* Heroes who have most or all their abilities (damage or disable) unable to pierce spell immunity: Keeper of the Light, Lina, Lion, Zeus.
Additional:
* Rage makes Lifestealer debuff immune and gives him magic resistance which can drastically reduce magical damage from Lion's abilities while also preventing Lion to do anything to him.
* Lion's lack of inner escape and defensive mechanisms increases Ghoul Frenzy effectiveness, since it applies slows upon attacking.
* Lifestealer's physical damage output is strong against Lion's low health and base armor
* Infest can be used to surprise unsuspecting Lion if he tries to take down alone enemy hero. Aghanim's Scepter upgraded Infest can be used to disarm Lion and attack him from inside, even if Lion is debuff immune with the Aghanim's Shard upgraded Mana Drain.
* Rage protects and dispels all of Dark Willow's abilities.
Additional:
* Rage protects Lifestealer from all of Dark Willow's abilities.
* Lion is extremely dependent on his abilities. Silences like Silencer's Last Word, magic resistance like Oracle's Fate's Edict, and dispels like Legion Commander's Press the Attack all make his abilities less effective.
* Last Word and Arcane Curse have the range to hit Dark Willow beyond Bramble Maze.
* Global Silence renders Dark Willow useless in teamfights.
* Waning Rift silences and damages enemies affected by the ability, diminishing Lion's punishing powers.
* High burst damage potential plus mobility and disable through Illusory Orb, Waning Rift, and Dream Coil allows Puck to effortlessly chase, lock and/or kill Lion, as the Demon Witch lacks proper ways to avoid so.
* Phase Shift allows Puck to dodge Earth Spike, Finger of Death and breaks Mana Drain's link.
* 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.
* Backline supports (Lion,Crystal Maiden) can keep Puck pinned long enough for a kill.
* A well-timed Counterspell reflects all targeted abilities back at Lion, potentially stunning or hexing him or even making himself burst down.
* 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.
* Heroes with abilities or items that can silence or disable Anti-Mage for long periods of time will prevent him from Blinking away: Lion, Silencer, Shadow Shaman, Grimstroke, Witch Doctor, Riki, Faceless Void, Skywrath Mage, Puck.
* Lion is extremely dependent on his abilities. Silences like Silencer's Last Word, magic resistance like Oracle's Fate's Edict, and dispels like Legion Commander's Press the Attack all make his abilities less effective.
* 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.
Additional:
* 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.
* Heroes with long disables, like Lion, Night Stalker, or Legion Commander, can prevent Oracle from using spells or items.
* 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.
Additional:
* 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).
* 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.
* 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.
* Just like Rubick, the Disruptor may effortlessly put Lion in life threatning danger and render him helpless by manipulating his position with Glimpse.
* Disruptor's longer cast range and lingering disable makes Lion struggle to defend himself, possibly being affected by Disruptor's abilities without even seeing the thrall.
* Tidehunter is a core builder of Pipe of Insight. Along with natural high health pool, it's tough to burst the Leviathan down.
* Kraken Shell thwarts long disables attempts if Tidehunter receives enough damage.
* Gush and Ravage long cast and reach ranges will effortlessly hit Lion, either bursting him down or making him extremely vulnerable and worn in matter of seconds.
* Rot and Meat Hook hits Dark Willow even when she uses Shadow Realm.
* Flesh Heap reduces Dark Willow's magic burst damage.
* 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.
* All of Lion's abilities are dangerous even to Lion himself, and Rubick may steal them with Spell Steal.
* Arcane Supremacy powers up abilities cast range and damage, making Rubick better at using Lion's abilities than Lion himself.
* Telekinesis can easily catch and disable Lion while also manipulating his position to favor Rubick and allies, rendering him helpless.
Additional:
* Earth Spike is a great crowd control ability for Rubick to use, extending his lockdown potential.
* Rubick can caught enemy at greater distance due to Arcane Supremacy.
* The spell also helps with Rubick's farming, however the affected area of Earth Spike is limited to a straight line, making it harder to clear the creep wave.
* Hex is one of the strongest single-target lockdowns in the game, and works exactly the same when casted by Rubick.
* Though Mana Drain does not directly provide damage or lockdown, it does solve Rubick's mana regen issue in the early to mid game.
* Finger of Death is one of the best magical nukes in the game, increases Rubick's ganking potential greatly.
* Note that the stack of Finger of Death is lost when Rubick lost the spell.
* With Aghanim's Scepter, Rubick can clear creep waves and flash farm with the boosted Finger of Death if stolen, assuming Rubick has enough mana pool to hold.
* Hex and Earth Spike do not cancel Sharpshooter, making those two abilities ineffective against her.
* Although Hoodwink should be wary of his Finger of death, as it can possibly kill her.
* Both Lion's Finger of Death and Lina's Laguna Blade have a 0.25 second delay before the damage is dealt.
Additional:
* Aphotic Shield applies strong dispel on targeted allies, while Borrowed Time does the same on Abaddon himself upon both casts (manually or automatically), removing disables, such as Earth Spike and Hex.
* Abaddon may offer survivability to Lion's nuke power by shielding and healing allies and himself.
* Lack of inner escape and defensive mechanisms increases Curse of Avernus effectiveness, since it slows per stack (applied upon auto attacking), and silences when it reaches the maximum stack.
* Heroes that deal few, powerful instances of damage, like Oracle, Lion, or Sven, have a hard time breaking through Gravekeeper's Cloak.
* Heroes with low health: Lich, Crystal Maiden, Lion.
* Luna can easily cancel channeling spells with Lucent Beam and 0.25s Eclipse Lucent Ministun talent for Eclipse, she can also buy Abyssal Blade in case they decide to buy Black King Bar: Enigma's Black Hole, Witch Doctor's Death Ward, Shadow Shaman's Shackles, Lion's Mana Drain, Bane's Fiend's Grip, Pudge's Dismember, Crystal Maiden's Freezing Field, Pugna's Life Drain, Dawnbreaker's Solar Guardian, and Naga Siren's Reel In from Aghanim's Scepter.
* Lion has an incredibly fragile health pool, making him weak against nukers like Tinker or Oracle.
* 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.
* Lion lacks mobility or escape mechanisms, making him an easy target for abilities like Mirana's Sacred Arrow or Leshrac's Split Earth, or combos like Kunkka's X Marks the Spot into Torrent.
* Nether Ward will be problematic for heavy nukers and spammers like Skywrath Mage, Lina, Lion and Invoker, but Pugna must not use Decrepify defensively against them as he will be helping them out more than anything.
* Lion lacks mobility or escape mechanisms, making him an easy target for abilities like Mirana's Sacred Arrow or Leshrac's Split Earth, or combos like Kunkka's X Marks the Spot into Torrent.
* Batrider often hides in the trees to initiate on a target. As such, he has a slight edge against heroes that have no scouting tools and cannot see him coming, such as Lion or Sven.
* Berserker's Call forces Dark Willow to attack, cancelling Shadow Realm.
* Ranged heroes that can easily harass Axe: Drow Ranger, Sniper, Lion.
* Ball Lightning allows Storm Spirit to bypass Bramble Maze into the backline, and zip back into battle if he gets hit by Terrorize.
* Heroes with mana burn: Nyx Assassin, Invoker, Outworld Destroyer, Pugna, Lion
* 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.
* Skywrath's pitiful defences also make him easy meat to heroes with high burst like Juggernaut, Lion, or Phantom Assassin, the latter occasionally downing a support Skywrath in a single Stifling Dagger.
* Lion's lack of escapes gives Slark easier time to catch him through Pounce.
* Shadow Dance gives Slark the advantage of being untargetable, nullifying single target abilities (such as non-upgraded Hex, Mana Drain and Finger of Death).
* Dark Pact applies multiple instances of strong dispel on Slark, which is strong against any of Lion's disables.
* Lion's low health pool and low armor make him extremely vulnerable to Slark's damage output.
* Heroes with heavy magical nukes will take advantage of Slark's poor HP or force him to use Shadow Dance early: Lina, Lion, Zeus
* 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.
* Lion's Mana Drain is a headache for Bristleback to deal with during the laning stage, as it denies him the ability to get last hits with Quill Spray.
* Hex greatly reduces Timbersaw's mobility.
* In addition, Lion can follow up with his Earth Spike and Mana Drain combo, preventing Timbersaw to escape with Timber Chain. And he can finish Timbersaw off with Finger of Death if the latter's HP is low enough.
* 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.
* If Meepo ganks Lion with Poof and Earthbind, he will be an easy target for Earth Spike & AoE Hex from his level 25 talent.
* 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.
* Since Windranger is bad against magical damage, heroes with continuous magical damage or magical nukes can blast her: Zeus, Tinker, Leshrac, Viper, Skywrath Mage, Lion, Lina, Venomancer.
* 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.
Additional:
* 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.
* Long range disables are really effective against dangerous area controllers and channeling Heroes, like Enigma, Faceless Void or Crystal Maiden, as it may cancel them or prevent enemies from doing further damage while keeping Lion in a relatively safe distance in the warzone.
* Terrorize forces Faceless Void out of Chronosphere.
* Heroes that can keep Marci for a long time in one place so she can't pursue her targets, like Bane, Lion, Shadow Shaman, Invoker, Disruptor and Kunkka.
* 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.
* Mana Drain has an fair long range and low cooldown. It can easily deplete most heroes of their entire mana pools, especially those with smaller mana pools such as Tiny or Spirit Breaker.
* 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.
* Like above, supports with reliable stuns can be a massive problem and force Black King Bar in fights unideally, such as Shadow Shaman, Lion, Nyx Assassin.
* Primal Beast really suffers against supports he cannot bully in the lane: this includes Dazzle, Shadow Demon and Dark Willow since they can use their respective abilities to stop Primal Beast from dealing burst damage, or make it hard for him to stay in range.
* Terrorize forces Monkey King out of Wukong's Command.
* 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.
* 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.
* Mana Drain rapidly saps Morphling's already low mana pool, making him unable to use Waveform or Adaptive Strike. Additionally, Hex prevents these abilities as well.
* An Earth Spike and Finger of Death combo can burst an unwary Morphling down if he has his strength fully shifted to agility.
* Sniper lacks any protection against Lion's disables early in the game.
* Lion's Earth Spike and Finger of Death may roughly hit Sniper at the latter increased attack range, making it possible to gank and to disable him from afar in clashes.
* Finger of Death is incredibly dangerous for Sniper as it may shred him away from fights, or in the worst scenario, cause his death.
* Weaver's exceptional ability to elude and survive through clashes and ganks is hard countered by Lion in every aspect.
* Weaver is very mana dependent and has a rather small mana pool in the beginning of the game, of which Mana Drain can deplete and lessen his early game presence.
* Earth Spike followed by Finger of Death in the huge majority of the time is enough to kill Weaver.
* Earth Spike can be point targeted to hit through Shukuchi.
* Hex's has a fair long duration, by which Weaver will not be able to deal damage, or even survive a coordinated attack, and it is single target, of which cannot be dodged.
* Mana Drain easily breaks Linken's Sphere. Its low cooldown allows Lion to infinitely break it whenever it recharges.
* Earth Spike and Hex when paired for the longer lengths of disables may diminish Time Lapse efficiency, possibly causing Weaver to not undo as much damage as he would.
* Hex and Mana Drain can be used to immediately destroy Spectre's illusion when she Haunts. A fast fingered Lion can protect himself and a teammate.
* Hex and Earth Spike are good lockdown spells to control and kill Spectre, especially if she doesn't buy defensive items like Linken's Sphere and Black King Bar.
* Finger of Death can be used to burst down Spectre when she is low on life as she has very poor magic resistance.
* Mana Drain depletes Necrophos's mana pool, preventing him from using his abilities.
* Finger of Death deals high magical damage, which becomes amplified by Ghost Shroud.
* Hex and Earth Spike can hold Clinkz down, giving him no chance to use Black King Bar or Skeleton Walk.
* Finger of Death quickly kills Clinkz due to his low health.
* Lion has two low cast point disables (Hex and Earth Spike) to control Ursa before he buys a Black King Bar.
* Hex is one of the few abilities that cannot be dispelled even with an Aghanim's Scepter upgraded Enrage.
* Lion can control Ursa's low mana pool via Mana Drain.
* 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.
* All of Lion's abilities are active making Demonic Purge break from Aghanim's Scepter useless.
* Hex and Mana Drain can make quick work of whatever illusions you're creating, especially when he acquires his Talents at level 20 and 25.
* An attempt to save an ally using Disruption can easily become a perfect setup for a Earth Spike or Finger of Death with Aghanim's Scepter for the enemy.
* Hex's instant cast time will force Brewmaster into the awkward situation of needing some form of spell immunity or block to prevent being immediately hex upon blinking in, or wait until Lion has used all his crowd control before entering a fight. His direct magic burst also makes Brewmaster's Drunken Brawler worthless versus Lion.
* Lion's instant cast point shuts down his initiation and buys time for his allies to catch up.
* Void Spirit has to be cautious when fighting, as he has no protection against Finger of Death. If caught out in a stun, the high magic damage could end him quickly.
* Medusa lacks mobility or escape mechanisms. Earth Spike and Hex can neutralize her strong damage potential and allow for Lion's team to focus her down.
* Mana Drain is a perfect ability to weaken Medusa's durability as it can quickly drain her Mana Shield, making her far less tanky. Mana Drain can also be used to restore mana of Lion's allies, which can nullify the mana steal from Mystic Snake.
* Mana Drain, along with Hex, destroy illusions instantly, which may be extremely helpfull and efficient against core builders of Manta Style, like Medusa herself.
* With a lot of disables with good range, he might cancel your Echo Stomp.
* Mana Drain can be used to drain Elder Titan's already low mana pool.
* Heroes with nukes: Bane, Lich, Lion, Skywrath Mage
Additional:
* Enchantress is very fragile without any form of magic resistance, allowing Lion to easily burst her down.
* Nature's Attendants is a slow heal, making not as much effective against Lion's burst as it could be.
* Her raw movement speed is a fair escape/mobility mechanism, which may allow her to avoid a blindly cast Earth Spike, but does nothing against the rest of Lion's abilities, since they are single target and can't miss.
* Since Lion's damage comes mostly from his skills, Untouchable does nothing to mitigate it.
* Heroes with channeling spells, for Chen has no disables on his own, hates buying disabling items and his creeps are often not fast enough to cancel them: Enigma's Black Hole, Witch Doctor's Death Ward, Shadow Shaman's Shackles, Lion's Mana Drain, Bane's Fiend's Grip, Pudge's Dismember, Crystal Maiden's Freezing Field, Pugna's Life Drain, Dawnbreaker's Solar Guardian, and Naga Siren's Reel In from Aghanim's Scepter.
* 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.
* Lion may upgrade Mana Drain, Hex and Finger of Death through Talent Tree and Aghanim's itens to make them affect secondary targets or turn them into AoE abilities. This can make things difficult for heroes like Phantom Lancer, Naga Siren and Terrorblade, who rely on illusion armies.
* Lion may upgrade Mana Drain, Hex and Finger of Death through Talent Tree and Aghanim's itens to make them affect secondary targets or turn them into AoE abilities. This can make things difficult for heroes like Phantom Lancer, Naga Siren and Terrorblade, who rely on illusion armies.
Additional:
* Both Hex and Mana Drain destroy Naga Siren's illusions in an instant, making it hard for her to teamfight or push against a team with Lion. If Lion chooses the AoE effect talent for Hex or the shard for multi-target Mana Drain, it can negate her pushing potential entirely.
* Earth Spike is an AoE disable with good damage. If used well, it can help distinguish the true Naga Siren by the damage they take (illusions take more damage).
* Lion may upgrade Mana Drain, Hex and Finger of Death through Talent Tree and Aghanim's itens to make them affect secondary targets or turn them into AoE abilities. This can make things difficult for heroes like Phantom Lancer, Naga Siren and Terrorblade, who rely on illusion armies.
* Heroes with high burst damage through their physical attacks or spells can kill Dazzle or his allies before he has a chance to use Shallow Grave. (Lina, Lion, etc.)
* Heroes with high magical burst damage will kill Gyrocopter before he gets to do much: Lina, Lion, Zeus
* Heroes with high magical or pure damage will bypass Bulwark: Timbersaw, Dark Willow, Enigma, Invoker, Pugna, Skywrath Mage, Tinker, Zeus, Oracle.
* Long range disables are really effective against dangerous area controllers and channeling Heroes, like Enigma, Faceless Void or Crystal Maiden, as it may cancel them or prevent enemies from doing further damage while keeping Lion in a relatively safe distance in the warzone.
* 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.
* Finger of Death can instantly shred many targets, especially fragile Heroes like Keeper of the Light, Ancient Apparition or Bounty Hunter.
* Heroes with high magical burst can easily kill Huskar when he is at low health: Lion, Lina, Skywrath Mage
* 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 that can drain mana negatively affect Viper's ability to use Poison Attack, Nethertoxin and Viper Strike: Lion, Anti-Mage
* Heroes with silence and mana drain abilites, as Ancient Apparition relies entirely on his abilities: Invoker, Silencer, Nyx Assassin, Skywrath Mage, Shadow Shaman, Lion and etc.
* 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.
* Due to her slow movement speed,heroes with crowd control and slows can shut down Dawnbreaker:Lion, Crystal Maiden ,Venomancer etc.
* Heroes with high burst damage: Lina, Lion, Luna, Nyx Assassin, Queen of Pain.
* Enigma is fragile, and lacks escapes, being dependent on Blink Dagger for mobility. Ganking Heroes or Heroes with burst damage will likely kill him before he can do anything. Such Heroes include: Lina, Lion, Luna, Puck, Slark, Nyx Assassin, etc.
* Hex abilities can cancel the channelling of Fiend's Grip : Lion, Shadow Shaman, Dazzle from Aghanim's Shard with upgraded Poison Touch.
* Heroes who can drain mana can make Omniknight useless after he uses one or two abilities: Lion, Anti-Mage, Nyx Assassin.
* Finger of Death can instantly shred many targets, especially fragile Heroes like Keeper of the Light, Ancient Apparition or Bounty Hunter.
* Heroes with high burst damage and Black King Bar can take down Dark Willow quickly: Phantom Assassin, Sven, Wraith King
* Despite her high mobility, Hex or Earth Spike can lock Phantom Assassin down, make her vulnerable and mitigate her damage output.
* Lion relies entirely on his abilities to be effective, rendering Phatnom Assassin's high evasion through ineffective against him. And Phantom Assassin's low health pool makes her vulnerable to Lion's magical burst without Black King Bar.
* Heroes with high burst damage and Black King Bar can take down Dark Willow quickly: Phantom Assassin, Sven, Wraith King
* Wraith King has a very low mana pool and is extremely dependant on it to cast his high mana cost abilities, so Mana Drain will make him struggle way too hard, even not being able to active his passive ability Reincarnation, forcing the Wraith King to buy Aghanim's Shard as soon as possible.
* Althought Wraith King may not be as fragile to struggle against Lion's damage, it's much easier to disable and harass him, as Wraith King doesn't have any mobility at all, his only gap closer being Wraithfire Blast which costs too much mana for his mana pool, and may only affect one target.
Additional:
* While not being able to confront Wraith King by himself, Lion's Mana Drain helps in draining Wraith King's mana, preventing him from reincarnating unless he has his Aghanim's Shard.
* Lion's Earth Spike and Hex provide decent lockdown against Wraith King as well, preventing the latter from benefiting from Vampiric Spirit bonuses.
* Lion lacks mobility or escape mechanisms, making him an easy target for abilities like Mirana's Sacred Arrow or Leshrac's Split Earth, or combos like Kunkka's X Marks the Spot into Torrent.
* Heroes with silences and hard stuns such as Doom, Silencer, and Lion can keep Mirana from Leaping away.
* Heroes with high burst damage and Black King Bar can take down Dark Willow quickly: Phantom Assassin, Sven, Wraith King
* Sven is very vulnerable to chain stun such as Lion, Shadow Shaman or Magnus.
* Flame Guard blocks Dark Willow's magical burst damage, and harms her if she tries to get close to attack with Bedlam.
* Sleight of Fist and Fire Remnant makes it hard for Dark Willow to fully disable Ember Spirit.
* 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.
* Squishy heroes, usually supports, like Lion, Ancient Apparition, Keeper of the Light etc can die quickly to Tiny's magic burst.
* Mana Drain has an fair long range and low cooldown. It can easily deplete most heroes of their entire mana pools, especially those with smaller mana pools such as Tiny or Spirit Breaker.
Additional:
* Lion can continuously Mana Drain Tiny in the early game, depleting his small mana pool for his abilities.
* Heroes who can silence will shut down Dark Willow entirely: Death Prophet, Silencer, Drow Ranger
* Heroes that can kill Death Prophet with nukes can prevent her from using Exorcism to its full duration or using it at all: Lina, Lion, Puck, Morphling.
* 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 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.
* Lion is extremely dependent on his abilities. Silences like Silencer's Last Word, magic resistance like Oracle's Fate's Edict, and dispels like Legion Commander's Press the Attack all make his abilities less effective.
* Heroes with long or multiple disables will prevent Legion Commander from winning Duels: Shadow Shaman, Lion
To start select enemy heroes in the field above. It's intended to be used with multiple heroes. The more enemy heroes you provide the better results you will get.
This website was made to help you in pick stage of online game Dota 2. It calculates rating for each possible counterpicks based on tips from web-based database made up entirely of user contributions Dota 2 wiki.
You will get the list of recommended hero counters with a list of tips written by Dota 2 wiki contributors explaining why it's good against the particular hero. In comparison to other similar websites, which show only rating based on average hero win rate from dotabuff or similar service.
Take it with a bit of grain of salt, especially if the recommendation has a low rating (<= 1), some heroes
may win a lane in an early game but would lose in late game (and vice versa). That's why sometimes
you could hero names appearing as a counter and as being countered, as on image:
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Lion
* Mana Drain can be easily canceled with Ice Path. However, Lion can counter this by buying his Aghanim's Shard though, that is no longer possible, but Jakiro can counter this too with Aghanim's Scepter upgraded Macropyre will deal pure damage through the debuff immunity forcing Lion to cancel it or die.
* Lion has very strong single target capabilities, but usually struggles against multiple heroes, while Jakiro has good multi-target capabilities, His abilities also have a much shorter cast range then Jakiro's, allowing Jakiro to cast his abilities before he can get off his Hex or Earth Spike.
* Jakiro can also save an ally who Lion is attempting to Finger of Death by casting Ice Path on Lion.
Dark Willow
* 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.