Spectre/Counters

Bad against...

 * Storm Spirit can exploit every one of Spectre's weaknesses, and thus is one of the best counters against her.
 * Spectre is weak early game, and Storm Spirit can easily prey on her once he reaches level 6.
 * Spectre has to be in melee range to deal any good amount of damage. This means she will trigger s and she can easily be kited by.
 * Spectre has no immunities against stuns and generally does not like building . This means she won't have any way to avoid getting stunned by.
 * is a very good ability for multiple reasons:
 * Spectre cannot evade Storm Spirit, as Ball Lightning is superior to in terms of mobility.
 * Storm Spirit can kite her and her illusions when it's later in the game due to her having no form of pseudo-blinks ( is far inferior to Ball Lightning).
 * It is very difficult for Spectre to deal any substantial damage against Storm Spirit with, and without both a and a  he will always remain on the move.
 * Ball Lightning grants invulnerability, and as Storm Spirit likes to spam that ability, he can mitigate damage done from and.


 * He can easily man up and fight her 1 vs 1 with.
 * He takes no damage from or  when  is activated.
 * Spectre has no reliable escape mechanism, making devastating to Spectre. It is very important that Spectre abuses cliffs and trees with  if she hopes to get away from Lifestealer.


 * The movement speed granted from means that Spectre has no way to punish Lycan if he wants to splitpush or pick off supports. Furthermore, he will kite  and cannot be slowed by.
 * As Lycan typically has out and builds, very rarely will he be damaged by  if he does manage to get into a fight against her.


 * Global will protect his allies from Spectre's, both when they are alone and in teamfights. While Spectre can purchase a  to address this, it has a cooldown. Unless the rest of Spectre's team also buys a Diffusal Blade, this won't be enough to stop Guardian Angel.
 * is a major problem for melee enemies, Spectre included, since they must be next to an enemy in order to attack. AoE damage also allows Spectre to be singled out from her illusions.
 * will prevent him and allies from taking Desolate and Dispersion damage.
 * will prevent Spectre from chasing Omniknight, further exacerbated by her terrible mobility outside.


 * Spectre has no way to prevent, for escape or initiation. Anti-Mage can easily pick off enemy supports and Spectre cannot do anything about it.
 * Her low mana pool will quickly empty with.
 * illusions prevent Desolate damage


 * Spectre must chase for kills and relies on movement speed for mobility in fights, and has no way to counter the zombies.
 * The potency of can be increased from nearby illusions, so Undying can use  against Spectre.
 * Early game will make Spectre easy to shut down in lane.


 * can single out Spectre from her illusions, as well as heal his team against her. He also usually stands close to his allies for Death Pulse, so can disable.
 * at level 3 kills Spectre at around 20% due to magic resistance and.


 * is one of the best tower pushing abilities in the game, with a low cooldown. A competent Pugna will (at the very least) destroy T2 towers and make space for his team before Spectre can finally come online.
 * Spectre's spells, while not spammable, have a fairly high mana cost, so can be fairly damaging to Spectre early game. The mana degen will also dampen Spectre's early game power significantly.
 * Once Pugna gets, he can spam on any illusion Spectre summons, whether it'd be from , , or some other means.
 * In addition Pugna can disable Spectre's ability (although its damage is pure, it requires physical attacks) with his  ability, leaving Spectre only with . This forces Spectre to build a.


 * makes it nearly impossible for Spectre to juke into the trees.
 * negates all of Spectre's physical damage. Furthermore, Cold Embrace will generally outheal.
 * can taunt illusions, not only wasting the entire duration of but also turning its illusions against Spectre's own team.

Others

 * can control where she goes with and .  shuts her down in teamfights.
 * can pull together Spectre's illusions with, and creates an illusion of Spectre that deals massive damage.
 * 's allows him to stun Spectre and illusions, and  prevents her from juking with.
 * Heroes with good escapes such as, , and can usually outmaneuver and escape from Spectre (Spectre also rarely has the inventory space for  or a ).
 * Heroes that are strong in lane can cause a lot of problems for Spectre in the earily game, preventing her from getting farm and experience.
 * is also strong against her. She usually doesn't like building and will be prey of  and.

Items

 * is a good counter, since Spectre will deal little damage against spell immune enemies (disables and blocks  damage).
 * will hard disable Spectre, and she rarely builds a to prevent this.
 * A (or  on ranged carries) will deal AoE damage and allow Spectre to be identified from her illusions.
 * 's active ability can deal a lot of damage to Spectre during a team fight, as both damage and  burn will drastically increase the proc chance of Static Charge.
 * Spectre rarely has the inventory space for or a, and  means she will sometimes attack away from her team. A  can usually be an easy escape ( and Radiance will reveal your position while invisible, although she will be unable to attack you).
 * A upgraded into a  can be devastating for Spectre as the break component disables both  and.

Good against...

 * As Ancient Apparition like to stay far away from the fight to get full effectiveness from, he is a very good target for a gank. AA has no hard disables, so if Spectre wants to kill him, she will kill him.


 * Being squishy with very bad movement speed, Spectre can easily stay on Crystal Maiden with and.
 * Late game, with enough farm, Spectre can tank an entire and perhaps causing Crystal Maiden to kill herself from.


 * Spectre can easily close the distance on Drow Ranger with and stick on her with, negating the bonus agility from.


 * Spectre can reach him easily in the backlines with spectral dagger, or teleport to him with Haunt
 * He is usually a fair distance away from his allies; Desolate will quickly tear sniper down


 * Lina is a very squishy hero whose likes to dance around the fight, whose mobility solely relies on movement speed stacks from . Spectre can effortlessly close the distance and stay on her with and . Lina's only method of trying to control Spectre is, which is a crapshoot since Spectre will be moving much faster than Lina.
 * can mitigate the large amounts of burst damage Lina can deal. Once Lina frontloads her burst, she will be helpless against Spectre since Dispersion and Spectre's good armor from naturally building agility items effectively means that Lina's autoattacks will not be very effective against Spectre, negating the bonus attack speed from.


 * She can get to him anywhere on the map with Haunt (it is impossible to rat against Spectre)
 * Spectre pass through his trees with Spectral Dagger
 * Desolate damage (he is almost always alone) will melt him quickly


 * Spectre becomes very tanky late game. Hooking in a Spectre with Manta Style + Diffusal Blade will lead to quick death for pudge
 * Beware of hook ganks early game, he will try to shut down Spectre quickly


 * None of Spectre's spells are very good for Rubick to.
 * will only protect from and.


 * His global teleportation with Boots of Travel + Rearm is easily countered with Haunt, and Spectre can reach him anywhere on the map
 * He is squishy, and if alone Desolate will kill him very fast
 * Cannot use Laser Beam's miss chance for defence against Spectre (Desolate cannot miss)


 * Spectre can catch up to her with Spectral Dagger, even if she uses Windrun
 * Spectre can instantly reach a ratting Windranger with Haunt
 * Windrun miss chance is countered by Desolate

Others

 * Spectre's entire ability set is designed to get to and destroy heroes that stay in the backlines, both carries (Drow Ranger, Sniper, etc.) and supports (Dazzle, Shadow Shaman, etc.)
 * Heroes that rely on miss chance (Such as Phantom Assassin's Blur and Riki's Smoke Screen) are completely countered by Desolate
 * Broodmother can usually be caught by haunt, and spectre can chase her inside the web with spectral dagger

Works well with...

 * can help Treant scout out enemies for potential ganks.
 * will heal Spectre and her illusions, also providing a slow in case is on cooldown.
 * can be used to heal Spectre while she farms the jungle. It can also be used to heal towers, stalling the push of enemies and biding time for Spectre to farm her items.
 * holds enemies in place. If enemies are rooted but far away enough from each other, illusions can be very devastating as then all of their attacks will be amplified by.


 * Spectre can use Haunt to reach a Tracked enemy anywhere on the map
 * Gold from killing Tracked enemies will allow Spectre to snowball and become unstoppable quickly


 * Hand of God can heal Spectre from anywhere on the map
 * Late game he can push lanes by himself, and Spectre will be able to protect him from anywhere on the map with Haunt
 * Ganks from the jungle will allow Spectre to snowball quickly, and he can protect her in lane from enemy ganks from the jungle


 * Thundergod's Wrath allows him to help Spectre with Haunt kills from anywhere on the map.
 * Thundergod's Wrath also gives global True Sight on enemy heroes, allowing Spectre to kill invisible targets with Haunt


 * The Wisp's relocate combined with Spectre's Haunt will allow for almost unlimited global presence. The enemy will be under constant danger, no matter where.


 * Thirst can reveal enemies on low health anywhere on the map (and provide true sight) so Spectre can Haunt to a low health enemy for an easy kill.


 * Once both heroes get their ultimates, every time is off cooldown, Storm Spirit can easily jump in on a squishy support with  and Spectre can Haunt in as backup, killing that support nearly instantly.


 * and being used together can constantly cause colossal global damage to the enemy team every cooldown cycle.


 * can reveal and weaken enemy targets for Spectre to use to score the finishing kill. Or it can be done the other way around.
 * Enemies will have to make a tough decision during teamfights: either clump up and risk getting hit by a big ultimate from one of the heroes above, or spread out and be picked off by.

Others

 * Lane supports in general (Dazzle, Shadow Shaman, Shadow Demon, etc.) can help Spectre secure last hits and control the lane
 * Any heroes with global abilities (Io, Chen, Zeus, Nature's Prophet, Ancient Apparition, etc.) can work very well with Spectre's Haunt
 * Spectre deals almost exclusively physical or pure damage. To complement this, nukers such as Lion, Lina, Zeus, etc. can prevent the team from lacking in magical damage

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