Skywrath Mage/Counters

Bad against...

 * drains Skywrath Mage of his mana, slowing him and dealing bonus damage while rendering him unable to cast his spells.
 * makes it incredibly easy for Anti-Mage to close the gap between himself Skywrath Mage to right-click him down. He can also use Blink to get away and escape into fog of war.
 * Anti-Mage passively reduces enemy spell damage with, and can activate the ability to block and send back Skywrath's Ancient Seal or Arcane Bolt, causing him to silence himself or deal massive damage to himself.
 * Skywrath Mage's large mana-costs makes him an easy target for.
 * Anti-Mage often builds and  which can dispel Ancient Seal and Concussive Shot.


 * Skywrath Mage's armor and agility gain is very low, so when Huskar's s stack they can take him down very quickly at any point of the game.
 * grants bonuses as Huskar uses s to harass Skywrath Mage, granting him attack speed, magic resistance, and strength as health regen, making it possible that Huskar can harass Skywrath Mage out of lane and sustain through his magic burst through staying injured throughout lane, or even the game.
 * allows Huskar to jump onto Skywrath Mage, closing the distance between them and busting him down so he cannot run. This can be combed with, adding a movement speed slow if Aghanim's Shard is applied so Skywrath Mage cannot escape.


 * removes silences, slows and stuns, possibly foiling a full-duration Mystic Flare.
 * makes it impossible to burst down, even healing him up due to Mystic Flare's damage.


 * will make Skywrath Mage next to useless in fights, as his low hp pool will not allow him to sustain through the damage of the ward should he choose to cast spells. Be wary though that Skywrath's huge burst will make very quick work of Pugna's low hp should the ward be destroyed, and won't help Pugna at all.


 * Skywrath Mage's low health makes him rather easy prey for Nyx Assassin and his lack of armor generally means he'll take the full brunt of a strike.
 * turns Skywrath Mage's high intelligence growth against him and deals heavy damage.
 * gives Nyx some degree of protection against Skywrath's spells.


 * In the early-mid game, Skywrath consistently needs to use his entire mana pool to kill a hero, but Wraith King's allows him to finish off Skywrath after the first death, as Skywrath Mage will have likely expended all his mana.

Others

 * Skywrath Mage generally struggles against heroes that can lock him down and or prevent him from using spells. Legion Commander and Doom can easily eliminate Skywrath Mage with their respective ultimates.
 * Skywrath Mage also has a terrible time fighting against anything that isn't a hero. His skills are mostly target-based and he has terrible strength and agility, he can easily be kited or harassed by illusion-based heroes like and, or by Heroes that summon other units like ,  and.
 * Skywrath's pitiful defences also make him easy meat to heroes with high burst like, , or , the latter occasionally downing a support Skywrath in a single.
 * Heroes with silence such as, , or prevents Skywrath Mage from using his spells.

Items

 * , and  can either mitigate or negate Skywrath Mage's damage.
 * can render its owner safe from anything Skywrath Mage tries to throw at them, and besides the Arcane Bolt Pierces Spell Immunity talent, Skywrath Mage has nothing else to deal with it.
 * can be used to reflect a lot of damage back to Skywrath Mage.
 * ,, can be used to dispel Skywrath Mage's Ancient Seal silence and Concussive Shot slow. The latter can also potentially reflect Skywrath Mage's Ancient Seal back onto himself, leaving him silenced and unable to fire off any more nukes.
 * Although will save its owner or an ally from Mystic Flare, a squishy support will still die from a couple of amplified Arcane Bolts, especially once affected by Ancient Seal. Force Staff won't disjoint Concussive Shot, so Skywrath Mage should have vision to cast his other spells.
 * Similarly, will protect its owner from the damage of Mystic Flare, as well as dispelling the silence of Ancient Seal and the slow of Concussive Shot, but a smart Skywrath will keep his silence for after the Cyclone.
 * Finally, 's active ability helps to survive his combo, but if he carries a it might not be enough, since the magic resistance is countered by the spell amplification of Ancient Seal.
 * Any two of the above can save a support from Skywrath Mage.
 * or its upgrade prevents Skywrath Mage from casting spells, and the latter is especially deadly for Skywrath Mage, as it amplifies physical damage he takes.
 * blocks a portion of Skywrath Mage's arsenal of magic damage.

Good against...

 * Magical burst damage is Timbersaw's weakness, and Ancient Seal not only amplifies it but also prevents him from using to escape for up to 6 seconds.
 * He generally doesn't build early items to deal with silences.
 * does not trigger on magic damage or spells, meaning that even a won't give him the massive sustain he normally gets from attacks.


 * Similar to, Storm Spirit builds items that don't help against silences.
 * An will most likely silence you first. However, if you grab a, you might dispel his silence and turn the tides to your favor.
 * Root and silence are 's ultimate counters. Skywrath Mage has a silence in his kit, and has as his core item. If he dispels one, you cast the other, both leaving him vulnerable.
 * If he builds, he spends 4050 gold that doesn't help him snowball effectively.


 * is useless versus constant Arcane Bolts, and it doesn't help that her strength gain is the lowest in the game.
 * A jungle Enchantress can weaken lanes and make Skywrath Mage's job easier.
 * The magic amplification from Ancient Seal makes her even squishier to Skywrath and his allies' magic nukes.


 * Skywrath Mage can easily harass Alchemist in the laning phase with multiple Arcane Bolts. Additionally, if Alchemist is in the process of throwing an, and has no way to dispel Ancient Seal, the self stun becomes an easy set up for Mystic Flare.
 * Caution, however, as a decently farmed Alchemist with and  can easily send illusions to harass and force Skywrath Mage out.


 * While Phantom Assassin can kill Skywrath Mage in a few strikes, Skywrath Mage can also do the same to her if she is not careful.
 * 's long range and low cooldowns allows Skywrath Mage to severely harass Phantom Assassin in lane.
 * prevents Phantom Assassin from escaping or engaging with.
 * 's heavy magical damage nukes Phantom Assassin down quickly during the early to mid game.


 * Skywrath Mage should have the upper hand against Vengeful Spirit with Ancient Seal.
 * Vengeful is highly dependant on her abilities and has no natural means to deal against silences.
 * Her low attack range allows Skywrath Mage to easily bully her out of the lane.


 * is a perfect setup for Mystic Flare.
 * Winter Wyvern is a spellcaster, and the 6 second silence from Ancient Seal can prevent her from contributing much.
 * Because Skywrath Mage tends to stay back in fights, Winter Wyvern will have to get close to a teamfight to cast on him. And if she chooses to cast it on one of his allies, his low attack speed and damage means that he won't do much.
 * However, bear in mind that Skywrath Mage has seriously awful armor, and that can make him an adequate target to being turned against his own team with, which can result in his death quickly.

Others

 * Squishy targets (particularly spellcasters) will suffer in Skywrath Mage's hands. Usually, they can't survive a Mystic Flare combined with Ancient Seal.
 * Even though will block your silence, you can cast Arcane Bolt to break it or wait until someone on your team breaks it. In addition,  builders are usually squishy targets vulnerable to silences:, , , , etc. Don't forget that Ancient Seal also increases the magical damage these enemies take, along with silencing them.

Works well with...

 * sets up an easy Mystic Flare.
 * Ancient Seal buffs up Void's damage.


 * Skywrath Mage and is a dangerous combination early game. They can roll over almost anything by spamming Arcane Bolt and, removing your health and your strength. If you survive and don't give them kills however, they should fizzle out when they run out of mana and don't get experience and gold.


 * Ancient Seal buffs up all of Centaur Warrunner's spells. Especially.
 * is a 2-2.75 second stun, setting up a full-duration Mystic Flare on later levels. A 100% slow from Warrunner's also goes a long way.
 * Having a tanky initiator is extremely important, given Skywrath Mage's squishy nature.


 * combined with Ancient Seal will easily cut through and . However, it will never cut through full magic resistance provided by.


 * Ancient Seal combos well with Silencer's abilities, and allows him to get a longer duration with
 * Additionally, Skywrath can stack slows with Concussive Shot, leading to an easy kill with Mystic Flare.


 * Concussive Shot and combo well, allowing both heroes to run and chase down an enemy with ease.
 * With 's duration, Skywrath can easily get a Mystic Flare target, and Legion Commander gets an easy victory.

Others

 * Generally works well with every hero who does significant amount of magic damage.
 * ,, , and  all have good abilities to set up a Mystic Flare and they also like to roam or gank. There are more.
 * A costs only 50 gold, but consider a  or a  as a support partner if you just want to bully people out of lane all day.
 * with a or  also works.
 * , and  are also magical nukers and will make short work of the sturdiest heroes when they are taking amplified damage from Ancient Seal, as long as they don't have 100% magic resistance. They also provide control over the crowd to set up a decent Mystic Flare.

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

Skywrath Mage/Противостоящие