Sven/Counters

Bad against...

 * makes Sven hard to fight Clockwerk in his.
 * greatly limit Sven's position even with in teamfight.


 * Against her, Sven is barely able to hit Enchantress without using his.
 * deals lots of damage to Sven if she is left aside.


 * Sven can hardly hit her while against her, and need to rush a earlier than usual to deal damage on her.


 * can temporarily interrupt Sven's initiation. Even Sven has, can save an ally in a pinch.
 * pierces Spell Immunity, significantly slows Sven down. The upgraded version has 3 charges which is more than enough to kite Sven, also disables.


 * With all his skills, Slark is extremely hard to catch with your disables.
 * Slark can drain your stats with and knock you out in a prolonged fight.


 * With Sniper is extremely hard to initiate on for a melee hero as Sven.
 * and kites you hard.


 * Early to mid game, causes Sven's attack to miss,  and  causes a lot of damage on Sven without even getting close to him.
 * Late game, Tinker is available to permanently hex Sven using, and kite Sven by refreshing . still works if Sven didn't build a.


 * Since most of your damage comes from physical attack, allows Troll Warlord to fight you early game.
 * With and all his attack speed increase skills, Troll Warlord can almost permanently bash you even you have.


 * Venomancer forces Sven to choose between using his, or getting constantly slowed by his poison.
 * Venomancer can be especially hard to deal with in lane, as his damage over time will keep Sven from farming effectively.


 * could save the ally being initiated on.
 * can be devastating to Sven's team, as his massive damage can take out a teammate before there is much time to react.

Others

 * In general, any hero that can stun, root or slow will give Sven a hard time.
 * 's AoE blind, and 's miss can keep Sven from landing hits.

Items

 * kites Sven hard, also saves ally from.
 * disjoints in quick hands.
 * allows the owner immune to physical attack. As a strength hero Sven seldom builds.
 * makes Sven temporarily useless.
 * makes it very hard for Sven to catch up to his targets.
 * Blademail reflects Sven damage back.

Good against...

 * Anti-Mage is fairly fragile, and cannot stand against Sven in a prolonged fight. gives you protection against,  will also destroy the illusions from.


 * clears Spiderlings quickly in lane.


 * makes short work of Chaos Knight's s.


 * clears Chen's Creeps fast in mid to late game.


 * cannot purge, and can only disable with . Sven is still a fearful target to fight even being doomed as long as he activated  beforehand.


 * will devastate Meepo's clones. Against a closely packed group, Sven does not even need to target the clone with the lowest health.


 * cuts through Phantom Lancer's illusions in no time.


 * With Warlock's Golem goes down in a matter of seconds. The 2 weaker golems granted by  to Warlock will fare worse due to  hitting both.

Works well with...

 * Crystal Maiden's and numerous slows make it easy for Sven to catch up to enemies.


 * A well positioned could result in a team wipe for Sven with his  and.


 * and combo can stun the whole enemy team with good cooperation.


 * Io's and  sets Sven up for easy ganks anywhere on the map. This is effective against single targets because Sven can burst them down without being disabled by the enemy's teammates.


 * and gives Sven plenty of time to beat down the enemy.


 * gives Sven additional cleave and damage.
 * A well positioned could result in a team wipe for Sven with his  and.


 * and gives Sven plenty of time to beat down the enemy.

Others

 * In general, any hero with lengthy stuns or roots will synergize well with Sven.

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