Shendelzare Silkwood, the Vengeful Spirit


PROS:
[+] One of the best roamer-gankers in the game.
[+] A sparkly, simply excellent stun-nuke with a short cooldown.
[+] Ultimate turns 5v5 to turn into a 4v5, and can also save allies occasionally.
[+] A no-bullshit damage-amplifying aura. (As in, it works for everyone, unlike Lunar and Trueshot.)
[+] Terror no longer sucks. In fact, it kinda rules.

CONS:
[--] Usually the first to die in team battles.
[--] Quite fragile and has a relatively low attack range.
[--] Farming is somewhat slow and difficult.


Abuse Wave of Terror
Seriously, this skill is ridiculously versatile and useful. At Lvl.1 it already gives its full hax00r vision and costs a measly 40 mana, which makes it spammable very early on in the game. Use it liberally and often. Notice a lot of missing heroes? Wave of Terror the nearby forest to foresee any ganks. Terror uphill for vision and when you are pushing with your team to scout the enemy. Terror fleeing heroes to anti-juke. And while the tiny damage of Terror may seem useless, especially at Lvl.1, early in lane is simply broken for canceling clarities, flasks, and bottle charges. You can also Terror that annoying ES or Enigma from far away to prevent him from blink-ulting right away (the hero-damage preventing Dagger use for 3 seconds.) This, of course, also works for chasing heroes who are trying to blink to safety.


[item images]
Don't get Magic Stick first (as in, right out of the base) because it's virtually worthless if you happened to be laned against, say, Huskar and Sven; which is a dangerous lane but will barely stock your Magic Stick at all. You can get a Magic Stick in the side shops anyway if you find that you need one. It is MUCH better to use that ~200ish gold to buy yourself/your team a chicken, which you can use to deliver your Magic Stick/Wand later, as well as boots and bottle, both which are very crucial to VS's early game.

[wand image]
Not to say that Magic Stick/Wand isn't a fabulous item - it's best gotten once you attain some levels and can leave your lane to go roaming/ganking. VS should always get one because of her ganking potential - there's always nukes flying around during ganks and that extra burst health/mana that Wand charges give can get in an extra stun/Terror and/or save your life.

[ward images]
Despite her "support" role, I don't believe VS is the best candidate to purchase wards. Not that she shouldn't by the occasional set of wards or two, but VS is not a pure support hero like KotL - she is a ganker and a carry support (as in, she can dish out some decent DPS late-game, and has two damage-boosting skills to help carries.) Since you shouldn't be farming much at all, you will hardly ever have enough gold to spare to spend a lot on wards. Unless you are the ONLY SUPPORT HERO, leave the ward-buying to KotL, Lich, Lina, Pit Lord, etc; buy the chicken and gank a lot instead.