Night Stalker/Counters

Bad against...

 * pulls out Night Stalker while he tries to escape or chase.
 * Night Stalker doesn't have a lot of ways to deal with multiple targets, which makes him vulnerable to.


 * Night Stalker's slow is useless against Lycan if he has activated.
 * Night Stalker's single target damage is not very effective against Lycan's minion army during the early and mid game, during which Lycan can both take objectives (particularly during Night Stalker's downtime) and potentially threaten Night Stalker himself.


 * Root from prevents Night Stalker escaping or ganking during day and night.
 * can be effective since Night Stalker can't withstand fighting Illusions. If he's unable to tell which Naga Siren is real, he will have a hard time landing his Void.
 * reduces Night Stalker's armor, making him easier to focus down.


 * Night Stalker has no AoE abilities to take out Phantom Lancer's illusions.
 * Void is dispelled by.
 * can slow Night Stalker to help Phantom Lancer or allies get out of Crippling Fear's area, and the mana burn will rapidly deplete Night Stalker's mana and can force him to use his abilities preemptively or not at all.


 * Night Stalker can't kill Sven quickly while he has the armor bonus from.
 * Sven under the effect of and his various physical damage strength items can probably manfight Night Stalker and kill him before Night Stalker can kill him first.


 * provides a 60% miss chance, which can make the attack speed bonus from Hunter in the Night largely ineffective.
 * together with and  gives him a high chance of rooting Night Stalker, which allows Troll Warlord to man-fight Night Stalker in any stage of the game, regardless of whether or not it's night.

Others

 * turns night to day, overriding Dark Ascension during.
 * 's completely neutralizes Night Stalker while he uses Dark Ascension and the movement speed bouns from  allows Bloodseeker to chase Night Stalker.
 * Heroes that are hard to gank:, ,.
 * Heroes with stronger lane presence that can threaten to kill him:, , , , ,.
 * Heroes that can take advantage of Night Stalker's unavoidable downtime to take objectives:, ,.

Items

 * sends Void's slow back to him.
 * dispels Void's slow, but be wary that it does not counter Crippling Fear.
 * prevents Void's slow once.
 * brings targets out of Crippling Fear's area.
 * within its upgrades prevents Night Stalker attacking on you or ally.
 * wastes Night Stalker's Crippling Fear duration.
 * breaks Hunter of the Night.
 * toggles immunity making Crippling Fear useless.

Good against...

 * Storm Spirit is absolutely helpless if caught within Night Stalker's silence range.
 * Common items a Storm Spirit will build will not remove the AoE silence.


 * Puck cannot use any of its normal means to survive should Night Stalker catch it within Crippling Fear, and goes down quickly.


 * Night Stalker has a small mana pool, so against him is usually very ineffective.
 * Crippling Fear also prevents Anti-Mage from escaping with, allowing Night Stalker and his allies to kill him off.


 * The long silence at night prevents Clinkz from escaping with invisibility if Night Stalker can sneak up on him. He also has really low base health, so that Night Stalker can usually kill him alone during one cast of Crippling Fear at night.


 * has a short stun and creates an impassable ridge. However, Night Stalker can fly over it during Dark Ascension.
 * Night Stalker can find Earthshaker, disable his with Void, and then take him out with Crippling Fear.
 * Earthshaker may fail his blink combo against Night Stalker's team if he is not careful, as he can blink into the silence.


 * Keeper of the Light's upgrade loses much of its power, due to Night Stalker being able to reduce the duration of daytime by a lot.


 * Night Stalker is one of the best heroes to find (and silence) Tinker in the trees during Dark Ascension.


 * With Dark Ascension and Gem of True Sight, Night Stalker can easily find and kill Riki. Riki will also find it harder to kill the tanky Night Stalker than he would many other heroes.


 * With Dark Ascension he can keep vision on Slark, disabling his regeneration. Slark is also too weak to seriously threaten Night Stalker in lane.

Others

 * Heroes with low health and armor:, ,.
 * Heroes that have a weak laning stage:, , , , ,.
 * Spell casters will find it difficult to have an impact should Night Stalker focus on them such as:, ,.

Works well with...

 * counters the abilities of some heroes that are strong against Night Stalker in lane, such as 's, 's and 's . It roots  and Ursa in place when you need to run from them. This spell is also an additional source of interrupting teleports, and on a low cooldown.
 * counters 's, and while Blade Fury is on cooldown, Fate's Edict and Fortune's End will combine to prevent Juggernaut from trading back or disengaging.
 * Oracle's combo of Fortune's End and helps finish off targets within the duration of Crippling Fear.
 * can be amplified beyond its normal ability to save, as Night Stalker has a lifesteal talent and also likes to make Satanic. The delayed damage may also enable you to run somewhere where it is safe to teleport away from, while preventing from triggering as well.


 * turns day into night for 10 seconds while Dark Ascension grants Luna the bonus vision while active, which is minor but neat - although used effectively, it can help make up for Night Stalker's downtime in crucial situations. But Luna is also able to clear the illusions and minions that Night Stalker doesn't like, and makes Night Stalker significantly more tanky than he already is while also doing more damage.


 * places all enemy heroes into a small area, lining the enemy team up for Crippling Fear. Empower also helps compensate for Night Stalker's lack of wave clearing, and lets him deal better with illusions and minions.

Others

 * Heroes that make up for Night Stalker's potentially lackluster team fighting so the draft is stronger overall:, , ...
 * Heroes that are tanky enough to help draw the enemy's attention, allowing Night Stalker to do his job of sneaking up on and cleaning out the enemy's backline heroes:, , ...
 * Heroes with bonus night vision get an advantage when Night Stalker uses Dark Ascension:, , , , . However, this is likely to be quite minor as Night Stalker wants to save the spell for fights during which he'll provide vision for the team anyway.

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

Night Stalker/Противостоящие 暗夜魔王/克制