* In the early game, a Dragon Knight without Black King Bar is basically defenseless against Viper.
Additional:
* Dragon Knight is easily harassed by Poison Attack after the laning stage ends.
* Corrosive Skin protects Viper from Breathe Fire and returns damage.
* Nethertoxin mitigates Dragon Blood, Dragon's Knight main source of armor and health regeneration.
* Between Poison Attack and Viper Strike, Viper can keep Dragon Knight permanently slowed even in Elder Dragon Form.

* Nethertoxin breaks Sniper's passives.
* Viper Strike together with Poison Attack can slow Sniper and tears through his low health and mobility.

* Being mostly a physical damage dealer, Sniper's effectiveness is greatly reduced by Omniknight's Guardian Angel.
* Omniknight's Degen Aura allows him to slow sniper and catch him. Sniper has to then use some escape item.
* Omniknight can also protect an ally from being finished off by Assassinate by using Purification.

* Heroes who rely strongly on melee physical damage will fare badly against Omniknight's Guardian Angel: Sven, Phantom Assassin, Juggernaut, Dragon Knight, Lycan, Ursa, Troll Warlord

* Slardar can use Guardian Sprint with Blink Dagger or Shadow Blade to get close, and Slithereen Crush will stun Sniper, making him vulnerable to Slardar's teammates.
* Corrosive Haze lowers Sniper's armor and makes Sniper's Shadow Blade useless, easily killing him with a few attacks.

* Slardar can chase Dragon Knight down with Guardian Sprint and stun him with both Slithereen Crush and his passive Bash of the Deep. He can also use Corrosive Haze to whittle Dragon Knight's armor.

* Sand King is a strong ganker, allowing him to shut down squishy heroes in the early game: Phantom Assassin, Clinkz, Sniper, Enchantress,...

* Heroes with no mobility will take some good damage from Sand King's spells: Dragon Knight, Jakiro, Pugna, Earthshaker,...

* Heroes with high physical damage output but lack of reliable escape mechanisms are always a good target for a solo gank: Sniper, Shadow Fiend, Troll Warlord, Drow Ranger. Those heroes, however, are dangerous if they manage to close the gap, so take caution.

* Heroes that lose a great amount of their tankiness and become easier to finish off: Bristleback, Spectre, Phantom Assassin, Enchantress, Dragon Knight.
* Once you have an Aghanim's Scepter, Shadow Demon instantly reaches a new power spike and becomes a counter for a variety of heroes that have strong passives.
* Heroes that lose a great amount of their tankiness and become easier to finish off: Bristleback, Spectre, Phantom Assassin, Enchantress, Dragon Knight.
* Heroes that lose a great amount of damage output and become less threatening: Phantom Assassin, Sven, Slark, Phantom Lancer.
* You can always stack camps and farm the scepter with Shadow Poison.

* Bounty Hunter can use Shadow Walk to get close, and Jinada can do massive damage and slow down Sniper on the first attack.
* Track gives additional speed to Bounty Hunter and makes Shadow Blade useless, allowing Bounty Hunter to easily kill him with a few attacks.
Additional:
* Sniper relies on distance. Bounty Hunter can use Shadow Walk to get close, and Jinada can do massive damage and slow down Sniper in the early game.
* Track gives additional speed to Bounty Hunter and makes Shadow Blade useless, which can allow Bounty Hunter to easily kill him with a few attacks.

* Magnetic Field's evasion completely negates Sniper's attacks unless he has True Strike.
* Sniper always positions himself far away from battles, which makes him especially vulnerable for Flux and Spark Wraith.

* Cold Feet and Ice Vortex both hinder Dragon Knight's movement greatly during teamfights.
* Ice Blast ignores Dragon Knight's armor and kills him prematurely.

* Sniper has no spells to disable Puck. He lacks a silence to prevent spell casting and a stun to disable, allowing Puck to act instantly against Sniper.
* Sniper's main strategy is to attack his enemies from safe distance. Illusory Orb, combined with Blink Dagger makes it easy for Puck to get to Sniper. Due to his low health, he is also easily nuked down by Puck.
* The status debuff placed by Assassinate on its target makes it very easy to avoid it. Puck has 2 (3 when having Blink Dagger, 4 when having Eul's Scepter of Divinity, 5 when having Linken's Sphere) methods to disjoint or dodge the projectile, making it a bad spell for finishing off Puck.

* Fury swipes can tear Dragon knight down as it stacks infinitely.

* Clockwerk is also the least optimal target for Sniper to attack in a teamfight, although more experienced players will rarely make this mistake.
* With no mobility or disable skills, getting trapped in Power Cogs is a death sentence for Sniper.
Additional:
* Clockwerk can easily close the distance to Sniper using Hookshot and trap him with Power Cogs.
* Even though Sniper is a natural Hurricane Pike carrier, Sniper's low health usually means Clockwerk can finish him off with Battery Assault and Rocket Flare.

* Shukuchi allows Weaver to close the gap between himself and Sniper with high speed, and to maneuver through teamfights to get on top of him.
* A combination of The Swarm and Desolator tears through Sniper's low armor.

* Lich's constant slows with Frost Blast and Chain Frost will slow Dragon Knight to a crawl, especially in a crowded teamfight.

* Sniper is very squishy and cannot deal with heroes that jump onto him and lock him down. Storm Spirit closes the gap in a fight against Sniper, and Sniper has no way to escape except for some items.
* Storm Spirit can dodge Assassinate with a correctly timed Ball Lightning.
Additional:
* Storm Spirit can close the distance towards Sniper very easily with his ultimate Ball Lightning.

* Invoker's arsenal of magical spells are troublesome for Sniper who has low HP and high armor, which does not benefit him much against Invoker.
* Besides magical damage, he can be disarmed and repeatedly mini-stunned with Cold Snap, preventing him from reacting.
* Leveling Quas can allow Invoker to lane effectively against Sniper despite right-click harassment.

* A Blink Dagger combined with Hoof Stomp can be used to catch Sniper.
* Centaur can also utilize Stampede to cover the distance.
* Double Edge can easily finish off Sniper after Centaur initiates on him.
* Retaliate punishes Sniper for focusing Centaur in teamfights.
Additional:
* Headshot and Shrapnel slow is ineffective against a team with haste (which Stampede gives).
* Commonly picked up mobility items and hasted movement during his Stampede (as well as his high health pool) make him extremely hard to kill from a distance, damaging Sniper with Retaliate and Blade Mail if he has one.
* A low health pool and no escape mechanism makes him an easy target for Centaur Warrunner's burst damage and initiation (even making his team possible initiators with Stampede).

* Timbersaw's pure damage will kill Dragon Knight surprisingly fast, especially if he gets caught in a bad position while laning.

* Sunder can save himself or his allies from Assassinate.
* Sniper relies on right-clicks to deal damage, and Terrorblade's high armor can reduce his damage by quite a bit.
* Terrorblade is a far harder carry than Sniper is, so a well-farmed Terrorblade can easily defeat a Sniper.

* Slark is a natural Shadow Blade carrier, and with Pounce Sniper has no opportunity to escape or react.
* With Essence Shift and Shadow Dance, Slark will easily win a fight against Sniper.
Additional:
* Sniper is one of the most gankable heroes in the game, and has no defenses when Pounced on by Slark.

* Pudge's Meat Hook allows him to bring Sniper in the middle of any fight, and the pure damage does well against his high armor and low health.
* Dismember can lock Sniper down, which makes him highly vulnerable and gives enough time for Pudge to kill him alone.
Additional:
* Sniper has a low health pool and strength gain, making him vulnerable to Pudge's magical and pure damage.
* Sniper usually likes to deal damage away from the fight, and Meat Hook is capable of bringing him to the front lines.
* Assassinate won't do much damage against Pudge because of his high strength gain and the strength bonuses from Flesh Heap.

* 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.

* Morphling's high mobility allows him to easily get close to Sniper, who likes to keep his distance from enemies.
* Sniper's low health also makes him extremely vulnerable to Morphling's Ethereal Blade and Adaptive Strike combo.

* Viscous Nasal Goo slows down Dragon Knight and lowers armor, locking him down and making him more vulnerable.

* Haunt instantly allows her to get up and close with Sniper, and Spectral Dagger makes it difficult to escape from her.
* Spectre outcarries Sniper in the late game, so Sniper must try to end the game early before Spectre comes online.
Additional:
* Spectre can reach him easily in the backlines with Spectral Dagger or teleport to him with Haunt.
* He is usually a fair distance away from his allies, so Desolate will quickly tear Sniper down.

* Clinkz, Sniper, Lone Druid, Troll Warlord, Legion Commander and Wraith King are some of the Heroes that base themselves on attacks with little or no spell power, so they suffer in the grassy hands of Overgrowth.

* Other heroes that rely on physical attacks to deal damage and not their abilities: Troll Warlord, Sniper, Monkey King, Sven.

* 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.

* Elder Titan's Natural Order completely nullifies Dragon Knight's high armor.

* Durable heros relied a lot on their main passive effects and items' effects such as Bristleback, Underlord and Dragon Knight can be removed their effects easily with Sharpshooter's break.

* Fortune's End can catch out or impair position-based heroes with low mobility, such as Sniper or Razor.

* Huskar can burn down Dragon Knight's health quickly during the early to mid game, but is not as effective during the late game. However, Life Break remains a constant threat due to the slow and percentage-based damage.

Additional:
* Huskar can negate Dragon Knight's passive with multiple trades of Burning Spear.

* Heroes with high mobility can approach Sniper: Anti-Mage, Earth Spirit, Io, Nature's Prophet, Pangolier, Puck, Queen of Pain and most notably Riki.

* Heroes who rely on skills to become a heavy hitter in a certain amount of time can waste their timing because of a lucky Lucky Shot's disarm: Terrorblade, Sven, Clinkz, Windranger, Alchemist, Dragon Knight, Legion Commander

* Heroes with high mobility can approach Sniper: Anti-Mage, Earth Spirit, Io, Nature's Prophet, Pangolier, Puck, Queen of Pain and most notably Riki.

* Heroes with catch to disrupt Sniper's positioning and deliver him into the enemies: Batrider, Disruptor, Pudge, Vengeful Spirit

* Heroes that relies on armor or other type of physical damage negation are easy for Gyrocopter to take down during the early game with his magical damage: Axe, Dragon Knight, Sven.

* Heroes with high mobility can approach Sniper: Anti-Mage, Earth Spirit, Io, Nature's Prophet, Pangolier, Puck, Queen of Pain and most notably Riki.

* Heroes who cannot fight back during Arena of Blood in the early and mid game: Abaddon, Anti-Mage, Broodmother, Drow Ranger, Luna, Sniper, Troll Warlord, Weaver, Clinkz.

* Heroes with high mobility can approach Sniper: Anti-Mage, Earth Spirit, Io, Nature's Prophet, Pangolier, Puck, Queen of Pain and most notably Riki.

* Heroes with catch to disrupt Sniper's positioning and deliver him into the enemies: Batrider, Disruptor, Pudge, Vengeful Spirit

* Heroes with high mobility can approach Sniper: Anti-Mage, Earth Spirit, Io, Nature's Prophet, Pangolier, Puck, Queen of Pain and most notably Riki.

* Range-reliant heroes: Sniper, Drow Ranger

* Frail heroes who lack mobility can also be an easy target to lock down with Chronosphere, such as Drow Ranger, Luna, Sniper, Terrorblade.

* Sniper is completely helpless against Incapacitating Bite, and can be seriously damaged by Spiderlings in lane.

* Ensnare with her attacks allows Naga Siren to gank Sniper easily.
* Rip Tide removes Sniper's very little armor.

* Heartstopper Aura and Reaper's Scythe go right through Dragon Knight's armor.

* Lifestealer can close the distance to Sniper by using Infest on a fast or durable creep to tank Sniper's damage.
* Open Wounds will reduce Sniper's mobility heavily, and Rage's attack speed bonus helps in taking down Sniper.

* Snowball allows Tusk to move himself and allies towards Sniper whilst invulnerable and hidden.
* His Ice Shards may also block pathing for Sniper as he has no means of moving through obstacles. In addition, Tag Team can hinder Sniper's escape.
Additional:
* Tusk alone or with his teammates can close Sniper's long range easily with Snowball, even wasting Shrapnel, ending with a very vulnerable Sniper.
* Walrus PUNCH! damage can easily kill Sniper instantly due to his low health.

* Axe can easily close the distance to Sniper with either Blink Dagger or Shadow Blade.
* With Berserker's Call in combination with Counter Helix and Battle Hunger, Axe can make short work of Sniper, finishing him off easily with Culling Blade due to his low HP & high attack speed in the late game.

* Phantom Strike allows her to jump on Sniper with increased attack speed.
* Coup de Grace and Desolator shreds Sniper's low health and armor.
* Blur can be activated to get within Phantom Strike's range, surprising Sniper before he has a chance to react. Its passive also reduces Sniper's overall effectiveness against Phantom Assassin, provided he hasn't purchased a Monkey King Bar.
Additional:
* Sniper's lack of mobility and reliance on attack range makes him an easy target for Phantom Assassin to jump on.