* Purification easily catches Phantom Assassin when she jumps in to attack.
* Guardian Angel renders Phantom Assassin useless, as she depends entirely on physical attacks.

* 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.
* Omniknight can easily save his allies by using Guardian Angel in combat.

* Pit of Malice prevents Riki from casting Blink Strike. or Tricks of the Trade.
* Atrophy Aura reduces Riki's damage.
* Firestorm can be used to harrass Riki in lane.

* 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 is very hazardous for her in most of the stages, particularly since it also affects 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 Dark Rift, nor she can intercept them if Underlord chooses to teleport on any area of the map, though she can still kill a unit that is a target for Dark Rift if she is quick enough and if it's in her range.
Additional:
* 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 Dark Rift, nor she can intercept them if Underlord chooses to teleport on any area of the map, though she can still kill a unit that is a target for Dark Rift if she is quick enough and if it's in her range.

* 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.

* 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.

* Phantom Strike's extra attack speed causes Phantom Assassin to proc Counter Helix more often. Using it on Axe also makes Phantom Assassin an easy target for a counter-initiation with Berserker's Call and Blade Mail.
* Most of Axe's abilities pierce Black King Bar, allowing him to lock down Phantom Assassin at any time.
* Berserker's Call greatly reduces Phantom Assassin's ability to crit hard against Axe, and may cause her to kill herself when used with Blade Mail.
Additional:
* Jumping in with Phantom Strike on Axe is not at all a good idea because it will make Phantom Assassin an exceptionally easy target for Berserker's Call.
* The bonus attack speed from Phantom Strike also means that Phantom Assassin will proc Counter Helix numerous times.
* Black King Bar is generally useless against Axe's abilities and item build, as Black King Bar doesn't prevent Axe from finishing Phantom Assassin off with Culling Blade. It also doesn't work against Berserker's Call and Counter Helix.
* Blade Mail is an item that Axe purchases every game, and it can be used to turn Phantom Assassin's critical strikes against herself. The situation can become even worse if she's affected by Berserker's Call, as she has no way to stop attacking.

* 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.
* Axe is a natural buyer of Blade Mail and Riki players generally do not buy lifesteal, causing you to kill yourself when attacking due to your tiny HP pool.

* Riki does little damage to Dragon Knight, as he relies only on physical damage with modest attack speed and lack of burst.

* High armor thanks to Dragon Blood makes it difficult for Phantom Assassin to burst down Dragon Knight, as she deals 100% physical damage.
* Dragon Tail stuns Phantom Assassin as soon as she initiates, preventing her from gaining bonus attack speed.
* Dragon Knight is one of the few heroes who can safely solo lane against Phantom Assassin alongside a support.

* 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.

* 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.
Additional:
* Enfeeble greatly reduces Phantom Assassin's damage output, crippling her damage with Coup De Grace.
* Brain Sap deals pure damage against Phantom Assassin and can nuke her down especially in early game.
* Fiend's Grip can disable Phantom Assassin, even through Black King Bar or any source of Spell immunity.

* Slark's Pounce allows him to close the gap on Phantom Assassin and prevent her from escaping with Phantom Strike.
* As a hero who always goes for the Silver Edge and Abyssal Blade Slark can use it to disable Phantom Assassin and her Blur and Coup de Grace, drastically reducing her damage output and ability to evade attacks, and also preventing her from acting.
* Phantom Assassin's Coup de Grace requires Random Number Generation in order to proc, which gives Slark more than enough time to escape and recover himself.

* 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.

* Nethertoxin disables Phantom Assassin's passive skills which she heavily relies on.
* Viper Strike goes through Black King Bar and severely slowing her down. Remember, However, she can blink out if any of her allies are nearby.

* 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.

* Heroes who rely on basic attacks will suffer from Laser: Phantom Assassin, Wraith King, Huskar.

Additional:
* The blind from Laser can render Phantom Assassin useless if she is not protected by Black King Bar.
* Tinker is a natural Scythe of Vyse carrier and can permanently disable Phantom Assassin, not giving her chance to activate Black King Bar if she has it.

* Any hero with a low HP pool is easy for Tinker to nuke down: Crystal Maiden, Enchantress, Gyrocopter, Lion, Riki, Techies, Terrorblade, Necrophos, Invoker.

* Charge of Darkness provides shared vision over its target, keeping track of heroes who rely on invisibility, mobility, or illusions: Riki, Broodmother, Phantom Lancer

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

* Heroes who are reliant on physical damage will be nullified by Decrepify: Riki, Wraith King, Juggernaut.

* Ethereal state disarms the target and makes them more vulnerable to magic damage, both of which Phantom Assassin despises. Especially Pugna and any hero that is wielding Ethereal Blade, such as Mirana, Nyx Assassin or Morphling.

* 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 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.

* Phantom Assassin's single target abilities make her very helpless against swarms of spiderlings.
* Because Phantom Assassin is always reliant on critical strikes, Broodmother will usually have enough time to use Spin Web to save herself.
* Silken Bola can make her attack misses a lot and slows her down.
Additional:
* Phantom Assassin's single target abilities make her very helpless against swarms of Spiderlings.
* Because Phantom Assassin is always reliant on critical strikes, Broodmother will usually have enough time to use Spin Web to save herself.
* Incapacitating Bite cripples her due to reliant on physical attacks.

* 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.

* 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.

* 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.

* Track reveals him while invisible and gives Riki a hard time, as it prevents much of his ganking capabilities. This can force Riki to buy Manta Style to dispel it.

* Retaliate turns Phantom Assassin's attacks against herself, as he deals damage with every hit taken, and his big health pool makes sure that a lot of hits will be needed.
* If Centaur Warrunner gets the jump on Phantom Assassin first, she will be unable to activate Black King Bar and might be burst down with the help of his Double Edge.
* Stampede can save an ally under attack by Phantom Assassin, offsetting the slow from Stifling Dagger. If he owns an Aghanim's Scepter, he can prevent a low-health ally from being killed in one crit.
Additional:
* Retaliate deals damage to Phantom Assassin for every attack and Stifling Dagger thrown at Centaur.
* Blur cannot evade Double Edge.

* Thirst detects Riki whenever his health is low.
* Rupture does large damage when Riki uses Blink Strike.

* 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.
Additional:
* 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.
* Slardar's Aghanim's Shard, causes Slithereen Crush to apply Corrosive Haze even if Slardar does not have vision over you.

* Hoodwink can easily Scurry away from a Phantom Strike, make her difficult to be chased through trees, as well as provide passive evasion, effectively stalling Phantom Assassin from a quick kill.
* Landing a Sharpshooter arrow applies Break and a burst of magic damage, disabling Phantom Assassin's crucial passive skills and dealing huge damage to her.
Additional:
* 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.

* 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.
* Focus Fire can still deal considerable damage despite Blur's evasion due to the increased attack speed.

* 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 counters Phantom Assassin.
* 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.

* 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.

* 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.
Additional:
* Morphling's high armor serves as a direct counter to Phantom Assassin, causing her attacks to do far less damage. She is also very vulnerable to burst damage, and can be brought down quickly using his Ethereal Blade and Adaptive Strike combo.

* Despite her high mobility, Hex or Earth Spike can lock Phantom Assassin down and make her vulnerable.
* Although she has high evasion through Blur, Phantom Assassin has a rather low health pool, making her weak to Lion's magical burst.
Additional:
* Hex and Earth Spike's fast cast animations easily catches Phantom Assassin when she jumps in to attack.
* Finger of Death often ends Phantom Assassin before she can do anything in the early to mid game.

* 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.

* 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).

* Black King Bar is useless for Phantom Assassin against Spectre, since all of the Spectre's abilities go through spell immunity,
* Blur cannot evade Desolate because its damage is a separate damage instance and is applied before the attack hits.
* Spectre's high durability provided by Dispersion and damage block items makes her one of the hardest carries to take down.
Additional:
* Dispersion makes it hard for Phantom Assassin to burst down Spectre while also reflecting back Phantom Assassin's high burst damage against herself.
* Desolate ignores the evasion from Blur.
* Black King Bar is useless against Spectre as all of her skills pierce spell immunity.

* 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.

* 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.

* Any heroes with low mana pools will die quickly or even instantly to Sanity's Eclipse: Doom, Phantom Assassin, Troll Warlord.

* Heroes that avoid damage by coming in and out of invisibility in teamfights such as Weaver, Templar Assassin, and Riki will be easy for Zeus to reveal with Lightning Bolt and Thundergod's Wrath, but these heroes usually have other ways to avoid his damage or kill him, so he is not a perfect counter alone.

Additional:
* Zeus's Lightning Bolt and Thundergod's Wrath provides a short duration of True Sight, revealing Riki while possibly dealing a heavy amount of damage.
* Zeus's Nimbus can be placed directly on top of Tricks of the Trade, potentially causing him to be damaged, stunned, and revealed the instant he becomes targetable again.

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

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

* 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.

* Ethereal state disarms the target and makes them more vulnerable to magic damage, both of which Phantom Assassin despises. Especially Pugna and any hero that is wielding Ethereal Blade, such as Mirana, Nyx Assassin or Morphling.

* 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.

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

* 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 unless Riki has Battle Fury.

* 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

* Heroes who rely on invisibility, such as Bounty Hunter, Clinkz, Mirana, Nyx Assassin and Riki, as they will be revealed if caught by Chronosphere.

* 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.

* Heroes with magical burst damage can often kill Phantom Assassin before she gets to do much: Lina, Necrophos, Nyx Assassin, Gyrocopter, Shadow Shaman.

* 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 who rely on their target to run away: Riki, Bounty Hunter.

* Phantom Assassin's high physical damage is greatly reduced by Bulwark.
* God's Rebuke has true strike, ignoring the evasion from Blur.

* 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.

* 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.

* Riki can easily be caught in an Ice Path and Macropyre combo as he finishes Tricks of the Trade.

* 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).

* Heroes who can anticipate, intercept and counter attack against Phantom Assassin once she jumps on them with Phantom Strike provided that they are able to do so in time: Axe, Luna, Troll Warlord, Viper, Tinker, Lina, Shadow Demon, Pugna, Doom, Medusa, Terrorblade etc.

* 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.

* 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.