* Berserker's Call forces Mars to face in the direction choosen.
* Counter Helix is a much stronger lane trader than Spear of Mars.

* Pudge, Legion Commander and Axe will make the match a living hell for you, since they are known for surprise attacks from the fog and quickly killing low HP heroes. They can also interrupt your channeling, Legion being especially problematic, as she can use Press the Attack on an ally who is hexed as well.

* 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.

* 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.

* Nyx Assassin, Bounty Hunter and Slark can all sneak up and kill you, Nyx being particularly deadly. Watch Slark carefully, as he can break either (but not both unless you are making a mistake) of your disables, with Dark Pact and leap out of a serpent ward ring. These heroes, however, rely heavily on escape and are themselves not very durable and none of them can survive a full lockdown with Mass Serpent Ward. Having Sentry Wards can turn you from prey to predator.

* Heroes with break abilities: Nyx Assassin, Shadow Demon (with Aghanim's Scepter), Viper.

* Omniknight can dispel Hex or Shackles with Heavenly Grace. He can also heal teammates which you disabled. The same goes to Abaddon's Aphotic Shield .

* Heroes that can save their allies can be a big problem for Mars: Dazzle, Omniknight.

* Due to their high attack speed, Summon Familiars will destroy Mass Serpent Ward quickly, granting Visage a massive amount of gold.
Additional:
* Due to their high attack speed, Visage's Summon Familiars will destroy Mass Serpent Ward quickly, granting Visage massive amount of gold.

* Nether Blast, Decrepify and Life Drain deal high magical damage and bypasses Bulwark.
* Nether Ward reduces the amount of abilities Mars can use during fights and forces Mars to be careful about the heavy mana cost of Arena Of Blood.
* Pugna is one of few heroes that can contest Mars' ability to push and defend towers early on.

* Shadow Shaman has no effective burst damage, thus Chen has a lot of time to save an ally with his creeps or Hand of God from a gank.
* Chen can use {U:Centaur Conqueror} or {U:Mud Golem} to interrupt Shadow shaman's Shackles channeling
* Mass Serpent Ward can be easily teared down by Chen's creep army

* Mirana can disturb your channeling even if you are under the effect of invisibility thanks to Sacred Arrow.
* Mirana armed with an Aghanim's Scepter is known to be able to quickly burst down heroes - especially supports. Together with Ethereal Blade the bullying can continue for the whole match.

* Arcane Orb's pure damage ignores Mars' Bulwark.
* Astral Imprisonment can be used to stop Mars from being disruptive or save allies from his abilities.
* Sanity's Eclipse deals high damage to Mars, due to his low intelligence.

* Firestorm and Pit of Malice are very disruptive in team fights, completely matching Mars especially since it can all be cast inside Arena Of Blood and also does percentage-based magical damage, negating Bulwark.
* Dark Rift can save any allies of Underlord trapped in Arena Of Blood.
* Atrophy Aura allows Underlord to lane against Mars quite well since he does not have the best base damage during the early game.
* Underlord is a common carrier of both Pipe of Insight and Mekansm/Guardian Greaves, allowing his team to combat Mars in the mid to late game.

* Reincarnation allows Wraith King to survive Shadow Shaman's initial chain of disables and Serpent Ward attacks.
* Short cooldown of Wraithfire Blast is ideal for interrupting Shackles.

* Mars has no way to trade with Ogre Magi in the early game thanks to his high base health, resistance and Ignite.
* Once Ogre Magi gets level 2 he may also have Bloodlust, which makes him even harder to deal with in lane.
* Fireblast can be ridiculously strong later on in the game for controlling Mars.
* Spear of Mars, which is Mars' main source of damage in the early game, cannot guarantee kills early on Ogre Magi.

* Decay, Soul Rip and Flesh Golem all deal magical damage which ignores Bulwark.
* Decay reduces Mars' natural strength and therefore his health pool, which is what he relies on to trade effectively in lane.

* Necrophos' largely magical damage completely ignores Bulwark.
* Ghost Shroud protects Necrophos from God's Rebuke but more importantly stops Mars from being a threat in lane.

* Venomancer's spells all deal magical damage, ignoring Bulwark.
* Venomancer's multiple slows are especially effective at kiting Mars.
* Plague Wards can attack through Arena Of Blood.
Additional:
* Venomancer's poison attacks are all magical damage, ignoring Bulwark.
* Venomancer's multiple slows are especially effective against Mars' low mobility.
* Plague Wards can attack through Arena of Blood.

* Dragon Knight can simply tank and destroy all Shadow Shaman's Serpent Wards.

* Sticky Napalm slows turn rate, making it difficult for Mars to control the direction he is facing to activate Bulwark.
* Flaming Lasso disables Mars while enemies re-position themselves behind Mars to avoid Bulwark.

* Mars' own father is a formidable foe because Zeus deals mostly magical damage. The high damage, low cooldown nukes of Arc Lightning and Lightning Bolt combined with the percent health magic damage of Static Field will shred Mars' health because it bypasses Bulwark completely.

* Waveform allows Morphling to escape from Mass Serpent Ward
* Morphling can interrupt Shadow Shaman while he is shackling an ally with Adaptive Strike (Strength).
* With Ethereal Blade Morphling can quickly burst him down before he even has a chance to react.

* Dragon Slave deals reliable magic damage during the laning phase against Mars.
* Lina's Eul's Scepter of Divinity and Light Strike Array combo can interrupt Mars from being disruptive for a decent amount of time and leave him vulnerable for follow up stuns.
* Laguna Blade deals massive magical damage, and pure damage with Aghanim's Scepter.

* Time Walk allows Faceless Void to escape or enter Arena Of Blood, and helps him recover from Mars' burst damage.
* Time Lock's magical damage ignores Bulwark.
* Chronosphere allows Faceless Void to reposition behind Mars, ignoring his Bulwark while he is helplessly frozen in time.
Additional:
* Time Dilation while Spear of Mars and God's Rebuke are on cooldown will make these abilities unusable for a long time, rendering Mars nearly useless.
* Mars cannot turn inside the Chronosphere, which makes it easy to attack him from the back, bypassing Bulwark completely.

* Heroes with high magical or pure damage will bypass Bulwark: Timbersaw, Dark Willow, Enigma, Invoker, Pugna, Skywrath Mage, Tinker, Zeus, Oracle.

* Heroes that wish to disrupt fights with spell combos or big ultimates are vulnerable to the long stun of Fiend's Grip: Disruptor, Death Prophet, Enigma, Faceless Void, Invoker, Lich, Magnus, Mars, Medusa, Outworld Destroyer, Phoenix, Puck, Queen of Pain, Shadow Fiend, Treant Protector, Underlord, Winter Wyvern, Witch Doctor, Zeus.

* Heroes with high magical or pure damage will bypass Bulwark: Timbersaw, Dark Willow, Enigma, Invoker, Pugna, Skywrath Mage, Tinker, Zeus, Oracle.

* Arc Warden with his Magnetic Field will protect allies from Mass Serpent Ward.

* Heroes with high magical or pure damage will bypass Bulwark: Timbersaw, Dark Willow, Enigma, Invoker, Pugna, Skywrath Mage, Tinker, Zeus, Oracle.

* Single-target disablers will have difficulty locking down a Chaos Knight with Phantasm active: Bane, Beastmaster, Bloodseeker, Clockwerk, Doom, Shadow Shaman.

* Ursa is a special mention because despite his high physical damage attacking from the front won't achieve much against Mars but isn't a great target for Mars either since Ursa is very resistant to damage with Enrage so there isn't much that can be done to stop Ursa from going on your team.

* With 4 active abilities, Shadow Shaman is weak against silencing foes such as silencer, Drow Ranger and Death Prophet.

* Heroes with high magical or pure damage will bypass Bulwark: Timbersaw, Dark Willow, Enigma, Invoker, Pugna, Skywrath Mage, Tinker, Zeus, Oracle.

* Heroes with high magical or pure damage will bypass Bulwark: Timbersaw, Dark Willow, Enigma, Invoker, Pugna, Skywrath Mage, Tinker, Zeus, Oracle.

* Heroes with high health especially Strength heroes will take more damage on Sun Ray: Axe, Pudge, Bristleback, Mars.

* With 4 active abilities, Shadow Shaman is weak against silencing foes such as silencer, Drow Ranger and Death Prophet.

* Heroes that can save their allies can be a big problem for Mars: Dazzle, Omniknight.

* Heroes with break abilities: Nyx Assassin, Shadow Demon (with Aghanim's Scepter), Viper.

* Pudge, Legion Commander and Axe will make the match a living hell for you, since they are known for surprise attacks from the fog and quickly killing low HP heroes. They can also interrupt your channeling, Legion being especially problematic, as she can use Press the Attack on an ally who is hexed as well.

* 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.

* Medusa's Stone Gaze forces Mars to choose between getting petrified, or turning his vulnerable back on Medusa.

* Kunkka's Ghostship and Torrent disrupt fights in Arena Of Blood.

* Storm Spirit's abilities all do magical damage, which can bypass Bulwark.
* Ball Lightning can escape through Arena of Blood and it is easy to dodge Spear of Mars.
Additional:
* Ball Lightning makes it almost impossible to catch Storm Spirit without someone else initiating for you.
* Overload is not reduced by Bulwark and the magical damage spam can wear down Mars quickly.

* Nethertoxin breaks the damage block from Bulwark.
* Poison Attack and Viper Strike's slows make it difficult for Mars to contribute to fights due to his low mobility.
Additional:
* Nethertoxin breaks Bulwark entirely, making Mars far less tanky. Using Nethertoxin inside Arena of Blood may discourage enemies from following up with Mars' initiation.
* Rod of Atos is currently common on Viper and keeps Mars in position long enough to be killed.
* Viper is not very tanky earlier in the game, so positioning against Mars is important since a well-timed Spear of Mars can be the end of Viper.

* If Mars lanes middle, Shadow Fiend can keep the lane pushed against him.
* Shadow Fiend can go an entirely magical based build, which is very effective against Mars.