Silencer/Counters

Bad against...

 * is useful for killing or escaping Silencer.
 * , and later units, can be used to hunt a badly wounded Silencer down - even when Lycan himself can't fight.


 * Arc Warden's play style will rely on items more than abilities, lowering Silencer's impact on his performance.


 * Slark's allows him to purge himself from Silencer's debuffs.
 * Against a carry Silencer, will lower damage from both Glaives of Wisdom and basic attack.


 * Broodmother relies less on abilities and more on right-clicks.
 * Spiderlings can overwhelm Silencer, who has low defenses.


 * Due to and  being passives and not affected by silence, a  equipped Phantom Lancer can easily kill Silencer.


 * Silencer is rather squishy and has poor mobility without items, making him easy target for Nyx.
 * will deal increasing damage for each 2 points of intelligence Silencer has stolen, turning Silencer's intelligence steal against him.

Others

 * Heroes with damage-increasing passive abilities, such as and, will usually kill Silencer in a short time before he even has time to set up his abilities.
 * Heroes that can disable or silence Silencer for a long time, such as and, can lock down Silencer while their allies put him down.

Items

 * purges most debuffs when used.
 * removes all Silencer's debuffs upon activation and prevents damage from Glaives of Wisdom.
 * purges all Silencer's debuffs.
 * can be used to disable Silencer for a moment or purge Silencer's debuffs from you. It also gives nice movement speed and mana regen boosts, which can come in handy.
 * removes all Silencer's debuffs from the targeted ally. Echo Shell can also reflect Last Word back to Silencer, preventing him from casting or using Glaives of Wisdom.
 * and can silence Silencer, preventing him from casting Global Silence when needed or using Glaives of Wisdom. It also increases the damage Silencer takes from attacks making him easier to kill. With Global Silence out of the way, a fight will be much more in your team's favor.
 * If Silencer has a lot of intelligence, Glaives of Wisdom will deal lots of damage. Silencer himself, however, is rather squishy and will often lose more than half of his health with just a few attacks if he attacks target with Blade Mail. Blade Mail is good especially on high hp heroes like, or.

Good against...

 * Crystal Maiden is squishy, is heavily spell reliant, has low base Intelligence, and is naturally slow, making her an ideal target for Silencer
 * Crystal Maiden's has a similar cooldown to, therefore, Freezing Field can almost always be canceled to ruin aggressive CM initiations.


 * Timbersaw is heavily reliant on his abilities for damage and escape, allowing Silencer to effectively disable him and make him useless in both team fights and 1v1 scenarios.


 * Pugna is very reliant on his abilities for damage. (Just be careful around the )


 * Silencer can stop, preventing Tinker from spamming his abilities/items or escaping.


 * Bristleback will not be able to cast or  while silenced, effectively blocking a major part of the hero's damage and preventing  charges from stacking.
 * Arcane Curse slows Bristleback down and lasts longer the more abilities he uses. On the other hand, if he doesn't use any abilitiess, he will begin to lose Warpath charges.


 * Silencer's abilities hamper Windranger's effectiveness in battle, preventing her from comboing abilities and escaping using.


 * Silencer's intelligence steal will heavily reduce OD's damage output, if OD dies a lot near/to Silencer.
 * Global Silence and Last Words will render OD helpless unless he has purging item/ally.


 * Zeus' main source of damage is his low cooldown, high damage spells - meaning Last Word and Global Silence will pretty much take him out of the game for the duration.
 * Zeus likes to spam his abilities, which makes him vulnerable to Arcane Curse.
 * If Zeus dies near Silencer, he will lose intelligence, reducing his manapool, mana regen and attack damage. Furthermore, if the game is long and Zeus dies often, the intelligence losses will also reduce his spell damage.

Others

 * Basically, Heroes that heavily rely on abilities for damage or escape, such as {{H|Queen of Pain}.
 * Heroes with low mana pools will feel the effects of Silencer's Intelligence Steal far more than others.

Works well with...

 * Silencer consumes a lot of mana and he lacks a stun/disable. Crystal Maiden helps with both of those issues.


 * Global Silence can prevent enemy abilities from disabling Anti-Mage while he breaks their mana.


 * Pudge can use to hook enemies for easy kills, allowing Silencer to harvest intelligence safely and quickly.
 * Both of you grow stronger with each kill, even if you reach level 25 with max items. Your enemies on the other hand lose max mana, mana regen, and spell damage (and damage, if intelligence hero) every time they die, making them grow weaker. This is very good in long games.


 * Outworld Devourer can save a low health Silencer with, and if any enemies die within range, Silencer will still gain +2 int while imprisoned.
 * Silencer's passive intelligence steal increases intelligence difference between Outworld Devourer and his enemies, increasing the damage they take from.
 * allows Silencer to spam his abilities.

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