Lifestealer/Counters

Play “Many hands make light work.”

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Hero

Strategy

Counters

Equipment

Gear

Responses

Sounds

Lore

Old Abilities

Changelogs

Bad against...

Ancient Apparition

• Ice Blast prevents Lifestealer from lifestealing and healing with Infest in fights.

Bane

• Enfeeble cannot be purged off by Rage.
• Fiend's Grip can disable Lifestealer through Rage.

Beastmaster

• Call of the Wild: Boar slows Lifestealer's movement and attack speed through Rage.
• Primal Roar pierces Rage and can disable Lifestealer in fights.

Chaos Knight

• Reality Rifts armor reduction is very strong against Lifestealer who mainly depends on his Rage to survive.
• Phantasm is very strong against Lifestealer, as he has no way of killing the illusions.

Luna

• Although he can avoid Eclipse with Rage and Infest, Luna's physical damage can be enough to deal with him.
• Manta Style is a common pick on Luna, which can help her dispel Open Wounds, and in addition, Lifestealer is not good against illusions created by Manta Style.

Phantom Lancer

• Doppelganger can be used to dispel Open Wounds
• Lifestealer has no way of dealing with Phantom Lancer's illusions.

Slark

• Dark Pact can be used to remove Open Wounds.
• Shadow Dance allows Slark to attack Lifestealer for its duration without any way for Lifestealer to fight back.
• Slark commonly buys a Silver Edge, which can break Lifestealer's Feast, severely diminishing his damage output and lifesteal.

Ursa

• Lifestealer can't fight Ursa in any stage of the game because of his high physical damage with Fury Swipes and Overpower.

Weaver

• The Swarm is not blocked by Rage and can be used to lower Lifestealer's already low armor making him vulnerable to physical damage.
• Shukuchi renders the Open Wounds slow pretty useless, as it gives Weaver maximum movement speed, allowing him escape or kite around Lifestealer.

Others

• Heroes with high physical damage ( Bounty Hunter, Bristleback, Clinkz, Luna, Shadow Fiend, Slardar, …)
• Heroes with illusions ( Chaos Knight, Naga Siren, Phantom Lancer, …)
• Dragon Knight is a great Hero against physical damage and is also a Strength Hero (naturally able to withstand a lot of damage). Due to Lifestealer's damage being nearly 100% physical, he might struggle to take him down.
• Feast damage seems great against high HP Heroes like Dragon Knight, but this one has high armor, and Feast deals physical damage.
• Visage's Familiars can kite and hurt Lifestealer badly.

Items

• Hand of Midas can kill creep which Lifestealer infested.
• Heaven's Halberd disarms and increases the wielder's evasion, extremely useful against auto attack Heroes, just like Lifestealer.
• Medallion of Courage, Blight Stone, Desolator and others armor reduction items weakens Lifestealer even more.
• Solar Crest gets a special mention as it offers evasion plus armor reduction.
• Manta Style provides escape and illusions, which Lifestealer has troubles.

Good against...

Clockwerk

• If a Clockwerk should be foolish enough to trap you inside his Power Cogs, turn on Rage and Open Wounds and teach him a lesson.
• You can easily bait a Clockwerk to hook your fragile support by hiding inside him too, turning the gank around. Be mindful of how many friends he brought with him.

Lion

• Focusing him is the best choice you can make, as Lion is a bored Hero in a fight/gank while being squish and lacking escapes. Usually you can kill him in 4 or 5 hits.
• Cast Rage and Open Wounds on him, as none of his disables pierces spell immunity and he lacks escapes, and go kill him.

Phoenix

• Keep your Rage to kill the Supernova. Don't try to kill him before as he could be trying to bait you to waste your ability, and you have no way of chasing once he dives away.

Pudge

• Pudge has a high Strength gain and his HP is increased step by step by gaining stacks by Flesh Heap, which Feast greatly counters this point.

Spectre

• Spectral Dagger, Desolate and Dispersion damage/debuffs don't pierce spell immunity from Rage.
• Radiance and Diffusal Blade also don't pierce spell immunity.
• Unlike other escape mechanisms, Infest cannot be countered by Haunt.
• Spectre's tankiness from Dispersion means that Lifestealer will have high bonus damage from Feast for longer.

Sven

• Sven's high strength and lack of mobility apart for Warcry makes him a prime target during the early stages of the game when his escape ability lies in his stun, which can be dodged by a well timed Rage. Be careful in later stages of the match after Sven gets his Black King Bar and lifesteal items as he will be able to trade blows quite effectively.

Techies

• All of Techies' damage is magical, making it useless against Rage, also the CC effects from Stasis Trap and Blast Off don't pierce Rage.
  • Usually teams have a hard time pushing highground against Techies, but Lifestealer can just pop Rage and walk uphill without fear of Techies.

Tinker

• Lifestealer's Rage makes him immune to all of Tinker's damage and debuffs.
• Lifestealer can infest any mobile hero (teams usually pick one against Tinker) and make sure Tinker dies if he is caught.

Others

• Nyx Assassin abilities, except Vendetta, can't penetrate Rage. Also, as a Hero who doesn't build Black King Bar or Linken's Sphere, he can be easily open wounded.
• Lina's abilities except Upgraded Laguna Blade can be prevented by spell immunity. You can also target her as your victim.
• Heroes lacking escapes will fare badly against Lifestealer: Drow Ranger, Skywrath Mage, Leshrac, Huskar and others.
• Gankers should play cautiously when doing their job, as their victim might be infested.

Works well with...

Clockwerk

• Clockwerk is a good ally to Infest. Wait until your ally has trapped an opponent inside his Power Cogs to pop out and make an easy kill.
• He also provides good initiation which Lifestealer may lack with Hookshot.

Storm Spirit

• Like many others, Storm Spirit is a great ally to infest as he provides a perfect gap closer with Ball Lightning and a follow up disable with Electric Vortex.

Spirit Breaker

• Like many others, Spirit Breaker is a great ally to infest as he provides a perfect gap closer with Charge of Darkness and a follow up disable with Nether Strike.

Pudge

• An allied pudge with Rot turned on is a good target to Assimilate giving an area slow and DPS while assimilated. Additionally, targets slowed with Open Wounds are also easier targets for Pudge to Meat Hook.

Riki

• If infested, riki is great for traversing the map quickly and undetected, he is also able to close the gap between lifestealer and his target as well as slow them with Smoke Bomb, which if coupled with lifestealer's Open Wounds will grant a 100% slow making the kill exponentially easier

Others

• Any ally with a Blink Dagger is a pretty good choice to Infest. This also includes Queen of Pain and Anti-Mage
• In the rare case that no ally provides you with any mobility whatsoever, you may want to build your own Blink Dagger and perhaps a Sange and Yasha or Phase Boots to chase.
• If Lifestealer buys an Aghanim's Scepter, he can Assimilate Pudge with Rot enabled while Lifestealer infests Riki, making for a powerful way of killing the whole enemy team. Items recommended for this strategy include Assault Cuirass and Radiance for Lifestealer.