Winter Wyvern/Counters

Bad against...

 * disables the healing component of Cold Embrace, making it essentially a 4 second stun on an ally and a perfect setup for Ice Blast.
 * If is cast on an Allied hero affected by Cold Embrace, it will almost guarantee the Ally comes out stunned.


 * Cold Embrace is the perfect setup for all his nukes -, and especially global.


 * Cold Embrace is no salvation against and.
 * will not hit a hero affected by Winter's Curse, making it weak against allies, but strong versus enemies.
 * Luna has better night vision provided by than Winter Wyvern when affected by Arctic Burn.


 * Song of the Siren can be used to nullify the effects of Winter's Curse, and when upgraded with it also outmatches the heal of Cold Embrace.
 * If Winter Wyvern is reckless enough to put an ally in Cold Embrace, Naga Siren will be able to use her Ensnare to extend the disable on the hero affected by Cold Embrace.


 * completely counters Winter's Curse, allowing his team to survive Winter Wyvern's initiation.
 * and are very useful against Arctic Burn and Splinter Blast as well.


 * Winter Wyvern must never put her allies in Cold Embrace against Outworld Destroyer as will continue to deal damage to the defenseless hero.
 * does not hit his allies when he is taunted by Winter's Curse, making it weak against allies, but strong versus enemies.
 * can protect a target inflicted with Winter's Curse.


 * Cold Embrace is a death sentence against Pugna, since its the perfect setup for all his abilities, especially.
 * can be cast to save the ally under Winter's Curse effect, wasting most of its duration.
 * Winter Wyvern's abilities require a lot of mana, allowing to deal lots of damage.


 * Cold Embrace is the perfect setup for, and his 6-second silence is good against Winter Wyvern in general.


 * Arctic Burn and Splinter Blast debuffs are dispellable with . Arctic Burn is also no escape against.
 * Cold Embrace just gives Slark free stacks. He also relies mostly on magic damage early in the game.


 * Timbersaw relies on dealing massive amounts of pure damage, making Cold Embrace a good setup for his nukes.
 * If he has stacks, Timbersaw can tank the damage from his allies if he is targeted by Winter's Curse. If he's not the target, Timbersaw's abysmal attack damage will contribute next to nothing when he is cursed to attack an ally.


 * All of his damage is magical and pure, which makes Cold Embrace a good setup for his nukes.
 * Winter's Curse is very hard to cast on Tinker because he usually stays in the back-lines in team-fights. In turn, Tinker has mediocre attack damage and will contribute very little when he is cursed to attack an ally. He can also save his ally under Winter's Curse effect with.


 * Winter Wyvern cannot handle the Zombies created by very well. In most situations, Zombies will have more movement speed than her.
 * Undying can gain one or two easy stacks on an ally in Cold Embrace. The ally will still take the damage as well, since it is magical.

Others

 * Heavy nukers will do well against Cold Embrace (, etc).
 * Blinkers and mana burners may also be a threat to Winter Wyvern, as she has no reliable escape.
 * Disablers are more hazardous against Winter Wyvern than to other supports, because Cold Embrace stuns allies.

Items

 * Items that deal magical damage like and  will damage through Cold Embrace.
 * can be cast on ally under Winter's Curse effect wasting most of its duration. will easily block any attempt to initiate with a Winter's Curse.
 * Enemies that are affected by will not be taunted by Winter's Curse. However, they can still be targeted directly by the spell, which may be useful to lock down key carries for a few critical seconds (e.g. a  that has just activated his ultimate and Black King Bar and is about to wreak havoc on your team). Additionally, Arctic Burn's and Splinter Blast's debuffs will not work.

Good against...

 * Beastmaster's summons and are very useful to attack his cursed teammate.
 * Cold Embrace effectively mitigates 's single-target initiation on allies.


 * Winter Wyvern can make Chaos Knight's illusions attack the real one, provided the player knows who it is.
 * Alternatively, Winter's Curse can make Chaos Knight and all his illusions attack one of his allies.
 * Cold Embrace protects ally who is focused by Chaos Knight.
 * Splinter Blast deals decent area damage to Chaos Knight's illusions.


 * All of Lycan's damage is physical which is totally negated by Cold Embrace.
 * Lycan often moves around with large amount of creeps, wolves created by and neutral creep dominated by  which can be easily cleared by Splinter Blast or used as a great source of damage by Winter's Curse. If you catch Lycan with creeps nearby and affected by  using Winter's Curse on him will most certainly end up with his death.


 * Cold Embrace is very effective against.
 * Also, casting Winter's Curse at while an ally is in a  will stun her for most of the duration, possibly preventing lethal damage dealt to your ally. It can also turn her high-damage against her teammate.


 * Meepo's clones usually gets grouped in teamfight making any of them ideal target for Winter's Curse, forcing Meepo to literally kill himself. Also unlike another hero he cannot protect himself with.


 * Cold Embrace will protect your ally from being damaged if he gets focused by Troll.
 * His high attack speed and bash will help to kill his cursed ally faster.

Others

 * ,, by their nature offer very good target for Splinter Blast and Winter's Curse.
 * and his illusions deal huge damage, which might used against him and his team with Winter's Curse.
 * Many physical-only single-target heroes like, , , etc.
 * You can easily save any ally from physical bursts with Cold Embrace.
 * Enemies with large health pool will suffer by Arctic Burn as it burns away portion of their current health per second.

Works well with...

 * When Winter Wyvern has cast Winter's Curse, can pull in nearby foes who weren't taunted already.


 * Winter's Curse can set up for an easy +  combo.


 * can bunch up a lot of enemies together. Cast Winter's Curse when the stun has ended to ensure all taunted enemy heroes kill the victim quickly enough.


 * Winter's Curse can set up for an easy, though keep in mind that the poison damage will not affect any enemy while they are still affected by the curse.
 * and, combined with Winter Wyvern's Arctic Burn and Splinter Blast can cripple enemy heroes in the laning phase. The slows from all 4 abilities can easily ensure a kill.


 * Winter's Curse can set up for all of Invoker's AoE spells.

Others

 * Heroes with AoE spells work well with Winter Wyvern's Winter's Curse once the curse has worn off. These include but not limited to, , , , , , and.
 * Anyone who can directly amplify damage e.g. Bloodseeker, and anyone who can reduce armor e.g. Slardar, Naga Siren, Vengeful Spirit, etc. have good synergy with Winter's Curse.

Items

 * and have incredible synergy with Winter's Curse.
 * and can be purchased to increase damage enemy suffers during Winter's Curse.
 * synergies well with Cold Embrace, negating all physical and most magical damage.

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

Winter Wyvern/Противостоящие