* 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.
* Phase Shift can easily disjoint Phantom Embrace and waste half of the Soulbind's duration.
* Puck is very mobile hero who can jump backsides and burst Grimstroke before he can cast anything.
* Backline supports (Lion,
Crystal Maiden) can keep Puck pinned long enough for a kill.
* Lion has an incredibly fragile health pool, making him weak against nukers like
Tinker or
Oracle.
* Heroes with powerful spammable abilities will prove problematic for Grimstroke as Ink Swell does not protect him from them: Zeus,
Skywrath Mage,
Tinker,
Lina
* 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.
* 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.
* Rage provides debuff immunity and increased magic resistance, thus drastically reducing magical damage and preventing most of disables (in
Lion's case, all are fully blocked) making it nearly impossible to defend against or to punish a raging
Lifestealer.
* Lack of inner escape and defensive mechanisms increases Ghoul Frenzy effectiveness, since it applies slows upon auto attacking.
* Lifestealer damage output is too powerful against
Lion's low health and base armor
* Stampede can allow Soulbinded heroes to just ran away.
* Nether Swap breaks one ally out of Soulbind, and can be used to redistribute the shared damage to Vengeful Spirit herself.
* 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.
* 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.
* Heroes that deal few, powerful instances of damage, like Oracle,
Lion, or
Sven, have a hard time breaking through Gravekeeper's Cloak.
* 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 powerful spammable abilities will prove problematic for Grimstroke as Ink Swell does not protect him from them: Zeus,
Skywrath Mage,
Tinker,
Lina
* Heroes with low health: Lich,
Crystal Maiden,
Lion.
* 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.
* 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 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.
* 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 powerful spammable abilities will prove problematic for Grimstroke as Ink Swell does not protect him from them: Zeus,
Skywrath Mage,
Tinker,
Lina
* Fragile supports with low armor are always a good prey, also her Psionic Trap will wear down most attempts to flee with their built-in disables: Silencer,
Crystal Maiden,
Warlock,
Ancient Apparition,
Grimstroke,
Witch Doctor
* 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.
* 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.
* Timbersaw relies heavily on his abilities so Phantom's Embrace's silence makes it more difficult for him.
* Timbersaw cannot use Return Chakram or attack the phantom during Phantom's Embrace, forcing him to take full damage and refreshes Phantom's Embrace's cooldown.
* 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.
* Phantom's Embrace and Soulbind prevent Weaver from using Shukuchi or
Time Lapse to escape.
* Ink Swell discourages Weaver from moving through and damaging allies with Shukuchi.
* Mana Drain depletes Nercophos's mana pool, preventing him from using his abilities.
* Finger of Death deals high magical damage, which becomes amplified by Ghost Shroud.
* Ghost Shroud amplifies damage taken from all of Grimstroke's abilities. Necrophos is particularly vulnerable to Ink Swell and Phantom's Embrace while in Ghost Shroud.
* Death Pulse works against Necrophos in lane by keeping his creeps alive and add damage to Stroke of Fate.
* 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.
* Phantom's Embrace can silence Crystal Maiden and disrupt Freezing Field's channeling. Her slow movement speed and fragile nature will also make her an easy target for Stroke of Fate and Ink Swell.
* 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.
* Heroes who rely heavily on melee attacks and lack early spell immunity are easily blocked and interrupted by Ink Swell: Lycan,
Ursa,
Troll Warlord.
* 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.
* Phantom's Embrace silences Viscous Nasal Goo and Quill Spray.
* Ink Swell stuns Bristleback and gets allies in position faster with increased movement speed to attack his front, countering his passive ability.
* 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.
* Soulbind pierces spell immunity and prevents Faceless Void from escaping with Time Walk.
* 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.
* Soulbind prevents Primal Beast from being able to use Onslaught or his abilities to great effect for a lengthy amount of time.
* Phantom's Embrace is very difficult for Primal Beast to remove due to his slow attack speed and Trample preventing him from attacking.
* 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.
* Stroke of Fate clears Phantom Lancer's illusion easily as it deals bonus damage to more targets.
* Ink Swell can be used on an allied hero or Grimstoke himself to stun Phantom Lancer and his illusions.
* Soulbind has an undispellable debuff that can be used to mark the real Phantom Lancer. It also prevents him from using Doppelganger.
Additional:
* Stroke of Fate's damage increases the more units are hit by it, making it effective against Phantom Lancer's army of illusions.
* Phantom's Embrace and Ink Swell's stun can prevent Phantom Lancer from escaping with Doppelganger if properly timed.
* If he has already used Doppelganger, Soulbind can tie Phantom Lancer to one of his own illusions to keep him in place, or to ensure a kill if Grimstroke's team is unsure which one is the real hero.
* 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 who can summon illusions and summons because Terrorblade has no abilities to deal with multiple enemies at once outside Reflection: Shadow Shaman,
Naga Siren,
Broodmother,
Lycan,
Enigma,
Chaos Knight,
Phantom Lancer,
Shadow Demon,
Dark Seer,
Nature's Prophet,
Invoker,
Morphling,
Visage,
Grimstroke with
Aghanim's Scepter.
Additional:
* Terrorblade's lack of escape mechanisms makes it hard for him to escape both Ink Swell and Stroke of Fate.
* Phantom's Embrace's silence will also prevent him from casting Sunder to save himself.
* 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.
* Heroes with powerful channeling abilities are easily interrupted by Phantom's Embrace: Bane,
Pudge,
Witch Doctor,
Crystal Maiden,
Enigma.
* 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.
* Windranger heavily relies on her abilities for any form of tactical advantage and damage. A well timed silence will make her useless: Puck,
Silencer,
Death Prophet,
Skywrath Mage,
Drow Ranger,
Earth Spirit,
Grimstroke.
* 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).
* Heroes who are reliant on illusions or summons: Chaos Knight,
Broodmother,
Naga Siren.
* 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.
* Soulbind ignores spell immunity, forcing Pangolier to roll in place during his ultimate as well as anchoring the other victim to his vicinity.
* Despite her high mobility, Hex or
Earth Spike can lock
Phantom Assassin down, make her vulnerable and mitigate her damage output.
* Although she has high evasion through Blur,
Phantom Assassin has a rather low health pool, making her weak to
Lion's magical burst.
* 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.
* In addition to easily breaking her commonly bought Linken's Sphere with its low cooldown,
Mana Drain can quickly drain her
Mana Shield, making her far less tanky.
* Mana Drain, along with
Hex, destroy illusions instantly, which may be extremely helpfull and efficient against core builders of
Manta Style, like
Medusa herself.
* 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.
* 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.
* Stroke of Fate deals more damage when it hits more targets which makes it very effective in dealing with Lycan and his units.
* Soulbind prevents Lycan from running away and makes him very easy to deal with.
* 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.
* Heroes with mobility spells can quickly escape from Stroke of Fate or break out of Soulbind: Anti-Mage,
Queen of Pain,
Morphling,
Storm Spirit
* 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.
* A combination of Soulbind and
Phantom's Embrace can prevent Anti-Mage from casting spells.
* If Grimstroke has Aghanim's Scepter,
Dark Portrait can reflect Anti-Mage's Mana Break, making it useful in team fights.
* 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.
* Grimstroke can catch Io and his ally easily with Soulbind as Io has a tendency to tether himself with an ally frequently.
* Io is highly vulnerable to disables. Hence, Grimstroke's Phantom's Embrace is a great ability to hinder Io's potential.
Additional:
* Soulbind can target both Io and its Tethered ally, allowing Grimstroke and his team to target both with single target spells. Should Io try to
Relocate, Phantom's Embrace can stop its channel to prevent escape.
* 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.
* 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.
* If Meepo ganks Lion with Poof and Earthbind, he will be an easy target for Earth Spike & AoE
Hex from his level 25 talent.
* Grimstroke's Soulbind will always reliably connect onto both of them if they are close together.
* 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 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.
* Sven is very vulnerable to chain stun such as Lion,
Shadow Shaman or
Magnus.
* Due to her slow movement speed,heroes with crowd control and slows can shut down Dawnbreaker:Lion,
Crystal Maiden ,
Venomancer etc.
* Heroes with powerful channeling abilities are easily interrupted by Phantom's Embrace: Bane,
Pudge,
Witch Doctor,
Crystal Maiden,
Enigma.
* Finger of Death can instantly shred many targets, especially fragile Heroes like
Keeper of the Light,
Ancient Apparition or
Bounty Hunter.
* 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, great against any of
Lion's disables.
* Lion's low health pool and low armor make him extremely vulnerable to
Slark's high 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
* Phantom's Embrace cannot be dispelled by Slark's
Dark Pact, and will cause him to suffer damage if he doesn't kill Phantom fast enough.
* Soulbind also cannot be dispelled by Slark's
Dark Pact, and will cause Slark to suffer from a single-targeted ability used on his ally that is also affected by it.
* Heroes with high burst damage: Lina,
Lion,
Luna,
Nyx Assassin,
Queen of Pain.
* 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.
* Ranged heroes that can easily harass Axe: Drow Ranger,
Sniper,
Lion.
* Heroes that can drain mana negatively affect Viper's ability to use Poison Attack, Nethertoxin and Viper Strike: Lion,
Anti-Mage
* Heroes with high magical burst damage will kill Gyrocopter before he gets to do much: Lina,
Lion,
Zeus
* 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 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 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.
* 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.
* Finger of Death can instantly shred many targets, especially fragile Heroes like
Keeper of the Light,
Ancient Apparition or
Bounty Hunter.
* Heroes with powerful channeling abilities are easily interrupted by Phantom's Embrace: Bane,
Pudge,
Witch Doctor,
Crystal Maiden,
Enigma.
* Heroes who rely heavily on melee attacks and lack early spell immunity are easily blocked and interrupted by Ink Swell: Lycan,
Ursa,
Troll Warlord.
* Heroes with area of effect abilities that increase in power based on the number of units struck: Earthshaker,
Legion Commander,
Grimstroke.
Additional:
* Stroke of Fate can deal heavy damage to Broodmother and her spiders, and with enough spiders it can kill her instantly.
* Phantom's Embrace provides vision on Broodmother when she's fleeing into the trees.
* Heroes with powerful channeling abilities are easily interrupted by Phantom's Embrace: Bane,
Pudge,
Witch Doctor,
Crystal Maiden,
Enigma.
* Heroes with high magical burst can easily kill Huskar when he is at low health: Lion,
Lina,
Skywrath Mage
* Heroes who are reliant on illusions or summons: Chaos Knight,
Broodmother,
Naga Siren.
* 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.
* Squishy heroes, usually supports, like Lion,
Ancient Apparition,
Keeper of the Light etc can die quickly to Tiny's magic burst.
* Lion can continuously Mana Drain Tiny in the early game, depleting his small mana pool for his abilities.
* Heroes with mobility spells can quickly escape from Stroke of Fate or break out of Soulbind: Anti-Mage,
Queen of Pain,
Morphling,
Storm Spirit
* 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.
* Heroes with mobility spells can quickly escape from Stroke of Fate or break out of Soulbind: Anti-Mage,
Queen of Pain,
Morphling,
Storm Spirit
* Heroes with mana burn: Nyx Assassin,
Invoker,
Outworld Destroyer,
Pugna,
Lion
* Sniper's position in the far back line makes him unlikely to be hit by any of Grimstroke's abilities during teamfights.
* Sniper is relatively unaffected by the silence from Phantom's Embrace.
* Sniper's long range and fast projectile speed allows him quickly to destroy any Phantoms attacking his allies.
* 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.
* Disruption instantly removes Phantom Embrace, and can potentially save allies affected by Soulbind.
* Demonic Purge dispels Ink Swell.
* 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.
* 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.
* 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
* Heroes with mobility spells can quickly escape from Stroke of Fate or break out of Soulbind: Anti-Mage,
Queen of Pain,
Morphling,
Storm Spirit
* 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.
* Heroes with powerful spammable abilities will prove problematic for Grimstroke as Ink Swell does not protect him from them: Zeus,
Skywrath Mage,
Tinker,
Lina
* 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.
* 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.
* Hard-hitters who relies mostly on raw stats or good passive and therefore make a perfect target for Dark Portrait:
Naga Siren,
Faceless Void,
Terrorblade,
Luna,
Anti-Mage
* 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 disables, like Lion,
Night Stalker, or
Legion Commander, can prevent Oracle from using spells or items.
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
* 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.
Earth Spike is a great crowd control ability for Rubick to use, extending his lockdown potential.
Arcane Supremacy.
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.
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.
Finger of Death is lost when Rubick lost the spell.
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.
*
*
Additional:
*
* Rubick can caught enemy at greater distance due to
* The spell also helps with Rubick's farming, however the affected area of
*
* Though
*
* Note that the stack of
* With
Grimstroke
*
Stroke of Fate provides Rubick with a short cooldown nuke.
Phantom's Embrace is an unique ability with extra silence and damage.
Ink Swell is a great initiation/counter-initiation ability for frontliners.
Telekinesis, Rubick can grant extra duration for
Phantom's Embrace's phantom latch, or throw an enemy within the area covered by
Ink Swell.
Soulbind, as a powerful ultimate, gives Rubick extra crowd control and sows chaos among enemies.
Telekinesis and
Fade Bolt are single-target abilities, and can be applied twice on the enemy. The damage of
Fade Bolt is effectively doubled as the bounce is very likely to happen as the bound heroes must walk together.
* Note that Rubick uses a fixed 0.15 second cast time for the skill, much shorter than the 0.6 second cast time for Grimstroke.
*
*
* With
*
* Both