* Heroes who can continue dealing damage even while being stunned:
Luna,
Razor,
Axe,
Bristleback,
Leshrac,
Death Prophet,
Jakiro.
*
Exorcism's ghosts will automatically clear all Proximity Mines revealed when Death Prophet walks near them, provided that the ghosts do not have a specific target at that time.
* Death Prophet is a natural
Eul's Scepter of Divinity carrier, meaning she can easily escape a Blast Off initiation.
* Heroes that can slow Charge of Darkness by a huge amount:
Venomancer,
Viper,
Dazzle,
Arc Warden,
Lion,
Huskar,
Shadow Shaman,
Visage,
Undying,
Jakiro.
* Plague Wards may reveal a hiding Techies. If there's a sentry nearby, they may also reveal a stack of mines hidden in a juking spot.
* Heroes that have a weak laning stage:
Spectre,
Nyx Assassin,
Clockwerk,
Spirit Breaker,
Omniknight,
Pudge.
*
Dark Ascension also allows Night Stalker to fly over Proximity Mines without triggering them.
*
Crippling Fear is effective in stopping Techies from using Blast Off and
Void is effective in stopping them from running to the safety of their mines.
*
Malefice prevents Spirit Breaker from using his spells for the duration.
* Eidolons from
Demonic Summoning have high magic resistance, receiving little damage from Charge of Darkness and Greater Bash.
*
Midnight Pulse can deal big damage to Spirit Breaker, as it deals damage based on enemy hero's max health.
*
Black Hole makes it very dangerous for Spirit Breaker to reach Enigma with Charge of Darkness unless if he has Nether Strike available to use.
Additional:
*
Malefice prevents Spirit Breaker from using his spells for the duration.
* Eidolons from
Demonic Summoning have high magic resistance, receiving little damage from Charge of Darkness and Greater Bash.
*
Midnight Pulse can deal big damage to Spirit Breaker, as it deals damage based on enemy hero's max health.
*
Black Hole makes it very dangerous for Spirit Breaker to reach Enigma with Charge of Darkness unless if he has Nether Strike available to use.
* Heroes with summons like
Broodmother,
Enigma,
Nature's Prophet; or illusions, like
Naga Siren,
Terrorblade are effective at keeping the choke points and rune spawns safe from Proximity Mines.
* 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,
Wraith King.
* Familiars can fly over the mines, rendering them safe from damage of Techies's mines. Visage can also use Familiars to check for mines on the map.
* Techies's low attack speed and damage will give them a hard time in destroying Visage's Familiars, and that can become even worse if they are affected by
Grave Chill.
*
Gravekeeper's Cloak allows Visage to survive Damage from Techies's mines.
* 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,
Wraith King.
* Wraith King is not afraid to walk into mines, whenever he goes with his Reincarnation ready.
Additional:
* Wraith King's skeletons from
Vampiric Spirit keeps the choke points and rune spawns safe from Proximity Mines.
* Wraith King is not afraid to go into a field of Proximity Mines, wherever he goes as long as
Reincarnation is off cooldown .
* Heroes with ways to protect themselves or allies from Spirit Breaker's initiation:
Shadow Demon,
Outworld Destroyer,
Omniknight,
Dawnbreaker.
* Shadow Demon's spammable illusions can be used to scout Techies'
Proximity Mines.
*
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.
* Heroes with forced movement abilities or non-interrupting forced movement, such as
Lion,
Drow Ranger,
Magnus,
Mars, as they can cancel blast-off mid air, removing his ability to initiate or escape.
* Durable heroes:
Axe,
Dawnbreaker,
Bristleback,
Mars,
Omniknight,
Tidehunter,
Wraith King,
Primal Beast,
Underlord.
* Heroes with forced movement abilities or non-interrupting forced movement, such as
Lion,
Drow Ranger,
Magnus,
Mars, as they can cancel blast-off mid air, removing his ability to initiate or escape.
* As long as Batrider is under the effect of Firefly, he can safely fly over
Proximity Mines (He does not receive vision over the mines).
* 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.
*
Aghanim's Shard upgraded
Moon Glaives allows Luna to reduce damage from Greater Bash and Nether Strike inflicts on her, and damage Spirit Breaker whenever he is close to her, even while he is invisible.
*
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.
* If Luna buys
Linken's Sphere, it will become nearly impossible for Spirit Breaker to reach Luna unless some of Spirit Breaker's allies can pop it and put it on a cooldown.
* 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 can also buy
Gleipnir to counter Spirit Breaker's Charge of Darkness and
Shadow Blade combo.
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.
*
Aghanim's Shard upgraded
Moon Glaives allows Luna to reduce damage from Greater Bash and Nether Strike inflicts on her, and damage Spirit Breaker whenever he is close to her, even while he is invisible.
*
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.
* If Luna buys
Linken's Sphere, it will become nearly impossible for Spirit Breaker to reach Luna unless some of Spirit Breaker's allies can pop it and put it on a cooldown.
* 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 can also buy
Gleipnir to counter Spirit Breaker's Charge of Darkness and
Shadow Blade combo.
*
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. And considering how Spirit Breaker's intelligence is very low,
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.
* If Medusa activates
Stone Gaze before Spirit Breaker reaches her with Charge of Darkness, the charge will inevitably fail.
* Medusa has three ways to counter Spirit Breaker's Charge of Darkness:
Stone Gaze can disable Spirit Breaker's Charge of Darkness if he faces Medusa directly.
Aghanim's Scepter upgraded
Mystic Snake can disable Spirit Breaker and cancel his Charge of Darkness if it hits him. And
Cold Blooded provided by
Aghanim's Shard that can cast a single-targeted
Mystic Snake at Spirit Breaker if he uses Charge of Darkness on her.
*
Mana Shield and overall tankiness allows Medusa to easily survive Spirit Breaker's initiation. And to make things worse, Spirit Breaker is not a common
Diffusal Blade nor
Disperser wielder to counter this problem at all.
* Overall, any attempt for Spirit Breaker to gank and kill Medusa will hurt him more than the other way around.
* Spirit Breaker's slow attack speed and moderate damage do very little to harm Dragon Knight, even if ganked with
Charge of Darkness.
* 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.
*
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:
*
Plasma Field can slow Spirit Breaker and reduce damage from Greater Bash.
*
Static Link drains damage bonus from Greater Bash, and it cannot be removed by Nether Strike.
*
Storm Surge will proc on Spirit Breaker every time he attacks Razor or if he uses Charge of Darkness on Razor, damaging him and alerting Razor to Spirit Breaker's incoming ganks, no matter how far Spirit Breaker is from Razor.
*
Eye of the Storm can rapidly reduce Spirit Breaker's armor, making him much less durable, especially in teamfights.
*
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.
* 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.
* 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.
*
Fate's Edict gives 100% magic resistance, which prevents most of Techies' damage.
* Oracle's
Fortune's End dispels Reactive Tazer buff from Techies allowing him to be attacked. However, Reactive Tazer will instantly perform the area of effect disarm that is normally applied at the end of the duration.
* Fortune's End will also dispel Blast Off silence, Techies' Etheral Blade, Proximity Mines' magic resistance reduction, and Sticky Bomb's slow. However beware that it will only dispel Sticky Bomb's first or second instance of slow and not the damage, which will trigger as normal.
Additional:
* Oracle can negate all of Techies' skills with Fate's Edict, as they are all magic damage. Fate's Edict can also be used to search and trigger
Proximity Mines when crossing mined territory.
* Oracle can dispel
Reactive Tazer off Techies, as well as the silence from
Blast Off!, with Fortune's End.
* Oracle can further delay Techies' burst damage capability with False Promise.
*
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.
Additional:
* 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 (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.
* 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 presence.
* Due to this, Spirit Breaker's damage will always be lower when targeting Omniknight.
* 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 and recover from any incoming ganks by Spirit Breaker.
* Juggernaut can trigger Proximity Mines while in
Blade Fury, and can walk away from a initiation with Blast Off if Blade Fury is activated before the silence.
* Juggernaut ignores Reactive Tazer when he uses
Omnislash, whether Techies used it to protect an ally or themselves.
*
Nature's Grasp severely slows down Spirit Breaker, reducing effects of Charge of Darkness and Greater Bash.
*
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
Aghanim's Shard upgraded
Nature's Guise before he manages to escape.
*
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.
* Aphotic Shield makes it less likely for allies to be killed by mines.
* Because they explode in very short intervals, a stack of
Remote Mines will always trigger Borrowed Time, making them impossible to kill Abaddon unless his resistances are lowered enough or Abaddon is affected by Break.
* Abaddon can easily dispel the long-lasting root of
Stasis Trap on himself and on an ally, while at the same also providing protection against the other mines' damage.
Additional:
*
Borrowed Time's automatic activation will help Abaddon survive a field of Proximity Mines or a Blast Off combo. However, the damage from a single mine can kill him if his HP is low enough.
*
Aphotic Shield's can easily break Techies' Etheral Blade combo.
* 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 slow base attack speed.
* Rage protects Lifestealer from all of Techies's abilities.
Reactive Tazer's disarm will also not work on Lifestealer under Rage.
* Rage can also be used to trigger Techies's
Proximity Mines safely.
Additional:
* Lifestealer's
Rage lets him clear Proximity Mines without taking damage, and allows him to hit heroes whom Techies has used Reactive Tazer on.
* Heroes that punish mobile heroes:
Bloodseeker,
Keeper of the Light,
Kunkka,
Disruptor.
* Heroes that can cancel Charge of Darkness:
Ogre Magi,
Earthshaker,
Lion,
Rubick,
Lina,
Luna,
Jakiro,
Dawnbreaker,
Alchemist,
Ogre Magi,
Axe,
Shadow Shaman,
Naga Siren,
Mars,
Bane,
Pudge,
Clockwerk.
* Heroes that can slow Charge of Darkness by a huge amount:
Venomancer,
Viper,
Dazzle,
Arc Warden,
Lion,
Huskar,
Shadow Shaman,
Visage,
Undying,
Jakiro.
* Heroes who can continue dealing damage even while being stunned:
Luna,
Razor,
Axe,
Bristleback,
Leshrac,
Death Prophet,
Jakiro.
* Heroes that can cancel Charge of Darkness:
Ogre Magi,
Earthshaker,
Lion,
Rubick,
Lina,
Luna,
Jakiro,
Dawnbreaker,
Alchemist,
Ogre Magi,
Axe,
Shadow Shaman,
Naga Siren,
Mars,
Bane,
Pudge,
Clockwerk.
* 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.
* 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 summons like
Broodmother,
Enigma,
Nature's Prophet; or illusions, like
Naga Siren,
Terrorblade are effective at keeping the choke points and rune spawns safe from Proximity Mines.
* 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 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.
* Durable heroes:
Axe,
Dawnbreaker,
Bristleback,
Mars,
Omniknight,
Tidehunter,
Wraith King,
Primal Beast,
Underlord.
Additional:
* Solar Guardian can save an ally getting targeted and focused by Spirit Breaker.
* Heroes that can slow Charge of Darkness by a huge amount:
Venomancer,
Viper,
Dazzle,
Arc Warden,
Lion,
Huskar,
Shadow Shaman,
Visage,
Undying,
Jakiro.
* Heroes that punish mobile heroes:
Bloodseeker,
Keeper of the Light,
Kunkka,
Disruptor.
* Slow heroes that have a hard time escaping the Echo Stomp radius:
Crystal Maiden,
Pudge,
Techies.
* Heroes that can slow Charge of Darkness by a huge amount:
Venomancer,
Viper,
Dazzle,
Arc Warden,
Lion,
Huskar,
Shadow Shaman,
Visage,
Undying,
Jakiro.
* Heroes that punish mobile heroes:
Bloodseeker,
Keeper of the Light,
Kunkka,
Disruptor.
* Heroes with low health will die easily during Duels, and can be farmed for damage in the early game:
Crystal Maiden,
Lich,
Techies,
Rubick
* Heroes who can continue dealing damage even while being stunned:
Luna,
Razor,
Axe,
Bristleback,
Leshrac,
Death Prophet,
Jakiro.
* Heroes who rely on armor or evasion to survive can easily be bursted down, like
Phantom Assassin,
Terrorblade,
Underlord,
Spirit Breaker.
* 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,
Wraith King.
* He can send wolves to defuse
Proximity Mines, and he can catch up Techies and kill him before they can deny themselves. Even if the suicide is successful, Lycan can still survive because of his tankiness.
* Vision from Charge of Darkness will easier to catch Lycan
Shapeshift and Charge of Darkness out of reach Lycan
Summon Wolves and Lycan's other creeps. Until upgrade
Aghanim's Scepter faster catching Lycan
Shapeshift.
Additional:
*
Charge of Darkness allows Spirit Breaker to catch up to Lycan after he uses Shapeshift.
* Heroes with forced movement abilities or non-interrupting forced movement, such as
Lion,
Drow Ranger,
Magnus,
Mars, as they can cancel blast-off mid air, removing his ability to initiate or escape.
* 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,
Wraith King.
* Heroes with summons like
Broodmother,
Enigma,
Nature's Prophet; or illusions, like
Naga Siren,
Terrorblade are effective at keeping the choke points and rune spawns safe from Proximity Mines.
* Heroes with long-lasting, undispellable debuffs will pinpoint the true Naga Siren:
Spirit Breaker,
Bloodseeker,
Witch Doctor.
* Heroes that can cancel Charge of Darkness:
Ogre Magi,
Earthshaker,
Lion,
Rubick,
Lina,
Luna,
Jakiro,
Dawnbreaker,
Alchemist,
Ogre Magi,
Axe,
Shadow Shaman,
Naga Siren,
Mars,
Bane,
Pudge,
Clockwerk.
* 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,
Wraith King.
* Illusions can be sent out to destroy
Techies mines.
* Charge of Darkness provides shared vision over its target, keeping track of heroes who rely on invisibility, mobility, or illusions:
Riki,
Broodmother,
Phantom Lancer
* Durable heroes:
Axe,
Dawnbreaker,
Bristleback,
Mars,
Omniknight,
Tidehunter,
Wraith King,
Primal Beast,
Underlord.
* Heroes that can cancel Charge of Darkness:
Ogre Magi,
Earthshaker,
Lion,
Rubick,
Lina,
Luna,
Jakiro,
Dawnbreaker,
Alchemist,
Ogre Magi,
Axe,
Shadow Shaman,
Naga Siren,
Mars,
Bane,
Pudge,
Clockwerk.
* 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.
* Durable heroes:
Axe,
Dawnbreaker,
Bristleback,
Mars,
Omniknight,
Tidehunter,
Wraith King,
Primal Beast,
Underlord.
*
Pit of Malice can be cast in the path of Spirit Breaker's Charge of Darkness to cancel it.
* Spirit Breaker's damage output is entirely physical, therefore
Atrophy Aura is very hazardous for him in most of the stages, particularly since it also affects
Greater Bash, hindering Spirit Breaker's main source of damage.
*
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 Underlord and his teammates when they use it to move around the map.
Additional:
*
Pit of Malice can be cast in the path of Spirit Breaker's Charge of Darkness to cancel it.
* Spirit Breaker's damage output is entirely physical, therefore
Atrophy Aura is very hazardous for him in most of the stages, particularly since it also affects
Greater Bash, hindering Spirit Breaker's main source of damage.
*
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 Underlord and his teammates when they use it to move around the map.
* Heroes that provide vision will see Fiend's Gate coming:
Techies,
Templar Assassin,
Treant Protector.
* Fissure interrupts Spirit Breaker during
Charge of Darkness.
* Techies is very good against roaming supports and gankers such as
Bounty Hunter,
Riki,
Weaver,
Earthshaker,
Nyx Assassin, etc. that are constantly moving around the map.
* 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
*
Refraction can be very useful in safely neutralizing Proximity Mine fields, or absorbing Techies' Blast Off combo.
* 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.
* Techies spends lots of time standing still planting stacks of
Land Mines away from creep waves.
* Sacred Arrow can be used to scout hidden
Land Mines among trees and at uphill places. It can also be used to catch Techies while he's planting them.
* If Techies is hit with a Sacred Arrow, he can be killed before he has a chance to use
Blast Off!.
* Mirana has a high attack range to destroy his traps from a safe distance.
* Heroes that rely on invisibility can be tracked with Charge of Darkness opening them to team attacks:
Bounty Hunter,
Mirana,
Riki
* 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,
Wraith King.
* Heroes with summons like
Broodmother,
Enigma,
Nature's Prophet; or illusions, like
Naga Siren,
Terrorblade are effective at keeping the choke points and rune spawns safe from Proximity Mines.
* 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.
* 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.
* Techies is very good against roaming supports and gankers such as
Bounty Hunter,
Riki,
Weaver,
Earthshaker,
Nyx Assassin, etc. that are constantly moving around the map.
* 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.
* Techies can easily catch Chen off guard and kill him quickly with
Blast Off! and
Ethereal Blade combo, especially because
Blast Off! can silence Chen and stun him when upgraded with
Aghanim's Shard.
* However, Chen's converted creeps can trigger
Proximity Mines, wasting them.
* Charge of Darkness provides shared vision over its target, keeping track of heroes who rely on invisibility, mobility, or illusions:
Riki,
Broodmother,
Phantom Lancer
* Techies is very good against roaming supports and gankers such as
Bounty Hunter,
Riki,
Weaver,
Earthshaker,
Nyx Assassin, etc. that are constantly moving around the map.
* Techies can turn his tree jumping ability against him, by placing Proximity Mines that will detect him near trees, and then destroying the trees around him with Blast Off, stunning him and dealing high damage, on top of him being silenced when the stun expires.
* Monkey King's mobility is also severely limited around Techies' mines as he will almost always trigger them due to the cooldown time between tree jumps. Monkey King will be forced to take mine damage or escape with
Primal Spring.
Additional:
*
Proximity Mines can be placed near trees to detect Monkey King.
* Follow up with
Blast Off! to destroy the tree, causing Monkey King to take high damage, fall from the tree, and become stunned.
*
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.
* Heroes that usually build
Linken's Sphere as either a core or situational item:
Weaver,
Medusa,
Morphling,
Queen of Pain,
Storm Spirit,
Luna,
Naga Siren.
* Spirit Breaker's strong escape combo abilities from
Charge of Darkness and
Bulldoze can easily catch Shukuchi from Weaver.
* Time Lapse cannot dispel neither
Charge of Darkness nor
Nether Strike.
* However, Weaver is a common
Linken's Sphere wielder. And if he has it, Spirit Breaker will not be able to catch up with Weaver neiter with
Charge of Darkness nor with
Nether Strike.
Additional:
*
Shukuchi vision can easily target Charge of Darkness before Weaver purchase
Linken's Sphere.
*
Techies has both a stun and a powerful nuke in
Blast Off!, root from
Stasis Trap and even more magical damage in
Proximity Mines and
Remote Mines.
* 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.
* 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.
*
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 his
Tethered target.
*
Remote Mines are frequently placed in trees, and can thus kill an unwary Hoodwink should she
Scurry away due to her low HP pool.
*
Blast Off! can clear out trees, denying the tactical advantages from
Scurry.
* 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.
* After using Snowball, Tusk can't control where he's going, allowing Techies to make him roll onto mines.
*
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.
* 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.
* Heroes that commonly attack ethereal units will not have any problems against Muerta's Pierce The Veil:
Tinker,
Jakiro,
Lina,
Luna,
Pugna or
Ogre Magi,
Enigma,
Batrider,
Techies,
Broodmother,
Dawnbreaker,
Shadow Shaman,
Bane,
Tinker,
Venomancer,
Arc Warden.
* Heroes with long range abilities are also able to touch Zeus, such as
Clockwerk,
Kunkka,
Puck,
Skywrath Mage,
Spirit Breaker,
Tusk and others.
* 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.
* Windranger tends to fare badly against high mobility heroes that can easily dodge Powershot, close the gap on her when she uses Windrun or escape from Focus Fire's reach. Examples of such heroes include
Spirit Breaker,
Lycan,
Storm Spirit,
Earth Spirit,
Void Spirit,
Slark and others.
*
Axe,
Bristleback,
Centaur Warrunner,
Spirit Breaker,
Pudge,
Huskar,
Wraith King,
Doom: 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.
* Heroes that rely on escapes to stay alive can be caught and locked down for a long time:
Queen of Pain,
Phantom Assassin
*
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.
* Heroes who can stun multiple units at once:
Dark Willow,
Spirit Breaker,
Slardar,
Invoker, and
Tidehunter.
*
Reactive Tazer can lock multiple Meepos in place and prevent them from Poofing.
*
Proximity Mines,
Sticky Bomb and
Blast Off! can deal heavy magic damage to multiple Meepos.
* 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,
Wraith King.
* Heroes with summons like
Broodmother,
Enigma,
Nature's Prophet; or illusions, like
Naga Siren,
Terrorblade are effective at keeping the choke points and rune spawns safe from Proximity Mines.
* 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.
* Techies deals lots of magical damage with
Sticky Bomb,
Blast Off! and
Proximity Mines that bypasses Terrorblade's high armor and can punish his low max life.
*
Sticky Bomb is easy to land on a large clump of Terrorblade illusions and will damage and slow Terrorblade and all of his illusions if he can't quickly move the right one away.
*
Reactive Tazer upgraded with
Aghanim's Scepter can be used to protect an ally getting attacked by Terrorblade. Further, it disarms all of his illusions even while he has activated
Black King Bar, greatly decreasing his damage.
*
Blast Off! stuns Terrorblade, preventing him from casting
Sunder.
* Any hero with a low HP pool is easy for Tinker to nuke down:
Crystal Maiden,
Enchantress,
Gyrocopter,
Lion,
Riki,
Techies,
Terrorblade,
Necrophos,
Invoker.
* Tinker relies on his high mobility from
Keen Conveyance 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
Keen Conveyance.
* 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,
Wraith King.
* Techies has great area of effect damage to deal with
Phantasm illusions.
* Blast Off silences Chaos Knight, stopping him from using his disables and allowing his teammates to walk away from his heavy damage.
* Reactive Tazer will disarm all of Chaos Knight's illusions even if he has activated his
Black King Bar.
* Heroes that usually build
Linken's Sphere as either a core or situational item:
Weaver,
Medusa,
Morphling,
Queen of Pain,
Storm Spirit,
Luna,
Naga Siren.
* If Storm Spirit isn't careful, he could fall into a trap set by Techies and another hero acting as bait.
*
Stasis Trap roots Storm Spirit for 2/3/4/5 seconds and
Blast Off! silences for 4/5/6/7 seconds, which effectively prevents Storm Spirit from using
Ball Lightning to escape for a lengthy duration.
* 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
* Heroes with nukes that can jump her:
Clockwerk,
Snapfire,
Spirit Breaker,
Techies
Additional:
* Techies does huge amounts of magical damage, which will bypass
Untouchable.
* Enchantress depends on abilities to do damage and heal, which Blast Off's silence prevents.
* Heroes with forced movement abilities or non-interrupting forced movement, such as
Lion,
Drow Ranger,
Magnus,
Mars, as they can cancel blast-off mid air, removing his ability to initiate or escape.
* 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.
* Heroes that usually build
Linken's Sphere as either a core or situational item:
Weaver,
Medusa,
Morphling,
Queen of Pain,
Storm Spirit,
Luna,
Naga Siren.
* Heroes that rely on escapes to stay alive can be caught and locked down for a long time:
Queen of Pain,
Phantom Assassin
* Heroes that can slow Charge of Darkness by a huge amount:
Venomancer,
Viper,
Dazzle,
Arc Warden,
Lion,
Huskar,
Shadow Shaman,
Visage,
Undying,
Jakiro.
* Spirit Breaker's stuns pierce spell immunity, making him a good choice against heroes that heavily rely on
Black King Bar;
Huskar
* 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,
Wraith King.
* 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.
* Thanks to
Counterspell's magic resistance, Anti-Mage has a good chance of surviving a Blast Off combo.
* Anti-Mage is a natural
Manta Style carrier, meaning he can dispel the silence from Blast Off and blink away when Techies initiates on 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.
*
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.
* Morphling usually has low max health due to shifting strength into agility, which combined with Blast Off's silence will prevent him from using
Waveform and
Adaptive Strike (Strength), leaving him defenseless and making him an easy target to burst down.
* Heroes who can continue dealing damage even while being stunned:
Luna,
Razor,
Axe,
Bristleback,
Leshrac,
Death Prophet,
Jakiro.
*
Spirit Breaker's
Nether Strike with
Aghanim's Shard disables Bristleback's passives.
To start select enemy heroes in the field above. It's intended to be used with multiple heroes. The more enemy heroes you provide the better results you will get.
This website was made to help you in pick stage of online game Dota 2. It calculates rating for each possible counterpicks based on tips from web-based database made up entirely of user contributions Dota 2 wiki.
You will get the list of recommended hero counters with a list of tips written by Dota 2 wiki contributors explaining why it's good against the particular hero. In comparison to other similar websites, which show only rating based on average hero win rate from dotabuff or similar service.
Take it with a bit of grain of salt, especially if the recommendation has a low rating (<= 1), some heroes
may win a lane in an early game but would lose in late game (and vice versa). That's why sometimes
you could hero names appearing as a counter and as being countered, as on image:
You can also add your own tips, update old data and fix mistakes by editing page on Dota 2 Wiki (it works like Wikipedia - anyone can contribute, you don't even need to register) these edits will appear on this website automatically (data is updated several times per week).
Right now there is no app/overlay that will detect picks automatically (like overwolf dota plus or become the gamer), instead, you can open web version in a steam in-game browser or use mobile version on your smartphone.
Want to know more? Check FAQ
Latest changes first
Sharing link to this site is always appreciated.
Dota 2 is a registered trademark of Valve Corporation. This site is not affiliated with Valve Corporation. All game images and names are property of Valve Corporation.
Spirit Breaker
* Heroes that can slow Charge of Darkness by a huge amount:
Venomancer,
Viper,
Dazzle,
Arc Warden,
Lion,
Huskar,
Shadow Shaman,
Visage,
Undying,
Jakiro.
Techies
*
Corrosive Skin will protect Viper from Techies' magical damage.
Poison Attack, he does lots of damage with his other abilities that can still kill Techies.
* Even though Reactive Tazer will disarm Viper if he attacks Techies with