Laning against Bristleback

Okay, screw this guy, Bristleback is gradually becoming one of my least favorite heroes to lane against and I really can't figure out how to just come out even in lane against him, let alone winning it. You can't really harass him due to Bristleback and Quill Spray makes it dangerous to grab cs.

Not to mention he just way too tough to kill.

So, is it a matter of picking the right hero, itemizing or changing your approach to the lane? Or is just a pain no matter what you try?

Ah, The Bristleboy.

Melee heroes are a no-no. A double or triple melee lane, he'll have the advantage against you if you have no way to harass him while he gets stacks of quill spray on you guys.

If you check Dotapicker, Bristle has a much higher winrate in lower brackets than higher ones, mainly because his main counters are not exploited there. Ranged heroes zoning him out. He needs levels, and his passive only protects him as he looks away, so it's not too hard to zone him in the early levels with heroes like Silencer, Skywrath Mage or Rubick.

That's mainly it, shut him down from the beginning of the laning phase, he will have so much trouble recovering unless his allies stacked ancients or something for him. If you passively let him get to level 6 and bully the lane, he's gonna be a big problem and snowball into a nightmare.

Other options:

Mana Drain: Lion zones him super hard, and Anti-Mage is pretty decent against him for being able to wreck his mana pool.

Long ranged carry: 600+ ranged carry, like Drow Ranger, Sniper, and Medusa, who are all resistant to his random quill sprays will lane okay against him since he can't just put stacks on you with ease.

But if he's gonna dual offlane with the likes of Lich, time to start crying, your nightmares have begun.

honestly you can win against him with a melee hero you just have to know when to back. AM is probably the best to lane against him since you can blink away if the stacks get high and he burns bristles mana so the trades are more in your favour.

i like to kill him early. get a rotation in from pos 4 and position correctly kill him level 1 and control your wave well and he gets zoned.

hes like a tick, let him get a head into your lane and you can never get rid of him, but your burn him quickly he can never come back.

Probably the best advice I could give you, yes. Lion counters literally every offlaner in the game. No mana = no spam. And AM lanes really well against him.
Keeper of the Light is also some decent mana burn.

Buy a Magic Wand in lane also.

Razor. I can't believe nobody mentioned him, he completely owns Bristle both in lane and later. Static Link completely destroys him and Unstable Current procs on him whenever he casts Viscous Nasal Goo on you. He can't slow you and ez damage.

Anything with a silence. Skywrath, Drow...no quill spam = no fun.

Itemizing. Buy a Magic Stick asap.

Beyond that:-

* if you're 2 or 3 vs 1 against Bristleback, your Support should be Zoning him out. If he falls behind in levels, he's easy to Lane against, even as Spectre

* if you're 2 vs 2 against him, you need a Hero that can fight in Lane. Outworld Devourer, Razor, Viper, etc. should give you a significant advantage so long as your Support isn't useless. Anti-Mage, Ursa, Gyrocopter, etc. should be able to Farm and perhaps even fight back if the opportunity presents itself. Spectre, Alchemist, Faceless Void, etc. should only ever be picked when you know your team can make Space for you for the 1st ~15 minutes of the game anyway, so prepare to cry (as usual).

* if you're 1 vs 2 or 3 against a Bristleback...find somewhere else to farm.

Mana Drain is a pain, but as someone who used to play Solo Bristleback against a Dual Safe lanes with a Lion at least 5 times now (at least once, it wil have been a Counter-pick...for the Laning stage), I have learned that once Bristle gets a Magic Stick and Ring of Basilius, lvl1 Mana Drain is no big deal.

That's because they had a bad skill build. You should go 0/1/2 at level 3 in this kind of lane. When you're in a lane where Mana Drain wins you the lane on its own, always take at least 2 early points in it ASAP. You can even consider 3 points in it.
You don't need Earth Spike maxed on the hero, skill is good with only one or two points in it already, so mana drain takes priority.

Just spam Hex into Mana Drain. Lion's laning stage is almost broken because he wins the lane against any solo hero just with that, and can sustain his mana indefinitely.
AFAIK, Lion 100% reliably dumpsters any solo offlaner that isn't Broodmother...and he's insane against dual lanes as well.

Also yes, outworld devourer qualifies for mana drain :)

It depends, with a Magic Stick, anyone can refill their entire Mana Pool easily if they take a few Stacks of Int Drain. Part of the problem with Laning with OD, you Giff your enemies Mana if you're not careful. X{D

It's more a case of setting up Ganks, preventing him from Spamming for upto 4 seconds and dominating the Creep Score.

And where's the problem if their manapool is hardly sufficient to cast a single spell even when full?

I think people mentioned basically everything here, but I would like to add: just be careful with stacking Quill Spray damage on you. If you suddenly have three of those on you and he decides to goo you and dive under tower he might do it succeffuly in some circumstances. So just stay back when you have one or more, and never, NEVER do the mistake of trying to pursue him if you're under 5 or more, he's running with your back to you and you don't have disables and are just right clicking him. That's a 98% chance you're dying first.

Magic Wand, deffo. I quite like Dazzle and Jakiro against him too. Shadow Wave in the face when he goes to last hit is pretty unpleasant for him, and you've got Shallow Grave to ensure he'll be diving for a long time if he wants a kill.

Jakiro with a max Liquid Fire build is pretty good too - you need a point in Ice Path incase he tries to go on you, but generally you can keep him pretty under control.

Obviously zoning him out early is a big deal, as he needs those levels in order to be able to lane, but it does depend what resources you have available.