*
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.
* 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.
* Fate Edict can completely negate Skywrath Mage's heavy magic damage.
* Fortune End dispels
Ancient Seal.
* Oracle can negate and shut down Primal Beast simply with Fate's Edict, especially in the early game, as a majority of his damage-dealing spells are magic.
* Oracle can interrupt Primal Beast's
Onslaught charge with a well-timed Fortune's End.
* Primal Beast's lethal burst damage combos can be further stalled with False Promise; combined with Fate's Edict and regen from Purifying Flames, Oracle can even completely negate Primal Beast's offense.
* Due to his low health and armor, Riki can easily kill Skywrath Mage.
* Smoke Screen prevents Skywrath from using all of his abilities, as he does not tend to buy
Black King Bar.
* However, Skywrath Mage can easily kill Riki if he manages to root Riki with Rod of Atos or Gleipnir, followed by Dust of Appearance, Ancient Seal and Mystic Flare.
* Heroes with a high degree of mobility and invisibility are hard to catch with Meat Hook:
Ember Spirit,
Riki,
Clinkz,
Queen of Pain.
* Heroes with silence such as
Riki,
Silencer, or
Night Stalker prevents Skywrath Mage from using his spells.
*
Void's mini-stun and silence from
Crippling Fear will stop Pudge from using Dismember or turning off his Rot.
* Night Stalker has naturally high health, strength gain and common itemization for survivability through magic resistance, making Night Stalker a poor target for Pudge.
* Skywrath Mage also has a terrible time fighting against anything that isn't a hero. His skills are mostly target-based and he has terrible strength and agility, he can easily be kited or harassed by illusion-based heroes like
Chaos Knight and
Phantom Lancer, or by Heroes that summon other units like
Lone Druid,
Lycan and
Beastmaster.
* Unlike any other illusion heroes, Chaos Knight is the worst target for Pudge to hook as it will definitely backfire him.
*
Phantasm are significantly tankier than most illusion and deal full damage, which will quickly kill Pudge due to his low armor.
* it becomes worse if pudge is affected with
Reality Rift, which reduces his already abysmal base armor even lower.
* Low movement speed and low mobility means Pudge will struggle to escape or outrun Chaos Knight in most cases.
* 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.
*
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.
* Fragile heroes: Bounty Hunter has decent nuking capabilities with Shiruken Toss and Jinada thus making fragile heroes easy picks for ganking. Few examples of such heroes are:
Crystal Maiden,
Pugna,
Skywrath Mage,
Io,
Witch Doctor, etc.
*
Track can easily keep vision on Pudge, making it very hard for him to hook Bounty Hunter or his teammates from the fog of war.
*
Shuriken Toss cancels Dismember from great range.
*
Mana Break drains Skywrath Mage of his mana, slowing him and dealing bonus damage while rendering him unable to cast his spells.
*
Blink makes it incredibly easy for Anti-Mage to close the gap between himself Skywrath Mage to right-click him down. He can also use Blink to get away and escape into fog of war.
* Anti-Mage passively reduces enemy spell damage with
Counterspell, and can activate the ability to block and send back Skywrath's Ancient Seal or Arcane Bolt, causing him to silence himself or deal massive damage to himself.
* Skywrath Mage's large mana-costs makes him an easy target for
Mana Void.
* Anti-Mage often builds
Black King Bar and
Manta Style which can dispel Ancient Seal and Concussive Shot.
* If Meat Hook is used before
Blink, Anti-Mage may be able to escape Pudge's grasp by blinking to safety.
*
Counterspell grants Anti-Mage a large degree of magic resistance, a damage type Pudge is highly reliant on to secure kills. This makes Anti-Mage a bad target for Pudge. The active can also block Dismember if timed correctly.
*
Mana Break can quickly drain Pudge's low supply of mana, which may render Meat Hook and Dismember unusable.
* 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.
* Skywrath Mage also has a terrible time fighting against anything that isn't a hero. His skills are mostly target-based and he has terrible strength and agility, he can easily be kited or harassed by illusion-based heroes like
Chaos Knight and
Phantom Lancer, or by Heroes that summon other units like
Lone Druid,
Lycan and
Beastmaster.
* Any heroes that naturally buy
Diffusal Blade like
Phantom Lancer or have a mana break talent is a big issue for Pudge because of his low mana pool.
* Skywrath Mage's very low health allows Monkey King to ambush and finish him off quickly.
* Pudge is particularly susceptible to Bristleback's
Viscous Nasal Goo and
Quill Spray due to his naturally low armor and poor agility gain.
* Bristleback, in combination with his strength gain, high health, common itemization for magic resistance and damage reduction from
Bristleback makes him a poor target for Pudge.
*
Doom disables the toggling of Rot and, if cast at the right time, may leave Pudge with a potentially lethal health drain.
* Doom's naturally high health, strength gain and damage output makes him a poor target for Pudge.
* The damage of Doom's
Infernal Blade scales with the target's maximum health, which is particularly effective against Pudge due to his naturally high health and further health granted by stacks of Flesh Heap.
* The lifesteal of
Feast scales accordingly to the max health of its target, which is effective against Pudge due to his high health and further health granted by stacks of Flesh Heap.
* Lifestealer can activate
Rage to be spell immune, making Rot deal no damage.
* Pudge's plentiful health makes him an ideal target for Lifestealer's
Aghanim's Shard ability,
Open Wounds.
* If Meat Hook is used before
Leap, Mirana may be able to escape Pudge's grasp by leaping to safety.
* The invisibility from
Moonlight Shadow gives a degree of mobility, which can make Mirana or her teammates difficult targets to hook.
*
Sacred Arrow can be used to cancel Dismember from long distances.
*
Heartstopper Aura is effective against high health heroes, and Pudge is no exception. Coupled with his self-damage from Rot, being around Heartstopper Aura could prove risky for Pudge.
* Regardless of how much health Pudge gains through Flesh Heap,
Reaper's Scythe will often kill Pudge should his health fall below 40%, making Necrophos an ideal counter versus Pudge.
* Meat Hook can prove annoying for Pudge if Rubick
Spell Steals it, allowing Rubick to easily hook and save his allies being Dismembered.
*
Corrosive Haze reveals Pudge's location, making it hard for him to use Meat Hook from the fog of war on Slardar's teammates or Slardar himself.
*
Slithereen Crush interrupts Pudge while he is using Dismember.
*
Guardian Sprint allows Slardar to avoid Meat Hook.
*
Dark Pact dispels Dismember if timed correctly.
*
Pounce allows Slark to escape Pudge's Rot once Dismember is over, and allows him to dodge hooks.
*
Shadow Dance hides Slark and grants him a high degree of mobility, which can make him a difficult target to hook and also protects him from Pudge's Dismember (including allies with an
Aghanim's Shard).
* Templar Assassin easily withstands all the damage from Skyrwrath Mage, thanks to its first ability
Refraction. In addition, Templar Assassin can kill Skywrath Mage with a single hit from under the second ability
Meld.
Additional:
* Templar Assassin easily withstands all the damage from Skyrwrath Mage, thanks to its first ability
Refraction. In addition, Templar Assassin can kill Skywrath Mage with a single hit from under the second ability
Meld.
*
Kraken Shell can dispel Dismember after reaching a certain threshold of damage.
* Tidehunter's naturally high health, strength gain, and common itemization for survivability through magic resistance makes Tidehunter a poor target.
* In the early-mid game, Skywrath consistently needs to use his entire mana pool to kill a hero, but Wraith King's
Reincarnation allows him to finish off Skywrath after the first death, as Skywrath Mage will have likely expended all his mana.
* Once you get a
Black King Bar, squishy spellcasters like
Zeus,
Skywrath Mage and others will be probably easy to deal with.
* Anti-Tank heroes like:
Razor,
Necrophos,
Undying.
* Generally heroes who don't rely on magical damage, such as
Sven,
Phantom Assassin, and
Outworld Destroyer, as they can practically ignore Flesh Heap's damage block.
* Heroes with silence such as
Riki,
Silencer, or
Night Stalker prevents Skywrath Mage from using his spells.
* Skywrath Mage also has a terrible time fighting against anything that isn't a hero. His skills are mostly target-based and he has terrible strength and agility, he can easily be kited or harassed by illusion-based heroes like
Chaos Knight and
Phantom Lancer, or by Heroes that summon other units like
Lone Druid,
Lycan and
Beastmaster.
* Anti-Tank heroes like:
Razor,
Necrophos,
Undying.
* Heroes with many summons or illusions are much harder to catch with Meat Hook:
Nature's Prophet,
Phantom Lancer,
Chen.
* Heroes with a low health pool (
Crystal Maiden,
Skywrath Mage etc)
*
Skywrath Mage's abilities are single targeted and he can't use Mystic Flare to its fullest potential, since all Meepos spread the damage between them. He also has no disables to prevent Meepo from Poofing to another one (unless he can get
Ancient Seal off first).
* Skywrath's pitiful defences also make him easy meat to heroes with high burst like
Juggernaut,
Lion, or
Phantom Assassin, the latter occasionally downing a support Skywrath in a single
Stifling Dagger.
* Heroes with a high degree of mobility and invisibility are hard to catch with Meat Hook:
Ember Spirit,
Riki,
Clinkz,
Queen of Pain.
* Due to the high mana cost of his spells and the low cool down of them, Nether Ward can seriously damage Skywrath Mage if he isn't careful.
* Skywrath Mage's fragility makes him very susceptible to Pugna's high burst damage.
Additional:
*
Nether Ward will make Skywrath Mage next to useless in fights, as his low hp pool will not allow him to sustain through the damage of the ward should he choose to cast spells. Be wary though that Skywrath's huge burst will make very quick work of Pugna's low hp should the ward be destroyed, and
Decrepify won't help Pugna at all.
* Heroes who build a Black King Bar (or have any sources of spell immunity) to channel abilities/items can still get interrupted by Dismember:
Enigma,
Juggernaut,
Phantom Assassin,
Pugna,
Elder Titan.
* Skywrath Mage's armor and agility gain is very low, so when Huskar's
Burning Spears stack they can take him down very quickly at any point of the game.
*
Berserker's Blood grants bonuses as Huskar uses
Burning Spears to harass Skywrath Mage, granting him attack speed, magic resistance, and strength as health regen, making it possible that Huskar can harass Skywrath Mage out of lane and sustain through his magic burst through staying injured throughout lane, or even the game.
*
Life Break allows Huskar to jump onto Skywrath Mage, closing the distance between them and busting him down so he cannot run. This can be combed with
Inner Fire, adding a movement speed slow if Aghanim's Shard is applied so Skywrath Mage cannot escape.
* Heroes with high magical burst can easily kill Huskar when he is at low health:
Lion,
Lina,
Skywrath Mage
* Skywrath Mage stands perfectly on the center line against Tinker, thanks to his nuke and silence. Also, thanks to his abilities, he can quickly kill a victim, and Tinker is one of the most subtle heroes in the game
Additional:
* Skywrath Mage stands perfectly on the center line against Tinker, thanks to his nuke and silence. Also, thanks to his abilities, he can quickly kill a victim, and Tinker is one of the most subtle heroes in the game
* Meat Hook can be used to pull Tinker to Pudge while he is hiding in the trees, and a follow up with Dismember and Rot can lead to a valuable kill, as Tinker doesn't buy many survivability items.
* Flesh Heap makes it hard for Tinker to deal serious damage.
*
Arcane Bolt can target Terrorblade's low health pool in the laning phase.
*
Ancient Seal can prevent Terrorblade from casting Sunder.
*
Mystic Flare can be used to great effect to burst Terrorblade down before he gets a
Manta Style or a
Black King Bar.
* Heroes with abilities that can lock down Terrorblade and prevent him from using Sunder:
Bane,
Batrider,
Earthshaker,
Elder Titan,
Faceless Void,
Invoker,
Legion Commander,
Mars,
Primal Beast,
Riki,
Shadow Shaman,
Silencer,
Vengeful Spirit,
Void Spirit.
* Heroes with long range abilities are also able to touch Zeus, such as
Clockwerk,
Kunkka,
Puck,
Skywrath Mage,
Spirit Breaker,
Tusk and others.
* Zeus likes to stay far back in fights, dealing his damage uninterrupted, but once he gets hooked into the fight, he usually dies very quickly.
* Pudge's high strength from Flesh Heap makes it very hard for Zeus to burst him down.
* Zeus' low health pool makes him very vulnerable to the damage from Meat Hook, Rot and Dismember.
* Heroes that can easily kill Faceless Void from outside his Cronosphere;
Sniper,
Skywrath Mage, etc.
* Heroes who recklessly jump on Pudge with their gap-closing abilities will be easy targets for Pudge's Meat Hook and Dismember Combo:
Phantom Assassin,
Faceless Void,
Queen of Pain etc.
*
Ancient Seal's instant cast time will often silence Brewmaster before he can do anything.
* Brewmaster also has no defense against Skywrath Mage's massive magical damage.
* Heroes with a high degree of mobility and invisibility are hard to catch with Meat Hook:
Ember Spirit,
Riki,
Clinkz,
Queen of Pain.
* A good Skywrath Mage with quick fingers will punish Queen of Pain for blinking aggressively.
Ancient Seal is a six second silence with no cast time, so he can interrupt either her Shadow Strike or Sonic Wave, and a good
Mystic Flare on top of that will seal the deal for her.
*
Ancient Seal also has pretty good range so he could get it off before she blinks away.
* Heroes who recklessly jump on Pudge with their gap-closing abilities will be easy targets for Pudge's Meat Hook and Dismember Combo:
Phantom Assassin,
Faceless Void,
Queen of Pain etc.
* Skywrath Mage can easily harass Alchemist in the laning phase with multiple Arcane Bolts. Additionally, if Alchemist is in the process of throwing an
Unstable Concoction, and has no way to dispel Ancient Seal, the self stun becomes an easy set up for Mystic Flare.
* Caution, however, as a decently farmed Alchemist with {Item ID:Radiance} and {Item ID:Manta Style} can easily send illusions to harass and force Skywrath Mage out.
*
Ancient Seal instantly shuts down Dark Willow's abilities, rendering her defenseless against his high burst damage spells, while she cannot cast spells of her own.
*
Mystic Flare deals immense burst damage in an area, damaging Dark Willow through Shadow Realm.
* Pudge's Dismember stops Spectre from escaping with
Haunt.
* He can easily tank the damage reflected by
Dispersion due to his high strength and the healing from Dismember.
* Should Spectre try to get away through the trees or over a cliff with
Spectral Dagger, Pudge can hook her back.
* Spectre takes a long time to become powerful, and Pudge can ruin her early game with ganks.
* Meat Hook can cancel
Freezing Field, even if Crystal Maiden has
Glimmer Cape.
* She is also slow and fragile, making her a good target for ganking.
*
Cold Embrace is a perfect setup for Mystic Flare.
* Winter Wyvern is a spellcaster, and the 6 second silence from Ancient Seal can prevent her from contributing much.
* Because Skywrath Mage tends to stay back in fights, Winter Wyvern will have to get close to a teamfight to cast
Winter's Curse on him. And if she chooses to cast it on one of his allies, his low attack speed and damage means that he won't do much.
* However, bear in mind that Skywrath Mage has seriously awful armor, and that can make him an adequate target to being turned against his own team with
Winter's Curse, which can result in his death quickly.
Additional:
* Cold Embrace is the perfect setup for
Mystic Flare, and his 6-second silence is good against Winter Wyvern in general.
*
Arcane Bolt allows Skywrath Mage to harass Earthshaker out of lane.
*
Ancient Seal is an instant silence that can be pre-cast onto Earthshaker to disrupt his combo, before he uses
Blink Dagger to initiate.
*
Mystic Flare will nuke Earthshaker down while he stands in place during his long cast animations.
*
Ancient Seal can silence Jakiro and make him vulnerable to magical spells up to 6 seconds.
* Skywrath Mage can usually burst down Jakiro with his high damage magical spells.
*
Arcane Bolt's low cooldown allows him to deal consistent damage to Morphling, and is a viable way to disable Linken's Sphere.
*
Ancient Seal prevents Morphling from using any of his skills, giving Skywrath Mage and his team ample time to burst Morphling down.
*
Mystic Flare coupled with a stun/root can easily burst Morphling down, especially if he has more stats shifted to Agility.
* Alternatively, Morphling can use Morph to use Skywrath Mage's own silence and nukes against him.
* Skywrath's pitiful defences also make him easy meat to heroes with high burst like
Juggernaut,
Lion, or
Phantom Assassin, the latter occasionally downing a support Skywrath in a single
Stifling Dagger.
* Generally heroes who don't rely on magical damage, such as
Sven,
Phantom Assassin, and
Outworld Destroyer, as they can practically ignore Flesh Heap's damage block.
* While Phantom Assassin can kill Skywrath Mage in a few strikes, Skywrath Mage can also do the same to her if she is not careful.
*
Arcane Bolt's long range and low cooldowns allows Skywrath Mage to severely harass Phantom Assassin in lane.
*
Ancient Seal prevents Phantom Assassin from escaping or engaging with
Phantom Strike.
*
Mystic Flare's heavy magical damage nukes Phantom Assassin down quickly during the early to mid game.
Additional:
* While Phantom Assassin can kill Skywrath Mage in a few strikes, Skywrath Mage can also do the same to her if she is not careful.
*
Arcane Bolt's long range and low cooldowns allows Skywrath Mage to severely harass Phantom Assassin in lane.
*
Ancient Seal prevents Phantom Assassin from escaping or engaging with
Phantom Strike.
*
Mystic Flare's heavy magical damage nukes Phantom Assassin down quickly during the early to mid game.
* If Phantom Assassin jumps on Pudge first with
Phantom Strike, she will be a very easy target for Pudge's
Meat Hook and
Dismember combo.
* Even though it can deal damage based on Pudge's max health,
Fan of Knives from
Aghanim's Shard cannot disable Pudge's
Flesh Heap as
Flesh Heap is one of the few passive abilities that cannot be disabled by break.
* Both
Meat Hook and
Dismember ignore spell immunity which allows Pudge to disable Phantom Assassin even while she has
Black King Bar active.
* Pudge occassionally buys armor items like
Blade Mail, which in combination with many stacks from
Flesh Heap can make Phantom Assassin have little effect against Pudge.
* Heroes who build a Black King Bar (or have any sources of spell immunity) to channel abilities/items can still get interrupted by Dismember:
Enigma,
Juggernaut,
Phantom Assassin,
Pugna,
Elder Titan.
* Heroes who have low or high armor but very high health will be difficult for drow to burst down quickly:
Primal Beast,
Axe,
Centaur Warrunner.
Additional:
* Meat Hook can pull Drow Ranger to Pudge, disabling her
Marksmanship.
* Following up with Dismember will prevent Drow Ranger from using
Gust or
Shadow Blade.
* 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.
*
Skywrath Mage's
Mystic Flare can deal huge damage to Clockwerk inside his Power Cogs.
* Heroes that have a channeled ability that can be interrupted by Meat Hook:
Shadow Shaman,
Witch Doctor,
Enigma,
Bane.
* Heroes with nukes:
Bane,
Lich,
Lion,
Skywrath Mage
Additional:
*
Untouchable is useless versus constant Arcane Bolts, and it doesn't help that her strength gain is the lowest in the game.
* A jungle Enchantress can weaken lanes and make Skywrath Mage's job easier.
* The magic amplification from Ancient Seal makes her even squishier to Skywrath and his allies' magic nukes.
* Durable heroes:
Axe,
Dawnbreaker,
Bristleback,
Mars,
Omniknight,
Tidehunter,
Wraith King,
Primal Beast,
Underlord.
* Heroes who have high health are a problem for Sniper because he likes to attack the closest target and sit at the back, much like a
Terrorblade so when that hero doesn't die; he's forced to show his position for a very long time:
Centaur Warrunner,
Legion Commander,
Primal Beast.
Additional:
* Sniper has a low health pool and strength gain, making him vulnerable to Pudge's magical and pure damage.
* Sniper usually likes to deal damage away from the fight, and Meat Hook is capable of bringing him to the front lines.
*
Assassinate won't do much damage against Pudge because of his high strength gain and the strength bonuses from Flesh Heap.
*
Shrapnel will be mostly blocked by Flesh Heap's active.
* Since Windranger is bad against magical damage, heroes with continuous magical damage or magical nukes can blast her:
Zeus,
Tinker,
Leshrac,
Viper,
Skywrath Mage,
Lion,
Lina,
Venomancer.
* Heroes that have a channeled ability that can be interrupted by Meat Hook:
Shadow Shaman,
Witch Doctor,
Enigma,
Bane.
* Silence (and mana burns) will be a persistent problem for Phoenix, as it is heavily reliant on its abilities whether defensively or offensively, so heroes like
Death Prophet,
Skywrath Mage, and even
Nyx Assassin must be closely observed to prevent being shut down by these heroes.
* Hexes are a greater threat to Phoenix as they also disable items, preventing Phoenix from dispelling the debuff on its own.
* 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.
* Long lockdown is a great way to deal with Axe to prevent Berserker's Call from being used, heroes such as
Legion Commander,
Beastmaster and
Primal Beast are good examples of this.
* Heroes that have a channeled ability that can be interrupted by Meat Hook:
Shadow Shaman,
Witch Doctor,
Enigma,
Bane.
* Strong nuking supports like
Skywrath Mage. Vengeful Spirit has subpar attack range, making it harder for her to harass and last hit safely. With enough pressure she can be bullied out of a lane.
Additional:
* Skywrath Mage should have the upper hand against Vengeful Spirit with Ancient Seal.
* Vengeful is highly dependant on her abilities and has no natural means to deal against silences.
* Her low attack range allows Skywrath Mage to easily bully her out of the lane.
* Fragile,slow heroes whom Pudge can outlive (
Crystal Maiden,
Muerta,
Sniper)
* Heroes with high magical or pure damage will bypass Bulwark:
Timbersaw,
Dark Willow,
Enigma,
Invoker,
Pugna,
Skywrath Mage,
Tinker,
Zeus,
Oracle.
* 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 with either magical, physical or pure damage burst:
Bane,
Ember Spirit,
Leshrac,
Lina,
Luna,
Nyx Assassin,
Phantom Assassin,
Skywrath Mage,
Tinker,
Ursa,
Void Spirit.
* 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.
* Heroes with powerful spammable abilities will prove problematic for Grimstroke as Ink Swell does not protect him from them:
Zeus,
Skywrath Mage,
Tinker,
Lina
* Heroes who build a Black King Bar (or have any sources of spell immunity) to channel abilities/items can still get interrupted by Dismember:
Enigma,
Juggernaut,
Phantom Assassin,
Pugna,
Elder Titan.
* Any heroes with stuns or silences:
Death Prophet,
Lion,
Shadow Shaman,
Skywrath Mage
Additional:
* Similar to
Timbersaw, Storm Spirit builds items that don't help against silences.
* An
Orchid Malevolence will most likely silence you first. However, if you grab a
Eul's Scepter of Divinity, you might dispel his silence and turn the tides to your favor.
* Root and silence are
Storm Spirit's ultimate counters. Skywrath Mage has a silence in his kit, and has
Rod of Atos as his core item. If he dispels one, you cast the other, both leaving him vulnerable.
* If he builds
Black King Bar, he spends 4050 gold that doesn't help him snowball effectively.
* Skywrath Mage also has a terrible time fighting against anything that isn't a hero. His skills are mostly target-based and he has terrible strength and agility, he can easily be kited or harassed by illusion-based heroes like
Chaos Knight and
Phantom Lancer, or by Heroes that summon other units like
Lone Druid,
Lycan and
Beastmaster.
*
Mystic Flare can be used to effectively ignore the Spirit Bear entirely and burst Lone Druid during the early mid game.
*
Concussive Shot and
Arcane Bolt will provide vision of Lone Druid allowing for better chase in teamfights before the Spirit Bear can do too much damage.
*
Ancient Seal denies the ability to transform into
True Form and receive bonus HP from the skill.
* Heroes with many summons or illusions are much harder to catch with Meat Hook:
Nature's Prophet,
Phantom Lancer,
Chen.
* 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.
* Legion Commander can use
Press the Attack on an ally to dispel Dismember. The bonus health regeneration also partially counters the damage of Rot
*
Duel can be used on Pudge whilst Rot is active, disabling toggling which may result in a lethal health drain that leaves Legion Commander with a successful duel.
*
Mystic Flare can easily burst down Legion Commander while she is Dueling.
* Skywrath's pitiful defences also make him easy meat to heroes with high burst like
Juggernaut,
Lion, or
Phantom Assassin, the latter occasionally downing a support Skywrath in a single
Stifling Dagger.
* Heroes who build a Black King Bar (or have any sources of spell immunity) to channel abilities/items can still get interrupted by Dismember:
Enigma,
Juggernaut,
Phantom Assassin,
Pugna,
Elder Titan.
* The percentage-based primary-attribute reduction effect of
Whirling Death can be devastating for Pudge due to his high strength gain through Flesh Heap.
*
Reactive Armor's health regeneration and common itemization for magic resistance and durability makes Timbersaw a poor target for Pudge.
*
Timber Chain's high mobility makes it difficult for Pudge to hook or deal much Rot damage to Timbersaw.
* Skywrath Mage's long range and low cooldown magic damage spells can easily harass Timbersaw out of lane.
*
Ancient Seal is not only a long lasting silence, (one of Timbersaw's biggest weaknesses) but it also makes him even more vulnerable to magical burst damage.
Additional:
* Magical burst damage is Timbersaw's weakness, and Ancient Seal not only amplifies it but also prevents him from using
Timber Chain to escape for up to 6 seconds.
* He generally doesn't build early items to deal with silences.
*
Reactive Armor does not trigger on magic damage or spells, meaning that even a
Pipe of Insight won't give him the massive sustain he normally gets from attacks.
*
Shukuchi grants Weaver invisibility and a high degree of mobility for a short time, which can make him a difficult target to hook.
*
The Swarm beetles are difficult for Pudge to remove, due to his low base attack time and poor agility. Additionally, it can be used to can scout out Pudge's location.
* Should an ally get snagged by Meat Hook, Weaver can use
Aghanim's Scepter upgraded
Time Lapse on them to send them back to where they were before hooked, even if Pudge has already started to Dismember them.
*
Arcane Bolt has a long range and a low cooldown, and is a great spell to waste Linken's Sphere. It also serves as an effective spell to harass Weaver with.
*
Ancient Seal prevents Weaver from using Shukuchi or Time Lapse.
* Heroes with a high degree of mobility and invisibility are hard to catch with Meat Hook:
Ember Spirit,
Riki,
Clinkz,
Queen of Pain.
* Even though
Linken's Sphere will block your silence, you can cast Arcane Bolt to break it or wait until someone on your team breaks it. In addition,
Linken's Sphere builders are usually squishy targets vulnerable to silences:
Weaver,
Queen of Pain,
Morphling,
Clinkz, etc. Don't forget that Ancient Seal also increases the magical damage these enemies take, along with silencing them.
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).
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Skywrath Mage
* Outworld Destroyer can steal more mana with
Astral Imprisonment from
Skywrath Mage with
Shield of the Scion (granted by
Aghanim's Shard). Shield of the Scion grants Skywrath Mage bonus intelligence every time he deals magic damage to an enemy hero with his abilities. The higher his intelligence, the larger his mana pool. Since Astral Imprisonment steals based on the target's max mana, Outworld Destroyer can steal much more mana from Skywrath Mage.
Primal Beast
*
Sanity's Eclipse deals more damage the less max mana the heroes hit by it have, making Pudge an ideal target.
Astral Imprisonment.
* Outworld Destroyer can save allies or himself caught by Dismember or Meat Hook with