* Disruption will save Shadow Demon's teammates from being killed by Counter Helix or Culling Blade.
* 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.
* Demonic Cleanse clears Battle Hunger and Aghanim's Shard Counter Helix Damage Reduction, both allowing targets to escape and reducing your own survivability.
Additional:
* While it is unwise to encounter Axe alone, Disruption can be used to save your allies from Axe's initiate Berserker's Call, or, if timed correctly, from his
Culling Blade.
* Illusions spawned from Axe has the Counter Helix passive, which with deal some nasty damage if an enemy focuses them
* Your upgraded Demonic Purge breaks Axe's primary damage output: Counter Helix, This can be used on him during Berserker's Call to seriously hinder him.
* Demonic Cleanse will clear Battle Hunger, which is Axe's method of catching heroes, and Shard upgraded Counter Helix's Damage Reduction, which is one of Axe's primary survivability abilities.
* 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.
* 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.
Additional:
* Shadow Demon can waste precious seconds of Windrun with Disruption.
* Alternatively, Demonic Purge. can be used to dispel it altogether, leaving her completely defenseless.
* Disruption can be used to save an ally if they get stunned by Shackleshot.
* Skywrath Mage should have the upper hand against Vengeful Spirit with Ancient Seal.
* Vengeful is highly dependant on her abilities and has no natural means to deal against silences.
* Her low attack range allows Skywrath Mage to easily bully her out of the lane.
* Since Windranger is bad against magical damage, heroes with continuous magical damage or magical nukes can blast her: Zeus,
Tinker,
Leshrac,
Viper,
Skywrath Mage,
Lion,
Lina,
Venomancer.
* Cold Embrace is a perfect setup for Mystic Flare.
* Winter Wyvern is a spellcaster, and the 6 second silence from Ancient Seal can prevent her from contributing much.
* Because Skywrath Mage tends to stay back in fights, Winter Wyvern will have to get close to a teamfight to cast Winter's Curse on him. And if she chooses to cast it on one of his allies, his low attack speed and damage means that he won't do much.
* However, bear in mind that Skywrath Mage has seriously awful armor, and that can make him an adequate target to being turned against his own team with Winter's Curse, which can result in his death quickly.
Additional:
* Cold Embrace is the perfect setup for Mystic Flare, and his 6-second silence is good against Winter Wyvern in general.
* A well-timed Dark Pact can dispel Frost Arrows and Gust, letting Slark engage and escape freely.
* Essence Shift is very detrimental for Drow Ranger as the loss of agility means that Marksmanship will also suffer from getting weakened.
* Shadow Dance lets Slark quickly close the gap and deal heavy damage without giving Drow Ranger a chance to retaliate.
* Pounce counteracts Frost Arrows's slow, and also allows Slark easily pin Drow Ranger down or flee from her.
* Depth Shroud from
Aghanim's Shard will allow Slark to save both, himself and his allies and will also allow them to freely fight back against Drow Ranger without her noticing them.
Additional:
* Pounce and items like Shadow Blade makes it very difficult for Drow Ranger to keep her distance from Slark, thereby losing her
Marksmanship bonus.
* Gust is rarely enough to keep Slark at bay, as Drow Ranger has no movement abilities and will simply be chased down afterwards.
* Drow Ranger's heavy dependence on agility also makes her significantly weaker after being drained by Essence Shift.
* Heroes who have a high mobility (Queen of Pain,
Storm Spirit,
Slark, etc.).
* Pounce helps put Windranger in place, even when she uses Windrun to escape.
* Shadow Dance avoids Windranger's attacks from Focus Fire altogether, and he can regenerate his health and fight back after Windranger uses up all her abilities.
* The stun from Shackleshot and the slow from
Powershot can be both dispelled by Dark Pact, provided Slark casts it at the right moment.
* Arctic Burn and Splinter Blast's debuffs are can be dispelled with with Dark Pact. Arctic Burn also cannot be used to escape against
Pounce.
* Even though Cold Embrace can protect it's owner from Slark's direct attacks, Slark can still gain Essence Shift stacks from attacking heroes affected by it.
* However, Essence Shift works against allies, and Slark's low health pool means that if he's the target for Winter's Curse, he will go down very quickly as Winter's Curse cannot be dispelled at all.
* Berseker's Call catches Slark in Shadow Dance, wasting its duration and preventing him from escaping to regenerate.
* Unlike most disables, Dark Pact cannot dispel Berserker's Call and the output damage would be returned by
Blade Mail.
Additional:
* Berserker's Call forces Slark to attack him, even during Shadow Dance.
* Counter Helix will hit Slark in Shadow Dance. It will also trigger frequently against Slark's high attack speed provided by Essence Shift stacks.
* Culling Blade finishes off Slark before he gets a chance to slip away and regenerate his health, preventing him from playing his typical hit-and-run style.
* Ranged heroes that can easily harass Axe: Drow Ranger,
Sniper,
Lion.
* Drow Ranger has a very low health pool, allowing
Lion to burst her down.
* Lack of any innate escape mechanism makes her an easy target for Lion's disables.
* Early on she can't deal as much damage to be life threatning. Her Gust is her best weapon against
Lion.
* Since Windranger is bad against magical damage, heroes with continuous magical damage or magical nukes can blast her: Zeus,
Tinker,
Leshrac,
Viper,
Skywrath Mage,
Lion,
Lina,
Venomancer.
* Heroes who can stop Axe from getting close will severely inhibit his presence in fights: Bristleback,
Crystal Maiden,
Batrider,
Arc Warden,
Winter Wyvern,
Clockwerk
* Getting trapped in Power Cogs usually means the end for Drow Ranger.
Additional:
* Hookshot lets Clockwerk close the gap to Drow Ranger, disabling her Marksmanship bonus.
* Power Cogs and
Battery Assault keep Drow Ranger from escaping.
* Power Cogs and Battery Assault also keep Drow Ranger close, nullifying Marksmanship.
* Power Cogs prevent Windranger from fleeing with Windrun.
* Battery Assault repeatedly interrupts Focus Fire, disrupting Windranger's damage output.
Additional:
* Windranger cannot escape with Windrun when she is trapped inside
Power Cogs.
* Battery Assault repeatedly interrupts
Focus Fire, disrupting Windranger's damage output.
* Vengeful Spirit can
Nether Swap enemies out of Power Cogs.
Additional:
* Nether Swap gives Vengeful Spirit a way to save an ally from Clockwerk's Power Cogs.
* Magic Missile will interrupt Clockwerk trying to run down Vengeful Spirit's allies with Battery Assault.
* Vengeful Spirit should carefully consider whether to use her Nether Swap on Tidehunter, as it can easily position him for a Ravage on Vengeful Spirit and her allies.
* Due to Magic Missile's high damage, Kraken Shell will often proc and clear Tidehunter's debuffs.
* Kraken Shell easily dispels the lengthy stun from Shackleshot.
* Kraken Shell (and possibly Anchor Smash) blocks huge amount of damage from Focus Fire.
* Anchor Smash is one of the few sources of True Strike, which means Tidehunter can deal significant damage through Windrun, while also reducing Windranger's damage output.
Additional:
* Kraken Shell can easily dispel Shackleshot after he has taken a certain threshold of damage.
* Ravage provides excellent lockdown against Windranger, allowing his teammates to kite her throughout the game.
* When Tidehunter has Aghanim's Shard, he will gain access to
Dead in the Water, allowing him to lock down Windranger at any time. When Windranger tries to move away from the anchor with Windrun, she will be effectively slowed, preventing her from escaping.
* Nyx Assassin has a lot of burst damage from his Impale,
Mind Flare,
Dagon, and the bonus damage from
Vendetta. All of this damage is enough to kill Drow Ranger.
* Nyx Assassin is usually invisible most of the time thanks to his ability Vendetta, which allows him to gank Drow Ranger easily.
* However, Gust is extremely dangerous for Nyx Assassin, as it's silence can render Nyx Assassin unable to lock down Drow Ranger. And if
Gust hits Nyx Assassin while he is invisible with
Vendetta, Drow Ranger will be able to detect him and foil his ganking attempts on her because
Gust reveals invisible units.
* Vendetta disables Vengeance Aura and allows him to attack Vengeful Spirit with
Impale and
Mind Flare.
* Spiked Carapace is easy to use against a Wave of Terror or Magic Missile.
* Many of Nyx Assassin's abilities are good against Windranger.
* Impale is great for stunning Windranger and allowing additional disables to be landed.
* Mind Flare is useful against Windranger's decent intelligence growth.
* Spiked Carapace is easy to use against Powershot.
* Vendetta allows Nyx Assassin to sneak up on and deal massive damage to Windranger without giving Windranger a chance to use Windrun to evade it.
* Nyx Assassin's item build allows him to easily deal with Windranger.
* A well-timed Berserker's Call can expose Nyx Assassin while he is invisible with Vendetta, and prevent him from using Spiked Carapace.
* Axe can use Battle Hunger's damage over time to minimialize effects of Spiked Carapace.
* Axe's high health also allows him to easily shrug off Nyx Assassin's burst damage and fend him off. Especially since Axe is a common Heart of Tarrasque wielder, which can completely eliminate any chance for Nyx Assassin to kill Axe alone.
* Culling Blade can often kill Nyx Assassin as he is very fragile and vulnerable to damage while Spiked Carapace is on cooldown.
Additional:
* A well-timed Berserker's Call can expose Nyx Assassin while he is invisible with
Vendetta, and prevent him from using
Spiked Carapace.
* Axe can use Battle Hunger's damage over time to minimialize effects of
Spiked Carapace.
* Axe's high health also allows him to easily shrug off Nyx Assassin's burst damage and fend him off. Especially since Axe is a common Heart of Tarrasque wielder, which can completely eliminate any chance for Nyx Assassin to kill Axe alone.
* Culling Blade can often kill Nyx Assassin as he is very fragile and vulnerable to damage while Spiked Carapace is on cooldown.
* Decrepify can be used on allies to prevent them from attacking Axe and triggering Counter Helix during Berserker's Call. He can also cast it on Axe to prevent anyone from attacking him.
* Life Drain can be used to heal himself or allies caught in Berserker's Call, preventing them from dropping low enough for Axe to kill them with Culling Blade.
* Cold Embrace is a death sentence against Pugna, since its the perfect setup for all his abilities, especially Life Drain.
* Decrepify can be cast to save the ally under Winter's Curse effect, wasting most of its duration.
* Winter Wyvern's abilities require a lot of mana, allowing Nether Ward to deal lots of damage.
* Static Link weakens Drow Ranger's attack damage while strengthening Razor's attack damage.
* Plasma Field &
Storm Surge keeps Razor close to Drow Ranger, continuously disabling Marksmanship.
* Static Link can lower the damage output from Focus Fire.
* Eye of the Storm strikes cannot miss, even if Windrun is active.
Additional:
* Static Link greatly lowers Windranger's damage output from Focus Fire.
* Eye of the Storm strikes cannot miss, even if Windrun is active.
* 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 can escape quickly fear from
Focus Fire. Windranger can not reach Storm Spirit although Windrun active catch him.
Additional:
* The high mobility provided by Ball Lightning makes it hard for Windranger to find a good position to land Shackleshot or a full duration of Focus Fire. It can be also used to dodge Powershot.
* Crippling Fear makes it so Axe might use
Blink Dagger right into an AoE silence in the middle of everyone.
* Void cripples Axe's already bad movement speed and attack speed.
* Hunter in the Night makes it impossible for Axe to catch up to fleeing or escape from Night Stalker during the night.
* Lastly, Dark Ascension gives full vision over Axe before he initiates, making the opponents all recognize his location immediately and allowing Night Stalker to prevent it or vocally tell his team if needed.
* Night Stalker has very high strength gain, even in the lane, so a successful Culling Blade is very unlikely.
* Axe's Blade Mail will likely do nothing to Night Stalker because of his high health and certain requirements for him to do the most damage to be true.
* Heroes with weaker mobility will struggle to keep up with Night Stalker: Gyrocopter,
Ursa,
Drow Ranger
* Long lockdown is a great way to deal with Axe to prevent Berserker's Call from being used, heroes such as Legion Commander,
Beastmaster and
Primal Beast are good examples of this.
* Drow Ranger's low mobility and lack of defensive abilities make her an easy gank target in the early to mid-game.
* A Dueling Drow Ranger will lose her precious Marksmanship, reduce her damage output significantly, and will more likely lose that Duel.
* Press The Attack can save her allies dispels the stun from Shackleshot.
* Duel can lock down Windranger before she can escape with Windrun.
* Legion Commander tends to go for Blade Mail, which returns the damage she takes from Focus Fire.
* Cold Embrace saves allies from dying in Duels.
* Winter's Curse turns Legion Commander's high damage against her allies, giving the enemy team little time to react.
* However, Winter Wyvern lanes very poorly against Legion Commander due to Press the Attack removing all the debuffs she can give. Winter Wyvern also has little chances of surviving if she gets Dueled herself.
Additional:
* Cold Embrace is very effective against Duel.
* Also, casting Winter's Curse at Legion Commander while an ally is in a
Duel will stun her for most of the duration, possibly preventing lethal damage dealt to your ally. It can also turn her high-damage against her teammate.
* Lina can burst Vengeful Spirit down, provided she can land Light Strike Array before Vengeful Spirit lands her Magic Missile.
* Laguna Blade deals massive damage, often being enough to kill a squishy Vengeful Spirit.
* Since Windranger is bad against magical damage, heroes with continuous magical damage or magical nukes can blast her: Zeus,
Tinker,
Leshrac,
Viper,
Skywrath Mage,
Lion,
Lina,
Venomancer.
* Heavy nukers will do well against Cold Embrace (Lina,
Zeus etc).
* Heroes with abilities that can pull Lina out of position can easily bring her to their team mates, like Batrider with
Flaming Lasso,
Pudge with
Meat Hook and
Vengeful Spirit with
Nether Swap.
* Poison Attack and
Viper Strike slows Axe significantly, and puts his
Blink Dagger on cooldown, preventing him from initiating.
Viper Strike can also break from Counter Helix.
Additional:
* Viper Strike prevents
Counter Helix from triggering, which significantly lowers Axe's damage output in the early to mid game.
* Viper's various slows and damage over time prevents Axe from initiating as well as putting his Blink Dagger on cooldown.
* Nethertoxin disables Vengeance Aura.
* Vengeful Spirit has no mobility spells aside from Nether Swap, which Viper can take advantage of with his slows.
* Viper can easily bully Vengeful Spirit out of a lane with Poison Attack.
Additional:
* Viper Strike can disable the attack damage bonus from
Vengeance Aura and the components of
Nether Swap.
* Both Magic Missile and
Wave of Terror are counteracted by
Corrosive Skin, making Vengeful Spirit's fighting harder against Viper.
* Since Windranger is bad against magical damage, heroes with continuous magical damage or magical nukes can blast her: Zeus,
Tinker,
Leshrac,
Viper,
Skywrath Mage,
Lion,
Lina,
Venomancer.
* Windrun evades
Poison Attack and counteracts the slow.
* Viper's low mobility makes him an easy Shackleshot target.
* Focus Fire grants Windranger significant physical damage output to quickly wear Viper down.
* Powershot is a strong harassment and zoning tool against Viper in lane.
* Sun Ray allows Phoenix to heal any allies caught in Berserker's Call while burning away Axe's high HP at the same time.
* Icarus Dive and
Fire Spirits puts Axe's Blink Dagger on cooldown.
* Axe's slow attack speed makes it difficult for him to destroy Supernova on his own.
* Heroes who depend on attacks (such as Shadow Fiend or
Drow Ranger) can be nullified by Fire Spirits' attack speed slow.
* Laser along with
Heat-Seeking Missile allows Tinker to quickly burst down Drow Ranger due to her low health.
* Heat-Seeking Missile lets Tinker out-range Drow Ranger and hit her in the backline of a teamfight.
* Since Windranger is bad against magical damage, heroes with continuous magical damage or magical nukes can blast her: Zeus,
Tinker,
Leshrac,
Viper,
Skywrath Mage,
Lion,
Lina,
Venomancer.
* All of Tinker's damage is magical and pure, which makes Cold Embrace a good setup for his nukes.
* Winter's Curse is very hard to cast on Tinker because he usually stays in the back-lines in team-fights. In turn, Tinker has mediocre attack damage and will contribute very little when he is cursed to attack an ally. He can also save his ally under Winter's Curse effect with Ethereal Blade and
Defense Matrix.
* Wave of Terror can reveal a Tinker attempting to hide in the trees and then
Nether Swap and
Magic Missile will both serve to interrupt/lock him down, should he attempt to town portal or reload.
* Generally, heroes that can close the gap on Drow Ranger to cancel her Marksmanship such as Phantom Assassin,
Spirit Breaker, and
Tusk are effective at limiting her power and bursting her down.
* Magic Missile has a considerably long cast time, making it difficult to stop Charge of Darkness with it.
* Other than Magic Missile, Vengeful Spirit has no way of canceling Nether Strike.
* Windranger tends to fare badly against high mobility heroes that can easily dodge Powershot, close the gap on her when she uses Windrun or escape from Focus Fire's reach. Examples of such heroes include Spirit Breaker,
Lycan,
Storm Spirit,
Earth Spirit,
Void Spirit,
Slark and others.
* Heroes who can continue dealing damage even while being stunned: Luna,
Razor,
Axe,
Bristleback,
Leshrac,
Death Prophet,
Jakiro.
* Special mention to Timbersaw as he has a way to deal with Axe in the laning stage, but still needs to be careful about Berserker's Call stun, the pure damage from Counter Helix and Culling Blade finishing him off before he can escape or heal from his passive.
Additional:
* Whirling Death reduces Axe's strength by 15%, which makes him less durable, especially from early game. It's also stackable.
* Blade Mail are not effective against attribute changes, and
Timber Chain can wait out
Blade Mail's duration to wear off.
* Reactive Armor makes it harder for Axe to finish off Timbersaw with
Culling Blade.
* Chakram disarms Timbersaw, which makes Axe's
Counter Helix useless against him.
* All Timbersaw skills deal pure damage, which bypass Axe's high armor or bonus armor from Berserker's Call.
* Timbersaw relies on dealing massive amounts of pure damage, making Cold Embrace a good setup for his nukes.
* If he has Reactive Armor stacks, Timbersaw can tank the damage from his allies if he is targeted by Winter's Curse. If he's not the target, Timbersaw's abysmal attack damage will contribute next to nothing when he is cursed to attack an ally.
* As Timbersaw commonly buys Lotus Orb, he can use it to reflect Winter's Curse back to Winter Wyvern if she uses it impulsively on him or any other hero while affected by it.
* Infernal Blade's damage is calculated by a percentage of maximum health, meaning that it will hurt Axe more than most normal attacks, negating some of his durability.
* Doom can pick up several different abilities from neutral creeps using Devour, some of which can be annoying to Axe.
* Mud Golem, Dark Troll Summoner, Harpy Stormcrafter, Satyr Mindstealer or Satyr Tormenter are good examples.
* Doom's naturally low attack speed makes Counter Helix less likely to proc, and his high base health allows him to take a few Helixes with no danger.
* Doom makes Axe less disruptive, preventing him from using his skills or items. At level 25, there is a branch of the talent tree that makes
Doom apply Break, allowing Doom to disable Counter Helix, making Axe effectively useless for a lengthy duration.
Additional:
* Infernal Blade deals scaling damage and is useful against high HP targets such as Axe.
* Doom has low attack speed because of his high Base-Attack-Time, poor agility gain and limited attack-speed granting items which are commonly built. This means Doom will trigger Counter Helix less often and thus is an unideal target for initiation.
* Doom has naturally high HP so it takes longer for Doom to be brought down to the killing threshold of Culling Blade.
* Axe is highly reliant on his abilities and items to be effective during a fight. Without the usage of Berserker's Call and
Blink Dagger due to
Doom, Axe offers very little in the way of damage, effectively removing him from a fight.
* Doom completely takes Windranger out of a team fight, a hero who relies heavily on using abilities and items to contribute in team fights.
Additional:
* Doom completely takes Windranger out of a team fight, a hero who relies heavily on using abilities and items to contribute in team fights.
* Heroes with the ability to heal allies will not be able to heal heroes affected by Doom:
Chen,
Dazzle,
Io,
Oracle,
Omniknight,
Witch Doctor,
Winter Wyvern,
Abaddon, etc.
* Drow Ranger can be difficult to get on top of, thanks to her Frost Arrows and
Gust. With these two abilities, Drow Ranger is able to effectively 'kite' Doom and minimize his impact during team fights and laning stage.
* Much of Drow Ranger's effectiveness comes from her passive Marksmanship, which is not disabled by Doom.
* Nether Swap triggers extra damage from Rupture.
* Blood Rite sets up while Vengeful Spirit using her Nether Swap within a timed correctly.
* Windrun triggers the damage from Rupture.
Additional:
* Rupture turns Windranger's mobility against her.
* Blood Rite's silence makes Windranger totally useless, since she's extremely reliant on abilities.
* Heroes with high armor and durability can be exceptionally hard for Bloodseeker to bring down: Dragon Knight,
Axe
* Outworld Destroyer's pure and magical damage is particularly effective against Axe.
* Astral Imprisonment is an excellent way to defend against an initiating Axe.
* Sanity's Eclipse deals high damage to Axe due to his low mana pool.
Additional:
* Berserker's Call bonus armor doesn't block Arcane Orb's pure damage.
* Astral Imprisonment can be used to prevent an ally or Outworld Destroyer himself from an Axe initiation.
* Axe's low mana means he's susceptible to a powerful Sanity's Eclipse.
* Outworld Destroyer's pure damage from Arcane Orb can go through Cold Embrace.
* Outworld Destroyer can negate the healing from Cold Embrace using Astral Imprisonment, and steal mana while doing so.
* Outworld Destroyer's damage during Winter's Curse is reduced due to Arcane Orb being unable to target allies.
Additional:
* Winter Wyvern must never put her allies in Cold Embrace against Outworld Destroyer as Arcane Orb will continue to deal damage to the defenseless hero.
* Arcane Orb does not hit his allies when he is taunted by Winter's Curse, making it weak against allies, but strong versus enemies.
* Astral Imprisonment can protect a target inflicted with Winter's Curse.
* Any heroes with silences can negate the majority of Outworld Destroyer's damage output: Death Prophet,
Night Stalker,
Drow Ranger,
Doom .
* Venomancer's slows and magical damage-over-time work well against Axe's complete lack of mobility.
* Plague Ward is especially useful for slowing down Axe, and revealing him before he initiates, as well as putting his
Blink Dagger on cooldown.
Additional:
* Venomancer's slows and magical damage-over-time work well against Axe's complete lack of mobility.
* Plague Wards is especially useful for slowing down Axe, and revealing him before he initiates, as well as putting his Blink Dagger on cooldown.
* For the same reasons, Venomancer is a good ally for Axe when the situation is reversed.
* Due to lack of magic resistance, Venomancer poisons eats through Windranger's health.
Additional:
* Due to lack of magic resistance, Venomancer abilities eats through Windranger's health.
* Venomancer's multiple slows, to an extent, negates Windrun's mobility.
* Any hero that can outrange Plague Ward can neutralize them without putting themselves at risk of receiving Poison Sting: Arc Warden,
Chen,
Clinkz,
Drow Ranger,
Lina,
Mirana,
Nature's Prophet,
Pugna and
Sniper.
* Special mention to heroes that outrange Plague Ward after obtaining talents that increase attack range.
* Often you can burst Drow Ranger down before she has a chance to try and Gust you away. Try to have a teammate bait her
Gust out before you Blink and get the drop on her.
* Heroes who have a high mobility (Queen of Pain,
Storm Spirit,
Slark, etc.).
* Queen of Pain, for the most part, almost exclusively deals magical damage, ignoring Windranger's evasion from Windrun.
* Queen of Pain is also a common wielder of Orchid Malevolence, preventing Windranger from using her abilities for a while.
* Blink, when used correctly, allows Queen of Pain to dodge Powershot and
Shackleshot.
* Heroes with gap-closing abilities will be easy targets for Berserker's Call: Phantom Assassin,
Faceless Void,
Slark,
Chaos Knight,
Morphling,
Queen of Pain
Additional:
* Berserker's Call prevents Queen of Pain from escaping with Blink and also pierces her
Black King Bar.
* Due to her fast attack speed from Mjollnir, it will quickly trigger
Counter Helix.
* Culling Blade finishes off Queen of Pain's low health pool before she gets a chance to escape, preventing her from playing the hit-and-run style often associated with Queen of Pain.
* Heroes reliant on abilities to output damage or escape can be shut down by Gust: Queen of Pain.
* Invisible heroes are very difficult for Drow Ranger to deal with such as Bounty Hunter,
Riki and heroes who commonly buy a
Shadow Blade.
* Bounty Hunter with
Track.
* Heroes with True Sight can be a problem for Windranger once she has upgraded Windrun with Aghanim's Scepter, but do take note that the invisibility it provides is not broken upon moving, casting abilities or using items, so it is vital to cast these abilities beforehand to be able to provide vision on Windranger:
* Bounty Hunter with
Track.
* Bloodseeker with
Thirst.
* Slardar with
Corrosive Haze.
* Because Exorcism's damage is not reduce by damage block abilities or items, Death Prophet can be very good against heroes who rely on armor to survive: Axe,
Terrorblade,
Morphling,
Dragon Knight
* Windranger heavily relies on her abilities for any form of tactical advantage and damage. A well timed silence will make her useless: Puck,
Silencer,
Death Prophet,
Skywrath Mage,
Drow Ranger,
Earth Spirit,
Grimstroke.
* Winter Wyvern cannot handle the Zombies created by Undying's Tombstone very well. In most situations, Zombies will have more movement speed than her.
* Undying can gain one or two easy Decay stacks on an ally in Cold Embrace. The ally will still take the damage as well.
Additional:
* Winter Wyvern cannot handle the Zombies created by Tombstone very well. In most situations, Zombies will have more movement speed than her.
* Undying can gain one or two easy Decay stacks on an ally in Cold Embrace. The ally will still take the damage as well, since it is magical.
* Spectre can easily close the distance on Drow Ranger with Haunt and stick on her with
Spectral Dagger, effectively disables her
Marksmanship.
* Spectre does not care if silenced by Gust, since Spectre will catch her up regardless.
* Dispersion can reflect some damage back to Drow Ranger should she chooses to attack.
* Be careful once she got her Silver Edge as an attempt to shut you down.
* Spectre can catch up to her with Spectral Dagger, even if she uses
Windrun.
* Spectre can instantly reach a ratting Windranger with Haunt.
* Dispersion can reflect some of her damage, especially from her
Focus Fire.
Additional:
* Spectre can instantly escape Focus Fire or hunt a Windranger with Haunt.
* Spectre can catch up to her with Spectral Dagger, even if she uses Windrun.
* Desolate allows Spectre to hit Windranger through Windrun.
* Dispersion combined with
Blade Mail and/or
Vanguard (and its upgrade
Abyssal Blade) makes Spectre tanky and/or reflects some damage back to Windranger.
* 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.
* Frequent healing from Death Pulse and
Mekansm makes it difficult for Axe to finish off targets with Culling Blade.
* Ghost Shroud's instant cast time allows Necrophos to turn ethereal before being initiated on by Berserker's Call. This prevents him from attacking Axe while taunted, thus lowering the chance to proc Counter Helix.
* Axe's high health is relatively ineffective against Heartstopper Aura's percentage-based health degeneration.
* Reaper's Scythe stops Axe's game plan of using Berserker's Call multiple times and since he's in the middle of the fight, this spell is very easy to grab kills onto him.
Additional:
* Frequent healing from Death Pulse makes it difficult for Axe to finish off targets with Culling Blade.
* Reaper's Scythe negates Axe's tankiness, and can kill him quickly after initiation if Axe's health is low enough.
* Heartstopper Aura can be very effective against Axe due to Axe's high strength gain.
* However, bear in mind that Berserker's Call can prevent Necrophos from using his
Ghost Shroud to defend his fragile self from physical damages. And
Heartstopper Aura can unintentionally help Axe to trigger his
Counter Helix more frequently while also hurting Necrophos with
Blade Mail during activation.
* Nonetheless Heartstopper Aura is not considered as a normal attack, thus it will not trigger
Counter Helix, so anyone who wrote the statement above should be awarded with MVP and considered a TI champion purely for the innovation of new mechanics.
* Heroes who have low or high armor but very high health will be difficult for drow to burst down quickly: Primal Beast,
Axe,
Centaur Warrunner.
* Focus Fire grants Windranger a massive attack speed bonus, while her attack damage is generally quite low. This, combined with Windranger's low health pool and armor, makes Retaliate do absolutely massive damage over a short time, making Centaur a hero she can never expect to kill or harass.
* Windrun grants evasion, but Centaur Warrunner does not rely on successful attacks in order to do damage. Hoof Stomp, Double Edge, and Stampede all do large amounts of magical damage and can completely demolish Windranger in a moment.
Additional:
* Stampede can help his teammates escape from Windrun and Focus Fire.
* Retaliate will shred through Windranger's health if she chooses to attack him during Focus Fire.
* Winter Wyvern's
Arctic Burn can also be a useful tool against Centaur, who generally has very high health.
Winter's Curse on Centaur can cause Retaliate to damage allies who are forced to attack him.
* Enrage reduces the damage from
Blade Mail and Counter Helix to a minimum, forcing Axe to play around Ursa's ultimate ability.
* Overpower and
Fury Swipes stacks damage overwhelming for Axe, despite his high health.
* Even though Ursa is a hero who relies on direct attacks to be effective, Fury Swipes does not work on allies if Ursa is affected by Winter's Curse, mitigating a majority of Ursa's damage. In addition, Ursa's unimpressive attack speed and attack damage without
Overpower and
Fury Swipes means that he deals little to no damage to allies during Winter's Curse.
* Aghanim's Scepter upgraded
Enrage allows Ursa to survive Winter Wyvern's initiation with Winter's Curse.
* Ursa relies on the Blink-Earthshock combo to slow enemies to burst them, but Windranger can use Windrun to escape through Earthshock's duration.
* Windrun and
Focus Fire can easily allow Windranger to kite Ursa and do good amounts of damage in the process.
Additional:
* Windranger can avoid Ursa's primary source of damage, Fury Swipes, by simply using Windrun. The slow from
Earthshock is also rendered irrelevant by Windrun.
* Focus Fire and Windrun can be used to kite Ursa.
* The high mobility provided by Fire Remnant makes it hard for Windranger to find a good position to land Shackleshot or a full duration of Focus Fire.
* Flame Guard and
Searing Chains deal considerable magical damage to Windranger which she cannot avoid with Windrun.
* Searing chains also negates the mobility from Windrun.
* While Slardar has Guardian's Sprint activated, Powershot cannot slow him and is easier to avoid.
* Slithereen Crush and Bash of the Deep help Slardar put Windranger in place, even when she uses Windrun to escape.
* Corrosive Haze from Slardar is very effective against Windranger's already low armor. This becomes even worse if she has Aghanim's Scepter-upgraded
Windrun, because it also reveals her position and allowing his allies to use their abilities on Windranger.
* Note that the invisibility provided by Aghanim's Scepter-upgraded
Windrun is not broken upon attacking, casting abilities or using items, so it's vital to cast Corrosive Haze beforehand.
* Heroes who can stop Axe from getting close will severely inhibit his presence in fights: Bristleback,
Crystal Maiden,
Batrider,
Arc Warden,
Winter Wyvern,
Clockwerk
* Combo Quill Spray and items Blade Mail can easily trigger from Focus Fire damage.
Additional:
* Using Focus Fire on Bristleback tends to fare badly for Windranger, as he can trigger passive Quill Sprays many times, especially when she attacks him from behind. In addition, Windrun does not protect her from both
Viscous Nasal Goo and
Quill Spray, rendering her helpless.
* Bristleback's natural tankiness makes it hard for Windranger to effectively burst her down throughout the game.
* Bristleback tends to continuously spam Viscous Nasal Goo to slow down Windranger when she uses Windrun to escape, potentially allowing him to outrun her with his
Warpath stacks.
* Bristleback can build Lotus Orb to reflect Shackleshot and Focus Fire back at Windranger.
* Axe forces Bristleback to turn around with
Berserker's Call, allowing allies to attack him without fear of his passive.
* Windranger can't escape Windrun X Marks the Spot with combo Torrent or Ghostship trap.
* Ice Path is a great stun for Berserker's Call and with a
Eul's Scepter of Divinity can really catch Axe off guard.
* Dual Breath and
Liquid Fire can be a devastating combination for Axe (especially if he takes Battle Hunger at level 1) before he has any natural regeneration sustain from items.
Additional:
* Ice Path neutralizes initiation attempts with Berserker's Call, and its long area of effect discourages follow-ups from Axe's teammates until Axe buys
Black King Bar.
* Ice Path serves as a large obstacle to stop Axe from chasing down fleeing stragglers to kill with Culling Blade until Axe buys
Black King Bar.
* Jakiro's many damage-per-second skills prevent Axe from initiating with his Blink Dagger. Forcing Axe to buy Black King Bar prematurely to protect himself against Jakiro's abilities and counter-initiaions.
* Jakiro's reliance on his abilities can cause struggles for heroes who rely on evasion or blinds to get upper hand: Phantom Assassin,
Windranger,
Riki,
Troll Warlord,
Keeper of the Light.
* Heroes with good counter-push abilities to clear creep waves can hinder Jakiro's early pushing ability: Death Prophet,
Sniper,
Tinker,
Windranger.
* Another hero heavily based on attacks and no mobility, being an easy prey for Treant strong disarms and motion reduction skills.
* Moon Glaives can ignore certain abilities that either trigger on attack or give evasion under the condition that the heroes who have them are not primary targets. Examples include:
Centaur Warrunner,
Windranger,
Phantom Assassin,
Hoodwink etc.
* Cold Embrace is no salvation against Lucent Beam and
Eclipse.
* Moon Glaives will not hit a hero affected by Winter's Curse, making it weak against allies, but strong versus enemies.
* Luna has better night vision provided by Lunar Blessing than Winter Wyvern when affected by Arctic Burn.
Additional:
* Cold Embrace is no salvation against Lucent Beam and
Eclipse.
* Moon Glaives will not hit a hero affected by Winter's Curse, making it weak against allies, but strong versus enemies.
* Luna has better night vision provided by Lunar Blessing than Winter Wyvern when affected by Arctic Burn.
* Every hero that can withstand or prevent Eclipse at level 7: Juggernaut,
Riki,
Clockwerk,
Drow Ranger,
Abaddon,
Faceless Void,
Weaver,
Outworld Destroyer.
* Heroes who can stop Axe from getting close will severely inhibit his presence in fights: Bristleback,
Crystal Maiden,
Batrider,
Arc Warden,
Winter Wyvern,
Clockwerk
* Magnetic Field protects Arc Warden and allies from Drow Ranger's ranged attacks. She most likely will not enter the field since she will lose Marksmanship's bonus agility.
* Beware however, as Marksmanship procs will still hit since they have True Strike, so the most damaging arrows will still hit you inside Magnetic Field.
Additional:
* Flux along with
Spark Wraith allows Arc Warden to quickly burst down Drow Ranger due to her low health.
* However, Drow Ranger can bypass Magnetic Field's evasion bonus thanks to Marksmanship.
* Magnetic Field doesn't provide a protection against Berserker's Call and
Counter Helix and his high attack speed together with Tempest Double will often trigger
Counter Helix.
* The threat of a blink and Berserker's Call may make the real Arc Warden stay further back, thus effectively halving the team's damage output for a while.
* Since Windranger is bad against magical damage, heroes with continuous magical damage or magical nukes can blast her: Zeus,
Tinker,
Leshrac,
Viper,
Skywrath Mage,
Lion,
Lina,
Venomancer.
* Heavy nukers will do well against Cold Embrace (Lina,
Zeus etc).
Additional:
* Any ally that Winter Wyvern tries to save with Cold Embrace can still be damaged by all of Zeus's spells.
* If Winter Wyvern tries to juke vision by flying up a cliff or in the trees, Zeus can gain vision there with Lightning Bolt or Thundergod's Wrath.
* If Zeus is forced to attack an ally by Winter's Curse, his unimpressive attack damage and attack speed means they won't be hurt much by him. Zeus will also stay near the back of fights away from his allies, making a deadly Curse less likely.
* As a spellcaster, silences will nullify him entirely. Some notable examples are Death Prophet,
Drow Ranger,
Bloodseeker,
Disruptor and many others.
* Doom, as usual, fits this description nicely.
* Low-health, normally mobile carries who rely entirely on raw attack damage are vulnerable to Bane's nukes and disables: Anti-Mage,
Clinkz,
Drow Ranger,
Faceless Void,
Gyrocopter,
Juggernaut,
Meepo,
Mirana,
Monkey King,
Morphling,
Phantom Assassin,
Phantom Lancer,
Riki,
Shadow Fiend,
Slark,
Sniper,
Terrorblade,
Troll Warlord,
Weaver.
* Heroes that depend on disrupting fights with ability combos or big ultimate abilities 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 strong channeling spells like Crystal Maiden's
Freezing Field,
Bane's
Fiend's Grip, and
Enigma's
Black Hole can easily be interrupted from a long range by Nether Swap, assuming they don't have a
Linken's Sphere.
* Positioning-reliant heroes (Windranger,
Tidehunter,
Ursa...), since Earth Spirit can disrupt positioning with his Boulder Smash.
* While heroes with strong mobility are able to get close or flee from Upheaval, heroes with no escaping abilities or that lack long disables will perish against Warlock. Once the Warlock Golem lands with its stun, its hardly possible to escape when he casts Upheaval. Notable examples: Huskar,
Drow Ranger,
Lion,
Elder Titan, etc.
* Blink Strike gets Riki close to Drow Ranger and disable Marksmanship.
* Cloak and Dagger allow Riki stay close to Drow Ranger without her noticing him, which allows him to disable Marksmanship.
Additional:
* With Blink Strike, Riki can get close to Drow Ranger and disable her Marksmanship, and Smoke Screen will prevent her from using
Gust.
* Frail heroes who lacks mobility: Crystal Maiden,
Enigma,
Dark Willow,
Vengeful Spirit.
* 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 Riki's armor and goes straight for his tiny HP pool, totally ignoring
Smoke Screen.
* Axe is a natural buyer of Blade Mail and Riki generally does not buy lifesteal items, causing Riki to kill himself when attacking due to your tiny HP pool.
* Since Windranger is bad against magical damage, heroes with continuous magical damage or magical nukes can blast her: Zeus,
Tinker,
Leshrac,
Viper,
Skywrath Mage,
Lion,
Lina,
Venomancer.
* With Normal Punch from
Aghanim's Scepter, Dark Seer can gain an advantage against heroes who rely on evasion as
Normal Punch has true strike:
Phantom Assassin,
Windranger,
Hoodwink.
* 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.
* Long lockdown is a great way to deal with Axe to prevent Berserker's Call from being used, heroes such as Legion Commander,
Beastmaster and
Primal Beast are good examples of this.
Additional:
* Berserker's Call will be a stun for Primal Beast and not much else due to Trample making him unable to attack.
* Battle Hunger is neglitable because Primal Beast has a much bigger health than Axe, so he does not need to fear being slowed, or his other abilities including
Counter Helix or even a
Blade Mail.
* Getting Primal Beast low enough to use a successful Culling Blade can be very difficult due to his massive health advantage over most heroes.
* Not ability related but Primal Beast does not need to fear Axe in lane, as Trample, combined with Uproar and Onslaught will do a ton of damage even if Axe has a Vanguard.
* Heroes who have low or high armor but very high health will be difficult for drow to burst down quickly: Primal Beast,
Axe,
Centaur Warrunner.
* Supports who can slow him to the point Trample does very little damage in the lane are also not fun: Lich,
Ogre Magi,
Winter Wyvern.
* Heroes who can stop Axe from getting close will severely inhibit his presence in fights: Bristleback,
Crystal Maiden,
Batrider,
Arc Warden,
Winter Wyvern,
Clockwerk
* Firefly and combinated with
Blink Dagger can easy avoided from
Focus Fire.
* Nether Swap breaks Flaming Lasso when used on ally and can break if used on Batrider.
* Vengeful Spirit can disable Batrider's Blink Dagger before a fight with
Wave of Terror.
Additional:
* With her Nether Swap, Vengeful Spirit can save the life of an ally who gets caught with Flaming Lasso. Nether Swap also makes it highly dangerous for Batrider to attempt a lasso, as it can lead to his own demise far behind enemy lines.
* Wave of Terror's flying vision allows Vengeful Spirit to spot Batrider trying to close in on his target with Firefly.
* Silencer's abilities hamper Windranger's effectiveness in battle, preventing her from comboing abilities and escaping using Windrun.
Additional:
* Glaives of Wisdom's intelligence steal can prove detrimental to Windranger, as she heavily relies on her abilities to be able to make an impact.
* Silencer's abilities hamper Windranger's effectiveness in battle, preventing her from comboing abilities and escaping using Windrun.
* Heroes who rely on passive abilities and attacks, such as Drow Ranger,
Wraith King, and
Lone Druid, can render Silencer useless. But remember that a smart Silencer will most likely buy
Silver Edge to counter this if he is played as carry.
* Void Spirit deals entirely magical damage in the early game, ignoring her evasion from Windrun.
* A Void Spirit with fast reaction time can use Dissimilate or Astral Step to dodge Powershot.
Additional:
* Void Spirit deals entirely magical damage in the early game, ignoring her evasion from Windrun.
* A Void Spirit with fast reaction time can use Dissimilate or Astral Step to dodge Powershot.
* Heroes with burst damage of their own won't be afraid to go toe to toe with Void Spirit, like Ursa,
Lifestealer, or
Axe.
* Cold Embrace makes its target immovable, allowing Ancient Apparition to easily land Ice Blast, or a Cold Feet stun.
* Ice Blast also negates healing from Cold Embrace.
Additional:
* Ice Blast disables the healing component of Cold Embrace, making it essentially a 4 second stun on an ally and a perfect setup for Ice Blast.
* If Cold Feet is cast on an Allied hero affected by Cold Embrace, it will almost guarantee the Ally comes out stunned.
* Heroes with mobility/escape mechanisms to dodge Ancient Apparition abilites, or to easily jump on him: Riki,
Queen of Pain,
Phantom Assassin,
Windranger,
Bounty Hunter,
Spirit Breaker,
Night Stalker,
Storm Spirit,
Juggernaut, etc.
* Cold Embrace is the perfect setup for all his nukes - Chaos Meteor,
E.M.P. and especially global
Sun Strike.
* Heroes with silence: Death Prophet,
Riki,
Drow Ranger.
* Phase Shift allows Puck to effectively dodge Powershot, and even
Shackleshot if timed correctly.
* Waning Rift prevents Windranger from casting all her abilities, most especially Windrun and
Focus Fire .
* Windranger cannot escape with Windrun when she's affected by Dream Coil, as she will be instantly stunned when she tries to break away from the coil, allowing Puck's teammates to focus her down.
* Axe,
Bristleback,
Centaur Warrunner,
Spirit Breaker,
Pudge,
Huskar,
Wraith King,
Doom: These heroes are too tanky for Puck to burst down. Also, all of them have spells which can deal with and shut Puck down reliably.
* Snowball and
Ice Shards keep Drow Ranger down and preventing her from running away.
* Snowball also lets Tusk get to Drow Ranger and stop her Marksmanship bonus. It can also be to save allies affected by Gust.
* Tag Team allows Tusk to slow her down and land a killing blow on her.
* Walrus PUNCH! slows Drow Ranger and deals a huge amount of damage to her, due to her low health (and low armor without Marksmanship, since Tusk can quickly close the gap to Drow Ranger).
* Durable heroes can stand against Tusk during 1v1: Axe,
Dragon Knight,
Night Stalker,
Centaur Warrunner,
Wraith King and more.
* Long lockdown is a great way to deal with Axe to prevent Berserker's Call from being used, heroes such as Legion Commander,
Beastmaster and
Primal Beast are good examples of this.
* Heroes who relies on illusions and summons (Beastmaster,
Chaos Knight, etc.).
* Cold Embrace mitigates Primal Roar's single-target initiation on allies.
* Winter's Curse can turn Beastmaster's summons and Inner Beast against his teammate.
Additional:
* Beastmaster's summons and Inner Beast are very useful to attack his cursed teammate.
* Cold Embrace effectively mitigates Primal Roar's single-target initiation on allies.
* Heroes who rely on fast attack speed will also trigger Counter Helix frequently: Faceless Void,
Troll Warlord,
Anti-Mage,
Juggernaut,
Arc Warden,
Morphling
Additional:
* Berserker's Call pierces spell immunity, making a
Blade Fury teleport escape impossible. It's very useful against
Omnislash as well.
* Juggernaut's low base health and high attack speed causes him to take a lot of damage from Counter Helix.
* Axe is a common Blade Mail and
Blink Dagger carrier making him a very big potential threat before Juggernaut get his items.
* Drow Ranger can use Gust to push back Juggernaut before he can get in range to use Omnislash or
Blade Fury.
* With the exception of Magic Missile (unless the player takes the Level 25 Talent "Magic Missile Pierces Spell Immunity"), all of Vengeful Spirit's spells ignore Spell Immunity. This also makes her good against heroes with built-in Spell Immunity like Lifestealer or
Juggernaut or heroes that tend to pick up
Black King Bar, like
Sven.
* {Ability ID:Windrun|Windranger|16px} negates the damage from {Ability ID:Omnislash|Juggernaut|16px}.
* {Ability ID:Windrun|Windranger|16px} gives Windranger enough movement speed to get out of {Ability ID:Blade fury|Juggernaut|16px} range.
* {Ability ID:Focus fire|Windranger|16px} goes through {Ability ID:Blade Fury|juggernaut|16px}.
* 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.
* Melee heroes who rely on summons, illusions, or clones will trigger Counter Helix more often, thus taking more damage: Meepo,
Lycan,
Phantom Lancer
Additional:
* The combination of Counter Helix and
Berserker's Call can disable multiple Meepos and deal heavy area damage.
* Axe's natural high survivability makes it difficult to burst him down with Poof or chip away at his health with Ransack.
* With Nether Swap, Vengeful Spirit can isolate one of the Meepos, making him an easier kill for the team.
* Her Magic Missile gives her an easy way to cancel Meepo's Poof, preventing isolated Meepos from fleeing.
* Focus Fire can quickly attack target Meepo or clones instanly. Additionally, Windranger can use combinated
Shackleshot and
Focus Fire since Poof wrong landing and stunned from
Shackleshot affected Meepo and clones collateral damege from
Focus Fire.
* Escaping from Windrun make Earthbind roots can not reach.
* Winter's Curse in late game is pretty much the end for Meepo or any of his nearby allies. Natural counter for Winter's Curse like
Linken's Sphere or
Lotus Orb is meaningless to her if she can land it on one of Meepo's clones.
Additional:
* Meepo's clones usually gets grouped in teamfight making any of them ideal target for Winter's Curse, forcing Meepo to literally kill himself. Also, unlike other heroes he cannot protect himself with Linken's Sphere.
* While Meepo's clones are grouped up, Splinter Blast will hit almost every clone, slowing Meepo and making him easier to fight.
* 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.
* Terrorblade's low base health and lack of mobility make him an easy target for Axe to initiate on, and kill.
* Counter Helix will trigger from, and destroy many of Terrorblade illusions.
Additional:
* Berserker's Call and
Counter Helix together can be devastating to Terrorblade, especially if Terrorblade has a lot of illusions. Their high attack speed will trigger Counter Helix a lot, and the pure damage will quickly slice through Terrorblade's low health and kill his illusions. More importantly, the
Berserker's Call can pierce through spell immunity from
Black King Bar, Terrorblade's only survival item besides
Manta Style which cannot be used to dispel
Berserker's Call. With enough burst damage by Axe's teammates, Terrorblade can be finished off even before taunt duration runs out and he gets a chance to save himself with
Sunder.
* Culling Blade can finish off Terrorblade before he has the chance to
Sunder due to his low health in the early to mid game. And every time Terrorblade or any of his allies are successfully killed by
Culling Blade, Axe permanently gains armor from it, which in combination with armor items that Axe often purchases like
Blade Mail,
Crimson Guard,
Assault Cuirass and
Shiva's Guard can make Terrorblade's attacks only tickle Axe, even during Metamorphosis.
* Terrorblade's low base health and lack of mobility make him an easy target for Axe to initiate on, and kill.
* Metamorphosis will not match the range of Drow Ranger and he will struggle to do damage to her if she is not locked down already by someone else.
* Conjure Image will be destroyed very quickly due to Marksmanship.
* Terrorblade generally likes to be the big bad late game carry who sits in the middle of the fight and kills whoever is closest, which is very unlikely to be Drow Ranger therefore making it likely she will be going on him in teamfights.
* Terrorblade's high base armor and agility items makes him very vulnerable to Marksmanship.
Additional:
* Even though Drow Ranger's damage output is 100% physical, Marksmanship allows Drow Ranger to pierce Terrorblade's high natural base armor and when upgraded with
Aghanim's Scepter, it will allow her to clear Terrorblade's illusions.
* Gust can prevent Terrorblade from using
Sunder.
* Since Terrorblade doesn't like to buy armor items like Assault Cuirass, he will be very vulnerable to Drow Ranger's high physical burst damage.
* Heroes with abilities that can lock down Terrorblade and prevent him from using Sunder: Bane,
Batrider,
Earthshaker,
Elder Titan,
Faceless Void,
Invoker,
Legion Commander,
Mars,
Primal Beast,
Riki,
Shadow Shaman,
Silencer,
Vengeful Spirit,
Void Spirit.
* As Terrorblade's damage output comes mainly from direct attacks, he will struggle greatly against heroes who have abilities that give evasion, trigger on attack or which can disarm an enemy hero: Centaur Warrunner,
Hoodwink,
Huskar,
Invoker,
Leshrac with
Nihilism from
Aghanim's Scepter,
Lifestealer with
Aghanim's Scepter upgraded
Infest,
Pangolier,
Phantom Assassin,
Pugna,
Techies,
Windranger etc.
* Terrorblade and his illusions deal huge damage, which might used against him and his team with Winter's Curse.
* Enigma can be a perfect counter-initiator with his ultimate. A perfectly timed Black Hole will turn the tide of any initiation, especially from heroes like; Spirit Breaker,
Legion Commander,
Axe,
Puck, and
Slardar.
* Long ranged disables, especially those that pierce spell immunity, cancel Black Hole: Beastmaster's
Primal Roar,
Bane's
Fiend's Grip,
Faceless Void's
Chronosphere,
Magnus's
Reverse Polarity,
Axe's
Berserker's Call,
Pudge's
Meat Hook.
* Black Hole while definitely a threat to Drow Ranger, is very hard to land as she likes to keep her distance from allies and enemies alike. And if not caught in it, will kill Enigma very quickly due to his low health.
* Malefice can be removed with a Manta Style.
* Drow Ranger being a fairly low health, high armored agility carry doesn't take much damage from Midnight Pulse as others would.
* Demonic Conversion units die very quickly to Marksmanship or even just regular attacks not far into the game within 2 or 3 hits.
* Vengeful Spirit can interrupt Black Hole's channeling through Black King Bar by using
Nether Swap from a safe distance.
* Vengeful Spirit's Level 25 Talent can make her Magic Missile pierce spell immunity, giving her another option to use in conjunction with
Nether Swap to cancel Enigma's Black Hole channeling even through both,
Black King Bar and
Linken's Sphere.
* Winter's Curse, when directly targeted on Enigma, goes through
Black King Bar, stopping Enigma's Black Hole channeling. It also turns his team against him, potentially killing him. Even if Enigma gets
Linken's Sphere on top of
Black King Bar,
Splinter Blast can be used to pop
Linken's Sphere, and
Winter's Curse will stop Black Hole channeling.
* Splinter Blast can be targeted on an eidolon, killing off other eidolons and damaging nearby heroes as well.
* Axe can take advantage of Chen jungling and gank him more often with Blink Dagger and
Berserker's Call combination.
* Counter Helix can clear waves of Chen's creeps if they are too close to Axe.
* Berserker's Call combined with
Blade Mail and
Culling Blade can often kill Chen before he can save himself with
Hand of God.
* However, Hand of God and
Divine Favor can make it hard for
Axe to finish off Chen's allies with
Culling Blade when Chen is not target for Axe.
* Magic Missile can stun Chen and deal heavy damage to him.
* Wave of Terror weakens durability of Chen and his creeps.
* Nether Swap can be used to separate Chen away from his creeps, often to certain death from Vengeful Spirit's allies.
* Heroes with evasion will cause Chen and his creeps to struggle in attacking them and will waste much of Penitence's power: Phantom Assassin,
Windranger,
Hoodwink.
* Troll Warlord's high attack speed means Counter Helix will proc extremely frequently even without creeps near him. This, combined with a Blade Mail means Axe can easily solo kill Troll Warlord even in later stages of the game.
* Battle Trance does not save Troll Warlord from a Culling Blade.
Additional:
* Troll Warlord has significant attack speed due to Fervor and Battle Trance, giving Axe a higher chance to proc Counter Helix and seriously injure Troll Warlord due to his relatively low maximum health.
* Axe often purchases Blade Mail, which can help Axe turn Troll Warlord's farm and high physical damage against him. The bonus armor provided by
Berserker's Call means that Troll Warlord will take a lot more damage than Axe.
* Culling Blade is still capable of killing Troll Warlord during Battle Trance if his HP is low enough.
* Other heroes that rely on physical attacks to deal damage and not their abilities: Troll Warlord,
Sniper,
Monkey King,
Sven.
* Cold Embrace can protect Troll Warlord's target, especially during Battle Trance.
* Winter's Curse can turn Troll Warlord's high physical damage and attack speed against his allies.
Additional:
* Cold Embrace will protect your ally from being damaged if he gets focused by Troll, although be careful as Fervor will keep gaining stacks even while Cold Embrace is active.
* Fervor works on allies.
* His high attack speed will help to kill his cursed ally faster.
* Generally, heroes that can close the gap on Drow Ranger to cancel her Marksmanship such as Phantom Assassin,
Spirit Breaker, and
Tusk are effective at limiting her power and bursting her down.
* Phantom Strike's extra attack speed will cause Phantom Assassin to trigger
Counter Helix more often, which can be fatal for Phantom Assassin. Jumping on Axe with
Phantom Strike is not a good idea for Phantom Assassin at all as it makes her a seriously 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.
Berserker's Call can also affect Phantom Assassin even if she has
Black King Bar active as
Berserker's Call can fully pierce spell immunity, making
Berserker's Call one of the best abilities in the game against heroes like Phantom Assassin who wants to kill opponents quickly without being interrupted.
* Culling Blade can often kill Phantom Assassin before she can do anything due to her low health and strength gain. And every time
Culling Blade successfully kills Phantom Assassin or any of her teammates, Axe gains permanent armor from it, which in combination with armor items that Axe often purchases like
Blade Mail,
Crimson Guard,
Assault Cuirass and
Shiva's Guard can make Phantom Assassin's attacks only tickle Axe.
* Aghanim's Shard upgraded
Counter Helix can weaken Phantom Assassin's damage output, and if her attack damage is weak,
Coup De Grace will also suffer from attack damage reduction as well.
Additional:
* Phantom Strike's extra attack speed will cause Phantom Assassin to trigger
Counter Helix more often, which can be fatal for Phantom Assassin in the early game. Jumping on Axe with
Phantom Strike is not a good idea for Phantom Assassin at all as it makes her a seriously 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.
Berserker's Call can also affect Phantom Assassin even if she has
Black King Bar active as
Berserker's Call can fully pierce spell immunity, making
Berserker's Call one of the best abilities in the game against heroes like Phantom Assassin who wants to kill opponents quickly without being interrupted.
* Culling Blade can often kill Phantom Assassin before she can do anything due to her low health and strength gain. And every time
Culling Blade successfully kills Phantom Assassin or any of her teammates, Axe gains permanent armor from it, which in combination with armour items that Axe often purchases like
Blade Mail,
Crimson Guard,
Assault Cuirass and
Shiva's Guard can make Phantom Assassin's attacks only tickle Axe.
* Heroes with disables that ignore spell immunity will render Phantom Assassin completely useless in teamfights throughout the game: Axe,
Enigma,
Vengeful Spirit,
Doom,
Bane,
Beastmaster,
Pudge,
Medusa,
Warlock.
* Phantom Assassin's Blur is useless against Windranger as she commonly buys items that require
Javelin like
Maelstrom,
Monkey King Bar or
Bloodthorn, and other than Stifling Dagger, Phantom Assassin has nothing else that can bypass Windrun.
* Additionally, Phantom Assassin doesn't like building Monkey King Bar because her crits are reliant on attack damage.
* Focus Fire can still deal considerable damage despite Blur's evasion due to the increased attack speed.
Additional:
* Phantom Assassin's Blur is useless against Windranger as she commonly buys items that require
Javelin like
Maelstrom,
Monkey King Bar or
Bloodthorn, and other than Stifling Dagger, Phantom Assassin has nothing else that can bypass Windrun.
* Additionally, Phantom Assassin doesn't like building Monkey King Bar because her crits are reliant on attack damage.
* Focus Fire can still deal considerable damage despite Blur's evasion due to the increased attack speed.
* Many physical-only single-target heroes like Lifestealer,
Sven,
Wraith King,
Phantom Assassin,
Templar Assassin can have their damage mitigated by Cold Embrace.
* Nether Swap can forcibly reposition
Sharpshooter.
* Powershot can destroy the trees to prevent
Scurry's passive as well as end
Bushwhack prematurely or prevent it completely.
* Acorn Shot does not grant True Strike, thus making it easy for Windranger to evade it with
Windrun.
* Shackleshot stuns Hoodwink for a lengthy duration due to her often reliance on positioning with trees.
Additional:
* Powershot can destroy the trees to prevent Scurry's passive as well as end
Bushwhack prematurely or prevent it completely.
* Acorn Shot creates a tree for Windranger to get an easy Shackleshot off.
* Acorn Shot does not grant True Strike, thus making it easy for Windranger to evade it with Windrun.
* Shackleshot stuns Hoodwink for a lengthy duration due to her often reliance on positioning with trees.
* Berserker's Call is one of the best ways to lock down Weaver before he has a chance to use Time Lapse. It can also catch Weaver in
Shukuchi.
* Weaver's high attack speed, along with high attack damage from Geminate Attack, triggers Counter Helix continuously and the output damage would be returned by
Blade Mail.
Additional:
* Berserker's Call is one of the best ways to lock down Weaver before he has a chance to use Time Lapse. It can also catch Weaver in Shukuchi.
* Due to his fast attack speed from Geminate Attack and items that give attack speed, Counter Helix will activate a lot, and the damage would be returned by
Blade Mail, which hurts Weaver far more than it hurts Axe.
* Culling Blade can finish off Weaver's low health pool before he escapes with Shukuchi and Time Lapse.
* Battle Hunger is a good tool to pop Weaver's
Linken's Sphere due to its low cooldown.
* A well-timed Gust will prevent Weaver from escaping, and a silenced Weaver usually dies very quickly.
* Weaver gains a lot of armor, which is bypassed by Marksmanship.
Additional:
* A well-timed Gust followed by
Frost Arrows will prevent Weaver from escaping with Shukuchi. A Weaver silenced for more than 3 seconds usually dies very quickly.
* Due to her high attack speed, Drow Ranger can easily kill The Swarm beetles.
* Heroes who rely on burst physical damage are affected by Lucky Shot's disarm: Terrorblade,
Sven,
Clinkz,
Windranger,
Alchemist,
Dragon Knight,
Legion Commander
Additional:
* Rolling Thunder allows Pangolier to escape from Focus Fire, or close the gap to Windranger whenever she tries to escape with Windrun.
* Disarm from Lucky Shot makes Focus Fire temporarily useless.
* Heroes with other kind of disables that pierce spell immunity can hold Pangolier in place during Rolling Thunder: Axe,
Beastmaster,
Enigma,
Magnus,
Pudge,
Batrider,
Bane,
Winter Wyvern
* Powerful physical hitters that can destroy Pangolier during his rolling from afar: Drow Ranger,
Sniper,
Templar Assassin,
Arc Warden
* Certain heroes can mess up with Pangolier's positioning and timing (especially if he intends to use Rolling Thunder during combat): Vengeful Spirit,
Keeper of the Light,
Huskar,
Dark Seer
* Heroes with other kind of disables that pierce spell immunity can hold Pangolier in place during Rolling Thunder: Axe,
Beastmaster,
Enigma,
Magnus,
Pudge,
Batrider,
Bane,
Winter Wyvern
* Axe will destroy her illusions by proccing Counter Helix more often due to him being hit by more attacks.
* As long as Windranger is able to identify the real hero among the illusions, heroes relying on them can be easily tagged with Focus Fire: Chaos Knight,
Terrorblade,
Phantom Lancer,
Naga Siren.
* Fragile supports who die in a few hits against Sven's high physical damage: Crystal Maiden,
Vengeful Spirit,
Dark Willow.
* Sven with Aghanim's Scepter-upgraded
Storm Hammer can easily chase down Windranger and dispel her Windrun at the same time.
* Berserker's Call prevents Sven from bursting his targets before Axe can interfere. The worst kind of opponent for Sven is one who can stop him from attacking who he wants to, which is exactly what Axe does.
* Culling Blade may finish off Sven before he has the chance to lifesteal or run with Warcry.
* Axe is a very common Blade Mail carrier which will make very short work of a Sven with God's Strength activated.
* With the exception of Magic Missile (unless the player takes the Level 25 Talent "Magic Missile Pierces Spell Immunity"), all of Vengeful Spirit's spells ignore Spell Immunity. This also makes her good against heroes with built-in Spell Immunity like Lifestealer or
Juggernaut or heroes that tend to pick up
Black King Bar, like
Sven.
* Other heroes that rely on physical attacks to deal damage and not their abilities: Troll Warlord,
Sniper,
Monkey King,
Sven.
* Cold Embrace saves any ally Sven initiates on and wastes the duration of God's Strength in team fights.
* Winter's Curse can be devastating to Sven's team, as his massive damage can take out a teammate before there is much time to react.
* Monkey King can scout Drow Ranger's positioning from the trees, and can jump on her without much trouble, disabling Marksmanship
* She lacks innate mobility to escape from Wukong's Command, whose bonus armor gives MK one extra edge in the fight
* Heroes that can keep Monkey King stunned for a long time can pose a threat: Axe,
Centaur Warrunner.
* Wave of Terror grants flying vision over trees, and its wide effect can hit Monkey King and end Mischief.
* Nether Swap can easily cancel Wukong's Command by swapping him out of the circle.
Additional:
* She can easily cancel Wukong's Command with Nether Swap.
* Wave of Terror can also detect him while he's on the trees.
* Powershot destroys the tree Monkey King is standing on.
* Monkey King's natural reliance on trees makes him an easy target for Shackleshot.
* Windrun evades Monkey King's attacks, preventing him from building up Jingu Mastery.
* Berserker's Call and Counter Helix will still hit targets inside of a defensive Sprout.
* Counter Helix clears treants in no time.
* Nature's Prophet's low damage is unlikely to hurt Axe until the very late game.
* Nature's Prophet's low mobility makes him very easy for Axe to chase down or initiate, especially when affected by Battle Hunger.
* Broodmother,
Nature's Prophet,
Phantom Lancer by their nature offer very good target for Splinter Blast and Winter's Curse.
* Heroes who can stop Axe from getting close will severely inhibit his presence in fights: Bristleback,
Crystal Maiden,
Batrider,
Arc Warden,
Winter Wyvern,
Clockwerk
* Berserker's Call can interrupt Freezing Field, even through
Black King Bar and/or
Glimmer Cape.
* Battle Hunger makes Crystal Maiden's already bad movement speed even worse.
* Axe frequently builds Blade Mail, which can quickly kill Crystal Maiden if her ultimate is used while he is under its effect.
* Heroes with low health are especially vulnerable to Marksmanship's high damage output: Clinkz,
Crystal Maiden.
* Heroes with strong channeling spells like Crystal Maiden's
Freezing Field,
Bane's
Fiend's Grip, and
Enigma's
Black Hole can easily be interrupted from a long range by Nether Swap, assuming they don't have a
Linken's Sphere.
* Vengeful Spirit has two abilities to interrupt Death Ward, even through Black King Bar.
* Death Ward's first target (before it bounces) can evade it, therefore Windranger and
Phantom Assassin are poor choices to use it on.
* Life Break closes the distance between Huskar and Drow Ranger, dealing large amounts of damage and disabling Marksmanship.
* Berserker's Blood and
Burning Spear allow Huskar to beat Drow Ranger directly and pile on damage.
* Huskar is often played at low health to maximize the bonuses from Berserker's Blood, and also because his abilities cost health to use. This makes him especially vulnerable to Culling Blade.
* Berserker's Blood gives Huskar no protection against the pure damage of Culling Blade. Its attack speed bonus also means that Counter Helix will proc more often.
* Axe's tankiness and base health regeneration makes it hard for Huskar to take him down with Burning Spears.
Additional:
* Berserker's Call and
Blade Mail can be used immediately after Huskar jumps on Axe with Life Break.
* Huskar's high attack speed procs Counter Helix repeatedly.
* Huskar's health loss from using his abilities make him a frequent target for Culling Blade.
* Heroes with abilities that reduce armor will make Huskar very vulnerable: Weaver,
Dazzle,
Bristleback,
Vengeful Spirit.
Additional:
* Huskar struggles against heroes that output high physical damage due to his low armor. Vengeful Spirit's Wave of Terror and Vengeance Aura help increase the physical damage of her team.
* Windrun makes it impossible to hit Windranger with Burning Spears.
* Huskar cannot toggle Armlet of Mordiggian to regain health while taking constant damage from
Focus Fire.
Additional:
* Windranger prevents Huskar from landing Burning Spears by using Windrun.
* Because Huskar tends to be at low health, Focus Fire and Powershot are good abilities against him.
* With Bloodthorn, Clinkz becomes a strong counter to heroes who rely on evasion and blind such as
Windranger,
Phantom Assassin,
Troll Warlord and
Keeper of the Light.
* Clinkz has no stun and likes to keep his distance from targets, making Marksmanship very deadly.
* Clinkz also has low health, making him a perfect hero to initiate onto with Gust.
* Gust can also prevent Clinkz from using Burning Barrage.
* Cold Embrace can heal herself or an ally, as well as protecting them from Clinkz's physical attacks and wasting his mana if Searing Arrows is on autocast.
* Winter's Curse allows Winter Wyvern to turn Clinkz's high damage and high attack speed against his allies, or take advantage of Clinkz's fragility if he can't use Skeleton Walk.
* Pudge,
Legion Commander and
Axe will make the match a living hell for Shadow Shaman, since they are known for surprise attacks from the fog and quickly killing low HP heroes. They can also interrupt Shadow Shaman's channeling, Legion being especially problematic, as she can use
Press the Attack on an ally who is hexed as well.
* With 4 active abilities, Shadow Shaman is weak against silencing foes such as Silencer,
Drow Ranger and
Death Prophet.
* Feast makes it impossible to for Lifestealer to be culled with Culling Blade and also deals high damage to Axe due to his naturally high health.
* However, Berserker's Call and
Counter Helix can pierce through the
Rage, and if Axe has allies with him against Lifestealer, Lifestealer may go down very quickly.
* With the exception of Magic Missile (unless the player takes the Level 25 Talent "Magic Missile Pierces Spell Immunity"), all of Vengeful Spirit's spells ignore Spell Immunity. This also makes her good against heroes with built-in Spell Immunity like Lifestealer or
Juggernaut or heroes that tend to pick up
Black King Bar, like
Sven.
* Windranger's highly mobile playstyle allows her to easily control Lifestealer from a distance, as he has no disables on his own. Windrun not only provides her with bonus move speed, but evasion as well, undoing Lifestealer's ability to attack her. In combination with
Focus Fire, Windranger can easily dispose of Lifestealer without him being able to reach her.
* Many physical-only single-target heroes like Lifestealer,
Sven,
Wraith King,
Phantom Assassin,
Templar Assassin can have their damage mitigated by Cold Embrace.
* Fragile carries with no reliable escaping mechanism can be bursted down in no time: Sniper,
Drow Ranger,
Clinkz
* Focus Fire tears apart Templar Assassin's Refraction very quickly and easily bursts her down due to her low health pool against Windranger's immense attack speed.
* Templar Assassin's Psionic Trap doesn't slow down Windranger due to Windrun. Additionally, Windranger can survive Templar Assassin's high burst damage thanks to the evasion it provides.
* Many physical-only single-target heroes like Lifestealer,
Sven,
Wraith King,
Phantom Assassin,
Templar Assassin can have their damage mitigated by Cold Embrace.
* Berserker's Call and
Counter Helix allow Axe to kill Shadow Fiend if he stands too close to a creep wave.
* Battle Hunger is can be strong against Shadow Fiend in the early game because Shadow Fiend's low attack damage makes it hard for him to get last hits if he has no mana. However, Shadowraze also makes it very easy for him to get last hits, so use with caution.
* Axe's naturally high strength and health regeneration will be enough to tank a lot of Shadow Fiend's damage in the early game.
* Ranged heroes that can easily harass Axe: Drow Ranger,
Sniper,
Lion.
* Heroes who outrange Drow Ranger such as Sniper,
Tinker.
* Axe can easily close the distance to Sniper with Blink Dagger.
* 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.
* Heroes with catch to disrupt Sniper's positioning and deliver him into the enemies: Batrider,
Disruptor,
Pudge,
Vengeful Spirit.
* Other heroes that rely on physical attacks to deal damage and not their abilities: Troll Warlord,
Sniper,
Monkey King,
Sven.
* Heroes who rely on physical damage output to be effective will fare badly against Muerta's Pierce the Veil:
Phantom Assassin,
Terrorblade,
Drow Ranger,
Lifestealer,
Anti-Mage,
Alchemist,
Lycan,
Clinkz,
Sniper.
* Most of the Axe's abilities can affect Muerta during Pierce the Veil, except for Battle Hunger which deals physical damage.
* While Muerta can do much damage to highly armored units, Axe has a larger health pool compared to Muerta and can activate Berserker's Call and
Blade Mail to turn Muerta's attack damage against her.
* Counter Helix takes advantage of Muerta's high attack speed from both stats and items.
* Heroes with high physical and magical damage alike are a huge hazard for Muerta, as they can deal serious damage to her even if she has Pierce the Veil active:
Luna,
Lina,
Tusk,
Broodmother,
Shadow Fiend,
Ember Spirit,
Gyrocopter,
Vengeful Spirit,
Arc Warden,
Medusa,
Shadow Shaman.
* Dragon Knight has no built-in disengage from Frost Arrows, and
Marksmanship procs ignore base armor, bypassing Dragon Knight’s durability for the most part, making Drow one of the few heroes that can deal enough sustained damage to solo kill Dragon Knight.
* With Aghanim's Scepter, Frost Arrows also apply hypothermia stacks, reducing her target’s regen, which is especially potent against tanks like Dragon Knight. (A similar effect can also be achieved with an
Eye of Skadi).
* Culling Blade ignores the protection from Shallow Grave and will kill any target whose health is low enough. This makes Axe one of the hardest counters to Dazzle, and he neutralizes one of Dazzle's most important abilities.
Additional:
* Culling Blade kills any target under the health threshold, even through Shallow Grave.
* Innately fragile heroes will die almost instantly to Reality Rift while Chaos Knight has illusions active: Drow Ranger,
Bane,
Necrophos,
Crystal Maiden.
Additional:
* Reality Rift will disable Drow Ranger's Marksmanship, along with
Chaos Bolt he can keep her locked for enough time to be killed.
* Heroes who relies on illusions and summons (Beastmaster,
Chaos Knight, etc.).
* Heroes with gap-closing abilities will be easy targets for Berserker's Call: Phantom Assassin,
Faceless Void,
Slark,
Chaos Knight,
Morphling,
Queen of Pain
Additional:
* Berserker's Call allows Axe to lock down Chaos Knight and his illusions even through
Black King Bar.
* Counter Helix combined with
Blade Mail clears illusions out in no time.
* As long as Windranger is able to identify the real hero among the illusions, heroes relying on them can be easily tagged with Focus Fire: Chaos Knight,
Terrorblade,
Phantom Lancer,
Naga Siren.
* Cold Embrace protects targets affected by Reality Rift.
* Winter's Curse turns Phantasm illusions against Chaos Knight or a teammate.
* Splinter Blast deals decent area damage to Phantasm illusions.
* Arctic Burn's percentage-based damage quickly wears down Chaos Knight's high max health.
Additional:
* Winter Wyvern can make Chaos Knight's illusions attack the real one, provided the player knows who it is.
* Alternatively, Winter's Curse can make Chaos Knight and all his illusions attack one of his allies.
* Cold Embrace protects ally who is focused by Chaos Knight.
* Splinter Blast deals decent area damage to Chaos Knight's illusions.
* Chaos Knight's high health pool and tendency to not build magic resistance items will make Arctic Burn deal a lot of damage to him and his illusions.
* Windrun can be used to dodge Earthshaker's abilities if Windranger has a quick reaction time.
* Focus Fire and Windrun allows Windranger to kite Earthshaker.
* A Windranger with fast fingers can prevent Earthshaker from using Fissure with Shackleshot.
* Windrun does not protect Windranger from Cursed Crown's stun or Dark Willow's magical nukes.
* Focus Fire cannot target Dark Willow in Shadow Realm and will be interrupted if targeted earlier, wasting the ultimate.
Additional:
* Windrun does not protect Windranger from Cursed Crown stun or Dark Willow's magical nukes.
* Focus Fire cannot target Dark Willow in Shadow Realm and will be interrupted if targeted earlier, wasting the ultimate.
* Berserker's Call forces Dark Willow to attack, cancelling Shadow Realm.
* Gust can hit Dark Willow beyond a defensive Bramble Maze, and before she gets close enough to hit Drow Ranger with Bedlam.
* Drow Ranger's long range allows her to hit Dark Willow's team without venturing into her Bramble Maze.
* Axe can force Alchemist to attack him with Berserker's Call. High attack speed from
Chemical Rage will cause
Counter Helix to proc multiple times.
* This can get worse if axe has Blade Mail, which then returns all damage to Alchemist himself.
* Axe's abilities can pierce through Black King Bar, which is a common item for Alchemist.
* Berserker's Call grants Axe a huge bonus armor, which greatly counters Alchemist's physical damage for the most part.
* Gust can shut down most of Dawnbreaker's abilities, rendering her useless.
* Frost Arrows followed by a high attack speed, makes it hard for Dawnbreaker to escape.
* Cold Embrace can protect allies from Lone Druid and the Spirit bear, who mainly deal physical damage
* Winter's Curse can turn Lone Druid and the Spirit Bear against his teammates.
* False Promise will not save an ally from Culling Blade if their health is low enough.
* Fate's Edict, offensively or defensively, does little to protect Oracle's allies from the majority of Axe's damage.
* 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.
* Culling Blade's instant kill is not prevented by Borrowed Time should Abaddon's health falls below the threshold.
Additional:
* Culling Blade ignores Borrowed Time should Abaddon's health falls under the threshold.
* Aphotic Shield does nothing against Berserkers Call and has to be used constantly to remove the very small mana cost of Battle Hunger in lane.
* Heroes with forced movement abilities or non-interrupting forced movement, such as Lion,
Drow Ranger,
Magnus,
Mars, as they can cancel blast-off mid air, removing his ability to initiate or escape.
* Long ranged heroes like Sniper or
Drow Ranger can kite Tiny effectively if he doesn't get the jump on them first.
* Atrophy Aura reduces Drow Ranger's damage significantly, as she relies completely on agility to be effective.
* Heroes with strong area-of-effect damaging and/or disabling abilities will be able to intercept Underlord and his team when they exit from Fiend's Gate: Luna's
Aghanim's Scepter upgraded
Eclipse,
Dawnbreaker's
Solar Guardian,
Axe's
Berserker's Call,
Mars's
Arena of Blood,
Jakiro's
Macropyre,
Dual Breath and
Ice Path,
Naga Siren's
Song of the Siren,
Razor's
Eye of the Storm and
Plasma Field,
Lina's
Light Strike Array,
Broodmother's
Spinner's Snare from
Aghanim's Scepter,
Elder Titan's
Earth Splitter and
Echo Stomp,
Alchemist's
Unstable Concoction and
Acid Spray,
Queen of Pain's
Sonic Wave,
Dark Seer's
Wall of Replica and
Vacuum,
Venomancer's
Noxious Plague and
Poison Nova from
Aghanim's Scepter,
Oracle's
Fortune's End and
Rain of Destiny from
Aghanim's Shard,
Bloodseeker's
Blood Rite,
Enigma's
Black Hole and
Midnight Pulse,
Shadow Fiend's
Requiem of Souls,
Batrider's
Aghanim's Scepter upgraded
Flaming Lasso,
Firefly,
Flamebreak and
Sticky Napalm,
Ancient Apparition's
Ice Blast,
Sand King's
Epicenter,
Sand Storm and
Burrowstrike,
Gyrocopter's
Call Down,
Ember Spirit's
Sleight of Fist,
Death Prophet's
Exorcism and
Silence,
Monkey King's
Wukong's Command,
Crystal Maiden's
Freezing Field,
Muerta's
The Calling,
Medusa's
Stone Gaze,
Zeus's
Nimbus from
Aghanim's Scepter.
Dark Willow's
Bramble Maze,
Pangolier's
Swashbuckle,
Grimstroke's
Soulbind,
Ink Swell and
Stroke of Fate,
Earthshaker's
Echo Slam and
Fissure,
Puck's
Dream Coil and
Waning Rift,
Winter Wyvern's
Winter's Curse,
Magnus's
Reverse Polarity.
* Winter's Curse and
Splinter Blast can devastate Underlord's team when they are grouped up for the teleportation with
Fiend's Gate.
* Cold Embrace can be used to heal Winter Wyvern's allies, and protect them from the attack damage from
Atrophy Aura. Bear in mind, however, that the heroes affected by
Cold Embrace are easy targets for
Firestorm and
Pit of Malice.
* Morphling can use Waveform to close the gap between him and Drow Ranger, but should be careful of Gust and
Frost Arrows.
* Morphling is a natural Manta Style carrier, which dispels the silence from Gust.
* All abilities for Morphling can easily escape fear Focus Fire.
* Windranger weakness for agility can easily Morphling destroy against her.
Additional:
* Waveform can be used to escape from the reach of
Focus Fire and to dodge
Powershot.
* Adaptive Strike (Strength) can be used to stun Windranger even while
Windrun is active.
* Morph is useful to morph into Windranger to copy her abilities.
* Jumping on Axe with Waveform will make Morphling an easy target for a counter-initiation with Berserker's Call.
* Morphling is often played at low health to maximize the bonuses from Attribute Shift (Agility Gain), and also because his abilities cost health to use. This makes him especially vulnerable to Culling Blade.
* However, Morphling is a common Linken's Sphere carrier to block Culling Blade, which may force Axe to use Battle Hunger to pop the Spell Block first.
* Attribute Shift (Agility Gain) gives Morphling no protection against the pure damage of Culling Blade. Its attack speed bonus also means that Counter Helix will proc more often.
* Attribute Shift (Strength Gain) may not be quick enough to fend off an attacking Drow Ranger.
* Morphling likes to sit on low health with high agility, something Drow Ranger does not particularly care for and will still hit him hard with Marksmanship procs.
* Morph is a similar story, none of Drow Ranger's spells are particularly good against her.
* Winter Wyvern's
Winter's Curse turns Morphling's high attack damage and attack speed against his targeted teammate.
* Many physical-only single-target heroes like Lifestealer,
Sven,
Wraith King,
Phantom Assassin,
Templar Assassin can have their damage mitigated by Cold Embrace.
* Winter Wyvern's
Winter's Curse works very well against the increased attack speed from Bloodlust.
* Drow Ranger's lack of mobility and area-of-effect abilities makes her easy prey for Broodmother and her Spiderlings.
* Berserker's Call can catch Broodmother in her web, as well as groups of spiderlings. This is particularly effective when Broodmother attempts to push towers with her spiderlings.
* Counter Helix destroys spiderlings very quickly and earns Axe a good deal of gold.
Additional:
* Berserker's Call forces Broodmother and her spiderlings to attack, allowing for large amounts of pure damage to be done through
Counter Helix.
* Broodmother,
Nature's Prophet,
Phantom Lancer by their nature offer very good target for Splinter Blast and Winter's Curse.
* Drow Ranger's lack of escape abilities makes her an easy target for Relocate ganks.
* Heroes that are hard to gank: Axe,
Death Prophet,
Phantom Lancer,
Slark,
Centaur Warrunner,
Bristleback,
Medusa,
Mars.
* Cold Embrace can render the extra attack speed from
Overcharge meaningless.
* Splinter Blast and
Winter's Curse are very affective against Io, as it has to stay close to his
Tethered target.
* Lich is heavily reliant on his abilities to contribute to team fights, so be wary of enemies that can Silence: Bloodseeker,
Death Prophet,
Silencer,
Drow Ranger,
Skywrath Mage.
* Range-reliant heroes: Sniper,
Drow Ranger
* Windrun's speed allows easy pursuit or escape, while the evasion greatly reduces the threat of Enchantress's Impetus, especially when retreating.
* Shackleshot is a powerful disable if Enchantress gets too close to one of her own minions.
* Focus Fire can negate
Untouchable.
* Windranger heavily relies on her abilities for any form of tactical advantage and damage. A well timed silence will make her useless: Puck,
Silencer,
Death Prophet,
Skywrath Mage,
Drow Ranger,
Earth Spirit,
Grimstroke.
* Nether Swap breaks one ally out of Soulbind, and can be used to redistribute the shared damage to Vengeful Spirit herself.
* Marci can be effective against vulnerable squishy heroes that cannot deal with heroes that jump onto them - Sniper,
Drow Ranger,
Lina,
Rubick, etc.
* Unleash ensures that Axe's Counter Helix procs many times, even if he is stunned by Dispose.
* Aghanim's Shard allows Counter Helix to reduce the attack damage of anyone it strikes. Combined with Unleash causing to proc frequently, Marci will not be dealing significant damage as she attacks Axe over time.
* Axe doesn't worry about the damage from Unleash if he activates Berserker's Call beforehand. If he had activated
Blade Mail or
Mjollnir (or even both) as Marci attacks him, he will turn Unleash's high attack speed and damage against her.
* Usually, Axe would prefer to jump on his opponent to be more effective. Rebound does Axe a favor, bringing Marci within his most effective range.
* Time Walk can be used to close the distance within Drow Ranger, hindering her Marksmanship bonus.
* Faceless Void can also lock down Drow Ranger with Chronosphere before she has the chance to retaliate due to her low health pool.
* Time Dilation while renders Windrun movement speed useless slow.
* Time Walk fast cooldown can escaping avoided to Focus Fire. Additionally, Time Walk can dodge to Powershot
* Chronosphere trap can attacking Windranger can not escaping with Windrun.
Additional:
* Time Dilation affects Windranger's low cooldown abilities, making them unusable for a long time, reducing Windranger's escape potential.
* The high mobility provided by Time Walk makes it hard for Windranger to find a good position to land Shackleshot or a full duration of Focus Fire.
* Chronosphere provides excellent lockdown against Windranger, allowing for reliable kills in all stages of the game.
* Faceless Void tends to go for items that require Javelin, such as
Maelstrom,
Mjollnir and
Monkey King Bar, allowing him to bypass the evasion from Windrun.
* Heroes with gap-closing abilities will be easy targets for Berserker's Call: Phantom Assassin,
Faceless Void,
Slark,
Chaos Knight,
Morphling,
Queen of Pain
* Nether Swap can save an ally from the Chronosphere.
Additional:
* With her Nether Swap, a well positioned Vengeful Spirit can save the life of a more important ally who gets caught in Chronosphere.
* Any hero that can nullify effects of Chronosphere: (Keeper of the Light with
Aghanim's Scepter during daytime,
Winter Wyvern), banishing him or Faceless Void (
Outworld Destroyer,
Shadow Demon,
Earth Spirit with
Aghanim's Scepter) or protecting him in other ways (
Dazzle,
Oracle,
Abaddon) can greatly limit Chronosphere's potential.
* Phantom Rush lets Phantom Lancer get close quickly and disable Marksmanship.
* As Phantom Lancer commonly buys Manta Style, he can easily dispel Gust and then chase after Drow Ranger.
* Because Phantom Lancer is a natural Diffusal Blade carrier, he can easily burn Drow Ranger's mana and render her unable to use Frost Arrow and Gust to save herself.
* Vengeful Spirit has no strong AoE nuke or disable against Phantom Lancer's Illusions.
* Phantom Lancer is a natural Diffusal Blade carrier, which reduces Vengeful Spirit's low mana pool very quickly, leaving her defenseless.
* Doppelganger can dodge Vengeful Spirit's abilites.
* Phantom Rush with his illusions can chase Vengeful Spirit efficiently.
* Berserker's Call catches Phantom Lancer when he is hidden among his illusions.
* Counter Helix quickly destroys Phantom Lancer's illusion army. The more illusions there are, the more often Counter Helix is triggered.
* Phantom Lancer's low early game health makes him an easy target for Culling Blade.
Additional:
* Berserker's Call helps locking down Phantom Lancer in a group of illusions.
* Counter Helix combined with
Blade Mail clears Phantom Lancer's illusions quickly.
* Phantom Lancer's low health in the early game makes him a frequent target for Culling Blade.
* As long as Windranger is able to identify the real hero among the illusions, heroes relying on them can be easily tagged with Focus Fire: Chaos Knight,
Terrorblade,
Phantom Lancer,
Naga Siren.
* Broodmother,
Nature's Prophet,
Phantom Lancer by their nature offer very good target for Splinter Blast and Winter's Curse.
* Mirana can use Leap to jump right next to Drow Ranger or can approach her while under cover of the invisibility granted by Moonlight Shadow, which cancels the bonus granted to Drow Ranger by Marksmanship.
* Her low health makes her easy to burst down with Mirana's spells, especially with Aghanim's Scepter.
* Mirana can dodge Gust with good reaction time, or Leap away if Drow tries to slow her without Gust.
* Windrun quickly dodge Mirana's Sacred Arrow and misses her attacks.
* Shackleshot through tree with
Focus Fire via
Aghanim's Scepter combo can kill Mirana quickly, before using Leap or Moonlight Shadow.
* As long as Mars is facing her with Bulwark, even if pushed away with Gust, Drow Ranger will do no effectual damage against him. Mars' ability to endure her onslaught usually gives him enough time to cast Arena of Blood, of which she has a very slim chance surviving without Gust.
* With Bulwark's active ability, Mars can protect allies pursued by Drow Ranger by redirecting her projectiles to his shield instead.
* Berserker's Call forces Mars to face in the direction choosen.
* Counter Helix deals pure damage and can go through Bulwark.
* Magic Missile is a solid damage source and lockdown that fits nicely with Rubick's kit.
* Rubick also acquires the secondary Magic Missile with
Aghanim's Shard.
* Wave of Terror can be used to scout an area to prevent juking or initiate with
Telekinesis, as well as reducing the armor of enemy team during a teamfight.
* Nether Swap does what it does - saving an ally from danger, initiating on an enemy, or helping with caughting a fleeing hero.
* With Aghanim's Shard, Rubick can lift himself up and drop quickly to a place of safety after the swap. Note that Rubick can only choose to either disable the enemy or save himself at one time with
Telekinesis.
Additional:
* All of Vengeful Spirit abilities are very good for Rubick to Spell Steal:
* Magic Missile provides an additional nuke/disable to pair with Fade Bolt and
Telekinesis, respectively.
* Wave of Terror serves as a good scouting/armor reduction skill that Rubick and his team can benefit from.
* Nether Swap complements Rubick's mobility and pairs well with other mobility items he usually builds. He can also use it to save an ally from danger.
* A well-timed Gust will prevent Rubick from casting abilities from Spell Steal, and his lack of capabilities and low health pool usually dies very quickly.
* Drow Ranger can dispel Fade Bolt's reduction debuff with
Manta Style.
* Meat Hook brings Drow Ranger to Pudge, disabling Marksmanship and dealing a huge amount of damage when combined with
Rot and
Dismember.
* Rot keeps Pudge close to Drow Ranger, continuously disabling Marksmanship.
Additional:
* Meat Hook can pull Drow Ranger to Pudge, disabling her Marksmanship.
* Following up with Dismember will prevent Drow Ranger from using Gust or
Shadow Blade.
* Pudge relies on his hook to initiate his combo. As long as she's able to avoid the hook with Windrun and shackle him, Windranger can take him down easily. Pudge's low armor means that he won't be able to endure Focus Fire for long.
* Shapeshift allows Lycan to get close and disable Marksmanship.
* Shapeshift also makes him immune to slows like Drow Ranger's Frost Arrows.
Additional:
* The Wolves's speed causes the knockback from Gust to be ineffective.
* Drow Ranger lacks escapes and loses her Marksmanship when someone is near her. Lycan can take advantage of these weaknesses of Drow Ranger.
* Windranger tends to fare badly against high mobility heroes that can easily dodge Powershot, close the gap on her when she uses Windrun or escape from Focus Fire's reach. Examples of such heroes include Spirit Breaker,
Lycan,
Storm Spirit,
Earth Spirit,
Void Spirit,
Slark and others.
* Melee heroes who rely on summons, illusions, or clones will trigger Counter Helix more often, thus taking more damage: Meepo,
Lycan,
Phantom Lancer
Additional:
* Berserker's Call can keep Lycan in place during his Shapeshift even through
Black King Bar.
* Counter Helix is very effective against Lycan because of his summons.
* Culling Blade will prevent Lycan from running away with Shapeshift when he drops low.
* Arctic Burn allows Winter Wyvern to escape Lycan, even when he uses his ultimate.
* Splinter Blast is very effective in dealing with Lycan's summons.
* Cold Embrace saves allies from Lycan's raw physical damage and can buy allies enough time to turn the tide of battle.
* Winter's Curse stops Lycan in his tracks and is very effective because of his summons.
Additional:
* All of Lycan's damage is physical which is totally negated by Cold Embrace.
* Lycan often moves around with large amount of creeps, wolves created by Summon Wolves and neutral creep dominated by
Helm of the Dominator which can be easily cleared by Splinter Blast or used as a great source of damage by Winter's Curse. If you catch Lycan with creeps nearby and affected by
Shapeshift using Winter's Curse on him will most certainly end up with his death.
* Past the mid game, an isolated Vengeful Spirit makes for an easy kill for Anti-Mage.
* Magic Missile is the only disable Vengeful Spirit has against Anti-Mage, but he can either Blink away to disjoint the stun or reflect it back against Vengeful Spirit with
Counterspell.
* Nether Swap isn't very effective against Anti-Mage - if used offensively, Anti-Mage can simply blink away to safety, and if used defensively, Blink's low cooldown allows him to persistently chase as well.
* Counterspell can reflects triggering with Focus Fire. Since Focus Fire target against Anti-Mage, Focus Fire damage can return to Anti-Mage easily destroy to Windranger's.
* Anti-Mage items Abyssal Blade and
Monkey King Bar can useful for Anti-Mage's and easily complicated escaping Windranger's fighting against Anti-Mage's and also bypasses to Windrun evasion.
Additional:
* Counterspell can reflect Windranger's targeted spells such as
Shackleshot and
Focus Fire back to her.
* Blink can be used to avoid
Shackleshot and
Powershot, assuming an Anti-Mage player can react fast enough.
* Mana Break and
Mana Void are good against Windranger's high mana pool.
* Berserker's Call prevents Anti-Mage from escaping with Blink, and works well with
Blade Mail against Anti-Mage's relatively low health.
* Counter Helix often triggers even if Axe's depleted of mana, which will make Anti-Mage take more damage than he's dealing and deals pure damage, ignoring the protection from Counterspell.
* Axe's low mana pool makes him a bad target for using Mana Void.
* Axe's high base health regeneration allows him to dominate the lane against Anti-Mage, especially with a support.
Additional:
* Berserker's Call is one of the most reliable ways to lock down Anti-Mage, preventing him from Blinking away.
* Anti-Mage's high attack speed, along with illusions from Manta Style, triggers Counter Helix continuously.
* Axe's low mana pool and high health pool make Mana Void deal very little damage to Axe.
* None of Anti-Mage's skills are that effective against Drow Ranger. Gust prevents him from Blinking in or out,
Counterspell is totally useless against Drow's physical damage, and as she usually doesn't have a high mana pool,
Mana Break and
Mana Void don't do much either.
* Be careful however that Anti-Mage may eventually farm enough to Blink on top of you and kill you straight away, considering you have no natural tools to escape from him.
* Mana Shield reduces the effectiveness of Counter Helix.
* Stone Gaze makes it very difficult for Axe to initiate on Medusa and her allies.
* Axe can take advantage of Medusa's awfully low HP to insta-kill her with Culling Blade, making it extremely difficult for her to farm for items to compensate for the lack of strength during early and mid-game while Axe is continuously harassing around.
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Axe
* Omniknight's healing prevents allies from dropping low enough for
Culling Blade
Heavenly Grace dispels
Battle Hunger.
Counter Helix, which can easily be punished by Purification.
*
* Axe also tends to get close to allied heroes in order to damage them with his
Drow Ranger
*
Repel can be used to dispel
Gust on the allies affected by it.
Guardian Angel renders Drow Ranger's physical damage useless, and Drow Ranger has no way to purge it. And to make thing worse, Drow Ranger is not a common
Nullifier wielder to counter this problem at all.
* In team fights,
Winter Wyvern
* Guardian Angel completely counters
Winter's Curse if Omniknight is able to cast it.
Guardian Angel completely counters Winter's Curse, allowing his team to survive Winter Wyvern's initiation.
Purification and
Repel are very useful against Arctic Burn, Splinter Blast and Winter's Curse as well.
Additional:
*
*