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24 Votes

Cuttleboss' Guide to Countering Every Hero [6.86]

April 18, 2016 by Cuttleboss
Comments: 21    |    Views: 92629    |   



Introduction

I am Cuttleboss. I have never been that great a player at this game, and only play at the pub level, but I have a good understanding of how heroes and items interact with one another. I also see a distinct lack of a full list of hero counters, especially ones that can easily be read, so here I am, creating a nice comprehensive list, because I wanted to do something that could help a lot more people.

Updates

March 16, 2016: Updated for 6.86. Minor updates all around.
October 21, 2015: Updated for 6.85. Minor updates all around.
May 11, 2015: Typos Fixed. Added Anchor and Navigation System. Added some heroes to Database counters.
May 9, 2015: Guide Created

How to Use this Guide

Heroes will fall into a bunch of categories of strategic counters, as well as hero and item counters. Heroes will also have their own specific counters as well. How much each counter works will be tiered and for the most part, Ranked, based on effectiveness.

Basically, this guide uses the next 2 sections as a key, which you will be looking back on for reference and will explain how each counter is done. You can go to chapter 6 in order to navigate which heroes you want to counter.

Strategic Counters

Divide or be Conquered: Don't stand close together, this hero has abilities that are more powerful if you're closer together.
Rotation Rotation Rotation: This hero will likely create havoc during laning or ganking phase and rotations will be able to punish them. Often good at tower diving.
Eyes in the Jungle: This hero will likely jungle and/or stack during the laning phase, so you can hassle them or block their camps with sentry/observer wards.
We Need Wards: This hero's effectiveness is much greater if the enemies have no wards, so keep wards so you can ambush or maneuver around them. Wards can be in places like ruin spots or in jungle camps.
Diving Penalty: This hero is very good at punishing over diving, and is quite likely going to tp in, so don't do it.
Easy Ganks: These heroes have no escapes or big crowd control and will likely be spending time farming so they can be an easy gank.
Protect your T1 Towers: These heroes will begin to massively roam or push you as soon as your map space shrinks and jungle is no longer safe to farm.
Focus Target: This hero needs to be killed before they wreck havoc in fights just by surviving.
Preventable Calamity: This hero has a key spell or a spell combo that can be easily broken if initiated on.
It Ends in the Lane: A hero must be shut down in laning phase or else they will be dangerous mid-game, and they cannot recover at a decent rate if you shut them down.
Disengage or Die: If this hero busts out a certain spell, run away, leave one or so behind if you must, just don't fight under a certain skill and wait out its duration.
Steal the Stack: This hero will rely on large stacks of creeps usually large creeps or ancient creeps. Go after their stacks with a smoke of deceit.
Time is not on your Side: This hero gets a lot stronger as the game goes later so secure victory before they come online with early aggression. Usually you want to take T1s quickly.

Database Counters

Anti Daggers: Venomancer, Zeus, Doom, Bristleback, Spectre, Vengeful Spirit, Phoenix, Clockwerk, Alchemist, Kunkka, Huskar, Undying, Sniper, Gyrocopter, Bloodseeker, Weaver, Tinker, Disruptor, Witch Doctor, Shadow Demon, Ancient Apparition
Urn of Shadows, Radiance, Mjollnir
Heroes and items that disable blink daggers are good against those reliant on the item who need it to initiate. Heroes good at disabling it have some form of damage over time or long ranged damage skill.

Anti-Blinkers/Anti-Running
Disruptor, Kunkka, Crystal Maiden, Ember Spirit, Meepo, Naga Siren, Treant Protector, Lone Druid, Bloodseeker
Heroes or items that can specifically disable blink abilities on those who have them, or return them back to their location after they blink or run counter mobile heroes. Silencers get the same job done against blinkers.

Disarmers: Oracle, Crystal Maiden, Invoker, Treant Protector, Elder Titan
Heaven's Halberd
Heroes or items that can prevent attacking are effective against enemies that are reliant on attacking. No ****? Does not work well with illusion heroes.

Silencers: Silencer, Night Stalker, Skywrath Mage, Death Prophet, Earth Spirit, Bloodseeker, Disruptor, Puck, Riki
Orchid Malevolence
Heroes or items that can prevent spellcasting can easily get kills in ganks or to prevent impactful spells in teamfights.

Burst Damage: Lina, Lion, Lich, Sand King, Earthshaker, Tinker, Bounty Hunter, Leshrac, Luna, Zeus, Nyx Assassin, Shadow Fiend, Ursa, Tiny
Heroes who are dependent on taking time for their skills to take effect are crushed by Burst Damage heroes.

Miss Chance: Windranger, Brewmaster, Phantom Assassin, Troll Warlord, Riki, Night Stalker, Keeper of the Light
Solar Crest, Butterfly, Heaven's Halberd
A lot of physical attacker heroes lose a lot of impact if the results output is sliced into a fraction of what it normally is by these heroes or items.

Mana Burners: Anti-Mage, Invoker, Keeper of the Light, Nyx Assassin, Bane, Clockwerk, Lion, Medusa, Outworld Devourer, Silencer
Diffusal Blade, Necronomicon
Mana Burning is another means to prevent spellcasting, especially for heroes with small mana pools.

Anti-Invis: Slardar, Zeus, Bounty Hunter
Dust of Appearance, Gem of True Sight, Sentry Ward, Necronomicon.
Certain heroes turn invisible, but this can be countered in many ways, with more items than heroes.

Pure Damage: Timbersaw, Outworld Devourer, Silencer, Queen of Pain, Lina, Doom, Spectre
Heroes who are reliant on protection from magical or physical damage are very susceptible to pure damage.

AOE Crowd Control: Enigma, Tidehunter, Sand King, Earthshaker, Elder Titan, Axe, Jakiro, Centaur Warrunner , Puck, Warlock, Invoker
Shiva's Guard
Certain heroes that specialize in small clashes struggle very much against mass crowd control.

AOE Damage: Zeus, Sand King, Leshrac, Death Prophet, Axe, Bristleback, Tiny, Timbersaw, Magnus, Venomancer, Gyrocopter, Crystal Maiden, Tinker, Jakiro, Queen of Pain, Invoker, Ancient Apparition, Sven, Medusa, Dragon Knight
Shiva's Guard
Some heroes with summons and illusions suffer greatly from loads of AOE damage.

Lane Harassers: Viper, Huskar, Bane, Skywrath Mage, Sand King, Clinkz, Necrophos, Warlock, Silencer, Sniper, Weaver, Windranger, Zeus, Dark Seer
Heroes that can harass opponents that are hard to kill, but can prevent them from getting farm can be good counters.

Lane Killers: Lion, Vengeful Spirit, Venomancer, Queen of Pain, Crystal Maiden, Earthshaker, Sven, Timbersaw, Chaos Knight, Undying, Ember Spirit, Slark, Gyrocopter, Leshrac, Bane, Disruptor, Skywrath Mage, Wraith King, Witch Doctor, Visage.
Heroes that can kill in lane are dangerous towards the non-tanky and non-escaping type of laners.

Magic Immunity Piercing Spells: Bane, Winter Wyvern, Doom, Viper, Elder Titan, Beastmaster, Razor, Batrider, Enigma, Magnus, Shadow Demon
Abyssal Blade
Many heroes are reliant on Black King Bar and other forms of magic immunity, these heroes and items have skills that go through them.

Bashers: Faceless Void, Spirit Breaker, Troll Warlord, Slardar
Skull Basher, Abyssal Blade
Many frontline heroes, especially ones that are BKB reliant but not natural evasion buyers get destroyed by bashers.

Armor Reduction: Dazzle, Slardar, Templar Assassin, Shadow Fiend, Elder Titan, Alchemist, Vengeful Spirit
Desolator, Assault Cuirass, Medallion of Courage, Solar Crest
Certain heroes that are squishy or have extremely high defense can be made a lot squishier with armor reduction.

Healers: Chen, Abaddon, Omniknight, Oracle, Enchantress, Dazzle
Mekansm, Guardian Greaves
Against heroes that are burst oriented, healing heroes and items can drain out all of their ammunition.

Magic Immunity: Omniknight, Lifestealer, Juggernaut
Black King Bar
Against very spellcaster oriented heroes, magic immunity is the most reliable defense in the game.

Magic Resistance: Anti-Mage, Ember Spirit, Huskar, Rubick
Pipe of Insight, Cloak, Glimmer Cape, Hood of Defiance
Heroes who are centric on magical damage can get their damage severely dampened by these heroes and items.

Physical Protection: Lich, Omniknight, Sven, Dazzle
Vladmir's Offering, Assault Cuirass, Solar Crest, Medallion of Courage
Heroes who are centric on physical damage can get their damage severely dampened by these heroes and items.

Kiters: Viper, Drow Ranger, Sniper, Death Prophet, Nature's Prophet, Storm Spirit, Razor, Leshrac, Venomancer, Shadow Shaman, Tusk
Rod of Atos, Sange and Yasha, Eye of Skadi, Eul's Scepter of Divinity, Force Staff
Heroes that need to get close to use their skills or attacks are countered by heroes that can slow them and/or are impossible for them to catch.

Illusion Creators: Shadow Demon, Morphling, Dark Seer
Heroes that can create illusions of enemies are very effective of those heroes have powerful illusions, such as ones with high stat growth or Radiances.

Gap Closers: Lycan, Anti-Mage, Faceless Void, Storm Spirit, Phantom Assassin, Riki, Clockwerk, Centaur Warrunner , Timbersaw, Earth Spirit, Tusk, Magnus, Spirit Breaker, Lifestealer, Phantom Lancer, Morphling, Ember Spirit, Slark, Puck
Blink Dagger, Force Staff
Heroes reliant on keeping an opponent at arm's reach struggle against those who can jump on them.

Swarmers: Chaos Knight, Phantom Lancer, Naga Siren, Meepo, Broodmother, Lycan
Heroes reliant on single target skills will have issues with heroes who can swarm them with units and illusions.

Purgers: Oracle, Brewmaster, Invoker, Shadow Demon, Doom, Chen
Diffusal Blade, Eul's Scepter of Divinity
Heroes that have powerful purgeable buffs or units are destroyed by purges.

Dispellers: Abaddon, Oracle
Diffusal Blade, Lotus Orb, Manta Style
Heroes reliant on debuffs that are dispellable will struggle against those.

Undispelable Skills: Viper, Oracle, Winter Wyvern, Doom, Bloodseeker, Ancient Apparition, Witch Doctor, Warlock, Invoker
Heroes who rely on dispels to save themselves from nasty situations struggle greatly with heroes that have non-dispelable skills.

Breakers: Doom, Shadow Demon
Silver Edge
Heroes who rely on their passives are destroyed by heroes and items who have break.

Radiant Strength

Earthshaker
Strategic Counters:
Top Counters: Divide or Be Conquered, Preventable Calamity
Other Counters: Rotation Rotation Rotation, Diving Penalty, Time is not on your Side.
Database Counters:
Top Counters: Anti-Daggers, Silencers, Magic Resistance, Magic Immunity
Secondary Counters: Mana Burners, Healers, Lane Harassers, Lane Killers
Specific Counters:
Spectre: Can jump on Shaker every fight, and can usually force him to do a bad echo slam by preventing blinking.
Clockwerk: Can scout to disable dagger and battery assault means he will not be able to do anything but ult or use items.
Rubick: Can cast Shaker's spells faster than him, and has aura to protect against Shaker's damage.
Pipe of Insight: Extremely effective against Shaker, as he's all about AOE damage.

Sven
Strategic Counters:
Top Counters: Divide or Be Conquered, Rotation Rotation Rotation, Focus Target, Disengage or Die
Secondary Counters: Time is not on your Side, We Need Wards, Easy Ganks, Protect your T1 Towers, Steal the Stack
Database Counters:
Top Counters: Disarmers, Miss Chance, Magic Immunity Piercing Spells, Kiters, Bashers, Physical Protection
Secondary Counters: Mana Burners, Lane Harassers, Armor Reduction, Magic Immunity, Dispellers
Specific Counters:
Troll Warlord: Can bash, has miss chance, and can kite as well. Easily outfights Sven.
Bane: Best counter to Sven in the game. These disables and debuffs all wreck Sven even if he's got magic immunity.
Ghost Scepter: All his non-Storm Hammer damage is physical.

Tiny
Strategic Counters:
Top Counters: Divide or Be Conquered, It Ends in the Lane, Protect your T1 Towers
Secondary Counters: Time is not on your Side, We Need Wards, Easy Ganks, Steal the Stack, Diving Penalty, Rotation Rotation Rotation
Database Counters:
Top Counters: Armor Reduction, Kiters, Disarmers, Silencers, Anti-Running, Magic Immunity, Illusion Creators, Magic Immunity Piercing Spells
Secondary Counters: Magic Resistance, Mana Burners, Lane Harassers, Miss Chance
Specific Counters:
Necrophos: Tiny's advantage is his very low downtime. Removing him from the map and being unable to buyback is one of the best ways to deal with him.
Drow Ranger: Very high physical damage, can kite, and can silence him so the kiting is even better and he has minimal impact in fights.
Axe: Can easily shut down Tiny in lane and the damage of Helix hurts him a lot early.
Enchantress: Can kite Tiny as well as cut his damage to ribbons with untouchable.

Kunkka
Strategic Counters:
Top Counters: Preventable Calamity, Divide or Be Conquered, It Ends in the Lane, Disengage or Die
Secondary Counters: Rotation Rotation Rotation, We Need Wards, Diving Penalty, Protect your T1 Towers
Database Counters:
Top Counters: Silencers, Mana Burners, Lane Harassers, Lane Killers, Magic Immunity, Kiters
Secondary Counters: Healers, Magic Resistance, Miss Chance, Disarmers
Specific Counters:
Eul's Scepter of Divinity: If this is properly timed, this will prevent X-Marks the Spot, either on him, his ally, or you or your ally.
Juggernaut: Can nuke down Kunkka and has a low cooldown way to avoid getting hit by X or any of Kunkka's other skills.
Tidehunter: Just because.

Beastmaster
Strategic Counters:
Top Counters: Rotation Rotation Rotation, It Ends in the Lane, Diving Penalty, Protect your T1 Towers
Secondary Counters: Easy Ganks, Preventable Calamity, Steal the Stack
Database Counters:
Top Counters: Silencers, Swarmers, Mana Burners, Lane Harassers, Lane Killers, AOE Crowd Control
Secondary Counters: AOE Damage, Dispellers, Physical Protection, Kiters, Purgers
Specific Counters:
Axe: Lays waste to summons and can ruin his laning phase very easily.
Meepo: Beastmaster is rather single target focused, so Meepo is quite a dangerous foe for him.

Dragon Knight
Strategic Counters:
Top Counters: Divide or be Conquered, It Ends in the Lane, Protect your T1 Towers, Steal the Stack
Secondary Counters: Easy Ganks, Focus Target, Rotation Rotation Rotation, Time is not on your side
Database Counters:
Top Counters: Illusion Creators, Magic Immunity Piercing Spells, Disarmers, Physical Protection, Miss Chance, Pure Damage
Secondary Counters: Lane Harassers, Burst Damage, Bashers, Magic Immunity, Kiters (human form), Dispellers, Breakers, Armor Reduction, Mana Burners
Specific Counters:
Undying: Heavy slows are the worst for DK, and getting strength sapped makes him very fragile in his passive early game.
Huskar: Lane Harasser, has a strong slow, and he has very strong scaling nuke.
Lotus Orb: Can reflect his Dragon Tail, which can spell death to him.
Try to have him waste his Dragon Form before a big fight and fight him while it's down.

Clockwerk
Strategic Counters:
Top Counters: Protect your T1 Towers, Divide or be Conquered, We Need Wards
Secondary Counters: Rotation Rotation Rotation, Preventable Calamity, Diving Penalty
Database Counters:
Top Counters: Magic Immunity, Silencers, Mana Burners, Lane Harassers, Swarmers
Secondary Counters: Magic Resistance, Armor Reduction
Specific Counters:
Force Staff: Get out of cogs free button.
Lifestealer, Huskar: "I'm not locked in here with you; you're locked in here with me!"
Anti-Mage: Cannot be trapped by cogs, and can destroy all his mana.

Omniknight
Strategic Counters:
Top Counters: It Ends in the Lane, Diving Penalty, Time is not on your Side, Disengage or Die
Secondary Counters: Rotation Rotation Rotation, Preventable Calamity, Divide or be Conquered
Database Counters:
Top Counters: Purgers, Silencers, Lane Killers, Magic Immunity Piercing Spells, Mana Burners
Secondary Counters: Pure Damage, Lane Harassers
Specific Counters:
Diffusal Blade: Seriously. Don't skip out on this.
Rubick: The only reason Omni is balanced is because he's strength type and melee. Rubick's buffet is this guy; every spell is good to steal.
Phantom Lancer: Natural Diffusal Carrier, can burn mana, and he cannot be stopped from mana burning Omniknight.
Shadow Demon: With Aghs, Shadow Demon is armed with 3 Demonic Purges to remove buffs with.
Razor: Has a built in purge, which limits the options a hero with Omni buffs that wants to cast things on him.

Huskar
Strategic Counters:
Top Counters: Rotation Rotation Rotation, It Ends in the Lane, Easy Ganks, We Need Wards
Secondary Counters: Focus Target, Diving Penalty
Database Counters:
Top Counters: Swarmers, Disarmers, Breakers, Pure Damage, Armor Reduction, Magic Immunity, Bashers
Secondary Counters: Miss Chance, Lane Killers, Magic Immunity Piercing Spells, Healers, Magic Resistance
Specific Counters:
Shadow Demon: Disruption can disjoint Life Break, and Demonic Purge comes with Break once Aghs is acquired, which removes all his innate magic defense and damage.
Viper: Longer range, built in magic resistance, and more effective the lower the health of the target is. Eats Huskar alive.
Windranger: Her entire skillset ruins Huskar, since she has evasion, max attack speed to prevent armlet toggling and a long stun.

Alchemist
Strategic Counters:
Top Counters: Easy Ganks, We Need Wards, Diving Penalty, Preventable Calamity, Steal the Stack
Secondary Counters: Disengage or Die, It Ends in the Lane
Database Counters:
Top Counters: Armor Reduction, Disarmers, Silencers, Burst Damage, Miss Chance, Kiters, Magic Immunity Piercing Spells, Swarmers
Secondary Counters: Lane Harassers, Lane Killers, Physical Protection, Illusion Creators, Dispellers
Specific Counters:
Ancient Apparition: His ultimate will no longer add any survivability.
Phantom Assassin: Lucky crits will rip his low-armor low-hp pool high-regen self apart.
Stun or silence him when he uses concoction, it's an easy stun reversal.

Brewmaster
Strategic Counters:
Top Counters: Rotation Rotation Rotation, Preventable Calamity, It Ends in the Lane
Secondary Counters: We Need Wards, Disengage or Die, Divide or be Conquered
Database Counters:
Top Counters: Silencers, Burst Damage, Anti-Daggers, Mana Burners, Dispellers
Secondary Counters: Anti-Invis, Physical Protection, Bashers, Breakers
Specific Counters:
Monkey King Bar: Severely cuts down his survivability, as well as makes Drunken Haze useless.
Kill the Fire Spirit. Seriously, that thing hurts; don't let it wreck your team.

Treant Protector
Strategic Counters:
Top Counters: Preventable Calamity, We Need Wards, Rotation Rotation Rotation, Divide or be Conquered
Secondary Counters: Diving Penalty, Time is not on your side
Database Counters:
Top Counters: Anti-Invis, Dispellers, Silencers, Mana Burners
Secondary Counters: Lane Harassers, Armor Reduction, Purgers
Specific Counters:
Quelling Blade: To get rid of observer trees.
Timbersaw: Cuts down trees and is effective against strength heroes in general.
Venomancer, Kunkka, Gyrocopter, Dark Seer: These heroes burn though living armor very well, which can nullify a lot of early game potential.

Io
Strategic Counters:
Top Counters: Rotation Rotation Rotation, Diving Penalty, Time is not on your side, Protect your T1 Towers, Focus Target
Secondary Counters: It Ends in the Lane, We Need Wards, Disengage or Die
Database Counters:
Top Counters: AOE Damage, AOE Crowd Control, Silencers, Armor Reduction, Burst Damage
Secondary Counters: Mana Burners, Lane Killers, Healers, Anti-Running
Specific Counters:
Enigma, Sand King, Magnus: If a relocate is coming, this is a very convenient means to get a guaranteed stun/nuke on more than 1 target.
Nature's Prophet: Can teleport near the backlines, and make quick work of Io with right clicks.
Clinkz: Since Io has no armor, Clinkz can easily burst him down with a volley of fire arrows.

Centaur Warrunner
Strategic Counters:
Top Counters: We Need Wards, Protect your T1 Towers, Divide or be Conquered
Secondary Counters: It Ends in the Lane, Rotation Rotation Rotation, Steal the Stack
Database Counters:
Top Counters: Anti-Daggers, Magic Immunity, Magic Resistance, Mana Burners, Silencers, Anti-Running
Secondary Counters: Armor Reduction, Lane Harassers, Healers, Illusion Creators
Specific Counters:
Necrophos: If he's targeting Centaur, the tanking power of the hero is useless in the face of Scythe and Heartstopper.
Lifestealer: Will heal self and damage Centaur massively and Cent can't do anything to him.
Witch Doctor: Pretty much guaranteed to get hit by Maledict and soak up a ton of damage, so the Centaur will likely die every fight.

Timbersaw
Strategic Counters:
Top Counters: It Ends in the Lane, Divide or be Conquered, Rotation Rotation Rotation, Protect your T1 Towers
Secondary Counters: Diving Penalty, Focus Target, Steal the Stack
Database Counters:
Top Counters: Silencers, Magic Immunity, Mana Burners, Pure Damage
Secondary Counters: Armor Reduction, Lane Harassers, Lane Killers, Burst Damage
Specific Counters:
Keeper of the Light: Mana Leak makes Timber useless. If he chains, he'll lose all his mana. Blinding Light may also push him out of position.
Bloodseeker: BS can silence, and Rupture means he loses his mobility.

Bristleback
Strategic Counters:
Top Counters: Rotation Rotation Rotation, Protect your T1 Towers, Diving Penalty
Secondary Counters: It Ends in the Lane, Steal the Stack
Database Counters:
Top Counters: Breakers, Silencers, Physical Protection, Armor Reduction, Mana Burners, Kiters
Secondary Counters: Disarmers, Miss Chance, Lane Harassers, Lane Killers, Bashers, Anti-Running, Magic Immunity Piercing Spells
Specific Counters:
Magic Wand: Capitalize on that spell spamming jerk.
Batrider, Riki: Turn speed slows are an issue for Bristle, as he cannot fully abuse his passive if this occurs. Riki however is not personally good at dealing with BB.
Axe, Legion Commander: Can force Bristle to face him/her, which can rip his survivability to shreds.
Razor: Razor is snotproof, and damage will almost always be stolen from Bristle to cancel Warpath.

Tusk
Strategic Counters:
Top Counters: We Need Wards, Rotation Rotation Rotation, Protect Your T1 Towers
Secondary Counters: Divide or be Conquered, Diving Penalty
Database Counters:
Top Counters: AOE Crowd Control, AOE Damage, Silencers, Healers
Secondary Counters: Disarmers, Miss Chance, Mana Burners, Lane Harassers, Magic Resistance
Specific Counters:
Lich: Ice Armor makes Walrus Punch much weaker, and Snowball is a vacuum of the enemy team, which means Chain Frost is insanely good against him.
Riki: Snowball right into a cloud and your team will wipe.

Elder Titan
Strategic Counters:
Top Counters: Diving Penalty, Divide or be Conquered, Preventable Calamity, Focus Target
Secondary Counters: Time is not on your side, Easy Ganks
Database Counters:
Top Counters: Silencers, Burst Damage, Mana Burners, Magic Immunity, Physical Protection
Secondary Counters: Magic Resistance, Lane Killers, Healers, Dispellers
Specific Counters:
Rubick: The combo ender is almost always Earth Splitter, so it can be gotten fairly reliably.
Puck, Anti-Mage, Queen of Pain, Storm Spirit: Very fast heroes will not be caught by the combo at all.
Earth Spirit, Skywrath Mage, Silencer: Long ranged silences will stop his stomp, which can break his ability to counterinitiate.

Legion Commander
Strategic Counters:
Top Counters: Rotation Rotation Rotation, Preventable Calamity, Protect your T1s, Eyes in the Jungle
Secondary Counters: Divide or be Conquered, We Need Wards, Easy Ganks, It Ends in the Lane
Database Counters:
Top Counters: Burst Damage, Physical Protection, Disarmers, Miss Chance, Anti-Daggers, Kiters
Secondary Counters: Silencers, Mana Burners, Bashers, Armor Reduction, Magic Immunity Piercing Spells
Specific Counters:
Skywrath Mage: Duel is a convenient setup for Mystic Flare.
Dazzle, Oracle, Winter Wyvern: Can prevent feeding her bonus damage by preventing the target from dying at all during the Duel duration.
Bounty Hunter: If she jungles, is very easy to hassle her with Bounty.

Earth Spirit
Strategic Counters:
Top Counters: Rotation Rotation Rotation, Preventable Calamity, Protect your T1s, We Need Wards,
Secondary Counters: Diving Penalty, Disengage or Die
Database Counters:
Top Counters: Dispellers, Silencers, Healers, Magic Immunity, Magic Resistance
Secondary Counters: Lane Harassers, Mana Burners
Specific Counters:
Enchantress: As ES rolls away, an Impetus comes and suddenly he's dead.
Vengeful Spirit: Can swap with him mid-roll, which will kill him.
Get in front of Rolling Boulder to prevent his escapes.
Play Captain's Mode, he's not in there at the moment.

Phoenix
Strategic Counters:
Top Counters: Preventable Calamity, Focus Target, Protect your T1s, Disengage or Die
Secondary Counters: It Ends in the Lane, Divide or be Conquered
Database Counters:
Top Counters: Silencers, Magic Resistance, Magic Immunity, Burst Damage, Armor Reduction, Dispellers
Secondary Counters: Mana Burners, Lane Harassers
Specific Counters:
Huskar, Clinkz, Troll Warlord, Meepo: Make short work of the egg.
Juggernaut: A low cooldown magic immunity on Jugger makes him very well fit for killing Phoenix.

Dire Strength

Axe
Strategic Counters:
Top Counters: Rotation Rotation Rotation, Divide or be Conquered, Eyes in the Jungle, Protect your T1 Towers, Steal the Stack
Secondary Counters: It Ends in the Lane, Preventable Calamity, Easy Ganks
Database Counters:
Top Counters: Anti-Daggers, Physical Protection, Kiters, Silencers, Lane Killers, Lane Harassers
Secondary Counters: Armor Reduction, Pure Damage, Mana Burners, Healers, Breakers
Specific Counters:
Viper: Kites him to hell, and Battle Hunger will just lead to being unable to use dagger at all.
Timbersaw: Call's bonus armor does nothing for Axe against Pure damage, and he's a strength hero.
Lifesteal items: Lets you easily outlast him and his helix if youre a dps hero.

Pudge
Strategic Counters:
Top Counters: We Need Wards, It Ends In the Lane, Protect your T1 Towers
Secondary Counters: None
Database Counters:
Top Counters: Anti-Daggers, Armor Reduction, Silencers, Swarmers, Magic Resistance, Lane Killers, Healers
Secondary Counters: Pure Damage, Bashers, Magic Immunity, Kiters
Specific Counters:
Templar Assassin: Completely destroys Pudge in lane and later too, due to being able to block hook and cut armor.
Lifestealer: Pudge has low armor, high hp, and no right clicking, making him an excellent LS meal.
Silencer: Early deaths against Silencer will prevent Pudge from doing his combo at all mid game.
Keep moving around and stay behind creeps from where hooks are most likely to be. Push during the day where you have more time to see the hook.

Sand King
Strategic Counters:
Top Counters: Divide or be Conquered, Steal the Stack, Protect your T1 Towers, Eyes in the Jungle, Preventable Calamity
Secondary Counters: It Ends In the Lane, Rotation Rotation Rotation, Diving Penalty
Database Counters:
Top Counters: Magic Resistance, Anti-Daggers, Silencers, AOE Crowd Control, Anti-Invis, Magic Immunity
Secondary Counters: Burst Damage, Lane Harassers
Specific Counters:
Zeus: Can get true sight with lightning bolt and skills prevent epicenter blink combo.
Pugna: Nether Ward also breaks Epicenter Blink combo.
Pipe of Insight: Do not skip out on this, it destroys Sand King.
Push when its daytime, so its much easier to see Sand King.

Slardar
Strategic Counters:
Top Counters: Preventable Calamity, Rotation Rotation Rotation, Diving Penalty, Protect your T1 Towers
Secondary Counters: It Ends in the Lane, Divide or be Conquered, We Need Wards
Database Counters:
Top Counters: Physical Protection, Anti-Daggers, Dispellers, Magic Immunity Piercing Spells, Disarmers, Miss Chance, Kiters
Secondary Counters: Mana Burners, Anti-Running, Burst Damage
Specific Counters:
Bloodseeker: Slardar is a chaser initiator type hero. Rupture removes what he does best.
Omniknight: Immunity from all physical damage, as you cannot amplify zero damage.
Stun and Nuke him when he uses sprint so hell die much faster.

Tidehunter
Strategic Counters:
Top Counters: Diving Penalty, Steal the Stack, Divide or be Conquered, We Need Wards
Secondary Counters: We Need Wards, Rotation Rotation Rotation, It Ends in the Lane
Database Counters:
Top Counters: Magic Immunity, Mana Burners, Kiters, Undispelable Skills
Secondary Counters: Armor Reduction, Physical Protection, Breakers
Specific Counters:
Jesus this guy is hard to counter.
Faceless Void, Enigma, Riki, Disruptor: The only AOE disables/silences not removed by Krakens Shell besides Doom.
Break + Silence combo is the only other way to prevent Ravage besides mana burning.

Wraith King
Strategic Counters:
Top Counters: Rotation Rotation Rotation, We Need Wards, Disengage or Die, Easy Ganks , Time is not on your side
Secondary Counters: It Ends in the Lane, Protect your T1 Towers, Eyes in the Jungle
Database Counters:
Top Counters: Mana Burners, Swarmers, Kiters, Disarmers, Miss Chance, Physical Protection, Bashers
Secondary Counters: Anti-Dagger, Lane Harassers, Lane Killers, Magic Immunity Piercing Spells, Armor Reduction, Illusion Creators
Specific Counters:
Phantom Lancer: Wraith King does not do much AOE damage, and the mana burn will prevent reincarnations.
Broodmother: Wraith King cannot deal with Brood at all, since he cannot AOE until he buys Maelstrom or Battle Fury.
Gank him when his reincarnation is down. Its cooldown is really long for its first 2 levels. If possible, knock out reincarnation and disengage and fight while its down.

Lifestealer
Strategic Counters:
Top Counters: Eyes in the Jungle, It Ends in the Lane, Focus Target
Secondary Counters: Protect your T1 Towers, Rotation Rotation Rotation
Database Counters:
Top Counters: Magic Immunity Piercing Spells, Kiters, Swarmers, Bashers, Lane Harassers, Armor Reduction
Secondary Counters: Disarmers, Miss Chance, Physical Protection, Lane Killers, Anti-Running
Specific Counters:
Troll Warlord: Miss Chance, bash, high armor, low hp, very fit to fight Lifestealer.
Ghost Scepter: Allows for easy escapes from Lifestealers claws.

Night Stalker
Strategic Counters:
Top Counters: We Need Wards, Rotation Rotation Rotation, Protect your T1 Towers
Secondary Counters: It Ends in the Lane, Diving Penalty
Database Counters:
Top Counters: Anti-Running, Magic Immunity Piercing Spells, Healers, Magic Immunity, Dispellers, Kiters
Secondary Counters: Swarmers, Disarmers, Miss Chance, Lane Killers, Silencers, Pure Damage, Armor Reduction, Bashers, Mana Burners
Specific Counters:
Bloodseeker: Rupture nullifies Night Stalkers ability to run really fast, which slices him impact to pieces.
Razor: He is fast, and no spells can be cast on him, since NS is all about single target skills, and NS will lose all his damage if he stays near him.
Mirana: The only way to sneak past unobstructed NS vision once he has Aghanims.

Doom
Strategic Counters:
Top Counters: Preventable Calamity, Eyes in the Jungle, Time is not in your Side
Secondary Counters: Easy Ganks, Diving Penalty, It Ends in the Lane, Steal the Stack
Database Counters:
Top Counters: Armor Reduction, Silencers, Mana Burners, Healers, Kiters, Swarmers
Secondary Counters: Anti-Daggers, Anti-Running, Lane Harassers
Specific Counters:
Deny the heroes he dooms.
Linken's Sphere: He can break this with level death, but it will ruin his initiation if he does.
Meepo: Only 1 Meepo can be Doomed, the others will still do their job.
Wraith King: The only hero that is completely unworthy of Doom, since it doesnt disable Reincarnation. So, with good initation, Wraith King can jump on Doom solo and force him to Doom the King and waste it or not cast Doom at all before he gets cut to pieces.

Spirit Breaker
Strategic Counters:
Top Counters: We Need Wards, Rotation Rotation Rotation, Protect your T1 Towers
Secondary Counters: It Ends in the Lane, Diving Penalty
Database Counters:
Top Counters: Disarmers, Miss Chance, Lane Harassers, Physical Protection, Healers, Kiters
Secondary Counters: Silencers, Mana Burners, Armor Reduction, Swarmers, Breakers (ironically)
Specific Counters:
Interrupt his spells.
Clockwerk: Getting trapped in the cogs leaves Breaker with no options to cast spells, so all he can do is right click.

Lycan
Strategic Counters:
Top Counters: Protect your T1 Towers, Eyes in the Jungle, It Ends in the Lane
Secondary Counters: Rotation Rotation Rotation
Database Counters:
Top Counters: Anti-Running, Silencers, Burst Damage, AOE Crowd Control, AOE Damage, Magic Immunity Piercing Spells, Bashers, Physical Protection
Secondary Counters: Disarmers, Miss Chance, Mana Burners, Lane Harassers, Lane Killers, Armor Reduction
Specific Counters:
Contest the hell out of Roshan, it gives him many levels once he takes him.
Bloodseeker: Rupture makes his ultimate useless, and BS is the only hero who can move faster than him.
Meepo: Can prevent running, and can contest every single time he tries to splitpush and easily farm his minions.

Chaos Knight
Strategic Counters:
Top Counters: It Ends in the Lane, Time is not on your Side, Disengage or Die, Preventable Calamity
Secondary Counters: Protect your T1 Towers, Rotation Rotation Rotation, Diving Penalty, Easy Ganks
Database Counters:
Top Counters: AOE Crowd Control, AOE Damage, Physical Protection, Illusion Creators
Secondary Counters: Miss Chance, Mana Burners, Lane Harassers, Lane Killers, Magic Immunity, Undispelable Skills
Specific Counters:
Sven, Medusa: Both tailor made to deal with Chaos Knight. Svens cleave and warcry takes care of them, and Dusas Gaze will kill the illusions in time.
Pugna: Can waste all of the phantasms with Aghanims Life Drain if hes not targeted, and can protect himself from CKs damage with Ethereal.
Ember Spirit: Can deal with the Phantasms late game, as theyre often together, as long as hes not targeted.
Omniknight: Can protect allies from getting rifted, and from all his damage.
Enigma: Pulse rips the illusions to shreds no matter how tanky they are, and the Black Hole will stop them all.
Night Time. Chaos Knights night ganks are less successful because of the cast time of Rift, and the spell being canceled by going into fog.
Fight him when Phantasm is down if you dont have a specific counter to it. It has a very long cooldown.

Undying
Strategic Counters:
Top Counters: Diving Penalty, It Ends in the Lane, Preventable Calamity, Disengage or Die
Secondary Counters: Focus Target, Divide or be Conquered, Rotation Rotation Rotation, Protect your T1 Towers
Database Counters:
Top Counters: Silencers, Anti-Running, Burst Damage, Mana Burners, Magic Immunity, Armor Reduction
Secondary Counters: Healers, Physical Protection, Kiters
Specific Counters:
Kill the Tombstone. Seriously. Dont half *** this. Either kill it or disengage. Invisibility will lose all zombie aggro.
Crimson Guard: Nullifies zombie damage for 10 seconds.
Centaur Warrunner : Can easily jump on and kill Undying before he becomes an issue in a fight, or can have his ult to be able to immediately disengage after tombstone is out.
Ember Spirit, Gyrocopter: Their AOE spells still kill zombies en masse. Makes him a much smaller threat in teamfights.

Magnus
Strategic Counters:
Top Counters: Divide or be Conquered, It Ends in the Lane, Time is not on your side, Preventable Calamity
Secondary Counters: We Need Wards, Diving Penalty, Steal the Stack
Database Counters:
Top Counters: Silencers, Anti-Dagger, Burst Damage, Lane Harassers
Secondary Counters: Healers, Magic Resistance, Kiters, Lane Killers, Magic Immunity Piercing Spells
Specific Counters:
Riki: Can sneak up on Magnus and silence him, as well as massively slow his turn rate, which is not good for him given how the heros combos work.
Abaddon: Can manually activate his ultimate after RP, and then shield his most important team member, so a 4 man stun can turn into a 2 man stun.

Abaddon
Strategic Counters:
Top Counters: Rotation Rotation Rotation, It Ends in the Lane, Diving Penalty
Secondary Counters: Time is not on your Side, Disengage or Die, Divide or be Conquered
Database Counters:
Top Counters: Silencers, Undispelable Skills, Lane Killers, Swarmers, Mana Burners, Armor Reduction, AOE Crowd Control
Secondary Counters: Kiters, Disarmers, Breakers, Bashers
Specific Counters:
Banishes (Euls, Outworld Devourer, Shadow Demon): Wastes the duration of Borrowed Time and no one can accidently hit him.
Ancient Apparition: Prevent healing during ultimate and prevents healing though Mist Coil too.
Slark, Razor, Undying: Will continue to steal stats from Aba, even if his ultimate is active.
Naga Siren: Sirens song cancels out Borrowed Time, whether to prevent Abaddons escape or to waste it so it doesnt have an effect if its Aghs upgraded.

Radiant Agility

Anti-Mage:
Strategic Counters:
Top Counters: It Ends in the Lane, Time is not on your side, Divide or be Conquered
Secondary Counters: Steal the Stack, Preventable Calamity, We Need Wards, Focus Target
Database Counters:
Top Counters: Anti-Blinkers, Silencers, Lane Harassers, Illusion Creators, Armor Reduction, AOE Crowd Control, Pure Damage, AOE Damage, Magic Immunity
Secondary Counters: Disarmers, Undispelable Skills, Miss Chance, Breakers, Bashers, Kiters, Magic Resistance, Magic Immunity Piercing Spells
Specific Counters:
Run an aggressive trilane with almost any group of heroes and Anti-Mage will get very little farm.
Phantom Assassin: She has very low mana needs, and a lucky crit can often straight out kill AM in mid-late game, extra points if she has Battle Fury for illusions, as she often does.
Outworld Devourer: Outworld Devourer is unlikely to lose mana in late game fights due to the nature of his aura, and Arcane Orb deals pure damage as well as annihilates illusions.
Riki: This hero is invis, will stalk the jungle, has massive physical burst damage, and comes with a silence to kill Anti-Mage.
Bloodseeker: Rupture works through Blink and is pure damage, and Blood Rite is a silence. Additionally, if AM is low hp in jungle, which happens fairly often, he's easily found.

Drow Ranger
Strategic Counters:
Top Counters: Easy Ganks, It Ends in the Lane, Focus Target
Secondary Counters: Divide or be Conquered, Rotation Rotation Rotation
Database Counters:
Top Counters: Gap Closers, Disarmers, Swarmers, Dispellers, Burst Damage, Physical Protection, Miss Chance, Lane Killers
Secondary Counters: Pure Damage, Magic Immunity Piercing Spells, Magic Immunity, Anti-Running
Specific Counters:
Stay close to her in fights, it removes an MKB worth of damage and a Mjollnir worth of attackspeed from her.
Blade Mail: Throughout mid-game, Drow will have very high damage, low health, and be unlikely to get Black King Bar or Satanic.
Spectre: An easy hero to jump on and kill with Haunt.
Ghost Scepter: She has no means to damage through this at all, and will have to get diffusal to deal with it.

Juggernaut
Strategic Counters:
Top Counters: It Ends in the Lane, Preventable Calamity, We Need Wards, Rotation Rotation Rotation
Secondary Counters: Time is not on your side, Disengage or Die, Diving Penalty
Database Counters:
Top Counters: Silencers, Disarmers, Magic Immunity Piercing Spells, Armor Reduction, Mana Burners, Physical Protection
Secondary Counters: Lane Harassers, Bashers, Healers, Swamers, Kiters, Breakers
Specific Counters:
Kill the Healing Ward; it takes one hit from anything.
Ghost Scepter, Eul's Scepter of Divinity, Shadow Demon, Outworld Devourer: Can be used to avoid Omnislashes.
Silencer, Outworld Devourer: Stealing Int can be an effective way to make sure Jugg cannot use his combo.

Mirana
Strategic Counters:
Top Counters: We Need Wards, Rotation Rotation Rotation, Protect your T1 Towers
Secondary Counters: Disengage or Die, Preventable Calamity
Database Counters:
Top Counters: Anti-Invis, Silencers, Dispellers, Burst Damage, Anti-Running, Mana Burners, Magic Immunity
Secondary Counters: Lane Killers, Healers, Magic Resistance, Gap Closers
Specific Counters:
Abaddon: Can easily remove arrow stuns on low cooldown, even from himself.
Visage, Broodmother, Phantom Lancer, Naga Siren: Swarming her doesn't work that well, since she can jump and has AOE damage, but more bodies to soak up arrows can mean a lot less success for her.
Day time: Can see more arrows coming more easily and are much easier to dodge.

Morphling
Strategic Counters:
Top Counters: Time is not on your side, Focus Target, It Ends in the Lane
Secondary Counters: Diving Penalty
Database Counters:
Top Counters: Silencers, Mana Burners, Bashers, Illusion Creators, Magic Immunity, Anti-Blinks, Disarmers, Miss Chance, Swarmers
Secondary Counters: Lane Harassers, Magic Resistance, Kiters, Pure Damage, Armor Reduction
Specific Counters:
Elder Titan: No matter how much agility that Morphling gets from Morph, Natural Order destroys every single point of its armor.
Lion, Pugna: Have very simple ways to dispose of replicate and hybrid illusions, which will kill Morph's potential escapes or a second tombstone from coming out.
Ancient Apparition: Morphing Strength will be a death sentence if Morph has Ice Blast on him, as high health will go up, and his max health going ups puts him near the death threshold.

Phantom Lancer
Strategic Counters:
Top Counters: Focus Target, Time is not on your Side, Diving Penalty, Rotation Rotation Rotation
Secondary Counters: Disengage or Die, It Ends in the Lane
Database Counters:
Top Counters: AOE Damage, Silencers, AOE Crowd Control, Illusion Creators, Magic Immunity, Physical Protection, Breakers, Lane Harassers
Secondary Counters: Lane Killers, Pure Damage, Healers, Miss Chance, Disarmers, Undispelable Skills
Specific Counters:
Extremely draft dependent, if you don't have at least one hero with AOE damage, it is almost impossible to beat a decent Phantom Lancer.
Ember Spirit: Although vulnerable to mana burn, Slight of Fist affects every unit, which combined with cleave is pretty much a guaranteed teamwipe.
Invoker: Has the more reliable AOE disarming spell in the game compared to Titan's and it cannot be dispelled.
Crimson Guard: Blocks the damage of his illusions until pretty late in the game, it can be purged, but in a teamfight, can still likely save your allies due to Diffusal cooldown.
Mjollnir: Phantoms will proc a lot of static charge, but it can be purged. The passive is nice to deal with Lancer as well for most heroes.

Vengeful Spirit
Strategic Counters:
Top Counters: Rotation Rotation Rotation, Diving Penalty, Preventable Calamity, We Need Wards
Secondary Counters: Time is not on your side, Divide or be Conquered
Database Counters:
Top Counters: Swarmers, Lane Harassers, Burst Damage, Silencers, Mana Burners, AOE Crowd Control
Secondary Counters: Physical Protection, Healers, Gap Closers, Dispellers, Breakers
Specific Counters:
Lotus Orb: As a hero reliant on single target spells, this item is very effective if her skills are being anticipated, it also cancels out her ultimate.
Linken's Sphere: Prevents those long ranged swap initiations as well.

Riki
Strategic Counters:
Top Counters: Rotation Rotation Rotation, Protect your T1 Towers, Divide or be Conquered, Disengage or Die
Secondary Counters: Focus Target, Diving Penalty, It Ends in the Lane
Database Counters:
Top Counters: Anti-Invis, AOE Crowd Control, Illusion Creators, AOE Damage, Silencers, Disarmers, Burst Damage, Pure Damage, Magic Immunity, Undispelable Skills
Secondary Counters: Miss Chance, Mana Burners, Physical Protection, Lane Killers, Healers, Kiters
Specific Counters:
Bristleback: Can avoid a majority of his damage, can damage him when invis, and can make it easier to kite him once he blows through his damage.
Force Staff: Easy escape from the nightmare of the Smoke Screen.
Blade Mail: If you're tanky and it's midgame, it's a good choice.

Sniper
Strategic Counters:
Top Counters: Easy Ganks, Diving Penalty, Focus Target
Secondary Counters: It Ends in the Lane, Time is not on your Side
Database Counters:
Top Counters: Gap Closers, Disarmers, Swarmers, Magic Immunity, Burst Damage, Physical Protection
Secondary Counters: Miss Chance, Lane Killers, Magic Immunity, Anti-Running
Specific Counters:
Blade Mail: Snipers don't really get Black King Bar often, so this item turns him own damage against him.
Skywrath Mage: Has the long ranged nukes, slow, and the movespeed required to kill Sniper very easily.
Phantom Assassin: Comes armed with evasion and an instant gap closer, as well as massive physical damage, which can take care of Sniper with ease for most of the game.
Enchantress: Saps away all his attack speed if he attacks her, and she can easily slow him and trade blows with impetus, which takes advantage of his long range.
Disjoint Assassinate if you have a way to, whether by Dagger, Euls, of if you want to be really funny, Smoke of Deceit.

Templar Assassin
Strategic Counters:
Top Counters: Diving Penalty, Rotation Rotation Rotation, Protect your T1 Towers
Secondary Counters: We Need Wards, Divide or Be Conquered, Steal the Stack
Database Counters:
Top Counters: Swarmers, Anti-Invis, AOE Damage, Anti-Daggers, Lane Harassers, Mana Burners, Dispellers, Bashers
Secondary Counters: Silencers, Physical Protection, Kiters, Magic Immunity Piercing Spells
Specific Counters:
Venomancer, Slark, Kunkka, Gyrocopter; Many damage instances melt Refraction quickly.
Drow Ranger, Batrider, Clockwerk, Keeper of the Light, Dark Seer: Changing her position breaks the meld. Many of these heroes also do many damage instances.
Bring sentry wards before you kill Roshan to dispose of the Trap she probably has there.

Luna
Strategic Counters:
Top Counters: Easy Ganks, Disengage or Die, Focus Target, Preventable Calamity, Steal the Stack
Secondary Counters: Protect your T1 Towers, Divide or be Conquered, It Ends in the Lane
Database Counters:
Top Counters: Bashers, Swarmers, Physical Protection, Magic Immunity, Burst Damage, Lane Killers, Breakers
Secondary Counters: Disarmers, Lane Harassers, Miss Chance, Mana Burners, Pure Damage, Magic Resistance, Kiters, Illusion Creators
Specific Counters:
Broodmother: Eats Luna in lane, really hard.
Protect your T3 tower, if she breaks it, her glaives on your base will make a bloodbath. Hold out for long enough and other carries can over take her.
When ganking her, move in groups of at least 2, in case she unleashes the Eclipse on you, you have enough dudes to tank it, and/or you can nuke her to oblivion.

Bounty Hunter
Strategic Counters:
Top Counters: Protect your T1 Towers, Rotation Rotation Rotation
Secondary Counters: Focus Target, Disengage or Die, Diving Penalty
Database Counters:
Top Counters: Anti-Invis, Burst Damage, Silencers, Dispellers, Swarmers, Mana Burners, Lane Harassers, Kiters
Secondary Counters: Miss Chance, Disarmers, Physical Protection, Healers
Specific Counters:
If he gets Tracks off, don't evenly trade hero kills, you'll lose.
Slardar: Completely demolishes BH in direct combat, and keeps his eye on him for easy initiation.
Lotus Orb: A quick and easy way to remove Tracks from allies.
Rubick: Can steal Track, which means that his advantage of trading is lost.

Ursa
Strategic Counters:
Top Counters: It Ends in the Lane, We Need Wards, Rotation Rotation Rotation
Secondary Counters: Easy Ganks, Focus Target, Eyes in the Jungle
Database Counters:
Top Counters: Undispelable Skills, Purgers, Swarmers, Disarmers, Kiters, Miss Chance, Anti-Daggers, Lane Killers
Secondary Counters: Silencers, Mana Burners, Lane Harassers
Specific Counters:
Keep your eye on Roshan, and make sure you take the time whenever he gets it.
Oracle: Can purge enrage, can disarm Ursa, and can prevent him from bursting down his target immediately with False Promise.
Shadow Demon: Can purge enrage, and disrupt either Ursa or his target so they can't be focused down, and the purge also comes with a nice slow to kite with.
Ghost Scepter: Completely avoids his massive burst and kites him.

Gyrocopter
Strategic Counters:
Top Counters: Divide or be Conquered, Easy Ganks, Steal the Stack
Secondary Counters: Focus Target, Disengage or Die, Diving Penalty
Database Counters:
Top Counters: Physical Protection, Burst Damage, Bashers, Magic Immunity Piercing Skills, Gap Closers
Secondary Counters: Magic Resistance, Silencers, Lane Killers, Magic Immunity, Mana Burners
Specific Counters:
Huskar: Can harass in lane, can avoid the missile stun with Life Break, and rocket barrage doesn't harm him that much.
Juggernaut: Can dodge missile with Blade Fury, and Omnislash allows him to make quick work of Gyro before he wrecks teamfights.
Lina: Laguna Blade upgraded by Aghs will easily kill Gyro as well even once he has BKB. Also shuts him down beforehand.

Lone Druid
Strategic Counters:
Top Counters: Easy Ganks, Protect your T1 Towers, Focus Target
Secondary Counters: None
Database Counters:
Top Counters: Miss Chance, Pure Damage, Gap Closers, Anti-Running, Purgers
Secondary Counters: Disarmers, Physical Protection, Swarmers, Kiters
Specific Counters:
Bane: Nightmare the Bear and kill the Druid, or just enfeeble it. It's very easy to get your spells off on the real menace of the Druid.
Slark: Since Lone Druid is so tanky and is very much sustained damage, Slark can easily jump on and kill Lone Druid and gain a massive amount of stats while doing so.

Naga Siren
Strategic Counters:
Top Counters: We Need Wards, Diving Penalty, Time is not on your Side
Secondary Counters: It Ends in the Lane
Database Counters:
Top Counters: Silences, Burst Damage, Pure Damage, AOE Damage, AOE Crowd Control
Secondary Counters: Miss Chance, Illusion Creators
Specific Counters:
Storm Spirit: Can lock down and kill Siren as she splitpushes very easily.
Clockwerk, Invoker: Cold Snap or Battery Assault can prevent casting of Song entirely, due to its massive cast point.
Pugna: Life drain instantly kills illusions, which can nullify all her splitpushing.
Lion: Similar to Pugna, has 2 skills that instantly kill illusions, which is great against her splitpushing as well.

Troll Warlord
Strategic Counters:
Top Counters: It Ends in the Lane, Steal the Stack, Time is not on your Side, Protect your T1 Towers
Secondary Counters: Focus Target, Rotation Rotation Rotation, Disengage or Die, Easy Ganks
Database Counters:
Top Counters: Swarmers, Kiters, Physical Protection, Magic Immunity Piercing Spells, Anti-Running, Disarmers, Miss Chance, Burst Damage, Pure Damage
Secondary Counters: Mana Burners, Silencers, Lane Killers, Armor Reduction
Specific Counters:
Crimson Guard: Slashes the midgame power of Troll Warlord, as the right clicks of his supports become negligible, and his damage is significantly lowered too.
Force Staff: It aids a lot in kiting him, especially if he's in melee form.
Sniper: Can kite him in either form, can completely avoid both his axes, and can finish him off easily too.
Windranger: Can evade him completely, and burst him down from a long distance, safe from his miss chance.

Ember Spirit
Strategic Counters: It Ends in the Lane, Preventable Calamity, Diving Penalty, Time is not on your Side
Top Counters: Rotation Rotation Rotation, Focus Target
Secondary Counters:
Database Counters:
Top Counters: Silencers, Gap Closers, Bashers, Pure Damage, Disarmers, Mana Burners, Lane Harassers, Lane Killers
Secondary Counters: Magic Immunity, Magic Resistance
Specific Counters:
Initiate on him, or you generally lose the teamfights late.
Legion Commander: A Duel initiation will completely destroy Ember Spirit.
Clinkz: Is a source of long ranged physical burst, and he often buys Orchid as well.

Dire Agility

Bloodseeker
Strategic Counters:
Top Counters: Rotation Rotation Rotation, Diving Penalty, Protect your T1 Towers
Secondary Counters: We Need Wards, Divide or be Conquered, Easy Ganks, Eyes in the Jungle
Database Counters:
Top Counters: Burst Damage, Kiters, Miss Chance, Swarmers, Disarmers, Magic Immunity Piercing Spells, Bashers
Secondary Counters: Lane Killers, Healers, Silencers
Specific Counters:
Town Portal Scrolls: Prevents a lot of his early mid-game snowballing, since he cannot dispel it until he buys Basher or Euls. Also useful at all points if target gets Ruptured and is a safe distance away.
Wraith King: Has an entire life to burn through a Rupture, which can also be a convenient means for him to time his Reincarnation slow, which can lead to a team wipe. He can also fight BS head on even when Ruptured.
Storm Spirit: Can jump on Bloodseeker from a distance, able to stun and burst him down, and Ball Lightning is not affected by Rupture at all.

Shadow Fiend
Strategic Counters:
Top Counters: Rotation Rotation Rotation, Protect your T1 Towers, Easy Ganks, Steal the Stack
Secondary Counters: Focus Target, Preventable Calamity, Diving Penalty, It Ends in the Lane
Database Counters:
Top Counters: Burst Damage, Magic Immunity Piercing Spells, Gap Closers, Bashers, Disarmers, Miss Chance, Silencers, Magic Immunity
Secondary Counters: Magic Resistance, Physical Protection, Breakers, Armor Reduction, Healers
Specific Counters:
Lina: Aghs Laguna Blade severely cuts down Shadow Fiend's survival even after his important Black King Bar, and also counters him in lane due to massive burst damage.
Tinker: Similar to Lina, except his skills are really long ranged and can rip Shadow Fiend apart with ease.
Templar Assassin: Beats Shadow Fiend mid, can easily towerdive him, and escape and fighting back before late game is impossible.

Razor
Strategic Counters:
Top Counters: Focus Target, Rotation Rotation Rotation, Protect your T1 Towers, Disengage or Die
Secondary Counters: It Ends in the Lane, We Need Wards
Database Counters:
Top Counters: Swarmers, AOE Damage, Anti-Running, Physical Protection, Mana Burners, AOE Crowd Control, Lane Killers
Secondary Counters: Gap Closers, Burst Damage, Bashers, Magic Immunity Piercing Spells, Armor Reduction, Healers
Specific Counters:
Sniper, Drow Ranger: Long ranged dpsers can kill Razor quickly before getting damage drained due to his low armor and his vulnerability to slowing.
Naga Siren: Can cancel out static link, and can stop Razor from running.

Venomancer
Strategic Counters:
Top Counters: It Ends in the Lane, Divide or be Conquered, Rotation Rotation Rotation, Diving Penalty
Secondary Counters: We Need Wards, Preventable Calamity
Database Counters:
Top Counters: Magic Resistance, Gap Closers, Silencers, Mana Burners, Healers, Lane Harassers
Secondary Counters: Disarmers, Miss Chance, Burst Damage, Swarmers
Specific Counters:
Sniper, Drow Ranger: Can pick off Plague Wards from a distance very quickly, and are unlikely to be hit by the slows and nova, which make them extremely dangerous.
Huskar: Can jump on Venomancer solo, since Venomancer has no way to stun him to stop his damage, so Huskar can kill him and force him to use a single man Poison Nova or die.
Dark Seer, Centaur Warrunner : Can grant haste speed to allies, making it easy to disengage once Veno throws out certain spells and they are starting to be very effective.

Faceless Void
Strategic Counters:
Top Counters: Time is not on your Side, Divide or be Conquered, Preventable Calamity
Secondary Counters: Diving Penalty, Rotation Rotation Rotation, It Ends in the Lane
Database Counters:
Top Counters: Disarmers, Magic Immunity Piercing Spells, Miss Chance, Physical Protection, Silencers, Breakers, Swarmers
Secondary Counters: Mana Burners, Pure Damage, Lane Harassers, Lane Killers, Healers, Kiters, Illusion Creators
Specific Counters:
Omniknight: A global guardian angel makes Chronosphere ineffective, often forces Void to buy diffusal.
Disruptor: Can reverse his initiation with Glimpse, and Static Storm can prevent him from dispelling the silences.
Invoker: If not targeted, the extremely long ranged Tornado and Deafening Blast will prevent a lot of Void damage through Chronosphere.
Tiny: The anti-basher and can survive the Chronosphere until Void gets BKB.

Phantom Assassin
Strategic Counters:
Top Counters: Rotation Rotation Rotation, Diving Penalty, Protect your T1 Towers
Secondary Counters: Focus Target, Steal the Stack, Easy Ganks
Database Counters:
Top Counters: Burst Damage, Breakers, Magic Immunity Piercing Spells, Disarmers, Physical Protection, Miss Chance, Kiters, Illusion Creators
Secondary Counters: Silencers, Lane Harassers, Lane Killers, Pure Damage, Mana Burners, Magic Immunity
Specific Counters:
Blade Mail: Counters mid-game PA snowballing and punishes her glass cannon nature. Not as effective later in the game when she gets anti-blademail weapons though.
Razor: Cannot be targeted by her spells without getting kited due to Unstable Current, and thus can easily and reliably steal damage from her.
Monkey King Bar: Cuts her survivability in half, and will turn the game against her if it is at all close.

Viper
Strategic Counters:
Top Counters: Protect your T1 Towers, Focus Target, Rotation Rotation Rotation, It Ends in the Lane
Secondary Counters: Disengage or Die
Database Counters:
Top Counters: Swarmers, Burst Damage, Mana Burners, Miss Chance, Disarmers, Gap Closers
Secondary Counters: Pure Damage, Lane Killers, Magic Resistance, Armor Reduction, Healers
Specific Counters:
Town Portal Scroll: None of his skills break channeling, so this is a reliable way to get away from him if you are tanky enough.
Dark Seer, Centaur Warrunner : Can grant unslowable haste speed to an ally, which promises their escape from Viper's maw and a waste of a Viper Strike.
Broodmother: The only hero that can easily outlane Viper, her swarming can get lots of kills on Viper right from the laning phase and shut him out of the game before he can snowball into a threat.

Clinkz
Strategic Counters:
Top Counters: Protect your T1 Towers, Rotation Rotation Rotation, Focus Target
Secondary Counters: It Ends in the Lane
Database Counters:
Top Counters: Burst Damage, Mana Burners, Anti-Invis, Silencers, Disarmers, Anti-Running, Lane Killers, Swarmers, Gap Closers
Secondary Counters: Miss Chance, Physical Protection
Specific Counters:
Bounty Hunter: Bounty counters invis heroes like Clinkz and grants enough speed to catch him too, and is equipped with high burst damage and the distinct ability to sneak up on him.
Zeus: Deals major burst damage and comes with anti-invis as well.
Phantom Lancer: Swarms Clinkz, can close the gap with ease with Phantom Rush, and will burn his mana, which will render him ineffective.

Broodmother
Strategic Counters:
Top Counters: Protect your T1 Towers, It Ends in the Lane, Rotation Rotation Rotation
Secondary Counters: We Need Wards
Database Counters:
Top Counters: AOE Damage, Anti-Invis, Purgers, Kiters, Physical Protection, Magic Immunity, Lane Killers
Secondary Counters: Magic Immunity Piercing Spells, Anti-Running, Disarmers, Silencers, Miss Chance
Specific Counters:
Axe: Send Axe to her lane solo and she cannot do anything to it.
Meepo: He can be anywhere on the map, can destroy spiderlings in a second, cannot be manfought, since Bite only affects one target, and can bind brood so web escape is impossible.
Legion Commander: Gets better at fighting the more people are hitting her, and Overwhelming Odds makes for easy spider farming.
Slardar: Can easily outfight Brood with Amp Damage, and find her even if she hides in her web.
Sand King: Caustic Finale makes short work of her spiders, as does Sand Storm. If Sand King stays near a lane, she can't push it.
Timbersaw: Reactive Armor means that spiders tickle, and every spell is AOE. Can't catch him either, since he'll timber chain out.

Weaver
Strategic Counters:
Top Counters: Rotation Rotation Rotation, Protect your T1 Towers, Focus Target
Secondary Counters: It Ends in the Lane, We Need Wards
Database Counters:
Top Counters: Silencers, Burst Damage, Mana Burners, Undispelable Skills, Anti-Running, Anti-Invis
Secondary Counters: Physical Protection, Lane Harassers
Specific Counters:
Bloodseeker: Rupture is undispelable and prevents Shukuchi running. Thirst also makes it even worse, as Bloodseeker can outrun a Shukuchi'd Weaver.
Riki, Drow Ranger, Death Prophet: Ground targeted silences cannot be avoided with a Linken's sphere and is a lot more likely to kill weaver.
Kunkka: X Marks the Spot cannot be dispelled and is an effective way or catching Weaver by destroying his mobility.
Faceless Void: Chronosphere reveals invisible units, which makes Weaver easy pickings.

Spectre
Strategic Counters:
Top Counters: Time in not on your Side, Rotation Rotation Rotation, Focus Target
Secondary Counters: Diving Penalty, It Ends in the Lane, Disengage or Die
Database Counters:
Top Counters: Breakers, Burst Damage, Magic Immunity, Anti-Running, AOE Crowd Control, Lane Harassers, Lane Hillers, Healers
Secondary Counters: Illusion Creators, Undispelable Skills
Specific Counters:
Run an aggressive trilane. She will not be able to beat it almost all the time.
Undying: Easily shuts her down in lane, and the healing he provides will negate a lot of her dispersion damage.
Necrophos: Solid way to beat her late game, as Scythe will greatly cut down her survival, and she is one of the most likely carries to buyback and re-enter a fight.
Huskar: Demolishes her in lane, and Aghs Life Break is always relevant to her health pool, as it will make short work of her all game.
Lifestealer, Wraith King, Alchemist: Carries with high sustain and regen can fight Spectre because she looks to outlast her opponents.
Naga Siren: Siren can prevent Spectre from running with ensnare and Song pretty much cancels Haunt, which is key to winning teamfights against Spectre.
Terrorblade: Not only does Terrorblade make good use of a Spectre reflection, especially one that has Radiance, she is also very vulnerable to Sunder, due to lack of burst and control, and being tank based. Sunder is the only skill in the game that will ruin her without hurting teammates.

Meepo
Strategic Counters:
Top Counters: Easy Ganks, Divide or be Conquered, We Need Wards, Diving Penalty, Focus Target
Secondary Counters: Rotation Rotation Rotation, Protect your T1 Towers, Preventable Calamity
Database Counters:
Top Counters: AOE Crowd Control, Burst Damage, AOE Damage, Anti-Daggers, Magic Resistance, Lane Killers
Secondary Counters: Physical Protection, Pure Damage
Specific Counters:
Winter Wyvern: Meepo betrayal is one of the most effective ways to kill Meepo, as each Meepo deals significant damage. Also works against Meepo's allies.
Timbersaw: Will quickly get his reactive armor up due to Meepos, and can escape him. The pure damage spells rip through Meepo's high magic resistance and armor and Whirling Death lowers the damage of every Meepo too.
Ember Spirit: One Slight of Fist and Meepo will be dead from cleaves, it's too much damage for him.
Earthshaker: Almost 5 seconds of AOE stuns is a good way to kill Meepo, especially since Echo Slam does more damage to more units.
Sven: Storm Hammer is likely to stun all the Meepos, and God's Strength's cleave burst will kill him very quickly, and unlike other heroes that meepo can kite, Sven's damage is too high, and comes with a skill that grants 20 armor to his whole team.
Lina: Pure damage Laguna Blade means that the weakest Meepo will be destroyed. Light Strike Array can also be deadly for Meepo.
Lich: Meepo almost always focuses a target, Frost Armor will slow them all with minimal effort, and Chain Frost can easily bounce and will destroy Meepo if paired with a disable.

Nyx Assassin
Strategic Counters:
Top Counters: Protect your T1 Towers, We Need Wards, It Ends in the Lane, Divide or be Conquered
Secondary Counters: Preventable Calamity
Database Counters:
Top Counters: Anti-Invis, Magic Resistance, Silencers, Magic Immunity, Anti-Daggers,
Secondary Counters: Mana Burners, Lane Harassers, Armor Reduction
Specific Counters:
Don't immediately nuke him after he jumps on you, he'll usually use Carapace.
Silencer: Global Silence can prevent his combo after you unleash Vendetta on one of his allies, and he can do this from across the map.
Huskar: Nyx pretty much cannot kill Huskar due to Berserker's Blood unless he uses Vendetta as a finishing move, and the fire spears dot can easily pop carapace, so he cannot really use it to counter life-break against a decent Huskar.
Visage: Graveskeeper Cloak makes it impossible for Nyx to burst him down, and the sustained nukes from him will likely kill Nyx.
Anti-Mage: Fairly resistant to Nyx ganks due to buffed up magic resistance, and the mana burn will make Nyx useless in a fight fairly early.

Slark
Strategic Counters:
Top Counters: Protect your T1 Towers, We Need Wards, It Ends in the Lane, Disengage or Die
Secondary Counters: Focus Target, Time is not on your Side, Diving Penalty
Database Counters:
Top Counters: AOE Crowd Control, Silencers, Undispelable Skills, Mana Burners, Swarmers, AOE Damage, Burst Damage, Anti-Running, Breakers
Secondary Counters: Bashers, Magic Immunity
Specific Counters:
Ancient Apparition: Prevents regeneration with ult, which limits Slark's survivability quite a bit.
Bloodseeker: Rupture is undispelable and Thirst severely limits Slark's escape options.
Puck: Dream Coil prevents his escape, as does Waning Rift. An effective counter to his ultimate.
Naga Siren: Can ensnare him, which will prevent him from running, and Song cancels his ult, which is his ace in the hole.
Anti-Mage: Easily escapes from Slark's grasp with Blink, and Mana Burning makes Slark useless later in the game, especially since all AMs get Manta.

Medusa
Strategic Counters:
Top Counters: Time is not on your Side, Diving Penalty, Disengage or Die
Secondary Counters: Easy Ganks, Steal the Stack
Database Counters:
Top Counters: Mana Burners, Physical Protection, Disarmers, Burst Damage, Silencers, Miss Chance, Lane Killers
Secondary Counters: Bashers, Illusion Creators
Specific Counters:
Anti-Mage: The best counter, as his Mana Break is double effective against her, and Mana Void functionally cuts her EHP in half.
Nyx Assassin: If Medusa stack stats, Mana Burn will burn about 40% of her mana pool on a 4 second cooldown, which also hurts her survivability by a lot.
Broodmother: Can easily and completely shut her down in lane and eat up all her map space with spider swarms.
Sniper: The only hero who can kite Medusa, and he significantly lowers her DPS with his headshots.
Slark: Slark can pick her off over and over, and late game, she is prone to long drawn-out fights, so Slark has time to steal a lot of stats from her.
Outworld Devourer: OD's ultimate comes equipped with the destruction of 40% of her mana pool, which burns her survivability to cinders.
Lich: 9 more armor for all of his teammates as well as a guaranteed slow on Medusa goes a long way towards winning the DPS race against her.
Keeper of the Light: Mana Leak is a percentage based mana burn skill and prevents Dusa from running. Overall good counter for the Mana Shield.
Heaven's Halberd: Medusa rarely gets Black King Bar, and each of these is a 4.5 second disarm, where she can't do anything useful. Multiple Halberds is probably a good idea.

Terrorblade
Strategic Counters:
Top Counters: Times is not on your Side, Easy Ganks, Preventable Calamity, Focus Target
Secondary Counters: None
Database Counters:
Top Counters: Pure Damage, Burst Damage, AOE Crowd Control, AOE Damage, Illusion Creators, Silencers, Physical Protection
Secondary Counters: Disarmers, Miss Chance, Mana Burners, Lane Killers, Healers, Swarmers, Magic Immunity Piercing Spells, Undispelable Skills
Specific Counters:
Elder Titan: Natural Order ruins all of Terrorblade's innate defense. AOE Disarm is also deadly for him.
Sand King: Sand King has the crowd control and burst damage to keep Terrroblade under control for the whole game. Also can avoid sunder easily with Sand Storm.
Necrophos: Pretty good at preventing Sunder with Reaper's Scythe, which can be really game winning.
Legion Commander: Overwhelming Odds knocks out half of the Illusions HP, and Legion has a very long disable to kill Terrorblade in.
Outworld Devourer: Pure damage orb that ignores armor and deals insane damage to illusions, and his ultimate's burst is really strong in preventing Sunder.
Lion: Has a ton of disables, 2 ways to instantly destroy illusions, and Finger of Death is some pretty good anti-Sunder equipment.

Arc Warden
Strategic Counters:
Top Counters: It Ends in the Lane, We Need Wards, Focus Target, Time in not on your Side
Secondary Counters: Disengage or Die, Easy Ganks, Protect your T1 Towers
Database Counters:
Top Counters: Burst Damage, Gap Closers, Magic Immunity, Physical Protection, Swarmers
Secondary Counters: Purgers, Miss Chance, Disarmers
Specific Counters:
Gank his lane, the more you delay the Midas, the better your chance of victory, as he cannot farm without it.
Monkey King Bar: Very important pickup on the cores as the game goes on, especially against Divine Wardens.
Broodmother: Own him in lane, make him cry as he gets a 15+ Minute Midas.
Storm Spirit: Counters his splitpushing, at least the ones with his real self.
Ember Spirit: Can cleave down his illusions and necronomicons without getting hit by the return damage.
Spectre: The only carry that can make short work of Zet, as he doesn't really buy BKB, and Spectre can jump on him globally. Also stops Necrobook units pretty well.

Radiant Intelligence

Crystal Maiden
Strategic Counters:
Top Counters: Rotation Rotation Rotation, We Need Wards, Protect your T1 Towers
Secondary Counters: Eyes in the Jungle, Diving Penalty
Database Counters:
Top Counters: Silencers, Magic Resistance, Gap Closers, Burst Damage, Dispellers, Magic Immunity, Anti-Daggers
Secondary Counters: Healers, Lane Killers, Mana Burners, Magic Immunity Piercing Spells
Specific Counters:
Puck: A long silence and a long ranged mini stun stops a lot of CM's most dangerous moves.
Clockwerk: Battery Assault prevents freezing field casts, and hooking CM is a very effective way to dispose of her.

Puck
Strategic Counters:
Top Counters: Rotation Rotation Rotation, Diving Penalty, It Ends in the Lane
Secondary Counters: Protect your T1 Towers, Disengage or Die, Preventable Calamity
Database Counters:
Top Counters: Silencers, Magic Resistance, Burst Damage, Magic Immunity, Anti-Daggers
Secondary Counters: Dispellers, Lane Harassers
Specific Counters:
Skywrath Mage: Has a super long ranged silence and makes it easy to burst down Puck.
Bane, Dragon Knight, Storm Spirit: Instant cast stuns that cannot be avoided by phase shift will kill Puck.
Viper: Destroys Puck in lane and his Viper Strike is very hard to avoid, which can often spell death for Puck.
Huskar: Puck struggles against DoT spells and Huskar has so much magic resistance that there is no way for Puck to kill him.

Storm Spirit
Strategic Counters:
Top Counters: It Ends in the Lane, Steal the Stack, Rotation Rotation Rotation, Protect your T1 Towers
Secondary Counters: We Need Wards, Diving Penalty, Time is not on your Side, Divide or be Conquered
Database Counters:
Top Counters: Silencers, Magic Resistance, Magic Immunity, Mana Burners, Lane Harassers, Lane Killers
Secondary Counters: Magic Immunity Piercing Spells, Healers, Disarmers
Specific Counters:
Ghost Scepter: Protects from overload damage, since he has to click on his target to damage them.
Earth Spirit: It's not hard to hit Boulder Smashes on him due to the nature of his jumping, and long silences take care of Storm with ease.
Oracle: Can remove the stun and possible silence of Storm's initiation with False Promise, and can disarm him so he can't overload.
Anti-Mage: Mana Void makes storm a bomb that kills his own team, especially since he depletes so much of his own mana.

Windranger
Strategic Counters:
Top Counters: Rotation Rotation Rotation, Protect your T1 Towers
Secondary Counters: We Need Wards, Preventable Calamity
Database Counters:
Top Counters: Disarmers, Silencers, Anti-Running, Swarmers, Miss Chance, Lane Harassers, Physical Protection
Secondary Counters: Burst Damage, Magic Immunity, Anti-Daggers
Specific Counters:
Disruptor: Can harass Windranger with magic, and Glimpse is extremely effective at countering Windrun and killing Wind.
Earth Spirit: His damage from long range lets him finish off and kill wind with ease, especially with his slow and silence.
Heaven's Halberd: Windrangers rarely get BKB, so this item makes her mostly harmless for 4.5 seconds.

Zeus
Strategic Counters:
Top Counters: Rotation Rotation Rotation, It Ends in the Lane, Focus Target, Preventable Calamity
Secondary Counters: Diving Penalty, Protect your T1 Towers
Database Counters:
Top Counters: Magic Resistance, Magic Immunity, Silencers, Burst Damage, Gap Closers, Lane Killers, Lane Harassers
Secondary Counters: Bashers, Armor Reduction, Healers, Mana Burners, Anti-Daggers
Specific Counters:
Pipe of Insight: The best hero in the game to buy this against. Never skip it against him.
Magic Wand: Great in lane, and good later to survive his nukes due to his mass usage.
Huskar: Can outlane Zeus with ease, and Zeus has no way to stop his DPS or kill him.
Rubick: Mainly because of 20% magic resistance aura. Stealing Thundergod's Wrath is nice for teamfights, and lightning bolt so Rubick can deward is also good.
Meepo: Wrath only hits the main Meepo, which limits Zeus' options against the other Meepos, and they all have buffed up magic resistance, so Zeus can be easily taken care of.
Centaur Warrunner : Once he has Aghs, he can initiate on Zeus, and force him to use his Wrath while Stampede is active or not at all. Very effective way to kill him.

Lina
Strategic Counters:
Top Counters: Rotation Rotation Rotation, We Need Wards, Protect your T1 Towers
Secondary Counters: Preventable Calamity
Database Counters:
Top Counters: Gap Closers, Swarmers, Silencers, Magic Resistance, Magic Immunity, Disarmers
Secondary Counters: Anti-Daggers, Miss Chance, Lane Killers
Specific Counters:
Lotus Orb, Blade Mail: Effective way to punish her for using her Laguna Blade.
Linken's Sphere: Protects from Laguna Blade completely. She can pop it with the Euls she'll likely get, but if so, it's really easy to disengage.
Pugna: Lina's spells are extremely costly in terms of mana, making Nether Ward one of the best ways to kill her, as long as she can't reach it with her attacks.

Shadow Shaman
Strategic Counters:
Top Counters: Protect your T1 Towers, We Need Wards, Preventable Calamity
Secondary Counters: Diving Penalty, Easy Ganks
Database Counters:
Top Counters: Silencers, Gap Closers, Magic Immunity, Anti-Daggers, Lane Killers, Lane Harassers, Physical Protection
Secondary Counters: Armor Reduction, Healers
Specific Counters:
Sniper: His long ranged attack and assassinate is good at preventing Shaman from dropping his wards, and very good at killing them quickly with no risk either.
Silencer: Has long ranged spells, including a global silence to stop shackles from across the map. His dps makes short work of Shadow Shaman as well.
Pugna: Shadow Shaman's spells cost a lot of mana, especially his ultimate, so Nether Ward is extremely dangerous for Shadow Shaman.

Tinker
Strategic Counters:
Top Counters: It Ends in the Lane, Easy Ganks, Diving Penalty, Time is not on your Side
Secondary Counters: We Need Wards, Steal the Stack, Focus Target, Divide or be Conquered
Database Counters:
Top Counters: Gap Closers, Silencers, Burst Damage, Anti-Daggers, Lane Killers, Magic Immunity
Secondary Counters: Mana Burners, Magic Resistance, Dispellers, Swarmers
Specific Counters:
Delay his Travels as much as humanly possible. The longer he takes to get them, the less his game impact will be.
Monkey King Bar: Makes Lazor's miss chance a thing of the past.
Eul's Scepter of Divinity: Disables his Blink Dagger from a long distance, and allows time to close the gap to him, and also interrupts his rearms and teleports.
Pugna: Tinker expends massive amounts of mana, and Nether Ward also disables his Dagger. Plus, with Pugna, there is some nice way to damage him if he goes Ghost Scepter.
Anti-Mage: Tinker uses a lot of mana, so even if Anti-Mage is not great in combat against Tinker, Mana Void is an effective way of using his own massive expenditures against him.
Nyx Assassin: Has the lovely ability to burn mana and carapace long ranged Missiles. Also has the tendency to wait invis where Tinker will splitpush and nuke him to death.
Disruptor: As with many gap reliant blink heroes, Disruptor's Glimpse is very powerful against Tinker, and Static Storm is even better, as it has an undispelable silence that is also a mute with Aghs Scepter.

Nature's Prophet
Strategic Counters:
Top Counters: Easy Ganks, Eyes in the Jungle, Protect your T1 Towers
Secondary Counters: Diving Penalty, Rotation Rotation Rotation, Divide or be Conquered
Database Counters:
Top Counters: Gap Closers, Burst Damage, Silencers, Lane Killers, AOE Damage, Swarmers, Miss Chance
Secondary Counters: Disarmers, AOE Crowd Control, Physical Protection, Magic Resistance
Specific Counters:
Save your stuns for when you see him start to teleport. It's better to waste his time.
Quelling Blade, Tango, Battle Fury: Sprout is a discount root, and now you know why.
Shadow Blade, Silver Edge: It is not really practical for Prophet to get a gem to push, so this is a pretty effective way to kill him while he splitpushes. Invis heroes like Clinkz this is also applicable to.
Storm Spirit: Best anti-splitpusher in the game and Prophet is especially vulnerable to his stun and probable silence combo, since he can't lay a minefield and nuke like Tinker.
Timbersaw: Cuts down trees in fights, so Sprout's useless.
Spirit Breaker: Pretty much no options if he charges Prophet, so unless severely outfarming him, Breaker will break NP down np.

Enchantress
Strategic Counters:
Top Counters: Eyes in the Jungle, Rotation Rotation Rotation, Protect your T1 Towers
Secondary Counters: Focus Target
Database Counters:
Top Counters: Burst Damage, Gap Closers, Silencers, Swarmers, Magic Immunity, Disarmers, Miss Chance
Secondary Counters: Mana Burners, AOE Damage, Armor Reduction, Dispellers, Anti-Running
Specific Counters:
Ancient Apparition: Deals lots of burst and stops the regeneration from the attendants.
Troll Warlord: Battle Trance can cancel out Untouchable.
Windranger: Easily burst down Enchantress, since Focus Fire is unslowable.

Jakiro
Strategic Counters:
Top Counters: Protect your T1 Towers, Diving Penalty, Preventable Calamity
Secondary Counters: Divide or be Conquered
Database Counters:
Top Counters: Silencers, Armor Reduction, Healers, Magic Resistance, Magic Immunity
Secondary Counters: Miss Chance, Disarmers, Lane Killers
Specific Counters:
Clockwerk, Invoker: Jakiro has a giant cast point of 0.7, which means if Clock gets his initiation off on Jakiro, he will be pretty much worthless. Cold Snap is also applicable.
Rubick: Magic Resistance aura for his team, and the ability to use Jakiro's spells far quicker than he could ever hope to.

Chen
Strategic Counters:
Top Counters: Eyes in the Jungle, Rotation Rotation Rotation, Focus Target
Secondary Counters: Protect your T1 Towers, Diving Penalty, Divide or be Conquered, Steal the Stack
Database Counters:
Top Counters: AOE Damage, AOE Crowd Control, Silencers, Physical Protection, Swarmers
Secondary Counters: Magic Resistance, Magic Immunity, Burst Damage, Dispellers
Specific Counters:
Hand of Midas, Clinkz, Doom, Lifestealer, Enchantress: Can get rid of key creeps in a second.
Ancient Apparition: "ALL ARE HEALED!" "Nope.avi"
Kill his creeps after you kill him, Death is expensive for Chen, since he has to find the creeps all over again.

Silencer
Strategic Counters:
Top Counters: Disengage or Die, Time is not on your Side, Preventable Calamity
Secondary Counters: Diving Penalty, It Ends in the Lane, Rotation Rotation Rotation
Database Counters:
Top Counters: Dispellers, Gap Closers, Lane Killers, Magic Immunity, Silencers (irony!), Disarmers, Swarmers
Secondary Counters: Magic Resistance, Miss Chance, Armor Reduction
Specific Counters:
Due to INT steal, 1 for 1 trades are highly unfavorable.
Nyx Assassin: "Oh a thief eh? Well then!" Mana Burn will hurt so much as the game goes on.
Lone Druid: The most silence and mana drain resistant hero in the game, and a really fast bear to catch a not-fast Silencer looks to be a good counter.

Ogre Magi
Strategic Counters:
Top Counters: Focus Target, Rotation Rotation Rotation, Diving Penalty
Secondary Counters: Time is not on your Side, Protect your T1 Towers, It Ends in the Lane
Database Counters:
Top Counters: Magic Resistance, Silencers, Swarmers, Magic Immunity
Secondary Counters: Purgers, Dispellers, Anti-Running,
Specific Counters:
Night time. The effective cast range for Ignite is far greater than Night vision. Also its easy to juke Magi due to his huge cast point.
Clockwerk, Invoker: Ogre has a big cast point, Battery Assault and Cold Snap will make it fun times.
Razor: Magi's spells are mostly single target, and casting them on Razor will also purge Bloodlust.
Abaddon: Instant removal of fireblast stuns and Ignite slows in Aphotic makes Ogre kind of ineffective.

Rubick
Strategic Counters:
Top Counters: Preventable Calamity, Focus Target, Diving Penalty
Secondary Counters: Divide or be Conquered, Rotation Rotation Rotation
Database Counters:
Top Counters: Armor Reduction, Magic Immunity, Silencers, Magic Resistance, Dispellers
Secondary Counters: Anti-Daggers, Lane Harassers
Specific Counters:
Look at Rubick and see what he's stolen.
Cast a low cooldown "useless" spell after the big important ones if you have them.
Long, drawn out fights might be preferred, Sure he can steal more spells, but his stun is also on a 22 second cooldown.

Disruptor
Strategic Counters:
Top Counters: Divide or be Conquered, Diving Penalty, Protect your T1 Towers
Secondary Counters: Time is not on your Side, Disengage or Die
Database Counters:
Top Counters: Burst Damage, Magic Resistance, Silencers, Magic Immunity, Lane Killers
Secondary Counters: Swarmers, Healers
Specific Counters:
Don't TP in where he can see you if you know he has Glimpse. If you do, prepared to see "Lol" in all chat.
Clinkz: Is unlikely to get caught in the Static Storm, since he rarely moves directly with his team, so he can run into the backlines and burst down Disruptor.
Nyx Assassin: Similar to Clinkz, but faster, and a spellcaster.

Keeper of the Light
Strategic Counters:
Top Counters: Diving Penalty, Protect your T1 Towers, We Need Wards
Secondary Counters: Disengage or Die
Database Counters:
Top Counters: Burst Damage, Silencers, Magic Immunity, Dispellers
Secondary Counters: Magic Resistance, Lane Killers
Specific Counters:
Ward the sides of the lane, where Kotl will try to get sneaky Illuminates.
Monkey King Bar: Blinding Light is extremely dangerous, and this item is a needed pickup against him.
Night Stalker: Makes an Aghs purchase impractical, which can highly lower his late game presence.
Huskar: Highly resistant to mana leak, and can easily kill Kotl without fear of the illuminates he has.
Shadow Blade, Silver Edge, Clinkz, Nyx Assassin, Bounty Hunter: Kotl has no instant CC to deal with invis burst heroes who sneak up on him, so this makes him food, like Disruptor.

Skywrath Mage
Strategic Counters:
Top Counters: Rotation Rotation Rotation, Diving Penalty, Preventable Calamity
Secondary Counters: We Need Wards, Protect your T1 Towers, Focus Target
Database Counters:
Top Counters: Magic Resistance, Magic Immunity, Silencers, Burst Damage, Armor Reduction
Secondary Counters: Healers, Dispellers, Gap Closers, Swarmers
Specific Counters:
Magic Wand: Lots of arcane bolt spam, lots of capitalization.
Pugna: Hello heavy mana cost ultimate on a squishy hero, this song and dance will end poorly for Dragonus.
Huskar: Skywrath is Huskar food. In fact, he's so effective that Huskar can probably quote the Matrix after he Lifebreaks Skywrath "that is the sound of inevitability"
Meepo: Has buffed up magic resistance and can split the damage of mystic flare among his Meepos.

Oracle
Strategic Counters:
Top Counters: Diving Penalty, Disengage or Die, Preventable Calamity, Focus Target
Secondary Counters: It Ends in the Lane, Time is not on your Side
Database Counters:
Top Counters: Undispelable Skills, AOE Crowd Control, Silencers, Swarmers, Pure Damage, Magic Immunity
Secondary Counters: Burst Damage, Lane Killers, Armor Reduction, Magic Resistance, Gap Closers
Specific Counters:
Play Captain's Mode, he's not in there.
Bait out False Promise. It is an ace in the hole and poor usage of it will result in a lost teamfight.
Ancient Apparition: All that "doubled heal" from False Promise is not present. The chances of the survival of a False Promised person falls.

Techies
Strategic Counters:
Top Counters: Divide or be Conquered, We Need Wards, Protect your T1 Towers
Secondary Counters: None
Database Counters:
Top Counters: Magic Resistance, Magic Immunity, Silencers, Physical Protection, Illusion Creators
Secondary Counters: None
Specific Counters:
Okay, this guy is unique. Let's see...
Minesweepers: At least 1 hero must be ranged in your draft (450+ range, it's about the explosion radius of remotes). Tanky heroes like Dragon Knight and Pudge can often survive mine traps, and heroes with cheap summons ( Broodmother, Nature's Prophet, Enigma, Lycan, Enchantress) can clear the mines. As can heroes who can create cheap illusions, like Terrorblade, Naga Siren, and Shadow Demon
Track his path mentally and determine where he's most likely and least likely to have put mines. Give up the Bounty Rune if you must, try to find him in lane so you don't feed him first blood and give him an early Soul Ring.
Avoid his side of the map. Yes, give him the space. If he's in your jungle, go to the other side of the map and push it, he is not a combatant. If they are playing passively, grab a Midas if you want and go greedy. A techies pick means that likely neither team will really be able to do too much.
When it comes time to push high ground, see where the mines are, and just blink around them if you don't have time to kill them, think around the box, there is more than 1 way to deal with Techies traps.
Beastmaster: As a common carrier of true sight, with cheap summons, one that is ranged and one that can see up cliffs, he is the best pick against Techies.
Keeper of the Light, Night Stalker, Batrider: Other sources of unobstructed vision make it much easier to break high ground against Techies.
Templar Assassin, Abaddon, Wraith King: Pretty much impossible to die from a land mine trap.

Dire Intelligence

Bane
Strategic Counters:
Top Counters: Focus Target, Preventable Calamity, It Ends in the Lane
Secondary Counters: Rotation Rotation Rotation, Diving Penalty
Database Counters:
Top Counters: AOE Crowd Control, Silencers, Swarmers, Gap Closers, Healers, Magic Immunity
Secondary Counters: Magic Resistance, Magic Immunity Piercing Skills, Burst Damage
Specific Counters:
Every illusion hero will destroy Bane, he can only deal with one Batman. Meepo's the same.
Silencer: Can stop Fiend's Grip from across the map through Black King Bar.

Lich
Strategic Counters:
Top Counters: Divide or Be Conquered, It Ends in the Lane, Preventable Calamity
Secondary Counters: Diving Penalty, Disengage or Die
Database Counters:
Top Counters: Burst Damage, Magic Resistance, Silencers, Armor Reduction, Purgers, Pure Damage
Secondary Counters: Magic Immunity, Lane Killers, Swarmers, Gap Closers
Specific Counters:
Huskar: Since all of Lich's damage is magical and Huskar's is mostly magical as well, so armor doesn't help.
Banishes (Euls, Outworld Devourer, Shadow Demon): Can avoid Chain Frost by disjointment, which can be a strong way to prevent it.
Bloodseeker, Lycan, Night Stalker, Puck, Anti-Mage, Queen of Pain, Storm Spirit, Ember Spirit: Can easily disperse from the Chain Frost and isolate it so it doesn't kill their team.

Lion
Strategic Counters:
Top Counters: Rotation Rotation Rotation, We Need Wards, Diving Penalty
Secondary Counters: Divide or be Conquered, Focus Target
Database Counters:
Top Counters: Silencers, Dispellers, Magic Immunity, Anti-Daggers
Secondary Counters: Lane Killers, Burst Damage, Magic Resistance
Specific Counters:
Lotus Orb, Abaddon: Removes Hex, which can break his initiation. Abaddon can also remove stun from himself with Borrowed Time.
Visage: Resistant to Lion's Finger, and can easily kill him with Soul Assumption charges.

Witch Doctor
Strategic Counters:
Top Counters: Disengage or Die, Rotation Rotation Rotation, Diving Penalty
Secondary Counters: Preventable Calamity, Divide or be Conquered
Database Counters:
Top Counters: Physical Protection, Silencers, Magic Immunity, Swarmers, Healers
Secondary Counters: Armor Reduction, Gap Closers, Magic Resistance, Magic Immunity Piercing Skills
Specific Counters:
Drow Ranger: Has a long ranged silence and long ranged dps to take care of Witch Doctor with his low armor.
Clinkz: Can burst down Witch Doctor during his channeling. Also tends to make Orchid to stop the channeling.
Omniknight: Guardian Angel stops all Death Ward damage.
Slark: Can sneak up and kill Witch Doctor with ease, and is resistant to Death Ward with his ultimate, and resistant to maledict deaths due to the passive part of Shadow Dance.
Silencer: Can stop Death Ward channeling from across the map through Black King Bar. Also has high damage to make short work of Witch Doctor.

Enigma
Strategic Counters:
Top Counters: Eyes in the Jungle, Divide or be Conquered, Protect your T1 Towers, Preventable Calamity
Secondary Counters: Time is not on your Side, Focus Target, It Ends in the Lane, Disengage or Die
Database Counters:
Top Counters: Silencers, Anti-Daggers, Magic Immunity Piercing Skills, Burst Damage, Lane Killers, Healers
Secondary Counters: Physical Protection, Magic Immunity, Mana Burners, Gap Closers, Swarmers
Specific Counters:
Do not stand in midnight pulse. It's over 5% max hp per second.
Rubick: As long as he's not black holed, it's a guaranteed black hole steal. Also can end it easily with telekinesis.
Silencer: Can silence to end Black Hole from global range, through BKB.
Sniper: Is very unlikely to be caught in the Black Hole, so he can just stand near the back and keep shooting Enigma and kill him quickly.
Warlock: Excellent counter initiation to Black Hole is Golems, which stun through magic immunity, and he rarely stands near the front, so catching him in the hole is unlikely.

Necrophos
Strategic Counters:
Top Counters: Preventable Calamity, Diving Penalty, Divide or be Conquered, Time is not on your Side
Secondary Counters: Rotation Rotation Rotation, Easy Ganks, Steal the Stack
Database Counters:
Top Counters: Magic Resistance, Magic Immunity, Silencers, Healers, Gap Closers, Burst Damage
Secondary Counters: Swarmers, Lane Killers
Specific Counters:
Glimmer Cape: The massive magic resistance granted by the cape's active makes Scythe all but useless.
Ancient Apparition: Prevents healing, whether from Death Pulse or Sadist, which can hurt Necro's survivability.
Pugna: Nether Ward hurts. Each Pulse will do 300 damage to Necro, and Scythes hurt him even more.
Doom, Alchemist: High regen tanks are a lot more resistant to Reaper's Scythe.
Oracle, Dazzle, Omniknight: Can prevent Scythe from damaging or killing a target, which can remove the power of extra downtime.
Centaur Warrunner : Not personally resistant, but with Aghs, he can put a global range damage reduction, which can make Necro's ult kind of useless.

Warlock
Strategic Counters:
Top Counters: Disengage or Die, Preventable Calamity
Secondary Counters: Diving Penalty, Divide or be Conquered, Time is not on your Side
Database Counters:
Top Counters: Purgers, Swarmers, Silencers, Gap Closers
Secondary Counters: Magic Immunity, Physical Protection
Specific Counters:
Centaur Warrunner : Stampede nullifies Upheaval, which can give enough time to bail from that unfavorable position.
Sniper, Drow Ranger, Clinkz: Long ranged physical dpsers can easily kill Warlock while he channels upheaval.
Do not tank damage if there is a fatal bonds to someone that is low health.

Queen of Pain
Strategic Counters:
Top Counters: Protect your T1 Towers, Divide or be Conquered
Secondary Counters: Rotation Rotation Rotation, Diving Penalty
Database Counters:
Top Counters: Anti-Blinkers, Silencers, Armor Reduction, Magic Immunity, Magic Resistance, Burst Damage
Secondary Counters: Disarmers, Miss Chance, Lane Harassers, Gap Closers
Specific Counters:
Earth Spirit: Can close gaps and has the crowd control and burst damage to easily deal with Queen of Pain.
Pugna: The mana costs of her spells are high, so Nether Ward zaps her hard.
Skywrath Mage: Instant silence from massive range deals well with Queenie and is one of the only heroes who can gank her in lane.

Death Prophet
Strategic Counters:
Top Counters: Protect your T1 Towers, Easy Ganks, Focus Target, Rotation Rotation Rotation
Secondary Counters: Diving Penalty, Preventable Calamity, Disengage or Die
Database Counters:
Top Counters: Anti-Running, Burst Damage, Physical Protection, Magic Resistance, Dispellers
Secondary Counters: Silencers, Magic Immunity, Mana Burners, Armor Reduction
Specific Counters:
Ghost Scepter: Complete protection from Exorcism, sure Carrion swarm will do more, but its nothing compared to exorcism.
Sniper, Drow Ranger: Can severely cut down Death Prophet's movespeed and kiting ability. Both of them also do a lot of damage.
Bloodseeker: Has rupture, which makes it really easy to kill Death Prophet.

Pugna
Strategic Counters:
Top Counters: Focus Target, Protect your T1 Towers, Easy Ganks, It Ends in the Lane
Secondary Counters: Rotation Rotation Rotation, Disengage or Die
Database Counters:
Top Counters: Magic Resistance, Silencers, Burst Damage, Magic Immunity, Gap Closers
Secondary Counters: Mana Burners, Dispellers, Anti-Running, Pure Damage, Lane Killers
Specific Counters:
Kill the Nether Ward. Doesn't matter if it doesn't affect your carry, supports cannot deal with it.
Night Stalker: Pretty well made to deal with Pugna. Night time makes pushes riskier, has very high magical burst damage, and can silence him. Also with unobstructed vision, he can also easily find the Nether Ward before fights start.
Pudge: Is a threat to him later due to high magic resist, health, and being able to easily hook Pugna during pushes.
Huskar: Very low requirements for mana, and also has massive magic resist, even decrepitly does nothing.

Dazzle
Strategic Counters:
Top Counters: Preventable Calamity, Diving Penalty, Disengage or Die
Secondary Counters: Time is not on your Side, Rotation Rotation Rotation
Database Counters:
Top Counters: Burst Damage, Silencers, Mana Burners, Pure Damage, Gap Closers
Secondary Counters: Magic Immunity, Healers, Physical Protection
Specific Counters:
Dark Seer, Leshrac, Venomancer, Gyrocopter, Undying, Warlock: Damages over time can make Shallow Grave useless for getting out of a situation alive.
Ancient Apparition: Prevents any healing from Shadow Wave, and also makes it so Shallow Grave targets are unlikely to survive.
Axe: Despite Dazzle being able to punish him from cutting, he can cut through Shallow Grave.

Leshrac
Strategic Counters:
Top Counters: Focus Target, Protect your T1 Towers, It Ends in the Lane, Divide or be Conquered
Secondary Counters: Rotation Rotation Rotation, Easy Ganks, Steal the Stack
Database Counters:
Top Counters: Magic Resistance, Magic Immunity, Mana Burners, Armor Reduction, Silencers
Secondary Counters: Anti-Running, Lane Harassers, Bashers, Healers
Specific Counters:
Wait for Edict before you Glyph your towers.
Anti-Mage: Severely reduces most of Leshrac's damage, and Mana Void punishes the great mana expenditures of Leshrac. However, Leshrac is also a pusher, so it needs to get late before this really shines.
Rubick: Has the awesome null field to lower his damage, and all his spells are good to steal, and Rubick casts them faster.
Pugna: Leshrac uses a ton of mana, Nether Ward will rip through his health.
Huskar: Handles Leshrac with ease due to massive magic resist, Life Break hurts him a lot too, as he cannot try to outrun it and it hurts his tanky self.

Dark Seer
Strategic Counters:
Top Counters: Divide or Be Conquered, Rotation Rotation Rotation, Eyes in the Jungle, Diving Penalty
Secondary Counters: Preventable Calamity, Disengage or Die, Time is not on your Side, Steal the Stack
Database Counters:
Top Counters: Silencers, Anti-Running, Pure Damage, Burst Damage, Physical Protection, Magic Immunity, AOE Damage, AOE Crowd Control, Purgers
Secondary Counters: Anti-Daggers, Mana Burners, Lane Killers, Armor Reduction
Specific Counters:
Try to throw disables and slows after Surge is casted.
Timbersaw, Queen of Pain, Storm Spirit, Anti-Mage. Queen of Pain: Have very convenient means to escape from the damage of his Ion Shell and his surged self just by being faster.
Pugna: Although not as fragile or mana intense as some int heroes, Nether Ward still hurts, and Pugna can waste all the wall illusions with Life Drain.
Ember Spirit: All the wall illusions will work against Seer with Slight of Fist with Cleave. He also easily escapes Seer's grasp.
Keeper of the Light: Blinding Light functionally disarms the illusions, and Mana Leak makes Surge ineffective as an escape skill for whoever it's targeted on.

Batrider
Strategic Counters:
Top Counters: Preventable Calamity, Steal the Stack, Diving Penalty
Secondary Counters: Rotation Rotation Rotation, Eyes in the Jungle, Focus Target
Database Counters:
Top Counters: Anti-Dagger, Anti-Running, Silencers, Burst Damage, Lane Harassers, Lane Killers
Secondary Counters: Mana Burners, Armor Reduction, Magic Resistance
Specific Counters:
Daytime. He has 1200 day vision, 33% less than every other hero except Night Stalker. Gank him in the day.
Magic Wand: Each Napalm stack is 20 mana. Think of this as a little life and mana drain each time he does it.
Lifestealer: Open Wounds spells death for Batrider, and none of his abilities can kill Lifestealer, as he'll just heal it all back.
Weaver: If he gets Linkens, there is no way for Batrider to kill him as Time Lapse goes back 5 seconds, and Weaver will destroy him. Bonus points for Aghs Weaver to be able to save any and all of his allies from the same fate.
Juggernaut: A gank can go really wrong if he uses Omnislash. Also he can make himself magic immune, which removes the slows.
Vengeful Spirit: Nether Swap can break the lasso.

Ancient Apparition
Strategic Counters:
Top Counters: Preventable Calamity, Focus Target, Divide or be Conquered, We Need Wards, Disengage or Die
Secondary Counters: Time is not on your Side, Protect your T1 Towers, It Ends in the Lane
Database Counters:
Top Counters: Gap Closers, Silencers, Lane Killers, Burst Damage, Magic Resistance
Secondary Counters: Magic Immunity, Dispellers, Lane Harassers, Swarmers
Specific Counters:
Take a non-conventional path when you are at low health. Don't want Ice blast to hit pretty much no matter what.
Storm Spirit: Can jump on and kill AA before he becomes a problem.
Clinkz: Fire beats ice, and his physical burst picks on the super squishy wizard that is ancient apparition.
Spirit Breaker: Can burst down AA quite easily in the mid-game, and the ability to track him with charge plays with his cowardly playstyle of throwing Ice Blasts and using long ranged spell and scouting skills by forcing him to fight directly.

Invoker
Strategic Counters:
Top Counters: It Ends in the Lane, Divide or be Conquered, Diving Penalty, Rotation Rotation Rotation
Secondary Counters: Protect your T1 Towers, Time is not on your Side, Focus Target
Database Counters:
Top Counters: Lane Killers, Lane Harassers, Silencers, Magic Immunity, Magic Resistance, Dispellers, Gap Closers
Secondary Counters: Healers, Anti-Invis, Mana Burners, Anti-Running, Burst Damage, Disarmers, Miss Chance, Anti-Daggers
Specific Counters:
Do not run in obvious patterns for Sunstikes.
Don't let Forge Spirits stack negative armor on you.
Pugna: He has heavy mana expenditures, so Pugna can hurt him a lot.
Outworld Devourer: Outlanes Invoker with ease, setting him behind the whole game and his ultimate drains Invoker's mana before fights start.

Outworld Devourer
Strategic Counters:
Top Counters: Easy Ganks, It Ends in the Lane, Divide or be Conquered, Preventable Calamity
Secondary Counters: Rotation Rotation Rotation, Time is not on your Side, Disengage or Die
Database Counters:
Top Counters: Silencers, Magic Immunity, Disarmers, Burst Damage, Magic Immunity Piercing Skills, Miss Chance, Bashers, Magic Resistance
Secondary Counters: Gap Closers, Swarmers Pure Damage, Lane Killers, Armor Reduction, Breakers
Specific Counters:
Nyx Assassin: Stack INT and eat up some massive scaling nukes. Also, easily ganks OD though much of the game, his burst is very high.
Pugna: Each cast of Arcane Orb is 100 mana. Each attack is 175 Nether Ward damage. His other spells have quite high costs as well.
Silencer: Can disable his orb and steal his INT to reduce the effectiveness of his ultimate. It's really bad to be playing against Silencer from behind as OD.

Shadow Demon
Strategic Counters:
Top Counters: We Need Wards, Rotation Rotation Rotation, Diving Penalty
Secondary Counters: Protect your T1 Towers, Focus Target, It Ends in the Lane, Steal the Stack
Database Counters:
Top Counters: Gap Closers, Swarmers, Silencers, Burst Damage, AOE Damage, Magic Immunity
Secondary Counters: AOE Crowd Control, Mana Burners, Lane Killers. Healers
Specific Counters:
Weaver, Ember Spirit: These heroes have a ton of mobility and can evade all of Shadow Demon's slow spells, and Purge does not harm them very much. Additionally, they can easily kill Shadow Demon before he becomes a threat.

Visage
Strategic Counters:
Top Counters: Focus Target, It Ends in the Lane, Protect your T1 Towers, Rotation Rotation Rotation
Secondary Counters: Divide or be Conquered, Diving Penalty, Disengage or Die
Database Counters:
Top Counters: Swarmers, Silencers, Magic Immunity, Anti-Running, Physical Protection, Pure Damage
Secondary Counters: Gap Closers, Magic Resistance, Armor Reduction, AOE Crowd Control, Mana Burners
Specific Counters:
Phantom Lancer: Visage lacks hard AOE damage and an easy AOE disable, so Lancer will melt his cloak in a second, with no options of kiting, and will also burn his mana immensely.
Axe: Visage's familiars attack really fast, and will stop doing damage, so getting them in Berserker's Call is a good way to kill Visage or his allies.
Drow Ranger, Sniper, Clinkz: Can kill familiars, since they attack fast and are long ranged.

Winter Wyvern
Strategic Counters:
Top Counters: Time is not on your Side, Diving Penalty, Divide or be Conquered
Secondary Counters: We Need Wards, Eyes in the Jungle, Preventable Calamity
Database Counters:
Top Counters: Pure Damage, Silencers, Magic Immunity, Burst Damage, Mana Burners, Gap Closers
Secondary Counters: Anti-Daggers, Disarmers, Lane Killers, Magic Resistance, Swarmers
Specific Counters:
Ancient Apparition: Disabling a target to heal them can be really bad if it allows for easy aim Ice Blast, which will destroy all that regen.
Mirana, Keeper of the Light, Timbersaw, Pudge, Leshrac: Disabling an ally can be really bad if there are other spells that need to be aimed.
Razor, Slark, Ursa: Values still go up, even when functionally invulnerable. These heroes will still get to use the time to become more dangerous.
Skywrath Mage: Has very long ranged spells to hit her or her allies. Healing allies will be quickly counteracted by Mystic Flare, which Winter conveniently helped aim.

Unreleased Heroes

Abyssal Underlord / Pit Lord
Strategic Counters:
Top Counters: Protect your T1 Towers, Rotation Rotation Rotation, Diving Penalty
Secondary Counters: Divide or be Conquered, We Need Wards, Focus Target, It Ends in the Lane
Database Counters:
Top Counters: Silencers, Mana Burners, Disarmers, Miss Chance, AOE Crowd Control, Lane Harassers, Magic Immunity
Secondary Counters: Magic Resistance, Bashers , Armor Reduction, Breakers, Kiters, Illusion Creators
Specific Counters:
Zeus, Spectre, Keeper of the Light, Nature's Prophet, Meepo: The strategic advantage of global team mobility can be lost if the enemies can do their own global influences.
Banishes (Euls, Outworld Devourer, Shadow Demon): If trying to save an ally using Dark Rift, this will prevent them from being saved.

Conclusion

I hope this guide has been helpful in your counterpicking and understanding game interactions. If you want, I have other guides too, which you should check out.

Thanks to:
My subs at the Watcher channel.
Tsunami643, for his great website, lovely voice, and counter series.
Sando, for his large expanse of guides on Dotafire.
Hamstertamer, for expanding my knowledge of the game and writing the countering pubstompers guide.

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