Playing The Shadow Fiend

Shadow Fiend: Die-hard last hitter or game changing carry?

Introduction

Heya mates! My name is CreepyPastaPony, but you can just call me Creepy if you'd like! I am a massive gamer, ranging from Minecraft to Flash Games to Indie Games to some other well known brands of gamig such as TF2, Slender: Eight Pages and today...DoTA 2. I will be here to describe the in's and out's of one of the more commonly played heroes: Shadow Fiend. This guide will go over an overall opinion and overview of Shadow Fiend, what role he fits into, his spells and abiltiies, items to get, good and bad lane partners, people he counters and people that counter him. With the guide, you will know the right way to play this hero...with the burning obsession to collect the souls of your enemies.

Overview of The Shadow Fiend

Oooh, now you'll never get the satisfaction!...of winning that is. This quote here is said by the extreme collector himself, Nevermore the Shadow Fiend. He is a carry with high damage growth, both in his spells and abilities. He has immense team fight potential with a whole bunch of AoE's and an aura of armor reduction, but still needs to farm up certain items to make sure that his damage output is not only seen, but felt through the other team. He is a Agility hero, with a moderatley high stat gain in general. but is still quite squishy throughout any point in the game, so it is the best idea to build up stats and damage, damage especially. However, no hero is good without his abilities, so that is exactly what the next section will tell you!

Abilities of The Shadow Fiend

Shadow Fiend would be no where as popular as he is without his abilities. Whether from damaging passives to satisfying skill shots, these abilities have a very profound role on how well you can play Shadow Fiend.

Shadow Raze:
Shadow Raze is an interesting skill shot that Shadow Fiend uses. Simply put, you have Three nukes of the same damage gain (100/175/250/325) that are an AoE. However, there is a slight catch:
-One of the Raze abilities will do it right in front of you.
-Another about a medium distance away from you.
-The last one far away from the initial standpoint.
They all have separate cooldowns, so you cna use them to nuke down enemies that are running away or towards you quite easily. In addition to the immense damage, it also provides Shadow Fiend with an easy way of last hitting, which is vital for his growth.



Necromastery: The bread and butter of Shadow Fiend's damage output. This gives you a soul charge and an extra two damage for every last hit you get, 12 soul charges if you kill a hero. Whilst adding two damage everytime may not sound glamorous at all, it snowballs quickly. You can aqquirea maximum of 36 souls. 36x2 is an extra 72 damage, which is great in conjunction with you already decent damage gain and your next passive.

Presence of The Dark Lord: This is a very simple passive that works great in conjunction with Necromastery. Necromastery will already make you hit like a truck, but with this passive eating away at their armor, you will hit even harder.

Requiem of Souls: This a gamechanger ultimate to say the least. It takes all the souls that you have collected from Necromastery, and spits them back out into the world in a violent explosion of dark energy. It damages, it slows, it reduces damage from enemies caught in it. All in all, its a memorable ability that you won't forget once you see it. The only downside of this ability is that there is a 1.67 second casting delay where you have to remain unstunned, unsilenced, or otherwise untouched. As an added bonus, if you die, you will automatically perform Requiem of Souls. The only downside on that one however is that you will lose half the souls you collected from dying, so keep that in mind.

Now whilst Shadow Fiend can change the tides of war into his favor, we need to make sure that we have the correct items for him to make him really pack a punch, so onward to the next section.

Items of the Shadow Fiend

As I mentioned before, Shadow Fiend is a pretty squishy in comparison to other heroes, and the best way to deter the low health is with stats and damage.

Starting Items:
For the middle lane, some tangos, and salve, and a faerie fire should be more than enough. Iron Branches are optional, and can provide some extra stats in the early game. After that, you want to get Power Treads for the stats and a Bottle for survivability. As you are the mid laner, it is your job to keep an eye on runes, so Bottle is your "Get out of Dodge" heal. The last starting item you'll need is a Ring of Aquilla, for mana regen, stats and damage for last hits and survivability.


Core Items:
As I stated before, your go-to boots are Power Treads, simply for the stats and attack speed that Shadow Fiend thrives on. After the boots, Shadow Blade is what you need for your escape. In the early game, he has very low health, and will suffer if he is ganked. With this item, it is your "get-out-of-jail-free" card, allowing you to walk away mostly unscathed. However, the Shadow Blade won't last forever, and you'll need a more permanent and relialble item to keep you safe, which is why you get BKB. Getting a BKB allows you to cast your ult without fear of getting stunned or silenced for the cast duration. Along side that, it is good damage and stats.

Extension Items:
After your core items, there are plenty of ways to play the hero, so I list my favorite picks for Shadow Fiend extension items down below.

Sange and Yasha: It is movement speed, attack speed, damage, slow, and stats. All around a great mid game item to help make an impact. The item can also be dissassembled to make other items later on.
Desolator: This used to be the big items on Shadow Fiend, but has falled out of favor for items with more stats. However, it is still a great item on SF, providing a lot of damage and armor reduction.
Eye of Skadi: This is the current big item for SF. It's a movement and attack slow that counters rivaling carries, it's an ass ton of stats, and it works along side Life Steal items, which allows SF to survive longer in the teamfights. All in all, and amazing item on the hero.
Silver Edge: The extension for Shadow Blade. Although it is not always needed, the passive disable and the more damage hit for breakign invis is nothing to scoff at, and should be considered.
Aghanim's Scepter: Remember how I said SF's ulti was great? Make it even better by allowing more souls to be captures and released, meaning more damage. Then, take that extra damage explosion and make it return to Shadow Fiend, which deals additional damage. To top that off, make whatever damage was dealt in the explosion HEAL SF, and you have a go to item.
Manta Style: A disjoint, movement speed, stats, and illusions. That a lot of things that SF enjoys.
Butterfly: An agility items that helps with damage, evasion, attack speed, and give movement speed in a pinch. Another item that SF would enjoy.
Satanic: Late into the game, SF needs a way to survive outside of building stat items. Satanic is your cure-all for that. It gives lifesteal, it stacks with Eye of Skadi, it gives a boost in health. It's a great item that allows SF to keep kicking.

Now items are important, but so are your teammates, especially in the laning phase.

Lane Partners of the Shadow Fiend

When it comes down to it, Shadow Fiend shouldn't have any lane partners, because he is a mid hero. Now that's not to say it's impossible to lane, because it isn't, but mid is the prefered lane. so if SF asks for mid, say "Sure! I see no reason why not!" and I'm sure in response he will say



Or maybe he will be toxic like a majority of DoTA players. One can dream, eh?

Countering: To and For the Shadow Fiend

Countering is an important part of the game, and one hero can turn a pub stomp in your favor to their favor.

WHAT YOU COUNTER:
The Squishy Supports:
Without a way to defend themselves, many squishy casters and supports fall victim to your high attack damage and your high damage nukes.

The Unprepared:
This isn't a hero type, but you feed on the people who don't start to take steps the minute you are chosen as a hero. You feed on the mid laner who doesn't deny, the support who doesn't buy dust for your Shadow Blade, and the roamer that doesn't put wards in your jungle. Shadow Fiend can be shut down, but if that isn't done correctly, he will become unmanageable later on.

WHAT COUNTERS YOU:
Rivaling Carries: You have a lot of damage gain, but a lot of other carries do as well. Along side that, many other carries have better stat gain than you as well, which can make them a problem if they get more farm than you do.

Nukes and Stuns (and Nuking Stuns):
Shadow Fiend, even with a lot of his stat items, still suffers from a lower than average health. due to this, it makes it vital that he can be able to run away, especially when taking a lot of damage from nukes, but stuns prevent that from happening. Stuns also prevent you from casting your ultimate, and nukes can kill you before you get a chance to, so overall they are what you should watch out for.

The Prepared:
Once again, I know this isn't something in the game that you can ban or avoid, but it is still something to take notice of. Shadow Fiend can be stopped early on, and if the people are adept at doing that, then your effectivity is low and you become practially useless.

So long!

Well, you are coming to the end of the guide now, my eigth one. Please, do rate, comment, tell me what can be changed, improved, allowed, kept as I am not very experienced with guide creation and its ettiquite. But! That is beside the point. This is CreepypastaPony, or Creepy if you prefer, hoping for you to enjoy increasing the size of your collection!