* The slow from Torrent makes Crystal Maiden's already bad movement speed even worse.
* Kunkka has many tools to interrupt Freezing Field (most notably Torrent, Ghostship and Torrent Storm from Aghanim's Scepter), as she is an easy target while channeling it.
* It is worth noting that most of Kunkka's abilities do not pierce through spell immunity, so purchasing a Black King Bar might help Crystal Maiden in this regard.
* Tidebringer, Torrent and Ghostship destroys Chaos Knight's Phantasm army all through the game.
* Gush can make Crystal Maiden's already weak armor even weaker.
* Kraken Shell can dispel Frostbite, preventing him from getting stuck inside Freezing Field.
* Ravage is very useful for interrupting Freezing Field, even while Crystal Maiden is under the effects of Glimmer Cape. Crystal Maiden must purchase a Black King Bar, which is far more costly.
* 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.
* Ice Path allows Jakiro to easily cancel Freezing Field.
* Freezing Field makes Crystal Maiden an easy target for all of his abilities without a Black King Bar.
* With the Aghanim's Scepter upgraded Macropyre, Black King Bar becomes nearly useless for Crystal Maiden, as its high pure damage over time, long duration and ability to pierce spell immunity will either force Crystal Maiden to forcefully cancel Freezing Field or even discourage her from using it at all.
Additional:
* Ice Path allows Jakiro to easily cancel Freezing Field.
* Freezing Field makes Crystal Maiden an easy target for all of Jakiro's abilities without a Black King Bar.
* Aghanim's Scepter upgraded Macropyre can deal pure damage-over-time and pierce spell immunity, making Black King Bar nearly useless for Crystal Maiden, as its high damage over time and long duration can discourage Crystal Maiden to use Freezing Field. Remember, however, that Crystal Maiden can partially solve this issue by buying Aghanim's Shard, which will allow her to simply walk out of Macropyre.
* 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.
* 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 quickly destroys Chaos Knight's Phantasms.
* Crystal Maiden is extremely fragile and she's an easy target for him. She has no real disables that can lock Ember Spirit down, and all of her skill damage can be negated with Flame Guard. The damage from Searing Chains, Flame Guard, and Sleigh of Fist can easily take her down.
* 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.
* Fragile supports who die in a few hits against Sven's high physical damage: Crystal Maiden, Vengeful Spirit, Dark Willow.
* 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.
* Duel is a great initiation to target Crystal Maiden with, as it prevents her from using Freezing Field or any other abilities and allowing the enemy team to quickly kill her before she can aid her team in a fight.
* Heroes with strong area damage to destroy Phantasm illusions: Axe, Ember Spirit, Legion Commander, Phoenix
* Heroes with channeled abilities can be interrupted by a long-range Fissure: Crystal Maiden, Witch Doctor, Bane, Pugna, Pudge.
* 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.
* Phantom's Embrace can silence Crystal Maiden and disrupt Freezing Field's channeling. Her slow movement speed and fragile nature will also make her an easy target for Stroke of Fate and Ink Swell.
* Heroes who are reliant on illusions or summons: Chaos Knight, Broodmother, Naga Siren.
* Mirror Image can dispel Frostbite. A similar effect can be achieved with Manta Style, a core item on Naga Siren.
* Song of the Siren can stop Freezing Field regardless of any kind of invisibility as well as allow Naga Siren's team to quickly close the gap on Crystal Maiden.
* With Aghanim's Scepter, Naga Siren can get access to Reel In ability, which can allow her to pull Crystal Maiden toward herself and her team and cancel Freezing Field even through Black King Bar.
Additional:
* Mirror Image can dispel Frostbite.
* Song of the Siren can stop Freezing Field regardless of any kind of invisibility as well as allow Naga Siren's team to quickly close the gap on Crystal Maiden.
* Ensnare allows Naga Siren and her team to quickly catch up with Crystal Maiden and kill her.
* With Aghanim's Scepter, Naga Siren can get access to Reel In ability , which can allow her to pull Crystal Maiden toward herself and her team and cancel Freezing Field even through Black King Bar.
* Illusion-based and multi-unit heroes can take advantage of Chaos Knight's lack of area damage: Naga Siren, Phantom Lancer, Broodmother
* Puck has both Waning Rift and Dream Coil to stop Freezing Field's channel regardless of whether or not Crystal Maiden has a Glimmer Cape, as both spells fully affect invisible units.
* Puck's area of effect nukes in the form of Illusory Orb and Waning Rift clears Phantasm illusions from the early game to mid game.
* Phase Shift can be used to disjoint Chaos Bolt.
* Heroes with mobility spells like Queen of Pain, Anti-Mage, Phantom Assassin, Riki, Puck, and Spirit Breaker that are cancelled by Frostbite can suffer greatly from the presence of Crystal Maiden. It is absolutely critical, however, to have followup from teammates, as all of the above heroes can make quick work of the squishy Crystal Maiden after they are released from her grip.
* Heroes with slow movement speeds and small health pools (supports like Crystal Maiden or Witch Doctor) are easy targets for Phoenix. Should they be inflicted by its DOT debuffs, they will be very quickly killed without even getting a chance to fight back.
* Heroes with strong area damage to destroy Phantasm illusions: Axe, Ember Spirit, Legion Commander, Phoenix
* Any hero with low mobility and max healthsuch as Silencer, Crystal Maiden etc.
* Illusion heroes will struggle against Primal Beast's area damage capability, such as Chaos Knight, Naga Siren, Terrorblade.
* Any hero with a low HP pool is easy for Tinker to nuke down: Crystal Maiden, Enchantress, Gyrocopter, Lion, Riki, Techies, Terrorblade, Necrophos, Invoker.
* 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.
* 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.
* Berserker's Call can interrupt Freezing Field, even through Black King Bar and/or Glimmer Cape.
* Battle Hunger makes Crystal Maiden's already bad movement speed even worse.
* Axe frequently builds Blade Mail, which can quickly kill Crystal Maiden if her ultimate is used while he is under its effect.
* Heroes with 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 who can stop Axe from getting close will severely inhibit his presence in fights: Bristleback, Crystal Maiden, Batrider, Arc Warden, Winter Wyvern, Clockwerk
* 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.
* 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.
* 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.
* Being a hero with low health and abysmal mobility, Lina can nuke her down easily.
* Since Crystal Maiden's Freezing Field is a channeled ability, Lina can use her Light Strike Array to cancel it easily.
* Boulder Smash and Geomagnetic Grip allow Earth Spirit to easily disrupt Freezing Field, regardless of where Crystal Maiden is due to their incredible range. Earth Spirit is quite possibly the best hero for stopping long channeling abilities, and Crystal Maiden is vulnerable to him without a Black King Bar.
* All of Earth Spirit's spells allow him to easily close in on Crystal Maiden and kill her. Since she is a low health support, she generally stays behind in teamfights, but Earth Spirit can easily close the distance.
* Crystal Maiden has low movement speed and no other escape mechanism, rendering her extremely vulnerable to Earth Spirit's arsenal of long-range, damaging spells.
* Cold feet can be used to ensure that the full channel of Freezing Field doesn't go off.
* 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.
* Crystal Maiden has a very bad movement speed, so Impale is easy to land against her. Furthermore, even while trapped by Frostbite, Nyx Assassin can still cast Impale.
* Crystal Maiden has very low armor, so Vendetta is very effective.
* Nyx Assassin has two ways to stop Freezing Field, provided she doesn't get a Black King Bar. He can either pop Spiked Carapace and simply walk into the field, or he can use Impale to interrupt the field, since Crystal Maiden has to channel it.
Additional:
* Spiked Carapace easily interrupts Freezing Field.
* Frostbite's damage over time sets up an easy Spiked Carapace stun.
* Crystal Maiden is extremely fragile and dies quickly to Nyx Assassin's burst damage.
* Crystal Maiden is squishy, is heavily spell reliant, has low base Intelligence, and is naturally slow, making her an ideal target for Silencer.
* Crystal Maiden's Freezing Field has a similar cooldown to Global Silence, therefore, Freezing Field can almost always be canceled to ruin aggressive Crystal Maiden initiations.
* 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.
* Lucent Beam allows Luna to easily cancel Freezing Field.
* Without Black King Bar protection, Lucent Beam and Eclipse can make a short work out of Crystal Maiden's abysmal health.
* Skilled Luna will always buy Dust of Appearance, allowing her team to have a vision on Crystal Maiden while invisible and during channeling Freezing Field.
* Even with Black King Bar, Luna can still inflict considerable damage on Crystal Maiden with her attacks, which get empowered with Moon Glaives and Lunar Blessing, also smart and skilled Luna will buy Abyssal Blade to cancel Freezing Field even through Black King Bar in case of emergency. And since Crystal Maiden rarely buys Linken's Sphere, this can be a very big problem for her.
Additional:
* Lucent Beam allows Luna to easily cancel Freezing Field.
* Without Black King Bar protection, Lucent Beam and Eclipse can make a short work out of Crystal Maiden's abysmal health.
* Skilled Luna will always buy Dust of Appearance, allowing her team to have a vision on Crystal Maiden while invisible and during channeling Freezing Field.
* Even with Black King Bar, Luna can still inflict considerable damage on Crystal Maiden with her attacks, which get empowered with Moon Glaives and Lunar Blessing, also smart and skilled Luna will buy Abyssal Blade to cancel Freezing Field even through Black King Bar in case of emergency. Forcing Crystal Maiden to buy Linken's Sphere.
* Illusions and summons are double-edge sword type of matchup for Luna. On one hand, they can tank damage from Eclipse, but on the other hand, she can easily clear them before Eclipse with Moon Glaives. Examples include Spectre, Shadow Demon, Phantom Lancer, Naga Siren, Chaos Knight, Terrorblade) or bring other units into the fight (such as Nature's Prophet, Lone Druid, Chen, Enchantress, Meepo and Arc Warden).
* Heroes that create illusions: Spectre, Shadow Demon, Phantom Lancer, Naga Siren, Chaos Knight, Terrorblade) or bring other units into the fight (such as Nature's Prophet, Lone Druid, Chen, Enchantress, Meepo and Arc Warden) can cause Eclipse to strike the illusions/summons unintentionally. However, in many cases Moon Glaives can resolve this issue and eliminate them before activating Eclipse, but that will require lots of farming for right-click items.
* Crystal Nova helps on farming while applies an area slow.
* Frostbite extends Rubick's lockdown duration while providing extra damage, also serves as a farming ability.
* Freezing Field deals much greater damage thanks to Arcane Supremacy in teamfights.
* Freezing Field is a channeling ability and therefore can be stolen easily.
* Crystal Maiden has no innate ability to interrupt Freezing Field, though it may not be the case for her teammates; Yet a well-times Telekinesis lift or drop can interrupt Freezing Field.
* Consider build items that strengthens Freezing Field, such as Aghanim's Shard, Black King Bar and Aghanim's Scepter to reach its full potential.
* Heroes with large health pools (Pudge) or good innate magic resistance (Anti-Mage) can be very problematic for Crystal Maiden, since even if they are under the effect of her ultimate for the entire duration, the damage output is simply not enough to kill or force them to retreat.
* 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.
* Heroes with mobility spells like Queen of Pain, Anti-Mage, Phantom Assassin, Riki, Puck, and Spirit Breaker that are cancelled by Frostbite can suffer greatly from the presence of Crystal Maiden. It is absolutely critical, however, to have followup from teammates, as all of the above heroes can make quick work of the squishy Crystal Maiden after they are released from her grip.
* 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.
* Sacred Arrow can be used to interrupt Freezing Field from a safe distance, forcing her to cancel it to dodge or get hit.
* Crystal Maiden has very slow movement speed, making her an easy Sacred Arrow target.
* Crystal Maiden has low health and can easily be killed with an Aghanim's Scepter combo or just when hit with an arrow.
* If Frostbite has already been used, Mirana can Leap away even when slowed by Crystal Nova or Freezing Field.
* Snowball allows Tusk to easily cancel Freezing Field from a safe distance without putting himself in any danger.
* Walrus PUNCH! is most certainly a high enough damage nuke to easily kill off Crystal Maiden.
* Ice Shards can prevent the already immobile Crystal Maiden from escaping, making her an easy kill for either Tusk or a teammate.
Additional:
* Crystal Maiden's low health and armor make her an easy target for Walrus PUNCH!
* Tusk's Snowball can protect allies and cancel Freezing Field.
* Snowball and Walrus PUNCH! can interrupt Freezing Field.
* 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.
* 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 with little health or magic resistance are easily picked off with Oracle's magic burst, such as Skywrath Mage, Crystal Maiden, or Enchantress.
* In general, heroes with AoE or long range disables (such as Faceless Void with Chronosphere, Pudge with Meat Hook and Elder Titan with Echo Stomp) hinder Crystal Maiden, preventing her from using Freezing Field to help her team in a fight.
* 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 who are reliant on illusions: Chaos Knight, Phantom Lancer, Naga Siren.
* 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.
* In the same vein, heroes with silences — especially with the AoE ones like Death Prophet's Silence — can also prevent Crystal Maiden from being able to impact a fight.
* Heroes that have small health pools and little to no escape mechanisms are even easier prey for Necrophos. Ghost Shroud's slow will allow him to catch him with them, and get nuked down with his abilities, even preventing retaliation due to Reaper's Scythe's stun. Such heroes include Crystal Maiden, Witch Doctor, Warlock or Shadow Fiend.
* 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.
* Innately fragile heroes will die almost instantly to Reality Rift while Chaos Knight has illusions active: Drow Ranger, Bane, Necrophos, Crystal Maiden.
* Crystal Maiden's already low armor and easily interruptible ultimate, Freezing Field can make Slardar her worst nightmare. Crystal Maiden also often builds Glimmer Cape which is revealed by Corrosive Haze.
* Long range disables are really effective against dangerous area controllers and channeling Heroes, like Enigma, Faceless Void or Crystal Maiden, as it may cancel them or prevent enemies from doing further damage while keeping Lion in a relatively safe distance in the warzone.
* 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 who rely on channeling abilities can be interrupted in teamfights by Rolling Thunder: Crystal Maiden, Pugna, Witch Doctor
* 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
* Heroes with powerful rooting abilities will disable most of Pangolier's skills, a bonus point if it pierces spell immunity since it will also be able to stop Pangolier during his Rolling Thunder: Treant Protector, Meepo, Crystal Maiden, Dark Willow, Underlord, Naga Siren
* Heroes reliant on illusions or summons: Broodmother, Chaos Knight, Naga Siren.
* Grave Chill will make Crystal Maiden's bad movement speed even worse.
* Soul Assumption charges can easily be stacked up from Freezing Field, allowing Visage to nuke enemies multiple times throughout the fight.
* {U:Familiar}'s Stone Form can also be used to interrupt Freezing Field, even while Crystal Maiden is under the effects of Glimmer Cape. Crystal Maiden must purchase a Black King Bar, which is far more costly.
* Heroes that can overwhelm Visage by sheer number like Chaos Knight, Meepo, Terrorblade and Phantom Lancer.
* Battery Assault, Power Cogs, and Hookshot can interrupt Freezing Field, the latter two being able to go through invisibility should Crystal Maiden use Glimmer Cape.
* Rocket Flare can be used to find Crystal Maiden should she try to hide in the trees to try to safely cast Freezing Field.
* Hookshot allows Clockwerk to easily close in on Crystal Maiden and kill her.
* Single-target disablers will have difficulty locking down a Chaos Knight with Phantasm active: Bane, Beastmaster, Bloodseeker, Clockwerk, Doom, Shadow Shaman.
* Smoke Screen effectively disables Crystal Maiden's channeling spell: Freezing Field.
* Due to her low health and armor throughout the game, Riki can kill her easily.
* 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.
* As Crystal Maiden is squishy with very bad movement speed, Spectre can easily stay on Crystal Maiden with Haunt and Spectral Dagger.
* Late game, with enough farm, Spectre can withstand an entire Freezing Field, possibly even causing Crystal Maiden to kill herself from Dispersion.
* 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.
* 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 like Enchantress and Chen, or heroes that make use of Helm of the Dominator are weak to Crystal Maiden, as Frostbite can do wonders against Enchant, Holy Persuasion, or dominated creeps. Careful though, as an army of carefully controlled creeps (Enchantress and Chen) can hold many stuns that will cancel Freezing Field.
Additional:
* Frostbite does 1000 magical damage to Enchantress's creeps and roots them for 10 seconds, which hinders her ability to gank.
* Doom alone can easily pick off Crystal Maiden since she is fairly fragile, even with using only basic attacks, Infernal Blade, and Scorched Earth.
* Doom prevents her from using any abilities in a fight, making her impact negligible.
* Devour allows Doom to acquire a stun, allowing him to cancel Freezing Field without having to use Doom.
* Single-target disablers will have difficulty locking down a Chaos Knight with Phantasm active: Bane, Beastmaster, Bloodseeker, Clockwerk, Doom, Shadow Shaman.
* 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.
* 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.
* Heroes who can easily harass Crystal Maiden out of lane in the early game (Clinkz, Viper) can prevent Crystal Maiden from being able to level effectively, and can ultimately slow down her level 6, 12, and 18 to a point where enemy carries already have items to address her ultimate.
* 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.
* Though Slark's large damage output is most certainly a concern for the squishy Crystal Maiden, she does perform fairly well against him when coupled with aid from her team.
* Slark has no innate way to cancel Freezing Field, but the common purchase of Skull Basher does make Slark a substantially greater threat to Crystal Maiden as the game progresses.
* Freezing Field can still hit Slark while he is under the effect of Shadow Dance, and for the early and mid game, the damage output of Crystal Maiden's ultimate outscales Slark's passive regeneration, making a quick use of Freezing Field as soon as Slark uses Shadow Dance a great way to combat him.
* Crystal Maiden's Frostbite and Crystal Nova are helpful in disabling and slowing the slippery Slark so he can be killed by her teammates.
* 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.
* Frostbite kills boars instantly on the laning stage leading to either experience lead or disabling Beastmaster from using Boar
* Crystal Nova nukes and slows down the attack and movement speed of Beastmaster's summons.
* Freezing Field grants improved self armor, nukes and slows down Beastmaster and his summons.
* Single-target disablers will have difficulty locking down a Chaos Knight with Phantasm active: Bane, Beastmaster, Bloodseeker, Clockwerk, Doom, Shadow Shaman.
* Frostbite roots and disarms Chen's creeps for 10 seconds.
* Crystal Maiden has a lot of AOE damage between Crystal Nova and Freezing Field to clear Chen's creeps out side and during team fights.
* 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.
* While Terrorblade can kill Crystal Maiden due to her low durability with Reflection and Metamorphosis, Crystal Maiden can do the same to him if he is not careful.
* Crystal Nova and Freezing Field can destroy Terrorblade's Illusions from Conjure Image and Manta Style while it can also kill Terrorblade from early to mid game if he has no Black King Bar.
* Terrorblade has no disable in his ability set at all and has no solutions to cancel it Freezing Field. In addition, he doesn't like purchasing disabling items like Scythe of Vyse or Abyssal Blade, which are the only solutions to deal with Crystal Maiden's Freezing Field outside of Black King Bar.
* Since Crystal Maiden often buys Black King Bar and Glimmer Cape, or it's alternative item Shadow Blade, as well as it's upgrade Silver Edge, Terrorblade will rarely have a chance to save himself against Crystal Maiden's damage output with Sunder.
Additional:
* While Terrorblade can easily kill Crystal Maiden due to her low durability and movement speed with Reflection and Metamorphosis, Crystal Maiden can do the same to him if he is not careful.
* Crystal Nova and Freezing Field can destroy Terrorblade's illusions from Conjure Image and Manta Style while it can also kill Terrorblade from early to mid game if he has no Black King Bar.
* Terrorblade has no disable in his ability set at all and has no solutions to cancel it Freezing Field. In addition, he doesn't like purchasing disabling items like Scythe of Vyse or Abyssal Blade, which are the only solutions to deal with Crystal Maiden's Freezing Field outside of Black King Bar.
* Since Crystal Maiden often buys Black King Bar and Glimmer Cape, or it's alternative items Shadow Blade, as well as it's upgrade Silver Edge or Linken's Sphere, Terrorblade will rarely have a chance to save himself against Crystal Maiden's damage output with Sunder.
* 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.
* Heroes that mainly use magic damage and carry Black King Bar can be very problematic for Muerta such as Lina, Luna, Pugna, Jakiro, Crystal Maiden, Enigma, Ogre Magi, Tinker, Broodmother, Dawnbreaker, Arc Warden.
* Heroes with abilities that can close the gap can easily kill Muerta: Storm Spirit, Earth Spirit, Ember Spirit, Void Spirit, Lycan, Chaos Knight, Tusk.
* Heroes with mobility spells like Queen of Pain, Anti-Mage, Phantom Assassin, Riki, Puck, and Spirit Breaker that are cancelled by Frostbite can suffer greatly from the presence of Crystal Maiden. It is absolutely critical, however, to have followup from teammates, as all of the above heroes can make quick work of the squishy Crystal Maiden after they are released from her grip.
* 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.
* Fragile supports with low armor are always a good prey, also her Psionic Trap will wear down most attempts to flee with their built-in disables: Silencer, Crystal Maiden, Warlock, Ancient Apparition, Grimstroke, Witch Doctor
* As with other heroes mentioned in this section, Templar Assassin is not a hero that is fully "countered" by Crystal Maiden (the way she is against Viper and Jakiro), however, the proper combination and execution Crystal Maiden's spells, stacked with her team, can most certainly spell the end for Templar Assassin. Though as the later the game goes, and fighting her without team is not the best choice.
* Frostbite can quickly eat away Refraction charges, leaving Templar Assassin vulnerable for the rest of her team to kill.
* Freezing Field will still apply damage to Templar Assassin when she is under the effect of Meld, making it an even less viable form of escape until a Blink Dagger is purchased.
* Blink Dagger is also cancelled by all of Crystal Maiden's spells, and the fairly short cooldowns on Frostbite and Crystal Nova make her a great asset to a chase against Templar Assassin.
* This is not to say that Templar Assassin has any difficulty killing off the low armor, low HP pool Crystal Maiden, so fighting her alone is never advised.
* 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
* 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.
* 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.
* Razor has no way to deal with Chaos Knight's multiple illusions from Phantasm.
* Heroes with a low attack speed or are fragile will find themselves unable to deal with Troll Warlord's high physical damage and attack speed, like Crystal Maiden or Sven.
* Frostbite can disarm and root Troll Warlord if he doesn't have a Black King Bar or a Manta Style to dispel it.
* Crystal Nova and Freezing Field both significantly slow Troll Warlord, making him much more vulnerable to ganks or stuns.
* The magical damage from Freezing Field does a large amount of AoE damage, and Troll Warlord is not capable of cancelling Crystal Maiden's channel.
* 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.
* 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.
* Phantasm dispels Ignite and makes targeting the real Chaos Knight much harder.
* 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.
* 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.
* 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.
* 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.
* Chaos Knight can dispel Flux with Phantasm.
* Chaos Knight can use Reality Rift to pull Arc Warden out of Magnetic Field.
* Once Chaos Knight jumps on Arc Warden with Reality Rift, Arc Warden will struggle to escape due to low mobility and lack of stun.
* Heroes with channeling abilities: Enigma, Witch Doctor, Crystal Maiden.
* Heroes with mobility spells like Queen of Pain, Anti-Mage, Phantom Assassin, Riki, Puck, and Spirit Breaker that are cancelled by Frostbite can suffer greatly from the presence of Crystal Maiden. It is absolutely critical, however, to have followup from teammates, as all of the above heroes can make quick work of the squishy Crystal Maiden after they are released from her grip.
* Due to her slow movement speed,heroes with crowd control and slows can shut down Dawnbreaker:Lion, Crystal Maiden ,Venomancer etc.
* 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.
* 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.
* Crystal Maiden's low health pool and slow movement speed make her a tempting and easy target.
* However, it may be wise to build Black King Bar first before attempting to fight her alone, as she can disable you and retaliate with Freezing Field.
* Though certainly not a "hard counter", Crystal Maiden's skillset (magical damage nukes) does pose a substantial threat to Phantom Assassin through the mid game, especially if followed up with engagement by her team.
* A quick use of Freezing Field directly after Phantom Strike can leave Phantom Assassin trapped inside the area of effect, capitalizing on Phantom Assassin's relatively low HP pool when she is not protected by Blur, and besides Skull Basher, Phantom Assassin hates buying disabling items like Scythe of Vyse or Eul's Scepter of Divinity.
* If Phantom Assassin chooses not to buy a Black King Bar relatively early, the attack slow from Freezing Field can greatly hinder the proc chance of Coup de Grace in a teamfight.
* However, Phantom Assassin's massive damage, and her tendency to build both Black King Bar and Skull Basher makes her a formidable foe the later the game goes, and fighting her without a team is almost never a good choice.
* 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.
* 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.
* 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.
* 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 with channeled abilities which Assassinate may cancel at long range: Witch Doctor, Crystal Maiden, Shadow Shaman, Pugna
* 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.
* Vulnerable spellcasters with no escape mechanisms are easy targets for Huskar: Lich, Crystal Maiden, Silencer, Keeper of the Light, Venomancer, etc.
* 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.
* In general, heroes with AoE or long range disables (such as Faceless Void with Chronosphere, Pudge with Meat Hook and Elder Titan with Echo Stomp) hinder Crystal Maiden, preventing her from using Freezing Field to help her team in a fight.
* 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.
* Juggernaut and Lifestealer have abilities (Blade Fury and Rage respectively) that prevent Crystal Maiden from using her spells on them in the early game, before Black King Bar and other magical reduction is even an issue.
* While Blade Fury is on cooldown, Juggernaut can be easily killed by a standard Chaos Bolt & Reality Rift combo.
* Phantasm illusions can tank Omnislash.
* Juggernaut and Lifestealer have abilities (Blade Fury and Rage respectively) that prevent Crystal Maiden from using her spells on them in the early game, before Black King Bar and other magical reduction is even an issue.
Additional:
* Crystal Maiden is an ideal target for Lifestealer due to her poor mobility and low health pool. Lifestealer can usually catch up to her simply by casting Rage, as none of her abilities pierce through magic immunity. Freezing Field can potentially make her even more vulnerable to Lifestealer while under Rage as she is even more immobile while channeling it.
* Lifestealer commonly buys Abyssal Blade, which allows him to cancel Freezing Field, even if Crystal Maiden is spell immune.
* Alternatively, Aghanim's Scepter upgraded Infest combined with Abyssal Blade and with items that provide attack speed which Lifestealer commonly buys allow him to to cancel Freezing Field from within the Crystal Maiden.
* 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.
* Lone Druid's early game is good against slow, squishy supports since his bear is very strong early game and an Entangling Claws proc almost always guarantees a kill: Ancient Apparition, Crystal Maiden, Shadow Shaman, etc.
* 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.
* Heroes with a low health pool (Crystal Maiden, Skywrath Mage etc)
* Heroes with channeling spells because Shadow Fiend has nothing to cancel channeling outside of Requiem of Souls: Bane, Enigma, Pudge, Shadow Shaman, Dawnbreaker, Warlock, Crystal Maiden.
* Even with Black King Bar or Linken's Sphere, Pudge's Meat Hook can still cancel Crystal Maiden's Freezing Field as she is a very easy target while channeling it.
* Pudge's Rot can make Crystal Maiden's already bad movement speed even worse.
* Many stacks of Flesh Heap will make it nearly impossible for Crystal Maiden to kill Pudge.
* Pudge's Dismember can also be used to cancel Crystal Maiden's Freezing Field, and alternatively, Pudge can also use it to save allies from getting killed by Crystal Maiden and heal them when upgraded with Aghanim's Shard.
* Crystal Maiden is prone to ganks in the lane or in the off-lane without proper vision. Pudge can take advantage of Crystal Maiden's lack of mobility, and gank her often.
Additional:
* Meat Hook can cancel Freezing Field, even if Crystal Maiden has Glimmer Cape.
* She is also slow and fragile, making her a good target for ganking.
* 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.
* Heroes with low health are especially vulnerable to Marksmanship's high damage output: Clinkz, Crystal Maiden.
* 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.
* Channeling heroes will not go well against Warlock, especially those who build Black King Bar as Warlock's ultimate ability stun goes through spell immunity. E.g.: Crystal Maiden, Witch Doctor, Enigma, etc.
* 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 who can easily harass Crystal Maiden out of lane in the early game (Clinkz, Viper) can prevent Crystal Maiden from being able to level effectively, and can ultimately slow down her level 6, 12, and 18 to a point where enemy carries already have items to address her ultimate.
* 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.
* Generally, any fragile heroes will have a hard time dealing with Undying's tankiness, and even more so if Decay is used on them. Some examples are Crystal Maiden and Witch Doctor.
* 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.
* Heroes with strong channeling spells like Crystal Maiden's Freezing Field, Bane's Fiend's Grip, and Enigma's Black Hole can easily be interrupted from a long range by Nether Swap, assuming they don't have a Linken's Sphere.
* Heroes who relies on illusions and summons (Beastmaster, Chaos Knight, etc.).
* Heroes with low mobility that rely on spells: Zeus, Lina, Crystal Maiden.
* 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.
* Heroes who are entirely reliant on dealing physical damage and/or have very little to no area-of-effect abilities will make Underlord tickle and will have no effect against him thanks to his Atrophy Aura, and will also be unable to ambush Underlord and his team if Underlord chooses to use Fiend's Gate to get to a designated point of the map: Phantom Assassin, Terrorblade, Troll Warlord, Drow Ranger, Phantom Lancer, Chaos Knight, Sven, Wraith King, Bounty Hunter, Alchemist, Templar Assassin, Nyx Assassin, Bane.
* Heroes with strong area-of-effect damaging and/or disabling abilities will be able to intercept Underlord and his team when they exit from Fiend's Gate: Luna's Aghanim's Scepter upgraded Eclipse, Dawnbreaker's Solar Guardian, Axe's Berserker's Call, Mars's Arena of Blood, Jakiro's Macropyre, Dual Breath and Ice Path, Naga Siren's Song of the Siren, Razor's Eye of the Storm and Plasma Field, Lina's Light Strike Array, Broodmother's Spinner's Snare from Aghanim's Scepter, Elder Titan's Earth Splitter and Echo Stomp, Alchemist's Unstable Concoction and Acid Spray, Queen of Pain's Sonic Wave, Dark Seer's Wall of Replica and Vacuum, Venomancer's Noxious Plague and Poison Nova from Aghanim's Scepter, Oracle's Fortune's End and Rain of Destiny from Aghanim's Shard, Bloodseeker's Blood Rite, Enigma's Black Hole and Midnight Pulse, Shadow Fiend's Requiem of Souls, Batrider's Aghanim's Scepter upgraded Flaming Lasso, Firefly, Flamebreak and Sticky Napalm, Ancient Apparition's Ice Blast, Sand King's Epicenter, Sand Storm and Burrowstrike, Gyrocopter's Call Down, Ember Spirit's Sleight of Fist, Death Prophet's Exorcism and Silence, Monkey King's Wukong's Command, Crystal Maiden's Freezing Field, Muerta's The Calling, Medusa's Stone Gaze, Zeus's Nimbus from Aghanim's Scepter. Dark Willow's Bramble Maze, Pangolier's Swashbuckle, Grimstroke's Soulbind, Ink Swell and Stroke of Fate, Earthshaker's Echo Slam and Fissure, Puck's Dream Coil and Waning Rift, Winter Wyvern's Winter's Curse, Magnus's Reverse Polarity.
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Crystal Maiden
* Crystal Maiden will be not able to cast her Freezing Field while being constantly stunned by Enigma's Malefice.
* Enigma's Black Hole can cancel Freezing Field's channeling regardless of her Glimmer Cape and Black King Bar.
Chaos Knight
* Black Hole usually catches Chaos Knight with all his illusions.
* Midnight Pulse deals damage based on current health, quickly killing Phantasm illusions.