* Thirst detects Riki whenever his health is low.
* Rupture does large damage when Riki uses Blink Strike.
* Blood Rite prevents Queen of Pain from escaping with Blink.
* Blink will trigger the extra damage from Rupture.
Additional:
* Blood Rite silences her, preventing her from initiating or escaping.
* With Thirst, even if she Blinks away, Bloodseeker can catch right up to her.
* Rupture will heavily damage Queen of Pain if she tries to Blink away.
* She is, however, one of the few heroes who can avoid the damage from Rupture if she successfully blink-walks.
* 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.
* Meepo is the hard counter for Queen of Pain - chaining Earthbinds prevents her from using Blink for a long time, and without any other escape options, Queen of Pain cannot survive several Poofs and attacks.
* Meepo tends to build items with attributes, mitigating Queen of Pain's magical burst.
Additional:
* Chain of Earthbinds prevents her from using Blink, allowing Meepo to quickly kill her with Poof and attacks.
* Meepo tends to buy items with attributes, mitigating Queen of Pain's magical burst.
* 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.
* Heroes with gap-closing abilities will be easy targets for Berserker's Call: Phantom Assassin, Faceless Void, Slark, Chaos Knight, Morphling, Queen of Pain
Additional:
* Berserker's Call prevents Queen of Pain from escaping with Blink and also pierces her Black King Bar.
* Due to her fast attack speed from Mjollnir, it will quickly trigger Counter Helix.
* Culling Blade finishes off Queen of Pain's low health pool before she gets a chance to escape, preventing her from playing the hit-and-run style often associated with Queen of Pain.
* Heroes who rely on invisibility, such as Bounty Hunter, Clinkz, Mirana, Nyx Assassin and Riki, as they will be revealed if caught by Chronosphere.
* Time Walk and Backtrack allows Faceless Void to easily negate Queen of Pain's burst damage.
* Chronosphere prevents Queen of Pain from escaping with Blink, and her low survivability makes her an easy kill.
* Time Dilation will prevent Queen of Pain from using her low-cooldown spells or force her to buy Black King Bar or a Eul's Scepter of Divinity to dispel the debuff and re-engage.
Additional:
* Time Dilation affects Queen of Pain's low cooldown abilities, making them unusable for a long time, rendering Queen of Pain nearly useless.
* Chronosphere provides excellent lockdown against Queen of Pain, allowing for reliable kills in all stages of the game.
* 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.
* Duels prevents Queen of Pain from using Blink, which may force her to purchase a Linken's Sphere
* Because Queen of Pain is also not a right-click hero, Legion won't have much difficulties in duels.
* Press the Attack dispels Shadow Strike's debuff.
* 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
* 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.
* Aggressively blinking is not going to end well against Luna, because Queen of Pain will be an easy target for Lucent Beam & Eclipse.
* Queen of Pain's HP is abysmal, so Luna can quickly kill Queen of Pain as soon as she initiates with Blink.
Additional:
* Aggressively blinking is not going to end well against Luna, because Queen of Pain will be an easy target for Lucent Beam & Eclipse.
* Queen of Pain's HP is abysmal, so Luna can quickly kill Queen of Pain as soon as she initiates with Blink.
* 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.
* 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.
* 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.
* A good Centaur can catch Queen of Pain with a Blink Dagger and Hoof Stomp.
* Retaliate with Blade Mail reflects all of Queen of Pain's damage, especially Sonic Wave.
* Stampede grants a movement speed bonus, which can prevent Queen of Pain from initiating.
* Double Edge can shred her low health pool if she's not careful.
* Ghostship helps your team soak up damage from Sonic Wave and Scream of Pain.
* Queen of Pain can't escape easily from X Marks the Spot - Torrent combo.
* Outlanes Queen of Pain on the midline, due to the fact that Queen of Pain has a small reserve of health at the beginning of the game, and she suffers very much from Tidebringer, which is why she is forced to either spend money on Tango, or skip creeps and run for bounty runes, and Kunkka at this time will gain an advantage in level and gold.
Additional:
* Outlanes Queen of Pain on the midline, due to the fact that Queen of Pain has a small reserve of health at the beginning of the game, and she suffers very much from Tidebringer, which is why she is forced to either spend money on Tango, or skip creeps and run for bounty runes, and Kunkka at this time will gain an advantage in level and gold.
* Kunkka will catch her in X Marks the Spot and allow his team to kill her for stun from Torrent, because Queen of Pain has no way to avoid the cross X Marks the Spot before buying Black King Bar.
* A good Nyx can reflect Queen of Pain's Sonic Wave with his Spiked Carapace, or even initiate a gank on her in Vendetta while she farms a creep wave with Scream of Pain.
* Her strength to intelligence ratio is bad enough that he should be able to kill her without even requiring a Dagon, provided he can get his full combo off.
* 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.
* 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.
* 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.
* 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.
* Riki does little damage to Dragon Knight, as he relies only on physical damage with modest attack speed and lack of burst.
* Lina has a very long range of attack, which completely overlaps the range of Queen of Pain's abilities and attacks, which is why even a single Shadow Strike roll can become deplorable, since Lina will shoot Queen of Pain from a long distance before and after the Shadow Strike roll. And with the help of the abilities of Light Strike Array and Laguna Blade, Lina can even kill Queen of Pain because of her small health reserve if she is exposed to a blow
Additional:
* Lina has a very long range of attack, which completely overlaps the range of Queen of Pain's abilities and attacks, which is why even a single Shadow Strike roll can become deplorable, since Lina will shoot Queen of Pain from a long distance before and after the Shadow Strike roll. And with the help of Light Strike Array and Laguna Blade, Lina can even kill Queen of Pain because of her small health reserve if she is exposed to a blow.
* 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.
* Any hero with a low HP pool is easy for Tinker to nuke down: Crystal Maiden, Enchantress, Gyrocopter, Lion, Riki, Techies, Terrorblade, Necrophos, Invoker.
* 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.
* 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.
* Heroes who commonly buy Linken's Sphere: Luna, Weaver, Morphling, Queen of Pain, Ember Spirit.
* 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.
* Heroes that have escape abilities (such as Queen of Pain, Storm Spirit or Timbersaw) can be either nullified by Reaper's Scythe or a complimentary item for Necrophos (like Rod of Atos or Scythe of Vyse). If Necrophos is quick enough and enters range, they can quickly, if not instantly, die if they are not quick enough.
* Charge of Darkness provides shared vision over its target, keeping track of heroes who rely on invisibility, mobility, or illusions: Riki, Broodmother, Phantom Lancer
* Heroes that rely on escapes to stay alive can be caught and locked down for a long time: Queen of Pain, Phantom Assassin
* Heroes that usually build Linken's Sphere as either a core or situational item: Weaver, Medusa, Morphling, Queen of Pain, Storm Spirit, Luna, Naga Siren.
* 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.
* High priority targets like Queen of Pain, Drow Ranger, Ember Spirit can't get caught out from Lion's long range disables, making it harder to them fulfill their roles, and making it easy to target them.
* 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 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.
* 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.
* Glaives of Wisdom's intelligence steal will heavily punish Queen of Pain, as the loss of intelligence means that her mana pool is also reduced, since she is heavily reliant on her abilities to be able to make an impact.
* In the laning stage, Queen of Pain's reliance on spamming Shadow Strike and Scream of Pain will be significantly hindered by Arcane Curse.
* Last Word and Global Silence will render Queen of Pain defenseless unless she has an item/ally to dispel the silence.
* 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.
* Thunder Strike gives vision of Queen of Pain when she's trying to escape. When combined with Glimpse, her mobility and hit-and-run style can be negated.
* While in a team fight, Static Storm forces Queen of Pain to only use right-clicks.
* When combined with the Kinetic Field, she can only wait until she respawns.
Additional:
* Blink and positioning is crucial for Queen of Pain. These factors are heavily countered by a good Glimpse.
* Static Storm is devastating for Queen as she relies heavily on her spells to inflict heavy burst damage.
* 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
* Silence will prevent Queen of Pain from using Blink to escape or chase.
* If Queen of Pain uses Blink to close the gap to Death Prophet, Death Prophet will be in range for Spirit Siphon and typically gain an advantage over Queen of Pain.
* 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.
* Because Queen of Pain's spells cost a decent amount of mana, Anti-Mage can easily use Mana Void if she spams her spells recklessly.
* Anti-Mage has similar mobility through Blink, which can allow him to catch up to or flee from her.
* Counterspell will reduce the damage done by Shadow Strike and Scream of Pain. Additionally, its active component also reflects Shadow Strike back at her if Anti-Mage times it right.
* Heroes 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.
* 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.
* Heroes with mobility spells like Queen of Pain, Anti-Mage, Phantom Assassin, Riki, Puck, and Spirit Breaker that are cancelled by Frostbite can suffer greatly from the presence of Crystal Maiden. It is absolutely critical, however, to have followup from teammates, as all of the above heroes can make quick work of the squishy Crystal Maiden after they are released from her grip.
* 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.
* 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 with blink or movement abilities, which are disabled by Pounce's leash: Anti-Mage, Earth Spirit, Faceless Void, Magnus, Mirana, Monkey King, Morphling, Pangolier, Phantom Assassin, Phoenix, Puck, Queen of Pain, Riki, Sand King, Spirit Breaker, Timbersaw, Tusk.
* Both Scream of Pain and Sonic Wave should hit Slark during his Shadow Dance.
* 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.
* Queen of Pain often relies more on abilities than right-clicks, making Untouchable nearly useless against her.
* Enchantress also has a lower health pool than Queen of Pain, making her vulnerable to Queen of Pain's damage burst.
* 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 with high mobility can approach Sniper: Anti-Mage, Earth Spirit, Io, Nature's Prophet, Pangolier, Puck, Queen of Pain and most notably Riki.
* Heroes with silence: Death Prophet, Riki, Drow Ranger.
* Queen of Pain usually outlanes Invoker, giving her team a significant early game advantage while Invoker is still farming.
* Blink allows Queen of Pain to escape from Invoker's combo if he doesn't have disables.
* 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.
* Heroes with mobility/escape mechanisms to dodge Ancient Apparition abilites, or to easily jump on him: Riki, Queen of Pain, Phantom Assassin, Windranger, Bounty Hunter, Spirit Breaker, Night Stalker, Storm Spirit, Juggernaut, etc.
* Heroes that rely on their high mobility such as Queen of Pain, Slark and Weaver can be constantly engaged against due to your excellent ability to chase over any terrain. Make sure you carry true sight items (such as Dust of Appearance or Gem of True Sight) for invisible heroes that could potentially escape your clutches.
* 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.
* Queen of Pain outlanes Storm Spirit due to the fact that it has long-range abilities: Shadow Strike and Scream Of Pain. Storm Spirit's damage from the Overload ability is not enough to interrupt her on the line, and the Static Remnant will never reach Queen Of Pain, as she will scatter her abilities from afar, which is why she will drive Storm Spirit off the line and get a lot of gold and level, after such a stage of the liner, Queen of Pain will very quickly buy Black King Bar and will not let Storm Spirit catch and kill her at the expense of Electric Vortex
Additional:
* Queen of Pain outlanes Storm Spirit due to the fact that it has long-range abilities: Shadow Strike and Scream Of Pain. Storm Spirit's damage from the Overload ability is not enough to interrupt her on the line, and the Static Remnant will never reach Queen Of Pain, as she will scatter her abilities from afar, which is why she will drive Storm Spirit off the line and get a lot of gold and level, after such a stage of the liner, Queen of Pain will very quickly buy Black King Bar and will not let Storm Spirit catch and kill her at the expense of Electric Vortex
* Heroes reliant on abilities to output damage or escape can be shut down by Gust: Queen of Pain.
* 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.
* Often you can burst Drow Ranger down before she has a chance to try and Gust you away. Try to have a teammate bait her Gust out before you Blink and get the drop on her.
* Heroes 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 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.
* 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.
* Weak damage but high tick rate or persist in a long time: Slark, Gyrocopter, Queen of Pain, Shadow Shaman (Shackles), Jakiro, Pugna, Doom
* Heroes that can quickly deal damage to her, regardless of how weak they are, can easily break through her Refraction:
* Multiple attackers thanks to summoned units or clones: Meepo, Witch Doctor, Lycan, Enigma, Shadow Shaman
* Multiple attackers thanks to illusions: Phantom Lancer, Chaos Knight, Naga Siren (bonus for her Ensnare). Also despite the visual effects, Templar Assassin does not spill damage against illusions or buildings, so she is not a really good hero to clean up illusions.
* Weak damage but high tick rate or persist in a long time: Slark, Gyrocopter, Queen of Pain, Shadow Shaman (Shackles), Jakiro, Pugna, Doom
* Heroes with silences: Puck, Doom, Riki.
* Heroes with teleports to escape Solar Blind and Will-O-Wisp: Phantom Assassin, Puck, Queen of Pain, Storm Spirit
* Heroes that can gank Shadow Fiend in the early game: Earth Spirit, Nyx Assassin, Riki, Spirit Breaker.
* Heroes with high burst damage: Lina, Lion, Luna, Nyx Assassin, Queen of Pain.
* 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.
* Frail heroes who lacks mobility: Crystal Maiden, Enigma, Dark Willow, Vengeful Spirit.
* Heroes who have a high mobility (Queen of Pain, Storm Spirit, Slark, etc.).
* Queen of Pain can be an effective tool against Batrider in the game and on the line. She has long-range abilities such as Scream of Pain or Sonic Wave and a long-range type of attack, which is why she can keep Batrider at a distance all the time, and prevent him from attacking with Flaming Lasso or Firefly. Queen of Pain has an effective high-deceleration ability against Batrider - Shadow Strike, which is why he cannot quickly set fire to all enemies under Firefly and fly between all Queen of Pain allies. In addition, Queen of Pain has a wonderful escape in stock - Blink, which can save her at any moment in which batrider decides to attack
Additional:
* Queen of Pain can be an effective tool against Batrider in the game and on the line. She has long-range abilities such as Scream of Pain or Sonic Wave and a long-range type of attack, which is why she can keep Batrider at a distance all the time, and prevent him from attacking with Flaming Lasso or Firefly. Queen of Pain has an effective high-deceleration ability against Batrider - Shadow Strike, which is why he cannot quickly set fire to all enemies under Firefly and fly between all Queen of Pain allies. In addition, Queen of Pain has a wonderful escape in stock - Blink, which can save her at any moment in which batrider decides to attack
* 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.
* 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.
* Blink allows Queen of Pain to avoid ganks and keep her distance, preventing Monkey King from building up Jingu Mastery.
* Scream of Pain and Sonic Wave will hit Monkey King when he is disguised, or on a tree.
* The large AoE and low cooldown also helps Queen of Pain hit the real Monkey King inside of Wukong's Command.
* 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.
* Blink makes it hard for Gyrocopter to pin down Queen of Pain.
* Sonic Wave is very effective at ganking Gyrocopter in the early game.
* Smoke Cloud prevents Shukuchi and Time Lapse, leaving Weaver helpless against Riki.
* The Swarm is ineffective against Riki because invisibility instantly removes the beetles.
* 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.
* 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.
* Queen of Pain, for the most part, almost exclusively deals magical damage, ignoring Windranger's evasion from Windrun.
* Queen of Pain is also a common wielder of Orchid Malevolence, preventing Windranger from using her abilities for a while.
* Blink, when used correctly, allows Queen of Pain to dodge Powershot and Shackleshot.
* Husker is the kind of hero that likes to remain at low health, which is perfect for Queen of Pain to burst with Sonic Wave.
* She should be able to Blink away after he jumps on her with Life Break.
* All of Queen of Pain's abilities are active, making Demonic Purge break from Aghanim's Scepter useless.
* However, Demonic Purge can help his allies kill a squishy Queen of Pain.
* Blink allows Queen of Pain to escape from Shadow Demon's abilities if he doesn't have disables.
* An attempt to save an ally using Disruption can easily become a perfect setup for a Sonic Wave for the enemy.
* 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.
* 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.
* Blink allows Quen of Pain to easily escape ganking or initiating attempts with Hookshot and Power Cogs.
* Queen of Pain can Blink to both escape and initiate onto Void Spirit.
* She is also a very common Orchid Malevolence carrier, which can prevent Void Spirit from contributing much in fights.
* 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.
* Queen of Pain can easily escape Chain Frost thanks to Blink.
* His low survivability makes an easy kill for Shadow Strike, Scream of Pain & Sonic Wave.
* 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.
* Heroes with invisibility: (Riki, Clinkz, Nyx Assassin.
* Heroes with mobility spells can quickly escape from Stroke of Fate or break out of Soulbind: Anti-Mage, Queen of Pain, Morphling, Storm Spirit
* Heroes with mobility spells (such as Queen of Pain's Blink and Clockwerk with Hookshot) can easily avoid Lil' Shredder and Mortimer Kisses.
* Heroes with high movement speeds like Pugna and Meepo can run around, to, or away from Snapfire during Mortimer Kisses and dodge the projectiles easily due to their slow speed.
* Heroes 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.
* 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.
* Timbersaw has a difficult time against magical and pure damage: Lina, Leshrac, Enchantress, Queen of Pain
* Any Hero with high mobility will be neutralized by dream coil: Queen of Pain, Storm Spirit, Ember Spirit, Lycan, Bloodseeker, Anti-Mage, Timbersaw.
Additional:
* Puck will make a game of dodging as many Shadow Strikes as he can with Phase Shift. If he's a good player, he will also dodge Sonic Wave. If he's a great player, he will also dodge Scream of Pain, and it's all thanks to this single spell.
* Puck also has a silence in Waning Rift to prevent Queen of Pain from blinking away.
* Puck can provide vision to hunt her down if she blinks into the trees with Illusory Orb.
* If Queen of Pain is under the effect of Dream Coil, she will be unable to blink out.
* 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.
* Once you farm up an Orchid Malevolence or a Scythe of Vyse, you're suddenly a lot more fearsome to elusive heroes like Storm Spirit or even that pesky Puck.
* Heroes who recklessly jump on Pudge with their gap-closing abilities will be easy targets for Pudge's Meat Hook and Dismember Combo: Phantom Assassin, Faceless Void, Queen of Pain etc.
* 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.
* 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.
* 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.
* Dark Seer's only disable is Vacuum. Though he starts off with high armor and health, he'll eventually have a hard time dealing with high mobility heroes such as Weaver or Queen of Pain.
* 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.
* Blinking heroes like Anti-Mage or Queen of Pain can often chase down an injured Brewmaster after his ultimate expires.
* Frail heroes who lacks mobility: Crystal Maiden, Enigma, Dark Willow, Vengeful Spirit.
Additional:
* 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.
* 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.
* Heroes with damage over time abilities can quickly eat through Gravekeeper's Cloak charges like Huskar, Jakiro and Queen of Pain.
* 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.
* In general, squishy heroes that rely on escape often struggle against the amount of disables Shadow Shaman can bring. Queen of Pain, Anti-Mage and Storm Spirit are among these.
Additional:
* Shadow Shaman has many disables to lock down Queen of Pain, preventing her from Blinking away, even through Linken's Sphere or her spell block talent.
* Mass Serpent Ward can tear through Queen of Pain's low health pool once she's locked down by Hex & Shackles.
* 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.
* 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.
* All of Queen of Pain's abilities are worthy choices for Rubick to Spell Steal. In addition, he can cast her abilities from further distances than her thanks to Arcane Supremacy's increased cast range and spell amplification.
* 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.
* 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.
* Blink can instantly break Static Link, making it useless against her.
* Queen of Pain doesn't fully rely on her physical attack damage, so she can still fight after being hit with Static Link.
* A good Skywrath Mage with quick fingers will punish Queen of Pain for blinking aggressively. Ancient Seal is a six second silence with no cast time, so he can interrupt either her Shadow Strike or Sonic Wave, and a good Mystic Flare on top of that will seal the deal for her.
* Ancient Seal also has pretty good range so he could get it off before she blinks away.
* 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.
* 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.
* Sonic Wave is a bad choice in abilities if he and the Tempest Double both use Blade Mail to reflect the damage to Queen of Pain, potentially killing her outright if her health is low enough.
* Magnetic Field protects himself or his ally from Queen of Pain's attacks unless she has Monkey King Bar.
* One more advantage of Tempest Double is that he can deny himself if he is close to death with Shadow Strike's debuff.
* 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.
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.
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Riki
* 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.
Queen of Pain
* Night Stalker has a huge, almost instant silence through Crippling Fear. The main problem is that he can get it off while Queen of Pain barely has any vision of him if he creeps up to her during Dark Ascension. She'll have to play very carefully before she gets a Black King Bar or a Eul's Scepter of Divinity.