* Heroes who rely on invisibility, such as Bounty Hunter,
Clinkz,
Mirana,
Nyx Assassin and
Riki, as they will be revealed if caught by Chronosphere.
* Faceless Void is one of the best heroes against Ember Spirit, providing a lot of ways of dealing with him. Ember Spirit becomes a lot weaker if affected by Time Dilation, as he can no longer spam Sleight of Fist.
* Chronosphere is also a reliable lockdown for Ember Spirit, although it can be evaded sometimes by Activate Fire Remnant. Additionally, Void can easily negate Sleight of Fist damage with
Time Walk.
* And finally, Void is a great Diffusal Blade carrier. Not only
Manabreak's physical damage not negated by Flame Guard, but it also burns Ember Spirit's mana. That, in turn, prevents him from escaping if he survived
Chronosphere.
* Oracle can shut down both of Ember's early game abilities. Fortune's End can dispel Flame Guard on Ember Spirit and
Searing Chains on allies.
* When Ember Spirit is affected by Fortune's End, his Fire Remnants move at 0 movement speed.
* Disarming him with Fate's Edict does affect Ember's Sleight of Fist ability, possibly making him useless for a few seconds in the late game without a dispel or spell immunity. This is especially good if he has a rapier or two. However, positioning for this is difficult when Ember plays far back.
* With Dark Ascension and Gem of True Sight, Night Stalker can easily find and kill Riki. Riki will also find it harder to kill the tanky Night Stalker than he would many other heroes.
* The pure damage provided by Arcane Orb is a great addition for killing Ember Spirit.
* Astral Imprisonment fully negates all magic damage of Flame Guard and Searing Chains and will temporarily save himself from Sleight of Fist's physical damage, and Ember Spirit is not a hero that can counter these skills.
* Axe can disable Cloak and Dagger's invisibility with
Berserker's Call, which forces Riki to attack him at a very bad angle.
* Axe has a very high HP pool, making it hard for you to kill him before you get big items - that is if you survive engaging him. Counter Helix ignores Riki's armor and goes straight for his tiny HP pool, totally ignoring
Smoke Screen.
* Axe is a natural buyer of Blade Mail and Riki generally does not buy lifesteal items, causing Riki to kill himself when attacking due to your tiny HP pool.
* Viper's Nethertoxin disables
Cloak and Dagger, negating Riki's invisibility and much of his damage. It also makes him more vulnerable to magic damage, which does not go well with Riki's low health pool. With the talent applied, he can't even blink to safety or hide with Tricks of the Trade.
* Corrosive Skin makes it hard for Riki to chase Viper and attack him due to the attack speed slow.
* Viper Strike stays on Riki even after he goes invisible.
* Poison Attack makes it risky for Riki to get last hits and can make the laning phase difficult for him.
* Huskar can destroy Ember Spirit both on the line and in the game. It will be extremely difficult for Ember Spirit to finish off the creeps, because Huskar will not let him approach them, and if Ember Spirit does come up, Huskar just shuts him up with his Burning Spear and Ember Spirit will have to go to the base or bring himself treatment, or continue to stand and die. In all cases, Ember Spirit will go into negative
Additional:
* Ember Spirit does minimal damage to Huskar until the very late game.
* Huskar can destroy Ember Spirit both on the line and in the game. It will be extremely difficult for Ember Spirit to finish off the creeps, because Huskar will not let him approach them, and if Ember Spirit does come up, Huskar just shuts him up with his Burning Spear and Ember Spirit will have to go to the base or bring himself treatment, or continue to stand and die. In all cases, Ember Spirit will go into negative
* Corrosive Haze works much like
Track, giving the enemy team vision over Riki. While it doesn't give a movement speed or gold bonus, it instead can melt Riki's armor and Slardar can use
Guardian Sprint to catch up to him.
* Slardar's Aghanim's Shard, causes
Slithereen Crush to apply Corrosive Haze even if Slardar does not have vision over him.
Additional:
* Corrosive Haze makes Riki completely vulnerable to Slardar and his allies, as Riki has no easy way of dispelling it.
* Slardar's physical damage with Slithereen Crush and Bash of the Deep amplified by Corrosive Haze can easily kill Riki.
* Blink Strike does not grant Riki a mobility advantage over Phantom Assassin, as her Phantom Strike serves the same purpose, but with a higher range.
* A Carry Riki usually has a hard time dealing with Blur, as a Monkey King Bar or
Bloodthorn are unfavourable item picks for him (or, even more unlikely, a
Silver Edge).
* A Black King Bar is a very common pick for Phantom Assassin, fully countering
Smoke Screen and
Diffusal Blade while activated.
* Lion possesses two strong disables in Earth Spike and
Hex and heavy magic burst with
Finger of Death which help lock him down and prevent him from escaping with Activate Fire Remnant. When getting his
Blink Dagger Lion can punish Ember Spirit's overextension immediately, or initiate a fight on him with disables.
* Quill Spray will hit Riki even when he is invisible.
* Cloak and Dagger's bonus backstab damage is rendered irrelevant against Bristleback.
* Smoke Screen does not stop Bristleback's passive from activating.
* Due to Bristleback's natural tankiness, he is an ideal Gem of True Sight carrier, directly countering Riki's invisibility.
Additional:
* The bonus Backstab damage from Cloak and Dagger is rendered irrelevant with Bristleback and hurts Riki more than him because of the passive Quill Spray.
* Riki can still get damaged by Bristleback's Quill Spray while invisible, and it can be hard to deal with in lane.
* Bristleback is not too bothered by Smoke Screen. Though he cannot use Quill Spray manually inside it, it still procs passively when he takes damage from the back. The movement speed from
Warpath allows him to get out of the area easily.
* Due to Bristleback's natural tankiness, he is an ideal Gem of True Sight carrier.
* Riki rarely buys Silver Edge to break Bristleback's passive because the invisibility aspect of it is redundant.
* Using X Marks the spot Kunkka can prevent Ember Spirit from escaping with Activate Fire Remnant, until he purchase
Eul's Scepter of Divinity or
Linken's Sphere.
* Riki does little damage to Dragon Knight, as he relies only on physical damage with modest attack speed and lack of burst.
* Ember Spirit cannot use his Activate Fire Remnant to escape while affected by
Doom.
* Batrider has huge damage from his Sticky Napalm and hand strikes on the target, with this effect. And Ember Spirit not only has a small reserve of health, but also has a melee type of attack. If these two collide on the center line, then Ember Spirit will have to finish off several creeps from afar with a
Sleight of Fist, otherwise he will lose a lot of health from long-range Batrider attacks under
Sticky Napalm, and possibly even kill, because Ember Spirit does not have the ability to interrupt Batraider with his damage if he decides to attack
* Ember Spirit is a very tasty target for Flaming Lasso, because it has a small reserve of health, and all the power lies in the abilities that
Flaming Lasso forbids using, this can help the Batraider team quickly deal with the unpleasant "jumping" Ember Spirit in a fight if he gets into
Flaming Lasso
Additional:
* Batrider has huge damage from his Sticky Napalm and hand strikes on the target, with this effect. And Ember Spirit not only has a small reserve of health, but also has a melee type of attack. If these two collide on the center line, then Ember Spirit will have to finish off several creeps from afar with a
Sleight of Fist, otherwise he will lose a lot of health from long-range Batrider attacks under
Sticky Napalm, and possibly even kill, because Ember Spirit does not have the ability to interrupt Batraider with his damage if he decides to attack
* Ember Spirit is a very tasty target for Flaming Lasso, because it has a small reserve of health, and all the power lies in the abilities that
Flaming Lasso forbids using, this can help the Batraider team quickly deal with the unpleasant "jumping" Ember Spirit in a fight if he gets into
Flaming Lasso
* Invisibility reliant heroes: Heroes with invisibility abilities or those that have invested into invisibility items are hindered by Bounty Hunter's Track. Few examples of such heroes are:Clinkz,
Riki,
Treant Protector, etc.
Additional:
* Track reveals Riki while invisible and gives him a hard time, as it prevents much of his ganking capabilities. This can force Riki to buy
Manta Style to dispel it.
* Riki doesn't deal burst damage.Durable heroes (Axe,
Tidehunter etc.) will usually survive a jump from him,move out of Smoke Screen and potentially retaliate.
* Heroes who are reliant on physical damage will be nullified by Decrepify: Riki,
Wraith King,
Juggernaut.
* Any hero with a low HP pool is easy for Tinker to nuke down: Crystal Maiden,
Enchantress,
Gyrocopter,
Lion,
Riki,
Techies,
Terrorblade,
Necrophos,
Invoker.
* 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.
* Heroes who rely on high mobility are especially vulnerable to Primal Roar: Storm Spirit,
Ember Spirit,
Queen of Pain.
* Techies is very good against roaming supports and gankers such as Bounty Hunter,
Riki,
Weaver,
Earthshaker,
Nyx Assassin, etc. that are constantly moving around the map.
* Lone Druid becomes unkillable and impenetrable for Ember Spirit on the central line, as it has a huge reserve of health from the Summon Spirit Bear and a large regeneration from
Spirit Link, which is why
Sleight of Fist practically does not break through either one or the other on the line, and Lone Druid at this time can easily expel Ember Spirit from the line, push and gain gold and level
* Entangling Claws and
Savage Roar abilities completely disable Ember Spirit's ability to dodge abilities or get out of an unpleasant fight for him on
Fire Remnant, which can give the Lone Druid team the opportunity to kill him
Additional:
* Lone Druid becomes unkillable and impenetrable for Ember Spirit on the central line, as it has a huge reserve of health from the Summon Spirit Bear and a large regeneration from
Spirit Link, which is why
Sleight of Fist practically does not break through either one or the other on the line, and Lone Druid at this time can easily expel Ember Spirit from the line, push and gain gold and level
* Entangling Claws and
Savage Roar abilities completely disable Ember Spirit's ability to dodge abilities or get out of an unpleasant fight for him on
Fire Remnant, which can give the Lone Druid team the opportunity to kill him
* Riki:
Smoke Screen can prevent Lone Druid from using True Form and Savage Roar, additionally it cause the spirit bear to miss on attacks which reduce the chances of getting rooted from it, with diffusal Blade, he can keep Lone Druid or the Spirit Bear inside the Smoke.
* Another great threat to Riki since her Duel forces him to fight from the front and expose him for the entire duration, almost always guaranteeing an easy win (unless Riki has allies helping him).
* Moment of Courage can become hard to deal with as it doesn't cease with silence.
* Heroes with abilities that blind or cause Legion Commander to miss will prevent her from winning Duels: Arc Warden,
Keeper of the Light,
Riki,
Tinker
* Global Silence and
Last Word can prevent Ember Spirit from casting Activate Fire Remnant to escape.
* Glaives of Wisdom also provide high pure damage that is not negated by Flame Guard.
* Arcane Curse is also a potent harassing tool in the laneing stage as its cooldown is lower than Flame Guard's.
* Heroes with damage-increasing passive abilities, such as Viper and
Riki, will usually kill Silencer in a short time before he even has time to set up his abilities.
* With Vendetta, Nyx Assassin can move closely to Ember Spirit when he's farming with his Flame Guard and use
Spiked Carapace with
Impale to provide a reliable and long disable.
Additional:
* Spiked Carapace can be easily triggered by Flame Guard or
Battle Fury, setting up a deadly Impale.
* Heroes who rely on damage over time as Spiked Carapace can block and reflect only one instance of damage: Jakiro,
Viper,
Venomancer,
Huskar,
Ember Spirit,
Dark Seer,
Sand King,
Doom,
Dawnbreaker. However, this also means they are easily stunned.
* Ember Spirit's Flame Guard provides no protection against Clinkz's physical damage output.
* Ember Spirit's low armor and health make him easy to kill quickly if a teammate can hold him down.
* If Clinkz has farmed an item that can disable, he can sneak up to and hunt down Ember Spirit while he farms or split pushes alone.
* Heroes with high armor like Dragon Knight, or with abilities to cause attacks to miss like
Phantom Assassin,
Riki and
Tinker will be hard to deal with, as Clinkz relies almost entirely on physical attacks.
Additional:
* Smoke Cloud prevents the use of Death Pact,
Searing Arrows and
Skeleton Walk, so Clinkz can neither defend himself against Riki nor fight back effectively.
* It's hard to gank Riki as Clinkz has to find him first.
* Ember Spirit has a small mana pool, which is why QW-Invoker can burn it out very effectively with his own E.M.P., do not give Ember Spirit the opportunity to play with his abilities and cause damage with them in a fight.
* QW-Invoker Destroys Ember Spirit's Flame Guard with his own
Tornado, which is why Ember Spirit cannot defend against Invoker's strong magic damage.
Additional:
* Ember Spirit has a small mana pool, which is why QW-Invoker can burn it out very effectively with his own E.M.P., do not give Ember Spirit the opportunity to play with his abilities and cause damage with them in a fight.
* QW-Invoker Destroys Ember Spirit's Flame Guard with his own
Tornado, which is why Ember Spirit cannot defend against Invoker's strong magic damage.
* Heroes with silence: Death Prophet,
Riki,
Drow Ranger.
* Static Link drains away Riki's damage while keeping his location revealed for its duration, allowing his team to accurately land detection or area-of-effect skills.
* Storm Surge procs on invisible heroes, making him aware of Riki's presence near him.
* Any hero with teleport abilities (e.g. Ember Spirit,
Storm Spirit) can easily break Static Link.
* Pit of Malice prevents Riki from casting
Blink Strike. or
Tricks of the Trade.
* Atrophy Aura reduces Riki's damage.
* Firestorm can be used to harrass Riki in lane.
* 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.
* Riki can easily be caught in an Ice Path and Macropyre combo as he finishes Tricks of the Trade, Jakiro just has to be careful about Riki's
Smoke Screen when dealing with Riki.
* Heroes with good mobility to avoid Jakiro's abilities and with good chase to punish Jakiro from pushing a tower: Bloodseeker,
Ember Spirit,
Juggernaut,
Phantom Assassin,
Weaver.
* Shadowraze can easily remove the protection from Flame Guard and kill Ember Spirit due to his low health.
* Ember Spirit is very vulnerable to physical damage from Necromastery.
* Heroes that can gank Shadow Fiend in the early game: Earth Spirit,
Nyx Assassin,
Riki,
Spirit Breaker.
* Luna can push very fast with Moon Glaives, which is something Riki cannot deal with well.
* Luna is naturally very fast, making it hard for Riki to trap her in Smoke Cloud.
* Even though Riki can evade Eclipse with his invisibility, smart Luna will always buy
Dust of Appearance, providing vision on Riki to her allies and herself.
Additional:
* Luna can push very fast with Moon Glaives, which is something Riki cannot deal with well.
* Luna is naturally very fast, making it hard for Riki to trap her in Smoke Cloud.
* Even though Riki can evade Eclipse with his invisibility, smart Luna will always buy
Dust of Appearance, providing vision on Riki to her allies and herself.
* All assassin-type carries in a one against one situation: Meepo,
Phantom Assassin,
Riki,
Ursa. Luna's only chances are that she buys
Ethereal Blade or
Black King Bar to gain a slight edge against them, or both items if necessary.
* Heroes with high mobility can be prevented from using it to their advantage with Earthbind, even if they pack a dangerous arsenal: Earth Spirit,
Ember Spirit,
Storm Spirit,
Nature's Prophet,
Phantom Assassin,
Riki,
Anti-Mage,
Weaver.
* See items and abilities disabled by roots
Additional:
* Root is a deadly threat to Riki, disabling both Blink Strike and
Tricks of the Trade while making him fully revealed, making
Earthbind a good ability against him.
* Smoke Screen may not be able to silence all the Meepo clones.
* Riki has no true area damage, as Tricks of the Trade's damage is distributed between all Meepo clones, so he cannot effectively fight Meepo or deal with his strong ability to push unless Riki has
Battle Fury.
* Heroes with high mobility can be prevented from using it to their advantage with Earthbind, even if they pack a dangerous arsenal: Earth Spirit,
Ember Spirit,
Storm Spirit,
Nature's Prophet,
Phantom Assassin,
Riki,
Anti-Mage,
Weaver.
* See items and abilities disabled by roots
* Meepo is quite fragile in the early game and can be easily taken down by Flame Guard's and Searing Chains' damage. Later on, Meepo is very vulnerable to Sleight of Fist's damage due to Battle Fury's cleave on multiple Meepos.
Additional:
* Sleight of Fist combined with
Battle Fury,
Maelstrom and
Daedalus will allow Ember Spirit to make a quick work of Meepo if his clones are crowded around each other.
* Searing Chains interrupts Meepo's initiating because Meepo's clones do not have spell immunity.
* Sniper has no natural escape and relies on his range and slows to keep himself safe, which Riki can bypass with Blink Strike and quickly deplete his miniature HP pool.
* Ember Spirit can close the distance between Sniper easily with his Activate Fire Remnant and further keep Sniper in place with
Searing Chains.
* With the help of Aghanim's Scepter, Sniper cannot outrun Ember Spirit or chase him, even if Sniper builds mobility items.
* Smoke Screen prevents Dark Willow from using her abilities, rendering her defenseless and unable to deal any serious damage.
* Blink Strike lets Riki jump past Bramble Maze.
* Flame Guard blocks Dark Willow's magical burst damage, and harms her if she tries to get close to attack with Bedlam.
* Sleight of Fist and
Fire Remnant makes it hard for Dark Willow to fully disable Ember Spirit.
* Because Templar Assassin does not have escape potential in lane, any support hero with roaming potential and a Dust of Appearance can be great at shutting her down early game:
Earth Spirit,
Spirit Breaker,
Tusk,
Bounty Hunter,
Riki,
Warlock.
* Searing Chains and Flame Guard quickly burn through Refraction instances exposing her low health pool.
* Templar Assassin has no inherent way to prevent Ember Spirit from escaping, a good Ember player also will be able to dodge her meld attack
* Ember Spirit`s Searing chains give true sight into invisibility, why Templar Assassin can't hide from it in
Meld and get out of the fight using
Blink Dagger
Additional:
* Flame Guard burns quickly through
Refraction charges, which is why it can interrupt Templar Assassin, giving his team the opportunity to kill her.
* Ember Spirit can dodge a blow from Meld with
Sleight of fist, providing him an advantage in a 1v1 situation.
* Searing Chains give true sight into invisibility, why Templar Assassin can't hide from it in
Meld and get out of the fight using
Blink Dagger.
* Heroes with invisibility: (Riki,
Clinkz,
Nyx Assassin.
* Ember Spirit can easily deal with Nature's Call by using his Flame Guard and with
Battle Fury. He also has multiple ways of escaping
Sprout. Additionally, Ember Spirit can break
Sprout's trees with Activate Fire Remnant and interrupt
Teleportation with Searing Chains.
Additional:
* Sleight of Fist with
Battle Fury deals a lot of damage to Nature's Prophet's team if they stand close to his Treants, as well as killing all the Treants with ease.
* Ember Spirit with Fire Remnant and
Boots of Travel can be very active around the map, which enables him to quickly teleport and defend the objective Nature's Prophet is attacking whenever he tries to push.
* Riki has high damage and invisibility, meaning he can easily gank Rubick and kill him before Rubick has the chance to react.
* Cloak and Dagger renders Riki invisible, which makes his spells hard to steal if not being initiated.
* Similar to Clinkz, Rubick has to buy a large amount of Sentry Wards to keep track of Riki due to Cloak and Dagger, preventing Rubick from getting better items.
* Certain Hero's potential lies on the combo of their abilities. As an example, Ember Spirit can cast
Sleight of Fist and
Searing Chains together to root and damage enemies from a far distance. Yet for
Rubick, casting
Searing Chains can only catch enemies at a close distance, and
Sleight of Fist does little more than a scratch of right click.
* It is arguably possible to group spells together after getting Aghanim's Scepter, but stealing two separate spells from one single enemy is somewhat luxurious in an intense fight.
* Warlock is a very strong hero when positioned correctly, and his long cast range helps him with this. However, some heroes might disrupt or sneakily pass through his allies and deal with him, preventing him from doing his job. Such heroes include Chaos Knight,
Spirit Breaker,
Riki, and more.
* A pre-placed Fire Remnant allows Ember Spirit to escape Upheaval.
* Flame Guard blocks Shadow Word's damage.
* Sleight of Fist allows Ember Spirit to attack from outside of Upheaval's range, and
Searing Chains lets him interrupt it.
* Frostbite will reveal invisible heroes for its duration, making it a good tool against any such hero (Riki,
Bounty Hunter,
Weaver, or
Clinkz for example), or as a soft counter to
Shadow Blade, if it is used first. This can be an amazing tool to ensure that
Dust of Appearance is used on the unit in question, and not wasted in not catching anything.
* Smoke Screen effectively disables Crystal Maiden's channeling spell: Freezing Field.
* Due to her low health and armor throughout the game, Riki can kill her easily.
* Crystal Maiden is extremely fragile and she's an easy target for him. She has no real disables that can lock Ember Spirit down, and all of her skill damage can be negated with Flame Guard. The damage from Searing Chains, Flame Guard, and Sleigh of Fist can easily take her down.
* Heroes that can easily bypass Chen's creeps to get to Chen: Riki,
Tusk,
Clinkz,
Sniper,
Slark,
Phantom Assassin,
Void Spirit,
Storm Spirit,
Ember Spirit,
Earth Spirit,
Spirit Breaker.
Additional:
* Chen is basically Riki's natural prey: he has little HP, low armor and relies on his persuaded creeps to fight, which in most situations will not save Chen from Riki. Just be wary of {U:Centaur Conqueror}, who can stun Riki outside of Smoke Screen and ruin his attempt at Chen's life.
* Heroes that can easily bypass Chen's creeps to get to Chen: Riki,
Tusk,
Clinkz,
Sniper,
Slark,
Phantom Assassin,
Void Spirit,
Storm Spirit,
Ember Spirit,
Earth Spirit,
Spirit Breaker.
* 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 a high degree of mobility and invisibility are hard to catch with Meat Hook: Ember Spirit,
Riki,
Clinkz,
Queen of Pain.
* Riki with
Tricks of the Trade
* Heroes that can dodge Glimpse:
* Puck with
Phase Shift
* Riki with
Tricks of the Trade
* Phantom Lancer with
Doppelganger
* Ember Spirit with
Sleight of Fist and
Activate Fire Remnant
* Chaos Knight with
Phantasm
* Naga Siren with
Mirror Image
* Tusk with
Snowball
* Juggernaut with
Omnislash
* Brewmaster with
Primal Split
* Lifestealer with
Infest
* Phoenix with
Supernova
* Ember Spirit with
Sleight of Fist and
Activate Fire Remnant
* Heroes that can dodge Glimpse:
* Puck with
Phase Shift
* Riki with
Tricks of the Trade
* Phantom Lancer with
Doppelganger
* Ember Spirit with
Sleight of Fist and
Activate Fire Remnant
* Chaos Knight with
Phantasm
* Naga Siren with
Mirror Image
* Tusk with
Snowball
* Juggernaut with
Omnislash
* Brewmaster with
Primal Split
* Lifestealer with
Infest
* Phoenix with
Supernova
* 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 with escaping and disjointing abilities can be good against Juggernaut:Anti-Mage
Riki,
Queen of Pain,
Puck,
Storm Spirit,
Ember Spirit,
Slark etc.
* Heroes that can easily bypass Io's allies to get to Io: Riki,
Tusk,
Clinkz,
Sniper,
Slark,
Phantom Assassin,
Void Spirit,
Storm Spirit,
Ember Spirit,
Earth Spirit,
Spirit Breaker,
Lifestealer.
* Heroes with either magical, physical or pure damage burst: Bane,
Ember Spirit,
Leshrac,
Lina,
Luna,
Nyx Assassin,
Phantom Assassin,
Skywrath Mage,
Tinker,
Ursa,
Void Spirit.
* The high mobility provided by Fire Remnant makes it hard for Windranger to find a good position to land Shackleshot or a full duration of Focus Fire.
* Flame Guard and
Searing Chains deal considerable magical damage to Windranger which she cannot avoid with Windrun.
* Searing chains also negates the mobility from Windrun.
* Cloak and Dagger makes Sven unable to detect where Riki is until he shows or his team provides detection.
* Smoke Screen will make Sven miss attacks before he has his
Black King Bar.
* Sleight of Fist is the natural counter to Phantom Lancer's army of illusions, especially when combined with Battle Fury.
Additional:
* Sleight of Fist, allows Ember Spirit to destroy all of Phantom Lancer's illusions.
* Flame Guard also deals significant damage to illusions, and protects against Spirit Lance.
* Phantom Rush is unable to catch Ember Spirit when he teleports to his Fire Remnants.
* Heroes with high base damage (Morphling,
Tiny,
Drow Ranger), heroes with mana burning abilities (
Anti-Mage), and
Diffusal Blade users (
Juggernaut or
Riki) will suffer from Reflection's illusions.
* Heroes with abilities that can lock down Terrorblade and prevent him from using Sunder: Bane,
Batrider,
Earthshaker,
Elder Titan,
Faceless Void,
Invoker,
Legion Commander,
Mars,
Primal Beast,
Riki,
Shadow Shaman,
Silencer,
Vengeful Spirit,
Void Spirit.
* Ember Spirit can deal devastating damage to illusion heroes like Terrorblade with Sleight of Fist. Terrorblade also has no way of preventing Ember Spirit from getting Activate Fire Remnant off. Additionally, Ember Spirit's ability to fight from long range as well as his wide skill set won't give many opportunities for Terrorblade to get Sunder off.
Additional:
* Ember Spirit can deal devastating damage to Terrorblade and his illusions with Sleight of Fist,
Flame Guard and
Fire Remnant.
* Terrorblade has no disable to lock down Ember Spirit and prevent him from escaping with Fire Remnant. In addition, he doesn't like purchasing disabling items like
Scythe of Vyse or
Abyssal Blade, which are the only solutions to deal with Ember Spirit.
* Searing Chains prevents usage of Timber Chain.
* Timbersaw is vulnerable to magical burst damage, which Ember Spirit provides with Fire Remnant and
Flame Guard.
* Timbersaw's abilities deal pure damage, thus they cannot remove Flame Guard.
* Smoke Cloud prevents Shukuchi and
Time Lapse, leaving Weaver helpless against Riki.
* The Swarm is ineffective against Riki because invisibility instantly removes the beetles.
* Flame Guard makes Dark Seer not deal any damage with his skills to Ember Spirit.
* Due to his low health and armor, Riki can easily kill Skywrath Mage.
* Smoke Screen prevents Skywrath from using all of his abilities, as he does not tend to buy Black King Bar.
* However, Skywrath Mage can easily kill Riki if he manages to root Riki with Rod of Atos or Gleipnir, followed by Dust of Appearance, Ancient Seal and Mystic Flare.
* Without Dust of Appearance or Sentry Wards, Riki is able to silence Witch Doctor with Smoke Screen, and is likely to build a Diffusal Blade, leaving Witch Doctor without mana to cast Voodoo Restoration, as well as Skull Basher to interrupt Death Ward.
* Disruption is not reliable enough to catch an Ember Spirit with a backup Fire Remnant.
* Sleight of Fist will also make quick work of the spawned illusions.
* The best you can do against an Ember Spirit is to dispel his Flame Guard with your Demonic Purge.
* Ember's magic damage build is able to burst down Alchemist due to his low strength gain and Alchemist's normal item pick up.
* Riki can detect early Roshan attempts because of Cloak and Dagger if he frequently checks the Pit.
* Ursa cannot Enrage when in Smoke Screen (Black King Bar will help though).
* Even if Ursa gets vision over him, Riki can Blink Strike away or use Tricks of the Trade after Ursa's initiation to avoid all Fury Swipes damage until
Earthshock's slow is gone.
Additional:
* Riki can detect early Roshan attempts because of Cloak and Dagger if he frequently checks the Pit.
* Ursa cannot Enrage when caught in Smoke Screen and will miss his attacks (although Black King Bar will help with this issue).
* Even if Ursa gets vision over him and initiates with Earthshock, Riki can Blink Strike away or use
Tricks of the Trade after Ursa's initiation to avoid Fury Swipes' damage until Earthshock's slow is gone.
* Storm Spirit is not only a potent Orchid Malevolence carrier, his
Electric Vortex provides an additional disable and
Overload provides a great slow. When paired with
Static Remnant, they can cut through Flame Guard fast.
* Ball Lightning not only provides great initiation upon Ember Spirit from any position anytime, but also helps dodge Sleight of Fist.
* Smoke Cloud prevents Storm Spirit from using any of his offensive and defensive spells, rendering him unable to effectively react to Riki's attack.
Additional:
* Smoke Screen prevents Storm Spirit from using his abilities once inside the radius. Riki can utilize this ability to allow his team to fight around
Smoke Screen so that Storm Spirit cannot spam his spells to proc
Overload.
* Flame Guard absorbs up to 500 magical damage (700 with Level 10 talents), which helps Ember Spirit survive against Storm Spirit's high magical damage.
* Searing Chains can root enemies up to 3 seconds, making Storm Spirit unable to escape with
Ball Lightning.
* Fire Remnant deals high magical damage when casting multiple instances at once, granting Ember Spirit the damage to burst Storm Spirit down in the early to mid game.
* Riki can get on top of Ancient Apparition very easily with Blink Strike. This can also double as a way to dodge Ice Blast, along with
Tricks of the Trade.
* Ancient Apparition will frequently resort to casting Ice Blast right before dying. Smoke Screen can be used to prevent this, stopping Ancient Apparition from having any impact.
* Riki is a natural Diffusal Blade carrier, and it doesn't help that he's easily capable of sneaking up on Wraith King due to
Cloak and Dagger.
* Riki can use Smoke Screen on top of Wraith King as he is reincarnating, making him a sitting duck for his second life. In addition, the blind prevents Wraith King from landing critical hits from Mortal Strike.
* Wraithfire Blast is quite predictable, and if Riki can react fast, he will disjoint it with Tricks of the Trade. There is also a chance he will become invisible again as the projectile travels, disjointing it.
* Ember Spirit easily finishes off all creeps on the line against Earth Sprit, exchanging health with him under his Flame Guard, which is why Earth Spirit can leave the line for ganks very early and without the necessary amount of gold and levels, which will give the Ember Spirit team an advantage to fight off such ganks
* The Sleight of Fist ability helps Ember Spirit dodge all of Earth Spirit's abilities, which makes his gank potential practically useless against Ember Spirit, and with the purchase of
Black King Bar, Ember Spirit can use
Sleight of Fist to combine with
Searing Chains to catch and kill Earth Spirit.
Additional:
* Ember Spirit easily finishes off all creeps on the line against Earth Sprit, exchanging health with him under his Flame Guard, which is why Earth Spirit can leave the line for ganks very early and without the necessary amount of gold and levels, which will give the Ember Spirit team an advantage to fight off such ganks
* The Sleight of Fist ability helps Ember Spirit dodge all of Earth Spirit's abilities, which makes his gank potential practically useless against Ember Spirit, and with the purchase of
Black King Bar, Ember Spirit can use
Sleight of Fist to combine with
Searing Chains to catch and kill Earth Spirit.
* Blink Strike gets Riki close to Drow Ranger and disable Marksmanship.
* Cloak and Dagger allow Riki stay close to Drow Ranger without her noticing him, which allows him to disable Marksmanship.
Additional:
* With Blink Strike, Riki can get close to Drow Ranger and disable her Marksmanship, and Smoke Screen will prevent her from using
Gust.
* With Smoke Screen, Riki will silence and catch Medusa in a surprise with high miss chance flushing her from positions easily in team fights.
* He can deal a huge amount of damage through Cloak and Dagger, even through Mana Shield.
* Ember Spirit has much higher mobility in Fire Remnant than Void Spirit.
* Ember's Flame Guard is effective against Void Spirit's spells, as most of them deal magical damage.
* The root from Searing Chains prevents Void Spirit from using Dissimilate or Astral Step.
* Ember Spirit absorbs quite a large amount of magical damage with its Flame Guard, and in addition dodges the abilities of
Dragon Slave and
Light Strike Array with its
Sleight of Fist
Additional:
* Ember Spirit absorbs quite a large amount of magical damage with its Flame Guard, and in addition dodges the abilities of
Dragon Slave and
Light Strike Array with its
Sleight of Fist.
* Riki can potentially catch an Enigma out of position and prevent him from properly blinking and initiating, thanks to Cloak and Dagger.
* Before Enigma gets his Black King Bar,
Smoke Screen can be used to cancel Black Hole. After Enigma gets
Black King Bar, Riki can also cancel Black Hole with Abyssal Blade, which is a common item built on him.
* Tricks of the Trade renders Riki hidden and invulnerable, which in combination with Abyssal Blade allows Riki to cancel Black Hole with little to no worries of getting caught in it.
* Enigma's fragility during all stages of the game makes him extremely prone to Riki's ganking.
* Smoke Screen combined with
Diffusal Blade leaves Arc Warden effectively useless for a while as he struggles to escape the silence with low mobility.
* With Arc Warden's low mobility, Tricks of the Trade often deal decent damage to him before he moves out of it.
* Riki is known for being a successful support killer, something Shadow Shaman is very vulnerable to.
* Smoke Screen is particularly devastating to Shadow Shaman. With neither his various disables nor a solid health pool Shadow Shaman is usually dead. This forces Shadow Shaman to buy a
Force Staff if he finds himself in this scenario and buy
Sentry Wards if you have the money.
* Lifestealer cannot use Rage,
Infest or
Open Wounds when affected by Smoke Cloud's silence, and
Feast cannot heal him effectively because of the blind, leaving him very weak both offensively and defensively.
* Infest ganks are harder when the enemy team has a Riki, as there are often only four heroes on the map that you can initiate on.
* Ember Spirit's Fire Remnant is an easy way to escape from Clockwerk's Power Cogs.
* Flame Guard blocks most of the magical damage Clockwerk does.
* 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 high physical and magical damage alike are a huge hazard for Muerta, as they can deal serious damage to her even if she has Pierce the Veil active:
Luna,
Lina,
Tusk,
Broodmother,
Shadow Fiend,
Ember Spirit,
Gyrocopter,
Vengeful Spirit,
Arc Warden,
Medusa,
Shadow Shaman.
* 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 high mobility will be able to avoid Gyrocopter's area attacks: Storm Spirit,
Morphling,
Ember Spirit
* Heroes with strong area damage to destroy Phantasm illusions: Axe,
Ember Spirit,
Legion Commander,
Phoenix
Additional:
* Ember Spirit is evasive and can dodge close encounters with melee heroes like Chaos Knight. Ember Spirit can't be caught with the slow from Reality Rift, and Flame Guard and Sleight of Fist can bring
Phantasm's illusions down quickly.
* Heroes that heavily depend on illusions or summons, (Naga Siren,
Terrorblade,
Phantom Lancer,
Lycan,...) are vulnerable to Sleight of Fist and even more so if Ember Spirit has
Battle Fury.
* Riki is another good hero to shutdown Death Prophet with
Diffusal Blade as his core item. His
Smoke Screen stops her from initiating and casting spells.
* Earthshaker must be careful not to use Blink Dagger or
Aghanim's Scepter upgraded
Enchant Totem to blink into
Riki's
Smoke Screen or
Night Stalker's
Crippling Fear, as these field effects will instantly silence Earthshaker and prevent him from initiating.
* Heroes with silences: Puck,
Doom,
Riki.
* Frail heroes who lacks mobility: Crystal Maiden,
Enigma,
Dark Willow,
Vengeful Spirit.
* Heroes that can reliably kite out Dispose, Unleash and dodge Rebound, like Ember Spirit,
Void Spirit,
Storm Spirit,
Anti-Mage,
Faceless Void,
Puck or always build items like
Blink Dagger and
Force Staff.
* Heroes who rely on their target to run away: Riki,
Bounty Hunter.
* Blink Strike gives bonus backstab damage and can bypass Bulwark. Defensively, it could be used to teleport away from Mars, especially while inside Arena of Blood.
* Smoke Screen can interrupt Mars' skill combos, especially when cast inside Arena of Blood.
* Tricks of the Trade can be used to evade Mars' skills, which have a slight delay to them. It could also be used to buy himself time while trapped inside of Arena of Blood.
Additional:
* Bulwark is generally irrelevant against Riki as he primarily deals bonus damage from behind.
* 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.
* 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.
* Charge of Darkness provides shared vision over its target, keeping track of heroes who rely on invisibility, mobility, or illusions: Riki,
Broodmother,
Phantom Lancer
* Searing Chains can stop Charge of Darkness if timed correctly.
* Activate Fire Remnant can be used to escape an approaching Spirit Breaker, or lead Spirit Breaker into a bad situation.
* Fire Remnant and
Sleight of Fist allows Ember Spirit to dodge Charge of Darkness if timed correctly.
* With Aghanim's Scepter, Broodmother will gain access to
Spinner's Snare, which will allow her to create invisible lines on her webs from
Spin Web that will root, deal damage over time, and reveal enemy heroes if they unwittingly step on them. This allows Broodmother to keep her allies alerted on heroes who rely on invisibility-themed and movement-themed abilities and items to surprise enemy heroes and disrupt ganking attempts of enemy heroes:
Phantom Assassin,
Nyx Assassin,
Mirana,
Bounty Hunter,
Templar Assassin,
Riki,
Spirit Breaker,
Anti-Mage,
Tusk,
Ursa,
Nature's Prophet,
Enigma,
Void Spirit,
Magnus etc.
* Sleight of Fist keeps Ember Spirit invulnerable until he hits every unit in its area of effect allowing him to stall for large amounts of time against Broodmother and her large amounts of spiderlings, or potentially damaging them enough if equipped with an item to improve wave clearing such as
Battle Fury or
Maelstrom to prevent her pushes entirely.
* Flame Guard will damage any of Broodmother's spiders in an area, deterring her from attempting to kill him. It can also be used during Sleight of Fist to amplify damage done.
* Fire Remnant allows Ember Spirit an escape from Broodmother that is unaffected by her Incapacitating Bite.
* Impetus will deal huge amounts of damage when he uses a Fire Remnant to escape.
* Flame Guard is useless against Impetus as it deals Pure damage.
* Enchant can be used to dispel Flame Guard.
* Riki usually buys Diffusal Blade to initiate, which renders Enchantress' movement speed useless, and is usually followed with
Smoke Screen.
* Riki can effectively hit Enchantress by Tricks of the Trade alongside with
Diffusal Blade and
Smoke Screen's initiation. For a hero like Enchantress, 3 to 4 hits from Riki is a big deal, unless Enchantress built
Force Staff earlier.
* Ensnare prevents using any kind of movement abiilties, Making Naga Siren good against heroes who rely on gap-closing abilities to escape:
Phantom Assassin,
Magnus,
Slark,
Riki,
Faceless Void,
Storm Spirit.
* Heroes that heavily depend on illusions or summons, (Naga Siren,
Terrorblade,
Phantom Lancer,
Lycan,...) are vulnerable to Sleight of Fist and even more so if Ember Spirit has
Battle Fury.
* In general, heroes who are melee with no way to fight back can be very easily poked by Monkey King to gain his Jingu Mastery stacks: Dark Seer,
Riki,
Rubick.
* Heroes with blind of some sort can be a bad choice for Monkey King to go on: Broodmother,
Riki,
Keeper of the Light.
* Anti-mage is potentially good against Ember Spirit since he can burn Ember Spirit's mana, prevent him from escaping or using his skill. Anti-Mage has high magic resistance, which will reduce most of the damage from Ember Spirit's skill set. However, Anti-Mage lacks any form of stuns or lockdowns, and may struggle to kill Ember Spirit if he still has some mana left.
* Heroes with abilities or items that can silence or disable Anti-Mage for long periods of time will prevent him from Blinking away: Lion,
Silencer,
Shadow Shaman,
Grimstroke,
Witch Doctor,
Riki,
Faceless Void,
Skywrath Mage,
Puck.
Additional:
* Anti-Mage can use neither Blink nor
Manta Style to escape from Smoke Cloud.
* Even if he activates a Black King Bar, his
Manta Style illusions will still be blinded by Smoke Cloud.
* Riki has a very small mana pool and generally doesn't buy many items that increase it, making Mana Void ineffective.
* Any Hero with high mobility will be neutralized by dream coil: Queen of Pain,
Storm Spirit,
Ember Spirit,
Lycan,
Bloodseeker,
Anti-Mage,
Timbersaw.
* Riki and
Disruptor:
Smoke Screen and
Static Storm, respectively, can be thrown wherever Puck used Phase Shift, making Puck an easy target if it doesn't have Blink Dagger or is on cooldown. Puck is also very susceptible to Riki's high attack damage when attacking from the back. Glimpse also prevents Puck from escaping altogether.
* 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.
* 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.
* Low-health, normally mobile carries who rely entirely on raw attack damage are vulnerable to Bane's nukes and disables: Anti-Mage,
Clinkz,
Drow Ranger,
Faceless Void,
Gyrocopter,
Juggernaut,
Meepo,
Mirana,
Monkey King,
Morphling,
Phantom Assassin,
Phantom Lancer,
Riki,
Shadow Fiend,
Slark,
Sniper,
Terrorblade,
Troll Warlord,
Weaver.
* Heroes who commonly buy Linken's Sphere:
Luna,
Weaver,
Morphling,
Queen of Pain,
Ember Spirit.
* Zeus's Lightning Bolt and
Thundergod's Wrath provides a short duration of True Sight, revealing Riki while possibly dealing a heavy amount of damage.
* Zeus's Nimbus can be placed directly on top of
Tricks of the Trade, potentially causing him to be damaged, stunned, and revealed the instant he becomes targetable again.
* Zeus laneing against Ember is going to be punished with Sleight of Fist due to his low health pool
* Zeus's chip damage from Arc Lightning and other spells is nullified from Ember's Flame Guard.
Additional:
* Ember Spirit has a built-in antimagic shield, and Zeus has nothing but this magical damage, because of this, their confrontation on the center line can turn out to be sad for Zeus. If on such a line Ember Spirit will finish off all creeps under its Flame Guard, and Zeus with the help of
Arc Lightning, then eventually Zeus will lose mana faster, and will be forced to look for ways to replenish it
* Ember Spirit can interrupt Zeus with his "jumping" abilities, the fact is that Zeus deals damage from his abilities directly, while Ember Spirit disappears for milliseconds from the battlefield when flying during the Sleight of Fist action or when flying into
Fire Remnant
* Thirst detects Riki whenever his health is low.
* Rupture does large damage when Riki uses Blink Strike.
* Fire Remnant allows Ember Spirit to escape while Ruptured.
Additional:
* Fire Remnant allows Ember Spirit to escape Bloodseeker while Ruptured.
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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Riki
* Riki takes a lot of damage from
Purification while ganking Omniknight's allies or himself.
Heavenly Grace instantly purges the slow from
Diffusal Blade, while also providing a large amount of survivability for his victim.
Degen Aura can hinder Riki's positioning tactics and put a heavy toll on Riki's already poor movement speed.
Guardian Angel in combat.
*
*
* Omniknight can easily save his allies by using
Ember Spirit
* The pure damage provided by
Purification is a great addition for killing Ember Spirit, as well as a good way of saving teammates.
Guardian Angel will temporarily save his allies from Sleight of Fist's physical damage, and Ember Spirit is not a hero that will get
Orchid Malevolence to counter it.
*