How to counter Faceless Void?

How someone can pick heroes accordingly to mitigate the threat that he is. The majority of Faceless Void’s threat comes from his gamebreakingly low cooldown ultimate Chronosphere. This is why Mask of Madness is such a popular item on the guy in the first place. Anyone caught in a Chronosphere is immediately bursted down with his double damage bashes, while he can’t be touched. In my opinion, heroes that can react once Chronosphere is dropped are safer picks than silencers like Skywrath Mage who might be jumped upon in the first place.

From a draft/lineup perspective, a lot of very tanky heroes can be difficult to deal with until you get a decent net worth lead. 

I believe a lot of the appeal of Chronosphere as an early game fighting tool is the ability to burst at least one hero down and remove them from a team fight, thus tilting the odds of a team fight victory heavily in your team's favor. For example, if the other team runs an Abaddon support, Wraith King core, and a Tidehunter offlane, it mostly eliminates them as Chronosphere targets to burst down and kill. Sure it's nice to disable them inside, but if all I have at that point is Mask of Madness and Power Treads I'm not going to be able to kill them without heavy team support. I'd rather try to get someone else, which increases the need to be patient and position correctly...which in my opinion many Faceless Void struggle with.

From a positioning perspective, spread out in team fights

Seriously. Make it as hard as possible for Faceless Void to Chronosphere multiple players from your team. This will require patience, and is especially difficult with melee heavy lineups, but the more consistently you do this effectively, the more team fights you will win against him.

Heroes work well against Faceless Void.

Earthshaker

This badass is one of my go to supports to ensure defense against the timestopper. With recent buffs to his Fissure range, Earthshaker’s 1400 range stun can smack this guy when he is ready to go to town on a Chronosphere’d ally. If we take an early game scenario where faceless has level 1 Chronosphere while you are an Earthshaker at level 3-5, you can disable 1.25-1.5 seconds of his 4 second ultimate. This is insanely strong for early engagements and will save your ally’s ass 90% of the time and usually turns the fights. Level 4 Time Walk has 1300 range so as long as you stay well out of vision before the fight begins, there is little to no chance you will be caught in Chronosphere, provided a guarenteed disable for this slippery motherfucker. Later on the game, a support es will have the chance to build into a Force Staff and a euls to increase his CC potential on Faceless Void during Chronosphere barring he has no Black King Bar. Black King Bar is the only item Faceless Void has against you, and if you survive the midgame, a 4 second Black King Bar will not be enough to stop the disable the shaker is packing.

Pugna

Now Pugna is rarely considered a support and I would not recommend playing him as one unless you have to. While everyone has been singing the praises of Death Prophet and how OP she is, Pugna is right up there with her. This green monster wrecks teamfights and has one solid spell against Chronosphere as well. Faceless Void loves 5v5 teamfights, and so does Pugna. If  Faceless Void doesn’t get a 3-4 man Chronosphere, a level 3-4 Pugna nether ward will decimate teamfights. Pugna also takes advantage of the fact that Faceless Void comes online much slower than him. Early aggression is a key way to stop a Faceless Void from running over the game. Take a few good engagements with a Pugna, and the enemies base will evaporate before your eyes. Use your team’s early gold advantage to snowball and aggressively ward their jungle to cripple any chance of recovery. Decrepify is the main defensive spell to use against Faceless Void. If he jumps on anyone and you are not caught in the sphere, decrepify your ally to force him onto another target or waste his ulti. Yes it leaves you ally vulnerable to magic damage, but if he was going to die anyway, make your opponents blow their spells on a Chronosphere target and take damage from the ward anyway. It is a favorable outcome for you 90% of the time. If you force the Faceless Void to buy a diffusal, then you made him blow 3.3k on an item he wouldn’t otherwise purchase. I’d say thats a good trade. The downside with Pugna is that if he is caught in Chronosphere, his low hp pool means he is instantly gonna die.

Tidehunter

If there ever was an offlaner a safelane Faceless Void does not want to deal with its Tidehunter. The best time to grab this guy is when your opponent has a safelane Faceless Void with a greedy jungler and only one laning support.  Anchor Smash shits on this hero (60% damage reduction? This is freaking ridiculous volvo pls). Grab a Stout Shield and a few levels in Kraken Shell and there is no way Faceless Void can last hit. You will get insane amounts of farm and shrug off only one support. You will get 6 before him if the lane goes smoothly and can potentially solo/double kill Faceless Void and his support with Ravage/ Anchor Smash. In the midgame, Faceless Void can almost never Chronosphere you without backup and if he focuses you without killing you. Ravage anchor gets popped and you win the fight.  Kraken Shell makes sure that Faceless Void can’t kill him. In the late game, refresh ravage is a solid way to counter a 4 second Black King Bar Faceless Void by either disabling him or his team for the duration of the sphere.

Honorable mentions of heroes that do well against Faceless Void, but do not directly counter him:

Vengeful Spirit

If he kills you -28 damage from Vengeance Aura, plus you can swap your more important ally out of the sphere to safety.

Outworld Devourer

Astral Imprisonment is no joke. Not to mention he is a natural scythe carrier. Just pray for no Backtrack when you drop the hammer!

Skywrath Mage

I have had mixed success with this hero against Faceless Void. In the midgame if you manage to silence him before Chronosphere, he just Black King Bar and instagibs your no armor ass anyway. Only really works if you crush him early which is what Skywrath Mage excels at.

Abaddon

One of the best things about Chronosphere is ensuring easy and quick kills of supports. That doesn't happen with Abaddon. I just fucking ignore him. What a dick.

Witch Doctor

If you position well and don't get yourself Chronosphere'd, Witch Doctor can totally ruin a Chronosphere. Toss a cask in for a disruptive stun, and stand on the edge of Chronosphere (nearest a teammate likely to be targeted) to drop your Death Ward.

Dazzle

Dazzle takes a little bit more finesse to effectively counter Faceless Void, as well as excellent positioning. However, Shallow Grave, Shadow Wave, and Weave can end up saving multiple teammates.

Wraith King

Similar to Abaddon, Wraith King is mostly a worthless Chronosphere target. If you choose to kill him, he's most likely going to come back to life and slow you, and being tanky in the first place it probably took the entire Chronosphere duration to kill him in the first time. Annoying, and makes Faceless Void choose another target.