* Doom can eats Nature's Prophet's treants with
Devour and gains lots of gold.
* Doom can buy
Radiance or use his
Scorched Earth to quickly wipe out a swarm of Treants.
*
Doom and a ministun from
Infernal Blade's prevents Nature's Prophet from escaping with Sprout and Teleportation.
* A well-timed
Doom prevents Nyx Assassin escaping with Vendetta and fighting back with
Spiked Carapace.
* Doom's high health also allows him to easily shrug off Nyx Assassin's burst damage and fend him off.
* Nature's Prophet has no innate way to deal with
Gravekeeper's Cloak or kill {U:Familiar}s effectively.
* Familiars can fly over the trees created by Sprout. They can also use
Stone Form when Nature's Prophet is trying to use Teleportation.
*
Aghanim's Shard upgraded
Stone Form alow allows Visage himself to stun Nature's Prophet whenever he is trying to use Teleportation.
*
Aghanim's Scepter gives Visage
Silent as the Grave ability, which allows him and his {U:Familiar}s to either escape from Nature's Prophet or give him a surprise attack.
Additional:
* Nature's Prophet has no natural method of dealing with Gravekeeper's Cloak and Familiars.
* Familiar's low base attack time can chip away Nature Prophet's health.
* Familiar's Stone Form destroys trees created by
Sprout.
* Familiars can scout woods and foggy areas where Nature's Prophet is trying to use
Teleportation.
* Even though Visage's Familiars from
Summon Familiars are fragile and can be killed quickly with Nyx Assassin's high burst damage, they can deal many instances of damage quickly, minimizing the effectiveness of Spiked Carapace.
*
Gravekeeper's Cloak and tanky item builds make Visage hard for Nyx to kill with his burst damage.
Aghanim's Shard upgraded
Gravekeeper's Cloak also allows Visage to use
Stone Form to both recover himself and stun Nyx Assassin if he is close enough to Visage.
* Visage's long range on
Soul Assumption and
Grave Chill make him hard to escape from, and
Soul Assumption's low cooldown outmatches Spiked Carapace.
* Heroes who produce many summons will have a hard time against Storm's Dispel Magic during teamfight:
Broodmother,
Enigma,
Nature's Prophet.
*
Cyclone from Storm in
Primal Split can waste Nyx's Spiked Carapace, since its duration is shorter than the Cyclone's.
* With Caustic Finale, Sand King can easily kill the treants from
Nature's Call.
* Burrowstrike allows Sand King to prevent Nature's Prophet from using
Teleportation inside of his
Sprout.
Additional:
* Sand King's
Caustic Finale combined with
Sand Storm will kill Treants easily.
* Sand King can interrupt Teleportation with
Burrowstrike, even through Sprout.
* Heroes who rely on damage over time as Spiked Carapace can block and reflect only one instance of damage:
Jakiro,
Viper,
Venomancer,
Huskar,
Ember Spirit,
Dark Seer,
Sand King,
Doom,
Dawnbreaker. However, this also means they are easily stunned.
* Naga Siren is a natural split-pusher. With a
Radiance equipped, she will easily keep the lanes pushed out, therefore keeping backdoor protection enabled and preventing Nature's Prophet from dealing building damage.
*
Ensnare can prevent Teleportation.
Aghanim's Scepter upgraded
Ensnare can also affect Nature's Prophet even if he is spell immune. And
Reel In from
Aghanim's Scepter can also be used to separate Nature's Prophet from his treant and bring him close to Naga Siren and her team to burst him down.
*
Song of the Siren will stop Nature's Prophet from escaping even if he has hidden inside of Sprout.
Aghanim's Shard upgraded
Song of the Siren can also heal her allies and save them from Nature's Prophet.
Additional:
* Naga Siren is a natural split-pusher. With Rip Tide, she will easily out-push Nature's Prophet, farming his treants in the process.
*
Ensnare prevents
Teleportation. Even if he hides inside
Sprout, Song of the Siren lasts long enough to prevent him from escaping.
* Nyx Assassin's skillset is mostly single-targeted, therefore he will have difficulties against heroes with illusions and summons:
Naga Siren,
Broodmother,
Lycan,
Visage,
Phantom Lancer. And to make things worse, Nyx Asassin is not a common
Battle Fury,
Maelstrom,
Mjollnir,
Gleipnir or
Radiance wielder to counter this problem.
* Broodmother can destroy Nature's Prophet's Treants with
Spawn Spiderlings and summon spiderlings in their place.
* Broodmother loves buying
Orchid Malevolence, which can prevent Nature's Prophet from escaping with Sprout and Teleportation.
Additional:
*
Sprout cannot protect Nature's Prophet if Broodmother puts down a web.
* Nature's Prophet's low mobility means he is defenseless against Silken Bola.
* Spiderlings can absorb much of the damage from
Wrath of Nature.
*
Aghanim's Scepter gives Broodmother access to
Spinner's Snare, which allows her to create invisible lines on her webs from
Spin Web that will root Nature's Prophet, deal damage over time to Nature's Prophet and reveal Nature's Prophet if he unwittingly steps on them, disrupting his attempts to perform surprise attacks on Broodmother's allies with
Silver Edge and also prevent him from using
Silver Edge to esacape, while also alerting Broodmother on his attempts to ambush her and her allies.
* With
Aghanim's Scepter, Broodmother will gain access to
Spinner's Snare, which will allow her to create invisible lines on her webs from
Spin Web that will root, deal damage over time, and reveal enemy heroes if they unwittingly step on them. This allows Broodmother to keep her allies alerted on heroes who rely on invisibility-themed and movement-themed abilities and items to surprise enemy heroes and disrupt ganking attempts of enemy heroes:
Phantom Assassin,
Nyx Assassin,
Mirana,
Bounty Hunter,
Templar Assassin,
Riki,
Spirit Breaker,
Anti-Mage,
Tusk,
Ursa,
Nature's Prophet,
Enigma,
Void Spirit,
Magnus etc.
* Jakiro's
Macropyre can help him to escape from Sprout and quickly clears Treants.
* Jakiro can disrupt Nature's Prophet's escape attempt with Sprout and Teleportation by using
Ice Path.
Additional:
* Jakiro's skill arsenal can ruin Nature's Prophet's gameplay: Dual Breath and Liquid Fire can clear treants from
Nature's Call while simultaneously slowing Nature's Prophet, Ice Path can disrupt Nature's Prophet's escaping attempt with
Teleportation, and Macropyre can easily clear treants from
Nature's Call.
* Jakiro is a common
Hurricane Pike wielder, which allows him to escape from
Sprout.
* Heroes who rely on damage over time as Spiked Carapace can block and reflect only one instance of damage:
Jakiro,
Viper,
Venomancer,
Huskar,
Ember Spirit,
Dark Seer,
Sand King,
Doom,
Dawnbreaker. However, this also means they are easily stunned.
*
Time Walk can get out to Sprout.
*
Chronosphere will interupt his Teleportation and Faceless Void's can attack kill him within
Chronosphere.
* Heroes who rely on invisibility, such as
Bounty Hunter,
Clinkz,
Mirana,
Nyx Assassin and
Riki, as they will be revealed if caught by Chronosphere.
* Heroes who can provide True Sight or semi-reveal enemy heroes as Nature's Prophet is prone to buying
Shadow Blade:
Bounty Hunter,
Slardar,
Spectre,
Zeus,
Spirit Breaker.
* Nyx Assassin wants to start ganking as soon as he gets his
Vendetta. Keeping him Tracked prevents him from ganking, and thus from doing his job in the game.
* Nyx Assassin has a lot of armor and health regen, making the nuke damage from Shuriken Toss very good against him.
Additional:
*
Track hinders Nyx Assassin's ganking and escaping attempts with
Vendetta, making him an easy kill for gold as well.
* Bounty Hunter can also use
Track on Nyx Assassin while he has
Spiked Carapace active without getting stunned as
Track deals no damage at all before using
Shuriken Toss.
*
Moon Glaives and
Lunar Blessing help Luna quickly kill Nature's Prophet's treants.
* Luna can easily cancel Teleportation with her
Lucent Beam.
* Even though Nature's Prophet can evade all of Luna's abilities with
Shadow Blade, a smart Luna will always buy
Dust of Appearance to provide vision on Shadow Fiend to her and her team.
Additional:
*
Moon Glaives and
Lunar Blessing help Luna quickly kill Nature's Prophet's treants.
Aghanim's Shard upgraded
Moon Glaives can also reduce damage Nature's Prophet will inflict on Luna while they are active.
* Luna can easily cancel Teleportation with her
Lucent Beam.
* Even though Nature's Prophet can evade all of Luna's abilities with
Shadow Blade, a smart Luna will always buy
Dust of Appearance to provide vision on Nature's Prophet to her and her team.
* Even though Nyx Assassin can easily kill Luna with his high burst damage, Luna can also do the same to him if he is not careful.
*
Lucent Beam can deal a fair amount of damage to Nyx Assassin if he has no
Spiked Carapace available to use. Although Luna should be patient using
Lucent Beam on Nyx Assassin when he uses
Spiked Carapace.
* As Luna commonly buys
Black King Bar, she can use it to freely attack Nyx Assassin whenever he tries to defend himself with
Spiked Carapace during teamfights. Luna can also buy
Eye of Skadi and
Manta Style to survive Nyx Assassin's burst damage and distract him.
* Though
Vendetta can deal serious damage to Luna and avoid
Eclipse, smart Luna will always buy
Dust of Appearance to provide vision on Nyx Assassin to her and her team.
Additional:
* Even though Nyx Assassin can easily kill Luna with his high burst damage, Luna can also do the same to him if he is not careful.
*
Lucent Beam can deal a fair amount of damage to Nyx Assassin if he has no
Spiked Carapace available to use. Although Luna should be patient using
Lucent Beam on Nyx Assassin when he uses
Spiked Carapace.
* As Luna commonly buys
Black King Bar, she can use it to freely attack Nyx Assassin whenever he tries to defend himself with
Spiked Carapace during teamfights. Luna can also buy
Eye of Skadi and
Manta Style to survive Nyx Assassin's burst damage and distract him.
* Though
Vendetta can deal serious damage to Luna and avoid
Eclipse, smart Luna will always buy
Dust of Appearance to provide vision on Nyx Assassin to her and her team.
* 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.
* Anti-Mage's high mobility from Blink and tendency to build
Battle Fury makes him strong against split-pushing heroes:
Nature's Prophet,
Tinker, and
Arc Warden.
* Heroes who build mana boosting items but have low mana regeneration are especially vulnerable against Mana Break and Mana Void:
Timbersaw,
Slark,
Shadow Fiend,
Clinkz,
Bristleback
Nyx Assassin,
Magnus
* Pounce also stops
Nature's Prophet's
Teleportation.
* Heroes who build
Black King Bar as either core or situational item will be able to fight back against Nyx Assassin and freely attack him as Spiked Carapace cannot pierce spell immunity at all:
Axe,
Broodmother,
Dawnbreaker,
Enigma,
Huskar,
Jakiro,
Legion Commander,
Lina,
Luna,
Lycan,
Slardar,
Slark,
Troll Warlord,
Witch Doctor.
* Heroes who can provide True Sight or semi-reveal enemy heroes as Nature's Prophet is prone to buying
Shadow Blade:
Bounty Hunter,
Slardar,
Spectre,
Zeus,
Spirit Breaker.
*
Nyx Assassin's
Vendetta can be revealed easily by Corrosive Haze
Additional:
*
Corrosive Haze hinders Nyx Assassin's ganking attempts with
Vendetta, as well as reducing his armor and make him very vulnerable due to his low health pool.
*
Guardian Sprint allows Slardar to catch up with Nyx Asssassin and finish him off if he has vision over him.
* Heroes that rely on summons will suffer against Ion Shell, which kills them very quickly:
Beastmaster,
Broodmother,
Enigma,
Nature's Prophet,
Visage,
Warlock,
Wraith King.
* Heroes who rely on damage over time as Spiked Carapace can block and reflect only one instance of damage:
Jakiro,
Viper,
Venomancer,
Huskar,
Ember Spirit,
Dark Seer,
Sand King,
Doom,
Dawnbreaker. However, this also means they are easily stunned.
* Meepo can net Nature's Prophet's treants with
Earthbind and then
Poof them, putting an end to his pushing.
* Skilled
Meepos can rival and even exceed Nature's Prophet's global presence by combining
Poof with
Boots of Travel, meaning that he can not only stop his push, but also can kill him if he is not careful.
* Clockwerk's long range initiation and catch makes it incredibly difficult for Nature's Prophet to split push and show on the map alone.
*
Rocket Flare can be used to scout Nature's Prophet if he is hiding in the forest, and can provide vision inside of Sprout.
*
Sprout will not protect Nature's Prophet from Huskar if he has already locked on with Life Break.
* Even a farmed Nature's Prophet is usually not durable enough to fight Huskar alone.
* Heroes who rely on damage over time as Spiked Carapace can block and reflect only one instance of damage:
Jakiro,
Viper,
Venomancer,
Huskar,
Ember Spirit,
Dark Seer,
Sand King,
Doom,
Dawnbreaker. However, this also means they are easily stunned.
*
Nyx Assassin can reflect Life Break with
Spiked Carapace.
* Lycan's high health allows him to easily shrug off Nyx Assassin's burst damage and fend him off.
* As Lycan commonly buys
Black King Bar, he can use it to freely attack Nyx Assassin and chase after him with
Shapeshift.
* Lycan can also use his wolves from
Summon Wolves to attack Nyx Assassin while he has
Spiked Carapace active without getting stunned himself.
* Once caught in Bear's Entangle, Nature's Prophet cannot escape with
Teleportation.
* All three of Timbersaw’s abilities give him an easy way out of Sprout, and can also destroy nearby trees so Nature's Prophet can’t spawn Treants.
* If Prophet tries to escape with a self Sprout/Teleport, Timbersaw can easily cut down all its trees to get to him and deal increased
Whirling Death damage as well.
*
Chakram heavily discourages teleports.
* Timbersaw is quite well suited to clearing massive waves of Treants almost instantly with all of his area of effect pure damage abilities, preventing Nature's Prophet from pushing.
* Treants can give Reactive Armor many charges quite quickly.
Additional:
* Timbersaw can easily cut down trees from
Sprout, making it very difficult for Nature's Prophet to teleport away or trap enemies.
* Timbersaw's abilities quickly clear out treants.
*
Reactive Armor negates most of the damage of Nature's Prophet's treants, and Timbersaw can often allow himself to be attacked in order to heal himself.
* Undying's
Tombstone will cheerfully chew through treants, incidentally netting you some extra income during fights.
* The above interaction tends to ensure that skirmishes are heavily populated with units, thereby buffing
Soul Rip
* Centaur's low Intelligence makes
Mind Flare do low damage.
* With some creative skill builds, Centaur's Hoof Stomp stun duration should always last longer than
Spiked Carapace stun, so escaping unscathed is hard for Nyx.
* With
Blink Dagger and detection, Centaur can devastate Nyx in the open.
* However, bear in mind that Nyx can also easily initiate on Centaur Warrunner as well if he uses
Spiked Carapace in anticipation, and with
Vendetta. The damage from Retaliate will be reflected back to Centaur Warrunner, stunning him with no chance to react after he's revealed himself, and should guarantee a successful
Impale.
*
Shadow Step's low cooldown allows Spectre to teleport to him whenever he decides to push.
*
Spectral Dagger allows Spectre to go through Sprout's trees and stun Nature's Prophet if she has a
Skull Basher or
Abyssal Blade.
* Spectre loves buying
Radiance, which can kill Nature's Prophet's Treants easily.
Additional:
* Spectre can get to him anywhere on the map with
Haunt.
* Spectre can pass through his trees with
Spectral Dagger.
*
Desolate's damage will melt him quickly, as he's alone most of the time.
*
Sprout can't stop her to Rebound.
* Treants can be used as targets for Rebound and Dispose as well.
*
Crypt Swarm helps clear waves of Treants.
*
Silence prevents Nature's Prophet from using Sprout or Teleportation.
*
Exorcism kills Treants with ease.
Additional:
*
Crypt Swarm helps clear waves of Treants.
*
Silence prevents Nature's Prophet from using Sprout or Teleportation.
*
Exorcism kills Treants with ease.
* Dragon Knight's heavy armor negates
Vendetta's burst physical damage. His large HP pool also gives him a good chance of surviving Nyx Assassin's follow-up nuke damage.
* Nature's Prophet treants can be cleared by Ignite or Multicast
Hand of Midas
* Fireblast and Unrefined Fireblast prevents Nature's Prophet from using
Teleportation.
* Treants increase Echo Slam's damage.
* Earthshaker's AoE stuns can hit Nature's Prophet through
Sprout, without having direct line of sight, in order to interrupt
Teleportation.
Additional:
*
Echo Slam can do a lot of damage to Nature's Prophet and his teammates if they stand close to his Treants.
*
Astral Spirit can give Elder Titan a lot of damage and movement speed if Nature's Prophet sends all of his Treants together.
* Not only does
Echo Stomp prevent Nature's Prophet from escaping using Teleportation, but
Astral Spirit can be used to bypass Sprout and cancel Teleportation with it's own
Echo Stomp from long distances.
*
Earth Splitter can clear Nature's Prophet's Treants effectively.
*
Firestorm makes quick work of Treants and
Atrophy Aura gives him temporary damage for every Treant killed.
*
Pit of Malice can stop Teleportation channeling.
*
Atrophy Aura greatly reduces Nature's Prophet's damage and he has no other good way to deal damage.
*
Fiend's Gate can counter split-pushing, which is something that Nature's Prophet relies on a lot.
Fiend's Gate can also be used to either escape from Nature's Prophet or to prepare an ambush on Nature's Prophet, and outside from Nature's Wrath, Nature's Prophet has no other ways to intercept arrivals with
Fiend's Gate.
* Heroes who are entirely reliant on dealing physical damage and/or have very little to no area-of-effect abilities will make Underlord tickle and will have no effect against him thanks to his
Atrophy Aura, and will also be unable to ambush Underlord and his team if Underlord chooses to use
Fiend's Gate to get to a designated point of the map:
Phantom Assassin,
Terrorblade,
Troll Warlord,
Drow Ranger,
Phantom Lancer,
Chaos Knight,
Sven,
Wraith King,
Bounty Hunter,
Alchemist,
Templar Assassin,
Nyx Assassin,
Bane.
* Heroes with magical or pure damage output will not have any problems against Atrophy Aura at all:
Luna,
Lina,
Jakiro,
Pugna,
Bane,
Snapfire,
Muerta,
Nyx Assassin,
Enigma,
Tinker,
Witch Doctor,
Zeus,
Crystal Maiden.
* Heroes who can provide True Sight or semi-reveal enemy heroes as Nature's Prophet is prone to buying
Shadow Blade:
Bounty Hunter,
Slardar,
Spectre,
Zeus,
Spirit Breaker.
* Heroes with invisibility will be detected by Thirst when they have low enough health:
Bounty Hunter,
Templar Assassin,
Riki,
Clinkz,
Weaver,
Treant Protector,
Nyx Assassin.
Additional:
* While Burrowing, Nyx is an easy target for a
Blood Rite, and his only way to counter it is a well-timed
Spiked Carapace.
*
Thirst is always a threat to Nyx Assassin, hindering his attempt of escape using
Vendetta and rendering him unable to surprise Bloodseeker's allies.
*
Rupture also prevents Nyx Assassin from escaping with
Vendetta, as it forces him to stay still.
* Heroes that have AoE damage:
Lina,
Keeper of the Light,
Timbersaw,
Leshrac,
Bristleback,
Axe.
* Heroes with invisibility: (
Riki,
Clinkz,
Nyx Assassin.
Additional:
* Nature's Prophet is often by himself. Clinkz can use invisibility to hunt him down and kill him, although a Quelling Blade may be needed to cut through his
Sprout. Orchid Malevolence may also be needed if 3-4 seconds are not enough time to kill him, as he can teleport away.
* Clinkz can match Nature's Prophet's ability to split push.
* Starbreaker and Celestial Hammer does high AoE damage which easily clears {U:Treant}, shutting down most of Nature's Prophets damage and pushing power.
* Dawnbreaker can teleport to deal with split-pushing Nature's Prophet and rejoin her team with Solar Guardian when they require it.
* Since Starbreaker clears trees in its path followed by a stun at the end Nature's Prophet will be unable to escape the dangerous situation by using
Sprout on himself and teleporting away with either
Teleportation or
Town Portal Scroll.
Additional:
* Starbreaker and Celestial Hammer does high AoE damage which easily clears {U:Treant}, shutting down most of Nature's Prophets damage and pushing power.
* Dawnbreaker can teleport to deal with split-pushing Nature's Prophet and rejoin her team with Solar Guardian when they require it.
* Since Starbreaker clears trees in its path followed by a stun at the end Nature's Prophet will be unable to escape the dangerous situation by using
Sprout on himself and teleporting away with either
Teleportation or
Town Portal Scroll.
* Heroes who rely on damage over time as Spiked Carapace can block and reflect only one instance of damage:
Jakiro,
Viper,
Venomancer,
Huskar,
Ember Spirit,
Dark Seer,
Sand King,
Doom,
Dawnbreaker. However, this also means they are easily stunned.
* Spiked Carapace interrupts
Starbreaker before Dawnbreaker has her Aghanim's Shard, as well as
Solar Guardian during the initial channel, making her ineffective at joining and dealing damage in teamfights.
* The slow projectile and damage over time effect of
Celestial Hammer makes it easy to stun Dawnbreaker if she attemps to engage or chase.
Additional:
*
Spiked Carapace can stop Dawnbreaker's Solar Guardian which will eliminate her global presence and limits her movement around the map.
*
Sleight of Fist with
Battle Fury deals a lot of damage to Nature's Prophet's team if they stand close to his Treants, as well as killing all the Treants with ease.
* Ember Spirit with
Fire Remnant and
Boots of Travel can be very active around the map, which enables him to quickly teleport and defend the objective Nature's Prophet is attacking whenever he tries to push.
Additional:
* Ember Spirit can easily deal with
Nature's Call by using his Flame Guard and with
Battle Fury. He also has multiple ways of escaping
Sprout. Additionally, Ember Spirit can break
Sprout's trees with Activate Fire Remnant and interrupt
Teleportation with Searing Chains.
* Heroes who rely on damage over time as Spiked Carapace can block and reflect only one instance of damage:
Jakiro,
Viper,
Venomancer,
Huskar,
Ember Spirit,
Dark Seer,
Sand King,
Doom,
Dawnbreaker. However, this also means they are easily stunned.
* Spiked Carapace can be easily triggered by
Flame Guard or
Battle Fury, setting up a deadly Impale.
Additional:
* With
Vendetta, Nyx Assassin can move closely to Ember Spirit when he's farming with his Flame Guard and use
Spiked Carapace with
Impale to provide a reliable and long disable.
* Similarly, heroes with low cooldown teleports can be afraid to split push against X Marks the Spot, such as
Tinker and
Nature's Prophet.
* In general, highly mobile heroes like
Earth Spirit or
Storm Spirit are at a disadvantage against X Marks the Spot.
* Similarly, heroes with low cooldown teleports can be afraid to split push against X Marks the Spot, such as
Tinker and
Nature's Prophet.
*
Legion Commander's
Overwhelming Odds deals damage for every Treant it hits, which allows it to easily wipe out large waves of them.
* Heroes who build
Black King Bar as either core or situational item will be able to fight back against Nyx Assassin and freely attack him as Spiked Carapace cannot pierce spell immunity at all:
Axe,
Broodmother,
Dawnbreaker,
Enigma,
Huskar,
Jakiro,
Legion Commander,
Lina,
Luna,
Lycan,
Slardar,
Slark,
Troll Warlord,
Witch Doctor.
Additional:
* Duel's long duration prevents Nyx Assassin escaping from
Vendetta. With Aghanim's Scepter, she can also bypass
Spiked Carapace.
* Heroes with global abilities can give Legion Commander's opponent an edge in Duels from anywhere on the map:
Nature's Prophet,
Ancient Apparition,
Zeus,
Invoker,
Treant Protector
* Heroes with cleave damage:
Sven,
Magnus,
Kunkka.
* Heroes who lack burst damage will have a hard time against Mars:
Phantom Lancer,
Nature's Prophet,
Lich.
* Heroes that have a weak laning stage:
Spectre,
Nyx Assassin,
Clockwerk,
Spirit Breaker,
Omniknight,
Pudge.
* Heroes who have summons, which can be quickly cleared by his powerful area of effect skill:
Nature's Prophet,
Enigma,
Lycan
* Nyx Assassin's skillset is mostly single-targeted, therefore he will have difficulties against heroes with illusions and summons:
Naga Siren,
Broodmother,
Lycan,
Visage,
Phantom Lancer. And to make things worse, Nyx Asassin is not a common
Battle Fury,
Maelstrom,
Mjollnir,
Gleipnir or
Radiance wielder to counter this problem.
* Heroes with invisibility: (
Riki,
Clinkz,
Nyx Assassin.
* Heroes who build
Black King Bar as either core or situational item will be able to fight back against Nyx Assassin and freely attack him as Spiked Carapace cannot pierce spell immunity at all:
Axe,
Broodmother,
Dawnbreaker,
Enigma,
Huskar,
Jakiro,
Legion Commander,
Lina,
Luna,
Lycan,
Slardar,
Slark,
Troll Warlord,
Witch Doctor.
*
Broodmother,
Nature's Prophet,
Phantom Lancer by their nature offer very good target for Splinter Blast and Winter's Curse.
* Shadow Fiend can easily farm his treants and get easy Necromastery Stacks.
* If Shadow Fiend buys
Boots of Travel and
Shadow Blade, he can counteract Nature's Prophet's split-push.
* Heroes with high burst damage:
Lina,
Lion,
Luna,
Nyx Assassin,
Queen of Pain.
*
Impale and
Spiked Carapace stun can be instantly dispelled by Aphotic Shield.
* Abaddon can use Borrowed Time and easily heal for the duration of Borrowed Time by Nyx's burst damage.
*
Nyx Assassin might not kill Abaddon with his nuke, but a support Abaddon will struggle to protect an ally from him.
*
Rage allows Lifestealer to freely attack Nyx Assassin and hunt him down if Vendetta is on cooldown. Nyx Assassin cannot counter
Rage with Spiked Carapace because
Rage gives Lifestealer spell immunity. And besides Vendetta, Nyx Assassin has no other way of dealing damage to Lifestealer while he is spell immune.
*
Open Wounds from
Aghanim's Shard allows Lifestealer to severely slow down Nyx Assassin while also allowing his team to recover themselves while attacking Nyx Assassin.
Open Wounds can also fester and spread if Nyx Assassin takes enough damage that will trigger the spread while he is affected with
Open Wounds.
*
Infest combined with an ancient creep makes Nyx Assassin an easy target to surprise with
Dust of Appearance or a
Gem of True Sight.
Aghanim's Scepter upgraded
Infest can also allow Lifestealer to infest, disarm and freely attack Nyx Assassin from within. and Nyx Assassin cannot counter this with Spiked Carapace because Lifestealer is invulnerable while attacking the infested enemy hero from within.
* Overall, any attempt for Nyx Assassin to gank and kill Lifestealer will hurt Nyx Assassin more than Lifestealer.
Additional:
* Like with Juggernaut's
Blade Fury,
Rage allows Lifestealer to freely attack Nyx Assassin and hunt him down if
Vendetta is on cooldown. Nyx Assassin cannot counter
Rage with
Spiked Carapace because
Rage gives Lifestealer spell immunity. And besides
Vendetta, Nyx Assassin has no other way of dealing damage to Lifestealer while he is spell immune.
*
Open Wounds from
Aghanim's Shard allows Lifestealer to severely slow down Nyx Assassin while also allowing his team to recover themselves while attacking Nyx Assassin.
Open Wounds can also fester and spread if Nyx Assassin takes enough damage that will trigger the spread while he is affected with
Open Wounds.
*
Infest combined with an ancient creep makes Nyx Assassin an easy target to surprise with
Dust of Appearance or a
Gem of True Sight. And similarly to Juggernaut's
Omnislash and
Swiftslash from
Aghanim's Scepter,
Aghanim's Scepter upgraded
Infest can also allow Lifestealer to infest, disarm and freely attack Nyx Assassin from within. And Nyx Assassin cannot counter this with
Spiked Carapace because Lifestealer is invulnerable while attacking the infested enemy hero from within.
* Like with Juggernaut, any attempt for Nyx Assassin to gank and kill Lifestealer will hurt Nyx Assassin more than Lifestealer.
* Sprout is good for trapping melee carries with no escape abilities:
Sven,
Alchemist,
Lifestealer etc.
*
Corrosive Skin minimizes the damage from
Impale and
Mind Flare, and anything else Nyx Assassin tries to throw at Viper.
* Nyx Assassin cannot survive several poison damage-over-time output from
Poison Attack,
Nethertoxin,
Corrosive Skin and
Viper Strike, not even while he has
Spiked Carapace active. And to make things worse, Nyx Assassin is not a common
Silver Edge wielder to counter this problem at all.
Additional:
*
Corrosive Skin minimizes the damage from
Impale and
Mind Flare, and anything else Nyx Assassin tries to throw at Viper.
* Nyx Assassin cannot survive several poison damage-over-time output from
Poison Attack,
Nethertoxin,
Corrosive Skin and
Viper Strike, not even while he has
Spiked Carapace active. And to make things worse, Nyx Assassin is not a common
Silver Edge wielder to counter this problem at all.
* Heroes who do not have nor rely on passive abilities make Nethertoxin much less effective:
Clinkz,
Pugna,
Nature's Prophet,
Dark Seer,
Lycan,
Tusk
* Spirit Breaker can chase Nature's Prophet from anywhere on the map with
Charge of Darkness, making it hard for Nature's Prophet to split-push.
*
Charge of Darkness and
Nether Strike gives vision of Nature's Prophet when he tries to Sprout himself and teleport away.
Additional:
* Charge of Darkness allows Spirit Breaker to catch Nature's Prophet out when he tries to split push.
* Nature's Prophet can't hide in his
Sprout against Spirit Breaker, as his Charge of Darkness provides vision on its target.
* Spirit Breaker can easily cancel Nature's Prophet's
Teleportation.
* Heroes with summons and illusions as Spirit Breaker has no strong AoE capabilities to deal with them:
Chaos Knight,
Phantom Lancer,
Terrorblade,
Naga Siren,
Broodmother,
Warlock,
Visage,
Nature's Prophet,
Shadow Shaman,
Lycan,
Wraith King.
* Mass Serpent Ward can kill lots of treants if played defensively.
* Mass Serpent Ward, Hex, and Shackles can catch and kill a Nature's Prophet trying to use Teleportation.
Additional:
* Shadow Shaman's
Mass Serpent Ward together with
Ether Shock can easily kill lots of Treants if played defensively.
*
Hex and
Shackles can disrupt Nature's Prophet's escape attempts with Teleportation.
*
Nyx Assassin,
Bounty Hunter and
Slark can all sneak up and kill Shadow Shaman, Nyx being particularly deadly. Shadow Shaman must watch out for Slark carefully, as he can break either (but not both unless he makes a mistake) of Shadow Shaman's disables, with
Dark Pact and leap out of a serpent ward ring. These heroes, however, rely heavily on escape and are themselves not very durable and none of them can survive a full lockdown with Mass Serpent Ward. Having Sentry Wards can turn Shadow Shaman from prey to predator.
* Heroes with summons and illusions can find themselves easily bested by Lina, like
Broodmother,
Nature's Prophet,
Chen,
Terrorblade,
Naga Siren,
Visage,
Wraith King,
Lycan,
Phantom Lancer,
Shadow Shaman.
Additional:
* Lina can easily prevent Nature's Prophet's Teleportation escape attempts with
Light Strike Array, and can clear Sprout's trees instantly.
* Lina's
Dragon Slave and
Light Strike Array can kill Nature's Prophet's Treants.
* Heroes who build
Black King Bar as either core or situational item will be able to fight back against Nyx Assassin and freely attack him as Spiked Carapace cannot pierce spell immunity at all:
Axe,
Broodmother,
Dawnbreaker,
Enigma,
Huskar,
Jakiro,
Legion Commander,
Lina,
Luna,
Lycan,
Slardar,
Slark,
Troll Warlord,
Witch Doctor.
*
Mind Flare does tons of damage against Lina because of her high intelligence.
*
Vendetta can deal heavy damage to Lina while also burning her mana, preventing Lina from casting her abilities.
*
Spiked Carapace can easily be used to counter Lina's abilities because of their long cast animation, and could probably kill Lina outright if Laguna Blade is reflected. However, Lina can counter this with
Eul's Scepter of Divinity, a common item on Lina.
* Sprout with True Sight items (
Sentry Ward or
Dust of Appearance) make it possible to trap Weaver in lane, unless he buys
Quelling Blade or until he unlocks
Time Lapse.
*
The Swarm beetles can be destroyed with Nature's Prophet's Treants.
*
Spiked Carapace allows Nyx to get an easy long-duration stun on Weaver once he uses Shukuchi, and then he can follow up with
Impale.
*
Vendetta works as a great setup for both
Impale and
Spiked Carapace and can deal decent damage to Weaver. Additionally he can neutralize The Swarm beetles due to his invisibility duration.
* Heroes with high mobility can approach Sniper:
Anti-Mage,
Earth Spirit,
Io,
Nature's Prophet,
Pangolier,
Puck,
Queen of Pain and most notably
Riki.
*
Assassinate is easy to reflect with Spiked Carapace for massive damage.
*
Shrapnel's area damage can set up an easy stun with Spiked Carapace, especially when combined with Vendetta.
* In the early game, Sniper's low health pool and high intelligence makes him easy prey for Nyx Assassin.
* Heroes with many summons or illusions are much harder to catch with Meat Hook:
Nature's Prophet,
Phantom Lancer,
Chen.
*
Impale and
Spiked Carapace can be used to cancel Dismember easily, and can even do so when Pudge uses it on Nyx Assassin, if timed correctly.
* 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.
* Nyx Assassin deals large amounts of pure damage with
Vendetta and magical damage with
Impale and
Mind Flare, allowing him to ignore Terrorblade's armor and burst his low health pool down before he can use
Sunder.
* Nyx Assassin commonly buys
Urn of Shadows,
Dagon and
Meteor Hammer which deal magic damage that ignore Terrorblade's armor.
* However, Terrorblade is a natural
Eye of Skadi and
Black King Bar wielder, and once he gets those items, Nyx Assassin's solo kill potential against Terrorblade will be gone.
* The huge physical damage taken from
Vendetta will force Necrophos to use Ghost Shroud, which is good for a followup with
Dagon and
Ethereal Blade, both of which are common items on Nyx Assassin.
* Using Ghost Shroud also sets Necrophos up for a
Mind Flare or
Impale.
*
Vendetta disables Vengeance Aura and allows him to attack Vengeful Spirit with
Impale and
Mind Flare.
*
Spiked Carapace is easy to use against a Wave of Terror or Magic Missile.
*
Impale and
Spiked Carapace interrupts Upheaval with ease.
* Warlock's low health pool, mobility, and high intelligence gain makes him a prime target for Nyx Assassin's burst damage.
* Nyx's
Spiked Carapace can reflect the damage of
Sharpshooter, instantly killing hoodwink. Nyx can also use
Vendetta to position himself in such a way to screen allies from Sharpshooter and catch Hoodwink by surprise.
* With her passive
Split Shot, Medusa can be easily interrupted by Spiked Carapace during combat, especially during her precious
Stone Gaze.
* Mana Burn quickly destroys
Mana Shield, especially if Medusa only increases her mana pool by bolstering intelligence (which has the added bonus of increasing Mana Burn's damage).
* Uncontrollable damage from
Mystic Snake and
Split Shot can trigger Spiked Carapace.
*
Medusa lacks single target damage, making a Burrowed Nyx Assassin hard to kill.
Additional:
*
Vendetta burns a significant amount of mana on hit, and the damage from the ability drains Medusa's mana pool even further.
* Due to the passive nature of Mystic Snake and Split Shot, it can possibly proc Nyx's
Spiked Carapace if he's within range of Medusa's abilities and isn't invisible.
* Medusa lacks single target damage, making Nyx with
Aghanim's Scepter extremely hard to deal with if Medusa is the team's main damage source.
* Chain Frost can bounce to the treants that Nature's Prophet summons.
* Nature's Prophet's
Sprout can be used to isolate and burst down the squishy Lich.
Additional:
* His treants can prevent
Chain Frost from jumping to Nature's Prophet or his allies.
*
Vendetta can deal great damage against her. However, it requires an direct attack, so Nyx Assassin may have difficulties applying Vendetta on her.
* Enchantress's lack of mobility makes her a primary target for ganking with Vendetta.
*
Mind Flare can deal a great damage against her due to being an Intelligence hero.
*
Spiked Carapace can reflect Impetus and stun Enchantress.
Additional:
* Spiked Carapace reflects the damage from
Impetus.
* Enchantress is a rather squishy hero, making her fall easily to Nyx Assassin's high burst damage.
* Many of Nyx Assassin's abilities are good against Windranger.
*
Impale is great for stunning Windranger and allowing additional disables to be landed.
*
Mind Flare is useful against Windranger's decent intelligence growth.
*
Spiked Carapace is easy to use against Powershot.
*
Vendetta allows Nyx Assassin to sneak up on and deal massive damage to Windranger without giving Windranger a chance to use Windrun to evade it.
* Nyx Assassin's item build allows him to easily deal with Windranger.
* Spiked Carapace reacts on any of the damage over time from Phoenix's abilities and can interrupt
Sun Ray and
Icarus Dive.
*
Spiked Carapace stops Snapfire's
Mortimer Kisses.
* Crystal Maiden has a very bad movement speed, so
Impale is easy to land against her. Furthermore, even while trapped by Frostbite, Nyx Assassin can still cast Impale.
* Crystal Maiden has very low armor, so
Vendetta is very effective.
* Nyx Assassin has two ways to stop Freezing Field, provided she doesn't get a
Black King Bar. He can either pop
Spiked Carapace and simply walk into the field, or he can use
Impale to interrupt the field, since Crystal Maiden has to channel it.
Additional:
* Spiked Carapace easily interrupts
Freezing Field.
*
Frostbite's damage over time sets up an easy Spiked Carapace stun.
* Crystal Maiden is extremely fragile and dies quickly to Nyx Assassin's burst damage.
* 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.
* Silencer is rather squishy and has poor mobility without items, making him an easy target for Nyx.
* Silencer's intelligence steal ability is a complete disadvantage against Nyx Assassin as
Mind Flare will deal increasing damage for each point of intelligence Silencer has stolen, turning Silencer's intelligence steal against him.
Additional:
*
Last Word is extremely easy to reflect with Spiked Carapace for large amounts damage, due to triggering when Nyx Assassin casts a spell, but can still silence Nyx Assassin. It also has the added bonus of dealing more damage the more Intelligence Silencer has.
*
Glaives of Wisdom quickly builds Silencer's Intelligence, making him a particularly prime target for Mana Burn.
* Silencer rarely builds survivability items, nor is he able to steal much Intelligence while surrounded by his team, and so is an excellent target for Vendetta.
* Silencer has no reliable way of dealing with a burrowed Nyx, and also lacks the ability to prevent Nyx from escaping with Vendetta,
* Due to Pugna's incredible intelligence growth and terrible strength growth, Nyx should always be able to take you out with his combo, with or without an added
Dagon.
Mind Flare will deal a large amount of damage in particular, especially in the late game.
*
Spiked Carapace is also a great tool versus Pugna. A good player will wait for you in
Vendetta until you farm a creep wave with Nether Blast and reflect it back at you as their initiation and setup for
Impale.
Additional:
*
Nether Blast's animation makes it easy to time Spiked Carapace for a stun.
* Pugna has the largest intelligence gain in the game, making him a prime target for Mana Burn.
* Pugna needs to channel
Life Drain, making him easy to hit with Impale.
* Outworld Destroyer's high intelligence makes him a good target for
Mind Flare.
* If timed correctly,
Spiked Carapace will return the full damage from Sanity's Eclipse back to Outworld Destroyer. Even a reflected Arcane Orb can deal significant damage and make him vulnerable to a follow-up from Nyx Assassin.
*
Spiked Carapace is also the perfect tool against Astral Imprisonment: if used on Nyx, he can reflect the damage back as he comes out of the prison by casting the ability while imprisoned.
Additional:
* Outworld Destroyer's high intelligence gain and fragility makes him an easy target for a massive Mana Burn, as well as killing him outwards with Nyx Assassin's high burst damage.
*
Astral Imprisonment can be easily exploited by Nyx Assassin with his abilities. As long as Astral Imprisonment was not cast on Nyx Assassin, it will make an opportunity for an easy stun, either by Spiked Carapace (if Outworld Destroyer hid his allies or your allies) or Impale (if he hid himself). If Astral Imprisonment was cast on Nyx Assassin, using Spiked Carapace while banished will proc the stun after the disable, since Spike Carapace has a 0 second cast time and Astral Imprisonment deals damage right after the disable ends.
* An ill-timed
Sanity's Eclipse and/or well timed Spiked Carapace can deal a lot of damage to Outworld Destroyer and stun him, unless Outworld Destroyer used
Black King Bar beforehand.
* Nyx Assassin has a lot of burst damage from his
Impale,
Mind Flare,
Dagon, and the bonus damage from
Vendetta. All of this damage is enough to kill Drow Ranger.
* Nyx Assassin is usually invisible most of the time thanks to his ability
Vendetta, which allows him to gank Drow Ranger easily.
* However,
Gust is extremely dangerous for Nyx Assassin, as it's silence can render Nyx Assassin unable to lock down Drow Ranger. And if
Gust hits Nyx Assassin while he is invisible with
Vendetta, Drow Ranger will be able to detect him and foil his ganking attempts on her because
Gust reveals invisible units.
* Nature's Prophet's Nature's Call can destroy trees that Treant Protecter is hiding in, revealing him.
* A good Nyx can reflect Queen of Pain's Sonic Wave with his
Spiked Carapace, or even initiate a gank on her in
Vendetta while she farms a creep wave with Scream of Pain.
* Her strength to intelligence ratio is bad enough that he should be able to kill her without even requiring a
Dagon, provided he can get his full combo off.
* Nyx Assassin can simply activate
Spiked Carapace while under many Invoker's abilities to stun him.
* Nyx Assassin takes advantage of Invoker's massive intelligence gain to do tons of damage using
Mind Flare, as the spell does more damage based on the target's intelligence.
*
Vendetta burns a large amount of Invoker's essential mana pool.
* Heroes with illusions and summons can swarm and overwhelm Bane, who has no area abilities to deal with them outside from
Aghanim's Shard upgraded
Brain Sap:
Broodmother,
Chaos Knight,
Naga Siren,
Nature's Prophet,
Phantom Lancer,
Terrorblade,
Visage,
Warlock,
Wraith King.
* Heroes that can pick you off:
Clinkz,
Nyx Assassin,
Puck,
Riki.
* Slow-moving projectiles:
Skywrath Mage,
Tinker,
Necrophos
Additional:
* Skywrath Mage's low health makes him rather easy prey for Nyx Assassin and his lack of armor generally means he'll take the full brunt of a
Vendetta strike.
*
Mind Flare turns Skywrath Mage's high intelligence growth against him and deals heavy damage.
*
Spiked Carapace gives Nyx some degree of protection against Skywrath's spells.
* Heroes who can drain mana can make Omniknight useless after he uses one or two abilities:
Lion,
Anti-Mage,
Nyx Assassin.
*
Io can use
Relocate with an ally to gank Nature's Prophet whenever he tries to push.
Additional:
* 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.
* 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 with either magical, physical or pure damage burst can often kill Chen or his allies before he can use Hand of God:
Lina,
Luna,
Techies,
Shadow Fiend,
Pugna,
Nyx Assassin.
* 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 summons or illusions makes Sacred Arrow harder to land:
Shadow Demon,
Phantom Lancer,
Nature's Prophet.
* Most summons and illusions can barely hurt Tidehunter at all, after their attacks get reduced by Anchor Smash and blocked by Kraken Shell:
Nature's Prophet,
Enigma
* Also Ravage's large area of effect and damage can easily damage all those units at once, or just straight up clear them.
* Ravage's travel time allows Nyx Assassin to easily stun Tidehunter with
Spiked Carapace.
*
Vendetta can instantly deplete Tidehunter's low mana pool, especially in the early game, potentially preventing Tidehunter from casting Ravage.
* Mass summoning heroes:
Broodmother,
Nature's Prophet and
Enigma all have summons Puck can clear with Illusory Orb and Waning Rift instantly, due to their summons having low health.
* Nyx Assassin can take advantage of every one of Puck's weaknesses. His entire skill set is very effective in countering Puck.
* Because Illusory Orb is such a slow moving projectile, Nyx Assassin can simply walk into the orb and activate
Spiked Carapace, stunning Puck and setting up an easy
Impale. This can be circumvented by using Phase Shift while the orb is traveling, however, that means that Puck cannot use Phase Shift to dodge any other skill nor use it to safely blink away from a fight.
* Puck is an intelligence hero that likes to build intelligence items such as
Eul's Scepter of Divinity,
Scythe of Vyse, and
Dagon. This makes
Mind Flare that much more deadly against Puck.
* An ill-timed Phase Shift can turn into an easy setup for
Impale.
Additional:
*
Illusory Orb is easy to reflect with Spiked Carapace, either stunning Puck and setting up an easy Impale or forcing a premature
Phase Shift.
* Puck is an intelligence hero that tends to build intelligence items, making it vulnerable to Mana Burn.
* An ill-timed
Phase Shift can easily set Puck up to be stunned by Impale.
* Puck's low base armor and below average agility gain mean it is always susceptible to Vendetta.
* Heroes who summon multiple units that are not spell immune.
Nature's Prophet,
Lycan,
Beastmaster
* Nyx Assassin's
Spiked Carapace will stun Leshrac when hit by any of his AOE abilities.
*
Mind Flare deals high damage due to Leshrac's high intelligence gain.
*
Vendetta burns a large amount of Leshrac's essential mana pool.
* Nature's Prophet's low mobility and health pool allow Phantom Assassin to destroy him in the early game.
* Phantom Strike allows Phantom Assassin to jump in and out of
Sprout, provided she has vision.
* Heroes with illusions and summons can be hard for Phantom Assassin to deal with, as she lacks any AoE abilities to deal with them without items:
Broodmother,
Phantom Lancer,
Chaos Knight,
Lycan,
Naga Siren,
Shadow Shaman,
Visage,
Nature's Prophet,
Terrorblade,
Warlock,
Wraith King.
* Heroes with heavy early and mid-game magical damage are also problematic for Phantom Assassin due to being able to easily kill her before she can gain an item advantage over them:
Lina,
Necrophos,
Nyx Assassin,
Gyrocopter,
Jakiro,
Death Prophet.
* Heroes who build
Black King Bar as either core or situational item will be able to fight back against Nyx Assassin and freely attack him as Spiked Carapace cannot pierce spell immunity at all:
Axe,
Broodmother,
Dawnbreaker,
Enigma,
Huskar,
Jakiro,
Legion Commander,
Lina,
Luna,
Lycan,
Slardar,
Slark,
Troll Warlord,
Witch Doctor.
* 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.
Additional:
* Enigma's uncontrollable damage from
Malefice and
Midnight Pulse make him easy to stun with Spiked Carapace.
*
Black Hole can be easily interrupted by Impale or Spiked Carapace.
*
Sprout will not protect Nature's Prophet from Tree Dance.
* Boundless Strike will interrupt attempts at
Teleportation, and can reach Nature's Prophet inside the tree line.
* Nature's Prophet's Natures's Call can destroy trees while Monkey King is standing on them with
Tree Dance, which will stun him for a good deal of time.
*
Ball Lightning can be used to clear Nature's Prophet's Treants and easily destroys Sprout.
*
Electric Vortex prevents Nature's Prophet's escaping using Teleportation.
*
Vendetta is capable of removing most of Storm Spirit's large mana pool, along with dealing heavy damage and quickly depleting his chances of escaping a gank or fight.
Additional:
* Mana Burn removes much-needed mana for
Ball Lightning.
* Spiked Carapace triggers on
Static Remnant for an easy stun.
*
Alchemist gets a huge amount of additional gold from killing Nature's Prophet's treants thanks to
Greevil's Greed.
Additional:
* Acid Spray and Greevil's Greed will quickly destroy pushes with treants.
* Because of his poor movement speed,Alchemist can catch up and kill him with Chemical Rage.
* Sprout is good for trapping melee carries with no escape abilities:
Sven,
Alchemist,
Lifestealer etc.
* Heroes with cleave damage:
Sven,
Magnus,
Kunkka.
* Sprout is good for trapping melee carries with no escape abilities:
Sven,
Alchemist,
Lifestealer etc.
* Some abilities deals damage from an independent source and not from the hero itself, so Nyx cannot counter them with Spiked Carapace: illusions or summoning units,
Homing Missile,
Nimbus,
Mass Serpent Ward,
Death Ward and especially
Techies's mines.
* Heroes with summons like
Broodmother,
Enigma,
Nature's Prophet; or illusions, like
Naga Siren,
Terrorblade are effective at keeping the choke points and rune spawns safe from Proximity Mines.
*
Firefly can be used to clear Nature's Prophet's Treants and allows Batrider destroy Sprout's trees.
*
Flaming Lasso prevents Nature's Prophet from escaping using Teleportation.
* Nyx can walk into Firefly with
Spiked Carapace and stun Batrider if he has no Spell Immunity, even if Batrider is focusing on other enemy hero.
* Tinker has great map presence because of
Keen Conveyance and
Rearm, which means he can always teleport and defend towers whenever Nature's Prophet tries to push.
*
Laser prevents Nature's Prophet from attacking. Additionally, even with
Monkey King Bar, Nature's Prophet cannot hit towers and buildings during the effect.
* Nyx Assassin's whole skillset is good against Tinker:
*
Impale prevents Tinker from blinding Nyx Assassin or fighting back, while giving Nyx' allies time to catch up to Tinker's position.
*
Mind Flare generally deals more damage to intelligence based heroes like Tinker.
*
Spiked Carapace can stun Tinker at a moment of Nyx Assassin's choosing if March of the Machines has been cast. It is also quite easy to time Spiked Carapace against Heat Seeking Missiles.
*
Vendetta allows Nyx to approach Tinker in the trees or wait for him in common hiding spots and deal heavy damage to his low armor.
Additional:
*
Heat-Seeking Missile allow easy Spiked Carapace stuns.
* As a fragile hero that relies on mana and intelligence items, Tinker is vulnerable to Mana Burn.
* Nyx Assassin's stuns can interrupt
Rearm and leave Tinker helpless.
* Heroes who build
Black King Bar as either core or situational item will be able to fight back against Nyx Assassin and freely attack him as Spiked Carapace cannot pierce spell immunity at all:
Axe,
Broodmother,
Dawnbreaker,
Enigma,
Huskar,
Jakiro,
Legion Commander,
Lina,
Luna,
Lycan,
Slardar,
Slark,
Troll Warlord,
Witch Doctor.
* Heroes with plenty of summons, such as
Broodmother or
Nature's Prophet can have their minions soak up most of your Paralyzing Cask.
* Heroes that have AoE damage:
Lina,
Keeper of the Light,
Timbersaw,
Leshrac,
Bristleback,
Axe.
* Large area-of-effect with delay or require channeling:
Enigma,
Crystal Maiden,
Invoker,
Shadow Fiend,
Pugna,
Keeper of the Light,
Dawnbreaker.
Additional:
*
Spiked Carapace can be used to reflect Illuminate damage and stun Keeper of the Light.
*
Vendetta allows Nyx Assassin to follow Keeper of the Light around if he tries to split-push.
* Keeper of the Light is very squishy and will very quickly die to Vendetta and it's followup abilities.
* Heroes who rely on damage over time as Spiked Carapace can block and reflect only one instance of damage:
Jakiro,
Viper,
Venomancer,
Huskar,
Ember Spirit,
Dark Seer,
Sand King,
Doom,
Dawnbreaker. However, this also means they are easily stunned.
* Any hero that can outrange Plague Ward can neutralize them without putting themselves at risk of receiving Poison Sting:
Arc Warden,
Chen,
Clinkz,
Drow Ranger,
Lina,
Mirana,
Nature's Prophet,
Pugna and
Sniper.
* Special mention to heroes that outrange Plague Ward after obtaining talents that increase attack range.
Additional:
* Teleportation allows Natures Prophet to save himself from the damage over time of
Venomous Gale,
Poison Sting and
Poison Nova.
*
Plague Wards can be destroyed with Nature's Prophet's Treants.
*
Blade Fury makes Juggernaut immune to all Nyx's abilities, except
Vendetta.
*
Omnislash. and
Swiftslash can burst Nyx down, ignoring
Spiked Carapace. However,
Vendetta can be used to escape, canceling
Omnislash/
Swiftslash.
Additional:
* Juggernaut's entire skillset greatly counters Nyx Assassin's
Spiked Carapace, his most important ability.
*
Blade Fury allows Juggernaut to freely attack Nyx Assassin, and deal heavy damage to Nyx Assassin. Nyx Assassin cannot counter
Blade Fury with Spiked Carapace because
Blade Fury gives Juggernaut spell immunity. And besides
Vendetta, Nyx Assassin has no other way of dealing damage to Juggernaut while he is spell immune.
*
Healing Ward allows Juggernaut to recover himself and his allies from Nyx Assassin's damage output.
*
Omnislash and
Swiftslash from
Aghanim's Scepter can quickly finish off Nyx Assassin. And just like
Blade Fury, Nyx Assassin cannot counter neither
Omnislash and
Swiftslash from
Aghanim's Scepter with
Spiked Carapace because both abilities render Juggernaut invulnerable. And if Nyx Assassin has no Vendetta available to use for escaping, both abilities will kill him very quickly before he can do anything.
* Overall, any attempt for Nyx Assassin to gank and kill Juggernaut will hurt Nyx Assassin more than Juggernaut.
*
Nature's Call can be used to tank
Omnislash in the early to mid game due to their high health pool combined.
*
Sprout can trap Juggernaut, even if he is using
Blade Fury. Aghanim's Shard upgraded
Sprout can also prevent Juggernaut from escaping if he buys
Battle Fury.
* Once Nature's prophet reach lv 20 with leash talent on
Sprout, he can stop Juggernaut from escaping with
Blade Fury and TPing away.
* Nature's Prophet can farm and push much faster than Juggernaut, acquiring map control before he can do much.
* Nature's Prophet's
Sprout can be broken by Muerta's
Dead Shot.
*
Gunslinger will quickly dispatch of the Treants from
Nature's Call.
*
The Calling will greatly reduce the potential damage Treants can do.
* Nyx Assassin's high burst damage, excellent ganking potential and multiple disables pose a threat to Muerta at all stages of the game.
*
Mind Flare allows Nyx Assassin to take advantage of Muerta's high intelligence and make a short work of her low health.
*
Spiked Carapace and
Vendetta allow Nyx to escape or initiate well against Muerta's low mobility.
* As with most retaliation based abilities,
Spiked Carapace can easily take advantage of
Gunslinger's stray shots.
* However, Muerta is a natural
Black King Bar wielder. And if she succeeds to activate it before Nyx Assassin can ambush her, he will go down very quickly against Muerta as
Spiked Carapace cannot pierce through debuff immunity at all.
To start select enemy heroes in the field above. It's intended to be used with multiple heroes. The more enemy heroes you provide the better results you will get.
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You will get the list of recommended hero counters with a list of tips written by Dota 2 wiki contributors explaining why it's good against the particular hero. In comparison to other similar websites, which show only rating based on average hero win rate from dotabuff or similar service.
Take it with a bit of grain of salt, especially if the recommendation has a low rating (<= 1), some heroes
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Nature's Prophet
* Berserker's Call and Counter Helix will still hit targets inside of a defensive
Sprout.
* Counter Helix clears treants in no time.
* Nature's Prophet's low damage is unlikely to hurt Axe until the very late game.
* Nature's Prophet's low mobility makes him very easy for Axe to chase down or initiate, especially when affected by Battle Hunger.
Nyx Assassin
* A well-timed
Berserker's Call can expose Nyx Assassin while he is invisible with Vendetta, and prevent him from using Spiked Carapace.
Battle Hunger's damage over time to minimialize effects of Spiked Carapace.
Heart of Tarrasque wielder, which can completely eliminate any chance for Nyx Assassin to kill Axe alone.
Culling Blade can often kill Nyx Assassin as he is very fragile and vulnerable to damage while Spiked Carapace is on cooldown.
Berserker's Call can expose Nyx Assassin while he is invisible with
Vendetta, and prevent him from using
Spiked Carapace.
Battle Hunger's damage over time to minimialize effects of
Spiked Carapace.
Heart of Tarrasque wielder, which can completely eliminate any chance for Nyx Assassin to kill Axe alone.
Culling Blade can often kill Nyx Assassin as he is very fragile and vulnerable to damage while Spiked Carapace is on cooldown.
* Axe can use
* Axe's high health also allows him to easily shrug off Nyx Assassin's burst damage and fend him off. Especially since Axe is a common
*
Additional:
* A well-timed
* Axe can use
* Axe's high health also allows him to easily shrug off Nyx Assassin's burst damage and fend him off. Especially since Axe is a common
*