* Heroes that are hard to gank: Dragon Knight, Mars, Centaur Warrunner.
* Heroes that can negate Hoodwink's mobility: Kunkka, Disruptor, Mars.
* Treant can give chase should Hoodwink attempt to Scurry away, and Nature's Grasp can slow her down so Treant Protector's teammates can pin Hoodwink down.
* Nether Swap can forcibly reposition Sharpshooter.
* Warcry makes it difficult to burst Sven down with both the passive (with Aghanim's Shard) and active component.
* Sven under the effect of God's Strength and his massive physical damage make Sven very dangerous to engage in the mid game.
* Chaotic Offering's vast area-effect can destroy trees and stun Hoodwink.
* Upheaval makes retreating with Scurry difficult.
* Powershot can destroy the trees to prevent Scurry's passive as well as end Bushwhack prematurely or prevent it completely.
* Acorn Shot does not grant True Strike, thus making it easy for Windranger to evade it with Windrun.
* Shackleshot stuns Hoodwink for a lengthy duration due to her often reliance on positioning with trees.
Additional:
* Powershot can destroy the trees to prevent Scurry's passive as well as end Bushwhack prematurely or prevent it completely.
* Acorn Shot creates a tree for Windranger to get an easy Shackleshot off.
* Acorn Shot does not grant True Strike, thus making it easy for Windranger to evade it with Windrun.
* Shackleshot stuns Hoodwink for a lengthy duration due to her often reliance on positioning with trees.
* Whirling Axes (Melee) provides a 60% miss chance, which can make the attack speed bonus from Hunter in the Night largely ineffective.
* Berserker's Rage together with Battle Trance and Fervor stacks gives him a high chance of rooting Night Stalker, which allows Troll Warlord to man-fight Night Stalker in any stage of the game, regardless of whether or not it's night.
* Night Stalker is not a common Monkey King Bar carrier to counteract this problem.
* Timbersaw’s reliance on nearby trees means he’ll usually be close to Hoodwink.
* More significantly, Timbersaw's tree destroying abilities cut off Hoodwink's escape options, passive and easily foil Acorn Shot or Bushwhack combos.
* While channeling Sharpshooter, Timbersaw can simply sit his Chakram on top of her and unleash his full combo, forcing her to cancel and disengage.
* Timber Chain can be used to dodge Sharpshooter.
* Void's slow is useless against Lycan by activating Shapeshift.
* Night Stalker's single target abilities (with the exception of Void upgraded by Aghanim's Scepter) is not very effective against Lycan's Summon Wolves during the early and mid game.
* Mirror Image can be effective since Night Stalker cannot withstand fighting illusions. If he's unable to tell which Naga Siren is real, he will have a hard time landing his Void. However, if Night Stalker obtains an Aghanim's Scepter, the upgraded Void will hit and may even locate the real Naga Siren in fights.
Additional:
* Ensnare and Song of the Siren prevents Night Stalker from escaping and ganking during daytime or even nighttime.
* Rip Tide reduces Night Stalker's armor, making him easier to focus down.
* Mirror Image can be effective against Night Stalker, due to his single target abilities.
* Heroes with illusions and summons can manfight Night Stalker: Terrorblade, Beastmaster, Broodmother.
* With Normal Punch from Aghanim's Scepter, Dark Seer can gain an advantage against heroes who rely on evasion as Normal Punch has true strike: Phantom Assassin, Windranger, Hoodwink.
* Bloodseeker's Rupture turns Night Stalker mobility against him and Thirst grants movement speed bonus and vision prevents Night Stalker from initiating and re-initiating.
* Heroes that rely on slows to get kills: Lifestealer, Night Stalker, Ursa, Phantom Assassin, Terrorblade.
* Night Stalker is all about right-clicks. His nuke, Void is also not that threatning once you have Hood of Defiance, your core item.
* Night Stalker's most skills are single targeted which allows other Meepos to Poof, Earthbind and kill him.
* Heroes that can punish aggressive heroes, such as: Leshrac, Shadow Demon, Pugna, Death Prophet.
* Heroes that can negate Hoodwink's mobility: Kunkka, Disruptor, Mars.
* Heroes that can punish aggressive heroes, such as: Leshrac, Shadow Demon, Pugna, Death Prophet.
* Heroes that can punish aggressive heroes, such as: Leshrac, Shadow Demon, Pugna, Death Prophet.
* Heroes with stronger lane presence that can threaten to kill him: Batrider, Juggernaut, Ursa, Monkey King, Razor.
* Heroes with stronger lane presence that can threaten to kill him: Batrider, Juggernaut, Ursa, Monkey King, Razor.
* Heroes that can punish aggressive heroes, such as: Leshrac, Shadow Demon, Pugna, Death Prophet.
* Moon Glaives can ignore certain abilities that either trigger on attack or give evasion under the condition that the heroes who have them are not primary targets. Examples include: Centaur Warrunner, Windranger, Phantom Assassin, Hoodwink etc.
* Phantasm gives Chaos Knight a significant advantage against single-target damage dealers: Lifestealer, Wraith King, Night Stalker, Troll Warlord.
Additional:
* Chaos Bolt can stun Night Stalker outside of Crippling Fears relatively small radius.
* Reality Rift is a great way to force Night Stalker to fight Chaos Knight, a hero with massive health and damage output. It also forces Night Stalker's Crippling Fear off his primary target.
* Night Stalker doesn't have a lot of ways to deal with multiple targets, which makes him vulnerable to Phantasm illusions unless Night Stalker buys Aghanim's Scepter.
* Heroes with stronger lane presence that can threaten to kill him: Batrider, Juggernaut, Ursa, Monkey King, Razor.
* 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.
* Heroes that have a weak laning stage: Spectre, Nyx Assassin, Clockwerk, Spirit Breaker, Omniknight, Pudge.
* Due to Hoodwink's low health and Zeus's high magic damage from Arc Lightning, Lightning Bolt and Static Field as well as global abilities from Thundergod's Wrath and Nimbus, he can easily kill her throughout the game and also reveal where Hoodwink is positioned or when she's in trees.
* Heroes with low mobility that rely on spells: Zeus, Lina, Crystal Maiden.
* Heroes with low health: Lich, Crystal Maiden, Lion.
* Hex and Earth Spike do not cancel Sharpshooter, making those two abilities ineffective against her.
* Although Hoodwink should be wary of his Finger of death, as it can possibly kill her.
* Heroes that have long silences, such as Night Stalker and Silencer, will prevent Abaddon from saving his allies effectively and disable the active component of Borrowed Time.
* Abaddon can be killed without triggering his ultimate Borrowed Time due to the break applied by Sharpshooter.
* Heroes that have a weak laning stage: Spectre, Nyx Assassin, Clockwerk, Spirit Breaker, Omniknight, Pudge.
* Durable heroes relied a lot on their main passive effects and items' effects such as Bristleback, Underlord, Spectre and Dragon Knight can be disabled easily with Sharpshooter's break, reducing their potential in teamfights.
* Sharpshooter can kill easy when Morphling is going on full agility strategy (Only in early and mid game).
* Scurry can help to catch up Morphling when using Waveform or for escape.
* The long silence of Crippling Fear at night prevents Mirana from escaping with Moonlight Shadow and Leap. She also has really low base health, so Night Stalker can usually kill her during one cast of Crippling Fear at night.
* With Dark Ascension and Gem of True Sight, Night Stalker can find and kill Mirana, and he is a tanky hero capable of fighting Mirana any stage of the game.
* Bushwhack can tear through Refraction as it does multiple intervals of damage.
* Sharpshooter deals massive damage to Bristleback and applies a high duration disable on his passive.
* Bushwhack and Scurry can be used to easily kite Bristleback.
Additional:
* Bristleback and Warpath can be disabled by Hoodwink's Sharpshooter ability for a long period of time, reducing his both offense and defense.
* Scurry and Bushwhack can be used to kite bristleback.
* Crippling Fear is a good way to shut down and gank Invoker in the early game..
* Void deals good damage to Invoker and makes escaping harder.
* With Hunter in the Night and Void, Invoker can't get away from Night Stalker and won't be able to catch him with Sun Strike during the night.
* Dark Ascension reduces vision for the enemy team, which makes it more difficult for Magnus to initiate with Blink Dagger and Reverse Polarity. It is also more likely that Night Stalker will scout out Magnus with Aghanim's Scepter and a Gem of True Sight, after which he can silence Magnus with Crippling Fear.
* Puck cannot use any of its normal means to survive should Night Stalker catch it within Crippling Fear, and goes down quickly.
Additional:
* Void is a potent nuke that is devastating to Puck's low health pool.
* Crippling Fear silence can prevent Puck from casting spells, leaving it vulnerable.
* Huskar’s low health play style put him at extreme risk to Sharpshooter's extreme damage. In addition, it breaks Berserker's Blood, nullifying Huskar's power source.
* Crippling Fear makes Night Stalker one of the best early game gankers to shut down Anti-Mage.
* Night Stalker's low mana pool causes him to take little damage from Mana Void.
* Crippling Fear prevents Keeper of the Light from using his spells to keep his team alive during team-fights.
* Dark Ascension is very strong against Keeper of the Light, as it allows Night Stalker to jump the backline and quickly kill the squishy Ezalor, especially when combined with the slow from Void.
Additional:
* Keeper of the Light's Aghanim's Scepter upgrade loses much of its power, due to Night Stalker being able to reduce the duration of daytime by a lot.
* Crippling Fear silences nearby heroes and cannot be dispelled, which hinders Rubick's way to retaliate when being jumped on.
* With Hunter in the Night and Dark Ascension, Night Stalker can find Rubick easily in teamfights. The two spells grants more than enough damage to hunt Rubick down without defensive items.
* Crippling Fear can silence Faceless Void for a long time, preventing him from using his Time Walk and Chronosphere.
* Void can be used to cancel Requiem of Souls.
* Crippling Fear prevents Shadow Fiend from using Shadowraze or Requiem of Souls.
* With Dark Ascension and Gem of True Sight, Night Stalker can find and kill Shadow Fiend easily. He is also a tanky hero that can fight Shadow Fiend at any stage of the game.
* Night Stalker has a huge, almost instant silence through Crippling Fear. The main problem is that he can get it off while Queen of Pain barely has any vision of him if he creeps up to her during Dark Ascension. She'll have to play very carefully before she gets a Black King Bar or a Eul's Scepter of Divinity.
* With Dark Ascension and Gem of True Sight, Night Stalker can easily find and kill Riki. Riki will also find it harder to kill the tanky Night Stalker than he would many other heroes.
* The long silence of Crippling Fear at night prevents Weaver from using his Shukuchi or Time Lapse.
* With Dark Ascension and Gem of True Sight, Night Stalker can easily find and probably kill Weaver.
* Hunter In the Night's attack speed bonus removes The Swarm's beetles very quickly.
* Sharpshooter disables both Blur and Coup De Grace, especially with the level 25 talent.
* Because Phantom Assassin is often reliant on critical strikes, Hoodwink can have enough time to simply move near a tree and escape with Scurry.
Additional:
* Sharpshooter disables both Blur and Coup De Grace, weakening her damage and survivability.
* Because Phantom Assassin is often reliant on critical strikes, Hoodwink can have enough time to simply move near a tree and escape with Scurry.
* Crippling Fear makes it so Axe might use Blink Dagger right into an AoE silence in the middle of everyone.
* Void cripples Axe's already bad movement speed and attack speed.
* Hunter in the Night makes it impossible for Axe to catch up to fleeing or escape from Night Stalker during the night.
* Lastly, Dark Ascension gives full vision over Axe before he initiates, making the opponents all recognize his location immediately and allowing Night Stalker to prevent it or vocally tell his team if needed.
* Night Stalker has very high strength gain, even in the lane, so a successful Culling Blade is very unlikely.
* Axe's Blade Mail will likely do nothing to Night Stalker because of his high health and certain requirements for him to do the most damage to be true.
* Night Stalker is one of the best heroes to find (and silence) Tinker in the trees during Dark Ascension.
Additional:
* Night Stalker can easily find Tinker in the trees during Dark Ascension.
* Void's mini-stun will stop Rearm and Keen Conveyance
* Crippling Fear's silence will prevent Tinker from fighting back, as Tinker relies on his spells.
* Heroes with evasion will cause Chen and his creeps to struggle in attacking them and will waste much of Penitence's power: Phantom Assassin, Windranger, Hoodwink.
* Durable heroes can stand against Tusk during 1v1: Axe, Dragon Knight, Night Stalker, Centaur Warrunner, Wraith King and more.
* Heroes with weaker mobility will struggle to keep up with Night Stalker: Gyrocopter, Ursa, Drow Ranger
* Heroes with low mobility that rely on spells: Zeus, Lina, Crystal Maiden.
* Heroes that have a weak laning stage: Spectre, Nyx Assassin, Clockwerk, Spirit Breaker, Omniknight, Pudge.
Additional:
* Void's mini-stun and silence from Crippling Fear will stop Pudge from using Dismember or turning off his Rot.
* Night Stalker has naturally high health, strength gain and common itemization for survivability through magic resistance, making Night Stalker a poor target for Pudge.
* Heroes with weaker mobility will struggle to keep up with Night Stalker: Gyrocopter, Ursa, Drow Ranger
* Heroes that have a weak laning stage: Spectre, Nyx Assassin, Clockwerk, Spirit Breaker, Omniknight, Pudge.
* Heroes with mobility/escape mechanisms to dodge Ancient Apparition abilites, or to easily jump on him: Riki, Queen of Pain, Phantom Assassin, Windranger, Bounty Hunter, Spirit Breaker, Night Stalker, Storm Spirit, Juggernaut, etc.
* Heroes with silence such as Riki, Silencer, or Night Stalker prevents Skywrath Mage from using his spells.
* Earthshaker must be careful not to use Blink Dagger or Aghanim's Scepter upgraded Enchant Totem to blink into Riki's Smoke Screen or Night Stalker's Crippling Fear, as these field effects will instantly silence Earthshaker and prevent him from initiating.
Additional:
* Fissure has a short stun and creates an impassable ridge. However, Night Stalker can fly over it during Dark Ascension.
* Night Stalker can find Earthshaker, disable his Blink Dagger with Void, and then take him out with Crippling Fear.
* Earthshaker may fail his blink combo against Night Stalker's team if he is not careful, as he can blink into the silence.
* Heroes that have a weak laning stage: Spectre, Nyx Assassin, Clockwerk, Spirit Breaker, Omniknight, Pudge.
* Any heroes with silences can negate the majority of Outworld Destroyer's damage output: Death Prophet, Night Stalker, Drow Ranger, Doom .
* Heroes with low health: Lich, Crystal Maiden, Lion.
* Night Stalker's Crippling Fear at night prevents Shadow Walk for an extended period of time and his Void will make Phase Boots useless. If Night Stalker has True Sight, he can shutdown Bounty Hunter's sneak kill.
* Durable heroes relied a lot on their main passive effects and items' effects such as Bristleback, Underlord, Spectre and Dragon Knight can be disabled easily with Sharpshooter's break, reducing their potential in teamfights.
* Heroes with stronger lane presence that can threaten to kill him: Batrider, Juggernaut, Ursa, Monkey King, Razor.
* Heroes with weaker mobility will struggle to keep up with Night Stalker: Gyrocopter, Ursa, Drow Ranger
* Heroes with evasions: Phantom Assassin, Brewmaster, Hoodwink, Windranger.
* Heroes with long disables, like Lion, Night Stalker, or Legion Commander, can prevent Oracle from using spells or items.
* Heroes that have a weak laning stage: Spectre, Nyx Assassin, Clockwerk, Spirit Breaker, Omniknight, Pudge.
* Heroes with stronger lane presence that can threaten to kill him: Batrider, Juggernaut, Ursa, Monkey King, Razor.
* Monkey King often hides in trees, where he can be easily caught with Bushwhack.
* Acorn Shot can target enemies in the fog, including Monkey King when he is on a tree.
* Sharpshooter provides flying vision along the cast indicator while charging, which can be used to scout the trees for Monkey King.
* Phoenix turns night to day, overriding Dark Ascension during Supernova.
* Void can interrupt Icarus Dive.
* His Crippling Fear's silence will shutdown a spell caster Phoenix.
* However, Phoenix punishes Night Stalker with Supernova because it will turn night into day, and it has a higher priority than Dark Ascension, effectively canceling the passive bonuses Night Stalker gets from Hunter in the Night.
* Heroes that can negate Hoodwink's mobility: Kunkka, Disruptor, Mars.
* May effortlessly get to and take down Disruptor.
* Void deals heavy single target damage and slow. Lacking innate escape mechanisms justs puts Disruptor in trouble
* Crippling Fear silences, and Disruptor is extremely dependant on abilities to work and to fend for himself.
* Hunter in the Night provides Night Stalker movement speed, attack speed and strengthens his abilities during night time, allowing him to easily catch up and obliterate Disruptor
* With Black King Bar, it's mostly assured to target down Disruptor.
* Void's slow is dispelled by Doppelganger or counteracted by Phantom Rush.
* Spirit Lance's and Diffusal Blade's slow reduces Night Stalker's mobility and helps him or his ally escape if they're inflicted by Void or Crippling Fear.
* Night Stalker has no AoE abilites to take out Phantom Lancer's illusions. Even if Night Stalker gets an Aghanim's Scepter, there will be way too many illusions for Night Stalker to handle.
* Bushwhack will stun and make a quick work of Phantom Lancer and his illusion when he's near a tree.
* Sharpshooter breaks Juxtapose and deals hefty damage.
* Sharpshooter ignores Illusions and will only damage and breaks the real phantom lancer, when used right, this will allow you to reveal the real phantom lancer amongst his Illusions
Additional:
* Acorn Shot combined with attack modifiers such as Maelstrom or Daedalus makes a quick work of Phantom Lancer's illusions.
* Bushwhack will stun Phantom Lancer and his illusions if they're near a tree.
* Heroes with illusions and summons can manfight Night Stalker: Terrorblade, Beastmaster, Broodmother.
* As Terrorblade's damage output comes mainly from direct attacks, he will struggle greatly against heroes who have abilities that give evasion, trigger on attack or which can disarm an enemy hero: Centaur Warrunner, Hoodwink, Huskar, Invoker, Leshrac with Nihilism from Aghanim's Scepter, Lifestealer with Aghanim's Scepter upgraded Infest, Pangolier, Phantom Assassin, Pugna, Techies, Windranger etc.
* Remote Mines are frequently placed in trees, and can thus kill an unwary Hoodwink should she Scurry away due to her low HP pool.
* Blast Off! can clear out trees, denying the tactical advantages from Scurry.
* Dark Ascension also allows Night Stalker to fly over Proximity Mines without triggering them.
* Crippling Fear is effective in stopping Techies from using Blast Off and Void is effective in stopping them from running to the safety of their mines.
* Heroes that are hard to gank: Dragon Knight, Mars, Centaur Warrunner.
* Durable heroes relied a lot on their main passive effects and items' effects such as Bristleback, Underlord, Spectre and Dragon Knight can be disabled easily with Sharpshooter's break, reducing their potential in teamfights.
* Storm Spirit can easily make his way to Hoodwink with his ultimate Ball lightning, and coupled with Hoodwink's low health and magic resistance, she can be nuked easily.
* Additionally, Ball lightning can destroy a small amount of trees in its destination. Combined with Storm Spirit's frequent usage of his ultimate, he can clear out an area of trees while simultaneously attacking him and dodging incoming attacks.
* Storm Spirit is absolutely helpless if caught within Night Stalker's silence range.
* Common items a Storm Spirit will build will not remove the AoE silence.
Additional:
* Crippling Fear is a silence that can last up to 8 seconds during night, rendering Storm Spirit tied limited to his items in a fight.
* Dark Ascension allows Night Stalker to initiate on Storm Spirit across the impassable terrain around the middle lane, rendering Storm vulnerable in the early game and prevent him from snowballing.
* Slark's Pounce can be used to dodge Hoodwink's abilities or lock her down.
* Shadow Dance makes Slark unhittable from Acorn Shot.
* Dark Pact removes all slows from Hoodwink's abilities.
* Hoodwink's already low health output is a great target for Slark's Essence Shift.
* With Dark Ascension he can keep vision on Slark, disabling his Shadow Dance regeneration.
* Night Stalker is very fast so without the Pounce in lane, he can simply out distance him during the night.
* Slark is matched in night vision by only a few heroes, Night Stalker happens to be one of them.
* Abilities that can destroy trees can give Hoodwink a disadvantage: Timbersaw, Windranger, Lina.
* Heroes with low mobility that rely on spells: Zeus, Lina, Crystal Maiden.
* Clinkz's item build often counters Hoodwink, including Black King Bar, Monkey King Bar, Heaven's Halberd, and Scythe of Vyse.
* Skeleton Walk can quickly escape Hoodwink abilities.
* The long silence at night prevents Clinkz from escaping with invisibility if Night Stalker can sneak up on him. He also has really low base health, so Night Stalker can usually kill him alone during one cast of Crippling Fear at night.
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Night Stalker
* Heroes with illusions and summons can manfight Night Stalker: Terrorblade, Beastmaster, Broodmother.
Hoodwink
* Wild Axes destroys large amounts of trees specially upgraded with Aghanim's Scepter,