* Undying can use Decay not only to reduce Sven's maximum health, but also to reduce the damage he can deal with his ultimate.
* Zombies spawned by Tombstone together with Flesh Golem slow Sven down significantly. Landing Sven's powerful but somewhat slow right-click on Tombstone would be a waste.
* Decay can be good against Centaur Warrunner, as reducing the health of Centaur can make Double Edge risky.
* His zombies do not proc Retaliate, as it only procs for regular attacks.
* Sven has no easy way to burn Refraction charges and needs help from teammates to kill TA successfully.
* Centaur has nothing to deal with Refraction that will negate all of his burst damage.
* Psionic Traps provide good vision, making for him harder to initiate.
* Cold Embrace saves any ally Sven initiates on and wastes the duration of God's Strength in team fights.
* Winter's Curse can be devastating to Sven's team, as his massive damage can take out a teammate before there is much time to react.
* Winter Wyvern's
Arctic Burn can also be a useful tool against Centaur, who generally has very high health.
Winter's Curse on Centaur can cause Retaliate to damage allies who are forced to attack him.
* Heroes who can stun Sven even with an activated Black King Bar can be an issue:
Clockwerk,
Beastmaster.
* Battery Assault easily interrupts Centaur Warrunner due to his poor cast animation.
* Power Cogs can negate Stampede.
* X Marks the Spot negates Stampede.
* Cloak and Dagger makes Sven unable to detect where Riki is until he shows or his team provides detection.
* Smoke Screen will make Sven miss attacks before he has his
Black King Bar.
* Feast is an effective tool against Centaur Warrunner, who generally has high health and low armor, and compensates the reflected damage of Retaliate.
* If activated, Rage can protect Lifestealer from Hoof Stomp, Double Edge, and Stampede.
Additional:
* Centaur Warrunner's active abilities cannot pierce magic immunity. Hoof Stomp's slow wind up can also be anticipated and negated with Rage.
* Lifestealer can offset Retaliate's damage return simply with Feast. Centaur's high strength gain and therefore big health pool makes him an ideal target to Feast on, especially in the late-game.
* Pugna can save allies with both healing or by making them ethereal but needs to be careful of Sven's Aghanim's Scepter purge.
* Multicast Fireblasts over the course of fights are a decent nuisance to stall Sven's massive damage output.
* Bloodlust and Ignite gives Ogre Magi's team the movement speed difference needed to chase and/or disengage against a Sven and his Warcry.
* Ignite provides strong damage over time to pressure Sven early on in the laning phase and keep his health low, delaying his transition into the jungle. Ignite is also an easy way to disrupt Blink Dagger, Sven's most popular way of initiation.
* Ogre Magi's presence in the laning phase both in terms of damage and durability keeps high pressure on Sven in lane.
* Purchasing an Aghanim's Shard allows Ogre Magi to greatly reduce the burst damage of Sven, who tends to build items focused on damage per hit instead of attack speed.
* Muerta's attacks during Pierce the Veil ignore Sven's
Warcry.
* Sven using God's Strength can be completely ignored by using
Pierce the Veil.
* Sven with Aghanim's Scepter will still not be able to dispel Muerta's Ethereal form during
Pierce the Veil.
* However, Sven is a natural purchaser of Black King Bar that can protect him from Pierce the Veil and the rest of Muerta's kit.
* Sven can be easily kited since Weaver is a natural Linken's Sphere carrier and Sven relies on
Storm Hammer to disable and kill a hero.
* Berserker's Call prevents Sven from bursting his targets before Axe can interfere. The worst kind of opponent for Sven is one who can stop him from attacking who he wants to, which is exactly what Axe does.
* Culling Blade may finish off Sven before he has the chance to lifesteal or run with Warcry.
* Axe is a very common Blade Mail carrier which will make very short work of a Sven with God's Strength activated.
* Kinetic Field and
Glimpse can completely negate Stampede.
* Stone Gaze allows Medusa to easily kite and kill Sven.
* Mana Shield negates much of Sven's burst damage.
Additional:
* Mana Shield makes it very hard for Sven to burst her within Storm Hammer's stun duration.
* Stone Gaze makes it very difficult for Sven to fight Medusa at any stage of the game.
* Mystic Snake can slow Sven down enough for allies to capitalize on his commitment in a fight.
* Primal Roar takes Sven out of the fight completely, even with Black King Bar.
* Heroes who can fight back easily are not ideal matchups for Sven, such as Troll Warlord as mentioned above,
Lone Druid and
Templar Assassin.
* Fate's Edict cripples many heroes who rely on attacks, such as Phantom Assassin,
Sven, or
Enchantress, without a dispel or a
Black King Bar.
* Heroes who can take advantage of God's Strength being on cooldown are also not great matchups, such as Templar Assassin,
Morphling and
Huskar.
* Sven is very vulnerable to chain stun such as Lion,
Shadow Shaman or
Magnus.
* Heroes who thrive on teamfights can be a problem, such as Venomancer,
Necrophos,
Centaur Warrunner...
* Tanky melee heroes that can easily be kited, which allows Outworld Destroyer to deal heavy damage with Arcane Orb from a distance: Sven,
Underlord,
Bristleback.
* Heroes that can prevent Sven from farming are very strong against him. Such as Riki and
Bounty Hunter with their respective invisibility.
* Melee heroes with low mobility can be kited and killed by Viper: Treant Protector,
Kunkka,
Alchemist,
Troll Warlord,
Wraith King,
Tiny,
Sven.
* Heroes with naturally low mana can be easily shut down by E.M.P.: Sven,
Tiny,
Wraith King,
Omniknight
* Heroes that relies on armor or other type of physical damage negation are easy for Gyrocopter to take down during the early game with his magical damage: Axe,
Dragon Knight,
Sven.
* Melee carries during the laning phase: Sven,
Slark
* Heroes that lose a great amount of damage output and become less threatening: Phantom Assassin,
Sven,
Slark,
Phantom Lancer.
* Once you have an Aghanim's Scepter, Shadow Demon instantly reaches a new power spike and becomes a counter for a variety of heroes that have strong passives.
* Heroes that lose a great amount of their tankiness and become easier to finish off: Bristleback,
Spectre,
Phantom Assassin,
Enchantress,
Dragon Knight.
* Heroes that lose a great amount of damage output and become less threatening: Phantom Assassin,
Sven,
Slark,
Phantom Lancer.
* You can always stack camps and farm the scepter with Shadow Poison.
* Sven is very vulnerable to chain stun such as Lion,
Shadow Shaman or
Magnus.
* Heroes that rely on physical damage are ineffective against Dragon Knight due to his high armor: Phantom Assassin,
Bloodseeker,
Lifestealer,
Troll Warlord,
Sven
* Heroes who can take advantage of God's Strength being on cooldown are also not great matchups, such as Templar Assassin,
Morphling and
Huskar.
* 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.
* Whirling Axes (Melee)'s blind makes Sven nearly useless in the early game and allows Troll Warlord to take him on comfortably.
* Battle Trance will mean Sven will never take Troll out in a 1vs1 with equal farm.
Additional:
* Berserker's Rage together with Troll Warlord's high attack speed gives Troll a high chance of rooting enemies, which allows Troll Warlord to man-fight Sven.
* Whirling Axes (Melee) provides a 60% miss chance, and the passive armor provided by Berserker's Rage makes Troll resilient to physical damage in early game. Sven's God's Strength is much less effective as a result.
* Beware that Sven can farm much faster than Troll Warlord by stacking ancients and clearing them with Great Cleave.
* Troll Warlord's high speed attack makes Retaliate deal a lot of damage to him.
* Luna's Moon Glaives will not trigger
Retaliate if they hit some other target first. Also Luna commonly buys items that provide lifesteal such as
Satanic, which lets her heal from the damage of
Retaliate, meaning that
Retaliate has little effect against her.
* Eclipse can be used to counter-initiate against Centaur Warrunner after he jumps in with
Blink Dagger, and initiates with
Hoof Stomp. But remember that Centaur Warrunner can resolve this problem by buying
Hood of Defiance and it's upgrade
Pipe of Insight to diminish its damage. Or
Blade Mail to reflect the damage of the
Eclipse back at Luna.
* Luna also commonly buys Black King Bar, which will allow her to protect herself from both, Centaur Warrunner's abilities (except for the
Retaliate), and damage reflect from
Blade Mail.
Additional:
* Luna's Moon Glaives will not trigger
Retaliate if they hit some other target first. Also Luna commonly buys items that provide lifesteal such as
Satanic, which lets her heal from the damage of
Retaliate, meaning that
Retaliate has limited effect against her.
* Eclipse can be used to counter-initiate against Centaur Warrunner after he jumps in with
Blink Dagger, and initiates with
Hoof Stomp. But remember that Centaur Warrunner can resolve this problem by buying
Hood of Defiance and it's upgrade
Pipe of Insight to diminish its damage. Or
Blade Mail to reflect the damage of the
Eclipse back at Luna.
* Luna also commonly buys Black King Bar, which will allow her to protect herself from both, Centaur Warrunner's abilities (except for the
Retaliate), and damage reflect from
Blade Mail.
* A couple of nukers and disablers on the same lane can finish a squishy Luna efficiently despite a teammate's assistance: Sven +
Shadow Shaman.
* Against her Untouchable, Sven is barely able to hit Enchantress even with his Black King Bar.
* Heroes with haste can negate Enchant's slow: Weaver,
Dark Seer,
Lycan,
Centaur Warrunner.
* Doom generally does not impede Sven in any way, provided he has activated God's Strength beforehand.
* Whenever Doom casts his ultimate, Centaur Warrunner can cast Stampede and allow the Doomed hero to run away, wasting Doom's ultimate.
Additional:
* Stampede can be used to free an ally from the grasp of Doom. Without any means of effective lockdown, kills can be difficult to secure when against an enemy Centaur Warrunner. Also, Centaur's tendency to have lots of health and HP regen tend to help counter Doom.
* Great Cleave and
God's Strength destroys illusions in just a few hits.
* Storm Hammer's AoE stun will hit Phantom Lancer when he's grouped up with illusions.
* Sven's low mana causes him to take less damage from Diffusal Blade. This is further reduced by the armor bonus from
Warcry.
Additional:
* Great Cleave and God's Strength cuts through Phantom Lancer's illusions in no time.
* Storm Hammer's AoE stun will hit Phantom Lancer and his illusions.
* His illusions will kill themselves in a few hits because of Retaliate. The nukes from Hoof Stomp and Double-Edge should be enough to clear them for a large portion of the game
* Centaur Warrunner's small mana pool makes Diffusal Blade's damage much lower once Centaur doesn't have any more mana left to burn. Keep in mind that Double Edge does not cost mana.
* Be wary when chasing down Phantom Lancer. Hoof Stomp's terrible cast time makes it quite easy to dodge with Doppelganger.
Additional:
* Hoof Stomp and
Double Edge makes short work of Phantom Lancer's illusions.
* Retaliate together with
Blade Mail reflects Phanton Lancer's damage and quickly destroys his illusions.
* Great Cleave with
God's Strength clears Terrorblade's illusions quickly.
* Storm Hammer's AoE stuns Terrorblade and his illusions.
* Warcry gives Sven and his allies armor to withstand Terrorblade's only-physical damage output.
* As Terrorblade's damage output comes mainly from direct attacks, he will struggle greatly against heroes who have abilities that give evasion, trigger on attack or which can disarm an enemy hero: Centaur Warrunner,
Hoodwink,
Huskar,
Invoker,
Leshrac with
Nihilism from
Aghanim's Scepter,
Lifestealer with
Aghanim's Scepter upgraded
Infest,
Pangolier,
Phantom Assassin,
Pugna,
Techies,
Windranger etc.
* 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.
* Hoof Stomp and
Double Edge can often burst down Phantom Assassin from early to mid game.
* Retaliate makes it very unlikely for Phantom Assassin to win the lane against Warrunner.
Double Edge can also be used to wear her down, as she has a much smaller health pool than that of Centaur Warrunner until purchasing a
Ring of Health.
Stifling Dagger will also trigger
Retaliate and
Blur cannot evade
Retaliate.
* Centaur Warrunner's tankiness in combination with armour items that Axe often purchases like Blade Mail,
Crimson Guard,
Assault Cuirass and
Shiva's Guard can make Phantom Assassin's attacks only tickle Centaur Warrunner.
* Centaur Warrunner just has to be careful about Fan of Knives from
Aghanim's Shard and
Coup De Grace, as
Fan of Knives can disable
Retaliate even if Centaur Warrunner is spell immune.
Additional:
* Hoof Stomp and
Double Edge can often burst down Phantom Assassin from early to mid game.
* Retaliate makes it very unlikely for Phantom Assassin to win the lane against Warrunner.
Double Edge can also be used to wear her down, as she has a much smaller health pool than that of Centaur Warrunner until purchasing a
Ring of Health.
Stifling Dagger will also trigger
Retaliate and
Blur cannot evade
Retaliate.
* Centaur Warrunner's tankiness in combination with armour items that Centaur Warrunner often purchases like Blade Mail,
Crimson Guard,
Assault Cuirass and
Shiva's Guard can make Phantom Assassin's attacks only tickle Centaur Warrunner.
* Centaur Warrunner just has to be careful about Fan of Knives from
Aghanim's Shard and
Coup De Grace, as
Fan of Knives can disable
Retaliate even if Centaur Warrunner is spell immune.
* Warcry makes it difficult to burst Sven down with both the passive (with
Aghanim's Shard) and active component.
* Sven under the effect of God's Strength and his massive physical damage make Sven very dangerous to engage in the mid game.
* Night Stalker is all about right-clicks. His nuke,
Void is also not that threatning once you have
Hood of Defiance, your core item.
* Storm Hammer's faster projectile speed and cast time allows Sven to stun Chaos Knight and his illusions before he can cast Chaos Bolt.
* Warcry's armor bonus counteracts Reality Rift's debuff and reduces Chaos Knight's damage output.
* Great Cleave and
God's Strength devastates Phantasm illusions.
Additional:
* Great Cleave is very effective against Chaos Knight's illusions.
* Storm Hammer's radius can catch all of Chaos Knight's illusions at once, especially after Reality Rift.
* Warcry shields Sven and his teammates against Chaos Knight's burst physical damage.
* Heroes who are reliant on illusions: Chaos Knight,
Phantom Lancer,
Naga Siren.
* Melee carries who usually buy an early Black King Bar, and have gap closing abilities can be good against the Arc Warden, such as
Slark,
Riki,
Earthshaker with
Aghanim's Scepter,
Sven with
Aghanim's Scepter etc.
* Arc Warden cannot take Centaur Warrunner very easily, and his nukes are not strong enough to deal with Centaur Warrunner.
* Centaur Warrunner deals huge AoE damage and applies an AoE disable through Hoof Stomp, affecting the double as well the main Arc Warden.
* Magnetic Field is not very effective against melee heroes. And to make things worse,
Magnetic Field also increases Arc Warden and his allies's attack speed, meaning Retaliate will deal more damage.
* Stampede catches Arc Warden easily due to his lack of escape mechanisms. However, Arc Warden can counter this problem with Gleipnir, which is a common item on Arc Warden.
* Heroes who rely on burst physical damage are affected by Lucky Shot's disarm: Terrorblade,
Sven,
Clinkz,
Windranger,
Alchemist,
Dragon Knight,
Legion Commander
* Warcry's shields protects Sven and his teammates from Swashbuckle.
* With Black King Bar, Sven will be able to protect himself from most of Pangolier's skills.
* Pangolier will proc Retaliate several times if he attempts to use Swashbuckle on Centaur Warrunner.
* Centaur can cast Stampede to allow all of his allies to easily avoid Rolling Thunder.
* Centaur's tankiness makes it hard for Pangolier to burst him down in the late game.
Additional:
* When Swashbuckle hits Centaur Warrunner, Retaliate will deal significant damage, as it procs off every strike made.
* Stampede helps allies avoid or disengage from Pangolier during Rolling Thunder, as well as neutralizing the slow debuff from Lucky Shot.
* Special mention to Sven as he may not be able to get close, but if he does,
God's Strength will make very short work of Sniper.
* Past the early game, Sniper is an easy target for Sven to jump on with Aghanim's Scepter or
Blink Dagger.
* Sven's high armour and health pool makes it difficult for Sniper to focus, as his main source of damage is his right click.
* Sniper is very squishy, and will not stand a chance against Sven head on.
* Headshot and
Shrapnel slow is ineffective against a team with haste (which Stampede gives).
* Commonly picked up mobility items and hasted movement during his Stampede (as well as his high health pool) make him extremely hard to kill from a distance, damaging Sniper with Retaliate and
Blade Mail if he has one.
* A low health pool and no escape mechanism makes him an easy target for Centaur Warrunner's burst damage and initiation (even making his team possible initiators with Stampede).
* Other heroes that rely on physical attacks to deal damage and not their abilities: Troll Warlord,
Sniper,
Monkey King,
Sven.
* Sven with Aghanim's Scepter can easily chase down Windranger and dispel her Windrun at the same time.
* Focus Fire grants Windranger a massive attack speed bonus, while her attack damage is generally quite low. This, combined with Windranger's low health pool and armor, makes Retaliate do absolutely massive damage over a short time, making Centaur a hero she can never expect to kill or harass.
* Windrun grants evasion, but Centaur Warrunner does not rely on successful attacks in order to do damage. Hoof Stomp, Double Edge, and Stampede all do large amounts of magical damage and can completely demolish Windranger in a moment.
Additional:
* Stampede can help his teammates escape from Windrun and Focus Fire.
* Retaliate will shred through Windranger's health if she chooses to attack him during Focus Fire.
* Side lanes with disables will greatly reduce the likeliness Void Spirit will be willing to rotate: Sven,
Tiny,
Wraith King,
Ogre Magi.
* Heroes who can match Void Spirit's mobility (like the aforementioned Ember Spirit or
Queen of Pain) or tank his spells (
Dragon Knight or
Centaur Warrunner) are very problematic for him.
* Sven's
Great Cleave can clear Anti-Mage's illusions from Manta Style and his high health pool and low mana, making Mana Void very ineffective, although keep in mind that
Storm Hammer is extremely easy to reflect with a well-timed Counterspell.
Additional:
* Anti-Mage is fairly fragile, and cannot stand against Sven in a prolonged fight.
* Sven's Black King Bar and low base mana protects against
Mana Break.
* Great Cleave destroys the illusions from Anti-Mage's Manta Style.
* Although Sven should be careful as a well-timed Counterspell can block and reflect Storm Hammer.
* Anti-Mage's
Mana Void won't do a lot of damage because Centaur has a low mana pool.
Mana Break is also relatively ineffective against him.
* Heroes whose attacks can affect multiple enemies at once will clear Naga Siren's illusions. Such heroes include Sven,
Magnus,
Dragon Knight,
Luna,
Medusa,
Templar Assassin,
Gyrocopter,
Muerta.
* Heroes who are reliant on illusions: Chaos Knight,
Phantom Lancer,
Naga Siren.
Additional:
* Centaur's Retaliate will harm all attacking enemies, which will allow Centaur Warrunner to see which is the real Naga Siren.
* A well timed Hoof Stomp followed by
Double Edge will clear all Naga's illusions and prevent Naga Siren from escaping with
Song of the Siren.
* Avalanche and
Toss will never be enough damage to take out Sven in a clean way.
* Tiny is very slow with low armour growth and does not buy items to sustain Sven's damage output.
* God's Strength allows Sven to take down Death Prophet quickly, reducing the damage dealt over time from Exorcism.
* Warcry's bonus armour and movement speed is very useful for Sven and his teammates against Exorcism, which deals physical damage.
* God's Strength makes Sven one of the worst heroes to Duel.
* Storm Hammer can be used to interrupt Duels.
* Warcry gives a big boost in passive defensive ability with the active component to nearby allies.
* With the Aghanim Shard Warcry also gives nearby allies passive increases.
* Sven has a high health pool and is a natural Black King Bar holder and is very hard to kill for Lina.
* Sven also has high physical damage, making it easy for him to burst her down.
* A good Centaur can catch Queen of Pain with a Blink Dagger and
Hoof Stomp.
* Retaliate with
Blade Mail reflects all of Queen of Pain's damage, especially Sonic Wave.
* Stampede grants a movement speed bonus, which can prevent Queen of Pain from initiating.
* Double Edge can shred her low health pool if she's not careful.
* With God's Strength, Warlock Golem goes down in a matter of seconds. The two weaker golems granted by Aghanim's Scepter will fare worse due to Great Cleave hitting both.
* Storm Hammer upgraded with Aghanim's Scepter dispels
Shadow Word.
Additional:
* God's Strength combined with
Great Cleave destroys Chaotic Offering golems within seconds.
* Warcry gives Sven and his allies armor to help against Warlock's Golem's heavy physical damage and movement speed to help escape Upheaval.
* Storm Hammer disrupts Upheaval.
* Stampede can allow Soulbinded heroes to just ran away.
* 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.
* Great Cleave cleans up Spiderlings quicker than most spells, as it ignores their magic resistance.
* Sven is a natural Black King Bar carrier, protecting him from Silken Bola, Spawn Spiderlings and
Orchid Malevolence.
* Warcry and
God's Strength allow Sven to easily out-damage Broodmother.
Additional:
* Great Cleave clears Spiderlings quickly to increase gold income.
* Warcry shields Sven and his allies against Broodmother and her Spiderlings.
* Centaur's low Intelligence makes Mind Flare do low damage.
* With some creative skill builds, Centaur's Hoof Stomp stun duration should always last longer than Spiked Carapace stun, so escaping unscathed is hard for Nyx.
* With Blink Dagger and detection, Centaur can devastate Nyx in the open.
* However, bear in mind that Nyx can also easily initiate on Centaur Warrunner as well if he uses Spiked Carapace in anticipation, and with
Vendetta. The damage from Retaliate will be reflected back to Centaur Warrunner, stunning him with no chance to react after he's revealed himself, and should guarantee a successful
Impale.
* Storm Hammer interrupts Echo Stomp.
* Storm Hammer locks down Chen and his converted creeps.
* Great Cleave and
God's Strength can destroy Chen and his creeps quickly.
* Warcry minimizes damage taken from creeps's attacks.
Additional:
* Great Cleave quickly destroys Chen's creeps in team fights, before they have a chance to do much.
* Great Cleave and
God's Strength can take down Meepo and his clones very quickly.
* The lack of spell immunity for Meepo's clones makes them vulnerable to Storm Hammer.
Additional:
* Great Cleave will devastate Meepo's clones. Against a closely packed group, Sven does not even need to target the clone with the lowest health.
* 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.
* Durable heroes can stand against Tusk during 1v1: Axe,
Dragon Knight,
Night Stalker,
Centaur Warrunner,
Wraith King and more.
* Heroes with high burst damage and Black King Bar can take down Dark Willow quickly:
Phantom Assassin,
Sven,
Wraith King
* Heroes that can keep Monkey King stunned for a long time can pose a threat: Axe,
Centaur Warrunner.
* Fragile supports who die in a few hits against Sven's high physical damage: Crystal Maiden,
Vengeful Spirit,
Dark Willow.
* Heroes who have low or high armor but very high health will be difficult for drow to burst down quickly: Primal Beast,
Axe,
Centaur Warrunner.
* Generally heroes who don't rely on magical damage, such as Sven,
Phantom Assassin, and
Outworld Destroyer, as they can practically ignore Flesh Heap's damage block.
* Late game heroes are Sven's favourite kind of opponent, such as Anti-Mage,
Spectre and
Shadow Fiend.
* Heroes who cannot prevent Sven from killing supports will always be at a disadvantage in fights such as Lina,
Slark and
Zeus.
* Heroes with high armor and/or durability can handle Juggernaut's ultimate, such as Sven and
Dragon Knight.
Additional:
* Warcry allows Sven to tank the damage from {Ability ID:Omnislash|Juggernaut} due to its high armour.
* However Blade fury provides spell immunity which blocks the stun from
Storm hammer.
* Heroes who struggle to fight back against Sven at any point in the game are at a severe disadvantage: Alchemist,
Anti-Mage,
Crystal Maiden.
* Strong laners are usually at a disadvantage because of how well Sven can jungle. Heroes such as Dark Seer.
Underlord and
Legion Commander may find that later Sven takes care of them very quickly after some jungle farming.
* Heroes that can stop Faceless Void from leaping around the fight and controlling its outcome are very strong against him. Heroes such as: Axe,
Centaur Warrunner,
Doom...
* Heroes who cannot prevent Sven from killing supports will always be at a disadvantage in fights such as Lina,
Slark and
Zeus.
* Late game heroes are Sven's favourite kind of opponent, such as Anti-Mage,
Spectre and
Shadow Fiend.
* Heroes that rely on right-clicks will find themselves unable to damage opponents seriously after being affected by Static Link, like Sven,
Bloodseeker, and
Juggernaut.
Additional:
* Static Link saps Sven's insane attack damage, and goes through
Black King Bar.
* Centaur can use Stampede to break Static Link. It also prevents Razor from chasing Centaur Warruner or his teammates with Eye of the Storm, and Plasma Field's slow will do nothing to slow them down.
* Heroes that deal few, powerful instances of damage, like Oracle,
Lion, or
Sven, have a hard time breaking through Gravekeeper's Cloak.
* Centaur Warrunner's passive
Retaliate makes it so that the familiars cannot attack him without damaging themselves over time, in turn causing them to be destroyed.
* In general, attacks of the melee heroes who are entirely reliant on dealing physical damage and/or have very little to no area-of-effect abilities will make Underlord tickle and will have no effect against him, and will be unable to ambush Underlord and his team if Underlord chooses to use Fiend's GAte to get to a designated point of the map:
Phantom Assassin,
Terrorblade,
Troll Warlord,
Drow Ranger,
Phantom Lancer,
Chaos Knight,
Sven,
Wraith King,
Bounty Hunter,
Alchemist,
Templar Assassin,
Nyx Assassin,
Bane.
* Strong laners are usually at a disadvantage because of how well Sven can jungle. Heroes such as Dark Seer.
Underlord and
Legion Commander may find that later Sven takes care of them very quickly after some jungle farming.
* Melee heroes that get kited easily have hard times dealing with Puck without any lockdowns, as Puck is one of the most mobile heroes. Heroes like Sven,
Lifestealer,
Ursa and
Alchemist may have problems to get to Puck without proper initiation items. They also lack reliable lockdowns, as their disables are easily avoidable for Puck, or are just a soft disable.
* Axe,
Bristleback,
Centaur Warrunner,
Spirit Breaker,
Pudge,
Huskar,
Wraith King: These heroes are too tanky for Puck to burst down. Also, all of them have spells which can deal with and shut Puck down reliably.
* Sven is very vulnerable to chain stun such as Lion,
Shadow Shaman or
Magnus.
* Any hero who can counter-initiate in anticipation without getting caught in Reverse Polarity: Sven,
Omniknight,
Enigma,
Luna,
Naga Siren,
Mars,
Jakiro,
Venomancer,
Elder Titan,
Faceless Void,
Rubick,
Keeper of the Light,
Pugna,
Invoker,
Spectre,
Alchemist,
Treant Protector,
Lina,
Oracle,
Zeus,
Shadow Shaman,
Phoenix,
Razor,
Huskar,
Batrider,
Kunkka,
Tidehunter,
Wraith King,
Sand King,
Medusa,
Dawnbreaker.
* Purification can heal allies while dealing pure damage to Sven.
* Heavenly Grace can remove Storm Hammer's debuff immediately or make it a very mediocre stun.
* Guardian Angel negates Sven's massive damage during God's Strength.
* It should also be noted Sven can remove Omniknight's active spells with Aghanim's Scepter.
* Although Sven relies often on physical damage, an Aghanim's Scepter upgraded
Storm Hammer can dispel Guardian Angel with its wide radius.
* With the exception of Magic Missile (unless the player takes the Level 25 Talent "Magic Missile Pierces Spell Immunity"), all of Vengeful Spirit's spells ignore Spell Immunity. This also makes her good against heroes with built-in Spell Immunity like Lifestealer or
Juggernaut or heroes that tend to pick up
Black King Bar, like
Sven.
* Fragile supports who die in a few hits against Sven's high physical damage: Crystal Maiden,
Vengeful Spirit,
Dark Willow.
* Sprout is good for trapping melee carries with no escape abilities: Sven,
Alchemist,
Lifestealer etc.
* Heroes with cleave damage: Sven,
Magnus,
Kunkka.
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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Sven
* His Heartstopper Aura deals the same gradual damage over time no matter how high Sven builds his strength or health pool up, and should he fall down to a certain percentage, his high health will no longer matter if Necrophos manages to land his Reaper's Scythe, killing him instantly. But it is best if Necrophos can either catch him off guard before he can possibly use his
Black King Bar (which is an item Sven players commonly purchase), or bait him out of it.
Storm Hammer available, it could make him completely immune to Sven and allow Necrophos to easily kite him around.
* Ghost Shroud prevents Sven from hitting Necrophos, and if he doesn't have his
Centaur Warrunner
* With high health and rarely buying
Linken's Sphere or
Black King Bar, Centaur Warrunner is a good target for
Reaper's Scythe. However, Centaur Warrunner can resolve this problem by buying
Hood of Defiance and it's upgrade
Pipe of Insight to diminish its damage.
Heartstopper Aura will do well against high health heroes such as Centaur Warrunner.
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