* Time Dilation while
Static Remnant and
Electric Vortex are on cooldown will make these abilities unusable for a long time, reducing Storm Spirit's potential.
* Faceless Void can catch Storm Spirit during
Ball Lightning with a well-timed Chronosphere or Time Walk.
* Chronosphere provides excellent lockdown against
Rage.
* Faceless Void's Time Lock stops Lifestealer from getting health regeneration from auto-attacks
* Because of the high mana cost of
Ball Lightning, Storm Spirit is often vulnerable to Mana Void.
* Mana Break diminishes Storm Spirit's mobility with
Ball Lightning, and Anti-Mage can catch him with Blink over short distances.
* Almost all of Storm Spirit's damage is magical, which is severely reduced by Counterspell.
* Storm Spirit has a very large mana pool which means Anti-Mage can do large amounts of damage to him with Mana Break and Mana Void.
Additional:
*
Mana Break can quickly burn Storm Spirit's mana, preventing him from escaping.
*
Blink allows Anti-Mage to catch up to Storm Spirit when he tries to use his
Ball Lightning to escape.
*
Mana Void deals massive damage to Storm Spirit as well as his teammates, as Storm Spirit depletes his mana pool by using
Ball Lightning.
*
Counterspell's passive magic resistance reduces much of Storm Spirit's magical damage dealt to Anti-Mage, and the active aspect may even make Storm Spirit disable himself.
* Heroes with escape abilities:
Anti-Mage
Dark Seer
Slark
Storm Spirit
Windranger
Weaver can kite Lifestealer due to him having no lockdown.
* Pounce's leash prevents Storm Spirit from using
Ball Lightning, making it hard for Storm Spirit to escape a gank from Slark.
* Dark Pact can dispel
Orchid Malevolence's Soul Burn.
*
Shadow Dance allows Slark to attack Lifestealer for its duration without any way for Lifestealer to fight back, allowing him to steal his stats with
Essence Shift, which also reduces Lifestealer's strength and, therefore, health pool.
* Slark can easily escape Lifestealer with
Pounce, and can avoid Open Wounds with
Dark Pact should Lifestealer be forced to itemize for it.
* Slark commonly buys a
Silver Edge, which can break Lifestealer's Feast, severely diminishing his damage output and lifesteal.
*
Depth Shroud from
Aghanim's Shard allows Slark to save both, himself and his allies with
Shadow Dance while also allowing them to fight back against Lifestealer.
* Heroes that rely on their high mobility such as
Queen of Pain,
Slark and
Weaver can be constantly engaged against due to your excellent ability to chase over any terrain. Make sure you carry true sight items (such as
Dust of Appearance or
Gem of True Sight) for invisible heroes that could potentially escape your clutches.
*
Wraith King,
Medusa,
Storm Spirit and other mana dependent heroes will have diminished impact on a fight if they survive Fiend's Grip due to its mana steal.
* Heroes with spell immunity can still be disabled by Fiend's Grip and damaged by Brain Sap:
Juggernaut,
Lifestealer,
Pangolier.
Additional:
*
Enfeeble can weaken Lifestealer's Feast and may force him to cast Rage too quickly or itemize to dispel it.
*
Fiend's Grip pierces through magic immunity and allows him to disable Lifestealer while in Rage.
*
Ensnare prevents using any kind of movement abiilties, Making Naga Siren good against heroes who rely on gap-closing abilities to escape:
Phantom Assassin,
Magnus,
Slark,
Riki,
Faceless Void,
Storm Spirit.
* Heroes with illusions:
Chaos Knight,
Naga Siren,
Phantom Lancer,
Terrorblade
* Lifestealer is a great target for Morphling to use Morph, as he can use
Rage to gain spell immunity and a movement speed boost.
* Morphling's high armor also makes Lifestealer's attacks do less damage.
*
Chaos Strike is a strong burst damage passive that allows Chaos Knight to stand up and even survive Lifestealer's attacks. Level 20 Talent: Reality Rift Pierces Spell Immunity allows him to burst down Lifestealer even while he is in Rage.
* Lifestealer's single-target nature will struggle against Chaos Knight's
Phantasm illusions and will be forced to itemize for them.
Additional:
* Level 20 talent allows Reality Rift to bypass spell immunity provided by
Rage, thus negating the advantage Lifestealer has in his kit.
* The fact that Lifestealer lacks wave clearing and reliable lockdown makes it difficult to fight Chaos Knight's illusions.
*
Feast is largely negated by Chaos Knight's high burst damage from Chaos Strike.
* Earthbind, like any root, inhibits usage of
Ball Lightning, eliminating Storm Spirit's mobility.
*
Lifestealer's Rage and Open wounds become useless when Meepo has 4 or more clones, as Ransack will heal Meepo too quickly for Lifestealer to take down.
*
Lifestealer is not affected by Earthbind or Poof during
Rage, making him a difficult target to work around.
* Clinkz relies heavily on the physical damage provided by
Burning Barrage and
Searing Arrows, which completely overrides the capabilities of Rage.
* Lifestealer's lack of disables will struggle to pin Clinkz down while in
Skeleton Walk, and can allow Clinkz to kite him.
* Lifestealer's low mobility makes him easy to kite.
* Stone Gaze pierces
Rage, wasting its cooldown and making Lifestealer unable to fight.
* Reverse Polarity pierces through
Rage, wasting part of it's duration.
* Magnus is tanky and mobile, making it hard for Lifestealer to focus and kill him in all stages of a game.
* Tusks damage/stun is enough to obliviate Storm Spirit before he can do anything.
* Tusk is a common
Blink Dagger carrier, and once he reaches Level 18,
Walrus PUNCH! deals roughly half of Storm Spirit's health alone, It also stuns for a long enough time for Tusk to
Snowball Storm Spirit, stunning him even more, If that hasn't finished him off, the damage from
Ice Shards probably will. Combined with
Tag Team, which adds bonus damage to Tusks attacks, Storm Spirit is unlikely to survive Tusk initiating on him
* Walrus PUNCH is even more potent if he uses a
Silver Edge instead
* However while Ball Lightning doesn't disjoint Snowball, if used before Tusk hits with Snowball, prevents the stun and damage from being applied
* Mobility heroes will often be rooted by Troll Warlord and unable to escape, like
Storm Spirit.
* Lifestealer is a susceptible target to
Fervor due to his non-mobile nature and lack of disables. Troll Warlord's ranged
Berserker's Rage can also be used to kite Lifestealer safely. The root from its melee form also pierces magic immunity, which can potentially keep Lifestealer in place even while he is in Rage.
* Both
Whirling Axes (melee) and
Whirling Axes (ranged) can force Lifestealer to cast Rage too quickly and allow Troll Warlord to change strategies mid-fight, especially thanks to their separate cooldowns.
*
Battle Trance allows Troll Warlord to survive Lifestealer's Feast and turn the fight in his favor.
Additional:
* The passive armor provided by Berserker's Rage makes Troll Warlord resilient to
Feast in early game.
* The 60% miss chance given by Whirling Axes (Melee) is useful when
Rage is not active.
* Battle Trance can purge
Open Wounds, negating a large amount of Lifestealer's sustain in fights.
* With
Aghanim's Scepter upgraded
Infest, Lifestealer can use it on enemy heroes to attack them and disarm them from inside, even if they are spell immune, which can give him the edge over the heroes he's weak against like
Ursa,
Phantom Assassin,
Terrorblade or
Troll Warlord.
* Since
Untouchable pierces Spell Immunity, Lifestealer cannot burst her down even with
Rage; meaning she can heal herself back to full HP.
* If
Storm Spirit is caught in an Overgrowth, he is shut down.
* With the exception of
Electric Vortex, he won't be able to cast any relevant skill.
*
Crippling Fear is a silence that can last up to 8 seconds during night, rendering Storm Spirit tied limited to his items in a fight.
*
Dark Ascension allows Night Stalker to initiate on Storm Spirit across the impassable terrain around the middle lane, rendering Storm vulnerable in the early game and prevent him from snowballing.
Additional:
* Storm Spirit is absolutely helpless if caught within Night Stalker's silence range.
* Common items a Storm Spirit will build will not remove the AoE silence.
* True Form gives Lone Druid a huge amount of health that no amount of
Ball Lightning will chip through.
*
Entangling Claws can mean a very quick end to the Storm Spirit as it prevents him from using
Ball Lightning all together.
* Storm Spirit is a single target nuker, with the Shard Lone Druid can always fear him away from himself or the bear, defending the target he does not go on. This is assuming he cannot try and proc his entangle or a potential
Skull Basher.
* Any Hero with high mobility will be neutralized by dream coil:
Queen of Pain,
Storm Spirit,
Ember Spirit,
Lycan,
Bloodseeker,
Anti-Mage,
Timbersaw.
* Melee heroes that get kited easily have hard times dealing with Puck without any lockdowns, as Puck is one of the most mobile heroes. Heroes like
Sven,
Lifestealer,
Ursa and
Alchemist may have problems to get to Puck without proper initiation items. They also lack reliable lockdowns, as their disables are easily avoidable for Puck, or are just a soft disable.
* Heroes with spell immunity or pseudo-blinks which provide invulnerability:
Lifestealer,
Juggernaut,
Omniknight,
Huskar, and
Tusk have spells which allow them to easily escape Dream Coil.
* Heroes with high physical damage can damage Lifestealer more than he can heal:
Bristleback,
Clinkz,
Luna,
Shadow Fiend,
Slardar,
Terrorblade
* Heroes with escape abilities:
Anti-Mage
Dark Seer
Slark
Storm Spirit
Windranger
Weaver can kite Lifestealer due to him having no lockdown.
* Any heroes with stuns or silences:
Death Prophet,
Lion,
Shadow Shaman,
Skywrath Mage
* Heroes that rely on physical damage are ineffective against Dragon Knight due to his high armor:
Phantom Assassin,
Bloodseeker,
Lifestealer,
Troll Warlord,
Sven
* Heroes with summons:
Lycan,
Broodmother,
Visage,
Nature's Prophet,
Warlock.
* Heroes that have escape abilities (such as
Queen of Pain,
Storm Spirit or
Timbersaw) can be either nullified by Reaper's Scythe or a complimentary item for Necrophos (like
Rod of Atos or
Scythe of Vyse). If Necrophos is quick enough and enters range, they can quickly, if not instantly, die if they are not quick enough.
* Any heroes with stuns or silences:
Death Prophet,
Lion,
Shadow Shaman,
Skywrath Mage
* 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.
* Heroes with high physical damage can damage Lifestealer more than he can heal:
Bristleback,
Clinkz,
Luna,
Shadow Fiend,
Slardar,
Terrorblade
* Heroes who cannot prevent Sven from killing towers will often struggle from a small map very early, such as
Phantom Assassin,
Storm Spirit and
Phantom Lancer.
* Heroes who can delivers a big chunk of damage in few hits will find themselves struggle against Templar Assassin's Refraction:
Sven,
Phantom Assassin,
Ursa,
Wraith King,
Lifestealer
* Chaotic Offering can stop heroes who like to use spell immunity and teleport scrolls to safely farm during the early to mid game, since it stuns and also goes through spell immunity. Notable examples:
Juggernaut,
Lifestealer.
* Many physical-only single-target heroes like
Lifestealer,
Sven,
Wraith King,
Phantom Assassin,
Templar Assassin can have their damage mitigated by Cold Embrace.
* Static Link cannot be dispelled by
Rage or
Infest, so Razor will be able to track Lifestealer down during an attempted escape.
* Storm Surge makes it hard for Lifestealer to catch Razor.
* Static Link can stop
Open Wounds from getting any additional lifesteal, but keep in mind Lifestealer can still utilize
Feast.
* Eye of the Storm penetrates the spell immunity of
Rage.
Additional:
* Razor's highly mobile nature allows him to control Lifestealer from a distance. As well, Lifestealer is already slow in comparison due to his lack of disables and move speed. Lifestealer is also an ideal target for
Static Link, for its ability to pierce magic immunity and damage steal, which can render Lifestealer's Feast useless.
*
Plasma Field can slow Lifestealer from a distance and force him to cast Rage too early.
*
Eye of the Storm pierces magic immunity, deals physical damage, and reduces armor, allowing Razor to easily stand up to Lifestealer.
* Any hero with teleport abilities (e.g.
Ember Spirit,
Storm Spirit) can easily break Static Link.
Additional:
* Ball Lightning breaks
Static Link.
* Razor has no way to catch a slippery Storm Spirit.
*
Rage does absolutely nothing against Phantom Strike with items.
*
Feast and
Ghoul Frenzy are very difficult to utilise thanks to Blur.
* Lifestealer generally wants to buy items that make him hard to kill, not an
Monkey King Bar which only offers damage.
* With
Aghanim's Scepter upgraded
Infest, Lifestealer can use it on enemy heroes to attack them and disarm them from inside, even if they are spell immune, which can give him the edge over the heroes he's weak against like
Ursa,
Phantom Assassin,
Terrorblade or
Troll Warlord.
* Queen of Pain outlanes Storm Spirit due to the fact that it has long-range abilities:
Shadow Strike and
Scream Of Pain. Storm Spirit's damage from the
Overload ability is not enough to interrupt her on the line, and the
Static Remnant will never reach Queen Of Pain, as she will scatter her abilities from afar, which is why she will drive Storm Spirit off the line and get a lot of gold and level, after such a stage of the liner, Queen of Pain will very quickly buy
Black King Bar and will not let Storm Spirit catch and kill her at the expense of
Electric Vortex
Additional:
* Queen of Pain outlanes Storm Spirit due to the fact that it has long-range abilities:
Shadow Strike and
Scream Of Pain. Storm Spirit's damage from the
Overload ability is not enough to interrupt her on the line, and the
Static Remnant will never reach Queen Of Pain, as she will scatter her abilities from afar, which is why she will drive Storm Spirit off the line and get a lot of gold and level, after such a stage of the liner, Queen of Pain will very quickly buy
Black King Bar and will not let Storm Spirit catch and kill her at the expense of
Electric Vortex
* Heroes that rely on their high mobility such as
Queen of Pain,
Slark and
Weaver can be constantly engaged against due to your excellent ability to chase over any terrain. Make sure you carry true sight items (such as
Dust of Appearance or
Gem of True Sight) for invisible heroes that could potentially escape your clutches.
* Although Lifestealer can avoid Eclipse with
Rage and
Infest, Luna's physical damage from
Moon Glaives and
Lunar Blessing can be enough to deal with him.
*
Manta Style is a common pick on Luna, which can help her dispel slows from
Ghoul Frenzy and
Open Wounds. In addition, Lifestealer is not good against illusions created by
Manta Style.
* Even though
Aghanim's Scepter upgraded
Infest can disarm Luna and allow Lifestealer to attack her from inside even if she is spell immune, Luna can easily counter this with
Linken's Sphere, which is a common item on Luna.
Additional:
* Although Lifestealer can avoid Eclipse with
Rage and
Infest, Luna's physical damage can be enough to deal with him.
*
Manta Style is a common pick on Luna, which can help her dispel slows from
Ghoul Frenzy and
Open Wounds. In addition, Lifestealer is not good against illusions created by
Manta Style.
* Escape-type carries:
Slark,
Storm Spirit,
Weaver.
* Outworld Destroyer has a huge damage from
Arcane Orb, which is why in a 1 on 1 skirmish Storm Spirit simply cannot defeat him in damage. Since Outworld Destroyer will stop gank Storm Spirit with his
Astral Imprisonment, and then kill him if he decides to fight
Additional:
* Outworld Destroyer has a huge damage from
Arcane Orb, which is why in a 1 on 1 skirmish Storm Spirit simply cannot defeat him in damage. Since Outworld Destroyer will stop gank Storm Spirit with his
Astral Imprisonment, and then kill him if he decides to fight
* Heroes with built-in spell immunity can become immune to all of Outworld Destroyer's spells:
Lifestealer's
Rage and
Juggernaut's
Blade Fury.
*
Ball Lightning allows Storm Spirit to escape through
Viper Strike, wasting Viper's mana.
* It's also very easy to wait out the duration of
Nethertoxin's break.
*
Rage ignores all of Viper's magical damage, although
Viper Strike can pierce spell immunity and slows him down.
*
Feast and
Open Wounds from
Aghanim's Shard can be combined to heal through Viper's physical damage.
*
Aghanim's Scepter upgraded
Infest can be used to disarm Viper, preventing him from using
Poison Attack on Lifestealer's allies.
*
Ball Lightning allows Storm Spirit to bypass Bramble Maze into the backline, and zip back into battle if he gets hit by Terrorize.
* Rage protects Lifestealer from all of Dark Willow's abilities.
Additional:
*
Rage protects and dispels all of Dark Willow's abilities.
* Sniper is very squishy and cannot deal with heroes that jump onto him and lock him down. Storm Spirit closes the gap in a fight against Sniper, and Sniper has no way to escape except for some items.
* Storm Spirit can dodge
Assassinate with a correctly timed
Ball Lightning.
Additional:
* Storm Spirit can close the distance towards Sniper very easily with his ultimate
Ball Lightning.
* Lifestealer can close the distance to Sniper by using
Infest on a fast or durable creep to tank Sniper's damage.
*
Open Wounds and
Ghoul Frenzy will reduce Sniper's mobility heavily, and
Rage's movement speed bonus helps in closing the gap to Sniper. It also protects him from Assassinate and Shrapnel.
*
Infest can dodge an incoming Assassinate or to surprise Sniper during ganks.
Aghanim's Scepter upgraded
Infest can also allow Lifestealer to disarm Sniper and attack him from inside.
*
Ball Lightning is the ultimate counter to Spectre's entire toolkit. With this ability, he can score easy kills on Spectre without her having any means of escape early game, kite her and her
Haunt illusions when it's later in the game due to her having no form of pseudo-blinks.
* Furthermore, it is very difficult for Spectre to deal any substantial damage against Storm Spirit with
Desolate, and without both
Manta Style and
Diffusal Blade he will always remain on the move.
* Also,
Ball Lightning grants invulnerability, and as Storm Spirit likes to spam that ability, he can mitigate the damage done from
Dispersion and
Radiance.
Additional:
* Storm Spirit can exploit every one of Spectre's weaknesses, and thus is one of the best counters against her.
* Spectre has to be in melee range to deal damage, making her likely to trigger
Static Remnants and susceptible to being kited by
Overload procs.
*
Electric Vortex can lock Spectre down as she doesn't like to build
Black King Bar.
*
Ball Lightning gives Storm Spirit multiple advantages:
* Spectre cannot evade Storm Spirit, as Ball Lightning is superior to
Spectral Dagger in terms of mobility.
* Storm Spirit can kite her and her
Haunt illusions when it's later in the game due to her having no form of pseudo-blinks (Reality is far inferior to Ball Lightning).
* It is very difficult for Spectre to deal any substantial damage against Storm Spirit with
Desolate. Ball Lightning grants invulnerability and can mitigate damage done from
Dispersion and
Radiance.
* To mitigate this, Spectre needs a team with hard disable to take Storm Spirit out.
*
Feast deals damage and heals lifestealer based on the target max health. Because Spectre often emphasises on building stat items to increase her HP pool, lifestealer can deal a lot of damage to her and heal himself at the same time.
*
Ghoul Frenzy slows target, which is bad for Spectre if she does not have
Spectral Dagger ready.
* Spectre cannot response to infest if lifestealer choose to stay inside his high mobility allies to approach the backline.
Rage's bonus movement speed and spell immunity make it even more frustrating.
* Storm Spirit's abilities all do magical damage, which can bypass
Bulwark.
*
Ball Lightning can escape through
Arena of Blood and it is easy to dodge
Spear of Mars.
Additional:
*
Ball Lightning makes it almost impossible to catch Storm Spirit without someone else initiating for you.
*
Overload is not reduced by Bulwark and the magical damage spam can wear down Mars quickly.
*
Rage, acting as a pseudo-
Black King Bar, completely negates Mars' initiation if used in time.
*
Feast does damage and heals based on max health, perfect against high-health strength heroes like Mars.
*
Infest allows Lifestealer to potentially save allies from Mars' initiation with a quick burst of extra health.
* Storm Spirit destroys trees and ignores impassable terrains with
Ball Lightning, rendering them dangerous places for Tinker to hide within.
*
Ball Lightning disjoints projectile from
Heat-Seeking Missile and damage from
March of the Machines.
*
Electric Vortex prevents Tinker from teleporting away, and
Static Remnant and
Overload can easily burst him down.
Additional:
* He can easily catch Tinker in the trees with
Ball Lightning and kill him with
Orchid Malevolence and his abilities, which deal both physical and magical damage, making them difficult for Tinker to itemize against.
*
Rage will dispel Laser's blind and turns him spell immune for the duration so Tinker cannot damage him.
*
Feast will quickly bring down Tinker due to being so fragile.
Additional:
* Lifestealer's Rage makes him immune to all of Tinker's damage and debuffs.
* Lifestealer can infest a mobile ally (teams usually pick one against Tinker), which may ensure that Tinker will die if he is caught.
* Heroes that can reliably kite out Dispose, Unleash and dodge Rebound, like
Ember Spirit,
Void Spirit,
Storm Spirit,
Anti-Mage,
Faceless Void,
Puck or always build items like
Blink Dagger and
Force Staff.
* Lifestealer's
Rage renders him immune to all of Marci's disables and magic damage for a good duration.
* His passive
Feast deals bonus damage based on the enemy's max health and heals for the same amount. As a tanky Strength hero, Marci's own strength will be her undoing as well.
* Heroes with invisibility and high mobility can jump on and focus down Earthshaker before he has a chance to initiate:
Clinkz,
Slark,
Storm Spirit
*
Rage prevents Earthshaker from damaging and stunning Lifestealer.
*
Feast is very effective against Earthshaker, because of him being a strength hero, allowing Lifestealer to heavily harass and kill him.
*
Open Wounds prevents Earthshaker from escaping after he initiated.
*
Infest gives Lifestealer an easy way to escape should he get caught out by Earthshaker. And against carry Earthshaker,
Aghanim's Scepter upgraded
Infest can be used to disarm Earthshaker and attack him from within, rendering him unable to attack with
Enchant Totem.
* 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.
* Heroes with good escape mechanisms are a nuisance to deal with in the early phase of the game:
Slark,
Lifestealer,
Morphling
* 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.
*
Rage gives Lifestealer spell immunity, Chen and his converted creeps have little to no ways of fighting back against Lifestealer whenever he activates it.
*
Feast allows Lifestealer to recover himself by damaging Chen's creeps.
* Chen has no escape mechanisms, so he will often be unable to escape from slows applied with
Ghoul Frenzy.
*
Open Wounds from
Aghanim's Shard can severely slow down Chen, and allow Lifestealer and his team to heal themselves by attacking Chen.
Open Wounds can also fester and spread if Chen takes enough damage that will trigger the spread while he is affected with
Open Wounds.
*
Infest allows Lifestealer to infest into one of Chen's converted creeps and take control of it, which allows Lifestealer to either escape from Chen or surprise him.
Aghanim's Scepter upgraded
Infest can disarm Chen and allow Lifestealer to attack Chen from within, even if Chen is spell immune.
* Zeus can deal a huge amount of damage, but he lacks defensive abilities, such as good mobility or resistance. Due to that, he doesn't like to be touched by any means. Heroes with higher damage output and good mobility will often get easily near Zeus and trade damage (eventually causing Zeus's downfall). Such Heroes include:
Lycan,
Slark,
Storm Spirit,
Spectre and others.
*
Rage is very useful against Zeus, as it negates magic damage and provides spell immunity. In addition, the increased attack speed can tear Zeus apart in combination with
Open Wounds.
* Lifestealer can avoid Thundergod's Wrath with
Infest.
* Heroes with high mobility will be able to avoid Gyrocopter's area attacks:
Storm Spirit,
Morphling,
Ember Spirit
*
Rage ignores all of Gyrocopter's magical attacks.
*
Feast helps Lifestealer out-damage Gyrocopter at close range.
* Heroes with mana burn:
Nyx Assassin,
Invoker,
Outworld Destroyer,
Pugna,
Lion
* In the early to mid game, Invoker is defenseless against Storm Spirit's ganking with
Ball Lightning and
Orchid Malevolence.
* Rage protects Lifestealer from all of Invoker's spells (except for
Sun Strike).
Additional:
*
Rage grants immunity from Invoker's spells and can dispel most of the disables such as the armor loss from Forge Spirit and the constant stuns of Cold Snap.
* Heroes with teleports to escape Solar Blind and Will-O-Wisp:
Phantom Assassin,
Puck,
Queen of Pain,
Storm Spirit
* Heroes who have most or all their abilities (damage or disable) unable to pierce spell immunity:
Keeper of the Light,
Lina,
Lion,
Zeus.
Additional:
*
Rage allows him to be immune to all of Ezalor's abilities. Also, the increased movement speed combined with the slow from
Ghoul Frenzy and the squishy nature of Ezalor allows Lifestealer to take him down very quickly.
* Heroes that are naturally hard to gank, ranging from beefy tanks like
Abaddon and
Wraith King to heroes with quick escape mechanisms like
Anti-Mage and
Storm Spirit are also undesirable targets for a lone, roaming Bounty Hunter to scout out and initiate on.
*
Lifestealer with
Rage and
Infest
* Heroes that can remove the Track debuff with their skills:
*
Abaddon with
Aphotic Shield and
Borrowed Time
*
Huskar with
Life Break
*
Juggernaut with
Blade Fury
*
Legion Commander with
Press the Attack
*
Lifestealer with
Rage and
Infest
*
Naga Siren with
Mirror Image
*
Omniknight with
Heavenly Grace
*
Oracle with
Fortune's End and
False Promise
*
Phantom Lancer with
Doppelganger
*
Slark with
Dark Pact
*
Ursa with
Enrage
*
Weaver with
Time Lapse
*
Tidehunter with
Kraken Shell when damage received reaches the threshold.
* Heroes that can easily bypass Io's allies to get to Io:
Riki,
Tusk,
Clinkz,
Sniper,
Slark,
Phantom Assassin,
Void Spirit,
Storm Spirit,
Ember Spirit,
Earth Spirit,
Spirit Breaker,
Lifestealer.
* Heroes that can easily bypass Io's allies to get to Io:
Riki,
Tusk,
Clinkz,
Sniper,
Slark,
Phantom Assassin,
Void Spirit,
Storm Spirit,
Ember Spirit,
Earth Spirit,
Spirit Breaker,
Lifestealer.
* Being a strength hero with a high strength gain means
Feast can give her a hard time,especially later in the game.
* However,
Starbreaker's physical damage can control him in the laning phase.
* Storm Spirit outlanes Earth Spirit wins by having a ranged attack type, and also deals damage to the Earth Spirit every time he approaches the creeps with his ability
Static Remnant, which is why he overtakes Earth Spirit in level and gold
* Storm Spirit has the ability to quickly kill Earth Spirit under his ability
Electric Vortex, which Earth Spirit cannot do if Storm Spirit buys
Falcon Blade at the liner stage, because Storm Spirit will have too much health for Earth Spirit`s abilities and will survive Earth Spirit`s damage.
Additional:
* Storm Spirit outlanes Earth Spirit wins by having a ranged attack type, and also deals damage to the Earth Spirit every time he approaches the creeps with his ability
Static Remnant, which is why he overtakes Earth Spirit in level and gold
* Storm Spirit has the ability to quickly kill Earth Spirit under his ability
Electric Vortex, which Earth Spirit cannot do if Storm Spirit buys
Falcon Blade at the liner stage, because Storm Spirit will have too much health for Earth Spirit`s abilities and will survive Earth Spirit`s damage.
* Lifestealer is able to endure Undying, especially in the laning phase, where Undying is strongest. Feast can offset
Decay's strength steal for its percentage lifesteal. Rage delays Undying from stealing strength and can help Lifestealer destroy Undying's
Tombstone uninterrupted. As well, none of Undying's abilities pierce magic immunity.
* Feast makes it impossible to for Lifestealer to be culled with
Culling Blade and also deals high damage to Axe due to his naturally high health.
* However,
Berserker's Call and
Counter Helix can pierce through the
Rage, and if Axe has allies with him against Lifestealer, Lifestealer may go down very quickly.
*
Feast will deal a enormous amount of damage because of Tiny's huge health pool.
*
Rage protects Lifestealer from Tiny's magical burst damage.
* Storm Spirit can easily make his way to Hoodwink with his ultimate
Ball lightning, and coupled with Hoodwink's low health and magic resistance, she can be nuked easily.
* Additionally,
Ball lightning can destroy a small amount of trees in its destination. Combined with Storm Spirit's frequent usage of his ultimate, he can clear out an area of trees while simultaneously attacking him and dodging incoming attacks.
* Storm Spirit is invulnerable during
Ball Lightning, allowing him to zip away from any ganking attempts with Rupture.
*
Ball Lightning also prevents Bloodseeker from chasing down an injured Storm Spirit, or catching him in Blood Rite.
Additional:
* Storm Spirit is invulnerable during
Ball Lightning, rendering
Rupture ineffective against him.
* 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.
*
Feast is good against high health strength heroes such as Alchemist.
*
Rage allows Lifestealer to not be targetable by Unstable Concoction, possibly making Alchemist stun himself.
* Since Lifestealer build
Aghanim's Scepter upgrades
Infest similliar
Heaven's Halberd can applies an undispellable disarm so Alchemist cannot attack during Chemical Rage, forcing him to activate Black King Bar beforehand.
* Lifestealer's Rage makes him immune to all of Ogre's magical debuffs and also dispels them.
* Ogre's high health pool makes him an ideal target for Feast.
Additional:
* Ogre Magi has nothing against
Rage and his high health pool amplifies
Feast.
* Heroes who rely on physical damage output to be effective will fare badly against Muerta's
Pierce the Veil:
Phantom Assassin,
Terrorblade,
Drow Ranger,
Lifestealer,
Anti-Mage,
Alchemist,
Lycan,
Clinkz,
Sniper.
* Heroes with abilities that can close the gap can easily kill Muerta:
Storm Spirit,
Earth Spirit,
Ember Spirit,
Void Spirit,
Lycan,
Chaos Knight,
Tusk.
* Lifestealer can activate
Rage to become spell immune, making
Pierce the Veil do no damage and preventing Dead Shot from fearing or doing damage.
* Lifestealer can use
Infest to avoid Muerta's Gunslinger shots, Dead Shot's fear and surprise Muerta.
Aghanim's Scepter upgraded
Infest can be used to disarm Muerta while she has Pierce the Veil and even through
Black King Bar.
* However, Lifestealer has no way of hurting Muerta through
Pierce the Veil outside of
Infest, Lifestealer's only source of dealing magical damage. This forces Lifestealer to buy
Revenant's Brooch.
* Centaur Warrunner's active abilities cannot pierce magic immunity.
Hoof Stomp's slow wind up can also be anticipated and negated with Rage.
* Lifestealer can offset
Retaliate's damage return simply with Feast. Centaur's high strength gain and therefore big health pool makes him an ideal target to Feast on, especially in the late-game.
Additional:
*
Feast is an effective tool against Centaur Warrunner, who generally has high health and low armor, and compensates the reflected damage of Retaliate.
* If activated,
Rage can protect Lifestealer from Hoof Stomp, Double Edge, and Stampede.
* With
Feast and
Rage, Lifestealer is nearly impossible for Clockwerk to bring down, and is the last hero Clockwerk wants to be trapped with in Power Cogs.
* Lina can win on a line against Storm Spirit because of the range of her abilities and attacks, and Storm Spirit will be forced to survive on such a line, not farm
* Storm Spirit can quickly close the distance with Lina using
Ball Lightning. In addition,
Ball Lightning can be used as a way to dodge the abilities of
Dragon Slave and
Light Strike Array
Additional:
* Storm Spirit can quickly close the distance with Lina using
Ball Lightning. In addition,
Ball Lightning can be used as a way to dodge the abilities of
Dragon Slave and
Light Strike Array
*
Rage protects Lifestealer from all of Lina's abilities. However, Lina can paritally counter this if played as Carry, a common role for Lina.
*
Open Wounds from
Aghanim's Shard can severely slow down Lina and allow Lifestealer and his allies to recover themselves by attacking her.
*
Aghanim's Scepter upgraded
Infest can be used to disarm Lina even if she is spell immune, rendering her unable to maximize the effect of her
Fiery Soul and force her to use her abilities more often than intended. And Lina's only way to counter this is with
Linken's Sphere
* Leshrac's high magic damage is ignored by
Rage.
* Lifestealer can get in Leshrac's face with
Rage and mitigate any other damage taken by Leshrac with
Open Wounds.
*
Rage grants Lifestealer immunity to all of Jakiro's spells. Note: magic resistance will not dispel the attack speed slow effects from Dual Breath and Liquid Fire.
*
Rage renders Lifestealer immune to the damage from Burning Spears.
*
Feast makes Lifestealer one of few heroes that can outlast Huskar in a one-on-one fight.
*
Ball Lightning makes Storm Spirit a target difficult to chase, even for a hero as mobile as Timbersaw.
* The magical damage from
Static Remnant and
Overload together with Storm Spirit's high mobility allows Storm Spirit to jump on Timbersaw and burst him down, even if he tries to escape.
* 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 with considerable mobility can easily escape from a rolling Pangolier:
Anti-Mage,
Queen of Pain,
Void Spirit,
Storm Spirit,
Ember Spirit,
Earth Spirit, moreover, if a player is familiar with how Rolling Thunder works, they can adjust their movement to avoid it entirely and of course outplay the Pangolier player.
* Squishy heroes or heroes without hard disables or silences:
Shadow Demon,
Shadow Fiend,
Venomancer,
Ancient Apparition etc.
* Lacking any stun and being heavily dependent on his physical attacks and spell immunity, Lifestealer has no way to stop
Black Hole, assuming he does not initiate Enigma first with
Abyssal Blade.
* Enigma's Black Hole and Midnight Pulse damage can pierce through Lifestealer's
Rage.
* However, if Lifestealer manages to get
Aghanim's Scepter and combines it with
Abyssal Blade, he will be able to disable Enigma's
Black Hole inside him with
Infest and he will be able to help his allies recover themselves from Enigma's initiation with
Open Wounds if Lifestealer gets
Aghanim's Shard.
Additional:
* Lacking any stun and being heavily dependent on his physical attacks and spell immunity, Lifestealer has no way to stop
Black Hole, assuming he does not initiate Enigma first with
Abyssal Blade.
* Enigma's Black Hole and Midnight Pulse damage can pierce through Lifestealer's
Rage.
* However, if Lifestealer manages to get
Aghanim's Scepter and combines it with
Abyssal Blade, he will be able to disable Enigma's
Black Hole inside him with
Infest and he will be able to help his allies recover themselves from Enigma's initiation with
Open Wounds if Lifestealer gets
Aghanim's Shard.
* An isolated Enigma in the early game can be easily killed by Storm Spirit thanks his higher mobility and dueling potential. However, Storm Spirit can be killed when caught by Enigma's full combo, especially if Enigma has
Black King Bar.
* Storm can kill all of Enigma's Eidolons relatively quickly without much risk, slowing down Enigma's farming speed, preventing him from split pushing, and giving Storm its considerable bounty, especially if Enigma chooses the Level 25 Talent that gives him more Eidelons.
* Storm can zip through
Black Hole stunning Enigma while he's channelling until Enigma buys
Black King Bar.
* Enigma lacks burst damage, and that makes him vulnerable to heroes who can recover themselves and turn the fight around to their advantage after Enigma finishes his initiation:
Faceless Void,
Terrorblade,
Ursa,
Weaver,
Broodmother,
Slark,
Abaddon,
Wraith King,
Lifestealer.
* Terrorblade's illusions and ranged attacks in
Metamorphosis can burst down Lifestealer very quickly.
* Terrorblade has low health due to his low strength gain, which reduces Feast's lifesteal and damage.
* Because Lifestealer can usually heal back HP in fights due to his innate lifesteal (and sometimes
Armlet of Mordiggian), he is a great target for Terrorblade's
Sunder.
* However,
Aghanim's Scepter upgraded
Infest can disarm Terrorblade and allow Lifestealer to attack him from inside while also increasing Lifestealer's health regeneration that can nullify effects of
Sunder, even if Terrorblade is spell immune, which could potentially render Terorrblade useless in teamfights. And if Terrorblade cannot attack enemy heroes, he will go down very quickly.
Additional:
* Reflection's illusion carries
Feast as well, making it useful to use against him.
*
Feast cannot compensate for Terrorblade's incoming high damage, due to his low Strength gain.
*
Open Wounds (requires
Aghanim's Shard) is a lot harder to land on the real Terrorblade if he has illusions around him. But remember that Terrorblade's illusions from
Conjure Image have different colors than other illusions which can be seen even by enemy team, and that can make it easy for Lifestealer to detect real Terrorblade unless Terrorblade buys
Manta Style.
* Lifestealer relies on right-clicks to deal damage, and Terrorblade's high armor can reduce his damage significantly.
* Terrorblade has low mobility, which makes it easy for Storm Spirit to kite him.
* Terrorblade gains a lot of agility and gains very low strength, which makes it easy to burst him down with Storm's magical damage.
* All of Terrorblade's abilities are easily avoided by Storm Spirit as he can simply use
Ball Lightning, wasting the duration of
Metamorphosis,
Conjure Image, and
Reflection.
* However, if Storm Spirit's
Orchid Malevolence is on cooldown or if he doesn't have it, Terrorblade can easily use
Sunder and kill a careless Storm Spirit.
Additional:
* Storm Spirit has heavy magic damage that bypasses Terroblade's high armor.
*
Ball Lightning can either use to initiates Terroblade from distance or kite Terroblade from using
Sunder as he has no source of disable to deal with Storm Spirit outside of
Terror Wave from
Aghanim's Scepter.
* With
Aghanim's Scepter upgraded
Infest, Lifestealer can use it on enemy heroes to attack them and disarm them from inside, even if they are spell immune, which can give him the edge over the heroes he's weak against like
Ursa,
Phantom Assassin,
Terrorblade or
Troll Warlord.
* Heroes with spell immunity abilities won't be caught inside by Pit of Malice:
Juggernaut,
Lifestealer.
* Heroes that have superior mobility that can easily catch up with Mirana even after she used Leap to escape:
Anti-Mage,
Queen of Pain,
Storm Spirit,
Riki.
* Lifestealer will struggle to duel Ursa in all stages of the game due to
Fury Swipes, which pierces magic immunity. Ursa can also stand up to Lifestealer with
Enrage, which dramatically reduces incoming damage and further delay Lifestealer's Feast.
Additional:
* Lifestealer's
Feast will most likely not out-heal the damage from Fury Swipes and Overpower in the early to mid game.
* Storm Spirit can steal
Aegis of the Immortal during Roshan attempts through the Pit, because of his
Ball Lightning.
* Ursa has no way to catch a slippery Storm Spirit, as Earthshock's slow will do nothing to stop Storm Spirit from using Ball Lightning.
* With
Aghanim's Scepter upgraded
Infest, Lifestealer can use it on enemy heroes to attack them and disarm them from inside, even if they are spell immune, which can give him the edge over the heroes he's weak against like
Ursa,
Phantom Assassin,
Terrorblade or
Troll Warlord.
* Heroes with escaping and disjointing abilities can be good against Juggernaut:
Anti-Mage
Riki,
Queen of Pain,
Puck,
Storm Spirit,
Ember Spirit,
Slark etc.
* Heroes with mobility spells can quickly escape from Stroke of Fate or break out of Soulbind:
Anti-Mage,
Queen of Pain,
Morphling,
Storm Spirit
*
Juggernaut and
Lifestealer have abilities (
Blade Fury and
Rage respectively) that prevent Crystal Maiden from using her spells on them in the early game, before
Black King Bar and other magical reduction is even an issue.
Additional:
* Crystal Maiden is an ideal target for Lifestealer due to her poor mobility and low health pool. Lifestealer can usually catch up to her simply by casting Rage, as none of her abilities pierce through magic immunity.
Freezing Field can potentially make her even more vulnerable to Lifestealer while under Rage as she is even more immobile while channeling it.
* Lifestealer commonly buys
Abyssal Blade, which allows him to cancel
Freezing Field, even if Crystal Maiden is spell immune.
* Alternatively,
Aghanim's Scepter upgraded
Infest combined with
Abyssal Blade and with items that provide attack speed which Lifestealer commonly buys allow him to to cancel
Freezing Field from within the Crystal Maiden.
* Heroes with spell immunity-granting spells will render Phoenix useless against them, as Phoenix has almost no spell immunity-piercing ability, other than the stun at the end of
Supernova:
Lifestealer,
Juggernaut.
* Heroes with burst damage of their own won't be afraid to go toe to toe with Void Spirit, like
Ursa,
Lifestealer, or
Axe.
* Heroes that lack burst damage will have a difficult time taking down Monkey King, and fare badly against Jingu Mastery:
Legion Commander,
Lifestealer,
Weaver,
Wraith King
*
Ball Lightning allows Storm Spirit to destroy a large amount of trees, negating
Tree Dance. It also makes it easy to avoid
Wukong's Command and
Boundless Strike.
Additional:
*
Ball Lightning allows Storm Spirit to easily catch up to Monkey King, destroying a large number of trees, cancelling Tree Dance, and causing Monkey King to be stunned in the process.
* In general, highly mobile heroes like
Earth Spirit or
Storm Spirit are at a disadvantage against X Marks the Spot.
* Similarly, heroes with low cooldown teleports can be afraid to split push against X Marks the Spot, such as
Tinker and
Nature's Prophet.
*
Rage negates Kunkka's X Marks the Spot.
* As a strength hero with high strength gain and very little armor, as well as low agility gain, Kunkka is vulnerable to Lifestealer's
Feast and
Open Wounds.
* Heroes with mana burn:
Nyx Assassin,
Invoker,
Outworld Destroyer,
Pugna,
Lion
* Pugna is a very fragile hero who can easily get caught and killed by Storm Spirit's long range initiation.
* This is especially true if he has
Orchid Malevolence or
Scythe of Vyse.
* Pugna has no disables that can prevent Storm Spirit from escaping.
* Even though
Ball Lightning requires high amount of mana, Nether Ward is ineffective since Storm Spirit is invulnerable while using it.
* Storm Spirit's other abilities cost very insignificant amount of mana for Nether Ward to be effective.
* Heroes with mana burn:
Nyx Assassin,
Invoker,
Outworld Destroyer,
Pugna,
Lion
*
Rage makes Lifestealer debuff immune and gives him magic resistance which can drastically reduce magical damage from Lion's abilities while also preventing Lion to do anything to him.
* Lion's lack of inner escape and defensive mechanisms increases
Ghoul Frenzy effectiveness, since it applies slows upon attacking.
* Lifestealer's physical damage output is strong against
Lion's low health and base armor
*
Infest can be used to surprise unsuspecting Lion if he tries to take down alone enemy hero.
Aghanim's Scepter upgraded
Infest can be used to disarm Lion and attack him from inside, even if Lion is debuff immune with the
Aghanim's Shard upgraded
Mana Drain.
* With the exception of Magic Missile (unless the player takes the Level 25 Talent "Magic Missile Pierces Spell Immunity"), all of Vengeful Spirit's spells ignore Spell Immunity. This also makes her good against heroes with built-in Spell Immunity like
Lifestealer or
Juggernaut or heroes that tend to pick up
Black King Bar, like
Sven.
*
Ball Lightning disjoints an incoming
Magic Missile, avoids
Wave Of Terror, and allows Storm Spirit to easily escape if he ever gets
Nether Swapped.
* Sprout is good for trapping melee carries with no escape abilities:
Sven,
Alchemist,
Lifestealer etc.
*
Ball Lightning can be used to clear Nature's Prophet's Treants and easily destroys Sprout.
*
Electric Vortex prevents Nature's Prophet's escaping using Teleportation.
* Heroes with summons:
Lycan,
Broodmother,
Visage,
Nature's Prophet,
Warlock.
*
Ball Lightning and
Electric Vortex will catch Broodmother before she has a chance to retreat, and is able to catch her through the trees.
* Conversely, Ball Lightning also allows him to easily escape Broodmother, as she has no way to prevent him from using it before getting
Orchid Malevolence.
*
Flame Guard absorbs up to 500 magical damage (700 with Level 10 talents), which helps Ember Spirit survive against Storm Spirit's high magical damage.
*
Searing Chains can root enemies up to 3 seconds, making Storm Spirit unable to escape with
Ball Lightning.
*
Fire Remnant deals high magical damage when casting multiple instances at once, granting Ember Spirit the damage to burst Storm Spirit down in the early to mid game.
* Storm Spirit is not only a potent
Orchid Malevolence carrier, his
Electric Vortex provides an additional disable and
Overload provides a great slow. When paired with
Static Remnant, they can cut through Flame Guard fast.
*
Ball Lightning not only provides great initiation upon Ember Spirit from any position anytime, but also helps dodge Sleight of Fist.
* Aside from his ultimate, Lifestealer has no AoE abilities to deal with Phantom Lancer's illusions, nor does he have the mobility to escape
Phantom Rush.
*
Doppelganger dispels
Open Wounds.
* Phantom Lancer usually builds
Diffusal Blade, which a problem for a low already mana hero like Lifestealer.
Additional:
* Lifestealer will struggle to deal with Phantom Lancer's illusions and will either be forced to use his abilities too quickly, or itemize too heavily for them.
* Phantom Lancer commonly builds
Diffusal Blade, which poses a large problem to Lifestealer and his low mana pool, and can shut him down from even casting his abilities.
* Storm Spirit has multiple AoE abilities to deal with Phantom Lancer, especially with
Aghanim's Scepter.
*
Ball Lightning destroys illusions, avoids Spirit Lance, and makes Storm Spirit very hard to catch, even with Phantom Rush.
Additional:
*
Ball Lightning with or without the
Static Remnant talent allows Storm Spirit to destroy Phantom Lancer's illusions quickly. It is also easy to dodge
Spirit Lance with
Ball Lightning and makes Spirit Storm very hard to catch even with
Phantom Rush.
*
Vendetta is capable of removing most of Storm Spirit's large mana pool, along with dealing heavy damage and quickly depleting his chances of escaping a gank or fight.
Additional:
* Mana Burn removes much-needed mana for
Ball Lightning.
* Spiked Carapace triggers on
Static Remnant for an easy stun.
*
Rage allows Lifestealer to freely attack Nyx Assassin and hunt him down if Vendetta is on cooldown. Nyx Assassin cannot counter
Rage with Spiked Carapace because
Rage gives Lifestealer spell immunity. And besides Vendetta, Nyx Assassin has no other way of dealing damage to Lifestealer while he is spell immune.
*
Open Wounds from
Aghanim's Shard allows Lifestealer to severely slow down Nyx Assassin while also allowing his team to recover themselves while attacking Nyx Assassin.
Open Wounds can also fester and spread if Nyx Assassin takes enough damage that will trigger the spread while he is affected with
Open Wounds.
*
Infest combined with an ancient creep makes Nyx Assassin an easy target to surprise with
Dust of Appearance or a
Gem of True Sight.
Aghanim's Scepter upgraded
Infest can also allow Lifestealer to infest, disarm and freely attack Nyx Assassin from within. and Nyx Assassin cannot counter this with Spiked Carapace because Lifestealer is invulnerable while attacking the infested enemy hero from within.
* Overall, any attempt for Nyx Assassin to gank and kill Lifestealer will hurt Nyx Assassin more than Lifestealer.
Additional:
* Like with Juggernaut's
Blade Fury,
Rage allows Lifestealer to freely attack Nyx Assassin and hunt him down if
Vendetta is on cooldown. Nyx Assassin cannot counter
Rage with
Spiked Carapace because
Rage gives Lifestealer spell immunity. And besides
Vendetta, Nyx Assassin has no other way of dealing damage to Lifestealer while he is spell immune.
*
Open Wounds from
Aghanim's Shard allows Lifestealer to severely slow down Nyx Assassin while also allowing his team to recover themselves while attacking Nyx Assassin.
Open Wounds can also fester and spread if Nyx Assassin takes enough damage that will trigger the spread while he is affected with
Open Wounds.
*
Infest combined with an ancient creep makes Nyx Assassin an easy target to surprise with
Dust of Appearance or a
Gem of True Sight. And similarly to Juggernaut's
Omnislash and
Swiftslash from
Aghanim's Scepter,
Aghanim's Scepter upgraded
Infest can also allow Lifestealer to infest, disarm and freely attack Nyx Assassin from within. And Nyx Assassin cannot counter this with
Spiked Carapace because Lifestealer is invulnerable while attacking the infested enemy hero from within.
* Like with Juggernaut, any attempt for Nyx Assassin to gank and kill Lifestealer will hurt Nyx Assassin more than Lifestealer.
*
Ice Blast prevents Lifestealer from lifestealing and healing with Infest in fights.
* Ancient Apparition's only skill to stop Storm Spirit is
Cold Feet, which is bad in general when trying to stop a Storm Spirit without any other disable.
* As a fragile support with low Strength gain and no magic resistance, Ancient Apparition is vulnerable to Storm Spirit's combos.
* At around the 10-minute mark, Disruptor would normally be level 6 or 7. This means you can have a level 3/4 glimpse along with Static Storm. A high level glimpse is enough to pull Storm back to a Static Storm even after he used
Ball Lightning due to his limited mana pool at that time.
* Be careful in the late game however, as there is a good chance he will kill you straight-out before Glimpse has finished bringing him back. Therefore Glimpse would simply bring him back to safety after he's murdered you or a teammate. Of course, this is assuming he hasn't silenced you with an item.
*
Rage can be used to escape from a Glimpse and to move out of Kinetic Field.
*
Infest allows Lifestealer to dodge Glimpse.
*
Doom prevents Storm Spirit from using all of his abilities and items, rendering Storm Spirit useless in a fight.
*
Feast deals damage and heals Lifestealer based on the target's maximum HP, which is greatly effective against naturally high HP heroes such as Doom.
*
Rage allows Lifestealer to become spell immune to negate the magical damage of Infernal Blade and Scorched Earth.
* Doom has no effective means of escape from
Open Wounds and
Ghoul Frenzy. This is particularly devastating in the laning stage, where Doom may have to play a much more passive, conservative play style as a result.
* Silencer's
Intelligence Steal can reduce Storm Spirit's damage output if he gets some kills on laning phase.
*
Last Word and
Global Silence will make Storm Spirit an easy target.
*
Global Silence can be used to prevent Storm Spirit from connecting abilities after a Ball Lightning on his targets.
* Rage can protect Lifestealer from most of the Silencer's abilities with the exception of
Global Silence, as it will still silence if cast while the target is magic immune. However, it will not work if Lifestealer is infesting a unit.
* Silencer is vulnerable to Open Wounds due to his lack of an innate escape.
* Against a carry Silencer,
Aghanim's Scepter upgraded
Infest can disarm him and allow Lifestealer to attack Silencer from within, even if Silencer is spell immune.
Additional:
*
Rage can protect Lifestealer from most of the Silencer's abilities with the exception of
Global Silence.
* If Lifestealer can
Infest himself on any unit, he can literally avoid being affected by
Global Silence.
* Against a carry Silencer,
Aghanim's Scepter upgraded
Infest can disarm him and allow Lifestealer to attack Silencer from within, even if Silencer is spell immune.
*
Open Wounds from
Aghanim's Shard can severely slow down Silencer, and allow Lifestealer and his team to heal themselves by attacking Silencer.
* Heroes with summons:
Lycan,
Broodmother,
Visage,
Nature's Prophet,
Warlock.
* Heroes with magic immune abilities can negate most of Visage's attacks like
Pangolier and
Lifestealer.
* Heroes with high physical damage can damage Lifestealer more than he can heal:
Bristleback,
Clinkz,
Luna,
Shadow Fiend,
Slardar,
Terrorblade
* Squishy heroes or heroes without hard disables or silences:
Shadow Demon,
Shadow Fiend,
Venomancer,
Ancient Apparition etc.
* Melee carries such as
Sven,
Ursa or
Lifestealer can be slowed and easily kited with Demonic Purge.
* Squishy heroes or heroes without hard disables or silences:
Shadow Demon,
Shadow Fiend,
Venomancer,
Ancient Apparition etc.
Additional:
* Shadow Demon will have a hard time catching Storm Spirit, as he can get away with
Ball Lightning.
*
Static Remnant will make quick work of the spawned illusions from Disruption.
* With very high mobility and usually being paired with
Orchid Malevolence, he can catch Shadow Demon with ease both in ganks and in teamfights if Shadow Demon has no survivability items.
* Heroes that rely on slows to get kills:
Lifestealer,
Night Stalker,
Ursa,
Phantom Assassin,
Terrorblade.
*
Lifestealer's Rage negates Sand King's spells which do magical damage.
* Though
The Swarm can be blocked by Rage, it can be used to lower Lifestealer's already low armor, making him even more vulnerable to physical damage while Rage is on cooldown.
* Lifestealer has no strong disables on his own and thus cannot catch up with nor escape from Weaver's
Shukuchi.
* Lifestealer's reliance on meticulous auto-attacks will not help against
Time Lapse, which can undo Lifestealer's already slow build-up of damage.
Aghanim's Scepter upgraded
Time Lapse can also be used to save allies from getting killed by Lifestealer, but that will require targeting the allied hero rather than just pressing the button that will trigger the
Time Lapse.
Additional:
*
Open Wounds's slow is ignored by Shukuchi.
* Lifestealer has no other lockdown and relies on being on top of enemies; Weaver can kite him with ease.
*
Ball Lightning allows Storm Spirit to close the gap between him and Weaver in no time. Once locked down with certain items, Weaver is extremely fragile to Storm Spirit and his teammates.
* 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.
* 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.
* Windranger's highly mobile playstyle allows her to easily control Lifestealer from a distance, as he has no disables on his own.
Windrun not only provides her with bonus move speed, but evasion as well, undoing Lifestealer's ability to attack her. In combination with
Focus Fire, Windranger can easily dispose of Lifestealer without him being able to reach her.
*
Ball Lightning can escape quickly fear from
Focus Fire. Windranger can not reach Storm Spirit although Windrun active catch him.
Additional:
* The high mobility provided by
Ball Lightning makes it hard for Windranger to find a good position to land Shackleshot or a full duration of Focus Fire. It can be also used to dodge Powershot.
* Heroes who rely on high mobility are especially vulnerable to Primal Roar:
Storm Spirit,
Ember Spirit,
Queen of Pain.
* Heroes with AoE abilities are a bane to Beastmaster's summons:
Storm Spirit,
Magnus,
Pangolier.
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
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Storm Spirit
*
Smoke Screen prevents Storm Spirit from using his abilities once inside the radius. Riki can utilize this ability to allow his team to fight around
Smoke Screen so that Storm Spirit cannot spam his spells to proc
Overload.
Additional:
* Smoke Cloud prevents Storm Spirit from using any of his offensive and defensive spells, rendering him unable to effectively react to Riki's attack.
Lifestealer
* Lifestealer cannot use
Rage,
Infest or
Open Wounds when affected by Smoke Cloud's silence, and
Feast cannot heal him effectively because of the blind, leaving him very weak both offensively and defensively.
* Infest ganks are harder when the enemy team has a Riki, as there are often only four heroes on the map that you can initiate on.