* Heroes with summons:
Lycan,
Broodmother,
Visage,
Nature's Prophet,
Warlock.
*
Shapeshift allows Lycan to chase down Earth Spirit.
* Heroes with escape abilities:
Anti-Mage
Dark Seer
Slark
Storm Spirit
Windranger
Weaver can kite Lifestealer due to him having no lockdown.
* Storm Spirit outlanes Earth Spirit wins by having a ranged attack type, and also deals damage to the Earth Spirit every time he approaches the creeps with his ability
Static Remnant, which is why he overtakes Earth Spirit in level and gold
* Storm Spirit has the ability to quickly kill Earth Spirit under his ability
Electric Vortex, which Earth Spirit cannot do if Storm Spirit buys
Falcon Blade at the liner stage, because Storm Spirit will have too much health for Earth Spirit`s abilities and will survive Earth Spirit`s damage.
Additional:
* Storm Spirit outlanes Earth Spirit wins by having a ranged attack type, and also deals damage to the Earth Spirit every time he approaches the creeps with his ability
Static Remnant, which is why he overtakes Earth Spirit in level and gold
* Storm Spirit has the ability to quickly kill Earth Spirit under his ability
Electric Vortex, which Earth Spirit cannot do if Storm Spirit buys
Falcon Blade at the liner stage, because Storm Spirit will have too much health for Earth Spirit`s abilities and will survive Earth Spirit`s damage.
*
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.
* Heroes with blink or movement abilities, which are disabled by Pounce's leash:
Anti-Mage,
Earth Spirit,
Faceless Void,
Magnus,
Mirana,
Monkey King,
Morphling,
Pangolier,
Phantom Assassin,
Phoenix,
Puck,
Queen of Pain,
Riki,
Sand King,
Spirit Breaker,
Timbersaw,
Tusk.
Additional:
*
Pounce's root prevents Earth Spirit from using Rolling Boulder to escape, making it easier for Slark to shut him down especially in the laning phase.
* 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.
*
Aphotic Shield is a strong dispel, meaning it can save allies from Earth Spirit's stun, slow, silence, and Magnetize.
*
Borrowed Time makes it nearly impossible for Earth Spirit to kill Abaddon.
* 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.
* 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.
Additional:
* 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.
*
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.
Additional:
* 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.
* Lifestealer's low mobility makes him easy to kite.
* Stone Gaze pierces
Rage, wasting its cooldown and making Lifestealer unable to fight.
* 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.
* 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.
*
Ice Blast prevents Lifestealer from lifestealing and healing with Infest in fights.
* 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.
Additional:
* 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.
* Since
Untouchable pierces Spell Immunity, Lifestealer cannot burst her down even with
Rage; meaning she can heal herself back to full HP.
* Heroes that rely on physical damage are ineffective against Dragon Knight due to his high armor:
Phantom Assassin,
Bloodseeker,
Lifestealer,
Troll Warlord,
Sven
* Heroes with escape abilities:
Anti-Mage
Dark Seer
Slark
Storm Spirit
Windranger
Weaver can kite Lifestealer due to him having no lockdown.
* 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 with fast movement abilities will suffer huge damage when afflicted by Rupture:
Spirit Breaker,
Earth Spirit,
Dark Seer.
* Heroes with high physical damage can damage Lifestealer more than he can heal:
Bristleback,
Clinkz,
Luna,
Shadow Fiend,
Slardar,
Terrorblade
* 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.
* Heroes rely on their debuff to control the opponent will have a hard time against Press the Attack:
Venomancer,
Earth Spirit,
Ogre Magi
*
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.
* 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
*
Lifestealer is not affected by Earthbind or Poof during
Rage, making him a difficult target to work around.
* 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 illusions:
Chaos Knight,
Naga Siren,
Phantom Lancer,
Terrorblade
* Sprout is good for trapping melee carries with no escape abilities:
Sven,
Alchemist,
Lifestealer etc.
* Melee carries such as
Sven,
Ursa or
Lifestealer can be slowed and easily kited with Demonic Purge.
* Heroes with high physical damage can damage Lifestealer more than he can heal:
Bristleback,
Clinkz,
Luna,
Shadow Fiend,
Slardar,
Terrorblade
* 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.
* Chaotic Offering can stop heroes who like to use spell immunity and teleport scrolls to safely farm during the early to mid game, since it stuns and also goes through spell immunity. Notable examples:
Juggernaut,
Lifestealer.
* Many physical-only single-target heroes like
Lifestealer,
Sven,
Wraith King,
Phantom Assassin,
Templar Assassin can have their damage mitigated by Cold Embrace.
* 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.
* 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.
* 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.
* Windranger tends to fare badly against high mobility heroes that can easily dodge Powershot, close the gap on her when she uses Windrun or escape from Focus Fire's reach. Examples of such heroes include
Spirit Breaker,
Lycan,
Storm Spirit,
Earth Spirit,
Void Spirit,
Slark and others.
*
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.
* 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.
* Rage protects Lifestealer from all of Invoker's spells (except for
Sun Strike).
Additional:
*
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.
* Earth Spirit is a dangerous foe to encounter for Invoker in the early stages of the game. Since Invoker needs to gain levels as fast as possible and is not very strong in the early game, Earth Spirit can use his incredible early game power to gank Invoker and ruin his game plan.
* Earth Spirit combines stuns and silences with his spells and can apply them from a great distance. This is bad for Invoker as he is dependent on a smart usage of his spells with
Invoke and Earth Spirit can disrupt his combos easily.
*
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.
Additional:
* 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.
* Tinker is an easy target for Earth Spirit to initiate on. He likes to split push lanes once he acquires
Boots of Travel and Earth Spirit can jump him with his Rolling Boulder and disable him to buy enough time for his teammates to come and assist Earth Spirit.
* The huge range of Stone Remnant and Rolling Boulder enables Earth Spirit to stop Tinker from teleporting to his fountain since Tinker tends to buy
Blink Dagger most of the time to escape.
* 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.
* Earth Spirit can easily disrupt
Dismember because he can disable from a long distance with a Stone Remnant and Rolling Boulder. With talent he can even pull his teammates out of Dismember and also silence Pudge with Geomagnetic Grip.
*
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.
*
Geomagnetic Grip can be used to silence Earthshaker after he blinks in, preventing him from executing his combo.
*
Magnetize does damage over time and thus disables Earthshaker's
Blink Dagger for a long time.
*
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.
*
Boulder Smash and
Geomagnetic Grip allow
Earth Spirit to easily disrupt Freezing Field, regardless of where Crystal Maiden is due to their incredible range.
Earth Spirit is quite possibly the best hero for stopping long channeling abilities, and Crystal Maiden is vulnerable to him without a
Black King Bar.
* All of Earth Spirit's spells allow him to easily close in on Crystal Maiden and kill her. Since she is a low health support, she generally stays behind in teamfights, but Earth Spirit can easily close the distance.
* Crystal Maiden has low movement speed and no other escape mechanism, rendering her extremely vulnerable to Earth Spirit's arsenal of long-range, damaging spells.
*
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 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.
* 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.
*
Earth Spirit's useful kit of Slows, Stuns, and Silences can set up kills on Ogre Magi and the silence can stop him from using his abilities.
*
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
* Squishy heroes (
Io,
Crystal Maiden,
Lina...), as Earth Spirit can deal tons of damage with Magnetize.
* 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.
* Heroes with high mobility can approach Sniper:
Anti-Mage,
Earth Spirit,
Io,
Nature's Prophet,
Pangolier,
Puck,
Queen of Pain and most notably
Riki.
* 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 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.
*
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.
*
Rage ignores all of Gyrocopter's magical attacks.
*
Feast helps Lifestealer out-damage Gyrocopter at close range.
* 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.
*
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'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.
* 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.
*
Boulder Smash can return Tusk after his initiation.
*
Geomagnetic Grip prevents Tusk from using Snowball to escape.
*
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 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.
*
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.
* 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.
*
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.
* 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.
*
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 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.
*
Boulder Smash will push Sand King out of Sand Storm to reveal his position or an activated Epicenter off of Earth Spirit's allies, potentially wasting his combo
*
Rolling Boulder and
Geomagnetic Grip allow Earth Spirit to easily stun and silence Sand King and interrupt the channeling of Epicenter, completely ruining his initiation.
* Earth Spirit does not fly a small distance on
Rolling Boulder using
Stone Remnant, which will be a big problem for
Life Drain, since Pugna will stop receiving health from breaking the distance of the ability, which will give the Earth Spirit team a chance to kill Pugna, by the way, this also works well with
Boulder Smash, which pushes the enemy and can annoy the distance
* Earth Spirit has excellent control with a small recharge on
Rolling Boulder and
Geomagnetic Grip, which can knock down Pugna`s
Life Drain, as well as completely turn him off in a fight, because he is very dependent on his abilities
* Magic damage from Earth Spirit's abilities can be disastrous for
Decrepify, as it will kill him very quickly, and if Earth Spirit collects
Ethereal Blade in such a game, it can easily destroy Pugna in one
Rolling Boulder hit
* Earth Spirit also turns out to be a strong decision against
Nether Ward, because he experiences it with his large amount of health, and if he collects
Heart of Tarrasque(and
Bracerin early game)in such a game, he may not feel it at all and calmly control Pugna with his abilities
Additional:
* Earth Spirit does not fly a small distance on
Rolling Boulder using
Stone Remnant, which will be a big problem for
Life Drain, since Pugna will stop receiving health from breaking the distance of the ability, which will give the Earth Spirit team a chance to kill Pugna, by the way, this also works well with
Boulder Smash, which pushes the enemy and can annoy the distance
* Earth Spirit has excellent control with a small recharge on
Rolling Boulder and
Geomagnetic Grip, which can knock down Pugna`s
Life Drain, as well as completely turn him off in a fight, because he is very dependent on his abilities
* Magic damage from Earth Spirit's abilities can be disastrous for
Decrepify, as it will kill him very quickly, and if Earth Spirit collects
Ethereal Blade in such a game, it can easily destroy Pugna in one
Rolling Boulder hit
* Earth Spirit also turns out to be a strong decision against
Nether Ward, because he experiences it with his large amount of health, and if he collects
Heart of Tarrasque(and
Bracerin early game)in such a game, he may not feel it at all and calmly control Pugna with his abilities
* 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.
Additional:
*
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.
*
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.
* 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 with abilities that can close the gap can easily kill Muerta:
Storm Spirit,
Earth Spirit,
Ember Spirit,
Void Spirit,
Lycan,
Chaos Knight,
Tusk.
*
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.
*
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'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.
* Rage protects Lifestealer from all of Dark Willow's abilities.
Additional:
*
Rage protects and dispels all of Dark Willow's abilities.
*
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.
* 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.
*
Feast will deal a enormous amount of damage because of Tiny's huge health pool.
*
Rage protects Lifestealer from Tiny's magical burst damage.
* Heroes with built-in spell immunity can become immune to all of Outworld Destroyer's spells:
Lifestealer's
Rage and
Juggernaut's
Blade Fury.
* 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 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.
* Positioning-reliant heroes (
Windranger,
Tidehunter,
Ursa...), since Earth Spirit can disrupt positioning with his Boulder Smash.
* Heroes with spell immunity abilities won't be caught inside by Pit of Malice:
Juggernaut,
Lifestealer.
* 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.
*
Black Hole is a channeling ability and Earth Spirit has at least two possibilities which can interrupt these kind of spells. Enigma is exposed and cannot move while using Black Hole, thus making it easy for Earth Spirit to stop the feared ability with the huge range of Rolling Boulder and forcing Enigma to quickly rush a
Black King Bar to prevent this.
* Enigma is level dependant, squishy and relativly defenseless in the early game and therefore vulnerable to aggressive roam maneuvers in this stage of the game. Earth Spirit excels at ganking, shutting down a jungling or otherwise solo farming Enigma.
*
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 with burst damage of their own won't be afraid to go toe to toe with Void Spirit, like
Ursa,
Lifestealer, or
Axe.
* 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 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 good escape mechanisms are a nuisance to deal with in the early phase of the game:
Slark,
Lifestealer,
Morphling
* 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.
*
Rolling Boulder and
Geomagnetic Grip prevent Terrorblade from using
Sunder.
*
Magnetize Does heavy magic damage to Terrorblade and his illusions that bypasses his high base armor.
* In general, highly mobile heroes like
Earth Spirit or
Storm Spirit are at a disadvantage against X Marks the Spot.
* Similarly, heroes with low cooldown teleports can be afraid to split push against X Marks the Spot, such as
Tinker and
Nature's Prophet.
*
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.
* 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.
* Positioning-reliant heroes (
Windranger,
Tidehunter,
Ursa...), since Earth Spirit can disrupt positioning with his Boulder Smash.
* 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
* Because Templar Assassin does not have escape potential in lane, any support hero with roaming potential and a
Dust of Appearance can be great at shutting her down early game:
Earth Spirit,
Spirit Breaker,
Tusk,
Bounty Hunter,
Riki,
Warlock.
Additional:
* Templar Assassin is dependant on
Refraction in teamfights. Because Magnetize deals damage per second and Earth Spirit is even able to refresh the duration of his ultimate he is suitable for wasting Refraction and allowing his team to take her down.
* 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.
* Clockwerk's
Battery Assault disables Earth Spirit's Rolling Boulder, while his
Power Cogs ensure, that Earth Spirit can't move away from it.
* His
Hookshot allows him to chase after Earth Spirit, while using
Rocket Flare to gain vision.
* 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.
* Heroes with high physical damage can damage Lifestealer more than he can heal:
Bristleback,
Clinkz,
Luna,
Shadow Fiend,
Slardar,
Terrorblade
* Heroes that can gank Shadow Fiend in the early game:
Earth Spirit,
Nyx Assassin,
Riki,
Spirit Breaker.
* Chronosphere provides excellent lockdown against
Rage.
* Faceless Void's Time Lock stops Lifestealer from getting health regeneration from auto-attacks
*
Rolling Boulder and
Geomagnetic Grip disable Faceless Void so he cannot escape with Time Walk.
*
Rolling Boulder will allow Earth Spirit to get on top of Faceless Void at all stages of the game.
* Static Link cannot be dispelled by
Rage or
Infest, so Razor will be able to track Lifestealer down during an attempted escape.
* Storm Surge makes it hard for Lifestealer to catch Razor.
* Static Link can stop
Open Wounds from getting any additional lifesteal, but keep in mind Lifestealer can still utilize
Feast.
* Eye of the Storm penetrates the spell immunity of
Rage.
Additional:
* 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.
*
Boulder Smash's and
Geomagnetic Grip's (upgraded with
Aghanim's Scepter) repositioning and disables make it very difficult for Razor to keep enemies within range of Static Link and Eye of the Storm.
* 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.
* Puck can forbid the opportunity to avoid trouble for Earth Spirit on his own
Rolling Boulder, using
Dream Coil and
Waning Rift.
Additional:
* Puck can forbid the opportunity to avoid trouble for Earth Spirit on his own
Rolling Boulder, using abilities:
Dream Coil,
Waning Rift
* 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.
* Earth Spirit eliminates the possibility of Puck to hide with Phase Shift and avoid an attack by
Geomagnetic Grip with its AoE silence, which is why it can help the team kill it.
* Puck can't throw off the effects of
Magnetize with any of its abilities, making it constantly receive damage if Earth Spirit extends this ability with his
Stone Remnant.
Additional:
* Earth Spirit Eliminates the possibility of the Puck to hide in
Phase Shift and avoid an attack by
Geomagnetic Grip with its AOE-silence, which is why it can help the team kill him
* Puck can't throw off the effect of
Magnetize any of his abilities, which is why he will constantly receive damage if Earth Spirit extends this ability with his
Stone Remnant
* 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.
*
Geomagnetic Grip is not blocked by
Linken's Sphere and can silence Morphling, preventing Morphling from using Waveform or Attribute Shift to escape from ganks.
* In addition,
Boulder Smash and
Rolling Boulder provide a solid lockdown if used together.
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Lifestealer
* 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.
Shukuchi.
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.
Open Wounds's slow is ignored by Shukuchi.
* Lifestealer has no strong disables on his own and thus cannot catch up with nor escape from Weaver's
* Lifestealer's reliance on meticulous auto-attacks will not help against
Additional:
*
* Lifestealer has no other lockdown and relies on being on top of enemies; Weaver can kite him with ease.
Earth Spirit
* Heroes who can dodge Earth Spirit's abilities:
Ember Spirit,
Puck,
Weaver