* Windrun and Focus Fire can easily allow Windranger to kite Lifestealer and do good amounts of damage in the process.

* Phantom Assassin's Blur will be useless if Windranger managed to get Monkey King Bar or Bloodthorn, and other than Stifling Dagger, Phantom Assassin has no abilities that can bypass Windrun.
* Additionally, Phantom Assassin doesn't like building Monkey King Bar because her crits are reliant on attack damage.
* Focus Fire can still deal considerable damage despite Blur's evasion due to the increased attack speed.

* Morphling's naturally high armor thanks to his high agility makes it hard for Phantom Assassin to take him down with Coup de Grace.
* Phantom Assassin is vulnerable to magical damage, falling easily to Adaptive Strike + Ethereal Blade combo.

* 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 also makes Lifestealer's attacks do less damage.

* 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.

* Static Link can lower the damage output from Coup de Grace procs, hindering Phantom Assassin's main source of damage.
* Eye of the Storm strikes cannot be evaded by Blur.
* Both Static Link and Eye of the Storm pierces spell immunity, as Phantom Assassin is often reliant on Black King Bar.
Additional:
* Static Link greatly lowers the damage output from Coup De Grace, hindering Phantom Assassin's main source of damage.
* Eye of the Storm strikes cannot be evaded by Blur.

* Heroes that can apply early pressure before Phantom Assassin has farm are massive threats: Axe, Viper, Meepo, Pugna, Slark etc.

Additional:
* Slark's Pounce allows him to close the gap on Phantom Assassin and prevent her from escaping with Phantom Strike.
* As a hero who typically builds Silver Edge, Slark can use it to disable Phantom Assassin's Blur and Coup de Grace, thus taking down her attack evasion and drastically reducing her damage output.
* Because Phantom Assassin is always reliant on critical strikes, Slark will have plenty of time to escape with Pounce, Shadow Dance and Silver Edge (provided that he purchased it already).
* Essence Shift can be very harmful for Phantom Assassin as losing the agility means that her physical damage will be also reduced, which can also weaken Coup de Grace if Slark manages to steal lots of agility from her.
* Overall, any attempt for Phantom Assassin to take down Slark will hurt her more than Slark.

* 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.

* 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.
* Phantom Lancer usually builds Diffusal Blade, which a problem for a low already mana hero like Lifestealer.
Additional:
* 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.

* Heroes with no AoE abilities will struggle against Phantom Lancer: Phantom Assassin, Broodmother

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

* Heroes with disables that ignore spell immunity will render Phantom Assassin quite useless in teamfights throughout the game: Axe, Enigma, Vengeful Spirit, Doom, Bane, Beastmaster, Pudge, Medusa.

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

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

* Enfeeble greatly reduces Phantom Assassin's burst damage.
* Nightmare and Fiend's Grip can ground Phantom Assassin, who normally blinks around with Phantom Strike, and stop her from outputting damage, even with Black King Bar.
* Phantom Assassin's low health pool early on makes her susceptible to Brain Sap and Fiend's Grip's heavy nuke damage.

* Chaos Knight's Level 20 Talent: Reality Rift Pierces Spell Immunity allows for quick bursting down of Lifestealer during his Rage.
* Lifestealer has no way of dealing with Chaos Knight's illusions.
Additional:
* Level 20 talent allows Reality Rift to bypass spell immunity provided by Rage, thus negating the advantage Lifestealer has in his kit.
* The fact that Lifestealer lacks wave clearing and reliable lockdown makes it difficult to fight Chaos Knight's illusions.
* Feast is largely negated by Chaos Knight's high burst damage from Chaos Strike.

* Heroes with illusions and summons can be hard for Phantom Assassin to deal with, as she lacks any AoE abilities to deal with them without items: Broodmother, Phantom Lancer, Chaos Knight, Naga Siren, Terrorblade.

* Heroes with disables that ignore spell immunity will render Phantom Assassin quite useless in teamfights throughout the game: Axe, Enigma, Vengeful Spirit, Doom, Bane, Beastmaster, Pudge, Medusa.

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

* Troll Warlord can manfight lifestealer at any stage of the game thanks to his high attack speed and miss chance from Whirling Axes (Melee).
* Whirling Axes (Melee) has lower cool down, Troll can liberally apply it on Lifestealer, even if the later try to dispel it with Rage.
* Berserker's Rage pierces through spell immunity, allows troll to hold lifestealer in place for extended period.
* Feast deals minimal damage to Troll Warlord, since Troll will build mostly for damage and survivability rather than tankiness in general.
Additional:
* 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.

* Whirling Axes (Melee) makes it hard to land a Coup De Grace.
* Troll Warlord often buys Silver Edge and Monkey King Bar, the items that greatly help against Phantom Assassin's Blur ability.
* Battle Trance completely negates Phantom Assassin's large damage output, preventing Troll Warlord from dying easily. The lifesteal also allows Troll Warlord to restore much of his health.
Additional:
* Troll Warlord can build a Silver Edge or a Monkey King Bar to completely ignore Blur.
* Whirling Axes (Melee) provides a 60% miss chance, making a Coup de Grace critical strike very hard to land.
* Battle Trance negates Coup de Grace, preventing Troll Warlord from dying to her critical hits.

* Heroes with illusions and summons can be hard for Phantom Assassin to deal with, as she lacks any AoE abilities to deal with them without items: Broodmother, Phantom Lancer, Chaos Knight, Naga Siren, Terrorblade.

Additional:
* Phantom Assassin's single target abilities make her very helpless against swarms of Spiderlings without Battle Fury.
* Because Phantom Assassin is always reliant on critical strikes, Broodmother will usually have enough time to use Spin Web to save herself.
* Silken Bola cripples Phantom Assassin greatly due to her being 100% reliant on physical attacks.

* Heroes with summons: Lycan, Broodmother, Visage.

* Heroes with disables that ignore spell immunity will render Phantom Assassin quite useless in teamfights throughout the game: Axe, Enigma, Vengeful Spirit, Doom, Bane, Beastmaster, Pudge, Medusa.

* 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.

* Many physical-only single-target heroes like Lifestealer, Sven, Wraith King, Phantom Assassin, Templar Assassin can have their damage mitigated by Cold Embrace.

* Many physical-only single-target heroes like Lifestealer, Sven, Wraith King, Phantom Assassin, Templar Assassin can have their damage mitigated by Cold Embrace.

* 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 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

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

* Doom, Disruptor with Aghanim's Scepter, and hex abilities all prevent item usage, which is a severe problem for Phantom Assassin as it prevents her from using Black King Bar, the one item that helps protect her against the aforementioned dangers. Doom and Shadow Demon with Aghanim's Scepter also disables Phantom Assassin's Evasion and Critical Strike, removing much of her damage and survivabaility.

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

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

* Purification and Hammer of Purity can easily catch Phantom Assassin once she jumps with Phantom Strike in to attack.
* Heavenly Grace can be used to dispel slow from Stifling Dagger, and disables from the items Phantom Assassin relies on.
* Phantom Assassin depends entirely on physical attacks and her damage output is 100% physical. Therefore, since she has no any sources of magical damage output and hates going for items that deal magical damage like Dagon, Ethereal Blade and Revenant's Brooch, Guardian Angel will render her completely useless.
* Purification, Heavenly Grace and Guardian Angel can be used to save an allied hero before Phantom Assassin can finish them off with Coup De Grace.
Additional:
* Purification and Hammer of Purity can easily catch Phantom Assassin once she jumps with Phantom Strike in to attack.
* Heavenly Grace can be used to dispel slow from Stifling Dagger, and disables from the items Phantom Assassin relies on.
* Phantom Assassin depends entirely on physical attacks and her damage output is 100% physical. Therefore, since she has no any sources of magical damage output and hates going for items that deal magical damage like Dagon, Ethereal Blade and Veil of Discord, Guardian Angel will render her completely useless.
* Purification, Heavenly Grace and Guardian Angel can be used to save an allied hero before Phantom Assassin can finish them off with Coup De Grace.

* Heroes with disables that ignore spell immunity will render Phantom Assassin quite useless in teamfights throughout the game: Axe, Enigma, Vengeful Spirit, Doom, Bane, Beastmaster, Pudge, Medusa.

* 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 Black Hole and Midnight Pulse damage can pierce through Lifestealer's Rage.
* However, if Lifestealer manages to get Aghanim's Scepter and combines it with Abyssal Blade, he will be able to disable Enigma's Black Hole inside him with Infest and he will be able to help his allies recover themselves from Enigma's initiation with Open Wounds if Lifestealer gets Aghanim's Shard.

* Clinkz relies heavily on the physical damage provided by Searing Arrows, which completely overrides the capabilities of Rage.
* 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.

* With Bloodthorn, Clinkz becomes a strong counter to heroes who rely on evasion and blind such as Windranger, Phantom Assassin, Troll Warlord and Keeper of the Light.

* Overgrowth prevents Phantom Assassin from using Blink Strike even through her spell immunity.
* Living Armor reduces Phantom Assassin's physical damage whenever she attempts to gank an allied hero.

* Moon Glaives can ignore certain abilities that either trigger on attack or give evasion under the condition that the heroes who have them are not primary targets. Examples include: Centaur Warrunner, Windranger, Phantom Assassin, Hoodwink etc.

* Although Lifestealer 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 slows from Ghoul Frenzy and Open Wounds. In addition, Lifestealer is not good against illusions created by Manta Style.
Additional:
* Although Lifestealer can avoid Eclipse with Rage and Infest, Luna's physical damage from Moon Glaives and Lunar Blessing can be enough to deal with him.
* Manta Style is a common pick on Luna, which can help her dispel slows from Ghoul Frenzy and Open Wounds. In addition, Lifestealer is not good against illusions created by Manta Style.

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

* Though The Swarm can be blocked by Rage, it can be used to lower Lifestealer's already low armor, making him even more vulnerable to physical damage while the Rage is on cooldown.
* Lifestealer has no strong disables on his own and thus he cannot catch up with nor escape from Weaver when he uses Shukuchi.
* Weaver is a hero who relies mainly on direct attacks in order to deal damage, which means Lifestealer's Rage will have little effect against him.
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.

* Chronosphere provides excellent lockdown against Rage.
* Faceless Void's Time Lock stops Lifestealer from getting health regeneration from auto-attacks

* Phantom Assassin relies on her Blur to stay alive, but is very vulnerable to Sand King's heavy magic damage.
* With Burrowstrike, Sand King can often catch Phantom Assassin before she can use her Black King Bar.
* Sand King can dodge Stifling Dagger with Sandstorm.
* Phantom Assassin has a hard time killing Sand King because of his high mobility.

* Heroes that rely on slows to get kills: Lifestealer, Night Stalker, Ursa,...

* Sharpshooter disables both Blur and Coup De Grace, especially with the level 25 talent.
* Because Phantom Assassin is often reliant on critical strikes, Hoodwink can have enough time to simply move near a tree and escape with Scurry.

* Puck relies mainly on magical burst damage, which Phantom Assassin is most vulnerable against.
* Phase Shift and Illusory Orb disjoint Stifling Dagger, also allowing to kite Phantom Assassin.
* Dream Coil will stun Phantom Assassin if she uses Phantom Strike to blink away.

* 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.

* Phantom Assassin does not deal with early aggression very easily (especially when magical damage). A competent Batrider can make life very difficult with Sticky Napalm followed by any other spell.

* Heroes with illusions and summons can be hard for Phantom Assassin to deal with, as she lacks any AoE abilities to deal with them without items: Broodmother, Phantom Lancer, Chaos Knight, Naga Siren, Terrorblade.

* 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 to use against him.
* Feast cannot compensate for Terrorblade's incoming high damage, due to his low Strength gain.
* Open Wounds (requires Aghanim's Shard) is a lot harder to land on the real Terrorblade if he has illusions around him. But remember that Terrorblade's illusions from Conjure Image have different colors than other illusions which can be seen even by enemy team, and that can make it easy for Lifestealer to detect real Terrorblade unless Terrorblade buys Manta Style.
* Lifestealer relies on right-clicks to deal damage, and Terrorblade's high armor can reduce his damage significantly.

* Reactive Armor helps Timbersaw sustain harassment from Stifling Dagger.
* Phantom Assassin has a moderate health pool and usually appears in the front line of battle, making her vulnerable to Timbersaw's magic burst.
* Timbersaw can easily escape from Phantom Assassin thanks to his Timber Chain.
Additional:
* Reactive Armor helps Timbersaw sustain harassment from Stifling Dagger, as well as ganking attempts.
* Phantom Assassin is a hero with moderate HP pool, and usually appears in the front line of battle. Because Blur does nothing against spells, she is vulnerable to Timbersaw's skills.
* Timbersaw can easily escape from Phantom Assassin thanks to his Timber Chain.

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

* Heroes with illusions and summons can be hard for Phantom Assassin to deal with, as she lacks any AoE abilities to deal with them without items: Broodmother, Phantom Lancer, Chaos Knight, Naga Siren, Terrorblade.

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

* Heroes such as Lone Druid, Tidehunter and Viper can be very problematic for Phantom Assassin because they give her very little time to farm and become scary.

* In general, Brewmaster's Cinder Brew and Thunder Clap makes him good against physical damage carries: Ursa, Clinkz, Faceless Void, Troll Warlord, Templar Assassin, Phantom Assassin.

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

* Fate's Edict cripples many heroes who rely on attacks, such as Phantom Assassin, Sven, or Enchantress, without a dispel or a Black King Bar.

* If there is nothing to Infest to Juggernaut's {AD:Omnislash|Juggernaut} will Demolish him

* Chaotic Offering can stop heroes who like to use spell immunity and teleport scrolls to safely farm during the early to mid game, since it stuns and also goes through spell immunity. Notable examples: Juggernaut, Lifestealer.

* Heroes with escape abilities : Anti-Mage Dark Seer Slark Storm Spirit Windranger Weaver can kite Lifestealer due to him having no lockdown

* Heroes that rely on escapes to stay alive can be caught and locked down for a long time: Queen of Pain, Phantom Assassin

* Heroes with gap-closing abilities who attempt to use them for escaping Bloodseeker will suffer serious damage from Rupture: Phantom Assassin, Anti-Mage, Faceless Void, Riki, Slark, Spirit Breaker.

* In early to mid stage, Silence is also a great way to counter escape oriented heroes such as Anti-Mage, Queen of Pain, and Phantom Assassin to prevent them from escaping, provided that they don't have any basic dispels.

* Heroes with escape abilities : Anti-Mage Dark Seer Slark Storm Spirit Windranger Weaver can kite Lifestealer due to him having no lockdown

* Heroes who rely on physical damage are easily negated by Ghost Shroud: Phantom Assassin, Wraith King, Juggernaut.

* Heroes that can apply early pressure before Phantom Assassin has farm are massive threats: Axe, Viper, Meepo, Pugna, Slark etc.

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

* Pit of Malice prevents Phantom Assassin from either escaping or engaging with Phantom Strike.
* Phantom Assassin's damage output is entirely physical, therefore Atrophy Aura Atrophy Aura is very hazardous for her in most of the stages, particularly since it also affects Coup De Grace Coup de Grace, hindering Phantom Assassin's main source of damage.
* Without proper items and any area-of-effect ability/item, Phantom Assassin cannot stop Underlord and his team to escape with Fiend's Gate, nor she can intercept them if Underlord chooses to teleport on any area of the map.

* While Phantom Assassin can kill Skywrath Mage in a few strikes, Skywrath Mage can also do the same to her if she is not careful.
* 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.

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

* Fire Spirits applies a severe attack speed slow, severely hindering Phantom Assassin's damage output. While Phantom Strike may be able to slightly remedy the problem, Phoenix's high magical damage output completely ignore Blur's evasion, resulting in severe damage to her low health pool.
Additional:
* While her Phantom Strike does give limited extra attack speed, she cannot use the ability against the Phoenix Sun, and while her Blur may protect her from attacks, Phoenix's strong magical DPS burns away her small health pool quickly, and the attack speed slow makes her unable to fight back (provided she has no source of spell immunity).

* Phantom Assassin is famously known to be weak against bursts of magical damage, and Primal Beast does exactly that with the ability to close long distances.
* Primal Beast is also a great Ethereal Blade, Vanguard and Shiva's Guard carrier which all can weaken physical damage carries like Phantom Assassin who rely on critical strikes and fast kills in the mid and late game.

* Heroes with single-target abilities will be overwhelmed by Lycan and his summons: Wraith King, Bane, Phantom Assassin.

* Heroes with summons: Lycan, Broodmother, Visage.