Invoker
[wiki] rating: 2.0 (winrate: 48% pickrate: 14%)Outworld Destroyer
[wiki] rating: 1.6 (winrate: 51% pickrate: 10%)Winter Wyvern
* Outworld Destroyer's pure damage from Arcane Orb can go through Cold Embrace.
* Outworld Destroyer can negate the healing from Cold Embrace using Astral Imprisonment, and steal mana while doing so.
* Outworld Destroyer's damage during Winter's Curse is reduced due to Arcane Orb being unable to target allies.
Additional:
* Winter Wyvern must never put her allies in Cold Embrace against Outworld Destroyer as Arcane Orb will continue to deal damage to the defenseless hero.
* Arcane Orb does not hit his allies when he is taunted by Winter's Curse, making it weak against allies, but strong versus enemies.
* Astral Imprisonment can protect a target inflicted with Winter's Curse.
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.
Death Prophet
[wiki] rating: 1.0 (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.
Undying
[wiki] rating: 1.0 (winrate: 52% pickrate: 10%)Winter Wyvern
* Winter Wyvern cannot handle the Zombies created by Undying's Tombstone very well. In most situations, Zombies will have more movement speed than her.
* Undying can gain one or two easy Decay stacks on an ally in Cold Embrace. The ally will still take the damage as well.
Additional:
* Winter Wyvern cannot handle the Zombies created by Tombstone very well. In most situations, Zombies will have more movement speed than her.
* Undying can gain one or two easy Decay stacks on an ally in Cold Embrace. The ally will still take the damage as well, since it is magical.
Ursa
[wiki] rating: 1.0 (winrate: 52% pickrate: 15%)Winter Wyvern
* Fury Swipes does not work on allies, mitigating a majority of Ursa's damage.
* Ursa's unimpressive attack speed and attack damage without Overpower and
Fury Swipes means that he deals little to no damage to allies.
* Aghanim's Scepter upgraded
Enrage allows Ursa to survive Winter Wyvern's initiation.
Oracle
[wiki] rating: 1.0 (winrate: 51% pickrate: 4%)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.
Weaver
[wiki] rating: 1.0 (winrate: 50% pickrate: 3%)Primal Beast
* Shukuchi allows Weaver to have faster move-speed and can outrun Primal Beast in most instances, such as while he is trampling.
* Trample disarms Primal Beast, so casting 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.
Skywrath Mage
[wiki] rating: 1.0 (winrate: 50% pickrate: 10%)Winter Wyvern
* Cold Embrace is a perfect setup for Mystic Flare.
* Winter Wyvern is a spellcaster, and the 6 second silence from Ancient Seal can prevent her from contributing much.
* Because Skywrath Mage tends to stay back in fights, Winter Wyvern will have to get close to a teamfight to cast Winter's Curse on him. And if she chooses to cast it on one of his allies, his low attack speed and damage means that he won't do much.
* However, bear in mind that Skywrath Mage has seriously awful armor, and that can make him an adequate target to being turned against his own team with Winter's Curse, which can result in his death quickly.
Additional:
* Cold Embrace is the perfect setup for Mystic Flare, and his 6-second silence is good against Winter Wyvern in general.
Clockwerk
[wiki] rating: 1.0 (winrate: 49% pickrate: 8%)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.
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.
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.
Timbersaw
[wiki] rating: 1.0 (winrate: 46% pickrate: 5%)Winter Wyvern
* Timbersaw relies on dealing massive amounts of pure damage, making Cold Embrace a good setup for his nukes.
* If he has Reactive Armor stacks, Timbersaw can tank the damage from his allies if he is targeted by Winter's Curse. If he's not the target, Timbersaw's abysmal attack damage will contribute next to nothing when he is cursed to attack an ally.
* Since Timbersaw build Lotus Orb, Winter's Curse it' s hard for Winter Wyvern makes reflected back taunted to herself
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.
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.
Dark Willow
[wiki] rating: 0.6 (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.
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.
Lina
[wiki] rating: 0.6 (winrate: 50% pickrate: 16%)Winter Wyvern
* Heavy nukers will do well against Cold Embrace (Lina,
Zeus etc).
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.
Zeus
[wiki] rating: 0.6 (winrate: 49% pickrate: 14%)Winter Wyvern
* Heavy nukers will do well against Cold Embrace (Lina,
Zeus etc).
Additional:
* Any ally that Winter Wyvern tries to save with Cold Embrace can still be damaged by all of Zeus's spells.
* If Winter Wyvern tries to juke vision by flying up a cliff or in the trees, Zeus can gain vision there with Lightning Bolt or Thundergod's Wrath.
* If Zeus is forced to attack an ally by Winter's Curse, his unimpressive attack damage and attack speed means they won't be hurt much by him. Zeus will also stay near the back of fights away from his allies, making a deadly Curse less likely.
Shadow Shaman
[wiki] rating: 0.6 (winrate: 49% pickrate: 6%)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.
Bane
[wiki] rating: 0.6 (winrate: 48% pickrate: 2%)Winter Wyvern
* Heroes that depend on disrupting fights with ability combos or big ultimate abilities are vulnerable to the long stun of Fiend's Grip: Disruptor,
Death Prophet,
Enigma,
Faceless Void,
Invoker,
Lich,
Magnus,
Mars,
Medusa,
Outworld Destroyer,
Phoenix,
Puck,
Queen of Pain,
Shadow Fiend,
Treant Protector,
Underlord,
Winter Wyvern,
Witch Doctor,
Zeus.
Shadow Demon
[wiki] rating: 0.6 (winrate: 47% pickrate: 1%)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: 0.6 (winrate: 45% pickrate: 10%)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.
Tinker
[wiki] rating: 0.4 (winrate: 56% pickrate: 11%)Winter Wyvern
* All of his damage is magical and pure, which makes Cold Embrace a good setup for his nukes.
* Winter's Curse is very hard to cast on Tinker because he usually stays in the back-lines in team-fights. In turn, Tinker has mediocre attack damage and will contribute very little when he is cursed to attack an ally. He can also save his ally under Winter's Curse effect with Ethereal Blade and
Defense Matrix.
Primal Beast
* Heroes with unorthodox escapes will struggle against Primal Beast, such as Nature's Prophet,
Tinker, and
Templar Assassin.
Omniknight
[wiki] rating: 0.4 (winrate: 55% pickrate: 3%)Winter Wyvern
* Guardian Angel completely counters Winter's Curse if Omniknight is able to cast it.
Additional:
* Guardian Angel completely counters Winter's Curse, allowing his team to survive Winter Wyvern's initiation.
* Purification and
Heavenly Grace are very useful against Arctic Burn, Splinter Blast and Winter's Curse as well.
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...
Luna
[wiki] rating: 0.4 (winrate: 49% pickrate: 2%)Winter Wyvern
* Cold Embrace is no salvation against Lucent Beam and
Eclipse.
* Moon Glaives will not hit a hero affected by Winter's Curse, making it weak against allies, but strong versus enemies.
* Luna has better night vision provided by Lunar Blessing than Winter Wyvern when affected by Arctic Burn.
Additional:
* Cold Embrace is no salvation against Lucent Beam and
Eclipse.
* Moon Glaives will not hit a hero affected by Winter's Curse, making it weak against allies, but strong versus enemies.
* Luna has better night vision provided by Lunar Blessing than Winter Wyvern when affected by Arctic Burn.
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...
Faceless Void
[wiki] rating: 0.4 (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.
Winter Wyvern
* Any hero that can nullify effects of Chronosphere: (Keeper of the Light with
Aghanim's Scepter during daytime,
Winter Wyvern), banishing him or Faceless Void (
Outworld Destroyer,
Shadow Demon,
Earth Spirit with
Aghanim's Scepter) or protecting him in other ways (
Dazzle,
Oracle,
Abaddon) can greatly limit Chronosphere's potential.
Spectre
[wiki] rating: -2.0 (winrate: 51% pickrate: 11%)Winter Wyvern
* Arctic Burn makes it nearly impossible for Spectre to juke into the trees.
* Cold Embrace negates all of Spectre's physical damage. Furthermore, Cold Embrace will generally outheal
Desolate.
* Winter's Curse can taunt illusions, not only wasting the entire duration of
Haunt but also turning its illusions against Spectre's own team.
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.
Morphling
[wiki] rating: -1.6 (winrate: 44% pickrate: 8%)Winter Wyvern
* Winter Wyvern's
Winter's Curse turns Morphling's high attack damage and attack speed against his targeted teammate.
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.
Phantom Assassin
[wiki] rating: -1.6 (winrate: 46% pickrate: 10%)Winter Wyvern
* Many physical-only single-target heroes like Lifestealer,
Sven,
Wraith King,
Phantom Assassin,
Templar Assassin can have their damage mitigated by Cold Embrace.
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%)Winter Wyvern
* Cold Embrace protects Reality Rift targets.
* Winter's Curse turns Phantasm illusions against Chaos Knight or a teammate.
* Splinter Blast deals decent area damage to Phantasm illusions.
* Arctic Burn's percentage-based damage quickly wears down Chaos Knight's high max health.
Additional:
* Winter Wyvern can make Chaos Knight's illusions attack the real one, provided the player knows who it is.
* Alternatively, Winter's Curse can make Chaos Knight and all his illusions attack one of his allies.
* Cold Embrace protects ally who is focused by Chaos Knight.
* Splinter Blast deals decent area damage to Chaos Knight's illusions.
* Chaos Knight's high health pool and tendency to not build magic resistance items will make Arctic Burn deal a lot of damage to him and his illusions.
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%)Winter Wyvern
* Heroes with abilities that can save teammates are also effective such as Shadow Demon,
Dazzle,
Oracle,
Bane,
Pugna,
Tusk,
Winter Wyvern,
Io,
Underlord,
Treant Protector and
Keeper of the Light.
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.
Broodmother
[wiki] rating: -1.6 (winrate: 54% pickrate: 3%)Winter Wyvern
* Broodmother,
Nature's Prophet,
Phantom Lancer by their nature offer very good target for Splinter Blast and Winter's Curse.
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: -1.2 (winrate: 45% pickrate: 2%)Winter Wyvern
* Terrorblade and his illusions deal huge damage, which might used against him and his team with Winter's Curse.
Primal Beast
* Illusion heroes will struggle against Primal Beast's area damage capability, such as Chaos Knight,
Naga Siren,
Terrorblade.
Nature's Prophet
[wiki] rating: -1.2 (winrate: 46% pickrate: 12%)Winter Wyvern
* Broodmother,
Nature's Prophet,
Phantom Lancer by their nature offer very good target for Splinter Blast and Winter's Curse.
Primal Beast
* Heroes with unorthodox escapes will struggle against Primal Beast, such as Nature's Prophet,
Tinker, and
Templar Assassin.
Templar Assassin
[wiki] rating: -1.2 (winrate: 48% pickrate: 4%)Winter Wyvern
* Many physical-only single-target heroes like Lifestealer,
Sven,
Wraith King,
Phantom Assassin,
Templar Assassin can have their damage mitigated by Cold Embrace.
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...
Sniper
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 44% pickrate: 11%)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.
Magnus
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 51% pickrate: 15%)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.
Underlord
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 51% pickrate: 3%)Winter Wyvern
* Winter's Curse and
Splinter Blast can devastate Underlord's team when they're grouped up for Dark Rift.
Beastmaster
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 51% pickrate: 2%)Winter Wyvern
* Cold Embrace mitigates Primal Roar's single-target initiation on allies.
* Winter's Curse can turn Beastmaster's summons and Inner Beast against his teammate.
Additional:
* Beastmaster's summons and Inner Beast are very useful to attack his cursed teammate.
* Cold Embrace effectively mitigates Primal Roar's single-target initiation on allies.
Io
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 51% pickrate: 4%)Winter Wyvern
* Cold Embrace can render the extra attack speed from Overcharge meaningless.
* Splinter Blast and
Winter's Curse are very affective against Io, as it has to stay close to its tethered hero.
Razor
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 52% pickrate: 7%)Primal Beast
* Onslaught prevents all of Razor's abilities from being effective against him, especially in the laning stage.
Clinkz
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 52% pickrate: 7%)Winter Wyvern
* Cold Embrace can heal herself or an ally, as well as protecting them from Clinkz's physical attacks and wasting his mana if Searing Arrows is on autocast.
* Winter's Curse allows Winter Wyvern to turn Clinkz's high damage and high attack speed against his allies, or take advantage of Clinkz's fragility if he can't use Skeleton Walk.
Meepo
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 56% pickrate: 1%)Winter Wyvern
* Winter's Curse in late game is pretty much the end for Meepo or any of his nearby allies. Natural counter for Winter's Curse like
Linken's Sphere or
Lotus Orb is meaningless to her if she can land it on one of your clones.
Additional:
* Meepo's clones usually gets grouped in teamfight making any of them ideal target for Winter's Curse, forcing Meepo to literally kill himself. Also, unlike other heroes he cannot protect himself with Linken's Sphere.
* While Meepo's clones are grouped up, Splinter Blast will hit almost every clone, slowing Meepo and making him easier to fight.
Lycan
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 57% pickrate: 3%)Winter Wyvern
* Arctic Burn allows Winter Wyvern to escape Lycan, even when he uses his ultimate.
* Splinter Blast is very effective in dealing with Lycan's summons.
* Cold Embrace saves allies from Lycan's raw physical damage and can buy allies enough time to turn the tide of battle.
* Winter's Curse stops Lycan in his tracks and is very effective because of his summons.
Additional:
* All of Lycan's damage is physical which is totally negated by Cold Embrace.
* Lycan often moves around with large amount of creeps, wolves created by Summon Wolves and neutral creep dominated by
Helm of the Dominator which can be easily cleared by Splinter Blast or used as a great source of damage by Winter's Curse. If you catch Lycan with creeps nearby and affected by
Shapeshift using Winter's Curse on him will most certainly end up with his death.
Medusa
[wiki] rating: -0.6 (winrate: 45% pickrate: 1%)Primal Beast
* Hard carries who just want to farm and be left alone will not appreciate Primal Beast, heroes such as Medusa,
Drow Ranger...
Doom
[wiki] rating: -0.6 (winrate: 47% pickrate: 8%)Winter Wyvern
* Heroes with the ability to heal allies, or those with good defensive abilities: Chen,
Dazzle,
Io,
Oracle,
Omniknight,
Witch Doctor,
Winter Wyvern,
Abaddon, etc.
Pangolier
[wiki] rating: -0.6 (winrate: 48% pickrate: 9%)Winter Wyvern
* Heroes with other kind of disables that pierce spell immunity can hold Pangolier in place during Rolling Thunder: Axe,
Beastmaster,
Enigma,
Magnus,
Pudge,
Batrider,
Bane,
Winter Wyvern
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...
Wraith King
[wiki] rating: -0.6 (winrate: 48% pickrate: 4%)Winter Wyvern
* Many physical-only single-target heroes like Lifestealer,
Sven,
Wraith King,
Phantom Assassin,
Templar Assassin can have their damage mitigated by Cold Embrace.
Lifestealer
[wiki] rating: -0.6 (winrate: 49% pickrate: 5%)Winter Wyvern
* Many physical-only single-target heroes like Lifestealer,
Sven,
Wraith King,
Phantom Assassin,
Templar Assassin can have their damage mitigated by Cold Embrace.
Keeper of the Light
[wiki] rating: -0.6 (winrate: 49% pickrate: 3%)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...
Crystal Maiden
[wiki] rating: -0.6 (winrate: 49% pickrate: 13%)Primal Beast
* Any hero with low mobility and max healthsuch as Silencer,
Crystal Maiden etc.
Axe
[wiki] rating: -0.6 (winrate: 49% pickrate: 9%)Winter Wyvern
* Heroes who can slow and kite Axe will severely inhibit his presence in fights: Bristleback,
Crystal Maiden,
Batrider,
Arc Warden,
Winter Wyvern,
Clockwerk
Phantom Lancer
[wiki] rating: -0.6 (winrate: 50% pickrate: 2%)Winter Wyvern
* Broodmother,
Nature's Prophet,
Phantom Lancer by their nature offer very good target for Splinter Blast and Winter's Curse.
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.
Centaur Warrunner
[wiki] rating: -0.6 (winrate: 51% pickrate: 7%)Winter Wyvern
* Winter Wyvern's
Arctic Burn can also be a useful tool against Centaur, who generally has very high health.
Winter's Curse on Centaur can cause Retaliate to damage allies who are forced to attack him.
Naga Siren
[wiki] rating: -0.6 (winrate: 51% pickrate: 3%)Primal Beast
* Illusion heroes will struggle against Primal Beast's area damage capability, such as Chaos Knight,
Naga Siren,
Terrorblade.
Silencer
[wiki] rating: -0.6 (winrate: 52% pickrate: 15%)Primal Beast
* Any hero with low mobility and max healthsuch as Silencer,
Crystal Maiden etc.
Lone Druid
[wiki] rating: -0.4 (winrate: 55% pickrate: 3%)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.
Winter Wyvern
* Cold Embrace can protect allies from Lone Druid and the Spirit bear, who mainly deal physical damage
* Winter's Curse can turn Lone Druid and the Spirit Bear against his teammates.
Pugna
[wiki] rating: 0.0 (winrate: 47% pickrate: 3%)Winter Wyvern
* Cold Embrace is a death sentence against Pugna, since its the perfect setup for all his abilities, especially Life Drain.
* Decrepify can be cast to save the ally under Winter's Curse effect, wasting most of its duration.
* Winter Wyvern's abilities require a lot of mana, allowing Nether Ward to deal lots of damage.
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.
Sven
[wiki] rating: 0.0 (winrate: 48% pickrate: 2%)Primal Beast
* Storm Hammer is a good stun used in response to Primal Beast's initiation.
* Warcry can be used to outrun Primal Beast, or in response to his Uproar damage boost.
* God's Strength will make sure work of Primal Beast if caught alone due to it's increased damage.
Winter Wyvern
* Cold Embrace saves any ally Sven initiates on and wastes the duration of God's Strength in team fights.
* Winter's Curse can be devastating to Sven's team, as his massive damage can take out a teammate before there is much time to react.
Ogre Magi
[wiki] rating: 0.0 (winrate: 48% pickrate: 7%)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.
Winter Wyvern
* Winter Wyvern's
Winter's Curse works very well against the increased attack speed from Bloodlust.
Enigma
[wiki] rating: 0.0 (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.
Winter Wyvern
* Winter's Curse, when directly targeted on Enigma, goes through
Black King Bar, stopping Enigma's Black Hole channeling. It also turns his team against him, potentially killing him. Enigma, however can counter
Winter's Curse with
Linken's Sphere, which is a common item on Enigma.
* Splinter Blast can be targeted on an eidolon, killing off other eidolons and damaging nearby heroes as well.
Troll Warlord
[wiki] rating: 0.0 (winrate: 50% pickrate: 2%)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.
Winter Wyvern
* Cold Embrace can protect Troll Warlord's target, especially during Battle Trance.
* Winter's Curse can turn Troll Warlord's high physical damage and attack speed against his allies.
Additional:
* Cold Embrace will protect your ally from being damaged if he gets focused by Troll, although be careful as Fervor will keep gaining stacks even while Cold Embrace is active.
* Fervor works on allies.
* His high attack speed will help to kill his cursed ally faster.
Ancient Apparition
[wiki] rating: 0.0 (winrate: 50% pickrate: 5%)Winter Wyvern
* Cold Embrace makes its target immovable, allowing Ancient Apparition to easily land Ice Blast, or a Cold Feet stun.
* Ice Blast also negates healing from Cold Embrace.
Additional:
* Ice Blast disables the healing component of Cold Embrace, making it essentially a 4 second stun on an ally and a perfect setup for Ice Blast.
* If Cold Feet is cast on an Allied hero affected by Cold Embrace, it will almost guarantee the Ally comes out stunned.
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.
Slark
[wiki] rating: 0.0 (winrate: 51% pickrate: 17%)Winter Wyvern
* Arctic Burn and Splinter Blast debuffs are dispellable with Dark Pact. Arctic Burn is also no escape against
Pounce.
* Cold Embrace gives Slark free Essence Shift stacks.
* However, Essence Shift works against allies, and Slark's low health pool means that if he's the target for Winter's Curse, he will go down very quickly.
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.
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.
Winter Wyvern
* 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.
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).
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Winter Wyvern
* Cold Embrace is the perfect setup for all his nukes -
Chaos Meteor,
EMP and especially global
Sun Strike.
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.
Black King Bar.
*
* However, Invoker is quite a slow paced hero and not particularly known for being survivable against a rampaging Primal Beast with