* Phantom Lancer creates way too many illusions for Pugna's
Life Drain to destroy, overwhelming him easily.
*
Doppelganger can dodge
Nether Blast or dispel
Decrepify.
*
Diffusal Blade is a common item for Phantom Lancer to burn Pugna's large mana pool and deals a large amount of damage in the process.
Additional:
* Though Life Drain instantly destroys illusions, Phantom Lancer creates way too many for Pugna to handle.
* A good Phantom Lancer will also dodge your Nether Blast with
Doppelganger.
* Phantom Lancer is the most natural
Diffusal Blade carrier to burn Pugna's very large pool of mana away and deal a large amount of damage in the process.
* Phantom Lancer has higher mobility and the ability to reset any fights with
Doppelganger can be a nuisance for spectre to fight against.
* Phantom Lancer is a natural carrier of
Diffusal Blade and
Manta Style, which is outright nullify
Desolate. In fact, Phantom Lancer will always have illusions with him at anytime, thus further exacerbated the problem.
* Although Spectre is largely AoE oriented, unfortunately, they are damage-over-time (DoT) rather than burst AoE damage. Without any effective ways to quickly destroy illusion and reveal the real hero, Spectre has little availability to manfight Phantom Lancer at any points in the game.
* Spectre often relies on
Spectral Dagger as a pseudo-mobility skill. With her low mana pool and complete dependence on it to catch enemy team, she will soon find herself unable to do anything significant once her mana pool is completely drained.
*
Doppelganger can be used to dispel the slow from
Spectral Dagger, thus completely render it useless.
*
Pugna's Nether Ward doesn't really hurt Meepo since he usually buys attribute items to tank up and can be killed very quickly by 4 clones. Decrepify can amplify Poof's damage should Pugna use it to avoid Meepo's right clicking.
*
Poof combined with
Earthbind can be used to easily lockdown and burst Spectre down.
* As Meepo's playstyle is often to come online early to mid game and take over the whole game, Meepo will often be much further ahead of Spectre in farming.
* Meepo's global map presence allows him to effectively hunt for Spectre and disrupt her farm.
* Spectre has no strong AOE abilities or way to control or lock down Meepo.
* 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.
* 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.
* Both Jakiro's Ice Path and Liquid Frost can be used to cancel
Life Drain from either Jakiro or an ally.
*
Decrepify only makes Pugna even more vulnerable to Jakiro's magical damage, And it has no adverse effects on Jakiro himself.
*
Aghanim's Scepter upgraded
Macropyre can deal pure damage-over-time and pierce debuff immunity, which can discourage Pugna from even trying to use
Life Drain.
* Bear in mind, however, that
Nether Ward can do some considerable damage to Jakiro due to high mana costs on his abilities.
* Jakiro's early pushing ability from Liquid Fire makes Jakiro very strong against heroes, that take a long time to get online:
Morphling,
Naga Siren,
Spectre.
* Pugna is a very fragile hero who can easily get caught and killed by Storm Spirit's long range initiation.
* This is especially true if he has
Orchid Malevolence or
Scythe of Vyse.
* Pugna has no disables that can prevent Storm Spirit from escaping.
* Even though
Ball Lightning requires high amount of mana, Nether Ward is ineffective since Storm Spirit is invulnerable while using it.
* Storm Spirit's other abilities cost very insignificant amount of mana for Nether Ward to be effective.
*
Ball Lightning is the ultimate counter to Spectre's entire toolkit. With this ability, he can score easy kills on Spectre without her having any means of escape early game, kite her and her
Haunt illusions when it's later in the game due to her having no form of pseudo-blinks.
* Furthermore, it is very difficult for Spectre to deal any substantial damage against Storm Spirit with
Desolate, and without both
Manta Style and
Diffusal Blade he will always remain on the move.
* Also,
Ball Lightning grants invulnerability, and as Storm Spirit likes to spam that ability, he can mitigate the damage done from
Dispersion and
Radiance.
Additional:
* Storm Spirit can exploit every one of Spectre's weaknesses, and thus is one of the best counters against her.
* Spectre has to be in melee range to deal damage, making her likely to trigger
Static Remnants and susceptible to being kited by
Overload procs.
*
Electric Vortex can lock Spectre down as she doesn't like to build
Black King Bar.
*
Ball Lightning gives Storm Spirit multiple advantages:
* Spectre cannot evade Storm Spirit, as Ball Lightning is superior to
Spectral Dagger in terms of mobility.
* Storm Spirit can kite her and her
Haunt illusions when it's later in the game due to her having no form of pseudo-blinks (Reality is far inferior to Ball Lightning).
* It is very difficult for Spectre to deal any substantial damage against Storm Spirit with
Desolate. Ball Lightning grants invulnerability and can mitigate damage done from
Dispersion and
Radiance.
* To mitigate this, Spectre needs a team with hard disable to take Storm Spirit out.
* Heroes with mana burn:
Nyx Assassin,
Invoker,
Outworld Destroyer,
Pugna,
Lion
* Due to Pugna's incredible intelligence growth and terrible strength growth, Nyx should always be able to take you out with his combo, with or without an added
Dagon.
Mind Flare will deal a large amount of damage in particular, especially in the late game.
*
Spiked Carapace is also a great tool versus Pugna. A good player will wait for you in
Vendetta until you farm a creep wave with Nether Blast and reflect it back at you as their initiation and setup for
Impale.
Additional:
*
Nether Blast's animation makes it easy to time Spiked Carapace for a stun.
* Pugna has the largest intelligence gain in the game, making him a prime target for Mana Burn.
* Pugna needs to channel
Life Drain, making him easy to hit with Impale.
* Global
Guardian Angel will protect his allies from Spectre's
Haunt, both when they are alone and in teamfights.
*
Purification is a major problem for melee enemies, Spectre included, since they must be next to an enemy in order to attack. The AoE damage also allows Spectre to be singled out from her illusions.
*
Degen Aura will prevent Spectre from chasing Omniknight, further exacerbated by her terrible mobility outside Haunt.
* Spectre has no innate disables or silence to stop any of Dawnbreaker's abilities
* Solar Guardian allows Dawnbreaker to quickly stand next to one of her allies, denying Spectre any of
Desolate's bonus
* Luminosity outheals the damage dealt by
Dispersion
Additional:
* Spectre has no innate disables or silence to stop any of Dawnbreaker's abilities
* Solar Guardian allows Dawnbreaker to quickly stand next to one of her allies, denying Spectre any of
Desolate's bonus.
* Luminosity outheals the damage dealt by
Dispersion.
*
Dispersion will not do anything against throughout the game due to his high lifesteal with Jingu Mastery.
* Monkey King often buys
Manta Style, which will deny
Desolate benefits in 1v1 situations.
*
Haunt will do nothing to stop people trapped within Monkey Kings ultimate.
* In all, Spectre is very easily pressured by Monkey King early into the game and is a very easy gank target to coordinate with your team.
*
Feast deals damage and heals lifestealer based on the target max health. Because Spectre often emphasises on building stat items to increase her HP pool, lifestealer can deal a lot of damage to her and heal himself at the same time.
*
Ghoul Frenzy slows target, which is bad for Spectre if she does not have
Spectral Dagger ready.
* Spectre cannot response to infest if lifestealer choose to stay inside his high mobility allies to approach the backline.
Rage's bonus movement speed and spell immunity make it even more frustrating.
*
Infernal Blade's damage is calculated by percentage of maximum health, meaning that it will hurt Spectre more than most normal attacks, negating some of her tankiness.
* Doom can pick up several different abilities from neutral creeps using
Devour, some of which can be annoying to Spectre.
* Mud Golem, Dark Troll Summoner, Harpy Stormcrafter, Satyr Mindstealer or Satyr Tormenter are good examples.
*
Doom makes Spectre less disruptive. Combined with
Aghanim's Scepter, it will disable Spectre passive skills, reducing her potential in teamfights.
Additional:
* Infernal Blade's damage is calculated by percentage of maximum health. Since Spectre is usually tanky, it will hurt her more than most normal attacks.
*
Doom can take out Spectre out of a teamfight completely. When combined with the level 25 talent {ValueColor:1|Doom applies Break|25tal} {Symbol:Talent}, it will disable both
Desolate and
Dispersion, taking away her extra damage and durability.
* Puck can dodge
Nether Blast and
Life Drain with his Phase Shift, easily avoiding Pugna's strong burst magic damage.
*
Waning Rift's silence allows Puck and its teammates to easily deal with Pugna, which cannot do the same to it, because with Puck it will be easy to avoid such an attack from the
Decrepify.
* The Puck's combo:
Waning Rift +
Illusory Orb +
Dream Coil doesn't have a huge amount of damage to feel the damage of the Pugna from
Nether Ward, however, it may be quite enough to kill the Pugna solo at an early stage of the game with
Witch Blade
Additional:
* Puck easily dodges the
Nether Blast and the Pugna
Life Drain with his
Phase Shift, which is why he can easily avoid his strong magic damage
* The Puck's silence from the
Waning Rift ability allows her team to easily cope with the Pugna, which cannot be said about the Pugna, because with the Puck it will be easy to avoid such an attack from the
Decrepify
* The Puck's combo:
Waning Rift +
Illusory Orb +
Dream Coil doesn't have a huge amount of damage to feel the damage of the Pugna from
Nether Ward, however, it may be quite enough to kill the Pugna solo at an early stage of the game with
Witch Blade
* Earth Spirit does not fly a small distance on
Rolling Boulder using
Stone Remnant, which will be a big problem for
Life Drain, since Pugna will stop receiving health from breaking the distance of the ability, which will give the Earth Spirit team a chance to kill Pugna, by the way, this also works well with
Boulder Smash, which pushes the enemy and can annoy the distance
* Earth Spirit has excellent control with a small recharge on
Rolling Boulder and
Geomagnetic Grip, which can knock down Pugna`s
Life Drain, as well as completely turn him off in a fight, because he is very dependent on his abilities
* Magic damage from Earth Spirit's abilities can be disastrous for
Decrepify, as it will kill him very quickly, and if Earth Spirit collects
Ethereal Blade in such a game, it can easily destroy Pugna in one
Rolling Boulder hit
* Earth Spirit also turns out to be a strong decision against
Nether Ward, because he experiences it with his large amount of health, and if he collects
Heart of Tarrasque(and
Bracerin early game)in such a game, he may not feel it at all and calmly control Pugna with his abilities
Additional:
* Earth Spirit does not fly a small distance on
Rolling Boulder using
Stone Remnant, which will be a big problem for
Life Drain, since Pugna will stop receiving health from breaking the distance of the ability, which will give the Earth Spirit team a chance to kill Pugna, by the way, this also works well with
Boulder Smash, which pushes the enemy and can annoy the distance
* Earth Spirit has excellent control with a small recharge on
Rolling Boulder and
Geomagnetic Grip, which can knock down Pugna`s
Life Drain, as well as completely turn him off in a fight, because he is very dependent on his abilities
* Magic damage from Earth Spirit's abilities can be disastrous for
Decrepify, as it will kill him very quickly, and if Earth Spirit collects
Ethereal Blade in such a game, it can easily destroy Pugna in one
Rolling Boulder hit
* Earth Spirit also turns out to be a strong decision against
Nether Ward, because he experiences it with his large amount of health, and if he collects
Heart of Tarrasque(and
Bracerin early game)in such a game, he may not feel it at all and calmly control Pugna with his abilities
* If Ursa uses
Enrage, Pugna's Life Drain is next to worthless against him, due to Ursa taking 80% less damage, therefor Pugna heals by only 20% of the damage that the spell normally deals.
* It also dispels Decrepify, Even if you wait until he casted it, he can still dispel it with Shard upgraded
Earthshock
* Ursa also commonly builds
Skull Basher. With his high Attack Speed from
Overpower. he can easily cancel Life Drain
* If Decrepify is defensivly casted, Ursa can still cast Earthshock both to slow you, and to deal amplified magic damage. He also commonly builds a
Nullifier
* If Ursa jumps on you with a
Blink Dagger he can easily wipe you out with Overpower.
* Ursa's
Overpower can destroy a full health
Nether Ward and still have a few swipes leftover, Also Ursa's low mana spells means he takes negligible damage from the Nether ward anyway.
* Ursa is also a common
Diffusal Blade carrier, using it to both amplify his damage, but as his primary way to catch fleeing heroes
* Pugna is also the primary target of Ursa, due to him being both quite squishy, and a serious threat to his team, Ursa prioritizes the weakest link as
Fury Swipes stacking damage will quickly demolish them, allowing Ursa to safely switch heroes
* Spectre must chase for kills and relies on movement speed for mobility in fights, and has no way to counter the
Tombstone zombies.
* The potency of
Soul Rip can be increased from nearby illusions from Haunt.
*
Decay will shut down Spectre during the laning phase by effectively cutting down her initial health pool.
Additional:
* Spectre must chase for kills and relies on movement speed for mobility in fights, and has no way to counter the Tombstone zombies.
* The potency of Soul Rip can be increased from nearby illusions, so Undying can use
Haunt against Spectre.
* Early game Decay will make Spectre easy to shut down in lane.
* Life Drain does not instantly kill the illusions from
Phantasm
*
Chaos Bolt and
Reality Rift can easily interrupt the channeling from Life Drain.
*
Reality Rift makes it harder for Pugna to keep his distance between Chaos Knight.
* Nether Ward barely deals any significant damage on Chaos Knight as Chaos Knight's abilities do not cost a lot of mana
* The overwhelming damage of Chaos Knight and his illusions will do a quick work on Pugna's poor HP pool, or safely remove the Nether Ward from the battlefield.
* Pugna's low health and reliance on channeled abilities make him very vulnerable to Tusk, although Pugna can win in a straight up 1v1 later in the game.
* Luna can deal constant damage to Pugna through the low-cooldown Lucent Beam and her right clicks.
*
Life Drain will be always canceled by
Lucent Beam if Pugna does not have
Black King Bar.
*
Decrepify can be suicide against Luna due to
Lucent Beam and
Eclipse.
*
Nether Ward is rather weak against Luna because unlike other heroes who rely on magical damage to damage or kill enemies, yet have very high mana costs, she does not have abilities that cost a lot of mana and Luna mostly uses her abilities to initiate a teamfight or to finish off fleeing enemy heroes.
* Luna is a common
Black King Bar carrier, which allows her to protect herself against Pugna's only-magical damage output.
Additional:
* Luna can deal constant damage to Pugna through the low-cooldown Lucent Beam and her right clicks.
*
Life Drain will be always canceled by
Lucent Beam if Pugna does not have
Black King Bar.
*
Decrepify can be suicide against Luna due to
Lucent Beam and
Eclipse.
*
Nether Ward is rather weak against Luna because unlike other heroes who rely on magical damage to damage or kill enemies, yet their ablities have very high mana costs, Luna does not have abilities that cost a lot of mana and Luna mostly uses her abilities to initiate a teamfight or to finish off fleeing enemy heroes.
* Luna is a common
Black King Bar carrier, which allows her to protect herself against Pugna's only-magical damage output.
* Illusions and summons are double-edge sword type of matchup for Luna. On one hand, they can tank damage from Eclipse, but on the other hand, she can easily clear them before Eclipse with Moon Glaives. Examples include
Spectre,
Shadow Demon,
Phantom Lancer,
Naga Siren,
Chaos Knight,
Terrorblade) or bring other units into the fight (such as
Nature's Prophet,
Lone Druid,
Chen,
Enchantress,
Meepo and
Arc Warden).
* Heroes that create illusions:
Spectre,
Shadow Demon,
Phantom Lancer,
Naga Siren,
Chaos Knight,
Terrorblade) or bring other units into the fight (such as
Nature's Prophet,
Lone Druid,
Chen,
Enchantress,
Meepo and
Arc Warden) can cause Eclipse to strike the illusions/summons unintentionally. However, in many cases Moon Glaives can resolve this issue and eliminate them before activating Eclipse, but that will require lots of farming for right-click items.
* Pugna is very reliant on his abilities for damage which Silencer can take advantage off. But he has to be careful around the
Nether Ward as Silencer's abilities cost a lot of mana to use.
* Spectre can't escape with
Spectral Dagger under X Marks the Spot.
* Kunkka can dominate Spectre's lane using Tidebringer and gain an advantage.
* Ghostship helps your team soak up damage from
Haunt.
* Familiars will be able to chase Spectre through the trees when she uses
Spectral Dagger, while Visage can keep blasting her with Soul Assumption.
*
Desolate will almost never proc because Visage will always have nearby Familiars.
* Clockwerk loves to
Hookshot low health, immobile targets like Pugna.
* Pugna's Life Drain gets immediately and repeatedly (if an
Aghanim's Scepter was purchased) cancelled due to
Battery Assault, especially if Pugna is trapped inside
Power Cogs.
* Clockwerk also loves to build
Blade Mail, which will deal more damage to Pugna than Clockwerk due to Pugna's low health pool.
* Finally, both
Hookshot and
Rocket Flare can allow him to finish off Pugna out of range of his Nether Ward.
Additional:
* Pugna's squishiness and lack of mobility make him easy prey for a Hookshot initiation.
* Clockwerk's high health, low mana costs, and lack of reliance on Blink Dagger make
Nether Ward ineffective.
* Battery Assault shuts down
Aghanim's Scepter upgraded
Life Drain, as the repeated ministuns prevent Pugna from channeling for an extended length of time.
* Void Spirit is strong against heroes who cannot deal with his rotations due to his mobility. Such heroes include
Spectre,
Gyrocopter,
Morphling, and
Chen.
* Heroes who rely on channeling abilities can be interrupted in teamfights by Rolling Thunder:
Crystal Maiden,
Pugna,
Witch Doctor
* Heroes with good escapes can usually outmaneuver and escape from Spectre:
Slark,
Clinkz,
Weaver
*
Dark Seer can pull together Spectre's illusions with
Vacuum, and
Wall of Replica creates an illusion of Spectre that deals massive damage.
* Spirit Siphon does a lot of magical damage, especially in the early game. This allows her to demolish low health heroes such as
Zeus,
Pugna, especially when combined with her other spells.
*
Slardar's
Slithereen Crush allows him to stun Spectre and illusions, and
Corrosive Haze prevents her from juking with
Spectral Dagger.
* Durable heroes relied a lot on their main passive effects and items' effects such as
Bristleback,
Underlord,
Spectre and
Dragon Knight can be disabled easily with
Sharpshooter's break, reducing their potential in teamfights.
*
Hex and
Mana Drain can be used to immediately destroy Spectre's illusion when she
Haunts. A fast fingered Lion can protect himself and a teammate.
*
Hex and
Earth Spike are good lockdown spells to control and kill Spectre, especially if she doesn't buy defensive items like
Linken's Sphere and
Black King Bar.
*
Finger of Death can be used to burst down Spectre when she is low on life as she has very poor magic resistance.
* Nether Ward will be problematic for heavy nukers and spammers like
Skywrath Mage,
Lina,
Lion and
Invoker, but Pugna must not use Decrepify defensively against them as he will be helping them out more than anything.
* Venomancer's poison damage-over-time are very effective against Spectre, which is lack of magic resistance from early to mid game.
* Venomancer's multiple slows greatly reduces Spectre's low mobility, even through
Spectral Dagger.
* Plague Wards reveals Spectre while she is hiding on trees.
Additional:
* Venomancer's poison damage over time is very effective against Spectre, who tends to lack magic resistance during the early to mid game.
* Venomancer's multiple slows greatly reduces Spectre's movement speed and mobility.
*
Plague Wards can scout out Spectre while she is hiding in trees.
* Any hero that can outrange Plague Ward can neutralize them without putting themselves at risk of receiving Poison Sting:
Arc Warden,
Chen,
Clinkz,
Drow Ranger,
Lina,
Mirana,
Nature's Prophet,
Pugna and
Sniper.
* Special mention to heroes that outrange Plague Ward after obtaining talents that increase attack range.
*
Hex can be used immediately to destroy Spectre's illusion when she
Haunts.
* Shadow Shaman can use
Shackles to lock down Spectre for his team.
* Shadow Shaman's
Mass Serpent Ward and
Ether Shock help him push lanes and end the game early before Spectre can come online and take over the late game.
* Spectre's entire ability set is designed to get to and destroy heroes that stay in the backlines, both carries (like the aforementioned
Drow Ranger and
Sniper) and supports (like
Dazzle and
Shadow Shaman).
* The movement speed granted from
Shapeshift means that Spectre has no way to punish Lycan if he wants to splitpush or pick off supports. Furthermore, he will kite
Haunt and cannot be slowed by
Spectral Dagger.
* Lycan is often part of an early game push strategy which is often the best counter to Spectre because she needs a lot of time and space to come online as a late game carry.
*
Pugna's
Decrepify prevents the target from taking physical damage or doing damage, which poses a huge problem for Lycan, as he mainly deals physical damage.
* Enigma's abilities have a huge mana cost, meaning that
Nether Ward will deal a lot of damage to Enigma.
* Pugna can heal allies trapped inside Black Hole thanks to
Life Drain, Pugna can also damage multiple of Enigma's allies around him with
Life Drain when he casts it on
Aghanim's Shard upgraded
Nether Ward during teamfight.
*
Nether Blast can easily kill Eidolons, especially when Enigma is pushing.
* Even though Pugna cannot cancel
Black Hole on his own, smart Pugna can buy
Orchid Malevolence to stop Enigma from channeling
Black Hole and make him more vulnerable to counter-attacks with
Decrepify and
Life Drain.
Additional:
* Enigma's abilities have a huge mana cost, meaning that
Nether Ward will deal a lot of damage to Enigma.
* Pugna can heal allies trapped inside
Black Hole thanks to
Life Drain.
*
Nether Blast can easily kill Eidolons, especially when Enigma is pushing.
*
Haunt can ruin Enigma's initiation with
Blink Dagger, no matter where he is on the map.
* Spectre often buys
Radiance, which allows her to deal damage over time to Enigma and put
Blink Dagger on cooldown.
*
Dispersion reflects the damage of
Midnight Pulse and
Black Hole inflicted back to Enigma. This can get even worse for Enigma if Spectre buys
Blade Mail.
* All of Spectre's abilities ignore spell immunity, which means that even with
Black King Bar, Enigma has absolutely little to no chance against Spectre at any stage of the game.
*
Nether Blast can deal high damage to Chen and clear waves of his creeps.
*
Decrepify can be used to waste the duration of
Penitence.
*
Nether Ward can discourage Chen from using
Penitence,
Holy Persuasion and
Hand of God due to their fairly high mana costs.
*
Life Drain can often kill Chen or any of his allies before he can save them with
Hand of God thanks to it's high damage and low cooldown.
*
Spectral Dagger can severely slow down Chen and allow Spectre to chase him down.
* Spectre often buys
Radiance, which allows her to clear waves of Chen's creeps and if Chen has no creeps beside himself, he will suffer serious damage from
Desolate.
*
Dispersion will make attacks from Chen's creeps only tickle Spectre while also killing themselves in process.
*
Haunt can find Chen anywhere on the map, no matter where he is.
* Nether Ward will be problematic for heavy nukers and spammers like
Skywrath Mage,
Lina,
Lion and
Invoker, but Pugna must not use Decrepify defensively against them as he will be helping them out more than anything.
*
Spectral Dagger and
Haunt allow Spectre to get close to Lina.
*
Desolate is very strong against Lina, who's usually a bit isolated in fights because of her high attack and cast range.
*
Dispersion can mitigate a good portion of Lina's burst damage, allowing Spectre to turn on her afterwards.
Additional:
* Spectre can very easily close the distance on Lina with
Haunt and
Spectral Dagger, and due to Lina's abysmal mobility without a
Blink Dagger and terrible health pool and armor, Lina easily gets slaughtered due
Desolate.
*
Dispersion can mitigate a good portion of Lina's burst damage, allowing Spectre to turn against her afterwards.
* Any hero who can counter-initiate in anticipation without getting caught in Reverse Polarity:
Sven,
Omniknight,
Enigma,
Luna,
Naga Siren,
Mars,
Jakiro,
Venomancer,
Elder Titan,
Faceless Void,
Rubick,
Keeper of the Light,
Pugna,
Invoker,
Spectre,
Alchemist,
Treant Protector,
Lina,
Oracle,
Zeus,
Shadow Shaman,
Phoenix,
Razor,
Huskar,
Batrider,
Kunkka,
Tidehunter,
Wraith King,
Sand King,
Medusa,
Dawnbreaker.
* Spectre can use
Haunt to intercept and disrupt Magnus's initiation attempts.
*
Spectral Dagger can severely slow down Magnus after he uses
Skewer.
* Magnus often travels alone when he is trying to initiate, so
Desolate can be very effective against him.
* In late game, Spectre can survive
Reverse Polarity initiation thanks to
Dispersion.
Additional:
* Spectre disables Magnus' Blink Dagger using her ultimate, and later into the game can usually outlive Reverse Polarity's duration.
* Pugna can turn out to be an effective hero against Dazzle due to the fact that he does not allow him to extend his
Poison Touch with his
Decrepify, which is why Dazzle cannot keep the enemy under prolonged deceleration.
* Pugna has a very strong ability against casters with a small health reserve -
Nether Ward, which is why heroes like Dazzle will not be able to constantly throw their
Poison Touch
Bad Juju and
Shadow Wave at enemies under the action of
Nether Ward or will be forced to take a lot of damage
Additional:
* Pugna can turn out to be an effective hero against Dazzle due to the fact that he does not allow him to extend his
Poison Touch with his
Decrepify, which is why Dazzle cannot keep the enemy under prolonged deceleration.
* Pugna has a very strong ability against casters with a small health reserve -
Nether Ward, which is why heroes like Dazzle will not be able to constantly throw their
Poison Touch
Bad Juju and
Shadow Wave at enemies under the action of
Nether Ward or will be forced to take a lot of damage
* Spectre's entire ability set is designed to get to and destroy heroes that stay in the backlines, both carries (like the aforementioned
Drow Ranger and
Sniper) and supports (like
Dazzle and
Shadow Shaman).
* Heroes that can apply early pressure before Phantom Assassin has farm are massive threats:
Axe,
Viper,
Meepo,
Jakiro,
Pugna,
Slark,
Venomancer etc.
*
Dispersion makes it hard for Phantom Assassin to burst down Spectre while also reflecting back Phantom Assassin's high burst damage against herself.
*
Black King Bar is useless for Phantom Assassin against Spectre as all of her skills pierce spell immunity.
* Spectre only needs to be careful against
Fan Of Knives from
Aghanim's Shard, as it can disable
Desolate and
Dispersion, though this issue can be solved by buying
Blade Mail, which is a common item on Spectre.
Additional:
*
Dispersion makes it hard for Phantom Assassin to burst down Spectre while also reflecting back Phantom Assassin's high burst damage against herself.
*
Black King Bar is useless against Spectre as all of her skills pierce spell immunity.
*
Nether Ward discourages Tinker from using abilities and items due to its high damage against heavy mana usage.
* Heroes with global spells that can reach
Tinker anywhere on the map:
Spectre
Additional:
* His global teleportation with
Boots of Travel and
Rearm is easily countered with
Haunt, and Spectre can reach him anywhere on the map.
* He is squishy, and if alone
Desolate will kill him very fast.
*
Dispersion can reflect and reduce his burst damage.
* Heroes that commonly attack ethereal units will not have any problems against Muerta's Pierce The Veil:
Tinker,
Jakiro,
Lina,
Luna,
Pugna or
Ogre Magi,
Enigma,
Batrider,
Techies,
Broodmother,
Dawnbreaker,
Shadow Shaman,
Bane,
Tinker,
Venomancer,
Arc Warden.
*
Dispersion can negate Muerta's high attack damage while also dealing lots of return damage back to Muerta, which she is fragile against as she has a small health pool.
* Spectre can use
Shadow Step and
Haunt from
Aghanim's Scepter to quickly engage Muerta and escape her if she uses
Pierce the Veil. And since Spectre commonly buys
Radiance, this allows her to fight against Muerta even if she has
Pierce the Veil active.
* In general, Spectre can out carry Muerta towards the late game with her better survivability, sustained damage, and global presence.
* Spectre can instantly escape Focus Fire or hunt a Windranger with
Haunt.
* Spectre can catch up to her with
Spectral Dagger, even if she uses Windrun.
*
Desolate allows Spectre to hit Windranger through Windrun.
*
Dispersion combined with
Blade Mail and/or
Vanguard (and its upgrade
Abyssal Blade) makes Spectre tanky and/or reflects some damage back to Windranger.
Additional:
* Spectre can catch up to her with
Spectral Dagger, even if she uses
Windrun.
* Spectre can instantly reach a ratting Windranger with
Haunt.
*
Dispersion can reflect some of her damage, especially from her
Focus Fire.
* Arc Warden can't use Magnetic Field to stall the damage of
Nether Blast on towers, but he can buy
Aghanim's Shard to diminish its damage.
* Arc Warden has no innate disables to stop
Life Drain and
Decrepify
* The short cooldown of both Life Drain and Decrepify also means Pugna can deal with Arc Warden and Arc Warden's clone simultaneously most of the time
* A good Pugna looks to end the match early while Arc Warden, a very item reliant hero, thrives in longer matches.
*
Decrepify can be used on allies to prevent them from attacking Axe and triggering Counter Helix during Berserker's Call. He can also cast it on Axe to prevent anyone from attacking him.
*
Life Drain can be used to heal himself or allies caught in Berserker's Call, preventing them from dropping low enough for Axe to kill them with Culling Blade.
* Spectre can easily close the distance on Drow Ranger with
Haunt and stick on her with
Spectral Dagger, effectively disables her
Marksmanship.
* Spectre does not care if silenced by
Gust, since Spectre will catch her up regardless.
*
Dispersion can reflect some damage back to Drow Ranger should she chooses to attack.
* Be careful once she got her
Silver Edge as an attempt to shut you down.
* Amazingly, Enchantress has even lower health than Pugna. Though she does pack quite a punch through
Impetus, she can't use it if she is under Decrepify.
* Pugna's Magical DPS is way greater than the heal from
Nature's Attendants, which will also harm her quite a bit if she's next to Nether Ward.
* Decrepify prevents Faceless Void from attacking trapped allies inside
Chronosphere, wasting a large portion of its duration if Faceless Void can't dispel it.
* Because Invoker relies on casting a large amount of spells to contribute to fights, Nether Ward can force him to not cast anything at all or take a large amount of damage to cast spells.
Additional:
*
Nether Ward on its own can greatly hinder Invoker from casting many of his abilities, at least until he gets a significant amount of HP or is under the protection of spell immunity from
Black King Bar
*
Life Drain provides True sight, revealing Invoker through Ghost Walk, and forcing him or his allies to use an ability or item to interrupt its channeling
* Outside of Nether Ward's range, Invoker shall have the advantage, as Invoker has Tornado to purge Pugna's
Decrepify when it is used defensively, Tornado or Cold Snap to prevent Pugna from channeling
Life Drain
* A poorly used
Decrepify on Pugna's allies means Invoker's abilities can be used to deal more damage to them.
*
Shadow Step's low cooldown allows Spectre to teleport to him whenever he decides to push.
*
Spectral Dagger allows Spectre to go through Sprout's trees and stun Nature's Prophet if she has a
Skull Basher or
Abyssal Blade.
* Spectre loves buying
Radiance, which can kill Nature's Prophet's Treants easily.
Additional:
* Spectre can get to him anywhere on the map with
Haunt.
* Spectre can pass through his trees with
Spectral Dagger.
*
Desolate's damage will melt him quickly, as he's alone most of the time.
* Pugna's
Decrepify can render Templar Assassin's physical attacks useless.
* Pugna can also cast
Life Drain on Templar Assassin, burning her Refraction instances.
* On the other hand, Pugna generally has low health and armor. Use this to your advantage.
* Zeus is good against heroes that juke in trees or up cliffs, like
Batrider,
Monkey King,
Spectre, and
Tinker, by providing vision in any area with Lightning Bolt, or guaranteeing vision on enemies with Thundergod's Wrath.
* Even though Pugna's low HP means that he can be quickly burst down, his
Nether Ward heavily punishes casters whose spells cost a lot of mana, like Zeus. Casting 4 of his active spells, including Nimbus, close to an enhanced level 4
Nether Ward, can make the ward deal up to 1750 magical damage.
*
Decrepify can further increase the damage dealt by Nether Ward upon Zeus. However, if used on Pugna himself or on one of his allies, it will amplify the damage done by Zeus' abilities.
* Zeus can deal a huge amount of damage, but he lacks defensive abilities, such as good mobility or resistance. Due to that, he doesn't like to be touched by any means. Heroes with higher damage output and good mobility will often get easily near Zeus and trade damage (eventually causing Zeus's downfall). Such Heroes include:
Lycan,
Slark,
Storm Spirit,
Spectre and others.
Additional:
* Zeus burst damage can be reduced by
Dispersion and reflect some of the damage back to Zeus himself.
* Zeus has low mobility and stays in backlines,
Spectral Dagger or
Haunt can easily catch him as he has no escape mechanism.
* Since Zeus has low HP,
Spectral Dagger and
Desolate will quickly tear Zeus down when he's alone.
* Decrepify prevents Legion Commander from attacking allies during
Duel, regardless if it's used on her or on the ally .
* Pugna can easily cast Decrepify, Nether Blast and Life Drain on Legion during the 4/4.75/5.5/8 seconds of duel
Additional:
*
Decrepify on either hero stops Legion Commander from completing a Duel, and dissuades her from initiating Duels on ethereal allies.
*
Life Drain can help Pugna's teammates win a fight, either by killing Legion Commander or replenishing her target's health.
* Leshrac needs to be close to target in order to do damage, Pugna can outrun Leshrac with ease due to his superior movement speed.
*
Split Earth can also be hard to land on Pugna for the same reason.
* Leshrac uses huge amounts of mana to do damage, Nether Ward forces him to either not contribute in a fight or kill himself in the process.
Additional:
*
Nether Ward punishes Leshrac's constant mana usage from spamming spells.
* Leshrac needs to be in the thick of the fight to deal damage, and so cannot escape from
Nether Blast nor
Life Drain easily.
* Due to the high mana cost of his spells and the low cool down of them, Nether Ward can seriously damage Skywrath Mage if he isn't careful.
* Skywrath Mage's fragility makes him very susceptible to Pugna's high burst damage.
Additional:
*
Nether Ward will make Skywrath Mage next to useless in fights, as his low hp pool will not allow him to sustain through the damage of the ward should he choose to cast spells. Be wary though that Skywrath's huge burst will make very quick work of Pugna's low hp should the ward be destroyed, and
Decrepify won't help Pugna at all.
*
Decrepify prevents Shadow Fiend from attacking for its duration, potentially preventing him from getting a kill.
*
Nether Ward can do heavy damage to Shadow Fiend if he tries to cast his Requiem of Souls or spam Shadowraze.
Additional:
* Decrepify prevents Shadow Fiend from attacking for its duration, potentially preventing him from getting a kill.
* Nether Ward can do heavy damage to Shadow Fiend if he tries to cast his
Requiem of Souls and his
Shadowraze.
* As Ancient Apparition likes to stay far away from the fight to get full effectiveness from
Ice Blast, he is a very good target for a
Haunt gank.
* Ancient Apparition also has no hard disables and escape spells, making him an easy kill for Spectre.
* Pugna easily copes on the line with the Keeper of the Light push with his
Nether Blast, and in addition to
Nether Ward, the Keeper of the Light is not able to throw
Illuminate on creeps for a long time, so Pugna earns more gold and a level on the line
Additional:
* Pugna easily copes on the line with the Keeper of the Light push with his
Nether Blast, and in addition to
Nether Ward, the Keeper of the Light is not able to throw
Illuminate on creeps for a long time, so Pugna earns more gold and a level on the line
* Nether Ward can punish Timbersaw, as Timbersaw is a spell-caster with low cooldowns. Furthermore, Timbersaw usually appears in the midst of battle, placing himself in range of Nether Ward's Mana Flares.
* Timbersaw has no stuns or silences to stop Life Drain. Since all of Pugna's Spells are magical, the damage can be devastating to Timbersaw.
* Decrepify can further increase all the magical damage done to Timbersaw, bypassing the enhanced physical resistance he can get from
Reactive Armor.
Additional:
*
Nether Ward can punish Timbersaw, as Timbersaw is a spell-caster with low cooldowns. Furthermore, Timbersaw usually appears in the midst of battle, placing himself in range of
Nether Ward's Mana Flares.
* Timbersaw has no stuns or silences to stop
Life Drain. Since all of Pugna's Spells are magical, the damage can be devastating to Timbersaw, especially when combined with
Decrepify.
*
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.
*
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.
* 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.
* Heroes with magical or pure damage output will not have any problems against Atrophy Aura at all:
Luna,
Lina,
Jakiro,
Pugna,
Bane,
Snapfire,
Muerta,
Nyx Assassin,
Enigma,
Tinker,
Witch Doctor,
Zeus,
Crystal Maiden.
*
Pugna:
Decrepify prevent the Spirit bear from attacking or protect allies from it.
* Riki's
Smoke Screen can make it hard for Spectre to escape or burst down Riki with auto attacks.
* Riki can build
Aghanim's Scepter and jump inside an allied carry or offlane tank with
Tricks of the Trade to do a lot of damage to Spectre while completely avoiding
Dispersion.
* Riki is great at destroying supports which are often needed to keep Spectre safe until she comes online. He can take them down quickly in team fights, which will leave Spectre alone against your whole team, a fight that she will most likely not win.
* While on
Tricks of the Trade, Riki does not take damage from
Dispersion.
* Heroes who are reliant on physical damage will be nullified by Decrepify:
Riki,
Wraith King,
Juggernaut.
*
Spectral Dagger follows Riki even after he goes invisible and stays on him through
Tricks of the Trade, revealing his location.
*
Desolate grants Spectre the ability to damage Riki with right clicks regardless of
Smoke Screen's blind.
* Riki relies on his high damage to kill is opponents, which is countered by
Dispersion.
*
Haunt can find Riki globally at any time, negating much of his ganking potential.
* Any heroes with high intelligence, such as
Invoker and
Pugna.
*
Pugna's
Decrepify makes sure that either Alchemist is unable to hit anyone while also being slowed and susceptible to magical damage, or can protect an ally from physical attacks. Besides, Pugna can push early on, when Alchemist is not strong enough to repel it, so by the time Alchemist comes online, he might be forced to sit in base.
* 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.
* 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.
* Heroes who are reliant on physical damage will be nullified by Decrepify:
Riki,
Wraith King,
Juggernaut.
* Heroes that build
Diffusal Blade or can fit it well into their item build will also make Medusa much less tanky:
Riki,
Naga Siren,
Terrorblade,
Juggernaut,
Spectre,
Slark.
* Late game heroes are Sven's favourite kind of opponent, such as
Anti-Mage,
Spectre and
Shadow Fiend.
* Pugna can save allies with both healing or by making them ethereal but needs to be careful of Sven's
Aghanim's Scepter purge.
* Heroes with good escapes can usually outmaneuver and escape from Spectre:
Slark,
Clinkz,
Weaver
Additional:
* Essence Shift deals 20 extra damage by draining one strength per hit, which cannot be reduced or spread by
Dispersion.
* Pounce prevents Spectre from escaping with
Spectral Dagger.
*
Haunt illusions usually don't deal a lot of damage to Slark as he tends to buy a
Shadow Blade, preventing
Desolate's and
Diffusal Blade's damage and activating Shadow Dance's regeneration to make up for any damage caused by
Radiance.
* Slark is a natural carrier of
Silver Edge, which helps break both
Desolate and
Dispersion.
*
Nether Blast will still hit Slark even if he is hidden during Shadow Dance.
* Even though Pugna can rarely target Slark directly with
Decrepify, he can still use it defensively on an ally to prevent Slark from getting stacks.
* Despite being somewhat easy to break with Pounce, Pugna can damage Slark and provide vision over him with
Life Drain.
* Rubick usually positions in the back of a team. Heroes who can sneak up and assault Rubick (e.g.
Slark) or damage Rubick from great distance (e.g.
Spectre,
Sniper) should be treated cautiously, as otherwise the matchup usually ends up badly for Rubick.
* None of Spectre's spells are very good for Rubick to
Spell Steal.
* Heroes with channeled abilities can be interrupted by a long-range Fissure:
Crystal Maiden,
Witch Doctor,
Bane,
Pugna,
Pudge.
*
Spectral Dagger can be used to traverse past Fissure.
*
Haunt will usually disable Earthshaker's
Blink Dagger prior to a teamfight, preventing him from initiating.
* On the other hand,
Haunt will amplify damage done from Echo Slam. Use this to your advantage.
Additional:
* Spectre can use
Haunt to intercept and disrupt Earthshaker's initiation attempts.
*
Spectral Dagger can be used to traverse past
Fissure.
* Earthshaker often travels alone when he is trying to initiate, so
Desolate can be very effective against him.
* Beware that the
Haunt illusions amplify the damage done from
Echo Slam, which can prove fatal for Spectre's own team.
*
Disruptor can control where she goes with
Kinetic Field and
Glimpse.
Static Storm shuts her down in teamfights.
*
Nether Ward can do a ton of damage to Disruptor because of his high mana costs.
*
Life Drain can be used to heal an ally trapped by Static Storm-Kinetic Field combo (if Pugna is not a target).
* Heroes the make heavy use of illusions, like
Chaos Knight,
Phantom Lancer,
Terrorblade, or
Spectre can suffer from Crystal Maiden, as Freezing Field can quickly kill off the entire horde if not stopped.
* As Crystal Maiden is squishy with very bad movement speed, Spectre can easily stay on Crystal Maiden with
Haunt and
Spectral Dagger.
* Late game, with enough farm, Spectre can withstand an entire
Freezing Field, possibly even causing Crystal Maiden to kill herself from
Dispersion.
* Heroes with good escapes can usually outmaneuver and escape from Spectre:
Slark,
Clinkz,
Weaver
* Spectre can instantly escape Burning Army or hunt Clinkz with
Haunt.
* Spectre can catch up to him with
Spectral Dagger, even if he uses Skeleton Walk.
*
Desolate allows Spectre to hit Clinkz through Skeleton Walk.
*
Dispersion makes Spectre tanky and also reflects some damage back to Clinkz.
Additional:
* Spectre can catch Clinkz with
Spectral Dagger, even if he uses
Skeleton Walk.
* Spectre can instantly reach a ratting Clinkz with
Haunt.
*
Desolate's damage will melt him quickly, as he's alone most of the time.
* Fragile heroes: Bounty Hunter has decent nuking capabilities with Shiruken Toss and Jinada thus making fragile heroes easy picks for ganking. Few examples of such heroes are:
Crystal Maiden,
Pugna,
Skywrath Mage,
Io,
Witch Doctor, etc.
* Spectre can instantly reveal Bounty Hunter's position on the activation of her ultimate
Haunt. She can also semi-reveal( visible but not target-able) Bounty Hunter by hitting him with
Spectral Dagger.
* Heroes with channeled abilities which Assassinate may cancel at long range:
Witch Doctor,
Crystal Maiden,
Shadow Shaman,
Pugna
Additional:
* Sniper's huge range makes him an unviable target to use Life Drain on, forcing Pugna to risk playing out of position to use it on Sniper.
* Sniper's
Shrapnel can be used to provide vision on Nether Ward, and his range allows him to easily take it out.
* A clumsy Pugna may accidentally boost Sniper's
Shrapnel and
Assassinate damages if he recklessly uses Decrepify on himself or his allies.
*
Shadow Step and
Haunt from
Aghanim's Scepter instantly allows Spectre to get up and close with Sniper, and
Spectral Dagger makes it difficult for Sniper to escape from her.
Additional:
* Spectre can reach him easily in the backlines with
Spectral Dagger or teleport to him with
Haunt.
* He is usually a fair distance away from his allies, so
Desolate will quickly tear Sniper down.
*
Dispersion reflect or reduce his damage, making her hard to take down even at late game.
* If Terrorblade's health gets low enough, Terrorblade's
Sunder can be used to completely deplete Spectre's health pool without any consequences from
Dispersion.
* Terrorblade is one of the few late game heroes that can stand toe to toe and man fight Spectre. Not all is lost if the game goes late when Terrorblade is on your team against Spectre.
Additional:
* If Terrorblade's health is low enough, he can safely use Sunder on Spectre without any consequences from her
Dispersion and Spectre has no way to prevent it.
* Although
Desolate deals pure damage and can bypass his high armor, Terrorblade usually stays nearby his illusions, effectively disabling Desolate.
* Reflection is effective against her as it does not only slow her down but
Desolate can also be used against herself.
*
Dispersion damage is reduced thanks to Terrorblade's high natural armor.
* Terrorblade is one of few heroes that can manfight Spectre. Not everything is lost if Spectre managed to reach late game.
* As Terrorblade's damage output comes mainly from direct attacks, he will struggle greatly against heroes who have abilities that give evasion, trigger on attack or which can disarm an enemy hero:
Centaur Warrunner,
Hoodwink,
Huskar,
Invoker,
Leshrac with
Nihilism from
Aghanim's Scepter,
Lifestealer with
Aghanim's Scepter upgraded
Infest,
Pangolier,
Phantom Assassin,
Pugna,
Techies,
Windranger etc.
* Unlike with other heroes who can summon illusions of themselves, Terrorblade's illusions from
Conjure Image have different colors than other illusions which can be seen even by enemy team, which can also make Terrorblade weak even against heroes he naturally counters:
Bane,
Lifestealer,
Spectre,
Chaos Knight,
Spirit Breaker,
Sniper. Terrorblade's only solution to counter this problem is to get
Manta Style as quickly as possible.
* All of Pugna's damage is magical, which can get blocked by
Fate's Edict's 100% magic resistance.
* Oracle has two abilities that apply a dispel, which can easily remove Decrepify on his ally or Oracle.
* Oracle's burst damage is not enough to take down Spectre due to
Dispersion.
* Disarm from
Fate's Edict does not hinder Spectre that much, since she can deal damage even without landing a single attack.
Additional:
* Oracle's burst damage is ineffective against
Dispersion.
* Disarm provided by Fate's Edict is not as significant debilitation for Spectre as it might be for other carries since She can do damage even without landing attacks.
*
Viper Strike can disable
Desolate and
Dispersion, leaving Spectre with far less damage output and damage mitigation in engagements.
* Spectre is one of the weakest heroes at early levels. Viper can stifle her farm with early fights before Spectre purchases any major items.
Additional:
*
Nethertoxin disable passives, negating Spectre's damage and survivability by removing both
Dispersion and
Desolate.
* Due to
Haunt and
Radiance's burn, Spectre is heavily susceptible to being persistently slowed and damaged by
Corrosive Skin without even directly attacking Viper.
*
Poison Attack and
Viper Strike further slow Spectre's movement speed to a crawl, while his improved magic resistance means he can easily shrug off
Radiance's burn.
* Pugna's
Decrepify allows him to save allies from being ganked by Viper, since Viper mostly relies on direct attacks in order to deal damage.
*
Nether Ward can discourage Viper from spamming his abilities.
* Viper's damage over time is not enough to kill Pugna as he will have more than enough time to save himself (or his allies) with
Life Drain and Viper has no solutions to cancel it.
* Pugna has no passive abilities, which renders
Nethertoxin nearly useless.
*
Arctic Burn makes it nearly impossible for Spectre to juke into the trees.
*
Cold Embrace negates all of Spectre's physical damage. Furthermore, Cold Embrace will generally outheal
Desolate.
*
Winter's Curse can taunt illusions, not only wasting the entire duration of
Haunt but also turning its illusions against Spectre's own team.
* Cold Embrace is a death sentence against Pugna, since its the perfect setup for all his abilities, especially
Life Drain.
*
Decrepify can be cast to save the ally under Winter's Curse effect, wasting most of its duration.
* Winter Wyvern's abilities require a lot of mana, allowing
Nether Ward to deal lots of damage.
* Heroes with no mobility will take some good damage from Sand King's spells:
Dragon Knight,
Jakiro,
Pugna,
Earthshaker.
*
Pugna's
Nether Ward damages Sand King when he channels Epicenter, preventing him from using Blink Dagger afterward.
* Spectre cannot have a good game if she is pressured heavily in lane, which is something Mars can do. He may even force her to cast
Haunt as an escape, putting it on a long cooldown.
* Should Spectre get to the late game, Mars can block a large amount of her damage with Bulwark and can mitigate some of the chaos caused by her
Haunt illusions with God's Rebuke.
*
Nether Blast,
Decrepify and
Life Drain deal high magical damage and bypasses Bulwark.
*
Nether Ward reduces the amount of abilities Mars can use during fights and forces Mars to be careful about the heavy mana cost of Arena Of Blood.
* Pugna is one of few heroes that can contest Mars' ability to push and defend towers early on.
* Her illusions with
Desolate are very valuable, especially when they are usually paired with
Radiance. Unlike blink or force movement,
Spectral Dagger's escaping mechanic requires manual movement, and therefore Demonic Purge can hold her back really hard and allow your allies to finish her off.
* If she tries to kill you or any key ally with
Haunt at any point of the game, remember to not panic and always use Disruption on the illusion, whether it is fake or the real Spectre herself. When the situation calls, Demonic Purge can save a second victim from a haunting Spectre.
* When upgraded by
Aghanim's Scepter, Demonic Purge can remove Spectre from a fight by disabling Desolate and
Dispersion, negating her damage and tankiness respectively.
* All of Pugna's abilities are active, making Demonic Purge break from
Aghanim's Scepter useless.
*
Nether Ward punishes Shadow Demon's constant mana usage from spamming spells, especially Shadow Poison.
* An attempt to save an ally using Disruption can easily become a perfect setup for a
Nether Blast for the enemy.
*
Life Drain can be used to heal Pugna or an ally to save them from Shadow Demon's abilities.
* However, it can be cancelled by Disruption unless Pugna buys defensive items.
* Heroes that have a weak laning stage:
Spectre,
Nyx Assassin,
Clockwerk,
Spirit Breaker,
Omniknight,
Pudge.
* Heroes that can punish aggressive heroes, such as:
Leshrac,
Shadow Demon,
Pugna,
Death Prophet.
* Generally speaking, Spectre is a strong teamfighter but a weak manfighter. She has no tool to deal with troll warlord once he has his sight locked on her.
* Troll often buys
Silver Edge and
Monkey King Bar, which greatly countered Spectre's passive and item build (Silver Edge can disable passive while providing some damage, Monkey King Bar provides accuracy to counter
Radiance and
Butterfly miss chance).
*
Black King Bar allows troll to bypass the damage return from
Blade mail should Spectre attempts to fight back Troll. However,
Black King Bar is generally not very effective against Spectre as her skills can pierce the spell immunity. Still, it offers protection against
Blade mail, a common item for Spectre in the mid game.
* Troll has high lifesteal from
Battle Trance and
Satanic, which help him survive the damage from
Desolate should the break duration is over.
*
Battle Trance and
Fervor mean Spectre will have a hard time fighting troll and cannot take him down, even with equal farm.
* Troll Warlord can't switch targets at will, in order to build
Fervor stacks, which makes it easy to use Decrepify in order to save allies
* During
Battle Trance, Pugna can easily use Nether Blast, Decrepify and Life Drain on him
* Juggernaut's
Healing Ward can help save allied supports when Spectre attempts a
Haunt kill.
* Juggernaut has a stronger push potential than Spectre, enabling him to end the game early before Spectre can come online.
* Spectre is often paired with two supports that are often weak against Juggernaut.
* Juggernaut also tends to build a
Manta Style, which can prevent
Desolate from taking effect.
* Juggernaut is invulnerable against
Dispersion while using
Omnislash.
*
Decrepify prevents
Omnislash damage, until Juggernaut gets a
Nullifier.
* Without a disable, Pugna's high movement speed makes it harder to chase him with
Blade Fury.
* Juggernaut has low mana and his skills cost large amount of mana.
Nether Ward will hurt him more and even worse, the damage from the ward is inflicted before the Spell immunity provided by
Blade Fury.
Additional:
* Decrepify is the perfect tool against
Omnislash until he gets a
Nullifier, and even then he will probably waste a couple of slashes before he uses it.
* Without an extra disable, Pugna's high movement speed makes it impossible to chase him with
Blade Fury.
* Unlike some other carries like
Slark or
Phantom Assassin, Juggernaut's spells cost a hefty amount of mana and he will seriously get hurt by Nether Ward. Don't forget the damage from the ward is inflicted before the spell immunity is provided by
Blade Fury.
To start select enemy heroes in the field above. It's intended to be used with multiple heroes. The more enemy heroes you provide the better results you will get.
This website was made to help you in pick stage of online game Dota 2. It calculates rating for each possible counterpicks based on tips from web-based database made up entirely of user contributions Dota 2 wiki.
You will get the list of recommended hero counters with a list of tips written by Dota 2 wiki contributors explaining why it's good against the particular hero. In comparison to other similar websites, which show only rating based on average hero win rate from dotabuff or similar service.
Take it with a bit of grain of salt, especially if the recommendation has a low rating (<= 1), some heroes
may win a lane in an early game but would lose in late game (and vice versa). That's why sometimes
you could hero names appearing as a counter and as being countered, as on image:
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.
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Pugna
* Pugna only deals magical damage, which Anti-Mage is exceptionally resistant due to Counterspell.
Decrepify with
Manta Style.
Mana Void on Pugna if he's missing a considerable portion of his mana.
Mana Break almost always dealing the bonus damage from the mana burn.
Counterspell negates a large amount of Pugna's damage, as most of Pugna's damage comes from his spells.
Blink can be used to get out of a bad situation, and Pugna has no way to prevent him from casting it.
* Anti-Mage can dispel
* Pugna has a very large mana pool. This allows Anti-Mage to constantly deal bonus damage to Pugna with Mana Break and devastate Pugna's entire team with Mana Void.
Additional:
* Since Pugna relies on his teammates for protection, it is fairly common for Anti-Mage to get multiple kills with a single use of his
* Pugna's massive mana pool will result in Anti-Mage's
*
*
Spectre
* Spectre cannot chase down Anti-Mage with
Spectral Dagger because of Blink, though it still grants her team vision over him.
Dispersion and Spectre's
Radiance.
Manta Style, preventing Spectre from dealing any
Desolate damage to him once he summons his illusions.
Blink, for escape or initiation. Anti-Mage can easily pick off enemy supports and Spectre cannot do anything about it.
Mana Break burns through Spectre's low mana pool.
Manta Style's illusions prevent
Desolate's damage.
Battle Fury can easily outfarm and get ahead of Spectre before she can come online.
* Counterspell reduces much of the damage from
* Anti-Mage usually builds a
Additional:
* Spectre has no way to prevent
*
*
* Even though Anti-Mage is outcarried by Spectre in the later stages of the game, a competent Anti-Mage with a