Shadow Fiend Questions

I've been playing a lot of Shadow Fiend lately. I really like the idea of the hero, and I love how versatile he is, but I have some questions.

-Is it best to max both Necromastery and Shadow Raze before taking a point in your ult?

-Is the "spirit bomb" build legit in pubs? I haven't tried it yet outside of bot games because it seems lackluster without a team to help. Eul's seems to be pretty good on him though.

-Should you be active in ganks? I think it's way more beneficial to just farm mid instead of leaving the lane, because if your opponent stays you can outfarm him and get ez denies, and if they leave you can just push the tower. Still, I'm unsure of SF's ganking potential.

Yes, better max out the Shadowraze and Necromastery till level 9. I usually level up the ultimate at level 10 and 11, to get it directly to level 2 quickly, it's not really that big of a deal at level 1.

Not really, the "spirit bomb" isn't that effective, it's better to deal a lot of damage using your attacks, you need a lot of damage per second, the "spirit bomb" in comparison to the classic damage per second build deals way lesser damage in the end. Don't be 'combo dependent'.

It depends on the game, if you are able to gank and not waste time, then yes, it's worth ganking. However, if you're leaving mid and you're wasting time, try to catch up by farming your lane more and stacking the jungle. Sometimes if you're too busy, asking a support to stack is a great thing as well.

Yeah, I feel like ganking is only worth it if you get the right rune. Like most he can get a lot of use out of an invis or haste rune, and DD is better on him than some. I just feel silly if I go for a gank and then nothing happens, leaving me with 3 missed creepwaves or something. And I wish I had someone to stack for me, but that doesn't really happen in solo pubs :p

Thanks! I really love this hero. I can't wait to actually be decent with him lol

Yes it's best to max both Shadowraze and Necromastery, they provide the best value when maxed out asap. The ultimate is great for big fights but your main focus for the first 8-11 levels should be to farm. Get it at level 9 the earliest. Spirit bomb?

If you mean Eul's then get it if you want, helps set up for point blank Requiem of Souls. helps with mana regen for consistent farming and has great defensive purposes. With the rise of Juggernaut and the current FotM picks, there's more of a reason to get Eul's.

Depends on how the games go, but I'd be "reactive" instead of being always active or passively farming. Act when you need to or when you can guarantee a very favorable outcome of a counter gank. Unless of course you get a rune like Haste then try and coordinate for a kill, if that's not possible then go farm. Shadow Fiend is strongest mid game, not late but he does do well late game.

Priority: Farm > Check for gank/counter-gank > farm/push

All right. That's how I've been playing him for the most part. I've been taking my ult at 6 though, so I'll start changing that up. I guess my standard is either Blink or Yasha into BKB for teamfight presence, unless I need something else. The other day I played a game against a PA and ended up getting my MKB at 16 mins. It was great lol.

In almost every case, yes. Typically you skill it at level 10 and 11.

HOWEVER never forget that you can skill it before if you need it. If you're playing against heroes who want to jump you or dive you when they hit 6 (typically Storm Spirit, Queen of Pain, Templar Assassin...), a requiem in their face will make them regret it :)

Especially TA, because it burns Refraction completely. Then you double raze. I think it's honestly the only way to "win" mid against her xD




Blink Euls?
Well it's purely a build for single target ganking. It's a bit meh in teamfights because your channeling will be interrupted.
Euls is good because it gives you initiation for your ult (but Blink Dagger and Shadow Blade already do that), but it ALSO gives you mana regen so you can spam Shadowraze to farm. Better farming item on him than Midas in every way AND it helps you gank.
But as I said if you expect to teamfight early better go for the much safer blink BKB.




One of the best in the game when you hit level 7 if you can land Shadowraze. Triple raze = almost 1K damage.

Whether you gank or farm depends completely on the game. Are there opportunities to gank? Go for it, SF is really good at it. Is the enemy mid already ganking a sidelane? Push the tower instead.

I really think that SF is a mid farmer, and you can take an advantage if you get a lot of cs on lane. Despite of that, if you get the right rune (haste, invis, dd). If you farm a fast Aquila and dagger or shadow blade. you will have a great advantage in the early game. This will give you a lot of space to take more cs and more objects.

Because of that I usually max the shadowraze and necromastery. I really recommend max Shadowraze over Necromastery, because the uotput damage is larger that max Necro over Shadowraze.

The build i usually use is: Aquila -> boots -> Dagger -> BKB -> Skadi or MKB -> Crits or Butterfly

Skadi vs MKB: In most cases if the other team have a lot of burst damage its really difficult to land a requiem without diying or taking insane damge, so farming skadi will give you the hp you need, plus armor, mana, a bit of damage and slow. Against that, if the other team is pure magic nuke damage, that means that the heroes they have are squishy, so buying a mkb will give you the advantage in teamfights.

I really don't recommend the "spirit combo" build, because is combo dependent. If you want to maximize the output damage of your ultimate, you can farm the ethereal blade, that gives you right click damage and bones damage on spells.

simple response

early to mid game, you dont have a way to lock people down. euls provides this.
early to mid game, you do 900 burst damge plus nearly 700+ from ult, euls allows you to let all these hit every time.
early to mid game, you are a burst hero.

late game your a right clicker.



kinda more explained: euls is good in pubs i feel cause it allows you to spam raze simples haha

but ive had games where i know i needed something first i.e BKB...

be adaptive with your build.

manta for orchid carriers?
bkb for high cc team?
deso for heavy armour?
euls for lockdown and burst?
ac for armour ?
snowballing hard? MASK OF MADDDDDNESSSSS!!!!