* 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.
* Tidebringer's cleave will cripple any of his summons.
* Could potentially build Heaven's Halberd to cripple Lycan even more.
Additional:
* Tidebringer can be used to kill Lycan's summons.
* Can also build into Heaven's Halberd which will disable Lycan's auto attacks, crippling him even more.
* 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.
* Lycan is a hero focused entirely on single target physical damage and lacks disables or AoE damage. Due to this, he will have difficulties dealing with illusions or Naga Siren's Ensnare.
* 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.
* Faceless Void can lock Lycan down with his Chronosphere pinning him down as long as his ultimate is up.
* 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.
* Great Cleave will kill Lycan's summons very rapidly.
* Warcry will allow Sven and his allies to tank Lycan's damage, which is mainly physical.
* Storm Hammer will damage and stun Lycan's as well as his summons.
* Guardian Angel completely negates all of Lycan's damage since Lycan mainly deals physical damage.
* Purification can also be a problem for Lycan, as Purification deals damage around the target, which poses a problem for him and his summons.
* Her Mana Shield is too tough for Lycan to break.
* Mystic Snake can hit for a massive damage once it spread between his summons.
Additional:
* Can be easily petrified despite his speed.
* Summoned wolves will be targeted by Split Shot or Mystic Snake
* Arctic Burn allows Winter Wyvern to escape Lycan, even when he uses his ultimate.
* Splinter Blast is very effective in dealing with Lycan's summons.
* Cold Embrace saves allies from Lycan's raw physical damage and can buy allies enough time to turn the tide of battle.
* Winter's Curse stops Lycan in his tracks and is very effective because of his summons.
Additional:
* All of Lycan's damage is physical which is totally negated by Cold Embrace.
* Lycan often moves around with large amount of creeps, wolves created by Summon Wolves and neutral creep dominated by Helm of the Dominator which can be easily cleared by Splinter Blast or used as a great source of damage by Winter's Curse. If you catch Lycan with creeps nearby and affected by Shapeshift using Winter's Curse on him will most certainly end up with his death.
* 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
* Brewmaster can waste a large portion of Lycan's ultimate by putting him in Cyclone.
* Lycan has no way to stop Brewmaster from using Primal Split by himself.
* Lycan's team often tries to push towers as a group, and Brewmaster excels at winning teamfights while trying to defend a tower.
* Earthbind, like any root, inhibits usage of Ball Lightning, eliminating Storm Spirit's mobility.
* 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.
* 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.
* 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.
* Paralyzing cask bounces between him and his wolves, keeping him stunned for long amounts of time.
* Kraken Shell grants him massive physical attack protection
* Anchor Smash will wipe the area, clearing Lycan's wolves.
* 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.
* 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.
* Lycan cannot escape from a Pounce even if he uses Shapeshift, and has no disabling abilities to stop Slark.
* 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 who rely on high mobility are especially vulnerable to Primal Roar: Storm Spirit, Ember Spirit, Queen of Pain.
* Primal Roar allows Beastmaster to keep Lycan in place after he used his Shapeshift.
* Heroes with AoE abilities are a bane to Beastmaster's summons: Storm Spirit, Magnus, Pangolier.
* Lycan's wolves deal little damage to Bristleback, and are easily killed by Quill Spray, even when they're invisible.
* Lycan's lack of burst damage makes it very hard for him to kill Bristleback, especially when his back is turned.
Additional:
* Quill Spray can be used to kill Lycan's summons.
* Bristleback allows him to stay alive against Lycan while dishing out counter attacks
* He can overpower Lycan with his Warpath instead.
* 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.
* Heroes who rely on summons will see them destroyed easily by Overwhelming Odds: Lycan, Arc Warden, Warlock, Chen
* Heroes that can summon units will have their summons destroyed very quickly if badly micro-managed, like Chen, Lycan, and Phantom Lancer.
* 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.
* Heroes with summoned units don't fare well against Dawnbreaker. (Phantom Lancer ,Beastmaster ,Lycan).
* Melee heroes who rely on summons, illusions, or clones will trigger Counter Helix more often, thus taking more damage: Meepo, Lycan, Phantom Lancer
Additional:
* Berserker's Call can keep Lycan in place during his Shapeshift even through Black King Bar.
* Counter Helix is very effective against Lycan because of his summons.
* Culling Blade will prevent Lycan from running away with Shapeshift when he drops low.
* 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
* Heroes with mana burn: Nyx Assassin, Invoker, Outworld Destroyer, Pugna, Lion
* Heroes who summon multiple units that are not spell immune. Nature's Prophet,Lycan,Beastmaster
* Jakiro's area-of-effect abilities make him strong against heroes who rely on illusions and summons: Terrorblade, Naga Siren Chaos Knight, Phantom Lancer, Broodmother, Nature's Prophet, Lycan, Wraith King, Visage.
* 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.
* Heroes that heavily depend on illusions or summons, (Naga Siren, Terrorblade, Phantom Lancer, Lycan,...) are vulnerable to Sleight of Fist and even more so if Ember Spirit has Battle Fury.
* 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.
* Dragon Knight's insanely high armor and splash damage can cause Lycan to struggle taking him down.
* 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
* Heroes with summons and illusions can find themselves easily bested by Lina, like Broodmother, Nature's Prophet, Chen, Terrorblade, Naga Siren, Visage, Wraith King, Lycan, Phantom Lancer, Shadow Shaman.
* 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
* Mobility heroes will often be rooted by Troll Warlord and unable to escape, like Storm Spirit.
* 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.
* 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.
* Once you get a Black King Bar, squishy spellcasters like Zeus, Skywrath Mage and others will be probably easy to deal with.
* Phantom Assassin's Blur is a real problem for Lycan, as he relies entirely on direct attacks to deal damage.
* Heroes with single-target abilities will be overwhelmed by Lycan and his summons: Wraith King, Bane, Phantom Assassin.
* A well landed Fissure can potentially take Lycan out of the fight for several seconds, who heavily relies on precious seconds from Black king bar and Shapeshift to fight.
* Aftershock reduces the effectiveness of his summons and can prove quite irritating for Lycan.
* Echo Slam is very powerful with the sheer amount of Lycan's units and will cause him to think twice when pushing towers.
* Heroes with invisibility and high mobility can jump on and focus down Earthshaker before he has a chance to initiate: Clinkz, Slark, Storm Spirit
* Lycan relies heavily on right clicks making Untouchable very effective against him.
* If he tries to run away Impetus will do huge amounts of damage.
Additional:
* She can Enchant one of the wolves to her side.
* Lycan will struggle greatly to harm Enchantress through her Untouchable which can seriously slow down Lycan's attack speed even if Lycan is spell immune.
* Heroes with haste can negate Enchant's slow: Weaver, Dark Seer, Lycan, Centaur Warrunner.
* Any Hero with high mobility will be neutralized by dream coil: Queen of Pain, Storm Spirit, Ember Spirit, Lycan, Bloodseeker, Anti-Mage, Timbersaw.
* Any Hero with high mobility will be neutralized by dream coil: Queen of Pain, Storm Spirit, Ember Spirit, Lycan, Bloodseeker, Anti-Mage, Timbersaw.
* A Lycan with Shapeshift can always run down Puck for a very quick kill due to its low armor. It is important to abuse as many cliffs and trees as possible to escape from a Lycan.
* Heroes with mana burn: Nyx Assassin, Invoker, Outworld Destroyer, Pugna, Lion
* Pugna's Decrepify prevents the target from taking physical damage or doing damage, which poses a huge problem for Lycan, as he mainly deals physical damage.
* 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 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.
* The movement speed granted from Shapeshift means that Spectre has no way to punish Lycan if he wants to splitpush or pick off supports. Furthermore, he will kite Haunt and cannot be slowed by Spectral Dagger.
* Lycan is often part of an early game push strategy which is often the best counter to Spectre because she needs a lot of time and space to come online as a late game carry.
* 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.
* Shapeshift allows Lycan to chase down Earth Spirit.
* 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.
* Lycan's ultimate makes him immune to slows from Ursa's Earthshock as well as allowing him to outmaneuver Ursa during Enrage. Lycan can also easily chase down Ursa while shapeshifted, should Ursa try to flee.
* 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.
* Magnetic Field is useless against melee heroes, so Lycan can attack Arc Warden without missing.
* Flux doesn't affect Lycan that much, because Shapeshift grants immunity to slows and because he is never alone.
* If their Tempest Double has been called, Lycan can still kill Arc Warden before the double expires.
* 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.
* Lycan can clear waves of Chen's creeps with his wolves from Summon Wolves, especially once Lycan takes +2 Wolves summoned talent. And even though Chen can convert one of his wolves with Holy Persuasion, Lycan can counter this by buying Helm of the Overlord to regain control of it. Uncontrollable wolves summoned from Aghanim's Shard upgrade Summon Wolves cannot be converted with Holy Persuasion.
* Shapeshift allows him to chase down Chen and kill him easily.
* Howl can reduce attack damage of both, Chen and his creeps.
* 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.
* Mirana's Leap is ineffective if Lycan uses Shapeshift. It also allows him to dodge Sacred Arrow.
* 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.
* Heroes who can summon illusions and summons because Terrorblade has no abilities to deal with multiple enemies at once outside Reflection: Shadow Shaman, Naga Siren, Broodmother, Lycan, Enigma, Chaos Knight, Phantom Lancer, Shadow Demon, Dark Seer, Nature's Prophet, Invoker, Morphling, Visage, Grimstroke with Aghanim's Scepter.
* 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.
* You can easily kill a squishy Sniper, due to your high movement speed and his lack of escape.
* 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.
* Windranger tends to fare badly against high mobility heroes that can easily dodge Powershot, close the gap on her when she uses Windrun or escape from Focus Fire's reach. Examples of such heroes include Spirit Breaker, Lycan, Storm Spirit, Earth Spirit, Void Spirit, Slark and others.
* 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 who do not have nor rely on passive abilities make Nethertoxin much less effective: Clinkz, Pugna, Nature's Prophet, Dark Seer, Lycan, Tusk
* 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.
* Lycan and Weaver has abilities that allow them to move at maximum movement speed, and those abilities can't be dispelled, potentially wasting the slow from Demonic Purge.
* 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.
* Shapeshift increases Lycan's movement speed and renders him unslowable, allowing him to easily avoid and escape Ancient Apparition's abilities.
* Lycan has fast summons, both his wolves from Summon Wolves can do heavy damage to Ancient Apparition due to his immobility and low armor.
* 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.
* Howl reduces a good chunk of Marci's attack damage that she relies heavily on, and the armor reduction works better on her because of her low armor.
* Shapeshift renders Lycan immune to slow from Rebound and Unleash.
* 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.
* Once you get a Black King Bar, squishy spellcasters like Zeus, Skywrath Mage and others will be probably easy to deal with.
* 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 both illusions and summons, for Io has nothing to deal with multiple enemies at once outside from Spirits's weak area-of-effect: Beastmaster, Broodmother, Chaos Knight, Lycan, Naga Siren, Nature's Prophet, Phantom Lancer, Shadow Shaman, Terrorblade, Visage, Warlock, Wraith King.
* Heroes with escape abilities: Anti-Mage Dark Seer Slark Storm Spirit Windranger Weaver can kite Lifestealer due to him having no lockdown.
* Heroes with summons: Lycan, Broodmother, Visage, Nature's Prophet, Warlock.
* 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.
* 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.
* 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.
* 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.
* 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 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.
* Shapeshift allows Lycan to get close and disable Marksmanship.
* Shapeshift also makes him immune to slows like Drow Ranger's Frost Arrows.
Additional:
* The Wolves's speed causes the knockback from Gust to be ineffective.
* Drow Ranger lacks escapes and loses her Marksmanship when someone is near her. Lycan can take advantage of these weaknesses of Drow Ranger.
* Ball Lightning allows Storm Spirit to bypass Bramble Maze into the backline, and zip back into battle if he gets hit by Terrorize.
* Shapeshift allows Lycan to escape from Upheaval with maximum movement speed.
* Warlock doesn't have a good solution to deal with Lycan's wolves from Summon Wolves.
* Ball Lightning disjoints an incoming Magic Missile, avoids Wave Of Terror, and allows Storm Spirit to easily escape if he ever gets Nether Swapped.
* 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.
* 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.
* Lycan doesn't care much about Lich's slows thanks to Shapeshift.
* Chain Frost can bounce to the wolves that Lycan summons.
Additional:
* Lich possesses a lot of slows, which Lycan doesn't care about when he Shapeshifts.
* Lich has no in-built escape, which makes him a good target for Lycan.
* 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.
* Heroes with abilities that can close the gap can easily kill Muerta: Storm Spirit, Earth Spirit, Ember Spirit, Void Spirit, Lycan, Chaos Knight, Tusk.
* Multiple attackers thanks to summoned units or clones: Meepo, Witch Doctor, Lycan, Enigma, Shadow Shaman
* Heroes that can quickly deal damage to her, regardless of how weak they are, can easily break through her Refraction:
* Multiple attackers thanks to summoned units or clones: Meepo, Witch Doctor, Lycan, Enigma, Shadow Shaman
* Multiple attackers thanks to illusions: Phantom Lancer, Chaos Knight, Naga Siren (bonus for her Ensnare). Also despite the visual effects, Templar Assassin does not spill damage against illusions or buildings, so she is not a really good hero to clean up illusions.
* Weak damage but high tick rate or persist in a long time: Slark, Gyrocopter, Queen of Pain, Shadow Shaman (Shackles), Jakiro, Pugna, Doom
* Heroes with high mobility will be able to avoid Gyrocopter's area attacks: Storm Spirit, Morphling, Ember 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.
* Keeper of the Light has a blind, which causes Lycan to miss his attacks.
* Heroes with teleports to escape Solar Blind and Will-O-Wisp: Phantom Assassin, Puck, Queen of Pain, Storm Spirit
* Heroes with hastes: Dark Seer, Lycan
* Squishy heroes or heroes without hard disables or silences: Shadow Demon, Shadow Fiend, Venomancer, Ancient Apparition etc.
* Squishy heroes or heroes without hard disables or silences: Shadow Demon, Shadow Fiend, Venomancer, Ancient Apparition etc.
* Heroes with low armor and little mobility, like Huskar, Io, etc. will also have an unfortunate fate.
* Heroes with single-target abilities will be overwhelmed by Lycan and his summons: Wraith King, Bane, Phantom Assassin.
* Heroes with escaping and disjointing abilities can be good against Juggernaut:Anti-Mage Riki, Queen of Pain, Puck, Storm Spirit, Ember Spirit, Slark etc.
* Escape-type carries: Slark, Storm Spirit, Weaver.
* 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.
* 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.
* 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.
* Shapeshift is useful for killing or escaping Silencer.
* Summon Wolves, can be used to hunt and harass silencer - even when Lycan himself can't fight.
* Charge of Darkness allows Spirit Breaker to catch up to Lycan after he uses Shapeshift.
Additional:
* Vision from Charge of Darkness will easier to catch Lycan Shapeshift and Charge of Darkness out of reach Lycan Summon Wolves and Lycan's other creeps. Until upgrade Aghanim's Scepter faster catching Lycan Shapeshift.
* 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 summons and illusions as Spirit Breaker has no strong AoE capabilities to deal with them: Chaos Knight, Phantom Lancer, Terrorblade, Naga Siren, Broodmother, Warlock, Visage, Nature's Prophet, Shadow Shaman, Lycan, Wraith King.
* 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.
* He can send wolves to defuse Proximity Mines, and he can catch up Techies and kill him before they can deny themselves. Even if the suicide is successful, Lycan can still survive because of his tankiness.
* Heroes who rely heavily on melee attacks and lack early spell immunity are easily blocked and interrupted by Ink Swell: Lycan, Ursa, Troll Warlord.
Additional:
* Stroke of Fate deals more damage when it hits more targets which makes it very effective in dealing with Lycan and his units.
* Soulbind prevents Lycan from running away and makes him very easy to deal with.
* Heroes with mobility spells can quickly escape from Stroke of Fate or break out of Soulbind: Anti-Mage, Queen of Pain, Morphling, Storm Spirit
* Heroes who have summons, which can be quickly cleared by his powerful area of effect skill: Nature's Prophet, Enigma, Lycan
* 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.
* All of Timbersaw's spells deal AoE damage, killing Lycan's summons very quickly.
* Reactive Armor will gain stacks quickly because of Lycan's summons.
* 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.
* 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 single-target abilities will be overwhelmed by Lycan and his summons: Wraith King, Bane, Phantom Assassin.
* Can cast Demonic Conversion on one of Lycan's Wolves, making this a numbers fight.
* Malefice will greatly reduce his ability to engage
* Midnight Pulse can steep an area making it harder for Lycan to engage in.
* 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.
* 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.
* Lycan's high health allows him to easily shrug off Nyx Assassin's burst damage and fend him off.
* As Lycan commonly buys Black King Bar, he can use it to freely attack Nyx Assassin and chase after him with Shapeshift.
* Lycan can also use his wolves from Summon Wolves to attack Nyx Assassin while he has Spiked Carapace active without getting stunned himself.
* Rupture completely negates Lycan's high mobility.
* All of Lycan's summons are good sources of healing with Bloodrage.
Additional:
* Rupture completely negates Lycan's high mobility.
* All of Lycan's summons are good sources of healing with Bloodrage.
* 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.
* 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.
* Void's slow is useless against Lycan by activating Shapeshift.
* Night Stalker's single target abilities (with the exception of Void upgraded by Aghanim's Scepter) is not very effective against Lycan's Summon Wolves during the early and mid game.
To start select enemy heroes in the field above. It's intended to be used with multiple heroes. The more enemy heroes you provide the better results you will get.
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Storm Spirit
* 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.
Lycan
* Treant Protector grants protection against his attacks with Living Armor and his ultimate, Overgrowth is a massive AoE disarm and root that pierces spell immunity, causing trouble to Lycan. You will find yourself in need of an ally's dispel or forced to pop Black King Bar for its dispel.
Additional:
* Lycan has no kind of teleport, being only able to walk, and heavily relies on his attacks. As Overgrowth roots and disarms the targets, Lycan can't do much in an overgrowth field.