* Oracle can shut down both of Ember's early game abilities. Fortune's End can dispel
Flame Guard on Ember Spirit and
Searing Chains on allies.
* When Ember Spirit is affected by Fortune's End, his
Fire Remnants move at 0 movement speed.
* Disarming him with Fate's Edict does affect Ember's
Sleight of Fist ability, possibly making him useless for a few seconds in the late game without a dispel or spell immunity. This is especially good if he has a rapier or two. However, positioning for this is difficult when Ember plays far back.
* Fortune's End can easily dispel
Cursed Crown before it times out and stuns. He can also save a stunned ally with False Promise.
* Fate's Edict can easily negate
Bedlam's over-time damage, since the spell provides no form of control. Similarly, he can also negate the magic burst from
Shadow Realm.
* Fortune's End can dispel the fear effect from
Terrorize, and it can remove the root from
Bramble Maze if cast quick enough. Be mindful that Fortune's End only dispels your allies' debuffs on the primary target.
Additional:
*
Fortune's End not being disjointable is almost an ensured disable if Dark Willow tries to escape with Shadow Realm. Dispels Cursed Crown and Terrorize.
*
Fate's Edict negates all her magic damage in case she catches a single hero.
*
False Promise's strong dispel removes Dark Willow's disables.
*
Anti-mage is potentially good against Ember Spirit since he can burn Ember Spirit's mana, prevent him from escaping or using his skill. Anti-Mage has high magic resistance, which will reduce most of the damage from Ember Spirit's skill set. However, Anti-Mage lacks any form of stuns or lockdowns, and may struggle to kill Ember Spirit if he still has some mana left.
*
Counterspell negates Dark Willow's high magic burst damage. Its active blocks
Cursed Crown.
*
Blink allows Anti-Mage to dodge Terrorize during its long cast animation, as well as avoiding the obstacles from Bramble Maze. On the other hand, if Anti-Mage gets caught inside Bramble Maze, he's unable to Blink away.
* Dark Willow's chained magic burst requires a lot of mana, setting her up for damaging
Mana Voids.
* Any Hero with high mobility will be neutralized by dream coil:
Queen of Pain,
Storm Spirit,
Ember Spirit,
Lycan,
Bloodseeker,
Anti-Mage,
Timbersaw.
* All of Puck's abilities are area-targeted, and will hit Dark Willow when she uses Shadow Realm.
*
Illusory Orb allows Puck to bypass Bramble Maze, close the gap and silence Dark Willow with
Waning Rift.
*
Phase Shift helps Puck dodge attacks charged by Shadow Realm, and is easily timed against Terrorize's long cast time.
* Spiked Carapace can be easily triggered by
Flame Guard or
Battle Fury, setting up a deadly Impale.
Additional:
* With
Vendetta, Nyx Assassin can move closely to Ember Spirit when he's farming with his Flame Guard and use
Spiked Carapace with
Impale to provide a reliable and long disable.
* Nyx Assassin's high burst damage can be the bane of Dark Willow, as her low health makes it difficult to survive long enough to escape through Shadow Realm.
*
Spiked Carapace can be triggered by walking deliberately into Bramble Maze, leaving Dark Willow stunned and defenseless.
* 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.
* The pure damage provided by
Arcane Orb is a great addition for killing Ember Spirit.
*
Astral Imprisonment fully negates all magic damage of Flame Guard and Searing Chains and will temporarily save himself from Sleight of Fist's physical damage, and Ember Spirit is not a hero that can counter these skills.
* The pure damage provided by
Purification is a great addition for killing Ember Spirit, as well as a good way of saving teammates.
*
Guardian Angel will temporarily save his allies from Sleight of Fist's physical damage, and Ember Spirit is not a hero that will get
Orchid Malevolence to counter it.
*
Shadowraze can easily remove the protection from Flame Guard and kill Ember Spirit due to his low health.
* Ember Spirit is very vulnerable to physical damage from
Necromastery.
* Ember Spirit's
Flame Guard provides no protection against Clinkz's physical damage output.
* Ember Spirit's low armor and health make him easy to kill quickly if a teammate can hold him down.
* If Clinkz has farmed an item that can disable, he can sneak up to and hunt down Ember Spirit while he farms or split pushes alone.
*
Magnetic Field lets Arc Warden or allies evade Dark Willow's shadow realm attacks. The duration of the evasion can be extended with the clone.
*
Spark Wraith also exploits Dark Willow's low mobility.
*
Berserker's Call forces Dark Willow to attack, cancelling Shadow Realm.
* Storm Spirit is not only a potent
Orchid Malevolence carrier, his
Electric Vortex provides an additional disable and
Overload provides a great slow. When paired with
Static Remnant, they can cut through Flame Guard fast.
*
Ball Lightning not only provides great initiation upon Ember Spirit from any position anytime, but also helps dodge Sleight of Fist.
*
Ball Lightning allows Storm Spirit to bypass Bramble Maze into the backline, and zip back into battle if he gets hit by Terrorize.
*
Flame Guard absorbs up to 500 magical damage (700 with Level 10 talents), which helps Ember Spirit survive against Storm Spirit's high magical damage.
*
Searing Chains can root enemies up to 3 seconds, making Storm Spirit unable to escape with
Ball Lightning.
*
Fire Remnant deals high magical damage when casting multiple instances at once, granting Ember Spirit the damage to burst Storm Spirit down in the early to mid game.
*
Quill Spray's constant AoE damage will hit Dark Willow even in Shadow Realm. Its automatic damage will hurt her if she tries to get close and use Bedlam.
* Ember Spirit cannot use his
Activate Fire Remnant to escape while affected 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.
* Batrider has huge damage from his
Sticky Napalm and hand strikes on the target, with this effect. And Ember Spirit not only has a small reserve of health, but also has a melee type of attack. If these two collide on the center line, then Ember Spirit will have to finish off several creeps from afar with a
Sleight of Fist, otherwise he will lose a lot of health from long-range Batrider attacks under
Sticky Napalm, and possibly even kill, because Ember Spirit does not have the ability to interrupt Batraider with his damage if he decides to attack
* Ember Spirit is a very tasty target for
Flaming Lasso, because it has a small reserve of health, and all the power lies in the abilities that
Flaming Lasso forbids using, this can help the Batraider team quickly deal with the unpleasant "jumping" Ember Spirit in a fight if he gets into
Flaming Lasso
Additional:
* Batrider has huge damage from his
Sticky Napalm and hand strikes on the target, with this effect. And Ember Spirit not only has a small reserve of health, but also has a melee type of attack. If these two collide on the center line, then Ember Spirit will have to finish off several creeps from afar with a
Sleight of Fist, otherwise he will lose a lot of health from long-range Batrider attacks under
Sticky Napalm, and possibly even kill, because Ember Spirit does not have the ability to interrupt Batraider with his damage if he decides to attack
* Ember Spirit is a very tasty target for
Flaming Lasso, because it has a small reserve of health, and all the power lies in the abilities that
Flaming Lasso forbids using, this can help the Batraider team quickly deal with the unpleasant "jumping" Ember Spirit in a fight if he gets into
Flaming Lasso
* Impetus will deal huge amounts of damage when he uses a
Fire Remnant to escape.
*
Flame Guard is useless against Impetus as it deals Pure damage.
* Enchant can be used to dispel Flame Guard.
* Lone Druid becomes unkillable and impenetrable for Ember Spirit on the central line, as it has a huge reserve of health from the
Summon Spirit Bear and a large regeneration from
Spirit Link, which is why
Sleight of Fist practically does not break through either one or the other on the line, and Lone Druid at this time can easily expel Ember Spirit from the line, push and gain gold and level
*
Entangling Claws and
Savage Roar abilities completely disable Ember Spirit's ability to dodge abilities or get out of an unpleasant fight for him on
Fire Remnant, which can give the Lone Druid team the opportunity to kill him
Additional:
* Lone Druid becomes unkillable and impenetrable for Ember Spirit on the central line, as it has a huge reserve of health from the
Summon Spirit Bear and a large regeneration from
Spirit Link, which is why
Sleight of Fist practically does not break through either one or the other on the line, and Lone Druid at this time can easily expel Ember Spirit from the line, push and gain gold and level
*
Entangling Claws and
Savage Roar abilities completely disable Ember Spirit's ability to dodge abilities or get out of an unpleasant fight for him on
Fire Remnant, which can give the Lone Druid team the opportunity to kill him
*
Ancient Seal instantly shuts down Dark Willow's abilities, rendering her defenseless against his high burst damage spells, while she cannot cast spells of her own.
*
Mystic Flare deals immense burst damage in an area, damaging Dark Willow through Shadow Realm.
* Ember Spirit does minimal damage to Huskar until the very late game.
* Huskar can destroy Ember Spirit both on the line and in the game. It will be extremely difficult for Ember Spirit to finish off the creeps, because Huskar will not let him approach them, and if Ember Spirit does come up, Huskar just shuts him up with his
Burning Spear and Ember Spirit will have to go to the base or bring himself treatment, or continue to stand and die. In all cases, Ember Spirit will go into negative
Additional:
* Huskar can destroy Ember Spirit both on the line and in the game. It will be extremely difficult for Ember Spirit to finish off the creeps, because Huskar will not let him approach them, and if Ember Spirit does come up, Huskar just shuts him up with his
Burning Spear and Ember Spirit will have to go to the base or bring himself treatment, or continue to stand and die. In all cases, Ember Spirit will go into negative
* Ember Spirit has a small mana pool, which is why QW-Invoker can burn it out very effectively with his own
E.M.P., do not give Ember Spirit the opportunity to play with his abilities and cause damage with them in a fight.
* QW-Invoker Destroys Ember Spirit's
Flame Guard with his own
Tornado, which is why Ember Spirit cannot defend against Invoker's strong magic damage.
Additional:
* Ember Spirit has a small mana pool, which is why QW-Invoker can burn it out very effectively with his own
E.M.P., do not give Ember Spirit the opportunity to play with his abilities and cause damage with them in a fight.
* QW-Invoker Destroys Ember Spirit's
Flame Guard with his own
Tornado, which is why Ember Spirit cannot defend against Invoker's strong magic damage.
* Rage protects Lifestealer from all of Dark Willow's abilities.
Additional:
*
Rage protects and dispels all of Dark Willow's abilities.
* Using
X Marks the spot Kunkka can prevent Ember Spirit from escaping with Activate Fire Remnant, until he purchase
Eul's Scepter of Divinity or
Linken's Sphere.
* Fragile supports who die in a few hits against Sven's high physical damage:
Crystal Maiden,
Vengeful Spirit,
Dark Willow.
* Heroes with high burst damage and
Black King Bar can take down Dark Willow quickly:
Phantom Assassin,
Sven,
Wraith King
*
Queen of Pain can be a good hero for dealing with Ember Spirit with
Orchid Malevolence, her pure damage nuke in
Sonic Wave and a slow in
Shadow Strike. However, Queen of Pain can be punished by Ember Spirit, as his Searing Chains prevents her from getting
Blink off.
* Frail heroes who lacks mobility:
Crystal Maiden,
Enigma,
Dark Willow,
Vengeful Spirit.
Additional:
*
Smoke Screen prevents Dark Willow from using her abilities, rendering her defenseless and unable to deal any serious damage.
*
Blink Strike lets Riki jump past Bramble Maze.
* Heroes who can silence will shut down Dark Willow entirely:
Death Prophet,
Silencer,
Drow Ranger
* Heroes who rely on high mobility are especially vulnerable to Primal Roar:
Storm Spirit,
Ember Spirit,
Queen of Pain.
* High priority targets like
Queen of Pain,
Drow Ranger,
Ember Spirit can't get caught out from
Lion's long range disables, making it harder to them fulfill their roles, and making it easy to target them.
Additional:
* Lion possesses two strong disables in
Earth Spike and
Hex and heavy magic burst with
Finger of Death which help lock him down and prevent him from escaping with Activate Fire Remnant. When getting his
Blink Dagger Lion can punish Ember Spirit's overextension immediately, or initiate a fight on him with disables.
* Heroes with high burst damage and
Black King Bar can take down Dark Willow quickly:
Phantom Assassin,
Sven,
Wraith King
*
Rot and
Meat Hook hits Dark Willow even when she uses Shadow Realm.
*
Flesh Heap reduces Dark Willow's magic burst damage.
* Heroes with a high degree of mobility and invisibility are hard to catch with Meat Hook:
Ember Spirit,
Riki,
Clinkz,
Queen of Pain.
* None of Dark Willow's spells pierce Spell Immunity, making
Blade Fury a good counter against her. Additionally, it dispels
Cursed Crown and
Bramble Maze.
* Dark Willow is generally fragile, which results in
Omnislash being devastating against her.
* However, if
Shadow Realm is activated during
Omnislash, then the attack damage is negated (though
Omnislash can still jump to other enemies).
Additional:
*
Blade Fury dispels most of Dark Willow's abilities, allowing Juggernaut to pass through Bramble Maze and cancel out Cursed Crown before the stun occurs.
* However, Dark Willow can tank
Omnislash with
Shadow Realm. As she is a valid target, but invulnerable to right clicks.
* Heroes with escaping and disjointing abilities can be good against Juggernaut:
Anti-Mage
Riki,
Queen of Pain,
Puck,
Storm Spirit,
Ember Spirit,
Slark etc.
* Jakiro's area of effect abilities can hit Dark Willow even while she is hidden during the
Shadow Realm.
* Waiting about 2 seconds after Dark Willow casts Shadow Realm to cast Ice Path will stun her while her Shadow Realm is at it's maximum damage.
* Jakiro can stun Dark Willow when there is about 1 second left on
Cursed Crown, Jakiro's Ice Path stun lasts slightly longer then Cursed Crown.
* Heroes with good mobility to avoid Jakiro's abilities and with good chase to punish Jakiro from pushing a tower:
Bloodseeker,
Ember Spirit,
Juggernaut,
Phantom Assassin,
Weaver.
*
Searing Chains prevents usage of Timber Chain.
* Timbersaw is vulnerable to magical burst damage, which Ember Spirit provides with
Fire Remnant and
Flame Guard.
* Timbersaw's abilities deal pure damage, thus they cannot remove
Flame Guard.
* Bramble Maze prevents Timbersaw from
Timber Chaining away without getting rooted.
* Cursed Crown can still catch Timbersaw if he
Timber Chains away.
*
Reactive Armor offers little protection against Dark Willow's high magical damage.
*
Searing Chains can stop Charge of Darkness if timed correctly.
*
Activate Fire Remnant can be used to escape an approaching Spirit Breaker, or lead Spirit Breaker into a bad situation.
*
Fire Remnant and
Sleight of Fist allows Ember Spirit to dodge Charge of Darkness if timed correctly.
* Bramble Maze stops
Charge of Darkness in its tracks. Its very long duration means it can be used as an obstacle to block off an incoming Spirit Break during teamfights.
* Shadow Realm and Bedlam can be activated when Dark Willow sees
Charge of Darkness coming, preventing Spirit Breaker from using
Nether Strike after the initial stun.
*
Fire Remnant allows Ember Spirit to escape while Ruptured.
Additional:
* Fire Remnant allows Ember Spirit to escape Bloodseeker while
Ruptured.
* Bramble Maze greatly hinders Bloodseeker's ability to run around in teamfights and pick off dying allies.
* Shadow Realm prevents Bloodseeker from attacking dark Willow, allowing her to safely teleport away.
* The high mobility provided by
Fire Remnant makes it hard for Windranger to find a good position to land Shackleshot or a full duration of Focus Fire.
*
Flame Guard and
Searing Chains deal considerable magical damage to Windranger which she cannot avoid with Windrun.
* Searing chains also negates the mobility from Windrun.
* Windrun does not protect Windranger from
Cursed Crown stun or Dark Willow's magical nukes.
* Focus Fire cannot target Dark Willow in
Shadow Realm and will be interrupted if targeted earlier, wasting the ultimate.
Additional:
*
Windrun does not protect Windranger from Cursed Crown's stun or Dark Willow's magical nukes.
*
Focus Fire cannot target Dark Willow in Shadow Realm and will be interrupted if targeted earlier, wasting the ultimate.
* Heroes that can reliably kite out Dispose, Unleash and dodge Rebound, like
Ember Spirit,
Void Spirit,
Storm Spirit,
Anti-Mage,
Faceless Void,
Puck or always build items like
Blink Dagger and
Force Staff.
*
Bramble Maze will very likely catch Marci midair, disabling Marci's chasing/fleeing ability.
*
Shadow Realm prevents Marci from bursting Willow down since she relies on physical attacks and unit target spells. With
Aghanim's Scepter, Willow can hit Marci while Marci can't hit Willow.
*
Bedlam and
Eul's Scepter of Divinity allows Willow to manfight if Marci initiates with Rebound.
*
Terrorize and
Cursed Crown combo can waste Marci's ultimate for almost half of its duration.
* Heroes with high physical and magical damage alike are a huge hazard for Muerta, as they can deal serious damage to her even if she has
Pierce the Veil active:
Luna,
Lina,
Tusk,
Broodmother,
Shadow Fiend,
Ember Spirit,
Gyrocopter,
Vengeful Spirit,
Arc Warden,
Medusa,
Shadow Shaman.
*
Terrorize,
Bedlam and
Cursed Crown can damage Muerta through
Pierce the Veil.
* Even if Muerta has
Black King Bar and
Pierce the Veil active, Dark Willow can still use
Shadow Realm to protect herself against the
Pierce the Veil's high damage, as Muerta cannot attack her for it's duration.
* Heroes with considerable mobility can easily escape from a rolling Pangolier:
Anti-Mage,
Queen of Pain,
Void Spirit,
Storm Spirit,
Ember Spirit,
Earth Spirit, moreover, if a player is familiar with how Rolling Thunder works, they can adjust their movement to avoid it entirely and of course outplay the Pangolier player.
* Heroes with powerful rooting abilities will disable most of Pangolier's skills, a bonus point if it pierces spell immunity since it will also be able to stop Pangolier during his Rolling Thunder:
Treant Protector,
Meepo,
Crystal Maiden,
Dark Willow,
Underlord,
Naga Siren
* Heroes with strong area-of-effect damaging and/or disabling abilities will be able to intercept Underlord and his team when they exit from Fiend's Gate:
Luna's
Aghanim's Scepter upgraded
Eclipse,
Dawnbreaker's
Solar Guardian,
Axe's
Berserker's Call,
Mars's
Arena of Blood,
Jakiro's
Macropyre,
Dual Breath and
Ice Path,
Naga Siren's
Song of the Siren,
Razor's
Eye of the Storm and
Plasma Field,
Lina's
Light Strike Array,
Broodmother's
Spinner's Snare from
Aghanim's Scepter,
Elder Titan's
Earth Splitter and
Echo Stomp,
Alchemist's
Unstable Concoction and
Acid Spray,
Queen of Pain's
Sonic Wave,
Dark Seer's
Wall of Replica and
Vacuum,
Venomancer's
Noxious Plague and
Poison Nova from
Aghanim's Scepter,
Oracle's
Fortune's End and
Rain of Destiny from
Aghanim's Shard,
Bloodseeker's
Blood Rite,
Enigma's
Black Hole and
Midnight Pulse,
Shadow Fiend's
Requiem of Souls,
Batrider's
Aghanim's Scepter upgraded
Flaming Lasso,
Firefly,
Flamebreak and
Sticky Napalm,
Ancient Apparition's
Ice Blast,
Sand King's
Epicenter,
Sand Storm and
Burrowstrike,
Gyrocopter's
Call Down,
Ember Spirit's
Sleight of Fist,
Death Prophet's
Exorcism and
Silence,
Monkey King's
Wukong's Command,
Crystal Maiden's
Freezing Field,
Muerta's
The Calling,
Medusa's
Stone Gaze,
Zeus's
Nimbus from
Aghanim's Scepter.
Dark Willow's
Bramble Maze,
Pangolier's
Swashbuckle,
Grimstroke's
Soulbind,
Ink Swell and
Stroke of Fate,
Earthshaker's
Echo Slam and
Fissure,
Puck's
Dream Coil and
Waning Rift,
Winter Wyvern's
Winter's Curse,
Magnus's
Reverse Polarity.
* Heroes with 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.
* Ember's magic damage build is able to burst down Alchemist due to his low strength gain and Alchemist's normal item pick up.
* A pre-placed
Fire Remnant allows Ember Spirit to escape Upheaval.
*
Flame Guard blocks Shadow Word's damage.
*
Sleight of Fist allows Ember Spirit to attack from outside of Upheaval's range, and
Searing Chains lets him interrupt it.
* Ember Spirit has much higher mobility in
Fire Remnant than Void Spirit.
* Ember's
Flame Guard is effective against Void Spirit's spells, as most of them deal magical damage.
* The root from
Searing Chains prevents Void Spirit from using Dissimilate or Astral Step.
* Dark Willow's burst damage and stun prevents Troll Warlord from approaching her until he has
Black King Bar.
* Troll Warlord's lack of burst damage makes it hard for him to kill Dark Willow before she slips into Shadow Realm.
* Ember Spirit can deal devastating damage to illusion heroes like Terrorblade with Sleight of Fist. Terrorblade also has no way of preventing Ember Spirit from getting Activate Fire Remnant off. Additionally, Ember Spirit's ability to fight from long range as well as his wide skill set won't give many opportunities for Terrorblade to get
Sunder off.
Additional:
* Ember Spirit can deal devastating damage to Terrorblade and his illusions with
Sleight of Fist,
Flame Guard and
Fire Remnant.
* Terrorblade has no disable to lock down Ember Spirit and prevent him from escaping with
Fire Remnant. In addition, he doesn't like purchasing disabling items like
Scythe of Vyse or
Abyssal Blade, which are the only solutions to deal with Ember Spirit.
*
Flame Guard burns quickly through
Refraction charges, which is why it can interrupt Templar Assassin, giving his team the opportunity to kill her.
* Ember Spirit can dodge a blow from
Meld with
Sleight of fist, providing him an advantage in a 1v1 situation.
*
Searing Chains give true sight into invisibility, why Templar Assassin can't hide from it in
Meld and get out of the fight using
Blink Dagger.
Additional:
* Searing Chains and Flame Guard quickly burn through
Refraction instances exposing her low health pool.
* Templar Assassin has no inherent way to prevent Ember Spirit from escaping, a good Ember player also will be able to dodge her meld attack
* Ember Spirit`s
Searing chains give true sight into invisibility, why Templar Assassin can't hide from it in
Meld and get out of the fight using
Blink Dagger
* Ember Spirit can close the distance between Sniper easily with his
Activate Fire Remnant and further keep Sniper in place with
Searing Chains.
* With the help of
Aghanim's Scepter, Sniper cannot outrun Ember Spirit or chase him, even if Sniper builds mobility items.
* Disruption is not reliable enough to catch an Ember Spirit with a backup
Fire Remnant.
*
Sleight of Fist will also make quick work of the spawned illusions.
* The best you can do against an Ember Spirit is to dispel his
Flame Guard with your Demonic Purge.
*
Sleight of Fist, allows Ember Spirit to destroy all of Phantom Lancer's illusions.
*
Flame Guard also deals significant damage to illusions, and protects against Spirit Lance.
* Phantom Rush is unable to catch Ember Spirit when he teleports to his
Fire Remnants.
Additional:
* Sleight of Fist is the natural counter to Phantom Lancer's army of illusions, especially when combined with
Battle Fury.
*
Sleight of Fist with
Battle Fury deals a lot of damage to Nature's Prophet's team if they stand close to his Treants, as well as killing all the Treants with ease.
* Ember Spirit with
Fire Remnant and
Boots of Travel can be very active around the map, which enables him to quickly teleport and defend the objective Nature's Prophet is attacking whenever he tries to push.
Additional:
* Ember Spirit can easily deal with
Nature's Call by using his Flame Guard and with
Battle Fury. He also has multiple ways of escaping
Sprout. Additionally, Ember Spirit can break
Sprout's trees with Activate Fire Remnant and interrupt
Teleportation with Searing Chains.
* Terrorize forces Monkey King out of
Wukong's Command.
* Heroes with high mobility can be prevented from using it to their advantage with Earthbind, even if they pack a dangerous arsenal:
Earth Spirit,
Ember Spirit,
Storm Spirit,
Nature's Prophet,
Phantom Assassin,
Riki,
Anti-Mage,
Weaver.
* See items and abilities disabled by roots
*
Sleight of Fist combined with
Battle Fury,
Maelstrom and
Daedalus will allow Ember Spirit to make a quick work of Meepo if his clones are crowded around each other.
*
Searing Chains interrupts Meepo's initiating because Meepo's clones do not have spell immunity.
Additional:
* Meepo is quite fragile in the early game and can be easily taken down by Flame Guard's and Searing Chains' damage. Later on, Meepo is very vulnerable to Sleight of Fist's damage due to
Battle Fury's cleave on multiple Meepos.
* Heroes who can stun multiple units at once:
Dark Willow,
Spirit Breaker,
Slardar,
Invoker, and
Tidehunter.
Additional:
* Casting Bramble Maze on top of Meepo guarantees a root, as it is nearly impossible to leave the thorns with all of Meepo's clones.
* Terrorize and Cursed Crown offer great disables against the grouped Meepos and can prevent them from using
Poof to escape.
* Ember Spirit absorbs quite a large amount of magical damage with its
Flame Guard, and in addition dodges the abilities of
Dragon Slave and
Light Strike Array with its
Sleight of Fist.
Additional:
* Ember Spirit absorbs quite a large amount of magical damage with its
Flame Guard, and in addition dodges the abilities of
Dragon Slave and
Light Strike Array with its
Sleight of Fist
* Ember Spirit easily finishes off all creeps on the line against Earth Sprit, exchanging health with him under his
Flame Guard, which is why Earth Spirit can leave the line for ganks very early and without the necessary amount of gold and levels, which will give the Ember Spirit team an advantage to fight off such ganks
* The
Sleight of Fist ability helps Ember Spirit dodge all of Earth Spirit's abilities, which makes his gank potential practically useless against Ember Spirit, and with the purchase of
Black King Bar, Ember Spirit can use
Sleight of Fist to combine with
Searing Chains to catch and kill Earth Spirit.
Additional:
* Ember Spirit easily finishes off all creeps on the line against Earth Sprit, exchanging health with him under his
Flame Guard, which is why Earth Spirit can leave the line for ganks very early and without the necessary amount of gold and levels, which will give the Ember Spirit team an advantage to fight off such ganks
* The
Sleight of Fist ability helps Ember Spirit dodge all of Earth Spirit's abilities, which makes his gank potential practically useless against Ember Spirit, and with the purchase of
Black King Bar, Ember Spirit can use
Sleight of Fist to combine with
Searing Chains to catch and kill Earth Spirit.
*
Flame Guard makes Dark Seer not deal any damage with his skills to Ember Spirit.
* Crystal Maiden is extremely fragile and she's an easy target for him. She has no real disables that can lock Ember Spirit down, and all of her skill damage can be negated with Flame Guard. The damage from Searing Chains, Flame Guard, and Sleigh of Fist can easily take her down.
* Ember Spirit's
Fire Remnant is an easy way to escape from Clockwerk's Power Cogs.
*
Flame Guard blocks most of the magical damage Clockwerk does.
*
Sleight of Fist keeps Ember Spirit invulnerable until he hits every unit in its area of effect allowing him to stall for large amounts of time against Broodmother and her large amounts of spiderlings, or potentially damaging them enough if equipped with an item to improve wave clearing such as
Battle Fury or
Maelstrom to prevent her pushes entirely.
*
Flame Guard will damage any of Broodmother's spiders in an area, deterring her from attempting to kill him. It can also be used during Sleight of Fist to amplify damage done.
*
Fire Remnant allows Ember Spirit an escape from Broodmother that is unaffected by her Incapacitating Bite.
* Ember Spirit has a built-in antimagic shield, and Zeus has nothing but this magical damage, because of this, their confrontation on the center line can turn out to be sad for Zeus. If on such a line Ember Spirit will finish off all creeps under its
Flame Guard, and Zeus with the help of
Arc Lightning, then eventually Zeus will lose mana faster, and will be forced to look for ways to replenish it
* Ember Spirit can interrupt Zeus with his "jumping" abilities, the fact is that Zeus deals damage from his abilities directly, while Ember Spirit disappears for milliseconds from the battlefield when flying during the
Sleight of Fist action or when flying into
Fire Remnant
Additional:
* Zeus laneing against Ember is going to be punished with Sleight of Fist due to his low health pool
* Zeus's chip damage from
Arc Lightning and other spells is nullified from Ember's Flame Guard.
* Heroes with high magical or pure damage will bypass Bulwark:
Timbersaw,
Dark Willow,
Enigma,
Invoker,
Pugna,
Skywrath Mage,
Tinker,
Zeus,
Oracle.
* Heroes that heavily depend on illusions or summons, (
Naga Siren,
Terrorblade,
Phantom Lancer,
Lycan,...) are vulnerable to Sleight of Fist and even more so if Ember Spirit has
Battle Fury.
* Heroes with high mobility will be able to avoid Gyrocopter's area attacks:
Storm Spirit,
Morphling,
Ember Spirit
* Heroes with either magical, physical or pure damage burst:
Bane,
Ember Spirit,
Leshrac,
Lina,
Luna,
Nyx Assassin,
Phantom Assassin,
Skywrath Mage,
Tinker,
Ursa,
Void Spirit.
* Any hero with teleport abilities (e.g.
Ember Spirit,
Storm Spirit) can easily break Static Link.
* Certain Hero's potential lies on the combo of their abilities. As an example,
Ember Spirit can cast
Sleight of Fist and
Searing Chains together to root and damage enemies from a far distance. Yet for
Rubick, casting
Searing Chains can only catch enemies at a close distance, and
Sleight of Fist does little more than a scratch of right click.
* It is arguably possible to group spells together after getting
Aghanim's Scepter, but stealing two separate spells from one single enemy is somewhat luxurious in an intense fight.
* 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.
* Heroes that heavily depend on illusions or summons, (
Naga Siren,
Terrorblade,
Phantom Lancer,
Lycan,...) are vulnerable to Sleight of Fist and even more so if Ember Spirit has
Battle Fury.
* Heroes who commonly buy
Linken's Sphere:
Luna,
Weaver,
Morphling,
Queen of Pain,
Ember Spirit.
*
Ember Spirit with
Sleight of Fist and
Activate Fire Remnant
* Heroes that can dodge Glimpse:
*
Puck with
Phase Shift
*
Riki with
Tricks of the Trade
*
Phantom Lancer with
Doppelganger
*
Ember Spirit with
Sleight of Fist and
Activate Fire Remnant
*
Chaos Knight with
Phantasm
*
Naga Siren with
Mirror Image
*
Tusk with
Snowball
*
Juggernaut with
Omnislash
*
Brewmaster with
Primal Split
*
Lifestealer with
Infest
*
Phoenix with
Supernova
* Heroes with strong area damage to destroy Phantasm illusions:
Axe,
Ember Spirit,
Legion Commander,
Phoenix
Additional:
* Ember Spirit is evasive and can dodge close encounters with melee heroes like Chaos Knight. Ember Spirit can't be caught with the slow from
Reality Rift, and Flame Guard and Sleight of Fist can bring
Phantasm's illusions down quickly.
* Faceless Void is one of the best heroes against Ember Spirit, providing a lot of ways of dealing with him. Ember Spirit becomes a lot weaker if affected by
Time Dilation, as he can no longer spam Sleight of Fist.
*
Chronosphere is also a reliable lockdown for Ember Spirit, although it can be evaded sometimes by Activate Fire Remnant. Additionally, Void can easily negate Sleight of Fist damage with
Time Walk.
* And finally, Void is a great
Diffusal Blade carrier. Not only
Manabreak's physical damage not negated by Flame Guard, but it also burns Ember Spirit's mana. That, in turn, prevents him from escaping if he survived
Chronosphere.
* Terrorize forces Faceless Void out of
Chronosphere.
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.
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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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Ember Spirit
*
Global Silence and
Last Word can prevent Ember Spirit from casting Activate Fire Remnant to escape.
Glaives of Wisdom also provide high pure damage that is not negated by Flame Guard.
Arcane Curse is also a potent harassing tool in the laneing stage as its cooldown is lower than Flame Guard's.
*
*
Dark Willow
*
Last Word and
Arcane Curse have the range to hit Dark Willow beyond Bramble Maze.
Global Silence renders Dark Willow useless in teamfights.
*