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Counter the Carries - Anticarries

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Counter the Carries - Anticarries

1.	Introduction
2.	Illusion Producing Heroes
3.	Stat stealers
4.	Depowering & Debuffers
5.	Summary

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Introduction

Hi all. I'm Jcam presenting my first guide on DotaFire. So recently I've been looking around to see what constitutes as being a strong anti-carry hero. There are many good anti-carry heroes, and what I will call categories. The strongest of these in my opinion, are the illusion producing heroes.

Those heroes that can turn a hero's own strength against them. This is due to the hero being stronger and as such the illusions become stronger. We all know that 'Manta styles' are a big game item for many carries. So why not use the same illusions against these heroes?

I am trying to give readers an idea of some heroes who can counter via their skills and who are better counter then others. I personally have seen more then enough 'don't let the carries get farmed' and 'don't let it to lategame'. This is not always avoidable, whether it be team not willing or simple enemy temmplay, as such, some anticarry heroes who can help deal wit these are needed to be picked - just in case.

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Illusion Producing Heroes

Illusion Producers. Here are some of the heroes that can make illusions of enemy heroes. I have included other skills that help if the hero possesses any.

Morphling with replicate. This spell simply copies a hero as an illusion as a target spell. One of the stronger spells because of the illusions only taking normal damage while being able to deal 50%. This illusion lasts 60 seconds at Lvl 3, 30 at Lvl 1! This hero also has the benefit of being able to carry himself - essentially, he may be countered by the heroes below.

Dark Seer with Wall of Replica. This one is like Morphling's, but can make more then one clone! This is due to it being an area of affect, where units have to pass over the wall to create an illusion. These clones will deal significantly more damage then Morhpling's own, but are much easier to kill with 300% damage intake. How you use this spell can make or break your game, probably the hardest to use, but probably the best when used well.

Shadow Demon with Disruption. This works as a target spell like Morphling's but also sends the hero off to another dimension for a short time then returns them - with two illusions. This is the weakest of the three, but also the most spammable. This spell can be gotten from level one, so you can use a heroes strength against them throughout the entire game. The illusions from this have a very small duration, 5-8 seconds. Shadow can however use Soulcatcher to improve the damage. This is another spell that works as anti-carry, due to its nature of providing extra damage.

(Will get picture and update as he is released)
Soul Keeper with Reflection. This skill is the weakest, and typically will do the least damage. However, the illusion is immune meaning it should always get some attacks in. Where Soul Keeper also does well is with his Ultimate Sunder in which he may swap life forces. Essentially, the lower Soul Keeper is the lower you are to death (according to the percentage). This is a good way to get the annoying carry heroes low, and then finish them off. This needs to be used however when you are fairly sure you can kill him (or are in dire need of health).

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Stat stealers

The Stat stealers. These are any heroes that may be able to steal stats of another hero for a short period of time or, permanently. This can cripple heroes and destroy dpsers alike. These guys form a few more carries themselves, as they can use the stats for their own deeds. Like I have said, I think the Illusion producers are stronger.

Slark with Essence Shift. This is a passive ability that allows Slark to steal one point of strength, intelligence and agility for each hit on an enemy hero. A smart, fast Slark can use this very well, posing hit and run tactics, then when you are crippled, literally pounce on you and kill you. Slark uses each stat stolen as 3 points of agility, thus making his dps skyrocket with enough stats stolen. In my opinion, Slark counters mostly agility carries. This is because they typically have lower mana pools and hp pools that would suffer greatly at having stats stolen, and then to make matters worse their damage and typically high armour is lowered.

Undying with Decay. This is an area of effect spell that is spammable, and absolutely one of the best early nukes in the game. Each use of this spell steals 4 strength from each hero in the radius - EACH HERO! This is painful early game - Undying also gains the strength! Funnily enough, despite stealing strength, the most affected by this are Agiltiy and Intelligence carries. These guys have naturally low hp and will become seriously weak after a few hits of this. Strength carries have higher base dps then most others and also have naturally higher then hp, so 4 strength is a much lower percentage of their total strength. This has a massive duration for the steal as well.

Timbersaw with Whirling Death. This is another area of effect spell that may be able to get more then one person. This spell steals 15% of a heroes primary stat. This spell injures strength heroes the most ,as it is a percentage of their strength - strength heroes will lose more strength. This spell next to trees can also do pure damage when next to trees. The spell does a decent amount of damage with it also.

Silencer with Glaives of Wisdom. This is a passive that steals 2 intelligence of any hero that dies within a 900 radius. However, unlike Pudge's skill Flesh Heap, this does not gain charges before it is skilled. The intelligence stolen is permanent. This is very useful for all those low intelligence gain carries who have barely enough mana to use their spells as is. Get enough charges in this, and it really hurts. The 2 intelligence steal is higher then a lot of intelligence steals - its almost like missing out on a level. Silencer uses the intelligence stolen to pummel you with his Glaives. Intelligecne heroes care little about this steal, they often don't care about intelligence steal, as they get so much. E.g. Pugna just laughs at you.

Outworld Devourer with Astral Imprisonment. This spell steals intelligence for Outworld, not unlike that of Undying's spell. This is a single target spell however, but has a high intelligence steal - 4, 6, 8, 10. This can cripple heroes early with low mana pools, and with so much intelligence stolen, some intelligence carries may suffer. The intelligence is stolen for a whopping 60 seconds. This will be an entire teamfight so some spells may never be used if the hero has a low mana pool. If you were to combine Outworld Devourer with Silencer, you can devastate teams. Not only will they have little intelligence, combine this with Sanity's Eclipse and heroes will fall from the spell's already massive damage, then buffed by huge intelligence steal.

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Depowering & Debuffers

The Depowerment.I've made up a word here - to reduce something's power. The heroes that fit into this category use their own skills to steal or use the power of carries against them. These skills are generally more easily countered, like Feast by getting more armour, or magic immunity meaning the ability simply cannot be used. Debuffers simply ruin a carrie's power, or/and can weaken them so they are easier to kill. There are lot more heroes in this pool, but target more specific areas.

Lifestealer with Feast. Along with Razor, probably the most recognised anticarry. This skill allows him to deal more damage the higher a unit's health is. The massive benefit here, is that Lifestealer gains a portion of the hp that he steals. Lifestealer can do tonnes of damage to those heroes that think they are save with high hp like Centaur Warunner and Doom. Lifestealer can quickly do more damage using his skill Rage also. This spell improves his attack speed, meaning he can steal hp even quicker. This damage stolen can be reduced however, specifically by armour.

Razor with Static Link. This spell allows Razor to steal damage from a hero over a duration. He can use the damage as he is stealing it and for a time after. This can be a huge amount of damage and hero's autoattack can end up being useless, heroes think it is a small tickle. Razor can use this damage against whoever he sees fit, but surely, with such a buff, you should use it against the carry. This spell has two counters - magic immunity to not even have the debuff placed on s hero, and armour to reduce the mighty damage razor can do - which also reduces his ultimate, Eye of the Storm that does physical damage.

Bane with Enfeeble, Nightmare and Fiend's Grip. This guy is the crowd control expert. Enfeeble is a single target spell that reduces a hero's damage. This is mainly used against DPSers to makes them useless, or seriously reduce their effect. Bane's nightmare is a powerful spell that unless attacked, disables a hero for 4-7 seconds. This is an extremely long time for a carry to be out of play, allowing you to kill the rest of a team before the carry destroys your own. This spell is not even a channel spell. Fiend's Grip is a channel spell but it is well worth the effort to do so - massive damage with mana leech for 5 seconds, 7 with Aghanim's Scepter. Truly a hero to be feared by carries, he can potentially deal with three in a single teamfight, or, as stated, reduce their effect dramatically.

Huskar with Life Break. This spell allows for Huskar to get a hero to half health, or even, 35% of their maximum health with Aghanim's Scepter. This can really allow for your team along with Huskar, have a jumpstart on the enemy carry and finish them off before they can do some real damage. This spell needs to be used wisely however, as Huskar needs to damage the carry and I have seen too many times where Husk ends up 1 v 5 because nobody was ready, or near enough to help finish the job. Huskar may often have to wait to use this on the carry, preferring others to try and bait Husk's ult out before they enter the fray.

Enigma with Midnight Pulse. This spell works on an AOE and deals damage every second as a % of a unit's life force. Units are only affected by being present within the AOE. This spell is easy to avoid - step out of the AOE. The spell needs to be used either as a mid teamfight spell, where players struggle to realise or in unison with another spell. One such spell, is Enigma's own Black Hole. This spell works on an AOE channel that draws heroes in towards an area, completely disabling movement, attack and spells. As midnight pulse damage is based on % hp, the more hp you have to more damage you will take.

Elder Titan with Earth Splitter. This spell forces a crack in a straight line across the earth and after 3 seconds, deals 35% of max hp to all heroes within its radius. Powerful is it not? This spell also slows. A competent Elder Titan player will also use Echo Stomp in unison with it. This spell not only does severe damage at a enormous range, but due to its slow, allows your team to get in position to go and kill the carry - especially Echo Stomp was successful.

Necrolyte with Heartstopper Aura. This spell deals % hp damage to all heroes within 1000 range - it is a passive ability. Allowing Necrolyte to live is a sin that he will make you pay for. He can do a large amount of damage when this is left to fester. Why is this anticarry thoguh? Heroes with large hp pools take more damage and simply being within a large radius. The kicker here, is Necrolye's ultimate Reaper's Scythe that does damage to heroes based on how much hp they have lost - see the correlation between the two abilities? This basically forces any hero that would normally flee or escape once low hp something else to fear, something else to think about. Using Necrolyte as bait is highly recommended - but do so wisely.

Naga Siren with Song of the Siren. Yet another carrying anticarry hero. A Naga Siren that knows how, and when to use their ultimate is deadly. One of the best uses to use this AOE, mobile disable, is to find the carry prior to a teamfight, or near the carry, to best position your team to kill the carry within the next few seconds. This is all about positioning and players that can use this 7 seconds well should fear no carry - only fear when it is on cooldown (cd). Two of Naga's other abilities, Rip Tide and Ensnare also help deal with enemy carries. Rip Tide can be used to deal medium damage while reducing a tagret's armour, naking them easier to kill. Ensnare is also useful in this respect, as it allows for no movement by the enemy target whatsoever, while being open to being killed at the same time. Blinkers and escape heroes cry when this is placed upon them.

Dazzle with Weave. This spell works on an AOE that once under its spell, you may leave the radius and it will still affect you. The spell every second adds 1 armour for allies who were within its AOE, and subtracts 1 armour for enemies who were within the AOE. This spell makes it easy for your own DPSers to deal more damage while protecting your team from DPSers. Your team can really do alot of damage with this spell and it can make or break teamfights. Dazzle must be credited laos with being useful with Shallow Grave. This spell saves allies from dying for five seconds. Note that it does not stop damage but heroes cannot die when under the spells affect. Carries kill, its their job - denying them a kill is always going to help counter them.

http://www.dota2wiki.com/images/7/7b/Slardar.png

Slardar with Amplify Damage. This spell subtracts 8/14/20 armour from a target for 25 seconds while giving line of sight. This allows for DPSers to kill with ease, along with improving damage of other physical damage spells. This also grants true sight of a target, meaning you can see them regardless of them being invisible. A truly anticarry spell that makes killing heroes a cinch.

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Summary

Thanks for reading my guide - congratulations for reaching its end. I hope you have been able to get an insight into some heroes that can counter those scary carries. Below is a small summary of the heroes and the anticarry abilities that go with them.

Illusion Producers - Use their power against them
Morphling with replicate
Dark Seer with Wall of Replica
Shadow Demon with Disruption
Soul Keeper with Reflection

Stat Stealers - Cripple them
Slark with Essence Shift
Undying with Decay
Timbersaw with Whirling Death
Silencer with Glaives of Wisdom
Outworld Devourer with Astral Imprisonment

Depowering and Debuffers - Weaken and finish
Lifestealer with Feast
Razor with Static Link
Bane with Enfeeble, Nightmare and Fiend's Grip
Huskar with Life Break
Enigma with Midnight Pulse
Elder Titan with Earth Splitter
Necrolyte with Heartstopper Aura
Naga Siren with Song of the Siren
Slardar with Amplify Damage
Dazzle with Weave

Other heroes that get mentions as being useful for counters:
- Viper with Poison Attack, Corrosive Skin and Viper Strike. These all slow movement speed and attack speed that allow for carries to not run, not get close, and attack much slower. Nethertoxin also goes along way to kill carries with low hp. Please note that Viper Strike has the ability to go through magic immunity.
- Broodmother with Incapacitating Bite and Troll Warlord with Whirling Axes - Melee. These heroes make carries miss attacks when under the affects of the ability - countered with Monkey King Bar
- Phantom Assassin with Blur and Brewmaster with Drunken Brawler. These abilities all cause attacks made against these heroes have a chance to miss. Again, countered by Monkey King Bar. Brewmaster may also use Drunken Haze to make heroes have a higher chance to miss all attacks on any target while under the spell's duration.
- Spectre with Dispersion. The more damage done to this hero the more damage enemy heroes in its radius will take. Can deal significant damage if tanky, while Dispersion also reduces the amount of damage Spectre will take.
- Omnikinght with both Repel and Guardian Angel. This allows for your carry to become immune to most attacks and therefore bring ruination to the enemy team. Being immune to most magic spells and all physical attacks is certainly something that should be considered powerful as carries.

Thanks for reading. Any comments, insights and constructive criticism are welcome. I will try to update this regularly as updates change abilities. Please notify me if I miss this. Pointing out factual mistakes are also welcome.