* Shapeshift is useful for killing or escaping Silencer.
* Summon Wolves, can be used to hunt and harass silencer - even when Lycan himself can't fight.
* Lycan's high health allows him to easily shrug off Nyx Assassin's burst damage and fend him off.
* As Lycan commonly buys Black King Bar, he can use it to freely attack Nyx Assassin and chase after him with Shapeshift.
* Lycan can also use his wolves from Summon Wolves to attack Nyx Assassin while he has Spiked Carapace active without getting stunned himself.
* If Silencer can't prevent Dragon Knight from using Elder Dragon Form, Silencer's spells aren't going to be that effective against him, as Dragon Knight relies on right-clicks and not spells.
* Dragon Blood's armor bonus and health regeneration allows Dragon Knight to stay in the lane against Glaives of Wisdom.
* Dragon Knight often builds Black King Bar, allowing him to remove Global Silence before engaging.
* Dragon Knight's heavy armor negates Vendetta's burst physical damage. His large HP pool also gives him a good chance of surviving Nyx Assassin's follow-up nuke damage.
* Heroes that can disable or silence Silencer for a long time, such as Bane and Legion Commander, can lock down Silencer while their allies put him down.
* Duel's long duration prevents Nyx Assassin escaping from Vendetta. With Aghanim's Scepter, she can also bypass Spiked Carapace.
* Broodmother relies less on abilities and more on right-clicks.
* Spiderlings can overwhelm Silencer, who has mediocre armor and no escape tool.
* 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 damage-increasing passive abilities, such as Viper and Riki, will usually kill Silencer in a short time before he even has time to set up his abilities.
* Corrosive Skin minimizes the damage from Impale and Mind Flare, and anything else Nyx Assassin tries to throw at Viper.
* Nyx Assassin cannot survive several poison damage-over-time output from Poison Attack, Nethertoxin, Corrosive Skin and Viper Strike, not even while he has Spiked Carapace active. And to make things worse, Nyx Assassin is not a common Silver Edge wielder to counter this problem at all.
Additional:
* Corrosive Skin minimizes the damage from Impale and Mind Flare, and anything else Nyx Assassin tries to throw at Viper.
* Nyx Assassin cannot survive several poison damage-over-time output from Poison Attack, Nethertoxin, Corrosive Skin and Viper Strike, not even while he has Spiked Carapace active. And to make things worse, Nyx Assassin is not a common Silver Edge wielder to counter this problem at all.
* Even though carry Silencer can easily take down a support Jakiro with his Glaives of Wisdom, Jakiro can also do the same to Silencer if he is not careful and if Jakiro is not played as support. As Silencer is rather squishy and lacks escape mechanisms without items, and Jakiro's damage over time abilities can take advantage of this.
* Ice Path can be used to prevent Silencer from escaping. And if Jakiro uses Ice Path along with Macropyre and Dual Breath in anticipation right before Silencer uses his abilities to disable Jakiro, Jakiro will be able to kill Silencer before he even gets a chance to do anything to Jakiro.
* Dual Breath, Liquid Fire and Liquid Frost from Aghanim's Shard can greatly reduce Silencer's attack speed.
* Aghanim's Scepter upgraded Macropyre can deal huge pure damage to Silencer even if Silencer is spell immune.
* Bear in mind, however, that Jakiro should approach Silencer carefully as Silencer's Arcane Curse, Last Word and Global Silence prevents Jakiro from casting any spell. Jakiro, however, can counter this by going for Guardian Greaves, a common item on support Jakiro, and with Black King Bar and Manta Style, a situational items on Jakiro.
Additional:
* Even though carry Silencer can easily take down a support Jakiro with his Glaives of Wisdom, Jakiro can also do the same to Silencer if he is not careful and if Jakiro is not played as support. As Silencer is rather squishy and lacks escape mechanisms without items, and Jakiro's damage over time abilities can take advantage of this.
* Ice Path can be used to prevent Silencer from escaping. And if Jakiro uses Ice Path along with Macropyre and Dual Breath in anticipation right before Silencer uses his abilities to disable Jakiro, Jakiro will be able to kill SIlencer before he even gets a chance to do anything to Jakiro.
* Dual Breath, Liquid Fire and Liquid Frost from Aghanim's Shard can greatly reduce Silencer's attack speed.
* Aghanim's Scepter upgraded Macropyre can deal huge pure damage to Silencer even if Silencer is spell immune.
* Bear in mind, however, that Jakiro should approach Silencer carefully as Silencer's Arcane Curse, Last Word and Global Silence prevents Jakiro from casting any spell. Jakiro, however, can counter this by going for Guardian Greaves, a common item on support Jakiro, and with Black King Bar and Manta Style, a situational items on Jakiro.
* 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.
* Due to Phantom Rush and Juxtapose being passives and not affected by silence, a Phantom Lancer with a Diffusal Blade can easily kill Silencer.
* Nyx Assassin's skillset is mostly single-targeted, therefore he will have difficulties against heroes with illusions and summons: Naga Siren, Broodmother, Lycan, Visage, Phantom Lancer. And to make things worse, Nyx Asassin is not a common Battle Fury, Maelstrom, Mjollnir, Gleipnir or Radiance wielder to counter this problem.
* Silencer relies on preventing enemies from using abilities in teamfights with Arcane Curse, Last Word, and Global Silence. However, they are ineffective against Ursa since he relies more on items and attacks than abilities.
* Against a carry Silencer, Enrage can help Ursa reduce all damage he takes, even Glaives of Wisdom's pure damage will just tickle Ursa while his Enrage is active.
* Even though Visage's Familiars from Summon Familiars are fragile and can be killed quickly with Nyx Assassin's high burst damage, they can deal many instances of damage quickly, minimizing the effectiveness of Spiked Carapace.
* Gravekeeper's Cloak and tanky item builds make Visage hard for Nyx to kill with his burst damage. Aghanim's Shard upgraded Gravekeeper's Cloak also allows Visage to use Stone Form to both recover himself and stun Nyx Assassin if he is close enough to Visage.
* Visage's long range on Soul Assumption and Grave Chill make him hard to escape from, and Soul Assumption's low cooldown outmatches Spiked Carapace.
* A well-timed Berserker's Call can expose Nyx Assassin while he is invisible with Vendetta, and prevent him from using Spiked Carapace.
* Axe can use Battle Hunger's damage over time to minimialize effects of Spiked Carapace.
* Axe's high health also allows him to easily shrug off Nyx Assassin's burst damage and fend him off. Especially since Axe is a common Heart of Tarrasque wielder, which can completely eliminate any chance for Nyx Assassin to kill Axe alone.
* Culling Blade can often kill Nyx Assassin as he is very fragile and vulnerable to damage while Spiked Carapace is on cooldown.
Additional:
* A well-timed Berserker's Call can expose Nyx Assassin while he is invisible with Vendetta, and prevent him from using Spiked Carapace.
* Axe can use Battle Hunger's damage over time to minimialize effects of Spiked Carapace.
* Axe's high health also allows him to easily shrug off Nyx Assassin's burst damage and fend him off. Especially since Axe is a common Heart of Tarrasque wielder, which can completely eliminate any chance for Nyx Assassin to kill Axe alone.
* Culling Blade can often kill Nyx Assassin as he is very fragile and vulnerable to damage while Spiked Carapace is on cooldown.
* Silencer's disables are useless on Lone Druid since he is more reliant on physical attacks rather than spells.
* Silencer has poor mobility so Lone Druid can run him down.
* Lone Druid's Shard will remove most of Silencer's spells once used.
* Nyx Assassin wants to start ganking as soon as he gets his Vendetta. Keeping him Tracked prevents him from ganking, and thus from doing his job in the game.
* Nyx Assassin has a lot of armor and health regen, making the nuke damage from Shuriken Toss very good against him.
Additional:
* Track hinders Nyx Assassin's ganking and escaping attempts with Vendetta, making him an easy kill for gold as well.
* Bounty Hunter can also use Track on Nyx Assassin while he has Spiked Carapace active without getting stunned as Track deals no damage at all before using Shuriken Toss.
* Centaur's low Intelligence makes Mind Flare do low damage.
* With some creative skill builds, Centaur's Hoof Stomp stun duration should always last longer than Spiked Carapace stun, so escaping unscathed is hard for Nyx.
* With Blink Dagger and detection, Centaur can devastate Nyx in the open.
* However, bear in mind that Nyx can also easily initiate on Centaur Warrunner as well if he uses Spiked Carapace in anticipation, and with Vendetta. The damage from Retaliate will be reflected back to Centaur Warrunner, stunning him with no chance to react after he's revealed himself, and should guarantee a successful Impale.
* Blade Fury makes Juggernaut immune to all Nyx's abilities, except Vendetta.
* Omnislash. and Swiftslash can burst Nyx down, ignoring Spiked Carapace. However, Vendetta can be used to escape, canceling Omnislash/Swiftslash.
Additional:
* Juggernaut's entire skillset greatly counters Nyx Assassin's Spiked Carapace, his most important ability.
* Blade Fury allows Juggernaut to freely attack Nyx Assassin, and deal heavy damage to Nyx Assassin. Nyx Assassin cannot counter Blade Fury with Spiked Carapace because Blade Fury gives Juggernaut spell immunity. And besides Vendetta, Nyx Assassin has no other way of dealing damage to Juggernaut while he is spell immune.
* Healing Ward allows Juggernaut to recover himself and his allies from Nyx Assassin's damage output.
* Omnislash and Swiftslash from Aghanim's Scepter can quickly finish off Nyx Assassin. And just like Blade Fury, Nyx Assassin cannot counter neither Omnislash and Swiftslash from Aghanim's Scepter with Spiked Carapace because both abilities render Juggernaut invulnerable. And if Nyx Assassin has no Vendetta available to use for escaping, both abilities will kill him very quickly before he can do anything.
* Overall, any attempt for Nyx Assassin to gank and kill Juggernaut will hurt Nyx Assassin more than Juggernaut.
* Cyclone from Storm in Primal Split can waste Nyx's Spiked Carapace, since its duration is shorter than the Cyclone's.
* Slark's Dark Pact allows him to dispel Silencer's debuffs.
* Against a carry Silencer, Essence Shift will lower damage from both Glaives of Wisdom and his basic attack.
* Heroes who build Black King Bar as either core or situational item will be able to fight back against Nyx Assassin and freely attack him as Spiked Carapace cannot pierce spell immunity at all: Axe, Broodmother, Dawnbreaker, Enigma, Huskar, Jakiro, Legion Commander, Lina, Luna, Lycan, Slardar, Slark, Troll Warlord, Witch Doctor.
* Heroes with silencing abilities can be particularly deadly when Slark is trying to escape: Silencer, Death Prophet, Puck, Doom.
* Even though Nyx Assassin can easily kill Luna with his high burst damage, Luna can also do the same to him if he is not careful.
* Lucent Beam can deal a fair amount of damage to Nyx Assassin if he has no Spiked Carapace available to use. Although Luna should be patient using Lucent Beam on Nyx Assassin when he uses Spiked Carapace.
* As Luna commonly buys Black King Bar, she can use it to freely attack Nyx Assassin whenever he tries to defend himself with Spiked Carapace during teamfights. Luna can also buy Eye of Skadi and Manta Style to survive Nyx Assassin's burst damage and distract him.
* Though Vendetta can deal serious damage to Luna and avoid Eclipse, smart Luna will always buy Dust of Appearance to provide vision on Nyx Assassin to her and her team.
Additional:
* Even though Nyx Assassin can easily kill Luna with his high burst damage, Luna can also do the same to him if he is not careful.
* Lucent Beam can deal a fair amount of damage to Nyx Assassin if he has no Spiked Carapace available to use. Although Luna should be patient using Lucent Beam on Nyx Assassin when he uses Spiked Carapace.
* As Luna commonly buys Black King Bar, she can use it to freely attack Nyx Assassin whenever he tries to defend himself with Spiked Carapace during teamfights. Luna can also buy Eye of Skadi and Manta Style to survive Nyx Assassin's burst damage and distract him.
* Though Vendetta can deal serious damage to Luna and avoid Eclipse, smart Luna will always buy Dust of Appearance to provide vision on Nyx Assassin to her and her team.
* Corrosive Haze hinders Nyx Assassin's ganking attempts with Vendetta, as well as reducing his armor and make him very vulnerable due to his low health pool.
* Guardian Sprint allows Slardar to catch up with Nyx Asssassin and finish him off if he has vision over him.
* Silencer's low mobility and lack of any stuns or roots makes him an easy target.
* Silence will not protect Silencer from Jingu Mastery's extra damage and lifesteal.
* Monkey King often buys Black King Bar, which can be used to negate silence debuff effects.
* Ranged heroes will have a hard time hitting enemies inside Magnetic Field: Silencer, Viper.
* Heroes that have a weak laning stage: Spectre, Nyx Assassin, Clockwerk, Spirit Breaker, Omniknight, Pudge.
* Heroes who rely on passive abilities and attacks, such as Drow Ranger, Wraith King, and Lone Druid, can render Silencer useless. But remember that a smart Silencer will most likely buy Silver Edge to counter this if he is played as carry.
* 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.
* Heroes with invisibility will be detected by Thirst when they have low enough health: Bounty Hunter, Templar Assassin, Riki, Clinkz, Weaver, Treant Protector, Nyx Assassin.
Additional:
* While Burrowing, Nyx is an easy target for a Blood Rite, and his only way to counter it is a well-timed Spiked Carapace.
* Thirst is always a threat to Nyx Assassin, hindering his attempt of escape using Vendetta and rendering him unable to surprise Bloodseeker's allies.
* Rupture also prevents Nyx Assassin from escaping with Vendetta, as it forces him to stay still.
* Heroes that can disable or silence Silencer for a long time, such as Bane and Legion Commander, can lock down Silencer while their allies put him down.
* Heroes who build Black King Bar as either core or situational item will be able to fight back against Nyx Assassin and freely attack him as Spiked Carapace cannot pierce spell immunity at all: Axe, Broodmother, Dawnbreaker, Enigma, Huskar, Jakiro, Legion Commander, Lina, Luna, Lycan, Slardar, Slark, Troll Warlord, Witch Doctor.
* Heroes with damage-increasing passive abilities, such as Viper and Riki, will usually kill Silencer in a short time before he even has time to set up his abilities.
* Nyx Assassin's skillset is mostly single-targeted, therefore he will have difficulties against heroes with illusions and summons: Naga Siren, Broodmother, Lycan, Visage, Phantom Lancer. And to make things worse, Nyx Asassin is not a common Battle Fury, Maelstrom, Mjollnir, Gleipnir or Radiance wielder to counter this problem.
* Fragile supports with low armor are always a good prey, also her Psionic Trap will wear down most attempts to flee with their built-in disables: Silencer, Crystal Maiden, Warlock, Ancient Apparition, Grimstroke, Witch Doctor
* 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.
* Some abilities deals damage from an independent source and not from the hero itself, so Nyx cannot counter them with Spiked Carapace: illusions or summoning units, Homing Missile, Nimbus, Mass Serpent Ward, Death Ward and especially Techies's mines.
* Phantom Assassin doesn't care about Silencer's spells as she relies on right-clicks more than spells.
* Phantom Assassin often builds Black King Bar, which allows her to remove Global Silence before engaging.
* Heroes with heavy early and mid-game magical damage are also problematic for Phantom Assassin due to being able to easily kill her before she can gain an item advantage over them: Lina, Necrophos, Nyx Assassin, Gyrocopter, Jakiro, Death Prophet.
* Shadow Fiend is mostly played as right-click carry and natural Black King Bar carrier, making Silencer's spells very ineffective against him.
* Large area-of-effect with delay or require channeling: Enigma, Crystal Maiden, Invoker, Shadow Fiend, Pugna, Keeper of the Light, Dawnbreaker.
* A well-timed Doom prevents Nyx Assassin escaping with Vendetta and fighting back with Spiked Carapace.
* Doom's high health also allows him to easily shrug off Nyx Assassin's burst damage and fend him off.
* Heroes with low mana pools (eg.Doom andTidehunter) will feel the effects of Silencer's Intelligence Steal far more than others.
* Global Silence stops Snapfire's Mortimer Kisses.
* Last Word can prevent Snapfire from casting additional spells.
* Spiked Carapace stops Snapfire's Mortimer Kisses.
* Terrorblade is a double-edged sword type of matchup against Silencer. Although Terrorblade is more reliant on direct attacks to be effective, he relies on Sunder to save himself and stay alive and Last Word and Global Silence prevent him from doing that.
* Arcane Curse and Aghanim's Scepter upgraded Last Word help Silencer deal with Terrorblade's illusions from Conjure Image and Manta Style.
* With Last Word Mutes talent, Silencer can not only disable Terrorblade from turning tables with Sunder, but can also prevent him from using Manta Style and Black King Bar, items Terrorblade needs to be effective in teamfights.
* Glaives of Wisdom deals pure damage against the real Terrorblade, bypassing his high base armor.
* Global Silence can silence Terrorblade even if he has Black King Bar active, though bear in mind that Terrorblade can dispel Global Silence with Manta Style and Black King Bar if the Global Silence was activated first.
Additional:
* Silencer is a double-edged sword type of matchup against Terrorblade. Although Terrorblade is more reliant on direct attacks to be effective, he relies on Sunder to save himself and stay alive and Last Word and Global Silence prevent him from doing that.
* Arcane Curse, Glaives of Wisdom upgraded with 2 Glaives of Wisdom Bounces talent and Aghanim's Scepter upgraded Last Word help Silencer deal with Terrorblade's illusions from Conjure Image and Manta Style.
* With Last Word Mutes talent, Silencer can not only disable Terrorblade from turning tables with Sunder, but can also prevent him from using Manta Style and Black King Bar, items Terrorblade needs to be effective in teamfights.
* Glaives of Wisdom deals magical damage against the real Terrorblade, bypassing his high base armor. Later it can be upgraded with 2 Glaives of Wisdom Bounces talent to deal against Terrorblade's illusions. Alternatively, Silencer is a natural Revenant's Brooch wielder, which gives him another way to damaging Terrorblade through his high base armor.
* Global Silence can silence Terrorblade even if he has Black King Bar active, though bear in mind that Terrorblade can dispel Global Silence with Manta Style and Black King Bar if the Global Silence was activated first.
* Nyx Assassin deals large amounts of pure damage with Vendetta and magical damage with Impale and Mind Flare, allowing him to ignore Terrorblade's armor and burst his low health pool down before he can use Sunder.
* Nyx Assassin commonly buys Urn of Shadows, Dagon and Meteor Hammer which deal magic damage that ignore Terrorblade's armor.
* However, Terrorblade is a natural Eye of Skadi and Black King Bar wielder, and once he gets those items, Nyx Assassin's solo kill potential against Terrorblade will be gone.
* Silencer can reduce Muerta's damage output with his Glaives of Wisdom, and since he commonly buys Revenant's Brooch, he will be able to attack her even through Pierce the Veil.
* Silencer has reliable, long-range silences in Last Word and Global Silence, preventing Muerta from using her spells as effectively.
* As Muerta tends to use her spells, particularly Dead Shot; Arcane Curse is very effective against her as that can punish her for doing so.
* Nyx Assassin's high burst damage, excellent ganking potential and multiple disables pose a threat to Muerta at all stages of the game.
* Mind Flare allows Nyx Assassin to take advantage of Muerta's high intelligence and make a short work of her low health.
* Spiked Carapace and Vendetta allow Nyx to escape or initiate well against Muerta's low mobility.
* As with most retaliation based abilities, Spiked Carapace can easily take advantage of Gunslinger's stray shots.
* However, Muerta is a natural Black King Bar wielder. And if she succeeds to activate it before Nyx Assassin can ambush her, he will go down very quickly against Muerta as Spiked Carapace cannot pierce through debuff immunity at all.
* Invoker is heavily dependent on his spells, making him useless during Global Silence, as well as interrupting Invoker during his combo.
* Arcane Curse is particularly deadly, because Invoker will continuously lose health if he keeps invoking and casting new spells.
* Last Word will silence Invoker when he casts Invoke, interrupting his combo.
* Nyx Assassin can simply activate Spiked Carapace while under many Invoker's abilities to stun him.
* Nyx Assassin takes advantage of Invoker's massive intelligence gain to do tons of damage using Mind Flare, as the spell does more damage based on the target's intelligence.
* Vendetta burns a large amount of Invoker's essential mana pool.
* Generally strong against lots of spellcaster-themed heroes, Puck fully relies on its skill set and cannot do almost anything when silenced.
* Arcane Curse disables Blink Dagger for quite some time, and is also effective against Puck as it tends to use its spells a lot.
* Glaives of Wisdom can do a lot of damage against Puck due to Puck's low agility gain and armor.
* Last Word can prevent Puck from getting a full combo off, limiting its effectiveness in team fights or ganks.
* Global Silence can take Puck out of fights entirely because of its long-duration silence.
* Illusory Orb is easy to reflect with Spiked Carapace, either stunning Puck and setting up an easy Impale or forcing a premature Phase Shift.
* Puck is an intelligence hero that tends to build intelligence items, making it vulnerable to Mana Burn.
* An ill-timed Phase Shift can easily set Puck up to be stunned by Impale.
* Puck's low base armor and below average agility gain mean it is always susceptible to Vendetta.
Additional:
* Nyx Assassin can take advantage of every one of Puck's weaknesses. His entire skill set is very effective in countering Puck.
* Because Illusory Orb is such a slow moving projectile, Nyx Assassin can simply walk into the orb and activate Spiked Carapace, stunning Puck and setting up an easy Impale. This can be circumvented by using Phase Shift while the orb is traveling, however, that means that Puck cannot use Phase Shift to dodge any other skill nor use it to safely blink away from a fight.
* Puck is an intelligence hero that likes to build intelligence items such as Eul's Scepter of Divinity, Scythe of Vyse, and Dagon. This makes Mind Flare that much more deadly against Puck.
* An ill-timed Phase Shift can turn into an easy setup for Impale.
* Crystal Maiden is squishy, is heavily spell reliant, has low base Intelligence, and is naturally slow, making her an ideal target for Silencer.
* Crystal Maiden's Freezing Field has a similar cooldown to Global Silence, therefore, Freezing Field can almost always be canceled to ruin aggressive Crystal Maiden initiations.
* Crystal Maiden has a very bad movement speed, so Impale is easy to land against her. Furthermore, even while trapped by Frostbite, Nyx Assassin can still cast Impale.
* Crystal Maiden has very low armor, so Vendetta is very effective.
* Nyx Assassin has two ways to stop Freezing Field, provided she doesn't get a Black King Bar. He can either pop Spiked Carapace and simply walk into the field, or he can use Impale to interrupt the field, since Crystal Maiden has to channel it.
Additional:
* Spiked Carapace easily interrupts Freezing Field.
* Frostbite's damage over time sets up an easy Spiked Carapace stun.
* Crystal Maiden is extremely fragile and dies quickly to Nyx Assassin's burst damage.
* Being a cast-oriented hero, Ezalor will suffer from all of Silencer's abilities.
* Global Silence is a guaranteed lengthy silence which will render Ezalor useless in a teamfight.
* Arcane Curse and Last Word are good against any caster, since they are extremely potent.
* However, it should be worth mentioning that a smart Ezalor will buy Eul's Scepter of Divinity to dispel Silencer's abilities. Combined with the level 20 talent (Chakra Magic applies a basic dispel), Ezalor can purge Silencer's abilities off allies and himself alike.
* Spiked Carapace can be used to reflect Illuminate damage and stun Keeper of the Light.
* Vendetta allows Nyx Assassin to follow Keeper of the Light around if he tries to split-push.
* Keeper of the Light is very squishy and will very quickly die to Vendetta and it's followup abilities.
* Arcane Curse punishes Necrophos if tries to spam Death Pulse, increasing the duration of the slow and damage taken over time.
* Last Word heavily damages Necrophos and also silence him for a lenghty duration.
* Glaives of Wisdom will reduce temporarily Necrophos intelligence on each hit dealing hindering his ability to spam Death Pulse, also reducing his attack damage and mana pool; dealing increasing amounts of phisical and pure damage each time. Silencer will permanently steal Necrophos intelligence if Necrophos is killed by him or if he dies nears him.
* Global Silence turns Necrophos almost useless for a long time, allowing Silencer and his team to easily dispatch him, since Necrohpos heavily relies on his spells to survive.
* The huge physical damage taken from Vendetta will force Necrophos to use Ghost Shroud, which is good for a followup with Dagon and Ethereal Blade, both of which are common items on Nyx Assassin.
* Using Ghost Shroud also sets Necrophos up for a Mind Flare or Impale.
* Pugna is very reliant on his abilities for damage which Silencer can take advantage off. But he has to be careful around the Nether Ward as Silencer's abilities cost a lot of mana to use.
* Nether Blast's animation makes it easy to time Spiked Carapace for a stun.
* Pugna has the largest intelligence gain in the game, making him a prime target for Mana Burn.
* Pugna needs to channel Life Drain, making him easy to hit with Impale.
Additional:
* Due to Pugna's incredible intelligence growth and terrible strength growth, Nyx should always be able to take you out with his combo, with or without an added Dagon. Mind Flare will deal a large amount of damage in particular, especially in the late game.
* Spiked Carapace is also a great tool versus Pugna. A good player will wait for you in Vendetta until you farm a creep wave with Nether Blast and reflect it back at you as their initiation and setup for Impale.
* Glaives of Wisdom's intelligence steal will heavily punish Queen of Pain, as the loss of intelligence means that her mana pool is also reduced, since she is heavily reliant on her abilities to be able to make an impact.
* In the laning stage, Queen of Pain's reliance on spamming Shadow Strike and Scream of Pain will be significantly hindered by Arcane Curse.
* Last Word and Global Silence will render Queen of Pain defenseless unless she has an item/ally to dispel the silence.
* A good Nyx can reflect Queen of Pain's Sonic Wave with his Spiked Carapace, or even initiate a gank on her in Vendetta while she farms a creep wave with Scream of Pain.
* Her strength to intelligence ratio is bad enough that he should be able to kill her without even requiring a Dagon, provided he can get his full combo off.
* Silencer will most likely disrupt an initiation with his ultimate, Global Silence, prevent escape with his Last Word, and if Phoenix happens to die to him (or near him) enough times, he would sap enough of Phoenix's much needed Intelligence to make him a stronger foe and Phoenix with less mana than it already had.
* Spiked Carapace reacts on any of the damage over time from Phoenix's abilities and can interrupt Sun Ray and Icarus Dive.
* Last Word and Arcane Curse have the range to hit Dark Willow beyond Bramble Maze.
* Global Silence renders Dark Willow useless in teamfights.
* Nyx Assassin's high burst damage can be the bane of Dark Willow, as her low health makes it difficult to survive long enough to escape through Shadow Realm.
* Spiked Carapace can be triggered by walking deliberately into Bramble Maze, leaving Dark Willow stunned and defenseless.
* Silencer's abilities hamper Windranger's effectiveness in battle, preventing her from comboing abilities and escaping using Windrun.
Additional:
* Glaives of Wisdom's intelligence steal can prove detrimental to Windranger, as she heavily relies on her abilities to be able to make an impact.
* Silencer's abilities hamper Windranger's effectiveness in battle, preventing her from comboing abilities and escaping using Windrun.
* Many of Nyx Assassin's abilities are good against Windranger.
* Impale is great for stunning Windranger and allowing additional disables to be landed.
* Mind Flare is useful against Windranger's decent intelligence growth.
* Spiked Carapace is easy to use against Powershot.
* Vendetta allows Nyx Assassin to sneak up on and deal massive damage to Windranger without giving Windranger a chance to use Windrun to evade it.
* Nyx Assassin's item build allows him to easily deal with Windranger.
* Because Warlock's abilities are all active abilities, Silencer can make his impact minimal.
* Arcane Curse prevents Warlock from using his abilities without increasing it's duration, which since all of Warlock's abilities are actives it is very effective against him.
* Last Word can prevent Warlock from casting his Fatal Bonds, Chaotic Offering, and Upheaval combo.
* Global Silence can nullify Warlock's impact in fights by preventing him from casting Fatal Bonds and Chaotic Offering, or by interrupting his Upheaval.
* Impale and Spiked Carapace interrupts Upheaval with ease.
* Warlock's low health pool, mobility, and high intelligence gain makes him a prime target for Nyx Assassin's burst damage.
* Silencer's Intelligence Steal will heavily reduce Outworld Destroyer's damage output, particularly from Sanity's Eclipse.
* Last Word and Global Silence will take Outworld Destroyer out of the fight unless he has built Black King Bar.
Additional:
* Silencer's intelligence steal will heavily reduce Outworld Destroyer's damage output, especially if Destroyer dies a lot near Silencer and loses intelligence permanently.
* Global Silence and Last Word will render Outworld Destroyer helpless unless he has an item/ally to dispel silence.
* Outworld Destroyer's high intelligence gain and fragility makes him an easy target for a massive Mana Burn, as well as killing him outwards with Nyx Assassin's high burst damage.
* Astral Imprisonment can be easily exploited by Nyx Assassin with his abilities. As long as Astral Imprisonment was not cast on Nyx Assassin, it will make an opportunity for an easy stun, either by Spiked Carapace (if Outworld Destroyer hid his allies or your allies) or Impale (if he hid himself). If Astral Imprisonment was cast on Nyx Assassin, using Spiked Carapace while banished will proc the stun after the disable, since Spike Carapace has a 0 second cast time and Astral Imprisonment deals damage right after the disable ends.
* An ill-timed Sanity's Eclipse and/or well timed Spiked Carapace can deal a lot of damage to Outworld Destroyer and stun him, unless Outworld Destroyer used Black King Bar beforehand.
Additional:
* Outworld Destroyer's high intelligence makes him a good target for Mind Flare.
* If timed correctly, Spiked Carapace will return the full damage from Sanity's Eclipse back to Outworld Destroyer. Even a reflected Arcane Orb can deal significant damage and make him vulnerable to a follow-up from Nyx Assassin.
* Spiked Carapace is also the perfect tool against Astral Imprisonment: if used on Nyx, he can reflect the damage back as he comes out of the prison by casting the ability while imprisoned.
* Silencer burns easily through her effective HP from Mana Shield, by taking away her intelligence.
* Arcane Curse punishes her repeatedly casting Mystic Snake to keep her mana pool high. He can force her to use Manta Style before he has cast Global Silence and Medusa usually does not want to build Black King Bar.
* Vendetta burns a significant amount of mana on hit, and the damage from the ability drains Medusa's mana pool even further.
* Due to the passive nature of Mystic Snake and Split Shot, it can possibly proc Nyx's Spiked Carapace if he's within range of Medusa's abilities and isn't invisible.
* Medusa lacks single target damage, making Nyx with Aghanim's Scepter extremely hard to deal with if Medusa is the team's main damage source.
Additional:
* With her passive Split Shot, Medusa can be easily interrupted by Spiked Carapace during combat, especially during her precious Stone Gaze.
* Mana Burn quickly destroys Mana Shield, especially if Medusa only increases her mana pool by bolstering intelligence (which has the added bonus of increasing Mana Burn's damage).
* Uncontrollable damage from Mystic Snake and Split Shot can trigger Spiked Carapace.
* Medusa lacks single target damage, making a Burrowed Nyx Assassin hard to kill.
* Silencer can stop Rearm, preventing Tinker from spamming his abilities/items or escaping.
* Tinker heavily relies on his mana pool and has mana issues throughout the entire game and Silencer's intelligence steal does not help with that.
Additional:
* As Tinker relies heavily on his spells to be effective, Last Word and Global Silence will render him largely useless.
* Arcane Curse effectively prevents Tinker from casting spells during its duration, as he will otherwise suffer heavy damage.
* Glaives of Wisdom deal pure damage, which make quick work of fragile heroes like Tinker.
* Silencer's intelligence steal permanently weakens Tinker since he's a hero who requires lots of mana to be effective.
* Heat-Seeking Missile allow easy Spiked Carapace stuns.
* As a fragile hero that relies on mana and intelligence items, Tinker is vulnerable to Mana Burn.
* Nyx Assassin's stuns can interrupt Rearm and leave Tinker helpless.
Additional:
* Nyx Assassin's whole skillset is good against Tinker:
* Impale prevents Tinker from blinding Nyx Assassin or fighting back, while giving Nyx' allies time to catch up to Tinker's position.
* Mind Flare generally deals more damage to intelligence based heroes like Tinker.
* Spiked Carapace can stun Tinker at a moment of Nyx Assassin's choosing if March of the Machines has been cast. It is also quite easy to time Spiked Carapace against Heat Seeking Missiles.
* Vendetta allows Nyx to approach Tinker in the trees or wait for him in common hiding spots and deal heavy damage to his low armor.
* Basically, Heroes that heavily rely on abilities for damage or escape, such as Queen of Pain and Storm Spirit.
Additional:
* Silencer's Intelligence Steal can reduce Storm Spirit's damage output if he gets some kills on laning phase.
* Last Word and Global Silence will make Storm Spirit an easy target.
* Global Silence can be used to prevent Storm Spirit from connecting abilities after a Ball Lightning on his targets.
* Mana Burn removes much-needed mana for Ball Lightning.
* Spiked Carapace triggers on Static Remnant for an easy stun.
Additional:
* Vendetta is capable of removing most of Storm Spirit's large mana pool, along with dealing heavy damage and quickly depleting his chances of escaping a gank or fight.
* Heroes with low mana pools (eg.Doom andTidehunter) will feel the effects of Silencer's Intelligence Steal far more than others.
* Ravage's travel time allows Nyx Assassin to easily stun Tidehunter with Spiked Carapace.
* Vendetta can instantly deplete Tidehunter's low mana pool, especially in the early game, potentially preventing Tidehunter from casting Ravage.
* Silences and other types of lockdown that prevent Weaver from using his spells: Silencer, Riki, Lion, Legion Commander, Shadow Shaman, Bane.
* Spiked Carapace allows Nyx to get an easy long-duration stun on Weaver once he uses Shukuchi, and then he can follow up with Impale.
* Vendetta works as a great setup for both Impale and Spiked Carapace and can deal decent damage to Weaver. Additionally he can neutralize The Swarm beetles due to his invisibility duration.
* Global Silence takes Omniknight out of the fight completely.
* Glaives of Wisdom are a great harass vs Omniknight during the laning stages of the game, since it doesn't aggro creeps & ignores his high base armor. It deals pure damage, which means it can also go through Guardian Angel.
* Silencer's intelligence steal can also cause Omniknight to falter in the early phases as it reduces his ability to use his spells.
* Heroes who can drain mana can make Omniknight useless after he uses one or two abilities: Lion, Anti-Mage, Nyx Assassin.
* Heroes who build Black King Bar as either core or situational item will be able to fight back against Nyx Assassin and freely attack him as Spiked Carapace cannot pierce spell immunity at all: Axe, Broodmother, Dawnbreaker, Enigma, Huskar, Jakiro, Legion Commander, Lina, Luna, Lycan, Slardar, Slark, Troll Warlord, Witch Doctor.
* Arcane Curse makes it too difficult Lina from using her abilities, preventing her from building up Fiery Soul stacks without causing harm to herself.
* Last Word and Global Silence are great against Lina for the same reason, as well as interrupting her combos and preventing her from casting spells.
* Mind Flare does tons of damage against Lina because of her high intelligence.
* Vendetta can deal heavy damage to Lina while also burning her mana, preventing Lina from casting her abilities.
* Spiked Carapace can easily be used to counter Lina's abilities because of their long cast animation, and could probably kill Lina outright if Laguna Blade is reflected. However, Lina can counter this with Eul's Scepter of Divinity, a common item on Lina.
* 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.
* Global Silence and Last Word can prevent Ember Spirit from casting Activate Fire Remnant to escape.
* Glaives of Wisdom also provide high pure damage that is not negated by Flame Guard.
* Arcane Curse is also a potent harassing tool in the laneing stage as its cooldown is lower than Flame Guard's.
* With Vendetta, Nyx Assassin can move closely to Ember Spirit when he's farming with his Flame Guard and use Spiked Carapace with Impale to provide a reliable and long disable.
Additional:
* Spiked Carapace can be easily triggered by Flame Guard or Battle Fury, setting up a deadly Impale.
* 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 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 silences : Bloodseeker, Riki, Silencer.
* Heroes that can pick you off: Clinkz, Nyx Assassin, Puck, Riki.
* Heroes with silence such as Riki, Silencer, or Night Stalker prevents Skywrath Mage from using his spells.
* Slow-moving projectiles: Skywrath Mage, Tinker, Necrophos
Additional:
* Skywrath Mage's low health makes him rather easy prey for Nyx Assassin and his lack of armor generally means he'll take the full brunt of a Vendetta strike.
* Mind Flare turns Skywrath Mage's high intelligence growth against him and deals heavy damage.
* Spiked Carapace gives Nyx some degree of protection against Skywrath's spells.
* 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.
* Nyx can walk into Firefly with Spiked Carapace and stun Batrider if he has no Spell Immunity, even if Batrider is focusing on other enemy hero.
* Vendetta can deal great damage against her. However, it requires an direct attack, so Nyx Assassin may have difficulties applying Vendetta on her.
* Enchantress's lack of mobility makes her a primary target for ganking with Vendetta.
* Mind Flare can deal a great damage against her due to being an Intelligence hero.
* Spiked Carapace can reflect Impetus and stun Enchantress.
Additional:
* Spiked Carapace reflects the damage from Impetus.
* Enchantress is a rather squishy hero, making her fall easily to Nyx Assassin's high burst damage.
* Arcane Curse stacks every time Bristleback uses an ability, forcing him to stop spamming his abilities, or take heavy health degeneration.
* Glaives of Wisdom steals intelligence both permanently and temporarily, causing mana issues for Bristleback.
* Last Word and Global Silence stops Bristleback from using his abilities altogether.
Additional:
* Bristleback will not be able to cast Viscous Nasal Goo or Quill Spray while silenced, effectively blocking a major part of the hero's damage and preventing Warpath charges from stacking.
* Arcane Curse slows Bristleback down and lasts longer the more abilities he uses. On the other hand, if he doesn't use any abilities, he will begin to lose Warpath charges.
* Nyx's Spiked Carapace can reflect the damage of Sharpshooter, instantly killing hoodwink. Nyx can also use Vendetta to position himself in such a way to screen allies from Sharpshooter and catch Hoodwink by surprise.
* A well-timed Global Silence prevents Dazzle from saving allies with Shallow Grave or Shadow Wave. Items that could dispel the silence are expensive, and difficult for Dazzle to farm from a support role.
* Arcane Curse and Last Word cause long damage over time, which may outlast Shallow Grave.
* Zeus' main source of damage is his low cooldown, high damage spells - meaning Last Word and Global Silence will pretty much take him out of the game for the duration.
* Zeus likes to spam his abilities, which makes him vulnerable to Arcane Curse.
* If Zeus dies near Silencer, he will begin to lose intelligence, reducing his mana pool, mana regen, and attack damage. Furthermore, if the game is long and Zeus dies often, the intelligence losses will also reduce his spell damage.
Additional:
* Silencer's Global Silence will render Zeus useless for 6 seconds in a team fight.
* Arcane Curse will punish Zeus for casting spells, which can cause continuous damage to him should he continue to cast spells.
* Last Word can silence Zeus and prevent him from spamming his spells.
* Silencer often builds Orchid Malevolence (or Bloodthorn) which can be used on spell casters like Zeus, forcing him to invest in a Linken's Sphere.
* Timbersaw is heavily reliant on his abilities for damage and escape, allowing Silencer to effectively disable him and make him useless in both team fights and 1v1 scenarios.
Additional:
* Arcane Curse deals repeated stacks of damage to Timbersaw because he relies on constantly using his abilities.
* Glaives of Wisdom deals pure damage and when cast manually, nearby creeps will not attack silencer, making it an effective harassment tool. The intelligence steal is also especially potent against Timbersaw since he often uses up all of his mana throughout the entire game.
* Although Last Word takes a while to trigger, it will break Timbersaw's ability combo and can be used to silence him.
* Global Silence will silence Timbersaw no matter where he is on the map. This can be used to help allies get a kill on him, or prevent Timbersaw from killing someone.
* Impale and Spiked Carapace can be used to cancel Dismember easily, and can even do so when Pudge uses it on Nyx Assassin, if timed correctly.
* Nyx Assassin's Spiked Carapace will stun Leshrac when hit by any of his AOE abilities.
* Mind Flare deals high damage due to Leshrac's high intelligence gain.
* Vendetta burns a large amount of Leshrac's essential mana pool.
* Kunkka relies on his powerful AOE spells to turn the tides of teamfights. He cannot use them while silenced.
* Last Word can mess up Kunkka's ability synergy, silencing him in the middle of his strong combo.
* Global Silence can disable Kunkka's spell casting from anywhere on the map, even if Kunkka is spell immune at the time.
* Shadow Demon's main source of damage is his low cooldown, high damage spells - meaning Last Word and Global Silence will pretty much take him out of the game for the duration.
* Shadow Demon likes to spam his abilities, which makes him vulnerable to Arcane Curse.
* If Shadow Demon dies near Silencer, he will lose intelligence, reducing his mana pool, mana regen, and attack damage. Furthermore, if the game is long and Shadow Demon dies often, the intelligence losses will also reduce his spell damage.
* Heroes who build Black King Bar as either core or situational item will be able to fight back against Nyx Assassin and freely attack him as Spiked Carapace cannot pierce spell immunity at all: Axe, Broodmother, Dawnbreaker, Enigma, Huskar, Jakiro, Legion Commander, Lina, Luna, Lycan, Slardar, Slark, Troll Warlord, Witch Doctor.
* Arcane Curse can be cast from a long range to put Enigma's Blink Dagger on cooldown.
* Global Silence can interrupt Enigma's Black Hole channeling through Black King Bar and Linken's Sphere, making Silencer one of Enigma's hard counters. But bear in mind that Global Silence can be dispelled with Black King Bar if activated first.
Additional:
* Silencer can easily ruin Enigma's initiation, as Global Silence cancels Black Hole, even through Black King Bar and Linken's Sphere.
* Enigma is fragile, and lacks escapes, being dependent on Blink Dagger for mobility. Ganking Heroes or Heroes with burst damage will likely kill him before he can do anything. Such Heroes include: Lina, Lion, Luna, Puck, Slark, Nyx Assassin, etc.
Additional:
* Enigma's uncontrollable damage from Malefice and Midnight Pulse make him easy to stun with Spiked Carapace.
* Black Hole can be easily interrupted by Impale or Spiked Carapace.
* Arcane Curse can effectively discourage Undying from casting his spammable abilities in a team fight, as Undying will have to suffer more damage and the slow due to the penalty duration of Arcane Curse.
* Last Word and Global Silence are able to silence Undying for up to 6 seconds, preventing Undying from gaining strength and healing his ally or himself.
* Vendetta disables Vengeance Aura and allows him to attack Vengeful Spirit with Impale and Mind Flare.
* Spiked Carapace is easy to use against a Wave of Terror or Magic Missile.
* Heroes with silencing abilities that are not blocked by Linken's Sphere, like Puck's Waning Rift, Death Prophet's Silence or Silencer's Global Silence.
* Heroes with either magical, physical or pure damage burst can often kill Chen or his allies before he can use Hand of God: Lina, Luna, Techies, Shadow Fiend, Pugna, Nyx Assassin.
* Heroes with silences and hard stuns such as Doom, Silencer, and Lion can keep Mirana from Leaping away.
* Heroes with invisibility: (Riki, Clinkz, Nyx Assassin.
* Lion is extremely dependent on his abilities. Silences like Silencer's Last Word, magic resistance like Oracle's Fate's Edict, and dispels like Legion Commander's Press the Attack all make his abilities less effective.
* Heroes with either magical, physical or pure damage burst: Bane, Ember Spirit, Leshrac, Lina, Luna, Nyx Assassin, Phantom Assassin, Skywrath Mage, Tinker, Ursa, Void Spirit.
* Silencer's Global Silence and Doom's Doom makes Earthshaker temporarily useless.
* Lich is heavily reliant on his abilities to contribute to team fights, so be wary of enemies that can Silence: Bloodseeker, Death Prophet, Silencer, Drow Ranger, Skywrath Mage.
* Heroes who rely on invisibility, such as Bounty Hunter, Clinkz, Mirana, Nyx Assassin and Riki, as they will be revealed if caught by Chronosphere.
* Global Silence has faster-cast animation than Chronosphere, making Silencer can silence Faceless Void before he can cast Chronosphere.
* Heroes who rely on passive abilities and attacks, such as Drow Ranger, Wraith King, and Lone Druid, can render Silencer useless. But remember that a smart Silencer will most likely buy Silver Edge to counter this if he is played as carry.
* Nyx Assassin has a lot of burst damage from his Impale, Mind Flare, Dagon, and the bonus damage from Vendetta. All of this damage is enough to kill Drow Ranger.
* Nyx Assassin is usually invisible most of the time thanks to his ability Vendetta, which allows him to gank Drow Ranger easily.
* However, Gust is extremely dangerous for Nyx Assassin, as it's silence can render Nyx Assassin unable to lock down Drow Ranger. And if Gust hits Nyx Assassin while he is invisible with Vendetta, Drow Ranger will be able to detect him and foil his ganking attempts on her because Gust reveals invisible units.
* 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.
* Spiked Carapace can stop Dawnbreaker's Solar Guardian which will eliminate her global presence and limits her movement around the map.
Additional:
* Spiked Carapace interrupts Starbreaker before Dawnbreaker has her Aghanim's Shard, as well as Solar Guardian during the initial channel, making her ineffective at joining and dealing damage in teamfights.
* The slow projectile and damage over time effect of Celestial Hammer makes it easy to stun Dawnbreaker if she attemps to engage or chase.
* Heroes who build Black King Bar as either core or situational item will be able to fight back against Nyx Assassin and freely attack him as Spiked Carapace cannot pierce spell immunity at all: Axe, Broodmother, Dawnbreaker, Enigma, Huskar, Jakiro, Legion Commander, Lina, Luna, Lycan, Slardar, Slark, Troll Warlord, Witch Doctor.
* Like any hero with a channeled spell, Last Word is a counter to it.
* Global Silence goes through spell immunity and prevents Witch Doctor from casting his spells.
* 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.
* 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.
* 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.
* 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.
* Nyx Assassin might not kill Abaddon with his nuke, but a support Abaddon will struggle to protect an ally from him.
* Due to Sniper having a such a long range, he will rarely get hit by any of Silencer's spells.
* Global Silence will not hinder Sniper much as other heroes since most of his damage output comes from his attacks.
Additional:
* Sniper is a pure right click carry with a very long range, making it hard for Silencer to cast any of his skills on him in lane. During team-fights, Global Silence has little impact on Sniper.
* Assassinate is easy to reflect with Spiked Carapace for massive damage.
* Shrapnel's area damage can set up an easy stun with Spiked Carapace, especially when combined with Vendetta.
* In the early game, Sniper's low health pool and high intelligence makes him easy prey for Nyx Assassin.
* Vulnerable spellcasters with no escape mechanisms are easy targets for Huskar: Lich, Crystal Maiden, Silencer, Keeper of the Light, Venomancer, 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.
* Heroes with pure damage can kill Huskar when he inevitably gets low on health: Outworld Destroyer, Silencer.
* Nyx Assassin can reflect Life Break with Spiked Carapace.
* 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
* 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.
* Any hero with low mobility and max healthsuch as Silencer, Crystal Maiden etc.
* 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.
* Heroes who are entirely reliant on dealing physical damage and/or have very little to no area-of-effect abilities will make Underlord tickle and will have no effect against him thanks to his Atrophy Aura, and will also be unable to ambush Underlord and his team if Underlord chooses to use Fiend's Gate to get to a designated point of the map: Phantom Assassin, Terrorblade, Troll Warlord, Drow Ranger, Phantom Lancer, Chaos Knight, Sven, Wraith King, Bounty Hunter, Alchemist, Templar Assassin, Nyx Assassin, Bane.
* Heroes with magical or pure damage output will not have any problems against Atrophy Aura at all: Luna, Lina, Jakiro, Pugna, Bane, Snapfire, Muerta, Nyx Assassin, Enigma, Tinker, Witch Doctor, Zeus, Crystal Maiden.
* Fortune's End can nullify Arcane Curse, Last Word, and Global Silence, if cast at the right time with the right targets.
* Fate's Edict can prevent Silencer from attacking, which he relies on with Glaives of Wisdom, for a lot of his damage.
* Oracle's reliance on spamming his spells can be easily hindered by Silencer's Arcane Curse.
* Last Word and Global Silence negates Oracle's attempt to save his allies with his spells.
* Fate's Edict is useless against Glaives of Wisdom's pure damage.
To start select enemy heroes in the field above. It's intended to be used with multiple heroes. The more enemy heroes you provide the better results you will get.
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Silencer
* Rage can protect Lifestealer from most of the Silencer's abilities with the exception of Global Silence, as it will still silence if cast while the target is magic immune. However, it will not work if Lifestealer is infesting a unit.
* Silencer is vulnerable to Open Wounds due to his lack of an innate escape.
* Against a carry Silencer, Aghanim's Scepter upgraded Infest can disarm him and allow Lifestealer to attack Silencer from within, even if Silencer is spell immune.
Additional:
* Rage can protect Lifestealer from most of the Silencer's abilities with the exception of Global Silence.
* If Lifestealer can Infest himself on any unit, he can literally avoid being affected by Global Silence.
* Against a carry Silencer, Aghanim's Scepter upgraded Infest can disarm him and allow Lifestealer to attack Silencer from within, even if Silencer is spell immune.
* Open Wounds from Aghanim's Shard can severely slow down Silencer, and allow Lifestealer and his team to heal themselves by attacking Silencer.
Nyx Assassin
* Rage allows Lifestealer to freely attack Nyx Assassin and hunt him down if Vendetta is on cooldown. Nyx Assassin cannot counter Rage with Spiked Carapace because Rage gives Lifestealer spell immunity. And besides Vendetta, Nyx Assassin has no other way of dealing damage to Lifestealer while he is spell immune.
* Open Wounds from Aghanim's Shard allows Lifestealer to severely slow down Nyx Assassin while also allowing his team to recover themselves while attacking Nyx Assassin. Open Wounds can also fester and spread if Nyx Assassin takes enough damage that will trigger the spread while he is affected with Open Wounds.
* Infest combined with an ancient creep makes Nyx Assassin an easy target to surprise with Dust of Appearance or a Gem of True Sight. Aghanim's Scepter upgraded Infest can also allow Lifestealer to infest, disarm and freely attack Nyx Assassin from within. and Nyx Assassin cannot counter this with Spiked Carapace because Lifestealer is invulnerable while attacking the infested enemy hero from within.
* Overall, any attempt for Nyx Assassin to gank and kill Lifestealer will hurt Nyx Assassin more than Lifestealer.
Additional:
* Like with Juggernaut's Blade Fury, Rage allows Lifestealer to freely attack Nyx Assassin and hunt him down if Vendetta is on cooldown. Nyx Assassin cannot counter Rage with Spiked Carapace because Rage gives Lifestealer spell immunity. And besides Vendetta, Nyx Assassin has no other way of dealing damage to Lifestealer while he is spell immune.
* Open Wounds from Aghanim's Shard allows Lifestealer to severely slow down Nyx Assassin while also allowing his team to recover themselves while attacking Nyx Assassin. Open Wounds can also fester and spread if Nyx Assassin takes enough damage that will trigger the spread while he is affected with Open Wounds.
* Infest combined with an ancient creep makes Nyx Assassin an easy target to surprise with Dust of Appearance or a Gem of True Sight. And similarly to Juggernaut's Omnislash and Swiftslash from Aghanim's Scepter, Aghanim's Scepter upgraded Infest can also allow Lifestealer to infest, disarm and freely attack Nyx Assassin from within. And Nyx Assassin cannot counter this with Spiked Carapace because Lifestealer is invulnerable while attacking the infested enemy hero from within.
* Like with Juggernaut, any attempt for Nyx Assassin to gank and kill Lifestealer will hurt Nyx Assassin more than Lifestealer.