* Zeus almost exclusively relies on magical damage, which is heavily reduced by Counterspell.
* Zeus' complete lack of mobility makes him very easy for Anti-Mage to chase down with Blink.
* Zeus likes to stand in the back during team fights, but Anti-Mage can easily Blink to close the distance.
Additional:
* Anti-Mage can burn mana, which is a big problem for a spellcaster like Zeus that heavily relies on it.
* Counterspell decreases magical damage taken from Zeus.
* Zeus' high intelligence and mana pool makes him a perfect target for Mana Void.
* Anti-Mage easily destroys Mana Shield with Mana Break, especially once he has
Manta Style.
* Anti-Mage effectively avoids Stone Gaze with Blink, and can reinitiate after its duration is over.
Additional:
* Mana Break burns Medusa's mana easily, especially when coupled with a
Manta Style.
* Can easily initiate on Medusa with Blink, burning her mana or forcing her to use Stone Gaze.
* Mana Void is effective against Medusa's big mana pool and mana usage, presenting a huge hazard to Medusa's allies around her since her Mana Shield still gives her some protection if she has mana.
* Silencer's Global Silence will render Zeus useless for 6 seconds in a team fight.
* Arcane Curse will punish Zeus for casting spells, which can cause continuous damage to him should he continue to cast spells.
* Last Word can silence Zeus and prevent him from spamming his spells.
* Silencer often builds Orchid Malevolence (or
Bloodthorn) which can be used on spell casters like Zeus, forcing him to invest in a
Linken's Sphere.
Additional:
* Zeus' main source of damage is his low cooldown, high damage spells - meaning Last Word and Global Silence will pretty much take him out of the game for the duration.
* Zeus likes to spam his abilities, which makes him vulnerable to Arcane Curse.
* If Zeus dies near Silencer, he will begin to lose intelligence, reducing his mana pool, mana regen, and attack damage. Furthermore, if the game is long and Zeus dies often, the intelligence losses will also reduce his spell damage.
* Silencer burns easily through her effective HP from Mana Shield, by taking away her intelligence.
* Arcane Curse punishes her repeatedly casting
Mystic Snake to keep her mana pool high. He can force her to use
Manta Style before he has cast
Global Silence and
Medusa usually does not want to build
Black King Bar.
* Enrage will make it very difficult to burst him down.
* Zeus has little armor, HP and mobility; Ursa's favorite kind of target.
* Medusa's tankiness doesn't help her very much against Fury Swipes in long teamfights.
* With no escape mechanism and a slow movement speed, getting jumped on by Ursa usually spells a quick end for Medusa in the early game.
Additional:
* Ursa's status resistance from Enrage reduces duration of Medusa's Stone Gaze.
* Ursa can stack damage with Fury Swipes easily against her Mana Shield in a prolonged team match.
* 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.
* Fiend's Grip provides mana drain, which can heavily damage Mana Shield and prevent Medusa from using
Stone Gaze.
* Even if she does use Stone Gaze, Nightmare can buy enough time to protect allies and reset the fight.
Additional:
* Fiend's Grip leaves Medusa defenseless, since not only does it deal damage, it also drains mana.
* None of Zeus's abilities can damage a Juggernaut in Blade Fury.
* Zeus's short attack range makes it difficult for him to target a well-placed Healing Ward. His frequent use of
Arc Lightning will have almost no effect on allies being healed by Juggernaut.
* Zeus has no way to defend himself, even if Juggernaut cannot use Blade Fury. He can be easily taken out if cornered, sometimes even without
Omnislash.
Additional:
* Blade Fury negates all magical damage from Zeus.
* Omnislash can easily take down Zeus. However, be aware that most players will get a
Eul's Scepter of Divinity or a
Ghost Scepter against Juggernaut.
* Heroes that build Diffusal Blade or can fit it well into their item build will also make Medusa much less tanky:
Riki,
Naga Siren,
Terrorblade,
Juggernaut,
Spectre,
Slark.
* He can use either his own or his double's Flux to bypass the spellblock from Linken's Sphere, using the leftover Flux +
Spark Wraith to slow Medusa's already low move speed to a crawl.
* Arc Warden has a farming advantage with double Hand of Midas, and can generally bully Medusa with other items that benefit from duplication.
* Chaos Knight's high health pool makes him resistant to Zeus' burst damage. Phantasm can dispel
Veil of Discord, a typical item purchased by Zeus.
* Zeus is easily overwhelmed by Chaos Knight's strong illusions, as Arc Lightning is not enough to kill them fast enough to have any impact.
* Zeus' low base armor makes him extremely vulnerable to Chaos Knight's high damage output and armor reduction.
* With her passive Split Shot, Medusa can be easily interrupted by Spiked Carapace during combat, especially during her precious
Stone Gaze.
* Mana Burn quickly destroys Mana Shield, especially if Medusa only increases her mana pool by bolstering intelligence (which has the added bonus of increasing Mana Burn's damage).
* Uncontrollable damage from Mystic Snake and
Split Shot can trigger Spiked Carapace.
* Medusa lacks single target damage, making a Burrowed Nyx Assassin hard to kill.
Additional:
* Vendetta burns a significant amount of mana on hit, and the damage from the ability drains Medusa's mana pool even further.
* Due to the passive nature of Mystic Snake and Split Shot, it can possibly proc Nyx's Spiked Carapace if he's within range of Medusa's abilities and isn't invisible.
* Medusa lacks single target damage, making Nyx with Aghanim's Scepter extremely hard to deal with if Medusa is the team's main damage source.
* Webbed areas can be used to hit and run, covering distance hastily weakening her on the way and initiating ganks.
* Even though Medusa can hunt down Spiderlings easily when given enough range, Silken Bola will cause her attacks to miss and get her swarmed in no time.
* Medusa usually does not build a Black King Bar to benefit from Mana Shield fully while Broodmother can fit a
Diffusal Blade to burn away all of Medusa's mana.
Additional:
* Spin Web will allow Broodmother to pick her own fights and sometimes slip away to ambush Medusa.
* Though Medusa's Split Shot and Mystic Snake can help Medusa deal with Broodmother's spiderlings, Broodmother will create too much of them for her to handle, allowing her to outnumber Medusa's targets from Split Shot and shield her team in process.
* Even though Pugna's low HP means that he can be quickly burst down, his Nether Ward heavily punishes casters whose spells cost a lot of mana, like Zeus. Casting 4 of his active spells, including Nimbus, close to an enhanced level 4
Nether Ward, can make the ward deal up to 1750 magical damage.
* Decrepify can further increase the damage dealt by Nether Ward upon Zeus. However, if used on Pugna himself or on one of his allies, it will amplify the damage done by Zeus' abilities.
* Marci on the midlane will win the laning phase against Zeus almost every time, as her powerspike at level 6 will decimate Zeus' low health pool and force him to stay far back.
* Even before level 6, Dispose and Sidekick can easily take half of Zeus' health if he is in range of Dispose.
* Time Dilation can limit Zeus to casting his abilities only once in a fight, effectively serving as a 6/8/10/12 second silence.
* Time Walk negates Zeus's burst damage.
* Chronosphere makes Zeus the best target for Void because of his low mobility.
* Corrosive Skin counters Zeus in lane by canceling the effects of
Clarity as Zeus relies on Arc Lightning to farm and secure last hits.
* Corrosive Skin also increases Viper's magic resistance to shrug off Zeus's magical nukes.
* Nethertoxin breaks Static Field.
* Due to Zeus' poor mobility, Viper Strike will cripple Zeus and will allow Viper and his teammates to land a lot of attacks.
Additional:
* Corrosive Skin severely reduces Zeus's damage output throughout the game.
* During the laning stage, Viper can abuse Zeus' reliance on spells by hugging the creep wave. Zeus will take constant damage over time from Corrosive Skin unless he drives Viper from the lane or returns to farming in his absence.
* Prior to buying Blink Dagger or
Force Staff, Zeus is fragile and possesses low mobility. Any of Viper's numerous slows can set up an easy kill.
* Zeus can deal a huge amount of damage, but he lacks defensive abilities, such as good mobility or resistance. Due to that, he doesn't like to be touched by any means. Heroes with higher damage output and good mobility will often get easily near Zeus and trade damage (eventually causing Zeus's downfall). Such Heroes include: Lycan,
Slark,
Storm Spirit,
Spectre and others.
* Medusa cannot chase Slark in any way and has no disable beyond her ultimate, making her unable to stop him getting away and regenerating before coming back to finish her off.
* Essence Shift particularly removes 1 intelligence point per hit, thus lowering Medusa's mana pool's cap and leaving her much more vulnerable in prolonged fights.
Additional:
* Medusa is especially vulnerable to Essence Shift, as both strength and intelligence contribute to her effective HP, while agility contributes to her damage.
* Dark Pact when timed right can be used to dispel Stone Gaze right after it petrifies Slark, allowing him to keep attacking Medusa throughout the duration.
* Heroes with heavy magical nukes will take advantage of Slark's poor HP or force him to use Shadow Dance early: Lina,
Lion,
Zeus
* Zeus likes to stay far back in fights, dealing his damage uninterrupted, but once he gets hooked into the fight, he usually dies very quickly.
* Pudge's high strength from Flesh Heap makes it very hard for Zeus to burst him down.
* Zeus' low health pool makes him very vulnerable to the damage from Meat Hook, Rot and Dismember.
Additional:
* Meat Hook's high range allows Pudge's team to drag Zeus in the middle of the fight and abuse his frailty.
* Flesh Heap's health and magic resistance bonus makes Pudge exceptionally resistant to Zeus' nukes. In later stages of the game, Zeus is usually unable to seriously damage Pudge at all. Even Static Field, which deals damage based on a percentage of the enemy's health, won't be doing much.
* Even if Zeus buys a Black King Bar,
Meat Hook and
Dismember still disable him for a long time, usually causing Zeus' quick death.
* Zeus is vulnerable to early ganks, which Pudge excels at.
* Medusa is a fairly immobile hero that deals damage around her with Split Shot. Sniper should outrange her and should stay out of harm's way from Split Shot.
* More importantly, Sniper should have enough attack range to fire at Medusa during her Stone Gaze without turning to stone, so the ultimate is mostly wasted against him.
Additional:
* Sniper can outrange both Medusa's arrows and Stone Gaze, allowing him to focus her down during a teamfight.
* Medusa lacks mobility or escape mechanisms.
Earth Spike and
Hex can neutralize her strong damage potential and allow for
Lion's team to focus her down.
* In addition to easily breaking her commonly bought Linken's Sphere with its low cooldown,
Mana Drain can quickly drain her
Mana Shield, making her far less tanky.
* Mana Drain, along with
Hex, destroy illusions instantly, which may be extremely helpfull and efficient against core builders of
Manta Style, like
Medusa herself.
* With Static Link, Razor can effectively make Medusa useless in teamfights by reducing her main damage output. It can, however, be blocked by a
Linken's Sphere.
* Plasma Field allows Razor to get on top of Medusa, slowing her already slow movement speed to a mere crawl.
* Eye of the Storm capitilizes on Medusa's low armor and causes her to be very vulnerable, even through
Mana Shield.
* Ember Spirit has a built-in antimagic shield, and Zeus has nothing but this magical damage, because of this, their confrontation on the center line can turn out to be sad for Zeus. If on such a line Ember Spirit will finish off all creeps under its Flame Guard, and Zeus with the help of
Arc Lightning, then eventually Zeus will lose mana faster, and will be forced to look for ways to replenish it
* Ember Spirit can interrupt Zeus with his "jumping" abilities, the fact is that Zeus deals damage from his abilities directly, while Ember Spirit disappears for milliseconds from the battlefield when flying during the Sleight of Fist action or when flying into
Fire Remnant
Additional:
* Zeus laneing against Ember is going to be punished with Sleight of Fist due to his low health pool
* Zeus's chip damage from Arc Lightning and other spells is nullified from Ember's Flame Guard.
* Heroes with long range abilities are also able to touch Zeus, such as Clockwerk,
Kunkka,
Puck,
Skywrath Mage,
Spirit Breaker,
Tusk and others.
* Zeus can deal a huge amount of damage, but he lacks defensive abilities, such as good mobility or resistance. Due to that, he doesn't like to be touched by any means. Heroes with higher damage output and good mobility will often get easily near Zeus and trade damage (eventually causing Zeus's downfall). Such Heroes include: Lycan,
Slark,
Storm Spirit,
Spectre and others.
Additional:
* Zeus burst damage can be reduced by Dispersion and reflect some of the damage back to Zeus himself.
* Zeus has low mobility and stays in backlines, Spectral Dagger or
Haunt can easily catch him as he has no escape mechanism.
* Since Zeus has low HP, Spectral Dagger and
Desolate will quickly tear Zeus down when he's alone.
* Heroes that build Diffusal Blade or can fit it well into their item build will also make Medusa much less tanky:
Riki,
Naga Siren,
Terrorblade,
Juggernaut,
Spectre,
Slark.
* Zeus is good against heroes that juke in trees or up cliffs, like Batrider,
Monkey King,
Spectre, and
Tinker, by providing vision in any area with Lightning Bolt, or guaranteeing vision on enemies with Thundergod's Wrath.
* Heroes with low mobility that rely on spells: Zeus,
Lina,
Crystal Maiden.
* Hard carries who just want to farm and be left alone will not appreciate Primal Beast, heroes such as Medusa,
Drow Ranger...
* Heroes with long range abilities are also able to touch Zeus, such as Clockwerk,
Kunkka,
Puck,
Skywrath Mage,
Spirit Breaker,
Tusk and others.
* Other heroes who has armor and slow debuffs won't allow Medusa to disengage from combat: Tidehunter,
Bristleback,
Slardar.
* Heroes who take a long time to become strong are in for a rough mid game, such as Outworld Destroyer,
Magnus,
Medusa, and
Anti-Mage.
* As a spellcaster, silences will nullify him entirely. Some notable examples are Death Prophet,
Drow Ranger,
Bloodseeker,
Disruptor and many others.
* Doom, as usual, fits this description nicely.
* Heroes with extremely slow movement speed will cripple against Solar Bind: Medusa,
Viper
Additional:
* Will-O-Wisp will keep Medusa busy after she got hit by
Blinding Light.
* As a spellcaster, silences will nullify him entirely. Some notable examples are Death Prophet,
Drow Ranger,
Bloodseeker,
Disruptor and many others.
* Doom, as usual, fits this description nicely.
* As a spellcaster, silences will nullify him entirely. Some notable examples are Death Prophet,
Drow Ranger,
Bloodseeker,
Disruptor and many others.
* Doom, as usual, fits this description nicely.
* Heroes with long range abilities are also able to touch Zeus, such as Clockwerk,
Kunkka,
Puck,
Skywrath Mage,
Spirit Breaker,
Tusk and others.
* Heroes with long range abilities are also able to touch Zeus, such as Clockwerk,
Kunkka,
Puck,
Skywrath Mage,
Spirit Breaker,
Tusk and others.
* Other heroes who has armor and slow debuffs won't allow Medusa to disengage from combat: Tidehunter,
Bristleback,
Slardar.
* Heroes with long range abilities are also able to touch Zeus, such as Clockwerk,
Kunkka,
Puck,
Skywrath Mage,
Spirit Breaker,
Tusk and others.
* Zeus can deal a huge amount of damage, but he lacks defensive abilities, such as good mobility or resistance. Due to that, he doesn't like to be touched by any means. Heroes with higher damage output and good mobility will often get easily near Zeus and trade damage (eventually causing Zeus's downfall). Such Heroes include: Lycan,
Slark,
Storm Spirit,
Spectre and others.
* Heroes with summons that are destroyed by a fixed number of attacks: Undying's
Tombstone,
Gyrocopter's
Homing Missile, and
Zeus's
Nimbus.
* Phantom Lancer with Diffusal Blade will very quickly burn Medusa's mana, making Mana Shield significantly less effective.
* Doppelganger's 1 second invulnerability can be used to dodge Medusa's petrification from Stone Gaze, as well as Mystic Snake.
* Phantom Lancer's illusions outnumber Medusa's targets from Split Shot, likely shielding his team in the process.
* Heroes with global nukes will target and hit Phantom Lancer regardless of his illusions: Zeus
* With Smoke Screen, Riki will silence and catch Medusa in a surprise with high miss chance flushing her from positions easily in team fights.
* He can deal a huge amount of damage through Cloak and Dagger, even through Mana Shield.
* Heroes that avoid damage by coming in and out of invisibility in teamfights such as Weaver,
Templar Assassin, and
Riki will be easy for Zeus to reveal with Lightning Bolt and Thundergod's Wrath, but these heroes usually have other ways to avoid his damage or kill him, so he is not a perfect counter alone.
Additional:
* Zeus's Lightning Bolt and
Thundergod's Wrath provides a short duration of True Sight, revealing Riki while possibly dealing a heavy amount of damage.
* Zeus's Nimbus can be placed directly on top of
Tricks of the Trade, potentially causing him to be damaged, stunned, and revealed the instant he becomes targetable again.
* Refraction blocks all of Zeus' damage and Zeus has no innate way of removing the instances quickly.
* Meld helps burst down Zeus' small health pool while he's still working through the Refraction instances.
* Psi Blades allow her to harass and zone Zeus in lane.
* Templar Assassin usually buys Blink Dagger, enabling her to quickly close the gap to Zeus' defensive positioning.
Additional:
* Although Lightning Bolt and
Thundergod's Wrath can reveal Templar Assassin during Meld, Zeus nonetheless has no way to deal with Refraction.
* Zeus is a rather squishy hero, falling easily to Templar Assassin's high burst damage.
* Heroes that avoid damage by coming in and out of invisibility in teamfights such as Weaver,
Templar Assassin, and
Riki will be easy for Zeus to reveal with Lightning Bolt and Thundergod's Wrath, but these heroes usually have other ways to avoid his damage or kill him, so he is not a perfect counter alone.
* Enchantress has a very low health pool, allowing Zeus to burst her down quickly before she can heal off the damage.
* Zeus will not be affected by Untouchable, as he won't try to attack her with right clicks anyway.
* Zeus can stay out of her attack range while trying to kill her, especially if he has bought an Aether Lens.
* Most heroes would want to get on top of Zeus to kill him, but Enchantress does not have this option as doing so would severely limit her Impetus damage.
* The exception is the laning phase, where Enchantress can gank Zeus if she Enchants a good creep.
* Enchantress often has a small army of neutral creeps, allowing Medusa to hit her with a later bounce of her Mystic Snake.
* Zeus can break Blink Dagger with his long range abilities and global range ultimate,
Thundergod's Wrath.
* Lightning Bolt has a long range and a mini-stun, providing a way for him to cancel Black Hole from safe distances, assuming Enigma doesn't have his
Black King Bar.
* Zeus's Aghanim's Scepter grants him
Nimbus ability that has a global range and mini-stun, making it an even more effective way to cancel Black Hole before Enigma initiates with
Black King Bar.
* Zeus is typically able to position himself at a safe distance from the fight, making him a difficult target to capture in a Black Hole.
* Medusa's Split Shot can make quick work of Enigma's Eidolons and take advantage of their considerable bounty.
* Medusa can also kill Eidolons with her Mystic Snake that can also greatly damage Enigma and drain some of his mana.
* If Medusa activates Stone Gaze at the start of a fight, it can make initiating and landing an effective
Black Hole exceedingly difficult, because
Stone Gaze can cancel Enigma's
Black Hole even through spell immunity, which can discourage Enigma from even trying to initiate with
Black Hole.
Additional:
* Medusa's Split Shot can make quick work of Enigma's Eidolons and take advantage of their considerable bounty.
* If Medusa activates Stone Gaze at the start of a fight, it can make initiating — and landing an effective
Black Hole exceedingly difficult.
Stone Gaze can cancel Enigma's
Black Hole even through spell immunity, which can discourage Enigma from initiating with
Black Hole.
* Zeus's highly damaging nuke spells with low cooldowns is not something Luna can go against, though Luna can win against Zeus in late game.
* Thundergod's Wrath can be used before a fight to harm Luna before she activates
Black King Bar, reducing her survivability for that fight.
* For the same reasons, Zeus makes a very powerful ally for Luna when they are in the same team.
* Should Luna choose to buy Manta Style, Medusa will be able to kill illusions from them with
Split Shot and
Mjollnir, which is a common item on Medusa.
* Mystic Snake allows Medusa to easily harass Luna and steal mana from her, preventing Luna from retaliating with
Lucent Beam.
* Medusa can survive Eclipse thanks to
Mana Shield, which can cause Luna to struggle greatly in bursting down Medusa and force her to buy
Diffusal Blade and it's upgrade
Disperser.
* Even with Black King Bar, Medusa's
Stone Gaze will still be able to disable Luna, which could even discourage her from counter-initiating with Eclipse.
* For the same reasons, Medusa makes a very powerful ally for Luna when they are in the same team.
Additional:
* Should Luna choose to buy Manta Style, Medusa will be able to kill illusions from them with
Split Shot and
Mjollnir, which is a common item on Medusa.
* Mystic Snake allows Medusa to easily harass Luna and steal mana from her, preventing Luna from retaliating with
Lucent Beam.
* Medusa can survive Eclipse thanks to
Mana Shield, and since Luna is not a hero that often goes for
Diffusal Blade, she will struggle greatly in bursting down Medusa.
* Even with Black King Bar, Medusa's
Stone Gaze will still be able to disable Luna, which could even discourage her from counter-initiating with Eclipse.
* For the same reasons, Medusa makes a very powerful ally for Luna when they are in the same team.
* Necrophos' Ghost Shroud increases the magic damage taken by Necrophos.
* If Zeus builds both an Ethereal Blade and
Veil of Discord, it almost always guarantees a kill.
* Mana Shield can tank most of the damage from Reaper's Scythe; with sufficient mana, the kill threshold drops significantly.
* Necrophos has a movement speed equal to Medusa, and is easy to chase down with a slowing item in Medusa's inventory.
* Zeus can easily find Magnus who is often hiding in the trees with Thundergod's Wrath and
Lightning Bolt, which allows him to warn allies and disrupt his initiation attempts.
* Any hero who can counter-initiate in anticipation without getting caught in Reverse Polarity: Sven,
Omniknight,
Enigma,
Luna,
Naga Siren,
Mars,
Jakiro,
Venomancer,
Elder Titan,
Faceless Void,
Rubick,
Keeper of the Light,
Pugna,
Invoker,
Spectre,
Alchemist,
Treant Protector,
Lina,
Oracle,
Zeus,
Shadow Shaman,
Phoenix,
Razor,
Huskar,
Batrider,
Kunkka,
Tidehunter,
Wraith King,
Sand King,
Medusa,
Dawnbreaker.
* Heroes with global abilities can give Legion Commander's opponent an edge in Duels from anywhere on the map: Nature's Prophet,
Ancient Apparition,
Zeus,
Invoker,
Treant Protector
* Mana Shield makes Medusa very hard to take down in Duels.
* Stone Gaze stops Legion Commander from Dueling altogether, regardless of who she targets.
* Heroes that build Diffusal Blade or can fit it well into their item build will also make Medusa much less tanky:
Riki,
Naga Siren,
Terrorblade,
Juggernaut,
Spectre,
Slark.
* Zeus's abilities deal high amounts of burst magical damage, which ignores Naga Siren's high armor.
* Arc Lightning is a good way to destroy Naga Siren's illusions due to it's capabilities to bounce between enemies.
* Static Field from
Aghanim's Shard can automatically hit everything in a big radius, taking a huge chunk of health out of Naga Siren's illusions, regardless of how much health they have.
* Medusa's Split Shot and
Mystic Snake combined with
Mjollnir, a common item for Medusa, will whittle down all of Naga Siren's illusions, including Naga Siren herself.
* Medusa's Stone Gaze can disable Naga Siren even for the duration of
Song of the Siren and even if Naga Siren is spell immune, discouraging Naga Siren from even trying to use
Song of the Siren to save herself or counter-initiate against Medusa.
Additional:
* Medusa's Split Shot and
Mystic Snake combined with
Mjollnir, a common item for Medusa, will whittle down all of Naga Siren's illusions, including Naga Siren herself.
* Medusa's Stone Gaze can disable Naga Siren even for the duration of
Song of the Siren and even if Naga Siren is spell immune, discouraging Naga Siren from even trying to use
Song of the Siren to save herself or counter-initiate against Medusa.
* Doom does not disable Mana Shield. As such, Doom's damage is largely mitigated by her mana shield. Additionally, Medusa is not reliant on her abilities to be effective during a teamfight, making Medusa an unproductive hero to target.
* Medusa is an ideal Linken's Sphere carrier. Should one be purchased, and without any additional disables, Doom may find that few opportunities exist to effectively lockdown, disable, and kill Medusa.
* 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.
Additional:
* 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.
* Timbersaws tend to build health increasing items, making Zeus' Static Field deal huge amounts of damage.
* Split Shot will keep attacking Pangolier even when he is rolling around.
* Stone Gaze stuns Pangolier during Rolling Thunder, or forces him to roll away.
* Arc Lightning allows Zeus to get farm in lane against Shadow Fiend without coming into the range of his Shadowrazes.
* Lightning Bolt can be used to heavily harass Shadow Fiend when he tries to get a last hit.
* Thundergod's Wrath and
Lightning Bolt can be used to detect Shadow Fiend if he tries to escape with
Shadow Blade.
* Due to Hoodwink's low health and Zeus's high magic damage from Arc Lightning,
Lightning Bolt and
Static Field as well as global abilities from
Thundergod's Wrath and
Nimbus, he can easily kill her throughout the game and also reveal where Hoodwink is positioned or when she's in trees.
* Zeus's enormous magical damage output makes Pierce the Veil risky to use without a Black King Bar.
* Zeus does not rely on attack speed, making The Calling nearly pointless against him.
* If Zeus is ever too close to Muerta, he can use Heavenly Jump to disengage.
* Split Shot can destroy Tombstone Zombies and Tombstone itself while still damaging heroes.
* Lich does not pose a big threat to Zeus in teamfights, as his spells don't have great cast range and Zeus should be too far back for a Chain Frost to bounce among him and his allies.
* Lich has a low health pool, allowing Zeus to burst him down quickly.
* Bounty Hunter has a very low health pool, allowing Zeus to burst him down quickly.
* Zeus can cast Lightning Bolt to gain True Sight in any area he suspects Bounty Hunter may be invisible or any area he thinks Bounty Hunter may have warded.
* If Bounty Hunter tries to escape a gank by using Shadow Walk, Zeus can gain vision of him with both Lightning Bolt and Thundergod's Wrath.
Additional:
* Lightning Bolt makes roaming behind enemy lines more and more difficult as Zeus becomes powerful enough to spam it. Also, Zeus' Ultimate
Thundergod's Wrath reveals Bounty Hunter regardless of his position.
* Thundergod's Wrath will often disable Earthshaker's
Blink Dagger before a fight starts.
* 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.
* Zeus usually stays at the back in teamfights and it is hard for Sand King to find Zeus and knock him down before Zeus deals his damage.
* All of Zeus' abilities, especially Thundergod's Wrath, disables Sand King's
Blink Dagger, effectively reducing Sand King's initiation and counter-initiation potential.
* Lightning Bolt deals damage to Sand King in Sand Storm and reveals him. It also interrupts channeling of Epicenter.
* Due to Tinker's low health pool, Zeus can easily burst Tinker down, while also cancelling Rearm.
* Once Zeus gets Aghanim's Scepter, he will gain
Nimbus, which allows him to scout out Tinker on the map, especially when he is pushing lanes while hiding in the trees.
Additional:
* Zeus can easily reveal Tinker's location in the trees with Thundergod's wrath.
* When Zeus has an Aghanim's Scepter, he can use his
Nimbus, together with
Lightning Bolt to interrupt Tinker's
Keen Conveyance channelling and cancel Tinker's
Blink Dagger.
* Zeus can reveal Clinkz with Lightning Bolt.
* He is vulnerable to Zeus's magical nukes, due to his low health pool.
* Medusa's Split Shot can easily kill Chen's creeps.
* Mystic Snake can quickly kill Chen's creeps and deal intense damage for every killed creep while also draining their mana with each bounce.
Aghanim's Scepter upgraded
Mystic Snake can also disable both, Chen and his creeps upon impact.
* Mana Shield will make it impossible for Chen to burst down Medusa.
* Stone Gaze can disable Chen from using
Hand of God to save himself or his allies.
* Other heroes who has armor and slow debuffs won't allow Medusa to disengage from combat: Tidehunter,
Bristleback,
Slardar.
* Slardar has high priority on building moblity items such as Blink Dagger rather than tank items. Zeus can easily deal large amount of damage to him if not caught out of position first.
* Medusa cares less than other heroes about armor reduction, since
Mana Shield blocks 70% of all damage without taking armor/magic resistance into consideration. This makes 60% of your Corrosive Haze ineffective until Medusa's mana is drained.
* Zeus is good against heroes that juke in trees or up cliffs, like Batrider,
Monkey King,
Spectre, and
Tinker, by providing vision in any area with Lightning Bolt, or guaranteeing vision on enemies with Thundergod's Wrath.
* Bulwark can make each of Medusa's attacks target him instead, reducing Medusa's contribution on team fights.
* Spear of Mars stuns Medusa and also pushes her away from teamfights, taking advantage of Medusa's low mobility.
* Arena Of Blood blocks Medusa's attacks from outside the arena.
* Mars' own father is a formidable foe because Zeus deals massive amounts of magical damage. The high damage, low cooldown nukes of Arc Lightning and
Lightning Bolt combined with the percent health magic damage of
Static Field will shred Mars' health because it bypasses Bulwark completely.
* Medusa's
Stone Gaze forces Mars to choose between getting petrified, or turning his vulnerable back on Medusa.
* Heroes with Linken's Sphere as core item: Weaver,
Morphling,
Medusa.
* Heroes with disables that ignore spell immunity will render Phantom Assassin quite useless in teamfights throughout the game: Axe,
Enigma,
Vengeful Spirit,
Doom,
Bane,
Beastmaster,
Pudge,
Medusa,
Warlock.
* Zeus is good against heroes that juke in trees or up cliffs, like Batrider,
Monkey King,
Spectre, and
Tinker, by providing vision in any area with Lightning Bolt, or guaranteeing vision on enemies with Thundergod's Wrath.
* Heroes with spells that negate invisibility such as Bounty Hunter,
Zeus and
Slardar prevent her from saving her allies with Moonlight Shadow.
* Since Windranger is bad against magical damage, heroes with continuous magical damage or magical nukes can blast her: Zeus,
Tinker,
Leshrac,
Viper,
Skywrath Mage,
Lion,
Lina,
Venomancer.
* Heroes with a lot of burst damage, especially those who rely on casting spells: Lina,
Zeus.
* Heroes with high magical burst damage will kill Gyrocopter before he gets to do much: Lina,
Lion,
Zeus
* Heroes that avoid damage by coming in and out of invisibility in teamfights such as Weaver,
Templar Assassin, and
Riki will be easy for Zeus to reveal with Lightning Bolt and Thundergod's Wrath, but these heroes usually have other ways to avoid his damage or kill him, so he is not a perfect counter alone.
Additional:
* Arc Lightning has a low cooldown can used to pop his
Linken's Sphere.
* Lightning Bolt or (
Nimbus upgraded from
Aghanim's Scepter) detects Weaver during Shukuchi, preventing his ganks.
* Thundergod's Wrath can kill Weaver quickly before he can cast his Time Lapse at low health.
* Some heroes with extreme range, like Zeus,
Invoker or
Clockwerk, can snipe your allies from anywhere after your Grave has expired.
* Heroes who can provide True Sight or semi-reveal enemy heroes as Nature's Prophet is prone to buying Shadow Blade:
Bounty Hunter,
Slardar,
Spectre,
Zeus,
Spirit Breaker.
* Heroes with powerful spammable abilities will prove problematic for Grimstroke as Ink Swell does not protect him from them: Zeus,
Skywrath Mage,
Tinker,
Lina
* Heroes with mediocre health pools who rely on armor or evasion to survive fights such as Troll Warlord,
Windranger, and
Terrorblade can be killed by Zeus if caught off guard.
* Heroes who cannot prevent Sven from killing supports will always be at a disadvantage in fights such as Lina,
Slark and
Zeus.
* Mana Shield makes it very hard for Sven to burst her within Storm Hammer's stun duration.
* Stone Gaze makes it very difficult for Sven to fight Medusa at any stage of the game.
* Mystic Snake can slow Sven down enough for allies to capitalize on his commitment in a fight.
Additional:
* Stone Gaze allows Medusa to easily kite and kill Sven.
* Mana Shield negates much of Sven's burst damage.
* As a spellcaster, silences will nullify him entirely. Some notable examples are Death Prophet,
Drow Ranger,
Bloodseeker,
Disruptor and many others.
* Doom, as usual, fits this description nicely.
* Mana Shield makes it very difficult for Bloodseeker to gain his Thirst bonuses.
* Rupture rarely kills Medusa through Mana Shield.
* Heroes with long range abilities are also able to touch Zeus, such as Clockwerk,
Kunkka,
Puck,
Skywrath Mage,
Spirit Breaker,
Tusk and others.
* If Medusa activates Stone Gaze before Spirit Breaker reaches her with Charge of Darkness, the charge will inevitably fail.
* Medusa has three ways to counter Spirit Breaker's Charge of Darkness: Stone Gaze can disable Spirit Breaker's Charge of Darkness if he faces Medusa directly.
Aghanim's Scepter upgraded
Mystic Snake can disable Spirit Breaker and cancel his Charge of Darkness if it hits him. And
Cold Blooded provided by
Aghanim's Shard that can cast a single-targeted
Mystic Snake at Spirit Breaker if he uses Charge of Darkness on her.
* Mana Shield and overall tankiness allows Medusa to easily survive Spirit Breaker's initiation. And to make things worse, Spirit Breaker is not a common
Diffusal Blade nor
Disperser wielder to counter this problem at all.
* Overall, any attempt for Spirit Breaker to gank and kill Medusa will hurt him more than the other way around.
* Zeus can deal a huge amount of damage, but he lacks defensive abilities, such as good mobility or resistance. Due to that, he doesn't like to be touched by any means. Heroes with higher damage output and good mobility will often get easily near Zeus and trade damage (eventually causing Zeus's downfall). Such Heroes include: Lycan,
Slark,
Storm Spirit,
Spectre and others.
* Her Mana Shield is too tough for Lycan to break.
* Mystic Snake can hit for a massive damage once it spread between his summons.
Additional:
* Can be easily petrified despite his speed.
* Summoned wolves will be targeted by Split Shot or Mystic Snake
* Heroes that build Diffusal Blade or can fit it well into their item build will also make Medusa much less tanky:
Riki,
Naga Siren,
Terrorblade,
Juggernaut,
Spectre,
Slark.
* Heroes with mediocre health pools who rely on armor or evasion to survive fights such as Troll Warlord,
Windranger, and
Terrorblade can be killed by Zeus if caught off guard.
Additional:
* Arc Lightning and
Lightning Bolt can easily burst Terrorblade and his illusions.
* Static Field from
Aghanim's Shard can automatically hit everything in a big radius, taking a huge chunk of health out of Terrorblade's illusions, regardless of how much health they have.
* Axe can take advantage of Medusa's awfully low HP to insta-kill her with Culling Blade, making it extremely difficult for her to farm for items to compensate for the lack of strength during early and mid-game while Axe is continuously harassing around.
* Mana Shield reduces the effectiveness of Counter Helix.
* Stone Gaze makes it very difficult for Axe to initiate on Medusa and her allies.
* E.M.P. allows Invoker to burn Medusa's mana to weaken Mana Shield.
* Medusa's lack of mobility makes her easy to kite with Invoker's spells.
Additional:
* E.M.P. is a large mana burn nuke which can hit Medusa's Mana shield with enough damage to lose even more mana.
* Deafening Blast disarms Medusa's ability to deal pseudo-AOE damage during teamfights.
* Cold Snap allows the opposing team to repeatedly stun Medusa in short succession, preventing her from successfully casting her ultimate due to its long cast time.
* Zeus greatly hinders Invoker on the line with his long-range abilities. QW- and QE-Invoker have a very long recharge on abilities, and Zeus' Arc Lightning ability recharges too quickly, which is why he quickly kills a pack of creeps and drives Invoker under his tower, punching and not letting finish off creeps
* Lightning Bolt and
Thundergod's Wrath abilities reveal invisibility of enemies, for example Invoker invisibility from
Ghost Walk ability
Additional:
* Zeus greatly hinders Invoker on the line with his long-range abilities. QW- and QE-Invoker have a very long recharge on abilities, and Zeus' Arc Lightning ability recharges too quickly, which is why he quickly kills a pack of creeps and drives Invoker under his tower, punching and not letting finish off creeps
* Lightning Bolt and
Thundergod's Wrath abilities reveal invisibility of enemies, for example Invoker invisibility from
Ghost Walk ability
* Rage is very useful against Zeus, as it negates magic damage and provides spell immunity. In addition, the increased attack speed can tear Zeus apart in combination with
Open Wounds.
* Lifestealer can avoid Thundergod's Wrath with Infest.
* Lifestealer's low mobility makes him easy to kite.
* Stone Gaze pierces Rage, wasting its cooldown and making Lifestealer unable to fight.
* Thundergod's Wrath strikes only the first Meepo.
* Zeus has low mobilty so consecutive Earthbinds are easy to hit and he'll quickly die from
Poofs.
* Poof won't damage Medusa and she can use Stone Gaze to disable all of Meepo's clones.
* Mystic Snake will easily become the bane of Meepo early game.
* Visage can quickly kill heroes with low to medium base armor and no innate escape mechanism. Examples include Alchemist,
Crystal Maiden and
Zeus.
* Heroes with cleave or multi-target attacks can quickly take on Familiars and reduce Visage's firepower like Gyrocopter,
Kunkka,
Magnus and
Medusa.
Additional:
* Visage's familiars are easy targets to Split Shot.
* Mana Shield will resist Soul Assumption instances without effort.
To start select enemy heroes in the field above. It's intended to be used with multiple heroes. The more enemy heroes you provide the better results you will get.
This website was made to help you in pick stage of online game Dota 2. It calculates rating for each possible counterpicks based on tips from web-based database made up entirely of user contributions Dota 2 wiki.
You will get the list of recommended hero counters with a list of tips written by Dota 2 wiki contributors explaining why it's good against the particular hero. In comparison to other similar websites, which show only rating based on average hero win rate from dotabuff or similar service.
Take it with a bit of grain of salt, especially if the recommendation has a low rating (<= 1), some heroes
may win a lane in an early game but would lose in late game (and vice versa). That's why sometimes
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Zeus
* Huskar's Burning Spears chip through his low health pool quickly.Consequently, he is forced to either invest on health regen or abandon the lane.
* Reliant on magic damage, there is little he can do against Huskar.
* Huskar will usually kill him if he gets Life Break off,given Zeus' poor mobility.
Medusa
*
Burning Spear's damage over time can rapidly burn Medusa's mana and health alike.
Inner Fire can slow and disarm Medusa and also allow Huskar to follow up with Life Break.
*