* Fury Swipes will keep stacking on Tidehunter since it cannot be dispelled by Kraken Shell and its bonus damage cannot be reduced by Anchor Smash.
* Enrage dispels the slow from Gush, and if upgraded with
Aghanim's Scepter, can even dispel Ravage's stun.
* Fury Swipes can give Ursa the edge in Duels.
* Enrage's instant cast time allows it to be used before Legion Commander initiates a Duel, causing Ursa to take almost no damage for a brief period of time.
* However, Duel stops Ursa from casting Enrage at the most critical moment
* Heroes who relies on high armor such as Dragon Knight,
Tidehunter, and
Pudge can be melted by Eye of the Storm.
Additional:
* Kraken Shell's dispel does not restore damage stolen by Static Link, and the stolen damage easily offsets Anchor Smash's damage reduction. Razor can keep attacking Tidehunter from afar, denying his chance to use Anchor Smash.
* Eye of the Storm melts Tidehunter's armor and makes him much less tanky.
* Razor can chase Tidehunter by himself without relying on actual crowd control ability, so the strong dispel from Kraken Shell is less useful.
* Static Link drains Legion Commander's accumulated damage, effectively neutralizing her overall primary advantage, and prevents her from winning Duels.
* Storm Surge's movement speed buff makes Razor and his allies harder to catch and initiate.
* Eye of the Storm, if used beforehand, will always hit Legion Commander during Duels, due to her forced proximity. This drastically lowers her survivability during Duel.
* If he isn't broken (break), Abaddon can use Borrowed Time to waste Legion Commander's Duel, As Borrowed Time has a shorter cooldown, Legion Commander can't win duels, effectively reducing her targets by one, Duel also means that Borrowed Time heals Abaddon for the duration of the duel, as Legion can't stop attacking.
Additional:
* Aphotic Shield and
Mist Coil makes it hard for Legion Commander to kill Abaddon's teammates in Duels.
* Borrowed Time makes Abaddon nearly impossible to kill in Duels, and often replenishes much of his health because Legion Commander cannot manually stop attacking during Duels.
* Battery Assault's mini-stuns can severely disrupt Legion Commander's attack animation when she enters a Duel, potentially saving Clockwerk (or his allies) and possibly even giving him an edge in securing a win himself.
* Power Cogs pushes Legion Commander away from Clockwerk's allies when she enters a Duel.
* Solar Guardian can save allies who are being dueled and will interrupt her Duel initiation.
* Cold Embrace saves allies from dying in Duels.
* Winter's Curse turns Legion Commander's high damage against her allies, giving the enemy team little time to react.
* However, Winter Wyvern lanes very poorly against Legion Commander due to Press the Attack removing all the debuffs she can give. Winter Wyvern also has little chances of surviving if she gets Dueled herself.
Additional:
* Cold Embrace is very effective against Duel.
* Also, casting Winter's Curse at Legion Commander while an ally is in a
Duel will stun her for most of the duration, possibly preventing lethal damage dealt to your ally. It can also turn her high-damage against her teammate.
* Purification prevents Legion Commander from killing her target, and will always hit her during Duels.
* Guardian Angel completely wastes Duel's duration and can save an ally across the map when upgraded with
Aghanim's Scepter.
Additional:
* Both Guardian Angel and Purification are perfect counters against Duel.
* In the mid-game, Tidehunter relies on Kraken Shell to stay alive and get his
Ravage off. Apart from Thunder Strike, none of Disruptor's abilities can be dispelled, so it's rather easy to trap him inside Kinetic Field and Static Storm.
* Be mindful, however, that Kraken Shell still makes Tidehunter very tanky, so be sure that you can kill him with your combo or your partners while he is silenced and trapped.
* Decrepify on either hero stops Legion Commander from completing a Duel, and dissuades her from initiating Duels on ethereal allies.
* Life Drain can help Pugna's teammates win a fight, either by killing Legion Commander or replenishing her target's health.
Additional:
* Decrepify prevents Legion Commander from attacking allies during Duel, regardless if it's used on her or on the ally .
* Pugna can easily cast Decrepify, Nether Blast and Life Drain on Legion during the 4/4.75/5.5/8 seconds of duel
* No matter how Tidehunter builds tanky items such as (Guardian Greaves,
Crimson Guard or
Pipe of Insight), all it needs is for him to fall below a certain percentage of health for him to fall to Reaper's Scythe.
* Earthshaker's AoE stuns can save ally against Duel, forcing Legion Commander to spend
Aghanim's Scepter or
Black King Bar.
* Mystic Flare can easily burst down Legion Commander while she is Dueling.
* Atrophy Aura's percentage-based damage reduction greatly diminishes Legion Commander's overall damage output, even if she has won many Duels
* Legion Commander cannot get out the way of Firestorm because she is stationary.
Additional:
* Atrophy Aura makes it hard for Legion Commander to win Duels.
* Fiend's Gate can be used to save Underlord and his allies from a
Duel or to intercept Legion Commander, because outside from
Overwhelming Odds, Legion Commander has no other area-of-effect abilities.
* Shallow Grave prevents Legion Commander from killing her opponents in Duels.
* Shadow Wave will heal an ally caught in a Duel, as well as dealing damage to Legion Commander.
* Dark Pact dispels debuffs from Gush, Anchor Smash and even Ravage if timed correctly.
* Kraken Shell cannot restore attributes stolen by Essence Shift or dispel the leash if he gets
Pounced.
* Lucky Shot can disarm Legion Commander and reduce her armor, which can reduce her chances of winning a duel. If an ally is targeted, Pangolier can simply use
Swashbuckle to inflict it on her.
* If an enemy Pangolier casts a well-timed Rolling Thunder before Legion Commander can cast Duel, it might result in her chasing down Pangolier until his or her ultimate ends, whichever duration ends first, resulting in an open window for enemy allies to target Legion Commander, making her vulnerable and susceptible to any source of attacks. If Legion Commander has an
Aghanim's Scepter in her inventory, the risk of wasting a solid 8 seconds would result in a futile duel.
* Dueling Pangolier is normally a mistake, Pangolier can disarm you in the duel, and potentially gain some Duel damage, Only duel Pangolier if at least 1 ally is nearby, and he is on low health, And even then, be wary, A good duel can easily turn against you with one Lucky Shot (Due to Lucky Shot lasting 4 seconds).
Additional:
* Swashbuckle can be used to disarm Legion Commander while she is Dueling an ally, granting her opponent a considerable advantage, Lucky Shot lasts 4 seconds at most wasting Legion Commander's entire Duel, (Or half, if Legion Commander has the Scepter).
* Legion Commander will try not to duel Pangolier alone, as she will almost inevitably lose, thanks to Lucky Shot's disarm, If Legion Commander wants to duel a Pangolier, she must be with atleast a teammate, and if she has her scepter, 3 or 4 teammates.
* Legion Commander is often with her allies, allowing you to rack up some considerable damage resistance with Shield Crash.
* Infernal Blade deals scaling damage and is useful against high HP targets such as Tidehunter.
* Doom prevents Tidehunter from casting his
Gush,
Anchor Smash and
Ravage, making him useless in team fights.
* If Doom chooses the Level 25 talent {ValueColor:1|Doom applies Break|25tal} {Symbol:Talent}, he can also disable Kraken Shell, reducing his survivability.
* 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.
* Legion Commender's is type Meele heroes and Duel is very difficulty against Untouchable.
* Luna often builds Black King Bar, and none of Tidehunter's spells can bypass spell immunity.
* Though Anchor Smash can weaken Luna's physical damage, it does not weaken her magical damage, which means that
Lucent Beam and
Eclipse deal a lot of magic damage in the early and mid-game, which can bypass Tidehunter's
Kraken Shell.
Additional:
* Luna often builds Black King Bar, and none of Tidehunter's spells can bypass spell immunity.
* Though Anchor Smash can weaken Luna's physical damage, it does not weaken her magical damage, which means that
Lucent Beam and
Eclipse deal a lot of magic damage in the early and mid-game, which can bypass Tidehunter's
Kraken Shell.
* A well-timed Eclipse before a Duel usually prevents Legion Commander from winning Duels, if Luna is the target.
* Meanwhile, when Luna is not a target, Eclipse and
Lucent Beam can also help an ally win a Duel against Legion Commander.
* However, skilled Legion Commander will always buy a Black King Bar to block
Eclipse and
Lucent Beam or
Aghanim's Scepter to reduce it's damage.
Additional:
* A well-timed Eclipse before a Duel usually prevents Legion Commander from winning Duels if Luna is the target. Luna can also buy
Linken's Sphere to block Duel.
* Meanwhile, when Luna is not a target, Eclipse and
Lucent Beam can also help an ally win a Duel against Legion Commander.
* Bear in mind, however, that skilled Legion Commander will always buy a Black King Bar to block
Eclipse and
Lucent Beam or
Aghanim's Scepter to reduce their damage.
* Heroes that rely on base damage: Luna,
Phantom Lancer are easily countered with Anchor Smash.
* Heroes that can keep Luna locked down for a long time can be a threat (she is very item and spell dependent): Faceless Void,
Legion Commander,
Doom.
* Heroes with global abilities can give Legion Commander's opponent an edge in Duels from anywhere on the map: Nature's Prophet,
Ancient Apparition,
Zeus,
Invoker,
Treant Protector
* Heroes who can hide the Dueled target (Outworld Destroyer,
Shadow Demon,
Tusk,
Phoenix with
Aghanim's Scepter etc).
Additional:
* Legion Commander relies on her powerful attack and her Duel to be effective. But if Phoenix gets the jump on her first, she can find herself severely slowed, taking heavy damage, and find herself unable to Duel a burning Supernova.
* It must be noted that Press the Attack will both dispel the attack slow of Fire Spirits and grant her or whoever she targets bonus attack speed. This allows her to easily destroy a Supernova if caution is not taken to prevent this from occurring. As such, it would be a better decision to simply avoid a farmed or skilled Legion Commander instead of attempting to overpower her.
* If an ally is caught by Duel, Phoenix can use Sun Ray to heal the ally and damage Legion Commander, possibly swinging the Duel in their team's favor. Or with
Aghanim's Scepter, Phoenix can save an ally from dying in Duel with Supernova and cancel the Duel as well.
* Heroes with global abilities can give Legion Commander's opponent an edge in Duels from anywhere on the map: Nature's Prophet,
Ancient Apparition,
Zeus,
Invoker,
Treant Protector
* Wraith King's
Reincarnation allows him to severely punish Legion Commander after he revives, as her abilities are on cooldown. Legion Commander is still awarded a Duel win if Wraith King reincarnates.
Additional:
* Wraith King makes a poor Duel target, as he can be already quite hard to bring down once, and then you have to worry about his second life.
* However, even if Legion Commander does win the duel when Reincarnation is off cooldown, she still receives the permanent victory damage bonus because taking down Wraith King's first life still counts as a "kill".
* Heroes who can hide the Dueled target (Outworld Destroyer,
Shadow Demon,
Tusk,
Phoenix with
Aghanim's Scepter etc).
Additional:
* Disruption can save allies and mess up an initiation from an enemy Legion Commander. Using Disruption on your ally that is affected by Duel will leave her totally exposed without the benefit of the life steal from
Moment of Courage. A precise decision to Disrupt Legion Commander or her victim is crucial to waste Duel's potential.
* Demonic Purge cannot be dispelled by a hard dispel from Press the Attack, which in turn can be dispelled by your ultimate.
* Heroes with global abilities can give Legion Commander's opponent an edge in Duels from anywhere on the map: Nature's Prophet,
Ancient Apparition,
Zeus,
Invoker,
Treant Protector
* Troll Warlord's melee bash and high attack speed can often help him and his allies win Duels against Legion Commander.
* Heroes with large physical resistance do not counter Muerta's Pierce the Veil such as
Omniknight or
Tidehunter.
* Heroes who can hide the Dueled target (Outworld Destroyer,
Shadow Demon,
Tusk,
Phoenix with
Aghanim's Scepter etc).
Additional:
* Walrus PUNCH! makes Legion Commander lose Duel easily, especially when she doesn't have
Blade Mail. Tusk can also snowball dueled allies, preventing them from taking damage for a large portion of the duel's duration.
* Heroes that lack burst damage will have a difficult time taking down Monkey King, and fare badly against Jingu Mastery: Legion Commander,
Lifestealer,
Weaver,
Wraith King
* Fate's Edict prevents Legion Commander from attacking for a few seconds, potentially saving Oracle's ally.
* Fortune's End dispels Press the Attack's healing and attack speed buff, as well as the movement speed bonus from Overwhelming Odds.
* False Promise protects allies and prevents Legion Commander from winning Duels and gaining bonus damage.
Additional:
* Provided that the enemy team does not have an Axe, Oracle can guarantee that his ally survives for the duration of the Duel with False Promise and has decent nuke potential to help ally to win a Duel. He can also disarm Legion Commander with Fate's Edict.
* Oracle can dispel enemy buffs like Overwhelming Odds and
Press the Attack with Fortune's End.
* Heroes with long disables, like Lion,
Night Stalker, or
Legion Commander, can prevent Oracle from using spells or items.
* Magnetic Field prevents Legion Commander from getting wins with Duel.
Additional:
* Magnetic Field prevents Legion Commander from easily gaining wins with Duel.
* Heroes who rely on summons will see them destroyed easily by Overwhelming Odds: Lycan,
Arc Warden,
Warlock,
Chen
* When Legion Commander uses Duel on one Meepo, he can use his other Meepos to kill her. If he wasn't dueled, he can help the teammate who was duelled to give the teammate the damage instead of Legion Commander.
* However, if Legion Commander picked up an Aghanim's Scepter and she duels one Meepo, that might be the end of Meepo if Legion managed to gather enough damage from previous duels.
* Heroes who can stun multiple units at once: Dark Willow,
Spirit Breaker,
Slardar,
Invoker, and
Tidehunter.
* Mana Shield makes Medusa very hard to take down in Duels.
* Stone Gaze stops Legion Commander from Dueling altogether, regardless of who she targets.
* Other heroes who has armor and slow debuffs won't allow Medusa to disengage from combat: Tidehunter,
Bristleback,
Slardar.
* Invoker's spells will disable and destroy Legion Commander while she's locked in a Duel.
* Heroes with long lockdowns: Shadow Shaman,
Legion Commander.
* With armor items like Solar Crest or
Assault Cuirass combined with Bash of the Deep, Slardar can easily tank the
Duel, If not dueled himself, he can drop
Legion Commander's armor during duel and/or buff his teammate and save them, leaving her only the choice of dueling supports which can also be saved with fast Blink into Slithereen Crush.
* Tidehunter's
Kraken Shell dispels Corrosive Haze and Bash of the Deep's stun if enough damage is taken.
Anchor Smash and Kraken Shell's damage block also reduces Slardar's damage.
* Because Duel requires both combatants to face each other, Bulwark's effectiveness will be increased by a huge margin, which makes it much more difficult for Legion Commander to win any duels against him.
* Spear of Mars and
God's Rebuke pushes Legion Commander away during Duels against allies.
Additional:
* Bulwark immensely mitigates Duel, even with bonus physical damage, as Bulwark scales by percentage. Mars can also buy time for a dueled ally by pushing Legion Commander away with Spear of Mars.
* Legion Commander is both good and bad vs Mars, on the plus side she can dispel Spear of Mars with
Press the Attack and is a good
Silver Edge carrier. However, Mars is not an ideal
Duel target, as Bulwark will force her to 1: Buy Silver Edge, and 2: Hit Mars with it before the Duel, allowing a skilled Mars to react, especially with
Eul's Scepter of Divinity. In teamfights, Mars will happily draw attention after using his abilities, and tank the Duel with all spells on cooldown.
* Song of the Siren lasts long enough to prevent a successful Duel (but only if Naga wasn't the target).
* Heroes who rely on illusions will see them destroyed easily by Overwhelming Odds: Phantom Lancer,
Chaos Knight,
Terrorblade,
Naga Siren
* Kraken Shell easily dispels the lengthy stun from Shackleshot.
* Kraken Shell (and possibly Anchor Smash) blocks huge amount of damage from Focus Fire.
* Anchor Smash is one of the few sources of True Strike, which means Tidehunter can deal significant damage through Windrun, while also reducing Windranger's damage output.
Additional:
* Kraken Shell can easily dispel Shackleshot after he has taken a certain threshold of damage.
* Ravage provides excellent lockdown against Windranger, allowing his teammates to kite her throughout the game.
* When Tidehunter has Aghanim's Shard, he will gain access to
Dead in the Water, allowing him to lock down Windranger at any time. When Windranger tries to move away from the anchor with Windrun, she will be effectively slowed, preventing her from escaping.
* Press The Attack can save her allies dispels the stun from Shackleshot.
* Duel can lock down Windranger before she can escape with Windrun.
* Legion Commander tends to go for Blade Mail, which returns the damage she takes from Focus Fire.
* Kraken Shell can dispel Flaming Lasso.
* If Batrider drags Tidehunter back towards his team, it can be setup for a well placed Ravage.
Additional:
* Kraken Shell is very useful against Sticky Napalm and
Flamebreak, easily dispelling them regularly.
* Tidehunter is probably the worst hero to target with Flaming Lasso, as Kraken Shell will remove it and Tidehunter often survives long enough to cast Ravage in the middle of Batrider's team. At the same time, if Batrider initiates on his teammate, Tidehunter will have the perfect opportunity to counter-initiate.
* Press the Attack dispels Flaming Lasso.
* Batrider is unlikely to win a Duel in any stage of the game.
* Kraken Shell can dispel Dismember after reaching a certain threshold of damage.
* Tidehunter's naturally high health, strength gain, and common itemization for survivability through magic resistance makes Tidehunter a poor target.
* Legion Commander can use Press the Attack on an ally to dispel Dismember. The bonus health regeneration also partially counters the damage of Rot
* Duel can be used on Pudge whilst Rot is active, disabling toggling which may result in a lethal health drain that leaves Legion Commander with a successful duel.
* Gush can make Crystal Maiden's already weak armor even weaker.
* Kraken Shell can dispel Frostbite, preventing him from getting stuck inside Freezing Field.
* Ravage is very useful for interrupting Freezing Field, even while Crystal Maiden is under the effects of
Glimmer Cape. Crystal Maiden must purchase a
Black King Bar, which is far more costly.
* Duel is a great initiation to target Crystal Maiden with, as it prevents her from using Freezing Field or any other abilities and allowing the enemy team to quickly kill her before she can aid her team in a fight.
* Kraken Shell makes Tidehunter take nearly no damage from Spiderlings.
* Anchor Smash kills Spiderlings in one or two casts, should Broodmother try to swarm Tidehunter with them.
* Overwhelming Odds's damage stacks with each enemy unit in its radius. If this hits Broodmother and a large number of spiders it can deal significant amounts of damage.
* Moment of Courage has a high chance to proc if Broodmother and all of her spiders are attacking her.
* Duel can keep Broodmother in place long enough for Legion's team to kill her.
Additional:
* Overwhelming Odds is great at killing many stacked up spiderlings, thus giving Legion Commander a large buff.
* Duel is a reliable way to lock down Broodmother, preventing her from running into the treeline.
* Kraken Shell and
Anchor Smash makes it very difficult for Phantom Lancer's illusions to deal damage to Tidehunter.
* Ravage will stun the real Phantom Lancer while clearing most of his illusions.
* Anchor Smash reduces base damage, which is the majority of Phantom Lancer's auto-attack damage.
* An Aghanim's Scepter upgraded
Gush slows down and reduces all of Phantom Lancer's illusions.
Additional:
* A dozen of Phantom Lancer's illusions with all their might can barely hurt Tidehunter at all thanks to Kraken Shell and Anchor Smash. The only way Phantom Lancer can hurt Tidehunter is through the mana burn provided by Diffusal Blade.
* Even with high chasing power from Spirit Lance and
Phantom Rush (and even
Diffusal Blade), Tide Hunter can shrug it all off with Kraken Shell and escape by using a
Town Portal Scroll or just moving away.
* The AoE nukes from Ravage, Anchor Smash, and an Aghanim's Scepter-upgraded Gush can clear Phantom Lancer's illusions easily.
* Heroes who rely on illusions will see them destroyed easily by Overwhelming Odds: Phantom Lancer,
Chaos Knight,
Terrorblade,
Naga Siren
Additional:
* Overwhelming Odds deals high damage to Phantom Lancer's illusions.
* Duel's long duration prevents Phantom Lancer from using Doppelganger.
* Ravage damages and disables Chaos Knight and his illusions.
* Anchor Smash deals respectable area damage, especially to Phantasms and lowers Chaos Knight's damage output.
* Kraken Shell dispels Chaos Bolt and Reality Rift while providing protection from damage.
* Heroes with strong area damage to destroy Phantasm illusions: Axe,
Ember Spirit,
Legion Commander,
Phoenix
* Kraken Shell grants him massive physical attack protection
* Anchor Smash will wipe the area, clearing Lycan's wolves.
* Heroes who rely on summons will see them destroyed easily by Overwhelming Odds: Lycan,
Arc Warden,
Warlock,
Chen
* Heroes that excel at grouping up with their team very early will be able to take advantage of a Clinkz that tries to pick off heroes that are alone: Brewmaster,
Dazzle,
Tidehunter.
* Searing Arrows and Clinkz physical damage items are almost suicidal when used on Legion Commander, as it invites an instant Duel and Legion Commander herself is a natural
Blade Mail carrier.
* Duel locks down Clinkz for a long duration, preventing him from escaping with Skeleton Walk.
* Tidehunter with
Kraken Shell when damage received reaches the threshold.
* Heroes that can remove the Track debuff with their skills:
* Abaddon with
Aphotic Shield and
Borrowed Time
* Huskar with
Life Break
* Juggernaut with
Blade Fury
* Legion Commander with
Press the Attack
* Lifestealer with
Rage and
Infest
* Naga Siren with
Mirror Image
* Omniknight with
Heavenly Grace
* Oracle with
Fortune's End and
False Promise
* Phantom Lancer with
Doppelganger
* Slark with
Dark Pact
* Ursa with
Enrage
* Weaver with
Time Lapse
* Tidehunter with
Kraken Shell when damage received reaches the threshold.
* Legion Commander with
Press the Attack
* Heroes that can remove the Track debuff with their skills:
* Abaddon with
Aphotic Shield and
Borrowed Time
* Huskar with
Life Break
* Juggernaut with
Blade Fury
* Legion Commander with
Press the Attack
* Lifestealer with
Rage and
Infest
* Naga Siren with
Mirror Image
* Omniknight with
Heavenly Grace
* Oracle with
Fortune's End and
False Promise
* Phantom Lancer with
Doppelganger
* Slark with
Dark Pact
* Ursa with
Enrage
* Weaver with
Time Lapse
* Tidehunter with
Kraken Shell when damage received reaches the threshold.
* Kraken Shell dispels both Shadowraze's damage amplification stacks and Requiem of Soul's damage reduction (provided Tidehunter has taken enough damage).
* Ravage cancels Requiem of Souls if Shadow Fiend isn't protected by
Black King Bar.
Additional:
* Kraken Shell dispels the damage amplification stacks of Shadowraze as well as the damage reduction from
Requiem of Souls (provided he has taken enough damage).
* Anchor Smash reduces Shadow Fiend's large attack damage, Kraken Shell makes Tidehunter the last target Shadow Fiend wants to attack.
* Ravage can easily cancel Requiem of Souls if Shadow Fiend isn't protected by
Black King Bar.
* Chen's fragility and low mobility make him an enticing Duel target.
* Overwhelming Odds and
Moment of Courage can take advantage of converted creeps's numbers.
* With enough damage from Duel stacks, Legion Commander can also often kill any of Chen's unfortunate allies before he can use Hand of God.
Additional:
* Chen's frailty and low mobility make him an enticing Duel target.
* Overwhelming Odds and Moment of Courage can take advantage of converted creeps' numbers.
* With enough damage from Duel stacks, Legion Commander can also often kill any of Chen's unfortunate allies before he can use Hand of God.
* Duel's long duration prevents Terrorblade from swapping his health with Sunder.
* Overwhelming Odds deals high damage to Terrorblade's illusions.
* Duel's long duration prevents Weaver from activating Time Lapse or escaping with
Shukuchi.
* Duels prevents Queen of Pain from using Blink, which may force her to purchase a
Linken's Sphere
* Because Queen of Pain is also not a right-click hero, Legion won't have much difficulties in duels.
* Press the Attack dispels Shadow Strike's debuff.
* Kraken Shell dispels Dual Breath,
Ice Path,
Liquid Frost,
Liquid Fire and even
Macropyre's Burn.
* It also completely negates the damage from Liquid Fire and Ice path, while heavily reducing the damage from all of his other abilities
* Jakiro is a naturally slow hero, Gush will allow you to easily catch him, while also reducing his Armor
* Heroes with long or multiple disables will prevent Legion Commander from winning Duels: Shadow Shaman,
Lion
* Tidehunter is a core builder of
Pipe of Insight. Along with natural high health pool, it's tough to burst the Leviathan down.
* Kraken Shell thwarts long disables attempts if
Tidehunter receives enough damage.
* Gush and
Ravage long cast and reach ranges will effortlessly hit
Lion, either bursting him down or making him extremely vulnerable and worn in matter of seconds.
* Lion is extremely dependent on his abilities. Silences like Silencer's
Last Word, magic resistance like
Oracle's
Fate's Edict, and dispels like
Legion Commander's
Press the Attack all make his abilities less effective.
* Duel makes Bristleback fight Legion Commander face to face, forcing him to take full damage.
* Press the Attack dispels the slow from stacks of Viscous Nasal Goo.
Additional:
* When dueled, Bristleback will have to face Legion head on, not allowing his passive Bristleback to come into effect.
* Ravage, being an AoE disable, cancels Epicenter's channeling from a long range, limiting his potential to counter-initiate.
* This can be remedied, however, by first using a Black King Bar, then channel Epicenter, then finally initiate with
Blink Dagger.
* Heroes with abilities that blind or cause Legion Commander to miss will prevent her from winning Duels: Arc Warden,
Keeper of the Light,
Riki,
Tinker
* Riki doesn't deal burst damage.Durable heroes (Axe,
Tidehunter etc.) will usually survive a jump from him,move out of Smoke Screen and potentially retaliate.
* Another great threat to Riki since her Duel forces him to fight from the front and expose him for the entire duration, almost always guaranteeing an easy win (unless Riki has allies helping him).
* Moment of Courage can become hard to deal with as it doesn't cease with silence.
* Drow Ranger's low mobility and lack of defensive abilities make her an easy gank target in the early to mid-game.
* A Dueling Drow Ranger will lose her precious Marksmanship, reduce her damage output significantly, and will more likely lose that Duel.
* Vengeful Spirit should carefully consider whether to use her Nether Swap on Tidehunter, as it can easily position him for a Ravage on Vengeful Spirit and her allies.
* Due to Magic Missile's high damage, Kraken Shell will often proc and clear Tidehunter's debuffs.
* Tidehunter takes close to no damage from Undying's zombies once he maxes out his Kraken Shell, especially if he gets the level 20 Kraken Shell upgrading talent. This might allow him to blink away to safety.
* 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 global abilities can give Legion Commander's opponent an edge in Duels from anywhere on the map: Nature's Prophet,
Ancient Apparition,
Zeus,
Invoker,
Treant Protector
* Most summons and illusions can barely hurt Tidehunter at all, after their attacks get reduced by Anchor Smash and blocked by Kraken Shell: Nature's Prophet,
Enigma
* Also Ravage's large area of effect and damage can easily damage all those units at once, or just straight up clear them.
* Legion Commander's
Overwhelming Odds deals damage for every Treant it hits, which allows it to easily wipe out large waves of them.
* Heroes rely on their debuff to control the opponent will have a hard time against Press the Attack: Venomancer,
Earth Spirit,
Ogre Magi
Additional:
* Press the Attack dispels Venomous Gale and Poison Sting from Legion Commander or her teammates.
* Venomancer is an ideal target for Duel due to his lack of mobility and low starting health.
* 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.
* Heroes such as Lone Druid,
Tidehunter and
Viper can be very problematic for Phantom Assassin because they give her very little time to farm and become scary.
* Heroes who rely on summons will see them destroyed easily by Overwhelming Odds: Lycan,
Arc Warden,
Warlock,
Chen
* Carries that can out damage Huskar will do well against him: Legion Commander,
Faceless Void,
Troll Warlord,
Phantom Assassin.
Additional:
* Life Break is almost suicidal when used on Legion Commander, as it invites an instant Duel and Legion Commander herself is a natural
Blade Mail carrier.
* Huskar's low survivability and mostly on low health make him particularly vulnerable to Legion Commander's high physical damage.
* Durable heroes: Axe,
Dawnbreaker,
Bristleback,
Mars,
Omniknight,
Tidehunter,
Wraith King,
Primal Beast,
Underlord.
* Heroes rely on their debuff to control the opponent will have a hard time against Press the Attack: Venomancer,
Earth Spirit,
Ogre Magi
* Bane has powerful single-target abilities that can help his allies win Duels, or at least cripple Legion Commander for the duration.
* Nightmare can waste Duel's entire duration as the dueled units transfer the Nightmare back and forth. This may be prevented if a non-Dueling unit attacks the Nightmared Dueler.
Additional:
* Enfeeble,
Nightmare and
Fiend's Grip all prevent Legion Commander from winning Duels, especially when Bane has
Blink Dagger.
* Kraken Shell dispels Fiend's Grip, wasting it easily. Additionally, in late game, it secures premature dispell of a level 4 Nightmare, in case of continuous Bane's rightclicks.
* Enfeeble only reduces distance of Gush, but not of
Anchor Smash or
Ravage, and thanks again to
Kraken Shell, is easily dispellable for him in team fights.
* Ravage affects large area, effectively reaching Bane's spot for applying Fiend's Grip, even with Glimmer Cape, Aether Lens and/or Aghanim's Scepter.
Additional:
* Kraken Shell dispels Fiend's Grip, wasting it easily.
* Heroes with strong dispels can dispel Bane's disables from their allies: Oracle,
Legion Commander,
Omniknight.
* Long lockdown is a great way to deal with Axe to prevent Berserker's Call from being used, heroes such as Legion Commander,
Beastmaster and
Primal Beast are good examples of this.
* Special mention to Legion Commander, as she can lock down Void Spirit for a long amount of time without worrying too much about being killed by him during the
Duel.
* Heroes with low health will die easily during Duels, and can be farmed for damage in the early game: Crystal Maiden,
Lich,
Techies,
Rubick
* Melee heroes who may struggle to get close to Sniper: Wraith King,
Kunkka,
Doom,
Tidehunter,
Underlord,
Troll Warlord, and etc.
* Sniper's low mobility and lack of defensive abilities make him an easy gank target for the entire game, especially if Blink Dagger is picked up.
* Heroes with abilities that blind or cause Legion Commander to miss will prevent her from winning Duels: Arc Warden,
Keeper of the Light,
Riki,
Tinker
* Press the Attack can dispel Blinding Light or Solar Bind from a hero.
* Duel can be used to instantly take Keeper of the Light out of a team-fight.
* Heroes with abilities that blind or cause Legion Commander to miss will prevent her from winning Duels: Arc Warden,
Keeper of the Light,
Riki,
Tinker
* Press the Attack can dispel Laser's blind while providing great attack speed and health regeneration.
* Once caught in a Duel, Tinker, who completely relies on his spells to be effective, has little chances of survival with his low health pool and armor.
* Enigma can be a perfect counter-initiator with his ultimate. A perfectly timed Black Hole will turn the tide of any initiation, especially from heroes like; Spirit Breaker,
Legion Commander,
Axe,
Puck, and
Slardar.
* Tidehunter's Anchor Smash will cripple all of Enigma's Eidolons, and at a higher level, Tidehunter will be capable to instantly kill the whole group of them for a boost of gold.
* Kraken Shell negates Eidolons's damage and Enigma's auto attacks, making laning against Tidehunter nearly impossible for Enigma.
* Ravage has an insane radius, and considering that Enigma is prone to waiting around for a
Blink Dagger and
Black King Bar combo,
Ravage's stun may catch Enigma off guard and put
Blink Dagger on cooldown, limiting him a crucial teamfight time.
* Heroes that cannot move in fights such as a Dueling
Legion Commander or anyone channeling a spell like
Bane,
Pudge, or
Enigma are easy Sacred Arrow targets.
* Heroes that can protect or dispel stunned allies such as Legion Commander,
Outworld Destroyer,
Shadow Demon and
Oracle can reduce the effectiveness of Sacred Arrow.
* Heroes with strong team-fight abilities (especially ultimates) like Tidehunter,
Brewmaster,
Death Prophet, etc.
Additional:
* Fade Bolt reduces damage output of Anchor Smash.
* Ravage is an easy target to Spell Steal, so always be sure to use Anchor Smash immediately after Ravage when playing against a Rubick.
* Spells stolen by Rubick are potentially stronger due to the lack of cast animations, his talents, and his passive, Arcane Supremacy.
* Heroes with low health will die easily during Duels, and can be farmed for damage in the early game: Crystal Maiden,
Lich,
Techies,
Rubick
* Both Gush and
Ravage do little damage against Counterspell.
* Blink helps Anti-Mage escape through Anchor Smash.
* Tidehunter's small mana pool can be eated by Mana Break, preventing to spam his abilities and ignores the protection from Kraken Shell.
Additional:
* Mana Break quickly burns Tidehunter's mana pool, preventing him from spamming his abilities, and Kraken Shell does not mitigate the bonus damage component.
* Blink allows Anti-Mage to enter combat quickly and safely after Ravage.
* A well-timed Counterspell can reflect Gush back at Tidehunter.
* Duel renders Anti-Mage's escape capabilities with Blink and Counterspell useless.
Blade Mail and
Moment of Courage work well against Anti-Mage's relatively low health.
* A good initiation from Legion Commander and her team is enough to effortlessly kill Anti-Mage.
Additional:
* Counterspell offer no protection against Duel at all.
* Duel locks down Anti-Mage for a long duration, preventing him from escaping with Blink. One successful Duel initiation is usually enough for Legion Commander's team to kill Anti-Mage.
* Kraken Shell neither dispels nor provides damage reduction against Spirit Siphon. This ability also drains health based on percentage damage, making Tidehunter's large healthpool a very appealing target. Furthermore, the health gained from the Siphon is independent from the amount of damage dealt, so Death Prophet will always heal a large amount of from Tidehunter's pool even if Tidehunter has magic reduction items or abilities on him, which makes her an untargetable enemy for you as this easily outweights any damage output you can provide.
* Exorcism is yet another ability from which Kraken Shell provides no useful protection, as the spirits completely ignore the damage block and are unaffected by the dispel. This ability also creates an unfriendly area where your blink will be constantly cancelled, reducing your ability to land a good Ravage.
* Ravage does not stop neither Spirit Siphon nor
Exorcism, making the ability mostly ineffective against her. Additionally, Death Prophet usually builds
Eul's Scepter of Divinity, which can be used to dodge the stun entirely.
* Duel is a great initiation to kill Death Prophet before she can cast Exorcism. Furthermore, Legion Commander often builds
Blade Mail and can reflect Exorcism's damage to kill Death Prophet easily.
* Paralyzing Cask can save ally from Legion Commander Duel's until she purchases
Aghanim's Scepter.
* Voodoo Restoration can heal Witch Doctor allies from Duel's.
* Death Ward can help Witch Doctor allies from winning Duel's, if, he is not a target.
* Kraken Shell dispels the stun from Paralyzing Cask. However, it does not dispel the damage from Maledict.
* Once Witch Doctor first uses his Death Ward in team fights, Tidehunter can simply cancel it with Ravage, turning the tables against him, especially if Witch Doctor does not have a
Black King Bar.
* As a precaution, Witch Doctor should let Tidehunter use Ravage first before channeling Death Ward to turn a team fight in his favor.
* Ravage's travel time allows Nyx Assassin to easily stun Tidehunter with Spiked Carapace.
* Vendetta can instantly deplete Tidehunter's low mana pool, especially in the early game, potentially preventing Tidehunter from casting Ravage.
* Duel's long duration prevents Nyx Assassin escaping from Vendetta. With Aghanim's Scepter, she can also bypass
Spiked Carapace.
* Positioning-reliant heroes (Windranger,
Tidehunter,
Ursa...), since Earth Spirit can disrupt positioning with his Boulder Smash.
* Heroes rely on their debuff to control the opponent will have a hard time against Press the Attack: Venomancer,
Earth Spirit,
Ogre Magi
* Viper STrike cancels out
Kraken Shell and stops the hard dispel from passively activating, preventing Tidehunter from functioning as a frontline tank.
* Anchor Smash is mostly irrelevant against a ranged hero like Viper.
* Tidehunter relies on the threat of Ravage, which has an obscenely long cooldown. Viper can exploit the downtime with his short cooldowns.
* Viper's frailty and low mobility make him an enticing Duel target and Corrosive Skin doesn't protect him against Legion Commander physical attacks.
* Press the Attack can dispel Poison Attack.
* Viper slows can easily negate by Overwhelming Odds movement speed.
* Kraken Shell provides no protection against Omnislash or
Swiftslash.
* If timed correctly, Omnislash,
Swiftslash and
Blade Fury are all capable of dodging Ravage, giving Juggernaut several tools to render your strongest ability moot.
* Blade Fury is an effective way to harass Tidehunter in the laning stage as Tidehunter has no means of getting Juggernaut away from him.
Healing Ward also greatly minimizes Tidehunter's ability to harass Juggernaut.
* Blade Dance minimizes the effectiveness of Anchor Smash's damage reduction.
* Duel pierces spell immunity and forces him to attack Legion Commander, making him unable to use
Omnislash.
* Heroes with long or multiple disables will prevent Legion Commander from winning Duels: Shadow Shaman,
Lion
* Pudge,
Legion Commander and
Axe will make the match a living hell for Shadow Shaman, since they are known for surprise attacks from the fog and quickly killing low HP heroes. They can also interrupt Shadow Shaman's channeling, Legion being especially problematic, as she can use
Press the Attack on an ally who is hexed as well.
* Heroes with low mana pools (eg.Doom and
Tidehunter) will feel the effects of Silencer's Intelligence Steal far more than others.
* Heroes that can disable or silence Silencer for a long time, such as Bane and
Legion Commander, can lock down Silencer while their allies put him down.
* Tethered heroes are much harder for Legion Commander to kill in Duels.
* Relocate can cancel Duels and save allies.
* Duel is very effective against Io due to its low health and armor.
* Gravekeeper's Cloak protects Visage from Legion Commander's attacks for most of Duel's duration.
* Chain stuns from Visage's familiars prevents Legion Commander from winning Duels.
* Visage's Familiars cannot penetrate Kraken Shell and will do almost no damage to
Tidehunter even with
Medallion of Courage or
Solar Crest.
* Anchor Smash's bonus damage has the potential to kill Familiars.
To start select enemy heroes in the field above. It's intended to be used with multiple heroes. The more enemy heroes you provide the better results you will get.
This website was made to help you in pick stage of online game Dota 2. It calculates rating for each possible counterpicks based on tips from web-based database made up entirely of user contributions Dota 2 wiki.
You will get the list of recommended hero counters with a list of tips written by Dota 2 wiki contributors explaining why it's good against the particular hero. In comparison to other similar websites, which show only rating based on average hero win rate from dotabuff or similar service.
Take it with a bit of grain of salt, especially if the recommendation has a low rating (<= 1), some heroes
may win a lane in an early game but would lose in late game (and vice versa). That's why sometimes
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Tidehunter
* Kraken Shell's dispel does not restore mana lost through
Astral Imprisonment, and the stolen mana can really hurt Tidehunter's ability to initiate
Arcane Orb high pure damage ignores Tidehunter's Armor, and is barely affected by his Kraken Shell's damage block
Sanity's Eclipse is effective on Tidehunter's poor mana pool, While it is reduced by Kraken Shell, the damage reduction is negligible.
*
* It is also completely unaffected by Anchor Smash, due to it relying on Outworlds Mana pool
*
Legion Commander
*
Astral Imprisonment prevents Legion Commander from killing her opponents in Duels.
Duel with Astral Imprisonment, and he can inflict heavy damage on Legion Commander with Arcane Orb to aid his ally. However, if he gets caught, he is unlikely to survive the duel, due to his lack of durability.
Additional:
* Outworld Destroyer can save an ally hero caught by