* Cold Embrace can protect allies from Lone Druid and the Spirit bear, who mainly deal physical damage
* Winter's Curse can turn Lone Druid and the Spirit Bear against his teammates.
* Cold Embrace can render the extra attack speed from
Overcharge meaningless.
* Splinter Blast and
Winter's Curse are very affective against Io, as it has to stay close to his
Tethered target.
* Grimstroke's Soulbind will always reliably connect onto both of them if they are close together.
* 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.
Additional:
* Grimstroke can catch Io and his Tethered ally easily with
Soulbind as Io has a tendency to
Tether himself with an ally frequently, which also makes them easier targets for
Soulbind.
* Io is highly vulnerable to disables. Hence, Grimstroke's Phantom's Embrace is a great ability to hinder Io's potential.
* Chain Frost can deliver high amounts of damage to Lone Druid itself and his bear if they do not separate fast from each other.
Additional:
* Chain Frost will bounce between Lone Druid and his bear, forcing them to separate or suffer high amounts of damage.
* Lich's Chain Frost forces Io to either give up providing buff to his ally with
Tether or suffer devastating damage with his
Tethered ally.
* Lich can easily use Sinister Gaze to disable Io from getting away with
Tether or
Relocate.
* Lone Druid and The Spirit Bear cannot burst down Bristleback due to Bristleback
* Bristleback can easily run to Lone Druid without any hesitation, with Viscous Nasal Goo to reduce armor and slow the Spirit Bear or Lone Druid and
Quill Spray can deal damage to both Lone Druid and the Spirit Bear at the same time
* Quill Spray is very effective against Io, as it has very low armor and has to stay close to the fight to not break its Tether.
* Unless Lone Druid purchases a Black King Bar for his Spirit Bear, Ensnare will easily kite the Spirit Bear.
* Song of the Siren allows Naga Siren and her team to completely bypass the Spirit Bear and hunt for the Lone Druid himself when starting a fight.
* Lone Druid's lack of innate AoE capabilities mean that Naga Siren's illusions have no problem against him.
* Ensnare and
Song of the Siren can be used to cancel both,
Tether and
Relocate and to close the distance on Io.
* Rip Tide combined with illusions from
Mirror Image often finish off Io before he can save himself with
Tether or
Relocate.
* Spirits's weak area-of-effect makes it a bad tool to deal with Naga Siren's illusions from
Mirror Image.
* Once Naga Siren buys Aghanim's Scepter, she can gain access to
Reel In, which not only allows her to cancel both,
Tether and
Relocate, but also to pull Io to herself and her team while he is affected with
Ensnare, similarly to Batrider's
Flaming Lasso.
* Aghanim's Shard upgraded
Song of the Siren can also heal the hero Io and his
Tethered targed try to gank.
Additional:
* Ensnare and
Song of the Siren can be used to cancel both, Tether and Relocate and to close the distance on Io.
* Rip Tide combined with illusions from
Mirror Image often finish off Io before he can save himself.
* Spirit's weak area-of-effect makes it a bad tool to deal with Naga Siren's illusions from Mirror Image.
* Once Naga Siren buys Aghanim's Scepter, she can gain access to
Reel In, which not only allows her to cancel both, Tether and Relocate, but also to pull Io to herself and her team while he is affected with
Ensnare, similarly to Batrider's
Flaming Lasso.
* Aghanim's Shard upgraded
Song of the Siren can also heal the hero Io and his tethered targed try to gank.
* Laser blinds Lone Druid, making his attacks miss.
* Heroes with either magical, physical or pure damage burst: Bane,
Ember Spirit,
Leshrac,
Lina,
Luna,
Nyx Assassin,
Phantom Assassin,
Skywrath Mage,
Tinker,
Ursa,
Void Spirit.
* Clinkz,
Sniper,
Lone Druid,
Troll Warlord,
Legion Commander and
Wraith King are some of the Heroes that base themselves on attacks with little or no spell power, so they suffer in the grassy hands of Overgrowth.
* Living Armor and
Leech Seed can be used to save a hero from a
Relocate gank.
* Overgrowth can be used to cancel escape attempts with
Relocate.
* Once Treant Protector buys Aghanim's Scepter, he will gain access to
Eyes in the Forest, that will allow him to enchant a tree which will grant him unobstructed vision in that location, allowing him to keep his allies alerted on Io and his
Tethered's attempts to gank them, and which can also allow
Overgrowth to damage them and root them if they are within a 800 radius of an tree affected by
Eyes in the Forest.
* Reality Rift lets Chaos Knight bypass the Spirit Bear and jump onto Lone Druid.
* The Spirit Bear's lack of scaling means it dies quickly to Chaos Knight during the late-game.
* Heroes with both illusions and summons, for Io has nothing to deal with multiple enemies at once outside from Spirits's weak area-of-effect: Beastmaster,
Broodmother,
Chaos Knight,
Lycan,
Naga Siren,
Nature's Prophet,
Phantom Lancer,
Shadow Shaman,
Terrorblade,
Visage,
Warlock,
Wraith King.
* Lone Druid and his Spirit Bear lack mobility, and are easy overwhelmed after being slowed by Diffusal Blade.
* Savage Roar is useless since Phantom Lancer can return to fight him again with his
Phantom Rush.
* Heroes with both illusions and summons, for Io has nothing to deal with multiple enemies at once outside from Spirits's weak area-of-effect: Beastmaster,
Broodmother,
Chaos Knight,
Lycan,
Naga Siren,
Nature's Prophet,
Phantom Lancer,
Shadow Shaman,
Terrorblade,
Visage,
Warlock,
Wraith King.
* Riki:
Smoke Screen can prevent Lone Druid from using True Form and Savage Roar, additionally it cause the spirit bear to miss on attacks which reduce the chances of getting rooted from it, with diffusal Blade, he can keep Lone Druid or the Spirit Bear inside the Smoke.
* 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 have doubles or clones such as Arc Warden,
Meepo or
Lone Druid are vulnerable to Muerta's
Gunslinger.
* Heroes whose abilities can affect multiple enemies at once: Dawnbreaker,
Ember Spirit,
Lina,
Luna,
Jakiro,
Leshrac,
Invoker,
Muerta,
Dazzle.
* Huskar jumps on the hero without any problems, throwing the Summon Spirit Bear away from him and forbidding him to beat, which knocks down the regeneration of Lone Druid from the
Spirit Link ability, in addition, Huskar instantly deals fatal damage to Lone Druid, in some cases he does not even have time to squeeze the
True Form
Additional:
* Huskar jumps on the hero without any problems, throwing the Summon Spirit Bear away from him and forbidding him to beat, which knocks down the regeneration of Lone Druid from the
Spirit Link ability, in addition, Huskar instantly deals fatal damage to Lone Druid, in some cases he does not even have time to squeeze the
True Form
* Arcane Orb deals heavy damage to both Lone Druid and the Spirit Bear.
* Astral Imprisonment can prevent the Spirit Bear from attacking, which is Lone Druid's main damage output.
* Sanity's Eclipse deals heavy damage to Lone Druid.
* Disruptor can always Glimpse back Io or his target after he Relocated nearby.
* Even better, thanks to the indicator on the ground, you can even preemptively drop Static Storm and Kinetic Field on the spot they will relocate to.
* Thunder Strike and Glimpse are also good tools to bring back an Io that Tethered away in the fog of war.
Additional:
* Glimpse directly negates Relocate.
* Kinetic Field prevents Io from escaping with
Tether.
* Static Storm can silence and damage both, Io and it's tethered target. And it can also mute both, Io and it's tethered target when upgraded with
Aghanim's Scepter.
* Fireblast is a good tool to interrupt Io during its escapes through Tether.
* Ignite can be one of the few spells with enough total damage to out-trade the sustained healing Io provides for its fellow laner.
* However, picking other supports that focus less on the laning phase is generally a better choice against Io.
* Paralyzing Cask is likely to bounce between him and his bear every single time.
* Lone Druid's lack of mobility makes him vulnerable to Death Ward and Maledict.
* Tiny can be a serious problem for the distance between Lone Druid and his Summon Spirit Bear with his
Toss ability, since he will throw one away from the other, giving his team the opportunity to deal with either the
Summon Spirit Bear or Lone Druid himself
* Lone Druid will not always be in his True Form, since she has her own recharge, which is why Tiny can find him with a
Shadow Blade or
Blink Dagger and kill him in a second with a combination of
Avalanche and
Toss, due to the fact that Lone Druid has a very small health reserve without
True Form
Additional:
* Tiny can be a serious problem for the distance between Lone Druid and his Summon Spirit Bear with his
Toss ability, since he will throw one away from the other, giving his team the opportunity to deal with either the
Summon Spirit Bear or Lone Druid himself
* Lone Druid will not always be in his True Form, since she has her own recharge, which is why Tiny can find him with a
Shadow Blade or
Blink Dagger and kill him in a second with a combination of
Avalanche and
Toss, due to the fact that Lone Druid has a very small health reserve without
True Form
* Thirst allows Bloodseeker to see where Io relocated to, should either Io or the tethered hero have low health.
* Rupture forces Io to stay in place, preventing it from using the Tether bonus movement speed to escape.
* Jakiro's area-of-effect ability arsenal allows him to affect multiple heroes at once, giving Io difficulties in saving them as he can only heal one hero at a time with Tether.
* Ice Path can be used to cancel both, Tether and Relocate.
* Jakiro commonly buys Rod of Atos that can be used to cancel Relocate, prevent Io in escaping with Tether and make Io easy target for
Ice Path and
Macropyre.
Additional:
* Jakiro's area-of-effect ability arsenal allows him to affect multiple heroes at once, giving Io difficulties in saving them as he can only heal one hero at a time with Tether.
* Ice Path can be used to cancel both, Tether and Relocate.
* Jakiro commonly buys Rod of Atos that can be used to cancel Relocate, prevent Io in escaping with Tether and make Io easy target for
Ice Path and
Macropyre.
* Io is a hero who needs to be close to it's tethered target to make it effective, and that's where Leshrac gets the advantage thanks to many of his area-of-effect abilities.
* Lightning Storm will usually hit both Io and its tethered target since both will be close enough for the lightning to jump.
* Diabolic Edict and
Pulse Nova hit all units near Leshrac, meaning he can do colossal damage to both, Io and its tethered target.
Additional:
* Lightning Storm will usually hit both Io and his Tethered target since both will be close enough for the lightning to jump. It can then be followed up by Split Earth.
* Diabolic Edict and Pulse Nova hit all units near Leshrac, meaning he can do colossal damage to Io and his Tethered target.
* Ghost Shroud can be use both offensively to slow Lone Druid or Defensively to prevent Lone Druid and The Spirit Bear from attacking him.
* Heartstopper aura burns the Spirit bear High HP over time. Additionally, it can deal decent damage to Lone Druid during his True Form.
* Strafe,
Tar Bomb and
Burning Barrage from
Aghanim's Shard allow Clinkz to quickly kill Io due to its low armor.
* Clinkz iz a hero that very often goes for Orchid Malevolence, and its upgrade
Bloodthorn. Alternatively, Clinkz also loves to buy
Gleipnir. And if Clinkz has both of them, he will be able to root and silence Io and prevent him from escaping with either
Tether or
Relocate.
* Charge of Darkness can be used to escape or counter-initiate against a Relocate gank.
* Greater Bash and
Nether Strike is devastating due to Io's low armor, and can even knock it away from his
Tethered target.
* Homing Missile can be used to cancel escape attempts with
Relocate.
* Flak Cannon allows Gyrocopter to attack both, Io and his
Tethered target, especially when upgraded with
Aghanim's Scepter.
* Rocket Barrage and
Call Down allow Gyrocopter to deal serious damage to both Io and his
Tethered target.
Additional:
* Homing Missile can be used to cancel escape attempts with
Relocate.
* Flak Cannon allows Gyrocopter to attack both, Io and his
Tethered target, especially when upgraded with
Aghanim's Scepter.
* Rocket Barrage and
Call Down allow Gyrocopter to deal serious damage to both Io and his
Tethered target.
* Mystic Flare can be used to effectively ignore the Spirit Bear entirely and burst Lone Druid during the early mid game.
* Concussive Shot and
Arcane Bolt will provide vision of Lone Druid allowing for better chase in teamfights before the Spirit Bear can do too much damage.
* Ancient Seal denies the ability to transform into
True Form and receive bonus HP from the skill.
* Heroes with either magical, physical or pure damage burst: Bane,
Ember Spirit,
Leshrac,
Lina,
Luna,
Nyx Assassin,
Phantom Assassin,
Skywrath Mage,
Tinker,
Ursa,
Void Spirit.
* Skywrath Mage also has a terrible time fighting against anything that isn't a hero. His skills are mostly target-based and he has terrible strength and agility, he can easily be kited or harassed by illusion-based heroes like Chaos Knight and
Phantom Lancer, or by Heroes that summon other units like
Lone Druid,
Lycan and
Beastmaster.
* Terrorblade can easily take advantage of Io's weak durability with Reflection and
Metamorphosis.
* As Io relies on boosting his and his Tethered target's attack speed with
Overcharge, Terrorblade can take advantage of this with
Reflection, which can damage and slow both, Io and his
Tethered target.
* Spirits's weak area-of-effect makes it a bad tool to deal with Terrorblade's illusions from
Conjure Image and
Manta Style.
* Io's damage output is one of the weakest, therefore Terrorblade will have plenty of time to save himself with Sunder.
* However, Terrorblade has no way of stopping Io to escape with Tether or to stop both, Io and his
Tethered target to escape with
Relocate besides
Terror Wave from
Aghanim's Scepter.
Additional:
* Terrorblade can easily take advantage of Io's weak durability with Reflection and
Metamorphosis.
* As Io relies on boosting his and his Tethered target's attack speed with
Overcharge, Terrorblade can take advantage of this with
Reflection, which can damage and slow both, Io and his
Tethered target.
* Spirits's weak area-of-effect makes it a bad tool to deal with Terrorblade's illusions from
Conjure Image and
Manta Style.
* Io's damage output is one of the weakest, therefore Terrorblade will have plenty of time to save himself with Sunder.
* However, Terrorblade has no way of stopping Io to escape with Tether or to stop both, Io and it's
Tethered target to escape with
Relocate besides
Terror Wave from
Aghanim's Scepter.
* Brewmaster can make the Spirit Bear a much smaller threat with Cinder Brew.
* Cyclone removes the bear from a fight so that his team can easily focus on the hero.
* While most heroes would be worn down by a Spirit Bear Radiance in the time it takes to kill Lone Druid, Brewmaster is protected in Primal Split.
* Illusions and summons are double-edge sword type of matchup for Luna. On one hand, they can tank damage from Eclipse, but on the other hand, she can easily clear them before Eclipse with Moon Glaives. Examples include Spectre,
Shadow Demon,
Phantom Lancer,
Naga Siren,
Chaos Knight,
Terrorblade) or bring other units into the fight (such as
Nature's Prophet,
Lone Druid,
Chen,
Enchantress,
Meepo and
Arc Warden).
* Lucent Beam can be used to cancel both, Tether and Relocate.
* Like with Leshrac's Diabolic Edict,
Lightning Storm and
Pulse Nova abilities. Luna's
Moon Glaives and
Eclipse abilities can make short work of Io and its tethered ally, particularly when upgraded with
Aghanim's Scepter.
Additional:
* Lucent Beam and 0.25s Eclipse Lucent Ministun talent for
Eclipse can be used to cancel both, Tether and Relocate.
* Luna's Moon Glaives and
Eclipse abilities can make short work of Io and its tethered ally, particularly when upgraded with
Aghanim's Scepter.
* Heroes that create illusions: Spectre,
Shadow Demon,
Phantom Lancer,
Naga Siren,
Chaos Knight,
Terrorblade) or bring other units into the fight (such as
Nature's Prophet,
Lone Druid,
Chen,
Enchantress,
Meepo and
Arc Warden) can cause Eclipse to strike the illusions/summons unintentionally. However, in many cases Moon Glaives can resolve this issue and eliminate them before activating Eclipse, but that will require lots of farming for right-click items.
* Batrider's Flaming Lasso can be used to cancel Io's attempts to escape with
Relocate and drag him away from his
Tethered target. And since Io doesn't like buying
Linken's Sphere, he will be always vulnerable to Batrider's initiations.
* Io's tendency to stick close to it's Tethered target can make Io and it's target vulnerable to Batrider's harrasing.
* Aghanim's Scepter upgraded
Flaming Lasso allows Batrider to catch and drag two heroes at once, not just one. Which can potentially turn Io's
Tether against him.
Additional:
* Batrider's Flaming Lasso can be used to cancel Io's attempts to escape with
Relocate and drag him away from his
Tethered target. And since Io doesn't like buying
Linken's Sphere, he will be always vulnerable to Batrider's initiations.
* Io's tendency to stick close to it's Tethered target can make Io and it's target vulnerable to Batrider's harrasing.
* Aghanim's Scepter upgraded
Flaming Lasso allows Batrider to catch and drag two heroes at once, not just one. Which can potentially turn Io's
Tether against him.
* 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 with both illusions and summons, for Io has nothing to deal with multiple enemies at once outside from Spirits's weak area-of-effect: Beastmaster,
Broodmother,
Chaos Knight,
Lycan,
Naga Siren,
Nature's Prophet,
Phantom Lancer,
Shadow Shaman,
Terrorblade,
Visage,
Warlock,
Wraith King.
* Heroes with both illusions and summons, for Io has nothing to deal with multiple enemies at once outside from Spirits's weak area-of-effect: Beastmaster,
Broodmother,
Chaos Knight,
Lycan,
Naga Siren,
Nature's Prophet,
Phantom Lancer,
Shadow Shaman,
Terrorblade,
Visage,
Warlock,
Wraith King.
* Heroes with either magical, physical or pure damage burst: Bane,
Ember Spirit,
Leshrac,
Lina,
Luna,
Nyx Assassin,
Phantom Assassin,
Skywrath Mage,
Tinker,
Ursa,
Void Spirit.
* Heroes that are hard to gank: Axe,
Death Prophet,
Phantom Lancer,
Slark,
Centaur Warrunner,
Bristleback,
Medusa,
Mars.
* Heroes with both illusions and summons, for Io has nothing to deal with multiple enemies at once outside from Spirits's weak area-of-effect: Beastmaster,
Broodmother,
Chaos Knight,
Lycan,
Naga Siren,
Nature's Prophet,
Phantom Lancer,
Shadow Shaman,
Terrorblade,
Visage,
Warlock,
Wraith King.
* Heroes with either magical, physical or pure damage burst: Bane,
Ember Spirit,
Leshrac,
Lina,
Luna,
Nyx Assassin,
Phantom Assassin,
Skywrath Mage,
Tinker,
Ursa,
Void Spirit.
* Pugna:
Decrepify prevent the Spirit bear from attacking or protect allies from it.
* Fragile heroes: Bounty Hunter has decent nuking capabilities with Shiruken Toss and Jinada thus making fragile heroes easy picks for ganking. Few examples of such heroes are:Crystal Maiden,
Pugna,
Skywrath Mage,
Io,
Witch Doctor, etc.
* 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 with either magical, physical or pure damage burst: Bane,
Ember Spirit,
Leshrac,
Lina,
Luna,
Nyx Assassin,
Phantom Assassin,
Skywrath Mage,
Tinker,
Ursa,
Void Spirit.
* Heroes with both illusions and summons, for Io has nothing to deal with multiple enemies at once outside from Spirits's weak area-of-effect: Beastmaster,
Broodmother,
Chaos Knight,
Lycan,
Naga Siren,
Nature's Prophet,
Phantom Lancer,
Shadow Shaman,
Terrorblade,
Visage,
Warlock,
Wraith King.
* Heroes that are hard to gank: Axe,
Death Prophet,
Phantom Lancer,
Slark,
Centaur Warrunner,
Bristleback,
Medusa,
Mars.
* Heroes that are hard to gank: Axe,
Death Prophet,
Phantom Lancer,
Slark,
Centaur Warrunner,
Bristleback,
Medusa,
Mars.
* Heroes with both illusions and summons, for Io has nothing to deal with multiple enemies at once outside from Spirits's weak area-of-effect: Beastmaster,
Broodmother,
Chaos Knight,
Lycan,
Naga Siren,
Nature's Prophet,
Phantom Lancer,
Shadow Shaman,
Terrorblade,
Visage,
Warlock,
Wraith King.
* Squishy heroes (Io,
Crystal Maiden,
Lina...), as Earth Spirit can deal tons of damage with Magnetize.
* Heroes that are hard to gank: Axe,
Death Prophet,
Phantom Lancer,
Slark,
Centaur Warrunner,
Bristleback,
Medusa,
Mars.
* 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 with both illusions and summons, for Io has nothing to deal with multiple enemies at once outside from Spirits's weak area-of-effect: Beastmaster,
Broodmother,
Chaos Knight,
Lycan,
Naga Siren,
Nature's Prophet,
Phantom Lancer,
Shadow Shaman,
Terrorblade,
Visage,
Warlock,
Wraith King.
* Timbersaw: Lone Druid will have a hard time dealing with Timbersaw due to his tankiness and high Armor from
Reactive Armor
* Heroes with either magical, physical or pure damage burst: Bane,
Ember Spirit,
Leshrac,
Lina,
Luna,
Nyx Assassin,
Phantom Assassin,
Skywrath Mage,
Tinker,
Ursa,
Void Spirit.
* Ice Blast prevents Io from healing an ally with Tether and prevents healing from
Overcharge
* Io is a common Mekansm builder which is useless if he is affected by Ice Blast.
Additional:
* Ice Blast prevents Io from healing the target.
* Ancient Apparition can easily harass Io on lane with Chilling Touch due to it's high range and damage. This can get even worse if Ancient Apparition buys
Aghanim's Scepter and combines it with items that can give him bonus attack damage and attack speed.
* Chilling Touch combined with
Ice Vortex makes it nearly impossible for Io to escape from
Cold Feet.
Ice Vortex can also make Io and it's tethered target more vulnerable to Ancient Apparition and his allies's magical damage.
* Lone Druid's early game is good against slow, squishy supports since his bear is very strong early game and an Entangling Claws proc almost always guarantees a kill: Ancient Apparition,
Crystal Maiden,
Shadow Shaman, etc.
* Take Aim and
Assassinate allow Sniper to reach Io even if it stays in the backline.
* Heroes with high mobility can approach Sniper: Anti-Mage,
Earth Spirit,
Io,
Nature's Prophet,
Pangolier,
Puck,
Queen of Pain and most notably
Riki.
* Morphling can ignore Spirit Bear and shorten the distance to Lone Druid with Waveform.
* Morphling can use his nukes to burst Lone Druid down, provided he is not rooted/disabled by Spirit Bear beforehand.
* Heroes who just want to farm and avoid Lone Druid early will find it very hard to do so when he starts knocking on towers: Templar Assassin,
Phantom Assassin,
Ember Spirit,
Morphling.
* Phantom Strike allows Phantom Assassin jump directly to Io.
* Coup de Grace can make a short work of Io's low health and armor.
* Heroes who just want to farm and avoid Lone Druid early will find it very hard to do so when he starts knocking on towers: Templar Assassin,
Phantom Assassin,
Ember Spirit,
Morphling.
* Besides Lone Druid and
Meepo, Doom is potentially good versus every hero since Doom will render any hero helpless for up to 16 seconds. This is particularly true for fragile heroes that heavily rely on mobility to stay alive.
* Heroes with the ability to heal allies will not be able to heal heroes affected by Doom:
Chen,
Dazzle,
Io,
Oracle,
Omniknight,
Witch Doctor,
Winter Wyvern,
Abaddon, etc.
* Lone Druid is essentially two heroes. Dooming one over the other still leaves Lone Druid or his bear able to do their job during a fight. Additionally, Lone Druid is not hindered as much as other heroes by the silence and mute of Doom since the hero relies more on attacks than abilities.
Additional:
* Doom will be very hestitant to use Doom on the Spirit Bear, and using it on Lone Druid himself will not stop the bear from attacking him especially if True Form has already been used.
* Devour does not work on the Spirit Bear and pushes the lane so Lone Druid can safely farm under tower.
* Omnislash spreads on both the bear and the druid, allowing them to survive.With enough levels,the bear can soak the ability alone and possibly dragging him to a dangerous location.
* Juggernaut cannot manfight the duo in the early game,because of their tankiness. If opposed in lane,Lone Druid can shut him down.
* Heroes with abilities that can save teammates are also effective such as Shadow Demon,
Dazzle,
Oracle,
Bane,
Pugna,
Tusk,
Winter Wyvern,
Io,
Underlord,
Treant Protector and
Keeper of the Light.
* Heroes with both illusions and summons, for Io has nothing to deal with multiple enemies at once outside from Spirits's weak area-of-effect: Beastmaster,
Broodmother,
Chaos Knight,
Lycan,
Naga Siren,
Nature's Prophet,
Phantom Lancer,
Shadow Shaman,
Terrorblade,
Visage,
Warlock,
Wraith King.
* Once caught in Bear's Entangle, Nature's Prophet cannot escape with Teleportation.
* Nature's Prophet is extremely easy to gank with Relocate while he's split pushing.
* Tether on a friendly unit can destroy Nature Prophet's trees should he surround himself with Sprout as a defense.
* Because of his weak laning phase, Lone Druid absolutely overpowers him in the early to mid game. Lone Druid also directly counters most of his abilities.
* Flux is nullified when the Spirit Bear is nearby.
* Spark Wraith can get soaked by the bear.
* Lone Druid can easily go inside Magnetic Field and punish Zet.
* Tether and Overcharge makes it much harder for Pudge to kill a target with Meat Hook, and Relocate can save the Io's ally while
Dismember is being channeled.
* Lone Druid has a huge reserve of health on the Summon Spirit Bear and a quick regeneration of his health with the help of
Spirit Link, which makes the Puck's magical abilities useless, since they cannot break through such a large pool of health
* The ability of the Summon Spirit Bear and in the
True Form of the Lone Druid
Entangling Claws allows you to catch Puck when he released the
Illusory Orb, since Puck will not be able to apply
Ethereal Jaunt during the root action
Additional:
* Lone Druid has a huge reserve of health on the Summon Spirit Bear and a quick regeneration of his health with the help of
Spirit Link, which makes Puck's magical abilities almost useless, since they cannot break through such a large pool of health.
* The ability of the Summon Spirit Bear and in the
True Form of the Lone Druid,
Entangling Claws, allows him to catch Puck when it releases the
Illusory Orb, since Puck will not be able to apply
Ethereal Jaunt during the root.
* Alchemist likes to farm fast and be ahead, unfortunately Lone Druid likes to do the same by taking towers.
* Acid Spray will never prove a threat to Lone Druid or his Spirit Bear.
* Chemical Rage may not prove so useful once Lone Druid procs entangled keeping him in place.
* Monkey King Bar is a very good choice on Lone Druid's Spirit Bear and it directly counters any potential
Radiance from Alchemist.
* Assault Cuirass is another very good Spirit Bear item that further makes Alchemist vulnerable to physical damage, which is all Lone Druid does.
* Alchemist is not the kind of hero who wants to go on single target summon units, by the time he has killed the Spirit Bear his teammates might had already been slayed by his teammates. Not to mention Lone Druid can just resummon it, even if he is successful.
* Drow Ranger's lack of escape abilities makes her an easy target for Relocate ganks.
* Silencer's disables are useless on Lone Druid since he is more reliant on physical attacks rather than spells.
* Silencer has poor mobility so Lone Druid can run him down.
* Lone Druid's Shard will remove most of Silencer's spells once used.
* Tether helps Io escape from Earthbind even if Meepo has Blink Dagger.
* Io's Spirits can pressure Meepo while laning and will usually hit at least one of his clones.
* Heroes who just want to farm and avoid Lone Druid early will find it very hard to do so when he starts knocking on towers: Templar Assassin,
Phantom Assassin,
Ember Spirit,
Morphling.
* Lone Druid's early game is good against slow, squishy supports since his bear is very strong early game and an Entangling Claws proc almost always guarantees a kill: Ancient Apparition,
Crystal Maiden,
Shadow Shaman, etc.
* Heroes who can fight back easily are not ideal matchups for Sven, such as Troll Warlord as mentioned above,
Lone Druid and
Templar Assassin.
* Chaos Knight,
Lone Druid,
Meepo and
Arc Warden can be hard targets since Shadow Demon's spells are ill-suited to fight many enemies at once.
* 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.
* True Form gives Lone Druid a huge amount of health that no amount of Ball Lightning will chip through.
* Entangling Claws can mean a very quick end to the Storm Spirit as it prevents him from using
Ball Lightning all together.
* Storm Spirit is a single target nuker, with the Shard Lone Druid can always fear him away from himself or the bear, defending the target he does not go on. This is assuming he cannot try and proc his entangle or a potential Skull Basher.
* Heroes with either magical, physical or pure damage burst: Bane,
Ember Spirit,
Leshrac,
Lina,
Luna,
Nyx Assassin,
Phantom Assassin,
Skywrath Mage,
Tinker,
Ursa,
Void Spirit.
* Lone Druid becomes unkillable and impenetrable for Ember Spirit on the central line, as it has a huge reserve of health from the Summon Spirit Bear and a large regeneration from
Spirit Link, which is why
Sleight of Fist practically does not break through either one or the other on the line, and Lone Druid at this time can easily expel Ember Spirit from the line, push and gain gold and level
* Entangling Claws and
Savage Roar abilities completely disable Ember Spirit's ability to dodge abilities or get out of an unpleasant fight for him on
Fire Remnant, which can give the Lone Druid team the opportunity to kill him
Additional:
* Lone Druid becomes unkillable and impenetrable for Ember Spirit on the central line, as it has a huge reserve of health from the Summon Spirit Bear and a large regeneration from
Spirit Link, which is why
Sleight of Fist practically does not break through either one or the other on the line, and Lone Druid at this time can easily expel Ember Spirit from the line, push and gain gold and level
* Entangling Claws and
Savage Roar abilities completely disable Ember Spirit's ability to dodge abilities or get out of an unpleasant fight for him on
Fire Remnant, which can give the Lone Druid team the opportunity to kill him
* Heroes whose abilities can affect multiple enemies at once: Dawnbreaker,
Ember Spirit,
Lina,
Luna,
Jakiro,
Leshrac,
Invoker,
Muerta,
Dazzle.
* Savage Roar interrupts Starbreaker.
* Dawnbreaker is a slow moving hero. Although tanky, Lone Druid can eventually wear her down with his better movement speed.
* Heroes whose abilities can affect multiple enemies at once: Dawnbreaker,
Ember Spirit,
Lina,
Luna,
Jakiro,
Leshrac,
Invoker,
Muerta,
Dazzle.
* Lone Druid has a very large reserve of health against Invoker abilities, this allows him to survive a large number of attacks from Invoker and kill him, also Entangling Claws reveal invisibility from
Ghost Walk, which allows the Lone Druid team to catch the popular QW-Invoker
Additional:
* Lone Druid has a very large reserve of health against Invoker abilities, this allows him to survive a large number of attacks from Invoker and kill him, also Entangling Claws reveal invisibility from
Ghost Walk, which allows the Lone Druid team to catch the popular QW-Invoker
* Heroes that are hard to gank: Axe,
Death Prophet,
Phantom Lancer,
Slark,
Centaur Warrunner,
Bristleback,
Medusa,
Mars.
* Nukers who have set amounts of damage will really struggle against Lone Druid especially in True Form: Puck,
Void Spirit,
Mars.
* Heroes with either magical, physical or pure damage burst: Bane,
Ember Spirit,
Leshrac,
Lina,
Luna,
Nyx Assassin,
Phantom Assassin,
Skywrath Mage,
Tinker,
Ursa,
Void Spirit.
* Nukers who have set amounts of damage will really struggle against Lone Druid especially in True Form: Puck,
Void Spirit,
Mars.
* Firestorm's percentage damage can quickly demolish the Spirit Bear's high HP
* Pit of Malice will allow allies to easily kite Lone Druid due to his low mobility
* Io can escape from Pit of Malice with Tether or Relocate.
* Relocate can counter Dark Rift's split pushing.
* Lone druid's bear attacks on Phoenix's Supernova Egg don't increase the hit count. Given that Lone Druid's main hero often doesn't have much farm, the
Supernova Egg is less likely to get killed.
* Phoenix's limit AoE, damage-over-time abilities give Io plenty of time to save allies with Relocate.
* Duel is very effective against Io due to its low health and armor.
* Tethered heroes are much harder for Legion Commander to kill in Duels.
* Relocate can cancel Duels and save allies.
* Heroes with both illusions and summons, for Io has nothing to deal with multiple enemies at once outside from Spirits's weak area-of-effect: Beastmaster,
Broodmother,
Chaos Knight,
Lycan,
Naga Siren,
Nature's Prophet,
Phantom Lancer,
Shadow Shaman,
Terrorblade,
Visage,
Warlock,
Wraith King.
* Lone Druid's early game is good against slow, squishy supports since his bear is very strong early game and an Entangling Claws proc almost always guarantees a kill: Ancient Apparition,
Crystal Maiden,
Shadow Shaman, etc.
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:
You can also add your own tips, update old data and fix mistakes by editing page on Dota 2 Wiki (it works like Wikipedia - anyone can contribute, you don't even need to register) these edits will appear on this website automatically (data is updated several times per week).
Right now there is no app/overlay that will detect picks automatically (like overwolf dota plus or become the gamer), instead, you can open web version in a steam in-game browser or use mobile version on your smartphone.
Want to know more? Check FAQ
Latest changes first
Sharing link to this site is always appreciated.
Dota 2 is a registered trademark of Valve Corporation. This site is not affiliated with Valve Corporation. All game images and names are property of Valve Corporation.
Lone Druid
* Dazzle easily breaks the position of Lone Druid and his
Summon Spirit Bear with his
Poison Touch, As it always hits from afar and prolongs the slowdown on the
Summon Spirit Bear, which is why he cannot catch up with Dazzle and treat his master with
Spirit Link
Summon Spirit Bear thanks to the treatment from
Shadow Wave and armor from
Bad Juju, which can enable his team to kill Lone Druid
Summon Spirit Bear has a small amount of armor at the start of the game, because of Mid Dazzle, it can very much break through it and prevent Lone Druid from gaining an advantage at the very beginning of the game, giving his team the opportunity to overtake Lone Druid on items for killing him, by type:
Spirit Vessel
Summon Spirit Bear with his
Poison Touch, As it always hits from afar and prolongs the slowdown on the
Summon Spirit Bear, which is why he cannot catch up with Dazzle and treat his master with
Spirit Link
Summon Spirit Bear thanks to the treatment from
Shadow Wave and armor from
Bad Juju, which can enable his team to kill Lone Druid
Summon Spirit Bear has a small amount of armor at the start of the game, because of Mid Dazzle, it can very much break through it and prevent Lone Druid from gaining an advantage at the very beginning of the game, giving his team the opportunity to overtake Lone Druid on items for killing him, by type:
Spirit Vessel
* Dazzle helps his team survive the physical attacks of the
* The Lone Druid
Additional:
* Dazzle easily breaks the position of Lone Druid and his
* Dazzle helps his team survive the physical attacks of the
* The Lone Druid
Io
*
Poison Touch allows Dazzle to harass both, Io and it's tethered target on lane.
Aghanim's Shard upgraded
Poison Touch can also hex both, Io and it's tethered target, preventing them from escaping with Relocate, and also disarming them, silencing them, muting them and rendering them helpless against Dazzle and his allies.
Shallow Grave from gank by Io and it's tethered target.
Shadow Wave will always hit both, Io and it's tethered target if they are near the ally Dazzle uses
Shadow Wave on, while healing Dazzle's allies near them.
Aghanim's Scepter upgraded
Shadow Wave can bounce on both, Io and it's tethered target, causing them both to take damage and to be attacked by Dazzle. And unlike Io who doesn't get healed while using Tether, Shadow Wave will always heal Dazzle no matter on which of his allies he uses it on.
Bad Juju will cause both, Io and it's tethered target to lose armor every time Dazzle casts a spell while strengthening armor of Dazzle's allies.
Poison Touch allows Dazzle to harass both, Io and it's
Tethered target on lane.
Aghanim's Shard upgraded
Poison Touch can also hex both, Io and it's
Tethered target, preventing them from escaping with Relocate, and also disarming them, silencing them, muting them and rendering them helpless against Dazzle and his allies.
Shallow Grave from gank by Io and it's
Tethered target.
Shadow Wave will always hit both, Io and it's
Tethered target if they are near the ally Dazzle uses
Shadow Wave on, while healing Dazzle's allies near them.
Aghanim's Scepter upgraded
Shadow Wave allows Dazzle
Shadow Wave directly on Io and it's
Tethered target which can also bounce on both, Io and it's tethered target, causing them both to take damage and to be attacked by Dazzle. And unlike Io who doesn't get healed while using Tether, Shadow Wave will always heal Dazzle no matter on which of his allies he uses it on.
Bad Juju will cause both, Io and it's tethered target to lose armor every time Dazzle casts a spell while strengthening armor of Dazzle's allies.
* Io's damage output is one of the weakest, therefore Dazzle will have plenty of time to save an ally with
*
*
Additional:
*
* Io's damage output is one of the weakest, therefore Dazzle will have plenty of time to save an ally with
*
*