* 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.
Additional:
* 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.
* Viper Strike is a strong and breaks Fury Swipes, undispellable slow, making it much easier to kite Ursa for everyone.
* Once you get a Black King Bar, squishy spellcasters like
Zeus,
Skywrath Mage and others will be probably easy to deal with.
* Lycan's ultimate makes him immune to slows from Ursa's
Earthshock as well as allowing him to outmaneuver
Ursa during
Enrage. Lycan can also easily chase down
Ursa while shapeshifted, should
Ursa try to flee.
* 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.
* Bane can use Nightmare and
Fiend's Grip to lock down Ursa early game and in team fights, forcing Ursa to buy a Black King Bar and making him very vulnerable to being kited once his Black King Bar is down to 6 seconds.
* Overall, Bane's potent disables force Ursa to build more defensive items and play more defensively in general.
* 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.
* Storm Spirit can steal Aegis of the Immortal during Roshan attempts through the Pit, because of his
Ball Lightning.
* Ursa has no way to catch a slippery Storm Spirit, as Earthshock's slow will do nothing to stop Storm Spirit from using Ball Lightning.
* 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.
* Ursa struggles against heroes with strong (and especially undispellable) disables (Disruptor,
Puck,
Shadow Demon,
Outworld Destroyer and etc).
* Heroes with long range abilities are also able to touch Zeus, such as Clockwerk,
Kunkka,
Puck,
Skywrath Mage,
Spirit Breaker,
Tusk and others.
* Melee heroes that get kited easily have hard times dealing with Puck without any lockdowns, as Puck is one of the most mobile heroes. Heroes like Sven,
Lifestealer,
Ursa and
Alchemist may have problems to get to Puck without proper initiation items. They also lack reliable lockdowns, as their disables are easily avoidable for Puck, or are just a soft disable.
* 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.
* 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.
Additional:
* 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.
* 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
Additional:
* Templar Assassin usually places Psionic Traps inside the Roshan Pit (and can teleport herself to the traps with an
Aghanim's Scepter), preventing Ursa from killing Roshan without getting noticed by the enemy team.
* Heroes who can provide True Sight are always credible threats: Slardar,
Bounty Hunter, especially
Zeus since his
Lightning Bolt provides True Sight without the need to detect her beforehand to apply the debuff. So even a late-coming Zeus can easily scout a large area to reveal her, and she cannot purge herself from his sight with the dispel talent.
* 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.
* Lion has two low cast point disables (Hex and
Earth Spike) to control Ursa before he buys a
Black King Bar.
* Hex is one of the few abilities that cannot be dispelled even with an
Aghanim's Scepter upgraded Enrage.
* Lion can control Ursa's low mana pool via Mana Drain.
* 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.
* Slark can detect early Roshan attempts due to Shadow Dance if he frequently checks the Pit.
* Enrage cannot restore attributes stolen by Essence Shift and will reduce his physical damage output.
* Even if Ursa initiates with Earthshock, Slark can Pounce away or use
Dark Pact after Ursa's initiation to avoid Fury Swipes' damage until Earthshock's slow is gone.
* 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 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.
Additional:
* 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
* 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.
* If Ursa uses Enrage Brewmaster can use Cyclone to render him harmless during his ultimate.
* Brewmaster has two spells to slow down Ursa, allowing his team to kite around him easily.
* Plasma Field can spot an Ursa sneaking into Roshan's pit
* Static Link has a 800 link break distance, meaning Razor can stay close enough to drain Ursa' damage, but not too close to get attacked
* Static Link cannot be dispelled by Enrage
* With Storm Surge, Razor will usually be faster than Ursa in most cases
* Eye of the Storm melts through Ursa's armor
* Primal Roar and the slow from Boars makes kiting Ursa very easy.
* 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.
* Visage can quickly kill heroes with low to medium base armor and no innate escape mechanism. Examples include Alchemist,
Crystal Maiden and
Zeus.
* Ursa struggles against heroes with strong (and especially undispellable) disables (Disruptor,
Puck,
Shadow Demon,
Outworld Destroyer and etc).
* With Aghanim's Scepter, Broodmother will gain access to
Spinner's Snare, which will allow her to create invisible lines on her webs from
Spin Web that will root, deal damage over time, and reveal enemy heroes if they unwittingly step on them. This allows Broodmother to keep her allies alerted on heroes who rely on invisibility-themed and movement-themed abilities and items to surprise enemy heroes and disrupt ganking attempts of enemy heroes:
Phantom Assassin,
Nyx Assassin,
Mirana,
Bounty Hunter,
Templar Assassin,
Riki,
Spirit Breaker,
Anti-Mage,
Tusk,
Ursa,
Nature's Prophet,
Enigma,
Void Spirit,
Magnus etc.
* 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
* Positioning-reliant heroes (Windranger,
Tidehunter,
Ursa...), since Earth Spirit can disrupt positioning with his Boulder Smash.
* 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 low mobility that rely on spells: Zeus,
Lina,
Crystal Maiden.
* Heroes with weaker mobility will struggle to keep up with Night Stalker: Gyrocopter,
Ursa,
Drow Ranger
* Heroes with stronger lane presence that can threaten to kill him: Batrider,
Juggernaut,
Ursa,
Monkey King,
Razor.
* Heroes with long range abilities are also able to touch Zeus, such as Clockwerk,
Kunkka,
Puck,
Skywrath Mage,
Spirit Breaker,
Tusk and others.
* 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.
* Spirit Siphon does a lot of magical damage, especially in the early game. This allows her to demolish low health heroes such as Zeus,
Pugna, especially when combined with her other spells.
* 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.
* Melee carries such as Sven,
Ursa or
Lifestealer can be slowed and easily kited with Demonic Purge.
Additional:
* Shadow Demon's Demonic Purge renders Ursa useless even through
Black King Bar as it slows him, continually purges his Overpower charges and can not be dispelled by Ursa's Enrage.
* Disruption is a good way to save teammates against Ursa. Disrupting Ursa is also a good way to kite him, as it can not be dispelled by Enrage.
* Heroes with summons that are destroyed by a fixed number of attacks: Undying's
Tombstone,
Gyrocopter's
Homing Missile, and
Zeus's
Nimbus.
* Heroes who cannot prevent Sven from killing supports will always be at a disadvantage in fights such as Lina,
Slark and
Zeus.
* Assuming they have not bought anti-evasion items, attack-dependent heroes such as Ursa,
Terrorblade or
Lifestealer can be a minor threat for Phantom Assassin early in the game, and may even be completely dominated by her thanks to her evasion.
* 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.
* 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.
* Ursa relies on the Blink-Earthshock combo to slow enemies to burst them, but Windranger can use Windrun to escape through Earthshock's duration.
* Windrun and
Focus Fire can easily allow Windranger to kite Ursa and do good amounts of damage in the process.
Additional:
* Windranger can avoid Ursa's primary source of damage, Fury Swipes, by simply using Windrun. The slow from
Earthshock is also rendered irrelevant by Windrun.
* Focus Fire and Windrun can be used to kite Ursa.
* 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.
* Ursa has no sustained AoE to deal with illusions, it becomes worse since Phantom Lancer can create more illusions in a matter of seconds.
* Diffusal Blade can be used to drain Ursa mana. This is a standard item for Phantom Lancer in every match.
* Doppelganger applies basic dispel on Phantom Lancer, which will remove the slow from Earthshock. It also resets fights with more illusions, making hard for Ursa to hit the real Phantom Lancer.
* Manta Style creates two more illusions and also applies a basic dispel, further complicating the problem for Ursa to deal with.
* Heroes with global nukes will target and hit Phantom Lancer regardless of his illusions: Zeus
* Doom makes Ursa less disruptive, and it cannot be dispelled with Enrage upgraded with
Aghanim's Scepter.
* High health heroes (Axe,
Doom) fall fast with Fury Swipes stacks.
* Heroes who have most or all their abilities (damage or disable) unable to pierce spell immunity: Keeper of the Light,
Lina,
Lion,
Zeus.
Additional:
* 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.
* With Aghanim's Scepter upgraded
Infest, Lifestealer can use it on enemy heroes to attack them and disarm them from inside, even if they are spell immune, which can give him the edge over the heroes he's weak against like
Ursa,
Phantom Assassin,
Terrorblade or
Troll Warlord.
* Lifestealer will struggle to duel Ursa in all stages of the game due to Fury Swipes, which pierces magic immunity. Ursa can also stand up to Lifestealer with
Enrage, which dramatically reduces incoming damage and further delay Lifestealer's Feast.
Additional:
* Lifestealer's Feast will most likely not out-heal the damage from Fury Swipes and Overpower in the early to mid game.
* Heroes with long range abilities are also able to touch Zeus, such as Clockwerk,
Kunkka,
Puck,
Skywrath Mage,
Spirit Breaker,
Tusk and others.
* Heroes who can provide constant vision inside the Roshan Pit can negate one of the strongest advantages of Ursa, which is the possibility of quickly killing Roshan at the early game, with minimum itemization needed (Clockwerk,
Beastmaster, etc).
* Ursa's high physical burst damage combined with his big attack speed and durability makes him a very bad target for Power Cogs.
* Even with Blade Mail, Ursa's
Enrage will negate most of the reflected 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.
* 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.
* 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.
* Earthshock prevents Shadow Fiend from escaping after Ursa used his
Blink Dagger to get on top of him.
* Overpower and
Fury Swipes allow Ursa to quickly kill Shadow Fiend.
* Enrage keeps Ursa alive in a manfight with Shadow Fiend and allows him to stay close, even if Shadow Fiend uses Requiem of Souls.
* 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.
* Ursa can deal lots of damage during the laning phase before Terrorblade can have Sunder available.
* Even if Terrorblade succeeds to use Sunder on Ursa,
Enrage's damage reduction can help Ursa survive after Terrorblade has used
Sunder him while also making Terrorblade's attacks tickle, even during Metamorphosis for it's duration.
* 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.
* Ursa can do damage very fast with his Overpower and
Fury Swipes abilities, Necrohops will have taken large amounts of damage before he can use Ghost Shroud, And if Ursa has
Skull Basher, Ursa will quickly demolish Necrophos before he can do anything to retaliate.
* Skilled and smart Ursa can bait Necrophos into using Reaper's Scythe on him, and with his Aghanim's Scepter upgraded
Enrage that can negate 80% of the damage, Ursa will often survive and waste Reaper's Scythe.
* 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.
* Enrage with
Aghanim's Scepter can dispel Flaming Lasso.
* 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.
* All assassin-type carries in a one against one situation: Meepo,
Phantom Assassin,
Riki,
Ursa. Luna's only chances are that she buys
Ethereal Blade or
Black King Bar to gain a slight edge against them, or both items if necessary.
* 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.
* Ursa is a special mention because despite Bulwark diminishing most of the damage Ursa does, he is quite durable, especially with
Enrage, discouraging the aggressive all-in playstyle of Mars; Ursa can simply not target Mars.
* Heroes with strong area-of-effect damaging and/or disabling abilities will be able to intercept Underlord and his team when they exit from Fiend's Gate: Luna's
Aghanim's Scepter upgraded
Eclipse,
Dawnbreaker's
Solar Guardian,
Axe's
Berserker's Call,
Mars's
Arena of Blood,
Jakiro's
Macropyre,
Dual Breath and
Ice Path,
Naga Siren's
Song of the Siren,
Razor's
Eye of the Storm and
Plasma Field,
Lina's
Light Strike Array,
Broodmother's
Spinner's Snare from
Aghanim's Scepter,
Elder Titan's
Earth Splitter and
Echo Stomp,
Alchemist's
Unstable Concoction and
Acid Spray,
Queen of Pain's
Sonic Wave,
Dark Seer's
Wall of Replica and
Vacuum,
Venomancer's
Noxious Plague and
Poison Nova from
Aghanim's Scepter,
Oracle's
Fortune's End and
Rain of Destiny from
Aghanim's Shard,
Bloodseeker's
Blood Rite,
Enigma's
Black Hole and
Midnight Pulse,
Shadow Fiend's
Requiem of Souls,
Batrider's
Aghanim's Scepter upgraded
Flaming Lasso,
Firefly,
Flamebreak and
Sticky Napalm,
Ancient Apparition's
Ice Blast,
Sand King's
Epicenter,
Sand Storm and
Burrowstrike,
Gyrocopter's
Call Down,
Ember Spirit's
Sleight of Fist,
Death Prophet's
Exorcism and
Silence,
Monkey King's
Wukong's Command,
Crystal Maiden's
Freezing Field,
Muerta's
The Calling,
Medusa's
Stone Gaze,
Zeus's
Nimbus from
Aghanim's Scepter.
Dark Willow's
Bramble Maze,
Pangolier's
Swashbuckle,
Grimstroke's
Soulbind,
Ink Swell and
Stroke of Fate,
Earthshaker's
Echo Slam and
Fissure,
Puck's
Dream Coil and
Waning Rift,
Winter Wyvern's
Winter's Curse,
Magnus's
Reverse Polarity.
* Fury Swipes damage is not reduced by
Atrophy Aura, essentially bypassing Underlord's only natural defense.
* Enrage can easily dispel the root of
Pit of Malice.
* However, Ursa has nothing to intercept Underlord and his team when they are grouped up for the teleportation with Fiend's Gate outside of
Earthshock.
* 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.
* Enigma lacks burst damage, and that makes him vulnerable to heroes who can recover themselves and turn the fight around to their advantage after Enigma finishes his initiation: Faceless Void,
Terrorblade,
Ursa,
Weaver,
Broodmother,
Slark,
Abaddon,
Wraith King,
Lifestealer.
* 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
* Fury Swipes can give Ursa the edge in Duels.
* Enrage's instant cast time allows it to be used before Legion Commander initiates a Duel, causing Ursa to take almost no damage for a brief period of time.
* However, Duel stops Ursa from casting Enrage at the most critical moment
* Heavy nukers will do well against Cold Embrace (Lina,
Zeus etc).
Additional:
* Any ally that Winter Wyvern tries to save with Cold Embrace can still be damaged by all of Zeus's spells.
* If Winter Wyvern tries to juke vision by flying up a cliff or in the trees, Zeus can gain vision there with Lightning Bolt or Thundergod's Wrath.
* If Zeus is forced to attack an ally by Winter's Curse, his unimpressive attack damage and attack speed means they won't be hurt much by him. Zeus will also stay near the back of fights away from his allies, making a deadly Curse less likely.
* Even though Ursa is a hero who relies on direct attacks to be effective, Fury Swipes does not work on allies if Ursa is affected by Winter's Curse, mitigating a majority of Ursa's damage. In addition, Ursa's unimpressive attack speed and attack damage without
Overpower and
Fury Swipes means that he deals little to no damage to allies during Winter's Curse.
* Aghanim's Scepter upgraded
Enrage allows Ursa to survive Winter Wyvern's initiation with Winter's Curse.
* Light Strike Array has a long delay, making her vulnerable for Ursa's burst.
* Enrage can protect Ursa against Lina's high magical burst.
* Earthshock can slow down Chen and deal damage to both, Chen and his creeps.
* Many stacks from Fury Swipes combined with
Overpower can guaranatee a kill for Ursa before Chen can save his allies with
Hand of God.
* Enrage only makes Chen's attacks and his creeps's attacks tickle Ursa.
* 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.
* 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.
* 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.
* Fade Bolt is not enough to burst
Ursa, and even more so with
Enrage active.
* The damage reduction from Fade Bolt is not effective due to
Fury Swipes.
* Enrage lessens the lockdown duration from
Telekinesis due to its status resistance.
* Ursa can easily melt Rubick down with
Fury Swipes and
Overpower if he gets close enough.
* Few of Ursa's spells grants utility for
Rubick, as Rubick cannot steal the
Fury Swipes passive.
* Enrage provides Rubick with some sort of survivability, yet Rubick generally wastes the duration in the front line as he does not have a constant damage source.
* Fury swipes can tear Dragon knight down as it stacks infinitely.
* 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.
* Zeus can reveal Clinkz with Lightning Bolt.
* He is vulnerable to Zeus's magical nukes, due to his low health pool.
* Chemical Rage will rarely save Alchemist against Ursa's Fury Swipes.
* Enrage allows Ursa to both be a threat to Alchemist and avoid his over time damage.
* Enrage reduces the damage from
Blade Mail and Counter Helix to a minimum, forcing Axe to play around Ursa's ultimate ability.
* Overpower and
Fury Swipes stacks damage overwhelming for Axe, despite his high health.
* 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.
* 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.
Additional:
* 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.
* Ursa with
Enrage
* Heroes that can remove the Track debuff with their skills:
* Abaddon with
Aphotic Shield and
Borrowed Time
* Huskar with
Life Break
* Juggernaut with
Blade Fury
* Legion Commander with
Press the Attack
* Lifestealer with
Rage and
Infest
* Naga Siren with
Mirror Image
* Omniknight with
Heavenly Grace
* Oracle with
Fortune's End and
False Promise
* Phantom Lancer with
Doppelganger
* Slark with
Dark Pact
* Ursa with
Enrage
* Weaver with
Time Lapse
* Tidehunter with
Kraken Shell when damage received reaches the threshold.
* Fury Swipes will keep stacking on Tidehunter since it cannot be dispelled by Kraken Shell and its bonus damage cannot be reduced by Anchor Smash.
* Enrage dispels the slow from Gush, and if upgraded with
Aghanim's Scepter, can even dispel Ravage's stun.
* 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
* Ursa can easily unleash a number of attacks in an incredibly short amount of time, easily destroying the Supernova in a couple of seconds regardless of Fire Spirits' debuff. His
Enrage also dampens any damage Phoenix might toss at his direction, as well as remove any debuffs Phoenix may place on him.
* Thundergod's Wrath will often disable Earthshaker's
Blink Dagger before a fight starts.
* Due to Tiny's non-existent agility gain, high physical damage heroes are more effective against him (Clinkz,
Templar Assassin,
Ursa,
Wraith King etc).
* Heroes who 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.
* 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 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.
* Early game gankers can make life very difficult for a Sniper if he keeps being caught: Ursa,
Pudge,
Earth Spirit.
* Heroes with high magical burst damage will kill Gyrocopter before he gets to do much: Lina,
Lion,
Zeus
* Heroes with burst damage of their own won't be afraid to go toe to toe with Void Spirit, like Ursa,
Lifestealer, or
Axe.
* Ursa can shred Warlock's Golems in a few seconds with
Fury Swipes and
Overpower.
* Some heroes with extreme range, like Zeus,
Invoker or
Clockwerk, can snipe your allies from anywhere after your Grave has expired.
* Heroes with spells that negate invisibility such as Bounty Hunter,
Zeus and
Slardar prevent her from saving her allies with Moonlight Shadow.
* Heroes with either magical, physical or pure damage burst: Bane,
Ember Spirit,
Leshrac,
Lina,
Luna,
Nyx Assassin,
Phantom Assassin,
Skywrath Mage,
Tinker,
Ursa,
Void Spirit.
* Heroes with evasions: Phantom Assassin,
Brewmaster,
Hoodwink,
Windranger.
* 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.
* Heroes that rely on slows to get kills: Lifestealer,
Night Stalker,
Ursa,
Phantom Assassin,
Terrorblade.
* 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.
* Heroes with long range abilities are also able to touch Zeus, such as Clockwerk,
Kunkka,
Puck,
Skywrath Mage,
Spirit Breaker,
Tusk and others.
* Ursa's massive physical damage can destroy Kunkka quickly.
* Enrage can be activated before being hit by Ghostship to prevent most of the damage.
* Earthshock slows Kunkka's movement speed. With no escape abilities, Kunkka is easy prey.
* Heroes with a lot of burst damage, especially those who rely on casting spells: Lina,
Zeus.
* 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.
Additional:
* 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.
* Enchant can dispel Overpower.
* Enchant's slow can help kite Ursa in fights and also in lane.
* Enchantress can out harass Ursa in lane by using her long attack range and Untouchable, as well as out sustaining him with Nature's Attendants.
* Enchantress has a very low health pool, allowing Zeus to burst her down quickly before she can heal off the damage with Nature's Attendants.
* 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 damage from Impetus.
* The exception is the laning phase, where Enchantress can gank Zeus if she Enchants a good creep.
Additional:
* 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.
* Riki can detect early Roshan attempts because of Cloak and Dagger if he frequently checks the Pit.
* Ursa cannot Enrage when in Smoke Screen (Black King Bar will help though).
* Even if Ursa gets vision over him, Riki can Blink Strike away or use Tricks of the Trade after Ursa's initiation to avoid all Fury Swipes damage until
Earthshock's slow is gone.
Additional:
* Riki can detect early Roshan attempts because of Cloak and Dagger if he frequently checks the Pit.
* Ursa cannot Enrage when caught in Smoke Screen and will miss his attacks (although Black King Bar will help with this issue).
* Even if Ursa gets vision over him and initiates with Earthshock, Riki can Blink Strike away or use
Tricks of the Trade after Ursa's initiation to avoid Fury Swipes' damage until Earthshock's slow is gone.
* 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.
* The swarm beetle can waste Ursa's
Overpower attacks.
* Ursa has no inherent way of disabling a slippery Weaver by preventing him from Shukuchiing or
Time Lapseing away, as the slow from Earthshock is useless against Shukuchi's haste effect.
Additional:
* Earthshock's slow is ignored by Shukuchi.
* Ursa can be kited with Shukuchi and his burst damage will be negated with Time Lapse as long as Weaver survives it.
* The Swarm breaks Ursa's Blink Dagger, forcing him to deal with the beetles.
* 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.
* Heroes who rely heavily on melee attacks and lack early spell immunity are easily blocked and interrupted by Ink Swell: Lycan,
Ursa,
Troll Warlord.
* Heroes with powerful spammable abilities will prove problematic for Grimstroke as Ink Swell does not protect him from them: Zeus,
Skywrath Mage,
Tinker,
Lina
* 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.
* Low armor and lack of escape makes Pudge vulnerable to Ursa, specially when he gets his Blink Dagger.
* If Pudge lands a Meat Hook on Ursa, Ursa can simply face Pudge head on provided he can burst him down before any follow up disables.
* Enrage's Aghanim's Scepter upgrade allows Ursa to dispel Pudge's Dismember.
* 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.
* If Ursa uses Enrage, Pugna's Life Drain is next to worthless against him, due to Ursa taking 80% less damage, therefor Pugna heals by only 20% of the damage that the spell normally deals.
* It also dispels Decrepify, Even if you wait until he casted it, he can still dispel it with Shard upgraded Earthshock
* Ursa also commonly builds Skull Basher. With his high Attack Speed from
Overpower. he can easily cancel Life Drain
* If Decrepify is defensivly casted, Ursa can still cast Earthshock both to slow you, and to deal amplified magic damage. He also commonly builds a Nullifier
* If Ursa jumps on you with a Blink Dagger he can easily wipe you out with Overpower.
* Ursa's Overpower can destroy a full health
Nether Ward and still have a few swipes leftover, Also Ursa's low mana spells means he takes negligible damage from the Nether ward anyway.
* Ursa is also a common Diffusal Blade carrier, using it to both amplify his damage, but as his primary way to catch fleeing heroes
* Pugna is also the primary target of Ursa, due to him being both quite squishy, and a serious threat to his team, Ursa prioritizes the weakest link as Fury Swipes stacking damage will quickly demolish them, allowing Ursa to safely switch heroes
* Slardar is one of the few meele heroes who can lane against Ursa in the early game, out harassing him with Bash of the Deep, and running away from a bad engagement with Guardian Sprint
* Corrosize Haze can force Ursa to cast Enrage defensively instead of offensively
* With Corrosize Haze, Slardar's team can quickly dispatch of Roshan, denying one of Ursa's greatest advantages
* 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.
* 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.
Additional:
* 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.
* Silencer relies on preventing enemies from using abilities in teamfights with Arcane Curse, Last Word, and Global Silence. However, they are ineffective against Ursa since he relies more on items and attacks than abilities.
* Against a carry Silencer, Enrage can help Ursa reduce all damage he takes, even Glaives of Wisdom's pure damage will just tickle Ursa while his
Enrage is active.
* Laser can be cast on a initiating Ursa, normally causing him to waste multiple Overpower attacks, forcing him to either Black King's Bar, or
Enrage to protect himself.
* Ursa will probably carry a Linken's Sphere to counter Tinker's Laser. Popping it with Scythe of Vyse is actually preferable, due to Laser's high Pure damage.
* While Ursa is a common Blink Dagger carrier, but he otherwise has no way to close the gap, Baiting him into using his Blink, then blinking away, allows Tinker to easily kite Ursa.
* Enrage is generally how Ursa disengages, Due to Tinker's high maneuverability, he can follow him until it runs out. then burst him down with high magic damage.
* 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.
Additional:
* 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.
* 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.
* Fury Swipes is not protected by
Blade Fury and allows Ursa to harass Juggernaut anytime.
* Enrage reduces the damage taken from
Omnislash.
* 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.
* Jumping on Ursa with Life Break is often suicide for Huskar, as he will be immediately bursted down with Fury Swipes.
Additional:
* Huskar likes fights with a long duration and is usually at low health, making him vulnerable against Ursa's physical damage.
* Jumping in with Life Break against Ursa is suicide, as Enrage, Overpower, and Fury Swipes will easily shred Huskar.
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.
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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
* 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.
Ursa
* Ursa cannot effectively fight against Phantasm's illusions with his single-target damage.
Enrage.
Chaos bolt and
Phantasm combo.
Reality Rift can quickly relocate or reinitiate on Ursa once the duration of
Enrage is over.
Phantasm can be used to dispel Earthshock's slow.
Manta Style is another item that counter Ursa greatly.
Reality Rift, Ursa struggles to escape.
* Chaos Bolt's potentially long stun with Chaos Bolt gives Ursa little opportunity to
Additional:
* Ursa has no way to clear illusions quickly, making him vulnerable to
*
*
* Ursa has low mobility, once jumped on by