Top Preface Welcome! So... this was supposed to be a Viper guide, then I got asked to to Skywrath Mage and on top of that I had some ideas in mind, all in all, I didnt get around doing anything, and had to just leave on hold all that other stuff and focus. So...



Here it is! Goo's Guide To Shadow Fiend Lately I have been playing a lot of Shadow Fiend , and its for a couple of reasons, the first one being he is kinda indirectly strong this patch (people are buying more Black King Bar Tinker Techies Queen of Pain Necrophos



I was just messing around with different mid heroes Shadow Fiend and I got stuck on Ember Spirit along with Shadow Fiend Ember Spirit



Anyway I ended up winning 19 out of 23 matches with Shadow Fiend Shadowraze





This guide will also be available on my own blog, over here. And the guide link, this here.

, and its for a couple of reasons, the first one being he is kinda indirectly strong this patch (people are buying mores and the meta has shifted a bunch, he fits fairly well, even compared to last patch Euls Sf wombo crazy combo everyone was abusing until the Euls got nerfed). The second reason its because I usually play a lot of Intelligence heroes, that it beor sometimes, and that Int core playstyle I take on is kind of weak-er this patch, with more focus in teamfights.I was just messing around with different mid heroesbeen using it to climb a bunch lately(notice how both are agility midders with some sort of magical output), and that combination has made me noticed how strong these heroes are right now, even morethan, its very simple and with just general mid lane knowledge and practicing CS and, along knowing the difference between fight and flight; you can have fun winning like I have been lately.

Top 1. Introduction Play this in a different tab

So our buddy Shadow Fiend He is a mid hero that excells in winning his lane and maxing farm rate using his high damage and Shadowraze



It can be considered a hard hero to play to its basics, because his nukes are unreliable and you have to aim them precisely, and his first passive Necromastery Because of this I think he can be a hero a tad challenging for very new players , that on top that he is a rather squishy hero, especially early game; be sure to get last hitting down and practice your Shadowraze



But thats only early game , later on he becomes a right click hero mostly, and the things you have to watch out for, like positioning, are more universal concepts.



So anyway, if you didn't know, Shadow Fiend agility hero that, similar to Luna Gyrocopter Ember Spirit Shadow Fiend



Also Shadowraze Rocket Barrage Lucent Beam Shadowraze



His stats arent so great ( 15+2, 20+2.9, 18+2 ), but that is very well compensated with the damage you get from Necromastery Bottle Eul's Scepter of Divinity

So our buddyhere got quite a boost in playrate due to pros picking him up, he got buffed a bit and so on.because his nukes are unreliable and you have to aim them precisely, and his first passiverequires him to last hit and deny every creep he can., that on top that he is a rather squishy hero, especially early game; be sure to get last hitting down and practice yours as much as you can., later on he becomes a right click hero mostly, and the things you have to watch out for, like positioning, are more universal concepts.So anyway, if you didn't know,is anthat, similar toandhas a nice mix of hard right click ability and magic damage spells to get them through the early game. The difference between these heroes andis that he has much more focus on dps, he does not have a spell to make him attack AOE, but he will beat the **** out of you single-targetedly.Alsoisnt much of a laning nuke like for instanceoris a laning nuke for creeps and farming, and unmatched wave clearing (this doesnt mean you cant land sick triple razes and get a bunch of kills early game though).His stats arent so great (), but that is very well compensated with the damage you get from, and the low intelligence can be compasated withcrowing (orif you are doing that build).

Top 1.1. Shadowraze Shadow Fiend is a very well self-contained hero, in the sense that he has everything he needs within his skillset. And in that sense, you are trading having a stun or a slow to being full on farming and nuking power, and that comes with his first (or first three) spells, Shadowraze.







Shadowraze Listen up:



On paper, Shadowraze



-325 Damage Nuke

-75 Mana at all levels

-10 Second cooldown at all levels

-And having three of these all in independent cooldowns



The downsides are that they are unreliable, as you have to land them, and the cast time is rather noticeable ( 0.67 ).

So first I'll show you what's the deal with razes and how they interact, learning this will help you make better sense of use later in matches.



Remember:



- All three Shadowraze

- The casting is instant, they are used in whatever direction you were facing at the moment of cast.

- Shadowraze

- This means two level 4 Shadowraze

- Razes have 250 radius of effect making the animation misleading. (I will go into detail in a second).





This is the first raze, default key "Q" and its the one that is used closer to Shadow Fiend







The first raze has a 200 casting range, and a 250 radius, this means it can hit 50 units behind Shadow Fiend



- Line 0 is 50 units behind Shadow Fiend Shadowraze

- Line 1 is a middle point between the closer raze and the middle raze, meaning that you can hit someone that is standing in Line 1 with both razes (Q & W) without moving.



The first raze is the one you use the least, mainly because its generally dangerous getting up close with people, and enemies tend to move out of the first raze effective zone quite quickly, giving you no time to cast in the first place. You are going to see yourself using this pretty much only on disabled enemies, creeps and when blinking initiating (or Shadow Blade

This is the second raze, default key "W", and its the one that you are going to be using a lot in lane, along the last (longer) raze.







Shadow Fiend The second raze has a casting range of 450 (and a 250 radius as well) this means it can hit enemies from 200 units in front ofand up to 700 units.



- Units standing in Line 1 can be hit with Q and W razes.

- Units standing in Line 2 can be hit with W and E razes.



Remember Line 2 and keep it in mind all the time. Using both the middle and the long Shadowraze Line 2 ranging. An easy way to learn this is by using your attack range as a reference. Shadow Fiend 's attack range is 500 line 2. . So basically, anything withing your attack range is going to be hit by both raze W and raze E.





This is the last Shadowraze Shadow Fiend







- You already know the deal with Line 2.

- Line 3 is the furthest point you can hit with Shadowraze

- This means you can hit from 50 units behind Shadow Fiend



The long raze has a special use that comes with it having such a long reach, and that is being a stacking tool. I will go into this later on the guide.

The downsides are that, as you have to land them, and the cast time is rather noticeable ().- All threespells are considered the same one in leveling, so leveling up one of them levels up the rest as well.- The casting is instant, they are used in whatever direction you were facing at the moment of cast.is 325 magical damage.- This means two level 4s kill a melee creep, and one kills a ranged creep.- Razes have 250 radius of effect making the animation misleading. (I will go into detail in a second).is 50 units behindthat is the first point you can hit withis a middle point between the closer raze and the middle raze, meaning that you can hit someone that is standing inwith both razes (Q & W) without moving.is the one you use the least, mainly because its generally dangerous getting up close with people, and enemies tend to move out of the first raze effective zone quite quickly, giving you no time to cast in the first place. You are going to see yourself using this pretty much only on disabled enemies, creeps and when blinking initiating (orinitiation).- Units standing incan be hit with Q and W razes.- Units standing incan be hit with W and E razes.Using both the middle and the longat max level, clears a creepwave. This is the wave push you are going to be using the most to push the lane and do whatever you need to do (check the runes, stack yourself some camps, etc) it is key that you master theranging.- You already know the deal withis the furthest point you can hit with- This means you can hit from 50 units behindto 950 units in front.

Top 1.2. Necromastery & Presence Of The Dark Lord



Necromastery Necromastery Shadow Fiend



- Upon leveling it, you permanently get a Necromastery

- Said buff gives you 2 extra damage to your regular attacks for each soul you hold.

- Souls are gained through killing units, any kind of unit (creeps, wards, summons, mines, traps) will yield a soul towards your counter, you also gain souls from denying your own friendly units.

- Killing a hero gives you 12 souls.

- You can only hold a maximum of 36 souls at once, meaning you sit at 72 extra damage.

- On death you lose half of the souls you hold.

- If you only have 1 soul you keep it on death.

- If on death you had an odd number of souls they are rounded up lower (so if you died and you had 11, you are left with 5)

- You can see how many souls you currently hold in the buff icon.



Shadow Fiend Spell Steal When killing a unit you can actually see the particle effect of the soul coming out and going into, this effect however doesn't affect the spell itself, like for example. You get the soul instantly, despite the particle effect.

So this is what makes Shadow Fiend Shadowraze



Its a pretty straight forward spell , try to last hit and deny as best as you can during the laning stage to start building that damage. Try keeping your souls at max at all times, not only for the damage you get, but also because of the interaction with Requiem of Souls



By the way, this is one of the few passives that is not disabled by Silver Edge



Shadow Fiend +dmg green numbers ), and they will start at 0 souls; so basically it has no effect.



Remember you get souls from everything, even buildings, even Tombstone Power Cogs







Presence Of The Dark Lord Pretty sure Presence of the Dark Lord Anyway, we'll call it presence to simplify things, m'kay? Default Key "F".



Shadow Fiend Presence is a passive aura ability that reduces armor of everything around(this includes towers, creeps and heroes) in a 900 radius.



- This aura is carried by illusions.

- It is disabled by Silver Edge

- Presence only works if enemies have vision of you (hence, they are spooked).

- The debuff lingers for half a second when people lose vision of you or get out of the radius of effect.



At max level, Presence will take away 6 armor, which is a just balanced amount.



It is a simple aura, we will talk more about it in the building section.

- Upon leveling it, you permanently get abuff above your health bar.- Said buff gives you- Souls are gained through killing units, any kind of unit (creeps, wards, summons, mines, traps) will yield a soul towards your counter, you also gain souls from denying your own friendly units.- Killing a hero gives you 12 souls.- You can only hold a maximum of 36 souls at once, meaning you sit at 72 extra damage.- If you only have 1 soul you keep it on death.- If on death you had an odd number of souls they are rounded up lower (so if you died and you had 11, you are left with 5)- You can see how many souls you currently hold in the buff icon., try to last hit and deny as best as you can during the laning stage to start building that damage. Try keeping your souls at max at all times, not only for the damage you get, but also because of the interaction with, I'll go into that in the next section.'s illusions have both of his passives, however, even if they can last hit and get souls, they do not gain any damage from the buff (since it the soul extra damage goes into the), and they will start at 0 souls; so basically it has no effect.Remember you get souls from everything, even buildings, even; literally everything BUTAnyway,- This aura is carried by illusions.- It is disabled bybreak.- Presence only works if enemies have vision of you (hence, they are spooked).- The debuff lingers for half a second when people lose vision of you or get out of the radius of effect.we will talk more about it in the building section.

Top 2. The Builds Alright, so as you may have noticed in your games Shadow Fiend is a hero that can build a bunch of different things, we could say he is relatively flexible in terms of itemization. In order to simplify things I will divide the building in to phases, and each phase in smaller parts, these parts will respond to different match situations and you can just craft your item build with these smaller groups of options.



Sounds good?



So look at this graph:





This graph contains the general guideline for the rest that is coming in a bit. It is merely referencial, keep that in mind.



I will go into what the graph means in the next sections where I talk about the three builds (they are also up there in the dotafire display)

Top 2.3. Classic Mekansm (Defensive Build+Mek) The third and last build is one that is considered the more reliable, safe approach. Focuses on keeping Shadow Fiend alive so he can dish out damage; even if you are not going to be one shotting people like with the dps focused build. The main big thing of this build is a sturdy farming Shadow Fiend mid, who gets more small and medium items instead of skipping up to big ones, also it lacks a mobility/escape since you are supposed to stick in fights and play like a proper classic carry.



I dont recommend this build unless you are playing against opponents who know very well what they are doing, in lower level pubbing for example you will find that even if you go full dps with no bkb sometimes opponents wont punish you for it.

First thing you are going to buy is Bottle as always, the reason Bottle Shadow Fiend



Right after Bottle Boots of Speed Wraith Band Ring of Aquila Mekansm



Build becomes rather intuitive from there, build what you need, Black King Bar

First thing you are going to buy is, the reasonis so key foris because it allows you to start using razes as much as you need, to farm the jungle, to push the lane, to attempt kills, etc.Right after, you getand then you finish theinto. From there you just have to stack and farm non-stop, towards

Top 3. The Stages Of The Match & Your Role In Them (How To Behave) One of the most common problems when learning a new hero is not knowing what to do in each part of the game. So here we go...



The next three sections talk about each stage of the match and your role in them, how to be as efficient and as helpful to your team as possible.







Top 3.1. Laning Stage & Early Game (Be Efficient) Early Game, so early game is divided into two parts, the laning stage (from the first spawn to the first big rotations) and the second early stage, which consists of small tower pushes, constant rotations and the start of big items coming into play, for example their Magnus got the Blink Dagger up, you are getting those core items rolling yourself, etc.







The true start of the game, Shadow Fiend the beginning of the laning stage is one of's breaking points, the other one being ultra late game Shadow Fiend snowball however, but momentum, implying that in order to play a successful Shadow Fiend



During this laning stage you have two main objectives, those are getting your early game items, Bottle Power Treads Ring of Aquila getting at the very least level 7, 8 even better. With this you are going to be able to max razes and get on farming the jungle and keeping your lane control really easily, level 8 is just the difference between 29 and 36 souls.



Level one is necromastery 99% of the time (at least you consider razes are needed at level 1 for an encounter or a really diffecult lane), you got to start building damage or else you are going to get swatted mid effortlessly. Try getting at least 2 cs (last hit or deny) in the first wave, you will find that the opposing mid will be paying more attention to their own cs, and so giving you a bit better chance at building souls at last hits rather than denies at first, which tends to happen.



Now, if the enemy hero is truly a dominator in his lane or a bully like hero, like Queen of Pain so meta, it can happen that you do not get a single soul, and you have to wait until level 2 to get your first last hit with a raze, that does about twice your right click damage at level 1. Do not worry if you have to resort to this, to clarify: You are not **** , they are just doing their job of shutting down a 40 damage shadow fiend; this will not lose you the game either, you just have to play it out cool and avoid death at all costs. As a person pointed out in /r/learndota2, in hugh mmr this is much more common, so you will be getting shut down harder early on the game, and Shadowraze



Which takes us to the next point, the second half of the early game. Here, if you get killed, its going to be really hard for you to recover your souls and so your farming rate, and it is not your death that causes it, but whatever caused your death in the first place is going to keep pressuring you and your team in the same direction, and this is what leads you to your fall . These causes are various, it can be for instance your safelane losing, your mid tower being destroyed, they plant aggresive wards and start roaming your jungle leaving you utterly isolated in your farming spaces, etc.



To prevent this from happening the best you can do is do your job properly, at mid, dont die, farm, and get items going; try to help sidelanes if you can but avoid it if its not completely necessary, otherwise you are timing out your farm, risk getting killed, letting other enemy cores farm uncontested. This is the sidelanes job, if they dont get completely ravaged in their respective lanes, nothing too crazy should happen.



During this period you should be looking towards farming your core items, transitioning mostly to the jungle and building the level advantage. Even though you take stacks and jungle before this point, this is where you do it the most , and the most important moment to do it, since here you get your Shadow Blade Blink Dagger Requiem of Souls focusing the wrong target can cost you the fight, talking from personal experience.

The true start of the game,. As I told a guy from learndota the other day,; this does not meanhowever, but momentum, implying that in order to play a successfulyou must start and maintain momentum, also known as keeping yourself relevant to the match by farming, getting items to scale, killing enemies to set them back and rolling objectives with your team, like establishing map control, take towers or force teamfights.During this laning stage you have two main objectives, those are, whatever you are building; and the other one,, 8 even better. With this you are going to be able to max razes and get on farming the jungle and keeping your lane control really easily,you got to start building damage or else you are going to get swatted mid effortlessly. Try getting at least 2 cs () in the first wave, you will find that the opposing mid will be paying more attention to their own cs, and so giving you a bit better chance at building souls at last hits rather than denies at first,Now,, likefor instance,, it can happen that you do not get a single soul, and you have to wait until level 2 to get your first last hit with a raze, that does about twice your right click damage at level 1., they are just doing their job of shutting down a 40 damage shadow fiend; this will not lose you the game either, you just have to play it out cool and avoid death at all costs. As a person pointed out in /r/learndota2, in hugh mmr this is much more common, so you will be getting shut down harder early on the game, andlevel 1 is more useable.Here, if you get killed, its going to be really hard for you to recover your souls and so your farming rate, and it is not your death that causes it, but. These causes are various, it can be for instance your safelane losing, your mid tower being destroyed, they plant aggresive wards and start roaming your jungle leaving you utterly isolated in your farming spaces, etc.at mid, dont die, farm, and get items going; try to help sidelanes if you can but avoid it if its not completely necessary, otherwise you are timing out your farm, risk getting killed, letting other enemy cores farm uncontested., if they dont get completely ravaged in their respective lanes,During this period you should be looking towards farming your core items, transitioning mostly to the jungle and building the level advantage., and the most important moment to do it, since here you get yourorand truly start giving use, at this point you not only have that mobility/initiation item, but also have the full 36 souls and level 2 requiem of souls. Now you got to really focus and think through what fights you wanna take and what hero you want to focus,

Top 3.1.1. Offtime Stacking & Jungling A very important part of Shadow Fiend's early game is farming, and the jungle is huge for him.



For those unfamiliar, offtime is any point in the laning stage where you can go missing mid for farming with no real consequences. With most heroes, offtime means the opportunity to get a rune or go for a gank, for Shadow Fiend however, is the chance to farm the hell out of the jungle.

You can go stack whenever you feel you have the time to do it and not give the opposing mid too much free time. For the sake of making this easier, I made more trademark Goo graphs.







Attack the large camp normally, 53-54 secs is fine. Then...







This gets both camps stacked, this is the double stack you are going to be using the most on radiant side.









This is the version for dire side, due to the angle its a little bit easier to land. If you happen to have a Blink Dagger



Attack the large camp at 53, blink towards the western mid camp, mid raze, then go back east and long raze the central mid camp.





These are not the only stacks possible. These are just the ones you are going to be using the most in games, but you can pretty much double stack anything that is near other camps, you can get creative with that.

To the jungling itself: After creating the stacks you are going to be taking them down with razes, its actually easy, just remember to put your Power Treads on intelligence back to agility to use your Bottle Wraith Band



Put the neutrals inside Line 2, then take them down; simple as pie. For big creeps that take 3 razes they will walk towards you, then you use the last raze (short raze).



Bigger Creeps (More than 3 Razes): For these neutrals you have to use all 3 Shadowraze



- Satyr Tormenter.

- Red Hellbear

- Big Troll Berserker

- Big Centaur

- Pink Wildwing



Big Creeps (3 Razes):



- Yellow Hellbear

- Ogre Bruiser



Medium Creeps (2 Razes):



- Satyr Mindstealer

- Alpha Wolf

- Small Wolf

- Ogre Frostmage

- Small camp's big creeps

- Small Trolls (from the large camp)

- Small Wildwings (This is one raze and 1 autoattack)



Small Creeps (1 Raze):



- Skeletons

- Satyr Banisher

- Most creeps from small camps

You can go stack whenever you feel you have the time to do it and not give the opposing mid too much free time.These are just the ones you are going to be using the most in games, but you can pretty much double stack anything that is near other camps, you can get creative with that.After creating the stacks you are going to be taking them down with razes, its actually easy, just remember to put yourandto use your, droppingis optional.. For big creeps that take 3 razes they will walk towards you, then you use the last raze (short raze).For these neutrals you have to use all 3s and a couple of autoattacks to take them down. Remember all these are for maxed out razes.- Satyr Tormenter.- Red Hellbear- Big Troll Berserker- Big Centaur- Pink Wildwing- Yellow Hellbear- Ogre Bruiser- Satyr Mindstealer- Alpha Wolf- Small Wolf- Ogre Frostmage- Small camp's big creeps- Small Trolls (from the large camp)- Small Wildwings (This is one raze and 1 autoattack)- Skeletons- Satyr Banisher- Most creeps from small camps

Top 3.2. Mid Game & Big Teamfights/Pushes (Be Threatening) A Shadow Fiend's mid game is everchaning, you have to adapt for whatever is happening in the match.



The first big thing that defines the mid game is towers, and the teamfights that come with them. Now the key thing in them is what fights you take part of and what fights you skip for farming.



The fights themselves are fairly straight forward, initiate with Requiem of Souls, focus the right heroes, use razes and be careful where you stand, a single stun with 2 or 3 heroes can get you killed right off, and set your back in gold and souls too. Can't stress it enough, do not get killed.

Goo pls i dunno what fites to fite!



Glad you asked reader, I crafted this simple flowchart.







Top 3.3. Late Game & End Game (Be Decisive) Late game is horrible as Shadow Fiend, and Im talking true late game, where a single bad death or having no buyback can cost your team the game; this is the time where you begin to feel truly powerless compared to your complete destruction 20 minutes ago, feels like a different game.



There are various reasons for this, but I can sum it up in a single explanation, why Shadow Fiend scales the way he does.



So basically what happens is that Shadow Fiend is a rather puny hero without his spells, and his spells do one thing only, nuke. This is useful for fighting early and for a short period of time, the main use you will be giving to Shadowraze is that of farming. So its a curve that doesnt end as it begins, it changes towards the late game.



Right clicks get stronger with farm and time, and spells fall off at the same time.



-Early game: Weak right clicks, strong spells.

-Mid game: Strong right clicks, average spells.

-Mid to late game: Average right clicks, weak spells.

-Very late game: Weak right clicks, weak spells.



Is not that your right clicks fall off like spells, but usually you are slotted by the end of the mid game and the rest of heroes are still catching up, so big items start to appear on the enemy team and your slotted Shadow Fiend isnt as scary anymore, and there isnt much you can do, Eye of Skadi Satanic Manta Style builds suffer less into the very late game than the deso crit build, as its more reliable damage output, and armor reduction becomes insignificant in that scenario, so you can build like that but its not going to be that great either, it will be alright, but remember you dont have the power you had before.



In a nutshell, you farm like crazy and get items fast, that makes you stronger than the rest. Then they farm up and you are in equal terms, and in equal terms Shadow Fiend gets kicked around. And you dont have the option of farming more, you are already slotted, basically dont let them catch up if possible, or you are in trouble.



Divine Rapier helps, but shadow fiend is far from an ideal rapier holder, he can be killed off very easily even before he has the chance to use it significantly.



Anyway, if they do have a proper position 1 carry, they will beat you. This is why I support the idea of a farming shadow fiend that transitions into a position 2 later on, for a stronger, more sturdy carry to take the wheel.



Top 4. Problematic Matchups To be perfectly honest Shadow Fiend is an exceptional laner mid and its tough to find heroes that give him a bad time, but ill list some anyway with the why are they problematic to your play.

Queen of Pain Shadow Fiend She has pretty much all the upper hands at the start of the game, higher attack damage, better mobility, more reliable nuking, Shadow Strike



Your best bet for laning against Queen of Pain Contesting runes against her is suicide, dont race runes against her because you will always lose, and running all the way to the other rune isn't particularly efficient either, just call your missings, ping the runes, etc.



This applies not only for Queen of Pain Storm Spirit He isnt as strong as Queen of Pain

Windrunner is a very annoying hero not in terms of laning (even if she also has a higher attack damage than you) but in terms of fighting, she has the evasion and high movement speed of Windrun Powershot and she can do it from outside of your vision range, so its unpredictable and it will destroy your bottle charges. And on top of that, Shackleshot

Even though she isnt technically a mid, she tends to go mid, and stay there forever. Yes, talking about Mirana Sacred Arrow Moonlight Shadow



Spirit Breaker

From there laning stage is easy, dont make dumb mistakes and stick to the plan. Everything should work out fine until later on.



Overall counters to Shadow Fiend



- Axe

- Legion Commander

- Juggernaut

- Troll Warlord

- Slardar

- Clockwerk

- Lifestealer



You get the idea.

is the hero of the meta and she is one of the few heroes that can makesweat his early game a little bit.is awful to lane against specially as a hero that must get last hits to start rolling and you cant come close because its so easy for her to right click you a few times, blink up and kill you in a second.Your best bet for laning againstis using your razes to get last hits and stack as much as possible, so you can get back on your feet after she starts rotating., dont race runes against her because you will always lose, and running all the way to the other rune isn't particularly efficient either, just call your missings, ping the runes, etc.This applies not only forbut for any strong pos 2 nuker that pushes you out of the lane, likefor instance.Windrunner is a very annoying hero not in terms of laning) but in terms of fighting, she has the evasion and high movement speed ofon top ofthat will wear you down if she lands a couple on you,, so its unpredictable and it will destroy your bottle charges. And on top of that,can bind you to your ranged creep and you are rest in peace.. Yes, talking about. She isnt that bad in terms of making the laning stage hard for you, but she does have the tools to gank you consistently, not only, butas well if they think is necessary.for the exact same reason.Overall counters toare those that can disable him through Magic immunity, those with a lot of physical damage. Bashes too, all that will rip you apart.is especially awful because he will amplify physical damage and destroy you, a also, if you have shadow blade that is also out the window.sometimes, not that often

Top 5. Update Section Nothing here yet, this is where a changelog would be if there was one.

