13 Ways to Counter Night Stalker (Balanar)

Night Stalker is now a high pick in Captains mode Dota games.  He is a horrifying ganker having a skill that can damage as well as slow his opponents, he has high movement and attack speed at night, and he can tank.  People, who don't want that kind of hero to ruin their games, simply ban him.  However, there are other heroes who are more worth banning than Night Stalker.

A good Night Stalker player can completely mess up your strategy if you don't consider countering him.  He can just have lane-hopping and gank the hell out of you.  So, you should be ready whenever the opponents have the option to pick him.

If your opponents have a Night Stalker, these are the 13 counters you can choose from or you can combine number of counters.  

1.  Initiate team fights

Knowing that Night Stalker is a pub game hero utilized to be a ganker in Captains Mode matches, he is a weak hero in terms of 5v5 clashes.  In ganking he can kill alone by chasing his prey wherever it goes.  In team fights, he can't do that.  He'll be stunned and nuked to death.  His skills are single-target making him weaker at team fights.  The best he can do at team fights would be 1 or 2 voids and few punches on his target. 

2.  Have enough amount of disables

You want to kill him?  Then, you should disable him.  Not only he got tanking skills but he's way fast at night.  You want to make him stay in one place long enough to kill him.  You also need disables to help your team mate Night Stalker wants to kill.

3.  Have high hp heroes

Simply because Night Stalker's void is too painful for low hp heroes.  Having high HP means having enough time to run, juke and shout for help.  At early game, Night Stalker doesn't have that much Mana to kill you with his void.  He'd prefer focusing on low hp heroes then.   If your low hp heroes know how to hide whenever they sense danger, the vampire would be hungry the whole night.

Vampires won't dare getting a panda bear hug.

4.  Bait at night

Night Stalker forgot to have a spoiler on his name.  We know that he would gank at night.  Pro players would use this to their own advantage baiting heroes to kill the deceived vampire.  He's predictable.  The only thing you should do is stay focused.  If you don't have the ability to sense when the gank is coming, simply put observer wards.  For Balanar to completely kill a hero the average time would be 8 seconds.  That is the time he void, chase, normal attack and another finishing void.  If you can predict when he's going to gank, why not stealthily wait for him and kill him when he tries to kill your bait?  That way he would have fear in ganking again making him a worse Night Stalker player.

You tricked me... aaahh...

 5.  Take advantage of the vampire's rest hours

Morning is the part of the day when you should be executing most of your attacks.  Yes, he can turn the day into night, but the worst part of using Darkness in the morning is that when the duration of the Darkness end, the morning period stayed the same.  You can also bluff a team fight for him to waste his Darkness and pursue fighting after the skill's duration.  Balanar doesn't have that bonus movement and attack speed making him more vulnerable and ignorable.

TURN OFF THE LIGHTS!!!!!!!!

6.  Have healers

Healers doesn't prevent Balanar from killing a prey but they help prolong the killing.  Once the back ups arrive, Balanar will be left no choice but to retreat.   Some good healers against Balanar are the following:  Warlock, Omniknight and Enchantress.  They are the heroes that can survive Balanar's attack longer.  Chen, Dazzle and Vol'jin are good aids to team mates being ganked by Balanar.  They should be careful though because they have low delicious HP Balanar would want.

7.  Counter his tanking ability

He can be a good tank because of his decent hp and armor.  Countering strength heroes is not new to us.  Heroes like Necrolyte, Slardar and Shadow Fiend are good for taking down tanks.  Armor reduction items such as Stygian Desolator make it easy to take tanks fast too.


8.  Use his movement speed to your advantage

The buff on another pub game hero, Blood Seeker, made him suitable for CM games.  His Rupture can cause great damage to high ms heroes like Balanar.  Another hero that can be used to turn his speed to your own advantage is Ezalor.  Mana leak on Balanar will surely drain his mana.  He may choose not to move but that's dangerous for him specially in Captains mode where most heroes aren't alone.


9.  Use Ghost Scepter wisely

Void is a nuke that will be amplified if used on a hero which has activated Ghost Scepter or in an ethereal form.  Thus, if used wisely, ghost scepter can save a hero's life when being chased by Balanar.  After he used his void on you, that's the time you turn to Ethereal form.  Now, he can't attack you for 4 seconds.  If you have dagger of escape, you can now dagger out.  If you have none, you should be calling for help now before you turn back to your original form and receive quick blows from Balanar, not to mention casting another Void on you.

10.  Respond Quickly

The main reason why Balanar is so strong in pub games is that nobody cares if you're being killed and you can't command your stranger team mates that easy.  Balanar is scared of heroes teleporting on towers because he needs to chase for 8 seconds to cast 2 Voids on a hero.  In Captains mode games, Night Stalker shouldn't be owning a lot if your team knows how to be careful and how to respond quickly.

Prey saved again, darn it!

11.  Ruin his early game

Not making Balanar have an easy game having all the levels and items he needs, makes him not a very productive ganker.  He is also not that easy to farm unlike heroes who have AOE spells.  Once you disrupt his early game, there's nothing to fear much in mid game.  He can gank but responding at once will waste those ganks.  He can even die in the certain gank if he would be aggressive.  By mid game he needs vanguard or other tanking items to make him last longer in clashes.  If you ruin his early game, it is hard for him to recover and he'll be useless until late game where he can be easily killed by a disable and painful normal attacks.

12.  Know how to juke effectively

Take advantage of his range.  He is a melee hero and juking into forests would make him have difficult time landing his normal attacks on you.  Know the juke spots and use fogs.  If you survive until your team mates arrive, you'd be more likely safe now and you can cast a skill to help your team mates kill Balanar or you can run through the fountain if the disables of your team mates are not that dependable. This strategy is not applicable when he got Aghanim's Scepter.

13.  Teleport

Void can cancel channeling spells and teleporting is one of them.  You can use teleport to escape after he cast his first void on you but be sure he doesn't have a team mate with disable or deadly nukes when you're planning to use this.  If he does, juking, shouting for help and panic buying are the best options.  You shouldn't be displaying yourself on the first place if Balanar is not seen in the map. 

You don't have teleport scroll my dinner?

Balanar isn't as scary as his appearance.  He is just scary if you'll take for granted countering him.  Remember,  there are a lot of Dota Guides on countering heroes but all you need to do is find out every heroes' weaknesses.  Then, you can beat them easier by exploiting their weaknesses.

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