Freakin Ember

Had a decent start turn sour very fast, ranked AP chose Puck before time ran out, got lanes against Ember Spirit. Now I understand ASAP is fotm central, and I did fine early on, zoning him out, and managing to control the lane fairly well. He pushes the lane back and roams top, catches our jungling Axe and neuters him quickly. I respond by porting top to stem the gank, and 3 man coil, dude pops his shield his friends did and he ends up killing us. Just couldn't do enough damage, he maxed his shield first, ended up killing four heroes and rolled on.
I've been gone from dota for awhile in a rehab environment so I've missed out on this trend, is he a bit strong atm? At least his shield?
I successfully **** on another ember a few games later with Shadow Fiend, but I generally avoid playing the heroes I've played a million times. His shield blocks magic damage right? So other than Doom countering him, what mid lane heroes will legitimately beat him? I can see Invoker bullying him pretty well, possibly Magnus and Viper, any others? Slark maybe?

Ember is probably a little too powerful and needs a nerf, but unless he rolled out a GREAT and im talking GREAT early-mid game, his late game potential falls off to other carries.

http://dotabuff.com/matches/596849089

Game i played as him, almost lost because i nerly got out carried by PL.

Embers larges weakness is moves with delay, or huge burst damage, this is because slight of fist leaves a think on the ground of where you will return to, so placeing a Torrent or a Split Earth can easily net you a kill.

Ember is too easy to counter, just stack up on physical damage and 1 stun will do the job, example vengful spirit stun scream hit dead.
Ember is just a glass cannon and is in no way OP.
He will get outcarried easily. Just dont pick illusion heroes against him cause cleave hurts.

also Silence abilities are the bane of his existence. Due to his auto attack not being that great.

Shadow fiend is pretty good against him since ember cant manfight AT ALL. SF just stands his ground and puts out massive physical dps to kill him quickly.
Other than that Riki and Faceless Void can crush him under the cloud or chrono.

Embers big weakness is that he cant reliably carry, becouse he farms slowly and relies on his spells. He is kind of like mirana in that regard, and also has that weird period where his spells effectiveness wear off but he doesnt have enough items to destroy with sleight of fist.

Thanks all for the input, probably just shellshocked me the first time I've seen him in over a month. I realized his armor is a huge weakness. Invoker and Shadow Fiend have served my well in those circumstances vs ember, but I did find a way to piss off an ember player. Just pick Lycan Shadow Shaman. Grip the ****er, howl, dead, kill 2 towers. Rinse lather repeat 😀

Although he is definitely at his peak in mid game, don't count Ember out in lat game guys. Sleight of fist can be a ridiculous source of damage late game, like a low cool down omnislash but sometimes doing more damage.

Especially if he's rocking Battlefury and a lot of damage items.

Agreed, Crit Cleave with Armour Reduction hurts

Ember Spirit with Daedalus 2x Battlefury Maelstrom Desolator ... rampaged a team we were fighting in 3 seconds ... insanity ... shut him down early and fast and he is useless ... let him farm and he does more damage then Omnislash every 5 seconds ...