* 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.
Additional:
* 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.
* Heroes with low health: Lich,
Crystal Maiden,
Lion.
* 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.
* A well-timed Counterspell reflects all targeted abilities back at Lion, potentially stunning or hexing him or even making himself burst down.
* Heroes with abilities or items that can silence or disable Anti-Mage for long periods of time will prevent him from Blinking away: Lion,
Silencer,
Shadow Shaman,
Grimstroke,
Witch Doctor,
Riki,
Faceless Void,
Skywrath Mage,
Puck.
* Basically, Heroes that heavily rely on abilities for damage or escape, such as Queen of Pain and
Storm Spirit.
Additional:
* Silencer's Intelligence Steal can reduce Storm Spirit's damage output if he gets some kills on laning phase.
* Last Word and
Global Silence will make Storm Spirit an easy target.
* Global Silence can be used to prevent Storm Spirit from connecting abilities after a Ball Lightning on his targets.
* Lion is extremely dependent on his abilities. Silences like Silencer's
Last Word, magic resistance like
Oracle's
Fate's Edict, and dispels like
Legion Commander's
Press the Attack all make his abilities less effective.
* 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.
* Lion lacks mobility or escape mechanisms, making him an easy target for abilities like Mirana's
Sacred Arrow or
Leshrac's
Split Earth, or combos like
Kunkka's
X Marks the Spot into
Torrent.
* 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.
* Tidehunter is a core builder of
Pipe of Insight. Along with natural high health pool, it's tough to burst the Leviathan down.
* Kraken Shell thwarts long disables attempts if
Tidehunter receives enough damage.
* Gush and
Ravage long cast and reach ranges will effortlessly hit
Lion, either bursting him down or making him extremely vulnerable and worn in matter of seconds.
* 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
* Mana Burn removes much-needed mana for Ball Lightning.
* Spiked Carapace triggers on Static Remnant for an easy stun.
Additional:
* Vendetta is capable of removing most of Storm Spirit's large mana pool, along with dealing heavy damage and quickly depleting his chances of escaping a gank or fight.
* Any Hero with high mobility will be neutralized by dream coil: Queen of Pain,
Storm Spirit,
Ember Spirit,
Lycan,
Bloodseeker,
Anti-Mage,
Timbersaw.
* Waning Rift silences and damages enemies affected by the ability, diminishing
Lion's punishing powers.
* High burst damage potential plus mobility and disable through Illusory Orb,
Waning Rift, and
Dream Coil allows
Puck to effortlessly chase, lock and/or kill
Lion, as the Demon Witch lacks proper ways to avoid so.
* Phase Shift allows
Puck to dodge
Earth Spike,
Finger of Death and breaks
Mana Drain's link.
* Backline supports (Lion,
Crystal Maiden) can keep Puck pinned long enough for a kill.
* Smoke Cloud prevents Storm Spirit from using any of his offensive and defensive spells, rendering him unable to effectively react to Riki's attack.
Additional:
* 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.
* Mana Drain can be easily canceled with Ice Path. However, Lion can counter this by buying his
Aghanim's Shard though, that is no longer possible, but Jakiro can counter this too with
Aghanim's Scepter upgraded
Macropyre will deal pure damage through the debuff immunity forcing Lion to cancel it or die.
* Lion has very strong single target capabilities, but usually struggles against multiple heroes, while Jakiro has good multi-target capabilities, His abilities also have a much shorter cast range then Jakiro's, allowing Jakiro to cast his abilities before he can get off his Hex or
Earth Spike.
* Jakiro can also save an ally who Lion is attempting to Finger of Death by casting
Ice Path on Lion.
* 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.
* 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
* Doom prevents Storm Spirit from using all of his abilities and items, rendering Storm Spirit useless in a fight.
* All of Lion's abilities are dangerous even to Lion himself, and
Rubick may steal them with
Spell Steal.
* Arcane Supremacy powers up abilities cast range and damage, making
Rubick better at using
Lion's abilities than Lion himself.
* Telekinesis can easily catch and disable
Lion while also manipulating his position to favor
Rubick and allies, rendering him helpless.
Additional:
* Earth Spike is a great crowd control ability for Rubick to use, extending his lockdown potential.
* Rubick can caught enemy at greater distance due to Arcane Supremacy.
* The spell also helps with Rubick's farming, however the affected area of Earth Spike is limited to a straight line, making it harder to clear the creep wave.
* Hex is one of the strongest single-target lockdowns in the game, and works exactly the same when casted by Rubick.
* Though Mana Drain does not directly provide damage or lockdown, it does solve Rubick's mana regen issue in the early to mid game.
* Finger of Death is one of the best magical nukes in the game, increases Rubick's ganking potential greatly.
* Note that the stack of Finger of Death is lost when Rubick lost the spell.
* With Aghanim's Scepter, Rubick can clear creep waves and flash farm with the boosted
Finger of Death if stolen, assuming Rubick has enough mana pool to hold.
* 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.
* Lion's lack of escapes gives
Slark easier time to catch him through
Pounce.
* Shadow Dance gives
Slark the advantage of being untargetable, nullifying single target abilities (such as non-upgraded
Hex,
Mana Drain and
Finger of Death).
* Dark Pact applies multiple instances of strong dispel on
Slark, which is strong against any of
Lion's disables.
* Lion's low health pool and low armor make him extremely vulnerable to
Slark's damage output.
* 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.
* Heroes with heavy magical nukes will take advantage of Slark's poor HP or force him to use Shadow Dance early: Lina,
Lion,
Zeus
* Both Lion's
Finger of Death and
Lina's
Laguna Blade have a 0.25 second delay before the damage is dealt.
Additional:
* Aphotic Shield applies strong dispel on targeted allies, while
Borrowed Time does the same on
Abaddon himself upon both casts (manually or automatically), removing disables, such as
Earth Spike and
Hex.
* Abaddon may offer survivability to
Lion's nuke power by shielding and healing allies and himself.
* Lack of inner escape and defensive mechanisms increases Curse of Avernus effectiveness, since it slows per stack (applied upon auto attacking), and silences when it reaches the maximum stack.
* Heroes that deal few, powerful instances of damage, like Oracle,
Lion, or
Sven, have a hard time breaking through Gravekeeper's Cloak.
* In general, squishy heroes that rely on escape often struggle against the amount of disables Shadow Shaman can bring. Queen of Pain,
Anti-Mage and
Storm Spirit are among these.
* While heroes with strong mobility are able to get close or flee from Upheaval, heroes with no escaping abilities or that lack long disables will perish against Warlock. Once the Warlock Golem lands with its stun, its hardly possible to escape when he casts Upheaval. Notable examples: Huskar,
Drow Ranger,
Lion,
Elder Titan, etc.
* Lion lacks mobility or escape mechanisms, making him an easy target for abilities like Mirana's
Sacred Arrow or
Leshrac's
Split Earth, or combos like
Kunkka's
X Marks the Spot into
Torrent.
* Mobility heroes will often be rooted by Troll Warlord and unable to escape, like Storm Spirit.
* Batrider often hides in the trees to initiate on a target. As such, he has a slight edge against heroes that have no scouting tools and cannot see him coming, such as Lion or
Sven.
* Similar to Timbersaw, Storm Spirit builds items that don't help against silences.
* An Orchid Malevolence will most likely silence you first. However, if you grab a
Eul's Scepter of Divinity, you might dispel his silence and turn the tides to your favor.
* Root and silence are Storm Spirit's ultimate counters. Skywrath Mage has a silence in his kit, and has
Rod of Atos as his core item. If he dispels one, you cast the other, both leaving him vulnerable.
* If he builds Black King Bar, he spends 4050 gold that doesn't help him snowball effectively.
* Skywrath's pitiful defences also make him easy meat to heroes with high burst like Juggernaut,
Lion, or
Phantom Assassin, the latter occasionally downing a support Skywrath in a single
Stifling Dagger.
* 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.
* Long range disables are really effective against dangerous area controllers and channeling Heroes, like Enigma,
Faceless Void or
Crystal Maiden, as it may cancel them or prevent enemies from doing further damage while keeping
Lion in a relatively safe distance in the warzone.
* 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.
* 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 mana burn: Nyx Assassin,
Invoker,
Outworld Destroyer,
Pugna,
Lion
* Nether Ward will be problematic for heavy nukers and spammers like Skywrath Mage,
Lina,
Lion and
Invoker, but Pugna must not use Decrepify defensively against them as he will be helping them out more than anything.
* 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.
* Storm Spirit can close the distance towards Sniper very easily with his ultimate Ball Lightning.
Additional:
* 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.
* Sniper lacks any protection against
Lion's disables early in the game.
* Lion's
Earth Spike and
Finger of Death may roughly hit
Sniper at the latter increased attack range, making it possible to gank and to disable him from afar in clashes.
* Finger of Death is incredibly dangerous for
Sniper as it may shred him away from fights, or in the worst scenario, cause his death.
* 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.
* Hex greatly reduces Timbersaw's mobility.
* In addition, Lion can follow up with his Earth Spike and
Mana Drain combo, preventing Timbersaw to escape with Timber Chain. And he can finish Timbersaw off with
Finger of Death if the latter's HP is low enough.
* 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.
* Weaver's exceptional ability to elude and survive through clashes and ganks is hard countered by
Lion in every aspect.
* Weaver is very mana dependent and has a rather small mana pool in the beginning of the game, of which
Mana Drain can deplete and lessen his early game presence.
* Earth Spike followed by
Finger of Death in the huge majority of the time is enough to kill
Weaver.
* Earth Spike can be point targeted to hit through
Shukuchi.
* Hex's has a fair long duration, by which
Weaver will not be able to deal damage, or even survive a coordinated attack, and it is single target, of which cannot be dodged.
* Mana Drain easily breaks
Linken's Sphere. Its low cooldown allows
Lion to infinitely break it whenever it recharges.
* Earth Spike and
Hex when paired for the longer lengths of disables may diminish
Time Lapse efficiency, possibly causing
Weaver to not undo as much damage as he would.
* 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.
* All of Lion's abilities are active making Demonic Purge break from Aghanim's Scepter useless.
* Hex and
Mana Drain can make quick work of whatever illusions you're creating, especially when he acquires his Talents at level 20 and 25.
* An attempt to save an ally using Disruption can easily become a perfect setup for a Earth Spike or
Finger of Death with
Aghanim's Scepter for the enemy.
* 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.
* Lion has two low cast point disables (Hex and
Earth Spike) to control Ursa before he buys a
Black King Bar.
* Hex is one of the few abilities that cannot be dispelled even with an
Aghanim's Scepter upgraded Enrage.
* Lion can control Ursa's low mana pool via Mana Drain.
* 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.
Additional:
* 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.
* Hex and
Mana Drain can be used to immediately destroy Spectre's illusion when she
Haunts. A fast fingered Lion can protect himself and a teammate.
* Hex and
Earth Spike are good lockdown spells to control and kill Spectre, especially if she doesn't buy defensive items like
Linken's Sphere and
Black King Bar.
* Finger of Death can be used to burst down Spectre when she is low on life as she has very poor magic resistance.
* 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.
* Since Windranger is bad against magical damage, heroes with continuous magical damage or magical nukes can blast her: Zeus,
Tinker,
Leshrac,
Viper,
Skywrath Mage,
Lion,
Lina,
Venomancer.
* 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.
* Lion may upgrade
Mana Drain,
Hex and
Finger of Death through Talent Tree and Aghanim's itens to make them affect secondary targets or turn them into AoE abilities. This can make things difficult for heroes like
Phantom Lancer,
Naga Siren and
Terrorblade, who rely on illusion armies.
* 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.
* Lion may upgrade
Mana Drain,
Hex and
Finger of Death through Talent Tree and Aghanim's itens to make them affect secondary targets or turn them into AoE abilities. This can make things difficult for heroes like
Phantom Lancer,
Naga Siren and
Terrorblade, who rely on illusion armies.
* 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.
* Heroes that can drain mana negatively affect Viper's ability to use Poison Attack, Nethertoxin and Viper Strike: Lion,
Anti-Mage
* 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 is fragile, and lacks escapes, being dependent on Blink Dagger for mobility. Ganking Heroes or Heroes with burst damage will likely kill him before he can do anything. Such Heroes include:
Lina,
Lion,
Luna,
Puck,
Slark,
Nyx Assassin, etc.
* Squishy heroes or heroes without hard disables or silences: Shadow Demon,
Shadow Fiend,
Venomancer,
Ancient Apparition etc.
* Heroes with high burst damage: Lina,
Lion,
Luna,
Nyx Assassin,
Queen of Pain.
* 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.
* Heroes with channeling spells, for Chen has no disables on his own, hates buying disabling items and his creeps are often not fast enough to cancel them: Enigma's
Black Hole,
Witch Doctor's
Death Ward,
Shadow Shaman's
Shackles,
Lion's
Mana Drain,
Bane's
Fiend's Grip,
Pudge's
Dismember,
Crystal Maiden's
Freezing Field,
Pugna's
Life Drain,
Dawnbreaker's
Solar Guardian, and
Naga Siren's
Reel In from
Aghanim's Scepter.
* Heroes with high mobility will be able to avoid Gyrocopter's area attacks: Storm Spirit,
Morphling,
Ember Spirit
* Heroes with high magical burst damage will kill Gyrocopter before he gets to do much: Lina,
Lion,
Zeus
* Heroes with teleports to escape Solar Blind and Will-O-Wisp: Phantom Assassin,
Puck,
Queen of Pain,
Storm Spirit
* Finger of Death can instantly shred many targets, especially fragile Heroes like
Keeper of the Light,
Ancient Apparition or
Bounty Hunter.
* 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.
Additional:
* 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.
* Heroes with silence and mana drain abilites, as Ancient Apparition relies entirely on his abilities: Invoker,
Silencer,
Nyx Assassin,
Skywrath Mage,
Shadow Shaman,
Lion and etc.
* Heroes that usually build Linken's Sphere as either a core or situational item:
Weaver,
Medusa,
Morphling,
Queen of Pain,
Storm Spirit,
Luna,
Naga Siren.
* 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 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.
* Heroes that can keep Marci for a long time in one place so she can't pursue her targets, like Bane,
Lion,
Shadow Shaman,
Invoker,
Disruptor and
Kunkka.
* 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.
* Finger of Death can instantly shred many targets, especially fragile Heroes like
Keeper of the Light,
Ancient Apparition or
Bounty Hunter.
* 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.
Additional:
* 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.
* 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.
Additional:
* 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.
* 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.
* Mana Drain rapidly saps Morphling's already low mana pool, making him unable to use Waveform or Adaptive Strike. Additionally,
Hex prevents these abilities as well.
* An Earth Spike and
Finger of Death combo can burst an unwary Morphling down if he has his strength fully shifted to agility.
* Despite her high mobility, Hex or
Earth Spike can lock
Phantom Assassin down, make her vulnerable and mitigate her damage output.
* Lion relies entirely on his abilities to be effective, rendering Phatnom Assassin's high evasion through ineffective against him. And Phantom Assassin's low health pool makes her vulnerable to Lion's magical burst without Black King Bar.
* Ball Lightning allows Storm Spirit to bypass Bramble Maze into the backline, and zip back into battle if he gets hit by Terrorize.
* 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.
* Lion possesses two strong disables in Earth Spike and
Hex and heavy magic burst with
Finger of Death which help lock him down and prevent him from escaping with Activate Fire Remnant. When getting his
Blink Dagger Lion can punish Ember Spirit's overextension immediately, or initiate a fight on him with disables.
* Wraith King has a very low mana pool and is extremely dependant on it to cast his high mana cost abilities, so
Mana Drain will make him struggle way too hard, even not being able to active his passive ability
Reincarnation, forcing the
Wraith King to buy
Aghanim's Shard as soon as possible.
* Althought Wraith King may not be as fragile to struggle against
Lion's damage, it's much easier to disable and harass him, as
Wraith King doesn't have any mobility at all, his only gap closer being
Wraithfire Blast which costs too much mana for his mana pool, and may only affect one target.
Additional:
* While not being able to confront Wraith King by himself, Lion's Mana Drain helps in draining Wraith King's mana, preventing him from reincarnating unless he has his Aghanim's Shard.
* Lion's Earth Spike and
Hex provide decent lockdown against Wraith King as well, preventing the latter from benefiting from Vampiric Spirit bonuses.
* 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.
* Hex and
Earth Spike can hold Clinkz down, giving him no chance to use
Black King Bar or Skeleton Walk.
* Finger of Death quickly kills Clinkz due to his low health.
* Drow Ranger has a very low health pool, allowing
Lion to burst her down.
* Lack of any innate escape mechanism makes her an easy target for Lion's disables.
* Early on she can't deal as much damage to be life threatning. Her Gust is her best weapon against
Lion.
* Hex's instant cast time will force Brewmaster into the awkward situation of needing some form of spell immunity or block to prevent being immediately hex upon blinking in, or wait until Lion has used all his crowd control before entering a fight. His direct magic burst also makes Brewmaster's Drunken Brawler worthless versus Lion.
* Ball Lightning disjoints an incoming
Magic Missile, avoids
Wave Of Terror, and allows Storm Spirit to easily escape if he ever gets
Nether Swapped.
* Medusa lacks mobility or escape mechanisms.
Earth Spike and
Hex can neutralize her strong damage potential and allow for
Lion's team to focus her down.
* Mana Drain is a perfect ability to weaken Medusa's durability as it can quickly drain her
Mana Shield, making her far less tanky.
Mana Drain can also be used to restore mana of Lion's allies, which can nullify the mana steal from
Mystic Snake.
* Mana Drain, along with
Hex, destroy illusions instantly, which may be extremely helpfull and efficient against core builders of
Manta Style, like
Medusa herself.
* Lion's instant cast point shuts down his initiation and buys time for his allies to catch up.
* Void Spirit has to be cautious when fighting, as he has no protection against
Finger of Death. If caught out in a stun, the high magic damage could end him quickly.
* 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.
* 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.
* With a lot of disables with good range, he might cancel your Echo Stomp.
* Mana Drain can be used to drain Elder Titan's already low mana pool.
* 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.
* Heroes with nukes: Bane,
Lich,
Lion,
Skywrath Mage
Additional:
* Enchantress is very fragile without any form of magic resistance, allowing
Lion to easily burst her down.
* Nature's Attendants is a slow heal, making not as much effective against
Lion's burst as it could be.
* Her raw movement speed is a fair escape/mobility mechanism, which may allow her to avoid a blindly cast Earth Spike, but does nothing against the rest of
Lion's abilities, since they are single target and can't miss.
* Since Lion's damage comes mostly from his skills,
Untouchable does nothing to mitigate it.
* Lion lacks mobility or escape mechanisms, making him an easy target for abilities like Mirana's
Sacred Arrow or
Leshrac's
Split Earth, or combos like
Kunkka's
X Marks the Spot into
Torrent.
* 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.
* Heroes with silences and hard stuns such as Doom,
Silencer, and
Lion can keep Mirana from Leaping away.
* Like above, supports with reliable stuns can be a massive problem and force Black King Bar in fights unideally, such as
Shadow Shaman,
Lion,
Nyx Assassin.
* Heroes with abilities that can close the gap can easily kill Muerta: Storm Spirit,
Earth Spirit,
Ember Spirit,
Void Spirit,
Lycan,
Chaos Knight,
Tusk.
* 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.
* Long range disables are really effective against dangerous area controllers and channeling Heroes, like Enigma,
Faceless Void or
Crystal Maiden, as it may cancel them or prevent enemies from doing further damage while keeping
Lion in a relatively safe distance in the warzone.
* Heroes with high burst damage through their physical attacks or spells can kill Dazzle or his allies before he has a chance to use Shallow Grave. (Lina,
Lion, etc.)
* Lion's
Mana Drain is a headache for Bristleback to deal with during the laning stage, as it denies him the ability to get last hits with Quill Spray.
* Heroes with mobility spells can quickly escape from Stroke of Fate or break out of Soulbind: Anti-Mage,
Queen of Pain,
Morphling,
Storm Spirit
* 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.
* Heroes with invisibility and high mobility can jump on and focus down Earthshaker before he has a chance to initiate: Clinkz,
Slark,
Storm Spirit
* Heroes with high magical burst can easily kill Huskar when he is at low health: Lion,
Lina,
Skywrath Mage
* 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 who can drain mana can make Omniknight useless after he uses one or two abilities: Lion,
Anti-Mage,
Nyx Assassin.
* Ranged heroes that can easily harass Axe: Drow Ranger,
Sniper,
Lion.
* 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.
* Due to her slow movement speed,heroes with crowd control and slows can shut down Dawnbreaker:Lion,
Crystal Maiden ,
Venomancer etc.
* 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 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.
* Lion has an incredibly fragile health pool, making him weak against nukers like Tinker or
Oracle.
* 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.
* 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.
* Mana Drain depletes Necrophos's mana pool, preventing him from using his abilities.
* Finger of Death deals high magical damage, which becomes amplified by Ghost Shroud.
* 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.
* High priority targets like Queen of Pain,
Drow Ranger,
Ember Spirit can't get caught out from
Lion's long range disables, making it harder to them fulfill their roles, and making it easy to target them.
* Luna can easily cancel channeling spells with Lucent Beam and 0.25s Eclipse Lucent Ministun talent for
Eclipse, she can also buy
Abyssal Blade in case they decide to buy
Black King Bar:
Enigma's
Black Hole,
Witch Doctor's
Death Ward,
Shadow Shaman's
Shackles,
Lion's
Mana Drain,
Bane's
Fiend's Grip,
Pudge's
Dismember,
Crystal Maiden's
Freezing Field,
Pugna's
Life Drain,
Dawnbreaker's
Solar Guardian, and
Naga Siren's
Reel In from
Aghanim's Scepter.
* Escape-type carries: Slark,
Storm Spirit,
Weaver.
* 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.
* Sven is very vulnerable to chain stun such as Lion,
Shadow Shaman or
Magnus.
* 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.
* Lion may upgrade
Mana Drain,
Hex and
Finger of Death through Talent Tree and Aghanim's itens to make them affect secondary targets or turn them into AoE abilities. This can make things difficult for heroes like
Phantom Lancer,
Naga Siren and
Terrorblade, who rely on illusion armies.
Additional:
* Both Hex and
Mana Drain destroy Naga Siren's illusions in an instant, making it hard for her to teamfight or push against a team with Lion. If Lion chooses the AoE effect talent for Hex or the shard for multi-target Mana Drain, it can negate her pushing potential entirely.
* Earth Spike is an AoE disable with good damage. If used well, it can help distinguish the true Naga Siren by the damage they take (illusions take more damage).
* Hex and
Earth Spike do not cancel
Sharpshooter, making those two abilities ineffective against her.
* Although Hoodwink should be wary of his Finger of death, as it can possibly kill her.
* 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.
* 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.
* Squishy heroes, usually supports, like Lion,
Ancient Apparition,
Keeper of the Light etc can die quickly to Tiny's magic burst.
* 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.
Additional:
* Lion can continuously Mana Drain Tiny in the early game, depleting his small mana pool for his abilities.
* Any heroes with stuns or silences: Death Prophet,
Lion,
Shadow Shaman,
Skywrath Mage
* Heroes that can kill Death Prophet with nukes can prevent her from using Exorcism to its full duration or using it at all: Lina,
Lion,
Puck,
Morphling.
* 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.
* Hex abilities can cancel the channelling of Fiend's Grip : Lion,
Shadow Shaman,
Dazzle from
Aghanim's Shard with upgraded
Poison Touch.
* 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
* Earthbind, like any root, inhibits usage of Ball Lightning, eliminating Storm Spirit's mobility.
* If Meepo ganks Lion with Poof and Earthbind, he will be an easy target for Earth Spike & AoE
Hex from his level 25 talent.
* Lion is extremely dependent on his abilities. Silences like Silencer's
Last Word, magic resistance like
Oracle's
Fate's Edict, and dispels like
Legion Commander's
Press the Attack all make his abilities less effective.
* Heroes with long or multiple disables will prevent Legion Commander from winning Duels: Shadow Shaman,
Lion
* 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 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.
* Heroes with escape abilities: Anti-Mage
Dark Seer
Slark
Storm Spirit
Windranger
Weaver can kite Lifestealer due to him having no lockdown.
* Lion is extremely dependent on his abilities. Silences like Silencer's
Last Word, magic resistance like
Oracle's
Fate's Edict, and dispels like
Legion Commander's
Press the Attack all make his abilities less effective.
* Heroes with long disables, like Lion,
Night Stalker, or
Legion Commander, can prevent Oracle from using spells or items.
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:
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Storm Spirit
* 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.
Lion
* Just like
Rubick, the
Disruptor may effortlessly put
Lion in life threatning danger and render him helpless by manipulating his position with
Glimpse.
Disruptor's longer cast range and lingering disable makes
Lion struggle to defend himself, possibly being affected by
Disruptor's abilities without even seeing the thrall.
*