Xul hates blinds (When he activates cursed strikes). And like every bruiser, he hates ranged dps and AoE.
Most people do 
Tassadar (AA / Q build) has an easy time.
The adds are not too much an issue.
Some other heroes, Valla, Sylv, etc. can kinda ignore it if you don’t focus the skeletons and they can apply pressure to keep him a little back if you have right click skills.
Sonya might even like it, Whirlwind self-heal.
The speciality is that adds are spawned on creep death, so traditional waveclear like Jaina or KT doesn’t work perfectly. Although it might be used for safe double soaking. Saying that, KT can hold him, too.
Xul lacks mobility so it can feel like you blow him out of the water often.
The issue is how easy it is to get value from playing Xul.
Even if you engage poorly and die in every fight as long as you press R and E on someone your team can typically follow up pretty well on your death. Combine his posthumous value with his insane ability to soak and push lanes and you get a very brainless hero that can be used by just about anyone for free wins, provided he makes it through the ban phase.
Macro is a very strong element in this game, macro on a hero that also has exceptional teamfighting ability is something that’s hard to ignore.
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Only works if she has blood stacks on at least two. But when i play qhira i mostly use E when he is aobut to root me and then keep him near me so i can get healing from W and Q auto attack hit from lvl 7.
If your team doesn’t get first pick, there is no other counter than the ban button. Then Johanna is the second ban
He has sustain in the form of shields via trait.
It’s still a baseline iceblock and he has selfheal.
He has one at lvl 1.
Also he has selfheals.
Same with Sonya.
He has baseline selfsustain tho. Also E for escape.
Also a Heroic for a trait.
getting a rework, so let’s not use her as any kind of an example.
At lvl 7. That’s pretty late.
One of the reasons why Varian is risky on the sololane. He lacks sustain for the majority of the sololane duals. So he’s more easily forced out of it.
But even Varian has Parry baseline. That’s why Xul has his shield.
Yeah I know all these.
And yet, Xul is still one of the top picks, top bans with top winrate across most leagues.
With overloaded kit and possibilities to take talents for different situations.
Him having ability more doesn’t help it.
So devs either need to tune him down or remove the shield.
Also 7th level sustain is not that bad, he could have no sustain to begin with…
And yet, his previous iteration had almost nothing changed about him from now.
It’s like people decided to try the sleeper hero after he was changed slightly.
He was always sleeper OP.
But the buffs helped him a lot.
Nah he was actually pretty hard countered before if you knew how to macro properly/have someone that beats him down slowly.
Ideally you want someone else in the solo lane that chips him down while also being able to clear, someone like malth is a good choice in fact.
Xul doesn’t have sustain until 7 sure, which means before those 6 levels you can force him to make bad trades since he has to walk up to the minion wave for fast clearing; even after 7 you can still plink him down if you’re good at not eating cleaves.
After 10 it’s a bit of a different story, but same old tale: Bruisers that lack mobility are vulnerable to blowup.