* Heroes with hastes: Dark Seer, Lycan

* Crippling Fear prevents Keeper of the Light from using his spells to keep his team alive during team-fights.
* Dark Ascension is very strong against Keeper of the Light, as it allows Night Stalker to jump the backline and quickly kill the squishy Ezalor, especially when combined with the slow from Void.
Additional:
* Keeper of the Light's Aghanim's Scepter upgrade loses much of its power, due to Night Stalker being able to reduce the duration of daytime by a lot.

* Heroes who rely on damage over time as Spiked Carapace can block and reflect only one instance of damage: Venomancer, Huskar, Ember Spirit, Dark Seer, Sand King, Doom, Dawnbreaker.

* Heroes that have a weak laning stage: Spectre, Nyx Assassin, Clockwerk, Spirit Breaker, Omniknight, Pudge.

* The haste provided by Dark Seer's Surge or a {Rune:Haste} renders your slows ineffective.

* Heroes with low health: Lich, Crystal Maiden, Lion.

* Dark Seer can pull together Spectre's illusions with Vacuum, and Wall of Replica creates an illusion of Spectre that deals massive damage.

* Heroes that have a weak laning stage: Spectre, Nyx Assassin, Clockwerk, Spirit Breaker, Omniknight, Pudge.

* Crippling Fear silences nearby heroes and cannot be dispelled, which hinders Rubick's way to retaliate when being jumped on.
* With Hunter in the Night and Dark Ascension, Night Stalker can find Rubick easily in teamfights. The two spells grants more than enough damage to hunt Rubick down without defensive items.

* Crippling Fear can silence Faceless Void for a long time, preventing him from using his Time Walk and Chronosphere.

* Ion Shell destroys Refraction's protection stacks in short time.
* Surge ignores the massive slow from Psionic Trap.

* Void can be used to cancel Requiem of Souls.
* Crippling Fear prevents Shadow Fiend from using Shadowraze or Requiem of Souls.
* With Dark Ascension and Gem of True Sight, Night Stalker can find and kill Shadow Fiend easily. He is also a tanky hero that can fight Shadow Fiend at any stage of the game.

* Crippling Fear is a good way to shut down and gank Invoker in the early game..
* Void deals good damage to Invoker and makes escaping harder.
* With Hunter in the Night and Void, Invoker can't get away from Night Stalker and won't be able to catch him with Sun Strike during the night.

* Puck cannot use any of its normal means to survive should Night Stalker catch it within Crippling Fear, and goes down quickly.
Additional:
* Void is a potent nuke that is devastating to Puck's low health pool.
* Crippling Fear silence can prevent Puck from casting spells, leaving it vulnerable.

* Dark Ascension also allows Night Stalker to fly over Proximity Mines without triggering them.
* Crippling Fear is effective in stopping Techies from using Blast Off and Void is effective in stopping them from running to the safety of their mines.

* Storm Spirit is absolutely helpless if caught within Night Stalker's silence range.
* Common items a Storm Spirit will build will not remove the AoE silence.
Additional:
* Crippling Fear is a silence that can last up to 8 seconds during night, rendering Storm Spirit tied limited to his items in a fight.
* Dark Ascension allows Night Stalker to initiate on Storm Spirit across the impassable terrain around the middle lane, rendering Storm vulnerable in the early game and prevent him from snowballing.

* Crippling Fear makes it so Axe might use Blink Dagger right into an AoE silence in the middle of everyone.
* Void cripples Axe's already bad movement speed and attack speed.
* Hunter in the Night makes it impossible for Axe to catch up to a fleeing or escape from Night Stalker during the night.
* Lastly, Dark Ascension gives full vision over Axe before he initiates, making the opponents all recognise his location immediately and allowing Night Stalker to prevent it or vocally tell his team if needed.
* Night Stalker has very high strength gain, even in lane, so a successful Culling Blade is very unlikely.
* Axe's Blade Mail will likely do nothing to Night Stalker because of his high health and certain requirements for him to do the most damage to be true.

* Venomancer is a low health hero and low range hero who is easy to harass with Ion Shell on a creep in the early game.
* Venomancer depends entirely on all his slows to keep distance or chase, but since Surge ignores slows, it is nearly impossible for Venomancer to hunt or run away from Dark Seer or his surged teammates.

* Surge allows for Dark Seer and his allies to escape from Upheaval due to it ignoring any slow.

* Dark Ascension reduces vision for the enemy team, which makes it more difficult for Magnus to initiate with Blink Dagger and Reverse Polarity. It is also more likely that Night Stalker will scout out Magnus with Aghanim's Scepter and a Gem of True Sight, after which he can silence Magnus with Crippling Fear.

* Heroes with AoE abilities will hit Slark in Shadow Dance: Lina, Jakiro, Underlord, Leshrac, Dark Seer, Earthshaker, Timbersaw, Crystal Maiden.

* With Dark Ascension he can keep vision on Slark, disabling his Shadow Dance regeneration.
* Night Stalker is very fast so without the Pounce in lane, he can simply out distance him during the night.
* Slark is matched in night vision by only a few heroes, Night Stalker happens to be one of them.

* Dark Seer's Vacuum and Ion Shell can clear a wave of Chen's Creeps effectively.
* Surge applies haste movement and negates the slow from Hand of God, allowing Dark Seer to easily escape from Chen and his creeps.

* The long silence at night prevents Clinkz from escaping with invisibility if Night Stalker can sneak up on him. He also has really low base health, so Night Stalker can usually kill him alone during one cast of Crippling Fear at night.

* The long silence of Crippling Fear at night prevents Mirana from escaping with Moonlight Shadow and Leap. She also has really low base health, so Night Stalker can usually kill her during one cast of Crippling Fear at night.
* With Dark Ascension and Gem of True Sight, Night Stalker can find and kill Mirana, and he is a tanky hero capable of fighting Mirana any stage of the game.

* Living Armor can be destroyed quickly with Ion Shell.

* With Dark Ascension and Gem of True Sight, Night Stalker can easily find and kill Riki. Riki will also find it harder to kill the tanky Night Stalker than he would many other heroes.

* 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 Boots of Travel.
* Crippling Fear's silence will prevent Tinker from fighting back, as Tinker relies on his spells.

* Heroes with low health: Lich, Crystal Maiden, Lion.

* Heroes with haste can negate Enchant's slow: Weaver, Dark Seer, Lycan, Centaur Warrunner.

* Certain heroes can mess up with Pangolier's positioning and timing (especially if he intends to use Rolling Thunder during combat): Vengeful Spirit, Keeper of the Light, Huskar, Dark Seer

* Heroes that have a weak laning stage: Spectre, Nyx Assassin, Clockwerk, Spirit Breaker, Omniknight, Pudge.

* Heroes with escape abilities : Anti-Mage Dark Seer Slark Storm Spirit Windranger Weaver can kite Lifestealer due to him having no lockdown

* Heroes who do not have nor rely on passive abilities make Nethertoxin much less effective: Clinkz, Pugna, Nature's Prophet, Dark Seer, Lycan, Tusk

* Heroes with low mobility that rely on spells: Zeus, Lina, Crystal Maiden.

* Heroes with low mobility that rely on spells: Zeus, Lina, Crystal Maiden.

* Durable heroes can stand against Tusk during 1v1: Axe, Dragon Knight, Night Stalker, Centaur Warrunner, Wraith King and more.

* Heroes that have a weak laning stage: Spectre, Nyx Assassin, Clockwerk, Spirit Breaker, Omniknight, Pudge.

* Heroes with silence such as Riki, Silencer, or Night Stalker prevents Skywrath Mage from using his spells.

* Heroes with mobility/escape mechanisms to dodge Ancient Apparition abilites, or to easily jump on him: Riki, Queen of Pain, Phantom Assassin, Windranger, Bounty Hunter, Spirit Breaker, Night Stalker, Storm Spirit, Juggernaut, etc.

* Heroes with low mobility that rely on spells: Zeus, Lina, Crystal Maiden.

* Heroes with weaker mobility will struggle to keep up with Night Stalker: Gyrocopter, Ursa, Drow Ranger

* Heroes that have long silences, such as Night Stalker and Silencer, will prevent Abaddon from saving his allies effectively and disable the active component of Borrowed Time.

* Any heroes with silences can negate the majority of Outworld Destroyer's damage output: Death Prophet, Night Stalker, Drow Ranger, Doom .

* Heroes with weaker mobility will struggle to keep up with Night Stalker: Gyrocopter, Ursa, Drow Ranger

* Careful not to blink into Riki's Smoke Screen or Night Stalker's Crippling Fear, as these field effects will instantly silence Earthshaker and prevent him from initiating.

Additional:
* Fissure has a short stun and creates an impassable ridge. However, Night Stalker can fly over it during Dark Ascension.
* Night Stalker can find Earthshaker, disable his Blink Dagger with Void, and then take him out with Crippling Fear.
* Earthshaker may fail his blink combo against Night Stalker's team if he is not careful, as he can blink into the silence.

* Night Stalker's Crippling Fear at night prevents Shadow Walk for an extended period of time and his Void will make Phase Boots useless. If Night Stalker has True Sight, he can shutdown Bounty Hunter's sneak kill.

* Heroes that have a weak laning stage: Spectre, Nyx Assassin, Clockwerk, Spirit Breaker, Omniknight, Pudge.

* Dark Seer's Vacuum and Ion Shell allows him to clear the wave of Terrorblade's illusions.
* Wall of Replica and Normal Punch from Aghanim's Shard can create stronger illusions of Terrorblade.
* If Dark Seer can use Vacuum to help teammates land their AoE skills, Terrorblade will be quickly killed before he even gets a chance to use Sunder.
Additional:
* Dark Seer's Vacuum and Ion Shell allows him to clear a wave of Terrorblade's illusions.
* Because Terrorblade often builds items that require Ultimate Orb like Manta Style and Eye of Skadi, Dark Seer can create a very strong illusion of Terrorblade with Wall of Replica and Normal Punch from Aghanim's Scepter.
* If Dark Seer can use Vacuum to help teammates land their AoE abilities, Terrorblade will be quickly killed before he even gets a chance to use Sunder.

* Night Stalker has a huge, almost instant silence through Crippling Fear. The main problem is that he can get it off while Queen of Pain barely has any vision of him if he creeps up to her during Dark Ascension. She'll have to play very carefully before she gets a Black King Bar or a Eul's Scepter of Divinity.

* The long silence of Crippling Fear at night prevents Weaver from using his Shukuchi or Time Lapse.
* With Dark Ascension and Gem of True Sight, Night Stalker can easily find and probably kill Weaver.
* Hunter In the Night's attack speed bonus removes The Swarm's beetles very quickly.

* Void can interrupt Icarus Dive.
* His Crippling Fear's silence will shutdown a spell caster Phoenix.
* However, Phoenix punishes Night Stalker with Supernova because it will turn night into day, and it has a higher priority than Dark Ascension, effectively canceling the passive bonuses Night Stalker gets from Hunter in the Night.

* Ion Shell zones out Broodmother in the laning phase, and can kill her spiderlings if used on one Spiderling in a group.
* Vacuum can pull Broodmother out of the treeline.
Additional:
* Ion Shell is a very powerful weapon against Broodmother's Spiderlings and makes her laning much harder.

* Dark Seer can take great advantage of Divided We Stand by putting an Ion Shell on a clone in order to harass them effectively.
* Vacuum can take a single Meepo and disable them for him and his teammates to take out.

* Heroes that rely on illusions will suffer against Ion Shell, which kills them very quickly: Phantom Lancer, Chaos Knight, Naga Siren, Meepo.

* Heroes that have a weak laning stage: Spectre, Nyx Assassin, Clockwerk, Spirit Breaker, Omniknight, Pudge.

Additional:
* Void's mini-stun and silence from Crippling Fear will stop Pudge from using Dismember or turning off his Rot.
* Night Stalker has naturally high health, strength gain and common itemization for survivability through magic resistance, making Night Stalker a poor target for Pudge.

* Dark Seer can increase the movement speed of allies with Surge, breaking Static Link.

* Heroes with weaker mobility will struggle to keep up with Night Stalker: Gyrocopter, Ursa, Drow Ranger

* Crippling Fear makes Night Stalker one of the best early game gankers to shut down Anti-Mage.
* Night Stalker's low mana pool causes him to take little damage from Mana Void.