Visage
[wiki] rating: 1.6 (winrate: 55% pickrate: 2%)Centaur Warrunner
[wiki] rating: 1.6 (winrate: 51% pickrate: 7%)Sven
* Heroes who thrive on teamfights can be a problem such as Venomancer,
Necrophos,
Centaur Warrunner...
Nyx Assassin
* Centaur's low Intelligence makes Mana Burn 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.
Bounty Hunter
[wiki] rating: 1.6 (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.
Nyx Assassin
* Nyx Assassin wants to start ganking as soon as he gets his Vendetta. Keeping him Tracked prevents him from ganking, and thus from doing his job in the game.
* Nyx Assassin has a lot of armor and health regen, making the nuke damage from Shuriken Toss very good against him.
Additional:
* Track hinders Nyx Assassin's ganking attempts with Vendetta, making him an easy kill for gold as well.
Viper
[wiki] rating: 1.6 (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.
Nyx Assassin
* Corrosive Skin minimizes the damage from
Impale and
Mana Burn.
* Nyx Assassin cannot survive several poison damage-over-time, even Spiked Carapace is activated.
Dragon Knight
[wiki] rating: 1.6 (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
Nyx Assassin
* Dragon Knight's heavy armor negates Vendetta's burst physical damage. His large HP pool also gives him a good chance of surviving Nyx Assassin's follow-up nuke damage.
Venomancer
[wiki] rating: 1.2 (winrate: 50% pickrate: 4%)Sven
* Heroes who thrive on teamfights can be a problem such as Venomancer,
Necrophos,
Centaur Warrunner...
Nyx Assassin
* Heroes who rely on damage over time as Spiked Carapace can block and reflect only one instance of damage: Venomancer,
Huskar,
Ember Spirit,
Dark Seer,
Sand King,
Doom,
Dawnbreaker.
Riki
[wiki] rating: 1.0 (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.
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.
Brewmaster
[wiki] rating: 1.0 (winrate: 52% pickrate: 1%)Nyx Assassin
* Cyclone from Storm in
Primal Split can waste Nyx's Spiked Carapace, since its duration is shorter than the Cyclone's.
Beastmaster
[wiki] rating: 1.0 (winrate: 51% pickrate: 2%)Sven
* Primal Roar takes Sven out of the fight completely, even with Black King Bar.
Slardar
[wiki] rating: 1.0 (winrate: 50% pickrate: 4%)Nyx Assassin
* 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.
Troll Warlord
[wiki] rating: 1.0 (winrate: 50% pickrate: 2%)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.
Axe
[wiki] rating: 1.0 (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.
Lifestealer
[wiki] rating: 1.0 (winrate: 49% pickrate: 5%)Nyx Assassin
* Like with Juggernaut's Blade Fury,
Rage allows Lifestealer to freely attack Nyx Assassin and hunt him down if Vendetta is on cooldown. Nyx Assassin cannot counter {{A:Rage|Lifestealer} with Spiked Carapace because {{A:Rage|Lifestealer} gives Juggernaut spell immunity. And besides Vendetta, Nyx Assassin has no other way of dealing damage to Lifestealer while he is spell immune.
* Open Wounds from
Aghanim's Shard allows Lifestealer to severely slow down Nyx Assassin while also allowing his team to recover themselves while attacking Nyx Assassin.
Open Wounds can also fester and spread if Nyx Assassin takes enough damage that will trigger the spread while he is affected with
Open Wounds.
* Infest combined with an ancient creep makes Nyx Assassin an easy target to surprise with
Dust of Appearance or a
Gem of True Sight. And similarly to Juggernaut's
Omnislash and
Swiftslash,
Aghanim's Scepter upgraded
Infest can also allow Lifestealer to infest and freely attack Nyx Assassin from within. and Nyx Assassin cannot counter this with Spiked Carapace because Lifestealer is invulnerable while attacking the infested enemy hero from within.
* Like with Juggernaut, any attempt for Nyx Assassin to gank and kill Lifestealer will hurt Nyx Assassin more than Čofesteačer.
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.
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.
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.
Nyx Assassin
* Heroes who rely on damage over time as Spiked Carapace can block and reflect only one instance of damage: Venomancer,
Huskar,
Ember Spirit,
Dark Seer,
Sand King,
Doom,
Dawnbreaker.
Nyx Assassin
* Nyx Assassin can reflect Life Break with
Spiked Carapace.
Razor
[wiki] rating: 0.6 (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.
Oracle
[wiki] rating: 0.6 (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.
Underlord
[wiki] rating: 0.6 (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.
Nyx Assassin
* 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.
Gyrocopter
[wiki] rating: 0.6 (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.
Sand King
[wiki] rating: 0.6 (winrate: 50% pickrate: 6%)Nyx Assassin
* Heroes who rely on damage over time as Spiked Carapace can block and reflect only one instance of damage: Venomancer,
Huskar,
Ember Spirit,
Dark Seer,
Sand King,
Doom,
Dawnbreaker.
Clockwerk
[wiki] rating: 0.6 (winrate: 49% pickrate: 8%)Sven
* Heroes who can stun Sven even with an activated Black King Bar can be an issue:
Clockwerk,
Beastmaster.
Bloodseeker
[wiki] rating: 0.6 (winrate: 49% pickrate: 3%)Nyx Assassin
* Heroes with invisibility will be detected by Thirst when they have low enough health: Bounty Hunter,
Templar Assassin,
Riki,
Clinkz,
Weaver,
Treant Protector,
Nyx Assassin.
Additional:
* While Burrowing, Nyx is an easy target for a Blood Rite, although he can at least partially counter it with a well-timed Spiked Carapace.
* Thirst is always a threat to Nyx Assassin, hindering his attempt of escape using Vendetta.
* Rupture also prevents Nyx Assassin from escaping with Vendetta, as it forces him to stay still.
Techies
[wiki] rating: 0.6 (winrate: 48% pickrate: 10%)Nyx Assassin
* Some abilities deals damage from an independent source and not from the hero itself, so Nyx cannot counter them with Spiked Carapace: illusions or summoning units, Homing Missile,
Nimbus,
Mass Serpent Ward and especially
Techies's mines.
Faceless Void
[wiki] rating: 0.6 (winrate: 48% pickrate: 9%)Nyx Assassin
* Heroes who rely on invisibility, such as Bounty Hunter,
Clinkz,
Mirana,
Nyx Assassin and
Riki, as they will be revealed if caught by Chronosphere.
Shadow Demon
[wiki] rating: 0.6 (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.
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.
Abaddon
[wiki] rating: 0.4 (winrate: 50% pickrate: 6%)Nyx Assassin
* Impale and
Spiked Carapace stun can be instantly dispelled by Aphotic Shield.
* Abaddon can use Borrowed Time and easily heal for the duration of Borrowed Time by Nyx's burst damage.
Nyx Assassin
* Nyx Assassin might not kill Abaddon with his nuke, but a support Abaddon will struggle to protect an ally from him.
Juggernaut
[wiki] rating: 0.4 (winrate: 50% pickrate: 11%)Nyx Assassin
* Blade Fury makes Juggernaut immune to all Nyx's abilities, except
Vendetta.
* Omnislash. and
Swiftslash can burst Nyx down, ignoring
Spiked Carapace. However,
Vendetta can be used to escape, canceling
Omnislash/
Swiftslash.
Additional:
* Juggernaut's entire skillset greatly counters Nyx Assassin's Spiked Carapace, his most important ability.
* Blade Fury allows Juggernaut to freely attack Nyx Assassin, and deal heavy damage to Nyx Assassin. Nyx Assassin cannot counter
Blade Fury with Spiked Carapace because
Blade Fury gives Juggernaut spell immunity. And besides Vendetta, Nyx Assassin has no other way of dealing damage to Juggernaut while he is spell immune.
* Healing Ward allows Juggernaut to recover himself and his allies from Nyx Assassin's damage output.
* Omnislash and
Swiftslash can quickly finish off Nyx Assassin, and just like
Blade Fury, Nyx Assassin cannot counter neither
Omnislash and
Swiftslash with Spiked Carapace because both abilities render Juggernaut invulnerable. And if Nyx Assassin has no Vendetta available to use for escaping, both abilities will kill him very quickly before he can do anything.
* Overall, any attempt for Nyx Assassin to gank and kill Juggernaut will hurt Nyx Assassin more than Juggernaut.
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.
Lion
[wiki] rating: 0.2 (winrate: 45% pickrate: 10%)Sven
* Sven is very vulnerable to chain stun such as Lion,
Shadow Shaman or
Magnus.
Nyx Assassin
* Mana Drain is very effective against heroes that have mana burn abilities such as Anti-Mage,
Nyx Assassin and
Keeper of the Light.
Nyx Assassin
* Vendetta allows Nyx to sneak up on Lion and deal massive damage to him, especially when followed up with an
Impale,
Mana Burn, or even
Dagon.
* Spiked Carapace has the potential to not only nullify Lion's damage, but also cripple and potentially deal massive damage to Lion, especially if he reflects Finger of Death.
Terrorblade
[wiki] rating: -2.0 (winrate: 45% pickrate: 2%)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.
Nyx Assassin
* Nyx Assassin deals large amounts of pure damage with Vendetta and magical damage with
Impale and
Mana Burn, allowing him to ignore Terrorblade's armor and burst his low health pool down before he can use
Sunder.
* Nyx Assassin commonly buys Urn of Shadows,
Dagon and
Meteor Hammer which deal magic damage that ignore Terrorblade's armor.
* Mana Burn might drain too much mana for Terrorblade to be able to use Sunder if he isn't careful in the early to mid game.
Lina
[wiki] rating: -2.0 (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.
Nyx Assassin
* Mana Burn does tons of damage against Lina because of her high intelligence. The mana burn also prevents Lina from casting her full combo.
* Spiked Carapace can easily be used to counter Lina's abilities because of their long cast animation, and could probably kill Lina outright if Laguna Blade is reflected.
Warlock
[wiki] rating: -2.0 (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.
Nyx Assassin
* Impale and
Spiked Carapace interrupts Upheaval with ease.
* Warlock's low health pool, mobility, and high intelligence gain makes him a prime target for Nyx Assassin's burst damage.
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.
Nyx Assassin
* Mana Burn removes much-needed mana for Ball Lightning.
* Spiked Carapace triggers on Static Remnant for an easy stun.
Additional:
* Mana Burn 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.
Crystal Maiden
[wiki] rating: -1.6 (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.
Nyx Assassin
* Crystal Maiden has a very bad movement speed, so Impale is easy to land against her. Furthermore, even while trapped by Frostbite, Nyx Assassin can still cast Impale.
* Crystal Maiden has very low armor, so Vendetta is very effective.
* Nyx Assassin has two ways to stop Freezing Field, provided she doesn't get a Black King Bar. He can either pop
Spiked Carapace and simply walk into the field, or he can use
Impale to interrupt the field, since Crystal Maiden has to channel it.
Additional:
* Spiked Carapace easily interrupts Freezing Field.
* Frostbite's damage over time sets up an easy Spiked Carapace stun.
* Crystal Maiden is extremely fragile and dies quickly to Nyx Assassin's burst damage.
Pudge
[wiki] rating: -1.6 (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.
Nyx Assassin
* Mana Burn drains Pudge's little mana which may render Meat Hook and Dismember unusable.
* Impale and
Spiked Carapace can be used to cancel Dismember easily, and can even do so when Pudge uses it on Nyx Assassin, if timed correctly.
Primal Beast
[wiki] rating: -1.6 (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.
Nyx Assassin
* Like above, supports with reliable stuns can be a massive problem and force Black King Bar in fights unideally, such as
Shadow Shaman,
Lion,
Nyx Assassin.
Dark Willow
[wiki] rating: -1.6 (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
Nyx Assassin
* Nyx Assassin's high burst damage can be the bane of Dark Willow, as her low health makes it difficult to survive long enough to escape through Shadow Realm.
* Spiked Carapace can be triggered by walking deliberately into Bramble Maze, leaving Dark Willow stunned and defenseless.
Chen
[wiki] rating: -1.6 (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.
Nyx Assassin
* Heroes with damage burst can often kill Chen or his allies before he can use Hand of God: Lina,
Luna,
Techies,
Shadow Fiend,
Pugna,
Nyx Assassin.
Sniper
[wiki] rating: -1.4 (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.
Nyx Assassin
* Assassinate is easy to reflect with Spiked Carapace for massive damage.
* Shrapnel's area damage can set up an easy stun with Spiked Carapace, especially when combined with Vendetta.
* In the early game, Sniper's low health pool and high intelligence makes him easy prey for Nyx Assassin.
Windranger
[wiki] rating: -1.4 (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.
Nyx Assassin
* Many of Nyx Assassin's abilities are good against Windranger.
* Impale is great for stunning Windranger and allowing additional disables to be landed.
* Mana Burn is useful against Windranger's decent intelligence growth and also burns some mana, preventing her from using more abilities.
* Spiked Carapace is easy to use against Powershot.
* Vendetta allows Nyx Assassin to sneak up on and deal massive damage to Windranger without giving Windranger a chance to use Windrun to evade it.
* Nyx Assassin's item build allows him to easily deal with Windranger.
Phantom Assassin
[wiki] rating: -1.2 (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.
Nyx Assassin
* Heroes with heavy early and mid-game magical damage are also problematic for Phantom Assassin due to being able to easily kill her before she gains an item advantage: Lina,
Necrophos,
Nyx Assassin,
Gyrocopter. Should be noted these heroes are usually quite squishy and don't scale well with health. So to some respect, they are on a time crunch.
Shadow Fiend
[wiki] rating: -1.2 (winrate: 48% pickrate: 18%)Sven
* Late game heroes are Sven's favourite kind of opponent, such as Anti-Mage,
Spectre and
Shadow Fiend.
Nyx Assassin
* Large area-of-effect with delay or require channeling: Enigma,
Crystal Maiden,
Invoker,
Shadow Fiend,
Pugna,
Keeper of the Light,
Dawnbreaker.
Queen of Pain
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 46% pickrate: 6%)Nyx Assassin
* A good Nyx can reflect Queen of Pain's Sonic Wave with his Spiked Carapace, or even initiate a gank on her in
Vendetta while she farms a creep wave with Scream of Pain.
* Her strength to intelligence ratio is bad enough that he should be able to kill her without even requiring a Dagon, provided he can get his full combo off.
Chaos Knight
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 47% pickrate: 3%)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.
Hoodwink
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 47% pickrate: 13%)Nyx Assassin
* Nyx's Spiked Carapace can reflect the damage of
Sharpshooter, instantly killing hoodwink. Nyx can also use
Vendetta to position himself in such a way to screen allies from Sharpshooter and catch Hoodwink by surprise.
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.
Snapfire
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 48% pickrate: 15%)Nyx Assassin
* Spiked Carapace stops Snapfire's
Mortimer Kisses.
Tidehunter
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 49% pickrate: 5%)Nyx Assassin
* Mana Burn can instantly deplete Tidehunter's low mana pool, especially in the early game, potentially preventing Tidehunter from casting Ravage.
* Ravage's travel time allows Nyx Assassin to easily stun Tidehunter with Spiked Carapace.
Leshrac
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 49% pickrate: 4%)Nyx Assassin
* Nyx Assassin's Spiked Carapace will stun Leshrac when hit by any of his AOE abilities.
* Mana Burn deals high damage due to Leshrac's high intelligence gain and burns a large amount of Leshrac's essential mana pool.
Vengeful Spirit
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (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.
Nyx Assassin
* Vendetta disables Vengeance Aura and allows him to attack Vengeful Spirit with
Impale and
Mana Burn.
* Spiked Carapace is easy to use against a Wave of Terror or Magic Missile.
Elder Titan
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 50% pickrate: 1%)Sven
* Storm Hammer interrupts Echo Stomp.
Phoenix
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 50% pickrate: 5%)Nyx Assassin
* Spiked Carapace reacts on any of the damage over time from Phoenix's abilities and can interrupt Sun Ray and
Icarus Dive.
Drow Ranger
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 51% pickrate: 18%)Nyx Assassin
* Nyx Assassin has a lot of burst damage from his Impale,
Mana Burn,
Dagon, and the bonus damage from
Vendetta. All of this damage is enough to kill Drow Ranger.
* Nyx Assassin is usually invisible most of the time thanks to his ability Vendetta, which allows him to gank Drow Ranger easily.
Silencer
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 52% pickrate: 15%)Nyx Assassin
* Last Word is extremely easy to reflect with Spiked Carapace for large amounts damage, due to triggering when Nyx Assassin casts a spell, but can still silence Nyx Assassin. It also has the added bonus of dealing more damage the more Intelligence Silencer has.
* Glaives of Wisdom quickly builds Silencer's Intelligence, making him a particularly prime target for Mana Burn.
* Silencer rarely builds survivability items, nor is he able to steal much Intelligence while surrounded by his team, and so is an excellent target for Vendetta.
* Silencer has no reliable way of dealing with a burrowed Nyx, and also lacks the ability to prevent Nyx from escaping with Vendetta,
Additional:
* Silencer is rather squishy and has poor mobility without items, making him an easy target for Nyx.
* Silencer's intelligence steal ability is a complete disadvantage against Nyx Assassin as Mana Burn will deal increasing damage for each point of intelligence Silencer has stolen, turning Silencer's intelligence steal against him.
Death Prophet
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 55% pickrate: 11%)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: -1.0 (winrate: 56% pickrate: 1%)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.
Tinker
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 56% pickrate: 11%)Nyx Assassin
* Heat-Seeking Missile allow easy Spiked Carapace stuns.
* As a fragile hero that relies on mana and intelligence items, Tinker is vulnerable to Mana Burn.
* Nyx Assassin's stuns can interrupt Rearm and leave Tinker helpless.
Additional:
* Nyx Assassin's whole skillset is good against Tinker:
* Impale prevents Tinker from blinding Nyx Assassin or fighting back, while giving Nyx' allies time to catch up to Tinker's position.
* Mana Burn generally deals more damage to intelligence based heroes like Tinker.
* Spiked Carapace can stun Tinker at a moment of Nyx Assassin's choosing if March of the Machines has been cast. It is also quite easy to time Spiked Carapace against Heat Seeking Missiles.
* Vendetta allows Nyx to approach Tinker in the trees or wait for him in common hiding spots and deal heavy damage to his low armor.
Nature's Prophet
[wiki] rating: -0.6 (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.
Nyx Assassin
* Heroes with invisibility: (Riki,
Clinkz,
Nyx Assassin.
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.
Disruptor
[wiki] rating: -0.6 (winrate: 48% pickrate: 10%)Nyx Assassin
* Heroes that can pick you off: Clinkz,
Nyx Assassin,
Puck,
Riki.
Zeus
[wiki] rating: -0.6 (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.
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.
Enigma
[wiki] rating: -0.6 (winrate: 50% pickrate: 3%)Nyx Assassin
* Enigma is fragile, and lacks escapes, being dependent on Blink Dagger for mobility. Ganking Heroes or Heroes with burst damage will likely kill him before he can do anything. Such Heroes include:
Lina,
Lion,
Luna,
Puck,
Slark,
Nyx Assassin, etc.
Additional:
* Enigma's uncontrollable damage from Malefice and
Midnight Pulse make him easy to stun with Spiked Carapace.
* Black Hole can be easily interrupted by Impale or Spiked Carapace.
Skywrath Mage
[wiki] rating: -0.6 (winrate: 50% pickrate: 10%)Nyx Assassin
* Slow-moving projectiles: Skywrath Mage,
Tinker,
Necrophos
Additional:
* Skywrath Mage's low health makes him rather easy prey for Nyx Assassin and his lack of armor generally means he'll take the full brunt of a Vendetta strike.
* Mana Burn is annoying at all stages of the game as it turns Skywrath Mage's high intelligence growth against him.
* Spiked Carapace gives Nyx some degree of protection against Skywrath's spells.
Ancient Apparition
[wiki] rating: -0.6 (winrate: 50% pickrate: 5%)Nyx Assassin
* Heroes with silence and mana drain abilites, as Ancient Apparition relies entirely on his abilities: Invoker,
Silencer,
Nyx Assassin,
Skywrath Mage,
Shadow Shaman,
Lion and etc.
Slark
[wiki] rating: -0.6 (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.
Io
[wiki] rating: -0.6 (winrate: 51% pickrate: 4%)Nyx Assassin
* Heroes with either magical, physical or pure damage burst: Bane,
Ember Spirit,
Leshrac,
Lina,
Luna,
Nyx Assassin,
Phantom Assassin,
Skywrath Mage,
Tinker,
Ursa,
Void Spirit.
Spectre
[wiki] rating: -0.6 (winrate: 51% pickrate: 11%)Sven
* Late game heroes are Sven's favourite kind of opponent, such as Anti-Mage,
Spectre and
Shadow Fiend.
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.
Nyx Assassin
* Heroes who can drain mana can make Omniknight useless after he uses one or two abilities: Lion,
Anti-Mage,
Nyx Assassin.
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.
Batrider
[wiki] rating: -0.4 (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.
Nyx Assassin
* Nyx can walk into Firefly with Spiked Carapace and stun Batrider if he has no Spell Immunity, even if Batrider is focusing on other enemy hero.
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
Nyx Assassin
* Nyx Assassin takes advantage of Invoker's massive intelligence gain and mana pool to do tons of damage using Mana Burn, as the spell does more damage based on the target's intelligence.
* Nyx Assassin can simply activate Spiked Carapace while under many Invoker's abilities to stun him.
Ember Spirit
[wiki] rating: -0.4 (winrate: 48% pickrate: 11%)Nyx Assassin
* Heroes who rely on damage over time as Spiked Carapace can block and reflect only one instance of damage: Venomancer,
Huskar,
Ember Spirit,
Dark Seer,
Sand King,
Doom,
Dawnbreaker.
Nyx Assassin
* With Vendetta, Nyx Assassin can move closely to Ember Spirit when he's farming with his Flame Guard and use
Spiked Carapace with
Impale to provide a reliable and long disable.
* Mana Burn is also good, as Ember Spirit relies on his limited mana pool for the early to midgame.
Additional:
* Spiked Carapace can be easily triggered by Flame Guard or
Battle Fury, setting up a deadly Impale.
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.
Nyx Assassin
* Illusory Orb is easy to reflect with Spiked Carapace, either stunning Puck and setting up an easy Impale or forcing a premature
Phase Shift.
* Puck is an intelligence hero that tends to build intelligence items, making it vulnerable to Mana Burn.
* An ill-timed Phase Shift can easily set Puck up to be stunned by Impale.
* Puck's low base armor and below average agility gain mean it is always susceptible to Vendetta.
Additional:
* Nyx Assassin can take advantage of every one of Puck's weaknesses. His entire skill set is very effective in countering Puck.
* Because Illusory Orb is such a slow moving projectile, Nyx Assassin can simply walk into the orb and activate Spiked Carapace, stunning Puck and setting up an easy
Impale. This can be circumvented by using Phase Shift while the orb is traveling, however, that means that Puck cannot use Phase Shift to dodge any other skill nor use it to safely blink away from a fight.
* Puck is an intelligence hero that likes to build intelligence items such as Eul's Scepter of Divinity,
Scythe of Vyse, and
Dagon. This makes
Mana Burn that much more deadly against Puck.
* An ill-timed Phase Shift can turn into an easy setup for Impale.
Keeper of the Light
[wiki] rating: -0.4 (winrate: 49% pickrate: 3%)Sven
* Melee carries during the laning phase: Sven,
Slark
Nyx Assassin
* Spiked Carapace can be used to reflect Illuminate damage and stun Keeper of the Light.
* Vendetta allows Nyx Assassin to follow Keeper of the Light around if he tries to split-push.
* Keeper of the Light is very squishy and will very quickly die to Vendetta and it's followup abilities.
* However, Mana Burn's Mana Burn can be more or less mitigated with Chakra Magic.
Phantom Lancer
[wiki] rating: -0.4 (winrate: 50% pickrate: 2%)Nyx Assassin
* Nyx Assassin's skillset is mostly single-targeted, therefore he will have difficulties against heroes with illusions and summons: Naga Siren,
Broodmother,
Lycan,
Visage,
Phantom Lancer.
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.
Dawnbreaker
[wiki] rating: -0.4 (winrate: 50% pickrate: 8%)Nyx Assassin
* Heroes who rely on damage over time as Spiked Carapace can block and reflect only one instance of damage: Venomancer,
Huskar,
Ember Spirit,
Dark Seer,
Sand King,
Doom,
Dawnbreaker.
Nyx Assassin
* Spiked Carapace can stop Dawnbreaker's Solar Guardian which will eliminate her global presence and limits her movement around the map.
Additional:
* Spiked Carapace interrupts Starbreaker before Dawnbreaker has her Aghanim's Shard, as well as
Solar Guardian during the initial channel, making her ineffective at joining and dealing damage in teamfights.
* The slow projectile and damage over time effect of Celestial Hammer makes it easy to stun Dawnbreaker if she attemps to engage or chase.
Outworld Destroyer
[wiki] rating: -0.4 (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.
Nyx Assassin
* Outworld Destroyer's high intelligence gain and fragility makes him an easy target for a massive Mana Burn, as well as killing him outwards with Nyx Assassin's high burst damage.
* Astral Imprisonment can be easily exploited by Nyx Assassin with his abilities. As long as Astral Imprisonment was not cast on Nyx Assassin, it will make an opportunity for an easy stun, either by Spiked Carapace (if Outworld Destroyer hid his allies or your allies) or Impale (if he hid himself). If Astral Imprisonment was cast on Nyx Assassin, using Spiked Carapace while banished will proc the stun after the disable, since Spike Carapace has a 0 second cast time and Astral Imprisonment deals damage right after the disable ends.
* An ill-timed Sanity's Eclipse and/or well timed Spiked Carapace can deal a lot of damage to Outworld Destroyer and stun him, unless Outworld Destroyer used
Black King Bar beforehand.
Additional:
* Outworld Destroyer's high mana pool and high intelligence makes him a prime target for Mana Burn.
* If timed correctly, Spiked Carapace will return the full damage from Sanity's Eclipse back to Outworld Destroyer. Even a reflected Arcane Orb can deal significant damage and make him vulnerable to a follow-up from Nyx Assassin.
* Spiked Carapace is also the perfect tool against Astral Imprisonment: if used on Nyx, he can reflect the damage back as he comes out of the prison by casting the ability while imprisoned.
Night Stalker
[wiki] rating: -0.4 (winrate: 52% pickrate: 4%)Nyx Assassin
* Heroes that have a weak laning stage: Spectre,
Nyx Assassin,
Clockwerk,
Spirit Breaker,
Omniknight,
Pudge.
Sven
* 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.
Broodmother
[wiki] rating: -0.4 (winrate: 54% pickrate: 3%)Nyx Assassin
* Heroes with very little to no area-of-effect abilities will struggle greatly against Broodmother: Sniper,
Phantom Assassin,
Nyx Assassin,
Bane,
Visage,
Bounty Hunter.
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.
Muerta
[wiki] rating: 0.0 (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
Nyx Assassin
* As a counter to most casters,Nyx will shut down Muerta with only a few items.
* Nyx's Mana Burn can make short work of Muerta's high intelligence pool.
* Spiked Carapace and
Vendetta can help Nyx escape or imitate when needed.
Medusa
[wiki] rating: 0.0 (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.
Nyx Assassin
* Level 4 Mana Burn burns of Medusa's mana every 5 seconds if Medusa only increases her mana pool with intelligence. Additionally, 70% of the
Mana Burn damage gets mitigated by Mana Shield, burning even more mana.
* Due to the passive nature of Mystic Snake and Split Shot, it can possibly proc Nyx's Spiked Carapace if he's within range of Medusa's abilities and isn't invisible.
* Medusa lacks single target damage, making Nyx with Aghanim's Scepter extremely hard to deal with if Medusa is the team's main damage source.
Additional:
* With her passive Split Shot, Medusa can be easily interrupted by Spiked Carapace during combat, especially during her precious
Stone Gaze.
* Mana Burn quickly destroys Mana Shield, especially if Medusa only increases her mana pool by bolstering intelligence (which has the added bonus of increasing Mana Burn's damage).
* Uncontrollable damage from Mystic Snake and
Split Shot can trigger Spiked Carapace.
* Medusa lacks single target damage, making a Burrowed Nyx Assassin hard to kill.
Enchantress
[wiki] rating: 0.0 (winrate: 46% pickrate: 2%)Sven
* Against her Untouchable, Sven is barely able to hit Enchantress even with his Black King Bar.
Nyx Assassin
* Vendetta can deal great damage against her. However, it requires an direct attack, so Nyx Assassin may have difficulties applying Vendetta on her.
* Enchantress's lack of mobility makes her a primary target for ganking with Vendetta.
* Spiked Carapace can reflect Impetus and stun Enchantress.
* Mana Burn can deal tremendous damage against her due to being an Intelligence hero.
Additional:
* Spiked Carapace reflects the damage from Impetus.
* Enchantress is a rather squishy hero, making her fall easily to Nyx Assassin's high burst damage.
Doom
[wiki] rating: 0.0 (winrate: 47% pickrate: 8%)Nyx Assassin
* A well-timed Doom prevents Nyx Assassin escaping with Vendetta and does not allow him to disengage with Spiked Carapace.
* Doom's high health also allows him to easily shrug off Nyx Assassin's burst damage and fend him off.
Sven
* Doom generally does not impede Sven in any way, provided he has activated God's Strength beforehand.
Pugna
[wiki] rating: 0.0 (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.
Nyx Assassin
* Nether Blast's animation makes it easy to time Spiked Carapace for a stun.
* Pugna has the largest intelligence gain in the game, making him a prime target for Mana Burn.
* Pugna needs to channel Life Drain, making him easy to hit with Impale.
Additional:
* Due to Pugna's incredible intelligence growth and terrible strength growth, Nyx should always be able to take you out with his combo, with or without an added Dagon.
Mana Burn will deal a large amount of damage in particular, especially in the late game.
* Spiked Carapace is also a great tool versus Pugna. A good player will wait for you in
Vendetta until you farm a creep wave with Nether Blast and reflect it back at you as their initiation and setup for
Impale.
Shadow Shaman
[wiki] rating: 0.0 (winrate: 49% pickrate: 6%)Sven
* Sven is very vulnerable to chain stun such as Lion,
Shadow Shaman or
Magnus.
Nyx Assassin
* Nyx Assassin,
Bounty Hunter and
Slark can all sneak up and kill Shadow Shaman, Nyx being particularly deadly. Shadow Shaman must watch out for Slark carefully, as he can break either (but not both unless he makes a mistake) of Shadow Shaman's disables, with
Dark Pact and leap out of a serpent ward ring. These heroes, however, rely heavily on escape and are themselves not very durable and none of them can survive a full lockdown with Mass Serpent Ward. Having Sentry Wards can turn Shadow Shaman from prey to predator.
Necrophos
[wiki] rating: 0.0 (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.
Nyx Assassin
* The huge physical damage taken from Vendetta will force Necrophos to use Ghost Shroud, which is good for a followup with
Dagon and
Ethereal Blade, both of which are common items on Nyx Assassin.
* Using Ghost Shroud also sets Necrophos up for a Mana Burn or
Impale.
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.
Nyx Assassin
* Spiked Carapace allows Nyx to get an easy long-duration stun on Weaver once he uses Shukuchi, and then he can follow up with
Impale.
* Vendetta works as a great setup for both
Impale and
Spiked Carapace and can deal decent damage to Weaver. Additionally he can neutralize The Swarm beetles due to his invisibility duration.
Magnus
[wiki] rating: 0.0 (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.
Naga Siren
[wiki] rating: 0.0 (winrate: 51% pickrate: 3%)Nyx Assassin
* Nyx Assassin's skillset is mostly single-targeted, therefore he will have difficulties against heroes with illusions and summons: Naga Siren,
Broodmother,
Lycan,
Visage,
Phantom Lancer.
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.
Legion Commander
[wiki] rating: 0.0 (winrate: 51% pickrate: 13%)Nyx Assassin
* Duel's long duration prevents Nyx Assassin escaping from Vendetta. With Aghanim's Scepter she can also bypasses
Spiked Carapace.
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.
Dark Seer
[wiki] rating: 0.0 (winrate: 52% pickrate: 2%)Nyx Assassin
* Heroes who rely on damage over time as Spiked Carapace can block and reflect only one instance of damage: Venomancer,
Huskar,
Ember Spirit,
Dark Seer,
Sand King,
Doom,
Dawnbreaker.
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.
Anti-Mage
[wiki] rating: 0.0 (winrate: 53% pickrate: 11%)Nyx Assassin
* Heroes who build mana boosting items but have low mana regeneration are especially vulnerable against Mana Break and Mana Void: Timbersaw,
Slark,
Shadow Fiend,
Clinkz,
Bristleback
Nyx Assassin,
Magnus
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.
Lycan
[wiki] rating: 0.0 (winrate: 57% pickrate: 3%)Nyx Assassin
* Lycan's high HP easily shrug off Nyx Assassin's burst damage and fend him off.
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.
Dota 2 is a registered trademark of Valve Corporation. This site is not affiliated with Valve Corporation. All game images and names are property of Valve Corporation.
Most popular searches list
Slark, PudgeDazzle, Pudge
Techies, Spectre
Tusk, Elder Titan
Bounty Hunter, Huskar
Axe, Legion Commander
Ancient Apparition, Abaddon
Ancient Apparition, Anti-Mage
Axe, Techies, Spectre
Alchemist, Ancient Apparition
Kunkka, Axe, Grimstroke
Phantom Assassin, Crystal Maiden
Phantom Assassin, Pudge, Pugna
Slark, Pudge, Ancient Apparition
Faceless Void, Drow Ranger, Slark
Ancient Apparition, Anti-Mage, Bane
Abaddon, Alchemist, Ancient Apparition
Alchemist, Ancient Apparition, Anti-Mage
Pudge, Invoker, Drow Ranger, Weaver
Abaddon, Alchemist, Arc Warden, Bane
Anti-Mage, Arc Warden, Axe, Dark Willow
Dazzle, Witch Doctor, Bristleback, Spectre
Riki, Crystal Maiden, Visage, Treant Protector
Anti-Mage, Abaddon, Axe, Bane, Batrider
Riki, Invoker, Bristleback, Sniper, Lion
Crystal Maiden, Magnus, Enigma, Sven, Luna
Weaver, Invoker, Pudge, Lich, Ember Spirit
Sniper, Slark, Troll Warlord, Visage, Ursa
Ogre Magi, Ursa, Troll Warlord, Meepo, Lich
Ogre Magi, Treant Protector, Necrophos, Chaos Knight
Alchemist, Ancient Apparition, Anti-Mage, Arc Warden
Gyrocopter, Riki, Slardar, Bloodseeker, Meepo
Faceless Void, Tinker, Lion, Brewmaster, Pudge
Riki, Legion Commander, Tiny, Invoker, Spectre
Alchemist, Lina, Lycan, Luna, Nature's Prophet
Pudge, Zeus, Lich, Juggernaut, Centaur Warrunner
Clockwerk, Pudge, Invoker, Shadow Shaman, Sniper
Silencer, Zeus, Faceless Void, Sniper, Sand King
Huskar, Pudge, Alchemist, Luna, Phantom Assassin
Centaur Warrunner, Spirit Breaker, Tusk, Axe, Tiny
Drow Ranger, Sniper, Earthshaker, Bristleback, Riki
Tinker, Pudge, Earthshaker, Elder Titan, Gyrocopter
Phantom Assassin, Pudge, Riki, Invoker, Chaos Knight
Dazzle, Ogre Magi, Invoker, Rubick, Phantom Assassin
Spirit Breaker, Outworld Devourer, Axe, Warlock, Ursa
Winter Wyvern, Lich, Ember Spirit, Underlord, Leshrac
Leshrac, Shadow Shaman, Sniper, Necrophos, Terrorblade
Abaddon, Bane, Storm Spirit, Grimstroke, Phantom Lancer
Abaddon, Anti-Mage, Arc Warden, Ancient Apparition, Axe
Windranger, Storm Spirit, Ember Spirit, Riki, Alchemist
Brewmaster, Pudge, Storm Spirit, Phantom Lancer, Oracle
Alchemist, Ancient Apparition, Anti-Mage, Axe, Arc Warden
Ancient Apparition, Anti-Mage, Arc Warden, Axe, Alchemist
Luna, Vengeful Spirit, Storm Spirit, Undying, Beastmaster
Juggernaut, Zeus, Sven, Ancient Apparition, Spirit Breaker
Axe, Ancient Apparition, Bloodseeker, Clinkz, Chaos Knight
Phantom Assassin, Pudge, Huskar, Queen of Pain, Earthshaker
Axe, Drow Ranger, Vengeful Spirit, Windranger, Winter Wyvern
Juggernaut, Shadow Shaman, Windranger, Meepo, Spirit Breaker
Abaddon, Alchemist, Anti-Mage, Arc Warden, Ancient Apparition
Abaddon, Alchemist, Ancient Apparition, Anti-Mage, Arc Warden
Juggernaut, Ember Spirit, Shadow Shaman, Ogre Magi, Brewmaster
Shadow Shaman, Spirit Breaker, Sniper, Wraith King, Earthshaker
Invoker, Grimstroke, Windranger, Bounty Hunter, Phantom Assassin
Treant Protector, Puck, Vengeful Spirit, Shadow Fiend, Anti-Mage
Phantom Assassin, Wraith King, Skywrath Mage, Silencer, Shadow Fiend
Bristleback, Crystal Maiden, Invoker, Phantom Lancer, Vengeful Spirit
Sven
* Heroes that deal few, powerful instances of damage, like
Oracle,
Lion, or
Sven, have a hard time breaking through Gravekeeper's Cloak.
Nyx Assassin
* Familiars deal many instances of damage quickly, minimizing the effectiveness of Spiked Carapace. They are, however, relatively fragile and can be killed quickly with Nyx Assassin's high burst damage, especially from Vendetta.
Gravekeeper's Cloak and tanky item builds make him hard to kill with burst damage.
Soul Assumption and
Grave Chill make him hard to escape from, and
Soul Assumption's low cooldown outmatches Spiked Carapace.
*
* Visage's long range on