* Heroes with Evasion or abilities that cause Tiny to miss like
Phantom Assassin and
Tinker are very effective because of Tiny's low attack speed. Additionally,
Monkey King Bar is not a good item for Tiny because of its reliance on high attack speed to proc for magical damage.
* Heroes with powerful spammable abilities will prove problematic for Grimstroke as Ink Swell does not protect him from them:
Zeus,
Skywrath Mage,
Tinker,
Lina
* Dual Breath and Liquid Fire reduces Tiny's already abysmal Attack Speed.
* If Tiny
Tosses a hero onto Jakiro, he can react with Ice Path, and potentially Macropyre.
* Tiny's
Avalanche is easily countered with Ice Path.
* As Tiny has a very high Health, Liquid Frost is particularly effective against him.
* Primal Roar and the slow from Boars make kiting Tiny very easy.
*
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.
*
Stampede can allow Soulbinded heroes to just ran away.
*
Disruption instantly removes Phantom Embrace, and can potentially save allies affected by Soulbind.
*
Demonic Purge dispels Ink Swell.
* Tiny has low movement speed and attack speed, making him vulnerable to Viper's slows.
*
Corrosive Skin provides magic resistance to lower Tiny's magic burst damage.
*
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.
*
Nether Swap breaks one ally out of Soulbind, and can be used to redistribute the shared damage to Vengeful Spirit herself.
*
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.
* Invoker is a big problem for Tiny the whole game because of its multiple disables. For example, such as
Tornado +
E.M.P. create unrealistic conditions for Tiny with mana, which is very necessary for Tiny at least for some attacks in a fight. The
Cold Snap ability can catch an attack from Tiny's hand by surprise, because it becomes slower with the pumping of
Grow. has a giant deceleration, creating a condition for the kite, which Tiny is very afraid of. In addition, Invoker has a
Deafening Blast that disables Tiny's main weapon - strong blows from the hand
Additional:
* Invoker is a big problem for Tiny the whole game because of its multiple disables. For example, the
Cold Snap ability can catch an attack from Tiny's hand by surprise, because it becomes slower with the pumping of
Grow. has a giant deceleration, creating a condition for the kite, which Tiny is very afraid of. In addition, Invoker has a
Deafening Blast that disables Tiny's main weapon - strong blows from the hand
*
Feast will deal a enormous amount of damage because of Tiny's huge health pool.
*
Rage protects Lifestealer from Tiny's magical burst damage.
*
Blade Fury protects Juggernaut from all of Tiny's magic burst damage.
* Heroes with powerful spammable abilities will prove problematic for Grimstroke as Ink Swell does not protect him from them:
Zeus,
Skywrath Mage,
Tinker,
Lina
* Due to Tiny's non-existent agility gain, high physical damage heroes are more effective against him (
Clinkz,
Templar Assassin,
Ursa,
Wraith King etc).
* Long ranged heroes like
Sniper or
Drow Ranger can kite Tiny effectively if he doesn't get the jump on them first.
* 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 mobility spells can quickly escape from Stroke of Fate or break out of Soulbind:
Anti-Mage,
Queen of Pain,
Morphling,
Storm Spirit
* Heroes with Evasion or abilities that cause Tiny to miss like
Phantom Assassin and
Tinker are very effective because of Tiny's low attack speed. Additionally,
Monkey King Bar is not a good item for Tiny because of its reliance on high attack speed to proc for magical damage.
* Heroes that are able to slow Tiny's attack speed, like
Tusk and
Phoenix, will greatly limit his Physical damage output.
* Heroes with mobility spells can quickly escape from Stroke of Fate or break out of Soulbind:
Anti-Mage,
Queen of Pain,
Morphling,
Storm Spirit
* 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 mobility spells can quickly escape from Stroke of Fate or break out of Soulbind:
Anti-Mage,
Queen of Pain,
Morphling,
Storm Spirit
* Due to Tiny's non-existent agility gain, high physical damage heroes are more effective against him (
Clinkz,
Templar Assassin,
Ursa,
Wraith King etc).
* 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
* Heroes that have disposable area-targeted spells can force her to undo her Meld:
Leshrac,
Puck,
Tiny,
Jakiro,. An experienced Templar Assassin could try to use Refraction before Meld so she can tank through those damage without getting her Blink disabled.
* Heroes that are able to slow Tiny's attack speed, like
Tusk and
Phoenix, will greatly limit his Physical damage output.
* Due to Tiny's non-existent agility gain, high physical damage heroes are more effective against him (
Clinkz,
Templar Assassin,
Ursa,
Wraith King etc).
* He can quickly take out heroes with low armor (
Tiny) with his great physical damage.
*
Chaos Bolt and
Reality Rift makes Tiny's low mobility non existent.
*
Chaos Strike means Chaos Knight will most likely survive longer in a duel between the two because Tiny has much lower attack speed.
* Chaos Knight has a 3.2 strength growth, making him one of the most tanky heroes and a very difficult target for Tiny to burst.
* Heroes who are reliant on illusions or summons:
Chaos Knight,
Broodmother,
Naga Siren.
* Lion can continuously
Mana Drain Tiny in the early game, depleting his small mana pool for his abilities.
* Squishy heroes, usually supports, like
Lion,
Ancient Apparition,
Keeper of the Light etc can die quickly to Tiny's magic burst.
*
Toss and
Avalanche deals heavy damage to Slark in the early game, making Tiny a very dangerous target to gank.
* Tiny has 0 agility, which means Slark's
Essence Shift permanent agility steal does not do much against him.
*
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.
* Tiny can be a serious problem for the distance between Lone Druid and his
Summon Spirit Bear with his
Toss ability, since he will throw one away from the other, giving his team the opportunity to deal with either the
Summon Spirit Bear or Lone Druid himself
* Lone Druid will not always be in his
True Form, since she has her own recharge, which is why Tiny can find him with a
Shadow Blade or
Blink Dagger and kill him in a second with a combination of
Avalanche and
Toss, due to the fact that Lone Druid has a very small health reserve without
True Form
Additional:
* Tiny can be a serious problem for the distance between Lone Druid and his
Summon Spirit Bear with his
Toss ability, since he will throw one away from the other, giving his team the opportunity to deal with either the
Summon Spirit Bear or Lone Druid himself
* Lone Druid will not always be in his
True Form, since she has her own recharge, which is why Tiny can find him with a
Shadow Blade or
Blink Dagger and kill him in a second with a combination of
Avalanche and
Toss, due to the fact that Lone Druid has a very small health reserve without
True Form
* Grimstroke's
Soulbind will always reliably connect onto both of them if they are close together.
* Tiny can quickly clear Spiderlings with his active abilities and cleave.
* 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.
* Avalanche and Toss combo makes short work of
Mirror Image's illusions.
* Tiny's cleave with Tree Grab and area of effect damage with Tree Volley will easily wipe out illusions.
* Heroes who are reliant on illusions or summons:
Chaos Knight,
Broodmother,
Naga Siren.
* Timbersaw is completely powerless against
Phantom's Embrace if
Chakram is out.
Additional:
* 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.
* 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.
*
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.
Additional:
* 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.
* 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.
*
Soulbind ignores spell immunity, forcing Pangolier to roll in place during his ultimate as well as anchoring the other victim to his vicinity.
* 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.
Additional:
* 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.
* Avalanche and Toss prevents Meepo's from using
Poof to escape.
* Tiny doesn't need to target the weakest clone while he is affected by Tree Grab.
*
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.
* 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
* Squishy heroes, usually supports, like
Lion,
Ancient Apparition,
Keeper of the Light etc can die quickly to Tiny's magic burst.
* Heroes with powerful channeling abilities are easily interrupted by Phantom's Embrace:
Bane,
Pudge,
Witch Doctor,
Crystal Maiden,
Enigma.
* 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.
* Side lanes with disables will greatly reduce the likeliness Void Spirit will be willing to rotate:
Sven,
Tiny,
Wraith King,
Ogre Magi.
* Heroes with powerful channeling abilities are easily interrupted by Phantom's Embrace:
Bane,
Pudge,
Witch Doctor,
Crystal Maiden,
Enigma.
* Heroes with powerful channeling abilities are easily interrupted by Phantom's Embrace:
Bane,
Pudge,
Witch Doctor,
Crystal Maiden,
Enigma.
* Squishy heroes, usually supports, like
Lion,
Ancient Apparition,
Keeper of the Light etc can die quickly to Tiny's magic burst.
* 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 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 without blink mechanisms or spell immunity will have a hard time positioning against
Pit of Malice:
Sven,
Tiny,
Wraith King,
Dragon Knight,
Meepo,
Doom,
Bounty Hunter,
Dark Seer,
Undying,
Alchemist,
Legion Commander.
* 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.
* Heroes with high base damage (
Morphling,
Tiny,
Drow Ranger), heroes with mana burning abilities (
Anti-Mage), and
Diffusal Blade users (
Juggernaut or
Riki) will suffer from Reflection's illusions.
* Heroes who can summon illusions and summons because Terrorblade has no abilities to deal with multiple enemies at once outside Reflection:
Shadow Shaman,
Naga Siren,
Broodmother,
Lycan,
Enigma,
Chaos Knight,
Phantom Lancer,
Shadow Demon,
Dark Seer,
Nature's Prophet,
Invoker,
Morphling,
Visage,
Grimstroke with
Aghanim's Scepter.
Additional:
* 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.
* Familiars will easily be able to kite heroes with a short range or with low attack speed. For example,
Tiny and
Undying have a very hard time killing Familiars.
* Tiny can deal with
Visage's
Gravekeeper's Cloak quickly, as Avalanche deals damage in enough instances to completely remove all 4 layers of the passive. With Visage's lower than average Armor, a well positioned stun can allow Tiny to kill Visage easily.
Additional:
*
Tiny's
Avalanche removes a significant number of layers from Gravekeeper's Cloak. When combined with
Toss burns through all of Gravekeeper's Cloak while doing triple times Toss damage to Visage in midair.
* Tiny's already high damage coupled with
Tree Grab's attack modifier will make short work of Visage's Familiars.
* Due to Tiny's non-existent agility gain, high physical damage heroes are more effective against him (
Clinkz,
Templar Assassin,
Ursa,
Wraith King etc).
* Heroes who rely heavily on melee attacks and lack early spell immunity are easily blocked and interrupted by Ink Swell:
Lycan,
Ursa,
Troll Warlord.
*
Reaper's Scythe will turn Tiny's high health against him.
*
Heartstopper Aura does substantial damage to Tiny as a result of his high max health.
*
Ghost Shroud protects Necrophos from Tiny's physical damage with Tree Grab and Tree Volley.
*
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.
* Tiny's nonexistent armor in the early game makes him very vulnerable to
Quill Spray's large amounts of physical damage.
*
Bristleback decreases Tiny's high burst damage against Bristleback.
*
Viscous Nasal Goo can slow Tiny to a crawl and allows Bristleback to easily kite him with his high movement speed and Quill Spray's long range, as Tiny has no ability to escape.
*
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.
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
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Tiny
* Long ranged heroes like
Sniper or
Drow Ranger can kite Tiny effectively if he doesn't get the jump on them first.
Grimstroke
* 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.