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Many hands make light work.
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Bad against...
- 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 that is not negated by Flame Guard.
- Arcane Curse is also a potent harassing tool in the laning stage as its cooldown is lower than Flame Guard's.
- Storm Spirit is not only a potent Orchid Malevolence carrier, his Electric Vortex provides an additional disable and Overload provides a great slow. When paired with Static Remnant, they can cut through Flame Guard fast.
- Ball Lightning not only provides great initiation upon Ember Spirit from any position anytime, but also helps dodge 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 a reliable lockdown for Ember Spirit, although 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 Manabreak's physical damage not negated by Flame Guard, but it also burns Ember Spirit's mana. That, in turn, prevents him from escaping if he survived 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 his allies from Sleight of Fist's physical damage, and Ember Spirit is not a hero that will get Nullifier to counter it.
- The pure damage provided by Lua error in Module:Ability_ID at line 61: Could not find Cargo data for "Arcane Orb". is a great addition for killing Ember Spirit.
- Lua error in Module:Ability_ID at line 61: Could not find Cargo data for "Astral Imprisonment". fully negates all magic damage of Flame Guard and Searing Chains and will temporarily save himself from Sleight of Fist's physical damage, and Ember Spirit is not a hero that can counter these skills.
- With 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 a reliable and long disable.
- Lua error in Module:Ability_ID at line 61: Could not find Cargo data for "Mana Burn". is also good, as Ember Spirit relies on his limited mana pool for the early to midgame.
- Using X Marks the Spot Kunkka can prevent Ember Spirit from escaping with Activate Fire Remnant, until he purchase Eul's Scepter of Divinity or Linken's Sphere.
Others
- The general opinion that Doom can counter Ember Spirit with his Doom is a misconception, as Doom has a long cast animation, so an attentive Ember Spirit can easily dodge it if he has a Fire Remnant nearby. Doom is still an extremely effective early ganker however, as his Scorched Earth and Infernal Blade damage can quickly overwhelm Flame Guard's magic damage absorption, leaving Ember Spirit with no protection against them. Additional skills that Doom can get from Neutral creeps can also help bully Ember Spirit early. Shadow Blade or Blink Dagger on Doom can also help, providing a good way to apply Doom on Ember Spirit.
- Queen of Pain can be a good hero for dealing with Ember Spirit with Orchid Malevolence, her pure damage nuke in Sonic Wave and a slow in Shadow Strike. However, Queen of Pain can be punished by Ember Spirit, as his Searing Chains prevents her from getting Blink off.
Items
- Orchid Malevolence and Bloodthorn can be devastating for Ember Spirit, as silences prevent him from getting Activate Fire Remnant off. Ember Spirit is quite fragile as well, so additional damage from these items will be very helpful. It will probably force Ember Spirit to get Manta Style or Black King Bar as well, which will limit his late game damage potential.
- Abyssal Blade and Scythe of Vyse are both strong disables, preventing Ember Spirit from easily escaping.
- 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 survive longer against Ember Spirit because of the evasion bonus (and the disarm in Heaven's Halberd's case) until he gets his True Strike talent.
- Satanic, Heart of Tarrasque, and Eye of Skadi are all items that will allow enemies to survive Ember Spirit's late game AoE damage from Sleight of Fist. Additionally, Heart of Tarrasque will allow enemies to 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.
Good against...
- Meepo is quite fragile in the early game and can be easily taken down by Flame Guard's and Searing Chains' damage. Later on, Meepo is very vulnerable to Sleight of Fist's damage due to Battle Fury's 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 the slow from Reality Rift, and Flame Guard and Sleight of Fist can bring Phantasm's illusions down quickly.
- Ember Spirit can deal devastating damage to illusion heroes like Terrorblade with Sleight of Fist. Terrorblade also has no way of preventing Ember Spirit from getting Activate Fire Remnant off. Additionally, Ember Spirit's ability to fight from long range as well as his wide skill set won't give many opportunities for Terrorblade to get Sunder off.
- Crystal Maiden is extremely fragile and she's an easy target for him. She has no real disables that can lock Ember Spirit down, and all of her skill damage can be negated with Flame Guard. The damage from Searing Chains, Flame Guard, and Sleigh of Fist can easily take her down.
- Ember Spirit can easily deal with Nature's Call by using his Flame Guard and with Battle Fury. He also has multiple ways of escaping Sprout. Additionally, Ember Spirit can break Sprout's 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.
Others
- You need a hard disable or a silence to catch Ember Spirit, as roots and slows are 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.
- Ember Spirit does regular attacks to creeps and Sleight of Fist for enemy heroes, so Blade Mail doesn't really work against him.
- Heroes that heavily depend on illusions or summons are vulnerable to Sleigh of Fist and even more so if Ember Spirit has Battle Fury.
- Later in the game, the True Strike talent can also devastate heroes that depend on evasion, like Windranger or Phantom Assassin.
Works well with...
- 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 a buff somewhat similar to Battle Fury.
- Empower stays potent during all game, as it increases damage proportionally and its cleave stacks with Battle Fury.
- Additionally, Reverse Polarity paired with Sleight of Fist is an 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 the mana regeneration from Chakra Magic stays relevant well into the late game.
- Dazzle is a great laning support for Ember Spirit. Not only can he heal Ember Spirit with Shadow Wave, but he can also provides killing potential with his Poison Touch. Dazzle's ability to make game-changing plays with his Shallow Grave, combined with the capability to save Ember Spirit makes them a strong pair for the whole game.
- Bad Juju also greatly amplifies Sleight of Fist damage through the armor removal.
- Ember Spirit is not frozen by Chronosphere while using Sleight of Fist or Activate Fire Remnant, enabling him to deal great damage to units caught inside.
Others
- Chen's Divine Favor 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.
