* Ravage, being an AoE disable, cancels Epicenter's channeling from a long range, limiting his potential to counter-initiate.
* This can be remedied, however, by first using a Black King Bar, then channel Epicenter, then finally initiate with Blink Dagger.
* Kraken Shell makes Tidehunter take nearly no damage from Spiderlings.
* Anchor Smash kills Spiderlings in one or two casts, should Broodmother try to swarm Tidehunter with them.
* Quill Spray will hit Sand King inside Sand Storm, damaging him and putting Sand King's Blink Dagger on cooldown, preventing him from escaping.
* Epicenter's numerous damage ticks will trigger Bristleback's passive repeatedly during teamfights.
* Quill Spray destroys spiderlings, and hits Broodmother even when she's regenerating in her webs. This makes Bristleback one of her hardest counters in lane.
Additional:
* Bristleback reduces most of Broodmother's and her spiderlings' damage.
* Quill Spray will hit any spiders in its proximity, hindering Broodmother's fighting and farming capabilities.
* Echo Stomp can impede Broodmother's ability to push towers due to its low cooldown and long sleep duration.
* Astral Spirit can provide Elder Titan large amounts of damage, armor, and movement speed from her spiderlings.
* Natural Order negates Broodmother and her spiderling's base armor and magic resistance, increasing most damage dealt to them.
* Berserker's Call can catch Broodmother in her web, as well as groups of spiderlings. This is particularly effective when Broodmother attempts to push towers with her spiderlings.
* Counter Helix destroys spiderlings very quickly and earns Axe a good deal of gold.
Additional:
* Berserker's Call forces Broodmother and her spiderlings to attack, allowing for large amounts of pure damage to be done through Counter Helix.
* Sleight of Fist keeps Ember Spirit invulnerable until he hits every unit in its area of effect allowing him to stall for large amounts of time against Broodmother and her large amounts of spiderlings, or potentially damaging them enough if equipped with an item to improve wave clearing such as Battle Fury or Maelstrom to prevent her pushes entirely.
* Flame Guard will damage any of Broodmother's spiders in an area, deterring her from attempting to kill him. It can also be used during Sleight of Fist to amplify damage done.
* Fire Remnant allows Ember Spirit an escape from Broodmother that is unaffected by her Incapacitating Bite.
* Great Cleave cleans up Spiderlings quicker than most spells, as it ignores their magic resistance.
* Sven is a natural Black King Bar carrier, protecting him from Silken Bola, Spawn Spiderlings and Orchid Malevolence.
* Warcry and God's Strength allow Sven to easily out-damage Broodmother.
Additional:
* Great Cleave can clear Spiderlings very quickly, and give Sven lot of gold.
* Warcry shields Sven and his allies against Broodmother and her Spiderlings.
* Overwhelming Odds's damage stacks with each enemy unit in its radius. If this hits Broodmother and a large number of spiders it can deal significant amounts of damage.
* Moment of Courage has a high chance to proc if Broodmother and all of her spiders are attacking her.
* Duel can keep Broodmother in place long enough for Legion's team to kill her.
Additional:
* Overwhelming Odds is great at killing many stacked up spiderlings, thus giving Legion Commander a large buff.
* Duel is a reliable way to lock down Broodmother, preventing her from running into the treeline.
* Ion Shell zones out Broodmother in the laning phase, and can kill her spiderlings if used on one Spiderling in a group.
* Vacuum can pull Broodmother out of the treeline.
Additional:
* Ion Shell is a very powerful weapon against Broodmother's Spiderlings and makes her laning much harder.
* Light Strike Array in combination with Dragon Slave can easily clear Broodmother's spiders.
* Laguna Blade offers extensive damage that can kill Broodmother early on or before she is able to use Insatiable Hunger in attempts to salvage a fight.
* Boulder Smash will push Sand King out of Sand Storm to reveal his position or an activated Epicenter off of Earth Spirit's allies, potentially wasting his combo
* Rolling Boulder and Geomagnetic Grip allow Earth Spirit to easily stun and silence Sand King and interrupt the channeling of Epicenter, completely ruining his initiation.
* Alchemist can easily farm Spiderlings with Acid Spray and Greevil's Greed.
* Alchemist's Chemical Rage nullifies Broodmother's Insatiable Hunger
Additional:
* Greevil's Greed makes Broodmother’s spiderlings far more valuable to Alchemist making it important that he does farm them as opposed to other heroes where the spider's bounties are negligible.
* Acid Spray makes it difficult to attack Alchemist in lane without losing some spiderlings to the damage over time, potentially giving him farm he wouldn't have otherwise.
* Your AoE abilities should make quick work of her spiderlings.
* Ice Blast prevents Insatiable Hunger lifesteal, Spin Web regeneration and quickly kills spiderlings.
* Sand King has nothing to deal with Supernova, as none of his spells are effective.
* The damage-over-time abilities of Phoenix disable Sand King's Blink Dagger very often.
* While Broodmother can hide in the trees with Spin Web, Primal Beast's ability to trample trees down can give him an edge in catching her.
* Insatiable Hunger will not do much vs Primal Beast's onslaught of disables.
* While Silken Bola can slow Primal Beast down, it's not enough to stop Trample from doing more damage than Broodmother can do back.
* Spawn Spiderlings will be destroyed by Onslaught and Trample very easily.
* Spiderlings are a good source of farm for Necromastery and can be quickly killed with Shadowraze.
* Shadow Fiend is a natural Black King Bar carrier, protecting him from any of Broodmother's abilities.
* Requiem of Souls combined with Eul's Scepter of Divinity can potentially kill Broodmother before she gets a Black King Bar.
* Reactive Armor prevents Broodmother's spiderlings from being able to effectively harass Timbersaw in the lane.
* Timber Chain's high mobility makes Silken Bola's slow irrelevant, unless Broodmother already bought her Orchid.
* Silken Bola's miss chance doesnt affect Rizzrack that much because he does not rely on his autoattacks much.
* Lotus Orb items for Timbersaw make Silken Bola useless.
* Timbersaw's abilities can destroy any trees that Broodmother attempts to hide in and his AoE abilities can quickly clear her Spiderlings.
Additional:
* Spiderlings deal almost no damage against Reactive Armor. They also die quickly from Timbersaw's AoE abilities.
* Broodmother has no mobility ability except the movement speed buff from Spin Web, allowing Timbersaw to easily escape her Silken Bola with Timber Chain.
* Timbersaw's tree-cutting abilities make it difficult for Broodmother to hide, especially near the edges of the map.
* Death Pulse can easily wipe out Broodmother's spiderlings if they're too close while also offering Necrophos a source of regeneration for Broodmother's harass in lane.
* Ghost Shroud prevents Broodmother or her spiderlings from damaging Necrophos temporarily until Broodmother buys Nullifier or Revenant's Brooch.
* Heartstopper Aura will regenerate lost health and mana for every spiderling or spiderite Necrophos manages to kill.
* Ball Lightning and Electric Vortex will catch Broodmother before she has a chance to retreat, and is able to catch her through the trees.
* Conversely, Ball Lightning also allows him to easily escape Broodmother, as she has no way to prevent him from using it before getting Orchid Malevolence.
* Illuminate wipes out Broodmother's spiders and prevents her from pushing the lane. It also gives vision to reveal where broodmother is hiding in the trees.
* Tiny can quickly clear Spiderlings with his active abilities and cleave.
* Zeus usually stays at the back in teamfights and it is hard for Sand King to find Zeus and knock him down before Zeus deals his damage.
* All of Zeus' abilities, especially Thundergod's Wrath, disables Sand King's Blink Dagger, effectively reducing Sand King's initiation and counter-initiation potential.
* Lightning Bolt deals damage to Sand King in Sand Storm and reveals him. It also interrupts channeling of Epicenter.
* Swashbuckle can be used for Pangolier to escape or kill Broodmother's spiders. Combined with Lucky Shot Pangolier can potentially disarm Broodmother preventing her from lifestealing off enemies.
* Shield Crash can be used for wave clear to deal with Broodmother's spiders.
* Rolling Thunder can be used as an escape or a means of initiating on Broodmother.
Additional:
* Swashbuckle and Shield Crash quickly destroys Broodmother's spiderlings and spiderites.
* Lucky Shot's disarm is very valuable when dealing with a Broodmother during her Insatiable Hunger.
* Broodmother, Nature's Prophet, Phantom Lancer by their nature offer very good target for Splinter Blast and Winter's Curse.
* Heroes who produce many summons will have a hard time against Storm's Dispel Magic during teamfight: Broodmother, Enigma, Nature's Prophet.
* 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.
* Heroes who cannot fight back during Arena of Blood in the early and mid game: Abaddon, Anti-Mage, Broodmother, Luna, Sniper, Troll Warlord, Weaver, Clinkz.
* Heroes with area of effect abilities that increase in power based on the number of units struck: Earthshaker, Legion Commander, Grimstroke.
Additional:
* Stroke of Fate can deal heavy damage to Broodmother and her spiders, and with enough spiders it can kill her instantly.
* Phantom's Embrace provides vision on Broodmother when she's fleeing into the trees.
* Heroes reliant on illusions or summons: Broodmother, Chaos Knight, Naga Siren.
* Earthbind prevents Broodmother from escaping Meepo's attacks.
* Poof will quickly clear any nearby spiders.
* Broodmother often picks off single target heroes. With Meepo's Divided We Stand, it gets a lot harder once every Meepo Poofs in.
* 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.
Additional:
* Burrowstrike can stun multiple Meepos, making them vulnerable targets.
* Epicenter and Sand Storm's AoE damage ensures all Meepo clones get damaged, making it hard for Meepo to choose which one to flee as all are taking damage at the same rate.
* Just be aware when using Sand Storm to escape, as Meepo has good AoE damage and disables, which, as explained in the "Bad Against" section, works well against an invisible Sand King.
* Aftershock in combination with Enchant Totem prevents Broodmother from continuing to attack Earthshaker without being repeatedly stunned.
* Echo Slam is greatly amplified by Spiderlings, often instantly killing Broodmother, her swarm, and anyone else unfortunate enough to be nearby.
* Earthshaker's vast amount of stuns makes it difficult for Broodmother to continue attacking enemies (to continue lifestealing with Insatiable Hunger) without Black King Bar.
Additional:
* Echo Slam's damage potential increases phenomenally due to Broodmother's hordes of spiderlings and spiderites.
* Long ranged Fissures can hit Broodmother if she runs into the treeline at the edges of the map.
* Heroes with no mobility will take some good damage from Sand King's spells: Dragon Knight, Jakiro, Pugna, Earthshaker.
* Void Spirit's AoE damage can make short work of Broodmother's spiderlings
* Even if she is within the range of her spiderwebs from Spin Web Broodmother cannot escape Void Spirit's mobility.
* However, Spinner's Snare from Aghanim's Scepter can be very hazardous for Void Spirit, as it allows Broodmother to create invisible lines on her webs from Spin Web that will root Void Spirit, deal damage over time to him and reveal him if he unwittingly steps on them, disrupting Void Spirit's ganking or escaping attempts with Dissimilate and Astral Step while also alerting Broodmother on his attempts to ambush her and her allies.
Additional:
* Void Spirit's AoE damage can make short work of Broodmother's spiderlings
* Even if she is within the range of her spiderwebs from Spin Web Broodmother cannot escape Void Spirit's mobility.
* However, Spinner's Snare from Aghanim's Scepter can be very hazardous for Void Spirit, as it allows Broodmother to create invisible lines on her webs from Spin Web that will root Void Spirit, deal damage over time to him and reveal him if he unwittingly steps on them, disrupting Void Spirit's ganking or escaping attempts with Dissimilate and Astral Step while also alerting Broodmother on his attempts to ambush her and her allies.
* 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 and her Spiderlings need to be very careful during the laning stage against Jakiro, as Jakiro can take down Broodmother's Spiderlings, preventing her from pushing as well as gaining a good amount of gold.
* Heroes with no mobility will take some good damage from Sand King's spells: Dragon Knight, Jakiro, Pugna, Earthshaker.
* Burrowstrike is one of the best and easiest steals for Rubick and Sand King should be careful when playing against him - it's much better to give away Sand Storm.
* Support heroes with low mobility can be slowed further by Incapacitating Bite, and swarmed by Spiderlings for an easy kill: Shadow Shaman, Visage, Dazzle, Rubick, Lich.
* Breathe Fire will clear Broodmother's spiderites while significantly damaging her spiderlings and decreasing their damage output.
* Dragon Blood's added armor and regen mitigates the damage done by Broodmother and her spiders.
* Elder Dragon Form at level 2 and above applies splash damage to Dragon Knight's auto attacks.
* Heroes with no mobility will take some good damage from Sand King's spells: Dragon Knight, Jakiro, Pugna, Earthshaker.
* Burrowstrike, Sand Storm, Caustic Finale and Epicenter will deal a large amount of damage to Chen and his creeps.
* Chen has no area-of-effect spells to deal with Broodmother's spiderlings and must rely on his creeps to take care of them.
* Spawn Spiderlings can kill Chen's creeps and spawn spiderlings in their place.
* Spin Web allows Broodmother to disrupt Chen's jungling.
* Silken Bola will cause Chen and his creeps's attack to miss more often while also making them more vulnerable to magical damage, especially if Broodmother picks 400 AoE Silken Bola talent.
* Broodmother is a natural Bloodthorn wielder, which will allow her to prevent Chen from trying to save himself with Hand of God while also making him more vulnerable to damage, and when combined with Insatiable Hunger, it will spell a quick and certain death for Chen. Bloodthorn's passive ability will also reduce any spell damage Chen tries to inflict with his creeps.
* Spinner's Snare from Aghanim's Scepter allows Broodmother to create invisible lines on her webs from Spin Web that will root Chen and his creeps, deal damage over time to them and reveal them if they unwittingly steps on them, disrupting Chen's jungling even more while also alerting Broodmother on their attempts to ambush her and her allies.
Additional:
* Chen has no area-of-effect spells to deal with Broodmother's spiderlings and must rely on his creeps to take care of them.
* Spawn Spiderlings can kill Chen's creeps and spawn spiderlings in their place.
* Spin Web allows Broodmother to disrupt Chen's jungling.
* Silken Bola will cause Chen and his creeps's attack to miss more often while also making them more vulnerable to magical damage, especially if Broodmother picks 400 AoE Silken Bola talent.
* Broodmother is a natural Bloodthorn wielder, which will allow her to prevent Chen from trying to save himself with Hand of God while also making him more vulnerable to damage, and when combined with Insatiable Hunger, it will spell a quick and certain death for Chen. Bloodthorn's passive ability will also reduce any spell damage Chen tries to inflict with his creeps.
* Spinner's Snare from Aghanim's Scepter allows Broodmother to create invisible lines on her webs from Spin Web that will root Chen and his creeps, deal damage over time to them and reveal them if they unwittingly steps on them, disrupting Chen's jungling even more while also alerting Broodmother on their attempts to ambush her and her allies.
* Sand King's Caustic Finale combined with Sand Storm will kill Treants easily.
* Sand King can interrupt Teleportation with Burrowstrike, even through Sprout.
Additional:
* With Caustic Finale, Sand King can easily kill the treants from Nature's Call.
* Burrowstrike allows Sand King to prevent Nature's Prophet from using Teleportation inside of his Sprout.
* Sprout cannot protect Nature's Prophet if Broodmother puts down a web.
* Nature's Prophet's low mobility means he is defenseless against Silken Bola.
* Spiderlings can absorb much of the damage from Wrath of Nature.
* 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 Nature's Prophet, deal damage over time to Nature's Prophet and reveal Nature's Prophet if he unwittingly steps on them, disrupting his attempts to perform surprise attacks on Broodmother's allies with Silver Edge and also prevent him from using Silver Edge to esacape, while also alerting Broodmother on his attempts to ambush her and her allies.
Additional:
* Broodmother can destroy Nature's Prophet's Treants with Spawn Spiderlings and summon spiderlings in their place.
* Broodmother loves buying Orchid Malevolence, which can prevent Nature's Prophet from escaping with Sprout and Teleportation.
* Phantom Assassin relies on her Blur to stay alive, but is very vulnerable to Sand King's heavy magic damage.
* With Burrowstrike, Sand King can often catch Phantom Assassin before she can use her Black King Bar.
* Sand King can dodge Stifling Dagger with Sandstorm.
* Phantom Assassin has a hard time killing Sand King because of his high mobility.
* Phantom Assassin's single target abilities make her very helpless against swarms of Spiderlings without Battle Fury.
* Because Phantom Assassin is always reliant on critical strikes, Broodmother will usually have enough time to use Spin Web to save herself.
* Silken Bola can cripple Phantom Assassin greatly due to her being 100% reliant on physical attacks.
* 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 Phantom Assassin, deal damage over time to Phantom Assassin and reveal Phantom Assassin if she unwittingly steps on them, disrupting her attempts to initiate or escape with with Phantom Strike while also alerting Broodmother on her attempts to ambush her and her allies.
Additional:
* Phantom Assassin's single target abilities make her very helpless against swarms of Spiderlings without Battle Fury.
* Because Phantom Assassin is always reliant on critical strikes, Broodmother will usually have enough time to use Spin Web to save herself.
* Silken Bola can cripple Phantom Assassin greatly due to her being 100% reliant on physical attacks.
* 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 Phantom Assassin, deal damage over time to Phantom Assassin and reveal Phantom Assassin if she unwittingly steps on them, disrupting her attempts to initiate or escape with with Phantom Strike while also alerting Broodmother on her attempts to ambush her and her allies.
* Sand King is a strong ganker, allowing him to shut down squishy heroes in the early game: Phantom Assassin, Clinkz, Sniper, Enchantress.
* Enchantress's lack of area-of-effect abilities allows Broodmother to swarm her with Spiderlings.
* Spawn Spiderlings can kill enchanted creeps and create Spiderlings in their place.
* However, bear in mind that Untouchable makes it harder for Broodmother to actually hit Enchantress, even if Broodmother is spell immune. And Broodmother's only way to counter this is either by buying Silver Edge, buying items that deal high magical damage like Dagon, or by buying items that give high attack speed like Moon Shard.
Additional:
* Enchantress can be easily overwhelmed with Broodmother's spiderlings from Spawn Spiderlings and Enchantress can only control one of them with Enchant and she has no good waveclear (Spawn Spiderlings can also kill creeps controlled with Enchant).
* However, Untouchable's attack speed reduction can make it difficult for Broodmother to kill Enchantress even with any form of spell immunity.
* Sand King can quickly remove her Refraction with his Sand Storm.
* Once Refraction is down, she is very vulnerable to Epicenter's high magic damage.
* 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.
* Sand King is a strong ganker, allowing him to shut down squishy heroes in the early game: Phantom Assassin, Clinkz, Sniper, Enchantress.
* Sniper is completely helpless against Broodmother's abilities, and can be seriously damaged by Spiderlings in lane, especially when Shrapnel is on cooldown.
* Sand King's massive area damage output, particularly Epicenter, allows him to quickly take down Chaos Knight and his illusions.
* Sand King can also apply Caustic Finale to illusions with attacks for extra damage when they die.
* Illusion-based and multi-unit heroes can take advantage of Chaos Knight's lack of area damage: Naga Siren, Phantom Lancer, Broodmother
* Sand King's Sand Storm damages familiars quickly whittling them down in health, rendering them vulnerable.
* Sand King's Epicenter quickly damages and destroys familiars.
* Heroes with very little to no area-of-effect abilities will struggle greatly against Broodmother: Sniper, Phantom Assassin, Nyx Assassin, Bane, Visage, Bounty Hunter.
* Heroes that rely on slows to get kills: Lifestealer, Night Stalker, Ursa, Phantom Assassin, Terrorblade.
* 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.
* 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.
* 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.
* Heroes who rely on damage over time as Spiked Carapace can block and reflect only one instance of damage: Jakiro, Viper, Venomancer, Huskar, Ember Spirit, Dark Seer, Sand King, Doom, Dawnbreaker. However, this also means they are easily stunned.
* 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.
* Heroes that rely on slows to get kills: Lifestealer, Night Stalker, Ursa, Phantom Assassin, Terrorblade.
* Heroes with illusions and summons can manfight Night Stalker: Terrorblade, Beastmaster, Broodmother.
* Heroes with strong area-of-effect damaging and/or disabling abilities will be able to intercept Underlord and his team when they exit from Fiend's Gate: Luna's Aghanim's Scepter upgraded Eclipse, Dawnbreaker's Solar Guardian, Axe's Berserker's Call, Mars's Arena of Blood, Jakiro's Macropyre, Dual Breath and Ice Path, Naga Siren's Song of the Siren, Razor's Eye of the Storm and Plasma Field, Lina's Light Strike Array, Broodmother's Spinner's Snare from Aghanim's Scepter, Elder Titan's Earth Splitter and Echo Stomp, Alchemist's Unstable Concoction and Acid Spray, Queen of Pain's Sonic Wave, Dark Seer's Wall of Replica and Vacuum, Venomancer's Noxious Plague and Poison Nova from Aghanim's Scepter, Oracle's Fortune's End and Rain of Destiny from Aghanim's Shard, Bloodseeker's Blood Rite, Enigma's Black Hole and Midnight Pulse, Shadow Fiend's Requiem of Souls, Batrider's Aghanim's Scepter upgraded Flaming Lasso, Firefly, Flamebreak and Sticky Napalm, Ancient Apparition's Ice Blast, Sand King's Epicenter, Sand Storm and Burrowstrike, Gyrocopter's Call Down, Ember Spirit's Sleight of Fist, Death Prophet's Exorcism and Silence, Monkey King's Wukong's Command, Crystal Maiden's Freezing Field, Muerta's The Calling, Medusa's Stone Gaze, Zeus's Nimbus from Aghanim's Scepter. Dark Willow's Bramble Maze, Pangolier's Swashbuckle, Grimstroke's Soulbind, Ink Swell and Stroke of Fate, Earthshaker's Echo Slam and Fissure, Puck's Dream Coil and Waning Rift, Winter Wyvern's Winter's Curse, Magnus's Reverse Polarity.
* Heroes with strong area-of-effect damaging and/or disabling abilities will be able to intercept Underlord and his team when they exit from Fiend's Gate: Luna's Aghanim's Scepter upgraded Eclipse, Dawnbreaker's Solar Guardian, Axe's Berserker's Call, Mars's Arena of Blood, Jakiro's Macropyre, Dual Breath and Ice Path, Naga Siren's Song of the Siren, Razor's Eye of the Storm and Plasma Field, Lina's Light Strike Array, Broodmother's Spinner's Snare from Aghanim's Scepter, Elder Titan's Earth Splitter and Echo Stomp, Alchemist's Unstable Concoction and Acid Spray, Queen of Pain's Sonic Wave, Dark Seer's Wall of Replica and Vacuum, Venomancer's Noxious Plague and Poison Nova from Aghanim's Scepter, Oracle's Fortune's End and Rain of Destiny from Aghanim's Shard, Bloodseeker's Blood Rite, Enigma's Black Hole and Midnight Pulse, Shadow Fiend's Requiem of Souls, Batrider's Aghanim's Scepter upgraded Flaming Lasso, Firefly, Flamebreak and Sticky Napalm, Ancient Apparition's Ice Blast, Sand King's Epicenter, Sand Storm and Burrowstrike, Gyrocopter's Call Down, Ember Spirit's Sleight of Fist, Death Prophet's Exorcism and Silence, Monkey King's Wukong's Command, Crystal Maiden's Freezing Field, Muerta's The Calling, Medusa's Stone Gaze, Zeus's Nimbus from Aghanim's Scepter. Dark Willow's Bramble Maze, Pangolier's Swashbuckle, Grimstroke's Soulbind, Ink Swell and Stroke of Fate, Earthshaker's Echo Slam and Fissure, Puck's Dream Coil and Waning Rift, Winter Wyvern's Winter's Curse, Magnus's Reverse Polarity.
* Heroes that rely on slows to get kills: Lifestealer, Night Stalker, Ursa, Phantom Assassin, Terrorblade.
* 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's Incapacitating Bite can make Nuerta's miss her attacks from Gunslinger more often until she buys items that require Javelin.
* Broodmother can still use Spawn Spiderlings to hurt Muerta while she has Pierce The Veil active as it deals magical damage and has a low cooldown.
* Broodmother can buy Revenant's Brooch to attack Muerta even through Pierce The Veil with Insatiable Hunger.
* Spin Web's movement speed gain for Broodmother makes it difficult for her to hit Broodmother with Dead Shot and keep her trapped in The Calling.
* Aghanim's Scepter gives Broodmother access to Spinner's Snare which allows her to create up to 5 invisible web lines on her webs from Spin Web that can deal magical damage over time to Muerta, root her and reveal her if she unwittingly steps on them, foiling both, her escaping and ganking attempts while allowing Broodmother to alert her allies about her attempting to ambush them.
* Though Mirana can clear waves of Broodmother's spiderlings with Starstorm, Broodmother will often stick with her spiderlings from Spawn Spiderlings, which in combination with the huge speed provided by Spin Web can make it hard for Mirana to hit her with Sacred Arrow.
* Broodmother commonly buys Orchid Malevolence and it's upgrade Bloodthorn, which allows her to prevent Mirana from escaping with both, Leap and Moonlight Shadow and from fighting back with Starstorm.
* 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 Mirana, deal damage over time to Mirana and reveal Mirana if she or any of her allies unwittingly step on them while affected by Moonlight Shadow, disrupting her attempts to initiate with Moonlight Shadow and Sacred Arrow, and prevent her to use Leap while also alerting Broodmother on her attempts to ambush her and her allies.
Additional:
* Though Mirana can clear waves of Broodmother's spiderlings with Starstorm, Broodmother will often stick with her spiderlings from Spawn Spiderlings, which in combination with the huge speed provided by Spin Web can make it hard for Mirana to hit her with Sacred Arrow.
* Broodmother commonly buys Orchid Malevolence and it's upgrade Bloodthorn, which allows her to prevent Mirana from escaping with both, Leap and Moonlight Shadow and from fighting back with Starstorm.
* 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 Mirana, deal damage over time to Mirana and reveal Mirana if she or any of her allies unwittingly step on them while affected by Moonlight Shadow, disrupting her attempts to initiate with Moonlight Shadow and Sacred Arrow, prevent her to use Leap while also alerting Broodmother on her attempts to ambush her and her allies.
* Broodmother can kill Invoker easily in the early game with her Spawn Spiderlings and her spiderlings.
* Broodmother is both an Orchid Malevolence and a Nullifier carrier. As she can farm it early, she can kill Invoker easily.
* Burrowstrike allows Sand King to escape from Eclipse or to close the gap on Luna and finish her off.
* Sand Storm allows Sand King to harass Luna more efficiently than she does with Lucent Beam, as it makes him invisible for it's duration and while in it, rendering him safe from both, Lucent Beam and Eclipse and forcing Luna to buy Dust of Appearance more often.
* Caustic Finale allows Sand King to deal serious damage to both, Luna and her allies, which is especially hazardous in laning stage as Luna's attack range is short.
* Epicenter combined with Burrowstrike and Sand Storm can often kill Luna before she can do anything because of her low health and strength gain.
* Overall, Sand King forces Luna to play more defensively instead of offensively, and for the same reasons, Sand King makes a very powerful ally for Luna when they are in the same team.
Additional:
* Burrowstrike allows Sand King to escape from Eclipse or to close the gap on Luna and finish her off.
* Sand Storm allows Sand King to harass Luna more efficiently than she does with Lucent Beam, as it makes him invisible for it's duration and while in it, rendering him safe from both, Lucent Beam and Eclipse and forcing Luna to buy Dust of Appearance more often.
* Caustic Finale allows Sand King to deal serious damage to both, Luna and her allies, which is especially hazardous for Luna during the laning stage as Luna's attack range is short.
* Epicenter combined with Burrowstrike and Sand Storm can often kill Luna before she can do anything because of her low health and strength gain.
* Overall, Sand King forces Luna to play more defensively instead of offensively, and for the same reasons, Sand King makes a very powerful ally for Luna when they are in the same team.
* Drow Ranger's lack of mobility and area-of-effect abilities makes her easy prey for Broodmother and her Spiderlings.
* Viper's lack of escape and durability means he can be ran over in a laning stage by Spawn Spiderlings.
* Broodmother can bring Viper down quickly with Insatiable Hunger activated.
* Insatiable Hunger's attack damage amplification can reduce the effectiveness of Enfeeble, and the Enfeeble will not weaken the magical damage output from Silken Bola, Spawn Spiderlings and Spinner's Snare from Aghanim's Scepter, though it will still reduce their cast range.
* Bane's single-targeted arsenal of abilities make him an easy target for Broodmother and her Spiderlings.
* Broodmother often buys Orchid Malevolence and it's upgrade Bloodthorn, which allows her to cancel Fiend's Grip, and completely shut Bane down.
Additional:
* Insatiable Hunger's attack damage amplification can reduce the effectiveness of Enfeeble, and the Enfeeble will not weaken the magical damage output from Silken Bola, Spawn Spiderlings and Spinner's Snare from Aghanim's Scepter, though it will still reduce their cast range.
* Bane's single-targeted arsenal of abilities make him an easy target for Broodmother and her Spiderlings.
* Broodmother often buys Orchid Malevolence and it's upgrade Bloodthorn, which allows her to cancel Fiend's Grip, and completely shut Bane down.
* 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.
Additional:
* 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.
* Bounty Hunter's single-targeted arsenal of abilities make him an easy target for Broodmother and her Spiderlings.
* Broodmother often buys Orchid Malevolence and it's upgrade Bloodthorn, which allows her to stop Bounty Hunter from escaping with Shadow Walk.
Additional:
* Like with Bane, Bounty Hunter's single-targeted arsenal of abilities make him an easy target for Broodmother and her Spiderlings.
* Broodmother often buys Orchid Malevolence and it's upgrade Bloodthorn, which allows her to stop Bounty Hunter from escaping with Shadow Walk.
* Spinner's Snare from Aghanim's Scepter allows Broodmother to create invisible lines on her webs from Spin Web that will root Bounty Hunter, deal damage over time to him and reveal him if he unwittingly steps on them, disrupting Bounty Hunter's ganking attempts with Shadow Walk while also alerting Broodmother on his attempts to ambush her and her allies.
* Broodmother can easily clear Wraith King's skeletons with Spawn Spiderlings and summon spiderlings in their place.
* With Diffusal Blade, Broodmother can prevent Wraith King from reincarnating unless Wraith King has his Aghanim's Shard.
* Webbed areas can be used to hit and run, covering distance hastily weakening her on the way and initiating ganks.
* Even though Medusa can hunt down Spiderlings easily when given enough range, Silken Bola will cause her attacks to miss and get her swarmed in no time.
* Medusa usually does not build a Black King Bar to benefit from Mana Shield fully while Broodmother can fit a Diffusal Blade to burn away all of Medusa's mana.
Additional:
* Spin Web will allow Broodmother to pick her own fights and sometimes slip away to ambush Medusa.
* Though Medusa's Split Shot and Mystic Snake can help Medusa deal with Broodmother's spiderlings, Broodmother will create too much of them for her to handle, allowing her to outnumber Medusa's targets from Split Shot and shield her team in process.
* Spiderlings melt away Living Armor almost instantly.
* The vision from Eyes In The Forest may prove dangerous for Broodmother, however.
* None of Arc Warden's abilities are very effective against Broodmother and her spiderlings.
* A good Broodmother looks to end the match early while Arc Warden, a very item reliant hero, thrives in longer matches.
* Arc Warden has no innate disables to stop Broodmother from lifestealing with Insatiable Hunger and shredding through his relatively lower armor.
* 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.
* Heroes with blind of some sort can be a bad choice for Monkey King to go on: Broodmother, Riki, Keeper of the Light.
* 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.
* Since Naga Siren is a hero who barely goes for Black King Bar, she is vulnerable to nukers with strong magical damage and big area-of-effect spells in every game more than any other carry heroes: Sand King, Jakiro, Leshrac, Lina, Earthshaker, Zeus.
* Support heroes with low mobility can be slowed further by Incapacitating Bite, and swarmed by Spiderlings for an easy kill: Shadow Shaman, Visage, Dazzle, Rubick, Lich.
* 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.
* 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.
* Heroes with plenty of summons, such as Broodmother or Nature's Prophet can have their minions soak up most of your Paralyzing Cask.
* Heroes with both illusions and summons, for Io has nothing to deal with multiple enemies at once outside from Spirits's weak area-of-effect: Beastmaster, Broodmother, Chaos Knight, Lycan, Naga Siren, Nature's Prophet, Phantom Lancer, Shadow Shaman, Terrorblade, Visage, Warlock, Wraith King.
* Clockwerk lacks burst damage, and that makes him vulnerable to heroes who can recover themselves and turn the fight around to their advantage after Clockwerk finishes his initiation. Additionally, Clockwerk hates buying Dagon and Ethereal Blade, which are the only itmes that can help him deal with heroes who can recover themselves and turn the fight around to their advantage: Faceless Void, Terrorblade, Ursa, Weaver, Broodmother, Slark, Abaddon, Wraith King, Lifestealer.
* Sand King is a strong ganker, allowing him to shut down squishy heroes in the early game: Phantom Assassin, Clinkz, Sniper, Enchantress.
* Support heroes with low mobility can be slowed further by Incapacitating Bite, and swarmed by Spiderlings for an easy kill: Shadow Shaman, Visage, Dazzle, Rubick, Lich.
Additional:
* Chain Frost can bounce to the Spiderlings that Broodmother spawns.
* Lifestealer's Rage negates Sand King's spells which do magical damage.
* Heroes that rely on slows to get kills: Lifestealer, Night Stalker, Ursa, Phantom Assassin, Terrorblade.
* Heroes with summons: Lycan, Broodmother, Visage, Nature's Prophet, Warlock.
* Support heroes with low mobility can be slowed further by Incapacitating Bite, and swarmed by Spiderlings for an easy kill: Shadow Shaman, Visage, Dazzle, Rubick, Lich.
* Oracle cannot easily deal with swarms of units, making him weak against heroes like Phantom Lancer or Broodmother.
* Heroes with no AoE abilities will struggle against Phantom Lancer: Phantom Assassin, Broodmother
* All of Sand King's abilities deal AoE damage.
* However, Epicenter is usually a non-issue against Doppelganger.
* 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.
* Slark will have a hard time killing Sand King because of the survivability he gets from Burrowstrike and Sand Storm.
* Shadow Dance, which usually allows Slark to survive fights, is ineffective against Sand King's AoE damage.
* Pugna's Nether Ward damages Sand King when he channels Epicenter, preventing him from using Blink Dagger afterward.
* Heroes with no mobility will take some good damage from Sand King's spells: Dragon Knight, Jakiro, Pugna, Earthshaker.
* Both Arcane Curse and Last Word punishes casters with spammable spells such as Sand King.
* As a strength caster, Intelligence Steal reduces Sand King's mana pool even more.
* Global Silence silences Sand King, effectively reducing Sand King's initiation and counter-initiation potential. It can also interrupt channeling of Epicenter.
* Broodmother relies less on abilities and more on right-clicks.
* Spiderlings can overwhelm Silencer, who has mediocre armor and no escape tool.
* Charge of Darkness provides shared vision over its target, keeping track of heroes who rely on invisibility, mobility, or illusions: Riki, Broodmother, Phantom Lancer
* 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.
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Sand King
* Ghostship helps your team soak up damage from Epicenter, especially if he initiates during the battle.
* Sand King can't dodge X Marks the Spot - Torrent combo by his abilities. Torrent drags him out of his Sand Storm
Broodmother
* X Marks the Spot prevents Broodmother from escaping.
* Tidebringer can clear Broodmother's spiders if they get in range.
Additional:
* Kunkka's entire kit is great for taking out multiple units at once.
* Tidebringer's cleave will split through a wave of spiderlings.
* X Marks the Spot is great for dragging Broodmother back out of her web for Kunkka's team to set up on her.
* Torrent and Ghostship will demolish any spiderlings within the radius.