Dark Willow Counters & Build

Techies 1,600 matches

−2.7%

WhyWhile Techies slightly loses the laning stage against Dark Willow, their advantage grows later in the match. Dark Willow relies heavily on Shadow Realm to dodge targeted abilities, but Techies' ground-targeted and triggered area-of-effect nukes like Blast Off!, Sticky Bomb, and Proximity Mines damage her regardless of untargetability. Additionally, Reactive Tazer provides Techies with a disarm that disrupts Dark Willow's attack-based burst windows.

Slark 2,017 matches

−2.1%

WhyDark Willow relies heavily on delayed crowd control from Cursed Crown, Bramble Maze, and Terrorize, all of which Slark can reliably purge with the strong dispel pulses of Dark Pact. Slark can close the distance with Pounce to leash her, then utilize Shadow Dance to freely attack and steal attributes with Essence Shift while remaining hidden from her single-target damage.

Axe 3,264 matches

−2.0%

WhyAlthough the lane is roughly even, Axe excels later by using Berserker's Call to taunt Dark Willow, ignoring her defensive positioning and rapidly triggering Counter Helix pure damage. Furthermore, once Dark Willow's low health pool is chipped down, Axe can immediately execute her through Culling Blade, bypassing any escape attempts and resetting his ultimate's cooldown.

Ancient Apparition 1,193 matches

−2.0%

WhyAncient Apparition clearly loses the lane to Dark Willow, but takes control in later teamfights. Ice Blast strikes Dark Willow even while untargetable in Shadow Realm due to its ground-targeted area, and its healing freeze completely shuts down the health regeneration from her Pixie Dust innate. Additionally, the movement slows from Death Rime severely restrict her mobility during engagements.

Puck 677 matches

−1.8%

WhyPuck's ground-targeted area-of-effect abilities, such as Illusory Orb and Waning Rift, allow it to damage and silence Dark Willow even while she is untargetable in Shadow Realm. Puck can also easily evade Dark Willow's delayed Cursed Crown stun and empowered Shadow Realm attacks using Phase Shift or Ethereal Jaunt, triggering Puckish to restore health and mana. Additionally, Dream Coil restricts her movement, making it difficult for her to maneuver around fights.

Spirit Breaker 2,560 matches

+1.4%

WhyDark Willow counters Spirit Breaker's single-target initiation because Shadow Realm makes her completely untargetable, disjointing and stopping spells like Charge of Darkness and Nether Strike. Her Bramble Maze easily catches his linear charges, allowing her to punish his melee positioning with massive magic damage from Shadow Realm and Bedlam starting right from the laning phase.

Witch Doctor 2,603 matches

+1.3%

WhyDark Willow can use Shadow Realm to become untargetable and disjoint incoming Paralyzing Cask projectiles, preventing Witch Doctor and his Death Ward from targeting her. Outside the laning phase, she can also reliably interrupt his channeled Death Ward from safe range using the fear from Terrorize or the delayed stun from Cursed Crown.

Necrophos 3,237 matches

+1.2%

WhyDark Willow slightly loses the laning stage against Necrophos, but takes over the matchup in later teamfights. Her heavy magical burst from Bedlam and Shadow Realm severely punishes Necrophos during Ghost Shroud, which increases his magic damage taken. Furthermore, Shadow Realm makes her untargetable, preventing Necrophos from targeting her with Reaper's Scythe.

Undying 2,856 matches

+1.1%

WhyDark Willow clearly loses the laning stage against Undying, but her advantage arrives later in teamfights. Shadow Realm allows her to become untargetable to shed Tombstone zombie aggression and bypass Undying's melee-range threat while dealing heavy magic burst from extended range. Furthermore, her area control from Bramble Maze and fear from Terrorize effectively disrupt Undying and keep him from freely maneuvering during Flesh Golem.

Vengeful Spirit 2,205 matches

+1.1%

WhyShadow Realm gives Dark Willow untargetability and disjoints projectiles, reliably neutralizing Vengeful Spirit's targeted Magic Missile and preventing Nether Swap initiations. Additionally, Dark Willow's wide area control from Bramble Maze, Cursed Crown, and Terrorize punishes Vengeful Spirit whenever she swaps into close quarters.