Omniknight
[wiki] rating: 2.0 (winrate: 50% pickrate: 3%)Techies
[wiki] rating: 1.6 (winrate: 48% pickrate: 6%)Ember Spirit
* 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.
Riki
* Techies is very good against roaming supports and gankers such as Bounty Hunter,
Riki,
Weaver,
Earthshaker,
Nyx Assassin, etc. that are constantly moving around the map.
Faceless Void
[wiki] rating: 1.6 (winrate: 44% pickrate: 8%)Riki
* Heroes who rely on invisibility, such as Bounty Hunter,
Clinkz,
Mirana,
Nyx Assassin and
Riki, as they will be revealed if caught by Chronosphere.
Ember Spirit
* 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.
Nyx Assassin
[wiki] rating: 1.0 (winrate: 55% pickrate: 11%)Ember Spirit
* 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.
Night Stalker
[wiki] rating: 1.0 (winrate: 53% pickrate: 5%)Riki
* With Dark Ascension and Gem of True Sight, Night Stalker can easily find and kill Riki. Riki will also find it harder to kill the tanky Night Stalker than he would many other heroes.
Bounty Hunter
[wiki] rating: 1.0 (winrate: 52% pickrate: 8%)Riki
* Track gives Riki a hard time, as it prevents much of his ganking capabilities.
Oracle
[wiki] rating: 1.0 (winrate: 50% pickrate: 9%)Ember Spirit
* 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.
Dragon Knight
[wiki] rating: 1.0 (winrate: 50% pickrate: 2%)Riki
* Riki does little damage to Dragon Knight, as he relies only on physical damage with modest attack speed and lack of burst.
Axe
[wiki] rating: 1.0 (winrate: 49% pickrate: 10%)Riki
* Axe can disable Cloak and Dagger's invisibility with Berserker's Call, which forces Riki to attack him at a very bad angle.
* Axe has a very high HP pool, making it hard for you to kill him before you get big items - that is if you survive engaging him. Counter Helix ignores your armor and goes straight for your tiny HP pool, totally ignoring Smoke Screen.
Huskar
[wiki] rating: 1.0 (winrate: 49% pickrate: 2%)Ember Spirit
* Ember Spirit does minimal damage to Huskar until the very late game.
Zeus
[wiki] rating: 1.0 (winrate: 49% pickrate: 11%)Riki
* Zeus' Lightning Bolt and
Thundergod's Wrath provides a short duration of True Sight, revealing Riki while possibly dealing a heavy amount of damage.
Lion
[wiki] rating: 1.0 (winrate: 49% pickrate: 15%)Ember Spirit
* 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.
Viper
[wiki] rating: 1.0 (winrate: 48% pickrate: 7%)Riki
* Viper's Nethertoxin disables Cloak and Dagger, negating Riki's invisibility and much of his damage. It also makes him more vulnerable to magic damage, which does not go well with Riki's low health pool. With the talent applied, he can't even blink to safety or hide with Tricks of the Trade.
* Corrosive Skin makes it hard for Riki to chase Viper and attack him due to the attack speed slow.
* Viper Strike stays on Riki even after he goes invisible.
* Poison Attack makes it risky for Riki to get last hits and can make the laning phase difficult for him.
Slardar
[wiki] rating: 1.0 (winrate: 48% pickrate: 9%)Riki
* Corrosive Haze works much like Track, giving the enemy team vision over Riki. While it doesn't give a movement speed bonus, it instead melts Riki's armor and Slardar can use
Guardian Sprint to catch up to him.
Additional:
* Corrosive Haze makes Riki completely vulnerable to Slardar and his allies, as Riki has no easy way of dispelling it.
* Slardar's physical damage with Slithereen Crush and Bash of the Deep amplified by Corrosive Haze can easily kill Riki.
Phantom Assassin
[wiki] rating: 1.0 (winrate: 46% pickrate: 17%)Riki
* Blink Strike does not grant Riki a mobility advantage over Phantom Assassin, as her Phantom Strike serves the same purpose, but with a higher range.
* A Carry Riki usually has a hard time dealing with Blur, as a Monkey King Bar or
Bloodthorn are unfavourable item picks for him (or, even more unlikely, a
Silver Edge).
* A Black King Bar is a very common pick for Phantom Assassin, fully countering
Smoke Screen and
Diffusal Blade while activated.
Kunkka
[wiki] rating: 1.0 (winrate: 46% pickrate: 4%)Ember Spirit
* 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.
Outworld Destroyer
[wiki] rating: 1.0 (winrate: 45% pickrate: 2%)Ember Spirit
* 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.
Bristleback
[wiki] rating: 1.0 (winrate: 45% pickrate: 7%)Riki
* The bonus Backstab damage from Cloak and Dagger is rendered irrelevant with Bristleback and hurts Riki more than him because of the passive Quill Spray.
* Riki still gets damaged by Bristleback's Quill Spray while invisible, and it can be hard to deal with in lane.
* Bristleback is not too bothered by Smoke Screen. Though he cannot use Quill Spray manually inside it, it still procs passively when he takes damage from the back. The movement speed from Warpath allows him to get out of the area easily.
* Due to Bristleback's natural tankiness, he is an ideal Gem of True Sight carrier.
* Riki rarely buys Silver Edge to break Bristleback's passive because the invisibility aspect of it is redundant.
Additional:
* Quill Spray will hit Riki even when he is invisible.
* Cloak and Dagger's bonus backstab damage is rendered irrelevant against Bristleback.
* Smoke Screen does not stop Bristleback's passive from activating.
* Due to Bristleback's natural tankiness, he is an ideal Gem of True Sight carrier, directly countering Riki's invisibility.
Beastmaster
[wiki] rating: 0.6 (winrate: 55% pickrate: 4%)Ember Spirit
* Heroes who rely on high mobility are especially vulnerable to Primal Roar: Storm Spirit,
Ember Spirit,
Queen of Pain.
Pugna
[wiki] rating: 0.6 (winrate: 51% pickrate: 4%)Riki
* Heroes who are reliant on physical damage will be nullified by Decrepify: Riki,
Wraith King,
Juggernaut.
Bane
[wiki] rating: 0.6 (winrate: 51% pickrate: 5%)Riki
* Low-health, normally mobile carries with a lot of damage are vulnerable to Bane's nukes and disables: Anti-Mage,
Clinkz,
Drow Ranger,
Faceless Void,
Gyrocopter,
Juggernaut,
Luna,
Meepo,
Mirana,
Monkey King,
Morphling,
Phantom Assassin,
Phantom Lancer,
Riki,
Shadow Fiend,
Slark,
Sniper,
Terrorblade,
Troll Warlord,
Weaver.
Tinker
[wiki] rating: 0.6 (winrate: 49% pickrate: 8%)Riki
* Any hero with a low HP pool is easy for Tinker to nuke down: Crystal Maiden,
Enchantress,
Gyrocopter,
Lion,
Riki,
Techies,
Terrorblade,
Necrophos,
Invoker.
Slark
[wiki] rating: 0.6 (winrate: 48% pickrate: 12%)Riki
* Heroes with blink or movement abilities, which are disabled by Pounce's leash: Anti-Mage,
Earth Spirit,
Faceless Void,
Magnus,
Mirana,
Monkey King,
Morphling,
Pangolier,
Phantom Assassin,
Phoenix,
Puck,
Queen of Pain,
Riki,
Sand King,
Spirit Breaker,
Timbersaw,
Tusk.
Meepo
[wiki] rating: 0.6 (winrate: 47% pickrate: 1%)Ember Spirit
* Heroes with high mobility can be prevented from using it to their advantage with Earthbind, even if they pack a dangerous arsenal: Earth Spirit,
Ember Spirit,
Storm Spirit,
Nature's Prophet,
Phantom Assassin,
Riki,
Anti-Mage,
Weaver.
* See items and abilities disabled by roots
Riki
* Root is a deadly threat to Riki, disabling both Blink Strike and Tricks of the Trade while making him fully revealed, making Earthbind a good ability against him.
* Smoke Screen may not be able to silence all the Meepo clones.
* Riki has no true area damage, as Tricks of the Trade's damage is distributed between all Meepo clones, so he cannot effectively fight Meepo or deal with his strong ability to push.
Ember Spirit
* Meepo is quite fragile in the early game and can be easily taken down by Flame Guard's and Searing Chains' damage. Later on, Meepo is very vulnerable to Sleight of Fist's damage due to Battle Fury's cleave on multiple Meepos.
Additional:
* Sleight of Fist boosted by
Battle Fury and
Daedalus makes quick work of Meepo if clones are crowded around each other.
* Searing Chains interrupts Meepo's initiating because Meepo's clones do not have spell immunity.
Doom
[wiki] rating: 0.6 (winrate: 44% pickrate: 3%)Ember Spirit
* The general opinion that Doom can counter Ember Spirit with his
Doom is a misconception, as
Doom has a long cast animation, so an attentive Ember Spirit can easily dodge it if he has a Fire Remnant nearby. Doom is still an extremely effective early ganker however, as his
Scorched Earth and
Infernal Blade damage can quickly overwhelm Flame Guard's magic damage absorption, leaving Ember Spirit with no protection against them. Additional skills that Doom can get from Neutral creeps can also help bully Ember Spirit early.
Shadow Blade or
Blink Dagger on Doom can also help, providing a good way to apply
Doom on Ember Spirit.
Additional:
* Ember Spirit cannot use his Activate Fire Remnant while Doomed to escape from Doom.
Razor
[wiki] rating: 0.4 (winrate: 53% pickrate: 2%)Riki
* Static Link drains away your damage while keeping your location revealed for its duration, allowing his team to accurately land detection or area-of-effect skills.
* Storm Surge procs on invisible heroes, making him aware of Riki's presence near him.
Ember Spirit
* Any hero with teleport abilities (e.g. Ember Spirit,
Storm Spirit) can easily break Static Link.
Luna
[wiki] rating: 0.4 (winrate: 49% pickrate: 4%)Riki
* Luna can push very fast with Moon Glaives, which is something Riki cannot deal with well.
* Luna is naturally very fast, making it hard for Riki to trap her in Smoke Cloud.
* Even though Riki can evade Eclipse with his invisibility, smart Luna will always buy
Dust of Appearance, providing vision on Riki to her allies and herself.
Riki
* All assassin-type carries in a one against one situation: Meepo,
Phantom Assassin,
Riki,
Ursa.
Jakiro
[wiki] rating: 0.4 (winrate: 49% pickrate: 11%)Riki
* Riki can easily be caught in an Ice Path and Macropyre combo as he finishes Tricks of the Trade.
Ember Spirit
* Heroes with good mobility to avoid Jakiro's abilities and with good chase to punish Jakiro from pushing a tower: Bloodseeker,
Ember Spirit,
Juggernaut,
Phantom Assassin,
Weaver.
Silencer
[wiki] rating: 0.4 (winrate: 49% pickrate: 8%)Ember Spirit
* 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.
Riki
* Heroes with damage-increasing passive abilities, such as Viper and
Riki, will usually kill Silencer in a short time before he even has time to set up his abilities.
Legion Commander
[wiki] rating: 0.4 (winrate: 49% pickrate: 13%)Riki
* Another great threat to Riki since her Duel forces him to fight from the front and expose him for the entire duration, almost always guaranteeing an easy win (unless Riki has allies helping him).
Riki
* Heroes with abilities that blind or cause Legion Commander to miss will prevent her from winning Duels: Arc Warden,
Keeper of the Light,
Riki
Shadow Fiend
[wiki] rating: 0.4 (winrate: 47% pickrate: 19%)Ember Spirit
* 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.
Riki
* Heroes that can gank Shadow Fiend in the early game: Earth Spirit,
Nyx Assassin,
Riki,
Spirit Breaker.
Sniper
[wiki] rating: -2.0 (winrate: 48% pickrate: 5%)Ember Spirit
* Ember Spirit can close the distance between Sniper easily with his Activate Fire Remnant and further keep Sniper in place with
Searing Chains.
* With the help of Aghanim's Scepter, Sniper cannot outrun Ember Spirit or chase him, even if Sniper builds mobility items.
Riki
* Sniper has no natural escape and relies on his range and slows to keep himself safe, which you can bypass with Blink Strike and quickly deplete his miniature HP pool.
Nature's Prophet
[wiki] rating: -1.6 (winrate: 47% pickrate: 4%)Riki
* Heroes with invisibility: (Riki,
Clinkz,
Nyx Assassin
Ember Spirit
* Sleight of Fist with
Battle Fury deals a lot of damage to Nature's Prophet's team if they stand close to his Treants, as well as killing all of his Treants and getting lots of gold.
* Ember Spirit with Fire Remnant and
Boots of Travel can teleport and defend tower whenever Nature's Prophet tries to push.
Additional:
* Ember Spirit can easily deal with Nature's Call by using his Flame Guard and with
Battle Fury. He also has multiple ways of escaping
Sprout. Additionally, Ember Spirit can break
Sprout's trees with Activate Fire Remnant and interrupt
Teleportation with Searing Chains.
Warlock
[wiki] rating: -1.6 (winrate: 51% pickrate: 5%)Ember Spirit
* A pre-placed Fire Remnant allows Ember Spirit to escape
Upheaval.
* Flame Guard blocks
Shadow Word's damage.
* Sleight of Fist allows Ember Spirit to attack from range, ignoring
Upheaval, and
Searing Chains lets him interrupt it.
Riki
* Warlock is a very strong hero when positioned correctly, and his long cast range helps him with this. However, some Heroes might disrupt or sneakily pass through your allies and deal with you, preventing you from doing your job. Such heroes include Chaos Knight,
Spirit Breaker,
Riki, and some others.
Dark Willow
[wiki] rating: -1.6 (winrate: 52% pickrate: 6%)Riki
* Frail heroes who lacks mobility: Crystal Maiden,
Enigma,
Dark Willow,
Vengeful Spirit.
Additional:
* Smoke Screen prevents Dark Willow from using her close-range bursts with Bedlam.
* Blink Strike lets Riki jump past Bramble Maze.
Ember Spirit
* 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.
Crystal Maiden
[wiki] rating: -1.4 (winrate: 50% pickrate: 13%)Riki
* Frostbite will reveal invisible heroes for its duration, making it a good tool against any such hero (Riki,
Bounty Hunter,
Weaver, or
Clinkz for example), or as a soft counter to
Shadow Blade, if it is used first. This can be an amazing tool to ensure that
Dust of Appearance is used on the unit in question, and not wasted in not catching anything.
Ember Spirit
* Crystal Maiden is extremely fragile and she's an easy target for him. She has no real disables that can lock Ember Spirit down, and all of her skill damage can be negated with Flame Guard. The damage from Searing Chains, Flame Guard, and Sleigh of Fist can easily take her down.
Riki
* Smoke Screen effectively disables Crystal Maiden's channeling spell: Freezing Field.
* Due to her low health and armor throughout the game, Riki can kill her easily.
Pudge
[wiki] rating: -1.2 (winrate: 47% pickrate: 22%)Ember Spirit
* Heroes with a high degree of mobility and invisibility are hard to catch with Meat Hook: Ember Spirit,
Riki,
Clinkz,
Queen of Pain.
Riki
* Heroes with a high degree of mobility and invisibility are hard to catch with Meat Hook: Ember Spirit,
Riki,
Clinkz,
Queen of Pain.
Disruptor
[wiki] rating: -1.2 (winrate: 49% pickrate: 8%)Ember Spirit
* Ember Spirit with
Sleight of Fist and
Activate Fire Remnant
* Heroes that can dodge Glimpse:
* Puck with
Phase Shift
* Riki with
Tricks of the Trade
* Phantom Lancer with
Doppelganger
* Ember Spirit with
Sleight of Fist and
Activate Fire Remnant
* Chaos Knight with
Phantasm
* Naga Siren with
Mirror Image
* Tusk with
Snowball
* Juggernaut with
Omnislash
* Brewmaster with
Primal Split
* Lifestealer with
Infest
* Phoenix with
Supernova
Riki
* Riki with
Tricks of the Trade
* Heroes that can dodge Glimpse:
* Puck with
Phase Shift
* Riki with
Tricks of the Trade
* Phantom Lancer with
Doppelganger
* Ember Spirit with
Sleight of Fist and
Activate Fire Remnant
* Chaos Knight with
Phantasm
* Naga Siren with
Mirror Image
* Tusk with
Snowball
* Juggernaut with
Omnislash
* Brewmaster with
Primal Split
* Lifestealer with
Infest
* Phoenix with
Supernova
Juggernaut
[wiki] rating: -1.2 (winrate: 53% pickrate: 20%)Riki
* Heroes with escaping and disjointing abilities can be good against Juggernaut: Riki,
Queen of Pain,
Puck,
Storm Spirit,
Ember Spirit,
Slark etc.
Ember Spirit
* Heroes with escaping and disjointing abilities can be good against Juggernaut: Riki,
Queen of Pain,
Puck,
Storm Spirit,
Ember Spirit,
Slark etc.
Lifestealer
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 45% pickrate: 5%)Riki
* 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.
Medusa
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 46% pickrate: 2%)Riki
* He won't be around waiting for Medusa to Stone Gaze and pin him until she bears a true sight.
* With Smoke Screen, Riki will silence and catch Medusa in a surprise with high miss chance flushing her from positions easily in team fights.
* He can still deal huge amount of damage through Cloak and Dagger via backstabs, drying out Medusa's protection in a whim at random occassions.
Shadow Demon
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 46% pickrate: 3%)Ember Spirit
* Disruption is not reliable enough to catch an Ember Spirit with a backup Fire Remnant.
* Sleight of Fist will also make quick work of the spawned illusions.
* Ember Spirit usually builds Eul's Scepter of Divinity to dispel Shadow Poison and Soul Catcher and
Linken's Sphere to block Disruption and Demonic Purge.
* The best you can do against an Ember Spirit is to dispel his Flame Guard with your Demonic Purge.
Rubick
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 47% pickrate: 17%)Riki
* Riki has high damage and invisibility, meaning he can easily gank Rubick and kill him before Rubick has the chance to react.
* Almost all of Riki's spells are useless to Rubick.
* Smoke Screen is the only of Riki's spells that can be of some use to Rubick.
* Similar to Clinkz, Rubick has to buy a large amount of Sentry Wards to keep track of Riki due to Cloak and Dagger, preventing Rubick from getting better items.
* Riki is a common Diffusal Blade carrier leaving Rubick no mana to spam abilities from Spell Steal.
Witch Doctor
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 47% pickrate: 12%)Riki
* Without Dust of Appearance or Sentry Wards, Riki is able to silence Witch Doctor with Smoke Screen, and is likely to build a Diffusal Blade, leaving Witch Doctor without mana to cast Voodoo Restoration, as well as Skull Basher to interrupt Death Ward.
Grimstroke
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 47% pickrate: 8%)Riki
* Cloak and Dagger's passive invisibility destroys Phantom's Embrace even when Riki is silenced.
* Smoke Screen prevents Grimstroke from shielding himself with Ink Swell.
Phantom Lancer
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 49% pickrate: 7%)Ember Spirit
* Sleight of Fist, allows Ember Spirit to destroy all of Phantom Lancer's illusions.
* Flame Guard also deals significant damage to illusions, and protects against Spirit Lance.
* Phantom Rush is unable to catch Ember Spirit when he teleports to his Fire Remnants.
Additional:
* Sleight of Fist is the natural counter to Phantom Lancer's army of illusions, especially when combined with Battle Fury.
Windranger
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 49% pickrate: 16%)Ember Spirit
* The high mobility provided by Fire Remnant makes it hard for Windranger to find a good position to land Shackleshot or a full duration of Focus Fire.
* Flame Guard deals considerable magical damage to Windranger.
Clockwerk
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 50% pickrate: 7%)Ember Spirit
* Ember Spirit's Fire Remnant is an easy way to escape from Clockwerk's Power Cogs.
* Flame Guard blocks most of the magical damage Clockwerk does.
Skywrath Mage
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 50% pickrate: 6%)Riki
* Due to his low health and armor, Riki can easily kill Skywrath Mage.
* Smoke Screen prevents Skywrath from using all of his abilities, as he does not tend to buy Black King Bar
Storm Spirit
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 50% pickrate: 10%)Ember Spirit
* 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.
Ember Spirit
* Flame Guard absorbs up to 500 magical damage (700 with Level 10 talents), which helps Ember Spirit survive and react to Storm Spirit's high magical damage.
* Searing Chains can root enemies up to 3 seconds, making Storm Spirit unable to escape with Ball Lightning.
* Fire Remnant deals high magical damage when casting multiple instances at once, granting Ember Spirit the damage to burst Storm Spirit down in the early to mid game.
Riki
* Smoke Screen prevents Storm Spirit from using his abilities once inside the radius. Riki can utilize this ability to allow his team to fight around Smoke Screen so that Storm Spirit cannot spam his spells to proc Overload.
Additional:
* Smoke Cloud prevents Storm Spirit from using any of his offensive and defensive spells, rendering him unable to effectively react to Riki's attack.
Chen
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 50% pickrate: 1%)Riki
* Chen is basically your natural prey: he has little HP, low armor and relies on his persuaded creeps to fight, which in most situations will not save Chen from you. Just be wary of {U:Centaur Conqueror}, who can stun you outside of Smoke Screen and ruin your attempt at Chen's life.
Weaver
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 50% pickrate: 6%)Riki
* Smoke Cloud prevents Shukuchi and
Time Lapse, leaving Weaver helpless against Riki.
* The Swarm is ineffective against Riki because invisibility instantly removes the beetles.
Ursa
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 50% pickrate: 12%)Riki
* Riki can detect early Roshan attempts because of Cloak and Dagger if he frequently checks the Pit.
* Ursa cannot Enrage when in Smoke Screen (Black King Bar will help though).
* Even if Ursa gets vision over him, Riki can Blink Strike away or use Tricks of the Trade after Ursa's initiation to avoid all Fury Swipes damage until
Earthshock's slow is gone.
Additional:
* Riki can detect early Roshan attempts because of Cloak and Dagger if he frequently checks the Pit.
* Ursa cannot Enrage when caught in Smoke Screen and will miss his attacks (although Black King Bar will help with this issue).
* Even if Ursa gets vision over him and initiates with Earthshock, Riki can Blink Strike away or use
Tricks of the Trade after Ursa's initiation to avoid Fury Swipes' damage until Earthshock's slow is gone.
Timbersaw
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 50% pickrate: 7%)Ember Spirit
* Searing Chains prevents usage of Timber Chain.
* Timbersaw is vulnerable to magical burst damage, which Ember Spirit provides with Fire Remnant and
Flame Guard.
* Timbersaw's abilities deal pure damage, thus they cannot remove Flame Guard.
Void Spirit
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 51% pickrate: 10%)Ember Spirit
* Ember Spirit has much higher mobility in Fire Remnant than Void Spirit.
* Ember's Flame Guard is effective against Void Spirit's spells, as most of them deal magical damage.
* The root from Searing Chains prevents Void Spirit from using Dissimilate or Astral Step.
Chaos Knight
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 51% pickrate: 4%)Ember Spirit
* Ember Spirit is evasive and can dodge close encounters with melee heroes like Chaos Knight. Ember Spirit can't be caught with the slow from Reality Rift, and Flame Guard and Sleight of Fist can bring
Phantasm's illusions down quickly.
Dark Seer
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 51% pickrate: 3%)Ember Spirit
* Flame Guard makes Dark Seer not deal any damage with his skills to Ember Spirit.
Arc Warden
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 51% pickrate: 5%)Riki
* Smoke Screen prevents Arc Warden from initiating or helping his team, as he struggles to escape the silence with low mobility.
* With Arc Warden's low mobility, Tricks of the Trade is wide enough to deal decent damage to him.
Shadow Shaman
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 52% pickrate: 13%)Riki
* Riki is known for being a successful support killer, and not just for show. He can give you one hell of a time by constantly picking you off and/or forcing you to stick close to the rest of the team.
* Smoke Screen is particularly devastating to Shadow Shaman. With neither his various disables nor a solid health pool Shadow Shaman is usually dead. Consider a force staff if you find yourself in this scenario (to force yourself out of the cloud before shackling Riki) and buy sentry wards if you have the money.
Alchemist
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 53% pickrate: 4%)Ember Spirit
* Ember's magic damage build is able to burst down Alchemist due to his low strength gain and Alchemist's normal item pick up.
Wraith King
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 53% pickrate: 21%)Riki
* Riki is a natural Diffusal Blade carrier, and it doesn't help that he's easily capable of sneaking up on you due to
Cloak and Dagger.
* Riki can use Smoke Screen on top of you as you're reincarnating, making you a sitting duck for your second life. In addition, the blind prevents Wraith King from landing critical hits from Mortal Strike.
* Wraithfire Blast is quite predictable, and players with good reflexes will disjoint it with Tricks of the Trade.
* There is also a chance he will become invisible again as the projectile travels, disjointing it.
Broodmother
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 56% pickrate: 2%)Ember Spirit
* Sleight of Fist keeps Ember Spirit invulnerable until he hits every unit in its area of effect allowing him to stall for large amounts of time against Broodmother and her large amounts of spiderlings, or potentially damaging them enough if equipped with an item to improve wave clearing such as
Battle Fury or
Maelstrom to prevent her pushes entirely.
* Flame Guard will damage any of Broodmother's spiders in an area, deterring her from attempting to kill him. It can also be used during Sleight of Fist to amplify damage done.
* Fire Remnant allows Ember Spirit an escape from Broodmother that is unaffected by her Incapacitating Bite.
Io
[wiki] rating: -0.6 (winrate: 47% pickrate: 4%)Riki
* Heroes that can easily bypass Io's allies to get to Io: Riki,
Tusk,
Clinkz,
Sniper
Vengeful Spirit
[wiki] rating: -0.6 (winrate: 48% pickrate: 9%)Riki
* Frail heroes who lacks mobility: Crystal Maiden,
Enigma,
Dark Willow,
Vengeful Spirit.
Anti-Mage
[wiki] rating: -0.6 (winrate: 48% pickrate: 14%)Riki
* 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
Additional:
* Anti-Mage can use neither Blink nor
Manta Style to escape from Smoke Cloud.
* Even if he activates a Black King Bar, his
Manta Style illusions will still be blinded by Smoke Cloud.
* Riki has a very small mana pool and generally doesn't buy many items that increase it, making Mana Void ineffective.
Gyrocopter
[wiki] rating: -0.6 (winrate: 48% pickrate: 3%)Ember Spirit
* Heroes with high mobility will be able to avoid Gyrocopter's area attacks: Storm Spirit,
Morphling,
Ember Spirit
Earthshaker
[wiki] rating: -0.6 (winrate: 49% pickrate: 10%)Riki
* Careful not to blink into Riki's
Smoke Screen or
Night Stalker's
Crippling Fear, as these field effects will instantly silence Earthshaker and prevent him from initiating.
Earth Spirit
[wiki] rating: -0.6 (winrate: 49% pickrate: 9%)Ember Spirit
* Heroes who can dodge Earth Spirit's abilities: Ember Spirit,
Puck,
Weaver
Templar Assassin
[wiki] rating: -0.6 (winrate: 49% pickrate: 5%)Riki
* Because Templar Assassin does not have escape potential in lane, any support hero with roaming potential and a Dust of Appearance can be great at shutting her down early game:
Earth Spirit,
Spirit Breaker,
Tusk,
Bounty Hunter,
Riki,
Warlock.
Death Prophet
[wiki] rating: -0.6 (winrate: 50% pickrate: 3%)Riki
* Riki is another good hero to shutdown Death Prophet with
Diffusal Blade as his core item. His
Smoke Screen stops her from initiating and casting spells.
Invoker
[wiki] rating: -0.6 (winrate: 50% pickrate: 18%)Riki
* Heroes with silence: Death Prophet,
Riki,
Drow Ranger.
Pangolier
[wiki] rating: -0.6 (winrate: 51% pickrate: 7%)Ember Spirit
* 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.
Naga Siren
[wiki] rating: -0.6 (winrate: 51% pickrate: 2%)Ember Spirit
* Cleave heroes will clear her illusions. Such heroes include Sven,
Magnus,
Dragon Knight in Elder Dragon Form,
Ember Spirit (via item),
Phantom Assassin (via talent or item), etc.
Mirana
[wiki] rating: -0.6 (winrate: 51% pickrate: 16%)Riki
* 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.
Lone Druid
[wiki] rating: -0.6 (winrate: 52% pickrate: 1%)Riki
* Riki:
Smoke Screen can prevent Lone Druid from using True Form and Savage Roar, additionally it cause the spirit bear to miss on attacks which reduce the chances of getting rooted from it, with diffusal Blade, he can keep Lone Druid or the Spirit Bear inside the Smoke.
Ancient Apparition
[wiki] rating: -0.6 (winrate: 52% pickrate: 8%)Riki
* Heroes with mobility/escape mechanisms to dodge Ancient Apparition abilites, or to easily jump on him: Riki,
Queen of Pain,
Phantom Assassin,
Windranger,
Bounty Hunter,
Spirit Breaker,
Night Stalker,
Storm Spirit,
Juggernaut, etc.
Enigma
[wiki] rating: -0.6 (winrate: 53% pickrate: 4%)Riki
* Frail heroes who lacks mobility: Crystal Maiden,
Enigma,
Dark Willow,
Vengeful Spirit.
Additional:
* Riki can potentially catch an Enigma out of position and prevent him from properly blinking and initiating, thanks to Cloak and Dagger used in tandem with Smoke Screen.
Lycan
[wiki] rating: -0.6 (winrate: 57% pickrate: 6%)Ember Spirit
* Heroes that heavily depend on illusions or summons, (Naga Siren,
Terrorblade,
Phantom Lancer,
Lycan,...) are vulnerable to Sleight of Fist and even more so if Ember Spirit has
Battle Fury.
Terrorblade
[wiki] rating: -0.4 (winrate: 46% pickrate: 6%)Riki
* Heroes with high base damage (Morphling,
Tiny,
Drow Ranger), heroes with mana burning abilities (
Anti-Mage), and
Diffusal Blade users (
Juggernaut or
Riki) will suffer from Reflection's illusions.
Ember Spirit
* Ember Spirit can deal devastating damage to illusion heroes like Terrorblade with Sleight of Fist. Terrorblade also has no way of preventing Ember Spirit from getting Activate Fire Remnant off. Additionally, Ember Spirit's ability to fight from long range as well as his wide skill set won't give many opportunities for Terrorblade to get Sunder off.
Additional:
* Ember Spirit can deal devastating damage to Terrorblade and his illusions with Sleight of Fist.
* Terrorblade has no disable to lock down Ember Spirit and prevent him from escaping with Fire Remnant. In addition, he doesn't like purchasing disabling items, which are the only solutions to deal with Ember Spirit.
Queen of Pain
[wiki] rating: -0.4 (winrate: 48% pickrate: 9%)Ember Spirit
* 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.
Riki
* Smoke Cloud prevents Queen of Pain from using any of her offensive and defensive spells, rendering her unable to effectively react to Riki's attack.
* It's easy to dodge Sonic Wave by using Blink Strike & Tricks of the Trade.
Mars
[wiki] rating: -0.4 (winrate: 49% pickrate: 16%)Riki
* Heroes who rely on their target to run away: Riki,
Bounty Hunter.
Riki
* 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.
Spirit Breaker
[wiki] rating: -0.4 (winrate: 51% pickrate: 8%)Riki
* Charge of Darkness provides shared vision over its target, keeping track of heroes who rely on invisibility, mobility, or illusions: Riki,
Broodmother,
Phantom Lancer
Ember Spirit
* Searing Chains can stop Charge of Darkness if timed correctly.
* Activate Fire Remnant can be used to escape an approaching Spirit Breaker, or lead Spirit Breaker into a bad situation.
* Activate Fire Remnant and
Sleight of Fist allows Ember Spirit to dodge Charge of Darkness if timed correctly.
Enchantress
[wiki] rating: 0.0 (winrate: 44% pickrate: 2%)Ember Spirit
* 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.
Riki
* Riki usually buys Diffusal Blade to initiate, which renders Enchantress' movement speed useless, and is usually followed with
Smoke Screen.
* Riki can effectively hit Enchantress by Tricks of the Trade alongside with
Diffusal Blade and
Smoke Screen's initiation. For a hero like Enchantress, 3 to 4 hits from Riki is a big deal, unless Enchantress built
Force Staff earlier.
Spectre
[wiki] rating: 0.0 (winrate: 46% pickrate: 7%)Riki
* Spectral Dagger follows Riki even after he goes invisible and stays on him through Tricks of the Trade, revealing his location.
* Desolate grants Spectre the ability to damage Riki with right clicks regardless of Smoke Screen's blind.
* Riki relies on his high damage to kill is opponents, which is countered by Dispersion.
* Haunt can find Riki globally at any time, negating much of his ganking potential.
Riki
* Riki's Smoke Screen can make it hard for Spectre to escape or burst down Riki with auto attacks.
* Riki can build Aghanim's Scepter and jump inside an allied carry or offlane tank with
Tricks of the Trade to do a lot of damage to Spectre while completely avoiding Dispersion.
* Riki is great at destroying supports which are often needed to keep Spectre safe until she comes online. He can take them down quickly in team fights, which will leave Spectre alone against your whole team, a fight that she will most likely not win.
* While on Tricks of the Trade, Riki does not take damage from Dispersion.
Drow Ranger
[wiki] rating: 0.0 (winrate: 50% pickrate: 8%)Ember Spirit
* 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.
Riki
* Blink Strike gets Riki close to Drow Ranger and disable Marksmanship.
* Smoke Screen makes Drow Ranger miss her attacks.
* Cloak and Dagger lets Riki stay close to Drow Ranger without her noticing, disabling Marksmanship.
Additional:
* With Blink Strike, Riki can get close to Drow Ranger and disable her Marksmanship, and Smoke Screen will prevent her from using
Gust.
Bloodseeker
[wiki] rating: 0.0 (winrate: 51% pickrate: 2%)Riki
* Thirst detects Riki whenever his health is low.
* Rupture does large damage when Riki uses Blink Strike.
Ember Spirit
* Fire Remnant allows Ember Spirit to escape Bloodseeker while Ruptured.
Additional:
* Fire Remnant allows Ember Spirit to escape while Ruptured.
Puck
[wiki] rating: 0.0 (winrate: 52% pickrate: 14%)Ember Spirit
* Any Hero with high mobility will be neutralized by dream coil: Queen of Pain,
Storm Spirit,
Ember Spirit,
Lycan,
Bloodseeker,
Anti-Mage,
Timbersaw
Riki
* Riki and
Disruptor:
Smoke Screen and
Static Storm can be thrown wherever Puck used Phase Shift, making Puck an easy target if it doesn't have Blink Dagger or is on cooldown. Puck is also very susceptible to Riki's high attack damage when attacking from the back. Glimpse also prevents Puck form escaping.
Clinkz
[wiki] rating: 0.0 (winrate: 53% pickrate: 6%)Ember Spirit
* 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.
Riki
* Smoke Cloud prevents the use of Death Pact,
Searing Arrows and
Skeleton Walk, so Clinkz can neither defend himself against Riki nor fight back effectively.
* It's hard to gank Riki as you have to find him first.
Monkey King
[wiki] rating: 0.0 (winrate: 54% pickrate: 18%)Riki
* In general, heroes who are melee with no way to fight back can be very easily poked by Monkey King to gain his Jingu Mastery stacks: Dark Seer,
Riki,
Rubick.
Riki
* Heroes with blind of some sort can be a bad choice for Monkey King to go on: Broodmother,
Riki,
Keeper of the Light.
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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Riki
* Riki takes a lot of damage from
Purification while ganking Omniknight's allies or himself.
Heavenly Grace instantly purges the slow from
Diffusal Blade, while also providing a large amount of survivability for his victim.
Degen Aura can hinder Riki's positioning tactics and put a heavy toll on Riki's already poor movement speed.
Guardian Angel in combat.
*
*
* Omniknight can easily save his allies by using
Ember Spirit
* 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.
*