* 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 a Manta Style and a 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.

* 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.

* Terrorblade has low mobility, which makes it easy for Storm Spirit to kite him.
* Terrorblade gains a lot of agility and gains very low strength, which makes it easy to burst him down with Storm's magical damage.
* All of Terrorblade's abilities are easily avoided by Storm Spirit as he can simply use Ball Lightning, wasting the duration of Metamorphosis, Conjure Image, and Reflection.
* However, if Storm Spirit's Orchid Malevolence is on cooldown or if he doesn't have it, Terrorblade can easily use Sunder and kill a careless Storm Spirit.
Additional:
* Storm Spirit heavy magic damage bypass Terroblade high armor.
* Ball Lightning can either use to initiates Terroblade from distance or kite Terroblade from using Sunder as he has no source of disable to deal with Storm Spirit.

* Heroes that can dominate his illusions or create their own illusions of him: Dark Seer, Morphling, Enchantress, Shadow Demon.

* Disruption instantly removes Phantom Embrace, and can potentially save allies affected by Soulbind.
* Demonic Purge dispels Ink Swell.

* Heroes with mobility spells can quickly escape from Stroke of Fate or break out of Soulbind: Anti-Mage, Queen of Pain, Morphling, Storm Spirit

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

* 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.

* 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.

* 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.

* Squishy heroes or heroes without hard disables or silences: Shadow Demon, Shadow Fiend, Venomancer, Ancient Apparition etc.

* In the laning stage, making illusions of Venomancer will turn his Poison Sting back at him, making for an easy gank at level one, and for later when your mid comes for ganks.

* Ursa struggles against heroes with strong (and especially undispellable) disables (Disruptor, Puck, Shadow Demon, Outworld Destroyer and etc).

* Storm Spirit can steal Aegis of the Immortal during Roshan attempts through the Pit, because of his Ball Lightning.
* Ursa has no way to catch a slippery Storm Spirit, as Earthshock's slow will do nothing to stop Storm Spirit from using Ball Lightning.

* Heroes that can gain vision over trees to catch Tinker: Invoker, Shadow Demon, Batrider

* Storm Spirit destroys trees and ignores impassable terrains with Ball Lightning, rendering them dangerous places for Tinker to hide within.
* Ball Lightning disjoints projectile from Heat-Seeking Missile and damage from March of the Machines.
* Electric Vortex prevents Tinker from teleporting away, and Static Remnant and Overload can easily burst him down.
Additional:
* He can easily catch Tinker in the trees with Ball Lightning and kill him with Orchid Malevolence and his abilities, which deal both physical and magical damage, making them difficult for Tinker to itemize against.

* 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.

* Squishy heroes or heroes without hard disables or silences: Shadow Demon, Shadow Fiend, Venomancer, Ancient Apparition etc.

* Heroes with ways to protect themselves or allies from Spirit Breaker's initiation: Shadow Demon

* Heroes that usually builds Linken's Sphere as a core item: Weaver, Medusa, Morphling, Queen of Pain, Storm Spirit

* Escape-type carries: Slark, Storm Spirit, Weaver.

* Heroes that create illusions (such as 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 and the aforementioned Meepo and Arc Warden) can cause Eclipse to strike the illusions/summons unintentionally. (However, in many cases Moon Glaives can resolve this issue and eliminate them before activating Eclipse).

Additional:
* Demonic Purge takes off Luna's superior mobility, removing the need for chasing her and allowing your team to reposition in team fights or escape when at low HP. If Shadow Demon has Aghanim's Sceptre it will also take away glaive bounces and extra damage from Luna's passive.
* Luna's illusions created by Disruption are very valuable with their Moon Glaives. These will effectively counter her pushing attempts and are painfully effective in team fights.
* Disruption can be used to save an ally from Eclipse.

* 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.

* Heroes with summons or illusions makes Sacred Arrow harder to land: Shadow Demon, Phantom Lancer, Nature's Prophet.

* Heroes with abilities that can save teammates are also effective such as Shadow Demon, Dazzle, Oracle, Bane, Pugna, Tusk, Winter Wyvern, Io, Underlord, Treant Protector and Keeper of the Light.

Additional:
* Be ready to save an ally from Omnislash with your Disruption.
* Spawning Juggernaut's illusions is a great deal, as his base attack time is low and he has a critical strike. Illusions will benefit from both.
* Demonic Purge will prevent Juggernaut's desperate attempt to flee using Blade Fury. However, it cannot stop him if he is using Town Portal Scroll.

* Heroes with escaping and disjointing abilities can be good against Juggernaut:Anti-Mage Riki, Queen of Pain, Puck, Storm Spirit, Ember Spirit, Slark etc.

* Just like Batrider, his Ball Lightning can be used to clear Nature's Prophet's treants and easily destroys Sprout.
* Electric Vortex prevents Nature's Prophet's escaping from Teleportation.

* Ball Lightning disjoints an incoming Magic Missile, avoids Wave Of Terror, and allows Storm Spirit to easily escape if he ever gets Nether Swapped.

* Ball Lightning allows Storm Spirit to escape through Viper Strike, wasting Viper's mana.
* It's also very easy to wait out the duration of Nethertoxin's break.

* Disruption will save Shadow Demon's teammates from being killed by Counter Helix or Culling Blade.
* Soul Catcher and Shadow Poison can put Axe's Blink Dagger on cooldown.
* Demonic Purge slows Axe to a crawl, making him nearly useless after initiating. If Shadow Demon has Aghanim's Scepter, it will also break Counter Helix.

* Ball Lightning makes Storm Spirit a target difficult to chase, even for a hero as mobile as Timbersaw.
* The magical damage from Static Remnant and Overload together with Storm Spirit's high mobility allows Storm Spirit to jump on Timbersaw and burst him down, even if he tries to escape.

* Ball Lightning allows Storm Spirit to destroy a large amount of trees, negating Tree Dance. It also makes it easy to avoid Wukong's Command and Boundless Strike.
Additional:
* Ball Lightning allows Storm Spirit to easily catch up to Monkey King, destroying a large number of trees, cancelling Tree Dance, and causing Monkey King to be stunned in the process.

* Storm Spirit is invulnerable during Ball Lightning, rendering Rupture ineffective against him.
Additional:
* Storm Spirit is invulnerable during Ball Lightning, allowing him to zip away from any ganking attempts with Rupture.
* Ball Lightning also prevents Bloodseeker from chasing down an injured Storm Spirit, or catching him in Blood Rite.

* Shadow Demon can waste precious seconds of Windrun with Disruption.
* Alternatively, Demonic Purge can be used to dispel it altogether, leaving her completely defenseless for 7 seconds.
* Disruption can be used to save an ally if they get stunned by Shackleshot.

* The constant dispel from Demonic Purge will make any attempt to save the victim or himself by Surge become futile. For what it's worth, Demonic Purge will also dispel Ion Shell.

* Storm Spirit can easily make his way to hoodwink with his ultimate Ball lightning. coupled with Hoodwink's low health and magic resistance, she can be nuked easily.

* Ancient Apparition's only skill to stop Storm Spirit is Cold Feet, which is bad in general when trying to stop a Storm Spirit without any other disable.
* As a fragile support with low Strength gain and no magic resistance, Ancient Apparition is vulnerable to Storm Spirit's combos.

* Ball Lightning allow Storm Spirit to bypass Bramble Maze, and zip back into battle if he gets hit by Terrorize.

* Alchemist is a well-known Radiance carrier among other auras your illusions will benefit from. They also get the extra move speed and reduced base attack time from his Chemical Rage, and it's even better if you can catch him as his own rage is about to expire.
* Disruption will buy enough time for all allies to retreat when Alchemist starts to activate Unstable Concoction.

* Ball Lightning and Electric Vortex will catch Broodmother before she has a chance to retreat, and is able to catch her through the trees.
* Conversely, Ball Lightning also allows him to easily escape Broodmother, as she has no way to prevent him from using it before getting Orchid Malevolence.

* Storm Spirit can hunt down Arc Warden with his Ball Lightning and kill him quickly due to his lack of escape abilities.
* None of his abilities are effective against Storm Spirit, as they can be evaded with Ball Lightning.

* Heroes with summons or illusions to counter Flux, such as {Hero ID:Beastmaster} , Chen, or Shadow Demon.

* Ball Lightning breaks Static Link.
* Razor has no way to catch a slippery Storm Spirit.

* Using Ball Lightning with proper timing, Storm Spirit can protect himself from Malefice's instances, disjoint Demonic Conversion's attack projectiles, get out of Midnight Pulse's radius or even dodge a Black Hole.
* An isolated Enigma in the early game can be easily killed by Storm Spirit thanks his higher mobility and dueling potential. However, Storm Spirit can be killed when caught by Enigma's full combo, especially if Enigma has Black King Bar.
* Storm can kill all of Enigma's Eidolons relatively quickly without much risk, slowing down Enigma's farming speed, preventing him from split pushing, and giving Storm its considerable bounty, especially if Enigma chooses the Level 25 Talent that gives him more Eidelons.

* Heroes that lose a great amount of damage output and become less threatening: Phantom Assassin, Sven, Slark, Phantom Lancer.
* 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.

* 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 with teleports to escape Will-O-Wisp: Phantom Assassin, Puck, Queen of Pain, Storm Spirit

* Heroes with break can disable Untouchable for a while: Doom and Shadow Demon (via Aghanim's Scepter), Viper

* Shadow Demon's Soul Catcher hinders Bristleback's tanking capabilities. Demonic Purge with Aghanim's Scepter disables Bristleback's passives.

* Zeus can deal a huge amount of damage, but he lacks defensive abilities, such as good mobility or resistance. Due to that, he doesn't like to be touched by any means. Heroes with higher damage output and good mobility will often get easily near Zeus and trade damage (eventually causing Zeus's downfall). Such Heroes include: Lycan, Slark, Storm Spirit, Spectre and others.

* 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.

* Melee carries such as Sven, Ursa or Lifestealer can be slowed and easily kited with Demonic Purge.

* Heroes with invisibility and high mobility can jump on and focus down Earthshaker before he has a chance to initiate: Clinkz, Slark, Storm 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.

* Heroes with high mobility will be able to avoid Gyrocopter's area attacks: Storm Spirit, Morphling, Ember Spirit

* Shadow Demon's Demonic Purge is undispellable.
* Heroes with undispellable debuffs will help identify the real Phantom Lancer through visual effects or debuff indicators, provided that it was cast on the real Phantom Lancer to begin with:
* Doom's Doom marks Phantom Lancer with a highly visible effect, and also silences him.
* Bloodseeker's Rupture shows a clear red trail effect on the real Phantom Lancer.
* Ancient Apparition's Ice Blast will only debuff Phantom Lancer and not his illusions.
* Grimstroke's Soulbind is undispellable.
* Shadow Demon's Demonic Purge is undispellable.
* Monkey King's Jingu Mastery is undispellable and puts a big yellow Mark over his head.

* Ball Lightning with or without the Static Remnant talent allows Storm Spirit to destroy Phantom Lancer's illusions quickly. It is also easy to dodge Spirit Lance with Ball Lightning and makes Spirit Storm very hard to catch even with Phantom Rush.
Additional:
* Ball Lightning destroys illusions, avoids Spirit Lance, and makes Storm Spirit very hard to catch, even with Phantom Rush.

* Heroes with abilities that break Berserker's Blood, lowering Huskar's attack speed and health regeneration: Doom, Shadow Demon, Viper.

* Heroes that are naturally hard to gank, ranging from beefy tanks like Abaddon and Wraith King to heroes with quick escape mechanisms like Anti-Mage and Storm Spirit are also undesirable targets for a lone, roaming Bounty Hunter to scout out and initiate on.

* Disruption can save an ally from a fatal Reaper's Scythe.
* Demonic Purge can remove Ghost Shroud, making Necrophos vulnerable to physical damage and preventing him from regenerating health.

* In the early to mid game, Invoker is defenseless against Storm Spirit's ganking with Ball Lightning and Orchid Malevolence.

* Disruption can protect Shadow Demon's allies from Fortune's End, preserving healing or buffs. It can also catch Oracle's allies, allowing Shadow Poison and Soul Catcher to be used without being dispelled.
* Demonic Purge prevents over-time healing during False Promise, such as Purifying Flames and Urn of Shadows. If he has Aghanim's Scepter, this issue can persist for longer or on multiple allies.
* It will not, however, prevent healing from instant abilities, items, or auras, making Mekansm a good choice against him.

* Ball Lightning allows Storm Spirit to close the gap between him and Weaver in no time. Once locked down with certain items, Weaver is extremely fragile to Storm Spirit and his teammates.

* Shadow Demon with an Aghanim's Scepter will use Demonic Purge to disable Curse of Avernus and the passive component of Borrowed Time. If this is combined with a silence, Borrowed Time will not trigger at all.
* Even without Aghanim's Scepter, he can still waste Borrowed Time with Disruption. Curse of Avernus fully works on illusions, turning the passive ability against him.

* Disruption can banish Faceless Void or an ally in Chronosphere, making it less effective of an ability.
* Faceless Void's illusions created by Disruption will not get stunned by Chronosphere, allowing Shadow Demon to attack Faceless Void in his Chronosphere.
* Casting Disruption after releasing Shadow Poison charges will make Time Walk unable to backtrack the damage.
* Shadow Poison is a good way to deal damage as the initial damage and the release damage can't both be Time Walked at the same time.
* Demonic Purge is a great slow, useful to force out a Time Walk early and can break Time Lock with Aghanim's Scepter.

* Similarly, they can negate your X Marks The Spot & Torrent combo by protecting your target when you use Return. Good candidates to negate your combo include Outworld Destroyer and his Astral Imprisonment, and Shadow Demon and his Disruption.
* Heroes with hide abilities can often dodge a Ghostship just before it hits.
* Similarly, they can negate your X Marks The Spot & Torrent combo by protecting your target when you use Return. Good candidates to negate your combo include Outworld Destroyer and his Astral Imprisonment, and Shadow Demon and his Disruption.
* A Eul's Scepter of Divinity can also do the trick, but, unlike the previously mentioned abilities, you can only use it on yourself and not your allies.

* Shadow Demon, Outworld Destroyer and Tusk can all save a Lasso'd teammate with their defensive spells.

* Heroes who can hide the Dueled target (Outworld Destroyer, Shadow Demon, Tusk, Phoenix with Aghanim's Scepter etc).

Additional:
* Disruption can save allies and mess up an initiation from an enemy Legion Commander. Using Disruption on your ally that is affected by Duel will leave her totally exposed without the benefit of the life steal from Moment of Courage. A precise decision to Disrupt Legion Commander or her victim is crucial to waste Duel's potential.
* Demonic Purge cannot be dispelled by a hard dispel from Press the Attack, which in turn can be dispelled by your ultimate.

* Heroes that can purge buffs can dispel Guardian Angel: Invoker, Shadow Demon, Oracle.

Additional:
* Demonic Purge can dispel Guardian Angel on the key target during combat, allow your allies to finish them.

* Shadow Demon's spammable illusions can be used to scout Techies' Proximity Mines. The illusion of your carries can be even used to trick Techies into detonating his precious Remote Mines.

* Disruption sets up Anti-Mage for a chain disable. The illusions will deal extra damage due to Mana Break.
* Soul Catcher causes Anti-Mage to take a large chunk of damage, and can hit him when he is inside from Disruption.
* Shadow Poison hits Anti-Mage even after he's Blinked away.
* If Shadow Demon managed to get Aghanim's Scepter, Demonic Purge will disable Anti-Mage's passive skills, making him more vulnerable and it cannot be dispelled.
Additional:
* While it is unwise to encounter Anti-Mage alone, Disruption's considerable cast range can become a perfect setup for any hard-disable to follow up. If he is pinned down, Anti-Mage will quickly face his demise when the illusions deplete his already low mana pool. Manta Style will easily allow him to escape, however.
* The illusions can be controlled to quickly sap mana from any other target, making Anti-Mage one of the most valuable targets to disrupt.

* 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 with AoE abilities are a bane to Beastmaster's summons: Storm Spirit, Magnus, Pangolier.

* Heroes with hiding abilities can protect disabled allies: Outworld Destroyer, Shadow Demon, Tusk, Phoenix with Aghanim's Scepter