* Counterspell can helpful blocked off to Dragon Tail.
Additional:
* Counterspell makes Anti-Mage exceptionally resistant to Breathe Fire, Dragon Tail, Fireball (requires
Aghanim's Shard) and Elder Dragon Form's attacks. Its active component also blocks and reflects Dragon Tail back at Dragon Knight.
* Mana Break drains Dragon Knight's small mana pool, although it won't affect Dragon Knight much if he is in his Elder Dragon Form.
* Heroes with escape abilities: Anti-Mage
Dark Seer
Slark
Storm Spirit
Windranger
Weaver can kite Lifestealer due to him having no lockdown.
* Heroes that withstand damage like Timbersaw,
Bristleback,
Dragon Knight and others will have their durability largely reduced when hit by an Ice Blast due to the risk of shattering.
Additional:
* Cold Feet and
Ice Vortex both hinder Dragon Knight's movement greatly during teamfights.
* Ice Blast ignores Dragon Knight's armor, disables his health regeneration, and kills him prematurely.
* Ice Blast prevents Lifestealer from lifestealing and healing with Infest in fights.
* Viscous Nasal Goo slows down Dragon Knight and lowers armor, locking him down and making him more vulnerable.
* Heroes with high physical damage can damage Lifestealer more than he can heal: Bristleback,
Clinkz,
Luna,
Shadow Fiend,
Slardar,
Terrorblade
* Fury swipes can tear Dragon knight down as it stacks infinitely.
* Lifestealer will struggle to duel Ursa in all stages of the game due to Fury Swipes, which pierces magic immunity. Ursa can also stand up to Lifestealer with
Enrage, which dramatically reduces incoming damage and further delay Lifestealer's Feast.
Additional:
* Lifestealer's Feast will most likely not out-heal the damage from Fury Swipes and Overpower in the early to mid game.
* With Aghanim's Scepter upgraded
Infest, Lifestealer can use it on enemy heroes to attack them and disarm them from inside, even if they are spell immune, which can give him the edge over the heroes he's weak against like
Ursa,
Phantom Assassin,
Terrorblade or
Troll Warlord.
* Slardar can chase Dragon Knight down with
Guardian Sprint and stun him with both
Slithereen Crush and his passive
Bash of the Deep. He can also use
Corrosive Haze to whittle Dragon Knight's armor.
* Heroes with high physical damage can damage Lifestealer more than he can heal: Bristleback,
Clinkz,
Luna,
Shadow Fiend,
Slardar,
Terrorblade
* Heroes that lose a great amount of their tankiness and become easier to finish off: Bristleback,
Spectre,
Phantom Assassin,
Enchantress,
Dragon Knight.
* 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.
* Melee carries such as Sven,
Ursa or
Lifestealer can be slowed and easily kited with Demonic Purge.
* Lich's constant slows with Frost Blast and
Chain Frost will slow Dragon Knight to a crawl, especially in a crowded teamfight.
* Dragon Knight has no built-in disengage from Frost Arrows, and
Marksmanship procs ignore base armor, bypassing Dragon Knight’s durability for the most part, making Drow one of the few heroes that can deal enough sustained damage to solo kill Dragon Knight.
* With Aghanim's Scepter, Frost Arrows also apply hypothermia stacks, reducing her target’s regen, which is especially potent against tanks like Dragon Knight. (A similar effect can also be achieved with an
Eye of Skadi).
* Though The Swarm can be blocked by Rage, it can be used to lower Lifestealer's already low armor, making him even more vulnerable to physical damage while Rage is on cooldown.
* Lifestealer has no strong disables on his own and thus cannot catch up with nor escape from Weaver's Shukuchi.
* Lifestealer's reliance on meticulous auto-attacks will not help against Time Lapse, which can undo Lifestealer's already slow build-up of damage.
Aghanim's Scepter upgraded
Time Lapse can also be used to save allies from getting killed by Lifestealer, but that will require targeting the allied hero rather than just pressing the button that will trigger the
Time Lapse.
Additional:
* Open Wounds's slow is ignored by Shukuchi.
* Lifestealer has no other lockdown and relies on being on top of enemies; Weaver can kite him with ease.
* Lifestealer's low mobility makes him easy to kite.
* Stone Gaze pierces Rage, wasting its cooldown and making Lifestealer unable to fight.
* Chronosphere provides excellent lockdown against Rage.
* Faceless Void's Time Lock stops Lifestealer from getting health regeneration from auto-attacks
* Although Lifestealer can avoid Eclipse with Rage and
Infest, Luna's physical damage can be enough to deal with him.
* Manta Style is a common pick on Luna, which can help her dispel slows from
Ghoul Frenzy and
Open Wounds. In addition, Lifestealer is not good against illusions created by
Manta Style.
Additional:
* Although Lifestealer can avoid Eclipse with Rage and
Infest, Luna's physical damage from
Moon Glaives and
Lunar Blessing can be enough to deal with him.
* Manta Style is a common pick on Luna, which can help her dispel slows from
Ghoul Frenzy and
Open Wounds. In addition, Lifestealer is not good against illusions created by
Manta Style.
* Even though Aghanim's Scepter upgraded
Infest can disarm Luna and allow Lifestealer to attack her from inside even if she is spell immune, Luna can easily counter this with
Linken's Sphere, which is a common item on Luna.
* Timbersaw's pure damage will kill Dragon Knight surprisingly fast, especially if he gets caught in a bad position while laning.
* Since Untouchable pierces Spell Immunity, Lifestealer cannot burst her down even with
Rage; meaning she can heal herself back to full HP.
* 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.
* Windranger's highly mobile playstyle allows her to easily control Lifestealer from a distance, as he has no disables on his own. Windrun not only provides her with bonus move speed, but evasion as well, undoing Lifestealer's ability to attack her. In combination with
Focus Fire, Windranger can easily dispose of Lifestealer without him being able to reach her.
* Lifestealer is a great target for Morphling to use Morph, as he can use Rage to gain spell immunity and a movement speed boost.
* Morphling's high armor also makes Lifestealer's attacks do less damage.
* With the exception of Magic Missile (unless the player takes the Level 25 Talent "Magic Missile Pierces Spell Immunity"), all of Vengeful Spirit's spells ignore Spell Immunity. This also makes her good against heroes with built-in Spell Immunity like Lifestealer or
Juggernaut or heroes that tend to pick up
Black King Bar, like
Sven.
* Many physical-only single-target heroes like Lifestealer,
Sven,
Wraith King,
Phantom Assassin,
Templar Assassin can have their damage mitigated by Cold Embrace.
* Elder Titan's
Natural Order completely nullifies Dragon Knight's high armor.
* In general, heroes that can slow down Dragon Knight's movement speed will do well against him. This includes Venomancer and others in addition to the heroes mentioned above.
* Heroes with spell immunity can still be disabled by Fiend's Grip and damaged by Brain Sap: Juggernaut,
Lifestealer,
Pangolier.
Additional:
* Enfeeble can weaken Lifestealer's Feast and may force him to cast Rage too quickly or itemize to dispel it.
* Fiend's Grip pierces through magic immunity and allows him to disable Lifestealer while in Rage.
* Heroes who rely strongly on melee physical damage will fare badly against Omniknight's Guardian Angel: Phantom Assassin,
Juggernaut,
Dragon Knight,
Lycan,
Ursa,
Troll Warlord
* Heroes with escape abilities: Anti-Mage
Dark Seer
Slark
Storm Spirit
Windranger
Weaver can kite Lifestealer due to him having no lockdown.
* Heroes with summons: Lycan,
Broodmother,
Visage,
Nature's Prophet,
Warlock.
* Because Exorcism's damage is not reduce by damage block abilities or items, Death Prophet can be very good against heroes who rely on armor to survive: Axe,
Terrorblade,
Morphling,
Dragon Knight
* Heroes with summons: Lycan,
Broodmother,
Visage,
Nature's Prophet,
Warlock.
* Heroes with escape abilities: Anti-Mage
Dark Seer
Slark
Storm Spirit
Windranger
Weaver can kite Lifestealer due to him having no lockdown.
* Durable heroes relied a lot on their main passive effects and items' effects such as Bristleback,
Underlord,
Spectre and
Dragon Knight can be disabled easily with
Sharpshooter's break, reducing their potential in teamfights.
* Heroes who rely on burst physical damage are affected by Lucky Shot's disarm: Terrorblade,
Sven,
Clinkz,
Windranger,
Alchemist,
Dragon Knight,
Legion Commander
* Heroes that lack burst damage will have a difficult time taking down Monkey King, and fare badly against Jingu Mastery: Legion Commander,
Lifestealer,
Weaver,
Wraith King
* Heroes with no mobility will take some good damage from Sand King's spells: Dragon Knight,
Jakiro,
Pugna,
Earthshaker.
* Heroes that rely on slows to get kills: Lifestealer,
Night Stalker,
Ursa,
Phantom Assassin,
Terrorblade.
* Lifestealer's Rage negates Sand King's spells which do magical damage.
* Arcane Orb's constant pure damage output is devastating to Dragon Knight.
* Dragon Knight's relatively low mana pool leads to heavy damage from Sanity's Eclipse, which also bypasses his armor.
* Heroes with built-in spell immunity can become immune to all of Outworld Destroyer's spells: Lifestealer's
Rage and
Juggernaut's
Blade Fury.
* Clinkz relies heavily on the physical damage provided by Burning Barrage and
Searing Arrows, which completely overrides the capabilities of Rage.
* Lifestealer's lack of disables will struggle to pin Clinkz down while in Skeleton Walk, and can allow Clinkz to kite him.
* 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.
Additional:
* The extra damage from Searing Arrows is largely blocked by Dragon Knight's armor.
* Clinkz has too low health to survive a gank.Getting stunned keeps him down long enough for a reaction.
* Breathe Fire reduces his damage, as he almost exclusively deals physical damage.
* Lacking any stun and being heavily dependent on his physical attacks and spell immunity, Lifestealer has no way to stop Black Hole, assuming he does not initiate Enigma first with
Abyssal Blade.
* Enigma's Black Hole and Midnight Pulse damage can pierce through Lifestealer's Rage.
* However, if Lifestealer manages to get Aghanim's Scepter and combines it with
Abyssal Blade, he will be able to disable Enigma's
Black Hole inside him with
Infest and he will be able to help his allies recover themselves from Enigma's initiation with
Open Wounds if Lifestealer gets
Aghanim's Shard.
Additional:
* Lacking any stun and being heavily dependent on his physical attacks and spell immunity, Lifestealer has no way to stop Black Hole, assuming he does not initiate Enigma first with
Abyssal Blade.
* Enigma's Black Hole and Midnight Pulse damage can pierce through Lifestealer's Rage.
* However, if Lifestealer manages to get Aghanim's Scepter and combines it with
Abyssal Blade, he will be able to disable Enigma's
Black Hole inside him with
Infest and he will be able to help his allies recover themselves from Enigma's initiation with
Open Wounds if Lifestealer gets
Aghanim's Shard.
* 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.
* Heartstopper Aura and
Reaper's Scythe go right through Dragon Knight's armor.
* Enemies that possess high defenses through magic resistance, damage reduction, or high regeneration will make it difficult to whittle their health down to get to Reaper's Scythe's threshold. Such heroes include Bristleback (although only from behind),
Spectre,
Ursa, and
Dragon Knight.
* Terrorblade's illusions and ranged attacks in Metamorphosis can burst down Lifestealer very quickly.
* Terrorblade has low health due to his low strength gain, which reduces Feast's lifesteal and damage.
* Because Lifestealer can usually heal back HP in fights due to his innate lifesteal (and sometimes Armlet of Mordiggian), he is a great target for Terrorblade's
Sunder.
* However, Aghanim's Scepter upgraded
Infest can disarm Terrorblade and allow Lifestealer to attack him from inside while also increasing Lifestealer's health regeneration that can nullify effects of
Sunder, even if Terrorblade is spell immune, which could potentially render Terorrblade useless in teamfights. And if Terrorblade cannot attack enemy heroes, he will go down very quickly.
Additional:
* Reflection's illusion carries Feast as well, making it useful to use against him.
* Feast cannot compensate for Terrorblade's incoming high damage, due to his low Strength gain.
* Open Wounds (requires
Aghanim's Shard) is a lot harder to land on the real Terrorblade if he has illusions around him. But remember that Terrorblade's illusions from
Conjure Image have different colors than other illusions which can be seen even by enemy team, and that can make it easy for Lifestealer to detect real Terrorblade unless Terrorblade buys
Manta Style.
* Lifestealer relies on right-clicks to deal damage, and Terrorblade's high armor can reduce his damage significantly.
* With Aghanim's Scepter upgraded
Infest, Lifestealer can use it on enemy heroes to attack them and disarm them from inside, even if they are spell immune, which can give him the edge over the heroes he's weak against like
Ursa,
Phantom Assassin,
Terrorblade or
Troll Warlord.
* Reverse Polarity pierces through Rage, wasting part of it's duration.
* Magnus is tanky and mobile, making it hard for Lifestealer to focus and kill him in all stages of a game.
* Any hero who can survive Magnus's initiations and manfight him: Huskar,
Faceless Void,
Weaver,
Abaddon,
Troll Warlord,
Alchemist,
Dragon Knight,
Night Stalker,
Viper.
* Shadow Fiend's
Presence of the Dark Lord reduces Dragon Knight's armor considerably, and his strong base attacks are augmented by his
Necromastery.
* Heroes with high physical damage can damage Lifestealer more than he can heal: Bristleback,
Clinkz,
Luna,
Shadow Fiend,
Slardar,
Terrorblade
* Dragon Tail can be used to cancel Requiem of Souls.
* Breathe Fire reduces Shadow Fiend's damage even further.
* Dragon Knight's high strength and
Dragon Blood means that he'll be able to tank Shadow Fiend's right clicks.
* Dragon Knight's heavy armor negates Vendetta's burst physical damage. His large HP pool also gives him a good chance of surviving Nyx Assassin's follow-up nuke damage.
* Rage allows Lifestealer to freely attack Nyx Assassin and hunt him down if Vendetta is on cooldown. Nyx Assassin cannot counter
Rage with Spiked Carapace because
Rage gives Lifestealer spell immunity. And besides Vendetta, Nyx Assassin has no other way of dealing damage to Lifestealer while he is spell immune.
* Open Wounds from
Aghanim's Shard allows Lifestealer to severely slow down Nyx Assassin while also allowing his team to recover themselves while attacking Nyx Assassin.
Open Wounds can also fester and spread if Nyx Assassin takes enough damage that will trigger the spread while he is affected with
Open Wounds.
* Infest combined with an ancient creep makes Nyx Assassin an easy target to surprise with
Dust of Appearance or a
Gem of True Sight.
Aghanim's Scepter upgraded
Infest can also allow Lifestealer to infest, disarm and freely attack Nyx Assassin from within. and Nyx Assassin cannot counter this with Spiked Carapace because Lifestealer is invulnerable while attacking the infested enemy hero from within.
* Overall, any attempt for Nyx Assassin to gank and kill Lifestealer will hurt Nyx Assassin more than Lifestealer.
Additional:
* Like with Juggernaut's Blade Fury,
Rage allows Lifestealer to freely attack Nyx Assassin and hunt him down if
Vendetta is on cooldown. Nyx Assassin cannot counter
Rage with
Spiked Carapace because
Rage gives Lifestealer spell immunity. And besides
Vendetta, Nyx Assassin has no other way of dealing damage to Lifestealer while he is spell immune.
* Open Wounds from
Aghanim's Shard allows Lifestealer to severely slow down Nyx Assassin while also allowing his team to recover themselves while attacking Nyx Assassin.
Open Wounds can also fester and spread if Nyx Assassin takes enough damage that will trigger the spread while he is affected with
Open Wounds.
* Infest combined with an ancient creep makes Nyx Assassin an easy target to surprise with
Dust of Appearance or a
Gem of True Sight. And similarly to Juggernaut's
Omnislash and
Swiftslash from
Aghanim's Scepter,
Aghanim's Scepter upgraded
Infest can also allow Lifestealer to infest, disarm and freely attack Nyx Assassin from within. And Nyx Assassin cannot counter this with
Spiked Carapace because Lifestealer is invulnerable while attacking the infested enemy hero from within.
* Like with Juggernaut, any attempt for Nyx Assassin to gank and kill Lifestealer will hurt Nyx Assassin more than Lifestealer.
* If Silencer can't prevent Dragon Knight from using Elder Dragon Form, Silencer's spells aren't going to be that effective against him, as Dragon Knight relies on right-clicks and not spells.
* Dragon Blood's armor bonus and health regeneration allows Dragon Knight to stay in the lane against Glaives of Wisdom.
* Dragon Knight often builds Black King Bar, allowing him to remove Global Silence before engaging.
* Rage can protect Lifestealer from most of the Silencer's abilities with the exception of Global Silence, as it will still silence if cast while the target is magic immune. However, it will not work if Lifestealer is infesting a unit.
* Silencer is vulnerable to Open Wounds due to his lack of an innate escape.
* Against a carry Silencer, Aghanim's Scepter upgraded
Infest can disarm him and allow Lifestealer to attack Silencer from within, even if Silencer is spell immune.
Additional:
* Rage can protect Lifestealer from most of the Silencer's abilities with the exception of
Global Silence.
* If Lifestealer can Infest himself on any unit, he can literally avoid being affected by
Global Silence.
* Against a carry Silencer, Aghanim's Scepter upgraded
Infest can disarm him and allow Lifestealer to attack Silencer from within, even if Silencer is spell immune.
* Open Wounds from
Aghanim's Shard can severely slow down Silencer, and allow Lifestealer and his team to heal themselves by attacking Silencer.
* Heroes with strong area-of-effect damage can make quick work of Chen's converted creeps and at same time gain farm: Magnus,
Jakiro,
Shadow Fiend,
Kunkka,
Luna,
Dragon Knight,
Medusa,
Alchemist.
* Rage gives Lifestealer spell immunity, Chen and his converted creeps have little to no ways of fighting back against Lifestealer whenever he activates it.
* Feast allows Lifestealer to recover himself by damaging Chen's creeps.
* Chen has no escape mechanisms, so he will often be unable to escape from slows applied with Ghoul Frenzy.
* Open Wounds from
Aghanim's Shard can severely slow down Chen, and allow Lifestealer and his team to heal themselves by attacking Chen.
Open Wounds can also fester and spread if Chen takes enough damage that will trigger the spread while he is affected with
Open Wounds.
* Infest allows Lifestealer to infest into one of Chen's converted creeps and take control of it, which allows Lifestealer to either escape from Chen or surprise him.
Aghanim's Scepter upgraded
Infest can disarm Chen and allow Lifestealer to attack Chen from within, even if Chen is spell immune.
* Heroes that reduce the damage that Marci can deal during her ultimate, like Razor,
Rubick,
Bane,
Dragon Knight and
Underlord.
* Lifestealer's Rage renders him immune to all of Marci's disables and magic damage for a good duration.
* His passive Feast deals bonus damage based on the enemy's max health and heals for the same amount. As a tanky Strength hero, Marci's own strength will be her undoing as well.
* Heroes who can match Void Spirit's mobility (like the aforementioned Ember Spirit or
Queen of Pain) or tank his spells (
Dragon Knight or
Centaur Warrunner) are very problematic for him.
* Heroes with burst damage of their own won't be afraid to go toe to toe with Void Spirit, like Ursa,
Lifestealer, or
Axe.
* Feast will deal a enormous amount of damage because of Tiny's huge health pool.
* Rage protects Lifestealer from Tiny's magical burst damage.
* 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.
* Rage protects Lifestealer from all of Techies's abilities. Reactive Tazer's disarm will also not work on Lifestealer under Rage.
* Rage can also be used to trigger Techies's Proximity Mines safely.
Additional:
* Lifestealer's Rage lets him clear Proximity Mines without taking damage, and allows him to hit heroes whom Techies has used Reactive Tazer on.
* Rage grants Lifestealer immunity to all of Jakiro's spells. Note: magic resistance will not dispel the attack speed slow effects from Dual Breath and Liquid Fire.
* Rage, acting as a pseudo-
Black King Bar, completely negates Mars' initiation if used in time.
* Feast does damage and heals based on max health, perfect against high-health strength heroes like Mars.
* Infest allows Lifestealer to potentially save allies from Mars' initiation with a quick burst of extra health.
* Lifestealer can close the distance to Sniper by using Infest on a fast or durable creep to tank Sniper's damage.
* Open Wounds and
Ghoul Frenzy will reduce Sniper's mobility heavily, and
Rage's movement speed bonus helps in closing the gap to Sniper. It also protects him from Assassinate and Shrapnel.
* Infest can dodge an incoming Assassinate or to surprise Sniper during ganks.
Aghanim's Scepter upgraded
Infest can also allow Lifestealer to disarm Sniper and attack him from inside.
* Rage negates Kunkka's X Marks the Spot.
* As a strength hero with high strength gain and very little armor, as well as low agility gain, Kunkka is vulnerable to Lifestealer's Feast and
Open Wounds.
* Rage protects and dispels all of Dark Willow's abilities.
Additional:
* Rage protects Lifestealer from all of Dark Willow's abilities.
* 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.
* Rage grants immunity from Invoker's spells and can dispel most of the disables such as the armor loss from Forge Spirit and the constant stuns of Cold Snap.
Additional:
* Rage protects Lifestealer from all of Invoker's spells (except for Sun Strike).
* Rage prevents Earthshaker from damaging and stunning Lifestealer.
* Feast is very effective against Earthshaker, because of him being a strength hero, allowing Lifestealer to heavily harass and kill him.
* Open Wounds prevents Earthshaker from escaping after he initiated.
* Infest gives Lifestealer an easy way to escape should he get caught out by Earthshaker. And against carry Earthshaker,
Aghanim's Scepter upgraded
Infest can be used to disarm Earthshaker and attack him from within, rendering him unable to attack with
Enchant Totem.
* The lifesteal of Feast scales accordingly to the max health of its target, which is effective against Pudge due to his high health and further health granted by stacks of Flesh Heap.
* Lifestealer can activate Rage to be spell immune, making Rot deal no damage.
* Pudge's plentiful health makes him an ideal target for Lifestealer's Aghanim's Shard ability,
Open Wounds.
* Rage allows him to be immune to all of Ezalor's abilities. Also, the increased movement speed combined with the slow from
Ghoul Frenzy and the squishy nature of Ezalor allows Lifestealer to take him down very quickly.
* Spirit Breaker's slow attack speed and moderate damage do very little to harm Dragon Knight, even if ganked with Charge of Darkness.
* Feast is good against high health strength heroes such as Alchemist.
* Rage allows Lifestealer to not be targetable by Unstable Concoction, possibly making Alchemist stun himself.
* Since Lifestealer build Aghanim's Scepter upgrades
Infest similliar
Heaven's Halberd can applies an undispellable disarm so Alchemist cannot attack during Chemical Rage, forcing him to activate Black King Bar beforehand.
* With Feast and
Rage, Lifestealer is nearly impossible for Clockwerk to bring down, and is the last hero Clockwerk wants to be trapped with in Power Cogs.
* Lifestealer's Rage makes him immune to all of Ogre's magical debuffs and also dispels them.
* Ogre's high health pool makes him an ideal target for Feast.
Additional:
* Ogre Magi has nothing against Rage and his high health pool amplifies
Feast.
* Leshrac's high magic damage is ignored by Rage.
* Lifestealer can get in Leshrac's face with Rage and mitigate any other damage taken by Leshrac with
Open Wounds.
* Being a strength hero with a high strength gain means Feast can give her a hard time,especially later in the game.
* However,Starbreaker's physical damage can control him in the laning phase.
* Feast is an effective tool against Centaur Warrunner, who generally has high health and low armor, and compensates the reflected damage of Retaliate.
* If activated, Rage can protect Lifestealer from Hoof Stomp, Double Edge, and Stampede.
Additional:
* Centaur Warrunner's active abilities cannot pierce magic immunity. Hoof Stomp's slow wind up can also be anticipated and negated with Rage.
* Lifestealer can offset Retaliate's damage return simply with Feast. Centaur's high strength gain and therefore big health pool makes him an ideal target to Feast on, especially in the late-game.
* Death Ward does little damage against Dragon Knight's armor, and Dragon Knight's high health regeneration minimizes damage from
Maledict.
* Rage can be used to escape from a Glimpse and to move out of Kinetic Field.
* Infest allows Lifestealer to dodge Glimpse.
* Feast deals damage and heals lifestealer based on the target max health. Because Spectre often emphasises on building stat items to increase her HP pool, lifestealer can deal a lot of damage to her and heal himself at the same time.
* Ghoul Frenzy slows target, which is bad for Spectre if she does not have
Spectral Dagger ready.
* Spectre cannot response to infest if lifestealer choose to stay inside his high mobility allies to approach the backline. Rage's bonus movement speed and spell immunity make it even more frustrating.
* Dragon Knight can simply tank and destroy all Shadow Shaman's Serpent Wards.
* Feast makes it impossible to for Lifestealer to be culled with Culling Blade and also deals high damage to Axe due to his naturally high health.
* However, Berserker's Call and
Counter Helix can pierce through the
Rage, and if Axe has allies with him against Lifestealer, Lifestealer may go down very quickly.
* Lifestealer is able to endure Undying, especially in the laning phase, where Undying is strongest. Feast can offset Decay's strength steal for its percentage lifesteal. Rage delays Undying from stealing strength and can help Lifestealer destroy Undying's
Tombstone uninterrupted. As well, none of Undying's abilities pierce magic immunity.
* Lifestealer, at even farm levels, will often fall against other man-fighting non-Strength cores like Ursa,
Phantom Assassin or
Troll Warlord as he cannot truly rely on sustain from
Feast.
Additional:
* Rage does absolutely nothing against Phantom Strike with items.
* Feast and
Ghoul Frenzy are very difficult to utilise thanks to Blur.
* Lifestealer generally wants to buy items that make him hard to kill, not an Monkey King Bar which only offers damage.
* Heroes that rely on physical damage are ineffective against Dragon Knight due to his high armor: Phantom Assassin,
Bloodseeker,
Lifestealer,
Troll Warlord,
Sven
* With Aghanim's Scepter upgraded
Infest, Lifestealer can use it on enemy heroes to attack them and disarm them from inside, even if they are spell immune, which can give him the edge over the heroes he's weak against like
Ursa,
Phantom Assassin,
Terrorblade or
Troll Warlord.
* Heroes who have most or all their abilities (damage or disable) unable to pierce spell immunity: Keeper of the Light,
Lina,
Lion,
Zeus.
Additional:
* Rage protects Lifestealer from all of Lina's abilities. However, Lina can paritally counter this if played as Carry, a common role for Lina.
* Open Wounds from
Aghanim's Shard can severely slow down Lina and allow Lifestealer and his allies to recover themselves by attacking her.
* Aghanim's Scepter upgraded
Infest can be used to disarm Lina even if she is spell immune, rendering her unable to maximize the effect of her
Fiery Soul and force her to use her abilities more often than intended. And Lina's only way to counter this is with
Linken's Sphere
* 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.
* Durable heroes can stand against Tusk during 1v1: Axe,
Dragon Knight,
Night Stalker,
Centaur Warrunner,
Wraith King and more.
* Heroes who have most or all their abilities (damage or disable) unable to pierce spell immunity: Keeper of the Light,
Lina,
Lion,
Zeus.
Additional:
* Rage is very useful against Zeus, as it negates magic damage and provides spell immunity. In addition, the increased attack speed can tear Zeus apart in combination with
Open Wounds.
* Lifestealer can avoid Thundergod's Wrath with Infest.
* Heroes with high armor and durability can be exceptionally hard for Bloodseeker to bring down: Dragon Knight,
Axe
Additional:
* Bloodseeker's physical damage is unlikely to kill Dragon Knight, and therefore rarely get a chance to recover the large amount of HP from Bloodrage.
* Heroes who have most or all their abilities (damage or disable) unable to pierce spell immunity: Keeper of the Light,
Lina,
Lion,
Zeus.
Additional:
* Rage makes Lifestealer debuff immune and gives him magic resistance which can drastically reduce magical damage from Lion's abilities while also preventing Lion to do anything to him.
* Lion's lack of inner escape and defensive mechanisms increases Ghoul Frenzy effectiveness, since it applies slows upon attacking.
* Lifestealer's physical damage output is strong against Lion's low health and base armor
* Infest can be used to surprise unsuspecting Lion if he tries to take down alone enemy hero.
Aghanim's Scepter upgraded
Infest can be used to disarm Lion and attack him from inside, even if Lion is debuff immune with the
Aghanim's Shard upgraded
Mana Drain.
* Heroes that are hard to gank: Dragon Knight,
Mars,
Centaur Warrunner.
* Heroes that rely on physical damage are ineffective against Dragon Knight due to his high armor: Phantom Assassin,
Bloodseeker,
Lifestealer,
Troll Warlord,
Sven
* Lifestealer with
Rage and
Infest
* 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 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.
* Heroes with good escape mechanisms are a nuisance to deal with in the early phase of the game: Slark,
Lifestealer,
Morphling
* Heroes with spell immunity-granting spells will render Phoenix useless against them, as Phoenix has almost no spell immunity-piercing ability, other than the stun at the end of Supernova:
Lifestealer,
Juggernaut.
* Heroes with high armor and/or durability can handle Juggernaut's ultimate, such as Sven and
Dragon Knight.
* Heroes who rely on physical damage output to be effective will fare badly against Muerta's Pierce the Veil:
Phantom Assassin,
Terrorblade,
Drow Ranger,
Lifestealer,
Anti-Mage,
Alchemist,
Lycan,
Clinkz,
Sniper.
* Lifestealer can activate Rage to become spell immune, making
Pierce the Veil do no damage and preventing Dead Shot from fearing or doing damage.
* Lifestealer can use Infest to avoid Muerta's Gunslinger shots, Dead Shot's fear and surprise Muerta.
Aghanim's Scepter upgraded
Infest can be used to disarm Muerta while she has Pierce the Veil and even through
Black King Bar.
* However, Lifestealer has no way of hurting Muerta through Pierce the Veil outside of
Infest, Lifestealer's only source of dealing magical damage. This forces Lifestealer to buy
Revenant's Brooch.
* Heroes that relies on armor or other type of physical damage negation are easy for Gyrocopter to take down during the early game with his magical damage: Axe,
Dragon Knight,
Sven.
* Rage ignores all of Gyrocopter's magical attacks.
* Feast helps Lifestealer out-damage Gyrocopter at close range.
* Heroes who can delivers a big chunk of damage in few hits will find themselves struggle against Templar Assassin's Refraction: Sven,
Phantom Assassin,
Ursa,
Wraith King,
Lifestealer
* Despite the armor reduction from Meld, Templar Assassin's reliance on physical damage and medium attack speed is unlikely to harm Dragon Knight.
* Templar Assassin's Refraction charges also get quickly removed by the damage over time from Dragon Knight's ultimate.
Additional:
* The damage over time from Dragon Knight's Elder Dragon Form rapidly burns down Refraction, allowing him to attack her.
* Also, Breathe Fire reduces Templar Assassin's damage and
Dragon Tail is a stun with a considerable duration, letting him and his team whittle her health down once her defenses wear off.
* Templar Assassin will struggle to kill Dragon Knight thanks to his high armor and health regen from Dragon Blood as she deals entirely physical damage.
* Huskar can burn down Dragon Knight's health quickly during the early to mid game, but is not as effective during the late game. However,
Life Break remains a constant threat due to the slow and percentage-based damage.
Additional:
* Huskar can negate Dragon Knight's passive with multiple trades of Burning Spear.
* Rage renders Lifestealer immune to the damage from Burning Spears.
* Feast makes Lifestealer one of few heroes that can outlast Huskar in a one-on-one fight.
* Heroes with summons: Lycan,
Broodmother,
Visage,
Nature's Prophet,
Warlock.
* Breathe Fire will clear Broodmother's spiderites while significantly damaging her spiderlings and decreasing their damage output.
* Dragon Blood's added armor and regen mitigates the damage done by Broodmother and her spiders.
* Elder Dragon Form at level 2 and above applies splash damage to Dragon Knight's auto attacks.
* Lifestealer is a susceptible target to Fervor due to his non-mobile nature and lack of disables. Troll Warlord's ranged
Berserker's Rage can also be used to kite Lifestealer safely. The root from its melee form also pierces magic immunity, which can potentially keep Lifestealer in place even while he is in Rage.
* Both Whirling Axes (melee) and
Whirling Axes (ranged) can force Lifestealer to cast Rage too quickly and allow Troll Warlord to change strategies mid-fight, especially thanks to their separate cooldowns.
* Battle Trance allows Troll Warlord to survive Lifestealer's Feast and turn the fight in his favor.
Additional:
* The passive armor provided by Berserker's Rage makes Troll Warlord resilient to Feast in early game.
* The 60% miss chance given by Whirling Axes (Melee) is useful when Rage is not active.
* Battle Trance can purge Open Wounds, negating a large amount of Lifestealer's sustain in fights.
* Heroes that rely on physical damage are ineffective against Dragon Knight due to his high armor: Phantom Assassin,
Bloodseeker,
Lifestealer,
Troll Warlord,
Sven
* With Aghanim's Scepter upgraded
Infest, Lifestealer can use it on enemy heroes to attack them and disarm them from inside, even if they are spell immune, which can give him the edge over the heroes he's weak against like
Ursa,
Phantom Assassin,
Terrorblade or
Troll Warlord.
* Heroes with long cooldowns on their abilities or ultimate will struggle against the relentless pressure provided by Fiend's Gate:
Terrorblade,
Dragon Knight,
Omniknight.
* Heroes with spell immunity abilities won't be caught inside by Pit of Malice: Juggernaut,
Lifestealer.
* Level 20 talent allows Reality Rift to bypass spell immunity provided by Rage, thus negating the advantage Lifestealer has in his kit.
* The fact that Lifestealer lacks wave clearing and reliable lockdown makes it difficult to fight Chaos Knight's illusions.
* Feast is largely negated by Chaos Knight's high burst damage from Chaos Strike.
Additional:
* Chaos Strike is a strong burst damage passive that allows Chaos Knight to stand up and even survive Lifestealer's attacks. Level 20 Talent: Reality Rift Pierces Spell Immunity allows him to burst down Lifestealer even while he is in Rage.
* Lifestealer's single-target nature will struggle against Chaos Knight's Phantasm illusions and will be forced to itemize for them.
* Dragon Blood's armor bonus greatly reduces the damage dealt by Phantasm.
* Breathe Fire and
Elder Dragon Form's splash damage quickly destroy illusions and reduces their damage output.
* Heroes with illusions: Chaos Knight,
Naga Siren,
Phantom Lancer,
Terrorblade
* Heroes whose attacks can affect multiple enemies at once will clear Naga Siren's illusions. Such heroes include Sven,
Magnus,
Dragon Knight,
Luna,
Medusa,
Templar Assassin,
Gyrocopter,
Muerta.
* Lifestealer cannot use Rage,
Infest or
Open Wounds when affected by Smoke Cloud's silence, and
Feast cannot heal him effectively because of the blind, leaving him very weak both offensively and defensively.
* Infest ganks are harder when the enemy team has a Riki, as there are often only four heroes on the map that you can initiate on.
* Riki does little damage to Dragon Knight, as he relies only on physical damage with modest attack speed and lack of burst.
* Lifestealer will struggle to deal with Phantom Lancer's illusions and will either be forced to use his abilities too quickly, or itemize too heavily for them.
* Phantom Lancer commonly builds Diffusal Blade, which poses a large problem to Lifestealer and his low mana pool, and can shut him down from even casting his abilities.
Additional:
* Aside from his ultimate, Lifestealer has no AoE abilities to deal with Phantom Lancer's illusions, nor does he have the mobility to escape Phantom Rush.
* Doppelganger dispels
Open Wounds.
* Phantom Lancer usually builds Diffusal Blade, which a problem for a low already mana hero like Lifestealer.
* The dragon's splash damage wears down his illusions.
* Early harassment with Breath of Fire hinders his farming.
* Fireball stops his pushes and allows for a defence.
Additional:
* Breathe Fire and
Elder Dragon Form's splash damage takes out Phantom Lancer's illusions quickly.
* If Dragon Knight can Dragon Tail the real Phantom Lancer, he and his team can quickly kill him before he has a chance to escape.
* In the early game, a Dragon Knight without Black King Bar is basically defenseless against Viper.
* Viper can harass Dragon Knight at any time with his Poison Attack and
Nethertoxin.
* Corrosive Skin reduces damage from Dragon Fire and inflicts damage to him.
* Viper Strike disables Dragon Blood, negating his main survivability.
* Viper Strike and
Poison Attack can severely slow him down even with his Elder Dragon Form.
Additional:
* Dragon Knight is easily harassed by Poison Attack after the laning stage ends.
* Corrosive Skin protects Viper from
Breathe Fire and returns damage.
* Viper Strike can disable
Dragon Blood, Dragon's Knight main source of armor and health regeneration.
* Between Poison Attack and
Viper Strike, Viper can keep Dragon Knight permanently slowed even in
Elder Dragon Form.
* Rage ignores all of Viper's magical damage, although
Viper Strike can pierce spell immunity and slows him down.
* Feast and
Open Wounds from
Aghanim's Shard can be combined to heal through Viper's physical damage.
* Aghanim's Scepter upgraded
Infest can be used to disarm Viper, preventing him from using
Poison Attack on Lifestealer's allies.
* Heroes with summons: Lycan,
Broodmother,
Visage,
Nature's Prophet,
Warlock.
* Dragon Knight's insanely high armor and splash damage can cause Lycan to struggle taking him down.
* Melee heroes that get kited easily have hard times dealing with Puck without any lockdowns, as Puck is one of the most mobile heroes. Heroes like Sven,
Lifestealer,
Ursa and
Alchemist may have problems to get to Puck without proper initiation items. They also lack reliable lockdowns, as their disables are easily avoidable for Puck, or are just a soft disable.
* Heroes with spell immunity or pseudo-blinks which provide invulnerability: Lifestealer,
Juggernaut,
Omniknight,
Huskar, and
Tusk have spells which allow them to easily escape Dream Coil.
* Heroes with summons: Lycan,
Broodmother,
Visage,
Nature's Prophet,
Warlock.
* Heroes with magic immune abilities can negate most of Visage's attacks like Pangolier and
Lifestealer.
* Lifestealer's Rage and Open wounds become useless when Meepo has 4 or more clones, as Ransack will heal Meepo too quickly for Lifestealer to take down.
* Lifestealer is not affected by Earthbind or Poof during
Rage, making him a difficult target to work around.
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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Dragon Knight
*
Static Link saps Dragon Knight of his already low base damage, making him even more useless in a fight if he gets kited.
Storm Surge makes Razor much faster than Dragon Knight, and hard to catch.
Eye of the Storm melts Dragon Knight's armor and bypasses
Black King Bar, his core item.
*
*
Lifestealer
* Razor's highly mobile nature allows him to control Lifestealer from a distance. As well, Lifestealer is already slow in comparison due to his lack of disables and move speed. Lifestealer is also an ideal target for
Static Link, for its ability to pierce magic immunity and damage steal, which can render Lifestealer's Feast useless.
Plasma Field can slow Lifestealer from a distance and force him to cast Rage too early.
Eye of the Storm pierces magic immunity, deals physical damage, and reduces armor, allowing Razor to easily stand up to Lifestealer.
Rage or
Infest, so Razor will be able to track Lifestealer down during an attempted escape.
Open Wounds from getting any additional lifesteal, but keep in mind Lifestealer can still utilize
Feast.
Rage.
*
*
Additional:
* Static Link cannot be dispelled by
* Storm Surge makes it hard for Lifestealer to catch Razor.
* Static Link can stop
* Eye of the Storm penetrates the spell immunity of