* 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.
*
Dark Pact can dispel Venomous Gale and Poison Sting.
*
Shadow Dance allows Slark heightened regeneration when out of vision making DoTs effects less threatening.
*
Life Break closes the distance between Huskar and Drow Ranger, dealing large amounts of damage and disabling Marksmanship.
*
Berserker's Blood and
Burning Spear allow Huskar to beat Drow Ranger directly and pile on damage.
* Huskar can easily regenerate lost health from DoT spells through
Berserker's Blood rendering them ineffective
* Venomancer has little armor and mobility, and rarely builds Linken's Sphere, so he is quite vulnerable to
Life Break.
*
Snowball and
Ice Shards keep Drow Ranger down and preventing her from running away.
*
Snowball also lets Tusk get to Drow Ranger and stop her Marksmanship bonus. It can also be to save allies affected by Gust.
*
Tag Team allows Tusk to slow her down and land a killing blow on her.
*
Walrus PUNCH! slows Drow Ranger and deals a huge amount of damage to her, due to her low health (and low armor without Marksmanship, since Tusk can quickly close the gap to Drow Ranger).
* Snowball can be used to save allies or himself during
Venomous Gale and
Poison Nova.
* Venomancer lacks mobility and has low base health, so he can be killed by Walrus PUNCH!
* Heroes who outrange Drow Ranger such as
Sniper,
Tinker.
* Sniper can easily destroy
Plague Ward from long range.
*
Flux along with
Spark Wraith allows Arc Warden to quickly burst down Drow Ranger due to her low health.
* However, Drow Ranger can bypass
Magnetic Field's evasion bonus thanks to Marksmanship.
Additional:
* Magnetic Field protects Arc Warden and allies from Drow Ranger's ranged attacks. She most likely will not enter the field since she will lose
Marksmanship's bonus agility.
* Beware however, as
Marksmanship procs will still hit since they have True Strike, so the most damaging arrows will still hit you inside Magnetic Field.
* Any hero that can outrange Plague Ward can neutralize them without putting themselves at risk of receiving Poison Sting:
Arc Warden,
Chen,
Clinkz,
Drow Ranger,
Lina,
Mirana,
Nature's Prophet,
Pugna and
Sniper.
* Special mention to heroes that outrange Plague Ward after obtaining talents that increase attack range.
* Heroes with high physical damage output but lack of reliable escape mechanisms are always a good target for a solo gank:
Sniper,
Shadow Fiend,
Troll Warlord,
Drow Ranger. Those heroes, however, are dangerous if they manage to close the gap, so take caution.
* In the laning stage, making illusions of Venomancer will turn his
Poison Sting back at him, making for an easy gank at level one, and for later when your mid comes for ganks.
* Mirana can use Leap to jump right next to Drow Ranger or can approach her while under cover of the invisibility granted by Moonlight Shadow, which cancels the bonus granted to Drow Ranger by
Marksmanship.
* Her low health makes her easy to burst down with Mirana's spells, especially with
Aghanim's Scepter.
* Mirana can dodge
Gust with good reaction time, or Leap away if Drow tries to slow her without Gust.
* Any hero that can outrange Plague Ward can neutralize them without putting themselves at risk of receiving Poison Sting:
Arc Warden,
Chen,
Clinkz,
Drow Ranger,
Lina,
Mirana,
Nature's Prophet,
Pugna and
Sniper.
* Special mention to heroes that outrange Plague Ward after obtaining talents that increase attack range.
* Atrophy Aura reduces Drow Ranger's damage significantly, as she relies completely on agility to be effective.
*
Dark Rift allows Underlord to transport allies from poison damage-over-time to the fountain.
* Underlord usually buys
Pipe of Insight that gives a magic resistance to allies, inhibiting the damage from Venomancer abilities.
* Heroes with strong area-of-effect damaging and/or disabling abilities will be able to intercept Underlord and his team when they exit from Fiend's Gate:
Luna's
Aghanim's Scepter upgraded
Eclipse,
Dawnbreaker's
Solar Guardian,
Axe's
Berserker's Call,
Mars's
Arena of Blood,
Jakiro's
Macropyre,
Dual Breath and
Ice Path,
Naga Siren's
Song of the Siren,
Razor's
Eye of the Storm and
Plasma Field,
Lina's
Light Strike Array,
Broodmother's
Spinner's Snare from
Aghanim's Scepter,
Elder Titan's
Earth Splitter and
Echo Stomp,
Alchemist's
Unstable Concoction and
Acid Spray,
Queen of Pain's
Sonic Wave,
Dark Seer's
Wall of Replica and
Vacuum,
Venomancer's
Noxious Plague and
Poison Nova from
Aghanim's Scepter,
Oracle's
Fortune's End and
Rain of Destiny from
Aghanim's Shard,
Bloodseeker's
Blood Rite,
Enigma's
Black Hole and
Midnight Pulse,
Shadow Fiend's
Requiem of Souls,
Batrider's
Aghanim's Scepter upgraded
Flaming Lasso,
Firefly,
Flamebreak and
Sticky Napalm,
Ancient Apparition's
Ice Blast,
Sand King's
Epicenter,
Sand Storm and
Burrowstrike,
Gyrocopter's
Call Down,
Ember Spirit's
Sleight of Fist,
Death Prophet's
Exorcism and
Silence,
Monkey King's
Wukong's Command,
Crystal Maiden's
Freezing Field,
Muerta's
The Calling,
Medusa's
Stone Gaze,
Zeus's
Nimbus from
Aghanim's Scepter.
Dark Willow's
Bramble Maze,
Pangolier's
Swashbuckle,
Grimstroke's
Soulbind,
Ink Swell and
Stroke of Fate,
Earthshaker's
Echo Slam and
Fissure,
Puck's
Dream Coil and
Waning Rift,
Winter Wyvern's
Winter's Curse,
Magnus's
Reverse Polarity.
*
Borrowed Time &
Aphotic Shield can dispel Venomous Gale and Poison Sting.
* Drow Ranger's lack of mobility and area-of-effect abilities makes her easy prey for Broodmother and her Spiderlings.
*
Reality Rift will disable Drow Ranger's Marksmanship, along with
Chaos Bolt he can keep her locked for enough time to be killed.
*
Hookshot lets Clockwerk close the gap to Drow Ranger, disabling her Marksmanship bonus.
*
Power Cogs and
Battery Assault keep Drow Ranger from escaping.
* Power Cogs and Battery Assault also keep Drow Ranger close, nullifying Marksmanship.
Additional:
* Getting trapped in Power Cogs usually means the end for Drow Ranger.
* Venomancer is a low health hero and low range hero who is easy to harass with Ion Shell on a creep in the early game.
* Venomancer depends entirely on all his slows to keep distance or chase, but since Surge ignores slows, it is nearly impossible for Venomancer to hunt or run away from Dark Seer or his surged teammates.
* Venomancer's damage-over-time abilities are easier to heal through with numerous Shadow Waves than other types of damage, and it's simple to time a Shallow Grave until the last possible second to save a teammate from them.
*
Time Walk can be used to close the distance within Drow Ranger, hindering her Marksmanship bonus.
* Faceless Void can also lock down Drow Ranger with
Chronosphere before she has the chance to retaliate due to her low health pool.
* Drow Ranger's lack of escape abilities makes her an easy target for Relocate ganks.
* Venomancer has low health, which makes him vulnerable to Lina's heavy magic damage.
* Fiery Soul attack speed bonus removes
Plague Wards easily in all stages of the game.
*
Drow Ranger has a very low health pool, allowing
Lion to burst her down.
* Lack of any innate escape mechanism makes her an easy target for
Lion's disables.
* Early on she can't deal as much damage to be life threatning. Her
Gust is her best weapon against
Lion.
*
Shapeshift allows Lycan to get close and disable Marksmanship.
* Shapeshift also makes him immune to slows like Drow Ranger's Frost Arrows.
Additional:
* The Wolves's speed causes the knockback from
Gust to be ineffective.
* Drow Ranger lacks escapes and loses her
Marksmanship when someone is near her. Lycan can take advantage of these weaknesses of Drow Ranger.
*
Fortune's End can dispel Venomous Gale and Poison Sting from allies.
*
Fate's Edict grants 100% magic resistance to target, inhibiting the damage from Venomancer abilities.
*
Phantom Rush lets Phantom Lancer get close quickly and disable Marksmanship.
* As Phantom Lancer commonly buys
Manta Style, he can easily dispel Gust and then chase after Drow Ranger.
* Because Phantom Lancer is a natural
Diffusal Blade carrier, he can easily burn Drow Ranger's mana and render her unable to use Frost Arrow and Gust to save herself.
*
Meat Hook brings Drow Ranger to Pudge, disabling Marksmanship and dealing a huge amount of damage when combined with
Rot and
Dismember.
*
Rot keeps Pudge close to Drow Ranger, continuously disabling Marksmanship.
Additional:
* Meat Hook can pull Drow Ranger to Pudge, disabling her
Marksmanship.
* Following up with Dismember will prevent Drow Ranger from using
Gust or
Shadow Blade.
*
Static Link weakens Drow Ranger's attack damage while strengthening Razor's attack damage.
*
Plasma Field &
Storm Surge keeps Razor close to Drow Ranger, continuously disabling Marksmanship.
*
Blink Strike gets Riki close to Drow Ranger and disable Marksmanship.
*
Cloak and Dagger allow Riki stay close to Drow Ranger without her noticing him, which allows him to disable Marksmanship.
Additional:
* With Blink Strike, Riki can get close to Drow Ranger and disable her
Marksmanship, and Smoke Screen will prevent her from using
Gust.
*
Laser along with
Heat-Seeking Missile allows Tinker to quickly burst down Drow Ranger due to her low health.
*
Heat-Seeking Missile lets Tinker out-range Drow Ranger and hit her in the backline of a teamfight.
* Another hero heavily based on attacks and no mobility, being an easy prey for Treant strong disarms and motion reduction skills.
*
Corrosive Skin means Viper can often outlast Venomancer in a battle of attrition.
* Venomancer has no mobility without items, which makes him vulnerable to constant slows.
* Voodoo Restoration heals to counter damage over time of
Poison Nova and
Poison Sting.
* While
Reincarnation is off cooldown, Poison Nova poses less of a threat as Wraith King will return with all debuffs cleared.
*
Vampiric Spirit can out-heal the slow {tooltip:DoT|Damage over Time} from Poison Sting.
* Any hero that can outrange Plague Ward can neutralize them without putting themselves at risk of receiving Poison Sting:
Arc Warden,
Chen,
Clinkz,
Drow Ranger,
Lina,
Mirana,
Nature's Prophet,
Pugna and
Sniper.
* Special mention to heroes that outrange Plague Ward after obtaining talents that increase attack range.
* Heroes who have low or high armor but very high health will be difficult for drow to burst down quickly:
Primal Beast,
Axe,
Centaur Warrunner.
* Heroes with high base damage (
Morphling,
Tiny,
Drow Ranger), heroes with mana burning abilities (
Anti-Mage), and
Diffusal Blade users (
Juggernaut or
Riki) will suffer from Reflection's illusions.
*
Reflection illusion will apply Poison Sting back towards Venomancer.
*
Conjure Image and
Metamorphosis will make quick work of Plague Wards.
* While ticking down from Poison Nova, Terrorblade can wait until the last possible moment to
Sunder a target, either friend or foe.
*
Metamorphosis will not match the range of Drow Ranger and he will struggle to do damage to her if she is not locked down already by someone else.
*
Conjure Image will be destroyed very quickly due to Marksmanship.
* Terrorblade generally likes to be the big bad late game carry who sits in the middle of the fight and kills whoever is closest, which is very unlikely to be Drow Ranger therefore making it likely she will be going on him in teamfights.
* Terrorblade's high base armor and agility items makes him very vulnerable to Marksmanship.
Additional:
* Even though Drow Ranger's damage output is 100% physical,
Marksmanship allows Drow Ranger to pierce Terrorblade's high natural base armor and when upgraded with
Aghanim's Scepter, it will allow her to clear Terrorblade's illusions.
*
Gust can prevent Terrorblade from using
Sunder.
* Since Terrorblade doesn't like to buy armor items like
Assault Cuirass, he will be very vulnerable to Drow Ranger's high physical burst damage.
* Squishy heroes or heroes without hard disables or silences:
Shadow Demon,
Shadow Fiend,
Venomancer,
Ancient Apparition etc.
* Marci can be effective against vulnerable squishy heroes that cannot deal with heroes that jump onto them -
Sniper,
Drow Ranger,
Lina,
Rubick, etc.
* Heroes with damage-over-time abilities easily allow Bristleback to turn his back in order to proc
Bristleback continuously and to massively reduce to damage dealt to him:
Arc Warden,
Venomancer,
Luna.
* Any hero that can outrange Plague Ward can neutralize them without putting themselves at risk of receiving Poison Sting:
Arc Warden,
Chen,
Clinkz,
Drow Ranger,
Lina,
Mirana,
Nature's Prophet,
Pugna and
Sniper.
* Special mention to heroes that outrange Plague Ward after obtaining talents that increase attack range.
Additional:
* Teleportation allows Natures Prophet to save himself from the damage over time of
Venomous Gale,
Poison Sting and
Poison Nova.
*
Plague Wards can be destroyed with Nature's Prophet's Treants.
* Heroes with weaker mobility will struggle to keep up with Night Stalker:
Gyrocopter,
Ursa,
Drow Ranger
* 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.
*
Slardar can attack through Plague Wards and gain
Bash of the Deep charges, and
Templar Assassin can spill
Psi Blades through Plague Wards too.
* Heroes who depend on attacks (such as
Shadow Fiend or
Drow Ranger) can be nullified by Fire Spirits' attack speed slow.
* Heroes who have low or high armor but very high health will be difficult for drow to burst down quickly:
Primal Beast,
Axe,
Centaur Warrunner.
* While heroes with strong mobility are able to get close or flee from Upheaval, heroes with no escaping abilities or that lack long disables will perish against Warlock. Once the Warlock Golem lands with its stun, its hardly possible to escape when he casts Upheaval. Notable examples:
Huskar,
Drow Ranger,
Lion,
Elder Titan, etc.
* Often you can burst Drow Ranger down before she has a chance to try and
Gust you away. Try to have a teammate bait her
Gust out before you Blink and get the drop on her.
* Heroes reliant on abilities to output damage or escape can be shut down by Gust:
Queen of Pain.
*
Repel can be used to dispel
Gust on the allies affected by it.
* In team fights,
Guardian Angel renders Drow Ranger's physical damage useless, and Drow Ranger has no way to purge it. And to make thing worse, Drow Ranger is not a common
Nullifier wielder to counter this problem at all.
* Heroes who can harass Omniknight out of lane will keep him weak in the mid game:
Viper,
Venomancer,
Clinkz.
* Nyx Assassin has a lot of burst damage from his
Impale,
Mind Flare,
Dagon, and the bonus damage from
Vendetta. All of this damage is enough to kill Drow Ranger.
* Nyx Assassin is usually invisible most of the time thanks to his ability
Vendetta, which allows him to gank Drow Ranger easily.
* However,
Gust is extremely dangerous for Nyx Assassin, as it's silence can render Nyx Assassin unable to lock down Drow Ranger. And if
Gust hits Nyx Assassin while he is invisible with
Vendetta, Drow Ranger will be able to detect him and foil his ganking attempts on her because
Gust reveals invisible units.
* Heroes who rely on damage over time as Spiked Carapace can block and reflect only one instance of damage:
Jakiro,
Viper,
Venomancer,
Huskar,
Ember Spirit,
Dark Seer,
Sand King,
Doom,
Dawnbreaker. However, this also means they are easily stunned.
* Fragile carries with no reliable escaping mechanism can be bursted down in no time:
Sniper,
Drow Ranger,
Clinkz
*
Slardar can attack through Plague Wards and gain
Bash of the Deep charges, and
Templar Assassin can spill
Psi Blades through Plague Wards too.
* Venomous Gale and Plague Wards allow to quickly melt through
Refraction charges.
* Both Poison Nova and Venomous Gale hit invisible units, so
Meld cannot be used defensively.
Additional:
* Venomancer's entire arsenal deals lingering damage over a long time and therefore burns through her Refraction very quickly. Not only that, his persistent slow from
Poison Sting (it can be re-applied again and again with
Plague Ward) allows his team to catch up to her even with the disruption from her Psionic Trap.
* A well-timed Gust will prevent Windranger from escaping or counter-initiating with
Windrun.
* Drow Ranger commonly buys
Shadow Blade or
Silver Edge, which allows her to escape from
Focus Fire.
Monkey King Bar, a situational item on Drow Ranger, counters Windranger's evasion from
Windrun.
* The bonus agility from Marksmanship can shred through Windranger's low armor.
Additional:
* A well-timed
Gust prevents Windranger from escaping or counter-initiating with Windrun.
* Drow Ranger can combine
Frost Arrows and
Eye of Skadi to effectively slow down Windranger if she tries to escape with Windrun, since both slow effects stack with each other.
* Drow Ranger commonly buys
Shadow Blade or
Silver Edge, which allows her to escape from Focus Fire. Drow Ranger can also buy
Monkey King Bar or
Nullifier to counter Windranger's evasion from Windrun.
* The bonus agility from
Marksmanship can shred through Windranger's low armor.
* Due to lack of magic resistance, Venomancer abilities eats through Windranger's health.
* Venomancer's multiple slows, to an extent, negates Windrun's mobility.
Additional:
* Due to lack of magic resistance, Venomancer poisons eats through Windranger's health.
* 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).
* 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.
*
Gust can shut down most of Dawnbreaker's abilities, rendering her useless.
*
Frost Arrows followed by a high attack speed, makes it hard for Dawnbreaker to escape.
* Due to her slow movement speed,heroes with crowd control and slows can shut down Dawnbreaker:
Lion,
Crystal Maiden ,
Venomancer etc.
* Heroes with forced movement abilities or non-interrupting forced movement, such as
Lion,
Drow Ranger,
Magnus,
Mars, as they can cancel blast-off mid air, removing his ability to initiate or escape.
* Plague Wards may reveal a hiding Techies. If there's a sentry nearby, they may also reveal a stack of mines hidden in a juking spot.
*
Venomous Gale,
Poison Sting and
Poison Nova deal damage over time and will chip away at Gravekeeper's Cloak in addition to slowing an already sluggish hero.
*
Venomancer's normal attacks deal
Poison Sting and will chip away at Gravekeeper's Cloak.
* A well-timed Gust will prevent Weaver from escaping, and a silenced Weaver usually dies very quickly.
* Weaver gains a lot of armor, which is bypassed by Marksmanship.
Additional:
* A well-timed
Gust followed by
Frost Arrows will prevent Weaver from escaping with Shukuchi. A Weaver silenced for more than 3 seconds usually dies very quickly.
* Due to her high attack speed, Drow Ranger can easily kill The Swarm beetles.
*
Black Hole while definitely a threat to Drow Ranger, is very hard to land as she likes to keep her distance from allies and enemies alike. And if not caught in it, will kill Enigma very quickly due to his low health.
*
Malefice can be removed with a Manta Style.
* Drow Ranger being a fairly low health, high armored agility carry doesn't take much damage from
Midnight Pulse as others would.
*
Demonic Conversion units die very quickly to Marksmanship or even just regular attacks not far into the game within 2 or 3 hits.
* Venomancer's slows and magical damage-over-time works well against Earthshaker's which completes lack of mobility.
*
Plague Wards are useful for slowing and kitting down Earthshaker, revealing him from initiating and re-initiating and putting his
Blink Dagger on cooldown if Venomancer has vision over Earthshaker.
Additional:
* Earthshaker can be kited by Venomancer's slows, which is lack of mobility.
* Plague Wards is very useful for slowing and kitting down Earthshaker, revealing him from initiating and re-initiating and putting his
Blink Dagger on cooldown.
* 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.
*
Gust can hit Dark Willow beyond a defensive Bramble Maze, and before she gets close enough to hit Drow Ranger with Bedlam.
* Drow Ranger's long range allows her to hit Dark Willow's team without venturing into her Bramble Maze.
* Drow Ranger can use Gust to push back Juggernaut before he can get in range to use
Omnislash or
Blade Fury.
* Venomancer can simultaneously scout Magnus hiding in trees and putting
Blink Dagger on cooldown with Plague Wards, which makes Magnus real problems to blink and initiate.
Additional:
* Similar to Night Stalker, Venomancer can simultaneously scout Magnus hiding in trees and put Blink Dagger on cooldown with
Plague Ward, which gives Magnus problems when trying to blink in and initiate.
* Aggressively Poofing and Earthbinding is not going to end well against Venomancer, as he will be an easy target for
Noxious Plague.
* Venomancer's constant slows greatly reduce Meepo's mobility.
*
Plague Wards are very hard for Batrider to play against as they provide a lot of vision as well as disable
Blink Dagger for a long duration.
* Unless Puck is facing the direction he wants to blink while in Phase Shift, the
Venomous Gale and
Noxious Plague combo consistently ticks many times over several seconds, making it very difficult to use
Blink Dagger towards the other direction. Puck's slow turning rate makes this even worse.
* Venomancer can use
Plague Wards to reveal Puck's position before he even gets a chance to initiate.
* Heroes with low health are especially vulnerable to Marksmanship's high damage output:
Clinkz,
Crystal Maiden.
* Powerful physical hitters that can destroy Pangolier during his rolling from afar:
Drow Ranger,
Sniper,
Templar Assassin,
Arc Warden
* Any heroes with silences can negate the majority of Outworld Destroyer's damage output:
Death Prophet,
Night Stalker,
Drow Ranger,
Doom .
* Heroes who rely on passive abilities and attacks, such as
Drow Ranger,
Wraith King, and
Lone Druid, can render Silencer useless. But remember that a smart Silencer will most likely buy
Silver Edge to counter this if he is played as carry.
* Lich is heavily reliant on his abilities to contribute to team fights, so be wary of enemies that can Silence:
Bloodseeker,
Death Prophet,
Silencer,
Drow Ranger,
Skywrath Mage.
* With 4 active abilities, Shadow Shaman is weak against silencing foes such as
Silencer,
Drow Ranger and
Death Prophet.
* Every hero that can withstand or prevent Eclipse at level 7:
Juggernaut,
Riki,
Clockwerk,
Drow Ranger,
Abaddon,
Faceless Void,
Weaver,
Outworld Destroyer.
*
Berserker's Call forces Drow Ranger to attack Axe up close, disabling her Marksmanship bonus.
*
Counter Helix occurs more often with Drow Ranger's high attack speed.
*
Culling Blade is a dangerous ability against a low health hero like Drow Ranger.
* Ranged heroes that can easily harass Axe:
Drow Ranger,
Sniper,
Lion.
* Venomancer's slows and magical damage-over-time work well against Axe's complete lack of mobility.
*
Plague Ward is especially useful for slowing down Axe, and revealing him before he initiates, as well as putting his
Blink Dagger on cooldown.
Additional:
* Venomancer's slows and magical damage-over-time work well against Axe's complete lack of mobility.
* Plague Wards is especially useful for slowing down Axe, and revealing him before he initiates, as well as putting his
Blink Dagger on cooldown.
* For the same reasons, Venomancer is a good ally for Axe when the situation is reversed.
* Heroes with silence:
Death Prophet,
Riki,
Drow Ranger.
* As a spellcaster, silences will nullify him entirely. Some notable examples are
Death Prophet,
Drow Ranger,
Bloodseeker,
Disruptor and many others.
*
Doom, as usual, fits this description nicely.
* Long ranged heroes like
Sniper or
Drow Ranger can kite Tiny effectively if he doesn't get the jump on them first.
* Heroes who thrive on teamfights can be a problem, such as
Venomancer,
Necrophos,
Centaur Warrunner...
* Any hero that can outrange Plague Ward can neutralize them without putting themselves at risk of receiving Poison Sting:
Arc Warden,
Chen,
Clinkz,
Drow Ranger,
Lina,
Mirana,
Nature's Prophet,
Pugna and
Sniper.
* Special mention to heroes that outrange Plague Ward after obtaining talents that increase attack range.
* Venomancer's damage over time can force Chen to use Hand of God prematurely, potentially wasting a chance to save his allies during a teamfight.
* Venomancer's
Poison Nova,
Venomous Gale and
Plague Ward can easily kill Chen's creeps.
* Any hero that can outrange Plague Ward can neutralize them without putting themselves at risk of receiving Poison Sting:
Arc Warden,
Chen,
Clinkz,
Drow Ranger,
Lina,
Mirana,
Nature's Prophet,
Pugna and
Sniper.
* Special mention to heroes that outrange Plague Ward after obtaining talents that increase attack range.
* Clinkz has no stun and likes to keep his distance from targets, making Marksmanship very deadly.
* Clinkz also has low health, making him a perfect hero to initiate onto with Gust.
* Gust can also prevent Clinkz from using
Burning Barrage.
* Invisible heroes are very difficult for Drow Ranger to deal with such as
Bounty Hunter,
Riki and heroes who commonly buy a
Shadow Blade.
* Venomancer's magical damage-over-time poisons greatly reduce Bounty Hunter's mobility.
*
Venomous Gale, combined with
Plague Wards and
Poison Nova with True Sight items can allow Venomancer and his teammates to gank Bounty Hunter while he is roaming alone.
* Range-reliant heroes:
Sniper,
Drow Ranger
* Untouchable won't mitigate Venomancer's magical damage, and Enchantress is vulnerable to magic damage.
* Both
Venomous Gale and
Poison Nova lower the amount of healing received by Enchantress and her allies from Nature's Attendants.
* Venomancer's damage-over-time abilities do little damage against Counterspell.
* Blink helps Anti-Mage get away from Venomancer's slows.
Additional:
*
Counterspell provides magic resistance, diminishing the effectiveness of Venomancer's spells.
* Venomancer's lack of hard disable allows Anti-Mage to use
Blink, circumventing the slows Venomancer depends on.
* None of Anti-Mage's skills are that effective against Drow Ranger. Gust prevents him from
Blinking in or out,
Counterspell is totally useless against Drow's physical damage, and as she usually doesn't have a high mana pool,
Mana Break and
Mana Void don't do much either.
* Be careful however that Anti-Mage may eventually farm enough to Blink on top of you and kill you straight away, considering you have no natural tools to escape from him.
* Generally, heroes that can close the gap on Drow Ranger to cancel her Marksmanship such as
Phantom Assassin,
Spirit Breaker, and
Tusk are effective at limiting her power and bursting her down.
* Heroes that can slow Charge of Darkness by a huge amount:
Venomancer,
Viper,
Dazzle,
Arc Warden,
Lion,
Huskar,
Shadow Shaman,
Visage,
Undying,
Jakiro.
* Generally, heroes that can close the gap on Drow Ranger to cancel her Marksmanship such as
Phantom Assassin,
Spirit Breaker, and
Tusk are effective at limiting her power and bursting her down.
* Heroes that can apply early pressure before Phantom Assassin has farm are massive threats:
Axe,
Viper,
Meepo,
Jakiro,
Pugna,
Slark,
Venomancer etc.
* 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.
* Heroes that commonly attack ethereal units will not have any problems against Muerta's Pierce The Veil:
Tinker,
Jakiro,
Lina,
Luna,
Pugna or
Ogre Magi,
Enigma,
Batrider,
Techies,
Broodmother,
Dawnbreaker,
Shadow Shaman,
Bane,
Tinker,
Venomancer,
Arc Warden.
* All of Venomancer's abilities are decent choices for Rubick's
Spell Steal. Stealing Plague Wards makes them apply Poison Sting as well.
Additional:
*
Venomous Gale is a great ganking and farming skill.
*
Plague Ward serves as a flexible ability for pushing, ganking, farming and scouting. The innate
Poison Sting also works on the stolen
Plague Ward with half the damage.
*
Poison Nova, if stolen and cast, puts a huge damage-over-time debuff on the enemy team, even greater than Venomancer himself with the help of
Arcane Supremacy.
*
Spell Steal has a greater cast distance than the effect area of
Poison Nova, allowing Rubick to steal the spell while staying at the back.
*
Venomancer suffers from mana pool problems, while Rubick has relatively high intelligence gain and can cast the same set of spells at ease.
* A well-timed Gust will prevent Rubick from casting abilities from
Spell Steal, and his lack of capabilities and low health pool usually dies very quickly.
* Drow Ranger can dispel
Fade Bolt's reduction debuff with
Manta Style.
* Morphling can use Waveform to close the gap between him and Drow Ranger, but should be careful of
Gust and
Frost Arrows.
* Morphling is a natural Manta Style carrier, which dispels the silence from Gust.
*
Attribute Shift (Strength Gain) may not be quick enough to fend off an attacking Drow Ranger.
* Morphling likes to sit on low health with high agility, something Drow Ranger does not particularly care for and will still hit him hard with Marksmanship procs.
*
Morph is a similar story, none of Drow Ranger's spells are particularly good against her.
* Monkey King can scout Drow Ranger's positioning from the trees, and can jump on her without much trouble, disabling
Marksmanship
* She lacks innate mobility to escape from Wukong's Command, whose bonus armor gives MK one extra edge in the fight
* Venomancer's magical damage-over-time poisons putting
Tree Dance on cooldown, greatly diminishing Monkey King's mobility.
* Venomous Gale and Posion Nova will hit Monkey King when he is perched on a tree, or disguised by
Mischief.
Additional:
* Venomancer's magical damage-over-time poisons will constantly put Tree Dance on cooldown, greatly diminishing Monkey King's mobility.
*
Venomous Gale and
Poison Nova will hit Monkey King when he is perched on a tree, or disguised with Mischief.
* However, Venomancer is also easily ganked by Monkey King if caught by surprise.
* Spectre can easily close the distance on Drow Ranger with
Haunt and stick on her with
Spectral Dagger, effectively disables her
Marksmanship.
* Spectre does not care if silenced by
Gust, since Spectre will catch her up regardless.
*
Dispersion can reflect some damage back to Drow Ranger should she chooses to attack.
* Be careful once she got her
Silver Edge as an attempt to shut you down.
* Venomancer's poison damage-over-time are very effective against Spectre, which is lack of magic resistance from early to mid game.
* Venomancer's multiple slows greatly reduces Spectre's low mobility, even through
Spectral Dagger.
* Plague Wards reveals Spectre while she is hiding on trees.
Additional:
* Venomancer's poison damage over time is very effective against Spectre, who tends to lack magic resistance during the early to mid game.
* Venomancer's multiple slows greatly reduces Spectre's movement speed and mobility.
*
Plague Wards can scout out Spectre while she is hiding in trees.
* As long as Mars is facing her with Bulwark, even if pushed away with
Gust, Drow Ranger will do no effectual damage against him. Mars' ability to endure her onslaught usually gives him enough time to cast Arena of Blood, of which she has a very slim chance surviving without Gust.
* With Bulwark's active ability, Mars can protect allies pursued by Drow Ranger by redirecting her projectiles to his shield instead.
* Venomancer's poison attacks are all magical damage, ignoring
Bulwark.
* Venomancer's multiple slows are especially effective against Mars' low mobility.
* Plague Wards can attack through
Arena of Blood.
Additional:
* Venomancer's spells all deal magical damage, ignoring Bulwark.
* Venomancer's multiple slows are especially effective at kiting Mars.
*
Plague Ward can attack through Arena Of Blood.
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Drow Ranger
* Drow Ranger's low mobility and lack of defensive abilities make her an easy gank target in the early to mid-game.
Marksmanship, reduce her damage output significantly, and will more likely lose that Duel.
* A Dueling Drow Ranger will lose her precious
Venomancer
*
Press the Attack dispels Venomous Gale and Poison Sting from Legion Commander or her teammates.
Duel due to his lack of mobility and low starting health.
* Venomancer is an ideal target for