Nevermore - The Soultrain Stealer

Guide to playing Nevermore the Shadow Fiend! A powerful demon capable of mass destruction, he seeks to quench his neverending thirst for souls. Whether innocent or evil, Nevermore sees all living or undead as equal. Check out my guide to learn one of the harder heroes of DOTA!

Introduction

Hello and welcome to Nubtrain's guide to Shadow Fiend, my favorite hero of all time. A hero that requires a high skill cap to play well. Shadow Fiend is an amazing powerhouse, possessing early - mid game dominance with a strong presence late game. With three powerful [[Shadowraze]] that deal 300 magical damage each and a game changing ultimate [[Requiem of Souls]], [[Shadow Fiend]] is a force to reckon with. Shadow Fiend is also an amazing farmer and ganker, that is if you can land Shadowraze...

Lore

It is said that Shadow Fiend has the soul of a poet, and in fact he has thousands of them. Over the ages he has claimed the souls of poets, priests, emperors, beggars, slaves, philosophers, criminals and (naturally) heroes; no sort of soul escapes him. What he does with them is unknown. No one has ever peered into the Abysm whence Shadow Fiend reaches out like an eel from among astral rocks. Does he devour them one after another? Does he mount them along the halls of an eldritch temple, or pickle the souls in necromantic brine? Is he merely a puppet, pushed through the dimensional rift by a demonic puppeteer? Such is his evil, so intense his aura of darkness, that no rational mind may penetrate it. Of course, if you really want to know where the stolen souls go, there's one sure way to find out: Add your soul to his collection. Or just wait for Nevermore.

Original guide found at: http://www.dotafire.com/dota-2/guide/nevermore-the-soultrain-stealer-slightly-updated-221

Pros and Con

Pros

• Best Farmer in DotA
  
• Very High Damage Output
  
• Good Projectile Speed
  
• Strong Mid-Lane Presence
  
• Not that item dependant

Cons

• Squishy
  
• Reliant on Souls
  
• High Skill Cap
  
• Needs a decent momentum

Abilities

Shadowraze

Description: Shadow Fiend razes the area in front of him, dealing damage to enemy units in an area.

Level 1: Shadowraze (Q/W/E) - 75 Magical Damage, 250 AoE, 10 second cooldown
Level 2: Shadowraze (Q/W/E) - 150 Magical Damage, 250 AoE, 10 second cooldown
Level 3: Shadowraze (Q/W/E) - 225 Magical Damage, 250 AoE, 10 second cooldown
Level 4: Shadowraze (Q/W/E) - 300 Magical Damage, 250 AoE, 10 second cooldown

Range: (Q) - 200, (W) - 450, (E) - 700
Mana Cost: 75 each

Note:
The three Shadowraze spells do not share a cooldown, so theoretically you can deal 900 magical damage at level 7! (Before base spell reduction) Do not use rank 1 of Shadowraze at all, it's a waste mana. Two auto attacks are more than enough to do some harassment until you have rank 2 Shadowraze. Learn to conserve mana and do not spam Shadowraze.

Shadowraze nukes in front of Shadow Fiend, meaning you need to be facing the target. There is around a .5 second animation delay casting a Shadowraze so you also need to properly time too. Practice makes perfect...

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Necromastery

Description: Shadow Fiend steals the soul from units he kills, gaining bonus damage. On death, he releases half of them from bondage.

Level 1: Max 12 souls (+24 Damage), killing a hero grants 12 souls
Level 2: Max 20 souls (+40 Damage), killing a hero grants 12 souls
Level 3: Max 28 souls (+52 Damage), killing a hero grants 12 souls
Level 4: Max 36 souls (+72 Damage), killing a hero grants 12 souls

Note:
Take as first skill so you can stack souls earlier when you land last hits. When you die you will lose half the souls you have. That means if you had 36, you're going to have to farm about 4 waves of minions. Should be no problem farming souls back with Shadowraze but do keep death to a minimum. You can take souls from minions and enemy heroes. You also take the soul of your friendly minions and heroes when you deny them. Killing a hero grants 12 souls instead of 1 so getting a kill will be a big lead over your opponents. Once souls are maxed though, it's nearly useless...
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Presence of the Dark Lord

Description: Shadow Fiend's presence reduces the armor of nearby enemies.

Level 1: -2 Armor Aura, 900 Radius
Level 2: -3 Armor Aura, 900 Radius
Level 3: -4 Armor Aura, 900 Radius
Level 4: -5 Armor Aura, 900 Radius

Notes: Stacks with other armor reducing orbs/auras/effects.
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Requiem of Souls - ULTIMATE

Description:
Captured souls are released to deal massive damage and slow nearby enemy units. Requiem of Souls creates one wave of damage for every 2 souls stored by Necromastery. The closest enemy units are hit the hardest and has a 1 second cast time before it is activated. Upon death, a 2nd Requiem of Souls will be released dealing half the amount of souls.

Level 1: 80 Magical Damage per line, 1375 AoE, -15% Movement/Attack Damage
Level 1: 120 Magical Damage per line, 1425 AoE, -20% Movement/Attack Damage
Level 1: 160 Magical Damage per line, 1475 AoE, -25% Movement/Attack Damage

Radius and Duration of Movement/Attack Damage Reduction: 700 radius, 5 seconds all levels

Notes:
The damage dealt is equal to the number of souls stored with Necromastery. Requiem of Souls explodes waves of damaging lines around Shadow Fiend with 1 line per 2 souls stored for a total of 18 waves of lines. The closer the enemy is to the center of eruption, the more lines will hit and that means more damage. Lowers both movement speed and attack damage of units in a radius of 700. Requiem of Souls has a 1 second cast time and breaks invisibility when casted. It's possible to do full damage with Requiem of Souls if you have either Shadow Blade or Phase Boots; stand on top of the enemy then ultimate.

Patch 6.75 added a passive mechanic to Requiem of Souls, when you die you release another Requiem of Souls dealing half the amount of souls you have. Great addition to Shadow Fiend for taking out near dead opponents if they happen to take you out. Reminds me of some Borderland 2's shield effects.

IN PROGRESS - Landing Shadowraze and Requiem of Soul

Landing Shadowraze can be difficult to master since it requires good positioning and timing to get all three to land. In a typical scenario, you'll be getting off Shadowraze W and R the most since they're the medium/long ranged ones. Shadow Fiend has a pretty long cast animation so you have to factor in animation canceling especially if you're chasing someone.

Shadowraze (Q) - The least used since it is near melee ranged but there is a trick to using this Shadowraze. If your opponents don't know you're nearby, you can run up to them and before that have a time to react, cast Shadowraze (Q). Will work but it's risky to do so since you have to get in melee ranged.

Shadowraze (W) - You can use your auto-attack range to help you indicate how far this raze will land. Your auto-attack range is 500 and Shadowraze (W) explodes at 450 so with a 250 AoE so you'll definitely land at that range. If you understand that then raze(W) is also quite easy.

Shadowraze (E) - The longest range and possibly the harder out of the three to land. It's great if you want to stay away at a long distance to farm or harass if you feel there could be a surprise gank on you.

Anticipating Movement

Landing a Shadowraze on an enemy requires you to think at least 1 second ahead of where they'll be. For example if enemy hero is going from X to Y you need to take notice of their movement speed and animation then understand how fast you can react with the right Shadowraze.

Quickie Items and Skill Builds

Item Build #1 - Standard

Item Build #2 - More Mobility

Skill Build

Item Build and Lane Choice

This guide is based on maintaining dominance with good ganks and good farming. You need to solo middle lane to have higher level advantages and (sometimes) easier farm. There are three lanes to go to and middle lane makes it much easier to gank either side. Shadowfiend has very strong middle lane presence by fighting back any pressure while defending against pushed waves of minions by properly landing Shadowraze. Last hits very well once souls start to build up and can gank as early as level 5. Personally like to start ganking at level 6, that's when I buy Boots of Speed but if a lane needs assistance, help them.

The side lanes are ok for Shadow Fiend as long as you have a good partner that has a reliable stun. You'll have extra protection but also double the pressure, I would use the sideline item build, it's my current favorite build to use.

Item Build #1

Starting Items

• x2 Tango[www.dotafire.com] - 180g/2
  
• Slipper of Agility[www.dotafire.com] - 150g
  
• x3 Iron Branch[www.dotafire.com] - 159/3
  
• Healing Salve[www.dotafire.com] - 100g

Note:
Start off with Slippers of Agility and 3 Iron Branches to help Shadow Fiend last hit better during the laning phase. Shadow Fiend has a weak base attack damage of [35-41] and since we will have 0 souls stored, we'll have no +dmg. That's also the reason why we take Necromastery early so we can get the +dmg earlier. Buy Healing Salve to help deal with heavy nukers like Zeus or strong harassers.

Early Game

• Bottle[www.dotafire.com] -600g
  
• Boots of Speed[www.dotafire.com]
  
• Magic Wand[www.dotafire.com] - 150g Recipe Cost

Note:
Your support should have bought a courier and with that your very first purchase should be a bottle. There are some players who like to buy bottle as a start off item and that's a terrible choice. If you chose to take bottle first instead, you will lose the sustainability and damage needed.

Bottle: Restories 135hp/70mp per use, total of 405hp/210mp.
Tango/Healing Salve: Restories 1090hp

Sustaining in lane is so important and as you can see, Tangoes and Healing Salve combo meal is far superior, plus you also have bonus stats. You'll also have a much tougher time trying to last hit minions unless you plan to waste mana blasting minions when you can instead raze the enemy hero.

With any hero you must learn to conserve mana...

Mid Game

• Black King Bar[www.dotafire.com] - 3900g
  
• Blink Dagger[www.dotafire.com] - 2150g
  
• Boots of Travel[www.dotafire.com] - 2000g Recipe
  Cost

or

Power Treads[www.dotafire.com] - 850g

Notes:
Boots of Travel[http//%5Burl%3Dhttp]

Provides amazing mobility with a lot of movement speed which Shadow Fiend loves and opens more opportunities to push/gank around the map. With the high movement speed you'll be able position yourself faster to land Shadowraze. This fits into Shadow Fiend's playstyle, from mid-late, your job should be causing a ton of destruction until your hard carry can carry... unless you've ended the game already. Boots of Travel are also very good at defending multiple lane pushes coming from heroes like Nature's Prophet or Enigma.

Power Treads[www.dotafire.com]

A second option if you cannot get [[Boots of Travel]] quickly enough. Helps alleviate a bit of Shadow Fiend's squishy problem and helps with mana management if you know how to use tread switching

If the game still continues, the rest of the build depends on your game. If there are a lot of heroes who have low armor like Lion, a good choice is Desolator. If enemy heroes have Butterfly, counter with Monkey King Bar, read below for more information.

The Luxury Items (Late Game)

At this stage, it will depend on the game you're playing. This is how I build against the enemy team, you can build differently if you want but this is how I do it!

Manta Syle[www.dotafire.com] is a solid choice as a major 5th item in any situation. Provides the needed movement and attack speed whiling helping you push a lane. If you're lucky you can make some lucky dodges!

Situation #1: Strong Auto-Attackers

If enemy team has strong AUTO-ATTACKERS, I'd buy Ethereal Blade to survive attacks from heroes like Drow. Deals damage proportional to how much AGILITY Shadow Fiend has and sends both you and your target into an etherael state. In the etherael form, both you and your target unaffected by auto-attacks and take increased magical damage. A good combo against etherael'd enemies with Shadow Fiend is, Ethereal Blade -> Black King Bar -> get closer to etherael'd enemy -> Requiem of Souls -> Profit. It's a bit risky if you get Ethereal Blade when they have strong abilities like Lion's ultimate Finger of Death but that's why you activate Black King Bar before or after you've used it. Buying a Butterfly further increases your survivability and boosts the power of the e-blade.

Situation #2: Dealing with Evasion and High Damage

Get Monkey King Bar when there is an enemy carry that has Butterfly or a passive evasion. If the enemy carry has a Butterfly, they're probably farmed so a Heart of Tarrasque gives extra survability and sustain to push. Another change I'd take if the enemy team has a lot of damage is to get Shadow Blade. In most cases, the enemy team will target you since you're still a threat late game so Shadow Blade will save you. (Or you can keep both Blink Dagger and Shadow Blade then have amazing mobility)

Situation #3: Let's Cut the Beef

Get Daedalus, Eye of Skadi or Satanic against beefy heroes like Centaur. Heroes like Centaur and Axe will probability have a lot of armor and crits from Daedalus will bypass it. Buy Eye of Skadi or Sange and Yasha to kite the tanky heroes or outlast them with Satanic. By late game your total attack damage and attack speed should deal more than your Shadowraze's overall output so you should only use Shadowraze is if you can hit them with auto-attacks.

Situation #4: Crowd is a Pain to Control

Get Desolator and Linken's Sphere if there are a lot of squishy enemy crowd controllers. At late game your Black King Bar will only have a 5 second duration (unless you've bought another one) so another source of protection really helps. Linken's Sphere provides a good amount of stats and regeneration but the main importance is the spell block. The players that does the most crowd control are most likely intellect heroes like Lion or Enigma. Those heroes usually have low armor and health so the less armor they have the easier you can clear them out. Linken's Sphere COUNTERS heroes like Beastmaster's Primal Roar and Batrider's Flaming Lasso since both ultimates bypass Black King Bar's spell immunity.

Blink Dagger vs Shadow Blade

vs
Blink Dagger[www.dotafire.com]
Advantages

• Cost 2150g
  
• Better Initiation
  
• Get's to desinated spot faster
  
• Positions yourself in teamfights easier
  
• Jumps through obstacles
  
• Able to dodge projectiles if timed correctly
  
• Shorter cooldown than Shadow Blade

Disadvantages

• Provides zero stat boosts
  
• Three second cooldown when you take damage
  
• Harder to escape than with Shadow Blade
  
• Radiance counters Blink dagger hard if you're trying to escape

Shadow Blade[www.dotafire.com]
Advantages

• +30 Bonus Damage and Attack Speed
  
• Provides Shadow Walk an active invisibility and +150 bonus physical damage on next damage on next attack
  
• Movement speed is increased 20% when you're invisible
  
• Stronger escape tool than Blink Dagger
  
• Invisibility breaks after Requiem of Souls finishes cast.
  
• You can do full damage with Requiem of Souls if you can stand directly above enemy
  
• Easier to dodge projectiles than Blinker Dagger

Disadvantages

• Shadow Walk has a longer cooldown
  
• Takes longer to get into a fight
  
• Counter by Sentry Wards, Necronomicon, Gem of True Sight and Dust of Appearance
  
• Chances to do full damage with Requiem of Souls are slim
  
• 850g more expensive than Blink Dagger

Both choices are perfectly fine, just depends on your playstyle and your team. If you have teammates that can initiate with you like Tidehunter then Blink Dagger is better because you'll need that immediate initiation with Requiem of Souls and deal as much damage as efficiently as possible.

If you don't have someone like that in your team, Shadow Blade is also a good choice but costs more. Like I said in the Luxury Items section, replace Blink Dagger during late game if they start targeting you more. You're going to be hard to catch with two clones and invisibility backup'd up with spell immunity.

Differences between Buff Modifiers

Items that increase your stats, increase your base values. (Derp) Those items will benefit from other items which provide a percentage boost like Soul Ring or Drow Ranger's Trueshot Aura. Depending on your main attribute, you can gain two bonuses instead of one. For example if you're a strength hero like Slardar, Heart of Tarrasque will increase both base Health AND base damage but if you're not a strength hero, you will only gain an increase to base health.

AGILITY
Each point of AGILITY increases your base attack speed by 1%(additive) and increased armor of 0.14 per point. If you're an AGILITY hero, each point of AGILITY increases your attack by 1.(additive)

STRENGTH
Each point of Strength increases your base health by 19 points. Each point of Strength also increases your base HP regeneration. Here is a link to how base hp/mp regeneration works, different for every hero, playdota.

Intelligence
Each point of Intellect increases your base mana by 13 points. If you're an Intelligence hero, each point of Intellect increases your base attack by 1 point. Each point of intellect also increases your base mana regeneration.

Item's like Monkey King Bar will only increase your attack as BONUS attack and items like Bloodstone will only increase your HP/MP as BONUS HP/MP.

The Basic Play and Ward Placement

Laning

You need to last hit as much as possible while keeping your lane pushed back enough away from your own tower. If you let your tower hit creeps it will become more difficult to last hit minions and if you wait to last hit, the hostile minions will attack your tower instead. If enemy minions are attacking your tower, push back with Shadowraze AND auto-attacks. Only push back enough so you don't go to the enemy's side unless you want to gank or bottle rune.

Level 1-4

Shadow Fiend's weakest stage of the game is between levels 1-4, since Shadow Fiend has a low att.dmg and zero-little souls; he'll have a hard time farming. If the enemy mid hero denies you with ease and out-lanes you then you're in trouble. Shadow Fiend starts to build momentum around level 6+ but if you're ganked and outlaned, you're going to be non-existent. If you're having trouble last hitting, start using Shadowraze to get at least 2 creeps per raze and you'll be fine.

Bottling

Every two minutes starting at 0:00, a random rune will spawn either top or bottom river and please take advantage of that because with the haste or Double Damage rune you can gank as early as level 3. As Shadow Fiend you should be able to get Bottle between 2-5 minutes of farming and once you have your bottle, keep checking for runes. As you soon you have your Boots of Speed, you should start ganking.

Time is Money

Here's a warning, balance your time between ganking and farming, DO NOT waste time. A good example of wasting time is when you're waiting at top but enemy heroes are hugging tower or wait for everything to setup. Everything should have been setup before hand because you have pinged to gank or told teammates already. With time wasted you could be farming an extra wave or picking up a new rune.

Map

Be aware of your positioning, if you're caught in a bad spot and you do not have Black King Bar; you're dead. Make sure you got teammates to back you up when you blink and ultimate, you're like a balloon, easily popped. Here's a very detailed guide over at Team Dignitas[www.team-dignitas.net] that explains how to ward really well!

Here's a video showing common ward spots. If your teammates are being a-holes buy 1 set of wards yourself so you can have vision over rune spots.

Team Battles and Rune Rankings

In team fights you literally want to be the center of attention. I recommend blinking next to the closet enemy that is as close to the center of the fight as possible. If you can't do that prioritize blinking next to an enemy hero and cast Requiem of Souls. Even if an enemy hero is not as close as you want it to be, Requiem of Souls still does a good amount of damage, as shown here.

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I will rank runes based on overall effectiveness for Shadow Fiend. (My opinions based on the games I've played)

Haste
Provides a 100% bonus movement speed for 30 seconds. Maximum movement speed is 522. Believe it or not haste helps land your Shadowraze easier because you have a faster time to adjust your positioning. Also gets you as close to the enemy as quickly as possible especially if an enemy player happens to escape.

Invisibility
Grants invisibility for 45 seconds. This rune competes with haste for rank 1 in runes but after invisibility is gone, you can't chase if an enemy happens to get away. Provides an excellent setup for ganking! Tip: As soon as you pop invisibility, immediately use 1 charge of Bottle and it will not break invisibility. The bottle charge is being used during the fade time and you're not considered invisible yet.

Regeneration
Regenerates 100hp/67mp per second for a total of 30 seconds. If you do take damage the regeneration buff will dispel. When I play Shadow Fiend I rarely go back to base so having the regeneration rune gives me a huge advantage throughout the game. I personally like to waste all my mana by clearing creep waves before I use Regeneration. Regeneration will not break unless you take damage so if you get stunned by Shackle Shot or another ability that does not have damage, Regeneration will not stop until finished.

Double Damage
Buffs any hero and illusions within 500 range 100% damage for 45 seconds. This only increases your base attack damage so bonus attack damage items like Monkey King Bar will not get the increase. Items like Butterfly that has +30 AGILITY will double with Shadow Fiend attack since AGILITY bonuses increase BASE damage. I rank this 4th because Shadow Fiend has a weak base damage and most of the time you're casting Shadowraze so in terms of overall usefulness it does not compare to Haste or Invisibility. A section above I mentioned that you can start ganking at level 3; Double Damage is sometimes more useful than Invisibility because you don't deal as much damage at that early stage of the game. A decent team should have warded so ganking that early probably won't happen. Unless their team pushed your teammate's lane back to tower and then your team can stuns/slow to give you enough time to get there.

Illusion
Creates two replicas with the current condition of yourself. So let's say you have 50% health, the illusions will also have the same amount. Each illusion takes 400% damage and deals 50% of the total damage you deal. The least useful out of the five runes. Does provide scouting information or get enemies to waste mana on it. Sometimes get the opposition to waste ultimates but that's a small chance. Also good when you want to push a lane and helps to last hit.

Strong Allies

These are the heroes that I think are best paired with Shadow Fiend, either they setup Shadow Fiend's Requiem of Souls easily or have great synergy. Everything is my opinion and if something else works for you, fine by me.

By far one the best team-mates in my opinion since Tidehunter has abilities that synergize very well with Shadow Fiend. Tidehunter's ultimate, Ravage, has an amazing 826/925/1025 AoE stun at level 1/2/3. The stun lasts 1.5/1.8/2.25 seconds at level 1/2/3 so that gives you more than enough time to blink into enemy's position and ""ravage"" them with your ultimate, Requiem of Souls. Tidehunter also has another ability, Gush that does a long range nuke that slows for 40% and reduces armor by 2/3/4/5 at level 1/2/3/4. The armor reduction stacks with your aura Presence of the Dark Lord for a total of -10 armor! So that target will drop like Snorlax when focused down.

One of the strongest heroes and works well with Shadowfiend. With Tiny as your teammate you do not have to farm Blink Dagger at all IF you want because all you need is Tiny to Toss you at an enemy and then blow them up. Tiny does more burst damage than Tidehunter with the Avalanche and Toss combo; both abilities has shorter cooldowns but has smaller AoE. I personally think Tiny is a bigger threat than Shadow Fiend early game due to stuns and insane burst damage so that's a great distraction from you. Tiny can also fill the Hard Carry role if needed for late game insurance!

A great semi-carry, initiator and ganker that possesses one of the best ultimate's in the game. Mirana can cast a global invisibility called Moonlight Shadow that helps setup any fight. Enemy teams have to either waste gold buying items to reveal you or wait for the silent but explosive surprise. Imagine having Tiny and Tidehunter ambushing a team, they will melt. Mirana provides utility from her ultimate and a long ranged skill shot Arrow that sets up strong ganks. A good Mirana can change the course of the game with great ganks and initiation, Mirana is strong in any team.

A powerful multi-stunner that takes advantage of the number of enemy units. The more enemies the stronger Earthshaker's Echo Slam is. Earthshaker has a strong long range stun Fissure that stuns for 1/1.25/1.5/1.75 seconds at level 1/2/3/4. Fissure also creates a wall to block off movement. Earthshaker's Fissure stuns in a long line and if your Earthshacker can position Fissure nicely, that stun can be as effective as Tidehunter's huge AoE. Earthshaker's effective increases with Blink Dagger and plays much like Shadow Fiend, get upclose and personal then unleash hell. With Blink Dagger. Earthhaker is as strong Tidehunter with Blink Dagger.

Puck is a strong mobile initiater that can lock down enemies in one place with Dream Coil. With a strong 3 second silence from Waning Rift, you'll have an uninterrupted time casting Requiem of Souls. Virtually unkillable with Phase Shift and Blink Dagger if Puck has it. Puck initiates very well and with Phase Shift, s/he avoids a ton of damage. Puck is also a very strong at ganking and chases very good with Illusory Orb. In some ways, Puck plays like Shadow Fiend, pops in and says "Hi!".

An amazing pusher and has a disruptive ultimate, Black Hole. If Enigma can land a properly placed Black Hole, enemies will be trapped and be silenced throughout the duration. Enemy heroes cannot use items during this time so they cannot use Black King Bar. Enemy units will be pulled to the center of Black Hole so that's perfect with Requiem of Souls. Since Black Hole needs to be channeled, Enigma can easily be interrupted from an outside source but this forces that enemy to focus on Enigma instead of you. It's a win-win situation no matter how you look at it!

A very strong carry that forces the opposing team to waste money on Necronomicon, Gem of True Sight, Dust of Appearance and Sentry Wards. Riki has a powerful Smoke Screen ability that blinds and silence enemy units. Smoke Screen has a mini-stun and slow enemies within a 250/275/300/325 AoE at level 1/2/3/4. This is a great counter against those who has a bash ability like Slardar or Faceless Void and great against caster heroes; renders them useless. Enemy heroes will definitely try to run out of the Smoke Screen so I recommend Stealth Assasin to target key players then as soon as Smoke Screen is set down, blink and destroy. If you have other heroes that can keep opponents within Smoke Screen you will win the fight. Great at setting up ganks at all times. Stealth Assasin is a hard carry so while you dominate early-mid game, he'll secure the match-up.

Great ganker and initiater with Blink Dagger who can become a very strong carry. Sladar has an ultimate that stacks with Presence of the Dark Lord, Amplify Damage that will reduce enemies' armor by 8/12/16. This means that at level 16 the enemy (or enemies) with Amplify Damage will have a total of -21 armor and -28 if either of you have Desolator. That is an insane amount of damage on one hero. Slardar acts as a huge distraction as he either runs in with Sprint or jumps with Blink Dagger to land Slithereen Crush. Enemy heroes will either choose between killing Slarder who is bashing away their allies or target you as you finish casting Requiem of Souls. Very strong and disruptive hero who can be a tanky carry. Here's a link to how armor and damage works at playdota[www.playdota.com].

An amazing support hero who can initiate instead of you taking that risk. Has a strong stun called Magic Missile and two abilties that synergies very well with Presence of the Dark Lord. The first is Vengeance Aura and the second being Wave of Terror; all in all provides a strong offensive setup. If you're building an aura stacked composition, then these two heroes are a perfect choice. Vengeful Spirit is an amazing roamer so she can help you gank mid-lane to gain further dominance.

One of the best off-laners in the game and synergizes very well with Shadow Fiend. One of Dark Seer's abilities that help setup potential point-blank Requiem of Souls is Vacuum. Provides a ton of mobility for Nevermore to land good Shadowrazes and disrupts enemy combatants from stopping you casting Requiem of Souls. Can be an equal threat since Dark Seer provides a ton of distractions like Wall of Replica and Ion Shell; which is a smaller aoe Radiance.

Scary Foes

Here is a small list of heroes that I find that rivals or possibility stronger than Shadowfiend's mid lane. Like I've wrote before, this is my opinion and if you feel differently then by all means, that's fine.

An incredible hero that farms to no end while being very tanky. Doom Bringer has high sustain thanks to Scorched Earth and has strong auto-attacks making it very hard to last hit. Will rip any hero to shreds with his ultimate Doom. Doom Bringer's ultimate will bypass Black King Bar's protection so you MUST avoid at all cost because it will silence your abilties AND items. With LVL?Death Doom can destroy you at right levels while farming easily with Devour. I recommend doing your best outlast-hitting him and calling for ganks. If you let Doom Bringer farm the game will be over or painstakingly hard since he's a powerful tanky carry mid-late game. You must protect your hard carries like Rikimaru or Morphling because they're your only chance to kill Doom Bringer once he is farmed. Doom Bringer can easily make the game a 4v5 with Doom.

If you happen to fight a good Templar Assassin at mid, FOCUS on last hitting and denying. Templar Assassin is a very strong counter against Shadow Fiend thanks to Refraction. The "shields" will protect her against your Shadowrazes and amplifies her damage to fight back. Since Templar Assassin has a ton of damage from Refraction, she'll deny you exp/farm which Shadow Fiend desperately needs at early levels. Refraction also does AoE cone damage similar to Kunkka's Tidebringer except... it's everytime Templar Assassin attacks. You must out-gank and out-play theTemplar Assassin because she's designed to take out squshies and Shadow Fiend is the perfect target.

Another strong mid lane opponent is the Night Stalker. When it's night time, be very cautious. Night Stalker has a very long silence and his powerful spell Void has a mini-stun and slow. Night Stalker is very sturdy and fast so he can tank your Shadowrazes. Every now and again bring Night Stalker down with your Shadowraze before level 6 or night time so you can kill him if he tries to kill you. You have to take runes before Night Stalker] does, slows down Night Stalker's potential to gank forever and denying will further slow him down. You're most likely Night Stalker's first target since you're squishy so farm a Black King Bar as soon as possible. Night Stalker's ganking is MUCH stronger than Shadow Fiends' (at night) and your supports (or yourself) need to buy Observer Wards to counter Night Stalker. If Night Stalker's gank fails, he will fall off during mid-late game.

A good mid opponent that requires almost as much skill as Shadow Fiend. You can easily out-farm Pudge but be cautious. A good Pudge will easily rip you apart if you're not positioned carefully. Deny, outfarm and call m.i.a on Pudge and then the only thing you should worry about is a random Meat Hook. You can avoid Meat Hook by standing behind your ranged minion(s). Another tip is to buy a set of Observer Wards and place one outside of enemy tower's range to help avoid Meat Hook. Try to keep lane equilibrium in your favor because getting closer to his tower makes you an easier kill since he'll run up and begin to Rot. Meat Hook and Dismember bypasses Black King Bar protection so you need to avoid his reach. You won't take damage from Dismember if you have Black King Bar activated but the timeout is sometimes all their team needs. A good Pudge is just as strong as a good Shadow Fiend with the similar weaknesses.

Pretty good mid-lane opponent with a very strong passive called Tidebringer. It's a free once-in-awhile cone cleave and deals bonus damage along with Kunkka's attack. When Tidebringer is off cooldown, use this chance to farm or get a kill on him. You can harass [[Kunkka]] when he goes for a creep kill with Shadowraze(E) since you'll be able to avoid his Tidebringer's range. Avoid the Torrent+Rank2 X Marks the Spot combo and you'll be fine, if not you might get a ship to the face! You should be able to gank much easier than Kunkka since both his spells are quite hard to land. As a reminder, use Shadowraze (E) to harass him whenever Tidebringer is off-cooldown or when you're trying to get some creeps. When Tidebringer is on cooldown, use this chance to push the lane.

Very annoying middle opponent because minions will not defend you if Viper orb walks with Poison Attack. Viper can kill you if you let him harrass you so play defensively and only fight back with Shadowraze(E) and (W). (Throw in some auto-attacks when he turns back) Manage your mana but keep puncturing his health with Shadowraze(E) until he runs back to base. Focus on lasting hitting creeps and if you push the lane Viper will take the chance to kill you with Viper Strike. If he does use Viper Strike, use Town Portal Scroll to avoid death if you have a good amount hp; if not immediately fight back and hope to get a kill. Viper is also as squishy as Shadow Fiend so take full advantage because if you harassed back with Shadowraze(E), he'll think twice about killing you. Viper's ganking is a stronger than Shadow Fiends' but that's only if Viper gets in range. Viper is squishy and can only fight back when he's in attack range so his enemies will use that chance to kill him.

Batrider is very strong at middle and is a good counter against Shadow Fiend. Batrider's Flaming Lasso bypasses Black King Bar protection so you have to play extra cautious throughout the game. Stay out of Sticky Napalm's range and focus on farming/denying. If Batrider gets enough stacks of Sticky Napalm you'll have hard time mid because you will suffer increased damaged by 10/15/20/25 and reduced movement by 3%/5%/7&/9& at level 1/2/3/4. Sticky Napalm also increases your turn rate by 70% making it harder for you to adjust your positioning for Shadowraze. Fight back with Shadowraze(E)/(W) and you must keep your distance. In teamfights I sometimes wait for Batrider to waste his Flaming Lasso but I jump in and cast Requiem of Souls anyway. In an ideal situation your teammates should be able to prevent Batrider from dragging you. Even if you're Batrider's target, that's great because his focus is on you instead of on the hard carry. Do NOT try to do some fancy jukes against Batrider in woods, he has Firefly, ignoring any situation for you to use Fog of War. Linken's Sphere will block Flaming Lasso so it's the perfect counter against Batrider.

End

Thank you for reading the guide and hopefully you have a better understanding on how to play Shadow Fiend.

The guide is finished and always in progress of editing, have to add videos and some more information but hopefully it's still good.

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Best farmer? Never will be, the best is gyro, ds, heroes with bf ...