* Mana Break quickly eats away at Wraith King's small mana pool, preventing
Reincarnation from triggering.
* Wraith King has no innate mobility. Even with
Blink Dagger, Wraith King is easily kited by Blink.
* Anti-Mage can farm much more quickly than Wraith King, allowing Anti-Mage to overpower Wraith King once a significant farm advantage is established.
Additional:
*
Mana Break can prevent Wraith King from reincarnating unless Wraith King has his Aghanim's Shard that removes the mana cost from Reincarnation.
* With
Manta Style, his mana burning will triple because illusions can also use
Mana Break.
* Wraithfire Blast is quite predictable, and if Anti-Mage can react fast enough, he will be able to disjoint it with
Blink or reflect it back with
Counterspell.
* Counterspell can helpful blocked off to
Dragon Tail.
Additional:
*
Counterspell makes Anti-Mage exceptionally resistant to Breathe Fire, Dragon Tail, Fireball (requires
Aghanim's Shard) and Elder Dragon Form's attacks. Its active component also blocks and reflects Dragon Tail back at Dragon Knight.
*
Mana Break drains Dragon Knight's small mana pool, although it won't affect Dragon Knight much if he is in his Elder Dragon Form.
* Heroes who are entirely reliant on dealing physical damage and/or have very little to no area-of-effect abilities will make Underlord tickle and will have no effect against him thanks to his
Atrophy Aura, and will also be unable to ambush Underlord and his team if Underlord chooses to use
Fiend's Gate to get to a designated point of the map:
Phantom Assassin,
Terrorblade,
Troll Warlord,
Drow Ranger,
Phantom Lancer,
Chaos Knight,
Sven,
Wraith King,
Bounty Hunter,
Alchemist,
Templar Assassin,
Nyx Assassin,
Bane.
* Heroes with long cooldowns on their abilities or ultimate will struggle against the relentless pressure provided by
Fiend's Gate:
Terrorblade,
Dragon Knight,
Omniknight.
*
Viscous Nasal Goo slows down Dragon Knight and lowers armor, locking him down and making him more vulnerable.
* Invoker can drain Wraith King's mana with
E.M.P., preventing him from reincarnating unless Wraith King has his Aghanim's Shard.
* Even if Wraith King survives and reincarnates, Invoker still has an arsenal of spells to lockdown Wraith King, including an easily setup
Ice Wall.
*
Tornado applies an area dispel to clear skeletons.
Additional:
* E.M.P. allows Invoker to burn Wraith King's mana to prevent
Reincarnation from triggering (only until Wraith King gets his Aghanim's Shard).
* Ice Wall and Cold Snap are particularly crippling for Wraith King as they allow to kite him very effectively, preventing him from dealing melee attack damage.
* Lich's constant slows with
Frost Blast and
Chain Frost will slow Dragon Knight to a crawl, especially in a crowded teamfight.
*
Cold Feet and
Ice Vortex both hinder Dragon Knight's movement greatly during teamfights.
*
Ice Blast ignores Dragon Knight's armor, disables his health regeneration, and kills him prematurely.
* Timbersaw's pure damage will kill Dragon Knight surprisingly fast, especially if he gets caught in a bad position while laning.
* Wraith King has no form of AoE to clear Terrorblade's illusions.
* Terrorblade is a common
Manta Style and
Diffusal Blade carrier.
* Terrorblade has very high armor, which helps against Wraith King's physical-only damage.
* A reincarnated Wraith King is an ideal target for
Sunder if Terrorblade's health is low.
Additional:
* Terrorblade has very high armor gain, which helps him against Wraith King's physical damage.
* Wraith King is not good against illusion-based heroes as he has no AoE form abilities to deal with Terrorblade's Illusions.
* Terrorblade is a common
Manta Style and
Diffusal Blade carrier to help deal with Reincarnation before Wraith King has
Aghanim's Shard.
* A Reincarnated Wraith King is a good setup for Sunder if Terrorblade's health is low enough.
*
Dark Pact, if timed correctly, can dispel Wraithfire Blast's stun and slow.
* Since Wraith King has a lot of health and multiple lives, Slark can keep gaining
Essence Shift stacks, increasing armor, damage, and attack speed and can beat down Wraith King twice.
* Slark sometimes carries
Diffusal Blade to burn mana as an attempt to shut down Reincarnation.
* Because Wraith King has no AoE abilities,
Shadow Dance is particularly useful against Wraith King.
* Weaver can run away after killing Wraith King once thanks to
Shukuchi.
* Wraithfire Blast is quite predictable. If Weaver is quick, he will disjoint it with Shukuchi and proceed to chase Wraith King down.
* Shukuchi does have a fade time. They cannot disjoint it if you use it right next to them. They will be stunned and take damage; however they will still become invisible if they used Shukuchi before the stun hits.
* Weaver can easily harass Wraith King out of his lane thanks to his high base damage and
Geminate Attack.
* Weaver can burn Wraith King's mana quickly with his {ValueColor:1|Mana Break|15tal} {Symbol:Talent} talent or
Diffusal Blade, until Wraith King purchases Aghanim's Shard to remove
Reincarnation's manacost.
Additional:
*
Wraithfire Blast is easy to disjoint with Shukuchi or Time Lapse, and it's the only way to break Weaver's Linken Sphere.
* Wraith King has no other disables and no mobility, allowing Weaver to chase or escape Wraith King as he wishes.
* With the Mana Break talent and
Diffusal Blade, Weaver can prevent
Reincarnation from triggering until Wraith King gets his shard.
* Wraith King has no ability to destroy trees from
Tree Dance.
* Monkey King tends to get
Diffusal Blade, leaving Wraith King no mana to reincarnate unless Wraith King has his Aghanim's Shard.
* A reincarnated Wraith King is an ideal target for
Wukong's Command.
* Wraith King's lack of area of effect spells makes him easily overwhelmed by Beastmaster's summons.
* Dragon Knight has no built-in disengage from
Frost Arrows, and
Marksmanship procs ignore base armor, bypassing Dragon Knight’s durability for the most part, making Drow one of the few heroes that can deal enough sustained damage to solo kill Dragon Knight.
* With
Aghanim's Scepter, Frost Arrows also apply hypothermia stacks, reducing her target’s regen, which is especially potent against tanks like Dragon Knight. (A similar effect can also be achieved with an
Eye of Skadi).
* Even though Wraith King can easily get a chance to retaliate with
Reincarnation after Luna uses
Eclipse against him, smart Luna can also turn
Reincarnation against him by using
Eclipse right after
Reincarnation triggers and gets on cooldown, giving Luna an element of surprise she can use against Wraith King.
*
Moon Glaives can be used to clear the waves of Wraith King's skeleton warriors summoned from
Vampiric Spirit.
Additional:
* Even though Wraith King can easily get a chance to retaliate with
Reincarnation after Luna uses
Eclipse against him, smart Luna can also turn
Reincarnation against him by using
Eclipse right after
Reincarnation triggers and gets on cooldown, giving Luna an element of surprise she can use against Wraith King.
*
Moon Glaives can be used to clear the waves of Wraith King's skeleton warriors summoned from
Vampiric Spirit.
*
Fury swipes can tear Dragon knight down as it stacks infinitely.
*
Wraith King has a very low mana pool and is extremely dependant on it to cast his high mana cost abilities, so
Mana Drain will make him struggle way too hard, even not being able to active his passive ability
Reincarnation, forcing the
Wraith King to buy
Aghanim's Shard as soon as possible.
* Althought
Wraith King may not be as fragile to struggle against
Lion's damage, it's much easier to disable and harass him, as
Wraith King doesn't have any mobility at all, his only gap closer being
Wraithfire Blast which costs too much mana for his mana pool, and may only affect one target.
Additional:
* While not being able to confront Wraith King by himself, Lion's
Mana Drain helps in draining Wraith King's mana, preventing him from reincarnating unless he has his Aghanim's Shard.
* Lion's
Earth Spike and
Hex provide decent lockdown against Wraith King as well, preventing the latter from benefiting from Vampiric Spirit bonuses.
*
Clinkz,
Sniper,
Lone Druid,
Troll Warlord,
Legion Commander and
Wraith King are some of the Heroes that base themselves on attacks with little or no spell power, so they suffer in the grassy hands of Overgrowth.
* Heroes with area dispel can kill multiple skeletons at once:
Brewmaster,
Oracle.
* Heroes that rely on summons will suffer against Ion Shell, which kills them very quickly:
Beastmaster,
Broodmother,
Enigma,
Nature's Prophet,
Visage,
Warlock,
Wraith King.
* Because Exorcism's damage is not reduce by damage block abilities or items, Death Prophet can be very good against heroes who rely on armor to survive:
Axe,
Terrorblade,
Morphling,
Dragon Knight
*
Elder Titan's
Natural Order completely nullifies Dragon Knight's high armor.
* Heroes that relies on armor or other type of physical damage negation are easy for Gyrocopter to take down during the early game with his magical damage:
Axe,
Dragon Knight,
Sven.
* Durable heroes relied a lot on their main passive effects and items' effects such as
Bristleback,
Underlord,
Spectre and
Dragon Knight can be disabled easily with
Sharpshooter's break, reducing their potential in teamfights.
*
Huskar can burn down Dragon Knight's health quickly during the early to mid game, but is not as effective during the late game. However,
Life Break remains a constant threat due to the slow and percentage-based damage.
Additional:
* Huskar can negate Dragon Knight's passive with multiple trades of Burning Spear.
* Jakiro's area-of-effect abilities make him strong against heroes who rely on illusions and summons:
Terrorblade,
Naga Siren
Chaos Knight,
Phantom Lancer,
Broodmother,
Nature's Prophet,
Lycan,
Wraith King,
Visage.
* Heroes which rely exclusively on right clicks will struggle somewhat against Blinding Light:
Phantom Assassin,
Wraith King,
Medusa
* Heroes with summons and illusions can find themselves easily bested by Lina, like
Broodmother,
Nature's Prophet,
Chen,
Terrorblade,
Naga Siren,
Visage,
Wraith King,
Lycan,
Phantom Lancer,
Shadow Shaman.
*
Meepo has a better advantage in farm with
Divided We Stand, as well as having a higher attack speed due to his tendency to build items that give attributes. In addition, Wraithfire Blast stuns only one target, and choosing to engage one Meepo will most certainly mean engaging them all.
* Heroes who rely strongly on melee physical damage will fare badly against Omniknight's Guardian Angel:
Phantom Assassin,
Juggernaut,
Dragon Knight,
Lycan,
Ursa,
Troll Warlord
* Heroes with area dispel can kill multiple skeletons at once:
Brewmaster,
Oracle.
* Heroes who rely on burst physical damage are affected by Lucky Shot's disarm:
Terrorblade,
Sven,
Clinkz,
Windranger,
Alchemist,
Dragon Knight,
Legion Commander
* Heroes who are reliant on physical damage will be nullified by Decrepify:
Riki,
Wraith King,
Juggernaut.
* Heroes who relies on high armor such as
Dragon Knight,
Tidehunter, and
Pudge can be melted by Eye of the Storm.
Additional:
*
Static Link saps Dragon Knight of his already low base damage, making him even more useless in a fight if he gets kited.
*
Storm Surge makes Razor much faster than Dragon Knight, and hard to catch.
*
Eye of the Storm melts Dragon Knight's armor and bypasses
Black King Bar, his core item.
* Heroes with no mobility will take some good damage from Sand King's spells:
Dragon Knight,
Jakiro,
Pugna,
Earthshaker.
*
Slardar can chase Dragon Knight down with
Guardian Sprint and stun him with both
Slithereen Crush and his passive
Bash of the Deep. He can also use
Corrosive Haze to whittle Dragon Knight's armor.
* Melee heroes who may struggle to get close to Sniper:
Wraith King,
Kunkka,
Doom,
Tidehunter,
Underlord,
Troll Warlord, and etc.
* Heroes who rely on basic attacks will suffer from Laser:
Phantom Assassin,
Wraith King,
Huskar.
* Melee heroes with low mobility can be kited and killed by Viper:
Treant Protector,
Kunkka,
Alchemist,
Troll Warlord,
Wraith King,
Tiny,
Sven.
* Dragon Knight is easily harassed by
Poison Attack after the laning stage ends.
*
Corrosive Skin protects Viper from
Breathe Fire and returns damage.
*
Viper Strike can disable
Dragon Blood, Dragon's Knight main source of armor and health regeneration.
* Between
Poison Attack and
Viper Strike, Viper can keep Dragon Knight permanently slowed even in
Elder Dragon Form.
Additional:
* In the early game, a Dragon Knight without
Black King Bar is basically defenseless against Viper.
* Viper can harass Dragon Knight at any time with his
Poison Attack and
Nethertoxin.
*
Corrosive Skin reduces damage from Dragon Fire and inflicts damage to him.
*
Viper Strike disables Dragon Blood, negating his main survivability.
*
Viper Strike and
Poison Attack can severely slow him down even with his Elder Dragon Form.
* Viper's
Nethertoxin cannot disable
Reincarnation, which could put him in disadvantage against Wraith King if his whole team is with him.
* In addition, Viper doesn't like buying
Diffusal Blade, which is the only item that can help him against Wraith King.
* Wraith King's high burst damage allows him to kill Viper before being killed.
* Many physical-only single-target heroes like
Lifestealer,
Sven,
Wraith King,
Phantom Assassin,
Templar Assassin can have their damage mitigated by Cold Embrace.
* Wraithfire Blast is quite predictable, and players with good reflexes will disjoint it with
Blade Fury.
*
Omnislash with
Diffusal Blade &
Aghanim's Scepter can prevent Wraith King from reincarnating unless he has his Aghanim's Shard that removes the mana cost from Reincarnation.
* Heroes with high armor and/or durability can handle Juggernaut's ultimate, such as
Sven and
Dragon Knight.
* Broodmother can easily clear Wraith King's skeletons with
Spawn Spiderlings and summon spiderlings in their place.
* With
Diffusal Blade, Broodmother can prevent Wraith King from reincarnating unless Wraith King has his Aghanim's Shard.
*
Broodmother's spiderlings and spiderites do almost nothing against Dragon Knight.
Additional:
*
Breathe Fire will clear Broodmother's spiderites while significantly damaging her spiderlings and decreasing their damage output.
*
Dragon Blood's added armor and regen mitigates the damage done by Broodmother and her spiders.
*
Elder Dragon Form at level 2 and above applies splash damage to Dragon Knight's auto attacks.
*
Reincarnation allows Wraith King to survive Shadow Shaman's initial chain of disables and Serpent Ward attacks.
* Short cooldown of
Wraithfire Blast is ideal for interrupting Shackles.
* Dragon Knight can simply tank and destroy all Shadow Shaman's Serpent Wards.
* 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.
*
Death Ward does little damage against Dragon Knight's armor, and Dragon Knight's high health regeneration minimizes damage from
Maledict.
* Heroes who rely on passive abilities and attacks, such as
Drow Ranger,
Wraith King, and
Lone Druid, can render Silencer useless. But remember that a smart Silencer will most likely buy
Silver Edge to counter this if he is played as carry.
* If Silencer can't prevent Dragon Knight from using
Elder Dragon Form, Silencer's spells aren't going to be that effective against him, as Dragon Knight relies on right-clicks and not spells.
*
Dragon Blood's armor bonus and health regeneration allows Dragon Knight to stay in the lane against Glaives of Wisdom.
* Dragon Knight often builds
Black King Bar, allowing him to remove Global Silence before engaging.
* Even if Wraith King dies after Magnus disables him, Magnus' entire team will be slowed and vulnerable for counter-initiation.
* Any hero who can survive Magnus's initiations and manfight him:
Huskar,
Faceless Void,
Weaver,
Abaddon,
Troll Warlord,
Alchemist,
Dragon Knight,
Night Stalker,
Viper.
*
Reincarnation makes Wraith King nearly impossible to gank with Rupture.
*
Vampiric Spirit restores Wraith King's health, reducing the effect of Thirst.
Additional:
*
Rupture is meaningless while Reincarnation is off cooldown.
* Vampiric Spirit and Mortal Strike prevent Bloodseeker from achieving
Thirst bonuses.
* Heroes with high armor and durability can be exceptionally hard for Bloodseeker to bring down:
Dragon Knight,
Axe
Additional:
* Bloodseeker's physical damage is unlikely to kill Dragon Knight, and therefore rarely get a chance to recover the large amount of HP from
Bloodrage.
* Heroes with summons and illusions as Spirit Breaker has no strong AoE capabilities to deal with them:
Chaos Knight,
Phantom Lancer,
Terrorblade,
Naga Siren,
Broodmother,
Warlock,
Visage,
Nature's Prophet,
Shadow Shaman,
Lycan,
Wraith King.
* Spirit Breaker's slow attack speed and moderate damage do very little to harm Dragon Knight, even if ganked with
Charge of Darkness.
* Illusion and heroes with summons are difficult to kill with Chen's single-target offensive spells:
Terrorblade,
Phantom Lancer,
Chaos Knight,
Broodmother,
Naga Siren,
Lycan,
Visage,
Beastmaster,
Warlock,
Wraith King. And even though Chen can convert enemy summons with Holy Persuasion, their much greater numbers will often overwhelm Chen and his creeps.
* Heroes with strong area-of-effect damage can make quick work of Chen's converted creeps and at same time gain farm:
Magnus,
Jakiro,
Shadow Fiend,
Kunkka,
Luna,
Dragon Knight,
Medusa,
Alchemist.
* Durable heroes can stand against Tusk during 1v1:
Axe,
Dragon Knight,
Night Stalker,
Centaur Warrunner,
Wraith King and more.
* Durable heroes can stand against Tusk during 1v1:
Axe,
Dragon Knight,
Night Stalker,
Centaur Warrunner,
Wraith King and more.
* Side lanes with disables will greatly reduce the likeliness Void Spirit will be willing to rotate:
Sven,
Tiny,
Wraith King,
Ogre Magi.
* Heroes who can match Void Spirit's mobility (like the aforementioned
Ember Spirit or
Queen of Pain) or tank his spells (
Dragon Knight or
Centaur Warrunner) are very problematic for him.
* Heroes with illusions and summons can be hard for Phantom Assassin to deal with, as she lacks any AoE abilities to deal with them without items:
Broodmother,
Phantom Lancer,
Chaos Knight,
Lycan,
Naga Siren,
Shadow Shaman,
Visage,
Nature's Prophet,
Terrorblade,
Warlock,
Wraith King.
* Heroes that rely on physical damage are ineffective against Dragon Knight due to his high armor:
Phantom Assassin,
Bloodseeker,
Lifestealer,
Troll Warlord,
Sven
* Dragon Knight's heavy armor negates
Vendetta's burst physical damage. His large HP pool also gives him a good chance of surviving Nyx Assassin's follow-up nuke damage.
* Even if he is
Doomed, Wraith King can tear down Doom with physical attacks, and can still reincarnate as long as it is off-cooldown.
Additional:
* Wraith King has three passive abilities and only a single active ability, so Doom does not hinder him significantly.
* Doom expires upon death, so it is effectively removed after
Reincarnation activates.
* Like Abbadon's
Borrowed Time,
Reincarnation can bring Wraith King back to life, giving him a second chance to counter initiate or escape after a Black Hole combo. And since Enigma is not used to buy
Diffusal Blade, this can be a very big problem for him.
* Without protection from
Black King Bar, Wraith King can also cancel Black Hole with
Wraithfire Blast that can also deal damage over time, putting
Blink Dagger on cooldown.
*
Vampiric Spirit can summon many skeleton warriors that can be used to deal with Enigma's Eidolons.
* Wraith King makes a poor
Duel target, as he can be already quite hard to bring down once, and then you have to worry about his second life.
* However, even if Legion Commander does win the duel when Reincarnation is off cooldown, she still receives the permanent victory damage bonus because taking down Wraith King's first life still counts as a "kill".
* Wraith King is not afraid to walk into mines, whenever he goes with his Reincarnation ready.
Additional:
* Wraith King's skeletons from
Vampiric Spirit keeps the choke points and rune spawns safe from Proximity Mines.
* Wraith King is not afraid to go into a field of Proximity Mines, wherever he goes as long as
Reincarnation is off cooldown .
* The extra damage from
Searing Arrows is largely blocked by Dragon Knight's armor.
* Clinkz has too low health to survive a gank.Getting stunned keeps him down long enough for a reaction.
* Breathe Fire reduces his damage, as he almost exclusively deals physical damage.
* In the early-mid game, Skywrath consistently needs to use his entire mana pool to kill a hero, but Wraith King's
Reincarnation allows him to finish off Skywrath after the first death, as Skywrath Mage will have likely expended all his mana.
* Waning Rift's silence is almost completely worthless against Wraith King, due to him having only 1 active ability.
* Wraith King's only active ability,
Wraithfire Blast, is strong against Puck if it hits, because it applies a damage over time on top of stunning and doing impact damage, disabling Puck for a while, and Blink Dagger for even longer. It is very important to avoid getting hit by this spell when playing against Wraith King.
* Even if Puck succeeds to burst down Wraith King,
Reincarnation will ensure that Wraith King can fight back against him while leaving Puck exhausted and nearly unable to defend itself against Wraith King. And to make things worse, Puck is not a common
Diffusal Blade nor
Disperser wielder to counter this problem at all.
* Heroes with both illusions and summons, for Io has nothing to deal with multiple enemies at once outside from Spirits's weak area-of-effect:
Beastmaster,
Broodmother,
Chaos Knight,
Lycan,
Naga Siren,
Nature's Prophet,
Phantom Lancer,
Shadow Shaman,
Terrorblade,
Visage,
Warlock,
Wraith King.
* Heroes that rely on physical damage are ineffective against Dragon Knight due to his high armor:
Phantom Assassin,
Bloodseeker,
Lifestealer,
Troll Warlord,
Sven
* 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 that rely on physical damage are ineffective against Dragon Knight due to his high armor:
Phantom Assassin,
Bloodseeker,
Lifestealer,
Troll Warlord,
Sven
* Heroes with high burst damage and
Black King Bar can take down Dark Willow quickly:
Phantom Assassin,
Sven,
Wraith King
* Heroes that reduce the damage that Marci can deal during her ultimate, like
Razor,
Rubick,
Bane,
Dragon Knight and
Underlord.
* Clockwerk lacks burst damage, and that makes him vulnerable to heroes who can recover themselves and turn the fight around to their advantage after Clockwerk finishes his initiation. Additionally, Clockwerk hates buying
Dagon and
Ethereal Blade, which are the only itmes that can help him deal with heroes who can recover themselves and turn the fight around to their advantage:
Faceless Void,
Terrorblade,
Ursa,
Weaver,
Broodmother,
Slark,
Abaddon,
Wraith King,
Lifestealer.
* Heroes that are hard to gank:
Dragon Knight,
Mars,
Centaur Warrunner.
* Heroes that are naturally hard to gank, ranging from beefy tanks like
Abaddon and
Wraith King to heroes with quick escape mechanisms like
Anti-Mage and
Storm Spirit are also undesirable targets for a lone, roaming Bounty Hunter to scout out and initiate on.
* Heroes that rely on physical damage are ineffective against Dragon Knight due to his high armor:
Phantom Assassin,
Bloodseeker,
Lifestealer,
Troll Warlord,
Sven
* Heroes who can delivers a big chunk of damage in few hits will find themselves struggle against Templar Assassin's Refraction:
Sven,
Phantom Assassin,
Ursa,
Wraith King,
Lifestealer
* The damage over time from Dragon Knight's
Elder Dragon Form rapidly burns down Refraction, allowing him to attack her.
* Also,
Breathe Fire reduces Templar Assassin's damage and
Dragon Tail is a stun with a considerable duration, letting him and his team whittle her health down once her defenses wear off.
* Templar Assassin will struggle to kill Dragon Knight thanks to his high armor and health regen from
Dragon Blood as she deals entirely physical damage.
Additional:
* Despite the armor reduction from
Meld, Templar Assassin's reliance on physical damage and medium attack speed is unlikely to harm Dragon Knight.
* Templar Assassin's Refraction charges also get quickly removed by the damage over time from Dragon Knight's ultimate.
* Heroes that lose a great amount of their tankiness and become easier to finish off:
Bristleback,
Spectre,
Phantom Assassin,
Enchantress,
Dragon Knight.
* Once you have an
Aghanim's Scepter, Shadow Demon instantly reaches a new power spike and becomes a counter for a variety of heroes that have strong passives.
* Heroes that lose a great amount of their tankiness and become easier to finish off:
Bristleback,
Spectre,
Phantom Assassin,
Enchantress,
Dragon Knight.
* Heroes that lose a great amount of damage output and become less threatening:
Phantom Assassin,
Sven,
Slark,
Phantom Lancer.
* You can always stack camps and farm the scepter with Shadow Poison.
* Shadow Demon's Demonic Purge with
Aghanim's Scepter cannot break
Reincarnation, which could put him in a disadvantage against Wraith King if his whole team is with him.
*
Vampiric Spirit can out-heal the damage from Shadow Demon's abilities.
* However, Wraith King is a single-target hero, so he cannot deal with Disruption illusions.
* In general, heroes that can slow down Dragon Knight's movement speed will do well against him. This includes
Venomancer and others in addition to the heroes mentioned above.
* While
Reincarnation is off cooldown, Poison Nova poses less of a threat as Wraith King will return with all debuffs cleared.
*
Vampiric Spirit can out-heal the slow {tooltip:DoT|Damage over Time} from Poison Sting.
*
Shadow Fiend's
Presence of the Dark Lord reduces Dragon Knight's armor considerably, and his strong base attacks are augmented by his
Necromastery.
*
Dragon Tail can be used to cancel Requiem of Souls.
*
Breathe Fire reduces Shadow Fiend's damage even further.
*
Dragon Knight's high strength and
Dragon Blood means that he'll be able to tank Shadow Fiend's right clicks.
* Heroes with summons and illusions such as
Broodmother and
Naga Siren, are ill-suited for Wraith King to fight, as he has no source of waveclear.
* Heroes whose attacks can affect multiple enemies at once will clear Naga Siren's illusions. Such heroes include
Sven,
Magnus,
Dragon Knight,
Luna,
Medusa,
Templar Assassin,
Gyrocopter,
Muerta.
* A hero that
Rubick cannot reliably kill in most cases,
Wraith King is deceptively vulnerable to
Rubick in teamfights.
*
Rubick can kite
Wraith King by casting
Telekinesis should
Rubick stays alive after first wave of skirmishes.
* {{A:Fade Bolt|Rubick} negates damage from
Wraith King's skeletons.
*
Wraithfire Blast is a spell very easy to stolen even for new Rubick players if
Wraith King is on the other side.
* A 2 second stun with a 8 second cooldown (6 second with Rubick's Level 15 talent -25% Stolen Spells Cooldown, as of 7.31c) is already far enough to lockdown Wraith King to a crawl, as he does not have much mobility on his own and can be easily targeted.
*
Reincarnation may sound insurmountable, but the extra 3 second delay already grant about half the cooldown duration for a stolen
Wraithfire Blast.
* Rubick has sufficient mana pool to cast
Wraithfire Blast multiple times.
* Although not the best option,
Vampiric Spirit can be casted after Rubick gained enough last hits to summon skeletons for pushing and farming.
* Wraith King abilities are mostly passive making
Spell Steal meaningless.
* This can also mean that Rubick's Spell Steal used on Wraith King guarantees him a stun spell.
* Rubick's lack of mobility & low health pool is easily tear down by Wraith King physical attacks.
* Riki is a natural
Diffusal Blade carrier, and it doesn't help that he's easily capable of sneaking up on Wraith King due to
Cloak and Dagger.
* Riki can use
Smoke Screen on top of Wraith King as he is reincarnating, making him a sitting duck for his second life. In addition, the blind prevents Wraith King from landing critical hits from Mortal Strike.
* Wraithfire Blast is quite predictable, and if Riki can react fast, he will disjoint it with
Tricks of the Trade. There is also a chance he will become invisible again as the projectile travels, disjointing it.
* Riki does little damage to Dragon Knight, as he relies only on physical damage with modest attack speed and lack of burst.
*
Diffusal Blade lets Phantom Lancer drain Wraith King's mana, preventing
Reincarnation from triggering until he buys an
Aghanim's Shard.
* Wraith King is bad against illusions-based heroes, as
Wraithfire Blast is his only single-target disable and can get overwhelmed easily.
*
Doppelganger can disjoint
Wraithfire Blast.
Additional:
*
Doppelganger disjoints Wraithfire Blast.
* Wraith King is not good at handling illusion-based heroes, as his only disable is single-target.
* Phantom Lancer tends to get
Diffusal Blade, leaving Wraith King no mana to reincarnate until he has Aghanim's Shard.
*
Breathe Fire and
Elder Dragon Form's splash damage takes out Phantom Lancer's illusions quickly.
* If Dragon Knight can
Dragon Tail the real Phantom Lancer, he and his team can quickly kill him before he has a chance to escape.
Additional:
* The dragon's splash damage wears down his illusions.
* Early harassment with Breath of Fire hinders his farming.
* Fireball stops his pushes and allows for a defence.
* Heroes who rely on physical damage are easily negated by Ghost Shroud:
Phantom Assassin,
Wraith King,
Juggernaut.
*
Heartstopper Aura and
Reaper's Scythe go right through Dragon Knight's armor.
* Using Reaper's Scythe against Wraith King is a bad idea for Necrophos as his Reincarnation can waste it. And when upgraded with
Aghanim's Scepter it can delay the deaths of allies.
Additional:
*
Reaper's Scythe can't kill Wraith King while Reincarnation is off cooldown
* In the laning stage Vampiric Spirit can out-heal the slow {tooltip:DoT|Damage over Time} from
Heartstopper Aura.
* Enemies that possess high defenses through magic resistance, damage reduction, or high regeneration will make it difficult to whittle their health down to get to Reaper's Scythe's threshold. Such heroes include
Bristleback (although only from behind),
Spectre,
Ursa, and
Dragon Knight.
* Wraith King has no form of AoE to clear Chaos Knight's illusions from
Phantasm.
* Wraith King is very vulnerable if he reincarnates in the middle of his illusions.
*
Dragon Blood's armor bonus greatly reduces the damage dealt by Phantasm.
*
Breathe Fire and
Elder Dragon Form's splash damage quickly destroy illusions and reduces their damage output.
*
Wraith King,
Medusa,
Storm Spirit and other mana dependent heroes will have diminished impact on a fight if they survive Fiend's Grip due to its mana steal.
* Heroes with illusions and summons can swarm and overwhelm Bane, who has no area abilities to deal with them outside from
Aghanim's Shard upgraded
Brain Sap:
Broodmother,
Chaos Knight,
Naga Siren,
Nature's Prophet,
Phantom Lancer,
Terrorblade,
Visage,
Warlock,
Wraith King.
* Heroes with single-target abilities will be overwhelmed by Lycan and his summons:
Wraith King,
Bane,
Phantom Assassin.
*
Dragon Knight's insanely high armor and splash damage can cause Lycan to struggle taking him down.
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:
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
Latest changes first
Sharing link to this site is always appreciated.
Dota 2 is a registered trademark of Valve Corporation. This site is not affiliated with Valve Corporation. All game images and names are property of Valve Corporation.
Wraith King
* Sanity's Eclipse does massive damage to Wraith King who naturally has a low mana pool and typically doesn't build items to increase it.
Wraithfire Blast's slow projectile speed makes it easy to avoid using Astral Imprisonment.
*
Dragon Knight
*
Arcane Orb's constant pure damage output is devastating to Dragon Knight.
Sanity's Eclipse, which also bypasses his armor.
* Dragon Knight's relatively low mana pool leads to heavy damage from