Troll Warlord
[wiki] rating: 2.0 (winrate: 50% pickrate: 2%)Beastmaster
[wiki] rating: 1.6 (winrate: 51% pickrate: 2%)Sven
* Primal Roar takes Sven out of the fight completely, even with Black King Bar.
Night Stalker
* Heroes with illusions and summons can manfight Night Stalker: Terrorblade,
Beastmaster,
Broodmother.
Pugna
[wiki] rating: 1.6 (winrate: 47% pickrate: 3%)Sven
* Pugna can save allies with both healing or by making them ethereal but needs to be careful of Sven's Aghanim's Scepter purge.
Night Stalker
* Heroes that can punish aggressive heroes, such as: Leshrac,
Shadow Demon,
Pugna,
Death Prophet.
Razor
[wiki] rating: 1.2 (winrate: 52% pickrate: 7%)Sven
* 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.
Night Stalker
* Heroes with stronger lane presence that can threaten to kill him: Batrider,
Juggernaut,
Ursa,
Monkey King,
Razor.
Centaur Warrunner
[wiki] rating: 1.2 (winrate: 51% pickrate: 7%)Sven
* Heroes who thrive on teamfights can be a problem such as Venomancer,
Necrophos,
Centaur Warrunner...
Night Stalker
* Night Stalker is all about right-clicks. His nuke,
Void is also not that threatning once you have
Hood of Defiance, your core item.
Batrider
[wiki] rating: 1.2 (winrate: 48% pickrate: 5%)Sven
* 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.
Night Stalker
* Heroes with stronger lane presence that can threaten to kill him: Batrider,
Juggernaut,
Ursa,
Monkey King,
Razor.
Shadow Demon
[wiki] rating: 1.2 (winrate: 47% pickrate: 1%)Sven
* 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.
Night Stalker
* Heroes that can punish aggressive heroes, such as: Leshrac,
Shadow Demon,
Pugna,
Death Prophet.
Dragon Knight
[wiki] rating: 1.2 (winrate: 45% pickrate: 5%)Sven
* Heroes that rely on physical damage are ineffective against Dragon Knight due to his high armor: Phantom Assassin,
Bloodseeker,
Lifestealer,
Troll Warlord,
Sven
Night Stalker
* Heroes that are hard to gank: Dragon Knight,
Mars,
Centaur Warrunner.
Undying
[wiki] rating: 1.0 (winrate: 52% pickrate: 10%)Sven
* 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.
Necrophos
[wiki] rating: 1.0 (winrate: 50% pickrate: 7%)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.
* Ghost Shroud prevents Sven from hitting Necrophos, and if he doesn't have his Storm Hammer available, it could make him completely immune to Sven and allow Necrophos to easily kite him around.
Winter Wyvern
[wiki] rating: 1.0 (winrate: 48% pickrate: 3%)Sven
* 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.
Ogre Magi
[wiki] rating: 1.0 (winrate: 48% pickrate: 7%)Sven
* 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.
Templar Assassin
[wiki] rating: 1.0 (winrate: 48% pickrate: 4%)Sven
* Sven has no easy way to burn Refraction charges and needs help from teammates to kill TA successfully.
Enchantress
[wiki] rating: 1.0 (winrate: 46% pickrate: 2%)Sven
* Against her Untouchable, Sven is barely able to hit Enchantress even with his Black King Bar.
Medusa
[wiki] rating: 1.0 (winrate: 45% pickrate: 1%)Sven
* 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 manfight Medusa at any stage of the game.
* Mystic Snake can slow Sven down enough for allies to capitalise on his commitment in a fight.
Muerta
[wiki] rating: 1.0 (winrate: 45% pickrate: 13%)Sven
* Muerta's attack 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 still cannot purge Muerta's Etheral form during
Pierce the Veil
* However you will need to play around his Black King's Bar
Lone Druid
[wiki] rating: 0.6 (winrate: 55% pickrate: 3%)Sven
* Heroes who can fight back easily are not ideal matchups for Sven, such as Troll Warlord as mentioned above,
Lone Druid and
Templar Assassin.
Visage
[wiki] rating: 0.6 (winrate: 55% pickrate: 2%)Sven
* Heroes that deal few, powerful instances of damage, like Oracle,
Lion, or
Sven, have a hard time breaking through Gravekeeper's Cloak.
Huskar
[wiki] rating: 0.6 (winrate: 53% pickrate: 6%)Sven
* Heroes who can take advantage of Gods Strength being on cooldown are also not great matchups, such as Templar Assassin,
Morphling and
Huskar.
Venomancer
[wiki] rating: 0.6 (winrate: 50% pickrate: 4%)Sven
* Heroes who thrive on teamfights can be a problem such as Venomancer,
Necrophos,
Centaur Warrunner...
Sand King
[wiki] rating: 0.6 (winrate: 50% pickrate: 6%)Night Stalker
* Heroes that rely on slows to get kills: Lifestealer,
Night Stalker,
Ursa,...
Leshrac
[wiki] rating: 0.6 (winrate: 49% pickrate: 4%)Night Stalker
* Heroes that can punish aggressive heroes, such as: Leshrac,
Shadow Demon,
Pugna,
Death Prophet.
Viper
[wiki] rating: 0.6 (winrate: 49% pickrate: 4%)Sven
* Melee heroes with low mobility can be kited and killed by Viper: Treant Protector,
Kunkka,
Alchemist,
Troll Warlord,
Wraith King,
Tiny,
Sven.
Shadow Shaman
[wiki] rating: 0.6 (winrate: 49% pickrate: 6%)Sven
* Sven is very vulnerable to chain stun such as Lion,
Shadow Shaman or
Magnus.
Bloodseeker
[wiki] rating: 0.6 (winrate: 49% pickrate: 3%)Night Stalker
* Bloodseeker's
Rupture turns Night Stalker mobility against him and
Thirst grants movement speed bonus and vision prevents Night Stalker from initiating and re-initiating.
Monkey King
[wiki] rating: 0.6 (winrate: 47% pickrate: 8%)Night Stalker
* Heroes with stronger lane presence that can threaten to kill him: Batrider,
Juggernaut,
Ursa,
Monkey King,
Razor.
Mars
[wiki] rating: 0.6 (winrate: 46% pickrate: 10%)Night Stalker
* Heroes that are hard to gank: Dragon Knight,
Mars,
Centaur Warrunner.
Morphling
[wiki] rating: 0.6 (winrate: 44% pickrate: 8%)Sven
* Heroes who can take advantage of Gods Strength being on cooldown are also not great matchups, such as Templar Assassin,
Morphling and
Huskar.
Naga Siren
[wiki] rating: 0.4 (winrate: 51% pickrate: 3%)Night Stalker
* Mirror Image can be effective since Night Stalker cannot withstand fighting illusions. If he's unable to tell which Naga Siren is real, he will have a hard time landing his Void. However, if Night Stalker obtains an
Aghanim's Scepter, the upgraded Void will hit and may even locate the real Naga Siren in fights.
Additional:
* Ensnare and
Song of the Siren prevents Night Stalker from escaping and ganking during daytime or even nighttime.
* Rip Tide reduces Night Stalker's armor, making him easier to focus down.
* Mirror Image can be effective against Night Stalker, due to his single target abilities.
Sven
* Cleave heroes will clear her illusions. Such heroes include Sven,
Magnus,
Dragon Knight in Elder Dragon Form,
Ember Spirit (via item),
Phantom Assassin (via talent or item), etc.
Shadow Fiend
[wiki] rating: -1.6 (winrate: 48% pickrate: 18%)Sven
* Late game heroes are Sven's favourite kind of opponent, such as Anti-Mage,
Spectre and
Shadow Fiend.
Night Stalker
* Void can be used to cancel Requiem of Souls.
* Crippling Fear prevents Shadow Fiend from using Shadowraze or Requiem of Souls.
* With Dark Ascension and
Gem of True Sight, Night Stalker can find and kill Shadow Fiend easily. He is also a tanky hero that can fight Shadow Fiend at any stage of the game.
Storm Spirit
[wiki] rating: -1.6 (winrate: 49% pickrate: 6%)Sven
* 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.
Night Stalker
* 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.
Lina
[wiki] rating: -1.6 (winrate: 50% pickrate: 16%)Sven
* 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.
Night Stalker
* Heroes with low mobility that rely on spells: Zeus,
Lina,
Crystal Maiden.
Slark
[wiki] rating: -1.6 (winrate: 51% pickrate: 17%)Sven
* Heroes who cannot prevent Sven from killing supports will always be at a disadvantage in fights such as Lina,
Slark and
Zeus.
Night Stalker
* With Dark Ascension he can keep vision on Slark, disabling his Shadow Dance regeneration.
* Night Stalker is very fast so without the Pounce in lane, he can simply out distance him during the night.
* Slark is matched in night vision by only a few heroes, Night Stalker happens to be one of them.
Anti-Mage
[wiki] rating: -1.6 (winrate: 53% pickrate: 11%)Sven
* 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.
Night Stalker
* Crippling Fear makes Night Stalker one of the best early game gankers to shut down Anti-Mage.
* Night Stalker's low mana pool causes him to take little damage from Mana Void.
Crystal Maiden
[wiki] rating: -1.2 (winrate: 49% pickrate: 13%)Sven
* Fragile supports who die in a few hits against Sven's high physical damage: Crystal Maiden,
Vengeful Spirit,
Dark Willow.
Night Stalker
* Heroes with low mobility that rely on spells: Zeus,
Lina,
Crystal Maiden.
Pudge
[wiki] rating: -1.2 (winrate: 49% pickrate: 29%)Sven
* 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.
Night Stalker
* Heroes that have a weak laning stage: Spectre,
Nyx Assassin,
Clockwerk,
Spirit Breaker,
Omniknight,
Pudge.
Additional:
* Void's mini-stun and silence from
Crippling Fear will stop Pudge from using Dismember or turning off his Rot.
* Night Stalker has naturally high health, strength gain and common itemization for survivability through magic resistance, making Night Stalker a poor target for Pudge.
Zeus
[wiki] rating: -1.2 (winrate: 49% pickrate: 14%)Sven
* Heroes who cannot prevent Sven from killing supports will always be at a disadvantage in fights such as Lina,
Slark and
Zeus.
Night Stalker
* Heroes with low mobility that rely on spells: Zeus,
Lina,
Crystal Maiden.
Spectre
[wiki] rating: -1.2 (winrate: 51% pickrate: 11%)Sven
* Late game heroes are Sven's favourite kind of opponent, such as Anti-Mage,
Spectre and
Shadow Fiend.
Night Stalker
* Heroes that have a weak laning stage: Spectre,
Nyx Assassin,
Clockwerk,
Spirit Breaker,
Omniknight,
Pudge.
Queen of Pain
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 46% pickrate: 6%)Night Stalker
* Night Stalker has a huge, almost instant silence through Crippling Fear. The main problem is that he can get it off while Queen of Pain barely has any vision of him if he creeps up to her during
Dark Ascension. She'll have to play very carefully before she gets a
Black King Bar or a
Eul's Scepter of Divinity.
Doom
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 47% pickrate: 8%)Sven
* Doom generally does not impede Sven in any way, provided he has activated God's Strength beforehand.
Rubick
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 47% pickrate: 25%)Night Stalker
* Crippling Fear silences nearby heroes and cannot be dispelled, which hinders Rubick's way to retaliate when being jumped on.
* With Hunter in the Night and
Dark Ascension,
Night Stalker can find Rubick easily in teamfights. The two spells grants more than enough damage to hunt Rubick down without defensive items.
Faceless Void
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 48% pickrate: 9%)Night Stalker
* Crippling Fear can silence Faceless Void for a long time, preventing him from using his Time Walk and Chronosphere.
Tiny
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 48% pickrate: 13%)Sven
* 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.
Techies
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 48% pickrate: 10%)Night Stalker
* Dark Ascension also allows Night Stalker to fly over Proximity Mines without triggering them.
* Crippling Fear is effective in stopping Techies from using Blast Off and
Void is effective in stopping them from running to the safety of their mines.
Primal Beast
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 49% pickrate: 9%)Sven
* Storm Hammer is a good stun used in response to Primal Beast's initiation.
* Warcry can be used to outrun Primal Beast, or in response to his Uproar damage boost.
* God's Strength will make sure work of Primal Beast if caught alone due to it's increased damage.
Elder Titan
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 50% pickrate: 1%)Sven
* Storm Hammer interrupts Echo Stomp.
Warlock
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 51% pickrate: 4%)Sven
* 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.
Magnus
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 51% pickrate: 15%)Sven
* Sven is very vulnerable to chain stun such as Lion,
Shadow Shaman or
Magnus.
Sven
* 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.
Night Stalker
* Dark Ascension reduces vision for the enemy team, which makes it more difficult for Magnus to initiate with Blink Dagger and Reverse Polarity. It is also more likely that Night Stalker will scout out Magnus with
Aghanim's Scepter and a
Gem of True Sight, after which he can silence Magnus with
Crippling Fear.
Legion Commander
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 51% pickrate: 13%)Sven
* 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.
Chen
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 51% pickrate: 0%)Sven
* 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.
Clinkz
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 52% pickrate: 7%)Night Stalker
* The long silence at night prevents Clinkz from escaping with invisibility if Night Stalker can sneak up on him. He also has really low base health, so Night Stalker can usually kill him alone during one cast of Crippling Fear at night.
Mirana
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 53% pickrate: 15%)Night Stalker
* The long silence of Crippling Fear at night prevents Mirana from escaping with Moonlight Shadow and Leap. She also has really low base health, so Night Stalker can usually kill her during one cast of
Crippling Fear at night.
* With Dark Ascension and
Gem of True Sight, Night Stalker can find and kill Mirana, and he is a tanky hero capable of fighting Mirana any stage of the game.
Tinker
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 56% pickrate: 11%)Night Stalker
* Night Stalker is one of the best heroes to find (and silence) Tinker in the trees during Dark Ascension.
Additional:
* Night Stalker can easily find Tinker in the trees during Dark Ascension.
* Void's mini-stun will stop Rearm and
Boots of Travel.
* Crippling Fear's silence will prevent Tinker from fighting back, as Tinker relies on his spells.
Phantom Assassin
[wiki] rating: -0.6 (winrate: 46% pickrate: 10%)Sven
* 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.
Alchemist
[wiki] rating: -0.6 (winrate: 47% pickrate: 3%)Sven
* Heroes who struggle to fight back against Sven at any point in the game are at a severe disadvantage: Alchemist,
Anti-Mage,
Crystal Maiden.
Void Spirit
[wiki] rating: -0.6 (winrate: 48% pickrate: 5%)Sven
* Side lanes with disables will greatly reduce the likeliness Void Spirit will be willing to rotate: Sven,
Tiny,
Wraith King,
Ogre Magi.
Spirit Breaker
[wiki] rating: -0.6 (winrate: 48% pickrate: 9%)Night Stalker
* Heroes that have a weak laning stage: Spectre,
Nyx Assassin,
Clockwerk,
Spirit Breaker,
Omniknight,
Pudge.
Tusk
[wiki] rating: -0.6 (winrate: 49% pickrate: 15%)Night Stalker
* Durable heroes can stand against Tusk during 1v1: Axe,
Dragon Knight,
Night Stalker,
Centaur Warrunner,
Wraith King and more.
Luna
[wiki] rating: -0.6 (winrate: 49% pickrate: 2%)Sven
* A couple of nukers and disablers on the same lane can finish a squishy Luna efficiently despite a teammate's assistance: Sven +
Shadow Shaman.
Skywrath Mage
[wiki] rating: -0.6 (winrate: 50% pickrate: 10%)Night Stalker
* Heroes with silence such as Riki,
Silencer, or
Night Stalker prevents Skywrath Mage from using his spells.
Nyx Assassin
[wiki] rating: -0.6 (winrate: 50% pickrate: 4%)Night Stalker
* Heroes that have a weak laning stage: Spectre,
Nyx Assassin,
Clockwerk,
Spirit Breaker,
Omniknight,
Pudge.
Ancient Apparition
[wiki] rating: -0.6 (winrate: 50% pickrate: 5%)Night Stalker
* 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.
Abaddon
[wiki] rating: -0.6 (winrate: 50% pickrate: 6%)Night Stalker
* Heroes that have long silences, such as Night Stalker and
Silencer, will prevent Abaddon from saving his allies effectively and disable the active component of Borrowed Time.
Lich
[wiki] rating: -0.6 (winrate: 51% pickrate: 9%)Night Stalker
* Heroes with low health: Lich,
Crystal Maiden,
Lion.
Drow Ranger
[wiki] rating: -0.6 (winrate: 51% pickrate: 18%)Night Stalker
* Heroes with weaker mobility will struggle to keep up with Night Stalker: Gyrocopter,
Ursa,
Drow Ranger
Earthshaker
[wiki] rating: -0.6 (winrate: 51% pickrate: 10%)Night Stalker
* Careful not to blink into Riki's
Smoke Screen or
Night Stalker's
Crippling Fear, as these field effects will instantly silence Earthshaker and prevent him from initiating.
Additional:
* Fissure has a short stun and creates an impassable ridge. However, Night Stalker can fly over it during Dark Ascension.
* Night Stalker can find Earthshaker, disable his Blink Dagger with Void, and then take him out with Crippling Fear.
* Earthshaker may fail his blink combo against Night Stalker's team if he is not careful, as he can blink into the silence.
Dark Willow
[wiki] rating: -0.6 (winrate: 51% pickrate: 4%)Sven
* Heroes with high burst damage and Black King Bar can take down Dark Willow quickly:
Phantom Assassin,
Sven,
Wraith King
Dark Seer
[wiki] rating: -0.6 (winrate: 52% pickrate: 2%)Sven
* 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.
Arc Warden
[wiki] rating: -0.6 (winrate: 53% pickrate: 5%)Sven
* 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.
Omniknight
[wiki] rating: -0.6 (winrate: 55% pickrate: 3%)Sven
* 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 negate's Sven's massive damage during God's Strength.
* It should also be noted Sven can remove Omniknights active spells with Aghanim's Scepter.
Sven
* Although Sven relies often on physical damage, an Aghanim's Shard upgraded
Storm Hammer can dispel Guardian Angel with its wide radius.
Night Stalker
* Heroes that have a weak laning stage: Spectre,
Nyx Assassin,
Clockwerk,
Spirit Breaker,
Omniknight,
Pudge.
Sniper
[wiki] rating: -0.4 (winrate: 44% pickrate: 11%)Sven
* 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.
Sven
* Past the early game, Sniper is an easy target for Sven to jump on with Aghanim's Scepter.
* 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.
Terrorblade
[wiki] rating: -0.4 (winrate: 45% pickrate: 2%)Night Stalker
* Heroes with illusions and summons can manfight Night Stalker: Terrorblade,
Beastmaster,
Broodmother.
Sven
* 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.
Chaos Knight
[wiki] rating: -0.4 (winrate: 47% pickrate: 3%)Night Stalker
* Phantasm gives Chaos Knight a significant advantage against single-target damage dealers: Lifestealer,
Wraith King,
Night Stalker,
Troll Warlord.
Additional:
* Chaos Bolt can stun Night Stalker outside of Crippling Fears relatively small radius.
* Reality Rift is a great way to force Night Stalker to fight Chaos Knight, a hero with massive health and damage output. It also forces Night Stalker's Crippling Fear off his primary target.
* Night Stalker doesn't have a lot of ways to deal with multiple targets, which makes him vulnerable to Phantasm illusions unless Night Stalker buys
Aghanim's Scepter.
Sven
* 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.
Pangolier
[wiki] rating: -0.4 (winrate: 48% pickrate: 9%)Sven
* Heroes who rely on skills to become a heavy hitter in a certain amount of time can waste their timing because of a lucky Lucky Shot's disarm: Terrorblade,
Sven,
Clinkz,
Windranger,
Alchemist,
Dragon Knight,
Legion Commander
Sven
* 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.
Invoker
[wiki] rating: -0.4 (winrate: 48% pickrate: 14%)Sven
* Heroes with naturally low mana can be easily shut down by EMP: Sven,
Tiny,
Wraith King,
Omniknight
Night Stalker
* Crippling Fear is a good way to shut down and gank Invoker in the early game..
* Void deals good damage to Invoker and makes escaping harder.
* With Hunter in the Night and
Void, Invoker can't get away from Night Stalker and won't be able to catch him with Sun Strike during the night.
Puck
[wiki] rating: -0.4 (winrate: 48% pickrate: 9%)Sven
* 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.
Night Stalker
* Puck cannot use any of its normal means to survive should Night Stalker catch it within Crippling Fear, and goes down quickly.
Additional:
* Void is a potent nuke that is devastating to Puck's low health pool.
* Crippling Fear silence can prevent Puck from casting spells, leaving it vulnerable.
Windranger
[wiki] rating: -0.4 (winrate: 49% pickrate: 10%)Sven
* Other heroes that rely on physical attacks to deal damage and not their abilities: Troll Warlord,
Sniper,
Monkey King,
Sven.
Sven
* Sven with Aghanim's Scepter can easily chase down Windranger and dispel her Windrun at the same time.
Keeper of the Light
[wiki] rating: -0.4 (winrate: 49% pickrate: 3%)Sven
* Melee carries during the laning phase: Sven,
Slark
Night Stalker
* Crippling Fear prevents Keeper of the Light from using his spells to keep his team alive during team-fights.
* Dark Ascension is very strong against Keeper of the Light, as it allows Night Stalker to jump the backline and quickly kill the squishy Ezalor, especially when combined with the slow from
Void.
Additional:
* Keeper of the Light's Aghanim's Scepter upgrade loses much of its power, due to Night Stalker being able to reduce the duration of daytime by a lot.
Phoenix
[wiki] rating: -0.4 (winrate: 50% pickrate: 5%)Night Stalker
* Phoenix turns night to day, overriding Dark Ascension during
Supernova.
Night Stalker
* Void can interrupt
Icarus Dive.
* His Crippling Fear's silence will shutdown a spell caster Phoenix.
* However, Phoenix punishes Night Stalker with Supernova because it will turn night into day, and it has a higher priority than
Dark Ascension, effectively canceling the passive bonuses Night Stalker gets from
Hunter in the Night.
Broodmother
[wiki] rating: -0.4 (winrate: 54% pickrate: 3%)Night Stalker
* Heroes with illusions and summons can manfight Night Stalker: Terrorblade,
Beastmaster,
Broodmother.
Sven
* 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.
Death Prophet
[wiki] rating: -0.4 (winrate: 55% pickrate: 11%)Night Stalker
* Heroes that can punish aggressive heroes, such as: Leshrac,
Shadow Demon,
Pugna,
Death Prophet.
Sven
* 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.
Meepo
[wiki] rating: -0.4 (winrate: 56% pickrate: 1%)Night Stalker
* Night Stalker's most skills are single targeted which allows other Meepos to Poof, Earthbind and kill him.
Sven
* 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.
Lion
[wiki] rating: 0.0 (winrate: 45% pickrate: 10%)Sven
* Sven is very vulnerable to chain stun such as Lion,
Shadow Shaman or
Magnus.
Night Stalker
* Heroes with low health: Lich,
Crystal Maiden,
Lion.
Nature's Prophet
[wiki] rating: 0.0 (winrate: 46% pickrate: 12%)Sven
* Sprout is good for trapping melee carries with no escape abilities: Sven,
Alchemist,
Lifestealer etc.
Sven
* Heroes with cleave damage: Sven,
Magnus,
Kunkka.
Axe
[wiki] rating: 0.0 (winrate: 49% pickrate: 9%)Sven
* 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.
Night Stalker
* Crippling Fear makes it so Axe might use
Blink Dagger right into an AoE silence in the middle of everyone.
* Void cripples Axe's already bad movement speed and attack speed.
* Hunter in the Night makes it impossible for Axe to catch up to a fleeing or escape from Night Stalker during the night.
* Lastly, Dark Ascension gives full vision over Axe before he initiates, making the opponents all recognise his location immediately and allowing Night Stalker to prevent it or vocally tell his team if needed.
* Night Stalker has very high strength gain, even in lane, so a successful Culling Blade is very unlikely.
* Axe's Blade Mail will likely do nothing to Night Stalker because of his high health and certain requirements for him to do the most damage to be true.
Clockwerk
[wiki] rating: 0.0 (winrate: 49% pickrate: 8%)Sven
* Heroes who can stun Sven even with an activated Black King Bar can be an issue:
Clockwerk,
Beastmaster.
Night Stalker
* Heroes that have a weak laning stage: Spectre,
Nyx Assassin,
Clockwerk,
Spirit Breaker,
Omniknight,
Pudge.
Vengeful Spirit
[wiki] rating: 0.0 (winrate: 49% pickrate: 5%)Sven
* 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.
Sven
* Fragile supports who die in a few hits against Sven's high physical damage: Crystal Maiden,
Vengeful Spirit,
Dark Willow.
Juggernaut
[wiki] rating: 0.0 (winrate: 50% pickrate: 11%)Night Stalker
* Heroes with stronger lane presence that can threaten to kill him: Batrider,
Juggernaut,
Ursa,
Monkey King,
Razor.
Sven
* 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.
Phantom Lancer
[wiki] rating: 0.0 (winrate: 50% pickrate: 2%)Night Stalker
* Void's slow is dispelled by Doppelganger or counteracted by
Phantom Rush.
* Spirit Lance's and
Diffusal Blade's slow reduces Night Stalker's mobility and helps him or his ally escape if they're inflicted by Void or Crippling Fear.
* Night Stalker has no AoE abilites to take out Phantom Lancer's illusions. Even if Night Stalker gets an Aghanim's Scepter, there will be way too many illusions for Night Stalker to handle.
Sven
* 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.
Weaver
[wiki] rating: 0.0 (winrate: 50% pickrate: 3%)Sven
* 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.
Night Stalker
* The long silence of Crippling Fear at night prevents Weaver from using his Shukuchi or Time Lapse.
* With Dark Ascension and
Gem of True Sight, Night Stalker can easily find and probably kill Weaver.
* Hunter In the Night's attack speed bonus removes The Swarm's beetles very quickly.
Gyrocopter
[wiki] rating: 0.0 (winrate: 50% pickrate: 7%)Sven
* 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.
Night Stalker
* Heroes with weaker mobility will struggle to keep up with Night Stalker: Gyrocopter,
Ursa,
Drow Ranger
Outworld Destroyer
[wiki] rating: 0.0 (winrate: 51% pickrate: 10%)Sven
* 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.
Night Stalker
* Any heroes with silences can negate the majority of Outworld Destroyer's damage output: Death Prophet,
Night Stalker,
Drow Ranger,
Doom .
Underlord
[wiki] rating: 0.0 (winrate: 51% pickrate: 3%)Sven
* 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 Dark Rift 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.
Sven
* 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.
Bounty Hunter
[wiki] rating: 0.0 (winrate: 51% pickrate: 7%)Sven
* Heroes that can prevent Sven from farming are very strong against him. Such as Riki and
Bounty Hunter with their respective invisibility.
Night Stalker
* Night Stalker's
Crippling Fear at night prevents Shadow Walk for an extended period of time and his
Void will make Phase Boots useless. If Night Stalker has True Sight, he can shutdown Bounty Hunter's sneak kill.
Oracle
[wiki] rating: 0.0 (winrate: 51% pickrate: 4%)Sven
* 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.
Night Stalker
* Heroes with long disables, like Lion,
Night Stalker, or
Legion Commander, can prevent Oracle from using spells or items.
Ursa
[wiki] rating: 0.0 (winrate: 52% pickrate: 15%)Night Stalker
* Heroes with stronger lane presence that can threaten to kill him: Batrider,
Juggernaut,
Ursa,
Monkey King,
Razor.
Night Stalker
* Heroes with weaker mobility will struggle to keep up with Night Stalker: Gyrocopter,
Ursa,
Drow Ranger
Riki
[wiki] rating: 0.0 (winrate: 54% pickrate: 13%)Sven
* 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.
Night Stalker
* With Dark Ascension and Gem of True Sight, Night Stalker can easily find and kill Riki. Riki will also find it harder to kill the tanky Night Stalker than he would many other heroes.
Lycan
[wiki] rating: 0.0 (winrate: 57% pickrate: 3%)Night Stalker
* 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.
Sven
* 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.
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.
About
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.
How to interpret this data
Take it with a bit of grain of salt, especially if the recommendation has a low rating (<= 1), some heroes
may win a lane in an early game but would lose in late game (and vice versa). That's why sometimes
you could hero names appearing as a counter and as being countered, as on image:
You can also add your own tips, update old data and fix mistakes by editing page on Dota 2 Wiki (it works like Wikipedia - anyone can contribute, you don't even need to register) these edits will appear on this website automatically (data is updated several times per week).
Right now there is no app/overlay that will detect picks automatically (like overwolf dota plus or become the gamer), instead, you can open web version in a steam in-game browser or use mobile version on your smartphone.
Want to know more? Check FAQ
List of new features that have been added
- Results now also sorted both by rating and average hero win rate for the chosen rank (data from dotabuff)
- You can share counterpick suggestions just by copying URL. Try it: Pudge and Phantom Assassin counters
- Results from the left and right column are partially merged now: the green color shows counterpicks and red color heroes who are countered by an enemy pick.
- Added link next to each hero pointing to wiki hero page
- Counterpick suggestions will appear as you type
- Added statistics: Total entries in the database: 557, last updated: about 1 month ago
- Filtering by role: carry/durable/support - data taken directly from the game (basically the filters which you see on pick stage in dota)
- Filtering by lane: off lane/safe lane/mid lane (lane data is parsed from hero guides dotabuff)
- Tips now include icons next to the heroes/spells/item names (just like on Dota 2 wiki)
- Added item suggestions
- Heroes now can be searched by their abbreviations: CM - Crystal Maiden, Kotl - Keeper Of The Light, AM - Anti Mage etc.
- Mobile website version
- Improved UX on small screens - when selecting heroes page automatically scrolls so hero select input is displayed at the very top of screen, leaving more space for results.
- importing picks from dotabuff/opendota URL or matchid
- sorting by personal win rate after logging via steam
- dota overlay(like Overwolf Dota Plus) that will automatically detect picks and bans this will also bring synergy and ban suggestion based on opponent recent games and most played/highest win rate heroes (but don't expect it soon).
Sharing link to this site is always appreciated.
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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.
God's Strength is much less effective as a result.
Great Cleave.
*
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
* Beware that Sven can farm much faster than Troll Warlord by stacking ancients and clearing them with
Night Stalker
*
Whirling Axes (Melee) provides a 60% miss chance, which can make the attack speed bonus from Hunter in the Night largely ineffective.
Berserker's Rage together with
Battle Trance and
Fervor stacks gives him a high chance of rooting Night Stalker, which allows Troll Warlord to man-fight Night Stalker in any stage of the game, regardless of whether or not it's night.
Monkey King Bar carrier to counteract this problem.
*
* Night Stalker is not a common