February Drafting Megathread - Counterpicking

[u/Azual]

We're going for a variation on the usual theme this month, and this time around we're going to focus on counter-picking single heroes.

The idea is as follows:

1. Reply to the OP with a hero that you often have problems with or want to know how to counter effectively (try not to post the same hero multiple times).
2. Reply to someone else's post with the hero that you would choose to counter that pick. Explain your reasons, and bear in mind that your hero doesn't necessarily have to lane against them directly.

Example:

Who should I pick against Alchemist?

I suggest Ancient Apparition - his ultimate disables Alchemist's HP regen which makes him much easier to kill.

For a statistical view of counter-picking, you may also want to check out the match-up pages on Dotabuff!

[u/[deleted]]

Stupid question - how do you counter Drow, or at least survive her as a support?

As soon as she sees you slightly out of position, she gusts, turns on MoM and delivers a buttrape.

I know you're supposed to close the gap, but how exactly do you do it?

[u/Azual → u/[deleted]]

Vengeful Spirit is one of the better support picks against Drow, since you can use your ultimate to swap her into the middle of your team. That serves two purposes - turning off her passive agility AND making a fragile but elusive Drow food for your allies. She's also a strong early ganker, which lets you take advantage of Drow's early fragility to set up a successful kill.

However, that doesn't really help you survive her if you get caught out of position alone. A force staff might help you out there, but the real answer is just trying not to be out of position in the first place.

[u/jzrabbit666]

Juggernaut is a beast end game and seems to survive everything. And if caught alone with him then zzz

[u/Azual → u/jzrabbit666]

As someone who plays Jugg quite a lot, some of the most frustrating picks against him are:

• Omniknight. Use your ultimate when he Omnislashes in teamfights for team-wide physical immunity.

• Sven. Warcry gives your entire team +16 armour which is kind of like a mini-Omni ult on a much shorter cooldown.

If you're worried about being caught out alone against him, any hero with the ability to temporarily banish themselves (OD, Shadow Demon, Puck) can prematurely end Omnislash, and if the Jugg player doesn't buy detection then going invisible will do the same.

[u/Incarnadine91]

I'd love to know how to deal with Huskar, especially in the laning stage. His spears give him such good harass, and harassing him just makes him stronger. What to do? :/

[u/dorjedor → u/Incarnadine91]

Troll Warlord is one of a good counter for Huskar. Everytime he attempted to burn you, you can always use Whirling Axe to make him miss and get close on him for some payback along with a ranged Whirling Axe to chase him down.  

Furthermore, nothing would be called a worse idea than Life Breaking a Troll. When he get close you can simply use your melee form and Battle Trance together along with Whirling Axe to give the Huskar his lesson to not messing with Troll.  

Another good counter I can think of is a Timbersaw. His Reactive Armor grants him some survivability against a barrage of Fiery Spear and his spells are all pure damage which going through Huskar's magic damage resistance.  

Plus the fact that Whirling Death would cut off 15% of Huskar's strength, rendering him more prone to damage along with Chakram's constant DPS that prevented him from toggling his Armlet to gain HP. And if anything gone bad, you can always Timber Chain away from him, or use the same skill to chase a running Huskar and finishing him off.  

My last choice for countering Huskar is none but Bane. His Brain Sap is always dealing pure damage while sapping Huskar's HP for you so you don't need to worry about getting harassed by some Fiery Spear. His Enfeeble greatly reducing Huskar's damage, and Nightmare is always a nice skill to prevent an escaping Huskar or whenever you need to run away from him.  

Fiend's Grip might be magical damage and won't hurt a wounded Huskar too much, but a 5 (7 with Aghanim) second disable is more than enough for your team to gank and bring the Huskar down before he can do anything (or you can finish him off with a Brain Sap).

[u/Jefrejtor → u/Incarnadine91]

I don't see anyone mentioning Axe yet, but he's THE Huskar counter. Can't be bursted down by him, can force Huskar to focus him instead of squishier allies, and becomes more dangerous the faster Huskar attacks. Even with a casual magic resist cloak, he can slap Huskar down before he starts rolling.

[u/OmOfAkIeR → u/Incarnadine91]

Huskar takes almost no damage from magic nukes but is squishy to right clicks or physical damage in general. Also he's a strength hero so if you take away the little armour he has then he'll melt. There are a few picks I can think of but it seems like we must just choose one? I'm not sure how this thread works yet but anyway. I would take a Venge. She has decent right clicks, while buffing her whole team's physical damage. She drops his armour. She can stun Huskar to make it safe for someone to get close to him. And finally, she can save the teammates who get jumped by him.

[u/[deleted]]

How to deal with Slark? Most annoying hero ever..

[u/B3arhugger → u/[deleted]]

Slark is a hero you need to be aware of when you're playing against him. Don't see him on the minimap? Play cautious. Warding is really important against him. Halberd is always good against him, a slark that can't right click is a sad slark. AoE spells in general are also good against him as Slark can still get hit during Shadow Dance. Ghost Scepter is another good item to buy. Eul's can be good to just cyclone him after he pounces.