* Refraction can be very useful in safely neutralizing Proximity Mine fields, or absorbing Techies' Blast Off combo.
* Fragile supports with low armor are always a good prey, also her Psionic Trap will wear down most attempts to flee with their built-in disables: Silencer, Crystal Maiden, Warlock, Ancient Apparition, Grimstroke, Witch Doctor
* Any hero with a low HP pool is easy for Tinker to nuke down: Crystal Maiden, Enchantress, Gyrocopter, Lion, Riki, Techies, Terrorblade, Necrophos, Invoker.
* Heroes with powerful spammable abilities will prove problematic for Grimstroke as Ink Swell does not protect him from them: Zeus, Skywrath Mage, Tinker, Lina
* Aphotic Shield makes it less likely for allies to be killed by mines.
* Because they explode in very short intervals, a stack of Remote Mines will always trigger Borrowed Time, making them impossible to kill Abaddon unless his resistances are lowered enough or Abaddon is affected by Break.
* Abaddon can easily dispel the long-lasting root of Stasis Trap on himself and on an ally, while at the same also providing protection against the other mines' damage.
Additional:
* Borrowed Time's automatic activation will help Abaddon survive a field of Proximity Mines or a Blast Off combo. However, the damage from a single mine can kill him if his HP is low enough.
* Aphotic Shield's can easily break Techies' Etheral Blade combo.
* Oracle can negate all of Techies' skills with Fate's Edict, as they are all magic damage. Fate's Edict can also be used to search and trigger Proximity Mines when crossing mined territory.
* Oracle can dispel Reactive Tazer off Techies, as well as the silence from Blast Off!, with Fortune's End.
* Oracle can further delay Techies' burst damage capability with False Promise.
Additional:
* Fate's Edict gives 100% magic resistance, which prevents most of Techies' damage.
* Oracle's Fortune's End dispels Reactive Tazer buff from Techies allowing him to be attacked. However, Reactive Tazer will instantly perform the area of effect disarm that is normally applied at the end of the duration.
* Fortune's End will also dispel Blast Off silence, Techies' Etheral Blade, Proximity Mines' magic resistance reduction, and Sticky Bomb's slow. However beware that it will only dispel Sticky Bomb's first or second instance of slow and not the damage, which will trigger as normal.
* Familiars can fly over the mines, rendering them safe from damage of Techies's mines. Visage can also use Familiars to check for mines on the map.
* Techies's low attack speed and damage will give them a hard time in destroying Visage's Familiars, and that can become even worse if they are affected by Grave Chill.
* Gravekeeper's Cloak allows Visage to survive Damage from Techies's mines.
* Dark Ascension also allows Night Stalker to fly over Proximity Mines without triggering them.
* Crippling Fear is effective in stopping Techies from using Blast Off and Void is effective in stopping them from running to the safety of their mines.
* Wraith King's skeletons from Vampiric Spirit keeps the choke points and rune spawns safe from Proximity Mines.
* Wraith King is not afraid to go into a field of Proximity Mines, wherever he goes as long as Reincarnation is off cooldown .
Additional:
* Wraith King is not afraid to walk into mines, whenever he goes with his Reincarnation ready.
* Nether Swap breaks one ally out of Soulbind, and can be used to redistribute the shared damage to Vengeful Spirit herself.
* Rage protects Lifestealer from all of Techies's abilities. Reactive Tazer's disarm will also not work on Lifestealer under Rage.
* Rage can also be used to trigger Techies's Proximity Mines safely.
Additional:
* Lifestealer's Rage lets him clear Proximity Mines without taking damage, and allows him to hit heroes whom Techies has used Reactive Tazer on.
* Stampede can allow Soulbinded heroes to just ran away.
* Corrosive Skin will protect Viper from Techies' magical damage.
* Even though Reactive Tazer will disarm Viper if he attacks Techies with Poison Attack, he does lots of damage with his other abilities that can still kill Techies.
* Exorcism's ghosts will automatically clear all Proximity Mines revealed when Death Prophet walks near them, provided that the ghosts do not have a specific target at that time.
* Death Prophet is a natural Eul's Scepter of Divinity carrier, meaning she can easily escape a Blast Off initiation.
* Juggernaut can trigger Proximity Mines while in Blade Fury, and can walk away from a initiation with Blast Off if Blade Fury is activated before the silence.
* Juggernaut ignores Reactive Tazer when he uses Omnislash, whether Techies used it to protect an ally or themselves.
* Stroke of Fate provides Rubick with a short cooldown nuke.
* Note that Rubick uses a fixed 0.15 second cast time for the skill, much shorter than the 0.6 second cast time for Grimstroke.
* Phantom's Embrace is an unique ability with extra silence and damage.
* Ink Swell is a great initiation/counter-initiation ability for frontliners.
* With Telekinesis, Rubick can grant extra duration for Phantom's Embrace's phantom latch, or throw an enemy within the area covered by Ink Swell.
* Soulbind, as a powerful ultimate, gives Rubick extra crowd control and sows chaos among enemies.
* Both Telekinesis and Fade Bolt are single-target abilities, and can be applied twice on the enemy. The damage of Fade Bolt is effectively doubled as the bounce is very likely to happen as the bound heroes must walk together.
* Sniper's position in the far back line makes him unlikely to be hit by any of Grimstroke's abilities during teamfights.
* Sniper is relatively unaffected by the silence from Phantom's Embrace.
* Sniper's long range and fast projectile speed allows him quickly to destroy any Phantoms attacking his allies.
* Phase Shift can easily disjoint Phantom Embrace and waste half of the Soulbind's duration.
* Puck is very mobile hero who can jump backsides and burst Grimstroke before he can cast anything.
* Techies spends lots of time standing still planting stacks of Land Mines away from creep waves.
* Sacred Arrow can be used to scout hidden Land Mines among trees and at uphill places. It can also be used to catch Techies while he's planting them.
* If Techies is hit with a Sacred Arrow, he can be killed before he has a chance to use Blast Off!.
* Mirana has a high attack range to destroy his traps from a safe distance.
* Plague Wards may reveal a hiding Techies. If there's a sentry nearby, they may also reveal a stack of mines hidden in a juking spot.
* As long as Batrider is under the effect of Firefly, he can safely fly over Proximity Mines (He does not receive vision over the mines).
* Slow heroes that have a hard time escaping the Echo Stomp radius: Crystal Maiden, Pudge, Techies.
* Heroes with low health will die easily during Duels, and can be farmed for damage in the early game: Crystal Maiden, Lich, Techies, Rubick
* Heroes with powerful spammable abilities will prove problematic for Grimstroke as Ink Swell does not protect him from them: Zeus, Skywrath Mage, Tinker, Lina
* Heroes with powerful spammable abilities will prove problematic for Grimstroke as Ink Swell does not protect him from them: Zeus, Skywrath Mage, Tinker, Lina
* Heroes with forced movement abilities or non-interrupting forced movement, such as Lion, Drow Ranger, Magnus, Mars, as they can cancel blast-off mid air, removing his ability to initiate or escape.
* Heroes with mobility spells can quickly escape from Stroke of Fate or break out of Soulbind: Anti-Mage, Queen of Pain, Morphling, Storm Spirit
* Thanks to Counterspell's magic resistance, Anti-Mage has a good chance of surviving a Blast Off combo.
* Anti-Mage is a natural Manta Style carrier, meaning he can dispel the silence from Blast Off and blink away when Techies initiates on him.
* Heroes with mobility spells can quickly escape from Stroke of Fate or break out of Soulbind: Anti-Mage, Queen of Pain, Morphling, Storm Spirit
* A combination of Soulbind and Phantom's Embrace can prevent Anti-Mage from casting spells.
* If Grimstroke has Aghanim's Scepter, Dark Portrait can reflect Anti-Mage's Mana Break, making it useful in team fights.
* Heroes with forced movement abilities or non-interrupting forced movement, such as Lion, Drow Ranger, Magnus, Mars, as they can cancel blast-off mid air, removing his ability to initiate or escape.
* Heroes with powerful spammable abilities will prove problematic for Grimstroke as Ink Swell does not protect him from them: Zeus, Skywrath Mage, Tinker, Lina
* Heroes with summons like Broodmother, Enigma, Nature's Prophet; or illusions, like Naga Siren, Terrorblade are effective at keeping the choke points and rune spawns safe from Proximity Mines.
* Heroes with forced movement abilities or non-interrupting forced movement, such as Lion, Drow Ranger, Magnus, Mars, as they can cancel blast-off mid air, removing his ability to initiate or escape.
* Heroes with forced movement abilities or non-interrupting forced movement, such as Lion, Drow Ranger, Magnus, Mars, as they can cancel blast-off mid air, removing his ability to initiate or escape.
* He can send wolves to defuse Proximity Mines, and he can catch up Techies and kill him before they can deny themselves. Even if the suicide is successful, Lycan can still survive because of his tankiness.
* Heroes who rely heavily on melee attacks and lack early spell immunity are easily blocked and interrupted by Ink Swell: Lycan, Ursa, Troll Warlord.
Additional:
* Stroke of Fate deals more damage when it hits more targets which makes it very effective in dealing with Lycan and his units.
* Soulbind prevents Lycan from running away and makes him very easy to deal with.
* Techies has great area of effect damage to deal with Phantasm illusions.
* Blast Off silences Chaos Knight, stopping him from using his disables and allowing his teammates to walk away from his heavy damage.
* Reactive Tazer will disarm all of Chaos Knight's illusions even if he has activated his Black King Bar.
* Heroes who are reliant on illusions or summons: Chaos Knight, Broodmother, Naga Siren.
* Techies is very good against roaming supports and gankers such as Bounty Hunter, Riki, Weaver, Earthshaker, Nyx Assassin, etc. that are constantly moving around the map.
* Phantom's Embrace and Soulbind prevent Weaver from using Shukuchi or Time Lapse to escape.
* Ink Swell discourages Weaver from moving through and damaging allies with Shukuchi.
* Heroes with summons like Broodmother, Enigma, Nature's Prophet; or illusions, like Naga Siren, Terrorblade are effective at keeping the choke points and rune spawns safe from Proximity Mines.
* Techies deals lots of magical damage with Sticky Bomb, Blast Off! and Proximity Mines that bypasses Terrorblade's high armor and can punish his low max life.
* Sticky Bomb is easy to land on a large clump of Terrorblade illusions and will damage and slow Terrorblade and all of his illusions if he can't quickly move the right one away.
* Reactive Tazer upgraded with Aghanim's Scepter can be used to protect an ally getting attacked by Terrorblade. Further, it disarms all of his illusions even while he has activated Black King Bar, greatly decreasing his damage.
* Blast Off! stuns Terrorblade, preventing him from casting Sunder.
* Terrorblade's lack of escape mechanisms makes it hard for him to escape both Ink Swell and Stroke of Fate.
* Phantom's Embrace's silence will also prevent him from casting Sunder to save himself.
* Heroes that commonly attack ethereal units will not have any problems against Muerta's Pierce The Veil: Tinker, Jakiro, Lina, Luna, Pugna or Ogre Magi, Enigma, Batrider, Techies, Broodmother, Dawnbreaker, Shadow Shaman, Bane, Tinker, Venomancer, Arc Warden.
* Any long duration disables that can pierce through both, Pierce The Veil and Black King Bar are devastating against Muerta: Enigma's Black Hole, Dawnbreaker's Solar Guardian, Axe's Berserker's Call, Naga Siren's Aghanim's Scepter upgraded Ensnare and Reel In from Aghanim's Scepter, Jakiro's Aghanim's Scepter upgraded Macropyre, Bane's Fiend's Grip, Pudge's Dismember, Batrider's Flaming Lasso, Beastmaster's Primal Roar, Grimstroke's Soulbind, Medusa's Stone Gaze, Magnus's Reverse Polarity.
* Heroes that provide vision will see Fiend's Gate coming: Techies, Templar Assassin, Treant Protector.
* Heroes with strong area-of-effect damaging and/or disabling abilities will be able to intercept Underlord and his team when they exit from Fiend's Gate: Luna's Aghanim's Scepter upgraded Eclipse, Dawnbreaker's Solar Guardian, Axe's Berserker's Call, Mars's Arena of Blood, Jakiro's Macropyre, Dual Breath and Ice Path, Naga Siren's Song of the Siren, Razor's Eye of the Storm and Plasma Field, Lina's Light Strike Array, Broodmother's Spinner's Snare from Aghanim's Scepter, Elder Titan's Earth Splitter and Echo Stomp, Alchemist's Unstable Concoction and Acid Spray, Queen of Pain's Sonic Wave, Dark Seer's Wall of Replica and Vacuum, Venomancer's Noxious Plague and Poison Nova from Aghanim's Scepter, Oracle's Fortune's End and Rain of Destiny from Aghanim's Shard, Bloodseeker's Blood Rite, Enigma's Black Hole and Midnight Pulse, Shadow Fiend's Requiem of Souls, Batrider's Aghanim's Scepter upgraded Flaming Lasso, Firefly, Flamebreak and Sticky Napalm, Ancient Apparition's Ice Blast, Sand King's Epicenter, Sand Storm and Burrowstrike, Gyrocopter's Call Down, Ember Spirit's Sleight of Fist, Death Prophet's Exorcism and Silence, Monkey King's Wukong's Command, Crystal Maiden's Freezing Field, Muerta's The Calling, Medusa's Stone Gaze, Zeus's Nimbus from Aghanim's Scepter. Dark Willow's Bramble Maze, Pangolier's Swashbuckle, Grimstroke's Soulbind, Ink Swell and Stroke of Fate, Earthshaker's Echo Slam and Fissure, Puck's Dream Coil and Waning Rift, Winter Wyvern's Winter's Curse, Magnus's Reverse Polarity.
* Techies can easily catch Chen off guard and kill him quickly with Blast Off! and Ethereal Blade combo, especially because Blast Off! can silence Chen and stun him when upgraded with Aghanim's Shard.
* However, Chen's converted creeps can trigger Proximity Mines, wasting them.
* Proximity Mines can be placed near trees to detect Monkey King.
* Follow up with Blast Off! to destroy the tree, causing Monkey King to take high damage, fall from the tree, and become stunned.
Additional:
* Techies can turn his tree jumping ability against him, by placing Proximity Mines that will detect him near trees, and then destroying the trees around him with Blast Off, stunning him and dealing high damage, on top of him being silenced when the stun expires.
* Monkey King's mobility is also severely limited around Techies' mines as he will almost always trigger them due to the cooldown time between tree jumps. Monkey King will be forced to take mine damage or escape with Primal Spring.
* Soulbind ignores spell immunity, forcing Pangolier to roll in place during his ultimate as well as anchoring the other victim to his vicinity.
* After using Snowball, Tusk can't control where he's going, allowing Techies to make him roll onto mines.
* Phantom's Embrace silences Viscous Nasal Goo and Quill Spray.
* Ink Swell stuns Bristleback and gets allies in position faster with increased movement speed to attack his front, countering his passive ability.
* Remote Mines are frequently placed in trees, and can thus kill an unwary Hoodwink should she Scurry away due to her low HP pool.
* Blast Off! can clear out trees, denying the tactical advantages from Scurry.
* Phantom's Embrace can silence Crystal Maiden and disrupt Freezing Field's channeling. Her slow movement speed and fragile nature will also make her an easy target for Stroke of Fate and Ink Swell.
* Soulbind pierces spell immunity and prevents Faceless Void from escaping with Time Walk.
* Ghost Shroud amplifies damage taken from all of Grimstroke's abilities. Necrophos is particularly vulnerable to Ink Swell and Phantom's Embrace while in Ghost Shroud.
* Death Pulse works against Necrophos in lane by keeping his creeps alive and add damage to Stroke of Fate.
* Timbersaw relies heavily on his abilities so Phantom's Embrace's silence makes it more difficult for him.
* Timbersaw cannot use Return Chakram or attack the phantom during Phantom's Embrace, forcing him to take full damage and refreshes Phantom's Embrace's cooldown.
Additional:
* Timbersaw is completely powerless against Phantom's Embrace if Chakram is out.
* Soulbind prevents Primal Beast from being able to use Onslaught or his abilities to great effect for a lengthy amount of time.
* Phantom's Embrace is very difficult for Primal Beast to remove due to his slow attack speed and Trample preventing him from attacking.
* Phantom's Embrace cannot be dispelled by Slark's Dark Pact, and will cause him to suffer damage if he doesn't kill Phantom fast enough.
* Soulbind also cannot be dispelled by Slark's Dark Pact, and will cause Slark to suffer from a single-targeted ability used on his ally that is also affected by it.
* Soulbind can target both Io and its Tethered ally, allowing Grimstroke and his team to target both with single target spells. Should Io try to Relocate, Phantom's Embrace can stop its channel to prevent escape.
Additional:
* Grimstroke can catch Io and his Tethered ally easily with Soulbind as Io has a tendency to Tether himself with an ally frequently, which also makes them easier targets for Soulbind.
* Io is highly vulnerable to disables. Hence, Grimstroke's Phantom's Embrace is a great ability to hinder Io's potential.
* Reactive Tazer can lock multiple Meepos in place and prevent them from Poofing.
* Proximity Mines, Sticky Bomb and Blast Off! can deal heavy magic damage to multiple Meepos.
* Grimstroke's Soulbind will always reliably connect onto both of them if they are close together.
* Heroes with nukes that can jump her: Clockwerk, Snapfire, Spirit Breaker, Techies
Additional:
* Techies does huge amounts of magical damage, which will bypass Untouchable.
* Enchantress depends on abilities to do damage and heal, which Blast Off's silence prevents.
* Hard-hitters who relies mostly on raw stats or good passive and therefore make a perfect target for Dark Portrait: Naga Siren, Faceless Void, Terrorblade, Luna, Anti-Mage
* Heroes with powerful channeling abilities are easily interrupted by Phantom's Embrace: Bane, Pudge, Witch Doctor, Crystal Maiden, Enigma.
* Techies is very good against roaming supports and gankers such as Bounty Hunter, Riki, Weaver, Earthshaker, Nyx Assassin, etc. that are constantly moving around the map.
* 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, Death Ward and especially Techies's mines.
* Heroes who rely heavily on melee attacks and lack early spell immunity are easily blocked and interrupted by Ink Swell: Lycan, Ursa, Troll Warlord.
* Heroes with powerful channeling abilities are easily interrupted by Phantom's Embrace: Bane, Pudge, Witch Doctor, Crystal Maiden, Enigma.
* Windranger heavily relies on her abilities for any form of tactical advantage and damage. A well timed silence will make her useless: Puck,Silencer, Death Prophet, Skywrath Mage, Drow Ranger, Earth Spirit, Grimstroke.
* Techies is very good against roaming supports and gankers such as Bounty Hunter, Riki, Weaver, Earthshaker, Nyx Assassin, etc. that are constantly moving around the map.
* Heroes with powerful channeling abilities are easily interrupted by Phantom's Embrace: Bane, Pudge, Witch Doctor, Crystal Maiden, Enigma.
* Techies is very good against roaming supports and gankers such as Bounty Hunter, Riki, Weaver, Earthshaker, Nyx Assassin, etc. that are constantly moving around the map.
* Heroes who rely heavily on melee attacks and lack early spell immunity are easily blocked and interrupted by Ink Swell: Lycan, Ursa, Troll Warlord.
* Heroes with mobility spells can quickly escape from Stroke of Fate or break out of Soulbind: Anti-Mage, Queen of Pain, Morphling, Storm Spirit
* Morphling usually has low max health due to shifting strength into agility, which combined with Blast Off's silence will prevent him from using Waveform and Adaptive Strike (Strength), leaving him defenseless and making him an easy target to burst down.
* Illusions can be sent out to destroy Techies mines.
* Stroke of Fate's damage increases the more units are hit by it, making it effective against Phantom Lancer's army of illusions.
* Phantom's Embrace and Ink Swell's stun can prevent Phantom Lancer from escaping with Doppelganger if properly timed.
* If he has already used Doppelganger, Soulbind can tie Phantom Lancer to one of his own illusions to keep him in place, or to ensure a kill if Grimstroke's team is unsure which one is the real hero.
Additional:
* Stroke of Fate clears Phantom Lancer's illusion easily as it deals bonus damage to more targets.
* Ink Swell can be used on an allied hero or Grimstoke himself to stun Phantom Lancer and his illusions.
* Soulbind has an undispellable debuff that can be used to mark the real Phantom Lancer. It also prevents him from using Doppelganger.
* Heroes with mobility spells can quickly escape from Stroke of Fate or break out of Soulbind: Anti-Mage, Queen of Pain, Morphling, Storm Spirit
* If Storm Spirit isn't careful, he could fall into a trap set by Techies and another hero acting as bait.
* Stasis Trap roots Storm Spirit for 2/3/4/5 seconds and Blast Off! silences for 4/5/6/7 seconds, which effectively prevents Storm Spirit from using Ball Lightning to escape for a lengthy duration.
* Heroes with summons like Broodmother, Enigma, Nature's Prophet; or illusions, like Naga Siren, Terrorblade are effective at keeping the choke points and rune spawns safe from Proximity Mines.
* Heroes who are reliant on illusions or summons: Chaos Knight, Broodmother, Naga Siren.
* Heroes with summons like Broodmother, Enigma, Nature's Prophet; or illusions, like Naga Siren, Terrorblade are effective at keeping the choke points and rune spawns safe from Proximity Mines.
* Heroes with powerful channeling abilities are easily interrupted by Phantom's Embrace: Bane, Pudge, Witch Doctor, Crystal Maiden, Enigma.
* Heroes with summons like Broodmother, Enigma, Nature's Prophet; or illusions, like Naga Siren, Terrorblade are effective at keeping the choke points and rune spawns safe from Proximity Mines.
* Heroes with area of effect abilities that increase in power based on the number of units struck: Earthshaker, Legion Commander, Grimstroke.
Additional:
* Stroke of Fate can deal heavy damage to Broodmother and her spiders, and with enough spiders it can kill her instantly.
* Phantom's Embrace provides vision on Broodmother when she's fleeing into the trees.
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Techies
* Shadow Demon's spammable illusions can be used to scout Techies' Proximity Mines.
Grimstroke
* Disruption instantly removes Phantom Embrace, and can potentially save allies affected by Soulbind.
* Demonic Purge dispels Ink Swell.