Silencer
[wiki] rating: 2.0 (winrate: 52% pickrate: 15%)Nyx Assassin
[wiki] rating: 2.0 (winrate: 50% pickrate: 4%)Puck
* Illusory Orb is easy to reflect with Spiked Carapace, either stunning Puck and setting up an easy Impale or forcing a premature
Phase Shift.
* Puck is an intelligence hero that tends to build intelligence items, making it vulnerable to Mana Burn.
* An ill-timed Phase Shift can easily set Puck up to be stunned by Impale.
* Puck's low base armor and below average agility gain mean it is always susceptible to Vendetta.
Additional:
* Nyx Assassin can take advantage of every one of Puck's weaknesses. His entire skill set is very effective in countering Puck.
* Because Illusory Orb is such a slow moving projectile, Nyx Assassin can simply walk into the orb and activate Spiked Carapace, stunning Puck and setting up an easy
Impale. This can be circumvented by using Phase Shift while the orb is traveling, however, that means that Puck cannot use Phase Shift to dodge any other skill nor use it to safely blink away from a fight.
* Puck is an intelligence hero that likes to build intelligence items such as Eul's Scepter of Divinity,
Scythe of Vyse, and
Dagon. This makes
Mana Burn that much more deadly against Puck.
* An ill-timed Phase Shift can turn into an easy setup for Impale.
Necrophos
* The huge physical damage taken from Vendetta will force Necrophos to use Ghost Shroud, which is good for a followup with
Dagon and
Ethereal Blade, both of which are common items on Nyx Assassin.
* Using Ghost Shroud also sets Necrophos up for a Mana Burn or
Impale.
Faceless Void
[wiki] rating: 2.0 (winrate: 48% pickrate: 9%)Puck
* Puck cannot use spells if affected by Time Dilation, especially Phase Shift for main survivability as it effectively triples its cooldown.
* Chronosphere can end Puck's life quickly, as stun, more than 3 seconds will be a death sentence to Puck.
* If not silenced, Faceless Void can just Time Walk to undo Puck's Burst damage.
Additional:
* Hard lockdowns such as Chronosphere can end a Puck's life quickly. A Puck stunned for longer than 3 seconds usually ends up dead.
* As the type of hero that spams spells, Time Dilation counters Puck very effectively. Phase Shift is Puck's main ability for survivability, and Time Dilation effectively triples its cooldown.
* If not silenced, Time Walk can easily undo the damage dealt by Illusory Orb, Dream Coil and Dagon.
Necrophos
* Time Dilation while Death Pulse and
Reaper's Scythe are on cooldown will make these abilities unusable for a long time, rendering Necrophos nearly useless.
* Necrophos cannot use Ghost Shroud while he is inside Chronosphere which makes it easy to kill him.
Rubick
[wiki] rating: 2.0 (winrate: 47% pickrate: 25%)Puck
* Illusory Orb and
Waning Rift are all great wave-clear abilities.
* Waning Rift can silence
Puck, disabling all her abilities including
Phase Shift.
* Dream Coil is a powerful teamfight ultimate that leashes enemies and disables their movement.
* As an elusive hero who requires constant repositioning, Puck is greatly countered by her own ultimate as it disables all her mobile abilities and items (especially
Blink Dagger), forcing
Puck to either stay in the danger zone or latches and stuns for a long time.
* Although Phase Shift does not provide extra damage or lockdown on its own, it does grant Rubick invulnerability, and enables him to use
Blink Dagger with full duration similar to
Puck's escaping combos.
* Rubick can initiate on Puck relatively fast as
Telekinesis only has a 0.15 second cast animation.
Necrophos
* If Rubick steals Reaper's Scythe, he can turn the powerful ultimate back against Necrophos's team. Even his other spells are useful in Rubick's hands, giving him a sustain or a weak initiation/protection tool.
Wraith King
[wiki] rating: 1.4 (winrate: 48% pickrate: 4%)Puck
* Waning Rift's silence is almost completely worthless against Wraith King, due to him having only 1 active ability.
* Wraith King's only active ability, Wraithfire Blast, is strong against Puck if it hits, because it applies a damage over time on top of stunning and doing impact damage, disabling Puck for a while, and Blink Dagger for even longer. It is very important to avoid getting hit by this spell when playing against Wraith King.
Necrophos
* Using Reaper's Scythe against Wraith King is a bad idea for Necrophos as his Reincarnation can waste it. And when upgraded with Aghanim's Scepter it can delay the deaths of allies.
Additional:
* Reaper's Scythe can't kill Wraith King while Reincarnation is off cooldown
* In the laning stage Vampiric Spirit can out-heal the slow {tooltip:DoT|Damage over Time} from Heartstopper Aura.
Necrophos
* Heroes who rely on physical damage are easily negated by Ghost Shroud: Phantom Assassin,
Wraith King,
Juggernaut.
Omniknight
[wiki] rating: 1.2 (winrate: 55% pickrate: 3%)Puck
* Heroes with spell immunity or pseudo-blinks which provide invulnerability: Lifestealer,
Juggernaut,
Omniknight,
Huskar , and
Tusk have spells which allow them to easily escape Dream Coil.
Necrophos
* Heroes who possess abilities that can save targets from being killed by Reaper's Scythe: Abaddon,
Bane,
Outworld Destroyer,
Shadow Demon,
Omniknight, etc.
Bane
[wiki] rating: 1.2 (winrate: 48% pickrate: 2%)Puck
* Heroes that depend on disrupting fights with ability combos or big ultimate abilities are vulnerable to the long stun of Fiend's Grip: Disruptor,
Death Prophet,
Enigma,
Faceless Void,
Invoker,
Lich,
Magnus,
Mars,
Medusa,
Outworld Destroyer,
Phoenix,
Puck,
Queen of Pain,
Shadow Fiend,
Treant Protector,
Underlord,
Winter Wyvern,
Witch Doctor,
Zeus.
Necrophos
* Heroes who possess abilities that can save targets from being killed by Reaper's Scythe: Abaddon,
Bane,
Outworld Destroyer,
Shadow Demon,
Omniknight, etc.
Visage
[wiki] rating: 1.0 (winrate: 55% pickrate: 2%)Puck
* Stone Form's long stun duration may prevent Puck from using escape abilities.
* Visage frequently builds Rod of Atos for the root that will make Puck unable to move and use his escape abilities. Alternatively, Visage can also build
Bloodthorn to prevent Puck from using his escape abilities and make him more vulnerable to damage.
Arc Warden
[wiki] rating: 1.0 (winrate: 53% pickrate: 5%)Puck
* Arc Warden can turn Puck's Phase Shift ability against him by using Spark Wraith, ensuring it to hit. To make this worse, Arc Warden can do it twice with his
Tempest Double.
* Flux is also an instant spell (and therefore unavoidable) with a heavy slow and damage over time, which disables Blink Dagger for a certain period of time.
Dazzle
[wiki] rating: 1.0 (winrate: 52% pickrate: 9%)Necrophos
* Reaper's Scythe is very predictable and gives Dazzle plenty of time to react with Shallow Grave: Dazzle just has to keep a close eye on his allies below 50% health.
* However, Dazzle must be sure to use Shadow Wave on that ally immediately after, or they will die from Heartstopper Aura when the Shallow Grave ends!
Additional:
* Dazzle's Shadow Wave is a spammable healing ability that spreads around his entire team, slowing the death of his teammates as effectively as Necrophos spreads damage to them.
* If not immediately, Shallow Grave delays his ally from gradually dying to Necrophos's abilities, especially Reaper's Scythe.
* However, bear in mind that Dazzle's Poison Touch,
Shadow Wave and
Bad Juju all deal physical damage, and Dazzle has no abilities to help him deal magical damage at all, which can cause problems for Dazzle to kill Necrophos if he uses Ghost Shroud to protect himself.
Night Stalker
[wiki] rating: 1.0 (winrate: 52% pickrate: 4%)Puck
* Puck cannot use any of its normal means to survive should Night Stalker catch it within Crippling Fear, and goes down quickly.
Additional:
* Void is a potent nuke that is devastating to Puck's low health pool.
* Crippling Fear silence can prevent Puck from casting spells, leaving it vulnerable.
Oracle
[wiki] rating: 1.0 (winrate: 51% pickrate: 4%)Necrophos
* During the laning stage, Oracle's Purifying Flames nullifies any damage that Heartstopper Aura might inflict.
* Fate's Edict and
False Promise can protect an ally from Reaper's Scythe.
* Oracle can dispel Ghost Shroud with Fortune's End.
Additional:
* Fortune's End can dispel Ghost Shroud, negating the skill's utility. Also it's worth noting that Necrophos takes additional magic damage when in Ethereal state, which makes Purifying Flames a powerful nuke against him.
* Fate's Edict fully negates the damage from Reaper's Scythe, which its own delayed animation makes it relatively easy to predict and nullify.
Outworld Destroyer
[wiki] rating: 1.0 (winrate: 51% pickrate: 10%)Necrophos
* Outworld Destroyer is not exceptionally dangerous to Necrohpos because of his Ghost Shroud, but his Astral Imprisonment can save his allies from Necrophos's Reaper's Scythe, though only if he uses it at the right time, If an Outworld Destroyer is nearby, Necrophos should not use Reaper's Scythe unless he has banished himself, or has banished two heroes within 15 seconds
Jakiro
[wiki] rating: 1.0 (winrate: 51% pickrate: 12%)Puck
* Jakiro has 3 damage over time spells, 2 of which are from debuffs on Puck (Dual Breath and
Liquid Fire) and 1 affecting an entire area (
Macropyre), making it easy for him to disable the blink dagger.
* Ice Path is also strong against Puck, as he can cast it towards Puck during Phase Shift, who then gets instantly stunned once Phase Shift ends.
Additional:
* Jakiro has 3 damage over time spells, 2 of which are from debuffs on Puck (Dual Breath and
Liquid Fire) and 1 affecting an entire area (
Macropyre), making it easy for him to disable the blink dagger.
* Ice Path is also strong against Puck, as he can cast it towards Puck during Phase Shift, who then gets instantly stunned once Phase Shift ends.
Abaddon
[wiki] rating: 1.0 (winrate: 50% pickrate: 6%)Necrophos
* If he isn't silenced, Abaddon can use Borrowed Time to escape Reaper's Scythe during the delay.
Venomancer
[wiki] rating: 1.0 (winrate: 50% pickrate: 4%)Puck
* Unless Puck is facing the direction he wants to blink while in Phase Shift, the Venomous Gale and
Poison Nova combo consistently ticks many times over several seconds, making it very difficult to use
Blink Dagger towards the other direction. Puck's slow turning rate makes this even worse.
Ancient Apparition
[wiki] rating: 1.0 (winrate: 50% pickrate: 5%)Necrophos
* Ice Blast completely nullifies any healing, making Necrophos unable to stay in a teamfight to sustain his teammates (and himself) or deal gradual damage to the enemy, else he be faced with a quick death if focused on.
Viper
[wiki] rating: 1.0 (winrate: 49% pickrate: 4%)Necrophos
* Viper does large amounts of magic damage over time, meaning that if a Necrophos uses Ghost Shroud, Viper's abilities will greatly reduce Necrophos survivability, and may actually kill him.
* By the same token, Viper can use his Viper Strike on Necrophos if he attempts to heal himself with Ghost Shroud, and depending on any other effects Necrophos may have from him, (IE:
Poison Attack,
Corrosive Skin), Viper can often kill Necrophos while he is in his Ghost Shroud.
* Viper's Corrosive Skin helps him take reduced damage from all of Nercophos spells that deal magical damage, which is Necrophos's only source of damage.
Additional:
* Nethertoxin prevents
Heartstopper Aura from dealing damage or healing Necrophos.
* Viper's magic damage is amplified whenever Ghost Shroud is used.
* Corrosive Skin makes Viper tankier against
Death Pulse and
Reaper's Scythe.
Invoker
[wiki] rating: 1.0 (winrate: 48% pickrate: 14%)Necrophos
* Tornado allows Invoker to purge Necrophos's Ghost Shroud, nullifying any benefits he could get out of it
* EMP allows Invoker to burn Necrophos's mana, preventing him from using his abilities constantly
Pugna
[wiki] rating: 1.0 (winrate: 47% pickrate: 3%)Necrophos
* Nether Ward causes Death Pulse to actually damage Necrophos rather than heal him. Meanwhile, Reaper Scythe's gigantic mana cost while Necrophos is near the Nether Ward can often instantly kill him.
* Nether Blast and
Life Drain both make quick work of Necrophos's small healthpool, especially during Ghost Shroud. The latter also makes him an unappealing target for Reaper's Scythe, and can often force Necrophos to use it defensively as he has no other means of interrupting his channeling.
Medusa
[wiki] rating: 1.0 (winrate: 45% pickrate: 1%)Necrophos
* Mana Shield tanks most of the damage from Reaper's Scythe; with sufficient mana, the kill threshold drops significantly.
* Necrophos has a movement speed equal to Medusa, and is easy to chase down with a slowing item in Medusa's inventory.
Muerta
[wiki] rating: 1.0 (winrate: 45% pickrate: 13%)Necrophos
* Necropho's Ghost Shroud does not prevent Muerta from attacking him while she uses
Pierce the Veil, while making Necropohos even more vulnerable.
* Necropho's Heartstopper Aura does very little to Muerta due to her quickly bursting down Necrophos and having a small health pool.
Riki
[wiki] rating: 0.6 (winrate: 54% pickrate: 13%)Puck
* Riki and
Disruptor:
Smoke Screen and
Static Storm can be thrown wherever Puck used Phase Shift, making Puck an easy target if it doesn't have Blink Dagger or is on cooldown. Puck is also very susceptible to Riki's high attack damage when attacking from the back. Glimpse also prevents Puck from escaping.
Naga Siren
[wiki] rating: 0.6 (winrate: 51% pickrate: 3%)Necrophos
* 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.
Weaver
[wiki] rating: 0.6 (winrate: 50% pickrate: 3%)Necrophos
* Heroes with one single-target abilities such as Wraith King,
Necrophos, or
Doom will struggle against Weaver's Linken Sphere.
Tusk
[wiki] rating: 0.6 (winrate: 49% pickrate: 15%)Puck
* Heroes with spell immunity or pseudo-blinks which provide invulnerability: Lifestealer,
Juggernaut,
Omniknight,
Huskar , and
Tusk have spells which allow them to easily escape Dream Coil.
Spirit Breaker
[wiki] rating: 0.6 (winrate: 48% pickrate: 9%)Puck
* Bristleback,
Centaur Warrunner,
Spirit Breaker,
Pudge,
Huskar: These heroes are too tanky for Puck to burst down. Also, all of them have spells which can deal with and shut Puck down reliably.
Lion
[wiki] rating: 0.6 (winrate: 45% pickrate: 10%)Puck
* Backline supports (Lion,
Crystal Maiden) keep him pinned long enough for a kill.
Necrophos
* Mana Drain depletes Nercophos's mana pool, preventing him from using his abilities.
* Finger of Death deals high magical damage, which becomes amplified by Ghost Shroud.
Puck
* Waning Rift prevents Lion from casting spells during team fights, effectively making him useless.
* Puck's burst damage potential through Illusory Orb,
Waning Rift, and
Dream Coil allows it to easily kill Lion.
* Combined with the lockdown from Dream Coil, Puck's high mobility through
Ethereal Jaunt and
Blink Dagger allows it to effortlessly chase Lion.
* Phase Shift allows Puck to dodge nearly all of Lion's spells, including Finger of Death.
Lycan
[wiki] rating: 0.4 (winrate: 57% pickrate: 3%)Puck
* A Lycan with Shapeshift can always run down Puck for a very quick kill due to its low armor. It is important to abuse as many cliffs and trees as possible to escape from a Lycan.
Puck
* Any Hero with high mobility will be neutralized by dream coil: Queen of Pain,
Storm Spirit,
Ember Spirit,
Lycan,
Bloodseeker,
Anti-Mage,
Timbersaw
Meepo
[wiki] rating: 0.4 (winrate: 56% pickrate: 1%)Necrophos
* Necrophos struggles at clearing away durable illusions or summons. Meepo can overwhelm Necrophos with his many duplicates, especially in the later stages of the game, and his Earthbind will prevent Necrophos from getting away, even if he casts Ghost Shroud.
* Meepo's high burst damage from Poof can make it difficult for to Necrophos to stay alive, and as Necrophos excels in extended fights, he will not be able to do as much damage as he intends to.
Puck
* Heroes with powerful area-of-effect disables can initiate on Meepo and his clones and shut him down, such as Enigma,
Invoker,
Magnus,
Puck, and
Sand King.
Ursa
[wiki] rating: 0.4 (winrate: 52% pickrate: 15%)Necrophos
* Ursa can do damage very fast with his Overpower and
Fury Swipes abilities, Necrohops will have taken large amounts of damage before he can use Ghost Shroud, And if Ursa has
Skull Basher, Ursa will quickly demolish Necrophos before he can do anything to retaliate.
* Skilled and smart Ursa can bait Necrophos into using Reaper's Scythe on him, and with his Aghanim's Scepter upgraded
Enrage that can negate 80% of the damage, Ursa will often survive and waste Reaper's Scythe.
Puck
* Melee heroes that get kited easily have hard times dealing with Puck without any lockdowns, as Puck is one of the most mobile heroes. Heroes like Sven,
Lifestealer,
Ursa and
Alchemist may have problems to get to Puck without proper initiation items. They also lack reliable lockdowns, as their disables are easily avoidable for Puck, or are just a soft disable.
Lina
[wiki] rating: 0.4 (winrate: 50% pickrate: 16%)Necrophos
* Laguna Blade deals amplified magical damage (pure from Aghanim's Scepter) to Necrophos when he is under the effects of
Ghost Shroud.
Additional:
* Laguna Blade's damage as well as damage from all of Lina's abilities will be greatly amplified during Ghost Shroud.
Puck
* Low health spellcasters: Lina,
Witch Doctor,
Tinker,
Keeper of the Light, all rely heavily on their spells and are fragile heroes. They all also have avoidable spells, allowing Puck to get to them and quickly burst them down.
Juggernaut
[wiki] rating: 0.4 (winrate: 50% pickrate: 11%)Puck
* Heroes with spell immunity or pseudo-blinks which provide invulnerability: Lifestealer,
Juggernaut,
Omniknight,
Huskar , and
Tusk have spells which allow them to easily escape Dream Coil.
Necrophos
* Blade Fury blocks the damage done by Death Pulse and
Reaper's Scythe. Additionally,
Ghost Shroud decreases Necrophos's magic resistance, making him take more damage from Blade Fury.
Puck
* Heroes with escaping and disjointing abilities can be good against Juggernaut:Anti-Mage
Riki,
Queen of Pain,
Puck,
Storm Spirit,
Ember Spirit,
Slark etc.
Necrophos
* Heroes who rely on physical damage are easily negated by Ghost Shroud: Phantom Assassin,
Wraith King,
Juggernaut.
Luna
[wiki] rating: 0.4 (winrate: 49% pickrate: 2%)Necrophos
* Even though Luna has a hard time laning against Necrophos, his Ghost Shroud won’t protect him in teamfights because it will increase the damage from Lucent Beam and Eclipse.
* Luna is a natural Black King Bar wielder, and none of Necrophos's spells can bypass spell immunity.
Necrophos
* A couple of long-range heroes with excellent laning like Mirana,
Lina,
Necrophos,
Death Prophet. The key to success is sticking together and attacking Luna whenever she enters the range, without even giving Luna a chance to retaliate. Multiple long-range heroes is a reason to pick another hero.
Zeus
[wiki] rating: 0.4 (winrate: 49% pickrate: 14%)Necrophos
* Necrophos' Ghost Shroud increases the magic damage taken by Necrophos.
* If Zeus builds both an Ethereal Blade and
Veil of Discord, it almost always guarantees a kill.
Puck
* Heroes with long range abilities are also able to touch Zeus, such as Clockwerk,
Kunkka,
Puck,
Skywrath Mage,
Spirit Breaker,
Tusk and others.
Templar Assassin
[wiki] rating: 0.4 (winrate: 48% pickrate: 4%)Puck
* None of Puck's abilities have any damage-over-time components, meaning that Refraction is a valuable form of defense against Puck's lane harassment.
* Psi Blades deals pure damage and spills over instantly. Puck cannot reliably dodge the damage with Phase Shift.
Additional:
* Puck high magical burst is almost completely useless against Refraction. Templar Assassin often buys Orchid Malevolence to render Puck useless in teamfights.
Puck
* Heroes that have disposable area-targeted spells can force her to undo her Meld: Leshrac,
Puck,
Tiny,
Jakiro,. An experienced Templar Assassin could try to use Refraction before Meld so she can tank through those damage without getting her Blink disabled.
Bristleback
[wiki] rating: 0.2 (winrate: 43% pickrate: 1%)Puck
* Bristleback,
Centaur Warrunner,
Spirit Breaker,
Pudge,
Huskar: These heroes are too tanky for Puck to burst down. Also, all of them have spells which can deal with and shut Puck down reliably.
Necrophos
* Enemies that possess high defenses through magic resistance, damage reduction, or high regeneration will make it difficult to whittle their health down to get to Reaper's Scythe's threshold. Such heroes include Bristleback (although only from behind),
Spectre,
Ursa, and
Dragon Knight.
Necrophos
* Reaper's Scythe and
Heartstopper Aura deal percentage-based damage, ignoring Bristleback's high health.
* Heartstopper Aura's HP removal does not trigger Bristleback's passive.
Additional:
* Heartstopper Aura deals percentage-based damage flagged as HP removal, so it is not reduced by Bristleback, nor does it trigger passive
Quill Sprays.
* Reaper's Scythe is very effective against Bristleback not only due to its percentage-based damage, but rather because it first stuns and then deals its damage, allowing Necrophos to position in front of Bristleback in time.
Terrorblade
[wiki] rating: -2.0 (winrate: 45% pickrate: 2%)Puck
* All of Puck's damaging spells deal AoE magic damage, which focuses on Terrorblade's low health pool and ignores his armor.
* Puck's spells are also great at quickly clearing all of Terrorblade's illusions. Even a single Illusory Orb is enough to drop their health very low, allowing creeps, towers or allies to finish them off very quickly. Waning Rift and Illusory Orb together are usually enough to clear his illusions.
* Waning Rift prevents Terrorblade from casting Sunder at low health.
* Puck is a common Dagon carrier, making it possible to finish off Terrorblade before he has a chance to
Sunder.
Necrophos
* Reaper's Scythe can kill Terrorblade quickly before he has chance to use
Sunder because it instantly disables an enemy hero on which it's casted.
* Even if Terrorblade succeeds to use Sunder on Necrophos, Necrophos can still protect himself from Terroblade's high attack damage with
Ghost Shroud and
Death Seeker from
Aghanim's Shard, which can turn him ethereal and prevent Terrorblade from attacking him.
Ghost Shroud also amplifies any healing Necrophos receives for it's duration, which in combination with
Death Pulse allows Necrophos to easily nullify
Sunder's effects while
Death Seeker can be used to disarm Terrorblade and amplify any magical damage he will take.
* Necrophos often buys Radiance, which combined with
Death Pulse can help him deal with Terrorblade's illusions from
Conjure Image and
Manta Style.
Death Seeker from
Aghanim's Shard can also spread on Terrorblade's illusions upon impact.
* Terrorblade depends entirely on physical attacks and his damage output is 100% physical. Therefore, since he 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,
Ghost Shroud will render him unable to damage Necrophos at all.
Phoenix
[wiki] rating: -2.0 (winrate: 50% pickrate: 5%)Puck
* Although Phoenix has many ways to disable a Blink Dagger, the high cooldown of all of its spells makes them not as reliable for this. Also, its spells cost a lot of health to use, making it easy to get nuked down.
* Waning Rift prevents Phoenix from using Supernova to refresh itself, giving Puck's team time to finish it off, or allow Puck to burst Phoenix down.
* Dream Coil prevents Phoenix from using Icarus Dive without consequences. Waning Rift and Dream Coil are also able to cancel
Sun Ray, which is its main source of damage in the late game.
Necrophos
* Phoenix constantly depletes its own health due to the health costs of its abilities. Unlike heroes that have a similar mechanic, Phoenix does not benefit from low health, nor does it really have a countermeasure for it. As such, Phoenix is a very vulnerable target for Necrophos to prey on, especially when caught off guard before it can cast Supernova.
Additional:
* Necrophos becomes a bigger threat the lower one's health gets, and unfortunately for Phoenix, most of its spells have noticeable health costs. Those costs, coupled with his Heartstopper Aura, means that staying in a teamfight for too long under Necrophos' presence will make Phoenix a more valid target for his ultimate, with its stun completely preventing any form of retaliation or protection. Necrophos players are also likely to buy more durability items such as
Hood of Defiance, making him more able to withstand Phoenix's damage despite having no escape mechanisms.
* However, it is also important to remember that a Scepter-upgraded Supernova can help protect an ally from his ultimate.
Earthshaker
[wiki] rating: -2.0 (winrate: 51% pickrate: 10%)Puck
* Phase Shift allows Puck to dodge all of Earthshaker's abilites.
* Waning Rift disables Earthshaker's stuns, leaving him and his team vulnerable.
* Dream Coil takes a stun from Earthshaker if he tries to escape from
Blink Dagger or Enchant Totem upgraded from
Aghanim's Scepter.
Necrophos
* Frequent healing from Death Pulse and
Mekansm/
Guardian Greaves or
Pipe of Insight makes it difficult for Earthshaker to execute his combo with Echo Slam.
* Necrophos usually buys Radiance to improve their burning aura damage from
Heartstopper Aura will usually disable Earthshaker's
Blink Dagger prior to a teamfight, preventing him from initiating or re-initiating.
* Reaper's Scythe allows to kill Earthshaker while he blinks in, preventing him from executing his combo (although Earthshaker is rarely a primary target).
Phantom Assassin
[wiki] rating: -1.6 (winrate: 46% pickrate: 10%)Puck
* 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.
Necrophos
* Heroes who rely on physical damage are easily negated by Ghost Shroud: Phantom Assassin,
Wraith King,
Juggernaut.
Alchemist
[wiki] rating: -1.6 (winrate: 47% pickrate: 3%)Puck
* Melee heroes that get kited easily have hard times dealing with Puck without any lockdowns, as Puck is one of the most mobile heroes. Heroes like Sven,
Lifestealer,
Ursa and
Alchemist may have problems to get to Puck without proper initiation items. They also lack reliable lockdowns, as their disables are easily avoidable for Puck, or are just a soft disable.
Necrophos
* Reaper's Scythe can kill Alchemist before Chemical Rage has the time to heal him.
* Ghost Shroud can prevent Alchemist from attacking Necrophos, as well as make him immune to Acid Spray and Unstable Concoction damage.
* Heartstopper Aura will do damage as long as Necrophos is alive based on health percentage, which is a problem for a strength hero such as Alchemist.
Marci
[wiki] rating: -1.6 (winrate: 48% pickrate: 7%)Puck
* Heroes that can reliably kite out Dispose, Unleash and dodge Rebound, like Ember Spirit,
Void Spirit,
Storm Spirit,
Anti-Mage,
Faceless Void,
Puck or always build items like
Blink Dagger and
Force Staff.
Necrophos
* Death Pulse and
Ghost Shroud very effective against her physical damage.
* Heartstopper Aura and
Reaper's Scythe are very effective against tanky Strength hero Marci.
Sven
[wiki] rating: -1.6 (winrate: 48% pickrate: 2%)Puck
* Melee heroes that get kited easily have hard times dealing with Puck without any lockdowns, as Puck is one of the most mobile heroes. Heroes like Sven,
Lifestealer,
Ursa and
Alchemist may have problems to get to Puck without proper initiation items. They also lack reliable lockdowns, as their disables are easily avoidable for Puck, or are just a soft disable.
Necrophos
* His Heartstopper Aura deals the same gradual damage over time no matter how high Sven builds his strength or health pool up, and should he fall down to a certain percentage, his high health will no longer matter if Necrophos manages to land his Reaper's Scythe, killing him instantly. But it is best if Necrophos can either catch him off guard before he can possibly use his Black King Bar (which is an item Sven players commonly purchase), or bait him out of it.
* Ghost Shroud prevents Sven from hitting Necrophos, and if he doesn't have his Storm Hammer available, it could make him completely immune to Sven and allow Necrophos to easily kite him around.
Broodmother
[wiki] rating: -1.6 (winrate: 54% pickrate: 3%)Puck
* Mass summoning heroes: Broodmother,
Nature's Prophet and
Enigma all have summons Puck can clear clear with Illusory Orb and Waning Rift instantly, due to their summons having low health.
Necrophos
* Death Pulse can easily wipe out Broodmother's spiderlings if they're too close while also offering Necrophos a source of regeneration for Broodmother's harass in lane.
* Ghost Shroud prevents Broodmother or her spiderlings from damaging Necrophos temporarily.
* Heartstopper Aura will regenerate lost health and mana for every spiderling or spiderite Necrophos manages to kill.
Morphling
[wiki] rating: -1.2 (winrate: 44% pickrate: 8%)Puck
* Heroes with silencing abilities that are not blocked by Linken's Sphere, like Puck's
Waning Rift,
Death Prophet's
Silence or
Silencer's
Global Silence.
Necrophos
* Necrophos's
Reaper's Scythe can finish off a low-health Morphling.
Timbersaw
[wiki] rating: -1.2 (winrate: 46% pickrate: 5%)Puck
* Any Hero with high mobility will be neutralized by dream coil: Queen of Pain,
Storm Spirit,
Ember Spirit,
Lycan,
Bloodseeker,
Anti-Mage,
Timbersaw
Necrophos
* Heroes that have escape abilities (such as Queen of Pain,
Storm Spirit or
Timbersaw) can be either nullified by Reaper's Scythe or a complimentary item for Necrophos (like
Rod of Atos or
Scythe of Vyse). If Necrophos is quick enough and enters range, they can quickly, if not instantly, die if they are not quick enough.
Additional:
* Heartstopper Aura effectively negates Timbersaw's large HP pool as well as HP regen.
* Death Pulse together with health and mana regeneration from killed creeps helps Necrophos and his teammates survive Timbersaw's burst damage.
* As a tanky hero that stays in the middle of teamfights, Timbersaw is an easy target for Reaper's Scythe.
Shadow Fiend
[wiki] rating: -1.2 (winrate: 48% pickrate: 18%)Puck
* Heroes that are hard to kill without lockdown: Puck,
Weaver.
Necrophos
* Heroes that have small health pools and little to no escape mechanisms are even easier prey for Necrophos. Ghost Shroud's slow will allow him to catch him with them, and get nuked down with his abilities, even preventing retaliation due to Reaper's Scythe's stun. Such heroes include Crystal Maiden,
Witch Doctor,
Warlock or
Shadow Fiend.
Witch Doctor
[wiki] rating: -1.2 (winrate: 48% pickrate: 15%)Puck
* Low health spellcasters: Lina,
Witch Doctor,
Tinker,
Keeper of the Light, all rely heavily on their spells and are fragile heroes. They all also have avoidable spells, allowing Puck to get to them and quickly burst them down.
Necrophos
* Heroes that have small health pools and little to no escape mechanisms are even easier prey for Necrophos. Ghost Shroud's slow will allow him to catch him with them, and get nuked down with his abilities, even preventing retaliation due to Reaper's Scythe's stun. Such heroes include Crystal Maiden,
Witch Doctor,
Warlock or
Shadow Fiend.
Bloodseeker
[wiki] rating: -1.2 (winrate: 49% pickrate: 3%)Puck
* Any Hero with high mobility will be neutralized by dream coil: Queen of Pain,
Storm Spirit,
Ember Spirit,
Lycan,
Bloodseeker,
Anti-Mage,
Timbersaw
Necrophos
* Heroes with area heals prevents Bloodseeker from bringing enemies low, and therefore deny him his Thirst bonuses and health return: Necrophos,
Dazzle
Storm Spirit
[wiki] rating: -1.2 (winrate: 49% pickrate: 6%)Puck
* Any Hero with high mobility will be neutralized by dream coil: Queen of Pain,
Storm Spirit,
Ember Spirit,
Lycan,
Bloodseeker,
Anti-Mage,
Timbersaw
Necrophos
* Heroes that have escape abilities (such as Queen of Pain,
Storm Spirit or
Timbersaw) can be either nullified by Reaper's Scythe or a complimentary item for Necrophos (like
Rod of Atos or
Scythe of Vyse). If Necrophos is quick enough and enters range, they can quickly, if not instantly, die if they are not quick enough.
Warlock
[wiki] rating: -1.2 (winrate: 51% pickrate: 4%)Puck
* Because all of Warlock's abilities are active abilities, silences can make his impact in fights minimal. Be cautious of heroes that carry silences like Death Prophet,
Puck, and the aforementioned
Silencer.
Necrophos
* Heroes that have small health pools and little to no escape mechanisms are even easier prey for Necrophos. Ghost Shroud's slow will allow him to catch him with them, and get nuked down with his abilities, even preventing retaliation due to Reaper's Scythe's stun. Such heroes include Crystal Maiden,
Witch Doctor,
Warlock or
Shadow Fiend.
Sniper
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 44% pickrate: 11%)Puck
* Sniper has no spells to disable Puck. He lacks a silence to prevent spell casting and a stun to disable, allowing Puck to act instantly against Sniper.
* Sniper's main strategy is to attack his enemies from safe distance. Illusory Orb, combined with Blink Dagger makes it easy for Puck to get to Sniper. Due to his low health, he is also easily nuked down by Puck.
* The status debuff placed by Assassinate on its target makes it very easy to avoid it. Puck has 2 (3 when having Blink Dagger, 4 when having Eul's Scepter of Divinity, 5 when having Linken's Sphere) methods to disjoint or dodge the projectile, making it a bad spell for finishing off Puck.
Mars
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 46% pickrate: 10%)Necrophos
* Necrophos' largely magical damage completely ignores Bulwark.
* Ghost Shroud protects Necrophos from God's Rebuke but more importantly stops Mars from being a threat in lane.
Doom
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 47% pickrate: 8%)Necrophos
* 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.
Chaos Knight
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 47% pickrate: 3%)Necrophos
* Innately fragile heroes will die almost instantly to Reality Rift while Chaos Knight has illusions active: Drow Ranger,
Bane,
Necrophos,
Crystal Maiden.
Puck
* Puck's area of effect nukes in the form of Illusory Orb and
Waning Rift clears Phantasm illusions from the early game to mid game.
* Phase Shift can be used to disjoint Chaos Bolt.
Necrophos
* Heroes that have high health but little to no magic resistance are easy prey for Necrophos, as no matter how high they build their health up, Reaper's Scythe will kill them outright as long as they fall under a certain threshold, and Heartstopper Aura will deal the same amount of damage regardless, decaying their health the longer they stay within range. As such, Strength heroes like Chaos Knight,
Centaur Warrunner or
Magnus are good targets for his ultimate.
Pangolier
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 48% pickrate: 9%)Puck
* Illusory Orb and
Waning Rift provides great mobility, allowing Puck to catch up Pangolier when he is attempting to disengage with his own skills.
* Dream Coil's leash act almost as a literal silence to Pangolier, disabling half of his arsenal and also piercing his spell immunity during Rolling Thunder. Also Dream Coil's very long duration will make Pangolier wasting his entire ultimate rolling in place.
Additional:
* Dream Coil and Wanning Rift prevent Pangolier from using Swashbuckle and
Rolling Thunder. If Puck has
Aghanim's Scepter, Dream coil will stop Rolling Thunder from moving entirely.
Void Spirit
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 48% pickrate: 5%)Puck
* Void Spirit can easily be bursted down by Puck's high magic damage spells in early game.
* Wanning Rift and Dream Coil prevent him from using two of his important mobility abilities: Dissimilate and
Astral Step.
Additional:
* Dream Coil prevents the usage of Void Spirit's escape abilities and limits his damage output in fights almost entirely.
* Killing Puck in the late game becomes difficult when they obtain a Eul's Scepter of Divinity,
Blink Dagger, and
Phase Shift.
Tiny
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 48% pickrate: 13%)Necrophos
* Reaper's Scythe will turn Tiny's high health against him.
* Heartstopper Aura does substantial damage to Tiny as a result of his high max health.
* Ghost Shroud protects Necrophos from Tiny's physical damage with Tree Grab and Tree Volley.
Tidehunter
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 49% pickrate: 5%)Necrophos
* No matter how Tidehunter builds tanky items such as (Guardian Greaves,
Crimson Guard or
Pipe of Insight), all it needs is for him to fall below a certain percentage of health for him to fall to Reaper's Scythe.
Crystal Maiden
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 49% pickrate: 13%)Puck
* Heroes with mobility spells like Queen of Pain,
Anti-Mage,
Phantom Assassin,
Riki,
Puck, and
Spirit Breaker that are cancelled by Frostbite can suffer greatly from the presence of Crystal Maiden. It is absolutely critical, however, to have followup from teammates, as all of the above heroes can make quick work of the squishy Crystal Maiden after they are released from her grip.
Puck
* Puck has both Waning Rift and Dream Coil to stop Freezing Field's channel regardless of whether or not Crystal Maiden has a Glimmer Cape, as both spells fully affect invisible units.
Necrophos
* Heroes that have small health pools and little to no escape mechanisms are even easier prey for Necrophos. Ghost Shroud's slow will allow him to catch him with them, and get nuked down with his abilities, even preventing retaliation due to Reaper's Scythe's stun. Such heroes include Crystal Maiden,
Witch Doctor,
Warlock or
Shadow Fiend.
Axe
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 49% pickrate: 9%)Necrophos
* Frequent healing from Death Pulse and
Mekansm makes it difficult for Axe to finish off targets with Culling Blade.
* Ghost Shroud's instant cast time allows Necrophos to turn ethereal before being initiated on by Berserker's Call. This prevents him from attacking Axe while taunted, thus lowering the chance to proc Counter Helix.
* Axe's high health is relatively ineffective against Heartstopper Aura's percentage-based health degeneration.
* Reaper's Scythe stops Axe's game plan of using Berserker's Call multiple times and since he's in the middle of the fight, this spell is very easy to grab kills onto him.
Additional:
* Frequent healing from Death Pulse makes it difficult for Axe to finish off targets with Culling Blade.
* Reaper's Scythe negates Axe's tankiness, and can kill him quickly after initiation if Axe's health is low enough.
* Heartstopper Aura can be very effective against Axe due to Axe's high strength gain.
* However, bear in mind that Berserker's Call can prevent Necrophos from using his
Ghost Shroud to defend his fragile self from physical damages. And
Heartstopper Aura can unintentionally help Axe to trigger his
Counter Helix more frequently while also hurting Necrophos with
Blade Mail during activation.
* Nonetheless Heartstopper Aura is not considered as a normal attack, thus it will not trigger
Counter Helix, so anyone who wrote the statement above should be awarded with MVP and considered a TI champion purely for the innovation of new mechanics.
Underlord
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 51% pickrate: 3%)Necrophos
* Reaper's Scythe and
Heartstopper Aura deal percentage-based damage, ignoring Underlord's high health.
Dark Willow
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 51% pickrate: 4%)Puck
* All of Puck's abilities are area-targeted, and will hit Dark Willow when she uses Shadow Realm.
* Illusory Orb allows Puck to bypass Bramble Maze, close the gap and silence Dark Willow with
Waning Rift.
* Phase Shift helps Puck dodge attacks charged by Shadow Realm, and is easily timed against Terrorize's long cast time..
Chen
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 51% pickrate: 0%)Necrophos
* Heartstopper Aura can do a decent damage overtime to Chen's High-Health-Creep Army, and Chen does not have any source of burst damage to fight back against Necrophos.
* Skilled Necrophos can purchase a Spirit Vessel to provide an AOE debuff that can reduce the healing from
Divine Favor and
Hand of God.
* Necrophos often builds Radiance, which combined with
Death Seeker allows him to quickly clear Chen's creeps.
* Necrophos can often kill Chen's allies with Reaper's Scythe before Chen can save them with
Hand of God.
Razor
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 52% pickrate: 7%)Necrophos
* Necrophos usually doesn't build much attack damage to steal from.
* He can use Ghost Shroud to prevent Razor from attacking him with the stolen damage from Static Link.
* Razor is somewhat vulnerable to magical damage, and Reaper's Scythe prevents him from escaping with his high movement speed when things get dangerous.
Undying
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 52% pickrate: 10%)Necrophos
* Necrophos is a dangerous opponent to go against with. Regardless of how much strength Undying has gained from Decay, Necrophos can finish off Undying with Reaper's Scythe once Undying's HP falls below a certain threshold.
* Heartstopper Aura will do more damage to Undying if he gained strength from Decay, as it does damage based on a hero's maximum health.
Mirana
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 53% pickrate: 15%)Puck
* Puck can initiate on Mirana with Waning Rift to prevent her from going invisible or Leaping.
* A Mirana caught in Dream Coil will stun herself if she tries to Leap away.
* Puck's Burst damage takes advantage of Mirana's below average health.
* Puck can easily dodge Sacred Arrow and Starstorm with Phase Shift.
Additional:
* Mirana's spells are laid out to assassinate enemies. Puck can easily avoid the slow moving Sacred Arrow, and also can avoid
Starstorm with Phase Shift, since the meteors have a delay.
* If Puck casts either Waning Rift or Dream Coil in the area, Mirana cannot Leap away.
Queen of Pain
[wiki] rating: -0.6 (winrate: 46% pickrate: 6%)Puck
* Once you farm up an Orchid Malevolence or a
Scythe of Vyse, you're suddenly a lot more fearsome to elusive heroes like
Storm Spirit or even that pesky
Puck.
Puck
* Any Hero with high mobility will be neutralized by dream coil: Queen of Pain,
Storm Spirit,
Ember Spirit,
Lycan,
Bloodseeker,
Anti-Mage,
Timbersaw
Additional:
* Puck will make a game of dodging as many Shadow Strikes as he can with Phase Shift. If he's a good player, he will also dodge Sonic Wave. If he's a great player, he will also dodge Scream of Pain. All through a single spell.
* Puck also has a silence to stop her blink with Waning Rift.
* Puck will have vision to hunt her down if she blinks into the trees with Illusory Orb.
* If Queen of Pain is under the effect of Dream Coil, she will be unable to blink out.
Necrophos
* Heroes that have escape abilities (such as Queen of Pain,
Storm Spirit or
Timbersaw) can be either nullified by Reaper's Scythe or a complimentary item for Necrophos (like
Rod of Atos or
Scythe of Vyse). If Necrophos is quick enough and enters range, they can quickly, if not instantly, die if they are not quick enough.
Nature's Prophet
[wiki] rating: -0.6 (winrate: 46% pickrate: 12%)Puck
* Mass summoning heroes: Broodmother,
Nature's Prophet and
Enigma all have summons Puck can clear clear with Illusory Orb and Waning Rift instantly, due to their summons having low health.
Monkey King
[wiki] rating: -0.6 (winrate: 47% pickrate: 8%)Necrophos
* Heroes with wide AoE abilities will reveal Monkey King through Mischief: Necrophos,
Phoenix,
Alchemist,
Earthshaker,
Razor,
Tinker,
Leshrac,
Queen of Pain
Ogre Magi
[wiki] rating: -0.6 (winrate: 48% pickrate: 7%)Puck
* Puck silences Ogre Magi with
Waning Rift, and
Phase Shift makes Puck untargetable for the duration.
Ember Spirit
[wiki] rating: -0.6 (winrate: 48% pickrate: 11%)Puck
* Any Hero with high mobility will be neutralized by dream coil: Queen of Pain,
Storm Spirit,
Ember Spirit,
Lycan,
Bloodseeker,
Anti-Mage,
Timbersaw
Windranger
[wiki] rating: -0.6 (winrate: 49% pickrate: 10%)Puck
* Windranger heavily relies on her abilities for any form of tactical advantage and damage. A well timed silence will make her useless: Puck,
Silencer,
Death Prophet,
Skywrath Mage,
Drow Ranger,
Earth Spirit,
Grimstroke.
Keeper of the Light
[wiki] rating: -0.6 (winrate: 49% pickrate: 3%)Puck
* Heroes with silences: Puck,
Doom,
Riki.
Earth Spirit
[wiki] rating: -0.6 (winrate: 49% pickrate: 3%)Puck
* Heroes who can dodge Earth Spirit's abilities: Ember Spirit,
Puck,
Weaver
Magnus
[wiki] rating: -0.6 (winrate: 51% pickrate: 15%)Necrophos
* Heroes that have high health but little to no magic resistance are easy prey for Necrophos, as no matter how high they build their health up, Reaper's Scythe will kill them outright as long as they fall under a certain threshold, and Heartstopper Aura will deal the same amount of damage regardless, decaying their health the longer they stay within range. As such, Strength heroes like Chaos Knight,
Centaur Warrunner or
Magnus are good targets for his ultimate.
Death Prophet
[wiki] rating: -0.6 (winrate: 55% pickrate: 11%)Puck
* Heroes that can kill Death Prophet with nukes can prevent her from using Exorcism to its full duration or using it at all: Lina,
Lion,
Puck,
Morphling.
Dragon Knight
[wiki] rating: -0.4 (winrate: 45% pickrate: 5%)Necrophos
* Enemies that possess high defenses through magic resistance, damage reduction, or high regeneration will make it difficult to whittle their health down to get to Reaper's Scythe's threshold. Such heroes include Bristleback (although only from behind),
Spectre,
Ursa, and
Dragon Knight.
Necrophos
* Heartstopper Aura and
Reaper's Scythe go right through Dragon Knight's armor.
Pudge
[wiki] rating: -0.4 (winrate: 49% pickrate: 29%)Puck
* Bristleback,
Centaur Warrunner,
Spirit Breaker,
Pudge,
Huskar: These heroes are too tanky for Puck to burst down. Also, all of them have spells which can deal with and shut Puck down reliably.
Necrophos
* No matter how high Pudge builds up strength with his Flesh Heap, all it needs is for him to fall below a certain percentage of health for him to fall to Reaper's Scythe. Considering his constant self-damage with
Rot, being around Heartstopper Aura will prove risky for an overconfident Pudge.
Additional:
* Heartstopper Aura is effective against high health heroes, and Pudge is no exception. Coupled with his self-damage from Rot, being around Heartstopper Aura could prove risky for Pudge.
* Regardless of how much health Pudge gains through Flesh Heap, Reaper's Scythe will often kill Pudge should his health fall below 40%, making Necrophos an ideal counter versus Pudge.
Centaur Warrunner
[wiki] rating: -0.4 (winrate: 51% pickrate: 7%)Puck
* Bristleback,
Centaur Warrunner,
Spirit Breaker,
Pudge,
Huskar: These heroes are too tanky for Puck to burst down. Also, all of them have spells which can deal with and shut Puck down reliably.
Necrophos
* With high health and rarely buying Linken's Sphere or
Black King Bar, Centaur Warrunner is a good target for
Reaper's Scythe. However, Centaur Warrunner can resolve this problem by buying
Hood of Defiance and it's upgrade
Pipe of Insight to diminish its damage.
* Heartstopper Aura will do well against high health heroes such as Centaur Warrunner.
Slark
[wiki] rating: -0.4 (winrate: 51% pickrate: 17%)Puck
* Heroes with blink or movement abilities, which are disabled by Pounce's leash: Anti-Mage,
Earth Spirit,
Faceless Void,
Magnus,
Mirana,
Monkey King,
Morphling,
Pangolier,
Phantom Assassin,
Phoenix,
Puck,
Queen of Pain,
Riki,
Sand King,
Spirit Breaker,
Timbersaw,
Tusk.
Puck
* Illusory Orb and
Phase Shift allows Puck to avoid most ganking attempts.
* Waning Rift and
Dream Coil makes it very hard for Slark to escape bad situations.
* Puck's abilities used together also deals significant magical nuke damage, none of which are targeted and thus cannot be avoided by Shadow Dance.
Spectre
[wiki] rating: -0.4 (winrate: 51% pickrate: 11%)Necrophos
* Enemies that possess high defenses through magic resistance, damage reduction, or high regeneration will make it difficult to whittle their health down to get to Reaper's Scythe's threshold. Such heroes include Bristleback (although only from behind),
Spectre,
Ursa, and
Dragon Knight.
Necrophos
* Death Pulse can single out Spectre from her illusions, as well as heal his team against her. He also usually stands close to his allies for Death Pulse, effectively disabling
Desolate.
Huskar
[wiki] rating: -0.4 (winrate: 53% pickrate: 6%)Puck
* Bristleback,
Centaur Warrunner,
Spirit Breaker,
Pudge,
Huskar: These heroes are too tanky for Puck to burst down. Also, all of them have spells which can deal with and shut Puck down reliably.
Necrophos
* Because Huskar tends to stay at low health to gain the maximum bonuses from Berserker's Blood, it makes him an exceptionally prime target for Reaper's Scythe.
Additional:
* Huskar is often at low health, making him easy prey for Reaper's Scythe.
* Ghost Shroud prevents Huskar from stacking Burning Spear, and if Heartstopper Aura stacks are active, can regenerate health lost to existing stacks.
Anti-Mage
[wiki] rating: -0.4 (winrate: 53% pickrate: 11%)Necrophos
* Anti-Mage can withstand magical burst damage much better than other carries, making him effective against nukers: Lich,
Necrophos,
Oracle, and
Leshrac.
Puck
* Waning Rift silences Anti-Mage, preventing him from blinking away.
* However, Waning Rift can be dispelled by Manta Style.
* Dream Coil stops Anti-Mage from blinking, with
Aghanim's Scepter also locks down Anti-Mage for long duration.
Lone Druid
[wiki] rating: -0.4 (winrate: 55% pickrate: 3%)Puck
* Nukers who have set amounts of damage will really struggle against Lone Druid especially in True Form: Puck,
Void Spirit,
Mars.
Necrophos
* Ghost Shroud can be use both offensively to slow Lone Druid or Defensively to prevent Lone Druid and The Spirit Bear from attacking him.
* Heartstopper aura burns the Spirit bear High HP over time. Additionally, it can deal decent damage to Lone Druid during his True Form.
Grimstroke
[wiki] rating: 0.0 (winrate: 46% pickrate: 4%)Necrophos
* Ghost Shroud amplifies damage taken from all of Grimstroke's abilities. Necrophos is particularly vulnerable to Ink Swell and Phantom's Embrace while in Ghost Shroud.
* Death Pulse works against Necrophos in lane by keeping his creeps alive and add damage to Stroke of Fate.
Puck
* Phase Shift can easily disjoint Phantom Embrace and waste half of the Soulbind's duration.
* Puck is very mobile hero who can jump backsides and burst Grimstroke before he can cast anything.
Shadow Demon
[wiki] rating: 0.0 (winrate: 47% pickrate: 1%)Necrophos
* Disruption can save an ally from a fatal Reaper's Scythe.
* Demonic Purge can remove Ghost Shroud, making Necrophos vulnerable to physical damage and preventing him from regenerating health.
Puck
* All of Puck's abilities are active making Demonic Purge break from Aghanim's Scepter useless.
* Shadow Demon will find a hard time catching a Puck, as he can get away with Illusory Orb or even
Waning Rift;
* Puck can dodge Shadow Poison waves and potentially avoid the damage from Demonic Purge with Phase Shift. Furthermore, after Disruption ended, Puck can use Phase Shift to avoid any further danger and can blink away with
Blink Dagger.
* Waning Rift can be used to initiate Shadow Demon, prevent him from using any spells.
* Puck usually builds Eul's Scepter of Divinity to dispel Shadow Poison and Soul Catcher and
Linken's Sphere to block Disruption and Demonic Purge.
Disruptor
[wiki] rating: 0.0 (winrate: 48% pickrate: 10%)Puck
* Riki and
Disruptor:
Smoke Screen and
Static Storm can be thrown wherever Puck used Phase Shift, making Puck an easy target if it doesn't have Blink Dagger or is on cooldown. Puck is also very susceptible to Riki's high attack damage when attacking from the back. Glimpse also prevents Puck from escaping.
Puck
* Puck with
Phase Shift
* 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
Lifestealer
[wiki] rating: 0.0 (winrate: 49% pickrate: 5%)Puck
* Heroes with spell immunity or pseudo-blinks which provide invulnerability: Lifestealer,
Juggernaut,
Omniknight,
Huskar , and
Tusk have spells which allow them to easily escape Dream Coil.
Puck
* Melee heroes that get kited easily have hard times dealing with Puck without any lockdowns, as Puck is one of the most mobile heroes. Heroes like Sven,
Lifestealer,
Ursa and
Alchemist may have problems to get to Puck without proper initiation items. They also lack reliable lockdowns, as their disables are easily avoidable for Puck, or are just a soft disable.
Enigma
[wiki] rating: 0.0 (winrate: 50% pickrate: 3%)Puck
* Enigma can be a perfect counter-initiator with his ultimate. A perfectly timed Black Hole will turn the tide of any initiation, especially from heroes like; Spirit Breaker,
Legion Commander,
Axe,
Puck, and
Slardar
Puck
* Heroes who can clear the waves of Enigma's Eidolons: Lina,
Luna,
Dawnbreaker,
Jakiro,
Shadow Shaman,
Death Prophet,
Keeper of the Light,
Invoker,
Leshrac,
Puck.
Phantom Lancer
[wiki] rating: 0.0 (winrate: 50% pickrate: 2%)Necrophos
* 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.
Puck
* 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.
Tinker
[wiki] rating: 0.0 (winrate: 56% pickrate: 11%)Necrophos
* Any hero with a low HP pool is easy for Tinker to nuke down: Crystal Maiden,
Enchantress,
Gyrocopter,
Lion,
Riki,
Techies,
Terrorblade,
Necrophos,
Invoker.
Puck
* Low health spellcasters: Lina,
Witch Doctor,
Tinker,
Keeper of the Light, all rely heavily on their spells and are fragile heroes. They all also have avoidable spells, allowing Puck to get to them and quickly burst them down.
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.
About
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.
How to interpret this data
Take it with a bit of grain of salt, especially if the recommendation has a low rating (<= 1), some heroes
may win a lane in an early game but would lose in late game (and vice versa). That's why sometimes
you could hero names appearing as a counter and as being countered, as on image:
You can also add your own tips, update old data and fix mistakes by editing page on Dota 2 Wiki (it works like Wikipedia - anyone can contribute, you don't even need to register) these edits will appear on this website automatically (data is updated several times per week).
Right now there is no app/overlay that will detect picks automatically (like overwolf dota plus or become the gamer), instead, you can open web version in a steam in-game browser or use mobile version on your smartphone.
Want to know more? Check FAQ
List of new features that have been added
- Results now also sorted both by rating and average hero win rate for the chosen rank (data from dotabuff)
- You can share counterpick suggestions just by copying URL. Try it: Pudge and Phantom Assassin counters
- Results from the left and right column are partially merged now: the green color shows counterpicks and red color heroes who are countered by an enemy pick.
- Added link next to each hero pointing to wiki hero page
- Counterpick suggestions will appear as you type
- Added statistics: Total entries in the database: 557, last updated: about 1 month ago
- Filtering by role: carry/durable/support - data taken directly from the game (basically the filters which you see on pick stage in dota)
- Filtering by lane: off lane/safe lane/mid lane (lane data is parsed from hero guides dotabuff)
- Tips now include icons next to the heroes/spells/item names (just like on Dota 2 wiki)
- Added item suggestions
- Heroes now can be searched by their abbreviations: CM - Crystal Maiden, Kotl - Keeper Of The Light, AM - Anti Mage etc.
- Mobile website version
- Improved UX on small screens - when selecting heroes page automatically scrolls so hero select input is displayed at the very top of screen, leaving more space for results.
- importing picks from dotabuff/opendota URL or matchid
- sorting by personal win rate after logging via steam
- dota overlay(like Overwolf Dota Plus) that will automatically detect picks and bans this will also bring synergy and ban suggestion based on opponent recent games and most played/highest win rate heroes (but don't expect it soon).
Sharing link to this site is always appreciated.
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Most popular searches list
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Abaddon, Alchemist, Anti-Mage, Arc Warden, Ancient Apparition
Abaddon, Alchemist, Ancient Apparition, Anti-Mage, Arc Warden
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Puck
* Generally strong against every spellcaster, Puck fully relies on their skill set and is barely a threat when silenced.
Arcane Curse disables Blink Dagger for quite some time, and is also effective against Puck as it tend to use its spells a lot.
Glaives of Wisdom can do a lot of damage against Puck due to Puck's low agility gain and armor.
Last Word can prevent Puck from getting a full combo off, limiting its effectiveness in team fights or ganks.
Global Silence can take Puck out of fights entirely.
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Necrophos
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Arcane Curse punishes Necrophos if tries to spam Death Pulse, increasing the duration of the slow and damage taken over time.
Last Word heavily damages Necrophos and also silence him for a lenghty duration.
Glaives of Wisdom will reduce temporarily Necrophos intelligence on each hit dealing hindering his ability to spam Death Pulse, also reducing his attack damage and mana pool; dealing increasing amounts of phisical and pure damage each time. Silencer will permanently steal Necrophos intelligence if Necrophos is killed by him or if he dies nears him.
Global Silence turns Necrophos almost useless for a long time, allowing Silencer and his team to easily dispatch him, since Necrohpos heavily relies on his spells to survive.
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