Necrophos vs Venomancer

How this matchup plays

Picking Venomancer into an enemy Necrophos is a tough sell from the draft screen. Venomancer’s entire game plan is based on wearing down opponents with damage-over-time effects, but this plays directly into the hands of Necrophos. His Death Pulse provides consistent area-of-effect healing that negates a huge portion of that slow poison damage for his whole team. The constant drain from Heartstopper Aura also punishes heroes for being unable to burst targets down, which is a core weakness of Venomancer's kit. Necrophos simply out-sustains the very thing Veno needs to be effective.

As the game progresses, this problem deepens. Laning against Necrophos becomes a losing battle of attrition. Later, a big Poison Nova that should soften up the enemy team is frequently undone by a few casts of Death Pulse, leaving Venomancer’s allies without the kill threat they expected. Worse, Necrophos can use Reaper's Scythe to execute anyone that Veno *does* manage to get low, turning the fight completely. Venomancer’s team is forced to find a way to burst Necrophos from full health, because any sustained fight will almost always go his way.