Hey everyone, Librarian Husky here! In this guide, I’ll break down how to counter some of the most challenging Dota 2 heroes, including Tiny, Necrophos, Death Prophet, Huskar, and Axe, giving you the strategies and picks to gain an edge in your matches.
Counters system and Tiny counters
I will list three counters for each of these heroes, and I have an honorable mention for a few of them without further ado. Hopefully, I can help you beat these heroes in pubs. There are some restrictions when it comes to drafting in your average pub. Naturally, as a support player, it will be difficult to counter-pick. Sometimes you’ll still be able to when your safe lane player naturally grieves.
“Hey, I’m not going to give the legend three safe lanes. I’m legend four. I deserve a safe lane, so I will pick faceless void first.” Then maybe you can actually get a counter-pick in. Even then, it’s pretty hard because you still don’t see the second phase; either way, you do want to understand how these matchups work. Nonetheless, you can apply how these heroes counter the other heroes, and let’s get into it. Also, I want to tell you guys that you’re looking to get to the next rank if you’ve been struggling with the solo queue.
Starting it off, we got tiny at number one; this is probably the best carry of the patch. It’s at least the most reliable carrier. I’d save the patch a great lining stage scale as well. It’s basically always good. It’s one of those heroes where you’re like, when is this hero bad? You can’t think of anything. It just doesn’t really have many issues. It’s just always well-rounded. But a couple of heroes definitely open up some weaknesses in tiny, so let’s go.
Necrophos
The first one is Necrophos. This is probably the most common counter-pick in the pro team. If you see Еiny picked, you’re likely going to see a Necro. Following up, this is a hero that’s not even necessarily very popular outside of this. We have actually been seeing it surge a bit back into the meta. I saw alliance picked it. I’ve seen tundra pick it quite a few times now.
Necro against tiny
So the hero’s coming back into the middle of it necro very simple to understand why it’s good against tiny, and let’s get into it. Well, number one heart-stopper aura percentage-based damage. Tiny gets like 4k hp at some point in the game. Even in the early game, he has like 1.8k hp, like 12 minutes in, or something stupid. He’s strength down a level 10 that sometimes you take, so Necro’s heart-stopper is very good against tiny.
Lining stage
On top of that, you out-sustain tiny in the lining stage. If there’s any problem that tiny does have, that I would say is kind of notable. He has a sustained issue in the lane, but you can deal with that by spamming south. So it’s not the end of the world, but necro honestly bullies most melee heroes that can’t burst him, and tiny can’t really burst him.
Leveling tiny
You can be annoying, and I have seen Necro die to Tiny at level 1 or level 2. Usually is actually the main time, sometimes level three. If the Necrophos go greedy and don’t, they go shroud. You get out sustained, and you’re going to kick him out of land at some point. Then in the mid-game, you’re one of the only heroes that can stand next to tiny and not die to his combo because you kind of buy defensive items.
You could buy a hood, could buy stats right raindrops, one fluffy hat if you want to go into a four staff, uh, you can buy the cloak as we talked about, you can go vessel for more hp, so on and so on, you just buy hp in general. Hence, there’s that, and then finally, reaper scythes does damage based on missing health; that’s good because tiny has a lot of health.
Lifestealer
Next up is Lifestealer. This is probably something you can actually apply to your games. I will say that there is a point in the game where Lifestealer actually can die to tiny, and that’s on the shadow blade timing, so you have to be a little bit careful, but assuming you can get over the hump where tiny can one-shot you or at least set up on you. Lifestealer dominates tiny in the late game.
This is a matchup where there’s some point in the game where tiny kind of just cannot man up to Lifestealer. I would say it’s generally when Lifestealer gets three or four items. Let’s say something like armlet, halberd, Skadi, and then make usually at that point in the game. It’s a really bad match for Tiny.
Chaos Knight
Suppose there’s any other carry as a bit of an honorable mention that I think is decent against Tiny. In that case, I think chaos knight is okay only because the long-duration stun you have can prevent the satanic at some point in the game, and you’re a hero that can chunk through his hp pool if you manage to get on top of him, and finally is winter wyvern.
Winter Wyvern
As a support, this is one of my favorite matchups in the game. It’s actually a pick we saw against the carry tiny at TI, and it’s percentage-based damage. Well, there’s more value than that, but it’s percentage-based damage. It’s a support that can actually position well against tiny. It’s very hard for Winter wyvern to die to shadow blade tiny.
It can die to blink tiny, so I think tiny can itemize in that way against wyvern, but the thing about the shadow blade is tiny. Is it’s like it’s a little bit hard to get on certain supports, especially the mobile ones and wyvern if he’s good; if you’re a good wyvern player, you can play near hills and near tree lines with a sentry, and if you hit the tiny once with your “q,” it does like a thousand damage to him.
3K HP
I’m not kidding if the tiny has like three 4k hp. It will do that much damage to it, right? It’s insane, right? So right then and there, you just have a hero of support that, with a click of a button, can enable your team actually to kill off a tiny. On top of that, the heal is quite good against tiny if someone gets a shadow-bladed combo and they’re getting ripped into, and you can often heal and kite out the initiation from tiny. And finally, winter’s curse it’s good against most carries, so I’m not going to hype it like this is the tiny counter. It’s not like particularly good against tiny. But at the end of the day, if you were if you cursed someone next to tiny, he would kill them.
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Necrophos counters
All right, next up, let’s talk about Necrophos. This is a hero that, yes, is starting to pop into the meta, especially in pubs. This is a pub dominator for sure let’s go over a couple of counters.
Batrider
Number one is Batrider. Is this matchup brutal in the early game? There is no way to live against Batrider as necrophos you can try to itemize around it with like a lotus or a soul, but even then, you can dispel the stick he wants, but he’s just going to reapply it and continue to run you down it’s not like his hp peel is low, so hard stopper does anything ghost shroud is worthless. Batrider rushes bkb, so you can’t even ultimate most of the time.
Leshrac
Kind of similar to Batrider. You don’t really have much of an answer to him, and it’s a bkb rushing heavy magic damage hero that can easily kill you no matter how far ahead. You are, and that’s kind of the big thing Necrophos will win lane, and if you don’t have a hero that directly addresses him, it can be almost impossible to kill him. Leshrac, even if Leshrac is like a thousand or two thousand net worth behind the Necrophos, he can still kill the necro, and so it kind of just counters it.
Medusa
Next up is Medusa. This is a hero I really like to pick in the lane against Necrophos can do okay against Medusa if you manage to get the lane back and have some support that can close the distance, but in general, how I see it played out is that. The Medusa can click the Necrophos because of the attack range advantage. Medusa has a much better attack range.
Medusa can kind of just like a snake the Necrophos if he kind of runs at him and then you continue to auto him so, like, you sort of just-auto the Necrophos a lot, and then it’s hard for him to really fight back or chip you down because you have a lot of hp, so scythe doesn’t really kill Medusa.
Your doesn’t really kill Medusa is fine, but Medusa also rushes Skadi in many games, which is a big problem for Necrophos. Right, you can’t move, your healing goes down the drain, and so this matchup is a very good one for me. This is a carry you can pick in the Necrophos. If you have the last pick, it feels quite good to me.
Visage
And finally, this massage has an honorable mention basically, how your grave keeper’s cloak works is a hard counter to Necrophos, like he just doesn’t really do damage to you. His ultimate can get reduced, and every “q” gets reduced, so basically, Necrophos does zero damage to Visage. And then the birds actually can clap Necrophos, you might be like, but he has ghost shroud, yeah, but the thing is visage kind of has like an infinite chase to some extent.
And then when he does go shroud, you can soul assumption him, and it does a lot of damage in the early. It’s a big problem before the hood timing on Necrophos if he even goes that. So yeah, Visage is pretty cool.
Death prophet counters
Next up is Death Prophet. This is a hero you’re not going to see too much in your average pub but the fact it has a 50 % win rate is. And it’s a hero that I think is difficult to play and a bit clunky for the average player. The winner is 50%, in my opinion, definitely means it’s very good if you spend the time to get good at it. So let’s talk about how to counter it.
Chaos knight
This is probably my favorite match-up. Well, I should say my least favorite retro because usually, I’m playing the Death prophet. I’m a big Death prophet player myself. You know, I’m just got my I understand. But the thing is, Chaos knight is good for a couple of reasons. Death prophet’s armor is mediocre just all throughout the game. It’s mediocre in the lean I think it’s for starting, which is actually not bad. It’s not terrible, but the thing is, Chaos knight can drop her down to like one armor or zero armor, and then he can actually kill her.
The thing is, a lot of heroes will go on the Death prophet, and she’ll kind of just spirit siphon them. It won’t be favorable Chaos knight does too much damage. It’s that simple. At level two, if you take your pull in your stun which you should as long as you have like a stick or a mango and you have enough mana to consistently do this, you’ll kill her like I’ve played this match quite a few times. As long as you stun them and pull them when position five is in position.
Death prophet activities
You’re gonna do too much to the Death prophet. It’s just how it goes I’ve seen this match-up a couple of times now. It’s just how it goes. In the mid-game as well, you also have a way to burst her. Generally, Death Prophet’s first few items are either bkb, paul’s, or like kaya and sange. None of these items give you armor, and so the big problem here is that if you don’t get it, your off or your bkb off before the stun. You can just get one shot as you can just get one shot. You buy phase boots for armor, but that’s it, and so your armor is like nine or ten, and it can be a big issue for DPS, so I’m a huge fan of that match-up.
Medusa
This is a hero that just buys Skadi. Death Prophet can beat Medusa and lane, and if the Medusa doesn’t hit a good Skadi timing. The Death prophet can get on top of Medusa and shred her, so be a little bit careful. About this match-up, Death prophet can actually counter Medusa depending on the circumstances.
However, in the lane, if you can keep your distance, the average Death prophet player isn’t good enough to really like abuse spirit siphon hard enough to kill you. Then if you can avoid Death prophet’s level six spike by heading into the jungle when that’s coming up, then you can be very good against this hero. Your skadi timing is the key here. Just try to really get there.
Mirana
Finally Mirana. This is kind of a cool one, but I really like this match-up for a couple of reasons. Number one, you have a way to get away from spirit siphon. That’s nice. One of the first items Mirana’s generally gonna rush is a spirit vessel that’s obviously a very hard counter to the superior siphons, so I love that as well.
Finally, one thing that Death prophet really doesn’t like is hard stunts in general; getting chain stun is kind of a problem for Death prophet because she’s one of those heroes where if you like semi-commit on her, she’s basically always going to win the engagement because she’ll turn it around. If you only do half of her health, it’s not like it’s good because you chipped her a bit. She’s just going to turn on you, right she’s going to heal through it.
Sand king stunned
However, if Sand King is stunned into an arrow and dies from a full well, you know no hero likes dying from full, but she rushes bkb and soul. These are the items against chain stun. She can go like kaya and sange, which is why this hero is good she has options. But the thing is, it is really nice to have that hard stun to at least force her to buy something like a sange which she doesn’t always want to buy, and so I’m a huge fan of Miranda. It’s just like good overall, a solid match-up.
Huskar Counters
Next up is Huskar. Huskar is a man. The zero gets last picked Huskar right now is so sad if you’re like a tight under offlane and some guy picks like last picked Huskar. It’s so gross it’s nasty. It really is nasty, but all right, let’s talk about it. So the first one I have to put it it’s so simple.
Ancient Apparition
It’s an Ancient Apparition. If there’s any match-up, it’s like most counter match-ups, and dota is pretty playable. Most of the time, you can like play the game. It’s usually like even people are like feel against earthshaker like it’s not even that bad, right it’s not Huskar is unplayable.
It just is you can’t play the game and don’t tell me, but the speed I have a sange and Yasha heart build on Huskar, that’s actually a coward because I’m on full hp. It’s like, okay, you’re going to sit on full hp. Really does that work? You know how your passive works. Next up is Necrophos; even though he does have magic resist now, Huskar just sits at too low of a hp where the magic resists isn’t going to save him from Scythe, so Ghoshrad keeps you alive.
Axe
Next up is Axe. Honestly, Axe Blademail is just usually good enough. A blink Blademail call is usually good enough to kill Huskar because the Blademail reflects physical damage, which goes through the passive the magic resist, spin is pure, and then your ultimate does damage based on like if they’re at a certain hp range, it just kills them it doesn’t there are no resistances right.
And so yeah, it’s one of those match-ups where the damage types just really are in axis favor, and on top of that, it’s something that goes through bkb as well Huskar is pretty reliant on his bkb’s timing, and so yeah if you can hit your timings on Axe. You can get your blink Blademail, and then into a bkb, you’re going to be able to deal with the Huskar reliably, and so that’s definitely a solid match-up. The lane can be hard, though, so you just gotta be careful about the delay, and that’s all.
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Shadow Demon
Shadow demon basically has three breaks when he gets Axe so yeah, on top of that, one thing about Shadow demon as well as the copies you can make of Huskar if you put them under are actually really really strong, and often Huskar will die to that.
Axe Counters
Finally, last but not least, let’s talk about Axe. Can you guys believe that? The axe is the highest winner, a hero on dotabuff right now. It’s actually kind of crazy to me. I genuinely cannot believe it why because I don’t know why he’s the highest-winner hero. I don’t think the buffs or changes he got were even buffs or that good, so I don’t know why he’s that high of a win rate. If you guys know if there’s some bug or maybe it’s the shard, that is good.
Awesome shard
Actually, Shard is pretty cool. At the end of the day, I don’t know why he’s so high, but let’s talk about it because maybe he’s going to be the upcoming meta hero number one is tiny. This is a hero that just does not lose lane to Axe. Axe can’t really chase him down. You can always toss the Axe away. Even blink Blademail isn’t really that good against tiny because tiny doesn’t really like it. He doesn’t do damage in that way.
Shard high-hp
You know, he has a very high hp pull, but he generally kills people by like kind of duking them and then hitting them like four or five times. Axe, just you’re not the Blademail isn’t going to do that much to the tiny it’s really how it is. On top of that tiny, he has established his talent, so the call is not good to call his counter by status if this call is also countered, and Lifesteal also counters Blademail. Tiny loves buying Satanic.
It’s usually his third or fourth item, so Basically, everything about tiny is just kind of solid against Axe. Even avalanche is a big problem. If you blink in and you get an avalanche, it’s an issue toss is an instant disable against a call avalanche is an instant disable against the call. So there’s like multiple ways to prevent the Blink call, so it’s just bad. Like I’ve seen this match-up a couple of times, it doesn’t really go well for Axe most of the time.
Venomancer
Next up is Venomancer. If you are usually not going to be in the lane of the act, I guess he could be. You could even pick it as a supporter. It’s pretty good and even has support against it. That the thing here is that having a hero that can cancel blinks is really good against Axe, as the plague words make it miserable for Axe to blink in. So that’s one thing, right?
The vision game of Venomancer against any blink initiator is good, so there’s that; then you rush the spirit vessel, like most games as Venomancer. This is very good against the high hp pool of Axe. It kind of just shreds him. And then Axe can’t, really. Call you like can buy a eul’s if you see him coming you can re-use them you can use yourself you can go kaya and sange to get the status resistant against the call Blademail doesn’t do because you’re all tick damaged.
Matching up with Axe
So it’s like a miserable match-up. Axe does not want to buy a pipe as a core. You might be like, but speed; I buy pipe on Axe. That’s where 3k, bro. I hate to break it to you. Its Axe needs a bkb and a force staff. He needs to be able to engage and disengage. He’s not like some front-line. Core, it’s not what he does. His kit doesn’t really allow him to build that. And so Venomancer, it just destroys him. It’s a horrendous match-up. There’s nothing good about it, like there’s nothing in that match-up that goes Axe’s way. It’s just bad.
Necrophos
Next up is necro. It’s kind of the same thing as Venomancer here. The call doesn’t do anything Blademail doesn’t do anything you can’t. At least you don’t get your bling canceled but like once again. You can buy eul’s see counter the Blademail call against Axe. He can save your teammates.
You can go force staff to save your teammates. You know yours does a lot of damage to him because of his percentage-based damage, so it’s Scythe. It’s basically the same thing as veto, just without a blink castle which is why I’d say Venomancer’s a little bit better, but you know both these matches are just bad frags.
Undying
And finally is Undying. This is one that beats Axe in the lane, so decay kind of just allows you to clap the accent lane. You know, strength hero decay Axe loses damage you just run them down. Spin isn’t good enough at level one battle longer is actually a decent answer to Undying. I will say something like Skywrath, Axe can kind of deal with undying a little you’re not going to have a good lane, but you’ll do all right.
But, the big thing here is the tombstone and the flesh golem. It’s one of those supports where if you call him, you’re not going to kill him. What I mean is if the Undying gets a flesh golem, he sees you coming, it’s a great response, right you let’s see you see an Axe coming you click flesh golem it’s like all right if he calls you, and you have like 1800 hp 2k hp he’s not going to be able to kill you alone Axe doesn’t kill people like that right. That’s not how it works.
Creep wave
Even if he calls you in a creep wave, he’s probably not going to be able to call you. Then when he calls you, you hit him. Flesh golem, that’s how your ultimate works are good when you hit people, so like, this match-up just inherently is bad for Axe because, like, he forces you to hit him, and you want to hit him. And then Axe blinks in you call the undying he hits you can’t move any tombstones.
You can’t move. What did I say earlier about Axe? You need to be able to disengage. You’re not going to be able to disengage and get off two sets of calls, so yeah, this match-up is just hot trash. It’s not a good lane. The mid-game is bad. The tombstone zombies cancel your blink if you’re not careful, especially in the nighttime. And so yeah, this match-up is also horrendous, but alright.
Thank you for reading this short (haha) guide. My name is Librarian Husky – your information provider. Please check our Dota 2 Guides main mage for more useful articles. Cya!
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