Night Stalker/Counters

Bad against...

 * pulls out Night Stalker while he tries to escape or chase.
 * Night Stalker doesn't have a lot of ways to deal with multiple targets, which makes him vulnerable to illusions from early to mid game, until Night Stalker buys.


 * Void's slow is useless against Lycan by activating.
 * Night Stalker's single target abilities (with the exception of Void upgraded by ) is not very effective against Lycan's and Necronomicon minions during the early and mid game.


 * and prevents Night Stalker from escaping and ganking during daytime or even nighttime.
 * reduces Night Stalker's armor, making him easier to focus down.
 * can be effective against Night Stalker, due to his single target abilities.


 * Void's slow is dispelled by or counteracted by.
 * 's and 's slow reduces Night Stalker's mobility and helps him or his ally escape if they're inflicted by Void or Crippling Fear.
 * Night Stalker has no AoE abilites to take out Phantom Lancer's illusions. Even if Night Stalker gets an, there will be way too many illusions for Night Stalker to handle.


 * Night Stalker can't kill Sven quickly while he has the bonuses from.
 * Sven under the effect of and his various physical damage and strength items allow him to fight against Night Stalker.


 * provides a 60% miss chance, which can make the attack speed bonus from Hunter in the Night largely ineffective.
 * together with and  stacks gives him a high chance of rooting Night Stalker, which allows Troll Warlord to man-fight Night Stalker in any stage of the game, regardless of whether or not it's night.


 * does percentage based magical damage, a big problem for a tanky hero like Night Stalker.
 * can root Night Stalker for a long duration and Underlord will in most situations carry to help him hold Night Stalker in it.
 * Night Stalker excels in catching low health targets. However, with, Underlord can teleport far away. In addition, Night Stalker's lack of area-of-effect abilities is not good for intercepting Underlord's team when teleporting with.

Others

 * turns night to day, overriding Dark Ascension during.
 * 's turns Night Stalker mobility against him and  grants movement speed bonus and vision prevents Night Stalker from initiating and re-initiating.
 * Heroes that are hard to gank:, ,.
 * Heroes with illusions and summons can manfight Night Stalker:, ,.
 * Heroes with stronger lane presence that can threaten to kill him:, , , ,.
 * Heroes that can punish aggressive heroes, such as:, , ,.

Items

 * Using after Night Stalker uses Void almost guarantees you will escape should he be alone.
 * keeps Night Stalker in place.
 * dispels Void's slow, as well as creating illusions that can waste his single-target abilities.
 * reduces Night Stalker's mobility and burns his already poor mana pool.
 * sends Void's slow back to him or removes the debuff from an ally.
 * prevents Void's slow and damage.
 * brings targets out of Crippling Fear's area.
 * or prevents Night Stalker attacking on you or ally.
 * wastes Night Stalker's Crippling Fear duration.
 * breaks Hunter of the Night.
 * provides spell immunity, making Crippling Fear and Void useless.

Good against...

 * Night Stalker has a small mana pool, so and  are usually very ineffective against him.
 * Crippling Fear also prevents Anti-Mage from escaping with, allowing Night Stalker and his allies to kill him off.


 * Earth Spirit is completely helpless once caught under Crippling Fear during the night.
 * Night Stalker can scout out Earth Spirit with very little problems and keep up with him even if he uses.


 * Luna has no way to deal with Night Stalker in the laning phase and early mid game.
 * will also summon night, should it be day time.
 * Night Stalker can silence and stay on top of Luna with his superior mobility.


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


 * 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 Night Stalker can usually kill him 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 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 weaker mobility will struggle to keep up with Night Stalker:, ,
 * Heroes with low health:, ,.
 * Heroes that have a weak laning stage:, , , , ,.
 * Spell casters will find it difficult to have an impact should 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