Shadowblade on Templar Assassin?

I've seen a few Templar Assassin guides saying not to buy Shadow Blade on TA but I'm not really convinced by the reasons why.

Let me explain.

Right now TA has 2 main builds :

- the blink build, essentially Power Treads -> Blink Dagger -> Desolator

- the racecar build, essentially Phase Boots -> Drum of Endurance -> Yasha

with a Black King Bar somewhere of course, but my point is not about BKB.

My point is, yes, the blink build is good, no doubt here. But the racecar build, I'm a bit less convinced. Problem with the racecar build is, you have no initiation. Sure you go really fast, but what TA needs is not to go fast in the first place, because she has no problem with catching up to enemies with the permaslow from Psionic Trap. Going fast is great for heroes with a free initiation but not much disabling ability (e.g Spectre), but TA has no kiting issues with her ult.

If you initiate with Psionic Trap in the racecar build, it's not very good because the enemy can just TP out, and besides you still take half a year to get in melee range.

So what about this build :

- Power Treads -> Shadow Blade -> Desolator ?

Here with Shadowblade you can initiate effectively at melee range on any hero, do your Meld strike with 175 bonus damage from SB, and then chase your target indefinitely with Psionic Trap. Target can't really TP out, instant attack disables Blink Dagger, etc. I think it's a pretty solid ganking combo.

Sure Blink Dagger gives a slightly better initiation but Shadow Blade gives a ton of DPS (actually a bit better than Yasha for DPS), making Shadow Blade actually WAY cheaper than blink, because you need to build DPS on TA in the first place so the true cost of shadowblade is more like only 1K gold (what you pay on top of Yasha). And you can do nice stuff with SB like scouting the fog for pickoffs, ganking the enemy jungle, etc.

So why is SB popular on other gankers like Slark but not on TA? And Slark even has better synergy with blink than with SB because of Pounce, but TA has no specific synergy with blink except that she needs initiation - the ability to Meld and blink away doesn't count because it's just as reliable as an escape as shadowblade is xD

personally i dont like the racecar build but is sure is the safe way to go. you are have more stats and farm faster in case you dont snowball.

shadow blade is not that bad but there is just one thing.... Blink Dagger>>> Shadow Blade.

i think it can work in some pubs, but in more serious games blink will always be better.

I mostly agree with Tim. I feel like the Blink and Shadow Blade are kind of serving the same purpose and Blink is just a better item in most cases. Also, do you still get the bonus damage from SB if you use Meld and then break it?

You don't use Shadow Blade and Meld on the same hit, it wouldn't work.
What you need to do is break your Shadow Blade invis and then do a Meld hit. It's 2 different attacks.

My point was essentially that I'd rather build a Shadow Blade on TA than a Yasha if I'm not going Blink Dagger. And that I think TA needs either blink or SB for proper initiation.

Blink TA is good that's not the question, I was just considering the idea of SB because it's an item that gives *both* initiation *and* DPS, which sounds pretty appealing.

Shadow Blade really is just a different version of Blink.

its a 3k item, 1k more than blink and doesn't really allow gap closing because it does cost mana, which Blink does not.

If you go Treads Drums of endurance Yasha or Phase Boots Drums of endurance Blink both of them give you bonus damage while one gives you more 'tankiness' and movement speed options.

In short loathes is a really a garbage item, because Blink cost no mana and is only 2250 gold.

If you really think loasthers is a good item on Templar Assassin thank i think you realy dont know when and why you are getting the item.

I understand the arguments that Blink Dagger is a better item than Shadow Blade on any hero. Ok, why not, I'm still not 100% convinced that it's true in every case, but it does make sense to say that the blink active is better at least.

One point though, the argument " Blink Dagger is cheaper than Shadow Blade" is invalid. It's the complete opposite actually.
Shadow Blade is a LOT cheaper than Blink Dagger. Why? Because the Blink Dagger ACTIVE costs 2250 gold while the Shadow Blade ACTIVE costs only 1K gold. The shadowblade active costs only the price of shadowblade MINUS the price of the DPS you get from SB, which as I said is the DPS you get from a Yasha, which costs 2K gold. On a right-click DPS hero, the cost of getting a blink is WAY higher than the cost of getting a shadowblade.

blinking in someones face and meld striking them instantly gives more dps then slowly walking in and being much less mobile in fights.

actives>>>>>>>>>>>>>stats/damage every day.

the thing with yasha templar is that now matter how you look at it, its still cheaper. it improves farming speed earlier and allows you to start building your next item earlier.

think about it this way, with shadow blade you must wait 1K gold longer to get improved farm speed, and while the shadow blade templar is farming that 1K the yasha templar is already farming faster towards her next item.
besides, you either go for farming speed or initiation, and as we said, blink>>>>>>>>shadow blade. not a half ***ed attempt at both.

The last time I saw Loathers templar when i first got calibrated at 2.8

I'm 4.5 now and If you aren't going Blink Dagger you've got serious mechanical/ game knowledge misinterpretations