* Impale and Spiked Carapace can be used to cancel Dismember easily, and can even do so when Pudge uses it on Nyx Assassin, if timed correctly.
* A good Nyx can reflect Queen of Pain's Sonic Wave with his Spiked Carapace, or even initiate a gank on her in Vendetta while she farms a creep wave with Scream of Pain.
* Her strength to intelligence ratio is bad enough that he should be able to kill her without even requiring a Dagon, provided he can get his full combo off.
* Meat Hook can prove annoying for Pudge if Rubick Spell Steals it, allowing Rubick to easily hook and save his allies being Dismembered.
* All of Queen of Pain's abilities are worthy choices for Rubick to Spell Steal. In addition, he can cast her abilities from further distances than her thanks to Arcane Supremacy's increased cast range and spell amplification.
* If Meat Hook is used before Blink, Anti-Mage may be able to escape Pudge's grasp by blinking to safety.
* Counterspell grants Anti-Mage a large degree of magic resistance, a damage type Pudge is highly reliant on to secure kills. This makes Anti-Mage a bad target for Pudge. The active can also block Dismember if timed correctly.
* Mana Break can quickly drain Pudge's low supply of mana, which may render Meat Hook and Dismember unusable.
* Because Queen of Pain's spells cost a decent amount of mana, Anti-Mage can easily use Mana Void if she spams her spells recklessly.
* Anti-Mage has similar mobility through Blink, which can allow him to catch up to or flee from her.
* Counterspell will reduce the damage done by Shadow Strike and Scream of Pain. Additionally, its active component also reflects Shadow Strike back at her if Anti-Mage times it right.
* Heroes that have a weak laning stage: Spectre, Nyx Assassin, Clockwerk, Spirit Breaker, Omniknight, Pudge.
Additional:
* Void's mini-stun and silence from Crippling Fear will stop Pudge from using Dismember or turning off his Rot.
* Night Stalker has naturally high health, strength gain and common itemization for survivability through magic resistance, making Night Stalker a poor target for Pudge.
* Night Stalker has a huge, almost instant silence through Crippling Fear. The main problem is that he can get it off while Queen of Pain barely has any vision of him if he creeps up to her during Dark Ascension. She'll have to play very carefully before she gets a Black King Bar or a Eul's Scepter of Divinity.
* Heroes with a high degree of mobility and invisibility are hard to catch with Meat Hook: Ember Spirit, Riki, Clinkz, Queen of Pain.
* Smoke Cloud prevents Queen of Pain from using any of her offensive and defensive spells, rendering her unable to effectively react to Riki's attack.
* It's easy to dodge Sonic Wave by using Blink Strike & Tricks of the Trade.
* 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.
* 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.
* Pudge has low armor and mobility, making him suspectible to her physical attacks (if Lina is the carry).
* Because Dismember is a channeled ability, it can be canceled through Light Strike Array within a distance.
* Lina has a very long range of attack, which completely overlaps the range of Queen of Pain's abilities and attacks, which is why even a single Shadow Strike roll can become deplorable, since Lina will shoot Queen of Pain from a long distance before and after the Shadow Strike roll. And with the help of the abilities of Light Strike Array and Laguna Blade, Lina can even kill Queen of Pain because of her small health reserve if she is exposed to a blow
Additional:
* Lina has a very long range of attack, which completely overlaps the range of Queen of Pain's abilities and attacks, which is why even a single Shadow Strike roll can become deplorable, since Lina will shoot Queen of Pain from a long distance before and after the Shadow Strike roll. And with the help of Light Strike Array and Laguna Blade, Lina can even kill Queen of Pain because of her small health reserve if she is exposed to a blow.
* Heroes with abilities that can pull Lina out of position can easily bring her to their team mates, like Batrider with Flaming Lasso, Pudge with Meat Hook and Vengeful Spirit with Nether Swap.
* Sonic Wave is a bad choice in abilities if he and the Tempest Double both use Blade Mail to reflect the damage to Queen of Pain, potentially killing her outright if her health is low enough.
* Magnetic Field protects himself or his ally from Queen of Pain's attacks unless she has Monkey King Bar.
* One more advantage of Tempest Double is that he can deny himself if he is close to death with Shadow Strike's debuff.
* Low armor and lack of escape makes Pudge vulnerable to Ursa, specially when he gets his Blink Dagger.
* If Pudge lands a Meat Hook on Ursa, Ursa can simply face Pudge head on provided he can burst him down before any follow up disables.
* Enrage's Aghanim's Scepter upgrade allows Ursa to dispel Pudge's Dismember.
* The lifesteal of Feast scales accordingly to the max health of its target, which is effective against Pudge due to his high health and further health granted by stacks of Flesh Heap.
* Lifestealer can activate Rage to be spell immune, making Rot deal no damage.
* Pudge's plentiful health makes him an ideal target for Lifestealer's Aghanim's Shard ability, Open Wounds.
* Bounty Hunter can easily keep vision on Pudge with Track, making it difficult for Pudge to hook Bounty Hunter or his team mates.
* It's difficult for Pudge to keep up with Bounty Hunter to apply Rot on him due to Shadow Walk.
* Shuriken Toss cancels out Dismember from a good range if Bounty Hunter is not the target.
Additional:
* Track can easily keep vision on Pudge, making it very hard for him to hook Bounty Hunter or his teammates from the fog of war.
* Shuriken Toss cancels Dismember from great range.
* Blood Rite prevents Queen of Pain from escaping with Blink.
* Blink will trigger the extra damage from Rupture.
Additional:
* Blood Rite silences her, preventing her from initiating or escaping.
* With Thirst, even if she Blinks away, Bloodseeker can catch right up to her.
* Rupture will heavily damage Queen of Pain if she tries to Blink away.
* She is, however, one of the few heroes who can avoid the damage from Rupture if she successfully blink-walks.
* Sanity's Eclipse deals more damage the less max mana the heroes hit by it have, making Pudge an ideal target.
* Outworld Destroyer can save allies or himself caught by Dismember or Meat Hook with Astral Imprisonment.
* A good Centaur can catch Queen of Pain with a Blink Dagger and Hoof Stomp.
* Retaliate with Blade Mail reflects all of Queen of Pain's damage, especially Sonic Wave.
* Stampede grants a movement speed bonus, which can prevent Queen of Pain from initiating.
* Double Edge can shred her low health pool if she's not careful.
* Ghostship helps your team soak up damage from Sonic Wave and Scream of Pain.
* Queen of Pain can't escape easily from X Marks the Spot - Torrent combo.
* Outlanes Queen of Pain on the midline, due to the fact that Queen of Pain has a small reserve of health at the beginning of the game, and she suffers very much from Tidebringer, which is why she is forced to either spend money on Tango, or skip creeps and run for bounty runes, and Kunkka at this time will gain an advantage in level and gold.
Additional:
* Outlanes Queen of Pain on the midline, due to the fact that Queen of Pain has a small reserve of health at the beginning of the game, and she suffers very much from Tidebringer, which is why she is forced to either spend money on Tango, or skip creeps and run for bounty runes, and Kunkka at this time will gain an advantage in level and gold.
* Kunkka will catch her in X Marks the Spot and allow his team to kill her for stun from Torrent, because Queen of Pain has no way to avoid the cross X Marks the Spot before buying Black King Bar.
* Earth Spirit can easily disrupt Dismember because he can disable from a long distance with a Stone Remnant and Rolling Boulder. With talent he can even pull his teammates out of Dismember and also silence Pudge with Geomagnetic Grip.
* A good Skywrath Mage with quick fingers will punish Queen of Pain for blinking aggressively. Ancient Seal is a six second silence with no cast time, so he can interrupt either her Shadow Strike or Sonic Wave, and a good Mystic Flare on top of that will seal the deal for her.
* Ancient Seal also has pretty good range so he could get it off before she blinks away.
* Tether and Overcharge makes it much harder for Pudge to kill a target with Meat Hook, and Relocate can save the Io's ally while Dismember is being channeled.
* Shukuchi grants Weaver invisibility and a high degree of mobility for a short time, which can make him a difficult target to hook.
* The Swarm beetles are difficult for Pudge to remove, due to his low base attack time and poor agility. Additionally, it can be used to can scout out Pudge's location.
* Should an ally get snagged by Meat Hook, Weaver can use Aghanim's Scepter upgraded Time Lapse on them to send them back to where they were before hooked, even if Pudge has already started to Dismember them.
Additional:
* While Weaver is in Shukuchi, Rot doesn't slow him and Meat Hook is easy to avoid.
* Even when hooked, Weaver can use Time Lapse, negating both the damage and displacement.
* Pudge has low armor and low attack speed, making him susceptible to The Swarm and physical attacks.
* Dismember is easy to block with Linken's Sphere and it's the only way to break Weaver's Linken Sphere.
* However, the long duration stun of Dismember can be dangerous for Weaver.
* Blink and positioning is crucial for Queen of Pain. These factors are heavily countered by a good Glimpse.
* Static Storm is devastating for Queen as she relies heavily on her spells to inflict heavy burst damage.
Additional:
* Thunder Strike gives vision of Queen of Pain when she's trying to escape. When combined with Glimpse, her mobility and hit-and-run style can be negated.
* While in a team fight, Static Storm forces Queen of Pain to only use right-clicks.
* When combined with the Kinetic Field, she can only wait until she respawns.
* Kraken Shell can dispel Dismember after reaching a certain threshold of damage.
* Tidehunter's naturally high health, strength gain, and common itemization for survivability through magic resistance makes Tidehunter a poor target.
* Glaives of Wisdom's intelligence steal will heavily punish Queen of Pain, as the loss of intelligence means that her mana pool is also reduced, since she is heavily reliant on her abilities to be able to make an impact.
* In the laning stage, Queen of Pain's reliance on spamming Shadow Strike and Scream of Pain will be significantly hindered by Arcane Curse.
* Last Word and Global Silence will render Queen of Pain defenseless unless she has an item/ally to dispel the silence.
* Corrosive Haze reveals Pudge's location, making it hard for him to use Meat Hook from the fog of war on Slardar's teammates or Slardar himself.
* Slithereen Crush interrupts Pudge while he is using Dismember.
* Guardian Sprint allows Slardar to avoid Meat Hook.
Additional:
* While Slardar has Guardian Sprint activated, Rot cannot slow him and Meat Hook is easier to avoid.
* Slithereen Crush allows Slardar to interrupt Dismember at close range (when Slardar is not a target).
* Corrosive Haze reveals Pudge's location, making it very difficult for him to land hooks from the fog.
* Phantasm's illusions make it difficult to land Meat Hook and Dismember.
* Chaos Bolt is a comparatively low cooldown tool to interrupt Dismember.
* Chaos Strike's lifesteal offsets Rot's damage.
Additional:
* Unlike any other illusion heroes, Chaos Knight is the worst target for Pudge to hook as it will definitely backfire him.
* Phantasm are significantly tankier than most illusion and deal full damage, which will quickly kill Pudge due to his low armor.
* it becomes worse if pudge is affected with Reality Rift, which reduces his already abysmal base armor even lower.
* Low movement speed and low mobility means Pudge will struggle to escape or outrun Chaos Knight in most cases.
* Bristleback is one of the hardest heroes to gank with a Meat Hook and Dismember combo, and attempts to do so sometimes backfire on Pudge.
Additional:
* Pudge is particularly susceptible to Bristleback's Viscous Nasal Goo and Quill Spray due to his naturally low armor and poor agility gain.
* Bristleback, in combination with his strength gain, high health, common itemization for magic resistance and damage reduction from Bristleback makes him a poor target for Pudge.
* Tag Team easily overwhelms Pudge, as he has low armor, which when combined with heroes with strong physical damage and Pudge's slow speed, it becomes for Pudge difficult to escape.
* Snowball can save a Dismembered ally and stop Pudge's Dismember.
* Walrus PUNCH! will removes a big chunk of Pudge's health and stun him.
* Pudge usually can't stand toe to toe against Tusk and his allies in the early game.
* Infernal Blade deals high damage to Pudge due to his scaling health and strength gain from Flesh Heap.
* Using Doom with timing against Pudge who had just activated Rot would usually kill him.
Additional:
* Doom disables the toggling of Rot and, if cast at the right time, may leave Pudge with a potentially lethal health drain.
* Doom's naturally high health, strength gain and damage output makes him a poor target for Pudge.
* The damage of Doom's Infernal Blade scales with the target's maximum health, which is particularly effective against Pudge due to his naturally high health and further health granted by stacks of Flesh Heap.
* Abaddon's constant heals and protection can save himself and his allies from burst-focused heroes, such as Legion Commander, Faceless Void, and Pudge.
Additional:
* Abaddon can activate Borrowed Time to dispel Dismember; breaking the disable and potentially allowing Abaddon to escape.
* Aphotic Shield can be cast on an ally to dispel the stun of Dismember, which can make kills difficult to secure, given that Dismember is Pudge's only reliable disable.
* Pudge lacks a mobility without a Blink Dagger, causing him to be easily chased with Curse of Avernus. The silence also prevents him from toggling off his Rot.
* Heroes with gap-closing abilities will be easy targets for Berserker's Call: Phantom Assassin, Faceless Void, Slark, Chaos Knight, Morphling, Queen of Pain
Additional:
* Berserker's Call prevents Queen of Pain from escaping with Blink and also pierces her Black King Bar.
* Due to her fast attack speed from Mjollnir, it will quickly trigger Counter Helix.
* Culling Blade finishes off Queen of Pain's low health pool before she gets a chance to escape, preventing her from playing the hit-and-run style often associated with Queen of Pain.
* Generally heroes who don't rely on magical damage, such as Sven, Phantom Assassin, and Outworld Destroyer, as they can practically ignore Flesh Heap's damage block.
* Anti-Tank heroes like: Razor, Necrophos, Undying.
* Heroes with a high degree of mobility and invisibility are hard to catch with Meat Hook: Ember Spirit, Riki, Clinkz, Queen of Pain.
* Heroes with channeled abilities can be interrupted by a long-range Fissure: Crystal Maiden, Witch Doctor, Bane, Pugna, Pudge.
* In early to mid stage, Silence is also a great way to counter escape oriented heroes such as Anti-Mage, Queen of Pain, and Phantom Assassin to prevent them from escaping, provided that they don't have any basic dispels.
Additional:
* Silence will prevent Queen of Pain from using Blink to escape or chase.
* If Queen of Pain uses Blink to close the gap to Death Prophet, Death Prophet will be in range for Spirit Siphon and typically gain an advantage over Queen of Pain.
* Heroes with high health especially Strength heroes will take more damage on Sun Ray: Axe, Pudge, Bristleback, Mars.
* Heroes with channeling spells are very easy targets for Jakiro's abilities: Crystal Maiden, Dawnbreaker, Enigma, Pudge, Shadow Fiend, Shadow Shaman, Warlock.
* Dark Pact dispels Dismember if timed correctly.
* Pounce allows Slark to escape Pudge's Rot once Dismember is over, and allows him to dodge hooks.
* Shadow Dance hides Slark and grants him a high degree of mobility, which can make him a difficult target to hook and also protects him from Pudge's Dismember (including allies with an Aghanim's Shard).
* 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.
* Both Scream of Pain and Sonic Wave should hit Slark during his Shadow Dance.
* Luna can easily cancel channeling spells with Lucent Beam and 0.25s Eclipse Lucent Ministun talent for Eclipse, she can also buy Abyssal Blade in case they decide to buy Black King Bar: Enigma's Black Hole, Witch Doctor's Death Ward, Shadow Shaman's Shackles, Lion's Mana Drain, Bane's Fiend's Grip, Pudge's Dismember, Crystal Maiden's Freezing Field, Pugna's Life Drain, Dawnbreaker's Solar Guardian, and Naga Siren's Reel In from Aghanim's Scepter.
* Aggressively blinking is not going to end well against Luna, because Queen of Pain will be an easy target for Lucent Beam & Eclipse.
* Queen of Pain's HP is abysmal, so Luna can quickly kill Queen of Pain as soon as she initiates with Blink.
Additional:
* Aggressively blinking is not going to end well against Luna, because Queen of Pain will be an easy target for Lucent Beam & Eclipse.
* Queen of Pain's HP is abysmal, so Luna can quickly kill Queen of Pain as soon as she initiates with Blink.
* Even with Black King Bar, Pudge's Meat Hook and Dismember can still disable Luna for a fairly long time.
* Many stacks of Flesh Heap will make it difficult for Luna to burst down Pudge with Eclipse. Aghanim's Shard upgraded Dismember can also allow Pudge to save an allied hero from being killed by Eclipse.
* Bear in mind, however, that Luna can cancel Dismember if some of her allies are targets. Which may force Pudge to buy Black King Bar earlier.
* For the same reasons, Pudge makes a very powerful ally for Luna when they are in the same team.
* High priority targets like Queen of Pain, Drow Ranger, Ember Spirit can't get caught out from Lion's long range disables, making it harder to them fulfill their roles, and making it easy to target them.
* Heroes with many summons or illusions are much harder to catch with Meat Hook: Nature's Prophet, Phantom Lancer, Chen.
* 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.
* Heroes who rely on high mobility are especially vulnerable to Primal Roar: Storm Spirit, Ember Spirit, Queen of Pain.
* Pudge has a very hard time killing Familiars due to his melee range and low attack speed.
* Stone Form can quickly interrupt Dismember.
* Heroes with damage over time abilities can quickly eat through Gravekeeper's Cloak charges like Huskar, Jakiro and Queen of Pain.
* Shadow Shaman has many disables to lock down Queen of Pain, preventing her from Blinking away, even through Linken's Sphere or her spell block talent.
* Mass Serpent Ward can tear through Queen of Pain's low health pool once she's locked down by Hex & Shackles.
* Heroes that have a channeled ability that can be interrupted by Meat Hook: Shadow Shaman, Witch Doctor, Enigma, Bane.
* Chain of Earthbinds prevents her from using Blink, allowing Meepo to quickly kill her with Poof and attacks.
* Meepo tends to buy items with attributes, mitigating Queen of Pain's magical burst.
Additional:
* Meepo is the hard counter for Queen of Pain - chaining Earthbinds prevents her from using Blink for a long time, and without any other escape options, Queen of Pain cannot survive several Poofs and attacks.
* Meepo tends to build items with attributes, mitigating Queen of Pain's magical burst.
* Because only one clone needs to be killed in order to kill Meepo, heroes that excel at singling out enemies can also be a detriment to him, such as Batrider, Beastmaster, Pudge and Clockwerk.
* The percentage-based primary-attribute reduction effect of Whirling Death can be devastating for Pudge due to his high strength gain through Flesh Heap.
* Reactive Armor's health regeneration and common itemization for magic resistance and durability makes Timbersaw a poor target for Pudge.
* Timber Chain's high mobility makes it difficult for Pudge to hook or deal much Rot damage to Timbersaw.
* Timbersaw has a difficult time against magical and pure damage: Lina, Leshrac, Enchantress, Queen of Pain
* Pudge has low armor and low mobility, making him a prime target for Terrorblade's right-clicks.
* Meat Hook is a lot harder to land on the real Terrorblade if he has illusions around him.
* Because Dismember targets only one hero, Terrorblade's illusions can potentially save the real Terrorblade if he's caught in it.
* Heroes who have channeling abilities because Terrorblade has no disables to cancel them at all besides Terror Wave from Aghanim's Scepter, and he does not like buying disabling items at all: Enigma's Black Hole, Witch Doctor's Death Ward, Shadow Shaman's Shackles, Lion's Mana Drain, Bane's Fiend's Grip, Pudge's Dismember, Crystal Maiden's Freezing Field, Pugna's Life Drain, Dawnbreaker's Solar Guardian, and Naga Siren's Reel In from Aghanim's Scepter.
* Rot is not very effective against Chen's creeps.
* Chen can use his creeps to cover him or his allies from any attempts of Meat Hook.
* {U:Centaur Conqueror} or {U:Mud Golem} under Chen's control can interrupt Dismember.
* Heroes with channeling spells, for Chen has no disables on his own, hates buying disabling items and his creeps are often not fast enough to cancel them: Enigma's Black Hole, Witch Doctor's Death Ward, Shadow Shaman's Shackles, Lion's Mana Drain, Bane's Fiend's Grip, Pudge's Dismember, Crystal Maiden's Freezing Field, Pugna's Life Drain, Dawnbreaker's Solar Guardian, and Naga Siren's Reel In from Aghanim's Scepter.
* Meat Hook can be used immediately after Mortimer Kisses since Snapfire is forced to stay in place.
* Heroes with mobility spells (such as Queen of Pain's Blink and Clockwerk with Hookshot) can easily avoid Lil' Shredder and Mortimer Kisses.
* Heroes with high movement speeds like Pugna and Meepo can run around, to, or away from Snapfire during Mortimer Kisses and dodge the projectiles easily due to their slow speed.
* His Rot can force Templar Assassin out of her Meld and destroy all of her Refraction charges quickly, and her small health pool and meager defense make her very vulnerable to his Meat Hook without Refraction.
* Weak damage but high tick rate or persist in a long time: Slark, Gyrocopter, Queen of Pain, Shadow Shaman (Shackles), Jakiro, Pugna, Doom
* Heroes that can quickly deal damage to her, regardless of how weak they are, can easily break through her Refraction:
* Multiple attackers thanks to summoned units or clones: Meepo, Witch Doctor, Lycan, Enigma, Shadow Shaman
* Multiple attackers thanks to illusions: Phantom Lancer, Chaos Knight, Naga Siren (bonus for her Ensnare). Also despite the visual effects, Templar Assassin does not spill damage against illusions or buildings, so she is not a really good hero to clean up illusions.
* Weak damage but high tick rate or persist in a long time: Slark, Gyrocopter, Queen of Pain, Shadow Shaman (Shackles), Jakiro, Pugna, Doom
* Abilities that deal low damage with high amounts of instances are irrelevant against Pudge during Flesh Heap's active: Gyrocopter's Rocket Barrage and Dark Seer's Ion Shell are just a couple examples.
* Blink makes it hard for Gyrocopter to pin down Queen of Pain.
* Sonic Wave is very effective at ganking Gyrocopter in the early game.
* Sniper has a low health pool and strength gain, making him vulnerable to Pudge's magical and pure damage.
* Sniper usually likes to deal damage away from the fight, and Meat Hook is capable of bringing him to the front lines.
* Assassinate won't do much damage against Pudge because of his high strength gain and the strength bonuses from Flesh Heap.
* Shrapnel will be mostly blocked by Flesh Heap's active.
Additional:
* Pudge's Meat Hook allows him to bring Sniper in the middle of any fight, and the pure damage does well against his high armor and low health.
* Dismember can lock Sniper down, which makes him highly vulnerable and gives enough time for Pudge to kill him alone. Aghanim's Shard upgraded Dismember will also allow Pudge to save an ally from Assassinate.
* Heroes with high mobility can approach Sniper: Anti-Mage, Earth Spirit, Io, Nature's Prophet, Pangolier, Puck, Queen of Pain and most notably Riki.
* Meat Hook can hit and displace Juggernaut during his Blade Fury.
* Dismember pierces Juggernaut's spell immunity from Blade Fury.
* Heroes with escaping and disjointing abilities can be good against Juggernaut:Anti-Mage Riki, Queen of Pain, Puck, Storm Spirit, Ember Spirit, Slark etc.
* Heroes reliant on abilities to output damage or escape can be shut down by Gust: Queen of Pain.
* Meat Hook brings Drow Ranger to Pudge, disabling Marksmanship and dealing a huge amount of damage when combined with Rot and Dismember.
* Rot keeps Pudge close to Drow Ranger, continuously disabling Marksmanship.
Additional:
* Meat Hook can pull Drow Ranger to Pudge, disabling her Marksmanship.
* Following up with Dismember will prevent Drow Ranger from using Gust or Shadow Blade.
* Often you can burst Drow Ranger down before she has a chance to try and Gust you away. Try to have a teammate bait her Gust out before you Blink and get the drop on her.
* Heroes with other kind of disables that pierce spell immunity can hold Pangolier in place during Rolling Thunder: Axe, Beastmaster, Enigma, Magnus, Pudge, Batrider, Bane, Winter Wyvern
* Heroes with considerable mobility can easily escape from a rolling Pangolier: Anti-Mage, Queen of Pain, Void Spirit, Storm Spirit, Ember Spirit, Earth Spirit, moreover, if a player is familiar with how Rolling Thunder works, they can adjust their movement to avoid it entirely and of course outplay the Pangolier player.
* Heroes with channeling spells because Shadow Fiend has nothing to cancel channeling outside of Requiem of Souls: Bane, Enigma, Pudge, Shadow Shaman, Dawnbreaker, Warlock, Crystal Maiden.
* Heroes with high burst damage: Lina, Lion, Luna, Nyx Assassin, Queen of Pain.
* Abilities that deal low damage with high amounts of instances are irrelevant against Pudge during Flesh Heap's active: Gyrocopter's Rocket Barrage and Dark Seer's Ion Shell are just a couple examples.
* Dark Seer's only disable is Vacuum. Though he starts off with high armor and health, he'll eventually have a hard time dealing with high mobility heroes such as Weaver or Queen of Pain.
* Queen of Pain can be an effective tool against Batrider in the game and on the line. She has long-range abilities such as Scream of Pain or Sonic Wave and a long-range type of attack, which is why she can keep Batrider at a distance all the time, and prevent him from attacking with Flaming Lasso or Firefly. Queen of Pain has an effective high-deceleration ability against Batrider - Shadow Strike, which is why he cannot quickly set fire to all enemies under Firefly and fly between all Queen of Pain allies. In addition, Queen of Pain has a wonderful escape in stock - Blink, which can save her at any moment in which batrider decides to attack
Additional:
* Queen of Pain can be an effective tool against Batrider in the game and on the line. She has long-range abilities such as Scream of Pain or Sonic Wave and a long-range type of attack, which is why she can keep Batrider at a distance all the time, and prevent him from attacking with Flaming Lasso or Firefly. Queen of Pain has an effective high-deceleration ability against Batrider - Shadow Strike, which is why he cannot quickly set fire to all enemies under Firefly and fly between all Queen of Pain allies. In addition, Queen of Pain has a wonderful escape in stock - Blink, which can save her at any moment in which batrider decides to attack
* Pudge's high health and damage block from Flesh Heap make him difficult for Muerta to burst.
* Pudges high magical damage from Meat Hook and Dismember can quickly burst down Muerta, especially in Pierce The Veil and even through Black King Bar.
* Muerta has no escape abilities and is slow, making her an easy target for Pudge's Meat Hook and Rot.
* Pudge can prevent an ally from being attacked by Gunslinger if he has Aghanim's Shard.
* Queen of Pain usually outlanes Invoker, giving her team a significant early game advantage while Invoker is still farming.
* Blink allows Queen of Pain to escape from Invoker's combo if he doesn't have disables.
* Zeus likes to stay far back in fights, dealing his damage uninterrupted, but once he gets hooked into the fight, he usually dies very quickly.
* Pudge's high strength from Flesh Heap makes it very hard for Zeus to burst him down.
* Zeus' low health pool makes him very vulnerable to the damage from Meat Hook, Rot and Dismember.
Additional:
* Meat Hook's high range allows Pudge's team to drag Zeus in the middle of the fight and abuse his frailty.
* Flesh Heap's health and magic resistance bonus makes Pudge exceptionally resistant to Zeus' nukes. In later stages of the game, Zeus is usually unable to seriously damage Pudge at all. Even Static Field, which deals damage based on a percentage of the enemy's health, won't be doing much.
* Even if Zeus buys a Black King Bar, Meat Hook and Dismember still disable him for a long time, usually causing Zeus' quick death.
* Zeus is vulnerable to early ganks, which Pudge excels at.
* Pudge's Dismember stops Spectre from escaping with Haunt.
* He can easily tank the damage reflected by Dispersion due to his high strength and the healing from Dismember.
* Should Spectre try to get away through the trees or over a cliff with Spectral Dagger, Pudge can hook her back.
* Spectre takes a long time to become powerful, and Pudge can ruin her early game with ganks.
* Husker is the kind of hero that likes to remain at low health, which is perfect for Queen of Pain to burst with Sonic Wave.
* She should be able to Blink away after he jumps on her with Life Break.
* Rot and Meat Hook hits Dark Willow even when she uses Shadow Realm.
* Flesh Heap reduces Dark Willow's magic burst damage.
* Queen of Pain can Blink to both escape and initiate onto Void Spirit.
* She is also a very common Orchid Malevolence carrier, which can prevent Void Spirit from contributing much in fights.
* All of Queen of Pain's abilities are active, making Demonic Purge break from Aghanim's Scepter useless.
* However, Demonic Purge can help his allies kill a squishy Queen of Pain.
* Blink allows Queen of Pain to escape from Shadow Demon's abilities if he doesn't have disables.
* An attempt to save an ally using Disruption can easily become a perfect setup for a Sonic Wave for the enemy.
* 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.
* Even with Black King Bar, Pudge's Meat Hook and Dismember can still catch and disable Bane while he is channeling Fiend's Grip, breaking the channel as a result, Meat Hook can also be used to save targets affected by Bane's abilities.
* Dismember can disable Bane while channeling Fiend's Grip if Pudge is not targeted. Aghanim's Shard upgraded Dismember can also be used to save an allied hero that is targeted by Fiend's Grip.
* Pudge's high health and health regeneration allows him to survive through most of Bane's abilities.
* Heroes who commonly buy Linken's Sphere: Luna, Weaver, Morphling, Queen of Pain, Ember Spirit.
* Even with Black King Bar, Pudge's Meat Hook and Dismember can still disable Engima while he is channeling Black Hole as Enigma is a very easy target while channeling Black Hole.
* Pudge's Aghanim's Shard upgraded Dismember and Meat Hook are great ways to save allies from Black Hole.
* Enigma is prone to ganks in the jungle or in the off-lane without proper vision. Pudge can take advantage of Enigma's lack of mobility, and gank him often.
* Queen of Pain can easily escape Chain Frost thanks to Blink.
* His low survivability makes an easy kill for Shadow Strike, Scream of Pain & Sonic Wave.
* Meat Hook can be used to pull Tinker to Pudge while he is hiding in the trees, and a follow up with Dismember and Rot can lead to a valuable kill, as Tinker doesn't buy many survivability items.
* Flesh Heap makes it hard for Tinker to deal serious damage.
Additional:
* Pudge can Meat Hook a Tinker hiding in the trees and follow it up with Dismember and Rot for an easy solo kill, as Tinker doesn't tend to buy survivability items.
* Many stacks of Flesh Heap combined with items that give Pudge high strength and health will make it hard for Tinker to deal serious damage to Pudge.
* Heroes that can jump on her: Slark, Queen of Pain, Anti-Mage
Additional:
* Queen of Pain often relies more on abilities than right-clicks, making Untouchable nearly useless against her.
* Enchantress also has a lower health pool than Queen of Pain, making her vulnerable to Queen of Pain's damage burst.
* 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, and it's all thanks to this single spell.
* Puck also has a silence in Waning Rift to prevent Queen of Pain from blinking away.
* Puck can provide 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.
* Axe, Bristleback, Centaur Warrunner, Spirit Breaker, Pudge, Huskar, Wraith King, Doom: 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.
* 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.
* Heroes with teleports to escape Solar Blind and Will-O-Wisp: Phantom Assassin, Puck, Queen of Pain, Storm Spirit
* Heroes who build a Black King Bar (or have any sources of spell immunity) to channel abilities/items can still get interrupted by Dismember: Enigma, Juggernaut, Phantom Assassin, Pugna, Elder Titan.
* Heroes that rely on escapes to stay alive can be caught and locked down for a long time: Queen of Pain, Phantom Assassin
* Heroes that can cancel Charge of Darkness: Ogre Magi, Earthshaker, Lion, Rubick, Lina, Luna, Jakiro, Dawnbreaker, Alchemist, Ogre Magi, Axe, Shadow Shaman, Naga Siren, Mars, Bane, Pudge, Clockwerk.
* Heroes that usually build Linken's Sphere as either a core or situational item: Weaver, Medusa, Morphling, Queen of Pain, Storm Spirit, Luna, Naga Siren.
* Heroes that have a channeled ability that can be interrupted by Meat Hook: Shadow Shaman, Witch Doctor, Enigma, Bane.
Additional:
* Meat Hook interrupts Death Ward from a decent range, even through Black King Bar & Glimmer Cape.
* Pudge can survive the damage from Maledict because of his Flesh Heap stacks.
* However the damage-over-time from Rot is counteracted by Voodoo Restoration.
* Blinking heroes like Anti-Mage or Queen of Pain can often chase down an injured Brewmaster after his ultimate expires.
* Heroes with mobility/escape mechanisms to dodge Ancient Apparition abilites, or to easily jump on him: Riki, Queen of Pain, Phantom Assassin, Windranger, Bounty Hunter, Spirit Breaker, Night Stalker, Storm Spirit, Juggernaut, etc.
* Heroes who have a high mobility (Queen of Pain, Storm Spirit, Slark, etc.).
* Heroes with strong area-of-effect damaging and/or disabling abilities will be able to intercept Underlord and his team when they exit from Fiend's Gate: Luna's Aghanim's Scepter upgraded Eclipse, Dawnbreaker's Solar Guardian, Axe's Berserker's Call, Mars's Arena of Blood, Jakiro's Macropyre, Dual Breath and Ice Path, Naga Siren's Song of the Siren, Razor's Eye of the Storm and Plasma Field, Lina's Light Strike Array, Broodmother's Spinner's Snare from Aghanim's Scepter, Elder Titan's Earth Splitter and Echo Stomp, Alchemist's Unstable Concoction and Acid Spray, Queen of Pain's Sonic Wave, Dark Seer's Wall of Replica and Vacuum, Venomancer's Noxious Plague and Poison Nova from Aghanim's Scepter, Oracle's Fortune's End and Rain of Destiny from Aghanim's Shard, Bloodseeker's Blood Rite, Enigma's Black Hole and Midnight Pulse, Shadow Fiend's Requiem of Souls, Batrider's Aghanim's Scepter upgraded Flaming Lasso, Firefly, Flamebreak and Sticky Napalm, Ancient Apparition's Ice Blast, Sand King's Epicenter, Sand Storm and Burrowstrike, Gyrocopter's Call Down, Ember Spirit's Sleight of Fist, Death Prophet's Exorcism and Silence, Monkey King's Wukong's Command, Crystal Maiden's Freezing Field, Muerta's The Calling, Medusa's Stone Gaze, Zeus's Nimbus from Aghanim's Scepter. Dark Willow's Bramble Maze, Pangolier's Swashbuckle, Grimstroke's Soulbind, Ink Swell and Stroke of Fate, Earthshaker's Echo Slam and Fissure, Puck's Dream Coil and Waning Rift, Winter Wyvern's Winter's Curse, Magnus's Reverse Polarity.
* 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.
* Even with Black King Bar or Linken's Sphere, Pudge's Meat Hook can still cancel Crystal Maiden's Freezing Field as she is a very easy target while channeling it.
* Pudge's Rot can make Crystal Maiden's already bad movement speed even worse.
* Many stacks of Flesh Heap will make it nearly impossible for Crystal Maiden to kill Pudge.
* Pudge's Dismember can also be used to cancel Crystal Maiden's Freezing Field, and alternatively, Pudge can also use it to save allies from getting killed by Crystal Maiden and heal them when upgraded with Aghanim's Shard.
* Crystal Maiden is prone to ganks in the lane or in the off-lane without proper vision. Pudge can take advantage of Crystal Maiden's lack of mobility, and gank her often.
Additional:
* Meat Hook can cancel Freezing Field, even if Crystal Maiden has Glimmer Cape.
* She is also slow and fragile, making her a good target for ganking.
* Heroes that rely on their high mobility such as Queen of Pain, Slark and Weaver can be constantly engaged against due to your excellent ability to chase over any terrain. Make sure you carry true sight items (such as Dust of Appearance or Gem of True Sight) for invisible heroes that could potentially escape your clutches.
* Queen of Pain outlanes Storm Spirit due to the fact that it has long-range abilities: Shadow Strike and Scream Of Pain. Storm Spirit's damage from the Overload ability is not enough to interrupt her on the line, and the Static Remnant will never reach Queen Of Pain, as she will scatter her abilities from afar, which is why she will drive Storm Spirit off the line and get a lot of gold and level, after such a stage of the liner, Queen of Pain will very quickly buy Black King Bar and will not let Storm Spirit catch and kill her at the expense of Electric Vortex
Additional:
* Queen of Pain outlanes Storm Spirit due to the fact that it has long-range abilities: Shadow Strike and Scream Of Pain. Storm Spirit's damage from the Overload ability is not enough to interrupt her on the line, and the Static Remnant will never reach Queen Of Pain, as she will scatter her abilities from afar, which is why she will drive Storm Spirit off the line and get a lot of gold and level, after such a stage of the liner, Queen of Pain will very quickly buy Black King Bar and will not let Storm Spirit catch and kill her at the expense of Electric Vortex
* Anti-Tank heroes like: Razor, Necrophos, Undying.
* Blink can instantly break Static Link, making it useless against her.
* Queen of Pain doesn't fully rely on her physical attack damage, so she can still fight after being hit with Static Link.
* His low armor deters him from a trade,while Jingu Mastery allows Monkey King to retaliate.
* Buffed Boundless Strike heals Monkey King and can potentially execute Pudge.
* Monkey King can scout Pudge's positioning from the trees, making it easier for him and his allies to dodge Meat Hook.
* With a better-than-average strength gain, he usually survives Pudge's combo.
* Blink allows Queen of Pain to avoid ganks and keep her distance, preventing Monkey King from building up Jingu Mastery.
* Scream of Pain and Sonic Wave will hit Monkey King when he is disguised, or on a tree.
* The large AoE and low cooldown also helps Queen of Pain hit the real Monkey King inside of Wukong's Command.
* Heroes that cannot move in fights such as a Dueling Legion Commander or anyone channeling a spell like Bane, Pudge, or Enigma are easy Sacred Arrow targets.
Additional:
* If Meat Hook is used before Leap, Mirana may be able to escape Pudge's grasp by leaping to safety.
* The invisibility from Moonlight Shadow gives a degree of mobility, which can make Mirana or her teammates difficult targets to hook.
* Sacred Arrow can be used to cancel Dismember from long distances.
* Heroes that have superior mobility that can easily catch up with Mirana even after she used Leap to escape: Anti-Mage, Queen of Pain, Storm Spirit, Riki.
* Heroes with powerful channeling abilities are easily interrupted by Phantom's Embrace: Bane, Pudge, Witch Doctor, Crystal Maiden, Enigma.
* Heroes with mobility spells can quickly escape from Stroke of Fate or break out of Soulbind: Anti-Mage, Queen of Pain, Morphling, Storm Spirit
* Time Dilation affects Queen of Pain's low cooldown abilities, making them unusable for a long time, rendering Queen of Pain nearly useless.
* Chronosphere provides excellent lockdown against Queen of Pain, allowing for reliable kills in all stages of the game.
Additional:
* Time Walk and Backtrack allows Faceless Void to easily negate Queen of Pain's burst damage.
* Chronosphere prevents Queen of Pain from escaping with Blink, and her low survivability makes her an easy kill.
* Time Dilation will prevent Queen of Pain from using her low-cooldown spells or force her to buy Black King Bar or a Eul's Scepter of Divinity to dispel the debuff and re-engage.
* Meat Hook can pull an ally out of Chronosphere.
* Rot will keep damaging Void if he toggled it before Chronosphere, but you can lower your hp for Faceless Void.
* Flesh Heap will help Pudge survive through the Chronosphere with enough stacks, and follow with Dismember.
* Pudge relies on his hook to initiate his combo. As long as she's able to avoid the hook with Windrun and shackle him, Windranger can take him down easily. Pudge's low armor means that he won't be able to endure Focus Fire for long.
* Queen of Pain, for the most part, almost exclusively deals magical damage, ignoring Windranger's evasion from Windrun.
* Queen of Pain is also a common wielder of Orchid Malevolence, preventing Windranger from using her abilities for a while.
* Blink, when used correctly, allows Queen of Pain to dodge Powershot and Shackleshot.
* Generally heroes who don't rely on magical damage, such as Sven, Phantom Assassin, and Outworld Destroyer, as they can practically ignore Flesh Heap's damage block.
* Heroes with disables that ignore spell immunity will render Phantom Assassin completely useless in teamfights throughout the game: Axe, Enigma, Vengeful Spirit, Doom, Bane, Beastmaster, Pudge, Medusa, Warlock.
Additional:
* If Phantom Assassin jumps on Pudge first with Phantom Strike, she will be a very easy target for Pudge's Meat Hook and Dismember combo.
* Even though it can deal damage based on Pudge's max health, Fan of Knives from Aghanim's Shard cannot disable Pudge's Flesh Heap as Flesh Heap is one of the few passive abilities that cannot be disabled by break.
* Both Meat Hook and Dismember ignore spell immunity which allows Pudge to disable Phantom Assassin even while she has Black King Bar active.
* Pudge occassionally buys armor items like Blade Mail, which in combination with many stacks from Flesh Heap can make Phantom Assassin have little effect against Pudge.
* Meat Hooking a Clockwerk can backfire for Pudge, as Battery Assault and Blade Mail will hurt Pudge more than he hurts Clockwerk.
* Blink allows Quen of Pain to easily escape ganking or initiating attempts with Hookshot and Power Cogs.
* Heroes with a high degree of mobility and invisibility are hard to catch with Meat Hook: Ember Spirit, Riki, Clinkz, Queen of Pain.
* Queen of Pain can be a good hero for dealing with Ember Spirit with Orchid Malevolence, her pure damage nuke in Sonic Wave and a slow in Shadow Strike. However, Queen of Pain can be punished by Ember Spirit, as his Searing Chains prevents her from getting Blink off.
* Slow heroes that have a hard time escaping the Echo Stomp radius: Crystal Maiden, Pudge, Techies.
* Heroes who build a Black King Bar (or have any sources of spell immunity) to channel abilities/items can still get interrupted by Dismember: Enigma, Juggernaut, Phantom Assassin, Pugna, Elder Titan.
To start select enemy heroes in the field above. It's intended to be used with multiple heroes. The more enemy heroes you provide the better results you will get.
This website was made to help you in pick stage of online game Dota 2. It calculates rating for each possible counterpicks based on tips from web-based database made up entirely of user contributions Dota 2 wiki.
You will get the list of recommended hero counters with a list of tips written by Dota 2 wiki contributors explaining why it's good against the particular hero. In comparison to other similar websites, which show only rating based on average hero win rate from dotabuff or similar service.
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Pudge
* Legion Commander can use Press the Attack on an ally to dispel Dismember. The bonus health regeneration also partially counters the damage of Rot
* Duel can be used on Pudge whilst Rot is active, disabling toggling which may result in a lethal health drain that leaves Legion Commander with a successful duel.
Queen of Pain
* Duels prevents Queen of Pain from using Blink, which may force her to purchase a Linken's Sphere
* Because Queen of Pain is also not a right-click hero, Legion won't have much difficulties in duels.
* Press the Attack dispels Shadow Strike's debuff.