[Shadow Fiend] A guide to my favourite hero

[Lulzicon]

Table of Contents

1. Introduction
2. Story
3. Strengths and Weaknesses
4. The Stats
5. Epic Skills
6. Skill Build
7. Items
8. Play Style
9. The Friends and the Foes
10. Replay
11. Final Words
12. Updates

Alright, lets get started. If you want to go to any section in the Table of Contents, just search for "-[section]-".

-Introduction-

Shadow Fiend is one of the more powerful heroes in DotA. A good SF can take a solo easily, outfarm all the rest of the players and cause some real havoc in team fights. Although all heroes can be considered good in the right hands, the power of the Shadow Fiend in a good player is simply, devastating.

He's the sort of hero that is high risk, high reward. If you like these kind of heroes, pick him.

-Story-

A demon of the burning legion so abhorred that he makes the skin of even his fellow demons crawl, Nevermore is a creature of the shadows that consumes the souls of those around him. When the Shadow Fiend comes forth to battle, he augments his power with the souls he has consumed, bearing down on his enemies with spiritually enhanced attacks and powerful spiritual blasts. The Shadow Fiend is a terrifying opponent whom few have survived, and those who have perished under his tyranny have faced the most despicable fate of all.

Pretty cool story?

-Strengths and Weaknesses-


Strengths

-Very good lane control
-Superb farming capability
-Requiem of Souls is one of the most damaging ultimates in the game
-Once Necromastery is filled up your damage is great

Weaknesses

-Dying is more of a problem for SF than others
-Weak base damage early on
-Very fragile
-Does not have a disable that can be used effectively when ganking
-Low base armour

-The Stats-

The Normal Stats

Strength: 15 + 2
Agility: 20 + 2.4
Intelligence: 18 + 2

The Advanced Stats

Affiliation: Scourge
Damage: 35-41
Armour: 1.9
Movespeed: 300
Attack range: 500
Attack animation: 0.5 / 0.54
Casting animation: 0.67 / 0.4
Base attack time: 1.7
Missile speed: 1200
Sight range: 1800 / 800

-Epic Skills-



Ability type: Active
Targeting type: Instant
Ability hotkey: Z / X / C
AOE of spell: 275

Gives the Shadow Fiend the power to desecrate regions in front of him at varying distances.

Shadowraze is going to be your farming tool throughout the whole game. At level 4, 2 Shadowrazes take out an entire melee wave of creeps during the earlier parts of the game. It has also great killing potential. A couple of razes at a target hero means 450 damage dealt, which is obviously very high during early game.

There are 3 locations that this spell can be cast at. The first Shadowraze hits at a distance 200 range facing away from SF. The second one hits 400 range away, and the third one hits 700 range away. The great thing about Shadowraze is that, when one of the razes is used, the other 2 do not go into cooldown. Therefore, you can use 2 Shadowrazes at once to nuke an enemy hero for 450 damage, and destroy creep waves with a couple of razes (good for Necromastery).

Another reason why this skill is so great is because of the mana cost. 75 mana for a 300 damage nuke? That is so win! Even Magnus's shockwave takes 90 mana to do the same damage.

This skill can be canceled before the raze animation takes place. Before SF fully raises his hands, you can press S to stop the raze from taking place. This is very useful because it helps you save mana if you accidentally miss a raze.

While this spell may not be useful to new players because of its noob-unfriendly not point targeting type, it is a great spell because it gives SF great lane control early game.



Ability type: Passive
Hotkey: N

Whenever the Shadow Fiend kills a target, he stores the unfortunate soul inside of him. For each stored soul he gains 2 bonus damage until his own death releases half of them from bondage.

The reason why when you play SF you need to have good last hitting and denying skills. Every kill (heroes or creeps) gives you a soul, or the equivalent of 2 extra damage. This skill also determines the strength of Requiem of Souls.

When you max Necromastery and souls, you get the damage of a free relic. I suppose this counters your weak base damage to some extent, so when you got 30 souls, damage no longer becomes a problem. During early game, every last hit or deny you make is going to make your job for future last hits or denies easier. Therefore, try to last hit and deny efficiently.

When you die, you lose half your souls. This is the reason why dying is so irritating for SF. You lose gold, and your damage. Try not to die too much. Once you get going, its hard to stop.



Ability type: Passive
Hotkey: P

The presence of such a horrible creature terrifies nearby enemies, reducing their armour.

-5 armour on a target with extra 60 damage is, painful, especially when SF increases his damage output later on.



Ability type: Active
Targeting type: Instant
Hotkey: R
Damage AOE: 1300/1325/1350
Slow/Damage reduction AOE: 700

Summons evil spirits around you dealing damage to units in the area. Number of spirits is related to the number of souls stored and the movement/damage reduction is related to the distance from the Shadow Fiend. Lowers movement speed and damage of nearby units. The closer the units are the greater the effect.

A truly exceptional ultimate. If positioned correctly, this spell can potentially dish out more than 1k damage on a single hero, and probably a bit less on the rest. Not only does it do so much damage, it also slows and reduces the damage of the targets it hits. Epic indeed!

However, the downside of this skill is that, it is totally reliant on Necromastery. If your souls aren't filled up and you cast this skill, its likely to do as much damage as a Bristleback's Quill Spray without being stacked.

Every 2 souls you collect will generate one line that radiates away from SF, so that means there will be a total of 15 lines when your souls are maxed, each one spaced out by an angle of 24 degrees.

Since this spell has a channeling time of 1 second, you wouldn't want to run in front of your opponent and cast it. Instead, you would want to get either a blink or Wind Walk to get close to your opponent and then use it.

-Skill Build-

1. Necromastery
2. Shadowraze
3. Shadowraze
4. Necromastery
5. Shadowraze
6. Necromastery
7. Shadowraze
8. Necromastery
9. Requiem of Souls
10. Presence of the Dark Lord
11. Requiem of Souls
12-14. Presence of the Dark Lord
15. Stats
16. Requiem of Souls
17-25. Stats

Necromastery is taken first because you immediately need to start collecting souls once you are at your lane. Shadowraze is then maxed ASAP because maxing nukes first is wise. After all, nukes lose potential over time, so maxing it first to get its maximum potential is good. Presence of the Dark Lord is then maxed because -5 armour on enemy heroes is cool and scary. Requiem is maxed at every possible opportunity because it increases the damage it does, except when at level 6, because since Requiem damage relies on Necromastery, getting Requiem without Necromastery is like getting Eclipse without Lucent Beam. It sucks.

The noob skill build is missing!

-Items-

Items to Go For



Increases your lane control early game by a very considerable amount. With the addition of runewhoring, you can stay in your lane for a long time.

The boots



Alright, now that 6.63 has came, and Treads officially sucks for DPS boots, BoT is our winner! Especially when it got the +5 ms buff. Although it may seem that Phase Boots is the new PT, I won't go for it because:

-SF doesn't need Phase to rape.
-I don't like the Phase Boots picture
-Alot of people like BoT, so I go along with BoT.

The positioning item

After you decided which boots to get, you should think of what to get for your positioning item. After all, SF really wants to land that really cool ultimate of his without getting hurt too badly. So, how do we fix this?



Wind Walk is the safer choice of the 2, though more expensive. It also gives some damage and attack speed which is good for SF. Also, it allows SF players to position their ultimates with safety, because instead of blink, you can decide whether it is safe to start channeling your ultimate, instead of blinking into 5 heroes and getting faceraped. The downside would be a shiny 700 gold emerald. I prefer Wind Walk over blink.



The more risky and cheaper of the 2. Although damage and attack speed is compromised, blink is harder to counter than Wind Walk. It is also unsafe if you are going to blink into a team and get focused.

Good news for hardcore Dagger users, 18 sec CD to 14 sec CD, so getting Blink is better than before.



I nearly forgot this strategy out. Hexing your opponents or cyclone them and then walk up to them is a good strategy. However, this strategy has many weaknesses. Firstly, this strategy only works when you have one opponent that you are targeting. When there is more than one hero, the other hero you did not hex or cyclone could easily stun you. Secondly, hex only lasts for 3.5 seconds, and your Requiem already takes a second to channel, leaving you 2.5 seconds to move up to your opponent. Furthermore, your opponent still can move while hexed, so your opponent will not suffer the full effects of Requiem. Cyclone is a bit more guaranteed to pull off, but your timing will have to be perfect in order to make your opponent suffer the full damage.

The orbs

Now that you got a positioning item and a nice boots, it is time to get your orb effect.



My preferred choice of orb effect, because the high damage from Necromastery and -5 armour from PODL combined with even more damage and armour reduction is simply overkill.



Is viable, because your huge damage regains you plenty of health per hit. Gives your survivability, and an easier time at Roshan.



Still a good item on SF, since SF lacks a slow and purge solves that problem.

Other items



Very important for SF, especially when your opponents have decided to go disabling. Since SF is so fragile, buying magic immunity so that you can unleash your fearsome damage is usually a good idea.



Decreases armour of opponents while increasing your attack speed. Combine that with insane DPS, PODL, and Desolator, we have a winner.



Late game, an extra 2 illusions to help dish out the damage is really great. Increases your movespeed as well, so you can run faster.



Evasion to increase your EHP further and some more DPS. Perfect for DPS heroes like SF.



Some might think the new Heart is worse than the old one because it doesn't allow imba regen when attacked by others. Well, NOT FOR SF! SF kills everyone before taking damage first, so the only regen he needs is outside combat, and since it was raised to 2%, win!



After feedback from the community, I guess that getting EoS on SF isn't as bad as it will turn out to be. It gives survivability, a slow and some damage. Don't stack this with anything other orb except lifesteal.

Rejected items



You will be aiming to kill heroes quickly, not take 1875934875144 years to kill them while under the effect of maim.



You aren't good carrying Rad around. You don't have the HP to stay around and tank while it damages your opponents.



While 2 ultimates may seem promising, especially since each hits 1k and above, after the first round of Requiem your opponents are going to know you are there, and if they are smart they will dodge it.



I also don't know why I put this here. It's just that so many pubs get Bfury, that I decide to put Bfury here to tell all pubs, think before getting Bfury on every melee hero you see.

-Play Style-

Choosing your lane

Always solo with SF. You don't want some irritating lane partner to be taking all your last hits and denies, leaving you with no souls. And leveling fast is good as well, especially when SF's lane control is so epic.

If you are playing on the Sentinel side, congratulations! You can exploit the nearby jungle which offers you even more experience and gold. Pull at every minute the tier 1 camp just close to the Sentinel tower. When you feel like wiping all of them out, simply go to the camp and cast a couple of razes to murder all the creeps. While leaving the lane may lose you some experience and gold, the rewards from these pulled neutrals more than compensate for your losses.

Early Game (1-11)

Like every hero should, you should aim to last hit and deny as well as possible. The more you last hit and deny, the easier it will be later on. Often, this snowballs and in the end you can out-last hit your opponents. If you are having some difficulty in last hitting because SF's base damage is so weak, use your raze when you hit level 3 to last hit. Remember to try to hit the opposing hero when using your raze as well, so you get last hits and harass your opponent. Try to stay in your lane as long as possible. Do not leave your lane ever, unless you go and get a rune or go and pull neutrals.

Bottle is an incredibly good item early game. It boosts the lane control of any hero by a considerable amount, especially heroes with nukes. However, using Bottle like tangoes often result in the charges dissipating quickly. Always try to have your health and mana not hit your max health and mana after a sip of Bottle. This way, you know that you have gained the full effects of that sip. Never ever heal while you are being attacked, because Bottle effect dispels upon damage.

If you want to do some really cool runewhoring, ask your team to plant a ward at the runes. However, if you are playing with not so pro pubs and you know they won't exploit the runes, you should exploit the runes like this.

1. Scout for the rune at the beginning of the game. Scout top for Sentinel, bottom for Scourge.
2. If the rune is at that place, do not take the rune. Go back to mid.
3. Do your usual farming and stuff.
4. Use your Bottle till there are no more charges left.
5. If the rune is at top, you would want to go take the rune at around X:45, where X is an odd number. If the rune is at bot, you would want to take the rune at around X:43, where X is also an odd number.
6. Take the rune and wait for the next rune to spawn.
7. Repeat from step 2.

This way, you will always know the location of the rune without using Observer Wards! If your runewhoring gets interrupted by another player taking up a rune, that's too bad.

In addition to the Bottle charges, the runes come in great use as well.

Illusion: Now creating 2 images, you can send both to scout the next rune spawn location. Also can be used to fake your opponents.

Invisibility: Very useful, although unlike Lothar's Edge Wind Walk, your invis gets broken immediately if you cast your ultimate. Use it to position Shadowrazing instead.

Haste: A much more riskier version of invis. Rush towards your opponent and raze him.

Double Damage: Not really useful early game since raze damages more. Useful for last hitting and downing towers though.

Regeneration: Effectively 2 Bottles in one when captured. Sadly the remake made it that it expires once at full mana and health.

Mid Game (11-16)

So now, you have your positioning item (hopefully), your chosen boots and a couple of Wraith Bands. Your life has been pretty dull so far, with last hitting and denying, probably a few kills mixed between with Shadowraze. Now is the part that gets exciting, by using Requiem of Souls and your superb DPS.

To kill with Requiem of Souls (with blink):

1. Find a relatively low HP hero. Below 900 health would be preferable.
2. If he tries to be a hero and continues doing whatever he's doing, go towards him.
3. Blink towards your target.
4. Immediately cast Requiem of Souls.
5. If your target isn't fast enough, he is most likely to get owned by your Requiem.
6. Finish him off with your normal attacks.
7. If he gets too far, kill him with the 700 range Shadowraze.
8. If he still doesn't die, ask your friendly Zeus to Wrath him.

To kill with Requiem of Souls (with Wind Walk):

1. Find a relatively low HP hero. Below 900 health would be preferable.
2. If he tries to be a hero and continues doing whatever he's doing, go towards him.
3. Wind Walk towards your target.
4. Since WW overrides collision, move until you are standing 'in' him and cast Requiem of Souls.
5. Watch your target's health get drained from green to red, or maybe even killed outright.
6. Finish him off with your normal attacks.
7. If he gets too far, kill him with the 700 range Shadowraze.
8. If he still doesn't die, ask your friendly Zeus to Wrath him.

Besides killing, farming should be a breeze now. Every wave just requires 2 Shadowrazes to clear. The worst thing you can be doing is to be walking around doing nothing. Never ever be doing nothing. If you aren't whacking a creep, whack a neutral. This way, you will never be underleveled and this will help your late game immensely, since SF really isn't a hard carry.

Late Game (16-25)

So you managed to outfarm all opposition, go Beyond Godlike, and probably forced a few enemy players into quitting. Now, your main job, besides ending the game, is to take advantage of your item superiority to destroy any remaining fools who have not left the game. Your damage output should be the highest, and if you haven't claimed Roshan yet, go kill him. His Aegis will come in great use for you, since dying is a big problem for SF.

Killing turns from careful positioning of your ultimate into one click killing. Your ultimate is still very powerful to initiate team fights though, and should not be overlooked even if you have a damage increase of 1000. Shadowraze still helps a lot late game to clear creeps, especially upgraded ones, although this time you will need 3 razes instead of 2.

-The Friends and the Foes-

Friends

Anyone who can help you position your ultimate well is a good friend.



Just ask them to time their skills properly so that instead of whiffing the whole combo you actually manage to do something.

All disablers are good teammates, as they can help you target your raze easily.

Foes

Chain nukers like:



SF's health is low, and their nukes just make short work of SF.



HA HA NO MORE MANA BURN THAT USED TO SCREW EVERYONE UP SO BADLY EARLY GAME! His combo still hurts for SF though, so he is still here.

There may be other worse heroes that SF could potentially face off, but these guys are going to be your worst for now.

-Replay-

Here is the link to my replay.

http://www.playdota.com/forums/18397...ay/#post233213

I was playing under the IGN LolCatsAndDogs. Was delaying a bit so I couldn't really last hit early on, but I think it was a rather well played game by me, apart from the host complaining a bit.

-Final Words-

Although Nevermore the Shadow Fiend requires some skills to play like targeting Shadowraze and placing perfect Requiem of Souls, once you mastered these skills you will find that the Shadow Fiend is one of the most powerful heroes in DotA. Have fun playing him.

-Updates-

21/9/09: Map version now shows 6.63b.
17/9/09: Updated guide to 6.63. Thank god SF wasn't nerfed and still remains cool as ever!
6/9/09: Removed the noob skill build.
28/8/09: Changed Map Version from 6.61c to 6.62.
25/8/09: Added Dark Seer to the Friends list.
20/8/09: Moved Eye of Skadi from Rejected Items list to Other Items list.
20/8/09: Fixed a typo with the alternative skill build.

[Vindicate]

Skadi lifeleech ftw, they stack so I don't see why it is a rejected item. probably u get it as ur 4th or 5th item after becoming insanely farmed if you went the lifeleech path.

[rodrick]

AWESOME GUIDE!!! but i would prefer early game an int item like Guinso or Eul to cast the ultimate succesfully

[jdlaster638]

I love him, A great stra is to get Lother's Edge, Assault, Deso, Boots of travel, Manta, Heart. That is my build for him. I windwalk in ult, manta, and man him is deso assault and his neg armour aura while they are slowed can easily take out 2-3 heroes if done right

[Baconnaise]

Pft seriously I think there is only one build. Travels, blink, satanic/skadi. If you are REALLY poor then you shouldn't be playing SF anyways. LV3 necro, gem, wards, dust, track, amp damage > lothar's.

[Lulzicon]

Bah some guy just rated my guide 1 =(. Anyway, there are many builds to playing SF. Its also dependent on the opposing heroes. Obviously if there is a Gondar/Slardar you will get blink instead of Lothars.

[TehMoep]

Nice Guide, though i like the leech/skadi way more to get some HP. However deso/hot should do it as well. Any thoughts on Crit?

[Lulzicon]

Buriza/MKB definitely aren't ruled out as well. They aren't rejected items definitely. The 'other items' section lists the more important items to consider, like BKB. It's no use having 5 rapiers and a crit when ur down after a few stuns.

[desOo]

Rejecting skadi is really bad, since one of the best 3 orbs for SF:

desolator, satanic ( hotd ), skadi.

They're the bests orbs.

Skadi is really good because provides you huge slow, which is a thing that u lack of, SOME HP, another zone where you lack, and some dmg+mana, which are never bad. You said that u need to kill heroes quickly, well with this you won't walk for hit everitime, you already have dmg, a slow is really useful. (you can see it even in some competitive games).

[Eumellein]

Why are you chosing as first item over more common startitems like?




A reminding about Wraiths Bands won't hurt in your "Items to go for" section also since you wrote about it in your "Mid Game" section. Maybe even Bracers because Nevermore is such a fragile hero.
Would also love to see a section added how to use your Shadowrazes effectively since you mentioned they are hard to aim for new players. Maybe just some tips, screenshots would be even better up to you.
You added an alternative skillbuild for new DotA players so I assume this guide is aiming for new-intermediate players means adding the skillnames next to their pictures would be helpful.

I suggest you to use

[goanchor=intro]1. Introduction[/goanchor]
[goanchor=story] 2. Story[/goanchor]
[anchor=-Introduction-]intro[/anchor]
[anchor=-Story-]story[/anchor]
 and so on

for navigation through your guide (way easier compared to search ^^).

[Lulzicon]

Alright, probably EoS on SF could be considered. I stand corrected.

Maybe its because I like to be a glass cannon so the game becomes more interesting when you actually have a chance to die instead of being unkillable =P.

In all honesty, however, I still believe that Deso would make a better orb. The money from buying EoS can be used to get about Deso + a bit of Lothars already.

And I get Bottle for first item on most heroes that solo mid because it seriously boosts lane control by a hell lot, compared to starting items like circlets tangoes and stuff. I suppose you can get circlets and stuff as starting items if your team has a chick to deliver a bottle later though.

[smaren]

rejecting skadi for lack of damage while approving euls/guinsoo is just funny. If anything euls/guinsoo should be bought by support heroes while you farm up your deso, butter, buriza whatever dmg you want

[Lulzicon]

I didn't approve Guinsoo and Euls on SF. I just said that it was a way that some play SF, and I said that it has many weaknesses. Anyway, guide updated, EoS has been moved.

[ROSHANPAI]

Nice work mate, this is exactly how i play SF,and ought to be played...nvm d sad fools who think blink is better than lothars...although i think u should remov d alternate skill build, as noobs shouldnt play sf at all,and that skill build is more of a DPS carry kind of thing...my best wishes

[Bovver]

What is the best orb?

[windrunner023]

If you're going to take Euls/Sheep as a possibility, don't. Get Force Staff instead if you want to do something other than Blink/WW. It's a lot cheaper.

[Lulzicon]

Blink is for situations where you know that invis just won't work well, or specfically if your opponent has truesight. Blink is harder to counter, as it only can be revealed by your PODL aura or obs wards.

The best orb differs among people. Some think that lifesteal + EoS is better, some think that Diffy is better, some think Deso is better. I think Deso is the best though.

And Force Staff just makes targeting a hell lot harder. Target has to be precisely 500 distance from you if not he wont take the full damage. Furthermore, the target still can run away from you after Force Staff has been used, causing Requiem to do even less damage.

[gwho]

I REALLY think dark seer is the best ally for Nevermore.

Lothars and Blink is for positioning to maximize requiem damage. but you cna only postiion yourself perfectly on one target. Dark seer does all the work for you, and you can land perfect requiemt on MULTIPLE targets.

[Lulzicon]

Dark Seer is indeed a good ally, but the timing may be tricky because you want your Requiem to hit exactly after Vacuum finishes being cast.

[gwho]

What you say is only for the perfect ideal situation. even if he doesnt get it perfect or the timing is off, a vacuum will mangify damage output tremendously compared to Nevermore doing it by himself, or compared to TC, enigma or Magnatuar. you need timing with those too.

dark seer has the best range, mobility due to burst, and AOE and has superiority in this respect over the others:
- TC only clumps heroes in one dimension.
- mangatuar has sas maller radius and his reverse polarity is in front of himself, so he can't surprise as well as dark seer can.
- Enigma doenst pull in heroes quite slowly