Spirit Breaker is wrecking me game after game

I'm getting really discouraged going against this hero. It's even more frustrating because I'm aware he's thought of as a "trash hero" of sorts. But he wrecks me over and over. He's fairly durable and has good damage at the start of the game, so going aggressive on him is risky (especially when he's laning with a hero like Bane, which was the case last time). I make sure to keep wards down (yadda yadda, "pubs don't ward". Not really true, in my experience), so people should know at least a bit ahead of time if they are being charged.

But there comes a point where (especially if I'm some squishy support) he can just dive me. He charges me, stuns me, ults me (stunning me again) and usually I'm dead by then. And I really don't know what I could have done differently. I throw out my stun if I can. I TP if I have enough time (which isn't always the case). And when the laning phase is over and I'm trying to push the lanes a bit to make space for my carry to farm...well, I can't do that with a Spirit Breaker on the other team. It just forces me to play scared.

How do you deal with this hero? And this is especially advice for someone playing support. I know about wards, TPs, and stuns. But some stuns have a cast animation that makes it hard (shackleshot, ice path, etc). What do you do?

Stopping Spirit Breaker when you're his favorite dish{read: squishy supports) is extremely hard. It's very hard to survive his initial initiation of Charge of Darkness into Nether Strike and even if you do, there would be no chance of escaping since he is almost always faster than you. The best way to counter him Spirit Breaker is map awareness, make sure you don't get ganked by him in the first place. The moment you don't see him in the map(assuming your team has wards), hug the tower or better yet go near your teammates. This will either discourage him from ganking you and stop charging, or he will still continue to charge and he will most likely die with the assistance of your tower or your teammates. If however you still get ganked, there is only one way to counter him: Turn the tables. Make sure to stall him with your disables and hopefully your teammates will quickly react and TP immediately to assist you in your never-ending quest to kill the Spirit Breaker. Also remember to mind your positioning when you see him charging and use it to your advantage.

I hope this helps and good luck.

As already mentioned, vision is quite important, but so is positioning. Once he starts roaming you're going to need to hang more with the rest of the team than you might do normally (same as if they have a Bounty Hunter, Pudge etc). Remember he needs sight of you to start a charge.

Generally having a stun of some kind makes him somewhat managable - if you can stop him on the charge, it's usually enough to get you away, provided your initial positioning is ok.

as it already has been said: having vision and TPs is always helpful. The problem with SB though is, that he is a quite good 1v1 hero, as he will "permanently" stun you if not interrupted by anyone else (and being dependent on others can be a nuisance, as they might just teamfight somewere else, or simply having their focus on something else).

Therefor the key to countering SB is good communication with your team! SB has 1 real weakness: You always know were he will be next (if you have warded properly) which is putting HIM at a disadvantage!

Tell your whole team to carry tps; if you see him charging across the map, pointing to a sole hero of yours ping onto that hero and write "charged!" --> that hero usually retreats to a tower and when you can see, that SB is goin for the dive you (and preferably someone else from team) can tp and go for the (counter)kill.

TL;DR communication is the key!

stick with your teammates, farm in groups, there is safety in numbers

Stay with your team, make him charge you, and when he's there, your team jumps on him, basically you'll make him charge into a trap. Isn't that difficult.

Ghost Scepter is another good counter after you have advanced from early game.He can't harm you for 4 seconds,and if he Nether Strikes you before you pop Ghost Scepter,its even better,you can just run for safety,and get some TP backup from your team.

Certain heroes can counter his initiation with Charge of Darkness. A well-placed stun by Leshrac or Lina, a Disruption from Shadow Demon is also a possibility. Generally you shouldn't be alone. That's all you really need to know. If you keep getting picked off start moving in 5 man Russian dota style. This will make it harder for him to simply charge and would probably rather wait for his team before initiating.

Thanks for the advice. I've had a couple more run-ins with SB since I made this and it turned out much better. The Ghost Scepter was a godsend.

I've found windrunner to be quite effective against sb