* 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.
* Thanks to
Counterspell's magic resistance, Anti-Mage has a good chance of surviving a Blast Off combo.
* Anti-Mage is a natural
Manta Style carrier, meaning he can dispel the silence from Blast Off and blink away when Techies initiates on him.
*
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.
* Heroes with low health will die easily during Duels, and can be farmed for damage in the early game:
Crystal Maiden,
Lich,
Techies,
Rubick
*
Batrider's turn rate slow from
Sticky Napalm makes it harder for Bristleback to keep his back towards the enemy.
* As long as Batrider is under the effect of Firefly, he can safely fly over
Proximity Mines (He does not receive vision over the mines).
* Heroes that lose a great amount of their tankiness and become easier to finish off:
Bristleback,
Spectre,
Phantom Assassin,
Enchantress,
Dragon Knight.
* Once you have an
Aghanim's Scepter, Shadow Demon instantly reaches a new power spike and becomes a counter for a variety of heroes that have strong passives.
* Heroes that lose a great amount of their tankiness and become easier to finish off:
Bristleback,
Spectre,
Phantom Assassin,
Enchantress,
Dragon Knight.
* Heroes that lose a great amount of damage output and become less threatening:
Phantom Assassin,
Sven,
Slark,
Phantom Lancer.
* You can always stack camps and farm the scepter with Shadow Poison.
* Shadow Demon's spammable illusions can be used to scout Techies'
Proximity Mines.
*
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.
* 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.
*
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.
*
Guardian Sprint allows Slardar to outrun Bristleback, even when slowed by Viscous Nasal Goo.
*
Corrosive Haze's armor reduction makes Bristleback much less tanky.
*
Exorcism's ghosts will automatically clear all Proximity Mines revealed when Death Prophet walks near them, provided that the ghosts do not have a specific target at that time.
* Death Prophet is a natural
Eul's Scepter of Divinity carrier, meaning she can easily escape a Blast Off initiation.
*
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.
Additional:
*
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.
* 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.
Additional:
*
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.
* Wraith King is not afraid to walk into mines, whenever he goes with his Reincarnation ready.
Additional:
* Wraith King's skeletons from
Vampiric Spirit keeps the choke points and rune spawns safe from Proximity Mines.
* Wraith King is not afraid to go into a field of Proximity Mines, wherever he goes as long as
Reincarnation is off cooldown .
* 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.
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.
*
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).
* Aphotic Shield makes it less likely for allies to be killed by mines.
* Because they explode in very short intervals, a stack of
Remote Mines will always trigger Borrowed Time, making them impossible to kill Abaddon unless his resistances are lowered enough or Abaddon is affected by Break.
* Abaddon can easily dispel the long-lasting root of
Stasis Trap on himself and on an ally, while at the same also providing protection against the other mines' damage.
Additional:
*
Borrowed Time's automatic activation will help Abaddon survive a field of Proximity Mines or a Blast Off combo. However, the damage from a single mine can kill him if his HP is low enough.
*
Aphotic Shield's can easily break Techies' Etheral Blade combo.
* 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.
Additional:
*
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.
*
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.
* Techies spends lots of time standing still planting stacks of
Land Mines away from creep waves.
* Sacred Arrow can be used to scout hidden
Land Mines among trees and at uphill places. It can also be used to catch Techies while he's planting them.
* If Techies is hit with a Sacred Arrow, he can be killed before he has a chance to use
Blast Off!.
* Mirana has a high attack range to destroy his traps from a safe distance.
*
Dark Ascension also allows Night Stalker to fly over Proximity Mines without triggering them.
*
Crippling Fear is effective in stopping Techies from using Blast Off and
Void is effective in stopping them from running to the safety of their mines.
* Juggernaut can trigger Proximity Mines while in
Blade Fury, and can walk away from a initiation with Blast Off if Blade Fury is activated before the silence.
* Juggernaut ignores Reactive Tazer when he uses
Omnislash, whether Techies used it to protect an ally or themselves.
* Familiars can fly over the mines, rendering them safe from damage of Techies's mines. Visage can also use Familiars to check for mines on the map.
* Techies's low attack speed and damage will give them a hard time in destroying Visage's Familiars, and that can become even worse if they are affected by
Grave Chill.
*
Gravekeeper's Cloak allows Visage to survive Damage from Techies's mines.
* 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.
*
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.
*
Refraction can be very useful in safely neutralizing Proximity Mine fields, or absorbing Techies' Blast Off combo.
* Tanky melee heroes that can easily be kited, which allows Outworld Destroyer to deal heavy damage with Arcane Orb from a distance:
Sven,
Underlord,
Bristleback.
Additional:
* 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.
* 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 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.
* Slow heroes that have a hard time escaping the Echo Stomp radius:
Crystal Maiden,
Pudge,
Techies.
* 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.
* 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.
* Heroes with summons like
Broodmother,
Enigma,
Nature's Prophet; or illusions, like
Naga Siren,
Terrorblade are effective at keeping the choke points and rune spawns safe from Proximity Mines.
* Heroes with high health especially Strength heroes will take more damage on Sun Ray:
Axe,
Pudge,
Bristleback,
Mars.
* Any hero with a low HP pool is easy for Tinker to nuke down:
Crystal Maiden,
Enchantress,
Gyrocopter,
Lion,
Riki,
Techies,
Terrorblade,
Necrophos,
Invoker.
* 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.
Additional:
*
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.
* 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.
* Rage protects Lifestealer from all of Techies's abilities.
Reactive Tazer's disarm will also not work on Lifestealer under Rage.
* Rage can also be used to trigger Techies's
Proximity Mines safely.
Additional:
* Lifestealer's
Rage lets him clear Proximity Mines without taking damage, and allows him to hit heroes whom Techies has used Reactive Tazer on.
* Heroes with high physical damage can damage Lifestealer more than he can heal:
Bristleback,
Clinkz,
Luna,
Shadow Fiend,
Slardar,
Terrorblade
*
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.
*
Techies has both a stun and a powerful nuke in
Blast Off!, root from
Stasis Trap and even more magical damage in
Proximity Mines and
Remote Mines.
* Plague Wards may reveal a hiding Techies. If there's a sentry nearby, they may also reveal a stack of mines hidden in a juking spot.
* 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.
*
Terrorblade's
Sunder is not affected by the Bristleback damage reduction.
* Heroes with summons like
Broodmother,
Enigma,
Nature's Prophet; or illusions, like
Naga Siren,
Terrorblade are effective at keeping the choke points and rune spawns safe from Proximity Mines.
* Techies deals lots of magical damage with
Sticky Bomb,
Blast Off! and
Proximity Mines that bypasses Terrorblade's high armor and can punish his low max life.
*
Sticky Bomb is easy to land on a large clump of Terrorblade illusions and will damage and slow Terrorblade and all of his illusions if he can't quickly move the right one away.
*
Reactive Tazer upgraded with
Aghanim's Scepter can be used to protect an ally getting attacked by Terrorblade. Further, it disarms all of his illusions even while he has activated
Black King Bar, greatly decreasing his damage.
*
Blast Off! stuns Terrorblade, preventing him from casting
Sunder.
* Quill Spray usually hits Meepo's clones, although Bristleback cannot turn his back when rooted with
Earthbind.
*
Reactive Tazer can lock multiple Meepos in place and prevent them from Poofing.
*
Proximity Mines,
Sticky Bomb and
Blast Off! can deal heavy magic damage to multiple Meepos.
* Quill Spray quickly destroys Chaos Knight's
Phantasms.
* 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.
* 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.
Additional:
* 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.
* 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.
*
Bristleback's
Viscous Nasal Goo can catch and slow Bounty Hunter.
Warpath and
Quill Spray can defeat him quickly due to his small HP pool when compared to Bristleback's.
* 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.
*
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, and her only way to counter this is by buying
Silver Edge.
*
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.
* After using Snowball, Tusk can't control where he's going, allowing Techies to make him roll onto mines.
* 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.
* Morphling usually has low max health due to shifting strength into agility, which combined with Blast Off's silence will prevent him from using
Waveform and
Adaptive Strike (Strength), leaving him defenseless and making him an easy target to burst down.
* 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.
*
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.
* 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.
Additional:
* 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.
* Techies can turn his tree jumping ability against him, by placing Proximity Mines that will detect him near trees, and then destroying the trees around him with Blast Off, stunning him and dealing high damage, on top of him being silenced when the stun expires.
* Monkey King's mobility is also severely limited around Techies' mines as he will almost always trigger them due to the cooldown time between tree jumps. Monkey King will be forced to take mine damage or escape with
Primal Spring.
Additional:
*
Proximity Mines can be placed near trees to detect Monkey King.
* Follow up with
Blast Off! to destroy the tree, causing Monkey King to take high damage, fall from the tree, and become stunned.
* 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.
Additional:
* Combo Quill Spray and items
Blade Mail can easily trigger from Focus Fire damage.
* Techies can easily catch Chen off guard and kill him quickly with
Blast Off! and
Ethereal Blade combo, especially because
Blast Off! can silence Chen and stun him when upgraded with
Aghanim's Shard.
* However, Chen's converted creeps can trigger
Proximity Mines, wasting them.
* If Storm Spirit isn't careful, he could fall into a trap set by Techies and another hero acting as bait.
*
Stasis Trap roots Storm Spirit for 2/3/4/5 seconds and
Blast Off! silences for 4/5/6/7 seconds, which effectively prevents Storm Spirit from using
Ball Lightning to escape for a lengthy duration.
* 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.
Additional:
* 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.
*
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.
*
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.
*
Viscous Nasal Goo slows down Dragon Knight and lowers armor, locking him down and making him more vulnerable.
* 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
* 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.
Additional:
* Bristleback's abilities are nearly useless for Rubick to
Spell Steal, as he does not gain the bonuses from Warpath.
* Heroes that provide vision will see Fiend's Gate coming:
Techies,
Templar Assassin,
Treant Protector.
* 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.
* Heroes with nukes that can jump her:
Clockwerk,
Snapfire,
Spirit Breaker,
Techies
Additional:
* Techies does huge amounts of magical damage, which will bypass
Untouchable.
* Enchantress depends on abilities to do damage and heal, which Blast Off's silence prevents.
*
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.
* Some abilities deals damage from an independent source and not from the hero itself, so Nyx cannot counter them with Spiked Carapace: illusions or summoning units,
Homing Missile,
Nimbus,
Mass Serpent Ward,
Death Ward and especially
Techies's mines.
* Heroes that commonly attack ethereal units will not have any problems against Muerta's Pierce The Veil:
Tinker,
Jakiro,
Lina,
Luna,
Pugna or
Ogre Magi,
Enigma,
Batrider,
Techies,
Broodmother,
Dawnbreaker,
Shadow Shaman,
Bane,
Tinker,
Venomancer,
Arc Warden.
* Other heroes who has armor and slow debuffs won't allow Medusa to disengage from combat:
Tidehunter,
Bristleback,
Slardar.
* 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:
* 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.
* Heroes with summons like
Broodmother,
Enigma,
Nature's Prophet; or illusions, like
Naga Siren,
Terrorblade are effective at keeping the choke points and rune spawns safe from Proximity Mines.
*
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.
Additional:
* 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.
* Illusions can be sent out to destroy
Techies mines.
*
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.
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 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.
* Heroes with summons like
Broodmother,
Enigma,
Nature's Prophet; or illusions, like
Naga Siren,
Terrorblade are effective at keeping the choke points and rune spawns safe from Proximity Mines.
* 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.
*
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.
*
Remote Mines are frequently placed in trees, and can thus kill an unwary Hoodwink should she
Scurry away due to her low HP pool.
*
Blast Off! can clear out trees, denying the tactical advantages from
Scurry.
*
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
* He can send wolves to defuse
Proximity Mines, and he can catch up Techies and kill him before they can deny themselves. Even if the suicide is successful, Lycan can still survive because of his tankiness.
*
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.
Additional:
* 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.
*
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.
* 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.
*
Fate's Edict gives 100% magic resistance, which prevents most of Techies' damage.
* Oracle's
Fortune's End dispels Reactive Tazer buff from Techies allowing him to be attacked. However, Reactive Tazer will instantly perform the area of effect disarm that is normally applied at the end of the duration.
* Fortune's End will also dispel Blast Off silence, Techies' Etheral Blade, Proximity Mines' magic resistance reduction, and Sticky Bomb's slow. However beware that it will only dispel Sticky Bomb's first or second instance of slow and not the damage, which will trigger as normal.
Additional:
* Oracle can negate all of Techies' skills with Fate's Edict, as they are all magic damage. Fate's Edict can also be used to search and trigger
Proximity Mines when crossing mined territory.
* Oracle can dispel
Reactive Tazer off Techies, as well as the silence from
Blast Off!, with Fortune's End.
* Oracle can further delay Techies' burst damage capability with False Promise.
* 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.
* Heroes with summons like
Broodmother,
Enigma,
Nature's Prophet; or illusions, like
Naga Siren,
Terrorblade are effective at keeping the choke points and rune spawns safe from Proximity Mines.
* Heroes that have AoE damage:
Lina,
Keeper of the Light,
Timbersaw,
Leshrac,
Bristleback,
Axe.
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
may win a lane in an early game but would lose in late game (and vice versa). That's why sometimes
you could hero names appearing as a counter and as being countered, as on image:
You can also add your own tips, update old data and fix mistakes by editing page on Dota 2 Wiki (it works like Wikipedia - anyone can contribute, you don't even need to register) these edits will appear on this website automatically (data is updated several times per week).
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Bristleback
*
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.
Poison Attack and
Viper Strike.
Nethertoxin disables Bristleback's passive.
Viper Strike and
Poison Attack slow down Bristleback's movement speed, making him unable to get out from Nethertoxin.
* Viper can perpetually kite Bristleback with
Additional:
*
*
Techies
*
Corrosive Skin will protect Viper from Techies' magical damage.
Poison Attack, he does lots of damage with his other abilities that can still kill Techies.
* Even though Reactive Tazer will disarm Viper if he attacks Techies with