Vengeful Spirit/Counters

Bad against...

 * Vengeful Spirit has no strong AoE nuke or disable against Phantom Lancer's Illusions, and with Diffusal Blade (Core item on PL), Shendel's naturally poor mana pool will be empty in no time, making her defenseless.


 * Past the mid game, an isolated Vengeful Spirit makes for an easy kill for Anti-Mage. Her defense is often a, but that has a travel time and can be dodged with . This disjointing property and drawback of also makes it that Vengeful Spirit cannot reliably roam to kill Anti-Mage in the early-mid game, as compared to against most other heroes.


 * With Barathum's aggressive facerushing damage, Vengeful Spirit will not be able to do much against him once her is expanded. Even if Shendelzare gets away for a moment and stuns him, his  means that there is often no escape for her.


 * If Vengeful uses his  on tide hunter, he is able to use his   on her allies without problems, and if he gets stunned with  he easily dispels it with his.

Others

 * Strong nuking supports like . Shendelzare has subpar attack range, making it harder for her to harass and last hit safely. With enough pressure she can be bullied out of a lane.
 * Entry
 * Entry

Items

 * Linken's Sphere
 * Entry
 * Entry

Good against...

 * Vengeful is good versus meepo because she can isolate one of the meepoes with, making him an easier kill for the team.


 * With her , a Vengeful Spirit can save the life of an ally who gets caught with . Her swap also makes it highly dangerous for Batrider to attempt a lasso as it can lead to his own demise far behind enemy lines.


 * With her  , a well positioned Vengeful Spirit can save the life of a more important ally who gets caught in  . Her   also makes her an unappetizing target for Faceless Void to turn on in the chronosphere.


 * While Venge herself can be killed easily by Morphling, she is one of the few targets he hates killing as Vengeance Aura hurts his attack power horrendously as he is likely to focus on building stat items. Additionally, if Morphling has no Replicate available or a Spell Block ready, he can easily be pulled back into a fight by the Nether Swap.

Others
 * Heroes with strong channeling spells like Crystal Maiden's Freezing Field or Enigma's Black Hole can easily be interrupted from a long range by Vengeful Spirit assuming they don't have a the Linken's Sphere's Spell Block.
 * Heroes that generally build stat items over damage increasing items like Morphling or Terrorblade must always be careful with dealing Vengeful Spirit, as the debuff aura decreases their damage output considerably.

Works well with...

 * Vengeful Spirit can an enemy hero into  and, making it an easy (albeit somewhat cheap) kill.


 * and  shreds the enemies' armor,  while  further boosts the damage of Shadow Fiend.


 * can be used to scout for a target to cast on. The high amount of negative amour that results from these 2 spells means most heroes will easily melt to Slardar's auto attacks.


 * Drow Ranger makes a natural pairing with Vengeful Spirit as they boost each other's damage with and, which is helpful in the late game. Drow Ranger also appreciates a support with a stun , allowing her to catch up and lay her  into her target.   can be used offensively to score Drow more kills, or defensively to save her if her  fails.


 * can be the prelude for a.


 * 's damage can be amplified by a correct.


 * The high damage of and  makes for a hard lane to stay in for the enemy offlaner.  and  increases the damage done by both heroes.


 * Vengeful Spirit and Crystal Maiden make a very strong support and ganking duo, as their plethora of single target disables can easily be stacked to make sure the target rarely gets away. Also, greatly alleviates Vengeful Spirit's mana needs.

Others

 * Elder Titan
 * Underlord
 * Drow Ranger

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