What should i be doing to keep in control when im playing against mephisto. What are his counters? Every time I’m against him i feel like its more about his skill level rather than mine which decides if we win or not.
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He is a mage with no escape, only a temporary dodge. Diving and waiting at his shade’s location are helpful against him.
When he casts lightning nova, run towards him. The ring is slim and unless he has perfect reaction, he will be unable to adjust the nova to your hitbox.
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Pick Murky. He is nightmare for Mephisto.
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Best way to learn is to play him. Doesn’t have to be many games. 3-5 games should be enough to learn the basics of what is needed to counter him if that’s what you’re looking to do.
To my knowledge, he doesn’t have an actual counter, the players skill level decides on valid he is.
If you do wish to " counter" him, Arthas is one of the best ones. Any melee character can do good against him. Technically, your picture, thrall is another strong counter.
I highly suggest you play him though for a couple of rounds. Some things are easier to understand once you get to see it for yourself.
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Tank, try to run towards his shade, or drop cc so he cant do much
DPS, rightclick him whenever he goes in with E
Mage, try to do a skillshot when he tp’s back
Healer, put cc on him, make sure he cant kill with his ult where he kills globally. Also try to put cc under him (but depends on the healer)
Step inside his circle instead of trying to run away from it.
Go for his shade.
Some Heroes are able to break his reteleportation (like Stitch with Gorge).
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You want to dive hard and you don’t want to fight him in groups, including minions. Approach him so that he’ll have to choose to single you out, as his abilities boast most effectiveness when he can stack the resets (and the heal on that talent for Q).
You want to dumpster on him upfront to force him to try and warp away, and then you save your CC for that so when he snaps back, he’s introduce to a root or a stun immediately. Watch for the talent he takes on shade though, it can influence how he’s going to use it and play against you with it.
As mages go his HP is kinda high so HP shred can be kind of effective. Anyone who makes good use of their basics or has accessible mobility (Tracer comes to mind) as he’s not using targeted burst, it’s all skillshots and AoE. Except the Karthus ult but eh, it’s not crazy useful but as a finisher anyway.
In general he works in straight lines, so you want to zig zag and try to keep a fair distance and again, don’t stand in line with your minis; he isn’t minion blocked by anything, and gains CDR every time he lands a hit on things (as I recall).
I mean, that’s 90% of mages though, no escape. At least Mephisto can dive in safely and teleport back to the safety of his team.
Chromie and Stitches are good counters to him.
They can both aim for his return with a combo/hook and stitches can make it so that Mephisto can’t really use his Shade of Mephisto as Stitches can just gorge him. You have to be very careful with how close you are to a Stitches when you go Shadey.
Chromie can use Temporal Loop after a Shade of Mephisto as well.
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That doesn’t change the fact that it’s effective against him.
Plus, he has to position rather aggressivley, because if he doesn’t teleport onto the enemy (for damage), he wastes CDR and gimps himself.
Sure. But again, he goes aggressive but he’ll teleport right back to his original position if anyone tries to go on to him with cc chains or damage. So actually it’s a pretty safe playstyle if you’re decent on mephisto.
Unlike a KT or Kaelthas who when they go in have no real defensive’s for anyone who dives on them. At least when Mephisto goes in he will always have his teleport to get him away from danger.
To go after a Mephisto the enemy team is forced to put themselves at a huge risk actually, unlike diving other mages since technically mephisto has pretty ridiculous range and can freely move for a few seconds with his teleport ability.
There are a few ways to try to counter mephisto.
- In draft: Mephistos can clear waves alright, but if he’s using his abilities on only minions then you are winning. If you’re against mephisto in draft and his team lacks waveclear then you can try and draft an outpushing, rotational advantage. Map dependent and if they draft easy waveclear like joh you’ve got to try something else. Related to this, if you are leaning against mephisto try to position yourself so mephisto can either hit you or minions but not both.
- When mephisto uses his shade he really has to build a health advantage before he teleports back. Arthas root, sulfaras smash, powerslide, anything really that can be timed with his teleport back can wreck his face, even thrills root.
He’s super vulnerable to dive and melee as his main dmg ring can literally do nothing if someone is constantly in his face whacking him.
Anything that pulls him out of position will kill him like a stitches hook unless his team mates can save him as he has no real escape.
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pop something like zombie wall on his shade location right before he portals back to it and watch him suffer 
malfor/kel(frost mage ) or anyone with a delayed cc/root/stun with travel time or naz zombie wall and hes done for
He’ll also do that if you aren’t trying to go on him though. He can’t cancel his teleport, that’s why you want to try and target his Shade location, so you can kill him there when he inevitably returns.
KTZ and Li-Ming are some more Heroes that love a predictable target.
Why would they go in though? Most mages prefer to shoot from a safe distance, they don’t go in deep like Mephisto does.
Only the danger at the place he’s going in though. While Mephisto himself is going in, his Shade is immobile and a free target to set up on (while other mages would be able to dodge or reposition from incoming threats).
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In a nutshell Mephisto in melee range will be struggling regardless.
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Thing is, his body counts as his projectile, and his teleport range is massive, meaning he can attack from a pretty safe distance. You say just go to his shade location but any competent team will be protecting that area. So to go deep into the enemy team to do that is very, very dangerous.
THE best counter I can think of hero wise is Stiches. Pick Gorge and ruin his day.
If he plays even slightly agressively, it is basically free kill every 65 seconds, because it cancels his teleport back and leaves him with no escape options after Gorge ends.
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Anub’arak does extremely well against him. If you Cocoon him when he teleports into your team, he won’t teleport back and can be focused down easily. The spell armor helps against any mage, and if you choose to run a dive comp, Anub can easily lock him down at his return point.
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