Lifestealer/Counters
Counters
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Many hands make light work.
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Contents
Bad against...[edit]
- Ice Blast prevents Lifestealer from lifestealing and healing with Infest in fights.
- Fiend's Grip can disable Lifestealer through Rage.
- Primal Roar pierces Rage and can disable Lifestealer in fights.
- Chaos Knight's Level 20 Talent: Reality Rift Pierces Spell Immunity allows for quick bursting down of Lifestealer during his Rage.
- Phantasm dispels Open Wounds.
- Lifestealer has no way of dealing with Chaos Knight's illusions.
- Clinkz relies heavily on the physical damage provided by Searing Arrows, which completely overrides the capabilities of Rage.
- Open Wounds is near worthless against Clinkz as he can instantly run away with Skeleton Walk before returning later on.
- Clinkz, by nature will often build items that Lifestealer hates dealing with such as physical damage items like Desolator or Daedalus and instant silences or hexes from Bloodthorn and Scythe of Vyse.
- Terrorblade's illusions and ranged attacks in Metamorphosis can burst down Lifestealer very quickly.
- Terrorblade has low health due to his low strength gain, which reduces Feast's lifesteal and damage.
- Terrorblade's high armor makes Lifestealer's Desolator useless.
- Because Lifestealer usually walks around with high HP in fights due to his lifesteal (and sometimes Armlet of Mordiggian), he is a great target for Terrorblade's Sunder.
- Doppelganger dispels Open Wounds.
- Lifestealer has no way of dealing with Phantom Lancer's illusions.
- Phantom Lancer also commonly builds Diffusal Blade, which poses a large problem to Lifestealer and his low mana pool.
- 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.
- Lifestealer can't fight Ursa in any stage of the game because of his high physical damage with Fury Swipes and Overpower.
- The Swarm is not blocked by Rage and can be used to lower Lifestealer's already low armor, making him even more vulnerable to physical damage.
- Shukuchi renders the Open Wounds slow pretty useless, as it gives Weaver maximum movement speed, allowing him to escape or kite around Lifestealer.
- However, Weaver is a common Linken's Sphere carrier to block and Time Lapse to dispel Open Wounds.
- Lifestealer relies on Open Wounds to slow enemies to burst them, but Windranger can use Windrun to escape through Open Wounds duration.
- Windrun and Focus Fire can easily allow Windranger to kite Lifestealer and do good amounts of damage in the process.
Others[edit]
- Heroes with high physical damage can damage Lifestealer more than he can heal: Bristleback, Clinkz, Luna, Shadow Fiend, Slardar
- Heroes with illusions: Chaos Knight, Naga Siren, Phantom Lancer
- Heroes with summons: Lycan, Broodmother, Visage.
- Dragon Knight can withstand against Lifestealer's physical damage due to his high armor and strength.
- Disables that pierces Lifestealer's spell immunity granted by Rage: Primal Roar, Fiend's Grip, Reverse Polarity.
- Lifestealer has no natural stun, so he often lacks his own form of lockdown unless he has Abyssal Blade. Highly evasive heroes like Slark or Anti-Mage can easily kite around Lifestealer.
- Lifestealer, at even farm levels, will often fall against other man-fighting non-Strength cores like Ursa, Phantom Assassin or Troll Warlord as he cannot truly rely on sustain from Feast.
Items[edit]
- Force Staff is very useful to kite Lifestealer in team-fight.
- Heaven's Halberd gives evasion and an undispellable disarm, making Lifestealer useless if placed before Rage.
- Medallion of Courage or Solar Crest, Assault Cuirass, and other armor items are useful against Lifestealer's physical-only damage.
- Silver Edge breaks Feast and gives an escape tool.
Good against...[edit]
- Feast makes it impossible to put Lifestealer's health for a Culling Blade and also deals high damage to Axe due to his naturally high health.
- However, Lifestealer's Rage can be pierced by Berserker's Call.
- Rage protects Lifestealer from all of Dark Willow's abilities.
- Rage protects Lifestealer nearly from all of Invoker's spells.
- Rage protects Lifestealer from all of Techies' magic damage and disables and dispels Stasis Trap's debuff .
- Usually teams will have a hard time pushing high-ground against Techies, but Lifestealer can just pop Rage and walk uphill without fear of Techies.
- 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), which ensures that Tinker will die if he is caught.
- Lifestealer's Rage makes him immune to all of Ogre's magical debuffs and also dispels them.
- Ogre's as hero with great durability and high health is great target for Lifestealer in any stage of the game, thanks to Feast.
Others[edit]
- Heroes who have all their abilities (damage or disable) unable to pierce spell immunity: Keeper of the Light, Lina, Lion, Zeus.
- Gankers should play cautiously when doing their job, as their victim might be Infested.
Items[edit]
- Helm of the Dominator's creep falls victim to Infest, healing Lifestealer and feeding him easy gold.
Works well with...[edit]
- 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.
- She is a good target for Infest as she gives a perfect gap closer with Blink and a follow up magic burst.
- 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 and slow them with Smoke Screen, which if coupled with Open Wounds will grant a 90% slow, making the kill exponentially easier.
- Corrosive Haze greatly increases Lifestealer's physical damage.
- Slardar is a common Blink Dagger carrier and a good target for Infest.
- 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.
- 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.
- Infesting Beastmaster's hawk allows you flying movement on a unit with great vision, allowing you to take enemies by surprise with Infest.
Others[edit]
- Heroes with high mobility and good initiation are good targets to Infest and ambush enemies with.
Items[edit]
- Blink Dagger adds mobility to Infest.
