* Phantom Lancer has higher mobility and the ability to reset any fights with Doppelganger can be a nuisance for spectre to fight against.
* Phantom Lancer is a natural carrier of Diffusal Blade and Manta Style, which is outright nullify Desolate. In fact, Phantom Lancer will always have illusions with him at anytime, thus further exacerbated the problem.
* Although Spectre is largely AoE oriented, unfortunately, they are damage-over-time (DoT) rather than burst AoE damage. Without any effective ways to quickly destroy illusion and reveal the real hero, Spectre has little availability to manfight Phantom Lancer at any points in the game.
* Spectre often relies on Spectral Dagger as a pseudo-mobility skill. With her low mana pool and complete dependence on it to catch enemy team, she will soon find herself unable to do anything significant once her mana pool is completely drained.
* Doppelganger can be used to dispel the slow from Spectral Dagger, thus completely render it useless.

* Phantom Lancer's illusions will quickly destroy multiple layers of Gravekeeper's Cloak.
* Visage has no mobility mechanisms, making him a prime target for Phantom Rush.

* Venomancer's poison damage-over-time are very effective against Spectre, which is lack of magic resistance from early to mid game.
* Venomancer's multiple slows greatly reduces Spectre's low mobility, even through Spectral Dagger.
* Plague Wards reveals Spectre while she is hiding on trees.
Additional:
* Venomancer's poison damage over time is very effective against Spectre, who tends to lack magic resistance during the early to mid game.
* Venomancer's multiple slows greatly reduces Spectre's movement speed and mobility.
* Plague Wards can scout out Spectre while she is hiding in trees.

* Venomous Gale, Poison Sting and Poison Nova deal damage over time and will chip away at Gravekeeper's Cloak in addition to slowing an already sluggish hero.
* Venomancer's normal attacks deal Poison Sting and will chip away at Gravekeeper's Cloak.

* Infernal Blade's damage is calculated by percentage of maximum health, meaning that it will hurt Spectre more than most normal attacks, negating some of her tankiness.
* Doom can pick up several different abilities from neutral creeps using Devour, some of which can be annoying to Spectre.
* Mud Golem, Dark Troll Summoner, Harpy Stormcrafter, Satyr Mindstealer or Satyr Tormenter are good examples.
* Doom makes Spectre less disruptive. Combined with Aghanim's Scepter, it will disable Spectre passive skills, reducing her potential in teamfights.
Additional:
* Infernal Blade's damage is calculated by percentage of max health. Since Spectre is usually tanky, it will hurt her more than most normal attacks.
* Doom can entirely disable Spectre from a teamfight. If upgraded with Aghanim's Scepter, it will disable her passive skills which is she relies on, crippling her.

* Scorched Earth can be used to engage Visage while removing Gravekeeper's Cloak charges.
* Infernal Blade will deal tremendous amounts of damage over time due to Visage's high health pool.
* Doom completely nullifies Gravekeeper's Cloak and prevents Visage from casting spells.

* Nethertoxin cuts off Gravekeeper's Cloak, Visage's primary defense mechanism.
* Viper can ignore Grave Chill's attack speed slow with his magic damage output.
Additional:
* Since Visage is a slow hero, Viper can easily kite him with Poison Attack and Viper Strike while successfully chipping away at Gravekeeper's Cloak.
* Nethertoxin removes all layers of Gravekeeper's Cloak, leaving Visage exposed.
* Corrosive Skin makes Viper highly resistant to Soul Assumption.

* Nethertoxin disables Desolate and Dispersion, leaving Spectre with far less damage output and damage mitigation in engagements.
* Spectre is one of the weakest heroes at early levels. Viper can stifle her farm with early fights before Spectre purchases any major items.
Additional:
* Nethertoxin disable passives, negating Spectre's damage and survivability by removing both Dispersion and Desolate.
* Due to Haunt and Radiance's burn, Spectre is heavily susceptible to being persistently slowed and damaged by Corrosive Skin without even directly attacking Viper.
* Poison Attack and Viper Strike further slow Spectre's movement speed to a crawl, while his improved magic resistance means he can easily shrug off Radiance's burn.

* Heroes that can overwhelm Visage by sheer number like Chaos Knight, Meepo, Terrorblade and Phantom Lancer.

* Poof combined with Earthbind can be used to easily lockdown and burst Spectre down.
* As Meepo's playstyle is often to come online early to mid game and take over the whole game, Meepo will often be much further ahead of Spectre in farming.
* Meepo's global map presence allows him to effectively hunt for Spectre and disrupt her farm.
* Spectre has no strong AOE abilities or way to control or lock down Meepo.

* Heroes with cleave or multi-target attacks can quickly take on Familiars and reduce Visage's firepower like Gyrocopter, Kunkka, Magnus and Medusa.

* Spectre can't escape with Spectral Dagger under X Marks the Spot.
* Kunkka can dominate Spectre's lane using Tidebringer and gain an advantage.
* Ghostship helps your team soak up damage from Haunt.

* Slardar's Slithereen Crush allows him to stun Spectre and illusions, and Corrosive Haze prevents her from juking with Spectral Dagger.

* Heroes with armor reducing abilities greatly hinder Visage's defense like Slardar and Dazzle.

* Jakiro's early pushing ability from Liquid Fire makes Jakiro very strong against heroes, that take a long time to get online: Morphling, Naga Siren, Spectre.

* Heroes with damage over time abilities can quickly eat through Gravekeeper's Cloak charges like Huskar, Jakiro and Queen of Pain.

* Global Guardian Angel will protect his allies from Spectre's Haunt, both when they are alone and in teamfights.
* Purification is a major problem for melee enemies, Spectre included, since they must be next to an enemy in order to attack. The AoE damage also allows Spectre to be singled out from her illusions.
* Degen Aura will prevent Spectre from chasing Omniknight, further exacerbated by her terrible mobility outside Haunt.

* The movement speed granted from Shapeshift means that Spectre has no way to punish Lycan if he wants to splitpush or pick off supports. Furthermore, he will kite Haunt and cannot be slowed by Spectral Dagger.
* Lycan is often part of an early game push strategy which is often the best counter to Spectre because she needs a lot of time and space to come online as a late game carry.

* Visage's Familiars cannot penetrate Kraken Shell and will do almost no damage to Tidehunter even with Medallion of Courage or Solar Crest.
* Anchor Smash's bonus damage has the potential to kill Familiars.

* Diabolic Edict and Pulse Nova hit all units around Leshrac, making it very easy for him to kill the Summon Familiars.
* Diabolic Edict and Pulse Nova also deal many instances of damage, nullifying Gravekeeper's Cloak.
* Split Earth and Lightning Storm makes it difficult for Visage to kite Leshrac, even while under the effects of Grave Chill.

* Spectre cannot chase down Anti-Mage with Spectral Dagger because of Blink, though it still grants her team vision over him.
* Counterspell reduces much of the damage from Dispersion and Spectre's Radiance.
* Anti-Mage usually builds a Manta Style, preventing Spectre from dealing any Desolate damage to him once he summons his illusions.
Additional:
* Spectre has no way to prevent Blink, for escape or initiation. Anti-Mage can easily pick off enemy supports and Spectre cannot do anything about it.
* Mana Break burns through Spectre's low mana pool.
* Manta Style's illusions prevent Desolate's damage.
* Even though Anti-Mage is outcarried by Spectre in the later stages of the game, a competent Anti-Mage with a Battle Fury can easily outfarm and get ahead of Spectre before she can come online.

* Juggernaut's Healing Ward can help save allied supports when Spectre attempts a Haunt kill.
* Juggernaut has a stronger push potential than Spectre, enabling him to end the game early before Spectre can come online.
* Spectre is often paired with two supports that are often weak against Juggernaut.
* Juggernaut also tends to build a Manta Style, which can prevent Desolate from taking effect.
* Juggernaut is invulnerable against Dispersion while using Omnislash.

* Spectre has no innate disables or silence to stop any of Dawnbreaker's abilities
* Solar Guardian allows Dawnbreaker to quickly stand next to one of her allies, denying Spectre any of Desolate's bonus
* Luminosity outheals the damage dealt by Dispersion
Additional:
* Spectre has no innate disables or silence to stop any of Dawnbreaker's abilities
* Solar Guardian allows Dawnbreaker to quickly stand next to one of her allies, denying Spectre any of Desolate's bonus
* Luminosity outheals the damage dealt by Dispersion

* Heroes with magic immune abilities can negate most of Visage's attacks like Pangolier and Lifestealer.

* Feast deals damage and heals lifestealer based on the target max health. Because Spectre often emphasises on building stat items to increase her HP pool, lifestealer can deal a lot of damage to her and heal himself at the same time.
* Ghoul Frenzy slows target, which is bad for Spectre if she does not have Spectral Dagger ready.
* Spectre cannot response to infest if lifestealer choose to stay inside his high mobility allies to approach the backline. Rage's bonus movement speed and spell immunity make it even more frustrating.

* Illusions and summons are double-edge sword type of matchup for Luna. On one hand, they can tank damage from Eclipse, but on the other hand, she can easily clear them before Eclipse with Moon Glaives. Examples include Spectre, Shadow Demon, Phantom Lancer, Naga Siren, Chaos Knight, Terrorblade) or bring other units into the fight (such as Nature's Prophet, Lone Druid, Chen, Enchantress, Meepo and Arc Warden).

* Moon Glaives is effective at destroying Familiars and will remove one instance of Gravekeeper's Cloak upon each hit to Visage, leaving him susceptible to damage.

* Arctic Burn makes it nearly impossible for Spectre to juke into the trees.
* Cold Embrace negates all of Spectre's physical damage. Furthermore, Cold Embrace will generally outheal Desolate.
* Winter's Curse can taunt illusions, not only wasting the entire duration of Haunt but also turning its illusions against Spectre's own team.

* Phoenix's Supernova cannot be damaged by Familiars.
* In the early and mid game, Sun Ray won't deal enough damage to be reduced by Gravekeeper's Cloak.
* Once Sun Ray deals enough damage to protect Visage, a layer of Gravekeeper's Cloak is burnt every 0.2 seconds.

* Axe can Berserker's Call into a flock of Familiars, proccing Counter Helix and killing them off.
* Familiars' very fast attacks will proc Counter Helix, receiving full damage due to their low attack range.

* Spectre cannot have a good game if she is pressured heavily in lane, which is something Mars can do.
* Spectre can use Haunt and Spectral Dagger inside and outside from Arena of Blood, but it doesn't really matter since Mars does best during the early and mid game.
* Should Spectre get to the late game, Mars can block a large amount of her damage and split the teamfights in his advantage.

* Ball Lightning is the ultimate counter to Spectre's entire toolkit. With this ability, he can score easy kills on Spectre without her having any means of escape early game, kite her and her Haunt illusions when it's later in the game due to her having no form of pseudo-blinks.
* Furthermore, it is very difficult for Spectre to deal any substantial damage against Storm Spirit with Desolate, and without both Manta Style and Diffusal Blade he will always remain on the move.
* Also, Ball Lightning grants invulnerability, and as Storm Spirit likes to spam that ability, he can mitigate the damage done from Dispersion and Radiance.
Additional:
* Storm Spirit can exploit every one of Spectre's weaknesses, and thus is one of the best counters against her.
* Spectre has to be in melee range to deal damage, making her likely to trigger Static Remnants and susceptible to being kited by Overload procs.
* Electric Vortex can lock Spectre down as she doesn't like to build Black King Bar.
* Ball Lightning gives Storm Spirit multiple advantages:
* Spectre cannot evade Storm Spirit, as Ball Lightning is superior to Spectral Dagger in terms of mobility.
* Storm Spirit can kite her and her Haunt illusions when it's later in the game due to her having no form of pseudo-blinks (Reality is far inferior to Ball Lightning).
* It is very difficult for Spectre to deal any substantial damage against Storm Spirit with Desolate. Ball Lightning grants invulnerability and can mitigate damage done from Dispersion and Radiance.
* To mitigate this, Spectre needs a team with hard disable to take Storm Spirit out.

* Heroes that can overwhelm Visage by sheer number like Chaos Knight, Meepo, Terrorblade and Phantom Lancer.

* If Terrorblade's health gets low enough, Terrorblade's Sunder can be used to completely deplete Spectre's health pool without any consequences from Dispersion.
* Terrorblade is one of the few late game heroes that can stand toe to toe and man fight Spectre. Not all is lost if the game goes late when Terrorblade is on your team against Spectre.
Additional:
* If Terrorblade's health is low enough, he can safely use Sunder on Spectre without any consequences from her Dispersion and Spectre has no way to prevent it.
* Although Desolate deals pure damage and can bypass his high armor, Terrorblade usually stays nearby his illusions, effectively disabling Desolate.
* Reflection is effective against her as it does not only slow her down but Desolate can also be used against herself.
* Dispersion damage is reduced thanks to Terrorblade's high natural armor.
* Terrorblade is one of few heroes that can manfight Spectre. Not everything is lost if Spectre managed to reach late game.

* Her illusions with Desolate are very valuable, especially when they are usually paired with Radiance. Unlike blink or force movement, Spectral Dagger's escaping mechanic requires manual movement, and therefore Demonic Purge can hold her back really hard and allow your allies to finish her off.
* If she tries to kill you or any key ally with Haunt at any point of the game, remember to not panic and always use Disruption on the illusion, whether it is fake or the real Spectre herself. When the situation calls, Demonic Purge can save a second victim from a haunting Spectre.
* When upgraded by Aghanim's Scepter, Demonic Purge can remove Spectre from a fight by disabling Desolate and Dispersion, negating her damage and tankiness respectively.

* Nether Blast is one of the best tower pushing abilities in the game, with a low cooldown. A competent Pugna will (at the very least) destroy tier 2 towers and make space for his team before Spectre can finally come online.
* Spectre's spells, while not spammable, have a fairly high mana cost, so Nether Ward can be fairly damaging to Spectre early game. The mana degen will also dampen Spectre's early game power significantly.
* Once Pugna gets Aghanim's Scepter, he can spam Life Drain on any illusion Spectre summons, whether it'd be from Haunt, Manta Style, or some other means.
* In addition, Pugna can disable Spectre's Desolate ability (although its damage is pure, it requires physical attacks) with his Decrepify ability, leaving Spectre only with Spectral Dagger.

* Dispersion will not do anything against throughout the game due to his high lifesteal with Jingu Mastery.
* Monkey King often buys Manta Style, which will deny Desolate benefits in 1v1 situations.
* Haunt will do nothing to stop people trapped within Monkey Kings ultimate.
* In all, Spectre is very easily pressured by Monkey King early into the game and is a very easy gank target to coordinate with your team.

* Reactive Armor will quickly stack up from Familiar attacks, making Timbersaw hard to kill.
* Visage's low mobility makes it easy for Timbersaw to line up his abilities.

* Heroes with very little to no area-of-effect abilities will struggle greatly against Broodmother: Sniper, Phantom Assassin, Nyx Assassin, Bane, Visage, Bounty Hunter.

* Heroes with good escapes can usually outmaneuver and escape from Spectre: Slark, Clinkz, Weaver

Additional:
* Essence Shift deals 20 extra damage by draining one strength per hit, which cannot be reduced or spread by Dispersion.
* Pounce prevents Spectre from escaping with Spectral Dagger.
* Haunt illusions usually don't deal a lot of damage to Slark as he tends to buy a Shadow Blade, preventing Desolate's and Diffusal Blade's damage and activating Shadow Dance's regeneration to make up for any damage caused by Radiance.
* Slark is a natural carrier of Silver Edge, which helps break both Desolate and Dispersion.

* Heroes with damage over time abilities can quickly eat through Gravekeeper's Cloak charges like Huskar, Jakiro and Queen of Pain.

* Heroes that have a weak laning stage: Spectre, Nyx Assassin, Clockwerk, Spirit Breaker, Omniknight, Pudge.

* Disruptor can control where she goes with Kinetic Field and Glimpse. Static Storm shuts her down in teamfights.

* Dark Seer can pull together Spectre's illusions with Vacuum, and Wall of Replica creates an illusion of Spectre that deals massive damage.

* Heroes with good escapes can usually outmaneuver and escape from Spectre: Slark, Clinkz, Weaver

* Heroes with cleave or multi-target attacks can quickly take on Familiars and reduce Visage's firepower like Gyrocopter, Kunkka, Magnus and Medusa.

* Durable heroes relied a lot on their main passive effects and items' effects such as Bristleback, Underlord, Spectre and Dragon Knight can be disabled easily with Sharpshooter's break, reducing their potential in teamfights.

* Heroes with magic immune abilities can negate most of Visage's attacks like Pangolier and Lifestealer.

Additional:
* Pangolier's high mobility allows Pangolier to escape from Visage's ganking attempt. Keep in mind that his familiars can easily interfere with your ultimate during casting time if they are able to scout your position.
* Swashbuckle quickly burn away Gravekeeper's Cloak charges.

* Void Spirit is strong against heroes who cannot deal with his rotations due to his mobility. Such heroes include Spectre, Gyrocopter, Morphling, and Chen.

* Heroes that can overwhelm Visage by sheer number like Chaos Knight, Meepo, Terrorblade and Phantom Lancer.

* Heroes with damage over time abilities can quickly eat through Gravekeeper's Cloak charges like Huskar, Jakiro and Queen of Pain.

* Spectre must chase for kills and relies on movement speed for mobility in fights, and has no way to counter the Tombstone zombies.
* The potency of Soul Rip can be increased from nearby illusions from Haunt.
* Decay will shut down Spectre during the laning phase by effectively cutting down her initial health pool.
Additional:
* Spectre must chase for kills and relies on movement speed for mobility in fights, and has no way to counter the Tombstone zombies.
* The potency of Soul Rip can be increased from nearby illusions, so Undying can use Haunt against Spectre.
* Early game Decay will make Spectre easy to shut down in lane.

* Generally speaking, Spectre is a strong teamfighter but a weak manfighter. She has no tool to deal with troll warlord once he has his sight locked on her.
* Troll often buys Silver Edge and Monkey King Bar, which greatly countered Spectre's passive and item build (Silver Edge can disable passive while providing some damage, Monkey King Bar provides accuracy to counter Radiance and Butterfly miss chance).
* Black King Bar allows troll to bypass the damage return from Blade mail should Spectre attempts to fight back Troll. However, Black King Bar is generally not very effective against Spectre as her skills can pierce the spell immunity. Still, it offers protection against Blade mail, a common item for Spectre in the mid game.
* Troll has high lifesteal from Battle Trance and Satanic, which help him survive the damage from Desolate should the break duration is over.
* Battle Trance and Fervor mean Spectre will have a hard time fighting troll and cannot take him down, even with equal farm.

* Death Pulse can single out Spectre from her illusions, as well as heal his team against her. He also usually stands close to his allies for Death Pulse, effectively disabling Desolate.

* Hex and Mana Drain can be used to immediately destroy Spectre's illusion when she Haunts. A fast fingered Lion can protect himself and a teammate.
* Hex and Earth Spike are good lockdown spells to control and kill Spectre, especially if she doesn't buy defensive items like Linken's Sphere and Black King Bar.
* Finger of Death can be used to burst down Spectre when she is low on life as she has very poor magic resistance.