How to Win with Spectre on your Team

Introduction to the Principles of Spectre Pwnage

Welcome to my Spectre guide.

Version 1.2 - added certain 6.85 considerations and modified item choice.

I have loved playing this hero ever since she (yes, it's a she according to the lore) first came out more than nine years ago. I have dedicated countless hours playing her, analyzing her, watching amateur and professional games, statistically breaking down her odds of winning in every conceivable situation, and studiously applying different strategies in the hopes of bettering my own performance. Now, for the benefit of the community, I hereby summarize my knowledge and leave you only with the salient points. This guide assumes that you are sufficiently knowledgeable about the game's mechanics and every heroes' spells.

I have endeavoured to keep the statistical analysis to a minimum, but I will quote my sources from time to time, as a barrage of numbers would break the fluidity of the text. Do remember that these statistics will inevitably change in future versions of the game, so the actual statistics may not match what I have here, at the time of this writing.

Spectre is an often misunderstood hero, and is avoided by newer players. By at least one metric, she is the second hardest hero to master (source), only behind Invoker. She is, bar none, the absolute best late-game monster of the game (source), and this only becomes truer in High and Very High Skill games. We will learn how to maximize our chances of winning, and this heavily relies on having a great team. Yes, shocking, isn't it, that one of the hardest carries is dependent on her team! Or perhaps not so shocking...

Days after patch 6.85 came out, Spectre saw a massive (6%) increase in pick rates, and a modest 0.5-1 increase in winrates, perhaps due to the recent changes in Dispersion. The Dispersion changes actually create an even larger responsibility on the team, as calculations relating to armor and magic resistance are now important considerations.

Five Principles of Spectre Pwnage

This unique guide operates under these five Principles of Pwnage:

1. You must have a dedicated babysitter, who will be a ranged, aggressive babysitter, preferably with a stun or slow, who can zone out the enemies and allow you to have decent CS.

2. You must not die early game, and you must avoid dying, if you can, before you get your Radiance and one damage item. This guide presumes the necessity of Radiance, though some non-Radiance builds are perfectly respectable, and sometimes, preferred if the circumstances require.

3. You must have teammates with one, or preferably two, Area of Effect ("AoE") ultimates, something which we will delve into below.

4. You must have a decent mid-game carry or semi-carry, who can reliably rack up kills, keep the enemy EXP and GPM down, and keep attention away from you, the team's true late-game carry.

5. Your jungle and runes must be cleverly warded at all times, and the enemy heroes must never be allowed to roam and threaten your jungle between minutes 5-30. Your jungle must be Spectre's exclusive economic zone.

The not-so-good facts about her

If you are solo queuing in the sub-3000 MMR range, you will have a bad time, generally, as you may have competing carries or neutral creep hogs on your team, and you may find yourself without proper support, and without a proper ranged laning partner in the safe lane. Heck, you might not even be able to go to the safe lane. However, if you happen to manage beyond the 40-minute mark, you will tend to own the game rather handsomely.

If you are solo queuing in the 3000-4000 MMR range, you may have a bad time, as your allies may not realize how to use Spectre to her fullest potential. Supports and semi-supports of this level are usually not up to par for Spectre's need of protection.

If you are solo queuing in the 4000+ MMR range, you will still have a bad time, generally, as the enemy team will now be sentient enough to realize that they need to shut down a Spectre early on.

If you are playing in a tournament-style or pro ranked match (in which case I salute you for reading this guide), you may have a terrible time, as skilled, coordinated teams can make life living hell for Spectre in the first 35 minutes of gameplay. Expect organized ganks (Earthshaker who blinks in, drops all his stuns, with a Phantom Assassin who Blink Strikes and does great amounts of damage). Expect invisible heroes good at hunting (Riki, Bounty Hunter, anyone with Shadow Blade) to make farming very difficult for you. Expect constant counterwarding. Expect to be harassed endlessly in lane. Furthermore, most pro games last between the 30 and 40 minute mark (just by my own past performance, I only have a 62% winrate in this time category, yet my winrate jumps to 69% for games that last between 40 and 50 minutes, and goes even higher at 72% for games lasting between 50 and 60 minutes; compare this to a puny 33% winrate for games that are between 20 and 30 minutes), which is not enough time for Spectre to really shine. Playing in professional games will usually force the Spectre player to opt for a mid-game build, such as rushing Mask of Madness and Diffusal.

Choosing Spectre creates a Team Responsibility

As alluded to above, it is actually your team who will make or break Spectre. Accept it - you will mostly be a liability in the first half of most games, though there are ways to minimize dangers and increase your odds of success. You have to know what you are doing.

The ideal team

Ideally, you will want there to be a mobile mid hero, who can both lane decently and provide ganks from time to time. Queen of Pain, Storm Spirit, Templar Assassin, Tinker, Invoker, and Puck make fine allies to have. Doubleplusgood if this mid hero can carry the mid game for the team.

Your offlane ought to be composed of two aggressive heroes, who can zone out and deny experience to the enemy carry. Necrophos (with his Heartstopper aura leveled up), Undying, Timbersaw, Clockwerk, Bristleback, and Tusk all come to mind. Their job is to make sure that the experience and gold gain of the enemy carry remains behind yours - especially given the fact that most carries come online earlier than Spectre. It is imperative that they continuously harass the enemy safe lane. If there is an invisible hero on your team like Bounty Hunter, Broodmother, or Clinkz, then they must make sure to stalk and harass the enemy carry.

Then there is your lane - the safe lane. Spectre is the second likeliest hero to be in the safe lane, only behind Anti-Mage. You need a ranged support hero to be with you at all times (except for he or she needs to pull creeps to keep the action close to your tower and deny some experience to the enemy). A support who has both a slow/stun and a heal is best, such as Witch Doctor or Dazzle. Lich, Crystal Maiden, Winter Wyvern, Lion, Disruptor, and Rubick are fine choices as well. Supports with less range, such as Vengeful Spirit and Zeus (if played in position 5) are generally not recommended, given that they cannot effectively harass the enemy, and can almost never reliably zone them out - no hero would have enough HP regen to pull that off.

You can usually win if two of your lanes have done well - it is usually better for the safe lane to have failed, and your two other lanes to have succeeded, rather than the contrary case, in which Spectre will quickly catch the attention of the enemy team and will be forced to fight early, which is not what you want.

This is why it is important for your team to know the Five Principles of Spectre Pwnage - your team will naturally know what is up ahead, and how they need to play around these strategies, and they will assumes these roles and functions rather well.

Of course, all this does not preclude you from jeopardizing your team in any way. You cannot make your team truly fight an uphill 4 vs. 5 as you "AFK farm" your way to your first or second major item. You will need to learn how, and especially when, to join into fights and get some kills, while saving your allies in the meanwhile. Legion Commander just dumbly used Duel on your ally (assuming both are alone)? Haunt and save your ally, and possibly give your ally that extra Duel damage. Is Witch Doctor unleashing his channeling ultimate upon your allies in the heat of the action? Haunt and Reality right behind him, as you throw your Dagger into the fight (as it passes through and damages Witch Doctor and possibly one or two additional enemies) and bring him down as fast as you can with Desolate. (Say you already have Radiance) - are you feeling as though your team will be blinked upon and destroyed by a well-placed Enigma or Sand King ultimate? Haunt and immediately disable their Blinks and create chaos as your team reposition themselves to go in for some kills.

Since DotA players remain human - one point of psychological interest bears mentioning: be very respectful to your team. They are carrying your behind the first 25 or 30 minutes. They perhaps may have to sacrifice themselves once or twice, or they may spend gold on TPs, or even forgo kills so that you may get a few early. Thank them, be polite, act with dignity and humility. Ask questions, answer when asked, keep your tone civil, and all should go smoothly.

But isn't choosing Spectre selfish?

Somewhat, yes. Then again, so are many hard carries. The main difference here is that Spectre is a whole lot less useful during the laning stage and the first 25 minutes or so. She needs a decent team to care for her future and create space for her. Also, if Spectre had a very solid early game, she would be an imbalanced hero with virtually no way to counter her, which would lead her to be nerfed into nothingness.

Speaking of being nerfed - the 6.85 changes make it so that enemy agility carries now perform better against Spectre, assuming your team has not bought many aura items that increase armor (in order of importance: Assault Cuirass, Pipe of Insight, Vladimir's Offering, Guardian Greaves, Mekanism, Basilius/Aquila aura). Your position 2 or 3 teammates must buy one or two of these auras, each, if you wish to retain your Dispersion advantage. On the flip side, the recent changes in Dispersion make Spectre even stronger against low-armor supports or cores, so you should now be able to eliminate the enemy positions 4 and 5 even faster. Your late-game may potentially be weaker in this patch if the enemy team stack up auras and Solar Crests on their cores and carries - the best way to counter this is to make sure that your teammates outdo them in terms of auras.

Items

The different builds you see above (the seven tabs) already deal with all starting and early-game items, mid-game items, late-game and situational items, so I will not repeat them here. However, there is something to be said about which items not to buy.

Items to avoid

I have not seen solid evidence that this is a worthy item, other than an extremely situational "comeback" item that a poorly-farmed Spectre may want to pick up. The small intelligence boost is nice, but adds nothing to your abilities, and you are simply going to be ignored for the duration of its active. Also, if you use the active right after you Reality into your ultimate, the enemy team will know precisely which Spectre is the real one. Raw HP will beat getting this item virtually every time.

The attributes of the item are not bad in and of themselves - it is simply not incumbent upon Spectre to be the one buying this item. It is preferable to let the offlaner, or even a position 4 support, buy this item. Spectre does not have an intrinsic Unique Attack Modifier (or Orb Effect for you old school DotA 1 players) like Anti-Mage to warrant buying this item as an equivalent to lifesteal items. Moreover, Desolator is not a good item on Spectre, so you would not have the same effect as a Phantom ***sassin going for the Desolator + Vladimir's Offering combination. Satanic is better than this item in every case for Spectre. However, because this item has a very useful armor aura, you ought to tell one of your teammates to get it.

Ever since the nerf to this item several versions ago, it has become unfeasible on carries. Not that I would recommend getting Guardian Greaves in a serious game - but it's better than Tranquil Boots, albeit much more expensive.

Useless, and gimmicky item. Your ultimate already allows you to pop behind anyone globally... why on Earth would you spend 2800 gold on this?

Equally useless.

Not the worst item to get - for patch 6.84, I had written: "...getting Pipe both lessens the effect of Dispersion, and takes away a valuable item slot." For patch 6.85, this item is better for you, but I still believe that it does not warrant an item slot. A position 3 or 4 teammate ought to get this item if they are dying too easily to a nuke-heavy lineup. The HP regen this item gives is lackluster for you. You already get monstrous HP regeneration with Heart, which you will want to get most games, and even if you do not have Heart, you will probably have lifesteal, or allies with Mekanism or other healing spells. You get a free 400 magical damage (minus Dispersion percentage minus enemy magic resistance) dispersed upon the enemy team if an ally gets this and activates it at the opportune time.

Lovely item, but not on the hard carry. Does not synergize with your ultimate and it's rather expensive.

Once perhaps a viable situational pick, but ever since the mana cost increase, it is no longer recommended to build this item. Drums or simply stat items is better. Naked Ring of Health is perhaps a good equivalent if you are being harasses too much.

Underwhelming item.

Only your main hero gets the Unique Attack Modifier, which is kind of pointless given that you are not a good tower killer, and this item does nothing to synergize with your innate capacities.

This item was a poor choice in previous patch versions, and it is an even worse choice now. Other than a bit of HP, it is a big waste of gold.

Before 6.85, I would have never condoned buying this item on Spectre. Now, however, it is a situationally wise pick, especially against an enemy carrier of AC, or Shadow Fiend. Though this item does little to your illusions (the negative aura, however, does get carried over to your illusions, so you effectively have 7.5 seconds (7 seconds of Haunt plus 0.5 debuff linger duration) of a global -5 armor debuff. Nevertheless, it is better for Spectre to use her fifth or sixth slot on something else, and have an ally pick up this extremely valuable item.

The mana and HP regeneration are not bad, but the cleave is fairly useless outside of AFK jungling (which you ought not to do anyway under most circumstances), and do not get transferred to your illusions. Radiance is superior in every way for Spectre, except perhaps the ease of building its components.

Rather bad, given that it gives you no agility, no HP, no other stats, and its benefits do not get carried over to your illusions. A Butterfly or Skadi are better picks in virtually all situations.

You pretty much have the greatest distance closer or equalizer in the game - Reality while you are Haunting. You can get straight into anyone's face, regardless of their heroes or items, and other than a well-placed Silencer ultimate, there is nothing they can do to stop you. Spectre needs all the HP, agility, and illusion-improving items she can get... this gives you nothing.

Surviving the Early Game

The standard starting items are Tangoes (one set is usually enough, unless you know you will be facing a crazy lane like Necrophos + Dazzle), Stout Shield, and Quelling Blade. The latter has massive uses in juking, creating paths, removing trees for additional vision, killing wards faster than your enemy can auto-attack them, reaching and killing wards impossible for melee heroes to reach, jungling faster, etc. If you truly are amazing at last hitting, feel free to skip Quelling Blade and go for either more survivability or stats.

Immediately upon the calling of the bell, you will want to already have one or two allies with you near the safelane rune. Watch out for Mirana, Pudge, or Witch Doctor (his Paralyzing Cask will almost guarantee a First Blood against you). Try to get the Bounty Rune, unless there is a mid who is with you and is planning to buy a Bottle as soon as possible - communication goes a long way.

You will want as many last hits as possible - you need all the farm that you can get - I cannot stress this enough. Ask for ganks - ask for TPs if the enemies are tower-diving you. You have to feel safe and be able to rely on your support - preferably an aggressive ranged support with decent right-click damage and a slow or stun. This is what makes Spectre difficult in uncoordinated teams - if your teammates do not bother to communicate with you, or to hand you tangos and salves, you are going to have a very difficult time.

In terms of skill build, many Spectre players erroneously max out their Spectral Dagger first - I strongly disagree. Very few enemies will expect that +50 (at skill level 3) or +65 (at skill level 4) pure Desolate damage in the early game - that is more than a Sacred Relic given that it is pure. You will do a tremendous amount of damage with your level 1 Haunt, even. Giving up this astounding pure damage early and mid game is unfathomable. Upgrading more than one level of Spectral Dagger before you have maxed out Desolate is almost never worth it - even if you go for a pure chasing build, a mere two attacks on an isolated hero will outdo the additional damage granted by the difference between level 1 and level 4 Spectral Dagger (150 magical damage vs. 130 pure damage, thus the latter is always better). Since 6.85, maxing out Desolate first has become even more important, as Spectre's farming ability has been improved now that Desolate works on any creep or neutral.

Aggressive/chasing skill build: Start with Quelling Blade, Stout Shield, and Orb of Venom (make sure that you pick your hero and enter the game without delay, as you will need 100% of your starting gold to get these items; furthermore, you will need at least one or two supports for the runes who can either slow or stun for you to get First Blood. You will want to put one level into Desolate, and force the poor enemy hero to exchange hits with you as your allies slow or stun him (making sure that they do not stack their stuns if they happen to each have one). You will still want to upgrade Stout Shield to Poor Man's Shield, and you will want to prioritize Phase Boots over Power Treads, since you will rely more heavily on early-game kills over the minor advantage that Power Treads gives you later on, especially with your ultimate's illusions. Furthermore, you inherently already have phase via your Spectral Dagger - so the phasing ability of Phase Boots is wasted.

Farming the Mid Game

Generally, you will not be allowed to farm willy-nilly a Sacred Relic straight after boots - not only is it not recommended, you have a high probably of dying along the way (remember Principle #2).

Just as an experiment, I have recently tried getting one major item (along with Power Treads or Phase Boots) before getting Radiance, and I have been pleasantly surprised, as I would usually end up getting Radiance in roughly the same time, give or take a few minutes, it took for me to "AFK farm" Radiance in the first place. The sample is roughly 20 games, so it cannot be by pure chance.

The Radiance first way of playing does involve a very high degree of risk, and slow farming along a very long and treacherous journey. Getting several cheaper, smaller items, before getting Radiance does increase your mid-game viability and allows you to actively engage in combat, and as we know, farming heroes is much more effective than farming creeps, or worse, farming neutrals.

Do not be afraid to Haunt any time you see a big clash going on - but be very careful where you Reality in, or if you do happen to Reality into a bad spot, re-Reality to a different illusion (you have, respectively, 5, 6, and 7 seconds depending on your level of Haunt). Knowing where to Reality in is half the battle - usually, the two supports are the very best targets for Spectre, especially in the mid-game since they will not be farmed enough to get a lot of utility items like Force Staff, Euls, Mekanism, and your mortal enemy - Glimmer Cape.

Some supports, like Earthshaker and Ancient Apparition, deliberately try to stay away from the action - indeed, this "good" positioning habit they have is actually a great weakness for Spectre to exploit - this means that your early level 4 Desolate will hurt them a lot, as most supports at this point still have under a thousand HP.

Whenever the action dies down, immediately heal if needed and go back to farming a pushed-in lane, or the jungle (ignore Ancients as you will take too much damage, and you have no fast way to defeat them, since Radiance's burn will not work). Carry a TP or two if necessary, as time is precious.

Owning the Late Game

Assuming that you have not been crushed early, assuming that your jungle was not constantly dominated by the enemy...

Some notes on the new meta of patch 6.85

The 6.85 changes have made it harder to fight in lots of situations. Every team with a natural Assault Cuirass (http://www.dotafire.com/images/item/assault-cuirass.png) carrier or Shadow Fiend has become a major threat. Potentially, if they have 5 low armor heroes with no auras, then Spectre will do even more Dispersion damage than before. But... in 80% of games, I see multiple armor auras, and most carries do have higher agility/armor than Spectre anyway. And if your team rarely has all the good auras (Pipe, Mek, Greaves, Aquila, Necro creeps, Drums, Shivas, AC, etc.), then Spectre is at a large disadvantgage. The one great thing about 6.85, at least, is that Spectre farms a bit faster.

As a test, I did a whole bunch of Phantom Assassin vs. Spectre tests in a custom lobby: I tried all 12-15 most common late-game items on both. Salient findings are the following: PA will almost always beat Spectre if she has AC + Satanic equipped: even if we feed Spectre a Moonshard, or give Spectre her own Satanic. Spectre simply does not have a high enough right-click damage to be able to use Satanic as well as PA. The only way to beat a PA with Satanic + AC is Manta... Manta will melt any hero 1 vs. 1, assuming you are both isolated (tested on all hard carries, and only Sven, and sometimes Gyro, can defeat that). Manta on Spectre, and AC on PA or whatever late-game carry are the two biggest factors. Without AC, Spectre tends to win (without Manta). Unless, of course, she gets 4-5 crits off. MKB actually made very little difference. Diffusal 2 actually fared better than MKB. Skadi too was superior. This reinforces the idea of not playing Spectre like a typical right-click carry.

[Section to be updated- I am keeping the best for last].

Team Work

Gameplay built around Spectre

Indeed, this is a decidedly Spectre-centric guide, which has slightly more to do with your teammates rather than your gamestyle or item choices, roughly speaking. Therefore, it is your teammates and friends who must be reading this guide with you for you to truly take advantage of what it contains.

Points to remember

1. You are your team's biggest damage dealer - use that to your advantage and maximize your damage, mostly through enhancing your Haunt ultimate and leveraging your passive E (Dispersion) by having high HP a̶n̶d̶ ̶d̶i̶s̶h̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶o̶u̶t̶ ̶l̶o̶a̶d̶s̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶p̶u̶r̶e̶ ̶d̶a̶m̶a̶g̶e̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶e̶n̶e̶m̶y̶ ̶t̶e̶a̶m̶ - in 6.85, this remains important, but you no longer dish out as much pure damage (your Desolate is unchanged), unless the enemy is hitting you with pure damage spells.


2. You are a supreme secondary initiator - Haunt is usually not as effective if it is the first thing that happens in a large team fight, as the enemies can quickly back off, but it is highly effective as a secondary initiation. Hence the need for Principle of Pwnage #3 above. A well-placed Haunt, assuming you have Haunt amplification items, can do as much as 750 HP of net damage.

3. In large teamfights, your job is to melt the enemy supports as soon as possible. This means that you must Reality into the fight as soon as you can, kill one or two supports, then, once your team's AoE ultimates have worn off, take massive amounts of punishments and manfight any remaining hero, including the enemy carry.

4. Delay actually helps you. Any team who can hold off the enemy from destroying a level 3 tower, or rax, while you become stronger, is a good team for you. The odds of winning significantly increase after each minute beyond 40.

5. Get your teammates to buy a lot of aura items. You need as much magic and physical resistance as the game will allow. Patch 6.85 adds a caveat to this - assuming your team's auras are more numerous and give you more physical and magical resistance than the stuff found on the enemy team. Your 16 armor will do not much if all their cores have 25-35 armor.

Foes

These are the enemies that you should be very wary about:

Pushers

Undying

Undying can be a huge pain early on. Never fight under his tomb, even if you think you can kill him, as the zombies will probably get you and your ally(ies) even after he is dead. Undying will even make the life of your lane support difficult. Undying can also push lanes early and can cause the game to accelerate beyond the pace at which you want.

Chen

Same as the above, though his early game dominance comes in the form of a controlled neutral creep micromanager. Mind you, such skilled Chens are pretty much a rarity, even in high skill games, and Chen is virtually never played in pubs, so the odds of you facing a pro Chen are very low.

Treant Protector

Slow, tanky, can heal allies, invisible, annoying, and comes with an AoE ultimate. For all the reasons that he makes a fine ally, he makes a formidable enemy, especially if he manages to farm Aghanim's Sceptre. Carrying detection items is key.

Broodmother

A relentless pusher who can easily solo an offlane AND net a few kills. A good Broodmother can destroy your tier-2 tower by the fifth or sixth minute. Reaching a rax by 13 minutes is not unheard of either - she can potentially make Spectre's early game very, very hard, and create a whole lot of space for the enemy carry at the expense of Spectre's map space. However, assuming your team can survive the onslaught, Spectre does perform rather well against Broodmother since she makes a lackluster anti-carry.

Great one-on-one fighters

Lone Druid

Hypothetically a fearsome ultra-late game carry due to his ability to carry twelve items - though in all my years of playing DotA I have rarely seen a Syllabear with more than 8 items. Nevertheless, his bear's Entangle passive alone can be a big problem, and the Radiance that he typically carries is a major annoyance for all team fights. His awesome speed also makes hunting you rather easy if you do not cleverly escape through a cliff with your dagger.

Lifestealer

An anti-tank carry - precisely what you do not want. The good news is, he is easily kited once his spell immunity spell wears off. Make sure your team harasses this guy in his jungle throughout the game, and you can participate in those ganks from wherever you may be farming.

Juggernaut

Though Mercurial is one of the few heroes in the game who can tank a late-game Omnislash, the immunity granted by Omnislash means that your Radiance and Dispersion are doing no damage to him. Your team needs to make sure that his ultimate is wasted on a large wave of creeps, or that you at least tank Omnislash in unison, and quickly stun, hex, or Abyssal him into oblivion. His naturally high agility makes your Dispersion less useful, so make sure you either get more agility yourself, or tell teammates to get aura items. Further, it is best if an ally simply Euls you whenever Juggernaut decides to ult you.

Bristleback

An anti-tank semi-carry whose cumulative Quill charges can seriously wreck an entire team. It is best to not engage unless the team is ready and willing to kill him off quickly.

Ursa

Another anti-tank semi-carry who can generally burst down any hero with less than 1000 HP in the mid-game, or any hero with less than 1700 HP late-game. He can, however, be kited. I recommend that you pretend to face him, but throw your dagger, and walk away from him as your allies attack him from a distance. Some Ursa players are not skilled enough to realize that they are being kited, so take advantage of it. Always have the areas around Roshan warded, and constantly interrupt him while he is doing Roshan.

Slardar

He did not used to be a problem, but in 6.85, he is. He has slowly become an anti-carry pick of prime choice. His pick rate has increased and his ultimate is simply deadly against any carry, much less Spectre with her armor-dependent Dispersion. If there is a big fight occuring, try to quickly kill one or two supports who can stun you and deal with Slardar as one of your teammates disables him.

Mid-game snowballing heroes

These are any of the heroes who can, if left unchecked, spiral out of control by the time the mid-game rolls around, and may end up dominating your team and shortening the game dramatically. The lower your MMR, the likelier it is for this to occur. These heroes lose their lure by the time you reach levels higher than 4000 MMR. I strongly recommend you read Hamstertamer's excellent guide on this topic.

Bloodseeker

Given his popularity at the time of writing, he is likely to be a big issue for the Spectre chooser. Do not feed him kills. Do not jungle if you have no significant regen or lifesteal items, as he will see you when you drop below 25% HP. Make sure that everyone on your team carries TPs, and stick together if you and your team feel that he has spiralled out of control.

Riki

Always have at least two allies carry dusts, and another one drop Sentry Wards in fights. It is recommended that allies get early BKBs, and if he is that much of a problem under his cloud, that you get MKB. He cannot manfight you, unless his net worth is significantly higher than yours.

Bounty Hunter

Just survive, don't die, and make sure that your allies have proper detection. A Spectre with semi-decent farm will absolutely destroy even a farmed Bounty Hunter after 35 minutes, however, he can make your laning phase a nightmare. Waste his time and do not make his roaming phase worth it.

Clinkz

Same as the above, but he can be a greater threat in team fights. If you can Haunt at level 6 or 7 as he is being Dusted by an ally or two in a fight, do go in to try to get the kill... repeat if necessary. Unless he gets crazy items like Skadi and a BKB, he should fall easily in fights.

Shadow Fiend

Beware his ability to quickly snowball and get a massive net worth advantage. He is deadlier against Spectre in 6.85 due to his negative armor debuff, which makes you both physically weaker and decreases your effectiveness of Dispersion. As soon as you see him picked, tell your teammates to buy a Vladimir's Offering and Assault Cuirass to counteract his pesky passive.

Oddball cases

Necrophos

A formidable foe in the lane, most especially with his dreaded Heartstopper aura. Try to get as much regen as possible, and get Ring of Health as your first item, even before Boots of Speed. With Aghanim's Scepter, he can bring you down from 55% to 0 and keep you dead for 150 seconds during the late-game. Watch out, and try to kill him before he can ult on you or a teammate.

Meepo

Meepo can be such a strong mid-game carry, and can burst you down with at least 1000 damage with his poofs. Make sure your position is solid, and communicate with your teammates to focus on a single Meepo, and stick to it until he is dead.

Shadow Demon

The illusions of yourself that he creates usually is not a big deal, but not with Spectre. You, the hero, will actually lose Desolate, yet his two Spectre illusions will have Desolate, for a whopping 130 HP of pure damage each time they hit. Add manabreak or Radiance effect if you happen to have the items. Moreover, the two illusions from Disruption are stronger (deal 60% the damage as opposed to 30%, and takes only 150% of the damage as opposed to 200%) than your natural ones, and also last a second longer, and can attack immediately. Furthermore, he is one of the few heroes (other than those who will buy a Silver Edge) whose Aghanim upgrade will grant him the Break effect, thus massively reducing your damage output by disabling your passives. Buying a Manta as soon as possible is the only way to mitigate him.

Tiny + Io or Chaos Knight combination

May Jupiter have mercy on you if they know what they are doing. Try to trap them, try to make Io waste his ultimate and then kill them. Tiny's passive wrecks any melee carry, and a farmed Tiny with lifesteal cannot be manfought by Spectre, unless Spectre has much higher net worth. Remember that his Aghanim upgrade will grant him awesome cleave, which will make minced meat out of your Manta illusions. Best to destroy all his supports in a big teamfight and kite him with the help your team when he becomes isolated.

Alchemist

The only reason he is scary is due to his ability to outfarm you. It is not uncommon to be 6-slotted at 40 or 45 minutes. I have done exhaustive experimentation in single player to figure out how much farm Alchemist needs to defeat Spectre, using different builds. My findings are the following: an 8-slotted Alchemist will only defeat a 6-slotted Spectre about 20% of the time (excluding Divines); a 7-slotted Alchemist will only defeat a 6-slotted Spectre about 10% of the time, and either a 7 or 8-slotted Alch will almost always lose to a 7-slotted Spectre.

Doom

He is a supreme anti-carry non-carry, and the fact that he usually builds himself with an Assault Cuirass and Shiva's Guard makes you less able to dish out proper damage and makes you a little squishier. Doom counters everyone. The best you can do is force him to use his Doom in a poor spot, on a less important hero. You may want to prioritize raw HP like a Heart to greatly lessen the effectiveness of Heart.