can deal huge damage to Clockwerk inside his Power Cogs.
Lifestealer
* With Feast and
Rage, Lifestealer is nearly impossible for Clockwerk to bring down, and is the last hero Clockwerk wants to be trapped with in Power Cogs.
Phoenix
[wiki] rating: -1.2 (winrate: 50% pickrate: 9%)Lifestealer
* Heroes with spell immunity-granting spells will render Phoenix useless against them, as Phoenix has almost no spell immunity-piercing ability, other than the stun at the end of Supernova: Lifestealer,
Juggernaut.
Skywrath Mage
* Silence (and mana burns) will be a persistent problem for Phoenix, as it is heavily reliant on its abilities whether defensively or offensively, so heroes like Death Prophet,
Skywrath Mage, and even
Nyx Assassin must be closely observed to prevent being shut down by these heroes.
* Hexes are a greater threat to Phoenix as they also disable items, preventing Phoenix from dispelling the debuff on its own.
Sven
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 43% pickrate: 1%)Lifestealer
* Lifestealer excels at killing high health heroes with Feast, and Sven is no exception.
* Rage stops Storm Hammer from hitting Lifestealer.
* Rage and
Open Wounds helps Lifestealer survive against Sven's high physical damage.
Kunkka
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 44% pickrate: 4%)Lifestealer
* Rage negates Kunkka's X Marks the Spot.
* As a strength hero with high strength gain and very little armor, as well as low agility gain, Kunkka is vulnerable to Lifestealer's Feast and
Open Wounds.
Tiny
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 45% pickrate: 6%)Lifestealer
* Feast will deal a large amount of damage to Tiny's large health pool.
* Rage protects Lifestealer from Tiny's magical burst damage.
Lina
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 45% pickrate: 10%)Lifestealer
* Rage protects Lifestealer from all of Lina's abilities (except an upgraded Laguna Blade).
* Open Wounds is great to keep Lina in place because she has no abilities to help her escape.
Keeper of the Light
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 46% pickrate: 6%)Lifestealer
* Rage allows him to dispel Blinding Light from himself.
* Open Wounds allows him to slow and kill Keeper of the Light.
Pudge
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 46% pickrate: 19%)Lifestealer
* The lifesteal of Feast scales accordingly to the health of its target, which is effective against Pudge due to his high health and further health granted by stacks of Flesh Heap.
* Lifestealer can activate Rage to completely negate magic damage, therefore rendering the damage of Rot and Dismember null.
* Pudge's plentiful health makes him an ideal target for Open Wounds.
Doom
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 46% pickrate: 3%)Lifestealer
* Feast deals damage and heals Lifestealer based on the target's maximum HP, which is greatly effective against naturally high HP heroes such as Doom.
* Rage allows Lifestealer to become spell immune to negate the magical damage of Infernal Blade and Scorched Earth.
* Doom has no effective means of escape from Open Wounds. This is particularly devastating in lane, where Doom may have to play a much more passive, conservative play style as a result.
Brewmaster
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 47% pickrate: 1%)Skywrath Mage
* Ancient Seal's instant cast time will often silence Brewmaster before he can do anything.
* Brewmaster also has no defense against Skywrath Mage's massive magical damage.
Viper
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 47% pickrate: 5%)Lifestealer
* Rage ignores all of Viper's magical damage.
* Feast and
Open Wounds combine to heal through Viper's physical damage.
Axe
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 47% pickrate: 9%)Lifestealer
* Feast's lifesteal makes it nearly impossible for Axe to initiate and bring Lifestealer's health low enough for Culling Blade, even with many procs of Counter Helix.
* Feast's damage is calculated as a percentage of health, turning Axe's high health against him. This allow Lifestealer to hit Axe much harder than most other heroes.
Additional:
* Feast makes it impossible to put Lifestealer's health for a Culling Blade and also deals high damage to Axe due to his naturally high health.
* However, Lifestealer's Rage can be pierced by Berserker's Call.
Gyrocopter
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 47% pickrate: 2%)Lifestealer
* Rage ignores all of Gyrocopter's magical attacks.
* Feast helps Lifestealer out-damage Gyrocopter at close range.
Legion Commander
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 47% pickrate: 12%)Skywrath Mage
* Mystic Flare can easily burst down Legion Commander while she is Dueling.
Sniper
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 48% pickrate: 6%)Lifestealer
* Lifestealer can close the distance to Sniper by using Infest on a fast or durable creep to tank Sniper's damage.
* Open Wounds will reduce Sniper's mobility heavily, and
Rage's attack speed bonus helps in taking down Sniper.
Timbersaw
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 48% pickrate: 7%)Skywrath Mage
* Skywrath Mage's long range and low cooldown magic damage spells can easily harass Timbersaw out of lane.
* Ancient Seal is not only a long lasting silence, (one of Timbersaw's biggest weaknesses) but it also makes him even more vulnerable to magical burst damage.
Additional:
* Magical burst damage is Timbersaw's weakness, and Ancient Seal not only amplifies it but also prevents him from using Timber Chain to escape for up to 6 seconds.
* He generally doesn't build early items to deal with silences.
* Reactive Armor does not trigger on magic damage or spells, meaning that even a
Pipe of Insight won't give him the massive sustain he normally gets from attacks.
Centaur Warrunner
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 49% pickrate: 4%)Lifestealer
* Feast is an effective tool against Centaur Warrunner, who generally has high health and low armor, and compensates the reflected damage of Retaliate.
* If activated, Rage protects Lifestealer from Hoof Stomp, Double Edge, and Stampede.
Leshrac
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 49% pickrate: 2%)Lifestealer
* Leshrac's high magic damage is ignored by Rage.
* Lifestealer can get in Leshrac's face with Rage and mitigate any other damage taken by Leshrac with
Open Wounds.
Invoker
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 49% pickrate: 16%)Lifestealer
* Rage protects Lifestealer nearly from all of Invoker's spells.
Additional:
* Rage grants immunity from Invoker's spells and can dispel most of the disables such as the armor loss from Forge Spirit and the constant stuns of Cold Snap.
Tinker
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 49% pickrate: 7%)Lifestealer
* Rage will dispel Laser's blind and turns him spell immune for the duration so Tinker cannot damage him.
* Feast will quickly bring down Tinker due to being so fragile.
Additional:
* Lifestealer's Rage makes him immune to all of Tinker's damage and debuffs.
* Lifestealer can infest any mobile hero (teams usually pick one against Tinker), which ensures that Tinker will die if he is caught.
Disruptor
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 49% pickrate: 9%)Lifestealer
* Rage can be used to escape from a Glimpse and to move out of Kinetic Field.
* Infest allows Lifestealer to dodge Glimpse.
Ogre Magi
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 50% pickrate: 15%)Lifestealer
* Ogre Magi has nothing against Rage and his high health pool amplifies
Feast.
Additional:
* Lifestealer's Rage makes him immune to all of Ogre's magical debuffs and also dispels them.
* Ogre's as hero with great durability and high health is great target for Lifestealer in any stage of the game, thanks to Feast.
Lion
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 50% pickrate: 16%)Lifestealer
* Rage provides spell immunity to Lifestealer and thus nullifies all of Lion's abilities.
* Open Wounds allows Lifestealer to easily catch Lion out and prevent him from escaping.
Dark Willow
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 51% pickrate: 7%)Lifestealer
* Rage protects and dispels all of Dark Willow's abilities.
Additional:
* Rage protects Lifestealer from all of Dark Willow's abilities.
Chen
[wiki] rating: -0.6 (winrate: 46% pickrate: 0%)Lifestealer
* Heroes that can instantly kill creeps greatly reduce the effectiveness of Chen's converted army: Lifestealer,
Doom,
Mirana,
Clinkz.
Grimstroke
[wiki] rating: -0.6 (winrate: 47% pickrate: 12%)Skywrath Mage
* Heroes with powerful spammable abilities will prove problematic for Grimstroke as Ink Swell does not protect him from them: Zeus,
Skywrath Mage,
Tinker,
Lina
Mars
[wiki] rating: -0.6 (winrate: 48% pickrate: 15%)Skywrath Mage
* Heroes with high magical or pure damage will bypass Bulwark: Timbersaw,
Dark Willow,
Enigma,
Invoker,
Pugna,
Skywrath Mage,
Tinker,
Zeus,
Oracle.
Queen of Pain
[wiki] rating: -0.6 (winrate: 48% pickrate: 9%)Skywrath Mage
* Even though Linken's Sphere will block your silence, you can cast Arcane Bolt to break it or wait until someone on your team breaks it. In addition,
Linken's Sphere builders are usually squishy targets vulnerable to silences:
Weaver,
Queen of Pain,
Morphling,
Clinkz, etc. Don't forget that Ancient Seal also increases the magical damage these enemies take, along with silencing them.
Additional:
* A good Skywrath Mage with quick fingers will punish Queen of Pain for blinking aggressively. Ancient Seal is a six second silence with no cast time, so he can interrupt either her Shadow Strike or Sonic Wave, and a good
Mystic Flare on top of that will seal the deal for her.
* Ancient Seal also has pretty good range so he could get it off before she blinks away.
Storm Spirit
[wiki] rating: -0.6 (winrate: 48% pickrate: 11%)Skywrath Mage
* Any heroes with stuns or silences: Death Prophet,
Lion,
Shadow Shaman,
Skywrath Mage
Additional:
* Similar to Timbersaw, Storm Spirit builds items that don't help against silences.
* An Orchid Malevolence will most likely silence you first. However, if you grab a
Eul's Scepter of Divinity, you might dispel his silence and turn the tides to your favor.
* Root and silence are Storm Spirit's ultimate counters. Skywrath Mage has a silence in his kit, and has
Rod of Atos as his core item. If he dispels one, you cast the other, both leaving him vulnerable.
* If he builds Black King Bar, he spends 4050 gold that doesn't help him snowball effectively.
Crystal Maiden
[wiki] rating: -0.6 (winrate: 50% pickrate: 14%)Lifestealer
* Juggernaut and
Lifestealer have abilities (
Blade Fury and
Rage respectively) that prevent Crystal Maiden from using her spells on them in the early game, before
Black King Bar and other magical reduction is even an issue.
Huskar
[wiki] rating: -0.6 (winrate: 51% pickrate: 3%)Skywrath Mage
* Berserker's Blood works proportionate to lost health, but Huskar has a decent health pool, and the attack speed granted from
Berserker's Blood powers him up.
* Skywrath's armor and agility gain is very low so Huskar can outdamage him or take Skywrath down with him.
Lifestealer
* Rage renders Lifestealer immune to the damage from Burning Spears.
* Feast and
Open Wounds makes Lifestealer one of few heroes that can outlast Huskar in a one-on-one fight.
Skywrath Mage
* Heroes with high magical burst can easily kill Huskar when he is at low health: Lion,
Lina,
Skywrath Mage
Void Spirit
[wiki] rating: -0.6 (winrate: 51% pickrate: 12%)Lifestealer
* Heroes with burst damage of their own won't be afraid to go toe to toe with Void Spirit, like Ursa,
Lifestealer, or
Axe.
Underlord
[wiki] rating: -0.6 (winrate: 53% pickrate: 8%)Lifestealer
* In general, heroes with spell immunity abilities won't be caught inside by Pit of Malice: Juggernaut,
Lifestealer.
Outworld Destroyer
[wiki] rating: -0.6 (winrate: 53% pickrate: 17%)Lifestealer
* Heroes with built-in spell immunity can become immune to all of Outworld Devourer's spells: Lifestealer's
Rage and
Juggernaut's
Blade Fury.
Arc Warden
[wiki] rating: -0.6 (winrate: 53% pickrate: 5%)Lifestealer
* Slark,
Lifestealer,
Morphling and such with a good escape mechanism are a nuisance to deal with in the early-game.
Phantom Assassin
[wiki] rating: -0.4 (winrate: 46% pickrate: 15%)Skywrath Mage
* Skywrath's pitiful defences also make him easy meat to heroes with high physical burst like Juggernaut or
Phantom Assassin, the latter occasionally downing a support Skywrath in a single
Stifling Dagger.
Skywrath Mage
* Arcane Bolt's long range and low cooldowns allows Skywrath Mage to severely harass Phantom Assassin in lane.
* Ancient Seal prevents Phantom Assassin from escaping or engaging with Phantom Strike.
* Mystic Flare's heavy magical damage nukes Phantom Assassin down quickly during the early to mid game.
Winter Wyvern
[wiki] rating: -0.4 (winrate: 51% pickrate: 5%)Lifestealer
* Many physical-only single-target heroes like Lifestealer,
Sven,
Wraith King,
Phantom Assassin etc.
Skywrath Mage
* Cold Embrace is a perfect setup for Mystic Flare.
* Winter Wyvern is a spellcaster, and the 6 second silence from Ancient Seal can prevent her from contributing much.
* Because Skywrath Mage tends to stay back in fights, Winter Wyvern will have to get close to a teamfight to cast Winter's Curse on him. However, if she chooses to cast it on one of his allies, his low attack speed and damage means that he won't do much.
Additional:
* Cold Embrace is the perfect setup for Mystic Flare, and his 6-second silence is good against Winter Wyvern in general.
Morphling
[wiki] rating: 0.0 (winrate: 46% pickrate: 13%)Lifestealer
* Lifestealer is a great target for Morphling to use Morph, as he can use Rage to gain spell immunity and a movement speed boost.
* Morphling's high armor makes Lifestealer attacks do less damage
Skywrath Mage
* Arcane Bolt's low cooldown allows him to deal consistent damage to Morphling, and is a viable way to disable Linken's Sphere.
* Ancient Seal prevents Morphling from using any of his skills, giving Skywrath Mage and his team ample time to burst Morphling down.
* Mystic Flare coupled with a stun/root can easily burst Morphling down, especially if he has more stats shifted to Agility.
* Alternatively, Morphling can use Morph to use Skywrath Mage's own silence and nukes against him.
Vengeful Spirit
[wiki] rating: 0.0 (winrate: 48% pickrate: 4%)Lifestealer
* 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.
Skywrath Mage
* Strong nuking supports like Skywrath Mage. Vengeful Spirit has subpar attack range, making it harder for her to harass and last hit safely. With enough pressure she can be bullied out of a lane.
Additional:
* Skywrath Mage should have the upper hand against Vengeful Spirit with Ancient Seal.
* Vengeful is highly dependant on her abilities and has no natural means to deal against silences.
* Her low attack range allows Skywrath Mage to easily bully her out of the lane.
Terrorblade
[wiki] rating: 0.0 (winrate: 48% pickrate: 4%)Lifestealer
* 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.
* Feast cannot compensate for Terrorblade's incoming high damage, due to his low Strength gain.
* 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.
Skywrath Mage
* Arcane Bolt can target Terrorblade's low health pool in the laning phase.
* Ancient Seal can prevent Terrorblade from casting sunder.
Sand King
[wiki] rating: 0.0 (winrate: 51% pickrate: 10%)Lifestealer
* Heroes that rely on slows to get kills: Lifestealer,
Night Stalker,
Ursa,...
Lifestealer
* Lifestealer's Rage negates Sand King's spells which do magical damage.
Visage
[wiki] rating: 0.0 (winrate: 51% pickrate: 1%)Lifestealer
* Heroes with summons: Lycan,
Broodmother,
Visage.
Lifestealer
* Heroes with magic immune abilities can negate most of Visage's attacks like Pangolier and
Lifestealer.
Puck
[wiki] rating: 0.0 (winrate: 53% pickrate: 18%)Lifestealer
* 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.
Lifestealer
* Heroes with spell immunity or pseudo-blinks which provide invulnerability: Lifestealer,
Juggernaut,
Omniknight,
Huskar , and
Tusk have spells which allow them to easily escape Dream Coil.
Bounty Hunter
[wiki] rating: 0.0 (winrate: 54% pickrate: 9%)Skywrath Mage
* Fragile heroes: Bounty Hunter has decent nuking capabilities with Shiruken Toss and Jinada thus making fragile heroes easy picks for ganking. Few examples of such heroes are:Crystal Maiden,
Pugna,
Skywrath Mage,
Io,
Witch Doctor, etc.
Lifestealer
* Lifestealer with
Rage and
Infest
* 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.
Nyx Assassin
[wiki] rating: 0.0 (winrate: 54% pickrate: 14%)Skywrath Mage
* Skywrath Mage's low health makes him rather easy prey for Nyx Assassin and his lack of armor generally means he'll take the full brunt of a Vendetta strike.
* Mana Burn is annoying at all stages of the game as it turns Skywrath Mage's high intelligence growth against him.
* Spiked Carapace gives Nyx some degree of protection against Skywrath's spells.
Lifestealer
* Rage completely negates all of Nyx Assassin's abilities except Vendetta, while
Open Wounds allow him to quickly close the gap.
* Infest combined with an ancient creep makes Nyx Assassin an easy target with
Dust of Appearance or a
Gem of True Sight.
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.
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Skywrath Mage
* Due to his low health and armor, Riki can easily kill Skywrath Mage.
Black King Bar.
* Smoke Screen prevents Skywrath from using all of his abilities, as he does not tend to buy
* However, if Skywrath Mage can easily kill Riki if he manages to root Riki with Rod of Atos or Gleipnir, followed by Dust of Appearance, Ancient Seal and Mystic Flare.
Lifestealer
* 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.