* Ether Shock is a great farming ability as a handy short-cooldown nuke.
* Hex and
Shackles gives Rubick extra lockdown potential in ganks and teamfights.
* Mass Serpent Ward, should Rubick steal, serves as a powerful source for teamfighting, pushing, and acquring Roshan.
* Arcane Supremacy allows Rubick to cast
Hex and
Shackles at a further distance, which keeps Rubick at a safer position compared to
Shadow Shaman.
* Rubick can interrupt Shackles by casting
Telekinesis.
Additional:
* All abilities from Shadow Shaman can very vulnearble steal from Spell Steal.
* Rubick can interrupt Shackles by casting Telekinesis.
* Spell Steal will easily steal all abilities from Dark Seer.
Additional:
* Spell Steal can perfect from Rubick's steal all abilities from Dark Seer. Rubick's always purchase
Aghanim's Scepter can two stolens abilities from Dark Seer's and waiting for seconds for second stolen abilities (example: combinated Vacuum and Wall of Replica) and many different combination.
* A good positoning from Rubick's Spell Steal waiting steal abilities from Dark Seer
Wall of Replica and illusion from
Wall of Replica Dark Seer's can fighting with effect from outcome steal
Wall of Replica from Rubick's.
* Combinated Rubick's steal Surge and
Blink Dagger is very important catch from Dark Seer's and enemies.
* Rubick's Telekinesis can lifted up Dark Seer or enemy heroes and throw to
Wall of Replica from Rubick's steal.
* Heroes that have a channeled ability that can be interrupted by Meat Hook: Shadow Shaman,
Witch Doctor,
Enigma,
Bane.
* Abilities that deal low damage with high amounts of instances are irrelevant against Pudge during Flesh Heap's active: Gyrocopter's
Rocket Barrage and
Dark Seer's
Ion Shell are just a couple examples.
* Fortune's End dispels Ion Shell and Surge, making any gank attempt on Dark Seer in the laning phase likely to succeed.
* Fate's Edict prevents all magical damage that comes from Dark Seer's abilities.
* Fortune's End dispels Ion Shell on creeps, which Dark Seer relies on to farm and zone.
Additional:
* Fortune's End can dispel Ion Shell, a skill that helps Dark Seer immensely in the laning phase, as well as
Surge, a move-speed buff, effectively allowing Oracle to control Dark Seer, especially in the laning phase.
* X Marks the Spot prevents Dark Seer or his allies from escaping with Surge.
* 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 himurself in this scenario and buy
Sentry Wards if you have the money.
* The constant dispel from Demonic Purge will make any attempt to save the victim or himself by Surge become futile. For what it's worth, Demonic Purge will also dispel
Ion Shell.
* As a caster, Anti-Mage's
Mana Break and
Mana Void are highly effective against him.
* Dark Seer's strength lies in his high-mana cost skills. So Mana Break can be a great nuisance for him, since it can reduce his mana and prevent him from casting his spells.
* Mana Void can deal a lot of damage if Dark Seer spent a lot of mana on his abilities.
* 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.
* Mirana can disturb Shadow Shaman's channeling even if he is under the effect of invisibility thanks to Sacred Arrow.
* Mirana armed with an Aghanim's Scepter is known to be able to quickly burst down heroes - especially supports. Together with
Ethereal Blade the bullying towards Shadow Shaman can continue for the whole match.
* Dragon Knight can simply tank and destroy all Shadow Shaman's Serpent Wards.
* Flame Guard makes Dark Seer not deal any damage with his skills to Ember Spirit.
* Waveform allows Morphling to escape from Mass Serpent Ward
* Morphling can interrupt Shadow Shaman while he is shackling an ally with Adaptive Strike (Strength).
* With Ethereal Blade Morphling can quickly burst him down before he even has a chance to react.
* Lone Druid's early game is good against slow, squishy supports since his bear is very strong early game and an Entangling Claws proc almost always guarantees a kill: Ancient Apparition,
Crystal Maiden,
Shadow Shaman, etc.
* Arc Warden with his Magnetic Field will protect allies from Mass Serpent Ward.
* Omniknight can dispel Hex or Shackles with
Heavenly Grace. He can also heal teammates which you disabled. The same goes to
Abaddon's
Aphotic Shield .
* Heroes with channeling spells are very easy targets for Jakiro's abilities: Crystal Maiden,
Dawnbreaker,
Enigma,
Pudge,
Shadow Fiend,
Shadow Shaman,
Warlock.
* By simply using Aphotic Shield, Abaddon can easily save his allies from heroes that apply long disables, such as Lion or
Shadow Shaman.
* With 4 active abilities, Shadow Shaman is weak against silencing foes such as Silencer,
Drow Ranger and
Death Prophet.
* Nyx Assassin,
Bounty Hunter and
Slark can all sneak up and kill Shadow Shaman, Nyx being particularly deadly. Shadow Shaman must watch out for Slark carefully, as he can break either (but not both unless he makes a mistake) of Shadow Shaman's disables, with
Dark Pact and leap out of a serpent ward ring. These heroes, however, rely heavily on escape and are themselves not very durable and none of them can survive a full lockdown with Mass Serpent Ward. Having Sentry Wards can turn Shadow Shaman from prey to predator.
* With 4 active abilities, Shadow Shaman is weak against silencing foes such as Silencer,
Drow Ranger and
Death Prophet.
* Heroes with fast movement abilities will suffer huge damage when afflicted by Rupture: Spirit Breaker,
Earth Spirit,
Dark Seer.
Additional:
* Rupture can deal a lot of damage to either a surged Dark Seer or his allies and prevent the target from getting into position.
* Pudge,
Legion Commander and
Axe will make the match a living hell for Shadow Shaman, since they are known for surprise attacks from the fog and quickly killing low HP heroes. They can also interrupt Shadow Shaman's channeling, Legion being especially problematic, as she can use
Press the Attack on an ally who is hexed as well.
* Nyx Assassin,
Bounty Hunter and
Slark can all sneak up and kill Shadow Shaman, Nyx being particularly deadly. Shadow Shaman must watch out for Slark carefully, as he can break either (but not both unless he makes a mistake) of Shadow Shaman's disables, with
Dark Pact and leap out of a serpent ward ring. These heroes, however, rely heavily on escape and are themselves not very durable and none of them can survive a full lockdown with Mass Serpent Ward. Having Sentry Wards can turn Shadow Shaman from prey to predator.
* Dark Seer relies on Surge for most of his mobility, so he's not very vulnerable to slows, but much more to root effects and walls or pseudo-walls such as Disruptor's
Kinetic Field or
Slark's
Pounce.
* Heroes with AoE abilities will hit Slark in Shadow Dance: Lina,
Jakiro,
Underlord,
Leshrac,
Dark Seer,
Earthshaker,
Timbersaw,
Crystal Maiden.
* In general, melee heroes without blink mechanisms or spell immunity will have a hard time positioning against Pit of Malice: Sven,
Tiny,
Wraith King,
Dragon Knight,
Meepo,
Doom,
Bounty Hunter,
Dark Seer,
Undying,
Alchemist,
Legion Commander.
* With 4 active abilities, Shadow Shaman is weak against silencing foes such as Silencer,
Drow Ranger and
Death Prophet.
* Dark Seer relies on Surge for most of his mobility, so he's not very vulnerable to slows, but much more to root effects and walls or pseudo-walls such as Disruptor's
Kinetic Field or
Slark's
Pounce.
* 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.
* Due to their high attack speed, Summon Familiars will destroy Mass Serpent Wards quickly, granting Visage a massive amount of gold.
* Visage can use Stone Form of the Familiars to cancel Shackles.
Aghanim's Shard upgraded
Stone Form also allows Visage to use
Stone Form himself to cancel Shackles while restoring his health.
* Grave Chill can make Shadow Shaman's bad movement speed and attack speed even worse.
* Visage is also a natural Bloodthorn wielder, which allows him to silence Shadow Shaman and make him more vulnerable to damage.
Additional:
* Due to their high attack speed, Visage's Summon Familiars will destroy Mass Serpent Ward quickly, granting Visage massive amount of gold.
* Heroes that rely on summons will suffer against Ion Shell, which kills them very quickly: Beastmaster,
Broodmother,
Enigma,
Nature's Prophet,
Visage,
Warlock,
Wraith King.
* Reincarnation allows Wraith King to survive Shadow Shaman's initial chain of disables and Serpent Ward attacks.
* Short cooldown of Wraithfire Blast is ideal for interrupting Shackles.
* Heroes that rely on summons will suffer against Ion Shell, which kills them very quickly: Beastmaster,
Broodmother,
Enigma,
Nature's Prophet,
Visage,
Warlock,
Wraith King.
* Luna's high magical damage burst from Lucent Beam and
Eclipse can take advantage of Shadow Shaman's low health and strength gain.
* Without Black King Bar, Luna's
Lucent Beam and 0.25 Eclipse Mini-stun talent for
Eclipse can be used to disable Shadow Shaman while he is channeling
Shackles.
* Aghanim's Scepter upgraded
Eclipse combined with 0.25 Eclipse Mini-stun can repetively stun Shadow Shaman, and can even discourage him from even trying to use
Shackles.
* Luna is a natural Black King Bar wielder, and almost none of Shadow Shaman's spells can bypass spell immunity, except for
Mass Serpent Ward.
* Bear in mind, however, that if Shadow Shaman gets a jump on Luna first, he will be able to use Hex to disable Luna and burst her down before she can use
Black King Bar,
Lucent Beam or
Eclipse. In addition,
Moon Glaives cannot bounce on
Mass Serpent Wards at all.
Additional:
* Luna's high magical damage burst from Lucent Beam and
Eclipse can take advantage of Shadow Shaman's low health and strength gain.
* Without Black King Bar, Luna's
Lucent Beam and 0.25 Eclipse Mini-stun talent for
Eclipse can be used to disable Shadow Shaman while he is channeling
Shackles.
* Aghanim's Scepter upgraded
Eclipse combined with 0.25 Eclipse Mini-stun can repetively stun Shadow Shaman, and can even discourage him from even trying to use
Shackles.
* Luna is a natural Black King Bar wielder, and almost none of Shadow Shaman's spells can bypass spell immunity, except for
Mass Serpent Ward.
* Bear in mind, however, that if Shadow Shaman gets a jump on Luna first, he will be able to use Hex to disable Luna and burst her down before she can use
Black King Bar,
Lucent Beam or
Eclipse. In addition,
Moon Glaives cannot bounce on
Mass Serpent Wards at all.
* A couple of nukers and disablers on the same lane can finish a squishy Luna efficiently despite a teammate's assistance: Sven +
Shadow Shaman.
* All of Shadow Shaman's abilities totally ruin Terrorblade: Ether Shock destroys his illusions, Hex prevents him from using Sunder or
Manta Style in bad situations, Shackles not only that prevent him from using
Sunder, but he has no way to cancel it and Mass Serpent Ward can help Shadow Shaman push faster than Terrorblade even in
Metamorphosis.
Additional:
* Ether Shock,
Mass Serpent Wards summoned from both,
Mass Serpent Ward and
Aghanim's Shard upgraded
Shackles can do great damage to both, Terrorblade and his illusions.
* Hex prevents Terrorblade from using Sunder or
Manta Style in bad situations.
Hex can also destroy one of his illusions.
* Shackles can damage Terrorblade and prevent him from using his abilities and items, whether to fight, survive, or dispel it in any way while also healing Shadow Shaman in process. In addition, Terrorblade has no solutions to cancel it.
Aghanim's Shard upgraded
Shackles can also summon four more
Mass Serpent Wards to attack Terrorblade while he is disabled.
* Dark Seer's Vacuum and
Ion Shell allows him to clear a wave of Terrorblade's illusions.
* Because Terrorblade often builds items that require Ultimate Orb like
Manta Style and
Eye of Skadi, Dark Seer can create a very strong illusion of Terrorblade with
Wall of Replica and
Normal Punch from
Aghanim's Scepter.
* If Dark Seer can use Vacuum to help teammates land their AoE abilities, Terrorblade will be quickly killed before he even gets a chance to use Sunder.
Additional:
* Dark Seer's Vacuum and
Ion Shell allows him to clear a wave of Terrorblade's illusions.
* Because Terrorblade often builds items that require Ultimate Orb like
Manta Style and
Eye of Skadi, Dark Seer can create a very strong illusion of Terrorblade with
Wall of Replica and
Normal Punch from
Aghanim's Scepter.
* If Dark Seer can use Vacuum to help teammates land their AoE abilities, Terrorblade will be quickly killed before he even gets a chance to use Sunder.
* Shackles and Mass Serpent Ward instantly destroy Refraction
* Ion Shell destroys Refraction's protection stacks in short time.
* Surge ignores the massive slow from Psionic Trap.
* Shackles prevents Chen from acting, and damages him while healing Shadow Shaman, also allowing Shadow Shaman's allies to kill him faster.
Aghanim's Shard upgraded
Shackles can also summon four more
Mass Serpent Wards to attack Chen while he is disabled. And to make things worse, Chen has no way to cancel
Shackles on his own, and must rely on outside from {U:Centaur Conqueror} or {U:Mud Golem} under his control.
* Ether Shock and
Mass Serpent Ward can often not only kill Chen's allies before he can save them with
Hand of God, but they can also be used to destroy Chen's creeps easily thanks to their high damage and area-of-effect.
* Hex will prevent Chen from any attempt to save himself or his allies with
Hand of God.
Additional:
* Shackles prevents Chen from acting, and damages him while healing Shadow Shaman, also allowing Shadow Shaman's allies to kill him faster.
Aghanim's Shard upgraded
Shackles can also summon four more
Mass Serpent Wards to attack Chen while he is disabled. And to make things worse, Chen has no way to cancel {A|Shackles|Shadow Shaman
* Ether Shock and
Mass Serpent Ward can often not only kill Chen's allies before he can save them with
Hand of God, but they can also be used to destroy Chen's creeps easily thanks to their high damage and area-of-effect.
* Hex will prevent Chen from any attempt to save himself or his allies with
Hand of God.
* Dark Seer's Vacuum and
Ion Shell can clear a wave of Chen's Creeps effectively.
* Surge applies haste movement and negates the slow from
Penitence, allowing Dark Seer to easily escape from Chen and his creeps.
* Dark Seer's full combo from Dark Seer's Vacuum,
Wall of Replica and
Normal Punch from
Aghanim's Scepter can often kill Chen or any of his allies before he can save them with
Hand of God.
Additional:
* Dark Seer's Vacuum and
Ion Shell can clear a wave of Chen's Creeps effectively.
* Surge applies haste movement and negates the slow from
Penitence, allowing Dark Seer to easily escape from Chen and his creeps.
* Dark Seer's full combo from Dark Seer's Vacuum,
Wall of Replica and
Normal Punch from
Aghanim's Scepter can often kill Chen or any of his allies before he can save them with
Hand of God.
* Shadow Shaman's Mass Serpent Ward together with
Ether Shock can easily kill lots of Treants if played defensively.
* Hex and
Shackles can disrupt Nature's Prophet's escape attempts with Teleportation.
Additional:
* Mass Serpent Ward can kill lots of treants if played defensively.
* Mass Serpent Ward, Hex and Shackles can catch and kill a Nature's Prophet trying to use Teleportation.
* Heroes that rely on summons will suffer against Ion Shell, which kills them very quickly: Beastmaster,
Broodmother,
Enigma,
Nature's Prophet,
Visage,
Warlock,
Wraith King.
* Heroes with break can disable Untouchable for a while: Doom and
Shadow Demon (via
Aghanim's Scepter),
Viper,
Shadow Shaman with Hex Breaks talent.
* Heroes with haste can negate Enchant's slow: Weaver,
Dark Seer,
Lycan,
Centaur Warrunner.
* Heroes who can clear the waves of Enigma's Eidolons: Lina,
Luna,
Dawnbreaker,
Jakiro,
Shadow Shaman,
Death Prophet,
Keeper of the Light,
Invoker,
Leshrac,
Puck.
* Heroes that rely on summons will suffer against Ion Shell, which kills them very quickly: Beastmaster,
Broodmother,
Enigma,
Nature's Prophet,
Visage,
Warlock,
Wraith King.
* Viper cannot interrupt heroes with powerful channeling abilities: Bane,
Enigma,
Shadow Shaman,
Warlock
* Heroes who do not have nor rely on passive abilities make Nethertoxin much less effective: Clinkz,
Pugna,
Nature's Prophet,
Dark Seer,
Lycan,
Tusk
* Heroes with illusions and summons can be hard for Phantom Assassin to deal with, as she lacks any AoE abilities to deal with them without items: Broodmother,
Phantom Lancer,
Chaos Knight,
Lycan,
Naga Siren,
Shadow Shaman,
Visage,
Nature's Prophet,
Terrorblade,
Warlock,
Wraith King.
* With Normal Punch from
Aghanim's Scepter, Dark Seer can gain an advantage against heroes who rely on evasion as
Normal Punch has true strike:
Phantom Assassin,
Windranger,
Hoodwink.
* Hex greatly reduces Timbersaw's mobility.
* The stun and damage over time from Shackles mitigates Reactive Armor's HP and armor regen.
* Shackles and
Hex can both be used on Muerta while in Pierce the Veil, potentially wasting it.
* However, Mass Serpent Ward cannot hurt Muerta while Pierce the Veil is active.
* Hex's instant cast time will force Brewmaster into the awkward situation of needing some form of spell immunity or block to prevent being immediately hex upon blinking in, or wait until Shaman has used all his crowd control before entering a fight.
* Brewmaster also has no defense against Shadow Shaman lockdowns.
* Spectre's entire ability set is designed to get to and destroy heroes that stay in the backlines, both carries (like the aforementioned Drow Ranger and
Sniper) and supports (like
Dazzle and
Shadow Shaman).
* Hex can be used immediately to destroy Spectre's illusion when she
Haunts.
* Shadow Shaman can use Shackles to lock down Spectre for his team.
* Shadow Shaman's Mass Serpent Ward and
Ether Shock help him push lanes and end the game early before Spectre can come online and take over the late game.
* Dark Seer can pull together Spectre's illusions with
Vacuum, and
Wall of Replica creates an illusion of Spectre that deals massive damage.
* Venomancer is a low health hero and low range hero who is easy to harass with Ion Shell on a creep in the early game.
* Venomancer depends entirely on all his slows to keep distance or chase, but since Surge ignores slows, it is nearly impossible for Venomancer to hunt or run away from Dark Seer or his surged teammates.
* Shadow Shaman's long disables are effective at kiting and wasting the duration of Battle Trance.
* Mass Serpent Ward are especially effective against Troll Warlord during Battle Trance, as trapping him inside them during the duration is effectively another hard disable, as Troll cannot attack the wards or use Phase Boots to escape.
* Mass Serpent Ward rips apart Huskar quickly due to his poor armor.
* As soon as Huskar jumps in, he will be vulnerable to Shadow Shaman's disables if he does not have Black King Bar.
* Living Armor can be destroyed quickly with Ion Shell.
* With Normal Punch from
Aghanim's Scepter, Dark Seer can gain an advantage against heroes who rely on evasion as
Normal Punch has true strike:
Phantom Assassin,
Windranger,
Hoodwink.
* With Normal Punch from
Aghanim's Scepter, Dark Seer can gain an advantage against heroes who rely on evasion as
Normal Punch has true strike:
Phantom Assassin,
Windranger,
Hoodwink.
* In general, squishy heroes that rely on escape often struggles against the amount of disables Shadow Shaman can bring. Queen of Pain,
Anti-Mage and
Storm Spirit are among these.
* Any hero who can counter-initiate in anticipation without getting caught in Reverse Polarity: Sven,
Omniknight,
Enigma,
Luna,
Naga Siren,
Mars,
Jakiro,
Venomancer,
Elder Titan,
Faceless Void,
Rubick,
Keeper of the Light,
Pugna,
Invoker,
Spectre,
Alchemist,
Treant Protector,
Lina,
Oracle,
Zeus,
Shadow Shaman,
Phoenix,
Razor,
Huskar,
Batrider,
Kunkka,
Tidehunter,
Wraith King,
Sand King,
Medusa,
Dawnbreaker.
* Heroes with hastes: Dark Seer,
Lycan
* Heroes that rely on summons will suffer against Ion Shell, which kills them very quickly: Beastmaster,
Broodmother,
Enigma,
Nature's Prophet,
Visage,
Warlock,
Wraith King.
* Dark Seer can increase the movement speed of allies with
Surge, breaking Static Link.
* 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 escape abilities : Anti-Mage
Dark Seer
Slark
Storm Spirit
Windranger
Weaver can kite Lifestealer due to him having no lockdown
* Heroes that can keep Marci for a long time in one place so she can't pursue her targets, like Bane,
Lion,
Shadow Shaman,
Invoker,
Disruptor and
Kunkka.
Additional:
* Shadow Shaman can provide an excellent counter-initiation against her Rebound. His abilities can shut down any of her tower dive attempts in the laning phase.
* Shackles keeps Marci stunned for an extended period of time,w asting her ultimate .A combo with Mass Serpent Ward only makes things worse for her, as her armor is low.
* Certain heroes can mess up with Pangolier's positioning and timing (especially if he intends to use Rolling Thunder during combat): Vengeful Spirit,
Keeper of the Light,
Huskar,
Dark Seer
* Like above, supports with reliable stuns can be a massive problem and force Black King Bar in fights unideally, such as
Shadow Shaman,
Lion,
Nyx Assassin.
* The haste provided by Dark Seer's
Surge or a {Rune:Haste} renders your slows ineffective.
* Heroes that rely on summons will suffer against Ion Shell, which kills them very quickly: Beastmaster,
Broodmother,
Enigma,
Nature's Prophet,
Visage,
Warlock,
Wraith King.
Additional:
* Surge allows for Dark Seer and his allies to escape from Upheaval due to it ignoring any slow.
* Heroes with silence and mana drain abilites, as Ancient Apparition relies entirely on his abilities: Invoker,
Silencer,
Nyx Assassin,
Skywrath Mage,
Shadow Shaman,
Lion and etc.
* 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.
* Heroes that rely on illusions typically spawn very strong illusions inside Dark Seer Wall of Replica that he can use against them or their team: Phantom Lancer,
Chaos Knight,
Naga Siren,
Terrorblade.
* Heroes that rely on illusions typically spawn very strong illusions inside Dark Seer Wall of Replica that he can use against them or their team: Phantom Lancer,
Chaos Knight,
Naga Siren,
Terrorblade.
Additional:
* Ion Shell helps taking down illusions quickly, making it easy to identify the real Phantom Lancer.
* Surge allows Dark Seer and his teammates to run away from Phantom Lancer, who relies on his
Phantom Rush to chase enemies.
* Heroes with long lockdowns: Shadow Shaman,
Legion Commander.
* Heroes that are squishy by nature are an easy target for Spirit Breaker: Sniper,
Drow Ranger,
Shadow Shaman
* Can easily interrupt and disable Spirit Breaker with hex if being charged.
* 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.
* Shadow Shaman's many disables can lock down Weaver. Even with Linken's Sphere, Weaver might not be able to escape should Shadow Shaman uses Shackles quickly enough following Hex.
* Mass Serpent Wards can make short work of Weaver once he is locked down.
* 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.
* 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.
* 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.
* 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.
* Pudge,
Legion Commander and
Axe will make the match a living hell for Shadow Shaman, since they are known for surprise attacks from the fog and quickly killing low HP heroes. They can also interrupt Shadow Shaman's channeling, Legion being especially problematic, as she can use
Press the Attack on an ally who is hexed as well.
* Heroes with long or multiple disables will prevent Legion Commander from winning Duels: Shadow Shaman,
Lion
* Strong laners are usually at a disadvantage because of how well Sven can jungle. Heroes such as Dark Seer.
Underlord and
Legion Commander may find that later Sven takes care of them very quickly after some jungle farming.
* Sven is very vulnerable to chain stun such as Lion,
Shadow Shaman or
Magnus.
* With all 5 Meepos available, all of Shaman's wards will be disposed of very quickly.
* All of Shaman's disables are based around single target control, and he can at most only disable two Meepos, allowing the rest to easily lay waste to him, be it during the channel duration of Shackles or by using
Earthbind.
* Dark Seer can take great advantage of Divided We Stand by putting an Ion Shell on a clone in order to harass them effectively.
* Vacuum can take a single Meepo and disable him for Dark Seer and his teammates to take out.
* Nyx Assassin,
Bounty Hunter and
Slark can all sneak up and kill Shadow Shaman, Nyx being particularly deadly. Shadow Shaman must watch out for Slark carefully, as he can break either (but not both unless he makes a mistake) of Shadow Shaman's disables, with
Dark Pact and leap out of a serpent ward ring. These heroes, however, rely heavily on escape and are themselves not very durable and none of them can survive a full lockdown with Mass Serpent Ward. Having Sentry Wards can turn Shadow Shaman from prey to predator.
* Heroes who rely on damage over time as Spiked Carapace can block and reflect only one instance of damage: Venomancer,
Huskar,
Ember Spirit,
Dark Seer,
Sand King,
Doom,
Dawnbreaker. However, this also means they are easily stunned.
* Single-target disablers will have difficulty locking down a Chaos Knight with Phantasm active: Bane,
Beastmaster,
Bloodseeker,
Clockwerk,
Doom,
Shadow Shaman.
* Heroes that rely on illusions typically spawn very strong illusions inside Dark Seer Wall of Replica that he can use against them or their team: Phantom Lancer,
Chaos Knight,
Naga Siren,
Terrorblade.
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:
You can also add your own tips, update old data and fix mistakes by editing page on Dota 2 Wiki (it works like Wikipedia - anyone can contribute, you don't even need to register) these edits will appear on this website automatically (data is updated several times per week).
Right now there is no app/overlay that will detect picks automatically (like overwolf dota plus or become the gamer), instead, you can open web version in a steam in-game browser or use mobile version on your smartphone.
Want to know more? Check FAQ
Latest changes first
Sharing link to this site is always appreciated.
Dota 2 is a registered trademark of Valve Corporation. This site is not affiliated with Valve Corporation. All game images and names are property of Valve Corporation.
Shadow Shaman
* Sniper can easily destroy
Mass Serpent Ward from long range
Dark Seer
* A Sniper who is somewhat competent at positioning is hardly going to be affected by any of Dark Seer's spells thanks to
Take Aim.
* However, an illusion of Sniper made with Wall of Replica is extremely powerful, and hard to deal with.