* 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.
* Tinker is an easy target for Earth Spirit to initiate on. He likes to split push lanes once he acquires Boots of Travel and Earth Spirit can jump him with his Rolling Boulder and disable him to buy enough time for his teammates to come and assist Earth Spirit.
* The huge range of Stone Remnant and Rolling Boulder enables Earth Spirit to stop Tinker from teleporting to his fountain since Tinker tends to buy Blink Dagger most of the time to escape.
* 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.
* Heat-Seeking Missile allow easy Spiked Carapace stuns.
* As a fragile hero that relies on mana and intelligence items, Tinker is vulnerable to Mana Burn.
* Nyx Assassin's stuns can interrupt Rearm and leave Tinker helpless.
Additional:
* Nyx Assassin's whole skillset is good against Tinker:
* Impale prevents Tinker from blinding Nyx Assassin or fighting back, while giving Nyx' allies time to catch up to Tinker's position.
* Mind Flare generally deals more damage to intelligence based heroes like Tinker.
* Spiked Carapace can stun Tinker at a moment of Nyx Assassin's choosing if March of the Machines has been cast. It is also quite easy to time Spiked Carapace against Heat Seeking Missiles.
* Vendetta allows Nyx to approach Tinker in the trees or wait for him in common hiding spots and deal heavy damage to his low armor.
* 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.
* Silencer can stop Rearm, preventing Tinker from spamming his abilities/items or escaping.
* Tinker heavily relies on his mana pool and has mana issues throughout the entire game and Silencer's intelligence steal does not help with that.
Additional:
* As Tinker relies heavily on his spells to be effective, Last Word and Global Silence will render him largely useless.
* Arcane Curse effectively prevents Tinker from casting spells during its duration, as he will otherwise suffer heavy damage.
* Glaives of Wisdom deal pure damage, which make quick work of fragile heroes like Tinker.
* Silencer's intelligence steal permanently weakens Tinker since he's a hero who requires lots of mana to be effective.
* 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.
* Meat Hook can be used to pull Tinker to Pudge while he is hiding in the trees, and a follow up with Dismember and Rot can lead to a valuable kill, as Tinker doesn't buy many survivability items.
* Flesh Heap makes it hard for Tinker to deal serious damage.
Additional:
* Pudge can Meat Hook a Tinker hiding in the trees and follow it up with Dismember and Rot for an easy solo kill, as Tinker doesn't tend to buy survivability items.
* Many stacks of Flesh Heap combined with items that give Pudge high strength and health will make it hard for Tinker to deal serious damage to Pudge.
* 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.
* Even though Luna has a hard time laning against Tinker because of Heat-Seeking Missile and Laser, she can win against him in late game once she buys Black King Bar, as none of Tinker's spells can bypass spell immunity.
* Lucent Beam and 0.25 Eclipse Lucent Mini-stun talent for Eclipse can be used to cancel Rearm and prevent Tinker's escape attempts with Boots of Travel. Luna can also use Lucent Beam and Eclipse if she is blinded with Laser.
* An ill-timed and ill-positioned Blink Dagger will make Tinker a very easy target for Luna's Eclipse that can quickly tear him to shreds. This can get even better if Luna buys Aghanim's Scepter and combines it with 0.25 Eclipse Lucent Mini-stun talent for Eclipse.
* However, Luna needs to approach Tinker carefully, as Tinker is a natural Scythe of Vyse wielder, and if he gets a jump on Luna first, he will be able to use it to disable and burst down Luna before she can use Black King Bar, Lucent Beam or Eclipse.
Additional:
* Even though Luna has a hard time laning against Tinker because of Heat-Seeking Missile and Laser, she can win against him in late game once she buys Black King Bar, as none of Tinker's spells can bypass spell immunity.
* Lucent Beam and 0.25 Eclipse Lucent Mini-stun talent for Eclipse can be used to cancel Rearm and prevent Tinker's escape attempts with Boots of Travel. Luna can also use Lucent Beam and Eclipse if she is blinded with Laser.
* An ill-timed and ill-positioned Blink Dagger will make Tinker a very easy target for Luna's Eclipse that can quickly tear him to shreds. This can get even better if Luna buys Aghanim's Scepter and combines it with 0.25 Eclipse Lucent Mini-stun talent for Eclipse.
* However, Luna needs to approach Tinker carefully, as Tinker is a natural Scythe of Vyse wielder, and if he gets a jump on Luna first, he will be able to use it to disable and burst down Luna before she can use Black King Bar, Lucent Beam or Eclipse.
* 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.
* Tinker is heavily dependent on his abilities and Doom prevents him from using any of them.
* This becomes even worse if Doom chooses the level 25 talent {ValueColor:1|Doom applies Mute|25tal} {Symbol:Talent}, which will prevent Tinker from using items such as Blink Dagger.
Additional:
* Tinker is heavily reliant on casting his spells and Doom can disable all of his abilities and items. An Aghanim's Scepter only makes it harder for Tinker to survive.
* Heroes with low mobility that rely on spells: Zeus, Lina, Crystal Maiden.
* Night Stalker is one of the best heroes to find (and silence) Tinker in the trees during Dark Ascension.
Additional:
* Night Stalker can easily find Tinker in the trees during Dark Ascension.
* Void's mini-stun will stop Rearm and Keen Conveyance
* Crippling Fear's silence will prevent Tinker from fighting back, as Tinker relies on his spells.
* 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.
* Wave of Terror can reveal a Tinker attempting to hide in the trees and then Nether Swap and Magic Missile will both serve to interrupt/lock him down, should he attempt to town portal or reload.
* 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.
* Lifestealer's Rage makes him immune to all of Tinker's damage and debuffs.
* Lifestealer can infest a mobile ally (teams usually pick one against Tinker), which may ensure that Tinker will die if he is caught.
Additional:
* Rage will dispel Laser's blind and turns him spell immune for the duration so Tinker cannot damage him.
* Feast will quickly bring down Tinker due to being so fragile.
* 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.
* Similarly, heroes with low cooldown teleports can be afraid to split push against X Marks the Spot, such as Tinker and Nature's Prophet.
* In general, highly mobile heroes like Earth Spirit or Storm Spirit are at a disadvantage against X Marks the Spot.
* Similarly, heroes with low cooldown teleports can be afraid to split push against X Marks the Spot, such as Tinker and Nature's Prophet.
Additional:
* X Marks the Spot can be used to prevent Tinker from escape with Blink Dagger or Keen Conveyance, discourage him from snapping farm and snapping gank. However, in later game, it'll be much more difficult because Tinker can buy Black King Bar or Linken's Sphere to prevent Kunkka from placing X on him, or Eul's Scepter of Divinity to prevent the recall.
* 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 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.
* 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.
* Press the Attack can dispel Laser's blind while providing great attack speed and health regeneration.
* Once caught in a Duel, Tinker, who completely relies on his spells to be effective, has little chances of survival with his low health pool and armor.
* Heroes with abilities that blind or cause Legion Commander to miss will prevent her from winning Duels: Arc Warden, Keeper of the Light, Riki, Tinker
* 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.
* Tinker's Laser has very little effect on Jakiro.
* Tinker has to sit still for a short period of time due to Rearm, not only making it easy to catch him with Ice Path, but also by stunning him while he is Rearming, Jakiro generally spell Tinker's doom.
* With s high area-of-effect and strong damage-over-time capabilties, Jakiro can quickly burn through his Defense Matrix, and at the same time lock down his Blink Dagger. Both of which he relies heavily to survive on.
* Heroes with good counter-push abilities to clear creep waves can hinder Jakiro's early pushing ability: Death Prophet, Sniper, Tinker, Windranger.
* 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.
* His global teleportation with Boots of Travel and Rearm is easily countered with Haunt, and Spectre can reach him anywhere on the map.
* He is squishy, and if alone Desolate will kill him very fast.
* Dispersion can reflect and reduce his burst damage.
* 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.
* 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.
* 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.
* 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.
* 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.
* Skywrath Mage stands perfectly on the center line against Tinker, thanks to his nuke and silence. Also, thanks to his abilities, he can quickly kill a victim, and Tinker is one of the most subtle heroes in the game
Additional:
* Skywrath Mage stands perfectly on the center line against Tinker, thanks to his nuke and silence. Also, thanks to his abilities, he can quickly kill a victim, and Tinker is one of the most subtle heroes in the game
* Cold feet can be used to ensure that the full channel of Freezing Field doesn't go off.
* 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.
* Nether Ward discourages Tinker from using abilities and items due to its high damage against heavy mana usage.
* Storm Spirit destroys trees and ignores impassable terrains with Ball Lightning, rendering them dangerous places for Tinker to hide within.
* Ball Lightning disjoints projectile from Heat-Seeking Missile and damage from March of the Machines.
* Electric Vortex prevents Tinker from teleporting away, and Static Remnant and Overload can easily burst him down.
Additional:
* He can easily catch Tinker in the trees with Ball Lightning and kill him with Orchid Malevolence and his abilities, which deal both physical and magical damage, making them difficult for Tinker to itemize against.
* 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.
* Zeus can easily reveal Tinker's location in the trees with Thundergod's wrath.
* When Zeus has an Aghanim's Scepter, he can use his Nimbus, together with Lightning Bolt to interrupt Tinker's Keen Conveyance channelling and cancel Tinker's Blink Dagger.
Additional:
* Due to Tinker's low health pool, Zeus can easily burst Tinker down, while also cancelling Rearm.
* Once Zeus gets Aghanim's Scepter, he will gain Nimbus, which allows him to scout out Tinker on the map, especially when he is pushing lanes while hiding in the trees.
* Shadow Wave provides good sustain against Tinker's spammable abilities.
* Shallow Grave can stop Tinker from bursting down a target.
* 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.
* Low health spellcasters: Lina, Witch Doctor, Tinker, Keeper of the Light, all rely heavily on their spells and are fragile heroes. They all also have avoidable spells, allowing Puck to get to them and quickly burst them down.
* 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.
* 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.
* 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.
* 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.
* Fragile supports who die in a few hits against Sven's high physical damage: Crystal Maiden, Vengeful Spirit, Dark Willow.
* 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.
* Tinker who can't fight multiple heroes will suffer greatly against Ransack and Earthbind.
* 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.
* Heroes that can gain vision over trees to catch Tinker: Invoker, Shadow Demon, Batrider.
* Heroes with channeled abilities can be interrupted by a long-range Fissure: Crystal Maiden, Witch Doctor, Bane, Pugna, Pudge.
* 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.
* 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.
* 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.
* Any hero with low mobility and max healthsuch as Silencer, Crystal Maiden etc.
* Heroes with unorthodox escapes will struggle against Primal Beast, such as Nature's Prophet, Tinker, and Templar Assassin.
* Heroes who can do scaling health damage to Primal Beast are very threatening for the hero. Such as: Phoenix, Tinker etc.
* 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's high mobility from Blink and tendency to build Battle Fury makes him strong against split-pushing heroes: Nature's Prophet, Tinker, and Arc Warden.
Additional:
* Tinker is fragile and vulnerable against carries like Anti-Mage.
* Mana Break burns away his mana pool and deals bonus physical damage.
* Tinker's massive mana pool makes Mana Void deal large amount of damage, and can be used to cancel a Keen Conveyance teleport.
* Blink gives Anti-Mage many options, like disjointing Heat Seeking Missiles. He can use Blink to wait out of sight for a split pushing Tinker or chase a blinking Tinker into trees.
* Tinker doesn't want any of his spells reflected back at him through Counterspell.
* 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.
* 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.
* Heroes that can gain vision over trees to catch Tinker: Invoker, Shadow Demon, Batrider.
* 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 who can stop Axe from getting close will severely inhibit his presence in fights: Bristleback, Crystal Maiden, Batrider, Arc Warden, Winter Wyvern, Clockwerk
* Tinker relies on his high mobility from Boots of Travel and Blink Dagger to survive. Those items don't help him if Spirit Breaker manages to cast Charge of Darkness on him.
* Spirit Breaker can easily cancel Rearm and Boots of Travel.
* 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.
* Tinker is relatively helpless against Invoker, as his Rearm and Boots of Travel can be easily interrupted by Invoker's long range disables, even if he blinks away.
* Any hero with a low HP pool is easy for Tinker to nuke down: Crystal Maiden, Enchantress, Gyrocopter, Lion, Riki, Techies, Terrorblade, Necrophos, Invoker.
* 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 with powerful spammable abilities will prove problematic for Grimstroke as Ink Swell does not protect him from them: Zeus, Skywrath Mage, Tinker, Lina
* 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.
* Heroes with either magical, physical or pure damage burst: Bane, Ember Spirit, Leshrac, Lina, Luna, Nyx Assassin, Phantom Assassin, Skywrath Mage, Tinker, Ursa, Void Spirit.
* 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.
* All of Tinker's damage is magic/pure and completely ignores Enchantress's Untouchable. And Tinker's nukes can quickly decimate her small HP pool, sometimes even preventing Enchantress from even responding.
* As Enchantress relies solely on her primary attacks to deal damage, and rarely builds something to dispel it, Laser's Blind is particularly effective.
* However, Enchantress will probably build a Linken's Sphere against Tinker's Laser, so getting an additional disable is highly recommended.
* 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.
* 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.
* An Aghanim's Scepter upgraded Laser allows Tinker to blind Terrorblade and his illusions.
* Tinker deals incredible amounts of pure and magical damage with Laser and Heat-Seeking Missile combined with Rearm, which will ignore Terrorblade's armor and be devastating to his low health pool.
* Tinker is a hero who very often goes for Blink Dagger, and because Terrorblade has no disable to lock down Tinker, he will be unable to catch up with him nor to prevent him from escaping with Boots of Travel.
* Even if Terrorblade manages to catch up to Tinker, Tinker can simply teleport Terroblade away from him with Warp Flare provided by Aghanim's Shard, which can also weaken Terrorblade's attack range and cast range.
Additional:
* Tinker can single-handedly stop Terrorblade's early-push and quickly clear his illusions with Laser (especially with Aghanim's Scepter).
* Tinker has perfect tools to reveal Terrorblade from his illusions as well as to burst him down if he is low-health before he will be able Sunder.
* 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 that commonly attack ethereal units will not have any problems against Muerta's Pierce The Veil: Tinker, Jakiro, Lina, Luna, Pugna or Ogre Magi, Enigma, Batrider, Techies, Broodmother, Dawnbreaker, Shadow Shaman, Bane, Tinker, Venomancer, Arc Warden.
* 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.
* Heroes with magical or pure damage output will not have any problems against Atrophy Aura at all: Luna, Lina, Jakiro, Pugna, Bane, Snapfire, Muerta, Nyx Assassin, Enigma, Tinker, Witch Doctor, Zeus, Crystal Maiden.
* Illusion heroes, such as Naga Siren, Phantom Lancer, Chaos Knight, Terrorblade will become strong against Tinker in the late game. Without Aghanim's Scepter Tinker is forced to defensively disarm heroes with Laser, leaving illusions free to deal physical damage which Tinker's low armor makes highly effective. In addition, Mjollnir or Battle Fury, two common pickups against illusion heroes, don't work well on Tinker at all.
* Heroes 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.
* Laser prevents Juxtapose from triggering, as it only triggers on successful attacks
* Laser does high splash, and upgrading it with Aghanim's Scepter makes it deal twice as much damage due to the bounce. Combined with Rearm, Tinker can rapidly deplete Phantom Lancer's illusion army
* However, if Phantom Lancer ambushes Tinker, Tinker will not survive versus Phantom Lancer.
* Tinker can break Magnus's Blink Dagger using March of the Machines and Heat-Seeking Missile, therefore delaying any initiation or making Magnus use Skewer or Force Staff to initiate. His {Ability ID:Defense Matrix|Tinker} will decrease the duration of Reverse Polarity and can also be cast on all of his teammates with {Ability ID:Rearm|Tinker}. Tinker usually gets his own Blink Dagger as well, which makes him harder to lock down unless Magnus commits Reverse Polarity only for Tinker.
* Tinker has great map presence because of Keen Conveyance and Rearm, which means he can always teleport and defend towers whenever Nature's Prophet tries to push.
* Laser prevents Nature's Prophet from attacking. Additionally, even with Monkey King Bar, Nature's Prophet cannot hit towers and buildings during the effect.
* 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.
* The blind from Laser prevents Shadow Fiend from attacking for its duration, potentially preventing him from getting a kill.
* Scythe of Vyse can be used to prevent Shadow Fiend from casting Requiem of Souls.
* A combination of Tinker's abilities and his items (like the Dagon 5 and Ethereal Blade combo) can kill Shadow Fiend quickly.
Additional:
* During the laning stage Laser will reduce Shadow Fiend's last hits, preventing him from getting Necromastery souls.
* Shadow Fiend has low health and is vulnerable to Tinker's high magic burst.
* 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.
* Tinker can use Laser to save an ally or himself from Phantom Assassin's initiate Phantom Strike due to the blind, forcing her to use a Black King Bar to effectively initiate, Tinker can also use Warp Flare one he buys Aghanim's Shard to reverse Phantom Strike's blinking with Phantom Strike.
* Tinker almost never uses his physical attack, relying on his spell-spamming to deal damage which ignores Blur's Evasion
* Defense Matrix prevents Coup de Grace from triggering.
* Laser blinds Bloodseeker, preventing him from getting last hits and denies during the laning stage and preventing him from finishing off enemies.
* Tinker always buys Boots of Travel, helping him escape Bloodseeker's early ganks.
* Tinker's heavy magical damage will burst down Bloodseeker during the early to mid game, as he has little health.
Additional:
* Laser can be very effective against Bloodrage as the damage will be amplified while the blind prevents Bloodseeker from landing hits.
* Keen Conveyance guarantees him escape from Rupture.
* All of Tinker's damage is magical and pure, which makes Cold Embrace a good setup for his nukes.
* Winter's Curse is very hard to cast on Tinker because he usually stays in the back-lines in team-fights. In turn, Tinker has mediocre attack damage and will contribute very little when he is cursed to attack an ally. He can also save his ally under Winter's Curse effect with Ethereal Blade and Defense Matrix.
* Laser can be cast on a initiating Ursa, normally causing him to waste multiple Overpower attacks, forcing him to either Black King's Bar, or Enrage to protect himself.
* Ursa will probably carry a Linken's Sphere to counter Tinker's Laser. Popping it with Scythe of Vyse is actually preferable, due to Laser's high Pure damage.
* While Ursa is a common Blink Dagger carrier, but he otherwise has no way to close the gap, Baiting him into using his Blink, then blinking away, allows Tinker to easily kite Ursa.
* Enrage is generally how Ursa disengages, Due to Tinker's high maneuverability, he can follow him until it runs out. then burst him down with high magic damage.
* Any hero with a low HP pool is easy for Tinker to nuke down: Crystal Maiden, Enchantress, Gyrocopter, Lion, Riki, Techies, Terrorblade, Necrophos, Invoker.
* Heroes with wide AoE abilities will reveal Monkey King through Mischief: Necrophos, Phoenix, Alchemist, Earthshaker, Razor, Tinker, Leshrac, Queen of Pain
* Heroes with high magical or pure damage will bypass Bulwark: Timbersaw, Dark Willow, Enigma, Invoker, Pugna, Skywrath Mage, Tinker, Zeus, Oracle.
* Any hero with a low HP pool is easy for Tinker to nuke down: Crystal Maiden, Enchantress, Gyrocopter, Lion, Riki, Techies, Terrorblade, Necrophos, Invoker.
* Heroes with Evasion or abilities that cause Tiny to miss like Phantom Assassin and Tinker are very effective because of Tiny's low attack speed. Additionally, Monkey King Bar is not a good item for Tiny because of its reliance on high attack speed to proc for magical damage.
* 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.
* Heroes who rely on abilities to deal damage (e.g. Timbersaw, Tinker) can fight a Razor even after Static Link.
* 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 either magical, physical or pure damage burst: Bane, Ember Spirit, Leshrac, Lina, Luna, Nyx Assassin, Phantom Assassin, Skywrath Mage, Tinker, Ursa, Void Spirit.
* Since Windranger is bad against magical damage, heroes with continuous magical damage or magical nukes can blast her: Zeus, Tinker, Leshrac, Viper, Skywrath Mage, Lion, Lina, Venomancer.
* 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.
* Heroes with high armor like Dragon Knight, or with abilities to cause attacks to miss like Phantom Assassin, Riki and Tinker will be hard to deal with, as Clinkz relies almost entirely on physical attacks.
* Tinker's Laser is useful against Outworld Destroyer, as the blind prevents him from landing Arcane Orbs.
* Heroes who rely on basic attacks will suffer from Laser: Phantom Assassin, Wraith King, Huskar.
* 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.
* Heroes with channeled abilities which Assassinate may cancel at long range: Witch Doctor, Crystal Maiden, Shadow Shaman, Pugna
* Tinker is one of the few heroes who is able to defeat a Sniper on the center line thanks to his long-ranged abilities.
* Laser allow Tinker to deal damage to Sniper and blind him, causing him to miss attacks more often.
* Heat-Seeking Missile can deal heavy damage to Sniper on lane.
* Defense Matrix allow Tinker to save himself or allies from Assassinate.
* Warp Flare from Aghanim's Shard allows Tinker to teleport Sniper away from himself, while also reducing both his attack range and cast range. If Sniper is teleported near Tinker's allies with Warp Flare, he will be bursted down in no time.
Additional:
* Tinker is one of the few characters in Dota 2 who is able to defeat a Sniper on the center line – Tinker. On the center line, he gains an advantage over his opponent, and later acquires additional control. It is these abilities that the enemy should have in the game against the Sniper.
* Innately fragile heroes will die almost instantly to Reality Rift while Chaos Knight has illusions active: Drow Ranger, Bane, Necrophos, Crystal Maiden.
* Illusion heroes, such as Naga Siren, Phantom Lancer, Chaos Knight, Terrorblade will become strong against Tinker in the late game. Without Aghanim's Scepter Tinker is forced to defensively disarm heroes with Laser, leaving illusions free to deal physical damage which Tinker's low armor makes highly effective. In addition, Mjollnir or Battle Fury, two common pickups against illusion heroes, don't work well on Tinker at all.
* Heroes 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.
* 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.
* 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.
* If Tinker can stay outside of Chronosphere, Laser can cause Faceless Void to miss all his attacks.
* Faceless Void has low health and strongly relies on Time Walk's healing factor to remain alive. Getting caught by Tinker with Scythe of Vyse will almost always spell a quick end for Void.
* Rearm ignores Time Dilation completely.
* Timbersaw's ability to destroy trees can be a serious problem for some heroes that use them, as either a way of enhancing their spells like Treant Protector, or heroes that tend to hide inside of them like Tinker and Monkey King.
* All Tinker's damage is magic/pure and completely ignores Timbersaw's Reactive Armor.
* Timbersaw very rarely builds Black King Bar, making him very vulnerable if Tinker builds Scythe of Vyse.
* Heroes with low health are especially vulnerable to Marksmanship's high damage output: Clinkz, Crystal Maiden.
* Laser along with Heat-Seeking Missile allows Tinker to quickly burst down Drow Ranger due to her low health.
* Heat-Seeking Missile lets Tinker out-range Drow Ranger and hit her in the backline of a teamfight.
* 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.
* 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.
* Viper is kind of a mixed package. Tinker is very good against him. but stands a better chance against him than most heroes.
* Viper has a high innate magic resistance, but relies on his primary attacks to really deal damage. making Laser an effective way to save allies from him, and deal damage. Keep in mind that his Corrosive Skin will prevent Tinker from blinking.
* Viper's Viper Strike and Poison Attack will also have a hard time damaging allies through Tinker's constant casting of Defense Matrix.
* Viper has no solutions to cancel Rearm nor any of Tinker's escape attempts with Boots of Travel
* However, if Viper gets a jump on Tinker first. Tinker will unlikely survive versus Viper.
* 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.
* Laser blinds Lone Druid, making his attacks miss.
* 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.
* Any hero with a low HP pool is easy for Tinker to nuke down: Crystal Maiden, Enchantress, Gyrocopter, Lion, Riki, Techies, Terrorblade, Necrophos, Invoker.
* Beastmaster's Hawk can find Tinker easily while he is pushing or blinking into trees.
* 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.
* Heroes who rely on channeling abilities can be interrupted in teamfights by Rolling Thunder: Crystal Maiden, Pugna, Witch Doctor
* 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
* 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.
* Lion has an incredibly fragile health pool, making him weak against nukers like Tinker or Oracle.
* Vulnerable spellcasters with no escape mechanisms are easy targets for Huskar: Lich, Crystal Maiden, Silencer, Keeper of the Light, Venomancer, etc.
* Heroes who rely on basic attacks will suffer from Laser: Phantom Assassin, Wraith King, Huskar.
* 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.
* Any hero with a low HP pool is easy for Tinker to nuke down: Crystal Maiden, Enchantress, Gyrocopter, Lion, Riki, Techies, Terrorblade, Necrophos, Invoker.
* Pounce prevents Tinker from blinking away.
* Slark frequently builds Shadow Blade, which allows him to approach Tinker unnoticed. Since Tinker's farming usually covers a significant amount of area on the map, Sentry Wards may not be cost effective.
* Shadow Dance allows Slark to detect both common and unusual wards. Eliminating common ward causes Tinker trouble farming many lanes if he does not know who may be waiting to jump on him. Slark is also uniquely able to identify some of the less common wards used by Tinker, such as those placed on the cliffs at map edges which Tinker uses to give him vision over the trees he uses to hide in.
* Slark's extremely high move speed from Shadow Dance, potentially stacked with Shadow Blade, allows him to easily follow Tinker between lanes, especially if Tinker has pushed the lanes out.
* Dark Pact dispels Laser's blind.
* 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.
* 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.
To start select enemy heroes in the field above. It's intended to be used with multiple heroes. The more enemy heroes you provide the better results you will get.
This website was made to help you in pick stage of online game Dota 2. It calculates rating for each possible counterpicks based on tips from web-based database made up entirely of user contributions Dota 2 wiki.
You will get the list of recommended hero counters with a list of tips written by Dota 2 wiki contributors explaining why it's good against the particular hero. In comparison to other similar websites, which show only rating based on average hero win rate from dotabuff or similar service.
Take it with a bit of grain of salt, especially if the recommendation has a low rating (<= 1), some heroes
may win a lane in an early game but would lose in late game (and vice versa). That's why sometimes
you could hero names appearing as a counter and as being countered, as on image:
You can also add your own tips, update old data and fix mistakes by editing page on Dota 2 Wiki (it works like Wikipedia - anyone can contribute, you don't even need to register) these edits will appear on this website automatically (data is updated several times per week).
Right now there is no app/overlay that will detect picks automatically (like overwolf dota plus or become the gamer), instead, you can open web version in a steam in-game browser or use mobile version on your smartphone.
Want to know more? Check FAQ
Latest changes first
Sharing link to this site is always appreciated.
Dota 2 is a registered trademark of Valve Corporation. This site is not affiliated with Valve Corporation. All game images and names are property of Valve Corporation.
Crystal Maiden
* 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.
Tinker
* Rocket Flare can find Tinker if he blinks into the treeline, and Hookshot will prevent him from teleporting out.
* Battery Assault makes Tinker unable to Rearm by stunning him repeatedly.
Additional:
* Clockwerk can easily catch a split pushing Tinker with his Hookshot and prevent him from escaping with Power Cogs and Battery Assault. Clockwerk can also find a Tinker hiding in trees with his Rocket Flare.
* Clockwerk usually buys a Blade Mail, which does lots of damage to Tinker if he gets hit by his abilities (especially March of the Machines).