Ember Spirit/Counters
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Counters
Contents
Bad against...[edit]
- Flame Guard provides no protection against Clinkz's physical damage output.
- Lion possesses two strong disables in Earth Spike and Hex and heavy magic burst with Finger of Death which help lock him down and prevent him from escaping with Activate Fire Remnant. When getting his Blink Dagger Lion can punish Ember Spirit's overextension immediately, or initiate a fight on him with disables.
- Shadowraze can easily remove the protection from Flame Guard and kill Ember Spirit due to his low health.
- Ember Spirit is very vulnerable to physical damage from Necromastery.
- Global Silence and Last Word can prevent Ember Spirit from casting Activate Fire Remnant to escape.
- Glaives of Wisdom also provide high pure damage not negated by Flame Guard.
- Arcane Curse is also potent harassing tool in the laning stage as it's cooldown is lower than Flame Guard's.
- Storm Spirit is not only a potent Orchid Malevolence carrier, additionally, his Electric Vortex provides additional disable and Overload provides great slow and paired with Static Remnant can cut through Flame Guard fast.
- Ball Lightning not only provides great initiation upon Ember Spirit from any position anytime, but also helps dodging Sleight of Fist.
- Faceless Void is one of the best heroes against Ember Spirit, providing a lot of ways of dealing with him. Ember Spirit becomes a lot weaker if affected by Time Dilation, as he can no longer spam Sleight of Fist.
- Chronosphere is also reliable lockdown for Ember Spirit, even though it can be evaded sometimes by Activate Fire Remnant. Additionally, Void can easily negate Sleight of Fist damage with Time Walk.
- And finally, Void is a great Diffusal Blade carrier, not only is Manabreak physical damage that's not negated by Flame Guard, but it also burns Ember Spirit's mana, that won't allow him to escape even if surviving Chronosphere.
- The pure damage provided by Purification is a great addition for killing Ember Spirit, as well as a good way of saving teammates.
- Guardian Angel will temporarily save all team from Sleight of Fist physical damage, and Ember Spirit is not a hero that will get Nullifier to counter it.
- The pure damage provided by Arcane Orb is a great addition for killing Ember Spirit.
- Astral Imprisonment fully negates all magic damage of Flame Guard and Searing Chains and will temporarily save himself from Sleight of Fist physical damage, and Ember Spirit is not a hero that can counter these skills.
- Riki can not only roam to pressure Ember Spirit early but can stay potent any stage of the game because of Smoke Screen, preventing Ember Spirit from using Activate Fire Remnant.
- Using Vendetta Nyx Assassin can move closely to Ember Spirit when he's farming with his Flame Guard and use Spiked Carapace with Impale to provide reliable and long disable.
- Mana Burn is also good, as Ember Spirit relies on his limited mana pool for early-/midgame.
- Using X Marks the Spot Kunkka can prevent Ember Spirit from escaping with Activate Fire Remnant.
- Ember spirit generally will not want to build strength items late game, whereas Kunkka can easily buy a heart, combined with his +25 strength talent, and be able to take on a late game ember head on.
Others[edit]
- Disable and pure damage from Spirit Breaker's Nether Strike and Charge of Darkness can be potent skills for locking Ember Spirit down. But Ember Spirit can play around them, as his Searing Chains can stop Charge of Darkness, and Activate Fire Remnant will keep him safe. Additionally, Charge of Darkness is not fast enough and most of the time Ember Spirit will leave lane faster than Spirit Breaker gets there. Though, Spirit Breaker can still be extremely effective ganker before Ember Spirit will get his Fire Remnant, and can stay potent if getting early Shadow Blade.
- General opinion that Doom can counter Ember Spirit with his Doom is a misconception, as Doom is too slow to cast and even Blink Dagger initiation won't help getting Doom applied. Doom is still extremely effective early ganker, as his Scorched Earth and Infernal Blade damage can quickly overwhelm Flame Guard magic resistance, leaving Ember Spirit helpless. Additional skills that Doom can get from Neutral creeps can also help bully Ember Spirit early. Shadow Blade on Doom can also help, providing the only way to apply Doom on Ember Spirit.
- Invoker can be good against Ember Spirit, as his Tornado dispels Flame Guard, which is the big part of Ember Spirit's early game damage and survivability. Still, Invoker is too weak to provide his team with reliable ways of killing Ember Spirit, as he has no way of stopping Activate Fire Remnant. Though early Orchid Malevolence paired with Blink Dagger or Ghost Walk can help him deal with Ember Spirit.
- Queen of Pain can be legit for dealing with Ember Spirit, getting Orchid Malevolence, additionally, her Sonic Wave provides pure damage that helps bursting Ember Spirit down, and Shadow Strike helps slowing him. Though Queen of Pain can be punished by Ember Spirit, as his Searing Chains prevents her from getting Blink off.
Items[edit]
- Orchid Malevolence and Bloodthorn can be devastating for Ember Spirit, as silence prevents him from getting Activate Fire Remnant off. Ember Spirit is quite fragile so additional damage from these items will be very helpful. Also it will probably force Ember Spirit to get Manta Style or Black King Bar which will limit his late game damage potential.
- Abyssal Blade and Scythe of Vyse are both strong disables. Ember Spirit is probably doomed if he will make any mistakes against these items.
- Assault Cuirass and Crimson Guard - greatly decrease Ember Spirit's damage output from regular attacks and Sleight of Fist.
- Butterfly and Heaven's Halberd allow enemy heroes to become tankier against Ember Spirit because of evasion until he gets his True Strike talent.
- Satanic, Heart of Tarrasque, and Eye of Skadi are all tank items that will allow enemies survive Ember Spirit's late game AoE damage from Sleight of Fist. Additionally, Heart of Tarrasque will allow repeatedly breach Ember Spirit's highground, without committing any resources.
- Eul's Scepter of Divinity can be tactically used to lock Ember down, dispelling his Flame Guard, and being followed by another disable.
- Heaven's Halberd makes Ember Spirit physical attack temporarily 0. Especially when he has high damage.
Good against...[edit]
- Meepo is quite fragile in the early game and can be easily taken down by overwhelming Flame Guard and Searing Chains damage. Later on, Meepo is very vulnerable to Sleight of Fist damage due to Battle Fury cleave on multiple Meepos.
- Ember Spirit is evasive and can dodge close encounters with melee heroes like Chaos Knight. Ember Spirit can't be caught with slow; Flame Guard and his Sleight of Fist can bring Phantasm illusions down fast.
- Ember Spirit can deal devastating damage to illusion heroes like Terrorblade with Sleight of Fist. Terrorblade has no way of preventing Ember Spirit from getting Activate Fire Remnant off and additionally Ember Spirit's ability to fight from long range as well as his wide skill set won't give a chance for Terrorblade to get Sunder off.
- Crystal Maiden is extremely fragile and she's merely food for him. She has no real disables than can lock Ember Spirit down, all of her skill damage can be negated with Flame Guard and Most of the time magical damage from Flame Guard and Searing Chains is more than enough to bring Crystal Maiden down.
- Ember Spirit can easily deal with Nature's Call push by using his Flame Guard, and after Battle Fury purchase, Nature's Call's summons are just food for him. He also have multiple ways of escaping Sprout. additionally, Ember Spirit can break Sprout trees with Activate Fire Remnant and interrupt Teleportation with Searing Chains.
- Sleight of Fist is the natural counter to Phantom Lancer's army of illusions.
- Ember Spirit can use Sleight of Fist to dodge Shadow Strike.
- Flame Guard absorbs magical damage of Scream of Pain.
- Searing Chains prevents Queen of Pain from using Blink.
Others[edit]
- You need a hard disable or a silence to catch Ember Spirit, roots and slows should never be enough so long as he has a Remnant somewhere. As such, he can be a good pick against any line-up that lacks those disables.
- Similarly, the only disable Ember Spirit offers is the root from Searing Chains. As such, he can also be a good pick if the enemies are vulnerable to root effects.
- Mostly Ember Spirit does normal attack to creep and Sleight of Fist for enemy heroes. So Blade Mail doesn't work against him. But except when he caught by Duel or Berserker's Call. But that really rare happens because Ember Spirit mostly separates himself for Pushing or stay as backup.
- Heroes that heavily depend on illusions or summons.
- In later game True Strike talent can also devastate heroes that depend on evasion, like Windranger or Phantom Assassin.
Works well with...[edit]
- Magnus is a great addition for a team with Ember Spirit. His Empower is extremely effective, as it greatly increases Ember Spirit's farming speed, granting him buff somewhat similar to Battle Fury.
- Empower stays potent during all game, as it increases damage proportionally and its cleave stack with Battle Fury.
- Additionally, Reverse Polarity paired with Sleight of Fist is extremely effective late game combo.
- With Chakra Magic, Ember Spirit can use Sleight of Fist twice with 0 cooldown. A recipe for rampages if ever there was one.
- It also helps that Ember Spirit's spells cost a lot of mana on rather short cooldowns, so that the mana regeneration from Chakra Magic stays relevant well into the late game.
- Not exactly synergistic but a target that was Mana Leaked should either lose all of its mana or remain still and burn from Flame Guard.
- Dazzle is a great laning support and he can not only protect Ember Spirit, but also provides killing potential with his Poison Touch. Dazzle's abilitiy to make game-changing plays with his Shallow Grave, saving Ember Spirit makes them a strong pair for the whole game.
- Bad Juju also greatly amplifies Sleight of Fist damage by armor removal.
Others[edit]
- Chen's Holy Persuasion works well with Fire Remnant by bringing Ember Spirit back to base to heal, then returning him to action.
- All AoE disablers and nukers are good for Sleight of Fist.
