* Heroes with summons and illusions as Spirit Breaker has no strong AoE capabilities to deal with them: Chaos Knight,
Phantom Lancer,
Terrorblade,
Naga Siren,
Broodmother,
Warlock,
Visage,
Nature's Prophet,
Shadow Shaman,
Lycan.
* Chaos Knight can dispel Flux with Phantasm.
* Chaos Knight can use Reality Rift to pull Arc Warden out of Magnetic Field.
* Once Chaos Knight jumps on Arc Warden with Reality Rift, Arc Warden will struggle to escape due to low mobility and lack of stun.
* Fissure interrupts Spirit Breaker during Charge of Darkness.
* Melee carries who usually buy an early Black King Bar, and have gap closing abilities can be good against the Arc Warden, such as
Slark,
Riki,
Earthshaker with
Aghanim's Scepter,
Sven with
Aghanim's Scepter etc.
* Heroes that usually build Linken's Sphere as a core or situational item:
Weaver,
Medusa,
Morphling,
Queen of Pain,
Storm Spirit,
Luna.
* Storm Spirit can hunt down Arc Warden with his Ball Lightning and kill him quickly due to his lack of escape abilities.
* None of his abilities are effective against Storm Spirit, as they can be evaded with Ball Lightning.
* Earthbind's root prevents/interrupts Charge of Darkness.
* As a single target focused hero without much damage output, Spirit Breaker is ineffective in general against Meepo.
* Flux is severely impaired against Meepo because of Divided We Stand.
* Meepo's farming speed and early powerspikes allows him to pressure Arc Warden before he is capable of fighting effectively.
* Without Black King Bar,
Earthbind and
Poof can finish Arc Warden quickly before he has time to do much.
* Heroes who can stun multiple units at once: Dark Willow,
Spirit Breaker,
Slardar,
Invoker, and
Tidehunter.
* If Luna chooses to use Eclipse in anticipation right before Spirit Breaker gets to her with Charge of Darkness, she will be able to kill Spirit Breaker before he will be able to kill her as Spirit Breaker's attack speed is rather low.
* Meanwhile, when Spirit Breaker is focusing on any of her allies with Charge of Darkness, Aghanim's Scepter upgraded
Eclipse can be used to counter-initate against Spirit Breaker.
* Lucent Beam can be used to cancel Spirit Breaker's Charge of Darkness under the condition that Luna is able to cast it on time.
Lucent Beam can also be used to cancel Nether Strike. But bear in mind, however, that Spirit Breaker can counter this with
Planar Pocket from
Aghanim's Shard which can be used to reflect
Lucent Beam back at Luna.
* Even though Spirit Breaker can evade all of Luna's abilities with Shadow Blade, smart Luna will always buy
Dust of Appearance to provide vision on Spirit Breaker to her and her team.
Additional:
* If Luna chooses to use Eclipse in anticipation right before Spirit Breaker gets to her with Charge of Darkness, she will be able to kill Spirit Breaker before he will be able to kill her as Spirit Breaker's attack speed is rather low.
* Meanwhile, when Spirit Breaker is focusing on any of Luna's allies with Charge of Darkness, Aghanim's Scepter upgraded
Eclipse can be used to counter-initate against Spirit Breaker.
* Lucent Beam can be used to cancel Spirit Breaker's Charge of Darkness under the condition that Luna is able to cast it on time.
Lucent Beam can also be used to cancel Nether Strike. But bear in mind, however, that Spirit Breaker can counter this with
Planar Pocket from
Aghanim's Shard which can be used to reflect
Lucent Beam back at Luna.
* Even though Spirit Breaker can evade all of Luna's abilities with Shadow Blade, smart Luna will always buy
Dust of Appearance to provide vision on Spirit Breaker to her and her team.
* Luna's Moon Glaives allow her to clear Arc Warden's Tempest Double.
* Luna's short range and fast movement speed allow her to fight Arc Warden inside his Magnetic Field.
Additional:
* Luna's Moon Glaives allow her to clear Arc Warden's Tempest Double.
* Luna's short range and fast movement speed allow her to fight Arc Warden inside his Magnetic Field.
* Heroes that create illusions: Spectre,
Shadow Demon,
Phantom Lancer,
Naga Siren,
Chaos Knight,
Terrorblade) or bring other units into the fight (such as
Nature's Prophet,
Lone Druid,
Chen,
Enchantress,
Meepo and
Arc Warden) can cause Eclipse to strike the illusions/summons unintentionally. However, in many cases Moon Glaives can resolve this issue and eliminate them before activating Eclipse, but that will require lots of farming for right-click items.
* Heroes with blink or movement abilities, which are disabled by Pounce's leash: Anti-Mage,
Earth Spirit,
Faceless Void,
Magnus,
Mirana,
Monkey King,
Morphling,
Pangolier,
Phantom Assassin,
Phoenix,
Puck,
Queen of Pain,
Riki,
Sand King,
Spirit Breaker,
Timbersaw,
Tusk.
* Melee carries who usually buy an early Black King Bar, and have gap closing abilities can be good against the Arc Warden, such as
Slark,
Riki,
Earthshaker with
Aghanim's Scepter,
Sven with
Aghanim's Scepter etc.
Additional:
* Flux is dispelled by Dark Pact.
* Pounce allows Slark to avoid Spark Wraiths.
* Tempest Double allows Slark to build up Essence Shift stacks, especially when it is being used for split pushing.
* Living Armor can mitigate a large portion of Spirit Breaker's damage since his attacks are slow.
* Treant Protector can also counter-initiate against Spirit Breaker with Leech Seed,
Overgrowth and with his root from {I|Aghanim's Shard
* Aghanim's Scepter gives Treant Protector access to
Eyes In The Forest ability, which allows him to turn trees into wards that provide vision, allowing him to keep his allies warned about Spirit Breaker's attempts to gank them.
Eyes In The Forest will also trigger
Overgrowth if Spirit Breaker is in range of the tree affected by it.
Additional:
* Spirit Breaker's slow attacks cannot harm a hero shielded by Living Armor.
* Because of his weak laning phase, Lone Druid absolutely overpowers him in the early to mid game. Lone Druid also directly counters most of his abilities.
* Flux is nullified when the Spirit Bear is nearby.
* Spark Wraith can get soaked by the bear.
* Lone Druid can easily go inside Magnetic Field and punish Zet.
* Heroes with summons and illusions as Spirit Breaker has no strong AoE capabilities to deal with them: Chaos Knight,
Phantom Lancer,
Terrorblade,
Naga Siren,
Broodmother,
Warlock,
Visage,
Nature's Prophet,
Shadow Shaman,
Lycan.
* Doppelganger dispels Flux.
* Phantom Rush closes the distance between Phantom Lancer and Arc Warden.
* Juxtapose can overwhelm Arc Warden and nullify his kit which is only effective against isolated enemies.
Additional:
* One of Arc Warden's hardest counters, Arc Warden, who has primarily single target damage, will struggle tremendously against Phantom Lancer:
* Flux is paused if even one illusion remains near Phantom Lancer. It can also be dispelled with
Doppelganger.
* Phantom Lancer can also easily dodge an activated Spark Wraith, or use his illusions to trigger it safely.
* Phantom Rush allows Lancer to quickly close gap to get inside of Arc Warden's
Magnetic Field.
* Phantom Lancer and his clones are able to quickly drain Arc Warden of his mana with a Diffusal Blade. This means Warden's
Tempest Double will also be summoned without mana.
* Charge of Darkness provides shared vision over its target, keeping track of heroes who rely on invisibility, mobility, or illusions: Riki,
Broodmother,
Phantom Lancer
* Astral Imprisonment can be used to protect allies by imprisoning either them or Spirit Breaker.
* Arcane Orb will heavily drain Spirit Breaker's maximum mana, rendering him almost useless and unable to cast spells. Spirit Breaker's low intelligence also means
Sanity's Eclipse will deal a lot of damage to him.
* Even if Spirit Breaker survives Sanity's Eclipse, mana allergy applied by the
Sanity's Eclipse will discourage Spirit Breaker from using his abilities as it will cause him to lose health and heal Outworld Destroyer.
* Heroes with summons and illusions as Spirit Breaker has no strong AoE capabilities to deal with them: Chaos Knight,
Phantom Lancer,
Terrorblade,
Naga Siren,
Broodmother,
Warlock,
Visage,
Nature's Prophet,
Shadow Shaman,
Lycan.
* None of Arc Warden's abilities are very effective against Broodmother and her spiderlings.
* A good Broodmother looks to end the match early while Arc Warden, a very item reliant hero, thrives in longer matches.
* Arc Warden has no innate disables to stop Broodmother from lifestealing with Insatiable Hunger and shredding through his relatively lower armor.
* Charge of Darkness provides shared vision over its target, keeping track of heroes who rely on invisibility, mobility, or illusions: Riki,
Broodmother,
Phantom Lancer
* Due to Spirit Breaker's low attack speed, Tombstone is problematic for Spirit Breaker as the zombies summoned from
Tombstone apply a stacking movement speed slow, which can significantly reduce Greater Bash's damage.
* Soul Rip and
Decay allows Undying and his allies to survive from incoming ganks of Spirit Breaker.
* In the early game, Omniknight can look like an easy target for Spirit Breaker, but with Purification and
Hammer of Purity, what could be an opportunity could quickly turn into disaster.
* Repel can be used to counter Charge of Darkness by minimizing the damage and lowering the stun duration with status resistance.
* Spirit Breaker's Greater Bash from all sources (Charge of Darkness or normal attacks) will deal no damage at all if Omniknight and his allies are protected with Guardian Angel.
* Due to this, Spirit Breaker's damage will always be lower when targeting Omniknight.
* Arc Warden cannot take Centaur Warrunner very easily, and his nukes are not strong enough to deal with Centaur Warrunner.
* Centaur Warrunner deals huge AoE damage and applies an AoE disable through Hoof Stomp, affecting the double as well the main Arc Warden.
* Magnetic Field is not very effective against melee heroes. And to make things worse,
Magnetic Field also increases Arc Warden and his allies's attack speed, meaning Retaliate will deal more damage.
* Stampede catches Arc Warden easily due to his lack of escape mechanisms. However, Arc Warden can counter this problem with Gleipnir, which is a common item on Arc Warden.
* Heroes with summons and illusions as Spirit Breaker has no strong AoE capabilities to deal with them: Chaos Knight,
Phantom Lancer,
Terrorblade,
Naga Siren,
Broodmother,
Warlock,
Visage,
Nature's Prophet,
Shadow Shaman,
Lycan.
* Naga Siren's illusions from Mirror Image can depush the lanes pushed by the Tempest Double, relieving the pressure.
* Mirror Image can dispel Flux, and the illusions can stop Flux from working to it's full power.
Additional:
* Song of the Siren stops Arc Warden from acting and allows Naga Siren's team to close in on him, past his Magnetic Field.
* Mirror Image dispels Flux. The illusions created from it also disable the slow from Flux if Arc Warden casts it after Mirror Image.
* Arc Warden's playstyle heavily favors split-pushing, which Naga Siren can compete against with her illusions.
* Heroes with long-lasting, undispellable debuffs will pinpoint the true Naga Siren: Spirit Breaker,
Bloodseeker.
* Solar Guardian can save an ally getting targeted and focused by Spirit Breaker.
* Chain Frost can deliver high amounts of damage to Arc and his clone
* Heroes who can continue dealing damage even while being stunned: Luna,
Razor,
Axe,
Bristleback,
Leshrac,
Death Prophet.
* Magnetic Field doesn't provide a protection against Berserker's Call and
Counter Helix and his high attack speed together with Tempest Double will often trigger
Counter Helix.
* The threat of a blink and Berserker's Call may make the real Arc Warden stay further back, thus effectively halving the team's damage output for a while.
* Heroes who can stop Axe from getting close will severely inhibit his presence in fights: Bristleback,
Crystal Maiden,
Batrider,
Arc Warden,
Winter Wyvern,
Clockwerk
* Arc Warden can't use Magnetic Field to stall the damage of Nether Blast on towers, but he can buy
Aghanim's Shard to diminish its damage.
* Arc Warden has no innate disables to stop Life Drain and
Decrepify
* The short cooldown of both Life Drain and Decrepify also means Pugna can deal with Arc Warden and Arc Warden's clone simultaneously most of the time
* A good Pugna looks to end the match early while Arc Warden, a very item reliant hero, thrives in longer matches.
* Heroes who can continue dealing damage even while being stunned: Luna,
Razor,
Axe,
Bristleback,
Leshrac,
Death Prophet.
* Arc Warden has relatively lower armor and mobility, which makes him an easy target to apply Quill Spray and
Viscous Nasal Goo stacks.
* Arc Warden also does not like to build a Silver Edge as it takes a long time to build up and may slow down the timings for other important items needed in the game like
Gleipnir.
* However, do note that in a game where Arc Warden's team has many jumping capabilities or good passives, like a Tidehunter or
Spectre, a
Silver Edge becomes incredibly valuable on Arc Warden as not only can he run away from the jumps, he effectively gets 2 breaks, and Bristleback may not be the best pick.
* Spirit Breaker's
Nether Strike with
Aghanim's Shard disables Bristleback's passives.
* Pit of Malice can be cast in the path of Spirit Breaker's Charge of Darkness to cancel it.
* Fiend's Gate provides a way to escape from a gank for Underlord and his teammates. Likewise,
Fiend's Gate can be used to ambush Spirit Breaker who has little to no ways of intercepting Underlod and his teammates when they use it to move around the map.
* Nether Strike can't remove Static Link and reduces Spirit Breaker's physical damage output.
* Eye of the Storm melts Spirit Breaker's armor, and makes him much less tanky.
Additional:
* Static Link drains damage bonus from Greater Bash, it cannot be removed by Nether Strike.
* Eye of the Storm melts Spirit Breaker's armor, and makes him much less tanky.
* Glimpse drags Spirit Breaker back from an escaping Charge, or takes him out of a ganking Charge. But bear in mind, however, that Spirit Breaker can counter this with
Planar Pocket from
Aghanim's Shard that will allow him to reflect Glimpse at Disruptor during a gank attempt.
* Static Storm can be used to instantly stop his charge if absolutely necessary, and also prevent a follow-up Nether Strike.
* Clockwerk can use Power Cogs to repel Spirit Breaker when he charges in with Charge of Darkness.
* Spirit Breaker's slow 0.6 second attack animation attacks do little damage against Clockwerk. It can also constantly be interrupted by Battery Assault.
* Nether Strike's 1.2 second charge time gives Clockwerk plenty of time to activate
Blade Mail and for Battery Assault to cancel it.
Additional:
* Battery Assault will continuously prevent Spirit Breaker from using Nether Strike, Charge of Darkness and even right clicking because of his long attack animation.
* Charge of Darkness can be cancelled by a correctly timed Hookshot.
* Should Clockwerk or his allies be targeted by Charge of Darkness, he can stop it by casting Power Cogs in Spirit Breaker's path or around the target.
* Spirit Breaker's slow attack speed and moderate damage do very little to harm Dragon Knight, even if ganked with Charge of Darkness.
* Arc Warden relies on items and abilities, as well as his Tempest Double, to deal damage to enemies.
Doom effectively denies that and makes Arc Warden useless in fights.
* Searing Chains can stop Charge of Darkness if timed correctly.
* Activate Fire Remnant can be used to escape an approaching Spirit Breaker, or lead Spirit Breaker into a bad situation.
* Fire Remnant and
Sleight of Fist allows Ember Spirit to dodge Charge of Darkness if timed correctly.
* Rubick can cancel Spirit Breaker's Charge of Darkness with Telekinesis under the condition that Rubick is able to cast it on time. And considering Rubick commonly buys
Eul's Scepter of Divinity that can also cancel Charge of Darkness, Spirit Breaker will have a hard time charging Rubick or his allies until Spirit Breaker buys
Shadow Blade.
Telekinesis can also be used to cancel Nether Strike and
Aghanim's Shard upgraded
Telekinesis also allows Rubick to save his allies from Spirit Breaker.
* Fade Bolt weakens Spirit Breaker's damage output, reducing damage of Greater Bash.
* If Rubick succeeds to steal Charge of Darkness, he will be able to reduce much of Spirit Breaker's global presence. Rubick can also steal Nether Strike to further disable Spirit Breaker once he disables him with stolen Charge of Darkness. But bear in mind, however, that a skilled Spirit Breaker can use Bulldoze to prevent all that.
* Batrider can harass Arc Warden more easily with Sticky Napalm thanks to it's low cooldown and mana cost and because of Arc Warden's lower durability and mobility.
* Batrider can use Flamebreak to push Arc Warden and
Tempest Double out of the
Magnetic Field.
* With Firefly combined with
Blink Dagger, Batrider can move faster while dealing damage to both Arc Warden and
Tempest Double.
* Flaming Lasso allows Batrider to separate Arc Warden from both
Magnetic Field and
Tempest Double and pull him towards Batrider's team.
Aghanim's Scepter upgraded
Flaming Lasso also allows Batrider to disable both, real Arc Warden and his
Tempest Double and pull them towards Batrider's team. And since Arc Warden is not used to buy
Linken's Sphere, this can be a great problem to him.
* Since Arc Warden is not used to buy Black King Bar very ofthen In most of the stages of the game, he will be vulnerable to Batrider's magical damage-over-time output in most of the stages of the game.
* However, Batrider needs to approach Arc Warden carefully as Arc Warden can scout Batrider's location with Spark Wraith. Also, Arc Warden tends to buy
Gleipnir which combined with
Flux's damage over time can be used to prevent Batrider from even using
Blink Dagger.
Additional:
* Batrider can harass Arc Warden more easily with Sticky Napalm thanks to it's low cooldown and mana cost and because of Arc Warden's lower durability and mobility.
* Batrider can use Flamebreak to push Arc Warden and
Tempest Double out of the
Magnetic Field.
* With Firefly combined with
Blink Dagger, Batrider can move faster while dealing damage to both Arc Warden and
Tempest Double.
* Flaming Lasso allows Batrider to separate Arc Warden from both
Magnetic Field and
Tempest Double and pull him towards Batrider's team.
Aghanim's Scepter upgraded
Flaming Lasso also allows Batrider to disable both, real Arc Warden and his
Tempest Double and pull them towards Batrider's team. And since Arc Warden is not used to buy
Linken's Sphere, this can be a great problem to him.
* Since Arc Warden is not used to buy Black King Bar very ofthen In most of the stages of the game, he will be vulnerable to Batrider's magical damage-over-time output in most of the stages of the game.
* However, Batrider needs to approach Arc Warden carefully as Arc Warden can scout Batrider's location with Spark Wraith. Also, Arc Warden tends to buy
Gleipnir which combined with
Flux's damage over time can be used to prevent Batrider from even using
Blink Dagger.
* Heroes with summons and illusions as Spirit Breaker has no strong AoE capabilities to deal with them: Chaos Knight,
Phantom Lancer,
Terrorblade,
Naga Siren,
Broodmother,
Warlock,
Visage,
Nature's Prophet,
Shadow Shaman,
Lycan.
* Heroes that have a weak laning stage: Spectre,
Nyx Assassin,
Clockwerk,
Spirit Breaker,
Omniknight,
Pudge.
* Heroes with summons and illusions as Spirit Breaker has no strong AoE capabilities to deal with them: Chaos Knight,
Phantom Lancer,
Terrorblade,
Naga Siren,
Broodmother,
Warlock,
Visage,
Nature's Prophet,
Shadow Shaman,
Lycan.
* Magnetic Field is useless against melee heroes, so Lycan can attack Arc Warden without missing.
* Flux doesn't affect Lycan that much, because Shapeshift grants immunity to slows and because he is never alone.
* If their Tempest Double has been called, Lycan can still kill Arc Warden before the double expires.
* Lycan's Shapeshift can easily to catch from Spirit Breaker's with Charge of Darkness.
Additional:
* Vision from Charge of Darkness will easier to catch Lycan Shapeshift and Charge of Darkness out of reach Lycan summon wolves.
* Howl can dispell with Bulldoze and combinated with Charge of Darkness until upgrade
Aghanim's Scepter faster catching Lycan
Shapeshift.
* Durable heroes: Axe,
Bristleback,
Tidehunter,
Wraith King,
Primal Beast,
Underlord.
* Melee carries who usually buy an early Black King Bar, and have gap closing abilities can be good against the Arc Warden, such as
Slark,
Riki,
Earthshaker with
Aghanim's Scepter,
Sven with
Aghanim's Scepter etc.
* Heroes that have doubles or clones such as Arc Warden,
Meepo or
Lone Druid are vulnerable to Muerta's
Gunslinger
* Durable heroes: Axe,
Bristleback,
Tidehunter,
Wraith King,
Primal Beast,
Underlord.
* Heroes who can continue dealing damage even while being stunned: Luna,
Razor,
Axe,
Bristleback,
Leshrac,
Death Prophet.
* Heroes with good escape mechanisms are a nuisance to deal with in the early phase of the game: Slark,
Lifestealer,
Morphling
* Heroes that can slow Charge of Darkness by a huge amount: Venomancer,
Viper,
Dazzle,
Arc Warden,
Lion.
* Heroes with ways to protect themselves or allies from Spirit Breaker's initiation: Shadow Demon,
Outworld Destroyer,
Omniknight,
Dawnbreaker.
* Heroes with summons or illusions can counter Flux, such as Beastmaster ,
Chen, or
Shadow Demon.
* Chaos Knight,
Lone Druid,
Meepo and
Arc Warden can be hard targets since Shadow Demon's spells are ill-suited to fight many enemies at once.
* Heroes who can continue dealing damage even while being stunned: Luna,
Razor,
Axe,
Bristleback,
Leshrac,
Death Prophet.
* Heroes that punish mobile heroes: Bloodseeker,
Keeper of the Light.
* Heroes with summons or illusions can counter Flux, such as Beastmaster ,
Chen, or
Shadow Demon.
* Durable heroes: Axe,
Bristleback,
Tidehunter,
Wraith King,
Primal Beast,
Underlord.
* Heroes with mobility spells like Queen of Pain,
Anti-Mage,
Phantom Assassin,
Riki,
Puck, and
Spirit Breaker that are cancelled by Frostbite can suffer greatly from the presence of Crystal Maiden. It is absolutely critical, however, to have followup from teammates, as all of the above heroes can make quick work of the squishy Crystal Maiden after they are released from her grip.
* Mana Drain has an fair long range and low cooldown. It can easily deplete most heroes of their entire mana pools, especially those with smaller mana pools such as
Tiny or
Spirit Breaker.
* Morph allows Morphling to copy abilities of Spirit Breaker and combine them with
Waveform to turn things around.
Aghanim's Scepter upgraded
Morph also allows Morphling to create a strong illusion of Spirit Breaker that can cast all of his basic abilities. This allows Morphling to give Spirit Breaker a taste of his own medicine.
* Spirit Breaker's low attack speed and lack of burst damage makes it unlikely for him to win against Morphling when he has Attribute Shift (Strength Gain) toggled on.
* Heroes with good escape mechanisms are a nuisance to deal with in the early phase of the game: Slark,
Lifestealer,
Morphling
* Arc Warden can counter Morphling's strong pushing capabilities by using Magnetic Field to protect buildings.
* Arc Warden also often builds an Orchid Malevolence or
Bloodthorn, which can prove dangerous for Morphling.
* Arc Warden can easily break Linken's Sphere with
Flux and then slow him with
Spark Wraith, making Arc Warden's
Tempest Double a legitimate threat as well.
* Enigma can be a perfect counter-initiator with his ultimate. A perfectly timed Black Hole will turn the tide of any initiation, especially from heroes like; Spirit Breaker,
Legion Commander,
Axe,
Puck, and
Slardar.
Additional:
* Malefice prevents Spirit Breaker from using his spells for the duration.
* Demonic Conversion's eidolons have high magic resistance, receiving little damage from Charge of Darkness.
* Smoke Screen combined with
Diffusal Blade leaves Arc Warden effectively useless for a while as he struggles to escape the silence with low mobility.
* With Arc Warden's low mobility, Tricks of the Trade often deal decent damage to him before he moves out of it.
* Charge of Darkness provides shared vision over its target, keeping track of heroes who rely on invisibility, mobility, or illusions: Riki,
Broodmother,
Phantom Lancer
* Heroes that usually build Linken's Sphere as a core or situational item:
Weaver,
Medusa,
Morphling,
Queen of Pain,
Storm Spirit,
Luna.
* A well-timed use of The Swarm provides vision over heroes with high mobility: Anti-Mage,
Arc Warden,
Dark Seer.
* Shukuchi vision can easily target Charge of Darkness before Weaver purchase
Linken's Sphere.
Additional:
* Strong escape combo abilities from Spirit Breaker Charge of Darkness and
Bulldoze can easily catch Shukuchi from Weaver. Since Spirit Breaker build Aghanim's Scepter,
Charge of Darkness is very fast able to reach catch Weaver trying it.
* Time Lapse also affected Charge of Darkness and
Nether Strike.
* Spirit Breaker can charge towards Sniper from anywhere on the map with Charge of Darkness.
* Greater Bash deals magical damage, which can prove dangerous to Sniper and his low health.
* Both previous abilities combined with Nether Strike ensures that Spirit Breaker can easily solo kill Sniper.
* Magnetic Field's evasion completely negates Sniper's attacks unless he has True Strike.
* Sniper always positions himself far away from battles, which makes him especially vulnerable for Flux and Spark Wraith.
* Generally, heroes that can close the gap on Drow Ranger to cancel her Marksmanship such as Phantom Assassin,
Spirit Breaker, and
Tusk are effective at limiting her power and bursting her down.
* Magnetic Field protects Arc Warden and allies from Drow Ranger's ranged attacks. She most likely will not enter the field since she will lose Marksmanship's bonus agility.
* Beware however, as Marksmanship procs will still hit since they have True Strike, so the most damaging arrows will still hit you inside Magnetic Field.
Additional:
* Flux along with
Spark Wraith allows Arc Warden to quickly burst down Drow Ranger due to her low health.
* However, Drow Ranger can bypass Magnetic Field's evasion bonus thanks to Marksmanship.
* Heroes that rely on invisibility can be tracked with Charge of Darkness opening them to team attacks: Bounty Hunter,
Mirana,
Riki
* Arc Warden can use his summons to prevent Sacred Arrow from hitting himself or his allies.
* Mirana doesn't build items that give armor often, so she usually can't fight against a late game Arc Warden.
Additional:
* Flux will slow and damage Mirana even after she Leaps, since she will likely not be near allies.
* Arc Warden can place Magnetic Field on an ally who has been hit by Sacred Arrow to protect them.
* Bristleback,
Centaur Warrunner,
Spirit Breaker,
Pudge,
Huskar: These heroes are too tanky for Puck to burst down. Also, all of them have spells which can deal with and shut Puck down reliably.
* Arc Warden can turn Puck's Phase Shift ability against him by using Spark Wraith, ensuring it to hit. To make this worse, Arc Warden can do it twice with his
Tempest Double.
* Flux is also an instant spell (and therefore unavoidable) with a heavy slow and damage over time, which disables Blink Dagger for a certain period of time.
* Because Templar Assassin does not have escape potential in lane, any support hero with roaming potential and a Dust of Appearance can be great at shutting her down early game:
Earth Spirit,
Spirit Breaker,
Tusk,
Bounty Hunter,
Riki,
Warlock.
* Flux removes Refraction charges very quickly, and Arc Warden can hit her freely with his better attack animation, speed and range. If she tries to mute in her creep wave, Spark Wraith can quickly kill the ranged creep, forcing her to stay near the melee creeps, again, allowing for easy right clicks.
* With Tempest Double, Arc Warden can easily output 1000 damage (with the stacking of Flux and Spark Wraith and kill Templar Assassin within seconds. She cannot avoid this combo as Spark Wraith will still hit her in Meld.
* A good Arc Warden can destroy the item timings of a Templar Assassin, and mitigate her impact during the mid-game, when she is the strongest.
* In the late game, if Templar Assassin tries to split push with Aghanim's Scepter, Arc Warden's double can always threaten to kill her if equipped with a
Bloodthorn and a
Blink Dagger , or a
Hurricane Pike, forcing her to have to use
Black King Bar to survive.
* Quick reactions can also protect Arc Warden and his allies from Meld strike with Magnetic Field, and if equipped with a
Hurricane Pike, Arc Warden can double force himself away from the attacking Templar Assassin to safety, where after her
Black King Bar ends, she can die to Arc Warden's right clicks.
* Spirit Breaker's stuns pierce spell immunity, making him a good choice against heroes that heavily rely on Black King Bar;
Huskar
* Heroes with illusions can overwhelm Huskar: Phantom Lancer,
Anti-Mage,
Arc Warden,
Chaos Knight.
* Heroes with summons and illusions as Spirit Breaker has no strong AoE capabilities to deal with them: Chaos Knight,
Phantom Lancer,
Terrorblade,
Naga Siren,
Broodmother,
Warlock,
Visage,
Nature's Prophet,
Shadow Shaman,
Lycan.
* Unlike with other heroes who can summon illusions of themselves, Terrorblade's illusions from Conjure Image have different colors than other illusions which can be seen even by enemy team, which can also make Terrorblade weak even against heroes he naturally counters:
Bane,
Lifestealer,
Spectre,
Chaos Knight,
Spirit Breaker,
Sniper. Terrorblade's only solution to counter this problem is to get
Manta Style as quickly as possible.
* Arc Warden’s Magnetic Field allows him to defend against Terrorblade if he used Metamorphosis.
* Arc also buys a Bloodthorn or a
Scythe of Vyse, which can prevent Terrorblade from using his abilities.
* Charge of Darkness allows Spirit Breaker to gank Shadow Fiend in the early game, preventing him from getting Necromastery stacks.
* Nether Strike and
Charge of Darkness can be used to prevent Shadow Fiend from casting Requiem of Souls.
* Magnetic Field evades most of Gyrocopter's attacks.
* Heroes that usually build Linken's Sphere as a core or situational item:
Weaver,
Medusa,
Morphling,
Queen of Pain,
Storm Spirit,
Luna.
* Heroes that rely on escapes to stay alive can be caught and locked down for a long time: Queen of Pain,
Phantom Assassin
* Sonic Wave is a bad choice in abilities if he and the Tempest Double both use
Blade Mail to reflect the damage to Queen of Pain, potentially killing her outright if her health is low enough.
* Magnetic Field protects himself or his ally from Queen of Pain's attacks unless she has
Monkey King Bar.
* One more advantage of Tempest Double is that he can deny himself if he is close to death with Shadow Strike's debuff.
* Spirit Breaker's Charge of Darkness semi-reveals Bounty Hunter, taking away his element of surprise for the duration of the charge. Also, as Charge of Darkness shows Bounty Hunter's position, Spirit Breaker's allies can proceed to gank Bounty Hunter while he is roaming alone.
* Charge of Darkness can be used to escape or counter-initiate against a Relocate gank.
* Greater Bash and
Nether Strike is devastating due to Io's low armor, and can even knock it away from tethered target.
* Possibly Clinkz's worst enemy. He has many tools to utterly destroy Clinkz.
* Charge of Darkness can be used on Clinkz if Spirit Breaker's team spots him anywhere. This charge will track his location through Skeleton Walk's invisibility and movement speed bonuses.
* When Spirit Breaker charges onto Clinkz, he can easily use Dust of Appearance to guarantee a reveal on him while stunned.
* All three of Spirit Breaker's spells help him and his team quickly close the gap to Clinkz even at the edge of his attack range or when running away with Skeleton Walk.
* Spirit Breaker's high strength and above average armor makes him able to endure Clinkz's onslaught, meanwhile Clinkz will be heavily threatened if Spirit Breaker procs a Greater Bash.
Additional:
* Once caught with dust, Clinkz could be locked down for a long time by Spirit Breaker and has nowhere to escape.
* Charge of Darkness provides shared vision over its target, showing Clinkz even when he is in Skeleton Walk.
* Magic Missile has a considerably long cast time, making it difficult to stop Charge of Darkness with it.
* Other than Magic Missile, Vengeful Spirit has no way of canceling Nether Strike.
* Tinker relies on his high mobility from Boots of Travel and
Blink Dagger to survive. Those items don't help him if Spirit Breaker manages to cast Charge of Darkness on him.
* Spirit Breaker can easily cancel Rearm and
Boots of Travel.
* Spirit Breaker won’t do much harm to Enchantress because of Untouchable and Nature's Attendants. Unless Enchantress is low on HP, Spirit Breaker won’t be able to catch her with mere spells.
* Heroes with nukes that can jump her: Clockwerk,
Snapfire,
Spirit Breaker,
Techies
* Magnetic Field makes Impetus miss; if Enchantress decides to enter the field, she is giving up bonus damage since Impetus deals greater damage at higher distance away from targets.
* Windranger's has bad against Hero heavily strong escape out of reach with windrun: Spirit Breaker,
Lycan,
Storm Spirit,
Earth Spirit
* Rolling Thunder hits Arc Warden, his Tempest Double and any allies through
Magnetic Field.
* Rolling Thunder also causes Pangolier to take no damage from existing stacks of Flux as well as clear all
Spark Wraiths on the way.
* Charge of Darkness can be used to chase down Pangolier if he escapes with Swashbuckle or Rolling Thunder.
* Nether Strike ignores Rolling Thunder's spell immunity, and will still hit Pangolier if he rolls or dashes away.
* Powerful physical hitters that can destroy Pangolier during his rolling from afar: Drow Ranger,
Sniper,
Templar Assassin,
Arc Warden
* Arc Warden's
Magnetic Field dodges all damage from Death Ward.
* Ranged heroes will have a hard time hitting enemies inside Magnetic Field: Silencer,
Viper.
* Heroes with mobility/escape mechanisms to dodge Ancient Apparition abilites, or to easily jump on him: Riki,
Queen of Pain,
Phantom Assassin,
Windranger,
Bounty Hunter,
Spirit Breaker,
Night Stalker,
Storm Spirit,
Juggernaut, etc.
* Heroes that rely on escapes to stay alive can be caught and locked down for a long time: Queen of Pain,
Phantom Assassin
* Heroes with long range abilities are also able to touch Zeus, such as Clockwerk,
Kunkka,
Puck,
Skywrath Mage,
Spirit Breaker,
Tusk and others.
* Heroes who rely on summons will see them destroyed easily by Overwhelming Odds: Lycan,
Arc Warden,
Warlock,
Chen
* Magnetic Field prevents Legion Commander from getting wins with Duel.
Additional:
* Magnetic Field prevents Legion Commander from easily gaining wins with Duel.
* Heroes with summons and illusions as Spirit Breaker has no strong AoE capabilities to deal with them: Chaos Knight,
Phantom Lancer,
Terrorblade,
Naga Siren,
Broodmother,
Warlock,
Visage,
Nature's Prophet,
Shadow Shaman,
Lycan.
* Spirit Breaker can chase Nature's Prophet from anywhere on the map with Charge of Darkness, making it hard for Nature's Prophet to split-push.
* Charge of Darkness and
Nether Strike gives vision of Nature's Prophet when he tries to Sprout himself and teleport away.
Additional:
* Charge of Darkness allows Spirit Breaker to catch Nature's Prophet out when he tries to split push.
* Nature's Prophet can't hide in his Sprout against Spirit Breaker, as his Charge of Darkness provides vision on its target.
* Spirit Breaker can easily cancel Nature's Prophet's Teleportation.
* Can easily interrupt and disable Spirit Breaker with hex if being charged.
* Heroes that are squishy by nature are an easy target for Spirit Breaker: Sniper,
Drow Ranger,
Shadow Shaman
* Arc Warden with his Magnetic Field will protect allies from Mass Serpent Ward.
* If Medusa activates Stone Gaze before Spirit Breaker reaches her with Charge of Darkness, the charge will inevitably fail.
* Mana Shield and overall tankiness allows Medusa to easily survive Spirit Breaker's initiation.
* He can use either his own or his double's Flux to bypass the spellblock from Linken's Sphere, using the leftover Flux +
Spark Wraith to slow Medusa's already low move speed to a crawl.
* Arc Warden has a farming advantage with double Hand of Midas, and can generally bully Medusa with other items that benefit from duplication.
* Anti-Mage Blinks directly into Magnetic Field, bypassing its protection.
* Anti-Mage's high mobility allows him to deal with Tempest Double while it is split-pushing.
Additional:
* Arc Warden's high reliance on casting abilities leads him to be dependent on mana, which Anti-Mage can quickly burn with Mana Break.
* Blink mitigates the threat of Flux slow and allows Anti-Mage to close the distance between himself and Arc Warden.
* Anti-Mage's ability to farm quickly allows him keep up with Arc Warden's farm while also de-pushing the lanes Arc Warden shoves in with his Tempest Double.
* Anti-Mage also frequently buys Manta Style, and can use it so dispel Arc Warden's items that can threaten an Anti-Mage like
Bloodthorn.
* Counterspell significantly reduces the effectiveness of Arc Warden's magical damage.
* However, do keep in mind that when Arc Warden has a Black King Bar, jumping on him alone may not be the best idea for Invoker as it could put him in a bad position, while Arc Warden summons his doubles and rain damage into him.
* Anti-Mage usually relies on Blink to escape, but with vision from Charge of Darkness it is easier to catch him.
* Spirit Breaker could single-handedly lock Anti-Mage down for 4 seconds (or even more with lucky bashes), allowing his teammates to follow up.
* As Anti-Mage is an elusive hero who likes to farm alone, Spirit Breaker could choose to charge whenever Anti-Mage is in sight.
* Bramble Maze stops Charge of Darkness in its tracks. Its very long duration means it can be used as an obstacle to block off an incoming Spirit Break during teamfights.
* Shadow Realm and Bedlam can be activated when Dark Willow sees Charge of Darkness coming, preventing Spirit Breaker from using
Nether Strike after the initial stun.
* Magnetic Field lets Arc Warden or allies evade Dark Willow's shadow realm attacks. The duration of the evasion can be extended with the clone.
* Spark Wraith also exploits Dark Willow's low mobility.
* Heroes that can cancel Charge of Darkness: Ogre Magi,
Earthshaker,
Lion,
Rubick,
Luna.
* Arc Warden's
Tempest Double is helpful for killing Ogre Magi who lacks AoE damage and disables.
* Due to Spirit Breaker's low attack speed, Supernova is problematic for Spirit Breaker to take down, and even more so with
Fire Spirits debuff applied.
* Icarus Dive grants Phoenix capability to quickly escape to safety.
* Tempest Double, Magnetic Field's attack speed bonus, and Arc Warden's high attack range will easily destroy a Phoenix using Supernova much faster than usual.
* Phoenix is very weak against pushers, especially those like Arc Warden who can kill him easily, as his skillset works best in teamfights.
Additional:
* His Tempest Double is not an illusion, but rather a full hero unit, which effectively reduces half of the Supernova's health. His
Magnetic Field can tremendously boost his attack speed, allowing him to destroy
Supernova in no time even when he's affected by
Fire Spirits.
* Heroes with gap-closing abilities who attempt to use them for escaping Bloodseeker will suffer serious damage from Rupture: Phantom Assassin,
Anti-Mage,
Faceless Void,
Riki,
Slark,
Spirit Breaker.
* Heroes with illusion and clone abilities may confuse Bloodseeker, causing him to waste time in fights: Phantom Lancer,
Chaos Knight,
Arc Warden
* Heroes with summons and illusions as Spirit Breaker has no strong AoE capabilities to deal with them: Chaos Knight,
Phantom Lancer,
Terrorblade,
Naga Siren,
Broodmother,
Warlock,
Visage,
Nature's Prophet,
Shadow Shaman,
Lycan.
* Warlock is a very strong hero when positioned correctly, and his long cast range helps him with this. However, some Heroes might disrupt or sneakily pass through his allies and deal with him, preventing him from doing his job. Such heroes include Chaos Knight,
Spirit Breaker,
Riki, and more.
* Heroes that can slow Charge of Darkness by a huge amount: Venomancer,
Viper,
Dazzle,
Arc Warden,
Lion.
* Ranged heroes will have a hard time hitting enemies inside Magnetic Field: Silencer,
Viper.
* Heroes that can slow Charge of Darkness by a huge amount: Venomancer,
Viper,
Dazzle,
Arc Warden,
Lion.
* Any hero that can outrange Plague Ward can neutralize them without putting themselves at risk of receiving Poison Sting: Arc Warden,
Chen,
Clinkz,
Drow Ranger,
Lina,
Mirana,
Nature's Prophet,
Pugna and
Sniper.
* Special mention to heroes that outrange Plague Ward after obtaining talents that increase attack range.
* Heroes with summons or illusions can counter Flux, such as Beastmaster ,
Chen, or
Shadow Demon.
Additional:
* Chen in the early game is a faster pusher than Arc Warden until Arc Warden buys Maelstrom.
* Heroes that can easily bypass Chen's creeps to get to Chen: Riki,
Tusk,
Clinkz,
Sniper,
Slark,
Phantom Assassin,
Void Spirit,
Storm Spirit,
Ember Spirit,
Earth Spirit,
Spirit Breaker.
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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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.
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Spirit Breaker
* Ice Wall can slow down
Charge of Darkness in its tracks at max level, allowing counterplays such as Cold Snap to end the charge, bursting down with Tornado, Meteor, and right clicks, or even teleporting back to spawn to drag Spirit Breaker into the fountain.
Cold Snap allows Invoker to interrupt Charge of Darkness and Nether Strike.
Tornado's long range can be used to cancel Charge of Darkness.
Deafening Blast prevents Spirit Breaker from right clicking and thus proccing his Greater Bash.
* Cold Snap (if timed right) and Invoker's other disables like Tornado can interrupt Charge of Darkness, especially since Charge is telegraphed by the symbol appearing over head.
Additional:
*
*
*
Arc Warden
* Invoker's
Forge Spirit can negate
Flux.
Chaos Meteor, Invoker can easily burst down Arc Warden (plus his clone if he spawns it.)
Orchid Malevolence can shut down Arc Warden pretty hard, especially when Invoker has a good lane against him if he kills him early on.
Deafening Blast and
Ice Wall limit's Arc Wardens mobility and damage, crippling him greatly.
* Provided he does a right combo with
* An early
*