*
Doom generally does not impede Sven in almost any way, provided he has activated God's Strength beforehand.
* Heroes who cannot prevent Sven from killing supports will always be at a disadvantage in fights such as
Lina,
Slark and
Zeus.
* Heroes who can disable Mars but cannot do any damage to him, meaning he just tanks their abilities:
Doom,
Magnus.
* Bulwark blocks much of Slark's basic attack damage, even during
Shadow Dance.
* Slark finds it very difficult to have a good early/mid game when pressured in the early game by Spear of Mars and God's Rebuke.
* Spear of Mars and God's Rebuke can hit Slark through
Shadow Dance and
Depth Shroud.
* Should
Pounce be on cooldown, Slark is very vulnerable inside Arena of Blood.
* Single-target disablers will have difficulty locking down a Chaos Knight with Phantasm active:
Bane,
Beastmaster,
Bloodseeker,
Clockwerk,
Doom,
Shadow Shaman.
*
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.
* Phantom Lancer's illusions can make it difficult to Doom the real hero. Should Doom figure out the real hero, the illusions can make it difficult to cast any abilities, as their hitboxes can be used to body-block the real Phantom Lancer.
* Phantom Lancer is an ideal
Diffusal Blade carrier. With it, he can quite easily deplete Doom's already poor mana pool, potentially making him unable to cast his abilities to escape, retaliate or heal.
* Doom lacks any effective ability to clear waves of creeps and illusions, as the vast majority of his abilities are single-target. Without an answer, Doom may find it difficult to deal with Phantom Lancer's presence.
* Slark has no sustained AoE to fight off Phantom Lancer's illusions as they continually spawn.
* Spirit Lance can give vision of Slark by spawning an illusion, making it harder for him to juke and gain the passive bonus from
Shadow Dance.
*
Phantom Rush helps Phantom Lancer chase down Slark if he tries to escape with
Pounce.
Additional:
* Slark has no sustained AoE damage to deal with a lot of Phantom Lancer's illusions.
*
Doppelganger lets Phantom Lancer dodge Dark Pact and Pounce and partially wastes the duration of Shadow Dance.
*
Spirit Lance can give vision of Slark via spawning an illusion, making it harder for him to juke and gain the passive bonus from Shadow Dance.
*
Phantom Rush helps Phantom Lancer chase down Slark when he jumps away with Pounce.
*
Doom's
Doom marks Phantom Lancer with a highly visible effect, and also silences and mutes him.
* Heroes with undispellable debuffs will help identify the real Phantom Lancer through visual effects or debuff indicators, provided that it was cast on the real Phantom Lancer to begin with:
*
Doom's
Doom marks Phantom Lancer with a highly visible effect, and also silences and mutes him.
*
Bloodseeker's
Rupture shows a clear red trail effect on the real Phantom Lancer.
*
Ancient Apparition's
Ice Blast will only debuff Phantom Lancer and not his illusions.
*
Grimstroke's
Soulbind is undispellable.
*
Shadow Demon's
Demonic Purge is undispellable.
*
Monkey King's
Jingu Mastery is undispellable and puts a big yellow Mark over his head.
* Thunder Strike provides vision on him while Slark is invisible.
* Glimpse's range at lvl 3-4 is more than enough to pull him back to a favorable position for your team to group up and kill him.
* Even though he is capable of picking you off and deal enough damage to kill you, Slark will be literally sticking his neck out, since jumping on Disruptor means being on his battleground.
* AoE silence and the ability to mute Black King Bar is deadly to Slark at all stages of the game.
Additional:
*
Static Storm and
Kinetic Field locks down Slark, as he cannot use Dark Pact to dispel any disables, or Pounce out while silenced.
*
Glimpse puts an end to any attempts at ganking Disruptor or his allies, and also negates Slark's mobility by bringing him back into the fight if he tries to escape with Pounce.
*
Phantom's Embrace cannot be dispelled by Slark's
Dark Pact, and will cause him to suffer damage if he doesn't kill Phantom fast enough.
*
Soulbind also cannot be dispelled by Slark's
Dark Pact, and will cause Slark to suffer from a single-targeted ability used on his ally that is also affected by it.
* Bloodseeker is one of the hardest counters to Slark.Thirst prevents Slark from healing in lane with
Shadow Dance and may set him up for a kill while in the jungle,or retreating.
* Rupture will deal damage during
Pounce.
*
Dark Pact cannot dispel Rupture, preventing Slark from escaping ganks.
Additional:
*
Thirst stops Shadow Dance's passive health regeneration if Slark's current health is below the Thirst's visibility threshold.
*
Rupture effectively diminishes Slark's mobility in battle, leaving him susceptible to AoE stuns or forcing to teleport out of the fight.
*
Stampede can be used to free an ally from the grasp of Doom. Without any means of effective lockdown, kills can be difficult to secure when against an enemy Centaur Warrunner. Also, Centaur's tendency to have lots of health and HP regen tend to help counter Doom.
Additional:
* Whenever Doom casts his ultimate, Centaur Warrunner can cast Stampede and allow the
Doomed hero to run away, wasting Doom's ultimate.
* Slark's low health and reliance on high built armor from
Essence Shift makes him susceptible to Muerta's
Pierce the Veil.
* Muerta cannot be attacked by Slark's physical attacks and
Essence Shift during
Pierce the Veil.
* Muerta's
Dead Shot and
The Calling can hit Slark even while hidden with
Shadow Dance.
* Due to Doom's naturally high health, strength gain and common itemization for durability,
Heartstopper Aura is particularly effective. The health loss is also large enough that, throughout all stages of the game, the aura effectively neuters the health regeneration granted by Devour.
* Necrophos can help to keep both himself and his allies alive during Doom through his natural regeneration granted by
Heartstopper Aura (which is not disabled by Doom), or in the case of an ally, through his
Death Pulse. Additionally, Necrophos is an ideal
Mekansm carrier. Should one be bought, kills against Necrophos' team can be difficult to secure due to the damage-over-time nature of Doom and his abilities.
* Doom typically wants to be a hero that soaks attention from the enemy team and takes the role of an initiator and disabler. As such, Doom is an ideal target for
Reaper's Scythe, as it is likely Doom will be at the fore-front of any fight.
* 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.
*
Toss and
Avalanche deals heavy damage to Slark in the early game, making Tiny a very dangerous target to gank.
* Tiny has 0 agility, which means Slark's
Essence Shift permanent agility steal does not do much against him.
* Any heroes with low mana pools will die quickly or even instantly to Sanity's Eclipse:
Doom,
Phantom Assassin,
Troll Warlord.
* Outworld Destroyer can disrupt Slark's attacks with
Astral Imprisonment either by banishing Slark or his target.
* Slark's low heathpool means he will die quickly to
Arcane Orb if he is directly attacked by Outworld Destroyer
* Slark has low intelligence gain, making him easy to finish with
Sanity's Eclipse if he tries to run with
Shadow Dance
Additional:
*
Arcane Orb deals pure damage, which ignores the armor granted from permanent agility stacks.
*
Astral Imprisonment can disrupt any Pounce attempt by banishing the leashed ally.
* Slark's low mana pool makes him more susceptible to
Sanity's Eclipse.
* Any heroes with silences can negate the majority of Outworld Destroyer's damage output:
Death Prophet,
Night Stalker,
Drow Ranger,
Doom .
*
Nether Blast will still hit Slark even if he is hidden during Shadow Dance.
* Even though Pugna can rarely target Slark directly with
Decrepify, he can still use it defensively on an ally to prevent Slark from getting stacks.
* Despite being somewhat easy to break with Pounce, Pugna can damage Slark and provide vision over him with
Life Drain.
*
Ensnare prevents using any kind of movement abiilties, Making Naga Siren good against heroes who rely on gap-closing abilities to escape:
Phantom Assassin,
Magnus,
Slark,
Riki,
Faceless Void,
Storm Spirit.
* Heroes with AoE abilities will hit Slark in Shadow Dance:
Lina,
Jakiro,
Underlord,
Leshrac,
Dark Seer,
Earthshaker,
Timbersaw,
Crystal Maiden.
* Heroes with AoE abilities will hit Slark in Shadow Dance:
Lina,
Jakiro,
Underlord,
Leshrac,
Dark Seer,
Earthshaker,
Timbersaw,
Crystal Maiden.
* Heroes without blink mechanisms or spell immunity will have a hard time positioning against
Pit of Malice:
Sven,
Tiny,
Wraith King,
Dragon Knight,
Meepo,
Doom,
Bounty Hunter,
Dark Seer,
Undying,
Alchemist,
Legion Commander.
* Heroes with AoE abilities will hit Slark in Shadow Dance:
Lina,
Jakiro,
Underlord,
Leshrac,
Dark Seer,
Earthshaker,
Timbersaw,
Crystal Maiden.
*
Doom with the {ValueColor:1|Doom applies Break|25tal} {Symbol:Talent} talent can be useful against heroes with troublesome passive skills while also disabling them for a long time:
Phantom Assassin,
Enchantress,
Huskar,
Underlord.
Additional:
*
Infernal Blade does damage based on percentage health, and is useful against high health pool hero like Underlord.
*
Doom can prevent Underlord from spamming his abilities and most important is to prevent him from using Fiend's Gate to escape.
*
Terrorblade can use
Sunder to save his allies who are Doomed.
*
Slardar's level 25 talent makes
Corrosive Haze undispellable, thus providing his allies vision of Slark.
* Heroes that lose a great amount of damage output and become less threatening:
Phantom Assassin,
Sven,
Slark,
Phantom Lancer.
* Once you have an
Aghanim's Scepter, Shadow Demon instantly reaches a new power spike and becomes a counter for a variety of heroes that have strong passives.
* Heroes that lose a great amount of their tankiness and become easier to finish off:
Bristleback,
Spectre,
Phantom Assassin,
Enchantress,
Dragon Knight.
* Heroes that lose a great amount of damage output and become less threatening:
Phantom Assassin,
Sven,
Slark,
Phantom Lancer.
* You can always stack camps and farm the scepter with Shadow Poison.
* Heroes like
Slark,
Witch Doctor and others also tend to suffer in Ice Blast's heal denial.
Additional:
*
Ice Blast stops Shadow Dance's passive health regeneration, even when Slark is not in vision.
* Heroes with a slow attack rate will find themselves struggling to take out Tombstone, like
Doom.
* Heroes with one single-target abilities such as
Wraith King,
Necrophos, or
Doom will struggle against Weaver's Linken Sphere.
* Lone Druid is essentially two heroes. Dooming one over the other still leaves Lone Druid or his bear able to do their job during a fight. Additionally, Lone Druid is not hindered as much as other heroes by the silence and mute of Doom since the hero relies more on attacks than abilities.
Additional:
* Doom will be very hestitant to use
Doom on the Spirit Bear, and using it on Lone Druid himself will not stop the bear from attacking him especially if True Form has already been used.
*
Devour does not work on the Spirit Bear and pushes the lane so Lone Druid can safely farm under tower.
* Besides
Lone Druid and
Meepo, Doom is potentially good versus every hero since Doom will render any hero helpless for up to 16 seconds. This is particularly true for fragile heroes that heavily rely on mobility to stay alive.
* Slark will have a hard time killing Sand King because of the survivability he gets from Burrowstrike and Sand Storm.
*
Shadow Dance, which usually allows Slark to survive fights, is ineffective against Sand King's AoE damage.
* Heroes with blink or movement abilities, which are disabled by Pounce's leash:
Anti-Mage,
Earth Spirit,
Faceless Void,
Magnus,
Mirana,
Monkey King,
Morphling,
Pangolier,
Phantom Assassin,
Phoenix,
Puck,
Queen of Pain,
Riki,
Sand King,
Spirit Breaker,
Timbersaw,
Tusk.
* Both Scream of Pain and Sonic Wave should hit Slark during his
Shadow Dance.
* Heroes with blink or movement abilities, which are disabled by Pounce's leash:
Anti-Mage,
Earth Spirit,
Faceless Void,
Magnus,
Mirana,
Monkey King,
Morphling,
Pangolier,
Phantom Assassin,
Phoenix,
Puck,
Queen of Pain,
Riki,
Sand King,
Spirit Breaker,
Timbersaw,
Tusk.
* Heroes with low mana pools (eg.
Doom and
Tidehunter) will feel the effects of Silencer's Intelligence Steal far more than others.
* Heroes with silencing abilities can be particularly deadly when Slark is trying to escape:
Silencer,
Death Prophet,
Puck,
Doom.
* Slark's
Dark Pact allows him to dispel Silencer's debuffs.
* Against a carry Silencer,
Essence Shift will lower damage from both Glaives of Wisdom and his basic attack.
* Infernal Blade deals scaling damage and is useful against high HP targets such as Tidehunter.
*
Doom prevents Tidehunter from casting his
Gush,
Anchor Smash and
Ravage, making him useless in team fights.
* If Doom chooses the Level 25 talent {ValueColor:1|Doom applies Break|25tal} {Symbol:Talent}, he can also disable
Kraken Shell, reducing his survivability.
*
Dark Pact dispels debuffs from Gush, Anchor Smash and even Ravage if timed correctly.
* Kraken Shell cannot restore attributes stolen by
Essence Shift or dispel the leash if he gets
Pounced.
*
Infernal Blade deals scaling damage and is useful against high HP targets such as Bristleback.
*
Doom prevents Bristleback from casting his two low cooldown abilities, which then prevents him from utilizing
Warpath.
* If Doom chooses the Level 25 talent {ValueColor:1|Doom applies Break|25tal} {Symbol:Talent}, he can disable
Bristleback and
Warpath, taking away much of his durability and damage potential in team fights.
Additional:
*
Infernal Blade deals scaling damage and is useful against high health targets such as Bristleback.
*
Doom disables Bristleback's low cooldown abilities, preventing him from triggering Warpath. With his upgraded level 25 talent, it also breaks Bristleback's passive, rendering him more vulnerable.
*
Essence Shift allows Slark to hit Bristleback freely whether on the front or back, stealing attributes and make Bristleback much less tanky.
*
Pounce can be used to disengage and recover lost HP with his ultimate passive, and can return to fight in a short period while Bristleback is already injured and got some of his attributes stolen.
*
Dark Pact makes it near impossible to keep the
Viscous Nasal Goo debuff on Slark.
* Although
Dark Pact cannot dispel
Quill Spray, meaning that Slark will still receive quill stack damage even if he used
Shadow Dance before.
* Slark builds
Silver Edge in almost every game, an item that greatly counters Bristleback.
* 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.
Additional:
* 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.
*
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.
*
Doom will not only prevent Warlock from casting his abilities in team fights, but also it reduces the healing from Shadow Word.
*
Devour allows Doom to acquire a stun from neutral creeps, allowing him to interrupt Upheaval without having to use
Doom.
*
Upheaval does not interrupt Slark too much, as he can just Pounce out of the area.
*
Fatal Bonds and
Shadow Word can be dispelled by Dark Pact.
*
Doom makes Ogre Magi less disruptive.
*
Infernal Blade effectively negates Ogre Magi's durability.
* With
Aghanim's Scepter, he can disable Multicast.
*
Dark Pact dispels Ignite's slow and Fireblast's stun.
*
Shadow Dance allows Slark to regenerate HP, even when he is affected by Ignite and Fireblast.
* Arc Warden relies on items and abilities, as well as his
Tempest Double, to deal damage to enemies.
Doom effectively denies that and makes Arc Warden useless in fights.
*
Flux is dispelled by Dark Pact.
* Pounce allows Slark to avoid
Spark Wraiths.
*
Tempest Double allows Slark to build up Essence Shift stacks, especially when it is being used for split pushing.
*
Doom disables the toggling of Rot and, if cast at the right time, may leave Pudge with a potentially lethal health drain.
* Doom's naturally high health, strength gain and damage output makes him a poor target for Pudge.
* The damage of Doom's
Infernal Blade scales with the target's maximum health, which is particularly effective against Pudge due to his naturally high health and further health granted by stacks of Flesh Heap.
Additional:
*
Infernal Blade deals high damage to Pudge due to his scaling health and strength gain from
Flesh Heap.
* Using
Doom with timing against Pudge who had just activated
Rot would usually kill him.
*
Dark Pact dispels Dismember if timed correctly.
*
Pounce allows Slark to escape Pudge's Rot once Dismember is over, and allows him to dodge hooks.
*
Shadow Dance hides Slark and grants him a high degree of mobility, which can make him a difficult target to hook and also protects him from Pudge's Dismember (including allies with an
Aghanim's Shard).
* Hex abilities prevent attacking, ability and item usage, which is a severe problem for Phantom Assassin as it prevents her from using
Black King Bar, the one item that helps protect her against the aforementioned dangers.
Doom and
Shadow Demon with
Aghanim's Scepter also disables Phantom Assassin's Evasion and Critical Strike, removing much of her damage and survivabaility:
Doom,
Disruptor with
Aghanim's Scepter,
Dazzle with
Aghanim's Shard
* Slark's
Pounce allows him to close the gap on Phantom Assassin and prevent her from escaping with
Phantom Strike.
* As a hero who typically builds
Silver Edge, Slark can use it to disable Phantom Assassin's
Blur and
Coup de Grace, thus taking down her attack evasion and drastically reducing her damage output.
* Because Phantom Assassin is always reliant on critical strikes, Slark will have plenty of time to escape with
Pounce,
Shadow Dance and
Silver Edge (provided that he purchased it already).
*
Depth Shroud from
Aghanim's Shard will allow Slark to save both, himself and his allies from Phantom Assassin with
Shadow Dance, and to freely fightback against her without removing invisibility upon attacking.
*
Essence Shift is much more harmful for Phantom Assassin than for other heroes, as losing the agility means that her physical damage will be also reduced, which can also weaken
Coup de Grace if Slark manages to steal lots of agility from her.
* Overall, any attempt for Phantom Assassin to take down Slark will hurt her more than Slark.
Additional:
* Slark's
Pounce allows him to close the gap on Phantom Assassin and prevent her from escaping with
Phantom Strike.
* As a hero who typically builds
Silver Edge, Slark can use it to disable Phantom Assassin's
Blur and
Coup de Grace, thus taking down her attack evasion and drastically reducing her damage output.
* Because Phantom Assassin is always reliant on critical strikes, Slark will have plenty of time to escape with
Pounce,
Shadow Dance and
Silver Edge (provided that he purchased it already).
*
Depth Shroud from
Aghanim's Shard will allow Slark to save both, himself and his allies from Phantom Assassin with
Shadow Dance, and to freely fightback against her without removing invisibility upon attacking.
*
Essence Shift is much more harmful for Phantom Assassin than for other heroes, as losing the agility means that her physical damage will be also reduced, which can also weaken
Coup de Grace if Slark manages to steal lots of agility from her.
* Overall, any attempt for Phantom Assassin to take down Slark will hurt her more than Slark.
*
Infernal Blade's damage is calculated by percentage of maximum health, meaning that it will hurt Spectre more than most normal attacks, negating some of her tankiness.
* Doom can pick up several different abilities from neutral creeps using
Devour, some of which can be annoying to Spectre.
* Mud Golem, Dark Troll Summoner, Harpy Stormcrafter, Satyr Mindstealer or Satyr Tormenter are good examples.
*
Doom makes Spectre less disruptive. Combined with
Aghanim's Scepter, it will disable Spectre passive skills, reducing her potential in teamfights.
Additional:
* Infernal Blade's damage is calculated by percentage of maximum health. Since Spectre is usually tanky, it will hurt her more than most normal attacks.
*
Doom can take out Spectre out of a teamfight completely. When combined with the level 25 talent {ValueColor:1|Doom applies Break|25tal} {Symbol:Talent}, it will disable both
Desolate and
Dispersion, taking away her extra damage and durability.
* Heroes with good escapes can usually outmaneuver and escape from Spectre:
Slark,
Clinkz,
Weaver
Additional:
* Essence Shift deals 20 extra damage by draining one strength per hit, which cannot be reduced or spread by
Dispersion.
* Pounce prevents Spectre from escaping with
Spectral Dagger.
*
Haunt illusions usually don't deal a lot of damage to Slark as he tends to buy a
Shadow Blade, preventing
Desolate's and
Diffusal Blade's damage and activating Shadow Dance's regeneration to make up for any damage caused by
Radiance.
* Slark is a natural carrier of
Silver Edge, which helps break both
Desolate and
Dispersion.
* Doom can easily kill Chen's creeps and obtain their abilities with
Devour.
*
Scorched Earth's area-of-effect can clear multiple of Chen's creeps at once.
*
Doom renders Chen completely helpless, and unable to save himself or his allies with
Hand of God.
Aghanim's Scepter upgraded
Doom also allows Doom to cast
Doom on himself and disable both, Chen and his creeps around him.
* Heroes that can easily bypass Chen's creeps to get to Chen:
Riki,
Tusk,
Clinkz,
Sniper,
Slark,
Phantom Assassin,
Void Spirit,
Storm Spirit,
Ember Spirit,
Earth Spirit,
Spirit Breaker.
* Doom can eats Nature's Prophet's treants with
Devour and gains lots of gold.
* Doom can buy
Radiance or use his
Scorched Earth to quickly wipe out a swarm of Treants.
*
Doom and a ministun from
Infernal Blade's prevents Nature's Prophet from escaping with Sprout and Teleportation.
* Pounce also stops
Nature's Prophet's
Teleportation.
*
Doom completely takes Windranger out of a team fight, a hero who relies heavily on using abilities and items to contribute in team fights.
Additional:
*
Doom completely takes Windranger out of a team fight, a hero who relies heavily on using abilities and items to contribute in team fights.
* Windranger tends to fare badly against high mobility heroes that can easily dodge Powershot, close the gap on her when she uses Windrun or escape from Focus Fire's reach. Examples of such heroes include
Spirit Breaker,
Lycan,
Storm Spirit,
Earth Spirit,
Void Spirit,
Slark and others.
Additional:
* Pounce helps put Windranger in place, even when she uses
Windrun to escape.
* Shadow Dance avoids Windranger's attacks from
Focus Fire altogether, and he can regenerate his health and fight back after Windranger uses up all her abilities.
* The stun from
Shackleshot and the slow from
Powershot can be both dispelled by Dark Pact, provided Slark casts it at the right moment.
* Heroes with the ability to heal allies will not be able to heal heroes affected by
Doom:
Chen,
Dazzle,
Io,
Oracle,
Omniknight,
Witch Doctor,
Winter Wyvern,
Abaddon, etc.
* Arctic Burn and Splinter Blast's debuffs are can be dispelled with with
Dark Pact. Arctic Burn also cannot be used to escape against
Pounce.
* Even though Cold Embrace can protect it's owner from Slark's direct attacks, Slark can still gain
Essence Shift stacks from attacking heroes affected by it.
* However,
Essence Shift works against allies, and Slark's low health pool means that if he's the target for Winter's Curse, he will go down very quickly as Winter's Curse cannot be dispelled at all.
* A well-timed
Doom prevents Nyx Assassin escaping with Vendetta and fighting back with
Spiked Carapace.
* Doom's high health also allows him to easily shrug off Nyx Assassin's burst damage and fend him off.
* Heroes who build
Black King Bar as either core or situational item will be able to fight back against Nyx Assassin and freely attack him as Spiked Carapace cannot pierce spell immunity at all:
Axe,
Broodmother,
Dawnbreaker,
Enigma,
Huskar,
Jakiro,
Legion Commander,
Lina,
Luna,
Lycan,
Slardar,
Slark,
Troll Warlord,
Witch Doctor.
* Heroes with silences and hard stuns such as
Doom,
Silencer, and
Lion can keep Mirana from Leaping away.
Additional:
*
Doom completely takes Mirana out of a team fight, a hero who relies heavily on using abilities and items to contribute in team fights.
* If Slark sees the Sacred Arrow before it hits him, he can use
Dark Pact to remove it a moment later.
*
Pounce prevents Mirana from escaping with Leap.
* Slark can survive Mirana's
Aghanim's Scepter​ combo with
Shadow Dance.
*
Doom pierces spell immunity and can prevent Enigma from casting any spells or using items until the duration of the spell depletes, as well as cancelling a
Black Hole.
* While
Doom can be blocked by a
Linken's Sphere, which is a common item on Enigma,
Aghanim's Scepter upgraded
Doom allows Doom to cast Doom on himself to affect enemies near him, and if Doom can combine this with
Blink Dagger, he will be able to jump on Enigma while he is channeling
Black Hole.
Aghanim's Scepter upgraded
Doom can also cancel
Black Hole if any of Enigma's allies affected by
Doom gets too close to him for it's duration, ignoring both,
Black King Bar and
Linken's Sphere.
* Enigma lacks burst damage, and that makes him vulnerable to heroes who can recover themselves and turn the fight around to their advantage after Enigma finishes his initiation:
Faceless Void,
Terrorblade,
Ursa,
Weaver,
Broodmother,
Slark,
Abaddon,
Wraith King,
Lifestealer.
*
Devour can easily eat creeps controlled by Enchant, limiting her ganking potential.
*
Doom reduces the amount of healing received by Enchantress and her allies from Nature's Attendants. In addition, when Doom chooses the
Doom applies Break talent, it can also disable Untouchable.
* Heroes that can jump on her:
Slark,
Queen of Pain,
Anti-Mage
* Heroes who build mana boosting items but have low mana regeneration are especially vulnerable against Mana Break and Mana Void:
Timbersaw,
Slark,
Shadow Fiend,
Clinkz,
Bristleback
Nyx Assassin,
Magnus
*
Doom shuts down Anti-Mage's escape capabilities with Blink. The ability also deals pure damage, which ignores the protection from Counterspell.
* However, a well-timed Counterspell can reflect it back.
* If Doom has
Aghanim's Scepter,
Doom can break Mana Break and Counterspell, weakening both his offense and defense.
* Doom's low mana pool causes him to take little damage from Mana Void.
Additional:
*
Doom prevents Anti-Mage from maneuvering around a fight or escaping from an initiation using
Blink. Additionally, Doom deals pure damage, which is not affected by
Counterspell. This can quickly whittle away Anti-Mage's naturally poor health pool.
* However, Doom must be careful when using
Doom as a well-timed
Counterspell can block and reflect it back against Doom himself.
* The Level 25 talent {ValueColor:1|Doom applies Break|25tal} {Symbol:Talent} will also disable
Mana Break and
Counterspell's passive component, which makes Anti-Mage significantly less effective in fights and more susceptible to the high magical damage of Doom's abilities and his allies.
*
Pounce prevents Anti-Mage from using Blink, and lets him disengage from Anti-Mage if needed.
*
Essence Shift allows Slark to permanently steal agility from Anti-Mage.
*
Shadow Dance stops Anti-Mage from being able to fight back in a slippery situation.
* High health heroes (
Axe,
Doom) fall fast with Fury Swipes stacks.
*
Doom makes Ursa less disruptive, and it cannot be dispelled with Enrage upgraded with
Aghanim's Scepter.
* Slark can detect early Roshan attempts due to
Shadow Dance if he frequently checks the Pit.
* Enrage cannot restore attributes stolen by
Essence Shift and will reduce his physical damage output.
* Even if Ursa initiates with Earthshock, Slark can
Pounce away or use
Dark Pact after Ursa's initiation to avoid Fury Swipes' damage until Earthshock's slow is gone.
* Low-health, normally mobile carries who rely entirely on raw attack damage are vulnerable to Bane's nukes and disables:
Anti-Mage,
Clinkz,
Drow Ranger,
Faceless Void,
Gyrocopter,
Juggernaut,
Meepo,
Mirana,
Monkey King,
Morphling,
Phantom Assassin,
Phantom Lancer,
Riki,
Shadow Fiend,
Slark,
Sniper,
Terrorblade,
Troll Warlord,
Weaver.
* Both
Infernal Blade and
Doom can be used to disable Bane while he is channeling Fiend's Grip.
* A similar effect can be achieved by using
Devour on {U:Centaur Conqueror}, which will give him access to
War Stomp.
*
Dark Pact can dispel Enfeeble, as well as Nightmare and Fiend's Grip when timed correctly.
*
Shadow Dance can protect Slark from Bane's single-target abilities.
* Heroes that rely on their high mobility such as
Queen of Pain,
Slark and
Weaver can be constantly engaged against due to your excellent ability to chase over any terrain. Make sure you carry true sight items (such as
Dust of Appearance or
Gem of True Sight) for invisible heroes that could potentially escape your clutches.
*
Doom prevents Storm Spirit from using all of his abilities and items, rendering Storm Spirit useless in a fight.
* Pounce's leash prevents Storm Spirit from using
Ball Lightning, making it hard for Storm Spirit to escape a gank from Slark.
* Dark Pact can dispel
Orchid Malevolence's Soul Burn.
* Weak damage but high tick rate or persist in a long time:
Slark,
Gyrocopter,
Queen of Pain,
Shadow Shaman (
Shackles),
Jakiro,
Pugna,
Doom
* 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
* Weak damage but high tick rate or persist in a long time:
Slark,
Gyrocopter,
Queen of Pain,
Shadow Shaman (
Shackles),
Jakiro,
Pugna,
Doom
* 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
Additional:
* Dark Pact rips through
Refraction charges and still steals attributes during Refraction.
* Pounce and Dark Pact will still hit Templar Assassin while she is
Melded. Since she cannot move, both abilities will be easy for Slark to land.
* Heroes with the ability to heal allies will not be able to heal heroes affected by
Doom:
Chen,
Dazzle,
Io,
Oracle,
Omniknight,
Witch Doctor,
Winter Wyvern,
Abaddon, etc.
* Heroes that can easily bypass Io's allies to get to Io:
Riki,
Tusk,
Clinkz,
Sniper,
Slark,
Phantom Assassin,
Void Spirit,
Storm Spirit,
Ember Spirit,
Earth Spirit,
Spirit Breaker,
Lifestealer.
*
Doom is effective against every hero, and Void Spirit is no exception. Being unable to cast spells or items during fights for 16 seconds nullifies his impact entirely.
* Doom has a very versatile build and can consume creeps which has abilities that can stun or provide additional magic resistance.
* Doom's high strength gain and versatility in items can be effective against Void Spirit's magical damage.
*
Doom completely takes Invoker out of a team fight, a hero who relies heavily on using abilities and items to contribute in team fights.
Additional:
*
Doom is a good way to shut down Invoker, preventing from casting spells and using items for a lengthy time, thus forcing him to invest on
Linken's Sphere.
*
Scorched Earth can be used to engage Visage while removing Gravekeeper's Cloak charges.
*
Infernal Blade will deal tremendous amounts of damage over time due to Visage's high health pool.
*
Doom completely nullifies Gravekeeper's Cloak and prevents Visage from casting spells.
*
Dark Pact can dispel Venomous Gale and Poison Sting.
*
Shadow Dance allows Slark heightened regeneration when out of vision making DoTs effects less threatening.
*
Dark Pact can dispel Flaming Lasso if is used in anticipation, but a Blink initiation from fog can catch the Slark off guard.
* Slark can also take off any Sticky Napalm stacks with
Dark Pact in lane.
Additional:
* Shadow Dance's passive can inform Slark when he's under enemy vision, meaning it'll be very hard to catch Slark off-guard with
Flaming Lasso.
*
Flaming Lasso is dispelled by Dark Pact. Its casting can be prevented with
Shadow Dance or
Depth Shroud (it requires
Aghanim's Shard).
* Heroes with AoE abilities will hit Slark in Shadow Dance:
Lina,
Jakiro,
Underlord,
Leshrac,
Dark Seer,
Earthshaker,
Timbersaw,
Crystal Maiden.
Additional:
* Timbersaw can use
Chakram as a scouting tool to find Slark if he tries to
Pounce into the trees.
* None of Timbersaw's abilities require a target to be cast, allowing him to hit Slark inside
Shadow Dance.
*
Reactive Armor can be effective protection against a Slark who attacks quickly, since the strong armor and health regen cannot be stolen by
Essence Shift.
*
Timber Chain makes Timbersaw very mobile, meaning he is among the very few heroes who can actually give chase to a fleeing Slark.
*
Infernal Blade deals scaling damage and is useful against high HP targets such as Timbersaw.
* Timbersaw is extremely reliant on his abilities to be effective during a team fight - both for mobility, damage and crowd control. Timbersaw offers very little, impactful right-click damage, and thus
Doom is particularly crippling against him.
* Additionally, when Doom chooses the {ValueColor:1|Doom applies Break|25tal} {Symbol:Talent} talent,
Doom disables
Reactive Armor, which effectively removes the durability which Timbersaw is commonly known for.
Additional:
*
Doom shuts down Timbersaw completely, negating his mobility and preventing him from doing any damage. It also breaks Reactive Armor's passive bonuses from
Aghanim's Scepter.
*
Infernal Blade can stun Timbersaw several times in a fight, potentially interrupting Timber Chain. Also it's useful since Timbersaw has high HP due to the damage scales based on max HP.
* Heroes with blink or movement abilities, which are disabled by Pounce's leash:
Anti-Mage,
Earth Spirit,
Faceless Void,
Magnus,
Mirana,
Monkey King,
Morphling,
Pangolier,
Phantom Assassin,
Phoenix,
Puck,
Queen of Pain,
Riki,
Sand King,
Spirit Breaker,
Timbersaw,
Tusk.
*
Scorched Earth deals damage to Clinkz during Skeleton Walk.
*
Doom shuts down Clinkz entirely, as it prevents him from casting any of his spells and contributing a large amount of damage in teamfights.
*
Pounce can easily break Static Link, making it less powerful against him.
* Slark is one of the few heroes who can man fight a Razor, because of
Essence Shift.
*
Shadow Dance can prevent Razor from killing him and may provide an opportunity to kill Razor due to it preventing Razor from attacking Slark.
* Ember Spirit cannot use his
Activate Fire Remnant to escape while affected by
Doom.
* Doom's low armor makes him weak against Alchemist's high physical damage output.
*
Doom can disable
Chemical Rage's increased healing, rendering Alchemist helpless against Doom.
* Attacks from
Infernal Blade can deal serious damage to Alchemist as it deals damage based on the hero's maximum health.
*
Shadow Dance allows Slark to not be targeted by Unstable Concoction, making Alchemist stun himself and making himself vulnerable to the enemy.
*
Dark Pact also allows him to just purge off the stun if timed correctly.
*
Essence Shift will steal stats over long durations at a time should Alchemist lack the damage to kill Slark.
* Slark's
Pounce can be used to dodge Hoodwink's abilities or lock her down.
*
Shadow Dance makes Slark unhittable from
Acorn Shot.
*
Dark Pact removes all slows from Hoodwink's abilities.
* Hoodwink's already low health output is a great target for Slark's
Essence Shift.
* With
Dust of Appearance, Luna will be able to use
Eclipse on invisible heroes. Be mindful that
Slark is exception because he'll be able to remove the debuff with
Dark Pact.
* Heroes that can keep Luna locked down for a long time can be a threat (she is very item and spell dependent):
Faceless Void,
Legion Commander,
Doom.
*
Shadow Dance prevents Luna from damaging Slark, and together with
Silver Edge he can easily chase her or escape from her.
* Luna has no way to escape from
Pounce's leash, which is especially bad as she is not used to buying
Wind Waker, which is the only way to escape from
Pounce outside of
Black King Bar.
* For the same reasons, Slark makes a very powerful ally for Luna when they are in the same team.
Additional:
* Luna's lack of mobility and escape abilities makes her easily to gank for Slark.
* Shadow Dance helps avoid all the damage from
Eclipse.
* For the same reasons, Slark makes a very powerful ally for Luna when they are in the same team.
* Melee carries during the laning phase:
Sven,
Slark
* Heroes with silences:
Puck,
Doom,
Riki.
* Heroes with dispels:
Legion Commander,
Oracle,
Slark,
Phantom Lancer
* Heroes with blink or movement abilities, which are disabled by Pounce's leash:
Anti-Mage,
Earth Spirit,
Faceless Void,
Magnus,
Mirana,
Monkey King,
Morphling,
Pangolier,
Phantom Assassin,
Phoenix,
Puck,
Queen of Pain,
Riki,
Sand King,
Spirit Breaker,
Timbersaw,
Tusk.
*
Nyx Assassin,
Bounty Hunter and
Slark can all sneak up and kill Shadow Shaman, Nyx being particularly deadly. Shadow Shaman must watch out for Slark carefully, as he can break either (but not both unless he makes a mistake) of Shadow Shaman's disables, with
Dark Pact and leap out of a serpent ward ring. These heroes, however, rely heavily on escape and are themselves not very durable and none of them can survive a full lockdown with Mass Serpent Ward. Having Sentry Wards can turn Shadow Shaman from prey to predator.
* Heroes with the ability to heal allies will not be able to heal heroes affected by
Doom:
Chen,
Dazzle,
Io,
Oracle,
Omniknight,
Witch Doctor,
Winter Wyvern,
Abaddon, etc.
* Heroes with blink or movement abilities, which are disabled by Pounce's leash:
Anti-Mage,
Earth Spirit,
Faceless Void,
Magnus,
Mirana,
Monkey King,
Morphling,
Pangolier,
Phantom Assassin,
Phoenix,
Puck,
Queen of Pain,
Riki,
Sand King,
Spirit Breaker,
Timbersaw,
Tusk.
* Clockwerk lacks burst damage, and that makes him vulnerable to heroes who can recover themselves and turn the fight around to their advantage after Clockwerk finishes his initiation. Additionally, Clockwerk hates buying
Dagon and
Ethereal Blade, which are the only itmes that can help him deal with heroes who can recover themselves and turn the fight around to their advantage:
Faceless Void,
Terrorblade,
Ursa,
Weaver,
Broodmother,
Slark,
Abaddon,
Wraith King,
Lifestealer.
* Heroes with abilities that break Berserker's Blood, lowering Huskar's attack speed and health regeneration:
Doom,
Shadow Demon,
Viper.
* Heroes with blink or movement abilities, which are disabled by Pounce's leash:
Anti-Mage,
Earth Spirit,
Faceless Void,
Magnus,
Mirana,
Monkey King,
Morphling,
Pangolier,
Phantom Assassin,
Phoenix,
Puck,
Queen of Pain,
Riki,
Sand King,
Spirit Breaker,
Timbersaw,
Tusk.
*
Illusory Orb and
Phase Shift allows Puck to avoid most ganking attempts.
*
Waning Rift and
Dream Coil makes it very hard for Slark to escape bad situations.
* Puck's abilities used together also deals significant magical nuke damage, none of which are targeted and thus cannot be avoided by Shadow Dance.
* Doom is generally tanky and has naturally high health, allowing him to survive Puck's onslaught in any stage of the game.
* His namesake ultimate
Doom is one of the best solutions to counter Puck, as it will silence Puck for a lengthy duration. A Puck silenced for more than 3 seconds usually ends up dead.
* In addition, if Doom chooses the Level 25 talent
Doom applies Mute, Puck will not be able to use items altogether, most especially
Blink Dagger and
Eul's Scepter of Divinity, making Doom a nightmare to deal with as Puck.
* Heroes with blink or movement abilities, which are disabled by Pounce's leash:
Anti-Mage,
Earth Spirit,
Faceless Void,
Magnus,
Mirana,
Monkey King,
Morphling,
Pangolier,
Phantom Assassin,
Phoenix,
Puck,
Queen of Pain,
Riki,
Sand King,
Spirit Breaker,
Timbersaw,
Tusk.
* Heroes with blink or movement abilities, which are disabled by Pounce's leash:
Anti-Mage,
Earth Spirit,
Faceless Void,
Magnus,
Mirana,
Monkey King,
Morphling,
Pangolier,
Phantom Assassin,
Phoenix,
Puck,
Queen of Pain,
Riki,
Sand King,
Spirit Breaker,
Timbersaw,
Tusk.
* Earthshaker's many stuns can lock down slippery heroes like
Slark in his
Shadow Dance and
Weaver in his
Shukuchi.
Additional:
* Earthshaker's many AoE stuns help lock down Slark and will often waste the duration of Shadow Dance.
* As a frequent
Force Staff buyer, he can later on escape or save teammates from Pounce.
*
Silencer's
Global Silence and
Doom's
Doom makes Earthshaker temporarily useless.
* Heroes with invisibility and high mobility can jump on and focus down Earthshaker before he has a chance to initiate:
Clinkz,
Slark,
Storm Spirit
* Heroes with blink or movement abilities, which are disabled by Pounce's leash:
Anti-Mage,
Earth Spirit,
Faceless Void,
Magnus,
Mirana,
Monkey King,
Morphling,
Pangolier,
Phantom Assassin,
Phoenix,
Puck,
Queen of Pain,
Riki,
Sand King,
Spirit Breaker,
Timbersaw,
Tusk.
* Heroes with blink or movement abilities, which are disabled by Pounce's leash:
Anti-Mage,
Earth Spirit,
Faceless Void,
Magnus,
Mirana,
Monkey King,
Morphling,
Pangolier,
Phantom Assassin,
Phoenix,
Puck,
Queen of Pain,
Riki,
Sand King,
Spirit Breaker,
Timbersaw,
Tusk.
Additional:
*
Dark Pact easily purges away both slow and disarm effect from Lucky Shot.
* With
Pounce now applying leash to the target, Pangolier is helpless against Slark since both his Swashbuckle and Rolling Thunder will be disabled. Pounce also help Slark to easily escape from Rolling Thunder.
* Heroes with blink or movement abilities, which are disabled by Pounce's leash:
Anti-Mage,
Earth Spirit,
Faceless Void,
Magnus,
Mirana,
Monkey King,
Morphling,
Pangolier,
Phantom Assassin,
Phoenix,
Puck,
Queen of Pain,
Riki,
Sand King,
Spirit Breaker,
Timbersaw,
Tusk.
Additional:
*
Pounce's root prevents Earth Spirit from using Rolling Boulder to escape, making it easier for Slark to shut him down especially in the laning phase.
* Heroes with the ability to heal allies will not be able to heal heroes affected by
Doom:
Chen,
Dazzle,
Io,
Oracle,
Omniknight,
Witch Doctor,
Winter Wyvern,
Abaddon, etc.
*
Slark with
Dark Pact
* Heroes that can remove the Track debuff with their skills:
*
Abaddon with
Aphotic Shield and
Borrowed Time
*
Huskar with
Life Break
*
Juggernaut with
Blade Fury
*
Legion Commander with
Press the Attack
*
Lifestealer with
Rage and
Infest
*
Naga Siren with
Mirror Image
*
Omniknight with
Heavenly Grace
*
Oracle with
Fortune's End and
False Promise
*
Phantom Lancer with
Doppelganger
*
Slark with
Dark Pact
*
Ursa with
Enrage
*
Weaver with
Time Lapse
*
Tidehunter with
Kraken Shell when damage received reaches the threshold.
* Heroes with strong dispels can remove Primal Roar's stun:
Abaddon,
Slark,
Oracle.
* Heroes with blink or movement abilities, which are disabled by Pounce's leash:
Anti-Mage,
Earth Spirit,
Faceless Void,
Magnus,
Mirana,
Monkey King,
Morphling,
Pangolier,
Phantom Assassin,
Phoenix,
Puck,
Queen of Pain,
Riki,
Sand King,
Spirit Breaker,
Timbersaw,
Tusk.
*
Lycan cannot escape from a Pounce even if he uses
Shapeshift, and has no disabling abilities to stop Slark.
* Heroes who have a high mobility (
Queen of Pain,
Storm Spirit,
Slark, etc.).
* Heroes with escaping and disjointing abilities can be good against Juggernaut:
Anti-Mage
Riki,
Queen of Pain,
Puck,
Storm Spirit,
Ember Spirit,
Slark etc.
Additional:
*
Blade Fury does not offer any protections against
Essence Shift, as it can go through spell immunity and reduces attribute.
* Slark can pounce away from Juggernaut and he cannot prevent or chase slark.
*
Shadow Dance prevent Juggernaut from using
Omnislash altogether, while regen himself at a higher rate. Slark can freely hit juggernaut without any fears of retaliation.
* Heroes with heavy magical nukes will take advantage of Slark's poor HP or force him to use Shadow Dance early:
Lina,
Lion,
Zeus
*
Dark Pact can be cast during the cast animation of Light Strike Array and dispel its stun.
*
Pounce allows Slark to close the gap to Lina.
*
Shadow Dance prevents Lina from killing Slark with her Laguna Blade when his HP gets low.
* Heroes that can deny Slark early kills will prevent him from snowballing:
Dazzle,
Abaddon.
* Doom can completely shut down Dazzle through
Doom, as it prevents him from casting his abilities and, by extension, gaining Bad Juju stacks.
* Heroes with silencing abilities can be particularly deadly when Slark is trying to escape:
Silencer,
Death Prophet,
Puck,
Doom.
*
Doom can stop Death Prophet from casting spells, which makes her useless during team fights if she didn't cast Exorcism before the fight, and also nullifies healing from Exorcism and Spirit Syphon. Furthermore, Doom can use
Scorched Earth to chase after her.
* Melee heroes who may struggle to get close to Sniper:
Wraith King,
Kunkka,
Doom,
Tidehunter,
Underlord,
Troll Warlord, and etc.
Additional:
* Due to the nature of the hero, Sniper is typically situated in the back of the fight, potentially making him a difficult target to initiate on and fight.
* Sniper is largely a right-click hero, and as such isn't as an effective of a Doom target as other heroes.
* Thanks to
Shrapnel and
Headshot, Sniper is able to effectively 'kite' Doom, preventing him from closing the distance between the two.
* Sniper hugely lacks mobility and escape abilities so that he is an easy target for ganks from Slark.
* Rubick usually positions in the back of a team. Heroes who can sneak up and assault Rubick (e.g.
Slark) or damage Rubick from great distance (e.g.
Spectre,
Sniper) should be treated cautiously, as otherwise the matchup usually ends up badly for Rubick.
*
Pounce and
Dark Pact together with some attacks can take Rubick down quickly.
* Rubick's spells are ineffective due to the strong dispel effect of
Dark Pact.
* Even though
Shadow Dance is a great spell to steal, Slark's untargetable nature and his low cooldown spells prevents Rubick from stealing. Also Slark can freely use other abilities for the duration of
Shadow Dance.
* Heroes with heavy magical nukes will take advantage of Slark's poor HP or force him to use Shadow Dance early:
Lina,
Lion,
Zeus
*
Lion's lack of escapes gives
Slark easier time to catch him through
Pounce.
*
Shadow Dance gives
Slark the advantage of being untargetable, nullifying single target abilities (such as non-upgraded
Hex,
Mana Drain and
Finger of Death).
*
Dark Pact applies multiple instances of strong dispel on
Slark, which is strong against any of
Lion's disables.
*
Lion's low health pool and low armor make him extremely vulnerable to
Slark's damage output.
* Time Dilation while
Dark Pact and
Pounce are on cooldown will make these abilities unusable for a long time, reducing his escape potential. However, Time Dilation is dispellable with
Dark Pact so it needs to be timed well.
* Chronosphere will not reveal Slark during
Shadow Dance but covers the whole duration of Shadow Dance making him unable to use it to attack or escape. Slark still receives the regeneration benefit from Shadow Dance.
* Heroes that can stop Faceless Void from leaping around the fight and controlling its outcome are very strong against him. Heroes such as:
Axe,
Centaur Warrunner,
Doom...
Additional:
* Faceless Void relies on
Time Walk for mobility and survivability but he can be prevented from utilizing it through
Doom.
* Doom has a high cooldown duration for every ability except Infernal Blade, so he is not significantly affected by
Time Dilation.
* Heroes with blink or movement abilities, which are disabled by Pounce's leash:
Anti-Mage,
Earth Spirit,
Faceless Void,
Magnus,
Mirana,
Monkey King,
Morphling,
Pangolier,
Phantom Assassin,
Phoenix,
Puck,
Queen of Pain,
Riki,
Sand King,
Spirit Breaker,
Timbersaw,
Tusk.
* Heroes with heavy magical nukes will take advantage of Slark's poor HP or force him to use Shadow Dance early:
Lina,
Lion,
Zeus
* Zeus can deal a huge amount of damage, but he lacks defensive abilities, such as good mobility or resistance. Due to that, he doesn't like to be touched by any means. Heroes with higher damage output and good mobility will often get easily near Zeus and trade damage (eventually causing Zeus's downfall). Such Heroes include:
Lycan,
Slark,
Storm Spirit,
Spectre and others.
* Even if he is
Doomed, Wraith King can tear down Doom with physical attacks, and can still reincarnate as long as it is off-cooldown.
Additional:
* Wraith King has three passive abilities and only a single active ability, so Doom does not hinder him significantly.
* Doom expires upon death, so it is effectively removed after
Reincarnation activates.
*
Dark Pact, if timed correctly, can dispel Wraithfire Blast's stun and slow.
* Since Wraith King has a lot of health and multiple lives, Slark can keep gaining
Essence Shift stacks, increasing armor, damage, and attack speed and can beat down Wraith King twice.
* Slark sometimes carries
Diffusal Blade to burn mana as an attempt to shut down Reincarnation.
* Because Wraith King has no AoE abilities,
Shadow Dance is particularly useful against Wraith King.
*
Shadow Dance does not protect Slark from Shadow Fiend's AoE spells.
* Doom has several disable abilities to choose from jungle creeps (e.g.
War Stomp,
Ensnare) to deal with Shadow Fiend who lacks escape abilities.
* When Doom combines creep abilities with
Scorched Earth,
Infernal Blade, and
Doom, Shadow Fiend most likely will die as he cannot use Shadowraze and Requiem of Souls to protect himself, and also cannot even flee by using
Shadow Blade or
Blink Dagger.
* Although Shadow Fiend has a high physical damage output, Doom has a large health pool to survive it, meaning Doom's combo with high magical damage output will shutdown Shadow Fiend first.
* Doom usually buys
Radiance to improve his damage, making his nuke combo more deadly to Shadow Fiend. The blind also prevents Shadow Fiend from landing his attacks often.
* Slark's dependence on Pounce and close range makes him very easy to hit with
Purification and
Hammer of Purity.
* Slark's damage, even with a high count of Essence Shift stacks, is easily negated by Omniknight's heals and
Guardian Angel.
*
Doom turns Omniknight into a walking creep, or completely takes out his buffed cores, also removing Heavenly Grace and Guardian Angel in the process.
* With
Devour used on Satyr Banisher, Doom will have access to Satyr Banisher's
Purge, which will allow him to remove Heavenly Grace and Guardian Angel.
Additional:
*
Doom applies a basic dispel upon cast, so it can remove
Guardian Angel.
* Casting
Doom on Omniknight will also prevent him from healing allies with
Purification, or casting buffs like
Repel and
Guardian Angel, basically turning him into a harmless creep.
* Heroes who often build
Linken's Sphere:
Weaver,
Morphling,
Medusa.
* Heroes with blink or movement abilities, which are disabled by Pounce's leash:
Anti-Mage,
Earth Spirit,
Faceless Void,
Magnus,
Mirana,
Monkey King,
Morphling,
Pangolier,
Phantom Assassin,
Phoenix,
Puck,
Queen of Pain,
Riki,
Sand King,
Spirit Breaker,
Timbersaw,
Tusk.
*
Slark's Dark Pact and Pounce can deny only one Earthbind and Poof can penetrate Shadow Dance if he doesn't build Black King Bar.
Additional:
*
Earthbind and
Poof will still hit Slark in Shadow Dance.
* Dark Pact can only remove one
Earthbind.
*
Ransack will still affect Slark, even if he has a
Black King Bar.
* Besides
Lone Druid and
Meepo, Doom is potentially good versus every hero since Doom will render any hero helpless for up to 16 seconds. This is particularly true for fragile heroes that heavily rely on mobility to stay alive.
* Doom does not disable
Mana Shield. As such, Doom's damage is largely mitigated by her mana shield. Additionally, Medusa is not reliant on her abilities to be effective during a teamfight, making Medusa an unproductive hero to target.
* Medusa is an ideal
Linken's Sphere carrier. Should one be purchased, and without any additional disables, Doom may find that few opportunities exist to effectively lockdown, disable, and kill Medusa.
* Medusa cannot chase Slark in any way and has no disable beyond her ultimate, making her unable to stop him getting away and regenerating before coming back to finish her off.
* Essence Shift particularly removes 1 intelligence point per hit, thus lowering Medusa's mana pool's cap and leaving her much more vulnerable in prolonged fights.
Additional:
* Medusa is especially vulnerable to
Essence Shift, as both strength and intelligence contribute to her effective HP, while agility contributes to her damage.
*
Dark Pact when timed right can be used to dispel Stone Gaze right after it petrifies Slark, allowing him to keep attacking Medusa throughout the duration.
*
Feast deals damage and heals Lifestealer based on the target's maximum HP, which is greatly effective against naturally high HP heroes such as Doom.
*
Rage allows Lifestealer to become spell immune to negate the magical damage of Infernal Blade and Scorched Earth.
* Doom has no effective means of escape from
Open Wounds and
Ghoul Frenzy. This is particularly devastating in the laning stage, where Doom may have to play a much more passive, conservative play style as a result.
*
Shadow Dance allows Slark to attack Lifestealer for its duration without any way for Lifestealer to fight back, allowing him to steal his stats with
Essence Shift, which also reduces Lifestealer's strength and, therefore, health pool.
* Slark can easily escape Lifestealer with
Pounce, and can avoid Open Wounds with
Dark Pact should Lifestealer be forced to itemize for it.
* Slark commonly buys a
Silver Edge, which can break Lifestealer's Feast, severely diminishing his damage output and lifesteal.
*
Depth Shroud from
Aghanim's Shard allows Slark to save both, himself and his allies with
Shadow Dance while also allowing them to fight back against Lifestealer.
* Natural Order aura prevents Slark from gaining armor from the agility stolen with
Essence Shift.
* Echo Stomp and Earth Splitter can hit Slark through his Shadow Dance ultimate.
* Slark's stats gain is relatively low compared to most agility carries making him quite squishy without his agility-based armor.
* Infernal Blade deals scaling damage and is useful against high HP targets such as Elder Titan. It also can interrupt
Echo Stomp if quick enough.
* Doom has very low base armor and naturally high HP, so he isn't significantly affected by
Natural Order.
* Drow Ranger can be difficult to get on top of, thanks to her
Frost Arrows and
Gust. With these two abilities, Drow Ranger is able to effectively 'kite' Doom and minimize his impact during team fights and laning stage.
* Much of Drow Ranger's effectiveness comes from her passive
Marksmanship, which is not disabled by Doom.
* A well-timed
Dark Pact can dispel Frost Arrows and Gust, letting Slark engage and escape freely.
*
Essence Shift is very detrimental for Drow Ranger as the loss of agility means that Marksmanship will also suffer from getting weakened.
*
Shadow Dance lets Slark quickly close the gap and deal heavy damage without giving Drow Ranger a chance to retaliate.
*
Pounce counteracts Frost Arrows's slow, and also allows Slark easily pin Drow Ranger down or flee from her.
*
Depth Shroud from
Aghanim's Shard will allow Slark to save both, himself and his allies and will also allow them to freely fight back against Drow Ranger without her noticing them.
Additional:
* Pounce and items like
Shadow Blade makes it very difficult for Drow Ranger to keep her distance from Slark, thereby losing her
Marksmanship bonus.
*
Gust is rarely enough to keep Slark at bay, as Drow Ranger has no movement abilities and will simply be chased down afterwards.
* Drow Ranger's heavy dependence on agility also makes her significantly weaker after being drained by Essence Shift.
* Heroes with AoE abilities will hit Slark in Shadow Dance:
Lina,
Jakiro,
Underlord,
Leshrac,
Dark Seer,
Earthshaker,
Timbersaw,
Crystal Maiden.
* Dark Seer relies on Surge for most of his mobility, so he's not very vulnerable to slows, but much more to root effects and walls or pseudo-walls such as
Disruptor's
Kinetic Field or
Slark's
Pounce.
* 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.
* 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.
* Berseker's Call catches Slark in
Shadow Dance, wasting its duration and preventing him from escaping to regenerate.
* Unlike most disables,
Dark Pact cannot dispel Berserker's Call and the output damage would be returned by
Blade Mail.
Additional:
*
Berserker's Call forces Slark to attack him, even during Shadow Dance.
*
Counter Helix will hit Slark in Shadow Dance. It will also trigger frequently against Slark's high attack speed provided by Essence Shift stacks.
*
Culling Blade finishes off Slark before he gets a chance to slip away and regenerate his health, preventing him from playing his typical hit-and-run style.
*
Infernal Blade's damage is calculated by a percentage of maximum health, meaning that it will hurt Axe more than most normal attacks, negating some of his durability.
* Doom can pick up several different abilities from neutral creeps using
Devour, some of which can be annoying to Axe.
* Mud Golem, Dark Troll Summoner, Harpy Stormcrafter, Satyr Mindstealer or Satyr Tormenter are good examples.
* Doom's naturally low attack speed makes Counter Helix less likely to proc, and his high base health allows him to take a few Helixes with no danger.
*
Doom makes Axe less disruptive, preventing him from using his skills or items. At level 25, there is a branch of the talent tree that makes
Doom apply Break, allowing Doom to disable Counter Helix, making Axe effectively useless for a lengthy duration.
Additional:
*
Infernal Blade deals scaling damage and is useful against high HP targets such as Axe.
* Doom has low attack speed because of his high Base-Attack-Time, poor agility gain and limited attack-speed granting items which are commonly built. This means Doom will trigger
Counter Helix less often and thus is an unideal target for initiation.
* Doom has naturally high HP so it takes longer for Doom to be brought down to the killing threshold of
Culling Blade.
* Axe is highly reliant on his abilities and items to be effective during a fight. Without the usage of
Berserker's Call and
Blink Dagger due to
Doom, Axe offers very little in the way of damage, effectively removing him from a fight.
* Heroes that can deny Slark early kills will prevent him from snowballing:
Dazzle,
Abaddon.
* Heroes with the ability to heal allies will not be able to heal heroes affected by
Doom:
Chen,
Dazzle,
Io,
Oracle,
Omniknight,
Witch Doctor,
Winter Wyvern,
Abaddon, etc.
Additional:
*
Doom will make Abaddon unable to use Mist Coil, Aphotic Shield, and the active component of Borrowed Time, also upgraded with
Aghanim's Scepter can break Curse of Avernus and the passive component of Borrowed Time ,which means his allies could be easily disabled or killed.
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.
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may win a lane in an early game but would lose in late game (and vice versa). That's why sometimes
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Doom
* The slow applied from
Corrosive Skin offsets the movement speed bonus granted by Scorched Earth and the tick-based damage from Infernal Blade and Doom will continually slow Doom down. This allows Viper, much like Sniper, to 'kite' Doom and keep him at a safe distance between the two. Additionally,
Corrosive Skin applies an attack-speed slow which is fairly crippling to a hero such as Doom that, naturally, has a high base attack-time, poor agility gain and builds little attack-speed items.
Poison Attack will continue to work. Doom may find it hard to close the distance between himself and Viper, and thusly difficult to effectively lockdown and continually deal damage through his abilities.
* Since Doom does not disable auto-cast abilities, Viper's
Slark
*
Viper Strike can disable
Essence Shift and the regeneration aspect of
Shadow Dance.
Dark Pact doesn't mean a lot against Viper's ubiquitous slows.
Shadow Blade).
*
* Viper becomes a relevant presence in team fights before Slark can procure his standard items (e.g.