* A well-timed Counterspell can turn Bounty Hunter's mobility against him, and prevents him from escaping with Shadow Walk due to the True Sight it provides.
* Counterspell also reflects Shuriken Toss, reflecting the stun back to Bounty Hunter.
* Mana Break can drain mana from Bounty Hunter, making him unable to use Shadow Walk to save himself.
* Anti-Mage often buys Manta Style, which can dispel Track.
* Mana Break quickly eats away at Bristleback's small mana pool, preventing him from spamming Viscous Nasal Goo and Quill Sprays.
* Bristleback has no innate mobility. Bristleback is easily kited by Blink, ignoring the protection from Bristleback.
Additional:
* Mana Break removes both a percentage and flat amount of your mana, preventing Bristleback from using abilities in the lane.
* Blink Anti-Mage has very high mobility with this skill, and can easily escape from Bristleback since he has no way to prevent his blink. He can also use this offensively to get in front of Bristleback during fights.
* Corrosive Haze provides True Sight on its target, exposing Bounty Hunter's position regardless of Shadow Walk.
* Guardian Sprint gives a very high movement speed bonus, allowing him to chase Bounty Hunter even if Slardar is tracked.
Additional:
* Bounty Hunter's Shadow Walk is rendered useless with Corrosive Haze and makes Bounty Hunter an easy target for Slardar and his team.
* Guardian Sprint allows Slardar to outrun Bristleback, even when slowed by Viscous Nasal Goo.
* Corrosive Haze's armor reduction makes Bristleback much less tanky.
* Legion Commander with Press the Attack
* Heroes that can remove the Track debuff with their skills:
* Abaddon with Aphotic Shield and Borrowed Time
* Huskar with Life Break
* Juggernaut with Blade Fury
* Legion Commander with Press the Attack
* Lifestealer with Rage and Infest
* Naga Siren with Mirror Image
* Omniknight with Heavenly Grace
* Oracle with Fortune's End and False Promise
* Phantom Lancer with Doppelganger
* Slark with Dark Pact
* Ursa with Enrage
* Weaver with Time Lapse
* Tidehunter with Kraken Shell when damage received reaches the threshold.
* Duel makes Bristleback fight Legion Commander face to face, forcing him to take full damage.
* Press the Attack dispels the slow from stacks of Viscous Nasal Goo.
Additional:
* When dueled, Bristleback will have to face Legion head on, not allowing his passive Bristleback to come into effect.
* Slark with Dark Pact
* Heroes that can remove the Track debuff with their skills:
* Abaddon with Aphotic Shield and Borrowed Time
* Huskar with Life Break
* Juggernaut with Blade Fury
* Legion Commander with Press the Attack
* Lifestealer with Rage and Infest
* Naga Siren with Mirror Image
* Omniknight with Heavenly Grace
* Oracle with Fortune's End and False Promise
* Phantom Lancer with Doppelganger
* Slark with Dark Pact
* Ursa with Enrage
* Weaver with Time Lapse
* Tidehunter with Kraken Shell when damage received reaches the threshold.
* Essence Shift allows Slark to hit Bristleback freely whether on the front or back, stealing attributes and make Bristleback much less tanky.
* Pounce can be used to disengage and recover lost HP with his ultimate passive, and can return to fight in a short period while Bristleback is already injured and got some of his attributes stolen.
* Dark Pact makes it near impossible to keep the Viscous Nasal Goo debuff on Slark.
* Although Dark Pact cannot dispel Quill Spray, meaning that Slark will still receive quill stack damage even if he used Shadow Dance before.
* Slark builds Silver Edge in almost every game, an item that greatly counters Bristleback.
* Heroes who rely on invisibility, such as Bounty Hunter, Clinkz, Mirana, Nyx Assassin and Riki, as they will be revealed if caught by Chronosphere.
* Time Dilation prevents Bristleback from spamming his low-cooldown abilities, greatly reducing his damage and effectiveness.
* Chronosphere allows allies to reposition and hit Bristleback from the front, bypassing his defensive bonus from behind.
* Bristleback has no way to prevent Void from using Time Walk.
Additional:
* Time Dilation while Quill Spray and Viscous Nasal Goo are on cooldown will make these abilities unusable for a long time, rendering Bristleback nearly useless.
* Bristleback cannot turn inside the Chronosphere, which makes it easy to attack him from the front, completely bypassing his passive damage reduction.
* Finger of Death can instantly shred many targets, especially fragile Heroes like Keeper of the Light, Ancient Apparition or Bounty Hunter.
* Lion's Mana Drain is a headache for Bristleback to deal with during the laning stage, as it denies him the ability to get last hits with Quill Spray.
* Outworld Destroyer's high burst damage is not negated by Bristleback's passive. So, even if Bristleback turns his back on Outworld, he can decimate Bristleback quickly.
* If Bristleback attempts to flee, or tries to close the gap, Outworld can banish him with Astral Imprisonment, both reducing Bristlebacks much needed mana and allowing Outworld to move in front of him, forcing him to take the full damage from his spells. This will also allow Outworld to land a devasting Sanity's Eclipse, without it being reduced by Bristleback's passive.
* Undying's Decay is a dangerous ability against Bristleback, as it makes him more vulnerable and reduces his tankiness.
* Undying's Tombstone together with Flesh Golem can slow Bristleback down significantly.
* Death Prophet's Silence allows her to prevent Bounty Hunter from escaping with Shadow Walk.
* If Bounty Hunter cannot escape with Shadow Walk while affected by Silence, she will be able to burst him down with Crypt Swarm and Spirit Siphon.
Additional:
* Death Prophet's Silence allows her to prevent Bounty Hunter from escaping with Shadow Walk.
* If Bounty Hunter cannot escape with Shadow Walk while affected by Silence, she will be able to burst him down with Crypt Swarm and Spirit Siphon.
* Weaver with Time Lapse
* Heroes that can remove the Track debuff with their skills:
* Abaddon with Aphotic Shield and Borrowed Time
* Huskar with Life Break
* Juggernaut with Blade Fury
* Legion Commander with Press the Attack
* Lifestealer with Rage and Infest
* Naga Siren with Mirror Image
* Omniknight with Heavenly Grace
* Oracle with Fortune's End and False Promise
* Phantom Lancer with Doppelganger
* Slark with Dark Pact
* Ursa with Enrage
* Weaver with Time Lapse
* Tidehunter with Kraken Shell when damage received reaches the threshold.
* Shukuchi gets Weaver in front of Bristleback, negating the protection from Bristleback.
* Weaver's mana break talent depletes Bristleback's mana pool, preventing him from spamming abilities.
* Bounty Hunter has a cheap way to break Linken's Sphere and keep track of Weaver while he is using Shukuchi, though both can be dispelled with Time Lapse.
* Spirit Breaker's Charge of Darkness semi-reveals Bounty Hunter, taking away his element of surprise for the duration of the charge. Also, as Charge of Darkness shows Bounty Hunter's position, Spirit Breaker's allies can proceed to gank Bounty Hunter while he is roaming alone.
* Spirit Breaker's Nether Strike with Aghanim's Shard disables Bristleback's passives.
* Heroes who can continue dealing damage even while being stunned: Luna, Razor, Axe, Bristleback, Leshrac, Death Prophet, Jakiro.
* Eye of the Storm melts Bristleback's armor, and makes him much less tanky.
* Static Link can completely drain Bristleback's bonus damage from Warpath.
* Storm Surge allows Razor to outdistance Bristleback, even with a few stacks of Viscous Nasal Goo on him. Also, if Razor has his Shard, it will deal full damage to Bristleback every time he uses Viscous Nasal Goo (as Bristleback will face him to cast it).
Additional:
* Eye of the Storm melts Bristleback's armor, and makes him much less tanky.
* Static Link can completely drain Bristleback's bonus damage from Warpath.
* Arcane Curse stacks every time Bristleback uses an ability, forcing him to stop spamming his abilities, or take heavy health degeneration.
* Glaives of Wisdom steals intelligence both permanently and temporarily, causing mana issues for Bristleback.
* Last Word and Global Silence stops Bristleback from using his abilities altogether.
Additional:
* Bristleback will not be able to cast Viscous Nasal Goo or Quill Spray while silenced, effectively blocking a major part of the hero's damage and preventing Warpath charges from stacking.
* Arcane Curse slows Bristleback down and lasts longer the more abilities he uses. On the other hand, if he doesn't use any abilities, he will begin to lose Warpath charges.
* Whirling Death deals damage while also reducing {Show:A|Timbersaw|Whirling Death|value4} of Bristleback's strength, making him less tanky.
* Reactive Armor can sustain through multiple Viscous Nasal Goo and Quill Spray stacks.
* Timber Chain makes it hard for Bristleback to slow down Timbersaw even with Viscous Nasal Goo.
* Spectre can instantly reveal Bounty Hunter's position on the activation of her ultimate Haunt. She can also semi-reveal( visible but not target-able) Bounty Hunter by hitting him with Spectral Dagger.
* Lightning Bolt makes roaming behind enemy lines more and more difficult as Zeus becomes powerful enough to spam it. Also, Zeus' Ultimate Thundergod's Wrath reveals Bounty Hunter regardless of his position.
Additional:
* Bounty Hunter has a very low health pool, allowing Zeus to burst him down quickly.
* Zeus can cast Lightning Bolt to gain True Sight in any area he suspects Bounty Hunter may be invisible or any area he thinks Bounty Hunter may have warded.
* If Bounty Hunter tries to escape a gank by using Shadow Walk, Zeus can gain vision of him with both Lightning Bolt and Thundergod's Wrath.
* Sharpshooter deals massive damage to Bristleback and applies a high duration disable on his passive.
* Bushwhack and Scurry can be used to easily kite Bristleback.
Additional:
* Bristleback and Warpath can be disabled by Hoodwink's Sharpshooter ability for a long period of time, reducing his both offense and defense.
* Scurry and Bushwhack can be used to kite bristleback.
* Phantom's Embrace silences Viscous Nasal Goo and Quill Spray.
* Ink Swell stuns Bristleback and gets allies in position faster with increased movement speed to attack his front, countering his passive ability.
* Infernal Blade deals scaling damage and is useful against high health targets such as Bristleback.
* Doom disables Bristleback's low cooldown abilities, preventing him from triggering Warpath. With his upgraded level 25 talent, it also breaks Bristleback's passive, rendering him more vulnerable.
Additional:
* Infernal Blade deals scaling damage and is useful against high HP targets such as Bristleback.
* Doom prevents Bristleback from casting his two low cooldown abilities, which then prevents him from utilizing Warpath.
* If Doom chooses the Level 25 talent {ValueColor:1|Doom applies Break|25tal} {Symbol:Talent}, he can disable Bristleback and Warpath, taking away much of his durability and damage potential in team fights.
* Abaddon with Aphotic Shield and Borrowed Time
* Heroes that can remove the Track debuff with their skills:
* Abaddon with Aphotic Shield and Borrowed Time
* Huskar with Life Break
* Juggernaut with Blade Fury
* Legion Commander with Press the Attack
* Lifestealer with Rage and Infest
* Naga Siren with Mirror Image
* Omniknight with Heavenly Grace
* Oracle with Fortune's End and False Promise
* Phantom Lancer with Doppelganger
* Slark with Dark Pact
* Ursa with Enrage
* Weaver with Time Lapse
* Tidehunter with Kraken Shell when damage received reaches the threshold.
* Omniknight with Heavenly Grace
* Heroes that can remove the Track debuff with their skills:
* Abaddon with Aphotic Shield and Borrowed Time
* Huskar with Life Break
* Juggernaut with Blade Fury
* Legion Commander with Press the Attack
* Lifestealer with Rage and Infest
* Naga Siren with Mirror Image
* Omniknight with Heavenly Grace
* Oracle with Fortune's End and False Promise
* Phantom Lancer with Doppelganger
* Slark with Dark Pact
* Ursa with Enrage
* Weaver with Time Lapse
* Tidehunter with Kraken Shell when damage received reaches the threshold.
* 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.
* Night Stalker's Crippling Fear at night prevents Shadow Walk for an extended period of time and his Void will make Phase Boots useless. If Night Stalker has True Sight, he can shutdown Bounty Hunter's sneak kill.
* Heroes that are naturally hard to gank, ranging from beefy tanks like Abaddon and Wraith King to heroes with quick escape mechanisms like Anti-Mage and Storm Spirit are also undesirable targets for a lone, roaming Bounty Hunter to scout out and initiate on.
* 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.
* Shadow Demon's Demonic Purge with Aghanim's Scepter disables Bristleback's passives.
* Juggernaut with Blade Fury
* Heroes that can remove the Track debuff with their skills:
* Abaddon with Aphotic Shield and Borrowed Time
* Huskar with Life Break
* Juggernaut with Blade Fury
* Legion Commander with Press the Attack
* Lifestealer with Rage and Infest
* Naga Siren with Mirror Image
* Omniknight with Heavenly Grace
* Oracle with Fortune's End and False Promise
* Phantom Lancer with Doppelganger
* Slark with Dark Pact
* Ursa with Enrage
* Weaver with Time Lapse
* Tidehunter with Kraken Shell when damage received reaches the threshold.
* Heroes with high health especially Strength heroes will take more damage on Sun Ray: Axe, Pudge, Bristleback, Mars.
* Tidehunter with Kraken Shell when damage received reaches the threshold.
* Heroes that can remove the Track debuff with their skills:
* Abaddon with Aphotic Shield and Borrowed Time
* Huskar with Life Break
* Juggernaut with Blade Fury
* Legion Commander with Press the Attack
* Lifestealer with Rage and Infest
* Naga Siren with Mirror Image
* Omniknight with Heavenly Grace
* Oracle with Fortune's End and False Promise
* Phantom Lancer with Doppelganger
* Slark with Dark Pact
* Ursa with Enrage
* Weaver with Time Lapse
* Tidehunter with Kraken Shell when damage received reaches the threshold.
* Heroes that are naturally hard to gank, ranging from beefy tanks like Abaddon and Wraith King to heroes with quick escape mechanisms like Anti-Mage and Storm Spirit are also undesirable targets for a lone, roaming Bounty Hunter to scout out and initiate on.
* Heroes who rely on their target to run away: Riki, Bounty Hunter.
* Naga Siren with Mirror Image
* Heroes that can remove the Track debuff with their skills:
* Abaddon with Aphotic Shield and Borrowed Time
* Huskar with Life Break
* Juggernaut with Blade Fury
* Legion Commander with Press the Attack
* Lifestealer with Rage and Infest
* Naga Siren with Mirror Image
* Omniknight with Heavenly Grace
* Oracle with Fortune's End and False Promise
* Phantom Lancer with Doppelganger
* Slark with Dark Pact
* Ursa with Enrage
* Weaver with Time Lapse
* Tidehunter with Kraken Shell when damage received reaches the threshold.
Additional:
* Bounty Hunter is a single target damage dealer, so he will not fare well against Naga Siren. Even though Bounty Hunter can use Track on her, Mirror Image will dispel the effect. Ensnare also reveals invisible units while they're rooted, putting Bounty Hunter at a disadvantage.
* Techies is very good against roaming supports and gankers such as Bounty Hunter, Riki, Weaver, Earthshaker, Nyx Assassin, etc. that are constantly moving around the map.
* Terrorblade's Sunder is not affected by the Bristleback damage reduction.
* Batrider's turn rate slow from Sticky Napalm makes it harder for Bristleback to keep his back towards the enemy.
* Even though Luna is the kind of hero that Bounty Hunter can handle due to Shadow Walk rendering him safe from Eclipse, smart Luna will always buy Dust of Appearance, allowing her to provide vision on him to her team, and possibly, kill Bounty Hunter with Eclipse.
* Heroes with damage-over-time abilities easily allow Bristleback to turn his back in order to proc Bristleback continuously and to massively reduce to damage dealt to him: Arc Warden, Venomancer, Luna.
Additional:
* Quill Spray and Bristleback harass Luna more efficiently than she does with Lucent Beam.
* Bristleback helps return a lot of damage to Luna’s team if she uses her nukes on him and he has his back to her.
* Viscous Nasal Goo and Warpath are enough to outrun a speedy Luna.
* Bristleback tends to be a frequent carrier of Crimson Guard and Eternal Shroud, which are good protection from Moon Glaives and Eclipse.
* For the same reasons, Bristleback makes a very powerful ally for Luna when they are in the same team.
* Reaper's Scythe and Heartstopper Aura deal percentage-based damage, ignoring Bristleback's high health.
* Heartstopper Aura's HP removal does not trigger Bristleback's passive.
Additional:
* Heartstopper Aura deals percentage-based damage flagged as HP removal, so it is not reduced by Bristleback, nor does it trigger passive Quill Sprays.
* Reaper's Scythe is very effective against Bristleback not only due to its percentage-based damage, but rather because it first stuns and then deals its damage, allowing Necrophos to position in front of Bristleback in time.
* Enemies that possess high defenses through magic resistance, damage reduction, or high regeneration will make it difficult to whittle their health down to get to Reaper's Scythe's threshold. Such heroes include Bristleback (although only from behind), Spectre, Ursa, and Dragon Knight.
* Venomancer's magical damage-over-time poisons greatly reduce Bounty Hunter's mobility.
* Venomous Gale, combined with Plague Wards and Poison Nova with True Sight items can allow Venomancer and his teammates to gank Bounty Hunter while he is roaming alone.
* Heroes with damage-over-time abilities easily allow Bristleback to turn his back in order to proc Bristleback continuously and to massively reduce to damage dealt to him: Arc Warden, Venomancer, Luna.
* Bounty Hunter can easily keep vision on Pudge with Track, making it difficult for Pudge to hook Bounty Hunter or his team mates.
* It's difficult for Pudge to keep up with Bounty Hunter to apply Rot on him due to Shadow Walk.
* Shuriken Toss cancels out Dismember from a good range if Bounty Hunter is not the target.
Additional:
* Track can easily keep vision on Pudge, making it very hard for him to hook Bounty Hunter or his teammates from the fog of war.
* Shuriken Toss cancels Dismember from great range.
* Bristleback is one of the hardest heroes to gank with a Meat Hook and Dismember combo, and attempts to do so sometimes backfire on Pudge.
Additional:
* Pudge is particularly susceptible to Bristleback's Viscous Nasal Goo and Quill Spray due to his naturally low armor and poor agility gain.
* Bristleback, in combination with his strength gain, high health, common itemization for magic resistance and damage reduction from Bristleback makes him a poor target for Pudge.
* Invisibility reliant heroes: Heroes with invisibility abilities or those that have invested into invisibility items are hindered by Bounty Hunter's Track. Few examples of such heroes are:Clinkz, Riki, Treant Protector, etc.
Additional:
* Track reveals Riki while invisible and gives him a hard time, as it prevents much of his ganking capabilities. This can force Riki to buy Manta Style to dispel it.
* Quill Spray will hit Riki even when he is invisible.
* Cloak and Dagger's bonus backstab damage is rendered irrelevant against Bristleback.
* Smoke Screen does not stop Bristleback's passive from activating.
* Due to Bristleback's natural tankiness, he is an ideal Gem of True Sight carrier, directly countering Riki's invisibility.
Additional:
* The bonus Backstab damage from Cloak and Dagger is rendered irrelevant with Bristleback and hurts Riki more than him because of the passive Quill Spray.
* Riki can still get damaged by Bristleback's Quill Spray while invisible, and it can be hard to deal with in lane.
* Bristleback is not too bothered by Smoke Screen. Though he cannot use Quill Spray manually inside it, it still procs passively when he takes damage from the back. The movement speed from Warpath allows him to get out of the area easily.
* Due to Bristleback's natural tankiness, he is an ideal Gem of True Sight carrier.
* Riki rarely buys Silver Edge to break Bristleback's passive because the invisibility aspect of it is redundant.
* Fragile heroes: Bounty Hunter has decent nuking capabilities with Shiruken Toss and Jinada thus making fragile heroes easy picks for ganking. Few examples of such heroes are:Crystal Maiden, Pugna, Skywrath Mage, Io, Witch Doctor, etc.
* Quill Spray is very effective against Io, as it has very low armor and has to stay close to the fight to not break its Tether.
* 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.
* 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.
* Heroes who can provide True Sight or semi-reveal enemy heroes as Nature's Prophet is prone to buying Shadow Blade: Bounty Hunter, Slardar, Spectre, Zeus, Spirit Breaker.
* Heroes that have AoE damage: Lina, Keeper of the Light, Timbersaw, Leshrac, Bristleback, Axe.
* Track allows Bounty Hunter to keep Chen under watch whenever he jungles and to give Bounty Hunter and his allies a huge gold gain whenever Chen is killed while under effects of Track.
* Shadow Walk allows Bounty Hunter to bypass Chen's creeps and sneak on Chen and finish him off with Jinada and Shuriken Toss.
* However, Bounty Hunter's single-targeted ability arsenal can make it difficult for him to clear waves of Chen's creeps.
* Track detects Mirana and her allies during Moonlight Shadow.
* Track provides vision on Templar Assassin during her Meld, allowing him and his teammates to gank her often until she buys a Black King Bar or the {ValueColor:1|Meld Dispels|20tal} {Symbol:Talent} talent to dispel it.
Additional:
* Track provides vision on Templar Assassin during her Meld, allowing him and his teammates to gank her often until she buys a Black King Bar or the {ValueColor:1|Meld Dispels|20tal} {Symbol:Talent} talent to dispel it.
* Viscous Nasal Goo slows down Dragon Knight and lowers armor, locking him down and making him more vulnerable.
* Sniper relies on distance. Bounty Hunter can use Shadow Walk to get close, and Jinada can do massive damage and slow down Sniper in the early game.
* Track gives additional speed to Bounty Hunter and makes Shadow Blade useless, which can allow Bounty Hunter to easily kill him with a few attacks.
* Tiny's nonexistent armor in the early game makes him very vulnerable to Quill Spray's large amounts of physical damage.
* Bristleback decreases Tiny's high burst damage against Bristleback.
* Viscous Nasal Goo can slow Tiny to a crawl and allows Bristleback to easily kite him with his high movement speed and Quill Spray's long range, as Tiny has no ability to escape.
* Frostbite will reveal invisible heroes for its duration, making it a good tool against any such hero (Riki, Bounty Hunter, Weaver, or Clinkz for example), or as a soft counter to Shadow Blade, if it is used first. This can be an amazing tool to ensure that Dust of Appearance is used on the unit in question, and not wasted in not catching anything.
* Low mobility heroes: Heroes with no/little means of traveling fast have difficulty getting to/away from Bounty Hunter due to his slowing Jinada and hastening Track. Few examples of such heroes are: Crystal Maiden, Sniper, Ursa, Witch Doctor, etc.
Additional:
* Shuriken Toss's stun is useful for cancelling Freezing Field from a distance.
* Track can be used for revealing Crystal Maiden when she uses Glimmer Cape.
* Jinada does burst physical damage (which is even bigger if dealt under Track's crits), which is effective due to Crystal Maiden's low HP and armor.
* Bounty Hunter likes to stay hidden from the fight and is less likely to get caught by Crystal Maiden's spells.
* Viscous Nasal Goo can hinder Crystal Maiden's already abysmal mobility, which allows Bristleback (or his teammates) to run her down and kill her.
* Bristleback frequently builds Blade Mail, which can quickly kill Crystal Maiden if her ultimate is used while he is under its effect.
* The passive part of Bristleback will trigger many, many times under the damage from Freezing Field, and as the stacks increase, the damage output from each successive cast (or proc) will eat away at Crystal Maiden's small HP pool.
* Lycan's wolves deal little damage to Bristleback, and are easily killed by Quill Spray, even when they're invisible.
* Lycan's lack of burst damage makes it very hard for him to kill Bristleback, especially when his back is turned.
Additional:
* Quill Spray can be used to kill Lycan's summons.
* Bristleback allows him to stay alive against Lycan while dishing out counter attacks
* He can overpower Lycan with his Warpath instead.
* Bounty Hunter can absolutely destroy a Shadow Fiend's game by ganking his midlane with Shadow Walk, Jinada and Shuriken Toss.
* If his lane goes bad, a Shadow Fiend usually goes to the jungle. Follow him with Shadow Walk and take half of his experience.
* Due to its ministun, Shuriken Toss is a good way to interrupt Shadow Fiend's long cast animation on Requiem of Souls.
Additional:
* Shuriken Toss can be used to cancel Requiem of Souls.
* Shadow Walk and Jinada allow Bounty Hunter to gank Shadow Fiend early on
* Track prevents Shadow Fiend from escaping with Shadow Blade.
* Nyx Assassin wants to start ganking as soon as he gets his Vendetta. Keeping him Tracked prevents him from ganking, and thus from doing his job in the game.
* Nyx Assassin has a lot of armor and health regen, making the nuke damage from Shuriken Toss very good against him.
Additional:
* Track hinders Nyx Assassin's ganking and escaping attempts with Vendetta, making him an easy kill for gold as well.
* Bounty Hunter can also use Track on Nyx Assassin while he has Spiked Carapace active without getting stunned as Track deals no damage at all before using Shuriken Toss.
* Quill Spray's constant AoE damage will hit Dark Willow even in Shadow Realm. Its automatic damage will hurt her if she tries to get close and use Bedlam.
* One hit with Jinada should be sufficient in removing Void Spirit's shield most of the time.
* Track negates much of Void Spirit's escape abilities by revealing his position and prevents him from rotating effectively.
* Quill Spray usually hits Meepo's clones, although Bristleback cannot turn his back when rooted with Earthbind.
* Quill Spray will hit Sand King inside Sand Storm, damaging him and putting Sand King's Blink Dagger on cooldown, preventing him from escaping.
* Epicenter's numerous damage ticks will trigger Bristleback's passive repeatedly during teamfights.
* Bristleback's constant harass from Quill Spray will greatly hurt Enigma's laning and kill his Eidolons.
* However, Bristleback has no way of canceling Black Hole at all. And Bristleback is not a hero that goes for disabling items to counter that problem.
* Lone Druid and The Spirit Bear cannot burst down Bristleback due to Bristleback
* Bristleback can easily run to Lone Druid without any hesitation, with Viscous Nasal Goo to reduce armor and slow the Spirit Bear or Lone Druid and Quill Spray can deal damage to both Lone Druid and the Spirit Bear at the same time
* Arc Warden has relatively lower armor and mobility, which makes him an easy target to apply Quill Spray and Viscous Nasal Goo stacks.
* Arc Warden also does not like to build a Silver Edge as it takes a long time to build up and may slow down the timings for other important items needed in the game like Gleipnir.
* However, do note that in a game where Arc Warden's team has many jumping capabilities or good passives, like a Tidehunter or Spectre, a Silver Edge becomes incredibly valuable on Arc Warden as not only can he run away from the jumps, he effectively gets 2 breaks, and Bristleback may not be the best pick.
* Monkey King is also hindered by Track since he relies on trees to hide him from vision.
Additional:
* Track grants vision of Monkey King, even when he's in the trees.
* Bounty Hunter and Slardar both have ultimates (Corrosive Haze and Track) that reveal Invoker through Ghost Walk.
* 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.
* Fragile heroes: Bounty Hunter has decent nuking capabilities with Shiruken Toss and Jinada thus making fragile heroes easy picks for ganking. Few examples of such heroes are:Crystal Maiden, Pugna, Skywrath Mage, Io, Witch Doctor, etc.
* Invisible heroes are very difficult for Drow Ranger to deal with such as Bounty Hunter, Riki and heroes who commonly buy a Shadow Blade.
* Low mobility heroes: Heroes with no/little means of traveling fast have difficulty getting to/away from Bounty Hunter due to his slowing Jinada and hastening Track. Few examples of such heroes are: Crystal Maiden, Sniper, Ursa, Witch Doctor, etc.
* Fragile heroes: Bounty Hunter has decent nuking capabilities with Shiruken Toss and Jinada thus making fragile heroes easy picks for ganking. Few examples of such heroes are:Crystal Maiden, Pugna, Skywrath Mage, Io, Witch Doctor, etc.
* Invisibility reliant heroes: Heroes with invisibility abilities or those that have invested into invisibility items are hindered by Bounty Hunter's Track. Few examples of such heroes are:Clinkz, Riki, Treant Protector, etc.
Additional:
* Track reveals Clinkz if he tries to escape with Skeleton Walk, allowing Bounty Hunter to gain lots of gold if he kills Clinkz.
* Jinada with physical damage items can quickly kill Clinkz due to his low health.
* Heroes that can prevent Sven from farming are very strong against him. Such as Riki and Bounty Hunter with their respective invisibility.
* Nyx Assassin, Bounty Hunter and Slark can all sneak up and kill Shadow Shaman, Nyx being particularly deadly. Shadow Shaman must watch out for Slark carefully, as he can break either (but not both unless he makes a mistake) of Shadow Shaman's disables, with Dark Pact and leap out of a serpent ward ring. These heroes, however, rely heavily on escape and are themselves not very durable and none of them can survive a full lockdown with Mass Serpent Ward. Having Sentry Wards can turn Shadow Shaman from prey to predator.
* Other heroes who has armor and slow debuffs won't allow Medusa to disengage from combat: Tidehunter, Bristleback, Slardar.
* Invisibility reliant heroes: Heroes with invisibility abilities or those that have invested into invisibility items are hindered by Bounty Hunter's Track. Few examples of such heroes are:Clinkz, Riki, Treant Protector, etc.
* Phantom Lancer with Doppelganger
* Heroes that can remove the Track debuff with their skills:
* Abaddon with Aphotic Shield and Borrowed Time
* Huskar with Life Break
* Juggernaut with Blade Fury
* Legion Commander with Press the Attack
* Lifestealer with Rage and Infest
* Naga Siren with Mirror Image
* Omniknight with Heavenly Grace
* Oracle with Fortune's End and False Promise
* Phantom Lancer with Doppelganger
* Slark with Dark Pact
* Ursa with Enrage
* Weaver with Time Lapse
* Tidehunter with Kraken Shell when damage received reaches the threshold.
Additional:
* Doppelganger dispels Track.
* Bounty Hunter also has no area of effect abilities to help with the illusions.
* Bristleback's tankiness and damage reduction from the rear makes him very hard for Phantom Lancer to chase and finish off, due to his lack of burst damage.
* Quill Spray quickly destroys Phantom Lancer's illusions.
* Bristleback's passive costs no mana, meaning that it will continue to trigger even if Phantom Lancer drains Bristleback's mana with Diffusal Blade.
Additional:
* Bristleback's tankiness and damage reduction from the rear makes him very hard for Phantom Lancer to chase and finish off, due to his lack of burst damage.
* Quill Spray destroys Phantom Lancer's illusions.
* Bristleback's passive costs no mana, meaning that it will continue to trigger even if Phantom Lancer drains Bristleback's mana with Diffusal Blade.
* Huskar with Life Break
* Heroes that can remove the Track debuff with their skills:
* Abaddon with Aphotic Shield and Borrowed Time
* Huskar with Life Break
* Juggernaut with Blade Fury
* Legion Commander with Press the Attack
* Lifestealer with Rage and Infest
* Naga Siren with Mirror Image
* Omniknight with Heavenly Grace
* Oracle with Fortune's End and False Promise
* Phantom Lancer with Doppelganger
* Slark with Dark Pact
* Ursa with Enrage
* Weaver with Time Lapse
* Tidehunter with Kraken Shell when damage received reaches the threshold.
* The damage from Burning Spear can be reduced by turning away from Huskar.
* Bristleback can bait Huskar into using Life Break on him, then turn around and receive very little damage.
Additional:
* Bristleback's tankiness and Bristleback allow him to outlast Burning Spears' damage-over-time at almost any point in the game. In addition, if Huskar chooses to cast Life Break on Bristleback, Bristleback can simply turn around before it hits and receive little damage.
* Viscous Nasal Goo will reduce Huskar's low armor even further, and Quill Spray and Warpath will tear him down extremely quickly.
* Oracle with Fortune's End and False Promise
* Heroes that can remove the Track debuff with their skills:
* Abaddon with Aphotic Shield and Borrowed Time
* Huskar with Life Break
* Juggernaut with Blade Fury
* Legion Commander with Press the Attack
* Lifestealer with Rage and Infest
* Naga Siren with Mirror Image
* Omniknight with Heavenly Grace
* Oracle with Fortune's End and False Promise
* Phantom Lancer with Doppelganger
* Slark with Dark Pact
* Ursa with Enrage
* Weaver with Time Lapse
* Tidehunter with Kraken Shell when damage received reaches the threshold.
* Fortune's End cannot dispel Warpath stacks on Bristleback or Quill Spray stacks on allies.
* Bristleback can heavily reduce Oracle's damage output. With it, Oracle may accidentally heal Bristleback with Purifying Flames, especially if Bristleback has bonus magic resistance.
* 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.
* Quill Spray quickly destroys Chaos Knight's Phantasms.
* Rubick is a potential counter to Bounty Hunter as he can steal his Track and use it against his invisibility, and also provide his team with more gold if the tracked hero is killed.
* Bristleback's abilities are nearly useless for Rubick to Spell Steal, as he does not gain the bonuses from Warpath.
Additional:
* Rubick deals little damage on his own, and Bristleback can simply shrug off all his spells and chase Rubick down with his Quill Spray and the damage bonus from Warpath.
* Rubick does not tend to charge forward in teamfights, stay in the front lines under most circumstances, yet effective casts of Quill Spray and Viscous Nasal Goo requires the opposite as they require multiple casts and close range to add up stacks.
* Rubick does not benefit from Warpath through casting the stolen spell.
* While Jakiro's damage is going to be little more then average against him due to his Bristleback. His large quantity of stuns can prevent Bristleback from getting his much needed Warpath stacks, while also giving his allies a chance to counter his high defense.
* Dual Breath and Liquid Frost both reduce Movement Speed, removing one of Bristlebacks greatest strengths.
* Liquid Fire reduces Bristlebacks Attack Speed, making it harder for him to burst down a hero with Warpath.
* However Bristleback can generally catch and kill a lone Jakiro. And Jakiro is only effective in a group.
* Macropyre's frequent damage ticks causes Bristleback to activate repeatedly, resulting in free damage as long as Bristleback faces away from Jakiro.
* Heroes that withstand damage like Timbersaw, Bristleback, Dragon Knight and others will have their durability largely reduced when hit by an Ice Blast due to the risk of shattering.
* 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.
* Bounty Hunter's single-targeted arsenal of abilities make him an easy target for Broodmother and her Spiderlings.
* Broodmother often buys Orchid Malevolence and it's upgrade Bloodthorn, which allows her to stop Bounty Hunter from escaping with Shadow Walk.
Additional:
* Like with Bane, Bounty Hunter's single-targeted arsenal of abilities make him an easy target for Broodmother and her Spiderlings.
* Broodmother often buys Orchid Malevolence and it's upgrade Bloodthorn, which allows her to stop Bounty Hunter from escaping with Shadow Walk.
* Spinner's Snare from Aghanim's Scepter allows Broodmother to create invisible lines on her webs from Spin Web that will root Bounty Hunter, deal damage over time to him and reveal him if he unwittingly steps on them, disrupting Bounty Hunter's ganking attempts with Shadow Walk while also alerting Broodmother on his attempts to ambush her and her allies.
* Quill Spray destroys spiderlings, and hits Broodmother even when she's regenerating in her webs. This makes Bristleback one of her hardest counters in lane.
Additional:
* Bristleback reduces most of Broodmother's and her spiderlings' damage.
* Quill Spray will hit any spiders in its proximity, hindering Broodmother's fighting and farming capabilities.
* Lifestealer with Rage and Infest
* Heroes that can remove the Track debuff with their skills:
* Abaddon with Aphotic Shield and Borrowed Time
* Huskar with Life Break
* Juggernaut with Blade Fury
* Legion Commander with Press the Attack
* Lifestealer with Rage and Infest
* Naga Siren with Mirror Image
* Omniknight with Heavenly Grace
* Oracle with Fortune's End and False Promise
* Phantom Lancer with Doppelganger
* Slark with Dark Pact
* Ursa with Enrage
* Weaver with Time Lapse
* Tidehunter with Kraken Shell when damage received reaches the threshold.
* Heroes with high physical damage can damage Lifestealer more than he can heal: Bristleback, Clinkz, Luna,Shadow Fiend, Slardar, Terrorblade
* Axe forces Bristleback to turn around with Berserker's Call, allowing allies to attack him without fear of his passive.
* Heroes who can stop Axe from getting close will severely inhibit his presence in fights: Bristleback, Crystal Maiden, Batrider, Arc Warden, Winter Wyvern, Clockwerk
* Ursa with Enrage
* Heroes that can remove the Track debuff with their skills:
* Abaddon with Aphotic Shield and Borrowed Time
* Huskar with Life Break
* Juggernaut with Blade Fury
* Legion Commander with Press the Attack
* Lifestealer with Rage and Infest
* Naga Siren with Mirror Image
* Omniknight with Heavenly Grace
* Oracle with Fortune's End and False Promise
* Phantom Lancer with Doppelganger
* Slark with Dark Pact
* Ursa with Enrage
* Weaver with Time Lapse
* Tidehunter with Kraken Shell when damage received reaches the threshold.
* Low mobility heroes: Heroes with no/little means of traveling fast have difficulty getting to/away from Bounty Hunter due to his slowing Jinada and hastening Track. Few examples of such heroes are: Crystal Maiden, Sniper, Ursa, Witch Doctor, etc.
To start select enemy heroes in the field above. It's intended to be used with multiple heroes. The more enemy heroes you provide the better results you will get.
This website was made to help you in pick stage of online game Dota 2. It calculates rating for each possible counterpicks based on tips from web-based database made up entirely of user contributions Dota 2 wiki.
You will get the list of recommended hero counters with a list of tips written by Dota 2 wiki contributors explaining why it's good against the particular hero. In comparison to other similar websites, which show only rating based on average hero win rate from dotabuff or similar service.
Take it with a bit of grain of salt, especially if the recommendation has a low rating (<= 1), some heroes
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Bounty Hunter
* Viper's poison abilities can slow Bounty Hunter's movement speed and allows to chase him with True Sight items.
* Nethertoxin can break Jinada, and the silence from level 25 prevents Bounty Hunter from using all of his spells.
Bristleback
* Nethertoxin disables Bristleback's passive.
* Viper Strike and Poison Attack slow down Bristleback's movement speed, making him unable to get out from Nethertoxin.
Additional:
* Viper Strike can disable Bristleback and prevents Warpath from building stacks. Besides losing his defensive passive, Bristleback also loses his ability to build up damage over lengthy battles.
* Viper can perpetually kite Bristleback with Poison Attack and Viper Strike.