Ember Spirit/Counters

Bad against...

 * Flame Guard provides no protection against Clinkz's physical damage output.


 * Lion possesses two strong disables in and  and heavy magic burst with . When getting his  Lion can punish Ember Spirit's overextention immediately, or initiate fight on him with disables.


 * 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.


 * and can prevent Ember Spirit from casting Activate Fire Remnant to escape.
 * also provide high pure damage not negated by Flame Guard.
 * is also potent harassing tool in the laning stage as its cooldown is faster than Flame Guard's.


 * Storm Spirit is not only potent carrier, additionally, his  provides additional disable and  provides great slow and paired with  can cut through Flame Guard fast.
 * 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, as he can no longer spam Sleight of Fist.
 * is also reliable lock down for Ember Spirit, even though it can be evaded sometimes by Activate Fire Remnant. Additionally, Void can easily negate Sleight of Fist damage with.
 * And finally, Void is a great carrier, not only is  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.


 * The pure damage provided by is a great addition for killing Ember Spirit, as well as a good way of saving teammates.
 * will temporarily save all team from Sleight of Fist physical damage, and Ember Spirit is not a hero that will get to counter it.


 * The pure damage provided by is a great addition for killing Ember Spirit.
 * 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, preventing Ember Spirit from using Activate Fire Remnant.


 * Using Nyx Assassin can move closely to Ember Spirit when he's farming with his Flame Guard and use  with  to provide reliable and long disable.
 * is also good, as Ember Spirit relies on his limited mana pool for early-/midgame.


 * Using Kunkka can prevent ember spirit escaping with his ultimate.
 * 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

 * Disable and pure damage from 's and  can be potent skills for locking Ember Spirit down. But Ember Spirit can play around them, as his Searing Chains can stop, and Activate Fire Remnant will keep him safe. Additionally,  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.
 * General opinion that can counter Ember Spirit with his  is a misconception, as  is too slow to cast and even  initiation won't help getting  applied. Doom is still extremely effective early ganker, as his  and  damage can quickly overwhelm Flame Guard magic resistance, leaving Ember Spirit helpless. Additional skills that Doom can get from Neutral creeps can also help bullying Ember Spirit early.  on Doom can also help, providing the only way to apply  on Ember Spirit.
 * can be good against Ember Spirit, as his 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  paired with  or  can help him dealing with Ember Spirit.
 * can be legit for dealing with Ember Spirit, getting, additionally, her provides pure damage that helps bursting Ember Spirit down, and  helps slowing him. Though Queen of Pain can be punished by Ember Spirit, as his Searing Chains prevents her from getting  off.

Items

 * and 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  or  which will limit his late game damage potential.
 * and are both strong disables. Ember Spirit is probably doomed if he will make any mistakes against this items.
 * and - greatly decrease Ember Spirit's damage output from regular attacks and Sleight of Fist.
 * , and  will allow enemy heroes to become tankier against Ember Spirit because of miss chance unless he gets his level 20 True Strike Talent.
 * , and  are all tank items that will allow enemies survive Ember Spirit's late game AoE damage from Sleight of Fist. Additionally,  will allow repeatedly breach Ember Spirit's highground, without committing any resources.
 * can be tactically used to lock Ember down, dispelling his Flame Guard, and being followed by another disable.
 * makes Ember Spirit physical attack temporarily 0. Especially when he has high damage.

Good against...

 * 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 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 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 off.


 * Crystal Maiden is extremely fragile and she's merely a 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 can be easily interrupted with Searing Chains. 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 push by using his Flame Guard, and after  purchase, 's summons are just food for him. He also have multiple ways of escaping . additionally, Ember Spirit can break  trees with Activate Fire Remnant and interrupt  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.
 * Flame Guard absorbs magical damage of.
 * Searing Chains prevents Queen of Pain from using.

Others

 * 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...

 * Magnus is a great addition for a team with Ember Spirit. His is extremely effective, as it greatly increase Ember Spirit's farming speed, granting him buff somewhat similar to.
 * stays potent during all game, as it increases damage proportionally and its cleave stack with.
 * Additionally, paired with Sleight of Fist is extremely effective late game combo.


 * With, 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 ed 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 . Dazzle's abilities to make game changing plays with his, saving Ember Spirit makes him strong pair for the whole game.
 * also greatly amplifies Sleight of Fist damage by armor removal.

Others

 * '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.

List of heroes that counter Ember Spirit, and list of heroes that work well with Ember Spirit.

Ember Spirit/Противостоящие 灰烬之灵/克制