* Beware of placing the Death Ward if Chronosphere is off cooldown, as it will cancel the effect and leave Witch Doctor vulnerable if he does not react in time.
* Time Dilation is similar to a long duration silence, making Timbersaw useless in team fights, or forcing him to adapt his build.
* Time Walk negates Timbersaw's burst damage.
* Time Lock provides magical damage and lock down, and is effective against both Reactive Armor and Timber Chain.
* In conjunction with Time Lock's magical damage, Chronosphere can destroy Timbersaw before he has time to react, and creates a large obstacle that obstruct's Timber Chain's mobility.
* 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.
* Brain Sap's pure damage ignores stacks of Reactive Armor.
* Nightmare prevents Timbersaw from using Timber Chain, setting him up for chain stuns and burst damage.
* Enfeeble highly reduces regeneration granted by reactive armor.
* Fiend's Grip immobilizes Timbersaw and drains his low mana pool, preventing escape afterwards. It also pierces Black King Bar.
* Bane's multiple disables often force Timbersaw or his teammates to spend gold on a Linken's Sphere.
* Heroes who rely on channeling abilities can be interrupted in teamfights by Rolling Thunder: Crystal Maiden, Pugna, Witch Doctor
* Rolling Thunder's stuns make it harder for Timbersaw to escape with Timber Chain.
* Heroes with powerful channeling abilities are easily interrupted by Phantom's Embrace: Bane, Pudge, Witch Doctor, Crystal Maiden, Enigma.
* Timbersaw relies heavily on his abilities so Phantom's Embrace's silence makes it more difficult for him.
* Timbersaw cannot use Return Chakram or attack the phantom during Phantom's Embrace, forcing him to take full damage and refreshes Phantom's Embrace's cooldown.
Additional:
* Timbersaw is completely powerless against Phantom's Embrace if Chakram is out.
* Heroes with the ability to heal allies will not be able to heal heroes affected by Doom: Chen, Dazzle, Io, Oracle, Omniknight, Witch Doctor, Winter Wyvern, Abaddon, etc.
* Infernal Blade deals scaling damage and is useful against high HP targets such as Timbersaw.
* Timbersaw is extremely reliant on his abilities to be effective during a team fight - both for mobility, damage and crowd control. Timbersaw offers very little, impactful right-click damage, and thus Doom is particularly crippling against him.
* Additionally, when Doom chooses the {ValueColor:1|Doom applies Break|25tal} {Symbol:Talent} talent, Doom disables Reactive Armor, which effectively removes the durability which Timbersaw is commonly known for.
Additional:
* Doom shuts down Timbersaw completely, negating his mobility and preventing him from doing any damage. It also breaks Reactive Armor's passive bonuses from Aghanim's Scepter.
* Infernal Blade can stun Timbersaw several times in a fight, potentially interrupting Timber Chain. Also it's useful since Timbersaw has high HP due to the damage scales based on max HP.
* Luna can easily cancel channeling spells with Lucent Beam and 0.25s Eclipse Lucent Ministun talent for Eclipse, she can also buy Abyssal Blade in case they decide to buy Black King Bar: Enigma's Black Hole, Witch Doctor's Death Ward, Shadow Shaman's Shackles, Lion's Mana Drain, Bane's Fiend's Grip, Pudge's Dismember, Crystal Maiden's Freezing Field, Pugna's Life Drain, Dawnbreaker's Solar Guardian, and Naga Siren's Reel In from Aghanim's Scepter.
Additional:
* Lucent Beam interrupts Death Ward from a decent range.
* With Dust of Appearance, Eclipse kills Witch Doctor during Death Ward, even through Glimmer Cape.
* Heroes who are melee but cannot fight back against Eclipse will really struggle with Luna: Monkey King, Alchemist, Timbersaw.
* Heroes like Slark, Witch Doctor and others also tend to suffer in Ice Blast's heal denial.
* Heroes that withstand damage like Timbersaw, Bristleback, Dragon Knight and others will have their durability largely reduced when hit by an Ice Blast due to the risk of shattering.
* Heroes that have small health pools and little to no escape mechanisms are even easier prey for Necrophos. Ghost Shroud's slow will allow him to catch him with them, and get nuked down with his abilities, even preventing retaliation due to Reaper's Scythe's stun. Such heroes include Crystal Maiden, Witch Doctor, Warlock or Shadow Fiend.
* Heroes that have escape abilities (such as Queen of Pain, Storm Spirit or Timbersaw) can be either nullified by Reaper's Scythe or a complimentary item for Necrophos (like Rod of Atos or Scythe of Vyse). If Necrophos is quick enough and enters range, they can quickly, if not instantly, die if they are not quick enough.
Additional:
* Heartstopper Aura effectively negates Timbersaw's large HP pool as well as HP regen.
* Death Pulse together with health and mana regeneration from killed creeps helps Necrophos and his teammates survive Timbersaw's burst damage.
* As a tanky hero that stays in the middle of teamfights, Timbersaw is an easy target for Reaper's Scythe.
* Low health spellcasters: Lina, Witch Doctor, Tinker, Keeper of the Light, all rely heavily on their spells and are fragile heroes. They all also have avoidable spells, allowing Puck to get to them and quickly burst them down.
* Any Hero with high mobility will be neutralized by dream coil: Queen of Pain, Storm Spirit, Ember Spirit, Lycan, Bloodseeker, Anti-Mage, Timbersaw.
* Guardian Angel protects allies from Death Ward's physical damage.
* Purification and Heavenly Grace will most likely save teammates from dying to Maledict.
* Hex greatly reduces Timbersaw's mobility.
* The stun and damage over time from Shackles mitigates Reactive Armor's HP and armor regen.
* Vengeful Spirit has two abilities to interrupt Death Ward, even through Black King Bar.
* Wraithfire Blast cancels Death Ward in decent range.
* Death Ward is meaningless while Reincarnation is off cooldown.
* Vampiric Aura can out-heal the {tooltip:DoT|Damage over Time} from Maledict.
* Timbersaw's physical survivability revolves around Reactive Armor, which is largely ignored by Fury Swipes due to the extreme amounts of damage it does in a very few number of attacks.
* Timbersaw's burst damage will not do much against Enrage, although he could easily use Timber Chain to escape, wasting the duration of it.
* Arcane Orb's pure damage ignores Timbersaw's Reactive Armor.
* Astral Imprisonment, if timed correctly, can interrupt Timber Chain, preventing him from escaping.
Additional:
* Arcane Orb deals constant pure damage, which bypasses Timbersaw's Reactive Armor.
* Sanity's Eclipse can hit targets inside Astral Imprisonment, which helps Outworld Destroyer finish off Timbersaw before he escapes with Timber Chain. It can also drain his mana, limiting his ability to escape should he survive.
* Bramble Maze prevents Timbersaw from Timber Chaining away without getting rooted.
* Cursed Crown can still catch Timbersaw if he Timber Chains away.
* Reactive Armor offers little protection against Dark Willow's high magical damage.
* Zeus deals enormous amounts of magic damage, being one of the best heroes to burst down Timbersaw early in the game.
* Lightning Bolt's mini-stun can stop Timbersaw's from escaping a fight with Timber Chain.
Additional:
* Reactive Armor will not trigger from Zeus's spells or protect Timbersaw from their damage.
* Early game Timbersaw's strength is average and Zeus can heavily aid in bursting him down.
* Late game, if Timbersaw has built a lot of HP items, Zeus's passive Static Field will be more effective at chipping away Timbersaw's large HP pool.
* A Timbersaw who builds Pipe of Insight will be much more difficult to kill, as Zeus has no way to hold Timbersaw down, but Timbersaw will have less armor, mana, and damage than normal if he buys this item early game just to counter Zeus.
* Without Dust of Appearance or Sentry Wards, Riki is able to silence Witch Doctor with Smoke Screen, and is likely to build a Diffusal Blade, leaving Witch Doctor without mana to cast Voodoo Restoration, as well as Skull Basher to interrupt Death Ward.
* Ball Lightning makes Storm Spirit a target difficult to chase, even for a hero as mobile as Timbersaw.
* The magical damage from Static Remnant and Overload together with Storm Spirit's high mobility allows Storm Spirit to jump on Timbersaw and burst him down, even if he tries to escape.
* Because Timbersaw relies heavily on his spells to deal damage, Silence can easily disable him in a team fight.
* Exorcism's spirits do not count as regular attacks, and will not add stacks of Reactive Armor.
* Magical burst damage is Timbersaw's weakness, and Ancient Seal not only amplifies it but also prevents him from using Timber Chain to escape for up to 6 seconds.
* He generally doesn't build early items to deal with silences.
* Reactive Armor does not trigger on magic damage or spells, meaning that even a Pipe of Insight won't give him the massive sustain he normally gets from attacks.
Additional:
* Skywrath Mage's long range and low cooldown magic damage spells can easily harass Timbersaw out of lane.
* Ancient Seal is not only a long lasting silence, (one of Timbersaw's biggest weaknesses) but it also makes him even more vulnerable to magical burst damage.
* Cold Snap can prevent Timbersaw from using both Timber Chain and Chakram due to the frequent stuns interrupting the lengthy cast animations, as well as stopping him mid-chain. This can negate Timbersaw's attempts to escape or dole out extra ability damage.
* Later in the game, Invoker's heavy magical and pure damage can be difficult to avoid, meaning Timbersaw's armor is less useful.
* 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.
* Hex greatly reduces Timbersaw's mobility.
* In addition, Lion can follow up with his Earth Spike and Mana Drain combo, preventing Timbersaw to escape with Timber Chain. And he can finish Timbersaw off with Finger of Death if the latter's HP is low enough.
* Nether Ward can punish Timbersaw, as Timbersaw is a spell-caster with low cooldowns. Furthermore, Timbersaw usually appears in the midst of battle, placing himself in range of Nether Ward's Mana Flares.
* Timbersaw has no stuns or silences to stop Life Drain. Since all of Pugna's Spells are magical, the damage can be devastating to Timbersaw.
* Decrepify can further increase all the magical damage done to Timbersaw, bypassing the enhanced physical resistance he can get from Reactive Armor.
Additional:
* Nether Ward can punish Timbersaw, as Timbersaw is a spell-caster with low cooldowns. Furthermore, Timbersaw usually appears in the midst of battle, placing himself in range of Nether Ward's Mana Flares.
* Timbersaw has no stuns or silences to stop Life Drain. Since all of Pugna's Spells are magical, the damage can be devastating to Timbersaw, especially when combined with Decrepify.
* Death Ward can be easily canceled by Jakiro, or even turned against him with Macropyre, due to it's attack range being smaller then Jakiro's cast range. And Crystal Maiden, his Scepter does not allow him to move while using it. Voodoo Switcheroo is even easier to land Jakiro's Macropyro/Ice Path combo. And unlike Crystal Maiden, Witch Doctor's Aghanim's Scepter upgraded Death Ward does not allow him to move while using it.
* While Maledict can be quite effective on Jakiro, along with repetitive stuns from Paralyzing Cask, it is very difficult to get a strong Maledict on him. Although Witch Doctor's Paralizying Cask, Maledict and Death Ward combo will still quickly eliminate Jakiro.
* On the other hand. Voodoo Restoration will partly protect his allies from Jakiro spells, as it heals based on their Max Health once he gets his Talent (Level 25). Before then though, it won't make a dent in the damage Jakiro deals.
* Searing Chains prevents usage of Timber Chain.
* Timbersaw is vulnerable to magical burst damage, which Ember Spirit provides with Fire Remnant and Flame Guard.
* Timbersaw's abilities deal pure damage, thus they cannot remove Flame Guard.
* Witch Doctor's iconic Death Ward is a perfect spell for Rubick to output high damage.
* Death Ward requires channeling which makes Witch Doctor a clear tagret for stealing. Rubick can steal the spell outside of Death Ward's attack range most of the times.
* Note that an skilled Witch Doctor player can cast Voodoo Restoration to disrupt their last spell for Rubick to steal.
* Telekinesis can interrupt a channeling Death Ward. With Death Ward's high burst damage, combining Death Ward and Telekinesis to hold enemy in place can result in a solo kill in the early game.
* Paralyzing Cask provides an additional disable. The ability also helps moderately with farming.
* Voodoo Restoration provides some utility by healing Rubick and his team.
* Maledict is a damage-over-time nuke that amplifies the damage enemy taken.
* Telekinesis can reposition the enemy within the range of Maledict.
Additional:
* Rubick can steal Death Ward easily as it is a channeled ability and then use it to turn teamfight to his advantage.
* However, a skilled Witch Doctor will toggle Voodoo Restoration immediately after placing his Death Ward to prevent that.
* 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
* Templar Assassin Meld`s ability will break Timbersaw's armor, which makes it very easy to break through and not feel his Reactive Armor, which will allow the team to kill Timbersaw quickly, or drive him out of the fight.
* Templar Assassin's Refraction ability gives her the ability to avoid damage from Whirling Death, which will give her the ability to deal Timbersaw more damage than he will deal.
Additional:
* Templar Assassin Meld`s ability will break Timbersaw's armor, which makes it very easy to break through and not feel his Reactive Armor, which will allow the team to kill Timbersaw quickly, or drive him out of the fight.
* Templar Assassin's Refraction ability gives her the ability to avoid damage from Whirling Death, which will give her the ability to deal Timbersaw more damage than he will deal. However, he may easily burn through Refraction with Chakram.
* Multiple attackers thanks to summoned units or clones: Meepo, Witch Doctor, Lycan, Enigma, Shadow Shaman
* Heroes that can quickly deal damage to her, regardless of how weak they are, can easily break through her Refraction:
* Multiple attackers thanks to summoned units or clones: Meepo, Witch Doctor, Lycan, Enigma, Shadow Shaman
* Multiple attackers thanks to illusions: Phantom Lancer, Chaos Knight, Naga Siren (bonus for her Ensnare). Also despite the visual effects, Templar Assassin does not spill damage against illusions or buildings, so she is not a really good hero to clean up illusions.
* Weak damage but high tick rate or persist in a long time: Slark, Gyrocopter, Queen of Pain, Shadow Shaman (Shackles), Jakiro, Pugna, Doom
* Reactive Armor's armor increase does not affects Muerta's Pierce the Veil despite Muerta often building high attack speed.
* Muerta's Dead Shot destroys trees preventing Timbersaw from escaping with his Timber Chain.
* Morphling can Attribute Shift to strength after being hit by Maledict. Since Maledict deals its damage based on the difference between HP on cast and HP after two seconds, odds are Morphling will have more HP than when Maledict was cast, thus resulting in no damage.
* On the upside, players prone to panicked reactions may Morph to agility, making Maledict even more efficient than intended.
* Adaptive Strike (Strength) can interrupt Death Ward at a decent range.
* Sacred Arrow can be used to interrupt Death Ward from a safe distance, forcing him to cancel it to dodge or get hit.
* Paralyzing Cask is a slow-moving stun, and Mirana can Leap away from her allies to keep it from bouncing.
* Witch Doctor has low health and can easily be killed with an Aghanim's Scepter combo or just when hit with an arrow.
* Low mobility heroes: Heroes with no/little means of traveling fast have difficulty getting to/away from Bounty Hunter due to his slowing Jinada and hastening Track. Few examples of such heroes are: Crystal Maiden, Sniper, Ursa, Witch Doctor, etc.
* Arc Warden's Magnetic Field dodges all damage from Death Ward.
* Channeling heroes will not go well against Warlock, especially those who build Black King Bar as Warlock's ultimate ability stun goes through spell immunity. E.g.: Crystal Maiden, Witch Doctor, Enigma, etc.
* Heroes with slow movement speeds and small health pools (supports like Crystal Maiden or Witch Doctor) are easy targets for Phoenix. Should they be inflicted by its DOT debuffs, they will be very quickly killed without even getting a chance to fight back.
* Death Ward's first target (before it bounces) can evade it, therefore Windranger and Phantom Assassin are poor choices to use it on.
* Timbersaw has a difficult time against magical and pure damage: Lina, Leshrac, Enchantress, Queen of Pain
* Heroes with channeled abilities can be interrupted by a long-range Fissure: Crystal Maiden, Witch Doctor, Bane, Pugna, Pudge.
* Timbersaw has a difficult time against magical and pure damage: Lina, Leshrac, Enchantress, Queen of Pain
* In general, Timbersaw struggles against highly mobile heroes that can avoid his abilities: Puck, Weaver, Ember Spirit and others.
* Heroes who cannot escape from Trample early might be easy first blood. Heroes like Witch Doctor and Omniknight should play very cautiously alone...
* Heroes with channeled abilities which Assassinate may cancel at long range: Witch Doctor, Crystal Maiden, Shadow Shaman, Pugna
* Heroes who have channeled abilities can be stunned by Light Strike Array, like Witch Doctor with Death Ward and Bane's Fiend's Grip.
Additional:
* Light Strike Array cancels out Death Ward from a long distance.
* Timbersaw has a difficult time against magical and pure damage: Lina, Leshrac, Enchantress, Queen of Pain
* Heroes that can close the gap can easily chase Lina down, such as Timbersaw with Timber Chain and Anti-Mage with Blink.
* It is especially easy for Oracle to negate the damage from Maledict, and even heal through it with Fate's Edict and Purifying Flames.
* If by some miracle an enemy is still about to die because of Maledict, he can still save him with False Promise.
* Heroes who are not easily crippled by Fate's Edict or Fortune's End, such as Timbersaw, or those who can dispel them, such as Phantom Lancer, can kill Oracle unhindered.
* All Tinker's damage is magic/pure and completely ignores Timbersaw's Reactive Armor.
* Timbersaw very rarely builds Black King Bar, making him very vulnerable if Tinker builds Scythe of Vyse.
* Timbersaw's ability to destroy trees can be a serious problem for some heroes that use them, as either a way of enhancing their spells like Treant Protector, or heroes that tend to hide inside of them like Tinker and Monkey King.
* Paralyzing Cask will repetively bounce between Chen and his converted creeps every single time. This can get even worse if Witch Doctor buys Aghanim's Scepter that will allow his Death Ward to bounce between Chen and his converted creeps.
* Paralyzing Cask, Maledict and Death Ward combination will often kill Chen's allies before he can save them with Hand of God. And to make things worse, Chen has no way to cancel Death Ward on his own, and must rely on outside from {U:Centaur Conqueror} or {U:Mud Golem} under his control.
* Voodoo Switcheroo from Aghanim's Shard cannot be interrupted by Chen's creeps at all because Witch Doctor is hidden for it's duration.
Additional:
* Paralyzing Cask will repetively bounce between Chen and his converted creeps every single time. This can get even better if Witch Doctor buys Aghanim's Scepter that will allow his Death Ward to bounce between Chen and his converted creeps.
* Paralyzing Cask, Maledict and Death Ward combination will often kill Chen's allies before he can save them with Hand of God. And to make things better, Chen has no way to cancel Fiend's Grip on his own, and must rely on outside from {U:Centaur Conqueror} or {U:Mud Golem} under his control.
* Voodoo Switcheroo from Aghanim's Shard cannot be interrupted by Chen's creeps at all because Witch Doctor is hidden for it's duration.
* With Timber Chain, Timbersaw can slow, catch up with, or escape from Chen and his creeps.
* Chakram and Flamethrower from Aghanim's Shard can clear Chen's creeps and slow him.
* Attacks from multiple creeps will quickly build Reactive Armor stacks, making attacks of Chen and his creeps only tickle Timbersaw.
* Maledict cannot be dispelled by Phantasm, and can be used to tag the real Chaos Knight hiding within his illusions.
* If Witch Doctor has an Aghanim's Scepter, Death Ward will bounce between Chaos Knight's illusions, destroying them quickly.
* However, Death Ward is easily interrupted by Chaos Bolt until Witch Doctor buys Glimmer Cape or Black King Bar.
* Strong area damage, particularly from Whirling Death and Chakram, lets Timbersaw clear out illusions quickly.
* Whirling Death directly reduces Strength from both Chaos Knight and his Phantasm illusions, reducing both the damage output and raw health that the hero relies on.
* Reactive Armor quickly builds stacks against Phantasm illusions, making Timbersaw harder to kill.
Additional:
* Reactive Armor helps Timbersaw to endure the damage from Chaos Bolt and Reality Rift combo.
* Timbersaw's large amount of pure damage AoE nukes clears Chaos Knight's illusions quickly, drastically reducing his damage.
* Paralyzing cask bounces between him and his wolves, keeping him stunned for long amounts of time.
* All of Timbersaw's spells deal AoE damage, killing Lycan's summons very quickly.
* Reactive Armor will gain stacks quickly because of Lycan's summons.
* Heroes with long-lasting, undispellable debuffs will pinpoint the true Naga Siren: Spirit Breaker, Bloodseeker, Witch Doctor.
* Timbersaw's innate durability provided by Reactive Armor is very hard to deal with as Naga Siren as she mostly relies on sustained damage rather than burst damage unless if she is played as Nuker.
* Timbersaw's high pure damage and low-cooldown area-of-effect nukes which are Whirling Death, Timber Chain, Chakram and Flamethrower from Aghanim's Shard can also destroy Naga Siren's illusions very fast.
* Timbersaw is a common Lotus Orb wielder which allows him to reflect Ensnare back at Naga SIren.
* Paralyzing Cask is likely to bounce between him and his bear every single time.
* Lone Druid's lack of mobility makes him vulnerable to Death Ward and Maledict.
* Timbersaw: Lone Druid will have a hard time dealing with Timbersaw due to his tankiness and high Armor from Reactive Armor
* All Timbersaw's abilities deal AoE pure damage and can easily deal with Phantom Lancer's illusions.
* Reactive Armor highly negates Phantom Lancer's physical damage, making him having a hard time killing Timbersaw.
Additional:
* Phantom Lancer's lack of burst damage and constant attacks will increase Reactive Armor to max level immediately.
* Coupled with Timber Chain, it makes an easy escape and almost impossible for Timbersaw to be killed by Phantom Lancer.
* Whirling Death and Chakram can instantly destroy large groups of illusions, negating Phantom Lancer's advantage, although Phantom Lancer usually builds Diffusal Blade. It can be a problem in late game.
* Paralyzing Cask's short stun rarely prevents Monkey King from ambushing Witch Doctor.
* Death Ward's long channel is easily interrupted by Boundless Strike.
* Another hero that should not leave a special circle for his ultimate. The only thing to be afraid is Boundless Strike.
* Timbersaw's low cooldown and low mana cost abilities destroys the trees that Monkey King depends on.
* Timber Chain allows Timbersaw to escape Wukong's Command.
Additional:
* Timbersaw can easily cut down the tree that Monkey King is standing on, stunning him for a lengthy period.
* Timbersaw can use Timber Chain to easily escape Wukong's Command and Primal Spring's slow.
* However, when facing Monkey King mid, Timbersaw might get harassed out of the lane because of Jingu Mastery.
* Timbersaw’s reliance on nearby trees means he’ll usually be close to Hoodwink.
* More significantly, Timbersaw's tree destroying abilities cut off Hoodwink's escape options, passive and easily foil Acorn Shot or Bushwhack combos.
* While channeling Sharpshooter, Timbersaw can simply sit his Chakram on top of her and unleash his full combo, forcing her to cancel and disengage.
* Timber Chain can be used to dodge Sharpshooter.
* Whirling Death deals damage while also reducing {Show:A|Timbersaw|Whirling Death|value4} of Bristleback's strength, making him less tanky.
* Reactive Armor can sustain through multiple Viscous Nasal Goo and Quill Spray stacks.
* Timber Chain makes it hard for Bristleback to slow down Timbersaw even with Viscous Nasal Goo.
* Reactive Armor is very effective against Beastmaster's summons during laning stage and entire game.
* Timbersaw can quickly clear Beastmaster's summons with his nukes.
* Lotus Orb item for Timbersaw can releases roar from the target position, stunning and damaging Beastmaster and knocking away, damaging and slowing allies that stand on the way.
* Timbersaw is often too mobile and durable for Gyrocopter to bring down with his area attacks.
* Timber Chain can kite Troll Warlord extremely effectively.
* Whirling Death and Chakram deals lots of damage to Troll Warlord.
* Reactive Armor makes Timbersaw extremely resilient to Troll's attack damage and extreme attack speed, especially during Battle Trance.
* Voodoo Restoration heals to counter damage over time of Poison Nova and Poison Sting.
* Because multiple Meepos tend to clump up, they present an easy target for Timbersaw's many area abilities.
* Although be careful since Timbersaw cannot use Timber Chain to escape if rooted from Earthbind.
* Death Ward with Aghanim's Scepter makes quick work of the spawned illusions from Disruption.
* However, it can be cancelled by Disruption until Witch Doctor buys Linken's Sphere or Black King Bar.
* All of Witch Doctor's abilities are active, making Demonic Purge break from Aghanim's Scepter useless.
* Voodoo Restoration can out-heal the damage from Shadow Demon's abilities.
* An attempt to save an ally using Disruption can easily become a perfect setup for a Maledict or Paralyzing Cask for the enemy.
* 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.
* 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.
* As Timbersaw commonly buys Lotus Orb, he can use it to reflect Winter's Curse back to Winter Wyvern if she uses it impulsively on him or any other hero while affected by it.
* Timbersaw can use his plethora of tree cutting abilities to level entire sections of the forest, making hiding in the trees more difficult for Treant Protector and his team.
* Timbersaw can easily cut down Treant Protector's Eyes In The Forest once his team has detection. He may even do it unknowingly due to the sheer destructive and chaotic nature of his abilities.
Additional:
* Not only are all of Timbersaw's active abilities capable of cutting down trees, but Whirling Death and Timber Chain also require it to be effective, counteracting both Treant Protector's Nature's Guise and Eyes in the Forest abilities.
* Witch Doctor's Maledict burst damage can be prevented by Sunder if timed correctly. But it can kill Terrorblade if he has no target to be Sundered with, especially in the early game.
* Death Ward deals physical damage, and Terrorblade's high armor can help him survive against Death Ward. However, Terrorblade has no disable in his skillset at all, and he cannot stop Witch Doctor from channeling Death Ward to maximum. And if Witch Doctor owns Aghanim's Scepter, attacks from Death Ward will be able to bounce around and wipe out Terrorblade's illusions and his team.
* Terrorblade must be careful as Paralyzing Cask is commonly tricky to dodge for him due to his reliance on illusions.
* Heroes who have channeling abilities because Terrorblade has no disables to cancel them at all besides Terror Wave from Aghanim's Scepter, and he does not like buying disabling items at all: Enigma's Black Hole, Witch Doctor's Death Ward, Shadow Shaman's Shackles, Lion's Mana Drain, Bane's Fiend's Grip, Pudge's Dismember, Crystal Maiden's Freezing Field, Pugna's Life Drain, Dawnbreaker's Solar Guardian, and Naga Siren's Reel In from Aghanim's Scepter.
* Timbersaw's abilities combos all deal magical and pure damage, completely ignoring Terrorblade's high base armor and clearing his illusions very quickly due to the AoE damage.
* Reactive Armor negates most of Terrorblade's damage against Timbersaw, and its high health regeneration and armor bonuses can help Timbersaw survive after Terrorblade has used Sunder on him.
Additional:
* Timbersaw can take down Terrorblade's illusions with his area damage burst.
* Reactive Armor plus another armor item reduce much of Terrorblade's damage.
* Heroes with high magical or pure damage will bypass Bulwark: Timbersaw, Dark Willow, Enigma, Invoker, Pugna, Skywrath Mage, Tinker, Zeus, Oracle.
* Heroes who rely on abilities to deal damage (e.g. Timbersaw, Tinker) can fight a Razor even after Static Link.
Additional:
* Razor deals mostly physical damage towards the later game, and Timbersaw is also very mobile, making him a difficult kill to earn.
* Timbersaw rarely resorts to attacks, thus does not suffer when his damage is stolen with Static Link.
* Heroes with channeling abilities: Enigma, Witch Doctor, Crystal Maiden.
* Special mention to Timbersaw as he has a way to deal with Axe in the laning stage, but still needs to be careful about Berserker's Call stun, the pure damage from Counter Helix and Culling Blade finishing him off before he can escape or heal from his passive.
Additional:
* Whirling Death reduces Axe's strength by 15%, which makes him less durable, especially from early game. It's also stackable.
* Blade Mail are not effective against attribute changes, and Timber Chain can wait out Blade Mail's duration to wear off.
* Reactive Armor makes it harder for Axe to finish off Timbersaw with Culling Blade.
* Chakram disarms Timbersaw, which makes Axe's Counter Helix useless against him.
* All Timbersaw skills deal pure damage, which bypass Axe's high armor or bonus armor from Berserker's Call.
* Heroes who build Black King Bar as either core or situational item will be able to fight back against Nyx Assassin and freely attack him as Spiked Carapace cannot pierce spell immunity at all: Axe, Broodmother, Dawnbreaker, Enigma, Huskar, Jakiro, Legion Commander, Lina, Luna, Lycan, Slardar, Slark, Troll Warlord, Witch Doctor.
* Heroes with magical or pure damage output will not have any problems against Atrophy Aura at all: Luna, Lina, Jakiro, Pugna, Bane, Snapfire, Muerta, Nyx Assassin, Enigma, Tinker, Witch Doctor, Zeus, Crystal Maiden.
* Timbersaw has a difficult time against magical and pure damage: Lina, Leshrac, Enchantress, Queen of Pain
* The burst damage from Timbersaw's abilities is more than enough to deal with Enchantress and her creeps.
* Timbersaw doesn't rely on his physical attacks, which makes Untouchable useless against him.
* Timber Chain can close the gap between them and minimize damage from Impetus.
* Bear in mind, however, that Timber Chain can also work against Timbersaw if used to escape and that Impetus can ignore Reactive Armor if Enchantress is not a primary target for Timbersaw or if he is disabled.
* Timbersaw is a common wielder of Lotus Orb, which will allow him to reflect Enchant back at Enchantress and dispel most debuffs as well.
* Heroes with plenty of summons, such as Broodmother or Nature's Prophet can have their minions soak up most of your Paralyzing Cask.
* All three of Timbersaw’s abilities give him an easy way out of Sprout, and can also destroy nearby trees so Nature's Prophet can’t spawn Treants.
* If Prophet tries to escape with a self Sprout/Teleport, Timbersaw can easily cut down all its trees to get to him and deal increased Whirling Death damage as well.
* Chakram heavily discourages teleports.
* Timbersaw is quite well suited to clearing massive waves of Treants almost instantly with all of his area of effect pure damage abilities, preventing Nature's Prophet from pushing.
* Treants can give Reactive Armor many charges quite quickly.
Additional:
* Timbersaw can easily cut down trees from Sprout, making it very difficult for Nature's Prophet to teleport away or trap enemies.
* Timbersaw's abilities quickly clear out treants.
* Reactive Armor negates most of the damage of Nature's Prophet's treants, and Timbersaw can often allow himself to be attacked in order to heal himself.
* Heroes that have a channeled ability that can be interrupted by Meat Hook: Shadow Shaman, Witch Doctor, Enigma, Bane.
Additional:
* Meat Hook interrupts Death Ward from a decent range, even through Black King Bar & Glimmer Cape.
* Pudge can survive the damage from Maledict because of his Flesh Heap stacks.
* However the damage-over-time from Rot is counteracted by Voodoo Restoration.
* The percentage-based primary-attribute reduction effect of Whirling Death can be devastating for Pudge due to his high strength gain through Flesh Heap.
* Reactive Armor's health regeneration and common itemization for magic resistance and durability makes Timbersaw a poor target for Pudge.
* Timber Chain's high mobility makes it difficult for Pudge to hook or deal much Rot damage to Timbersaw.
* Fragile support heroes are all ideal targets for the Phantom Assassin. Heroes such as Lina and Witch Doctor are all prime targets that may not be able to react quickly and fight back due to Phantom Assassin's sudden appearance.
* Reactive Armor helps Timbersaw sustain harassment from Stifling Dagger.
* Phantom Assassin has a moderate health pool and usually appears in the front line of battle, making her vulnerable to Timbersaw's pure burst damage output.
* Timbersaw can easily escape from Phantom Assassin thanks to his Timber Chain.
Additional:
* Reactive Armor helps Timbersaw sustain harassment from Stifling Dagger, as well as ganking attempts.
* Phantom Assassin is a hero with moderate HP pool, and usually appears in the front line of battle. Because Blur does nothing against spells, she is vulnerable to Timbersaw's skills.
* Timbersaw can easily escape from Phantom Assassin thanks to his Timber Chain.
* Heroes with long channeling abilities like Witch Doctor are easy targets for Kunkka to interrupt in team fights.
Additional:
* Torrent can cancel Death Ward from a far distance.
* Timbersaw Defeats Kunkka on the center line, due to the fact that he has a huge resistance to physical damage by Reactive Armor, which is why Tidebringer almost does not break through Timbersaw, and due to Whirling Death Timbersaw can very much break through Kunkka and force him to leave the line, or spend money on Tango.
Additional:
* Timbersaw easily beats Kunkka on the midlane, due to the fact that he has huge physical damage resistance from Reactive Armor, which is why Tidebringer almost does not break through Timbersaw, and due to Whirling Death and Kunkka being a strength hero, Timbersaw can very much break through Kunkka and force him to leave the lane, or spend money on Tango.
* Heroes with plenty of summons, such as Broodmother or Nature's Prophet can have their minions soak up most of your Paralyzing Cask.
* Reactive Armor prevents Broodmother's spiderlings from being able to effectively harass Timbersaw in the lane.
* Timber Chain's high mobility makes Silken Bola's slow irrelevant, unless Broodmother already bought her Orchid.
* Silken Bola's miss chance doesnt affect Rizzrack that much because he does not rely on his autoattacks much.
* Lotus Orb items for Timbersaw make Silken Bola useless.
* Timbersaw's abilities can destroy any trees that Broodmother attempts to hide in and his AoE abilities can quickly clear her Spiderlings.
Additional:
* Spiderlings deal almost no damage against Reactive Armor. They also die quickly from Timbersaw's AoE abilities.
* Broodmother has no mobility ability except the movement speed buff from Spin Web, allowing Timbersaw to easily escape her Silken Bola with Timber Chain.
* Timbersaw's tree-cutting abilities make it difficult for Broodmother to hide, especially near the edges of the map.
* Stone Form can easily interrupt heroes with long channeling spells, like Crystal Maiden, Bane, Witch Doctor, or Enigma.
* Reactive Armor will quickly stack up from Familiar attacks, making Timbersaw hard to kill.
* Visage's low mobility makes it easy for Timbersaw to line up his abilities.
* Death Ward does little damage against Dragon Knight's armor, and Dragon Knight's high health regeneration minimizes damage from Maledict.
* Timbersaw's pure damage will kill Dragon Knight surprisingly fast, especially if he gets caught in a bad position while laning.
* Heroes with blink or movement abilities, which are disabled by Pounce's leash: Anti-Mage, Earth Spirit, Faceless Void, Magnus, Mirana, Monkey King, Morphling, Pangolier, Phantom Assassin, Phoenix, Puck, Queen of Pain, Riki, Sand King, Spirit Breaker, Timbersaw, Tusk.
* Heroes with AoE abilities will hit Slark in Shadow Dance: Lina, Jakiro, Underlord, Leshrac, Dark Seer, Earthshaker, Timbersaw, Crystal Maiden.
Additional:
* Timbersaw can use Chakram as a scouting tool to find Slark if he tries to Pounce into the trees.
* None of Timbersaw's abilities require a target to be cast, allowing him to hit Slark inside Shadow Dance.
* Reactive Armor can be effective protection against a Slark who attacks quickly, since the strong armor and health regen cannot be stolen by Essence Shift.
* Timber Chain makes Timbersaw very mobile, meaning he is among the very few heroes who can actually give chase to a fleeing Slark.
* Heroes who build mana boosting items but have low mana regeneration are especially vulnerable against Mana Break and Mana Void: Timbersaw, Slark, Shadow Fiend, Clinkz, Bristleback Nyx Assassin, Magnus
* Heroes with abilities or items that can silence or disable Anti-Mage for long periods of time will prevent him from Blinking away: Lion, Silencer, Shadow Shaman, Grimstroke, Witch Doctor, Riki, Faceless Void, Skywrath Mage, Puck.
* Viper Strike prevents Timbersaw from gaining stacks on Reactive Armor.
* Voodoo Restoration heals to counter damage over time of Viper abilities.
* Viper has no way to cancel Death Ward, even through Rod of Atos.
* Generally, any fragile heroes will have a hard time dealing with Undying's tankiness, and even more so if Decay is used on them. Some examples are Crystal Maiden and Witch Doctor.
* Reactive Armor makes Timbersaw very effective against heroes that control a lot of units, such as Broodmother, Lycan and Undying.
* Rupture and Blood Rite locks down Timbersaw, preventing him from escaping with Timber Chain. However, Timbersaw may reflect a good deal of damage with Blade Mail.
* Voodoo Restoration heals to counter Bloodseeker's Thirst.
* Rupture is generally useless against Witch Doctor while he is staying on Death Ward.
* Although Witch Doctor needs to be careful as Blood Rite can interrupt Death Ward.
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
you could hero names appearing as a counter and as being countered, as on image:
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Witch Doctor
* Like any hero with a channeled spell, Last Word is a counter to it.
* Global Silence goes through spell immunity and prevents Witch Doctor from casting his spells.
Timbersaw
* Timbersaw is heavily reliant on his abilities for damage and escape, allowing Silencer to effectively disable him and make him useless in both team fights and 1v1 scenarios.
Additional:
* Arcane Curse deals repeated stacks of damage to Timbersaw because he relies on constantly using his abilities.
* Glaives of Wisdom deals pure damage and when cast manually, nearby creeps will not attack silencer, making it an effective harassment tool. The intelligence steal is also especially potent against Timbersaw since he often uses up all of his mana throughout the entire game.
* Although Last Word takes a while to trigger, it will break Timbersaw's ability combo and can be used to silence him.
* Global Silence will silence Timbersaw no matter where he is on the map. This can be used to help allies get a kill on him, or prevent Timbersaw from killing someone.