Hey everyone, Librarian Husky here! In this guide, I’ll walk you through the weaknesses of Brewmaster, Bristleback, Broodmother, Clinkz, Crystal Maiden, and Dark Seer, and how to effectively counter them in your Dota 2 matches.

Brewmaster

Six heroes at a time, in alphabetical order, and I want to tell you what are the downsides of these heroes how do you punish certain heroes when you see them on the enemy team? I think a lot of players really do know about their own heroes; they know about their own spikes, and they don’t know how to look at the enemy team and say, they have a gap where they have a gap in their catch when it comes to split pushing, they can’t Roshan, they can’t deal with tower sieges, they have long cooldowns.

You have to be able to do these things to get to the next level. I’m going to help you learn about that. Starting off with Brewmaster. This is a very unconventional off-leaner, and he’s unconventional because he has a lot of downsides and a lot of weaknesses. However, in the right game, he is a very powerful hero, but let’s talk about why on average, this hero can struggle.

Weekly early laning stage

Number one is a WEEK EARLY LANING STAGE. Thunderclap and Kinnebrew are not horrible abilities, but Brew has a very bad mana pool and is a bit inconvenient to use. They’re not really low cooldowns. The range is odd on both. Cinder Brew requires another ability to be useful. And so essentially, it’s a very odd toolkit early on into the lane.

Even if you take his passive, even those are a little bit meh early on into the lane. On top of that, he is two base armor, so Brew too many of these right-click carries your trolls. Your drugs can really struggle in the lane. So the weak early laning is a big downside to Brew. And in particular, it’s a big downside to Brew because the hero does not farm that quickly.

Thunderclap & Cinder Brew

Yeah, if they’re maxed out, Thunderclap and Cinder Brew do clear a pretty solid creep wave, but he doesn’t have a good way to farm neutral camps like something such as an Axe or a Timber or anything of the sort. What often can happen in a pro game is you can kill him a lot early on.

You can put the pressure to pick your lane dominators against him. Then really shut him down, and he does not have a good way to come back into the game. The next thing is he has a long ULTIMATE CD EARLY. Something that pro players actually do that you guys can implement.

Bew ultimate bait

Are they’ll actually try to force the brutal they are baited? In fact, they’ll even sometimes offer suicide support to try to bait out the Brew ultimate. It’s in a 140-second cooldown at level 1 that’s obviously insanely long, and the hero without a Primal Split is pretty underwhelming. I think we can all agree on that. If you buy a Spirit Vessel, you can still do a decent amount of damage, and I actually really like that build on Brew for that reason.

You’re not a complete bot when you don’t have primal split, but the thing is, no matter what build you go, you’re gonna have the downtime on Primal Split, it’s just really long, and unlike something like tide or Enigma, honestly, Brew is just bad without it in the early game. And as a result, you can bait out the spell.

Bane support

Now, what do you do when you beat it out? Let’s say you’re a support, and you’re a Bane, and you run up to him, and he kills you with it. Tell your team to take the mid-tier one. Use this to your advantage. The enemy team will basically be lacking a hero, and you can take advantage of this really long cooldown early by getting the mid-tower. That should be the main objective you look for in Primal Split.

Brew lacks catch on the sidelines

The final thing is BREW LACKS CATCH IN THE SIDELINES. a lot of offlane heroes are your stun heroes. Your Tidehunters, your Mars, your Centaurs, and even something like an Underlord are they’re all heroes that can pick people off on the sidelines and help their team accomplish that.

Brew doesn’t really do that at all. You don’t really want to use Primal Split for that reason. You can, but you can’t cancel a BKBTP. You can’t stun someone. Obviously, if you try to rock throw, that doesn’t do that much. When you’re against Brewmaster – pushing in the waves and avoiding his Primal Split when your team is losing is a really good idea.

Zero does not like being split up, he does not like having to use his ultimate for pick-offs, and he’s not that good at getting pick-offs, so you can kind of see the gist here. Make him use his ultimate for pick-offs, and then you can take a team fights off of that.

Bristleback

Next up is Bristleback. The first issue of Bristle is HE’S A VERY LOW ARMOR HERO. Most Bristleback builds don’t really get a lot of extra armor on Bristle until much later on in the game. In fact, Bristle will often have like six armor going into the mid-game. I’m not kidding.

If you buy a Medallion, and you have another physical damage or armor-reducing hero. Bristle will melt. Really even to auto-attacks:

• This sounds kind of crazy, but it really is the case, especially if the enemy does not go Vanguard, an item built that is Eternal Shroud. If you buy Eternal Shroud’s first item, you will be eternally 3k.
• You’ll most likely be 2k. But the hero’s armor really struggles, and so that’s one thing to note.

Your average pop player will also not prioritize it. In fact, the most common Bristle build is Vanguard. There’s no armor there. You don’t buy Phase Boots, maybe it’s a reason for people to actually consider Phase Boots on the hero, but he doesn’t have armor. He has very bad armor, even if he has Vanguard to inherently block.

Bristle is countered by silence

The next is the hero pretty good at chasing people at very high movement speed being a 20% base slow means he’s good at chasing, but YOU CAN TP AWAY FROM HIM at all times in the game, similar to Bloodseeker if you’re playing support he starts to run at you, or Bloodseeker starts running you naturally should TP away so just keep that in mind. BRISTLE IS COUNTERED BY SILENCES.

The final thing that’s kind of cool is Silences. or well, there’s one more thing I’ll cover after silences. Silences are a really interesting one against Bristle as a hard counter now. You might be like, really silences. is that really that good? Because you might be thinking he’s an auto-attack hero. Sure, he’s not going to you or quilling you, but he still can auto-attack. You, and that’s true he can.

• So it’s not like if you’re playing Skywrath and he’s already on like, let’s see, he’s already on top of you with six war pass tax, you’re dead.
• But if he doesn’t have a lot of stacks built up. You have the Ancient Seal talent, let’s say on Skywrath, and you can silence him.
• He’s going to be like 380-movement speed max because he has no warpath stacks. He’s going to hit for like 150.
• The hero, actually funny enough, is pretty pathetic when he gets like consistently silenced. Any hero likes your DPS, which is why DB is so good against him. DB just Shreds Bristle. These silences are pretty cool. It’s just something to keep in mind. It is actually a hard counter.

And finally, Silver Edge. You just break them. It’s just good on medicare. If you’re playing something like Medusa or Luna, consider switching it up. It is actually good. I would recommend it if you can.

Broodmother

Next up is Broodmother. Getting into Angie heroes, we’re gonna cover two strengths two algae are doing. Let’s go into the Angie. Here we got, Broodmother. The first thing about Brood is SHE FALLS OFF hard AFTER A FEW EARLY GAME GANKS. Basically, if you can avoid feeding to her original Orchid timing that most Broods generally go, at least that I’ve been seeing. If you can avoid feeding to that, or even kill her before it and you delay her BKB. the hero will generally just feed in the first couple of mid-game team fights. Essentially Smoke ganking Broodmother, if you have the heroes to do it, is very useful.

It’s just like if you’re playing against Brood. It’s your best bet.

• Eul’s is pretty good as well, but that’s expensive. Glimmer Cape, the problem here is Brood can definitely afford to buy Dust.
• So Ghost Scepter is just a cheap item on a lot of heroes that you can buy to avoid dying the Brood. And the final one, BROODMOTHER, HAS THE 1vs9 DILEMMA.
• Broodmother often is a 1vs9 hero, whether that’s in the mid-lane or the offlane. And a big issue with Brood is her Webs.

It’s generally extremely obvious where the Broodmother is going to play. All it takes is one hillward to make sure she can’t climb over a cliff and avoid your gank to kill her, and you can often kill her two or three times. If you do it back to back and she can’t build up spiders. The hero becomes very useless very quickly. The next thing is Ghost Scepter. I don’t really have too much to say here.

Aways from Webs

Suppose you force fights away from her Webs. The enemy team is often going to have a dilemma. If you’ve already shut down the Brood, and then you fight away from her Webs. Brood accomplishes nothing. What do I mean by this? If you pick off Brood and kill off her spiders and then proceed to play away from her Webs – it completely griefs the enemy team because not only is it a 4vs5 for when Brood is dead, but even when Brood respawns. She has to spend 30 seconds to a minute re-gathering spiders.

Putting pressure on the map

Playing the same part of the map that you’ve just left and not putting any pressure on the map. Brood basically has big downtimes, and you should use those downtimes, not necessarily to continue sitting in the area but to get to the opposite side of the map, which you can then Smoke to you could Smoke to it, you could run to it, you could go mid whatever it is and just go away from the Brood. If she cannot connect due to a lack of webs, or if she has to grieve all of her Web patterns – just to get from the bottom to the enemy triangle that’s a big win as well.

Clinkz

Next up is Clinkz. This hero feeds in the lane. It’s like zero movement speed. It’s a ranged hero with low hp. I think its armor isn’t that good. It’s like just killing him in the lane. Just if he takes in this, buy some Dust, and he’ll run at 200 movement speed; just kill him; please run at this hero; in general, the key to beating Clinkz is shutting him down early. It’s here’s how Clinkz works.

The hero just feeds early on. And finally, one thing to consider as well is like KEEPING TRACK OF HIS ULTIMATE CD. The spell generally has pretty good up the time.

• It’s a 60-second duration.
• It is an 80-second cooldown at level one. If you can time when it’s going to run out – you can kill him so easily.
• I kind of talked about a similar idea with Batrider, where there’s this like 25-second gap where he has no Firefly, and heroes are just like really easy to kill in that duration. It’s the same thing with Clinkz in the early game.
• If you can manage to scout out this downtime, that often will last for 25 to 30 seconds because he’s often not gonna need to creep sometimes, he will. If you can pick him off inthis duration, keep track because you can ping out.

If you don’t run at him with two heroes at the same time and you try to play a 1vs1, he’ll actually chip you down pretty effectively with searing arrows. If you run at him with two heroes at the same time – he can never fight back. He doesn’t have abilities to do that. It’s a chip hero. If you don’t run at her at the same time – she will eventually win the trades. CLINKZ DIES TO SMOKE GANKS IN THE EARLY GAME. It’s true. If he tries to invisibility away and you Dust him. once again, he’s very slow and easy to kill. Especially pre-Death Pact.

How long has it’s lasting? If you just right-click on him, you can see when it’s going to end. You can keep track of that and then gank him on it. It’s something that’s really cool to do, it’s quite advanced, but I did want to note it to you.

Crystal Maiden

Then finally, your ultimate is just like it’s good in the right situations. Basically, CM is one of those heroes who pre-BKB and pre-all these defensive items. She’s actually really strong. Suppose you get off the right ultimate when they don’t have BKBs or their defensive items or abilities up. She’s also really strong. But the problem is there’s just too many, like you know, there’s too many gaps here. She’s good early on, but then, like just the weight-out items, and before she’s useful, it’s like she just has a lot of downsides.

Next up is Crystal Maiden. Honestly, this hero’s kind of well-rounded, but it does have a couple of major flaws. The first is it’s generally considered WEAK IN THE MID AND LATE GAME compared to other heroes.

• Suppose you compare CM to something like a Hoodwink or something like a Winter Wyvern.
• The utility of Crystal Maiden in the late game is kind of mad. You have a completely worthless ability. Your mana regen is not winning team fights. Now that’s obviously not the goal of the spell. It’s to help people farm more which can win team fights, but the point is if CM doesn’t get off to a good start and her team is even.
• The hero’s abilities are kind of mad. Her ultimate does a ton of damage, her Nova does a ton of damage, and Frostbite does a ton of damage.
• The problem is the cast of Frostbite is horrible. You better hope you can get in range of the right heroes, and then when you get in range of Frostbite, those heroes. You better hope you don’t die as a result. Then it can be purged. Frostbite is not a hard stun.
• You can BKB it off. You can Lotus it off. You can Eul’s it off. You can just get away from it. The same thing with her, Nova. You can just get rid of the slow if you have dispelled, and you can see just BKB.

She can’t really save teammates from ganks. She isn’t really a great pick-off inside lanes compared to other supports, and the hero definitely has some major flaws. She’s also not a great plus one for ganks. What I mean by that is like, let’s save a Hoodwink or a Snapfire. If a storm jumps someone, you have a long-range follow-up. CM kind of has to get really close to help. And that can cause you to lose kills. This is a downside of CM, and you might be like, how do I punish this then? Well, basically, just try to get to the mid-late game if you don’t lose the lane that hard to this hero. She’s a really good lady. She’s really good at learning.

Lotus Orb

Next up is Lotus Orb. I mentioned it earlier, but you can dispel Crystal Nova’s attack speed at movement speeds low, which is the main value of this hero in the mid to late game. CM’s not that good anymore. That’s all, I have to say there. and finally. I kind of mentioned it earlier, but I’ll just quickly gloss over it. CM IS NOT REALLY GOOD at picking people off IN SIDELINE GANKS. You might be like speed. You say this a lot. That’s because it’s really important to note.

Something like a Bane and a Lion, I would not say this about those heroes. Those heroes, you need to be afraid as hell. that if you go to a side lane, you will get controlled for 8 to 10 seconds. That is not good. CM doesn’t really threaten. You can easily get your BKB off, your Force Staff, your Eul’s, of your abilities off. It’s not a problem. Split pushing against CM – very effective.

Dark Seer

Finally is Dark Seer. The first one purges. Just keep this. You can dispel his Surge, and he can dispel his ion shells. That’s obviously pretty freaking useful. The next one is that he provides little to NO CATCH AGAINST MOBILITY heroes. In general, this hero isn’t necessarily bad against like spirits because he can buy stuff like Mekansm and Pipe.

We kind of covered this with Brew, but you’ll see a lot of dota is like understanding how similar heroes are, and understanding that certain plays work against a particular pool of dota heroes, and like Dark Seer and Brewmaster are actually pretty similar, where both heroes have a weak early laning stage-like.

• Honestly, Dark Seer’s Shells are kind of mad. They cost a lot of mana at level 1, and they’re not that great. If you can get rid of them in particular, they’re horrible.
• This hero also has to sustain issues naturally in order to trade. It has to get right next to its opponent, which puts him out of position and makes him take a lot of damage from creeps or heroes.
• The hero has sustained issues in the lane.

Which can limit those heroes’ damage output, but he definitely does not control them. His Shard does technically give you a stun, but you have to spend 3.4k gold to make that useful, so you have a Blink in the Shard. Even more, it’s like 3.6k gold, so it’s not really that effective in that regard. he definitely is lacking a catch hero, which once again allows you to push your limits.

Dark seer details

He has to be careful about that. DARK SEER CAN’T PLAY AGAINST HIS COUNTER MATCH-UPS in dota. Dark Seer is one of those heroes where if it gets counter-picked in the lane. It’s the same thing with Brew, but for instance, if Dark Seer has to play against the Lone Druid in the lane. That match-up is so awful. It’s so bad the Dark Seer will end up being like level four to the seven of the Lone Druid because you just can’t ever pressure the Lone Druid in that match-up like there’s just no way. Right if you run it in, he fears.

If you chip him down with the Shells, he just heals up because of his passive. Something like Huskar. With his magic resistance, he just can burn down the creep that you Shell. You can’t ever really walk up to him. Even if you do, he can push you away with his Q. It’s like there are some match-ups where Dark Seer just gets chipped down and fed. And then, even in the mid-game, Dark Seer provides very little if nothing against these heroes. That can be the Dark Seer dilemma.

Lone Druid

Like something like Lone Druid, what is he going to do to Lone Druid? Make a Lone Druid copy. Is that what you’re going to do? Are you going to make a Clinkz copy to counter the Clinkz? You’re going to lose the lane to these heroes and then provide nothing against them. At least if like Mars loses the lanes to these heroes, he’s like a stun. It’s like me, but I have a normal punch, Blink Dagger.

It’s a two-second stun or whatever don’t know. It’s like, okay, great. It comes online at, you know, minute 23. Matt earliest, by the way. That’s if you’re rushing it, which is questionable. he has some really bad match-ups where the hero just doesn’t do anything. On top of that, in terms of bad match-ups. If this hero falls behind, it requires a good amount of space to come back online because you need a ton of XP to make this hero feel good.

Surge

At one point in Surge, it does not feel good. Low points in Shell feel horrendous. Low points in Vacuum, the ability is so small. Essentially this hero needs a lot of space and a lot of levels if it falls behind because of some of these bad lanes and then doesn’t have good teammates to show it’s GG.

If you pick Dark Seer and your mid laner is like Sniper, and your safe leaner is Drow, and you lose your lane, you’re probably gonna lose the game. I hope you were good at shelling side lanes because that is your only chance of winning. Thank you for reading. I hope this information will be helpful to you. Please check our Dota 2 Guides, to learn even more! It was Librarian Husky! Cya!

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