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Shadow Demon (also known as SD) is one of the most picked supports in the current meta for offensive purposes: personally he's my favourite support, and with his skill arsenal he can change the tides of a fight even if underfarmed or without items.
In this guide I'll talk about the competitive way to play him, so don't expect tips for a dual support-carry safe lane.
Pros
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Cons
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This skill by itself is not very useful unless you're going for a lvl 1 kill, but it synergizes amazingly well with your other abilities and your teammates'. If you are going for a lvl 1 kill, always make sure your teammates have strong but hard-to-land stuns ( ![]() ![]() ![]() If you disrupt an enemy Hero with an orb effect or a particular aura (such as ![]() ![]() ![]() You can imput commands to the illusions: if you want, you could disrupt an enemy and then target another one with the illusions (especially useful if you disrupted someone with an orb/aura). Use this ability for defensive purposes, too! Always disrupt a friendly Hero in the middle of a fight before rescuing him. You can disrupt friendly Heroes to make them dodge stuns, too. When you reach the later stages of the game you might want to disrupt your team's carry and let the illusions damage the enemy buildings. You can activate both Soul Catcher and ![]() |
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This AoE target point spell is the reason why ![]() Always aim your Soul Catcher so that you won't target enemy creeps: this is a common mistake that many unexperienced players do. Most of the time, you have to land it so that a small part of the edge of the area-of-effect is on the Dirsupted enemy. Combine this skill with your ![]() If there are enemy creeps nearby that make you unable to land a proper Soul Catcher, just don't use it. Wait for the enemy to run away and when he's far from the creeps let your teammates slow him (or simply use your ![]() |
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This ability very good for scouting purposes, especially when dewarding or when ganing vision of Roshan's pit from a safe distance. If you are going to max out this skill first, make sure you have some items for mana regeneration: in the early game its mana cost is not negligible, after a ![]() ![]() You can stack multiple istances of this spell to increase its damage esponentially until the fifth stack: any istance after it will add 50 additional damage. That's a lot, since you can potentially do 1040 magical damage with five stacks when this skill is level 4! Use this ability to scout narrow paths and high grounds, especially while dewarding to check for enemy Wards. When you reach the late game you can solo push effectively with 3-4 stacks of ![]() You can stack multiple istances of ![]() |
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Talking about pubs, this skill is sooo underrated: it may look like a "buffed" version of Venomancer's ![]() You can obviously use this to slow down an enemy that tries to run away: its enormous cast range of 800 makes it very easy to land. Also, as the name suggests, this spell purges an enemy: if the enemy carry has something like ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() One thing about this skill that is usually overlooked is the final damage: 400 damage may not seem so much, but it can really work as a killing blow against Heroes with an escape mechanism ( ![]() Thanks to this skill, ![]() ![]() ![]() |
This is the cookie-cutter playing style of Shadow Demon: you'll (almost) always see competitive SD players use this kind of build. As this Hero doesn't need any items besides Boots to go well, this is the most suitable playing style for a serious team.
You might want to know the most common warding spots and to improve your map awareness (so you will use your TP scroll wisely) before trying this, that's why I consider this build for intermediate to competitive players.
But, if you are new to this hard-supporting role don't be afraid to try this Hero: Shadow Demon is one of the best hard supports for beginners as he will let you get both easy counterwarding capabilities (thanks to his scouting
Shadow Poison) and gold from assists. In a few matches you'll become a ganking and warding master!
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Buy both an ![]() ![]() Always buy some sort of regeneration items: one set of ![]() ![]() ![]() |
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If one of your team's supports has already bought Courier and Wards, you can go for these items: they're basically the same, but you spend the initial 300 gold for something else.
If you are in the safe lane remember not to place your ![]() |
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Wards. Yes, Wards. That 150-200 gold is a minimal cost even for a Hero that doesn't kill a single creep in the whole laning phase, and it's surely worth it: you ward a place behind some trees, see the enemy ![]() For the same reason, you can use a 200 gold item to avoid more than one ~500 gold kill for the enemy. |
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The first item you're going to buy is a pair of ![]() Now pick ![]() ![]() Also, always carry a ![]() Then, focus on finishing your first utility item: you should almost always go for an ![]() ![]() |
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If your carry is free farming and you can go to gank other lanes, in the early game you can use a ![]() |
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This is always needed when there are invisible enemy Heroes: sometimes it's better than using a ![]() ![]() ![]() |
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Again, never forget about Wards. The more Wards you have, the more you are useful for your team: if you have, for example, a ![]() ![]() ![]() |
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Which boots should you use? Most of the time ![]() ![]() Summarizing, the extra HP regen and armor increase make ![]() ![]() |
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This item is not very common on ![]() Remember, only buy this if you played really well in the laning stage. |
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More like a situational item, you can buy this if you feel your mana regeneration is very poor and if you have a lot of money: it's less useful than the other items but I find the active ability very convenient for two purposes: first, you can affect three enemies at once (Eul's active ability + ![]() ![]() |
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This is the ultimate initiation item: as it doesn't have a cost anymore (it used to be 75 mana) your (relatively) small mana pool doesn't prevent you from getting mobility items. If you're snowballing and have hundreds of gold, consider getting this item to make ganks - especially with a good ganker like ![]() ![]() |
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Obviously, pick this item against those invisible Heroes that can be very succesful if not stopped (![]() ![]() ![]() |
Sometimes, when you're playing with another support that most likely won't buy a Mekansm such as
Nyx Assassin, a supportish
Sven or a
Tidehunter you have to do so: considering that your lane will probably be getting kills you should be able to finish it in a little amount of time.
This skill build is suitable for any kind of players, from the beginners to the professionals; remember anyway that you should actively use your TP Scroll, so a bit of map awareness is required.
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This is a common starting if you have to take both ![]() ![]() A ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() A ![]() |
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If one of your team's supports has already bought an Animal Courier, you can go for these items: you won't buy those Observer Wards that always come in handy, but you have the possibility to watch for enemy Wards and destroy them. Also, make sure your support has bought Observer Wards at the beginning of the game! Consider delaying your Sentries if he didn't.
If you are in the safe lane remember not to place your ![]() |
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You could call this a "![]() ![]() ![]() Talking about the ![]() ![]() |
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If your carry is free farming and you can go to gank other lanes, in the early game you can use a ![]() |
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This is always needed when there are invisible enemy Heroes: sometimes it's better than using a ![]() ![]() ![]() |
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Which boots should you buy? Most of the time ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Summarizing, the mana pool increase and its active make ![]() ![]() |
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This item is not very common on ![]() Remember, only buy this if you played really well in the laning stage. |
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More like a situational item, you can buy this if you feel your mana regeneration is very poor and if you have a lot of money: it's less useful than the other items but I find the active ability very convenient for two purposes: first, you can affect three enemies at once (Eul's active ability + ![]() ![]() |
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This is the ultimate initiation item: as it doesn't have a cost anymore (it used to be 75 mana) your (relatively) small mana pool doesn't prevent you from getting mobility items. If you're snowballing and have hundreds of gold, consider getting this item to make ganks - especially with a good ganker like ![]() ![]() |
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Obviously, pick this item against those invisible Heroes that can be very succesful if not stopped (![]() ![]() ![]() |
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I don't usually recommend this item, unless you are switching into a semi-support role because you got a lot of farm or your team is simply stomping the enemies: this item can be treated like a second ![]() |
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Same as above, this is not an item for supports but I find myself buying this in many situations: it grants you some attack speed and damage, but the silence is what you're really looking for. Only buy this if there is an enemy Hero that you can't really kill without silencing ( ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Lastly, remember that the enemy gets silenced for 5 seconds, which is a very big number: if you can Disrupt + Soul Catch an enemy Hero, a silence will ensure that he gets killed. |
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A support Hero has to buy items for his team, so why don't you get a cheap aura that scales into late game like ![]() Don't buy this item if another Hero in your team already has one or you'll waste 2050 gold. |
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Obviously, this item is made to counter heavy-nuking teams and Heroes (some examples are ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Use the active ability very wisely, as it lasts for 10 seconds only. On the other side, though, don't forget to activate it! I always like to buy this a Pipe because of the enormous HP regeneration it gives: 3628 gold for this item is well spent. |
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I rarely see a ![]() ![]() You can use the little warriors for pushing purposes; also, consider upgrading this item into level 3 if you want true sight against invisible enemies. Never forget about the ability of your Necronomicon Archer, Mana Burn, which can remove up to 225 mana from a target unit! |
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These boots are a good late game choice for many Heroes and ![]() ![]() These boots are especially good for lane pushing as you can teleport in a lane and quickly start stacking your poison and killing creeps. |
In the laning stage Shadow Demon is simply a trilane support that grants a good initiation to get a kill, but he becomes an awesome disabler in teamfights: this Hero can single-handedly turn a teamfight in your favor Disrupting the enemy initiator while casting
Demonic Purge and Soul Catcher on the carry.
This chapter will be divided in the following paragraphs to let you understand better:
This build has been published in the new Steam Community "guides" section: vote it from here if you want to see it in game!
2-2-2014: Edited the starting items and some mid-game items.
2-12-2013: Added situational items.
2-7-2013: Added Kunkka between
Shadow Demon's friends.
2-6-2013: Added the "Playing Style" chapter.
2-5-2013: Wrote the first part of the guide.
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