*
Guardian Angel's near invulnerability denies Bloodseeker the bonuses from Thirst, preventing him from gaining the upper hand in teamfights.
*
Purification's pure damage makes it hard for Bloodseeker to pursue enemies, and prevents him from replenishing his health by finishing off enemies.
*
Phantasms can be easily killed with Purification.
* Heavenly Grace dispels the stun from
Chaos Bolt and the armor reduction from
Reality Rift.
* Guardian Angel works well against Chaos Knight's overwhelming reliance on physical burst damage.
Additional:
*
Purification heals a teammate targeted by Reality Rift and heavily damages Chaos Knight and his illusions in the process.
*
Guardian Angel blocks all of Chaos Knight's damage for a long duration.
* Voodoo Restoration heals to counter Bloodseeker's
Thirst.
*
Rupture is generally useless against Witch Doctor while he is staying on Death Ward.
* Although Witch Doctor needs to be careful as
Blood Rite can interrupt Death Ward.
*
Maledict cannot be dispelled by Phantasm, and can be used to tag the real Chaos Knight hiding within his illusions.
* If Witch Doctor has an
Aghanim's Scepter,
Death Ward will bounce between Chaos Knight's illusions, destroying them quickly.
* However,
Death Ward is easily interrupted by Chaos Bolt until Witch Doctor buys
Glimmer Cape or
Black King Bar.
*
Fire Remnant allows Ember Spirit to escape while Ruptured.
Additional:
* Fire Remnant allows Ember Spirit to escape Bloodseeker while
Ruptured.
* Heroes with strong area damage to destroy Phantasm illusions:
Axe,
Ember Spirit,
Legion Commander,
Phoenix
Additional:
* Ember Spirit is evasive and can dodge close encounters with melee heroes like Chaos Knight. Ember Spirit can't be caught with the slow from
Reality Rift, and Flame Guard and Sleight of Fist can bring
Phantasm's illusions down quickly.
* Heroes with high armor and durability can be exceptionally hard for Bloodseeker to bring down:
Dragon Knight,
Axe
Additional:
* Bloodseeker's physical damage is unlikely to kill Dragon Knight, and therefore rarely get a chance to recover the large amount of HP from
Bloodrage.
*
Dragon Blood's armor bonus greatly reduces the damage dealt by Phantasm.
*
Breathe Fire and
Elder Dragon Form's splash damage quickly destroy illusions and reduces their damage output.
*
Laser blinds Bloodseeker, preventing him from getting last hits and denies during the laning stage and preventing him from finishing off enemies.
* Tinker always buys
Boots of Travel, helping him escape Bloodseeker's early ganks.
* Tinker's heavy magical damage will burst down Bloodseeker during the early to mid game, as he has little health.
Additional:
* Laser can be very effective against
Bloodrage as the damage will be amplified while the blind prevents Bloodseeker from landing hits.
*
Keen Conveyance guarantees him escape from Rupture.
* With
Aghanim's Scepter, Tinker's Laser completely stops Chaos Knight's damage, forcing him to buy either a Black King Bar for his own survivability while leaving his illusions still vulnerable, or a Monkey King Bar leaving him still vulnerable to Tinker's nukes, though improving his damage.
* Tinker rarely finds himself in the middle of a fight, which is where Chaos Knight typically thrives, and even in the rare cases of being so, at level 3 Tinker's constant rearm and blink away can kite and dodge Chaos Knight's spells reliably, so Chaos Knight has very little catch against Tinker's mobility. This gives Tinker impunity to create more chaos in a teamfight than Chaos Knight can control, laying down the field with March of the Machines and constantly being hit by rockets and lasers.
* Illusion heroes, such as
Naga Siren,
Phantom Lancer,
Chaos Knight,
Terrorblade will become strong against Tinker in the late game. Without
Aghanim's Scepter Tinker is forced to defensively disarm heroes with Laser, leaving illusions free to deal physical damage which Tinker's low armor makes highly effective. In addition,
Mjollnir or
Battle Fury, two common pickups against illusion heroes, don't work well on Tinker at all.
* Heroes with high armor and durability can be exceptionally hard for Bloodseeker to bring down:
Dragon Knight,
Axe
* 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.
* Any Hero with high mobility will be neutralized by dream coil:
Queen of Pain,
Storm Spirit,
Ember Spirit,
Lycan,
Bloodseeker,
Anti-Mage,
Timbersaw.
* Puck's area of effect nukes in the form of
Illusory Orb and
Waning Rift clears Phantasm illusions from the early game to mid game.
*
Phase Shift can be used to disjoint Chaos Bolt.
* Heroes who are strong against mobile heroes:
Disruptor,
Bloodseeker,
Kunkka,
Keeper of the Light.
* Quill Spray quickly destroys Chaos Knight's
Phantasms.
*
Mana Shield makes it very difficult for Bloodseeker to gain his Thirst bonuses.
* Rupture rarely kills Medusa through
Mana Shield.
* Arena Of Blood prevents Bloodseeker from attacking a
Ruptured target.
* Bulwark helps Mars survive
Rupture ganks simply by turning towards Bloodseeker without moving.
* Spear of Mars and God's Rebuke can push Bloodseeker from Ruptured targets.
* Storm's Dispel Magic combined with Thunder Clap deals high damage against Chaos Knight's illusions even in the late game.
* Chaos Knight's reliance on physical damage is easily hindered by Drunken Brawler.
* Chaos Knight's lack of area effect and mobility makes him easily overwhelmed by Primal Split.
Additional:
*
Dispel Magic from {U:Storm} can instantly kill Phantasms early on, and can still deal a lot of damage to them late game, revealing the real Chaos Knight.
* Tidebringer, Torrent and Ghostship destroys Chaos Knight's
Phantasm army all through the game.
* Techies has great area of effect damage to deal with
Phantasm illusions.
* Blast Off silences Chaos Knight, stopping him from using his disables and allowing his teammates to walk away from his heavy damage.
* Reactive Tazer will disarm all of Chaos Knight's illusions even if he has activated his
Black King Bar.
* Bramble Maze greatly hinders Bloodseeker's ability to run around in teamfights and pick off dying allies.
* Shadow Realm prevents Bloodseeker from attacking dark Willow, allowing her to safely teleport away.
*
Shallow Grave prevents Bloodseeker from replenishing his health by finishing off enemies.
* Once he buys
Aghanim's Shard, Dazzle's
Poison Touch can hex enemies, and hex can instantly kill illusions, making Dazzle strong against heroes who rely on illusions. Bear in mind that
Chaos Knight is the exception because his
Phantasms are strong illusions that are immune to abilities that can instantly kill illusions.
*
Bloodseeker's
Thirst,
Rupture, and huge AoE silence
Blood Rite can fare well against Dazzle.
* Damage reduction from
Atrophy Aura prevents Bloodseeker from killing targets and gaining his Thirst bonuses.
*
Pit of Malice's area of effect catches Bloodseeker easily, negating his speed bonus during teamfights.
*
Dark Rift allows Underlord to transport Ruptured allies to the fountain, rendering it useless.
* Heroes who are entirely reliant on dealing physical damage and/or have very little to no area-of-effect abilities will make Underlord tickle and will have no effect against him thanks to his
Atrophy Aura, and will also be unable to ambush Underlord and his team if Underlord chooses to use
Fiend's Gate to get to a designated point of the map:
Phantom Assassin,
Terrorblade,
Troll Warlord,
Drow Ranger,
Phantom Lancer,
Chaos Knight,
Sven,
Wraith King,
Bounty Hunter,
Alchemist,
Templar Assassin,
Nyx Assassin,
Bane.
* 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.
* Echo Slam's damage potential increases due to Chaos Knight's
Phantasm illusions.
Additional:
*
Echo Slam will deal a colossal amount of damage to your Phantasms, as will
Fissure at lower levels.
* The area stuns from
Aftershock will always stun Chaos Knight's illusions, since they can't use
Black King Bar.
* However, Earthshaker should not attempt to fight a farmed Chaos Knight, since he will be completely obliterated by Chaos Knight's colossal damage output, even if he managed to land an
Echo Slam
* Storm Spirit is invulnerable during
Ball Lightning, allowing him to zip away from any ganking attempts with Rupture.
*
Ball Lightning also prevents Bloodseeker from chasing down an injured Storm Spirit, or catching him in Blood Rite.
Additional:
* Storm Spirit is invulnerable during
Ball Lightning, rendering
Rupture ineffective against him.
*
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.
*
Untouchable makes all of Chaos Knight's attacks slow therefore he is unable to deal damage, especially his critical damage of
Chaos Strike, also enables Enchantress to escape easily from his attacks.
* However,
Reality Rift can still pose a danger to Enchantress because Chaos Knight can decrease a good amount of armor, making it dangerous because of her little armor stat, as he can burst down Enchantress easily if any of Chaos Knight's allies can apply a break on Enchantress.
Additional:
*
Untouchable will significantly slow down Chaos Knight's physical damage with Phantasm.
*
Impetus deals double damage to illusions, making it effective against Phantasm.
*
Great Cleave is very effective against Chaos Knight's illusions.
*
Storm Hammer's radius can catch all of Chaos Knight's illusions at once, especially after
Reality Rift.
*
Warcry shields Sven and his teammates against Chaos Knight's physical damage output.
Additional:
*
Storm Hammer's faster projectile speed and cast time allows Sven to stun Chaos Knight and his illusions before he can cast Chaos Bolt.
*
Warcry's armor bonus counteracts Reality Rift's debuff and reduces Chaos Knight's damage output.
*
Great Cleave and
God's Strength devastates Phantasm illusions.
*
Ravage damages and disables Chaos Knight and his illusions.
*
Anchor Smash deals respectable area damage, especially to Phantasms and lowers Chaos Knight's damage output.
*
Kraken Shell dispels Chaos Bolt and Reality Rift while providing protection from damage.
* Flak Cannon destroys Chaos Knight's illusions very quickly.
* Snowball negates
Rupture and protects Tusk allies when Ruptured.
* Heroes with illusion and clone abilities may confuse Bloodseeker, causing him to waste time in fights:
Phantom Lancer,
Chaos Knight,
Arc Warden
* Chaos Knight's single target abilities are difficult to target against Phantom Lancer's illusions.
* Chaos Knight's lack of mobility makes him an easy target for Phantom Lancer to
Phantom Rush and drain his already low mana pool.
Additional:
*
Juxtapose allows Phantom Lancer to overwhelm Chaos Knight due to his single-target abilities.
* Phantom Lancer often builds a
Manta Style, which can be used to disjoint Chaos Bolt or dispel Reality Rift.
*
Doppelganger can be used to dodge Chaos Bolt.
*
Diffusal Blade, another common item on Phantom Lancer, can quickly drain Chaos Knight's low mana pool, leaving him unable to cast spells.
*
Bloodseeker's
Rupture shows a clear red trail effect on the real Phantom Lancer.
* Heroes with undispellable debuffs will help identify the real Phantom Lancer through visual effects or debuff indicators, provided that it was cast on the real Phantom Lancer to begin with:
*
Doom's
Doom marks Phantom Lancer with a highly visible effect, and also silences and mutes him.
*
Bloodseeker's
Rupture shows a clear red trail effect on the real Phantom Lancer.
*
Ancient Apparition's
Ice Blast will only debuff Phantom Lancer and not his illusions.
*
Grimstroke's
Soulbind is undispellable.
*
Shadow Demon's
Demonic Purge is undispellable.
*
Monkey King's
Jingu Mastery is undispellable and puts a big yellow Mark over his head.
*
Waveform ignores Rupture's damage, letting Morphling escape unharmed.
*
Attribute Shift (Strength Gain) makes it very hard for Bloodseeker to kill Morphling or gain his Thirst bonuses, since Morphling can use it to sustain damage while trading attacks when Ruptured.
* Morphling usually builds
Linken's Sphere, which blocks Rupture.
Additional:
* Morphling can escape from
Rupture using Waveform.
* Morphling is a typical
Manta Style carrier, which can be used to dispel the silence from
Blood Rite.
* Illusion-based and multi-unit heroes can take advantage of Chaos Knight's lack of area damage:
Naga Siren,
Phantom Lancer,
Broodmother
* Most Illusion based heroes (like
Chaos Knight and
Terrorblade) can't use their illusion beneficially against Sanity's Eclipse's high AoE burst damage.
* Because of his massive AoE damage, Sand King is very effective against illusion heroes:
Chaos Knight,
Phantom Lancer,
Terrorblade,
Naga Siren.
Additional:
* Sand King's massive area damage output, particularly
Epicenter, allows him to quickly take down Chaos Knight and his illusions.
* Sand King can also apply
Caustic Finale to illusions with attacks for extra damage when they die.
* Heroes who are reliant on illusions or summons:
Chaos Knight,
Broodmother,
Naga Siren.
* Heroes with strong area damage to destroy Phantasm illusions:
Axe,
Ember Spirit,
Legion Commander,
Phoenix
* Heroes with disables that go through spell immunity can end Bloodseeker before he has the chance to do anything:
Batrider,
Beastmaster
* Heroes who are reliant on illusions:
Chaos Knight,
Phantom Lancer,
Naga Siren.
* Heroes with area heals prevents Bloodseeker from bringing enemies low, and therefore deny him his Thirst bonuses and health return:
Necrophos,
Dazzle
* Heroes that have high health but little to no magic resistance are easy prey for Necrophos, as no matter how high they build their health up, Reaper's Scythe will kill them outright as long as they fall under a certain threshold, and Heartstopper Aura will deal the same amount of damage regardless, decaying their health the longer they stay within range. As such, Strength heroes like
Chaos Knight,
Centaur Warrunner or
Magnus are good targets for his ultimate.
* Illusions make it difficult for Necrophos to target his Reaper's Scythe correctly, thus giving illusion heroes like
Chaos Knight or
Naga Siren an edge against Necrophos.
* Heroes reliant on illusions or summons:
Broodmother,
Chaos Knight,
Naga Siren.
* With his AoE damage, Jakiro can easily kill Chaos Knight's
Phantasm illusions.
* Chaos Knight usually doesn't buy a
Black King Bar, making him vulnerable to an Ice Path into Macropyre combination.
Additional:
* With his AoE damage, Jakiro can easily kill Chaos Knight's
Phantasm illusions.
* Chaos Knight usually doesn't buy a
Black King Bar, making him vulnerable to an Ice Path into Macropyre combination.
* Heroes with good mobility to avoid Jakiro's abilities and with good chase to punish Jakiro from pushing a tower:
Bloodseeker,
Ember Spirit,
Juggernaut,
Phantom Assassin,
Weaver.
*
Berserker's Rage will repeatedly trap Bloodseeker in a one-on-one fight.
*
Whirling Axes (Melee) blinds Bloodseeker, causing him to miss 60% of the time, and therefore reduces his ability to gain the upper hand in teamfights.
* Phantasm gives Chaos Knight a significant advantage against single-target damage dealers:
Lifestealer,
Wraith King,
Night Stalker,
Troll Warlord.
Additional:
* Chaos Knight's tanky illusions easily take advantage of Troll Warlord's lack of AoE damage.
*
Chaos Bolt can stun Troll for up to 4 seconds and
Reality Rift prevents Troll Warlord from chasing down foes.
*
Phantasm increases Chaos Knight's physical damage output up to 4 times and can easily kill Troll Warlord before he has a chance to use Battle Trance or a
Black King Bar.
*
Wukong's Command and
Boundless Strike combo can easily cause havoc on Chaos Knight by destroying all of his powerful illusions.
* Chaos Knight without Phantasm cannot deal with
Jingu Mastery at all.
* Heroes that can maintain vision on Monkey King can see when he uses Tree Dance:
Bloodseeker,
Treant Protector with Eyes In The Forest,
Sniper,
Weaver
* Huskar is often at low health, providing large Thirst bonuses.
*
Life Break triggers Rupture's damage.
Additional:
* Huskar is often at low health, providing large
Thirst bonuses to Bloodseeker.
* Life Break can trigger
Rupture's damage.
* A self applied
Bloodrage together with Blademail means it's almost suicidal for Huskar to jump on Bloodseeker with Life Break
*
Chaos Bolt can stun Huskar when he jump in with
Life break, giving 4 seconds maximum for Chaos Knight to deliver a beatdown.
*
Reality Rift further reduces Huskar's low armor, boosting Chaos Knight's damage even more.
*
Berserker's Blood offer no protection against
Chaos Strike, which deal physical damage.
*
Phantasm can be used to dispel the disarm from
Inner Fire.
* Although Huskar can use this to disarm the illusion instead, buying himself some times.
Additional:
* Huskar's low armor and movement speed make an easy target for Chaos Knight to initiate on with
Reality Rift and
Chaos Bolt.
* Other than
Inner Fire, Huskar has no reliable area of effect ability to clear Phantasm illusions.
* Huskar likes to stay at low health to benefit from his
Berserker's Blood, thus making him vulnerable to Chaos Knight's high burst physical damage.
* Bloodseeker is one of the hardest counters to Slark.Thirst prevents Slark from healing in lane with
Shadow Dance and may set him up for a kill while in the jungle,or retreating.
* Rupture will deal damage during
Pounce.
*
Dark Pact cannot dispel Rupture, preventing Slark from escaping ganks.
Additional:
*
Thirst stops Shadow Dance's passive health regeneration if Slark's current health is below the Thirst's visibility threshold.
*
Rupture effectively diminishes Slark's mobility in battle, leaving him susceptible to AoE stuns or forcing to teleport out of the fight.
*
Dark Pact is minimally effective against Phantasm illusions, and Slark lacks area damage otherwise.
*
Pounce can be counteracted by Reality Rift.
* Slark is naturally frail and dies quickly to Chaos Knight's burst damage before he can build
Essence Shift stacks.
* Be aware, however, that
Shadow Dance can make Slark hard to kill as he can't be targeted during its duration.
Additional:
*
Phantasms have enough health to survive Dark Pact, and Slark has no other source of AoE damage to deal with them.
* Sniper's lack of mobility and escape mechanisms makes him one of the easier heroes for Bloodseeker to gank.
* Sniper is very fragile and has low movement speed, making an exceptionally easy target for Chaos Knight to initiate on.
* Sniper has no innate ability to deal with
Phantasm or escape a
Reality Rift and
Chaos Bolt combo.
* In most cases, Sniper likes to stay far in the backline to deal damage, thus he is vulnerable if Chaos Knight manages to jump on him in the back line, which will usually spell a quick end for Sniper.
* Heroes with invisibility will be detected by Thirst when they have low enough health:
Bounty Hunter,
Templar Assassin,
Riki,
Clinkz,
Weaver,
Treant Protector,
Nyx Assassin.
* A strong illusion
Phantasm) from Chaos Knight can cleared from her's
Refraction. Additionally, natural items
Manta Style can dispell silence Psionic Trap from Aghanim's Shard.
*
Nether Swap triggers extra damage from Rupture.
* Blood Rite sets up while Vengeful Spirit using her
Nether Swap within a timed correctly.
* Heroes who relies on illusions and summons (
Beastmaster,
Chaos Knight, etc.).
* Heroes with silences :
Bloodseeker,
Riki,
Silencer.
* Phantasm removes
Glimpse and dispels
Thunder Strike. Additionally, the Phantasm illusions make it difficult to use Glimpse and Thunder Strike on the real Chaos Knight.
* Disruptor's lack of mobility, combined with his lack of innate defense, sets him up for a Reality Rift and a beatdown by Chaos Knight and his illusions.
*
Thirst allows Bloodseeker to see where Io relocated to, should either Io or the tethered hero have low health.
*
Rupture forces Io to stay in place, preventing it from using the Tether bonus movement speed to escape.
* Heroes with both illusions and summons, for Io has nothing to deal with multiple enemies at once outside from Spirits's weak area-of-effect:
Beastmaster,
Broodmother,
Chaos Knight,
Lycan,
Naga Siren,
Nature's Prophet,
Phantom Lancer,
Shadow Shaman,
Terrorblade,
Visage,
Warlock,
Wraith King.
* 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.
* Chaos Knight's high health pool makes him resistant to Zeus' burst damage.
Phantasm can dispel
Veil of Discord, a typical item purchased by Zeus.
* Zeus is easily overwhelmed by Chaos Knight's strong illusions, as Arc Lightning is not enough to kill them fast enough to have any impact.
* Zeus' low base armor makes him extremely vulnerable to Chaos Knight's high damage output and armor reduction.
*
Bloodseeker's
Rupture turns Night Stalker mobility against him and
Thirst grants movement speed bonus and vision prevents Night Stalker from initiating and re-initiating.
*
Chaos Bolt can stun Night Stalker outside of Crippling Fears relatively small radius.
*
Reality Rift is a great way to force Night Stalker to fight Chaos Knight, a hero with massive health and damage output. It also forces Night Stalker's Crippling Fear off his primary target.
* Night Stalker doesn't have a lot of ways to deal with multiple targets, which makes him vulnerable to
Phantasm illusions unless Night Stalker buys
Aghanim's Scepter.
* Heroes with invisibility will be detected by Thirst when they have low enough health:
Bounty Hunter,
Templar Assassin,
Riki,
Clinkz,
Weaver,
Treant Protector,
Nyx Assassin.
Additional:
*
Rupture can turn Bounty Hunter's mobility against him, and prevents him from escaping with Shadow Walk due to the potentially heavy damage.
*
Thirst can prevent Bounty Hunter from escaping with Shadow Walk should Bounty Hunter's health become low enough, as it provides True Sight.
* Phantasm dispels
Track, and the illusions make it difficult to Track the real Chaos Knight.
* Bounty Hunter is fragile and can easily be killed by Chaos Knight and Phantasm's illusions.
* Heroes with gap-closing abilities who attempt to use them for escaping Bloodseeker will suffer serious damage from Rupture:
Phantom Assassin,
Anti-Mage,
Faceless Void,
Riki,
Slark,
Spirit Breaker.
* Heroes with illusions and summons can be hard for Phantom Assassin to deal with, as she lacks any AoE abilities to deal with them without items:
Broodmother,
Phantom Lancer,
Chaos Knight,
Lycan,
Naga Siren,
Shadow Shaman,
Visage,
Nature's Prophet,
Terrorblade,
Warlock,
Wraith King.
* Heroes with gap-closing abilities who attempt to use them for escaping Bloodseeker will suffer serious damage from Rupture:
Phantom Assassin,
Anti-Mage,
Faceless Void,
Riki,
Slark,
Spirit Breaker.
* Heroes with summons and illusions as Spirit Breaker has no strong AoE capabilities to deal with them:
Chaos Knight,
Phantom Lancer,
Terrorblade,
Naga Siren,
Broodmother,
Warlock,
Visage,
Nature's Prophet,
Shadow Shaman,
Lycan,
Wraith King.
*
Shukuchi will trigger extra damage from Rupture.
*
Shukuchi's invisibility is detected by Thirst.
*
Time Lapse cannot dispel Rupture, preventing Weaver from escaping ganks. However, smart Weaver will buy
Linken's Sphere to counter this problem for him.
Additional:
*
Rupture is particularly crippling against Weaver, who relies on high movement speed from Shukuchi to fight and escape, and it cannot be dispelled by Time Lapse.
*
Thirst detects Weaver through Shukuchi whenever his health is low.
*
Blood Rite combined with Rupture forces Weaver to either take damage from the latter, or to get silenced for a long duration.
*
Rupture will fully damage Void Spirit during his ultimate, removing his main escape mechanic during fights and his way to disrupt them heavily.
*
Blood Rite will force Void Spirit to use Dissimilate or Astral Step or be silenced. In the latter's case, it can be dangerous when combined with Rupture.
* Ursa has no way to clear illusions quickly, making him vulnerable to
Chaos bolt and
Phantasm combo.
*
Reality Rift can quickly relocate or reinitiate on Ursa once the duration of
Enrage is over.
*
Phantasm can be used to dispel Earthshock's slow.
Manta Style is another item that counter Ursa greatly.
* Ursa has low mobility, once jumped on by
Reality Rift, Ursa struggles to escape.
Additional:
* Ursa cannot effectively fight against Phantasm's illusions with his single-target damage.
* Chaos Bolt's potentially long stun with Chaos Bolt gives Ursa little opportunity to
Enrage.
*
Chaos Bolt and
Reality Rift makes Tiny's low mobility non existent.
*
Chaos Strike means Chaos Knight will most likely survive longer in a duel between the two because Tiny has much lower attack speed.
* Chaos Knight has a 3.2 strength growth, making him one of the most tanky heroes and a very difficult target for Tiny to burst.
* Thirst detects Riki whenever his health is low.
* Rupture does large damage when Riki uses
Blink Strike.
* Blood Rite prevents Queen of Pain from escaping with
Blink.
*
Blink will trigger the extra damage from Rupture.
Additional:
*
Blood Rite silences her, preventing her from initiating or escaping.
* With
Thirst, even if she Blinks away, Bloodseeker can catch right up to her.
*
Rupture will heavily damage Queen of Pain if she tries to Blink away.
* She is, however, one of the few heroes who can avoid the damage from Rupture if she successfully blink-walks.
* Unlike any other illusion heroes, Chaos Knight is the worst target for Pudge to hook as it will definitely backfire him.
*
Phantasm are significantly tankier than most illusion and deal full damage, which will quickly kill Pudge due to his low armor.
* it becomes worse if pudge is affected with
Reality Rift, which reduces his already abysmal base armor even lower.
* Low movement speed and low mobility means Pudge will struggle to escape or outrun Chaos Knight in most cases.
Additional:
* Phantasm's illusions make it difficult to land
Meat Hook and
Dismember.
* Chaos Bolt is a comparatively low cooldown tool to interrupt
Dismember.
* Chaos Strike's lifesteal offsets
Rot's damage.
*
Phantasm dispels Ignite and makes targeting the real Chaos Knight much harder.
* Thirst detects Mirana or her ally at low health during
Moonlight Shadow.
* Rupture deals high damage when Mirana uses
Leap.
Additional:
*
Rupture can quickly kill Mirana if she tries to Leap away.
*
Thirst detects Mirana and her allies during Moonlight Shadow.
* Every Meepo clone adds to Thirst's bonuses.
* Bloodseeker can chase down retreating clones when Meepo tries to cycle weaker clones away from combat.
*
Rupture ruins her only movement ability, Rebound. Combined with its high movement speed and her being unable to interrupt it once its cast, using it under the effects of Rupture will surely deal incredibly immutable damage, if not kill her.
* As a Strength hero, Marci naturally has high HP. Rupture's initial damage uses her high HP as a catalyst to deal damage depending on her current health, dealing a good amount of damage if she's full HP or forcing her to stop if she's low.
* With
Aghanim's Shard,
Bloodrage will now deal pure damage and lifesteal based on the opponent's max health. Her high HP as a Strength hero ensures that Bloodseeker will always deal significant attack damage and sustain himself a lot whenever he attacks Marci.
* If Marci doesn't build
Black King Bar, Bloodseeker's
Blood Rite will prevent her from using all of her spells which she relies quite heavily on. Her only dispel is tied to Sidekick with level 25 left talent.
* Rupture completely negates Lycan's high mobility.
* All of Lycan's summons are good sources of healing with Bloodrage.
Additional:
*
Rupture completely negates Lycan's high mobility.
* All of Lycan's summons are good sources of healing with
Bloodrage.
* Reality Rift lets Chaos Knight bypass the Spirit Bear and jump onto Lone Druid.
* The Spirit Bear's lack of scaling means it dies quickly to Chaos Knight during the late-game.
*
Chaos Strike is a strong burst damage passive that allows Chaos Knight to stand up and even survive Lifestealer's attacks. Level 20 Talent: Reality Rift Pierces Spell Immunity allows him to burst down Lifestealer even while he is in Rage.
* Lifestealer's single-target nature will struggle against Chaos Knight's
Phantasm illusions and will be forced to itemize for them.
Additional:
* Level 20 talent allows Reality Rift to bypass spell immunity provided by
Rage, thus negating the advantage Lifestealer has in his kit.
* The fact that Lifestealer lacks wave clearing and reliable lockdown makes it difficult to fight Chaos Knight's illusions.
*
Feast is largely negated by Chaos Knight's high burst damage from Chaos Strike.
*
Blood Rite makes Ezalor chose between getting off Illuminate or getting silenced for a while, as Illuminate is a channeled ability.
* Blood Rite's silence can completely take Ezalor out of a teamfight, as he relies on his abilities to be useful.
* Keeper of the Light's only mobility source, his high movement speed (via his high base movement speed and through spirit form), is entirely countered by
Rupture.
* While
Blade Fury is on cooldown, Juggernaut can be easily killed by a standard
Chaos Bolt &
Reality Rift combo.
*
Phantasm illusions can tank
Omnislash.
*
Reality Rift will disable Drow Ranger's Marksmanship, along with
Chaos Bolt he can keep her locked for enough time to be killed.
*
Skeleton Walk is not enough to outrun Bloodseeker, and is detected by Thirst.
* Because of his low health and high damage output, Clinkz will get obliterated by
Blade Mail
Additional:
*
Thirst reveals Clinkz if he tries to escape with Skeleton Walk with low health. It also allows Bloodseeker to match or exceed Clinkz's speed.
*
Rupture negates the mobility provided by Skeleton Walk in any attempt to escape or reposition in fights.
* Bloodseeker can easily build items to counter Clinkz, including
Talisman of Evasion upgrades,
Blade Mail, and armor items.
* Life Drain does not instantly kill the illusions from
Phantasm
*
Chaos Bolt and
Reality Rift can easily interrupt the channeling from Life Drain.
*
Reality Rift makes it harder for Pugna to keep his distance between Chaos Knight.
* Nether Ward barely deals any significant damage on Chaos Knight as Chaos Knight's abilities do not cost a lot of mana
* The overwhelming damage of Chaos Knight and his illusions will do a quick work on Pugna's poor HP pool, or safely remove the Nether Ward from the battlefield.
*
Bloodseeker's
Rupture forces Slardar to stay still during fights, preventing Slardar from using Guardian sprint to move in and out of fights. This takes away the ability to initiate and re-initiate with Slithereen Crush's low cooldown. Due to the increased move speed from Guardian Sprint, Slardar can lose health at about 160% the rate of normal heroes while under
Rupture. Bloodseeker's
Thirst also gives him enough move speed so that he's one of the few heroes who can outrun or catch up to a Slardar during Guardian Sprint.
* Single-target disablers will have difficulty locking down a Chaos Knight with Phantasm active:
Bane,
Beastmaster,
Bloodseeker,
Clockwerk,
Doom,
Shadow Shaman.
*
Chaos Knight,
Lone Druid,
Meepo and
Arc Warden can be hard targets since Shadow Demon's spells are ill-suited to fight many enemies at once.
* Single-target disablers will have difficulty locking down a Chaos Knight with Phantasm active:
Bane,
Beastmaster,
Bloodseeker,
Clockwerk,
Doom,
Shadow Shaman.
* Illusion and heroes with summons are difficult to kill with Chen's single-target offensive spells:
Terrorblade,
Phantom Lancer,
Chaos Knight,
Broodmother,
Naga Siren,
Lycan,
Visage,
Beastmaster,
Warlock,
Wraith King. And even though Chen can convert enemy summons with Holy Persuasion, their much greater numbers will often overwhelm Chen and his creeps.
* Heroes that can overwhelm Visage by sheer number like
Chaos Knight,
Meepo,
Terrorblade and
Phantom Lancer.
* Heroes with invisibility will be detected by Thirst when they have low enough health:
Bounty Hunter,
Templar Assassin,
Riki,
Clinkz,
Weaver,
Treant Protector,
Nyx Assassin.
Additional:
* While Burrowing, Nyx is an easy target for a
Blood Rite, and his only way to counter it is a well-timed
Spiked Carapace.
*
Thirst is always a threat to Nyx Assassin, hindering his attempt of escape using
Vendetta and rendering him unable to surprise Bloodseeker's allies.
*
Rupture also prevents Nyx Assassin from escaping with
Vendetta, as it forces him to stay still.
* Warlock is a very strong hero when positioned correctly, and his long cast range helps him with this. However, some heroes might disrupt or sneakily pass through his allies and deal with him, preventing him from doing his job. Such heroes include
Chaos Knight,
Spirit Breaker,
Riki, and more.
* Heroes with abilities that can close the gap can easily kill Muerta:
Storm Spirit,
Earth Spirit,
Ember Spirit,
Void Spirit,
Lycan,
Chaos Knight,
Tusk.
* Heroes with illusions and summons can swarm and overwhelm Bane, who has no area abilities to deal with them outside from
Aghanim's Shard upgraded
Brain Sap:
Broodmother,
Chaos Knight,
Naga Siren,
Nature's Prophet,
Phantom Lancer,
Terrorblade,
Visage,
Warlock,
Wraith King.
Additional:
* Phantasm's illusions make it difficult for Bane to target Chaos Knight with
Nightmare,
Enfeeble, and
Fiend's Grip.
* Chaos Bolt is a comparatively low cooldown tool to interrupt
Fiend's Grip.
*
Nightmare can be transferred by Phantasm illusions.
*
Time Walk negates Rupture's damage.
*
Chronosphere prevents Bloodseeker from running down and picking off weak enemies during teamfights.
Additional:
* Time Walk will not make
Rupture deal damage for the distance jumped and can be used to quickly escape from
Blood Rite.
* Heroes with gap-closing abilities who attempt to use them for escaping Bloodseeker will suffer serious damage from Rupture:
Phantom Assassin,
Anti-Mage,
Faceless Void,
Riki,
Slark,
Spirit Breaker.
* Faceless Void's lack of strong area-of-effect spells makes it difficult for him to fight against Chaos Knight and his
Phantasms.
* From a safe distance and if not caught, Chaos Knight can use
Reality Rift to pull Faceless Void out of the
Chronosphere which combined with
Chaos Bolt can expose him to being bursted down by Chaos Knight's team before Void even succeeds to escape with
Time Walk.
* Heroes with fast movement abilities will suffer huge damage when afflicted by Rupture:
Spirit Breaker,
Earth Spirit,
Dark Seer.
* Single-target disablers will have difficulty locking down a Chaos Knight with Phantasm active:
Bane,
Beastmaster,
Bloodseeker,
Clockwerk,
Doom,
Shadow Shaman.
* Heroes with invisibility will be detected by Thirst when they have low enough health:
Bounty Hunter,
Templar Assassin,
Riki,
Clinkz,
Weaver,
Treant Protector,
Nyx Assassin.
* Unlike with other heroes who can summon illusions of themselves, Terrorblade's illusions from
Conjure Image have different colors than other illusions which can be seen even by enemy team, which can also make Terrorblade weak even against heroes he naturally counters:
Bane,
Lifestealer,
Spectre,
Chaos Knight,
Spirit Breaker,
Sniper. Terrorblade's only solution to counter this problem is to get
Manta Style as quickly as possible.
*
Chaos Knight's multiple illusions from
Phantasm can destroy Undying, as Soul Rip can't offset the damage from the high amount of damage from his illusions.
* Skywrath Mage also has a terrible time fighting against anything that isn't a hero. His skills are mostly target-based and he has terrible strength and agility, he can easily be kited or harassed by illusion-based heroes like
Chaos Knight and
Phantom Lancer, or by Heroes that summon other units like
Lone Druid,
Lycan and
Beastmaster.
* Heroes who are illusion based, or even heroes who frequently build Manta Style can be cleared quickly by Pangolier's high damage, or lose their damage ouput because of Lucky Shot:
Chaos Knight,
Naga Siren
* Rupture works through
Rolling Thunder and
Swashbuckle, greatly reducing Pangolier's mobility.
Additional:
*
Thirst provides constant sight and speed to Bloodseeker, allows him to catch up a fleeing Pangolier through all of his mobility.
*
Rupture is a great threat to Pangolier, causing him to take heavy damage if he uses Swashbuckle and especially Rolling Thunder, forcing him to stop his ultimate prematurely, or keep rolling to his death.
* Heroes with illusion and clone abilities may confuse Bloodseeker, causing him to waste time in fights:
Phantom Lancer,
Chaos Knight,
Arc Warden
* Chaos Knight can dispel Flux with
Phantasm.
* Chaos Knight can use
Reality Rift to pull Arc Warden out of Magnetic Field.
* Once Chaos Knight jumps on Arc Warden with
Reality Rift, Arc Warden will struggle to escape due to low mobility and lack of stun.
* Heroes that rely on right-clicks will find themselves unable to damage opponents seriously after being affected by Static Link, like
Sven,
Bloodseeker, and
Juggernaut.
* Razor has no way to deal with Chaos Knight's multiple illusions from
Phantasm.
* 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.
*
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 Attack speed decreasing skills:
Jakiro,
Viper
Lich
* Viper has no response to the standard initiation combo of
Reality Rift into
Chaos Bolt.
*
Phantasm and
Chaos Strike can eliminate Viper almost instantly with it's damage output.
* Besides Nethertoxin, Viper has no other ways of dealing with
Phantasm.
Additional:
* As Viper focuses on single-target damage, he has trouble fighting off Phantasm illusions.
* Reality Rift counteracts Viper's slows and reduces his already low durability against physical damage.
* Heroes with strong area damage to destroy Phantasm illusions:
Axe,
Ember Spirit,
Legion Commander,
Phoenix
* Phoenix expends health to use its abilities, making it a good target for Thirst.
* Rupture deals heavy damage against
Icarus Dive.
Additional:
* Although
Blood Rite can be easily avoided, if it does hit, its lengthy silence and pure damage can be a severe punishment for a slow, unobservant, or simply unfortunate Phoenix.
* His
Rupture can turn
Icarus Dive into a suicide option, and it cannot be dispelled, meaning even if Phoenix completes a
Supernova, choosing to Dive may just cut its health back down.
* And finally, due to Phoenix's health costs, too much careless ability spamming may just put Phoenix into Bloodseeker's vision through
Thirst, making it a very tempting ganking target.
*
Black Hole usually catches Chaos Knight with all his illusions.
*
Midnight Pulse deals damage based on current health, quickly killing Phantasm illusions.
*
Blood Rite can potentially force him to activate
Black King Bar prematurely, before pulling off a Black Hole combo.
* Bloodseeker can find an Enigma out of position and
Rupture him, making it difficult to initiate properly in a team fight, as it pierces through
Black King Bar.
* Chain Frost can eliminate Chaos Knight's
Phantasm army, especially after he clumped up using
Reality Rift.
* Frost Shield will heavily reduce his army's effectiveness.
Additional:
* Lich's
Chain Frost, especially after obtaining its respective talent that provides unlimited bounces, can take out all of Chaos Knight's illusions quickly.
* An
Aghanim's Scepter-upgraded
Sinister Gaze can hypnotize Chaos Knight and his illusions while also draining his already low mana pool.
* Bloodseeker is not affected by slows when he is affected by
Thirst.
* If he sees Chain Frost is targeting him, he can easily isolate himself with the movement speed buff from
Thirst so that it stops bouncing around.
* Lich heavily relies on his abilities to contribute to team fights, making
Blood Rite effective against him.
* Strong area damage, particularly from
Whirling Death and
Chakram, lets Timbersaw clear out illusions quickly.
*
Whirling Death directly reduces Strength from both Chaos Knight and his Phantasm illusions, reducing both the damage output and raw health that the hero relies on.
*
Reactive Armor quickly builds stacks against Phantasm illusions, making Timbersaw harder to kill.
Additional:
*
Reactive Armor helps Timbersaw to endure the damage from
Chaos Bolt and
Reality Rift combo.
* Timbersaw's large amount of pure damage AoE nukes clears Chaos Knight's illusions quickly, drastically reducing his damage.
* Rupture and Blood Rite locks down Timbersaw, preventing him from escaping with
Timber Chain. However, Timbersaw may reflect a good deal of damage with
Blade Mail.
* Heroes that rely on illusions typically spawn very strong illusions inside Dark Seer Wall of Replica that he can use against them or their team:
Phantom Lancer,
Chaos Knight,
Naga Siren,
Terrorblade.
* Heroes with fast movement abilities will suffer huge damage when afflicted by Rupture:
Spirit Breaker,
Earth Spirit,
Dark Seer.
Additional:
*
Rupture can deal a lot of damage to either a surged Dark Seer or his allies and prevent the target from getting into position.
* Anti-Mage commonly builds
Battle Fury, which can deal with Phantasm illusions easily.
*
Counterspell, if timed right, will turn Chaos Bolt against Chaos Knight, and can set up for a kill if he is not careful.
* Even if Counterspell is on cooldown,
Blink can almost always dodge a Chaos Bolt because of its slow projectile.
*
Mana Break will quickly drain Chaos Knight's low amount mana.
* However, beware Anti-Mage is fairly fragile and cannot withstand heavy incoming physical damage at any points in the game, which Chaos Knight excels at. A good player will bait out
Counterspell, and retaliate once it's over.
* Blood Rite prevents Anti-Mage from escaping with
Blink.
*
Blink will trigger the damage from Rupture.
* Both Blood Rite & Rupture are pure damage which can bypass
Counterspell.
* Heroes the make heavy use of illusions, like
Chaos Knight,
Phantom Lancer,
Terrorblade, or
Spectre can suffer from Crystal Maiden, as Freezing Field can quickly kill off the entire horde if not stopped.
* Innately fragile heroes will die almost instantly to Reality Rift while Chaos Knight has illusions active:
Drow Ranger,
Bane,
Necrophos,
Crystal Maiden.
* Using Reality Rift sets up a
Reverse Polarity on Chaos Knight and his illusions.
*
Shockwave and
Skewer kill Phantasm's illusions quickly, as can
Empower cast on a melee carry.
Additional:
* All Magnus abilities are very good against Chaos Knight's
Phantasm illusions.
*
Rupture deals extra damage to Magnus during Skewer or
Force Staff, preventing him from escaping or counter-initiating, forcing him to invest on a
Linken's Sphere.
*
Reincarnation makes Wraith King nearly impossible to gank with Rupture.
*
Vampiric Spirit restores Wraith King's health, reducing the effect of Thirst.
Additional:
*
Rupture is meaningless while Reincarnation is off cooldown.
* Vampiric Spirit and Mortal Strike prevent Bloodseeker from achieving
Thirst bonuses.
* Wraith King has no form of AoE to clear Chaos Knight's illusions from
Phantasm.
* Wraith King is very vulnerable if he reincarnates in the middle of his illusions.
* Illusions and summons are double-edge sword type of matchup for Luna. On one hand, they can tank damage from Eclipse, but on the other hand, she can easily clear them before Eclipse with Moon Glaives. Examples include
Spectre,
Shadow Demon,
Phantom Lancer,
Naga Siren,
Chaos Knight,
Terrorblade) or bring other units into the fight (such as
Nature's Prophet,
Lone Druid,
Chen,
Enchantress,
Meepo and
Arc Warden).
* Heroes that create illusions:
Spectre,
Shadow Demon,
Phantom Lancer,
Naga Siren,
Chaos Knight,
Terrorblade) or bring other units into the fight (such as
Nature's Prophet,
Lone Druid,
Chen,
Enchantress,
Meepo and
Arc Warden) can cause Eclipse to strike the illusions/summons unintentionally. However, in many cases Moon Glaives can resolve this issue and eliminate them before activating Eclipse, but that will require lots of farming for right-click items.
* Heroes with disables that go through spell immunity can end Bloodseeker before he has the chance to do anything:
Batrider,
Beastmaster
* Single-target disablers will have difficulty locking down a Chaos Knight with Phantasm active:
Bane,
Beastmaster,
Bloodseeker,
Clockwerk,
Doom,
Shadow Shaman.
* Illusion-based and multi-unit heroes can take advantage of Chaos Knight's lack of area damage:
Naga Siren,
Phantom Lancer,
Broodmother
* Heroes with long-lasting, undispellable debuffs will pinpoint the true Naga Siren:
Spirit Breaker,
Bloodseeker,
Witch Doctor.
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Bloodseeker
*
Borrowed Time makes Abaddon nearly impossible to gank.
Aphotic Shield and
Mist Coil prevents Bloodseeker from gaining his Thirst bonuses.
Rupture is used on Abaddon, Abaddon can use Borrowed Time and easily heal for the duration of Borrowed Time by simply moving.
*
Additional:
* If
Chaos Knight
* Abaddon could punish Chaos Knight for using his Phantasm and Reality Rift combo on him with
Aphotic Shield. Additionally, it provides extra protection against Chaos Knight's potential to take Abaddon down quickly.
Borrowed Time makes it utterly impossible to burst Abaddon down, effectively reducing the amount of targets Chaos Knight can threaten by 1 for the entire game.
* Furthermore, Abaddon's