A rolling stone can snowball, get a quick Blink Dagger, and annihilate your team with one spell combo.
Tiny’s Avalanche-Toss combo has been the bane of many supports and some squishy cores for a decade, and likely for another century.
The best ways to mitigate his early burst damage are a healthy dosage of Infused Raindrops and extra health. Fluffy Hats are a good choice for an early HP boost during the early game, and can be built into Force Staff to get allies out of Avalanche radius.
But if you need more specific ways to stop the Stone Giant in his tracks, here are the five best Tiny counters across a variety of positions and roles.
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The five best Tiny counters
Screenshot by Joseph Asuncion/ONE EsportsNecrophosVenomancerLifestealerUndyingPhoenix
Necrophos
Credit: Valve
Necrophos is one of the best offensive tools against most strength heroes, thanks to Heartstopper Aura’s percentage health loss, and ultimate Reaper’s Scythe that scales based on the amount of missing health they have. He’s one of the best at finishing off high health heroes, and Tiny fits the bill.
It’s also difficult for Necrophos to die to a Tiny combo. He’s naturally a Hood of Defiance buyer, and his plethora of healing means that he’ll likely heal up to full before the next round of Tiny spells are available.
Ghost Shroud also serves as an edge-case to protect the hero against a physical damage Tiny, whether they are going for a carry build or an Aghanim’s Scepter. Necrophos has a deluge of offensive and defensive options against Tiny, and it’s difficult to go wrong with the hero.
Venomancer
Credit: Valve
Ever since Venomancer’s ulti, Poison Nova, received a nice quality-of-life buff to also deal max health as DPS, he’s become a far more effective way to counter tanky strength initiators that tend to shrug off damage over time.
An even more powerful tool in his kit might be his Plague Wards, however. By constantly peppering the battlefield with these Wards, they provide vision on a prowling Tiny, as well as cancelling out Blink Daggers for a long time due to Poison Sting.
Tiny can be kited fairly easily, since he’s mostly reliant on Blink Dagger for mobility. Venomancer oozes damage-over-time and movement speed slows, which are incredible ways to stall an overeager Tiny.
Lifestealer
Credit: Valve
If you are starting to see a pattern here, it’s no surprise. Lifestealer is yet another hero with a max health percentage offensive skill in Feast. This means he makes short work of high health heroes, and Tiny is no exception.
What’s worse, Lifestealer has an easy way to dodge most of Tiny’s magic damage. Rage as his inbuilt spell immunity also gives a boost of movement speed. Tiny’s already poor movement is exacerbated against a speedy hero like Lifestealer, who loves chasing down targets with limited mobility.
Undying
Credit: Valve
When it comes to supports, Undying is one of the few that don’t scream at terror at the idea of a Blink Tiny. Undying is naturally tanky, and supplements it with Decay and Soul Rip that gives him and allies a major boost in health.
But Tombstone just might be Dirge’s best counter to Tiny. Tombstone’s massive vision range functions as an on-command Observer Ward that can detect a stalking Tiny. Plus, Tiny is ill-equipped to deal with the spawns. Low attack speed means the Tombstone and its zombies are impossible to kill, they cancel Blink, and even slow Tiny down.
Undying’s more aggressive tools against Tiny are no joke as well. Decay’s strength steal takes down Tiny’s formidable damage and bulkiness by a notch. Flesh Golem further amplifies any damage, and even gives Undying yet more strength and movement speed—good for chasing down his targets.
Phoenix
Credit: Valve
Phoenix is another support addition to the list of Tiny counters. In keeping with the pattern, Phoenix’s Sun Ray is one more percentage max health damaging spell that annoys Tiny.
Phoenix isn’t as tanky as several heroes on this list, but makes up for it with some of the best teamfight spells against Tiny. Fire Spirits can completely ruin Tiny’s ability to right click in fights, while Icarus Dive is a mobility spell that can help the firebird escape from the clutches of death.
Last but not least, Phoenix’s Supernova is an important objective that needs to be taken down with a set number of hits, like Undying’s Tombstone. Tiny’s low attack speed is a disaster for that, leaving the Stone Giant often with no choice but to run away—if he can, because Phoenix’s popular Aghanim’s Shard also allows Sun Ray to slow movement speed.
