Who Counters Champion Zerato in Epic Seven?

Harsetti, Empyrean Ilynav, Straze and other hard counters counter Champion Zerato. Enemies whose attacks cannot trigger counters shut off his retaliation entirely, removing a core source of his damage and tempo.

Counter-blockers: Enemies whose attacks cannot trigger counters shut off his retaliation entirely, removing a core source of his damage and tempo. Buff theft and dispel: Stealing or stripping the increased Defense from his area attack leaves him fragile, and removing the debuff he is holding can switch off his counterattack condition. Heal denial: An effect that blocks healing turns off his self-recovery on the basic attack, so he can no longer sustain through incoming damage. Cleanse and shortened debuff duration: Allies who cleanse or cut debuff timers undo the decreased Defense and decreased Attack from his area hit and rob him of debuffs to transfer back; enemy debuff immunity also stops his control from sticking. His best area attack also sits on a five-turn cooldown, leaving long gaps with only his slow basic.

Debuff-heavy control teams: His basic attack transfers two of his own debuffs straight back onto enemies, so much of what they pile on him just gets handed off, and he heals himself off max Health each time he does it. Effect Resistance bruisers and tanks: His full-team area attack ignores Effect Resistance, so its decreased Defense and decreased Attack land even on chunky, resist-stacked targets, softening them for follow-up. Hard crowd-control setups: He cannot be stunned, put to sleep, or have his Hit Chance lowered, so openers that rely on locking him down whiff while he keeps acting and counterattacking. Attack-reliant melee and slow brawlers: Whenever he holds a debuff, being hit can trigger a counterattack, punishing teams that try to grind him down with repeated single hits, while his self defense buff blunts their damage.