Viper/Counters

Bad against...

 * weakens Viper's attack damage, any healing he receives and his cast range, which makes him unable to harass enemy heroes with Nethertoxin, Poison Attack and Viper Strike.
 * Viper's Corrosive Skin is useless against Bane as all of his damaging abilities deal Pure damage.
 * Viper has no solutions to cancel and in addition, he hates buying disabling items like.


 * Viper's lack of escape and durability means he can be ran over in a laning stage by.
 * Broodmother can bring Viper down quickly with activated.


 * Viper has no response to the standard initiation combo of into.
 * and can eliminate Viper almost instantly with it's damage output.
 * Besides Nethertoxin, Viper has no other ways of dealing with.


 * and can be used to kite and escape from Viper.
 * and deal heavy damage and can quickly bring Viper down.
 * ,, and are powerful disables that reduce Viper's effectiveness.
 * burns Viper's limited mana pool, reducing his potential poison damage.
 * s can melt Viper's armor and reduce his durability.


 * Viper has no disable, which means he has no way of preventing Morphling from escaping from any of his abilities or keep him inside.
 * Viper is almost exclusively damage over time, which is weak against Morphling due to . Additionally, Morphling has no passive abilities, reducing 's effectiveness against him even further.
 * Morphling can turn into Viper himself, allowing him to use any of Viper's abilities against him (excluding ). This is particularly bad due to the fact that Viper is already a very slow hero, making and 's slows especially difficult to deal with.


 * ignores all of Viper's magical damage, although can pierce spell immunity and slows him down.
 * and from  can be combined to heal through Viper's physical damage.


 * Even though Luna has a hard time laning against Viper due to being able to disable  and, Luna can take out Viper once she builds either  or  which will allow her to attack Viper freely.
 * can often finish off Viper from early-to-mid stages of the game before he can retaliate as gives little magic resistance to him early on.
 * is an item that Luna commonly buys in most of the games, which lets her either disjoint or dispel . Additionally, illusions from Manta Style can make Viper waste time attacking them.


 * Phantom Lancer can overwhelm Viper with spawned illusions from and.
 * Viper's various slows do not work against . Additionally, it is almost impossible to keep Lancer inside 's radius in order to disable the passive.


 * Pugna's allows him to save allies from being ganked by Viper, since Viper mostly relies on direct attacks in order to deal damage.
 * can discourage Viper from spamming his abilities.
 * Viper's damage over time is not enough to kill Pugna as he will have more than enough time to save himself (or his allies) with and Viper has no solutions to cancel it.
 * Pugna has no passive abilities, which renders nearly useless.


 * If Rubick can use to take, he will be able to disable , reducing much of Viper's durability.
 * He can also steal, which can be used to hinder a hero on your team (or multiple heroes, if Rubick has ).


 * Viper's damage over time and lack of disables makes him easy to.
 * Viper's physical damage is mitigated by Terrorblade's high armor.
 * Terrorblade under can quickly kill Viper with heavy physical damage.


 * ignores slows and allows Weaver to escape Viper's onslaught.
 * dispels and  and undoes poison damage.
 * Weaver's high burst damage allows him to kill Viper before being killed.


 * evades and counteracts the slow.
 * Viper's low mobility makes him an easy target.
 * grants Windranger significant physical damage output to quickly wear Viper down.
 * is a strong harassment and zoning tool against Viper in lane.


 * Viper's cannot disable, which could put him in disadvantage against Wraith King if his whole team is with him.
 * In addition, Viper doesn't like buying, which is the only item that can help him against Wraith King.
 * Wraith King's high burst damage allows him to kill Viper before being killed.

Others

 * Viper cannot interrupt heroes with powerful channeling abilities:, , ,
 * Heroes with a built-in haste can ignore Viper's slows: ,
 * Illusion or summon-based heroes can be a problem to Viper due to his lack of AoE damage:, ,
 * Heroes with high physical or pure burst damage can kill Viper before his damage over time sets in.
 * Heroes that can drain mana negatively affect Viper's ability to use Poison Attack, Nethertoxin and Viper Strike: ,
 * Heroes who do not have nor rely on passive abilities make Nethertoxin much less effective:, , , , ,

Items

 * allows heroes to escape from Viper, as he cannot interrupt it nor kill a healthy hero before they teleport.
 * nullifies most of Viper's arsenal as most of his damage comes from his damage-over-time abilities.
 * can be used to take advantage of Viper's low mobility, but his damage over time makes it unreliable as an escape tool.
 * and protect against Viper's attacks. And when upgraded into, it can reduce his magic resistance that  provides him.
 * 's invisibility prevents Viper from attacking the target, and the magic resistance counteracts Viper's damage over time.
 * can allow a hero to escape while slowed by Viper.
 * 's break disables Corrosive Skin, making him weaker even against the heroes he naturally counters.
 * disjoints Viper Strike and can make Viper waste time attacking illusions.
 * can slow Viper with its active ability and pin him down while burning his mana.
 * blocks Viper Strike, and Viper has no other ways to break the Spell Block. In addition, Viper hates buying disabling items.
 * can reflect Viper Strike.

Good against...

 * Because has no cooldown,  is ineffective as a hard dispel.
 * prevents from activating passively and blocks


 * prevents from triggering, which significantly lowers Axe's damage output in the early to mid game.
 * Viper's various slows and damage over time prevents Axe from initiating as well as putting his on cooldown.


 * disables and prevents  from building stacks. Besides losing his defensive passive, Bristleback also loses his ability to build up damage over lengthy battles.
 * Viper can perpetually kite Bristleback with and.


 * Dragon Knight is easily harassed by after the laning stage ends.
 * protects Viper from and returns damage.
 * mitigates, Dragon's Knight main source of armor and health regeneration.
 * Between and, Viper can keep Dragon Knight permanently slowed even in.


 * Being a melee hero, Earthshaker's movement is liable to suppression by and.
 * Earthshaker's kit, with the exception of, deals magic damage. effectively blunts his killing potential with a standard Blink combo among other things.
 * disables, which removes the stun and bonus damage from and.


 * disables, which Huskar relies upon for attack speed and healing.
 * The damage from and  is largely absorbed by . It also will return some damage, making it risky to use Burning Spears in the laning stage.
 * Because Huskar wants to be on low health for, he is particularly vulnerable to.


 * Most of Magnus' abilities except will trigger damage through.
 * and can slow Magnus during, as well as putting his  on cooldown, preventing him from initiating or re-initiating.


 * disables entirely, making Mars far less tanky. Using  inside  may discourage enemies from following up with Mars' initiation.
 * is currently common on Viper and keeps Mars in position long enough to be killed.
 * Beware that Viper is not very tanky earlier in the game, so positioning against Mars is important since a well-timed can be the end of Viper.


 * prevents the buildup of stacks.
 * Monkey King's high base movement speed is of little worth against the array of slows Viper possesses.
 * All of Viper's magical damage over time stops Monkey King from using . It also ignores the extra armor bestowed by.


 * prevents from dealing damage or healing Necrophos.
 * Viper's magic damage is amplified whenever is used.
 * makes Viper tankier against and.


 * minimizes the damage from and.
 * Nyx Assassin cannot survive several poison damage-over-time, even is activated.


 * is counteracted by, leaving Razor without faster MS.
 * 's damage drain doesn't bother Viper a lot as most of his early to mid game damage is magical.


 * negates and the regeneration aspect of.
 * doesn't mean a lot against Viper's ubiquitous slows.
 * Viper becomes a relevant presence in team fights before Slark can procure his standard items (e.g. ).


 * disables and, leaving Spectre with far less damage output and damage mitigation in engagements.
 * Spectre is one of the weakest heroes at early levels. Viper can stifle her farm with early fights before Spectre purchases any major items.


 * All of Viper's abilities quickly burn through charges.
 * Templar Assassin's short range, aside from ' spill damage, makes her vulnerable to harassment.
 * Templar Assassin traditionally forgoes health and armor items for damage. Outside of, Viper will almost always be able to kill her when is down.


 * cancels out and stops the hard dispel from passively activating, preventing Tidehunter from functioning as a frontline tank.
 * is mostly irrelevant against a ranged hero.
 * Tidehunter relies on the threat of, which has an obscenely long cooldown. Viper can exploit the downtime with his short cooldowns.


 * prevents the attack damage bonus from and the components of.
 * Both and  are counteracted by, making Vengeful Spirit's fighting harder against Viper.


 * means Viper can often outlast Venomancer in a battle of attrition.
 * Venomancer has no mobility without items, which makes him vulnerable to constant slows.


 * cuts off, Visage's primary defense mechanism.
 * Viper can ignore 's attack speed slow with his magic damage output.


 * severely reduces Zeus's damage output throughout the game.
 * During the laning stage, Viper can abuse Zeus' reliance on spells by hugging the creep wave. Zeus will take constant damage over time from unless he drives Viper from the lane or returns to farming in his absence.
 * Prior to buying or, Zeus is fragile and possesses low mobility. Any of Viper's numerous slows can set up an easy kill.

Others

 * Melee heroes with low mobility can be kited and killed by Viper:, , , , , ,.
 * Heroes reliant on magical damage cannot easily wear Viper down due to.
 * Any hero that relies on a passives is vulnerable to.

Items

 * will continuously be on cooldown with Viper's damage over time spells.

Works well with...

 * The combination of and  make Viper nearly unkillable after he egresses the laning phase.
 * The AS/MS slow from Poison Attack sets up and vice versa.


 * Beastmaster by nature expediently pushes towers with maximum points in and . The aura boosts Viper's DPS while the boars contribute additional slows to assist Poison Attack.
 * solves Viper's lack of disables that pierce spell immunity.


 * into, combined with Nethertoxin, equals death for many opponents: the magic resistance reduction empowers while Cogs isolate heroes for Viper to focus.
 * Clockwerk only needs levels to begin rotating for ganks and 1-2 items to significantly contribute to team fights. This ramp-up aligns with Viper's power curve.


 * grants the necessary mana regeneration for Viper to use Poison Attack in the lane. Unlike she does not have to rotate to help him in this regard.
 * Crystal Maiden is very slow with low health. Viper acts as a distraction with his innate tankiness so she can get off her spells without interruption, especially.


 * heavily punishes melee opponents that attempt to kill Viper with standard attacks instead of magic damage. It also pushes out the side lanes quickly, a task Viper needs others to perform.
 * is one of the best abilities to boost Viper's low base movement speed.


 * in practice is an intuitive combination with Poison Attack. Even if the target runs away, it is easy to refresh its duration by throwing out Poison Attack and Nethertoxin. This is particularly strong in the early stages of the game.
 * and can save Viper in dangerous spots while he continues to wear down his opponents.
 * steadily decreases enemy armor throughout long battles, the type of scuffles Viper excels in.


 * greatly increases Viper's attack speed, making his laning phase even stronger.
 * and combined with Viper's slows make it difficult for an enemy to escape.
 * Nethertoxin eliminates the defenses of several heroes that Drow Ranger struggles to kill.
 * Corrosive Skin makes Viper tanky so he can shield Drow Ranger, who prefers to output damage from the backline.


 * Between, and , the hero is proficient at setting up kills in the midgame. Viper and Earth Spirit become a potent ganking duo that can secure map control.
 * Earth Spirit is one of the best supports for ganking the midlane. He can secure Viper an advantage before level 5, a period when the hero is traditionally mediocre.
 * contributes strong area-of-effect damage over time, setting up Poison Attack's inverse scaling.
 * Earth Spirit doesn't need Viper to position himself in a defensive manner; he has such high health that he takes the initiative and willingly barrels into fights.


 * provides easy targets for Viper to pick off from a distance.
 * When used in the middle of a team fight, halts the cooldown of disables that are troublesome for Viper to deal with.
 * Nethertoxin's break mechanic makes many heroes that Faceless Void struggles to kill much easier to take down.
 * Viper creates space for Faceless Void to farm up lategame items since the former is a potent threat so early in the game.


 * protects Viper from the majority of damage thrown his way. Additionally, it sets up counterattacks by slowing and damaging nearby enemies.
 * locks fleeing opponents in place, ensuring they can't run away from the slow carry.
 * is a powerful deterrent against teams that aim to dogpile Viper and kill him before the fight extends too long.
 * Lich has no escape abilities, making him vulnerable if exposed in team fights. Viper draws attention away from him, enabling Lich to use all his abilities without interruption.


 * Level 4 turns Viper into an intimidating tower pusher when combined with inexpensive items like, , and.
 * As a hero oriented towards early and midgame battles, Viper makes space on the map for Luna to farm the expensive stats items that make her powerful.
 * Luna can split-push with, ameliorating Viper's lack of movement speed.


 * whittles down enemy health over time, making them more susceptible to Poison Attack.
 * replenishes Viper's health in small amounts. It can be repeatedly used in fights to save him from certain death.
 * Like Viper, Necrophos hits his first power peak soon after the laning phase ends.
 * Necrophos frequently buys items that synergize with Viper's abilities, except they are either obnoxiously expensive or lose effectiveness too quickly to be prudent on the hero itself. These include, , and.


 * Preemptive accelerates Viper's farm, doubly so if he buys.
 * as well as Ogre Magi's high base attributes and armor help secure the lane for Viper early on.


 * interrupts channeling abilities and can lock down a target for Viper to kill.
 * massively increases Viper's single-target damage.
 * Both Viper and Slardar fight at the same pace. They possess low cooldown spells and the tankiness to use them several times in a fight.


 * protects Viper in lane without the need for rotations. Combined with Corrosive Skin, Viper becomes almost impossible to gank.
 * locks opponents in place for Viper to attack them.

Others

 * Viper excels when he is assisted by heals and other means of survival:, ,
 * Viper is a robust tank that can protect fragile ranged heroes with high damage output:, , ,
 * Heroes with magic resistance reduction amplify the power of Nethertoxin and vice versa:, ,
 * Heroes with abilities that increase movement speed compensate for his mobility issues: ,

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

Viper/Противостоящие