Mobile Legends Counter Pick Guide: How to Read a Draft

A Mobile Legends counter pick is a hero you choose because his kit stops what an enemy hero wants to do: crowd control against heroes that dash, burst damage against heroes that cannot escape, anti-heal against heroes that live on healing. You make it in Draft Pick, where the later picks see what the enemy has already locked in. Once the draft is over, battle spells and items do the same job.

Lists of counters change with every balance update. The reasons behind them do not, and a player who knows the reasons does not need a list.

How a Mobile Legends counter pick works in Draft Pick

From Epic rank up, ranked matches use Draft Pick. Each team bans some heroes, then the two teams pick in turns, and every pick is shown to the other side. Information grows with each turn: the first pick knows nothing about the enemy, the last pick knows almost everything.

So with an early pick, take a hero that is hard to answer, and with a late pick, answer what you see.

How to counter in Mobile Legends: four questions

Look at the enemy hero and ask:

1. How does he reach his target, and how does he leave? Dashes and blinks are answered by crowd control that stops movement. A hero with no escape is answered by anyone who can jump on him.
2. What kind of damage does he deal? Burst that kills in one combo is answered by a shield, a saving skill or a defensive item. Steady damage is answered by killing him first. Physical or magic decides which defense you buy.
3. What keeps him alive? If it is healing or lifesteal, bring anti-heal. If it is a huge health bar, bring damage that grows with the target's health. If it is range, bring a way to close the distance.
4. When is he strong? A hero who needs many items is answered by a hero who is strong early and puts him under pressure before those items arrive.

You rarely need an answer to everything a hero does. It is usually enough to break the one thing his plan depends on.

MLBB counter heroes: examples that have held for years

These pairs are old enough to trust, because they come from how the heroes are built and not from their numbers:

• Heroes that live on dashes (Fanny, Lancelot, Ling, Gusion): Khufra, whose Bouncing Ball skill stops a dash in the middle, and Minsitthar, whose ultimate blocks movement skills inside its area.
• Heroes that heal (Estes, Uranus, Alucard): Baxia, whose skills weaken healing and shields.
• Tanks and big health bars: Karrie, whose attacks deal extra true damage based on the target's maximum health.
• Teams built on crowd control (Tigreal, Atlas): Diggie, whose ultimate removes control effects from nearby allies and protects them from new ones for a moment.
• Marksmen with no dash (Layla, Hanabi): Assassins who reach the back line, such as Hayabusa, Lancelot or Saber.
• Sun and his clones: any hero with strong area damage, which clears the copies together.

Use them as patterns. When a new hero comes out, ask the four questions and you will see which pattern he belongs to.

Pick order, bans and your hero pool

• Ban what you cannot answer. If nobody on your team can stop a certain hero, a ban is the simplest counter in the game.
• Pick safe heroes early. A sturdy roamer or a Mage with long range fits almost any lineup and is hard to punish. Keep the roles that are easiest to counter, often the jungler or the EXP laner, for the later turns.
• Comfort beats counter. A counter you have played twice loses to a hero the enemy has played two hundred times. Keep two or three heroes for each role you play, each of a different type, and practice them in Classic first.

A counter pick gives you an easier match, not a won one. Gold, levels and positioning still decide the fight.

Counter heroes and items: when the pick is not enough

The other half of the work is your build, and it is open at every rank, even where picks are hidden. Look at the enemy team on the loading screen, then adjust:

• Battle spell. Purify answers heavy crowd control. Flicker answers heroes who jump on you. Aegis gives you a shield against burst.
• Anti-heal. Sea Halberd for physical heroes, Necklace of Durance for magic heroes, Dominance Ice for tanks. One of them on the team is usually enough against a healer.
• Defense by damage type. Athena's Shield softens magic burst. Antique Cuirass weakens heroes who hit with physical skills. Wind of Nature gives a Marksman a short moment in which physical damage cannot touch him.

During the match, open the scoreboard and look at what the enemy is building. The enemy with the most gold is the one your next item should answer.

Frequent questions

Is there a counter pick list I can follow?

Lists and apps go out of date with every balance change, and they tell you who without telling you why. Treat them as a hint, together with hero statistics such as win rate and ban rate, and check the reason with the four questions.

What counters a Marksman in MLBB?

Early pressure, and a hero who can reach the back line. Most Marksmen are weak at the start and have little health, so an Assassin or a Tank with a long engage makes their fights short.

Can I counter pick below Epic rank?

Not in the draft. Below Epic, and in Classic, you do not see the enemy's heroes while you choose. You counter after the heroes are shown, with your battle spell, emblem and items.

A wider hero pool, and where diamonds fit

Counter picking needs choices, and choices mean heroes. Most heroes can be bought with Battle Points earned by playing, and the weekly free heroes let you test a counter before you pay for it. Diamonds are for the hero you want on its first day, and for skins: see what diamonds are used for in Mobile Legends.

Mobile Legends diamonds on Mas4Games are for accounts of the Türkiye region and are loaded by player ID and server ID, with no password asked. If you play the jungle, the Mobile Legends jungle guide covers that role.