Night Stalker — Dota 2 7.41f Counters, Synergies & Win Rate
Also known as: NS, Balanar
Night Stalker (NS, Balanar) in Dota 2 7.41f: win rate, pick rate, top counters and best teammates, from Batru's ranked-match pipeline.
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Night Stalker by rank bracket
Night Stalker is strongest in Divine & Immortal games, winning 53.41% (#14 of 127 heroes), but drops to 48.39% (#73) in Herald & Guardian.
| Bracket | Tier Rank | Win Rate | Pick Rate | Matches |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Herald & Guardian | #73 of 127 | 48.39% | 5.19% | 7,494 |
| Crusader & Archon | #30 of 127 | 51.64% | 6.62% | 29,704 |
| Legend & Ancient | #13 of 127 | 53.01% | 8.67% | 39,954 |
| Divine & Immortal | #14 of 127 | 53.41% | 10.13% | 14,631 |
Recent ranked matches split by average match rank — the same data behind the per-rank tier lists each bracket links to.
Night Stalker win rate by patch
Night Stalker is winning 52.02% of 253,904 ranked matches in patch 7.41f, up 0.3pp from 7.41e.
| Patch | Win Rate | Change | Pick Rate | Matches |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7.41f | 52.02% | ▲ +0.3pp | 7.51% | 253,904 |
| 7.41e | 51.67% | ▼ -0.7pp | 7.27% | 2,165,771 |
| 7.41d | 52.36% | ▼ -0.2pp | 6.90% | 2,046,255 |
| 7.41c | 52.52% | ▲ +0.6pp | 7.04% | 965,661 |
| 7.41b | 51.87% | ▼ -1.1pp | 6.99% | 984,635 |
| 7.41a | 52.93% | — | 7.62% | 435,554 |
Win rate and pick rate per patch window over all quality-filtered ranked matches; the newest patch accumulates matches for days after release — its row shows the current sample size.
Night Stalker counters & matchups
Night Stalker is a nighttime hunter whose Darkness turns day to night — where his vision, speed, and silence make him terrifying. He utterly dominates immobile heroes he hunts in the dark: Timbersaw, Puck and Tinker get run down with no escape. Night Stalker is countered by illusions and scalers that survive his night windows: Meepo, Naga Siren and Spectre out-body or out-scale, while Wraith King out-tanks. Draft tip: Night Stalker is a brutal early-night ganker into squishy, low-mobility drafts; he's weaker into illusion comps and hard-carries that survive to out-scale him.
Strong against
 Puck | 59.55% | 3,639 |
 Shadow Fiend | 58.50% | 20,888 |
 Storm Spirit | 58.23% | 6,773 |
 Nature's Prophet | 58.20% | 11,127 |
 Tinker | 57.98% | 6,880 |
 Kez | 57.98% | 6,023 |
 Timbersaw | 57.53% | 6,131 |
 Morphling | 57.45% | 4,874 |
Struggles against
 Meepo | 44.02% | 2,490 |
 Wraith King | 44.70% | 16,579 |
 Troll Warlord | 45.65% | 4,313 |
 Dawnbreaker | 45.84% | 13,586 |
 Spirit Breaker | 46.56% | 18,855 |
 Spectre | 46.84% | 14,298 |
 Broodmother | 46.93% | 3,209 |
 Bounty Hunter | 47.51% | 9,486 |
Night Stalker synergies
Night Stalker controls the day-night cycle and provides vision and a silence — he wants to snowball his night-time kills with a team that punishes pickoffs. He pairs best with snowball cores and AoE: Spectre and Wraith King convert his night ganks into a man-advantage, while Dark Seer clumps the enemy for him to hunt. Give Night Stalker a follow-up team and his nighttime dominance snowballs an early lead into a closed game.
Best teammates
 Outworld Destroyer | 57.11% | 12,046 |
| Wraith King | 57.04% | 5,780 |
 Lich | 56.11% | 13,911 |
 Dragon Knight | 56.10% | 4,672 |
 Luna | 55.73% | 14,756 |
 Sven | 55.50% | 10,676 |
 Winter Wyvern | 55.03% | 8,482 |
| Spectre | 54.98% | 13,290 |
Data updated Sep 23, 2026.