Night Stalker/Counters

Bad against...

 * Bullies Night Stalker in lane with his, and base attributes that are about as good as Night Stalker's.
 * completely neutralizes Night Stalker. Bloodseeker and his team can then decide whether to kill or kite him.
 * tracks Night Stalker when he tries to kite or escape at low hp during Dark Ascension. It also lets Bloodseeker go toe to toe with or run away from Night Stalker if conditions are right.


 * Viper can easily save himself or allies while crippling Night Stalker, using Viper's default build of combined with  and, not only rendering Night Stalker a non-threat to Viper's team but allowing him to be killed far more easily through removing Night Stalker's movement speed bonus, slowing and rooting him.


 * may be a natural item for Windranger, allowing her to get herself out of to disable Night Stalker with  and either using  to get away or  to turn on Night Stalker.
 * Night Stalker cannot afford to ignore Windranger because of her Shackleshot and massive damage through Focus Fire, but likewise, the evasion from Windrun makes her difficult to kill should she get it off.
 * To consistently deal with these threats, Night Stalker will need a lot of farm - to hit during evasion,  to avoid Shackleshot and the slow from Windrun,  to last through Focus Fire's damage, and at least  to actually lock Windranger down. Alternatively, Windranger has to watch out if Night Stalker simply buys a  but Windranger may be able to counter this with her own, waiting it out, or switching targets momentarily.
 * destroys trees, making it a bit easier to catch Night Stalker flying around the trees during or even cutting them down preemptively.


 * Like Windanger, Drow Ranger may build a . This item makes Night Stalker unable to fight Drow or her team without at least a due to her slow from . Hurricane Pike can also be used with  and Frost Arrows to catch Night Stalker off guard. Even after Night Stalker gets BKB, Drow can buy a  which should let her live long enough to start kiting back, especially once BKB's duration drops.


 * Chaos Knight is very tanky during the laning stage, the kind of hero Night Stalker cannot bully out of lane very easily even at night time. Later, Chaos Knight may survive the duration of and turn on Night Stalker with his own abilities to easily kill him with Phantasm. Night Stalker cannot escape easily from Chaos Knight as if he tries to run or teleport, it will simply mean that Chaos Knight exits the silence area and is now free to use his long stun from,  to bring Night Stalker closer, and  to quickly kill Night Stalker.


 * Night Stalker's slow is useless against Lycan if he 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 to land 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.
 * (core item for Phantom Lancer) can slow Night Stalker to help Phantom Lancer or allies (especially with ) 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 actives preemptively or not at all.

Others

 * turns night to day, overriding Dark Ascension during.
 * 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 Night Stalker, but may be hard to time as Night Stalker prefers to attack out of surprise.
 * 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.
 * and waste Night Stalker's time, allowing him to be kited and dealt with.
 * will significantly help the bearer and their team survive Night Stalker's assault for much of the game, as boosts attack speed rather than damage.  is a particularly good candidate for this item as in combination with his  it will significantly reduce Night Stalker's damage output on both Underlord and his allies, regardless of silence.

Good against...

 * Storm Spirit is absolutely helpless if caught within Night Stalker's silence range.
 * Common items 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.


 * Like Puck and Storm Spirit, she is helpless and dies easily as long as she is silenced.


 * 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.


 * The long silence at night prevents Bounty Hunter from escaping with his invisibility in lane. Like Clinkz, he also has really low base health, so that Night Stalker can usually kill them 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 quite 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 the 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