*
Nethertoxin both Necromastery and Presence of the Dark Lord, reducing his damage massively.
*
Corrosive Skin gives Viper bonus Magic Resistance against Shadowraze and Requiem of Souls.
* Viper can easily take advantage of Shadow Fiend's lack of escape and mobility spells with
Viper Strike breaks and
Poison Attack. Poison Attack also serves as a great way to harass Shadow Fiend.
* Because
Poison Attack has almost no cooldown,
Aphotic Shield is ineffective as a hard dispel.
*
Viper Strike can prevent
Borrowed Time from activating passively and block
Curse of Avernus.
Additional:
* Because
Poison Attack has almost no cooldown, Aphotic Shield is ineffective as a hard dispel.
*
Viper Strike can prevent
Borrowed Time from activating passively and block
Curse of Avernus.
*
Void can be used to cancel Requiem of Souls.
*
Crippling Fear prevents Shadow Fiend from using Shadowraze or Requiem of Souls.
* With
Dark Ascension and
Gem of True Sight, Night Stalker can find and kill Shadow Fiend easily. He is also a tanky hero that can fight Shadow Fiend at any stage of the game.
* Heroes that have long silences, such as
Night Stalker and
Silencer, will prevent Abaddon from saving his allies effectively and disable the active component of Borrowed Time.
* Heroes who build mana boosting items but have low mana regeneration are especially vulnerable against Mana Break and Mana Void:
Timbersaw,
Slark,
Shadow Fiend,
Clinkz,
Bristleback
Nyx Assassin,
Magnus
* Mana Break drains Abaddon's mana, preventing him from using
Aphotic Shield to zone out enemies in lane.
* Counterspell decreases the amount of damage received from
Aphotic Shield and
Mist Coil.
* Doom has several disable abilities to choose from jungle creeps (e.g.
War Stomp,
Ensnare) to deal with Shadow Fiend who lacks escape abilities.
* When Doom combines creep abilities with
Scorched Earth,
Infernal Blade, and
Doom, Shadow Fiend most likely will die as he cannot use Shadowraze and Requiem of Souls to protect himself, and also cannot even flee by using
Shadow Blade or
Blink Dagger.
* Although Shadow Fiend has a high physical damage output, Doom has a large health pool to survive it, meaning Doom's combo with high magical damage output will shutdown Shadow Fiend first.
* Doom usually buys
Radiance to improve his damage, making his nuke combo more deadly to Shadow Fiend. The blind also prevents Shadow Fiend from landing his attacks often.
* Heroes with the ability to heal allies will not be able to heal heroes affected by
Doom:
Chen,
Dazzle,
Io,
Oracle,
Omniknight,
Witch Doctor,
Winter Wyvern,
Abaddon, etc.
Additional:
*
Doom will make Abaddon unable to use Mist Coil, Aphotic Shield, and the active component of Borrowed Time, also upgraded with
Aghanim's Scepter can break Curse of Avernus and the passive component of Borrowed Time ,which means his allies could be easily disabled or killed.
* Heroes with high physical damage output but lack of reliable escape mechanisms are always a good target for a solo gank:
Sniper,
Shadow Fiend,
Troll Warlord,
Drow Ranger. Those heroes, however, are dangerous if they manage to close the gap, so take caution.
* Shadow Demon with an
Aghanim's Scepter will use
Demonic Purge to disable Curse of Avernus and the passive component of Borrowed Time. If this is combined with a silence, Borrowed Time will not trigger at all.
* Even without
Aghanim's Scepter, he can still waste Borrowed Time with
Disruption. Curse of Avernus fully works on illusions, turning the passive ability against him.
* Outlanes Shadow Fiend on the central line, due to the fact that Lina's attack range exceeds the range of Shadow Fiend, which makes it difficult for him to fend off her attacks and approach creeps, thus Lina has more level and gold
* Defeats Shadow Fiend` from Burst with a combination of skills:
Light Strike Array,
Dragon Slave,
Laguna Blade, Shadow Fiend does not have a large pool of health before buying an item:
Satanic , which is why Lina's strong magic damage is enough to kill him quickly
Additional:
* Lina can outlanes Shadow Fiend on the central line, due to the fact that Lina's attack range exceeds the attack range of Shadow Fiend, which makes it difficult for him to fend off her attacks and approach creeps, thus Lina has more level and gold.
* Lina can defeat Shadow Fiend with the combination of her abilities on lane and during teamfights:
Light Strike Array,
Dragon Slave,
Laguna Blade, Shadow Fiend does not have a large pool of health before buying items for extra strength and health like
Satanic, which is why Lina's strong magic damage is enough to kill him quickly.
* Lina is a common
Eul's Scepter of Divinity carrier which can waste some duration of Borrowed Time and following up with
Laguna Blade if timed correctly.
* Both
Lion's
Finger of Death and
Lina's
Laguna Blade have a 0.25 second delay before the damage is dealt.
* The Reflection of Shadow Fiend cause
Presence of the Dark Lord to affect Shadow Fiend, reducing his armor and making it easier for Terrorblade to kill him. Shadow Fiend also doesn't have lots of survivability or control abilities in order to escape.
* If Shadow Fiend chooses to go for a physical damage item build, he'll have a hard time against Terrorblade's high armor.
* Reflection will cause Abaddon to be afflicted by his own
Curse of Avernus, silencing and slowing him. The reflection is also hard to avoid, as it cannot be killed, only dispelled.
* Heroes who can negate effects of Sunder:
Faceless Void's
Time Walk,
Weaver's
Time Lapse,
Broodmother's
Insatiable Hunger,
Abaddon's
Borrowed Time and
Troll Warlord's
Battle Trance can nullify Sunder.
*
Arc Lightning allows Zeus to get farm in lane against Shadow Fiend without coming into the range of his Shadowrazes.
*
Lightning Bolt can be used to heavily harass Shadow Fiend when he tries to get a last hit.
*
Thundergod's Wrath and
Lightning Bolt can be used to detect Shadow Fiend if he tries to escape with
Shadow Blade.
* Dispel Magic can remove Abaddon's
Aphotic Shield or
Curse of Avernus on an allied hero.
* Cyclone's lengthy duration wastes much of
Borrowed Time's duration.
Additional:
* {U:Storm} can use
Cyclone on Abaddon when he activates Borrowed Time, wasting its duration.
*
Drunken Brawler and
Thunder Clap hinder Abaddon from applying Curse of Avernus' silence on him.
* Abaddon can be killed without triggering his ultimate
Borrowed Time due to the break applied by
Sharpshooter.
* Despite Jakiro's fragileness, he can easily harass Shadow Fiend with
Dual Breath and
Liquid Fire than Shadow Fiend can harass Jakiro with
Shadowraze.
* Jakiro can easily cancel
Requiem of Souls with
Ice Path as Shadow Fiend is a very easy target while channeling it.
*
Aghanim's Scepter upgraded
Macropyre can deal pure damage-over-time and pierce spell immunity, which can discourage Shadow Fiend from even trying to initiate with
Requiem of Souls.
Additional:
* Despite Jakiro's fragileness, he can easily harass Shadow Fiend with
Dual Breath and
Liquid Fire than Shadow Fiend can harass Jakiro with
Shadowraze.
* Jakiro can easily cancel
Requiem of Souls with
Ice Path as Shadow Fiend is a very easy target while channeling it.
*
Aghanim's Scepter upgraded
Macropyre can deal pure damage-over-time and pierce spell immunity, which can discourage Shadow Fiend from even trying to initiate with
Requiem of Souls.
*
Requiem of Souls is easily interrupted by Boundless Strike, due to its long cast time.
* Shadow Fiend's lack of mobility and escape makes him an easy target to ambush with Primal Spring, especially during laning stage.
* Being close means he cannot use all three razes on you before you get your Jingu Mastery stacks.
*
Song of the Siren completely wastes Abaddon
Borrowed Time while keeping him in place.
* Naga Siren is able to simply dispel Abaddon's
Curse of Avernus with
Mirror Image before getting hit 4 times consecutively.
* Although Naga Siren's illusions can be easily destroyed by
Aphotic Shield, Naga Siren can resolve that issue easily by purchasing
Heart of Tarrasque to drastically increase her durability. Plus, the said item makes Naga Siren harder to be distinguished from her illusions.
*
Astral Imprisonment wastes Borrowed Time's duration.
* Outworld Destroyer's
Sanity's Eclipse can kill Abaddon before Borrowed Time triggers due to the lack of intelligence for Abaddon.
*
Decrepify prevents Shadow Fiend from attacking for its duration, potentially preventing him from getting a kill.
*
Nether Ward can do heavy damage to Shadow Fiend if he tries to cast his Requiem of Souls or spam Shadowraze.
Additional:
* Decrepify prevents Shadow Fiend from attacking for its duration, potentially preventing him from getting a kill.
* Nether Ward can do heavy damage to Shadow Fiend if he tries to cast his
Requiem of Souls and his
Shadowraze.
*
Static Link can steal Shadow Fiend's high physical damage output from
Necromastery, lowering his damage output, and Static Link cannot be prevented by
Black King Bar.
*
Plasma Field and
Eye of the Storm can melt down Shadow Fiend easily, due to his low health.
*
Shadow Fiend's
Requiem of Souls allows Rubick to output enormous crowd damage and control to the enemy team.
*
Requiem of Souls has an effective range of 1000.
Rubick can steal the spell out of the fear range with any level of
Arcane Supremacy learned.
*
Requiem of Souls has a significant cast animation which allows Rubick to predict the steal timing, since Shadow Fiend usually positions at the center of battlefield.
*
Telekinesis can lift a unit right on top of Rubick with no collision size, forcing the victim to absorb all damaging lines of
Requiem of Souls from Rubick, possibly resulting in a one-shot kill.
* Note that
Requiem of Souls from Rubick still uses the original 1.67 second channeling time.
* It is advised to build
Blink Dagger to jump in and cast
Requiem of Souls given the opportunity.
* The three
Shadowraze (Far) abilities are decent for farming and extra damage output.
* Note that
Shadowraze (Near),
Shadowraze (Medium) and
Shadowraze (Far) are considered three separated abilities, only one is stolen per spell steal cast.
* It could be troublesome to cast
Shadowraze (Far) immediately for damage output immediately after stolen since it is hard to react and recognize which of the three is stolen.
*
Shadow Fiend's right click damage together with his ability damage may hurt Rubick bad. Consider items like
Ghost Scepter and
Glimmer Cape, together with wards to avoid being picked up.
*
Shrapnel can be used to cancel Shadow Fiend's
Blink Dagger from a huge range.
*
Take Aim and
Headshot allow Sniper to harass Shadow Fiend in lane without getting into the range of his Shadowrazes.
Additional:
* Shrapnel can be used to cancel Shadow Fiend's Blink Dagger from a huge range.
* Take Aim and Headshot allow Sniper to harass Shadow Fiend in lane without getting into the range of his
Shadowraze.
* Assassinate when upgraded with
Aghanim's Scepter can be used to cancel Shadow Fiend's
Requiem of Souls.
*
Charge of Darkness allows Spirit Breaker to gank Shadow Fiend in the early game, preventing him from getting Necromastery stacks.
*
Nether Strike and
Charge of Darkness can be used to prevent Shadow Fiend from casting Requiem of Souls.
* Shadow Fiend's fragility and lack of a natural escape mechanism makes him a great target for Templar Assassin's Meld.
* Shadow Fiend's burst damage, such as
Shadowraze and
Requiem of Souls, is easily nullified by her Refraction.
*
Kraken Shell dispels both Shadowraze's damage amplification stacks and Requiem of Soul's damage reduction (provided Tidehunter has taken enough damage).
*
Ravage cancels Requiem of Souls if Shadow Fiend isn't protected by
Black King Bar.
Additional:
* Kraken Shell dispels the damage amplification stacks of
Shadowraze as well as the damage reduction from
Requiem of Souls (provided he has taken enough damage).
* Anchor Smash reduces Shadow Fiend's large attack damage, Kraken Shell makes Tidehunter the last target Shadow Fiend wants to attack.
* Ravage can easily cancel
Requiem of Souls if Shadow Fiend isn't protected by
Black King Bar.
* The blind from
Laser prevents Shadow Fiend from attacking for its duration, potentially preventing him from getting a kill.
*
Scythe of Vyse can be used to prevent Shadow Fiend from casting Requiem of Souls.
* A combination of Tinker's abilities and his items (like the
Dagon 5 and
Ethereal Blade combo) can kill Shadow Fiend quickly.
Additional:
* During the laning stage Laser will reduce Shadow Fiend's last hits, preventing him from getting
Necromastery souls.
* Shadow Fiend has low health and is vulnerable to Tinker's high magic burst.
* Shadow Fiend's lack of mobility and low base health make him an easy target for early ganks.
*
Earthshock prevents Shadow Fiend from escaping after Ursa used his
Blink Dagger to get on top of him.
*
Overpower and
Fury Swipes allow Ursa to quickly kill Shadow Fiend.
*
Enrage keeps Ursa alive in a manfight with Shadow Fiend and allows him to stay close, even if Shadow Fiend uses Requiem of Souls.
* Ice Blast nullifies
Borrowed Time's and
Mist Coil's healing.
Additional:
*
Ice Blast's nullifies Abaddon healing from Borrowed Time and Mist Coil and it is not dispelled by Aphotic Shield.
* Heroes that are hard to kill without lockdown:
Puck,
Weaver.
* Heroes that are hard to kill without lockdown:
Puck,
Weaver.
* Heroes with channeling spells because Shadow Fiend has nothing to cancel channeling outside of Requiem of Souls:
Bane,
Enigma,
Pudge,
Shadow Shaman,
Dawnbreaker,
Warlock,
Crystal Maiden.
Additional:
* Because Shadow Fiend lacks escaping mechanisms, and is dependent on fair positioning for channeling
Requiem of Souls, it's easier for Warlock with his long range crowd control abilities to lock Shadow Fiend down for his team.
* 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.
* Squishy heroes or heroes without hard disables or silences:
Shadow Demon,
Shadow Fiend,
Venomancer,
Ancient Apparition etc.
* Heroes with channeling spells because Shadow Fiend has nothing to cancel channeling outside of Requiem of Souls:
Bane,
Enigma,
Pudge,
Shadow Shaman,
Dawnbreaker,
Warlock,
Crystal Maiden.
* Heroes with long animations can be frequently interrupted with Cold Snap:
Earthshaker,
Monkey King,
Shadow Fiend
Lina
* Late game heroes are Sven's favourite kind of opponent, such as
Anti-Mage,
Spectre and
Shadow Fiend.
*
Lucent Beam and
Eclipse with ministun talent can be used to cancel Requiem of Souls if Shadow Fiend does not have
Black King Bar. Likewise, since Shadow Fiend is prone to buying
Blink Dagger, an ill-timed
Blink Dagger can give Luna a free chance to counter-initiate with
Eclipse.
*
Moon Glaives and
Lunar Blessing allow Luna to outfarm Shadow Fiend in lane and the high physical damage output they provide her can also help her deal with Shadow Fiend even when he buys
Black King Bar in late game.
* A well timed
Eclipse will burst and kill Shadow Fiend before he even either initiates or gets a chance to retaliate, especially when equipped with
Aghanim's Scepter and
Ethereal Blade, this could become even worse for Shadow Fiend if he does not have
Black King Bar. But bear in mind however, that smart and skilled Shadow Fiend can buy
Wind Waker to counter this issue.
* Even though Shadow Fiend can evade all of Luna's abilities with
Shadow Blade, a smart Luna will always buy
Dust of Appearance to provide vision on Shadow Fiend to her and her team.
Additional:
*
Lucent Beam and
Eclipse with ministun talent can be used to cancel Requiem of Souls if Shadow Fiend does not have
Black King Bar. Likewise, since Shadow Fiend is prone to buying
Blink Dagger, an ill-timed
Blink Dagger can give Luna a free chance to counter-initiate with
Eclipse.
*
Moon Glaives and
Lunar Blessing allow Luna to outfarm Shadow Fiend in lane and the high physical damage output they provide her can also help her deal with Shadow Fiend even when he buys
Black King Bar in late game.
* A well timed
Eclipse will burst and kill Shadow Fiend before he even either initiates or gets a chance to retaliate, especially when equipped with
Aghanim's Scepter and
Ethereal Blade, this could become even worse for Shadow Fiend if he does not have
Black King Bar. But bear in mind however, that smart and skilled Shadow Fiend can buy
Wind Waker to counter this issue.
* Even though Shadow Fiend can evade all of Luna's abilities with
Shadow Blade, smart Luna will always buy
Dust of Appearance to provide vision on Shadow Fiend to her and her team.
* Every hero that can withstand or prevent Eclipse at level 7:
Juggernaut,
Riki,
Clockwerk,
Drow Ranger,
Abaddon,
Faceless Void,
Weaver,
Outworld Destroyer.
*
Dragon Tail can be used to cancel Requiem of Souls.
*
Breathe Fire reduces Shadow Fiend's damage even further.
*
Dragon Knight's high strength and
Dragon Blood means that he'll be able to tank Shadow Fiend's right clicks.
*
Shadow Fiend's
Presence of the Dark Lord reduces Dragon Knight's armor considerably, and his strong base attacks are augmented by his
Necromastery.
*
Shuriken Toss can be used to cancel Requiem of Souls.
*
Shadow Walk and
Jinada allow Bounty Hunter to gank Shadow Fiend early on
*
Track prevents Shadow Fiend from escaping with
Shadow Blade.
Additional:
* Bounty Hunter can absolutely destroy a Shadow Fiend's game by ganking his midlane with Shadow Walk, Jinada and Shuriken Toss.
* If his lane goes bad, a Shadow Fiend usually goes to the jungle. Follow him with Shadow Walk and take half of his experience.
* Due to its ministun, Shuriken Toss is a good way to interrupt Shadow Fiend's long cast animation on
Requiem of Souls.
*
Abaddon with
Aphotic Shield and
Borrowed Time
* Heroes that can remove the Track debuff with their skills:
*
Abaddon with
Aphotic Shield and
Borrowed Time
*
Huskar with
Life Break
*
Juggernaut with
Blade Fury
*
Legion Commander with
Press the Attack
*
Lifestealer with
Rage and
Infest
*
Naga Siren with
Mirror Image
*
Omniknight with
Heavenly Grace
*
Oracle with
Fortune's End and
False Promise
*
Phantom Lancer with
Doppelganger
*
Slark with
Dark Pact
*
Ursa with
Enrage
*
Weaver with
Time Lapse
*
Tidehunter with
Kraken Shell when damage received reaches the threshold.
* Heroes with high burst damage:
Lina,
Lion,
Luna,
Nyx Assassin,
Queen of Pain.
*
Nyx Assassin might not kill Abaddon with his nuke, but a support Abaddon will struggle to protect an ally from him.
*
Impale and
Spiked Carapace stun can be instantly dispelled by Aphotic Shield.
* Abaddon can use Borrowed Time and easily heal for the duration of Borrowed Time by Nyx's burst damage.
*
Shadowraze can clear waves of Chen's creeps while giving Shadow Fiend gold and damage for
Necromastery.
*
Requiem of Souls's very high magical damage can often kill Chen and his creeps or his allies before he can save them with
Hand of God.
* Aphotic Shield can nullify Chen's combo, while clearing Chen's creeps simultaneously.
*
Shadowraze (Near),
Shadowraze (Medium), and
Shadowraze (Far) can hit hard in the early stages of the game, and due to Shadow Fiend's high attack damage, most of Death Prophet's last hits will be denied in the laning phase. Additionally,
Requiem of Souls can deal massive damage or kill Death Prophet at the start of team fights in combination with
Eul's Scepter of Divinity or
Shadow Blade.
*
Exorcism will continuously heal Abaddon under Borrowed Time, and cannot be turned off.
* {Ability ID:Spirit Siphon|Death Prophet} will continuously heal Abaddon under Borrowed Time, for a percentage of his maximum health.
* Heroes with high physical and magical damage alike are a huge hazard for Muerta, as they can deal serious damage to her even if she has
Pierce the Veil active:
Luna,
Lina,
Tusk,
Broodmother,
Shadow Fiend,
Ember Spirit,
Gyrocopter,
Vengeful Spirit,
Arc Warden,
Medusa,
Shadow Shaman.
*
Borrowed Time mitigates the damage by Pierce the Veil for most of its duration.
* Muerta has no control over Gunslinger, making her one of the best heroes for Abaddon to regenerate from via
Borrowed Time.
* Heroes with a low health pool (
Crystal Maiden,
Skywrath Mage etc)
*
Aphotic Shield removes silences, slows and stuns, possibly foiling a full-duration Mystic Flare.
*
Borrowed Time makes it impossible to burst
Abaddon down, even healing him up due to Mystic Flare's damage.
* Shadow Fiend usually buys a
Hurricane Pike allowing him to easily escape from
Power Cogs.
* Shadow Fiend can farm Clockwerk's
Power Cogs to gain Necromastery stacks.
* 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.
*
Shadow Dance does not protect Slark from Shadow Fiend's AoE spells.
* Heroes that can deny Slark early kills will prevent him from snowballing:
Dazzle,
Abaddon.
* Wins on the central line, thanks to its strong nukes
Shadowraze, because of which Void Spirit cannot approach the creeps to farm gold and overtake Shadow Fiend by level
Additional:
* Wins on the central line, thanks to its strong nukes
Shadowraze, because of which Void Spirit cannot approach the creeps to farm gold and overtake Shadow Fiend by level
* Heroes that can purge his slow and disables are very difficult to go on and their team:
Abaddon,
Oracle.
*
Aphotic Shield and
Borrowed Time can both dispel Flaming Lasso.
Additional:
*
Sticky Napalm,
Flaming Lasso, and
Flamebreak can all be instantly dispelled by Aphotic Shield.
*
Firefly will continuously heal Abaddon under Borrowed Time.
* Shadow Fiend can easily farm his treants and get easy Necromastery Stacks.
* If Shadow Fiend buys
Boots of Travel and
Shadow Blade, he can counteract Nature's Prophet's split-push.
*
Borrowed Time makes Abaddon nearly impossible to gank.
*
Aphotic Shield and
Mist Coil prevents Bloodseeker from gaining his Thirst bonuses.
Additional:
* If
Rupture is used on Abaddon, Abaddon can use Borrowed Time and easily heal for the duration of Borrowed Time by simply moving.
*
Shadowraze can easily remove the protection from Flame Guard and kill Ember Spirit due to his low health.
* Ember Spirit is very vulnerable to physical damage from
Necromastery.
* 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.
* Shadow Fiend can still dish out heavy damage with
Requiem of Souls and
Shadowraze even while caught in
Pit of Malice.
Requiem of Souls is also great ability for intercepting Underlord and his team when they teleport using
Fiend's Gate.
*
Necromastery provides Shadow Fiend with bonus attack damage for each killed enemy unit, which combined with
Presence of the Dark Lord's armor reduction allows him to
Atrophy Aura's attack damage reduction in most stages of the game.
*
Aphotic Shield prevents damage and dispels the slow from Snapfire's
Mortimer Kisses.
*
Borrowed Time allows Abaddon to gain HP during Snapfire's
Mortimer Kisses.
* Huskar's damage over time gives Abaddon the opportunity to shield and heal his allies.
*
Borrowed Time also makes Abaddon a hard support to gank, thus negating Huskar's early game dominance.
* If he isn't broken (break), Abaddon can use Borrowed Time to waste Legion Commander's
Duel, As Borrowed Time has a shorter cooldown, Legion Commander can't win duels, effectively reducing her targets by one, Duel also means that Borrowed Time heals Abaddon for the duration of the duel, as Legion can't stop attacking.
Additional:
*
Aphotic Shield and
Mist Coil makes it hard for Legion Commander to kill Abaddon's teammates in Duels.
*
Borrowed Time makes Abaddon nearly impossible to kill in Duels, and often replenishes much of his health because Legion Commander cannot manually stop attacking during Duels.
*
Aphotic Shield effectively nullifies Primal Roar's single-target initiation on allies.
* Even being initiated by Primal Roar,
Borrowed Time can make Abaddon extremely difficult to kill.
Additional:
*
Primal Roar can be instantly dispelled by Aphotic Shield.
* The debuffs from
Wild Axes and
Poison from
Call of the Wild: Boar can also be dispelled by Aphotic Shield.
* Abaddon can remove Sacred Arrow's stun from his teammates with
Aphotic Shield, or remove it from himself with
Borrowed Time.
*
Borrowed Time makes Abaddon almost impossible to burst down with Mirana's
Aghanim's Scepter combo.
Additional:
*
Sacred Arrow can be instantly dispelled by Aphotic Shield.
* Aphotic Shield makes it less likely for allies to be killed by mines.
* Because they explode in very short intervals, a stack of
Remote Mines will always trigger Borrowed Time, making them impossible to kill Abaddon unless his resistances are lowered enough or Abaddon is affected by Break.
* Abaddon can easily dispel the long-lasting root of
Stasis Trap on himself and on an ally, while at the same also providing protection against the other mines' damage.
Additional:
*
Borrowed Time's automatic activation will help Abaddon survive a field of Proximity Mines or a Blast Off combo. However, the damage from a single mine can kill him if his HP is low enough.
*
Aphotic Shield's can easily break Techies' Etheral Blade combo.
*
Mist Coil and
Aphotic Shield enable Abaddon to keep an ally alive during Chronosphere.
*
Borrowed Time prevents Faceless Void from killing Abaddon during his Chronosphere.
* Abaddon could punish Chaos Knight for using his Phantasm and Reality Rift combo on him with
Aphotic Shield. Additionally, it provides extra protection against Chaos Knight's potential to take Abaddon down quickly.
* Furthermore, Abaddon's
Borrowed Time makes it utterly impossible to burst Abaddon down, effectively reducing the amount of targets Chaos Knight can threaten by 1 for the entire game.
*
Borrowed Time &
Aphotic Shield can dispel Venomous Gale and Poison Sting.
* Shadow Fiend can easily focus down and kill one of the Meepos.
* The amount of damage from Shadow Fiend's AoE spells makes Meepo vulnerable in every aspect.
* In general, heroes that deal burst in multiple instances will trigger Borrowed Time and heal Abaddon for a large amount, such as
Skywrath Mage,
Techies,
Juggernaut,
Shadow Shaman, or
Ogre Magi.
* In general, heroes that deal burst in multiple instances will trigger Borrowed Time and heal Abaddon for a large amount, such as
Skywrath Mage,
Techies,
Juggernaut,
Shadow Shaman, or
Ogre Magi.
* Heroes with high physical damage can damage Lifestealer more than he can heal:
Bristleback,
Clinkz,
Luna,
Shadow Fiend,
Slardar,
Terrorblade
* Heroes that have long silences, such as
Night Stalker and
Silencer, will prevent Abaddon from saving his allies effectively and disable the active component of Borrowed Time.
* Shadow Fiend is mostly played as right-click carry and natural
Black King Bar carrier, making Silencer's spells very ineffective against him.
* Heroes with channeling spells because Shadow Fiend has nothing to cancel channeling outside of Requiem of Souls:
Bane,
Enigma,
Pudge,
Shadow Shaman,
Dawnbreaker,
Warlock,
Crystal Maiden.
* Abaddon can activate
Borrowed Time to dispel Dismember; breaking the disable and potentially allowing Abaddon to escape.
*
Aphotic Shield can be cast on an ally to dispel the stun of Dismember, which can make kills difficult to secure, given that Dismember is Pudge's only reliable disable.
* Pudge lacks a mobility without a
Blink Dagger, causing him to be easily chased with
Curse of Avernus. The silence also prevents him from toggling off his Rot.
* Heroes with channeling spells because Shadow Fiend has nothing to cancel channeling outside of Requiem of Souls:
Bane,
Enigma,
Pudge,
Shadow Shaman,
Dawnbreaker,
Warlock,
Crystal Maiden.
*
Borrowed Time can give Abaddon a second chance after a Black Hole combo.
*
Aphotic Shield can be used to save allies or Abaddon himself from Malefice.
* Abaddon can easily heal himself as well as his allies during a team fight, especially with
Aghanim's Scepter upgraded
Borrowed Time.
* Heroes with high burst damage:
Lina,
Lion,
Luna,
Nyx Assassin,
Queen of Pain.
*
Aphotic Shield applies strong dispel on targeted allies, while
Borrowed Time does the same on
Abaddon himself upon both casts (manually or automatically), removing disables, such as
Earth Spike and
Hex.
*
Abaddon may offer survivability to
Lion's nuke power by shielding and healing allies and himself.
* Lack of inner escape and defensive mechanisms increases
Curse of Avernus effectiveness, since it slows per stack (applied upon auto attacking), and silences when it reaches the maximum stack.
* Heroes that can gank Shadow Fiend in the early game:
Earth Spirit,
Nyx Assassin,
Riki,
Spirit Breaker.
*
Aphotic Shield is a strong dispel, meaning it can save allies from Earth Spirit's stun, slow, silence, and Magnetize.
*
Borrowed Time makes it nearly impossible for Earth Spirit to kill Abaddon.
* 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.
*
Shadowraze deals magic damage and ignores Bulwark.
*
Requiem of Souls deals magic damage and can fear Mars away, forcing him to turn around and therefore become vulnerable.
*
Glimpse and
Kinetic Field allows Disruptor to set up some early kills onto Shadow Fiend.
*
Static Storm can be used to cancel the cast of Requiem of Souls.
*
Aphotic Shield dispels Thunder Strike.
*
Mist Coil can be used to heal an ally trapped by Static Storm-Kinetic Field combo.
*
Borrowed Time makes Abaddon nearly impossible to gank.
* Shadow Fiend, a normal
Shadow Blade builder often relies on its invisibility to escape fights. Corrosive Haze reveals Shadow Fiend and also weakens his already low armor.
* Abaddon can cast
Aphotic Shield on any of his allies to immediately dispel Corrosive Haze and/or the stun and the slow components of Slithereen Crush.
* All of Slardar's debuffs are also removed if Abaddon's
Borrowed Time triggers.
* Heroes with channeling spells because Shadow Fiend has nothing to cancel channeling outside of Requiem of Souls:
Bane,
Enigma,
Pudge,
Shadow Shaman,
Dawnbreaker,
Warlock,
Crystal Maiden.
*
Omniknight can dispel Hex or Shackles with
Heavenly Grace. He can also heal teammates who you disabled. The same goes for
Abaddon's
Aphotic Shield.
*
Enfeeble can be used to decrease Shadow Fiend's already abysmal level one damage even further, preventing him from getting farm and
Necromastery stacks.
*
Brain Sap allows Bane to heavily harass Shadow Fiend, even through debuff immunity from
Black King Bar.
*
Nightmare allows Bane to set up some early ganks onto Shadow Fiend.
*
Fiend's Grip enables Bane to completely take Shadow Fiend out of a fight and potentially even kill him, even through
Black King Bar.
Additional:
*
Enfeeble can be used to decrease Shadow Fiend's already abysmal level one damage even further, preventing him from getting farm and Necromastery stacks.
*
Brain Sap allows Bane to heavily harass Shadow Fiend.
*
Nightmare allows Bane to set up some early ganks onto Shadow Fiend.
*
Fiend's Grip enables Bane to completely take Shadow Fiend out of a fight and potentially even kill him, even through
Black King Bar.
*
Aphotic Shield applies a strong dispel on the allied target and can be used to remove both Fiend's Grip & Nightmare.
*
Borrowed Time applies a strong dispel on Abaddon and can instantly remove both Fiend's Grip & Nightmare when activated.
* Bane, when caught by
Curse of Avernus will struggle to escape because of his innately low mobility.
Additional:
*
Nightmare and
Fiend's Grip can be instantly dispelled by Aphotic Shield.
* Bane lacks mobility, therefore becoming helpless when silenced by Curse of Avernus.
* Heroes who depend on attacks (such as
Shadow Fiend or
Drow Ranger) can be nullified by Fire Spirits' attack speed slow.
* Heroes that deal damage over time will also fail to bring down Abaddon and his allies, such as
Huskar,
Venomancer, or
Phoenix.
* Heroes that have small health pools and little to no escape mechanisms are even easier prey for Necrophos. Ghost Shroud's slow will allow him to catch him with them, and get nuked down with his abilities, even preventing retaliation due to Reaper's Scythe's stun. Such heroes include
Crystal Maiden,
Witch Doctor,
Warlock or
Shadow Fiend.
* Heroes who possess abilities that can save targets from being killed by Reaper's Scythe:
Abaddon,
Bane,
Outworld Destroyer,
Shadow Demon,
Omniknight, etc.
Additional:
* If he isn't silenced, Abaddon can use Borrowed Time to escape
Reaper's Scythe during the delay.
* Squishy core heroes (
Shadow Fiend,
Sniper, etc)
* Any hero who can survive Magnus's initiations and manfight him:
Huskar,
Faceless Void,
Weaver,
Abaddon,
Troll Warlord,
Alchemist,
Dragon Knight,
Night Stalker,
Viper.
* Heroes with channeling spells because Shadow Fiend has nothing to cancel channeling outside of Requiem of Souls:
Bane,
Enigma,
Pudge,
Shadow Shaman,
Dawnbreaker,
Warlock,
Crystal Maiden.
* Heroes with a low health pool (
Crystal Maiden,
Skywrath Mage etc)
To start select enemy heroes in the field above. It's intended to be used with multiple heroes. The more enemy heroes you provide the better results you will get.
This website was made to help you in pick stage of online game Dota 2. It calculates rating for each possible counterpicks based on tips from web-based database made up entirely of user contributions Dota 2 wiki.
You will get the list of recommended hero counters with a list of tips written by Dota 2 wiki contributors explaining why it's good against the particular hero. In comparison to other similar websites, which show only rating based on average hero win rate from dotabuff or similar service.
Take it with a bit of grain of salt, especially if the recommendation has a low rating (<= 1), some heroes
may win a lane in an early game but would lose in late game (and vice versa). That's why sometimes
you could hero names appearing as a counter and as being countered, as on image:
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Shadow Fiend
*
Berserker's Call and
Counter Helix allow Axe to kill Shadow Fiend if he stands too close to a creep wave.
Battle Hunger is can be strong against Shadow Fiend in the early game because Shadow Fiend's low attack damage makes it hard for him to get last hits if he has no mana. However, Shadowraze also makes it very easy for him to get last hits, so use with caution.
Axe's naturally high strength and health regeneration will be enough to tank a lot of Shadow Fiend's damage in the early game.
*
*
Abaddon
* Culling Blade ignores
Borrowed Time should Abaddon's health falls under the threshold.
Aphotic Shield does nothing against Berserkers Call and has to be used constantly to remove the very small mana cost of Battle Hunger in lane.
Culling Blade's instant kill is not prevented by Borrowed Time should Abaddon's health falls below the threshold.
*
Additional:
*