* Morphling's naturally high armor thanks to his high agility makes it hard for Phantom Assassin to take him down with
Coup de Grace.
* Heroes who often build
Linken's Sphere:
Weaver,
Morphling,
Medusa.
* Heroes with disables that ignore spell immunity will render Phantom Assassin completely useless in teamfights throughout the game:
Axe,
Enigma,
Vengeful Spirit,
Doom,
Bane,
Beastmaster,
Pudge,
Medusa,
Warlock.
* Doom does not disable
Mana Shield. As such, Doom's damage is largely mitigated by her mana shield. Additionally, Medusa is not reliant on her abilities to be effective during a teamfight, making Medusa an unproductive hero to target.
* Medusa is an ideal
Linken's Sphere carrier. Should one be purchased, and without any additional disables, Doom may find that few opportunities exist to effectively lockdown, disable, and kill Medusa.
* 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.
* Even if he is
Doomed, Wraith King can tear down Doom with physical attacks, and can still reincarnate as long as it is off-cooldown.
Additional:
* Wraith King has three passive abilities and only a single active ability, so Doom does not hinder him significantly.
* Doom expires upon death, so it is effectively removed after
Reincarnation activates.
* Heroes that can apply early pressure before Phantom Assassin has farm are massive threats:
Axe,
Viper,
Meepo,
Jakiro,
Pugna,
Slark,
Venomancer etc.
* The slow applied from
Corrosive Skin offsets the movement speed bonus granted by Scorched Earth and the tick-based damage from Infernal Blade and Doom will continually slow Doom down. This allows Viper, much like Sniper, to 'kite' Doom and keep him at a safe distance between the two. Additionally,
Corrosive Skin applies an attack-speed slow which is fairly crippling to a hero such as Doom that, naturally, has a high base attack-time, poor agility gain and builds little attack-speed items.
* Since Doom does not disable auto-cast abilities, Viper's
Poison Attack will continue to work. Doom may find it hard to close the distance between himself and Viper, and thusly difficult to effectively lockdown and continually deal damage through his abilities.
* Heroes who cannot prevent Sven from killing towers will often struggle from a small map very early, such as
Phantom Assassin,
Storm Spirit and
Phantom Lancer.
*
Doom generally does not impede Sven in almost any way, provided he has activated God's Strength beforehand.
* Phantom Assassin's high physical damage is greatly reduced by Bulwark.
* God's Rebuke has true strike, ignoring the evasion from
Blur.
* Heroes who can disable Mars but cannot do any damage to him, meaning he just tanks their abilities:
Doom,
Magnus.
* Heroes who rely on physical damage are easily negated by Ghost Shroud:
Phantom Assassin,
Wraith King,
Juggernaut.
* Due to Doom's naturally high health, strength gain and common itemization for durability,
Heartstopper Aura is particularly effective. The health loss is also large enough that, throughout all stages of the game, the aura effectively neuters the health regeneration granted by Devour.
* Necrophos can help to keep both himself and his allies alive during Doom through his natural regeneration granted by
Heartstopper Aura (which is not disabled by Doom), or in the case of an ally, through his
Death Pulse. Additionally, Necrophos is an ideal
Mekansm carrier. Should one be bought, kills against Necrophos' team can be difficult to secure due to the damage-over-time nature of Doom and his abilities.
* Doom typically wants to be a hero that soaks attention from the enemy team and takes the role of an initiator and disabler. As such, Doom is an ideal target for
Reaper's Scythe, as it is likely Doom will be at the fore-front of any fight.
* 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.
* Single-target disablers will have difficulty locking down a Chaos Knight with Phantasm active:
Bane,
Beastmaster,
Bloodseeker,
Clockwerk,
Doom,
Shadow Shaman.
*
Fire Spirits applies a severe attack speed slow, severely hindering Phantom Assassin's damage output.
* Phantom Assassin cannot cast Phantom Strike on Phoenix during
Supernova.
Additional:
* While her
Phantom Strike does give limited extra attack speed, she cannot use the ability against the Phoenix Sun, and while her
Blur may protect her from attacks, Phoenix's strong magical DPS burns away her small health pool quickly, and the attack speed slow makes her unable to fight back (provided she has no source of spell immunity).
* Heroes with no AoE abilities will struggle against Phantom Lancer:
Phantom Assassin,
Broodmother
* Phantom Lancer's illusions can make it difficult to Doom the real hero. Should Doom figure out the real hero, the illusions can make it difficult to cast any abilities, as their hitboxes can be used to body-block the real Phantom Lancer.
* Phantom Lancer is an ideal
Diffusal Blade carrier. With it, he can quite easily deplete Doom's already poor mana pool, potentially making him unable to cast his abilities to escape, retaliate or heal.
* Doom lacks any effective ability to clear waves of creeps and illusions, as the vast majority of his abilities are single-target. Without an answer, Doom may find it difficult to deal with Phantom Lancer's presence.
*
Doom's
Doom marks Phantom Lancer with a highly visible effect, and also silences and mutes him.
* Heroes with undispellable debuffs will help identify the real Phantom Lancer through visual effects or debuff indicators, provided that it was cast on the real Phantom Lancer to begin with:
*
Doom's
Doom marks Phantom Lancer with a highly visible effect, and also silences and mutes him.
*
Bloodseeker's
Rupture shows a clear red trail effect on the real Phantom Lancer.
*
Ancient Apparition's
Ice Blast will only debuff Phantom Lancer and not his illusions.
*
Grimstroke's
Soulbind is undispellable.
*
Shadow Demon's
Demonic Purge is undispellable.
*
Monkey King's
Jingu Mastery is undispellable and puts a big yellow Mark over his head.
*
Whirling Axes (Melee) makes it hard for Phantom Assassin to land a
Coup De Grace.
* Troll Warlord often buys
Silver Edge and
Monkey King Bar, the items that greatly help against Phantom Assassin's Blur ability.
*
Battle Trance completely negates Phantom Assassin's large damage output, preventing Troll Warlord from dying easily. The lifesteal also allows Troll Warlord to restore much of his health.
Additional:
* Troll Warlord can build a
Silver Edge or a
Monkey King Bar to completely ignore
Blur.
* Whirling Axes (Melee) provides a 60% miss chance, making a
Coup de Grace critical strike very hard to land.
* Battle Trance negates
Coup de Grace, preventing Troll Warlord from dying to her critical hits.
* Overgrowth prevents Phantom Assassin from using
Blink Strike even through her spell immunity.
* Living Armor reduces Phantom Assassin's physical damage whenever she attempts to gank an allied hero.
* Heroes such as
Lone Druid,
Tidehunter and
Viper can be very problematic for Phantom Assassin because they give her very little time to farm and become scary.
* 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.
* 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.
* Despite her high mobility,
Hex or
Earth Spike can lock
Phantom Assassin down, make her vulnerable and mitigate her damage output.
* Lion relies entirely on his abilities to be effective, rendering Phatnom Assassin's high evasion through ineffective against him. And Phantom Assassin's low health pool makes her vulnerable to Lion's magical burst without
Black King Bar.
*
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.
Additional:
*
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.
* Phantom Assassin does not deal with early aggression very easily (especially when magical damage). A competent Batrider can make life very difficult with
Sticky Napalm followed by any other spell.
*
Firestorm can deal serious damage to Phantom Assassin during laning.
*
Pit of Malice prevents Phantom Assassin from either escaping or engaging with
Phantom Strike.
* Phantom Assassin's damage output is entirely physical, therefore
Atrophy Aura is very hazardous for her in most of the stages, particularly since it also affects
Coup De Grace, hindering Phantom Assassin's main source of damage.
* Without proper items and any area-of-effect ability/item, Phantom Assassin cannot stop Underlord and his team to escape with
Fiend's Gate, and she has nothing to intercept Underlord and his team when they use
Fiend's Gate to teleport on any area of the map outside of
Fan of Knives from
Aghanim's Shard.
Additional:
*
Firestorm can be used to deal serious damage to Phantom Assassin during laning that ignores evasion from
Blur.
*
Pit of Malice prevents Phantom Assassin from either escaping or engaging with
Phantom Strike.
* Phantom Assassin's damage output is entirely physical, therefore
Atrophy Aura is very hazardous for her in most of the stages, particularly since it also affects
Coup De Grace, hindering Phantom Assassin's main source of damage.
* Without proper items and any area-of-effect ability/item, Phantom Assassin cannot stop Underlord and his team to escape with
Fiend's Gate, nor she can intercept them if Underlord chooses to teleport on any area of the map.
* Heroes without blink mechanisms or spell immunity will have a hard time positioning against
Pit of Malice:
Sven,
Tiny,
Wraith King,
Dragon Knight,
Meepo,
Doom,
Bounty Hunter,
Dark Seer,
Undying,
Alchemist,
Legion Commander.
*
Doom with the {ValueColor:1|Doom applies Break|25tal} {Symbol:Talent} talent can be useful against heroes with troublesome passive skills while also disabling them for a long time:
Phantom Assassin,
Enchantress,
Huskar,
Underlord.
Additional:
*
Infernal Blade does damage based on percentage health, and is useful against high health pool hero like Underlord.
*
Doom can prevent Underlord from spamming his abilities and most important is to prevent him from using Fiend's Gate to escape.
* Phantom Assassin relies on her
Blur to stay alive, but is very vulnerable to Sand King's heavy magic damage.
* With Burrowstrike, Sand King can often catch Phantom Assassin before she can use her
Black King Bar.
* Sand King can dodge
Stifling Dagger with Sandstorm.
* Phantom Assassin has a hard time killing Sand King because of his high mobility.
* Phantom Assassin's single target abilities make her very helpless against swarms of Spiderlings without
Battle Fury.
* Because Phantom Assassin is always reliant on critical strikes, Broodmother will usually have enough time to use Spin Web to save herself.
*
Silken Bola can cripple Phantom Assassin greatly due to her being 100% reliant on physical attacks.
*
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 Phantom Assassin, deal damage over time to Phantom Assassin and reveal Phantom Assassin if she unwittingly steps on them, disrupting her attempts to initiate or escape with with
Phantom Strike while also alerting Broodmother on her attempts to ambush her and her allies.
Additional:
* Phantom Assassin's single target abilities make her very helpless against swarms of Spiderlings without
Battle Fury.
* Because Phantom Assassin is always reliant on critical strikes, Broodmother will usually have enough time to use Spin Web to save herself.
*
Silken Bola can cripple Phantom Assassin greatly due to her being 100% reliant on physical attacks.
*
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 Phantom Assassin, deal damage over time to Phantom Assassin and reveal Phantom Assassin if she unwittingly steps on them, disrupting her attempts to initiate or escape with with
Phantom Strike while also alerting Broodmother on her attempts to ambush her and her allies.
* Static Link can lower the damage output from
Coup de Grace procs, hindering Phantom Assassin's main source of damage.
* Eye of the Storm strikes cannot be evaded by
Blur.
* Both Static Link and Eye of the Storm pierces spell immunity, as Phantom Assassin is often reliant on Black King Bar.
Additional:
*
Static Link can lower the damage output from
Coup de Grace procs, hindering Phantom Assassin's main source of damage. And Phantom Assassin is not a common
Linken's Sphere wielder to counter this problem.
*
Eye of the Storm strikes cannot be evaded by
Blur.
* Both
Static Link and
Eye of the Storm pierces spell immunity, as Phantom Assassin is often reliant on Black King Bar.
* Heroes that rely on physical damage are ineffective against Dragon Knight due to his high armor:
Phantom Assassin,
Bloodseeker,
Lifestealer,
Troll Warlord,
Sven
* Heroes with disables that ignore spell immunity will render Phantom Assassin completely useless in teamfights throughout the game:
Axe,
Enigma,
Vengeful Spirit,
Doom,
Bane,
Beastmaster,
Pudge,
Medusa,
Warlock.
* Heroes with gap-closing abilities who attempt to use them for escaping Bloodseeker will suffer serious damage from Rupture:
Phantom Assassin,
Anti-Mage,
Faceless Void,
Riki,
Slark,
Spirit Breaker.
* In general, Brewmaster's Cinder Brew and Thunder Clap makes him good against physical damage carries:
Ursa,
Clinkz,
Faceless Void,
Troll Warlord,
Templar Assassin,
Phantom Assassin.
* 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.
* Heroes capable of perofrming interceptions who can anticipate and counter-initiate after Phantom Assassin blinks on them with Phantom Strike will often kill her than the other way around:
Axe,
Bane,
Dawnbreaker,
Centaur Warrunner,
Luna,
Medusa,
Omniknight,
Pudge,
Razor,
Terrorblade,
Underlord.
* Hex abilities prevent attacking, ability and item usage, which is a severe problem for Phantom Assassin as it prevents her from using
Black King Bar, the one item that helps protect her against the aforementioned dangers.
Doom and
Shadow Demon with
Aghanim's Scepter also disables Phantom Assassin's Evasion and Critical Strike, removing much of her damage and survivabaility:
Doom,
Disruptor with
Aghanim's Scepter,
Dazzle with
Aghanim's Shard
* 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.
* With
Aghanim's Scepter upgraded
Infest, Lifestealer can use it on enemy heroes to attack them and disarm them from inside, even if they are spell immune, which can give him the edge over the heroes he's weak against like
Ursa,
Phantom Assassin,
Terrorblade or
Troll Warlord.
*
Feast deals damage and heals Lifestealer based on the target's maximum HP, which is greatly effective against naturally high HP heroes such as Doom.
*
Rage allows Lifestealer to become spell immune to negate the magical damage of Infernal Blade and Scorched Earth.
* Doom has no effective means of escape from
Open Wounds and
Ghoul Frenzy. This is particularly devastating in the laning stage, where Doom may have to play a much more passive, conservative play style as a result.
*
Rage does absolutely nothing against Phantom Strike with items.
*
Feast and
Ghoul Frenzy are very difficult to utilise thanks to Blur.
* Lifestealer generally wants to buy items that make him hard to kill, not an
Monkey King Bar which only offers damage.
* Heroes who rely on physical damage output to be effective will fare badly against Muerta's
Pierce the Veil:
Phantom Assassin,
Terrorblade,
Drow Ranger,
Lifestealer,
Anti-Mage,
Alchemist,
Lycan,
Clinkz,
Sniper.
* 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.
* Any heroes with low mana pools will die quickly or even instantly to Sanity's Eclipse:
Doom,
Phantom Assassin,
Troll Warlord.
* Any heroes with low mana pools will die quickly or even instantly to Sanity's Eclipse:
Doom,
Phantom Assassin,
Troll Warlord.
* Any heroes with silences can negate the majority of Outworld Destroyer's damage output:
Death Prophet,
Night Stalker,
Drow Ranger,
Doom .
* Heroes that can apply early pressure before Phantom Assassin has farm are massive threats:
Axe,
Viper,
Meepo,
Jakiro,
Pugna,
Slark,
Venomancer etc.
* Hex abilities prevent attacking, ability and item usage, which is a severe problem for Phantom Assassin as it prevents her from using
Black King Bar, the one item that helps protect her against the aforementioned dangers.
Doom and
Shadow Demon with
Aghanim's Scepter also disables Phantom Assassin's Evasion and Critical Strike, removing much of her damage and survivabaility:
Doom,
Disruptor with
Aghanim's Scepter,
Dazzle with
Aghanim's Shard
* 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 that rely on escapes to stay alive can be caught and locked down for a long time:
Queen of Pain,
Phantom Assassin
* 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.
*
Terrorblade can use
Sunder to save his allies who are Doomed.
* Assuming they have not bought anti-evasion items, attack-dependent heroes such as
Ursa,
Terrorblade or
Lifestealer can be a minor threat for Phantom Assassin early in the game, and may even be completely dominated by her thanks to her evasion.
* Heroes with a slow attack rate will find themselves struggling to take out Tombstone, like
Doom.
* Heroes with disables that ignore spell immunity will render Phantom Assassin completely useless in teamfights throughout the game:
Axe,
Enigma,
Vengeful Spirit,
Doom,
Bane,
Beastmaster,
Pudge,
Medusa,
Warlock.
* Heroes that can apply early pressure before Phantom Assassin has farm are massive threats:
Axe,
Viper,
Meepo,
Jakiro,
Pugna,
Slark,
Venomancer etc.
* Heroes with one single-target abilities such as
Wraith King,
Necrophos, or
Doom will struggle against Weaver's Linken Sphere.
* Drow Ranger can be difficult to get on top of, thanks to her
Frost Arrows and
Gust. With these two abilities, Drow Ranger is able to effectively 'kite' Doom and minimize his impact during team fights and laning stage.
* Much of Drow Ranger's effectiveness comes from her passive
Marksmanship, which is not disabled by Doom.
* Generally, heroes that can close the gap on Drow Ranger to cancel her Marksmanship such as
Phantom Assassin,
Spirit Breaker, and
Tusk are effective at limiting her power and bursting her down.
* Slark's
Pounce allows him to close the gap on Phantom Assassin and prevent her from escaping with
Phantom Strike.
* As a hero who typically builds
Silver Edge, Slark can use it to disable Phantom Assassin's
Blur and
Coup de Grace, thus taking down her attack evasion and drastically reducing her damage output.
* Because Phantom Assassin is always reliant on critical strikes, Slark will have plenty of time to escape with
Pounce,
Shadow Dance and
Silver Edge (provided that he purchased it already).
*
Depth Shroud from
Aghanim's Shard will allow Slark to save both, himself and his allies from Phantom Assassin with
Shadow Dance, and to freely fightback against her without removing invisibility upon attacking.
*
Essence Shift is much more harmful for Phantom Assassin than for other heroes, as losing the agility means that her physical damage will be also reduced, which can also weaken
Coup de Grace if Slark manages to steal lots of agility from her.
* Overall, any attempt for Phantom Assassin to take down Slark will hurt her more than Slark.
Additional:
* Slark's
Pounce allows him to close the gap on Phantom Assassin and prevent her from escaping with
Phantom Strike.
* As a hero who typically builds
Silver Edge, Slark can use it to disable Phantom Assassin's
Blur and
Coup de Grace, thus taking down her attack evasion and drastically reducing her damage output.
* Because Phantom Assassin is always reliant on critical strikes, Slark will have plenty of time to escape with
Pounce,
Shadow Dance and
Silver Edge (provided that he purchased it already).
*
Depth Shroud from
Aghanim's Shard will allow Slark to save both, himself and his allies from Phantom Assassin with
Shadow Dance, and to freely fightback against her without removing invisibility upon attacking.
*
Essence Shift is much more harmful for Phantom Assassin than for other heroes, as losing the agility means that her physical damage will be also reduced, which can also weaken
Coup de Grace if Slark manages to steal lots of agility from her.
* Overall, any attempt for Phantom Assassin to take down Slark will hurt her more than Slark.
* Heroes with silencing abilities can be particularly deadly when Slark is trying to escape:
Silencer,
Death Prophet,
Puck,
Doom.
*
Laguna Blade is one of the best tools to kill Phantom Assassin before she can do anything in early-to-mid game due to its high magical (pure with
Laguna Blade damage is Pure and pierces Spell Immunity talent) burst damage.
*
Blur offers no protection against Lina's abilities. Likewise, Lina can counter
Blur's evasion by buying either
Silver Edge or
Monkey King Bar.
* Lina just has to be careful about
Fan of Knives from
Aghanim's Shard and
Coup De Grace, as
Fan of Knives can deal pure damage to Lina and disable
Fiery Soul awhile
Coup De Grace can deal serious damage to her even if she is spell immune, which may force Lina to buy
Ethereal Blade to deal with Phantom Assassin.
Additional:
*
Laguna Blade is one of the best tools to kill Phantom Assassin before she can do anything in early-to-mid game due to its high magical (pure with
Laguna Blade damage is Pure and pierces Spell Immunity talent) burst damage.
*
Blur offers no protection against Lina's abilities. Likewise, Lina can counter
Blur's evasion by buying either
Silver Edge or
Monkey King Bar.
* Lina just has to be careful about
Fan of Knives from
Aghanim's Shard and
Coup De Grace, as
Fan of Knives can deal pure damage to Lina and disable
Fiery Soul awhile
Coup De Grace can deal serious damage to her even if she is spell immune, which may force Lina to buy
Ethereal Blade to deal with Phantom Assassin.
* Fragile support heroes are all ideal targets for the Phantom Assassin. Heroes such as
Lina and
Witch Doctor are all prime targets that may not be able to react quickly and fight back due to Phantom Assassin's sudden appearance.
* While Phantom Assassin can kill Skywrath Mage in a few strikes, Skywrath Mage can also do the same to her if she is not careful.
*
Arcane Bolt's long range and low cooldowns allows Skywrath Mage to severely harass Phantom Assassin in lane.
*
Ancient Seal prevents Phantom Assassin from escaping or engaging with
Phantom Strike.
*
Mystic Flare's heavy magical damage nukes Phantom Assassin down quickly during the early to mid game.
Additional:
* While Phantom Assassin can kill Skywrath Mage in a few strikes, Skywrath Mage can also do the same to her if she is not careful.
*
Arcane Bolt's long range and low cooldowns allows Skywrath Mage to severely harass Phantom Assassin in lane.
*
Ancient Seal prevents Phantom Assassin from escaping or engaging with
Phantom Strike.
*
Mystic Flare's heavy magical damage nukes Phantom Assassin down quickly during the early to mid game.
* Skywrath's pitiful defences also make him easy meat to heroes with high burst like
Juggernaut,
Lion, or
Phantom Assassin, the latter occasionally downing a support Skywrath in a single
Stifling Dagger.
* Anti-Mage's low health pool making vulnerable to Phantom Assassin's burst damage and
Coup De Grace critical strike, while Blink is on cooldown.
*
Blur makes Anti-Mage unable to deal Mana Break to her.
* Phantom Assassin has low intelligence and low mana pool, making Mana Void do minimal damage.
Additional:
* Anti-Mage can easily withstand heavy magical bursts due to
Counterspell, but he is still somewhat vulnerable to physical damage. Phantom Assassin's burst physical damage can destroy Anti-Mage while
Blink is on cooldown or while he is stunned or hexed.
* Blur makes Anti-Mage unable to deal significant damage to her without buying
Monkey King Bar, which means he cannot buy items to benefit his
Mana Break.
* Phantom Assassin has an abysmal mana pool and intelligence gain, making
Mana Break and
Mana Void deal minimal damage.
*
Doom shuts down Anti-Mage's escape capabilities with Blink. The ability also deals pure damage, which ignores the protection from Counterspell.
* However, a well-timed Counterspell can reflect it back.
* If Doom has
Aghanim's Scepter,
Doom can break Mana Break and Counterspell, weakening both his offense and defense.
* Doom's low mana pool causes him to take little damage from Mana Void.
Additional:
*
Doom prevents Anti-Mage from maneuvering around a fight or escaping from an initiation using
Blink. Additionally, Doom deals pure damage, which is not affected by
Counterspell. This can quickly whittle away Anti-Mage's naturally poor health pool.
* However, Doom must be careful when using
Doom as a well-timed
Counterspell can block and reflect it back against Doom himself.
* The Level 25 talent {ValueColor:1|Doom applies Break|25tal} {Symbol:Talent} will also disable
Mana Break and
Counterspell's passive component, which makes Anti-Mage significantly less effective in fights and more susceptible to the high magical damage of Doom's abilities and his allies.
*
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 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.
* Heroes that can easily bypass Chen's creeps to get to Chen:
Riki,
Tusk,
Clinkz,
Sniper,
Slark,
Phantom Assassin,
Void Spirit,
Storm Spirit,
Ember Spirit,
Earth Spirit,
Spirit Breaker.
* Doom can easily kill Chen's creeps and obtain their abilities with
Devour.
*
Scorched Earth's area-of-effect can clear multiple of Chen's creeps at once.
*
Doom renders Chen completely helpless, and unable to save himself or his allies with
Hand of God.
Aghanim's Scepter upgraded
Doom also allows Doom to cast
Doom on himself and disable both, Chen and his creeps around him.
* Hex abilities prevent attacking, ability and item usage, which is a severe problem for Phantom Assassin as it prevents her from using
Black King Bar, the one item that helps protect her against the aforementioned dangers.
Doom and
Shadow Demon with
Aghanim's Scepter also disables Phantom Assassin's Evasion and Critical Strike, removing much of her damage and survivabaility:
Doom,
Disruptor with
Aghanim's Scepter,
Dazzle with
Aghanim's Shard
* Dazzle's lack of a true disable makes him a relatively vulnerable target for Phantom Assassin.
* Coup de Grace will often kill Dazzle's teammates before he has a chance to use
Shallow Grave.
* Doom can completely shut down Dazzle through
Doom, as it prevents him from casting his abilities and, by extension, gaining Bad Juju stacks.
* 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.
* 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.
* 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.
* Carries that can out damage Huskar will do well against him:
Legion Commander,
Faceless Void,
Troll Warlord,
Phantom Assassin.
* Heroes with abilities that break Berserker's Blood, lowering Huskar's attack speed and health regeneration:
Doom,
Shadow Demon,
Viper.
* Death Ward's first target (before it bounces) can evade it, therefore
Windranger and
Phantom Assassin are poor choices to use it on.
* 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.
* Phantom Assassin can easily escape Lich's slows with
Phantom Strike.
* Phantom Assassin's
Coup De Grace can be used to burst down the squishy Lich.
*
Doom completely takes Invoker out of a team fight, a hero who relies heavily on using abilities and items to contribute in team fights.
Additional:
*
Doom is a good way to shut down Invoker, preventing from casting spells and using items for a lengthy time, thus forcing him to invest on
Linken's Sphere.
* Infernal Blade deals scaling damage and is useful against high HP targets such as Elder Titan. It also can interrupt
Echo Stomp if quick enough.
* Doom has very low base armor and naturally high HP, so he isn't significantly affected by
Natural Order.
*
Devour can easily eat creeps controlled by Enchant, limiting her ganking potential.
*
Doom reduces the amount of healing received by Enchantress and her allies from Nature's Attendants. In addition, when Doom chooses the
Doom applies Break talent, it can also disable Untouchable.
* Ember Spirit cannot use his
Activate Fire Remnant to escape while affected by
Doom.
*
Doom prevents Storm Spirit from using all of his abilities and items, rendering Storm Spirit useless in a fight.
*
Doom is effective against every hero, and Void Spirit is no exception. Being unable to cast spells or items during fights for 16 seconds nullifies his impact entirely.
* Doom has a very versatile build and can consume creeps which has abilities that can stun or provide additional magic resistance.
* Doom's high strength gain and versatility in items can be effective against Void Spirit's magical damage.
* Doom has several disable abilities to choose from jungle creeps (e.g.
War Stomp,
Ensnare) to deal with Shadow Fiend who lacks escape abilities.
* When Doom combines creep abilities with
Scorched Earth,
Infernal Blade, and
Doom, Shadow Fiend most likely will die as he cannot use Shadowraze and Requiem of Souls to protect himself, and also cannot even flee by using
Shadow Blade or
Blink Dagger.
* Although Shadow Fiend has a high physical damage output, Doom has a large health pool to survive it, meaning Doom's combo with high magical damage output will shutdown Shadow Fiend first.
* Doom usually buys
Radiance to improve his damage, making his nuke combo more deadly to Shadow Fiend. The blind also prevents Shadow Fiend from landing his attacks often.
*
Infernal Blade deals scaling damage and is useful against high HP targets such as Bristleback.
*
Doom prevents Bristleback from casting his two low cooldown abilities, which then prevents him from utilizing
Warpath.
* If Doom chooses the Level 25 talent {ValueColor:1|Doom applies Break|25tal} {Symbol:Talent}, he can disable
Bristleback and
Warpath, taking away much of his durability and damage potential in team fights.
Additional:
*
Infernal Blade deals scaling damage and is useful against high health targets such as Bristleback.
*
Doom disables Bristleback's low cooldown abilities, preventing him from triggering Warpath. With his upgraded level 25 talent, it also breaks Bristleback's passive, rendering him more vulnerable.
*
Fade Bolt is not enough to burst
Phantom Assassin down without the help of other stolen spells.
*
Rubick has little armor and can be
Phantom Assassin's primary target.
*
Telekinesis is the only way for Rubick to retaliate if being jumped on, but the lockdown duration is generally not enough for Rubick to escape.
* Few of
Phantom Assassin's spells grants utility for
Rubick.
*
Phantom Assassin's spells strengthes her assault power combined with her physical damage output, yet Rubick is not considered a physical damage dealer.
* With that said,
Blur could be of use for Rubick to hide on back in teamfights waiting for the key spell without fearing of being initiated.
*
Blink Strike does not grant Riki a mobility advantage over Phantom Assassin, as her Phantom Strike serves the same purpose, but with a higher range.
* A Carry Riki usually has a hard time dealing with Blur, as a
Monkey King Bar or
Bloodthorn are unfavourable item picks for him (or, even more unlikely, a
Silver Edge).
* A
Black King Bar is a very common pick for Phantom Assassin, fully countering
Smoke Screen and
Diffusal Blade while activated.
* With
Bloodthorn, Clinkz becomes a strong counter to heroes who rely on evasion and blind such as
Windranger,
Phantom Assassin,
Troll Warlord and
Keeper of the Light.
* Heroes with high armor like
Dragon Knight, or with abilities to cause attacks to miss like
Phantom Assassin,
Riki and
Tinker will be hard to deal with, as Clinkz relies almost entirely on physical attacks.
*
Scorched Earth deals damage to Clinkz during Skeleton Walk.
*
Doom shuts down Clinkz entirely, as it prevents him from casting any of his spells and contributing a large amount of damage in teamfights.
* Though certainly not a "hard counter", Crystal Maiden's skillset (magical damage nukes) does pose a substantial threat to Phantom Assassin through the mid game, especially if followed up with engagement by her team.
* A quick use of Freezing Field directly after
Phantom Strike can leave Phantom Assassin trapped inside the area of effect, capitalizing on Phantom Assassin's relatively low HP pool when she is not protected by
Blur, and besides
Skull Basher, Phantom Assassin hates buying disabling items like
Scythe of Vyse or
Eul's Scepter of Divinity.
* If Phantom Assassin chooses not to buy a
Black King Bar relatively early, the attack slow from Freezing Field can greatly hinder the proc chance of
Coup de Grace in a teamfight.
* However, Phantom Assassin's massive damage, and her tendency to build both
Black King Bar and
Skull Basher makes her a formidable foe the later the game goes, and fighting her without a team is almost never a good choice.
* Crystal Maiden's low health pool and slow movement speed make her a tempting and easy target.
* However, it may be wise to build
Black King Bar first before attempting to fight her alone, as she can disable you and retaliate with
Freezing Field.
* Doom alone can easily pick off Crystal Maiden since she is fairly fragile, even with using only basic attacks,
Infernal Blade, and
Scorched Earth.
*
Doom prevents her from using any abilities in a fight, making her impact negligible.
*
Devour allows Doom to acquire a stun, allowing him to cancel Freezing Field without having to use
Doom.
*
Doom makes Ogre Magi less disruptive.
*
Infernal Blade effectively negates Ogre Magi's durability.
* With
Aghanim's Scepter, he can disable Multicast.
* High health heroes (
Axe,
Doom) fall fast with Fury Swipes stacks.
* Assuming they have not bought anti-evasion items, attack-dependent heroes such as
Ursa,
Terrorblade or
Lifestealer can be a minor threat for Phantom Assassin early in the game, and may even be completely dominated by her thanks to her evasion.
*
Doom makes Ursa less disruptive, and it cannot be dispelled with Enrage upgraded with
Aghanim's Scepter.
*
Blur makes it hard for Monkey King to stack Jingu Mastery.
*
Phantom Strike allows Phantom Assassin to blink directly to Monkey King during Wukong's Command, bypassing all his clones.
*
Coup de Grace's high damage can kill Monkey King quickly, thus ending Wukong's Command prematurely.
* Arc Warden relies on items and abilities, as well as his
Tempest Double, to deal damage to enemies.
Doom effectively denies that and makes Arc Warden useless in fights.
* If Phantom Assassin jumps on Pudge first with
Phantom Strike, she will be a very easy target for Pudge's
Meat Hook and
Dismember combo.
* Even though it can deal damage based on Pudge's max health,
Fan of Knives from
Aghanim's Shard cannot disable Pudge's
Flesh Heap as
Flesh Heap is one of the few passive abilities that cannot be disabled by break.
* Both
Meat Hook and
Dismember ignore spell immunity which allows Pudge to disable Phantom Assassin even while she has
Black King Bar active.
* Pudge occassionally buys armor items like
Blade Mail, which in combination with many stacks from
Flesh Heap can make Phantom Assassin have little effect against Pudge.
* Generally heroes who don't rely on magical damage, such as
Sven,
Phantom Assassin, and
Outworld Destroyer, as they can practically ignore Flesh Heap's damage block.
*
Doom disables the toggling of Rot and, if cast at the right time, may leave Pudge with a potentially lethal health drain.
* Doom's naturally high health, strength gain and damage output makes him a poor target for Pudge.
* The damage of Doom's
Infernal Blade scales with the target's maximum health, which is particularly effective against Pudge due to his naturally high health and further health granted by stacks of Flesh Heap.
Additional:
*
Infernal Blade deals high damage to Pudge due to his scaling health and strength gain from
Flesh Heap.
* Using
Doom with timing against Pudge who had just activated
Rot would usually kill him.
* Heroes with silences and hard stuns such as
Doom,
Silencer, and
Lion can keep Mirana from Leaping away.
Additional:
*
Doom completely takes Mirana out of a team fight, a hero who relies heavily on using abilities and items to contribute in team fights.
* Ancient Apparition has no escape or reliable control and is very fragile, which makes him an easy target for anyone who can get on top of him, like
Phantom Assassin or
Clinkz.
* Heroes with high burst damage and
Black King Bar can take down Dark Willow quickly:
Phantom Assassin,
Sven,
Wraith King
* Heroes that can stop Faceless Void from leaping around the fight and controlling its outcome are very strong against him. Heroes such as:
Axe,
Centaur Warrunner,
Doom...
Additional:
* Faceless Void relies on
Time Walk for mobility and survivability but he can be prevented from utilizing it through
Doom.
* Doom has a high cooldown duration for every ability except Infernal Blade, so he is not significantly affected by
Time Dilation.
*
Silencer's
Global Silence and
Doom's
Doom makes Earthshaker temporarily useless.
* Heroes which rely exclusively on right clicks will struggle somewhat against Blinding Light:
Phantom Assassin,
Wraith King,
Medusa
* Heroes with teleports to escape Solar Blind and Will-O-Wisp:
Phantom Assassin,
Puck,
Queen of Pain,
Storm Spirit
* Heroes with silences:
Puck,
Doom,
Riki.
* 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.
Additional:
*
Doom will make Abaddon unable to use Mist Coil, Aphotic Shield, and the active component of Borrowed Time, also upgraded with
Aghanim's Scepter can break Curse of Avernus and the passive component of Borrowed Time ,which means his allies could be easily disabled or killed.
* Heroes with Evasion or abilities that cause Tiny to miss like
Phantom Assassin and
Tinker are very effective because of Tiny's low attack speed. Additionally,
Monkey King Bar is not a good item for Tiny because of its reliance on high attack speed to proc for magical damage.
* Melee heroes who may struggle to get close to Sniper:
Wraith King,
Kunkka,
Doom,
Tidehunter,
Underlord,
Troll Warlord, and etc.
Additional:
* Due to the nature of the hero, Sniper is typically situated in the back of the fight, potentially making him a difficult target to initiate on and fight.
* Sniper is largely a right-click hero, and as such isn't as an effective of a Doom target as other heroes.
* Thanks to
Shrapnel and
Headshot, Sniper is able to effectively 'kite' Doom, preventing him from closing the distance between the two.
*
Stifling Dagger and
Phantom Strike allow Phantom Assassin to close the gap with Sniper and prevent his escape.
*
Blur allows Phantom Assassin to approach Sniper while invisible and dodge much of Sniper's damage. It can also disjoint Assassinate.
*
Coup De Grace quickly cuts through Sniper's low health; one or two procs will usually kill him.
*
Fan of Knives from
Aghanim's Shard can deal damage to Sniper's maximum health and disable
Headshot and
Take Aim.
Additional:
* Sniper's lack of mobility and reliance on attack range makes him an easy target for Phantom Assassin to jump on.
* Heroes with low mana pools (eg.
Doom and
Tidehunter) will feel the effects of Silencer's Intelligence Steal far more than others.
* Phantom Assassin doesn't care about Silencer's spells as she relies on right-clicks more than spells.
* Phantom Assassin often builds
Black King Bar, which allows her to remove Global Silence before engaging.
* 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.
*
Scorched Earth can be used to engage Visage while removing Gravekeeper's Cloak charges.
*
Infernal Blade will deal tremendous amounts of damage over time due to Visage's high health pool.
*
Doom completely nullifies Gravekeeper's Cloak and prevents Visage from casting spells.
* In early to mid stage, Silence is also a great way to counter escape oriented heroes such as
Anti-Mage,
Queen of Pain, and
Phantom Assassin to prevent them from escaping, provided that they don't have any basic dispels.
*
Doom can stop Death Prophet from casting spells, which makes her useless during team fights if she didn't cast Exorcism before the fight, and also nullifies healing from Exorcism and Spirit Syphon. Furthermore, Doom can use
Scorched Earth to chase after her.
* 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.
* Phantom Assassin's
Blur is a real problem for Lycan, as he relies entirely on direct attacks to deal damage.
* 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.
* 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.
* Heroes with disables that ignore spell immunity will render Phantom Assassin completely useless in teamfights throughout the game:
Axe,
Enigma,
Vengeful Spirit,
Doom,
Bane,
Beastmaster,
Pudge,
Medusa,
Warlock.
*
Doom pierces spell immunity and can prevent Enigma from casting any spells or using items until the duration of the spell depletes, as well as cancelling a
Black Hole.
* While
Doom can be blocked by a
Linken's Sphere, which is a common item on Enigma,
Aghanim's Scepter upgraded
Doom allows Doom to cast Doom on himself to affect enemies near him, and if Doom can combine this with
Blink Dagger, he will be able to jump on Enigma while he is channeling
Black Hole.
Aghanim's Scepter upgraded
Doom can also cancel
Black Hole if any of Enigma's allies affected by
Doom gets too close to him for it's duration, ignoring both,
Black King Bar and
Linken's Sphere.
* Heroes such as
Lone Druid,
Tidehunter and
Viper can be very problematic for Phantom Assassin because they give her very little time to farm and become scary.
* Infernal Blade deals scaling damage and is useful against high HP targets such as Tidehunter.
*
Doom prevents Tidehunter from casting his
Gush,
Anchor Smash and
Ravage, making him useless in team fights.
* If Doom chooses the Level 25 talent {ValueColor:1|Doom applies Break|25tal} {Symbol:Talent}, he can also disable
Kraken Shell, reducing his survivability.
* 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.
*
Doom will not only prevent Warlock from casting his abilities in team fights, but also it reduces the healing from Shadow Word.
*
Devour allows Doom to acquire a stun from neutral creeps, allowing him to interrupt Upheaval without having to use
Doom.
* Even though Phantom Assassin can easily kill Luna in few strikes, Luna can also do the same to Phantom Assassin if she is not careful.
* An ill-timed and ill-positioned
Phantom Strike will make Phantom Assassin an easy target for counter-attack with
Eclipse if she does not have
Black King Bar available to use and if Phantom Assassin cannot kill Luna fast enough. This can be even worse if Luna buys
Aghanim's Scepter.
*
Moon Glaives can ignore
Blur's evasion if Luna attacks an enemy near Phantom Assassin.
Aghanim's Shard upgraded
Moon Glaives can also reduce damage from
Coup De Grace and
Moon Glaives Phantom Assassin inflicts on Luna and damage Spirit Phantom Assassin she is close to her. And the
Aghanim's Shard upgraded
Moon Glaives have true strike for their duration, which renders
Blur's evasion insignificant.
* Luna can counter
Blur's evasion by buying either
Silver Edge, or
Monkey King Bar, which are common items on Luna.
* Luna just has to be careful about
Fan of Knives from
Aghanim's Shard and
Coup De Grace, as
Fan of Knives can deal health-based damage to Luna and disable
Moon Glaives and
Lunar Blessing while
Coup De Grace can deal serious damage to her even if she is spell immune, though this issue can be partially solved by buying
Ethereal Blade, which is a situational item on Luna.
Additional:
* Even though Phantom Assassin can easily kill Luna in few strikes, Luna can also do the same to Phantom Assassin if she is not careful.
* An ill-timed and ill-positioned
Phantom Strike will make Phantom Assassin an easy target for counter-attack with
Eclipse if she does not have
Black King Bar available to use and if Phantom Assassin cannot kill Luna fast enough. This can be even better if Luna buys
Aghanim's Scepter.
*
Moon Glaives can ignore
Blur's evasion if Luna attacks an enemy near Phantom Assassin.
* Luna can counter
Blur's evasion by buying either
Silver Edge, or
Monkey King Bar, which are common items on Luna.
* Luna just has to be careful about
Fan of Knives from
Aghanim's Shard and
Coup De Grace, as
Fan of Knives can disable
Moon Glaives and
Lunar Blessing while
Coup De Grace can deal serious damage to her even if she is spell immune, though this issue can be solved by buying
Ethereal Blade, which is a situational item on Luna.
* All assassin-type carries in a one against one situation:
Meepo,
Phantom Assassin,
Riki,
Ursa. Luna's only chances are that she buys
Ethereal Blade or
Black King Bar to gain a slight edge against them, or both items if necessary.
* Heroes that can keep Luna locked down for a long time can be a threat (she is very item and spell dependent):
Faceless Void,
Legion Commander,
Doom.
* Heroes that can apply early pressure before Phantom Assassin has farm are massive threats:
Axe,
Viper,
Meepo,
Jakiro,
Pugna,
Slark,
Venomancer etc.
* 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.
* Puck relies mainly on magical burst damage, which Phantom Assassin is most vulnerable against.
*
Phase Shift and
Illusory Orb disjoint Stifling Dagger, also allowing to kite Phantom Assassin.
*
Dream Coil will stun Phantom Assassin if she uses
Phantom Strike to blink away.
* Doom is generally tanky and has naturally high health, allowing him to survive Puck's onslaught in any stage of the game.
* His namesake ultimate
Doom is one of the best solutions to counter Puck, as it will silence Puck for a lengthy duration. A Puck silenced for more than 3 seconds usually ends up dead.
* In addition, if Doom chooses the Level 25 talent
Doom applies Mute, Puck will not be able to use items altogether, most especially
Blink Dagger and
Eul's Scepter of Divinity, making Doom a nightmare to deal with as Puck.
*
Reactive Armor helps Timbersaw sustain harassment from
Stifling Dagger.
* Phantom Assassin has a moderate health pool and usually appears in the front line of battle, making her vulnerable to Timbersaw's pure burst damage output.
* Timbersaw can easily escape from Phantom Assassin thanks to his
Timber Chain.
Additional:
*
Reactive Armor helps Timbersaw sustain harassment from
Stifling Dagger, as well as ganking attempts.
* Phantom Assassin is a hero with moderate HP pool, and usually appears in the front line of battle. Because
Blur does nothing against spells, she is vulnerable to Timbersaw's skills.
* Timbersaw can easily escape from Phantom Assassin thanks to his
Timber Chain.
*
Infernal Blade deals scaling damage and is useful against high HP targets such as Timbersaw.
* Timbersaw is extremely reliant on his abilities to be effective during a team fight - both for mobility, damage and crowd control. Timbersaw offers very little, impactful right-click damage, and thus
Doom is particularly crippling against him.
* Additionally, when Doom chooses the {ValueColor:1|Doom applies Break|25tal} {Symbol:Talent} talent,
Doom disables
Reactive Armor, which effectively removes the durability which Timbersaw is commonly known for.
Additional:
*
Doom shuts down Timbersaw completely, negating his mobility and preventing him from doing any damage. It also breaks Reactive Armor's passive bonuses from
Aghanim's Scepter.
*
Infernal Blade can stun Timbersaw several times in a fight, potentially interrupting Timber Chain. Also it's useful since Timbersaw has high HP due to the damage scales based on max HP.
*
Dispersion makes it hard for Phantom Assassin to burst down Spectre while also reflecting back Phantom Assassin's high burst damage against herself.
*
Black King Bar is useless for Phantom Assassin against Spectre as all of her skills pierce spell immunity.
* Spectre only needs to be careful against
Fan Of Knives from
Aghanim's Shard, as it can disable
Desolate and
Dispersion, though this issue can be solved by buying
Blade Mail, which is a common item on Spectre.
Additional:
*
Dispersion makes it hard for Phantom Assassin to burst down Spectre while also reflecting back Phantom Assassin's high burst damage against herself.
*
Black King Bar is useless against Spectre as all of her skills pierce spell immunity.
*
Infernal Blade's damage is calculated by percentage of maximum health, meaning that it will hurt Spectre more than most normal attacks, negating some of her tankiness.
* Doom can pick up several different abilities from neutral creeps using
Devour, some of which can be annoying to Spectre.
* Mud Golem, Dark Troll Summoner, Harpy Stormcrafter, Satyr Mindstealer or Satyr Tormenter are good examples.
*
Doom makes Spectre less disruptive. Combined with
Aghanim's Scepter, it will disable Spectre passive skills, reducing her potential in teamfights.
Additional:
* Infernal Blade's damage is calculated by percentage of maximum health. Since Spectre is usually tanky, it will hurt her more than most normal attacks.
*
Doom can take out Spectre out of a teamfight completely. When combined with the level 25 talent {ValueColor:1|Doom applies Break|25tal} {Symbol:Talent}, it will disable both
Desolate and
Dispersion, taking away her extra damage and durability.
* Fate's Edict cripples many heroes who rely on attacks, such as
Phantom Assassin,
Sven, or
Enchantress, without a dispel or a
Black King Bar.
* 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.
*
Purification and
Hammer of Purity can easily catch Phantom Assassin once she jumps with
Phantom Strike in to attack.
*
Heavenly Grace can be used to dispel slow from
Stifling Dagger, and disables from the items Phantom Assassin relies on.
* Phantom Assassin depends entirely on physical attacks and her damage output is 100% physical. Therefore, since she has no any sources of magical damage output and hates going for items that deal magical damage like
Dagon,
Ethereal Blade and
Revenant's Brooch,
Guardian Angel will render her completely useless.
*
Purification,
Heavenly Grace and
Guardian Angel can be used to save an allied hero before Phantom Assassin can finish them off with
Coup De Grace.
Additional:
*
Purification and
Hammer of Purity can easily catch Phantom Assassin once she jumps with
Phantom Strike in to attack.
*
Heavenly Grace can be used to dispel slow from
Stifling Dagger, and disables from the items Phantom Assassin relies on.
* Phantom Assassin depends entirely on physical attacks and her damage output is 100% physical. Therefore, since she has no any sources of magical damage output and hates going for items that deal magical damage like
Dagon,
Ethereal Blade and
Revenant's Brooch,
Guardian Angel will render her completely useless.
*
Purification,
Heavenly Grace and
Guardian Angel can be used to save an allied hero before Phantom Assassin can finish them off with
Coup De Grace.
*
Doom turns Omniknight into a walking creep, or completely takes out his buffed cores, also removing Heavenly Grace and Guardian Angel in the process.
* With
Devour used on Satyr Banisher, Doom will have access to Satyr Banisher's
Purge, which will allow him to remove Heavenly Grace and Guardian Angel.
Additional:
*
Doom applies a basic dispel upon cast, so it can remove
Guardian Angel.
* Casting
Doom on Omniknight will also prevent him from healing allies with
Purification, or casting buffs like
Repel and
Guardian Angel, basically turning him into a harmless creep.
*
Enfeeble greatly reduces Phantom Assassin's attack damage, and if her attack damage is weak,
Coup De Grace will also suffer from attack damage reduction as well.
Enfeeble also reduces cast range of Phantom Assassin's abilities, making her unable to harass with
Stifling Dagger and to use
Phantom Strike at longer distances.
*
Nightmare and
Fiend's Grip can ground Phantom Assassin, who normally blinks around with
Phantom Strike, and stop her from outputting damage.
* Phantom Assassin's low health pool early on makes her susceptible to {A|Brain Sap|Bane
Additional:
* Enfeeble greatly reduces Phantom Assassin's attack damage, and if her attack damage is weak,
Coup De Grace will also suffer from attack damage reduction as well. Enfeeble also reduces any healing Phantom Assassin receives, making her unable to heal herself with Phantom Strike, and it also reduces cast range of Phantom Assassin's abilities, making her unable to harass with
Stifling Dagger and to use
Phantom Strike at longer distances.
* Nightmare and Fiend's Grip can ground Phantom Assassin, who normally blinks around with
Phantom Strike, and stop her from outputting damage, even with Black King Bar.
* Phantom Assassin's low health pool early on makes her susceptible to Brain Sap and Fiend's Grip's heavy nuke damage.
* Both
Infernal Blade and
Doom can be used to disable Bane while he is channeling Fiend's Grip.
* A similar effect can be achieved by using
Devour on {U:Centaur Conqueror}, which will give him access to
War Stomp.
* Doom's low armor makes him weak against Alchemist's high physical damage output.
*
Doom can disable
Chemical Rage's increased healing, rendering Alchemist helpless against Doom.
* Attacks from
Infernal Blade can deal serious damage to Alchemist as it deals damage based on the hero's maximum health.
* Heroes who can delivers a big chunk of damage in few hits will find themselves struggle against Templar Assassin's Refraction:
Sven,
Phantom Assassin,
Ursa,
Wraith King,
Lifestealer
* Weak damage but high tick rate or persist in a long time:
Slark,
Gyrocopter,
Queen of Pain,
Shadow Shaman (
Shackles),
Jakiro,
Pugna,
Doom
* Heroes that can quickly deal damage to her, regardless of how weak they are, can easily break through her Refraction:
* Multiple attackers thanks to summoned units or clones:
Meepo,
Witch Doctor,
Lycan,
Enigma,
Shadow Shaman
* Multiple attackers thanks to illusions:
Phantom Lancer,
Chaos Knight,
Naga Siren (bonus for her
Ensnare). Also despite the visual effects, Templar Assassin does not spill damage against illusions or buildings, so she is not a really good hero to clean up illusions.
* Weak damage but high tick rate or persist in a long time:
Slark,
Gyrocopter,
Queen of Pain,
Shadow Shaman (
Shackles),
Jakiro,
Pugna,
Doom
* Phantom Assassin's
Blur is useless against Windranger as she commonly buys items that require
Javelin like
Maelstrom,
Monkey King Bar or
Bloodthorn, and other than Stifling Dagger, Phantom Assassin has nothing else that can bypass Windrun.
* Additionally, Phantom Assassin doesn't like building
Monkey King Bar because her crits are reliant on attack damage.
* Focus Fire can still deal considerable damage despite Blur's evasion due to the increased attack speed.
Additional:
* Phantom Assassin's
Blur is useless against Windranger as she commonly buys items that require
Javelin like
Maelstrom,
Monkey King Bar or
Bloodthorn, and other than Stifling Dagger, Phantom Assassin has nothing else that can bypass Windrun.
* Additionally, Phantom Assassin doesn't like building
Monkey King Bar because her crits are reliant on attack damage.
* Focus Fire can still deal considerable damage despite Blur's evasion due to the increased attack speed.
*
Doom completely takes Windranger out of a team fight, a hero who relies heavily on using abilities and items to contribute in team fights.
Additional:
*
Doom completely takes Windranger out of a team fight, a hero who relies heavily on using abilities and items to contribute in team fights.
*
Phantom Strike's extra attack speed will cause Phantom Assassin to trigger
Counter Helix more often, which can be fatal for Phantom Assassin. Jumping on Axe with
Phantom Strike is not a good idea for Phantom Assassin at all as it makes her a seriously easy target for a counter-initiation with
Berserker's Call and
Blade Mail.
* Most of Axe's abilities pierce
Black King Bar, allowing him to lock down Phantom Assassin at any time.
* Berserker's Call greatly reduces Phantom Assassin's ability to crit hard against Axe and may cause her to kill herself when used with
Blade Mail.
Berserker's Call can also affect Phantom Assassin even if she has
Black King Bar active as
Berserker's Call can fully pierce spell immunity, making
Berserker's Call one of the best abilities in the game against heroes like Phantom Assassin who wants to kill opponents quickly without being interrupted.
*
Culling Blade can often kill Phantom Assassin before she can do anything due to her low health and strength gain. And every time
Culling Blade successfully kills Phantom Assassin or any of her teammates, Axe gains permanent armor from it, which in combination with armor items that Axe often purchases like
Blade Mail,
Crimson Guard,
Assault Cuirass and
Shiva's Guard can make Phantom Assassin's attacks only tickle Axe.
*
Aghanim's Shard upgraded
Counter Helix can weaken Phantom Assassin's damage output, and if her attack damage is weak,
Coup De Grace will also suffer from attack damage reduction as well.
Additional:
*
Phantom Strike's extra attack speed will cause Phantom Assassin to trigger
Counter Helix more often, which can be fatal for Phantom Assassin in the early game. Jumping on Axe with
Phantom Strike is not a good idea for Phantom Assassin at all as it makes her a seriously easy target for a counter-initiation with
Berserker's Call and
Blade Mail.
* Most of Axe's abilities pierce
Black King Bar, allowing him to lock down Phantom Assassin at any time.
* Berserker's Call greatly reduces Phantom Assassin's ability to crit hard against Axe, and may cause her to kill herself when used with
Blade Mail.
Berserker's Call can also affect Phantom Assassin even if she has
Black King Bar active as
Berserker's Call can fully pierce spell immunity, making
Berserker's Call one of the best abilities in the game against heroes like Phantom Assassin who wants to kill opponents quickly without being interrupted.
*
Culling Blade can often kill Phantom Assassin before she can do anything due to her low health and strength gain. And every time
Culling Blade successfully kills Phantom Assassin or any of her teammates, Axe gains permanent armor from it, which in combination with armour items that Axe often purchases like
Blade Mail,
Crimson Guard,
Assault Cuirass and
Shiva's Guard can make Phantom Assassin's attacks only tickle Axe.
*
Infernal Blade's damage is calculated by a percentage of maximum health, meaning that it will hurt Axe more than most normal attacks, negating some of his durability.
* Doom can pick up several different abilities from neutral creeps using
Devour, some of which can be annoying to Axe.
* Mud Golem, Dark Troll Summoner, Harpy Stormcrafter, Satyr Mindstealer or Satyr Tormenter are good examples.
* Doom's naturally low attack speed makes Counter Helix less likely to proc, and his high base health allows him to take a few Helixes with no danger.
*
Doom makes Axe less disruptive, preventing him from using his skills or items. At level 25, there is a branch of the talent tree that makes
Doom apply Break, allowing Doom to disable Counter Helix, making Axe effectively useless for a lengthy duration.
Additional:
*
Infernal Blade deals scaling damage and is useful against high HP targets such as Axe.
* Doom has low attack speed because of his high Base-Attack-Time, poor agility gain and limited attack-speed granting items which are commonly built. This means Doom will trigger
Counter Helix less often and thus is an unideal target for initiation.
* Doom has naturally high HP so it takes longer for Doom to be brought down to the killing threshold of
Culling Blade.
* Axe is highly reliant on his abilities and items to be effective during a fight. Without the usage of
Berserker's Call and
Blink Dagger due to
Doom, Axe offers very little in the way of damage, effectively removing him from a fight.
* Many physical-only single-target heroes like
Lifestealer,
Sven,
Wraith King,
Phantom Assassin,
Templar Assassin can have their damage mitigated by Cold Embrace.
* 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.
* Tinker can use Laser to save an ally or himself from Phantom Assassin's initiate
Phantom Strike due to the blind, forcing her to use a Black King Bar to effectively initiate, Tinker can also use Warp Flare one he buys
Aghanim's Shard to reverse Phantom Strike's blinking with
Phantom Strike.
* Tinker almost never uses his physical attack, relying on his spell-spamming to deal damage which ignores
Blur's Evasion
* Defense Matrix prevents
Coup de Grace from triggering.
* Tinker is heavily reliant on casting his spells and
Doom can disable all of his abilities and items. An
Aghanim's Scepter only makes it harder for Tinker to survive.
Additional:
* Tinker is heavily dependent on his abilities and
Doom prevents him from using any of them.
* This becomes even worse if Doom chooses the level 25 talent {ValueColor:1|Doom applies Mute|25tal} {Symbol:Talent}, which will prevent Tinker from using items such as
Blink Dagger.
* Heroes that can apply early pressure before Phantom Assassin has farm are massive threats:
Axe,
Viper,
Meepo,
Jakiro,
Pugna,
Slark,
Venomancer etc.
* Heroes with good mobility to avoid Jakiro's abilities and with good chase to punish Jakiro from pushing a tower:
Bloodseeker,
Ember Spirit,
Juggernaut,
Phantom Assassin,
Weaver.
To start select enemy heroes in the field above. It's intended to be used with multiple heroes. The more enemy heroes you provide the better results you will get.
This website was made to help you in pick stage of online game Dota 2. It calculates rating for each possible counterpicks based on tips from web-based database made up entirely of user contributions Dota 2 wiki.
You will get the list of recommended hero counters with a list of tips written by Dota 2 wiki contributors explaining why it's good against the particular hero. In comparison to other similar websites, which show only rating based on average hero win rate from dotabuff or similar service.
Take it with a bit of grain of salt, especially if the recommendation has a low rating (<= 1), some heroes
may win a lane in an early game but would lose in late game (and vice versa). That's why sometimes
you could hero names appearing as a counter and as being countered, as on image:
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Phantom Assassin
*
Hoof Stomp and
Double Edge can often burst down Phantom Assassin from early to mid game.
Retaliate makes it very unlikely for Phantom Assassin to win the lane against Warrunner.
Double Edge can also be used to wear her down, as she has a much smaller health pool than that of Centaur Warrunner until purchasing a
Ring of Health.
Stifling Dagger will also trigger
Retaliate and
Blur cannot evade
Retaliate.
Blade Mail,
Crimson Guard,
Assault Cuirass and
Shiva's Guard can make Phantom Assassin's attacks only tickle Centaur Warrunner.
Fan of Knives from
Aghanim's Shard and
Coup De Grace, as
Fan of Knives can disable
Retaliate even if Centaur Warrunner is spell immune.
Hoof Stomp and
Double Edge can often burst down Phantom Assassin from early to mid game.
Retaliate makes it very unlikely for Phantom Assassin to win the lane against Warrunner.
Double Edge can also be used to wear her down, as she has a much smaller health pool than that of Centaur Warrunner until purchasing a
Ring of Health.
Stifling Dagger will also trigger
Retaliate and
Blur cannot evade
Retaliate.
Blade Mail,
Crimson Guard,
Assault Cuirass and
Shiva's Guard can make Phantom Assassin's attacks only tickle Centaur Warrunner.
Fan of Knives from
Aghanim's Shard and
Coup De Grace, as
Fan of Knives can disable
Retaliate even if Centaur Warrunner is spell immune.
*
* Centaur Warrunner's tankiness in combination with armour items that Centaur Warrunner often purchases like
* Centaur Warrunner just has to be careful about
Additional:
*
*
* Centaur Warrunner's tankiness in combination with armour items that Axe often purchases like
* Centaur Warrunner just has to be careful about
Doom
*
Stampede can be used to free an ally from the grasp of Doom. Without any means of effective lockdown, kills can be difficult to secure when against an enemy Centaur Warrunner. Also, Centaur's tendency to have lots of health and HP regen tend to help counter Doom.
Doomed hero to run away, wasting Doom's ultimate.
Additional:
* Whenever Doom casts his ultimate, Centaur Warrunner can cast Stampede and allow the