Freakin Ember

he is easy to counter in that without farm or levels before certain game marks, he cant seem to get back into it... i play with the mind set ... if he is they're position 1 or 2 then you starve him, kill him, focus him... silence's shut him, anything with mana burn makes him useless, chain stuns help, even though the magic damage is nullified with his shield up the effect still goes through... i agree though ... if u let him get ahead in any small way ... GG

EDIT: the reason he is a pro pick is that pro players are able to find farm way beyond what us noobs can do ... seriously a 8 min battlefury ??? HOW!!!! and since they find that farm he comes online quicker and he gets the requisite items to hurt people.

Ember Spirit is not easy to counter, not at all, but at least he has some downsides: he farms pretty slowly and can't stand a chance versus "true" carries in the late game. So, the best way to counter him is waiting until the late game without giving him many kills, as he heavily depends on snowballing. Silences and hard disables ( Fiend's Grip, Primal Roar) counter him pretty hard, but he still has that Flame Guard which soaks up a lot of damage in the mid game.

He can farm a Battle Fury, but it takes at least ~25 minutes unless going for some weird build; by that time the majority of carries can deal much more damage. I prefer getting a Desolator after Drums unless I'm 100% sure we're going into late game, in which case double BF or BF and Daedalus are better.

Still he have some downsides that most people don't mention - if he's on dual lane with support that soak exp instead of pulling/harassing then he suck balls (don't tell me that supports always pull/stack camps and ancients and are roaming with smokes and dewarding, cause we are talking about real dota, not some pro level ****), as he needs lvls to deal damage early, and even then he have mana just for 4 skills.
Heroes like Clockwerk **** at him and his mana early game, no mana ember = dead ember, no armor or HP gain on this hero.
Mid to late game every silence will **** on this hero, as he's not a Manta Style carrier and never want to be, so he can't wear it off. If he goes BKB first then he don't have damage, if he goes BKB or Linken after damaging item then you're ****ad, only Doom can save you. Don't talk about stuns or some **** disable ultimates as they counter every single hero in game. Problem with Ember is that he's carrying not through right click like normal carry, but through skills that go through BKB. He will never manfight unless he have ****load of gold advantage, and tbh difference in ember's survivability if he have 2 items and 4 is nearly non existent, as he will go full damage most time.
So mid to late natural Orchid carriers and silencers **** on him like on kid, try picking Clinkz, rush orchid, whenever ember shows in teamfight just throw silence of hate and rape his ***.
Also as he will never manfight like other carries he need some other guys to draw all the attention for him, so he can stand close and use W every 6 seconds. Get some gap closers (be it items like blink/force or heroes like Storm Spirit) and watch poor spirit cry in pain ;(