As the roster of Paragon continues to grow it’s important to understand how to counter specific Heroes. Drafting against any Hero is often key but being aware of each Heroes strengths and limitations and how to work against them. In the list below and the third of our series, we provide a list of tips and tricks we think you’ll find helpful for dealing with Paragon's Caster Heroes. You can find how to counter other Hero types below.

Countess

1. Countess is relatively weak early game. Her clear isn’t amazing and she lacks poke potential. It’s best to starve her of farm during this time and to lane against her with someone like Howitzer or Gadget. She’ll be forced to back often.

2. It’s difficult to pin Countess down because she’ll Shadow Slip on a target, run in one direction, before teleporting back. Be sure to have one player stay next to her ethereal form for when she does.

3. Countess has incredible burst, especially if she uses Shadow Slip > Feast > Dark Tide > Blade Siphon. There are few Heroes who can survive it. The key is to instantly move left or right of her after her Feast, as there’s a window of opportunity to evade the Dark Tide. If you also back away slightly, you should be out of the radius of Blade Siphon, although you’ll still be on half health from her first two abilities.

4. Blade Siphon provides Countess with reasonable sustain in lane. Despite that, it’s not enough to keep her alive unless she can continually kill minions or players. Poking her with long ranged attacks will soon cause her to back off or return to base to replenish her potions.

5. Countess is strongest when she’s lurking on the edge of a team fight to finish off low-health players. If you can’t see her and you’re in a team fight, it’s highly likely she’s about somewhere. Be ready for her.

6. If you’ve a support Hero such as Dekker, Narbash or Muriel you’re in a much better position to defend yourselves against her burst. One stun and she’s easy to kill as you’ll be able to interrupt her Feast.

7. Many Countess players take some form of Blink card because she lacks mobility outside of Shadow Slip. If she takes the default Blink, just remember that once she has used it, it has a very long cooldown. It’s during this time you should try your best to pin her down.

8. During mid to late game Countess has such strong wave clear she can kill dozens of minions instantly with her Dark Tide. Don’t leave her unattended or you’ll find enemy minions on your towers in an instant.

9. Feast has a fixed animation that renders Countess immobile while she performs the action. Use this time to attack her - often you can kill her in a few hits from a well equipped ranger.

Gadget

1. Gadget’s Sticky Mine has a generous radius and flies out near instantly. It’s very hard to miss but you’ve a fraction of a second to move away from where you suspect it’ll land. If you can do this enough, she’ll quickly run out of mana.

2. Always just move right or left out of Gadget’s Seek and Destroy. It only travels in a straight line and is relatively slow moving.

3. Gadget’s Ultimate deals damage near instantly but causes no crowd control - you can simply walk out of it unless prevented by another player.

4. Gadget can often escape easily due to her Speed Gate. Be sure to stun her when she prepares it so she can’t trigger the speed boost.

5. Heroes that can grant themselves temporary immunity from damage are strong against Gadget. Serath and Grim.exe both work well here.

6. Muriel is fantastic against Gadget because she can provide a shield to anyone with a Sticky Mine or AOE shield her team if Gadget drops her Ultimate.  

7. Gadget will typically drop all her abilities at once in a team fight as it’s a huge amount of AOE damage. Try not to group up.

Gideon

1. Always, always draft a Hero against Gideon who can stun. It’ll instantly prevent his Ultimate.

2. Gideon has one very good escape - it’s best to stun him or predict where he’ll teleport to if you want to cut him off.

3. During a teamfight if you can’t see Gideon it’s likely he’s on his way to use his Ultimate and mop up those who’re low health. Have a stun ready.

4. If Gideon uses his teleport across terrain, there’s no one who can catch him by default. That said, a Blink card travels the same distance and can allow you to pursue fairly easily.

5. Gideon’s Cosmic Rift has a fairly large radius and lands almost instantly. You can see when he’s about to cast it as he lifts his arm up into the air.

6. If you don’t have a Hero with a stun against Gideon, you’re in big trouble. The best you can do is spread out and take cards such as Honor the Pure for shielding.

7. It’s sometimes worth drafting “tanky” Heroes against Gideon such as Greystone, Rampage and Steel because they can often withstand his attacks and punish him when he’s out of position and/or if he’s used his Ultimate and its been interrupted.  

Howitzer

1. I’ll stress that Howitzer is unquestionably the best Caster in the game and will cause most teams difficulty if played well. Don’t ever assume he’s a free kill - he isn’t.

2. Howitzer is incredibly hard to kill because he can use his Ultimate, knock you back or slow you down. Sometimes all three at once. It’s best to have someone attack him, wait for him to land from his Ultimate and then pursue him on the ground from another side.

3. Howitzer doesn’t have particularly quick lane clear but he does have strong poke. Gadget works particularly well against him in lane as she can send her Sticky Mines onto him from relative safety.

4. It’s really easy to avoid Howitzer’s Ultimate, you simply walk out of it. However, a good Howitzer will often use his Ultimate to zone you away from a tower or to force you into his team. Take a Blink card just in case.

5. Most Rangers will die near instantly against Howitzer if he uses the rotation of Land Mine > Make It Rain > Slow Grenade > R2000 Missile. The key is to avoid the initial knockback from his Land Mine. It has a fairly long range, so don’t stand still.

6. Cards such as Hunter’s Guile work reasonably well against Howitzer because you can remove the slow his Slow Grenade causes, allowing you to run away at full speed (should you need to).

7. Howitzer is at his most threatening when he’s playing aggressively. If he and his team are pushing onto a Tower, you have to defend. Wait for his Ultimate to end, then fight quickly.

Iggy & Scorch

1. You gain Card Experience from kill Iggy’s turrets.

2. Iggy is incredibly easy to kill early game as he’s so squishy - bully him as soon as possible.

3. Knockbacks and shielding are particularly good against Iggy & Scorch as they prevent him from using his Ultimate effectively.

4. Always destroy Iggy’s turrets the moment he places the down. They aren’t cheap on mana so it’s expensive for him to keep replacing them.

5. Iggy has fallen out of the meta in Monolith as he can no longer build health and armor as high as he used to. Use this to your advantage if he’s drafted and focus him as much as possible in team fights.

6. The static nature of Iggy’s turrets make it a good idea to move during a team fight so he constantly has to replace his turrets.

7. By default Iggy's "escape" ability is very slow and most Iggy players don't upgrade it till late game. He's incredibly easy to pin down if he doesn't upgrade it first.

Additional Guides

How To Counter Ranger Heroes

How To Counter Fighter Heroes

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