* 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.
* Most of the of Jakiro's damage-over-time abilities put Blink Dagger on cooldown, potentially forcing Enigma to prematurely activate
Black King Bar.
* Jakiro's Dual Breath,
Liquid Fire,
Macropyre and
Liquid Frost from
Aghanim's Shard can take out Enigma's Eidolons, reduce Enigma's attack speed and put Enigma's
Blink Dagger on cooldown.
* Jakiro can easily cancel Black Hole with
Ice Path as Enigma is a very easy target while channeling it.
* Aghanim's Scepter upgraded
Macropyre can deal pure damage-over-time and pierce spell immunity, which can discourage Enigma from even trying to initiate with
Black Hole.
Additional:
* Most of the of Jakiro's damage-over-time abilities put Enigma's Blink Dagger on cooldown, potentially forcing him to prematurely activate Black King Bar.
* Jakiro's Dual Breath,
Liquid Fire,
Macropyre and
Liquid Frost from
Aghanim's Shard can take out Enigma's Eidolons, reduce Enigma's attack speed and put Enigma's Blink Dagger on cooldown.
* Jakiro can easily cancel Black Hole with
Ice Path as Enigma is a very easy target while channeling it.
* Aghanim's Scepter upgraded
Macropyre can deal pure damage-over-time and pierce spell immunity, which can discourage Enigma from even trying to initiate with
Black Hole.
* 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.
Additional:
* 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.
* Bristleback's constant harass from Quill Spray will greatly hurt Enigma's laning and kill his Eidolons.
* However, Bristleback has no way of canceling Black Hole at all. And Bristleback is not a hero that goes for disabling items to counter that problem.
* 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.
* Broodmother can kill Enigma's Eidolons with Spawn Spiderlings, and spawn her spiderlings in their place. And Enigma can't use
Demonic Summoning to instantly kill spiderlings at once.
* Without the protection from Black King Bar, Broodmother can cancel Enigma's
Black Hole with
Bloodthorn and make him more vulnerable to damage. Broodmother can also buy
Abyssal Blade to cancel Enigma's
Black Hole even through
Black King Bar.
* Silken Bola causes Enigma's attacks to miss a lot and renders him more vulnerable to magical damage. And if Broodmother takes 400 AoE
Silken Bola, then she will be able to use to cause Enigma's Eidolons to miss their attacks as well. In addition, Enigma does not like to buy items to provide him true strike such as
Bloodthorn,
Monkey King Bar,
Witch Blade and it's upgrade
Revenant's Brooch.
* If Broodmother is lucky enough to survive being trapped in Black Hole, she will be able to recover her lost health with
Insatiable Hunger.
* Aghanim's Scepter gives Broodmother access to
Spinner's Snare, which allows her to create invisible lines on her webs from
Spin Web that will root Enigma, deal damage over time to Enigma and reveal Enigma if he unwittingly steps on them, disrupting his attempts to initiate with
Black Hole, prevent him from using
Blink Dagger, while also alerting Broodmother on his attempts to ambush her and her allies.
Additional:
* Broodmother can kill Enigma's Eidolons with Spawn Spiderlings, and spawn her spiderlings in their place. But remember that Enigma can do the same to Broodmother's spiderlings with
Demonic Conversion and
Midnight Pulse.
* Without the protection from Black King Bar, Broodmother can cancel Enigma's
Black Hole with
Bloodthorn and make him more vulnerable to damage. Broodmother can also buy
Abyssal Blade to cancel Enigma's
Black Hole even through
Black King Bar.
* Silken Bola causes Enigma's attacks to miss a lot and renders him more vulnerable to magical damage. And if Broodmother takes 400 AoE
Silken Bola, then she will be able to use to cause Enigma's Eidolons to miss their attacks as well. In addition, Enigma does not like to buy items to provide him true strike such as
Bloodthorn,
Monkey King Bar,
Witch Blade and it's upgrade
Revenant's Brooch.
* If Broodmother is lucky enough to survive being trapped in Black Hole, she will be able to recover her lost health with
Insatiable Hunger.
* Aghanim's Scepter gives Broodmother access to
Spinner's Snare, which allows her to create invisible lines on her webs from
Spin Web that will root Enigma, deal damage over time to Enigma and reveal Enigma if he unwittingly steps on them, disrupting his attempts to initiate with
Black Hole, prevent him from using
Blink Dagger, while also alerting Broodmother on his attempts to ambush her and her allies.
* Heroes who are reliant on physical damage will be nullified by Decrepify: Riki,
Wraith King,
Juggernaut.
* 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.
* Heroes that avoid damage by coming in and out of invisibility in teamfights such as Weaver,
Templar Assassin, and
Riki will be easy for Zeus to reveal with Lightning Bolt and Thundergod's Wrath, but these heroes usually have other ways to avoid his damage or kill him, so he is not a perfect counter alone.
Additional:
* 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 can break Blink Dagger with his long range abilities and global range ultimate,
Thundergod's Wrath.
* Lightning Bolt has a long range and a mini-stun, providing a way for him to cancel Black Hole from safe distances, assuming Enigma doesn't have his
Black King Bar.
* Zeus's Aghanim's Scepter grants him
Nimbus ability that has a global range and mini-stun, making it an even more effective way to cancel Black Hole before Enigma initiates with
Black King Bar.
* Zeus is typically able to position himself at a safe distance from the fight, making him a difficult target to capture in a Black Hole.
* 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.
* Without Black King Bar, Luna will be able to cancel Enigma's
Black Hole from safe distance with her
Lucent Beam or with 0.25s Eclipse Lucent Ministun talent for
Eclipse and counter-initiate with
Eclipse. This can get even worse for Enigma once Luna gets
Aghanim's Scepter and combines it with 0.25s Eclipse Lucent Ministun talent that will allow Luna to use
Eclipse from safe distance.
* If Luna chooses to use Eclipse in anticipation right after Enigma jumps in with
Blink Dagger, she will be able to kill Enigma before he even gets a chance to use
Black Hole.
Aghanim's Scepter upgraded
Eclipse can be used to counter-initiate against Enigma from safe distance if he has no
Black King Bar available to use.
* Luna commonly buys Satanic, which can help her recover from Enigma's
Black Hole in case she survives it.
* Moon Glaives combined with
Lunar Blessing can make a short work of Enigma's Eidolons before Luna uses
Eclipse.
Aghanim's Shard upgraded
Moon Glaives can be used to reduce damage Luna will take from Enigma's Eidolons and
Black Hole if used in anticipation while also clearing waves of Enigma's Eidolons and damaging Enigma if he is too close to Luna.
* Bear in mind, however, that once Enigma gets Black King Bar, Luna will be out of solutions to cancel
Black Hole, and going for
Abyssal Blade on Luna can be risky due to
Abyssal Blade's very short cast range.
Additional:
* Without Black King Bar, Luna will be able to cancel Enigma's
Black Hole from safe distance with her
Lucent Beam or with 0.25s Eclipse Lucent Ministun talent and counter-initiate with
Eclipse. This can get even worse for Enigma once Luna gets
Aghanim's Scepter and combines it with 0.25s Eclipse Lucent Ministun talent that will allow Luna to use
Eclipse from safe distance.
* If Luna chooses to use Eclipse in anticipation right after Enigma jumps in with
Blink Dagger, she will be able to kill Enigma before he even gets a chance to use
Black Hole.
* Luna commonly buys Satanic, which can help her recover from Enigma's
Black Hole in case she survives it.
* Moon Glaives combined with
Lunar Blessing can make a short work of Enigma's Eidolons before Luna uses
Eclipse.
* Bear in mind, however, that once Enigma gets Black King Bar, Luna will be out of solutions to cancel
Black Hole, and going for
Abyssal Blade on Luna can be risky due to
Abyssal Blade's very short cast range.
* 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 who rely on invisibility, such as Bounty Hunter,
Clinkz,
Mirana,
Nyx Assassin and
Riki, as they will be revealed if caught by Chronosphere.
* Enigma lacks burst damage, and that makes him vulnerable to heroes who can recover themselves and turn the fight around to their advantage after Enigma finishes his initiation: Faceless Void,
Terrorblade,
Ursa,
Weaver,
Broodmother,
Slark,
Abaddon,
Wraith King,
Lifestealer.
* 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 that depend on disrupting fights with ability combos or big ultimate abilities are vulnerable to the long stun of Fiend's Grip: Disruptor,
Death Prophet,
Enigma,
Faceless Void,
Invoker,
Lich,
Magnus,
Mars,
Medusa,
Outworld Destroyer,
Phoenix,
Puck,
Queen of Pain,
Shadow Fiend,
Treant Protector,
Underlord,
Winter Wyvern,
Witch Doctor,
Zeus.
* 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.
* Most summons and illusions can barely hurt Tidehunter at all, after their attacks get reduced by Anchor Smash and blocked by Kraken Shell: Nature's Prophet,
Enigma
* Also Ravage's large area of effect and damage can easily damage all those units at once, or just straight up clear them.
Additional:
* Tidehunter's Anchor Smash will cripple all of Enigma's Eidolons, and at a higher level, Tidehunter will be capable to instantly kill the whole group of them for a boost of gold.
* Kraken Shell negates Eidolons's damage and Enigma's auto attacks, making laning against Tidehunter nearly impossible for Enigma.
* Ravage has an insane radius, and considering that Enigma is prone to waiting around for a
Blink Dagger and
Black King Bar combo,
Ravage's stun may catch Enigma off guard and put
Blink Dagger on cooldown, limiting him a crucial teamfight time.
* 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.
* Enigma lacks burst damage, and that makes him vulnerable to heroes who can recover themselves and turn the fight around to their advantage after Enigma finishes his initiation: Faceless Void,
Terrorblade,
Ursa,
Weaver,
Broodmother,
Slark,
Abaddon,
Wraith King,
Lifestealer.
* Borrowed Time can give Abaddon a second chance after a Black Hole combo.
* Aphotic Shield can be used to save allies or Abaddon himself from Malefice.
* Abaddon can easily heal himself as well as his allies during a team fight, especially with Aghanim's Scepter upgraded
Borrowed Time.
* Winter's Curse, when directly targeted on Enigma, goes through
Black King Bar, stopping Enigma's Black Hole channeling. It also turns his team against him, potentially killing him. Even if Enigma gets
Linken's Sphere on top of
Black King Bar,
Splinter Blast can be used to pop
Linken's Sphere, and
Winter's Curse will stop Black Hole channeling.
* Splinter Blast can be targeted on an eidolon, killing off other eidolons and damaging nearby heroes as well.
* 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.
* 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.
* Long ranged disables, especially those that pierce spell immunity, cancel Black Hole: Beastmaster's
Primal Roar,
Bane's
Fiend's Grip,
Faceless Void's
Chronosphere,
Magnus's
Reverse Polarity,
Axe's
Berserker's Call,
Pudge's
Meat Hook.
* Enigma can be a perfect counter-initiator with his ultimate. A perfectly timed Black Hole will turn the tide of any initiation, especially from heroes like; Spirit Breaker,
Legion Commander,
Axe,
Puck, and
Slardar.
* 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.
* Hookshot's stun pierces through spell immunity and Enigma's channeling can be easily cancelled from a safe distance, assuming none of his allies are in the way, and the Black Hole is not centered directly on Enigma.
Additional:
* Black Hole requires channelling, making it easy to be interrupted with Hookshot.
* Enigma lacks mobility without a Blink Dagger and also is squishy, making him fall easily when ganked by Clockwerk.
* Inner Fire can damage and disarm Enigma's eidolons, which can then be cleared out with
Burning Spears.
* Huskar's Burning Spears can deal serious damage over time to Enigma during laning and teamfights, and it can also disable
Blink Dagger for a long time.
* Berserker's Blood that provides Huskar with magic resistance and bonus health regeneration makes it difficult for Enigma to take down Huskar. Huskar is also a common
Satanic wielder, which can help him recover from Enigma's
Black Hole in case he survives it. Enigma's only source of dealing Pure Damage that can bypass
Berserker's Blood. This forces Enigma to buy
Silver Edge, the only item that can help him against Huskar's
Berserker's Blood.
* However, Huskar does not have any way to cancel Black Hole outside from
Aghanim's Scepter upgraded
Life Break that can force Enigma to attack Huskar if used on him.
* Astral Imprisonment can save allies from a Black Hole combo. When upgraded with
Aghanim's Scepter and
Aghanim's Shard, it becomes exceedingly difficult for Enigma to land a good
Black Hole against Outworld Destroyer and his team.
* Astral Imprisonment can also cancel
Black Hole while Enigma does not have
Black King Bar.
* Arcane Orb and
Sanity's Eclipse can often make a short work out of Enigma and his Eidolons.
* Riki does little damage to Dragon Knight, as he relies only on physical damage with modest attack speed and lack of burst.
* Black Hole is a channeling ability and Earth Spirit has at least two possibilities which can interrupt these kind of spells. Enigma is exposed and cannot move while using Black Hole, thus making it easy for Earth Spirit to stop the feared ability with the huge range of Rolling Boulder and forcing Enigma to quickly rush a
Black King Bar to prevent this.
* Enigma is level dependant, squishy and relativly defenseless in the early game and therefore vulnerable to aggressive roam maneuvers in this stage of the game. Earth Spirit excels at ganking, shutting down a jungling or otherwise solo farming Enigma.
* 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.
* Doom pierces spell immunity and can prevent Enigma from casting any spells or using items until the duration of the spell depletes, as well as cancelling a
Black Hole.
* While Doom can be blocked by a
Linken's Sphere, which is a common item on Enigma,
Aghanim's Scepter upgraded
Doom allows Doom to cast Doom on himself to affect enemies near him, and if Doom can combine this with
Blink Dagger, he will be able to jump on Enigma while he is channeling
Black Hole.
Aghanim's Scepter upgraded
Doom can also cancel
Black Hole if any of Enigma's allies affected by
Doom gets too close to him for it's duration, ignoring both,
Black King Bar and
Linken's Sphere.
* 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.
* 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.
* 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.
* Walrus PUNCH! can interrupt
Black Hole and it can pierce spell immunity and neither
Black King Bar nor
Linken's Sphere can protect Enigma from
Walrus PUNCH! as
Walrus PUNCH! is an auto-cast ability.
* In pretty much any phase of the game, Tusk's abilities can easily cancel Black Hole and disrupt Enigma's positioning.
* Heroes that rely on summons will suffer against Ion Shell, which kills them very quickly: Beastmaster,
Broodmother,
Enigma,
Nature's Prophet,
Visage,
Warlock,
Wraith King.
* Stone Form can easily interrupt heroes with long channeling spells, like Crystal Maiden,
Bane,
Witch Doctor, or
Enigma.
* Heroes who can clear the waves of Enigma's Eidolons: Lina,
Luna,
Dawnbreaker,
Jakiro,
Shadow Shaman,
Death Prophet,
Keeper of the Light,
Invoker,
Leshrac,
Puck.
* Heroes who produce many summons will have a hard time against Storm's Dispel Magic during teamfight: Broodmother,
Enigma,
Nature's Prophet.
* Heroes who can clear the waves of Enigma's Eidolons: Lina,
Luna,
Dawnbreaker,
Jakiro,
Shadow Shaman,
Death Prophet,
Keeper of the Light,
Invoker,
Leshrac,
Puck.
* Heroes who can clear the waves of Enigma's Eidolons: Lina,
Luna,
Dawnbreaker,
Jakiro,
Shadow Shaman,
Death Prophet,
Keeper of the Light,
Invoker,
Leshrac,
Puck.
* Long range disables are really effective against dangerous area controllers and channeling Heroes, like Enigma,
Faceless Void or
Crystal Maiden, as it may cancel them or prevent enemies from doing further damage while keeping
Lion in a relatively safe distance in the warzone.
* Heroes with powerful channeling abilities are easily interrupted by Phantom's Embrace: Bane,
Pudge,
Witch Doctor,
Crystal Maiden,
Enigma.
* Long ranged disables, especially those that pierce spell immunity, cancel Black Hole: Beastmaster's
Primal Roar,
Bane's
Fiend's Grip,
Faceless Void's
Chronosphere,
Magnus's
Reverse Polarity,
Axe's
Berserker's Call,
Pudge's
Meat Hook.
* Any hero with a low HP pool is easy for Tinker to nuke down: Crystal Maiden,
Enchantress,
Gyrocopter,
Lion,
Riki,
Techies,
Terrorblade,
Necrophos,
Invoker.
* 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 powerful area-of-effect disables can initiate on Meepo and his clones and shut him down, such as Enigma,
Invoker,
Magnus,
Puck, and
Sand King.
* Chaotic Offering's spell immunity piercing stun can stop Black Hole's channeling. Due to this ability's large area of effect, it can be cast at a safe distance from the Black Hole. It also goes through
Black King Bar and ignores
Linken's Sphere.
* Fatal Bonds and
Aghanim's Shard upgraded
Shadow Word can be used to make Enigma's Eidolons easier to kill, potentially feeding the enemy team. Also,their constant damage will put
Blink Dagger on cooldown, potentially forcing Enigma to prematurely activate
Black King Bar.
Additional:
* Chaotic Offering pierces spell immunity and is an area of effect ability, therefore it doesn't matter if Enigma buys Black King Bar or
Linken's Sphere, Warlock will always be able to cancel the channeling of
Black Hole.
* Enemies often get clumped up around Black Hole to hit your allies, giving you a perfect opportunity to cast Fatal Bonds, Chaotic Offering, and Upheaval on multiple enemies.
* 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.
* Fissure does a great job at interrupting Black Hole immediately, especially with
Blink Dagger and
Aether Lens.
* Echo Slam's damage potential increases due to the eidolons created by Demonic Conversion.
* 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.
* Arcane Curse can be cast from a long range to put Enigma's
Blink Dagger on cooldown.
* Global Silence can interrupt Enigma's Black Hole channeling through
Black King Bar and
Linken's Sphere, making Silencer one of Enigma's hard counters. But bear in mind that
Global Silence can be dispelled with
Black King Bar if activated first.
Additional:
* Silencer can easily ruin Enigma's initiation, as Global Silence cancels Black Hole, even through
Black King Bar and
Linken's Sphere.
* 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.
* 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.
* Heroes with disables that ignore spell immunity will render Phantom Assassin completely useless in teamfights throughout the game: Axe,
Enigma,
Vengeful Spirit,
Doom,
Bane,
Beastmaster,
Pudge,
Medusa,
Warlock.
* 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.
Additional:
* 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.
* Enigma can be a perfect counter-initiator with his ultimate. A perfectly timed Black Hole will turn the tide of any initiation, especially from heroes like; Spirit Breaker,
Legion Commander,
Axe,
Puck, and
Slardar.
* Enigma's Midnight Pulse damage can be substantially mitigated by Anti-Mage's high magic resistance thanks to Counterspell.
* In the early game, Anti-Mage's Mana Void can cancel a
Black Hole until Enigma gets
Black King Bar.
* Should Anti-Mage survive a Black Hole combo, Enigma will have exhausted most of his skills and items, preventing him from defending himself against any counter initiation or a follow-up from a blink escape.
* Anti-Mage's Blink will make him a very hard target to use
Black Hole on, having to solo ult him later on in the game or leave him out of the
Black Hole.
* 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.
* 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.
* Viper cannot interrupt heroes with powerful channeling abilities: Bane,
Enigma,
Shadow Shaman,
Warlock
* 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.
* Demonic Conversion can be used to instantly kill Chen's creeps and give Enigma gold in process.
* Midnight Pulse can greatly damage Chen and his creeps and disrupt Chen's jungling.
* Black Hole combined with follow-ups from Enigma's allies can often finish Chen or any of his allies before he can use
Hand of God. To make things worse, Chen has no way to cancel
Black Hole on his own, especially if Enigma chooses to channel
Black Hole in center, and must rely on outside from {U:Centaur Conqueror} or {U:Mud Golem} under his control.
* Heroes with escaping and disjointing abilities can be good against Juggernaut:Anti-Mage
Riki,
Queen of Pain,
Puck,
Storm Spirit,
Ember Spirit,
Slark etc.
* Enigma's Eidolons can absorb Omnislash damage, wasting its damage potential.
* Black Hole and
Midnight Pulse damage pierces
Blade Fury, especially when he tries to escape with it.
Additional:
* Enigma's Eidolons from Demonic Conversion can help soak Juggernaut's
Omnislash in the early game, mitigating the damage and wasting it on disposable summons. Should Juggernaut choose to kill Enigma's Eidelons with
Blade Fury, he will leave himself open to Enigma's disables.
* Enigma's Black Hole and
Midnight Pulse's damage and disable can pierce through Juggernaut's
Blade Fury.
* 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 will be not able to cast her Freezing Field while being constantly stunned by Enigma's
Malefice.
* Enigma's Black Hole can cancel
Freezing Field's channeling regardless of her
Glimmer Cape and
Black King Bar.
* Enigma lacks burst damage, and that makes him vulnerable to heroes who can recover themselves and turn the fight around to their advantage after Enigma finishes his initiation: Faceless Void,
Terrorblade,
Ursa,
Weaver,
Broodmother,
Slark,
Abaddon,
Wraith King,
Lifestealer.
* 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.
* Lacking any stun and being heavily dependent on his physical attacks and spell immunity, Lifestealer has no way to stop Black Hole, assuming he does not initiate Enigma first with
Abyssal Blade.
* Enigma's Black Hole and Midnight Pulse damage can pierce through Lifestealer's Rage.
* However, if Lifestealer manages to get Aghanim's Scepter and combines it with
Abyssal Blade, he will be able to disable Enigma's
Black Hole inside him with
Infest and he will be able to help his allies recover themselves from Enigma's initiation with
Open Wounds if Lifestealer gets
Aghanim's Shard.
Additional:
* Lacking any stun and being heavily dependent on his physical attacks and spell immunity, Lifestealer has no way to stop Black Hole, assuming he does not initiate Enigma first with
Abyssal Blade.
* Enigma's Black Hole and Midnight Pulse damage can pierce through Lifestealer's Rage.
* However, if Lifestealer manages to get Aghanim's Scepter and combines it with
Abyssal Blade, he will be able to disable Enigma's
Black Hole inside him with
Infest and he will be able to help his allies recover themselves from Enigma's initiation with
Open Wounds if Lifestealer gets
Aghanim's Shard.
* 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.
* Multiple attackers thanks to summoned units or clones: Meepo,
Witch Doctor,
Lycan,
Enigma,
Shadow Shaman
* Heroes that can quickly deal damage to her, regardless of how weak they are, can easily break through her Refraction:
* Multiple attackers thanks to summoned units or clones: Meepo,
Witch Doctor,
Lycan,
Enigma,
Shadow Shaman
* Multiple attackers thanks to illusions: Phantom Lancer,
Chaos Knight,
Naga Siren (bonus for her
Ensnare). Also despite the visual effects, Templar Assassin does not spill damage against illusions or buildings, so she is not a really good hero to clean up illusions.
* Weak damage but high tick rate or persist in a long time: Slark,
Gyrocopter,
Queen of Pain,
Shadow Shaman (
Shackles),
Jakiro,
Pugna,
Doom
* Heroes that can gank Shadow Fiend in the early game: Earth Spirit,
Nyx Assassin,
Riki,
Spirit Breaker.
* Heroes with channeling spells because Shadow Fiend has nothing to cancel channeling outside of Requiem of Souls: Bane,
Enigma,
Pudge,
Shadow Shaman,
Dawnbreaker,
Warlock,
Crystal Maiden.
* 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.
* Heroes who rely on their target to run away: Riki,
Bounty Hunter.
* Bulwark is generally irrelevant against Riki as he primarily deals bonus damage from behind.
Additional:
* 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.
* Heroes with high magical or pure damage will bypass Bulwark: Timbersaw,
Dark Willow,
Enigma,
Invoker,
Pugna,
Skywrath Mage,
Tinker,
Zeus,
Oracle.
* 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.
* 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.
* Malefice will cause Monkey King to struggle without Black King Bar, as its periodic damage and stun disables/interrupts abilities, such as
Tree Dance and
Wukong's Command.
* Midnight Pulse can also destroy trees in a wide radius, stunning Monkey King if he happened to be on a tree caught within
Midnight Pulse area-of-effect.
Additional:
* Malefice keeps Tree Dance on cooldown, and can interrupt Wukong's Command's long cast time.
* Midnight Pulse destroys a large amount of trees.
* Can cast Demonic Conversion on one of Lycan's Wolves, making this a numbers fight.
* Malefice will greatly reduce his ability to engage
* Midnight Pulse can steep an area making it harder for Lycan to engage in.
* 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.
* Black Hole usually catches Chaos Knight with all his illusions.
* Midnight Pulse deals damage based on current health, quickly killing Phantasm illusions.
* Malefice will prevent Primal Beast from doing anything for a long duration even in the early game when at his strongest.
* Midnight Pulse will scale with his max health so will do a ton of damage combined with any generic stun or Enigma's own abilities.
* Primal Beast relies completely on mobility to do damage, Black Hole makes sure he cannot use any abilities or threaten heroes he is typically good against.
* 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.
* 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.
* 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.
* 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.
* Heroes with invisibility: (Riki,
Clinkz,
Nyx Assassin.
* Any long duration disables that can pierce through both, Pierce The Veil and Black King Bar are devastating against Muerta:
Enigma's
Black Hole,
Dawnbreaker's
Solar Guardian,
Axe's
Berserker's Call,
Naga Siren's
Aghanim's Scepter upgraded
Ensnare and
Reel In from
Aghanim's Scepter,
Jakiro's
Aghanim's Scepter upgraded
Macropyre,
Bane's
Fiend's Grip,
Pudge's
Dismember,
Batrider's
Flaming Lasso,
Beastmaster's
Primal Roar,
Grimstroke's
Soulbind,
Medusa's
Stone Gaze,
Magnus's
Reverse Polarity.
* Mass summoning heroes: Broodmother,
Nature's Prophet and
Enigma all have summons Puck can clear with Illusory Orb and Waning Rift instantly, due to their summons having low health.
* 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.
* Enigma can be a perfect counter-initiator with his ultimate. A perfectly timed Black Hole will turn the tide of any initiation, especially from heroes like; Spirit Breaker,
Legion Commander,
Axe,
Puck, and
Slardar.
* 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
* Frail heroes who lacks mobility: Crystal Maiden,
Enigma,
Dark Willow,
Vengeful Spirit.
Additional:
* 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.
* 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 the capability of removing or destroying trees greatly hinders the effectiveness of Treant Protector's abilities: Batrider,
Nature's Prophet,
Lina,
Enigma,
Mars
* 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.
* Heroes who can clear the waves of Enigma's Eidolons: Lina,
Luna,
Dawnbreaker,
Jakiro,
Shadow Shaman,
Death Prophet,
Keeper of the Light,
Invoker,
Leshrac,
Puck.
* 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.
* Enigma lacks burst damage, and that makes him vulnerable to heroes who can recover themselves and turn the fight around to their advantage after Enigma finishes his initiation: Faceless Void,
Terrorblade,
Ursa,
Weaver,
Broodmother,
Slark,
Abaddon,
Wraith King,
Lifestealer.
* Smoke Cloud prevents Shukuchi and
Time Lapse, leaving Weaver helpless against Riki.
* The Swarm is ineffective against Riki because invisibility instantly removes the beetles.
* Charge of Darkness provides shared vision over its target, keeping track of heroes who rely on invisibility, mobility, or illusions: Riki,
Broodmother,
Phantom Lancer
* Malefice prevents Spirit Breaker from using his spells for the duration.
* Eidolons from Demonic Summoning have high magic resistance, receiving little damage from Charge of Darkness and Greater Bash.
* Midnight Pulse can deal big damage to Spirit Breaker, as it deals damage based on enemy hero's max health.
* Black Hole makes it very dangerous for Spirit Breaker to reach Enigma with Charge of Darkness unless if he has Nether Strike available to use.
Additional:
* Malefice prevents Spirit Breaker from using his spells for the duration.
* Eidolons from Demonic Summoning have high magic resistance, receiving little damage from Charge of Darkness and Greater Bash.
* Midnight Pulse can deal big damage to Spirit Breaker, as it deals damage based on enemy hero's max health.
* Black Hole makes it very dangerous for Spirit Breaker to reach Enigma with Charge of Darkness unless if he has Nether Strike available to use.
* Enigma lacks burst damage, and that makes him vulnerable to heroes who can recover themselves and turn the fight around to their advantage after Enigma finishes his initiation: Faceless Void,
Terrorblade,
Ursa,
Weaver,
Broodmother,
Slark,
Abaddon,
Wraith King,
Lifestealer.
* 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.
* Illuminate can wipe the pushing Eidolons in a lane with ease, diminishing Enigma's laning presence by a lot.
* Solar Bind will severely slow down Enigma and make him more vulnerable to magical damage more he moves for it's duration.
* However, Keeper of the Light does not have any way to cancel Black Hole outside from
Will-O-Wisp provided by
Aghanim's Scepter.
* Heroes with silences: Puck,
Doom,
Riki.
* Heroes with channeling abilities: Enigma,
Witch Doctor,
Crystal Maiden.
* 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
* Enigma can be a perfect counter-initiator with his ultimate. A perfectly timed Black Hole will turn the tide of any initiation, especially from heroes like; Spirit Breaker,
Legion Commander,
Axe,
Puck, and
Slardar.
* 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.
* Enigma lacks burst damage, and that makes him vulnerable to heroes who can recover themselves and turn the fight around to their advantage after Enigma finishes his initiation: Faceless Void,
Terrorblade,
Ursa,
Weaver,
Broodmother,
Slark,
Abaddon,
Wraith King,
Lifestealer.
* 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.
* Heroes who can summon illusions and summons because Terrorblade has no abilities to deal with multiple enemies at once outside Reflection: Shadow Shaman,
Naga Siren,
Broodmother,
Lycan,
Enigma,
Chaos Knight,
Phantom Lancer,
Shadow Demon,
Dark Seer,
Nature's Prophet,
Invoker,
Morphling,
Visage,
Grimstroke with
Aghanim's Scepter.
* 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.
* Heroes with summons like Broodmother,
Enigma,
Nature's Prophet; or illusions, like
Naga Siren,
Terrorblade are effective at keeping the choke points and rune spawns safe from Proximity Mines.
* Long ranged disables, especially those that pierce spell immunity, cancel Black Hole: Beastmaster's
Primal Roar,
Bane's
Fiend's Grip,
Faceless Void's
Chronosphere,
Magnus's
Reverse Polarity,
Axe's
Berserker's Call,
Pudge's
Meat Hook.
* 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.
* Heroes that cannot move in fights such as a Dueling
Legion Commander or anyone channeling a spell like
Bane,
Pudge, or
Enigma are easy Sacred Arrow targets.
* 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 who can clear the waves of Enigma's Eidolons: Lina,
Luna,
Dawnbreaker,
Jakiro,
Shadow Shaman,
Death Prophet,
Keeper of the Light,
Invoker,
Leshrac,
Puck.
* 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.
* Take Aim extends Sniper's attack range, allowing him to position himself safely behind his team, making it difficult to catch him in Enigma's relatively small area-of-effect for
Black Hole. When left unattended, he can quickly kill a channeling Enigma (often from the high ground) to rout an otherwise strong initiation.
* In the early game, Sniper can cancel Enigma's Black Hole with Assassinate's ministun. Due to the absolutely ginormous 3000 cast range on Assassinate, Sniper does not need to be too close to Enigma to cancel his
Black Hole.
Aghanim's Scepter upgraded
Assassinate can also stun Enigma for a longer duration.
* Both Shrapnel and
Assassinate put Enigma's Blink Dagger on cooldown, potentially forcing him to prematurely activate
Black King Bar.
Additional:
* Sniper has a very long range, so it is rare that Enigma can catch him in a Black Hole.
* Assassinate can easily cancel Black Hole if he is not caught, especially with
Aghanim's Scepter.
* Enigma's Eidolons from Demonic Conversion are useless to push against a Sniper as he will easily kill them, especially with
Mjollnir, a common item on Sniper.
* 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.
* Heroes who have summons, which can be quickly cleared by his powerful area of effect skill: Nature's Prophet,
Enigma,
Lycan
* Heroes with other kind of disables that pierce spell immunity can hold Pangolier in place during Rolling Thunder: Axe,
Beastmaster,
Enigma,
Magnus,
Pudge,
Batrider,
Bane,
Winter Wyvern
* Heroes who can clear the waves of Enigma's Eidolons: Lina,
Luna,
Dawnbreaker,
Jakiro,
Shadow Shaman,
Death Prophet,
Keeper of the Light,
Invoker,
Leshrac,
Puck.
* Heroes with silence: Death Prophet,
Riki,
Drow Ranger.
* 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 with AoE nukes will clear her illusions in no time, especially if they are percentage-damage-based, like Underlord's
Firestorm,
Elder Titan's
Earth Splitter,
Enigma's
Midnight Pulse,
Zeus's
Arc Lightning,
Jakiro's
Liquid Frost from
Aghanim's Shard etc.
* An isolated Enigma in the early game can be easily killed by Storm Spirit thanks his higher mobility and dueling potential. However, Storm Spirit can be killed when caught by Enigma's full combo, especially if Enigma has Black King Bar.
* Storm can kill all of Enigma's Eidolons relatively quickly without much risk, slowing down Enigma's farming speed, preventing him from split pushing, and giving Storm its considerable bounty, especially if Enigma chooses the Level 25 Talent that gives him more Eidelons.
* Storm can zip through Black Hole stunning Enigma while he's channelling until Enigma buys
Black King Bar.
* 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.
Additional:
* Smoke Cloud prevents Storm Spirit from using any of his offensive and defensive spells, rendering him unable to effectively react to Riki's attack.
* 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.
Additional:
* Even with Black King Bar, Pudge's
Meat Hook and
Dismember can still disable Engima while he is channeling
Black Hole as Enigma is a very easy target while channeling
Black Hole.
* Pudge's Aghanim's Shard upgraded
Dismember and
Meat Hook are great ways to save allies from
Black Hole.
* Enigma is prone to ganks in the jungle or in the off-lane without proper vision. Pudge can take advantage of Enigma's lack of mobility, and gank him often.
* Heroes with a high degree of mobility and invisibility are hard to catch with Meat Hook: Ember Spirit,
Riki,
Clinkz,
Queen of Pain.
* Black Hole while definitely a threat to Drow Ranger, is very hard to land as she likes to keep her distance from allies and enemies alike. And if not caught in it, will kill Enigma very quickly due to his low health.
* Malefice can be removed with a Manta Style.
* Drow Ranger being a fairly low health, high armored agility carry doesn't take much damage from Midnight Pulse as others would.
* Demonic Conversion units die very quickly to Marksmanship or even just regular attacks not far into the game within 2 or 3 hits.
* 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.
* Enigma is fragile, and lacks escapes, being dependent on Blink Dagger for mobility. Ganking Heroes or Heroes with burst damage will likely kill him before he can do anything. Such Heroes include:
Lina,
Lion,
Luna,
Puck,
Slark,
Nyx Assassin, etc.
Additional:
* Enigma's uncontrollable damage from Malefice and
Midnight Pulse make him easy to stun with Spiked Carapace.
* Black Hole can be easily interrupted by Impale or Spiked Carapace.
* Heroes who build Black King Bar as either core or situational item will be able to fight back against Nyx Assassin and freely attack him as Spiked Carapace cannot pierce spell immunity at all:
Axe,
Broodmother,
Dawnbreaker,
Enigma,
Huskar,
Jakiro,
Legion Commander,
Lina,
Luna,
Lycan,
Slardar,
Slark,
Troll Warlord,
Witch Doctor.
* Telekinesis has a longer range than the AoE of
Black Hole for the purposes of cancelling it.
* All of Enigma's spells are useful to Spell Steal.
* Malefice is useful for interrupting channeling spells or long cast animations. Its stun duration is also amplified thanks to Spell Steal's debuff amplification.
* Demonic Conversion can be used to push or counter-push a lane.
* Midnight Pulse is useful to block an area or for team fights.
* Black Hole is very easy to steal, as it is a channeled ability. It's also one of the best ultimate abilities for team fights, and it can easily turn the fight around for the enemy team. It also does more damage and has a larger cast range thanks to
Arcane Supremacy. A stolen
Black Hole can also cancel Enigma's
Black Hole.
Additional:
* Enigma's signature
Black Hole can be devastating if being stolen and dropped on multiple heroes.
* Black Hole requires channeling. Since Enigma has no other ability to replace his last casted spell during channeling, Rubick can steal
Black Hole relatively easily if he stays back.
* Rubick can interrupt Black Hole from Enigma, even with an activated
Black King Bar, by casting the spell with Enigma in range with regards to the extra cast range granted by
Arcane Supremacy.
* Black Hole can be interrupted by
Telekinesis in the early game, giving enough time window to steal the spell.
* Bear in mind that an experienced Enigma will purchase Black King Bar and
Linken's Sphere at the same time to prevent Rubick from stealing the spell, yet the extra
Linken's Sphere will delay Enigma's power spike, so use it to Rubick's advantage.
* It is advised to build items around Black Hole as Rubick.
Aghanim's Shard,
Black King Bar ,
Aghanim's Scepter and even
Refresher Orb are all legitimate item choices.
* Malefice is a decent source of damage and stun that helps with ganking. If stolen, it can be used to interrupt
Black Hole as well.
* Demonic Conversion helpes with pushing and farming for Rubick.
* Fade Bolt effectively negates damage from Eidolons and helps with counter-pushing.
* Midnight Pulse is a solid skill for farming and teamfight damage, which is further amplified by
Arcane Supremacy and talents.
* Unexpected enemy may take the effect of Midnight Pulse as that of Enigma's and soak up damage while unrealized.
* 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.
* 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.
* Omniknight can easily save his allies by using Guardian Angel in combat.
* Heroes under Guardian Angel can be still damaged from the pure damage of
Black Hole and magical damage of
Midnight Pulse.
* Medusa's Split Shot can make quick work of Enigma's Eidolons and take advantage of their considerable bounty.
* Medusa can also kill Eidolons with her Mystic Snake that can also greatly damage Enigma and drain some of his mana.
* If Medusa activates Stone Gaze at the start of a fight, it can make initiating and landing an effective
Black Hole exceedingly difficult, because
Stone Gaze can cancel Enigma's
Black Hole even through spell immunity, which can discourage Enigma from even trying to initiate with
Black Hole.
Additional:
* Medusa's Split Shot can make quick work of Enigma's Eidolons and take advantage of their considerable bounty.
* If Medusa activates Stone Gaze at the start of a fight, it can make initiating — and landing an effective
Black Hole exceedingly difficult.
Stone Gaze can cancel Enigma's
Black Hole even through spell immunity, which can discourage Enigma from initiating with
Black Hole.
* 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.
* Like Abbadon's Borrowed Time,
Reincarnation can bring Wraith King back to life, giving him a second chance to counter initiate or escape after a Black Hole combo. And since Enigma is not used to buy
Diffusal Blade, this can be a very big problem for him.
* Without protection from Black King Bar, Wraith King can also cancel Black Hole with
Wraithfire Blast that can also deal damage over time, putting
Blink Dagger on cooldown.
* Vampiric Spirit can summon many skeleton warriors that can be used to deal with Enigma's Eidolons.
* 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.
* Despite Clinkz's fragility, his harassment in the early game can be devastating; as he can kite Enigma and his Eidolons and claim their bounty with Burning Barrage and
Tar Bomb.
* Clinkz often goes for a disabling item like Bloodthorn or
Gleipnir, which allows him to cancel Enigma's
Black Hole until Enigma gets
Black King Bar.
Gleipnir can also root Enigma, preventing him from using
Blink Dagger to escape from Clinkz.
* Even with Black King Bar, Clinkz can still easily kill Enigma as all of his abilities ingore spell immunity, and Enigma is a very easy target for
Burning Barrage, which means Clinkz can solo Enigma at any stage of the game unless Clinkz is caught in
Black Hole.
* 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.
* Heroes with strong channeling spells like Crystal Maiden's
Freezing Field,
Bane's
Fiend's Grip, and
Enigma's
Black Hole can easily be interrupted from a long range by Nether Swap, assuming they don't have a
Linken's Sphere.
Additional:
* Vengeful Spirit can interrupt Black Hole's channeling through Black King Bar by using
Nether Swap from a safe distance.
* Vengeful Spirit's Level 25 Talent can make her Magic Missile pierce spell immunity, giving her another option to use in conjunction with
Nether Swap to cancel Enigma's Black Hole channeling even through both,
Black King Bar and
Linken's Sphere.
* Frail heroes who lacks mobility: Crystal Maiden,
Enigma,
Dark Willow,
Vengeful Spirit.
* 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.
* Enigma's Midnight Pulse damage can make Underlord suffer heavy damage due to his high health.
* Enigma can catch Underlord and his team off guard with Midnight Pulse and
Black Hole when they teleport using
Fiend's Gate. And
Atrophy Aura offers no defense against them.
* However, Enigma needs to approach Underlord carefully as Underlord can interrupt channeling of the Black Hole with
Pit of Malice and can also use
Firestorm to scout Enigma's location which can also put Enigma's
Blink Dagger on cooldown if Enigma has no
Black King Bar available to use.
Additional:
* Enigma's Midnight Pulse damage can make Underlord suffer heavy damage due to his high health.
* Enigma can catch Underlord and his team off guard with Midnight Pulse and
Black Hole when they teleport using
Fiend's Gate. And
Atrophy Aura offers no defense against them.
* However, Enigma needs to approach Underlord carefully as Underlord can interrupt channeling of the Black Hole with
Pit of Malice and can also use
Firestorm to scout Enigma's location which can also put Enigma's
Blink Dagger on cooldown if Enigma has no
Black King Bar available to use.
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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
* Thirst detects Riki whenever his health is low.
Blink Strike.
* Rupture does large damage when Riki uses
Enigma
*
Blood Rite can potentially force him to activate
Black King Bar prematurely, before pulling off a Black Hole combo.
Rupture him, making it difficult to initiate properly in a team fight, as it pierces through
Black King Bar.
* Bloodseeker can find an Enigma out of position and