*
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.
* Illusion heroes like the aforementioned
Phantom Lancer or
Naga Siren, or heroes that tend to buy
Manta Style, like
Luna or
Juggernaut, will give Slardar a hard time, as his damage is single-targeted.
* 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
*
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.
* 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.
* 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.
* 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.
*
Doom prevents Storm Spirit from using all of his abilities and items, rendering Storm Spirit useless in a fight.
* 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
* Abaddon can cast
Aphotic Shield on any of his allies to immediately dispel Corrosive Haze and/or the stun and the slow components of Slithereen Crush.
* All of Slardar's debuffs are also removed if Abaddon's
Borrowed Time triggers.
* 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.
*
Fire Spirits greatly reduces Slardar's already low starting attack speed (which Bash of the Deep relies on), making the laning phase very hard for him and discouraging Slardar from aggressively threatening lane kills.
*
Supernova, ignoring Phoenix's lack of armor and Slardar's high damage single hits, is extremely hard for Slardar to take down on his own, especially after being hit by Fire Spirits.
*
Icarus Dive is one of the longest distance escape spells in the game, and can help a good Phoenix escape from Slardar before he gets a
Blink Dagger. However, the high cooldown means Phoenix is vulnerable to backstabs from any roamers after said spell is used.
* Slardar can interrupt an Icarus Dive from completing the flight with both of his stuns, however, likely leading to death if Supernova is on cooldown.
* A lot of the items a Phoenix builds throughout the game naturally counter Slardar.
Shiva's Guard,
Heaven's Halberd and
Eul's Scepter of Divinity all stall Slardar's normal attacks in some way, while
Spirit Vessel's percentage-based damage is good against his innate durability.
*
Fortune's End applies a basic dispel which can be used to dispel Corrosive Haze, or even Slardar's own Guardian Sprint.
*
False Promise is able to dispel Corrosive Haze and Slithereen Crush stun/slow from any allies Oracle chooses to cast it on.
*
Fate's Edict can also be cast on Slardar to prevent him from proccing his Bash of the Deep.
* 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.
* 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
*
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 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.
* Any Hero with high mobility will be neutralized by dream coil:
Queen of Pain,
Storm Spirit,
Ember Spirit,
Lycan,
Bloodseeker,
Anti-Mage,
Timbersaw.
* 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.
* 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.
* Mobility heroes will often be rooted by Troll Warlord and unable to escape, like
Storm Spirit.
*
Tidehunter's
Kraken Shell dispels Corrosive Haze and Bash of the Deep's stun if enough damage is taken.
Anchor Smash and Kraken Shell's damage block also reduces Slardar's damage.
* Heroes with mana burn:
Nyx Assassin,
Invoker,
Outworld Destroyer,
Pugna,
Lion
* Slardar has high priority on building moblity items such as
Blink Dagger rather than tank items. Zeus can easily deal large amount of damage to him if not caught out of position first.
* 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.
* 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.
*
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.
*
Nyx Assassin's
Vendetta can be revealed easily by Corrosive Haze
Additional:
*
Corrosive Haze hinders Nyx Assassin's ganking attempts with
Vendetta, as well as reducing his armor and make him very vulnerable due to his low health pool.
*
Guardian Sprint allows Slardar to catch up with Nyx Asssassin and finish him off if he has vision over him.
*
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 relies on
Shukuchi to escape and kite enemy heroes. Slardar's Corrosive Haze lowers armor and reveals Weaver, who is already a very frail target.
* Weaver usually builds
Linken's Sphere, Corrosive Haze can be used to pop the spell block, additionally the level 25 undispellable talent will prevent Weaver from removing Corrosive Haze with
Time Lapse, allowing allied heroes to use their abilities on Weaver.
Additional:
*
Corrosive Haze lowers armor and reveals Weaver during Shukuchi, who is already a frail target. In addition, Weaver usually builds
Linken's Sphere, and
Corrosive Haze can be used to "pop" the spell block. His level 25 talent can also make Corrosive Haze undispellable by Time Lapse, which puts Weaver in an even worse situation.
*
Guardian Sprint can dodge Weaver's bugs with the movement speed bonus.
* 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.
* Slardar can use
Guardian Sprint with
Blink Dagger or
Shadow Blade to get close, and
Slithereen Crush will stun Sniper and slow him, making him vulnerable to Slardar's teammates.
*
Corrosive Haze lowers Sniper's armor and makes Sniper's
Shadow Blade useless, easily killing him with a few attacks.
* 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.
* Slardar is one of the few meele heroes who can lane against Ursa in the early game, out harassing him with Bash of the Deep, and running away from a bad engagement with Guardian Sprint
* Corrosize Haze can force Ursa to cast
Enrage defensively instead of offensively
* With Corrosize Haze, Slardar's team can quickly dispatch of Roshan, denying one of Ursa's greatest advantages
*
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 who can provide True Sight or semi-reveal enemy heroes as Nature's Prophet is prone to buying
Shadow Blade:
Bounty Hunter,
Slardar,
Spectre,
Zeus,
Spirit Breaker.
* Squishy heroes or heroes without hard disables or silences:
Shadow Demon,
Shadow Fiend,
Venomancer,
Ancient Apparition etc.
* Shadow Fiend, a normal
Shadow Blade builder often relies on its invisibility to escape fights. Corrosive Haze reveals Shadow Fiend and also weakens his already low armor.
*
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.
*
Slardar's
Slithereen Crush allows him to stun Spectre and illusions, and
Corrosive Haze prevents her from juking with
Spectral Dagger.
* 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.
* Bounty Hunter's
Shadow Walk is rendered useless with Corrosive Haze and makes Bounty Hunter an easy target for Slardar and his team.
Additional:
*
Corrosive Haze provides True Sight on its target, exposing Bounty Hunter's position regardless of Shadow Walk.
*
Guardian Sprint gives a very high movement speed bonus, allowing him to chase Bounty Hunter even if Slardar is tracked.
*
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.
*
Slardar with
Corrosive Haze.
* Heroes with True Sight can be a problem for Windranger once she has upgraded Windrun with
Aghanim's Scepter, but do take note that the invisibility it provides is not broken upon moving, casting abilities or using items, so it is vital to cast these abilities beforehand to be able to provide vision on Windranger:
*
Bounty Hunter with
Track.
*
Bloodseeker with
Thirst.
*
Slardar with
Corrosive Haze.
Additional:
* While Slardar has Guardian's Sprint activated,
Powershot cannot slow him and is easier to avoid.
* Slithereen Crush and Bash of the Deep help Slardar put Windranger in place, even when she uses
Windrun to escape.
* Corrosive Haze from Slardar is very effective against Windranger's already low armor. This becomes even worse if she has
Aghanim's Scepter-upgraded
Windrun, because it also reveals her position and allowing his allies to use their abilities on Windranger.
* Note that the invisibility provided by
Aghanim's Scepter-upgraded
Windrun is not broken upon attacking, casting abilities or using items, so it's vital to cast Corrosive Haze beforehand.
* Squishy heroes or heroes without hard disables or silences:
Shadow Demon,
Shadow Fiend,
Venomancer,
Ancient Apparition etc.
*
Slardar can attack through Plague Wards and gain
Bash of the Deep charges, and
Templar Assassin can spill
Psi Blades through Plague Wards too.
* 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 spells that negate invisibility such as
Bounty Hunter,
Zeus and
Slardar prevent her from saving her allies with Moonlight Shadow.
* Heroes with escape abilities:
Anti-Mage
Dark Seer
Slark
Storm Spirit
Windranger
Weaver can kite Lifestealer due to him having no lockdown.
* Heroes with high physical damage can damage Lifestealer more than he can heal:
Bristleback,
Clinkz,
Luna,
Shadow Fiend,
Slardar,
Terrorblade
* 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.
* The brutal physical damage of
Slithereen Crush and
Bash of the Deep can quickly remove Void Spirit's shield and stun him for a while.
*
Corrosive Haze provides vision of Void Spirit while he is running away and
Guardian Sprint allows Slardar to quickly close the gap
*
Ball Lightning disjoints an incoming
Magic Missile, avoids
Wave Of Terror, and allows Storm Spirit to easily escape if he ever gets
Nether Swapped.
* 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.
* 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.
* 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.
*
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.
*
Guardian Sprint allows Slardar to outrun Bristleback, even when slowed by Viscous Nasal Goo.
*
Corrosive Haze's armor reduction makes Bristleback much less tanky.
*
Corrosive Haze followed by
Slithereen Crush takes advantage of Alchemist's main weakness, being physical damage before he has the change to improve his surviability with items.
*
Bash of the Deep will deal lots of damage during the laning phase.
*
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.
* Clinkz survivability depends entirely on
Skeleton Walk. Corrosive Haze not only makes its invisibility useless, but also makes Clinkz even more vulnerable to physical damage.
Additional:
* Slardar can reveal Clinkz with
Corrosive Haze and make him easy to kill, and his
Bash of the Deep also hits hard against Clinkz's naturally low health pool.
* Slardar's
Guardian Sprint can catch up with Clinkz's Skeleton Walk.
* The stun and slow from Slardar's
Slithereen Crush can hold Clinkz in place.
*
Ball Lightning allows Storm Spirit to bypass Bramble Maze into the backline, and zip back into battle if he gets hit by Terrorize.
* 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.
*
Corrosive Haze reveals Pudge's location, making it hard for him to use Meat Hook from the fog of war on Slardar's teammates or Slardar himself.
*
Slithereen Crush interrupts Pudge while he is using Dismember.
*
Guardian Sprint allows Slardar to avoid Meat Hook.
Additional:
* While Slardar has Guardian Sprint activated,
Rot cannot slow him and
Meat Hook is easier to avoid.
* Slithereen Crush allows Slardar to interrupt
Dismember at close range (when Slardar is not a target).
* Corrosive Haze reveals Pudge's location, making it very difficult for him to land hooks from the fog.
* 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.
*
Corrosive Haze and
Bash of the Deep will make short work of Huskar's low armor, even if Slardar is alone.
* 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.
*
Invoker's
Ghost Walk can be countered, however,
Invoker could also use abilities like
Tornado or
Ice Wall to escape by other means.
* With armor items like
Solar Crest or
Assault Cuirass combined with Bash of the Deep, Slardar can easily tank the
Duel, If not dueled himself, he can drop
Legion Commander's armor during duel and/or buff his teammate and save them, leaving her only the choice of dueling supports which can also be saved with fast Blink into Slithereen Crush.
*
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.
*
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 can provide True Sight are always credible threats:
Slardar,
Bounty Hunter, especially
Zeus since his
Lightning Bolt provides True Sight without the need to detect her beforehand to apply the debuff. So even a late-coming Zeus can easily scout a large area to reveal her, and she cannot purge herself from his sight with the dispel talent.
* Heroes with teleports to escape Solar Blind and Will-O-Wisp:
Phantom Assassin,
Puck,
Queen of Pain,
Storm Spirit
* 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 with high mobility will be able to avoid Gyrocopter's area attacks:
Storm Spirit,
Morphling,
Ember Spirit
* 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.
* 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 armor reducing abilities greatly hinder Visage's defense like
Slardar and
Dazzle.
*
Crystal Maiden's already low armor and easily interruptible ultimate,
Freezing Field can make Slardar her worst nightmare.
Crystal Maiden also often builds
Glimmer Cape which is revealed by Corrosive Haze.
* 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.
*
Slardar can chase Dragon Knight down with
Guardian Sprint and stun him with both
Slithereen Crush and his passive
Bash of the Deep. He can also use
Corrosive Haze to whittle Dragon Knight's armor.
* 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.
* 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 with invisibility and high mobility can jump on and focus down Earthshaker before he has a chance to initiate:
Clinkz,
Slark,
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 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.
*
Terrorblade starts out with and gains a lot of armor from his agility growth. His illusions also make it difficult for Slardar to focus down the real Terrorblade.
* 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 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.
*
Bloodseeker's
Rupture forces Slardar to stay still during fights, preventing Slardar from using Guardian sprint to move in and out of fights. This takes away the ability to initiate and re-initiate with Slithereen Crush's low cooldown. Due to the increased move speed from Guardian Sprint, Slardar can lose health at about 160% the rate of normal heroes while under
Rupture. Bloodseeker's
Thirst also gives him enough move speed so that he's one of the few heroes who can outrun or catch up to a Slardar during Guardian Sprint.
* 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.
* Enigma can be a perfect counter-initiator with his ultimate. A perfectly timed Black Hole will turn the tide of any initiation, especially from heroes like;
Spirit Breaker,
Legion Commander,
Axe,
Puck, and
Slardar.
* 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.
* 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.
* 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.
*
Slardar's level 25 talent makes
Corrosive Haze undispellable, thus providing his allies vision of Slark.
* 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
* Illusion heroes like the aforementioned
Phantom Lancer or
Naga Siren, or heroes that tend to buy
Manta Style, like
Luna or
Juggernaut, will give Slardar a hard time, as his damage is single-targeted.
* Heroes with escaping and disjointing abilities can be good against Juggernaut:
Anti-Mage
Riki,
Queen of Pain,
Puck,
Storm Spirit,
Ember Spirit,
Slark etc.
* Phantom Lancer's
Doppelganger has a low cooldown and applies a basic dispel on PL, making it hard to keep Corrosive Haze on him.
* Phantom Lancer usually purchases
Manta Style which provides another basic dispel to remove Corrosive Haze with.
* Besides Slithereen Crush, Slardar does not have another way to deal with illusions and has a low mana pool, which allows Phantom Lancer with
Diffusal Blade to quickly build up illusions while draining Slardar's mana.
*
Phantom Rush outruns Guardian Sprint, forcing Slardar to Blink away or use Slithereen Crush defensively to avoid being killed.
* 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.
*
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.
*
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.
* Corrosive Haze makes Riki completely vulnerable to Slardar and his allies, as Riki has no easy way of dispelling it.
* Slardar's physical damage with Slithereen Crush and Bash of the Deep amplified by Corrosive Haze can easily kill Riki.
Additional:
*
Corrosive Haze works much like
Track, giving the enemy team vision over Riki. While it doesn't give a movement speed or gold bonus, it instead can melt Riki's armor and Slardar can use
Guardian Sprint to catch up to him.
* Slardar's
Aghanim's Shard, causes
Slithereen Crush to apply Corrosive Haze even if Slardar does not have vision over him.
* 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.
*
Corrosive Haze will reveal Treant Protector even when he is under the effects of Nature's Guise.
* 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.
* 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.
* Slardar deals entirely physical damage. He does not have to worry about Counterspell.
*
Slithereen Crush and
Bash of the Deep prevent Anti-Mage from using Blink, the latter even if Anti-Mage activates
Black King Bar.
*
Corrosive Haze allows allies to take down Anti-Mage before he has a chance to Blink, and maintains vision over him even if he does Blink away.
Additional:
* Slithereen Crush and Bash of the Deep deals physical damage, bypassing the magic resistance bonus from
Counterspell
* Corrosize Haze significantly increases the damage dealt against Anti-Mage, and makes it harder for him to flee with
Blink, although Anti-mage can block its casting with with Counterspell
*
Medusa cares less than other heroes about armor reduction, since
Mana Shield blocks 70% of all damage without taking armor/magic resistance into consideration. This makes 60% of your Corrosive Haze ineffective until Medusa's mana is drained.
* Other heroes who has armor and slow debuffs won't allow Medusa to disengage from combat:
Tidehunter,
Bristleback,
Slardar.
* Illusion heroes like the aforementioned
Phantom Lancer or
Naga Siren, or heroes that tend to buy
Manta Style, like
Luna or
Juggernaut, will give Slardar a hard time, as his damage is single-targeted.
* Escape-type carries:
Slark,
Storm Spirit,
Weaver.
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
* Earthbind, like any root, inhibits usage of
Ball Lightning, eliminating Storm Spirit's mobility.
Slardar
* Slardar does not do well against multiple targets, as his only way to damage multiple targets is Slithereen Crush.
Earthbind will root Slardar, making him unable to chase/escape for the time being. Also,
Poof's low cooldown and high damage can burst Slardar down rather quickly.
* Meepo's
Slardar
* Heroes who can stun multiple units at once:
Dark Willow,
Spirit Breaker,
Slardar,
Invoker, and
Tidehunter.