Weaver
[wiki] rating: 2.0 (winrate: 50% pickrate: 3%)Troll Warlord
[wiki] rating: 2.0 (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.
Primal Beast
* The ensare from melee Berserker's Rage can prevent Primal Beast from dealing further Trample damage and can allow Troll Warlord to relentlessly build
Fervor on him.
* Whirling Axes (Ranged) can slow down Primal Beast while trampling and allow Troll Warlord to better control him from range.
* Whirling Axes (Melee) can blind Primal Beast if he attempts to auto-attack Troll Warlord after a fully charged Uproar.
* Battle Trance will make Primal Beast a sitting duck should he be rooted and attacked to death. It might be wise to save Pulverize for after this spell is used so you have a defensive measure against Troll Warlord.
Oracle
[wiki] rating: 1.6 (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.
Primal Beast
* Oracle can negate and shut down Primal Beast simply with Fate's Edict, especially in the early game, as a majority of his damage-dealing spells are magic.
* Oracle can interrupt Primal Beast's Onslaught charge with a well-timed Fortune's End.
* Primal Beast's lethal burst damage combos can be further stalled with False Promise; combined with Fate's Edict and regen from Purifying Flames, Oracle can even completely negate Primal Beast's offense.
Additional:
* Fate's Edict completely negates all of Primal Beast's major damage-dealing spells in the early game and can render Primal Beast useless when cast on a target he is focusing, or in Oracle's defense against Primal Beast himself.
* Fortune's End keeps Primal Beast in place, especially while trampling or in the middle of an Onslaught charge.
* False Promise can interrupt Primal Beast's Pulverize, as well as further delay Primal Beast from dealing lethal burst damage. In combination with
Fortune's End, Oracle can potentially save an ally from Primal Beast's spell combos.
Clockwerk
[wiki] rating: 1.6 (winrate: 49% pickrate: 8%)Sven
* Heroes who can stun Sven even with an activated Black King Bar can be an issue:
Clockwerk,
Beastmaster.
Primal Beast
* Power Cogs keeps Primal Beast pinned down, preventing him from doing damage with Trample. Primal Beast's slow attack speed makes it hard for him to break the cogs and get away. In addition, Power Cogs' knockback is forced movement, and thus will intercept Primal Beast's Onslaught if placed well.
* Battery Assault on a lone Primal Beast in the early game effectively keeps him from winding up Onslaught or basic attacking.
* Rocket Flare and
Jetpack (from purchasing
Aghanim's Shard) give Clockwerk many options to scout for Primal Beast, whose kit benefits greatly from ambushing.
Winter Wyvern
[wiki] rating: 1.6 (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.
Primal Beast
* Supports who can slow him to the point Trample does very little damage in lane are also not fun: Lich,
Ogre Magi,
Winter Wyvern.
Ogre Magi
[wiki] rating: 1.6 (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.
Primal Beast
* Supports who can slow him to the point Trample does very little damage in lane are also not fun: Lich,
Ogre Magi,
Winter Wyvern.
Invoker
[wiki] rating: 1.6 (winrate: 48% pickrate: 14%)Sven
* Heroes with naturally low mana can be easily shut down by EMP: Sven,
Tiny,
Wraith King,
Omniknight
Primal Beast
* Invoker's numerous area-of-effect abilities can interrupt Primal Beast, especially while he is in the middle of a team fight, where Primal Beast thrives. (Tornado,
Cold Snap, and
Ice Wall all help to disable Primal Beast and control him from a distance.
* EMP disintegrates Primal Beast's low mana pool.
* However, Invoker is quite a slow paced hero and not particularly known for being survivable against a rampaging Primal Beast with Black King Bar.
Lone Druid
[wiki] rating: 1.2 (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.
Primal Beast
* Primal Beast is mostly played in the offlane role, so picking a carry who can escape from him is essential. Heroes such as Troll Warlord,
Lone Druid and
Outworld Destroyer, or generally any carry with a stun, slow or ability to fight back will stop him from having the good start he needs.
Outworld Destroyer
[wiki] rating: 1.2 (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.
Primal Beast
* Primal Beast is mostly played in the offlane role, so picking a carry who can escape from him is essential. Heroes such as Troll Warlord,
Lone Druid and
Outworld Destroyer, or generally any carry with a stun, slow or ability to fight back will stop him from having the good start he needs.
Shadow Shaman
[wiki] rating: 1.2 (winrate: 49% pickrate: 6%)Sven
* Sven is very vulnerable to chain stun such as Lion,
Shadow Shaman or
Magnus.
Primal Beast
* 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.
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.
Primal Beast
* Primal Beast really suffers against supports he cannot bully in the lane; this includes Dazzle,
Shadow Demon and
Dark Willow since they can use their respective abilities to stop Primal Beast from dealing burst damage, or make it hard for him to stay in range.
Lion
[wiki] rating: 1.2 (winrate: 45% pickrate: 10%)Sven
* Sven is very vulnerable to chain stun such as Lion,
Shadow Shaman or
Magnus.
Primal Beast
* 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.
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.
Beastmaster
[wiki] rating: 1.0 (winrate: 51% pickrate: 2%)Sven
* Primal Roar takes Sven out of the fight completely, even with Black King Bar.
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.
Enigma
[wiki] rating: 1.0 (winrate: 50% pickrate: 3%)Primal Beast
* Malefice will prevent Primal Beast from doing anything for a long duration even in the early game when at his strongest.
* Midnight Pulse will scale with his max health so will do a ton of damage combined with any generic stun or Enigma's own abilities.
* Primal Beast relies completely on mobility to do damage, Black Hole makes sure he cannot use any abilities or threaten heroes he is typically good against.
Leshrac
[wiki] rating: 1.0 (winrate: 49% pickrate: 4%)Primal Beast
* Diabolic Edict makes Leshrac very effective at threatening early towers and objectives which can directly cause unfavourable conflicts with Primal Beast early before he has
Black King Bar to deal with the magical damage.
* Pulse Nova and the rest of Leshrac's spells can overwhelm Primal Beast with magical damage.
* Leshrac has generally faster movement speed than Primal Beast, especially if he has items such as Boots of Travel and
Eul's Scepter of Divinity.
* Bloodstone also makes him heal much more than Primal Beast can damage him at any stage of the game.
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.
Earth Spirit
[wiki] rating: 1.0 (winrate: 49% pickrate: 3%)Primal Beast
* Rolling Boulder and
Geomagnetic Grip allows Earth Spirit to easily stun, silence and interrupt Primal Beast in fights. Rolling Boulder can also be used to escape Primal Beast.
* Boulder Smash can push Primal Beast away and disrupt his Trample. In combination with
Stone Remnant, Primal Beast can be slowed from a distance.
Bloodseeker
[wiki] rating: 1.0 (winrate: 49% pickrate: 3%)Primal Beast
* Primal Beast's abilities require movement to deal damage, making Rupture potentially deadly and debilitating. Furthermore, its initial damage based on the target's current health is devastating to a full-health Primal Beast with his high strength gain and thus high HP.
* Due to his reliance on spells, Primal Beast is vulnerable to Blood Rite's powerful silence without items to counter it. While silenced, Primal Beast cannot retaliate effectively with his spells.
Disruptor
[wiki] rating: 1.0 (winrate: 48% pickrate: 10%)Primal Beast
* Glimpse can prevent Onslaught in the laning stage very easily.
* While Static Storm is not much of a threat in terms of damage, it does prevent Primal Beast from casting any spells for a long period of time if also trapped in
Kinetic Field.
* Overall, Disruptor forces Primal Beast to buy a Black King Bar much earlier than he might like but becomes a major threat to Disruptor once he does.
Faceless Void
[wiki] rating: 1.0 (winrate: 48% pickrate: 9%)Primal Beast
* Time Walk makes it impossible for Primal Beast to stay on top of Faceless Void with his abilities and allows him to heal burst damage dealt to him.
* Once Faceless Void has an Aghanim's Shard, Onslaught can be easily escaped. He could also choose to get a lower cooldown on Time Walk, making it even harder for Primal Beast to catch him in fights or stop his initiations.
* Time Dilation will make Primal Beast useless for an extended time after casting his abilities if he does not have a dispel.
* Chronosphere has many uses such as stopping Primal Beast from casting abilities on him or allies or even on a teammate, since Primal Beast has no way to assist allies trapped within the sphere.
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.
Grimstroke
[wiki] rating: 1.0 (winrate: 46% pickrate: 4%)Primal Beast
* Phantom's Embrace is very threatening due to Primal Beast being quite spell reliant, and not being able to attack during Trample and can immediately cancel Pulverize.
* Soulbind can prevent movement in a way that's very hampering for Primal Beast's Trample and Onslaught. It can also cancel Onslaught very abruptly.
* Ink Swell can stun Primal Beast and give the holder a strong dispel with the shard. The stun can easily stop Trample damage or Pulverize from continuing even if it's not Primal Beast's main target.
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
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.
Dazzle
[wiki] rating: 0.6 (winrate: 52% pickrate: 9%)Primal Beast
* Primal Beast really suffers against supports he cannot bully in the lane; this includes Dazzle,
Shadow Demon and
Dark Willow since they can use their respective abilities to stop Primal Beast from dealing burst damage, or make it hard for him to stay in range.
Centaur Warrunner
[wiki] rating: 0.6 (winrate: 51% pickrate: 7%)Sven
* Heroes who thrive on teamfights can be a problem such as Venomancer,
Necrophos,
Centaur Warrunner...
Bounty Hunter
[wiki] rating: 0.6 (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.
Lich
[wiki] rating: 0.6 (winrate: 51% pickrate: 9%)Primal Beast
* Supports who can slow him to the point Trample does very little damage in lane are also not fun: Lich,
Ogre Magi,
Winter Wyvern.
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...
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.
Nyx Assassin
[wiki] rating: 0.6 (winrate: 50% pickrate: 4%)Primal Beast
* 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.
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.
Puck
[wiki] rating: 0.6 (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.
Batrider
[wiki] rating: 0.6 (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.
Dragon Knight
[wiki] rating: 0.6 (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
Templar Assassin
[wiki] rating: 0.4 (winrate: 48% pickrate: 4%)Sven
* Sven has no easy way to burn Refraction charges and needs help from teammates to kill TA successfully.
Primal Beast
* Any hero who lanes very poorly will struggle with Primal Beast's potential snowball in the very early levels, like Keeper of the Light,
Luna,
Templar Assassin...
Medusa
[wiki] rating: 0.4 (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.
Primal Beast
* Hard carries who just want to farm and be left alone will not appreciate Primal Beast, heroes such as Medusa,
Drow Ranger...
Broodmother
[wiki] rating: -2.0 (winrate: 54% pickrate: 3%)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.
Primal Beast
* While Broodmother can hide in the trees with Spin Web, Primal Beast's ability to trample trees down can give him an edge in catching her.
* Insatiable Hunger will not do much vs Primal Beast's onslaught of disables.
* While Silken Bola can slow Primal Beast down, it's not enough to stop Trample from doing more damage than Broodmother can do back.
* Spawn Spiderlings will be destroyed by Onslaught and Trample very easily.
Terrorblade
[wiki] rating: -1.6 (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.
Primal Beast
* Illusion heroes will struggle against Primal Beast's area damage capability, such as Chaos Knight,
Naga Siren,
Terrorblade.
Phantom Assassin
[wiki] rating: -1.6 (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.
Primal Beast
* Phantom Assassin is known to be weak against bursts of magical damage, something Primal Beast excels at from the beginning of the game. He can use this to his advantage by constantly hunting Phantom Assassin down, especially if she is left alone to farm.
* Primal Beast is a good carrier of Ethereal Blade,
Vanguard and
Shiva's Guard all of which are very good against
Coup de Grace and
Phantom Strike.
* Even though Primal Beast does alot of physical damage early on, later once Blur becomes more potent, she may find herself being overwhelmed by Trample and Pulverize instead.
* Primal Beast also has a level 25 talent which makes Pulverize go through spell immunity which is especially effective against a hero like Phantom Assassin who relies on it.
Chaos Knight
[wiki] rating: -1.6 (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.
Primal Beast
* Illusion heroes will struggle against Primal Beast's area damage capability, such as Chaos Knight,
Naga Siren,
Terrorblade.
Juggernaut
[wiki] rating: -1.6 (winrate: 50% pickrate: 11%)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.
Primal Beast
* Primal Beast can use Uproar to tank a portion of Omnislash, giving him an edge in surviving it. Primal Beast can also dash away after Omnislash with Onslaught, disallowing Juggernaut from any follow-ups.
* Blade Fury will never do more damage than Uproar once the stacks are activated.
* Primal Beast is very commonly buying items that are good against Juggernaut, such as Ethereal Blade and
Heart of Tarrasque.
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.
Primal Beast
* Dark Pact,
Shadow Dance and
Depth Shroud will do nothing against Onslaught and Trample, as they are both ground area-of-effect spells.
* Primal Beast has a gigantic hitbox, which could be difficult for Slark to escape with Pounce should Primal Beast choose to block him. Pounce also does not completely prevent Primal Beast from trampling offensively, as he still has some room to move.
* Primal Beast has a huge health pool; shedding it with Essence Shift can take time and may allow Primal Beast to build Uproar against him. Should he survive Slark's slew of skills, Primal Beast can simply Pulverize him to finish him off.
Spectre
[wiki] rating: -1.6 (winrate: 51% pickrate: 11%)Sven
* Late game heroes are Sven's favourite kind of opponent, such as Anti-Mage,
Spectre and
Shadow Fiend.
Primal Beast
* Dispersion reduces damage based on a percentage, which is very minimal against large amounts of small instances of damage such as Trample. It reduces each tick by about 14 at maximum level, which is very small.
* Desolate is never a threat to Primal Beast due to his large health pool and Uproar still out damaging the ability.
* Onslaught can allow Primal Beast to chase Spectre fleeing with Spectral Dagger, as both skills phase through trees and terrain.
* Primal Beast can be strong enough to force a farming Spectre to flee with Haunt, putting it on a long cooldown and potentially leading her to an ally that can finish her off.
* Primal Beast excels at early aggression, pushing weak carries out of lane and farming areas he wants to control. Overall just not a pleasant matchup for Spectre.
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.
Primal Beast
* Primal Beast is one of Sniper's greatest counters, as he has no real means of escape and is very squishy, especially in the early game. Sniper's potshots and Shrapnel can contribute to Primal Beast's Uproar and further make him tankier than he already is. Onslaught allows him to close the gap on Sniper at his own volition, and Trample can deal serious damage to his meager health pool. Should Sniper acquire an item of escape, Primal Beast can still delay him with Pulverize. Overall, Sniper is an ideal target for Primal Beast to constantly threaten in all stages of the game, and it can force Sniper to itemise for him.
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.
Primal Beast
* Any hero with low mobility and max healthsuch as Silencer,
Crystal Maiden etc.
Luna
[wiki] rating: -1.2 (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.
Primal Beast
* Any hero who lanes very poorly will struggle with Primal Beast's potential snowball in the very early levels, like Keeper of the Light,
Luna,
Templar Assassin...
Naga Siren
[wiki] rating: -1.2 (winrate: 51% pickrate: 3%)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.
Primal Beast
* Illusion heroes will struggle against Primal Beast's area damage capability, such as Chaos Knight,
Naga Siren,
Terrorblade.
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.
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.
Ancient Apparition
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 50% pickrate: 5%)Primal Beast
* Since Primal Beast is highly mobile with Onslaught alone, he will be difficult to catch with both Cold Feet and
Ice Blast.
* Ice Blast is less effective due to Primal Beast's massive health pool and resistance to taking damage.
* While Chilling Touch can be used to slow Primal Beast briefly, it is not enough to beat him back, and can also contribute to his Uproar stacks.
Lina
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (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.
Phantom Lancer
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 50% pickrate: 2%)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.
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.
Primal Beast
* Magnus is not tanky and struggles against burst damage, something Primal Beast excels at in the early-to-mid game. Primal Beast is also able to out-damage Magnus's Empower and can even contribute to his Uproar stacks.
* Using Skewer to drag Primal Beast while he is trampling will count as movement and will trigger a rapid number of slams, which could prove lethal to Magnus.
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.
Night Stalker
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 52% pickrate: 4%)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.
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.
Lycan
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 57% pickrate: 3%)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.
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.
Primal Beast
* Heroes with unorthodox escapes will struggle against Primal Beast, such as Nature's Prophet,
Tinker, and
Templar 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.
Shadow Fiend
[wiki] rating: -0.6 (winrate: 48% pickrate: 18%)Sven
* Late game heroes are Sven's favourite kind of opponent, such as Anti-Mage,
Spectre and
Shadow Fiend.
Witch Doctor
[wiki] rating: -0.6 (winrate: 48% pickrate: 15%)Primal Beast
* Heroes who cannot escape from Trample early might be easy first blood. Heroes like Witch Doctor and
Omniknight should play very cautiously alone...
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.
Storm Spirit
[wiki] rating: -0.6 (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.
Pudge
[wiki] rating: -0.6 (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.
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.
Drow Ranger
[wiki] rating: -0.6 (winrate: 51% pickrate: 18%)Primal Beast
* Heroes who have low armor but very high health will be difficult for drow to burst down quickly: Primal Beast,
Axe,
Centaur Warrunner.
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.
Silencer
[wiki] rating: -0.6 (winrate: 52% pickrate: 15%)Primal Beast
* Any hero with low mobility and max healthsuch as Silencer,
Crystal Maiden etc.
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.
Anti-Mage
[wiki] rating: -0.6 (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.
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.
Primal Beast
* Heroes who cannot escape from Trample early might be easy first blood. Heroes like Witch Doctor and
Omniknight should play very cautiously alone...
Tinker
[wiki] rating: -0.6 (winrate: 56% pickrate: 11%)Primal Beast
* Heroes with unorthodox escapes will struggle against Primal Beast, such as Nature's Prophet,
Tinker, and
Templar Assassin.
Morphling
[wiki] rating: -0.4 (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.
Primal Beast
* Morphling relies on Attribute Shift (Agility Gain) to take last-hits. Primal Beast's burst damage ability can constantly threaten Morphling, especially due to his short attack range. If forced to escape with
Waveform, Primal Beast can catch up with Onslaught.
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.
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.
Razor
[wiki] rating: -0.4 (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.
Primal Beast
* Onslaught prevents all of Razor's abilities from being effective against him, especially in the laning stage.
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.
Primal Beast
* Trample and Pulverize can be used to cancel Life Drain very quickly.
* Pugna has a very low strength gain and as a support does not have much gold to buy health items, making him vulnerable to Primal Beast's onslaught of magical damage.
* Ironically, Decrepify actually just increases Primal Beast's damage on the targeted ally if Trample is activated. However, it can be used to slow him down and prevent any further Trample damage.
Keeper of the Light
[wiki] rating: 0.0 (winrate: 49% pickrate: 3%)Sven
* Melee carries during the laning phase: Sven,
Slark
Primal Beast
* Any hero who lanes very poorly will struggle with Primal Beast's potential snowball in the very early levels, like Keeper of the Light,
Luna,
Templar Assassin...
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.
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.
Dark Willow
[wiki] rating: 0.0 (winrate: 51% pickrate: 4%)Primal Beast
* Primal Beast really suffers against supports he cannot bully in the lane; this includes Dazzle,
Shadow Demon and
Dark Willow since they can use their respective abilities to stop Primal Beast from dealing burst damage, or make it hard for him to stay in range.
Sven
* Heroes with high burst damage and Black King Bar can take down Dark Willow quickly:
Phantom Assassin,
Sven,
Wraith King
Legion Commander
[wiki] rating: 0.0 (winrate: 51% pickrate: 13%)Primal Beast
* Duel prevents Primal Beast from using all of his spells and stops all of his damage output.
* Moment of Courage will not proc if Primal Beast is using Trample so you may want to play around that if you're looking for duel damage with a
Blade Mail.
* Press the Attack can be used to dispel Pulverize immediately and make allies survive Trample for a short duration with the heal.
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.
Death Prophet
[wiki] rating: 0.0 (winrate: 55% pickrate: 11%)Primal Beast
* Silence can be used to interrupt Primal Beast while he is channeling Pulverize.
* Spirit Siphon can whittle down Primal Beast's health and can potentially heal back any burst damage he deals to her.
* Exorcism can shed Primal Beast's health down while he attempts to complete any skill combos during a fight with it active.
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.
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
* 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.
Primal Beast
*
Shukuchi allows Weaver to have faster move-speed and can outrun Primal Beast in most instances, such as while he is trampling.
The Swarm can make him vulnerable to ranged attacks. Primal Beast also has an innately slow attack speed and will take long destroying the latched parasite.
Time Lapse allows Weaver to negate and heal burst damage, which Primal Beast is reliant on.
* Trample disarms Primal Beast, so casting
*