* 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.
* Winter Wyvern's Arctic Burn can also be a useful tool against Centaur, who generally has very high health. Winter's Curse on Centaur can cause Retaliate to damage allies who are forced to attack him.
* 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.
* Furthermore, Abaddon's 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.
* 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.
Additional:
* 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.
* 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.
Additional:
* 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.
* Black Hole usually catches Chaos Knight with all his illusions.
* Midnight Pulse deals damage based on current health, quickly killing Phantasm illusions.
* 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.
* 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
Additional:
* Echo Slam's damage potential increases due to Chaos Knight's Phantasm illusions.
* 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.
* 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.
* 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.
* 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.
* 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.
* 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).
* Luna's Moon Glaives will not trigger Retaliate if they hit some other target first. Also Luna commonly buys items that provide lifesteal such as Satanic, which lets her heal from the damage of Retaliate, meaning that Retaliate has little effect against her.
* Eclipse can be used to counter-initiate against Centaur Warrunner after he jumps in with Blink Dagger, and initiates with Hoof Stomp. But remember that Centaur Warrunner can resolve this problem by buying Hood of Defiance and it's upgrade Pipe of Insight to diminish its damage. Or Blade Mail to reflect the damage of the Eclipse back at Luna.
* Luna also commonly buys Black King Bar, which will allow her to protect herself from both, Centaur Warrunner's abilities (except for the Retaliate), and damage reflect from Blade Mail.
Additional:
* Luna's Moon Glaives will not trigger Retaliate if they hit some other target first. Also Luna commonly buys items that provide lifesteal such as Satanic, which lets her heal from the damage of Retaliate, meaning that Retaliate has limited effect against her.
* Eclipse can be used to counter-initiate against Centaur Warrunner after he jumps in with Blink Dagger, and initiates with Hoof Stomp. But remember that Centaur Warrunner can resolve this problem by buying Hood of Defiance and it's upgrade Pipe of Insight to diminish its damage. Or Blade Mail to reflect the damage of the Eclipse back at Luna.
* Luna also commonly buys Black King Bar, which will allow her to protect herself from both, Centaur Warrunner's abilities (except for the Retaliate), and damage reflect from Blade Mail.
* 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 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.
* With high health and rarely buying Linken's Sphere or Black King Bar, Centaur Warrunner is a good target for Reaper's Scythe. However, Centaur Warrunner can resolve this problem by buying Hood of Defiance and it's upgrade Pipe of Insight to diminish its damage.
* Heartstopper Aura will do well against high health heroes such as Centaur Warrunner.
* Innately fragile heroes will die almost instantly to Reality Rift while Chaos Knight has illusions active: Drow Ranger, Bane, Necrophos, Crystal Maiden.
* 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.
* Flak Cannon destroys Chaos Knight's illusions very quickly.
* 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.
* 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.
* 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 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.
* 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 strong area damage to destroy Phantasm illusions: Axe, Ember Spirit, Legion Commander, Phoenix
* Illusion-based and multi-unit heroes can take advantage of Chaos Knight's lack of area damage: Naga Siren, Phantom Lancer, Broodmother
* 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.
* Most Illusion based heroes (like Chaos Knight and Terrorblade) can't use their illusion beneficially against Sanity's Eclipse's high AoE burst damage.
* Heroes with strong area damage to destroy Phantasm illusions: Axe, Ember Spirit, Legion Commander, Phoenix
* Illusion heroes will struggle against Primal Beast's area damage capability, such as Chaos Knight, Naga Siren, Terrorblade.
* 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.
* Heroes reliant on illusions or summons: Broodmother, Chaos Knight, Naga Siren.
* 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.
* 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.
Additional:
* 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.
* Heroes who thrive on teamfights can be a problem, such as Venomancer, Necrophos, Centaur Warrunner...
* Decay can be good against Centaur Warrunner, as reducing the health of Centaur can make Double Edge risky.
* His zombies do not proc Retaliate, as it only procs for regular attacks.
* 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.
* Battery Assault easily interrupts Centaur Warrunner due to his poor cast animation.
* Power Cogs can negate Stampede.
* Single-target disablers will have difficulty locking down a Chaos Knight with Phantasm active: Bane, Beastmaster, Bloodseeker, Clockwerk, Doom, Shadow Shaman.
* 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.
* Anti-Mage's Mana Void won't do a lot of damage because Centaur has a low mana pool. Mana Break is also relatively ineffective against him.
* 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.
* 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.
* Centaur has nothing to deal with Refraction that will negate all of his burst damage.
* Psionic Traps provide good vision, making for him harder to initiate.
* Multiple attackers thanks to illusions: Phantom Lancer, Chaos Knight, Naga Siren (bonus for her Ensnare). Also despite the visual effects, Templar Assassin does not spill damage against illusions or buildings, so she is not a really good hero to clean up illusions.
* Heroes that can quickly deal damage to her, regardless of how weak they are, can easily break through her Refraction:
* Multiple attackers thanks to summoned units or clones: Meepo, Witch Doctor, Lycan, Enigma, Shadow Shaman
* Multiple attackers thanks to illusions: Phantom Lancer, Chaos Knight, Naga Siren (bonus for her Ensnare). Also despite the visual effects, Templar Assassin does not spill damage against illusions or buildings, so she is not a really good hero to clean up illusions.
* Weak damage but high tick rate or persist in a long time: Slark, Gyrocopter, Queen of Pain, Shadow Shaman (Shackles), Jakiro, Pugna, Doom
* Untouchable will significantly slow down Chaos Knight's physical damage with Phantasm.
* Impetus deals double damage to illusions, making it effective against Phantasm.
Additional:
* 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.
* Heroes with haste can negate Enchant's slow: Weaver, Dark Seer, Lycan, Centaur Warrunner.
* 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 keep Monkey King stunned for a long time can pose a threat: Axe, Centaur Warrunner.
* 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.
* Headshot and Shrapnel slow is ineffective against a team with haste (which Stampede gives).
* Commonly picked up mobility items and hasted movement during his Stampede (as well as his high health pool) make him extremely hard to kill from a distance, damaging Sniper with Retaliate and Blade Mail if he has one.
* A low health pool and no escape mechanism makes him an easy target for Centaur Warrunner's burst damage and initiation (even making his team possible initiators with Stampede).
* Razor has no way to deal with Chaos Knight's multiple illusions from Phantasm.
* Centaur can use Stampede to break Static Link. It also prevents Razor from chasing Centaur Warruner or his teammates with Eye of the Storm, and Plasma Field's slow will do nothing to slow them down.
* 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.
* Arc Warden cannot take Centaur Warrunner very easily, and his nukes are not strong enough to deal with Centaur Warrunner.
* Centaur Warrunner deals huge AoE damage and applies an AoE disable through Hoof Stomp, affecting the double as well the main Arc Warden.
* Magnetic Field is not very effective against melee heroes. And to make things worse, Magnetic Field also increases Arc Warden and his allies's attack speed, meaning Retaliate will deal more damage.
* Stampede catches Arc Warden easily due to his lack of escape mechanisms. However, Arc Warden can counter this problem with Gleipnir, which is a common item on Arc Warden.
* Single-target disablers will have difficulty locking down a Chaos Knight with Phantasm active: Bane, Beastmaster, Bloodseeker, Clockwerk, Doom, Shadow Shaman.
* Whenever Doom casts his ultimate, Centaur Warrunner can cast Stampede and allow the Doomed hero to run away, wasting Doom's ultimate.
Additional:
* Stampede can be used to free an ally from the grasp of Doom. Without any means of effective lockdown, kills can be difficult to secure when against an enemy Centaur Warrunner. Also, Centaur's tendency to have lots of health and HP regen tend to help counter Doom.
* 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 that can stop Faceless Void from leaping around the fight and controlling its outcome are very strong against him. Heroes such as: Axe, Centaur Warrunner, Doom...
* 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.
* Hoof Stomp and Double Edge can often burst down Phantom Assassin from early to mid game.
* Retaliate makes it very unlikely for Phantom Assassin to win the lane against Warrunner. Double Edge can also be used to wear her down, as she has a much smaller health pool than that of Centaur Warrunner until purchasing a Ring of Health. Stifling Dagger will also trigger Retaliate and Blur cannot evade Retaliate.
* Centaur Warrunner's tankiness in combination with armour items that Axe often purchases like Blade Mail, Crimson Guard, Assault Cuirass and Shiva's Guard can make Phantom Assassin's attacks only tickle Centaur Warrunner.
* Centaur Warrunner just has to be careful about Fan of Knives from Aghanim's Shard and Coup De Grace, as Fan of Knives can disable Retaliate even if Centaur Warrunner is spell immune.
Additional:
* Hoof Stomp and Double Edge can often burst down Phantom Assassin from early to mid game.
* Retaliate makes it very unlikely for Phantom Assassin to win the lane against Warrunner. Double Edge can also be used to wear her down, as she has a much smaller health pool than that of Centaur Warrunner until purchasing a Ring of Health. Stifling Dagger will also trigger Retaliate and Blur cannot evade Retaliate.
* Centaur Warrunner's tankiness in combination with armour items that Centaur Warrunner often purchases like Blade Mail, Crimson Guard, Assault Cuirass and Shiva's Guard can make Phantom Assassin's attacks only tickle Centaur Warrunner.
* Centaur Warrunner just has to be careful about Fan of Knives from Aghanim's Shard and Coup De Grace, as Fan of Knives can disable Retaliate even if Centaur Warrunner is spell immune.
* Heroes that can overwhelm Visage by sheer number like Chaos Knight, Meepo, Terrorblade and Phantom Lancer.
* Centaur Warrunner's passive Retaliate makes it so that the familiars cannot attack him without damaging themselves over time, in turn causing them to be destroyed.
* 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.
* As Terrorblade's damage output comes mainly from direct attacks, he will struggle greatly against heroes who have abilities that give evasion, trigger on attack or which can disarm an enemy hero: Centaur Warrunner, Hoodwink, Huskar, Invoker, Leshrac with Nihilism from Aghanim's Scepter, Lifestealer with Aghanim's Scepter upgraded Infest, Pangolier, Phantom Assassin, Pugna, Techies, Windranger etc.
* Innately fragile heroes will die almost instantly to Reality Rift while Chaos Knight has illusions active: Drow Ranger, Bane, Necrophos, Crystal Maiden.
Additional:
* Reality Rift will disable Drow Ranger's Marksmanship, along with Chaos Bolt he can keep her locked for enough time to be killed.
* Heroes who have low or high armor but very high health will be difficult for drow to burst down quickly: Primal Beast, Axe, Centaur Warrunner.
* 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.
* Troll Warlord's high speed attack makes Retaliate deal a lot of damage to him.
* 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.
* Heroes that are hard to gank: Axe, Death Prophet, Phantom Lancer, Slark, Centaur Warrunner, Bristleback, Medusa, Mars.
* Phantasm gives Chaos Knight a significant advantage against single-target damage dealers: Lifestealer, Wraith King, Night Stalker, Troll Warlord.
Additional:
* 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.
* Night Stalker is all about right-clicks. His nuke, Void is also not that threatning once you have Hood of Defiance, your core item.
* 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.
* 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.
* 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.
Additional:
* 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.
* 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.
* 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.
Additional:
* 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.
* A good Centaur can catch Queen of Pain with a Blink Dagger and Hoof Stomp.
* Retaliate with Blade Mail reflects all of Queen of Pain's damage, especially Sonic Wave.
* Stampede grants a movement speed bonus, which can prevent Queen of Pain from initiating.
* Double Edge can shred her low health pool if she's not careful.
* 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.
* Centaur's low Intelligence makes Mind Flare do low damage.
* With some creative skill builds, Centaur's Hoof Stomp stun duration should always last longer than Spiked Carapace stun, so escaping unscathed is hard for Nyx.
* With Blink Dagger and detection, Centaur can devastate Nyx in the open.
* However, bear in mind that Nyx can also easily initiate on Centaur Warrunner as well if he uses Spiked Carapace in anticipation, and with Vendetta. The damage from Retaliate will be reflected back to Centaur Warrunner, stunning him with no chance to react after he's revealed himself, and should guarantee a successful Impale.
* While Blade Fury is on cooldown, Juggernaut can be easily killed by a standard Chaos Bolt & Reality Rift combo.
* Phantasm illusions can tank Omnislash.
* Phantasm dispels Ignite and makes targeting the real Chaos Knight much harder.
* 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.
* 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.
* 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.
Additional:
* 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.
* 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 with abilities that can close the gap can easily kill Muerta: Storm Spirit, Earth Spirit, Ember Spirit, Void Spirit, Lycan, Chaos Knight, Tusk.
* Durable heroes can stand against Tusk during 1v1: Axe, Dragon Knight, Night Stalker, Centaur Warrunner, Wraith King and more.
* 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.
* Heroes who can match Void Spirit's mobility (like the aforementioned Ember Spirit or Queen of Pain) or tank his spells (Dragon Knight or Centaur Warrunner) are very problematic for him.
* 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.
* 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.
* 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 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.
* Heroes with illusion and clone abilities may confuse Bloodseeker, causing him to waste time in fights: Phantom Lancer, Chaos Knight, Arc Warden
* Single-target disablers will have difficulty locking down a Chaos Knight with Phantasm active: Bane, Beastmaster, Bloodseeker, Clockwerk, Doom, Shadow Shaman.
* Heroes who relies on illusions and summons (Beastmaster, Chaos Knight, etc.).
* Phantasm gives Chaos Knight a significant advantage against single-target damage dealers: Lifestealer, Wraith King, Night Stalker, Troll Warlord.
Additional:
* 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.
* 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
* Pangolier will proc Retaliate several times if he attempts to use Swashbuckle on Centaur Warrunner.
* Centaur can cast Stampede to allow all of his allies to easily avoid Rolling Thunder.
* Centaur's tankiness makes it hard for Pangolier to burst him down in the late game.
Additional:
* When Swashbuckle hits Centaur Warrunner, Retaliate will deal significant damage, as it procs off every strike made.
* Stampede helps allies avoid or disengage from Pangolier during Rolling Thunder, as well as neutralizing the slow debuff from Lucky Shot.
* Heroes who are reliant on illusions or summons: Chaos Knight, Broodmother, Naga Siren.
* Stampede can allow Soulbinded heroes to just ran away.
* 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.
* Focus Fire grants Windranger a massive attack speed bonus, while her attack damage is generally quite low. This, combined with Windranger's low health pool and armor, makes Retaliate do absolutely massive damage over a short time, making Centaur a hero she can never expect to kill or harass.
* Windrun grants evasion, but Centaur Warrunner does not rely on successful attacks in order to do damage. Hoof Stomp, Double Edge, and Stampede all do large amounts of magical damage and can completely demolish Windranger in a moment.
Additional:
* Stampede can help his teammates escape from Windrun and Focus Fire.
* Retaliate will shred through Windranger's health if she chooses to attack him during Focus Fire.
* Heroes with Attack speed decreasing skills: Jakiro, Viper Lich
* 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.
Additional:
* 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.
* 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.
Additional:
* 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.
* His illusions will kill themselves in a few hits because of Retaliate. The nukes from Hoof Stomp and Double-Edge should be enough to clear them for a large portion of the game
* Centaur Warrunner's small mana pool makes Diffusal Blade's damage much lower once Centaur doesn't have any more mana left to burn. Keep in mind that Double Edge does not cost mana.
* Be wary when chasing down Phantom Lancer. Hoof Stomp's terrible cast time makes it quite easy to dodge with Doppelganger.
Additional:
* Hoof Stomp and Double Edge makes short work of Phantom Lancer's illusions.
* Retaliate together with Blade Mail reflects Phanton Lancer's damage and quickly destroys his illusions.
* Illusion-based and multi-unit heroes can take advantage of Chaos Knight's lack of area damage: Naga Siren, Phantom Lancer, Broodmother
* Heroes who are reliant on illusions: Chaos Knight, Phantom Lancer, Naga Siren.
Additional:
* Centaur's Retaliate will harm all attacking enemies, which will allow Centaur Warrunner to see which is the real Naga Siren.
* A well timed Hoof Stomp followed by Double Edge will clear all Naga's illusions and prevent Naga Siren from escaping with Song of the Siren.
* 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.
* Kinetic Field and Glimpse can completely negate Stampede.
* 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.
* Feast is an effective tool against Centaur Warrunner, who generally has high health and low armor, and compensates the reflected damage of Retaliate.
* If activated, Rage can protect Lifestealer from Hoof Stomp, Double Edge, and Stampede.
Additional:
* Centaur Warrunner's active abilities cannot pierce magic immunity. Hoof Stomp's slow wind up can also be anticipated and negated with Rage.
* Lifestealer can offset Retaliate's damage return simply with Feast. Centaur's high strength gain and therefore big health pool makes him an ideal target to Feast on, especially in the late-game.
* 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.
Additional:
* 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.
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Chaos Knight
* Tidebringer, Torrent and Ghostship destroys Chaos Knight's Phantasm army all through the game.
Centaur Warrunner
* X Marks the Spot negates Stampede.