Lion/Counters

Bad against...

 * applies strong dispel on targeted allies, while does the same on  himself upon both casts (manually or automatically), removing disables, such as  and.
 * may offer survivability to 's nuke power by shielding and healing allies and himself.
 * Lack of inner escape and defensive mechanisms increases effectiveness, since it slows per stack (applied upon auto attacking), and silences when it reaches the maximum stack.


 * makes Lifestealer debuff immune and gives him magic resistance which can drastically reduce magical damage from Lion's abilities while also preventing Lion to do anything to him.
 * Lion's lack of inner escape and defensive mechanisms increases effectiveness, since it applies slows upon attacking.
 * Lifestealer's physical damage output is strong against 's low health and base armor
 * can be used to surprise unsuspecting Lion if he tries to take down alone enemy hero. upgraded  can be used to disarm Lion and attack him from inside, even if Lion is debuff immune with the  upgraded.


 * silences and damages enemies affected by the ability, diminishing 's punishing powers.
 * High burst damage potential plus mobility and disable through, , and allows  to effortlessly chase, lock and/or kill , as the Demon Witch lacks proper ways to avoid so.
 * allows to dodge,  and breaks 's link.


 * All of 's abilities are dangerous even to Lion himself, and may steal them with.
 * powers up abilities cast range and damage, making better at using 's abilities than Lion himself.
 * can easily catch and disable while also manipulating his position to favor  and allies, rendering him helpless.


 * 's lack of escapes gives easier time to catch him through.
 * gives the advantage of being untargetable, nullifying single target abilities (such as non-upgraded,  and ).
 * applies multiple instances of strong dispel on, which is strong against any of 's disables.
 * 's low health pool and low armor make him extremely vulnerable to 's damage output.


 * is a core builder of . Along with natural high health pool, it's tough to burst the Leviathan down.
 * thwarts long disables attempts if receives enough damage.
 * and long cast and reach ranges will effortlessly hit, either bursting him down or making him extremely vulnerable and worn in matter of seconds.


 * Just like, the may effortlessly put  in life threatning danger and render him helpless by manipulating his position with.
 * 's longer cast range and lingering disable makes struggle to defend himself, possibly being affected by 's abilities without even seeing the thrall.

Others

 * Lion has an incredibly fragile health pool, making him weak against nukers like or.
 * Lion is extremely dependent on his abilities. Silences like 's, magic resistance like 's , and dispels like 's all make his abilities less effective.
 * Lion lacks mobility or escape mechanisms, making him an easy target for abilities like 's or 's, or combos like 's  into.
 * In general, struggles to play against any sort of burst damage and heroes that can deal well against crowd controls (commonly but not exclusively by removing or being immune to them).

Items

 * makes all of 's abilities ineffective against a particular target.
 * and 's silence can disable Lion and thus prevent him from using his critical abilities.
 * will reflect all of 's abilities, potentially stunning or hexing him or even making him burst himself down.
 * can be used defensively to dodge 's abilities, or offensively to disable and catch Lion.
 * can reflect Lion's very high damage burst from back at Lion if he impulsively uses it on a hero protected by it.

Good against...

 * has a very low health pool, allowing to burst her down.
 * Lack of any innate escape mechanism makes her an easy target for 's disables.
 * Early on she can't deal as much damage to be life threatning. Her is her best weapon against.


 * lacks any protection against 's disables early in the game.
 * 's and  may roughly hit  at the latter increased attack range, making it possible to gank and to disable him from afar in clashes.
 * is incredibly dangerous for as it may shred him away from fights, or in the worst scenario, cause his death.


 * is very fragile without any form of magic resistance, allowing to easily burst her down.
 * is a slow heal, making not as much effective against 's burst as it could be.
 * Her raw movement speed is a fair escape/mobility mechanism, which may allow her to avoid a blindly cast, but does nothing against the rest of 's abilities, since they are single target and can't miss.
 * Since 's damage comes mostly from his skills, does nothing to mitigate it.


 * lacks mobility or escape mechanisms. and  can neutralize her strong damage potential and allow for 's team to focus her down.
 * is a perfect ability to weaken Medusa's durability as it can quickly drain her, making her far less tanky. can also be used to restore mana of Lion's allies, which can nullify the mana steal from.
 * , along with, destroy illusions instantly, which may be extremely helpfull and efficient against core builders of , like herself.


 * Despite her high mobility, or  can lock  down, make her vulnerable and mitigate her damage output.
 * Lion relies entirely on his abilities to be effective, rendering Phatnom Assassin's high evasion through ineffective against him. And Phantom Assassin's low health pool makes her vulnerable to Lion's magical burst without.


 * 's exceptional ability to elude and survive through clashes and ganks is hard countered by in every aspect.
 * is very mana dependent and has a rather small mana pool in the beginning of the game, of which can deplete and lessen his early game presence.
 * followed by in the huge majority of the time is enough to kill.
 * can be point targeted to hit through.
 * 's has a fair long duration, by which will not be able to deal damage, or even survive a coordinated attack, and it is single target, of which cannot be dodged.
 * easily breaks . Its low cooldown allows to infinitely break it whenever it recharges.
 * and when paired for the longer lengths of disables may diminish  efficiency, possibly causing  to not undo as much damage as he would.


 * has a very low mana pool and is extremely dependant on it to cast his high mana cost abilities, so will make him struggle way too hard, even not being able to active his passive ability, forcing the  to buy  as soon as possible.
 * Althought may not be as fragile to struggle against 's damage, it's much easier to disable and harass him, as  doesn't have any mobility at all, his only gap closer being  which costs too much mana for his mana pool, and may only affect one target.


 * 's instant cast point shuts down his initiation and buys time for his allies to catch up.
 * has to be cautious when fighting, as he has no protection against . If caught out in a stun, the high magic damage could end him quickly.

Others

 * High priority targets like, , can't get caught out from 's long range disables, making it harder to them fulfill their roles, and making it easy to target them.
 * Long range disables are really effective against dangerous area controllers and channeling Heroes, like, or , as it may cancel them or prevent enemies from doing further damage while keeping  in a relatively safe distance in the warzone.
 * can instantly shred many targets, especially fragile Heroes like, or.
 * and instantly kill any illusions.  upgraded with  also shreds most illusions.
 * may upgrade, and  through Talent Tree and Aghanim's itens to make them affect secondary targets or turn them into AoE abilities. This can make things difficult for heroes like ,  and , who rely on illusion armies.
 * has an fair long range and low cooldown. It can easily deplete most heroes of their entire mana pools, especially those with smaller mana pools such as or.
 * In general, fares quite well against fragile Heroes (such as most Agility, Intelligence and some Universal Heroes), illusion based Heroes, and Heroes with low mana pool.
 * As opposed to his weakness against burst damage, is fairly strong against Heroes that deal sustained damage, since disables will shut them for as long as the debuffs lasts, greatly diminishing their overall effectivness dealing damage.

Items

 * is easily broken by, from a safe distance, and always having cooldown to do so.
 * 's active ability creates illusions of the caster, which can be instantly destroyed by and
 * Units and Heroes that enter in ethereal form will be in huge danger of a massive damage, so items like and  should be used concisely. Ethereal form may put  in danger of increased damage taken, especially considering his low defenses, but may also favor him, as it doesn't prevent him from casting his abilities, either if he is in ethereality or his target.
 * Lots of heroes who rely on their abilities to be effective have difficulties against and  which can make their owner's attacks burn mana. Lion, however, is an exception, as he can very easily restore burned mana with, which deos not cost mana at all.

Works well with...

 * Combined with, can cause massive damage.


 * and depletes enemies mana pool in matter of seconds as the target is fully disabled, which can allow a devastating.
 * will have easier time attacking his target as it is disabled, spending less time chasing them.


 * 's high Durable capabilities can make up 's lack of defense and mobility by being in the front line absorbing damage. improves them even more.
 * Both can deal high amounts of magical damage through abilities in a very short span, increasing killing potential.


 * has various forms of disable or lockdown and burst, but high casting time and low defenses. Along with 's disable and burst, they can keep enemies from reacting at all while bursting them down.


 * and can set up a  at maximum power.
 * grants invisibility to all her allies to either set up ganks or escaping, the latter of which lacks.


 * deals more damage the more he attacks the target, but since he lacks disables and mobility to do so, he may struggle with escaping and kiting Heroes. 's disables can lock targets down, allowing to quickly and easily tear down enemy heroes.

Others

 * is a hero with many disables and versatility, so he is an excellent addition to nearly any team, especially those in need of disables.
 * Powerful healers and protective supports such as, , or can make up for Lion's fragility.
 * Other nukers and disablers, like, , or can combo together with  to sum up longer disables and more damage.
 * Carries can make the most use of long disables as they should deal the maximum damage they can with minor or no interruptions.

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

Lion/Противостоящие