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 taken from Zeus.
 * 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.
 * makes Zeus the best target for Void because of his low mobility.


 * Chaos Knight's high health pool makes him resistant to Zeus' burst damage. can dispel, a typical item purchased by Zeus.
 * Zeus is easily overwhelmed by Chaos Knight's strong illusions, as Arc Lightning is not enough to kill them fast enough to have any impact.
 * Zeus' low base armor makes him extremely vulnerable to Chaos Knight's high damage output and armor reduction.


 * negates all magical damage from Zeus.
 * can easily take down Zeus. However, be aware that most players will get a or a  against Juggernaut.


 * is very useful against Zeus, as it negates magic damage and provides spell immunity. In addition, the increased attack speed can tear Zeus apart in combination with.
 * Lifestealer can avoid Thundergod's Wrath with.


 * Thundergod's Wrath strikes only the first Meepo.
 * 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, won't be doing much.
 * Even if Zeus buys a, and  still disable him for a long time, usually causing Zeus' quick death.
 * Zeus is vulnerable to early ganks, which Pudge excels at.


 * Even though Pugna's low HP means that he can be quickly burst down, his heavily punishes casters whose spells cost a lot of mana, like Zeus. Casting 4 of his active spells, including Nimbus, close to an enhanced level 4, can make the ward deal up to 1750 magical damage.
 * can further increase the damage dealt by Nether Ward upon Zeus. However, if used on Pugna himself or on one of his allies, it will amplify the damage done by Zeus' abilities.


 * Silencer's will render Zeus useless for 6 seconds in a team fight.
 * will punish Zeus for casting spells, which can cause continuous damage to him should he continue to cast spells.
 * can silence Zeus and prevent him from spamming his spells.
 * Silencer often builds (or ) which can be used on spell casters like Zeus, forcing him to invest in a.


 * blocks all of Zeus' damage and Zeus has no innate way of removing the instances quickly.
 * helps burst down Zeus' small health pool while he's still working through the Refraction instances.
 * allow her to harass and zone Zeus in lane.
 * Templar Assassin usually buys, enabling her to quickly close the gap to Zeus' defensive positioning.


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


 * counters Zeus in lane by canceling the effects of as Zeus relies on Arc Lightning to farm and secure last hits.
 * Corrosive Skin also increases Viper's magic resistance to shrug off Zeus's magical nukes.
 * breaks Static Field.
 * Due to Zeus' poor mobility, will cripple Zeus and will allow Viper and his teammates to land a lot of attacks.

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. Some notable examples are, , , and many others.
 * , as usual, fits this description nicely.
 * Heroes with long range abilities are also able to touch Zeus, such as, , , , , and others.
 * Heroes with built-in magic resistance:,.

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 abilities since they are all magical. 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.
 * Over time, 's duration is reduced allowing Zeus to cast his spells earlier.
 * 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).
 * The enemy may also be able to build a which not only silences Zeus but also takes advantage of his low armor by dealing critical damage.
 * will return the damage Zeus deals. At the start of a fight, the percentage-based damage of Static Field can be especially harmful to Zeus.
 * As an intelligence hero with a big mana pool and low armor, deals a lot of damage against him. The slow also heavily cripples his already low movement speed.
 * Any invisibility item or skill negates Thundergod's Wrath damage. Invulnerability works as well.
 * 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 50 gold cost.
 * makes it very hard to deal serious damage with magical nukes only.

Good against...

 * 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 with right clicks 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 Static Field 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 Lightning Bolt 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 Lightning Bolt and Thundergod's Wrath.


 * 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 Lightning Bolt or Thundergod's Wrath.
 * 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.


 * 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 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.


 * Due to Tinker's low health pool, Zeus can easily burst Tinker down, while also cancelling.
 * Once Zeus gets, he will gain , which allows him to scout out Tinker on the map, especially when he is pushing lanes while hiding in the trees.

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 Lightning Bolt and Thundergod's Wrath, 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 Lightning Bolt, or guaranteeing vision on enemies with Thundergod's Wrath.
 * Zeus's Lightning Bolt give's temporary True Sight in a 750 radius. This allows Zeus to check if there are any in that area or to deward.
 * Arc Lightning or Lightning Bolt can be used to disable a due to their cheap cooldown.

Works well with...

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


 * Both Zeus and Bloodseeker love enemies with low HP since they have great pick off abilities.
 * Their skill set grant vision of the unlucky enemy for each other.
 * Zeus can start the fight with Thundergod's Wrath to give Bloodseeker a boost in damage and movement speed from.
 * is one of the few abilities that can grant Zeus bonus spell damage.


 * Can protect the fragile Zeus, allowing him to stay in the fight longer to output damage.


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

Others

 * Heroes who supply mana for Zeus to use abilities: ,
 * Heroes with good area or global abilities work great with Zeus.

Items

 * amplifies the magical damage enemies take, increasing Zeus damage.

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

Zeus/Противостоящие