Zeus/Counters

Bad against...

 * Anti-Mage can burn mana, which is a big problem for a spellcaster like Zeus that heavily relies on it.
 * decreases magical damage from Zeus.
 * Although Zeus has spells which enable him to keep track of Anti-Mage, they are usually not enough once he has maxed out.
 * Zeus' high intelligence and mana pool makes him a perfect target for.


 * can limit Zeus to casting his abilities only once in a fight, effectively serving as a 6/8/10/12 second silence.
 * negates Zeus's burst damage.
 * Chronosphere makes Zeus the best target for Void because of his low mobility.


 * CK's high health pool makes him resistant to Zeus' burst damage, Phantasm can dispel Veil of Discord if it is used.
 * Zeus has no easy way to deal with CK's strong illusions, as Arc Lightning is not enough to kill them fast.
 * CK's physical damage output is potentially the highest in the game, hitting a weak point of Zeus; he even amplifies it with armor reduction, which is especially effective against low armor like Zeus'.


 * greatly increases Huskar's magic resistance which Zeus is entirely reliant on.
 * is especially deadly against Zeus since he has no escape mechanism.


 * negates all magical attack from Zeus.
 * can easily take down Zeus. Be wary that most players will get a or a  against you.


 * not only negates all magical attack from Zeus, it's very also useful to kill Zeus.
 * is good enough to take down Zeus.
 * A good player could try to bait Zeus' ultimate while being safely hidden inside a creep with.


 * strikes only the first Meepo.
 * Meepo has high base magical defense so he receives less damage from Zeus.
 * Zeus has low mobilty so consecutive s are easy to hit and he'll quickly die from s.


 * 's high range allows Pudge's team to drag Zeus in the middle of the fight and abuse his frailty.
 * 's health and magic resistance bonus makes Pudge exceptionally resistant to Zeus' nukes. In later stages of the game Zeus is usually unable to seriously damage Pudge at all, even Static Field which deals damage based on a percentage of the enemy's health is not doing much.
 * Even if Zeus buys a BKB, and  still disable him for a long time, usually causing Zeus' quick death.
 * Zeus is vulnerable to early ganks, whom Pudge excels at.


 * will make it very difficult to burst him down.
 * Zeus has little armor, HP and mobility; Ursa's favorite kind of target.


 * Omniknight's makes the enemy's ally immune to all of Zeus' spells rendering his spells useless against the targeted enemy.

Others

 * Zeus can deal a huge amount of damage, but he lacks defensive abilities, such as good mobility or resistance. Due to that, he doesn't like to be touched by any means. Heroes with higher damage output and good mobility will often get easily near Zeus and trade damage (eventually causing Zeus's downfall). Such Heroes include:, , , and others.
 * As a spellcaster, silences will nullify him entirely.
 * , as usual, fits this description nicely.
 * Heroes with long range abilities are also able to touch Zeus, such as, , , , ,  and others.
 * Any hero with built-in magic resistance like, or

Items

 * Arc Lightning and Lightning Bolt have very low cooldowns, which will provide plenty of charges for or.
 * The magic resistance from, as well as it's upgrades, and , will greatly reduce the effectiveness of Zeus's spell since they are all magic based. Notice that these items have separate cooldowns and stack their magic resistance bonuses, so don't hesitate to buy a Pipe and another Hood on top if one of them is not enough. Also more than one person buying a Pipe is sometimes useful, keep in mind though that the actives don't stack.
 * works as well, but keep in mind that Zeus can easily reveal you out of invisibility with Lightning Bolt and Thundergod's wrath. However, it enables the wearer to avoid Thundergod's Wrath's damage.
 * is Zeus' worst enemy.
 * silences and amplifies the damage Zeus takes, hitting him right in his weak spots (being very dependent on spells and being a very fragile Hero).
 * will return the damage Zeus deals. At the start of a fight, the percentage-based damage of can be especially harmful to Zeus.
 * not only cut Zeus's mana, it's purge Zeus from Eul's cyclone if he has one.
 * Any invisibility item or skill negates Thundergod's Wrath damage. Also Invulnerability.
 * A special mention should go to, since it will immediately hide you and your nearby allies from Zeus' ultimate, potentially saving your lives for a small 50g cost.
 * If your team has multiple s, you can Dominate Centaur Coursers and Hellbears, whose magic resistance auras stack with themselves and with each other.
 * makes it very hard to deal serious damage with magical nukes only, being generally strong against all non-rightclick-based damage dealers.

Good against...

 * With activated, Slardar will take even more damage from Zeus in early game.
 * Slardar has high priority on building moblity items such as rather than tank items. Zeus can easily deal large amount of damage to him if not get caught out of position at first.


 * Enchantress has a very low health pool, allowing Zeus to burst her down quickly before she can heal off the damage.
 * Zeus will not be affected by, as he won't try to attack her anyway.
 * Zeus can stay out of her attack range while trying to kill her, especially if he has bought an.
 * Most heroes would want to get on top of Zeus to kill him, but Enchantress does not have this option as doing so would severely limit her damage.
 * The exception is the laning phase, where Enchantress can gank Zeus if she Enchants a good creep.


 * will not trigger from Zeus's spells or protect Timbersaw from their damage.
 * Early game Timbersaw's strength is average and Zeus can heavily aid in bursting him down.
 * Late game, if Timbersaw has built a lot of HP items, Zeus's passive will be more effective at chipping away Timbersaw's large HP pool.
 * A Timbersaw who builds will be much more difficult to kill, as Zeus has no way to hold Timbersaw down, but Timbersaw will have less armor, mana, and damage than normal if he buys this item early game just to counter Zeus.


 * Bounty Hunter has a very low health pool, allowing Zeus to burst him down quickly.
 * Zeus can cast to gain true sight in any area he suspects Bounty Hunter may be invisible or any area he thinks Bounty Hunter may have warded.
 * If Bounty Hunter tries to escape a gank by using, Zeus can gain vision of him with both and.


 * Any ally that Winter Wyvern tries to save with can still be damaged by all of Zeus's spells.
 * If Winter Wyvern tries to juke vision by flying up a cliff or in the trees, Zeus can gain vision there with or.
 * If Zeus is forced to attack an ally by, his unimpressive attack damage and attack speed means they won't be hurt much by him. Zeus will also stay near the back of fights away from his allies, making a deadly Curse less likely.


 * Zeus's damage will not trigger the slow or be reduced by it.
 * Lich does not pose a big threat to Zeus in teamfights, as his spells don't have great cast range and Zeus should be too far back for a to bounce among him and his allies.
 * Lich has a very low health pool, allowing Zeus to burst him down quickly.


 * Necrophos' increases the magic damage taken by Necrophos.
 * If Zeus builds both an and, it almost always guarantees a kill.

Others

 * Zeus has one of the highest damage outputs in the game, but he can be easily countered if enemies are allowed to farm items like and . Zeus is thus very effective early and mid game against heroes that have to build certain items that aren't good against him, such as illusion heroes that have to build  or agility items. Another being initiators that have to rush.
 * Heroes with mediocre health pools who rely on armor or evasion to survive fights such as, , and can be killed by Zeus if caught off guard.
 * Heroes that avoid damage by coming in and out of invisibility in teamfights such as, , and will be easy for Zeus to reveal with  and , but these heroes usually have other ways to avoid his damage or kill him, so he is not a perfect counter alone.
 * Zeus is good against heroes that juke in trees or up cliffs, like, , , and , by providing vision in any area with , or guaranteeing vision on enemies with.

Works well with...

 * Both Zeus and love enemies with low HP (so they can finish them off effortless).
 * Their skill set grant vision of the unlucky enemy for each other, being like Yin and Yang.


 * makes enemies die quicker than they should. Along with Zeus huge damage and the fact that both and  are global ranged, enemies are very unlucky.
 * The Apparition also amplifies the magical damage enemies take by reducing their magic resistance with.


 * Can effectively protect the fragile Zeus, allowing him to stay in the fight longer to cause the massacre the King of the Gods can.


 * He is also able to protect Zeus against heavy nukers like, that will frequently kill Zeus in less than 3 seconds.


 * Both Zeus and have great teamfight abilities, a mix between damage and disable for every fight.

Others

 * amplifies the magical damage enemies take, increasing Zeus damage.
 * Mana batteries Heroes, like and  work really well for Zeus spells.
 * is great for Zeus to cast twice his almighty, being like a must item for Zeus.
 * Heroes with good AoE abilities or Global abilities work greatly with Zeus.

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