* Jakiro's AoE abilities are great against Phantom Lancer:
* Dual Breath slows down and damages Phantom Lancer and his illusions.
* Liquid Fire will not only deal AoE damage but also lowers Phantom Lancer's attack speed.
* Ice Path and
Macropyre combo can easily clear all of Phantom Lancer's illusions.
* Jakiro can predict Doppelganger and Ice Path on top.
Additional:
* Jakiro's spells inflict AoE damage, meaning he can take down Phantom Lancer's illusion army very quickly.
* Bear in mind, however, that once Phantom Lancer buys Diffusal Blade which can burn Jakiro's mana, Jakiro will be vulnerable to Phantom Lancer 's counter-attacks if he runs out of mana.
* Jakiro's damage over time abilities can clear Naga Siren's illusions and can hurt real Naga Siren even for the duration of Song of the Siren.
* Naga Siren is not a hero that likes to go for Black King Bar, and that makes her very vulnerable to Jakiro's damage over time in every phase of the game.
Additional:
* Jakiro's damage over time abilities can clear Naga Siren's illusions and can hurt real Naga Siren even for the duration of Song of the Siren.
* Since Naga Siren is a hero who barely goes for Black King Bar, this can make her very vulnerable to Jakiro's damage over time in every phase of the game.
* Flak Cannon and
Call Down destroy Phantom Lancer's illusions very quickly.
Additional:
* Flak Cannon destroys Phantom Lancer's illusions very quickly.
* Flak Cannon and
Call Down can easily clear Naga Siren's illusions.
* Hoof Stomp and
Double Edge makes short work of Phantom Lancer's illusions.
* Retaliate together with
Blade Mail reflects Phanton Lancer's damage and quickly destroys his illusions.
Additional:
* His illusions will kill themselves in a few hits because of Retaliate. The nukes from Hoof Stomp and Double-Edge should be enough to clear them for a large portion of the game
* Centaur Warrunner's small mana pool makes Diffusal Blade's damage much lower once Centaur doesn't have any more mana left to burn. Keep in mind that Double Edge does not cost mana.
* Be wary when chasing down Phantom Lancer. Hoof Stomp's terrible cast time makes it quite easy to dodge with Doppelganger.
* Centaur's Retaliate will harm all attacking enemies, which will allow Centaur Warrunner to see which is the real Naga Siren.
* A well timed Hoof Stomp followed by
Double Edge will clear all Naga's illusions and prevent Naga Siren from escaping with
Song of the Siren.
* Berserker's Call catches Phantom Lancer when he is hidden among his illusions.
* Counter Helix quickly destroys Phantom Lancer's illusion army. The more illusions there are, the more often Counter Helix is triggered.
* Phantom Lancer's low early game health makes him an easy target for Culling Blade.
Additional:
* Berserker's Call helps locking down Phantom Lancer in a group of illusions.
* Counter Helix combined with
Blade Mail clears Phantom Lancer's illusions quickly.
* Phantom Lancer's low health in the early game makes him a frequent target for Culling Blade.
* Axe will destroy her illusions by proccing Counter Helix more often due to him being hit by more attacks.
* Leshrac's AoE abilities destroy Phantom Lancer's illusions.
* Diabolic Edict and
Pulse Nova require no targeting, thus hitting Phantom Lancer whenever he's nearby.
Additional:
* Leshrac can easily clear Phantom Lancer's illusions with his huge area of effect damage.
* All of Leshrac's abilities, especially Pulse Nova, can easily deal with Naga Siren's illusions.
* Aghanim's Scepter gives Leshrac access to
Nihilism ability, that allows him to turn himself along with Naga Siren and her illusions to turn ethereal. And to make things worse,
Nihilism can slow Naga Siren and her illusions, make them more vulnerable to magical damage and unable to fight back while Leshrac moves faster and does not take increased magical damage for it's duration.
* Snapfire's AoE abilities in general are effective in clearing Phantom Lancer's illusions.
* Mortimer Kisses can make quick work of Naga Siren's illusions.
* Scatterblast and
Firesnap Cookie's AoE damage are also decent ways to deal with Naga's illusions.
* All Timbersaw's abilities deal AoE pure damage and can easily deal with Phantom Lancer's illusions.
* Reactive Armor highly negates Phantom Lancer's physical damage, making him having a hard time killing Timbersaw.
Additional:
* Phantom Lancer's lack of burst damage and constant attacks will increase Reactive Armor to max level immediately.
* Coupled with Timber Chain, it makes an easy escape and almost impossible for Timbersaw to be killed by Phantom Lancer.
* Whirling Death and
Chakram can instantly destroy large groups of illusions, negating Phantom Lancer's advantage, although Phantom Lancer usually builds
Diffusal Blade. It can be a problem in late game.
* Timbersaw's innate durability is very hard to deal with as Naga Siren as she mostly relies on sustained damage rather than burst damage unless if she is played as Nuker. Timbersaw's high Pure Damage and low-cooldown AoE nukes can also destroy Naga Siren's illusions very fast. Timbersaw can also build Lotus Orb to reflect
Ensnare back at Naga SIren.
* Heroes with global nukes will target and hit Phantom Lancer regardless of his illusions: Zeus
* Zeus's abilities deal high amounts of burst magical damage, which ignores Naga Siren's high armor.
* Arc Lightning is a good way to destroy Naga Siren's illusions due to it's capabilities to bounce between enemies.
* Static Field from
Aghanim's Shard can automatically hit everything in a big radius, taking a huge chunk of health out of Naga Siren's illusions, regardless of how much health they have.
* Poof from multiple Meepos will destroy illusions quickly.
* Earthbind's area root can catch Phantom Lancer in a group of illusions and prevent him from using Doppelganger for a long time.
* Meepo aims to end the game as early as possible, while Phantom Lancer is a lategame hero.
* This also means that, in the late game, Meepo stands no chance against Phantom Lancer.
Additional:
* Poof will destroy Phantom Lancer's illusions within a short time.
* Earthbind prevents Phantom Lancer from using Doppelganger.
* Naga Siren's Song of the Siren may be useful but Poof will destroy all of her illusions.
* Great Cleave and
God's Strength destroys illusions in just a few hits.
* Storm Hammer's AoE stun will hit Phantom Lancer when he's grouped up with illusions.
* Sven's low mana causes him to take less damage from Diffusal Blade. This is further reduced by the armor bonus from
Warcry.
Additional:
* Great Cleave and God's Strength cuts through Phantom Lancer's illusions in no time.
* Storm Hammer's AoE stun will hit Phantom Lancer and his illusions.
* Heroes who depends on illusions and summons: Naga Siren,
Arc Warden,
Broodmother will struggle against Great Cleave.
* Ion Shell helps taking down illusions quickly, making it easy to identify the real Phantom Lancer.
* Surge allows Dark Seer and his teammates to run away from Phantom Lancer, who relies on his
Phantom Rush to chase enemies.
* Heroes that rely on illusions typically spawn very strong illusions inside Dark Seer Wall of Replica that he can use against them or their team: Phantom Lancer,
Chaos Knight,
Naga Siren,
Terrorblade.
* Heroes with summoned units don't fare well against Dawnbreaker. (Phantom Lancer ,
Beastmaster ,
Lycan).
* Dawnbreaker can easily clear waves of Naga Siren's illusions from Mirror Image with
Starbreaker,
Celestial Hammer and
Solar Guardian.
* Aghanim's Shard upgraded
Starbreaker will allow Dawnbreaker to dispel
Ensnare and freely attack Naga Siren during
Song of the Siren when combined with
Black King Bar, a common item on Dawnbreaker.
* Solar Guardian allows Dawnbreaker to counter any pushing attempts of Naga Siren and rejoin her team with Solar Guardian when they require it.
Aghanim's Scepter upgraded
Solar Guardian can also give Dawnbreaker's allies evasion while Dawnbreaker is airborne for it's duration, as Naga Siren mainly relies on direct attacks in order to deal damage.
Additional:
* Dawnbreaker can easily clear waves of Naga Siren's illusions from Mirror Image with
Starbreaker,
Celestial Hammer and
Solar Guardian.
* Aghanim's Shard upgraded
Starbreaker will allow Dawnbreaker to dispel
Ensnare and freely attack Naga Siren during
Song of the Siren when combined with
Black King Bar, a common item on Dawnbreaker.
* Solar Guardian allows Dawnbreaker to counter any attempts of Naga Siren and rejoin her team with Solar Guardian when they require it.
Aghanim's Scepter upgraded
Solar Guardian can also give Dawnbreaker's allies evasion while Dawnbreaker is airborne for it's duration, as Naga Siren mainly relies on direct attacks in order to deal damage.
* All of Sand King's abilities deal AoE damage.
* However, Epicenter is usually a non-issue against Doppelganger.
* Because of his massive AoE damage, Sand King is very effective against illusion heroes: Chaos Knight,
Phantom Lancer,
Terrorblade,
Naga Siren.
* Stroke of Fate clears Phantom Lancer's illusion easily as it deals bonus damage to more targets.
* Ink Swell can be used on an allied hero or Grimstoke himself to stun Phantom Lancer and his illusions.
* Soulbind has an undispellable debuff that can be used to mark the real Phantom Lancer. It also prevents him from using Doppelganger.
Additional:
* Stroke of Fate's damage increases the more units are hit by it, making it effective against Phantom Lancer's army of illusions.
* Phantom's Embrace and Ink Swell's stun can prevent Phantom Lancer from escaping with Doppelganger if properly timed.
* If he has already used Doppelganger, Soulbind can tie Phantom Lancer to one of his own illusions to keep him in place, or to ensure a kill if Grimstroke's team is unsure which one is the real hero.
* Heroes who are reliant on illusions or summons: Chaos Knight,
Broodmother,
Naga Siren.
* Breathe Fire and
Elder Dragon Form's splash damage takes out Phantom Lancer's illusions quickly.
* If Dragon Knight can Dragon Tail the real Phantom Lancer, he and his team can quickly kill him before he has a chance to escape.
Additional:
* The dragon's splash damage wears down his illusions.
* Early harassment with Breath of Fire hinders his farming.
* Fireball stops his pushes and allows for a defence.
* Cleave heroes will clear her illusions. Such heroes include Sven,
Magnus,
Dragon Knight in Elder Dragon Form,
Ember Spirit (via item),
Phantom Assassin (via talent or item), etc.
* Sleight of Fist, allows Ember Spirit to destroy all of Phantom Lancer's illusions.
* Flame Guard also deals significant damage to illusions, and protects against Spirit Lance.
* Phantom Rush is unable to catch Ember Spirit when he teleports to his Fire Remnants.
Additional:
* Sleight of Fist is the natural counter to Phantom Lancer's army of illusions, especially when combined with Battle Fury.
* Cleave heroes will clear her illusions. Such heroes include Sven,
Magnus,
Dragon Knight in Elder Dragon Form,
Ember Spirit (via item),
Phantom Assassin (via talent or item), etc.
* Charge of Darkness provides shared vision over its target, keeping track of heroes who rely on invisibility, mobility, or illusions: Riki,
Broodmother,
Phantom Lancer
* Heroes with long-lasting, undispellable debuffs will pinpoint the true Naga Siren: Spirit Breaker,
Bloodseeker.
* As long as Windranger is able to identify the real hero among the illusions, heroes relying on them can be easily tagged with Focus Fire: Chaos Knight,
Terrorblade,
Phantom Lancer,
Naga Siren.
* As long as Windranger is able to identify the real hero among the illusions, heroes relying on them can be easily tagged with Focus Fire: Chaos Knight,
Terrorblade,
Phantom Lancer,
Naga Siren.
* Lion may upgrade
Mana Drain,
Hex and
Finger of Death through Talent Tree and Aghanim's itens to make them affect secondary targets or turn them into AoE abilities. This can make things difficult for heroes like
Phantom Lancer,
Naga Siren and
Terrorblade, who rely on illusion armies.
* Lion may upgrade
Mana Drain,
Hex and
Finger of Death through Talent Tree and Aghanim's itens to make them affect secondary targets or turn them into AoE abilities. This can make things difficult for heroes like
Phantom Lancer,
Naga Siren and
Terrorblade, who rely on illusion armies.
Additional:
* Both Hex and
Mana Drain destroy Naga Siren's illusions in an instant, making it hard for her to teamfight or push against a team with Lion. If Lion chooses the AoE effect talent for Hex or the shard for multi-target Mana Drain, it can negate her pushing potential entirely.
* Earth Spike is an AoE disable with good damage. If used well, it can help distinguish the true Naga Siren by the damage they take (illusions take more damage).
* Tidebringer and Kunkka's AoE abilities in general are effective in clearing Phantom Lancer's illusions.
Additional:
* Tidebringer, Torrent and Ghostship destroys Phantom Lancer's illusion army.
* Phantom Lancer can't escape with
Doppelganger under your X Marks the Spot, but can use it to dodge it.
* Phantom Lancer's lack of disables makes it hard for him to stop Echo Stomp's channelling.
* However, due to the long cast time of his abilities, a good Phantom Lancer can use Manta Style and/or
Doppelganger to dodge the abilities.
* Phantom Lancer's high agility and relatively low strength make him very vulnerable to Natural Order.
* Additionally, Echo Stomp and Earth Splitter can clear his wave of illusions.
* Should Phantom Lancer tries to increase his health by investing for Heart of Tarrasque, Earth Splitter does more damage to him and his illusions.
* Dead Shot passes through all of Phantom Lancer's illusions, allowing you to separate him from the illusions easily.
* However, Phantom Lancer's high mobility can still pose a threat to Muerta's limited movement.
* Pangolier's AoE abilities especially Shield Crash, are very effective against Phantom Lancer's illusions.
Additional:
* Swashbuckle,Maelstrom or
Diffusal Blade allow him to quickly destroy Phantom Lancer's illusions.
* Pangolier's high mobility allows him to easily escape from Phantom Lancer, through both Phantom Rush and Diffusal Blade.
* Phantom Rush will cause Phantom Lancer to be stunned by Rolling Thunder, or set himself up for a Shield Crash.
* Heroes who are illusion based, or even heroes who frequently build Manta Style can be cleared quickly by Pangolier's high damage, or lose their damage ouput because of Lucky Shot: Chaos Knight,
Naga Siren
* Heroes with powerful rooting abilities will disable most of Pangolier's skills, a bonus point if it pierces spell immunity since it will also be able to stop Pangolier during his Rolling Thunder: Treant Protector,
Meepo,
Crystal Maiden,
Dark Willow,
Underlord,
Naga Siren
* Bristleback's tankiness and damage reduction from the rear makes him very hard for Phantom Lancer to chase and finish off, due to his lack of burst damage.
* Quill Spray destroys Phantom Lancer's illusions.
* Bristleback's passive costs no mana, meaning that it will continue to trigger even if Phantom Lancer drains Bristleback's mana with
Diffusal Blade.
Additional:
* Bristleback's tankiness and damage reduction from the rear makes him very hard for Phantom Lancer to chase and finish off, due to his lack of burst damage.
* Quill Spray quickly destroys Phantom Lancer's illusions.
* Bristleback's passive costs no mana, meaning that it will continue to trigger even if Phantom Lancer drains Bristleback's mana with Diffusal Blade.
* Plasma Field can destroy Phantom Lancer's illusions or damage them heavily.
* Static Link cannot be broken even with Doppelganger, serving as a marker for the real Phantom Lancer.
* Storm Surge gives Razor's high mobility to chase down Phantom Lancer making Spirit Lance and
Diffusal Blade slow useless.
* Eye of the Storm along with
Aghanim's Scepter can quickly reduce Phantom Lancer's armor.
Additional:
* Plasma Field and Eye of the Storm clears most of Phantom Lancer's illusions.
* Static Link is not dispelled by Doppelganger or
Manta Style which can be used to mark the real Phantom Lancer while also draining his base damage.
* Razor's high mobility with Storm Surge makes it hard for Phantom Lancer to chase down with Phantom Rush. When upgraded with Aghanim's Shard, it makes a quick work of his illusions.
* Astral Step and
Dissimilate makes a quick work of Phantom Lancer's illusions.
* Resonant Pulse helps clear illusions and protects Void Spirit from Phantom Lancer's physical damage and with the
Aghanim's Scepter upgrade, it prevents Phantom Lancer from casting his abilities.
* Void's Spirit mobility makes it hard for him to chase down with Phantom Rush.
* Illusory Orb and
Waning Rift are effective nukes against Phantom Lancer's illusions, especially in the early game.
* Dream Coil limits Phantom Rush and Doppelganger's mobility during teamfights.
* Kraken Shell and
Anchor Smash makes it very difficult for Phantom Lancer's illusions to damage to Tidehunter.
* Ravage will stun the real Phantom Lancer while clearing most of his illusions.
* Anchor Smash reduces base damage, which is the majority of Phantom Lancer's auto-attack damage.
* An Aghanim's Scepter upgraded
Gush slows down and reduces all of Phantom Lancer's illusions.
Additional:
* A dozen of Phantom Lancer's illusions with all their might can barely hurt Tidehunter at all thanks to Kraken Shell and Anchor Smash. The only way Phantom Lancer can hurt Tidehunter is through the mana burn provided by Diffusal Blade.
* Even with high chasing power from Spirit Lance and
Phantom Rush (and even
Diffusal Blade), Tide Hunter can shrug it all off with Kraken Shell and escape by using a
Town Portal Scroll or just moving away.
* The AoE nukes from Ravage, Anchor Smash, and an Aghanim's Scepter-upgraded Gush can clear Phantom Lancer's illusions easily.
* Empower helps Magnus' allies clear out illusions.
* Reverse Polarity and
Skewer will pull Phantom Lancer along with his illusions, and reposition them together for easy nuking.
* Shockwave deals significant area damage in the early game,destroys phantoms and may even indicate the real Phantom Lancer.
* Cleave heroes will clear her illusions. Such heroes include Sven,
Magnus,
Dragon Knight in Elder Dragon Form,
Ember Spirit (via item),
Phantom Assassin (via talent or item), etc.
* Ensnare prevents using any kind of movement abiilties, Making Naga Siren good against heroes who rely on gap-closing abilities to escape:
Phantom Assassin,
Magnus,
Slark,
Riki,
Faceless Void,
Storm Spirit.
* 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.
Additional:
* 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
* Avalanche and Toss combo makes short work of Mirror Image's illusions.
* Tiny's cleave with Tree Grab and area of effect damage with Tree Volley will easily wipe out illusions.
* Overwhelming Odds deals high damage to Phantom Lancer's illusions.
* Duel's long duration prevents Phantom Lancer from using Doppelganger.
* Heroes who rely on illusions will see them destroyed easily by Overwhelming Odds: Phantom Lancer,
Chaos Knight,
Terrorblade,
Naga Siren
* Song of the Siren lasts long enough to prevent a successful Duel (but only if Naga wasn't the target).
* Heroes that require burst damage to kill will be difficult for Phantom Lancer to take down: Timbersaw,
Axe,
Bristleback,
Alchemist and
Underlord
* Illusion heroes will struggle against Primal Beast's area damage capability, such as Chaos Knight,
Naga Siren,
Terrorblade.
* Bloodseeker's
Rupture shows a clear red trail effect on the real Phantom Lancer.
* 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.
* Heroes with long-lasting, undispellable debuffs will pinpoint the true Naga Siren: Spirit Breaker,
Bloodseeker.
* Heroes with illusion and clone abilities may confuse Bloodseeker, causing him to waste time in fights: Phantom Lancer,
Chaos Knight,
Arc Warden
* Phoenix's AoE abilities can prove troublesome for Phantom Lancer.
* Fire Spirits dramatically reduces Phantom Lancer and his illusions' attack speed.
* Icarus Dive's movement speed reduction makes retreating difficult.
* Supernova burns away illusions, and is invulnerable to attacks from illusions.
* Sand King and
Phoenix has many tools to deal with a crowd of Heroes, which will work well against a crowd of illusions.
* Song of the Siren does not affect
Supernova, which allows her and her team to focus the egg while the enemy team is affected by sleep.
* Heroes that require burst damage to kill will be difficult for Phantom Lancer to take down: Timbersaw,
Axe,
Bristleback,
Alchemist and
Underlord
Additional:
* Firestorm is very useful for clearing multiple illusions swiftly.
* Pit of Malice will continuously disrupt many illusions, drastically reducing their damage and potency.
* Athropy Aura reduces damage of both Phantom Lancer and his illusions.
* Broodmother,
Nature's Prophet,
Phantom Lancer by their nature offer very good target for Splinter Blast and Winter's Curse.
* Heroes who lack burst damage will have a hard time against Mars: Phantom Lancer,
Nature's Prophet,
Lich.
* Storm Spirit has multiple AoE abilities to deal with Phantom Lancer, especially with Aghanim's Scepter.
* Ball Lightning destroys illusions, avoids Spirit Lance, and makes Storm Spirit very hard to catch, even with Phantom Rush.
Additional:
* Ball Lightning with or without the
Static Remnant talent allows Storm Spirit to destroy Phantom Lancer's illusions quickly. It is also easy to dodge
Spirit Lance with
Ball Lightning and makes Spirit Storm very hard to catch even with
Phantom Rush.
* Ensnare prevents using any kind of movement abiilties, Making Naga Siren good against heroes who rely on gap-closing abilities to escape:
Phantom Assassin,
Magnus,
Slark,
Riki,
Faceless Void,
Storm Spirit.
* One of Arc Warden's hardest counters, Arc Warden, who has primarily single target damage, will struggle tremendously against Phantom Lancer:
* Flux is paused if even one illusion remains near Phantom Lancer. It can also be dispelled with
Doppelganger.
* Phantom Lancer can also easily dodge an activated Spark Wraith, or use his illusions to trigger it safely.
* Phantom Rush allows Lancer to quickly close gap to get inside of Arc Warden's
Magnetic Field.
* Phantom Lancer and his clones are able to quickly drain Arc Warden of his mana with a Diffusal Blade. This means Warden's
Tempest Double will also be summoned without mana.
Additional:
* Doppelganger dispels Flux.
* Phantom Rush closes the distance between Phantom Lancer and Arc Warden.
* Juxtapose can overwhelm Arc Warden and nullify his kit which is only effective against isolated enemies.
* Song of the Siren stops Arc Warden from acting and allows Naga Siren's team to close in on him, past his Magnetic Field.
* Mirror Image dispels Flux. The illusions created from it also disable the slow from Flux if Arc Warden casts it after Mirror Image.
* Arc Warden's playstyle heavily favors split-pushing, which Naga Siren can compete against with her illusions.
Additional:
* Naga Siren's illusions from Mirror Image can depush the lanes pushed by the Tempest Double, relieving the pressure.
* Mirror Image can dispel Flux, and the illusions can stop Flux from working to it's full power.
* 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.
* 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.
Additional:
* 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.
* Lone Druid and his Spirit Bear lack mobility, and are easy overwhelmed after being slowed by Diffusal Blade.
* Savage Roar is useless since Phantom Lancer can return to fight him again with his
Phantom Rush.
* Unless Lone Druid purchases a Black King Bar for his Spirit Bear, Ensnare will easily kite the Spirit Bear.
* Song of the Siren allows Naga Siren and her team to completely bypass the Spirit Bear and hunt for the Lone Druid himself when starting a fight.
* Lone Druid's lack of innate AoE capabilities mean that Naga Siren's illusions have no problem against him.
* Heroes with single-target abilities and low-mobility are all an exceptionally easy targets for Phantom Rush:
Terrorblade,
Chaos Knight,
Wraith King
Additional:
* With no wave clear and mostly focus on dealing single target damage, Terrorblade will be overwhelmed in no time due to Juxtapose. And to make things worse, Terroblade is not a common
Battle Fury nor
Mjollnir wielder to counter this problem.
* Reflection can be dispeled instantly with
Doppelganger.
* As Phantom Lancer is a natural Diffusal Blade carrier, he can drain Terrorblade's mana, leaving Terrorblade with no chance to use
Sunder to save himself.
* Besides Reflection that can be used to detect real Phantom Lancer, Terrorblade has no other ways to deal with Phantom Lancer's illusions. And what's worse is that Phantom Lancer can much easily detect the real Terrorblade due to
Conjure Image having illusions having different colors.
* Naga Siren can very easily dispel the Reflection with
Mirror Image. And Besides
Reflection that can be used to detect real Naga Siren, Terrorblade has no other ways to deal with Naga Siren's illusions. And what's worse is that Naga Siren can much easily detect the real Terrorblade due to
Conjure Image having illusions having different colors. In addition, Terroblade is not a common
Battle Fury nor
Mjollnir wielder to counter this problem.
* Aghanim's Scepter upgraded
Ensnare will allow Naga Siren to root Terrorblade even ithrough
Black King Bar. And with
Aghanim's Scepter, Naga Siren can get access to
Reel In ability, which can allow her to pull Terrorblade toward herself and her team and away from his illusions, even through
Black King Bar.
* Naga Siren can rapidly damage Terrorrblade and weaken Terrorblade's armor with Rip Tide, which combined with Terrorblade's low health and strength gain can almost completely discourage Terrorblade from even being present in teamfights.
Rip Tide can also weaken armor of Terrorblade's illusions and damage them.
* Song of the Siren can be used to save an ally whom Terrorblade has used
Sunder under the condition Naga Siren is quick enough to do it. And since Terrorblade has no "real" burst damage potential outside from
Sunder, Naga Siren will usually have plenty of time to save an allied hero on which
Sunder was used.
Aghanim's Shard upgraded
Song of the Siren can also heal her allies around her for it's duration, which allows Naga Siren to nullify effects of
Sunder.
* However, Naga Siren's lack of burst damage can make it difficult for her to burst down Terrorblade before he can use Sunder unless Naga Siren has either
Black King Bar or
Linken's Sphere to protect herself against it or if she is played as Nuker.
Additional:
* Naga Siren can very easily dispel the Reflection with
Mirror Image. And Besides
Reflection that can be used to detect real Naga Siren, Terrorblade has no other ways to deal with Naga Siren's illusions. And what's worse is that Naga Siren can much easily detect the real Terrorblade due to
Conjure Image having illusions having different colors. In addition, Terroblade is not a common
Battle Fury nor
Mjollnir wielder to counter this problem.
* Aghanim's Scepter upgraded
Ensnare will allow Naga Siren to root Terrorblade even ithrough
Black King Bar. And with
Aghanim's Scepter, Naga Siren can get access to
Reel In ability, which can allow her to pull Terrorblade toward herself and her team and away from his illusions, even through
Black King Bar.
* Naga Siren can rapidly damage Terrorrblade and weaken Terrorblade's armor with Rip Tide, which combined with Terrorblade's low health and strength gain can almost completely discourage Terrorblade from even being present in teamfights.
Rip Tide can also weaken armor of Terrorblade's illusions and damage them.
* Song of the Siren can be used to save an ally whom Terrorblade has used
Sunder under the condition Naga Siren is quick enough to do it. And since Terrorblade has no "real" burst damage potential outside from
Sunder, Naga Siren will usually have plenty of time to save an allied hero on which
Sunder was used.
Aghanim's Shard upgraded
Song of the Siren can also heal her allies around her for it's duration, which allows Naga Siren to nullify effects of
Sunder.
* However, Naga Siren's lack of burst damage can make it difficult for her to burst down Terrorblade before he can use Sunder unless Naga Siren has either
Black King Bar or
Linken's Sphere to protect herself against it or if she is played as Nuker.
* Doppelganger lets Phantom Lancer instantly escape from
Kinetic Field.
* Doppelganger is one of the most reliable ways to dodge
Glimpse, other than spell immunity.
* Doppelganger dispels
Thunder Strike.
* However, even with the negation of the rest of his kit, Static Storm (especially when upgraded with
Aghanim's Scepter) remains as one of the strongest lockdowns against Phantom Lancer, and as such Disruptor must never be underestimated.
Additional:
* Doppelganger is a very reliable tool against Glimpse, enabling him to dodge it consistently.
* Doppelganger also allows Phantom Lancer to escape from Kinetic Field so long as there isn't a Static Storm on top of him.
* Naga Siren with
Mirror Image
* Heroes that can dodge Glimpse:
* Puck with
Phase Shift
* Riki with
Tricks of the Trade
* Phantom Lancer with
Doppelganger
* Ember Spirit with
Sleight of Fist and
Activate Fire Remnant
* Chaos Knight with
Phantasm
* Naga Siren with
Mirror Image
* Tusk with
Snowball
* Juggernaut with
Omnislash
* Brewmaster with
Primal Split
* Lifestealer with
Infest
* Phoenix with
Supernova
* Carry heroes who can close the gap reliably are very problematic: Phantom Lancer,
Ember Spirit,
Phantom Assassin.
* Ensnare with her attacks allows Naga Siren to gank Sniper easily.
* Rip Tide removes Sniper's very little armor.
* Phantom Lancer's illusions destroy Refraction charges very quickly.
* 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.
* 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
Additional:
* Ensnare disables Templar Assassin's invisibility and Blink Dagger (a core item on Templar Assassin), and her illusions will break Refraction easily.
* Aside from his ultimate, Lifestealer has no AoE abilities to deal with Phantom Lancer's illusions, nor does he have the mobility to escape Phantom Rush.
* Doppelganger dispels
Open Wounds.
* Phantom Lancer usually builds Diffusal Blade, which a problem for a low already mana hero like Lifestealer.
Additional:
* Lifestealer will struggle to deal with Phantom Lancer's illusions and will either be forced to use his abilities too quickly, or itemize too heavily for them.
* Phantom Lancer commonly builds Diffusal Blade, which poses a large problem to Lifestealer and his low mana pool, and can shut him down from even casting his abilities.
* Heroes with illusions: Chaos Knight,
Naga Siren,
Phantom Lancer,
Terrorblade
* Slark has no sustained AoE to fight off Phantom Lancer's illusions as they continually spawn.
* Spirit Lance can give vision of Slark by spawning an illusion, making it harder for him to juke and gain the passive bonus from Shadow Dance.
* Phantom Rush helps Phantom Lancer chase down Slark if he tries to escape with
Pounce.
Additional:
* Slark has no sustained AoE damage to deal with a lot of Phantom Lancer's illusions.
* Doppelganger lets Phantom Lancer dodge Dark Pact and Pounce and partially wastes the duration of Shadow Dance.
* Spirit Lance can give vision of Slark via spawning an illusion, making it harder for him to juke and gain the passive bonus from Shadow Dance.
* Phantom Rush helps Phantom Lancer chase down Slark when he jumps away with Pounce.
* Ensnare prevents using any kind of movement abiilties, Making Naga Siren good against heroes who rely on gap-closing abilities to escape:
Phantom Assassin,
Magnus,
Slark,
Riki,
Faceless Void,
Storm Spirit.
* Doppelganger dispels
Track.
* Bounty Hunter also has no area of effect abilities to help with the illusions.
* Naga Siren with
Mirror Image
* Heroes that can remove the Track debuff with their skills:
* Abaddon with
Aphotic Shield and
Borrowed Time
* Huskar with
Life Break
* Juggernaut with
Blade Fury
* Legion Commander with
Press the Attack
* Lifestealer with
Rage and
Infest
* Naga Siren with
Mirror Image
* Omniknight with
Heavenly Grace
* Oracle with
Fortune's End and
False Promise
* Phantom Lancer with
Doppelganger
* Slark with
Dark Pact
* Ursa with
Enrage
* Weaver with
Time Lapse
* Tidehunter with
Kraken Shell when damage received reaches the threshold.
Additional:
* Bounty Hunter is a single target damage dealer, so he will not fare well against Naga Siren. Even though Bounty Hunter can use Track on her, Mirror Image will dispel the effect. Ensnare also reveals invisible units while they're rooted, putting Bounty Hunter at a disadvantage.
* Diffusal Blade is a core item on Phantom Lancer. And when combined with his numerous illusions, it allows him to rapidly deplete Necrophos's mana, rendering Necrophos incapable of doing anything.
* It can be difficult to single out the true Phantom Lancer among his army, giving Necrophos a hard time with aiming his ultimate.
* Even if his illusions are defeated, Phantom Lancer can simply create more of them at his disposal with almost no issues.
* Illusions make it difficult for Necrophos to target his Reaper's Scythe correctly, thus giving illusion heroes like Chaos Knight or
Naga Siren an edge against Necrophos.
* Although Viper Strike cannot be dispelled by Doppelganger, Viper's lack of mobility and AoE damage makes him an easy target for Phantom Lancer.
* Viper's various slows do not work against Phantom Rush.
* Although Phantom Lancer should be wary due to Nethertoxin applying Break.
Additional:
* Phantom Lancer can overwhelm Viper with spawned illusions from Spirit Lance and
Doppelganger.
* Viper's various slows do not work against Phantom Rush. Additionally, it is almost impossible to keep Lancer inside
Nethertoxin's radius in order to disable the passive.
* Illusion or summon-based heroes can be a problem to Viper due to his lack of AoE damage: Naga Siren,
Phantom Lancer,
Beastmaster
Additional:
* Naga Siren can easily disjoint, and dispel Corrosive Skin with Mirror Image.
* Since Viper is mostly a single-target hero, he will not have almost any chance against Naga Siren because she is an illusion based hero.
* Viper has no burst damage, so Naga Siren will have plenty of time to use Aghanim's Shard upgraded
Song of the Siren heal her allies before Viper can finish them off.
* Diffusal Blade lets Phantom Lancer drain Wraith King's mana, preventing
Reincarnation from triggering until he buys an
Aghanim's Shard.
* Wraith King is bad against illusions-based heroes, as Wraithfire Blast is his only single-target disable and can get overwhelmed easily.
* Doppelganger can disjoint
Wraithfire Blast.
Additional:
* Doppelganger disjoints Wraithfire Blast.
* Wraith King is not good at handling illusion-based heroes, as his only disable is single-target.
* Phantom Lancer tends to get Diffusal Blade, leaving Wraith King no mana to reincarnate.
* Heroes with summons and illusions such as Broodmother and
Naga Siren, are ill-suited for Wraith King to fight, as he has no source of waveclear.
* 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.
* Ensnare and
Song of the Siren can be used to cancel both, Tether and Relocate and to close the distance on Io.
* Rip Tide combined with illusions from
Mirror Image often finish off Io before he can save himself.
* Spirit's weak area-of-effect makes it a bad tool to deal with Naga Siren's illusions from Mirror Image.
* Once Naga Siren buys Aghanim's Scepter, she can gain access to
Reel In, which not only allows her to cancel both, Tether and Relocate, but also to pull Io to herself and her team while he is affected with
Ensnare, similarly to Batrider's
Flaming Lasso.
* Aghanim's Shard upgraded
Song of the Siren can also heal the hero Io and his tethered targed try to gank.
Additional:
* Ensnare and
Song of the Siren can be used to cancel both, Tether and Relocate and to close the distance on Io.
* Rip Tide combined with illusions from
Mirror Image often finish off Io before he can save himself.
* Spirits's weak area-of-effect makes it a bad tool to deal with Naga Siren's illusions from
Mirror Image.
* Once Naga Siren buys Aghanim's Scepter, she can gain access to
Reel In, which not only allows her to cancel both, Tether and Relocate, but also to pull Io to herself and her team while he is affected with
Ensnare, similarly to Batrider's
Flaming Lasso.
* Aghanim's Shard upgraded
Song of the Siren can also heal the hero Io and his tethered targed try to gank.
* Heroes with illusions can overwhelm Huskar: Phantom Lancer,
Anti-Mage,
Arc Warden,
Chaos Knight.
* Mirror Image can cause Huskar to Life Break the wrong target.
* Rip Tide reduces Huskar's already low armor.
* Song of the Siren allows teams to recover from Huskar's initiation, as well as the damage over time from Burning Spears.
* Chaos Knight's single target abilities are difficult to target against Phantom Lancer's illusions.
* Chaos Knight's lack of mobility makes him an easy target for Phantom Lancer to Phantom Rush and drain his already low mana pool.
Additional:
* Juxtapose allows Phantom Lancer to overwhelm Chaos Knight due to his single-target abilities.
* Manta Style is a natural item from Phantom Lancer's is very harder from Chaos Knight's kill him a lot from Phantom Lancer's illusion and Manta Style from Phantom Lancer's impacted
Juxtapose .
* Doppelganger can be used to dodge Chaos Bolt.
* Since Phantom Lancer builds Diffusal Blade often, it can quickly drain Chaos Knight's low mana pool, leaving him unable to cast spells.
* Illusion-based and multi-unit heroes can take advantage of Chaos Knight's lack of area damage: Naga Siren,
Phantom Lancer,
Broodmother
* Phantom Lancer's Doppelganger has a low cooldown and applies a basic dispel on PL, making it hard to keep Corrosive Haze on him.
* Phantom Lancer usually purchases Manta Style which provides another basic dispel to remove Corrosive Haze with.
* Besides Slithereen Crush, Slardar does not have another way to deal with illusions and has a low mana pool, which allows Phantom Lancer with Diffusal Blade to quickly build up illusions while draining Slardar's mana.
* Phantom Rush outruns Guardian Sprint, forcing Slardar to Blink away or use Slithereen Crush defensively to avoid being killed.
* Illusion heroes like the aforementioned Phantom Lancer or
Naga Siren, or heroes that tend to buy
Manta Style, like
Luna or
Juggernaut, will give Slardar a hard time, as his damage is single-targeted.
* Illusion and heroes with summons are difficult to kill with Chen's single-target offensive spells: Terrorblade,
Phantom Lancer,
Chaos Knight,
Broodmother,
Naga Siren,
Lycan,
Visage,
Beastmaster,
Warlock,
Wraith King. And even though Chen can convert enemy summons with Holy Persuasion, their much greater numbers will often overwhelm Chen and his creeps.
* Naga Siren can make landing Chen's combo very hard due to her being an illusion hero thanks to Mirror Image.
* Rip Tide can deal big damage to Chen and reduce Chen's armor, as well as easily kill all of Chen's creeps.
* Naga Siren often builds Radiance, which allows her to quickly clear Chen's creeps.
* Ensnare will prevent Chen from escaping.
* With Aghanim's Scepter, Naga Siren can get access to
Reel In, which can separate Chen from his creeps and draw him closer to Naga Siren and her team to finish her off. To make things worse, Chen has no way to cancel
Reel In on his own, and must rely on outside from {U:Centaur Conqueror} or {U:Mud Golem} under his control.
* Carry or Nuker Naga Siren can often finish off Support Chen before he can have a chance to activate Hand of God.
Additional:
* Naga Siren can make landing Chen's combo very hard due to her being an illusion hero.
* Rip Tide can deal big damage to Chen and reduce Chen's armor, as well as easily kill all of Chen's creeps.
* Naga Siren often builds Radiance, which allows her to quickly clear Chen's creeps.
* Ensnare will prevent Chen from escaping.
* With Aghanim's Scepter, Naga Siren can get access to
Reel In, which can separate Chen from his creeps and draw him closer to Naga Siren and her team to finish her off. To make things worse, Chen has no way to cancel
Reel In on his own, and must rely on outside from {U:Centaur Conqueror} or {U:Mud Golem} under his control.
* Carry or Nuker Naga Siren can often finish off Support Chen before he can have a chance to activate Hand of God.
* Illusions can be sent out to destroy Techies 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.
* 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.
* 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.
* Song of the Siren is very difficult for Rubick to Spell Steal when he is affected by sleep.
* Ensnare and Rip Tide together with some attacks can take Rubick down quickly, due to his low health pool and armor.
* Naga Siren usually buys Diffusal Blade, which may prevent Rubick from using his abilities.
* Mirror Image allows Naga Siren to dodge the incoming stun from Telekinesis (when she is not a target), and it can also dispel
Fade Bolt's damage reduction debuff.
* Phantom Rush lets Phantom Lancer get close quickly and disable Marksmanship.
* As Phantom Lancer commonly buys Manta Style, he can easily dispel Gust and then chase after Drow Ranger.
* Because Phantom Lancer is a natural Diffusal Blade carrier, he can easily burn Drow Ranger's mana and render her unable to use Frost Arrow and Gust to save herself.
* Doppelganger allows Phantom Lancer to dodge an incoming snowball.
* Phantom Lancer usually buys a Diffusal Blade, which is very effective against Tusk's low mana pool.
* Phantom Lancer usually buys Manta Style which can also dodge an incoming snowball, much like
Doppelganger.
* Dazzle can instantly destroy all of Naga Siren's illusions from Mirror Image with
Aghanim's Shard upgraded
Poison Touch used on her or any of her illusions.
* Juxtapose and
Doppelganger conjures too many illusions for Dazzle to deal with, given he has no inherent movement- or AoE-abilities.
* Phantom Rush and
Spirit Lance allow Phantom Lancer to trivially catch Dazzle even in the back line of a fight.
* Phantom Lancer has high base armor which counters Dazzle's physcial damage based spells in lane.
* Mirror Image's illusions can easily walk straight at Dazzle and attack him, due to Dazzle's lack of reliable AoE nukes or disables.
* Ensnare roots Dazzle or his allies, making it harder to stay in range of Dazzle's saving abilities.
* Song of the Siren can be used to initiate a fight with superior positioning, potentially zoning Dazzle's high-impact spells out of the fight.
* Ursa has no sustained AoE to deal with illusions, it becomes worse since Phantom Lancer can create more illusions in a matter of seconds.
* Diffusal Blade can be used to drain Ursa mana. This is a standard item for Phantom Lancer in every match.
* Doppelganger applies basic dispel on Phantom Lancer, which will remove the slow from Earthshock. It also resets fights with more illusions, making hard for Ursa to hit the real Phantom Lancer.
* Manta Style creates two more illusions and also applies a basic dispel, further complicating the problem for Ursa to deal with.
* Phantom Lancer creates way too many illusions for Pugna's Life Drain to destroy, overwhelming him easily.
* Doppelganger can dodge
Nether Blast or dispel
Decrepify.
* Diffusal Blade is a common item for Phantom Lancer to burn Pugna's large mana pool and deals a large amount of damage in the process.
Additional:
* Though Life Drain instantly destroys illusions, Phantom Lancer creates way too many for Pugna to handle.
* A good Phantom Lancer will also dodge your Nether Blast with Doppelganger.
* Phantom Lancer is the most natural Diffusal Blade carrier to burn Pugna's very large pool of mana away and deal a large amount of damage in the process.
* Ogre Magi has no undispellable AoE damage or disables and has nothing to deal with Phantom Lancer's illusions.
* Doppelganger disjoints and dispels Ignite.
* Due to Phantom Rush and
Juxtapose being passives and not affected by silence, a Phantom Lancer with a
Diffusal Blade can easily kill Silencer.
* Song of the Siren completely wastes Abaddon
Borrowed Time while keeping him in place.
* Naga Siren is able to simply dispel Abaddon's Curse of Avernus with
Mirror Image before getting hit 4 times consecutively.
* Although Naga Siren's illusions can be easily destroyed by Aphotic Shield, Naga Siren can resolve that issue easily by purchasing
Heart of Tarrasque to drastically increase her durability. Plus, the said item makes Naga Siren harder to be distinguished from her illusions.
* Phantom Lancer has higher mobility and the ability to reset any fights with Doppelganger can be a nuisance for spectre to fight against.
* Phantom Lancer is a natural carrier of Diffusal Blade and
Manta Style, which is outright nullify
Desolate. In fact, Phantom Lancer will always have illusions with him at anytime, thus further exacerbated the problem.
* Although Spectre is largely AoE oriented, unfortunately, they are damage-over-time (DoT) rather than burst AoE damage. Without any effective ways to quickly destroy illusion and reveal the real hero, Spectre has little availability to manfight Phantom Lancer at any points in the game.
* Spectre often relies on Spectral Dagger as a pseudo-mobility skill. With her low mana pool and complete dependence on it to catch enemy team, she will soon find herself unable to do anything significant once her mana pool is completely drained.
* Doppelganger can be used to dispel the slow from
Spectral Dagger, thus completely render it useless.
* Although Naga Siren relies mostly on physical damage, Song of the Siren can be used to time out
Guardian Angel, giving Naga Siren's team an easy opportunity to counter-initiate.
* Radiance allows it's owner to deal magical damage to multiple enemy heroes at once, and since Naga Siren often buys it,
Guardian Angel is not a very good ability for protection against Naga Siren.
* Likewise, Nuker build Naga Siren (which primarly consists of items such as Radiance,
Ethereal Blade,
Dagon and
Veil of Discord) can render
Guardian Angel useless. Although Nuker is not a role Naga Siren should be playing.
Additional:
* Even though Naga Siren relies on direct attacks to deal damage for most of the time, Song of the Siren allows her to easily waste Guardian Angel.
* Ensnare fully works on targets affected with Heavenly Grace. However, Ensnare is dispellable with any dispel, and so can be dispelled by Heavenly Grace.
* As an agility hero that relies on illusions, Naga Siren is one of the most natural Diffusal Blade carriers, the bane of every hero with a small mana pool.
* Phantom Lancer's many illusions will easily destroy Tombstone, provided he has sufficient farm.
* He also has no ways of dealing with the illusions, since Decay doesn't steal strength from illusions.
* Lycan is a hero focused entirely on single target physical damage and lacks disables or AoE damage. Due to this, he will have difficulties dealing with illusions or Naga Siren's Ensnare.
* 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.
* Vengeful Spirit has no strong AoE nuke or disable against Phantom Lancer's Illusions.
* Phantom Lancer is a natural Diffusal Blade carrier, which reduces Vengeful Spirit's low mana pool very quickly, leaving her defenseless.
* Doppelganger can dodge Vengeful Spirit's abilites.
* Phantom Rush with his illusions can chase Vengeful Spirit efficiently.
* Phantom Lancer's illusions will quickly destroy multiple layers of Gravekeeper's Cloak.
* Visage has no mobility mechanisms, making him a prime target for Phantom Rush.
* Doppelganger can dispel Leech Seed. It can also destroy large amounts of trees, counteracting Nature's Guise and Eyes in the Forest.
* Medusa's Split Shot and
Mystic Snake combined with
Mjollnir, a common item for Medusa, will whittle down all of Naga Siren's illusions, including Naga Siren herself.
* Medusa's Stone Gaze can disable Naga Siren even for the duration of
Song of the Siren and even if Naga Siren is spell immune, discouraging Naga Siren from even trying to use
Song of the Siren to save herself or counter-initiate against Medusa.
Additional:
* Medusa's Split Shot and
Mystic Snake combined with
Mjollnir, a common item for Medusa, will whittle down all of Naga Siren's illusions, including Naga Siren herself.
* Medusa's Stone Gaze can disable Naga Siren even for the duration of
Song of the Siren and even if Naga Siren is spell immune, discouraging Naga Siren from even trying to use
Song of the Siren to save herself or counter-initiate against Medusa.
* Phantom Lancer with Diffusal Blade will very quickly burn Medusa's mana, making Mana Shield significantly less effective.
* Doppelganger's 1 second invulnerability can be used to dodge Medusa's petrification from Stone Gaze, as well as Mystic Snake.
* Phantom Lancer's illusions outnumber Medusa's targets from Split Shot, likely shielding his team in the process.
* Heroes that build Diffusal Blade or can fit it well into their item build will also make Medusa much less tanky:
Riki,
Naga Siren,
Terrorblade,
Juggernaut,
Spectre,
Slark.
* Heroes with summons or illusions makes Sacred Arrow harder to land: Shadow Demon,
Phantom Lancer,
Nature's Prophet.
* Any heroes that naturally buy Diffusal Blade like
Phantom Lancer or have a mana break talent is a big issue for Pudge because of his low mana pool.
* Ensnare prevents using any kind of movement abiilties, Making Naga Siren good against heroes who rely on gap-closing abilities to escape:
Phantom Assassin,
Magnus,
Slark,
Riki,
Faceless Void,
Storm Spirit.
* Skywrath Mage also has a terrible time fighting against anything that isn't a hero. His skills are mostly target-based and he has terrible strength and agility, he can easily be kited or harassed by illusion-based heroes like Chaos Knight and
Phantom Lancer, or by Heroes that summon other units like
Lone Druid,
Lycan and
Beastmaster.
* Low-health, normally mobile carries with a lot of damage are vulnerable to Bane's nukes and disables: Anti-Mage,
Clinkz,
Drow Ranger,
Faceless Void,
Gyrocopter,
Juggernaut,
Luna,
Meepo,
Mirana,
Monkey King,
Morphling,
Phantom Assassin,
Phantom Lancer,
Riki,
Shadow Fiend,
Slark,
Sniper,
Terrorblade,
Troll Warlord,
Weaver.
* Heroes with illusions and summons can swarm Bane, who has no area abilities outside from Aghanim's Shard upgraded
Brain Sap:
Broodmother,
Chaos Knight,
Naga Siren,
Nature's Prophet,
Phantom Lancer,
Terrorblade,
Visage,
Warlock,
Wraith King.
* Heroes with illusions and summons can swarm Bane, who has no area abilities outside from Aghanim's Shard upgraded
Brain Sap:
Broodmother,
Chaos Knight,
Naga Siren,
Nature's Prophet,
Phantom Lancer,
Terrorblade,
Visage,
Warlock,
Wraith King.
* Ensnare prevents using any kind of movement abiilties, Making Naga Siren good against heroes who rely on gap-closing abilities to escape:
Phantom Assassin,
Magnus,
Slark,
Riki,
Faceless Void,
Storm Spirit.
* Cleave heroes will clear her illusions. Such heroes include Sven,
Magnus,
Dragon Knight in Elder Dragon Form,
Ember Spirit (via item),
Phantom Assassin (via talent or item), etc.
* Heroes with no AoE abilities will struggle against Phantom Lancer: Phantom Assassin,
Broodmother
* 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 no AoE abilities will struggle against Phantom Lancer: Phantom Assassin,
Broodmother
* Heroes who are not easily crippled by Fate's Edict or Fortune's End, such as Timbersaw, or those who can dispel them, such as
Phantom Lancer, can kill Oracle unhindered.
* Heroes the make heavy use of illusions, like Chaos Knight,
Phantom Lancer,
Terrorblade, or
Spectre can suffer from Crystal Maiden, as Freezing Field can quickly kill off the entire horde if not stopped.
* Mirror Image can dispel Frostbite.
* Song of the Siren can stop Freezing Field regardless of any kind of invisibility as well as allow Naga Siren's team to quickly close the gap on Crystal Maiden.
* With Aghanim's Scepter, Naga Siren can get access to
Reel In ability, which can allow her to pull Crystal Maiden toward herself and her team and cancel Freezing Field even through
Black King Bar.
Additional:
* Mirror Image can dispel Frostbite.
* Song of the Siren can stop Freezing Field regardless of any kind of invisibility as well as allow Naga Siren's team to quickly close the gap on Crystal Maiden.
* Ensnare allows Naga Siren and her team to quickly catch up with Crystal Maiden and kill her.
* With Aghanim's Scepter, Naga Siren can get access to
Reel In ability , which can allow her to pull Crystal Maiden toward herself and her team and cancel Freezing Field even through
Black King Bar.
* 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.
* Phantom Lancer's illusions can make it difficult to Doom the original. Should Doom figure out the original hero, the illusions can make it difficult to cast any abilities, as their hitboxes can be used to body-block the 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.
* Heroes with long cast animations can be continuously interrupted by Battery Assault: Centaur Warrunner,
Jakiro,
Leshrac,
Naga Siren,
Underlord.
* Doppelganger. lets Phantom Lancer jump in and out of
Power Cogs.
* Clockwerk's low mobility makes him an easy target for Phantom Lancer to rush on, and overwhelm with clones.
Additional:
* Battery Assault's damage is dispersed against Phantom Lancer's illusions.
* Phantom Lancer can blink out of Power Cogs with Doppelganger.
* When chasing, a Phantom Lancer can close in with Phantom Rush and burn down Clockwerk's mana with
Diffusal Blade, rendering him helpless before he has a chance to erect a defensive Power Cogs.
* Because Clockwerk does not like to buy items to deal with multiple enemies at once, like Battle Fury,
Maelstrom and
Mjollnir, he will be unable to deal with Phantom Lancer's illusions coming from
Juxtapose.
* Since Naga Siren is a hero who barely goes for Black King Bar, she is vulnerable to nukers with strong magical damage and big area-of-effect spells in every game more than any other carry heroes:
Sand King,
Jakiro,
Leshrac,
Lina,
Earthshaker,
Zeus.
* Doppelganger can be used to easily dodge Light Strike Array if timed correctly.
* Phantom Lancer can quickly deplete Lina's mana pool with his illusions and deal massive damage from it simultaneously since Phantom Lancer is a natural Diffusal Blade carrier.
* Ancient Apparition's
Ice Blast will only debuff Phantom Lancer and not his illusions.
* 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.
* Phantom Lancer can dispel or escape from Cold Feet with Doppelganger and
Phantom Rush, respectively. Phantom Lancer also frequently builds a
Manta Style which dispels Cold Feet.
* Ancient Apparition has trouble dealing with Phantom Lancer's illusions due to a lack of Area of Effect damage other than Ice Blast.
* Phantom Lancer tends to build a Diffusal Blade, which greatly amplifies his damage against Ancient Apparition due to Ancient Apparition's high mana pool.
* Ancient Apparition has no escape/mobility mechanisms, making him an easy target for Phantom Lancer at any stage of the game.
* Blade Fury offers good AoE damage to clear illusions and can hurt the real Naga Siren as well if she chooses to blend in the illusions.
Diffusal Blade does nothing to Juggernaut either when he uses
Blade Fury.
* Aghanim's Shard upgraded
Blade Fury along with Lv 20 DPS talent will shred all illusions almost instantly, especially when combined with
Mjollnir, a common item for Juggernaut.
* Illusion-based heroes are effective against Omnislash and Juggernaut's single-targeted damage: Naga Siren,
Chaos Knight,
Terrorblade,
Phantom Lancer.
* Illusion-based heroes are effective against Omnislash and Juggernaut's single-targeted damage: Naga Siren,
Chaos Knight,
Terrorblade,
Phantom Lancer.
* Laser prevents Juxtapose from triggering, as it only triggers on successful attacks
* Laser does high splash, and upgrading it with Aghanim's Scepter makes it deal twice as much damage due to the bounce. Combined with Rearm, Tinker can rapidly deplete Phantom Lancer's illusion army
* However, if Phantom Lancer ambushes Tinker, Tinker will not survive versus Phantom Lancer.
* Illusion heroes, such as Naga Siren,
Phantom Lancer,
Chaos Knight,
Terrorblade will become strong against Tinker in the late game. Without
Aghanim's Scepter Tinker is forced to defensively disarm heroes with Laser, leaving illusions free to deal physical damage which Tinker's low armor makes highly effective. In addition,
Mjollnir or
Battle Fury, two common pickups against illusion heroes, don't work well on Tinker at all.
* Illusion heroes, such as Naga Siren,
Phantom Lancer,
Chaos Knight,
Terrorblade will become strong against Tinker in the late game. Without
Aghanim's Scepter Tinker is forced to defensively disarm heroes with Laser, leaving illusions free to deal physical damage which Tinker's low armor makes highly effective. In addition,
Mjollnir or
Battle Fury, two common pickups against illusion heroes, don't work well on Tinker at all.
* Many stacks of Sticky Napalm, combined with
Flamebreak and
Firefly, allows Batrider to destroy illusions from
Mirror Image.
* If Batrider can manage to destroy all illusions from Naga Siren, he will be able to use Flaming Lasso on the real one, and will be able to drag her toward his team, potentially preventing Naga Siren from escaping with
Song of the Siren.
Additional:
* Many stacks of Sticky Napalm, combined with
Flamebreak and
Firefly, allows Batrider to destroy illusions from
Mirror Image.
* If Batrider can manage to destroy all illusions from Naga Siren, he will be able to use Flaming Lasso on the real one, and will be able to drag her toward his team, potentially preventing Naga Siren from escaping with
Song of the Siren.
* Doppelganger dispels Sticky Napalm and
Flamebreak.
* There are usually way too many illusions for Batrider to lasso the real Phantom Lancer, since the illusions' hitboxes also body block the real Phantom Lancer.
* Waveform clear Mirror Image illusion from Naga Siren.
* Morph can use morph copy her abilities and combination item Manta Style destroy real Naga Siren's.
* Phantom Lancer can effortlessly overwhelm Morphling with a large number of illusions. It becomes even more effective with {Item ID:Diffusal Blade}, which takes away his mana in the process.
* Doppelganger can be used to dodge Adaptive Strike combo and create confusion with two additional illusions.
* Eye of Skadi can be bought to slow and negate the health regeneration from Attribute Shift, and a common item for Phantom Lancer.
* Monkey King's
Jingu Mastery is undispellable and puts a big yellow Mark over his head.
* 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.
* Heroes that can destroy trees will deny Monkey King spots to jump on, or cause him to fall: Windranger,
Nature's Prophet,
Phantom Lancer
* Illusions and summons are double-edge sword type of matchup for Luna. On one hand, they can tank damage from Eclipse, but on the other hand, she can easily clear them before Eclipse with Moon Glaives. Examples include Spectre,
Shadow Demon,
Phantom Lancer,
Naga Siren,
Chaos Knight,
Terrorblade) or bring other units into the fight (such as
Nature's Prophet,
Lone Druid,
Chen,
Enchantress,
Meepo and
Arc Warden).
* Luna's Moon Glaives and
Lunar Blessing can clear waves of Naga Siren's illusions from
Mirror Image.
* Once Naga Siren's illusions are cleared, Eclipse can often finish off Naga Siren before she can escape with
Song of the Siren.
* A well-timed Aghanim's Scepter upgraded
Eclipse combined with 0.25 Eclipse Lucent Ministun talent can be casted at long range and allow Luna to burst down Naga Siren faster and repetively stun Naga Siren, preventing her from escaping with
Song of the Siren and
Town Portal Scroll without getting caught in it's range.
* Luna is a natural Black King Bar wielder unlike Naga Siren who barely goes for it, which allows Luna to freely attack Naga Siren during
Song of the Siren and potentially get rid of the most of the damage and crowd-control from Naga Siren.
Additional:
* Luna's Moon Glaives and
Lunar Blessing can clear waves of Naga Siren's illusions from
Mirror Image.
* Once Naga Siren's illusions are cleared, Eclipse can often finish off Naga Siren before she can escape with
Song of the Siren.
* A well-timed Aghanim's Scepter upgraded
Eclipse combined with 0.25 Eclipse Lucent Ministun talent can be casted at long range and allow Luna to burst down Naga Siren faster and repetively stun Naga Siren, preventing her from escaping with
Song of the Siren and
Town Portal Scroll without getting caught in it's range.
* Luna is a natural Black King Bar wielder unlike Naga Siren who barely goes for it, which allows Luna to freely attack Naga Siren during
Song of the Siren and potentially get rid of the most of the damage and crowd-control from Naga Siren.
* Even though Luna can clear Phantom Lancer's illusions with Moon Glaives, Phantom Lancer can create too many illusions to tank Luna's Eclipse and for Luna to handle overall.
* Doppelganger can be used to dodge a number of Lucent Beams during Eclipse.
* Phantom Lancer can chase Luna effectively regardless of her high movement speed thanks to Phantom Rush and
Spirit Lance.
* Luna's low health pool is easily exploited by the sheer damage output from Phantom Lancer's illusions. Additionally, Phantom Lancer can often create more illusions for Luna to handle.
* For the same reasons, Phantom Lancer makes a very powerful ally for Luna when they are in the same 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.
* Keeper of the Light can stall pushes with
Illuminate. This makes him strong against pushing heroes:
Terrorblade
Naga siren
Nature's Prophet and
Anti-Mage
* Heroes with dispels: Legion Commander,
Oracle,
Slark,
Phantom Lancer
* Shadow Demon's
Demonic Purge is undispellable.
* 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.
Additional:
* Phantom Lancer's strength is the sheer amount of illusions he can conjure, Dissimulate can be cast on an ally that he is focusing to quickly thin out his ranks
* Landing a upgraded Demonic Purge on the real Phantom Lancer prevents him from making very many illusions (His only source being Doppelganger), You can reapply as needed if you have the Shard
* Disrupting Phantom Lancer allows you to create multiple extra illusions with Juxtapose, As he is a common carrier of
Diffusal Blade, you can also drain the mana of any nearby heros
* Although Phantom Lancer will generate strong illusions, and you can also break his
Juxtapose with an Aghanim's Demonic Purge, you have a small chance of guessing which is the real Phantom Lancer after he uses
Doppelganger.
* Arcane Orb deals pure damage that can bypass Naga Siren's armor, and which can clear her illusions in no time.
* Astral Imprisonment can be used to prevent Naga Siren from escaping with Song of the Siren. Outworld Destroyer can also use
Astral Imprisonment to protect himself from Naga Siren.
* Sanity's Eclipse will most likely instantly kill Naga Siren along with her illusions.
* Although Outworld Destroyer will typically destroy Phantom Lancer's illusions in one shot, Phantom Lancer spawns too many of them for Outworld Destroyer to deal with. However, be careful about initating on Outworld, as Sanity's Eclipse will erase your illusions and deal massive damage to you. He can then follow up with
Astral Imprisonment and
Meteor Hammer.
Additional:
* Doppelganger and
Juxtapose allow Phantom Lancer to initiate on Outworld Destroyer, and, although Arcane Orb will normally destroy his illusions instantly, Phantom Lancer will spawn too many to deal with without using Sanity's Eclipse.
* Outworld Destroyer has very little AOE ability; His Astral Imprisonment with Aghanim's Scepter is his primary AOE, and it does too little damage to eliminate Phantom Lancer's illusions.
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Phantom Lancer
* Phantom Lancer's many illusions increase Echo Slam's damage.
Echo Slam deals tremendous damage when multiplied by Phantom Lancer's illusions.
Enchant Totem with
Aghanim's Scepter gives Cleave to help destroy illusions.
Additional:
*
* Earthshaker's AoE abilities can quickly kill Phantom Lancer's illusions.
*
Naga Siren
*
Mirror Image's illusions increase Echo Slam's damage.
Echo Slam deals more damage against more enemies, which can be devestating against Naga Siren and her illusions.
Additional:
* Earthshaker's strong AoE abilities can clear Naga Siren's illusions, or at least make it easier to distinguish the real one by the damage they take.
*